by Barlow,M
The sirens sounded in the building. ASIO agents and a sophisticated defense system opened fire and brought the soldiers’ worst nightmare to life. Violet ignored the deafening sounds and stood in a circle with her team. None of them moved.
“She is on the second floor with her team.” A female voice came from the ground floor.
“Dale, you’re up.” A commanding male voice sounded.
Violet frowned. “One soldier? That’s insulting.”
The soldier, Dale, appeared at the top of the staircase. He moved fast, evading the fire from the defense system. He dashed toward them.
She and her team stood still until he was two meters away. Violet flipped backwards to get out of his way. She jumped, pushing her palm forward to hit his nose. A metal plate in her palm delivered a massive electric shock to his face.
The shock didn’t faze him. He punched her with his right fist. Violet leaned to the right to avoid his punch. She raised her left leg and hooked it above his arm. She put her weight on the left leg and lifted her right leg to surround his arm and lock his elbow.
Dale couldn’t move his arm. With her body hanging from his arm upside down, Violet gathered her strength, lifted her upper body up, and punched him again.
His left fist blazed for a quick jab to her face. She leaned to the right and punched him. She delivered the same devastating electric shocks to his face.
The rest of her team attacked Dale. They, too, delivered the same shocks until he was on his knees. Five fists hammered his head until he dropped unconscious.
“Damn, my battery is out,” Violet said.
She replaced it as her agents tied up the soldier and removed him from the area. Violet recouped and moved downstairs with her team.
The army team captain delivered telekinesis hits, taking out the defense units and armed guards with the help of his soldiers. He saw Violet and lifted his hand to release a huge telekinesis wave in her direction.
She dashed to the side. With her body in the air, she threw a compact smoke bomb at him. It exploded. Smoke filled the room. The visibility was near zero, but darkness is where Violet was most comfortable. With her team, she took out another soldier and dragged him out of the area, shrinking the army team.
The leader waved his hands sideways in sweeping motion. Smoke cleared a little. Violet and her team withdrew from the area. Two special forces teams rushed into the hall in heavy armor and surrounded the soldiers. Before the soldiers reacted, Violet showed up. She stood between them and the special forces teams.
The team captain examined her face through the haze. “You need to come with us, Agent.”
“Where? You’re a long way from home, and we have your ship. I bet you thought being enhanced meant automatic win? Some of us are doing fine without enhancement.”
“You are good,” the Captain said and stepped forward with the two remaining soldiers. “If you want a fight, you’ll get one.”
Before they moved a muscle, she activated her cloak and vanished from sight. The special forces teams opened fire. Grenades exploded around the soldiers. Fire and heavy smoke filled the building. Small explosions went off in a quick sequence. It knocked the soldiers back to the walls, against the floor, and toward the ceiling.
Brushing off his pain, the team leader stood up. His eyes turned red. He pushed both his hands forward and sent a giant telekinetic wave toward the special forces team. They spread out, dashing through the air. Again, they fired their weapons.
His powers exploded. He tossed their grenades in the air with a quick swipe and sent more waves. He bashed the teams against the walls behind them. His body blazed forward in the air and chased the rest of the special forces teams at an incredible speed. When he stopped, they were out cold.
“Not bad,” Violet said, standing behind him. She’d taken down the last two soldiers in his team.
He spun around. His panting, bloody nose, and exhausted posture hinted he couldn’t fight much longer.
“You’re tough, but you’re outnumbered,” Violet said as she appeared steps away with her team.
More special forces teams flooded the place and surrounded him.
“There is no way out, Captain.”
*****
Noah skimmed through a large report about the aliens’ anatomy. Edward, the lead scientist, followed through on his promise. The final part concluded the secondary power core in Carilia’s body was likely implanted. It wasn’t native to the body, and they could extract it without harm—not that Carilia would agree to it. That’s why he had to carry on with his plan.
The IT analyst came to see him. He was excited. “We’ve finished analyzing the software. You’ll never believe this.”
Noah didn’t expect the results back this fast. He thought it’d take weeks to crack the Korran’s programming. He motioned the analyst to take a seat.
“Their programming differs from ours, but they built a bridge that integrates into our software. We accessed the software on the spot, but extraction took longer.”
That’s strange. They knew our software structure, and since they last visited Earth thousands of years ago, they must’ve been monitoring the planet. Why did they hold back this fact?
“What did you find out?”
“Everything. We have the designs for the enhancement process, the space travel technology, the ships, and the weapons.”
This was the best news Noah had heard since the Landing. They’re no longer restricted by the aliens’ level of cooperation. He thought of the possibilities, and they were unlimited. Enhanced soldiers, powerful weapons, instant travel, and a chance to survive the inevitable invasion if they acted fast.
“Isolate two clean software copies for me.”
“Sure.”
“Thank you,” Noah said and watched the analyst leave.
Noah finally caught a break. Aside from the secondary power core and the fact that they could’ve been watching Earth, this was good news. He walked out to Edward’s office in the second floor.
