“I’m slowing down, finally. If we get this alien situation handled, who knows. Maybe I’ll have time for that. I’m not getting any younger.” He chuckled. Garza began tapping her foot while panning around the room. There was a long pause as Lucas stared at her.
“Hey.” He stepped forward, standing over her.
“What?” she mumbled, looking away from him, tugging her blouse down nervously.
“Look at me,” he demanded. She glanced at him, unable to hold contact with his inviting blue eyes.
“Lucas, I—”
A man burst through the door. “Sir, drone camera four, Colonel Ritter’s convoy approaching.”
“Oh, okay, on it,” Lucas said, flipping out his wristwatch. The video feed loaded as Lucas stood up. “Let’s make our way down there anyway,” he said. The man closed the door, leaving the two alone again.
“Sorry, that was unprofessional,” Lucas said.
“You’re damn right it was, with everything we have going on, the last thing we need is tension, good or bad,” she said.
“Noted,” Lucas replied.
There was another awkward pause. “Now, after all this is over, if you’re the last man on Earth, who knows?” She smiled.
“Fair enough. Just got caught up in the moment, I guess.” He grinned, projecting a video feed out in front of him, observing the convoy of vehicles. “Hmm, let’s see. Notice anything unusual?” he asked.
She studied them for a moment as they walked down the steps. “They’re old. Like, really old military vehicles.”
“The Humvees and transports are before my time even,” Lucas observed.
“Damn, that’s way back.”
“Careful,” he said. She chuckled under her breath.
“Hard times? Maybe the Army cut funding.”
“Doubt it,” Lucas said, turning off the feed. “I want six brutes on the perimeter and a Viper drone overhead at max altitude, armed, just in case. Let’s be as discreet as possible. I don’t want Ritter worrying about anything, or the Omega.”
“Got it,” Garza said, touching her earpiece to relay the order. Lucas stepped outside the hangar into the small airstrip. He glanced back, observing the Viper drone redirecting and cloaking overhead just before its thrusters blasted it above the thin clouds.
The Omega came into view, slowly floating over Lucas and Garza, descending in front of them. “A-alright, everything looks great. We’re set up,” Lucas said.
The Omega glanced over its shoulder at Lucas. “I feel it, the tingling sensation throughout my body, a familiar, but dim jolt. It was the one thing that led me to believe you didn’t possess the artifact initially. The signal emitted from here, but I couldn’t feel the artifact.”
“You knew it wasn’t here all along?” Lucas asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. Even though it was later in the afternoon, the New Mexican sun was beaming down on them, leaving little refuge. There weren’t many clouds in the sky nor a breeze on the open airstrip.
“The artifact, even when inactive, is so powerful that we can sense its presence. Try to imagine such an oppressive force in your body, for two million years, then suddenly strip it away. It almost feels, comforting. So, yes, I was almost sure you didn’t have the artifact, but I couldn’t take the risk,” Omega explained.
“Great. Almost ninety million dollars in damage,” Lucas muttered, glancing back at his facility under construction.
“Sir, the convoy.” A guard in the watchtower to the right of Lucas pointed.
Straight ahead, Garza could see the smoke trails from the roaring engines. The heat waves from the hot tarmac created a fuzzy distortion effect on the vehicles as they were summoned into view.
“I have a request,” Lucas said, glancing up at the Omega.
It stopped, tilting its odd head toward him. “Yes?”
“Do you think it would be less of a strain on the human mind if we received the artifact, and then handed it over to you? These people haven’t seen you with their own eyes, and as you’ve probably gathered, we’re a rather skittish species.”
Omega’s body pulsed red as twenty-foot electric sparks flashed out in all directions, like porcupine quills as it began to emit a low shrilling sound.
Lucas and Garza covered their ears as the sound increased dramatically to a deafening roar that shattered the watchtower’s viewing glass. The guard hunkered down as if they were under attack.
The red pulsing subsided as Omega turned toward Lucas, lowering himself as the red sparks diminished to sporadic glimmering, its head was dropped slightly. “My, apologies, I was lost in thought for a moment. This familiarity brings back a wealth of memories that are intense, a surge of data from hundreds of thousands of years, the amount of suffering is unimaginable.”
