Guardian Ship

by Mark Wayne McGinnis

  Hannig responded,”Aυτό είναι εντάξει. Δεν χρειάζεται να ζητήσετε συγγνώμη.”

  “Wait . . . I understood what you just said. But you said it in Greek! That I do not have to apologize.”

  He nodded. “Ik zou u graag een lift willen geven.”

  “And that’s Dutch . . . you would be happy to give me a lift,” I replied. “Dank je.”

  Chapter 13

  Georgina Middleton

  Georgina knocked on Anna’s door and waited impatiently while rhythmically tapping one scarlet-soled Jimmy Choo upon the dingy hallway floor. The booming beat emanating from her AirPods would have been loud enough to hear from the neighbor’s driveway.

  The petite and pretty Italian-American woman opened the door. She looked relieved to see her.

  “You didn’t have to come all this way, Georgina,” said Anna. “It must have been crazy getting across town.”

  “What? Hold on . . .” Georgina said, plucking the little white pods from her ears and pocketing them.

  Anna swung the door all the way open, allowing Georgina to storm through.

  Georgina Middleton, forty-two, was more plump than voluptuous, but she owned it. She was as tough as they come—had to be in this city to survive. Being a successful businesswoman in Manhattan had sharpened her wits, but also had gained her the reputation of being a hard-ass bitch. She could live with that. Eight years previously, she’d started her own realty company, called the Middleton Group, and in a relatively short amount of time had joined the exclusive ranks as one of Manhattan’s young female billionaires, although most of her wealth was tied up in her various real estate holdings. Georgina was not someone you messed with, personally or professionally. She possessed an extremely difficult-to-acquire concealed-carry gun permit, and she was almost always packing. Men were naturally intimidated by her, and she was known to have a few favorite male escorts on call, hers for a price. She wore her red hair short, had a deep laugh, and the scar on her right cheek was strategically concealed with make-up.

  “First of all, I want to apologize, Anna. I want you to know I’ll do everything I can do to find out what’s happened to Dommy. I know the police commissioner. He and his latest wife (who’s as dumb as a stump, by the way) are tenants in one of my brownstones. Dear, we’ll get this all figured out.”

  Anna sat on the couch and gestured for Georgina to have a seat. She eyed the threadbare barcalounger and wondered if it would be unduly rude to remain standing. Coming to a decision, Georgina sat, then immediately reached for Anna’s right hand—sandwiching it between her two palms. “What did the police have to say?”

  Anna looked miserable. She seemed to be lost in her own dark thoughts.

  “Anna?” Georgina repeated.

  “Oh, sorry . . . seems pretty clear to the police something happened there at that Tremont building. There was—blood. Oh God, I think it was Dommy’s.” She looked at Georgina, tears brimming. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “There’s nothing you can do. Except wait for the police to—”

  “Nothing is going to happen! Not now! The police aren’t concerned with anything but the mayhem out in the streets. They’re not looking into this. No one’s investigating shit out there.”

  Georgina was taken aback by Anna’s sudden outburst. But the girl was right. If Dommy had, indeed, met with foul play, it may never be discovered. Was it my fault? I sent him to that hellhole.

  A hard knock came at the door. Anna rose to answer it, but Georgina waved her down. “Let me get it.” She got up and opened the door. A young police officer stood there, her closed fist still poised in the air, ready to knock again.

  “Yes?” Georgina said.

  The police officer looked past Georgina to where Anna was seated on the couch.

  “Oh, you can let her in. It’s Lori. She’s a friend,” Anna called out.

  Georgina stood aside, letting the pretty young cop enter. Anna gestured for Lori to take the Barcalounger. “Please, sit.” Georgina came around the coffee table and sat next to Anna.

  “Um . . .” Lori’s eyes portrayed sadness. “I’m so, so sorry, Anna. It’s been confirmed. It was Dom’s blood found at the scene. Lab says there’s no doubt. The DNA matches, 99 percent accuracy.”

  Anna looked devastated, but was somehow maintaining her composure.

  “But no body still?” she asked.

  Lori shook her head. “I didn’t think calling you with this information would have been right.”

