by Mel Todd
"Yeah?" Her voice cracked a bit.
I need to drink more water.
She sat up as the pounding started again.
"What?" She raised her voice this time and the person on the other side stopped pounding.
"Ma'am. We've been asked to get everyone up and over to the conference center. Food is waiting. They'd like you ASAP, ma'am." The voice was young and a bit nervous.
"Okay. I'll be out shortly." She didn't move though, weariness still clawing at her.
Coffee, food, water, all of it will help. But you won't get any of it if you don't get going.
~You guys get the same message? You up?~
An assortment of grunts and mumbled answers met her query. Though how you mumbled thoughts she had no idea.
Fifteen minutes later, hair in a ponytail, another shower, teeth brushed, with her spare shifting clothes on, McKenna pulled open the door to her room.
Even though they hadn't talked while she got ready, everyone else must have been moving about the same speed. JD and Cass emerged from one room while Toni stood there, Jamie holding her tight.
Oh, the kids are up.
McKenna changed her direction making a beeline for their room.
Jamie must have told them she was coming because before she reached the door, it had pulled open and Charley and Nam bolted out. Nam leapt at her, achieving a height with that jump that really shouldn't have been possible. McKenna caught her, pulling her tight to her chest even as Charley hugged her like a vise.
"You two okay? Everything good?"
Charley pulled back giving her a look that she had to fight not to laugh at. Wounded pride, contempt, and confusion all wrapped into one.
"Of course. We would have told you if anything was wrong. Or dealt with it ourselves," he muttered, the last part much more quietly.
"Charley, you tell us. People here will help. No more doing it by yourself. Promise me?" She tilted up his chin looking into his blue eyes. "I know adults have let you down. I promise we won't."
He nodded. "I promise. I know. Just, they're mine, you know?" His eyes darted to Nam then over to Jamie and Jessi. At some point she had wandered out and leaned against Toni, too.
"Yeah. I know." And she did. But she was an adult, Charley wasn't. Part of her wished the kids could take warrior form, but for now their animal forms and ability to flee would have to sustain everyone.
She hugged him one more time and nuzzled into Nam's neck. Even their presence made her feel like maybe she could do this. She had to do this; they and everyone else depended on her, so she would do it.
McKenna glanced at the others and they nodded. With one last tight squeeze for both kids, she set Nam down. A wave of love was sent to both of them, on a tight message this time so she didn't affect anyone else. They flushed and smiled at her and she left, hating it but needing to do it at the same time.
A young service woman waited for them in the lobby. Dressed in camos, McKenna glanced at her uniform, Air Force for this person. At this point there were too many people, too many shifting faces, she'd given up trying to track people or branches involved.
"This way please, everyone is waiting." She led them out and hustled them to the conference center.
McKenna had checked the clock as she left and it was only nine, which meant she'd had barely six hours of sleep. And the people they were going to see had been working all night. She'd focus on getting coffee and then figure out how she fit into all their plans.
The crowd from last night had thinned considerably. There were only about three people wandering around the open area where all the food and drinks were set up. Philip was one of them and he headed for her as she filled a cup with coffee.
"Good. We're ready to begin. We think we've got a valid plan worked out, along with a few backup plans in case that doesn't work out." He looked tired but energized in a way he hadn't been yesterday. Yesterday the shadow of defeat and hopelessness had shrouded him.
"You seem upbeat. That mean you think this will work?" McKenna asked, putting her lid on her coffee.
"I think so, assuming everything we know is true. There’s a good chance, but an awful lot depends on the information buried in all your brains." He waved at all of them. The others had focused on food and McKenna realized she needed the same. No piles of cold cuts, but there was a decent amount of bacon and bagels, so she set to work making a couple sandwiches with cream cheese, bacon, and mustard.
"Good, then let's see how this is going to work." Coffee in one hand, and two sandwiches in the other, McKenna and the others followed him into one of the large conference rooms.
That this had been become a war room was obvious. Whiteboards had diagrams and notations all over them. Three boxes with a list of names took up one board, and from the half-erased marks you could tell it took a while to get those names aligned.
Philip waved at the tables occupied by five men, plus Burby, Rarz, and Christopher, who stood against a wall watching everything.
She recognized Colonel Geoff Sextan from the previous night. None of the others triggered a memory.
"Please take a seat, so we can explain our plans." Philip said, as most of them started to move towards the tables.
Now or never. You need to tell him.
Grabbing a paper towel from the roll that they had been using to wipe the boards, she set her two sandwiches down and walked over to Christopher.
"McKenna," he said, his voice low as he focused his attention away from Rarz to her.
"I haven't had a chance to tell you, and I'm sorry I didn't try harder to tell you before. Caroline was killed our first day out. One of their shots took her in the chest and she was just dead."
Christopher closed his eyes and he seemed to shrink just the smallest bit before he opened his eyes and locked onto hers. His blue eyes burned into her and McKenna wanted to look away, but she straightened and met his gaze.
"I figured. When she wasn't at the house and you didn't say anything, I guessed that was the answer. Her body was collected?"
