“We feel the same way,” Hawkel assured her. “The Aeon’s have been a thorn in our side for far too long. This will rid us, and the universe at large, and multiple universes, perhaps,” he added, glancing to Sarah before continuing, “from the Aeon threat for all time.”
There was a small outburst of applause, from a particularly embarrassed looking female Zaytarian on the benches. She blushed and lowered her head, and Hawkel went on, the medals and pins he wore on his sleeve jingling as he motioned to Sarah.
“We have worked out what we feel is the safest course of action for you, but please understand, that safest does not mean without danger.”
Sarah nodded her head. She couldn’t turn them down, could she? She had spent the last few nights wishing her father had never found the damn crystal, and she instinctively reached up to touch it through the front of her shirt.
“I understand,” she said.
“Good,” Hawkel said. “I introduce you now to our chief strategist, Colonel Silt. He will walk you through what we are thinking.”
Silt was the same gray tone as Gar, though he was shorter and much less muscular, his hair cut only to his shoulders. His eyes were a piercing blue, and Sarah got chills as the alien gazed at her, without knowing exactly why. His gaze was piercing, as though he could see through to one’s soul.
“Sarah,” Silt said, as every other Zaytarian did. It did not appear as though any of them had more than one name. It was just Gar, or Silt, or Hawkel. “I would love your feedback with this plan, so please, interrupt with any thoughts or concerns as we go on,” he said.
“Sure,” Sarah replied, but she doubted she would have anything to add. She didn’t even know where the hell she was, technically, other than ‘not on Earth,’ and she definitely was not a strategist.
Silt lifted his hand, and the lights in the room dimmed as he stood. An electric hum accompanied a slim screen which came from the ceiling, coming to rest directly behind Silt. He stepped to the left so most in the room could see the screen.
“This is the Aeon home planet,” Silt told them, as the screen came to life. There was a shot of a planet from space, and Sarah could not keep from gasping. It looked like no planet she had ever seen before. Where Earth was green and blue, and she was sure Gar’s home world was similar, this one was… angry looking. That was the only way she could think of it. Angry.
It was mostly red, the land, the sea, everything, and there were thick black clouds obscuring large portions of the planet, the same way that white ones may do so in a picture of earth.
“The planet, Sarah, is volcanic.”
That made it all click for Sarah. She had been thinking of something, and that was exactly it. Volcanic. It looked like something out of a Star Wars movie. The black clouds weren’t from the atmosphere, they were from the thousands of volcanoes which dotted the landscape.
“It looks awful,” Sarah said truthfully, and Silt didn’t bother to suppress a smile.
“It is,” he said with a nod. “The planet’s surface is treacherous, and is sure to cause us some problems. But, it will ultimately be our saving grace.”
“How do you mean?” Sarah asked.
Silt paused for a moment, looking to Hawkel, Gar, and then back to Sarah. “They’ve weaponized the largest volcano on their planet.”
“Weaponized it?”
“Yes. They’ve built it up, basically turned it into a massive… battery. The eruption can exit their atmosphere, and take to space.”
Sarah let her mouth fall open. “It can erupt into space?”
“Yes.”
“But, still, they’re too far from you, are they not.”
“Originally, yes. Technically yes, I should say. But they’ve developed another weapon. It’s a portal. It’s massive, and it will create a variant of a black hole. The blast can be directed into the portal, and then another portal transports it. They are bringing the exit here, even now.”
“They’re going to erupt a volcano at your planet?”
“Yes.”
“And what does this do?” Sarah asked, jumping ahead a bit, reaching into the neck of her shirt and pulling the crystal her father had given her out. She pulled the chain it hung on from around her head and held the crystal out for everyone to see. She heard some in the benches above her gasp.
“It can overload the weapon,” Silt said truthfully.
“How?”
