Aphelion

by L. J. Higgins

  “Yes. Everything I ever told you was the truth.”

  “Then why are you sabotaging our missions? Why are you saving aliens?”

  “Because… ah, crap. Do we have to do this now? Like this?”

  “Tell me.” I pointed the gun at his forehead. He knew I wouldn’t miss, despite the way my hands shook.

  “There’s something you need to see. I’ve wanted to tell you since the moment we first met, but you were in so much deeper than I thought you would be. I didn’t know if you’d listen to what I had to say or kill me for it…”

  I inched forward, feeling my hands tighten on the rifle. “Well, you better get talking then or I’ll shoot you in the head.”

  “I just need you to believe me. Everything I’ve ever said was true. How I feel about you is real. I wanted to tell you…”

  “But you didn’t say anything, did you? Instead you acted like my friend, made me trust you when you were lying to me the entire time. You tricked me into liking you so you could stop me from killing those alien vermin!”

  “No, it’s not like that, Ky. Please, there’s something you need to see. Let me show you, and then you can do whatever you want with me. I’ll come willingly back to Skywatchers if that’s what you want, or you can shoot me on the spot. Just please, let me show you.”

  My bottom lip quivered, and I gritted my teeth to still it. How could I trust him? My heart felt as though it was shattering into a million pieces and my chest had constricted, making it harder to breathe. I’d finally let someone in, trusted someone to see the real me, and he’d repaid me by lying to me and sabotaging everything I’d worked so hard for. I’d been stupid to think I could let someone in. Stupid to think keeping my walls up wasn’t the best plan of action.

  “How can I trust you won’t try to kill me?”

  His mouth flattened into a thin, determined line. “I’d never hurt you. I promise.”

  “Yeah, sure. So what was that scramble five minutes ago?”

  “I was trying to stop you from shooting me. Stop you from doing yet another thing you’ll regret.”

  “And why would I regret shooting your traitorous ass?”

  “Because after you killed me, and you watched the video on my phone, you’d know you made a grave mistake.”

  My head hurt, caught in a tug-of-war with my heart. The old Ky would’ve shot him ten minutes ago, leaving him to bleed out before he could get a word in. But I’d trusted him. Thought he was one of the good guys. My damned heart won out.

  “Give me one reason I should watch your stupid video?” I demanded.

  “It’s from your brother. It’s from Tyson.”

  That would be a good reason.

  My eyes widened. He knew that would get my attention. Was he just trying to get into my head like he had so many times before? Could he possibly be telling the truth?

  No. Tyson was dead. He’d died two years ago.

  But they never found his body. Or anybody the aliens supposedly killed.

  Ah, dammit.

  “Fine. Show me. But no funny business. Just because I kissed you doesn’t mean I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your back-stabbing heart,” I growled, stopping my voice from pitching.

  He reached down and slowly pulled a small phone from his belt. He pressed a few buttons, then held it out for me to see the screen.

  My heart stilled at the sight, but I didn’t relax my grip on my weapon. There, on the screen, was a face I thought I’d never see again. A face I’d missed for over two years. The face of my brother.

  He was older than the last time I saw him, that much was certain. His once short black hair had grown down to his ears, his ice blue eyes framed by black glasses had smudges of darkness below them. He looked the same, but he’d been aged by something more than just the passage of time, as though he’d been through hell and back and lived to tell the tale.

  “Tyson.” My body relaxed at the sight of his image. Without a thought, I released my weapon with one hand and took the phone from Reece.

  “Press play,” Reece instructed.

  Without taking my eyes from my brother’s face, I secured my gun to my back. Two years, it’d been, since I’d seen his crooked smile. The way he scratched his flared nostrils when he was nervous.

  All the memories came flooding back like a tsunami. The day we found out our parents weren’t coming home and he’d let me crawl into his bed to cry myself to sleep. The days we spent at the beach, kicking around a footy and diving under the waves. The lone gift under the Christmas tree, even though we’d promised we weren’t getting each other anything.

