"What's happening?" I asked. "Why am I here?"
Collins issued me his patented dry smile. "I thought you might like to see your hard-earned black budget tax dollars at work."
Lines appeared on a screen below the image. I edged up to the "command table," finding a space near the Colonel between a Navy captain in dress blues and a man whose black uniform and rank-insignia I didn't recognize.
Figures at the top of screen indicated earth time and possible coordinates for position and distance. Beneath them was a time countdown, currently crossing the ten minute mark. Words scrolled in clumps below the countdown and time indicators:
DECLOAKING PHASE 3 08.44
RG Initiation Test Phase 3 Complete
DEW Initiation Test Phase 3 Complete
HKAI Module Test Phase 3 Complete
TD DRIVE Test Phase 3 Complete
DEW might stand for Directed Energy Weapon, and "decloaking" was obvious enough – not that I was prepared to believe it was literal in the science fiction sense – but the rest was gobbledygook.
"Where is this being transmitted from?" I asked.
Colonel Collins nodded to the man in the black uniform.
"Somewhere approximately seven astronomical units from Earth," the man answered in clipped tones, barely glancing at me. "The feed is a direct line from Cheyenne Mountain."
Cheyenne Mountain Complex. I tried to remember how far an astronomical unit was. The distance from the Earth to the Sun? Then it seemed to come together in my mind.
"So that's the asteroid? This is about destroying it before it reaches Earth, right?"
The black-uniformed dude smiled scornfully, not even deigning to glance at me this time. Colonel Collins released a low and harsh laugh.
"No, Hayden. That is the enemy."
Air in the room suddenly seemed scarce. I tried to breathe it as best I could. "You don't mean that metaphorically."
"I mean it's not an asteroid, though it looks like one. It's an alien space craft."
"A space colony ," said the man in black. "Headed toward us."
"An alien space ship." I'd been thrust into a parallel universe. "Are you saying...this ship is going to attack us?"
"We already have been attacked," said Colonel Collins. "They just lost a good chunk of their space fleet to our atmospheric shields."
"We don't yet know the size of their fleet," the man in black snapped.
"But we will soon enough."
DECLOAK COMMENCING
I held my breath. From the sudden silence, I suspected everyone else was, too. The image on the screen changed, showing a lengthy control console inside what appeared to be a ship. Above the control console, a screen depicted a smaller version of the space and darkened area that we'd been seeing.
RG Commence Firing. Thirty salvos outbound.
"Ooooraahh, Motherfuckers!" someone shouted off-screen.
Contact Estimated 33 seconds.
Every molecule of oxygen rushed out of my lungs. I leaned or fell forward, bracing my hands on the table. The world slipped away from under my feet. That had been a Marine battle cry.
"Kinetic weapons have been launched," one of the officers announced in a solemn voice.
The seconds ticked by in the right upper corner of the screen. At zero a host of flashes illuminated the body of the dark object center-screen. In that instant, it looked exactly like a standard crater-impacted, rough-rocked asteroid to me.
"No sign of damage," announced one of the crewmembers. The camera remained on the control console, showing only an occasional pair of hands. "The salvos appear to have encountered a protective shield."
"DEW fully charged, Sir. Multiple points targeted."
"Fire at will."
The space colony/asteroid lit up in dazzling cloudbursts of color. It reminded me of video of the Fort Worth transformer explosions – claimed by some to be the result of an alien attack.
"Enemy responding with plasma weapons, Admiral." The crewmember spoke with artificial calm. "Nautilus Two struck." A long pause. "Nautilus Two is not responding."
"Initiate temporal jump, Ensign. Now!"
The screen blurred white. I was gripping the table so hard that my forearms were burning. The officers stood like uptight mannequins.
The velvet darkness returned.
"Deploy the AIs."
"AIs deployed, sir."
"Status of Nautilus Two and other ships?"
