Dreams of Jupiter

From the Dust

A/N: Round 1, SFSD 8, theme: Alien invasion, using prompt pix #1 the cavemen, #3 skull soldiers and #7 fetus in space

Kael grimaced and leaned back from the image on the small nano-mat monitor he had thrown onto the table to watch while he was having breakfast.

"Man," he breathed, shaking his head and not wanting to believe the flashing images he was seeing.  Yet there it was in high definition, the news net's watermark on the bottom left of the video marking it as authentic.  Not to mention, live.

"It's finally happening!"

The invasion that the authorities had been taking about for months, had finally reached Earth's stellar neighborhood.  As his astonished eyes took in the images, Kael watched as heavily armored enemy soldiers charged up a street towards a planetary defense position and, in a hail of weapon fire, demolish it completely.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir, but I've noted that you have missed your regular departure time," a soft, warm voice said from behind him.  "Are you not feeling well?"

Pitched to be unobtrusive, Kael nevertheless gave a start at the sound.  Tearing his eyes away from the furious firefight that now raged in front of the news net cameras, he looked over at the hovering cylinder that had silently glided into the kitchen, focused energy beams scanning the corners for something to clean.

"My ... departure time?" he stammered, staring at the cylinder as he desperately tried to marshal his thoughts.  "What ...?"

Then it sunk in.  He was late for work.

"Damn it!" he growled in frustration, turning back to his breakfast to push the bowl away from him and scoop up the nano-mat monitor, his touch making it go dark.  "Jeeves, clean this up for me, will you?  I've got to run!"

"Of course, sir," the cylinder replied, smoothly forward to pick up the bowl with an invisible energy field.  "I've already laid out the work clothes you selected last night by the bed."

"Thanks, pal.  You're a life-saver!" Kael called over his shoulder as he ran back towards his bedroom, frantically focused on getting ready as quickly as humanly possible.  The news net images were, for the moment, forgotten in the rush as he hurriedly pulled his clothes on.

A few frenetic moments later he was sprinting out of the entrance to his apartment building and across the broad transit platform that served his neighborhood to where a waiting tube train was moored.  Just darting inside as it was beginning to pull away, Kael dropped into a seat and heaved a ragged sigh of relief.  The Confed might be under attack from hostile aliens, but that was nothing compared to the hell he would catch if he was late yet again this month!

As the tube train sped along its floating path high above the city, Kael found his thoughts once again returning to what he had seen on the news net.  That, and everything else that had been leading up to the attack.

The authorities had been tracking the movements of an aggressive alien force known only as the Senkosh for several months before they abruptly changed course and hammered their way into Confed space at Proxima Ventega with a massive war fleet.  The Confed military had rapidly jumped two squadrons into the sector to counter the incursion.  Then watched helplessly as the under-gunned squadrons got crushed in a running battle through the system that saw them take heavy casualties before they managed to withdraw. An hour later the research colony on the fourth planet in the system went silent after reporting ground forces had begun to land on the surface.

Kael frowned as he thought about that, remembering the day the news net reported the battle on the fringes of Confed space.  He turned to look out the window at the gleaming skyscrapers that rushed by as the train moved into the city core, thoughts churning.

He also remembered that the defeat at Proxima Ventega was the first of many such defeats and conquests as the Senkosh methodically worked their way deeper and deeper into the Confed, a military and economic alliance of aligned alien species occupying the distal end of the galactic arm humanity called the Orion Spur.  

Not wanting a general panic, Confed authorities had rushed to assure the various member species that they had the situation well in hand.  'There was nothing to worry about', he recalled them saying on the news net feeds as they indicated diplomatic measures were being taken to determine why the Senkosh had attacked.  Unfortunately, while they explored diplomacy, the news net told a different story as the Senkosh continued their advance, destroying squadron after squadron and capturing star systems like clockwork.

"Next stop, Unity Square Station," a sex-less voice announced from an overhead speaker.  Spotting the approaching platform, set high on the side of one of the massive skyscrapers dominating the city's core, Kael prepared to get out of his seat.  It was his stop, set against the building he worked in.  A glance at the chrono on his wrist told him that he'd still have to run the rest of the way, but at least he was close enough to punch in without being late.

Thus prepared, he found his thoughts once again drifting back to the Senkosh incursion.

The invasion had begun hubward, thousands of light years from Earth.  Because of that, local authorities were certain Earth and her colonies were under no threat from the Senkosh, the invaders cutting diagonally across Confed territory and away from Earth.  So her defenses remained on standby even as she sent her levies and fleet elements to join the Confed fleet attempting to hold the Senkosh back at Rigel, home to the Confed Fifth Fleet and apparently the enemy's next target.

Yet, as of this morning, that had all changed.  The Senkosh had leapfrogged the gathered fleet at Rigel and had slammed into the Centauri outpost's unprepared perimeter defenses at 7:42 am local Earth time.  At only four light years' distant, the enemy was now practically on their doorstep.

Two-metre tall holo-panels, normally filled with advertisements and various news net and entertainment feeds as they floated in and around the station, were now dominated by nameless Confed officials telling people to be calm and that there was nothing to worry about.  Giving them barely more than a cursory glance, Kael secured his satchel over his shoulder and began to run through the medium crowd that thronged the station platform, a mix of humans and a handful of other Confed client species that made Earth their place of employ.

He didn't have time to listen to platitudes and cliches.  If he didn't hurry, he'd need an alien invasion to save him from getting written up for being late yet again!