The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3)

by Kocho Trajchevski

  “Sorry for your friend.”

  “Thank you. Yes I … was their prisoner. But that doesn’t matter now. The one you killed with you bare hands. He has a data tablet with the information about the attack. It contains the coordinates of where their fleet will come out in this system. Bring it to me so that I can read them to you while I still have the strength to do so.”

  Fillip looked at him for a second and then went to the dead body and picked up something that looked like a tiny computer from his body. He brought it to the blue alien.

  Agnail took the tablet and opened it up. He read the coordinates and gave them to the human.

  “Thank you. What can I do for you?”

  “Nothing except help me to die quickly too. My wound is deadly and there is nothing to be done. The Dacarian knew where to strike.”

  “Dacarian…?”

  “Yes that is what they call themselves. And before you ask they are from very far away, the same as me.”

  “What is the name of your race?”

  “What was you mean. We lost the war. I doubt they left anyone alive. My race was called Sicarian. My name is Agnail Macon Curas. I’m the last surviving general of the Sicarian imperial army.”

  “I’m glad to meet you. I’m …”

  “Fillip… I know. I heard … The attack will come in two and a half of your years. Your world must prepare. That is all I can tell you.”

  “Thank you.”

  The Sicarian looked at him and smiled.

  “Now I have to ask you for the same mercy as him. Give me back my honor.”

  Fillip looked at the alien. He turned and picked up a sword from one of the dead soldiers. The alien pointed him to a place on his chest.

  “Strike there and look me in the eye. And thank you.”

  Fillip didn’t say anything. He thrust the sword at the appointed spot and looked him in the eyes. As their eyes met the alien smiled.

  “You… have a… lovely…world.”

  After these words his head fell. Fillip caught his head and placed his body by the other Sicarian.

  Then he inhaled and sat down beside it…

  As he sat he could feel the adrenalin subsiding and his body relax. He looked at his bruised hands. The bruises were from the alien body. It was a lot stronger and tougher than a human.

  He looked at the alien bodies that lay all over. He could smell the burning flesh of some. It was hard to believe in what he was seeing. He looked at the tiny alien data pad in his hand. He remembered the information that they gave him. Twenty nine months.

  He shook his head.

  He looked at the watch on his wrist.

  “They are here.”

  As he thought it he raised his head and looked all around. He noticed them. An entire squad of soldiers approached from all sides. They were camouflaged and spread out. He knew that there are some behind him as well. He smiled and raised his right hand. He gave the all clear signal.

  Moments later he heard footsteps behind him.

  A tall soldier stepped up in front of him. As he did from all sides an entire squad of men started rising from their concealed positions.

  The soldier saluted.

  “Colonel, we were informed that we’ll find you here.”

  “Major.”

  The major looked at the bodies.

  “Are they all dead?”

  Without even looking at him Fillip answered.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you check the wreck?”

  “No.”

  The major pointed to several of his men and two teams entered in the broken parts of the alien ship. Then he turned toward the colonel.

  He looked at the young men before him. He served under him in both tours in Afghanistan and he knew that he is not just an excellent officer, but also a good men and soldier. He respected him, and so did the rest of the men of the unit. Most of them also had him as their commanding officer before he transferred in the DBK (Macedonian counter-intelligence unit). He noticed the bruises on his hands and the torn shirt. There was a bullet scar on the left shoulder but it was covered by the tattoo. He had one as well and so did several other soldiers. He remembered the day when they got them. He noticed the data pad in his hand.

  “Is that from the aliens?”

  Fillip looked at the major. He knew him well. They were friends. He smiled as he noticed that he was looking at the tattoo on his left shoulder.

  “Yes. It’s some sort of computer that has all the reconnaissance information they gathered about us, our world and our star system.”

  “Star system?”

  Fillip looked at the body of the Sicarian.

  “Yes. It contains the information that the invasion fleet will need when it gets here in twenty nine months.”

  The major looked at him.

  “How do you know that?”

  “They told me. And he said that this has everything they will need.”

  The major looked at the body of the blue alien.

  “He told you? How did he speak our language?”

  Fillip stood up and looked at him. He looked at the dead body and then at the major.

  “He didn’t.”

  “Then how…”

  “He spoke Latin.”

  The major looked at the colonel. He to like him knew the implications of what he just heard were.

  “Yes Zoran. They’ve been here before.”

  The major looked at the dead alien bodies. Fillip looked at them to.

  As he did that he heard three choppers approaching. Two took positions above the two pieces of the alien ship, while the third one landed couple of meters from them. Four soldiers stepped from the chopper and took covering positions. Fillip looked at them.

