The Deep Beneath (33 page)

Dr. Randall, too, stopped writhing on the floor. Ian extended him a hand, and Dr. Randall rose on still-wobbly legs, rubbing his temples.

Erika brushed the dust from the brick pavers off of her backside. She felt a pang of pain again and was about to write it off as an aftereffect when she noticed Alecto advancing toward her. Alecto had her hand extended toward Erika, and soon the twinge gave way to the sharp ice pick that she had experienced before. Erika fell again to the hard ground, her hands at her head, her mouth open in a silent scream of pain.

“You are property of the U.S. government, 9. I order you to end your resistance or this human female will be terminated,” Alecto said.

Erika looked up and through her bleary eyes saw Jack and Ian standing over her. She could not see Tex, Dr. Randall or Commander Sturgis. She tried to focus on the guys. Her friends. The ones she loved most.
Fight her.

“Do something, Tex!” Ian screamed.

Ian left Erika’s vision. The pain in her head subsided. She blinked her eyes as she sat up. As her vision cleared, she saw Ian on top of Alecto. Alecto tried to kick Ian off with her legs, but her strength was no match for Ian’s. He pinned her down with his legs and held her arms out to her sides with his strong hands.

But Ian’s apparent upper hand of strength did not last. He grabbed at his head, releasing Alecto’s hands from his grasp. Alecto reached her small hand downward, toward her thigh.
The gun.

“Ian, watch out! She’s got a gun,” Jack yelled.

Ian still crouched on Alecto, pinning her to the ground. But his hands were on either side of his head. He was distracted by the pain she caused with her invisible icepick.

Erika had no plan. She didn’t stop to think. She knew only that she could not let that little mutant freak shoot her best friend, so she ran toward them like a crazed maniac.

Just as she was about to tackle Alecto, the small female hybrid’s body shot up into the air. At first Erika thought that Alecto had freed herself from Ian’s weight. But when Erika looked up, she saw that Alecto remained suspended and she once again grasped at her neck.

Ian rubbed at his head as Erika and Dr. Randall had done.

Erika knelt beside him. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’ll be okay,” he said. “At least I don’t have a bullet hole in me.”

They both stared as Alecto hung in the air over them. She dropped the gun to the ground as she struggled to free her neck from the invisible wire wrapping itself around her airway. Alecto raised her wavering hand in an apparent attempt to levitate Tex, but Tex’s feet remained on the ground. He walked slowly toward Alecto, his eyes set on her, his face impassive.

As he walked, the air around him shimmered. It looked like the air rising off of the pavement on a hot summer day.

“Go, Dr. Randall. Go, Erika, Ian and Jack.”

Erika hesitated, but Jack pulled at her hand. “He’s got this. Let’s go before it’s too late.”

Tex continued to stand perfectly still, his eyes fixed on Alecto, who still hovered in the air near Commander Sturgis. Sturgis rubbed her neck as she looked up, as helpless to free Alecto as Erika had been to free Tex.

With her hand in Jack’s, they ran to meet Ian and Dr. Randall, who stood beneath the ship where Tex had told them to wait. The four huddled together and waited for the ship to open and take them into the unknown.

Alecto gasped for air as Tex held her in his grip. Her normally greyish-white skin turned a pale blue as she fought to fill her lungs with oxygen.

Commander Sturgis took her eyes from Alecto and stared evenly at Tex. “You’re killing her.” Sturgis’ voice was flat but unwavering.

“Yes,” Tex said.

“I need her,” Sturgis said.

“And I need to go with them.” Tex inclined his head toward the waiting ship. “I will release her, but you must first release me. Tell her to let me go. End this battle.”

Commander Sturgis again looked up at Alecto and back to Tex.

“It’s over. You have lost. I will kill her. You know that I will.”

Sturgis hesitated, but as Alecto’s face turned an alarming shade of purple, she said, “You win. Go to them. You may feel that you have won this battle, 9, but you have lost. Soon you will understand, but I fear it will be too late for you. And if you live to see me again, you will surely say ‘you told me so’.”

“Never.”

