by C. G. Mosley
Malcolm smiled, but it wasn’t out of arrogance. “Our civilization is much older than yours…we’ve had plenty of time to develop it.”
Roger opened his mouth to reply, but closed it quickly. But not before Malcolm saw him.
“What were you going to say?” he asked. “Please feel free to ask any questions you’d like.”
Roger sighed. “Well, it wasn’t going to be a question,” he said. “I’m just anxious to know what this is all about. Clearly, your ship is far superior to anything we have. You say that your people are in grave danger. Clearly, we can’t offer anything technologically better than what you already have. What could you possibly want from us?”
Malcolm stopped abruptly and faced Roger. “Are you speaking for your entire race, or is this just a question you yourself has?”
Roger scrunched his face as he wasn’t sure if he understood the question. “I’m not here to speak on behalf of my entire race, but I’m sure my question would be asked by the leaders of my world.”
Malcolm again smiled widely. “It seems as though you all underestimate your value. As I’ve said repeatedly, we are not here to start a war Commander Stellick. We are here in hopes that you will join us.”
“Join you?” Roger asked, confused. “Join you where?”
“You still don’t understand,” Malcolm said, and for the first time it was his turn to sound confused. “We are here for one reason and one reason alone. We are in desperate need of your help and I’m prepared to beg for it.”
Chapter 4
Roger’s curiosity peaked once he began to fully understand that Captain Malcolm Steiger’s primary interest in the humans of Earth seemed to be based on a desperate plea for help. Though he wanted answers immediately, Malcolm was adamant that they discuss the matter in more detail once they reached the ship observatory. Roger followed him through the brightly lit corridors of the Pinnacle until they finally reached a circular doorway. He noticed a seam that ran diagonally across the metal door and no sooner had Malcolm stepped in front of it, the seam parted, and the doorway opened to reveal a tiny room. Roger guessed that it must have been an elevator.
“You’re my guest,” Malcolm said as he gestured for Roger to enter ahead of him.
Though Roger still felt a twinge of skepticism, he took a leap of faith and stepped through the opening and was relieved to find that Malcolm immediately followed. The tiny room did indeed turn out to be an elevator of some sort, but it was unlike any that Roger had ever been inside on Earth. There did not appear to be any cable system of any kind to propel the car in either direction. He felt the sensation of moving upward but it was extremely smooth and eerily quiet. Within seconds the door opened to reveal a sight that made Roger’s knees go weak and his jaw drop.
Malcolm immediately walked into the ship observatory, but Roger could only remain where he was and stare. His legs simply would not allow him to move. Malcolm walked over to a small round table in the center of the room and pulled out a chair. He cocked his head to the side and the straight line of his mouth curled slightly.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Roger took a deep breath and took one step out of the elevator. The room he now found himself in seemed to be comprised of nothing but glass. The ceiling and all the walls were completely transparent, revealing an incredible display of a star-speckled blackness, highlighted by the majestic presence of Saturn and its trademark rings. The glass—at least that’s what Roger thought it was—seemed almost nonexistent. It was so clear that for a moment his mind attempted to convince him that he’d somehow been led into the harsh vacuum of space. The ship observatory appeared to be on the top-center of the Pinnacle.
“How is this possible?” Roger asked, unable to contain his awe.
Malcolm took a seat at the white table, crossed his legs, and scanned his surroundings. “How is what possible?” he asked. He seemed genuinely confused.
Roger’s eyes moved around the room until they finally found Malcolm staring at him. “It’s almost as if we’re outside the ship,” he said. “I don’t understand. I flew around your ship and I saw no windows. It appeared to be covered in metal.”
Malcolm took a deep breath through his nose and then chuckled. He seemed to be very amused by Roger’s sudden child-like interest in a room that he’d taken for granted for as long as he’d captained the ship. “The ship’s outer skin is a bit of an illusion,” he explained. “On the exterior it certainly appears to be nothing but metal, but inside the presence of windows are evident and plentiful throughout.”
“So, this is nothing but a large window?” Roger asked, looking over his head at a bright star.
“Think of it as a large dome,” Malcolm explained. “I assure you the material that makes up the exterior of this ship—including this dome—is much stronger than anything you’ve got on Earth. We are completely safe here. I often come here to think and relax.”
“Is this room used for any other purpose?” Roger asked curiously.
“Oh, of course,” Malcolm replied. “When in battle, I send spotters up here to monitor the positions of other ships. They can obviously see everything but what is underneath us…and if you’re wondering, we have an observatory on the bottom of the ship also.”
Roger shook his head in disbelief. “You’re telling me that as technologically advanced as your race seems to be, you don’t have other means of monitoring the surroundings of your ship?”
Malcolm shot him a look that suggested he was unsure if the comment was meant to be an insult or not. “Of course, we do,” he replied. “But no matter how much technology one has at their disposal, it is—and will always be—people that are behind the success of that technology…and sadly, its failures too. No technology will ever be perfect. A live person that can look and call out information in real time is just as valuable, if not more so, than any technological benefit this ship has. I hope this is a lesson that the humans of Earth have already learned.”
