by H. J. Lawson
“Doesn't matter?” he replied with a trace of sadness.
“Well, um, I'm sure we would all prefer saving the infected, but there are so many of them and so few of us. Just having a cure is a victory.”
The man looked at himself reflected on one of the unpowered mainframe terminals. His old eyes mocked him for finding a cure too late to be of use to his fellow man. But maybe it still would be of use to him. For all his money and power—even hacking into SpaceRx was like dealing with children—he was unable to get his hands on the most famous resident alien on the planet. Now that he'd put his considerable resources into finding the solution to the infection, he was going to use it like a sack of old currency to trade for his life-long prize. One cure for one bona fide alien.
An endgame hardly befitting the richest old bastard on the planet.
“Get them online for me. I want to talk directly to that colonel running the show this time.”
“Sir!”
Grace
I took off at a run behind Kearyn. She was going to try out her Humness theory on Walt, and against my will, I imagined the two of them sans clothing—for the good of humanity, mind you—as she attempted to spread the cure. Yuck.
Accidentally, I fell into her mind. We were both thinking the same thing, though her enthusiasm was the inverse of mine.
“Grace?” she said inside my head.
I see a man, floating in zero-g. Kearyn approaches him at a slow drift. A freefall courtship ritual if ever there was one. He's facing the universe outside—backlit by a rising wave of sunlight.
It wasn't anticipation. It was a memory.
“No. Grace. No!”
Zap!
A spark of pain flutters behind my eyes and forces me to stop.
She halts too, then backtracks.
“I'm—I'm so sorry. I didn't know I could do that.”
“It's okay. I think. I didn't mean to intrude. This mind sharing thing is new to us both.”
Her face darkened. “There are some things we have to keep private, you know?”
We'd already spent a good part of our lives in awkward deference because of our mutual love interest. Watching each other medal in outer space Olympics was not going to help. Though, strangely, my instinct said her reaction had nothing to do with voyeurism.
“We good?” she continued with a forced smile.
I nodded.
The damaged ship vibrated below our feet, and she leaned on a bulkhead before pushing off. She sprinted as fast as I'd ever seen her go. I intended to let her get a head start, but my mind was limbered up and raring for action. It trailed her for a few seconds. It danced on her periphery, reached in, and snatched one teeny tiny item from her beautiful mind. Just enough to reveal the identity of that man drifting in her flashback.
I wasn't surprised.
What did shock me was the powerful memory attached to the one I'd interdicted. They were inseparable and came out together.
It revealed why we'd been put on this now-endangered craft together. Me, the fiancée, and Kearyn, the lover. “Where is our seedling, and Treavyn?” the being had asked. It wasn't a coincidence that The Tide made interplanetary contact here, on this ship. Treavyn sent us away to protect us. The three of us.
The seedling was now a small girl with a big smile.
She had my fiancé's eyes.
Chapter 17 – Dale Furse
Doctor Brent
Ronald cleared his throat to get Brent’s attention as he looked up from the monitors.
“Doctor Brent, I have incoming.”
One hand rubbing his tired eyes, the other massaging the back of his head, Brent said, “Show on screen.”
He hoped his voice didn’t sound as defeated as he felt. Once they lost Riley on that escape ship, they lost any hope of salvaging the human race.
A large screen wavered across the wall of the laboratory deep under Antarctica’s Lambert Glacier. Brent’s eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?”
“If what you think is the bloody Tide, then yes.”
Millions, no, gazillions of tiny glowing orbs floated through space, rolling like high, unbroken ocean swells, on a direct course toward Earth.
Brent had already identified millions spreading over Earth’s surface as the cause of the contagion. Now it appeared, they were coming in for the final purge of humanity.
“So they’ve made their move. That colonel should be at the Omega base by now; get her online now.”
Ronald did and handed the comm to Brent.
“Colonel Jones... Don’t worry about that right now, just listen… We have the antigen, and we need your military might to disperse it as soon as possible…sending through the details now.”
Brent waved a hand at Ronald, indicating he should send the data.
Colonel Jones
Colonel Caroline Jones’ pulse thrummed in her temples as she handed Captain Rusty Baker the data module. She couldn’t believe what she had just read. “Who the hell is Doctor Brent and why didn’t I know about him?”
Rusty shrugged as he perused the data. “Never heard of him, but it seems the powers that be, or were in this case, gave him a free hand with his experiments.” He tilted his head in thought. “Wait a moment. I do remember some talk about a year or two ago. Yeah, a Doctor Brent was playing around with harnessing the wind so he could send rain clouds into the deserts of the world.” He looked at Jones as if he was pleased with himself. “I’m sure I’m right.”
She made a face. “You might be, but that doesn’t really tell us much now, does it?”
“I suppose not.” He shook the data module. “What do you think about this?”
“He wants to kill every human on the planet and Omega base hasn’t got the protection of Area 51 and 53, so that includes us.” She rubbed her face. “I’d rather find an alternative. See if you can push Dennessee. We need answers, and I don’t think he’s the hero type so do what you have to do.”
