Mako (The Mako Saga: Book 1)

by Ian J. Malone

  On a more personal note—and one that he wasn’t quite ready to reveal to everyone else—Lee couldn’t deny feeling a certain sense of connection to these people. As Mac had so eloquently pointed out at dinner, Mako Assault’s gameplay was only part of the reason why they’d been so swept up in it. The other was a very intense, very personal story about a corps of people that, virtual or not, they’d spent an enormous amount of time with over the last six months—though none more so than Lee. True, part of that was because the storytelling and characters had been so incredibly engaging, but for Lee, a lot of it had to do with the fact that, sadly, so much of his life these days was anything but engaging. Whatever the reason, the story of Mako and its people had always resonated with him, which made learning of its reality the single most surreal moment of his life.

  Once they’d finally arrived back at the condo, Lee, Mac and Hamish headed straight for the living room, while Danny stepped into the kitchen and Link ducked out to the veranda for a seriously needed dose of nicotine.

  “Go ahead and make two of those, if ya don’t mind,” Hamish called from the sofa, spying the bottle of bourbon in Danny’s hand.

  “Make it three,” Link shouted through a plume of smoke outside.

  Figuring the orders probably wouldn’t end there, Danny scooped up the bottle along with five highball glasses and carried them into the living room.

  “Self-serve, ladies and gents,” he said, placing the contents on the coffee table and joining Lee and Mac on the sofa.

  As they all poured drinks, Mac decided to break the ice. “So are we gonna talk about the weather outside or do we head straight for the alien elephant in the room?”

  “I gotta tell you guys,” began Danny. “I knew this would be a pretty wild weekend, but never in a million years could any of us have seen that little curveball coming.”

  “Aye, I’ll drink to that,” Hamish agreed, massaging a mild headache from his temples. “As elephants go, that’s one colossally fat one, alright.”

  “Amen to that,” Mac agreed. “Five random people have nothing better to do with their time, so they band together and start playing a video game. Only hold on… we were never actually playing a game at all, but rather auditioning to become test subjects in some super-secret, highly experimental military training program from another galaxy! ‘Cause who in their right mind isn’t looking for that one?” She smirked and sipped her drink. “In all seriousness though, I still just can’t get over the fact that it’s all real, ya know? Those people, the war… it’s freakin’ real, guys. You heard Reiser. They’re getting slaughtered out there, and for what? Some stupid mineral or something?”

  “Tell me about it,” Link said, closing the sliding glass door behind him and slumping down in the chair beside Lunley. “I guess our dumbass planet hasn’t exactly cornered the market on the idea of going to war over something as stupid as natural resources, huh?”

  Watching Link swipe a glass from the table and fill it to the brim, Hamish looked over at Lee who sat quietly on the end of the sofa, deep in thought.

  “Ya’re awfully quiet down there, brother,” he noted. “Care to chime in here?”

  Lee pondered this for a moment before answering. Then, exhaling a long, reflective sigh of indecision, he clasped his hands and leaned forward to address the group.

  “I’m gonna go with ‘em, y’all.”

  Mac jolted upright and snapped around to face him—her eyes every bit as wide as they’d been upon seeing the ship.

  “Whoooooaaaa, hold on there, champ!” Link interjected through a chorus of gasps. “Champagne dreams and caviar wishes notwithstanding, I’m all for quitting my job to become a millionaire playboy, but did you not hear what Mac just said? Those people are getting pud-hammered in a war out there and regardless of our part in that, you’re talking about jumping head-first in the middle of it!” He snorted. “I love you, brother, but how ‘bout you slow your roll a bit and think about this?”

  “Link’s right, Lee,” Danny agreed. “I know Reiser said we wouldn’t see the field back there, but that’s not entirely in his control. What’s to say we don’t get out there just in time for everything to go to pot while we’re stuck on some unarmed civilian research vessel somewhere when the white flag waves? What then? Are the Alystierians just gonna say, ‘Sorry, you guys don’t belong here. You can go on home now,’ or will they just file us in with the rest of the POWs?”

