Collector Ship

by Adam Moon

  Stacey led the way and David followed behind her in his own Humvee, with Buddy in the passenger seat. Being alone gave him time to reflect on a life that he’d only recently found. He had a family and a girlfriend. He had friends and a purpose. He didn’t feel complete but he felt better than he had in months. The downside to it was, now he had people in his life that he cared for and they were all in danger. The upside was that with his new memories came new abilities that would help him keep his loved ones safe.

  He picked up the radio from the dash and said into it, “Murphy, you might want to warn everyone that most of the intelligent aliens will try and arm themselves. That means they’ll descend upon your compound as well as the naval base. Also, if I were you, I’d make sure to empty out every gun shop around before they get there first.”

  Stacey’s voice came back. “You called me by accident, dumbass. Dad is channel two.”

  David turned it to channel two and relayed his concerns to Murphy. Murphy said, “We assumed something along those lines but we didn’t think to clear out the gun shops. I’ll see if we can do that. Thanks.”

  Several boring hours later they stopped at a truck stop in Louisville where Olaf and Gordon were waiting for them.

  The two men were inside the diner eating an early breakfast. When they saw them, they paid their tab and left quickly. The sight of them brought back fresh memories in David. He remembered them from the program but he also knew Gordon from a stint he did in Germany. Back then Gordon was a fun loving party animal. Apparently he’d grown up since then.

  Olaf led them to the back of their Humvee and opened it. Inside was a squishy brown alien with spines that covered every inch of its body. It had no eyes or ears, or even a nose. If it had a mouth, they couldn’t see it. David knew it on sight. It was number fourteen on his list. He ranked it so high because it was poisonous and aggressive.

  Olaf said, “We hit this dickhead with the truck when it tried to run away from us.”

  Gordon laughed. “He should also tell you that he backed over it when we saw that it wasn’t dead yet.”

  David sighed. “You’re lucky you were inside the truck. That thing has poisonous spines that it can fire at you.”

  Gordon smiled wide. “You got your memories back, didn’t you?”

  “Yep. I remember everything now, including how to kill each and every one of those aliens.”

  “Well it turns out that some of them have a weakness for high speed Humvees.”

  Stacey asked, “Why didn’t you radio the kill in?”

  “Because Murphy would’ve made us bring it back to him. Then we’d have to waste even more time doubling back just to start from scratch again.”

  “So what are you going to do with it, transport it everywhere you go?”

  “I figure we can take a picture of it to prove it’s dead and then burn it.” He paused and then asked David, “Will burning it release its poisons?”

  “I have no idea. You’re better off setting it on fire and getting the hell away from it, just to be safe.”

  Stacey chewed her bottom lip. “Dad’s not going to like it. He wants all specimens sent to the lab.”

  Olaf shrugged. “If he was here then he’d have a say in the matter. And now that we have a mission that does not allow for doubling back, I feel like it’s our only choice.”

  She shook her head. “We’ll put it in storage for later retrieval.” Then she looked around at all the men and mused, “It’s funny how easy it is to become accustomed to things; even the weirdest things. Two days ago each one of us standing here would have given our lives to secure an alien carcass for scientific research, and here we are now, considering burning this one because we’ve already seen so many.”

  Gordon said, “You’re right. We’ll seal it and store it somewhere around here. I’ll give the address of the storage facility to Murphy and then it’ll be his problem.” He looked at David. “So what’s the plan?”

  David filled in the details that Murphy had clearly omitted. “There’s an alien here who is head and shoulders above the rest. It won’t stoop to petty fights for survival. It’s heading to Florida. Its plan will be to first get away from the planet, to relative safety, and then it will design some sort of communications array and order an attack. No one will survive it.”

  “No wonder Murphy told us to wait for back-up. Let’s get moving.”

  Stacey thought out loud. “If a more advanced species of aliens is responsible for the ship that was sent out into the galaxy to gather all of these aliens up for some sort of fight to the death, then why would they collect an alien as ruthless as alien number one?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why would they subject themselves to it? It accidentally got loose on our planet and look what it’s going to try and do to us. I can only imagine it would try the same sort of thing on the planet it was supposed to fight on. I don’t get why it was included with the others.”

  “I see. You assume three things, though. You assume that the ship was going drop us off on the host’s planet but we don’t know that. Maybe it was going to set down on a world far from their home. Secondly, you’re assuming the collector aliens would fear alien number one the way we do, but that might not be the case. Maybe they’re so advanced that alien number one poses them no threat at all. And third of all, you’re assuming the collector aliens knew exactly what they were collecting. What if they had no idea what they’d sent for? What if the ship did all the planning without any input from them? The knowledge I have of the escaped aliens was supplied by the ship but I have no way of knowing if it was preprogrammed by the collector aliens or if the ship itself gathered the intel and then relayed it to me. Maybe the aliens programmed the ship to pick up the greatest warriors from each planet without giving a damn how dangerous each of them was.”

  Olaf chuckled. “Are you insinuating that you’re the greatest warrior on Earth and that’s why you were targeted for abduction?”