  The last time I saw him before the aliens invaded.

  “Are you okay?” asked Reece.

  Realising tears were slicing down my cheeks, I wiped them away with my sleeve. I drew in a deep breath and pressed play.

  “Kylah,” said Tyson, his crystal blue eyes boring right into me.

  My name sounded familiar but foreign at the same time as it came off his tongue.

  “If you’re watching this, it means Reece found you. As you can see, I’m alive and well, in hiding from the people you work for. Skywatchers.”

  My jaw dropped open slightly, my fingers tightening their grip on the phone. What on earth was he saying?

  “A few months before the aliens came and the government retaliated, I discovered the truth behind the invasion,” he continued. “I decided I couldn’t sit by and watch as our government slaughtered thousands of innocent people. It didn’t matter that they weren’t from our planet. The aliens, or Solians, had been making the voyage to Earth from their planet Terra Sol for years, communicating, sharing their technology, and knowledge about the universe with our leaders. I couldn’t understand why, after all this time, they suddenly chose to eradicate them.”

  I reluctantly tore my gaze from Tyson’s for a moment, to find staring into the damp blue eyes of Reece. He nodded, urging me to keep listening.

  “My friend was being tracked by the organisation you work for,” Tyson went on. “When they came for him, I tried to protect him. Government agents shot me in the exchange. My friend took me to a secret location where aliens had gathered in the hope of finding a way back to their planet. They healed me and took me in as one of their own. By the time I was healthy enough to return to you, I was told you’d been taken in by the same people who tried to kill me. For the past two years, I’ve been working to help free the aliens trapped on our planet and working out a way to get you away from Skywatchers. To show you the truth.”

  Tears trickled over my cheeks. I swallowed hard as Tyson finished. “My friend has endured so much, and risked his life to save you. Kylah, meet Reece. My saviour and alien friend. You can trust him, and he will bring you to me. I love you.”

  Tyson’s face froze on the screen at his final words. I instinctively ran my fingertips over its surface. ‘I love you too,” I whispered.

  Chapter Twenty

  I stood, staring at my brother’s face, frozen on the screen in front of me. He was alive. Reece was a… a…

  “You’re an alien?” I tore my eyes from the screen and stared at Reece, who still crouched on the ground in front of me.

  He nodded, as though gauging my reaction before speaking. “We call ourselves Solians.”

  “Solians,” I repeated.

  “I know, it’s a lot to take in.”

  “But you got through the training… On missions, you weren’t blue through my scope…” I swallowed hard. “How?”

  “There are pigments in our skin that make me look blue through a scope or testing machine,” he explained. “Tyson created an elixir that masks it. I’ve had to take a vial every day since I started my training to disguise my true… nature from Skywatchers. And from you.”

  I nodded. Of course he did. My nerdy brother, still creating concoctions in a lab.

  “Can I call him?” I held up the phone.

  “I’m afraid not,” he replied, wincing at my disappointment. “All that’s
on that device is this video. You don’t know how many times I wanted to show it to you. To leave it on your bed so you can hear it for yourself. But I had to know you were ready. That you were open to hearing what Tyson and I had to say. I can’t tell you how much I hate myself for lying to you. Especially when we’ve grown so close. But every time I thought you were ready something would happen that would scare me back into secrecy.”

  “You think I’m ready now?” I asked. “Or are you only showing me to keep me from putting a bullet in your brain?”

  I ignored the hurt in his eyes.

  “I knew everything would come to a head tonight. I wasn’t going to let you kill one of my kind just to keep my cover.”

  My jaw tightened. “That’s why you kept saying all of that mushy crap about how important I was to you?”

  “Yes. And I meant it,” he said. “I never imagined we’d grow so close, but I couldn’t stand by and watch you kill another innocent. I only hoped you’d give me the chance to show you the video before you killed me. I was scared Ricko would get his hands on it first, and that you’d never know the truth about Skywatchers. And that Tyson is alive and well.”

