Shadows

by Brian Whiting

  “I need your help,” the orb said with a digitalized but human voice.

  “With what?” Pete asked, his eyes still big.

  Timmy leaned over so that he could see Pete and shook his head several times.

  “I need your help,” the orb repeated.

  Pete was fixated on Timmy and noticed that his mouth hadn’t moved, yet he could have sworn it was Timmy who had spoken.

  “What do you want?” Timmy finally responded.

  “Our future is filled with hardship, and death, a lot of death. I am trying to prevent that from happening, but I need your help to do it.”

  Timmy watched as the orb spoke; the thin red line moved like a visual indicator that speech was occurring. His eyes were bulging but he managed to sit up straight once again. After a few moments his mind began to focus, and he started to process what was happening. Cocking his head to the right he asked, “Why do you speak with my voice?”

  “Timmy, Alex is going to die.”

  “What! When? How?”

  “You all will!”

  “How?” Pete and Timmy asked at the same time. Timmy followed up with “Who are you?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try me.”

  “Look, this isn’t one of those things where I tell you and then you believe me even though it sounds crazy. Trust me, you won’t believe me. For now call me Tom, and if you do as I ask, you will have all the evidence you will need.”

  Pete and Timmy exchanged glances. While Timmy thought about how human that just seemed.

  “When I asked ‘Who are you?’ you could have just said Tom,” Timmy said, while watching Pete hold back a laugh.

  “You need to convince Alex to travel to the following coordinates, before he returns home.” The orb then displayed a very long string of digits.

  Timmy’s face became hard. “Alex is dead; they were attacked.”

  “My people are monitoring the situation; he is very much alive.”

  “Who are your people?” Pete asked again.

  “We are close by.”

  “Dude, I can’t handle this.” Pete said, then walked away from the orb.

  “You’re not going anywhere, Pete!” the orb said, moving two feet to its left to block Pete’s departure.

  “OK, no problem.” Pete quickly put his hands up and stepped right back to where he had just been standing. He looked at Timmy and said, “I was just kidding. I didn’t want to go anywhere.”

  “How do I know you aren’t leading them into a trap?” Timmy asked.

  “Timmy, we put that orb there knowing you would find it. We have the ability to monitor Alex’s situation without his knowledge. Do you really think we would need your help to lay a trap?”

  Timmy looked again at Pete and watched as he shook his head no. A moment of silence turned into a minute, as Timmy considered a response.

  “Timmy,” the orb said, then moved a foot closer to Timmy. He saw that the condensation from his breath was starting to bead on the surface of the orb itself. He tried to push the orb away, but it seemed unmovable. “The fate of humanity rests on your getting Alex to do this. There are untold horrors coming for you both from deep space and from your own people. You need our help.”

  “Why not just ask him yourself?” Pete said as he edged toward one of the cameras and turned it toward the orb. “Why not send a subspace message to us here on Earth? Why not send a diplomat?”

  Timmy mulled over Pete’s questions, and the more he thought about them, the more the orb’s request didn’t make sense. “My friend has some good points. Plus, who among our people is a threat?”

  “Look, If I had more time… but the orb and its network aren’t exactly ours. We hijacked this signal, but we can only do it at certain times. Timmy, right now you need to get a message to the Enterprise. There’s no time to explain everything; in this moment, you must do as I ask. Trust me.”

  Timmy was about to respond, but the orb quickly moved away from him to its customary position hovering at the center of the now circular room. Then the orb went dark.

  Timmy’s nerves began to tremble uncontrollably, as he wiped his hands against his pants legs.

  Pete walked over to a fridge and pulled out some homemade ice cream. He looked as if he was struggling with the plastic lid from the container. There was no clue as to its flavor; the container was simply labeled “Ice Cream.”

  Pete grabbed two spoons and with the ice cream sat down next to Timmy, putting one of the spoons in Timmy’s hand. “Here, this will make you feel better.”

