Bennie lowered his shield to conserve energy as J partially stepped out of his Humvee. The two looked at each other before J nodded toward a hoard of alien creatures slithering toward them.
“We gotta get outta here!” J shouted as he climbed back into his ride.
Mitch floored his jeep as he took off, “Hold on! Follow me!”
J followed Mitch as Jack and Kent hopped on the Humvee’s running boards and held on with one hand and opening fire with their machineguns with their other.
The alien hoard erected shielding while others opened fire with their plasma weapons.
A dark shadow loomed over head making the already dark sky, even darker. Bennie resumed holding his shielding as he peered around the remains of buildings, trying to catch a glimpse of the flying object in the sky.
Charlie shot along the sidewalks, shooting out any remaining windows along the city block, ensuring no aliens or cyborgs were lying in wait.
The shadow flew over head once more and came to a stop. Missiles rocketed from the hovering craft, hurling toward the approaching alien hoard.
“It’s the transport!” Bennie exclaimed, “Someone must have heard your message!”
Mitch stopped the jeep to hold their current position as J came to a stop, taking his Humvee angled to Mitch’s jeep.
Kurtis jumped out after Nadine and J. Kent and Jack stood on the running board, watching for any more alien activity.
The two missiles impacted the alien shield, discharging into a vapor before the transport opened fire with their turrets, cutting the aliens down in seconds.
Mitch’s headset buzzed Colonel Griffin’s voice, “Get to your rides and head back! I’ll provide air cover for you!”
“Roger that, Colonel!” Mitch answered, climbing back into his jeep.
J and Nadine returned to their seats after Kurtis slammed his rear door while J floored his Humvee toward Saratoga Base.
Jack and Chuck continued to fire their weapons behind them as they fled the streets of Seattle.
J ran the Humvee down the center of the deserted city street. The utility vehicle slammed into several stalled cars, knocking them out of the way with the Humvee’s push-bumper, as he cleared a path for Mitch’s jeep.
Colonel Griffin’s transport fired plasma blasts at the, regenerating, alien army. Pulling the thruster controls in reverse, Griffin tracked over the two vehicles below. Plasma blast after another, kept the aliens from giving chaise.
Two metallic cyborgs exited an alleyway and fired two, newly-grown, rockets from their arms at the flying transport above their heads.
“Incoming!” Griffin shouted over his comm link.
Beverly, Trudy and the rest of the rescued freedom fighters held on to their straps, bracing for impact.
The missiles shot up into the sky and hit the transport on the right lower rear. Metal sparks shot out from the ship’s right engine as Griffin called out over his comm link, “We’re hit!”
The ship listed to the right as Griffin attempted to recover and turn the ship back to the Saratoga base.
“Losing altitude, fast!” Griffin shouted, “Going back to base… and hope we make it!”
Beverly and Trudy joined hands and began a golden glow. Their self-amp charge sent an energy wave into the ship, keeping them airborne.
Griffin gritted his teeth as he flew the crippled ship back across their lines. Seeing the make-shift landing pad, he turned the ship toward the vacant parking lot.
“Lowering skids!” Griffin shouted in cadence, “Setting down in… 3… 2… 1!”
Griffin throttled back and shut the engines down as the transport slammed hard onto the pavement. Cracks grew out from the impact of the ship and the skids crumpled up under the belly of the transport.
As the turbines spun down, Griffin shut down the ship’s electricals and unbuckled his harness. Turning to his rear he looked up at a stunned-looking Beverly, “Is everyone alright?”
Beverly dropped Trudy’s hand and fell to the floor unconscious.
Griffin yelped as he came to her side and slowly turned her over, “Bev? Beverly!”
Trudy climbed from the floor, slowly recovering from the ship’s impact and looked over at the limp Beverly, “What’s wrong with her?”
Griffin grabbed her hand and felt for a pulse, “She’s still alive… she must have been knocked out by the impact.”
Trudy came to Beverly’s side and gently brushed her hair from her eyes, “It’s going to be alright, Bev. Just hang in there, we’ll get you some help!”
