4 THE HUNTER FLEET
There was fire everywhere and there was blood shed. Elveden was under attack from invisible aliens. The drifting mansions in the sky that the Elveden had built were falling down like shooting stars and chaos reigned everywhere.
“Sephora, what do we do now?” asked Torus, an elderly bearded man of the Elveden Eleven.
Sephora turned away from the holographic video display showing the horror outside.
“We do our best to save our people and continue to hope, Torus,” she said, as Torus nodded his agreement even before she had finished. “And the Elveden Eleven need to meet again now. Make arrangements.”
Torus immediately bowed his head and made out of the room. Sephora turned around to look through the window. Her face was troubled and looked as if she had aged ten years overnight.
Over the years, she had been hardened by her experiences but now even that hard shell that she had built around her wasn’t enough to protect her from the impending doom that awaited her people.
She had failed to see this attack coming and now it was all going to get over, when the invasion once reaches their last refuge.
“Madam Argylwd, they are ready,” announced Torus, who arrived again in her presence after a couple of minutes.
Sephora snapped back into reality.
“I am coming,” she replied, in her warm, beautiful voice.
Sephora walked elegantly, as her white glowing suit transformed into her official dark blue robes, with the Elveden emblem of a majestic star nested atop a snow capped mountain, and the words Una Sempiternum written above the emblem, on the back of her robes.
Sephora entered the small grey room, where the other Elveden leaders were waiting. The air in the room seemed to be musty and suffocating but the people didn’t seem to be affected by it, they were focused on much more grave matters at hand. Some of the leaders were pacing anxiously around the room, while the rest were talking loudly with each other.
“The Elveden Argylwd!” announced Torus, as Sephora made her way into the meeting room. The other leaders immediately formed two lines on either side of the room, making a way for Sephora to walk through. Sephora went past them and turned to face them.
“My dear Elveden, how are we holding up at this hour?” asked Sephora.
“Our Elveden troops are being crushed at this moment, Madam Argylwd, it’s only a matter of time before the attackers reach us,” replied a short dark haired man.
“What about the evacuation efforts?” asked Sephora.
“All of the transporter space ships have been brought down by the enemy, Argylwd,” replied woman, called Fria.
“How many of our kind are alive?” pressed on Sephora, getting more disappointed with every passing answer.
“Less than a hundred thousand, with more falling by the minute,” said Mahon, a middle aged man with a thick golden moustache.
“What about the people in the underground escape routes?” Sephora asked.
“The enemy attacks are so strong that many of the underground escape tunnels have collapsed, Madam Argylwd,” said Eqqus, Sephora’s nephew.
“How many do we have here, under our protection, Eqqus?” asked Sephora, turning to him.
“Fifteen hundred and thirty two excluding the Elveden Eleven, Madam Argylwd,” replied Eqqus.
“Pardon me, Argylwd but I fear that this be our end,” said Fria, in a worried tone.
“No!” snapped Sephora, at her and then turned to the others. “What about the other colonies?”
“No contact, so far, Madam Argylwd,” replied Torus.
Sephora blinked fast to get rid of her tears, which had been building up since the meeting had started and said, “Let’s just keep hoping. We’ll defend the last of our Elveden people with our lives.”
“Argylwd, I think we should-” argued Mahon.
Sephora interrupted him and said, “We got to save what is left of us, Mahon. We will make one last effort to get the Elveden people out of this place to a safer place. It’s the only choice, we have!”
“Do you want us to carry out another evacuation, especially after those failed attempts?” asked Mahon.
“Yes, unless you have a better idea, Mahon,” Sephora said, looking at him in the eye. “This is our only chance. If we stay, we die. We have to get out and make contact with the other colonies.”
The other leaders discussed among themselves for a moment.
“So, everyone’s in agreement?” asked Sephora.
The others nodded their heads in agreement.
“Good!” said Sephora. “Eqqus, how much time do you estimate before the attackers reach us?”
“About seven hours, Madam Argylwd,” replied Eqqus.
“We leave in four hours,” said Sephora and walked out of the room.
As she walked by Torus, Sephora told him, “Torus, please tell my daughter to meet me upstairs.”
