“Show me the engine, I’ll take it out with a—” Green bolts leap out of the front vaporizing the wall in an explosion of debris. Ocean water rushes in as the ship jumps up and blasts out leaving a trail of vaporized water behind it.
“After her!” They’re taking Kate. Frack! My heart races as we follow them out the hole. Water rushes in like a giant tidal wave. The entire ship lists to the side as the flooding rapidly pulls it down. I blast out the hole behind them, Emdrive whining with strain. “Hold nothing back. Epic, we can’t lose her.”
Roger.
The scout ship moves at impossible speeds. I stopped the last one with a mass driver shot but I can’t do it this time. I need to catch it.
“Faster!” The suit red lines, vibrating with power as I push it harder than I ever have. Heat builds up on the surface as we shoot past Mach Nine and out into orbit in a handful of seconds.
Scans indicate an energy build up…
A quantum gate? Oh no. No. No. No. I surge forward dumping every bit of power into the drive. The range drops— but not fast enough.
“Particle beam.” Hang in there Kate. I fire off a beam at the engine. They’re too far away to tell if I hit. I fire again.
A massive hole in space opens in front of the ship. I can’t see anything beyond it, just a flash of white light… and the ship is gone.
She’s gone.
“Kate!” My heart stops and I can’t breathe. She can’t be gone, she just… can’t.
I fly back to the site in a daze. How can Kate be gone? For the umpteenth time I reach out to her in my head, but I feel nothing. Not that I ever really did. But when I needed her, she’d always appear. My heart burns as I fall through the atmosphere back down to the Mediterranean and the Calypso Deep. I ignore whatever Epic puts on my screen and let the autopilot take me in.
How can.. How could I have let this happen? I knew the Th’un were interested in super-powered test subjects. I should have had a backup for this.
We coast back in at a few thousand feet over the blue water. New arrivals in the form of the US and Hellenic Navy are on the scene. I can see the ships coming in for miles. Two F-35C Lightning II’s zip down below me on combat air patrol. I can see the Emjet hovering over the water near one of the remaining ships.
Circling around I scan the area for my team. Epic tags all of them. Everyone but Kate. The tops of the ships are filled with Th’un on their knees with giant hands above their heads. I guess not all of them got away.
A bright light flares up next to me and Lux appears in her stunning brilliance. She points down to where Luke is and then zooms off leaving a trail of fire that fades after a few seconds.
I’m not looking forward to this.
“Epic, I…”
Amelia. Kate is not dead, nor is she beyond our reach. We have the prototype quantum gate drive, we have Lux’s ship, and now we have two Th’un destroyers. We can find her.
A weak smile graces my lips. “Thanks, buddy. Yeah. I just… right. We’ll find her.”
I land on the ship next to Luke. He throws a thousand watt smile at me. I think he’s never been happier. This is where he excels at. A straight-up enemy he can fight. No shadow tactics or having to pretend. I notice he has a Th’un rifle in his hands, it’s a little oversized for him since they are so tall, but it looks good on him.
“After their commander left, they all surrendered. The US Navy Admiral on the scene is moving his carrier group to support the Greek Navy. Once they’re secure we can go. Where’s Kate? She isn’t still on the sinking ship?” Alarm flashes across his face. I manage to shake my head but my throat closes up as I try to speak. With a thought my helmet flows off, retracting into the rest of the suit leaving me with my silver mirrored bodysuit ending at my neck.
The look on my face clearly tells Luke something is wrong. He rushes over to me, enveloping with his big arms in a hug I desperately need.
“She’s not…”
“No. They took her. The ship that blasted free… they took her.” I sink my face into his neck. I don’t move, don’t hardly breathe for who knows how long. He rubs my shoulders and holds me tight, whispering to me that it will be okay, that we’ll get her back.
Anger grows in me. Not anger at losing her, or not being forward-thinking enough to foresee this, I’m not Pythia. But anger over the Th’un. Who gave them the right to come here and cause trouble like this? Who gave them the right to come to our planet and blow stuff up. Don’t we have enough problems without aliens coming in and stirring things up?
