by N. I. Snow
Smoothing back his hair, Jonah walked up to the clerk and leaned against the desk. “I'm here for my eleven o'clock appointment.”
The woman pushed her blonde bangs away from her smooth face and looked up at Jonah revealing light blue eyes. “Is that so? I thought it was at twelve, Mister Sholtal.”
Emma turned and rolled her eyes as Jonah continued, “Well I thought it would be nice to get out a bit earlier.”
“I see.” The woman looked past Jonah and stared at Emma. “Is this little Emma I see hiding back there?'
Emma turned and put on a fake smile. “Hello, Shalinda, long time no see.”
Shalinda appeared to be surveying Emma's choice of clothing, a black vest with a white shirt underneath, and a pair of torn dark blue jeans, “We need to take you out shopping.”
Emma folded her arms. “I'm fine with these.”
“Tell you what, this weekend we're going out shopping,” persisted Shalinda.
Emma looked into Shalinda's cool eyes. It must be just as hard for her to be nice, Emma thought. No doubt Jonah talked to her about it as he had her. Okay, for Jonah.“Fine, but I'll go to my stores, not,” as Emma scanned the blue dress and high heels Shalinda wore, “yours.”
“Whatever, as long as we can have our girl-to-girl bonding.” Shalinda smiled sweetly at Jonah. “I promised Jonah we would,” she looked back at Emma. “Who knows maybe we'll become best friends.”
When I drop dead, thought Emma, but she smiled and replied, “Maybe.” Oh, what a day this is going to be.
Had Emma actually known just how bad the day would become she could have had Jonah fly the relic off planet then and there. Things never work out that way though. Emma and Jonah waited for Shalinda to finish her work before leading the fastidious clerk out to the hovercar. With Shalinda on board Emma was forced to sit in the backseat and listen to her and Jonah flirt. Honestly she didn't see what Jonah saw in Shalinda.
Jonah, face beaming, flew the hovercar to the restaurant without a care in the world. Emma on the other had kept looking up at the midday sky as if she sensed the cloaked ship that was hovering above Earth.
Zaharak sat quietly in the pilot's chair, his golden eyes tracing through each city in the Western Quadrant. Despite his now familiarity with the planet, neither his reconnaissance nor his instruments had pinpointed the relic's exact location. It was hiding itself well, which meant the information stored inside had to be invaluable. Zaharak's prices were rising, but his first two months above the city-infested planet had been more than enough for him. He had memorized the humans' non-changing habits in less than a week. Constant flow of hovercrafts flooded the airways as humans went about their routines. Occasional vessels shot out of Earth's atmosphere to resorts on nearby planets or out of system to visit the outskirts of neighboring star systems. Nothing stood out.
When he first arrived, he had conducted a small reconnaissance mission by landing undetected at the center of one of the large cities in the Western Quadrant, Thaopian the humans called it. Weaving through the shadows of alleyways between buildings, Zaharak had been reminded all too well of the mazes on Tazal.
Within the shadows of the alleyways or inside abandoned shops Zaharak would ambush unsuspecting human crime lords or law enforcers. He would interrogate them to the extent of their physical endurance. When they did not talk at the sight of his scale-covered snout, they would scream and plead for mercy as he cut them apart limb by limb. He never left with answers or his victims with their lives. When his interrogations proved to be fruitless, he went above planet, where he was now hovering, to observe the humans like a vulture waiting to feed.
These last two months completed a year since Lutianist discovered the relic on planet Earth and Salianos ordered an invasion and, yes, he had as all the Elders anticipated, found out about the whole thing. Now he was ready to carry out his plan in full, but he needed the Tazalian armies to be present before following through. If he were to go in now to carry out his mission before their arrival, his presence would stand out and he would alert whoever had the relic, giving them a chance to hide it even better. This did not bother Zaharak, but it would only make his mission longer than it needed to be. Therefore he waited patiently, ready.
