10
Half an hour later, the ship reached orbit; the artificial gravity kicked in.
More and more, I am learning all the impossible technology that was just a bunch of concepts and theories yesterday, and now I am literally standing on them. There was a faint click as the ship went on auto-pilot.
I exited my seat and walked toward the window, watching the planet spin underneath us. Large swathes of white billowing clouds blanketed the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, pressed heavily against the coastlines of California and Oregon. The clouds seemed to spill into its lands like an invading claw, cutting through the northwestern coastlines, broken off by the jagged mountain ranges. Beyond that, millions of lights dotted the vast black void. I’ve never seen so many stars in my life.
“So,” Jason started next to me. “We’re in space.”
“Yup,” I said. “This is space.”
We all shared a look, grinning at each other. Even the lieutenant couldn’t help it. Amendola had only seen space at a certain altitude, riding the horizon, but never at this height. Then our grins turned to excited waves of laughter as we pointed out the things we could see. I wondered if I could spot my hometown, small as it was. We called out mountains and lakes and specific regions and cities that we could see. We tried to spot another orbiting satellite. I hoped the International Space Station would pass by, and maybe we could wave hello at the astronauts staying there, but that would only scare them away. Bad enough that they had to learn about the horrible things happening on Earth and then find the aliens on their doorstep. I told Prime not to bother them.
I told the others about Prime’s conditions and their apparent citizenship, and though they were relieved that they wouldn’t get shot out of the airlock soon, I could tell that it troubled them. Are we still American citizens? Not anymore, according to Prime.
“So… you’re building a country now,” Amelia whispered from Amendola’s earshot. By the windows, he was busy talking to his fellow New Yorker, Freddie.
“Well, I am an aspiring politician. Being called emperor has a nice ring to it, yeah?”
Amelia chuckled. “You’re such an ass. But seriously, you can’t build Rome in a day.”
“We already have Rome,” I gestured toward the planet. “My job is to make them cooperate without drawing out the knives and let them slice each other to bits. Look. I am a country of one. You, Jason, and those Marines back there can back out. I don’t.”
“And because you’ll die.”
“Yup.” My very existence hangs on the balance, with Prime literally a hair trigger away from blowing my head off the moment I quit. “Which sucks.”
Amelia’s face faltered but quickly replaced it with a wide smile. “Being considered citizen one is not that bad. I’m glad I’m the first.”
I blinked. “You don’t want to go back? You have college, a potential career in engineering, and you are graduating soon. What about grad school?”
“That can wait. Are you serious? This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. No way I’m gonna let this pass me by.” She pointed out the window. “And Tony, I’m not going anywhere. If my brother needs me, I’m here. We’re family.”
Since I’ve known her, Amelia has had no love for her family. I often saw Gaius Hansen at the end of the bottle, a former police officer who jumped from one grift to the next and cut those who extended a helping hand. He often forgot to pick Amelia up from school. That was how Amelia and I met. We carpooled and became fast friends, spending time in my house until it became her second home. I couldn’t say the same for her two older brothers, Bill and Tyler. The former had turned to a needle for escape while the other brought three kids into the world from three different and emotionally abused women, court-ordered never to go near either. Each brother had known the comforts of a cell from one bad decision to another. She thought of turning that lousy luck around by joining the Marine Corps. It worked.
“And you often get into dangerous situations that’ll get you hurt or killed, so I’m here to prevent that. You know? Rein you in,” Amelia added.
“Oh, really? Last time I remember, you were the one who dragged me into those shitty situations that you thought were cool. Don’t you remember Cabo?”
Amelia shrugged. “But you didn’t say no, so you also thought they were cool.”
I smiled. “Well, it’s my turn to drag you into one.”
“Hm,” she sighed, gazing at Earth. “I like the view so far.”
We watched as the ship got closer to the central station Prime had mentioned—and what a fucking massive station it was.
It was shaped like an inverted pyramid; the body angled toward the planet while its flat base (if it ever stood on land) faced the darkness of space. I expected it to be made entirely out of smooth metal, but it was a mixture of rock and metal alloys, dust-grey in color, giving it a roughly-textured surface. Its makers probably built this station on an asteroid long ago, hollowing out its insides. I didn’t expect it to be this enormous. Our ship was like a speck of sand next to it. It grew larger and larger as we approached. I spotted a rectangular opening, but then it grew in size; the opening was around seven stories high. A thin blue shimmer bordered the space and its interior. We slipped through the barrier.
“We are here,” Prime announced.
