Conspiracy Unleashed

by L. Danvers

  There was no rustling as the sand swept past. No howling of the wind. No sounds of life anywhere to be found.

  The ground quaked beneath her. Cal fumbled her pulse-r as she inched toward a tree-sized boulder, but she recovered it. Get it together. Her eyes widened as she came to the realization that the boulder itself was trembling. Cal looked up, watching as it shook more and more violently. The boulder was growing in size. Thousands of spikes erupted from it, jutting out in every direction.

  And there it was.

  Sound.

  A sound so alien, so terrifying, she couldn’t think of anything to liken it to.

  Crystal spikes scraped through the rock, piercing her ears. The boulder turned itself around. Pink, jagged crystals in the form of a face appeared, contorting as it made the awful sound.

  Cal shot at the boulder-like creature, singeing its crystalline right eye. It shrieked, and it rolled toward her. She jumped out of the way and shot at it again, burning into its back.

  The boulder-like creature came to a sudden stop, flipped itself around and hurled toward her again. Cal dove out of the way and went rolling down a sandy hill, with the creature following close behind. Cal ducked out of the way and shot again. This time, the gold light pulsed into the boulder where its nose would have been. It cracked into three large pieces.

  Cal brushed the sand from her suit while she caught her breath. Her surroundings flickered.

  A new landscape appeared, revealing a forest with spiny trees. The branches made such a thick canopy they blocked out the sky. The gentle breeze whistled as it coiled its way through the rustling branches. Cal walked along the winding path, making note of the green spaghetti-like grass and melting purple flowers. The scene had the sweet, tangy smell of strawberry yogurt. None of its features fit together.

  There was sobbing coming from a fork in the path. She stepped onto the slimy grass. It sloshed around under her feet. She followed the sound, and it led her behind one of the spiny trees. There, she found a furry, lavender-colored fairy. It whimpered as it looked over its shoulder, revealing a wing that had been split in two. Cal knelt to take a closer look. She reached out her hand to examine the damaged wing. The creature spasmed and contorted into wild shapes. Cal was so startled that she fell onto her back.

  She scrambled to her feet and reached for the pulse-r. The creature twisted into the form of the furry fairy again, though this time its wing was healed. It flapped and made a whooping sound as it darted toward Cal. Cal pulled the trigger, but the fairy evaded the gold burst of light. Cal shot at it twice more. She missed both times.

  The fairy swooped down. Cal planted her feet and stood firm, remembering what Sam had taught her. She shot one more blast from the pulse-r. This time, the fairy turned to ashes and fell to the ground.

  Cal remembered what Agent Cortez had said. Don't hesitate. Shoot. It was easier said than done when the virtual reality simulations felt so real.

  The landscape flickered, and the overhead lights reappeared. A massive, empty room revealed itself. Agent Cortez burst through the door.

  “Well,” she said, “that wasn't too terrible, but we sure have our work cut out for us. We’ll have to run some more drills before you're ready to train with the others. Remember how I said not to hesitate?”

  “Yeah,” Cal said. “I remember. I'm sorry, I don't know why I hesitated.”

  “No need to apologize. That's what the training is for. Better to learn here than out there.” Agent Cortez nodded up to the sky. “It's time for lunch. The rest of the group’s already gone up to eat. Change out of your suit and go get some food.”

  Cal trembled as she undressed. Shooting a target was one thing, but shooting a living thing, or at least what looked like a living thing, was harder. She didn’t like the idea of killing. But she would do it, if she had to.

  Over lunch, the crewmembers compared notes about how their pulse-r training simulation went. It made her feel better to learn Flynn struggled, too, though it didn't come as a terrible surprise. Commander Ahmadi and Sam reassured her and Britt that it would get easier with practice. Of course, that was easy for them to say. Training had been a breeze for the two of them.

  After they ate, the group met up with Agent Hendrix, who was eager to demonstrate some of his latest technological creations. Agent Hendrix was a tall and lanky man. He wore a white button-up shirt and a green and yellow-striped bow tie. It was shiny, like his bald head.

