by A. J. Allan
“Acknowledged,” a woman’s voice stated. Seconds later, it spoke again.
“The name Jenna Irons has been chosen.”
So it was. Irons looked strangely disappointed, but none of the other soldiers fought the decision. Mostly, they stared at the ground. Kowalski snorted and crossed his arms. Andrews, for a millisecond, showed a half-smile, but it vanished so quickly Lopez didn’t know if he’d seen it or imagined it.
“Irons and I will pilot this ship as close as we can,” Lt. Andrews said. “Once we are within boarding range, it will be on Irons to get the Eagle back to Earth safely. She will deploy us to the enemy ship, and we will all ideally be within close proximity of each other upon impact. We rendezvous as quickly as we can inside, make our way to the engines, disable them, destroy the ship somehow, and then, if we can, we evacuate. But I don’t want anyone thinking about doing anything other than destroying that ship. Clear?”
“Clear,” a unified voice stated.
“Good,” Lt. Andrews said. He took a deep breath, looking more weary than even in the last few hours. “I am sorry that I have to ask this of you. It is always my goal to get each and every one of you home safe. But frankly, there won’t be a home for humanity to take back unless we do this. I know right now, humanity may not seem like it’s worth saving, between this bullshit of BPs and the UGM and what not. But even though our species makes a lot of mistakes, we also do a lot of good, and all it takes is one person to create the catalyst for doing good. I have faith that all of you will be the one to do that good in some way, and so it is that I can say it is the highest honor to fight alongside all of you.”
He saluted, and the men saluted back.
“Now, we still have a little over twenty minutes before impact. I suggest taking a nap, writing a note, or doing something. Because once twenty minutes has passed, its time to fight to the death. Literally.”
The crew dispersed. Li started talking to himself as he looked at the ceiling, walking away. Kowalksi stared at the glass, looking out at space, perhaps thinking of alien scum to kill. Lake started humming a song that Lopez recognized as by Lady Gaga, though he couldn’t place the name. She found a terminal with a keyboard and started typing. Abayomi just stared into space, albeit with more sorrow than fury compared to Kowalski.
Lopez watched Irons. How would she process the last half-hour of events? From the high of engagement to the low of being pried away from her man making his last stand? To now knowing she might have to witness her uncle and all of her friends die while she might live? What kind of survival was that?
After a minute, Irons stood up and walked down the ramp. She returned to the spot where she had left Lopez. Lopez followed down and put a hand on her shoulder.
“You know what, Mav,” she said, her voice calm. “I think I’m ready to see some alien scum blown to pieces.”
45
The girl with the soulful brown eyes, long black hair, and thick Australian accent still had those very features. But now she carried a different air about her. It was not the grief-stricken sadness that affected her on her watch last night or the shock that had overtaken her minutes ago. She still carried the weight of the soul of Jordan and the memories of his injuries and death.
But she had also found the muscle and fortitude to carry that in a way that she had not before. The Irons before could shit talk and laugh and taunt, but Lopez had always found himself wondering how much of her was showboating versus genuine toughness. The woman standing before him now, though, with her arms by her side and her lips taut, left no question about that.
“It’s been a crazy couple of days for you, huh?” Lopez said.
“Without question,” Irons said. “And it hurts that I’ll never see Jordan again. Never kiss him again. Never tell him I love him again. And, well, now I have to face the fact that maybe you’ll die. No, not maybe. Most likely. You, Uncle Buck, all of these guys. Some of whom I know like a best friend like you, and some whom I barely know like Firestone. It’s tough. Of course it’s tough. But I know what it’s like now. I know what we have to do. I’m ready.”
Hardened. Tough. But she still has that playful, soft side to her. It’s just got the shell of war around it now.
“I am too,” Lopez said. “But, I need to say this. I intend to come back. I’m not dying on that ship. I’m going to blow up that fucker, come back, and make a difference. I got too much I want to do.”
“Like what?”
