Neighbors

by Brian Whiting

  why keep it secret?”

  “While they were starting to understand the orb, during the attack, a

  Zorn Queen pod crashed down right next to them.”

  “Zorn Queen pod? You mean, like, ‘makes little offspring’, queen?”

  “Yeah.”

  Glancing at the people exiting the shack and heading over to him, the

  major looked at Cindy with a stern expression. “Keep this under wraps for

  now. We will talk later.”

  * * *

  “Listen, I’m going to be blunt with you. I hired you to be my assistant,

  but I kind of feel that you’re past that at this point. To be frank, Alex is at the point of boring me. I can read him like a book. There are bigger stories

  out there now, and I don’t want to have to spend my time documenting

  the UEF. I hereby name you solely responsible for all things UEF. You will

  cover my responsibilities, and I will focus on other world-picture stuff, like stories from outside the safe zones and whatever else takes my fancy. How

  does that sound to you?”

  “Sounds like I get more work with the same pay.”

  Renee smiled widely. “Yes, working for food isn’t exactly the best moti-

  vation when you already have—”

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  “No, really, I’ll take the job.” Jackie stood up from her chair and shook Renee’s hand.

  “Oh, good. Well, get to it; I’ve got other things to do.” Renee looked

  down at her desk and shuffled a few stacks of papers into a bin, then handed

  the bin to Jackie. “May interest you.”

  Jackie took the bin and left the office. She walked the ten feet across

  the hall into her own office and emptied the bin on her not-exactly-pristine

  desk. She began to sort the files into trash and interest.

  * * *

  His last directive from the previous President was to get the UEF to agree

  to transporting supplies. Drake was more than a little upset that his son was

  far from cooperative. Alex would change the meeting location at the last

  minute to places his father wasn’t familiar with, or transportation would

  oddly dry up just as he needed to get somewhere. Since the attack, Drake

  was the absolute definition of useless to Alex. Especially since General Gabe

  took office, Drake was unable to reach the government.

  He was no longer sure what he should be doing, or if he was still the

  official liaison to the UEF. His gut told him ‘no’, but he had no access to

  communication equipment that would reach the still-functioning govern-

  ment. Alex had access, of course, but wouldn’t let his own father use the

  equipment. He was even barred from the UEF vehicles. If he wanted to go

  somewhere, he either bummed a ride or walked.

  Drake found himself wandering around the Complex, pretending to

  be useful, but more often than not, he only earned concerned glances from

  those around him. It had been a long time since he felt so unwanted, not

  since his wife passed away. A majority of his wealth were in stocks, which

  were now useless. He had a few properties scattered around, but like most

  people, they were outside the safe zones, where lawlessness was rampant

  and access to supplies was unlikely. The odd feeling of having everything

  and yet nothing followed him like a bad shadow.

  Walking along the inner perimeter one afternoon, he watched as even

  more people arrived by vehicle to the outer perimeter of the Complex.

  The people made that part of the barren landscape home, and they clearly

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  decided that making a tent city with vehicles was a better option than being wherever they came from.

  He saw an opportunity. It was time to recreate himself, and now he

  knew where to do it. Pocketing his UEF name tag, he walked over to the

  nearest gate control tower area and exited the perimeter, a smile forming

  on his face.

  227

  Chapter 20

  Emergence

  IT WAS NEARLY two years since the attack.

  Several governments of the old world no longer existed, and new ter-

  ritorial boundaries were in constant dispute. The UEF set up assistance

  centers all over the world to help provide for people in need—and paid

  little attention to boundary lines while doing it. Most functioning coun-

  tries gave them complete access to their territories, and the UEF became

  the effort for global unity. The United States of America, while still strong

  in comparison to other countries, was no longer the forgone global leader

  of the world. A couple of the smaller gangland countries were so lawless

  and chaotic, the UEF staked a flag and claimed the territories. The way

  Alex saw it was if the countries were not even making a concerted effort to

  stop the lawlessness in their own borders, they didn’t deserve the country

  any longer. Many functioning countries resisted this effort, but in the end,

  their citizens didn’t see the UEF claiming lawless territories as something

  worth fighting about.

  The UEF had now officially claimed territory in all corners of the Earth.

  A separate council within the UEF was hard at work establishing laws for

  its territories. Alex made their job harder when he advised them to con-

  sider the laws to apply to new territories for outposts on newly discovered

  planets, potential alien species as members, and galactic diplomacy considerations, among other things.