“Yes, Madam Argylwd,” said Torus and bowed deeply before her.
Sephora retreated to her quarters, a plain room with a bed. Sephora hadn’t been a big fan of technology from her childhood and thus, kept her room, free of any sort of technology, though she couldn’t completely eliminate it from her life as she had to wear nanobot clothing for security purposes.
As the invasion drew closer to the place to where she was standing, alone in her room, Sephora thought of the day when she had been first inducted into the Elveden Eleven. She had been the youngest Elveden to be appointed at the age of twenty one, in history. Within twenty years, she had become the Head of the Elveden Eleven with the title of Elveden Argylwd bestowed upon her. The journey hadn’t been smooth. She had had her share of rebellions, troubles, envy and betrayals, including a betrayal that had almost killed her and had threatened her status as the Elveden Argylwd.
Sephora wiped the lone tear from her left eye. Her daughter had been the reason that she could recover from such a deadly blow to her life. Emilie was the reason she was alive and that too, still with a purpose. Suddenly, Sephora felt Emilie coming her way. At once, she made herself ready as Emilie entered the room.
Seeing her daughter, brought an instant smile to Sephora’s face, her lips spreading apart in happiness.
“You called me mother?” asked Emilie, smiling.
“Yes, honey!” gasped Sephora, unable to control herself.
“What is it, mother?” asked Emilie, troubled.
“I just wanted to see you, darling,” replied Sephora, tears bursting forth from her eyes.
Emilie rushed towards her mother, and held her hand while wiping away her tears with the other.
“It’s tsokay, mom,” consoled Emile. “Everything will be alright.”
Sephora hugged her daughter and sobbed.
“I am scared for Elveden, Emilie.”
“As you always say, mom, fear is our only enemy. Don’t you remember?” pacified Emilie.
“Did I bring this upon our people?” asked Sephora, feeling a sudden pang of guilt.
“You know the answer, mom. There is no way you could have known, even with all the powers we possess. These attackers are more advanced than our civilization.”
“Thank you, Emilie,” said Sephora sniffling. “You’ve always been kind in light of my failures, right from your dad to this day.”
“Mom!” exclaimed Emilie, as if she were warning her. “I have told you on multiple occasions not to take the blame for what he did! And today is obviously not your fault! You just want it to be so that you can actually think that you had a sense of control over everything, which isn’t the truth at all.
Certain things are out of our hands, mom. Please understand that!”
“Mmmm…” said Sephora, still looking unconvinced.
“I heard we are leaving in four hours, mom,” said Emilie, looking at Sephora, trying to distract her.
“Yes, what are the people thinking of it?”
“Mahon is going around, telling people it’s a suicide mission,” said Emilie and smiled.
“Well, practically, it is one,” smiled back Sephora, thinking about the pathetic odds that they had, of surviving the attack.
Emilie and Sephora looked at each other for a moment.
“I’ll stay with you, mom,” said Emilie, breaking the silence.
“Thank you, honey,” said Sephora gratefully.
Meanwhile, the Elveden space vessel, Hunter Fleet, was getting ready to carry out another outer space evacuation. The Hunter Fleet lay hidden behind the Jelantin Hills near the frigid South Pole of Elveden. The Hunter Fleet had been built as part of the Exodus Mission. The Exodus Mission was an ancient mission, whose sole purpose was to aid in evacuation of the Elveden from the planet under dire circumstances. This Mission also commanded extensive wide underground highways to be built, leading to the Exodus Stations housing transporter spaceships, to aid in retreat of the people from all over Elveden.
The early Elveden having understood the fragility of their planetary system had initiated the Exodus Mission to provide a route of escape, when the appropriate time came. There had been two other stations set up after the Hunter Fleet in similar uninhabited environments which were the Grus Velocie at the North Pole and Unger Run in the middle of a desert near the Elveden equator.
The first two evacuation missions had failed when these two space ships were shot down by the alien assailants, just a few hours before the Hunter Fleet had been commissioned to go on the final evacuation mission.
