The Harvest

by N. W. Harris

  Nervous chatter rippling across the room, they took their seats in the training hangar. Lily and Jones were already on the podium, waiting for them to settle and wearing grave expressions that charged the air with a sense of urgency.

  “As we’ve said before, each of the seven teams will be assigned to a different Anunnaki vessel,” Jones began, speaking loud enough to hush everyone. “You are all well acquainted with the mission plan.”

  The LCD screen came on, showing a cutaway of a pyramid-shaped starship. Then it changed to a map of the earth.

  “The American team is assigned to the command ship. The Australian and Russian teams will attack the two neighboring vessels at the pyramid complex in Giza,” Lily explained. She continued, telling each team where their target was. The Chinese would be sent to a Mayan ruin in Central America, the Koreans to Southeast Asia, and the Israelis to the Aztec Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico.

  So Shane’s team had won this short-lived competition. They’d get to take on the biggest of the Anunnaki ships. He couldn’t find any joy in the victory, fearing the prize might be death.

  “The Finnish team is assigned to the Luxor Pyramid in Las Vegas, the most recent example of the Anunnaki’s influence on Earth,” Lily said. “You will join with the kids gathering near these pyramids. When the Anunnaki ships arrive, they will immediately begin taking on humans, giving them armor and weapons, programming them for the cleansing war.”

  “Be wary of the humans whose slave genes are being activated by the Anunnaki,” Jones warned. “Until they are fully under the enemy’s control, they will be swept into a near-psychotic frenzy. They will be suspicious of anyone who is not as enthusiastic about the arrival of the aliens as they are.”

  Murmurs swept through the room. His mind conjured all kinds of horrible behavior that would constitute a near-psychotic frenzy. Kelly looked at Shane, a range of emotions from concern to anger swirling in her eyes. The one thing he didn’t detect in those tumultuous blue windows into her thoughts was fear. She was braver than any of them were.

  Once again, he was struck by guilt for wishing she would be left behind, that she wouldn’t be allowed to go on this mission. They’d already cheated death in Atlanta, and he feared there wasn’t enough luck left in the world to get them through this alive.

  “You’ll get your armor and pass into the programing chamber. Once the neural upload to the slaves is complete, they’ll appear to have regained free will, though they will be fully committed to serving the Anunnaki. Then six members of each team will slip away and place one of these on the front and back of their torsos.” She held up a small dot, about the diameter of a pencil eraser. “When it comes in contact with the armor, it will unfold and create the Shock Troop emblem, covering your slave stripes. It’ll also disconnect your armor’s onboard computer from the ship’s computer, essentially making you invisible. This will allow you more freedom to move around the vessel.”

  “You’ll slip out of the programming chamber through this hatch in the back and make your way to engineering,” Jones said, pointing at the diagram of a passageway that spiraled through the interior of the recruit ship to an access hatch near the center.

  “Had we the time to complete your training as planned,” Lily said, “you would have memorized the access codes and ejection sequences to be input in the reactor control panel. We would also have taken you through numerous scenarios so you’d be ready for almost anything. Unfortunately, that option is no longer available to us.”

  Nervous mumbling erupted. Everything they were saying was just a recap of what they already knew. They’d been through a lot of training in the short time they’d been here, had done a different scenario in simulations each day, and had started learning the codes. Apparently, their instructors didn’t feel like that was enough. It didn’t inspire much confidence in Shane and, by the sound of it, anyone else. He suddenly wondered why they were even saying this to them. Wouldn’t it be better to just tell them they were ready and send them onto the field bolstered by confidence?

  “However,” Jones said, loudly enough to silence the room. “There is a way we can upload the information to your brains via your earbud. We hesitate to do it because it requires the temporary activation of your slave genes, and it could cause injury.”

  So here was the catch. They didn’t need to sell Shane. He’d do anything to increase the likelihood that they would succeed. His fear of losing Kelly and becoming a slave to the Anunnaki trumped all. Although he wondered what injury it could possibly cause that the doctor couldn’t heal.

