“I am Omega, destroyer of worlds. You, puny human, will do as I command or you will die with all the others.”
“Well, the thing is, Mr. Omega, I’ve always been bad at following orders.” The screen went blank. Melanie looked up to see a pair of explosions.
The battle had begun.
***
Elise grabbed Midnight Spectre by the front of her costume. “What are those?”
“You could think of them as the legions of angels from Revelations come to punish the sinners.”
“What are you prattling about?”
“I forgot, you don’t believe in our god. They’re the ones who are going to bring about the end of the world.”
“Are they friends of yours?” Killer Whale asked.
“More like business partners. I helped soften Earth up for them and in return I’ll be back to normal.”
“Not if I disembowel you first,” Elise said.
“You could do that, but you’re wasting precious time. Those ships will be here soon and they aren’t selling Girl Scout cookies. You’d better high-tail it back to the ocean and wait for them to come down there to wipe Pacifica off the map.”
“I’m not going to run,” Elise said. She shoved Midnight Spectre away. “The ruler of Pacifica does not flee from her enemies like a coward.”
“What are we supposed to do, sister? We can’t fight them with spears and harpoons.”
Killer Whale had a point. The Pacificans would be vastly outgunned by alien ships. There had to be some way to even things up. Elise looked around, her eyes falling upon the robot still standing between skyscrapers. A smile spread across her face. “Tell General Kod to get his men up in those buildings.”
“What are you planning?”
“We lure them between those buildings and then ambush them.”
“With spears?”
“They must have a weakness. We’ll have to find it.” Elise turned back to Midnight Spectre. “You can be of some help in that regard.”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“I doubt that. I’m sure you know everything about them. Now you’ll tell us.”
“Why should I?”
Elise brandished the trident. “Because otherwise I can make things very uncomfortable for you.”
“Torture? Is that the best—” Midnight Spectre broke off with a scream as Elise sunk the trident in her leg. “Goddamn it!”
“Now perhaps you’ll be more cooperative?”
“Fuck you.” Midnight Spectre screamed again as Elise stabbed her other leg.
“Tell me!”
Midnight Spectre spat, but then said, “It won’t do you any good, so I’ll tell you. They don’t have cockpits like our aircraft. They’re controlled by remote. There’s a control junction in front of the wing root on either side. You hit that and you’ll deactivate them.”
“Thanks for the tip.” Elise grabbed Midnight Spectre by the front of her costume and then started towards the robot.
“What are you doing?”
“Just a little insurance. Now move.” Elise took no small amount of pleasure in poking Midnight Spectre in the rear with the trident.
Chapter 28
The first wave of the alien craft descended from the atmosphere. After Robin had launched a swarm of missiles, she dropped down to where Melanie and Tonya waited. Melanie didn’t bother to look at her radar screen as it was cluttered with far too many targets to count. She took a deep breath and then said, “All right, let’s get them.”
She kicked in the jet engines to scream towards some of the alien ships. There was no need to aim her missiles as there were so many targets she couldn’t possibly miss. She was gratified to see the alien ships explode, pieces falling towards the surface far below. They would really have been in trouble if these alien ships were made of something Earth weapons couldn’t penetrate.
The jetcopter dropped into a dive a moment before a blast of light would have vaporized her. The computer had initiated the maneuver; it was probably a much better pilot than Melanie. She focused on firing the weapons while the computer tried to keep her in the air.
At one point she was pretty sure she saw Robin’s plane, but it was hard to keep track in the swarm around her. She wished she had a couple dozen squadrons of fighters up here with her, but even that wouldn’t even the odds. Anything they managed to take out wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket.
The guns shuddered as they ran out of ammunition. Melanie checked her displays to make sure there wasn’t anything left. She was unarmed now. She’d have to go back to the bunker to rearm, but she couldn’t possibly do that or else she would lure the aliens to her mother and Jasper.
Stick to the plan, she told herself. She instructed the computer to drop her down towards Redoubt City. The aliens would certainly follow her. If she could stay alive long enough, she could bring them to Garlak and Diane. That might get a few more before they were overwhelmed.
Except she wouldn’t get that far. Something slammed into the rear of the jetcopter, sending it into a flat spin. Red lights flashed all over the cockpit. Melanie couldn’t do anything about them, the G-forces pinning her to her seat. The contents of her stomach came up, overwhelming the medicine she’d taken earlier.
The worst part was that in a spin like this she couldn’t even eject. She would end up spinning into the ground to make a crater on the streets below. From this height she would at least have plenty of time to contemplate the end.
Suddenly the jetcopter stopped its spin. It hovered in the air as if she had engaged the helicopter rotor. Stranger yet was the purple glow surrounding the jetcopter. Melanie wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then leaned forward to get a better look—
She screamed as she saw a woman suspended in the air. The woman looked almost like an elf from World of Warcraft with pointed ears, long silver hair, and light purple skin. She even carried what appeared to be a quarterstaff, though it was made of shiny metal instead of wood. The only difference between this alien and a video game elf was the alien wore a tight black bodysuit similar to Melanie’s.
