“Dean, Magnus!” a monotone voice called down the hall. “Teelon sent us to help you.”
We lowered our guns and Magnus fell back, resting his back on the wall. Sweat was dripping off him too, and suddenly, I didn’t feel so foolish. We were in this together.
“Did we win? Are we good?” I said as they approached. They looked like the twins, no visible hair, and plain jump suits on.
A small, almost invisible smile crossed the alien’s face. “They are all gone. We are finally liberated!” Dozens of them came down the hall and soon they were all cheering loudly. We even threw a couple whoops in with them until I remembered why we were really there.
“Where are our people?” I asked.
The cheering stopped quickly as the man speaking to us raised an arm. “Come with us. We will bring you to them. I am called Drendon, leader of the Deltra.”
We followed them back towards the hangar a way, but made a turn at some point before making it all the way back. He wouldn’t respond to any of my further prodding, only saying all would be clear soon. He praised our skills and tenacity at accomplishing something so miraculous. I was beaming as I thought about all I’d been through in the last week. I couldn’t wait to be reunited with everyone I loved. My mother was probably scared to death. I couldn’t wait to find James and see the look on his face when he found out I’d helped save them all. He would owe me beer and wings for life after all of this.
Drendon led us to a metal staircase and we followed behind, coming out in a large room. It was large and open, bright with soft white light, and computer consoles were everywhere. The bridge of this ship maybe, though I couldn’t see any viewscreen or windows. I was sure all of that was available through some sort of camera or sensor system.
“Where are they?” I asked, looking around. It would be hard to hide seven billion people.
Drendon went to a computer screen on the wall and swiped his hands across in a few quick movements. The wall moved and a massive screen appeared. On it were dozens of cubes, maybe as many as a hundred.
“That’s them? How do we get them back?” I asked, suddenly feeling queasy.
The camera zoomed out, and the ships shrank to a tenth their size. In the near distance, the sun roared hot. “You don’t, human.”
“You son of a bitch! What have you done?” Magnus grabbed my shirt, pulling me back, and raised his gun. I looked around and saw dozens of their weapons pointing at us. We were helpless but continued to stand resolute in the large silent room.
“In a few hours, your world’s population will be disintegrated, and we will be the sole heirs to Earth. Redemption for the centuries of oppression under the Kraski. They were so arrogant. I can’t believe it was this easy. All we had to do was convince them to come here, so many years after we planted the Kalentrek. We had been building it to protect ourselves from their imminent invasion but hadn’t finished in time.” Drendon’s thin lips curled up in a hideous smile.
“Why tell us this?” I asked, hoping to keep him talking.
“Because it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s done. We orchestrated the emancipation of our race and gained a planet in doing so. Hidden away, our savior finished the Kalentrek, with every intention of freeing us from them, only he couldn’t find us. He came upon this world, planted it, and sent us a message. Centuries later, we’re finally here. We played the long game but won in the end.”
“It doesn’t have to be like this. We can coexist. Just help me get our people back and let’s go back down together. We have so much we can learn from one another.” I pleaded my case.
He looked at me, head slightly turned to the side. “There is nothing you can teach us. Your race is deplorable, human.” He turned to an armed guard beside him. “Kill them.”
I tensed, knowing this was it for me. We had come so close, but not close enough. It was all an intricate game, and we had been played by both sides. As I closed my eyes, I heard someone drop beside me. Turning to the sound, I saw the guards dropping one by one. Magnus started to fire and we ran to the back of the room, ducking fire every step of the way.
“Over here!” someone yelled at us. It was Mary! She was firing volley after volley of red beams into their group, dropping them like flies. We rushed to her and Magnus turned, joining the firing frenzy. I climbed behind them and ran down the stairs and into the passageway that would lead us back to the dock.
“Let’s go!” I yelled, and soon Mary was running down the cramped cavity, I was in the middle and Magnus was bringing up the rear. We almost passed the Shield we’d left sitting in the hall and decided we might still need it. Adrenaline was the only reason Magnus and I could find the energy to haul the thing all the way back.
We made it unimpeded for a few minutes but could hear fire behind us. As we approached the bay we had landed in, one of them stepped into the entranceway and fired a shot at us. It grazed Mary’s leg, and she stumbled before firing a kill shot, dropping the alien in the doorway. We hopped over his body and ran at the ship. Pressing the buttons on our shirts, we lifted up in the green light and toward the ship’s belly, red beams shot around us, and I could swear one went right through me. Soon we were back into the sterile ship, and Carey was jumping on me, trying to lick my hands. I gave him a quick pet as we rushed to the cockpit, where Mary fired up the ship.
“There are no bays open,” I said, turning my head to the sound of laser fire pulsing against the shields.
“Hang on to your socks, boys. We’re going out with a bang.”
The ship lifted in the bay, red alarm lights flashing in our view port. She paused over some controls, and with a confident keystroke, a massive pulse shot out of the front of the ship. We hovered there as the wall to the stations crumbled and space’s vacuum sucked everything around us out. Teelon’s people floated past us, dead.
“Let’s get the hell out of here. We have no idea how many of them are around,” Mary said.
Our sensors showed green dots emerging from the massive cube behind us.
“Shit! I see at least four. I have a feeling there weren’t a lot of the Deltras on that thing. I really wish I knew if Natalia was okay. We could use her help right about now, if Teelon didn’t harm her.” I stood behind the pilot’s seat trying to hide my adrenaline-riddled shaking hands.
“We do what we have to do, gents,” Mary said as our ship lurched to the side. She let out a yell and started firing at the Deltras. Their shields held for the first few blasts, but with her unpredictable pattern of shots, three of them exploded and burned out in quick order. Mary raced past a cluster of four ships, firing in all directions as she did. One of the ships just went dark and floated there, while the others chased after her, firing shots at us. We took a few, but she also evaded many, red pulses continuing on past our front view port.
“Bogey coming up quickly from our left!” Magnus called, sitting down beside Mary. He took over the weapons as she spun through space, like a bat out of hell. Meat Loaf’s song raced through my mind as another ship was destroyed. I felt like I was holding my breath, and gasped when I saw a couple more green lights appear on our screen.
“There’s more of them.” I knew Mary was good but didn’t see how we could possibly get out of this.
“We don’t have much of a choice. Their ships are the same, and I’ve no idea if this Kraski one is any faster than their smaller ships. There’s no running.” She gave a quick glance back at me. “We stand here, for all of humanity.”
I almost laughed at the cheesy line, but she was right. The Deltras that we had been fighting had eased off and limped back behind the fresh ships coming in. There were five in total, and I hoped that was it for their fleet. We were only one.