  “This,” Agent Hendrix said, unable to contain his excitement as he motioned to a pile of belts, “may be my greatest invention yet. Allow me to demonstrate.”

  He picked up two black straps that interlocked to form an X shape and pulled them over his head. He threaded his arms through and adjusted the straps until they fit snug over his shoulders. He pressed a button in the center of the X, and he disappeared into a wavy haze, like that of heat radiating off asphalt on a summer day.

  “Invisibility capabilities?” Flynn gasped. “But that's impossible.”

  “Yet here I am. Or, am not, I should say,” Agent Hendrix replied.

  Commander Ahmadi stuck out his hand where Agent Hendrix had stood. Still stood.

  “Hey,” the agent said. “Watch it.”

  “That's amazing,” Sam said. “Man, this would have been so useful in the military.”

  “The problem is,” Agent Hendrix said as his body came back into view, “that I haven't worked the kinks out yet. For now, the invisibility shield lasts about fifteen minutes tops.”

  Awe transformed Flynn’s face. Behind his glasses, which he pushed up the bridge of his large nose, his eyes were darting around. He examined the straps, trying to figure out for himself how the technology worked. “Do you think you can make it last longer?”

  Agent Hendrix shrugged. “I sure hope so. I'm working on it, but I can't make any promises yet.”

  Agent Hendrix let Cal, Britt, Commander Ahmadi and Flynn each take turns trying out the invisibility shield. Sam missed out on the remainder of the training session after getting an urgent phone call, but that gave the others more time with this incredible technology.

  Being invisible didn’t feel much different than being visible, aside from the tingling sensation. Cal had expected the experience to be disorienting. She had expected to reach out her hand and not be able to see where it was, but that wasn’t how the cloaking device worked. She could see herself. The people around her couldn’t see her.

  She hoped Agent Hendrix could figure out how to make the invisibility last longer. The technology was fascinating, but she couldn’t think of any situation in which fifteen minutes of invisibility would do any good.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cal gained more confidence in the months that followed as she mastered the skills taught in training. Thanks to Sam’s help, using the pulse-r had become second nature, although she cringed every time she had to “kill” something in a simulation. Agent Scott had come up with some inventive underwater training exercises which, after conquering, deepened the bond among the crewmembers. Cal had even become more comfortable with the various technological gadgets, although Agent Hendrix hadn’t yet figured out how to perfect the cloaking device.

  A storm rumbled through the summer air. Thunder shook the estate. Light flashed its way through the gloomy morning, shining through the windows and casting eerie shadows on the walls.

  Cal and Britt had begun their day with a squat challenge. It was another day of training, and challenges had long been the norm for their morning routine. It made the workouts a lot more fun and helped to pass the time. Sometimes the guys got in on the challenges, too. But this morning, it was only Cal and Britt. They stared each other down, trying not to crack a smile. They lowered and raised their bodies over and over again. They had been at it for fifteen minutes when their thighs began to shake. Cal wiped sweat from her brow while Britt teased her about how she was losing steam, but she had spoken too soon. Britt’s legs gave out, and she fell to the ground. She and Cal burst in
to laughter.

  A voice boomed over the speaker system as Cal helped Britt get to her feet.

  “Stellix crew to the briefing room. Stellix crew to the briefing room immediately.”

  Commander Ahmadi sat up from the weight bench and dabbed his scruffy face with a white towel. “Come on. We should go see what this is about.”

  The rest of them followed him upstairs, along the hallway and into the briefing room.

  There was a heaviness in the air. Agent Taylor was not sitting. Instead, her arms were crossed as she stood behind her crescent-shaped chair. Her eyes were focused on the hexagonal table. On top of it was a three-dimensional holographic projection of the beginning of a presidential address. The crewmembers took their seats and watched.

