by John Coon
“Why do you think they came here?” Colin asked. He turned down the radio volume during a commercial break and glanced at Sam. “Why Earth? Why Utah of all places?”
Sam struggled in his search to answer those questions for himself. He never gave much deep thought to what went through the mind of an extraterrestrial being. Humans ventured out from Earth in the name of discovery and peaceful exploration. Based on what he learned during his abbreviated time with the Earth Defense Bureau, many aliens possessed a much different agenda. Sam had not personally met a being from another world yet, but everything he read and heard to this point only painted a disturbing picture.
Attempted invasions. Brutal attacks. Mind control. People disappearing without a trace. A small town erased from existence. Each event traced back to malevolent extraterrestrial sources.
“We'll learn the answers soon enough,” Sam finally said. “I just hope they aren't the sort of answers that will produce another frightening report like the most recent ones I've read.”
Collin’s eyes drifted past him and he stared out at white aspen and green fir trees dotting the hillside as their car climbed the summit in Parley's Canyon. Local Utahans called the aspen species ‘quakies.’ Sam found it strange how they appeared to shake in the breeze while other trees appeared immobile when he saw one for the first time. If Collin harbored any similar worries to the ones gripping Sam, his expression while gazing at the trees masked those worries quite well.
“I see no reason to be afraid until we uncover evidence to justify fear.” Collin's gaze drifted back to Sam. “This can be a glass is half-full situation if we choose to make it one.”
“I hope you're right,” Sam replied. “I really want you to be right.”
Collin raised the radio volume again. They continued listening for updates throughout their drive from Park City to Heber City, while Collin also checked local news coverage on his phone. They followed a highway that wound through downtown Heber and extended east toward Colorado. Their destination was an isolated base a few miles southeast of the city limits. It lay at the tail end of a secluded country road nestled against an arm of the Uinta Mountains.
The base's sprawling nature caught Sam by surprise after he turned down the narrow road leading to the main gate. Two massive hangars loomed in the distance. Each one appeared gigantic enough to house three football fields. Numerous other buildings clustered the base beyond those two hangars. A tall chain-link fence topped with circular razor wire surrounded the perimeter before stopping at the main gate.
Sam gave a low whistle after taking it all in.
“This is definitely much bigger than our Houston field office. Feels like a full-fledged military base.”
“Seems like a bit of overkill to me,” Collin said. “The bureau acts like it is preparing for an all-out invasion in these parts.”
“Maybe Utah is a bigger hub for alien activity than we first thought.”
Collin laughed. “Who knows? Maybe a bunch of aliens decided to become Mormons.”
They checked in with guards at the gate. Once on the base, Sam drove straight to the field office. It occupied a three-story brick building only a stone's throw away from the two hangars. Another Earth Defense Bureau car bearing Texas license plates sat in front of the building when he pulled into a parking spot.
“Looks like Gen. Daly's 'expert' beat us here.” Sam used air quotes while making his observation. “Damn. Just what I needed to cap off the day.”
A small smile reappeared on Collin's lips.
“You mean to say you're not a fan of bureaucratic meddling?”
Sam laughed and nodded.
“Yeah. Funny how that works.”
He surveyed the lobby as they entered the brick building. Sam spotted a thin blonde woman, with her back turned to him, opening a stairwell door near the elevators.
“Wait!”
He raised his hand and waved. The blonde woman stopped in the doorway and turned to face him. She wore a white silk blouse and dress slacks. He stood only a couple of inches taller than her.
“I'm here to meet with a liaison from the Earth Defense Bureau headquarters,” he said. “Can you help me find him?”
“You found her.” Her voice, tinged with a slight southern drawl, matched an annoyed expression as she corrected Sam. “Nice of you to finally show up.”
Sam could not help feeling confused. This woman did not fit the mold of a grizzled bureaucrat. She looked young enough to still be a graduate student in college. He did not say anything and concentrated on forcing himself to gaze at her face instead of letting his eyes drift downward.
