From across the aisle Harrington could see more corpses floating by. There were dozens of them. He focused on one of them, noticing something odd. The bodies had been decomposing for a while. Most were missing eyeballs and chunks of flesh, but that didn’t explain their shriveled skin. They looked like something had sucked them dry. Fish weren’t the only creatures that had fed, the Organics had as well.
The sergeant shivered at the sight. The corpses were just sacks of skin now, their bones weighing them down as they drifted in the abyss.
“We’re in a fucking graveyard,” Diego blurted over the private channel. “GOA didn’t pick this up with its sensors?”
“They’re dead. All of them. Sensors pick up the living,” Harrington replied grimly.
A new voice crackled over the main speakers. It was Captain Noble.
“Commander Le. Is everyone okay down there?”
“Okay,” Le replied.
“Sir, there are bodies everywhere,” Harrington added.
“I’m watching a live feed. I’m well aware,” Noble said. “Sensors are still picking up heat signatures inside the X-9, so I am going to leave this one up to Commander Le. This is his mission.”
Harrington saw Diego fidget in his seat again, but held up his hand to silence him before he could object. The captain was right. And they had volunteered. The decision was not theirs to make.
Silence washed over the dark compartment as Le spoke to his men in Chinese. Harrington quickly gave up trying to make out what they were saying. He already knew what Le’s decision was.
A beat later and Irene was back online. But Harrington was hardly listening to her. Closing his eyes, he prepared himself for what was to come.
“Prepare to dock in T minus two minutes,” Irene ordered.
CHAPTER 3
DR. Emanuel Rodriguez ran a hand through two weeks’ worth of facial hair and watched Dr. Sophie Winston sleep. She’s been so tired, he thought.
“Alexia. How long has she been out?” he whispered.
The AI mimicked the volume of his voice. “Approximately twelve hours, Doctor. Would you like me to wake her?”
Emanuel waved his hands. “No, absolutely not.” Sophie began to stir. She awoke with one eye open, gripping her back with one hand.
“Oh my god,” she moaned. “I feel like . . . like I just got run over by a Humvee,” she said with one of her eyes still closed. “And . . .” A sudden alertness streaked across her face. Emanuel knew right away she had remembered something from one of her dreams.
“Sophie?” he asked.
She removed her hand from her back and placed it on her forehead, whispering, “They came for me again.”
“The Organics’ leaders?” Alexia asked.
Sophie nodded and lay her head back down on the pillow, letting her frustration out with a long sigh. “I’m never able to communicate with them.”
The AI console glowed a light blue, and Alexia’s face emerged. “Doctor Winston, the multidimensional aliens are likely so far advanced that they do not communicate in ways you would recognize.”
“I know,” Sophie said.
“Alexia, let’s give her a break. I’m going to go grab a coffee, Sophie. Do you want your usual?” He realized she was staring at him. His cheeks grew warm when it occurred to him she was scrutinizing his beard.
“Not a bad look,” she said, her face still stern.
“You didn’t notice it before?”
She shrugged and said, “Need coffee.”
Emanuel nodded and hurried to the mess hall. On his way he heard what sounded like an unsupervised field trip. Sure enough, when he walked into the hallway leading to Biome 4, he passed Dr. Brown and Corporal Bouma. Behind them ran three screaming children. Emanuel immediately brought a finger to his lips.
“Quiet, guys. Smith is still sleeping, and Sophie is not in a good mood.”
“Sorry,” Bouma replied. “We were just heading to Biome 1 so the kids could get some exercise.”
Emanuel scanned the group. After two months inside the Biosphere the kids were starting to grow. It dawned on him that they all needed haircuts. Especially Owen. His hair had started to creep down over his eyes.
“Have fun,” Emanuel said, patting the boy on his head. Owen laughed and took off running, ignoring the request the biologist had made moments before.
Emanuel continued to the kitchen, where half a pot of cold coffee sat on a stainless steel countertop. A dozen wrappers from prepackaged meals littered the area.
“Damn it,” he said, grabbing a handful and tossing them into the trash. Things had slowly slipped into chaos after Sophie’s injury in Colorado Springs. The Biosphere had gone from a well-oiled machine to a disaster zone.
He shook his head. After he got Sophie on her feet they were going to have a team meeting. A very frank one.
Two hours later, Emanuel had fed Sophie enough caffeine to get her into the CIC. The main oval display at the front of the room replayed hours of information the AI had filtered through. With the magnetic disturbance outside, most of the Biosphere’s exterior sensors were down. But the AI was much more resourceful than Emanuel had given her credit for. A few days earlier, she had discovered an NTC stealth satellite prototype named Lolo orbiting the planet. Lolo’s feeds proved that the Organics hadn’t knocked out all of Earth’s defenses after all. By hacking into the satellite, Alexia had provided the team with mountains of new data including current ocean levels, average temperatures from around the world, and estimated population counts.
But Emanuel was nervous. He still hadn’t figured out exactly how the satellite had managed to mitigate the effects of the magnetic disturbance, and the concern that Lolo would go offline was very real. Emanuel wanted to collect as much data as quickly as possible before that happened. For now, he was happy to have some reliable data from outside the Biosphere.
