“No matter, I shall simply try again.” He leaps past me, slides on the floor. I scramble to catch him but before I can he sticks the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger.
“Dammit!” The third and last man stands. I shake off the shock and cover him with the IP cannon. “You move and I will stun the crap out of you.”
“So? What are you going to do Ms. Lockheart? Surely even you must see by now that no prison can contain me. When I die, every time I die, my consciousness is transferred to the nearest individual. It is why I keep so many people around. Please, by all means, take me to Earth. I need to start over anyway and this won’t do.”
Amelia, we cannot let him return to Earth.
“We can’t let him live either, there has to be a way. Scan the room… does he have any orbital controls here?”
His panel appears to have all the master controls for the satellite.
“I know you’re trying to figure out how to beat me, but you can’t. I’ve had a hundred years to plan for this moment. Even if you crashed the satellite and killed everyone on board… I’d still live. You can’t win, dear. Do you see now why you must join me? Only I can lead us through the blight that is coming. When they come, and they will come, if our planet isn’t united under one strong leader, all will be lost.”
Ignoring him, I find the controls and fire up the panel. I put the sword away so I can have a free hand. The panel lights up and after a quick status check comes back one-hundred percent. I flip through the menus looking for what I want.
Amelia… what about the other people on board?
“Access the PA.” I make sure to cover Ericsson so he doesn’t move.
Access granted.
“Attention all personnel, this is Arsenal speaking. You have five minutes to abandon ship. The clock is ticking.” I hit the klaxon. Alarms ring and a computerized voice says: All hands abandon station. All hands abandon station.
“What are you doing?” Ericsson asks me.
I am unlocking the escape pods and shuttle bays for the crew.
“Epic, can you lock out the AI from here?”
Affirmative. He does not appear to have full access beyond his security protocols. While he is excellent at his job he is not allowed outside the one function; Network security. Mr. Ericsson, however, has given this panel full control. Probably under the assumption that he would be the only one who could use it.
“Lock him out of the entire system. I don’t want him to have access to anything anywhere on the station, other than food.”
What are you doing?” Ericsson shouts, stepping forward with his hands balled into fists. “You can’t win. Surely you see that?” Is that desperation I hear in his voice? The outside of my suit sparkles under his renewed assault.
The station shudders as a hundred escape pods launch from it like bullets from a gun. I watch the counter go down to zero.
All pods away. He is the only remaining person on the station.
“If you knew me at all, if you knew my parents at all, you would know one thing about me.”
“Oh please, spare me your desperate attempt at bravado. If not today, then one day I will show up and you will be bound in your chair and on that day you will lose. For I will become you. Ultimately you cannot win.”
I reach over and activate the orbital maneuvering system. The station shudders again, this time it doesn’t stop as all the jets facing ‘west’ go into full burn, increasing the orbital speed of the station.
“When I was a child I was told my parents were dead. I was told I would never walk again. I was told I couldn’t make an AI and I was told my suit would never work. I was told I would lose.” I move around the console, leaving one hand on it long enough for Epic to lock in my instructions and then lockout the console.
“I overcame all of that, you know why?”
“Because of your pluck and persistence? I clearly will not make the mistake of—”
“No, Ericsson. I am here because I don’t believe in the ‘no-win’ scenario.”
His eyes go wide and I trigger my IP cannons.
How do you know he’s still up there?” Luke asks as we snuggle under a white goose down comforter. He’s letting me stay with him until I can find a new place to live. I gave the house away to Carlos’ older brother, whose family needed a place. I used a phony contest so he wouldn’t feel any shame in accepting such a gift. Since I flattened the HQ, well technically more than flattened, I’m homeless.
“Epic rigged one of the cameras we found to keep an eye on him.”
“But how did you keep him there? I know you don’t have a lot of manual dexterity when you’re in the armor.”
I smile as he pulls me tight, running his big hands through my hair. God, I needed this. “The station had living quarters for three hundred people, I just piled every mattress I could find on top of him. When I left I had fifty pushed into the room, I could barely shut the door.”
“You’re kidding me,” he says as he kisses my neck.
I practically purr, “Nope. Epic wanted me to break his arms and legs but I’m not Prince Humperdinck—”
“Who?”
