New World

by Nathan Hystad

  They talked for a few minutes. Magnus nodded while Jeff spoke, and I wanted to hear the other end of the conversation. “We’re at the Pyramid of Giza. Yeah, that one. One hour? We can wait it out. See you then.”

  “Well? What the hell’s going on here?” Leslie asked impatiently.

  “They’re here, but so far no fireworks have gone off. Naidoo has just made a statement for everyone to stay calm, but that’s not going so well. As far as Jeff knows, the Bhlat have hung in space, and the connections to the station up there have been severed. He’s bringing a transporter over here. I guess he was in London, or what’s left of it.” Magnus’ mouth was set in a grim line.

  “What now?” Mary asked.

  “We wait for Jeff,” Magnus said, sitting down on a half-sized pyramid stone jutting out of the ground.

  Leslie and Terrance set their packs down and ventured off together, whispering quietly.

  “I still don’t trust them,” Magnus said about the hybrid pair.

  “What choice do we have? We can’t get to the Bhlat world without them. We’re committed,” I said.

  “All that data from the Bhlat base you downloaded and all the details on locations were encrypted, hey?” I wasn’t sure if he was making a comment or asking a question.

  “They aren’t stupid, that’s for sure. They made sure their location was hidden from anyone finding an outpost,” I said.

  “We trust them now, but promise me this. We have each other’s backs no matter what happens. You, Mary, and me. If shit goes south up there, we leave them and force the information from Kareem if we have to.” Magnus’ voice was a low growl, and a vein on his forehead was starting to throb.

  “Deal,” Mary said first.

  “Deal.” I knew I owed the hybrids something after they’d turned around and worked with us to get our people home, but it only went so far. My friends came first. My people too.

  The hour went by slowly, and I marked the passage of the moon by its position over the Great Pyramid. I almost went back in, wanting to see the other chambers, but the risk of bumping around inside in the near dark wasn’t worth it.

  Being in Egypt after traveling through a portal felt like being on an abandoned alien world. No one was in sight, ancient structures pushed into the sky. It was surreal.

  After some time, a light shone in the sky, moving quickly toward our location. Leslie and Terrance meandered over to us, both holding their rifles at ready. I didn’t like the look in Terrance’s eyes as he stared toward the incoming ship.

  “This better be Dinkle,” Magnus said, holding his own gun at ready.

  The small transport landed, similar to the ones they had on New Spero, but it looked simpler and more worn than theirs. Probably an early model. The door opened, and a familiar face hopped out.

  “I’ll be damned. The rumors are true,” Jeff said, a smile covering half his face. He laughed and walked over to us, arms stretched out.

  He set them on Mary’s shoulders and kissed each of her cheeks before coming over to me and giving me a firm hug, complete with a back slap to end the embrace. He did the same to Magnus and gave a curt nod in the hybrids’ direction before speaking again. “The Heroes of Earth, back again. We thought you were dead.” He said this so matter-of-factly, like it didn’t bother him either way. “I’m glad you’re not.”

  “So are we,” Mary chimed in.

  “Why are you so chipper? Aren’t the Bhlat hovering somewhere overhead?” I asked, his demeanor bugging me.

  The smile fell from his face. “I’m sorry. When I heard from you, I got so excited. If anyone was going to get us out of this mess, it’s you three. I see Mae’s no longer with you?” He looked at me intensely, like he was trying to say something with his eyes, maybe pass a secret message to me.

  “She’s dead,” I said quietly.

  “I see. So you got my text, then?” he asked.

  Text? I hadn’t had a text since… Don’t trust her. “What the hell are you asking me? It was you?” I crossed over to him, grabbing him by the shirt collar. A uniformed man from the transporter got out, holding a gun in the air, and asked me calmly to let him go.

  Magnus and Mary quickly had their weapons in the air, pointing at Jeff and his escort.

  “No need to get out of hand. I was trying to help you.” His voice was ragged as I clutched him firmly.

