Echo Effect Complete Edition

by Robert D. Armstrong

  “I know that, I do. The problem, it’s just the more my mind has returned, the more this comes into play. Those things creep back in. I’d like to be able to take you for a coffee, something to eat, just simple stuff. Neither of us love the city life, but if we’re gonna be this close for these operations, I know you’d like to do things together, even make public appearances someday.”

  Vala sighed loudly, narrowing her eyes a thousand miles away. She was an expert Cilan, controlling her abilities at will. She could alter the color of her eyes, hair, and skin to appear a different race or age. There was one caveat: her emotions were tied to her abilities, especially in regard to Michael. He noticed his words emotionally drained her, physically altering her appearance drastically as she wilted two decades in a matter of seconds.

  Her skin began to sag and wrinkle around on her face. Her hair began to gray as her eyes glossed over.

  “Hey, no-no-no,” Michael said, staring up at her in the mirror.

  “It just, h-hurts me to hear t-that, Mike. It just kills me.” She sniffled. He put both arms around her, holding her tight, “I’m fine, Val, just… I’m venting, talking out loud.” She rested her head on his chest.

  “Have I ever made you feel less?” She glared up at him.

  “What? No. Absolutely not. You build me up. I need to keep things in perspective. We’re both lucky to be alive, much less together,” he said. After embracing her for a few minutes, her age slowly receded back to a young, vibrant, early thirties woman. Michael combed through her gray hairs as they turned back to dirty blonde.

  Suddenly, the phone rang. “I better get that,” Michael said.

  “No-no, I will.”

  “Hello,” Vala said.

  “Carmen, it’s—”

  “Keith?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Haven’t heard from you in months. Don’t worry about the fake names, I have this line secured now,” Vala said.

  “Good. Ah, listen, Vala, Lucas just showed up here a few hours ago. I hate to just throw this on you two, but we need to talk. There’s a big problem,” Keith explained.

  “With what?” She gulped.

  “It’s complicated, but I want you and Michael to have a serious talk. It’s not a sure thing yet, but he wanted me to ask you about a Star Rust mission—”

  “Whoa. Star Rust? Are you out of your mind, Keith?” she yelled. Michael rushed over to the phone.

  “Mike, Lucas wants me—”

  “I heard.” Michael glared.

  “Vala, listen to me, I’m not finished,” Keith said.

  “Let me have the phone,” Michael said. She handed it over. Michael glanced at the ceiling. “Keith.”

  “Hey, Mike. I’m sorry that came out the wrong way. Sorry to have upset her.”

  “Keith, just please tell me you’re not asking us to get involved with any of that again. We’ve moved on.” Michael panned around.

  “I know, and believe me, I would never say anything unless it was a special circumstance. Can you put me on speaker?” Keith asked.

  Vala’s pupils glided across the holographic interface ‘speaker on.’ “We can both hear you now,” she said.

  “I’m not going into a lot of details here because it’s not a sure thing, but Lucas revealed something very alarming earlier. The craft that exploded years ago, the origin of the Star Rust war, well, one of them is here on Earth, and it’s demanding he hand over an artifact. The problem is, Lucas doesn’t have it, the government confiscated it.”

  Vala’s mouth dropped as they turned toward one another. “Here?” she mouthed.

  “Um. That’s kinda terrifying,” Vala said, glancing out at the stars for a moment.

  She snapped her head back at the phone. “Wait, you want me to steal it back? That’s why you’re calling.” Vala put her hand on her hip.

  “Lucas wanted me to ask. It’s not me. I would rather you not be involved, ever, but there is a good reason behind the request,” Keith said.

  “No,” Michael said, turning his back, and stepping across the room.

  “There’s no way. Can’t believe you’re even coming at us with this,” she said.

  “Again, I’m just relaying the message, but if Lucas can’t convince the government to hand that artifact over to this, alien, it promised that humanity will pay dearly. Apparently, Lucas was pretty shook up over it.”

  “We’ve got our own problems,” Michael said.

  “There has to be someone else that can do it.” Vala rolled her eyes.

