by Luigi Robles
As each one of extensions on the Immortal’s back made it through the shield, particles began to form on their tips.
“This is a battle we cannot win.”
Moments later, what was left of the Golden Armada emerged in Acranian space. Saavan almost couldn’t believe what he saw. A good part of the Armada was smoldering, partially destroyed, and debris was flying all over space.
“Report,” Saavan said.
“We’ve lost nearly…” Galeah paused before she said the number. “Nearly 350,000. There are another 20,000 partially destroyed ships, and the count of injured Acram is still underway.”
The way Saavan saw it, there were only two options: either completely give up and surrender to the machine beings, the so-called Immortals, or fight, fight and give it everything they had. Saavan knew what path had been engraved in him, so he didn’t hesitate to give out his next orders. Though the Armada had been roughed up, their warrior spirit remained strong, and there was much they could do.
“Take care of the injured and send them back to Acrania. Mobilize all other ships in our arsenal, mobilize all other Acram forces, have families go to their nearest shelters, and set up a defense perimeter around Acrania and this side of the galaxy. I want every able ship ready to hold back the enemy. No matter what happens, they will not get through.”
“Right away.”
Saavan waited for a few moments to let Galeah punch in the orders on the screen before he continued.
“Have the Nobles report on the occurrences of the battle,” Saavan continued. “We need to find out if we are missing anything. Lastly, contact our subspecies. It’s time to put in motion what we’ve been getting ready for all our lives.”
“Right away.” Galeah pounded away at the display screen.
Saavan began to replay the battle against the Immortals in his head, looking for things he might’ve missed in their short encounter. But it was hard to find anything of substance. Any way he turned it, the Immortals came out on top. They were just too powerful, and they had control over tech instruments that were essential for the Armada to function properly. How could Saavan ever win against such an enemy? Even if they gathered all the Acram subspecies and they were all willing to fight, Saavan only saw one outcome, and that was the machines coming out on top.
Changes would have to be made throughout the fleet in how they sent and received messages if they were to stand a chance.
One of the things that caught his attention the most was how the machine seemingly went from being wild and out of control to precise and more intelligent—enough so that it was able to open a hole in the Iveria’s shield. Saavan had never seen something like that happen before; he hadn’t even heard of it being possible. But the question was, why? Why did the machine react that way at first? The machine was a mind changer, of that he was sure. But could it be that there was a primary mind, or many of them, somewhere else, controlling the machine bodies?
Also, the entirety of the Armada fired on them, and yet no harm came to them. Their machine bodies were too small to carry a large shield that could hold back the power of a dreadnought. What happened? Was their armor plating that strong? That impregnable? Or did they simply cause the weapons to miss?
Then Saavan felt a sense of ease as he remembered something that had happened not too long ago. An equally impressive show of force, if not more so. He couldn’t imagine anything, no matter how strong or smart, standing in the way of or deflecting the main weapon on the Herrion ship piloted by the humans, Sodenia. Saavan then knew what he needed to do above everything else: he needed to speak with the one called Captain Fain Jegga.
6
Embers
Working away in one of the few remaining R&D facilities that had been set up by the council, Joan was near to achieving phase one of her goal. She had been working tirelessly since Cross, the head of the council, was executed by Sodenia’s AI.
Even though ESAF had tried hard to dismantle the council, and in the public leaders’ eyes had succeeded, remnants of what had been one of the greatest controlling political entities in the world still remained.
For many years, Joan had been second in line for the council’s throne. Cross himself had told her so many times during his drunken outbursts, but he hadn’t told just her—many down the long chain of the council knew about Joan Rondendai.
She knew that with a little work, she could re-establish the council to its former glory, and with it take control once again of many in the political world. That would be the easy part, as those who were in politics for personal gain were easily corrupted, and often on the cheap. The hard part would be getting rid of the one thing that had managed to cut off the dragon’s head in the first place. For that to happen, she would have to put into play nearly all her many talents.
Joan wasn’t scared to face the AI, if anything she was looking forward to it. She had trained and endured her whole life, a little more of it wouldn’t hurt.
The news was on in the background. It was always on; it was her way of keeping in touch with the world. She was accustomed to tuning in and out, depending on the key phrases they used. This time, she was listening.
“And now for history in the making. They’re back,” Jazmin Ortiz said, the main anchor of the evening news. “Sodenia and its crew have officially made it back to Earth space after their over eight thousand lightyears of travel to the Ochilenes’ world, Doka. No word yet on what news they bring from Doka or when their press conference will be, but this is exciting news nonetheless. Our first visit to a planet outside of the solar system. Isn’t that amazing?”
“Dammit!” Joan hissed as she pricked her finger for the second time that day.
“You know what truly amazes me?” Stephen Tyler, the co-anchor, said. “It’s not the fact that we are visiting another world—we’ve been doing that for a while now—and it’s not that we visited an alien civilization.”
