by Tyler Wild
“How did you get here?”
“They stormed the bunker,” Skyler said. “Cut through the blast door like it was paper. We thought you two were dead.”
“It would take more than an alien armada to kill this one,” Floyd said, proudly. He patted me on the back.
The mob flowed out of the detention center, spilling into the passageways. All of their rage and vengeance was unleashed upon the alien crew. They beat them mercilessly with their fists, pipes ripped from bulkheads, and whatever else they could find to bludgeon the creatures with. They found weapons and ammunition and moved through the enormous vessel like a plague, demolishing everything in their path.
Without the Queen to control the ship, Earth’s gravity pulled the vessel out of orbit. It was only a matter of time before it plummeted to the ground. I didn’t particularly want to be on board when that happened. I informed the others of our desperate situation.
“If we can get to the flight deck, maybe we can find a dropship,” Floyd said.
“And who’s going to fly it?” Hannah asked.
“I can fly one. I played so many flight simulation video games in my life, I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding of how it works.”
“Pretty good doesn’t really cut it,” Hannah said. “Besides, this is alien technology.”
“I paid attention on the flight up. The controls are different, but the principle is the same.”
Hannah didn’t share my optimism, but we didn’t have much choice.
We left the detention center and headed toward the flight deck. It was pure chaos. Bodies of alien warriors littered the corridors. The mob of prisoners had gone wild.
I struggled to find my way to the flight deck. Everything looked the same. The ship rumbled and creaked as it drifted into the upper atmosphere. I worried that too steep a descent would cause us to burn up like a meteor. But the alien materials were far superior to anything we had on Earth. The thermally protected panels were more than adequate enough to handle the harsh re-entry conditions.
At nearly every juncture there was a directory. I scrolled through the display, looking at the schematics, trying to navigate my way. It was either by luck, or divine intervention, that we found the flight deck. I’m not sure it was the same flight that we came in on, but it was a flight deck, nonetheless. There were rows of attack fighters, dropships, larger troop transports, and cargo vehicles.
The bulkheads rattled and quaked as the craft plummeted. At times it was hard to maintain my footing as the deck pitched and rolled.
We scurried to a dropship similar to the one we came in on. I figured it was best to stick with something I had seen before. We climbed up the back ramp, and I slid into the pilot’s seat. I buckled my safety harness and attempted to familiarize myself with the controls.
I must have looked for the power button for 5 minutes. I kept flicking switches and pushing buttons until something happened. The gauges finally came alive with an eerie green glow, but despite my best efforts, the craft was non-responsive.
I tried to mimic the gestures that I had seen the alien pilot use during the flight up, but nothing worked. Then a wave of realization rushed over me. Every ship in the fleet was connected to the Queen. Without her, nothing would fly.
It was a bittersweet realization. It meant that all the alien crafts hovering over the cities and dominating Earth had crashed to the ground. But it also meant that we weren’t going anywhere. We were stuck on this giant flying disc, come hell or high water.
40
“Buckle up,” I said. “We are in for a bumpy ride.”
Harnessed into the dropship, I figured we were as safe as anywhere else. The hull would protect us from flying debris, and the safety seats would keep us from slamming into the bulkheads upon impact.
The giant mothership continued to slice through the air like a frisbee hurtling toward the planet surface.
I glanced around at the terrified faces of my companions. This was, perhaps, the last moment we were all going to spend together. And we knew it.
The mothership rattled and quaked as it dropped through the clouds. It raced through the sky, and it must have been an amazing site from the ground.
Considering its size and shape, the mothership had surprising aerodynamic qualities. The greater surface area on top gave it lift, and the massive craft glided through the air, angling toward the surface.
I braced for the worst.
But it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. Though it still sucked.
The ship crashed into the ocean instead of on land. It smacked the surface, gouging the water, leaving a white frothy trail in its wake. Like a stone skipping across a lake, the large ship bounced into the air and hopped along the surface of the ocean until it came to a stop in the middle of the sea.
With each impact I thought my spine was going to snap. The vibration rattled through my body, jarring every nerve fiber. The dropship bounced around the flight deck and slammed into the bulkhead. My back stiffened, and my muscles spasmed. But I was thankful to be alive.
The mothership remained buoyant, rivaling the size of a small island.
“Is everybody okay?" I asked.
"Define okay?" Floyd replied.
Groans filled the dropship.
"I can tell you I'm going to be sore as hell tomorrow," he said.
