by Richard Sosa
“I can’t. I can’t run anymore, bro,” Neil screamed to his brother.
Rik stopped and grabbed his brother in an embrace, they almost fell to the ground. “I ‘got’ you bro. I ‘got’ you. I love you.”
They stood as the wave of heat approached. Closed their eyes as the fire made the air blister and simmer, metal popped into liquid and Rik held his brother tighter than he had ever held on to anything in his life. Then the two waves separated, and the fiery walls shifted in opposite directions away from them. The Orbs were moving toward the river.
Neil opened his eyes and pushed at his brother. “Come on, it’s over here, not too far.”
They jumped over dead bodies and past others burned but alive. They ran down the large street and dashed into a debris field where everything was charred black. It was a closed-ended street. Neil pointed around as if trying to remember. “Here, in here, dumb ass?” Rik turned to run in the opposite direction. Neil grabbed him, “No, this is it. I am sure.”
Rik was breathing heavily and spat bile then vomited in the street. He looked up at his brother, took a deep breath. “Are you sure? It doesn’t look the same. Is this the right alley?”
Neil scanned around again and shouted, “Yes this is it.” They raced down to the end of the alley and dropped their packs. The building tops were gone, and Rik could see more sky. Rik secured his mother’s bag to his. They removed strange match box-size technology which activated with ‘clicks’ and ‘purring’ sounds. Breathing hard, they quickly dropped dime-sized disks on the ground and stood over them all the while looking up and around. Lasers flashed overhead while Jets dived and banked, and mortar rockets streaked across the sky above. Smoke billowed around them and the ground rumbled.
Rik held Neil’s arm. “Here take this, figure out the primary time markers at the new location and signal me,” he took off his wristwatch and stuffed it in Neil’s pocket, “I should go back for mom, at least to say goodbye.”
Neil was sobbing silently. “She's gone. It's all on you, bro you're the golden one now.”
“I am a major screw up; I can't do that. You’re right, there’s no hope and if you’re pinning it on a coward like me you should know better. I should have stayed and died with mom,” Rik said while tears streamed through the dust on his face.
Neil shook his head. “Mom believed in you, so did Da. Don’t let them down, don’t let the Lares down. You’re a complete dumb ass. Mom said, ‘You’re the one with the power to make a difference,’ she believed in you. You never saw that. Don’t let them down. I am the one that doesn’t count. I am sorry I called you a coward.”
Rik searched his brother’s eyes. “Neil, they’re all dead. It doesn’t matter anymore. We’ve lost. They’re all dead,” he chopped the words for emphasis, “they’re all dead, you dumb ass.”
A fireball flared as a tank took a direct laser hit and rounds of munitions popped and chirred into the air. Fire spat out of the tank turret with a roaring sound. They hardly noticed. Rik held his locator unit in front of his brother and turned it on. “Keep yours on and I'll see you again. We’ll connect. I’ll keep the cube.”
“Our payload calculations are messed up now. Give me the damn cube. I didn't mean to call you a coward. I want to fight. I want to kill these damn things so bad,” Neil said choking back bile trying not to throw up.
Rik searched around. “Me too. But I... look, we need to stay together. Mom said to stay together don't leave me. I am a coward, but I am your brother and I love you.”
Neil searched his bag. “My recorder is gone. I left it at the house. Record for us with yours. Now give me the damn cube.”
A jet roared overhead in retreat. Rik looked skyward. “It's all pointless now. Time to run.”
Neil grabbed at the cube and it fell out of Rik’s hand to the ground. The dime-sized disk popped, and spit and a light flickered above Neil’s head then a scaly suit instantly encased him while it changed into streams of light and suddenly a roaring sound occurred as his capsule explosively lifted off skyward. Neil was running. Rik frantically rooted around on the street for the cube and found it just in time as his technology activated to leave in the same way. His encasement closed just as a hissing sound occurred and the alley where they were standing was vaporized.