The others looked at me expectantly as if I automatically knew where we were, but I gave them a shrug. The ship decelerated, and multiple types of machinery whirred and clanged from underneath the floor. Amelia held Jason tighter. Alonso and Tom held onto their seats. The ship gently trembled before it stopped on the landing pad, clanged, and then silence.
No one made the first move.
I lifted my head. “Uh, Prime? Don’t we need a spacesuit? Or something to protect ourselves? We can’t survive the vacuum of space, you know.”
“The station’s life support system is fully functional. Sudden premature expiration of life forms will be unlikely.”
“Okay. You heard the man.” Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the cockpit first.
The entryway door in the lower deck was already open, and a ramp stretched onto the landing pad. The tiny lights along the ramp could not fully illuminate the darkness that waited beyond the ship. I pulled out my phone from my back pocket. Miraculously, it wasn’t ruined by the sphere’s fluids. I turned on the flash, and the others did the same with their phones. Amendola pulled out a small flashlight from a hidden pocket inside his pants. But as my feet touched the landing pad, lights flickered everywhere, revealing the space before us.
“Fucking hell…” Tom gasped. The others did, too.
The rectangular chamber was massive, towering three hundred feet high (as high as the Statue of Liberty), and extended for more than two thousand feet in length and eight hundred feet wide. Like the ship’s rooms, this landing bay was empty, with smooth metallic walls and a floor devoid of equipment or other vessels like the one we rode on. My mouth dropped as I looked through the rectangular entryway we came through, which almost extended the same length as the chamber, gaping open into nothingness; Earth’s northern hemisphere spun beyond it. We were floating above the Pacific Ocean now. I expected to get sucked out of this chamber for a split second, and then I would suffocate.
“The force field keeps the atmospheric conditions within this docking bay stable and habitable.” Prime’s voice echoed loudly across this giant chamber, sounding like a PA system. “You are safe here if you do not step out of the threshold without proper equipment and training.”
Jason’s teeth chattered, and cold mist puffed out with each breath he took. “Shit. This feels like winter in Minnesota.”
“I’ve been in worse,” Amendola said.
“Is there like a heater in this place?” Rachel asked, arms locked together. “My tits are fucking freezing cold.”
“I apologize about the temperature,” Prime said. “The central heating system had just come online. It will take six hours to heat the entire station at an ambient temperature of seventy degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, I have activated the artificial gravity at one g for your convenience.”
“Here.” Amelia pulled out a red baggy hoodie and handed it to Jason. “Wear this.”
“Hey! This is mine! I was looking for this all over the apartment this morning.”
Amelia stifled a smile. “Well, you forgot it in my room.”
Jason took the jacket and put it on. He kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks, babe.”
I shook my head while the others groaned with me. “You guys disgust me sometimes.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Amelia stuck her tongue out at me. “Jealous much?”
“Well, I have things to do, Amelia.” I turned my back on her, chuckling.
Amendola whistled. “I take back what I said earlier, man. This is…is pretty amazing. You should keep it. It’s good real estate.”
“Not when aliens are probably going to shoot it down when they come back,” Tom said. “I have a feeling they are calling for reinforcements.”
“In that case…Are you sure you don’t want to hand this thing to us instead?” Amendola asked. “On behalf of the United States government, we will be very grateful.” He flashed a gentle smile. “You’d probably receive some highest honorary medal or something from the president. Heck, maybe you’d get a Medal of Honor.”
I raised my eyebrow. “You’d think they’d give me a medal? They’ll put me in their deepest black site and throw away the key.”
Amendola shrugged. “Who knows?”
“You know, lieutenant, with my boy in charge, Tony can have all the fucking medals he wants,” Jason said and placed his arms around my shoulders. “Don’t sell. Keep all of this shit! Better yet, ask them for a billion dollars if they want to buy it.”
“More than that, dude,” Ryan said. “Trillions, maybe. Tony might become the world’s first trillionaire.”
“Gazillionaire,” Alonso added. “Wait. Is that a thing?”
“Quadrillionaire, I think?” Rachel added. “Yeah. That sounds right.”
I sidled out of Jason’s grasp and laughed. “Tempting, but I’m not handing this out until the quartz is dealt with. I’m not here to get rich.”
“Hey, if you are going to be running this place, you need gravitas. Prestige. Didn’t Prime call you a sovereign? Emperor Tony. There! The title already explains who you are! Plus, being friends with a monarch and getting all fancy is awesome.”
“Don’t you need royal blood for that?” Amelia remarked.
“Have you read history, baby? Monarchs are born by claiming titles for themselves! It’s no different from running for president just to be called, well, president!”
