Neighbors

by Brian Whiting

bullet to get the ship back,” she replied, sounding almost disgusted that the

  compliment was aimed at her.

  “How is Bogdan?”

  “I checked on him on the way here. A broken rib and ankle, but he

  should make a full recovery. I also noticed the new construction underway.”

  Cindy looked at him. “There’s no way we will finish the construction before

  the Zorn return. Why even bother?” Cindy picked up a pretzel from a bowl

  on Alex’s desk and crossed her arms.

  He cracked a smile. “Ships needing repairs this early was not expected,

  and the amount of people being folded into the UEF will soon overtax our

  47

  current housing abilities. We need to start expansion, just in case we do manage to win against the Zorn.” Alex looked at the fabrication suggestions from Kalibri. “Looks like I have to choose between building two great

  weapons or four decent weapons.”

  “Yeah, I was reading about that on the way home. I’ve gone over the com-

  plete list of weapon systems available. The Ion Beam weapon looks amazing.”

  “Yeah, current projection is a five-year build for that one.” Alex stood

  up from his chair and walked over to a small table in his office dedicated to

  all things coffee.

  “Yeah, I know. Still…”

  “We can build magnetic rail launchers, but we would have to stock

  ammunition, or we go with the pulse cannons, which are like huge versions

  of the new assault rifles.”

  “They use ammo too, don’t they?”

  “Yeah, round balls of capacitance. But we can store exponentially more

  of those then the rail rounds.”

  “Well, if you go with the launchers, you’re going to leave a couple of

  ships without weapons. Seems an easy choice to me.”

  “Yeah, but those weapons would be far more devastating to larger ships.”

  “Well…How about you build one launcher and two pulse cannons?

  Keep the launcher to take on the larger ships, and the cannons to take on

  the smaller ones.”

  Alex finished creating his cup of coffee and turned reaching for a spoon

  to stir in sugar. While his back was turned, Cindy reached out and took his

  cup, and sipped a bit of it. Alex heard the sip and turned around to see her

  wearing a huge grin. He made another cup for himself. “I like that idea, we

  might do that.”

  “Listen, it takes, what, a week to fabricate a decoupler like the one

  mounted on the Destiny?”

  “Yeah, about…why?”

  “If we get time once we finish with those weapons, we should create decou-

  plers until we run out of time and install them on everything that moves.”

  Alex smiled and pulled out his fabrication schedule, then handed it

  to her. When she finished reading it, she responded, “See, great minds do

  think alike.”

  48

  Alex glanced up at the door to see Zeek approaching with his

  laptop open.

  “You need to see this!” He set the laptop down on the desk. “Remem-

  ber that program you gave me from Kalibri, the one that hacks into every-

  thing? Well, with the recent attack, I wanted to see what it could find.

  The program didn’t take long to come up with a short list of communica-

  tions that took place recently. Encrypted emails and such.” Zeek glanced at

  Cindy. “Alex, it’s the President. He ordered the operation to steal our ship.”

  “You can go public with this!” Cindy sat down in a nearby chair as the

  revelation sank in.

  “No!” Alex snapped, startling the pair of them. “We air this right now,

  it will destabilize the country. We can’t do that on the eve of an attack. It

  will hurt us more than it will help us. For now, let’s keep this between the

  three of us. We can go public after the attack is over.”

  “Alex, your two PM is waiting for you!” Laura called out over the inter-

  com from her desk outside Alex’s office.

  “Oh, your two PM,” Zeek said in a sarcastic voice.

  “Yeah, a few people from SpaceX are super excited to participate.”

  Zeek moved his laptop to the conference room, where Alex planned on

  holding his next meeting. He rolled his eyes and figured Zeek could be in

  on whatever he wanted to be privy to.

  Alex opened his office door, and a dozen men and women, each repre-

  senting many more, stood eagerly, waiting for the meeting to begin, huge

  smiles on all their faces. Of all the meetings Alex has had, he felt this might be his favorite one yet. His phone rang in his pocket.

  49

  Chapter 4

  Fena and Stacy

  “I FORBID IT!”

  Fena’s father glared at her from across the dining room table. Her

  mother looked petrified, sitting beside her.

  “I taught you better than this. How can you go behind our back and do

  this?” Gabe continued, his voice echoing in the small room.

  “It’s my life. Besides, can’t you see what’s happening? The greatest thing

  to ever happen on this planet is here right now, and I want to be a part of

  it. All of my friends are applying too. Who knows if I’ll even get the job,

  so relax.”

  Jen reached out for her husband’s hand. “Perhaps we should talk about—”

  “No!” he snapped, then shot a dark look at his only daughter. “If all

  your friends jump off a bridge, you will too? Perhaps we should ban you

  from seeing your friends, since they are such a negative influence on you.”

  “Dad, I am an adult, and this is what I want to do.”