Lopez smiled.
“I gotta get the Pence Protocol fixed. I gotta save Earth. I gotta wipe out the xenoroaches. I gotta run to TRAPPIST-1 and give our government and the UGM leadership a piece of my mind. But there’s one thing I desperately need to do that I haven’t gotten the chance yet.”
“What’s that?” Irons asked curiously.
Lopez couldn’t help himself. He just laughed at what he was about to say.
“Mav, what are you laughing at?”
Finally, Lopez got a hold of himself.
“I’m going to take you back to Lake Yellowstone and I’m going to kick your ass and beat you so fast in that pond that you’re not even going to realize you’re wet before I finish.”
Irons’ eyes lit up. Her eyebrows scrunched. The competitive fire that had defined her, and their friendship, roared back and she playfully punched him.
“I’m going to beat you so bad they’re going to have to call 911 on you, get the police and the fire department, this guy’s suffering from some pretty serious burns!”
“Oh, is that how it is? OK, well, you better call the nearby BBQ joint cuz you’re about to get roasted!”
“Oh, snap, Mav, you’re a real big shit talker,” Irons said, and soon, the two were trading insults and snark like they were back on leave, just two young adults, bantering as friends do, as humans had done for hundreds of years before then.
The world changed. Technology evolved. The locale shifted. Culture morphed. But humanity did not.
If Lopez could not fight for the UGM, or human society, or even Earth, he would fight for Irons.
Finally, their bantering ended when Irons threw down the gauntlet.
“By the way, you still haven’t taken up latrine duty for me.”
“You motherfucker,” Lopez said, drawing a short laugh. “Wanna make it double or nothing?”
“Hmm,” Irons said. “You like to go hard. I can accept that. OK, deal. What’s the deal?”
Lopez didn’t even blink when he offered the challenge to her.
“When I get off that alien vessel, if I swim to shore before you get me, I don’t have to do latrine duty for you ever again and you have to clean my quarters for at least a week,” he said. “But if you manage to get me, then I’ll do the next week of latrine duty punishment.”
“And anytime my uncle yells at me, you have to stand in line for me and take it.”
“Oh, you’re cold. Deal.”
The two shook hands, each one trying to break the others’ grip.
“I hope you like the smell of men’s underwear and dirty sweat, because I’m gonna leave my quarters so dirty you’ll rather sniff xenoroach vomit.”
“I can’t wait to leave the bathrooms an utter mess for you, Lopez. You think men are dirty and women are clean? You have no idea what you just got yourself into.”
The two laughed and then it slowly died down.
“You know, Irons, I don’t think I could ask for anyone better as a best friend,” Lopez said. “You’ve helped me through some shit times, known when to comfort me and when to kick my ass to get out of those times. You’ve supported me, even at the expense of your relationships at times, and you’ve made me laugh so many times I got six-pack abs from straining so much. I can’t ever thank you enough.”
“Aww, Mav, the same is true here,” she said, the soft inside showing through briefly. “I don’t know what I would do without you. I’ve never had any doubt about if I can turn to you for support or not. I’m sorry I’m not going with you here—�
�
“Don’t,” Lopez said. “It honestly works for the best. You’re the best pilot not named Andrews here. Even if I found out later it wasn’t random, I couldn’t care less. God forbid we all fall, I want you to carry on our legacy. You are the hub that connects this squad together, between your uncle, Jordan, myself, and the rest. You have seen it all, and you’ve fought through it all.”
Irons hugged Lopez. Lopez kissed her on the top of the forehead, and squeezed her tightly to his chest. He couldn’t imagine a world without her. He couldn’t imagine a life without her. The true reason, he knew, he was happy she got picked was that her chances of dying on the Eagle were significantly less than in boarding the xenoroach ship. If he could not live, at least Irons would.
“But, I do have to say,” Lopez said. “You’re not going to fight through my victory at Lake Yellowstone.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Mav,” Irons said, shoving him as the two laughed.
