I had to try to reason with her once more. I had succeeded before, and here I was once more, acting as diplomat and mascot for the entirety of the human race.
“What have we done that’s so horrible to warrant your annihilation of this planet? It’s just Earth, a tiny, insignificant speck in an average galaxy amidst all the many billions of other galaxies. Why would you care so much to travel, however far you did, to come here and put a stop to our silly dramas?” I took a breath, congratulating myself on how rational I sounded. My voice barely shook, although my legs had begun to feel a bit weak. I felt Jack at the corner of my mind, and he was shining a little ray of pride toward my heart. But he was preoccupied with holding the half-morphs back. He knew that if they advanced on the Director, it might trigger intergalactic war.
“Dr. Brice, I understand your frustration. You forget I lived on this planet for many years before leaving with the Travelers five years ago. And when one lives on a planet such as this, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the universe is indeed vast. But all beings who inhabit it have an impact on one another. The Facility, unbeknownst to you and most others, was about to begin space exploration again after we had left. The cause of space travel was given up in your original era because there were more pressing problems to attend to. Climate change, then nuclear war. But your species was getting closer to becoming universal citizens, and it was decided that the endeavor be taken up again.”
Her stilettos crunched over some dead trees as she shifted her weight, and her nose wrinkled at the carnage at her feet. She took a quick puff of her cigarette and returned her gaze to mine.
“It won’t surprise you to know that there are billions of Earth-like planets peppered throughout the universe. They are perfectly habitable for not only your species, but all the plants and animals you care for, as well as all others that came before them on the evolutionary spectrum. And on many of these planets, there is life. They are teeming with life, Dr. Brice. Some of it is intelligent, as evolved as your species, or perhaps surpassing your current evolutionary status. But there’s something these life-forms understand above and beyond what humanity has been able to grasp, and that’s the concept of peace.” She was watching me closely, gauging my reactions like a shark anticipating its prey.
“I understand what you’re saying. It’s what you said to me the last time we met, on board the craft. That you’d be watching us, seeing if we’d screw things up again. And now that there’s been a war, well I take it you’ve decided we pose too much of a threat now. I can’t convince you that we’ll stop our fighting. Since you know so much about how humans have evolved, you must know that it’s in our nature to fight over territory. And that we now have the weaponry to inflict damage on one another to get what we want shouldn’t surprise you. It certainly doesn’t me, and I come from an era where war was an everyday occurrence. Yet you stand here, passing judgment once more. You want to punish us all for the actions of a few. I get that you, and the aliens you represent, might think we pose a threat to the rest of the universe. Like we’re a parasitic species incapable of learning from past mistakes. You might be right. But I have a daughter now, as you probably know. My husband is standing over there ready to give his life to protect mine. That ought to give you pause. That ought to give you some reasons to get back into your ship, along with whatever creatures are in it, and leave. We’re not worth the effort.”
It was a speech I hadn’t known I was capable of giving, and for a brief flashing moment I wished I’d had a huge audience once more. But all that mattered was that I speak for all my loved ones, and all my enemies. We didn’t deserve this threat. The look on the Director’s face told me she didn’t agree. What she said next caused my heart to fall inside my chest, and hit a rocky bottom inside my gut.
“You speak on behalf of humanity so well Dr. Brice. But it’s our job to make sure you don’t bring your silly human dramas to any other planets, within any other galaxies that make up the universal citizenry. You had your chance, we gave you that chance. We gave you everything you could ever need, as a people. And still, you resort to childish behavior that hasn’t gone unnoticed. I once told you, on that night five years ago, that other races not as benevolent as ours would be watching too. And it was they who ordered us to return to your planet and put a stop to all this nonsense. The Travelers are merely acting as janitors for races even more advanced than they are.” She stopped to suck in some more smoke, and I jerked my head around at the sound of approaching Originals. Their noise was still faint and far enough out that some time remained before they’d arrive, but I felt a little better knowing I’d have backup soon. The Director heard it, too.