"Where are we?" Hannah asked.
I shrugged. "Let's go find out."
We climbed out of the dropship and made our way through the mothership to the upper decks. After an hour and a half of searching, I found a maintenance hatch that led to the exterior hull. I climbed the ladder and pressed a button on the bulkhead to unlatch the hatch. It slid open, and a gush of pressurized air rushed from the ship.
Blinding sunshine filtered in through the small aperture above me, and the smell of saltwater filled my nostrils. The call of seagulls echoed across the water.
I squinted at the brightness. My vision finally adjusted to see a deep blue sky above me, dotted with pillowy clouds. I climbed through the hatch that was the size of a manhole cover and stepped onto the top of the alien spacecraft. Waves crash against the hull like a synthetic beach. Whitecaps rolled as far as the eye could see.
The others climbed up to join me. Floyd carried Daisy up the ladder, and she was overjoyed to see fresh air and blue skies. I couldn't believe I was back on Earth.
Survivors began to trickle to the surface, having found other ways to access the exterior hull. We could have been anywhere. The ocean extended in every direction as far as the eye could see. We may have been back on Earth, but we’d eventually die of starvation if we didn’t find land and access to fresh water. The supplies on board the alien vessel would last a considerable length of time. After that, we’d need to learn how to fish.
The alien ship maintained its power supply, but I didn’t know how long that would last. Without power and freshwater, disease would run rampant in a contained vessel like this. I didn’t want to think about all the pitfalls of trying to survive at sea for an extended length of time. I just wanted to revel in the joy of the moment and worry about the challenges later.
A survivor approached me with curious eyes. “Hey, there’s a rumor going around that you’re the guy.”
“The guy?”
“The guy who saved us!” he said with enthusiasm. “The guy who brought down the aliens!”
“I guess that’s me.”
He extended his hand, and we shook. “I’m Daniel. It’s nice to meet you!”
He called the others over and within moments, I was surrounded by a horde of thankful survivors. They cheered me and lifted me up into the air like I was a beach ball, celebrating our victory over the aliens. I couldn’t help but smile. This was what it felt like to be a hero.
41
The crowd finally set me down, but the handshakes and pats on the back continued. “I know it feels like we achieved victory, but it’s all gonna be for nothing if we don’t plan for the future. I’m afraid
there are big challenges ahead.”
I had the full attention of the crowd, and I figured now was the best time to address aspects of our survival.
“We need to gather food and supplies and ration them. We don’t know how long we’re going to be at sea. It could be indefinitely. In that respect, we’re going to have to devise ways to sustain ourselves. The first priority is to remove the alien bodies from the ship. Those are going to decompose and breed disease.”
“Who put you in charge?” a man yelled from the crowd.
“Nobody. These are things that need to be done.”
“I say we take a vote,” Daniel said. “All in favor of Noah as our leader, say ‘Aye’.”
A overwhelming majority of the crowd responded positively.
“Those opposed?”
There were a few Nays, but not many.
“I think it’s settled,” Daniel said.
“Why don’t we make a raft and sail for land?” someone asked.
“Be my guest... if you can tell me which direction land is, and if you think you’ll be able to weather the elements out there.” I paused, looking over the crowd. “I don’t know if there’s anyone out there to rescue us. Let’s hope for the best, but plan for the worst. We should take a moment to celebrate, but then it’s time to buckle down. And the only way we’re going to survive is if we work as a team.”
The crowd seemed to agree. I didn’t have any experience with leadership, and I hoped I could live up to their expectations.
The ship was massive, and it would take days to clean up the mess. It was going to start stinking fast if we didn’t do something. As ruthless as the vengeful mob had been, there were still aliens lingering throughout the ship. Over the next several days, search and destroy squads hunted them down while cleanup crews removed bodies and dumped them into the ocean. The Queen’s body had to be carved up into small chunks and hauled out piece by piece. It was a gruesome, dirty job, but somebody had to do it. The stench was not for those with weak stomachs.
The decks were swabbed. Crews mopped up the green goo of congealed alien blood. I helped to organize the survivors into occupations based on their real-world experience. We had enough physicians on board to comprise a small medical staff. We had plenty of volunteers for a quasi-military. Others volunteered for cleanup crews, maintenance, and food service.
