by S D Tanner
“Why? Why did you bring me back? What do you want?”
This time the alien tilted its head, finally acknowledging his presence. The long, thin red tongue flicked out and its mouth turned upward. Hissing softly, he thought he heard a word in the sound.
“Liiiiiffffe.”
His face grew fixed and anger coursed through him. “You want to live? Don’t you think we want the same thing?”
Its mouth tilted upward even more, making the eyes look as if they were mocking him. “Yoooou liiiivve.”
The rage that had been building inside of him traveled from his brain to his fist and punched the transparent wall. “This isn’t life! You stole my death!” His mouth turned downward, and he jabbed at the transparent wall. “You’ll pay for what you’ve done.”
Slowly the face opposite him grew blank again as if it were processing his words. Stepping back from the thin wall separating them, the alien studied his face. Something was dawning on it, but he wasn’t sure what it was.
“Yoooou seeee.”
Puzzled, he lowered his fist, frowning as he did. “What do I see?”
Instead of answering his question, the man’s face drooped until the skin from his cheeks hung below his chin. Dragging the flesh from around the eyes, it bulged downward until the curve under the eyeballs showed. The creature’s lower lipped stretched until it was resting against his chest. Shoulders that had already been rounded drifted lower still until they were level with his waist.
Unable to tear his eyes away from the melting alien, he asked, “Jessica, what’s happening to it?”
“Self-destruct.”
“It’s committing suicide?”
“Suicide is a human concept. The alien is self-destructing.”
The man was now half his original height and flesh was bubbling along the base of the transparent box. “What’s the difference?”
“He does not despair.”
Deflating inside the blue jumpsuit, liquefied bones and flesh were forming a pool beneath the man’s collapsing torso. His head lolled to one side, revealing the tough tendons and muscle inside the neck. One eyeball fell from its socket, hanging loosely by a thread until it too was eaten by acid. A brown iris was still visible as the bubbling ball landed in the puddle of liquifying flesh.
Disgusted by what he was witnessing, he turned to look at Jessica. “He chose to self-destruct rather than talk to me.”
Rok still had his nose pressed against the wall, his eyes wide with curiosity. “You have that effect on people, Tag.” Pulling his face from the wall, he screwed up his nose. “Bet it stinks in there.”
The odor inside the box was the least of his problems. Although the alien had told them nothing, the little it had said had been enough. Their enemy had a plan and, if the arks were anything to go by, they’d successfully implemented it. What he didn’t understand was why, but perhaps all they wanted was Earth and everything it contained.
“Have they taken over Earth?”
Jessica looked at him, her sharp features softening with concern. “We have images.”
“Where from?”
Turning away from the still dissolving alien, Judge nonchalantly leaned his back against the transparent wall. “We did a fast flyby and got footage of Earth.”
“And?”
Sharing a look with Jessica, Judge sighed deeply. “You’re not gonna like it.”
CHAPTER FOUR: Dead Intent
The blueness took his breath away. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen pictures of it before, but the richness of the blue sea and fragility of the clouds drifting across it carved out a beauty the moon couldn’t match. Soft-edged land masses in brown appeared to be drowning inside the wide expanses of blue, giving Earth its unique look. He might not remember much about who he’d been before he died, but he knew where he called home.
Sitting in the command chair on the dimly lit Bridge, relief flooded through him as footage on the screen panned across the planet. “It looks normal.” Turning in the command chair to look up at Jessica standing beside him, he asked hopefully, “Right?”
As she touched his shoulder, he instinctively reached for her hand. Although Jessica was only a machine connected to a brain that had once been human, her hand was unexpectedly warm to the touch. Squeezing his hand in return, she then let it go. “Watch.”
The camera was zooming toward something that had been invisible against the brownness of the land below. Seemingly suspended in the air were a collection of sharply edged buildings. The base of the floating city was arced, and the top was filled with a jagged line of structures at different heights. Glinting in the bright sunlight, they reflected against one another, making it difficult to tell them apart.
His stomach sunk at the sight. “What is that?”
“A floating city.”
“For people?”
“Maybe.”
“Is that where the aliens live?”
“Possibly.”
Earth had been invaded, but he already knew that. The aliens must have used the company, Lunar Horizon, as a cover to take control of the planet. He didn’t remember much about the company, but Lolo had claimed they replaced oil with a new source of power, using that to take control of every government in the world. Although the floating cities added weight to what Lolo had said, she’d never told them they existed.
“How many of them are there?”
“We did not film the entire planet, but there are many.”
Standing on the other side of his command chair, Judge pointed at the screen. “Earth isn’t undefended.”
The camera zoomed again, this time picking out what had looked like a speck in orbit. Round with spikes poking out at every angle, something was circling Earth. The dark, gray surface appeared battered, as if it had been in space a long time. Some of the spikes were thin and others looked like they might be missiles. The round ball in the center of the structure appeared to be large, but with no context to give it size he wasn’t sure how big it was.
“What is it?”
