United We Stand

by Christian Messe

  James was dumbfounded, the strange man was ordering around an army of savage, merciless Jupitains, and he spoke perfect English. It was unreal. All he could get out of his mouth was, “Who are you?”

  The man didn’t reply. It was like James was a waste of breath to him. Only James and Claire were awake, but one of the Jupitains was forced to hit Imp over the head to wake him up.

  “Where… where are we?” Imp moaned. He looked around a little, “Oh crap.” The Jupitains had dragged them all the way to the bridge. It was huge, Jupitains were everywhere, at various control stations, piloting the ship, and controlling its functions. The mysterious man walked over to his control center in the middle of the bridge but never turned around.

  He said to them, back facing the crew, “So, how much do you all know?”

  “What do you mean?” James replied.

  The man chuckled, “What do you think I mean? I need to figure out how much you people have figured out, so I can determine whether or not to kill you right here. Also, please, try not to lie, the visors scan heartrate, but I’m sure you already know that,” He turned towards the crew, “Besides, why would I even bother keeping your crew alive if I didn’t need information from the Kelisian?”

  “What the hell is a Kelisian? What do you want with us?!” Claire burst out, her voice mellow with scared desperation. The man rolled his eyes and pressed a button on a tiny control panel connected to his arm. A Jupitain hit James in the back of the head with the barrel of its gun. He winced in pain.

  “You don’t know… oh right, I forgot they don’t tell you anything,” The man chuckled to himself, “Now my friends, I’m the one who’s asking the questions here, so I’ll repeat what I said earlier, how much do you know.” He looked over at Imp. “Kel…” The man corrected himself, sarcastically, “Martian, I must say, I’ve never seen one of you out this far in the system…” The man looked at the rest of the crew, “I’ve noticed that the ‘Martians,’ treat their own like royalty, leaving you prims with the outer junk positions.”

  “Wait, the asteroid base that blew up, it…” James started.

  “Was filled with nothing but humans, correct Captain,” The man finished for him, “The only reason I spared your crew was to get to your Martian friend here, your race is useless to me.”

  “S-so you blew up hundreds of people just because there weren’t any Martians?!” James’s voice was filled with rage.

  Imp looked up at the blue man. “So what do you want with me?”

  The man smiled, “Remember now… I’m the one asking the questions here.” He pointed at a Jupitain, who responded immediately by kicking over Claire. She fell to the floor, whimpering slightly. “Now let’s get one thing straight Kelisian, whenever you disobey me, your fellow crew will be punished for your actions, I would hate for one of them to die because of you,” He turned back around, smiling sinisterly, “I guess by this I’ve answered my own question, you all truly are clueless, but don’t worry, ‘Imp,’ you’re still going to be of use to me. As for the rest of you, I hope you all have a nice stay. You’ll be here awhile.”

  The Jupitains behind James and Claire stunned them with a quick bolt of energy, and they blacked out abruptly. James could slightly open his eyes to see him and his crew being dragged away, while the blue man led Imp into the unknown.

  Mark, 2027, August 2nd

  “This is the second time this week you’ve been acting this way!” Mark’s father yelled from the living room. He was going over a paper from Mark’s principal. “You just can’t stay out of trouble can you?”

  The thin walls of their apartment building seemed to be shaking from his father’s voice.

  “The kid wouldn’t shut up! What was I supposed to do? Let him keep making fun of me?!” Mark shouted back.

  “If it came to that, yeah, you gotta learn to control your emotions, or else something like this is gonna happen, for God sakes you could’ve killed that boy.”

  “The world wouldn’t have missed him,” Mark said darkly.

  “Yea well the world wouldn’t’ve missed you either, that’s what you don’t understand, you can’t think of these things so carelessly, you have to learn how to act!” Mark’s father replied, enraged.

  “I don’t give a shit what you say; he deserved what he got!” Mark shouted.

