The Unlikely Defenders

by Scott Haworth

  Mervny was disoriented from the rough landing. It was not long before he noticed his right leg was painfully cold. His pod was insulated against the cold of space, but it had been damaged by the landing. Mervny pulled on the handle to open the cockpit. He was overwhelmed by the rush of frigid air. He stumbled desperately out of his pod and was further menaced by the high gravity of New Mortair. He focused on the large building to his right. He struggled to walk towards it, but the gravity made it feel like he was walking through a swamp. After a few feet he fell flat on the ground. Mervny dug his forearms into the rough tundra and tried to drag his body towards the building. He collapsed several feet from sanctuary.

  “Straight,” Shawn announced happily as he threw down his cards. He started to reach forward to rake in the chips.

  “Flush,” Jerry said smugly. He smacked Shawn’s hand playfully as he reached for the chips.

  “Sonvabitch!” Shawn yelled. “The first time I get a hand all night and—”

  Shawn was interrupted by a loud crash directly overhead. Instinctively the four men all looked up. They quickly realized that the crash had come from the roof rather than the ceiling.

  “What the hell was that?” the biologist asked even though he knew full well none of the other men had any ideas.

  “Ice?” suggested Jerry.

  “Too loud,” the other three men answered in unison.

  The men exchanged looks, each desperately hoping the others would come up with an idea.

  Shawn was the first to act. He stood suddenly and made his way to a cabinet. He started to pull out a heavy coat, mask and gloves.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jerry inquired.

  “What does it look like? I’m going out there,” Shawn said.

  “It’s fifty below out there!” the biologist objected.

  “I’ll just pop my head out,” Shawn responded.

  Jerry shook his head and walked over to the cabinet. “Hold on. You’re not going out there alone.”

  After covering as much of their bodies as they could, the two men walked the short distance to the nearest external hatch. Shawn put his hands on the hatch and could feel warmth even through his gloves. All the doors into the building were heated to prevent ice from covering them. He glanced over to Jerry.

  Jerry nodded affirmatively.

  Shawn took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

  The cold air stung Shawn despite the layers of protection. He immediately saw the cause of the disturbance almost directly below him. Ten feet in front of him there was a metallic pod on the ground. Five feet in front of that there was a motionless, giant green bug.

  Shawn did not take the time to consult with Jerry. It was far too cold for a proper discussion. He had to navigate a short staircase in order to reach ground level. The building was designed to be raised off the ground to prevent snow from drifting up and consuming the structure. As he reached the ground level he sunk a few inches into the snow. The lightweight Kessiam had been able to crawl on the surface without sinking. Shawn pumped his legs and marched through the snow until he was standing next to Mervny. He crouched, dug his arms under the creature’s abdomen and scooped it up to his chest. It did not weigh much, only about forty pounds, but Shawn still grunted as he stood up and made his way back to the building.

  Jerry, who had observed Shawn’s actions but did not really know what to do, waved his arms fiercely and motioned Shawn to get back inside. Once the other man was through, Jerry stepped inside and pulled the hatch shut. He followed Shawn back to the table. With a sweep of his right arm he cleared the table of the cards and poker chips. He motioned to Shawn to put the creature on the table as the chips clanked loudly on the floor.

  The other two scientists stared down at the creature on their poker table in amazement. They exchanged looks with Shawn and Jerry, who were standing and shivering. No one could think of anything to say. After a moment the biologist walked up to the table and cautiously touched the giant bug.

  “Get me a…” the biologist began. He stopped to clear his throat. “Get me some blankets.”

  To say Jeffery Wenzel was interrupted by the invasion would be an overstatement. He was, in fact, sitting in his broken chair feeling miserable when it began. Nonetheless he was certainly startled as the sonic booms from the Kessiam pods started.

