Neighbors

by Brian Whiting

  is Jackie, Renee’s assistant. How can I help you?” Jackie’s voice quiv-

  ered slightly.

  “Ah… so Renee got an assistant, finally. I’ve been telling her to get one

  for some time now. I hope you like late nights… Let Renee know that her

  special assignment ‘Alpha Foxtrot’ hit a snag and won’t be ready in time. “

  “Okay. Who might I say is calling?” Jackie asked as caller ID was unin-

  formative. The phone clicked off. “Hello?”

  The elevator door opened, and Renee darted out with her face in a data

  pad, scrolling through something.

  Jackie glanced at the phone uncomfortably. “Uh, someone called and

  said Alpha Foxtrot hit a snag, then hung up.”

  “Damn it!” Renee stopped walking and turned to face Jackie. “What

  are you doing? The media department is that way.” Renee pointed

  behind Jackie.

  “Uhh…” Her mouth hung open, looking stunned as she turned and

  looked in the direction Renee indicated, then back at Renee, who had just

  8

  relieved Jackie of the cell phone and walked away, leaving Jackie in the lobby area with the guard.

  “Ma’am, if you’d like, I can escort you.” The guard smiled widely as he

  looked Jackie over.

  She’d grown accustomed to such attention and decided early on in her

  life to take advantage of it whenever possible. “That would be nice, thank

  you,” she said sweetly. She asked the guard many questions as they walked,

  as she felt she was never going to attend a future orientation.

  * * *

  “You look wonderful, stop fussing,” Amanda managed to say, in spite of

  the comb she had between her teeth. Next to her stood Alex in his newly

  designed UEF uniform. It was a grey two-tone uniform, the left shoulder

  sporting a formally-designed gold assent pad. The opposite shoulder held

  his pinned rank insignia, which was the UEF emblem on its side, facing

  away from Alex. He was a bit shocked at how fast things were progressing

  now that hundreds of people were mobilizing the UEF vision every day.

  Alex reached up again to touch his hair, and Amanda snatched his

  hand in mid-air. She pulled him over to her, dropping the comb without

  him noticing and placing it on the counter behind him. They kissed ever so

  lightly for a few moments.

  A knock at the hatch door broke them apart. Both were so familiar

  with such interruptions that they casually accepted the knock as though

  it were expected. Amanda opened the door, fully-dressed in her uniform,

  light grey with a blue shoulder pad. She had yet to put her hair up, so she

  pulled it off to one side and let it fall over her right shoulder.

  Mason stood in the hallway, wearing his uniform as well. It mirrored

  Alex’s, except for the rank insignia, which looked like a golden step ladder

  on its side, with eight steps. “Uniforms are looking good!”

  Amanda looked down at hers, then she leaned back dramatically to

  look over her shoulder at her rear. “They don’t look bad, I’ll give them

  that much.”

  Alex walked to the hatchway and stood behind Amanda. “Looking

  sharp, Commander!”

  “I can say the same about you…sir.”

  9

  Alex gave a slight tilt of the head and a barely noticeable frown. “What did I tell you about that ‘sir’ business?”

  “I have to set an example. I’m sure it’s in my lengthy job description

  somewhere…sir!”

  Alex smiled slightly. “What brings you by?”

  Amanda excused herself from their conversation and retreated to the

  bathroom. Alex and Mason found their customary spots on the couch and

  nearby chair.

  “There is an enormous amount of issues piling on. Faster than we can

  handle them, I’m afraid.”

  “Sounds like we need to delegate more.” Alex watched as Amanda

  teased Alex for only an instant, behind Mason’s back. Alex’s heart jumped

  for a moment, but he kept his calm.

  “Big picture stuff. We have several national representatives request-

  ing meetings, offering contracts, that sort of thing. The sheer amount of

  offers would take a solid month if we handled only what we have on our

  plate right now. More come in every day. In the meantime, a few Sena-

  tors are arousing support to revoke cooperation with the UEF, calling us a

  failed experiment. We have our first major incident involving the potential

  removal of a UEF member, then there’s the—”

  “Wait,” Alex cut Mason off. “Tell me more about that.”

  “Well, it’s a sexual harassment situation, an ongoing thing. A construc-

  tion worker was caught following someone to their residence. Security was

  called and notified the worker that he was on alert for revocation. He’s been

  restricted to his residence for the time being. The contracted HR firms have

  ways to handle such things. So far, Curtis has done a great job dealing with

  other things as they pop up. He’s putting together a review committee with

  people who don’t know either person involved. I think he means to put

  these things to a vote.”

  “It’s not a bad idea. Let him run with that, but let’s see a written pro-

  posal on how this will work before the first committee meeting.”

  “Excellent! We have—”

  “Hang on, why do I feel like you’re handling grunt work? You need to

  find someone else to handle this stuff.”

