INCURSION - an ALIEN OMNIBUS

by Chris Lowry

  Aides ran in and out of the room to deliver whispered information to the President before he dispatched them again.

  Across the tarmac emergency crews fought the blaze of fuel fire that scorched the Florida sky with oil colored smoke.

  His cell phone vibrated and he pulled it out.

  “I'm in a good mood,” he answered. His smile turned upside down.

  “You find them,” he growled into the phone. “You find them now.”

  He shoved an aide out of the way and hurried from the room.

  66

  “Is that...” asked Jodi.

  “Absolutely incredible! Why yes, yes, it is,” beamed Selkirk.

  He stood with Rob and Jodi on the edge of an empty double sized Olympic pool surrounded by a twelve foot fence and towering hedges.

  In the bottom of the pool was what looked like a minivan that had been mutated into a lunar landing craft.

  Booster rockets were strapped to either side of the reinforced frame which looked like one solid piece of construction.

  “Do you like it?” asked Selkirk. “I built it myself.”

  Ned giggled and cleared his throat.

  “I'm sorry, Ned and I built it.

  He led Rob and Jodi into the house.

  The walls and ceiling were lined with layers of tin foil.

  It covered everything.

  Cables dangled through holes punched in the ceiling and zip tied in bundles all running to a fifteen foot by fifteen foot wall covered in monitors of various shapes and sizes.

  The house was once a grand mansion, but the modifications made it look like a cross between a hoarder and a prepper's home.

  Jodi reached out to touch a patch of foil.

  “Don't touch that,” Selkirk said. “It's tin foil. I have to import it from Mexico. They only sell aluminum foil here now. Blocks the microwaves.”

  He touched the tip of his finger to his temple.

  Rob looked at the homemade rocket on one of the monitors.

  “Have you tested that rocket?”

  “That rocket? No, but I have run tests on prototypes. And the dog lived,” he added brightly.

  “You want to shoot him into outer space in a homemade spaceship?” Jodi frowned. “That's crazy.”

  “Hey, tell him to have his little gray buddies show up and give him a ride.”

  “How do you know about his gray buddies?” she reached for her gun.

  Ned leaned in the door with a rifle but didn't aim it.

  “Hello I'm in the network, remember?”

  “Head of the network,” Rob assured Jodi.

  “And they won't give me a ride.”

  “Then go to your government and ask them for a lift. Oh right, you can't cause they will kill you. Beggars and choosers sweetheart.”

  “Don't call me sweetheart,” she grunted.

  “I absolutely love a woman with a gun,” Selkirk smiled.

  “Is it safe?” she asked.

  “Doesn't matter,” said Rob. “We have to try.”

  “If it’s any consolation, I’d go up in it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, they didn’t pick me.”

  “Have you been abducted?”

  Selkirk shook his head sadly.

  “I haven't had that honor, no.”

  He settled into a chair in front of a computer monitor and keyboard.

  His fingers began pecking furiously.

  “I'm letting our senior staff know you're here. We're go in one hour.”

  “An hour!” Jodi shouted. “What about training? What about preparation?”

  “It ain't rocket science sweetheart,” Selkirk said.

  “Technically it is rocket science,” she shot back.

  “But I already took care of that part. All our boy has to do is go get in the spacesuit I made and get in the rocket.”

  “The homemade rocket.”

  “The perfectly almost guaranteed to be safe rocket I built with my own two hands-”

  Ned giggled.

  “Ned and I built with our own hands and ride to the moon to save our asses.”

  “But-”

  Rob put his arm around Jodi's shoulder and steered her away from Selkirk.

  “We'll be ready,” he said.

  “There's a suit at the top of the stairs,” said Selkirk. “First door on your left.”

  “I'm ready,” he whispered in her. “I can do it. You don't have to protect me anymore.”

  “I haven't done a good job so far.”

  “We were up against some overwhelming odds, but here I am.”

  “Here you are,” she said.

  She sighed and took him by the hand as she led him up the stairs.

  67

  “Is this a diver's suit?” she asked.

  They were in the bedroom as she helped him into a cobbled together homemade space suit.

  “Once upon a time maybe,” he said.

  He fumbled with a buckle.

