by John Jr. Yeo
“Shut up, this is your fault in the first place,” I snapped back. “I didn’t come here to clean up your mess, I just want to save my boy’s life.”
“He’s going to kill you and your boy,” he reported gloomily. “You can’t trust anything that monster says.”
“Kordan, you insult me,” purred a voice that managed to sound refined, malicious and creepy all at once. Sens’r had entered the room, smartly dressed in an expensive looking three-piece suit. The human disguise of Ubaidullah Zahr had been completely abandoned now, exposing his natural blue skin to us all. It seemed strange seeing the alien wearing a conventional human set of clothes. Sort of like seeing a chimpanzee sitting behind a computer, doing reports and drinking coffee.
“You really think you can use these clones to take over the entire planet?” asked Dr. Progeriat. “The people in power have to know by now that these attacks aren’t a new alien invasion, they’re from my clones. They also know they can be destroyed with neutron radiation, so you won’t win this battle!”
“When you brought us to Earth, did you really have to steal this Palestian Cruiser?” complained the alien.
“It’s all we had time for,” the doctor replied. “It got us here, didn’t it?”
“It was built for a race half my size,” the alien complained. “I bought this suit at Sid Mashburn, and now I’m going to have to bend over for the duration of this operation. Do you know what this is eventually going to do to the lining? And my posture?”
“Where the hell is my son,” I finally demanded. “I brought you your fucking time widget, now show me my son is alive!”
“I must confess I’m quite surprised,” he told me, as he leaned casually against one of the walls. “When we escorted you into the ship, our shields were down for two seconds. I honestly expected your fellow heroes to have used the opportunity to attack. I didn’t expect you to really come alone.”
“They didn’t even want me to come,” I explained. “They certainly didn’t want me to give you the device. But none of them are his mother.”
“They probably didn’t think I’m a man of my word.”
The alien snapped his fingers, gesturing towards a pale white dude sitting at one of the consoles. “Let’s her see her offspring,” he ordered.
With a few button flips, one the screens switched from the live news feed, then to static, and then back to a live feed of the grey room where my son was being kept. He looked scared, and it tore right through me to see it, but he was still alive. He was still alive.
“Mom?”
“Oh, Caleb baby, I’m here!”
“Mom, who are these people?”
“Don’t be scared,” I begged of him, wiping a tear from my eye. “Everything is going to be fine, I promise you.”
I didn’t have a chance to say anything else. The feed was cut, and the screen went black once more. I turned to the alien and shot a hateful glare at him, but he barely flinched.
“He’s alive,” he began. “You see, I keep my promises. It’s the first rule of being a successful leader, you must keep your promises. Otherwise, people will revolt, and no good would come of that.”
“He’s still in your custody,” I reminded him. “You said you’d let him go free. At least do that before you kill me.”
Sens’r looked at me with a confused glance, tilting his head slightly to one side and blinking a bit.
“I never said anything about ending your life, Emily.”
“Oh sure, you’re going to let me and my son go free,” I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Are we going to have dinner first, or shall I just see myself out the door right now?”
“You gave me the array. You can toddle off to raise him to be a good citizen on an orderly, organized Earth.”
“Meanwhile, you still want all the world’s heroes to report to Utah. I think we all know you’re going to use your clone army to slaughter them. The heroes are the only real resistance you’re afraid of.”
At this, Sens’r chuckled a bit, and the rest of his thugs started joining in. They looked at each other, laughing and shaking their heads, and then returned to their work.
“You don’t want to kill the heroes at all,” Dr. Progeriat finally realized, standing to his feet. “You want to harness them.”
“You see, that’s why he was considered the smartest scientist back on Krael,” laughed the alien. “Nothing gets past this one, even though he’s a decrepit old man now.”
“I’m still not following you,” I said. “Why did you go through all of the trouble to grab your own clone army?”
“Because it was simply a means to an end,” Sens’r explained. “Kordon Zol was once a very powerful Kreaelian warrior, but he is just a tired old man now. His DNA produces effective clones, but you’ve seen how limited their durability are. Hardly the long-term solution for keeping this planet under control, you see. But they will keep your enhanced brothers and sisters under control long enough to be fitted with these.”
He held up a small oval-shaped object made of sleek metal. Up until a few days ago, one just like it had been implanted the back of my neck, ensuring my cooperating with the threat of severe nausea, debilitating pain and the possibility of my head exploding off my shoulders. The thought of that being shoved back into my body was terrifying enough, but not as much as the world’s superhuman population being fitted with them. This alien wanted his hands on all of them.
“If you think you’re putting that thing back inside my head, we’re going to have a very angry conversation.”
One of the clones was standing behind me now, and he gripped my wrists and pinned them behind my back. Another ounce of pressure would have snapped every bone in my arm. I have to admit, I was getting nervous. I still had a plan, and if my calculations were right, I had to last another few minutes before my cards were revealed. But time was running out. I really wanted to see the look on his face before I played it.
