Edge of the Vortex

by Donald B McFarlane

  Looking to the pilot, he watched the alien remove its helmet to reveal a light pink skinned creature that appeared to have a pair of eyes that were on top of each other, and what looked like two mouths on its cheeks.

  Scott tried not to stare, but it was his first encounter with an alien in the flesh. After a few blinks with his mouth open, he righted himself and watched a pair of aliens walked past him without paying any attention to the human with the force-field helmet on.

  After a few more seconds rubbernecking, Scott noticed that the pilot was starting to walk towards the centre of the ship where there appeared to be lifts transporting crew both upwards and downwards. There were four banks of four lifts staggered along the length of the hangar, and Scott and the pilot stopped in front of one of the empty elevator chambers nearest the front of the giant vessel and waited for transport to arrive.

  When the clear sided elevator came to a halt, Scott and the alien pilot entered before it tapped the top holographic light that was on the doors of the lift, and within fractions of a second, the transport started to rise through several levels of the ship until it came to a halt on what looked like a command area to Scott.

  The doors of the lift opened into a large room that was much cooler than the hangar bay and had smooth tiling along the floor and ceiling. Stepping out of the lift, Scott looked to the front of the room and could see a window overlooking Earth. That was the moment he realised he was on the bridge.

  The pilot that had visited the ISS did not exit the lift and disappeared from view when it descended from the bridge. Looking around the large room, Scott remained motionless and waited for something to happen, and after about a minute of waiting, a small floating drone approached Scott with a long, thin prong protruding from its front. Scott watched the drone manoeuvre slowly closer until it was level with his neck, where he felt a cooling sensation.

  Keeping the droid in his peripheral vision, he was fairly sure that it had jabbed him in the neck, but he hadn’t felt a thing. Backing away, the drone lowered itself closer to the ground and flew off to the rear of the bridge and out of view.

  Not sure of what to do next, Scott started walking to the large window that was to his front. It was about thirty metres away and had several stations looking out towards it with more stations along the wall of the room facing inwards. Walking slowly, Scott looked at the crew, most of the species he had never seen before, while they went about their tasks. They seemed oblivious to his presence. There was a gentle hum in the room that gave it the feel of being alive. All the crew members were wearing headphones with built-in microphones and were speaking in a language Scott couldn’t understand in hushed tones.

  Roughly fifteen metres back from the window was a large seat with an intimidating figure sitting in it, who watched as Scott walked by, before talking to an aide. Continuing towards the window, Scott could see several other ships in Earth orbit, and a few holographic images displayed on the screen showing various pieces of information which Scott assumed was telemetry and ID data on different ships in the field of view.

  After looking out of the window for just two minutes, a creature walked up to Scott with a device in their hands and pointed it at Scott’s head before reading whatever information had been displayed from the scan. Evidently happy with the results, the alien moved up to Scott and quickly unbuckled and released the neck-brace he was wearing. The force field collapsed instantly, then the alien pulled the brace off.

  Scott took a deep breath and cleared his throat. He was breathing. That was a good start.

  Looking at the alien, Scott noticed that it was waving him towards the closest terminal bank along the side of the room. Following behind the alien, Scott looked at the screen that was at eye level and was amazed to see an alphabetical list of images of national flags from Earth. The list started to scroll, always showing six flags at a time, and when the list finally reached the U’s, Scott pointed at the Stars and Stripes.

  The alien tapped the screen and then pulled out a mobile phone sized device from the terminal, and turned it over, then touched a blue button on the front, then flipped a small switch on the side of the instrument, making it give off a whirling noise. After three seconds of noise, a blue mist of light came out from the long sides of the device, and then suddenly the machine climbed into the air from the aliens hand and started to float in between Scott and the alien.

  The alien said something in Universal, and two seconds later, Scott got the translation.

  “Can you understand me?”

  Scott blinked twice and ran his tongue over his lips. “Yes.”

  The alien turned away from Scott and moved towards another alien that was standing near what Scott assumed was the captain’s chair. The two aliens spoke for a few moments, then the second alien approached Scott. Scott watched as the creature approached. It was wearing what looked like a burgundy coloured leather jumpsuit and had brown skin, and when it got close enough, Scott noticed its very piercing emerald eyes.

  The alien allowed the hovering device to move to a position in between him and Scott before speaking. “Identify yourself.” It took a moment for the translation to come through.

  “Captain Scott Bader, United States Navy.”

  “You are in command of the station in orbit?”” The alien asked.

  “I am.”

  The alien turned and started to walk towards the individual sat down in the captain’s chair. Scott followed after a brief hesitation. The alien that was sitting was wearing an all-white uniform comprised of a jacket and trousers tucked into a pair of white boots. On his chest was a highly polish silver breast-plate. The alien had multi-coloured skin, and what appeared to be the remnants of a small fin running across the top of its head, and large lips.

  “Captain.” The red leather-clad alien distracted Scott from his observations.

  Scott snapped his head up and locked eyes with the piercing emerald eyes that were staring back at him. “Yes.”