Collin had no problem speaking up.
“I'm Collin Bradstreet.” He thrust his hand out. “Didn't expect you to already be here.”
“Paige Beck.” She shook his hand and flashed a polite smile. “I make a habit of being punctual on important matters like this.”
Paige glanced over at Sam again. He cleared his throat and shook his head.
“I'm sorry. I'm Sam Bono, director of the Houston field office.”
“I know who you are, Sam.” Paige's tone remained firm and cool. “I thought you would’ve known about me, working in Texas and all.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. His eyes darted to Collin and back to her. This could not be the same Paige Beck whom he read about in reports detailing a failed alien invasion in Travis. He always envisioned a larger-than-life action hero with catlike reflexes, toting a gun. Instead, an ordinary woman young enough to be his daughter stood before him.
“Gen. Daly never said who would join us in Utah,” Collin said. “He simply told Sam he'd send an expert in first contact situations to work with us.”
“That's me. Now follow me up to the briefing room. The others are waiting for us.”
Paige turned away and inserted her ID badge into a security pad near the stairwell door. The lock clicked, and she swung the door open a second time. Sam's eyes gravitated over to the small elevator only a few feet away and then back to the open stairwell. His legs started to tense up as thoughts of climbing stairs and making his arthritic knee flare up flooded his mind. Sam wanted to excuse himself and take the elevator, but he also did not want to make a bad first impression grow worse. He could only shoot her a puzzled look at this point.
“Aren't we going to take the elevator?”
“Walking is healthy for you.” Paige cracked an amused smile as she glanced over her shoulder. “Y'all need to keep your strength up if you want to battle aliens.”
“Battle aliens?” Collin spit out the question around the same time it formed in Sam's head. “What makes you convinced we need to battle anyone? Who says they're hostile?”
“What makes you think they aren't? They landed in Utah without even trying to communicate with anyone – as far as we know. It doesn't exactly scream good intentions to me.”
Sam did not feel ready to jump to the same conclusion as Paige did. The alien spacecraft only destroyed a missile before fleeing. It did not shoot down either drone pursuing the craft. If these extraterrestrials had hostile intentions, why not stick around and finish the job? The tiny details did not add up in his mind.
Collin entertained a similar train of thought as they climbed the stairs. And he showed no willingness to hold it at the mental train station.
“Those aliens went out of their way to avoid shooting down our drones.” His own Texas twang started growing more pronounced in the presence of a fellow southerner. “We haven't heard a peep since their ship disappeared from our radar yesterday.”
Paige cast a wary glance at both men.
“Do y'all want to take a trip out to Travis, when you go back to Texas, and see what happens when we let aliens get a foothold?”
“Maybe I'll pay a visit there.”
Sam tapped him vigorously on the shoulder and put a finger to his lips. Collin never saw the report he had seen. He did not realize what trouble he was stirring up here. His warning came too late.
Paige flung open the second-floor door when they reached the landing. She wheeled around, once they emerged from the stairwell, and rested a hand on her hip. Her lips melted into a frown and her blue eyes flashed with anger.
“Be my guest. Never mind — Travis no longer exists. The whole town got wiped clean off the map.”
“How does a town get 'wiped clean off the map?'” Collin made zero effort to disguise his skepticism.
Paige turned away. She marched down the hall until reaching a large conference room at the end. Paige whipped out her ID badge again and inserted it in a security pad outside the door.
“Easy,” she finally said, without looking back. “You blow up an antimatter engine on an alien spaceship. Let me tell you. The blast wave incinerated the whole town real quick.”
Paige yanked the door open and marched inside the conference room. Sam caught the edge of the door with his foot before it closed again. He shot a cross look back at Collin. Being combative with her would not help their situation.
“You need to do a better job of reading the room, my friend.” Sam lowered his voice, hoping Paige could not overhear him as they entered the room.
“What's her problem?” Collin quickly matched his whispered tone.