The Elveden Eleven, along with their families and major leaders in the Elveden government had been escorted to the Hunter Fleet at the slightest hint of an extraterrestrial attack, twenty one hours earlier that in Elveden terms, was almost exactly a day earlier. The influx of refugees had been heavy to the Grus Velocie and Unger Run stations in the wee hours of the attacks, owing to the closer distance from the densely populated cities, resulting in the early departures. The Hunter Fleet had almost been exclusively reserved for the Elveden government, due to its better security and seclusion from civilization. Now having two failed evacuation missions, the Elveden government sent messages all over the globe, inviting the Elveden people to the Hunter Fleet station, though it seemed too late. The weapons of destruction employed by the aliens were so powerful that they destroyed many of the underground tunnel networks as well, though they were at depth of 7.5 miles from the surface.
At the close of three hours, only a little less than a hundred Elveden had made through to Hunter Fleet.
The loading protocols and last minute diagnostics were running while the Elveden people refugees were assigned their cabins in the Hunter Fleet.
“Madam Argylwd!” called Eqqus, at the entrance to Sephora’s room.
Sephora and Emilie, who were sitting on the bed, looked at the young good looking lad.
“It’s time,” said Eqqus.
Sephora nodded and rose, with her daughter to leave.
Soon, Sephora along with the other Elveden Eleven members were ready to board the Hunter Fleet.
“Where are our troops?” asked Mahon, grunting at the lack of any personnel near the ships
“Where do you imagine they are, Mahon?” replied Torus.
Mahon looked away, avoiding Torus’ piercing gaze.
“Don’t look back now, Emilie, the future lies ahead of you now,” said Sephora, placing her hands on Emilie’s shoulders.
Emilie managed a weak smile and nodded. The Elveden Eleven moved in and the door was directed to close behind them, when Emile suddenly said, “Stop!”
“What Emilie?” Sephora asked gently.
“I said stop!” cried Emilie and darted towards the closing door and jumped off the ship, much to everyone’s surprise.
“EMILIE!” Sephora shouted, behind her daughter. “COME BACK!”
Eqqus at once, instructed the ship captain via telepathy of the current situation.
The door stopped moving and started moving in the reverse direction. Sephora and the others ran towards the door.
“What the hell does your daughter think she’s doing?” battered Mahon.
Sephora avoided his rude gaze, closed her eyes and read Emilie’s mind.
“She thinks someone might be in the tunnels now, she doesn’t want them to be left behind in case, they are Elveden,” declared Sephora, as she jumped off the edge.
“AND WHAT IF THEY ARE NOT ELVEDEN?” shouted Mahon, behind her.
“What are you picking up?” asked Sephora, as she joined her daughter in the icy weather below.
“I can sense someone in the tunnels leading up to here, I can’t make out who they are yet, Mom,” said Emilie, trying to concentrate hard.
“You do realize how dangerous this is right, hon. What if they are the aliens?” reasoned Sephora.
“And what if they are our people, mom? Can you live with the guilt?”
Sephora looked stunned for a moment.
“Are you sure, you aren’t picking anything, mom?” asked Emilie.
“No darling, I’m afraid I’m not!” replied Sephora.
“What the hell are those two doing there?” shouted Mahon, on the ship.
“They are making sure that no one is left behind, Mahon, unlike certain others who are all bent on saving their own asses,” said Torus in a cool manner, looking at the frigid weather outside.
Mahon shut his mouth in return.
“The signals are getting stronger, mom,” said Emilie.
“Alright, honey. Can you see them?” asked Sephora, in a calm voice.
Then suddenly as if she had woken up from a really bad nightmare, Emilie abruptly opened her eyes wide, panting like an animal and looked at her mom, horror-struck,
“IT’S THEM, MOM! RUN!” screeched Emilie.
Sephora grabbed her daughter’s hand and ran. Eqqus read the situation from Sephora’s mind and instructed the pilots for a quick take off.
The ground beneath them began to rumble, as Emilie cried, “Faster, mom, they are almost here!”
Eqqus took off in a Levitransporster, an Elveden version of an exploratory flying car with an open hood from the bay and went to collect them. As Sephora and Emilie climbed onto the Levitransporster, the station behind them exploded.
“Quick!” cried Sephora, as Eqqus maximized the car’s acceleration.
The Levitransporster shot forward like a fireball towards the Hunter Fleet.