  “We’ll have company in couple of minutes. I think you shouldn’t be here when they arrive.”

  “Yes. I think my ride is here.”

  He saluted and then headed toward the chopper. Before he stood up he turned.

  “Take good care of their bodies. They were their prisoners.”

  The major looked at the two dead bodies in front of him.

  “I will. Go.”

  Fillip boarded the chopper. As he did that the soldiers retreated as well and climbed on board. As the chopper lifted he noticed four Black Hawks approaching.

  The Americans were joining the party.

  Fillip looked at the chopper for a second then turned his head. He felt tired. He looked at the soldiers in the chopper, and after a second he closed his eyes.

  As he slowly drifted to sleep the soldiers watched him but no one disturbed him.

  They all knew what he did. They could see it in his eyes. And they all knew that he was carrying vital information about what was coming.

  They could feel that a storm was approaching and felt that it had something to do with what happened today.

  As he slept the chopper turned north and headed toward the capitol.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  23 September 2017 13:00 hours

  UN Building New York City

  For the most part of the twentieth century many conspiracy theorists claimed that the governments had contact with aliens. Many others claimed that they were abducted and experimented on. And there were some who claimed that they were the gods of the past and that they created us and that we should wait for their return and serve them. All those groups had a field day just hours after the news of the attack spread throughout the globe.

  It was true that some governments in particularly those that represented the most powerful nations of the world tried to hide the truth and suppress it. But the attack was too sudden, the damages and death toll were too big, and the implications were too dangerous. The fact that ten ships were sunk and destroyed, seven of them lost with all hands, and that twelve other were nothing more than pieces of scrap filled with so many holes that it was easier to scrap them than repair them was too much to hide. And no one dared to hide the death toll of seven thousand four hundred and thi
rteen man and women who lost their lives in the short battle. The request for help and reinforcements that the fleet sent in the opening moments, were received not just by the intended Navy Headquarters but also by the news agencies that followed the largest Navy exercises in the last couple of years. The videos and pictures from the battle started circling the network even before the battle was over.

  For many years humanity asked itself the question “are we alone? “ Thousands of telescopes and satellites searched and listened to the stars for any signs of intelligent life. Hundreds of opinions were expressed about how the first contact will happen and how would the aliens look like. Most thought that it will be an event that will change mankind and the way we looked at the world and at the universe. Most of the scientists claimed that if there is intelligent life out there and if they are capable and have the technology to pass the vast distances between stars they will be at a stage of civilization development where violence and war are just words from the past.

  There were some of course that claimed that humanity should be prepared, that a first contact situation might be for humanity the same as for the American natives when the Europeans came centuries ago. They said that there is always the danger of an advanced civilization wishing to have our world for their own. As it turned out they were the ones that were right.

  And when the news reached the public, the long primal fear of the unknown came out to the surface. As the world governments tried to cope with the newly developed situation riots started breaking out all around the world. In just a second everything changed.

  When a man looked in to the stars he no longer felt admiration. Instead he felt fear.

  But as the days passed and no attack came, the situation slowly returned to normal. And for the first time in to the mind of every human being on the planet, a simple word started to take form. People slowly started forgetting their nationality, their race, their skin color, or political views. They started looking past the small differences that separated them. They thought of the word human being, and human civilization. They were just two simple words, but words with big meaning. Because they represented humanity, every living, breathing human being. They encompassed everything, every human that was ever born, everything that we managed to build and create. And they understood. A big help for that came from the first ever public military and civilian burial, from the seven thousand four hundred and thirteen soldiers and two hundred and forty civilians, of the men and woman of thirty countries, that had different religion, different skin color.

  As the burial was watched for the first time in its history humanity stood united. And several world leaders saw that. A long time ago there was a dream from some people about united federation of man. This was the first day that that thought was taken seriously.

  Unary Samba watched from the stage at the representatives of every country of the world that were gathered here today.

  He knew that this was a meeting that might, that will change the course of human history. He looked at the seven men sitting in front of him.

  The presidents of USA, Russia, China, India, Japan, France and Great Britain were sitting there. He had talks with all of them before this meeting. He knew that what he was about to say would cause much commotion and even animosity toward him. But after he talked with them he talked with three men that were also sitting here today. It was rare occasion to see soldiers sitting on a UN meeting.

  Three different uniforms were represented. One, a clear US Navy white uniform, and two that represented the SF of two countries. He talked with them as well and he couldn’t forget the talk with the Macedonian soldier. He looked at the young soldier. He was sitting next to the Macedonian president. A smile came to his face as he remembered that small European country and all the struggles it had to go through. Without even thinking it he noticed that he looked at the Greek representative a little further away. He guessed that it was a reflex reaction. But as he looked at the faces of both presidents he noticed the change in both of them. It was the same with many others. The old animosities, problems between countries, they were all put aside today.

