Realization dawned on Tammy. Her heart hammered. Her breath came in gulps and gasps. Could it be that she had led them to destroy all life instead of save it? Could it be possible? Something inside her warned her it was a trick, but her heart believed. It believed so strongly she felt ill once more. What had she done? She’d ruined everything. If Jack, Sam, and Will succeeded it would be her fault that everything died. She had made them believe. She had told them it was their destiny. She had been wrong. The lives of all men of all races depended on her to fix it, but how?
“What do I do? How can I fix it?”
“Your allies are fighting as we speak. Make your way to the highest level and stop them. If you fail, all is lost.” The robot stepped aside.
Chapter Eight
Walking towards the three fluid and alien filled cylinders, Jack could feel his legs trembling beneath him. The world seemed to sway this way and that, and he felt as if he would fall at any second. He couldn’t, though, and he knew it. The aliens had to be destroyed, but he doubted he would have the strength. Even so, he had to try.
Stepping up to the nearest of the tanks to where he had been restrained, Jack grinned down to his little brother who still hid behind the container.
“Mind giving me a hand, little man?”
Leaning into the vial of fluid, Jack shoved with all his might and felt the container rock slightly. Will must have realized what he was planning and Jack noted his younger brother leaning into the vial beside him. Again they shoved. With more force than before, the vial rocked further, the edge lifting a couple of inches off the floor. Still it wasn’t enough and the vial fell back to its original position.
“Again,” Jack huffed, pressing his shoulder into the glass.
This time the vial leaned, Jack was prepared. Shoving with all of his might, he pushed with his telekinetic powers and watched as the fluid in the vial sloshed to one side, adding its weight to the momentum. Over the cylinder toppled as Jack himself collapsed to the floor. Grinning, he watched as the vial smashed into its neighbor, both of their glass containers shattering, as green fluid spewed out in all directions. Spilled from their containers, the aliens began to crawl about on limbs that were not strong enough to support their weight. The thick green fluid was everywhere and shards of broken glass carpeted everything. As slick as the floor was, the aliens seemed not to notice. One began crawling towards Jack, and kicking out at it he watched as the other approached his brother.
“Will!” Jack shouted.
Hearing his warning, Will spun on his heel to glare at the approaching invader. Pointing at the creature, his little brother grinned before shaking his fist.
“Don’t either one of you move an inch or I’ll bop you a good one!”
Both aliens froze and Jack was relieved. Outside of their protective vials, they were susceptible to Will’s telepathy. His younger brother could now do with them as he wished.
“You won’t escape,” the synthetic voice echoed around the room as the final alien swiveled in its tank to glare at them.
Jack peered about the room. One tank remained but he was too weakened to walk, let along topple the giant container. Only Will remained, and now the small boy who had relied on him so much these last weeks, turned to walk to the remaining capsule alone. Jack was proud of his little brother in that moment, more than any time he could ever recall. In the face of defeat, in the face of despair, little Will walked to the final container and pressed a single hand upon the glass. Jack didn’t know his intentions, and wondered why he presented himself to the final alien like a child might to a parent outside a window. It was a familiar gesture. People made it to say we are not alone. I am with you. We are together. But Will couldn’t mean such a thing, not to the aliens that wished to erase their entire species. Could he?
Lying in both glass and fluid, Jack watched Will remove his hand and step back from the vial.
“This doesn’t need to happen,” Will pleaded to the remaining alien. “You can just leave. You already said that the pieces of your people are within us. You can live on through us.”
“Our history, our technology, and our legacy are too great to let them die here,” came the response.
“But you said that you could transplant your knowledge into another person. Why destroy all of us if you only need a few?”
“The recipient must be a near identical match. No race exists that is so close to make a successful transfer. Many are needed if we are to succeed in guiding your evolution through mutation.”
Jack watch Will’s features change as he considered the answer. He was small, and he was young, but he was smart and had survived through more than any child should even have to imagine. Jack could only begin to fathom what must be going on in the boy’s mind.
“It’s just the three of you, isn’t it?” Will asked.
No answer came. Jack stared on, panting on the floor, but the aliens did not speak again.
* * * * *
Will stood looking at the alien creature suspended within the fluid before him by tubes and wires. He looked sick. He looked like he was dying. It was like the picture of a person at a hospital with tubes and machines hooked to them, and it made him feel sorry for the aliens. Yes they had done terrible things, but who wouldn’t do everything they could to save their family, their community, or their entire race? It was a larger than life concept, but Will understood. He understood it all too well. This one alien stood between him and everything he still loved. Mom and Dad had been taken from him. Grandma and Grandpa were gone too. These three surviving aliens of a race long ago lost to time were the only things standing between him, his people, and freedom. They wanted to kill him. Will didn’t really understand why, but he knew that it was their plan to do so. It didn’t seem right. None of it seemed right. It wasn’t fair to just kill something, and so he did the only thing he could do to save them.
