Echo Effect Complete Edition

by Robert D. Armstrong

  “I don’t have what you’re looking for, not anymore,” Lucas replied.

  “My instruments detected the signal emitted from this exact location. I find it interesting how I can pinpoint this planet out of billions, yet the regional location is somehow incorrect. Not to mention, you have other sections of the wreckage here. You are ignorant to its whereabouts or you are using deception.”

  “I’ve already told you, it’s gone. It was confiscated by the government months ago. I can’t help you, and I will not lay down while you put innocent lives at risk,” Lucas said.

  Right then, two tall doors opened on each side of the object, revealing two blue orbs within the shadow. Loud clanking footsteps were heard as two lumbering, mechanized bipedal robots exited each door. They were black in color and near twenty-feet tall. Embedded in the upper torso was a cockpit-like capsule with a pilot inside.

  The robots’ arms were six-foot long plasma rifles reverse engineered from the alien crash site. A glowing blue hue emitted from the barrel of each weapon as they drew down on the foreigner. They angled their line of sight so as not to engage in crossfire with Lucas or each other.

  The tentacles around the object slowly unraveled from bottom to top, revealing the inside of the object.

  “Hostility?” the creature asked. The body shape was humanoid but mostly cybernetic with fused panels of blackened metals intertwined with ash-colored hints of organic remnants.

  The arms and legs were disproportionately long compared to humans. On its back were four tentacles, whipping around erratically. The length of each appeared varied as they retracted and grew, creating a spurting liquid sound like a geyser erupting.

  The head was bizarre. Somewhat similar to a man in shape and size, but more of an elongated oval, but as if it was covered in ash-colored tar that would flake off by touch.

  An ominous vacancy was persistent throughout the face with no eyes, mouth, or nose to speak of. Surrounding the head was a crown of three metallic, antenna-like rods that curved toward the back of the head and each other.

  “The craft that exploded above your planet, that was our doing, and I see you’ve successfully engineered a portion of that technology. Unfortunately for you, these weapons aren’t new to me. I’ve fought against them for centuries, far before your species knew of gunpowder. I say to you this, give me the device or I’ll tear through this entire installation until I find it.”

  Lucas panned left to right. He had no hand to play.

  Lucas sighed, glancing at the wounded behind him. “You’ve already injured two of my men.”

  “Please, reconsider any thoughts of hostility. Contemplate the technological leap to travel light-years to reach your planet. Your men will recover from their wounds, mild burns and fractures are survivable injuries according to your human medical documentation. I was fired upon, and I simply moved the primates out of the way so I could conduct my search adequately. I can assure you, if you cooperate, no one else will be—”

  Lucas gritted his teeth, “Fire!” he yelled. A barrage of plasma and laser fire directed toward the creature as its red electric aura deflected it. The hangar bay lit up like a fireworks display.

  “This is unfortunate,” the creature’s voice was muted as each burst of energy impacted its red shield, creating a static sound. The creature seemed unsurprised by the aggression, dipping its head briefly.

  “This will no doubt be a taxing experience for both parties,” the creature said.

  One of Lucas’ mechanized robots charged forward, penetrating the shield, smashing the foreigner with the tip of its gun in the chest. The force blasted the creature back, but its tentacles wrapped around the robotlike elastic bands, slingshotting it back into the mech. The metal on metal collision sounded like a head-on car crash, echoing off the walls. During impact, a U-shaped airbag deployed from behind the pilot’s headrest, encasing his head to prevent injury.

  “Hold your fire! You’ll hit the mech pilot!” Lucas yelled. Red electricity surged through the creature’s tentacles as they snaked around the robot’s arms and legs, paralyzing it. The robotics winced under the strain as the pilot 360ed the flight stick, prying for any degree of control. The creature smashed its face against the cockpit glass as the pilot removed his hands from the controls.

  “Don’t eject!” Lucas yelled.

  The other mech cautiously crept forward to aid his paralyzed comrade, but the tangle of tentacles directed the powerless mech’s plasma cannons toward its ally, stopping him in place. “Take another step, and we’ll test your new guns against a softer target, shall we?” it asked.