  Jeffery immediately assumed his neighbors had found a new way to harass him when the first explosions resonated. With quite a bit of effort he launched himself out of his broken chair and frantically crawled under his kitchen table. He sat there terrified until the booms slowed down and finally stopped. He continued to sit for several minutes afterwards, looking up at the bottom of his table. Eventually he convinced himself that the strange noises had ended. One thing was for sure, it had not been caused by neighbors with bottle rockets. He crawled out from under his table and walked towards the front door. He had trouble putting on his stained shirt as his chest was sticky with sweat. Once he finally did he opened the door a crack and peaked outside. He saw nothing out of the ordinary and reluctantly decided to leave his apartment.

  It was quiet outside, especially in comparison to the last few minutes. Some of his neighbors were coming out of their homes and exchanging questions for which no one had any answers. He caught the eye of his next door neighbor, a middle-aged woman. She flashed him a small smile. Evidently she was too distracted by the mysterious noises to remember that she hated Jeffery.

  “Have you ever heard anything like that?” the woman asked Jeffery.

  “No,” Jeffery responded uncomfortably. He had never once had a casual conversation with the woman or any of his neighbors.

  “I’m going to check the news,” she said, more to herself than to Jeffery. She turned quickly and reentered her apartment.

  Jeffery did not hear the pods until they were almost directly overhead. He snapped his neck up to witness the start of a very bizarre sight. Thousands of pods filled the sky. They were at different altitudes and coming in at different angles. They seemed to have no organization at all. A steady flow of pods passed over his apartment as they traveled to various destinations. He was finally distracted by the air show when, out of nowhere, one of the pods crashed through the first story window of the apartment across the street.

  Jeffery dashed across the street. He attempted to open the door but found it locked. Mindful of the broken glass, he carefully stepped through the window. Inside one of the pods was resting face down against the wall opposite the broken window.

  “Hello?” Jeffery shouted into the apartment.

  There was no response.

  Jeffery walked to the pod and looked it over. Finding nothing of interest, he kicked the pod but nothing happened. Not knowing what to do and suddenly feeling very uncomfortable about being in someone else’s apartment, he stepped back through the broken window.

  Three Kessiams stood in the middle of the street with their weapons drawn. Startled, Jeffery froze and stared at the strange creatures. One turned to look at him but quickly turned away to survey the rest of the landscape.

  Despite the abundance of peculiar noises, Jeffery was startled by the sound of a gunshot. On the other side of the street the man who had egged Jeffery earlier was walking towards the Kessiams. He began to fire frantically into their group without taking the time to aim his revolver. Despite this, blood erupted from the alien who was closest to the man. The alien fell to the ground dead.

  The other two Kessiams were slow to react. They turned and brought their weapons to bear on the man. The man swung his gun towards one of them and pulled the trigger. Instead of a gunshot he heard a clicking noise. The man anxiously reached into his pocket to reload. He did not get the chance. The two Kessiams opened fire, hitting the man several times each. What was left of the man splattered on the ground. The aliens then turned back towards Jeffery.

  Jeffery did not wait to see what they were going to do next. He took off running down the street. Behind him he he
ard the sound of energy impacting with concrete and aluminum. The Kessiams had fired a volley at where he had just been. Jeffery refused to look back. He ran at full speed for a block before stopping and turning around. The aliens were pursuing. Although their four legs were pumping rapidly, they were quite a bit slower than Jeffery. He thought about trying to outrun them, but an energy impact just short of his feet changed his mind. Jeffery slammed his shoulder into the door of the building near where he was standing.

  Had he not been so terrified, Jeffery would have found it peculiar that a bar was open so early in the day. He would have been even more puzzled that there were over a dozen patrons enjoying the bar’s services. Instead he was quite relieved that they were all there. He ran frantically up to the counter, ignoring the odd looks he was receiving.

  “What was all that racket out there?” the bartender asked while pouring a beer.

  Jeffery was flabbergasted by the question. “None of you bothered to look outside?”

  The bartender shrugged his shoulders.