  “I am Base Commander Sajoba. My commander demands to know what is the most powerful land on Terra?”

  “Powerful?” Scott looked to his right, and out of the giant glass window towards Earth that was floating out in space. “Well,” he looked back to Sajoba. “The United States of America.”

  Sajoba quickly relayed the answer to the individual that was still seated, then looked back to Scott.

  “This United States. Its leader commands global respect?”

  “Of course.”

  “Excellent. You will arrange a parley at once with this leader.” Sajoba said, his chest puffed out.

  Scott opened his mouth but didn’t say anything for a moment. “I actually don’t know the President.”

  Sajoba turned his head a fraction to the side. “President?”

  “Yes. The leader of the United States.”

  “And where is this President located?” Sajoba asked before turning towards one of the operator banks and yelling at a subordinate that came scurrying over.

  The aide arrived, and Sajoba issued a series of instructions while Scott watched as a flat datapad was produced, and an image of the Earth brought up.

  “Identify the location of the President.” Sajoba ordered, pointing towards the globe.

  Scott took a deep breath and moved closer to the datapad. Moving his forefinger towards the pad, he felt it start to tingle. Rotating the globe until North America was visible, he looked at Sajoba. “How do I magnify?”

  The aide heard the translating and moved its finger to the pad and tapped twice on the screen, increasing the magnification slightly. Scott nodded to himself and started manipulating the image until he got the east coast of the US in view, then finally the District of Columbia, and then after a little thinking, finally the White House.

  “The President could be here.” Scott said, handing the pad to Sajoba.

  Sajoba looked at the top-down image of the large white building. “Could be?”

  Scott took a step back and put his hand ov
er his mouth. His eyes shot down to the floor. A sense of terror suddenly came over him. Had he just given the aliens the means to kill the President?

  He took another two steps back before Sajoba thrust a pen-like object into his hand. “Contact him. We want to arrange for you to go to the planet’s surface and relay our intentions in the next few days.”

  Scott took the small device. There were two speakers at either end of the object. He brought one end to his ear but heard nothing. Flipping the device over, he listened to a low tone until a female voice answered.

  “White House switchboard, how may I direct your call?”

  Scott’s eyes lit up, and he looked at Sajoba. He needed to be smart about this. If he said something ridiculous the operator would hang up the phone, or report him to the FBI, although at the moment, the FBI wasn’t Scott’s greatest concern.

  “Yes, hello, this is Captain Scott Bader, I was hoping to speak with someone from NASA, the military or the President’s staff please.” Scott kept his eyes locked on Sajoba while he waited for a response.

  “And what organisation are you calling from, Captain?”

  “I am the mission commander onboard the International Space Station.” Scott replied.

  “And are you calling from the ISS, Captain?”

  “Not exactly, ma’am.”

  “I see, just one moment.”

  The line went silent. Scott bit his lower lip and tapped his right foot on the decking until a voice came back on the line.

  “Major Crance.”

  “Major, Captain Scott Bader.”

  “What can I do for you, Sir?”

  “Major, I need to speak to someone on the President’s staff. This might sound odd, but I’m onboard the attacking command vessel for the ” Scott cleared his throat and looked at Sajoba, then back to the floor. “The forces that have just arrived in orbit.”

  There was another pause.

  “Just give me a moment, Sir.” The Major said dryly, followed by silence.

  Scott looked at the hovering translation device that was still lingering in between him and the alien that was watching his every move.

  “Chief of Staff, Nick Beaudrot.”

  “Sir, Captain Bader, NASA.”

  “I hear you’re in orbit Captain.”

  “That is correct, Sir.”

  “How may I be of assistance?” Beaudrot asked.

  “I’ve been asked by the new arrivals to arrange for an audience between myself and the President.” Scott replied.

  There was another pause, but this time Scott could hear the conversation in the background. Letting his eyes drift around the bridge, Scott noticed that the commander had some holographic text displayed off to the front of his chair. Scott couldn’t read the language but suspected his call wasn’t private.

  “Captain Bader, the president will not negotiate with these aggressors.” Beaudrot said in a stern voice.

  Scott lowered the device and looked at Sajoba, then had a second thought. “It’s not a negotiation.”

  “Captain, we’ve received reports that several major cities around the world have been destroyed by these new arrivals, and the President will……”

  Scott dropped the device down from his head and looked at it, then over to Sajoba.

  The Base Commander had moved over to the captain’s chair and was speaking with the individual in all white, the conversation appeared to Scott to be very calm and composed. When the conversation ended, Sajoba walked back towards Scott.

  Scott waited until the alien spoke first.

  “You will inform your leaders that you will arrive at his location tomorrow, and high-noon.”

  Scott tried to keep a straight face, but he smiled just a tiny bit. Sajoba must have accessed Earth’s computers to get the word tomorrow and the phrase high-noon. But to actually use it was something else.

  Scott nodded and brought the device back up to his ear, he could hear the Chief of Staff yelling at someone in the background. “Sir.”

  Scott waited for a moment.

  “Captain.”