  “As a compromise,” Lily said, “you must decide if you want us to attempt uploading this information into your brains.”

  “Be warned,” Dr. Blain, who was sitting on the corner of the stage, said. “The upload could cause permanent instability in some of you. There is a risk of brain damage and possibly death.”

  Shane glanced at his teammates, then down the row at Ethan, Liam, Jake, and the rest of the Australians. They all looked concerned but also had the same so-what-we’ll-take-it expressions on their faces.

  “To be clear, we’ve never done this before,” Lily added sincerely. It was admirable that they seemed so opposed to activating the slave gene. These rebels really acted like they cared about them, and they had since the day that they met. “Captain Jones and I were soldiers and pilots, not the neuroscientists the Anunnaki have to program their slaves. We don’t have the immense power reserves available to use that the recruit ships’ reactors provide. And though Dr. Blain has studied the archives on the subject that were salvaged from our ship, this will be her first attempt at a neural upload.”

  After delivering this uninspiring disclaimer, Lily and her two counterparts gazed at the teens in the room, perhaps giving them time to contemplate the risks of what they were proposing. It didn’t sound intimidating to Shane, not when compared to trying to attack the Anunnaki with the limited training they’d undergone.

  “If it works, this will increase your chances of success and survival one hundredfold. If you don’t want the mental upload, leave now,” Jones bellowed less delicately than the other two. “The loop on the TV in your barracks will be playing a lesson that will teach you the bare minimum you’ll need to get by.” He crossed his arms and looked at everyone.

  The hangar was dead quiet. Shane swore he could hear Kelly’s heart beating next to him, even over the deafening sound of his own. He’d already made his decision—he was in this to the end. But he couldn’t help wishing Kelly would walk out. No one moved.

  “Very well.” Lily smiled kindly. “Dr. Blain, please begin.”

  “You will be immobilized like in the simulations.” Dr. Blain held a thin, transparent tablet, tapping its surface with her free hand. She stopped and looked at them, that caring, maternal expression on her face that unnerved Shane each time she had treated his wounds. “I’m sorry, but this may be a bit painful.”

  She tapped the screen. A high-pitched whistle blasted Shane, and blinding light scorched his eyes. It felt like it would burn his flesh away, and then, as suddenly as the whistling began, there was silence. A wall of colors, thousands of little, flashing squares, swelled up before him and blocked out the blinding light. The wall curved into a sphere around him. Each of the tiny squares looked like a scene from a movie.

  With an earsplitting screech, the scenes all pushed in at once, flowing through him in a blur of color. His head seemed to swell under the pressure. He wanted to scream but felt disconnected from his body, like he was only a brain afloat in a storm of memories that didn’t belong to him. So much information blazed through him, making his brain feel like it was being poached. The memories forced their way into him, each one becoming his own. The mission to destroy the reactor repeated hundreds of times in fast-forward, though he was painfully aware of the minutest details in each simulation. He saw the reactor control panel, inputted destruction sequences, and died in a blast in one scene, then escaped in the next. He fought Anunnaki sold
iers with and without weapons, and saw all his friends die over and over again.

  The mix of pain, fear, and excitement made him want to curl into a ball and weep. The grief of seeing his friends die, of seeing Kelly die, was all too real. It intensified until he expected his head would explode, then everything went dark and quiet. He heard murmuring and opened his eyes. His blurred vision slowly cleared. He was sitting in the metal chair next to Kelly. The teens around him groaned, rubbing their heads. Fading terror left their faces pale and slack, like they’d all just awoken from a horrible nightmare.

  He felt sharp tingles in his skull, as if the fires lit by the neural upload had dwindled down to crackling embers. Glancing around, he moved his arms and legs. He seemed to have survived without major trauma. Kelly turned and hugged him, a quiet whimper escaping when he wrapped his arms around her.

  “I saw such horrible things,” she whispered.

  “I know,” he said, pulling her tight. Tears blurred his vision. “Me too.”

