We've Seen the Enemy Read online

Once they both did, the humans went back to their gruesome task. Jack waited until they were all occupied and then left the dark cafeteria and walked down the main hall calmly, keeping her mind clear. Scratch followed behind trying to do the same, and they both walked up to the locker the human had gotten the first weapon from. Jack drew in a sharp breath and the sight of some familiar weapons from WF221’s crew, but picked a small laser for herself and Scratch and whispered, “Something we can hide.” They also picked up some grenades stored neatly at the bottom of the locker and two complete dustproof suits and put them in a backpack that was hanging on a hook.

  As they turned to go, they both looked into the other cafeteria, still somewhat full of humans, and Jack couldn’t believe that they were all calmly eating as those events were happening within eyesight of most of them. She felt disgusted at the situation and wanted to scream but couldn’t. She concentrated instead at keeping her mind clear, and they both walked over to the ventilation shaft they had come from.

  Once inside, Scratch said: “Ok, what’s going on? What just happened in there?”

  “Scratch, you’ve been walking and sneaking around this hive for a while. Doesn’t something seem downright wrong to you?” Jack asked.

  “Lots of things, but what do you mean?”

  “Well, you can clearly see that human machinery is being used here, stuff we haven’t seen in our lifetime, old stuff. Even the base itself - a lot of it is obviously alien, but a lot of it is human too. After all, how many ants do you know put diffusers on their ventilation ducts?”

  Scratch had to admit it was true, but he wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

  “And these humans. They can’t be from any crew we know. We just haven’t had anyone in this area. We’re on the return trip home! These people aren’t here because their ship crashed, they’re here because we had a base here at one time, probably from the original exodus! And somehow, these aliens came and took control and did something to the humans and these are their descendants, or maybe they brought humans here and changed them somehow, and…”

  “And what? Look at them! They just butchered one of their own!” Scratch said, disgusted.

  “I know, but Scratch, I can see their minds somehow! There’s nothing there other than the Hive. It’s hive thinking only, no human thoughts! And you know what’s worse? It’s not as if human thoughts were pushed back and I can see shadows of it. I see nothing at all - no memories, no emotions, no anything. It’s as if everything human was wiped clean and replaced by hive thoughts… What can do something like that?” Jack said, scared.

  Scratch watched her quietly and finally said, “You can read their minds?”

  “I just said that! You don’t believe me!” Jack said angrily.

  “Ok! But how do you know there’s nothing there, Jack? You say you can see their minds, and maybe that’s true. I can feel something strange myself. But can you be sure there’s nothing else there?”

  Jack could see the panic in his eyes as they both contemplated on the ramifications of what she was telling him.

  “Ok, we’ll play a little game. I’ll read your thoughts and tell you about them. How does that sound?”

  Scratch looked decidedly uncomfortable, but didn’t disagree. “Fine by me. Do your worst!”

  ‘I’m going to enjoy this,’ Jack thought to herself. She purposely turned her back on Scratch and started off.

  “You doubt me. You’re painfully aware that I’m naked. Now you’re embarrassed. You’re thinking that I’m guessing a lot of this. Now, you don’t know what to think. In the back of your mind, you’re worried and you don’t want to die; you were hoping that something could come out of the two of us and now you hate the fact you won’t have the chance. You’re surprised I’m saying this and don’t know how to reply. Can you think of something else? Something simple but specific. Good…you’re picturing an apple, an elephant, a potato… I can continue, or I can tell you what you dreamed last night while you slept. The thoughts are still in your memory and your sub-conscious is mulling it over. Do you want me to continue?”

  Jack was surprised herself at how much she was now picking up, but she had to stop concentrating because of a creeping pain coming into her head.

  Scratch was a little flustered, and after a few moments said, “That’s good but there’s a lot you missed, the more important…”

  Jack turned and gave him a solid stare while he lied, and Scratch gave up.

  “Ok, fine. But I’m serious now - how did this happen Jack? How did you become able to read minds?”

