V_The 2nd Generation

by Kenneth Johnson

  The other Zedti spoke as one, for indeed they knew they were, "Long live Ayden, Kayta, and Bryke."

  The Executive Officer looked into the eyes of her comrades, then finally at her lieutenant. "Commence firing."

  She turned to look back out her view port. From her Flagship and several of the other massive warships in the fleet came huge, explosive bursts of Zedti weapons fire, which flared outward into the darkness toward the distant planet Earth.

  33

  MARY ELGIN EMERGED FROM HER RUN-DOWN TENEMENT BUILDING and joined the tumultuous crowd on the ghetto street. Scientist families were sweeping along like an unstoppable floodtide, overwhelming the Patroller guards by their sheer numbers, toppling the Visitor checkpoints, shutting down the laser fence that had enclosed their neighborhood. They were spilling out of internment into the open streets beyond their former confinement.

  Mary moved along with them nervously. But hearing the triumphant shouts of so many others around her, she slowly gained strength as though awakening from a dark and distressing dream. She wasn't even aware that she was clutching something tightly in her hands.

  IN HANGAR BAY TWENTY-TWO THE FIREFIGHT BETWEEN THE LIBERated people and the Visitors was still raging. Emma and Mark were lying on the floor, at the very edge of the massive hangar hatch, which was yawning open to the sky outside. They had taken what cover they could behind one of their fallen Patroller guards. Another Patroller still had one hand on Emma as he fired pulse after electrical pulse at Margarita and Nathan. Then Margarita took careful aim to avoid Emma and shot a pulse burst that caught the Patroller full in the chest, blasting him backward. But still he hung on to Emma, dragging her with him as he fell out of the open hatch. As they slid out, Emma's fingertips barely grasped the very lip of the flight deck, but the guard fell away screaming and flailing madly through the air toward the buildings of San Francisco four thousand feet below.

  Emma was terrified, dangling in the void above the city. She cried out to Mark who had scrambled to the edge above her. He grabbed her free hand, but she was slipping.

  Margarita leaped up from beside Nathan and ran toward them, unmindful of the gunfire tracing through the smoky air around her. Nathan gave her covering fire as Margarita slid in close beside Mark and grasped Emma's other hand. She and Mark struggled to pull Emma up. They had gotten her almost halfway when Mark was suddenly blown backward by a pulse burst that came unexpectedly from the sky outside. Margarita was left holding Emma's full weight, and now they both were slipping. The straining redhead saw that the shot had come from a wounded fighter craft that was slowly approaching the bay.

  In the smoky cockpit of the fighter, Gina lined up Margarita and Emma in her sights and was about to deliver the coup de grâce when Nathan was suddenly beside Margarita, glaring and aiming his pulse rifle at Gina, "How 'bout not!"

  He fired a burst that shattered Gina's windshield and literally took her face off. The bloodied reptile roared bestially as her fighter spun wildly out of control. It slammed against the outside of the Flagship and disintegrated, carrying the Wing Commander to a fiery death.

  On the very edge of the hangar deck Nathan ignored the burning pain from his broken arm and helped Margarita pull Emma back aboard. Emma collapsed between them, gasping, "Thank you, thank you."

  Nathan grinned at her. "Our pleasure," and he and Margarita shared a prideful glance. But they knew it wasn't over.

  "Centcom," stated the redhead.

  Nathan shrugged. "Why not, as long as we're here."

  They got to their feet and dashed through the cross fire of the battlefield on the main deck while Emma crawled to help Mark who lay nearby, stunned but breathing. Margarita and Nathan were just reaching a transporter tube when they saw that more of the newly freed people were now swarming into the hangar in force. The battle was turning in their favor.

  FROM THE DARKNESS OF SPACE IN THE DIRECTION OF MARS THE INcoming Zedti fire was rocketing toward the Earth's surface.

  In the confusion of transmissions and the tumult caused by the swarming liberated people onboard, many of the Visitor Motherships had not processed the warnings of impending attack nor taken defensive action. The Mothership over the deep waters of the Japan Trench just east of Tokyo was one of them. It was still drawing up a half-mile-wide column of water when the first Zedti burst flashed down from the night sky and impacted on it. A chain reaction of explosions ruptured the huge curved hull as the Mothership blew apart, killing everyone aboard, Visitor and human alike.