"Nautilus Two and Five are offline, sir." Several moments passed. "Nautilus Two appears to be severed at the AMM section. Nautilus Three is missing its helm, but it scrambled its fighter craft before impact."
"Launch all fighter craft. Do not attack. Stay back. Let the AIs do their thing."
"Nautilus Three and Four acknowledge, sir. Enemy has launched craft."
"Fighters engage enemy craft."
My usual sense of being one step behind had slipped to about ten Usain Bolt strides. And this time I was on a treadmill, unable to move forward. It was like watching a video war game where I had no clue about the rules or what either my or my opponent's powers were. So far all I was sure of was that two of our ships had been damaged or destroyed and that our "kinetic weapons" were a bust.
"What about the sky?" I asked Colonel Collins, hoping for some good news. "That was some form of defense system, wasn't it? I thought I saw ships falling."
"EDS – Earth Defense Shield," the Colonel replied, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Product of Operation Indigo Sky. Seems to have done its job." He added with a tight smile, "Despite all your conspiracy people complaining about geoengineering."
"That's what that was about – not climate change?"
"Right. And the Gulf Wars weren't about oil profits, either."
"What, then?"
"Recovering ancient technology – "
Colonel Collins stopped when bright explosions lit up the screen. A lot of chatter between the fighter pilots ensued. The gist was that they were getting their clocks cleaned. No indications that the "DEW" – Directed Energy Weapons? – had damaged the enemy's ship. The enemy craft seemed to have better weapons and/or defenses.
Enemy. It was a full-stop moment as the glaringly obvious connection between this ship/colony and the people in the cabal – including Lilith and her dad – fried my brain. Coherent thought resumed a twenty or thirty seconds later with one overriding question.
"The people here – Lilith, Professor Killian – they're part of this?"
"Bingo, Corporal."
"But – they're human!"
That earned me a few disdainful glances from the officers and the control techs at the table. Colonel Collins smiled as though he'd just bitten into a bitter fruit.
"Far as we can tell. I've been told we've found some small differences – a few genetic markers we can test for – but nothing obvious. Not surprising, since those we've got to talk say they originated on Mars and had Earth colonies some eons back."
Collins spoke in a distracted rush, his bleak gaze not leaving the screen. He and some of his cohorts poured themselves some coffee and settled down stiffly in chairs by the table. I made myself sit down with them. An officer was kind enough to pass me a mug of coffee. It tasted like it had been on the burner too long. I drank it greedily.
At this point someone probably could've told me that the moon really was made of cheese and Elvis had been a transsexual alien and I wouldn't have batted an eye. I was on mind-blowing news overload. Not that I necessarily was buying all of it. For all I knew, they'd rigged up a phony space set which they were filming in the next room. I wanted to ask a thousand questions, but I could tell this wasn't the time. Right now people's lives – my people – hung in the balance. I'd only known about this epic battle between us and them for fifteen minutes, but now it was the most important thing in my life. Just as it was for everyone else here.
"I know you're lost in space right now, Hayden." Colonel Collins was smiling at me over his coffee. "My advice is don't try to drink i
t all in at once. Just got the word myself couple weeks back, and the world hasn't stopped spinning yet."
"What were they telling you all this time?"
Collins chuckled and cast a wary glance at the Army general and the officer in black. "An asteroid was going to strike Earth, and a secret cabal was plotting to take over in the chaos that followed. How's that for a conspiracy theory?"
"Not nearly as good as this one."
"Admiral, enemy craft are retreating to the mother ship. Hunter Killer AI have successfully destroyed a number of them. AI commencing operations on mother ship. Nukes are being placed near probable entranceways."
Multiple explosions cast the alien asteroid-ship in bold relief against the inkblot background.
"AI have gained entrance to colony. Proceeding to core targets."
"Right on," I said, drawing grim but hopeful smiles – even from the dark-uniformed dude.
I wondered if they were Janine/Skunk Works' AI. Whatever they were – and whatever awesome powers they possessed - they were the one thing that was working.