  Georgina scoffed. “There isn’t a working phone in this city, honey.”

  Lori ignored her. “Well, I can’t stay. Again, I’m sorry—” She stood and let out a defeated breath.

  Georgina said. “Any more news? About what’s happening out there?”

  “Only that it’s critical. Hospitals are overflowing, so many people with GSWs. All the precincts . . . every firehouse in the city is empty. Cops, firefighters, all shifts activated. National Guard should provide some relief, soon.”

  Anna said. “I saw on the news. They’re coming. That alien spaceship that was near Saturn? It’s already halfway here, to Earth.”

  Georgina hadn’t heard that latest news. She still had a hard time believing it. Fucking aliens!

  Anna was sobbing again.

  Lori sat back down and reached for her, trying to comfort her.

  Anna said. “I’ve been treating him so terribly lately. I’m divorcing him, you know?” She looked up to Georgina and then to Lori. “I’ve made his life so awful.”

  “Well there’s still a chance. Let’s not shut the door that he’s still okay. Hell, maybe you two will work things out. Get back together,” Georgina offered.

  “No. It’s over for us in any case. We were married so young. Just kids ourselves. Dommy has always been bigger than life. The guy’s a magnet for trouble. He’s a wonderful friend and a great father, but a lousy husband. At least for me.”

  Lori and Georgina exchanged a tenuous glance.

  “But I hope you’re right. I pray he is alive. Val would be devastated. Her daddy can do no wrong in her little eyes.”

  Georgia looked toward the window off to her left. It had gotten hazy outside. Smoke from too many damn fires. She narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. “Um, is it getting a bit murky in here?”

  Anna and Lori followed Georgina’s line of sight. Then both leaned forward similarly, squinting their eyes.

  “I don’t think that’s smoke . . . definitely not smoke,” Lori said.

  Something was happening, right here, within the confines of Anna’s mother’s apartment. Georgina was already moving. So was Lori. Within moments, both were pointing their weapons, Georgina her compact SIG-Sauer P229, and Lori her Glock 17 service pistol.

  Unbeknownst to Anna, Lori and Georgina, six-year-old Valentina had padded down the hall and was equally mesmerized by what was taking shape within the living room.

  Chapter 14

  Dominic Moretti

  I heard Anna’s sweet voice. Heard her admission that she never wanted to get back together with me. That yeah, she loved me, but that I was a magnet for trouble.

  Now, in addition to repositioning it, Hannig was altering the Watcher Craft’s physical form. Slowly, a piece of it went from being veiled to being 100-percent visible. Somewhat larger than the apartment’s living room, only part of the vessel could be made substantial in the confined space.

  I tried to keep what I was feeling, which was mostly crushing disappointment, from showing on my face. I exited out the now-visible back of the spacecraft and stood before them, wearing the same snappy-looking silver uniform as Hannig, and with fifty-five pounds of bulk trimmed from my physique. I smiled back at the four open-mouthed faces. Five, if you counted Nonna, who was peeking around the corner from the hallway. Val was the first to move. She screamed in delight and ran for me, jumping up into my open arms.

  “There’s my girl!” I said, bringing her in close, kissing the top o
f her head. She smelled of strawberry shampoo and crayons. “God, I missed you baby.” I hugged her tight. As I set her down, she leaned into me, both her hands clasped tightly around one of mine. She looked up. “Why you wearing that funny outfit, Daddy?”

  “Yeah, Daddy. Why the funny outfit, and the . . . spaceship?” Georgina said, still looking stupefied.

  Anna rushed forward, and then her arms were around my waist. Her face buried into me as she cried. I could barely hear her muffled voice. “I thought you were dead. I thought we’d lost you, Dommy.”

  She looked up and I kissed her cheek, tasting the salt of her tears on my lips. Then I glanced at Georgina who only now, slowly, was lowering her pistol.

  “Sorry, guess I missed a day of work,” I said.

  “That’s . . . okay. I’m just glad you’re not, um, well, dead.” She offered a lopsided smile and shrugged.

  I turned my gaze to the police officer. She still had her weapon raised and pointed at the ship. I remembered her now, suddenly. I was just a kid—she’d been with her father, with Ken. I remembered thinking she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I also remembered noticing that she wouldn’t so much as glance my way—clearly uninterested.

