91
An hour later I’ve showered, changed, kissed Luke, and eaten the most delicious ham and cheese sandwich of my life. I’m back in my wheelchair/armor in the Enterprise briefing room, with a bottle of Coke in one hand and a laser pointer in the other. Behind me, the massive display shows the back side of the moon and the Th’un fleet hiding there.
“… as you can see. It’s a lot of ships and personnel. However, if I’m right, they weren’t expecting any Resistance and the drones they sent down were on a pre-programmed course. Which means they may not know the drones were destroyed.”
Everyone is here, and they were all excited to see me—especially Monica. I didn’t think her hug was ever going to end. I’m glad the belt I designed for her still works. I’m amazed at the difference in attitude since she got her body back. I mean, yeah, I get it. Being an elemental sucks… but she went from outright hostile to bubbly and pleasant.
Not that the rest of the team wasn’t happy to see me—just no extended hugs. Tony nearly tripped over himself when I introduced him to Augustina. To my surprise, she morphed again and now her features look distinctly Asian.
Tessa even cracked a smile when she saw me, which is saying a lot. She’s hanging in the back with Teddy; they seem to be getting along well, which I’m grateful for. Teddy is, among other things, a psychologist. If anyone can help her through the trauma she’s endured, it’s him.
Domino is sticking close to Augustina like she’s expecting her to sprout wings and attack at any second. And Luke… I sigh inwardly. Luke is right next to me. He pats my tummy under the table like he can tell I’m thinking about him, which his cute way of patting my knee… except I can’t feel my knees, so stomach it is.
Fleet raises his hand and I nod for him to go ahead. “How do they not know their drones failed? Aren’t they some super advanced alien race?”
“Ayyyy-leeee-ennnnn.” Augustina says from next to him. She’s watching his mouth as he speaks like she’s still trying to figure this whole ‘speaking’ thing out. Fleet smiles at her as she copies him. Kate shakes her head. It doesn’t take an empath to know what our resident speedster is thinking.
“You would be correct, but I have a theory. I don’t think they invented the technology they use. Their behavior strikes me as very scavenger-like. Maybe there are scientists and engineers on their planet, but the people here… they’re soldiers and warriors. Sure, they know how to use the stuff they’re issued, but not how it works. They’re parked behind the moon so we can’t see them, sending down drones in pre-programmed courses. The very thing that hides them from us, hides us from them. Radio signals don’t bend.”
Fleet shakes his head, a move Augustina mimics. It’s kind of weird to watch her attach to him so quickly. “How is it possible they aren’t advanced enough to squash us like flies? I’ve seen enough movies to know that if aliens really had the tech to come here… we’d never be able to defeat them,” he says not taking his eyes off of Augustina.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I think that is exactly what saved us. They don’t expect us to be able to stop them. Think about this—what would have happened to our world if there were no superheroes? No people with powers?”
They all look at each other and shrug. Kate speaks up, “We’d all be dead. Those drones were probably programmed to take out infrastructure like power generation first. Even if we pulled a Russia and nuked the ones that landed in the US we’d still have a disaster to deal with. We’d either have no power or millions dead from nuking our own cities. I’d like to think we wouldn’t nuke a civilian population— but I’m not that naive.”
“I agree,” I say with a sigh. “Clearly the Lux—” I point at Augustina “—have powers of some kind.”
“Luuuu-x,” she says with a smile. “Lux!”
“But it may be that we are the first people they’ve come across with non-technology-based abilities to our magnitude.”
“Lux… Lux have power. Luxilla doesn’t,” she says almost clearly.
“You’re the only one of your people with powers?” Tony asks.
She nods very carefully, “Augustina special. Augustina heart of Lux. Princess.”
“She’s certainly picking up our language fast,” Kate says suspiciously.
“Lux special,” the alien says again.
“I’m glad you’re with us, Lux,” Luke adds. “And thank you for bringing back Amelia.”
“Amelia special,” Augustina says.