  “Aliens are attacking!” Jeffery yelled. He paused as the bartender exchanged a look with a patron seated at the counter. “Huge green bugs! They’re the size of children! And they have ray guns!”

  The patron at the bar chuckled and turned to inspect Jeffery.

  The bartender nodded his head. “I see. Sounds to me like you’ve got a case of the DT’s,” he said. He grabbed a shot glass and filled it with whiskey. “Here you go buddy, on the house. This will make the big scary aliens go away.”

  The Kessiams pounded through the door before Jeffery could clarify his statement. The bar went instantly silent. The two aliens raised their forearms and took aim at the humans who were closest to them. A deafening round of gunshots rang out. The two aliens crumpled to the floor without firing a shot.

  Jeffery turned back to look at the patron at the bar who had his pistol drawn. The two men cautiously walked over to the bodies of the aliens. They were joined by four others, all of whom had guns drawn and pointed uneasily at the bodies.

  One of the men kicked at the bodies with his large cowboy boot. “Welcome to Texas,” he said while holstering his sidearm.

  “John Sparrow, welcome to Texas,” Jeffery’s new boss said, extending his hand.

  “Jeffery Wenzel,” Jeffery responded, shaking John’s hand.

  Ten years before the Kessiam invasion, Jeffery had arrived in Texas eager to start his new position. He had been sad to leave his family back in Boston but had not had to debate whether or not to take the job. The insurance agency which he worked for had offered him a ridiculous raise if he accepted the promotion and transfer: six figures a year plus a company expense account. With all the vacation time that came with the package, he knew he would have plenty of opportunities to visit Massachusetts.

  “Well I won’t keep you too long Jeff, can I call you Jeff?” John asked.

  “Jeff’s fine,” Jeffery answered. He had never in his life gone by the shortened version of his name.

  “I’ll just give you a little tour of the facility and then let you go. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of unpacking to do. This is our lobby obviously. Our lovely receptionist Karen,” John said. He nodded towards Karen who smiled and nodded back. “The facility is only about five years old. We used to be out on the east side of town, but when the company expanded we bought out this space. So, I noticed in your paperwork it’s just you moving out here. No wife yet?”

  Jeffery was slightly taken aback by the odd transition. “No, not yet,” he responded. It was the second lie in as many responses to his new boss. Jeffery knew full well he would never have a wife.

  “That’s a shame. You’re already, what… thirty-five? You need to settle down. You can’t live the carefree bachelor’s life forever.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “But look at me going on about it. I’ve been divorced three times, who the hell am I to talk?” John asked. He let out a hearty chuckle and pushed Jeffery hard enough that the latter man stumbled. “You’ll find a good woman here though, no problem. We’ve got fiery women here in Texas. Great lovers,” he added, nodding emphatically.

  Jeffery was overwhelmed both by the man’s personality and his own self-loathing. Talk of sex always made Jeffery uncomfortable. He had never been attracted to a woman. He had never been attracted to a man for that matter, although that surely would not have been received warmly in Texas. Jeffery’s desires were of a much darker nature. He did his best to avoid thinking about them. It was difficult not to dwell when forced into a conversation about it.

  John escorted Jeffery back to the latter man’s car after the brief tour concluded. Jeffery put the unpleasant thoughts out of his mind as he drove the ten minutes to his new home. If there was anything that was a good distraction it was the house. It had four bedrooms, a spacious living room, basement, a quaint den and even a hot tub in the backyard. Just looking at the place filled him with a sense of accomplishment. He had hit the big time. He was good at his work, and he was finally getting the rewards he deserved.

  Jeffery had already finished most of his unpacking, despite the assumption of his boss. He walked around the outside of his new home determining what kind of flowers to plant and debating whether or not to paint the garage. He was so transfixed on the building that he almost ran into his neighbor before he noticed her.

  “Good afternoon!” she said cheerfully. “You must be our new neighbor. My name’s Ellen.”

  “Jeffery,” he responded after recovering from the momentary scare.

  “You sure picked a great neighborhood to move into. No crime, no pollution, no spicks.”

