by J. L. Wood
Steven grabbed the binder and held it firmly under his arm. “Only the emergency lines work—emergency protocol. DC is trying to keep the L8 situation hush-hush. They don’t want to scare the citizens outside of Texas until they get a grasp on what’s going on. Internet traffic’s blocked as well. Last I heard, the other seven locations were following the same protocol.”
“So why do you get to know this?” Jessica asked.
Steven frowned. “Your asking tells me you’re not part of Project LMS, Last Man Standing. It’s the emergency procedure put into place by the NASA Collaboration for fleeing this rock if we need to. Cadence Science is a part of it—they have five ships on standby.”
Jessica and Justin stared at each other, confused, until Steven broke the silence. “I’m going to make that call now. There’s coffee in the break room.”
When the door closed, Jessica rested her head in her hands. “My goodness,” she said. “This is all too much. Don is stranded. There’s an exit strategy that apparently we’re not part of. Phone and internet have been cut.”
Justin grabbed Jessica’s arm. “We can’t do anything about the comms or LMS, but the Collaboration will help. Let’s not sit here worrying. We’re working on a solution. Wanna see if they have Twinkies?”
Jessica frowned at him, which made him start to fidget. “Or…not,” he said quietly. “We can just sit here. And wait. In awkward silence.”
“What do you think they’re doing to him?” Jessica asked, staring at a photo of Steven and Don on the wall. “Do you think they got into the ship?”
“We shouldn’t think about that, and Don knew what he was getting into. He knew there were risks.”
Jessica wondered how long Don would last until he gave up, how long it would be until he activated the backup device Justin gave him before takeoff. The small black box that recorded his being and could, with a twist of a dial, end it. The two small metal prongs embedded in his wrist, tracking his life and then delivering the poison.
“You know the Collaboration is going to go,” he said while shifting in his seat. “They have to go now and see what is festering up there. And if the government didn’t want word about L8 getting around, you had better believe this will be a secret too. Watch, they’ll take a trip out to save a ‘rogue astronaut’ who found himself in trouble and secretly bring one of those…things back here and pop it open. Then they’ll play with its little suction hands and teach it English.”
Jessica let out the faintest hint of a smile. Justin was right. Sitting around moping was useless. She needed to get back into the game. She needed to be focused. Until the safety switch on Don’s watch was activated, there was still hope.
*
The helicopter hovered over the landing pad and slowly descended, causing Jessica to tighten her grip on Justin’s arm. It was her first time in a helicopter, and, she believed, more likely than not her last. On any other day, she might have thought of the trip as exhilarating, but not today. The way things were panning out, she was relieved the helicopter didn’t mysteriously burst into flames in the air.
Justin hopped out first and held his hand out to Jessica, who gladly accepted it. “This way,” Steven said, hopping onto the launch pad. “Everyone’s waiting.”
Jessica pulled at her hair, trying to hold her long black strands steady as the wind violently whipped them across her face. “Who’s everyone?” she inquired, but Steven was already trotting ahead toward a large bland brick building that resembled an old warehouse, simple and rectangular. She tried to get a feel of where she was, but she could not see another building. They were in the middle of nowhere.
A handful of strange ideas flooded her mind, until she settled on the worst-case scenario—this was where her murder would take place. The government would confiscate her findings and then get rid of her so she couldn’t tell anyone what she found in Messier 83. They would erase every trace of her; it would be like she never existed. Jessica shook that idea out of her head. She was exhausted and was beginning to become paranoid.
“Where are we?” she yelled, now nearly jogging to catch up with the others to the front door.
Steven typed in a code at the keypad, and the door automatically swung open. “Welcome to Project LMS.”
Following Steven through the door, Jessica surveyed the building. It was anticlimactic—truly unimpressive. There was one main storeroom full of shelves that reached the ceiling, and although dimly lit, she could make out large wooden crates that took up every inch of the shelves, each with a purple stamp. As the group made their way to the elevator, Jessica shivered. It felt as if it was sixty degrees inside the storage room, and as she looked up, she could see the large air-conditioning ducts pumping cold air.