“We haven’t taken a close look, but Jess thinks it’s a weaponized beacon.”
“Is it manned?”
Judge looked at him in surprise. “By what?”
“Aliens?”
“We do not know,” Jessica said softly. “We have located thousands of beacons, but we believe there are more.”
“Did you engage them?”
“Don’t be crazy every day of your life, Tag,” Judge replied sharply. “We’ve got one ship and half a million sleepers, not to mention we’re a few short now thanks to your last good idea.”
Gently touching his shoulder, Jessica’s smooth skinned face appeared grief-stricken. “There is more.”
Jessica might be a robot, but compassion appeared to shine through her unlined face. It seemed to him that beneath the sharp intellect was a woman who cared deeply about people. Although he was their leader, he suspected Jessica might make a better one. He was only trained to lead men into battle whereas Jessica had freed them from their alien masters.
“Show me.”
Zooming again, the camera scanned the city beneath the floating one. Where the white buildings in the sky glinted brilliantly in the sunshine, below was another city with nothing left other than broken shells. The streets were cluttered with abandoned vehicles and slabs of concrete from the collapsing buildings. Everything looked dusty with not a single window unbroken. It didn’t seem like anyone would live in such a desolate place, but a line of washing had been strung between two rusted pillars so that the shirts and trousers fluttered in the wind like dancing puppets.
Despite the dismal state of the city, his heart lifted at the sight. “People.”
Leaning into his body until he felt her lips against his ear, Jessica whispered, “Find them.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“Learn.”
When he leaned his head against hers, she pul
led away until she was again standing by his side. Feeling disappointed, he looked across at Judge. “How do we get past the beacons?”
Judge nodded at Jessica. “The same way we got the images. We do a flyby. Jess can teleport us wherever we want to be.”
“How do we get out?”
“Jess will fly by every twenty-four hours.”
“Comms?”
Tapping the black metal covering his arm, Judge replied, “Providing the ship is in range, Cogless can handle person-to-ship comms.”
“Weapons?”
“Rok can bring his KLAW.”
“Anyone else?”
“Nope, just you, me and Rok.”
“Got any other orders for me, Judge?”
Looking slightly put out by his sharp remark, Judge pulled away from him. “It took six months for the pod to repair you. Jess and I spent the time preparing for the mission we knew you’d want.”
Jessica had already persuaded him to take the mission, but Judge was the last person he thought would agree. “You think all my ideas are stupid.”
“They are stupid, Tag, but sometimes stupid is all you’ve got.”
Although he could have needled Judge some more, he already knew it was as much approval as he was going to get. Standing, he gave a disgruntled snort. “What about Lolo?”
Now standing opposite him, Judge narrowed his eyes. “What about Lolo?”
“Did you interrogate her?”
“I spoke to her.”
“What did she tell you?”
“Same thing she told you. She doesn’t know what’s going on.”
“And you believe her?”
Judge turned away from him and began walking toward the exit on the Bridge. “Leave it, Tag.”
Confused by Judge’s abrupt tone, he glanced at Jessica who gave him a slow smile. “He has grown fond of her.”
“She’s the enemy.”
“We do not choose the ones we love.”
The look in her eye made him wonder what point she was trying to make, but he was too annoyed to hear about Judge and Lolo to care. “If it comes down to it, I’ll put a bullet in her head.”
“Judge is a loyal man.”
“Sleeping with the enemy says otherwise. He should have kept his distance.”
Jessica shook her head. “Why are you angry?”
Her question took him by surprise and he spun around to face her. “Because I’m dead, Jessica. I woke up dead three hundred years after my life ended.”
“You live.”
Those were the exact words the alien had hissed from inside the transparent box. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It is a gift.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “How is waking up dead a gift? I’m not human.”
“Do you feel?”
“Do you?” He retorted sharply, confused by where the conversation was going.
Her answer caught him off guard. Standing on her toes, she reached one arm around his neck, while the other slid across his back. After hugging him tightly, she pulled away. “You must go now.”
“But…”
As she turned away, he remembered the first time he’d met her on the Extrema. He’d asked whether she was human and she’d replied with a question of her own.
“What makes us human?”
She was a robot, but he was just as much a machine as she was. Jessica wanted him to find the last humans on Earth, and he wanted to take revenge on whatever had destroyed his death. Judge was defending Lolo, refusing to let him take her apart to find out what she was. To answer Jessica’s question, he wondered if what made them human was their intentions for the people they cared about. It was why Judge and Jessica had prepared for a mission they knew he would want to take. He wanted answers and suspected he would only find them on Earth.
CHAPTER FIVE: Boo Hoo, Baby
The puddle of human remains had spread across the base of the transparent box in the docking bay. Rok was standing next to it with the KLAW attached to his muscular frame by a harness. On the other side of him, Judge was staring into the distance, as if teleporting was something he did every day. The ship was hurtling toward Earth, but they wouldn’t break the atmosphere. Jessica would control the ship so it skimmed the edge just long enough to teleport them to the surface, but he wasn’t confident she understood the alien technology well enough not to materialize them inside a wall.
