by Barlow,M
His words comforted her, but failed to do the same for him. Australians were on high alert, and the extraction team needed their skills, experience, and a lot of luck to succeed.
She lowered her gaze to the tablet when it made a buzzing sound. “I have the extraction team on standby.”
He sat down behind his desk and motioned her to take a seat. “Put them on.”
She pressed a button and placed the tablet above his desk to display a small hologram of the living area in the safe house in Canberra. The team captain stood in the middle, facing the camera, while the rest of his team was getting ready behind him. The Commander had handpicked every soldier in the team—they were seasoned soldiers with significant combat and retrieval experience.
“Ready to mobilize, sir,” the team captain said.
“We will provide fire cover from unmarked vessels in the international waters,” the Commander said. “Our airships will pick you up from the top of the building once you signal and take you to our aircraft carrier. Follow our contingency exit plan through the airport if things become complicated.”
“Roger that, sir.”
“Good luck, captain!”
“Thank you, sir.”
The Commander motioned his assistant to end the call and watched the hologram vanish.
He couldn’t find any signs that suggested ASIO knew about his team. How could they? His source was beyond reproach. And if things escalated, he’d use their significant assets in the region.
*****
Noah rubbed his eyes at seven in the morning. Four hours of sleep on the couch in his office left him tired and irritated. And watching Shara through the surveillance cameras over the past few hours didn’t help.
At first, she lay in bed, without moving a muscle. Her eyes were dim. Then she moved to the couch where her green eyes lit up. She studied him and his agents the same way they studied her. It was understandable. Her life depended on it. Shara broke into the ASIO network—the most secure servers in the country—like it was an old, turn-of-the-century, smart phone. She had the information she needed.
Noah strode to the wing and knocked on the door. He didn’t wait for an answer. He would not get one. Noah pushed the door open and entered the hall. Shara left the couch and floated in the air.
“You must be sick of people barging into your quarters,” Noah said.
She glided forward as if she was weightless. An intense look in her piercing green eyes. “Were you worried, agent?”
Noah smiled. “I’m always worried. You have to be specific.”
“Were you worried the team you sent after me would face the same fate as your last?”
Noah’s eyes narrowed as he examined her calm features and her intense eyes. “That’s a risk with every assignment.” He kept his composure. Shara was baiting him. “Look, I know you hacked into our systems and got our personal information—”
“Why are you estranged from your son?”
Noah didn’t say a word.
“The job got in the way?”
His eyes narrowed further. “You study people?”
Shara ignored his question and circled him the way a cat would circle an injured mouse before she moved in for the kill.
Noah ambled to the couch and sat down. “I do that, too. And not for free.”
Doubt seeped from under her long, green eyelashes.
He undid his shirt’s top button and rolled up his sleeves. “Your stance is confident not aggressive or reckless. You plan and prepare. You are military trained, but not just a soldier. I’d say an intelligence officer or an advisor.” Noah clasped his hands in front of him. “You’re smart, civilized, and comfortable in crowds. You show no signs of nervousness or desperation. You’re not trapped. I think you’re here because that’s where you want or need to be.”
Shara had a thin smile on her perfectly shaped mouth and a quick flash in her green eyes. “That’s it? So much for the special assignment and the recruiting trip.”
He ignored her remark. “You experienced a recent loss, and you’re mortified you have another one coming. You’re fit and strong and could put up a devastating fight. That troubles me.”
“It does?” She asked, her words slow and her tone mocking.
Noah lowered his gaze to the floor. “I’m troubled by the level of destruction you can unleash. The size of your landing party tells me someone out there is more destructive than you, and we’re on their radar.”
“Are you done?”
Noah stared straight into her eyes. “You won’t allow yourself to grieve. It’s not good for you. You have to go through the process.”
Shara showed no reaction to his words. She stood still like a green marble statue, a perfect case of ‘stiff upper lip’.
“Where is your world?” He asked.
“Let me show you.”
Noah got to his feet. She touched his forehead with her soft hand. He closed his eyes.
*****
When Noah opened his eyes, the hall had disappeared. He stood on a small rock in space. A giant planet beneath him, a planet bigger than Earth with large cities the likes of which he’d never seen.
The planet was under attack by an army of airships. Big airships—ten times the size of the largest American airship—fired heavy missiles, dropped bombs, and sent devastating beams of pure energy, scorching the world below. Targeting the cities and their inhabitants, smaller airships flew closer to the planet. They fired laser beams and short-range missiles. A massive campaign of destruction and terror on a level Noah couldn’t comprehend. Even as he watched it unfold before his horrified eyes.
Below, an army of giant airships emerged to defend the planet. They retaliated with brutal force and weapons that put mass destruction weapons to shame. The defenders fired green waves of energy that cut through the invading airships and tore them apart. Ground defense towers surfaced and fired energy beams toward the invading ships and small missiles which pursued the smaller ships and destroyed them. The planet’s army crushed the invading forces in minutes, without mercy.
