by John Coon
This created an unexpected barrier to his desperate, but logical plan. Doni needed to figure out a solution soon if he ever hoped to return home to Lathos again. Until that happened, he needed to keep stringing along these gullible Earthians.
“This is supposed to be your spaceship. If you can't get inside, you're not much help to us.”
Doni cranked his head and glared at the Earthian standing next to him. Could Paige learn to be agreeable for once? He wanted to do nothing more than snatch up an eliminator and blast a smoking hole through her skull. Still, she served her purpose. Her insane hatred of Rubrum coupled with her position as an Earthian leader gave him a temporary ally he needed to fulfill the chief sovereign's orders.
“I didn't say I couldn't get inside,” he said, correcting her. “It will simply take a little longer than I originally anticipated.”
Paige sighed. She turned and glanced at Ned, a pudgy man with glasses who Doni sensed hated him. The Earthian tossed an intense stare in his direction whenever they made eye contact. Doni found his childish anger amusing.
“Keep an eye on our alien here,” she told Ned. “See if you can help him make progress quicker.”
Paige cracked open the door to this cramped metal box of a building where the Earthians held Doni prisoner and stepped outside into the forest. He rolled his eyes after she let the door slam behind her. Doni spun around and stared at her lackey who remained behind.
“I'm not certain how you plan to 'help' me, but I can promise you that threatening me with violence won't move things along faster.”
Ned went straight into his familiar angry pout. Earthians were a primitive race. So easy to predict what they would do.
“Who said I intended to get violent?”
Doni twisted his lips into a bemused frown and shook his head.
“Call it an educated guess.”
He went back to tinkering with his thermal tracker. Doni retrieved it from a nearby table. Before leaving the Earthian base, he patched the damaged aerorover's sensor system into the tracker's core programming. This helped him pinpoint the scout ship's new landing site while the Earthians transported him over a mountain range aboard one of their attack vessels.
Knowing where the ship landed and getting inside presented different dilemmas. Finding the ship had been easy enough. But Xttra encrypted access to every critical ship system. Doni could not open the lower hatch and lower the ramp until he broke the encryption. Outsmarting this security feature required more time than his Earthian captors seemed willing to give him. Their suggestions centered on blowing holes through the ship with their Earth weapons.
“Why did you turn against your fellow aliens?”
Doni glanced up from his tracker. The Earthian pulled up a metal folding chair and faced him from the opposite side of the table.
“You already know the answer.”
He leaned forward on his chair and stared, squinting in the sunlight at Doni.
“Yes, I know what Paige told me earlier. Now I want the real story.”
“Do you think I'm a liar?”
“Why should I trust an alien?”
Doni looked down and noticed a slight tremor afflicting Ned's hands while he spoke. A wry smile crept over his lips. This Earthian was afraid of him. A welcome revelation. He could use this knowledge to his advantage.
“Why should I trust an Earthian? Did you also suffer at the hands of the ones who hail from Rubrum?”
“Are they the ones who abduct people?”
Doni's smile grew larger on his lips. He nodded.
“All the time.”
Sweat beaded on Ned's forehead. He swallowed hard and licked his lips. Doni wondered what images bounced around inside the Earthian's head to fuel his poorly hidden fear.
Ned shuffled toward the door and cracked it open. His eyes darted back and forth for a moment before finally closing it again.
“My cosplay friends don't believe me.” He turned back to Doni and dropped his voice to a whisper. “I've told them for years aliens are up to no good. They think everything outside of Earth is a real-life version of the Federation.”
Doni had never heard of that entity before.
“The Federation?”
“From Star Trek? I thought you all studied us closely before landing on our planet.”
“I don't claim expertise on obscure Earthian culture.”
Another deep frown crossed Ned's lips. He made it easy to push his buttons. Doni enjoyed doing it. He set down the tracker and focused his eyes squarely on the Earthian.
“Listen, I can make it possible for you to root out the Rubrumians, so they never threaten your planet again. How much does that level of security mean to you?”
Ned's eyes grew wider when he heard these words. He stepped away from the door and sat in his chair again. Ned leaned forward and stared intently at Doni.
“I'm listening.”
Doni pointed at the shackles binding his legs.
“Free me from my restraints and help me reach my ship. Once I gain access, I can take you and a legion of your finest soldiers to their homeworld. Then, you can end their reign of terror forever.”
“You are familiar with their homeworld?”
“I need to be familiar so I can frustrate the plans of my fellow crew members.”
Ned fished a set of keys from his pocket. Doni presumed at least one fit his shackles.
“I'm all in. Don't let me down, alien.”
***
Army rangers loaded Xttra, Calandra, Kevin, and Collin into the back of a large armored green truck. All four now wore shackles on their arms and legs after surrendering on the highway. Xttra wanted to hatch a plan to take control of a helicopter, but Kevin recommended against such an action. The wheels never quit turning in his head though, even after the rangers sealed the rear doors. If Ahm willed it, Xttra would free himself and the others before this Earthian vehicle reached its destination. Some weaknesses surely could be found for him to exploit and put an escape plan into action.