“Everyone alright?” Lucas yelled. A few people answered back in a whimpered tone as the convoy approached within a quarter mile.
Lucas slowly stepped forward with Garza as they proceeded out in front of the others. He glanced back at the Omega. “Well, glad that’s out of the way,” he whispered.
“No shit. We can’t have another outburst like that when they’re here. Tensions are already high,” she said.
The wind began to pick up a bit, blowing right at them from the east. “Feels like a hair dryer,” Lucas said.
“I know. Being from south Texas, believe me, it’s not much better,” she said.
A black Humvee exited out of formation as the rest of the convoy slowed down. Lucas squinted. “Zoom, two-hundred percent,” he ordered. His contacts increased his vision, giving him a crisp image of the lead Humvee. Colonel Ritter rode shotgun, wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses. His window was down with his arm hanging out.
A flatbed truck followed close behind Ritter as they parked thirty feet before Lucas and Garza. Ritter waved as the truck stopped, slowly removing his shades while glaring at the Omega floating a few hundred feet behind Lucas.
“Didn’t think you guys were gonna make it,” Lucas said. Ritter didn’t respond. A tall, bald man in a dark suit got out of the back seat. He walked around and began to open Ritter’s door as he flung it open himself.
Ritter strolled forward, brushing past Garza. He stood in the middle of the airstrip alone for several seconds with his back to them.
He cocked his head. “I-I don’t know, seeing it in person, it’s just… different. Makes me think of all the people that came before us who looked into the stars and wondered. And here, here it is,” he mumbled.
“I guess we’re lucky to get the experience,” Lucas replied.
“That really depends, doesn’t it? That’s the only one of them? Does it have a ship? Crew?” Ritter turned, placing his hands on his hips.
“Again, we don’t know for sure, but I don’t think he needs backup. It’s called the Omega.”
“Omega?”
“That’s what we’re calling it,” Lucas said.
“Wait, it gave you its name, or you nicknamed it that?” the man in the black suit asked, crossing his arms low in front of him.
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “What does it matter really? And who are you exactly? A Washington element, I’m sure.”
“Everything matters. You should know how important details are being a former SEAL. The decision we make here could hold an enormous amount of gravity for the American people,” the bald man replied.
“Well, it gave us that name. My point is, we’re giving it what it wants and it’s leaving,” Lucas replied.
Ritter closed the distance slowly, stopping within a few feet of Lucas. “How do you know for certain that once we hand over the artifact, we get a peaceful exit from this thing?”
Lucas chuckled. “Ritter, we’ve both been in situations that appeared to hold a degree of uncertainty. What I’m telling you is, this is our only option.” Lucas gestured toward the flatbed truck. The Omega slowly drifted forward.
“Ahem, sir.” The bald man nodded behind Ritter. He turned around, staring at the creature.
Everyon
e gawked at the Omega as it loomed overhead, maybe thirty feet off of the ground. It stopped, its tentacles slowly stirring in the breeze. It met everyone’s eyes, even the dozens of soldiers in the back of the formation that exited their vehicles.
Ritter took a half-stumble backward as the Omega showed them its palms. “I only require what I left behind,” the Omega said in a low, much more comforting tone. Lucas’ mouth dropped as he glanced back at the Omega, then Garza.
“Require?” Ritter’s open mouth closed. His childlike astonishment quickly morphed into the hard-nosed military commander he had evolved into. He turned back to the bald man and motioned to the flatbed truck. “Seems like we don’t have a choice then, do we?”
The canopy on the flatbed dropped, revealing a man in a white spacesuit. He was surrounded by a glass bubble just large enough for himself and the artifact in front of him. His helmet was tinted, and his left glove was slightly larger than the right.
The man in the spacesuit plunged the large hand into the artifact and turned it clockwise.
“Unwise,” the Omega said as its eyes flashed red. Sparks emitted from the center of the artifact as a tentacle whipped toward the truck, cutting the bald man in half and slicing off the upper portion of the truck’s cab, sending it sailing into another truck behind them, destroying it.