  Mark’s father looked like he was going to explode, “Oh, and we deserve a five thousand dollar lawsuit, from a rotten, scum attorney, and your 10-day suspension, you’re lucky you weren’t expelled, but of course that’s the least of our problems!”

  Mark ran to his room and locked the door. He could hear his father trying hard to keep in his rage from outside.

  He sat on his bed, thinking about what he could do if he ran away, there were plenty of jobs he thought he could do in New York, he was fourteen, after all. The door opened; Mark was shocked to see his mother standing at the doorway. She walked up to him and sat on the bed, putting her arm around his shoulder.

  “He just doesn’t understand that you were standing up for yourself,” His mother told him, even though the lawsuit made her mad as well.

  Mark just looked down at the floor blankly, inside, he was filled with anger, towards the bully, and his father. He could hear his infant sister, Maggie, crying in his parent’s bedroom. Mark’s father cranked up the TV volume to drown out the ear-piercing sound.

  “I’ll get her,” Mark’s mother stopped at the doorway, and looked back at him, “We’re not done here yet.” Then she walked toward the bedroom and tended to Maggie.

  Mark lay there, angry and confused until he heard his father say, “Oh my God…” The TV volume was up high enough for everyone in the apartment room to hear.

  “Confirmed reports of five UFOs hovering just above the city of Tokyo, reasons unknown, stay tuned for further details,” said the News reporter, who stopped looking at her teleprompter to look at the camera view of the ships.

  The giant flagship was barely hovering above the city, far down enough to be scraping the tops of the skyscrapers. Fifty other warships surrounded it, and they looked just like the flagship, but were much smaller.

  The news chopper was pointing its camera at readying Japanese fighter jets preparing to leave their brand new, state of the art aircraft carrier, made from the agreements made in 2025 in the UN, due to Chinese aggression, but then a flash of red light came from one of the ship’s cannons, and blew the massive carrier in half.

  It sunk into the bay but was so large that the shallow water could still make the carrier visible. Sailors were swimming away, desperately trying to escape the fiery debris. They then pointed the camera at a nearby airfield that had launched at least two dozen fighter jets. Six were shot down and crashed into the city almost immediately. Others didn’t last much longer.

  The UFOs let out their fighters, which looked like two half-shark teeth, stacked on top of each other with a small cockpit like structure in between the two. On either side of the cockpit were dual barreled laser cannons, that could also convert into engine boosters. The bottom side’s wing pointed downwards, and the top side’s wing pointed upwards. There were at least a hundred in total, but they didn’t even bother going for the jets, they headed towards the city and let the warships deal with Japan’s air force.

  The ground wasn’t having any luck either. Japan deployed its national guard, but the tanks were being destroyed by falling debris or blown through the center by Jupitain fighters. The local police force was overwhelmed by the Jupitain horde in seconds. Jets were crashing into office buildings. There were cameras on the ground, everywhere, capturing the horror of the events in Tokyo.

  Ten minutes passed, until every camera in Tokyo was either blown up, or the person holding it was killed or captured. The helicopter that had filmed the destruction of the Aircraft carrier was brought down into the bay by a laser that had also blown straight through a commercial airplane’s cabin, bringing it hurtling down towards the bay.

  Tokyo had been take
n over, in less than ten minutes, and Jupitain fighters were now headed for the United States Navy fleet docked nearby. Mark’s father looked at the buzzing TV screen that had just gone dark and looked at his wife who was holding Maggie.

  “Amanda, we have to get out of New York,” Mark’s father said, his voice sounding eerie.

  All she could do was nod. They were right too; New York was probably one of the biggest targets on the globe. The family could hear shouting coming from the other rooms; the sound of honking started to fill their ears. In just the span of a minute, the streets were already crowded enough that it would take days before they could get out of New York.

  People were screaming, but that sound was drowned out by the military combat helicopters, their blades chopping through the air.

  He could hear his dad yell, “Get Maggie, we’re walking!”

