by Maxey, Phil
Abbey closed her eyes calming her mind to the urgency around her, instead she searched the skies above the outpost until she connected with Mo. She then went deeper, deeper than she had gone before, trying to become one with the soaring creature, until she was up there in the night sky looking down on the lights of the buildings within the walls. She could feel the wind buffeting her face, and the air currents keeping her aloft. She then looked to the distance, to the north and flapped her almighty wings gaining height, then allowed the drafts to drive her forwards. Over the dark forms of trees and roads she flew, and then the large warehouses of the town until she saw them. A column of heavy tanks and soldiers, gathered off the side of the main road to the town.
“I’m seeing tanks north of the town, maybe five of them, and soldiers, perhaps a hundred,” Abbey spoke hoping her words were actually emanating from her mouth in the room, and Brad and those around her were hearing what she was saying. She then tilted her wings and beat them, building pressure to allow her to fly towards the west. Gaining speed she soared over the forests. She realized if she focused she could even see between the branches and the details of the ground below. More military vehicles came into view. “To the west I’m seeing trucks, more soldiers about the same number, they seem to be setting up some kind of camp at a—”
She felt the air pressure change like a wave washing over her, before she heard the distant clack sound. They were shooting at her. She quickly turned and dived, descending to pick up speed and was soon out of their range. She headed back to the safety of the outpost. When she was above it, she relinquished her grip on Mo’s mind and opened her eyes to the room under the main house.
“Did you—”
Everyone was looking at her in silence.
“That was freaky and amazing in equal measure,” said Hoxted. “Yes, we heard you.”
Brad smiled then briefly squeezed Abbeys shoulder. “So to the north and west, it’s just good old fashioned army units. Not sure if that’s good or bad for us.”
“With the heavy tanks, definitely bad,” said the Major. “That’s why they have stopped at ten miles, that’s a good range for a battle tank.”
“So we’re sitting ducks?” said Brad.
Hoxted nodded.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Abbey danced in front of Zach, her yellow dress flowing in the wind. She looked younger, like her life hadn’t happened to her yet. She smiled. He loved her. Then he smelled them, the dry burned ashes. He turned around and staggered back. The camp was gone, replaced with an inferno. Pieces of homes and people fluttered on the wind, and the heat began to sear his face.
Zach awoke with a start at his desk, knocking his headset to the floor and narrowly missing his coffee mug. His movement also woke his computer and his monitor sprang to life with the frozen video and documents that had been uploaded to the camp’s server by Fuller and his people, and were still sitting positioned as he left them.
Blinking, he rubbed his eyes then looked at the time. It was 8 am.
Sun should be up. Abbey. Outpost.
His mind falteringly began to lose the fog of sleep and he wondered if there had been any messages from Kentucky. A knock came at his office door.
“Yup.”
The door opened and Martin Hoffman, the soldier designated to act as a secretary appeared with a brown pot that was steaming. “I got your morning coffee, sir.” The young man quickly put the pot down and grabbed the one that was already there.
“Any news from the outpost?”
“Err… yes, we got a message an hour ago saying their radar have found contacts, but they had not engaged with—”
Zach got up. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Umm… I didn’t really know you were asleep, I thought you would have already gotten the message. You were working until—”
Zach shook his head. “Its fine.” He grabbed his mug and poured the new hot coffee into it, then placed his headset back on his head. He looked back at the nervous young man. “Anything else?”
“General Trow wants you to attend a meeting at zero nine hundred hours at the Core. It’s about operation Wildfire.”
Zach nodded. ‘Wildfire’ was the designation they had given to the craziest mission he had ever been part of. The fact that he had already been in space didn’t really help.
He looked down at his computer monitor, then adjusted the mike on his headset. “This is general Felton. Comms you there?”
“We are sir.”
“Can you patch me through to the outpost?”
“Doing so now sir.”
A few seconds passed. “This is comms at the Kentucky outpost, what can we do for you General? Over.”
“Put the major on. Over.”
“I think she’s out inspecting the walls and towers, but I can get a message to her to return. Over.”
“I just want a sitrep. Are there any other officers there? Over.”
“Lieutenant Shaw is here and Mr. Crenshaw. Over.”
“Put Brad, I mean Mr. Crenshaw on. Over.”
A few seconds passed. “Hey Zach, I presume you have heard things are a bit tense up here. Over.”
“I missed the last report, can you fill me in? Over.”
“Well it would appear there are about five hundred of Mitchells people surrounding us—”
“Cascaders? Over.”
“So far it seems just to be humans. There are also a number of battle tanks. Over.”
A chill ran through Zach. “Do you have any anti-tank munitions? Over.”
“Yeah, got some. Shoulder launched missile launchers, but we have to be able to get them close enough. I’ve been told those suckers can take us out from over fifteen miles. And they are already closer than that. Over.”
“You haven’t been fired on yet? Over.” Mitchell’s face jumped into Zach’s head together with anger.
“Not yet. The Major, other officers, me and Abbey have been working on a plan to get us out of this jam. We should be able to let you know by tomorrow if it has worked or not. How’s everything down there? Over.”