Reaching down, Will picked up a broken piece of piping that had torn free from one of the ruined tanks. Standing, he tested its weight in his small hand. Without a moment of delay, Will swung with all his might and yelped in pain as the pipe smashed into the side of the tank with a loud clang. Though the glass didn’t shatter, a mass of cracks appeared where he had struck the glass and slowly they began spreading outwards as green fluid began dripping slowly down the, side of the container.
“Stop what you are doing,” the robotic voice pleaded from somewhere above the room. “You don’t understand what you are doing. As a sign of good faith we will return to you someone you have lost.”
That was it. It was the hope that Will had relied upon during this entire trip. The pipe slipped from his hand as he looked towards the corridor with hope. He tried to imagine how Mom and Dad would react when they saw him and couldn’t wait for them to pick him up and squeeze him tightly. It was all he wanted. He just wanted his family back the way it was and to snuggle with Mom on the couch when he was sick. He wanted to walk to the bus stop with Dad each morning before school. He wanted his parents back so badly he would trade anything for them. Even the lives of the aliens. Even if it meant they would continue to destroy everything.
Watching as a light appeared at the opposite end of the corridor and one of the familiar elevator thingies opened up, Will was caught off guard when the glass tank beside him gave way. Swept off his feet, he struck his head on the floor as lights exploded before his eyes. With his ears ringing, he struggled back to his feet, but such was the pain in his head that he was forced to squint in the room’s odd light. Two figures came down the hall. He could see them speeding up. They had seen him.
“Mom, Dad, I’m here!” Will yelled as their metallic footsteps echoed down the hall.
Metal. Machines. More of the guards. Will had been tricked. It wasn’t Mom and Dad as he had hoped. Roaring in anger and frustration, he pointed towards the corridor and screamed.
“Don’t come any closer or I’ll kill your masters!”
Without even awaiting a reply, Will ducked down a
nd searched the wet ground with his fingers, locating his pipe with little effort. Rising again, he screamed in surprise as long fingers wrapped around his ankle. Looking down, he raised the pipe with all the anger and rage he felt for destroying his hopes of seeing his parents again. With tears streaming down his cheeks he brought the pipe to bear and smashed the alien in the face.
“No, Will! Don’t do it!” a familiar voice screamed from somewhere ahead.
Ignoring the voice, Will lifted the pipe again. This time they wouldn’t fool him with their tricks and their machines. Not this time. Down he slung the pipe again, and listened as it hit with a sickly thud.
“Will, please, there is another way. Please, Will, listen to me,” Tammy’s voice came again.
Will looked up with a snarl of rage as all anger drained from his body in an instant. There at the mouth of the corridor stood Tammy. Though her shirt was ruined, her shoulder appeared much improved since the last time he saw her. Could she be a mirage or hologram? Will didn’t know, but it certainly looked like Tammy.
* * * * *
Tammy couldn’t believe what she had just seen. Poor little Will had been forced to defend his fallen siblings, and had done the unthinkable for a child his age. He had been forced into doing it by her own guidance and so couldn’t be held accountable. It wasn’t his fault that he thought he was defending them. Both sides were at fault. Both sides could claim the defensive. But now, an understanding had to be reached. Something had to be done to ensure the survival of all races involved. If her friends killed the real Star Children, all hope would be lost. There had to be a way.
“Please, Will. Listen to me,” she pleaded. “Don’t hurt them. There has been a mistake. I promise.”
“But they said they would hurt all of us, Tammy. They’re mean and tricky,”
“Maybe they are, Will. But think about what you would do to keep your family alive. I made a mistake, Will. You and Jack and Sam aren’t the Star Children. They are.” Tammy pointed to the three aliens sprawled out across the floor. “Think about it. They saved my people from certain destruction. Maybe not on purpose, but they did. They can control robots and even those they have enslaved with their minds. They move and control their ships with their minds. They are like the three of you, only they are all that is left of their race. If we kill them, we will have destroyed them forever.”
“I don’t care,” Will proclaimed. “They took Mom and Dad and everybody else. They deserve it.”
“They have done a lot of bad things. You are right. But, do you think that maybe they just made a mistake? Have you ever done something bad by mistake?”
“It’s not the same, Tammy, and you know it.”
“I know, but violence isn’t the answer.”
“She’s right,” came Sam’s voice from across the room.
Tammy turned and watched as Sam pulled herself up from the floor. Though she wanted to help her friend, she wasn’t able to get her legs to cooperate. Such was the command from Will to not move. She had gotten them all into this mess and now she had to find a way to get them all safely out of it.
“See, Will, Sam agrees,” she stated to reassure him.
“But he is right too,” Sam added.
“What do you mean?” Tammy asked her.
“They have already told us their plan. They intend to blast every human with radiation to see how many change like we did. Then they plan to culture our DNA into mutating rapidly into a race of people they can use to re-establish their own,” Sam explained.
“That must have been before they realized that they were to be the ones to save us,” Tammy said, wondering herself if it was true.
“How can we trust them?” This time it was Jack who asked.
Looking across the slick floor to him, Tammy watched him sit up and begin massaging his temples.
“I don’t know. Look. They fixed my shoulder. Why would they do that if they still intended what you say?”
“To use you to convince us to let them live,” Sam replied.