  “Twenty nine months. That is the time we have to prepare.” He felt a chill pass through his body at that thought. He looked at the young Macedonian soldier again. He remembered the words he told him, remembered them well.

  The blue alien that he said he killed for not to suffer wasn’t the enemy. He was just a prisoner. He remembered the briefing where the scientist explained that the two alien species were totally different, and that there was no chance of them evolving on one world.

  “You have a beautiful world.”

  He looked at the written speech that he was holding in his hands. Then he raised his hand and looked at the young soldier again. Their eyes meet. The soldier smiled and nodded. Without thinking he folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

  And without thinking he started the speech that no one will ever forget.

  “Dear colleagues, dear friends… I speak to you today not as a General Secretary of the UN, not as a delegate, not as a representative of my country, but as a citizen of this world, I speak to you … as a human being. A human, that word so often spoken has a different meaning today. When before we, spoke of human civilizations, we divided it on the nations and the people that created it. We named them Roman, Greek and many other. But we never before used that name for what it really means, what it represents. We never, until seven days ago, truly understood what it encompasses.

  There are no human civilizations gentlemen.

  Look at every men that is today in this room.

  Don’t look at his skin color, at his nation, at his beliefs, look at the man…look at his blood.

  Look at his blood, because blood never lies.”

  As he said that he took out a small knife and made a small cut on his hand and raised it. Tiny drops of red blood dropped on the stage.

  “My skin is black. I am a Christian and the country I come from has men who are Muslim. Many of you are white, some are yellow, some are young and some are old.

  But when we bleed, we all bleed the same. We all have red blood in our veins. We are all human beings.

  Just four days ago we all watched and cried as seven thousand four hundred and thirteen sailors and marines went on their last journey, and alongside them we buried two hundred and forty civilians.

  More than thirty years before on a meeting in this same place a man said:

  “In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.””

  He saw several smiles among his audience on the mentioning of the former American president. He looked at the Russian president.

  “He said that he often wondered what would happen if the world faced an alien threat from outer space. Will the United States and the Soviet Union as the most powerful nations fight together? He asked that question at the White House and he got an answer from the soviet foreign minister who said that the answer to that question is simple. The answer ladies and gentlemen was “Yes.”

  Both those man are now dead. Did they know something we didn’t?

  We will never know that.

  That threat showed itself one week ago. The aliens killed both soldiers and civilians. They never asked, never cared for our differences. The people that died were from thirty countries, they were black, white and yellow, they had different beliefs but they all fought as one. Because they were human and they were fighting for the same cause.

  When the first time man looked at the stars he was fascinated by them. We always asked the same question.” Are we alone? Is there no one else?” Now we know the answer. Now we know the truth.

  And we know their name.

  Dacarians… That is the name of the enemy. And in twenty nine m
onths they will come to our world and try to take it from us.

  I ask you the same question today that a man asked thirty years before me.

  What will we do? How will we counter that threat?

  Do we fight alone or do we fight as one? Not as one nation, but as one civilization.

  A long time ago a famous general once said “Alone we are weak, but together we are invincible.”

  When this organization was first formed, the people who created it had a dream. A dream of a day when we shall stand united, when there will be no borders, no nations, of a day when there will be only people.

  I ask of you today to help me make that dream come true. I’m a simple man my friends. I don’t want power, I don’ want war. None of us does. But we have no choice. We will stand as one or we will perish. Everything we ever did, from the day when the first man was born till today it all lead us to this moment. It all leads to today.

  Today we make the most important decision in our lives. Today we decide for the future of mankind, for the future of our race.

  I stand before all of you today with a proposal, a document that I ask you to sign.”

  As he said that he picked up the document before him on the desk. As he did that he noticed everyone looking at him. He opened the paper and as he did he continued.

  “Seventy years ago we became Organization of the United Nations. I say that today we become The United Nations of Earth. I don’t care who the president of that organization will be, that we can decide later. But this is a step we have to take, because this ladies and gentlemen is the first step in to the future. A ask every one of you to sign it and give us the chance to have that future. That is all.”

  As he said the final words he noticed that the entire hall was quiet. It was so quiet that he could hear his own heart beating. And he noticed that everyone was looking at him. He looked at the document that he was holding in his hands. As he did that he noticed three people standing up.

  The three soldiers just looked at him and saluted. Then, the youngest of the three started clapping with his hands. Soon the applause spread out. Everyone stood up. He never felt the tear coming down on his chick. He wiped it and smiled.