Doctor Brent
Brent contacted the colonel again, putting her on speaker. “Have you organized worldwide deployment?”
“I’m hoping that won’t be necessary, but yes, they are on standby.”
“My team is sending out the antigen containers as we speak. They should be at every military base on Earth within an hour. Get your people to work in grids; not an inch of Earth will be spared. As soon as the containers are received, they are to be broadcast over Earth.”
“I will give the order when no alternative is available.”
“I don’t think you understand, Colonel Jones, I wasn’t asking, I was commanding you to give the order now.”
“I won’t. I have—”
“I know you have the alien and if there’s time, I would like to meet the thing myself. Cooperate, and I’ll send transport to bring you and him to Area 53.”
“Why don’t you just give the order yourself?”
He let out an irritated laugh. “The military won’t listen to me. They have never even heard of me.”
Brent could almost hear the smile in her voice.
“So it’s up to me then. I’ll contact you as soon as I know anything.”
With that, she disconnected.
“The Tide is passing through a band of escape ships,” Ronald reported.
Brent gazed at the screen. The ships, now glowing, had turned back to Earth. “That didn’t take very long.”
“It appears it is instant.”
“Bring up the purple ship.”
Grace
Grace brought the child to the bridge where she and Kearyn sat staring at the little girl.
“Where did you come from,” Grace asked, trying to keep her voice as gentle as her nerves would allow. She didn’t want to scare the little thing.
“Treavyn.” Her mouth widened into a smile at his name. “And you and you.” She pointed at Grace and Kearyn in turn then held her arms wide. “And The Tide.”
Finn said, “I’ve got the monitors working, but you�
�re not going to want to see what’s on ’em.”
Grace snapped her head up. Glowing pods were hurtling through space toward them.
“What are they?” Kearyn cried.
“The Tide,” the child said.
The pods never slowed, they rushed headlong, crashing into the small ship. Walt and Finn did all they could to evade them, but they just kept coming.
“We’ll be smashed to bits at this rate,” Walt said. “Try to outrun them, Finn.”
Finn worked at the controls and, turning the ship away from Earth, he lunged into space.
The Commander IS12
The space station shook with…what? The commander of the IS12 nearly shot from his chair with the impact. “What the hell was that?”
“Glowing pods, sir. It looks like all the escape pods are on a suicide mission and are crashing into the station.”
The commander readjusted his seat. “On screen.”
The screen sprang to life. Glowing pods, more than the commander would have credited the escape ships with, crashed one after the other into the station. “Where the hell is our firepower?”
“The pods have taken out the armory, sir.”
The commander squinted at the screen. Millions of small glowing objects followed the pods on a direct course to the space station. “What’s that behind them?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Get the control center online.”
Doctor Brent
“The first of the orbs have reunited with their comrades on Earth, Doctor.”
Brent had been watching the mayhem unfold. The dead and the near dying victims were regenerating before his eyes. If only I could study them. He shook his head. He wouldn’t be here to study anything if they were allowed to take hold.
“Bring up the Omega base.”
Too late; the orbs melted through the mountain as if it wasn’t there. Brent realized then that the colonel would never send that order.
Monitors throughout the lab showed the frightening scenes. Even with the sound off, Brent could almost hear the screams and shouts of the men and women fighting for their lives as the orb-infested bodies, then the orbs themselves, rolled over the military bases.
Treavyn
Treavyn watched through the glass pane in the door as his family surrounded the colonel and her comrade.
Captain Baker, used his belts in a futile effort to lash out at the glowing orbs.
“What are you? What do you want from us?” Jones screamed at them.
“We are The Tide. We want our seedling. Where is our seedling? Where is Treavyn?”
“Treavyn?” Jones glanced at Rusty and tilted her head toward the door. Rusty nodded. As one, they backed up to the door and opened it.
“There’s your seedling.”
Treavyn stepped out. “I’m not their seedling; their seedling isn’t on Earth.”
“Where is our seedling? We are The Tide. We need our seedling.”
Colonel Jones fired at the orbs, the orbs explode.
Treavyn’s eyes widened as voices percolated through his brain. We are The Tide. You are one of us. Where is our seedling?
Without conscious thought, an image of Grace and the escape ship appeared in his mind.
Doctor Brent
Unable to watch anymore, Doctor Brent turned off the monitors. Sweat beaded along his hairline as he frantically jabbed at the buttons on his display, searching through his database. He had to find a way to distribute the antigen; he had to finish this invasion for the last time, no matter what or who was harmed in the process.
A list of familiar equations appeared. His abandoned experiment. The wind!
Ronald looked over his shoulder. “You think that could work?”
“It’s our only chance.”
Chapter 18 – K. S. Brooks
Doctor Brent
Even as a child, the wind had always been Brent’s friend. As he got older, she became his mistress, bestowing upon him the caresses and whispers in his ears that human females would never provide. As a scrawny and somewhat pallid geek, he had been married to his science at an early age, and that continued to drive and sustain him. Once he’d removed himself from society to this laboratory far beneath the Lambert Glacier, thoughts of a woman’s touch or passion evanesced, replaced by computer screens and his devoted canine companions.
