The Trojan Horse

by Christopher Nuttall

  “But they don’t let anyone – anyone human – board their ships,” the Colonel said. If there was a single point failure source in the entire alien fleet, it was their warship. But there was nothing human that could reach high orbit, let alone shoot down an alien starship. He considered, just for a moment, a scheme to build an Orion spacecraft before dismissing it as worthless. There was no way it could be built without alerting the aliens. “Do you think we could find other…Pacifists?”

  “Perhaps,” Toby said. He didn’t hold out much hope. Very few aliens talked to humans and he suspected that those who did were trained and authorised to do so. The other Pacifists might be able to make contact, or they might be terrified of being detected and remain in hiding. He doubted that the High Lord would be very kind to any Pacifist discovered onboard his fleet, not after what they’d done. An entire fleet wrecked and stranded thousands of light years from home. No human resistance force had ever pulled off a comparable feat. “We’d have to take an alien shuttle…”

  “We’d have to force them to get their people down on the surface first,” the Colonel said. He looked over at Gillian. “Didn’t you manage to get into the alien system?”

  “We’re still analysing it,” Gillian admitted. “The Snakes hacked into our internet through the secure military satellites in orbit. Quite clever of them, in a way; once they were inside, they could go anywhere and their computers could crack any secure database. Of course, it opened a path for us to hack them back, but we’re still working on making sense of how their computers work. On one hand, they’re actually more intuitive than anything we’ve designed for ourselves; on the other hand, whoever programmed them was programming for really stupid people. The interface appears to be simplistic to the point of absurdity. It might just be worse than Microsoft…”

  “Or maybe they want it to be secure,” the Colonel said. “I bet you that they don’t teach their children anything about computers, unless they have a pressing need to know. Just like a woman driver knowing nothing about how a car actually works – most of the time, she doesn’t need to know how a car works to drive. But when she has a breakdown, she’s in deep trouble.”

  Gillian smiled. “It has been my observation that many male soldiers don’t know the first thing about computers either,” she said, sweetly. “Do you know how often I’ve been able to break into secure databases because someone set their password as PASSWORD?”

  Toby chuckled and tried to hide it. “We’ll find a way in,” the Colonel said. He couldn’t share any more with Toby, not when there was a chance he could wind up serving the aliens. “Why don’t you two youngsters go for a walk? The days are drawing in and it will soon be dark.”

  If Toby resented being excluded, he didn’t show it. But then, he’d been the one to raise concerns about the possibility of being turned into a pod person, someone enslaved to the aliens. He stood up and Gillian followed him, slipping her hand into his as they left the room. The Colonel allowed himself a smile as the door closed behind them, and then he stood up. Bob Packman was waiting in the next room.

  “You heard all of that,” the Colonel said, without bothering with any preamble. “What do you think?”

  The former CIA analyst frowned. “It’s either true, in which case we will get a single shot at beating the bastards, or it’s the neatest lie any defector has ever told us,” he said. “Personally, I’m inclined to believe that it’s the truth. I cannot imagine anything that the aliens stand to gain by telling us such a lie.”

  “Are you sure?” The Colonel pressed. “What if they’re lying to us?”

  “I don’t see what they gain from it,” Packman said. “They lied to us about the Galactic Federation to get us to let down our guard. That makes perfect sense. Everything they did was concentrated on weakening us until they could land on Earth and take over without much resistance. They took control of the military – what was left of it – and started taking guns from the local population. And they took control of the media and bombarded us with propaganda about how they came in peace. But what do they stand to gain by convincing us that they’re weaker than we believed?”

  “They’d bring us out into the open,” the Colonel said, slowly.

  “They don’t gain from that,” Packman said. “They don’t need to provoke us into doing anything else, do they?”

  The Colonel couldn’t disagree. “Our first priority has to be to get onto one of their shuttles and get it up into space,” he said. “I think we need to talk to the General.”

  “I already have one idea,” Packman said. “I may just require Toby to risk his position a little. Actually, maybe a great deal. He’s the only one in place.”

  “I know,” the Colonel said.

  There was nothing else to say.

  ***

  Once, as a child, Toby had stood in the small orchard of apple trees and picked the fruit from the branches before they were ripe. His father hadn’t been pleased with him and had made many sardonic comments when the young Toby had complained of a stomach ache. Now, standing with Gillian under the stars, he felt the same sensation of unease. The night sky was no longer safe for humanity. High above, a winking light signified the presence of one of the alien ships, gazing down with lofty dispassion on the darkened continent. They could come down and strike at any moment and they knew it. They ruled the night.

  He hadn’t let go of Gillian’s hand, although he wasn’t quite sure how he’d come to hold it. She’d been living with his father, giving her ample opportunity to learn about Toby’s childhood – if she were interested. Other men seemed to be able to pick out and seduce girls with an ease Toby could only envy, a feeling only partly migrated by the awareness that everyone else had the same problem. The grass was always greener on the other side of the hill. But then, Gillian had the same problem as he did. Neither of them knew what to say.

