“Delivery is only the beginning. It has to be activated and placed directly into the weapon in order to work,” said General Ashtar.
“Hmm. Well, better yet,” said Mike, “why not just send flowers, wired with a bomb? You could send them a musical bouquet.”
“I’m sure they would have thought of that already if it would really work, Mike.” Casey slapped his hand gently. “Remember, Jack’s up there too. Unless he can find a way out of there, blowing up the mothership isn’t an option.”
The general nodded. “Destroying the mothership would be an excellent strategic move, but the third pilot refuses to help us unless we promise no violence whatsoever. Without him, we can’t operate the alien ship and follow through with our plan. Therefore, we’re forced to abide by his wishes.”
Mike shook his head. “What? This pilot has some moral opposition to taking out a ship full of homicidal aliens who want to kill billions of people and make us as extinct as those dinosaurs were supposed to be?”
“He has his reasons, but they are personal, and I am not at liberty to discuss them,” said General Ashtar. “Our plan, therefore, is to have someone board the craft, find the weapon, trigger the timer, and insert the chip.”
“You want us to march right in there? I’m not sure they’ll be so happy to see us.” She fidgeted with her hands. She was sure now that he wasn’t the nutcase she made him out to be; he was too smart. He just kept talking without giving away any information, trying to stall them and using his propaganda to brainwash them.
“That’s the only way,” he continued, “and timing is critical because there’s only a thirty-second window between the time we activate the chip and the time it must be placed within the alien weapons chamber.” He paused, releasing a breath through pursed lips.
“You’re kidding,” Mike mumbled. “How’re we even supposed to get up there when you said your ships, camels, or whatever you’re using aren’t working?”
“That’s a valid question.” The general tapped a finger on his chin, considering his answer carefully. “Since none of our aircrafts are operational, we are forced to use the only available ship.”
“The U.S.S. Alien that you’re keeping in the bunker?” said Casey, slapping her forehead.
The general nodded again. “Unfortunately, the Greys are smaller than we are, so none of our pilots fit in the operation seats in the cockpit.”
“How much smaller?” Mike pointed from himself to Casey, his green eyes widening. “Are you talking our size?”
“Yes.”
Mike’s green eyes grew wide, and his jaw dropped. “So you’re telling us you need a pilot? Well look no further! I’m your man.”
“But…” Casey swallowed hard as realization kicked in. “But, sir, we aren’t pilots. Heck, Mike can’t even drive his bicycle without running over a few old ladies and their little dogs.”
Mike heaved a sigh. “That was one time, Casey, and it was only because it was Jack’s bicycle and I wasn’t used to it.”
She waved her hand. “Whatever. Point is, I don’t get it. You have all this awesome technology. Can’t you just grab a futuristic chainsaw and make the seats bigger for your own people?”
The general shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s not that easy. We’ve tried everything at our disposal, but the chairs were installed with some type of technology we cannot change or decipher.”
“Why don’t you just rip the seats apart and put in your own, then glue it all to the floor…with seatbelts, of course.” She crossed her arms over her chest. The whole thing sounded ridiculous, as if they refused to even try.
His intense gaze fixed on her face. “The pilot seats cannot be tinkered with or removed without serious consequences. One of my men is fighting for his life because he tried to remove the seats and was promptly and violently electrocuted.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” She stared at him, images of burned bodies flooding her mind. She was in no mood to show up as “fried” on Colonel Sanders’s menu. “How do we know the same thing won’t happen to us? The chairs could have some weird recognition software that knows when the wrong pilot is sitting there. I’m not a fan of being barbecued, hero mission or not.”
The general inclined his head, thinking. “Not likely, according to our third pilot. I wish we could get more info from him, but he only knows how to fly the ships.” It didn’t seem to be enough of an answer to satisfy Casey’s scowl, so he continued, “As I said, this technology is new to us and very sophisticated. It may take a little longer to decipher it.”
