The Ninth: Invasion

by Benjamin Schramm

  “Mommy! He’s awake!” she shouted.

  A figure asleep in a nearby chair was startled so badly she nearly knocked herself over. He recognized her as Mrs. Miron. Recovering, she got to her feet and approached the bed. Her eyes were red and swollen from a great deal of crying.

  “I told you he’d wake up,” the girl said confidently.

  Mrs. Miron could only nod weakly.

  “Mommy tells me you helped me out,” the little girl spoke slowly. “I didn’t get a lot of the big words she used. But I’m happy you are okay.”

  “I’m glad you are all right, too,” Brent said weakly.

  The little girl looked at her shoes and fidgeted oddly.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  “Mommy won’t give me an answer.”

  “An answer to what?”

  “Did you get hurt because of me?” the girl asked quietly.

  “Don’t worry about it; you are more important,” he said with a smile.

  “You’re not mad?” The girl’s mood brightened instantly.

  “Not at all.”

  “I don’t like it when people are mad at me. I’m glad you’re not.” The girl smiled warmly. “Before I had to get on the big ship with mommy, my teacher back home was talking about animals. She said some of them would get new tails if they lost the last one. Can you do that too?”

  Mrs. Miron tried not to sniffle as the little girl looked at him expectantly. Brent smiled to himself. That strange emotion had completely vanished. He wondered if the girl had chased it away somehow. Weakly, he raised his left arm and patted the girl’s head.

  “That’s right,” Brent said. “Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be good as new in no time.”

  Mrs. Miron broke into tears and hugged her daughter tightly.

  “Don’t cry, mommy; he’ll be okay. He said so.”

  “She’s just glad you are safe,” Brent said with a smile.

  “People cry when they are happy, too?” the girl asked in surprise.

  “When they are very happy, they do.”

  Mrs. Miron’s crying intensified as she silently mouthed the words “thank you” over and over. A tall man in a medical uniform entered the room and instantly froze. Realizing Brent was awake, the man quickly left the room. A moment later he returned with a large group. The orderlies escorted Mrs. Miron and her daughter away as the doctors started looking over the machines. One of them took a seat at his side.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked slowly.

  “Exhausted but fine.”

  “You’ve probably noticed by now that you’re . . .”

  “Missing some hardware, so to speak,” Brent said trying to joke.

  “Do you feel light headed at all?” The woman didn’t laugh. “Is it hard to concentrate or anything like that?”

  “Not at all . . . why?”

  “Well you’ve been unconscious for a while. We were worried the trauma might have done some mental damage.”

  “What happened? How long was I out?”

  “Well . . . that’s hard to . . .”

  The woman was tripping over her words, trying to find the best way to say it. He could feel her anxiety. Suddenly a man in a security forces uniform entered the room.

  “Pardon the interruption, but I’ve got orders from Alden,” the man said forcefully. “The patient is to be moved at once.”

  “Excuse me?” the doctor asked in surprise. “He is in no condition to be moved anywhere.”

  “Orders are orders.”

  With the assistance of a second armed guard, the security forces helped Brent get to his feet. His body felt impossibly heavy as he struggled to maintain his balance. The doctor’s protests fell on deaf ears as the men supported him. Leaving the medical wing, Brent instantly recognized the design and lighting of the rooms to be the ones used by Core Industries. Somehow, he had gotten back to Eos. As the armed guards escorted him, his strength slowly started to return. How long had he been out, where were the others, what happened, and countless other questions filled his mind.

  A single glance at the guards told him he’d get nothing out of them. To them he was just another trooper, nothing special or unique. Certainly no one they owed answers to. Finally, the trio reached a smaller room. After setting him down on one of the soft couches that lined the walls, they quickly left him behind. The room was poorly illuminated but gave the impression of luxury. He guessed from the lavish seats and wall decorations the room was probably commonly used for entertaining important guests.

  In the solitude of the room, Brent felt his right shoulder. The form he was used to was gone, replaced by an unnatural edge. As he studied what was left of his right side with his hand, his mind recalled the strange emotion. It hadn’t been sadness or anger or anything so easy to distinguish. It was a complex amalgam of different emotions that had no relation to losing a limb. If he had to use a single word to describe the incredibly strange emotion, it would be “Satisfaction.” The lights in the room brightened, and a doorway on the opposing side opened.

  “Brent!” Tyra shouted.

  The squad quickly entered the room and crowded around him.

  “We thought you were dead!” Sanderson said, patting Brent’s left shoulder.

  “Takes more than an invading alien force to bring down our Brent,” Doug said with a smile.

  “We didn’t even find out about it until the CI ships got back here,” Humphrey mumbled.

  “We were so worried,” Liz said in a relieved voice.

  “Yeah, Cain neglected to tell us we were going to evacuate,” Marie said, slugging his arm.

  “So, everyone made it safely off Reloas?” Brent asked.

  “Every last person,” Doug said. “Alden made sure as many people were off Reloas as possible before threatening the ITU. He even forced some of the locals to evacuate.”

  With a sudden vibration, Brent realized the room was moving.

  “What’s going on now?” Erin asked.

