by Tammy Walsh
I gnawed at my lower lip.
How was I supposed to say I wanted her to release Chax from his cell? I decided honesty was the best policy.
I told her Chax’s whole story—including his family back home and the Changelings threatening to hurt them if he didn’t do as they said.
“How do you know that’s true?” Stari said. “Let me guess. You have a feeling.”
“He wouldn’t lie about that,” I said. “Not to me.”
She wore a strange smile on her face. One corner of her lip curled up. It wasn’t an ugly expression. It was quite endearing.
“Fine. I’ll release him. But it’ll be your responsibility to watch him. If he breaks the rules or tries anything funny, he’ll be back in his cell before you can say— Two and three-eighths!”
She admonished a mechanic who attempted to tighten a bolt with the wrong tool.
Stari could be a live wire when she wanted to be. I felt sorry for the Changeling siblings already.
Okay, not really, but almost.
That was half an hour ago. When Stari returned, she had a dozen Yayora soldiers on her heels carrying Klang and Trang’s unconscious bodies into the medicenter.
The soldiers dumped them unceremoniously on separate beds. They clapped their hands and filed out of the room, joining us in the technician’s section. We could see the Changeling siblings through the observation window.
The technician flicked a bunch of switches and turned some dials. The beds slid into a large machine where multiple scans and their results flashed up on the monitors.
I recognized some of them—like the x-ray, MRI, and CAT scan. But there were a bunch of others I’d never seen before.
“See anything unusual?” Stari said.
“They’re in surprisingly good shape,” the technician said. “They’re a little malnourished but I don’t think that’s going to cause any long-term problems.”
Stari’s shoulder’s slumped. I understood. I felt a little disappointed myself. It didn’t sound like we were going to find the solution here.
“Thanks, doctor,” Stari said.
“I’m not a doctor. I’m just a technician.”
“You’re a wizard,” Stari said. “Thanks for trying. Appreciate it.”
“What now?” I said.
“Now we tie them up to some chairs and treat them to a nice ice shower,” Stari said.
“I thought you said they won’t tell you anything?” I said.
“They won’t,” Stari said. “But maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll let something slip.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. They never struck me as the kind of creatures to let anything slip. Except maybe their forked tongues.
“Hold on a sec,” the technician said. “What have we got here?”
He motioned to one of the monitors. I couldn’t tell if it was Trang or Klang.
“What are we looking at?” Stari said.
“This here,” the technician said, zooming in on a screen.
I peered closely at the image but I couldn’t understand what I was looking at.
Neither could Stari.
“What?” she said. “All I can see is a bunch of white stuff.”
“That’s why I almost missed it,” the technician said. “I suspect it was inserted that way so no one would see it. Let me do a complete scan and see if I can get a better image.”
The machine fired up again and even more scans uploaded across the screens. The technician turned the image along the x- and then the y-axis.
“Yep,” he said. “There’s definitely something there.”
He removed all the unnecessary details and highlighted the ones he wanted us to see, turning them bright pink.
Then he drew both the images together—one from Klang, the other from Trang.
The same object was lodged inside both of them. Whatever it was, it was partially concealed by their thigh bones.
“See?” Stari said. “You’re a wizard! What is it?”
“I’m not sure we’re going to know what it is until we get a closer look,” the technician said.
“A closer look?” Stari said. “You can zoom in?”
“No,” the technician said. “I mean a real closer look. You’re going to have to cut them out.”
I shared a look with Stari. Neither of us was excited about that proposition. But what other choice did we have?
The operating procedure was unlike anything I had ever seen before. There were no scalpels or saws, no face masks, or hairnets. An incision was made and there was little blood.
The procedure began with the nurses pumping the Changeling siblings with drugs. I began to wonder if the goal wasn’t to overdose them so they could remove the objects lodged in their legs without worrying if they would wake up halfway through the procedure.
The drugs, as Stari told me, were a way to control the body’s reaction to the upcoming process. If you didn’t want the blood to splatter everywhere? Then you told the body not to splatter. Wanted the arm to raise every time you came close to nicking a nerve? Then tell the body to do it.
Within minutes, the surgeon had removed the first object with a device much like the tractor beam that abducted me back on Earth. It sucked the object toward it slowly, one millimeter at a time. Then the doctor closed the patient up by using a laser tool and not stitches.
I felt embarrassed about our medical technology back home. They would think we were still in the Middle Ages with the way we cut and diced people up.
The surgeon performed the same procedure on Klang without any issues. He placed the two devices on a plate. He handed it to Stari. These, at least, were covered in blood and there was no mistaking what they were.
“Trackers,” I said.
Stari had turned as white as a ghost. She immediately marched out of the surgery studio and into the observation room. She rinsed the blood off the trackers. Then she dumped them in a metal box and slammed the lid shut. She pressed her hands to it as if it made a difference.