  Mark followed his family out of their apartment, and onto the crowded street. He had a gut feeling that he would never see his home again. Even though his family lived in Queens, Manhattan was only a half a mile away, and Mark could only imagine the chaos that would be going on over there. He could see fires starting in nearby buildings, and people were running in no specific direction.

  Japan was an ocean, and hundreds of mountain ranges away, but that didn’t stop a blinding flash of red light approach the bay. No one knew where it was heading until it was too late. Millions of people watched from their apartment buildings and the street to see something that was just too horrific at the moment to process.

  The red laser beam exploded, right through the center of the World Trade Center, or “Freedom Tower.” It collapsed in less than ten seconds after being hit, and a massive cloud of dust and smoke covered Manhattan. An ironic symbol, to make America, humanity, realize that they’re freedom, was coming to an end.

  Later, people were starting to find out that the same type of laser had hit the Pentagon, the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, and the Chinese Military Communications Spire in Beijing. The lasers had a range that could spread the length of an entire solar system. Before Mark knew what had happened his dad held his hand, and the family sprinted through the street, Amanda still carrying Maggie.

  Dust was starting to smother the streets of Queens, and the only light they got was from the dimness of the sun, and the yellow flash of bullets being fired out of the jets and helicopters above. Jupitain fighters had already reached the city. A large military helicopter crashed extremely close to where Mark’s family was, blowing up part of an entire block. They couldn’t tell if anyone was inside the buildings or not. Maggie was crying uncontrollably.

  Jupitain fighters were flying over the city, it seemed like they couldn’t see anything on the ground either because of the smoke, but the Jupitain soldiers on the ground made out the humans with their glowing red visors.

  Jupitain fighters were abducting people off the streets and flying away. Mark didn’t know where his father was leading his family until they were close enough to see a subway station entrance through the dust. They ran down the stairs, seeing many other people, crying, yelling, or just too stunned to do anything.

  It looked like the Jupitains hadn’t found out about the subway yet, but it was only a matter of time before they did. The trains had been halted throughout the city. If anyone wanted to get somewhere, they had to walk.

  Mark’s family joined a group of over two hundred people walking through the empty subway tunnels. When there was a stopped train, everyone would have to squeeze around it. Sometimes there would be trapped people inside, unable to get out, banging on the thick doors.

  Some people would stop and try to free them. Others would just keep walking. They could hear explosions and screaming coming from the streets above them. It was horrific.

  Mark was trembling, but his father’s face had a fear even worse than concern for his own life, it was fear of losing his family. The group of people walked for almost an hour until a tank was blown into the center of the group. It had been blasted so hard from above that it broke through the street.

  Jupitains jumped through the hole the tank had created and shouted in a scratchy English voice, “Gather!!”

  The Jupitains started rounding up the nearest humans, but some put up a fight. Most of the Jupitains didn’t have laser rifles, so they were being tackled by groups of people, but their strength could take on at least two men at once. The humans that were fighting got impaled by the Jupitain’s pointed claws.

  Mark’s father told everyone to run the other way, but then the roof of the subway collapsed again, letting in dust and the dim light of the sun. The hole was blown open by a hovercraft. It was pointed outward on both sides, with the tip sharp enough to stab someone if it was going fast enough. In the center of the craft, was a laser cannon, controlled by a Jupitain standing behind it.

  The cannon was aimed right at Mark’s family. Just like that, it was over. Mark’s family, along with at least forty people that were still alive, were captured and heading into the darkness.

  CHAPTER 3

  Mark couldn’t remember what had happened in the last two hours. His mind was a blur. He had been stunned; he remembered that, but when he woke up, he was in a cell, alone. The only light he got was from the dim red light, illuminating the hallway.

  The cell had thick black walls surrounding it, made out of a Jupitain metal twenty times stronger than refined tungsten. The wall in front of him had a rectangular hole through it, probably for food.