“You do realize that fighting us is futile. Your weapons, while quite impressive, won’t have much effect on the Travelers who have come with me. I once told you they were a great warrior race, and that hasn’t changed. They love a good fight, and far be it for me to deny them that pleasure. They so rarely get to show off their skill on the battlefield anymore. So you see, Dr. Brice, it could have been a clean, systemic annihilation of your entire human population. We’d leave all animal and plant life intact, and perhaps one day, another race would evolve and prove itself to be a more peaceful, cooperative species. There’s plenty of time for that to happen before your star dies.” She pointed up at the sun, and I found my eyes following the trajectory of her arm. And there it was, our parent star. Sitting high in the afternoon sky, showing everything in stark detail. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, wishing I could disappear into the darkness behind my eyelids. I slowly opened them, and the Director was smiling again.
“So, Dr. Brice, we’re all too happy to give your people a fight, if it’s a fight you want. But it will be brief, and our last kindness to you. Because in those last minutes we’ll let you feel you’re still an autonomous species with a purpose in the universe. And then after that, you’ll be no more. All over the world, humans are going up against some of our greatest warriors. You’re next to meet them. So I’ll say good-bye, and it will be our final farewell. Consider this last conversation between us a civilized gesture from one evolved race to another, less-evolved species.” She turned her head to look at the half-morphs who were crouching low again in preparation for their pounce. Jack’s mind was a sea of red, and I couldn’t discern anything there but the rage that had overtaken him. He wanted nothing more than to end this hateful woman, and I could relate. If we were going to die, so be it.
“The army will be arriving any second. You can hear them coming. Maybe you shouldn’t have underestimated us. But maybe we’ll turn out to be as weak and easily exterminated as you believe. Either way, bring it. Bring all you’ve got, you old bitch.” The crashing in the fallen trees behind me signaled that some of the Originals had shown up, and soon their figures emerged from the wreckage, in a loose formation with Rory at the head. They stopped up short when they saw me, and the half-morphs fanned out across the clearing, but I returned my focus back to the alien craft and noted with no surprise that the Director had disappeared in the few seconds I had glanced away. I clenched my teeth in rage, wanting my chance to go after her personally. The half-morphs were confused, too, having wanted to rip her apart as well. Jack was in a frenzied rage that needed to be directed at an enemy soon, as I could sense it was consuming his very essence. I whipped my head back around to watch our army enter the clearing, and it looked to be several thousand strong. But it was a front line, and I sensed there were many more behind them, should this first formation fall. There beside Rory were a bedraggled band of cursing and yelling bearded Highlanders. His family I presumed. The battle cry that arose from them made me turn back around to see what had caused them to rip out their call. There, standing in a line similar to the one the humans had formed, were the warrior Travelers. They’d appeared in the same manner the Director had, in an instant. The half-morphs howled at their appearance too, and my eyes took several seconds to adjust to what I was seeing. For the first time, here before m
y eyes, were the aliens. My heart began to race at the sight. They were terrifying.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
My surprise that they had two arms, and two legs, as far as I could tell, was fleeting. Despite my growing fear, I was able to call on my scientific training and observe the aliens with a detached perspective.