Ritter stared at his associate’s lower torso as it crumpled over. The cut was clean at the waist, like a high-powered laser had sliced him in half. “That could’ve b-been me,” he uttered. Ritter glared back at the Omega as it began to power down, its eyes began to blink quickly as it fought to hold up its own weight.
Lucas ran toward the Omega. “No-no-no!”
“You remember your pal, Dr. Keith Sanders? When we confiscated all your equipment, Keith apparently translated a portion of their language, and we hacked some of his files about these slave masters, and you know what we found? Vague directions on how to use this thing, but what we really need is his ECHO to fully control it, and you’re going to help us,” Ritter said.
“This is an example of having the will to do what’s necessary, Lucas. Once you and Keith Sanders are in custody, the ECHO will come around.” Ritter glared over his shoulder.
Lucas pulled out his plasma pistol and aimed it at Ritter. Garza followed suit. They both pulled their triggers but nothing happened.
“What?” Lucas stared at his weapon.
Garza panned around for her drones. “Open fire!” she yelled. She noticed all the brute drones were motionless, unresponsive to her command.
“You’re insane!” Lucas narrowed his eyes.
“It’s disabled everything! I’ve got nothing!” Garza yelled, panning around.
“That’s exactly what it does.” Ritter sneered, pointing at the Omega. “See?”
Lucas observed as the Omega attempted to brace its fall with its tentacles like a man struggling to use crutches for the first time. A loud crash erupted as the Omega’s massive frame smashed into the concrete, its headpiece crown collided with the ground violently. The metal chipped out a shoebox-sized chunk of asphalt that flung high into the air.
“Oh, my God, please forgive us,” Garza mumbled with her hand over her mouth.
The Omega’s massive tentacles flopped across the runway lifelessly as a wall of dust slammed into their faces.
“What’s wrong with you people? No!” Lucas charged Ritter as a loud gunshot echoed off the landscape.
Lucas was knocked to the pavement. He glanced at his shoulder, observing the projectile entry wound. Garza ran to his aid. “Stay back! They’ll kill us both.” Lucas pointed at her, applying pressure to his wound with his hand.
Humvees walled around the Omega as several dozen soldiers filled in the gaps. Lucas’ men ran out to confront the soldiers, but their weapons were useless.
Ritter walked out to meet them. “Put down your weapons! I know most of them don’t work, but if they do, don’t get yourselves killed, men. I know many of you are veterans. Listen, this was not your decision to go along with this. My quarrel is not with you. Comply, and we’ll see you’re treated fairly. You won’t be prosecuted.”
A soldier stepped over to Lucas and rolled him over with his foot, gun drawn. Lucas kicked the barrel, knocking it out of his hand and into Lucas’ lap. He stood up pointing the M-4 rifle at Ritter. “Call them off!” he yelled. “Now!” Blood ran down Lucas’ shoulder as he stared a hole through Ritter. He gritted his teeth. “That’s why you’re using all this old shit? This equipment, the trucks, weapons.” He shook the rifle. “You planned it all along, you fuck! Didn’t you?” Lucas yelled.
Ritter put up his hands calmly. “It only makes sense. I asked if you knew for certain this thing would leave peacefully. I never got an answer. Try to remember a time back when you put the American people first, if you can.”
Lucas nodded. “Fuck you, Ritter. This is pure madness.”
“Oh, this is madness, is it? What about blindly giving away our only defense? Listen, I know you’ve grown extremely liberal in your old age, but we both know these creatures have already destroyed entire species before. It openly admitted it! They’ve proven their hostility here, too. Even some of your own men were hurt.”
“What do you not understand about how important this device is to their people? Do you really think for a second that they’ll allow this when they overpowered their masters, a race of aliens thousands of years more advanced than us? They took back their freedom from them, and you think we have a chance?” Lucas shouted.
“There’s a lot we don’t understand, which is why we hope to study the creature and find out. If its war they want, we are a peaceful nation, but we will defend ourselves,” Ritter said.
“Study.” Lucas shook his head. “Unbelievable. Well, I have an answer for you now.”
“What?” Ritter asked.