  “Do you mind?” I asked, shifting my gaze onto Anna and then Val. “Wouldn’t want that thing to go off by mistake. I’m Dominic . . . and you are?”

  Her eyes remained locked on to the spacecraft; she was clearly not taking any of this lightly. And why would she? It wasn’t every day that something like this happened. And with all the news of an alien spacecraft making its way toward Earth, hell, this would put almost anyone right over the edge.

  “You’re safe. You’re all safe, I promise. No one’s here to harm you.”

  The policewoman nodded. “Look. You’re going to tell me exactly what is going on here. And you’re going to do that right now. But first you’re going to tell me who or what is still inside that—that ship.” She flicked the muzzle of her weapon toward it.

  “Daddy, how come you’re not so fat anymore?”

  I couldn’t help it—despite the tense situation, I laughed. “I had an operation,” I told Val, and decided to keep it at that. No need to tell my little baby that her father had been shot in the heart by Russian mobsters and that an alien had come to his rescue. In fact, I still couldn’t quite think through that chain of events seriously myself. “But I’m fine,” I continued. “Do you like my uniform?”

  “I do! Can I have a uniform too?”

  “Who, or what, is inside that spaceship!” the cop said, much louder now.

  “Lower your weapon and I’ll tell you everything,” I said. “But first, I’m gonna need you to tell me your name.”

  Her eyes narrowed. She obviously took her job very seriously. I saw her inner conflict. Then again, the NYPD police academy would not have prepared her for this—any of this.

  “I’m Officer Lori Tedesco.”

  I smiled, remembering again. “You’re Ken’s daughter.”

  She nodded.

  “We’ve met before. When we were kids. You probably don’t remember.”

  “I remember—”

  This time, it was Georgina who had had enough. “The spaceship! Fuck . . . are you going to address the elephant in the fucking room? You’re standing there, having lost a ton of weight, which I do need you to tell me how you did that, and there’s a spaceship right fucking next to you!”

  “Language, Georgina!” Anna said.

  “Sorry.”

  “Oh, yeah. Best I get right to it,” I said. “First I’ll give you the condensed version. Especially since Lori here doesn’t look like she’s going to be lowering her weapon anytime soon. This spaceship was sent here from another world. It’s what’s called a Watcher Craft. Here to evaluate, um, humankind.”

  “Evaluate?” Georgia said. “Like grade us, as a people?”

  “Yes, that’s it exactly. You see, that other ship out there, the one heading toward Earth? Those are the bad aliens. They’re not coming here to make friends with us.”

  Anna pinched my side. She looked down at Val. “Careful, you’ll scare her.”

  I continued. Val would have to know what was happening sooner or later. “Those are the Wikk.”

  “How do you know what they’re called? And this ship? How did you come into contact with it?” Lori asked.

  “Well, it’s kind of funny. I was taking a shortcut through an alleyway, off of Mulberry, you know near Pannaria—”

  “For God’s sake, Dommy!” Georgina yelled. “Just jump to the good parts.”

  “Fine. I saw two thugs, hammering on a defenseless guy, tied to a drainpipe. Let’s just say I intervened.”

  “You protected the guy, Daddy?”

  “Yes, baby.”

  Lori gestured to the ship with her pistol.

  “As it turns out, the guy tied to the drainpipe wasn’t exactly, um, human.”

  Lori took a step closer.

  “He’s gentle, and he saved my life. At the apartment building in Tremont, I’d been shot. In the heart. Hannig rescued me. Made me a new one.”

  “A new what?” Georgina asked.

  “A new heart.”

  “This is bullshit. I want whoever is inside that—that thing, to get the hell out here where I can see it, him—Fuck! Whatever it is, out here, now!” Lori was shouting.

  I realized things could easily get out of hand. She w clearly scared. Would she pull the trigger on her service weapon? Maybe. What would a stray bullet do when hitting a highly advanced alien vessel? Would it ricochet off of it? Hit someone nearby? Now I was getting scared too. “Let’s all just calm down . . . take a breath okay? I gave both Anna and Val a pat and then gently ushered them back behind me. “Lori, look at me.”

