by K. D. Mattis
“That’s not all,” the president said. “His dedication forced me to focus on certain things, to see them in a new light.”
“Like what?”
“It’s simple; I’m at the end of my second term. I have a year left. There’s no more running for office. There’s no higher position to aim for. There’s no reason to hold back. I’m at the end of my time as the leader of the free world, but I don’t have much to show for it.”
“Sir?” Asher asked, her anger only slightly dampened.
“Our nation has seen many great things over the last few years. When I leave this office, I’ll have a great legacy. There’s no question about that.”
As the president moved from picture to picture, Asher watched.
“Still,” he continued, “I don’t know if a great legacy is enough. At least, not when I look back at all the things I could have done differently. When you begged me for help, I stood back. When you screamed about the alien threat, I put you and your crew on the back burner so that I could appease some politicians.
“I’ve expected you to step up to the plate on several occasions without providing the support you begged me for. I’m ashamed of that. It was necessary at the time, but now I’m going to change it.”
She did her best to contain herself.
“Asher, I’m making an announcement soon.”
“How soon?”
“It’ll happen the second it makes sense. It won’t be as quick as you want, I’m sure, but it will happen. We just have to make sure the right cards are in play first. Things will be different in the future, and despite appearances, you have my full support.”
When the president left the room, Asher did the same. Already her mind was filled with ideas and possibilities. While she normally hated the multiple armed guards that followed her to high-profile locations, she found she enjoyed the company for once. Their presence kept her from dancing about and making a fool of herself.
As she boarded her plane, Asher pulled out her phone and called her executive officer.
“Gibbs,” Asher said, “get down to Brazil. Report back to me as soon as you find something worthwhile.”
3
Asher looked at the clock and knew she should go to her quarters. As usual, she found herself neglecting sleep in the hope of completing more paperwork. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced them open again before reviewing her inbox. Despite several hours of effort, more reports kept pouring in that required her attention.
“Well, that’s enough for one night.”
Pulling out her briefcase, Asher began stuffing it with various items. She grabbed her tablet last and pulled up the news. None of the stories grabbed her interest, so she slid the tablet into the briefcase as well.
As she headed out, Asher made a point to turn off the lights and lock the door. She knew the cleaning crew would have done it, but she felt better doing it herself and had made it a part of her daily ritual when she wasn’t deployed. When the ritual was complete, she found it easier to stop focusing on the work she had left waiting for her.
Smoothing the front of her uniform, Asher turned sharply down the hall. Her long and quick steps carried her quickly to the elevator. Once inside, she paused without pushing any buttons. Loud steps announced the arrival of another person, and she reached her arm out to stop the elevator from closing. She didn’t bother looking away from the buttons.
“Admiral, is something wrong?”
She recognized the voice, but it felt so distant. As much as she wanted to answer, she couldn’t find the words.
The man let her stand silently for a moment, before saying, “You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?”
Asher nodded.
Commander Cole reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder as the elevator doors closed. “I know the feeling. I remember watching the same thing happen to my corpsman. I just felt so powerless.”
“Yeah,” Asher said. “I want to see him, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that. I remember seeing your corpsman after his surgery. That was hard enough.”
“Look,” Cole said as he pushed a button that took the elevator even farther underground, “I’ll join you. I can’t promise it will be any easier, but I’ll be there.”
She forced a smile, but Asher couldn’t bring herself to look Cole in the eyes.
The elevator dropped lower. After what felt like several minutes, it let out a ding, and the doors opened. The admiral and commander stepped out. Despite the late hour, several men and women in white coats hurried about. Some pushed large carts filled with various equipment and samples. Others carried clipboards or tablet computers. None took the time to salute the admiral as they made their way down a long corridor.
Though she had not yet visited, Asher knew just where to go. Her steps carried her much slower than before and forced Cole to slow his pace. They passed by labs filled with busy people. On the rare occasion that one of the scientists happened to look up, they barely offered her a smile before returning their full focus to their work.
Asher stopped. When Cole noticed, he turned to face her but didn’t say anything. She knew the next few steps would force her to look at someone she had been intentionally avoiding.
Cole didn’t wait. With a final step, he turned to face the glass of the room containing Lieutenant Harris, the Explorer’s pilot. Cole hit a button on the wall to activate the intercom. When Asher didn’t hear anything coming through, she took a deep breath and stood beside the commander.
It hurt, but Asher forced herself to look over the man lying on the bed in the room. His head was bandaged, and he rested, motionless.
Asher shook her head slightly. “I don’t understand. Your corpsman was talking after his surgery. Why isn’t Harris?”
Asher jumped at the sound of an unfamiliar man’s voice.
“It’s unfortunate, Admiral,” said a doctor standing up from a chair beside the lieutenant. Through the intercom, his voice cracked and fizzled, but was otherwise clear. “Lieutenant Harris is in a chemically induced coma. We won’t risk waking him until the parasite, or whatever it is, is successfully removed from his brain.”