  “I don’t know, but I think it might have something to do with what we just ate an hour ago. And I think it has something to do with our crab friends too.”

  Scratch thought about what she had said and then replied, “I’m going to try and read your mind now.” And with that Jack saw his forehead furrow and his eyes squint, which made her giggle. After a few moments he said, “Hmm. That’s what I thought.”

  Jack was curious, but she could see Scratch wasn’t going to say anything without her asking. “Well?”

  “Well what?” Scratch said.

  “Well, tell me or you’ll be swallowing a live grenade. I could read your mind if I wanted to you know.”

  “Ok.” Scratch replied but didn’t continue, enjoying the opportunity to see her squirm.

  Just as she was going to start yelling, he said, “You love me.” Scratch then turned, continuing down the ventilation shaft without giving Jack an opening for a comeback. All she could say was, “It’s obvious you can’t read minds then,” but she knew it sounded lame. Scratch just laughed. He hadn’t really tried to read her mind at all.

  It had been about two days since they slept and Jack was exhausted. She knew Scratch must be feeling the same but she was worried about Bones and wanted to see what the aliens were up to. If there were survivors, she needed to find them, although the odds were extremely low any had survived re-entry.

  “Where are we going now?” she asked.

  “Before I met you I came down this way and there was a T in this ventilation shaft that I didn’t go down. I heard a lot of noises coming from there, and I figured we’ll probably find what we’re looking for.”

  Jack got a brief mental picture of fear and screams from Scratch’s thoughts, but she didn’t try to pry any further. “How much further down this shaft is that T?”

  “We’ll get there just before your knees go raw. Lucky for us this tunnel is very smooth.”

  Her knees were killing her, but she hadn’t said anything. Scratch’s curt and non-informative answers were irritating to Jack, but she now knew he didn’t mean to be annoying. Her leg was starting to cramp up and she was hoping this would end soon, when Scratch said: “You must be tired and sleepy. And I would imagine you’re in pain from all this crawling. Are your legs cramping up?”

  Jack laughed and said yes. “You’re reading my mind again aren’t you?”

  “No,” Scratch said. “But my legs are cramping up and my knees are raw so I figured yours would be worse.”

  “Oh. By the way, did you know that you have a really big ass?” Jack said. She didn’t expect Scratch to stop suddenly and she bumped into it.

  “Sorry, did my big ass get in the way?” Scratch thought himself particularly clever to be able to add injury to the insult.

  “Ok, you win. Just don’t do that again.” Jack was actually enjoying the view, but her thoughts quickly turned back to Bones and the other survivors. She tried concentrating on picking up their mental thoughts, but the pain in her head started coming back and all she could pick up was some sort of mental static.

  “Scratch, can you really read minds?” Jack asked.

  “Ok I’m stopping now,” he said. He was actually very self-conscious, and knew that his body odor must be terrible. Once he stopped, he turned and looked at her carefully before responding just to make sure she wasn’t setting him up for another joke.

  “I think I can Jack. Not wit
h the clarity you can, but I can feel…emotions. And I can pick up a…somehow I know…I can’t put it in words, but it’s as if I know what you’re going to say before you say it, because I’ve just felt what you felt. It’s like this. Your knee hurts, enough that you’ll complain about it. I feel the pain your feeling, so I comment on it. But I don’t know if you’re going to mention it or not.”

  Jack thought for a moment and then she asked, “Does it hurt when you try to read emotions?”

  “No. Why, does it hurt you? And by the way, I don’t try to read them, I just pick them up all the time. Or at least I do from you. I couldn’t get anything from the people in that cafeteria or the person that was killed though.”

  “I get a headache,” Jack said. Every time I try, my head hurts. I eventually have to stop. I can clearly see what people are thinking, but I’m not so clear on emotions. And I’m not picking anything up from any survivors.”

  “Half an hour ago I would have said that there aren’t any. But I’m not so sure now. Actually I’m sure there are.”

  “Why do you say that? Are you picking up emotions again?”