Scant sunlight penetrated the armored truck. Slats resembling vents functioned as windows on both sides. A soldier shoved all four prisoners on a narrow bench on one side and connected their shackles to giant metal rings fused to the floor underneath the bench. Other soldiers faced the four prisoners from a second bench. The soldier who locked the restraints in place hopped out and slapped the side of the truck.
“Prisoners are secure,” he said. “Let's go.”
The vehicle's engine started up and it soon rumbled down the highway. Xttra could not see which direction they traveled, but he already knew their destination.
The Earthian base.
A despondent feeling settled in the pit of his stomach and gradually smothered his earlier confidence. Could he escape from this armored truck like he hoped? Going back to that base as a prisoner made Xttra wonder if returning home to Lathos was a fleeting dream. His efforts to rescue Calandra and the rest of his crew bore no fruit. Lance's sacrifice had become a futile action by a dying man.
“You lousy son of a bitch! You're a filthy traitor.”
Xttra snapped his head toward a ranger sitting straight across from Kevin. The ranger clutched the same kind of rifle Kevin carried when Xttra first met him. His unblinking stare and deep frown were reserved for his former fellow soldier.
Kevin matched the other ranger's intense glare with one of his own.
“If you learned what I learned, Dennison, you would have made the same choice back on post.”
Dennison spit on the floor in front of him.
“I'm sorry I ever served under your command. You betrayed us to help out an enemy from God knows what planet.”
“We are not the enemy you seek,” Calandra replied in a firm tone. “We came to Earth as peaceful explorers. That's why Kevin decided to help us. And now you need to do the same.”
“You're not our enemy?” Dennison's voice grew more animated and he tossed up his hands. “Tell it to the soldiers y
ou killed shooting down a pair of birds. Tell it to the ones you burned with your firebombs or the guard who lost an arm trying to stop you at the gate.”
Kevin let out an angry sigh.
“They attacked first, private! Not the other way around. Were we supposed to just let them kill us? We had to defend ourselves.”
A soldier sitting next to Dennison took his turn shooting Kevin a dirty look.
“Maybe you don't give a shit about aliens invading our planet. I do.”
Kevin snapped his head toward him.
“If you talked to them for five minutes, Miller, you would find out how wrong you are.”
Miller turned and cast a hard stare at both Xttra and Calandra. Xttra returned it without hesitation. Calandra's eyes darted between him and the soldier and a worried frown graced her lips.
“You got five minutes,” Miller finally said. “Convince me you're not murderous world-conquering bastards.”
Calandra grimaced and drew a sudden breath. Her expression revealed a new burst of pain attacking her broken bones. Xttra saw determination mixed within that fresh pain.
She was not about to let it silence her.
“We came here in peace after discovering a probe from your planet,” she said. “Our goal was to make contact with the probe builders and build a friendship between our two worlds.”
“They have proof – from the probe itself,” Collin added. “A message our government sent to them.”
Dennison tilted his head and cast a suspicious glance at the Earth Defense Bureau agent.
“Where's this message?”
Xttra tugged at the restraints circling his wrists while trying to point to his chest pouch.
“I have a holocaster in my pouch,” he said. “If you activate it, I can show you the message we received.”
Dennison glanced over at Miller and he nodded at the private. He shrugged and moved in a hunched gait closer to Xttra. The truck roof was not tall enough to let Dennison stand up straight without hitting his head. He pulled out a square pad and showed it to Xttra.
“Is this it?”
Xttra nodded. He talked him through which buttons to press to activate the correct holoscreen. Soon, the same words and images culled from the flash drive played for everyone to see. After hearing the closing message from a former US president, the armored truck grew quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
“I'm so sorry.” Miller's voice grew choked with emotion. “We didn't know. The Earth Defense Bureau told us you were a threat.”
Dennison said nothing. He simply closed his eyes and rubbed his hand down his face.
“We're going to be haunted with what we did,” A distinct sadness hung on Kevin's words. “You. Me. All of us. But it doesn't need to end on that note, corporal. We still can make at least one thing right.”
Miller nodded. “Let's send them home.”
Dennison opened his eyes again and studied Xttra and Calandra for a moment. He finally turned and glanced over at Miller.
“Are we willing to throw away our careers and our freedom for this? There’s no turning back if we do what we’re about to do.”
Collin jumped in and answered the question before Miller could say a word.
“We’re all making sacrifices to see this through,” he said. “But doing the right thing isn’t optional. It is essential – no matter how painful.”
Dennison glanced down at his belt.
“We don't have keys to undo your shackles,” he said. “Those are with our driver.”
Xttra smiled.
“I've got another option.”
He directed Miller to remove the cutter from his belt. The corporal's eyes widened when he saw the laser circling the blade. It cast a blue glow that fell upon his face in the dim sunlight. Miller went to work slicing through shackles from Xttra's arms and legs. Once he freed Xttra, the ranger then cut Calandra, Kevin, and Collin loose. He deactivated the cutter and handed it back to Xttra when he finished severing the last restraint.
Calandra closed her eyes and lowered her head. Xttra figured she offered up a silent prayer of gratitude. He felt inclined to do the same. Ahm changed the hearts of their captors in a desperate hour. They had hope again where none had existed.
