by Trent Falls
The troop transport shuttles lurched forward, making the change of inertia evident on the passengers for a moment as the vehicles sped up. The transports shot out the main launch passage. Immediately after entering open space, they formed up into an echelon right formation; a flight formation of a diagonal line slanting back to the right. In unison the turned towards the blue and green planet of Altair Nine.
The Xen soldiers inside each helicopter were silent for the most part. In one transport, a lieutenant was quietly conversing with his sergeant over possible terrain issues at their designated landing zone. They had all done this many times before. Though the war was long over, there were other policing engagements the recon team had been involved in throughout Xen space. They had also drilled planetary drops countless times; run numerous simulations. The entire time the soldiers were fairly calm and quiet during planetfall.
The transports frame slowly began to shake, ever so slightly at first as though someone was bumping into the ship rather infrequently. The shaking soon grew as the Xen transports burned down into atmospheric entry. Their protective underbellies and reduced speed from repulse emitters helped get the four transports through the upper atmosphere. Soon, the transports were rocking in rather typical turbulence.
The sergeant and the lieutenant continued to study over the map, speaking in the kind of evolved Mandarin dialect of the Xen language.
The jostling continued on for a few minutes as the transports flew out over the thick cloud cover over the rainforest. Water droplets streaked across the sides of the flat grey vessels as they descended towards the lush green of the forest below. The transports flew east, leaving the setting sun behind them. They broke off once over the main river valley in the twilight; the stretch of mountains covered in evergreens and leafy subtropical canopy.
In a few moments they were close to their landing zones.
“Alright! Wake up!” The Xen sergeant shouted to his men as he moved though the cabin to the sliding side door of the transport. “Remember the mission! Good hunting!”
The sergeant pulled hard on the release handle. The air seal hissed like a giant can of coffee being opened as the door opened. The sterile air of the cabin was quickly replaced by the cold sweet moist scent of rainforest.
A mortar type device mounted over the door shot three lengths of coiled black nylon rope out towards the jungle. The sergeant waved his men out the door. Three at a time and slightly staggered in timing, the soldiers hot-roped out of the hovering Xen transport down into the cold wet primeval forest.
In a few seconds the Xen recon team was out of the transport. A few miles away, one of the identical transport ships that had followed them down was offloading its recon team. The wind of the canopy treetops wavered for a few seconds more under the transport’s thrusters before the vehicle climbed and turned away.
The Xen sergeant and lieutenant led their deadly quiet squad out into the jungle.
John Carn didn’t remember the details of his first meeting with the man he knew as Alex Scoffield. It had been vague, something he had assumed just always was. After being friends for well over ten years, there was nothing really remarkable about how he remembered meeting his friend. John had been transferred to Proxima Centauri 5 by the EEF to serve in their new Colony Marshall program. John had just settled into his assignment in New Australia when he met Alex, a contract pilot with Horizon Construction. Horizon was a firm that set up colony outposts. New Australia at the time was nothing more than a fuel station, a well, a general store, a bar, and the Horizon field office. Alex was a general pilot. He flew construction teams around the planet, supplies into port, and even flew some of the flying cranes used to construct some of the new buildings that would grow within the new city limits.
John did not, however, meet Alex on New Australia for the first time.
The scene replayed within John’s head. It was like looking at an old photograph he had forgotten that someone had taken, only with far more detail and depth. It was not just a photograph or a memory; he was actually there. He was standing between a floor and ceiling made of thick granite. The ceiling, like the floor, was vast, spreading out for hundreds of square yards. The floor and ceiling were unpolished rock, giving it a rough natural texture. Beyond the edge of the floor, the far end of the chamber was open to daylight. John could see yet another jungle, only this one was hotter and more humid. There was also what looked like an ocean shoreline nearby. A pair of alien birds flew by, disappearing up into the unseen sky.
The chamber itself resembled a massive mountain. The wide opening at one side looked as though someone had cut a wide rectangular piece out of the mountain, creating the chamber that John was standing in. He half expected the ceiling to fall down on top of him as the chamber had no supporting pillars. It was so wide that its lack of supports seemed to defy the laws of physics.
John wasn’t alone.
He found himself crouching rather than standing. The body of a man, almost a boy, in his early twenties lay at his feet. His name…. his name was Noah Bradley. An EEF Marine Corporal. Bradley lay wincing on the ground beneath him. Like John, he wore an EEF Marine BDU. Bradley was extremely pale. His eyes were shut as he lay lucidly.
John’s eyes turned up to see the others in the chamber. Lieutenant Jensen was standing a few feet away. He too was in his EEF uniform. Jensen looked much younger than he should have.
It was a memory… John remembered. It was all so very real!
Jensen was standing next to Captain Dekker, who was also much younger than he should have been. Dekker was looking over at an unknown human male. The unknown man was a bit aged, perhaps 50 years old or thereabouts. The man’s white hair was very short to the sides of his head. The top was bald. His skin was thin and tight over his face with age. He had an almost alien look to him. His clothes were white robes with a series of black trim lines that segmented in places into dashes and dots. The robes tied off at his waist, revealing white trouser legs. The man’s feet were covered in a kind of sandal or slip-over shoe.