“There won’t be a peaceful solution, not now,” Lucas stabbed the weapon barrel toward Ritter.
“Whoa. This is useless. You kill me and you’ll be killed, blah, blah, so on and so forth. It’s us against these creatures and the Russians. Come on, no need for us to fight each other. Try and harness some of that patriotism you used to possess. Remember the SEAL who would do anything for the mission, for the nation? Where’s that guy?” Ritter threw up his hands. “Put down the gun or all your people will be executed! Don’t put them at risk over your ego!”
Lucas glared at his men. Even if he wanted to fight, they were stripped of their weapons. He slumped his head and dropped the rifle. A soldier kicked him in the back of the leg and slammed him into the pavement, binding his hands and feet with Zip-Ties as he continued bleeding.
“I think even you would have to give us credit. We’ve done our own bit of reverse engineering,” Ritter said. “You see that oversized glove on the engineer’s hand, Lucas? It’s made from remains of the slavemasters that created the device. Their DNA is apparently a code, and when combined with specific hand motions, that turns it on. Genius, actually. I’m shocked your associate, Keith Sanders, kept this from you. Apparently, he didn’t agree with your view either. Or maybe you knew and you were afraid?”
“You’ve made a historic mistake, Ritter. I want you to know that. There’s Adam from the Garden of Eden, then you, right below him.”
“Lucas, you’re a man with a troubled past. That’s how you’ll go down, but they’ll call me a hero long after we’re gone. There are people born to head up an operation like this. The reality is, I’m not here to make friends. I was sworn in to save American lives.”
“You’re delusional, Ritter.”
Garza glanced up as a whizzing sound got louder by the moment. “The Viper drone! The device disabled it!” She dove to the ground as the drone spiraled downward, exploding next to the truck that housed the artifact, flipping the truck over into a mass of fiery debris.
“No!” Ritter shielded his face from the debris. The glass bubble that held the artifact rolled across the concrete before coming to a complete sto
p as a fire crew rushed to the scene. The man inside appeared to be unconscious, with the artifact leaning on top of him. “Get him up!” Ritter yelled. “He has to keep it engaged!”
“Wake up that engineer! Captain Stewart, call in the F-67s immediately,” Ritter ordered. A dozen soldiers surrounded the glass pod and rolled it over slowly.
“Sir! The protective pod has a hole in it. The engineer’s hand has been partially blown off,” Captain Stewart informed.
Ritter stormed toward the artifact. “Blown off?”
“Yes, sir, along with his shoulder and chest cavity. He’s gone.”
“Where’s the glove?”
“It’s in the pod.”
“Plug it back in. Can’t you figure out a way, Stewart?”
“We can try. We have a backup, but he was also injured in the drone crash,” Stewart replied.
“Get him over there! Now!” Ritter ordered, glancing back at the Omega.
“How’s it going, Ritter. Everything going according to plan?” Lucas asked.
The Omega’s tentacles jolted as soldiers huddled around the pod. Garza glanced toward Lucas. “Stay down,” he mouthed. The Omega’s metallic crown ground across the concrete as it slowly lifted its head.
“Sir, it’s moving!” someone yelled. A firearm discharged that echoed throughout the landscape.
“Whoa, hold your fire! Load up the artifact! Now! In the truck, hurry!” Ritter yelled, rushing to his Humvee.
“What about the engineer, sir, he’s still breathing—”
“Leave him!” Ritter shut the door, watching as the Omega’s tentacles slithered about the ground. The tentacles wrapped around the Omega completely, cocooning it as a red energy pulsed throughout the shell. The cocoon throbbed as electricity skipped around it. Four soldiers cradled the artifact, glancing over at the Omega before hoisting the artifact into the truck.
“Get Lucas and that bitch. Load them up! Hurry!” Ritter ordered.
The Omega’s tentacles slowly pushed its torso off the ground as it lifted its head. Beneath the ash-colored face, Lucas noticed red lights glowing under the skin as he was lifted into the truck. Lucas and Garza slowly scooted away from the Omega as it raised upright, its tentacles stiffening, acting as walking stilts as it moved slowly across the ground.
Echo Effect Complete Edition Page 25