Roger sighed and scratched the back of his head. “I wish I could say that was always the case,” he answered meekly.
Malcolm frowned, undoubtedly surprised by the reply. Roger quickly tried to veer the conversation back on track.
“You said you came here looking for help?” he said as he sat at the table in the second chair.
Malcolm’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded slightly. “Yes, I’m ashamed to say that is true.”
“Ashamed?” Roger asked, confused by the declaration.
Malcolm frowned, though he looked as if he were trying hard not to. “Yes,” he said quickly. “I think it’s clear to the both of us that my race is more technologically advanced than yours. That fact makes it shameful and difficult to ask for assistance.”
Roger closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. He fully believed that Malcolm had no intentions of sounding condescending, but alas it was hard not to take his comment that way.
“So, what do you need from us?” he asked, ignoring the comment.
Malcolm drummed his fingers on the table and sighed as if he were trying to conjure up the gumption to spit out his request. “Are you familiar with the Ara Constellation?” he asked, staring at Roger.
“I’ve heard of it, yes,” Roger replied. He closed his eyes and thought a minute. “That’s a long, long way from here,” he said finally.
Malcolm nodded and suddenly his eyes lost their once lively appearance. “Yes, it is certainly a long way from here. Fourteen light years in fact.”
Roger whistled. “How long have you been travelling to get here?”
“The Pinnacle travels at light speed so—”
“Fourteen years?” Roger asked in disbelief. “You and this ship have been traveling here for fourteen years?”
Malcolm yawned as if hearing the lengthy amount of time triggered more exhaustion. “Yes, and it feels like every bit of it,” he said. “You have no idea what the relief was like when we picked up the Titan colony on our radar. The entire ship has
been celebrating since we’ve stopped.”
Roger ran his fingers through his hair. “You guys must have been pretty confident that we weren’t going to try anything.”
Malcolm smiled. “Again, this ship is much more advanced than anything you humans have.”
Roger rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you keep reminding me of that.”
For the first time, Malcolm seemed to realize how his words came across. “My apologies,” he said, his eyes widening with embarrassment. “I’m much humbler than I’m sounding right now.”
Roger cleared his throat and smirked. “Captain Steiger, forgive my manners, but I’ve got a lot of people anxiously awaiting my return on Titan. Can we get on with what this is all about?”
Malcolm nodded and then turned his gaze upon Saturn, looming just to the west of the Pinnacle. “We come from a solar system in the Ara Constellation, which as you probably know is found in the heart of what your race refers to as the Milky Way Galaxy. The planet we are from is called Kalo.”
Roger listened intently as Malcolm continued.
“About thirty years ago, an asteroid crashed into one of Kalo’s moons, Jara. It really had no effect on Kalo, but the scientists of my planet were curious and could not help themselves.” Malcolm paused, and Roger watched as the features on his face tightened. This part of the story apparently angered him. “Jara had always been a barren moon, much like the moon of Earth. There was no life of any kind to be found on its surface,” he said, sounding somewhat agitated. “There was no reason for us to be concerned with an innocent asteroid on Jara. However, as the scientists continued to monitor the area, they began to notice lifeforms.”
Roger felt butterflies in his stomach. He had to constantly remind himself that he wasn’t dreaming. “Lifeforms?” he said softly. “What sort of lifeforms?”
Malcolm shook his head and smiled, but there was a sadness behind it. “At first, they were thought to be harmless,” he said still gazing at the stars. “The scientists think that the asteroid may not have been an asteroid at all, but an egg of some sort. An egg travelling aimlessly in space until it crashed upon a surface where it could hatch. I suppose we were very fortunate that it didn’t land on Kalo or you and I may not even be having this conversation.”
The butterflies in Roger’s stomach slowly disappeared and was replaced with rumbling bees. The anxiety he was feeling was building.
Malcolm continued. “I just wish we’d have stayed off Jara,” he said with disgust. He then looked back at Roger and seemed to realize he was beginning to ramble. “They resemble a species of insect from your planet…the mantis I think,” he explained. “Only the ones that landed on Jara were the same size as me and you.”
Roger leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Wow…guess you need something more than the heel of your boot to deal with those,” he said in amazement.
Malcolm leaned forward across the table. “Commander Stellick, they are monsters…horrific monsters. They are not invulnerable, but their exoskeleton is like a suit of armor. It takes heavy fire power to penetrate it.”
“But they’re contained to Jara, right?”
Malcom pulled back from the table and frowned. “I’m afraid not,” he replied sadly. “They probably would have remained there if we had not decided to send a crew to Jara to study them.”
Roger shook his head as he began to understand.
“The crew never stood a chance against those monsters,” Malcolm said. “There was only one survivor and he just barely managed to get off the moon before he too was killed. Unfortunately—and unbeknownst to him—some of those things managed to travel back to Kalo with him.”
“Oh no,” Roger whispered.
Malcolm popped his knuckles and shifted in his chair. “They multiply quickly. And they grow fast too.”
There was a long silence where neither man said anything. Finally, Roger mustered the courage to ask a question.
“How bad is it?” he asked somberly.
