General De Vries stood in a slightly slanted, semi-circular tunnel carved out of dark stone. Multiple large pipes stretched from above him and down into the depths behind him, lit every so often by a harsh yellow lamp. He wore simple tan camouflaged fatigues with no insignia to avoid any notice. One of the problems with his current rank was that it was noteworthy for him to show up anywhere. Sure, the Cheyenne mountain complex was a natural place for someone like him to visit, but he still didn’t want any tongues wagging in his wake.
One of the complex’s managers, a grizzled no-nonsense Master Sergeant by the name of Wilkes, stood next to him at parade rest, wearing a similar uniform as the general’s…although at least he had the proper insignia and tags for his name and rank. His bearing was ramrod-straight; the man seemed utterly incapable of anything more relaxed. His voice was rough, coming from someplace deep in his belly. “The fuel reservoir for the backup generators just got topped off, we’re not due to have a shipment through this portal for at least four weeks. I’ve got my boys putting together the temporary walls. We can seal this whole area off.”
“Four weeks should be enough time,” replied De Vries as he measured the area in front of him with a practiced eye. “We’re going to need cots, food, water, spare clothing…hmm, showers are out. We’ll need a goodly amount of wipes as well. Porta-johns too, or chemical toilets, with the appropriate curtains to close them off. I’ve got one of my own people bringing in the communications equipment.”
Wilkes looked behind him as he considered the requirements. “Yeah, there’s a side-tunnel we can bring all that stuff through up to this point. How much will you need?”
“Enough for, let’s see…twelve people, including myself. Let’s say supplies for thirteen people for four weeks. Not all at once, of course. And don’t worry about food quality, even MREs will do.”
“For you too, sir?”
The general smiled. “Hey, I started out in the Air Force as a TACP. I’ve got no problem with roughing it.” He rubbed one of his legs. “Although now my knees are about ten years older than the rest of me.”
The sergeant’s gaze lingered on him, and De Vries realized his stock had just gone up in the man’s eyes. “Still, sir, there are going to be questions.”
“I don’t doubt it. Tell ‘em that it’s an exercise. We’re simulating a biological attack where the OPFOR is using an injected disease into unwitting victims. The idea is to figure out how best to quarantine and treat such an attack.”
Sergeant Wilkes scratched at his graying hair. “But what is it really, sir? Forgive me, but Space Force wouldn’t be involved in such an exercise.”
De Vries turned to face him. “Master Sergeant, you and your people have been nothing but helpful and discreet in the face of some outrageous requests made at the last minute. I thank you, and the President thanks you.” He paused. "It would be good to have someone from this facility who can come in and out while our, er, ‘package’ is in here. I’ll leave it up to you if you want to be involved. Be warned, you will have to leave whatever you see here, here. You cannot breathe a word of it, not even to your priest during confession.”
“I’m a Presbyterian, sir. But I get your point.” Wilkes paused, and De Vries could imagine the man’s internal turmoil. On the one hand, if he just left there was no chance of him giving up anything secret even by accident. But he was a human, and therefore curious to a fault. “I’ll stay, sir.”
“Good. Don’t worry, if I’m right this isn’t going to remain a secret for long.” De Vries turned back towards the entrance. “I give it three weeks, tops.”
The next hour or so involved a lot of young privates running around while constructing a temporary wall made up of interlocking panels; it now stretched across the ‘rear’ of the intended enclosure, sealing it off from the rest of the tunnel except for a single door with an outside vestibule. The same men then stacked similar panels near the entrance as one of them jogged up to the pair.
“Sergeant? We’re all set here. Did you want us to stay and set up the other wall?”
“No thank you,” said Wilkes. “There’s some people coming who’ll put that up. It’s all modular, right?”
“Yes, sergeant. It’s easy, they just snap together.” The young private glanced at De Vries as he realized this was possibly an officer he should have saluted. “Oh! I, uh…” He snapped out a salute that the general had to admit was pretty crisp.
De Vries returned the salute with the appropriate gravity. “Good work, son. Just ah, keep this whole exercise under your hat. Okay?”
“Yessir!” The private gave another reasonably-crisp salute to De Vries and sprinted away, grateful to be anywhere other than there.
Wilkes let out a gravelly chuckle. “Ya know, I saw a private salute a lamp-post once.”
De Vries laughed. “I’ll try not to take that personally, Master Sergeant.”