  “Right on,” Link concurred. “At that point, how do we even stay alive, much less find a way home? Besides, it’s not like any of us—Danny included—are what you’d call SOCOM material, ya know?”

  Lee unclasped his hands and sat up. “This decision is mine, and mine alone,” he declared. “It has nothin’ to do with any of you, nor does it obligate you in any way to make the same choice. This is just one of those things that I feel I have to do.”

  “They’ve got a point, Lee,” Hamish added. “This isn’t to say that I’m not onboard, but who are we to go getting involved in these people’s war?”

  “Nobody here needs to explain the stakes to me,” he defended. “Trust me, I get it. I was right there in Reiser’s lab when he made them abundantly clear to all of us.”

  “Then why are you so determined to get involved, Lee?” Link argued. “I mean, do you know how desperate these people have to be if they’re coming to us for help? Us? And for what, a video game? That’s like Hamish here letting me work on his bike because I read an article about Harleys in Popular Mechanics!”

  “And that’s exactly why they need us,” Lee rebutted. “Think about it, Link. We’re like the ultimate clean slate. If they can make this stuff work with us, what do ya think they could do with a trained soldier? The fact that we don’t have any experience or training is exactly why they want us.” He chuckled out loud. “I hate to think we’re the lowest common denominator here, but that’s kinda the point.”

  Danny shook his head. “Sorry, Lee, but this is beyond insanity,” he said. “A buddy of mine back home was a Ranger in his days with the Army, and he’s done some of the stuff we’re talking about. Trust me, bro, it’s no picnic. We’re talking about skills that normally take people years to perfect, so excuse me if I’m a little skeptical that Wonder Boy and his gamer staff can pull that off in six weeks with some fairy dust and some kinda souped-up underarmor.”

  Lee turned to 1his friend. “Answer me this, Danny. If you could go back to yesterday and tell yourself that in 24 hours, you’d be nose to nose with a three-story Auran cruiser… would it have sounded any less insane?”

  Danny didn’t respond.

  “The truth is, y’all, I don’t know if Reiser can do what he says or not. But based on everything we know about him, and what he’s shown us, I’m willin’ to give him the benefit of the doubt that it’s at least possible.”

  Having lost his taste for alcohol, Lee rose from his chair and retrieved a bottle of water from the kitchen. Unscrewing the top and flicking it across the room into the trash can, he leaned against the snack bar to face them.

  “Don’t misunderstand me. I ain’t sayin’ that I’m whiskey-bent and hellbound to fly off to some alien planet with this guy to go play G.I. Joe. Lord knows I was against it in every way when he first showed us the ship.”

  “Then what changed, Lee?” Mac asked, her face solemn.

  Peering into the night beyond the sliding glass doors, Lee considered this. “Honestly Mac,” he began. “I guess it all just boils down to makin’ a decision that I can live with for the rest of my life, ya know? The way I see it, I’ve got two options here. Option one, I can play it safe and stay here, but be haunted like hell every time I walk past a gamin’ shop… because make no mistake, I will always wonder what happened to those people. That and…” He exhaled another pensive sigh. “Well let’s face it, even if you take the money element outta the equation, it ain’t like I’ve got much here worth stickin’ around for. Plus, on the career thing,” he shrugged, “I dunno… I figure it mi
ght be nice to go spend some time doin’ something that actually matters for a change.”

  Mac remained silent.

  “So hypothetically,” Danny added, hanging on the second word for emphasis, “if we did decide to join you on this ridiculously insane adventure of yours—and that’s a big damn if—how would option two work?”

  Lee ruffled his hair. “Option two?” he started. “Option two says we take Reiser at his word that we’ll never be in harm’s way, we go on the roadtrip to end all roadtrips, we learn how to fly one seriously badass fighter—in deep space, no less—and then we come back home with the monetary means to create whatever lives we want for ourselves. But like you said… it’s all just hypothetical at this point.”

  Danny slumped back into the couch cushions and folded his arms over his chest.