  David shrugged because he truly had no idea if his theory was correct. He wasn’t arrogant by nature but it made a lot of sense. He said, “We have no way of knowing so it’s a moot point. We have a mission and that’s all that matters now.”

  Now Olaf shrugged and Stacey said, “You’re right. Let’s get moving.”

  They stopped at one of those self storage facilities, gingerly wrapped the poisonous alien in tarps and then in thick blankets, and then they placed its squishy body on a skid and closed the door. Stacey radioed it in to Murphy but he didn’t respond to her call so she sent him a text message just in case she forgot to radio him later about it.

  In all the time she’d worked with her dad, he had never missed a call. That worried her more than the fight they had ahead of them in Florida.

  At the south end of Georgia, he called back. He was out of breath but clearly trying to convey a false calm. “A type of dirty bomb went off in southeastern Wisconsin. It was coupled with a deadly nerve gas. The survivors are evacuating but the roads are clogged so it’ll be some time before we set up a new base of operations.”

  David yelled in a panic, “Is everyone alright? Is Gunner alright?”

  “All of our people are fine. Gunner and Felix were out of range. But we need to make sure we outrun the winds bringing contamination this way or we’ll be in trouble.”

  Olaf asked, “Did the naval base evacuate too?”

  “I believe some of them evacuated. The last I heard, the alien specimens were in transit.” Then he said, “David, do you know which alien could be capable of an attack like this?”

  David had several candidates but two stood out. “Number three on the list could be considered a fair suspect. If it got its hands on a nerve gas and a bomb to disperse it, it would definitely set it off to maximum effect. But number seven is our likeliest suspect. Number seven is bright but it’s a coward who fights without fighting. If it felt threatened by humanity, it would kidnap a single human, study its biology and create something to shut d
own said biology. That’s how it attacks.”

  “What does it look like? Where do you think it went?”

  “It’s amphibious so don’t rule out the smaller lakes or Lake Michigan as a place it might hide. The waters aren’t ideal for its make-up so it’ll have to come up for air often.”

  Murphy coughed and then paused, waiting for David to tell him what to look for.

  David stammered, “Oh yeah, it looks just like an alien. By that I mean it looks like one of those big headed grey aliens from the movies. The only difference is that it has fifteen fingers on each hand, no feet at all, and its skin is black and shiny. It also wears these watertight overalls that it uses to carry all of its equipment. If it reaches into its overalls, kill it because it keeps weapons there too.”

  “Okay. I’ll see about getting a team suited up to trawl the lakes for it. Can we kill it with conventional weapons?”

  “Yes. Be careful.”

  Stacey added, “Let us know where you decide to set up base.”

  “We’re heading to southern Illinois. If the cloud disperses by then we’ll set up camp. You’ll be the first to know where we decide to stop. Just make sure you get ahead of alien number one. We’ll handle things up north until you get back.”

  David wasn’t so sure Murphy had things under control, though. Just because they were hot on the trail of the most deadly alien didn’t mean they should ignore the other threats. But for the time being, they had to just to stay focused.

  When he hung up the radio, Buddy looked at him with bleary eyes, yawned, and then fell back asleep. His dog was taking most of it in stride, despite how bizarre his canine life had turned out in the past few days.

  He couldn’t help but think of Gunner. He knew now how close they’d become and the thought of being away from her sent waves of regret through him. Murphy had said she was alright, but how could he be sure he hadn’t lied about it just so David didn’t double back? Could he really trust a father who treated him like nothing more than a weapon?

  He dialed Murphy again and said, “Put Gunner on. I want to tell her something.”

  “I don’t have time for this shit, David. Set your radio to five on the dial.”

  He did and then said into it, “Gunner, do you copy?”

  Gunner’s unmistakable voice came back, “You know you can call me Betty, sweetheart. How are you?”

  “I’m fine. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “Oh. But your dad told me he already told you that I was fine.”

  “He did.” He paused. “I just wanted to hear for myself.”

  “You can trust him, David. He’s not a liar.”

  “I guess I know that but I’m having a hard time distinguishing between memories. There’s still a part of me that will never trust him.”

  “Those memories of a big evil Murphy mastermind were false, concocted within your own head. You need to know that your dad is a good man.”

  “It’s good to hear your voice.”

  “You too. Be safe out there.”

  He hung up the radio on the dash and laid his hand on Buddy’s head.

  He knew she was right about his father but it would take time to erase the false memories he’d concocted about him. He’d spent the last six months hating the very thought of him and those memories were just as real as those once hidden memories given back to him by the serum.

  They passed into Florida without issues. Intel was scarce to the south of Illinois so it was no surprise that they didn’t encounter any aliens so far south.

  They drove right through the night, the airways remaining clear except for when Olaf imagined he’d seen movement in the swamps that sandwiched the road. After the third instance, they forbade him from using the radio. He was exhausted and probably just seeing things.

  The approach to Cape Canaveral was equally tedious. They parked off to the sides of the road leading in from the north and waited. If alien threat number one was coming that way by road, it would have to get past them.