That didn’t mean he was excited to share it with Sophie, though. He’d spent the morning crunching the numbers while she slept. The data confirmed that the situation outside had never been worse.
“Feeling any better?” he asked as Sophie sat in one of the chairs facing the display.
“After water, coffee is the second most important resource left. I’m not sure what I’ll do when it runs out.”
Emanuel removed his glasses and cleared his throat. “Chances are we won’t be around long enough to see that happen.”
Sophie put her cup down. “You’ve analyzed the intel from Lolo, haven’t you?”
He nodded and rubbed his eyes. “The Pacific Ocean has lost forty percent of its volume in the past two months, while the Atlantic has lost over sixty percent. There is virtually no sign of any fresh water,” he said. “Temperatures are skyrocketing worldwide. The planet is turning into a desert. If we don’t do something soon—”
She traced the outline of an explosion with her hands and then puffed her lips out. “Boom,” she said, exhaling a breath. Then she turned back to the display as if nothing had happened—as if she already knew everything Emanuel had just told her.
“This doesn’t bother you?”
Sophie looked past him, staring at the blank AI console in the corner of the room. Something about her had changed since the day they lost Sergeant Overton—the day she believed she had seen the Organics’ leaders inside the black ship. He knew it would only get worse. He was slowly losing her. She was fading right before his eyes.
“Sophie?” he asked, reaching out to touch her arm. She flinched and closed her eyes. Then she turned back to the main display.
“What do you make of this?” Sophie finally asked, pointing to a clump of numbers scrolling across the screen.
Emanuel put his glasses back on and leaned over for a better look. “Looks like some sort of encoded message.”
35084198106649246 33356308117410873
2794660982458366 41
13709395892082
2566388250755238 115436431486
36651911140466001 494200007570000
Alexia’s voice blared over the com. “Doctor Winston, a preliminary scan reveals these are coordinates for the following locations in the United States: Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Camp Pendleton in California, MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, and Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. They are also coordinates from locations around the world including USN Bahrain, USN Camp Lemonnier Djibouti, MCB Camp Butler Okinawa, and Ramstein Air Base in Germany.”
“Do you think this might be some sort of SOS?” Emanuel asked.
“That’s very likely, Doctor. They all originate from military bases. However, their activation dates are all from the first day of the invasion. It’s likely that everyone at those bases is already dead.”
Emanuel shot Sophie an anxious look. He felt like pounding his fist against the table. Just when he had hope of finding more survivors, it was stripped away.
“One moment,” Alexia said suddenly. A second later her voice surged through the speakers. “After scanning the activation dates a second time, it’s come to my attention that one of them is actually quite recent.”
“How recent?” Emanuel and Sophie asked simultaneously. Neither of them laughed at the coincidence.
“Two days ago,” Alexia said. “At Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska.”
“I’ll be damned,” Emanuel replied. “You better get in touch with Captain Noble, Sophie.”
“That would be redundant,” Alexia said.
Sophie narrowed her eyebrows. “What? Why?”
“Captain Noble sent this data to me over the encrypted uplink earlier this morning.”
“I thought this was satellite data!” Emanuel said, his irritation with the AI growing by the second. “When were you going to tell us?”
“My apologies, Doctor. I’ve been primarily focused on another task this morning.”
“Something more important than this?” Sophie asked.
“That would depend on what you consider important. If you consider the life, health, and safety of the team important, then the answer is yes.”
Emanuel glared at the AI console. “Again, something you should have told us?”
“I was waiting for a full analysis and for Doctor Winston to awaken.”
Sophie took a long swig of coffee. “I’m awake,” she said. “And I’m waiting. So spill it.”
“I’m still piecing together all the intel, but take a look at this.”
The coordinates faded into darkness. Then several blurry images emerged.
“Magnifying,” Alexia said.
Emanuel removed his glasses and used his sleeve to wipe off a smear. He put them back on and straightened them, squinting at the monitor. At first glance the shot appeared to be of an arid region. But as Alexia magnified it, he saw clusters of buildings against the stark tan landscape, skyscrapers even.
Was it possible?
“This is Tokyo. One of the first areas hit by the invasion. As you can see, the city is surrounded by a desert,” Alexia said. “Next is New York.”
The Statue of Liberty emerged on the display. Alexia had zoomed in so that Emanuel could see dried clumps of seaweed and the corpses of rotting fish strewn across the seafloor. The polluted waters of Upper New York Bay no longer surrounded the green symbol of American freedom.
“Here is an image of the actual migration,” Alexia said.
A horde of blue aliens lit up the display. They moved across the cracked earth in one solid, roiling mass.
“Where is this?” Sophie asked.
“Upstate New York. The precise location is on the outskirts of a town called Hector. Preinvasion population 9,944.”
“That can’t be,” Emanuel replied. “Check again. That’s in the middle of a forest.”
“Doctor Rodriguez,” Alexia quickly said, “the satellite is one hundred percent accurate.”
