Aliens Abroad

by Gini Koch

  Adam grinned. “You got it, Chief.” He hustled off to get his team together.

  Emergency Backup Team chosen and prepping, the two official away teams headed for the armory, because if I wanted Adam and his team in armor carrying big guns, I wanted that for the rest of us even more so.

  First, however, made a pit stop.

  Went to the bathroom so Lilith could join with me before I suited up. For whatever reason, I didn’t want to tell the others she was going to be inside me, though couldn’t have said why. It was less shocking this time, mostly because I was prepared for it. Got a lot of information about where we were, but it went in fast. Figured I’d ponder what Lilith had learned when we had a moment of dullness. Waited until she’d settled into the back of my mind, where she wouldn’t be intruding on my conscious thinking unless necessary, then joined the others.

  Happily, Mother had been able to create more suits, so we weren’t out. Some of the suits Wruck and I had used were still available, though no one took those. Chickens.

  Jeff’s team was him and Christopher, Reader and Gower, Claudia and Lorraine, Wheatles and Grentix, Tim and Serene, and Butler and the Kristie-Bot—who was totally jazzed about being on the show.

  Pulled my team together as we were doing all this, the Cosmic Thing playlist still going strong, as a way for Algar to remind me that I still wasn’t getting something he thought was hella obvious. “I want us agreeing that no one goes off alone. Everyone has an assigned partner, and they don’t leave that partner. I’m with Richard, Malcolm and Nightcrawler are a team, Len and Kyle, John and Mossy, Abby and Mahin, and Chuckie and Kevin. I’m not wild about the fact that we have teams that have no A-Cs, so I want all of us staying as close together as we can because, let’s be real—we want to be able to grab our teammates and run at hyperspeed if things go wrong.”

  “You mean when,” Siler said, “not if.”

  “Potato, potahto.”

  “Let’s call the whole thing off,” Buchanan said, sounding like he meant it.

  “Can’t do it, and you know it.”

  “I do, Missus Executive Chief. I do. I’m just not happy about it. On the other hand, I’m almost ready to faint that you actually chose to take your security team with you, versus making us go off with Mister Executive Chief.”

  “He’s got all of Alpha Team, both former and current, other than me and Richard. He’s good.”

  “Like everyone else who’s been sidelined for most of this trip,” Kevin said with a smile that showed off his awesome teeth, “I’m glad to be coming along.”

  Kevin was highly competent and someone who was great in danger situations. Having worked with him a lot, I’d demanded he be on my team. That Kevin had bags and bags of charisma had nothing to do with it.

  “Hey, I wanted the hot guys with charisma with me, what can I say?” Well, okay, not much to do with it.

  He laughed. “The flattery will get you everywhere.”

  “Should the rest of us also be flattered?” Siler asked.

  “Absolutely. I choose my team based on looks. And the girls are hotties, too.”

  Abigail and Mahin laughed as Chuckie snorted. “Just don’t say that where Jeff can hear you.”

  “Too late,” Jeff said, coming up behind me. “Nice to know you’re swinging back to thinking humans are hotter than A-Cs.”

  Turned around and hugged him. “Only hotter than some A-Cs.”

  He shook his head. “I know, not hotter than my Uncle Richard.”

  “Hey, girls like the Silver Fox look.”

  “This is why we fight to be on Missus Martini’s team, Jeffrey,” White said. “We enjoy the compliments.”

  “And somehow,” Jeff said, “people wonder why I still get jealous.”

  CHAPTER 96

  JEFF PULLED ME A little away from the others. “Baby, I’m agreeing to this because we all know our time is tight. But I’m not happy about it. I don’t want us to have gone through all we have only to orphan our children here. Lizzie shouldn’t lose more parents, nor should she have to become a surrogate mother. Jamie and Charlie shouldn’t lose us. None of the kids should lose their parents, not over this.”

  “Jeff, I know you’re worried. But I know in my gut that this solar system is vital for some reason. I can’t come up with that reason—yet. But I know we’ll figure it out. And the moment we do, I can also say that we’ll all be glad we’re here, doing what we’re doing.”

