Aliens, Tequila & Us: The complete series

by Michael Herman

  “We step into an indentation and face each other. She takes my hands in her hands and in her eyes I see what I’ve always wanted to see: a desire for absolute togetherness with a mutual understanding of our importance to each other. I see love. We are inches from each other and her scent fills my nostrils. The effect is titillating.

  “When the light things reach our chests, she wraps her arms around me and presses her lips to mine for a sultry long moment, and then whispers into my ear, ‘Don’t ever leave me, Messenger. You are mine and I will be yours, forever.’ I know Soliloquy has always had abandonment issues because of her mom, but I can honestly say this moment is not about that.

  “’Forever,’ I say, with all my heart. For us, sixteen years has been our entire lifetime. For us, forever is easy to attain. What we share in that moment is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. If sex is like this in the world above, then I understand why it’s so popular. The pressure I feel is so overwhelming I think my head is about to explode when...

  “The world drops away for me. I am in our family barn with Soliloquy, who is ranting about the stupidity of lotto ticket-buying.

  “’Can you believe Zach in chemistry said he wouldn’t buy a Powerball lotto ticket until it hit the five-hundred-million mark because winning less than that wouldn’t be worth the five or ten dollars’ investment to buy a ticket? No, he needs to see biiiig sums to play. I mean, what kind of logic is that? And what kind of person buys lotto tickets anyway? All it’s good for is daydreaming about what you would do if you won, which no one ever does anyway. No one wins the lottery! It’s all a state-sponsored illusion. And then there are all the stories of murder and mayhem and betrayal that happen to lotto winner after lotto winner who end up penniless and homeless just a few years after taking the whole sum in cash. AND...since the winners aren’t real anyway, I’m convinced the state employs sitcom writers to come up with all the tragicomic stories we see in the news about the winners.’

  “Now we’re seated around a fire ring at the center of our farm. Our sleeping bags are next to us. The fire is going strong. Soliloquy is in tears crying about her mother not being there for her. ‘Why does she leave me alone? Does she hate me? Have I done something wrong? What is wrong with me that drives her away?’

  “In the next moment, we’re hiking in Yosemite, walking up the mist trail with my family. The mist thrown by the waterfall is drenching. Soliloquy, standing on the trail behind my dad, has her mouth wide open, catching the falling drops, laughing.

  “Now we are at our high school. Tommy Hill is on the ground in front of me with a bleeding mouth. Soliloquy is pulling me away from him. ‘Let it go, Messenger, you’re going to get yourself expelled. I can protect myself. You don’t have to do that for me.’

  “Now I am at the gym on an exercycle. My friend, James, is next to me cycling away. Soliloquy walks up between us and nudges me. ‘He’s pulling ahead, Messenger. Better pump faster.’ I point at the screen of his four-by-five-inch CD player on the handlebar rack of his cycle and protest, ‘He’s got incentive that I don’t.’ On the screen, there are dancing and singing girls gyrating away in some music video. James says, ‘It helps me. When I hit the weight room, I’m all pumped up.’ Soliloquy quips, ‘In more ways than one.’ We all laugh.

  “Now Soliloquy and I are in her grandmother’s kitchen. She says, ‘Messenger you have to cook dinner. Think you can handle that, young man?’ I answer, ‘No problem, I am Man, hear me roar. Bark, bark, howwwl!’ We laugh.

  “Now we are in our house seated at the dining room table. My dad and uncle are toasting each other with glasses of wine. My mom is serving pasta. Soliloquy is kicking me under the table. She is covertly laughing about how silly my dad and uncle are acting as they get tipsy celebrating the closure of the debt on the farm.

  “Then...everything changes and I am back inside the craft. I see the orbs that enclose us. Only now I see them through hundreds of eyes instead of two. I look over and see the creature that is my uncle’s avatar, big, brutish and fierce, crawling out of the room. Spikes and stripes cover its body that is a cross between a machine and a tarantula. It pauses mid-crawl and raises a head covered with eight bug eyes to look back at me. Even though its mouth is just a tangle of mandibles, I swear it smiles at me. It clacks two of its crablike appendages that look like they could rip through metal or flesh with equal ease.

