by N. W. Harris
They were in the forest, apparently not too far from the hidden base. He looked at Jules, who stood next to Kelly with her helmet off. Her eyes were fixed forward, and she looked entranced. Shane feared something had gone wrong with her connection again.
Kelly? he thought, hoping she could hear him.
Shane? a weak and hesitant voice whispered.
Warmth grew from deep in his—or Kelly’s—brain. It didn’t displace him, instead seeming to mingle with his being, to flow through and mix with him. Shane gasped, the sensation making him feel so light that he expected he might lift off the ground and float away.
“Kelly?” The Shock Troop soldier stepped in front of Shane, looking into her eyes.
He’s evil. They’re evil! Kelly’s voice whispered, and the tingly thrill he experienced from her presence receded.
No, Kelly, Shane thought. Don’t hide. I’ll be gone soon, and you’ll have control.
“I’m fine, sir,” Shane stammered, already slipping back toward his own body. “Just a little hungry.”
“That can be remedied,” the soldier said, appearing relieved. He waved at one of his counterparts. “Get her a bar.”
Starting as a burning sensation, the electrical surge that brought him to Kelly returned.
Kelly, Shane said, feeling her replace him throughout her body. I’m going. Take control and be strong.
Shane was there. He’d brought Kelly out of the darkness, had breathed life and hope into her. As he left, she felt control of her body returning to her.
“No,” she said aloud. But it wasn’t her that said it.
Her slave persona seemed to come from everywhere at once, tearing the connections Kelly made and stuffing her back into her prison.
Kelly screamed and fought to maintain control, but the slave won.
“Sir,” she said to Pelros. “The vision—it happened again.”
“Tell me,” Pelros said, scrutinizing her face.
“There was a presence, something masculine,” she angrily said. “I felt like I’d been kicked out of my body.”
“Anything about the hidden base?”
“Yes,” Jules said. “It is there.” She ran up the hill.
“Follow her!” Kelly shouted to the slack-faced teenagers behind them.
Pelros had just refreshed their supply of syringes; they would inject everyone on the base. Kelly could not let them get to Nat. She latched onto the feeling she had when Shane had been there. He had flowed through her, reviving her and giving her strength. She mounted that strength and screamed as she tried everything to make her body stop.
Kelly’s right leg stepped across her left, and she fell on her face. Had she done it?
“Get out of my head,” Kelly’s slave persona said aloud. Pushing herself to her feet, she charged up the hill.
Running ten yards ahead, Jules vanished. Kelly followed her. Suddenly, the woods were gone. Under a glowing green dome that hid the base, they ran out between two of the old curved-roofed hangars and onto the tarmac where she’d spent so much time training.
“What is this place?” Kelly asked Jules. “It’s so familiar.”
“I know,” Jules replied. “The feeling is vague; I don’t know what it means.”
“Looks like those three buildings are occupied,” Kelly said, the sensors in her helmet showing the heat signature of people inside the old barracks.
Jones and Lily’s clones spilled out of one of the hangars, and an alarm howled. Overhead, the bottom of the transport penetrated the glowing dome. Its canon fired a shot into the sphere sitting in the middle of the tarmac. The glowing machine went dark and the cloak receded into it, revealing the rest of the transport and the sunny sky.
“DNA scans say they are Anunnaki. Must be the rebels. Your modified plasma rifles will be useless on those guys.” Pelros’ voice came through the speakers in her helmet. “Vaccinate the humans. I’ll take care of them.”
A burst of white energy came from a canon on the bottom of the transport, killing five clones. Kelly turned her attention toward the building where the little kids lived.
No! Kelly pleaded.
“Yes,” her slave persona said. Raising her rifle to her shoulder, she ran toward the building.
Petrov and Anfisa stepped out of the barracks they’d all shared during the training.
“Where are you going?” the arrogant Russian boy yelled.
He brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired a burst of rounds at her. The assault pushed her off balance for an instant, but it didn’t compromise her armor. She recovered and turned her plasma rifle on him. Her slave persona pulled the trigger twice, and Kelly watched in horror as her two Russian friends dropped to the asphalt. Soon, they’d awaken enslaved.
“Kelly?” Shane yelled.
Her slave persona turned her head. He stood outside of a hangar, Tracy beside him.
Shane! she screamed inside her prison, still fighting with every ounce of her strength to regain control.
Pointing at them, her slave persona indicated that the new recruits spilling onto the tarmac should handle Shane and Tracy, promptly returning her attention to the kids’ building.
“What’s hiding in there that you don’t want me to find?” she said, side kicking one of the clones who’d gotten too close without slowing. Kelly heard the rebel’s ribs crumbling, his chest caving in under the blow.
Shots came from the left, Shane and Tracy fighting off the recruits. Kelly came to the door of the barracks and found it locked. She leaned back, presumably to kick the door.
“You’ve got to fight her, Kelly!” Shane yelled.
The slave persona looked left in time to see Shane flying through the air. He tackled her, tearing her helmet from her head in the process.
Kelly threw him off and stood. Rolling, Shane came to his feet.
“I know you’re in there, Kelly,” Shane said, backing away.
“I recognize that voice,” her slave persona said, murderous vengefulness contorting her face. “You almost killed me.”
She dove at him, and Shane dodged left. The armor made her faster and stronger than him. She caught him by the arm and jerked him back, sticking her plasma rifle in his stomach.
“Relax,” she said, her eyes alight with fury. “This will cure your madness.”
She pulled the trigger. Shane’s eyes widened, and then he went limp. Kelly gently lowered him to the ground. Picking up her helmet, she put it back on her head.
“Kelly?” Nat said. She stood in the doorway of the barracks, a heartbreaking look of terror on her little face.
“Who are you?” the slave persona asked, her voice cracking like she somehow shared Kelly’s surge of emotion.
“I’m your sister,” Nat said, her face crinkled with horrified confusion and tears gushing over her cheeks.
“Then I must save you,” Kelly said, pointing the weapon at her.
“Kelly, please.”
Kelly found an explosion of strength. Managing to take control of her left arm, she reached for the rifle in her right, but too late. A burst of light came from the weapon, and Nat dropped in a heap on the ground. Her slave persona stopped, seeming stunned as she stared down at the little girl.
“We’ve got a situation.” Pelros’ voice came through the helmet’s speakers. “The Pegasus is under attack. I need you two on the transport.”
Her slave persona spun away, stepping aside so her recruits could charge into the building. Following the alien’s orders without hesitation, she headed to the center of the tarmac where Pelros brought the ship down. Kelly’s fight to regain her body intensified, and rage consumed her. With Shane and most of her friends enslaved, the recruits they left behind would get to everyone else. They’d awaken with their minds empty and stand around with the slack expressions of the recruits who’d stuck them, awaiting her return and their orders.
The transport touched down with its rear gate open. Kel
ly leapt in, looking back at the kids’ barracks. She sensed her slave persona’s concern for Nat, and she breathed hard, like she might be about to have a panic attack. Jules jumped onboard and the transport lifted off, the door closing as they pulled away from the ground. Kelly’s eyes remained fixed on the barracks until the hatch closed and sealed with a hiss.
“Don’t worry,” Jules said, putting a hand on Kelly’s shoulder. “They’ll be safe until we return.”
“No,” Kelly’s slave persona said. “We shouldn’t have done that.”
“What?” Jules looked confused.
Kelly ran to the front of the craft, trying to open the door to the cockpit.
“What are you doing?” Jules said, stepping beside her.
“They have to be stopped,” Kelly’s slave persona replied. “I have to let go.”
Kelly felt the slave’s control fade, and she surrendered her body to her.
The grief, anger, and helplessness she’d endured consumed her. She had control of her body once again, and she began bashing her armor-covered fist against the door. Jules grabbed her shoulder, and Kelly back-kicked her to the other end of the transport.
