I didn’t follow all of what he was telling me, but I understood enough. “So something caused it to explode?”
“I hazard to say so. The tough part is that this star is—or was—close enough to Earth that the EMP is the least of our problems, honestly.”
“How so?”
“Well…” Alan peered at his colleagues, all of whom had returned to their discussions or calculations. “The other effects of the supernova will almost certainly,” he took a breath, “kill us all.”
“The EMP? It’s only the beginning?”
“I fear so, yes.” Alan fiddled with a pen in his right hand as he spoke, the movements belying the tension thrumming underneath his otherwise calm yet fascinated exterior. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. Theoretically, it shouldn’t be possible.”
“What can we do?”
His mind had gone elsewhere. “I’ve got a husband and kids,” he said. “I shouldn’t be here, I should be home with them. I don’t even have a way to reach them.” He started to tremble as he stared into the distance, eyes focused on something far away.
I struggled to find the right words, the ducked my head into his distracted gaze to bring him back. “Alan, we’ll get you out of here as soon as we can. Right now, stay with us. Help me understand all this so we can help your family together, okay? What do you mean when you’re telling me this stuff? There’s gotta be something we can do.”
“What I mean is…we’re all dead.” His gaze bored into mine. “I need to go see my family. My kids must be terrified.”
“Hey.” I put a hand on his cheek and gently turned his face toward mine. “Let’s get to work. The faster we figure things out, the faster we all go home.”
He nodded weakly and we sat at the side table together. He started to go over his findings while I concentrated on getting a basic understanding of the science. At the same time, I watched the behavior of the other people in the room. I observed signs of anger, anxiety, depression, and panic. All things I could work with. After I got up to speed on the situation with the supernova, I’d need to find a way to calm things down and bring us all together.
12
David
I hit the ground hard, rolling to avoid breaking anything. When I came to a stop I sat up. The world was still spinning but my eyes were back to normal. I lay back down and concentrated on slowing my breathing. I checked my limbs, wiggling my toes and fingers to make sure that I hadn’t sustained a major break or spinal injury.
When the nausea and adrenaline finally dissipated, I sat on a nearby tree stump and fetched a canteen from my emergency kit. I took a long drink, then used some water from the container to splash my face. It took a few minutes, but it looked like I was in decent shape. It wasn’t hard to find the path where the alien shuttle had gone down. Limbs of pine trees littered the forest, and I smelled smoke where the craft had ignited their tops. From there I saw a swath of dirt where the ship had plowed into the ground.
I took out my pistol and followed the path. When I finally came upon the shuttle, it was a smoking pile of wreckage. I gave the craft a wide berth as I investigated. After all, if this were one of our planes, there’d be a serious possibility of an explosion. Small fires burned around it, but none seemed to be in danger of igniting anything big.
When it remained intact for a few minutes, I decided that this might be my one and only chance to get a look at the enemy up close. The ship was locked up tight, but a section of hull had been grazed off as it fell. It was just big enough for me to fit myself through, taking care not to cut my jumpsuit. I should have worried more about my skin. The metal was razor sharp and I hissed as I cut my thumb on a shard that stuck out a little too far.
Inside I saw rough approximations of what I’d expect to find in a human spacecraft. Panels dotted the walls, flashing green symbols against a black background. I jumped when one of the panels sparked, then went dead. Large chairs faced the front of the ship, their backs elongated as if meant for something that was extremely tall. The instrumentation and controls were strangely arranged, with two stations that had hand and foot controls in front of the seats. As I moved further into the ship, I smelled something other than burning metal and electronics – burnt flesh.
It occurred to me that this was probably the most stupid decision I had ever made. If there was anything alive inside this ship, I might find myself spread across the floor as a pile of goo before I could scream. On the other hand, this was probably my one and only chance to make first contact with an alien species – the ones I’d just shot with a nuke. Well, if I was fated to die, at least getting a look at the bastards would be worth it. I cocked my gun and held it in front of me, ready to fire if anything moved.
The shuttle was big on the outside but massive on the inside, far bigger than I had anticipated. The design of the ship used every inch efficiently. It looked more like a light aircraft than an escape shuttle. A main corridor led to several rooms of the ship. I walked through each one, ensuring that the room was secure before moving on to the next. Panels hung from the ceiling in more than once place. The whole thing reminded me of the creepy thriller video games I had played as a kid. I was just waiting for the tide of alien face huggers to jump out at me and eat me alive.
I walked into a larger area that looked like a navigation room. It was there that I found the source of the burnt meat smell. Bodies were scattered across the room. Alien bodies. The smell was so strong that I coughed, trying not to gag. Several aliens lay on the floor with blue puddles spread underneath them. One was skewered on a piece of rebar jutting from the side of the ship, the body was so cleanly cut through that I half expected it to still be alive.
I stayed motionless for what felt like an eternity, convinced that one of them was going to leap out at me. When nothing happened, I ventured a closer look. I’m sure my CO would have warned me that I could get exposed to pathogens or some kind of plague, but if something I couldn’t see was going to kill me, it was already too late.
