“Upon the aliens’ attack on Phoenix and our subsequent realization that the aliens had done this to acquire biological material for the design of bioweapons, the people aboard Maui took it upon themselves to…” Del Rio stopped to clear his throat and dab an eye. “Remember, we’d only asked them to go to the area and provide observation. We had no thought they’d engage with the enemy. But, even though not a soul on board had any military training, when they realized what the aliens were doing, Maui went after them.” The president looked directly into the camera. “They were Americans, but also citizens of Earth. People who worked for Staze, not anyone with an ax to grind. They got together, talked about the problem, and unanimously, yes, unanimously; they agreed to take the battle to the aliens themselves… because no, one, else, could. Even if we’d had warships to send, they couldn’t have arrived on the scene before the aliens would’ve had ample time to design bioweapons and turn them out.
“SC Maui was led by April Lee and Captain Ruth Massey. Ms. Lee’s one of Staze’s aeronautical engineers. She’s been integral to the design of the new space station and of every spacecraft they’ve put up so far. Captain Massey has been flying Staze’s spacecraft since shortly after their space program began. First Officer Ray Jones was Massey’s second in command for Maui. The remainder of the crew, in order of seniority, were crewpersons Carol Lipsitz, Felix Herrera, John Lieu, Rick Awbrey, and LaTanya Bridges.
“This crew…” overcome by emotion, the president stopped to swallow a frog in his throat. “This crew, having no other weapon, rammed one alien ship after another with their own ship, the redoubtable Maui. They did this despite being attacked on multiple occasions by nuclear weapons sent at them by the aliens! The aliens didn’t miss with those bombs, the SC Maui’s crew stazed the entire ship and rode out the atomic blasts in stasis. Several of those nukes threw our people back thousands of miles, but each time, once they came back out of stasis, Maui just went after the aliens again. They built improvised Stade cannons with which they fired collections of metal rods and wires at the nukes. Those shotgun blasts managed to stop four of the nukes sent at Maui, thus eventually letting her slip past to ram the aliens.”
The president lowered his voice, “The aliens don’t have Stade, so when Maui hit their ships, going as much as 18,000 miles per hour, those blows were devastatingly destructive.
“The others aboard Maui all agree that without April Lee’s leadership it’s unlikely they would’ve been successful. Now that I’ve heard the details, I agree with them.
“The world owes her a debt of gratitude beyond what you can imagine.”
Del Rio took a deep breath. “I’ve waited until now to tell you about these heroes’ efforts so I could also tell you that follow-up visits to the alien ships have confirmed there were no survivors among the ETs. Also, though we are still following strict biological protocols followed by two-week quarantines of the scientists who visit those ships, it is the opinion of the experts on-site, as well as those remotely viewing examinations of the alien ships, that the aliens did not manage to create a bioweapon in the forty-nine hours they had between when they took specimens from Phoenix and when Maui took out the last of their three ships.”
Del Rio sighed, “So far, I’ve mostly given you good news. However, it is also my sad duty to tell you that, in addition to every soul aboard Phoenix, SC Maui’s crewman Felix Herrera died in a freak accident when one of the aliens’ atomic bombs spun Maui violently, creating a high-g environment on board when they came back out of stasis.
You also need to know that the small alien ship is still heading out to the edge of our solar system. We suspect it’s on its way back to the aliens’ homeworld to report in. Though we’ve sent a ship after it, we do not expect to catch up to it before it reaches the area where we believe the aliens do their jumping. We hope at least to observe its departure and perhaps deduce how they make their jumps.
“Finally, as much as we’d hoped the advanced races of the universe would be benevolent, we now have strong evidence to the contrary. America will be building up the United States Space Force. We have commitments from Staze to prioritize the building of spacecraft that are war-capable. We’ll need to recruit good people to staff those ships.
“But, I strongly believe that Earth needs to develop a multinational military force capable of defending us from these aliens and any others that might appear in the future. The United States and its allies look forward to working through the UN to build such a force and offers our own Space Force as a focus for the world to build around.
