by Saxon Andrew
Joey stood up, “I need to start my next set. When can we meet about this?”
Lukas looked at Salud, “Give him my address. Plan to meet there tomorrow night after work.”
“Will do; see you then.”
Lukas walked around to the front of the restaurant and went into the front office. Later, he walked out and stopped by Trevor, “I want you to take a look at something and tell me what you think about if it interests you. However, I need you to keep this between us and no one else.”
Lukas handed Trevor some folded sheets of paper and Trevor took them, folded them again, and put them in his front pocket, “Don’t want the wet towel to mess them up in my back pocket.”
Lukas smiled and slapped him lightly on the back. He walked back over to the table and Salud looked at him, “What did you give him?”
“I used my Wrist Unit to print out the schematics and plans for a disruptor cannon.”
“WHAT?”
“If you want to catch a…”
“I heard you! How do you know you can trust him?”
“I don’t know Joey as well as I know Trevor. I can trust him.” Lukas looked at the clock and saw it was eleven. “Let’s do this; why don’t you just plan to meet me at my apartment tomorrow at eleven. I get off at nine P.M. so I’ll be there waiting on you and Joey to arrive.”
Salud nodded, “I’ll pick you up and take you. I’ll see you at nine fifteen out front.”
Lukas nodded and watched her leave. He worried that things were about to spiral out of control.
• • •
“Jinks, this is volatile material you have here.”
“Yes Sir, it is. And it appears that whatever those objects were in orbit, they’re no longer there.”
“How do you know that, Colonel?”
“None of the observatories have experienced any blockages since the night that object left the planet. Whatever they were, they must have pursued the object that left the planet.”
General McAllister leaned back and put his feet on his desk, “I can’t show this material to my Commander.”
“Why not?”
“Colonel, what happened to the last officer that reported a UFO?”
“I didn’t know any did.”
“His evidence was just as good as what you’ve given me here. He’s serving at a radar station in Antarctica. Since that Area 51 fiasco, the Air Force has been accused of hiding the truth about extraterrestrial intelligence.”
“What else could this be?”
McAllister took his feet off his desk, “Colonel, for all I know it could be swamp gas, however, I’m not going to jeopardize my career without proof positive. All you’ve given me is white globes and cigar shaped clouds. I need more than that to take this further.”
“There are no swamps in downtown Boston, Sir.”
McAllister leaned back in his chair and stared at Jekins. “Do you know the approximate location that object came from?”
“The Satellite picked it up at three thousand feet above the Boston area.”
“Take some teams and see if you can’t come up with some definitive physical evidence to support your video; do that and I’ll move it up the ladder.”
“But Sir…”
“Prove it or forget it, Colonel!”
“Yes Sir.” Jinks saluted, did an about face, and left McAllister’s office. The General replayed the video and shook his head. Just seven months from retirement…seven months! Something had happened, there was no doubt about that…but…he opened his desk drawer and threw the video into it. Someone else would have to handle this. It wasn’t going to be him.
• • •
Jinks left the General’s office and shook his head. Something was going on above Earth and those things weren’t there for peaceful reasons. If they were, they would have revealed themselves. That meant they were there for another reason and none of the ones Jinks thought of were good. He needed to find something concrete in Boston. He took his cellphone out and pressed a number, “Good day, Colonel.”
“Stoney, I need you to put together some teams and meet me at the field office.”
“What sort of requirements do you have in mind?”
“I need fifty two-man teams in vehicles set up to scan for radioactivity, magnetism, ionization…”
“Pretty much the entire electronic spectrum, Sir.”
“Exactly, Stoney. I also want the second member of each team to be a real badass soldier.”
“You want them armed?”
“To the teeth. Just make sure it’s not out in the open.”
“I’ll start working on it immediately.”
“I want you to be my second, Stoney.”
“I consider it an honor, Sir.”
“Thanks, let me know when the teams will be able to meet.”
“Yes Sir.”
Chapter Ten
Lukas showed up at work at three o’clock and found Trevor waiting for him in the kitchen. Lukas smiled, “You aren’t due until eight thirty.”
“Where did you get those schematics?”
“I take it they interest you.”
“Lukas, that thing is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered. If the specifications are accurate, it could fry an Abrams tank from forty miles.”
“Which means?”
“It would have to be mounted on airframe to derive full benefit. It’s wasted on the ground with a horizon only four miles away. Where did you get this?”
“Talk with Joey and if you’re interested, plan to join him tonight after work.”
“LUKAS!!!”
“Talk to Joey; I have to work.”
Trevor stared at Lukas and then stormed out of the kitchen. Joey didn’t show up until eight. Trevor was furious. He knew going to class was a waste of time. He couldn’t get the images out of his mind of what the weapon was capable of doing. He went to class and studied the drawings; the more he focused on the plans, the more fear he felt. He looked at the clock and the second hand seemed to take forever between movements. He finally had enough and walked out of class and went home. This thing captured his consciousness like nothing else he had ever seen.