“Don’t you see, damn it?” she screamed, blinded by murderous insanity. “They have to pay. They all have to die.”
The transport lurched, slamming her against the bulkhead. She hit her head hard and slumped to the floor, struggling to remain conscious. Green light emanated from every part of the interior of the vessel. Out of the porthole, she saw what looked like glowing, transparent tentacles squirming across the sky, the same color as the light emanating from the transport and Kelly’s armor. The glowing craft felt too stable, like it had been frozen in the air.
The monstrous entity appeared again, so near Athos could no longer make out its shape. Instead, the view screen showed a greenish glowing vapor, engulfing them and flowing over the planet.
“Fire all weapons,” Admiral Vecan shouted, looking toward the general as if giving him a chance to veto the order.
Athos nodded, seeing the admiral’s glance without ever taking his eyes off the screen. Pegasus’ weapons discharged in a blinding storm of energy, firing in every direction except toward Earth. The power drain dimmed the lights on the bridge, and he could no longer see the green vapor through the recruit ship’s firestorm.
The lights on the bridge grew bright once again, and the pulses of energy from the canons shot off into space at near light speed. The glowing, green vapor remained.
“No effect,” the weapon’s officer reported, leaning forward in his chair. “I’ll try to modulate the energy patterns for the next burst.”
“It’s like a ghost,” Vecan said.
“Or a god,” the navigator echoed.
Athos hadn’t decided what they were dealing with, but insomuch as the Pegasus could not hurt the entity, he hoped neither could it do injury to the Pegasus.
“General Athos, sir,” a young sailor sitting at the console on the wall to his left said. “Commander Pelros…”
“Move.” The general cut him off, seeing the image of his nephew in the transport. The image glowed with the same greenish hue as the entity surrounding the Pegasus.
“Commander,” Athos demanded, unable to keep concern from his voice. “What’s your status?”
“We’re immobilized, sir,” Pelros replied, his attention on the controls. “Something has taken control of the transport. We were frozen in midflight.”
“Our shields are failing,” the weapons officer said, his hands a blur as he manipulated the Pegasus’ controls.
A greenish, luminescent haze seeped through the bulkhead in front of Athos. He stepped back, drawing his sidearm from the compartment hidden in the armor over his thigh. As he raised it toward the vapor, he couldn’t pick out a target. With no fragrance and no real substance, it flowed past him, filling the bridge.
“Take us away from Earth,” Athos ordered. “Get us out of this.”
“Aye, sir,” the helm replied. Not glancing at the admiral to see if he approved, the sailor engaged the ship’s engines. “The controls are not responding,” he said after a moment. “I can’t get us moving.”
Athos looked over just as the helm’s station went dark. Then, the weapons officer’s station lost power.
“Climate control and atmosphere reconditioning systems are offline,” a sailor sitting behind the general reported.
Holographic computers around the control room blinked off. Stunned, Athos didn’t know what to do. Darkness engulfed the bridge, only the forward view screen and the holographic computer with Pelros’ image floating in it remained on. He could see his nephew working frantically at the transport’s controls.
“Status, Commander?” he asked.
“We are going down, sir,” Pelros replied, sounding more perplexed than frightened. “But our descent is slow. We still have no control.”
“General…” Vecan said.
Athos looked up at the view screen. The Pegasus rotated and began an approach toward Earth.
“Looks like we’re being forced to land as well,” Athos said.
An enraged scream came through the com-link. Pelros turned and looked over his shoulder.
“What was that?” Athos asked, worried.
“Our slave soldiers,” Pelros replied. “They aren’t responding to our orders.”
“Is the cockpit door closed?” Athos feared he was about to witness his nephew’s death.
“Yes, sir. But I don’t think it will hold them for long.”
Just then, he heard the screech of metal. Athos watched in horror as Pelros spun away from the screen and threw his arm up to stop the blow of the blonde slave named Kelly. “No,” Athos begged.