“Thank you. I won’t be taking questions, but our press secretary will pass out an in-depth printed description of the events that should answer most of what you’d like to know.”
~~~
As they left the classroom, Shelle said, “You wanna get together tonight?”
Zaii gave her a measuring look. “I’m gonna see if I can sign up for the Space Force after school. Then I’ll give you a call, okay?”
Thinking of how Zaii had done little fist pumps at a couple of points during the president’s talk, Shelle said, “Are you insane?! You can’t decide to do that five minutes after Del Rio says they’re recruiting!”
“Already did. I want to make the kind of difference this April Lee person did.”
Shelle shook her head, “You’re only seventeen. I don’t think they accept recruits until they’re eighteen!”
Zaii shrugged, “If that’s so, I’m sure the web portal’s gonna tell me. Maybe I’ll be callin’ you a little earlier if I get rejected out of hand.”
“You’re gonna talk to your mom and dad before you do this, aren’t you?”
Zaii’s eyes narrowed. “If I’m old enough to join, I’m old enough to do it without their permission.”
***
Zaii didn’t call until just before six. Then, as was fairly common for her she dove into her issue without even saying hi. “Turns out I can join Space Force at seventeen but I have to get parental permission. Since Mom and Dad’re clueless, that’s gonna be an uphill battle.”
Since Shelle didn’t think Zaii should join, she thought a requirement for her parents’ permission was a brilliant idea. “You should wait till next year then,” she said, thinking Zaii’s passion would’ve cooled by then.
“No,” Zaii said in a decisive tone. “I’m gonna ask ’em tonight. I want you to come with me.”
“What?! You don’t want me there for that kind of intense family discussion!”
“Yes, I do. They won’t want to say no in front of you.”
“You think I’ll help your cause by just standing around while you’re browbeating them?”
“No. You’re going to have dinner with us tonight. I’ll bring it up while we’re eating. Hopefully, they won’t go off in front of you. But if they start giving me trouble, you can tell them you’re thinking about joining too.”
Shelle snorted, “Like that’s gonna convince ’em.”
“It won’t convince them, but once you say that, they won’t want to say it’s a stupid idea. Trust me, you’ll be a lot of help.”
“I don’t know,” Shelle said. “First of all, it’d be a lie. I’m not only not thinking of joining, I think it’s a stupid idea myself.”
“You owe me,” Zaii growled at her.
“That I do,” Shelle said, embarrassed she’d resisted helping her friend. She sighed, “I can be there whenever you want.”
***
Shelle and Zaii met just down the street from Zaii’s house. As they climbed the steps to the entry Shelle asked, “I am invited, aren’t I?”
Zaii rolled her eyes. “They have no idea how embarrassing they are. So, they’re always trying to get me to bring friends over and this’ll be a dream come true for them. I’ll just say you came over so we could study together but you didn’t get to eat. They’ll fall all over themselves inviting you.” She grimaced, “Hopefully we won’t be eating anything too weird. Do you like Indian food?”
/> “Yeah!” Shelle said enthusiastically.
“Hopefully my mom’s cooking then. My dad cooks a lot of really bizarre stuff.”
Then they were standing inside the entry, hearing a lot of people talking in the main part of the house. Zaii stopped, an irritated look on her face, “What the hell…?!”
Uncomfortably, Shelle said, “Sounds like they’re having a party. We should do this some other time.”
Zaii was still staring into the house. “This is bullshit!” She glanced at Shelle, “They invite people over a lot, but… on the night the president makes the kind of announcement he did today?! This isn’t the time to be having a celebration!”
“Maybe they’re celebrating the aliens’ defeat?”
“That’s not anything to celebrate either. A bunch of our own people got killed out there!”
“Maybe they’d already planned this little party and couldn’t call it off. Whatever, it isn’t a good time to try to talk them into something.”