  Stacey drove on, to check in and see if the alien had already made it there before them but they knew there was no way it had outraced them. She radioed back that all appeared clear and then she rejoined them to wait.

  After an hour, Olaf asked, “Are we sure it was headed this way?”

  David shrugged. He didn’t have any insight beyond what he’d already told them. “It seems like the likeliest place. I suppose it could’ve tried the Boeing test facility or something like that but its best bet for a rocket that’s already prepped for launch is Cape Canaveral. It makes sense.”

  Gordon thought aloud. “It could’ve gone to the European space agency or flown to China but those are so far from here. I think you must be right. It has to be coming this way. I just wish the stupid thing would hurry up.”

  Stacey chewed her bottom lip. “I wish we’d asked for additional intel. What if there’s some sort of secret underground facility that has space worthy ships ready to fly and we just don’t know about them? What if alien number one figured it out before we even thought to check?” She keyed her radio and asked Murphy, “Can you find out if there are any other likely places this alien might be headed to? Are there closer rockets that are ready for launch besides those in Florida? I ask because we haven’t seen it yet and we’re starting to think it’s not coming.”

  Murphy came back saying, “The most advanced rocketry ready for launch at this moment is at Cape Canaveral. I don’t know what else to tell you except to be patient.”

  David jumped up and said, “That’s not entirely true. The most advanced space worthy ship on this planet is the alien collector ship. We need to guard it. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before.” The downside of regaining all of his training, it seemed, was that he was absolutely certain of everything he thought and did. He never even considered second guessing himself. He knew at that moment that he had to find a way to tap into his old uncertainties. The fate of the world was at stake and he’d barreled ahead without thinking everything through thoroughly. To Murphy he asked, “Where did the navy take the alien ship? I think number one will try to take it from them.”

  There was added urgency in Murphy’s voice. “My God, you’re right. They set up base in Charleston, South Carolina with the ship and the alien carcasses. I’ll send a relief team to cover you guys so you can get there as soon as possible. Leave now!”

  Charleston

  Stacey was already starting her truck. Olaf and Gordon were slamming their doors. David hung his head, feeling like a fool. Cape Canaveral made the most sense if it wanted to take a human made ship but why would it bother when such an advanced ship was available?

  He wondered if they’d scared it away from the collector ship when they showed up in the chopper to transport it to the navy yard. He wondered if it watched them from the trees in anger as they removed its lifeline. If it had followed the collector ship from there, it might already be casing out the Charleston naval base. They were out of time if they wanted to stop it. They had to get there as if the entire planet depended on them, which it most certainly did.

  No one waited for him to come to his senses so he had to jump in his Humvee and catch up to the rest of them. They had a 400 mile drive ahead but at the rate they were going they’d be there in less than four hours.

  Murphy radioed them to say, “I spoke to the Commander at the base. He has stepped up security and agreed to let us help him. I’d send Gunner and Felix to help you but they’ve got their hands full here and they’re too far away to be any help anyway. Good luck.”

  No one bothered talking back to him because they were too focused on the high speed drive to save the planet.

  It was just before noon when they arrived at the base. It took some persuading to get the guards to contact the Commander directly, especially since they weren’t military in the conventional sense and they were armed to the teeth, attempting to enter a military installation.

  They were eventually let throu
gh the security gates. David let out a sigh of relief to see day to day activities taking place because if the alien had already stolen the ship the base would be alive with chaos. The calm meant they’d outraced alien number one to its prize.

  An armed officer ushered them to three parking spaces and then asked them to follow him. He led them towards a white building adorned with flags waving in the breeze.

  The Commander met them at the entrance and waved his man off. He said, “I’m Commander Henshaw. Come with me.” Then he looked at Buddy and said, “He can’t come with us. I’ll make sure he’s well taken care of.” He beckoned over a soldier and told her to take Buddy to the mess hall and to feed him whatever he wanted.

  Buddy looked at David with suspicion in his soulful eyes so David rubbed his ear and said gently, “It’s okay.” That seemed to do the trick because as soon as the soldier whistled, Buddy sprinted after her.

  Henshaw led them across the grass to an adjoining building. The building was barren except for a huge freight elevator, two turrets mounted to the concrete floor, and a smaller personnel elevator. It had a huge hangar door at the rear with an even bigger turret covering it, mounted to the ceiling.

  He used a key and a code to call the elevator and then said in his most serious tone, “What I’m about to show you has never been seen by civilian eyes.”

  Stacey guffawed. “We sent it to you, dumbass.”

  Everyone laughed except for the Commander. His face flushed. “Of course. I apologize. It has been a whirlwind of activity since we received it. In all of the mayhem, I suppose I forgot that.” He paused and regained his composure. “Then you know what to expect. Come on.”

  He let them in the elevator and then used the same key and code to activate it. They felt it descend, and not by a floor or two, but by dozens. By the time it came to a stop, Henshaw said, “We’re now over three hundred feet below the surface. If Murphy’s right that an alien will come for the ship, it’ll have a hell of a time getting to it. We’re more fortified here than we were back in Illinois.”