Luella and Tonya opened the ship’s side hatch and yelled out, “We need some help over here!”
Jim and Matt exited the ship and helped Luella and Tonya down while Griffin stayed by Beverly’s side.
Sly looked down on the ailing Beverly, “What’s wrong with her? What happened?”
“I don’t know, Sly,” Griffin said, not taking his eyes from Beverly, “She just collapsed right after our hard landing.”
“Did she hit her head, maybe?”
“I don’t think so, Sly. Her and Trudy were sending power waves into the ship. After we landed, I shut all the systems down and she just fell to the floor.”
General McKenzie, Major Preston and Titus arrived at the transport and climbed the wing to enter.
“What the hell’s goin’ on,” McKenzie shouted.
“General,” Griffin acknowledged, only taking his eyes off Beverly a short second, “She’s in a coma or something. I really don’t know what happened to her.”
Major Preston came to Beverly’s side and pressed his first two fingers on her neck, reading her pulse, “She’s very weak. Fading fast.”
“Tell me what happened, Tom,” Preston asked.
“I landed, a bit hard I admit, but she lost it after setting down. She didn’t hit her head, she just lost connection with Trudy and fell to the ground.”
“She was giving the ship an amped feed-back power loop, right?”
“Yes, her and Tonya self-amped and fed their energy into the ship’s systems. It’s the only reason we made it back, to be honest.”
Preston climbed over Beverly and sat in the pilot seat. He reached out and flipped on the ship’s avionics power.
Beverly convulsed after she fluttered her eyes open and then relaxed back down.
“Interesting,” Preston nodded.
He reached for the engine power system and pressed the start sequence.
The broken ship’s engine complained before sputtering to life, the power surging into it, spinning up the turbos.
Beverly opened her eyes and looked up at Griffin, “T-Tom? Wh-what happened?”
Major Preston glanced back with panic, “The engine’s lost a lot of coolant. I can’t keep it on for very long!”
“It’s going to be alright, Bev. You collapsed…”
Three pops sounded from the rear of the ship. Titus made his way back to investigate before shouting forward, “It’s the energy cells! They’re swelling and exploding. You better shut that engine back down before the rest of these fuel cells go off!”
Griffin looked up at Preston, “Shut it down, son!”
“But what about Beverly?”
Griffin looked down on the ailing Beverly, “It’s going to be alright. We’ll figure this out, but for now, we’re going to have to shut down the ship’s engine again. Something about this, is making you go off-line.”
“It’s o-okay, T-Tom. I tru-trust you…”
“Close your eyes and rest. We’ll get you out of here soon enough, Bev.”
Major Preston shut down the engine controls as Beverly fell back into her coma, “I’ll leave some of the simple ship’s systems online, that seems like it’s keeping her stable, for now.”
The broken engine gave their report as the turbine spun down and then stopped with a loud bang.
“Well, that’s it, Shut it down, Major! This turbine just shattered inside the housing,” Titus said as he made his way forward.
&n
bsp; Trudy formed a shield under Beverly and raised her from the floor of the ship, “Come on, let’s move her outside.”
Griffin and Titus guided the floating Beverly outside as General McKenzie followed, “Take her inside with Jenny. Looks like the rain is starting up again.”
Trudy extended her shielding around the exiting group as they floated Beverly toward Jenny’s tent.
J continued to drive his Humvee toward the Saratoga East Barrier. Mitch was on his tail as Bennie shielded them from Mechanical rail-gun fire from the sides of the street.
Lieutenant Higginbotham ensured the barricade was open as they sped their way toward the Saratoga base.
The marines lined the barrier and held their position as they opened fire at the approaching Mechanicals that followed on the city streets.
As J’s Humvee ran through the opening, Mitch’s jeep kept close behind. Lieutenant Higginbotham gave the order to seal the barrier. Five marines sprung into action and closed off the opening and then returned to the line. Placing their weapons on the wall, they sent hundreds of rail-shots into the approaching alien hoard.