  It was also night over the Indian Ocean where a Mothership took a series of hits. Then a blinding thermonuclear blast momentarily whited out the scene, sending a gigantic tsunami shock wave rocketing out from Ground Zero across the ocean's surface. Armageddon was beginning.

  Seen from space, several of the thermobaric explosions ignited thousand-square-mile sections of the Earth's atmosphere. And still more incoming Zedti fire was rocketing toward the Earth's surface.

  One of the Motherships had moved inland and was over the ancient city of Athens when it received several smaller blasts, then a direct thermonuclear hit. The atomic shock wave tumbled the columns of the Parthenon.

  A Zedti burst flashed down toward Northern California and ricocheted off the quavering defense shield bubble surrounding the Visitor Flagship. Immediately afterward, a second huge burst partially penetrated the weakened shield and collided with the sixteen-mile-wide hull.

  In the Flagship Centcom Jeremy, the Leader, and her entourage felt the huge ship shudder under the mighty impact. Lights went out. Gases vented from ruptured pipes within the walls. Red emergency lights flickered on and off.

  Jeremy grasped the Leader's arm and whispered, "I have an escape shuttle waiting, Excellency."

  A moment later they rounded a corner in a darkened upper-level corridor to face Julie, Street-C, and their Resistance compatriots. Both groups stopped and trained guns on each other.

  From behind the shoulders of her Patroller guards the Leader spoke imperiously to Julie, "You will let us pass."

  Julie simply stared at her. "Oh, I don't think so."

  Fingers tightened on triggers just as Margarita, Nathan, and Willy, weapons at the ready, silently arrived behind Jeremy's group and Nathan announced their presence, "Uh, guys?"

  Harmy saw the Visitor Patrollers swinging their weapons to fire and she reacted instinctively to save Willy. She shot her pulse rifle, missing her targets but blasting the ceiling above the Leader's contingent. It collapsed in a whirlwind of dust, smoke, and sparks as return gunfire from a few Patrollers flashed through the hazy darkness.

  But Julie's team leaped in along with Margarita and Nathan, taking down the disoriented, choking Visitors. The sharp beams of the Resistance teams' flashlights carved through the smoky, dusty dark. Willy rushed to Harmy who was lying facedown.

  As they got their bearings Ysabel shined her light and looked around, "Jeremy and the Leader!"

  Julie couldn't see them either. "Where'd they go?"

  "We're on it!" Nathan shouted and headed one way through the darkness with some of the freedom fighters.

  Margarita simultaneously said, "They're going nowhere!" as she and some compatriots hurried in the other direction.

  "Julie, help!" Willy was fearfully supporting his wife's head. Harmy's strawberry blond hair had flowing blood in it.

  ANOTHER POWERFUL ZEDTI BURST PIERCED THE DEFENSE SHIELD AND the Flagship took a second very severe hit. In the dark bowels of the ship Shawn was knocked down as a bulkhead near him exploded and flammable gases vented. A Visitor engulfed in flames staggered out screaming in hysteria.

  The burning Visitor fell to the floor rolling and writhing in pain as the flames increased. Shawn ignored him, got to his feet, and turned, only to find Diana's pulse gun in his face. Her false human skin was hanging in hideous shreds. One of her eyes still looked human, but the other showed its yellow vertical pupil as she glared at him. "Traitor."

  "Wait!" Shawn shouted. "I did it to save
you! There was no other way! I was planning to kill your guard so we could escape together—but I lost you!"

  "Yes," Diana said with a horrifying smile, "you certainly have." She rammed the gun under Shawn's chin. He knew that this was the end.

  "Commandant!" He blurted, "I can save us both!"

  Diana stared fiercely at him.

  IN HANGAR BAY TWENTY-TWO, THE VISITOR PATROLLERS AND technicians had surrendered to the freed people who were now guarding them. Everyone felt the strong, fearful quake from another Zedti burst. Then into the smoky hangar bay flew a charred airbike with Ted at the controls. The clothes he and Ayden wore were torn and smoking. Their faces and hands were smudged, bloodied, and burned. Ted, utterly exhausted, landed the airbike in the dark hangar as they heard Donovan calling out hoarsely to them, "Ayden! Ayden!" Mike was struggling out onto the hangar deck, literally on his last legs, bearing the still-unconscious Kayta. "We've won!" Mike collapsed onto his knees in front of Ayden and held out Kayta's radio. "For God's sake, stop your fleet!"

