"Commander—" Avant enters the room. The strain of her serious demeanor pinches her pointed features. "The other eight have been detained."
I check my PAHLM. The safety briefing is almost over.
Thirty minutes left.
"Launch positions. Everyone. Now!" Time slips through my fingers again. "I'll head to the brig and stay with them. You have to be at your stations before liftoff."
They dash to their designated posts.
Shadowed steps submerge me into the abyss of the ARC's brig. Raucous wailing bursts through the corridors. Umpire and Norbit struggle past the hatch, shoving the offenders behind bars and into their straps.
"I thought you said this was resolved," I snap at Norbit as he pushes the arms of the detainees into the harnesses on the walls.
"It was," he hisses.
Once restrained, Martin's body lolls from side to side.
"Well, obviously something is not fucking right because he was insane, and she was fucking blue." I point to the girl Coodi drags in.
"Hey! Hey! Martin, look. It's the barren one." One of the unrestrained kids in the cell gawks at me, eyes wide open.
The little crust of yellow collects in the corner of his lips.
Striding into the cell, I slam him into one of the straps, force his arms through the belts, and cuff his offending hands. "That's enough. If you don't want your ass thrown off this ship, I suggest you strap in and shut the hell up."
Ten minutes left.
Those who are already confined, grin in the same fashion. Their limp arms dangle at their sides. The other girl among them giggles as Norbit pulls each appendage through the thick material lining the cells.
The ship trembles. For a slight hitch in time, the sensation that the ship anticipates its own launch overcomes me. The alien metals buzz under my boot. They jitter with the same craze that sweeps my blood before I chase into the darkness on the Topside. I shake off the haze to reassess.
Sirens blare from the harbor—five minutes to launch.
All ten prisoners are in their places.
Umpire and Norbit occupy a pair of emergency seats beside the brig. After their swift procession, they fumble to buckle up.
What now?
Sweat trickles down my forehead. I run my shaking hands through my hair. I have seconds before the network dies.
I'm losing my chance—losing any opportunity to say goodbye. I glance at my wrist.
[3 UNREAD MESSAGES -- FROM SLORN FROM DFREYER]
The ship quakes.
Taking one of the emergency seats on the other side of the brig, I secure my straps, hoping that I still have seconds to reply, to tell them I love them before the connection dies. I must say it. I must tell them because I was too chickenshit to say it before. It's now or never.
A woman's voice emerges from the engine's' storm.
COMMENCE LAUNCH IN T MINUS SIXTY SECONDS
[MESSAGE 1: SLORN]
I LOVE YOU JANIKA--TAKE CARE HONEY ILL MISS YOU EVERY SINGLE DAY
My fingers miss each keystroke as I attempt to respond.
But it's too late. The voice over the speakers throughout ARC10 tells me it's too late.
COMMENCE LAUNCH IN T MINUS TEN SECONDS
TEN
The next message is from Dean. I'm desperate to tell him I love him. He should have heard it earlier.
NINE
Clumsy fingers rocked by the jostling ship scramble my message.
EIGHT
A burst of light distracts me from my PAHLM.
SEVEN
SIX
The fierce rumbling causes my vision to double. My body numbs.
FIVE
I wish I could have said something.
FOUR
Anything.
THREE
Will they remember I love them despite never having heard me say it out loud?
TWO
I close my eyes.
PREPARE FOR LIFTOFF
The ten howl in blind hysteria as we build engine power. Their yells mix with the roar of machinery.
I want to shout as well, to scream with the madmen locked in the cell, but I'm silenced by the vicious rumble of ARC10. The vibrations have gone from a high-pitched rattling to a beserk battering that mashes my brain.
I picked the seat beside a filmy porthole made of bizarre angles that form a trapezoid no bigger than a dinner plate.
The doors open above us, spilling evening rays and debris into our underground home. Sunset hues filter through our harbor. The cavernous room fills with light.
There it is. The thrust.
We jolt upward, propelled out of our hole in the ground. The weight of three Gs pushes against my body.
I wonder where Simon is. I wonder what Dean is doing. I wonder what they'll think when their love is met with silence.
The harbor disappears. Colored light fills the brig.
When my eyes adjust, I peer through the window. It's clear enough to see the destroyed earth below. I consider the decisions made about the exodus—leaving was the best decision. The ruins of our civilization litter the Earth. It all appears like pebbles, dirt, piles of debris that line gray lines of our roads. It appears like the charred side of forgotten toast. The Topside never seemed horrible up close. But from this vantage point in the sky, the rubble stretches on forever.
Earth is a mess.
I scan the rest of sky.
There they are. The luminescent clouds the Invaders hide behind have no power here in the air. Their ships are smaller in comparison to ours, but their white lights will probably still have some impact.
In all past encounters with Invader ships, I've been armed. I've fired my guns at them a million times before.
But now I'm here, buckled in with zero firepower. We were told it would be taken care of. We were told this was not our responsibility.
But I want my gun. Let me shoot at them before they hurl us back to Earth in flames.
The Invaders recognize us. They shift course to close in—the singular beam gathers energy like a starving star.
We're fucked.
YOU ARE READING
ARC10
Science Fiction[Book 1 of the ARC10 Trilogy] **Winner of the 2017 Watty Storysmith award** The President created an underground safe-haven for the survivors of the alien invasion. He built it to save them all from total annihilation. He protects them, feeds them...
