by Milly Taiden
Brock felt his insides ignite and fire rushed through him. Not like the fire Cyn created in him. This was from a separate place, a separate feeling. The air around the three buzzed with energy. The rocks on the flat, wasted ground rolled toward the edges, toward the tree line on both sides of the stretch of land.
Dust rose in the narrow section as cracks appeared in the packed Earth. Portions of the land began to lift. Dirt clods rolled down the inclining sides as the middle raised higher.
Ruveen frowned, narrowing his eyes. He was concerned over something. Cyn took Brock’s other hand, coming up behind him. Tony did the same to Jane.
Suddenly, the slight vibration turned into a discernable tremble. The mound of dirt that was the Wasteland pulled away from the ground. The more dirt falling from the rising dune, the more concrete and bunker were exposed. The upward movement stalled.
Sariana took Erica’s hand and guided her and Trent to the group where they all joined hands. Sari held Trent’s fingers and closed the group into a circle by going around to Tony on the far side.
Once joined as a single team, their connected hands created a flow of non-ending energy that peaked at Ruveen and Brock. Ruveen smiled with an expression of realization. An epiphany came to him saturated in this power, and Brock felt knowledge and saw images filling his head. The pressure on his skull was intense and he relaxed to let it all flow without trying to understand each piece.
Cyn’s hand squeezed his and he glance at her. Her eyes were closed, a soft glow surrounding her body. The same glow was around everyone except Ruveen. The alien stared forward, then Brock remembered the rising Wasteland.
The scene in front shocked him. There was no longer a swath of rock and dirt, but a strange combination of concrete walls and floors nestled on top of a twisted metal platform with massive metal sidewalls to encompass the entire compound except the warehouse below them. It didn’t make sense what he was looking at.
The hole in the ground the bunker left was filled in with dirt and the strange conglomeration floated down to rest on top. Brock felt his feet also touch the ground. He hadn’t noticed the group was levitating, but that explained why the trembling stopped for them.
As a single event, the group exhaled and slumped in exhaustion. Each felt like they had been running top speed in a marathon all day. Movement below with the soldiers started again after pausing for the raising. Voices in bullhorns rang out.
Ruveen sighed and released Brock’s grasp. “Jane, would you and Tony take everyone down to the SUV? Maybe even head back to the cabin to relax.” Jane held her brother’s eye and gave a small nod. He smiled back as if saying yes, this is on.
His hand whipped out to stop Brock. “Wait. I need to speak with you for a bit. We’ll take the other truck back in a bit.” Brock kissed Cyn and told her he’d be back soon. His crew, with a little pink-haired cutie in tow, made their way down the hill.
Ruveen and Brock stood in silence for a minute, Brock staring at the monstrosity before them. Ruveen sighed. “Brock, I don’t know where to begin with this. But your path and those of your crew is taking a ninety-degree turn, if you agree to what I’m proposing. You can say no, but the elders believe you won’t, so they have progressed accordingly.
“First, I’d like to answer your questions. Maybe that’ll help as a segue into what I have to say. But let me warn you, everything I tell you is the truth as we understand it to be at this moment.”
“We, meaning who?”
“Our family’s elders, scientists, folklorists. Our people.”
Brock remained quiet, not knowing where to begin himself. “All right, if you want to play Twenty Questions, I’m game.” Brock pointed at the scene before them. “What the hell is this all about?”
Ruveen laughed and slid hands into his dungaree’s pockets. “The answer will leave more questions than answers for you, my friend.” Ruveen licked his chapped lips. “It is a spaceship shell from our long ago past, sent out during the height of our planet’s destruction to find some means of survival.
“As I mentioned earlier, the ship crashed. If you’ve noticed, this long narrow dirt section is just wider than the edges of the ship, as if it were a runway, or actually a crash path.”
