United We Stand

by Christian Messe

  She tried hard to think of something that could slow her fall, but her thoughts of how high up she was made it difficult. She thought of a sonic booster and imagined it propelling her upward. Then an idea popped into her head. Her Meta-Core hand transformed into a sort of little rocket booster, and she fired it towards the ground, the force propelling her upwards, and slowing her fall. When the boost stopped, she started to fall faster again; she was at least a thousand feet in the air now. The Meta-Core reset itself, then spread across Claire’s back, turning into a protective barrier, which outlined every curve perfectly.

  She hit the ground on her back, her heart beating faster than she could count. She took a deep breath, as if making sure she wasn’t dead, and lifted her head slightly, then brought it back down. She started to laugh hysterically. She heard the loud explosion of her highjacked Jupitain ship hit the ground a few hundred yards away from her.

  The crackling fire of the torn in half Jupitain warship filled her ears, replacing the ringing. The massive ship’s engine was completely vaporized. Claire got up onto her knees, too stunned and woozy to get onto her feet, and looked around, her vision hazy.

  She saw a tall, dark figure in the distance, standing on top of the Jupitain ship. A light shined from its head, and she realized that it was the glow of a visor, and the dark figure was… oh no. The Jupitain shrieked so loud; it seemed to shatter Claire’s ears. Then it climbed off of the large broken hull and started to sprint towards Claire. She tried to form something in her mind that could defend herself, but she couldn’t think straight.

  The Jupitain was at least twenty feet away before it was blown into a rain of Dark matter. The visor’s remains landed by Claire, torn in pieces. She looked up and saw twenty alien fighters, not Jupitain or Kelisian. They were pointed in the front, with a series of balancing stabilizers, and two large engines in the back that emitted fire. Their entire hulls were covered in a golden like color. They all looked like pre-invasion United States stealth bombers. They hovered in a V formation until one of the bigger fighters landed.

  The exit ramp lowered, and a humanoid alien, in again, golden colored armor walked out. It was about seven feet tall, and had a helmet with the same color as his armor, except for the viewport, which was black. The armored alien was holding a spear, but instead of a point, both ends had a half circle, which seemed strange to Claire.

  The armored alien looked at her, and an imprint of code seemed to appear on the alien’s viewport.

  “Claire Remore Jackson, weapon specialist, and cadet, of the United World’s Space Defense Organization-Asteroid eradication duties…” He gasped, “a… prim, Meta-Gene?”

  Claire looked like she had just been hit by a truck. “H-how did you know my name, m-my full name? And how did you know I was from the United Worlds, how do you know any of that information?!”

  “The helmet I’m wearing has a series of code that scans an organism’s most likely organization, their DNA… everything. Also, the Kelisians keep logs of everything, and everyone they associate with. They’re paranoid.” The alien replied simply. “But more importantly… you’re a Meta-Gene, that’s unexpected.”

  “Wait, how do you have access to classified Martian data?” Claire asked, defensively.

  “Well, it’s not like asteroid clearing is at an Xfinity level of importance… by other means however, the Lore knows everything it needs to.”

  “The Lore?”

  “Come see for yourself.” The alien gestured for Claire to get into his ship.

  “Why am I supposed to trust you?”

  “Well, why am I supposed to care if you live or die? I don’t. However, I’m giving you a choice anyway because it’s your decision, you think you can manage here, I won’t stop you, I’m sure you know how to fight the coming horde of Darks, but, if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t be taking you if you weren’t a Meta-Gene… I would’ve just pointed you in the direction of the nearest, safe-ish city.”

  Claire sighed; she didn't have any other option. She followed the alien into his ship. He activated the control pad, and the engines turned on. Fire from the engines started to burn the rocky ground, until eventually lifting away. The other fighters were called back from the patrol of the Jupitain warship and formed into a V formation again.

  “So, where exactly are you taking me?” Claire asked.