“You didn’t just say that,” I sigh. “How has your film education been so neglected?”
He nibbles my ear and thoughts of movies go right out the window.
The last few days have been interesting in the Chinese sense of the word. By order of the Federal government, all state militias were disbanded in favor of national teams. I guess Ericsson got his wish after all. A thought that runs shivers up my spine. They will still be based on region but they will have more members, better training, and FBI-like authority. The one caveat to states rights is the governors of the regional areas they are based out of can deploy the teams as needed.
Three days after I returned home the station passed through the Van Allen belt, the ultimate Faraday Cage ensuring Ericsson can never return to Earth.
A knock at the front door interrupts his exploring of my neck. With a sigh, he drags himself out of bed. I roll over to watch the ripple of muscles up and down his back and legs as he slides on jeans. I still have a lot to think about. What’s next? It doesn’t take him long to answer the door and I hear him say my name, “Amelia, it’s for you.”
The only people who even know I’m here would call first before coming over and Kate’s already visited. Not that she would use the door. It’s like she has an allergy to them or something.
“Whoever it is, tell them to go away.”
“You really need to come out here. Want me to come help?”
I growl as I toss the covers back. This better be worth it. I’m a pro at getting in and out of my chair so it only takes me a few seconds to slide in then pull a shirt over my tank top. I grab my breakfast on the way out, a half-eaten PB&J Luke made me an hour before.
I freeze half way in the living room. I’ve only ever seen the standing in the door on TV, not in person. The President’s blue suit is impeccably tailored. As he shakes Luke’s hand I can tell the man spends time in the gym, fabric pulls around his shoulders the same way Luke’s does. Two men flank him, one of whom I recognize from the White House battle.
He smiles to Luke before turning his brown eyes on me. “May I come in?” The President asks casually.
“Of course sir, yes sir,” Luke spits out rapidly.
The President flashes Luke an amused, but grateful grin as he walks in. The two secret service men follow him in and check out the apartment for a second.
“Luke, manners,” I say to kickstart him.
“Right! Sir, please have a seat. Can I get you anything to eat or drink?” Poor Luke is speaking so fast I can barely understand him.
“Thank you, son, no I’m good. I’m afraid I can’t stay long, though. May I have a moment with Ms. Lockheart?”
Cautiously I reach into the pouch on the side of my chair and retrieve my glasses. I don’t need them to see, they’re my link to Epic. The chair I’m in is nothing more than a norma
l chair. My Mark II is done for and we’re going to need to start working on a Mark III.
He’s older than he looks on TV, I guess they probably try hard to make him look young. I can only imagine how he feels leading the country. The last few weeks have aged the crap out of me. I keep expecting to find a grey hair when I look in the mirror. Twenty-One is only a month away so why do I feel twice that age?
He waits patiently for Luke to leave the room before holding his hand out to me.
“Thank you, for what you did. Your country owes you a debt of gratitude.” I purse my lips together desperate not to blush. “I don’t suppose I could ask you to be on any of our teams? You could run it, have the whole thing to do with as you please? Clearly, you can be trusted.”
“Mr. President, I thank you for your faith in me sir, but I wasn’t being altruistic. I was trying to stop the man who kidnapped my parents and mind-controlled them.”
His eyes drop to the floor as he speaks, “I’m aware and I’m very sorry about that. But,” he says looking at me, “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. Without the help of you and your… friend… I’d be dead and the country would be no more.”
Does he mean me?
“My friend… is he okay to go on? You’re not—”
He holds up his hand, “As long as you keep him hidden then we won’t have a problem. I have several men from cybersecurity who would love to pick his brain if you would allow it. The ease of which he moves through our computer systems has given the joint chiefs a collective heart attack.”
“I can imagine. I’ll see what I can do. As for the team… let me think about it.”
“Sir, we’ve got to go,” the man from the White House battle says.
“Is that a no, then?”
“It’s a ‘let me think about it’,” I say with a smile.
“Of course. It was a pleasure miss,” he turns to the man in the corner, “Palmer, give her your card please.” Palmer instantly reaches into his pocket and retrieves a white card, he leans down to give it to me and as I catch his eye he mouths, ‘thank you’.