  “Not while you live under this roof! You will respect my wishes for as

  long as you live here. You’re not going, and that’s final!” The tendon under

  Gabe’s jaw ticked, a warning sign of his temper.

  “Hun control yourself!” Jen reached out and tightly squeezed

  his forearm.

  Fena slowly stood up, tears streaming down her face. She looked her father in the eye, her gaze like cold steel. She slowly turned toward her

  mother. It was the first time Fena truly felt sorry for her. With a fortitude

  she’d never felt before, she strode silently away from the table, towards her

  room and out of sight.

  Gabe put his fists on the table and looked his wife over, noting her

  displeasure and growing anger.

  “You keep treating her that way, and you’re going to drive her away for

  good. Don’t be pathetic.” Jen stood up, grabbing the few dirty dishes on the

  table and carrying them to the kitchen.

  “Well, I do what’s best for her. She can hate me all she wants in her

  bedroom. At least she’s still alive to hate me.” He looked down at his half-

  eaten plate of ham and potatoes. He tried to eat a bite but was still fuming

  over the argument. A noise in the hallway caught his attention. Fena walked

  towards the front door, a gym bag over her shoulder.

  Gabe stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over. He stumbled over

  one of the legs and managed to regain his balance, just in time to reach out

  and grab Fena’s left arm. She stopped just inside the front door.

  “You go out that door right now, don’t bother ever coming back,”

  he hissed.

  Fena slowly turned to look at her father, his chest heaving and his hand

  holding her in a grip like iron. “
Let go of me.”

  “No!” he shouted. A split-second later, a small, unassuming steak knife,

  held by Jen, hovered inches from his nose. Gabe stared at his wife in disbe-

  lief. “What the h—”

  “Now, you listen to me! Look at her! She’s going, and she might actu-

  ally never come back, you idiot. I will not allow you to interfere with me

  seeing my future grandchildren, just because you can’t hold your temper

  and let go. So, either drive her to where she needs to go, or sit your ass back down at the table!” Jen stared him in the eyes.

  Gabe stood, frozen, eyeing the knife just inches from his face. His eyes

  darted between the knife and Jen. Fena stood motionless, her mouth open.

  Her mother never acted this way.

  “Mom?” Fena said, almost not even realizing she said it.

  Jen turned to face her daughter, the steak knife by her side now that

  51

  her point was made. “Oh, honey, please contact me at least twice a week, I want to hear about all your adventures. Don’t leave out any details.”

  “I love you, Mom!”

  They hugged each other fiercely, eyes squeezed shut, feeling the warmth

  of the embrace, as though a lifetime of love could be shared in that one

  hug. Fena opened her eyes to look at her father, stiff as a statue and facing

  away from them.

  “C’mon, I’ll drive you.” Jen moved to grab a coat from the nearby closet.

  “No, Stace is outside by now, waiting for me. We were going in the

  morning, but under the circumstances, I think it’s best to leave now.”

  Jen glanced at Gabe. “I understand. If you ever need anything, let me

  know. Do you have enough money?”

  “Yeah, Mom, I’m fine.”

  Fena finally separated from her mother and looked to her father for

  one last time. The solid, disapproving expanse of his back looked strong

  and unmovable. She turned away from him and opened the front door. Her

  friend Stacy was in the driveway waiting for her, sitting in the driver’s seat of a barely functional Toyota Camry.

  Without looking back, Fena sat in the passenger seat and shut the door,

  the sting of the cold still lingering on her cheeks. She could have sworn she

  heard her mother’s voice as she closed the door, but she couldn’t be sure.

  “Your parents are okay with me spending the night?”

  “Why do you even bother asking? You know they love you.”

  The vehicle backed out into the quiet roadway and as it acceler-

  ated away, Fena thought she saw her father standing behind her mom in

  the doorway.

  “What did they say when you told them you got the position?” Stacy

  focused on the dark roadway.

  “They still don’t know… So, what else have you found out about it?”

  “Not much. I know that we’re in a class of thirty and orientation is

  going to take an entire day, that’s about it.”

  Fena turned her head and watched the stars in the night sky as they

  drove down the road.

  * * *

  52

  Fena sat in the middle of a barren room, Stacy a few yards forward in the front row. Everyone else was a mystery to her. It was day one of training,

  the day after orientation. The classroom held four rows of ten seats, with no

  desks, no screens, not even a clock, with the occupants sitting in assigned

  seats, waiting for the instructor to arrive. Fena looked at her watch. Who-

  ever it was, they were fifteen minutes late.

  At first, no one spoke. After a few minutes, the volume picked up. Fena

  looked to her left at a young man sitting there; he looked very familiar. She

  was about to ask him something, but he faced her with a stern look, and

  she kept her mouth shut. To her right was a petite woman, quiet and meek.

  She looked as though she’d never faced conflict in her life. The embodiment

  of innocence.