“Agent Noah, what can I do for you?”
“I have gone through your report, and I have a question.”
The scientist tensed up. “I will do my best to answer it of course.”
“If you have the Queen, you reckon you can remove the second power core without harming her?”
The question startled Edward as if he didn’t expect it. Then a look of horror filled his face. The mere idea of operating on Carilia terrified him. An understandable, but naïve reaction. Doctors operated on patients to remove infected parts or plant new ones. They did whatever it took to make sure they’re healthy.
“Are… are you asking me to experiment on her?”
“No, I believe someone planted the second energy core in her body to dominate her thoughts, control her actions, and send information to a source in outer space. You’ll be helping her.”
The scientist was skeptical, but Noah knew he had no better explanation or evidence to refute this theory.
“Ok. I will get things ready.”
“Thank you,” Noah said, and left the office. More good news as long as they could put Carilia on one of those tables with minimum losses. It wouldn’t be easy, neither would his next meeting.
*****
Half hour later, Noah joined a high profile meeting with the Prime Minister, Jackie, the Minister for Defense, and his boss Matt. A meeting he’d been dreading.
“I asked you here to get a status update and to make sure we’re on the same page,” the PM said.
Jackie wouldn’t miss the opportunity to point out that ASIO detained her men. In Noah’s defense, this wasn’t the plan.
She glowered at him. “What the hell were you thinking?”
He didn’t comment. She was entitled to be angry.
“You leveled an ASIO building and used a handful of special forces teams to combat the army, our army.”
Noah rubbed his right hand with his left. “It’ll get worse. You should send Mara to retrieve the
intruders and get your soldiers back.”
Jackie shook her head. “We’ve wasted enough taxpayers’ money. You got your software. Send the soldiers back.”
Noah smiled thinly. “Still.”
“Your funeral!”
The PM examined the two of them for a moment before he leaned forward in his seat. “Glad we got that out of the way. Now, where are we?”
Jackie glanced at the tablet in front of her. “Five ships capable of deep space travel and hundreds of enhanced soldiers.”
“If we keep going at this rate, will it be enough?” The PM asked.
Noah shook his head. “No, but we have the designs and we can increase the rate tenfold.”
“What are you waiting for?”
“Funding,” Noah said. “I have teams ready, and with your approval, they will duplicate the enhancement and manufacturing facilities in other army divisions.”
“I’ll get you what you need. The opposition can hang me if they want. Is there anything else?”
Noah gazed at the wall across as if he could see through it. “We need to neutralize Queen Carilia.”
The PM raised his eyebrows. “Are you wasted?”
Noah shook his head. “I gathered intelligence that proves she’d been compromised.”
“Even if it’s true, we’re not going to war with the aliens.”
“Not if we enlist her daughters’ help.”
Jackie’s eyes lit up at the mention of the daughters. “Mara?”
Noah nodded. “She is our best shot.”
Jackie examined Noah for a long while. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The PM raised his hand. “Not so fast. What do you know?”
Noah explained everything he found out about Carilia. When he finished, doubt, distrust, and skepticism replaced their outrage. They realized, as he did, that to be on the safe side and neutralize her was the wise choice.
Once everyone was on board, the real question resurfaced, were they able to subdue Carilia without huge losses?
“Get cracking,” the PM said, and the meeting ended.
*****
Mara
December 27, 2030
The training area next to the military base was busier than usual. Hundreds of enhanced soldiers lined up in front of Mara for the weekly exercise. At first, Mara split the soldiers into two teams, battling it out under the harsh sun with no weapons or machinery. This week there were four teams, fighting two different battles.
General Gabriel Wu exited his vehicle and strolled in her direction. His facial expression was similar to the one he had this morning when he learned about the infiltration.
“We have a problem,” Gabriel said.
“What’s wrong?”
He took a deep breath. “Queen Carilia was right.”
Mara smiled. “That is a problem.”
“The retrieval team I sent out this morning hasn’t returned. Any chance you can track them down and bring them home? And if possible, capture the intruders, too?”
Mara’s eyes lit up. She loved fighting, and aside from training the enhanced soldiers, her last combat situation was the Tasman Battle. She was getting rusty.
“Ok.”
“Is there anything you need?”
“A place to start.”
“A warehouse in Sydney,” Gabriel said, and pulled out his phone. “Here.”
Mara looked at the screen for a second. It had a map with the last known location of the team. She’d flown by that area when she’d confronted the East Coast Invaders. “I’ll ask my mother to take over training.”
His tension eased. “Thanks.”
Mara made her way back to the base. She was disappointed the enhanced team couldn’t retrieve the intruders. They needed further training. And whoever captured them was smarter and more calculating than they thought.
Taking the soldiers was an interesting move. She thought the intruders would elude the hunting party. They were after the Korran designs, and they had them. Unless…
The Queen was in the reconditioning hall. She supervised the officers who ran the enhancement process.
“Mother, can you please take over the training?”