I put my hands on his firm biceps and push back from him. “Thank you, Luke, I needed that. Let’s finish up here and get back to base. We have some work ahead of us.”
“Damn skippy we do.”
I try, I really do. Epic even flashes a warning on the screen for me to take a moment. Under any other conditions I might, but this… my fists clench in anger as rage rolls through me like a tsunami.
“Are you telling me, that I, Arsenal, the woman responsible for stopping the Alien invasion, cannot have access to their ships?” I ask in a withering tone. I’m out of the armor and in my chair, despite my seated position I lean forward, narrowing my eyes at him. Three days have passed and I can’t stop thinking about Kate. Out there alone, suffering god knows what. I haven’t slept and barely eaten since we returned home. There are a million and one things to do and no time to do any of them. Part of me had hoped they would let their guard down and she’d appear back here lickity split. No such luck.
Major Nelson runs his hand through the short crop of hair he maintains to regulation standards. “I’m afraid so—” he holds up to forestall the outburst I’m about to unleash on him. “If it were up to us, you would. But the ships landed in International waters. The Greeks are in a bad way financially and they really want the tech those ships will bring. Right now the whole thing is tied up with the diplomats. I’m sorry, Arsenal. If there were a way to do it, you know we would.”
I sigh. Anger seeps out of me like helium from a balloon. “Thank you, Major. Keep me apprised.”
“Will do.” The screen goes dark, leaving me in the room alone with nothing but my thoughts and Epic.
She will be okay, Amelia. You need to believe that.
“I… I want to, Epic, I really do. I need to think.”
In the time I have known you, there are two situations you think best in. Working in your lab or watching Star Trek. Which would you like to do?
I smile. He does know me. “How about both?”
Lux walks in holding hands with Fleet who trails behind her like a puppy dog. I wonder if he’d have this reaction if he saw her true form? While she’s beautiful in either, her other form is considerably more alien.
I know why she’s here to talk. “Lux, Fleet, what can I do for you?”
“The Th’un are defeated. When can we leave for my world?” Lux asks without preamble.
“You told me that you don’t know where the Th’un home world is, right?” I ask her again. It was the first question I asked after the battle in the Med.
“Yes. While they use similar technology to us, their computer systems are incompatible with ours. We never were able to find where they came from. We only knew about Earth because our probes followed them through a gate in the hopes it would lead us to their home.”
I nod. It makes sense. It’s not Star Trek where you just program in a course and engage. There are too many variables for space travel. One of them is just knowing where you are. Which sounds simple but in fact is quite hard. Space is big. Stars move, planets move, the computing power to make a jump alone is mind-boggling. The quantum gate drive’s tech was simple to copy, the navigation system, not so much.
If the government would let me have access to the ships floating over the Calypso Deep maybe I could decode it enough to follow them home or even take one of their ships. But they won’t…
“Oh boy, I just had a thought.”
Fleet grins. “When lightning strike
s, it usually is a good show. Are we going after Kate?”
I nod with a grin. “Lux, pack your bags, we’re going to go steal us a starship.”
Amelia, I am not sure stealing one of the Th’un destroyers is a wise course of action. There are international politics at play that could have unforeseen consequences.
“We’re not going to steal one of those,” I say. Turning to Lux I ask, “They’re on your planet, right? With those machines and other ships?”
She nods.
“If you knew where they were, where their planet was, what would you do?”
She glances down at the floor for a second, a frown playing on her pouty lips. “When the war was new, we considered attacking them. Now, though, we have no fleet. No weapons. My people hide in vast underground vaults hoping there will be enough of Luxilla left to inhabit when the Th’un are gone.”
I figured if they could beat the Th’un on their own they wouldn’t have come after me. The war for their planet is over, and Earth will follow suit. The Th’un escaped and odds are they will come back with an even bigger fleet or smash us from orbit, or one of a thousand scenarios that don’t require boots on the ground.