“We got a plan too, but I don’t want to say too much over this connection. Over.”
“Well whatever it is, I wish you luck with it. Over.”
“You too. Keep me posted. Over.”
“Will do. Over.”
Zach took his headset off then drunk some of his coffee. The vestiges of sleep were still clinging to him, but he stepped away from his desk, stretched, grabbed his jacket then left.
He made his way through the maze of tunnels and was soon at the exit to the surface when he heard someone running behind him in one of the corridors. He paused with his hand on the door to the stairwell, and looked back at the way he just came. Michael appeared in full combat gear.
“Hey…” said Zach.
Michael walked up to him. “Whatever mission you’re planning I want to be part of it.”
“Where’s Megan?”
“She’s fine, she’s being looked after by the day care people here.”
Zach looked away shaking his head. “Yeah, I don’t know Michael…”
Michael’s eyes glistened in the corridor lights. “I need to do something Zach. I need to make them pay. There are rumors that a big Op is being launched, and I want in. I need this.”
Zach sighed then nodded. “I don’t know all the details myself, but I’ll take you with me to the Core, and you can sit in with me on the briefing and make up your mind what you want, okay?”
Michael nodded.
It wasn’t long before Zach was driving a Humvee with Michael as passenger. They moved along the deserted streets of the downtown area of the camp, then east across roads that had only been laid a few months before, and finally into the more rural part of the camp.
“How is she?” said Zach.
Michael wasn’t sure at first who Zach meant. He had spent most of the journey from the bunker with his mind lost in the past. “Megan? She’s okay I guess. Not su
re a six year old can really comprehend loss. She keeps asking me when… mom’s coming back.”
“Kids are tough.” It was a cliche, but one Zach was sure was true.
“Yup. How’s Abbey? I heard that the outpost has come under attack from the Boston people? I thought we were all on the same side?”
“We are, but it seems Mitchells been influenced by the Cascaders.”
“Erin?”
“Looks that way.”
Michael looked out at the barren fields passing by. “Shit just keeps on getting deeper.”
The rest of the journey was in silence, although Zach kept looking to the skies wary of what he might see there. It wasn’t long before they were pulling into the parking lot where Klept’s saucer craft descended just eight hours before.
An officer and two soldiers ran up to the Humvee as Zach and Michael got out.
“I’m Lieutenant Mullins. I’m to escort you inside and to the briefing, sir.”
“Lead the way,” said Zach.
They quickly covered the distance to the entrance, and were soon inside the elevator descending into the bowls of the earth. It had been a while since Zach had been back there, and he had forgotten how claustrophobic it felt. The bunker system was deep, but this was something else altogether.
The lieutenant led them through a series of corridors, which Zach was sure were even more expansive than the last time he was there, and finally ended up at their destination. The officer knocked and was told to enter.
The room must have been a new one because Zach had not seen it before. Stretching twenty feet in length and two thirds of that in width, it was already full of people when they entered. General Trow was at the top of the room, with an Ultor that Zach presumed was Klept and behind them both was a large screen.
The crowd hushed as Zach moved forward. Michael found a place to sit at the back of the room.
Trow smiled, almost looking relieved for Zach to be there. “I’ve just been telling everyone about our new friends.” She leaned in closer to him when he stood next to her. “Haven’t dropped the mission on anyone yet.”
Zach nodded then looked around the room. Some of the faces he recognized, others were new to him.
Trow nodded to an older man with a dark beard in the front row, who then stood up and walked forward. He turned to address the room. “As some of you know my name is Adam Fuller. I am the chief technical liaison with the Ultor's.” He briefly bowed his head to the tall alien nearby, who repeated the gesture back. “Before the Ultor’s arrived, we were having trouble understanding the Hulathen’s technology, and their biology especially, however with Klept and his teams help, we have made major strides in those areas. We have a toxin, which was created by Dr. Joshi who unfortunately cannot be with us today, that will attack the Hulathen's immune system making them high susceptible to normal human diseases.” A ripple of murmurs ran around the crowd. “We have taken that toxin and combined it with a common human flu virus, but targeted to the Hulathen's DNA.”
“So we just got to inject the aliens with this stuff and that’s that?” A woman shouted from the audience.
“There is a good chance that if we did that, the Hulathen would simply eliminate that particular carrier. No, we need to infiltrate deeper.”
“Deeper how?” said a man.
Fuller stepped back.
“We have put together a plan for a mission,” said Trow. “To go through one of the cube gates, to travel to a location far from here and to strike the Hulathen were it’s really going to do the most damage.”
The noise in the room increased.
Trow raised her hand. “Yes, that means we have to go into space.”
Anxious conversations passed between the participants.
“I would like Klept to now tell us more about what we need to do, and more about the Hulathen,” said Trow. She looked at Fuller who tapped away on a keyboard linked to a computer nearby. He then walked to Klept and handed him a microphone.
A hush descended across the room.
