by Mel Corbett
Jordan approached the hole and the short figures pulled away from him. He grabbed the weapon from the guy he’d shot. The alien couldn’t have been over four feet tall. Jor took the gun and ran back towards the battle. The weapon he held was a gun of some sort, if he could just figure out how to fire it.
“Secure the prisoners!” Jordan shouted to Campbell. If Campbell could hear him over the ringing in his ears. Jordan aimed the weapon at one of the last two coffins, and squeezed what he prayed was the trigger.
Nothing happened.
He kept the nose up, aimed towards the coffin and tried a different button.
Nothing happened.
Mason and Smith had stopped firing. They must be overheated, too. If this damned thing didn’t work, Al would be coming for them. He ran his fingers up and down the weapon. There had to be a trigger of some sort. It had to fire. It just had to.
He screamed and twisted the barrel in frustration. Lightning arced from the gun towards the coffin. It burst open.
The poor miners it had managed to get inside fell with it. He aimed at the other coffin and fired again, and it fell from the sky. The men screamed in the truck as shrapnel rained over them.
Jordan collapsed to his knees. He’d done it. They were safe until Al could send more. They needed to take the prisoners back with them. The aliens looked almost human, but so short. They’d need a flatbed rig to bring back the massive box, if they could at all.
THIRTY-THREE
RACHEL
“I just don’t understand why you need someone else!” Nate shouted. It was the same fight they’d been having since she’d received the invitation to the gala. Unlike the blue companions, Nate wasn’t raised expecting to have to share his lover with other companions. Preet was bathing in the other room.
“Nate, I’ve had enough of this fight. I’ve told you again and again, this isn’t about you. This is about our place. The Queen chose to gift our family with another member.”
“Yeah. Another member. As if mine isn’t good enough for you.”
Did he really go there?
“Nate, I love you.”
“Then why are you fucking that guy?”
Tears threatened. They’d been close in the last couple months. In the other room, Rachel heard Preet sloshing in the tub. He had to be hearing this fight.
“Because. Damn it! I am. He’s mine to fuck. Are you happy? The Queen’s honor comes with… more urges. Okay? Maybe you’re not enough. Maybe I need more. Maybe that’s why she gives us more.”
Preet stood naked in the arch between the bath and the room, glaring at Nate. Ready to charge if Nate did something stupid.
“Rachel wouldn’t do this to me. You… you’re just another fucking redskull,” Nate yelled.
Rachel felt herself shaking.
“Don’t you get it, man?” Preet asked. “It’s this or be a whore to all of them. Be happy she picked you and move on.”
“The real Rachel wouldn’t make me share her,” Nate said. “Wouldn’t want to be shared.”
“The real Rachel is telling you to get the fuck out.” She pointed at the door. “If I’m just another redskull to you, then you can get the fuck out. Find out what the real redskulls do.”
“Man, apologize to her! You don’t know what it’s like. You think it’s a bunch of women to screw. It’s not.”
“It’s too late for apologies,” Rachel said. “Nathaniel, if I ever see you again…” Rachel shook her head. “Just get out.”
THIRTY-FOUR
MIKEY
Mikey doodled in his notebook. Mr. Gunderson was drawing plant parts on the chalkboard. Again. Biology had to be the most boring class ever. Mikey sighed.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Davies?”
Mikey swallowed. Maybe he could get himself kicked out of this stupid class if he were rude enough. Not like his parents were here to yell at him about his grades, right?
“You don't have to draw the seeds and the plant parts on the board in every class. We all know that plants come from a seed,” Mikey said. His voice didn't even crack as he said it. Cool as a cucumber.
“You all know-” Gunderson sputtered, his face turning red.
“Yeah, it's just plants.”
“Just plants,” echoed the teacher. He was turning a deeper and deeper shade of red.
The rest of the class was dead silent.
“Yeah, it's not like this class matters,” Mikey said.