“She fought off alien invaders in Travis eleven years ago. Ms. Beck is one of only two people who escaped from the town alive.”
Collin's mouth dropped open. A slight shade of crimson appeared on his cheeks.
“I had no idea.”
“Actually, there were three survivors — if you count my cat Stray.”
Both men became startled when they saw Paige standing only a short distance away with arms folded across her chest. Sam could almost feel her piercing glare penetrate him down to his bones. She had damn good hearing. He needed to be careful with what he said within her earshot going forward.
Two other men already sat at a long rectangular table on the opposite end of the conference room. A whiteboard stretched across the wall behind one side of the table. Both men rose from their chairs. One, an olive-skinned man, wore army combat fatigues and a tan beret. Captain's bars adorned his collar. The other, a doughy man with an unkempt patch of wavy strawberry-blonde hair, was clad in a short-sleeved collared shirt and tie. He also sported a pair of black-rimmed glasses like Collin did, although his frames were a little larger.
“This is Captain Steven Pollard and Ned Danielson,” Paige pointed at the two men as she approached the table. “Ned has held down the fort here over the past couple of weeks. Capt. Pollard commands an Army Ranger company deployed here to Utah to help flush out the aliens.”
“Army Rangers, huh?” Sam saluted Capt. Pollard and then extended his hand. “The bureau isn't pulling any punches on this one.”
“Definitely not, sir.” Capt. Pollard flashed a satisfied grin as he shook his hand. “We get the job done fast, and we get it done right.”
Sam started to sit when Ned thrust his fist out. He glanced down at it and, after a moment's hesitation, connected on a fist bump. Collin smirked at the awkwardness of the exchange.
“I'm Ned. I'm in charge around here.”
Sam sighed at his matter-of-fact statement. He felt reluctant to jump into a pissing contest, but he would not yield one bit of authority to Ned either.
“I'm in charge now, son. Your role is to stay out of the way until we need you.”
Paige raised a finger and shook her head.
“Actually, I'm in charge. If anyone cares to dispute it, I'll gladly put Gen. Daly on the phone to set y'all straight.”
Sam frowned at that revelation. Exactly what he feared. A bureaucrat taking over and running the show. Why did Gen. Daly send him out to Utah only for him to be subordinate to a hand-picked lackey?
“Bureau intelligence tells us the alien vessel disappeared from our radar somewhere over the Wasatch Mountains,” Paige said. “Our task is simple. We'll send in teams of rangers to flush out the aliens. We intend to capture them and seize their spaceship before they can gain a foothold on this planet.”
“Shouldn't we try communicating with them again, first?” Collin started beating the same drum of giving these aliens the benefit of the doubt. “We don't even know why they came here.”
Paige refused to mask her rising irritation and shot a sharp glance at him. If looks could kill, Sam had no trouble believing her eyes would turn Collin to stone or melt him into a puddle of goo in a split second.
“Do you speak their language? Or are you expecting them to be fluent in English?”
“No, of course not. I just think —”
“Trust me,” Paige said, cutting him off. “I want to bring them in alive and I fully intend to talk to them at the appropriate time. But I'm also not about to let some random aliens set up shop on our planet.”
Collin shot a frustrated glare at Sam. He answered with a half-shrug. What did he expect him to do? Paige did not top his list of favorite people, but her cautious approach made sense. These aliens had to earn their trust. The bureau could not afford to simply embrace blind optimism.
“How soon do you think your men can round up the aliens, captain?” Paige asked.
Capt. Pollard leaned back in his chair. He lifted his chin and closed his eyes while visualizing an attack strategy for his company of rangers.
“If we deploy a pair of Black Hawk helicopters and drop a few rangers into designated drop zones, it should be enough to create a perimeter around their landing site and contain the aliens.”
“How many soldiers will it take to get it done?”
Capt. Pollard opened his eyes again and squared his shoulders toward her.
“A dozen rangers should be enough. We'll set up three drop zones and send four-man teams into each zone.
