The Unlikely Defenders

by Scott Haworth

  Daniel holstered his pistol and angrily climbed aboard the H.M.S. Illustrious.

  “Well, there’s the skyline,” Victoria said from the backseat of the minivan.

  “Good to be home,” Nick, who was sitting next to her, agreed.

  Anthony was riding shotgun. He turned his head towards the driver. “Thanks again for giving us a ride back to Columbus, Frank.”

  “It’s no trouble,” Frank responded. “Like I said, I had to come out here anyway.”

  “Why are you going to Columbus? I thought you said your family all lived in Dayton,” Nick inquired from the backseat.

  “Almost all. My mother-in-law lives out on the east side of the city. With the phone lines being jammed my wife insisted that I come out and check on her,” Frank sighed. “Well, you never know. Maybe I’ll be lucky and she’s dead.”

  The other three people in the car started to laugh uncomfortably, unsure of whether or not he was being serious. After a moment they independently decided to stop. Serious or not, it was a pretty morbid thing to say.

  They road on in awkward silence until they reached the OSU campus area. They ran into a roadblock a few blocks from Nick and Anthony’s apartment. Several abandoned vehicles prevented the minivan from proceeding.

  “It’s all right,” Nick said. “We can walk from here.”

  “Okay guys. Good luck to you, and be careful out there,” Frank responded.

  Anthony Nick and Victoria all exchanged pleasantries with Frank as they exited the vehicle. It had been a short car ride, but they all took a moment to stretch their legs. Anthony pulled out the Kessiam directed energy weapon from behind his back. He instantly felt better having it in his hand. He felt fortunate that Colonel Breckenridge had not confiscated the trio’s weapons.

  Nick watched as Anthony started to cautiously move forward with his weapon drawn. “You do know the war is over don’t you?”

  “Yes I do. The question is whether or not they know the war is over,” Anthony responded snidely without turning to address Nick.

  Nick shook his head, increased speed and passed ahead of Anthony. “You’re way too paranoid.”

  “And you’re way too impulsive. If you don’t stop being so irresponsible you’re going to get yourself…” Anthony trailed off as he saw a Kessiam emerge from around the corner in front of them. It raised its forearm but not to make an X.

  Nick had turned to look at Anthony and so did not see the Kessiam. Anthony pushed him with his left hand in order to get a better shot. He raised his right arm up and fired at the same time as the Kessiam soldier. Anthony’s shot hit the creature in one of its legs. He fired twice more to finish it off.

  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about!” Anthony lectured. He began to turn around. “If you would just…”

  When he turned around he saw Victoria struggling to hold onto Nick. With great effort she managed to slow his descent to the ground. Anthony threw himself onto the cement next to his best friend and love of his life. There was a golf ball-sized hole in Nick’s throat. Nick’s face was white as he glanced up at Anthony and then quickly over to Victoria. He grabbed Victoria’s hand and attempted to speak. He opened and closed his mouth several times but, given his wound, could make no sounds. After a moment he stopped moving. His eyes were still open, staring vacantly at the woman he loved.

  Anthony and Victoria looked up at each other from either side of Nick’s body. Over the last year they had become used to quickly responding to each other’s insults. As they crouched over the man who had meant the world to both of them, neither could think of anything to say.

  “Thank you again for all your help, Ms. Kemmer,” Bill Shephard’s voice said before the line went dead.

  Julie sighed and collapsed into an uncomfortable metal chair. “Well, that was fun,” she said sarcastically.

  “Hey, you got to speak with President Dyer. That’s an interesting anecdote for parties at least,” Shawn said.

  “I’m afraid I don’t really follow your country’s politics. Is he a good man? Do you like him?”

  “Well, no. I’m a Democrat… uh that’s the liberal party. I guess his ideology really doesn’t come into play when defending the country against alien invasion,” Shawn said. He rubbed his eyes and looked down at Mervny. The alien was curled up in a ball on the floor with several blankets on top of him. “Poor little guy is all tuckered out.”

  Julie smiled. “Who knows how much sleep a Kessiam needs every day. They might need more than we do.”

  “He’ll be happy when he wakes up. He won’t be the only alien to answer that question. They can start interrogating one of the hundreds of thousands of other Kessiams,” Shawn responded. “So what are your plans after this?”