  “Far away from Demon rein, that’s all you need to know.”

  “But, the Jupitains control the entire Galaxy, after that it’s just empty space for thousands of light years. There’s nowhere else to go.”

  “Thousands of light what? That’s funny, you see to your kind, light is probably thought to be the fastest speed in measure. I don’t blame you, it gets a little complicated after that, but to the rest of us who have broken past that hurdle, light is at least in one-hundredth place.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Well, Claire, you really think the Kelisians told you everything?” She didn’t respond; she didn’t even know that the Martians were actually called Kelisians. “Well, you’re in for a treat then,” He looked back at Claire, “You don’t need to hold your seat so tightly, we’re taking a shortcut.”

  Claire hadn’t even realized that she was, “What shortcut? I thought you said we were going fast.”

  “There may be methods of travel that use some sort of super speed, but this way is much faster.”

  “What could be better than the other hundred things faster than light?” Claire could tell the alien was enjoying her primitivism.

  Suddenly, the fighters grouped up, surrounding the golden warship closely on all sides. Two metal cubes were ejected from the ship, the size of each was at least two times larger than the fighter Claire was in. The back of the cubes lit up, and a light flashed from it. Claire saw that it was an engine. The objects started to spiral around each other until they flew in separate directions. Then one of them stopped and stayed upright, engine facing completely downward. The other cube stopped too, but only after it was a few hundred feet above the other one. The front of the cube’s body was facing the other cube.

  What happened next, changed Claire’s view of space travel. The front ends of each of the cubes lit up in golden yellow energy, and simultaneously fired a golden colored laser at each other, but instead of each cube exploding, the beams collided midway, creating a sphere of pure energy. It expanded as the two beams kept firing at it. The energy field disbanded and enlarged into a vast golden colored circle — a portal. The cubes powered down and returned to their launch slots, but the massive portal stayed there, emitting light.

  “No freakin’ way,” Claire said, “H-how?”

  The alien didn’t answer, but even though he was wearing a helmet, Claire could tell he was smiling. He piloted the fighter next to the warship, and the entire fleet flew through the portal. Inside, it looked as if all of space was being folded, which it was. Claire could see stars, nebulas, and black holes all zooming past in an instant. When the fleet reached the other side, Claire couldn’t recognize any of the constellations.

  She saw another cube, but much smoother, and more significant than the ones she had seen earlier. Incredible would be an understatement. The giant cube was bigger than the moon, yet smaller than Earth. It was covered in large gold patterns Claire had never seen before. It had one entrance, which was wider than at least four of the Lore’s warships combined. Mixtures between trade ships and frigates were entering or leaving the base, but when the fighter got closer, Claire realized that it wasn’t a base, it was a city. A huge city, with millions of aliens living in it.

  “Claire of the United Worlds,” The alien said, “Welcome, to the Lore.” Claire couldn’t reply, learning that aliens existed was one thing a long time ago, but seeing so many more, in one place just simply took her breath away. She may have been part of a Kelisian organization, but seeing them in human ranks was extraordinarily rare.

  The walls of the cube were see-through from the inside, making the city
seem like any other planet when inside. The artificial sun blinded Claire for a few seconds, but when her vision adjusted, the view stunned her. The city was lined with massive skyscrapers, that had horizontal pointed angles with random high tech exteriors.

  The artificial blue sky had clouds and a sun that in its position signified that it was roughly noon. In the center of the city, was a temple, a huge golden temple that looked like a smooth version of an Egyptian pyramid, only two times larger. The body of the temple had a large hangar cut into it, with warships and fighters inside. The top of it instead of being pointed was flat and had a massive throne room that looked like a Roman worship building, with gold arches and long-range Ion cannons on both sides of it.

  The fighter turned from its original course and flew towards the hangar inside of the massive temple. The ship hovered slowly past the large opening and positioned its landing gear. There was a bump, then the fighter’s exit ramp opened. The alien walked off the ramp and gestured for Claire to follow him. She did, and the two of them walked about four feet until another alien guard stopped them.

