by Chogan Swan
“Super powers, maybe?”
“Oh, yeah. They get that from their dad.”
CHAPTER 41 – THE BATTLE
Two-Star General Harold Leandry squeezed the back of the chair until his knuckles turned white. They were close now … so close … closer than they’d been earlier that day until the late afternoon. That had been nearly heart-breaking when a sudden influx of reinforcements had showed up to save a tiny handful of the vicious little fighter drone jets from a full squadron of F-16s and F-15Xs.
He’d been sending wave after wave of drones, fighters, bombers into the fight since dawn, and he’d had to start all over again.
But now victory was almost in his grasp.
It was shocking the number of airplanes he’d lost to this operation … the number of pilots. He rubbed his face with the back of his fist. He’d had to step out of situation room. He knew remembering the voices of all the pilots as they’d been shot down would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.
He thought about the bottle of bourbon in the bottom drawer of his desk, but instead of reaching for it, he took a deep breath and walked out of his ready room and back into the battle.
“Report Colonel?” he snapped as he strode into the room.
“We have two Super Eagles close enough to fire on the target, sir. They’re down to one escort, but they’re burning as fast as they can run,” Colonel Bozeman said.
“Have one of the pilots fire all the JASSMs he’s got and switch to escort.”
“Yes, sir!”
Leandry found another chair to squeeze and sunk his fingers into the cushion. Now the blazing fast little fighter drones would start chasing down the missiles, but surely they couldn’t get all of them. Lately, they’d started coming into battle with less than full loadouts mounted on their hardpoints. They were running out of ammunition. Either they’d misjudged the United States commitment to the world, or they’d just underestimated the amount of ammunition needed.
Hell, maybe they just ran out of money.
But it didn’t matter now. “Tell the other Super Eagle to fire all their air-to-ground ordnance too,” he snarled the words as his fingers dented the plastic underneath them.
“Yes, sir!”
As Bozeman repeated the order to the pilots, Leandry took a deep breath and forced himself to let go of the chair.
Bozeman stared into space, listening intently to the attacking squadron. “Three birds still on target, 1,000 meters and closing.”
Bozeman winced. “Another escort down, sir.”
“The target, Bozeman. The target?”
“Yes, sir. Report coming now. It looks as though two missiles got through. The explosion was huge. It looks as though … Intel team is replaying video footage in slow motion, sir. We’re waiting on the analysis.”
Leandry stood up, suddenly calm. He knew the answer, knew it in his bones.
Bozeman turned to Landry. “Target destroyed, sir.” He was almost shouting.
“Thank you, Colonel Bozeman,” Leandry said calmly. “Tell the squadron to return to base.” He turned and walked back to his ready room. He needed that drink, but now he could drink it slowly while he waited for a secure satellite connection to his superiors.
“General Leandry, sir. I have your connection to General Mackeprang. I will inform you when the signal has disconnected.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. General Mackeprang, are you receiving in duplex?”
“That’s what they tell me, Hank. What do you have for us?”
“Well, sir, the short version is ‘target destroyed’ but the cost on this one is high, sir. Very high. There is a lot of information to gather for the full report, but I can have a preliminary summary ready for you by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Thank you, Hank. Please convey my best to your people. You’ve all made the world a safer place today. Someday the world will thank us.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Leandry said.
“General Mackeprang has signed off, sir,” said his communications officer.
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“Will there be anything else, sir?”
“Not yet, Lieutenant. We have miles to go before we sleep still.”
“Yes sir.”
Leandry turned off his comm channel.
Someday the world will thank us.
He reached for the bourbon again.
The world?
Right at the moment, he just didn’t give a damn.
CHAPTER 42 – FOR A SAFER WORLD
On the TV screens in the war room, Univision was on all four screens. The network was pre-empting normal broadcast programming for international news with no plans to return to telenovelas for the entire day. The next 30 minutes promised to be devoted to a BBC broadcast that had been covering yesterday’s battle for the skies (la batalla por los cielos), repeated with Spanish subtitles for the Latin American audience.
Una would have been spending the time on the building’s roof in the sun, but she was waiting for Tiana’s arrival for a meeting of the five aliens on the planet.
Just five, as far as we know.
While she waited, Una was ignoring the broadcast as much as possible. She’d remember it if she needed any of the information of course, but now she was resting with her eyes closed. She wasn’t exactly pretending to meditate while people hurried past her on their various missions. But her pre-meditative state just didn’t seem to be able to find a way into ‘the real deal’.
She winced and reminded herself not to use any of the expressions she’d picked up from Bartlett. As far as meditating went, that seemed counterproductive.