" Alien ship commander is hailing us, sir."
"Intercom."
"Fleet commander, this is Ziusudra-Anik-Achule, First Council Mediator, speaking for my people. We offer surrender."
"Unconditional surrender?"
"Agreed. Please halt your machines' destruction of our ship."
I was holding my breath – and my hands. Tight enough to cut off circulation.
"I am Admiral Burrows, commander of these ships. On behalf of Earth, I accept your surrender. We will be boarding your craft shortly. You and I will discuss further terms aboard my ship. Any resistance to our boarding personnel will be met with lethal force."
"I understand, Admiral. We seek an amicable end to our hostilities."
"I'll fucking bet you do," growled one of the officers.
Someone laughed. A laugh ragged with relief. I raised my hand for a high-five, and damned if the general standing beside me didn't slap it hard enough to bruise. A roar of joyous relief built from the rear of the amphitheater and thundered over us.
"Fuckin' A," I said. "You don't fucking mess with the human race."
"I'll drink to that," said Colonel Collins.
Chapter 23
THEY DIDN'T RETURN ME to my cell after that. I was housed in the staff quarters – "Just need to do some paperwork," Colonel Collins assured me – until three days later when an older dude in a suit, DHS agent Patrick Shannon, showed up and escorted me out of the facility. I shook hands with the Colonel and walked with them out to a blue and gold DHS van. No goodbyes for Hank, the Professor, or the incomparable Lilith. That didn't feel right. But I was confident I could see them later. I doubted they were going anywhere soon.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked.
"To your new home." Agent Shannon smiled at my concerned look. "That wasn't a euphemism. You really do have a new house. Courtesy of your government."
"You're kidding." That thought introduced some serious cognitive dissonance. "Where?"
"Not far from here."
We drove northwest in Brighton, and onward toward the Rocky Mountains. Life seemed pretty normal – aside from various DHS and Army checkpoints, which we were waved through. Cars rolled in halting lines between the checkpoints, but people were mostly smiling. Store banners proclaimed "God Bless America" and "Don't Tread On Me" alongside images of heroic people standing beside crashed disc-shaped craft.
The flow of information from the United States Government to Hayden Jordan Hunter had pretty much dried up when I returned to ground level. Colonel Collins had shed some light on the gun control and vaccine operations – gun control was basically about disarming the aliens, and the vaccines were meant to both tag and debilitate them – but the specifics were fuzzy and many loose ends remained untied. I thought I could connect the important dots, but for now I was content to give my cat-killing curiosity a rest.
"How much do they know?" I gestured to the cars and people around us as we cruised through Lafayette.
"As much as they need to." He shrugged as I scowled. "The basics. Aliens are among us, tried to take over, there was an invading fleet that was defeated, we need to be vigilant and temporarily sacrifice some freedoms, that sort of thing."
"Is the government going to confess anything about the various false flag operations?"
"What false flag operations?"
His deadpan look drew a strained laugh from me. "And the NSA mass spying?"
"Ed Snowden missed a thing or two. It was about them – always about them, from the beginning. Black budgets, detention centers, chemtrails, secret technology - even mandatory vaccines that allowed us to take blood samples while injecting people with substances believed to be toxic to the ETs."
"And gun confiscation – that was about disarming them?"
Agent Shannon nodded. "We had to prepare to fight them while pretending to do something else. All the civil libbers and Constitutionalists and conspiracy nuts helped provide the 'guvment or the New World Order's coming for you' smokescreen." He laughed. "I guess we owe you all a debt of gratitude for that."
I scowled at him. "I'm not sure that excuses everything you did. A lot of innocent people lost their lives."
"It's called collateral damage, son. Every good cause has 'em."
As I chewed on that, we entered Boulder. A suspicion started to dawn about our final destination.
"We're going to the Killians' house, aren't we?"
"Nope."
But we continued west of town onto a road that I'd traveled more than once before, and soon turned into the familiar driveway, stopping before the picturesque estate.