“It’s as simple as throwing it in. The crystals that grow on the planet, they react to the volcanoes. Well, I should say grew. The Aeon’s destroyed them all, save this one. It was smuggled away by the engineer who developed the super volcano. He had a change of heart, took a little sliver from the last of the stock of crystals before it could be destroyed, and ran. They found him, but not before he shot that crystal into space, where it impacted your planet.”
Sarah sat in stunned silence. They watched her, waiting for her to speak.
“So, I go and drop this into a volcano, and it stops the weapon?”
“It destroys it, permanently,” Silt said. “In fact, we think the breakdown of their weapon will be so catastrophic that the planet will be completely destroyed within hours.”
“Why do I have to do it? Why do I have to be the one there? Can’t anyone just throw the damn thing in?”
“If only it were that simple, you would be home in bed right now. The Aeon’s could not touch the crystal, due to superstitions. We cannot take it from you and do it ourselves because the crystal is alive.”
That was not the first time Sarah had heard such a claim. She remembered being told the same thing when Gar and her had first come aboard the ship which had brought them to Gar’s planet.
“So what?” she asked. “It likes me?”
“In a word, yes,” Silt said. He motioned with his hand once more, and the picture on the screen changed. Gone was the Aeon planet, and in its place a crystal, but drawn, and bisected to show its innards. There was a brain, and a network of nerves.
“This isn’t yours,” Silt explained, “just something one of our scientists worked up, showing the nervous system of the Aeon crystals. That crystal was dormant until it made its way to you. It responds to thoughts, much the same way the Aeon’s do. In fact, it appears as though all life on Aeon has at least some aptitude to gifts of the mind; whether it be reading one’s thoughts, sensing others, or full on control. Dormant, we are pretty sure the crystal will not create the disturbance we need to destroy the weapon. Awake, and linked to you, it will.”
“So you’re worried that if I leave, this thing will go back to sleep?”
“Yes.”
“And that it’s been alive the whole time? Since I was a little girl?”
Silt nodded. “Yes.”
“And you want me to kill it?”
Silt nodded again. “It will not survive.”
It was a strange thing. A wave of uncertainty washed across Sarah’s body at the thought of throwing the crystal into a volcano. It would have given her pause even before, since it had been around her neck every day for most of her life. It was her good luck charm. It wouldn’t be easy to get rid of it in such a final way.
Knowing it was alive? A creature of some sort? Made it that much harder.
“Is this going to be a problem?” Hawkel asked from beside her in a kind voice. She looked to him, and then across the table to Gar, who was pouring water from a pitcher into a glass and sliding it across to her.
“No,” she replied, shaking her head as she took the glass. “I can do it.”
“Okay.” Silt took over once more. The picture beside him changing on the screen. It was another shot of Aeon, but this time much closer; an overhead view of a massive volcano.
“This is the weapon,” Silt said. “We designated it Point A One, but the Aeon’s call it by a different name. Hell Bringer.”
Sarah shuddered. There could be no mistaking the Aeon’s intentions. They were out for blood.
“Here,” Silt said, and a r
ed circle appeared near the volcano, maybe a mile or two away by Sarah’s estimation, “is where the strike team will land.”
“Strike team?” Sarah asked.
“Yes. A very small team. We think that will be the best course of action. Security around the weapon is surprisingly light, according to spies we have on the planet.”
“You have spies? Zaytarian?”
“No, Aeon. Very few, but yes, we do. Some do not wish to go down the path their leaders are taking them. Of course, on a planet where everyone can read each other’s thoughts, they prune these types out.”
“Gar and I… he came to save me, I was on this planet,” Sarah said suddenly, realizing what had been bugging her since she saw the shot of the Aeon home world from space.
“That was a planet under their control, and it has been for millennia, but it was not their home world,” Gar said. Sarah frowned. Why hadn’t he explained that to her before?