Stari’s emotions were on a hair-trigger. One wrong move and she would explode.
“What are you going to do?” I said.
“We have to get rid of them,” Stari said. “We’ll take them far away from here. We only need one more day. Not even that. Just until morning. The Changelings haven’t showed up yet. Maybe something’s wrong with their system. Maybe they use a different computer to track them?”
That didn’t sound right to me. The Control Room would use the same system to trace all tracking devices. It was more efficient that way. And I thought Stari knew that too.
“If they knew we were here, they would have attacked us already,” she said. “I’ll take them myself. Make sure the job’s done right.”
It was too late.
The Changeling siblings knew what was going to happen. That was why it triggered such a reaction in Chax’s gut.
They knew they were going to win.
“None of this will matter when we attack,” Stari said. “In the morning, there’ll be no stopping us.”
Was she being realistic? Or was she being naive? It was hard to tell.
Thump.
The gentle thud made the lights in the ceiling wobble. The shadows danced.
“What was that?” I said. “Earthquake?”
“We don’t get them here,” Stari said. “Maybe it’s one of the ships. I never should have left the mechanics by themselves. They’re as likely to destroy the ships as they are to fix them.”
But she didn’t leave.
She knew it wasn’t caused by one of her ships.
Thump.
Dirt drifted down from the ceiling and dusted our heads.
I shared a look with her. Our eyes lowered to the metal tin clutched tight in her arms.
The tracking devices.
The Changelings had tracked them here.
Thump.
The wall in the surgery studio bent inwards.
My heart was in my throat.
> They were here.
They were coming.
“We have to warn them,” I said.
Stari slapped a hand on a button.
“Get out of there!” she yelled, her voice booming from speakers inside the surgery studio. “Get out of there now!”
The surgeon and his nurses peered at the glass window at us. Terrified and frozen to the spot.
One of the nurses broke ranks and sprinted toward the door.
She never made it.
Smash!
The wall exploded inwards, sending a tidal wave of concrete, rock, and debris flooding into the surgery studio.
A giant pair of drill bits demolished the ceiling, bringing it down in a cascading snowfall.
The machine was huge, wider even than the surgery studio. Two lights glared brightly. One red, the other broken, revealing the white bulb underneath.
It almost looked like it was winking.
Above it, through the thick cracked glass window sat the creature at the controls.
A Changeling.
The engine revved as it came further in the room. It knocked into one of the operating beds and spilled Klang across the floor. His sister was already buried beneath an avalanche of dirt. Klang blinked his eyes, still unable to move his arms, as a fresh wave of soil swept over him. He screamed but it was too late.
The digger turned to one side. The Changeling soldiers squeezed through a gap made by the machine and entered the surgery studio.
They were heading for the door to the observation room where we were standing.
The door was open.
I slapped a hand on a big red button marked “CLOSE DOORS.” Metal shutters slithered down the observation window and slammed into place over the door.
Stari grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back.
“Come on,” she said. “The security system won’t hold them for long.”
The Changelings fired at the shutters on the inside of the room.
Stari cradled the metal box containing the trackers to her chest as we stole into the hallway outside the surgery section.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
A few minutes ago, the base was bumping with hope and excitement. They were just hours from changing the trajectory of their futures.
They were going to be free. All they had to do was fight, and they were more than ready for it.
Now, their dreams stood tattered and broken.
A wall exploded, drawing a scream of surprise from my throat. The thick concrete crushed a Yayora mechanic to the floor and flattened him beneath its immense weight.
Stari bolted through the base, dragging me behind her, weaving between the Yayora soldiers heading in the opposite direction, marching with weapons drawn.
Stari stopped one soldier and pointed to his blaster.
“Give me that,” she said.
The soldier handed it over and switched to his rifle.
Stari led me to the command center. Inside, it was a hive of activity. Grandpa barked orders, sending soldiers to confront each breach that sprung up on the huge screen.
Already, there had to be a dozen of them. Flashing red lights, each one bringing Changeling soldiers into the base.
When Stari decided to help me and follow up on Chax’s concerns about the Changeling siblings, she’d informed Grandpa. He wasn’t particularly interested but allowed the tests to take place.
He glanced at each of us before his eyes shifted to the metal box in Stari’s hands. He let out a breath, the realization of what had happened wearing him down.
“We were so close,” he said.
“We’re not done yet,” Stari said.
But I could see in Grandpa’s eyes that to him, they were done.
“If we can get the ships out of here, we can launch the attack now,” Stari said.
“Changeling ships are outside, waiting for us now,” Grandpa said. “The moment we set off the detonators and ascend, they’ll destroy our ships before they even fully breach.”
Grandpa shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But we can’t let the ships be destroyed like this.”
“They’re going to get destroyed anyway when the Changelings get to the hangar,” Stari said.
She placed her hands on his shoulders.
“Please, Grandpa,” she said. “Don’t let it end like this.”
