H.A.L.F.: The Makers

by Natalie Wright

  Alecto walked toward Croft, her hand outstretched toward him. She did not flinch as she stood over him and watched him writhe in pain.

  Sturgis’ heart swelled with pride for her creation. After the debacle that was H.A.L.F. 9, Sturgis had worked tirelessly to improve on the prototype and create a stronger, more loyal and commandable hybrid. Alecto proved once again to be the devoted soldier that she had hoped for. Alecto had defended her without being asked, knowing instinctively to protect her commander.

  “Take her down, you idiots,” Croft croaked.

  In a flurry of activity, Croft’s soldiers attacked Alecto and knocked her to the ground. The soldiers scuffled with her, and a few men flew into the air away from her. But after a brief struggle, she let out a loud screech that sounded like a cat being hit by a car. Alecto was wrapped from head to toe in what looked like a thick, silvery Mylar blanket. One of the soldiers picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like a rolled-up carpet. The package wriggled and screeched a few more times but was soon still and quiet.

  “Don’t kill her!” Sturgis screamed. Her heart raced with panic. She took a few steps toward Alecto, but two soldiers put their bodies – and their guns – between her and Alecto.

  Croft rose and brushed himself off. “Don’t be daft. Why would I harm my most prized possession?”

  Sturgis pulled down the hem of her jacket and composed herself. She had been sure that the attack by the greys would mean that finally the truth would be made public. But it was clear now that Croft had other plans. The truth would, as always, remain hidden in the shadows, just out of reach. The greys had left a mess, and it needed an explanation. “It appears that I’ve been pegged to pay for a lot of things.”

  “You fathom the right of it,” Croft said. “So many wives and children will wonder what became of dear old dad. What could explain such a massive tragedy?” Croft pointed a thin finger at Sturgis. “Oh, I know. Your gross negligence. Your lust for power caused you to disregard proper precautions with your chemical experiments. Your greed cost these men their lives. Traitorous negligent homicide. The little people will want their pound of flesh, as little people always do. And who am I to deny them their justice?”

  Sturgis trembled with anger. “I may be a lot of things, but I am no traitor. I’d rather you kill me now than have my name – my father’s name – raked through the mud.”

  “I don’t care in the slightest what you want,” Croft said. “And as for your father, well, he may have been a genius, but he was always shortsighted about what the Makers could accomplish if not beset by pesky allegiances.”

  “Bardsley, how can you let him blame me for deaths caused by the enemy?”

  “What enemy?” Bardsley asked. His voice quavered with uncertainty.

  “The greys,” Sturgis said. “They were here. Their ships fired on my men. Men who were trying to protect our project.”

  Bardsley looked around. “I don’t see an alien ship, do you?”

  Croft’s lips curled into a smug and approving smile. “You are so misguided, Lilly. You think you have it all figured out. But you know nothing.” He leaned closer to her, his voice barely audible. “You have no idea what’s coming. In time you may even thank me. You may well be safer where I’m sending you.” Croft pulled away from her and spoke for all to hear. “Cuff her.”

  Two men approached Sturgis. One of them tried to pull her arms behind her, but she elbowed him in the face. His nose gushed blood. Within seconds two more men were on her. When she tried to fight them off, one of the men punched her in the jaw with his beefy hand. Pain shot through her face and stars swam before her eyes. As she focused on not passing out, the men were able to subdue her. One pulled her arms roughly behind her back while the other snapped handcuffs around her wrists.

  Her face was swelling. Her jaw wasn’t broken, but it would be sore for days to come. It clicked as she opened her mouth to talk. “You’re making a very big mistake, William. You need me. No one knows the hybrids the way I do.”

  “We’ve got your research. We don’t need you. Show her, Sewell,” Croft said.

  Sewell waddled forward and held up two external hard drive cases.

  “Everything you know, now I know,” Croft said.

  Sturgis glared at Sewell. “You slimy, back-stabbing weasel.” For some time, Sturgis had known that Sewell was reporting to Croft behind her back, though she hadn’t gotten to the bottom of why. Thank goodness I kept my progress on the clones hidden.

