The Unlikely Defenders

by Scott Haworth

  “I think that guy has the right idea,” Anthony said. He watch as Nick smiled and shrugged off the suggestion. “I’m not kidding. You found Victoria. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “And go where?” Nick asked skeptically.

  “It doesn’t matter where. Let’s just get out of the city. We’ve done our part. It’s the military’s job now.”

  Victoria shook her head. “I caught the news a few minutes ago. They’re landing all over the country… all over the world. Getting out of the city won’t do us any good.”

  “Then back to our apartment,” Anthony suggested. “We’ve got supplies. We can hunker down there for a few days.”

  “Sure, if you call half a loaf of moldy bread and a case of Bud Light supplies,” Victoria snapped.

  “Well you’re practically his wife,” Anthony countered. “Isn’t it your job to do the shopping for him now?”

  “Enough!” Nick shouted. He had never seen Anthony and Victoria fight so openly. The stress of the current situation had lowered their tolerance for each other. “We’re exposed out here. Let’s just get inside for now and figure the rest out later.”

  Before the other two could agree a new sound roared through the sky. A Kessiam fighter swooped over the building where they were standing. It fired a short burst from its energy cannons into the building across the street. The building’s windows shattered before most of the top floor crumbled to the ground. The alien ship made a wide turn and went back in the direction from which it came.

  “Maybe indoors isn’t such a good idea after all,” Victoria said as she picked herself off of the ground.

  “My poli sci recitation was in that building,” Anthony said vacantly. “You think that means I don’t have to go this week?”

  Victoria shot Anthony a disgusted look.

  “What?” Anthony questioned.

  Nick raised his hand and gestured for the other two to be quiet. “You hear that?”

  The others quieted down and tilted their heads in an effort to hear better. “Sounds like the engine of that spaceship,” Victoria said. “Like it’s hovering over there,” she added while pointing at the building they were standing near.

  The noise suddenly stopped.

  “I think it landed,” Anthony said cautiously. “Probably over in that part of the Oval.”

  “What do you think?” Nick asked.

  “I say we check it out,” Victoria responded immediately.

  Anthony had not planned on giving the same response. He had, in fact, been about to reiterate his previous suggestion of hiding back at the apartment. After Victoria had suggested investigating the fighter, Anthony was forced to agree. He refused to look cowardly in front of her.

  The three jogged at a good speed until they reached the last building before the Oval. They proceeded to crouch down and run a short distance along the street that bordered the edge of the clearing. They paused inside a bus stop pavilion. It was clear plastic, but there was a hedge directly behind the pavilion that provided enough cover to hide behind.

  As they peered through the plastic and over the hedge they found that the Kessiam fighter had, in fact, landed at the edge of the Oval. Given its size and shape it looked more like a minivan than either a fighter plane or a spaceship. There were four energy cannons mounted beneath the fighter. They were wedged just above the two large beams on which the ship rested. A small door towards the front of the ship led to the cockpit area. It had no wings, tail or obvious exhaust system.

  A single Kessiam was standing next to the fighter with his back facing the three humans.

  “What’s it doing?” Victoria inquired.

  “Asking to be shot, that’s what it’s doing,” Nick replied with a mischievous grin.

  Anthony knew exactly what Nick had in mind. “No, no, no. That’s a bad idea.”

  “Come on!” Nick prodded. “It’s one alien with its back turned. It’ll be easy.”

  “It’s not a question of whether or not it’ll be easy…” Anthony trailed off.

  “I’ll go,” Victoria said. “I’d like to take a closer look at that spaceship anyway.”

  “No, you should stay here where it’s safe,” Nick responded. “Anthony and I can take him.”

  “She’s right,” Anthony said. “I think she should come too.”

  “Yeah,” Nick said, his voice filling with anger. He knew that women’s rights were not the reason why Anthony wanted to send Victoria into harm’s way. “I bet you do.”

  “That’s not what I—”

  Two holes ripped open in the side of the bus stop pavilion before Anthony could attempt to clarify. The three humans were so engaged in the conversation that they were initially puzzled by the appearance of the holes. As they turned around they saw the cause of the unusual disturbance. A dozen Kessiams were slowly making their way towards the pavilion.

  “Go!” Nick shouted. He ran around the edge of the pavilion as quickly as he could while staying crouched low to the ground. When he made it to the other side of the hedge he stood up and started to run at full speed. By now the Kessiam fighter pilot had turned around to investigate the noise. However, he was unarmed and could do nothing to defend himself. Nick raised his pistol and fired off one round while still running at full speed. The Kessiam pilot crumpled to the grass.

  Nick was the first one to make it to the ship. He frantically wiped his hands over the small door as he looked for a button to open it. Instead he found a plain looking handle. He pulled it to the right and the door slid open. He waved Victoria and Anthony inside as energy blasts kicked up dust clouds a few feet in front of him. Victoria had no trouble slipping through the tiny door. However, it took Anthony a second to crawl through the opening. Nick followed them in although he had to suck in his gut to slip through. He collapsed inside the cabin of the fighter while Anthony quickly slid the door shut. Within a few seconds soft pinging noises started to resonate off of the side of the spaceship. It sounded like hail bouncing off a roof. It did not take long for the three humans to realize that the noise was being caused by energy impacts against the side of the ship.