“What do we do now?” Collin asked while rubbing his wrists. “None of us are in control of where this truck is headed.”
Xttra searched for a solution to their next problem. They needed to gain control of this vehicle fast and drive it back to the scout ship.
40
Calandra stared at the cast covering her broken arm. Her breathing intensified and tremors gripped her spine while listening to Xttra and Kevin flesh out a plan for taking control of the armored truck. Their strategy required a few things to go exactly right to execute the plan without major complications. Calandra struggled with an unfamiliar overwhelming pessimism. Their record for having things turn out well had been terrible since they landed on Earth.
Her growing nervousness did not escape Xttra's attention. He gave Calandra's right hand a gentle squeeze and offered up a reassuring smile.
“It will work out. We'll make it back home. I give you my word.”
On a signal from Kevin, Dennison gave the back of the cab a couple of hard raps.
“We have a medical emergency!” he shouted. “One of the prisoners is having a seizure.”
A sudden jolt from the brakes followed.
The truck rolled to a stop a few seconds after that initial jolt. Dennison tossed Kevin a pistol and then nodded to Miller. All three rangers readied their weapons.
The rear door popped open and a ranger poked his head inside. Upon seeing all the prisoners now freed from their shackles, he drew a pistol. Multiple weapons greeted him as he raised the barrel.
“Whoa. Simmer down private.” Kevin motioned for him to put the weapon down. “You don't want to do that. No one needs to get hurt.”
The other ranger refused to lower his pistol. He cocked it and pointed his weapon straight at Xttra.
“Shut your hole! I don't wanna hear one damn word from you, traitor.”
“There's been a change of plans,” Kevin replied. “We're taking the truck and helping these aliens go home. You can assist us or stay out of our way.”
“I'm not letting anyone escape.”
Xttra started raising his arms as though he intended to surrender. Halfway up, he slapped his right hand down on his left armored sleeve. A razor disc flew out from a slot at the wrist. It skimmed across the length of the pistol and partially sliced through the driver's shoulder. He shouted and clutched at the bleeding wound. His pistol tumbled from his now limp hand to the ground.
Before the other ranger could reach for his radio with his uninjured arm, Dennison, Miller, and Kevin all charged out of the truck and surrounded him. Kevin put him into a sleeper hold until he passed out. Dennison bound his wound with a cloth strip to stop the bleeding. They restrained the other ranger and put him in the back of the vehicle with everyone else. Miller took his place driving the truck.
Calandra eyeballed metal slats covering the window across from her. The slats obstructed her vision beyond the armored truck. It only added to a creeping dread she could not put into words. They turned back from the same heavily guarded mountain road only a day earlier. Could they truly sneak past those same guards now?
Every muscle and nerve tensed up inside Calandra as the truck wound through the alien city and into the mountains. No one said much. Their faces wore the same emotions she felt inside. Pain, fear, anger, and sadness rolled into a giant ball.
The armored truck rolled to a stop. Her heart skipped a beat. Calandra fidgeted with her black ring and closed her eyes. Finding that cherished ring again, among her confiscated gear, meant so much. Her parents gave it to her as a gift when she became an astronomer. Now she pinned her hopes on making it back to the scout ship and recovering the life she left back on Lathos.
After an agonizing minute or two of silence, the truck started mo
ving again.
“We passed the first checkpoint.” Miller's voice crackled over Dennison's two-way radio. “Still not out of the woods yet.”
Each stop the armored truck made only enhanced the fear gnawing on Calandra's nerves. The truck bounced along while navigating ruts in the mountain road. She uttered a silent prayer, opened her eyes again, and glanced at Xttra. They locked eyes and he clasped her hand again.
“It can't be this easy,” she said. “The Earthians have done everything in their power to stop us from going home. What if they have gained control of the ship? What are we going to do?”
Xttra gazed at her thoughtfully and trailed a finger down her cheek.
“They can't decipher my command codes. The scout ship still belongs to us. Have faith.”
Their armored truck made a sudden stop. Miller's voice burst through on Dennison's radio only a split second later.
“We're at the final checkpoint. We've got a big problem up here.”
The corporal revealed a growing panic in his voice. Xttra's eyes opened wider and he stared into space. Calandra knew he suspected the same thing she suspected. Somehow, Earthians guarding the scout ship caught onto their ruse.
Dennison's scowl deepened when he realized their plan hit a snag.
“Talk to us, Miller. What's happening?”
A truck door opened. Muffled words followed. Then, sounds of a scuffle and a shot from a pistol. Calandra bit down on her lower lip as her eyes widened with fear.
Xttra drew his eliminator from his holster.
“Ready your weapons. They aren't capturing us again without a fight.”
The rear door flew open again. A bureau agent popped into view this time. Xttra fired a laser bolt. It ripped through the agent's chest before he said a word. He collapsed in a heap.
Xttra charged forward and used the open door as a fixed shield while he jumped out of the armored truck. He fired another laser bolt around the door. Calandra heard a groan. Another body sunk to the ground. Kevin and Dennison joined Xttra outside the truck. They at once ducked down and started firing their weapons.