  Angela shot a glance at Cain.

  “Don’t look at me. I’m just along for the ride.”

  The Wall appeared at the far end of the ship. Through the transparent wall, Brent could see the skyline of the city of Eos, the nebula clearly visible overhead. After the Wall passed, he looked around the group for Owen, knowing the nebula would probably scare him out of his mind. To his surprise, he couldn’t find him.

  “Where’s Owen?” Brent asked.

  The others straightened. As they exchanged worried glances, he could feel their remorse. There were no aurora or visible signs, but he could sense their emotions clearly.

  “He doesn’t know . . .” Angela said in a pained voice.

  With a gentle lurch the room came to a stop.

  “We can’t be there already . . . what would be so close?” Dante asked, surveying the room.

  The doorway the troopers had entered from opened. An easily recognizable figure loomed in the open doorway and gestured for them all to follow.

  “Of course, the answer to that question is a moon,” Alden said, leading them on.

  “A moon?” Cain asked, eyeing his father. “I didn’t know Eos had any habitable moons.”

  “Technically speaking, it didn’t.”

  “Didn’t? You mean you made an entire moon?” Dante asked in awe.

  “Not us. A long time ago someone, or perhaps it’s better to say something, built this moon and sent it here to orbit the world we now call Eos.”

  “So why have you brought us here, Alden?” Tyra asked.

  “All in good time, my dear, all in good time. For now, I have a few questions of my own. I warned you we’d be having a chat when you got back, didn’t I?” Alden asked Brent.

  He nodded distractedly as he took in the surroundings. The architecture wasn’t like anything he had ever seen before but had an air of familiarity to it. Smooth black surfaces covered everything. He could make out tiny grooves carved into the black material that formed a flowing grid ove
r everything. Brent wondered what they could be used for. The grooves lining the ceiling ruled out any material that would be affected by gravity, as it would simply fall out. As they wandered in deeper, he spotted scientists in CI uniforms investigating strange machinery that didn’t look like any man made device he’d ever encountered.

  “I’m curious,” Alden said, clearing his throat to get Brent’s attention. “Why did you lie to the young girl?”

  “What girl?” Rhea asked.

  “The one I saved on the Harbinger,” Brent said. “I didn’t want to burden her. For a girl so young to be saddled with the knowledge she permanently disabled someone wasn’t something I wanted.”

  “Interesting. Even with the knowledge that your life would be forever altered, you still worried about the girl’s well-being. You do realize she’ll find out the truth one day.”

  “Of course, but she’ll be older by then. Hopefully, she’ll be more prepared for that knowledge when she finds it for herself.”

  “I see. Tell me, Brent, where were you born?”

  He stopped dead in his tracks at the question.

  “Did I hit a nerve?” Alden asked innocently.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Kindra asked forcefully.

  “Cain, what do you know?” Angela asked suddenly. “I can tell you’re hiding something. You’re terribly worried about it. What’s going on?”

  “Allow me to explain,” Alden said, gesturing for them all to keep moving. “A long time ago, before I had taken control of Core Industries from my father, I stumbled across a strange bit of information. An odd project the government was conducting in secret.”

  “What does this have to do with Brent?” Tyra asked.

  “Your friends have no patience,” Alden said to Cain with a sigh. “If you’ll let me tell my story, I promise you’ll understand. Anyway, the project was so secretive that all I could find on it was a name. ‘Chronos.’ At first I had no idea what that word even meant.”

  “Chronos. The Greek god of time,” Brent said almost automatically.

  “If only I’d had you around back then, you could have saved me a great deal of searching,” Alden said with a smile. “However, you are perfectly correct. Apparently someone in the government wanted to play with time. And after the Great War had ended and everything settled down, there was a renewed interest in all sciences that didn’t relate to war. We’d lost ten thousand years of advancement to the Great War, and the reformed government was eager to make up for lost time.”

  “You mean the government found a way to control time?” Penny asked in awe.

  “Not quite. As it turns out, time isn’t as easy to alter as they thought. All the records regarding the project were sealed or destroyed, but apparently they created a working device of some kind. However, it didn’t work exactly how they wanted it to, so the project was largely regarded as a failure. Now, before you ask what this has to do with Brent, let me explain why I’ve told you all that. You see, while Chronos didn’t deliver the desired results, it did prove something. Time wasn’t completely beyond our grasp. A second project was started, one called ‘Lazarus.’”

  “The man brought back from the dead?” Brent asked.

  “Exactly right again,” Alden said with a wicked grin. “Using what they learned from Chronos, they started dabbling with bringing back a dead person.”

  “Zombies?” Doug asked.

  “Nothing so melodramatic,” Alden said with an amused grin. “You see, the goal was to remove someone from time the instant before they died and bring them to the present. The idea sounded wonderful. Important people who’d been killed in accidents could be saved from their fate. Only problem was, it never worked.”

  “Why not?” Cain asked, sounding as clueless as the other troopers.

  “I have no idea. They spent centuries working on the project without ever figuring out why it failed to work. Countless experiments and attempts, the brightest minds in the Commonwealth, and all of it for nothing.”