“Check again,” he griped. He held a hand to his head, but knew the AI was right. He had to accept that things were now worse than he thought.
Alexia’s voice transferred to the com. “Satellite images show the Organics are migrating. On every continent, they’re moving toward the oceans. I’ve concluded the aliens are beginning to exhaust their resources on land and are now heading to the oceans to complete the last phase of the invasion.”
The end of the AI’s sentence struck Emanuel hard. He felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. He had known the end would come, but not this fast, and not like this. He’d had no time to prepare.
“How much time do we have before they reach the oceans?” he asked.
“A couple of weeks. Maybe a month. They don’t seem to rest. They just keep going.”
Emanuel felt his frustration bubble over. He slammed his hand down on the desk. “When Lolo picks up the GOA’s signal again, get us a line to Captain Noble.”
* * *
David and Jeff lay in the dirt of Biome 1, their stomachs full of fresh fruit and the few vegetables Jeff had demanded they eat. With their hands cupped behind their heads they gazed up at the white ceiling, listening to the hum of the air handling units.
Closing his eyes, Jeff relaxed and licked his lips. He let out a burp.
David chuckled. “Good one.”
Jeff glanced over at his brother. David’s features were strained, his cheeks puffing as he tried to mimic his brother’s action. His face grew red and finally he let out a defeated sigh. Resting his head back in the dirt, David grew silent.
“How did Sergeant Overton die?” David asked a few minutes later.
Jeff rolled to his side.
David glanced over, searching his brother’s face for an answer. “Did he die like Dad did?”
“Yes,” Jeff replied. “He died saving that marine, just like Dad saved us.”
“So he fought the aliens?”
“Lots of them. Hundreds.”
David let out a gasp of awe. “Wow.”
“Someday we’ll face them like that.”
“What do you mean?”
Jeff sat up and brushed the dirt off the back of his neck and out of his hair. “Look around you. This place won’t last forever. They’ve found us before, and they will find us again. All we can do now is train to fight like the marines do. It’s our only shot.”
David sat up and crossed his arms around his knees, pulling them to his chest.
“David?” Jeff asked, reaching over to pat his brother’s back.
“I’m scared,” he said.
“I’m scared, too. But you trust me, right? I mean, we survived at White Sands. We made it here.”
David slowly nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Good. Because I won’t let anything happen to you.” The promise was one that Jeff had made before and one he fully intended to keep. If it came down to it, he would give his life to save his brother’s.
Jeff eyed an apple that had fallen a few feet away. He grabbed it and tossed it into the air, catching it with a swift motion. “Still hungry?”
David nodded and then smiled. “How many apples do you think are left in the world?”
“In the entire world?” Jeff held the red fruit out in front of him, examining the shiny surface. Like most everything in the biome, the apple was fragile. It would never survive outside, and he was pretty sure there weren’t many trees left—maybe just the one behind them.
Jeff stood and tossed the apple in the air again. “This could be the last tree.”
David joined him. He stood on his tiptoes, reached for an apple dangling off one of the nearest branches, and missed. David let out a sigh on the third pass and looked to his brother.
Chuckling, Jeff handed him the apple in his right hand. He watched David’s teeth sin
k into the ripe fruit, the juices sliding down his chin. Then he passed it to Jeff for a bite.
They stood there under the canopy of branches, chewing on what very well could have been one of the last apples on the planet.
CHAPTER 4
THE sound of grinding metal echoed inside the mini sub. Harrington glanced through one of the side portholes and saw the smooth black surface of the X-9. The emergency lights dimmed, and complete darkness carpeted the interior of Destiny 1 as Irene steered them into position.
“Securing air lock,” Irene said against the background of hissing air.
Harrington rested his back against one of the titanium walls, unstrapped his pulse rifle, and waited for the all-clear from Irene.
“Air lock is open, proceed to the decompression chamber,” she said moments later.
With the help of one of his men, Commander Le twisted the circular lock on the hatch. The door cracked open with a loud pop.
Harrington leveled his gun at the doorway and waited to enter the bowels of the Chinese sub.
“Keep radio chatter to a minimum,” he said, raising a single finger to his helmet.
Le nodded and climbed through the open hatch. His men followed in turn. When Diego was on deck he looked to Harrington and gave him the bird.
The gesture put Harrington at ease for a moment. He chuckled, shook his head, and grabbed the handhold.
The rest of the team stood waiting, bottlenecked in a space only twelve feet in diameter. With little room to move, their armored suits clanged nosily against one another. If it weren’t for their night vision, the team would have been completely blind. Not exactly the ideal situation when entering potentially hostile territory over nine hundred feet beneath the ocean’s surface. Fortunately, NTC engineers had spent time perfecting the suit so it worked at all depths.
And thank God for that, he thought. The X-9’s subsequent compartments would likely be flooded. Irene would be able to determine that as they made their way from chamber to chamber in search of survivors.
A hiss of air broke through the opening in the next hatch. Le opened the door slowly and aimed his rifle through the gap. For several seconds the team crouched in silence, waiting. The intermittent creaks and groans from the metal hull echoed through space.
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