The two fell to the floor, wrestling, giggling, briefly forgetting that death and isolation awaited them in just a few minutes. For the moment, they were just two best friends, doing what they had done at five years old, now in their twenties, both enjoying the present and recalling the past.
46
After their laughing had ended, the two agreed to rest as much as they could before their impending battle. The two fell asleep slumped against the wall, Irons resting her head on Lopez’s shoulder. Had Lopez not known better, he would have assumed they’d finished a night of heavy drinking and were resting peacefully in the wall of their quarters, a sight pleasant to both the two of them and to senior leadership, albeit for very different reasons.
He woke slowly as the engines slowed down, the ship’s deceleration bringing him back to life.
“Attention, crew members of the Eagle,” the voice of Lt. Andrews boomed through the ship. The dingy, rusty, dark-blue and black floor paneling, ramps, and pipes of the ship brought Lopez back to reality. Still, mentally, the reality was somehow better than it was just fifteen minutes ago.
“In one minute, we begin engagement with the enemy ship,” he said. “I would advise all of you to head to your BVs now, because I do not know how much damage this ship will sustain before Private Irons will have to discharge us.”
He paused, a heavy breath coming through.
“I am proud to have served as your lieutenant and to get the opportunity to do so on one more mission,” he said. “May God have mercy on us all, and may fortune favor us.”
Footsteps clattered all around. Kowalski, Abayomi, Li, and Lake all headed for their vessels. Irons went upstairs. Lopez, wanting just a couple more minutes with her, joined her.
From the cockpit, the alien ship, with its three smaller orbiting ships, appeared just beyond the crest of the Earth. It straddled the boundary between night and day, moving along the line, always remaining in the shadow of the Earth.
“It’s majestic in its own sort of way,” Lt. Andrews said. “The neagala never had anything like this. They had ships of metal and iron like we did. But this thing… it’s alive. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He then chuckled wearily.
“And goddamn if I ever see another one after today.”
Something shot out from it. Space pollen.
“They’re coming,” Irons said, girding herself.
“Those things worked because they got past the electromagnetic barriers so easily on the other ships,” Lt. Andrews said. “This sucker’s got so much protection, you could probably orbit the Earth a couple times before they even got halfway down.”
“You sound mighty confident, Uncle Buck,” Irons said. Lt. Andrews just chuckled.
The impact came as about a half-dozen pieces of space pollen hit the armor of the ship. Even from within, they could hear the groaning of the aliens, trying to burrow their way into the interior of the ship, but Lt. Andrews was right. They could not dig through quickly enough, and if their screams were any indication, they were becoming incredibly frustrated at the lack of penetration.
More space pollen fired, but this came less as a deployment and more like a cannon. The shot rocked the ship.
“I never said she was steady,” Lt. Andrews said, again laughing. “But she won’t sink. She’s designed to take a beating.”
“You talk about her like you’ve known her for years,” Lopez said, holding onto the back of Irons’ chair for support.
“Son, when you go through what we have in the past half hour, you develop years’ worth of relationships real fast.”
The enemy didn’t have the capability to fire any other weapons, Lopez noted. It was a disadvantage—
The three units stopped orbiting the enemy craft and moved away from the ship, spinning together at almost impossible speeds.
“I don’t like the look of that,” Irons said.
“I haven’t liked the look of anything these guys have done since they hijacked my video,” Lt. Andrews said. “At this point, though, we just have to buckle—”
Something fiery shot out from the three spinning orbs and hit the ship, hard. The ship kept churning, but the damage was significant.
“The hull just got knocked down by sixty percent,” Irons said. “I think it’s time for you guys to give these guys a taste of their own medicine.”
“How far out are we?”
“Three clicks.”
“It’s as close as we’re gonna get,” Lt. Andrews said. “All right. Lopez, why don’t you come join my boarding party?”
