"Wow," Anais said. "Is this for real?"
Sibylla scoffed. "We just saw an army of aliens outside. I think this is pretty much plausible."
Without a word, Anais began to deactivate the jet's systems. She switched the guns off-line, then activated the canopy to lift.
Rising from her seat, Sibylla was hit with the scent of synthetic air—a processed smell that lifted from the surrounding metal columns and freshly-constructed concrete walls. This had been recently built, she realized.
"Well, hello there!" a man yelled.
Sibylla spun around to the voice and saw Division Director Alfred Connor standing below. He was still dressed in the same black turtle neck and grey suit from the morning, and his body guard, Rogers, was still at his side. They must've come here after the invasion, transported along with the other politicians. Sibylla's jaw tightened.
It'd only been a few hours since he'd stood in her room at the infirmary where he'd threatened her with life imprisonment and torture. But she'd been cuffed to a bed then, unable to defend herself from his threats. Now that she was free, she was only too ready to meet him face-to-face.
She hopped down from the jet and strode out with a scowl, hoping that he'd do something that would piss her off. "What is this place?" she demanded.
"Why, it's your new home!"
"Bullshit," she said. "Where's Murdock?"
"Who cares."
Sibylla clenched her fists, ready to smack him in the face, when a tiny bald man with a white lab coat suddenly appeared, blocking her path.
"What the Director meant to say," the man said. "Is that, at present, the General's whereabouts are still unknown to us."
Sibylla looked down at the little man, her eyes narrowing at the badge on his white lab coat. His name was Dr. Neil Vipus. And he was apparently Head of Technology for the G.P.T.O.
Great, Sibylla thought. Just what she needed; another doctor. Shooting Connor a warning stare, she turned her attention back to Vipus. "Is the General okay?"
"What part of 'unknown,' didn't you understand?" Connor asked.
Sibylla glared at him.
"We don't know," Vipus said. "But we are currently working on reconnecting with him. Believe me when I say that he is one of our chief concerns."
Sibylla studied the man carefully. He didn't seem to be lying. There was no shifting of the eyes, no reddening of the face. Deciding that he was telling her the truth, she let her gaze drift to the expansive hangar around her. "What is this place?"
"You are currently in the world's largest, underground base," Vipus said. "An engineering marvel we have named, The Ark. Equipped with the most advanced technology, and secured hundreds of yards below. Believe me when I tell you that we are quite safe."
"Safe?" Anais echoed in disbelief. "Have you seen those things up there?"
"I've been viewing the damage from the holographic monitors, yes.”
"Not close enough, obviously," Anais added.
"You knew, didn't you?" Sibylla asked, narrowing her eyes at Vipus. "You knew, and you did nothing."
"Hello?" Connor sang with a smile on his face, gesturing at the large facility around them. "Are you kidding me? I mean, will you just look at this place? I know that I'm impressed."
"People are dying out there," Sibylla said. "Good people. Mothers. Fathers."
"People are expendable," Vipus said. "Sheep. It is the ideals that must continue."
"The nation!" Connor added with a raised finger.
Sibylla stepped forward, wanting to smash his face in. How could they have done this? To leave the world in utter ignorance, completely unaware, completely clueless to the horror that was coming? "You're all murderers."
"We did the best we could," Vipus said.
"Liar!” Sibylla shot back.
"He's telling you the truth."
Sibylla turned to the voice, ready to lash out at whoever had spoken. She was tired of the excuses, tired of the reasons why the military had done what they did. She wanted none of it.
About to say something, she suddenly stopped as she saw a young man with neat blond hair staring at her through black Lenses. Dressed in a white lab coat, he looked no different from any of the other scientists she'd seen from the G.P.T.O.
But he wasn't.
He was the young man whom she'd known for years, the guy whom she'd gone into hell for, willing to give up her life just so that she could see him one last time. And here he was, once again.
“Dillon?” Sibylla whispered.
42
Defender
Sibylla stood motionless as Dillon walked towards her, his light green eyes and slim chiseled face as arresting as she’d remembered them to be. How many times she’d dreamt of this moment, wondering what she’d say, what she’d do. And how many times it had ended with her rushing into his arms with a kiss. But with her heart pounding and her legs shaking, she could barely muster the strength to stand.
“Who’s that?” Anais asked.
“My boyfriend…” Sibylla replied in a hollow voice, unable to look away from him.
“The one you killed? Wow, looks awfully good for a dead guy.”
"How cute," Connor mused. "The two love birds back together again."
"You lied to me," Sibylla said, turning to the Director. It had only been that morning that he'd told her that Dillon hadn't survived. And yet, here he stood.
"Did I?" Connor asked, feigning surprise. "Who knows. I tell lies all the time. You can't really expect me to keep track of it all."
Sibylla was about to march in his direction when she felt a hand around her wrist.
"He's not worth it," Dillon said, shooting the Director a stare. He held the man's gaze for a few seconds, his eyes filled with a restrained fury that made Sibylla shiver. As he turned away, his grip tightened around Sibylla's wrist, and he whispered, "Come with me."