Close the doors now, Eqqus commanded the captain telepathically.
The Levitransporster drew close to the ship when the car’s rear unexpectedly was shattered violently and the car started slowing down.
“My goodness!” cried Sephora.
Eqqus pulled the car up, so much as to get a trajectory enough to land inside the ship.
“It’s not going to be enough. We have to jump off the car now!” yelled Eqqus, as he quickly grabbed Sephora and Emilie by their hips.
“No way, Eqqus, that’s not going-” squawked Emilie, as Eqqus shouted back.
“JUMP NOW!!!”
The trio jumped off the hood of the Levitransporster but midway in the air, something wrapped around Eqqus’ neck tightly and pulled him back.
Eqqus reacted with lightning fast reflexes. He pushed Sephora and Emilie forward, knowing that his own game was up.
Before both of them could turn to look at him, Sephora and Emilie crash landed inside the ship, sliding along the smooth surface of the closing door.
“Eqqus!” cried Emilie, too shocked to move, getting up at once to look at the closed doors.
The Hunter Fleet took off with a dull lift off the ground and Sephora sprinted towards the Levalator, an elevator that worked on magnetic levitation.
BRING ALL OUR DEFENSE SHIELDS INTO EFFECT NOW! Sephora told the captain via telepathy as she dashed inside the Levalator.
“TO THE COMMAND BRIDGE!” spat Sephora out, much before the AI could ask her.
The Levalator doors closed and took her to the Command Bridge in a couple of seconds. Sephora rushed out.
“Captain, how are we doing?” asked Sephora in a frantic voice.
The captain, who was a handsome man with a golden beard, replied, “Madam Argylwd! We have employed all our defensive shields. The five layer shield is holding up well so far. Another ten minutes and we will be in space.”
“Are the computers picking up signals of the aliens?”
“I’m afraid not, Madam Argylwd.”
“These aliens are invisible. You know that right, captain?”
“Yes, I do, Madam,” replied the captain, patiently.
“You know why I am so anxious, Perrell,” breathed Sephora.
“Yes, Sephora,” replied Perrell softly, with a knowing look.
The captain and Sephora had known each other since their schooling days.
It was common knowledge that captain and Sephora had been close, closer than friends, when they were young.
It felt like those times again now. No one was there to be for her and comfort her, except him. Perrel reached for Sephora’s hands and held them. Sephora smiled but Eqqus’ death hit her mind then and the smile faded away.
Perrell had never understood many of the things she told him about philosophy and biology back then.
He had only always known how to fly and he was pretty much a dud in everything else but he had always admired the way she spoke and thus, spent hours on end listening to her, though he understood mostly nothing. He thought of the relationship they shared, which were the sweetest times of his life, until a particular person came along and he realized that he couldn’t love her anymore.
Perrell abruptly snapped back into reality. He withdrew his hands with a fake smile.
“Take your seat, Madam Argylwd,” said Perrell, as his captain’s seat came drifting by.
Sephora sensed the sudden change in Perrell and her smile disappeared as quickly as steam from a kettle.
“No, thank you, captain but I will stand,” said Sephora defiantly.
“Alright!” muttered Perrell, looking down at the floor.
The bitter feelings that Perrell was feeling suddenly were replaced with fear as they heard a sharp detonation outside the ship making the Hunter Fleet almost rock like a cradle.
“What’s happening?” yelled Perrell at his sub-ordinates.
“There was a large explosion on the starboard side, sir!” replied Allyson, one of Perrell’s sub-ordinates.
“The shields?” asked back Perrell.
“Layers four and five are out on starboard side, sir,” replied Hammun.
“Damn it!” Perrell bellowed. “We need to get offensive now!”
“Sir, we neither have any reading on their location nor the ability to read their movements!” said Allyson.
“Sephora!” said Perrell. “Emilie could read their movements, right?”
“Yes-” said Sephora and before she could say another word, Perrel began barking orders.
“Get Madam Argylwd’s daughter here now and get the nuclear blasters out through the shields and start shooting sporadically.”
Turning towards Sephora again, Perrell said,
“Don’t worry for your daughter’s safety but she is the only chance we’ve got. What Eqqus told me was amazing, that Emilie was able to read their movements.”