__________
Sergeant Malcom ‘Mack’ Shaw drove the truck carefully along the narrow state highway as he pondered the choices which had led him to this point in his life. Corporal McCoy rode shotgun, murmuring into Shaw’s satellite phone.
They’d met the truck at the planned location; its driver didn’t so much a bat an eye at the sight of a blinged-out Blackhawk hovering over him as multiple soldiers fast-roped down from it to meet him. The driver then transferred to one of two following Humvees. The driver of the second Humvee also climbed into the first Humvee before they fucked off with admirable speed. Fortunately, their expected ‘cargo’ arrived before the sun itself had risen. The black ovoid shape moved through the ever-brightening sky and settled itself with the daintiness of a falling snowflake onto the truck’s rear bed. That was followed by a whirlwind of activity as Shaw and his team managed to spread and tie down a mundane blue tarpaulin over the black craft. A few strategically-placed empty boxes next to the ship broke up its outline, making it look like just a pile of stuff under a tarp. The rest of Shaw’s team now followed behind in the second Humvee.
McCoy hung up the satellite phone. “All set, Sarge. They’re waiting for us just inside the south portal. We back the truck in, have our ‘buddies’ float the thingy off, then we drive the truck back out.” She paused. “It sounds like we’re going be stuck in there for a while.”
“Yeah, I expected as much. Hey, I just wanted to tell you that you’ve done stellar work today. I know it’s not easy shepherding a civvie through something like this.”
“To be honest, Sarge, I don’t think anyone’s done anything quite like this mission.”
Shaw nodded. “Fair.” They drove in silence for a while. He could tell something was eating at McCoy, and he had a pretty good guess as to what it was.
“I’m sure Chao’s doing fine, Corporal,” he said. “She’s talked to us through her comm. Sounds like they’re mainly working on improving their translator software.”
“She’d better be fine. I’m just worried. The only other human in there is a retired Marine with a limp.”
The sergeant laughed. “McCoy, would you say that you are a deadly motherfucker?”
“Um, well, I don’t like to brag but…yes.”
“Would you say that I am a deadly motherfucker?”
“Oh hell yes, Sarge. I don’t mean that in a kiss-ass way. I’ve seen you in action and there’s no way I’d want to tangle with you.” She smiled. “Even if I am a deadly motherfucker myself.”
Shaw smiled back. “Well, Toke is without a doubt the deadliest motherfucker I’ve ever known. The only reason his body count stopped rising is because he took early retirement due to that bum knee. If he decides it’s your time, then you’re meat, even if he doesn’t have a gun. If those aliens try doing any involuntary probing on Chao…they’ll regret it.”
McCoy subsided a bit. “Okay, Sarge.” There followed another long while of silent driving. “Do you think they’d blow themselves up?” she asked out of the blue.
Shaw glanced in confusion over at her. “What?”
“I mean, we’ve shoved them under a tarp and we’re driving them away to some secure facility. If I was in their shoes…or whatever they use as shoes…I’d be at least a little suspicious of our intentions. I'd have a back-up plan. The damn thing floats like a soap bubble, it must have some huge energy source on board...maybe I'm just paranoid.”
“No, you're right. I’m sure they have some kind of dead-man’s switch set up if we went all nasty on them. So we just need to make sure that doesn’t happen, right?”
“We?”
“You, me, the team. I don’t think this general is an idiot, but if he or some other higher-up does start showing idiocy we’ll have to…let them know they’re being idiots. Like I said, it’s unlikely. But we should have a chat with him, just to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
McCoy snorted. “Yeah, sure, a ‘chat’ to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. No pressure at all.”
__________
General De Vries took a bit of delight in Master Sergeant Wilkes’ gobsmacked expression. The latter stared in shock at the black ovoid which floated in apparent defiance of the laws of physics as the truck drove itself out from under it. “Sir,” Wilkes said, then paused.
“It’s a helluva thing, eh?”
“Is it…manned?” asked Wilkes.
“Yep.” The craft settled gently onto the concrete floor as the truck drove past the tunnel’s entrance. Then the two inside jumped out and, with the rest of the special forces team, began to hastily set up the outer wall of their temporary quarantine area.
Wilkes walked forward a few steps as if in a trance. “It’s…sir. I’m assuming we contacted them?”