Two capsules, one leading, rocketed across the sky and climbed into the exosphere. They reached a focal point in space and disappeared in a flash. Six Orbs descending were high enough in their orbit and changed trajectory to give chase. They started climbing into the exosphere and sped up to bathe in white fire and then broke through Earth’s gravity. They reached the same point in space and flashed and disappeared instantly. Only two brothers remained of a once large family.
The battle waged on as the planet’s defenders depleted military assets on an enemy with advanced technology. An Orb descended rapidly from the sky as jets worried it, following the Orb as it fell closer to the ground. They fired rockets that had damaged the Orb. The Orb was smoking and as it came closer to the ground it slowed with fires ignited and burning internally. There were black blast holes in the hall and its hairy and silvery shine was tarnished by large dents on its surface. The seams that connected the structure were ribbons of red glowing metal melted from a raging internal fire. The jets continued to fire rockets making the Orb shutter with each impact and explosion. It struggled to stay in flight and then, it gave up and dropped rapidly from the sky. The Orb hit the dirt with an explosive blast while a blue flame burned inside a gapping blast hole on the machine’s side. It rolled on the ground crushing everything in its way. Another Orb moved directly over it appearing to protect it. The disabled Orb exploded in a large fireball. Shrapnel and debris scattered everywhere as it burst apart. The Orb hovering over it was thrown back into the air and immediately became a fireball as well. It struggled to maintain altitude and rolled over slowly in the air then exploded midway in its attempt to stabilize itself. A shock wave radiated out and the explosion echoed in the war-torn valley. The blast wave spread out for miles and the air was filled with sparkles of debris. More and more jets were shot out of the sky by the Orb lasers, but the tide of the battle might be turning. A blinding white flash and a massive explosion erupted as a nuclear bomb detonated directly over other Orbs. In the distance, another nuke exploded and then another.
Rik awoke with a start and felt the heat around him increasing. He tried to kick his legs because they felt on fire and his face contorted with pain and g-forces on his body. He tried to scream. He finally forced a scream before he could stop himself. “Help me, God help me.” His chest felt as if a large block of concrete was crushing him and while he could breathe in, every exhale needed to be pushed out by force. As if being buried alive, trapped within a coffin, his mind and body panicked, “Help me. Stop this.” He trashed but he was pinned in place. The small tube sped up to become a bullet with no friction to slow it and it quickly reached a pre-programmed point before going into near light speed. The forces tore at Rik’s body and then they subsided, and Rik was aware of his ragged breathing and he concentrated to regain calmness. He spoke to his racing heart, “Slow down. You’re safe now. Slow down.”
His hands and feet bound, he struggled against the restraints but was pinned in place by a force field in the small space and held by metal clamps so that only his head could move slightly side to side. The feeling of claustrophobia was overwhelming. “One, two, three, one, two, three, God, I hate this part,” he tried to control his fear and the need to throw up, “one, two three, one, two three.” Suddenly the tube stretched apart and white light with blue streaks appeared around him. He passed out.
Chapter Four
Lieutenant Tony Brakjec sat at his console in a crisp white uniform, the young man took a sip of his drunk and settled into his watch that promised to be a long night. After a short time, he furrowed his eyebrows as he began to track a fast-moving object in space appearing and then disappearing. “Sir, I have it again on the net tracking at 8.06 Gav-clicks now slowi
ng to .0008 speed of light.”
Commander Rayon-jec, an older woman with brown hair and a stern face, paced behind his chair. Her command of the flagship AF Battleship Marpol and her blue uniform with starship ribbons gave her an air of authority but her piercing eyes and mental focus were what garnered everyone’s respect. She checked her watch, “give me the ETA, Lieutenant.”
The Lieutenant completed rapid keystrokes on his terminal and had a result on his screen. He scanned the data. “Planetary system entry in five gaml-ite minutes and it’s slowing in a measured manner.”
The Commander pushed her COM button on her wrist, “All Flyers, battle stations, battle stations, vector and gird location seven,” she ordered. She looked around to her crew and the young man sitting at the console. “Tony, call battle stations for the fleet.”