"Yes. I made sure of it." She nodded, having made the call herself. Caroline had ID on her, so word would filter back as records were updated.
"Then I'll be notified eventually. I'm the executor of her will." He paused looking away, then back at McKenna. "It was fast?"
"Very. She didn't have a chance to even hurt. She helped a lot, but then we were so out of our depths. If she had lived, by now she'd be as deadly as the rest of us."
Hell if I know if that’s the right thing to say. But it’s the truth and I'll never forget looking at her, that hole in her chest.
"Thank you. Now go on." Christopher nodded at the tables and everyone carefully not watching them, except Rarz. He had focused on her and Christopher. "You have a world to save."
Those words didn't help make her feel better, or even like she was the person they should be depending on. But it did pull her attention back on what needed to be dealt with right now.
Giving him a sharp nod, she slid into the chair, guarding her bacon and bagel sandwiches. Picking one up, she gave herself a few seconds to put off the inevitable while she chewed on the bagel. The weight of everyone's gazes beat at her like waves against rocks. When the worst of her hunger had been assuaged, she gave in and set down the sandwich. Getting it over with would be better than keeping this up.
"I take it you have a plan?"
Most of the men smiled, or at least they drew back their lips baring their teeth.
"We have one, and we even got the dragon to agree it might work." That smile was definitely a challenge and to her surprise Rarz smiled back, showing teeth a bit whiter and sharper than a human's would be.
"It is a solid plan. Though humans are more vicious than I had realized. Apparently many of your things about peace were only fiction?" He half-tilted, half-shrugged when he said that.
"Oh, probably not. One of the things I've learned over the years, is most people will preach peace and understanding—until they’re
the one with their back against the wall. Then there are no holds barred. We have a saying on earth; never get between a mother bear and her child. That holds true for most parents. When it comes to protecting those we love, we'll do anything. Most of us have people we love. People we'd die to protect. So yes, we are a vicious and deadly race, and most people—when challenged—take pride in that." She smiled at him and her smile held little humor but a lot of teeth.
"Good. This plan will need that passion." He fell silent and leaned back, shifting his attention to Geoff.
Geoff rose and walked over to the whiteboard, tapping on the squares with lists of names written in them. "As it has been explained to us, the five, well six, of you will need to be the first through the portals to ensure any chance this has of success. As we can figure it, there are three separate missions. The problem is there are four ships and Rarz has said he can only support one tunnel at a time. We’re going to hit them one by one, coming back here for refills as needed." He cleared his throat and continued. "We’re targeting the ship that’s had the most shuttles going towards it and the one we think contains the most Americans." There was a slight rumble in the room. "Listen, I get we want to rescue everyone, but I'll be damned if I leave our people for last. Remember, we still don't know if we'll get anyone out alive. If it works, we'll try for all of them."
That settled people down. McKenna took another large bite of her bagel, enjoying the crunch of bacon and the smooth cream cheese as she listened. At least with her mouth full she couldn't interrupt him.
"Mission one—set explosives to disable or destroy the vessel. We've decided to go with an option that will allow multiple variations. If we can capture the vessel, the rewards for us are staggering. Otherwise we'll destroy it. This group will also provide support and covering fire for the primary group which will be you." He locked eyes with McKenna.
McKenna nodded. Though she had little desire to meddle in politics, with what could be learned, the technology involved in that ship could give them the stars. But she wished it wasn't going to come at the price of so many human deaths.
"The second is to help with decanting the captured and slaved shifters. While we understand that Ms. Borden needs to operate the machinery, we’re hoping she can show us how to do it. If what Rarz has said is accurate, there may be multiple chambers to control the containers."
"There are." Perc confirmed. "Per the schematics in my head there are at least ten different ones, and a few specialized sections. Each section only has access to its corresponding sections of storage tubes."
Geoff fixed him with a laser stare. "As soon as this debrief is done, I want you to go with Yeoman Kyle and recreate all the schematics you can. If you have a way to download it, I'll take anything."
Perc shook his head sadly, and Wefor didn't offer any options, so McKenna stayed quiet. Her head wasn't full of secrets others needed. Well, at least she didn't think so.
When no one else spoke up, Geoff continued.
"The third group will be escorting captured people out and getting them to the staging ground. We've taken over the M&T Bank stadium. Even as we speak people are getting it ready to receive wounded, incapacitated, and even hostile prisoners. We have a separate area for the hostiles. We’re planning on keeping them sedated until we can undo the programming the nanobots have enforced."
Geoff turned his stare on Cass. "I'm told you will have the key to doing this?"
A squeak slipped out of her, and McKenna turned to look at her and saw the woman visibly still herself and straighten up.
"An hour ago I would have said no. But yes. I think I can, but it won't be fast and there are some supplies I'll need from the ship." She chewed on her lip for a minute then squared her shoulders. "I think the best plan would be if you had at least one shifter on the team involved in the decanting. I should be able to teach them how to go through the process, then we can leapfrog through all of them. We'll need to gather the supplies to short circuit the programming of the nanobots. Though until we have McKenna back and able to assist, keeping them asleep or even in stasis would be the best bet. But this is me guessing. I have no idea what I’ll be able to do or what supplies will be available." Her confidence grew with every word and McKenna smirked a bit at the rapt attention JD paid her.