  “Why did you send that text?” I was suddenly furious. Rage filled my veins as I recalled getting the message on my cell phone outside the gas station near Nashville. Mae had been with us, chasing down the two hybrids now beside us. Only now, she was gone.

  “She was dangerous. I didn’t have enough proof, just the word of one of them.” He nodded in Terrance’s direction.

  I let him go. The anger was still there, but he was right. She did screw us over, even if she thought it was for the best. “What signs?” I asked, nodding to my counterparts, who let their weapons down. The air thinned as the tension lifted.

  “Before we get into this, do you think we could have this discussion in the air?” Magnus asked. “We have an objective here, and fighting each other isn’t going to get us there.”

  One by one, we loaded onto the transport ship, which had barely enough room for us to sit side by side. Jeff sat in the back with us, and Magnus took a seat up front by the pilot. I was hip to hip between Mary and Leslie. Our bags and rifles leaned behind the back seats, in the small storage area just out of sight.

  “Explain,” I said once we were in the air, leaving the pyramids behind.

  EIGHTEEN

  We moved quickly through the night. Part of me wished I could watch the ground fly past us as we traveled, moving over the Middle East toward Siberia, where Jeff claimed the hybrid camp was located.

  “I had a talk show for a few years on extraterrestrial beings, and the likelihood of life outside of Earth. Ever since I was a child sending letters to MUFON, I’ve been ridiculed for my beliefs. It didn’t stop there. Even as a successful television host and blogger, I had hate mail, and naysayers putting me down. Could you imagine the thrill I had when one of the hybrids approached me a year before the Event?” Jeff’s smile started to creep back onto his face.

  “What?” Mary asked, as incredulous as I felt.

  “Kyle came to a filming of one of my interview shows. He sat in the front row, and there was something familiar about him, like I’d seen him before. It turned out that I had, on a conspiracy blog about aliens among us. It showed images of Kyle’s other lookalike hybrids. He was the Caucasian male, dark hair.”

  I glanced over at Mary, knowing Jeff was describing the hybrid that had looked like Bob, her husband. She just turned and gave me a forced smile.

  Jeff continued. “The site had done a good job of identifying this man all over the world. There were at least ten sightings; each of the men looked very similar, though some wore their hair differently and dressed differently. The site wasn’t a big one, and most people assume these things are fake or Photoshopped anyway, so it didn’t make any mainstream news. When I realized this man in my audience was one of them, I couldn’t wait to speak with him. I remember how nervous I was after the show was done filming. Kyle lingered in his seat, long past everyone else’s departure, and once the crew was gone, I walked over to him, heart pounding, knowing this was the moment I’d been waiting for. I was right.

  “He told me his name and asked if there was somewhere we could talk privately. I agreed to it, and we left the studio. We walked to an all-night café nearby where only a couple of night-shift workers were hanging out, giving us ample opportunity to talk without prying ears.

  “The story he spilled was insane, even to me, a full alien believer. He claimed that a race of aliens was coming, fleeing their own system and making the trip to Earth, where they would dispose of us all, claiming the planet for themselves. I asked him how he knew this, and he said he was a hybrid alien, part Kraski, part human. He looked sickly and was coughing up a lung by the time our pie came to
the table.” Jeff paused briefly to look at Leslie, then Terrance, before starting again. “I asked him what I was supposed to do about it, knowing he had to be crazy. I would have left it alone if I hadn’t seen him on that conspiracy website. That he was already being touted as an alien by some blogger made me listen to him. The idea that he may have been the guy behind the website crossed my mind, but this man was so into his story, I almost believed him.”

  The ship jumped a little bit, and my heart hammered in my chest, thinking we were being attacked. “Just turbulence,” the pilot said from the front seat. I craned my neck and there was Magnus, listening to Jeff’s story with interest. After a few more bumps, I clipped my seatbelt on, the rest of us following suit.

  “What happened after that?” Mary prompted.

  The TV host was looking forward, not meeting the gaze of anyone, just silent for a moment.

  “Jeff?” I asked.