The rest of the answer slapped him in the face. “Are you saying the mangled metal base is the remainder of a crashed ship?” He could see an airplane landing in the distance and skidding toward them. The nose of the fuselage would be damaged the most, if not totally obliterated by the time it stopped.
The farther the skid, the more of the front of the plane peeled back and tore away, leaving only the middle and back of the plane intact. Which is where the elevator on the fourth floor under the bunker looked to be—toward the back somewhere.
The hill they stood on overlooking the crash site would be the dirt the plane pushed forward as it slid deeper into the ground. When coming to a rest, the hill had piled high. Over the years, nature turned the dirt pile into another hill of the forest range. Brock’s gaze traveled to the back of the ship where another pile of dirt sat.
Just like the tail of a plane curved up higher than the main section of the plane, so did this ship. Ruveen saw the question on Brock’s face.
“At the back is where the main engine and power source of the ship is. Remember the energy coil with wires and the pipes with the water? That’s where the ship’s essential machines are kept. As you can see, the back is much safer than the front. What surprises me is that the survivors buried the tail still attached—needing to create a small mountain to conceal it.” Ruveen walked along the hill, getting a look more to the side of the craft.
Brock followed, offering his two cents. “The ship is dug in deeper in the front, which makes sense for a crash. The incline to the back of the ship would only look natural if the land sloped quickly, thus a hill. Can you see the remains of the concrete building at the far end?”
“Ah, yes. My eyes aren’t as good as yours, wolf, but I know it’s there. I don’t think I would’ve thought to hide the construction of the bunker with a business front. And then using gravity to pump concrete in to create the bunker structure. We need to interrogate Liand to find out all he knows. This whole thing has been around for a while; long before Liand could’ve built it all.”
Brock rubbed his chin. “Could be the same source that has leaked the technology data.”
“That would make sense. I called my father while at the cabin and filled him in on most of this. He’s got a battalion with scientists and others on its way. Maybe they will find clues. They will have to work with your people to figure out what to do with this. I’m sure they won’t let it remain in the open as is.”
“If I know our government, everything here will disappear as if it never were. The land will return to normal for conspirators to scour.”
“I’m not sure about that. That framed map Trent obsessed over at the cabin, it has the Wasteland clearly showing. The radiation is no longer squashing life. This area will probably reproduce its original forests that surround it.”
“Radiation from the ship made the ground unable to sustain life? That would explain the shape of the dead area—long and narrow.” Brock crossed his arms over his chest and let the new data digest. He studied the bunker created on top of the ship’s base. “What will happen to all the people inside, and Liand and Nyl?”
Ruveen dropped his chin to his chest. “Nyl will be dealt with. The insanity created by the large gaps in his brain cells shocked me. Jane looked through his head after everyone left the ship to see how bad it was.” He shook his head. “Whoever destroyed his neurons did a good job, she said. I suspect his father holds the answers. Nyl can’t be rehabilitated.
“For the workers, I don’t know what my father will decide with your people. My guess is they will go wherever the bunker and ship goes—your new Area 51.” He smiled at Brock. “As for Liand, there are a couple options for him. We don’t like to destroy life, unless absolutely needed, so he will go into reha
bilitation.”
Brock’s brow raised. The way Ruveen said rehabilitation sent shudders down him. “Which means, what?”
“That’s our form of a prison system. But we don’t cage people. We turn off and create new memories so the person no longer remembers he’s done something wrong or is a bad person.”
Brock bristled at the explanation. He might prefer bars to having his memory fucked with.
Ruveen turned and looked into the trees. “Brock, do you smell anyone nearby? In hearing distance?”
Nose in the air, Brock took a deep breath. “No one in hearing distance. Why?”
“It’s time to discuss you and your team’s future.”
TWENTY-FIVE
Holy shit. Standing on the hill overlooking the crash site, Brock just had a flash of being in immense space, void of any visuals or sound, just feeling. He shook his head to clear the feeling. Ruveen stared at him. “Brock? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, just a dizzy spell. Probably just need more food and sleep.”