Pelros deflected the first blow, but then the slave punched him in the face and he fell back on the controls of the transport. The computer with Pelros’ image blinked off, only the view of the approaching Earth illuminated the bridge.
“Pelros,” Athos said desperately, trying to reopen the communication link. The slave was wearing her armor, and the second blow looked like it had been to his nephew’s unprotected face. Athos’ heart sank. A punch like that from the strength-enhancing armor could easily kill.
“People of Anu,” a delicate feminine voice said.
Athos spun around, looking into the dark corners of the bridge with his pistol aimed. He guessed that the owner of the voice had somehow freed the slave that had murdered his boy. He wanted revenge, but he couldn’t find a target.
“Your planet is destroyed. Those you’ve oppressed across this dimension have been freed. You are the last survivors of your wicked species. Your children will judge and sentence you.”
Shane opened his eyes and rose to his feet in the same instant. The battle on the tarmac had ended, and it was deadly quiet. Confused and disoriented, he stood motionless, the flood of memories of what had just taken place washing over him. Kelly, or the artificial personality the Anunnaki rebels had created for her, had shot him. She had failed to take back her body.
He wouldn’t give up on Kelly, but now he had to keep his promise. He needed to ensure Nat’s safety. Shane tried to take a step toward the barracks where the kids stayed, but nothing happened. Baffled, he attempted to look down at his feet, but his head stayed motionless, his eyes fixed on the building directly in front of him.
Kelly had shot him in the stomach. He should be dead. But instead, the plasma bolt rendered him paralyzed.
A greenish haze of writhing energy settled over the base, and he noticed the absolute silence of the tarmac extended to the wilderness surrounding it. No birdcalls came from the forest, and the autumn leaves ceased singing in the gentle mountain breeze. His immobility caused panic to build in him. Suddenly, his bones felt like they turned to jelly and he collapsed onto the asphalt.
Recovering, he pushed himself up to his knees, grateful to find he’d regained full use of his body. The paralysis had left him. Mo
ving his limbs to see that everything worked, he came to his feet. The massive, pyramid-shaped recruit ship descended from the heavens. It blocked out the sun and consumed a third of the sky, a greenish glow enveloping it. It looked like it would land somewhere to the south, perhaps near Atlanta. Directly overhead, the Anunnaki transport also returned toward Earth. Though it came down slowly, it appeared its thrusters were off. Shane retrieved a shotgun from the ground and checked to see if it had a round chambered. The craft landed on the tarmac, and the rear hatch opened.
A bloodcurdling scream came from inside the transport. Shane rushed in and found Kelly dragging an Anunnaki soldier out of the cockpit and kicking him even though the soldier’s head was caved in and he appeared to be dead. Jules had grabbed her shoulders and tried to restrain her.
“Help me,” Jules yelled. “She’s gone crazy.”
Shane rushed forward, Steve entering the transport behind him. They grabbed Kelly and pinned her to the deck. She kicked and screamed, her eyes full of rage and murderous intent.
“Kelly,” Shane desperately said. “It’s us. You have to stop.”
She didn’t seem to recognize them. She bucked hard and almost threw them off. When they came back down on her, her head thumped against the metal floor. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she stopped fighting.
“She’s knocked herself out,” Jules said.
“So you guys are in control again?” Steve asked.
“Yeah, but as soon as we were released, she went berserk.”
Movement from the cockpit caught their attention. Another Anunnaki soldier’s bloody face appeared. Shane reached for his shotgun, but the alien pulled a lever and the door to the cockpit slammed shut and locked. Shane leaned back against the bulkhead, catching his breath. The green haze that hung over the forest filled the transport, seeming to flow through everything.
“The Anunnaki are a failed species, a cancer on this universe,” a feminine voice said, sounding as if it came from everywhere at once.
Shane walked out of the transport and gazed up. Jones and a few of the clones who’d survived the attack stood nearby, looking as perplexed as everyone else.