“Greetings, young human. I am Lieutenant Kila of the Galactic Peacekeepers. May I be of assistance?”
***
Starla knew they were near their destination when she felt the rocket begin to slow. Its momentum would carry it on perhaps forever, but for now its engine had gone silent. She flexed her arms, but there was no tensing of muscles; she was as weak as before. Had they made it back to Earth?
She squeaked with surprise as the nose of the rocket began to glow red. A few seconds later the nose fell away to reveal Kila. “I am sorry, Gor-Bul. I didn’t want to risk injuring you.”
“That makes sense,” Starla said. Kila reached down to take Starla’s shoulder. The alien slid her slowly out of the rocket, careful not to shred her along any of the sharp edges.
Once she was free of the rocket, Starla closed her eyes. She could feel the first rays of sunlight wash over her. From previous experience she knew it wouldn’t take long for her strength to return, especially if she got closer to the sun.
“How do you feel?” Kila asked. Apparently with her bubble around them they could talk even in space.
“Better. I need a few minutes.”
“I fear we might not have that much time.” Kila gestured behind them, to where an armada of purple bubbles appeared.
“I’ll deal with them,” said another alien. This one was much bigger than Starla or Kila and composed entirely of stone.
Kila gestured to her comrade. “This is Commander Slong. He freed me from prison so we could rescue you.”
“I’m very grateful,” Starla said. The purple bubbles were getting closer. It might be her imagination that Commander Sulfam was at the head of them. “You really think you can stop all those?”
“Don’t worry, little one. I have seen much worse.”
Kila touched Slong’s arm. “Thank you, Commander. For everything.”
; “Go on, young one. Make your father proud.”
Kila nodded and then took Starla’s hand. Ahead of her, Starla could see that blue and white jewel called Earth. Except now there was a shiny black object in orbit. “Is that the thing you were talking about?”
“Yes. I fear we may be too late to save your planet.”
“Not yet,” Starla said. When her fists clenched, she felt a little of her former strength. She turned to Kila. “I need you to throw me towards the sun.”
“What?”
“The closer I am to the sun, the faster my strength will return. You have to have some kind of spell that could do it, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course, but if we separate—”
“I’ll be fine.” At least Starla hoped she had regained enough strength that she wouldn’t die the moment Kila let down the protective bubble. “In case I’m not, you’ve been a great friend.”
“As have you, Gor-Bul.”
“Starla,” she corrected. She glanced down at Earth. Where was Billy down there? She hoped he was all right. If not, this thing in orbit and the Elders would have a lot to answer for.
Kila drifted back a few feet, enough that she could hold out her staff. When the end of it touched Starla, there was a shock like static electricity. Only this static charge sent her flying away from Kila. Then Starla felt as if someone were choking her as she emerged from the protective field. She thought of what Elise had said about how painful it was when a Pacifican came onto land after a long time underwater; Starla imagined they felt the same burning pain running through her entire body.
This lasted for a couple of minutes, until Starla’s vision began to darken around the edges. At last the pain subsided and her vision returned. She found herself rolling end-over-end, the sun and Earth alternately visible as she spun. Earth was soon replaced by Venus in her vision. She had better pull herself out of this soon or she’d burn up like the impostor three years ago.
Starla closed her eyes and then threw her arms and legs out. She grunted silently as she strained against the forces of gravity to change direction. Her muscles tensed until she felt the seams of her jumpsuit burst around her calves and biceps.
When she opened her eyes, she was Apex Girl again. And she had a job to do. She streaked towards Earth faster than the rocket that had been carrying her.
***
Sally collapsed onto the roof of the hotel. Midnight Spectre was gone, but Omega’s robots remained all around her. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but she knew it must have been Allison’s handiwork. That Allison wasn’t here meant she was most likely dead. She had given her life to save Sally from Midnight Spectre, but no one could save her from Omega’s robots.
The robots pressed in closer around her. She felt a tickle as one scanned her. “Human female. Thirteen years old. No genetic abnormalities. Acquire target.”
While a part of Sally told herself to get to her feet and face them defiantly, the rest of her was a scared kid. A scared, heartbroken kid. Her daughter was dead and now so too was her husband. Once the robots finished their work, Earth would be dead for all practical purposes, every human life wiped away.
As she sobbed on her knees, she heard a crack like thunder. This was followed by a shriek of metal. Sally kept her eyes closed until she felt a hand on her shoulder and a voice say, “It’s all right now. They’re gone.”
She looked up and wondered if she were already dead. A man with snow white hair and a long white beard stood before her. He was bare-chested, clad only in tattered denim shorts. Was this God? Maybe she’d caught him on casual Friday. Then she looked into his eyes—“Alan?”
“Hi honey, I’m home,” he said.
She got unsteadily to her feet and then ran a hand over his face. From the white hair and deep wrinkles, he looked at least seventy, if not older. “What happened to you?”
He flashed her a smile of crooked yellow teeth. “I know how confusing this must be for you. By your reckoning it was a minute ago when little Allison disappeared with Midnight Spectre. But for me it’s been sixty years.”