"I thought you said we weren't going to Killians' house."
"This isn't the Killians' house." He withdrew a folder from a side compartment. "This is your house now."
I opened the folder and slid out the first of many papers. It was a deed of sale for this property with my name on it. I allowed myself a moment to wallow in the pleasure of owning a piece of real estate like this before shoving the deed back into the folder.
"I'm not taking their house," I said.
"All alien property is forfeit. You don't take it, someone else will. Some fat cat businessman or politician would be happy to snatch it. Hell, maybe they'll give it to me. I could get a real sweet tan by that pool."
I ignored his grin. "I guess I could hold it for them."
I started to close the folder. Agent Shannon held up a hand.
"Better take another look inside," he said. "There's more."
I opened the folder with grave reluctance. I knew it would be something good, and that was what frightened me. I didn't want to be tempted to part with what remained of my conscience. I slid out the deed and other items – titles to Lilith and Markus' three cars, various keys – including the keys to my new Beamer, thank God - and a greenish-gold check bearing the bold words UNITED STATES TREASURY. I held it up to the light. The check was made out to me for the amount of twenty-five million dollars.
Dizzying new realities had become my middle name, but this was beyond dizzying. I counted the zeros three times.
"Twenty-five million dollars." I was afraid to say it out loud. "Am I reading this right?"
"Right as rain. And tax-free, too."
I dropped slowly back in my seat. Maybe if I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them I'd be back in Phoenix sipping coffee and writing code in my pajamas with a few thousand in the bank? I'd go to work in a world without aliens, where most government conspiracies were conducted politely behind closed doors. At night, I'd blog in blissful innocence about NSA spying being a terrible blow to democracy or about the evils of keeping scientific advances secret. I'd demand complete UFO disclosure. Obama would say: "I can't reveal anything." The good old days.
But these days were starting to look pretty fucking good, too. At least for me and maybe the human race.
"I only know rumors about what they discovered in that
alien hideout," said Agent Shannon. "But I know it gave our country a hell of an edge up. You done good, kid." He winked. "Don't spend that all in one place."
Agent Shannon departed, and I entered my new country estate, guilt and wonder at my good fortune clawing at each other. I pushed aside some of the guilt by telling myself I'd transfer the house and cars back to Markus when he got out. That allowed wonder to predominate as I grabbed a beer from the fridge and settled down in the living room and flicked on the big screen TV. President Morgan Thompson was addressing the nation – or rather, it was a repeat of a speech he'd given a few hours after the alien colony had surrendered.
"Thanks to the selfless and heroic actions of countless Americans and citizens of the world," he proclaimed, "we now face a future where advanced technology and renewed peaceful relations between countries will usher in a new era of untold prosperity and enduring peace."
While I helped myself to another beer, President Thompson continued in a similar vein:
"What we have learned, perhaps most importantly, is that by working together as one people – placing the interests of humanity as a whole above our own petty national differences – we can overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal set before us. Let us take that lesson to heart as we go forward toward the day when we are no longer a collection of squabbling nations but one people under the banner of a united world leadership."
I raised an eyebrow. Slightly ominous, reminiscent of Bush Senior's New World Order speech. In fact, the whole thing sounded like Bush Sr. re-warmed. But maybe a united world without endless war might be a good thing? Maybe I was just too cynically set in my "us against them" conspiracy mindset?
Or maybe I was just buzzed from the beer?
President Morgan concluded:
"But let us also not forget that the Outworlders represent a clear and continuing danger that will require our steadfast vigilance. And let me be clear: neither our government nor the governments of the world will tolerate any form of material or moral support for the aliens among us. Until this danger has passed, martial law in this nation will remain in effect. A ban of privately owned guns remains in effect. Please cooperate with the authorities to the best of your ability. I am confident that working together as one we can root out the alien menace within our ranks. God bless America and the people of this world."
Operation Indigo Sky Page 37