Mr. Gunderson was almost purple now, but his angry sputtering stopped.
“I mean, what's the point of pretending to have school anyway?” Mikey asked, his mouth was running along without him. “The aliens are here, the world is destroyed, and-”
Gunderson grabbed Mikey's desk and bent so that his face was level with Mikey's.
Mikey swallowed, he may have gone too far.
“And without this class, without the work that happens in the gardens, we wouldn't have enough food to sustain us!” Gunderson bellowed. His face was a deep purple now. A vein pulsed in the middle of his forehead. “Without the low-light experiments, we would all be starving. We need scientists and farmers to keep this project going. Without biology-and plant biology-we may as well give up and go turn ourselves in to Al right now.”
Gunderson backed away from Mikey's desk. The vein throbbing in his forehead looked like it was going to burst.
“Get out of my class. Don't bother coming back. I don't want to see you again.”
Mikey stood and hurried towards the door. That had been his goal, but… he didn't feel successful at all.
“As for the rest of you, perhaps we need a lesson on why this class matters.”
THIRTY-FIVE
KEN
“Good job, Ken,” !Estraith said. “I’ve got it from here.”
Ken released the controls and stared at the enormous waterfall surrounding them. Water churned over all but the big end of the egg-shaped canyon, some were faint trickles, but directly in front of them—at the narrow point of the egg—a mass of water wider than three city blocks poured in a wall of white. This place made Niagara look like a trickle.
“You must have noticed that forests and plains blanket our world.” !Estraith held them steady as she spoke. “The rare desert, too, is full of life. This is but one of the many natural wonders of our home.”
Ken nodded. He’d flown the world over, seen Niagara and Victoria Falls. He hadn’t made it to South America to visit the others, but the view was stunning. Free of the controls, Ken relaxed into the gel cushioning him.
“Unlike your world, we live in underground cities and restrict our possessions so that we do not exhaust the planet,” !Estraith said. “Our Queen was surprised at the deserts that scar your world, how you’ve destroyed fertile land through over-farming and now paving over masses of land. She plans to help nature replenish herself on your world and on the others.”
Ken wanted to curse the Queen, but on this front, she was right, even if her way of removing the people and controlling everyone was the wrong way to go about fixing the world.
“What’s wrong with deserts?” Todd asked.
“Nothing, when they are natural.” !Estraith piloted them up and out of the canyon so any wind shear caused by the waterfall was removed. The flier moved steadily under her control. “When they are caused by over-farming, failing to rotate crops and properly care for the land, everything.” !Estraith sighed. “We’re to pick up a load of nyah fruit. You’ll see how our farming respects the natural land. Todd, you’re next on the controls. Please fly us north-northeast. I’ll take over when it’s time to land.”
The flier shook when the kid took control, his hands trembled on the stick. The view in front of them shivered, but the gel seat helped neutralize some of the shakiness. How much fly time did the kid have back on Earth? The flier lurched sideways towards the northeast. The kid hadn’t even bothered to turn the cube. He was flying sideways.
“Remember to steer, Todd,” !Estraith said. “Even
though we can fly sideways, we need to face where we’re going to see—”
“Look out!” Joon-ho shouted. Ken saw it, another flier right in their path, hovering in place.
Todd froze, his stick still jammed sideways, so they barreled towards the flier.
“Release the controls!” !Estraith shouted.
Todd held tight to the controls as they still headed towards the flier.
“I can’t take over. He hit something!” !Estraith’s voice tinged towards panic. “He shouldn’t have been able to close me out.”
They all heard as she took a ragged breath as they continued towards the other flier.
“Flier 71, change your position.” The panic was still in !Estraith’s voice as she radioed the other flier. “We’re having trouble in a training exercise, and we’re headed straight for you.”
Silence. Ken waited, they were getting closer and closer to the other flier.
“Can’t or won’t?” !Estraith shouted.
A beat.