Sibylla remained silent as Dillon led her through the crowd, guiding her toward the far end of the hangar where a set of elevator doors waited in the distance.
As they entered the elevator, he ordered the A.I. to take them to the tenth level, and Sibylla felt the subtle shift of the frame as it quickly rose. With a beating heart, she struggled for the right words. "I can't believe that it's really…"
But before she could finish, he’d turned around and pressed his lips against hers. They fell back against the wall, and she felt his hands reaching for the sides of her face as her fingers curled against his chest. How badly she'd wanted this, how much she'd missed him. Shutting her eyes, she melted into his embrace.
"Whoa," he breathed between kisses. "You've gotten really strong."
"It's the training," Sibylla admitted in a heated breath. "They worked us like horses at the Nest. I can ease up if you want."
"No, no," he quickly said. "I kind of like it."
Sibylla couldn't believe that this was happening. The chance of seeing him again was like winning the lottery, and she didn't want the moment to end. Yet, there was so much that she wanted to tell him, so much she wanted to know. “I thought you were dead!” she said as she shook him by the shoulders. “I nearly got myself killed because of it!”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know.”
“The last six months have been horrible. I even thought I saw you.” She caressed his cheek, relieved by the firmness of his skin. This wasn’t a hallucination, or some hologram, but an actual person. “It was scary.”
“Wait a second,” he said. “You…saw me?”
“Kind of. It was after they tried to kill me.”
“They tried to kill you?”
“The first time.”
“The first time?”
“There were others,” Sibylla admitted with a shrug. But those weren’t so bad. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to experience them again, but—”
Dillon silenced her with a finger to her lips and smiled. “Sib, you’re not making any sense.”
“I know.” She gripped his h
and and steered it to her lips. “I’m just so happy that I found you again.”
As quickly as they could, they embraced again, their arms growing tighter as they relished the security and safety of the other.
“What happened to you?” Sibylla asked.
Dillon pulled back just enough to stare at her, his hands refusing to let go of her waist. “After you left me in the cell, I woke up here.” He gazed up at the ceiling. “They cleaned me up, healed my body, fed me. It wasn’t that bad. You know, they actually have real meat here.”
“I know!” Sibylla agreed, remembering the amazing foods she’d been served at the Nest. “I guess we both had our journeys.”
“I guess we did,” he agreed, his face suddenly darkening. There was a bitterness to his tone, a hint of resentment that Sibylla noticed only for a second. Then it was gone. “I met Vipus shortly after that.”
“The doctor?”
“He’s a great man. You’d like him.”
“I doubt that.” Sibylla opened the collar of his shirt, searching for the turquoise necklace that she’d left him. It wasn’t there.
“They took it,” Dillon said sadly.
“They?”
“Who else?”
Sibylla sighed. “Connor.”
“He shouldn’t be here,” Dillon said. “Just his presence alone jeopardizes the mission.”
“Mission?” Sibylla echoed, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Dillon, what are these things?”
Dillon’s brow furrowed as he looked away. "We’re not sure,” he said. “From what we've gathered, they appear to be an ancient race from the edge of our solar system. Aside from that, though, there's not much else we know.”
“The closest things we could find were references mentioned in old texts. The Sumerians called them The Anunnaki, god-like beings who were here before us. Supposedly, they travel on a large planet that we calculate passes between Mars and Jupiter every 3,500 years."
"A planet?" Sibylla asked, confused.
"We're calling it, Planet-X, for the moment. Until we can come up with something more suitable."
Sibylla frowned. "Is that what brought all the ziggurats?"
"You saw them?"
"On the way to my mother's house," Sibylla said, her breath unexpectedly catching as the words suddenly sanctified the memory of it. She looked away.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, his head bowing in reverence. "I know things were never good between the two of you."
She nodded. "Thank you."
"But to answer your question, no," he said. "What we're seeing right now is just the initial wave."
"There's more?" Sibylla asked.
"Unfortunately."
"And how large is this one?"
From what we were able to see, at least an armada of one hundred ships."
Sibylla snorted despite herself. "That's all, huh?"
Finally, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened, giving glimpse to a long hallway.
Glancing at Dillon, Sibylla hesitated as she considered walking out, unsure of what was waiting for her outside.
“It’s okay," he said. “Check it out.”
Sibylla stepped into the hallway, her gaze shifting in all directions as she studied her new environment. The floor was matted with gray carpet, and the ceiling was bright with recessed lighting, accentuating a modern sterility that reminded her of the Nest.
The dimensions of the base had been easy to figure out. Parallel support beams. A wide hangar leading to a dock for elevators. It was like a giant cylinder rising to the surface. She'd only taken a few steps when she noticed the large glass window to her left.
Staring out, she gasped as she saw what appeared to be an actual shopping mall below her. Tiny stores with electronic signs. Fast food restaurants with railed patios. A little farther down, she recognized a video game shop from when she was just a kid.
"What is all this?" Sibylla asked.
