Divided (#1 Divided Destiny)

by Taitrina Falcon

  One option was to try and steal an alien craft, bring it back to Area 51, and see if they could learn the likely incomprehensible technology. This wasn’t the movies; the heroes couldn’t just storm the alien ship and fly it away with a quick glance. There was perhaps another way, though. He looked at the book he was holding in his hand. It was supposedly non-fiction, but he had picked it up at the airport last year, viewing it as trashy fiction to waste a couple of hours with.

  ‘Magic or Myth? The Truth Behind the Shrine of Iqmir’ was the title. It had been released four years ago, sinking the career of the man who had written it. It was a tale of a platform deep in Aztec territory that had many legends of disappearances and rumors of magic surrounding it. Ordinarily, Julian wouldn’t have given it a second look, but something about it had been nagging at him. Given the circumstances, an alien invasion did blow the concept of ridiculous out the window.

  If the events talked about in the book were in any way accurate, it could be exactly what they were looking for, and consequently it had to be investigated. Julian left his lab and headed for the briefing room, which General Sampson had commandeered as a command post.

  “General, I believe I have something,” Julian began. He handed the thin volume to the general, who read the title and raised his eyebrows. “I realize it looks like a frivolous line of inquiry, but I think it’s worth looking into.”

  “Alright, Doctor Braden, you have my attention,” General Sampson told him.

  “The book describes a number of legends surrounding a platform deep in the Mexican rainforest. Two of the legends are of interest to us. When I saw the footage of those suited aliens just appearing in a flash of light, it sparked the memory,” Julian explained. “One of the legends talks about people disappearing and reappearing in a flash of light and—”

  “You think this platform is some sort of transportation device?” General Sampson interrupted.

  Julian sighed. “When it was published, it all sounded so fantastical. There was apparently footage of a probe disappearing, carbon dating tests, elemental analysis—it was all discredited. However, now it doesn’t sound quite so fantastical, and—”

  “Yes, yes, it could be real,” General Sampson said impatiently. “Get to the point, Doctor. How does it help us?”

  “The second legend. It was first inscribed on a stone pillar, which has since been lost to the elements. Before it crumbled to dust, it was copied by one of the earliest explorers in that region. They thought it an allegorical tale.” Julian smirked. “I expect the truth is a lot more interesting. The tale talked of a being of great power that came to this world from another. Fresh from battle, they swore that never again would such evil threaten the world they called home. They built an unholy weapon, which with one strike decimated their enemies and—”

  “A superweapon?” General Sampson raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “This isn’t a movie, Doctor. We’re dealing with reality, and there are real men—”

  “The reality is that our current best hope will take years,” Julian snarled.

  He looked around the room, at the people busying themselves with various tasks, some military, some civilian. A few of them looked over, and Julian grimaced. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

  “My apologies, General.” Julian lowered his tone, pitching his voice so only the general could hear him. “I know the importance of keeping up morale, but you and I both know that reverse-engineering the aliens’ tech is a fool’s hope. As I said, it’ll take years, and we’ll be lucky if we survive the week. The aliens don’t appear to be stupid; I’m sure they’ll target all research facilities soon enough. We need an edge.”

  General Sampson nodded soberly. “You’re right, but we have to try.” He gestured with the book about the shrine, which he was still holding. “What makes you think this will give us that edge? Is this not just another fool’s hope?”

  “Perhaps,” Julian acknowledged. “But we have to try anyway.”

  The general gave a weak smile. “Okay, Doctor Braden, grab whatever gear you need. I’ll have whatever men I can spare meet you on the tarmac.” He handed Julian his book back and turned his attention back to the incoming reports from New York.

  Pleased, Julian strode out of the room. It was about a four-hour flight to the nearest runway by the shrine. Hopefully the military could scare up a chopper to transport them and the gear they would need on site. It would be a long trip on foot given its location in the middle of a dense area of rainforest, and transporting the necessary equipment would be next to impossible. He doubted they would be able to land nearby; they would probably have to winch everything down.

