Collector Ship

by Adam Moon

  Olaf grunted and forced himself to look at the spaceship. He gathered his resolve and entered first. The sight of him entering by himself gave the rest of them the courage they needed to get moving. They leveled their weapons and filed in. It was obvious that the place was deserted. The floor was a mess of alien fluids and body parts but luckily for them, most of it had been eaten already. They fanned out and searched each dark recess and hidden compartment. None of the combatant aliens had stayed behind with the ship. If anything, they probably thought they were at the planet that was to be used as their battleground. How could they even know that David had inadvertently released them?

  Stacey had to yell at Felix when he started fiddling with buttons and switches. Otherwise, the wait was uneventful. They were not attacked, despite the noise the chopper had made as it landed. Stacey spent a few minutes moving the alien that David had killed back at the diner from the chopper into the ship. “It’ll save us a trip,” she explained to no one in particular.

  The Chinook’s arrived twenty minutes apart and with their help, they were able to lift the giant ship into the air. It did not respond to being captured and removed. It swayed awkwardly but it was secure. It was odd to see something so large moved into the air so easily.

  David asked, “Where are they taking it?”

  Stacey paused, as though she were trying to figure out if she should tell him any more than she had to, but she finally said, “It’s going to Great Lakes Naval Base. There’ll be a squadron to escort it there.”

  “What will they do with it?”

  “I would imagine they’ll want to figure out what makes it tick, where it came from, and if we can reverse engineer the tech.”

  “So you gave it over to the military?”

  “We had to. They have resources we don’t. We’re permitted to act on our own but in certain situations you better believe we’re expected to play it by the book. Discovering a UFO is one of those situations where we have to defer to them.”

  “I thought you’d have more autonomy than that.”

  “Unfortunately, we’re still bound by the law. We can be shut down at any time so it’s best to know when not to kick the hornets nest. Anyway, shut up, we need to get out of here. I don’t know what they plan to do to the area but I bet your quaint little cabin won’t survive it and I’d hate to still be here when it happens.”

  Buddy was fast asleep in the chopper when they boarded once again. He woke up when the rotors stared whirring but as soon as they started to move he passed out again.

  David asked, “Where are we going now?”

  “We need to regroup and come up with a plan of attack.”

  “Where?”

  “Chicago.”

  “Is Murphy going to be waiting for us there?”

  “Yes, and you’d better behave yourself around him.”

  “I will. I just have some questions for him.”

  “Can’t they wait until after we take care of the extraterrestrial threat that is upon us?”

  David nodded. What he really wanted to do was to grab Murphy by the throat and strangle him to death but under the circumstances, that would be unwise. He needed Murphy’s resources if he was to get control of the situation that he had accidentally created. If he hadn’t been personally responsible for releasing the aliens, he might not feel so dedicated to stopping them; his disconnect from humanity was just that profound. But it was his mess and he would clean it up, even if it meant partnering up with an asshole like Murphy.

  He lost track of time and drifted off to sleep. It had been a long and busy day. When he awoke, the sun had gone down and he could see the lights of the Chicago skyline. They skirted the edge of the city and put the chopper down to the west, in a Chicago suburb. He noticed several things about their destination right away. It was fenced in, there were armed guards patrolling and a spotlight followed them all the way to the ground. An armed detail met them on the ground but they were there for only one person and it was David; to make sure he toed the line while in their care.

  Stacey instructed them to back off, and they did, but they didn’t let him out of their sight as they walked towards the largest of a dozen buildings, located at the center of the compound.

  Stacey asked, “Does any of this look familiar to you?”

  “Should it?” And then he knew what she was getting at. This was where he’d trained. He barely remembered it, though.

  “This is where we all spent months on end training together right before you ran off on us.”

  “Give it a rest. You’ve said your piece. Let’s move past it.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “If I upset you, I’m sorry. But we have aliens to kill before they slaughter our fellow man by the thousands. I really think we should be concentrating on the mission ahead.”

  Gordon interjected. “You both need to let the past go. This is some serious shit we’ve gotten ourselves into. Stay focused. For all we know the first of the escaped aliens could’ve made it this far south by now.”

  David scoured his memory banks for any useful info but nothing came to him. He was sure that some of the aliens moved quickly. He was sure Gordon was right. But he wasn’t sure enough to say it out loud.

  Murphy met them at the entrance to the building. He did a double-take at the sight of Buddy but he regained his steely composure. He waved a soldier forward and the guy took Buddy by the collar and led him away from the group.

  David yelled after the soldier, “Take good care of him or I’ll kill you.”

  Murphy laughed heartily at the threat.

  The sight of him infuriated David like he knew it would but he reined in his anger for the sake of the mission, whatever it was going to be. He looked exactly the same with his short cropped graying hair, designer stubble, khakis, and short sleeved shirt. He looked casual but in a serious kind of way. He was slender but sturdy, like the kind of guy who beat up on larger men for fun, reveling in their looks of astonishment. David was bigger than him but that didn’t mean he felt at ease in his company.

  Murphy clapped him on the shoulder and said, “I’m glad you’re back. I hope I can trust you.”