Dillon's reflection appeared in the glass next to hers; his auburn eyes made more prominent by the slenderness of his face and dark blond hair. "Civilization," he answered.
"I don't understand?"
"Familiar settings help to lower stress levels."
"For whom?"
"For them." Dillon nodded toward the far entrance of the mall, and, tapping the data scroll in his hands, activated its opening.
Sibylla watched in amazement as hundreds of kids began streaming into the mall, their gazes shifting nervously to the electronic signs that hung over the shop's entrances.
There were so many of them. Tall. Short. Young. Older. Spanning all the way from elementary children to teens in high school. It was unbelievable.
"Kids?" Sibylla asked. "You brought kids here?"
"It wasn't easy," he admitted. "It took every bus in the city, as well as the cooperation of every school. But we did it."
Sibylla thought back to the desert, remembering how the dozens of tire tracks she'd seen outside had led to this location. But how? How could they have pulled this off under everybody's nose?
"The Citizen's Act," she said, the words escaping her mouth as they came to her mind. "We weren't preparing for the Russians. We were preparing for this."
"Everything you see here before you is the culmination of world cooperation. The base. The technology. Hell, even the steel's from China."
"But when did all this begin?" Sibylla asked.
"After the Messenger arrived, we knew that the war couldn't go on. The Russians were the first we revealed the discovery to. After that, the Chinese and so on. Pretty soon, every developed nation had been briefed about the situation and brought into an alliance."
Sibylla was confused. "Wait a minute, what you mean by, the developed nations? What about the others?"
Dillon bowed his head in shame. "I'm sorry."
Sibylla was horrified. "What are you saying, Dillon? Are you saying that they were never told?"
"Third-world nations aren't secure enough to keep classified information. Coups happen every day, government officials are bribed. We couldn't let any of this get out."
"So, you let them die?"
"Survival comes with a steep price apparently, one that the government was willing to pay. I know, I don't like it any more than you do. But this wasn't my decision to make."
Sibylla looked away. It broke her heart to think that so many governments could be so callous with the lives of so many. It made the beauty of her environment all the more confusing. The clean floors. The shiny windows. The storefronts of restaurants. How many resources had been used just for this?
"The economic collapses," Sibylla realized. "The food shortages."
"All for this," Dillon agreed. "It was to be the greatest alliance in the history of mankind. Every major nation working together as one. The peace we'd always dreamt about."
"But why didn't they warn the people, Dillon?"
“They couldn't, Sib," he said in frustration. "Imagine it. What do you think would've happened if the world knew that an alien invasion was coming?
"Can you imagine the riots? The murders? The looting? The world was barely hanging on by a thread as it was. You remember. The slightest catastrophe would've pushed us to the brink.
"No," he said, resigned, "there was no choice. We had to keep it quiet. Otherwise, we never would've been able to accomplish what we have. I’m surprised that a Blood Eagle such as yourself wouldn’t understood cold sacrifice.”
She looked at him. “I knew you were upset.”
“How could you have expected me not to be? I mean, Christ, Sib, you broke our promise!”
"I didn't have a choice!" she yelled. "If I hadn't taken Murdock's deal, your ass would’ve still been locked up under Division control."
“I know,” he said, his tone even. “And I appreciate that.”
“Do you?” Sibylla asked. “Because right now, it feels like you’re judging me. Besides, what about you? The G.P.T.O.? Really?"
"The G.P.T.O.'s working to sav
e humanity."
"An arms company?"
"Hey, at least I'm not in the field shooting people."
"No, you're just the guy making the bullets." Sibylla's lips curled in disgust.
"We're doing more than just making weapons, Sib. Stuff you wouldn't know about."
"Like what?"
"Like saving lives."
"Saving lives?" Sibylla scoffed. "I was just up there, bro. You aren't saving shit!"
"I know, I know,” he said, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “And if it were up to me, we would've done more. But not everyone can be saved."
"Is that the new company motto? We save lives, just not yours?"
"If it weren't for the G.P.T.O. this base wouldn't even exist. Hell, I helped them build it!"
"You helped them?"
"I'm the head of Robotics."
"And I'm sure you're really proud of yourself for that."
"I am," he said, straightening the front of his coat. "I'm not just some hacker on the run anymore. I'm making changes, real changes."
Sibylla shook her head in disgust. "And you call me the hypocrite?”
Turning away, she fought to control her anger. But it wasn't easy. She'd just come back from a place where for six months she was taught to fight even when she was relaxed. Steadying her breath, she waited for the trembling of her body to settle before speaking again.
"Fine," she said. "So, what's the military's take on the matter?"
"I don't know," he said, walking towards her in a slow gait. "You tell me."
Sibylla shot him a wary glance as she took the scroll from his hands, feeling a sense of dread as she stared at the front page. It was then, that she was belted by a wave of terror as she found a picture of herself with the title Commander written across the front of it.
"As of this morning,” Dillon said. “Project Defender is now under Military control, which means, every soldier, every artificial intelligence, every tech, including myself, is under your command. In other words, you are the Military."
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