The aliens were reptilian, hard scales covering their heads, chests, and legs. They had short, thick tails that looked like they acted as a balance for walking. Like the seats suggested, the creatures were tall-easily 6’4”, if I had to guess. They had legs that were shaped like a dog’s. Impressively muscled thighs and quadriceps that jutted forward and tapered to a smaller point behind them. Their feet were four toed, sharp claws punctuating each toe. Three in the front and one in the back, supported by a thick pad of flesh on their soles. This one’s foot was covered with a kind of black hard material that appeared to be strapped or locked on to its foot, leaving the toes free to move. Armor? A similar kind of material covered the alien’s chest and shoulder blades, if you could call them that. Their arms were similar to human anatomy in that they had a clearly defined upper and lower arm but were set further down from the head than ours were. They also had three fingered hands, but unlike their feet, these looked like they were more dextrous. They wore sidearms, maybe some sort of beam weapon like the ones on their ship.
Their faces creeped me out the most. Unlike the little green men of Earthly imagination, these aliens had smaller eyes set slightly away from the middle of their heads. Its eyes were open, revealing a bright yellow iris with a vertical pupil, not unlike a cat. The mouths were something else altogether. Their muzzle-like jaws protruded from their heads a couple of inches. Rows of fangs lined along each jaw, and a small hardened ‘beak’ just under what you’d call its lips. Two slits roughly at the top of the muzzle were probably how it would have breathed.
I found a piece of loose metal and prodded each one of the bodies gently. None of them seemed to be breathing, but maybe they didn’t need to breathe. They didn’t respond to my poking, which was a relief. More bodies slumped in chairs at a pilot’s station. I went to examine the piloting system more closely.
Then one moved.
13
Alexandra
“Are you absolutely certain?” I asked. Alan had just f
inished explaining to me that unless we figured out a way to shield ourselves from the effects of the supernova, humanity would be wiped out.
He hesitated then nodded, setting his jaw. “I am. We are. Humanity won’t die of explosion but poison. Radiation from the supernova may have already irreparably fried our ozone and atmosphere. Next, it will ionize nitrogen and oxygen, turning what should keep us alive into nitrous oxide—think laughing gas turned up to eleven. We’d be hysterically euphoric for a minute or two, then suffocate. Any life that survives will mutate and potentially annihilate entire ecosystems. The climate will change so rapidly it will be hard for anything to survive, though. Nuclear fallout, then nuclear winter.”
“You hesitated. Is there a chance that you’re wrong?” I wasn’t sure if the hesitation was out of uncertainty or from him being already convinced we were all doomed.
“A chance? I suppose so. We’re dealing with something that’s never happened in the history of our species, so science is not really prepared to figure out the consequences with any certainty. I wish it were a bigger chance of error than we figure it to be. I guess that’s why we all deflated when we found out you weren’t an astrophysicist. We want to check the math against an outside source. If we’re wrong, humanity will be fine. If we’re right, we’re toast. Literally. I’m trying not to think about it too much.”
I grabbed his arm.
“Where are we going?”
“Stand here,” I said, then I stuck my fingers in my mouth and let loose a shrill whistle that made half the room jump. “Ladies and gentlemen, as you already know, my name is Dr. Alexandra King. You brought me here to help deal with the possible hostile beings from another planet. This is Alan…” I turned to him. “What’s your last name?”
“Shepard.”
“Seriously?”
“It was my parents’ idea of a joke.”
“This is Alan Shepard. Like his namesake, he is here to guide us through scientific phenomena we’ve never encountered before. Alan and I have just been discussing the other side of our current situation. The fact that humanity is about to be vaporized in a haze of radiation and poisonous gas. You’re going to listen to him now because, let me tell you, this is far more important than the aliens.” I took Alan’s shoulders and shoved him toward the table.
He took a breath, expecting to be interrupted or at least questioned, yet everyone in the room were all ears. “Ladies…uh…and gentlemen…” He removed his glasses and nervously cleaned them on his coat. “What Dr. King’s saying is correct. This supernova spells the end of our world if we don’t come up with a solution right away. As it is, most of the planet’s countries don’t have the resources to survive this. We’re looking at the mass death of at least two-thirds of the world population. Um, we are currently experiencing a global power outage cause by an electromagnetic pulse that has most likely permanently fried much of our technology. In addition, in a, uh, in a short period of time, we are going to be bombarded by particles which will burn away any part of the ozone layer that isn’t already gone. The Earth’s atmosphere will be reduced by a significant amount…”
I could see the eyes of most of the military brass glazing over. The end of the world and these order-barkers were already dismissing it.
I tapped Alan on the shoulder. “I’ve got this,” I whispered to him.
“But you don’t understand the science,” he protested.
“I understand the message. These Neanderthals aren’t going to listen to science anyway. Go back and get with the others, figure out a way to get us out of this.”
He nodded and walked away.
I raised my voice over the voices that had resumed. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not finished.”