  After Timmy took a first bite from the container, Pete quickly followed.

  “So, what are you going to do?” Pete took a second and third bite before passing the container back to Timmy.

  “I’m going to get Alex to go to those coordinates, what do you think I’m going to do?”

  “A bit too trusting, don’t you think?”

  “When is the last time you heard a bad person say ‘trust me’? They don’t play that card; they deceive you, lay a trap, make subtle suggestions to do what they want you to do. A good person will tell you straight, and ask their favor.” Timmy decided he wasn’t a big fan of whatever flavor the ice cream was supposed to be.

  “I see several flaws in your reasoning. Most notably, you’re ascribing human traits onto an unknown alien entity. Also, in fact, my most recent ex asked me to trust her and then she spent all my money, then left me. The worst kind of betrayal happens after the words trust me.”

  “It doesn’t matter really. I’ll tell Alex and he will go. That’s just who he is.”

  Pete sighed and said, “We can’t tell Major Grissom; you’re talking to yet another alien race who hijacked the orb from an even more powerful race. He’ll probably think you’re crazy. Hell, I think we’re crazy. I came down here to keep things simple. Just study a rock and do some research, forget about all the crap going on in the world, you know? And now, we are the tip of the spear in an intergalactic conspiracy.”

  “I’m going to stand now and pretend I understood what you just said,” Timmy said. With moderate effort he stood up, feeling as if he had just got done jogging a great distance.

  “I’ve got so many questions right now. Like, how can a solid rock produce sound?” Pete asked.

  “Really, that’s what’s bothering you right now, how it makes noise?” Timmy looked at Pete with a sort of unbelievable desperation. Finally, taking a deep breath, he left Pete holding the ice cream.

  ***

  The air was thick and damp and smelled of dense vegetation. Sweat clung to her entire outfit. Slowly, she reached up and grabbed onto the next branch and with one arm she hung off of it. Carefully she placed her left foot on the thickest part of another branch below her and stepped up onto it while letting go of the branch above her.

  She unslung her assault rifle with attached grenade launcher and settled into a firing position, saddling the branch. “I am in position,” she whispered.

  In her right ear came a reply. “About damn time.” She recognized the familiar voice of the young guy her team picked up to fill recent vacancies. This would be his first mission; she didn’t care enough to learn the guy’s name.

  “OK, people, just like last time. Guns, grenades, and bombs, thirty seconds, I have the count.”

  Her mind registered the voice of the squad leader, yet they were just words. By now everything was automatic. This would be her fifth mission with him after countless training simulations, she had already developed a strong bond of trust with the man.

  “Alpha team, ten seconds.”

  Dayanh took a moment and looked down at the jungle floor beneath her, where she easily spotted two members of alpha team, moving from a prone to kneeling position. Their combined movement attracted the attention of the large drone standing still in front of a large hole in the jungle floor. The drone rotated its body so its frontal bone was pointing in the direction of the recent noise.

  “
Three,” Dayanh said, and aimed down the sight of her weapon.

  “Two.” She took a deep breath and held it without realizing it.

  “One.” She tightened her legs around the large branch she was sitting on.

  The forest came alive as three members of alpha team laid down heavy machine gun fire at the lone drone standing atop the deep hole. The drone took several rounds but managed to sprint away in a particular direction. Dayanh wondered why it chose that way, and guessed that it had expertly memorized the relative surroundings of its queen’s home and had taken off to defend her. Or maybe it had no clue and was merely doing its best to escape.

  “Idiot doesn’t know where it’s going!” someone yelled.

  Now Dayanh paid no attention as to where the drone took off to; her sights were still unmoving and focused on the large hole in the ground. The machine gun fire continued; no one was screaming into the comms. We must be OK, she thought.

  Just then a flicker of movement let her know that it was her turn. Not one but three drones came sprinting out of the queen’s lair at such a speed they managed to fling themselves several feet into the air before touching the ground. She pressed the trigger just once. Pluup.