The scene changed again. Noah was inside one of the defending airships. The engines rumbled. Hundreds of soldiers aboard operated the ship and scanned the battlefield for invaders.
A new wave of invading airships arrived. His heart nearly stopped. A large missile cruised past him toward a nearby city. The missile exploded with a thunderous blast. It demolished the tall buildings and sent dust and blue flames sky-high. As similar explosions blasted the city, the surviving residents tried to flee.
The defending ship which carried him hovered near the ocean where an enormous airship—the size of a small city—took off. It was a flying fortress wrapped in a pale-green energy shield. Metal plates on the ship’s body slid to reveal clear glass-like surfaces. They smoldered and fired green waves of energy as big as mountains. The waves wiped out everything in its path.
With devastating weapons, the fortress turned the tide of the battle. Tens of enemy airships fled. More waves of invading airships replaced them and flooded the battlefield. Their numbers were staggering.
The scene changed, Noah found himself inside the fortress. He watched through one of the clear shields as the epic battle continued.
An invading airship larger than the others, probably the commanding ship, launched a projectile—a black, tubular, metal missile no bigger than an Earthen airship—toward the planet. The projectile reached the ground and penetrated the ground.
Fissures developed along the surface. They enlarged, and green lava filled them. The fissures became colossal faults.
The planet erupted.
The thunderous explosion seemed to go on forever. Rocks, green lava, metal, and dust flew everywhere, turning the battlefield into an instant asteroid belt. The explosion rocked the fortress and destroyed countless ships on both sides, but more on the defenders’ side.
Noah was in the command cabin in the fortress. The leader of the defending aliens instructed her crew. She look
ed a lot like Shara, a taller and older version. She hunched and used a walking staff. Her eyes and her skin burned with pale-green color. The anguish was evident on her face at the sight of the destroyed planet. Whatever she ordered her people to do, it was an extreme measure that enticed looks of horror on their faces.
The fortress launched an object the size of a small car into space which blazed past the enemy airships. The leader watched until the object vanished, then she left in a hurry with a small band of soldiers.
A minute later, a medium-sized, round golden airship traveled away from the fortress. Three small invading airships chased the golden ship which surrounded itself by a faint green shield. Five, barrel-sized, golden spheres emerged from the ship and attacked the invaders. The spheres fired green energy beams that destroyed the enemy’s ships before they returned to the golden ship’s body. The ship traveled away from the battlefield.
More and more waves of invaders wiped out the defending forces and focused fire on the large fortress which braved the intense attacks and returned the blows, destroying many ships.
A dozen cones emerged from the front end of the fortress. The ship and the cones smoldered with a blinding, green light. The cones fired a burst of dark energy toward the middle of the invading army. Noah expected a massive explosion, but nothing happened.
The defending ship swayed up and down like a small boat in the heart of a nasty storm. Before his eyes, a black hole formed—where he last saw the dark energy burst—and expanded, swallowing everything near it.
The black hole dragged the fortress. Even with the massive engines roaring, the fortress couldn’t escape the clutches of space’s scariest monster. The pull was beyond anything Noah felt. A cataclysm, with no chance of survival.
Noah screamed, his cries complete silence compared to the loud engines. The ship reached the edge of the black hole. He screamed louder. The fortress reached the center. Noah screamed louder and louder until the black hole sucked in the fortress.
*****
Everything disappeared. Noah opened his eyes to find himself in the ASIO building. Shara helped him sit down. His body trembled like a cottage in a massive earthquake. His heart pounded as if it was about to leave his body. Sweat ran down his face. Noah could feel the salty taste in the corner of his mouth.
He was afraid, shocked, depressed. He had been to disaster movies in virtual reality and hologramic formats. But this ride from hell was the single worst experience of his life. It took his vitals a long while to return to normal.
Noah caught his breath. “I don’t know what to say.”
Shara didn’t say anything. The green light in her eyes disappeared and left two dark, gray eyeballs. The closest thing she did to crying. Noah fought stubborn tears that tried to break free. He never saw her world, but he felt her pain. Who would destroy such a beautiful and majestic world?
“Are they coming here?”
“Yes.”
His head dropped to settle above his hands. His stomach twisted. “Can we stop them?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “but you must try. We will do everything we can help you once the Queen arrives.”
“The one in the fortress?”
“Yes,” she said. Her eyes remained dim.
Noah had questions to ask, but she was in bad shape. And she didn’t hide it.
“I need to rest,” Shara said, her voice soft.
“I understand.” He left the wing. She wouldn’t know what rest meant after what had happened to her world.
Noah needed time to process what she’d said and what she’d shown him. He walked to the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. He headed to an operations’ area crowded with agents and scientists dedicated to the assignment. Noah walked to a stocky, bespectacled, dark-skinned man.
“Edward, you’ve been monitoring for hours, what did you find out?”
The lead scientist was nervous. To his credit, he was nervous long before this assignment. At least the scientist wasn’t the only one sweating this time.