  Another piece clicked into place. “So, you were never useless. You’ve been saving the aliens all this time?”

  He nodded.

  “Mr. Barth?”

  He nodded again. “I made sure he spotted me through the window. I didn’t expect him to come out wielding a weapon though. I thought he’d go into hiding, not attack us. It’s not like our kind to be violent.”

  I sat in silence for a moment, unable to process everything I’d just learned. “You’re trying to tell me aliens aren’t the ruthless killers I’ve been told they are?”

  “Like humans, we’re not perfect. There are good and bad aliens just like there are good and bad humans. But no, we aren’t capable of the cruelty your leaders attribute to us. As far as I know, we’ve never killed a single human. Only the other way around.”

  “That’s what he was trying to tell me, wasn’t it? Mr Barth. When he said I didn’t know the truth?”

  Reece nodded solemnly.

  If Reece’s words were the truth, that meant… I was a murderer. Bile rose in my throat, and I swallowed it back down. I’d killed so many of them. So many of the aliens my brother was desperately trying to save. How could I be so stupid? I’d followed Skywatchers so blindly. I’d trusted Commander Kane and Ricko without asking questions.

  Reece placed a gentle hand on my arm. “Are you okay? You’ve gone white.”

  “I’m a monster,” I whispered.

  “You were fifteen and manipulated by two of the most devious people I’ve ever known. All the hunters at Skywatchers believe the same things you did. They’ve all been deceived.”

  My head grew light, and I leaned forward onto my bent knees. “I need a drink.”

  Reece reached into his belt and held out a canister of water. I took it from him and swallowed it down. My stomach twisted as the cool water filled it.

  I shook my head. “This can’t be real. Commander Kane… Ricko… They both told me my brother was dead. They trained me to kill aliens. To kill you. Why would they do that if you weren’t all monsters?”

  “They’ve been lying to you, obviously. I don’t know all the details. That’s why I need to get you to your brother. He’s been waiting for this moment since the invasion.”

  My brother was alive. The realisation hit me all over again, making my head grow light. For the past two years I’d harboured so much anger, so much resentment. It was all a lie. Had they known that day they told me he was dead that I’d ask to join them? Or had I just given them the idea to train me, and they’d used it to their advantage?

  “You saved my brother during the invasion?” I asked, seeking confirmation.

  “Yes. And I’d do it again to thank him for everything he’s done for my people.”

  “A hunter almost killed him?”

  “I can only imagine how hard this is for you to hear. I wish I could’ve got to you sooner, before they’d had a chance to brainwash you.”

  I winced at the word. But if my brother was indeed alive and aliens weren’t the threat I’d been told they were, that’s exactly what Skywatchers had done to me.

  “They’ve been using me, haven’t they?” I asked.

  “Yes. They know as long as they have you, Tyson and the Solians in hiding won’t rise up against them, won’t risk your life. But without you, they’re open to attack.”

  I’d thought I was avenging my brother’s death with each alien life I took. Instead, I was assisting the people who’d tried to kill him and going against everything he was fighting for. I’d taken sides with his enemy. People who’d lied to me and convinced me to slaughter an alien race for their own agenda.

  “Why?” I asked aloud.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why did the government kill your people? If they’re so innocent, why kill them all?”

  “Like I said, I don’t know all the details. My guess is they after they got what they needed from us, we’d outlived our usefulness. We became a liability. But when your brother learned about the government’s plans to annihilate us, he formulated a plan to help us. Tyson’s been helping us repair one of the spaceships that had been shot down. That was two years ago, and it’s almost ready to take most of us home. But he didn’t want us to leave until you were safe.”

  “If this is all true, why haven’t your people come to rescue you?” I asked.

