Original Design

by William Latoria

  With a wave, he closed the displays that were incessantly showing the destruction. It was one thing to know it was happening, but it was quite another to see it. Punching in a few commands, he opened new displays that showed the alien ship somewhere over an ocean.

  “Where are they now, Zahera? Where are they going?” he asked nervously. In his gut, he already knew the answer, but he needed to hear his Under Colonel say it.

  When Zahera responded, her voice was barely above a whisper, “They’re coming here, Bill. They’re coming right for us. Oh, God…”

  He watched the alien ship travel over the ocean in minutes. The voyeurs had no hope of keeping up, but whoever was controlling them had figured that out and had set up what must have been hundreds of drones to follow the alien ship as it continued its tour of the planet.

  “New orders just came in from HQ, Bill.” Zahera said unexpectedly. Some confidence had returned to her voice.

  “Report.” he said, falling back on his military training. He needed something to support him after what had just happened.

  “If the alien ship lands on Candaerican soil, do not fire on them unless they attack first.” she read off of her arm display.

  Blackshade didn’t bother to reply. That was the last piece of advice he needed from HQ at this point. Even if they did attack, he had no idea what he would do against them. The Russian artillery had been the most advanced and powerful weapon system he had ever seen, and their shots had literally bounced off the ship. He wasn’t aware of anything at his disposal that could top that.

  “Zahera, request Command to advise what weaponry we should use in case the aliens do become hostile. I don’t think small arms and SMM rounds are going to do the trick.” he said dryly. “Do they have any Intel on how to hurt these things if we need to? Hell, I’ll take guesses at this point!”

  Zahera tapped frantically at her arm inputs and then waited. There was a glow on her arm, and then she looked up at him gloomily, “Command has just authorized you to use any and all military assets as you see fit. They have all evacuated to their shelters. They will continue to monitor the situation from the voyeur drones, but won’t be able to directly assist. They order you to do whatever you think is necessary to protect our country.” she stopped suddenly, her mouth seeming to go dry, “However…” she hesitated, “HQ says that if the aliens offer the chance to surrender to them, you are ordered to do so. They also say that intelligence doesn’t believe anything in our arsenal can pierce the alien ship’s hull, but they are working on it”

  Blackshade bit back a curse, “Those cowardly, useless, motherless….” he began, as he paced angrily around his office. “They run into their holes and put blankets over their empty heads, give me full access to our weapons, but urge me to surrender. NO one in command has a spine.” he said, exasperated, “Bunch of absolute Denisovans!”

  Zahera gasped at his statement. He understood why. The term was incredibly insulting. About twenty years ago, it became illegal to refer to someone as, “retarded”. It also became illegal to use the word to describe someone unless it was being used clinically. With sentences ranging from a small fine to five years in prison, depending on the context. Due to this, the practice of using the word as an insult fell away fast. So people being people, they found a way around the law. No one knew for sure who started the saying, but the new term for “retarded” was now Denisovan, which referred to the cavemen species that came after Neanderthals. It was meant to imply that the person was a very unevolved, sub-human individual with a low cognitive ability. Using the term wasn’t illegal, but it was very frowned upon by society and not typically used by people of his rank. Blackshade didn’t care about that currently; the term fit the way he felt about his superiors too perfectly not to use.

  To get his mind off of his superiors, he returned his attention to the displays. He watched as the ship made landfall over Boston and then quickly made its way over Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, New York, Chicago, and then hovered over Kansas City. All aircraft were cleared from the area, and the entire state of Kansas was ordered to shelter in place.

  “What are they doing, Bill?” Zahera asked. Once again they were glued to the displays on the wall. Dozens of voyeur drones were broadcasting video of the ship as it simply hovered a couple hundred feet over the city.

  Blackshade shook his head, “Maybe they’re going to attack us. Maybe they’re waiting to see if we attack them, like Russia did.” he said, wincing. Mentioning Russia, and knowing what was happening there, sent cold chills down his spine.

  After ten minutes of nothing, the alien ship began moving towards the southwest at an incredibly slow speed, compared to how fast he saw it fly before. It was still moving quickly, but now the voyeur drones could keep up with it as it made its way towards its destination. The change made him very nervous. Why was the ship suddenly going so slow? Was it intentional? Did the Russian weapons actually do some damage to the ship, crippling whatever propulsion system it used? Or were the aliens baiting them? Trying to lull them into a false sense of confidence before unleashing their own attack? He had no idea, and the lack of information left him feeling insecure and inadequate.

  The hairs on his arm stood up as a gentle, but urgent vibration ran through his arm. Without really thinking about what he was doing, Blackshade raised his arm to his face and answered the call. For the second time that day, Chief General Snicket appeared in the display on his arm.

  “Colonel Blackshade! Intelligence reports that the alien ship is going to land in Roswell, New Mexico! Get your team there now! All other dedicated units are enroute and will meet you there! Surround the enemy ship to the best of your ability and make contact.” he told him hurriedly. Blackshade could tell by the commotion in the background that the Chief General was planning to evacuate. Yet again, he felt a sharp disgust for the man’s cowardice.