  10

  “Contacting Heads of State is grunt work? How old are you again?”

  Mason chuckled.

  “You know what I mean. You shouldn’t be spending time notifying me

  of these things, that’s what assistants are for.”

  “I don’t see yours around.” Mason looked left and right around

  the room.

  Alex rolled his eyes. “Hey, I hear Renee is trying out her new

  person today.”

  “Isn’t this her third?”

  “Really? I had no idea. What happened to the other two?”

  “I watched the first one break down in tears, and the other one requested

  to be removed the same day she started. That’s just the last three days.”

  “Amazing!”

  “Who would have thought Renee would be so difficult to work with?”

  “Not difficult, busy. She keeps them moving, with little time to rest.”

  An odd noise in the bathroom distracted Mason, and he glanced over in

  that direction.

  “Maybe she needs more assistants?” Alex idly wondered how many

  assistants he would need to have a day off. “It’s easy to assume we all need a few assistants, just to keep the good ones from burning out.”

  “Maybe not even assistants. More like deputies, or directors.”

  “Make it a topic of discussion at the next meeting.”

  Mason looked over his data pad. “How’s the message going for tonight?”

  “Renee is working on it. We’re documenting a play-by-play of trans-

  pired events. Let the public be the judge.”

  “That has worked well for us up to this point.” Mason stopped talking

  for a moment. Amanda walked out of the bathroom, ready to face the day,

  and sat next to Alex on the couch, giving enough distance to avoid touch-

  ing him. Mason looked to Amanda. “Zeek wanted me to tell yo
u ‘thanks.’

  Something about a super spy program?”

  “Yeah, Kalibri shored up cyber defenses for the UEF for the next decade

  or so. One giant thing we do not have to worry about.”

  “I’ll reach out to him right after tonight’s program.” Alex stood up,

  sensing the end of the conversation approaching.

  11

  * * *

  It was just before sunset, but floodlights already illuminated the area. In

  front of the main UEF building was a single podium on a raised platform.

  Reporters from every news network that existed, and some internet news

  sources as well, anxiously awaited the announcement. Behind Alex, his

  team had erected a large screen, on which the videos Alex intended to show

  would be displayed.

  Alex adjusted the microphone on the podium and ignored the repeated

  hum of questions shouted at him. He forced a fake cough into the micro-

  phone and raised his hands. The reporters fell silent.

  “As everyone is aware, we were attacked by the Zorn some time ago.

  What many of you do not know is what the UEF did about it.”

  Alex turned around and waited for the cued video to play on the screen.

  The video started with the fake practice drill and Alex, in the video,

  explained why the early drill was called. The negative scans and the decision

  to move on with UEF activities followed the realization of the exploitable

  limitation inherent in the sensors and ended with the return to Earth.

  Extensive battle footage of the interior and exterior cameras were mas-

  terfully edited and cut together. There was no question as to the heroics of

  the UEF. The video transitioned to Timmy flying trainees to a couple of

  locations in the western hemisphere to fight the Zorn, and included video

  of the Zorn attacking him in the container.

  Video then cut to a few hospitals, where UEF medical personnel were

  assisting local medical professionals in areas with overwhelming casualties.

  Then the video faded out.

  “I’ll take a question,” Alex said flatly and humored himself that such a

  statement was absolutely unnecessary; he knew the questions would come,

  regardless.

  “Captain, do you take any responsibility for the attack?”

  “It took a long time to get the support the UEF needs to grow to the

  size it has. I wish the support had come earlier; we might have had a few

  ships in orbit, enough to stop the attack in space before the Zorn ever made

  it planetside.”

  12

  Alex managed to hear that reporter say, “You didn’t answer my question,” before she was drowned out by her peers shouting new questions.

  Alex pointed to another reporter, and the rest quieted down. “Did the

  UEF sustain any casualties?”

  “We had several. Lanora, for example, is still in medical, receiving

  treatment. If you meant ‘did we sustain any fatalities’, the answer is ‘no’.

  The UEF escaped fatalities during the attack. I might add a comment to

  that in direct response to the senators who denounce the UEF: ask the

  federal government how many people died on their rosters, then ask how

  many Zorn their government eliminated.” Alex stopped for dramatic effect,

  only to be overwhelmed by the noise of the insatiable questions.

  “When is the next attack coming? Can you tell us?”

  “Based on information on the other worlds attacked by the Zorn, we

  can expect another attack in one to two years.” Alex knew that it was cer-

  tainly closer to thirteen months, but he was offering hope, to delay possible

  rioting until it was too late.

  “Can the UEF be ready in time? To repel a full attack?”

  “Well, at last count, three countries have finished construction yards

  for our new ships. Recruitment is running smoothly, so with any luck, we

  will have an entire fleet in space to repel the enemy, should they decide to

  try again.”