I smile back at him, still blushing like mad. I don’t normally talk to people about my activities inside the armor.
“One more thing. NASA detected a massive unknown station breaking orbit three days ago. They have it colliding with the sun in a few years. Would I be correct in assuming it had the man responsible for all of this on board?”
I nod. A lump forms in my throat and I can’t risk speaking.
“Good to know. Good day, Ms. Lockheart.”
My mind catches up with what is happening and I wheel forward as he leaves, “Sir?”
“Yes?”
“The Protector died defending DC. If there is to be a monument of any kind, I would like it to be of him.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Take care Ms. Lockheart, let me know what you decide.” He left in a hurry, his men shutting the door behind him.
Luke rushes in and looks between the door, then me, then back to the door. “Do you know who that was?”
“He’s President Luke, not William Shatner, calm down.”
“William… Amelia, you just got a personal visit from the leader of the free world! What did he want?”
“Food first, then politics. Go, pizza, root beer, now!” I smack his tight bottom with my hand. Then I shake it muttering ‘ow’ over and over. He lets out a big sigh and marches to the kitchen to get his keys.
Why didn’t you tell him about the aliens?
“I barely believe myself, I don’t think anyone else will. Pythia didn’t even see them she just senses their actions.”
I smile at Luke as he closes the door, giving me one last peering gaze before shutting it all the way.
What are we going to do then? They’re coming and we know nothing about them or how to stop them.
“Ericsson was right about one thing.”
What?
“We need unity. We need a team, Epic. We need a solid team if we’re going to fight this.”
I’ll start running numbers on people.
“Good, but I already know at least a few people who are going to be involved. Call Kate, I want to fill her in personally.”
Do you think she’ll believe you?
“At least she won’t think I’m making it up,” I tell him. I run my hands through my hair and shake my head back-and-forth. I’m not, right? I didn’t lose my mind and suddenly see conspiracies where none existed? No. I know what I saw and what I heard.
They’re coming. The question is, can we stop them?
THE END.
Carlos closed the case on his guitar, shoving it into the corner to rest on a pile of dirty clothes. He didn’t want to do laundry and he was too worried to play.
Three days since he saw her on the news fighting that monstrosity in DC. Three days. Not a word then suddenly this morning he gets an email from Epic letting him know she was alright.
He kicked a pillow across the room. He’d felt so helpless watching her. Not for the hundredth time since he met Amelia he wished for powers of his own. That wasn’t happening. While he would never tell her, he’d taken the test twice. He was so sure it had been wrong the first time.
With an exasperated sigh, he slunk onto the bed. There was no hope. He saw her less and less every week and now she couldn’t even let him know in person she was alive. Part of him, the more reasonable part, understood. But for six years he had her all to himself, and yeah, he knew there was nothing romantic between them, but she was his best friend. And he missed her.
“No hope at all,” he muttered.
He was trapped between going downstairs and looking for food or staying up all night playing Xbox without it. If he went downstairs he’d have to face his parents. He really could do without another lecture about his future. He had to have an old bag of chips up here somewhere? The TV powered on with a flash of light blinding him.
“What the?” He grabbed the remote and mashed the button until the TV turned off. The light didn’t go away. It was coming from the closet. Every scary movie he’d ever seen ran through his mind. He backed away from the glowing door holding his controller above his head as a weapon.
The door opened. A girl, not even a ghostly girl, just a girl in a white gown with a crown of lavender flowers around her head and long black hair and big blue eyes. Carlos blinked several times. She couldn’t be more than thirteen, though something about her seemed far older.
“Uh, hi?”
“Hello, Carlos. Your destiny awaits.”
There it is, aliens! I hope you enjoyed the heck out of book two. I sure had a blast writing it. I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s made it this far. You are directly responsible for me living my dream! Amazon is terrible at letting you know when my next book is out, sign up for the earliest notification. http://eepurl.com/cxPf_n Or, if you prefer Facebook (I know I do) then find me at https://www.facebook.com/jefferyhhaskell/ or https://www.jefferyhhaskell.com
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Husband, father, writer, in that order. Jeff loves sharing his vision of military sci-fi and superheroes with anyone who will sit still long enough. Read his other works on Amazon.com!
Unstoppable Arsenal Page 16
