The Alpha Choice

by M. D. Hall

  ‘Tala, terminate the female by the door,’ he paused, before adding. ‘Do not feel the need to hurry, take your time.’

  Knowing that to look at her mentor would betray her feelings, she reached into a pocket and removed from it something the like of which no Tellurian, including Hugo and Jon, had ever seen. It was similar to the galet, but large enough to fill the palm of her hand, completely silver with no discernible controls. Both Jon and Hugo knew from experience that the galet was capable of being used as a weapon, so what was this? The onlookers, for that was what they had become, watched as she pointed the device towards her cowering victim.

  The weapon emitted a bright red beam, and enveloped the young woman in a red glow not so bright as to prevent anyone seeing what was happening, although most would have wished to divert their eyes from the horror. Tendrils of energy moved out from the fireball, which had the effect of making the sight so much more terrifying. It was as though the deadly fingers, even while feeding upon their present victim, were reaching out for new prey. The reluctant observers recoiled, almost as one.

  Tala felt sickened. She knew that denying Garnoth was not an option. Refusal of a direct order would result, not only in her death but that of her entire family. His instruction was explicit, maximise the terror. The woman, she knew was long gone, but the psychological impact of the snaking energy matrix was incalculable.

  She switched the weapon off and turned her head away.

  As the intense glow began to fade, there was a collective gasp from everyone else in the room. Reactively, she looked at the point in space where the energy beam had done its grisly work, and her eyes widened.

  In turn, Garnoth followed her gaze and for the briefest of moments, was stunned. Then, quickly recovering his composure he spat venomously. ‘No, it cannot be, you are not allowed to interfere, we have acted within the Accords.’

  All eyes were focused on the place where the young woman had been enveloped within the deadly energy ball, and who now stood totally unharmed. She stepped forward, towards Tala and metamorphosed into another figure, tall, unutterably beautiful and totally inhuman. She was clad in a flowing dress of pure white; her eyes, electric blue, her perfectly formed face devoid of expression, it was Jane.

  The pain in Jon’s arm disappeared, instantly. He felt better, physically, than he had ever known. He tried to speak, but ‘Emily…’ was the only word he could utter. That pain remained. Not only did Jane not reply, she did not even look at him, it was as though they had never met before. Beron released his hold on Jon, he had no choice in the matter, the Te’an agent felt himself being propelled firmly away from his captive.

  Tala, was now looking at the hologram as if seeking guidance. What she saw in the face of her mentor was no longer the imperious invader, more a scavenger, desperately seeking escape.

  Almost everything that had happened washed out of Jon, all he could think of was his young friend. The words stuck in his throat, but he managed, in a strained voice to utter. ‘She sacrificed herself to save me.’

  While the blue orbs that were Jane’s eyes continued to disregard him, he felt stronger and the pain that was remembering Emily began to recede until it was bearable; he was glad it was not gone altogether.

  The Custodian turned her implacable, cold gaze towards the holo image.

  Beron chose that exact moment to turn and run but found, to his horror, that he was held motionless by the invisible, irresistible force that was Jane’s mind; he was turned back to face her, and the force was released. He made no further attempts to flee.

  The glacial being addressed Garnoth. ‘Before the agreement was finalised, your subordinate precipitated an act of violence. You are fully aware of what the Accords have to say concerning such events.’

  ‘I didn't kill her, she ran at me and we both went over the rail. She was the one who was responsible, not me,’ Beron blurted out. The remorseless Te’an agent had disappeared and, for the briefest of moments, he looked as though he might attempt to run again, but that moment passed without incident.

  The Custodian was still facing Garnoth as she continued. ‘If it was not for your violent actions, that situation would not have arisen, she was trying to protect her friend.’

  She slowly turned her head to regard Beron, who could not hold her gaze and looked to the floor like an abashed child. ‘You should have withdrawn. Everything that followed was a direct consequence of your actions.’ Her face remained impassive. The pause that followed was imperceptible, but every Tellurian and two very frightened Te’ans anticipated something terrible happening that very moment, in that very room.

  Instead, she turned back to Garnoth, who had tried but failed to regain his composure.

  ‘Did you think we would not know what had taken place and, in knowing, fail to act?’ She looked at Tala and the unfortunate Beron. ‘Go back to your ship, you should be with your own people when we do what must be done.’ The Te’an agents disappeared, but the galet and the hologram remained, except that it no longer showed Garnoth, it now showed nothing at all.

  Everyone, except Gerry Wye - who by now, was catatonic - looked at this astonishing being who had been masquerading as Tellurian, yet no one could recall seeing her before the moment she stepped forward. She walked over to the galet, which continued to hover in midair and said softly, to no one in particular. ‘Let us take a closer look.’ The object disappeared as, to all those present, did the room.

  There was no sensation of movement as Jon found himself in a familiar place. As before, there was a panoramic view of local space. Only this time it was not the Sun that was displayed, but the flotilla of Te’an warships, now reduced to the original three.

