by Mark Tufo
“General, you’re about to give him two warships. I think he’ll listen to reason,” Tracy said.
“Do I and my kind have reason for concern?” Tabor asked.
“I promised you sanctuary and a new home, Tabor, and I’ll use these ships as either leverage or even a threat, if that is what it takes to get what I promised you,” I told her.
“There’s another thing,” Tracy said. “Who will ever believe when and where we’ve been and what we’ve done? None of the secondary attacks have happened yet.”
“We are showing up with some very advanced technology,” Pender added.
“Oh, this is going to go over well,” BT said. “I wonder how political prisoners are treated during wartime these days.”
“You sure do worry a lot,” I told him.
“I was a pretty carefree person until I met you,” he shot back.
“I doubt that, but okay. Tabor, before we do anything else, I will see to your safety on the surface. Three more months people.” And with that, the meeting was over. We had a small feast, but nothing could stave off the beast that was gnawing at my stomach. So many variables.
Chapter 20
MIKE JOURNAL ENTRY 17
Those last few days absolutely trudged along, like somehow time was trying to readjust itself and bring us back to where we should have been all along by delaying our arrival. When I voiced my concerns to Pender, he was again conspicuously tight-lipped.
The real fun began on a Monday–doesn’t it always? We popped back out into Earth’s airspace staring straight down the barrels of the Guardian. Lane invented a few new open channels to make sure we were heard.
It was tense those first few hours as we stared at each other, them attempting to make sure we weren’t some sort of ruse. It took Pender over three hours of explaining and sending computer logs and information to the Guardian before whoever was manning the guns took their finger off the trigger.
“Colonel Talbot.” Paul had come on the screen. He was surprised, to say the least, but he did an admirable job of hiding it.
I took a moment to gain my composure. It’s not often you see your friend, who has been slain, resurrected in front of you.
“With all due respect, it’s General, sir.”
“Giving yourself promotions now?” he asked. You would think after he’d killed himself to save me, the animosity would be gone. I’d forgotten what a bad place we had been in; it all came flooding back.
“It was you, sir. You promoted me,” I told him.
He thought I was full of shit.
“I would like to send some crews over and take hold of those ships,” he said. It was sort of a request, but it felt like a slap in the face. He didn’t trust us, not one little bit.
“Not yet, sir. I have some requests.”
“Requests or demands?”
“Depends on how this goes,” I replied to his steely gaze.
“I’m listening.” I could damn near hear his teeth grinding together.
“I have found a new ally and thanks to their service to Earth, they are now without a home.”
“And what do you want me to do about it?”
“I want you to allow them onto the surface where they can live in peace.”
“Did this time warp, or whatever the hell you’re trying to pass off, affect your brain as well?”
“You want these ships?”
He said nothing.
“We were friends once, Paul, brothers from different mothers. Hear me out.”
He didn’t say no, so that was a start. “This is Tabor,” I said, motioning for her to come over. “She’s a Rodeeshian, genetically created to hunt down Stryvers. She and her kind were instrumental in our victory at Aradinia. Without them, we would never have been able to silence the planetary defense system.”
“Does she speak?”
“Telepathically.”
“How many of them are there?”
“Fifteen hundred or so,” I said.
“Ask her what she eats.”
“She has been studying Earth’s ecosystem; she said they would be considered omnivores. She feels they are similar to bears and prefer plants over meat. She thought fish looked incredibly tasty.”
“Not humans?”
“She says carnivores are not particularly appealing.”
“Habitat?”
“We settled on the Yukon, they are fond of cold climates and there should be plenty of sustenance there for them. Plus, these days I can’t imagine there are many people competing for space up there.”
“Proliferation?”
“They pair bond and have a litter once a year; they are like any other species when left to themselves; their population will increase or decline based on what the habitat can support.”
“I’m going to need data to support this. And what happens, Mike, if I say no?”
“I’m not going to attack Earth, if that’s what you’re thinking. They helped us and I promised them a home. I’ll take these ships back to Aradinia, finish off the Progs and then we’ll call it our own.”
“Do you think he’ll believe you?” Tabor asked, knowing full well I was bluffing.
“I hope so, my friend. I have no desire to go back there.”
“Neither do I,” she agreed.
“You’ve got me over a barrel here, Mike.”
“You want the ships, they want a home; I’m asking for an even exchange.”
He sighed, send me everything you’ve got. I’ll have my people look it over.” I found it funny and sad that he excluded us in that statement, it wasn’t “our” people; I also found it irritating that he judged my request with so much mistrust and so harshly. “I’ll get back to you,” he said once the transmissions had gone.
We spent an entire twenty-four hours waiting before he came back. “They have to be quarantined first.”
“How long?”
“Two weeks. We’ll also need to quarantine your crews as well.”
Did I trust Paul to not have us all locked up, take the ships, and then dispose of us? I decided I did not. Too many of his problems would simply vanish.