“Yes. We have a couple of what we can call ‘subject matter experts’ on board. One of which I’d sent, the other, well, somehow he found the little green men first. Near as we can tell, they’re friendly. Sounds like they were a little worried about our reaction to them. You know, if we'd just reflexively attack them. But they need help. Their main ship got hit by something bad. Something that’s hostile to both them and us. We’re still figuring that out.”
“Something?” Wilkes looked back towards the general with a raised eyebrow. “Is that what your ‘subject matter experts’ are working on?”
“Hopefully.”
Someone knocked at the door set into the rear wall. De Vries strolled over and opened it to reveal a disheveled-looking officer towing a bunch of large cases on a dolly. The blonde man snapped upright and saluted. “Sir! I’ve brought everything.”
De Vries returned the salute with a smile. “Good to see you, Major Morris. Thanks for getting here on such short notice.”
“Yessir.” The newcomer turned to his jack and towed the dolly through the door, which De Vries shut closed behind him.
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“Where did you want me to set up…” Morris trailed off as he turned and saw the black spacecraft sitting on the concrete. “Woah.”
De Vries chuckled as he patted the officer’s shoulder. “You see why I wanted you sequestered with us. Anyways, go ahead and get started over in that corner. Let Sergeant Wilkes know if you need anything.”
Morris blinked for a moment, then shook his head as if waking up from a strange dream. “Right…get to work.”
“Oh, and you brought the cameras, right?” asked De Vries.
“Yes, sir, just like you asked. I’m assuming I’m pulling double duty running the comms and recording…things.” He glanced again at the spacecraft, which somehow managed to look ominous in spite of just sitting there.
“Yeah, sorry about that. We’re gonna need to document all of this. I can take over some of the comm duties.”
Morris began opening the cases. Inside, nestled in foam cutouts, was an entire suite of equipment which could communicate securely with pretty much anybody on the planet. The last case held the rack which enclosed everything, and the major began setting that up first.
By now the far end of the tunnel was completely shut by a temporary wall. A big, red-bearded man walked up and saluted. “General De Vries?”
De Vries returned the salute. “Yes. You’re Sergeant Shaw?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, Sergeant, I expected you to bring me some some intel, not…this.”
Shaw looked a little embarrassed. “It kind of escalated, sir. Especially since they’d already initiated contact with a human.”
“So I understand. Tell me about this Captain Tocco character. I had a chance to skim his file, but no time to do a deep dive.”
“He’s solid, sir. I know a quadruple homicide doesn’t make that seem like the case, but from what we can tell those guys were almost ready to shoot one of ‘em. One of the aliens, I mean.”
“Hmm. I need to debrief him before I figure out what to do with him. I’ve already got people out there doing forensics on the scene and cleaning it up.” He nodded towards the craft. “Our people in there are still in contact?”
“As of about ten minutes ago. Apparently, the language translator software is getting much better, plus the aliens took some skin and blood samples from both of ‘em.”
De Vries looked puzzled, then nodded in understanding. “Right. It would be a shame if they came all this way and then died from the common cold.”
“It’s looking promising, sir. Toke…er, Captain Tocco told me that nothing bad has shown up in their analysis so far, it’ll probably be at least another thirty minutes or so before it’s all done. Then they’ll…well, they’ll be coming out.”
“Got it.”
Wilkes turned reluctantly away from staring at the craft. He shook hands with Shaw and looked him up and down. “Looks like you’ve had a long night.”
Shaw chuckled. “Yeah.”
“Then I’ll get some cots delivered to the vestibule right away. Your team can put your gear over in that corner, at least until we get some proper storage in here.”
“Thank you very much.” Shaw began to unstrap his carrying vest with obvious relief.
__________
Shaw sat with relief on the cot, glad that now he didn’t have to lug his damned gear and weapons around. He still wore his headset, though, just in case the two humans inside wanted to get in touch. He was starting to get a little worried, however. What was supposed to be thirty minutes had stretched into forty.
His comm crackled. “Sergeant?”
“Still here. What’s up, Chao?”
“It looks like we’re all good. There was a few little bits of our biochemistry that were unusual, so they spent a little extra time making sure that none of their bugs would affect us.”
He smiled. “That is good to hear that they're being thorough. Anyways, your general is here, we’re ready when you are to have the big official hello.”
“All right, give us a few minutes. Oh, and they’ll be turning off the camouflage before the door opens, let everybody know.”