“Yes she is,” Luke replies looking at me with a smile.
My cheeks heat and I try to hide it with a swig of Coke. “Okay, this is off topic. My point is, they may not know their plans aren’t working. They probably have a timetable they stick to and when the time is right—”
“—they land troops,” Luke finishes for me.”
“So, what’s the plan, boss lady?” Tessa asks. “Last time I checked, I can’t breathe in outer space.”
“I know, and I’m working on that. For now, I think we’ll split into two teams. Those of us who can go into space, and those who can’t.”
I’m waiting for realization to sink in. Luke stiffens beside me and I can see him looking hard at me from the corner of my eye.
“Amelia,” Kate says quietly, “you’re the only person who can go into space.”
I nod. “I know. I have some upgrades in mind for the suit, armor, weapons, the whole shebang. I just need a little time to implement them.” I glance at Lux for a second, wondering if she knows Epic is studying her tech right this moment. If I can adapt the liquid metal—heck, any of her tech—I can make Arsenal a force multiplier to be reckoned with.
“I’m not a fan of that plan,” Luke says to me. Not loud enough for anyone else to hear. I give him a tight smile.
“I know.” Then to everyone else, “Listen, this isn’t set in stone. Plans don’t survive contact with the enemy. But… the more ships we can take out up there, the more they can’t land here. And if we can get the jump on them… well, in the immortal words of Lucky Jack… ‘Surprise is on our side.’ And surprise makes mountains out of men. It can turn losing odds in our favor and weaken our enemy before they know what has hit them!”
“Who the hell is Lucky Jack?” Tessa asks.
I shake my head. “For God’s sake woman, read a book!”
“A-meal-yuh?” Lux asks.
“Yes?”
“I can go space.”
“Can your ship fight? It didn’t seem like much more than a scout ship.”
She shakes her head. “Ship for quantum g-g-gate. Lux has power.” She leans off the wall from her mimic of Fleet and her hands shoot out beside her. The room fills with a blazing light for a second; when I can see again Lux is surrounded by a shimmering mirage of power. “Lux,” she says pointing to the starburst on her chest. “Light. People of the Light. Power of the sun.” The light fades and she’s herself again.
“Wow, good to know. See,” I say to Luke, “I won’t be going alone.”
“Sorry to bother you mum, but there is a young man at the front door who would like to see you,” Milton says over the speakers.
“A young man? Did he drive here?”
“Actually mum, he just appeared.”
I glance at Kate and she gets that faraway look she does when she’s using her powers. She gasps. “Milton, on screen,” she says breathlessly.
“Carlos!” I squeal. I don’t waste a second wheeling for the door. “Meeting dismissed. Fleet, show Lux around, okay?” I don’t wait for his answer as I’m already halfway to the elevator. “Open,” I yell, sliding to a halt outside the door.
Luke and Kate appear next to me. “I have a faster way,” she says. A touch of her cool hand on my shoulder and a pop in my ear and we’re outside in the heat next to Carlos.”
“Carlos!” I wish more than anything I could throw my arms around him, but I have to wait for him to bend down, which he does. God, he smells like home and… his shoulders are like rocks. He pulls
back from me and smiles, and I look up at him, really look. He’s changed in the few months since I last saw him. Ripcord thick arms and legs, and all the baby fat he carried around his face is gone—as is his perpetual peach fuzz. His chin is far more chiseled then it used to be.
“How? I thought you went to Spain for guitar lessons?”
Kate appears again with Luke. “Carlos?” Kate asks. She moves in and gives him a hug and I can see him hesitate before putting his hands around her waist. Okay, something is up; the old Carlos would’ve jumped to have her in his arms and probably fainted as soon as he touched her. When she steps back, there is an odd look of appreciation on her face. “Whatever you’re doing, I like it,” she says to him. Did… Did she just flirt with him?
“What happened?” I ask after he lets her go and shakes Luke’s hand.
“Maybe we can talk inside? I’m not sure you’ll believe me. And… I could really use a Coke. It’s been forever.”