  “Sir, I have been instructed to inform you that I will be arriving at the White House tomorrow at noon.”

  “God damn it! Captain, if you come within one hundred miles of here I’ll!” The lined went dead again.

  Scott looked up to Sajoba who was holding his hand out. Scott passed the device to the alien.

  “Hope that we do not have to destroy any more of your cities.” Sajoba said calmly before walking back towards the closet computer station.

  Scott blinked twice, then turned to look out the front of the ship at the giant blue ball that was floating in space. From up here it looked peaceful, Scott thought to himself, but he doubted it was calm and tranquil on the ground.

  8

  London

  16 January

  “We’ve got faster movers inbound!” The call to Jack came down from the MET Police helicopter that was flying above Clapham Common, trying to keep track of the chaos that was unfolding beneath it.

  Jack MacCloud had shadowed the fire-fight from some distance, trying to keep the bigger picture in mind. The alien robot was moving towards the north side of the park, which was trouble. If the machine exited the Common and continued to go north, it would enter a densely populated area where casualty numbers would undoubtedly go up. The problem they had was that the weapons they were using were proving ineffective against the machine, and without the arrival of something more potent, they were in trouble.

  Jack was surprised that the machine had stayed so close to where it had landed and fought. He suspected something was wrong with the machine since it wasn’t moving that fast and was firing lots of errant shots. Either way, it was dangerous, and it needed to be stopped as soon as possible.

  When the 21 SAS trooper finally arrived, he was armed only with a radio when he took up a position just next to Jack, and immediately got on the net with the approaching aircraft.

  “Blizzard 1 Actual checking in.”

  “Blizzard, we have ground forces in rolling engagement. Enemy disposition, single target on Clapham Common. Threats consist of directed energy weapons only. Current fire support coordination, avoid collateral damage and civilians have been cleared of the immediate combat area.” The trooper looked at Jack, then over to the droid that was laying down a constant barrage of fire at the police officers. “Damn.” There were dead bodies on the ground everywhere. The arrival of the Tornado air-support couldn’t come soon enough.

  The trooper started barking into his radio set. “IP Sledgehammer. Heading 2700. Target elevation zero. Target description, single enemy robot. Target location is Clapham Common, 51 degrees 27’34.5 North 0 degrees 08’46.2 W. Mark type laser, code 1089er. Friends in the area. Danger close. Egress how you please.”

  Jack couldn’t hear the reply on the radio but got the thumbs up from the SAS trooper.

  “This is going to be close!” The trooper yelled.

  “How long?” Jack asked, having to scream over the intense firefight that was still raging in front of him.

  “30 seconds!” The trooper replied.

  Jack looked at the man, then out towards the field of combat. There really wasn’t any time to warn his fellow police officers, and in truth, they were the only thing keeping the robot from breaking contact and getting away from them.

  “Lase’ it!” The trooper shouted to a colleague who was laying a metre away.

  The other operator brought up a laser designator and pointed it towards the robot. It took the trooper a moment to bring the bulky piece of kit up, but once it was level, a green light became visible to Jack.

  “You got a lock?” The Trooper yelled.

  “Roger.” Came the reply.

  Overhead, the roar of the approaching Tornado was ferocious. The warplane had taken a low flight path to prevent the robot from getting a better chance to engage it, but once it ripped overhead, Jack instinctively whipped his head up to see the plane race past, just as
the robot switched it attention from the MET officers on the ground to the Tornado and unleashed a torrent of laser fire skywards, but by then it was too late, and the pilot had already released its ordinance.

  The Brimstone missile didn’t take long to drop from the fast jet towards its target, and with the aid of the SOFLAM laser designator it managed to hit the ground one metre from the robot, and detonated with a ferocious roar, unleashing deadly amount of explosive force, sending a massive wave of pressure and heat and dirt racing away from the point of impact.

  Jack knew that he was danger-close when the munition was dropped, but it was too late to run and seek cover elsewhere. The initial blast from the explosion sent a bright white light flashing out from the middle of the Common where the missile had impacted, dashing out in all directions, and temporarily blinding Jack. After the flashing light came the shockwave, and an almighty gust of wind that forced Jack and the 21 Trooper to duck their heads until the wind subsided.

  When the dust finally settled, Jack propped himself up on his elbows and looked out towards the Common, and a giant hole that had been left in the once flat landscape. Bringing his rifle up, he swept his field of vision where the robot had been before the release of the Brimstone but couldn’t see anything. There were several MET officers down on the field, many of them wounded.

  Jack quickly got to his feet, and got on the communications channel that was being used. “Move in and confirm the kill.” He looked over at the trooper. “Is that Tornado going to stay on station?”

  He got a thumbs-up.

  Nodding, Jack jumped down from the skate park structure and moved at best speed along the shortcut grass, passing several wounded officers, until he got to the edge of the bomb crater, and looked down into the deep pit searching for the robot. Unable to get a clear sight of what was at the bottom, he flipped the safety off his rifle and moved down the gentle slope of the pit until he reached the bottom, where he found what he was looking for.