  He turned to me, his eyes coming into focus. “Yes, sorry. I was lost in my story, I guess. So much has happened since that day, but it’s so clear in my memory. I can tell you what color and style his shirt was, and that his white sneakers were old, with dark scuff marks along the sides of them. I’ll never forget his next words.”

  I leaned forward, drawn in like everyone else listening.

  “He said we had no chance. He hated being used like a puppet and said that the Kraski could go to hell. That’s when he told me about the Deltras’ plan. It sounded insane and had far too many moving pieces to work,” Jeff said, his eyes shifting to meet mine. “He told me there were a few of them in the mix, but not to trust one in particular.”

  He paused again, and Mary leaned back, pushing out an irritated sigh. “For the love of God, just say the name already.”

  Jeff smiled, making me want to slap the words out of his mouth. “Mae. He told me not to trust Mae.”

  “What good did that do?” I asked. “You didn’t tell anyone, and then sending an anonymous text to me telling me not to trust her. It could have meant anyone. Mary, Natalia, Patty… hell, even Leslie here. What did he say about Mae?” I was getting tired of Jeff’s demeanor, and wished he’d just sent the transport and stayed in London. “What did he know about her?”

  Jeff shrugged. “I was trying to help you. She was with the Bhlat, wasn’t she? He was right, and I was right to warn you.”

  “I think the part we’re having a hard time wrapping our heads around is this: you could have had a conversation with us before we traveled off into space with Mae by our side. Maybe, just maybe, these two could have stayed on Earth, and we could’ve not lost seven years with our loved ones. Maybe the hybrids wouldn’t be on lockdown now, wasting away in Siberia like murderers and terrorists,” Mary said, keeping her voice calm. I gripped her hand, squeezing it for support.

  “Yes, but… then the Bhlat wouldn’t have come,” he said, his grin so wide I saw all of his teeth. His comment didn’t even register as I looked at him, thinking how much he looked like a wild animal with his teeth bared like that.

  “What did you say?” Magnus asked from the front.

  “Then the Bhlat wouldn’t have come.” Jeff repeated the words, and before we could react, he pulled a gun, aiming it at Terrance’s head. “Anyone moves, and I blow this man’s head off his shoulders. And I use the term ‘man’ loosely. He’s more of an alien monstrosity. Part Kraski, a terrible race of cowards, mixed with another race of turncoats and self-abusers: human.”

  “Magnus, where are we going?” I asked, not able to see through the front window.

  “We’re moving up, heading into the clouds,” my large friend said through a clenched jaw. If I knew Magnus, he was holding down the urge to slam the pilot’s head into the dash.

  “Dinkle, what’s the endgame here?” I asked, feeling stupid for instantly trusting the stranger. We’d fallen right into his trap. Patty had been played by the man she thought she knew.

  “The endgame is this: we already have Dalhousie and your other friends up there. Now we have the famed Heroes of Earth to bring as a sacrifice. Rumor has it they want your head on a stick, Mr. Parker. I wonder what for?”

  My throat had closed, and I swallowed hard. They knew me. Naidoo had probably sold me out.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I said, the words burning on their way out. We’d come all this way, and now it was going to end at the hands of this slick television talk show host.

  “No, I don’t, but humans have never interested me. Aliens? Now them, I can get behind. They’re going to show me amazing things. Speaking of which, how did you get to Egypt? Inquiring minds want to know your tricks.”

  “You really think we’re going to tell you that?” Mary asked vehemently. I set a trembling hand on her thigh.

  Terrance was staying far calmer than I would have with the cold steel of a gun against my temple. I had to hand it to the guy; he was cool as a cucumber. Leslie was fidgeting. I hoped she wasn’t about to lunge at Jeff, because her friend would probably end up dead if she did.

  Magnus whistled up front, just a light one, but I knew what it meant. It was the same whistle I’d used to teach Carey to roll over. I scanned the seatbelts, seeing everyone was wearing one but Jeff. I got ready. We bumped into some more turbulence, and Magnus made his move. He must have snuck his hand to the steering column because we suddenly were torn to the side, the ship turning hard to starboard. Jeff went hard into the sidewall, still holding his gun. I unclasped my belt just as we came out of the barrel roll and lunged at the dazed man.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Magnus said from the front seat, presumably at the pilot, as I arced through the air, the training Slate engrained into me on our previous journey taking over.