  “Lucas knows plenty of intelligence people, special forces, spies, but the problem is time. We don’t have time to build relationships, come up with fake identities. He needs someone who can go and steal it without any casualties. Now. A Cilan was his first choice,” Keith said.

  “Well, you’ll have to tell him to find another one,” she replied.

  “I will.”

  “I did a lot of double-crossing to find Michael all those years ago, and we’ve got a slew of dangerous people breathing down our necks. And now they want what’s left of Michael’s body for payment, the alien materials.” Vala stepped toward the window, glancing back at Michael.

  “You hear something?” he whispered. She covered the speaker on her phone as Michael shot over to the window, scanning the parking lot.

  “I had no idea you two were dealing with that,” Keith said, his voice muffled by her hand.

  “Yeah, we’re not exactly sure who is tracing us, but the alien materials in Michael’s body are incredibly valuable.” Keith must have understood there was no removing them either, they were infused into what little flesh and bone remained in Michael, even his skull.

  “Look, I’m sorry. I hate to have asked, but I’m just forwarding the message because of its importance. I’ll be in—”

  Michael tackled Vala as gunfire riddled the window, shattering the glass and filling the room with lead. He sprawled over her, using his metallic frame to shield her. Car alarms and screams echoed off the mirrored row of apartment buildings.

  “Are you hit?” Michael asked.

  “No.” She panted.

  “Vala? Michael?” Keith yelled as she shut off her phone.

  “Don’t move,” Michael said. His advanced audio detection cued in on voices outside their low-income flat.

  “Mercs. Sounds like t-twelve, maybe fourteen. Two at the bottom of the steps, the rest in the parking lot. A mix of projectile and laser weaponry,” Michael said. Beneath him, he could feel Vala’s superhuman adrenaline pulsing through her body, like a stalking lion waiting to explode from the brush.

  “I know. Let me at `em,” she whispered.

  “They’re coming up.” He pointed at the stairwell outside.

  Footsteps creaked on the steps. Micheal rolled off Vala, pointing outside. “Two coming up.” He signaled, keeping his voice low enough that only a Cilan could detect it. He slithered under the window, creeping low as Vala reached into her nightstand. She snatched out her submachinegun and ducked behind the bed, exposing just enough of her weapon that was trained on the window. Michael unraveled a bandage around his left arm, revealing his wrist-mounted, plasma saber sheath.

  Michael sensed them sneaking close to the window he was under. His index finger followed their approach as they tiptoed along the wall, giving Vala the option to shoot through the sheetrock. As they closed, the point man’s rifle barrel poked through the broken glass, but his body was still behind the frame.

  “You hear anything?” one of them asked. Michael yanked the gun’s barrel, pulling the man out of cover as he fired off several rounds. Michael tugged the merc into view, and Vala filled his chest with five rounds.

  Blood spilled over into the room, followed by the body, falling atop Michael.

  The second merc unloaded an automatic shotgun aimlessly into the room, tearing through the sheetrock, but the audio cue from the weapon gave Michael a precise location beacon.

  “Mike!” Vala yelled. He unleashed his half-m
eter green plasma blade. It shot out of his wrist like a flamethrower at first, but it quickly conformed to an almost solid, daggered shape.

  He stood up, squatting under the merc’s corpse and using it like a shield as slugs pelted the carcass. He barreled toward the sound, tossing the body aside and thrusting his plasma blade through the wall. The gunfire instantly ceased, followed by a gurgling sound, then three thuds as his body tumbled down the steps. Michael retracted the blade as it gave off an electric suction sound, vanishing into its sheath.

  “Watch the door.” Michael pressed against the wall, plunging his fingers through the sheetrock. He began hacking through the ceiling. Debris fell through, scattering smoke and wood about the room. “We’ve got maybe a minute before they send more.” He climbed into the attic.

  “I know.” Vala scrambled into the closet, handing up an XJ5 long gun. “I know you don’t like energy rifles,” she said.

  “I don’t like us being shot at either,” he said. She effortlessly leaped up into the attic, landing like a cat beside him. “You okay?” he asked.