  “It worked!” Dr. Blain studied images flashing on her tablet. “And everyone seems to be okay.” She looked at them with a broad smile on her face that showed she had no idea how much they’d suffered during the upload.

  The painful tingles subsided, and the misery from seeing Kelly and his friends die in different scenarios lost some of its grip. A new awareness diffused through him. Along with the horrible stuff he’d seen, so much amazing knowledge was in his head. It felt like he’d been training to attack the Anunnaki for a lifetime. He knew how to beat them, was certain he could succeed. Confidence flourished in the presence of the knowledge.

  Kelly must’ve experienced it too. She released him and leaned back, drying her eyes with the side of her finger. Her traumatized expression transformed into a little smile.

  “I think I know karate!” she said.

  “And judo,” Liam added.

  Shane could sense his intimate knowledge of those martial arts, and at least five others. They were going to destroy the Anunnaki ships—he grew more certain of it with each passing second. Furthermore, he knew he could get his team out alive. Vindictiveness boiled in him. These bastards killed his aunt and his father. Now he had what he needed to get even. Glancing at his counterparts, he sensed they were all thinking the same thing.

  “Because of residual fluctuation in your serotonin levels, you may experience an elevated mood for a couple of hours,” Dr. Blain warned.

  “Remember,” Jones said with his drill-sergeant voice. “By destroying the recruit ships, you will bring us a massive step closer to ensuring the survival of your species, your brothers and sisters. We hope you live through this mission, but you must lay down your life if that’s what the situation demands. Just because we’ve uploaded a bunch of information into your brains doesn’t mean you are prepared for every contingency.” He paused, studying them.

  “Always the pessimist,” Laura whispered.

  “Or simply a realist,” Tracy countered sternly.

  “Trust your instincts in battle,” Jones bellowed, glaring at the chattering girls to show he’d heard them and didn’t approve of the interruption. “Do I make myself clear?”

  “Sir, yes sir,” everyone shouted, a level of respect in their voices that hadn’t been there so many weeks ago.

  They responded in Anunnaki. Shane suddenly realized they’d been speaking it since coming out of the neural upload. On top of everything else, they’d been taught to speak the enemy’s universal tongue. He was pretty sure he could speak a crap-load of other languages now too. His brain overflowed with new knowledge, more than he could even begin to comprehend.

  Jones’ cautioning words soaked in. Shane was ready to lay down his life if that was what it took. But he wasn’t ready to see Kelly die. His surge of confidence was subdued. He glanced at her, his newly implanted memories conjuring the white-hot reactor explosion that would vaporize flesh and bone. His stomach twisted into knots, and bile rose in his throat. He couldn’t let it happen. He’d die for her in a heartbeat, but he didn’t want her to die with him.

  “Now you all should go enjoy your dinner,” Lily advised. “I’m proud of what you’ve done here over the last month. You’ve proven you have what it takes to defeat the Anunnaki. You already possessed the courage, strength, endurance, and aggression. And now you have the knowledge.”

  “Helicopters will be ready to deliver you down to an airport at zero two hundred hours. There, you will be loaded onto military transports and flown to your respective targets,” Jones growled. “Dismissed.”

  The kids didn’t move immediately, all sitting and looking at each other with stunned expressions. They had been judged the best hope of stopping the Anunnaki, and their sentence may well be death. Shane knew he couldn’t keep Kelly from going. He had to respect her desire to be there for the fight. Standing, he tried to shove aside his fear for her safety. Kelly and the others rose next to him.

  “We have to stop them, Shane,” she said firmly. “We have to make sure Nat has a world to grow up in.” Her expression was resolute, conveying that she’d die a thousand torturous ways to save her sister.

  “Don’t worry.” He scooped her hand into his, his heart breaking at the thought of her enduring even a scratch. Forcing a smile, he tried to be encouraging. “We’ve got home-field advantage. The Anunnaki aren’t going to know what hit them.”