  Julie rubbed her bloodshot eyes. “I don’t know. I’d imagine they’ll want me to help out with translating for a while.”

  “Well, when it’s all said and done… how about a cup of coffee?”

  Julie blushed and turned towards Shawn. “Your place or mine?”

  “I’ve got some pretty bad roommates at my place. Plus its double digits below zero.”

  “Then you’ll just have to come back to Sydney with me.”

  Shawn stared at Julie longingly. “I hear it’s beautiful this time of year.”

  “You really should go get a few hours of sleep. The nation doesn’t need a hallucinating Commander-in-Chief,” Bill said.

  Dyer shook his head. “Four hours in two days is plenty,” he said humorously. “Now what about their ships? Can we just have them land out in the Arizona desert or something?”

  “Some of their vessels are quite large. Frankly, it might be easier to just let them stay in orbit,” Bill responded.

  “I’d feel better if they were all down on the ground where we could secure them. I don’t want to leave them the option of reneging on the…” Dyer trailed off as the Air Force general hung up a phone and nodded towards him. “What is it?”

  “We’re picking up new radio signals,”

  “From the Kessiam fleet?” Dyer asked.

  “We don’t think so. More importantly though, the signals are very similar to that thing we picked up in Ohio.”

  “What thing?” Dyer asked. He had completely forgotten the general’s previous mention of the subject since he had been distracted by bigger problems.

  “My apologies, Mr. President,” the Air Force chief of staff said. “In 1977 a radio astronomer at the Ohio State University detected a radio signal from outer space. It appeared to have structure and after a while it was determined not to be from any naturally occurring phenomenon. The signal lasted for a little over a minute and then was never detected again. Most scientists believed that it was a human made radio signal that got bounced back at us.”

  “But if we’re seeing it again now that means it’s not one of our signals, and if it’s not originating from the Kessiam fleet…” Dyer trailed off.

  One of the Kessiams let out such a high-pitched squeal that every crewmen in the Anarcmy’s monitoring center instantly stopped what they were doing. Anarcmy was the first to arrive at the terrified crewman’s station. He did not have to ask for an explanation. The station’s display spoke for itself.

  “They’ve found us,” Anarcmy said in a ghastly whisper. His antennae drooped as he leaned against the console. After a moment he picked his head up and looked around at the terrified expressions of the monitoring center’s crew. “Return to your stations!”

  The crewmen complied with a desperate sense of urgency.

  Bolshak whispered so that only Anarcmy could hear. “How could they have found us so soon? That’s impossible even for the Yahnert.”

  “Does it really matter now?” Anarcmy asked.

  Bolshak lowered his head. “No… I suppose it doesn’t. We should attempt to flee.”

  “Flee to where?” Anarcmy asked. He looked once more at the monitor in front of him. “They have us surrounded and their ships are faster than ours. Even if we coul
d manage to get away we don’t have the resources to support our people for much longer. No… it’s over,” he said. He turned to the crewman who was in charge of communications. “Order our ships to stand their ground. Deploy all our remaining fighters to defend the fleet.”

  The crewman relayed the orders and after a moment responded, “Many of the ships are not complying. They are scattering in various directions.”

  “Of course they are,” Anarcmy cursed.

  He knew it did not really matter. His people stood no chance against the approaching Yahnert regardless of how many ships obeyed the order. Still, it was a sad reminder of his species’ inability to work together. He knew it would be the final example of this flaw. The last remnants of Kessiam civilization were about to be destroyed.

  The leader of the Yahnert flagship chirped in delight as she looked down at her monitor. She clicked her mandibles together and turned to her communications officer. “Order squadrons thirty through ninety to engage the ships that are attempting to flee the solar system. The rest of the fleet is free to engage the bulk of the Kessiam forces.”

  The second in command turned in her seat next to the leader. “It’s surprising that any of them are trying to make a stand. That’s very unusual for their species.”

  “Indeed,” the leader responded casually. She had no need to micromanage the battle that was unfolding. The Kessiams stood no chance. “They have come a long way since our campaign began so many years ago. It almost makes me wonder whether we might have been able to reform them. Perhaps they could have been added to our society…”

  “Too late. They’re all dead now,” the second in command said cheerfully. She watched her monitor as the last of the Kessiam ships were decimated. “At least we’ll be able to add the humans. Their species has an acceptable hierarchy and organizational system. They can be trained to serve us, even if they are only mammals.”