  Sewell withered behind Croft and lowered his eyes like a child being scolded. “You were going to kill teenagers, Commander. How could I … besides, do you think I really had a choice?”

  “Everyone always has a choice,” Sturgis said.

  “Enough,” Croft boomed. He wrinkled his nose. “I tire of the stench of this place. She’s all yours, Bardsley. You know what to do. And do not worry about your precious pet hybrid, Lilly. My daughter, Lizzy, will reprogram her so that she can take her place in my organization. It is, after all, what she was made for.”

  “No,” Sturgis said. “It’s not. She was made to protect the people in the coming war. She wasn’t made – I didn’t make her – to be your personal bodyguard.”

  “Wrong as usual,” Croft said. “Get to the train. Keep the hybrid wrapped in the wet blankets. Do not underestimate her strength.”

  A dozen soldiers surrounded the man carrying Alecto, and they walked toward the entrance to Aphthartos. Croft followed them.

  “Read my notes, then, Croft,” Sturgis called out. “Read them well so that you understand her unique needs. You wouldn’t want to inadvertently destroy your precious cargo the way your father’s idiots killed the prisoner back in ’47.”

  “Best put a muzzle on her, Bardsley,” Croft called back as he strode from the town. “Sewell, I leave you in charge of cleanup. You know the protocol. Not a trace. Do not disappoint me.”

  “Yes, sir,” Sewell called back.

  Soldiers on either side of Sturgis steered her by the elbows toward the doors. General Bardsley followed behind. Her face was hot both from the beating she’d taken as well as embarrassment. Her men, what remained of them, gawked as she was led away from them in handcuffs. She held her head high even though she wanted to shrink away from their stares. She heard her mother’s voice in her head, calling out to her as it often did in times of doubt. “You’re a Sturgis, Lilly. Hold your head high. And for God’s sake, don’t slouch.”

  Commander Sturgis had always imagined leaving A.H.D.N.A. for the last time to fanfare and accolade for her toil having led to the salvation of the human race from the threat of annihilation at the hands of the greys. Instead she was led from her life’s work disgraced and in handcuffs.

  She was glad that she had at least kept the most recent developments to herself. Not even Sewell knew that she’d successfully cloned Alecto and that the embryos had been cryogenically frozen. Dr. Lee at Cornell was making great strides with her artificial womb research. It was the exact thing Sturgis needed to create her hybrid army.

  She’d planned to announce the good news of the successful cloning to Croft. But that was when she still believed that he cared what the hell happened to anyone besides himself. Back when she believed the work she’d been doing was for the good of all humanity, not just an elite few.

  As they dragged her through the halls she’d known as her home for longer than most of the soldiers guarding her had been alive, she vowed to herself that she’d be back. The clone embryos were hidden – and safe – for now. She’d find a way to undo what Croft had done to her. Humanity still needs me – and my clones.

  3

  JACK

  The bright white light of deliverance did not include Jack in its offer of haven. The alien ship had left him behind, and his prospects were much the same as they had been a day ago. He didn’t know why they’d left him. He probably never would. His stomach knotted into a tight ball of dread thinking about what Erika and Ian had stepped into. Are the
y off to utopia or hell?

  Commander Sturgis had ordered her men to throw Jack back in a cell, but he didn’t plan to go quietly back to deathwatch. Fortunately for Jack, Sturgis and her men got preoccupied with the dead bodies and putting out flames. Several buildings around the square still smoldered from the fires caused by the alien weapon. A half dozen men and Alecto stood between Jack and the entrance. He decided to take cover and consider his options. Jack snuck into the deep shadows near the street that led to Dr. Randall’s townhouse. He knelt behind the bushes. The smell of death filled the air, an acrid combination of blood, vomit, piss and gunpowder. Jack covered his mouth and nose with his shirt and swallowed to force the puke back down.