  All the Tellurian occupants the Signing Room, including the President himself, were present, even the three screens hovered, with their images now in attendance looking out at the Te’an armada. From the calm and curious looks on everyone’s face, Jon knew that Jane had done something to their minds to allay panic. The only one not present was the Custodian.

  Jon’s attention was drawn to the three Te’an ships in orbit around the Earth. Unlike the hologram, which had the effect of diminishing their size, he now appreciated the scale of the warships, they were vast. Despite orbiting Earth at speed, they appeared motionless, each pointing towards the waiting planet, below. The silence, and relative immobility adding to the sense of dread. If they were aware of the presence of the viewing platform, they gave no indication.

  The colossal warships were, he thought, both ethereally beautiful and frightening at the same time. Still and silent, neither they nor the recently ensconced observers had to wait long before another twist unfolded.

  Ω

  The entire bridge galvanised into action, all officers too busy to notice Gorn, all save for Trang, whose eyes betrayed nothing, and then she too concentrated her mind on performing the role assigned to her.

  Gorn looked up at the holo-sphere, which had remained blank throughout the brave, but futile defence of Telluria. It now showed the planet below, where most of the inhabitants would be completely unaware of the danger they now faced. Eclipse’s sister ships, Horizon and Quasar were not in view, having fallen in behind and to either flank of the flagship.

  Absolute quiet descended upon the bridge, accompanied by a complete cessation of activity. All eyes regarded the cause of this newfound silence. Where they should have seen the blackness of space, broken only by the blue, green, white planet below, there was a tiny electric blue light waiting, perfectly still, before them.

  Gorn looked at the data projected by his console. As he expected, the light emitted no energy signature and appeared to be completely without mass, but for what his eyes told him, he would have to say it did not exist.

  It seemed that despite his failure, the Custodians had chosen to intervene. What happened down there? he asked himself. Do they know about me?

  Intercession by the Custodians had been his worst case scenario. Clearly, something had occurred on
the planet to invoke their attention, which in turn would result in the destruction of his people. Now that he was faced with the reality of that outcome, it was nothing like he thought it would be. All the grand talk of his aunt, and the bold planning seemed so unreal now. How could he possibly have thought it would be any different to this? Destroying an entire race was not what he wanted, neither Tellurians nor his own race. He had hoped the Custodians would see Te’ans who cared, who were prepared to act, persuading them to do something other than carry out their threat.

  The Tiny light, although it was impossible to gauge its size when it failed to register on their systems, remained as it was. Surely, he thought, if it was going to destroy us, it would have acted already. Why is it waiting?

  He had been called to the bridge soon after sending Hugo Black to help Jonathon Tyler. Liz Corcoran was safe, as he did not send the kill signal to the Avatar, so what caused the breach? Unless he gained access to a console out of sight of prying eyes, he would have to wait to find out. He tore his eyes from the light, which was still doing nothing, and redirected his attention to his commander.

  Darl's face was not that of a man in fear and Gorn, one of a few of all those present, knew what was coming next, the Alpha Wave.

  Most of his fellow officers suspected what the blue light heralded, the return of the beings many had consigned to the realm of myth.

  The commander issued the order he had waited for. After three thousand years of paralysis, he would be the man remembered for freeing the Te from the yoke of the Custodians. ‘Signal Quasar and Nova, they are to position themselves and await my order to deploy the Alpha Wave.’

  Despite Narol’s orders, Gorn had to stop Darl. In warning his commander, he was in danger of giving himself away, but what did that matter now? He knew there was only one way it could be done, and it had neither the luxury, nor relative safety of subtlety. ‘Sir, the Alpha Wave has a flaw that could result in the destruction of both ourselves, and Telluria.’

  Darl turned slowly towards the young science officer and asked, slowly. ‘How do you know of the Alpha Wave?’

  Gorn, guilelessly replied. ‘You told me, sir.’ He could see the shadow of uncertainty in his commander’s eyes, his mind, undoubtedly going back to that night when he drank himself almost senseless, his uncertainty confirmed by the words. ‘Of course, in all the excitement, it had slipped my mind,’ the older man paused before adding, ‘but I can assure you Gorn, everything has been worked out to the finest detail. We are in no danger whatever.’

  With that, he turned back to the holo-sphere – the discussion was over and Gorn had risked exposure, for nothing. He tried to explain how he had discovered the flaw. ‘Sir, I have checked the calculations and they miss an important element, if you would just put the deployment on hold, I would be happy to explain.’

  Darl ignored him.

  As Eclipse acknowledged Quasar and Nova being in position and signalling their readiness to proceed, Gorn heard a voice, a soft female voice, not through the ship’s systems but in his head. He looked at his fellow officers and saw them looking around for the source of the sound. Like him, they each could give a name to the manifestation.

  Δ ∞

  Where once there was nothing but blackness there now appeared, between the three enormous Te’an ships and the waiting planet, a very small electric blue light.