  He hugged me tightly. “I’ll trust you on that, baby. Mostly because honesty forces me to admit that you’re rarely wrong in these cases.” He put his finger under my chin and tilted my head up. “Just promise me . . . you’re coming back alive, well, and whole.”

  “Only if you promise me the same thing. Because while I have a lot of hotness on my team, I’ve been spoiled and I’m kind of used to being with the hottest, smartest, sexiest, bravest guy, so you’d better be planning to not get hurt or killed, too.”

  He gave me a slow smile, then bent and kissed me deeply, though not for too long. Well, long enough for me to be ready to go off and do the dirty deed despite all that we had going on, but considering Jeff was the God of Kissing, it didn’t take much to get me primed and ready.

  “I promise,” he said as he ended our kiss. “Because you always give me the best reasons to keep living for.”

  We pulled apart and I made sure that Lorraine, Claudia, and Serene all had adrenaline for Jeff, just in case. Claudia and Lorraine were carrying med kits and Serene had an emergency pack on her.

  “You don’t have any medics on your team,” Claudia said, sounding worried. “Should you take Tito along after all?”

  “Nah. We’ll be good. Our Martian Manhunter has a med kit, and so does Abby. And I have my purse.”

  “Well, then nothing to worry about,” Lorraine said, sarcasm knob heading for the higher numbers.

  “Geez, you guys. Lighten up. We’re going to get down there, figure out what’s going on, and save the day. In that order.”

  Thusly encouraged, or not, we headed for the shuttle bay, Wruck bringing body armor and weapons for Mossy, who was still there.

  He and Hacker International were finishing up. “You should be good as long as you don’t hit anything larger than a baseball,” Stryker said. “We have extra patch kits in each shuttle, too.”

  “Get a third shuttle ready in the same way in case our backup team needs to come help either planet. In fact, get two shuttles ready, in case that team has to divide and come to both planets.” Hey, I was confident, not insanely optimistic.

  “Will do. The cloaking isn’t great, but it’s better than nothing. The shuttles have a way to go reflective, based on Earth military camouflage, so you’ll be hard to spot unless you’re against a backdrop that shows the perspective is off, or similar. You didn’t use it on Nazez, but we strongly suggest you activate it here.”

  “Will do.”

  “Good. I need your phone for a couple of minutes, though. And take out your earbuds, you’re not going to need them.”

  “Why?” Took out my earbuds and handed the phone to him.

  Stryker rolled his eyes as he fiddled with the phone and I reluctantly put my earbuds away. “We’ve set up a communications system so that you guys can all be on a super version of Bluetooth and therefore able to talk to us and each other. We’ve done it before, if you remember.”

  “Not in space.”

  “No, but since Mother can boost all the signals and we’re on our own system, we should be good. We’ve been working on it during any downtime. Everyone else is getting a single earpiece, but we know you, and Big George convinced the rest of us that it would be easier to just make yours work for your phone as well.”

  “So I can listen to music and take calls?”

  “So you can listen to music and connect to the ship which will then connect you to
your team and the other team, as needed. No calls, you’re all going to be using these.” He handed me my phone, two earpieces, and an oval pin made of what looked like pewter. “Attach the pin to your chest. It’s your communicator.”

  “Just like in Star Trek?”

  “Different design, but yeah. Learn from and imitate the best is our motto.”

  “Cannot argue.” Pinned the pin over my heart. “Hope they can’t shoot well.”

  “The disk is made from metals from Cradus. We tested—the metal repels bullets.”

  “Cool!”

  “But not laser shots. So try not to get hit.”

  “Thanks for that.” The earpieces were small and inserted into the ear canal. Could still hear just fine, too. “Nothing over the ear?”‘

  “Too easily spotted, too easily broken.”

  “No cord?”

  “None. Welcome to nineteen-ninety-nine.”