  David shrugged noncommittally. “What’s the plan, sir?”

  “With the evidence you supplied, I’ve been able to convince some of the right people that aliens are now amongst us so we’re already mapping out a plan in conjunction with the United States military. Satellites are moving into position and a strike team is on its way north to nuke the landing site. How many individuals are we dealing with?”

  David grimaced. He didn’t know the exact number but he knew it was around fifty so he said, “Fifty, give or take. If the memories come back to me, I’ll let you know.”

  “And they’re all different, right?”

  “Yes. We’ll need different tactics for each one. Luckily, I know their strengths and weaknesses.”

  “I want to hear the whole story. Come with me.” He led him through the labyrinthine compound, around enough corners to make his head spin, and finally stopped at a big wooden door. “We’ve had many conversations in this office. Do you remember any of them?”

  “No I don’t. I only recall my last week or so here. What I remember is that I was alone and your people tortured me. I remember you only because my tormenters saluted you. I made sure to find out who you were before I escaped because I had it in my head that if I killed you, it would right some of the wrongs in the world. Unfortunately, I had a change of heart the moment I was free.”

  “It’s not as bad as you remember it. Of course, everything you said is true, but you left out one very important detail: you volunteered for this.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “It’s the truth. All of you did. When we accepted you, you were all smiles, knowing what you were about to go through. I guess that all changed.”

  “Yeah, maybe when you wiped my memories clean you accidentally wiped my enthusiasm for torture,” he spat sarcastically.

&n
bsp; “Don’t be so damn dramatic. I have footage. I’ll show it to you when this is all over. You’ll see that we did nothing to you that you didn’t authorize beforehand. This is honestly a big misunderstanding.”

  “It doesn’t matter now. But when this is over, I want to see the footage because I don’t believe you have it.”

  Murphy took a seat behind a large desk and beckoned for David to sit opposite him. He folded his fingers in his lap and then said, “You missed your final dosage, you know. You skipped out on us before we could give you most of your memories back.”

  “I don’t even think I want them.” He glared and then added, “Why would you take our memories and then give some of them back? Why not just take the right ones in the first place?”

  “The mind is a tricky thing to manipulate. We did the best we could with what we had.”

  “Or you could have just stopped poking around in our brains. Did you even consider that?” He took a deep breath to gather his emotions and then said, “Let me think about whether I’m willing to let you stick me with another needle. I don’t want to make that decision just yet.”

  “It’ll make you a better asset in the war ahead. You should take it.”

  David considered it but he stuck to his guns. “I’ll let you know if I change my mind.” The notion of giving the program even an inch of additional control over him did not sit well.

  “Okay then.” Murphy changed the subject. “Let’s get you armed, equipped and ready for hell. I’ve got three Humvees idling out front and enough guns to make the devil say, ‘holy shit’. We’ll have military support but you’re essentially on your own. We stay out of their way and they’ll avoid us like the plague.”

  “Alright. Before I leave here, I’ll write down everything I know about the ship, including its overall mission as I see it, the aliens in it, and why they stopped here. I don’t want to die and have that knowledge die with me.”

  “I only care about the aliens. I need to know how to kill them.”

  “Those memories are fuzzy but I’ll give you live updates as they come back to me.”

  “That’ll have to do, I suppose. Stacy will get you ready. I hope you got enough sleep because I’m sending you out within the hour.”

  “I napped on the flight in.”

  “Good man. Here’s a radio.” He tossed it across the desk. “Keep me up to date.”

  David stood and Murphy asked him to send Stacey in and wait for her outside the door. He hated to obey but now was not the time for pettiness. He walked from the room, nodded at Stacey and said, “Captain Dip-shit wants to see you.”

  She ignored the insult as did Murphy. As she walked in, Murphy said, “Close the door.”

  She did. When she came out, David checked her over. There was only one reason to exclude him from their conversation; they were going to screw him over somehow. He noticed a bulge in her left pocket and noted that she was doing her best to keep her left side out of his field of view. If he were a more sophisticated man or socially adept, he might have let it go at that, but he wasn’t so instead he did a little dash to the side, caught her off guard, and slipped his hand into her pocket. He pulled out a vial of clear liquid but Stacey snatched it out of his hands before he could read what it was.

  He knew already. “If you try to dose me with that, it’ll be the last thing you do.”

  She shook her head angrily. “You could’ve been our mightiest warrior. This dosage will unlock all of your potential. It might be the difference between victory and defeat.”

  “Or it could be poison. Just because you trust that old bastard doesn’t mean I have to. He’s a monster and monsters don’t do acts of kindness.”

  “He gave us everything. He loved you once, David. He loved you like a son.”

  That shut him up. The memory scrubs had taken more than just his fears; they’d taken part of his identity. He imagined he had a mother and father, and maybe a few siblings out in the world but he couldn’t remember them. He’d longed for something bigger than himself to belong to, but it was all blank. He assumed that final dosage would return memories of family but a stubborn part of him would rather suffer than give in to Murphy’s needs.

  “Give me the dose. If anyone is going to administer it, it will be me.”