“No…” Zaii said thoughtfully, “this might be perfect. They won’t want to say no in front of you. They won’t want to say no in front of their friends. Let’s go in and get a feel for things. If I think this is the right time, you just follow my lead. If it’s not, we’ll just eat out on the deck. If there are as many people as it sounds like, they might have a caterer. The food could be awesome.”
A few steps took them into a kitchen/living area Shelle hadn’t seen the other time she’d been in the house. Even though it wasn’t all that big, she thought to herself that the Veras’ house was gorgeous inside. She thought, Zaii might not think it cost very much, but the interior looks pretty high-end to me.
A very pretty woman of Indian descent saw them and started their way, saying, “Zaii! Oh, and you brought a friend?”
Sourly, Zaii said, “You’re having a party?!”
“Just a casual dinner,” Zaii’s mom said, looking puzzled. “Is something wrong?”
“After the president’s news conference today, I don’t think we should be celebrating.”
“I disagree,” Ms. Vera said, “I think if we don’t celebrate a win like that one, we’ve already lost.” She turned again to look at Shelle, “Who’s your friend?”
Zaii glanced over, saying, “This is Shelle Brown.” She turned back to her mom, “Where’s Dad?”
Zaii’s mom looked around, then said, “I don’t know. Probably in the next room.” She turned back to Shelle, “You’re welcome to stay for dinner. This is just an informal get-together. You can go through the buffet line in the next room and get whatever you like. You’re welcome to eat in here with us, or you two could go out on the deck or up to Zaii’s room.”
Zaii looked taut. Suddenly, she said, “I’m going to join Space Force but I need your permission to do it before I turn eighteen.”
Her mom studied her a moment, then said, “Okay. Are you going to finish your last year of high school and get your diploma?”
“What?!” Zaii said as if astonished. “Of course! You can’t even get in without a high school diploma!” She said this as if her mother was stupid for not knowing it, even though she’d just learned it herself. She continued forcefully, “But I want to be out of here as soon as I graduate.”
“Okay,” Zaii’s mom said. Shelle had the impression Zaii’s mom felt sad but was trying to be as upbeat as she could. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re an adult now. You can make your own decisions and live with them as you will.” She glanced back over her shoulder, “I’m going to get back to our guests.” She turned back to Zaii. “Unless you have something else?”
Zaii shook her head. “Go!”
Having a distinct impression that Zaii felt deflated, Shelle cheerfully said, “Well that was easy.”
Zaii shook her head again. “It won’t be,” she said darkly. “She’ll come back at me from some other angle.” She looked at Shelle, “Let’s go look at the food. If it’s awful, I can destaze something for us.”
In fact, the buffet looked really good and Shelle had to restrain herself from putting far too much on her plate.
Once they’d gotten some silverware, Zaii led Shelle out to an expansive deck. It looked out over a wild-looking garden with the lights of the city beyond that. Shell hadn’t realized the Veras’ house was on a ridge that let them look down on Charlottesville. She thought, Zaii might not think her parents are rich, but this plot of land alone must’ve cost a fortune. I’ll bet they’re pretty high up in Staze’s hierarchy.
When they were about to sit down, Shelle suddenly realized someone was already sitting in the next chair. “Hey Dweeb,” Zaii said, in a friendly tone.
“My favorite nerd,” the shadowy figure said in the voice of a younger teenage boy.
They sat, Shelle between the two. After a moment passed with no introduction, Shelle asked, “Is this your brother?”
“The one and only,” the young man said. “Hi, Shelle.”
Shelle felt embarrassed that he knew her when she had no idea who he was.
Zaii said, “Adopted brother. My parents found him on a stump.”
He responded, “They didn’t want to roll their genetic dice again after the burn they got when they had Zaii.”
A moment passed, then Shelle turned to the brother, “Um, sorry. I don’t recognize you in the dark. Do I know you?”
He extended his hand, “Ari.”
She shook his hand, suddenly realizing Ari Vera, the freshman star of the soccer team was Zaii’s little brother. But how does he know me? she wondered. Does Zaii talk to him about me?
That seemed an unlikely thing for siblings to do.