“I have an idea,” Mike blurted out. “Forget the seats. Can’t you just stand and operate the ship? You know, like a Wii or something? Or are you guys still playing Atari? I mean, you do still have dinosaurs.”
General Ashtar turned to face him. “We tried standing. The ship engines won’t even start without a precise weight requirement and three heartbeats in place.”
Mike slapped his forehead.
Casey was baffled. If their experts couldn’t figure out the weird technology and get past the security precautions she wondered how the heck the general expected them to fly the thing. After all, it wasn’t like they offered Aerodynamics Flight 101 at her high school, and E.T. wasn’t exactly hanging out in the teachers’ lounge. “What’s this weight requirement all about? Because if you ask me to step on a scale, I’ll insist on a soundproof bathroom with no mirrors or windows through which others might pry. And you’ll have to pinky swear absolute secrecy.”
“I will tell you how the security precaution works. All three seats must be occupied. There must be three beating hearts, and the pilots must have a combined weight of no more than 400 pounds. Thorn, the third pilot, weighs less than 100 pounds.” The general looked at Mike, then Casey. “The two of you appear to have a combined weight of under 300 pounds.”
She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. If Mike weighed 200, she was doomed. She had to wonder if this whole thing was some kind of joke, or maybe a nightmare spawned by her own self-consciousness. One look at the general’s face told her he was dead serious. She inched toward Mike, whispering, “I told you to cut down on the cheese fries.”
He chuckled and then said to the general, “So why don’t you rig the chairs? Throw down 300 pounds of bricks and a couple of monkeys, and bingo! You’ve got the weight and the beating hearts.”
“We’ve tried tricking the system. The technology is so advanced that it is capable of detecting inanimate weight and animal heartbeats in less than twenty seconds.”
“Maybe it would be better to fix one of your own ships,” said Casey.
Mike nodded his head in agreement.
“Not only have they shut down all communication, but they’ve inserted some type of virus into all of our ship computers.” General Ashtar waved a hand. “Our entire fleet has been rendered inoperable by the enemy. Even if we could fix the problem, their patrolling army would destroy us even before we exited Earth’s atmosphere. If we use one of their vessels, we will be able to approach the mothership without incident, deliver the virus, and escape before they realize what’s happened.”
It sounded like a good plan, commandeering an enemy ship to sneak in, like Han sneaking onto the Endor moon. Still, though, Casey wasn’t all that enthused. Maybe that was because they were just kids. She had the technical savvy of a cat, and Mike wasn’t much better. In fact, he was worse, because once his excitement took over, he was like a five-year-old in a candy shop—eager to touch everything that glittered and sparkled.
“This is so like Independence Day,” said Mike.
Nudging him, Casey rolled her eyes. “No, it’s different. Will Smith’s like the pizza delivery guy. He drops the pizza off and speeds out of the driveway. But not us. We’re boarding the mothership. That’s like driving to the pizza shop and going inside.”
“As long as they play my favorite songs on the jukebox, bring it on.” Mike grinned and put an arm around her shoulder and noticed how serious she looked. “Hey, C
asey, I’m just kidding. Besides, if Will Smith can jump into an alien spacecraft and learn to fly it in a few minutes, so can we.”
“You know Will Smith is an actor, right?” she said. “It was all in the script, totally unrealistic. This isn’t the movies, Mike. We’re talking about real life.”
“Really? And here I thought I was dreaming, what with all those dinos and all this alien talk.” Mike laughed. “Relax. Like I said, I’m just kidding. Don’t worry. I’ll learn to fly this thing in a heartbeat.”
And that was exactly what worried her—that he’d skip through the instructions because he felt it all came natural to him.
Mike rubbed her bare arm, sending shudders down her spine as he leaned in to whisper, “We’ll do it together, like Caesar and Cleopatra.”