From the center of the Saratoga complex, the mounted forward turrets and plasma weapon turned to take aim at the Eastern border. The tall mounted weapons had no problem penetrating the alien’s shields. Weakening them, the fifty-caliber rounds from the mounted turrets continued to pound the failing shields.
J and Mitch both exited their vehicles as Lieutenant Higginbotham approached from the barrier, “Welcome back, Sergeant. I see you brought some company.”
“Lieutenant,” J introduced, “This is the infamous J,” Mitch shouted over the barrage of gun fire. The others exited the Humvee before he pointed, “That’s Nadine and of course that’s Kurtis,” Mitch pointed.
Bennie held his hands out before him and protected the group with what amp-charge he had left. Bullets ricocheted off the shielding as Kent and Jack ran to their barrier to join with the other marine ranks.
Lieutenant Higginbotham extended his hand toward J before Kurtis cut him off and grabbed the Lieutenant’s hand first, “Nice to meet ya’, umm, Lieutenant,” then he glanced at Mitch as he held on to Higginbotham’s hand, “… and what was that crack about and of course that’s Kurtis? Like I’m some kind of pelage or something? Jeez! It takes all kinds!”
“Take it easy, Kurtis,” Nadine broke in before she yanked Kurtis’ hand from the Lieutenant and shook it herself.
Smiling and batting her eyes, Nadine warmly greeting the Lieutenant, “I’m very pleased to meet you… what was your first name, again, Lieutenant?”
“Umm, it’s Elliot, ma’am. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t tell you that yet,” looking down at Nadine’s left arm stump, he pulled back, yanking his hand from hers, “What the hell? You’re a clone!”
“Relax,” J interjected, “She’s with us… in fact, they’re both with us!”
“And I’m pretty sure we have more clones on our team besides just us,” Nadine nodded.
“We need to enter the fight, Sarge!” Charlie shouted, being serious for once in his life.
The others made their way to the boarder before more mechanical, spider-walking, alien creatures scurried towards the boarder.
The new spider-creatures clinked their metal legs as they approached the front lines. The marines changed their aim to hit the hundreds of small mechanical creatures, their rail-shot hitting each one, sending them into hundreds of small pieces.
Mitch shot his weapon into the crowd of metal spiders and yelled out in desperation, “There’s too many of them! We’re going to be overrun!”
In a panic, Bennie closed his eyes and brought up a stronger shield. He focused on spreading the shield across the entire front line on the eastern border before his mind’s attention was averted.
He looked over his shoulder at a slowly walking Jenny.
She held her arms up in the air and closed her eyes, sending out a massive wave of energy. Her green glowing eyes was all Bennie needed to see to know she came to rescue them all.
The powerful wave shot out from Jenny in a circle, sending every alien creature into oblivion before collapsing to the ground.
The streets returned to quiet as the marines ceased fire and the towering turrets returned silence instead of sending their deafening report.
Bennie dropped his shield and ran to the fallen Jenny. He cradled her in his arms and looked down on her fading green-colored eyes, “Jenny! Are you alright?”
Jenny’s eyes glassed over after the green vanished and she turned her head toward Bennie, “Fa-father… it is Ev-Eva… He-help… Gra-grandmother… Be-Beverly… your mom… ne-needs you…”
Jenny’s body slipped into unconsciousness.
Bennie raised his head to the sky before shouting, “I NEED A MEDIC!”
Chapter 13
Saratoga Base Camp
January 17, 2068 14:02
Bennie looked down on his unconscious mom, “What happened to her?”
Jenny was brought back to her cot and gently laid down to rest as Major Preston stepped over to Bennie and stood next to General McKenzie, “We think it has something to do with her and Tonya’s self-amp charge being dumped into the transport systems. She just collapsed when we shut the ship’s systems down.”
“The transport engine is offline now and so is she,” Major Preston added.
“And soon, we need to shut all the ship’s systems off so we can make repairs,” Titus offered, “This was our only working ship.”
McKenzie raised his eyebrows toward Major Hargrove, “Are you sure we can’t get the Saratoga back into the fight, Major?”
“It’s possible, General, but it’s gonna take time.”