  “The avatar for my father is some kind of spider thing that is trailing behind. Multiple stingers bob up and down from the rear of its body. Two huge pincers float effortlessly on insect-like arms at the front of it. Its eight legs sport armor and spikes. Its skin ripples with iridescent blues and blacks. Two big black orbs that must be its eyes sit on top of a head that could only come from a deranged imagination.

  “In contrast to my dad and uncle, the avatars for my mother and Twizzle are two identical blue-feathered winged creatures, graceful, colorful, and almost beautiful. They sport multiple arms that end in long slender fingers. Their feathers change hues depending on the angle viewed. Their heads appear to be furred and leopard-like. The Twizzle avatar grins, revealing deadly canine teeth. The avatars float in the air, watching me watching them.

  “Then I see Soliloquy and realize she is not just one avatar, but a mass of black-colored winged creatures hovering as a cloud. From this, I understand why I am looking through hundreds of eyes. I am a group of flying creatures, too. When her cloud of creatures changes formation I understand she is communicating with me, and I change my formation in response. Cross-communication has begun. We talk like friends comparing a new set of clothes. Then, getting the feel of the creatures, we become aware of their seriousness. They are suicide bombers whose power lies within their blood. We must kamikaze into targets and have our highly toxic blood burn through them like acid. Deadly stuff.

  “In the next moment, when Gi makes its presence known to us, it’s like being underwater in the middle of a vast ocean. Gi’s presence is huge and ancient as if Gi has been around since the beginning of time. I feel the eddies and currents of its thinking swirling around me. It’s like being caught up in a huge tidal wave that is moving in slow motion, deliberate and powerful.

  “In the next moment, we are all linked. My father, my mother, my uncle, Twizzle, Forbes, Soliloquy and I are together in presence and thought that takes a moment to get used to—like listening to multiple Talk Shows that at first is confusing, but with concentration becomes easy to absorb.

  “I am momentarily stunned as Gi force-feeds us information about the Gi craft and Gi itself, and the invading aliens. It is as if I had an empty place in my head I was unaware of that is suddenly filled with knowledge, as if the knowing was there all the time, but had been forgotten until now. And I realize the craft that harbors Gi is massive, extending out for miles from our farm. Nuances of its power hide in every nook and cranny of its being. While Gi allows us to sample only a thin piece of its knowledge base, we are allowed to sense the overwhelming volume of what it knows.

  “We sense that Gi is currently engaged in a war of the wills with the intelligence that has arrived in the alien ships. Theirs is an invisible battle that Gi is winning on some invisible level. It’s like a 4D chess match where battles are being waged independently of each other. And like pieces on a chessboard, Gi lets us know we are about to be moved into position.

  “Finally, Gi gives us the signal. It wants us to follow my uncle and my dad and Forbes into a tunnel that Gi tells us will lead straight up to the surface. My knowledge of Gi’s craft is that it is like a deeply buried tuber with a vast system of hollowed-out roots we can navigate through.

  “We move out as a group until the tunnel angles upward. At this point, my uncle, dad, and Forbes climb the walls with amazing speed. Once they reach where the tunnel stops, Gi directs them to wait a moment. It directs me, Soliloquy, my mom, and Twizzle to an opening in the side of the shaft and has us wait there. Now my father and uncle and Forbes tear into the earth that separates the tunnel
from the surface. As they dig, they drop huge rocks and debris down the shaft. When sunlight breaks through, Gi directs us to move to the surface. Looking sleek and swift, Twizzle and my mother spiral upward together. Soliloquy and I are right behind them as two independent flocks of toxic-blooded bird things. When we break the surface, Gi directs us to the nearest alien craft.

  “Just as we take off towards the ships, I’m startled by a stream of Gi’s floating light things shooting past us that reach the skin of the alien ship first. They swarm to a spot near the tip of its triangle shape, cover a small area and then blank out. As they fall like grains of sand from the ship, we see they have either created or revealed a hidden opening. Either way, it’s obvious this is our entry to the interior of the ship.”