A white-haired officer with a lot of medals lowered his bushy white eyebrows at me. “Ma’am, we have issues to discuss, so if you don’t mind…”
“Yes, sir, I do mind. The point our colleague is trying to make is a two-pronged problem at hand. I agree, it’s important to figure out the nature of this first contact, but the global consequences of the supernova are more dire than any of you can imagine—”
The man shook his head. “Can someone escort this woman out of here?”
“Admiral, I suggest we listen to Dr. King,” Director Agarwal spoke up from where he stood on the opposite side of the room. “We brought her here as an expert, so we should let her have her say.”
I nodded at him as the admiral, frowning, leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
“Thank you, Director.” I continued. “This is a catastrophe on a scale we’ve never seen, and we all need to come together to protect our country and its citizens from annihilation. If duty cannot compel you, consider that you and your families are in imminent risk of death by nitrous oxide. It will not be painless, and it will not be quick.”
Several officers narrowed their eyes, some glanced at one another, a few shifted in their seats. Most of them were over fifty. They’d heard the same rhetoric before. After all, people had thought the world was ending a dozen times in my lifetime alone, why should they believe it now?
“Let me reiterate. If we cannot reach a solution, humanity—not just Americans, but humanity itself—will die. We will be boiled alive by radiation and, if we are somehow still living after that, our atmosphere is going to turn into poisonous gas where we will suffocate and die in incredible pain. These changes coming to our world are permanent and will alter the surface of our planet forever. This isn’t a possible situation; this is the end of our species. We have precious little time to figure out how we can avoid this fate. So, I’m asking, are you going to sit there arguing about the aliens, or are you going to figure out how to save your families and the rest of the world?”
Right on the mark. On my way into the war room, I’d passed by a number of offices, many with photos of husbands, wives, and children in them.
One of them yelled for Alan. “Mr. Shepard, is she right?”
Alan looked from me to the officers. He pursed his lips and nodded his head. “She’s absolutely right.”
That did the trick. Everyone leapt into action, this time making calls for more scientists to be brought in to confirm these findings. The images on the screen in the table disappeared to make way for statistical data I couldn’t make out from where I was standing. Over the din I heard a few strained voices attempting phone calls to loved ones. They didn’t go through, of course. The infrastructure outside this place had to be falling apart.
“Thank you.” Alan stepped next to me and extended his hand.
“Seems like that ‘touchy-feely’ science of mine comes in handy, huh?” I grinned.
He smiled. “It has its place,” he said.
A radio transmission erupted from a speaker on the table, the noise halting the commotion. “Jackson to base. Repeat, Jackson to base, come in.”
One of the military men scrambled to reach a microphone attached to the speaker. “Go ahead, we’re receiving you.”
“Colonel? Holy shit, is that you? Colonel Oladeru?”
“It’s me, son. You still there Jackson?”
“Yeah. Had to bail out from my jet and came down hard in a forest somewhere, sir. Decided to go for a walk and found an alien shuttle. Turns out one of them is alive.”
The entire room went silent.
“Colonel? You still with me?”
“Yeah, I’m still here, Jackson. Is your position secure?”
“Yeah. The alien’s not a threat, but I need backup soon as possible. It isn’t a great situation down here, Colonel.”
“Give us a few minutes to scramble a bird, and we’ll come pick you and the alien up. Got that, son?”
“Roger that. Just don’t come guns blazing when you get here, okay? It’s a little touchy, and I really don’t want to piss it off.”
“Understood. Give us twenty. Over and out.” Colonel Oladeru set the microphone down and turned to the rest of the table. “Let’s get a fucking bird out there. I
want a full squad on it, locked and loaded. We have no idea if that was Lt. Col. Jackson or an alien imitating him. Let’s get those wheels up. We have to move!”
I raised my hand. The colonel and a few of the others looked at me puzzled. It wasn’t grade school, after all, but I thought it might be the best way to play nice.
“Yes?”
“Sir, I’d like to some along.”
“No offense, Doctor,” Oladeru said, “but you’re a civilian. We can’t risk you getting in the way of our boys or getting yourself shot up.”
“No offense taken, Colonel. If that’s all, then I’ll just pack up my things and go home.” I turned and began to walk toward the doors of the war room.
“Wait!” A female officer next to Oladeru called out.
“Where are you going?”
“You brought me here for this exact reason. First contact. I just thought you might want to bring someone along who could help understand who they are and what they want. At the very least, I can gather data on the aliens, try to determine if they are hostile. But, since the colonel says you don't need me, I’ll be going home.”
Oladeru glared at the woman. She seemed nonplussed, the corner of her mouth raising in a subtle smirk he no doubt caught.
Oladeru turned his glare on me as he laid out his terms. “Get in the way of my men, and they will not hesitate. Put them in danger, and I’ll give them my personal permission to detain or shoot you. Interfere with their operation in any way, and you will spend the rest of your life in a very small, very dark room.”
“Or you’ll shoot me, if you feel like it? Got it.” I shook my head. Yeah boss, I understand. Sit, stay, take orders. Don’t get in the way of the big men with the guns.
Incursion Page 5
