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THE BOTTLE TOUCHED his lips as a knock tapped on his hotel door. Liam shook his head in disbelief that he was about to drink and set the bottle down. He looked through the display screen showing who knocked on the other side and was surprised by who he saw.
Zale and Dyran.
He opened the door and let them in.
“Thought you were off-planet, Zale,” he said after closing the door behind them.
“I was going to be, but I took some time off the day after you left Mars. I’m here unofficially.”
“And why are you here?”
Zale glanced over to Dyran signaling him to talk.
“I want to help you.”
“Yeah? How’s that sit with your council?”
“They don’t know I’m here. Most of them cling to the past and it’s unfortunate. We should be helping people. That’s why we left our planet in the first place—to help humans. Now we have another chance to and they won’t. Helping you is what’s right, despite what they say. I wanted to tell you after the vote, but eyes and ears are everywhere in that place.”
“Good to see one of you on the council has a conscience. And you, Zale?”
“Dyran and I have always been on the same page. He was there for me when my husband was killed—by a Proximian. Their species claims to be all about honor and peace keeping, but at the end of the day they’re just like us. No offense Dyran.”
“So you are a he? I can’t tell the difference,” Liam said.
“It’s subtle. See, our genitals are—”
“Enough, Dyran. No one wants to hear about your anatomy. Tell Liam about the ship.”
“Of course. I come from a wealthy family who made their fortune building atmo-domes. We’re the largest supplier in the solar system. In order to build those we need vast ships to carry the required amount of cargo. As is tradition amongst the Proximians, our larger vessels are equipped with the wormhole drive.”
“If travelling back to your homeworld is against the rules, why continue building ships with this wormhole technology?”
“Fair question. Truth be told...I’m not sure. The Proximian ship-building guild has always equipped large vessels like ours with the technology. I only half understand how it works myself and, sorry, I won’t be telling you.”
“I figured it best not to ask.”
“Good. Anyway, I can get you a ship. Its defensive measures are low. Pirating isn’t an issue these past few hundred years like it was when system-wide space travel really became economical. But it can get you there.”
Liam breathed a sigh of relief. The universe, it would seem, wasn’t done with him yet.
“I wouldn’t know how to thank you.”
“Thank me by keeping this quiet. I’m risking a lot to help you. Yes, it’s the right thing to do, but I’d rather keep my position on the council if I can.”
“I need my people. Not only that, but I need my smaller ships and weapons that were on The Hawking. Zale, I assume they’re locked away under guard by the EPSD?”
“Yes. A secure impound facility is on Mars. I can get us access.”
“What about that guy you were with today? Mr. Alvarez?” Dyran asked.
“We need him. His room is down the hall. Let me grab him.”
He left them in his room and found Percy in his—wearing nothing but a bath towel around his waist.
“Nice shower?”
“Sorry, did you want to join?”
“Throw some clothes on and come to my room. We have work to do. Zale is back and she brought a friend.”
Liam returned to his room and moments later Percy joined them still with wet hair. He noticed the open beer bottle on the counter and gave Liam a questioning look. Liam answered with a subtle shake of his head. Percy redirected his attention to the other two in the room. “What’s all this about?” he asked.
“Dyran can supply us a ship and Zale can get our Z crafts back,” Liam said.
“Holy shit, really? So does this mean we’re going?”
“We are.”
“Hang on, Liam. We have to plan. There’s a lot of moving pieces to this,” Zale said. “Where are your people?”
“We have close to four hundred willing to fight. I’d like more, but it is what it is. The ones who volunteered are in Spring Haven waiting on word back from us. Percy, have you contacted them yet?”
“No. I thought it best to come from you.”
“I’ll call Debra. Zale, I’ll need your—what do you call communication devices these days?”
“Still phones. Some things don’t change.”
“I’ll need to borrow yours. Ours don’t work with this infrastructure. I know where she’s staying so that shouldn’t be a problem. While we’re on our way back, Debra can get everyone ready. Dyran, where is your ship?”
“A secure dockyard for elite crafts just outside the city.”