  “From what I hear, recruitment isn’t running so smoothly, and I hear

  the UEF is about to undertake its first eviction in a few days. Why haven’t

  we heard anything about that?” An older male reporter asked from the

  front row.

  “The same reason why you didn’t immediately hear back from the UEF

  after the attack. That is a recent development, and it does no one any good

  to release half-information. In certain situations, its ethical to wait until

  you have a clear message or report of the situation, especially since the

  world hangs on our every word, so it’s important to get the facts right.”

  “Can you tell us about the upcoming attack?”

  “I have answered a few questions, and you have videos being uploaded

  to the website as we speak. I thank you for your time and attention.”

  Alex stepped away from the podium and was led to a black SUV by

  one of his security personnel. As soon as he entered, it took off towards the

  13

  hanger. It was a custom-designed SUV, where the seats faced each other.

  Renee, Zeek, and Jackie sat in the other three seats. “I didn’t expect to see

  you, Zeek. Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, fine. Russians tried to send me a copy of the UEF revisions they

  want to try out on their version of a completed ship. It was all in Russian,

  so I sent it back with a note. I doubt the ship will be anywhere near com-

  plete by the time the attack occurs. On another note, that program that

  you gave me is pumping out some interesting information. You should stop

  by and see it.”

  Alex nodded. He didn’t want his friend to feel like what he just men-

  tioned wasn’t important, but he felt it wasn’t that important at the moment.

  He smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, as he’d always done since he

  knocked out Hunter in the cafeteria, way back in grade school.

  “How do you think it went?” Alex turned to face Jackie.

  “I think…” Renee had started.

  “I know what you think, you designed the whole thing. I want to hear

  it from mini you.” Alex pointed to Jackie.

  “I don’t want to be mini her.” Jackie nodded her head towards Renee.

  “Can I be Jackie?”

  Alex smiled widely. “So?”

  “It was fine.”

  “That’s it, fine?” Alex peered at Jackie, who met his eyes but turned away

  quickly. “Please speak freely.” He looked at everyone seated in the vehicle.

  “Fine. You’re coming off very detached and unorganized. It’s making

  you look weak.” She locked eyes with him, still and motionless. Her face

  held the same amount of emotion as a river stone.

  “Did you not see the video? How do I seem weak to you? I just defended

  the planet!”

  “That’s right, I said you look weak, not the UEF. First, you saturate the internet with videos you made, then you upload staged interviews. Then

  you make some appearances in various parts of the world, most notably

  the White House, where you’re meeting the people you claim to despise.

  Then you throw a press conference in the parking lot of your recently con-

  structed Complex. News outlets that barely qualify as the term ‘news’ are

  14

  now controlling the narrative of your recent Q and A. Where the hell is the consistency? As I said, it
makes you look unorganized and weak.”

  “It’s the main reason I pitched the press room idea to you a while back,”

  Renee reminded him.

  The SUV came to a stop inside the hanger, next to the UEF Destiny.

  Work crews were still cutting away the mangled hull sections. “I don’t want

  a press room, it makes it feel too planned, cookie cutter and dishonest.

  Nowadays, when people see a press room, they think edited government

  content. There’s a word for that: propaganda.”

  “Then stick to posting videos online. Allow the people to absorb the

  narrative themselves. Don’t feed the media anymore.” Jackie’s attention was

  still locked on Alex.

  “I’ll look into it.”

  Alex and Zeek stepped out of the SUV, leaving Renee and Jackie still

  inside. “I’m meeting government representatives tomorrow, inside the UEF

  distinguished visitors center. See you then.” Alex stepped away, and Zeek

  shut the door.

  Renee watched Jackie, who turned a modest shade of pink, but tried

  to recover her composure. Renee stared hard at her new pupil until she

  opened her data pad. While Jackie continued looking out the window.

  * * *

  “Why are you wasting so much time with this? Don’t you have better

  things to do?” Ann, a newer member of the UEF security team, demanded

  of Curtis.

  Curtis looked up from the personnel file. “The safety of all UEF per-

  sonnel is my purview, even if the threat comes from within.”

  “Yeah, but he’s guilty. We got his texts on her phone asking her out.

  She said no. Then she sees him following her to her car, she texts him to

  leave her alone, then he follows her home, where she called us. Our people

  picked him up around the corner from her room. It’s stalking! It’s an open

  a shut case. We don’t even need to ask him questions. Just fire him already.”

  Curtis looked at the young security officer she was already getting on

  his nerves and slowly shook his head, taking a deep breath. “That’s the prob-

  lem with your generation. You feel the need to make knee-jerk decisions,

  15

  without the responsibility of getting all the facts. You have no regard for how that decision will affect his life, and the lives around him, or his kids.

  Do you really feel confident in firing this man right now?”

  Ann peered through the security glass into the warmly-decorated, pur-