  Alex was concerned about all of these things, but his eye was on the

  newest ship built inside the orbital shipyard. The council let him name the

  ship, and he chose the UEF Enterprise. He felt it was a perfect name, considering the literal and fictional history of the ship. When the name went

  public, many imagined what there was to accomplish out in space.

  As far as the ship went, Alex wished it resembled the fictitious design. It

  was nowhere near that streamlined. In fact, it looked a lot like an elongated

  tube-like flat rectangle. The color of the metal on the outer hull didn’t even match completely due to the materials fed into the fabricators. In the end,

  he cared little about what it looked like and more about what it would do.

  * * *

  Alex stood in front of a mirror in his cabin. Attached to the mirror was a

  picture of Amanda, and he lingered on the picture for several moments.

  She was wearing her UEF uniform, sitting next to a microscope on a table.

  “Captain, we are approaching Thean space. Please report to the bridge.”

  Alex washed his face with the cool water and dried it off with a towel.

  Placing the towel over a nearby chair, he left the room. As he approached

  the bridge, he appreciated the many improvements in the ship design,

  evident everywhere he looked. Bulkhead separations were only noticeable

  because of the caution displays placed either side of the divide, visible only during a status alert of some kind. The lighting was infused with many of

  the observable materials, while polished silver handrails followed the floor,

  wall and ceiling, for use when the artificial gravity was turned off.

  Active touch display screens were visible on every wall. Many were

  blank or provided general information unless in use. Every corridor had

  hidden emergency EVA suit lockers, not suitable for long-term exposure to

  space, but usable in an emergency. Two reactors pow
ered the many electri-

  cal systems of the ship, including four forward-facing pulse cannons, mis-

  sile launchers, two modified thirty-millimeter miniguns on fully rotatable

  turrets, six enhanced decouplers—one facing each direction of the ship—

  and two newly-designed cargo shuttles.

  The ship was seven hundred meters long and one hundred and twenty

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  meters wide. This made for a lot of interior space. It certainly helped construction that most of the interior rooms were large and spacious. A lot

  of the area contained cargo, which included bulldozers, excavators, heli-

  copters, shuttles, ATVs, SUVs, MREs, containers filled with water, oil,

  gas and various other commodities, appliances and all the facilities a small

  city might need. The crew was relatively small; sixty security personnel and

  about eighty other crewmen and scientists.

  Alex placed his hand on a small black pad next to the door for admis-

  sion and entered a small room on the command deck of the ship.

  “How goes it?”

  The only crewman in the room looked at him. “It’s like trying to under-

  stand the language of birds, sir. This is pointless.”

  “Certainly. You’ve identified different…kinds of birds, right?”

  “I’d say I’ve detected about a dozen different signal types. That could

  mean twelve different species, or one species with a complex send and

  receive system. I can’t even tell that much, let alone what they might be

  saying to each other.”

  “Keep at it.”

  “Yes, sir,” the crewman responded without enthusiasm.

  Alex left the smaller room and continued onto the bridge. The first

  thing Alex noticed upon entering was the large grey marble on the views-

  creen, and a star behind it that had hints of blue amongst its color. The next thing he noticed was the complete silence.

  “What’s the situation here?” Alex asked, walking to his command chair.

  “Sir… There is evidence of heavy Zorn activity.”

  The viewscreen zoomed in on an object ascending from the surface. It

  was clearly a Zorn destroyer.

  Alex opened his mouth to give the order for combat stations, but the

  Zorn ship accelerated rapidly and disappeared. “Where is it going?” he

  asked the room.

  “Based on its last heading, it’s moving in the same direction as the Zorn

  fleet that evacuated Earth, towards the center of the galaxy.”

  The telescope focused on the planetary point of origin. The image was

  a bit blurry due to the atmosphere, but anyone could tell the Zorn were

  building the ships from the ground up, like cones pointing to the sky.

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  “Send the prepared Kalibri message and transmit it to the planet.”

  “Sir, that was only to be used if the Theans were alive and available to

  help us.”

  “Perhaps they still are. Send the message.”

  The communication officer tapped his display a few times and the sec-

  onds ticked by.

  “There are no other ships in the system?” Alex asked in disbelief.

  “None, sir. The system is devoid of activity. An asteroid belt out at the

  outer orbit, much like at ours, three planets. One is a gas giant, a frozen

  ball, and the Thean homeworld.”

  “I am getting a response to our message! It’s in text.” The communica-

  tion officer took in a deep breath as he prepared to read the message aloud.