Ruveen’s hands brushed over his face. “I’m with you, man. Let’s get this over with.”
“I’ve told you about our elders and how they predict the future, right?” Brock nodded. “In the last hundred years, they have become increasingly concerned about Earth.”
Brock turned to the alien. “Why Earth?”
“Because we’re a caring species, for the most part, and want what’s best for others. We’ve been in talks with a new race for a year, working out social and environmental issues so integration between us and them will flow smoothly. There is no chance for war because they have similar needs to ours. There is no reason for it, unless purposefully provoked.
“But we can’t say the same for Earth. You’ve proven yourselves prone to battling each other over trivial things. On top of that, the leak of our advanced technology to a race not ready for it could be detrimental to the race.”
“Ruveen, speak English. What are you saying?”
“I’m trying to say that without guidance, your world could easily annihilate itself within fifty years.”
Brock growled. “Fuck. How so soon? My grandkids may be alive then.”
“Humanity is on the same path, using the same technology our planet had when we were destroyed. You’ve seen for yourself the replicators, water unit, and cold fusion reactor. This is a very real, very dangerous time. We didn’t know the consequences of what we’d created and devised in laboratories. Ideas that seem completely benign take an unexpected turn, naturally or sabotaged, and all hell breaks loose, as you say.”
Brock’s stomach turned at the devastation of life and everything he knew. He was ready to get this talk over with. “Okay, Ruveen. Cut to the chase. What am I supposed to accept for my crew?”
“Your planet needs a babysitter until it’s mature enough to handle its resources wisely.” Brock remained silent, waiting until he understood something. “We won’t let happen to you what happened to us. For the past ten years, we’ve had a social experiment known as FPU, Federal Paranormal Unit.”
Anger flowed through Brock, waking his emotions. He’d been played with for a decade?
“Easy, demon. It’s not as it sounds. Those jars you saw in the crashed ship—they were attempts to create a guardian, per se, that combined the planet’s natural instincts with the human species’ intelligence. They were purposefully creating shifters to protect against the outcome our planet suffered.
“Being both instinctual and logical, shifters are meant to innately know what is best for the planet’s resources and plan accordingly. Once set into the population, they would breed and spread throughout the continent. North America has its native shifters like wolves and bears, and other places, like Africa and the Egyptians have their own big cats, elephants, rhinos.”
Brock was taken aback. “There are were-elephants? Seriously?”
“I’m assuming just about every animal has its version. When we were in the lab underground, I noted long dead ivy, but didn’t see any jars. So I’m guessing my ancestors were working on flora shifters, but hadn’t had success before deserting the ship.”
Brock’s head spun. Plant shifters? What the fuck? “Okay, Ruveen, what does this mean to me? I haven’t heard anything to accept or decline.”
Ruveen leaned against a tree. “I’m in charge of creating a group of Earthlings to protect this planet from things that’ll cause its destruction. That group is you.”
The cool night air settled on the back of Brock’s neck like breath from an ice creature. He stood outside Jane’s cabin overlooking the valley and river. So much had happened in the past couple days, he’d go insane if he didn’t have full control of his facilities. He figured his demon’s help came in somewhere. Especially with the strange experience during the power circle at the Wasteland.
Brock hadn’t mentioned anything about the knowledge download. Ruveen didn’t ask, he didn’t tell. He wondered if anyone else experienced something strange. His demon had done something with all that new data. Probably put it in a container and stuffed it somewhere, like Jane’s memory boxes. But why? Don’t worry about it, wolf. I got this.
His beliefs and ideas that kept his life in order had been shaken to the core. Was there an all-powerful entity above them, or was it just a “more-powerful” entity? If he believed all Ruveen had told him, his life was “planned” by really old people on a planet far, far away.
Shit. They can’t possibly know the future. Well, Ruveen said they had the brain capacity to take every factor and extrapolate possible endings, one of which would be the future. Again, shit. Too much to think about.