“Thank you for allowing me to address all of you. As some of you will know, my name is Klept, and I am from a species called the Ultor’s. The Hulathen came to our home world hundreds of years ago, in earth time. They evolved the creatures on our planet, similar to what happened on earth, but with less devastating effect. Some of us tried to fight back against them, but unfortunately, others of my kind took the technological gifts the Hulathen offered them and so our planet was enslaved. Myself and others kept fighting though. And indirectly that has led to how I am here today. The Hulathen, from your human perspective would be regarded as immortal beings. As with most interstellar species they create new hosts for their consciousness, and then when these hosts are ready their consciousness is transferred to the host avatar. We have replicated the toxin your scientists first created, and if injected into the correct place we believe the virus will be able to spread throughout the Hulathen in this region.”
“But you said they are immortal? What about their err… consciousness?” said someone from the crowd.
“This is beyond our means to destroy. We should focus on what we can actually achieve.”
“And if we ‘achieve’ this, then the Hulathen will leave us alone?” said Trow.
“I believe so yes. At least for a few millennia.”
“Where will the cube gate take us?” said Zach.
“The first point will be the staging post, which orbits the earth. You and Fiona have already been there. From there we—”
“We?” said Zach.
“Yes, I will be making this trip as well.”
“We can’t ask you to take this risk for us,” said Trow.
“I appreciate as you would say the sentiment General, but unfortunately your people will not have the technological expertize to use the navigation controls to get to where you need to go.”
Trow nodded.
“So from the staging post, we will then go through the larger gates, which there are three. They are positioned roughly halfway between this planet and what you call Mars. They appear as three large black discs in the night sky to you. That will take us one hundred and nine light years to a star system where the Hulathen have a facility where they create the hosts for this part of interstellar space.”
“And getting back?” shouted Michael from the back of the room.
Klept hesitated before talking. “Getting back might be… difficult.”
“But there’s a way back right?” said someone else closer to the front.
“In theory yes. But should we make it to the Hulathen creation facility and achieve our mission, the Hulathen will be sure to have learned of our presence by then, and might have shut down the gates.”
“Meaning we will be stuck a hundred and nine light years from earth…”
“That is correct.”
The room fell silent as everyone absorbed the ramifications.
Zach stepped forward. “Everyone here has been selected because of their expertize and the courage they have shown since the Cascade started. But this mission is strictly volunteer only, and we only need eight people. So—”
Before Zach could finish, people in the room started to raise their hands. It wasn’t long before all had theirs held high.
*****
The radar operator at the outpost put down his mug of coffee and leaned closer looking at the screen in front of him. The contact points were on the move. As his heart rate increased he waited a few seconds for the display to update. When it did he took in a sharp intake of breath.
He turned around to Lieutenant Shaw seated behind him. “We have contact movement—” He looked back at the screen. “—On… the north… west… yes, all sides. All moving towards the outpost, sir.”
Shaw clicked on his radio and relayed the information to Major Hoxted, who was with Brad and Abbey upstairs in the seating area adjacent to the kitchen.
“Looks like it’s on,” said the major to them.
Abbey t
ook a deep breath and readied herself. Leaning down she grabbed a scarf and some goggles from her backpack, wrapping the former around her face. “I better get going.”
Brad got up and hugged her. “Good luck.”
She nodded, as did the Major, and they all walked to the large porch outside.
Abbey slid her goggles on and looked up at the gray sky. She felt her backpack, then raised her arms above her, bracing her joints against the strain that was about to be placed on them, and was ascending in an instant. The house, then the compound began to shrink below her as she flew higher and higher, being held aloft by Mo’s powerful wings.
She shifted her weight to the northeast and Mo responded by banking in that direction.
Hundreds of feet below, Brad and the major looked up, wiping the rain from their eyes, trying to make out the woman and her creature against the uniform cloudy sky.
“How sure are you this is going to work?” said Hoxted.
Brad started to walk back into the house. “I’m not. We should get all non-essential personnel into the reinforced hanger.”
Elsewhere. A mile to the north of the outpost, Captain Cruz listened to the report from his radio that the enemy was on the move. He studied the landscape in front of him, lying low on the roof of what was previously a bank. He clicked on his radio. “This is it people, just got word they are on the way.” He looked to his right. “Barber, you seeing anything where you are? Over.”
“Nothing on this side of the town. Over,” replied a female voice.
He then looked to his left. “Tate? Anything on the west? Over.”
A gravely male voice responded in the negative.
“Remember the plan, let them move into the town before you open up and each of you sound off about which of the heavy armor you are targeting so we don’t all pummel the same tank. Over.”
A number of soldiers acknowledged.
Within the outpost soldiers and other personnel ran in all directions, some going to the wall and lookout towers, others going to the large concrete covered hanger which housed what remained of the military vehicles.
Brad ran up the small staircase to the attic of the main house with his binoculars, his rifle, a radio and a backpack. He pushed open the window, pulled his hood over his head, then carefully stepped out onto the damp roof. The rain was falling harder, and was bouncing off the tiles. Gripping onto the wooden frame of the outside of the window, he stepped around the arched roof to be able to see to the north.