“Fine. The Rodeeshians go down to Earth, they’re quarantined for two weeks, released, set up on land, and then you can quarantine us and have these ships.”
If heads could actually explode like in the cartoons, I would have just witnessed one. “I am your commanding officer. You will do as I order!”
“You don’t command me. First off, we are of equal rank, and secondly, don’t piss me off. You don’t know what we’ve gone through to bring these ships home; not the half of it. We do it my way or we don’t. You have a sketchy track record in regard to these types of things.”
He was so pissed he walked off without even shutting off the feed. I could hear him swearing in the background; at least he wasn’t rattling off firing coordinates. It was two hours later when he came back. “I agree to your demands.”
“This isn’t a hostage negotiation, Paul. I’m just trying to do right by what I promised.”
“That’s the thing, Mike, I’m trying to do right by the people on Earth, or did you forget about them? You seem so ready to befriend every life form you come across except the one that truly matters.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit about whose lives are more important than others. If we did not have the help of the Genogerians we would have never made it out of the first round with the Progs, and if you would let your ego and pride take a seat for a moment you’d see the truth in that as well. Should we have handled their freedom better? Sure, but they deserved that chance, as do the Rodeeshians. Every fucking thing I have done, Paul, has been to save our planet and there’s very little I would change if given the opportunity.
Tabor was far from thrilled about the conditions but understood the necessity. I had some safeguards in place, making sure that the buildings that they were staying in had twenty-four-hour live feeds to our ships both inside and out of the facilities. A few were poke
d and prodded to get samples to make sure they wouldn’t introduce some apocalyptic virus into our world, but no more than we would be. Nothing was discovered so, after the two weeks, they were let free, as promised. The last one had no sooner left its enclosure when Paul came back on.
“I’m just going to give them a few days to disperse.”
“Oh, for fuck's sake, Mike, I’m not going to bomb them.”
“Once, brother, I thought you would not want to see me dead. It was a hard lesson to learn and not one I will easily forget.”
Epilogue
MICHAEL’S FINAL JOURNAL ENTRY 18 AND BEYOND
“Now what?” I asked my wife. I was sitting down on a stone not more than a hundred yards from where we’d landed the shuttle. Tears threatened to once again rush forth from my eyes. I was happy that my entire crew had found other places to be just then.
“We live our lives, Michael. What choice do we have?” She sat next to me and placed her arm around my shoulders. The problem was we were people without a home. Those of us that survived could not go back to the lives we’d known. There were other versions of us out there, living their own lives, lives that would have been ours. We had no right to take that from them or to completely fuck them up and let them know we existed.
“Our son,” I sobbed. In this time line he was an infant, an infant we would never be able to see. How do you tell a parent they can never see their child again? The pain in my chest threatened to rip through my ribcage like a vengeful demon. I was reminded of a veterans’ saying: “All gave some and some gave all.” And yet we’d given more, if that was even somehow possible. In a cruel twist of fate, as the heroes, we would be vanquished, our story buried in the archives of some huge and dusty warehouse.
I barely had time to wipe my eyes, when a squadron of helicopters flew in. They were escorted by a half dozen gunships. A voice over the loudspeaker ordered us to get into them. I was so broken inside I couldn’t even think to not obey. The troop transport area was completely cut off from the crew of those ships, they could not see us and we could not see them. A voice told us to strap in and that we would be at our destination in a couple of hours.
“They going to ghost us?” BT asked, I think he was too tired to care.
“I hope so,” was the first thing out of my mouth.
“You done with this sad-sack shit?” My wife asked. “We’re alive. We saved the world, and yes, maybe we won’t be national heroes, but we’ll know. And I need you, Mike. I need you to be the strong, unwavering Mike I’ve known since the beginning. Maybe for once, I’d like to lean on you.”
Well, holy fuck if that wasn’t a slap in the face. I sat up straighter. “I’m…I’m sorry.” I mean what else can you say when your mate tells you to pull your bootstraps tighter and soldier up? I’d been so wrapped up in my own misery I’d never stopped to think about not only what the men and women under my command were dealing with, but what my own wife was going through. Of course, she was crushed that the son she’d borne was one she could never see again. “I’ll be a better man, a better person.”
“You already are a good person, Michael, I just need the self-assured, stupidly optimistic, unbearably sarcastic version to rear his ugly head again.”
“Really?” BT asked. “That’s the version you want back?”
I wiped my eyes. My recovery was going to be long and difficult, but here, at least, was a reason to start. “You do realize that those of us that are left; that’s it. These are the only people we’re ever going to be around. Ever.”
I figured BT was going to hit me with some over dramatic wailings but what he did was so much better. “I could think of worse things.”
I reached over the aisle and fist bumped him. “Me too, man.” Incredibly, I got an hour or so of sleep on the bumpy, noisy ride, so when the doors opened and halogen light streamed in I was caught totally unaware.
“Good nap?” Tracy asked, she had a hesitant optimism as she looked to the opening.