Emma, Jonah, and Shalinda walked out of a holoshow theater. The holoshows allowed viewers to enjoy the stories through the eyes of different characters, and Jonah talked nonstop about the hero's courageous acts, having chosen to view the show from the hero's perspective. Jonah retold how the hero was able to go in and defeat the villain with no fear and how he blasted enemies and, and… Shalinda was the only one really listening to Jonah. She nodded and agreed with him fully, like she always did. Emma on the other hand had chosen to view the show from the villain's perspective. For her the show had a more somber, less heroic and happy feel to it. The villain had lost everything—his family, home, and in the end his life. Hatred and loss corrupted him into doing cruel things. It didn't seem fair that the hero was loved more.
The group walked back to the car with Jonah still talking about the movie. When Emma reached to open the rear passenger door, Jonah stopped her and winked. Emma tried her best to smile and she gave Jonah a thumbs-up before getting in the car. Closing the door, she leaned back in the seat and watched through her window as Jonah knelt down on one knee and grabbed Shalinda's hand. She could tell that Jonah was struggling to form the right words but in the end he got the right effect. Shalinda held her free hand to her mouth. Tears formed in her eyes.
After a series of nods and tears, Jonah stood up and hugged Shalinda tightly, kissing her. Emma gagged. Did they forget she was there? Soon the newly engaged couple broke apart and got into the car, both grinning like lunatics. As Jonah flew the hovercar into one of the air lanes above, Shalinda gave Emma a cold smile.
“Looks like we're going to be sisters, Emma.”
Emma matched Shalinda's smile, “Wonderful, now we can share secrets.”
Jonah took Emma's false quaintness too seriously and looked at her with disbelief. “Not all secrets, right?”
Emma rolled her eyes, Really, Jonah? “I won't tell her how you used to sleep with a teddy bear named Mr. Snuffly when you were eleven. Oops!” Emma clamped a hand on her mouth and widened her eyes with false horror.
Shalinda looked at Jonah with a raised brow. “Oh really?”
Jonah shook his head. “I was eight.”
“He even cried when mom tried to throw it in the incinerator.”
Jonah stammered, “I did not.”
Emma smiled and leaned forward in her seat. “Now, if you don't mind, can you take me home, Jonah?”
Jonah looked at the HUD on the front window, “It's only nineteen hundred hours.”
Shalinda hid a sneer, “Bedtime already?”
Emma shrugged. “Oh, no. I have an essay due for Academy quantum physics tomorrow,” Emma lied. She had already completed the essay; she just couldn't stand being around the two newly engaged for much longer.
Shalinda gaped at her like a fish out of water, “Only students in their seventh year of the Academy can take that class.”
“I already passed the prerequisite for the class last quarter,” Emma replied.
Shalinda looked at Jonah, who nodded, “My sister, the brainchild.”
Emma folded her arms across her chest with pride gleaming in her gray eyes. Once again she managed to hurt Shalinda's ego without even trying. Her victory was short lived, however, as a fiery streak hit a hovercar in front of them. Yelling with surprise, Jonah quickly maneuvered his car out of the way narrowly missing the flaming wreckage.
Gasping for air, Jonah looked quickly from girl to girl, “Both of you ok?”
Shalinda nodded her eyes wide, “I'm fine.”
“Emma?” Jonah looked back at his little sister.
Emma didn't hear him. For the sixth time that day her eyes were at the sky. Only this time it was occupied. Enormous warships filled the sky firing shots down towards the city. Small jet-siz
ed ships flew around the vessels like soldier bees around a hive, ready to ward off any attack on the ship. Those ships could mean only one thing. An invasion!
As the Tazalian warships shot down hovercars and tore holes into buildings, on the bridge of the main warship, Salianos smiled. He had left Tazal to personally oversee the invasion unfold, and the Tazalian army had entered the Sol system not more than an hour ago. When they neared Earth, he gave the order to the warships to only fire warning shots to alert the humans, just enough to create some limited damage and a few deaths. He wanted to give the humans the chance to surrender with minimum casualties.
He halted the barrage with a quick gesture of a blue-scaled hand. The silence that followed was deafening as the warships fell quiet. Salianos walked to the middle of the oval bridge and stood in the front of a holoscreen.