“I thought the surgery was a few days ago.”
The doctor nodded with unexpected fervor. “It was. So was the second. After the third attempt, we knew we had to try something different. We have a team running simulations and tests, but we just don’t know when we’ll be able to successfully extract whatever it is in his brain.”
Noticing the frustration in his commanding officer’s face, Cole asked, “Why hasn’t the surgery worked?”
“I wish we knew,” the doctor said. “We went in just like we did for the first patient with the parasite—the man from your ship. With the corpsman, the extraction happened without incident. In the case of the lieutenant, every extraction attempt fails. The parasite has effectively melded with his brain. There’s simply nowhere for us to cut that won’t compromise or kill the lieutenant. We weren’t prepared for that.”
“I don’t understand. How can it meld with his brain?” asked Cole.
“Well, that’s the thing we don’t understand either. We expected the parasite to respond to the sedation the same way as the first parasite. It should be attached, but melding is beyond anything we’ve ever dealt with. The only thing we can figure is that, while they look the same, the parasites have some fundamental difference.”
“What kind?” Asher asked.
The doctor shook his head. “If I knew that, I’d have found a solution. Frankly, we don’t have much to work with. How the parasite can work with our physiology is already well beyond my comprehension. It’s completely alien. It shouldn’t have the ability to use a human being as a host when it didn’t evolve alongside us.”
“But it’s able to attach?”
“Obviously, sir.”
Looking back to the room, Asher focused on the equipment monitoring the pilot. After several moments of silence, she asked, “Could the aliens have programmed or
created the parasite to work on humans?”
The doctor grabbed a clipboard and flipped through several pages of charts looking for something. “It’s possible, but outside of our capability. Because of that, I have no idea how they went about it. Without knowing the details, it would be next to impossible for me to resolve this.” The doctor took a deep breath. “If the parasite is somehow engineered for our physiology, then I’m not sure we can resolve this soon enough to help the lieutenant. Besides, that raises other questions.”
“Such as?” Cole asked.
After entering a few commands into his tablet, the doctor looked back up. “Well, that kind of engineering would take considerable time. Even if the aliens are far more advanced than us, that kind of skill would require test subjects.”
She tried to resist, but the late hour took its toll on her body, and Asher yawned. As she thought about the doctor’s comments, her eyes grew wide. “How would they get test subjects?”
“They would have to gather them, of course.”
“Which means they had to have come to Earth at some point? How could they come here undetected?”
The doctor entered a few more commands into his tablet before turning the screen to the admiral. “It’s simple, sir. Either they have an advanced stealth technology, or they’ve been coming to Earth for a long time.”
Asher looked at the tablet through the glass partition as the doctor scanned through a long list of names and stories. Each showed a detailed account of abduction.
“Admiral,” the doctor said, “I’m certain you’ve heard of alien abductions. Have you heard of fairy abductions?”
Commander Cole laughed and turned away.
“I know it sounds ridiculous, Commander, but you should look into it.” Turning the tablet back to himself, the doctor continued talking while he scrolled through the entries. “Alien abductions have been reported for decades, but they are often dismissed as a symptom of mental illness or an overactive imagination. However, fairy abductions have been reported for centuries.”
“Why does it matter?” Asher asked.
Shaking his head again, the doctor said, “Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it does. All I know is that many of the fairy abduction reports are very similar in nature to modern alien abduction claims. For all I know, each and every claim is a lie or hallucination. But then, maybe some of them aren’t. If we look back, alien abduction claims really took off when we understood the concept of alien life. Before that, the closest we could relate to was fairies or some other supernatural beings. People report things to the best of their ability insomuch as they can understand them. If we accept that the claims are real and accept that the fairy and alien abductions are very similar, we reach a very startling conclusion.”
“You don’t mean—”
The doctor dropped his arms to his sides. “The aliens could have been abducting people for hundreds of years. That would certainly give them time to engineer the parasite to work on us, and it would give them the ability to communicate with us.”
As she thought about his words, Asher turned slowly toward the doctor. She tried to find a flaw in his logic, but couldn’t.
“Can you prove any of this?” Asher asked.
Snorting, the doctor said, “Hardly. It’s mere conjecture, but it’s a possibility worth exploring.”
“Cole,” Asher said, “what did your Corpsman do when the parasite entered his brain?”
“He just kept repeating the same warning. He’s still doing it as far as I know.”
Suddenly excited, Asher pointed to Harris. “He didn’t. I could communicate with him. We had an actual conversation when he was infected. The parasite must be completely different. Has anyone tried to talk to Harris since he arrived?”
The doctor looked shocked. He shook his head but ran through the charts once more to make sure. “Of course not. We’ve kept him sedated for his own safety.” After a pause, he added, “And ours.”
“How long would it take to wake him?” Asher asked.