  “Copy that, Sir. We’re moving.” Blackshade answered flatly.

  Panic blazing in his eyes, Snicket lost his bearing, “Bill! Do not attack them! Don’t even point a weapon at them! Did you SEE what happened in Russia? Oh my God, there’s nothing we can do! They’re going to kill us! Tell them we’ll surrender! Tell them we’ll…”

  Blackshade cut the transmission harshly by slapping the disconnect circuit on his arm.

  “Denisovan...” Blackshade said in revulsion.

  “Agreed.” Zahera said crossly. Then she softened, “Can’t really blame him though. This is terrifying.” she conceded.

  Blackshade’s eyes narrowed, “We’re officers in the Army Air Corp of Candaerica. We don’t have the luxury of being cowards!” he spat. “You should remember that, Zahera. Those people down there will be looking to us for leadership. Do not disappoint them! Do not disappoint me.”

  Now it was Zahera’s turn to get angry, “You think I don’t know that, Colonel Blackshade?” she asked, “I have never let you down, and I don’t plan to start now. I’m just saying that I understand his reaction; you shouldn’t judge him so harshly.”

  Blackshade began to retort, caught himself, and turned his words into a long sigh, “Fine.” he said, annoyed, “Snicket’s cowardice is understandable, but given his position and the situation, it’s also unforgivable.”

  Zahera smirked at him, “I never said I thought the Chief General was to be emulated, just that I understood that a coward will act cowardly given the opportunity.” she replied, as she walked over to the office door and opened it. “Now, let’s get moving, Colonel Blackshade, you have aliens waiting to meet you!” she said, motioning towards the door.

  He hated it when she acted like this, but he also knew to further engage her on the subject was futile. So instead, he took what little victory he could from the exchange.

  “Yeah, or to kill me.” he said darkly, as he walked past her. He noticed how she bristled at his retort. She didn’t reply, but he knew he would pay for that remark later, if he survived the next few hours.

  Chapter 4

  Blackshade
looked down on the alien ship from the door of the hover-chopper he was in. He had ordered the pilot to fly above the spacecraft in order to better follow it, and also to better stay out of its way should it change course. Up close, he could see the hull of the ship was very smooth but had numerous pipes and tubes running along its sides. What they did, if anything, he had no idea. What was also interesting about the pitch black ship was that when he had first seen it, still attached to the main ship, it had been alive with thousands of multi-colored lights twinkling all over it. Now there was no sign of any of those lights. As hard as he searched, he couldn’t identify where those lights may have stemmed from.

  The scale of the ship was intimidating. A ten-mile-long, solid object that was two miles wide made him feel acutely insignificant. Being so close made him wonder once again, what the Russians had been thinking about when they fired on it. From his position, it looked like the most invincible ship he had ever seen. It didn’t scare him so much as made him feel small and inconsequential. There was nothing reassuring about the ship’s design, which did nothing to bolster his hope that the aliens were friendly, but it didn’t overwhelm him with terror like he thought it would. Instead, he just felt wary. The one thing he found encouraging about the ship was that nothing on it appeared to be a weapon. Not that he was sure what an alien weapon would look like, but it did his nerves some good to not see anything that resembled a turret, gun, missile, or bomb anywhere on the spacecraft.

  The ship had slowed down to a measly fifty miles per hour and was easily caught up to by his squadron of hover-choppers. His state-of-the-art aircraft had a top speed of fifteen hundred miles an hour and an operating time of over a thousand hours on a single charge. Equipped with four advanced 50mm SMM rotary guns and an assortment of high-yield conventional missiles, it was one hell of a military machine when unleashed in combat. On the defensive side, it had Dragon Scale Advanced (DSA) armor plating that worked on the same principal as his OGTS. Instead of replenishing used armor plates from other sections of the aircraft though, the DSA system used a cache of extra scales kept in a storage section deeper inside of the aircraft. Their design had replaced the antiquated gunships of old and were one of the most advanced war machines on the planet. Or at least it had been until the aliens arrived. Now for all he knew, it was as sophisticated as a paper airplane with a sling shot.

  Roswell, New Mexico, as well as the towns that surrounded the city, had been placed on lockdown, and Blackshade had declared martial law in the entire state. However, with most of the police presence currently cowering in their homes and shelters, and his forces stretched thin trying to follow and contain a ten-mile-long alien ship, very few authority figures would be available to enforce it. Blackshade watched as small crowds of people followed the progression of the alien and human ships as they made their way toward Roswell. It irritated him to no end that these people were out, directly violating the law, and needlessly putting themselves in danger just to see the ship. Part of him understood their curiosity, and he could even admit that had he been in their situation, he would probably be doing the same thing, but for the moment he wasn’t in their shoes, and therefore felt justified with his irritation at their imprudence. He had ordered a barrier to be constructed around the alien ship if it landed. He also had an entire unit tapped to patrol the barricade and arrest anyone that breeched it. The last thing he needed was some foolish citizen with delusions of internet grandeur to cross the barricade and do something to antagonize the aliens. Everything was being live streamed to displays all over the country. He knew that his actions here today would be scrutinized by not only the public, but his superiors, all from the comfort of their homes and offices, and with hind-sight as their ally.