  “Where are you taking this outsider?” It asked.

  “To the throne room, I wanted her to meet the Queen,” The pilot said, while taking off his helmet. He had dark purple skin, and his eyes looked more mechanical than organic. His pupils looked like metal, and the interior of the pupils were light yellow. He was a Darsakian.

  “Outsiders aren’t allowed into the throne room, not even the Temple itself.”

  “Well this is a different case, she’s a… Meta-Gene, so I figured that she could talk to the queen about the Demon threat.”

  A Queen? Claire thought.

  The alien gaped slightly but calmed down quickly, “Meta-Gene… well, that’s still no exception, besides, she’s a prim, there’s no way she knows how to use that thing correctly, and if she did, well that gives us even more reason not to let her in, because armed visitors aren’t welcome either.” He gestured at Claire’s Meta-Core hand.

  “If she were dangerous, I would have dealt with her before we got here,” he said it very casually.

  Another guard noticed the problem and walked up, but he wasn’t wearing a helmet. The first thing that popped into Claire’s head was a dragon, which with its scaled body, supported her theory. He wore golden armor, and his head was the shape of a dragon’s, yet the size of a human one, if not slightly larger, with fiery red eyes, and no pupils.

  “What’s going on over here?” He asked.

  “I wanted to introduce my new, Meta-Gene friend here to the Queen, after all, she was in contact with the Kelisians and Demons, both sides we haven’t gotten information from in decades.”

  “Wait a second,” Claire said, “Why would this Queen of yours need to have information on the Kelisians?”

  “The Lore and the Kelisian Empire have had… a colorful, yet mutual history, they aren’t the best at sharing secrets. We have access to their non-classified logs, yes, but they still have high importance intel locked behind dozens of Xfinity-class firewalls.”

  “Kelisian?” Claire asked, “What’s Kelisian, you keep calling them that…”

  “Their homeworld, or at least it was before they moved into their flying fortresses.” The guard looked at Claire in the eyes, as if he was looking into her soul for foulness. He apparently didn’t find any, “I’ll let you in, but any sign of violence and you’ll be dead before your Meta-Gene has any time to save you.”

  The statement went right through Claire; she didn’t care, she just had more questions about the Kelisians now than ever, if they kept their real name a secret for nine years, what else were they hiding?

  “Follow me,” The pilot said. Claire did, and together the two of them walked out of the hangar, and into a large open hallway. There was something weird about the walls; they were, vibrating.

  “What’s behind those walls?” Claire asked.

  “Impulse monitors,” The pilot said, “They look deep within an organism and scan their mind for any real, and dangerous, hostile emotions or intentions towards the ruler of the Lore.”

  The walls let out an alarm, and Claire stopped in her tracks, her joints and muscles frozen still. The only thing she could move was her head; some sort of invisible force was holding the rest of her body.

  “Well, that’s…odd,” The pilot murmured.

  Claire felt panicked, and she could tell the alien noticed by the slightly amused look on his face, “What is this?” Claire asked, not hiding her shock very well.

  “The system… it stopped you…” The pilot said quietly, his smug look disappearing.

  “Yea, I mean why’d it turn on?” Claire asked, aggravated.

  “You would have to have an extremely hostile intention for the system to activate… like, bad as the intent to kill bad, what is your intention?! I promise if you don’t tell me, I won’t hesitate to end you, right here, right now!” The pilot’s attitude had turned from casual to deadly.

  “Why would I have any bad intentions, I’ve never even met her,” Claire said. The alien obviously wasn’t convinced. He aimed his spear at her, expression, deadly fierce.

  “The system doesn’t make mistakes, tell me your plan now, or I will kill you!” The pilot ordered.