  Just over four hours later, they were at the shrine. The military contingent was hastily assembling a base camp. They erected a canopy to provide a small modicum of shelter for the gear, and hooked up the generator to the large industrial lights. It was before dawn, but even if the sun had been up, the lights would still have been needed.

  The entire area was overgrown by the rainforest. Even though the shrine made a small clearing, the trees bent and swayed, their leaves meshing together in a thin layer above. Winching down had not been fun. One of the soldiers had gone first and set up a beacon, which had helped, but it was still a leap of faith.

  The shrine was not the typical pyramid shape associated with the Aztecs. It seemed to most closely resemble a large, elaborately carved platform, which had a pedestal of sorts in the center of it. Behind the platform, there were some stone pillars that were starting to crumble and fall down. The pedestal was what interested Julian the most; it looked metallic, which was definitely out of place.

  Julian pulled out the sensors and started to take readings. The first test he ran was a rough field version of carbon dating. He smiled in grim satisfaction when the test said the shrine was around two thousand years old, a lot older than anything that had belonged to the Aztecs. That proved that he was right, that there was something here worth exploring.

  He wouldn’t claim to be an expert on the Aztecs; he was a real scientist, not one of those social scientists interested in history and culture. However, he knew enough to be able to recognize Aztec symbols. The platform was intricately carved, and nothing was reminiscent of Aztec design. Aside from the location, in the middle of the Mexican rainforest, there was no link to the Aztecs at all.

  In the book, the author had claimed that the pedestal was otherworldly in origin. Given the other claims about magic, the tests the man had claimed to have run had been swiftly discredited. However, Julian now wanted to know if the author had been right. For everyone’s sake, he hoped that he was. Julian stepped up onto the platform. He had a handheld XRF spectrometer, which would tell him of what element the pedestal was composed.

  It came back unknown, which could have been a flaw of the handheld system, or the pedestal could have been made of an unknown element and truly not be from this world. Either way, Julian swiftly jumped back off the platform. All the signs were saying that the claims made in the book, of being transported to another world, weren’t as ridiculous as everyone had believed. The last thing he wanted was to be taking an unexpected trip.

  “Doc, Doc,” the captain who was the leader of his military escort yelled for him. Julian ignored him. The captain marched over and grabbed his shoulder, handing Julian the radio. “Doc, it’s Colonel Clark. He needs to speak with you.”

  “Colonel, I’ve only just begun my investigation. When I have something for you, I will tell you. Until then, let me do my job,” Julian snapped into the radio. He thrust the radio back at the captain and strode off to prepare the robot probe.

  A young corporal was kneeling in front of the probe, a tablet computer in hand. Julian took one look at what he was doing and growled in frustration. The man was calibrating it completely wrong, or at least not anything approaching the best way of doing it. They needed full sensitivity on the sensors, not the ham-fisted mess the corporal was programming.

  “No, no, no, you idio
t. Give that to me, you clearly can’t be trusted to follow the simplest of directions,” Julian Braden berated the corporal, grabbing the tablet computer and tapping intently. As always, he would have to do it himself.

  Within minutes, Julian had the probe prepared to his satisfaction. He stepped back under the canopy and remotely controlled the robot probe over to the pedestal. He hadn’t gotten a detailed look; he’d been more concerned initially with the elemental analysis. However, he had seen that the carvings on the stone platform continued up the metal pedestal. They wrapped around it, making it almost look decorative.

  It wasn’t the carvings that were the interesting part; it was the side of the pedestal. There were two straight grooves that were out of place among the intricate curves and swirls. He thought that there might be a compartment in the pedestal, perhaps access to its inner workings. If the platform was a transport device, then it had to have some kind of programming, even if the technology was beyond their comprehension.