  “You’re the one that’s hit,” she said, observing a blackened scar on his metallic shoulder.

  “It glanced right off, I’m good,” he said. They hurried across the attic, squeezing through the beams. “They’re this way. We’ll flank out behind them.”

  “Got it,” Vala replied. Michael stopped, cutting through the roof on the opposite side of the attackers. Michael glared through, then clambered out on top of the roof. He eased over the ridge of the roof as Vala trailed behind him.

  “Authorities should be here within five minutes. We can send a message or run?”

  Michael sloped his laser rifle’s bipod over the roof, staring down his scope at the targets.

  “So much for running,” she whispered, staring at them with their backs turned. Five of them huddled between two Mercedes, donning full body armor, preparing for another breach. They seemed to be planning their attack while others had their guns drawn on their apartment.

  “They’ll keep coming back, Mike,” she said.

  Michael dipped his head for a moment and sighed, rising up. “I know.”

  “Use caution with shot placement. We have civilians around, but you have five targets standing together and seven more littered around the cars. See `em?” She pointed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Are we doing this?” she asked.

  “There’s a lot of things I don’t want to do.” He scoped down the barrel of his rifle, unleashing several volleys in quick succession, dropping eight of them before they even knew where Michael was.

  “Whoa.” Vala’s mouth dropped. The energy flashes scorched through them, striking their central nervous system and planking them like boards. One of them crumpled over like the wind had been knocked out of him. He held his chest as Michael followed up with a headshot. The remaining attackers scurried out of Michael’s line of sight.

  “I’ll finish off the rest of them,” Vala said, raising up to deliver the final blow.

  “No, no.”

  “What?” Vala put on the brakes, her black boots skidded across the rooftop shingles.

  “Leave `em, Val. Just, leave a f-few alive. They’re running in fear, anyway,” he said.

  She turned toward him as the moonlight shadowed her face in silhouette, revealing a set of red eyes. “We’ve got `em on the run, Mike. I don’t wanna do this either, but let’s finish it. I’m sick of worrying about it every time we settle in. Relentless.”

  “We’ve killed enough of them. Let `em go back and tell the others. Fear is our weapon.” Michael retracted his rifle.

  “That doesn’t send the message. We’re letting them run and that—”

  “It does! That’s enough!” Michael roared, his fiery green eyes ignited like two flames splashed with gasoline.

  Vala leaned back. “Alright, fine, we let `em go.”

  Michael stood, turning his back to Vala as he walked to the opposite side of the roof. She approached beside him, grabbing his hand. “I shouldn’t have pushed it.”

  “It’s fine. Come on.”

  They both jumped off the back side of the two-story roof, landing in a crouch side by side. Michael’s cybernetic composition winced slightly on impact while Vala landed softly, her heels pressing into the damp soil. They hunkered low, heading toward their old solar-powered Audi SUV and climbing in.

  “Let’s go,” Michael said. He took off, slipping past an army of police and medical personnel headed into their apartment. “What do you think?

  “Like I said, I didn’t want to do it, but I think we should’ve finished them,” she replied.

  “No, I’m talking about what Keith said.”

  “Frightening, fascinating, but there’s an obvious solution. They have to hand it over. Imagine the power that species has. They destroyed another alien craft that can travel the universe. We can barely make it to Mars without decades of planning and that’s right next door. We’re facing an alien species that destroys other aliens. That’s all I need to know,” she said.

  Chapter Four

  Sixteen hours later…

  “Hello, Lucas,” a serious looking Army colonel said, extending his hand. “Long time.”

  “Colonel Ritter,” Lucas said, giving him a firm handshake.

  Ritter was in his late fifties, tall and thin, with gaunt facial features. He was balding with a scraggly gray and brown combover. He had a calculating, intelligent look about him, his deep-set hazel eyes seemed to scan and process information at a high level of scrutiny. His wrinkled face seemed hardened from years of concentration.

  “Have a seat.” He signaled, assessing Lucas as he panned around Ritter’s office.