  President Daniel Douglass was at his desk in the Oval Office. He was well dressed. His hair was swept out of his face as always. But his eyes were sunken, buried beneath the dark bags surrounding them. He folded his hands and leaned in toward the camera, trying to connect one on one with each viewer.

  “My fellow citizens of the United States of America,” he began, “as many of you know, negotiations between France and Spain broke down last week. At the beginning of this week, Portugal, who has sided with Spain, led air strikes on the southern region of France, killing thousands of innocent civilians. We cannot sit by and watch such senseless slaughtering of our fellow members of the human race.

  “The United Kingdom and Germany have both pledged to deploy troops to assist France. Tonight, I am vowing to do the same. At this hour, our servicemen and women are on their way to help defeat Spain. Our military forces will do everything they can to protect the citizens of France and minimize potential harm to innocent civilians everywhere.

  “To our military men and women, we the American people you serve and protect want to thank you for—”

  Agent Taylor disabled the hologram and looked to the group. She firmed her stance, placing her hands on her hips. “I received orders from Vice President Pierce this morning. The mission you have spent so long training for begins today. As we speak, our agents are gathering your things and teleporting them to the Stellix while the last-minute safety checks are performed.”

  Cal glanced around at the other crewmembers. None of them looked the least bit scared. In fact, they looked excited. Cal felt that way to some extent, but she couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her chest. The time had come to face the unknown, and while she was prepared, she wasn't certain she was ready. But that didn't matter. Ready or not, the time had come.

  The crew followed Agent Taylor to the telepad room. Cal didn’t know this room existed. It was tucked away, and it blended into the surrounding wall like the elevator did.

  The hidden room housed the strangest telepad she’d seen. It didn’t have the flashy aesthetics of other telepads. It was in a dimly lit room with concrete walls and floors. This wasn’t some swanky teleportation device. This was a machine. A machine powerful enough to send them lightyears away in a flash.

  Agent Taylor entered a series of coordinates into the hovering keypad and scanned her credittat. This was an extra security precaution to prevent someone from entering the wrong coordinates and teleporting to a spaceship by mistake. Smart thinking.

  Agent Taylor held up a finger and motioned for the five of them to stand aboard the telepad base. She joined them. The crew huddled together, eager to see the Stellix in person. Cal lifted her chin to look at Sam, who stood beside her. He cracked his signature half-smile at her. He squeezed her shoulder, and she braced herself as she counted down the beeps in her head.

  Three.

  Two.

  One.

  The sensation of an icy blast rushed through her. The feeling lasted longer than usual. That was to be expected when traveling such a vast distance. The warmth returned to her body as she and the others appeared on the telepad base. This was it. The Stellix.

  “Welcome home,” Agent Taylor said over Flynn’s inevitable sneeze.

  “Bless you,” Britt said to him.

  But everyone fell silent as they looked around the stark white room. Cal and the others had seen mockups of the ship, but those didn't do it justice.

  It had a smell to it much like that of the driverless hovercabs. It was shiny and new.

  “Follow me,” Agent Taylor said. “I'll give you the grand tour.”

  She led the crew down a curved, sparkling white hallway that flushed with the ship’s interior. There wasn’t a speck of dust to be found. A recessed gold shelf filled with plants of the full spectrum of colors lined the expanse of the right side of the hall. Once in a while Cal would get a whiff of the earthy smell they exuded. She would find that to be comforting when she and the others journeyed far from the familiarity of home.

  Cal tried peeking through the golden holographic screen doors, but as Agent Taylor had promised, they were impossible to see through. And anyway, Agent Taylor was leading them at too brisk a pace for Cal to get a good look at anything.

  She was like a child heading for her first day of school. She had so many conflicting emotions. Anxiety. Fear. Excitement. Wonder. She had to remind herself to keep them in check.

  They arrived at a room sealed by a large circular gold projection. Commander Ahmadi set his jaw as he stood before it, taking it in, eager to see for himself what was on the other side. He and the rest of the crew followed Agent Taylor into the main cabin.