  “Let’s try to relax tonight,” Maurice advised loudly enough for everyone to hear. He glanced at Shane in such a way that made him wonder if he picked up on his inner turmoil. His face was leaner and his waist much smaller than it was before. He looked older and more serious, though he still had that friendly glimmer in his eyes. “Let’s consider this night a gift and not squander the time.” He winked at Shane knowingly and offered a compassionate smile.

  A wave of agreement passed through the room. Different nationalities intermingled with a familiarity and comfort he couldn’t have imagined on that first sleepless night in the barracks. For some inexplicable reason, he couldn’t help feeling wary. Something was off. Hoping he wasn’t experiencing the instability Dr. Blain warned of, he mimicked the rest of the kids, who chatted excitedly about all they’d learned. They spilled out of the hangar as a unified group, the seven teams of seven no longer distinguishable.

  Steve walked next to Anfisa. Their hands brushed, and Steve smiled timidly at her, red flooding his cheeks. He looked like a little boy blushing at his first crush. The overconfident, tough-guy persona he always brandished blasted away each time she glanced at him.

  “Wow,” Shane teased when Steve held the door open for him. “You’re so whipped.”

  He expected the big guy to get embarrassed and to tell him to shut up. Instead, Steve smiled. “What can I say? Any woman who can kick my ass is a woman I gotta love.”

  Shane laughed. Thank goodness Steve would be with him on the mission. Not to mention the fight in Atlanta, they’d gone to battle on the gridiron many times. He knew in the heat of it that Steve would not back down. He wished Aaron were here as well. Then they’d be unstoppable for sure.

  At dinner, everyone seemed to be making an effort to follow Maurice’s advice, or they were experiencing the elevated mood the doctor warned of, Shane couldn’t tell which. People joked around, and laughter was frequent, though often restrained and tinged with nervousness.

  In a lot of the simulated missions they endured in the neural upload, the teams were mixed so that kids from different nationalities fought together. He had this sense that he’d known many of them for years, though he really didn’t know much about their lives from before they came here. Even though they’d spent a month eating, sleeping, and living together, the training had been too vigorous to allow much time for social interaction with the foreigners. They talked of the simulations like they were old times and laughed about the flag-capturing games and about sparring competitions they had against each other. Petrov even struck up an unprompted conversation with Shane, who’d been watching the othe
rs off to the side. He spoke of his home back in Russia, his little sister who was waiting for him there, and his older brother who had been killed by the limbic manipulator.

  Petrov finished abruptly by saying, “You will have to excuse me.” He walked toward the drink dispenser, grabbing a napkin on his way and dabbing his eyes. It was such a rollercoaster of emotion that Shane feared they all might be experiencing some negative side effects of the upload. What if their brains fell apart during the mission?

  “It doesn’t seem like we just met these people four weeks ago,” Kelly mused, slipping next to him.

  “I know—feels like we’ve been here forever,” Maurice replied distantly.

  “I propose a toast,” Jules announced, lifting her cup. The other kids quieted and looked at her. “To the best group of people I’ve ever known,” she paused and smiled, “for twenty-eight whole days.”

  Laughter erupted across the room, and then they fell quiet when her expression turned serious.

  Determined to learn as much about his teammates as possible, Shane had gotten to know her better during the training. He’d discovered she was much more sensitive than she acted. He’d seen her looking at Tracy the same way he sometimes looked at Kelly, with deep melancholy over the idea that she could be killed. He noticed it the first time during a simulation. A plasma blast had hit Tracy, and the computer pulled her out of the game. It left the burnt corpse that made the simulations all too realistic, causing nightmares for Shane. Jules had frozen, staring at Tracy’s body, her face contorted with horror. She forgot they were in a firefight and, before Shane could yell at her, she got shot too.

  “I feel like I’ve grown more in the short time we’ve spent together than I did in my entire life up to this point,” she continued, a sincerity in her voice and moistness in her eyes. “I know this sounds weird, but I love you guys. I feel like you’re family.” She scanned their faces, and her eyes stopped on Tracy. Jules raised her cup higher.