  Jeff’s eyes went wide as he tried to swing his gun around in time to aim at me, but he was too late. Our bodies collided. My fist went into his gut and he bent over, fighting for breath. Terrance was already digging behind him to the storage area, and when I glanced over, he was passing the pulse rifles to the others.

  Jeff was still gripping the gun, but I clasped his wrist while he coughed loudly. Mary came over and pried it from his fingers; soon he was slumped back in his seat, his head bleeding from the side.

  “You don’t know what you’ve done,” he spat angrily. “They’re expecting us. When we don’t show up, they’ll come looking. Do you think they’ll spare the people in their search?”

  “Don’t put this on us. This is all on your hands,” I said, surprised his perspective would allow him to see that vantage point. This type of man always reasoned with himself when he did things. He justified his terrible actions with righteous causes, but at the end of the day, he was in the wrong.

  “Take us to Siberia,” Magnus grumbled from the front. He was now pointing a gun at the pilot, whose shoulders took on the inevitable slump of someone caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

  I went to the storage compartment and found some zip ties, which we used to tie Jeff’s hands together. He protested, but soon he was sitting in the back on the floor, head on his knees.

  “Should we give him something for his head?” Mary asked quietly.

  I shook my head. “We’ll figure it out later. For now, I have a hard time showing the man compassion.” I shifted my attention to the front of the transport. “What’s our ETA?” I asked.

  When the pilot didn’t answer, Magnus peered over to the console. “Ten minutes. Here, look at this.”

  He passed me a tablet and told me to press play. It showed a snow-covered entrance to a large stone-walled prison. Guard towers were visibly manned, and a name was carved in the rock in Russian.

  In the video, a stream of people emerged from a Kraski ship. Their hands were chained, and they wore orange jumpsuits. My stomach lurched when I saw who they were. Every few people, the faces were the same. Leslie clenched beside me, a low growl coming from her throat.

  “This is where we’re going,” Magnus said. “I found it online. Maybe we should take them and l
et the Bhlat have this world. I’m sick of the things we put each other through.”

  “Just put yourself in their shoes, Magnus,” Mary said. “We chased after who we thought were murderous hybrids, and never came back. They had to do something with them. When the Bhlat contacted Earth, they must have felt like they’d done the right thing. That doesn’t make it right, but it makes it understandable.”

  The video kept playing, showing the inside of the building, the lines of cold bleak cells, and a pitiful bunch of hybrids sitting and eating in the mess hall. They were a beaten-down group, and I felt so terribly for them. We had to right it, and even though we were wasting precious time on this mission, it was an important one, no matter the outcome of the impending war.

  “Arriving,” the pilot said, all the fight gone out of him. He was a hired hand and most likely didn’t care about causes, only a paycheck and seeing his family at night.

  Snow was falling as we lowered from the cloud line, reminding me of Terran Five.

  As we neared the building, something was off about it. “Shouldn’t there be lights on somewhere?”

  Magnus nodded and mumbled something along the same lines.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Mary said. The feeling was mutual, and almost a constant for us over the past couple of years.

  Leslie and Terrance stayed quiet, their gazes never leaving the view of the structure we were approaching. They were so close to their friends, nothing would stop them from getting to them now. I knew we had to watch our own backs. As much as I wanted to say these two were on our side, I knew they were looking out for themselves and the rest of the hybrids first, and I didn’t even blame them.

  The transport ship landed softly, near the entrance we’d seen on the video minutes ago.

  Leslie was already half out the door, followed quickly by Terrance. Jeff was tied up in the back, and we did the same to the pilot, making sure they had no weapons.

  As I followed Mary out, Leslie was standing at the large iron gates. She looked back at us and pulled. The gates swung open. We still couldn’t see any lights on inside, and the towers located around the building looked to be empty.