Klaxon alarms rang out throughout the ship and it came to life with activity. The deck shook and vibrated as its large engines moved the ship in space to an intercept location orbit. The Commander contemplated for a moment. “Does it look as if it’s going to move on past? Could it be a meteor or something natural in space?”
The Lieutenant tapped commands into his terminal and rested his head in his hand while looking intensely at the monitor. “Sir, not at that speed. It’s not likely to be anything being pulled or pushed by a gravity field and the velocity is of an unknown source. A factor 4879 by 4568 but still slowing,” the Lieutenant continued refining his data, “the thing is going to pass directly through our system at its current trajectory. We have rail guns online and automated tracking and we have it targeted now. It’s still closing in. I am getting good tracking data from the array net. I am confident we can target and destroy it in its current orbit. It’s not a natural object. We’ll have a close ETA at targeting range soon.”
The Commander checked her watch again and said. “Good, inform Command. I am sure everything is probably already off the flight deck and in space and…what the hell?”
The blimp disappeared. A Tech shouted. “Array malfunction. Geez, system tracking no longer has a locked track on the object.”
Terminal alarms rang out. “Sir, we just lost everything,” Lieutenant Brakjec shouted, “I don’t have eyes on this thing anymore. Damn it. No systems are locating, no systems have any data,” he looked up over his terminal at his team and shouted, “get the damn array Techs on it now. I need a new lock fast.”
Commander Rayon-jec scanned her terminal. “Anyone, what to tell me what just happened? Move us to grid seven nine and hold and order the battle group to location seven point three. Give me a spread pattern for all trajectories into our system. Lieutenant, COM the Grimstel.”
“Yes, sir.”
An older man, Commander Sram-Bec of the Battle Cruiser Grimstel, came into view on the console screen. “Any progress picking up the bogie again? Where did it go?”
Commander Rayon-jec typed on her keypad and shook her head. “Move the battle group into the configuration around the coordinates I am sending and clear all your fighters out of the way,” she reached down and pulled the figures from the Lieutenant’s Tablet, “Seven, nine, two, grid seven and initiate Alpha defense twelve then stand by.”
Commander Sram-Bec acknowledged with a nod and the screen went blank.
Commander Rayon-jec’s large battleship and five cruisers along with fighters and support ships moved forward in a widespread defense pattern that raced to intercept the unknown ghost intruder. Lieutenant Brakjec announced. “On my mark get ready. An estimate of range ETA is logged and if it’s out there on the same trajectory then it’s coming into laser range in three gamls seconds.”
Commander Reyon-jec began her count on the COM. “Alpha twelve pattern on my count. One, two, three, all fire, all fire.” The darkness of space was lit with lasers shooting in circular and crisscross patterns from all directions forming an impenetrable forward-moving counteroffensive. The crisscross pattern was designed to disable and kill anything coming directly toward them. The lasers abruptly stopped, and the vapid blackness of space returned.
Commander Reyon-jec watched her monitor. “Anything, debris, anything?”
The Lieutenant scanned his terminal as well. “We’ve turned a lot of rock and ice into dust but no indications of a ship, no beacons, no debris, nothing, Sir. I am continuously fine-tuning our filter scan for structural or metal debris.”
The Commander stood and said to her team. “Maintain battle stations.”
There was silence on the deck as the crew scanned space with long-range telescope array tools and they peered at monitors searching for positive reading from remote sensors that were sent into space. There was no evidence of a ship or artificial object in the scans.
Lieutenant Brakjec shouted. “What.” His tracking monitors signaled a boogie suddenly appearing close and everyone’s monitors came to life with the same tracking data. The instruments registered a blip that had a massive front tail, and in a blink of the eye the small capsule passed between the ships and all the tracking systems went offline again instantly.
Commander Reyon-jec slammed her fist on the table, “inform home base to scramble air defenses,” she shouted, “that thing is headed their way. I need any kind of analysis on that thing. Patch me directly to LG Dask.”
