Phoenix City, Saraya, Standard Year 404
Will’s second in command was yelling at him. Out of politeness, his eyes followed her back and forth as she paced the length of his office, ignoring the oversized window and the spectacular view out towards the city.
“Have you lost your mind?!” Zoe yelled, each step emphasized by the angry click of her high heeled shoes along the sparkling wood floors of his office. Over the decades she had worked with Will Atwater, he had always been the perfect leader. Reasonable, calm in a crisis, readily willing to admit to a mistake the few rare times he made one, and utterly brilliant. She had always had complete faith in him. Until now.
Will raised an eyebrow but he let her continue. Zoe was loyal. And she had never yelled at him before. In fact, to the best of his knowledge, she had never raised her voice at anyone before. But today was special. He sighed and continued his perfect imitation of a polite and supportive leader. And a good listener. His eyes strayed only slightly to follow the flight of a bright green bird with a massive wingspan as it soared past the window.
“Are you trying to get us all killed?” Zoe continued, unabated. “Nothing you’ve done makes any sense. And the evacuation?” She continued, her outrage nearly boundless. “I’ve seen the scans for the nuclear power plant. There is some evidence of a reactor leak but it’s really quite inconclusive. Was it necessary to evacuate the entire factory? And declare your intention to run for the presidency on the same day? I just don’t understand, William! I don’t understand anything that you’ve done lately.”
“The evacuation of our people from the factory is a separate matter.” Will said calmly. “You’ll just have to trust that I have my reasons. And the best interests of our people at heart.”
“What you have done, your decision to oppose the president, our president is going to put all of us in danger. Every person ever associated with Atwater Ships is in danger. If we didn’t have a complete monopoly on ship production, our customers would be dropping us like flies.” As much as Zoe hated Lorelai Achly, she did not want to go to prison and had no interest in opposing the current administration. Zoe had a nice paycheck, a nice apartment, and a lovely family. She loved her life. And she wanted no part of this. None.
“But we do have a monopoly.” Will said calmly.
“By the grace of our President!” Zoe yelled, at wits’ end. “William please, I am begging you, take sick leave. Say you made a mistake. Take it back.”
William Atwater smiled slightly, his demeanor as calm as ever. “You’ll just have to trust me, Zoe. When have I ever let us down?”
“There’s really a plan?” Zoe asked, trying to reign in her terror.
“There’s always a plan, Zoe.” Will said with a smile. “Now let’s discuss what we can do with our backup production locations. The main factory will remain inoperative for some time.”
“But there may not even be a reactor leak…”
“It will remain inoperative for some time.” Will said firmly. “I need you to focus on the backup locations for production.”
“I will do my job. But please, please William, take it back. If not for your people, then for yourself. For your safety.”
“It’s going to be fine, Zoe.” Will said reassuring. “It’s going to be absolutely fine.”
Later that evening, he walked into the bathroom of his office and stripped down. Wrapped in the safety of complete invisibility, he walked back out and headed for home. Lorelai Achly would find him an exceptionally difficult target to remove, he thought with an invisible but smug grin. And by the time the Tundrans were done with their plans, Lorelai would be gone, and he would be the only candidate left standing. The only one brave enough to challenge Lorelai when no one else would. Admittedly, there would be a few uncomfortable weeks before everything resolved itself. But unfortunately, he couldn’t simply wait until the day the Tundrans attacked. That would be exceptionally suspicious. And so for the next few weeks, there would be some risk. Will deemed the risk to be worthwhile. And if worst came to worst, he would simply ask Daren to remove Lorelai and be done with it. Will and Daren had their differences but when it came to Lorelai Achly, they were in complete and unanimous agreement. Everyone was getting awfully tired of Lorelai Achly.
---
“Motion detectors?”
“That’s what we were told. Use motion detectors and don’t ask any questions. And based on who it came from, let me fucking tell you, we’re using the motion detectors and we are not asking any question. Remember, the second he comes out, we take him out. If anything strange happens and he disappears, activate the motion detectors. And once it’s all over, it never bloody happened.”
“Yes sir.” The Sarayan marines thundered in response. They were the best of the best, and they knew just how not to ask any questions.
Three dozen Sarayan marines spread out across the underground garage beneath the presidential palace. They moved with ruthless efficiency, placing the motion detectors to cover every square inch of the garage.
---
She was early. Sophia pulled into the underground parking garage beneath the presidential palace, her fingers gripping the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip, her stomach churning in fear. It was like this every morning now. She had hoped that the scandal overshadowing her career would have faded by now. But based on a certain family member’s association with the most famous traitor in the solar system, one Alanna Summers, Sophia’s career wasn’t going to recover any time soon. Sophia would have been thrilled to simply step away and retire early, but even that could be seen as an admission of guilt. She was trapped. Worse, from the perspective of Madame President Lorelai Achly, she was a liability. As head archivist and historian for the administration, her reputation was supposed to be beyond reproach. And while her association with Alanna Summers was distant and attenuated, through a niece whom she rarely saw, the association was there. It was enough to put her life in danger. At the moment, Sophia was likely to be somewhere near the very bottom of Lorelai Achly’s hit list. But sooner or later, their illustrious president would get to her.