  Jon heard a voice, which did not appear to emanate from anywhere, it was simply in the room with them. From the expressions around him, it was apparent that everyone could hear the voice. None of the little group, including Hugo Black appeared to be looking for the source and, once again, it seemed to Jon that Jane was cushioning them from the effects of what they were experiencing. So far as he could tell, she had not interfered with his mind.

  He, instinctively knew the source of the voice was the blue light. The voice was that of a woman, softly spoken, nonbelligerent, unthreatening but not human. It sounded like Jane, but there was something about it that confused and disoriented him.

  Unlike anyone else present, he had some knowledge of the Custodian, but even that was qualified because he had no idea what she actually was. More accurately, he was aware that she was not and possibly never was, remotely human. The voice was not addressing his group, they were merely being allowed to hear and observe. It was directed towards the waiting Te’an warships.

  Even with his limited awareness of the capabilities of the Custodians, the sight of the Te’an ships still filled him with dread. They had played, contemptuously, with the augmented ships that were sent to repel them and now sat, for there was no impression of movement, implacable and menacing in their silence, conveying no sign of concern or flight.

  The small blue light hovering before them, seemingly gave the commanders of these killing machines no cause for concern. They would surely know what befell their ancestors three thousand years ago, but that was a long time ago and their technology would have advanced in the intervening years. Perhaps they had good reason not to be afraid.

  The not quite human voice spoke. ‘You were warned, when we last met of what would befall you if you breached the Accords,’ there was a pause, and Jon guessed that if the ships were to reply he, and the others would be allowed to hear. There was no response. Minutes later, there was still no response. On the viewing platform, no one moved.

  He watched as the three huge ships silently manoeuvred into positions placing the tiny and motionless blue light in the centre of yet another triangle. The movement signalled purpose and increased his sense of dread. As soon as the warships came to a stop they fired upon the little illuminated sphere, subsuming it in an intense ball of white light. Alarming though it was, he could not help but picture the futile attempt to destroy Jane, just moments before.

  Knowing that Jane was in no danger, his mind swept back to the senseless death of Emily. Right up to the moment she died, he never truly realised the danger they were in. He had gone through the whole thing as though it was a virtual game, where the danger is never real, no matter how realistic it might appear. If he had taken the whole thing more seriously, would Emily still be alive?

  The answer to his question would have to wait, as a new development in the latest battle for Earth caught his eye, and then his whole attention. What he saw frightened him on a level so deep he could not name it. While he had never seen anything like it before, he instinctively knew it was something of which to be very afraid. Looking around the viewing platform, he still saw only unconcerned, mildly interested faces.

  While the ball of energy enveloping the blue light continued to glow with a fierce intensity, something less obvious was moving out from each of the ships and coursing, relentlessly, towards where the little Custodian ship was hidden.

  There was no beam, or anything else that might signify use of a weapon, simply a rippling in space that caused the stars behind the steadily advancing stream to distort. It was almost as though the ships were cascading rivulets of water to douse the white-hot energy ball. He did not think, for a moment, that the purpose of this latest manifestation was anything so benign. While Jane concentrated on keeping the destructive energy surrounding her ship at bay, she would have no idea of the presence of this new horror.

  Within moments, the three streams converged on the area of the energy ball. The white plasma immediately disappeared, to be replaced by roiling blackness. While the only colour Jon could discern was an inky black, there seemed to be different shades writhing within the enveloping horror. The visual effect was terrifying, as though some monstrous being was battling to escape the confines of its stygian prison. As if to confirm his surreal interpretation, the darkness began to expand outwards.

  Of Jane’s ship, there was no sign. The monstrous globe, having done its work with ruthless efficiency, was seemingly endowed with a mind of its own. It had become dissatisfied with its prey, and the expansion gained in momentum as it moved outwards, in all directions. Within seconds, it would overtake the Te’an ships. A
few more seconds and the viewing platform upon which he and the others stood, would be swept away and, looking back at Earth, he wondered how his planet would fare? Not well, he answered himself.

  In the few short seconds before the Te’ans were consumed, he wondered what they were thinking.

  Ω

  Commander Darl gave the order to break formation and engage the sub-weft drives. He knew they would not escape. The orb of writhing blackness was moving outwards at an almost exponential speed. Horizon and Quasar could no longer be seen, the size of the wave blotted everything else from sight. Darl would later have wondered how Gorn could have figured this out, but that would not happen, not now. All he could do was wait out the few seconds it would take before his entire command blinked out of existence. The only thought that went through his mind, it wasn’t my fault.

  As the wave was about to sweep over them, he looked at his officers and braced himself for what was about to come…

  Δ

  Jon watched with horrified fascination, as the grotesque, bloated sphere was about to simultaneously, envelope all three Te’an ships. Then, as quickly as the thing had expanded, it stopped, almost touching the ships. For several agonising seconds it remained like this, as though pondering whether to continue on its all-consuming way, then it vanished.

  Everything returned to the way it looked before the Te’an ships had opened fire with their energy weapons. The three ships still formed a triangulated array and there, in the middle of the huge triangle...