  The probe shuddered over on its track wheels. Julian raised the camera, getting a closer look at the lines. He manipulated the probe’s robot arm; there didn’t appear to be a catch, so maybe it was spring loaded and all he had to do was press.

  The probe touched the pedestal, and a massive column of light engulfed the platform, shooting high into the sky. It was like thousands of individual beams of light, very bright and combined, but somehow still separate. It lasted for just a moment before the light was gone—and so was the robot probe. Julian heard some swearing behind him.

  “Doc, any sensor readings?” the captain demanded.

  “Nothing,” Julian spat in disgust, tapping on the tablet, but to no avail. “The probe was there and then it was gone. None of these readings tell me what happened to it.” Julian turned and looked at the captain. “Keyword being that the probe is gone. It went somewhere.”

  “Colonel Clark,” the captain spoke into the radio. “Might want to prep a team.

  *****

  Battered and bruised, Leo led his squad through the hangar at McGuire. It was the dawn of another day, and he was sure that the fighting would begin again in earnest. The day before, after they had dropped off the dead alien, they had resupplied and headed back out there. The term ‘war zone,’ usually seen on television referring to cities in foreign countries, now definitely applied to New York. It was a complete disaster zone.

  Fires raged across the city from all the explosions. Burned-out cars, blown-out storefronts, shattered windows, and crumbled walls were commonplace. So far the fighting had mostly been contained within Manhattan; the aliens had used Central Park as a staging point to deposit fighters. The Air Force had scrambled a couple of bombers, aiming to take out a wave the second they materialized. Despite their fighter escort, the bombers were shot down before they could get close.

  Leo doubted they would stay confined to Manhattan for long. They would find new areas to drop their troops, and the fighting would spread out on multiple fronts until the entire city was engulfed. Captain Decker had told them that the other six ‘chosen’ cities were fighting similar battles. The war was global, but not as global as it could have been.

  When it came to the alien attack, there had been two surprises. The first was that the fighting wasn’t constant. Yesterday, as darkness had started to fall, the alien troops had retreated back to the mothership. Whether they didn’t have enough troops to staff shifts to maintain an around-the-clock attack or they just couldn’t hack fighting in the dark, no one knew. Whatever the reason, it was a very welcome respite. They were granted time to get reinforcements, and fresh troops into position. Leo and his unit had also managed to get some quality rest, an unexpected bonus.

  The other surprise had more to do with the alien strategy. The military were limited by what they could put into the field. They had to load planes, get trucks into position; they were ill-equipped to fight a war on their own soil. However, the aliens weren’t limited in the same way. Within minutes, the mothership could be above anywhere on Earth, and they could beam down alien troops anywhere where they would face no resistance. They didn’t have to meet the Earth military in battle; they could catch them out with lightning-fast attacks all over the globe.

  That would be near impossible to defend against. Perhaps that was why the aliens weren’t taking that strategy. They wanted Earth subjugated, not destroyed. Therefore, they had to take out the military; they had to break the back of the resistance in order to win.

  Before Leo and his squad could leave, Captain Decker stopped them.

  “Hold up, we have new orders,” Decker barked.

  The unit gathered on the side of the hangar again, in the same spot they’d had to receive their briefing the previous day.

  “Area 51 sent a team last night down to Mexico, to some shrine. Long story short, they think it’s a transport device to another world. Apparently there is some legend about a superweapon. We should be so lucky, right? Anyway, this robot probe vanished in a flash of light. They aren’t sure what happened to it, but it disappeared. Colonel Clark is assigning our unit to check it out,” Decker explained bluntly.

  Leo frowned. “We’re two men short, sir,” he pointed out quietly. They were also a long way from Mexico. A fresh unit from Camp Pendleton would surely be a better choice. Not that he was questioning the decision of a colonel; that was way above his paygrade.

  “That doesn’t matter; we’re together as a unit. It’s a mad scramble out there. Colonel says we’re the closest special forces unit that’s mission ready. Grab your gear. Wheels up in ten,” Decker ordered.