  The threats made Claire snap, “Why would I not have bad intentions here, this place, this amazing place, that has existed for I’m guessing, long enough to have been around since the Jupitains first appeared, so I’m thinking, why didn’t you do something?! I watched all my friends die, nine years ago, I saw suffering, and horrors at an unimaginable scale when I was thirteen, and you're asking me why I’m just a little pissed off?!!”

  The alien was speechless, but not because of Claire’s outburst.

  “What, what is it?!” Claire screamed.

  Claire turned her head and saw her. The Queen. She looked young, like a super-model. She didn’t match any of the styles Claire had seen in the Lore so far. She had long, blue-whitish hair, like ice and snow, and was wearing, what looked like a brown military jacket, a square symbol that represented the Lore on it. Her pants were especially unroyal like — military trousers, with a camo pattern that was black and white. Her entire outfit was themed like the cold. Her skin was white, and light-blueish lines that looked sort of like vanes made patterns around her thin, yet muscular toned arms. Her eyes were light blue, like a clear ocean. Cyan. She had a Meta-Core staff on her back, no crown, no jewelry.

  “Turn it off,” The Queen said simply, her voice smooth, yet firm. She paused for a second, then looked at Claire, “I know how you feel… trust me I do.”

  “Like me?” Claire asked, hysterical, “You have no idea, what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen.” Claire was too angry to realize that the Queen already somehow knew her name.

  The Queen snickered, “That’s what I said when I came here…” She looked at her Meta-Core, “Meta-Gene huh? I can tell by the hand, would’ve killed anyone else in seconds if they didn’t have the Gene.”

  Claire grimaced, “Don’t change the subject. I want answers.”

  “And you’ll get them… however, right now, things are tense. More and more Demons have been found, scouting nearby perimeters. It’s concerning, and I need my soldiers on high alert. I feel the Demons may be planning something.”

  “No… no way, I’m not waiting, you tell me right here, right now why you haven’t done shit for the rest of the Galaxy!”

  “No,” The Queen sneered, tightening up, “I’ll ignore your tone, simply because I understand your circumstance, but you will wait.”

  Before Claire could argue more, a soldier in golden armor and laser rifle holstered to his side ran into the throne room. He was humanoid, with light red skin, and hazel brown eyes. The Demons, t-the Demons are here!” He yelled.

  “Slow down you,” Kars, the Queen’s Admiral, standing next to her, said firmly, “What are you talking about?” Kars had the head of a dragon just like the guard who had stopped Claire and the pilo
t in the hangar. Their species was called, Repatitorum.

  “The E6s! Over two-thousand warships, only miles away from the gate!”

  “What about the outer defenses?” The Queen asked, immensely surprised.

  “T-they used some kind of stealth tech; the outer defenses were useless! We need to close the gate, now!!”

  “Two-thousand ships? They’re either rebuilding their fleet much faster, or getting bolder with their strategies,” Kars murmured.

  “That bastard’s army has grown since the defense of Ivanion, but it will not repel the might of the Lore, prepare our fleet, get ready for a massive defense! Keep the city secure at all costs!” The Queen ordered.

  “Yes my Lord,” Kars replied, “Soldier, follow me!” Kars and the red alien ran out of the throne room, leaving Claire with the Queen and her guards.

  “I know what I’m about to ask of you is selfish, but this is something that hasn’t happened in millennia,” The Queen sighed, frantic, and looked at Claire, “We are the only thing standing in the way of the Demons, and the rest of the universe, if the Lore falls, nothing will stop them from killing everything, they will grow, and grow until the entire universe is under the complete control of not just evil, but death itself!”

  Claire wanted to say no so badly, thirty seconds ago she had just asked the Queen to help the United Worlds, and she had belittled her, but now, the Queen was asking her for help, and that seemed outrageous, but her reasoning made sense. A lot of sense.

  “Ok,” Claire murmured, “So what do I need to do?”

  “Follow me.” The Queen told her guards to go to the hangars, while she showed Claire what to do.