Now he sat before his life’s work, wavering slightly over whether or not he could capitalize on the wind to carry out a last-ditch attempt at saving humankind. Brent had been confident in his science for so long—but it never held this critical level of importance. There was no room, and no time, for uncertainty.
Brent looked over to Ronald hurriedly typing at his workstations, swiveling to check screen after screen to make sure the canisters they’d delivered to the military bases were opened and activated.
“Why does the military have to be so impossible?” Ronald asked with a shake of his head. “It’s a good thing you thought to equip the canisters with a remote opening mechanism. Genius, doc.”
“Never mind that, my friend. You have never known me to be religious, but it occurs to me that we should pray this works.”
“You’re…doubting it?”
“I’m concerned that the ions will not have enough access to The Tide since the aliens are so plentiful. And if not, then how can we force them out?” Doctor Brent did not look away from his screen. He carefully monitored the Earth’s wind patterns and hoped that the ions would multiply as they were meant to.
“But certainly we will have raised our odds, and now that we have reverse-engineered their energy, we can continue to fight them. At least it will push them back a bit, and expel them from all who have survived thus far.” By the end of his last sentence, Ronald didn't sound so sure. “Right, Doc?”
“You know that ions don’t remain charged indefinitely; their life is quite short. The ones we have created have the ability to multiply and last longer, but they’ve got to reach The Tide before they lose their charge. And in large quantities. You witnessed what it was taking to push The Tide out of the Riley subject.”
Ronald had indeed seen that. “But we hadn’t perfected it yet—not until the two females entered the pod and then interrupted our treatment.” He paused, recalling Riley’s hideous screams of unfathomable pain. “The Tide will fight the ions, won’t they?”
“I suppose if they sense them coming, and we don’t have the numbers. But we need to keep generating the customized ions now that we’ve released the initial groupings. We can’t rely on the canister lots to perform as we’d hoped—they were supposed to have been strategically located before they were opened.”
Ronald let slip a sigh so heavy that his untoned body slumped. “If only the colonel had listened to us.”
“I’m adjusting the charge and boosting the output of the ionizers at the wind farms. Are you ready to monitor?”
“Yes, doc. I’ve got it on the screen.” Ronald scratched his chin. “I always thought it was brilliant that you included ionizers at the farms. No one else foresaw that as a way to combat bouts of stagnant air and pollution.”
“Remember, it’s not been tested. Introducing large amounts of ozone could…”
“I know,” Ronald interrupted, “it could possibly cause respiratory damage in humans, especially those with asthma. But isn’t that better than being annihilated?”
“Of course. That isn’t the question. Let’s hope that we can force The Tide out and at least up to the exosphere before there is an adverse effect on humans. That’s going to take an awful lot of ions, but it will buy us time and—”
Doctor Brent’s thought was interrupted by the clicking of tiny nails on the heated tile floor. “Boreus, Zephyrus,” he said to the two white terriers headed toward him. “Not now, my friends.”
Ronald sat up straight in his chair. “Doc?” He scanned the ceiling as if searching for a sound. “Do you think they hear something we don’t? Do you think… I mean, can The Tide f
ind us here?”
Treavyn
No! Treavyn couldn’t allow his family—The Tide—to read his mind. He couldn’t let them know the seedling was with Grace and Kearyn. They’d barrel their way into the craft and wipe out everyone on board just to get to her. But he could feel them encroaching. He could hear their haunting, moodless voice crawling through his ears and his brain like writhing maggots. If he couldn’t keep them out of his head, there was only one thing left to do.
He closed his eyes. With every ounce of energy he had, Treavyn cleared his mind. He focused on the love his scientist mother had shown him and used that as a shield to protect not only himself but the woman he couldn’t live without.
Treavyn hoped to convince The Tide that they didn’t need to wipe out humanity—but how could he explain that he had just now received their message? All the work that he and Grace had done—sending out messages—and The Tide had answered. And the whole time, the military had possession of it, not him. Maybe he could have prevented the total destruction of the planet if he’d only known.
The message—was there anything in it he could use to stop them? To reverse this heinous misunderstanding? The key—he could use the key, but he didn’t have a clue what that was. Something else? Didn’t it say his judgment was their judgment? Could he use that? He concentrated deeply and repeated over and over again, and as fast as he could that no one had been cruel to him. Dr. Dennessee had indeed cared for him and loved him. He didn’t know what this key was that they were talking about, but his judgment was to spare the people of Earth. His judgment was that the human race was good. Please, please do not eradicate them.
His own voice sounded so small, so pathetic and feeble in his head. He tried again, with a little more force. Stop hurting the humans. They have been kind to me. You misunderstood. I just wanted to know you. I didn’t want you to rescue me. Still, there was no response. Treavyn opened his eyes, and everything was perfectly still. The colonel and Rusty were staring blankly at him, golden energy alive in their eyes. It was as if they were waiting for something. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what that was.