  In order to deter civilians from being outside following the spacecraft, he posted decrees on all mainstream social media explaining to the populace what martial law was, what was expected of them, and what the consequences could be if they violated any of those rules. Amongst the punishments were fines, internet blockages, incarceration, and in extreme cases, death. This, of course, was met with the expected internet bravado of citizens proclaiming what they would do if the government tried to repress them. They almost never meant it. In real life, with no technology between the individual and the violence, most people as a rule, were absolute cowards. He hoped that today wouldn’t be the day that rule proved false.

  The alien ship flew steadily towards Roswell. The irony that the aliens were heading directly to the location where a previous alien ship was rumored to have crashed back in 1947 was not lost on him. Nor was it lost on the bloggers all over the internet. Stories of Roswell were all over the internet, drawing parallels and inventing new and more convoluted conspiracies as the minutes ticked by. The trending theory was that the aliens were here to recover their lost friends and their ship. Blackshade wished that this was true, but all of the Roswell paperwork had been declassified years ago and clearly showed that the crashed aircraft wasn’t alien, but a terribly designed stealth aircraft created by the old American government. They allowed, and even encouraged the story of an alien ship crashing in Roswell to cover up their failed, multi-million-dollar project. They even pushed people to believe that there were aliens recovered from the site and stored at Area 51, going so far as to keep military guards just outside blast doors to encourage the conspiracy theorists. In reality, Area 51 was nothing more than an overflow storage facility. Nothing classified or even remotely interesting was kept there. Mainly it housed obsolete hardware that was too expensive to destroy, or too environmentally hazardous. When the documents came out revealing all of this, society seemed to mostly accept it, but there were die-hard believers that were currently having their ‘I told you so!’ moment on the internet. They were still wrong, but it was hard to discount their claims with a ten-mile-long slab of irony giving their argument credence.

  Between aliens arriving on Earth, China’s government committing mass suicide, Russia having super weapons, Moscow being erased from the Earth by those very same weapons, and aliens possibly landing in Roswell, New Mexico, this was easily the most surreal day of Blackshade’s life. He was silently contemplating all of this when the voice of the pilot clicked on over the communicator in his helmet.

  “Colonel, the alien craft is slowing down. I think it might try to land, Sir.” he said nervously. The pilot was a young Senior Lieutenant that went by the call sign, “Crater”. Blackshade had assumed they called him that due to the abundance of acne scars on the young man’s face, but he was informed by Zahera that he was given his call sign due to the fact that when he left a simulated battle field, all that was left were craters. He was a thin, and skittish individual that seemed to be afraid of everything. Put him in an aircraft though, and the man was a master pilot. He single handedly broke every record on the simulators and graduated from flight school at the top of his class, which was why Blackshade had chosen him as his pilot for this mission.

  “Very good, Senior Lieutenant. Maintain our position with the alien ship. The moment it looks like it’s going to land, we need to set up a perimeter quickly.” he responded. The Lieutenant nodded his understanding and a green ‘Acknowledged’ light lit up on his helmet’s display. Blackshade switched his communicator to address his entire force.

  “Listen up!” he began, putting as much authority into his voice as he could, “It looks like the alien ship may try to land here. I need the area cleared in every direction. No exceptions! If the aliens do land, I want a perimeter maintained fifty feet around it in every direction. You are authorized to use port-a-cades and enforce them by any means necessary, including deadly force.” he paused for a moment to let that sink in. “I know many of you don’t want to do that, but it’s imperative that no citizen is allowed to interact with the aliens, should they show themselves. One wrong move, one misinterpreted gesture, and we could find ourselves at war. So I say again, use any means necessary to secure the area around the ship. All units, acknowledge!” he finis
hed sharply.

  One by one, each unit’s designator went green on his helmet display. It took less than a minute for all fifty of the units under his command to come back green and acknowledge his orders.

  “One more thing.” he said darkly, “No one is to raise a weapon at the aliens, or their ship, unless I give the order directly, or if the aliens begin attacking us first. Anyone that fails to follow this order will be punished with death. ZERO exceptions. We can NOT afford to get this wrong, and I will not have cowardice or stupidity damn our nation. You all know what happened to Russia, so you know what we would be up against. Do not be the person to damn humanity to fight a needless war.” he paused once more before continuing, “DO YOU GET ME!?”

  Again, this time much faster, every unit’s indicator went green. Pleased, Blackshade cut off his communicator and returned his attention to the aliens. He could tell the ship was definitely slowing down. According to his helmet display, they were going twenty-five miles per hour now and gradually slowing down. Wherever the ship was heading, it was almost there. Blackshade looked around to take in the surrounding landscape. It was an arid, dry place, mostly flat, with only low shrubs and desert plants dotting the area. There was nothing here worth noticing, nor was there anything around that would be considered, “high-value.” For that, he was very grateful. Had the aliens decided to do this in an overly populated area, or near a high-value asset, the whole situation could have potentially spiraled out of control very fast. Blackshade suddenly noticed that they had stopped.