“The Aeon’s. Couldn’t they have killed me and taken the crystal to destroy it? I know they’re scared to touch it, but if they destroyed the others…”
Silt looked to Sarah. “They wanted to use the crystal to transform another volcano into a super weapon, on the other side of their planet. After firing the weapon once, it will take years for the volcanic forces to build up again. Having two of the weapons would prevent anyone from trying to take them out while the first one recharged. They used another crystal to make the weapon in the first place. They vented it and formed it with machinery, adding on to it, but the crystal was needed for reactive reasons. They have not completed the same process with the other volcano, but they were keeping you alive until they were ready for it, and then they would have killed you.”
Sarah felt her heart skip a beat. Knowing just how close she had come to death was enough to cause her blood to run cold.
“Okay, so a small team lands here?” she asked, getting the briefing back on track.
“Yes,” Silt said. “We are going to attack the planet with everything we have. Space assault, on-planet assault, everything. Away from the super weapon though. We will distract them, and hopefully the small strike team can get the job done.”
“I want Gar with me,” Sarah said, looking across the table to the gray-skinned alien. Her lover smiled.
“I’ll be there,” he said. “Along with two of our best soldiers.
Two aliens further down the table raised their hands; a man with blue skin and a woman with light orange skin, like a sunrise. “That’s us,” the woman said. “I’m Fibina, and he’s Char.”
“Thank you for coming with me,” Sarah said.
“Thank you for helping us,” Char replied, and then Silt spoke up once more.
“Four people. Four people is the perfect number according to our simulations. We can do this with four. We have to do it with four. Everyone will have a part to play, but this happens, and the war is over.”
“So no pressure, right?” Sarah asked, and Silt laughed.
“No pressure,” he agreed.
“When do we go?” the Earthling wanted to know.
“In the morning,” Gar said, reaching over and taking her hand. “We leave at dawn.”
Chapter Seven
Sleep did not come to Sarah that night. Gar was with her, snoring lightly, but sleep eluded her. She stared at the ceiling, her eyes having adjusted to the dark, and tried not to have a breakdown. There were only hours to go before she was in space yet again, and from there Silt told her it would be three and a half days to the Aeon home world.
Eventually, a buzz from the clock next to the bed woke Gar, and Sarah quickly closed her eyes, pretending to wake when he did. “Is it time?” she asked, trying her best to sound groggy.
“Yes, it’s time,” the alien said, looking over to her. He stared at her for a moment and then smiled. “You did not sleep a wink,” he said.
Sarah had to laugh. “No, I did not. How did you know?”
Gar seemed sheepish for a moment. “You look awful,” he said finally. “Red eyes. Tired eyes.”
Sarah grinned. “Great,” she said. “I’m going to hell planet looking awful.”
“Sleep on the ship,” Gar said, and she could tell it wasn’t a suggestion, but a command.
“Okay,” she said, nodding her head. “I promise.”
“Let’s get ready.”
They showered in turns and dressed, Gar in his uniforms, and Sarah in something similar that had been left with her by the admiral. A symbolic gesture; a way to show she was part of the team.
A car was waiting for them outside, and the golden sun hadn’t even risen. The streets were mostly quiet.
Fibina, who had told Sarah that she could call her Fib, was behind the wheel, and Char was sitting next to her. Gar and Sarah climbed in the back, and they were off.
The military base was one of buzzing activity. Vehicles moved all over, and ship after ship took off from the shipyard.
“Most of our force is already off world, but the rest is going too,” Gar explained as they stopped next to a small ship that would take them to Aeon. “This is it. All hands on deck.”
Sarah nodded. She climbed out and looked the ship over. It was painted a dull black color, with white dots on the bottom. “Landing at night?” she asked.
Gar nodded. “How did you know?”
“Stars,” Sarah said, pointing to the white dots.