  “Don’t move, pilot!” Lucas directed.

  “Excellent choice,” the creature said, snatching its intertwined tentacles toward itself, ripping the robot into hundreds of pieces of scorched debris while staring into the glass at the pilot. As the robot fell apart, the creature cradled the cockpit capsule like a newborn child with its tentacles, rocking it back and forth as the pilot panicked inside. “Isn’t this the way you treat your young? As incomprehensible as I am, I think until our transaction is completed, maybe you should alter your perception of me to something more… comfortable, maybe that of a parent and helpless newborn? Yes. Perhaps this could ease your anxiety and promote cooperation,” it said.

  Lucas dropped his pistol and fell to one knee.

  Chapter Two

  Sixteen hours later

  The shovel scraped the sidewalk lightly, scooping the snow and ice away. It was the middle of winter in Minnesota, the day after a record March blizzard. Keith stood up tall, stretching his back while wiping the sweat from his brow before it froze. “Ah, alright, that’s the last of it.” He pulled his coat tight before trudging through the snow back to his yard.

  “Keith. Oh. Keith, thank you for doing that, dear. George hasn’t felt good all week.” An elderly woman smiled through the crack of the door. The strength in her voice had faded, but the conviction in her tone was unwavering. However small Keith’s deed was, it was held in high regard, it seemed.

  “No problem, Mrs. Collier. If the mail runs later, I’ll grab it for you, too.” Keith waved. She paused without a word, staring at him.

  “I’ll watch for him,” he said. Her stare became intense, emotional, as her frail hand shook holding the door.

  “I know you’ve been back home for a while, Keith, but we’re so glad to have you here. We love you like a son.”

  “Thank you. I love you too, Mrs. Collier. Thank you so much. Please, get back inside before you catch a cold.” He grinned. She nodded and shut the door as he turned toward home. He stared out to the flat white scenery down the road where his biological parents lived. He wasn’t welcome there. Not anymore, anyway.

  His father had grown ill and was bedridden. Keith wasn’t allowed to visit or even told the reason for the sickness. Keith’s path was wildly different from the rest of his family. They couldn’t relate; being in a strict religious community. As the years passed, they saw Keith more of an outsider, a worldly man who put science over God.

  Keith stepped back to his front door, taking a gander at the massive heap of snow on the roof of his modest two-bedroom home. “Dammit, hope the roof doesn’t cave in. Repair guy said the beams needed replacing three months ago,” he mumbled.

  Keith shut the door, stamping his boots on the mat several times. “Mia, I’m back.” He peeled off his coat.

  “Great, but shoes off, mister,” Mia said from down the hall.

  “I was just about to.” He grinned. Straight down the hall, a silhouette appeared, stepping toward him. A female with long thick hair, wearing a light blue nightgown.

  “Guess who just called?” Mia asked, coming into view of the candlelight by the door. She was a petite, middle-aged woman with dark hair and eyes.

  “Hmmm. Mrs. Collier?” He grinned.

  “Yep.”

  “What’d she say?” he asked.

  “She didn’t say much, just reminding me again of how sweet a man you
are.” Mia flashed a full smile, wrapping her arms around his neck and pecking Keith on the lips.

  Keith met Mia three years back at the local high school while he was a substitute teacher for a month. She taught history and was an avid reader of the Greco-Roman eras. The conversations started in the cafeteria, and the relationship bloomed from there.

  “She’s suspicious you might leave me. Maybe you’ll find a man who doesn’t contend with the seasonal blizzards.”

  “Uh-huh. I might. You know how I like my beaches. Hey, what did that repair guy say, the one who was over here about the roof a few months back? You guys were in the attic? It was creaking like crazy before you came in,” she asked.

  “That’s right, roof, you better not creak in my presence!” Keith shouted, glancing upward.

  She chuckled. “Humor won’t distract me. What’d he say?”

  He sighed. “He said it would need replacing.”

  “When?”

  “After this winter.” Keith kicked off his boots.

  “Sounds like it’s on its last leg.”