Alecto fell to the ground. She gasped loudly and panted hard to catch her breath. Sturgis and Tex kept their eyes locked on each other for a few seconds more; then Tex turned his back on her. He walked calmly, serenely even, back toward the ship. Erika thought she saw a tear come to Sturgis’ eye, but there was no tear trail on her cheeks.
Probably just a trick of the artificial light in here
.

As soon as Tex was with Erika and the others, the metal above them morphed. It went from being a solid, perfectly smooth surface to a pair of hinged doors much like those on the bottom of an airplane where the wheels go up into the craft. The doors slid open without a sound.

Erika expected to see alien faces there to greet her. But instead her eyes met only blackness. If there was anything beyond the darkness, her human eyes were too weak to see it. The formless void above her seemed empty. Her palms were sticky with sweat. She let go of Jack’s hand to wipe her hands on her pants. Her heart raced, but Erika wasn’t sure if it was more from excitement or terror.

Without warning, the dark was pierced with light so bright that Erika had to shield her eyes from it. Cool air descended from above, and when it hit her skin slick with sweat, it caused her to shiver.

Erika expected to rise up and be pulled into the bright white light as was
de rigueur
for nearly every science fiction movie about aliens she’d ever seen. But she didn’t float through the air.

Instead, she felt like she was being compressed. It was slight at first, like a blood pressure cuff placed around the arm and the first pump or so. The pressure continued to build over her entire body but stopped just short of painful.

As the pressure stabilized, her feet lifted off of the ground. Slowly but inexorably, she was drawn up into the ship. The ground beneath her moved farther and farther away. The bright white light pierced the darkness below them. Commander Sturgis stood over Alecto at the edge of the light, and a few soldiers walked tentatively toward the ring of light.

It would have felt as though she was flying – free and wonderful – if it wasn’t for the pressure being exerted over every inch of her. Terror gave way to a growing feeling of excitement. The aliens would help them to get home. And if not home, then to a new world. They may be the first humans to ever set foot on an alien planet. Ian took Erika’s left hand, and she gave it a squeeze as she turned to look at him. The light bathing them was so bright that she could barely see Ian due to the glare. But she thought he was smiling at her.

Erika turned to look at Jack on her right side and reached to take his hand in hers again. The glare was intense and she could not see him. She felt for his hand, but there was only empty air. Jack was not there.

Panic seized her, but she tried to calm her mind. Perhaps he was behind her, with Tex and Dr. Randall, who were smushed up against her back.

But when Erika looked down again, Jack stood below them inside the circle of white light. He waved his arms and his lips moved. His eyes were wild and it looked like he was shouting, but she could not hear him. In fact, she heard nothing. It was as though she was suspended in a vacuum, silent and cold and terrible. “Jack!” she yelled, but she could not even hear her own voice. Erika tried to move, to run, to jump and to return to the ground, but she was immobilized, as though she had been Tasered.

Erika was very near to the opening, and Jack grew smaller below. He was a shimmering silhouette in the intense light. His mouth moved, but she could not hear what he said.

Erika was unable to move, but she was able to cry. Fat tears spilled down her cheeks. In the instant of their separation, she knew that she loved him. She screamed the three words that had riled her anger only days before. But her scream went unheard. Stuck, as was she, in a cold void.

Commander Sturgis could do nothing but watch as H.A.L.F. 9 was pulled upward into the bowels of the alien ship. Her nostrils were filled with the stench of sweat and urine and death. There were only a half dozen or so men still standing. The remainder of her small but loyal band of troops lay dead or dying. Aphthartos was covered in blood and fire and ruin. Commander Sturgis trembled with fury.

She had lost 9. Strategically it was best to cut her losses and prepare for her next move.
Protect the ones that remain.
But she was overcome with anger at 9 for leaving at her time of greatest need.

Alecto still lay on the brick pavement. Sturgis went to her and attempted to pull her from the ground. But Alecto’s body did not budge. It was as if an invisible weight held her down. Sturgis’ anger exceeded any bounds that had ever contained it. Not only did 9 leave her, but he took with him the secrets of his superior power that she had not yet been able to understand. She had worked so hard to make Alecto into a more perfect being. The science was sound. She knew that it was. So why was 9 stronger than 10?