Sephora didn’t reply.
“Where is Eqqus by the way?”
“He is dead,” mumbled Sephora.
“What?” asked Perrell
“He is dead, Perrell,” said Sephora, with frustration and irritation mixed in her tone.
“My goodness!”
“Sir, we are being battered on every side, layer four is out and layer three is almost gone,” reported Allyson.
Perrell grimaced. This whole thing was finally starting to get to him.
“How much time till we make it into space?” asked Perrell.
“Eight minutes, sir,” replied Allyson. “But I believe that is where all our problems lay, sir.”
“What do you mean?” asked Perrell.
“Our Elvex bolometers are picking up massive dark matter readings from the space surrounding Elveden, sir. We also had unusually high dark matter readings from all over the planet where there were active attacks.” Allyson stopped to catch her breath. “I think they are invisible because they are using advanced dark matter technology, so this much dark matter outside our planet means that we have no chance whatsoever.”
Perrell heaved and his head seemed heavy all of a sudden.
If what Allyson told was true, the Hunter Fleet was going to end up like the other two space ships, thought Perrell.
He trudged towards the Communications and Alarm centre on the right side of the semicircular bridge and asked one of his officers,
“Where were the other two spaceships when they were compromised?”
“Just outside our atmosphere, sir,” said the officer, after checking his data on his computer.
Perrell sighed and looked at Sephora. She was standing there white with fear and head bowed down.
It seemed as if she already knew.
Meanwhile, Emilie had made to the Command Bridge along with Torus and other crew officers.
“Mom!” cried Emilie and ran towards Sephora, and held her hands.
“Emilie!” called Perrell. “There is something that is required of you now”
“Yes!” said Emilie, clasping her mother’s hand tightly.
“Can you read the alien movements?”
“Yes, I can-”
“Then why didn’t you tell us before?” questioned Perrell.
“Oh shut up, Perrell! She’s only a girl,” defended Torus.
“Alright,” said Perrell, glaring at him.
“I didn’t tell because it was of no use, we were being battered from all sides,” said Emilie, her pretty face stained with dry tears.
“We need you to read their location and movements now, when we make it out of Elveden atmosphere. Hopefully, we can hold off till we can escape them,” said Perrell and looked at Sephora, again. She looked devastated.
“Tsokay!” agreed Emilie, swallowing.
“One minute to go, sir,” reported Allyson.
“Instruct everybody to change into life support suits!” yelled Perrell and looked at Emilie. “Start away!”
One of the crew members handed Emilie a couple of small compact white cans, which were about five inches long each, that she placed at the side of her hips. Her nanobot dress, which had been assembled as a lavender suit absorbed the cans and reassembled into a dark gray life support suit, with a facial mask with an internal projected display that almost gave a realistic view, as if watching with one’s own eyes and without a mask on.
Once done, Emilie closed her eyes and concentrated on the alien signals.
She couldn’t get any. She tried harder and concentrated, she received a lot of noise and then she realized that she needed to get clear of the Command Bridge.
“I need to get out of here, from all of this unwanted noise signals. I need to get out,” said Emilie.
“Ten seconds to go, sir!” announced Allyson.
“Make it sixty!” Perrell commanded, “Take Emilie to the Gallery Deck now!”
Two male officers immediately ran towards the Levalator and Emilie ran behind them. They reached the Gallery Deck in five seconds and Emilie ran out on to the enclosed area, which had been built for viewing the cosmos, when the Hunter Fleet was in motion.
I am ready, Emilie told Perrell telepathically.
Emilie looked outside through the transparent aggregated diamond nanorods enforced glass. It was dark and seemed peaceful. It was quite hard to believe that somewhere out there lurked aliens who wanted to kill them so badly for no reason.
Emilie focused. For a moment, everything seemed smooth and then as the Hunter Fleet emerged out of Elveden’s atmosphere. Emilie felt a bolt of revelation and her mind saw the alien force, waiting to slaughter them. She saw huge monumental black space ships that were thrice as big as the Hunter Fleet and there weren’t just one or two. They were everywhere. Emilie was terrified at what she saw and she frantically searched for a way out. There were none, all the massive dark ships had closed in on them from all directions.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE? screamed Perrell in Emilie’s mind.