Gripping his hand, she tried to smile. She couldn’t even control a motor vehicle, let alone fly a spacecraft. In Driver’s Ed, she and Mike had moved at a snail’s pace and still knocked down most of the orange cones. Jack drove faster, but even he mowed over his fair share too. Frowning, she looked at Mike and then at General Ashtar. “But I told you already, we’re not pilots. We may look clever to you, but we suck at technology. You couldn’t trust Mike with a hairdryer, and I’m even worse. Most of the time, I can’t even get my alarm clock to work. Sir, there’s absolutely no way we can do this.”
“You can be trained.” His eyes flickered for just a moment, like he was nervous.
“In less than twelve hours?” Casey still had her doubts. Setting up her computer and putting numbers in her cell phone was about the extent of her technological background.
The general smiled. “My good friend Thorn will be in the cockpit with you. He is a talented pilot and can tell you anything you need to know. He can pretty much operate the ship himself. We need you because security must pick up three heartbeats with the right weight requirements sitting in the chairs. And of course, we need you to sneak aboard the ship and activate the microchip.”
In the end, it was a little different from Independence Day since they’d have the luxury of an experienced copilot who knew how to fly this ship. That, at least, was a step in the right direction. Still, she sighed and peered at the general, wondering how the crazy plan was going to stand a chance. How can he expect us—two kids—to pilot an alien craft into space, board a mothership, and walk amongst rebel Greys to deliver a microchip into a weapon of mass destruction? The closest thing she’d had to training was all the sci-fi she’d watched. I guess Luke was only about eighteen—not much older than me—and he destroyed the Death Star. But then again, Casey didn’t have Yoda or the force on her side. “I want to help, but this is so out of our league.” Casey placed a hand over her racing heart, trying to calm down, but her pulse wouldn’t slow. “How can you expect us to go on some military expedition into unknown territory? I’m not even old enough to join the army, for goodness sake.”
“And another thing,” Mike chimed in, “what if we go in there and someone sees us?”
The general shrugged. “Then you shoot.”
Casey laughed. “Are you serious?” It was like a general handing her some army fatigues, binoculars, and a machine gun and saying, “Go get ‘em, tiger.” She had never held a weapon in her life, and she had no idea what she’d do if she had to shoot at something—or worse, somebody. The thought terrified her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can help you.”
General Ashtar cocked an eyebrow. “Did I fail to mention it’s the very same mothership that is holding Jack prisoner? Not only can you save everyone on Earth, but you can rescue your friend in the process if you will do this for us.”
She’d figured that out already. Jack was the only reason she’d ever consider something so absolutely insane. Casey took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Why do I have this nagging voice in the back of my head telling me there’s more to this story?”
“Maybe that’s what they injected us with,” said Mike.
She shook her head. “No, it’s just my gut feeling telling me to run, to get as far away from here as I can, or I might not be able to later.”
General Ashtar turned on his heels and motioned them to follow. “Come. We haven’t a moment to waste. I’ll brief you on the rest as we make our way to the spacecraft.”
“So we’ll help you fly the ship, storm in with a huge army, find that weapon, and help Jack?” said Mike.
The general glanced over his shoulder. “If only it were that simple, son. We can’t go with you. Besides, this isn’t a takeover. It’s an undercover mission.”
Casey shivered. Zero backup? Oh crap! It was truly not a reassuring thought, and now she was even more confused. “So why can this Torn come and not you?”
“Thorn,” the general corrected, “and he can accompany you on this mission because he’s not Agarthian.”
Another kid? Scowling, she stared ahead. They were keen on saving the world, as long as it didn’t involve moving their own butts into action and risking their own lives.
“You want us to face the evil aliens without someone like Orthon there to protect us?” asked Mike, his voice going up an octave. “He’s the one with the superman powers. We’re just kids, and unless you provide someone else who can jump on buildings and climb up walls like Spider-Man, this trip’s not happenin’.”