  “Smartass.” Turned my music back on. Picked up right where we’d left off, on the umpteenth repeat of the Cosmic Thing playlist, currently featuring the Backstreet Boys desperately trying to get me to make the connection about “The Answer to Our Life” and not succeeding at all. “Wow, the sound is great, really clear.”

  “We should be set up so that only you hear the music. When no one’s talking, you’ll hear music in both ears. When someone’s communicating, then music in the left, Jerry or whoever you’re talking to in the right. These are the opposite of noise-cancelling, too, so you should be able to hear external sounds as long as you don’t have your music blasting.”

  “Choosing not to resent that last statement. What if we need to be silent and the other team doesn’t know? The best way to ruin a mission is to have someone on the other line going ‘yoo-hoo’ or similar.”

  Stryker turned around to Ravi. “You owe me twenty bucks. Told you she’d ask how to turn the calls off or mute them.” Ravi grimaced and Stryker turned back to me. “Two ways. First off, you tap your communicator to reach Jerry, then he connects you to who you’re trying to reach. You tap the communicator again to turn it off. If you can’t reach the communicator for some reason, or you need to turn off the earpiece and Jerry’s not able to get to you as fast as you’d like, press your finger against your tragus and hold for a long second.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  He rolled his eyes again and touched the part of the ear that was kind of pointy and you could make lay over the ear canal a little.

  “Wow. I learn something new every single day. Had no idea that had an official name.”

  “It does, and it’s how you turn a live call off, or back on, without hitting your communicator. It’ll work to alert Jerry that there’s an issue if you turn it on and off too often, too, so don’t play with it.”

  “You guys are amazing and I’m going to ignore you suggesting that I’m a little kid who can’t stop touching the new toy. Make sure the backup team has this stuff, too.”

  “Thanks, just a warning, and no kidding about prepping the backup team. Thank God you’re here, we’d have never come up with that one on our own.”

  “Careful, Eddy. I’m not against kicking you in the shins. Or hitting you in the tragus.”

  “The more things change, the more they stay the same, Kitty.”

  Stryker went off to give others this fab new tech and I headed for my team’s shuttle. Jeff’s team had Butler, Reader, and Tim, who all got to fight for who was going to fly the shuttle. Knew Butler was going to win that one—he and Maurer had already proved that androids made great shuttle pilots.

  My team had me, Buchanan, and Len to fight about who was going to do the flying. So. I was sort of surprised to see Wruck in the pilot’s seat. He chuckled at my expression. “You do remember where we were the first time you and I ever really talked.”

  “Yeah, in a helicopter you were flying. Works for me, but I’m snagging the seat next to you. I want to see the view from straight ahead, not just by looking through the moon roof that is cool but now makes me wonder if we have a metal cover for it.”

  “That’s fine on your seating, but only because you have hyperspeed. Windshields can take asteroid hits, too, you know. And yes, the shuttles have metal covers for the moon roof and windshield.” He pushed a button and a metal lid slid over the moon roof. “They weren’t used when we were visiting Nazez because that system didn’t have the debris this one does. The windows, like the hull, can take a lot of hits before they crack.”

  “Thanks for reassuring me and taking all the fun out of it at the same time. You got your snazzy earpiece?” Could see the communicator on his clothes.

  “I did. I got to confirm that we can’t hear your music.”

  “Everyone’s a hater these days.”

  The rest of my team filtered into the shuttle. My right earpiece beeped softly. “James wants to confirm that I can connect everyone,” Jerry said in my ear. “So, I’m going to be doing that while you all travel down to the planet. It’s going to be boring and annoying, but necessary, so don’t whine.”

  “Check. Wait. Do I have to hit my communicator for you to hear that?”

  “No, not if I’m contacting you. You tap it to contact me, though, and then you tap it again when you’re turning it off. I can do both from here, for all of you.”

  Heard Reader in my ear. “Testing, testing. Sound off if you hear me. This is James.”

  While Jerry started the communications tests, we took off. Jeff’s team went first, with ours following right after. As with our other shuttle voyage, took the time to look back at the ship. Saw nothing. Good to know our cloaking was spot on. Figured the kids were watching us and sent love at them. Sent some love at Jeff, too, just ’cause.