“Will it be able to land in Spring Haven? It’s not that big of a town,” Percy said.
“Here, hang on,” Zale said. She pulled her translucent tablet out from her bag and moments later projected a topographical three dimensional view of Spring Haven and its surrounding areas.
“Damn, I didn’t know you could do that,” Percy said.
“It’s just a hologram,” Zale replied.
“Maybe to you.”
“Enough, Percy. Do we see any landing areas for our size?”
“Towns this small don’t typically have the expansive dockyards we’d need. See this?” He pointed to a landing strip with a half dozen vessels parked nearby. “This is their dockyard. It’s made for medium-size transport vessels, not one of my class.”
Liam walked around the map to view it from the other side. “What about this area right here?” He pointed to a spacious park just outside what constituted Spring Haven’s downtown. Zale used two hands to reach into the hologram then pulled her hands apart causing it to zoom in. Dyran examined more closely.
“That could work. There’s some trees we might crush upon landing, but I think we can fit.”
“How much attention will that draw?” Percy asked.
“All kinds, I’m afraid,” Dyran said.
“You asked us to keep it quiet. Do you have any other ideas?” Liam asked.
“Outside of them coming to us—no.”
“We can’t bring four hundred people all the way here. And even if we could, we need to be leaving now, not in a day or two,” Liam said.
“Dyran, do you have any dropships on board?” Zale asked.
“Yes, some. Eight—I think.”
“How many can they hold?”
“If we empty out anything unnecessary—forty.”
“Liam, that’s three hundred and twenty we can take in one trip if we pick them up on the dropships from orbit. They’re smaller and quieter. If we go at night and use signal jammers, I think we can get in and out without too much attention. But I wouldn’t want to risk it twice. You’d be eighty people short. Is that enough?” Zale asked.
“Maybe. Percy, what do you think?”
“We don’t know what we’ll be flying into. Four hundred might be overkill or it might be laughably short. If we only have three hundred and twenty so be it.”
“Alright. Let’s do it. I’ll call Debra and get them ready.”
Weeks transpired in a timeless blur since Ann was thrown in her cell. The Inizio prisoners’ endless days consisted only of eating and sleeping. The food they’d been brought was somehow worse than the mush served to them on their ship—just enough to keep them alive. Ann joined Blaire in keeping busy with a relentless exercise routine and as a result found her muscles in the best shape of her life. Blaire told her it was important to keep your body strong, but Ann only cared about being able to fight back when the moment inevitably presented itself. To the annoyance of their cellmates, they spent hours every day training.
Ann had just finished a round of one hundred pushups when the cell door opened. Three guards, weapons raised, blocked the exterior light casting long shadows into the cell. One spoke in a deep booming sound. No one moved. The Proximian spoke louder and pointed its gun at them and then waved it to the door and back. Ann picked up on the cue and rose off the stone floor and dusted herself off.
“It wants us to go,” she said to the room.
She was the first to leave, followed by Blaire and the other eighteen they shared the cell with. Outside in the tunnel another armed guard waited for them. It spoke its language and motioned with its gun for them to follow. As they walked, the guards behind them opened the next cell and repeated the same routine. It’d been weeks since they left the dark confines of the cell and even if they were surrounded by armed guards on either end of the prisoner parade, it felt good to walk for an extended period of time.
Climbing up the tunnel, Ann was reminded of the mountains surrounding her father’s old home in Tennessee. The two of them spent many hot days hiking when she was younger. She missed him tremendously and hoped he had a peaceful remainder of his life, however short it may have been.
The noise of the city increased the further they climbed. As much as Ann loathed these aliens, she was also enamored by the concept of a city built under a mountain. When they arrived at the platform overlooking the city she couldn’t help but pause in admiration. It was as breathtaking as the day she first saw it. The glass buildings scintillated under the radiant light beaming from overhead. But like before, she was ushered to keep moving before getting a good look and found herself back in the cavern.
She couldn’t help but wonder where they were being taken. To be executed? But why keep them alive for weeks? She tried to look ahead to measure how many guards waited at the cave’s entrance, but it was hard to tell. Right away she noticed that the outside was significantly brighter than it had been when she was brought in.