  She hesitated so he grabbed her wrist and quickly took it from her. In the commotion, it barely registered that she’d elbowed him in the face. She was quicker than he thought. He wiped the blood from his nose and took a step back in case she decided to continue her attack but she stood down, saying, “Don’t you ever grab me aggressively again, David. That’s not the man I used to know.”

  “Then don’t ever hold out on me again. I’m not a weakling, Stacey. I’m not going to willingly allow you and Murphy to trick me.”

  She sighed. “You’re right. Keep that safe. It’s the only dose left. You’re lucky Murphy held out hope that you’d return one day or he might have disposed of it already.”

  Sarcastically, “Yeah, I’m a lucky guy.”

  “You know it’s his duty to execute you for what you did, right? You should appreciate that you’re still standing. He pulled a lot of strings just to get you here in one piece.”

  Now he felt some guilt and shame. When he’d escaped, he’d hurt several people. Not a day went by that he didn’t think about them. Not a day went by that he didn’t second guess his decision. Maybe he did deserve to be put to death for what he’d done, but so did Murphy.

  He stared long and hard at the vial in his hand and then pocketed it before asking for a syringe.

  “You drink the last dose.”

  He felt a little better knowing that. “What’s next?”

  “We get geared up and then we use up-to-the-minute intel to help us track down these aliens of yours. Then we kill them. Does that sound like a good enough plan?”

  “It sure does. It’s what I’ve been waiting to hear all day.”

  “Don’t lose that serum, okay.”

  “I’ll keep it safe.”

  “Come on. Let’s get ready for a fight.” She rushed out of the building with the team chasing after her and David lagging far behind. She ran halfway around the compound and then a sentry let her into the smallest of the buildings. Inside they found every state of the art gadget and firearm known to man. Olaf’s eyes lit up. “I was just waiting for them to give us the keys to their deadly kingdom. I get dibs on explosive rounds.”

  Stacey said, “There’s enough to go around. Stock up well, like you’ll never see this place again.”

  That sobered the room. They each grabbed two duffels and loaded up. David knew weapons but not like the team did. He grabbed some grenades but Gunner took them from him. “Those are smoke. Don’t weigh yourself down with that crap. Here, take these frags and flash-bangs.” She pointed to two crates to the right so David followed her advice and grabbed a couple dozen of each type of grenade. He slung an assault rifle over both shoulders, making sure they were both the same make because he didn’t want to have to worry about ammo compatibility. Then he grabbed three hand-cannons. He slipped a knife into each boot. When he was sure he could take out a small army with his weapons he loaded up on ammo. He grabbed a flak jacket and kneepads for good measure.

  Stacey and Felix pulled a dolly behind then that had rocket launchers and RPG’s. There was a high caliber rifle mounted to a tripod too. This was exactly what David had hoped for; they were going all out.

  They filed out of the building just as a convoy of three brand new Humvees rolled up to them. The drivers got out, saluted and then marched away.

  Stacey said, “David’s with me. Felix, you go with Gunner. Olaf’s with Gordon.”

  Gordon said jokingly, “I’m as good as dead then.”

  Olaf ignored the insult.

  Stacey said, “We’re headed North with full military clearance. The radiation zone doesn’t extend this far so we have a lot of ground to cover.”

  David felt foolish now. He’d been argu
ing with Murphy and Stacey about trivial things while his home was being obliterated. He wondered how many people in northern Wisconsin were being labeled collateral damage by the military.

  Just as his spirits sank he saw Buddy jumping around inside the front Humvee, smearing snot and drool all over the passenger side window. The sight of him cheered him up despite the dire situation ahead.

  Kill Some Aliens

  They got in their respective vehicles and Stacey led the way out through the gates of the compound. They took main roads, but that didn’t slow them down. They were doing ninety all the way into Wisconsin.

  As soon as they crossed over the border, David said, “Stop. I saw something.” He’d seen two aliens running in the opposite direction alongside the road. If he hadn’t seen them he didn’t know if anyone else would have.

  He knew them on sight. One was tall and lanky but it was cunning and manipulative. The other was strong but stupid, the perfect cohort for the other. The tall one had probably tricked the fat one into being his accomplice somehow. David knew enough to target the taller alien first.

  “There are two of them. Take out the skinny dude first. The little fat guy will fall quickly once its master is dead.”

  Stacey relayed the info to the team through her radio and then asked David, “How do we kill them?”

  “Um, we shoot them with our guns.”

  “I thought you had some sort of inside line on these assholes.”

  He sighed but she was right, she deserved to be told everything he remembered as he remembered it. “The tall one is the brains. He’s a manipulator and a scavenger. I bet you he’s headed towards the naval base or to your base of operations to stock up on weaponry. The other one is fierce in its own right but it’s been relegated to the role of a mere pet. Its only weapon is its barbed tongue. It’ll knock a hole right through you if it gets close enough. The problem is going to be that if we concentrate on the little fat guy, the big one will use the chaos against us. It’s a master of the ambush and it doesn’t fight fair. If we stand a chance we need to surprise it and take it out first. Is that enough insight for you?”