Malcolm smiled, but the sadness was still there. “Bad enough that we decided to finally make our presence known to the earthlings that we’ve known about for hundreds of years. Bad enough that the leaders of my world put me in charge of making the long voyage here to beg for Earth’s help in dealing with this scourge before my race is wiped out completely.”
“I see,” Roger replied. “So, I assume you’ve been in contact with your home all this time? I mean I’m not sure if Earth is willing to help or not, but before they would even consider it, obviously they’d need to know if you even have a home to go back to. Fourteen years is a long time.”
Malcolm looked away toward the stars again. “We lost contact with them two years ago,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean they’re dead.”
Roger raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath through his nose. “Really? Because it doesn’t sound good Captain Steiger.”
Malcolm snapped his head around to face Roger again. “Commander Stellick, things were bad, but they were holding their own. We lost contact with them but there could be other reasons for that. We’ve never travelled this deep in space before.”
Roger chuckled. “Are you saying all your technological advancements may not be as good as you thought?”
Malcolm sighed, and his eyes narrowed. He didn’t find any amusement in Roger’s jest.
“So, what do you want from us?” Roger asked, though he believed he knew the answer.
“We need your help in fighting them. We want to destroy them completely.”
“So, to be clear, you want our boots on your ground?” he asked. “You want Earth to send our soldiers over to fight for your world?” Roger paused and stood from the table. He walked toward Saturn and crossed his arms, staring. “Why would the people of Earth do that? What is in it for us?”
Malcolm slid his chair back and stood to join him. Once he was standing beside Roger, he reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. “Have I mentioned that our technological achievements dwarf your planet’s?”
Roger looked over at him and found his new alien friend was smiling. “You’re saying that if we help you, you’ll share all of your technology?”
Malcolm nodded, but said nothing.
Roger sighed and looked back toward Saturn. “Assuming that the leaders of Earth will decide to help you…” he paused and looked over at him. “Captain Steiger, it took you fourteen years to get here. With another fourteen years to get back…” his words trailed off and he shook his head.
Malcolm smiled widely. “Commander Stellick, the hard part was getting here. The trip back will only take a matter of minutes.”
Chapter 5
“You’ve got to be kidding me?”
General Hightower scowled as he said the words and Roger couldn’t tell if he was angry or amused. He was a hard man to read. The decorated veteran took a deep breath and then used his hands to smooth out the front of his navy-blue uniform, before finally taking a seat at the head of the long wooden conference table among the other military leaders on the colony.
Harry Hightower had joined the Space and Aeronautics Military Alliance as soon as he’d become old enough. He was a textbook example of what a good S.A.M.A. soldier could and should be. His sixty-year-old face was weathered and in fact made him appear even older than he actually was. His hair had all but disappeared, evidenced by what remained around his ears and along the back of his skull. He’d once worn glasses, but a recent surgery had corrected his vision to what it had been in his youth. Though the picture of the world through his eyes had become crisp and clear, until his eyes fully healed there was one drawback. Roger had never timed it, but he estimated that the man had to place medicinal drops in both of his eyes at least every twenty minutes.
“You’re telling me that with all their fancy bells and whistles they somehow need our help to deal with their little pest problem?” Hightower asked as he unscrewed the cap off his eye drops.
Roger sighed and cleared his throat. “I know, wh
atever you’re thinking, I was thinking the same thoughts when I heard it too,” he said. “The problem must be pretty severe.”
“And if it’s that severe, we don’t need to get involved,” a middle-aged British man named Merrill Madigan said. He was a S.A.M.A. colonel and second in command on Titan.
General Hightower snapped his head around to look at Colonel Madigan. “Merrill, that doesn’t sound like you,” he quipped. “You’re usually leading the charge to help those that need it.”
Though Madigan had once had a head of full red hair, in the past couple of years it had lightened significantly due to age. He blushed and seemed embarrassed at Hightower’s observation, his color almost matching the hue of his hair. “I still will lead that charge, Harry,” he replied. “I’ll always lead the charge to help any humans that need it. These…” he paused as if he were pondering the right word to use. “These…people—they’re not from Earth. We have no responsibility to them.”
Suddenly there were murmurs from the other officers at the table and Roger began to feel a sinking feeling in his gut.
“Captain Steiger made it pretty clear to me that their situation is dire,” Roger said. “His entire race could be driven to extinction if we sit back and do nothing. And then there is the matter of the technology.”
General Hightower held up a hand to silence him. “We cannot base our decision on that,” he said firmly. “You say that this man is telling you he fears his race will be driven to extinction. Well what about our race Stellick?”
“Exactly,” Colonel Madigan said, and he nodded his head enthusiastically. “We must stay out of this.”
“You gentlemen forget that ultimately it isn’t up to any of us,” a woman said. It was the senior medical officer Dr. Phoebe Holtz. Holtz was in her mid-thirties and easily the most attractive person in the room. Her dark, curly locks ended just above the line of her shoulder and her green eyes sparkled brightly no matter which direction she looked.
Roger peered over and shot her a slight nod and smile. He was glad she voiced what he was already thinking.