“Prepare to teleport.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Rok asked.
“Just stand still,” Judge replied in a tired voice.
“I was gonna do that anyways. How the heck did she…”
The rest of Rok’s complaint disappeared when the ship did. The first time Jessica had used the technology he’d been distracted by the fireball on his ass, so he’d never knowingly teleported anywhere, but Joker assured him they’d run numerous tests while he was recovering inside the pod. According to Jessica, the teleporter hooked up with a chip inside his head, but it wasn’t smart enough to know who he was, meaning anyone or anything he was physically in contact with would teleport with him. He supposed that was probably for the best, otherwise they would arrive at their destination naked and unarmed.
Being teleported wasn’t unpleasant, and it didn’t happen instantly. First, he felt heat flooding through his body, then a tingling sensation shuddered through him. One moment he was staring at Judge’s bored face, and the next he stopped seeing anything at all. Everything around him had turned a blueish white as if he were buried inside a marshmallow. He’d been standing when Jessica teleported them, but he lost his bearings as he materialized and then his footing. His left leg went out from under him and he dropped to the ground, landing heavily onto his left shoulder.
Two boots with scratched metal buckles were next to his head. He followed the line of the leg until he saw the underside of Judge’s helmet looking down at him. “Quit screwing around, Tag. We’re in enemy territory.”
Scrambling to his feet, he glanced at Rok. “Graceful, dude.”
He was standing in the middle of what he assumed had once been a two-lane road, but there were deep tears in the asphalt and it was covered in a scattering of stones and dirt. The surrounding vehicles were so badly rusted they were barely recognizable. Behind their skeletal remains were broken walls. Between the walls were more piles of rubble that disappeared into gloomy caverns. The buildings that must have once stood tall were now half-collapsed, displaying more darkened caverns on each level. To his right was a long, bent piece of metal with what appeared to be a traffic light, but the colored bulbs had been shattered so only the black frame remained. Bent at a horizontal angle across the road, it appeared to be a barrier warning them to go no further into the city.
A breeze swept past his legs, sending dust across his black boots. The road seemed to stretch forever, offering an endless path past the collapsing buildings and through the rusted skeletons of cars. In the distance and above his head was a floating city, pristine and glistening in the noon sun, almost as if everyone had moved closer to the stars, leaving the land to die.
Using the KLAW like a pointer, Rok aimed it at a shadow on the ground. Dark against the gray, it looked like the outline of what had once been a man. “What is that?”
Walking to the spot, aware Rok was now pointing his KLAW at him, he kicked at the dark smudge on the asphalt. “Point that damned thing somewhere else.”
Rok’s harness clunked loudly, but he didn’t look up to check if he was no longer in his line of fire. The shadowy outline of the man’s head, shoulders and arms appeared to be burned into the surface, almost as if someone had drawn it on. He doubted he was looking at artwork, but that would mean the man had been vaporized so fast his body had burned into the asphalt.
He looked up at Judge. “Is this what I think it is?”
Judge slowly shook his head. “I don’t know what kind of weapon would do that.”
&nb
sp; “Nuclear bomb?”
“Can’t be. The city would be wrecked.”
Turning slowly on his heel, he surveyed the damaged buildings. “It is wrecked.”
“Maybe so, but a nuclear bomb would have flattened it.”
It was a fair observation. Although the city was collapsing in on itself, trees and weeds were pushing through the rubble and ivy climbed the crumbling walls. Nature was slowly reclaiming its real estate and one day the city would blend with the forest surrounding it.
Rok asked cheerfully, “Where to, boss?”
He’d expected to find people inside the city, but other than wind blowing dirt around his feet, nothing appeared to be moving. “Guess we’re walking.”
The road was pitted with deep holes, suggesting it might have been bombed, but he couldn’t be sure. It certainly wasn’t an operational city, meaning perhaps no one lived in it anymore. The floating city was ahead of them in the distance, a stark contrast to the one he was in. Why would anyone live in a ruined city if there was a better one high in the sky? One city appeared to offer a life of privilege and the other only death, but appearances could be deceptive.
Flicking his chin at the floating city, he asked, “Who do you think lives there?”
“Maybe everyone moved,” Rok replied.
“Why would they leave the land?”
“Maybe there was a nuclear war.”
Even if they were walking through radiation, it wouldn’t make any difference to them, they were already dead, but he didn’t believe the city had been bombed. There was no epicenter of damage, just the slow erosion of collapsing buildings. The mundaneness of drying laundry proved people were alive somewhere, and he’d come to the city to find the person who had hung out a line of washing.
They were making their way along the road, stepping over rubble and around the skeletons of cars, but walking past one collapsing building after the next wasn’t doing anything for him. If they couldn’t find anyone, then the people would have to come to them. Stopping in the middle of the road, he turned to Rok who came to a halt next to him.