Tammy was beginning to question the truth. Were these aliens their saviors or their destroyers? They couldn’t be both, yet both seemed true. Though she was sure just moments ago that the aliens were their allies, now she wasn’t certain. They needed to find out for sure. They needed a way to force the aliens into telling them the truth. She had thought, at one time, that they were torturing her for just that reason, but Tammy knew there was no need for torture here. Not so long as they had Will and his ability.
“Will,” Tammy said to gain his attention once more. “Make them tell us the truth.”
Tammy watched as little Will’s eyes lit up in understanding, and he turned to face the aliens.
“You are going to tell us the truth and nothing more. Understand?”
“Yes,” came the synthesized voice from above.
“Do you intend to save or destroy all the species of man you have gathered?” Tammy asked.
“Our intention is to save them,” the voice confirmed.
“You see,” Tammy smiled, “They’ve had a change of heart. It is okay to let them go.”
“Not so fast, Tammy,” Jack interrupted. “How do you intend to save the race of humans and your own race?” he questioned the aliens.
“Through genetic mutation of one, and gene therapy, both races can be saved.”
“You see, they cannot be allowed to live,” Jack said, pushing himself up to his feet.
Now Tammy was really torn. If these last three beings of their kind were destroyed, her people could still live on earth if permitted by the humans, but if what they said was true, Earth itself was dying. They would find themselves right back where they started so long ago. If they allowed their abductors to go free, her people would still be saved, at the cost of the humans, but humans would not meet their end, they would simply be changed. Neither scenario was perfect, and she knew that she couldn’t be the person to decide. This was too big. It was too much. Tammy shook her head.
* * * * *
Light-headed, nauseated, and generally feeling gross, Sam plunged her hands down into the viscous green fluid that coated the entire floor. Careful not to cut herself on the shards of glass that lay everywhere, she pushed herself up and onto her knees. From there she slowly rose to her feet, feeling her legs tremble beneath her as her head began throbbing as if recently whacked with a baseball bat.
They were all together again, she, Jack, Will, and Tammy, but the feeling in the room was dismal. She knew the invaders couldn’t be allowed to continue on their course, yet also knew that if something wasn’t done soon, that their entire species would be lost. She had half a mind to let that happen, but it was too cruel a punishment, even for aliens that traveled the galaxy, meddled with the genetic codes of primates, kidnapped entire populations and deposited them across a whole spectrum of planets for a science experiment. They had done many foul things, but if they hadn’t done them, would any of this even be possible? If all they claimed was true, then humans wouldn’t really even exist if it were not for them. Neither would Tammy’s race or any of the other humanoid races that now roamed freely across the face of the planet. So although their motives might have been selfish to say the least, it was their desperation to survive that brought the world Sam loved into existence. They needed to find a way to help the aliens without sacrificing their own race. She turned to look at them.
“If allowed to live, and if altering all of humanity were not an option, is there another way that you could still achieve what you came to do?”
For many moments there was silence as the three aliens looked from one to the other as if communicating, and Sam was surprised to see one of them shrug.
“With the knowledge we have gained from the genetic scans of you and your siblings, it may be possible.”
“Possible how?” Sam questioned.
“Through cloning of your genetic material and gene therapy, we may be able to develop a new race over the course of a handful of generations, w
hich would be able to recreate a genetic match that is close enough to allow our survival.”
“And what would you need to begin this process?” Sam questioned further.
“Samples of your DNA and time. Mostly time.” The voice trailed off.
“If you can clone, then why not just clone yourselves and do your mind transfer thing into new bodies of your own?” Jack interrupted.
“For thousands of generations, this is how we have survived, but without genetic diversity, and with our limited supply of genes from our own species, we have grown weak, frail, and sick. Each time we clone ourselves, our next generation is weaker than the one before.”
“So can you do it?” Sam asked again.
“If we can save Glighanaukki, then it can be done,” the voice said as two of the aliens pointed at the one Will had bashed in the head.
That was enough for Sam. If there was a will then there was a way, and right now the way was to get the funky smelling alien healed. Being barely strong enough to stand on her own, she could only imagine that Jack felt much the same. Turning, she looked to Tammy and noticed the large robotic body standing behind her. The guard could have intervened at any time, but hadn’t made a move to do so. Was it because Will had demanded it? Or perhaps because the aliens did not wish to hurt them? Either way, she was glad things had not gotten any more violent.
“If he is taken to where you stitched up Tammy, would there be help for him there?” Sam asked.
“Yes.”
“Then use your robot to take him. What else needs to be done?”
“We need to move to new survival tanks.”
“And where are those?” Sam questioned as Jack approached her.
“On another floor. We can send for automations to retrieve us and deliver us to them.”
“Not so fast,” Jack interrupted again. “If we are to let you go, then you have to swear to us that you will never harm a human again, or any of the other races you helped to develop. You have to give your word, on the survival of your people, that you will not return to do harm to any race of humanity. Also, you must return those races to their planets that have a home suitable to support them, and leave those races who would die upon their own home planets. Understood?”
Children of the After: The Complete Series Page 44