  “Hey Frasier, if we’re heading into the unknown, let’s cover our bases, yeah? Grab a little extra gear,” Staff Sergeant Ortiz suggested.

  “Good idea,” Leo said distractedly. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Leo leaned against the side of the hangar and pulled out his cellphone. He had tried his parents again last night but hadn’t been able to get a connection. Earlier this morning, the phone had rung but no one had picked up. He was getting worried, which was a distraction he didn’t need right now. They all had family. They all had people they cared about.

  If they were going to be deployed to an alien world, he wasn’t going to have phone reception. He had promised himself he wouldn’t keep trying; the phone networks were overwhelmed as it was, and he knew better than to add to it. However, he had to try once more. It might be the last chance he would ever have to speak to them.

  From the sounds of things, they hadn’t been able to forge a link between here and wherever the probe had gone. It could have just been vaporized and not transported. If it had sent the probe somewhere, there was no guarantee that wherever it had gone had an atmosphere capable of supporting human life.

  Spacesuits were pretty rare things. Even if they had been offered, Leo wouldn’t have accepted; they were too unwieldy. If they jumped into trouble, it would be a massive hindrance. Maneuverability and being able to carry more gear trumped assurance that they could breathe on the other side. This trip was a massive gamble. It was most likely a suicide mission, but they were out of options.

  Conventional means just weren’t going to cut it; they were seriously outgunned. True, they had taken out some of the suited aliens on the ground, but it was early days, and the aliens had many advantages. He had no doubt that the aliens would adapt to their strategy, and then they would be back to square one again.

  Leo hit his father’s cellphone number on his contacts list. Mercifully, it began to ring. And ring. And ring. His heart sank; they weren’t going to pick up this time, either. Then he heard the click that said the call had been answered.

  “Dad, oh thank god,” Leo said quickly. “Are you alright? What’s happening? How’s Mom? Why haven’t you been picking up?” Leo let loose his barrage of questions, all his fear and concern bubbling over.

  He felt a faint stirring of anger. He knew it was likely not their fault; in fact, if he knew his mom and dad, they had been trying to c
all him. It was probably down to the phone network, but he had been so worried. Now that they had finally answered, he was mad that they hadn’t picked up sooner. It was irrational and uncalled for, but he couldn’t help it.

  “Who is this?” asked a young, tentative voice on the other end of the line.

  “Staff Sergeant Leon Frasier. What are you doing with my dad’s phone?” Leo demanded, a sick feeling coiling in his gut. The beginnings of anger evaporated as he broke out in a cold sweat.

  “Sir…sir, I’m sorry…I…we’re not supposed to do this. Given everything, normal procedure for informing next of kin has been…look, I’m really sorry. I’m just an assistant, but the phone kept ringing, and…I’m sorry,” the boy babbled.

  Leo banged the back of his head against the hangar wall and closed his eyes. He had known it; he just hadn’t wanted to accept it. He hadn’t wanted to believe that it could be true.

  “You work at the morgue?” Leo asked brokenly. He swallowed hard when the boy confirmed it. “What happened?”

  “I don’t have all the details,” the coroner’s assistant started hesitantly. “A fight broke out at the grocery store over the canned supplies. It turned into a shootout. There were several casualties. I’m sorry, I don’t know any more.”

  “That’s okay,” Leo managed.

  He could hear his own voice in his ears; it sounded calm, eerily calm, like all his emotions were dead, suspended by the shock. It was a shock. He had known his parents wouldn’t live forever, that he would bury them one day, but he hadn’t expected it to be today. They had been so strong; they had always had an air of invulnerability. They had been his heroes, and now they were gone.

  “I’m deploying, so I’ll be unreachable. Do whatever you need to; I’ll take care of things when I get back,” Leo told him. He didn’t wait for a response, ending the call.