She continued trying, but found herself recalling yesterday’s first encounter with HumanaH … in this body. For a long moment, they had stared into each other’s eyes. Una turned it over again in her head. What had the one who had made her been looking for from behind that haunted, hungry, hopeful gaze?
In the end, HumanaH had just trailed a finger across Una’s lips. “Later,” she’d said, and Una had tilted her chin, acquiescing.
But when will later come?
Her questions tugged at her. But, as usual, they pulled her in different directions— between the poles of hope and fear. Now that she was so close, it was hard to just wait.
If only she could come to the place where all her hopes were for HumanaH rather than herself. Then … perhaps … she would be able to let go and find the place to which the path of meditation beckoned.
You have a lot to lay down before that happens, sister.
Una’s lips tilted at the corners. The remark from Infantry-Scout Tiana hadn’t been hostile, just blunt, an annoying character trait of hers Una had come to value.
Hearing a familiar name, Una let her attention return to the broadcast.
“With us here today, we have William Overstreet of the Economist, analyst and frequent contributor on the subject of world politics. We’ve asked William to give us his thoughts and insights into yesterday’s conflict and the statement from the power calling itself the United States Pentagon. Henceforward, we may refer to them as the USP.”
The reporter picked up a piece of paper from the coffee table in front him. “Let me read from the statement.”
He adjusted his reading glasses. “Acting on intelligence that hostile alien forces were bringing a weapon of mass destruction into the Gulf of Mexico by ship, a joint effort by the aerial forces of the United States Army and Air Force began defensive offshore operations to defend our borders in the early hours of July 18th. At 8:35 Central Time of the same day, Pentagon forces obtained their objective, destroying the WMD to make the world safe from the invading extra-terrestrial power. This battle was only secured because of the heroic actions of our pilots, and their willingness to lay down their lives so selflessly in the cause of world freedom.”
He stopped reading and looked over his glasses at Overstreet. “You’ve had the opportunity to speak with the Nii Federation Ambassador on several occ
asions, William. What do you make of this statement about an alien WMD?”
Overstreet shook his head. “Liam, the Nii Federation has been on Earth for over two centuries. They’ve given proof of that. Many proofs, I should say. All of which were found satisfactory by a large community of scientists and historians. In addition, there’s no evidence that they’ve not always acted in good faith. What was destroyed in the bombing was probably the ship that brought the nii here in 1799. My sources at the Nii Embassy confirm that the barge the US military blew up had been used in a salvage operation to recover the wreckage of one of their ancient ships.”
Overstreet shrugged. “All the hostile actions have come from exactly who the Nii Federation has been saying all along—a corrupt political and economic aristocracy with roots deep into government and military institutions in the old US and across the world. That conspiracy was conclusively exposed shortly after the June EMP atrocity. But many had their doubts that the conspiracy was still active. I was one of them. But it’s clear now they’re still working to maintain the very sort of government that would prevent Earth from joining the rest of the peaceful galaxy. It seems our chance for that has been swept away by this reckless, unilateral action driven by the same people who committed the June 10th culling.”
“What about this ‘selfless sacrifice’ the announcement speaks about?”
“It’s true many died in this fiasco, Liam. The Mexican military estimates over 200 USP planes shot down. The Mexican president pointed out that the Nii Federation was instrumental in saving the lives of 123 pilots by providing the locations of where they ejected so the Mexican coast guard could rescue them. Clearly, the Nii Federation pilots were trying to minimize loss of life for the USP pilots caught up in this mess. The Nii Federation Embassy has asked the Mexican government not to prosecute the pilots as war criminals, but to wait until—and I’m quoting here—the REMFs responsible can be captured.”
“The who?”
“It’s an acronym that was commonly used among US enlisted soldiers, but spelling it out wouldn’t get past the censors. However, the first two letters stand for ‘Rear Echelon’.”
“I see.” The reporter grinned.
“Yes, but getting back to my point…. They had already asked the Mexican Air Forces to delay before entering the conflict to prevent escalating hostility between geographic neighbors. We don’t know exactly what it cost the Federation, but keeping Mexico out of the fight was a sacrifice for them. However, they refused to risk escalating the conflict for the sake of an historic artifact.”
“William, the Pentagon’s spokespeople have been claiming that the Nii Federation is a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. Isn’t it possible they’re right?”
Overstreet grimaced then shrugged with a tight grin. “Liam, a civilization that has conquered the distances between the stars doesn’t really need to hide their intentions. Despite Hollywood movie fantasies of how a space invasion could be fought. The nii could already have taken anything they wanted or destroyed human civilization or life on this planet from high orbit—not only in 1799, but now as well with almost as little effort.”