Amelia.
“One second Carlos.”
A drone has entered orbit. Tracking radar puts it on a trajectory to land in Antarctica.
“Antarctica? Why?”
Unknown. I can only estimate the things it might do, none of them would be good. Antarctica falls outside the bounds of any one country. At max speed, you can be there in one hour, thirty-eight minutes.
“Can we speed that up if we go sub-orbital?”
On a vertical course heading perpendicular to the rotation of the Earth, it will do us no good. We’d have to spend as much time slowing down as speeding up. At Mach Six, we can stay in the atmosphere without exceeding the suit’s tolerance for heat and pressure.
I look at Luke, then Kate. “It’s the Antarctic… it will take me an hour and a half to get there.” I do some quick math in my head and I’m disappointed at the results. “Almost six hours for the Emjet, I’m sorry Luke, I have to go.”
“I—” he closes his eyes and kneels down beside me, “I understand. When you get back we need to talk about… things.” He reaches around me and pulls me into a fierce hug.
I wish I could stay. Mainly to talk to Luke but also to get some sleep: I’m exhausted. “Kate, listen for me when I get there. Have Milton find you all some cold weather gear. I might need you in a hurry.”
“Be safe, Amelia. I’m a—” she makes the boop sound and snaps her fingers “—away if you need me.”
“Carlos, I’ll be back in a few hours. Kate will show you around. You can hang out in my room. You’re gonna love the PC I have.”
“Amelia…” he says, looking down at me. I guess he thinks better of it because he shakes his head. “Okay, see you in a little bit.”
I glance at Kate and she shrugs. I don’t have time to worry about it. Epic’s put a clock up on my glasses. The drone lands in thirty minutes. Whatever it is doing, it will have a whole hour head start on me.
“Epic,” I say as I wheel back. “Initiate!”
92
The Emjets whine as I cruise over Chile at almost five thousand miles-per-hour. The air in front of me can hardly get out of the way fast enough and if I weren’t locked up I’d probably be dead. Human bodies just weren’t meant to go this fast. Lucky for me I have an AI as my co-pilot and when we break the speed of sound or fly into orbit, he takes over.
Ten minutes. Epic informs me.
Thankfully I managed to sneak in a quick nap once we were traveling on a level course over South America. I feel a million times better. At least physically. The entire situation has my anxiety spiking. Despite my front to the team, I’m worried. Their fleet was frigging huge and even Lux had to stay hiding to keep from being destroyed. Even with the changes to the mass driver, I don’t know if it will help. I had to make the weapon an order of magnitude less potent; I simply can’t be knocked unconscious by the shock wave every time I fire it. For once in my life, I had to think smaller. This has the added benefit of letting me use it more often and quicker, but at the expense of power. Which means I don’t know if it will even stop one of these things.
And Carlos! I can’t believe he’s back and so frigging handsome! If he wasn’t my friend and I wasn’t attached to Luke, I’d be giving him some serious eyes. But no matter the changes he’s gone through, he’s still my friend and I just don’t think of him that way. Still, dang.
Five minutes. Do you have a plan?
“Blowing it up isn’t a plan?”
No.
“We’ll scout it out and see what’s what. If I’m right, and I think I am, the drone will have an update from the last drones, but that process may be all automated. If the people controlling it knew they weren’t making it once they were down here, I don’t think they’d keep sending them our way.”
It is highly unlikely they are not at least partially aware of the failure of their drones.
“I can hope, can’t I?”
Just do not rush into anything on hope alone.
“Speaking of hope, I know you didn’t have much time but were you able to crack her ship’s computers?”
Like an egg. Milton is currently downloading everything in their database, along with schematics and technology.
“That was… uh, quick.”
You doubt me?
“No, but… still.”
I agree. I believe your hypothesis that the aliens are not as advanced as their faster than light travel implies, is correct. It might have something to do with their faster-than-light travel mechanic.
“How so?”