“Honored One,” !Estraith’s voice strained. “Please move your flier. Our controls are jammed directly towards you.”
Ken swallowed. Someone had to do something fast.
The kid was under Ken’s feet and a little to the right. Ken took a breath, removed his rebreather, and tore apart the harness on his chest. He dug his heels into the gel, and launched himself to the right and slid down the wall. The force of the acceleration pulled him towards the wall, but he’d pushed off hard enough that he landed on the kid.
Todd was wide-eyed and panicked. Ken clung to the rebreather and managed to hold himself over the kid. The kid still had the stick jammed to the side. Ken slapped Todd’s hands away from the stick, slapped it open. The ship slowed, but still headed towards the oblivious flier. Ken yanked the middle of the kid’s harness. As the gel retreated, he threw Todd to the floor.
Ken climbed into the seat and didn’t bother with the harness. He slipped the rebreather on and yanked the stick back and up. On the floor, the kid slammed into something as they lost their northeast momentum and jumped upward to avoid the other flier.
“Ken,” !Estraith gasped. “Hold us steady on our back. I’ll get Todd to your seat, and then I want to see what he did to the controls.”
“Sure thing.” Ken fastened his harness and rolled the cube to its back. In the gel, he still felt almost as if he were sitting, but he could feel the slight shift in gravity.
!Estraith climbed out of her seat and grabbed Todd. The kid was moaning. He’d probably broken something in that sudden stop. Ken held the stick steady and waited for !Estraith. She said a word he didn’t know in the blue tongue, and it sounded like she was swearing.
“Kid broke his leg,” !Estraith said. “Thank the Queen that was the only injury.”
“Queen didn’t have anything to do with it,” Ken said. “That was you and me saving us all.”
“Joon-ho, I need your help dragging him over there,” !Estraith said. “We’ll worry about—” another word Ken didn’t know, maybe splinting? “—his leg later.”
Joon-Ho and !Estraith dragged the moaning kid across the floor to Ken’s empty seat. Ken couldn’t see them behind him, but he sure heard the kid scream. They must have strapped him in.
“Honored One refused to change his position,” !Estraith said. Ken watched her walk back to her seat, wiping tears from her face.
“Wish I could go back home to where there’s no redskulls,” Ken said.
“Still, idiots on Earth,” Joon-Ho said.
“I doubt it,” Ken said. “I think most of them got taken here.” Ken should have stopped talking there, but his mouth ran away with him. He knew he shouldn’t have said it, that it should get him sent back to reconditioning, but he couldn’t help himself. “If only we could get away from all the idiots and redskulls.”
THIRTY-SIX
JORDAN
There were less than twenty short, blue-skinned aliens on the ship they’d brought down. Jordan and his unit made quick work of zip-tying their hands together and leading them out of the ship. Most looked very human, other than being shorter and their skin varying shades of blue, but the other two, Jordan couldn’t even stand to look at. The sight of them made him want to vomit. These two had red… things—parasites—growing from the tops of their heads. It looked like a second skull. The others deferred to these freaks.
One, a busty navy-blue woman in a green jumpsuit, translated slowly for the freaks. Somehow, she spoke a broken kind of English. She refused to answer any questions beyond their names, which Jordan couldn’t pronounce anyway. So far, he’d tried to say the woman’s name, which was Mahh, but she laughed when he tried to pronounce that really strong German sounding h at the end.
“Tell them to get in the truck,” Jordan said.
The woman shook her head, no.
Jordan sighed. Other soldiers would be here soon with the last remaining gun and a flatbed to haul the ship to another secure location, and he needed the aliens secured and tied in to one of the trucks. That was their orders.
“Sergeant!” Jordan yelled for his superior, but the man was occupied with getting the miners into one truck. Jordan suspected Sarge didn’t want to look at the parasitic freaks any more than he did, and so had pawned this work off. The others were working on attaching thick cables to the large ship so that it could be moved when the others arrived.