  “Bottom line, everybody,” Lee concluded. “These people came a real long way to ask us for our help. Mind you, they didn’t put out some kinda global memo sayin’ ‘Come see us and we’ll teach you how to fly a Mako.’ They sifted through some 20 million candidates to select us. Regardless of how or why, the fact remains that we know what they’re up against better than anybody. Add that to the numbers we posted during their test, and buy it or not, that gives Reiser and his team the impression that we’re their best possible chance for success in this project. Me personally?” he shrugged again, “I’ve seen enough to give him a chance to find out. But like I said, and I can’t stress this enough, that’s me. You all have to decide for yourselves what you wanna do.”

  Another long silence fell over the room as everyone contemplated what had been said. They all knew the risks, and in spite of Lee’s conviction on the issue, their concerns over the notion of leaving with him still remained. On the other hand, each one of them, in their own unique way, understood his personal reasons for wanting to go. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, he’d been right. Very little, if anything, about the last 10 years had been what they’d hoped for, but this one, singular move—fantastically farfetched as it was—could change all of that. Risky or not, that fact could also not be ignored.

  A triple-toned chime broke the quiet.

  “Damn it! I’m on vacation, you tool!” Link growled, yanking the phone from his pocket and inspecting the latest text. Then, shutting it off and tossing it on the table, he scowled at the device. “Have I told any of you lately just how much I absolutely despise my boss?”

  “Aye, I am the boss, and sometimes I despise maself,” Hamish agreed. “All I ever wanted to do was work on bikes. That’s it. Now here I am, the owner of ma very own garage, and that’s the one thing that I rarely ever have the time to do.”

  “I could do a lot with that kind of money,” Mac thought aloud, finally returning her gaze to the others. “I could buy my Dad out of the bar so he could actually enjoy retirement for a change, then pay Tom whatever he wanted to stick around and run the place while I went off and did whatever I wanted.”

  Link rubbed his eyes and leaned forward. “So is this it?” he asked, still somewhat in disbelief. “Are we seriously considering this?”

  All eyes turned again to Lee in the kitchen who shrugged.

  “Don’t look at me,” he said. “I’ve made both my case and my decision. This is completely up to y’all.”

  “But just so we’re clear,” Hamish reiterated, “we’re not stepping foot anywhere near the fighting, correct? We go, play lab rat, get paid, then we come home… that’s it.”

  “That’s what the man said,” replied Lee.

  Each of them looked around the room, waiting eagerly to see which member of the group would make it official.

  “Ah, screw it,” Link snorted, raising a hand. “It’s not like ‘saving a civilization’ isn’t on my bucket list… guess that means I’m in.”

  “Indeed,” Hamish agreed, lifting a paw of his own. “No matter how this turns out, Reiser and his people just kept everyone at ma shop employed for another six months, and if I do this, neither they nor their families will ever have to worry about losing their jobs again. For that alone I’ll go. Although,” he laughed, “outer space isn’t exactly the highlands I had in mind for ma next holiday.”

  “Mac?” Lee asked, turning his attention to the brunette on the couch.

  Her expression held firm for another moment before finally giving way to a simper. “You don’t honestly think I’m gonna let that crack about me being the second-best pilot in this squad stand unanswered, do you?” she relented. “Bet your beach-bum ass I’m in.”

  “That just leaves you, man,” Lee said to Danny, who remained slumped back on the sofa, his face still saturated with conflict.

  “I hate surprises, Lee,” Danny prefaced with visible unease, “and this trip has been nothing but surprises. I also hate being boxed into making a decision, and make no bones about it, that’s exactly how I feel right now.” He hunched forward on his elbows and heaved a reluctant sigh. “But the way things are going, there’s no guarantee that I’ll have a job when Reiser’s six months of charity run out, which puts me right back at square one. So for that reason alone, I’ll go. But have no illusions… I’m here to get paid, and with all due deference to those folks and their situation, that’s where it ends for me.”

  “Oh relax, Crockett,” Link groaned. “Think about it this way. Now you’ve got an excuse to spend some quality alone-time with your favorite redheaded physician in a setting that precludes her from running away from you. A word of advice though—try to contain that overwhelming sense of empathy you’ve got for her cause… just a thought.”

  Danny rolled his eyes.

  “So I guess that’s it, then,” Mac concluded. “We go… all of us.”