  She didn’t.

  “Lori, think about it. If an alien race was capable of this level of technology—a spaceship that can move through walls, through buildings, fly across massive distances in space to arrive here, do you think that little pistol would be of much concern to them? Do you think that the alien that’s inside that ship couldn’t have already vaporized you, if he had wanted to?” I thought of Hannig, that gentle soul who it seemed honestly couldn’t hurt a flea. What Lori didn’t know, at this point, couldn’t hurt her. Literally.

  Finally, her eyes flicked over to me.

  I nodded. “Trust me, please?

  She lowered her Glock but didn’t holster it. “So, there really is, like, an alien inside that craft?”

  “‘Fraid so.”

  “It won’t hurt us?” Lori asked.

  “No. And, as far as I can tell, Hannig just might be mankind’s only chance of survival.”

  “This one alien, who is in that ship, in Anna’s mother’s apartment, is mankind’s savior?” Georgina said, now smiling. “This is getting good.”

  I raised both my hands. I looked at Lori. “Do you think I would ever do anything to jeopardize the wellbeing of my family? My little girl?”

  She looked at me. Her eyes told me I’d made my point.

  “Not only do I trust Hannig with my own life, I trust him with yours.”

  The four of them nodded. I looked to the hallway. Reluctantly, Anna’s mother also nodded.

  “One more thing . . . he, Hannig, does not look like us. Just throwing that out there, so you can be prepared.”

  Georgina rolled her eyes.

  “Hannig?” I said over my shoulder. “Why don’t you come on out here? Meet everyone.”

  I closed my eyes and prayed Lori didn’t shoot the poor alien between the eyes.

  I heard his soft footfalls there behind me, as he, I hoped, was stepping into full view. My eyes were on Val. Her hands went up to her mouth and her eyes went wide. Then she smiled and giggled. “Daddy, there’s an alien in our living room.”

  “Oh my . . .” Georgina said.

  “Holy Shit,” Lori said. She glanced at me and, thank the heavens above, she didn’t shoot him. Not yet, anyway.

&nbs
p; Chapter 15

  Commander Prime Strength

  Earth had always been the intended destination for the Wikk warship. The ship’s name, roughly translated as Terrorize, Subdue, and Dominate, was most often referred to by its abbreviated name, Dominate. No less than seven interstellar, albeit crewless, drone ships had previously been deployed here. Much information about this section of space and its human inhabitants was already known. The Dominate had arrived here within the Sol planetary system, knowing full well they were passing into disputed spacial territories. But that was of little concern to them. Although technologically advanced, the Khantam Lom were weak, averse to violence.

  Prime paced back and forth along her elevated post above the bridge crew. This had been a long, arduous assignment. Even one more planetary invasion would have put her over the edge. Surely, she would have snapped. Peering down at her mindless crew, she daydreamed of a bloody, slaughtering rampage that would leave all but one survivor—herself.

  As the ship’s commander, Prime Strength, had ordered a quick detour to the larger ringed planet that the humans called Saturn. A small, orbiting moon, Enceladus, was a world teeming with life below the surface, although nothing of real substance had been found there in terms of size or intelligence. Prime commanded her subordinates to fire off eight bio-bombs—biodegradable canisters—a biological soup that would, over several decades’ time, completely alter the moon’s present lackluster ecosystem. Soon, Grimty and Calmbrime, vicious creatures, but so meaty and tasty, would dominate the deep seas hidden beneath the moon’s frozen landscape. The Wikk might pass by Enceladus again someday, so best to keep all options open.

  Prime tapped at a high-mounted view screen with the end of one of her forward, tapered limbs. The feed came alive—Containment Holding Cell Number Seven. Here, captured humanoids were cloistered tight together, en masse. Prime leaned in, inspected the ultra-high-definition screen. Yes . . . that was perspiration glistening off their outer epidermis. She looked away in thought. Skin. They call it skin. She could almost taste the species oh-so-salty flesh. Down below, several of her bridge crew were eyeing the display. The return of her authoritative stare was enough to fluster them—get them back on task.