  Two members of bravo team each launched a grenade round into the mouth of the large hole. They exploded on contact from within. The two explosions, plus all the machine gun fire coming from various directions, dazed and confused the Zorn drones as to which direction they should be attacking. As they stumbled about in confusion they were quickly eliminated.

  “RAT GO!” the squad leader shouted.

  A member of the squad who had no armor, and with only a pistol as a weapon, took off at a dead sprint toward the queen’s lair. He unshouldered his heavy backpack as he approached the hole and pulled out a sturdy cord, then tossed the backpack into the hole itself. Unencumbered he was able to retreat from the hole much faster. Good thing too, because drones began scrambling out of the hole once again.

  With her second round already loaded she once again pulled the trigger just once. Pluup.

  Another explosion, this time near the surface of the deep hole, destroyed several drones at once, only to be followed by a massive explosion that shot a plume of dirt and smoke high into the air and above the canopy.

  Once the dirt and debris settled, the jungle was eerily quiet. A complete minute went by, then two.

  “OK, Bravo team, rally.”

  Dayanh shouldered her weapon and began descending faster from the tree, no longer concerned with making noise. It was only a few moments before she was on the ground, tapping the shoulder of the nearest alpha team member as she took his place. That man quickly spun and ran back twenty yards and found a large tree to stand next to.

  Then Dayanh bounded back and back and eventually stepped past one of the team leaders as he tapped her leg in getting a head count. She was just one person of ten who formed a tight circle in a tiny clearing about two hundred yards from the queen’s lair. The squad leader kneeled in the center of the circle and was joined by both team leaders.

  Dayanh pulled a rubber straw and drank heavily from her water supply. Behind her the leadership began talking.

  “All accounted for.”

  “Either of your teams need attention?”

  Each team leader made quick eye contact with his respective squad members. Simple eye contact was all the team leader needed to know whether his team had any issues.

  “We are good,” both team leaders said, one on top of the other.

  “Danger badger to Poppins, come in,” the squad leader whispered into his mic.

  Dayanh could not hear the response but knew what was being said regardless, as she had trained to be in every position on the squad, as all squad members had.

  “10-4. We are egress to evac point alpha, ETA five mikes.”

  Dayanh kept scanning the jungle directly in front of her, weapon raised and ready to fire. From the corner of her eye she watched as the squad leader pointed and made an aggressive hand motion.

  The entire squad stood up and began a single file at a jog out of the area with five-meter spacing from each other. Her adrenaline began to subside just a little bit as the most dangerous part was over, and no one had gotten injured. She felt a wave of relief wash over her as she noticed a large shuttle settle into a big clearing further up ahead.

  In her ear she heard, “Hold!”

  She immediately stopped, kneeled, and took a firing position facing her left; the two men in front of and behind her faced the opposite direction. She could hear why the squad had halted; there was a large commotion and rustling of bushes and trees about thirty yards away. She began to panic as the commotion was noisy and whatever was making all that noise was large. Her imagination went wild.

  “Let’s move!” she heard in her earpiece. She stood up and began jogging once again, the noise getting louder. She did as best as she could to see what was making the noise, but the clusters of vines were too tall and thick. The man in front of her jogged past the edge of the vines obstructing their view and raised his weapon, held it for a few seconds, and kept jogging.

  When she reached the same spot, she too looked, as curiosity got the better of her training. About ten yards away a crippled Zorn drone was kicking out with its only good leg. It was riddled with holes, many of which glistened with its dark tar-like Zorn marrow. Must have been the first one we shot up, she thought as she jogged past and into the clearing where the evac shuttle awaited. While her squad leader slowly approached and raised his weapon.

  ***

  “I’m sorry, sir, but Earth is lost!”

  “What the hell are you talking about, Doctor?” Grissom stared across the table at Gloria and a team of scientists.