“There’s no way we can send up one of our people.” The general’s pace picked up as he walked across the room. “The rebels have one of the most advanced security systems in the universe, and it’s set to alert them if it recognizes our DNA profile. If one of our star warriors takes one step on that mothership, their security system will set off every alarm immediately. That’s why we can’t use one of our own teenagers. Your race and our race are similar, but there are still major DNA differences. The system won’t pick up your DNA profile because surface humans are not considered a threat. They know your government doesn’t believe in civilizations from other worlds, so they have no built-in security measures to protect them from you.”
Casey and Mike hurried to keep up with him.
“Now you know the three reasons we need you,” said General Ashtar.
Mike cleared his throat. “My mind is still trying to process it all. Can you refresh me one more time?”
“Certainly. One, we must trick the system and help pilot the ship with Thorn. Two, we need your DNA to get past security. And three, only a human can activate the microchip seconds prior to being placed into the weapon’s chamber.”
Casey nodded. For the first time, she truly understood, though some questions still rang in her head, particularly why “only a human” could activate the microchip. She had to wonder if this Torn or Thorn or whoever he was was some kind of inhuman creature.
Huge brass doors materialized in a burst of white light. When they parted, the general escorted them inside.
Casey stared at her reflection in the mirrored walls. Her body, face, and hair were covered in mud. Her eyes were bloodshot, and the dark and puffy half-moons underneath stood in strong contrast to her pale face. She lifted her hands and tried to smooth the disarrayed mess of black locks as best as she could. How could a vacation turn into such a mess?
A chime sounded, and the doors slid shut behind them.
“Level D2854, Hangar G,” the general ordered.
Mike wiped the sweat off his forehead. “This is all so wild.”
Casey’s stomach dropped as the elevator sped down thousands of feet, descending deeper and deeper into the Earth. A weird, ear-popping sensation filled her ears. She shouted over the ringing in her head, “General, are you sure there’s even a weapon up there?”
“We have confirmation of its existence.”
Casey leaned back and tried to understand everything he was telling her. “Your people, the ones who were evacuated…won’t they call for help when they can’t reach you?”
“Yeah. Surely they’ll know something’s wrong,” said Mike.
“I have no doubt about that, but intelligen
ce reported this morning that the rebels have constructed an advanced force-field around Earth to keep everything and everyone out,” said General Ashtar. “Even when my people do come, it’ll take time to penetrate the shield, possibly days or more. We don’t have that much time. If we don’t do something and do it now, the world will cease to exist tomorrow.”
The elevator slowed to a halt; the doors swished open, and the passengers emerged. A long, narrow corridor stretched into oblivion before them. Dazzling, yellow light from an unknown source lit the way.
They arrived at a set of double doors. General Ashtar waved his hand across a control panel on the wall. The heavy doors clicked and opened into a huge, empty underground hangar deck. The silver ceiling arched high overhead. Below, the swirled marble cast a soft glow across the floor. A soldier saluted the general, barely sparing a glance toward her and Mike.
Mike’s eyes darted between the general, Casey, and the entire room. “So where’s the UFO?”
“The ship has a force-field, allowing it to go invisible when needed.” General Ashtar pointed to a marble balcony overlooking the room. Black, spiral pillars reached up to support the terrace overhead. “Turn off the force-field.”
She peered around her, unsure of what she could take in first. “Oh man! This is like…wow! Oh my gosh!” she whispered. Docked less than a football field away was one dome-shaped, metallic craft with two rows of rectangular windows. It appeared to be about fifty feet in diameter and at least fifteen feet high. Chills ran up and down her spine. There was no way they were going to be able to fly that thing. Help or not, she was sure they wouldn’t figure it out—not in a million years.
“That’s insane!” Mike shook Casey’s shoulder. “Can you believe this?”
She brushed off his hand before he dislocated her joint. “It’s incredible, but I bet I’d be able to see more without you shaking me to death at the same time.” He looked as nervous as she felt. Raising her eyebrows, she took a few tentative steps forward.
Endure: Book 5 in The Trapped In The Hollow Earth Novelette Series Page 5