“Listen carefully to me, human,” the alien barked. “Your people need guidance, and I shall oblige them. The resources of your world shall be divided evenly and freely, for the benefit of all people. Those who sit in wealth above others will surrender a portion of their assets to feed and educate the poor and under privileged. Weapons will not be needed anymore, nor will wars be fought in the name of an unseen, invisible deity. If I’m to live on this ball of mud, then things are going to be different.”
“The heroes of the world are going to resist you,” I promised.
“The heroes of the world should have been using their gifts to make this happen a long time ago,” he countered. “All those wonderful things they could be doing, and they waste them on petty crimes and meaningless skirmishes. They tackle the symptoms without looking for a cure.”
“And you’re the doctor with the cure?”
“Who better? And that reminds me, your entire health care situation needs a complete overhaul,” he said, snapping his fingers at one of his minions. “Add that to the to-do list!”
“You tried this on Krael,” Dr. Progeriat reminded him. “The global economy collapsed after two years, and things were worse off than they were before.”
“I didn’t have an army to enforce global compliance before,” he said. “Things will be different now, and there will be no Galactic Federation to challenge me here.”
“Except for me,” I taunted him.
Sens’r stepped closer to me, and put a sharp fingernail to my chin. His eyes were dark brown, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of that dark blue skin. Rather than being exotic and alluring, it was crackled with spots, lines and texture that betrayed his advancing age. And, I hate to say it, but his breath smelled like a bucket of assholes. He probably thought my trembling lips was a show of terror, but it was actually an attempt to not vomit on his face.
“I will have your boy brought here,” he warned me. “I will have his arms and legs pulled off first, but I’ll let him live just long enough to see his mother have a Pyrdonian
Battle Staff shoved through her pretty little chest.”
“You’re the devil,” I whispered.
“Then you will serve the devil. Or the last thing you will see are the oozing remains of your brain dripping out of your nose.”
The clone put more pressure on my shoulder, nearly breaking my good arm. Sens’r put his fingers on my cheeks, and squeezed so hard that I could feel my jawbone begin to fracture. I tried not to cry out.
A sudden burst of alarm klaxons and flashing blue lights made him release his grip, and turn his attention towards the men suddenly gathering around one of the monitors.
“What is it now?” he asked angrily.
“We have more intruders,” one of the men reported. “They came out of the northwest. They’re attacking the ship’s shield, sir.”
Sens’r took a closer look at the monitor screen, which was visible to everyone in the room. I recognized the Mirror Man, Arachnid and the Golden Crusader. There were three others as well, not wearing costumes, but they were smashing at the shield with beams of energy and fire and electricity. I tried to hide a smile, but I didn’t do a very good job.
If these heroes were here, then Cass had done what she had promised. Right on schedule, with maybe two minutes to spare. There was no reason to drag this out anymore.
I planned to go out in a blaze of glory, and this monster and all of his followers with him.
“Are they hurting the shield?” the alien demanded.
“They’re not even scratching it,” came the report from one of the more intelligent looking followers. “Not even the Mirror Man, or Arachnid. The rest are doing more damage to themselves trying to break it. We’re safe, sir.”
Sens’r turned to me, put his hand on my chest, and shoved me backwards into one of the chairs. Towering over me, putting his foot on my stomach to pin me into place, he withdrew a jagged dagger from his belt and held it up menacingly. “You were told to come here alone, girl.”
“They must have followed me,” I explained. “I told you they didn’t want me to hand the array over to you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he smirked. “This shield could withstand a nuclear strike. They have nothing to threaten me with. They’re all primitive, meaningless human worms. But I have my own army of warriors at my disposal, don’t I?”
“Don’t do this,” I replied in the whiniest, most desperate tone I could manage.
“Mr. Katsumato?” he called out.
There was some static coming from the speakers above our heads, and then a voice with a vaguely Chinese accent reported back, speaking from another area of the ship. “Yes, sir?”
“How long until the first new clone will be ready? We have insects buzzing at our door.”
There was an uncomfortable moment of silence after that. I could see the muscles tense up around the alien’s neck as he waited for the report. As for me, I was personally loving every second of this.
“Mr. Katsumato? Report!”
“Sir, we are having a problem with the array,” he finally replied, sounding very small and embarrassed.
“That’s impossible. It was scanned and confirmed to be working before we brought her on board. I have spent weeks training you in simulations for this procedure. It worked perfectly fine in Switzerland, why isn’t it working now?”
“After we installed the array, we discovered that it’s been tampered with. There are no lithium tachyons present, sir.”
The heroes continued pounding away uselessly at the shield outside, and I finally had to say something.
“You didn’t really think I’d hand over a working Chronal Dampening Array to you, did you?”
His reaction was immediate. He turned his attention back towards me, pointing that nasty looking dagger at my chest again. “My men scanned the device,” he hissed. “It was active and functioning when you came aboard. What did you do to it?”
“How would I know what’s wrong with it? I’m simply a primitive, meaningless human worm.”
“Tell me what you did, or I’ll show you something that no mother would ever wish to see.”
“Your tiny dick?”