“I’d be honored, sir,” he said. “I’ve always loved crashing something like this.”
“Uncle!”
Irons captured the CO’s attention. Lopez knew he’d already gotten his goodbye. He turned to leave, but not before he overheard their brief conversation.
“Come back alive, OK? I love you.”
“I love you too, Jenna. I’ll be back.”
Lt. Andrews hurried over as they reached their BVs. Lt. Andrews let out a long sigh, audible to Lopez even two BVs over, as he placed a bomb inside his BV. They dipped into their vehicles and prepared for their last-ditch assault.
47
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain Irons speaking,” Irons said, her voice coming in clear in the pods. It sounds just like it did on those flights in movies from the early 21st century. Hilarious. “We’ll be arriving at our destination in the next thirty seconds. You may experience some slight turbulence along the way but otherwise you’re looking at clear space with a temperature pretty close to absolute zero. Thank you for choosing Irons Expressway, prepare for arrival.”
Lopez had to laugh at that moment. What else could he do but chuckle at the joke? He couldn’t move much. He sat in a chair that had repositioned him so that he lay on his back. When the ship would make impact, he’d be dropped down, landing on his feet in the vessel that awaited him. He couldn’t even swivel his head, for the BV had strapped him in so tight that he couldn’t do anything but move his eyes.
Around him, he heard explosions and the cries of aliens trying to break through that hull. He could only hope that the Eagle was doing its job, holding the line while they got a chance.
Andrews. Lake. Li. Abayomi. Kowalski. He’d fight for them.
And for Jordan. For Silencer. To ensure that his legacy lived on, and that he and Irons would get to go see his parents. Lopez vowed to live so that he could spread the word of Jordan’s noble sacrifice.
Jordan’s body might have died, but his actions would live forever.
And for Irons. He’d made a promise to her that he would come back to her and beat her sorry ass at Lake Yellowstone. Well, Lopez wasn’t about to let his life go without winning a challenge from Irons.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, prepare for landing in three, two—”
But Irons fired the vessels off, and the area inside the vehicle shook like Lopez was inside the middle of a 9.0 California earthquake. Whether she had deliberately fired the BVs early or h
ad her hand forced, Lopez didn’t know. He experienced a moment of weightlessness as the vehicle dropped, and then an engine in the back fired him at full force.
For the next thirty seconds, Lopez felt paralyzed and terrified. He had absolutely no control over what transpired next. If a space pollen took him out, he wouldn’t see it coming. If he missed the alien ship and he just soared into space, he wouldn’t know until too much time had passed. If he hit the alien ship, but dropped down to a waiting xenoroach hungry to eat, he wouldn’t know. He had so little control and far too much going around him to feel comfortable.
He tried to close his eyes and think about that race at Lake Yellowstone, but the g’s brought about by the vehicle’s speed made even basic thought nearly impossible. He groaned and screamed, and—
With a thud, the vehicle hit the ship. Beneath him, the pod opened up, and Lopez felt his straps loosening. Seconds later, he dropped down, his feet landing with a wet thwack on the ground.
Around him, the rest of Apocalypse Squad joined up. The inside of the ship was anything but a traditional, constructed “ship.” He saw veins everywhere, spreading like spider webs. Red and yellow blood flowed through those veins. Under him, the ground was not hard, not dirty, but… alive. It contracted. It shook. It trembled.
“This isn’t a ship,” Lt. Andrews said as the team gathered around. “It’s a living organism. Holy shit.”
Suddenly, the alien sounds of screaming came. They know we’re here. And they’re pissed as hell.
“Do we do anything different?” Li asked.
“Yes,” Lt. Andrews responded as he prepared his gun. “Fire even more lasers.”
Lopez breathed slowly as he prepped for the alien. He looked around. Li, Andrews, Abayomi, and Lake were here. That was…
No. Kowalski?
“Kowalski?” Lopez said.
A scream came from a distant room, followed by the sound of unrelenting gunfire.