  “Well, earlier, before I met up with you, I heard stuff.” Scratch went silent for a moment as he turned to her with fear in his eyes. “Jack, I heard the stuff of nightmares, and not only from one person, but from dozens, maybe even hundreds. Some screams were short, but others…went on for the whole time I was crawling in the area. I couldn’t take it and had to leave. And I knew from the sheer number of people that there was nothing I could do, so I didn’t even go down this part of the tunnel. The screaming was so bad…” Jack could see that Scratch was in anguish, “it was so bad that I was sure no one could survive. And there was more.”

  Jack waited until he was composed and ready to continue.

  “There was another type of screaming, one that I heard in my head. At first I thought I was imagining it, but as I tried to shut out all the screaming, this one took over until it became overbearing. I was sure it was the crab creatures doing it, but I can’t explain why I know that. It was such a powerful mental pain that I literally ran out of that area as fast as I could.”

  “What about now? Can you feel any emotions?”

  “Yes, from some, but it’s quickly disappearing.”

  “What do you feel?” Jack asked.

  “I feel… despair, hopelessness, pain, loss… Jack, all the ones still living, and I mean ALL, want to die! But somehow these emotions are fading in some way, as if…as if they’re becoming like those other things in the change room!” Scratch’s confusion had now disappeared as his mind worked out the pieces of the puzzle. “We have to do something!”

  Jack sat there silently, looking into Scratch’s eyes. “We will Scratch, we will.”

  They came to a fork in the tunnel, and Jack looked at Scratch.

  Scratch pointed to the one on the right and said, “The screams came from this tunnel, and machinery sounds came from the other one.”

  “Then maybe we should go down the one on the right first,” Jack said.

  As they crawled, they started feeling a deep rumbling that increased in volume until the sound became unbearable.

  Scratch was surprised at how loud it was, and he then looked at the smooth walls of the shaft they were in and the much darker, baked appearance of the other shaft. He suddenly realized what this tunnel was for, and yelled: “Jack, follow me now!”

  Jack saw the panic in his voice and didn’t ask questions, so they scrambled as fast as they could to an opening visible just past a bend in the shaft.

  Scratch threw himself in, kicked out a buffer panel, and they both dropped hurriedly through. A few seconds later a roar came through the tunnel and a blast of searing air rushed by. They looked at each other, relieved that they hadn’t been caught in the gust of superheated air that would surely have killed them.

  They looked around the room, the walls of which were solid rock. Anchored on each wall was a utility rack with an assortment of tools and instruments organized in a neat fashion. Jack could smell the stench of complex odors that identified each tool to the aliens, and below the chemical labels were another set of labels that were color coded, presumably for humans.

  “Well, at least they’re neat if nothing else,” Jack said.

  They slowly and quietly walked to the doorway and peeked out. What they saw left them both speechless.

  CHAPTER 12

  Hope Lost, and Found

  WF221’s commander stood in the bridge, watching the action of the aliens around him and fiercely bellowing orders to his subordinates. He had realized early on that the aliens had picked his ship as the target, concentrating all their firepower here as was their usual plan of attack. This was the only way they could bring down a World Federation ship, something they had ironically learned from humans. The Commander knew that what the aliens lacked for in improvisation, they made up for by sheer instinctive determination, numbers and the ability to learn from others.

  Their attack plan was simple. Accurately aim and throw enough explosive projectiles at the junction in between both shields until it penetrated enough to spread the infinitely small point where the shields butted up against each other into one now filled with thousands of timed explosive charges. Then launch one ship-busting needle torpedo and ignite the charges a split second before the torpedo hits. The shield deflects enough to allow the torpedo to slip its way through and hit home.

  Lasers could theoretically be used for this purpose too, but space based lasers were too weak and had too little cooling, losing their coherence the further in they penetrated and diffusing before they could reach the target. Only properly cooled Earth based lasers were successful in penetrating alien carriers and their different shield systems.

  “Damn that Anderson,” Dietrich said to himself.