  He was hidden there when Croft and his men came and took Commander Sturgis away. Jack had watched in mute disbelief and no small amount of satisfaction as Commander Sturgis, the woman who had signed the order for his death, was led away in handcuffs. But doubt played in his mind as well. He hadn’t thought it possible, but Mr. Croft might be more callous than Sturgis. What if that Croft guy really doesn’t give a fig what happens to anyone who isn’t ‘of the blood’, whatever that means?

  Jack’s legs ached from squatting down and he wanted to run. With Sturgis and Alecto gone, he stood a chance. But he’d been blindfolded when they’d been brought to A.H.D.N.A. and the place was a huge maze. He had no idea how to get out.

  “What now?” one of Sturgis’ soldiers asked.

  Sewell wrung his hands nervously and cleared his throat. “We finish what we started. Mr. Croft wants this place clean, so that’s what we’ll do. Clear any debris with evidence of advanced laser-weapon fire. It needs to look like a chemical explosion down here. Remove identification and dog tags; then take the bodies to the boiler room and incinerate them.”

  Their conversation reminded Jack that his mother had no idea where he was. Does she think I’m dead? His throat tightened with the emotion he choked back at the thought of his mom never getting him or his body back. The idea that Croft and everyone who worked for him would put the families through that made Jack dislike the lot of them even more.

  The soldiers resumed the unenviable task of moving bodies and parts to the center of the town square. Sewell stood planted, his face splotchy red, his arms crossed across his chest. It looked like he wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon.

  Jack’s thighs burned from squatting for so long. He’d have to hide behind the bushes for the foreseeable future. He was safe from prying eyes so long as he could stay hunkered down out of sight. He didn’t dare make a run for it until Sewell and all of the soldiers were gone. If they were willing to concoct an elaborate fiction complete with sending Sturgis to jail just to cover the place up, they weren’t about to let him breeze out and go blab about it.

  But Sturgis’ misfortune was Jack’s good luck. With Sturgis and Alecto gone, Jack at least had a chance. Tex had never told them how he escaped, but if Tex had found a way out, he could too.

  Sewell was the only one near Jack, and he was at least twenty yards away and had his back to him. Jack took the opportunity to raise himself up and shake out his legs a bit. He shook his right leg, the tightness dissipating. He shook his left leg, and as he reached it out in front of him, his toe hit something hard and metal. The sound was not loud, but even the smallest sound echoed around the cavernous walls of Aphthartos. Sewell’s head snapped around and he peered in Jack’s direction.

  Crap. So close.

  Jack held his breath. He dared not move for fear he’d draw more attention.

  Sewell walked slowly toward Jack’s hiding place. Sweat beaded on Jack’s forehead and his hands were instantly clammy. He had nowhere to run. He stood frozen like a deer in the headlights, a rivulet of sweat slowly dripping from his temple down his cheek.

  Sewell was close enough that Jack could smell his aftershave. Sewell stopped and appeared to stare directly at Jack, but he didn’t call the soldiers over.

  Can he see me? Jack stopped breathing.

  “You were left behind?” Sewell whispered.

  The direct question caught Jack off guard. He’d assumed that Sewell would order a firing squad if he discovered Jack. He was unsure if Sewell could see him clearly in the dark, but he nodded anyway.

  “Is everything okay over there, Mr. Sewell?” a soldier hollered.

  “It’s fine,” Sewell yelled back over his shoulder. “Just inspecting some damage.” He returned his focus to Jack. “I assume you would like to return home?”

  Jack nodded again. Even if he wanted to speak, he wasn’t sure he had enough air in his lungs to force words from his mouth.

  “I can help you,” Sewell said.

  4

  TEX

  Tex’s eyes were like heavy doors he had to force apart. At first there was only a hazy, bluish light. He blinked a few times more and the bleariness subsided.

  He was lying on his back, staring straight up into near total darkness. He tried to rise up but was unable to push himself off the hard surface. He yanked and tried to pull his arms up, but it was no use. Invisible restraints pinned him down.

  Tex’s eyes darted wildly, scanning the darkness as he tried to understand where he was and why he could not move. But there was only the pale, bluish-white light that came from below him. He sensed no one near him.

  His heart raced. A thin film of slick sweat covered his forehead. Tex had desired only one thing: freedom. And he was now more helpless than he had ever been.