  “Yes,” the commander agreed. “To be honest, I was delighted when I heard that the Kessiam refugees had fled to Earth. The invasion of Earth was originally scheduled to be many years from now. I’m glad the timetable was accelerated.”

  “Comparable oxygen content, gravity and climate,” the second in command agreed. “It’s one of the closest planets to home that we’ve ever conquered. Plus the humans were able to fight off the Kessiam attack,” she said, mildly impressed.

  “Yeah…” the commander started. “But that’s not really saying much is it?” she concluded. She increased the volume of her voice so that the rest of the bridge crew could hear her before continuing. “Set all clocks and calendars to Earth standard.”

  “Yes, your majesty,” replied one of the crew. “The fleet is now on Greenwich Mean Time.”

  “Have you made your final target selections?” the second in command asked.

  “Yes. We’ll be using the antimatter bomblets on the White House, Buckingham Palace, the Kremlin…” she continued on for a moment and listed a dozen more targets. “… and the Sydney Opera House,” she concluded. Her second in command looked slightly disappointed. “What’s wrong, do you have a problem with the choices?”

  “No it’s just that… I rather like the architecture of the Sydney Opera House. It was one of my favorite structures when I was studying human society.”

  “Very well,” the commander said in amusement. “I’ll spare it. We’ll destroy the Parliament building in Canberra instead.”

  “I appreciate it,” the second in command said. “I think it’s an excellent list. The humans have a strange fascination with their monuments.”

  “Yes, I didn’t really understand that until I watched all of those science fiction movies. The aliens always attack their monuments because they hold a special symbolic value for human society.”

  “And now we’re about to do the same thing. I believe it’s what they would call life imitating art. Have you decided on which city you wish to destroy?”

  “Given the number of different cultures and nations I decided that no single city’s annihilation would strike fear in all of the humans. Let’s just destroy the most populated city for now. Given their tenacity we’ll probably have to destroy more later before they surrender.”

  Sean Altmann had been patrolling the grounds of the White House without incident for several hours. It had been peaceful for a while even before the official surrender of the Kessiams. The first battalion had managed to wipe out all of the aliens in the vicinity. He had just about calmed down from the earlier excitement when objects started to hit the roof of the mansion.

  One of the objects bounced down to the ground at Sean’s feet. Two more guards rushed to the area to investigate while he picked up the object. It was a small, grey sphere about the size of a tennis ball. It seemed completely unremarkable. Had he not just been through a series of peculiar events he likely would have thought nothing of the object. As he brought the sphere closer to his ear he heard a faint humming noise. It was the last thing he ever heard.

  The humming stopped suddenly, but Sean did not have time to notice. A split second later the sphere exploded and vaporized most of his body. It went off simultaneously with the other bomblets that had landed in the area. In an instant the White House was reduced to rubble.

  Abhaya cringed on the couch as a flurry of gunshots rang out from the street. She watched as Marcus got off the couch and walked towards the patio window. “What are you doing?” she demanded. “Get back here!”

  “It’s okay,” Marcus responded. “It’s normal gunfire from humans. It sounds like they’re celebrating.”

  Abhaya cautiously got off of the couch and walked to join Marcus. “Do you think the war is over?” she asked optimistically. The house was still getting electricity, but the satellite television was not working. Abhaya and Marcus had not yet learned of the Kessiam surrender.

  “Maybe,” Marcus responded. He opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the patio to get a better look. Abhaya did not follow him. With an apologetic smile he returned inside and stood next to her.

  They were hundreds of miles away, but they had to squint and shade their eyes when the Yahnert antimatter bomb detonated in Mumbai. Abhaya turned her head and blinked rapidly in order to clear the spots from her eyes. After a moment she turned back to look in the direction of the light source.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “I don’t think the war is over yet,” Marcus responded.

  He put his arm around her shoulder comfortingly. After a moment a low rumbling noise rolled through the area. It was caused by the shockwave from the bomb that had incinerated twenty-seven million people.

  *……………*……………*

  Thanks for taking the time to read The Unlikely Defenders. It was the first novel I ever wrote. It is the first of a trilogy… or at least it will be if I ever get around to writing the other two. I got distracted and wrote five unrelated novels after I finished it. If you’re itching for the sequel, check out the links below. Maybe the next book has come out in the time since I wrote this message.

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