Mason, however, noticed him yelling for the sergeant and hurried over.
“Need help, sir?” Mason asked.
“Mason, don’t call me sir,” Jordan snapped.
“After your stupid ass nearly got yourself killed to save us, you’re going to get some kind of promotion.”
Jordan shook his head. What choice had he had?
“Just help me get these stubborn…” Jordan swallowed his words, studying the short woman in front of him. “Maybe she’ll listen to you, over me. Help me convince her that it’s better they be on the truck.”
Mason took the woman’s hand and pointed at the truck, her voice was so soft Jordan couldn’t make out the words.
The woman whispered something back to Mason, and Mason laughed so hard she snorted.
“You have no idea,” Mason said. “Now, get your people on the truck, or they’ll be busting my balls and they’ll be happy to dissect you all.”
The blue woman chuckled, but she started talking to the red freaks in their guttural language, and with her zip-tied hands pointed to the truck, the guns, and then back to the group of blue-skinned aliens.
The red freaks nodded and started commanding their people to move. The miners had already unloaded from the truck, refusing to be anywhere near the alien scum, which Jordan couldn’t think of as so scummy anymore. Except for the two freaks. Mason helped Jordan zip-tie the aliens’ hands to hooks in the floor. He hadn’t realized their military transport doubled as a prison transport
“How the hell did you do that?” Jordan asked outside the truck.
“Hell if I know,” Mason said. She laughed. “You know what she said to make me laugh? She told me ‘Mason, you’ve got a lot of work cut out for you with all these men, don’t you?’ Like I had to take care of all of you men.”
“Don’t you?” Jordan asked. “You were something else with your gun today.”
Mason laughed and brushed something off Jordan’s cheek. A thrill went through Jordan at her touch.
“You, too.” Mason chewed her lip, making Jordan’s breath catch in his throat. “Don’t tell these other assholes, but you can call me Bess.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
!ESTRAITH
In the faint light of the glow moss, !Estraith slipped off her shoes and ran one hand along the stone wall of the tunnels as she walked home. A few others glanced at her in shock. Adults never took off their shoes in public, nor touched the walls. Those were childish behaviors, but since she wore the gold, others allowed her idiosyncrasies without question.
!Estraith needed the feel of the rough, damp wall un
der her fingers to connect her back to the Queen. As a child, tracing the walls her Queen had burrowed out made !Estraith feel safe, protected. The Queen made Her people a home to shelter them from the harsh dangers above. The Queen had done much for Her people. !Estraith had always been taught that through the Honored Ones, the Queen always protected Her people. After this morning’s near miss, !Estraith needed to believe in that protection.
The smooth floor, where the grooves formed by the Queen’s excavations, had been worn away by millions of feet over millions of years of the Queen’s rule should have made her feel safe and supported, but she didn’t.
She paused outside her door to slip her shoes back on and compose herself. She inhaled deeply through her nose, the faint scent of glow moss and the tunnels filled her nose. She would hug !Nith and the boy !Trinu. She would thank… She would feel safe.
She pressed her palm to the door. When it opened, !Nith and !Trinu sat on her father’s lap. *Gri sat next to their father, talking in hushed tones to the children. Her husband, *Rafu, paced the room. She had not seen him for months as he’d been working for the Queen. !Omas, her sister and helper, was nowhere to be seen.
“Honored Father, Honored Husband, Honored Brother, to what do I owe the honor?” !Estraith’s voice shook as she spoke. Rarely, did the three honored men appear together. For them to all be waiting in her home spelled trouble.
“We wished to see for ourselves that you are alright,” *Malon said.
“Thank you, Honored Father. Thanks be to the Queen, I am well and alive,” her voice said the words, but that had been an Honored One piloting the other flier. There should have been no danger. Someone had given her a flier that allowed the amateur to lock her out. The Queen should never have allowed these things to happen.