  “You think as a human,” a voice said in his mind.

  Tex peered into the darkness, trying to see the being that belonged to the voice in his head, but there was no one. He breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm himself. “Perhaps you are correct.”

  He shut his eyes and pulled within, closing off from the world around him. His senses were useless in this place anyway. As he let go his attempts to understand the material world, he became aware of subtle energies. He sensed a shift in the air molecules. A few seconds later it happened again. Someone is breathing.

  “Good. What else?”

  Tex moved further inward. He gave up his attempts to hear, see, smell or feel. He focused instead on the minute sensations he knew humans – and the human part of him – could never know. Fluctuations in molecules, even atoms. If he concentrated hard enough, he could sense the quanta in the space around him.

  He was not on a spaceship. We’re on a planet. The air was dry. Not as arid as the desert on Earth but far less humid than A.H.D.N.A. or even Aphthartos. The dry air freed his mind of the foggy feeling he got from humidity.

  As he reached out with his internal senses – a dimension of experience unknown to humans – he could ‘see’ in his mind’s eye the invisible restraints that held him. The shackles were merely a thought coming from a being less than four feet tall that stood only five feet away from him. Tex used his mind to sever the virtual cord that restrained him. It was so simple. Why did I not think of it before?

  Tex raised his arms and enjoyed the sensation of the cool air passing through his fingers. He pushed himself up and swung his legs off the table. Without opening his eyes, he could ‘see’ that he was in a room not much larger than his quarters at A.H.D.N.A. Only small lights along the perimeter lighted it. And the room was entirely empty save for the smooth, flat stone table on which he sat, the alien being and himself.

  He opened his eyes and found that the being had moved a few feet closer. The creature had a bulbous, hairless head and eyes the size of golf balls. It was dressed in a silvery fabric that hung loosely over its small frame.

  “You are a grey.”

  “The name given by the humans to our species. We do not acknowledge this appellation. We are the Conexus.”

  Tex considered the name and searched his memory for any prior mention of ‘Conexus’, but he could not recall ever hearing of them. “Do you have a name?”

  “The Conexus does not acknowledge individuals. We are one. We are the Conexus. To name each part of
our whole would be no different than humans giving names to their arms or legs or hands.”

  “I see.” Tex might have lived his life as an experiment, but he had always been treated as an individual. He at least had his own unique number to differentiate him from Alecto. “Surely, though, you have a way to identify each other? A number or other designation?”

  “We are one mind. One being. We are Conexus. That is all that is necessary. Soon you too will become Conexus and know the power of the collective mind. Then you shall know all that we know and the Conexus will know you.”

  Tex had not considered the possibility that he would lose his individuality. Suddenly it was as if the walls were closing in on him. If they succeeded in taking away his identity, then he would no longer care for Erika or Dr. Randall or Ian, for that matter. He would no longer be Tex.

  Instinct told him to run though he did not know where he could go. If the Conexus want to take away my identity, what are their plans for Erika and the others? His whole life he had wanted to ask the greys questions to shed light on his origins. What planet were they on? How far from Earth were they? What was their history? Why did they come to Earth? Dozens of questions he had meant to ask. But his inquiries were pushed to the side as he remembered the warmth of Erika’s hand on his and the steady beating of her heart as she held him in the halls of A.H.D.N.A.

  “The others – Erika Holt, Ian Frew and Dr. Randall. Are they okay? Did they survive the journey?”

  “The humans survived. The Conexus is satisfied with your obedience of our command to retrieve the one you refer to as Dr. Randall.”

  Obedience? Tex had not considered their request an order that he obeyed. He had merely respected their request and gladly did so once they showed him that Dr. Randall was in fact alive, not dead as he had been led to believe.

  “I want to see Dr. Randall and the others.” He used his voice and found it raspy and soft from disuse. He coughed. “Take me to them now.” He hopped off the table, and his bare feet hit a cold, smooth floor. His legs were a bit wobbly beneath him and he realized he had no way of knowing how long he had been asleep.