"Already done. There’s a shifter assigned to your team, assuming we can get her here fast enough. She's a few states away at the moment." Geoff paused looking at McKenna. "Why do we need you here before we bring them out of stasis?"
McKenna felt like a deer in the headlights, mouth full as she shrugged.
Cass snorted. "Because there's a chance most of them won’t speak English and at this time, she's the only person I know that will be able to speak Elentrin to them.” ~Though we should be able to speak it soon? Right, Wefor?~
[Affirmative. But it will be slow and halting. McKenna may be best for that.]
McKenna relayed to the humans in the room what Wefor had said, even as she considered if the AI could replicate itself. Anything would be better than feeling the focal point for all their needs.
"Valid. I'll update orders with that information, but anything you can do to make all of this less impactful would be greatly appreciated."
Cass nodded and grabbed one of the many pads of paper littering the table and began to scribble notes. McKenna glanced, wondering what she was writing but Cass's scribble wasn't decipherable from this distance.
"Then if everyone is agreed?" Geoff looked around the room, but no one protested. "Good. McKenna, I want you and your teams to meet the people you’ll be working with. For the next five hours you and the teams are going to be training and practicing. We’re not expecting seamless merging, that would be something we would work towards over weeks of training. We have only five hours. I just want you to be able to move with them, understand the signals, and the roles each of you will play. Any questions?"
McKenna had a million, but none of them needed to be answered right now. She figured she'd either get the answers she needed, or in the end the questions wouldn't matter. With the bagel turning into something thick and heavy in her stomach, she shoved the last bite in her mouth and stood.
"Let's get going then."
Chapter 15 - Whirlwinds
Many military meetings are being held about how to combat the Elentrin invasion, but nothing has been given to the press on anything more concrete than 'shoot to kill' from our military leaders. While the abrupt firing of General Arnold Murphy caused ripples, in the wake of the invasion, most command has devolved down to the major or colonel level. All we can do is hope our armed forces, police, and neighbors shoot accurately and help protect all of us in this most trying of times. ~OpEd piece SacWasp.
A whirlwind of issuing clothes and weapons ensued. They had new, heavy canvas kilts for all the shifters, with a ton of pockets, most of them already full of various supplies. There were ration bars, ammo, first aid kits, knives, and more. When you added the belt securing the kilts, the entire thing added another ten pounds to them.
They were given a quick training with the new weapons they were assigned. The military decided that in their warrior form they should be strong enough that all of them could handle the heavier guns. They were issued a M240B, which fired 7.62 millimeter rounds. It was bigger than the AR 15, but with their strength in warrior form it didn't seem too unwieldy for any of them. Another two hours at an indoor range got them up to speed firing it.
Over the last week they'd gotten very good at adapting to weapons and even though these rifles, while they had a decent kick, they didn't have any issue stabilizing it. Cass chose not to change, keeping to a P90. Her shortness in warrior form made the gun too long to be comfortable. Besides, of all them, she was the least aggressive and had other duties.
Toni on the other hand took to it like a bear to honey. She carried the weapon with ease and hit headshots every time she pulled the trigger in their practice.
I wonder if she sees the people keeping he
r from her kids behind every target.
McKenna focused on keeping everything straight in her head, and not letting Wefor's grousing about the primitiveness of their weapons get to her. They might not have the fancy energy weapons the invaders did, but give them six months and they would. Besides, these shot farther.
Breaking for lunch, all of them tried to pack in calories for later, piling up huge plates. As soon as they had their food, they were pulled to various tables.
Perc was grabbed by two young earnest servicemen with a large tablet. They had him at a table with notebooks piled high. They pulled out the schematics of the ship and entered data as fast as he could pass along the information.
Cass had her notes and worked with another two people creating lists of what she needed. She made arrangements to move the drugs she grabbed out of the various parts of the ship to the staging areas.
Meanwhile Toni was being quizzed about how the systems on the ship worked, there were people taking notes as she talked in between bites of food.
JD and Rarz were over at another table talking with three hard-looking men. They all carried themselves the way Geoff Sextan did.
"McKenna, over here."
Turning, a plate of food in her hand, she narrowed in on Burby who waved at her from a table with Philip and Christopher at it. Though Christopher looked uncomfortable seated instead of standing against the wall.
She headed over and took a seat, glancing at the organized chaos around them.
"You think this is going to work?" She sat down and began to eat with focus, urging the bots to store the calories away as fat until she burned them in a bit.
Philip shrugged but Burby nodded. "It has a better chance than anything else. Believe me, I've been involved with a lot of the communications between other countries. Right now, only the arming of citizens and praying they live has had any success rate. At least this is at least a plan." He waved at the people around them. "You can tell they think it might work, because they aren't depressed. You can see there’s a spark of hope. That tells me more than anything else."