Queen Carilia stopped what she was doing and hovered toward Mara. “The soldiers didn’t make it back?”
“No.”
The Queen’s eyes dimmed. “We should stay out of this.”
“Gabriel asked me to help,” Mara said, but a skeptic look on her mother’s eyes had her continue. “And I want to sort this out.”
The Queen smiled. “Where are you headed?”
“Sydney.”
“Do not destroy it.”
Mara chuckled and hovered to her ship. She climbed in and took off, heading east to where the team last contacted the base.
Five minutes later, Mara arrived at the same industrial area in Sydney. It was quiet after sunset. She exited the ship and activated the cloaking shield to hide it.
Mara decided to start at the warehouse ahead. The paint was burned and part of the front wall was demolished. Unless an industrial fire broke out this morning, this was the building she was after.
Judging by the level of damage, the soldiers put up a vicious fight. They were better than she thought. Mara activated her defensive shield and entered the warehouse through the open door. She hovered forward into a large hall.
“Hello, Mara.”
With her hands raised in anticipation and her eyes glowing, she swung to face the source of the voice.
She saw a familiar face.
“You’re an agent. I saw you in that meeting after the battle.”
“I’m Noah,” the agent said and pointed to five people on his side of the hall. “This is the infiltration team you’re after.” Then he waved to the far end of the hall where the enhanced team lay on the ground—unconscious. “Your soldiers are over there, but first…” Noah strolled toward a table in the middle of the hall and placed a folder on it. “Take a look at this.”
She moved her eyes between him, the infiltration team, and the folder on the table. She recalled her thoughts in Western Australia. If they were after the Korran designs and the technology, they had them. Why did they hold enhanced team hostages? Maybe they’re bait.
Mara glided to the table in one swift move. She picked up the folder and flipped through the pages. A scientific report, about her mother. She was the catch. Impressive how they detected the second core and realized the implications. They’d come a long way since her last visit. Now, the tough conversation.
“You took a big risk,” Mara said, looking through the folder. “I could’ve saved you a lot of trouble if you asked.”
“Now, it’s your turn.”
Mara didn’t comment. She flipped through the pages for a minute. Nothing she didn’t know.
“The emergency protocols dictated that Alissara, Shara, and I warp first and make sure the road is clear for the Queen. Until we left the battle area, she was safe.”
“Safe?”
She ignored his question and continued reading through the report. “Do you know why we didn’t see the invasion coming?”
“Infiltration?”
“Yes, but not in the conventional, double-agent sense you have on Earth. Our Internal Security arrested a group of high-ranking officers when they violated surveillance rules. They seemed normal, but they had those bursts of pure rage. Their bodies flushed with a shade of blue.” Mara lifted her eyes off the report for a moment. “I saw that same shade in my mother’s face in Egypt.”
“Did you find out what happened to them?”
Mara waved the folder in his face. “This.”
“Second cores.”
“Yes, we didn’t connect them to the Manakaris in time to save our world. They were clever. They landed on Korr, operated on our officers, and covered their tracks.”
“What do you know about the core?”
Mara put the folder on the table. “It documents and reports everything the host exper
iences, and it can push its own agenda.”
“Can you help me remove it?”
Mara shook her head. “We removed the cores from our officers after they had died. There is no telling what would happen if it’s removed from a living body.”
“The Queen will not be herself until we remove the core.”
“You’re asking me to risk my mother’s life,” Mara said, her eyes glowing. “You’ve infiltrated your own army camp. How do you expect me to trust you? Leave it alone, agent.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Leave it?”
“Leave it, not ignore it, until we figure out a way to get rid of it safely.” She turned around to leave.
“Is that what you’d tell me to do if my Prime Minister was compromised?”
“Someone in your ranks is compromised,” Mara said, her back to him.
“I’m working on that.”
Mara spun around to face him. “She is my mother, and one of the five people left from my world.”
“I know,” Noah said, and lowered his gaze to the floor. “Please listen. Our scientists studied the second core, and they can remove it, without harming the Queen. More importantly, they think it’s killing her. Your sister, Shara, showed me a vision of the battle, and I saw your mother when she was young and strong. She aged a thousand years in weeks. Leaving it inside your mother is an option, but it’s not without consequences.”
Mara stood still, considering what to do. She understood the implications of removing the core and the consequences of not removing it. She had no good options.
“If you kill my mother—”
“I won’t.”
“Give me time to discuss it with my sisters. And whatever you do, don’t try to help again.”
Noah nodded. “What are you going to tell Gabriel?”
“That’s your mess. I suggest you send the soldiers to their base and own up to what you did.”
“You coming to my funeral?”
“Only to get my dagger back,” Mara said, with a smile that soon faded. She had to do the same thing he’d done—upset everyone for the greater good.
Mara looked past Noah before she headed to the infiltration team. The young woman and her team watched from the other side. Mara stared into the curious eyes for a moment, then she skimmed the young agent’s brain.