  This was different from Nazez in a lot of ways, though the uncertainty was similar. “Think we have to find and stop an evil megalomaniac here?”

  “Does a duck swim?” Len asked. “Does a bear poop in the woods?”

  “A simple ‘yes’ would have sufficed.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Kyle asked.

  “Good point.”

  CHAPTER 97

  WE HAD TO MANEUVER around asteroids more and more the closer we got to the planet. However, the communications testing was distracting enough that I didn’t have a lot of time to worry. Wruck and Butler were both great pilots, though, and neither shuttle took any asteroid hits.

  The Blue Team reached their planet’s atmosphere first. “James is live to all of you,” Jerry said in our ears.

  “This planet is a lot like Earth,” Reader said. “Mostly oceans, several large landmasses, some big islands. We’re orbiting to find the most populated area or what might be a spaceport.”

  Things went quiet and we continued on toward the red planet.

  Any idea where Ixtha is? I asked Lilith in my mind.

  No. I have been searching for her, but haven’t found her yet. She may be in some kind of shielded area.

  Shields work on superconsciousnesses?

  Sometimes. It depends on what the shield is made of.

  “All cities seemed bombed out,” Reader said a few minutes later. “No signs of spaceports or similar.”

  “That was fast for a planet that size,” Chuckie said.

  “The shuttles can go at supersonic speeds when inside a planet’s atmosphere,” Wruck said.

  “Really glad Kitty got Drax onto our side,” Chuckie said.

  “Really hope we don’t find out they have one like him on this planet,” Buchanan countered.

  “We’ve found a safe place to set down,” Reader said. “Near what looks like an older city. Jeff says he gets a different emotion from this area than the rest of the world. And before Kitty worries, his blocks are back up and he doesn’t need adrenaline.”

  “Abby?”

  “My blocks are up, Kitty,” Abigail said. “N
o worries.”

  “Starting descent to the red planet,” Wruck said.

  Buchanan advised Jerry. “Missus Executive Chief, they want us to do the same commentary that Reader did. You’re in the shotgun seat, so it falls to you.”

  Tapped my communicator. “Jerry?”

  “I’m here. Putting you live to the Blue Team, Red Leader.”

  “Thanks, Mission Control. Okay, this planet is not like Earth. At least, I hope not. The red is everywhere.”

  We got lower and started the supersonic speed Wruck had talked about. “Going fast around this puppy, and while there are cities of a sort, this place looks a lot more like Darkseid’s home world of Apokolipse. And I mean, it really looks like it. Lots of active volcanoes, lava, even the water is red. Not as technological as Apokolipse, but it sure looks like they’re trying.”

  “James is explaining what you mean to most of his team,” Jerry said. “But the rest of us are with you, Red Leader.”

  “Good. This place looks horrible. I could understand why you’d want to leave it, but not why you’d want to destroy your most viable options for where to go next. So I’m running with the idea that whoever’s in charge is really like Darkseid which means likely evil. I’ll be thrilled to find out differently, but that’s our working hypothesis. The heat is clearly coming from all the volcanoes, and they are volcanoes versus fire pits, for those keeping comics score at home.”

  We kept on circling. “Not a lot of what we’d call cities but possibly that’s due to available resources—everything appears to be made from the rock, earth, and lava. The colors are red, orange, and yellow, and all minglings of such. Maybe they’re shooting at the blue planet because they’re afraid of it—there is nothing in the blue, green, or purple ranges here, nor is there any white.”

  “What about mining?” Jerry asked. “Do you see anything?”

  “Not really. No spaceport here, either. Many rocket silos, though, all aboveground, at least the ones we can see. No idea who creates rockets to blow up other planets in their system but doesn’t try to make a spaceship, but we’re about to land and try to meet them. And before anyone says something, of course we’re going to be careful. However, this is the planet that has communications and the weapons, so my assumption is that we’re going to land and be taken to their leader sooner as opposed to later.”