  Mark got up from his ‘cot,’ which was just a hard metal rectangle, and looked around the cell. There was a holo-pad, used by the United Worlds to do, almost anything. The Jupitains must’ve stolen it from captured United Worlds ships. When Mark swiped the screen to open it, all that popped up were two books he’d never heard of. He threw it into a corner.

  “I would be more careful with that if I were you; it’s our only source of entertainment in this place.”

  “Who said that?!” Mark yelled.

  A humanoid alien, white enough to make his skin look like powder walked through a hidden door in the cell. His eyes were crystal blue, and his ears curved slightly. He had black tattoos all over his skin as well.

  “How’d you…”

  The alien answered him before he could finish his question, “How’d the wall just open, it’s a one-way door for entrances only, I just got back from sanitation duty.” He said it so casually, like he wasn’t worried that he was inside a hostile Jupitain warship.

  He was wearing a brown rag, and fragments of old clothing, that looked like sort of an old uniform. It was worn and rugged, but Mark could make out a small faded tag that read; ‘Kal-29U7.’ The alien looked at Mark’s uniform. “Hmm, about time the Demons figured out how to beat you guys.”

  The alien spoke perfect English. “Ho-how are you speaking English, and what do you mean the Demons figured out how to beat us? You mean the Jupitains?”

  The alien pulled a sphere out of his rag’s pocket and showed it to mark. It was tiny, and when he touched a button on it, an extremely complicated stream of code formed in the air like a hologram.

  “The sphere detects an organism’s dialects and species information, then translates what they’re saying right as they’re saying it, making me hear you speak in my language, and me in yours.” The alien said, smiling like he was enjoying how primitive Mark was.

  “Wow,” Mark said quietly, in awe.

  The alien laughed, “Yea, I said that too when I got mine.”

  “What are they called?” Mark asked, who had seemed to forget that he was inside a Jupitain ship.

  “Well, in your language their called translator spheres, but in mine they’re kinekelisis, you can basically get them for free, anywhere.”

  Mark was so fascinated in the sphere, that when he heard anywhere, he realized… there are more than just Martians and Jupitains…

  “Wait a second; there are more people out there then just Martians and Jupitains?” Mark asked.

  “Well, y
eah it’s obvious; I mean, do I look like a Kelisian to you?” Mark looked at the pale skin that made him white enough to look like an angel. He ignored the ‘Kelisian,’ phrase. He assumed it was just the translator sphere.

  “The Martians told us that they were the only other lifeforms out there and that the Jupitains killed the rest.” His alien acquaintance looked like he had just been punched in the stomach after he said that.

  “They lied to you too huh? Well don’t take it personally; you’re not the first species they’ve taken advantage of, but they weren’t completely lying I guess. The Jupitains, whatever you call em, they keep some survivors, to work as slaves, but when that planet’s resources run out… dead. Everybody. The only safe place left in this Galaxy is the Safe Quadrant, pretty ironic name right?”

  Mark looked at his new alien friend blankly.

  He kept going. “My entire Solar System was… semi-peaceful, A few skirmishes between rival factions, but nothing too bad, my planet had the best trading contracts probably in the entire Galaxy, the Kelisians, or- you call them Martians had a prized navy of giant hover saucers, Gigantium-class; largest classification of a warship in the Galaxy. They protected planets that were rich enough to pay them, mine included. They never housed their own planet, but instead just created cities in their Saucers, so invasion was never a concern for them. They were kind enough, taxes on Kelisian protection was expensive compared to other options, but Pike Raiders and Ordanian slave traffickers stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the saucers orbiting our world.”

  “It all came to a tragic end though, for every system… when the Kelisians fled their customers, because of the Demon outbreak. They left us to get conquered. Slaughtered, and almost the entire Milky Way Galaxy was taken over, but there were a few systems that were so small, that they went unnoticed for decades, one of them only housed two planets that could sustain life.” Mark could guess the next part. “A small prim planet, forgot the name of it… and the great Neptune, a respected republic that did trading with a lot of the major systems, and safeguarded this system.”