“I wouldn’t advise doing that. We don’t know how he or the parasite would react. It could cause permanent brain damage. Even if it didn’t, waking him up may cause him severe pain.”
“How long?” Asher asked again, her voice stronger than before.
Shaking his head again, the doctor said, “A few hours, at least. It could be a day or two.”
Asher turned and began to walk away. “Make it happen. Call me as soon as he’s awake and stable.”
4
Commander Gibbs entered the plastic tube with his rifle clutched tightly in his hand. As his group moved forward, he focused on his breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Each breath was carefully forced to hide his concern. The stale air from his suit’s tanks tasted different than it did in space. He looked at the side of the rifle to ensure that the magazine was full. A green light indicated that a round was chambered and ready to use.
Every step closer to the crashed alien vessel sent a conflicting chill down his spine. As excited as he was to finally see the inside of the ship, he didn’t know what to expect.
Near the hull of the ship, the tube opened wide where a team of men was hard at work cutting through the metal. He expected the hull to be black, but up close, he noticed a subtle blue.
Two men in full-body hazmat suits approached the commander.
“Sir, it’s of the utmost importance that you and your men maintain the integrity of your suits. If there’s any compromise, and I do mean any, you’ll be stuck in quarantine for the next few years.”
As one of the men talked, the other worked to attach various sensors to the commander’s suit.
“Understood,” Gibbs said. “Have any of the scans given us an idea of what’s inside?”
“I’m afraid not. You’re going in blind. We’ve sent a few drones in, but they shut down shortly after entry. We don’t know what’s causing it, but the next step is to send in a team.” The man pointed to the front of the giant vessel. “You’ll be entering near the weapons system. If you can get any information on them, the admiral wants it immediately.”
A team of men struggled to pull a section of the hull away from the rest of the ship.
“What about hull samples?”
Shaking his head, the man said, “Not to worry, Commander. We’ve already sent off several to the research and development team. They should have everything they need, but keep an eye out. There may be technology inside that allows for repairs or strengthening the hull that we wouldn’t know to look for.”
The men stood awkwardly while the other technician finished installing the sensory equipment. When he finished, he looked at the commander and offered a quick nod before walking off for decontamination.
Taking a deep breath, the commander stepped forward toward the opening in the ship. “Ryan, Hernandez, Stiles, you’re taking point. Keep close and keep your eyes open.”
Each of the men hit a series of buttons on their suits. As they did so, bright lights on their helmets flickered on to light the way. With a final check of their weapons, they ducked down and entered the opening of the ship.
Once inside, the commander allowed his eyes to adjust. His vision fought against the glare in his helmet. As his men fanned out, a heads-up display highlighted each of them in a green light. A team of five joined each of the point men.
Large bundles of cables and containers filled the room. No one gave them more than a moment’s notice before continuing. Each of the three teams circled the room, looking for any entrance. They only found one. The men approached, standing guard with their guns held at the ready.
“Science team, come in,” Commander Gibbs said into his radio. When no one responded, he looked back toward their entrance. He tried again to no avail. “All right, then, we can’t contact the outside. Are short-range radios working?”
Every person on the ship responded in the affirmative. Lowering his weapon slightly, the commander activated his camera. He knew he couldn�
�t transmit anything to the outside, but he hoped the recording device would still function.
The only light in the room came from the flashlights of the security team and from the opening in the hull. Gibbs swallowed his concerns and nodded to his men. With the signal, they forced the door, allowing entrance farther into the ship.
The teams spread out in the tight corridor, again looking for any doors. In seconds, they found two, and the third team took to their knees, facing the end of the hall. The men were professionals. If they felt any fear, Gibbs noted that they showed no outward signs of it.
After only two steps into the room, Gibbs froze. His gaze slowly went up.
“Is something wrong, sir?” asked one of the soldiers.
Gibbs pointed up. “The ceiling. It’s so tall.”
Looking up, the soldier quickly looked back to the commander. “It doesn’t seem that tall to me, sir.”
“Think about it,” Gibbs said, “in space, you want everything as compact as possible. Even if they don’t adhere to the same standards as us, this ceiling has to be at least twelve feet tall.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know yet.” Nodding toward the doors, Gibbs removed a small box from a pack on his hip and tossed it to one of the soldiers. “Set up the motion detectors and the explosives. If someone comes after us, let’s make sure they have a bad time.”
The teams worked quickly to secure the doors. The placement of the units didn’t take long, but the men exercised caution. To verify the safety control of the units, the men installing the boxes ran their gloves near the sensor. It detected the signal in their suit and activated a green light, indicating that the men could pass freely without concern.
With the first two doors to the left secured, the team entered and proceeded to do the same for every new door they found. When they finished, they pushed forward to the front of the ship. The flashlights on the security team’s suits created unusual and frightening shadows on the walls. Every so often, one of the men would snap his gun toward one of the shadows, look it over for a moment, then continue on. The ceiling height never changed.