  “I’m going up to handle it. There’s so much weight on it, that’s the problem,” he said, reaching outside to grab the shovel, then heading up the stairs. The house was built in the early 2050s, nearly thirty years old now. Keith spent much of his savings from Solarsystems to give it a modern touch. It retained a cozy feel about it. Highlighted by antiques from the previous century, the style was a mix of both Keith and Mia’s. She romanticized things of the past while Keith, he moved forward the best he could.

  The study was the conversation piece. In front of the window, an antique typewriter sat on an old Amish, black walnut desk, opposite a modern holographic computer. The home had real hardwood floors, thick baseboard moldings, a real fireplace, and higher than normal ten-foot ceilings. For security, Keith installed an advanced holographic security system that projected live images of motion to their phones or wristwatches.

  “Need any help?” she asked.

  “Nah, I’m okay, thank you.” He opened the spare bedroom door, closing it behind him. The room had been primed for painting. The furniture was covered while the ceilings and floors were taped off, but never finished. He panned around. “Haven’t been up here in a while, maybe that’s the problem,” he said, glancing over a box of files with a white sheet over it. Through the sheet, he saw the Solarsystems’ corporate logo. He snapped his head away and sighed loudly, turning toward the window with the shovel in hand.

  He opened the window and a chill jet of air rushed into the room. He glanced back, making sure he remembered to shut the door. Keith then stepped out on the small balcony and began pecking at the layer of ice and snow with his shovel. “This stuff is thick,” he said, whaling away at it.

  All at once, the underlying sheet of ice buckled, causing a chain reaction that rushed down the steep, sloped roof. The suburban avalanche forced him to duck inside the window as the snow and ice blanketed the side of the house, then crashed into the backyard.

  “Keith! You okay up there?” Mia shouted from downstairs.

  “Yeah. Yeah! I’m good! Just, uh, came down a bit quicker than I expected,” he said.

  The door flung open as Mia entered. “Sounded like part of the roof fell in!” She smirked.

  “Now, I have to get the other side,” he said, snapping his attention toward a distant rumble from the west.

  “What is that?”

  “Military choppers.” He dipped his head, bracing his arm against the wall. He stepped to the other window, panning into the distance. From here, he could see two black helicopters flying low, one gunship with a plasma cannon and the other a transport.

  Mia tiptoed over his shoulder. “They’re flying pretty low, headed this way.”

  “Looks that way, doesn’t it?” Keith opened the window and grabbed his shovel.

  “Hunny, no, really, they’re coming right at us,” she said.

  Keith reared back the shovel, but it was blown out of his hands by the chopper. “Damnit,” he said. The blades shook the house as the chopper lowered right beside them, the vibration caused the sheet of ice to tremor. Keith shot inside and shut the window, watching the ice cascade down in front of him.

  “That’s one way to do it!” he yelled, cupping his ears.

  “Do you know them? Why are they here?” Mia yelled over the blades as they landed in Keith’s backyard.

  “They didn’t come all the way out here for nothing.” He headed down the steps, exiting his sliding glass back door as the chopper blades dissipated. Twelve soldiers jumped off the transport, trudging through the snow in all directions to set up a perimeter. The gunship circled the neighborhood. Keith glanced over to his left at the Collier’s residence as George peeked through the blinds at the commotion. “It’s okay, Mr. Collier.” Keith smiled and waved.

  Mr. Collier didn’t seem convinced.

  Keith watched as Lucas stepped off the chopper, wearing a long, black overcoat with edgy dark shades. Underneath, he wore a black, double-breasted suit with a navy-blue tie. He took a good look at his surroundings and drew in a great breath before stepping toward Keith.

  Garza stepped off last. She’d traded her Marine camo for business casual. For today, at least. She held an expensive-looking leather briefcase with both hands. She leaned in toward Lucas, narrowing her eyes at Keith, “He’s waiting, sir.”

  “What’s with the dramatic entrance? Not even a phone call?” Keith asked.

  He tugged at his tie. “Miss me?” Lucas waved and sneered. They met each other halfway in the yard, shaking hands.