  “Wow,” they said in unison.

  The five of them scattered to check out various parts of the room. A thirty-foot window lined the front of the main cabin. The base for a three-dimensional holographic projector was situated in front of it. The cube sat a few yards away from the projector base. The cube, in its perplexing glory, hovered, rotating in front of Commander Ahmadi’s chair. Cal was relieved there was someone onboard who understood how it worked. Despite learning about it during training, she found the device to be mystifying.

  Sam’s seat was next to the commander’s, and while it didn’t have a cube, it did have a large control panel from which he could access the ship’s weapon systems and perform other necessary functions. Flynn was situated on the other side of Sam. Among his other duties, he had the responsibility of entering the coordinates of each destination they were to visit.

  Three chairs lined the second row, and Cal was about to ask why when she remembered what Agent Taylor had said on her first day. There had been a scientist who was supposed to join their mission. There was no sense in going through the effort and resources to redesign the ship because they had one less person than intended.

  Britt and Cal each had chairs equipped with much smaller control panels, though for them they didn’t serve much of a function. Theirs were for emergencies, should one or more of the rest of the crew become incapacitated. Cal shuddered at the thought.

  Minutes passed without anyone saying a word. They were too busy admiring the spacecraft. The reality of it hit Cal as she marveled at the main cabin. Out the window was an infinite expanse of stars twinkling in the sky. She inched closer to get a better look, careful to step over the HP base as she approached.

  Without thinking, she pressed her fingertips against the glass. It had already fogged from the warmth of her breath, distorting the stellar view. She jerked her hand back, shocked by the extreme coldness she experienced. It was colder than ice. Colder than anything she’d felt before. She left an ever-so-slight oily imprint of her fingers on the glass. The Stellix was no longer untouched, and that put her at ease. It was no longer some pristine, foreign place. It was home.

  She wandered along the perimeter of the room, passing the others, who were enamored by the cube. She found a storage closet filled with everything they could need—FlexTabs, spare tubes for collecting samples, extra tools and weapons, heavy fur-lined coats and more.

  She shut the closet door and closed her eyes, taking in the sounds of the Stellix. In the background, behind the chatter, there was a constant drone. A low-pitched, continuing hum ringin
g through the entire ship like white noise. It irritated her knowing the noise would always be lingering there. She hoped she could desensitize herself to the persistent sound.

  “Can we see the rest of the ship?” Sam asked.

  Agent Taylor continued the tour by showing them to the dining hall, though Cal found the name a bit misleading. It was more of a room cramped with the essentials. Britt and Flynn started opening cabinets and examining their contents.

  Everything was stark white with gold knobs and handles. Even the rim of the dining table was lined with gold. Cal had to give Agent Hendrix credit. He had thought of every detail when designing this ship. She was relieved to see there was a coffee maker sitting on the counter and was thinking she could go for a nice steaming cup about now, though she knew it wasn’t the right time.

  Their next stop was the medical bay, the main attraction as far as Britt was concerned. She was pleased to find it was stocked with everything she’d need, and so much more. It had an exam table, which looked far cushier than any Cal had seen in a doctor’s office.

  “Here is hoping none of us ends up here,” Commander Ahmadi thought aloud.

  Britt nodded, though Cal suspected deep down she wouldn’t mind getting to make use of the things in the room.

  “Let’s keep the tour moving,” Agent Taylor said, waving for the five of them to follow. She led them into a conference room, the golden screen flickering as they stepped through it. It wasn’t that exciting to look at. There was a long table with six chairs, and a painting of Earth hung on the wall. It was bizarre to think that planet, their home, the only world they had ever known was so far away. Cal couldn’t bear to look at the blue and green marble-like painting. It made her stomach churn.

  Their tour was concluded by Agent Taylor showing them to each of their rooms. Cal’s was the furthest from the main cabin. Agent Taylor encouraged them to make themselves comfortable and told them their mission would begin in an hour.