“Sixty years?” That meant Alan was seventy-six years old. And he was Alan again. “I don’t understand.”
“Let’s go downstairs and I’ll explain it to you.”
“But those robots, won’t more of them show up?”
“Not for a few hours. Come on.”
She pressed close against him as they went downstairs. She noted how he limped as he walked and how his back had become stooped with age. How could he have been gone for sixty years?
They went all the way down to the lounge, where Alan helped himself to a bottle of whiskey. “Care for some?”
“I’m not old enough,” she said.
“Well, that’s the first thing we’ll have to take care of.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I haven’t been sitting on my butt for sixty years. I’ve been working.” He took a belt of whiskey straight from the bottle. “I suppose it would help if I started at the beginning.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“To get to you in time, I went the long way around the world. I kept going faster and faster until I reached the speed of light. My body was actually beginning to dematerialize, turning into energy. That’s why you couldn’t see me when Midnight Spectre disappeared.”
“If you turned to energy then how are you here?”
“I was getting to that,” he said. He gave her a grandfatherly glower that made her face turn warm. “When I hit her, I triggered an ion explosion. It sent both of us forward in time. I’m still not sure how long it was. Centuries, I think. Long enough that Omega had abandoned the planet.
“I had Earth all to myself. The problem was I didn’t have a body. I was a disembodied cloud of particles really. It took years for me to finally pull myself together, to reassemble myself into more or less the girl I had been when I disappeared.”
“More or less? Does that mean you’re not human?”
“I’m close enough. What I mean is I might have been a couple years older and I had Robin’s red hair and shorter body. It was pretty good for a first attempt at resculpting myself from base components.
“Once I had a body, I needed a few months to get my head together. I’m still mostly Alan and Allison, but I have most of Robin’s memories too. I’ve learned to tune them out, but they still come to me sometimes when I’m sleeping. I can’t tell you how many times I woke up to find the room completely trashed from night terrors.
“I wandered around a while, until I was certain Omega’s robots had vanished. From there I knew there was only one thing I could do: I had to come back. I had to save you.”
“And you did,” Sally said. She gave him a granddaughterly peck on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“It was a lot of work. An added benefit is I got most of Robin’s memories, but I also got her intelligence. It’s like someone injected steroids into my brain. I haven’t taken the test, but I’m sure it’d be much past the Einstein level. I’m not bragging either.
“Despite all that intelligence, it still took a while to get everything worked out. I spent probably twenty years learning a completely new field: extraterrestrial engineering. I took apart bits of Omega’s robots left behind. I found pieces of the alien weapon Dr. Roboto had given to Dalton and her friends. You can see the results.”
“Why did you do that first? Why didn’t you just figure out how to go back in time?”
“It wasn’t deliberate. I was looking into how to reverse what happened back at headquarters and then my studies took me in another direction. Sometimes all this new intellect can be a curse; it can be hard for me to focus on one thing. But eventually I got back here. Just barely.”
“Oh, Alan,” Sally said. She pressed close to him again. She ran a hand along his bare chest. “Thank you so much.”
“No problem, my dear.” He turned away from her so he could polish off the whiskey. “Now, we should get going.”
&nb
sp; “I can’t run,” Sally said. “She took my superspeed.”
“I know. Don’t worry about that.” Alan reached into his pocket. He held up two vials. “One of these is going to make you a grown up again and another will make you fast. Then we can go home. There should be a car out there we can take back to my lab. That’s where I’ve got everything set up.”
“Won’t they be able to follow us?”
“Not a problem.” Alan reached into another of his pockets to take out what looked like a TV remote. He pressed a few keys. “That should mask our signals. They’ll think we’re one of them.”
Sally grinned at her geriatric husband. “You are amazing.”
“I know it, but it sounds a lot better coming from you.” They found a pick-up truck parked across the street. Alan tested it to make sure it would start and had enough fuel to get them away from the city. He motioned for Sally to lie down in the bed. “Make yourself comfortable. This is going to hurt.”
Sally nodded. She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to watch. She felt a tiny prick as he stuck the needle into her. Then her body lit up with pain. Sally let out a scream before she passed out.
Chapter 29
Much to Elise’s surprise, Midnight Spectre had told them the truth. A spear to the junction by the wing root did cause the alien ships to spin out of control. The problem was there were so many alien ships it didn’t matter.
They had managed to take down a full squadron of the ships before the aliens got smart and began blasting at the skyscrapers. To save her guards, Elise had to order a strategic withdrawal so they could reassemble underground, in a subway station. There at least the alien ships couldn’t reach them, unless they could blast through the streets.
Elise had expected the guards to get claustrophobic down here, but most seemed to enjoy it. She supposed the darker, danker environment was closer to being underwater than up in a skyscraper. Midnight Spectre grinned at Elise from the bench she sat on. “So, brave Queen Neptune, what do we do now?”
“We will formulate a new strategy.”
“They’ll probably wipe out Pacifica while you’re dithering here.”
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