MARS

 

The hangar deck wasn't empty when we arrived the next day. Galentide, Curran, and the whole Council were there to receive us.

Our small team accompanied the President and the General along with a sizable force of U.S. military. Just enough to get our point across. And just enough to keep us safe should it come to that.

I'd known something was wrong the moment Lena threw her arms around me. Granted we'd grown close over the months we'd spent working together, but this was something altogether different. This was a desperate embrace, the kind you gave someone before a long goodbye or maybe after you'd lost them.

Turns out, I had been lost. For a few seconds, that is. When Gillis explained his experiment to her and she hadn't been able to find me in the lab, Lena had assumed the worst. I imagined it must have been a great relief to find me in the loading dock, carrying equipment into our pod.

Before she'd even explained what was going on, she'd made the officer in charge fly us out of the ship. We were halfway down to Earth when she broke the news and then I had to hear it again as she reported to the Committee. It was enough to make me want to never set foot upon an Etrallian ship again. As usual, the only problem was the politics.

We had no way of knowing if Galentide had condoned Gillis's little experiment. No way of knowing how many Etrallians supported such drastic measures.

Not to mention we hadn't finished our work. Finding a way to create clean drinking water for humanity trumped all else. But how far were we willing to go to reach that goal? How many more would have to die?

Luckily those decisions weren't up to me. The Committee had chosen for us. Too far was too far. The Etrallia had crossed a line and we had to respond. For the good of humanity, we had to act.

So, that's how I ended up standing in a line with the others, watching Galentide frown upon our people as the President calmly explained the situation.

"We consider this to be a direct attack." Her voice echoed in the large space, but it only enhanced her words. "On behalf of the Committee of Earth, I must inform you that we've decided to withdraw from this alliance. All scientific and diplomatic operations are hereby suspended."

Galentide made a sound of dissent, a deep rumbling growl that shook his chest.

"You have forty-eight hours to evacuate this airspace."

The Etrallians were impassive. I glanced around. Lena's eyes were fixed on Henry's, traces of guilt coloring her expression. Perhaps she hadn't thought it would come to this. Maybe she thought we could still work something out, find a way to build our own converter and save the people of Earth. I knew it was probably hopeless. Without the help of the people who'd built such a thing, the technology was beyond us. We needed all the help we could get and the Etrallia weren't likely to help us now.

"Set your coordinates beyond this galaxy," said the President. "Any Etrallian ship caught within a league of Earth's atmosphere will be subject to immediate removal."

More like, immediate destruction.

"Clock's ticking," said the General, gruffly.

We turned back for the pods and a wave of sadness washed over me. Unlike Lena, I hadn't befriended an Etrallian, but I'd grown used to the idea of them. I'd grown accustomed to the way they spoke, the way they moved. I'd even grown to admire the ingenious minds of their scientists and engineers. I could imagine the great civilization they'd come from and I was sad to realize we'd never be exposed to all that knowledge. We wouldn't be able to save our people and we wouldn't be able to advance. A decade from now, we'd still be scrabbling fruitlessly in the dark for answers.

We were either saving ourselves or making the greatest mistake of our lives.