The aged man’s eyes flashed over with a white glow, identical to the kind of glow he had seen in Alex’s eyes.
Alex.
Alex too was there. His black skin and dreadlocks were an unmistakable identifier. Alex, though, wore the same clothing as the unknown aged white bald man.
This was where he had met Alex!
Beside Alex was another human wearing something similar to an Earth Expeditionary Force combat uniform. The uniform bore no markings or rank insignia; it was pretty much bare. The face of the wearer was very familiar. It was Lyle Ramirez! Dekker had assembled a team to go look for Ramirez when he failed to check in several times on his expedition. John remembered!!! They found Lyle on this planet…. planet… an uncharted and distant planet. Ramirez had taken eight Marines out well beyond The Breach into the vast unknown to look for the Norn. Dekker and his men had found Lyle.
Lyle Ramirez’s eyes glowed the same as Alex’s! They had changed. They had become something else.
Of Lyle’s eight-man team, only Lyle survived.
Dekker had assembled a team of about ten Marines. Only Dekker, Jensen, John, and Bradley remained. Bradley. John looked down at him again. Bradley didn’t look very good. The numerous…numerous… traps on the planet that had killed Lyle’s men had all but decimated Dekker’s team. John knew he was lucky to be alive.
The rest played out like memory.
John set Bratley’s head down gently on the granite floor. He then stood up and walked over to Dekker. The ground was wet in some areas of the rough floor, John remembered.
“Sir, Bradely doesn’t look very well, sir.” John spoke to his superior in a hushed tone. “I think he’s bleeding internally.”
Dekker’s eyes slid to the right to look at John silently.
“Sir,” John’s tone remained hushed but dire, “if Bradley doesn’t get medical attention soon he’ll die.”
Dekker breathed hard. He was visibly stressed. Joh
n remembered that they had lost the other six people in their team.
“Is there anything you can do for my man?” Dekker turned his head to look at the aged bald somewhat humanoid male.
John looked at the bald man as well. Taos, he remembered. The man’s name was Taos!
“It is quite remarkable that you and your men made it this far.” Taos spoke in both a verbal and telepathic voice. His voice seemed to echo massively, both in the cavernous room and in their heads. “The security of this planet was meant to be impassable.”
“Please! He’ll die without help!” Dekker pleaded with the God-like Taos.
Taos looked down on Bradley. Bradley put his hand on his stomach and rolled to the side in pain. The corporal’s skin was white and covered with sweat. Taos stood in thought, all the while looking down on the young corporal.
“I can save him but he would become one of us.” Taos answered finally, turning his head up to look at Captain Dekker. “He could not remain with your people.”
Dekker stared at Taos for a while then looked down on Bradley. Dekker knew he couldn’t make this decision for Bradley. He walked over to the young enlisted Marine and knelt down beside him.
“Hey kid!” Dekker spoke to his fellow Marine in almost a singing tone. It was unlike an EEF Marine. “It’s Captain Dekker. You hear me?”
Bradley rolled over to look at his boss. The young Marine’s eyes strained to open. He seemed to have real difficulty focusing in on Dekker’s form looming over him. “Cccc…Captain?” Bradley’s voice cracked weakly.
“Yeah, son. I’m right here.” Dekker responded.
“Sir, I’m not feeling well, sir.” Bradley’s weak voice strained. “I… I need to get back to the… ship, sir.”
“You won’t make it, son, I’m sorry!” Dekker apologized sincerely. “I’m so sorry, kid! These people, though. They can help! They can help you feel better! Get you back to fighting strength.”
“Yeah?” Bradley grinned through his haze. “That’s great sir. Sssign me up. I’m good to go.”
“There’s a catch, corporal.” Dekker spoke calmly. “It’s a hell of a catch too.”
Again, Bradley’s eyes searched for his boss. “Catch? What’s the catch?”
“Well… they tell me you’ll never be able to go home. You’d have to stay with them.” Dekker explained.
“Stay? Here? Like what… forever?”
Bradley’s eyes shut. He rolled to his side, almost as though he were about to fall unconscious.
“Corporal?” Dekker called out.
“Sorry sir.” Bradley exhaled. “Just… thinking.”
Bradley coughed. Dekker waited patiently.
“Sir, I’m…. bleeding inside.” Bradley noted. “I don’t have much time anyway. Tell them… to do what they gotta do.”
Dekker stared down at the young corporal. Even though Bradley was essentially giving up everything he had on Earth, a part of Dekker envied what the corporal would become. He envied what he might see.
“Alright son.” Dekker breathed. “Alright.”
Dekker stood up and turned around to face the group. John was standing next to Jensen, looking back at his boss. In the time he stood still, John had chanced a look at Taos, Lyle, and the man he would one day know as Alex Scoffield. Their glowing eyes were ghostly; inviting but also frightening to look at.
“Will he change as well?” Dekker asked the group of Norn, addressing Taos directly. “Will he remain… himself?”
“He will be the same man you knew, sir.” Lyle Ramirez answered in the same echoing voice. “He will simply be… one of us.”