And until then… until then Sophia would do her job. And who knew? Perhaps it would all blow over. Perhaps Will Atwater was going to be the next president of Saraya, and all her problems, would go away. Sophia stifled a bitter laugh at that highly unlikely possibility. Taking a deep breath, she straightened her spine and walked out of the car. The marines weren’t trying to hide, and they were everywhere. Someone, was about to be arrested. Someone she worked with. Someone who used this very garage. For a brief second Sophia stood very still. But the thirty or more marines spread across the parking garage ignored her. Adjusting the strap on her purse, she walked calmly towards the exit. Sophia kept her eyes perfectly straight and walked forward without hesitation, as if she wasn’t imagining with every step what it would be like, when they came after her. And while her eyes never strayed from the exit sign, she was exceptionally observant. And she noticed the unusual equipment the marines carried. Motion detectors, Sophia thought. The marines are equipped with motion detectors.
She walked the halls she always walked until she sat at the desk where she had always sat, for decades. She was at the top of her field, the most respected archivist and historian on the planet. She was Sophia Hudson. And she was having a very strange year.
The aliens were probably real. Sophia had always known that. Her position gave her virtually unlimited access to historical records. The human crew that brought the first seeds of human life onto Saraya believed that the aliens were real, and that they had come to old earth. That was in the records. But over time, that knowledge became more of an esoteric bit of trivia than anything relevant to their distant human colony. The handful of people who knew of the records from old earth had assumed that while the aliens might be real, they were very far away. The entire existence of their human colony, Saraya and Tundra, was supposed to be secret. It was only quite recently that Sophia began to suspect that might not be the case. Because of Daren. Daren, whose interest in all mention of aliens had at first seemed charming and quirky. Daren, who walked in the deadly Sarayan rain as if it were nothing. There was just something strange about Daren. But he helped you. Her mind whispered. He helped you when no one else ever did. He's the only one who will help you now.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Only a handful of people had access to the old earth records. The old records that spoke of a very quiet and civilized alien invasion, not with guns, bombs, or tanks but with negotiations and the freedom of democracy, as people used their right to vote to give away the freedoms they had fought so hard to gain. The aliens who were chameleons, with the ability to blend so well into their surroundings, that they disappeared. The aliens you would need motion detectors to take down, a voice in her head whispered. Sophia powered up her computer. She went to get coffee. She sat back down at her desk and stared blankly at the screen. And then she looked down at her wrist comm. Daren thought that the Tundrans were coming to invade Saraya. And he had come to her. To tell her to be ready to leave the city. To ensure her safety. I will let you know when, he’d said. Sophia began typing.
---
It was a perfect Sarayan morning. Daren Alger sat back in his lounge chair, enjoying the sunlit view. The oversized window made to his exacting specifications overlooked a placid green pond. Iridescent flies and soaring lizards with multicolored wings flew over the sparkling surface of the water. Summer on Saraya was unpleasantly hot, even by his more tolerant standards. But the scenery from inside his perfectly cooled and private home, was spectacular. He took another sip of his latte and with some reluctance, walked towards the door. As second head archivist and historian for the Executive Office of the Sarayan President, he was not entirely immune from the tensions within the current presidential administration. Lorelai Achly had made too many promises, and delivered on too few. And even within the tightly controlled vacuum of information that was Saraya, suspicions that the war effort was not going well, were spreading.
The increased recruitment efforts had recently turned into raids for able bodied men, whose willingness to enlist was fueled heavily by reminders that those who failed to cooperate would be shot on sight. As far as executive policies went, it had not been a popular move. Later todaym Daren would be writing that the sacrifices needed to fuel the war efforts were greater than ever, and the people of Saraya stood always ready, eager and willing to defend their home. He wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. And now he was going to be late.
Fortunately, the traffic was light on his way in, and the drive up was unexpectedly pleasant. In a somewhat better mood, he prepared to turn into the underground parking garage beneath the presidential palace when he received the text. He would have ignored it entirely if it weren’t from Sophia. But because it was, Daren glanced down, eager to see what she said. He had recently assisted Sophia with a delicate and politically charged situation involving her niece, and he thought perhaps their relationship had moved up to a new level, until she began acting… oddly. He frowned, looking down at the text.
Sophia: I look forward to the retreat. Please let me know about the details.
Automatically, Daren turned on the turn signal as his exit approached. But there is no retreat, he thought. He had told Sophia that he would let her know about the timing of the retreat, when the danger came. But it wasn’t time yet. There was no danger. His exit was nearly upon him. “There is no danger.” Daren repeated out loud. It was ridiculous. The whole thing was completely… “Oh damn.” He said out loud. He’d missed his exit.
The message made no sense. A while ago, he mentioned the possibility of a retreat to Sophia, intending for it to take place during a potential Tundran attack on Saraya. It had been his plan to ensure Sophia’s safety. But they hadn’t agreed on a time and place, and he had not brought it up since. Why would Sophia send such a message? Because something was wrong, his brain supplied immediately. Something, was seriously wrong.