“It isn’t?” Jazmin asked.
“I mean, that’s one of the factors. But what truly amazes me is just how little time we did it in. What was it? It only took Sodenia and three other ships three days to travel back and forth eight thousand lightyears? And only ten hours to travel the distance each way. That’s super impressive if you ask me. It just boggles my mind.”
“Yeah, that’s quite something,” Jazmin said. “But we aren’t the only ones with an opinion about this. We headed out onto the street to ask commuters what they thought about our first alien civilization visit.”
Joan sighed as she continued working on her device, a multi-wave electro-magnetic pulse short-range detonator. The device had great promise; according to Joan, it would take down any and all machines, even those advanced enough to have an EMP shield or surge protector. It was the first of its kind. It was also rather small; at the size of a cantaloupe, she wouldn’t have any problem transporting it.
EMP technology had fallen off the research shelf after it had been widely unsuccessful against foreign powers and modern EMP shields some centuries ago.
“Sir, sir,” Lu Lawrence asked a man passing by on the news. “What do you think of our first visit to an alien civilization?”
“What? They’re already back?” From the corner of her eye, Joan saw the man being interviewed look up at the sky for a moment. She shook her head. “That was fast, wasn’t it?” the man continued. “I think we are moving too fast. I just hope that Truman knows what he is doing with the ESAF program. Another wrong move and he’s going to be done for.”
“But what do you think of the journey itself?” Lu insisted on the original question.
“I think it’s kind of good that we are the ones doing the visiting this time, just so they know we can also visit if we want to. They’re not the only ones with guns in the galaxy.”
“We visited a friendly civilization. I don’t think there’s any need for that.”
“Oh, well, in that case. We gotta show them who’s boss. You know.”
Joan shook her head slowly
and thought about turning off the news. She hated people that thought about things at the surface level.
“OK, well, thanks for your time,” Lu said as he moved on to the next person walking by.
“Ma’am, how about you?” Lu asked. “What do you think about our first visit to an alien civilization?”
“Ah, well, I think it is a great step forward and in the right direction,” the lady said.
Joan looked up from her device, glancing at the digital screen to see who was talking. By the look and sound of it, the lady being interviewed on the news was eloquent and well educated. She reminded Joan of a professor or doctor.
“If we are to keep our place in the galaxy,” the lady on the news continued, “we have to know what’s out there, communicate and build relationships. I’m stoked that we’ve been to an alien world. Can’t wait to see the next thing that happens.”
“Pathetic. ‘Can’t wait to see what happens.’ OK.” Joan sniggered. “You’ll see what happens next.”
“Very nice response. Thank you for your time,” Lu said. “Let’s try to find one more.” The camera orb followed the reporter as he searched for one more person to interview. “Sir, how about you? What do you think about our first visit to an alien civilization?”
“Do you really wanna know what I think?”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m asking…” Lu sounded like he was regretting his choice.
“You wanna know what I think? Fine. I’ll tell you what I think. I think it’s all a cover-up. There are some messed-up things going on, and the government has been lying to us. I—”
Joan switched off the news. If there was one thing she couldn’t stand, it was a conspiracy theorist. People who would put their own thoughts above the hard and readily available evidence. Though she knew that she would be turning the news back on in a few hours, a moment of silence with her thoughts would come in handy. She needed to focus.
Stupidity. It seems that we’ll be plagued with it until humans cease to exist, Joan thought as she adjusted the heat on the soldering iron. But that’s not what matters right now. Right now, the only thing that matters is the fall of Kya. I will restore the council once more, and Kya will fall no matter what. She will fall.
“She will fall,” Joan said through gritted teeth.
Ever since Kya barged into the council’s fortified bunker and murdered Cross, the head of the council organization, Joan had revenge on her mind. She firmly believed that the only thing preventing the council from wielding the power of Sodenia was and had always been Kya. But if Kya was removed from the scenario, the council would quickly rise and surpass its former glory. She was sure of it. After all, there wasn’t another being on Earth that could do what Kya did that night when her boss was slain. Fain and the flight crew might put up a fight, but it wouldn’t be a problem. Not even Truman could stand against the council; he would eventually be overturned by the council’s manipulation of politics. It was that cursed android, the would-be human, the only one who didn’t play by the rules.
According to Cross, Joan, among other things, was one of the deadliest humans alive. Joan knew this because Cross would often repeat it during his nights of heavy drinking. “Joan, do you know why I hired you? Do you? You know it, right?” Cross often asked the same question.
Though his drinking habit was one of the things that contributed to his downfall, Joan believed he wasn’t too far off when he called her the deadliest human alive. Among her long list of skills were special ops, advanced hand-to-hand and weapons training, multiple languages, structural and electronic engineering and much more. Like most of the people who had witnessed the first Acram attack firsthand, Joan had set out to learn as much as she could and prepare as much as she could. But she did so in the opposite direction than most people took. She didn’t want to have anything to do with the U.S. military or any kind of military body.