  “How do you know all this?” Rhea asked. “I know CI is powerful, but even you can’t know everything.”

  “It’s interesting you should ask that. You see, about eighteen years ago there was a terrible accident. The facility housing Lazarus exploded.”

  “What caused it?” Ronald asked.

  “The important thing is it weakened security. A few hours after the explosion, I had full access to what was left of the data files on Lazarus. Truly fascinating stuff; it’s a shame it never worked.”

  “So what does this have to do with Brent?” Tyra asked impatiently.

  “Tell me, young man, how old are you?” Alden asked with a smile.

  Brent stared at Alden as his mind put the pieces into place.

  “Wait a minute,” Erin said in complete confusion. “I don’t understand. Brent is this Lazarus person? Does that mean he’s dead?

  Alden let out a long labored sigh.

  “If I’m understanding all this right,” Dante said, thinking aloud, “it means Brent might have been brought forward in time.”

  “From where, or for that matter, when?” Ronald asked.

  “You knew, Cain?” Angela asked turning on him. “You aren’t at all surprised.”

  Brent was shocked that he too could tell Cain wasn’t surprised. He had to focus on him, but Brent could sense what he was feeling. Cain wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

  “Well, dad didn’t tell me the whole story, but I figured it was something like that. You have to admit Brent is unique.”

  “Sure, but a guy from the past?” Kindra asked, studying Brent. “That’s a tough one to swallow.”

  “Shouldn’t he have suffered from future shock or something?” Mr. Springate asked.

  “Maybe he did to some extent. Hiroko always talked about how lost he was when she first met him . . .” Dante immediately shut his mouth as he realized what he’d just said.

  The entire group fell silent, even Alden. Brent quickly searched the group and realized Hiroko and Cassandra were missing alongside Owen. Realization hit him with a force stronger than any physical blow he’d ever received. Brent stumbled back a few steps and grabbed onto a low pillar with his left hand before falling completely.

  “What happened to the Harbinger,” he asked in a low voice.

  “It was a terrible shame . . .” Alden said.

  “The Shard forces destroyed the ship’s jump drive.” Ronald put a sympathetic hand on Brent’s left shoulder.

  “The Wall collapsed mid-jump,” Dante said with moist eyes. “I’m sorry, sir.”

  “Any survivors?” Brent asked, marshalling his strength for the answer he already knew.

  “After the Shard fleet left,” Alden said slowly, “a recovery team was sent in. They found only wreckage,” he said apologetically.

  “Maybe they survived somehow. The Shard could have . . .” Marie said hopefully.

  “The Shard don’t take prisoners,” Brent said flatly.

  “You don’t know that for sure! They could . . .” Liz pleaded with a whimper in her voice.

  “On the fifth exam while you were all fighting against the Citadel, I was fighting alongside them.” Brent shot a dark gaze at Alden. “The Shard don’t take organics prisoner.”

  “What did you just say?” Alden asked, taking a step back.

  “The Shards don’t see humans, or intelligent beings. They see only filthy organics. Isn’t that something Rita said?” Brent pressed as he stood and faced Alden. “Then again, you probably knew that, too. Didn’t you, puppet master?”

  The troopers all backed away from Brent. Liz quickly hid behind Marie’s back, clenching her shirt tightly. Alden tried to remain firm, but his fear was palpable.

  “Answer me!” Brent demanded.

  “I didn’t know about Rita. I thought the Shard might be controlling her or manipulating her. I never dreamed she could be one of them.” A bead of sweat rolled down Alden’s forehead.

  “You knew t
he Shard were alive?” Tyra shouted.

  Brent took a step toward Alden and reached out for him with his right hand. When nothing happened, he remembered he had lost that, too. Blinding anger and sorrow swelled over him. This man had known the dangers awaiting them, but had said nothing. Cassandra was dead because of him. He wanted to lash out at Alden, to strike him down for not warning them about the Shards. His rage boiled inside as he envisioned countless ways of ending the man’s life.

  A sudden calm covered him. The emotion had filled him too quickly to be natural. Brent shot a quick glance at Angela. It was apparent she was focusing entirely on him. Cain noticed his stare and stood between the two of them. He could feel Cain’s concern for Angela. Cain was terrified Brent was going to destroy her. In the young man’s eyes he could see his reflection. He wasn’t a Weaver or a trooper, just a monster ready to strike.

  Taking a deep breath, Brent allowed himself to be swallowed completely by the calm Angela was inducing. With the Shards running around, there was already a monster on the loose; he didn’t need to become a second. As the calm settled in and he regained rational thoughts, he realized killing Alden wouldn’t solve anything. Alden’s death wouldn’t bring back Cassandra and the others, nor would his arm suddenly reappear.

  “Since you know all the answers, tell me. Who am I?” Brent asked Alden in a cold voice. “Where did I come from?”

  “I don’t know.” Alden tried to swallow against a dry throat. “There wasn’t much information to go on in the first place, almost nothing at all about you.”

  “So why the keen interest?”

  “You were the only result of the project. There was an entire commission created in secret to oversee your development. I wanted to know what they knew. Turns out they didn’t have any idea when or where you came from either.”