  “I’m sorry,” Toby said, finally. “I didn’t mean to have to send you out here.”

  “Better than having me turned into one of the pod people,” Gillian said. Fort Meade had been overrun by pod people a day after Tehran had been hit. Luckily, most of the staff and records had been moved to concealed locations, but it was still a nightmarish blow against the federal government – and humanity’s freedom. Inch by inch, the noose was tightening around humanity’s collective neck. “I wish there was something we could do for them.”

  Toby nodded. The alien defector had said that the pod people couldn’t be freed, but he intended to try anyway. If they found a way to liberate the pod people from their shackles, they could run riot in the alien rear – or make the aliens distrustful of all pod people. The aliens had limits to their manpower; forcing them to rely more on their own people would drain their strength. Knowing that the aliens couldn’t risk destroying Earth’s technology base – if they ever wanted to see home again – made it easier for the resistance to plot, but if the aliens realised that it was hopeless they were likely to blow up the planet and call it a draw. Or go into suspended animation and wait for their Empire’s slow expansion to reach Earth. The defector had warned that even if humanity beat the High Lord, they would still have to worry about the Emperor and his Empire. Toby wasn’t so concerned. If his figures were correct, there would be hundreds of years until the Empire stumbled over Earth, long enough to develop a technological base that would dwarf anything the Snakes possessed. And then there would be revenge for the dead, and those brainwashed by the aliens.

  He pushed the thought aside and looked up at her. “I wish things were different,” he admitted. They had somehow never gotten close to consummating their relationship – if it was a relationship. It galled Toby that he could ride the political winds, even predict them to some extent, and yet not understand the feminine mind. Why couldn’t they all be guys with tits? “Washington doesn’t feel like itself any longer.”

  The thought was chilling. There was a heavy police and military presence on the streets, putting down riots with heavy brutality. T
he Witnesses – who had welcomed the aliens – were being lynched in the streets. After Tehran, only the most determined – and deluded - of true believers still believed in the promises from the aliens. There was no way of hiding what they’d done, and what was being done in their name. And someone had been taking shots at the White House. Toby was only surprised that the uncoordinated resistance hadn’t succeeded in killing more aliens, or collaborators. Perhaps he ought to be relieved. It would be quite easy for someone to take him for a collaborator.

  “They’re taking control of the cities,” Gillian agreed. “They’ve been studying us for years. They knew exactly how to seduce us, how to take control…they’re going to rape the entire planet. Why couldn’t we have met them when we had the whip hand?”

  Toby shrugged, awkwardly. “I have to go back to Washington tomorrow,” he said. It had been hard enough to get permission to sneak away for a night – and if anyone checked on where he was supposed to be going, the game would be thoroughly blown. His father would have to leave the farm just after Toby had departed, leaving only an unreliable human chain of messengers between them. If only they could trust the internet for anything more than a handful of coded phases. Gillian had done her best, but the alien computers were simply too powerful, capable of cracking any human code within hours at most. “I won’t see you again for a long time, if ever.”

  “I know,” Gillian said. Suddenly, they were very close together. “I wish…I think…”

  Their lips met. Toby had kissed before – he might not have been Don Juan, but he’d had other girls – but it felt different this time, almost electric. Perhaps it was love, part of his mind wondered, or perhaps it was just the awareness that there might not ever be another time. His lips pressed against hers with increasing desperation, feeling the sudden pressure of her body against his. He felt her hands reaching around to hold him, while he stroked her back as the kiss grew deeper. It was suddenly extremely difficult to undress without tearing something, or everything. She felt warm, perfect in his arms.

  And then there was nothing left, but her.

  ***

  The Colonel noticed the change in them the following morning, as Susan served them all bacon and eggs before Toby left. They didn’t know it, but the change in their relationship was obvious to someone with enough understanding of human body language. A blind man could have realised that they were now together. They couldn’t seem to let go of one another, or avoid blushing every time their eyes met. The Colonel pretended he hadn’t seen, even though part of him was trying to disapprove. He told that part of him to shut up. It wasn’t as if he’d been celibate before meeting Toby’s mother. Mary would have smacked him one for daring to even think of breaking up their happiness.

  After breakfast, he found a quiet moment to exchange a few words with Toby in private. “You’ve done well,” he said, as soon as they were alone. “I wish I’d had a chance to get to know you better.”

  “I understand,” Toby said. Perhaps, if the aliens hadn’t come, they would have remained at loggerheads. As it was, they had had a chance to rebuild their relationship. What more could any father ask for, at the end? They might never have another chance to try. “And thank you for everything.”