  Nick desperately looked around the cabin, but there was not much to see. Although it would have been spacious for a squad of Kessiams, three humans could barely fit inside the ship. It was only about five feet from floor to ceiling, which meant that the trio had to remain crouched. In front of the cabin there was a large control panel directly below the cockpit window. A small stool on wheels was positioned behind the center of the panel. It was flat and had no back as it had been designed to support the large base of a Kessiam’s body. It was too small to accommodate a human. Nick pushed the stool to the back of the cabin as Anthony and Victoria shuffled up to join him.

  The control panel was broken into three different sections. Left of center there was something very similar to a radar screen. Instead of a long bar gradually sweeping around the circle, a circular pulse expanded from the center every few seconds. Right of center there were four knobs and a small grating. The faint sound of static could be heard from the grating, which indicated that it was a radio transceiver. In the center there was a joystick mounted directly to the panel. There was a tiny button on the front of the joystick’s shaft that was exactly the same as the tiny button on the directed energy weapons. To the right of the joystick there were two larger buttons about the size of Nick’s thumb. One was red and the other was green.

  Nick turned to Anthony, who had wedged himself in front of the right part of the control panel, and raised an eyebrow. He nodded down to the center of the panel.

  “Oh, no,” Anthony said, knowing instantly what his best friend was suggesting. “It can’t possibly be that easy.”

  Another volley of energy blasts pinged against the side of the ship.

  “Beats staying here,” Nick replied. “Hold on!”

  Nick emphatically pushed down on the red button and was disappointed when absolutely nothing happened. He released the red button an
d compressed the green button. With a sudden lurch the fighter rose straight up into the air. Startled, Nick released the button. Looking out the cockpit window he could tell that the fighter was hovering about ten feet above the ground. A volley of energy blasts encouraged him to climb higher. After climbing a few hundred feet he gingerly grasped the joystick and pushed forward. The fighter angled down and began to move forward. Nick, fearful of losing altitude, pressed the green button once again. The fighter leveled out and slowly moved forward.

  “Certainly is user friendly,” Anthony commented. He stared out the window with his hand firmly grasping the edge of the control panel.

  Nick brought the fighter to a stop in the middle of the air after a few minutes. He checked to make sure the ship was completely level before compressing the tiny button on the joystick. The ship shook slightly as all four cannons attached to its belly discharged.

  “Sweet,” Nick said. He looked back and forth between Anthony and Victoria. “Let’s go blow some shit up!”

  “No!” Anthony shouted a little more forcefully than he had intended. “This is not our responsibility! Let’s just—”

  “You’re right,” Nick said, cutting him off. “It’s the military’s job. So let’s go drop this off to the Air Force then we can call it a day.”

  “Okay,” Anthony said cautiously. Nick had given in far too easily.

  “Good then it’s agreed,” Nick said. “Of course, if I should happen to find some shit to blow up along the way…”

  Anthony groaned.

  “Where are we going to take it?” Victoria asked.

  “Dayton is probably the closest military base,” Nick responded. “It’s only about an hour’s drive so we’ll be there in no time flying.”

  “Sounds good,” Victoria agreed.

  Victoria and Anthony both watched as Nick looked down at the control panel and then scanned the horizon.

  “What’s wrong?” Victoria asked after a moment.

  “Which way is west?” Nick asked.

  “Well, the sun is over there,” Anthony said, pointing towards the yellow ball of fire. “It’s closer to the evening than the morning so…” he trailed off.

  “Right, so the sun sets in the west so that way,” Nick pointed a few degrees to the right of the sun. “Has to be west.”

  “But how do you know the sun doesn’t go that way across the sky,” Anthony said, sweeping the opposite direction with his hands.

  “Jesus Christ,” Victoria muttered. “You’re two college-educated adults. How the hell do you not know which way west is?”

  “We don’t actually have our degrees yet,” Nick responded without a hint of embarrassment.

  “Plus it’s a state school,” Anthony joked.

  Victoria rolled her eyes. She leaned forward in the cabin and pointed towards the ground. “Look, that’s I-70. If we follow that to the left it’ll lead us out of the city and towards Dayton.”

  Nick took her advice and slowly moved the ship out of the city. He flew low to the ground as he tried to get a better feel for the ship’s capabilities. He was not at all prepared five minutes later when Victoria delivered some unpleasant news.

  “Shit!” Victoria yelled, staring down at her station. “I’ve got about twenty green blip things. I’m pretty sure they’re more alien ships.”

  “How far away are they?” Anthony asked.

  “Uh… three and a half inches?”

  Anthony leaned forward from his position and looked down at Victoria. “Oh, that’s helpful.”

  “Well how the hell should I know? This thing doesn’t come with a scale or a key. Okay, they just jumped half an inch in the time we were talking so… they’ll be right on top of us within a minute or so.”

  Nick looked out the fighter’s window and scanned the sky. “I don’t see anything yet. Which way are they coming from?” he asked. He moved his index finger in front of the joystick’s tiny button.

