“We know what we have to do,” Clare said, keying in the locations of the sensors we’d found on the way the other way.
“Targeting,” I said, seeing the crosshairs of the pulse gun over the zoomed in wormhole stabilizers. “Slate, let’s blast this and get away.”
“We have no idea what kind of reaction we’re in for by destabilizing this. Best to err on the side of caution.” Clare was right.
“Three, two, one.” I fired two rounds, one after the other, and was rewarded with tiny twin explosions. Mary engaged the thrusters, and I changed the viewscreen to show the wormhole behind us. Flashes of light sparked inside it, and seconds later, it was gone. No explosion, no cataclysmic event, just vanished from space.
“That was anticlimactic,” Mary said, grinning at me.
I got up, set my hands on her shoulders, and leaned down to talk into her ear. “We did it. Let’s go home.”
Home. A place in disarray, under threat of aliens and ourselves. I suddenly missed Carey very much, wishing the small wiggly dog was with us. Magnus would be taking great care of him, but who knew what happened to them? I couldn’t wait to get back and see if there was word on their trip.
Mary leaned back, kissing me quickly.
“Home sounds good.”
TWENTY-FIVE
“Who’s ready for my galaxy-famous egg skillet?” Nick asked.
“By galaxy-famous, you mean that mix of boxed egg whites and rehydrated potatoes?” Clare threw a sugar cube at him, which he deftly caught.
“Breakfast sounds amazing.” Mary was in a good mood, and I found myself being so thankful for her around. Without her, I would be spiraling down an alley of despair. I was so in love with her, and what Mae had said didn’t change that. But the fact the real Janine had been with me, ever since finding Mae on that lone vessel last year, had thrown me for a loop. I couldn’t believe she was gone… again.
“Wait, if you’re here, and I’m here, and…,” I said, and it was my turn to take a sugar cube on the head.
“That joke was old last week,” Mary said. We had the autopilot on and would be arriving at the first wormhole the next day.
“Do we shut it down?” Nick asked the question we’d been wondering since we started the trip home.
“If we do, the hybrids are going to have a hell of a trip to the planet Leslie and Terrance are on. If we don’t, we leave a back door open into our solar system,” I said. “My vote is leaving it, and letting the government make the call. They can get back out here to shut it down if they decide to.”
“Slate agreed with that. He’s a soldier who wants to follow orders, not make decisions. So that leaves us,” Mary said.
“I vote leave it.” This from Nick.
“Same.” Clare poured another coffee and offered the pot to me. I extended my cup, letting her fill it up.
“I guess we are unanimous, the wormhole stays.” Mary grabbed a plate of food from Nick, and we all seemed glad to be so close to returning.
So much had happened in the few weeks since we’d left. The universe was huge, and our part in it so small, but I was more thankful for what we had then ever.
“Where will you guys go when we get home?” I asked.
Clare fiddled with her food. “I’m going to go get a fat burger and a beer from this place in Albuquerque. It was open long before the Event, and my dad used to take us there when we’d visit our grandma every summer. I miss them all so much. So I go there, eat a burger, drink a beer, and remember my dad’s laughter, and my brother whining about wanting no onions. I wish I could hear him whining about them again.”
“I’ll go with you. I have a great whining voice,” Nick said, his joke cutting the tension at just the right time.
Clare looked at him solemnly, before bursting out in a loud laugh we hadn’t heard from her before. Eggs spilled out of her mouth, and a snort or two followed, causing more laughter. Soon we were all red in the face, tears filling our eyes for no reason but happiness.
Earth was so close I could almost smell it.
I zoomed in and could finally see the planet in all its beautiful glory.
“Wait. What is that?” Mary asked, pointing to the viewscreen as we raced toward our home. We were all anxious to be back, to set foot on the green grass and take a deep breath of good old American air.
I looked where she was pointing and saw what she meant.
“It looks like a station.” My heart jumped in my chest. Had Earth been invaded while we were gone?
“Slate, stay back for a moment. We can hide, but you can’t.”
“Affirmative, boss,” he replied from the comm-link speaker. His icon slowed and pulled away, heading back the way we’d come from. “Be careful.”
“Let’s come around slowly,” I suggested, and Mary nodded along.
The minutes went by slowly, none of us speaking for fear we would jinx something. Maybe if we blinked, the station would be gone, and everything would be back to normal when we landed. Instead, we saw the picture more clearly the nearer we got.
It was a space station of an intricate design. Ships much like ours hovered nearby, their cloaking not activated. No one seemed to be frantic, so it didn’t seem like a battle was happening.
“What’s happening?” Clare stood at the front of the bridge, touching the viewscreen with her right palm.
“Something tells me they’ve made some changes,” I said.
“In two months?” she retorted.
“What do we do?” Mary asked.
Before I could suggest anything, our radio silence ended. “Identify yourselves, unmarked cloaked ship.” The voice was tense, but in English, and not alien. That was a good sign.
“What’s going on? Can we speak with Dalhousie?” I asked, trying to add authority to my voice.
“Dalhousie? I repeat, identify yourselves.” The voice was getting angrier.
“We’re members of the Earth Defense Unit. Dean Parker here.”
Silence greeted us from the other end of the comm. Mary looked at me and I just shrugged.
“Did you say Dean Parker? What kind of BS is this?” a different voice asked.
“This isn’t bull. I’m Dean Parker, we were sent on a mission by General Heart just before they left. We’re back.”
“That’s impossible,” the voice said. “You’d better come and dock. We need to talk. Ask for Chen.”
“Do we trust this?” I asked, hoping Mary would have a gut feeling about it.
“What choice do we have? Leave?” she asked. Clare’s eyes widened at this.
“Slate, we’re going to find out what’s happening. It looks like the station is Earth’s. You want to join us?” I asked.
“Be right there, boss.”
We waited for him to arrive, and we disengaged our cloaking tech. Together we flew toward the large station, and instructions for docking were sent to our consoles. Things had changed here. But how had they done it so fast?
The station’s outer ring was circular, and not far off the design of the Deltra one we’d first seen the Bhlat on a few weeks ago. The same type of wheel was spinning, and that meant gravity. In the center of it were three huge uniform sections, channels leading between them. This place was bigger than I’d thought when we first laid eyes on it, at least four times the size of the Deltra station.
Behind, or underneath, depending on your perspective, a large hangar sat, a one-way force field letting us in but maintaining pressure. It was quite the feat. A dozen ships like ours sat there, empty.
“Dean, my gut’s telling me something’s wrong,” Mary whispered in my ear. I glanced at Nick, who was staring out the viewscreen with his jaw dropped just enough to look comical.