“What is all of this?” she asked as she entered the elevator.
“Those crates?” Steven replied. “That’s emergency supplies. Enough for one thousand heads for ten years. This is one of ten facilities scattered around the country. If there was a disaster and leaving Earth was not practical or unwarranted, LMS would bunker down here.”
“And who are those one thousand?” Jessica shook her head. “Ten thousand, I mean,” she corrected herself as she watched Steven enter a password on a small display inside the elevator.
“Well, apparently not you, that we know for sure.”
Jessica scoffed when she saw Justin laughing in the reflection of the metal elevator. The doors slowly opened, causing a burst of light to shine inside, irritating Jessica’s eyes as they readjusted. This was what she had expected when she arrived: a bustling office space with people running around, arms full of folders, large offices and meeting spaces with glass walls. It looked almost futuristic, not dull and depressing like the office she worked in.
“Everyone is waiting this way,” Steven replied, motioning for Justin and Jessica to continue following him. “We’ve got representatives from the CDC and the NASA Collaboration, reps from our sister flight stations, including Cadence, as well as leaders from the locations infected with L8.”
Jessica halted. “You mean our president too?” She never thought this would be how she would meet the president—disheveled, unpresentable. She ran her fingers through her hair in an effort to make herself look somewhat decent.
“You look fine,” Justin said. Jessica grimaced, causing Justin to continue. “Good, I mean, you look great.”
Jessica never worried about her appearance, but today was different. Everything about today was different, and she was about to meet the president of the United States in jeans and a hoodie.
“Wait,” Jessica said, abruptly stopping in the hallway. “Why are leaders from the other countries with L8 in attendance?”
“Keep moving,” Steven insisted. “It’s a joint meeting.”
The trio walked into a brightly lit conference room with an embedded screen that encompassed an entire wall, adjacent to the door. Facing the screen was a large solid-white table that curved, allowing all attendees to be in full view of the screen. Each seat at the table held a folder of papers stamped with the NASA logo and a nice brown leather chair that Jessica could not wait to sit in. Until her eyes landed on Delilah Ndiaye.
Immediately, she was overcome by pressure in her chest, as if someone were sitting on her, suffocating her. She sucked in a mouthful of air as she stared at the woman’s face. Fake concern. False sincerity. Dead ends and sabotage. The pressure continued to build, and Jessica wanted to run away, but the thought of Don brought her back to reality. She was in the thick of it and needed to fight through any emotions that were stewing.
“Jessica,” Delilah called from her seat while staring at Justin. “I see you’re still trying to take things that aren’t yours.”
“Delilah,” Jessica replied, raising her eyebrows. “I see you’re still living a life that doesn’t belong to you.”
Delilah’s eyes widened in shock, and Jessica smirked. David Malick sat to Delilah’s right, browsing through the folder of papers, refusing to ackn
owledge Jessica. His face was flushed, and she could tell he was upset, but none of that mattered to her now. Only Don mattered.
Steven cleared his throat. “Dr. Jessica Koland and Justin Sage,” he stated to the members in the room. “This is Amy Boughan from the CDC and Michael Stratis from one of our sister stations, Horizon Shuttles. We also have Governor Greg Anders and astronaut Kevin Keener.”
Jessica gave the attendees a quick wave and sat at the far end of the table, closest to the door, with Justin following suit and sitting beside her. While Jessica flipped through the folder before her, which contained many of the documents they’d shared with Steven earlier, he powered on the large screen on the wall. Ten large squares with ten live faces appeared, each accompanied by their name and position underneath. Jessica recognized the president immediately, as well as the prime minister of Canada. She didn’t know the other six figureheads. The last two attendees were from the NASA headquarters in DC and the Department of Defense.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming on such short notice,” Steven said. “As you’ve already been briefed, Cadence Science deployed a shuttle, piloted by Donald Wolf, to investigate FRBs that were broadcasting from the Lerner 4 Exoplanetary System in Messier 83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. Upon his return, his ship, the Pitch, was seized by a plethora of aliens acting as a swarm. The communication between the beings seemed to indicate a sort of hive mentality, from what we could gather from our current data.”