  Welcome, guests from Earth. My

  name is 11456. I am the 11456th

  surviving life form of the Zorn

  invasion. Your message has caused

  much conversation among the

  survivors. It was of great surprise

  to learn that Kalibri and his crew

  survived their encounter with the

  Zorn. We appreciate your desire to

  enter into an alliance with Thean

  society. Unfortunately, there are

  no known surviving members of

  the Thean biological race. Only we

  digiforms remain.

  The invasion occurred 432 of your

  days ago. The Zorn have colonized

  much of the surface. When this

  message is sent by my kernel, it will

  be located and destroyed, along

  with the transmitter. There will be

  26 remaining transmitters, so we

  ask that you limit the responses you

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  may or may not require. We await

  your response.

  “I’d like to hear opinions on the situation,” Alex said to the air as sev-

  eral ideas occurred to him.

  “Sir, there’s nothing here for us. Time to go.”

  “Maybe there’s a way we can save the digiforms. If we can, we should

  explore the possibility…sir.”

  “Okay, so let’s talk about saving the digiforms. Obviously, we will

  need more information. How do we get that information while limit-

  ing conversation?”

  “Our next message should include our ideas and methods of retriev-

  ing the digiforms and all possible information relating to those ideas for

  their review.”

  “I like it. Any other suggestions?”

  “Sir, if it were me being rescued by an unknown alien race, I’d have

  some serious concerns. Like, would I retain my freedom, what would my

  life look like after rescue, things like that. I suggest you assume that is a

  concern now. To save lives and transmitters, send that kind of information

  as well.”

  “That’s a bit premature, don’t you think?” Alex looked towards Fena.

  “Every message they have to send is another death and another trans-

  mitter lost. Also, they are digital life forms that don’t operate on emotion,

  they think logically. I think they would appreciate that we sent this infor-

  mation and value their lives.”

  “I really don’t see the harm of sending that information as well. We just

  need to think about what kind of life can provide for them.”

  “Would you let them retain control of ships? Act like Mimi does on the

  Destiny? Or put them on a shelf in a room somewhere?”

  “Good points. We should include that we are willing to… consider

  those and other suggestions they may have.” Alex looked around the bridge

  and waited for further suggestions. There were none.

  “Send the message.” Alex looked at the communication officer who

  was busy typing furiously on his display screen as he typed out an elaborate

  message. Alex watched the message grow on his screen as the comms officer

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  typed it out. Occasionally, Alex would have the comms officer make a small change in the wording. It was another five minutes before the comms officer sent the message.

  “I can only imagine what they are talking about,” Alex wondered.

  “We can’t trust them.” Selma raised an eyebrow. “They are inferior.”

  Alex turned to look at Selma, surprised.

  “They stink,” Fena added.

  Everyone on the bridge turned and looked at Fena. She cringed and

  quickly glanced at the sensor operator right next to her.

  “So, they can smell?” Alex asked with a slight grin.

  “No, sir, of course not.”

  “Reply!” the comm officer said, eager to change the conversation.

  Greetings. My name is 11465. We

/>   have considered your most kind

  offer. 10989 of us would like to

  explore that possibility. We have

  reviewed the information you sent

  us, and we have calculated chances

  of a successful rescue.

  There are numerous locations

  across the planet where our tanks

  are located. In order to remove our

  connection to the global system, we

  will have to activate all tanks and

  separate individuals. This will alert

  our precise location to the Zorn.

  Many will die while few are saved. It

  is a sacrifice we are willing to make.

  The location of our largest kernel

  deposit is here.

  An image appeared with a pin to a location on the surface, with

  visual instruction on how to navigate to the kernel room within the mas-

  sive structure.

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  This location will require the most

  extraction time due to the size of the

  tanks and your limited abilities to

  travel. However, it will also expose

  your people to the most risk. We

  suggest this as the primary location.

  Another image appeared on the next page, it was a different location.

  It has half the number of kernels as

  the first one. However, you should be

  able to land your ship on the surface

  and quickly move the tanks inside.

  This location is far safer to you.

  There are a few kernels unretrievable

  due to their location; we have not

  been able to make contact with them

  due to the loss of power. Send us a

  message indicating which location

  you choose to commit to. Any other

  kernel locations are few and far

  between, and will likely be destroyed

  before any subsequent rescue

  attempt can be made.

  More images followed to include all known locations of digiform ker-

  nels and the difficulties of reaching those locations.

  Alex opened ship-wide communication on his console. “Staff meeting,

  ASAP.”

  * * *

  The following all occurred in less than a minute.

  (9756) Receiving message from the UEF Enterprise.

  (4986) Running new probabilities.

  (10111) The humans do not value their lives the way we do. We should

  reconsider allowing ourselves to be subjected to them. They will not value