  “Rock on!” Link shouted, raising his glass for a toast. “To infinity and—”

  “Shut up,” Mac cut him off, clinking her glass to Link’s. “Just stop talking, right now.”

  This drew a labored smile from Danny, who rose to his feet as Lee and Hamish also stepped forward to join in the moment.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Danny huffed. “Let’s go save a planet and all that.”

  “Ruah!” the group shouted in unison.

  “Alright, alright, alright,” Link piped up once the cheers and high-fives had died down. “Seeing as how this will probably be our… and I still can’t believe I’m saying this… last night on Earth for a while, I’m thinking this calls for a little extra celebration down at the tiki bar. Who’s with me?”

  ****

  A few hours later, as the others chatted the night away with the bartenders and a handful of regulars, Lee stuffed a fresh lime into his bottle of beer and excused himself from the group. Craving a quiet moment alone in which to think, he strolled down the deck—past the pool and the Jimmy Buffett cover band that was almost too drunk to play—and descended down the wooden steps at the far end to the powdery beach sand below. Walking for a while until the commotion had faded to a distant muffle, Lee collapsed onto a dune and peered blissfully up at a gorgeous, star-filled sky—all the while savoring the soul-soothing sound of the tumbling Pacific before him.

  “Hard to believe we’re actually gonna see those up close and personal, huh?” a voice said behind him.

  Unaware of her presence there, Lee turned to see Mac settle in on the sand beside him.

  “Tell me about it,” he replied. “I’d love to call my sister and tell her all about this, but I’m scared she’d think I’ve finally gone off the deep end.”

  “I know, right?” Mac laughed and sipped her beer. “I’m still not sure I buy it myself. Truthfully, there’s still this little voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me this is all some elaborate viral marketing scheme or something.”

  “Maybe,” he nodded. “But that cruiser looked real enough to me, so somehow, I’m thinkin’ that ain’t the case.”

  “Yeah, me neither,” she conceded. “Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  The two sat quietly for the next few moments, taking in the tr
anquil ocean scene around them and enjoying the salty night air. Like Lee, Mac had also grown up loving the water, and always jumped at any opportunity to get back to it.

  “So how are you, Lee?” she asked, brushing a single strand of windblown hair from her cheek and shifting to face him. He responded with a half-smile then turned away, and she could all but read his thoughts as he stared into the dark gulf overhead.

  ****

  As emotionally tumultuous as her decision to leave L.A. had been, Mac was soon faced with a harsh reality upon returning home—she was by no means the only member of the group embroiled in a major life crisis. Not long after touching down in Tallahassee, she’d been startled to learn that Lee’s four-year marriage to Karen had gradually eroded to a very dangerous point, and it was widely believed by the select few in the know that a split was all but imminent. As Danny told it, the two were once inseparable—the “perfect couple.” But something had obviously happened because, as time passed, they’d visibly begun to drift, and once whispers of an affair began to circulate, Mac grew increasingly worried for Lee whose physical state—overweight, pale, and weary-eyed—was enough to confirm her fears as to his deepening state of depression. She’d always known him to be the “happy go lucky” friend to all—upbeat, positive and self-assured—but his ever-growing withdrawal from his friends concerned her dearly because nothing could be more out of character for him. When pressed about his reclusiveness, he’d always assured them that everything was fine and that he was just stressed out by his dissertation, but she knew better. On the rare nights when he would accompany Danny out to the bar, he was noticeably quiet and detached, and that alone was a far cry from the friend she knew.

  On the night the situation finally came to a head and Karen confessed to the affair, Mac recalled getting the cringing phone call from Danny, alerting her to what had happened. Slamming down the phone with such force that it cracked the receiver, she snatched her car keys from behind the bar and barked instructions to the assistant manager to cover the rest of her shift as she bolted through the door into the torrential downpour outside. Within minutes, her car skidded to a halt in front of Lee’s house just ahead of Danny’s patrol car, and the two scrambled through the front door to find a devastated Lee Summerston—rain-soaked and shivering—sitting silently on his couch, head in hands and teetering on the verge of a complete mental collapse.