Amelia kissed him on the cheek. “Babe, you missed some steps along the way. History is bloody.”
“And we’re not in one right now?” Jason quickly caught himself when Amendola glared at him. “Not that it’s not sad or anything. It’s very depressing actually knowing a lot of people died today. But we have the man of the hour right here with us who will kick some aliens’ asses!”
“Well, I’m not gonna call you emperor,” Amendola told me.
“Tony’s fine,” I said.
“Alright.” Amendola extended his hand, and I shook it. “Nice to meet you. I’m Lt. Benedict Amendola. You can call me Ben.”
“Anton Segerstrom. This is Jason, my roommate, and my best friend, Amelia. We served as Marines for a few years. The guys over there are Tom, Rachel, and Alonso--also former Marines from my unit. Freddie, Ryan, and Seth studied in the same platoon as me as cadets for NROTC.”
“You got some kind of a little army around here.”
I shrugged. “We’re Marines. We stick together.”
“He’s kind of like our big bro,” Freddie commented. “Mess with him, flyboy, then you mess with us, too.”
Ben nodded. “Duly noted, Marine.” Only Tom and Jason decided to be diplomatic and extended their hands. Ben shook them. “Nice to meet you all properly without a gun to my face.”
“Don’t take it personally, man,” Tom said. “Given our situation, it helps to be cautious?”
We walked to the edge of the docking bay like ten kids gleefully watching Earth spin below us. I couldn’t believe that I was in space! Both fear and the thrill coalesced into a shot of adrenaline as I stared at the planet below. I felt so small and alone in the vastness before me. Over the horizon, just above continental Asia, was another station.
“How many stations are in orbit, Prime?”
“Five.”
“And where am I?”
“You are in Station One. You are in dock three out of nine available docking bays.”
“I wonder why we haven’t seen you before. This station is huge! We’re bound to notice you at some point. Are the Great Pyramids based on your design?”
“This station was hidden in the asteroid belt. Stations Two and Three were hidden underneath your oceans. Station Four came from Europa while Station Five came from Titan.”
Jason perked up. “You mean…that was one of the stations in Peru? You caused a massive tsunami and killed a bunch of people!”
Prime did not comment.
“Prime, how about let’s not bring more ships down the planet until I say so, okay?” I ordered.
“Parameters set.”
It’s like talking to a child. I looked around, but there was no evidence that the other aliens used to inhabit this space. Well, aside from the floating station I’m standing on. “Prime, you wanted—no—you recommended that I build ships and other things, right? What happened to the ones that the previous forerunners built? Shouldn’t their ships be in here? Their machines and inventions? Resources?” I paused. “Um, dead alien skeletons?”
Amelia visibly shuddered. “Real creepy thinking there, Tony.”
I smirked, giving Amelia a light punch on the shoulder. “We’re all thinking it.”
“They probably rotted into dust by now,” Ben added.
“Or they left in their own accord,” Tom suggested. “Maybe Prime kicked them out when they failed their mission.”
Rachel shook her head. “That’s depressing.”
“Information about the previous forerunners is classified,” Prime chimed in. “However, I am allowed to inform you that their technology had been scrapped and disassembled for further use to keep this station functional for over twelve thousand years.”
“Jesus! This station is that old?” Seth gasped.
“Yes, Mr. Keston, but my memory bank prevents me from disclosing its origin. Apart from the fifteen humans in Station One, no other organic lifeforms are on board.”
“Nothing’s left here,” It was as if the previous occupants never existed. It was one hell of an eviction notice. “You can’t let me know what happened to the last forerunner’s people?”
“I cannot access the fate of their people. With their forerunner gone, I assumed their civilization perished with them.”
“You don’t remember them?”
“Protocol compels me to expunge personal relationships and history with former forerunners. Their recorded deeds, successes, and failures are all I retain for the next forerunner to learn from, but even the majority of it remained classified to the succeeding forerunners.”
That was grim. I frowned at Amelia and Jason and then turned to the expanse of space. Frankly, I was out of my element and didn’t know what to expect next. That troubled me. Not knowing was the hard part. Not having a plan was like plucking my eyes out while balancing on top of a rope across a deep canyon. I couldn’t just improvise a plan right off the bat as Prime did, and I doubted if I had it in me to decide the deaths of millions of people.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. “What’s next?” Tom asked.
“I guess we go to the command center. Then, we’ll find out who our new visitors are.”
“Command center is not yet available. The forerunner must designate its location before construction.”
“If you have been here for twelve thousand years, why isn’t it built yet?” Amelia asked.