Grandpa brushed his granddaughter’s cheek with a finger.
“My dear girl,” he said. “This hasn’t ended. You will live to see us victorious yet. I come from a generation where fighting is alien. It has to be you that leads our people to freedom. The new generation.”
“I don’t understand,” Stari said. “What are you saying?”
Grandpa straightened up in his wheelchair and turned to an assistant.
“Prepare the self-destruct sequence,” he said. “We’ll take at least some of these sons of bitches with us.”
“No!” Stari said. “We still have a chance! There’s still hope we can beat them!”
“Not when they know our location,” Grandpa said. “You will lead the others to the emergency base. I will stay here to ensure the self-destruct sequence gets carried out properly.”
“Please, Grandpa,” Stari said. “Don’t stay here. Stay with us. Stay with me. I don’t have anyone else.”
“You’re wrong,” he said. “You have everyone else. Take care of them for me.”
Grandpa nodded to a pair of soldiers. They grabbed Stari by the arms and carried her from the room. She dropped the metal box as she struggled.
I picked up the metal box containing the trackers.
Grandpa smiled at me.
“I always said you were a good egg,” he said. “Take care of her.”
“I will,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel.
“Self-destruct sequence initiated,” Computer said. “Self-destruct in T-minus ten minutes.”
The lights turned red and began to flash.
“Everybody out,” Grandpa said.
No one moved quickly. They cast awkward glances in Grandpa’s direction as they shuffled toward the door.
I cast a look back at him as the door hissed shut behind me. An old man dying with what they believed to be their last hope. Poetic and yet possibly the most depressing thing I could imagine.
The door hissed shut behind me.
A thick mist consumed the base, giving it a sinister and eerie feel. The red warning lights flashed and illuminated haunting shadows.
“Self-destruct sequence initiated,” Computer said. “T-Minus eight minutes.”
The soldiers lost their grip on Stari. She bolted to the door and banged on it with her fist.
“Let me in!” she cried. “Grandpa! Let me in!”
“He’s not going to let you in,” I said.
Stari wiped a hand over her snotty nose.
“Yeah?” she said. “What do you know about it?”
“Nothing. I’m just a stranger here. But I know true love when I see it. Your Grandpa wanted you to live so you could lead the survivors in the future. It won’t happen now but it will happen someday. A new opportunity. And when it happens, you need to be ready.”
Stari peered up at me with her bloodshot eyes and snotty nose.
“You really think we can beat them?” she said.
“I know you can,” I said. “They don’t know we know the location of their Control Room. It’s still there. And we can destroy it whenever we want to. But we have to get out of here and survive first.”
I offered her my hand.
She stared at it a moment before taking it.
“Fine,” she said. “But we’re going to need a good engineer to beat them.”
“I’ll keep my eye out for one,” I said.
We shared a smile.
“Without defeating the Changelings, me and Chax aren’t going anywhere.”
Aren’t going anywhere.
“Oh, shit!” I said.
“What?”
“I need to make sure Chax gets out alive,” I said. “He’s still trapped in his cell!”
“You don’t have enough time,” Stari said.
“I have to try.”
“No, you don’t,” Stari said. “In the event of a self-destruct sequence being initiated, the cells are automatically unlocked. He’ll be out in the base somewhere. You’ll never find him.”
Logic held little weight in a panicked mind and I was going haywire.
The thought of never seeing him again, or his gorgeous dimples and wavy hair…
I turned to run.
“Seize her,” Stari said.
The soldiers moved quickly. They restrained my arms and dragged me away. I struggled but it was no use. The metal box tumbled from my hands. Stari scooped it up.
“Chax is going to have to rely on himself,” Stari said. “Sacrificing your life will not save his. Trust me, if he loves you enough, he’ll find you.”
She turned and jogged into the thick dust cloud. The soldiers surrounded me on every side. They stood so close, I kept catching their feet and almost fell flat on my face.
The shuttlecraft faded in and out of the mist, like ghouls in a child’s fairy story. Stari raised her hand to slide across their underbelly as we passed underneath, saying goodbye to her friends.
We weren’t the only ones running toward the exit. Other Yayora figures faded in and out of existence on either side of us. They all appeared to know where they were going.
Would Chax think to follow the crowd? Yes. He wasn’t an idiot. Stari was right. He would find his way out of there.
He had to.
I couldn’t face living without him again.
Ziiiiiiip!
Bolts of plasma flashed through the mist like multi-colored strobes of light at a rave. Two struck the soldiers on either side of me. I dropped to the floor and wrapped my hands over my head.
The others immediately dropped to their knees and opened fire. We couldn’t see who was firing at us, but we could see where the beams of light originated from.
I heard one scream, then a second, and a third… But each was matched with one of our soldiers falling to enemy fire.
There were too many enemies, too much firepower for us to mount an effective defense.
After less than two minutes, only me and Stari remained.