Chapter Five
Rik's pod ship container operated on autopilot and flashed through space at twenty-five percent light speed and then the capsule orbited a large gas giant thousands of times using the planet’s gravity to lower its speed. It made pre-programmed orbital corrections and released itself to fly toward a planetary system then arced toward its destination.
The capsule screamed as it crossed overhead in the purple sky while chased by hundreds of advanced futuristic Flyers. A sonic doom announced something was approaching the ground at high speed. It descended and leveled to circle the planet and then made a final descent before it crashed on the surface with no explosion. Dampening technology eliminated the force of gravity before impact and the dirt displaced upon impact was disproportionate to the speed that the capsule struck the surface. The object tumbled awkwardly end over end like a gridiron football. The container slid on the ground directly heading for the village center and coming to rest near a small stone wall. The scaly container was half-submerged in the ground. It was humming, the air around it shimmered from its heat, and black oily smoke rose from its underside. The ground was scarred and burned with a long track where the capsule slide to a stop. The capsule sat in the field, silent, for a long time as the afternoon passed.
With a vacuum sound, the container split open along the edge like a pea pod and fresh air rushed inside. Rik instantly woke up with a gasp and instinctively he pushed the lid open further with his outstretched arms realizing his arms were free again. He could hear himself breathing and the air seeping in was cool and welcoming. He took a deep breath. His stomach rumbled and bitter bile climbed into his throat. He had to get out now. He pushed on the capsule vigorously and it opened with a gap large enough from him to crawl and roll out. He was on all fours with urine-stained pants and he threw up on the ground. Vomit rolled down his chin, staining his shirt and chest. He threw up again struggling to catch a breath and choked on the bitter taste. His hand was covered in vomit. He wheezed for a breath expelling the remnants of burnt molecules and debris from his lungs and slowly began to control his breathing. Then he rolled to a sitting position, dropped his face into his lifted knees, wrapped his arms around them in pain, and rocked while his chest was heaving at each breath. “I made it. I made it,” he said to himself. Loud ringing in his ears intensified and human screams echoed as he dipped his head into his chest, eyes clamped shut. The screaming and ringing in his ears abruptly stopped. His vision was blurry. Then he realized it’s not nighttime. It should be nighttime. Something wasn’t right. He uncovered his ears carefully in case the screaming came back. He struggled to control his sense of panic and then realized the brightness around him meant it was daylight. He was not alone. He gl
anced quickly and under his breath said, “shit, shit, damn it.”
He did not make eye contact thinking, maybe they might go away. A crowd gathered and they stared at him with calm interested curiosity switching their gaze from him and then to his tube-shaped container and back to him. The tube container was split open, smoking and it's surface was wrinkling as it began to dry. Some stepped back as the container popped and crackled while shrinking in size and curling at the ends. The spectators held their noses because the oily smoke was smelly, and others were tapping handheld computer devises or using strange equipment to record the event or taking images. Most moved back a few steps back when Rik stood up but then he stumbled backward and sat down hard. Smoke was rising around him from his body and burnt clothing. A fleet of futuristic odd-shaped jets hung silently in the air overhead. No one noticed them but Rik looked up shielding his eyes and he visually followed them in the sky until the suns blinded him. When he noticed his body. Red laser sighting dots danced around his chest, his arms and legs. “Gods. Shit, shit,” Rik said to himself.
Lieutenant General Dask, arms akimbo, frowned as he stepped up and inspected the disturbed ground. He stepped forward for a closer look first over at Rik then the pod container. He held an instrument in his hand that had green lights running along its edges and he inspected it before moving closer to Rik. The Lieutenant-General was a war veteran, grizzled, led men and women into battle more times than he wanted to recall, and it showed on his hardened face. His features were not small, his nose was pronounced, hands were large, and his body muscled. He stood over six feet and his shadow loomed over Rik. Rik, sitting on the ground under the Lieutenant General’s shadow, felt small and his hands trembled slightly. Dask had a noticeable scowl that contorted his face and narrowed his eyes. Rik noticed his uniform and then he noticed the soldiers with him, there were lots of them. The General spoke in Aoife language. “Wie-jy ewes, vertel-nos?”