He didn’t want to believe shifters were created by aliens. But really, what did it matter who created them: nature or those “more-powerful?” They existed and would continue to. And they all had a purpose, to save the planet. Would you like fries or a cape with that?
He thought about his life. Everything he experienced, everything he lived through, led to this moment. Preparing him for this? No way. Just, no way.
There was more to this than even aliens realized. I guess we’ll find out as a team.
A warm body pressed against his back. The sweet scent of his mate brought peace to his mind and soul. “What are you doing out here? I wondered where you went.”
Brock turned and wrapped her in his arms, extremely glad she was back with him because of whomever or however. He wasn’t questioning it. “Just getting a breath of fresh air. Taking in the night.”
“Oh, Tony said you came out here because holding in farts would travel to your brain and give you shitty ideas.”
Brock put his hands over his mate’s ears. “Ramirez, get your ass out here so I can kick it off the cliff.”
A tap on the window drew his attention. Tony was laughing and motioning for them to come inside. Brock took his mate’s hand and headed for the front door. He knew what was going on and it worried him.
After the entire group had settled, Ruveen looked each person in the eye. “The last couple days have been extraordinary, to say the least. It has convinced me that you all are ready to move forward.” He raised a hand to stifle questions. “Let me finish, then we can have Q&A.
“As I’ve mentioned before, we, my people, are concerned for your planet’s future. We see too many similarities to our past, and I don’t believe in coincidences. Not in this case. So to head off possible…catastrophes, I’ve been put in charge of creating a team who can put a stop to the events.”
Brock cut in. “May I?” Ruveen gave a nod. Brock looked at the group. “Basically he’s saying he’s ‘Charlie’ and we’re ‘the angels.’”
Trent punched his arm into the air. “I call dibs on Farrah.” Erica tagged his bicep.
“You don’t get dibs on anyone but me, you big mutt.”
A heated spark came into Trent’s eyes. Brock caught it. “Don’t even think it, Buchanan. Not until we’re done here.” Trent physically slumped.
“It sucks being cock bl
ocked by the boss.”
Ruveen picked up where he left off. “Have any of you wondered how ‘lucky’ you were that you all found your mates and they just happened to be your co-workers?” The room remained quiet, shocked faces to go around.
“Well, I’m not going into the mechanics of it, but each of you have been placed here purposely with your mates. Research shows that shifters work better with their mates close by. Otherwise, they’re constantly worrying and calling the other and generally unfocusing any attempt at work.
“You, my friends, have been selected to save the Earth from yourselves.” This time he couldn’t hold off the voices. “Okay, I know. I’m almost finished.
“As ‘Charlie,’ as Brock so elegantly put it, I will be in contact with you mostly from my planet. I’ll call in when a situation arises where we need to act to stop someone or thing. Our elders are working hard to figure out what can be prevented with intervention. There is one issue currently we need to start working on.
“I’m convinced someone has been providing our technology advancements to those on Earth. Remember when I mentioned the horse and buggy to landing on the moon in sixty-nine years? That’s exactly what I’m referring to. We need to find and stop this person or group. Your culture is not ready to handle the consequences that’ll occur if something gets out of control.
“Brock knows the logistics of everything. You will remain at your FBI offices and carry-on as you have for ten years. The only difference will be the special cases the Fellowship will act on. Oh, and yes, your new department name is the Fellowship of Pack Unions. FPU.”
EPILOGUE
Jane stood at the entrance of the private overwater bungalow and stared at the setting sun with a smile. Now this was a definite way to honeymoon. They’d just gotten there a few hours ago and after a shower and lunch, all felt right in the world. She still couldn’t believe she’d gotten Tony to sit through such a long flight. She grinned whenever she remembered him asking for another drink to calm his tiger. He’d done it for her. He’d gone into a small space, that could make him hyperventilate, for a bunch of hours just to make her happy. She loved that man so much.