  She helped him strap it down.

  “In the history of dumb ideas,” she said softly.

  “It has to happen,” he said. “I'm the only one who can make it happen.”

  “There are five more shuttles at NASA,” she argued. “We can get one of them.”

  “No time to prep. Besides, what if the next one blows up while I'm in it.”

  “This one could blow up.”

  “Then we'll all go down together. We're out of time. The deadline is here. I have to go now.”

  “Your alien friends are idiots,” she said.

  “You're an idiot.”

  “I'm in good company.”

  “I'm scared for you.

  He put his big padded gloves on her shoulders.

  “You don't have to be scared for me,” he said. “I am terrified enough for the both of us. You did your job, you got me here.”

  “It's more than a job,” she said under her breath.

  “Your mission then,” he said not understanding.

  “You're more than a mission,” she put a hand on his face. “More than a job.”

  He leaned his cheek into her hand and pulled away.

  “A different time, different place and you wouldn't give me the time of day.”

  “Of course I would.”

  “No, it's okay,” he said. “I know I'm the kind of guy better at online than real time. I'm alright with that. But I just want you to know-”

  Selkirk scooted in the door dressed in black Commando gear.

  “We have to move. We've got company.”

  He grabbed Rob by the arm and helped him lumber out of the room and down the stairs.

  “Want to know what?” said Jodi as she trailed after. “Know what?”

  68

  Selkirk led them to the wall of monitors in the dining room.

  Several were centered on the street leading up to the mansion.

  Black Suburban’s blocked the street and two squads of black clad Commandos sprinted toward the house, while another squad provided cover.

  “You launch now,” ordered Selkirk.

  “How long-”

  “We can buy you five minutes,” said Selkirk as he passed an AK-47 to Jodi.

  He handed her two banana magazines duct taped together upside down so when one clip was spent she could spin it over and keep firing.

  “Ned started the sequence. Get in, lock the hatch and buckle up.”

  Ned popped around the corner lumbering under the weight of eight AK-47 rifles and two rocket launchers.

  “Just press go,” Selkirk told Rob.

  Jodi grabbed him and kissed him, then set a helmet on his head and locked it down.

  “Ready to rock?” Selkirk shouted.

  Ned giggled and slammed a clip home.

  69

  Harris rushed to the guard shack and grabbed Reg.

  He was still dazed and didn't react as Harris propelled him to the front seat of his car.

  “You. Drive. Now,” he ordered.

  The soldier slid behin
d the wheel and followed orders.

  The car wove across the road as Reg struggled to keep it between the lanes.

  “Son,” asked Harris. “Are you drunk?”

  70

  Selkirk hustled Rob across the yard in his lumbering space suit.

  “Go, go,” he said in a rushed breath.

  Jodi caught up to him and kissed him on the helmet faceplate.

  “Don't get hurt,” she told him.

  She rushed past him to the corner of the compound and took up a defensive position behind a thick concrete decorative planter.

  “You get to the Moon,” Selkirk instructed.

  “Don't worry about us. You save the planet. Just press go.”

  Black helicopters hove into view above the mansion and speared the ground with blinding cones of light.

  One of the choppers turns a dish mounted on the cockpit toward the mansion and blasted it with microwaves.

  A computer monitor set up on the patio exploded in a shower of sparks.

  “Damn it Jim,” Selkirk screamed.

  Ned leaned out of an upper story window with a shoulder mounted rocket on his shoulder.

  He let fly.

  The missile shot across the narrow space and crashed into the helicopter.

  It erupted in a ball of flame that sprayed flaming debris and wreckage across the yard.

  “Is the rocket dead?” shouted Rob.

  “Just get in!”

  Jodi's gun started firing in controlled three round bursts.

  The chatter of return fire answered her shooting.

  Rob climbed into the rocket and sealed the hatch. He was enveloped in silence.

  He couldn't hear the bullets, or the flames.

  But inside the boards were dead.

  There was no power, no lights, no gauges.

  It was as good a place as any to die, he thought.

  He watched Selkirk race along the side of the pool, firing his rifle as he went.

  Ned popped up and peppered the grounds with bullets.

  He disappeared and popped up someplace new.