They sat out on the deck for a while, eating in silence. Zaii still seemed tense, but Shelle found the cool evening and dim scenery relaxing. Everything on her plate was delectable—a good thing since, in the dim light, she had a hard time telling what she was putting in her mouth.
A sliding door behind them opened and some people came out. Without seeming to notice Zaii, Ari, and Shelle, they wandered over to lean on the rail nearby, gazing out at the view and talking quietly.
Without getting up, Zaii interrupted their conversation. “Dad, I’m joining the Space Force.”
When the man turned, Shelle recognized Mr. Vera’s profile. Calmly, he said, “Sudden decision?”
“Yeah,” Zaii said. “I saw the president’s news conference and decided to act… not have a party.”
“Ah,” Mr. Vera said. Ignoring Zaii’s implied criticism, he continued. “Well, you may not be an adult in the eyes of the law, but you’re an adult in my eyes. You certainly may do as you wish.”
“Yeah. Space Force says I’ll need parental consent, but Mom already said she’d sign.”
The man nodded, “Good. You’re doing this to contribute to the war effort?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I have a feeling this war is going to go on for a long time. You’d contribute more if you got a degree first.”
“The kind of people who’d have a party at a time like this,” Zaii said in a scathing tone, “would, of course, try to talk me out of contributing to the war effort.”
Mr. Vera sighed and sat down next to Zaii. He looked past his daughter to say, “Hi, Shelle.”
He remembers my name?! Shelle thought in astonishment. “Hi, Mr. Vera,” she said shyly in response.
The slender woman who’d been next to Vera uncomfortably said, “I’ll go back inside.”
Vera said, “If you don’t mind staying, I think you could provide valuable perspective.”
“Hi, Auntie Lee,” Zaii said, as if she’d just recognized the woman and felt a little embarrassed about the way she’d been treating her dad in front of her.
“Hi, Punkin’,” the woman said softly.
Zaii turned back to her dad, “I’ll certainly listen to Auntie Lee’s perspective, but I’ve already made up my mind.”
Vera lifted his palms to his daughter. “I accept that. As I’ve said, you’re free to join u
p. I’m just trying to get you to think about what your role might be now, versus after you get a degree.” He took a breath, “If you go in now, what kind of things do you think the military would be having you do?”
“Whatever needs doing.”
Vera nodded. “Yes. The kind of things often disparagingly referred to as ‘grunt work.’ In the military, the people who lead and make decisions are officers. They’ve either got a college degree when they enlist, or they’re sent to school once they’re in the military. Those who aren’t officers do as they’re told. I’d have thought you’d want to be a decision-maker.”
Tightly, Zaii said, “I don’t have to be a leader. I just want to help.”
“And that’s laudable. But this war won’t need a lot of bodies. Remember eight people using their minds won the first battle. What this war’s going to need is a few really smart people working hard to find solutions.”
“Dad,” Zaii said tiredly. “Don’t pontificate. You don’t know what happened out there.”
Mr. Vera glanced over at Lee, whose last name Shelle didn’t know. Even though Shelle could barely see Vera’s face, she got the distinct impression he looked perplexed.
Lee stepped over and squatted down in front of Zaii. “Hey Punkin’,” she said softly, “I’m betting, since I hate my first name, you don’t know it’s April, do you?”
Shelle felt prickles in her scalp as her hair tried to stand up.
A moment of confusion later, Zaii bolted to her feet, “You’re April Lee?!” Her voice broke, “The April Lee that…?”
Lee stood back up, looking Zaii straight in the eye as she nodded, then gathered Shelle’s friend into a hug.
Zaii stood rigidly for a moment, then threw her arms around the older woman. “Um…” she said, obviously not knowing what to say.
Lee spoke softly over Zaii’s shoulder, “And that party you’re mad that your parents are putting on, I’m thinking you didn’t know it was for me and the crew of Maui, did you? Partly a celebration of our survival and partly a wake for those we lost out there.”
StS6 Deep Space - Hidden Terror Page 25