• • •
Lukas walked out of the restaurant as Trevor was entering. Trevor grabbed his arm and Lukas said, “Gotta go talk to a man about a dog. Talk with Joey.” Trevor released his arm and swore. Lukas smiled as he walked toward Salud’s red BMW. He got in the passenger side and said, “Got him!”
Salud shook her head and looked over her shoulder. She waited and they saw four blue-grey colored Ford Fusions drive past them. On the door of the front Fusion was lettering that read, United States Department of Defense. Salud watched them pass and looked at Lukas, who was shaking his head, “I hate being right all the time.”
“You think they’re here because of you.”
Lukas nodded out the windshield and she turned and saw six more Fusions moving in the opposite direction across the street. “Look at the roofs.” Salud looked back at the cars and saw four antennas sticking out of the roofs and trunks on every Fusion.
“If they’re looking for you, they’re starting late, wouldn’t you say?”
“There’s less interference this time of night.” Salud looked in her rear view mirror and knew he was right. The Stalkers were gone but a new breed of Stalker had arrived. She pulled out and headed toward Tremont Street. They saw eleven more Fusions as they headed toward Calumet.
“What are you going to do?” Lukas shrugged.
• • •
They arrived at Lukas’ apartment and he opened the door for her. She went to the trunk and took out a backpack. “What’s in that?”
“Something I brought for the meeting.” Lukas took it and put it over his shoulder; it really wasn’t heavy. She followed him up the steps and he opened the door and allowed her to enter first. The apartment was clean and everything was in place. She saw a flash of light an
d looked over at a table next to the wall, where a laptop computer was turned on. “What’s this?”
“That’s my first piece of the project.” Salud walked over and looked at the screen. She saw it split in half with Ameritrade on one side and Scottrade on the other. She looked at him and tilted her head. “Before I sent my Escape Pod away, I used it to produce gold to sell. By the time it escaped, I had acquired about three hundred thousand dollars.”
“How did it provide gold?”
“It used its converter.”
“How are your investments going?”
“I’m a little over four million now.”
Salud jerked her head around, “In less than a week?”
“Actually, it’s been eight days.”
“How do you make that happen?”
“My Wrist Unit scans the various companies listening for anything that might affect the value of a stock, up or down. It then issues orders to buy or sell short.”
“That’s called insider trading and is a crime.”
“Not if you uncover the information. It’s a crime if someone gives it to you.”
“That’s a pretty thin argument.”
Lukas nodded, “My unit tells me that my success is starting to draw attention. I’ve had to factor in some losses to prevent my bank account from being investigated.” Lukas looked at her, “Do you have a bank account?”
“Actually, I have two.”
“Would you mind if I use them?”
“I only have ten thousand dollars in one and three thousand in the other.”
“What about a savings account?”
“I’d rather not say how much is in that.” Lukas stared at her and she rolled her eyes, “I have half a million in it.”
“It took you that long to decide if you trusted me?”
“It was only a second!”
“It was still too long. Transfer a hundred thousand into each of your accounts and I need you to go online with this computer and set up an account at two different trading companies.”
Salud walked over to the laptop, minimized the screen, and started a search. In less than an hour, she had both checking accounts set up. She excused herself and went to the bathroom and, when she came back, she glanced at the screen and saw the values in her two stock accounts were at three hundred thousand. “What the hell!”
She looked at Lukas who said, “The Asian Markets are open.” She shook her head and transferred another hundred thousand into each account. Then she went over to the couch and sat down. Lukas looked at her, “That’s the second time you demonstrated a lack of trust in me. Why didn’t you put the entire amount in at the beginning?”
“Lukas, this might be hard for you to understand, but that money is all I have to use to support me in my old age.”
“I really hope you live long enough to have one.”
“Lukas, it will be long after I’m gone before anyone on Earth builds a star drive.”
“And just what do you think the ships I’m going to build will be using?”
Salud stared at him and then went over to the laptop and put the remainder of her savings into the two accounts. She noticed the value of the two accounts was at seven hundred thousand. She looked at Lukas, “I made a mistake planning for the future.” He took a deep breath, blew it out slowly, and nodded. She came over and sat down beside him on the couch. She suddenly felt her anxiety start to grow and right behind it she was inundated by a wave of fear. This stuff was real. She had come along watching everything develop and never really did more than observe. Now she knew that Earth’s future was in the hands of the man sitting next to her. It was also in hers as well and that caused her to panic. She wasn’t up to this!
Lukas put his left arm around her shoulder and took his right hand and put it on her chin. He turned her head to him and said, “No one has ever survived a meeting with a Sentinel.”
She stared into his eyes and what he said finally made it into her consciousness. Her fear began dissipating and after a few moments she leaned into his side and snuggled against his chest. “Everything from that moment forward is borrowed time.” Lukas nodded and kept his arm around her. He closed his eyes and went to sleep. A few moments later, she joined him.
• • •
Lukas felt his Wrist Unit vibrate and he put his hand on Salud’s arm and shook her softly. She opened her eyes and Lukas said, “Joey and Trevor are here.”
“How do you know Trevor is with him?”