Steven clicked a small remote control, which broadcasted the photo of the creature taken from the shuttle’s camera onto the screen, causing the web video feeds to shrink in size, making room for the presentation. The attendees on the monitor nodded, looking at the photo on their end, emotionless.
To have just learned that life exists outside of Earth, the web attendees seemed calm and collected to Jessica. Perhaps, she reasoned, it was because of their positions, but the lack of fear was still alarming to her, like this was just another day for them. Another boring meeting where they would make a quick decision and have someone provide them updates, only half interested in the outcome. Or perhaps this was just another species that they encountered that needed to be documented and quickly hidden away from public view.
Steven clicked the next slide, which presented the tower found on the surface. “When the satellite, Pitch Jr., crashed onto the surface, the Cadence team took this photo. Although we do not have video, it was reported that the tower was illuminated, sending a burst of light that resonated from its base and was expelled from the tip. The purpose of this device is unknown. Also, please note that Don Wolf’s ship crashed on Lerner 4d, and while this is from 4i, there is reason to believe an identical tower exists there as well. Don’s heart rate feed is still running. His data has been captured using the satellites from base sites in Messier 83 that were part of Phase I, Exploration, from the NASA Collaboration. Donald Wolf is alive.”
The room sat in silence while everyone digested the photograph of the tower. The representative from NASA shifted uncomfortably in his seat, then suddenly stopped and continued to review the photo of the tower, as if he was interested. Jessica could see that it was a façade—he was hiding something, but she couldn’t tell what it was. Everything seemed staged, except for a few of the members in the Project LMS conference room. That felt almost too real as they sorted through the photos and sighed or gasped.
Steven gave everyone a few moments to review the information from Messier 83 and then continued with his presentation. “Dr. Amy Boughan, from the Centers for Disease Control, has been researching L8 since its first discovery ten days ago. She flew in from Atlanta, Georgia to gather direct samples from the field but was transferred here when her assigned relief center was overtaken by a gang. Her findings represent another part of the Cadence Science discovery.”
Jessica tapped Justin’s arm. He looked back at her and shrugged. She had been under the impression that this meeting was primarily about Lerner 4d, not L8. As Amy flipped through her notes, the members on the video feed stared at her blankly. Jessica could see the woman was beginning to sweat. The dampness was beginning to seep through her thin white blouse. Jessica knew that feeling all too well and hoped Amy would get it together. Catching her attention, she gave her a soft smile.
“I…I took samples. I took samples from, um, 143 children between the ages of five and twelve who exhibited symptoms of light-headedness and confusion every day for a period of one to seven days.” Finally finding her rhythm, Amy continued. “On the first day, we saw no abnormalities in the blood, but on the fifth day, we were finally able to see tiny micro-animals manifesting themselves in the blood. We do believe that this is airborne, and once in its host, it expands in size, almost in a way that it fits the size of its environment. We also found that when the micro-animals permanently cluster, similar to the photo in the handouts of the so-called asteroid belt, they kill their host.
“From the data we have been gathering through our relief centers, some of the hosts suffer from waves of temporary clustering, in which the micro-animals momentarily group together then break apart, causing moderate brain swelling. When they do break apart, it provides a sort of temporary healing that returns the host to their normal state. However, in others, the clusters never break apart, and the eventual outcome is death. There are some procedures that we could take to prolong the life of the host, but as long as the clusters are still present, they will eventually pass.
“Applications of glucagon, Insidia, and Sim-Six have proven to halt clustering in twenty-five percent of patients. Patients can become immune to medications at any stage and can pass suddenly with no warning. L8 is relentless and largely unpredictable. As a last resort, a ventriculostomy can be performed, but we do not have accurate data on the survival rate of that. This is all of the data that we currently have, but observational periods to determine if a person is infected should take place at least seven days after confinement. And from all of our findings with patients that seem well or recovered, the micro-animals remain. Removal has been unsuccessful, even with complete blood transfusions.”