  “They’ve managed to send us what we need to repair two of the aircraft we managed to hide underground. Sneaking in and out of Earth’s atmosphere without being detected isn’t easy. Especially with the size of airship we would need to take all of our people home. We don’t want to risk losing anymore Solian lives.”

  I nodded to myself attempting to process what he was telling me.

  “I know this is a lot to take in, but I think we should go to Tyson. He’ll be able to explain everything,” he said.

  My fingers tightened on my rifle. “You expect me just to follow you? You’ve been lying to me this whole time!”

  “Technically, I didn’t. You never asked me if I was an alien.”

  I narrowed my stare. “Lying by omission then. Either way, you knew I wouldn’t want to be kissing an alien. Was it all just to get me to listen to you so you could tell me about my brother?”

  “No. What happened between us wasn’t supposed to happen. Never in a million years did I think I’d have feelings for you. When Tyson finds out, I’m pretty sure he’ll want to put a bullet in my head too.”

  “Assuming I don’t kill you for lying to me first.”

  “But you believe the video, right?” he asked.

  “Yes. No. Argh! What the hell am I supposed to do with all of this? Just leave the only life I’ve known for the past two years?” I lowered my sore head onto my knees.

  “Could you really go back to Skywatchers? Knowing what you know now?”

  “No. You know me. I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut and I’d end up getting myself into trouble.” My brow furrowed. “Do you think Ricko knows? Should we tell him?”

  “Trust me. Ricko knows much more than you realise.” Reece shook his head, reminding me of his many warnings.

  Reece had been trying to tell me this whole time, but I’d been making it near impossible. He’d tried to get me to ask questions, and I’d shut him down every time.

  “But Ricko was my brother’s best friend. This doesn’t make sense.”

  “Was, Ky.” His voice took on a stern tone. “He’s the one who ordered your brother killed once he realised Tyson was helping us. Ricko only helps people who are helping him. Why do you think he took such a keen interest in you all these years?”

  My jaw clenched tight, and my fists tightened into balls. “That slimy, two-faced, son of a…”

  “It’s okay. I’m with you on hating that scumbag, but the best thing you can do now is go to Tyson. He�
��ll be so happy to see you.”

  The pull to go to my brother was so overwhelming, the thought of it made my heart ache. I’d give anything to see him again, talk to him again. I met Reece’s gaze and swallowed hard. Going to my brother meant trusting someone who’d been deceiving me for weeks. A member of an alien race I’d been trained to kill. But wasn’t that better than going back to people who’d lied everyone on the planet for years and tried to kill my brother?

  “I’ll come with you,” I said.

  Reece let out a breath. “I promise, I’ll make sure you get to him if it’s the last thing I do.”

  “I have two conditions.”

  “Anything,” he said.

  “Number one. This,” I pointed between us. “Whatever it was, it’s over. Done. Caput. You so much as look at me cross-eyed, I put a bullet in your head and find my brother myself. Got it?”

  “Loud and clear.” I ignored the smirk playing over his lips.

  “Number two, you have to take me back to Skywatchers.”

  His eyes widened. For the first time, I sensed fear behind them. “Wait. What? You want to go back in there after everything I just told you? What on earth for?”

  “There’s something I need to get before we go.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “We need to get out of here before they discover we didn’t complete our mission.” Reece tried to keep pace as I made my way back towards Skywatchers.

  “You don’t have to come in with me. I’ll be in and out before you know it,” I replied.

  “It’s too risky.” He grabbed a hold of my bicep, pulling me to a stop.

  I twisted my arm from his grip and shot him a glare. “Don’t you touch me, you…”

  “Filthy alien?” Reece met my hard gaze.

  “I was going to call you a pain in the ass. I haven’t even processed the fact you’re an alien, or that I was kissing you a few hours ago.”

  Reece’s eyes softened. “Please, don’t go back in there. I’ll take you to Tyson, and he’ll explain everything. I thought being with your brother was all you wanted.”