  Dietrich had already ordered the evacuation of all other World Federation ships in the area. It was obvious that this planet’s hive caught them off guard, and it was now time to regroup and plan an attack. It was also obvious that his ship would be the sacrificial lamb, but he’d be damned if this was going to be a total loss. The first four ships jumped simultaneously once their fighters had re-docked, but the last fifteen had their fighter pilots drag their feet on the return.

  This didn’t surprise him either. He ended up giving a direct order and the rest jumped out one by one, except for the three now in front of him.

  “Tactical, reduce quadrant view to 1000 kilometers square.”

  Dietrich watched the holographic display intently, and noted the three closest ships to his position that hadn’t jumped yet.

  “Comm, Packet to WF219, WF214, and WF209, as follows: In 5 minutes on my mark, close in to within 800 meters, and set up to tractor the fore part of my ship through the jump the moment my shields are down. Next packet, WF…” here Dietrich paused to look at the holographic display, “…WF228, receive all incoming fighters before you jump.” WF228 was the farthest away from the action and not likely to see any enemy attack once its shields dropped.

  “Comm, all fighters: This is Commander Dietrich. Give it your all until 219, 214 and 209 tractor me, then launch your remaining missiles and land on 228. Don’t linger or you’ll be left behind.”

  “Comm to Dickens. Location.”

  “Dickens here, Sir. Generator Room.” The Generator Room was aft of the ship and well suited for Dietrich’s purpose.

  “How long do you think it would take you to run past the ship Nexus from where you are?” The Nexus was the very center point of the ship, the area under attack where the two shields met.

  “About 20 seconds sir!” Dickens said. Dietrich laughed, knowing that Dickens was never late for his shift, but timed his entry to the exact second.

  “Good. How long will it take for the shield generator to implode once you started a harmonic imbalance?”

  Dietrich could hear a sharp intake of breath from Dickens, but he knew Dickens wouldn’t comment. Those on the bridge that ov
erheard the question turned to look at him with obvious surprise on his face.

  “Concentrate!” Dietrich bellowed at his crew members, and they all snapped their necks back to their stations.

  He waited, knowing that calculations of this sort took time. Waiting patiently was difficult under the circumstances, but he had no choice, and he wanted the keep the crew calm for what would be an extremely difficult maneuver.

  “Commander, based on the circumference of the aft shield, a single quantum pulse would take 2.85 seconds to reverberate back to the generator. It would take me about 5 minutes to over-ride the safety mechanisms, and I would need you here personally to confirm my request, Sir!”

  “Tactical, how are the aliens progressing?”

  “Computer estimates 2 minutes to penetration at the going rate, Sir!” reported Tactical.

  “We have to slow them down. Are the other WF ships in position, and have they received our packets?”

  “We have confirmation, and they have begun to fire on the ships attacking our Nexus. Sir, they are under attack themselves, as all the alien ships have concentrated themselves on this sector.”

  “Dickens!” the commander hollered, knowing that the comm was still open. “I hope you’ve started overriding the safeties! You have less then two minutes!”

  Dietrich hoped that the other WF ships in position would slow down the attack on his Nexus.

  “Captain Hollander, you have the comm. On my mark, wait 40 seconds and then order the personnel in the aft half to abandon their stations and return to their quarters! Tell them they have one minute to do so.”

  Dietrich waited for Hollander to get ready. “MARK!

  Knowing that Hollander understood what he was going to do and not waiting for a reply, he tore off through the main corridor that ran from the bridge towards the nexus. He figured he could do it in less than 30 seconds even though he was 65 years old.

  The Commander ran as fast as he could while trying to avoid all the human activity in the corridor. He knew the call to abandon the aft half of the ship would slow him down, and he wanted to be sure he was there before it happened. He passed the forward shield generating room and heard its steady, reassuring hum. He ran past Life Support, Secondary Power Generation, Pumping Station, then crew quarters, Life Area, and he could finally see the heavy steel doors that separated both halves of the ship and permitted entry into the Nexus.