“We don’t have time,” Bennie said, kneeling by his mom, “Not much time left at all.”
“Don’t be such a pessimist all the damn time, Ben,” J said as he placed a hand on his shoulder.
Bennie glanced up at his friend, “We don’t have much time, I know we don’t.”
Trudy stepped over to the group, “Why do you say this, Mister Bennie?”
Bennie stood and brought the others to the side of the tent away from Beverly and Jenny before whispering, “I don’t have an explanation, I just feel this sense of mission and the scene of what is right… it’s a useless situation and I’m not sure what’s going on here, so we have to make it easy on ourselves…”
“You’re quoting your dad’s music again, Ben,” J added. I remember that tune from his archives. That’s from Rush’s ‘The Color of Right’ isn’t it?”
Bennie shook his head, “Yeah, it is, but I have no idea why… it’s just coming to me and it fits… that’s all I know. We have to change the color of right. It feels right, but this isn’t right… not by a long shot,” Bennie raised his voice from his lower whisper.
“Whattya mean, Ben?” J asked.
“This whole thing, J,” Bennie answered as he passed his hand around the room, “Our world is gone, J… destroyed… infected by the aliens… the Van Allen Belt destroyed or nearly destroyed… yeah, and aliens are returning to finish the job… hell, the ones that were left are doing a pretty good job by themselves…. If Jenny, Eva, or whoever it is inside my Jen…” he placed his hands on his head in distress, “Gawd, I can’t even figure this stuff out! If she hadn’t come out and sent these aliens back to goo, they would have taken us all out in quick order!”
“Take it easy, Son,” McKenzie said, trying to calm the young man.
“Take it easy, General? Really?”
Bennie began to hyperventilate as he breathed through his flaring nostrils. In and back out, quickly, as his anxiety grew within, “How can we ‘take it easy?’ We can’t take it easy! Not until they’re eliminated… but we have no way of really doing that now, do we?”
Major Preston stepped up to Bennie and snapped his hand across his cheek, “Get a hold of yourself, Bennie!”
The stunned Bennie stared at Preston in shock.
“Sorry,
Bennie, but you have to get a grip. Don’t lose it now, okay? Just keep it together, now, okay?”
Jenny stirred from her cot and lifted her head slightly, “It’s in the music, Bennie… the answer is in the music…”
The group stepped back over to Jenny. Bennie returned to his knee and took her hand, “Jenny, is that you, or is this Eva?”
“It’s Jenny… but Eva told me it’s in the music… the solution to Beverly is in the music…”
“What music, Jenny? You mean the music I was reciting?”
Jenny struggled to answer, “Ye-yes, the music…” before she fell back asleep.
Bennie stood and stroked his chin, “Let’s see… what was that again?”
Trudy recited some of the words, “I just feel this sense of mission
And the sense of what is right.”
“Beverly had a high sense of getting back to the landing pad,” General McKenzie added.
“That’s the mission,” Bennie nodded.
Trudy continued reciting the song’s ending, “Gravity and distance. Change the passage of light. Gravity and distance. Change the color of right.”
“I know what I have to do!” Bennie shouted. “Quick, get me a full amp charge!”
The accelerator is ready and is up and running,” Titus smiled, “We finished those connections while you were on your way here.”
“What is it, Mister Bennie?” Trudy asked as she followed Bennie out of the tent.
Running, Bennie and Trudy headed toward where the accelerator station was set up. Entering the tent, they slid to a stop as they faced a perplexed Calvin Jones.
“Ahh, Bennie,” Calvin smiled, “you’re here, good!”
“No time for pleasantries… plug us in and juice us up. The both of us!”
Trudy obediently turned and exposed her chip to Calvin, “What are we doing, Bennie?”
Bennie turned as Calvin grabbed two fiber cables and quickly snapped them into place, “It’s in the gravity… it’s all about the gravity and keeping the ship airborne, Trudy.”
“I still don’t get it…”
Trudy gasped with Bennie as the accelerator came to life, sending the amp signal down the cables and into their chips.
AMP- Aftermath Page 10