Edward cleared his throat and glanced at his hologram. “Well, Shara’s nervous system is energy-based. Whenever she experiences ‘emotion’, her energy core emits bursts of energy into her limbs. It functions as a brain and a heart. She’s somehow able to transmit those waves outside her body in the form of powerful telekinesis attacks.”
“You seem surprised.”
“I don’t think they’re born this way. It’s an enhancement.”
“How can you tell?”
Edward pointed to a graph on his hologram as if he expected Noah to know what it meant. “It’s very amplified. The level of energy she uses to control her body is miniature compared to the telekinesis energy she can generate.”
I need to speak with you and Alex. Shara’s voice sounded in his head like a gentle whisper.
Telekinetic and telepathic. What would she do next?
Noah strode to Alex’s office. “C’mon, something is up.”
Alex followed him, without a word, to Shara’s wing.
“Thirty soldiers in a nearby house are ready to storm this building,” Shara said.
Noah’s eyebrows lifted. “Are they after you?”
Shara nodded.
“Do you know where they are?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t worry,” Noah said. “Army reinforcements are on their way. In the meantime, I will send special forces to take that team out.”
“Unless you can do that in a few minutes, they won’t arrive in time. But I can enhance Alex.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed. “Enhance?” He recalled what Edward told him. Shara wanted to enhance Alex the same way she was enhanced.
“His mind,” she said.
“I’m sorry. It doesn’t sound—”
“I will unlock the full potential of his mind. Consider it a demo of what we have planned for your army.”
Noah waved his hands. “I can’t let you do that in good conscience.”
Shara smiled. “I assure you, it’s safe.”
“It’s okay, Noah. I want to do it,” Alex said.
Noah turned to him. He looked as nervous as if was about to skydive without a parachute. “Are you sure?”
Alex nodded.
Shara approached Alex, grabbed his head with her hands, and placed her palms on his temples. Her eyes lit up in green. Alex’s, too. He gasped, and his body quivered like a leaf in a cyclone until she let go. Panting, Alex fell to his knees and stayed that way for a while before he could get up to his feet.
“Can you see them?” Shara asked.
Alex was puzzled. “No.”
“Close your eyes and search for them.”
He closed his eyes for a minute before he opened them again. They were pitch-black. “They’re close,” Alex said, his eye color returned to normal.
“Go,” Noah said, and watched him march out in confident steps. More so than usual.
“He won’t go crazy, will he?”
Shara smiled and shook her head.
An agent showed up at the door. “Sir, the Director wants to have a word.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Noah said and swung around to speak to Shara. “I have to go. Are you comfortable here?”
“I would like a tablet.”
“You got it.”
Noah stepped out and navigated his way to Matt’s office. “You wanted to see me?”
Matt’s face was red. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Even with the red warning sign, Noah was taken by his strong reaction. Matt wasn’t one to lose his temper, and the handful of times he did, he concealed it well.
“Excuse me?”
“How can you allow her to experiment on one of our agents?”
“I made a call, and Alex agreed.”
Matt’s face was about to explode and paint the room red. “Yes, you did. A bad one. Just like you did five years ago.”
Noah’s nostrils flared and his lips trembled. “Trust is earned.
”
“Thirty soldiers are not a threat to our national security. There are many ways to handle the situation, and none of them involve changing the brain wiring of our agents. You’re reckless.”
Noah took a deep breath, trying to control his anger. “It’s not about the soldiers. It’s about Shara. How much faith we have in her ability, and how much we trust her intentions. If I’d refused, it would’ve done irreparable damage to whatever rapport we established.”
“I know why you did it, but there are lines you don’t cross. You used your ‘get out of jail free card’ on this one.”
Noah nodded. He no longer had autonomy. He’d be under the magnifying glass from this moment forward. Trust was fragile, easy to break and hard to restore. Noah showed himself out, wondering if he’d made the right decision.
*****
Shara
December 21, 2030
Alex arrived at the quiet, two-story house—a few blocks away from the ASIO headquarters—and parked his car. His mind was sharp, active, and able to see beyond what his eyes saw. The more he focused, the further he could see. His body was fit and strong. Alex felt the way he did after a good gym session but amplified tenfold.
Too much movement inside the house. The extraction team were ready to mobilize, and he had to interrupt them. Alex walked through the open gate to the inside door. A few gentle knocks did the trick. They were startled, at first. He heard whispers, then the sound of their feet, rushing upstairs in rehearsed steps.
“Just a sec,” someone said.
The door opened, and a man wearing shorts and a T-shirt greeted him with a smile. “Can I help—”
Alex lifted his hand and pushed it forward. At the same time, he willed his mind. An overwhelming power ignited and flowed inside his head. He guided it to strike where his hand aimed.
A telekinesis wave, his first.
Pressure pushed the man’s body through the living area until he hit the small kitchen. Alex moved in a blazing speed. He covered the distance between them in two seconds. Alex only wanted to reach the man before he alerted his team or get to a weapon, but his legs moved with an incredible speed. He punched the man in the jaw and rendered him unconscious.