“What are you thinking?” Fleet asks.
“We go to Luxilla, steal one of their ships, go to the Th’un home and rescue Kate,” I glance over at the screen before looking back at Lux, “And blow up as much of their stuff as we can while we’re there. The Th’un will be a threat to both our planets. Maybe if we take the fight to them it will force a retreat.”
Fleet smiles. “I like it.”
“It has the beauty of simplicity,” I say.
Lux’s scout hovers an inch above the landing pad, silently waiting for us to board her. The entire team is ready to go, except the Doctor. The quantum gate travel isn’t instant. Luxilla is a seven-day trip from Earth and Teddy doesn’t want to be away from his wife for that long, and I can’t blame him. I’m trying to stay optimistic, but who knows if we’re even coming back? The rest of the team is downstairs making their preparations, only Carlos is up here with me watching the workers load the ship.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Carlos asks me. He’s in his Protector garb standing beside me and I can’t help but admire the man he’s become. We haven’t gotten to spend nearly enough time together since he came back and here I am leaving the planet! I guess I can’t really scoff too much at his time-travel story. A few years ago people scoffed at the idea of aliens, yet, here we are.
“They’re not worth that much. I think they might actually be in debt,” I tell him with a smile.
He chuckles. “Niña, we’ll get her back. Don’t worry. Between the two of us and the rest of the team we will rip that place apart.” He punctuates it by slamming his fist against an open palm.
Oh boy. Here’s the hard part. I hadn’t gotten around to telling him yet but… a line of workers load bags onto Lux’s ship and I use that as an opportunity to collect my thoughts. How to tell him?
“You can’t come with us,” I say, dropping it like a bomb. I don’t know what else to say.
“The hell I can’t. She’s my friend too.” He takes a knee to look at me eye level, something I always appreciated about him. He never made me look up when we spoke.
I take his hand in mine, “It’s not that I don’t want you with me. It’s that… Pythia made me promise not to let you leave the planet. She said ‘The Protector cannot leave Earth.’ I don’t know if she was being literal or figurative, or if she’s just jealous of our friendship… what?” The grin on his face isn’t what I expected.
“Why would she be jealous? She’s a three-thousand-year-old Greek construct. She might look like a person, but trust me, she isn’t. Everything she says and does has a purpose and she doesn’t always share with us. She says it’s the observer effect. Knowing the future changes the future. She tells us all just enough to push in the right direction and then lets destiny take it from there.” He lets out a long sigh. “If she told you I can’t go… she has a good reason for it. I’ll just have to trust her. Still… I would’ve like to have gone.”
“Me too. Maybe when I get back we can find some criminals to beat up side-by-side.”
“I’d like that,” he says. Leaning in he wraps me in a hug. He smells good and for a second I imagine us at sixteen, playing Halo, drinking Cokes, and eating Pizza. No matter what, I will cherish my friendship with him.
“You be careful out there. Okay? Grab Kate, bring her home. Don’t try to save the galaxy, Amelia, just save Kate.” He looks me in the eyes and I can see the seriousness in the depths of his brown irises.
“No playing hero, just search and rescue.” I pat him on the shoulder. He smiles one more time before standing up.
“Crap, I have to go,” he says. Taking a few steps from me he looks up into the sky.
“What is it?”
“Pythia says there’s a mudslide about to happen and wipe out a village in Africa. I have to stop it.” He strikes a classic hurler’s pose and heaves the spear into the sky. The bronze age weapon vanishes in a heartbeat.
“Be careful,” I say to him.
Carlos smiles at me. “Look after Monica, I don’t want her coming home hurt.”
“Will do.”
With a thump of displaced air Carlos leaps into the sky faster than I can follow and then he’s gone. I really would have liked him to come. His strength alone would be worth it.
Amelia, the last of the life-support and provisions are loaded. We can depart at any time.
“Call the team.”
Affirmative.