  Messenger’s Soliloquy Chapter 10

  “There is an essence of metal and acid about the interior of the aliens’ ship. It’s reminiscent of a vintage Russian submarine we visited in the San Diego Bay harbor when I was younger. It stunk of oil and diesel and sweat and metal and old paint. The air here is foul and stale and old. I sense it’s hundreds, maybe thousands of years old. Gi offers nothing in that regard. Gi is focused on using Soliloquy’s and my hundreds of eyes to explore the craft. We’re instructed to disperse ourselves in different directions, sending our winged avatars everywhere–down corridors, between wall crevices, up organically-shaped utility pipes, past shapes and devices of unfathomable purpose. Alien energy pulses everywhere inside the craft through vein-like tubes that coat most of the surfaces. Our avatars fly through holograms of strange symbols and past objects with glowing alien hieroglyphs. Only Gi understands what we see. Only Gi has the intelligence to direct us with purpose. Only Gi seems familiar with what is inside this craft. We simply listen and respond. We are pawns on the chessboard.

  “The vast ship appears unoccupied. Everything we encounter suggests only mechanical purpose. We have yet to find evidence of the aliens that destroyed our farm. The ship seems to be entirely engine with no living quarters.

  “After Soliloquy and I exhaust our search, Gi calls us back to regroup at the entry. As we re-gather our avatars and make for the entry, I am made aware that Gi directed Forbes, my dad, and my uncle to wreak havoc on specific parts of the craft while my mother and Twizzle altered some sort of controlling device per Gi’s direction. I sense we are preparing the ship for destruction.

  “’Good,’ I say to myself. Soliloquy echoes my sentiments.

  “’That was fun,’ I communicate to her.

  “’Scary fun,’ she replies. ‘Weird seeing so much, all at the same time, while still able to direct each avatar. Is it easy for you? It’s natural for me, like I was born for this.’

  “I agree. It’s the same for me. One of my winged avatars is the first to reach where we entered the ship. Blocking the opening, an insect-like alien I’ve not seen before awaits us. It’s huge, armored and more lethal-looking than what we’ve previously seen. I warn the others of its arrival.

  “Gi directs me to explode myself into its head. I fly directly toward what I guess is an eye, but my trajectory is deflected when it shields itself with one of its armored appendages. When I spatter like a moth on a windshield onto the surface of the thing, that avatar goes blind and is gone for me.

  “Moments later, another of my winged avatars arrives at the entry, and I see smoke curling from the spot where I slammed into the creature. Beneath the smoke, a wound made by my blood eats away at the appendage. I’m surprised to see that as the wound grows, the alien creature’s blood bubbles larger and larger until the bubbles pop and out come more winged creatures like my avatars. Suddenly, I find myself looking through their eyes. It’s amazing. Where before, I was just a kamikaze avatar, now I realize that in death, I find life. My blood not only devours the creature’s flesh, but it uses the creature’s blood to multiply. Ingenious.

  “When more of my avatars arrive, I bombard the alien in one massive attack. Quickly it’s overcome and falls, writhing in death to be consumed by my alien blood-eating avatars. Before long, what had been a hulking alien is now a mass of Messenger avatars, or to be grammatically correct, just as one refers to a group of crows as a murder of crows, I am probably more appropriately a Murder of Messenger Winged Monsters or maybe just MMWMs. Or maybe WMDs, Weapons of Messenger Destruction. I’m exhilarated by the victory. Yahoo!

  “One of Soliloquy’s winged avatars arrives and hovers, taking in the rebirth of my avatars.

  “’Sweet,’ she comments. ‘We never die. We just multiply.’

  “Twizzle and my mother arrive followed by Forbes, my dad, and my uncle. Forbes and the men are covered in black gunk. Slime drips from their bodies, legs, and claws. Whatever they broke into now covers them, but it’s a reunion of success. All of us have performed well.

  “Wasting no time, Gi directs us out of this ship to head to the next ship to wreak more havoc.

  “But a mob of monster aliens is pouring out of one of the craft and massing between us and the remaining ships.

  “Gi holds my mom and Twizzle back and sends Soliloquy and me against them. Full of confidence, we throw ourselves with abandon into a group of them, raining down on them, soaking them with our blood to create more and more of us. Like a hornets’ nest disturbed, they go mad, fiercely snapping mandibles at us, swinging at us and clawing at us from the air. But no matter how much they swat or smack us, we stick to them, eat into them and then emerge from them in greater and greater numbers until the battle becomes nothing but Soliloquy and me and dissolving aliens. We become a flying mountain of murderous winged things. Meanwhile, my uncle and dad and Forbes have laid waste to creatures not attacked by us. The ground around them is covered with the aliens’ strewn pieces, some still twitching in death.

