by Dean M. Cole
Suddenly, a fifteen-foot-tall saguaro cactus that stood near the console folded in the middle. The long, three-armed plant would have looked perfectly at home in Arizona's desert.
Not anymore.
As the cactus bent over, a gaping maw appeared between its branching arms, revealing several rows of insanely sharp teeth.
With incredible speed, the arms appeared to wrap around Thrakst. The yucca plant-thing disappeared into the saguaro plant's nightmarish mouth.
Then the tall cactus snapped back to its upright position.
A deafening silence fell across the surreal desert scene.
In front of the gene weapon's console, Thrakst stood motionless for a moment.
Finally his footless—and now headless—body fell backward.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Across the dust cloud that the dead Zox's collapsed body had launched, the three of them stared in silent amazement.
After a long moment, they started laughing.
From behind Sandy, Colonel Newcastle's gruff voice spoke up. "What in the hell is so damned funny?"
Richard gave the saguaro-thing a wide berth and walked to the CAG. Jake and Sandy ran toward one another. She leaped onto him, throwing her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He wavered under her, but remained on his feet, hugging her tightly.
Sandy soaked it up for a moment. Then she leaned back and grabbed his face with both of her hands. After staring into his smiling eyes, she pressed her lips to his.
They kissed passionately.
Afterward, Jake lowered Sandy to the ground. They walked over to Richard and the CAG.
Allison helped the big man to his feet and finished updating him. With wide eyes, the Texan looked at the room's numerous cactuses. "I'll be a son of a bitch," he said. Glancing at a particularly tall one that stood nearby, Newcastle added, "What do you say we get the hell outta here?"
EPILOGUE
"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."
— Thomas Jefferson
"What's that, Daddy?"
"Well, pumpkin, it's a monument," Jake said.
"What's a mom-u-ment?"
Jake smiled and looked down on the small spacesuited figure that stood on his left. Then he looked over the child's head and linked eyes with Sandy. Behind her visor, a tear breached the levee of her lower eyelid. In the moon's low gravity, it started the long, slow trek down her cheek.
His wife's chest raised and hitched. A small patch of her visor fogged. The news of Remulkin's sacrifice had hit Sandy hard. Five years later, the anniversary coupled with this stark reminder of that fateful day's events elicited strong emotions for both of them.
Sandy put on a brave face and winked at Jake. Then she looked down at the little girl between them.
"It's something we build to honor …" Sandy paused and shook her head. "To help us remember something or someone real important."
"Oh!" Candace said with a child's awe. "This must've been something or someone really important."
Jake and Sandy smiled.
"Both, pumpkin," Jake said.
The trio stood side-by-side in front of a gymnasium-sized white block. The massive cube matched the office building-sized monument erected in front of the United Nations. That monument honored the millions of lost souls as well as all who fought—both Argonian and Earthling—to save humanity from annihilation. However, this smaller—but still massive, considering the logistics of its construction at this site—monument stood in honor of one man's sacrifice.
It stood atop a small, five-year-old crater. The moon had gained many new craters that fateful day. However, this one held special meaning.
Remulkin Thramorus's final resting place lay almost perfectly centered within an ancient twenty-kilometer-wide crater. The monument erected above it honored the scientist's final act. Had he not given his life to get Jake into the ship, humankind might have ceased to exist on that fateful day.
Suddenly the top of the block blazed like burning magnesium.
Jake's visor darkened to compensate for the influx of light.
Candace started to hop with excitement. Because it took her longer to land in the weaker gravity, her feet pumped an extra time between each jump. "It's here! It's here!"
Jake shared a melancholy smile with his wife. Squeezing his daughter's hand, he said, "Yes, it is, pumpkin."
The monument stood taller than the distant crater rim. When the light of a new four-week-long lunar day rose on this portion of the Moon, it hit this high point first. Now sunlight began to illuminate the upper reaches of the lip as well.
Spinning, Candace excitedly pointed at the distant halo of white light. "Look! It's Remulkin's Eye!"
Jake and Sandy both nodded, but at that moment neither of them could speak.
Viewed from above, the white point of the monument now shone from the center of the brightly lit rim of the newly renamed Thramorus Crater.
Jake and Sandy had seen Remulkin's Eye from orbit, but this was their first time to see it from ground level.
After a long silence, he picked up Candace. Jake held her in front of him and stared into her beautiful blue eyes—she'd gotten those from her mother.
"I love you, pumpkin," Jake said. Then he wrapped his arms around his daughter and hugged her tightly.
Opening his eyes, he looked over her shoulder at the monument.
Thank you, Remulkin, he thought. Thank you.
Candace's little feet started scissoring.
"Do it again, Daddy! Do it again!"
Jake looked around at the gathered tourists. None of them seemed to be paying particular attention to his family. With a crooked grin, he hoisted Candace over his head.
"Really high this time!" she urged.
Jake lowered her and then tossed Candace up into the star-filled, airless sky. She continued up and up, giggling the whole time.
"Jacob Giard!" Sandy said with mock exasperation.
A new gruff voice joined the conversation. "She's definitely another daddy's girl."
"Just like her mother," Jake agreed.
"Listen here, Mr. Giard," said a scratchy female voice. "You damn well better not drop my granddaughter!"
"Mother!" Sandy said with genuine exasperation this time. She pointed up. "Language!"
"Darn it, Firecracker! You keep chewing on his ear like that, and he just might drop her."