“Primitive worlds like yours are vulnerable to mass extinctions. I may wait a thousand or a million years before another capable species can reach the stars. Time is unpredictable. All of this is built and constructed for the forerunner’s convenience. Therefore, I await their judgment. After all, different species have different accommodations, from distinct musculoskeletal, respiratory, and immune needs, to differences in their visual, hearing, and integumentary stimuli. The technology adapts to your species’ practical comforts.”
“So, how do I build this command center?” I asked.
“There are 144 levels in the central hub. Thirty-nine are great candidates to place a command center. Since your species require vision, I advise the first twenty upper levels. Still, your body’s vulnerability to the vacuum of space leaves you with three options in levels seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. I have cited multiple battles that this space station had suffered in the past, and your species has an eighty-six percent survival rate in those levels from a frontal assault, higher than the other levels.”
“Hm. I like those odds,” Jason said.
“Don’t let him hear you say that.” I wanted to say he had murdered for less, but I bit my tongue.
“This station’s acoustic transducers are one hundred percent functional. I will be able to hear you anywhere on the station. Feel free to ask me any questions.”
I chuckled and shook my head at Jason. “See what I mean?” I started walking to the closed door across the docking bay. “Let’s put the command center at level eighteen.”
“The room will be ready in five hours and forty-eight minutes.”
Gradually, I felt the vibration under my feet and the dull hum coming from the shadowy corners. The station was coming alive. I stopped and listened to the whirring noise of electricity and the machine taking its first breath, imagining myself inside the stomach of a waking behemoth.
“Um, Tony?” Tom stopped me. “What are we going to do for the next six hours? I didn’t exactly bring a book with me to read while we waited.”
“We could, you know, go exploring?” Amelia suggested.
Ryan and Alonso laughed. “What? All 144 floors?” Alonso asked.
“And I’m cold.” Rachel crossed her arms, shivering. Even Amelia was shaking, wearing less than her with a thin gym shirt.
I took off my ACU jacket and gave it to her, leaving me with just my shirt on. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel the cold that much. I reckoned the nanites must be helping me with that. “Here. Take this.”
Amelia hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“You need it more than I do.”
“What about my men?” Ben asked and pointed back at the vessel on the landing pad.
“Prime can take care of them inside the ship. They still have two days of recovery.”
Ben pointed at the gun holstered on Amelia’s belt. “Can I have my gun back?”
Amelia shot him a glare. “We’ll see.”
“You don’t need guns here, lieutenant. And if you’re scared to be left alone out here, you’re more than free to come with us. I don’t want us to get lost, so we better stick together.”
“Shall we ride in my truck then?” Rachel asked. “At least that one got a heater. We can crank that up so we won’t freeze halfway to your command center, boss.”
“Actually,” I chuckled, “That’s not a bad idea.”
“Five people can ride with me in the cabin, but the rest of you lot are gonna have to sit out on the bed.”
“Can I drive?” Alonso asked.
“No fucking way. My car, my rules.”
“Ah, you’re no fun sometimes.”
“Do you have enough gas?” Jason asked.
“Loaded it up before we went to the shooting range. I should have at least three hundred miles in the tank.” Rachel pointed at me. “You think that’s enough, staff sergeant?”
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”
We returned to the vessel and hopped into Rachel’s truck. While the others sat on the truck bed, Amelia, Jason, Seth, and Ryan rode in the cabin with Rachel behind the wheel. There’s plenty of room for everyone to sit.
“Giddy up, gents!” Rachel exclaimed and turned on the ignition. “And lady,” she turned to Amelia.
“Come on, Rach. Not that kind of lady,” Amelia laughed.
Headlights illuminated the way as she drove down the ramp and onto the station. Seventies disco music pulsated out of the truck’s stereo. Rachel always had a soft heart for that.
“Where to?” Rachel asked me.
I commanded one of the drones to fly ahead. “Just follow that thing.”
“Alrighty then. Please keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times. When I look back, I don’t want to find you have a missing arm.”
“Please, drive carefully,” Alonso begged.
“And keep your eyes peeled,” I added and readied my gun. “No matter what Prime said, there might be some surprises. We don’t know what else got in the ship while we were on Earth.”
“Copy that,” Tom said.
Fortunately, the station had a lot of ramps big enough for the truck to drive through. Station One was still in conservation mode, and lights half-dimmed to save power while more systems returned online.
Still, it reminded me of driving along the Midwest highway at night. I would listen to and sing the songs from the late 2000s. But the asphalt road was replaced by smooth metal and the distinct smell of clay, lichen, and dirt—musty and stale.