  “As I was saying, based on the numbers. At the rate of reproduction and our effectiveness at eliminating the Zorn, we are on the losing edge of a downward trend.”

  Gloria used a red dot laser to point at a PowerPoint presentation. A bar graph depicted the estimated number of Zorn on the planet as well as humans. The graph for the Zorn was increasing, and the graph for humanity was decreasing.

  “We either find a more effective way of eliminating the queens, or humanity will no longer be the dominant species on this plant in a few short years.”

  “I don’t understand. We estimated there were two hundred to four hundred queens on this planet just a couple months ago. My teams have eliminated thirty already. In two years there will be no more queens.”

  “No,” Gloria sighed and took a deep breath. “You’re not accounting for the new queens who are birthed from the ones already here. Thanks to that Badger team, or whatever they call themselves, we now have a captured queen drone, and I’m telling you: on average a queen will breed a new queen every month along with fifty drones. Based on electrochemical levels in its marrow, I’d guess they only live to be about a year old. Which means the two to four hundred queens we estimated are now at about five hundred to a thousand, considering that you eliminated several. Given that they attack in unison every six months, when the sixth batch of eggs hatches in about three months, if we prepare we can eliminate those drones. The following surge won’t be for another six months after that. If we haven’t eliminated the queens by then, some of the more at risk safe zones will get overrun. Two years after that, no safe zone would survive.”

  Just then Gloria’s datapad lit up. She glanced at the pad. Grissom just sat unmoving and pensive.

  “If you don’t have any other questions, I need to be going.” Gloria stood up.

  “Thanks, Gloria.” Grissom watched as her team followed her out of the conference room. He glanced at the timetables on ship construction. A few of the Destiny-sized ships should be coming off the line in a few months. But the Discovery was getting most, if not all, of the attention right now. He could train more queen-hunting teams, but he would need a hundred more teams, and there wasn’t enough time to train them. He needed ideas.

  He stood up and walked out of th
e room. The moment he left the room several people waiting on standby outside the room stood up as well, including his personal aide, some armed guards, a secretary, and a few other people. His personal aide walked up beside him, as was customary.

  “Based on your expression, that was bad news.”

  “I have to turn the entire planet into a military installation. It’s the only way to save my family, humanity… We have to find a way to find and kill the queens faster, or we will lose the war.”

  “What about the naval fleet? They can launch missiles and take out several bug holes.”

  “I’m sure President Gabe will welcome an opportunity to kill some bugs. However, cruise missiles haven’t been in production since the initial invasion, and we have only a set number of missiles left. We would use a majority of them to get the job done. But that’s not the issue. The issue is finding them. We need a way to find the bug holes. Then we can worry about hitting them.”

  Grissom pushed open a door and exited the building, his entourage in tow. He walked with purpose and with a speed that only his team had managed to get used to. Whenever someone slower was in front of him he would say, “Clear the way.” The reactions to such a command were varied, and sometimes comical.

  After a few minutes he walked onto the flight deck of the UEF complex and made his way to the ever-enlarging hang outbuilding next to the hangars. He walked inside, pushing open the cheap pressboard door and stepped into the air conditioned space. He watched as a few hundred people from various specialties continued with their recreational activities, TV, pool tables, dartboards, game console systems, and books; even a few arcade games lined the walls and filled the space.

  “FORM UP ON ME!” Grissom shouted. At first no one reacted, as they all peered into his direction, then it registered in everyone’s mind who had yelled at them and everyone dropped what he or she was doing and ran over. It took a minute, but everyone formed a tight gathering around Grissom.

  “We have a problem, and I need ideas I don’t care how silly they are the fate of the planet hangs in the balance, I don’t have time for meetings on this I need Ideas and immediate action. We are killing the Zorn queens too slowly. For everyone we kill, they make four more. We must find the bug holes and eliminate them before they outnumber us. I need some ideas to make that happen.”