Una stood. Her attention to the interview was suddenly overshadowed by the scent of HumanaH arriving with ShwydH. Those two had disappeared last night after the final wave of attacks on the harbor.
After briefly meeting ShwydH and Ayleana yesterday, she’d now encountered all the nii/niiaH she knew of, but it wasn’t out of the question that others might still be hidden in a crèche somewhere.
Her Tiana memories still hadn’t caught up to the nii science behind self-reproduction yet, so she didn’t really know how difficult it was.
Someone inside her was amused … more than one someone.
Not even sure I’d ever want to attempt it.
ShwydH’s personality stirred himself to the top. Have you wondered what it means that you have learned to laugh, but the personalities behind your makeup had never achieved that yet?
That is interesting. I wonder if it will turn out to be identical to what Tiana learned.
And yet none of us has cried.
Una was startled at the thought. Who had voiced it? What did it mean? Almost it had sounded like young Riniana and ShwydH speaking in unison.
The agreement from both of them confirmed it.
It’s almost as though they’re merging. Will we all be one someday?
Not merging. Just closer. Said the children.
Good. I like having someone to talk to.
Very amusing. Will you laugh for us please?
Una laughed. It took her a few moments to stop. ShwydH had told a joke.
I crack me up.
She laughed again and stood to meet HumanaH and ShwydH.
HumanaH and ShwydH 1.0.
Okay, everyone cut down on the commentary, please. I may need help, but I don’t need distractions.
She could feel her personalities settling down. Truth to tell, she was more than a little nervous … all of her must be.
Agreement.
HumanaH held out her arms, inviting her to embrace, and Una stepped forward to meet the embrace. She didn’t resist or flinch from the filaments that brushed her skin at her neck and the base of her spine, requesting more access, but greeted the request with a welcoming thought and extended her own filaments to mirror a return request for access.
Una was surprised how freely and quickly the request was approved.
That has to be a good sign. But we already know she’s curious.
HumanaH’s body was healthy, immensely powerful and resilient. It was difficult for Una to guess the body’s age, the genes showed very little decay, and the recombination ratio of her own DNA was almost a perfect match to Una’s.
She spent the rest of the embrace just enjoying the closeness.
Child Tiana gave a mental sigh equivalent. She’s so much like mother.
The recognition of the dynamic made it impossible to resist. They all threw themselves into the embrace without holding back.
Mother.
HumanaH stepped back with a puzzled expression in the set of her eyes and lips, but her nostrils expanded and she breathed in a deep breath—to say that she was pleased to have Una so close to her.
Una realized her own body language was already shouting the same thing.
HumanaH moved her hand to Una’s cheek and offered her a human smile. She turned to ShwydH. “Can you ask them to wait for us? We’ll be in the conference room. Una and I have some things to discuss.”
ShwydH tilted his chin up in agreement and turned to leave.
It was odd seeing his mannerisms.
So similar to your own. We’ll have to watch that.
Una followed HumanaH to a door in the far back corner of the level they were on. Inside the room were only six chairs and a bare, round folding table. HumanaH sat with the door to her left and placed a cell-phone-sized sound scrambler on the table. ShwydH had designed the unit. Una picked it up and checked to see if ShwydH’s back door command was closed.
It wasn’t.
Of course.
Una took a notepad from her kilt pocket and wrote….
“He could still hear if he were so inclined.”
HumanaH probably already knew that. But naturally, she’d test Una too. Una knew ShwydH had come to the opinion that HumanaH was easily the most canny of all the branch-sisters. An extra hundred twenty years living among humans couldn’t help but make you more cautious.
HumanaH took a pad and pen from her pocket and wrote….
“Can I trust him?”
“Yes, no, maybe. It’s complicated. He cares about you—in his own, sometimes cold-blooded, way. But he may be about as well-adjusted as possible for someone who’s lived through what he has. I know that’s still pushing the boundaries of the meaning of ‘well-adjusted’. But then, there are times when I wonder if I’m any different.”
“Maybe well-adjusted is over-rated anyhow.” HumanaH smiled as she wrote.
/> Una paused to consider. That’s an interesting remark, considering the source.
“Has some light found its way to your heart and mind then?”
While HumanaH read the question, Una put her hand on her branch-sister’s cheek.
“Some, I suppose. Do you have any questions for me?”
Una laughed, feeling strangely light. “So many. Will we have time to talk at length soon?”
“I will make time. Do you have anything else to tell me?”