Five minutes later we’re all at the foot of the landing pad. Everyone is dressed in comfortable civilian attire because of the long journey and cramped quarters. No need to be in costume the whole time. Luke is at the head of the team, but they are waiting for me to say something. This isn’t my forte, it never has been but here I am, the leader of the team. I usually let Kate find the inspiring lines…
“We have a long trip ahead of us and I wouldn’t blame any of you for backing out now. I don’t think Kate would either. Luke, Fleet, and I have to do this, the rest of you don’t.” No one so much as moves a muscle. I smile. “I didn’t think any of you would. We’re going to take the fight to the Th’un. We’re going to bring Kate home. And we’re going to kick their asses while we’re at it!” They all smile at that. “Luke, load ‘em up,” I tell him.
He slaps his hands together. “Okay people. On the bounce. Move move move.”
“You know I could load this entire thing before you finish the thought?” Fleet asks him. In a blur the speedster has every personal bag on board. “See?”
“You missed your calling as a baggage handler,” Tessa says with a smirk.
I wait for everyone to load before I wheel around to enter last. I feel something, a tingle at the back of my neck and fear spikes through me. I spin around, the thoughts required to activate my armor about to form and I stop. Pythia, dressed like a snow bunny waiting for the lift, staring at her phone while she types away at it, stands there.
“What are you doing?”
“Texting. It’s addictive.” She strikes a pose, pouts her perfect lips and snaps a selfie. “I’m coming with,” she says brushing past me.
“Wait. Carlos can’t come but you can?”
She doesn’t respond as her boots echo on the ramp. I roll in after her. The ramp liquefies behind me turning into the door as I follow the prophetess on board. I’d stop her, but apparently I can’t.
She leans against the curved hull and slides down till her knees are pressed against her chest. Not once does she take her eyes off the phone in her hand.
“Uh, who’s that?” Luke asks. Right. Only Lux, Kate, and Carlos have ever met her.
“Luke, Tony, Monica, Tessa, this is Pythia. Oracle of Delphi… Pythia, these are The Protectors.”
She glances up, her overly large blue eyes taking everyone in before speaking. “Heya,” she says and looks back down at
her phone.
“She’s like every classmate I have,” Glacier says with a grin.
“Carlos hooked her on Instagram, there’s no stopping her now,” I tell her.
Greetings finished I move up to the pilot’s compartment. Lux has reconfigured the ship to have four rooms, and a very cramped bathroom. The cockpit is only big enough for one person, which is her, since she’s the only one who can fly the thing.
“We’re ready to go,” I tell her.
“Tell everyone to sit down. Quantum gate travel can feel… a little weird the first time you do it.”
“That’s my line,” I say with a smile. “Will do.” Epic passes the word on for me. The quarters are a bit cramped, but everyone finds a place to sit. I notice Monica is sitting by herself with her knees pulled up to her chest. I make a mental note to speak to her.
Lux hits a series of buttons and the ship shoots up with no acceleration induced gravity. I’m delighted I cracked the database because when I have the time, I am going to have a lot of tech to produce. Within a minute we break orbit and head for deep space.
“Quantum gate translation in thirty seconds.”
She hits another button and I can see the gate forming ahead of us. A white square in the vast blackness of space. Waves of distortion roll off the edge of the gate as we approach.
“Everyone, hang one. We’re going in,” I yell behind me. As a precaution, I lock my wheels down.
Amelia, all preparations for the Goodbye Protocol have been made, just in case.
“Thank you, Epic. I wish I could have seen my parents and explained to them in person, but there just isn’t time.”
It is what I am here for.
The ship shakes as it approaches the gate. Vibrations seep through the hull and into me blurring the world. I grip the sides of my chair, close my eyes and try and breathe through it.
“It will pass in a moment,” Lux’s musical voice says. The vibration worsens as the maw of the gate looms closer. Someone groans behind me and then we’re through and it vanishes. Nothing but white light illuminates the cockpit from the windows. Space is gone replaced by an endless void of nothing.
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