“Open transmissions with each Quadrant's makota,” he told a communications technician behind him.
The holoscreen flashed to life revealing four separate images. On the top right corner was a dark-skinned man who could barely contain his anger. On the top left was a stern-faced woman whose eyes betrayed her fear. The bottom right revealed an elderly man, who could have been Lutianist's twin had he been a Tazalian. The other image was another female that looked ready to cry. However when they saw Salianos, they all showed signs of surprise and fear.
“Who are you?” demanded the dark-skinned man, his brown eyes smoldering with rage.
“‘What’ seems to be the better question,” noted the elderly man.
Salianos understood their language perfectly and spoke to them in it. “My name is Salianos, High Elder of Tazal,” his calm, raspy voice was polite. “I am pleased to see that all four of you have answered my transmission.”
The stern woman snorted, “Not that you've given us much choice. Who are you to request a conference and then attack innocent people?”
“I find that cooperation becomes much easier when force is shown.” Salianos gave them a fang-filled smile.
All of them stiffened and the dark man spoke, “What is it that you want, Salianos?”
“Cooperation. You surrender your planet to my control, and I let your people live. The only casualties you will have are those that have happened just now.”
Without conversing with the others, the grim-faced, elderly man spoke, “We do not deal with terrorist threats. You can take your slimy, scaly hide out of our system.”
“I was hoping you would say that.” Salianos’s grin grew darker and he motioned for the transmission to be cut off. He spoke to the tech, “Open a transmission to every holoscreen on Earth.”
Jonah’s hovercar still floated in the spot he had swerved to. He was stunned at what he was seeing. Heart pounding he flew towards the roof of a nearby building. Landing, he ran a hand through his hair, mind whirling. Suddenly the HUD on the front window flickered, and a blue-scaled lizard-like face appeared. Its violet eyes seemed to bore through Jonah's spirit. As its thin, raspy voice spoke, the world seemed to end.
“Humans I bring you grave news. Your government has failed to meet our demands. You have all been condemned to death by those that have once led you. We will obliterate your cities, that is, unless your leaders call for a surrender.” The transmission cut off and all three now watched anxiously as the smaller alien ships began to fly towards the city.
If there was a hell, it broke loose. The small alien fighters began shooting down hovercars left and right, while the larger warships began destroying buildings. Down below people ran screaming as car and building debris fell from the sky. Bridges were destroyed underfoot with pedestrians falling to their deaths. It was not a sight survivors, if any, would soon forget.
When the first wave of the alien fighters passed, a retaliation was made by human fighter jets. They flew towards the alien crafts firing missiles that tore through the enemy fighters. Human dropships flew towards the roofs of buildings and bridges, deploying heavily armed soldiers, who used homing rockets to shoot down passing alien crafts as explosions erupted all around them.
The Tazalians answered sending in an armed force of their own. Alien dropships landed on the bridges and at the bases of buildings. Scores of armored Tazalians leapt out of the ships and began plowing down any human in sight, soldier or otherwise. And, Neapolthia was not the only city experiencing a horrific massacre. All around Earth, cities burned with the flames of invasion.
“Jonah, get us out of here,” cried Shalinda gripping tightly to her seat. She was the first of the three to react to the horrifying sight.
Jonah nodded numbly, “Yeah.”
Jonah flew the hovercar into the air and hurried it to an area that was not being attacked as heavily. Emma yelled at him, “Wait, Jonah, turn back!”
“Are you crazy?” shrieked Shalinda. “What for?”
“I have to grab something from my apartment,” Emma replied as calmly as possible.
“I think your homework can wait,” Shalinda retorted, her eyes wide at the mayhem going on around them.
“Not that,” Emma gripped Jonah's shoulder. “We both know what these creatures really want, and we've got to guard it. Right, Jonah?”
Jonah stared at the carnage around them, tempted to just rush for freedom; but a voice reminded him, “We have entrusted the relic to you Jonah; guard it well.”
Jonah nodded and flipped the car around, “Right.”