They are everywhere! Emilie communicated back.
This can’t be, were Perrell’s last thoughts, as the aliens started raining their deadly ammo on the Hunter Fleet.
5 KRU’S SECRET
“Are you alright?” asked Kru, as the holographic projection faded away.
Troy wasn’t able to move. Kru shook him by the shoulder.
“Hey!” called Kru.
“Yes!” said Troy, as if he had just come out of a delusion.
“What happened?”
“Nothing!” whispered Troy.
“I think we should tell them,” said Kru.
“No!” said Troy and grabbed Kru’s arms.
“Why not?” asked Kru, wondering why.
“We don’t need to tell now, please understand!” insisted Troy.
“What’s really going on?” inquired Kru, his suspicions rising.
Troy looked away to avoid Kru’s stare.
“Tell me away!”
“It’s tsokay, Troy, tell him,” coaxed Max, as she abruptly entered the conversation.
“I don’t want to!” coughed Troy, placing a hand on his mouth.
“Let me tell him, then,” said Max.
“No way, Max!” cried Troy, in horror.
“Troy, you have to entertain other possibilities too, it necessarily need not be the one possibility you came up with,” told Max, as Troy squirmed.
“Do you know that person who just came up on the video?” asked Kru, his eyebrows raised in suspense.
Cold sweat broke out on Troy’s forehead and palms and he swallowed his spit.
“No!” whispered Troy.
“You’re lying!” accused Kru.
“I’m not!” muttered Troy, as he collapsed onto the floor.
“Troy!” cried Kru and went closer to him, but Troy held up his hand indicating he needed no help.
“It was my father’s face that came up in the video,” announced Troy, at last.
“What?” cried Kru, “That’s impossible!”
“I don’t know what to think!” confessed Troy, his regular handsome voice having returned.
“It can’t be your dad, Troy,” said Max confidently.
“How?” asked Troy, anger boiling within him, for reasons he didn’t clearly know.
“Max! How many possibilities are possible for the current evidence under question?” asked Kru.
“Seven, Kru, the most relevant being the aliens possess some sort of a morphogen technology,”
replied Max.
“What are the odds that it may not be dad, Max?” asked Troy.
“It’s almost impossible extrapolating from the data, I possess,” said Max.
“Run diagnostics, find whether it is dad or a morph,” instructed Troy, getting up.
“I already did. It’s a hundred percent match using facial recognition, Troy.”
“The authorities might have trouble with that little fact, even though you say that your father is no more,” said Kru, looking nervous.
Troy kept silent.
“Does this mean that your father might-” said Kru.
“NO!” snapped Troy and looked at Kru, with a blazing look.
Kru looked intimidated and he hung his head.
“What about his infrared signature?” asked Troy suddenly, trying hard to think of ways to alleviate his fears.
Max vanished for a moment.
“His temperature is eight degrees Celsius,” announced Max.
Troy felt a huge weight disappear from his heart, on hearing Max say that. He knew for certain, it had to be an alien and he didn’t clear understand as how to they got to morph. Troy relied completely on this logic and felt safe inside that wall of reason. Meanwhile, he kept hoping that it wouldn’t be anything else.
Kru looked astonished as well.
Troy looked at Kru and said, “You were right. We should tell the authorities.”
“That was just brilliant!” praised Kru, his twenty eight teeth all showing.
“Thank you, Max,” said Troy, controlling his emotions and looked at Kru. “It happens.”
“Wow,” mumbled Kru to himself, relieved that his partner wasn’t compromised in any way anymore.
“This only tells how complex those aliens are,” said Troy, darkly. “Either it was a huge coincidence that I came face to face with an alien that looked exactly like my dad or the aliens are too advanced, that they can read our minds and morph too, so as to confuse us.”
“Right,” Kru said. “It is very confusing thinking of which could have been true. Either way, we’re screwed.”
“If it’s the latter thing, then we’re more than screwed, we’re doomed,” said Troy gravely.
“Hmm...” said Kru, lost in thought.
“Kru, I need Max. Can you give me one transmitter and load Max onto one of those eye lenses?”
asked Troy, breaking his line of thoughts.