“It’s eleven fifteen. Joey got off at ten thirty.” Salud shook her head as Lukas went to the door and opened it as the buzzer went off from downstairs. She stretched and was amazed she had been able to sleep. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since the meeting with the Sentinel. She heard voices coming up the stairs and recognized Trevor’s. Lukas was amazing with his powers of observation.
Joey came through the door first and smiled, “How’s it going?”
“Good, Joey.” Trevor came in second followed by Lukas, who closed and locked the door. Trevor looked at Salud and Lukas and said, “So let me get this straight; both of you are aliens from another planet?”
Lukas and Salud’s face both showed their shock. Lukas looked at Joey and he said, “You are, aren’t you?”
Lukas burst out laughing and Joey and Trevor looked at him with surprise written all over their faces. Trevor turned to Joey, “I knew you were pulling my leg.”
Salud said, “No he’s not…”
Trevor jerked his head around to her, “You’re an alien!?”
“No, I’m not but Lukas is.”
Trevor looked at Lukas and he was still laughing. “What’s so funny?”
Lukas looked at Joey shaking his head, “I thought you were light years ahead in your perceptions of every other human I’ve met. You’re just good.”
“You mean she’s not an alien.” Lukas shook his head. Joey looked at Salud and shook his head, “Those hours after hours sitting at the bar is not normal human behavior.”
Lukas smiled, “She’s not your average human.” He looked at Trevor and Joey, “None of you are. Let’s sit down and talk about it.”
Salud sat up and went to her backpack, “I’m going to make some coffee. This is going to take a while.” She looked at Lukas, “I do hope you have either milk or cream.”
“I have a half gallon of two percent milk.” Salud went with them into the small kitchen and pulled a coffee maker out of the backpack. The others sat down at the kitchen table and Lukas said, “A little over ten months ago, I was serving on a Welken Major Battleship out near what you call Orion’s Nebula. My squadron stumbled on a Myot planetary system where they were building an entirely new class of warship that dwarfed anything in the Welken Fleet. More than forty powerful disruptor beams hit my ship and the ship began falling apart. I barely managed to jump into an escape pod and eject from the ship a moment before it exploded.”
Trevor said, “When you say disruptor beams…”
Lukas interrupted him, “They’re just like the one in the drawings I gave you, only much larger and a lot more powerful.” Trevor stared at him and then nodded. Salud took the milk out of the refrigerator and put it on the table along with a one-pound bag of sugar and a box of Splenda. She put a paper towel along with a spoon in front of them but neither of them noticed as they listened to Lukas.
She started filling the three cups and one glass and heard Trevor interrupt Lukas and say, “You mean your civilization is one of those out there?” Lukas nodded. Trevor shook his head, “How can we trust you? You might be trying to hold the others off so your people can take Earth.”
Salud picked up the cups and brought them over to the table, “If that were the case, he would have taken the force field projector and left with the Pod. Once his civilization saw the force field, they would have the first actual evidence to invade and would have beaten the others here while the others wondered what they were doing.”
She went back, picked up the glass, and put it in front of her chair. Lukas took the glass and replaced it with the cup she had given him. She started to protest but stopped. That little thing showed her his heart. She sat down and was amazed at what she saw.
“She’s right. However this turns out, I am staying here on Earth. This is now my home.”
Joey stared at him and said, “Please continue.”
Lukas nodded and began telling them about the gang he killed along with the struggle to avoid being discovered by the Stalkers. Trevor said, “I agree with you, Joey; that thin faced weirdo just wasn’t right.”
Lukas said, “He’s the one that killed Tony.”
Joey’s eyes narrowed, “Tony committed suicide.”
“No he didn’t. The Stalker saw him rush out of the restaurant the night he had the falling out with Rachel and had him followed. They drained his brain of everything he knew and then made it look like a suicide.”
Trevor looked at them and said, “He’s the one I replaced.” Lukas nodded. “Everyone really liked him.”
Lukas shook his head, “Everyone loved Tony.”
Joey sighed, “Including you.” Lukas looked at him and nodded. Joey shook his head and nodded for Lukas to continue.
Salud listened in and heard Lukas tell them what life was like living in the Welken Confederacy. This was something she had not heard before and she wondered, just like the Sentinel, why Lukas had changed so much. At the end, she had to know, “What caused you to change?”
Lukas looked at her and saw Joey and Trevor were staring at him as well. He took a breath and said, “In my entire life as a Welken Warrior, I’ve never had anyone to care one iota for me or what happened to me. If I died in battle, no one would care and no one would remember me.
“From the moment I left my apartment, I encountered humans who did care. Tony became my first friend, followed by Jack, who though he was my employer, treated me with kindness and consideration. The staff at the restaurant liked me and wanted to be around me. It was like feeding a starving man.” Lukas looked at Salud, “And you came back to reward me for helping you. I can’t describe to you how much that affected me.” Lukas looked at them and said, “Even Kathy, in a manipulating sort of way, showed me a kindness that was something I’ll always remember.” Lukas paused, “Your species is something beyond what I’ve ever known and I will not allow you to become slaves if I can prevent it.”