Shalinda's eyes widened even more, “You're going to get us killed,” she yelled as Jonah weaved through enemy and ally jets, nearly getting hit by shots fired from both forces. “Jonah, if you don't turn around, I'll scream.” And she did only to be shut up by a sharp slap to the head from Emma.
Emma’s voice was dry as she snapped, “I can hardly stand your voice, so do that again and I'll knock you out.”
Shalinda glared at Emma but kept her mouth shut. Jonah said nothing. Although distressed about the conflict between his fiancé and his sister, his focus had to remain on piloting while he broke many traffic laws as he sped toward his home. Upon arrival, they saw that the apartment complex had yet to be touched by the attack. Once the car was parked on the vacant balcony of the apartment, he and Emma jumped out of the car. Shalinda hesitated, debating whether to stay or get out.
They hurried through the empty apartment, each silently wondering where their parents might be. Arriving at Emma's bedroom, which had gone from being princess like when they hid the relic to having the décor of a rock star now, they moved directly to the relic’s hiding place. Emma opened the panel to the secret number pad. As she finished entering her pass code and the second panel slid open, Shalinda appeared in the doorway.
“What is that?” she asked not looking at the long-dead princess dolls, but the pyramid-shaped relic which had opened up to reveal a blue orb in its center.
Jonah grabbed the relic, curious as to why it was open, “Something dangerous.” He looked curiously at the object. “Emma, it wasn't like this before.”
Emma hurriedly grabbed a shoulder bag off a chair near at her desk covered with holotablets. Emptying the contents of the bag onto the floor, she responded saying in a similarly perplexed tone, “No, it wasn't. Do you think it opened to tell them where to find it?”
Jonah shut the relic and he put it in the satchel, shoved all the way to the bottom. I don’t know, he remarked, “and I don't want to hang around and find out.” Shouldering the bag, he said, “Let's go.”
As they were about to leave the room, an explosion caused them to fall down. Quickly getting up, Emma opened the door and stepped out into the living room or what was left of it. Jonah walked out and gazed at the destruction. Half of the living room was a mass of twisted wood and metal. The kitchen and balcony were completely obliterated, his hovercar along with them. They had no transportation out of the city.
Turning to Emma, he said, “We’ll take the elevator and steal a car, if there are any left.”
Shalinda stepped out into the room as Emma said, “Elevators would
be a bad idea right now. Either we'll get stranded in one like a sitting kletziquel, or we'll be blown to kingdom come.
“Then what?” asked Shalinda slapping both arms against her body.
“We take the stairs,” Emma answered smoothly.
“You're joking, right? We're on the 311th floor. The entire building would be destroyed before we even reach the bottom.”
“We'll make it,” said Jonah walking over to the apartment doors.
Emma was the first to follow Jonah, the exasperated Shalinda was slow to follow suit. Out in the hall they found that one of the neighboring apartments had been destroyed completely, which didn't improve Shalinda's mood. Jonah led them to the entrance of the stairwell, which for the most was still intact. A few of the stairs above them had collapsed, but they could still descend. Slowly they began their escape from the building, explosions ringing dangerously close by.
Now was the time. As the Tazalians made their way through the city of Quarntice, so did Zaharak. He wore his normal attire plus the addition of a long, metal brace lined with various buttons on his left arm. He was not heavily armed like the Tazalian soldiers. The only apparent weapons he had on him were his plasma pistol tucked in a pocket of his jacket and a small knife hidden in the lining of his right boot. Keeping to the shadows, he watched as humans and Tazalians slew one another. In one of the alleyways Zaharak stopped by a wounded Tazalian soldier and stooped down by him.
The soldier's red eyes widened at the sight of the Seeker, “Zaharak!”
Before the wounded creature could speak anymore, Zaharak sliced his throat open with a claw. As the blue liquid spilled out of the gasping creature's throat, Zaharak removed his jacket, revealing three jagged scars along his back as well as a thick one on his chest. He splashed the blood onto ragged article of clothing. Putting the jacket back on, he then filled one hand with the now-dead soldier's blood and smeared it across his bare chest and muzzle. Then he walked away from the corpse with no remorse for the creature it had once been.