I was expecting to be stabbed for that last remark, or backhanded at the very least. But he only smiled, as if pleased to have a chance to serve out some punishment. “Open a line back up to Annie. Tell her to kill the little bastard.”
The alien watched me carefully, waiting for me to satisfy him with an emotional breakdown. All he got from me was a smug grin when a gentle voice came over the speakers.
“I’m very sorry,” said a friendly voice. “Arctic Annie can’t come to the phone at this time. If you’d like to leave a message, I’ll be happy to pass it along to her when she gets out of prison.”
Sens’r twirled around to glare at the screen. In the background, Arctic Annie was crouched in the corner of the room. Her wrists were bound with massive steel restraints, which kept her elemental powers neutralized. The teleporting man in the grey trench coat was standing over her, calmly smoking a cigarette and giving us a wink. Caleb, thank God, was nowhere to be seen. Teleported to safety, just as Cass promised he would be.
Cass was closest to the camera, smiling widely like a mischievous teen-ager. The heroes arriving to attack the shield has been the sign, just as we had discussed. When they arrived, it was a sign my boy was safe.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Sens’r snarled at her.
“And this looks like the second time I’ve bent you over and rammed it up your cornhole, honey.”
Sens’r screamed angrily, punching the monitor right in the center of the screen. It shattered violently, and then he ripped what was left of it right off of the wall.
He had finally lost his temper, and he was about to channel every bit of his rage my way. My time was almost up, so I made the most of it.
My left hand had been replaced by a cheap, plastic prosthesis. I couldn’t use my left arm to summon fire, so I aimed my right hand towards Sens’r, and spewed flame across the room. It was half the firepower I was normally able to summon, but it was enough to cause a wildfire to suddenly erupt across the room. It sent guards and minions scrambling for safety. One of the strands of fire slapped angrily against the alien’s face, causing him to explode with a satisfying howl of pain.
Then he leapt forward, through the flames, and he pinned me against the nearby wall. I was screaming even louder, because he had just shoved his dagger into my shoulder. My right arm dropped like dead weight, and my knuckles slammed painfully against the wall that I had been forced against. I could see the blood spurting from my shoulder, and my breathing started coming out in short, desperate gasps.
Dr. Progeriat, the only other one still in the room, leapt forward and put his arms around the alien’s throat. He screamed something angry and futile, but I could only hear the sound of my heart pounding. I think I was starting to go into shock.
Sens’r was bigger and stronger by far, and he easily pulled the old man away and slapped him to the floor with a powerful strike. Then he turned to me once again, and twisted the knife. A whole fresh layer of pain crawled over my body, and I knew it couldn’t get any worse than this.
Then he punched me in the mouth. It wasn’t hard enough to knock me unconscious, but it was enough to take out a couple of teeth. I could taste blood and the grit of shattered enamel on my tongue, and I couldn’t fight back. I couldn’t lift my hand to fight him. I had nothing left.
“You will tell me how to re-activate the array, or I will make you suffer more than any human has ever suffered before.”
I could feel a strange, pulsating sensation from where my left hand used to be. At first, I thought it might have been a phantom pain that people with amputated limbs suffer from. But I knew it was something else. The time had come at last. The end game was here. One more minute, maybe less.
“My friends are going to knock down your shield,” I taunted. “They’re going to come in here and drag you away.”
“No one gets i
n or out of this shield,” he promised. “It is clear that you have no fear of death. But if you don’t show me why the array is not working, I will take this starship to populated areas, and begin to rain down death and destruction on them all.”
I started to say something, but I choked on some of the blood that had welled up in my throat, and my words only came out as a gagging, bubbling noise. I tried to lean forward to spit up, but the alien still had his hand on the dagger, and the dagger was still in my shoulder, and his entire weight was pushing me against the wall. I spit out everything that was in my mouth, which I’m sure looked very attractive, and then I started to talk again. “You’re never leaving this mountain,” I promised him with a bloody smile. “I’m going to kill you, you son of a bitch.”
“I am exhausted with these games,” he decided, and he moved the knife a bit. It cut into my shoulder a bit more, edging dangerously closer to my throat, exposing me to a fresh wave of horrible pain. It would all be over soon, I told myself. It would all be over soon. This is how I chose to go out.
“How did s-someone with such l-little balls nearly take over the entire w-world?”
“Do you seriously think this delay will allow your allies enough time to rescue you? They can’t get in. This shield will last for years if need be. If you don’t turn the array back on, I will take this starship from one populated center to the next, and turn everyone there into ash. All that blood will be on your hands!”
“I only have one left,” I laughed, holding up the artificial hand to his face. “You took my other one---and my fake hand is still going to be more than enough to wipe your worthless ass off the face of the planet!”
He slapped it so hard, the wax hand flew right off my stump and into the nearby corner. “Tell me what you did, or that fake hand will be all that remains of you!”
I laughed, hard and pure and loud. All he had to do was turn his head, and his question would have been answered. Dr. Progeriat, still on the ground, started laughing too. The more we laughed, the redder the alien’s eyes seemed to become.