Imagine for a moment you were handed a massive power source and a way to travel the stars with it.
“You mean like a ZPFM and the quantum gate travel Lux mentioned?”
I guess you do not have to imagine very hard. If you shared the ZPFM with the world and assuming they did not blow themselves up, any old-style space shuttle would suddenly become an interstellar vehicle.
“All they would need is some kind of shielding to protect the crew through hard vacuum… and we have that right now. It just isn’t something we can launch into space.”
Agreed. In theory, the Th’un and the Lux should be thousands of years ahead of us… but what if they are not? What if they got lucky somehow. Either accidentally invented the ZPFM or it was given to them. They have an alloy that is not found on Earth and some powerful computer technology. Suddenly they can teleport where ever they want and…
“And the Th’un start conquering people to feed their economy. Matahal was smart, though, Epic. Really smart.”
The hypothesis is not perfect. Perhaps Matahal was a scientist or specially trained spy. Or maybe he had help. I do not know. Augustina, or Lux as you all are calling her, barely knows how to use her own tech. She has abilities she claims the rest of her people do not.
“Time’s up, buddy. Let’s make sure we discuss this with the team… assuming we survive.”
The thick cloud of black smoke rising up from a crater ahead of me is an ominous warning to what is happening. Epic cuts the drive and tilts me up to let friction and gravity take its course. The exterior temp spikes despite the sub-zero temperature as air pressure exerts itself against the suit and we go from Mach 6 to a few hundred miles an hour in sixty-seconds.
The crater is lined in black soot and easily a hundred feet wide. Black smoke billows out of the hole in the ground, obscuring whatever is down there. I take the controls back and hover the suit over the rim, cycling sensors through the electromagnetic spectrum to see what’s down there. The only hit is on thermal. Whatever is at the bottom is thousands of degrees.
“Best guess?”
Melting the ice caps suddenly could swamp the world under two hundred feet of water. If they have some form of nuclear fusion, they could heat it up to the point where the entire Continent melts. Instead of a natural, gradual erosion over time like has happened in past millennia, we would be inundated with more water in the oceans than exists in every river, lake, and inland sea combined. At the very least every coastal city would be destroyed.
Threat warning! Evasive maneuvers.
I don’t wait to find out what it is, just kick in the Emdrive and floor it. Three small drones each the size of a prop plane shoot out of the hole, firing those green chemical lasers at me.
The blasts crisscross the space I was just in. I pull hard over, firing an IP cannon at the first one. The blue energy just fizzles against the surface as I pull a tight turn and kick in the jets. Snow erupts in a fireball the size of a house behind me, followed by a gout of steam rising into the sky.
“Are they—” I grunt from the g’s, "made of the same material?”
Affirmative.
Spinning onto my back I bracket one with the Particle beam and open fire. The hyper-accelerated particles flash to life ionizing the air as they smash into the thing at near light speed. The first burst lights it up and the second cuts off a wing, sending the drone tumbling to the snow below.
“Track the location. I want as much of their metal as I can get!”
Will do.
The other two drones drop in behind me like fighters going in for the kill. The laser cannons slung on the underside of the front of their carriage makes them look like mandibles. I drop down low, skimming the snow. As soon as they match altitude, I roll spreading my arms out wide to catch the wind and pull up as more beams slash through the air where I just was.
“Kinetic lance!” I dive back down lining up the one on the right. There’s a quick kick as the lance discharges and smashes the targeted drone right into the snow. It digs a furrow in the snow and ice before sliding to a stop.
“Unlock the Sword of Doom.”
Have you trademarked the name?
“Make a note,” I say as I bring the blade to play. The last drone zooms by, letting out a blast of white energy pulling an incredibly sharp turn. I still fly right by it and swing for the fences. The blade screeches along the alien metal, shredding the exterior before hitting something vital; the drone explodes in my face. Shrapnel stops dead on my shielding, but the concussive shockwave slams me into the snow with a grunt.
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 50