And when she reached the mouth of the cave, she saw why.
Parked on the plains were the four STS ships. Fenced in camps surrounded each individual ship and a sea of thousands of people were locked inside them. Each camp was illuminated by exceptionally bright light poles.
The guards pushed their group down the base of the mountain to the closest camp surrounding The Linwood. Seeing the ships on the ground was an impressive sight. Ann assumed the Proximians landed them remotely after taking control weeks earlier. It was lucky they thought to include landing gear in case of emergencies, but the ships were intended to live their lives in space.
What were they doing on the surface? She couldn’t figure out the Proximians' motive for this course of action. And why lock up the passengers and crew instead of killing them? The situation had certainly changed over the weeks while they were imprisoned.
Hundreds of armed guards patrolled the camps. Several of which oversaw the gate door they were ushered through joining the throng of others who appeared to be in terrible condition. Many sat on the ground, others seemed to be doing some kind of work to the exterior of the ship. All appeared disheveled and hopeless.
The Linwood was a giant, standing over them several stories tall and a mile long. It was amazing they were able to successfully navigate these ships down to the surface and equally lucky the plains were flat enough to land them on.
“What now?” Blaire asked.
The rest of their cellmates dispersed amongst the crowd, no doubt seeking friends or family. Ann and Blaire had no one.
“Maybe someone around here knows what’s going on,” Ann said.
They walked along the length of The Linwood until they found a group of men carrying boxes inside the ship on a loading ramp attached to one of the docking bays.
“Excuse me!” Ann shouted, getting the rear man’s attention before he got too high on the ramp. He sat the box down by his feet and wiped his brow then spoke to them in Russian. Of course, the ship was constructed in Russia so the odds were most in this camp spoke Russian.
“Never mind,” Blaire said, then to Ann: “You don’t speak Russian, right?”
“No.”
“Alright then. Let’s keep looking.”
They made their way further along the ship, stopping workers as they went until at last they found one who spoke English.
“What are you all working on? We’ve been locked inside that mountain for weeks,” Ann said.
The woman they spoke to was young, early twenties. “Exchanging parts mostly.”
“Why?” Blaire asked.
She shrugged in response. “If I had to guess, we’re retrofitting the ship to fit their needs.”
“The Proximians?”
“Sure, if that’s what you want to call them. They supply us with vague written instructions and equipment and we do all the hard work.”
“What parts of the ship are you making changes to?” Ann asked.
“I’ve been working on the engines. Changing out our EmDrive for whatever the fuck they’re making us build.”
“Why the hell would they not want the EmDrive?” Blaire asked.
“I don’t know. But they’ve killed several of us for not going by their instructions. They send in their own every few hours to inspect our work. I better get back to it before I’m next. Good luck.”
“Thanks for your help,” Ann said.
The young Russian woman grabbed her box of supplies and went up a ramp into the ship.
“I guess that’s why so many are sitting around and only a handful are working. Not many people have the knowhow to make changes to the ship. But why are they wanting it changed?” Blaire asked.
“They want to leave,” Ann said, the answer coming to her out of nowhere.
“Leave the planet?”
“Of course. Why else would they be going through this? Think about it. Their ancestors long ago observed us as we constructed our fleet. They probably intercepted enough information to know the general capabilities and schematics of our ships, but maybe not enough to do all the work themselves. They’re forcing us to work on our own ships to apply their own designs while keeping everyone else alive to use as leverage. When we’re done, they’ll take our ships and leave.”
“And do what with us?”
“They’ll either kill us or leave us behind. But without our supplies on board and Inizio destroyed, our fate may end up the same.”
“Obviously they’re intelligent and advanced. Which begs the question...” Blaire trailed off allowing Ann to reach the same conclusion.
“Why didn’t they just build ships themselves? They had a thousand years notice that we were coming. We built our fleet in only a few years, why couldn’t they?”
“Bingo. We’re missing something.”
“I know. But until we come upon the missing piece, I’m afraid we have no choice but to cooperate.”