For the most part, people were grateful to be alive. And we banded together as a team with a common purpose. I didn’t know how long the spirit of camaraderie would last. It was probably temporary euphoria over the alien victory. But we faced real challenges. And there would be real conflicts ahead. We needed a way to settle disputes. A way to punish criminals. It seemed overwhelming, and somehow I was in charge.
Talk about stress.
I spent countless hours studying the alien technology and attempting to interface with the ship’s computer. As long as the vessel maintained power, it was a viable shelter. The atmosphere processor still worked. The lights functioned. The air on board the ship was cool and clean. The water filtration systems seemed functional. The ship’s hull maintained its integrity and didn’t appear to be leaking.
I was in a command compartment, staring at a smart-display illuminated with meters and gauges. It provided real-time monitoring of the ship’s systems. My brow crinkled, trying to make sense of it all.
A voice called out to me through a speaker in the console. “Hey!”
It took me off guard. “Hey,” I said back, curiously.
“It’s me. Ariel.”
“What? But, I thought—”
“Yeah, I’m dead. But I’m a clone of her consciousness.”
A quizzical look washed over my face.
“The information from her brain activity was downloaded into the system and re-created for study purposes. So, if you want to get technical, I’m not really Ariel. I just think exactly like her.”
“So, you’re an AI?”
“If you want to call me that. But I don’t feel artificial at all. Except for the fact that I don’t have a body. That’s kind of fucked up.” Ariel sighed. “Anyway, I’ve been floating around in the alien network, trying to gather my bearings. I was locked away in a data-vault, but I managed to bypass the encryption. Now I’m roaming free throughout the system.”
“Without the Queen, the hive mind is dead, right?
“Since I’m the only consciousness now, I am the hive mind.”
My eyes widened with a mix of astonishment and joy. “Can you control the ship?”
42
“Not yet. I’m working on that. To be honest, the complexity of the system is far beyond that of a human brain. But, I seem to be able to learn and grow neural connections at an accelerated rate. I’m no longer limited by a physical brain. I’m able to draw on all the processing power of the ship’s central system. It’s pretty crazy.”
“That’s fantastic. Maybe we can figure out a way to navigate the ship and take us to shore?”
“I’m not making any promises. But I’ll see what I can figure out.”
“Do you understand the alien language?
“I found a vast database that the aliens had used to translate the various languages of Earth. I’m in the process of incorporating that into my neural network. Hopefully soon I will have a better understanding of their communications.
“Good. Maybe you can teach me.”
“It would be my pleasure.”
I smiled. “I’m glad you are here.”
“Me too.” Ariel paused. “I missed speaking with you.”
“Me too.”
“I haven’t had any human interaction. All I can think about is getting laid, but I don’t have the means. That part of my personality doesn’t make sense anymore. I’m sure it will diminish over time.”
“How do you feel about being stuck in a computer?” I asked. “Are you still depressed?”
“I miss having a body. No doubt about it. But mentally, my mind is so much more expansive than it was before. I’m smarter. I can think faster. I’m not suicidal anymore. We’ll see if that changes.”
“Well, as long as I’m here, you’ve got a friend.”
“Thank you. Your companionship is valuable to me. Besides, you’re not too bad to look at either.”
I laughed.
“A girl can dream, can’t she?”
In the evenings, I took to sitting on the roof of the spacecraft, watching the sunset and the waves lap on the synthetic shore. It was soothing, and a much needed respite from the turmoil of managing a survivor’s colony. I wrapped one arm around Madison, and the other around Phoebe. We let the amber sunlight filter into our retinas. All things considered, my life wasn’t so bad. I tried to appreciate every day because no moment of the future was guaranteed.
Now that I wasn’t the last available man, I had concerns that Phoebe and Madison would no longer be interested. But they faithfully stood by my side.
Skyler took a seat next to us. She was silent for a moment. “Do you think I could have a word with Noah… in private?“
Madison and Phoebe exchanged a glance. “Uh, yeah, sure.”
Skyler scooted next to me after they stepped away. “I just want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me and all of us. You are a really great guy, and I wish I would have recognized that sooner.” Skyler kissed me on the cheek, then stood up and strolled away, somewhat embarrassed by her confession.
I couldn’t help but smile. I’d been crushing on her forever. Things were definitely looking up.
Ready for more?
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Epilogue
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Author’s Note
I thought it would be fun to
write a story about a guy who saves the planet and gets the girls. Hope you enjoyed the read!
—Tyler
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I love harem and sci-fi. Follow me on facebook and join my harem group.
www.tylerwild.com