  It was a narrow and long room with a woody appearance throughout, dark cherry desk, bookshelves, and a matching chair in front of it. Pictures were littered about from Ritter’s youth. Most had him alongside guerilla fighters in foreign lands, Afghanistan and Korea more than likely. Ritter’s hair and body were thicker in his youth and sported different appearances in each photo, a beard in Afghanistan and clean-shaven in Korea.

  “You miss those days?” Lucas sat straight in his chair. Ritter raised his eyebrows, glanced around the room.

  He bobbed his head side to side. “Eh, sometimes, but not usually, no.” He dropped his head for a moment and grinned, shifting his eyes up at Lucas. “What about yourself? You miss the SEALs?” he narrowed his eyes at Lucas, sipping a cup of water.

  “No, not really,” Lucas replied.

  “Yeah, hmm, I’d guess not.” Ritter sneered.

  Lucas squinted. “You got something you wanna say, Colonel?”

  “Nah, no offense. Nothing I can say that hasn’t been said already,” Ritter replied. Lucas’ reputation in combat was a dark, dingy basement of secrets. He was known to get the job done at all costs.

  “You know better than most that was a long time ago. A young man’s war. Your people had a job, train the guerillas, use them to your advantage. Ours was different, direct action against the threat, and that’s what we did,” Lucas said.

  Ritter leaned back in his chair. “Yeah, we both had our roles. Sometimes, the generals needed a sledgehammer, other times a scalpel,” Ritter said. Lucas nodded.

  “I guess you’ll never know exactly what generals need, will you, Colonel?” Lucas asked. The colonel was clearly past his elder prime.

  Ritter chuckled. “What I do know is that it doesn’t say much for your intelligence to show up on my doorstep after being declared an enemy of the state,” he replied.

  Lucas paused, sticking out his bottom lip. “Yeah? It says even less that you won’t do anything about it.”

  Ritter turned his head and paused. His face turned red as he grinned. “So, what is it you want? You’re clearly not worried about self-preservation.”

  “Ah, well, you know how us sledgehammers are. We’re not worried about precision or politics, just about knocking the shit outta something that gets in our
way.” Lucas and Ritter chuckled. Ritter leaned back in his expensive, leather, office chair, interlocking his fingers on his stomach.

  “Alright, so, let’s cut the shit,” Ritter said.

  “I want you to give me back an artifact you took,” Lucas said.

  Ritter tilted his head and smiled, then began to snicker under his breath. “You come all the way out here and make demands after all the dirt we have on you?”

  “Yeah, I am. Let me explain,” Lucas said, yanking out his phone. “What kind of holocontacts are you wearing?” Lucas inquired.

  “None. I have glasses, though.” He pulled out a set of small, round, sophisticated reading glasses that could view holograms.

  “Show me camera seventeen’s feed,” Lucas commanded his phone AI.

  “Please wait,” the AI responded in a female voice.

  The device projected a crystal clear holographic image between Ritter and Lucas, over the desk. The colonel stood, pushing his glasses forward.

  “Huh?” His mouth dropped.

  “What… where is this?” he asked.

  “You ought to know. It’s at my compound,” Lucas said.

  Ritter tilted his head, observing the floating oval wrapped in tentacles. He glanced at Lucas, then back at the feed. “That’s live?” Ritter asked.

  “Yep.”

  “What in God’s name?” Ritter asked.

  “Yeah, my exact reaction.”

  Ritter studied it for a few moments. “What’s this thing got to do with the artifact?” Ritter asked.

  “Everything.”

  “Explain,” Ritter said.

  “The top of the artifact is circular, about this big.” Lucas outstretched his arms.

  “I know the one you’re referring to. Why is it important to you, specifically?” he asked.

  “So, apparently, this device you confiscated is used as a means of control, it can enslave these beings.” Lucas pointed at the screen. Ritter furrowed his eyebrows, narrowing his eyes.

  “That’s why it’s here. The device has been activated by someone. You can’t see it now, but underneath those tentacles is a potentially unfriendly visitor, extremely powerful, and we don’t have much time,” Lucas replied.