I had always expected them to be similar to my own species in any number of ways. It certainly wasn’t original of me to think that way, nor was it the type of out-of-the-box thinking that physicists would have. Because thinking other life in the almost-infinite universe would be like the very life you had was mostly immature and unfounded. Yet they stood in front of me, unmoving statues, and so it was very easy for me to make comparisons. However, their height and stature wasn’t human at all. They were enormous, and even though their limbs matched the same number I sported, theirs were massive. Atop their heads weren’t helmets like I’d come to envision all aliens as having. In place of some futuristic bubble that would give them life-preserving gases that I assumed all aliens would need, they had what appeared to be the heads of Eaters. For a moment, I thought perhaps they were the original Eaters, those creatures that had originated on the Travelers’ home planet, who came here and prepared to devour every single last human being alive on Earth. The wide-open maw revealed teeth like finely honed blades, there were horny protuberances above the deep-set eyes, and cascading down their backs were manes of some kind, not at all what the Eaters I had encountered had possessed. Then it dawned on me, they weren’t actual Eaters. They were wearing headdresses. Some kind of battle dress, their way of intimidating their enemies. This realization, that they adhered to primitive traditions in much the same way humans did, did not allay my fears but only increased them. They were here, and they wanted to inflict pain. Yet they held nothing in their massive hands. The fabric covering their bodies shimmered in the sun, and when I tried to focus on it directly I was unable to. It was as if their bodies were swathed with an illusion, a mirage. For a moment I tried to communicate my thoughts to Jack, to ask him what was protecting their bodies, but he was circling the line of Travelers along with the other half-morphs. They had become a single unit, moving in perfect concert with one another. Although I couldn’t see the aliens’ faces, I could tell they watched the movement with intense curiosity.
In my brief seconds of assessment, the line behind me had fallen into tighter formation, with Rory and his Highland relatives leading the charge, all of them holding their weapons up and at the ready. I stood alone, the sole person between the aliens and the humans. I realized it probably wasn’t the safest place to be, but before I could move back and fall in line with the others, one of Rory’s mates let out a rough cry and discharged his hand-held weapon. In a split second it reached the line of Travelers and their craft. Normally once a weapon is fired at a target, something happens. Either the target is hit, or there’s a miss. In this instance, there was a hit, and a miss. The gravitational disruptor sent out a wave at its target, in this case one of the Travelers standing in front of the rest. I figured he was the General in charge, or something. But the moment Rory’s relative let out his cry, and before the wave rushed past me in a sensation I could not explain but was similar to an ocean wave crashing down around me, the General lifted a huge hand, and the wave was deflected. At least, that’s all I could ascertain. He just batted the energy away like it was an annoying fly entering his airspace. But he’d done it before the weapon had even gone off. As if he’d known it was coming. As if he’d seen it all in the nanosecond before it happened.
“Shit.” That’s all I could manage before the deflected wave produced a sonic boom that knocked me back on my ass. The line of Originals behind me fell back too, crying out in surprise. The broken trees cushioned our falls, but tore into our skin because the impact was great. I cried out in pain, and for a second Jack reached his mind out toward mine to assess my injuries.
“I’m fine, but they’re impervious to our weapons. We should fall back,” I thought at him.
He shook his head mentally. “We’re going in. Our eyes are allowing us to see what’s surrounding them and we think we can cross the barriers and go for their jugulars. Maybe they’ve got sensitive body parts, too.”
“Jack, NO!” I shouted out loud, as a group of Originals scrambled up and ran toward me. Among them was the Highland relative who had discharged his disruptor.
“Lass, are ye alright? Tricky bastards, they are. But these vests we’re wearin’ seem to be protectin’ us so we’re goin’ in closer. Here, take a disruptor. Ye’re lackin’ one, and that can’t be wise. We’ve got the bigger weapon comin’ up behind us.” He offered a rough hand to help me up. As I stood my tunic snagged on the broken branches littering the landscape, but I was steady on my feet, and I took the weapon from him. The half-morphs were scattered about, but some were shaking off the blast and preparing to launch themselves at the Travelers again.