“Not to, umm, throw a wrench into this shit, but are they going to let us live?” BT asked.
“Odds are yes,” Tracy said. “Otherwise those gunships would have lit us up; no real need to move us to wherever we are now. We were already in the middle of nowhere without any witnesses. But, that’s not to say we won’t end up locked away in a dungeon somewhere.”
“Really?” I asked, looking at her.
“You could have lied, woman,” BT said.
We exited into a sealed structure, much like I had when I’d first escaped the Julipion, though this time we were greeted by no one. A flat voice gave us instructions through a speaker. We were told to strip down and clean up in any of the showering stations. There were piles of fresh clothes and a large table piled with fruits, cheeses, deli meat, and crackers. The clothes were nondescript blue scrubs, no names, no ranks. We followed our instructions.
“They cleaned us, gave us food and clothes. That has to be a good sign, right?” BT asked. Tracy had scared the shit out of him; well, me too, if I’m being honest. I’d rather catch a bullet in the head than spend the rest of my life locked up. “If they do that man in the iron mask shit, I’m not going to make it, Mike.” BT pleaded.
I wanted to tell him no one was going to hide our faces in a heavy mask, but maybe that idea wasn’t so far-fetched. I’d not thought I would ever want to eat again, but like the heart wanting what the heart wants, so does the stomach. I ate three plates of food and even debated a fourth.
“Too much fruit, man, and you’re going to be on the can all day tomorrow,” BT said as he ate an entire honeydew melon right in front of my eyes. “I’m bigger than you,” he said in explanation as he licked his fingers. An hour later, the main lights turned off and were replaced with a soft, glowing night illumination.
“I guess that’s their subtle way of saying ‘lights out,’” I said. From the main cafeteria, there was a short hallway that led out into a huge tent filled with cots.
“I fucking hate cots,” BT sighed. As he sat, the wooden legs creaked in protest; when he lay down, not only were his head and feet off the structure, but also his shoulders. He was too wide and too tall. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
“Yeah, laugh now, but wait until tomorrow. I’m an asshole without enough sleep.”
“You’re an asshole with enough sleep,” I shot back.
He raised his fist to bump. “Yeah, that was a good one.”
He might have been bitching about the accommodations, but he was asleep in under five minutes. I dragged a cot next to Tracy; she fell asleep fairly quickly and I got to stare at the white ceiling for the remainder of the night. I may have dozed off just as dawn approached. An hour later, the speakers set in the walls crackled to life.
“Will the one who leads this group please follow the lighted path to the interrogation room?”
All eyes swiveled to me. This was it, whatever our fate was going to be it was going to be determined here.
“Sir, do you want me to rally the men?” Beckert asked.
Even if I’d somehow thought that was a good idea, our weapons had been taken. “Not this time. We’re home; whatever they have in store for us we’ll deal with it,” I said the words calmly enough, but as I started down that green-lit corridor, my heart was thumping wildly. The door automatically opened, and sitting on the other side of a large conference table was Paul. My steps faltered.
“Hey, Mike.” He stood. “You alright?” He came around and pulled a chair out for me to sit in. His entire demeanor had changed.
I was pale; I knew I was because my head felt like it was going to spin off into space like an untethered astronaut. “I, ummm…can’t complain,” was all I could think to say as I sat there. Seeing him on the ship’s screen had been one thing, strange even but seeing him in person was absolutely surreal.
“Must be strange seeing the dead come back to life,” he said with a smile that reached his tired-looking eyes.
“You…you know?”
<
br /> “Spent most of the last eighteen hours going through the ship’s logs. You were right to do what you did. I…that Paul had gone down a dark path. No easy thing to watch yourself die,” he said with a far off look in his eye. “Even saving a friend.”
“I wouldn’t imagine.”
“You fucking did it, Mike. You stopped this whole fucking thing. You’re not a national hero; you and your crew are global heroes.”
“But?” Just the way he said those words.
“But no one besides myself and a couple of my advisors are ever going to know.”
“We figured as much.” I let my head sag. “What are your plans for us?”
“You realize this is blowing my mind right now, right?” He was staring intently at me. “I just left the other Mike to come here. Told him I had something to figure out. In a couple of days, I’m going to announce my resignation and appoint the other Mike as leader of the world, at least, for as long as it takes for some form of global government to take hold. You think he’ll want the job?”
“Fuck, no,” I told him.
“That’s exactly why he should do it. I’m going to get Beth all the help she needs, and maybe more so. If there’s still something good within her, I’m going to have them find it and drag it to the fore.”
I wanted to tell him to save the time and the effort and just put a bullet in her head, but if nothing else, I’d given some key people a second chance. Who the fuck was I to now turn around and pick and choose who could and could not try to better themselves?
“Paul, if it doesn’t work and she threatens my…other self; fuck. How does one say that and sound sane?”
“Mike, I promise you on what we once had, if she’s not back to health I’ll have her committed. She will never hurt anyone again.”