For Joan, there had been only suffering in the aftermath of the first alien attack. She pounded on the table as she remembered the cold.
Joan was only eight years old when the Acram scouts leveled a nearby city. Though the city she lived in wasn’t directly affected, the aftereffects of having a nearby city erased off the map were catastrophic. There was a major influx of people, supplies quickly dwindled out of existence, and the city’s power grid went completely offline in the days that followed.
At first it had seemed as if they would be able to ride out the storm even through the blistering cold front. For the first few days without power, things were still normal. The hover still had enough battery left to get supplies, though there weren’t many to be had, and there were plenty of batteries throughout the house to keep them warm. The main battery cell in the house told them they had power for five days. Mama and Papa had enough supplies to last for weeks.
Things weren’t bad for them at first, but just two days later, the main battery cell in the house ran out of power. When Papa went to go check what had happened, he found out that there was someone leaching power out of the battery cell.
All wasn’t lost; they still had a fireplace and plenty of wood to burn to try and keep the house warm. But after a few nights of lighting a fire and sitting by the fireplace, Joan was beginning to think otherwise. As soon as the fire started, people would knock on their door, asking to be let in. The first few nights hadn’t been as scary. Papa would simply shout at the people that were knocking at the door to leave them alone and go away. But as the days without power went by, the outside world got more aggressive.
Joan began to fear the coming of night. She hated when Papa would light the fire, even if it was to keep the house warm.
“Papa,” Joan said as she helped Papa place the wood in the firebox. “What if tonight we don’t light the fire?”
“It’s too cold. I reckon we don’t have enough blankets.”
“And are you sure the stove is still not working?”
“I check every morning, honey, to see if the gas is back. You know that. I wish there was another way. But there isn’t.”
“OK, Papa.”
“Don’t worry, honey, I’ll go stand by the door and yell at anyone that tries to bother us, huh? Enjoy the fire together with Mama, honey.”
“Come on, Joan, it’s the only way we can keep warm.”
“OK, Mama. Papa, be careful.”
“I always am, you know that, honey.”
Joan went to sit next to her mom on one of the couches that surrounded the fireplace. The house began to feel much warmer, and for a second or two, Joan thought that they might be able to have a good, warm night after all. Maybe one or two more days of this, and everything would go back to normal. Power would be restored, and the military would send more reinforcements. Joan could hardly wait.
Mere minutes after the fire had been lit, there were already people trying to get in the house. Though this time, they seemed more desperate.
“Open up,” a stranger yelled from outside.
“Yeah, we know there’s lots of room in there. It’s only a few of us.”
A few of them? Joan thought. Before today, only one person would yell at the door, if anything. Now there was a group?
“Get lost,” Papa yelled from behind the door as he went to grab a nearby bat. That was the first time Joan had seen him hold a bat near the door. Maybe he also felt that this time the threat was real. “There’s no room for you here.”
“Look,” the stranger from before yelled. “Either you let us in, or we’ll let ourselves in. You decide.”
“Merry, this isn’t looking good,” Papa said in a low voice as he got near the fireplace. “Grab Joan and get some blankets. We might have to leave and go to the nearest shelter.”
Mama didn’t hesitate to comply with what Papa had said. She quickly got up and led Joan to her room by the hand.
There was back-and-forth yelling from Papa and the strangers outside, but it had become indistinguishable, and all they heard was multiple voices talking at once.
; “Joan, honey,” Mama said. “You’re going to have to help Mama, OK?”
Joan nodded.
“While I go get some blankets,” Mama said, “grab the warmest set of clothes you can find and put them on above these ones, OK?”
Joan nodded and went to her closet. She looked for the fluffiest, thickest clothes that she could find and started putting them on.
There were loud banging and scuffling noises coming from the living room. Joan’s stomach felt like it had left her body, and she was afraid Papa was in danger. Seconds later, Papa came running into Joan’s room with a bloody bat in hand.
“We gotta go now,” Papa said frantically. “I got one as he was climbing through one of the windows. But there’s a lot of them, and I think they have weapons.”
Mama didn’t say anything. Instead she grabbed Joan by the hand and headed out of the room. They made their way out of the house through the back door. The blistering cold made itself felt with every step they took further away from home. Everything outside was icy and white; it had just stopped snowing a few hours earlier. Mama and Papa wrapped themselves in the blankets Mama had gotten from Joan’s room.
They walked for about twenty minutes without saying a word.
“Why is it so cold?” Papa asked as he adjusted his blanket. “It gets cold, but never this cold. Does it?”
“It has gotten this cold before. We just don’t feel it because we have power, and the heaters are always on. But cold fronts usually do drop the temperature this much.”
“It’s going to be a long night,” Papa said, with his breath visible in the cold night.