Amy looked over at Steven. “Please share the photo.”
The attendees started firing questions at Amy all at once when the photo of the micro-animals from her lab appeared on the screen.
Jessica flipped through the packet, this time paying close attention to all of its contents, and pulled out the photo of the creature from Messier 83. Her gut wrenched as she studied the photo in disbelief, occasionally looking back at the screen. She looked at Justin, who was also staring at the photo wide-eyed. She could see the fear in his eyes, and she knew it was in hers too. They didn’t just find an alien species in Lerner 4—it was the possible home base of a species that was invading Earth.
“Why didn’t they ask about Lerner 4?” Jessica whispered to Justin.
Justin placed the photo of the micro-animal side by side with the photo of the alien from the ship. “I guess because this space urchin,” he said, pointing to the shuttle feed photo, “is out there, and this micro-animal is on our soil. It’s personal.”
Jessica stared at the photo. Still whispering, she replied, “I can see that. And please do not say ‘space urchin’ here. Also, are we not going to touch on the fact that Don said that they are coming for us when they are already here?” She could feel her pulse beginning to rise, and she paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “Clearly this is the same creature we saw in Lerner 4—just a tiny rendition of it. This is an invasion.”
The prime minister of Canada spoke loudly over everyone who was throwing questions at Amy while she tried to answer them as calmly as possible, until the room settled. “Excuse me. Dr. Koland, was it?” he said. “Would you mind repeating that?”
Jessica looked at the screen, embarrassed. “I said the creatures from Lerner 4 are already here. They are the micro-animals, as I’m sure everyone has already put together. When those things captured Donald Wolf, he said, ‘Now I know. They are coming for
us.’ But they are already here. They’ve been here for over a week.”
The room erupted in conversation again. The robots on the screen were indeed real people, finally showing emotion and concern. Jessica fixated on the representative from NASA’s eyes. They moved back and forth, as if he were reading. Occasionally, his left eye would twitch, and she wondered who he was talking to and what he knew. Briefly, he seemed to look directly at her, and she shied away, returning her eyes to the packet in front of her.
Jessica felt uneasy as she watched Delilah approach the presentation laptop. She knew she was trying to force her way into the conversation. Delilah could never help herself—no matter what was happening, she needed to be a part of it. The photo of the satellite appeared on the screen, and Jessica felt sick. She could feel her discovery being ripped from her.
“Mr. President,” Delilah called, “if what Donald said is true, we would have reason to believe that these aliens are hostile. They captured one of our finest and infected our children with disease.”
“Um, no, it’s not a disease. I never said—” Amy tried to speak up, but Delilah just talked over her.
With every attendee now focused on her, she continued, “My team has done extensive research in Messier 83, and we have concluded that this signal they are sending will reach Earth in three days. This is an important fact, because due to the locations of our satellites and base stations across the universe, Cadence was able to pinpoint the FRBs in real time. This sort of transmission could normally take hundreds of years to arrive. So, for the signal to be able to travel so quickly here, on its own volition, in real time, I would say this is cause for alarm. As their signal increased, the intensity of L8 followed. Tomorrow could very well be the day all of our children die.”
Justin leaned to the side and poked Jessica. “So now your find is important to her.”
Jessica did not respond; instead she sat in silence, burning inside that Delilah was taking credit for her hard work. The same hard work that Delilah told the entire board of Cadence Science was a waste of resources. The same hard work that that bitch refused to share a shuttle with. Every inch of Jessica’s being wanted to tackle Delilah and choke her to death, her hands tightly wrapped around her neck while Delilah kicked and tried to escape. She wanted to stare into her eyes until the light escaped and she became nothing, just a shell of a person. She hated Delilah, which pained her. Her father had taught her not to hate, instead to understand, because the stars wouldn’t allow it. The stars were at another level of acceptance, but she could not help herself. She wanted overkill. She wanted Delilah gone forever.