  “Hooray! Victory is ours again.

  “When I look for Twizzle and my mom, I realize they’ve used the diversion of the deadly dynamic duo of Messenger and Soliloquy winged bomb birds along with my dad, uncle and Forbes to enter the second ship. Gi directs us to follow them and explore once more. Soliloquy and I spread our masses everywhere to explore the ship's nooks and crannies. Once again, we encounter no aliens. This ship is almost an exact copy of the other ship. It is one of mechanics with no living quarters. When we regroup at the entry, no aliens greet us there. I sense through our combined communication that Twizzle and my mom have set this ship to blow at Gi’s command, just as the first ship was set.

  “Our entry into the third ship is entirely different. The odor of life is here, quirky and musk-like, stinky with alien juices and caustic chemicals. A feeling of wariness descends upon on us. Even Gi transmits unease. Our real enemy resides here and I feel like Gi is unsure of the enemy’s powers within this domain. Soliloquy and I are directed to send out only part of our avatars for exploration. We hold the rest back for warfare. Twizzle and my mom are given an escort by a small group of Soliloquy and Messenger avatars to a particular part of the ship, with Forbes and my dad and uncle leading the way.

  “I think Gi is familiar with parts of the layout here, but not all of it, hence sending Soliloquy and me out to explore while also having us guard Twizzle and my mom to some Gi-preordained location.

  “But our victories of the past are short-lived. The exploring avatars Soliloquy and I sent out suddenly go blind and cease to respond. Gi shudders with anxiety. This is a bad sign. I wonder if Soliloquy’s and my avatars are useless in this place. Can they be killed before being dispatched? In answer to my question, the avatars we held back for warfare also go blind and unresponsive. All that is left of Soliloquy and me are the ones escorting Twizzle and my mom.

  “When we arrive at a huge bank of what appears to be incubating aliens, Gi lets us know we are almost to our destination. Gi directs Forbes, my dad, and uncle to tear apart everything that holds alien life. Like demons from hell, they launch into the structures with tremendous force and speed. Half-formed grotesque creatures spill out of wrecked containers. Soliloquy and I are directed to
slam our winged things into the unborn aliens cascading out of their containers. Under our attack, they writhe and twitch until they’re completely consumed by our blood. In their place, our newborn avatars now flock. In short order, we massacre every living thing. Twizzle and my mom stand by, waiting and watching. Soliloquy’s and my winged things have increased in number from forty or so to thousands. We’re once again an army of toxic-blooded winged marauders. Whoohoo!

  “Gi holds everyone back while directing Soliloquy and me to fire off a small reconnaissance crew of winged things down a corridor. Through our eyes, Gi sees what our crew advances towards and directs us forward, letting us know we are almost finished.

  “In the meantime, Gi directs Soliloquy and me to divide ourselves into two murders, one to remain here and the other to fly back and attack whatever has disabled the other avatars. Gi assures us that the new avatars made from fresh unborn alien blood will be different and not so easily rendered dead. Part of us sets off to attack our pursuers while the other part moves towards our final destination.

  “Gi is wrong. Soliloquy’s and my attack avatars returning to the ship entry suddenly go dead and unresponsive. Not good news. It feels like whatever killed them is headed our way. Gi prods us to make haste.

  “Our family crew finally arrives at its Gi-directed destination, and Gi has Twizzle and my mom adjust ship controls to bring about the destruction of the craft. My uncle and dad and Forbes are directed to tear into the walls of the craft and erect a barrier to seal us in. Amazingly, they secrete a sort of glue to the chunks torn off, and then adhere them in place as a makeshift barricade. Soliloquy and I just look on, as our services are not needed.

  “Then we hear it. The arrival of whatever killed Soliloquy’s and my avatars is enormous. Like an explosion, it shakes the entire room. My uncle and Forbes and Dad increase the tempo of their construction, ignoring the blast and slamming glued layer upon glued layer over their barricade. Twizzle and my mother back as far away as possible from the barricade. Another blast rocks the room and this time, the barricade bulges inward. Fearlessly, Forbes, Dad, and my uncle rip more wall off of the interior of the room and glue it to the barricade until...