  Ayden's expression told Mike that it might be too late, but the Zedti commander grabbed Kayta's radio.

  In the dark upper passages, the Visitor Patrollers and command level aides were being taken under guard by Julie's people. Willy and Julie were attending to Harmy's wounds. Willy had ripped material from the uniform of a dead Patroller and Julie was wrapping Harmy's head tightly, while consoling Willy, "Head wounds always look awful, but I think she'll be okay." Then as Julie felt the great ship quake and creak from the massive stress of yet another impact of Zedti firepower, she added, "Hopefully."

  The red emergency lights flickered and more chunks of ceiling fell as Nathan returned from his search for the Leader with only frustration. "Nada. Can't find the bitch."

  They heard another voice, "Excuse me, ma'am?" Julie trained her flashlight in the direction from which it came and saw that Jon had joined them. The young half-breed pointed carefully toward a custodial closet. Margarita returned just as Street-C and Ysabel aimed their weapons and Julie slowly opened the hatch. Their flashlight beams played across fiery yellow eyes and reptilian scales showing through peeled away human skin.

  It was Jeremy and the Leader. She drew herself up grandly and whispered, "Get me away. I'll give you whatever you want."

  Julie stared gravely at the Leader for a very long moment. "All right," Julie finally said. "Give us back the last twenty years."

  Margarita came to her mentor's side. "And give us back all of our dead friends."

  THE ZEDTI FLEET WAS NEARING EARTH'S MOON AND ABOUT TO launch the final horrific blitz that would demolish the Visitor Armada and entirely desolate the Earth when Ayden's message reached them.

  The Executive Officer cried out loudly, "Cease fire! Cease fire! Emergency stop!"

  "Cease fire!" The lieutenant transmitted to the full fleet, "All stop! All stop!"

  The fleet emerged from its stealth mode and came into full view against the starry blackness. The running lights on the strangely shaped warships flashed from red through orange to the standby color yellow.

  Inside the dark, cavernous bridge of the Zedti Flagship the stately Executive Officer exchanged a long look of quiet relief with her lieutenant.

  ON THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO MARY ELGIN WAS STILL WALKING slowly, as if in a dream, amid the shouting and tumult around her. She turned a corner and saw several hundred people encircling the black Visitor captain, his Patrollers, and a few still-loyal Teammates including Danny Stein's sister Debra. But the oppressors realized that they were outnumbered by the citizens, by San Francisco police officers, and by hundreds of former Teammates no longer obligated to the Visitors. The Patrol captain held up his hands in surrender. Debra Stein was the last to throw down her weapon. She did so bitterly.

  Standing up the street from them, Mary beheld the scene with silent wonder. Then she realized something was in her hand. She looked down at Charlotte's diary. She rubbed her thumb softly over its surface and drew a long, deep breath, thinking of her daughter's words, of all the blank pages yet to be written upon, of all the possibilities. Mary also became aware that the sun was shining brightly onto her face. She closed her eyes and in fond memory of her daughter she turned her face fully toward the sun, absorbing its comforting warmth.

  IN THE FLAGSHIP CENTCOM SEVERAL HOURS LATER, JULIE AND MANY of the prime Resistance team listened with profound satisfaction as reports in many languages flooded in from everywhere. Lee had been doing her best to keep up with the bulletins and she distilled it for them, "The Rebellion has succeeded all around the world." A cheer came from those nearby. Then her voice grew more somber. "But the news is not all good, five Motherships crashed during the takeovers and thirteen were destroyed by the Zedti attack."

  Julie and the others absorbed the difficult information with downcast eyes, internalizing their grief as they thought about all the innocent human souls who had been lost. Then Lee continued encouragingly, "But all the other vessels have been commandeered by human leaders, who have established communication with us. Pockets of Visitors along with die-hard Teammates are still fighting in some locations on the ground. Others have gone into hiding. Many fighter craft and shuttles are unaccounted for."