  “Yeah, apparently, or I wouldn’t put up with this nonsense. You’re scaring my neighbors and disturbing the peace,” Keith said.

  Lucas swaggered up next to Keith, giving him a once-over. “Is that a few more grays on your head? Trying to catch up with me?” Lucas asked, squinting at Keith’s hair.

  “Not on purpose, but yeah.” Keith rubbed his head.

  “And the Midwest accent has come back full swing, I hear.”

  “Along with my senses,” Keith said. Lucas bounced his eyebrows and nodded.

  “Heard you got married, too. Congratulations.” Lucas grinned, clapping Keith’s shoulder.

  “We sent you an invitation. I figured it was lost in the mail.” Keith smirked.

  “Oh, nope. I got it, but it’s been crazy the last two years. I apologize.” Lucas tapped his foot.

  Keith gestured his hand toward the door. “Wanna come inside, out of the cold so you can tell me what this is all about?”

  “Sure.”

  “Wait.” Keith blocked Lucas with his arm.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “If this is about a job, I’m not interested.” Keith stabbed his finger at Lucas’ chest.

  “Okay. Not really a job, but I need your help.” Keith opened the door for Lucas and Garza.

  “Garza.” Keith dipped his head, panning over at Lucas.

  “What?” Lucas asked as Keith ushered them inside.

  “Who else have you hired from the Crucible? You hired me right after, now her. The drill was like a job fair for you or what?”

  “I told you it was. A lot of top talent there couldn’t be ignored.” Lucas poked out his bottom lip.

  “Tell me you didn’t hire Belmont, too?”

  “He made it to the interview process but flipped the desk when we asked him what his weaknesses were,” Lucas said, winking at Garza.

  “Whatever.” Keith scratched his nose.

  “Kidding, of course. Haven’t heard anything from him,” Lucas said.

  “He hasn’t been a Marine in seven years. Lost his commission after the Crucible drill,” Garza said.

  “Shocking. For what?”

  “He resigned, but he was also under investigation for another assault, so he kinda had to.”

  “Oh, okay. Hmm. So, what’s with the entrance? I know you didn’t fly all the way out here to tell me congrats on my marriage from over a year ago,” Keith said
.

  Lucas showed Keith his palms. “Can we sit?”

  “Sure.”

  “You remember Vala’s idea to upload all the Solarsystems’ solar tech online? Make it free to the public?”

  “Yeah. But I also recall the government locking down access to those sites and seizing computers that downloaded the schematics, then buying out everyone who had a working prototype,” Keith replied.

  “Which leaves?” Lucas asked, cocking an eyebrow.

  “The source,” Keith replied.

  “I’m the source, Keith. I had most of the panels on my property, the only ones left in the wild.” Lucas touched his chest.

  “Okay. Not sure how I can help you.”

  “You can’t, that’s not the real issue here, just giving you a little backstory. Look, my goal was always the same as Vala and Michael’s. It was a great idea. The world is not an easy place to live in. The least we can do is provide people with energy that’s cheaper. The tech is there, why not. Right?” he asked.

  “You know I’ve always agreed with that. I’m waiting for the but…” Keith replied.

  “Yeah, but, about ten months ago, we were raided by FBI and DOD, they showed up with twelve Humvees, twenty-four flatbed trucks, four armored personnel carriers, and a tank, claiming I was an enemy of the state.” Lucas chuckled.

  “My God. But did they bring any official charges against you?” Keith asked.

  “Hell no. You know that was all crap, anyway. They’re simply scared to death the general public might have access to a free energy source. Uh. Anyway, my hands were tied. I was actually asleep when it all started. They showed up at two in the morning flashing badges and pointing guns. I showed up in the middle of it.”

  “I think you probably had better guns. Did they take those, too?” Keith asked.

  “No, they didn’t. I was smart enough to put most of those at another location.” Lucas cocked an eyebrow.

  “The oil tycoons aren’t so much worried about guns are they?” Keith replied.

  “Nah.”

  “Lucas, look, I’m sorry they did this, but I’m not an attorney, I can’t help you go to war with a bunch of corporate suits and DOD lawyers,” Keith said.