Paige stared down at a sapphire ring on her left hand. A hint of grief flashed across her face for a moment. She shook her head a second later and leaned forward, eyes locked squarely on the captain.
“That's what I like to hear. Ready your men for deployment at fourteen hundred hours.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“One other thing, captain.”
“What is it?”
Paige gazed at Sam and Collin farther down the table with unblinking eyes. To Sam, it felt like she wanted to specifically draw their attention.
“Do everything in your power to bring these aliens back here alive.” Paige turned back to Capt. Pollard and raised a finger again to drive her point home. “I want to question them. If these are scouts arriving ahead of an invasion, we need to know.”
16
Calandra never owned a weapon before or even fired one. Looking at the gear Xttra wanted her to wear tied her belly in knots. Her gear included not just a single weapon, but multiple weapons.
“It comes with the territory. You need to be able to defend yourself if we're faced with a dangerous situation.”
His words did nothing to ease her mind. Calandra gulped and licked her lips. She picked up an armored sleeve by one end and stared at it. Xttra wrapped the same device around both forearms. Each armored sleeve was fashioned from a durable alloy. Straps cut from dried Ebutoka hide bound the sleeve to the underside of the forearm. Armored sleeves had an elevated section covering the forearm with an open slot at the wrist. The left sleeve housed thin, circular razor discs. The right one held a retractable blade — matching the length of an adult human forearm — made from volcanic glass.
Both weapons were highly lethal. This only created deeper concerns within Calandra's mind.
“This is supposed to be a mission of peace,” she said. “What message are we sending if we venture into an alien city armed to the teeth?”
Xttra sighed and leaned on a closed aerorover door inside the cargo bay. He propped his chin on his hand.
“What would you have me do? The probe builders themselves may be peaceful, but the projectile we destroyed earlier proves not all aliens on this planet share that same quality.”
Calandra frowned and cast
her eyes down at the cargo bay floor.
“I don't feel comfortable gearing up like a soldier going out to battle.”
Xttra straightened up and sauntered over to her. He laid his hand on her shoulder. She gazed, unblinking, up into his blue eyes, and held the armored sleeve out to him. Calandra needed him to understand why she felt this way. Doni's doom and gloom attitude put the whole crew on edge and siphoned optimism from this expedition.
“No one is asking you to be a soldier.”
Xttra took the armored sleeve from her and stuck it back inside a weapons storage locker straight across from the aerorover.
“Promise me you'll wear the flex armor,” he said, while starting back across the cargo bay. “And carry at least one weapon for self-defense.”
Calandra toyed with a lock of her hair as she surveyed the weapons locker behind him. Her eyes darted from weapon to weapon. Like it or not, she realized she needed to make some concession if she wanted to journey into the alien city.
“I guess I'll take an eliminator,” she said in a defeated tone. “But you need to show me how to fire it. I never used one before.”
Xttra smiled and stopped in his tracks. He turned back and snatched up an eliminator from a hook inside the locker.
“That won't be a problem.”
Calandra left the cargo bay and went into the crew sleeping quarters. She retrieved flex armor for herself, stripped down, and slipped into it. The flex armor was a breathable one-piece bodysuit woven from lightweight silicon-based fabric. When a physical projectile or a laser bolt struck the fabric, it hardened like metal to protect flesh and bone. This flex armor was not foolproof and wore down through absorbing repeated impacts. Still, it often prevented serious injuries from turning fatal.
Once she put her flex armor comfortably in place, Calandra dressed in her uniform again. Even though she was a civilian consultant, Xttra found her a Stellar Guard uniform to wear. Calandra enjoyed the long-sleeved navy-blue shirt and black pants. Both felt comfortable and looked good on her. She could not say the same thing about her boots. They were a little cumbersome to wear. Calandra had no better choice available. Her boots were designed to protect her feet while navigating rugged terrain, so she considered the footwear a necessary compromise.