  The Commandos held back, unsure where the fight should be directed.

  They were caught in a crossfire from Jodi's fixed position and Ned's constant assault from multiple directions gave the impression of a larger fighting force.

  Selkirk reached a backup generator and cranked it.

  Inside the rocket the board lit up.

  The engines started whining as they warmed up.

  Rob studied the monitors trying to make heads or tails of the set up.

  He glanced through the cockpit window at Selkirk and shrugged.

  “Do I run start up again?” he shouted.

  But it was no good. The helmet and hatch blocked his voice and Selkirk wasn't on a radio.

  Rob watched him flip the clip and spray at unseen attackers then turn to him. Rob could read his lips.

  “Just press go!”

  He punched the giant red button marked GO.

  71

  Riggs led a team of Commandos on the fixed position while Freddy covered their six.

  They heard the roar of the rocket as a cloud of dust, dirt and flame washed over the edge of the swimming pool and barreled toward them.

  The rocket leaped out of the pool and fought gravity as it headed into the eastern horizon.

  The second chopper pulled up and tried to get a missile lock on the rocket, but the space ship was moving too fast, the missile slid past the exhaust and cut through the contrail.

  A Norde saucer topped the horizon on an intercept course for the space ship.

  Ned rested the last rocket launcher on his shoulder, aimed at the Norde ship and fired.

  The rocket shot into the saucer with barely a dent, but sent it slightly off course.

  The homemade shuttle made the atmosphere and disappeared.

  Commandos converged on Ned's position.

  Riggs sent a man to distract Jodi from one direction.

  He flanked her and shot her in the shoulder.

  She dropped her rifle as she spun to the ground.

  He stalked up to her and pressed his pistol against her forehead.

  “Night night,” he grinned.

  Freddy slammed into him and knocked him down.

  Jodi drew her pistol and shot Freddy.

  She aimed at Riggs head and removed him from the world.

  The pop of bullets died down as Selkirk picked off the remaining Commandos until they retreated.

  72

  Reg pulled up behind the Suburban’s that blocked the road.

  He leaned across the steering wheel and stared up at the rocket as it blazed across the sky.

  “Would you look at that?” he breathed in wonder.

  Harris did.

  He slumped back in the chair, defeated.

  A trio of black and white police cars slid to a stop behind them.

  “Out of the car!” one of the officers shouted as they spilled out with weapons drawn.

  Harris got out of the car.

  “I'm a government official,” he stated.

  “I don't care who you are,” screamed a cop as he cuffed Harris. “You're under arrest until we get this cleared out.”

  73

  Rob stared through the view screen at the blue marble of earth floating in the black sky.

  It was gorgeous.

  He sniffed and took a moment to relish the fact that the rocket worked so far and he was still alive.

  A thruster kicked in on a predetermined vector and rolled the craft over.

  It brought the silver gray moon into view.

  74

  The police stormed the backyard with pistols and shotguns drawn.

  As they passed over fallen bodies, they stopped to check for pulses and survivors.

  Selkirk over the sprawling body of Ned surrounded by six dead Commandos.

  He held up a badge in his hands so the officers could see it clearly.

  “I have identification,” he said as they approached. “I'm a federal agent.”

  The lead officer glanced at the badge and lowered her weapon.

  “Sorry sir,” she said. “What happened here?”

  “Check that woman,” Selkirk ordered. “Call the paramedics.”

  He moved past them and into the dining room to the row of monitors.

  He reached under the table and grabbed a cable that he dragged out and connected to the generator.

  He went back in and started bringing systems online.

  “Ned!” he called then sagged as he remembered his partner was dead. “Damn it Jim.”

  His fingers flew across the keyboard and monitors sputtered to life.

  Jodi limped in and sat down gently while a paramedic tended her shoulder.

  “You need a hospital,” Selkirk told her.

  “How is he?” she nodded to one of the monitors.

  It showed Rob in the cockpit of the shuttle.

  “Let's find out.”

  He leaned over and grabbed the microphone.

  “Moon Man, do you copy?”

  75

  Rob reached forward with a thick gloved finger and flipped a toggle switch.

  “Hello?”

  “Are you still in one piece?” Selkirk said over the radio.