“It’s operated by thought, in case ye forgot. Just think you want it to go off, but make sure ye’re pointin’ it at the right target.” As soon as he’d instructed me, he rushed forward with his group. Several more cracking booms hit my eardrums, but I kept my balance. Another line formed behind me and began advancing around me and then past me, with the Original who was holding the mini rocket launcher. It was a young girl in charge of this device, and her face was a miniature tableau of terrified despair. My heart broke at her fear, but I returned my attention to what was playing out in front of me. The Travelers were lazily lifting their hands to deflect all waves coming from the soldiers. Nothing was getting past them or into their bodies. I began to despair too, although I wasn’t surprised. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a half-morph leapt forward. For a brief moment, it latched onto the throat of one of the Travelers, a smaller one standing out toward the edge of their formation. In that snapshot of time I had a flicker of hope, that the half-morphs had enough of a changed physiology that they could overcome whatever was protecting the aliens. The half-morph viciously tore at the alien’s throat, but with yet another careless flick, the half-morph went flying through the air, away from the Traveler who quickly turned his? her? attention back to the line of advancing Originals. The cries that came from the tossed half-morph reached my enhanced ears, and I cringed at the pain I heard there. I sensed Jack’s concern. But the half-morph landed on a pile of leaves and got back up almost immediately. I gave a sigh of relief. They truly were a hardy creature.
The Travelers had been on the defense up till now, casually tossing off the gravitational disruptor’s waves but not returning any fire of their own. With those fierce headdresses, I could envision them producing battle axes and scythes that would magically rend the flesh of all of us out here in this clearing. Instead, they changed their formation. More Originals arrived behind me, and they began advancing. An Obedience Officer called out the number four, and one of the rocket launchers deployed. The sound it made once it hit the Travelers’ protective shields was deafening. The ringing in my ears didn’t dissipate right away, and in the confusion another half-morph made its way to the General at the head of the slightly scattered Traveler formation, and this time it latched onto a thickly muscled leg. A light went off, surrounding the Traveler’s leg, but it wasn’t like any light I had ever seen. The scream of the half-morph pierced the buzzing in my ears, and I cried out in response. I saw the first drops of blood begin to spatter and fan out as the half-morph flew through the air. In slow motion, the dying creature spouted out its life, and landed like a heap of rags on the shattered tree limbs. Inside my head, Jack screamed. At the sight of this blood, the Originals gave a shout and broke formation to rush forward at the Travelers who had just murdered one of their allies. Up until then, things had moved slowly. Now they took on a breathtaking speed. The events that unfolded were unstoppable like a rogue train barreling down its tracks.
The aliens were throwing out bright blasts of energy, but I couldn’t focus on where they were originating, or if they
could be classified as laser beams or some sort of weaponry I’d read about in science fiction novels. But they’d given up their easy defensive maneuvering, and were now plowing through the lines of people advancing on them as if knocking over chess pieces in a game that was far too easy for them. The cries of the wounded and dying crested over me in a deluge of pain. This was going to be a slaughter, not a battle. The Travelers presiding over this extermination seemed to be enjoying it. I fell back to my knees when another boom hit my chest with a massive force. As I got my bearings, I saw that Originals continued to fire their weapons in an effort to fight back. The half-morphs were still holding their formation, and every few seconds one of them would launch at a Traveler, only to be swatted away. They were getting past the shield that was covering them, though, yet it didn’t look like they were able to inflict any damage. In the midst of the panicked melee, I reached my mind out to find Jack. His intention was to lead a swell of half-morphs all at once, their hope being to take down the General and buy a little time. It was utterly futile, and I communicated this to him. He ignored me, though, and his band of mutant creatures lined up behind him in preparation. I looked down at the gun in my hand, and it felt flimsy. But it was all I had. That and the vest that didn’t seem to be protecting anyone. The bodies of Originals were starting to pile up, but people still kept swarming the row of Travelers. The originals weren’t giving up yet, and neither should I. I had to do something. I couldn’t sit here and watch the carnage continue. If history were to remember this, it would recall the humans’ bravery. I wanted to be a part of that. I began to run once more, my eyes trained on the General. The alien stood tall, tall as any tree that once stood proud and full of life in this clearing, his headdress flaring around his head. It was all a show, this display of power. It was a source of pride for these beings, and they took their warrior status very seriously. Although they appeared to be indestructible, I wasn’t going to let Jack charge into the fray without backup.
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