Pulling over into a nearby parking lot, Daren shed his clothes and walked out into the unpleasantly hot Sarayan morning, invisible. His skin reflected back the heavy concrete road and traffic that surrounded him. Unlike the earth and grass of the forest around his home, the Sarayan presidential palace was surrounded by concrete. Burning hot concrete seared the soles of his bare feet as he walked, invisible, along the busy road. It was not a pleasant experience. But he wanted to check on Sophia.
---
Will arranged to have newly laundered suits sent to his office. For the next several weeks, his plan was to go to and from the office while completely invisible. If Lorelai’s thugs chose to come to him, he trusted his people to let him know long before they made their way up. And by then, he would have disappeared. There would be a certain degree of inconvenience, of course. But it was only for a few weeks. Will did not expect Jim Hawk to take long to complete his plans. Stretching lightly in the light of the harsh Sarayan sun coming through the window, he headed towards the door of his apartment. It was going to be an unpleasantly hot walk to the office that mornign.
The motion activated stunner bomb went off the instant he opened the door. Invisible and unconscious, Will, aka Variel, dropped to the floor.
---
Invisible, Daren walked along the halls of the presidential palace, puzzled. On the one hand, everything appeared to be normal. On the other hand, President Lorelai Achly’s normal meant that everyone was terrified, always wondering if today was their last day. Armed marines were everywhere. Walking the halls with those disturbingly blank looks on their faces. At times looking for no one in particular. At other times, looking for…someone. Because in the presidential palace, your last day at work often meant your last day at everything else, as well.
Lorelai Achly really is getting quite annoying, Daren thought as he walked on. He made another turn, speeding up as he approached his own office, which was next to Sophia’s. Perhaps he had overreacted, it occurred to him. Or perhaps Sophia was signaling that she was in danger. And if she was, he would simply kill Lorelai immediately, Daren decided on the spot. And chain of command be damned. Robert would just have to deal with it. They were carda’an, after all. The whole concept of a chain of command was a human thing. Carda’ans did chains of firmly worded recommendations, at the most. Daren turned the corner, glancing around to ensure the hall was empty before he opened the door and entered Sophia’s office.
Sophia looked up, her large brown eyes nearly round as she observed the door of her office being opened. She had very distinctly seen the handle turn. The door then closed itself. And there was no one there.
“Secrets are hard to keep.” Sophia said. For all outward appearances she seemed to be merely speaking to herself in the privacy of her own office, as her eyes returned to her computer. “Nearly impossible, in fact.”
“Are you all right?” Daren asked out loud, completely ignoring Sophia’s attempt at subtlety.
Sophia started, her heart in her mouth at the sound of Daren’s voice. It was completely irrational. She knew he was there. She had seen the door open. She had seen the handle turn. Yet somehow until he spoke, there was a part of her that could still live in the deluded world where the aliens were not quite real. Perhaps the handle turned by itself. Perhaps it was an unexpected magnetic current running under the earth and exerting its force on the metal handle. Daren’s words dispelled any such possibilities.
“It’s a lovely morning.” Sophia said out loud. Her hand moved over away from her keyboard and, she sincerely hoped, away from any cameras that might be in her office. That there were listening devices, she had no doubt. “Motion detectors.” Her fingers spelled out. She watched glumly as the door to her office reopened and then, quite silently and with the utmost politeness, closed itself.
---
Daren stood outside the door of Sophia’s office, frozen by uncertainty. Lorelai Achly’s office lay in one direction, the exit, in the other. His eyes fell on the door of his own office. Out of curiosity as much as anything else, Daren picked up a portrait of the illustrious Lorelai Achly hanging in the perfect center of the otherwise empty white hallway and heaved it at the door of his office. The quiet but distinct buzz of a stunner round was unmistakable. That was when Daren turned and ran.
---
His breathing was harsh in his own ears and the soles of his feet were excruciatingly burnt by the time Daren returned to his car. It was closer to the afternoon now, and the concrete of the exposed Sarayan roads was dangerously hot. The damage was bad enough now, that the soles of his feet were visible when he raised them off the ground. Nothing anyone was likely to notice while driving down the road, but it was certainly the sort of thing a Sarayan marine would notice when looking for a target they knew may be invisible. Daren stood a healthy distance from his car and looked around carefully. The parking lot appeared to be deserted. He waited, in spite of the brutal heat of the sun beating down. A human would have been dead by then. And Daren was not exactly enjoying himself. Very slowly and carefully, he picked up a piece of concrete that was crumbling at the side of the road, and hurled it at his car. To his great relief, nothing happened. No motion detectors.
Getting in and turning up the air conditioning, Daren pulled out his wrist comm. “Will!” He shouted into the phone as soon as he heard the sound of Will’s voice. His relief was short lived as the words “please leave a message” continued on, unabated. Daren hung up and called back immediately. Once, twice, five times. There was still no answer. He texted Robert but without access to his quantum communicator, there was nothing more he could do. It would be a good twenty minutes before he heard back from Robert. In the meantime, he called Will seven more times. But still, there was no answer. Curling his palm around his wrist comm, Daren glanced around his car one last time and with the greatest of reluctance, got back out. It was going to be an exceptionally long and unpleasant walk.