In the circle of blinding light stood one of the young men that Dolan had failed to dispose of. The boy called and gestured to the passengers being lifted into the craft. But it was to no avail. He had been left behind.
Great. I still have him to deal with.

As soon as their feet vanished into the ship, the metal doors slid closed and the surface of the ship returned to the perfectly smooth metal that it had been before. Alecto was finally released from 9’s telepathic prison. She pushed herself up and stood with her commander.

The ground beneath them shook. The buildings quaked and the ground rumbled as if a powerful earthquake had hit them. There was a deep boom that was more felt than heard.

Commander Sturgis felt as though her whole body was being squashed in a compression chamber. It reminded her of the low-g tests she had endured while training to be an astronaut. Panic washed over her. She had not anticipated this. Was it another weapon, one they had waited until now to unleash? Was she going to be crushed to death by an invisible wave force?

Sturgis looked around, and it appeared that the others in Aphthartos felt the same effects. Some soldiers pressed their hands to their bodies, feeling up and down for the cause of the compression. Others looked surprised, some confused. If Alecto suffered the effects of the strange compression, she did not show it. She stood just as still, just as unwavering as she always did, her face set as if made from stone.

She does not panic. At least I have that to rely on.

The pressure stabilized. It was a nuisance but not strong enough to harm them.

As Sturgis stared intently at the ship, it flickered, and the young man slowly backed away from it. It appeared as though the orb’s lights blinked on and off, but Sturgis knew it was not lighted. It was the optical effect of the streetlights and glowing trees of Aphthartos flickering off of the highly polished silver of the orb as it pulsated.

The entire ship pulsed as it expanded then contracted. The air around them heated up as the orb pulsed faster and faster, growing and shrinking.

The ship flickered in and out of view. The pressure built again and the heat was intense. Sturgis’ brow dripped, and her inner T-shirt, soaked in sweat, hugged her skin. She was suddenly hit with a shock wave that knocked her and everyone else that had been standing down.

She stood, brushed herself off and glanced back to where the alien ship had been. It was gone. It was as if it had never been there at all.

Sturgis let out a heavy breath of relief that the gruesome bloodbath was over. Relieved that Alecto had, at least, stayed true to her training even if 9 had not. And relieved that she escaped the first alien battle with her life and the majority of her life’s work intact.

Relief quickly gave way to disappointment. She had spent her entire adult life preparing for the moment that she would confront the aliens that had threatened war against her people so long ago. She had waited for the day that, with her creations by her side, she would look an alien in the eye and watch the creature die before it could unleash its war machine. It was a scene she had imagined many times. She had not been given the chance to have her showdown.
But I will. This is not the end. I will get the others ready. Without 9’s human frailties, they will be as loyal to me as Alecto is.

One of the soldiers approached Commander Sturgis. His eyes were wide with fear and he visibly trembled. “Commander, uh … what do you want us to do now?”

“First, I want you to find Sewell. He’s probably cowering in his cubicle. Tell him I want containment down here A.S.A.P. And have someone take that young man over there and put him in a holding cell. I’ll deal with him later. Gather up everyone left with a gun and get them out of here. No doubt the little rat Sewell has been on his secret bat phone to the general. Bardsley will be down here soon enough and with brass. I don’t want them catching sight of any of you. Got it?”

She was supposed to be closing the base, not arming it. General Bardsley would have her butt in a sling if he knew she had openly defied his orders and hired a small army of mercenary soldiers to defend her stronghold. Her heart sank as she looked around her. She was going to have hell to pay regardless of whether Bardsley saw the few remaining soldiers that lived through the battle. Someone was going to have to answer for the dozens of dead men on the ground of Aphthartos. Men that weren’t supposed to be in A.H.D.N.A. or Aphthartos to begin with.

“Yes, ma’am.” The man saluted Commander Sturgis then ran toward the entrance to Aphthartos.

Alecto stood by Sturgis’ side. They both stared at the empty spot where an alien ship once stood. There were no burn marks, no imprints of the ship’s landers. Commander Sturgis wondered if it even left an energy signature behind.