“You must also understand that when this is done, all memory of this, of us, and of this place will be erased from your minds.” Taos added. He looked at Dekker, John, and Jensen in succession. “Bradley will come with us, but you will be made to believe he perished on your mission to locate Lyle Ramirez.” Taos’ voice grew louder in their minds; overpowering in an almost deity-like manner. “When this is done you will leave this planet, never to return! We will make this clear. No one of your species is to set foot on this world! Ever!”
Dekker looked back soberly at Taos. He had the look of a man who knew the consequences and was terrified of them.
“Yes sir.” Dekker responded cautiously. “We understand.”
“Very well.” Taos began to walk towards Bradley. As he did, a glow began to surround his hands. The glow turned into a light. The light grew brighter, eventually becoming blinding.
John caught one last glimpse of Alex before the light overpowered him. John, instinctively, put his hands up in front of his eyes to keep himself from going blind.
In the next instant, the blinding light was gone. Everything was dark. It was the same disorientation as going from daylight to a dark room. John’s pupils couldn’t adjust quickly enough. It was a terrifying few seconds that he found himself standing in a blind man’s limbo. When his pupils finally adjusted he saw Alex standing in the same spot he had been standing in the memory, only his surroundings were much different.
They were on Merion Road, a two-lane residential street. It was night. The trees around them rattled, bare of their leaves, in the cold autumn breeze. There were single family homes settled in among the thin trees around them. The homes, with their deep yards of green grass, were somewhat uncommon to the city of York, Pennsylvania. York was typically lined with row houses, some dating as far back as the eighteenth century.
This was John’s hometown.
John looked in front of him to see Alex there, still wearing the old jumpsuit he had been wearing earlier. The same spooky glow remained in Alex’s eyes. The streets around them were empty. It was as though the town was abandoned, even though some of the lights were on in the living rooms and bedrooms of the houses around them.
John then looked down at his body. Though he hadn’t aged, he assumed, he was wearing his old olive drab EEF Marine uniform. His shoulder rank insignia was of a Private First Class.
It was October! He remembered! This was the day he had returned from Parris Island. It was after basic training on his ten day liberty. In nine days, he would be on a starship headed out to Proxima Centauri. He had come home to say goodbye to his parents and his sister.
Only now there was no one around.
“I created this from your mind.” Alex explained in an echoing voice. “It’s too dangerous for us to talk in the real world.”
“Jesus!!!” John called out. “Jesus, Alex!!!! What the hell are you?!?”
“Take it easy, John.” Alex spoke in a calmer, reassuring voice.
“Easy?!?” John’s voice was still loud.
“What are you, Alex?” John demanded again, this time at a lower volume.
“You know what I am, John.” Alex replied plainly. “I just showed you.”
“All this….” John was genuinely confused. It was an unbelievable lie, his friendship with Alex. “All this time??? You were? One of the Norn?”
Alex seemed to stare right through John for a moment. “Yes, that’s what you call us.” Alex admitted. “I’m sorry I had to do that but the situation was getting out of hand. You had incomplete memory repression. After observing you all this time I think it has something to do with your post traumatic stress.”
“You blanked my memory?” John asked, stunned.
“Yes. Apparently it didn’t work completely.” Alex explained. “You had gaps in your coverage. There were things you could remember and things that you couldn’t. I think we underestimated what your PTSD would do under the process. I guess your numerous traumatic experiences from the war served as a bridge to the present.”
“What the hell else can’t I remember?!?” John growled demandingly.
“I can’t tell you, John.” Alex answered plainly. “Trust me, its best that the arrangement remain this way. I had to show you a little, not only to try and repair your memory coverage but to show you what’s at stake.”
“Jesus!” John exhaled sharp
ly. He took a few steps back. His fear was genuine, tempered only by awe. The entire time his eyes remained fixed on Alex. “You’re a… an… extraterrestrial!”
“Not quite, John.” Alex explained. He walked over to one of the grav cars parked at the side of the street. “My name is Alex Scoffield. I’m from Glendale, California, just like I said I was. I’m just… like what was done to Lyle Ramirez and Noah Bradley.”
“So, you were once human?” John relaxed a bit. He took a step towards Alex but still kept a safe distance.
Alex took a breath of air. He swallowed, unsure of whether to tell John more.
“I was taken from Earth in 1997.” Alex admitted. “I had gone to see some friends up in Fresno and was driving back at night on I-5 when they took me.”
John stared blankly at Alex for a moment. “You’re shitting me!!!” exclaimed John.
Alex sighed aloud. “Look, we can go at this all night but time is precious. And there ARE Xen soldiers out there looking for us.”
“Out where?!?” John jabbed. He looked around at the Pennsylvania neighborhood he had grown up in. “In the jungle or out on Springdale Avenue?”
“I told you, this is a recreation from your mind. I needed to create someplace that you’d feel safe.”
John took a deep breath. He still couldn’t believe the revelation of his old friend, Alex Scoffield. A Norn?!?
“Look, I’m not going to hurt you, John.” Alex reassured him. “I’m still the same guy you knew an hour ago. What I AM going to do is get us off this planet. We need to do that fast, too, but… we’re going to do it without killing any of the Xen!”