  The Colonel smiled. “Just make sure that that bitch who sold us out doesn’t get to live and we’ll be even,” he said. They’d discussed the plan over breakfast. It would be chancy – and it all depended upon weak links. Maybe that was a strength, the Colonel told himself. No one would expect it. “And then we can build a new country after the aliens have been defeated.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Washington DC

  USA, Day 63

  “Motherfucker,” Jayne whispered, to herself.

  She’d moved motels twice since uploading her latest piece news – actual investigative reporting – onto the internet. The precautions she’d taken hadn’t been good enough. A team of men wearing black suits and carrying guns were raking through the motel, while the manager, his staff and everyone unlucky enough to be in the building when it had been raided sat on the ground in handcuffs. Jayne knew who they were looking for, all right, and it was only sheer luck that had saved her from being caught in their net. If she hadn’t gone out for a meeting with one of her contacts, she would have been caught and her grand crusade would have come to a screeching halt.

  Thankfully, she’d managed to disguise herself as an old woman. Muttering to herself, she shuffled past the federal agents, shivering as she felt their gazes running over her. None of them seemed normal; none of them were even glancing at one of the guests, who had been pulled out of the shower and left in handcuffs while naked. They were all pod people, she realised, the coldness in their eyes revealing the dead souls inside. If they weren’t fooled by her grey hair, shawl and hunched motion…she got past them without any interruption and made it around the corner. As soon as she was out of sight, she picked up her skirt and ran, back towards the heart of Washington. How long would it be before they realised what she’d done and started to go back after her?

  Finding a bench, she sat down and lowered her eyes, refusing to pay attention to anyone on the streets. For their part, the citizens of Washington looked nervous, as if they expected the aliens to descend on them at any moment. Washington was an occupied city, no matter what President McGreevy said in her daily press conferences. The aliens and their pod people ruled the city. They’d set up roadblocks to prevent anyone leaving the city, carted away anyone who caused trouble and generally brought Washington to a halt. There was no food rationing, but Jayne suspected that that was only because the Snakes had set up feeding centres. The only thing a human had to do to access processed food produced by the machines was register with the aliens, something that would then be checked against government databases. Jayne knew enough to guess that the aliens would catch her the moment she allowed them to take her fingerprints and then…

  She didn’t know. No one knew what had happened to the prisoners the aliens had taken out of the city. Some rumours on the internet – and flying from person to person – suggested that they’d simply been made to dig their own graves and then gunned down, their bodies left to rot once dirt had been shovelled over their mortal remains. Another theory suggested that they’d been turned into pod people, or simply been worked to death as slaves; Jayne suspected that she knew what would happen to her. The aliens would take her as their prisoner, turn her into a pod person, and then force her to recant what she’d said online. And maybe someone would believe their lies and stop planning to resist the slow conquest of the human race.

  A moment later, she almost swore aloud. She’d taken out most of her life savings in cash when she’d realised that she would have to go on the run, but most of the money had been left in the motel room. She had only seventy dollars to her name, enough to buy…what? Prices of everything that wasn’t produced by the aliens was going up, despite strict attempts at price and wage control by President McGreevy. Everyone knew that the truckers weren’t so keen on bringing food into Washington now, with half of them on strike and the other half having deserted rather than run the risk of being turned into pod people. If the aliens hadn’t cracked down so hard on civil unrest, there would have been rioting in the streets.

  She thought hard, desperately. Where could she go? The BAN didn’t have any offices in Washington, at least none that wouldn’t be watched by the aliens. If they were determined to find her and armed with the most capable data-mining tools, they would have a list of her friends, acquaintances and everyone she had more than a nodding familiarity with, allowing them to watch and wait for Jayne to show herself. It seemed a great deal of effort for them to track down one person, but they’d spent a great deal of effort to wipe out others who’d spoken out against them. She didn’t dare run the risk of leading the aliens to one of her friends. There had to be another option.

  One option suggested itself at once. She could pick up someone in a bar, allow him to take her home an
d then spend the night with him. A moment later, she pushed the thought aside angrily. How could she consider becoming a prostitute? How far could she fall before she went eagerly to bed with a stranger, just for a roof over her head? Sickened at herself, she stumbled to her feet and started walking. There had to be something better than prostitution, or sleeping under a bridge or in an alleyway. Maybe she could find a room for the night, but then what would she do for food?

  She froze as a military convoy rumbled past her, heading towards the White House. Grim-faced soldiers occupied half of the vehicles, their guns in their hands as if they expected trouble. The other half of the convoy was occupied by aliens, carrying long silver sticks that had to be weapons. Jayne stared at them in horror, wondering what was going on. The soldiers had to be collaborators, or maybe they were merely pod people…no, they looked too grim for that. A thought slowly surfaced in her mind. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way to gain a bed for the night and some small measure of revenge against the aliens.