  All around her, conversations about the orientation, the UEF, some-

  times about specific people or events, brought the room to life.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” came a deep voice from behind.

  Fena and the man next to her both turned around to see who spoke.

  Fena made eye contact with a sculpted young man.

  “I ain’t talking to you.” The guy gave Fena a disgusted glance and

  looked towards the petite woman next to her. Leaning forward, he was

  inches away from her hair and took an exaggerated inhale. “Damn, you’re

  sexy. How about me and you get to know each other a little better? What’s

  your name?”

  The petite women glanced at Fena and sank down in her chair, focus-

  ing on the back of the chair in front of her with enlarged eyes.

  “She doesn’t appreciate the attention, leave her alone.” Fena locked eyes

  with the cute prick.

  “I’ll do whatever the hell I please.” He rested back in his chair with a

  smug look of arrogance. The room went nearly silent, the people turning to

  watch the confrontation building in the middle of the room.

  “How about you tell me your name, friend?” the man beside Fena said

  to the arrogant prick.

  Fena looked to the stern guy sitting next to her. His voice wasn’t as

  stern as his looks, but she was still not impressed.

  “Who the hell is asking?” The arrogant guy leaned forward, getting in

  the man’s face.

  53

  “Can’t you tell you’re bothering these people? Don’t you have respect for others? What’s your name, cowboy?” Fena’s neighbor stood up, turning

  to face the man.

  “I don’t have to answer to you. In fact, I’m in the mind of just shutting

  you the hell up.” The sculpted man stood up as well. He was barely taller

  than the man beside Fena, even accounting for the incline of the floor.

  Fena looked at her neighbor, but he was no longer standing next to her.

  He was making his way to the edge of the classroom, and the cute prick

  was doing the same. Fena rolled her eyes and rested back into her seat. She

  was all too familiar with this boyish behavior to even bother trying to get in between them. She looked at Stacy, who returned her gaze with wide eyes

  and a shrug.

  The stern guy was the first to reach the open area and stood there

  calmly, waiting for the other man to reach him. The cute prick exited his

  row and walked right up to the man’s face, his nose only a few inches from

  the other man’s.

  “What are you gonna do about it?”

  The stern guy turned around and walked away.

  “That’s right!” The prick smiled wide, happy his adversary was submit-

  ting without so much as a single punch being thrown. “Does anyone else

  here want to question me?”

  Fena was about to stand up, but the stern guy drew her attention out

  of the corner of her eye. He walked straight up to the small podium in the

  front of the room, picked up a walkie-talkie and mumbled something into

  it. Then said to the other man, “Do you mind telling me your name now?”

  The cute prick stood silent, confused, somewhere between panic

  and disbelief.

  “I’ll take your silence as a no.”

  Three security guards entered the room, their attention focused on the

  man at the podium. Fena looked at the man at the front of the room, and

  he simply pointed at the man s
tanding.

  The guards grabbed both of the man’s arms and began walking him out

  of the room.

  “Hey! Man, I’m sorry. I want to be here. It was a mistake!” he shouted,

  trying to wrestle his way out of the guards’ grip.

  54

  “Wait!” the man at the podium called, and the guards stopped dragging him, turning him to face the podium. The man at the podium walked

  around the lectern to watch the man being dragged away. “Steve, right?

  Steve, the UEF is not for people like you. Humble yourself and try again in

  seven years.” With a nod, the guards continued escorting Steve out of the

  UEF compound.

  The class looked straight ahead, shocked, and obviously unsettled

  and uncertain.

  “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Timmy, and I’ll be your

  flight instructor. I handpicked each of you from your applications. The

  hiring process is far from perfect, however, and we are not done weeding

  you out. Allow Steve to be your shining example of that fact.”

  Fena finally recognized him. She understood why she didn’t recognize

  him before, as he now sported heavy facial hair and a new haircut.

  “I chose you because you’re all quick on your feet, smart and scored

  high on the flight program. Never judge a book by its cover. We certainly

  don’t. The Theans are nothing more than blobs of neural and muscular net-

  works, yet they are far more advanced than we are.

  “With that in mind, this is not your classroom. Waiting is one method

  to expose someone’s true personality. You would be surprised at how much

  information you get out of a group of people who are waiting with each

  other. I didn’t think it would only take fifteen minutes; I expected to sit

  here for hours.”

  Stacy and a few others offered up slight chuckles.

  “Everyone, gather your belongings and follow me.” Timmy stepped

  down from the podium and walked out a door to the left.

  “Why seven years?” Timmy stopped in his tracks and everyone in the

  room turned to look at Fena.

  “Why give him another chance at all?”

  Fena waited patiently as she watched Timmy measure her up.

  “Have you ever done something you’re not proud of?”

  When Fena didn’t respond he followed, “Wouldn’t you like a second

  chance?” Timmy continued walking and the class followed.

  The room beyond was identical in size but was far from having barren