  "So we may be facing insurgency for a while," Julie sighed.

  Ysabel sloughed it off, "Small potatoes, boss. We've won the big one." She clapped Julie on the shoulder.

  "Yes"—Lee smiled—"and many Visitors claim to welcome the overthrow of the Leader, Diana, and Jeremy." Lee looked at them all with thankful eyes. "I know I certainly do."

  Margarita entered the Centcom and called to Julie, "We're ready down in the hangar bay."

  On the main flight deck of Hangar Bay Twenty-two vid cameras scanned the Leader, Jeremy, Paul, their High Command, and a few hundred Visitor POWs who were under close guard, surrounded by several thousand liberated people. Mike Donovan was leaning on a maintenance console, rubbing his aching knees and looking over the Visitor prisoners. Kayta had recovered consciousness and was lying on a low transport container while Ayden checked her injury. Martin came up to Mike. "Still no Diana."

  "Don't worry." Donovan was resolved. "I'll find her."

  Julie and Margarita appeared from the transporter tube. They paused beside stretcher that held the San Francisco mayor. His chest was badly bloodied and burned from his pulse wound. Emma was beside him, holding his hand as medics from among the liberated people attended to him. When Emma saw the inquiring looks from Julie and Margarita she nodded with a positive expression that told them Mark would survive.

  The Secretary-General, very weak from the ordeal, pressed his wife's hand and then walked with Margarita and Julie to the center of the hangar. The scene was being broadcast by Lee to televisions and wall screens worldwide. It was being witnessed by the great majority of the planet's people and being simultaneously auto-translated into multiple languages.

  "My fellow citizens of Earth," Secretary Mendez began, "a great storm has passed. Unfortunately, it's taken much of my strength with it. So I have asked my Resistance compatriot Juliet Parish and her comrades to speak on my behalf."

  Julie stepped to the microphones. "Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General . . . and also for the great personal courage you have displayed over so many years." There was spontaneous applause for Mendez from all the humans in the gathering as well as from Martin, Willy, Jon, and other Resistance allies. Then Julie continued. "I've been privileged to help lead the organized Resistance against the Visitors which has finally brought us all to this amazing day." People on one of the upper platforms began a cheer for Julie and her compatriots that quickly became a roar of approval from all corners of the great hangar. Julie accepted the accolade with humility, "Thank you. From all of us," then she continued with the business at hand. "We've been in contact with all of the Motherships. They are now under the control of our fellow humans who had formerly been imprisoned aboard them. We have requested those men and women who had been elected to local or national leade
rship prior to the Visitor occupation to please identify themselves. We naturally want their help and counsel in the days to come, but of course they will have to acclimate to the many changes that have taken place on Earth during their imprisonment. We urge that new democratic elections take place in individual countries as quickly and efficiently as possible. Obviously there is massive reorganization to be done. Our hope is that we, the people of Earth, having finally beaten back the alien menace which threatened to destroy us all, can now work together for the good of our planet."

  Margarita picked up the story, "All Visitors and their human collaborators will be held under arrest until their loyalty can be positively verified by members of the Resistance or reliable witnesses. Visitor prisoners will be placed inside the stasis capsules and kept under close guard." She looked toward the shredded faces of Jeremy and the Leader. "The Visitor Leader and her High Command will face war crimes trials before the International Court in The Hague."

  "Our most critical concerns," Julie continued, "are retrieving our water—and most importantly—our people who've already been taken away to the Visitor planet. Mike Donovan will supervise that effort." She looked fondly toward Mike and invited him to explain.

  "We'll hold all Visitor troops as hostages," Mike said. "Our longtime ally Martin will monitor the return of Visitor POWs but only after our people and our water have been brought safely back to Earth."

  Harmy was standing nearby. Her head wound had been bandaged. Her battle-scarred son Ted helped support her on one side and her husband Willy on the other. Harmy was troubled and privately whispered to Willy, "Will you be going home?"

  Willy held her closer. "You two are my home."

  Nathan addressed the gathering and the worldwide audience. "We feel that good and loyal Visitor friends, like Willy there, should be allowed to remain on Earth if they choose and become part of our new society."