  “No!” Anthony shouted. “Just keep flying. They don’t know it’s us in here instead of a bug.”

  Victoria continued to read off the distance of the group of enemy ships in inches. Nick’s heart began to race as the enemy fighters got closer and closer. All three of them jumped when the radio in front of Anthony, which had been emitting irritating static, suddenly sprang to life.

  “What the hell is that?” Victoria asked about the strange voices coming from the radio. “French?”

  Anthony listened to the noise for a moment before responding, “I think it’s whatever they speak.”

  “It can’t be,” Victoria replied. “It sounds like a human language. Italian maybe?”

  “How do you know the alien language doesn’t sound like a human language?” Anthony argued.

  “Gee, I don’t know,” Victoria started. “Maybe because they’re three foot tall insects? Do you know what the chances are that a species that evolved on a different planet would develop a verbal language that sounds so close to our own vocalizations?”

  “Probably pretty slim,” Anthony replied calmly. “And yet this radio just started making these funny noises when the alien ships came in range.”

  Victoria could not debate his simple logic, although she desperately wanted to.

  “Um, guys?” Nick said uneasily. “What if they’re asking for an identification code or telling us to follow them or something?”

  Victoria and Anthony exchanged worried looks. They were both interested in one-upping the other, but neither could come up with a response to Nick’s question.

  The Kessiam fighters continued their approach. Looking out the right side of the window, Nick could see three of them coming into visual range. “Guys?” he asked more desperately. The size of the fighters seemed to double within a second. “Guys!” he yelled.

  The flight of Kessiam fighters zoomed past without incident. Nick relaxed his grip on the joystick while Anthony and Victoria let out deep sighs of relief.

  “Two inches… four inches… they’re out of range,” Victoria relayed.

  “Well, guess they weren’t talking to us,” Nick said.

  The trio regained their composure as they continued their trip west. There were a few minutes of silence before Anthony lifted his head up as if he was thinking deeply about something.

  “What is it?” Nick asked without taking his eyes off of the sky in front of him.

  “It just occurred to me that we’re flying to an Air Force base in a stolen alien spaceship.”

  “Yeah?” Nick probed.

  Anthony was surprised that Nick did not understand what he was getting at. “Well, I’d imagine they’ll have missiles and fighter aircraft at that Air Force base…”

  “Uh huh…” Nick responded, still completely lost.

  “Don’t you think they’ll probably try to shoot us down?”

  “Oh! Yeah… they probably will,” Nick said.

  Anthony was shocked by Nick’s lack of concern. “How far are we from the base?”

  Nick leaned forward towards the window and squinted. “That’s it up there,” he said while pointing.

  “Not to alarm anyone, but two more blips just appeared on the radar directly behind us,” Victoria said. “They’re a different color than what the alien ships showed up as.”

  Nick and Anthony shared a concerned look. Anthony swore and started fiddling with the knobs next to the radio.

  “What are you doing?” Nick asked.

  “Trying to find a military frequency.”

  “Three inches!” Victoria yelled from the other end of the control panel.

  “Take evasive action or something!” Anthony shouted. He turned the knobs quickly but still received only static.

  Nick jerked the joystick hard to the right. The force of the maneuver sent him crashing into Anthony while Victoria fell against him.

  “That worked well,” Nick said as he pushed back to his position in the center.

  “Two inches!” Victoria warned as she manned her station again.
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br />   “…can take him Goose. He’s not getting away,” said a voice suddenly over the radio.

  “Copy that,” came another voice in English.

  “That’s it!” Anthony yelled. He pressed his face against the receiver. “Don’t shoot!”

  Nick glanced over at the control panel to his right. “Try pressing the green button,” he suggested.

  Anthony slammed his index finger against the green button. “Don’t shoot!” he again screamed at the control panel.

  “What the hell was that?” said a voice over the radio.

  “This is the alien spaceship in front of you!” Anthony said frantically. “I’m a human. We’re all humans. We captured the ship. Don’t shoot us down.”

  “Alien spacecraft…” the voice began. There was a pause as the pilot of one of the American fighter planes decided what he wanted to say. “How can I be sure that you are, in fact, who you say you are?”

  “My name is Anthony Kern. I’m a student at the Ohio State University and I grew up Hoboken, New Jersey. Um…” he trailed off. Anthony thought about how people always identified themselves in war movies. “The Yankees won the World Series last year, just like they did four out of the last six because they spend so much goddamn money buying players.”

  “Copy that, standby,” responded the voice over the radio with a hint of amusement.

  Nick snickered and began to relax. “I’d say they believed you.”

  “Alien spacecraft, what is your intention, over?”

  “We were going to deliver this ship to Wright-Patterson Air Force base… over.”

  “Proceed on your present course. We will escort you to Wright-Patt. Do not deviate from your course or take any hostile action or you will be fired upon, over,” the pilot replied.

  “He’s not very friendly,” Victoria said with a snort.

  It took only a few minutes for the alien fighter, now flanked by an F-35 on either side, to reach the Air Force base. The radio again crackled to life as they reached the edge of the base.