  Did she really just say that? Jeffery thought. After a moment he decided she had, in fact, just announced a racial slur to a complete stranger. Let it go, no reason to rock the boat. Not knowing what else to do, he nodded his head.

  A young boy ran up to Ellen before inspecting the stranger curiously.

  “This is my boy Bobby,” Ellen said, putting her arm around her son. “He’s thirteen, can you believe it? Growing like a weed. Bobby, say hello to our new neighbor Mr….?”

  “Wenzel,”

  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Wenzel,” Bobby said.

  Jeffery nodded and smiled uncomfortably. He shifted his eyes around and forced himself to focus on random objects. He tried desperately not to look at Bobby.

  “So what is it that you—” Ellen began.

  “I’m sorry, but I have a lot of unpacking I should get back to. It was nice to meet you both,” Jeffery interrupted.

  Jeffery turned and walked briskly inside his house, leaving Ellen and Bobby in his wake.

  Daniel Nelson was awakened suddenly by the blaring klaxon. He had not gotten much sleep, and he was utterly confused by the sound. After a few seconds he regained enough consciousness to identify the alert. Still in his flight suit, Daniel rolled off his cot and out of his quarters.

  Several crewmen ran past him as he stood outside his room. One of the larger crewmen had to slow down and squeeze past him in the narrow hall. Daniel grabbed the man by the shoulder.

  “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Don’t know mate,” the crewman said. He paused as he noticed Daniel’s rank insignia. “Sorry, sir. Just heard the call to battle stations, that’s all I know.”

  Daniel grunted and let the man go about his duties. He was considering where to go when the ship’s public announcement system sprang into life:

  “Scramble! Scramble! Scramble! All pilots to their planes!”

  Daniel sneered. “Bloody stupid time for a drill,” he muttered to himself.

  The voice on the P.A. continued as though it had heard Daniel, “All pilots to planes! This is not a drill!”

  Daniel’s mood shifted to excitement after the second announcement. His mind raced with possibilities as he made his way up to the flight deck. What could it be? Who would be attacking in the middle of the English Channel? Maybe it’s to intercept a flight that’s been hijacked.
But why wouldn’t they scramble land-based fighters? As an increasingly dreary set of scenarios popped into his head, Daniel became more and more elated. He had joined the military for just this reason. This was what his father had faced during the Blitz.

  Another veteran was climbing into one of the Harriers when Daniel reached the flight deck. Daniel waved at the pilot and gestured with his hands, what’s going on? The other pilot extended his hands and turned up his palms. Daniel ran to the ladder in front of his own plane. A crewman was waiting to help him enter the aircraft.

  “Is she refueled?” Daniel shouted over the noise of the busy flight deck.

  “Yes, sir and fully armed,” the crewman responded. “Good luck.”

  Daniel started his preflight tasks as soon as he hopped into the cockpit. He had radio communications with the bridge now, but information was not forthcoming. His orders were simply to get in the air. As he waited impatiently for clearance to take off he noticed Johnson climbing into the Harrier behind him. Daniel scowled. Johnson barely had his wings. Daniel would have preferred to be flying with more experienced pilots.

  Within a few minutes the first four Harriers had taken off with Daniel’s plane leading the way. As they fell into formation and began their ascent, the radio crackled to life and finally explained what was happening. The pilots listened intently as the situation was explained. Afterwards no one spoke for a moment.

  “Seriously?” Johnson’s voice questioned via the radio. It was followed by a confirmation from the Ark Royal.

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Daniel asked.

  “Small metallic tubes. They won’t be hard to find. There are hundreds of thousands of them landing all across Europe. Proceed due east at your discretion,” answered the voice from the aircraft carrier.

  “East?” Daniel asked skeptically.

  “East, affirmative.”

  Daniel grumbled to himself. East meant they would be heading towards the European mainland. England was technically farther away, but it was their country. If they were engaging the enemy they should do it there.