Gar smiled, impressed with his lover. The ship was shaped like a wedge, wide at the rear and narrow in the front. A sliding ramp was lowered to the ground, and Sarah walked up behind Gar. He showed her around quickly, and introduced her to the two pilots. There were two quarters, Gar and Sarah would share one, and Fib and Char would share the other, much to their annoyance, for it turned out they had flirted with the idea of a relationship before, but nothing had come from it. In fact, Char had met Fib’s younger sister more than once, and Sarah overheard him confiding to Gar that he was interested in her. Fib did not look like the type of woman, alien or not, who would encourage such fancy. If Sarah had to guess, she figured the alien was rather protective of her sister, or any other relation for that matter.
Sarah thought about offering to bunk with Fib and letting the boys bunk together, but she wasn’t willing to be away from Gar for the last two nights she may ever have with him, one way or the other. She hoped they would both make it off the planet, even knowing if they did she would be returning to Earth.
She pushed that thought from her brain. She had enough to worry about, and didn’t need to add something else. She could worry about her future when she actually knew she had a future, and not a minute before.
The ship also had a small kitchen where hot food was dispensed from a box on the wall, and Gar pulled a towel off a bowl in a flourish to reveal twenty or so of the pink-skinned fruit Sarah had fallen in love with. She wasn’t sure she was going to be able to eat any, as nervous as she felt.
The pilots would bunk in small beds next to the cockpit, one at a time, and the last room was given over to supplies. Guns mostly, but also tents and first aid packs. Sarah wanted to be in and out when it came to the super weapon. The idea of having to sleep on the Aeon world was one that filled her with dread, and one she wasn’t willing to entertain.
Shortly after take-off Gar forced her to eat something, a piece of toasted bread with a jam of some sort, while he tackled a much larger breakfast with eggs bigger than any Earth chicken and fried meat that the other Zaytarian soldiers took part in as well. Sarah didn’t understand how they could eat. Weren’t they afraid? She thought that maybe they faced death much more often than here. Perhaps it was something they had to do every day. But for her, it wasn’t.
She was just a college dropout, a simple girl who missed her friends and family, who wanted to go back home. She didn’t want to face death. She wasn’t sure she even could.
But no, that wasn't quite true, was it? She had faced death plenty of times. She had faced it and beaten it. From crash landing on the jungl
e planet, to surviving being a captive. She had faced death again and again and come through fine. Gar had been there for her. He had been there to help her pull through, to keep her from dying. He had been there all of those times, and he would be there again. He wasn’t going anywhere, and Sarah knew it.
For that first day everyone seemed to be trying their best to keep spirits up. There were jokes, and laughter, and even some drinking. Waking up after managing a few hours of sleep the next morning, however, Sarah could note that the mood had changed.
Hardly anyone spoke. A nervous energy had engulfed them all, and it carried them into the third and final day of their trip.
Sarah could feel the ship slow a few hours after they had eaten lunch. Gar led her to the cockpit, where both pilots were sitting. Out of the viewport she could see other ships, much more massive than the one she was on, hanging in space seemingly random.
“A jump will take us into the fight,” one of the pilots told Gar. “We’re getting as close as we can before exiting. It will be a fast descent.”
Gar could see the look of confusion on Sarah’s face and he explained.
“Our ships move faster than light speed,” he said. “We call it jumping, because it’s almost like you teleport. We’re going to come out of the jump much closer to the planet than we usually would, because the fight has started, and the space around the planet is dense. We need to come out under it, almost in atmosphere. It’s dangerous, but these two are the best pilots we have, and they’ll take care of us.
“We wait for the signal, and then we jump,” one pilot said.
“How soon?” Sarah asked.
“It’s evening there now. Soon. An hour.”
“Very good,” Gar said. He left the cockpit with Sarah. Time to get ready.
Sarah and the three aliens, who would be accompanying her to the surface of the Aeon home world, dressed identically; black shirts and trousers, heavy boots, and black hats that reminded Sarah of snow beanies from home, though they lacked the fun and stylish bauble most of her winter hats had.
Aeon War Page 4