Candace glided down into Jake's waiting hands.
"Do it again, Daddy!"
"No, honey. We have places to go."
Holding hands, Sandy's parents walked up to them. The taller figure had a slight limp.
Jake pointed at the man's lower half. "How's the new leg, John?"
Sandy's father reached down and rubbed his right knee and then looked at the sky. "Feels like it's gonna rain."
Jake smiled.
***
"I can't believe you two are leaving me stuck on this rock."
"You're the one who took the UN presidential adviser job," Sandy said.
"Besides, with your years of Washington, D.C., experience," Jake said, "you should feel right at home in New York."
"You'll just have to leave galactic exploration to us peons," Sandy said.
"Galactic exploration?" Richard said with a chuckle. "Let's not get too full of ourselves. You're only going next door."
"Calling eight light years next door might be stretching the term a bit," Sandy said.
Jake smiled. "It's a start," he said. Staring past the hologram of Richard, he gazed through the ship's view-wall. Earth painted a beautiful panorama across its width. He returned his focus to his old flight schoolmate and pointed at the planet. "But we'll miss that rock."
Richard waved a dismissive hand. "At your ship's cruising speed, you'll only be gone a few months."
"Who says we're coming back?" Sandy said.
Richard cocked an eyebrow. Through his crooked grin, he said, "We'll see."
Jake smiled at their unending banter, another thing he'd probably miss.
He couldn't believe they were about to leave the solar system. He wondered what waited for them at their destination. After the trials and tribulations of the last five years, it was nice to look forward to something for a change.
Depopulating many of the world's capital cities had left a huge power vacuum. However, Ronald Reagan had been right. The polarizing effect of an external enemy had united humankind.
With its New York headquarters untouched and its infrastructure left largely intact, the United Nations had filled the void. Capitalizing on society's newly realized external focus, the U.N. became the face of humankind. Now they even had delegates in the Senate of the United Galactic Federation.
After five years of recovery and rebuilding, they still had a long way to go. They would never know the total number of lost lives with certainty. Estimates ran upward of 170 million dead. Aside from the instant deaths inflicted by alien gene weapons, untold millions had perished in the aftermath.
Massive waves of aid, coupled with huge infusions of technology and rapid training, had elevated humanity into the galactic culture almost overnight.
Cramming the last decade of a galactic integration program into a period of months hadn't been without its problems, both culturally and economically. But after five years, Earth society was poised for unprecedented expansion and development.
Now it was time to move some of our eggs out of Earth's basket. The Argonians had set aside Galactic Sector 64 for human settlement, said humanity had earned it. Thanks to those same Argonians, humankind had the technology to begin journeying to the stars in earnest.
No longer a warship, the Helm Warden had been rebuilt in Earth's first orbital shipyard. Recommissioned as the Terrestrial Explorer, the massive vessel now served as a colony ship. After a hiatus of tens of thousands of years, the descendants of the Argonians that had long ago populated Earth were finally about to continue their journey to the stars.
A new world awaited them.
"Wow, Richard," Sandy said in reply to something Jake had missed. "You're sounding more and more like a politician every day."
Jake smiled. "You'll probably be running for U.N. president soon," he said.
"All right, all right, let's not get carried away again," Richard said with a laugh. "Don't you two have somewhere to go?"
Jake consulted his EON. "It is about that time." He paused and saluted his friend. "Take care, General Allison."
"You take care of your family, General Giard." Richard's face became uncharacteristically serious. "And stay safe," he said, returning the salute.
Then Richard smiled and pointed to Sandy. "And you, Colonel Sandra Fitzpatrick-Giard, please make sure my boy here doesn't run off on any more glory hound missions. He's already quite the folk hero down here. We don't need his head getting any bigger."
"No promises," Sandy said. She gave her cheesy ba-bye wave and then closed the holo-link.
Jake squeezed her hand.
"Are Candace and your parents all set?"
Sandy nodded. "Candace is hanging with Grandma and Grandpa in their quarters." She paused and pointed to the cameras. "I imagine they'll be watching us."
"Yeah, them and ten thousand others on the ship." He gestured through the view-wall. "Not to mention a few billion down there."
"No pressure," Sandy said. She squeezed his hand and mouthed, "I love you."
"I know," Jake said with a wink.
They released hands and walked to their assigned consoles.
After a brief visual scan of the bridge crew, Jake consulted his EON. All of the colony ships had checked in as ready for departure.
As the Commander Air Group, Jake opened an EON channel to the fleet's fighter escort. "This is the CAG. All squadrons, check in."
While Jake received the status updates, Admiral Johnston turned to Sandy. "Colonel, is the Terrestrial Explorer ready for departure?"
"All stations report a go status," Colonel Fitzpatrick replied.
Johnston nodded.
Knowing the eyes of the world were on them, Jake turned to the fleet commander. "Admiral Johnston, Terrestrial Explorer and fleet are ready for departure."
"Thank you, General Giard," Admiral Johnston said.
The fleet admiral turned to face the view-wall.
Jake knew the man's image now filled billions of televisions across the world.
"We take this first step for all humankind," Johnston said. "Today, we carry its hope and its children to the stars."
After a brief pause, Johnston nodded to General Giard.
Jake opened a fleet-wide EON connection. "Terrestrial Explorer fleet, parallel-space in three, two, one!"
THANK YOU
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Dean M. Cole