“Got it.” He stood and motioned his team to gather around. They checked each other out…this time, to make sure none of them were carrying weapons. The general had impressed on them that during this welcoming ceremony…or whatever you called it…they couldn’t be carrying so much as a butter knife. It was all too easy to forget that little backup knife on one’s hip, or something similar.
Satisfied, he led them around to the entry side of the craft, where General De Vries waited. In the interim, the general had managed to get the appropriate name tags and insignia attached to his fatigues. He was flanked by Major Morris and Sergeant Wilkes. “Sir? Looks like we’re on. Chao mentioned that they’re turning off the camouflage before opening the door, so don’t freak out if something on the ship changes.”
The general nodded, then his eyes widened as the ship’s black exterior rippled and faded, revealing a gunmetal-gray surface lined with fractal black lines. Shaw wondered what the latter were for, but such thoughts became cut short as the door began to hiss open. It was far easier to see into the ship’s interior this time, and it looked to be as clean and minimalist as an Apple store.
A day ago, Shaw would have described himself as jaded and immune to wonder. But now his breath caught in his throat as a shadow became visible, moving towards the door. He was about to see an alien…and then he chuckled as Chao came walking down the ramp, carrying a small sealed case.
The general smiled. “Ms. Chao, I am glad to see you unharmed.”
“You and me both,” she replied. She reached the foot of the ramp and held up the case. “Behold, I come bearing gifts!” She opened the case and took out one of multiple small white-colored plugs. “Translator earpieces, hot off the fabricator.”
“Why do we need those?” asked Shaw.
“Up until now, their suits have been doing the translating. But once they’re out of the suits we’ll need an alternate way to understand them. They’ll be wearing similar gear on their end to understand us.”
De Vries looked askance at the earpiece. “I’m not all that comfortable with jamming a piece of alien tech into my ear.”
Chao turned her head, showing a white plug in her own ear. “Consider me your test animal, sir. So far I haven’t felt any need to betray humanity.”
The general still didn’t look happy. “I see. Although they’ve shown us great trust by having themselves shut away in here.” He nodded in a sudden decision and walked forward to pluck the earpiece from Chao’s hand.
Shaw and the others accepted their own earpieces. He looked at it for a long moment. “Hey, McCoy?” he said in a low voice to the corporal next to him.
“Yes, Sarge?”
“If I start acting weird you knock me out, okay?”
“Will do. Will you do the same for me?”
“Sure thing.” Shaw screwed the plug into his left ear. It felt like…well, like normal ear protection.
Once everyone was fitted, Chao turned to the open door. “We’re ready, Captain!”
Shaw did a discreet check of his people; they stood in a line behind the general, all at parade rest. Good, they looked at least halfway formal. Morris walked back to one side, raised his camera, and started filming the proceedings.
Another shadow became visible, and this time it was an actual alien. Shaw stared at the figure, clad in a chromed spacesuit with a featureless helmet. The alien was small, they couldn’t have been more than four feet tall. They descended the ramp as more strange-looking figures appeared behind her. Two more of the small aliens appeared behind her, followed by two huge dudes with four arms and multi-jointed legs. Each of the big dudes had a small, snakelike alien hitching a ride on their shoulders. The next two aliens made Shaw clench his jaw a bit. They looked like six-legged insects or spiders, each the size of a coffee table. All of the aliens wore chromed suits similar to the first alien, who he figured must be the captain.
Bringing up the rear was Matt, who looked a little embarrassed as all of the humans present peered up at him. The welcoming committee backed up a bit to let the newcomers form a line of their own at the front of the ramp. The captain stepped forward and gripped their helmet; there followed a brief hiss of equalizing pressure as they raised it off.
Two big amber eyes, slitted like a reptile’s, stared at each of them in turn. Her head was covered in small bright-blue scales and came forward to a small, almost elegant-looking snout. Two swept-back horns lay back against her head, and as she looked them over they rose up off of her bare scalp. Then she gave a small bow to the assembled humans.
“I am Sadaf Ta’Shakka, Captain of the Coalition Exploration Vehicle Exultant Finger of Rithro. My crew and I thank you for your hospitality. Our ship has been damaged, and we require your assistance for us to repair it. We hope this will be only the start of your joining the Coalition.”
Shaw found the translator’s effect strange, it was almost like watching a dubbed movie. But the Captain’s voice was clear and understandable.
The general stepped forward. “Captain, I am General Levant de Vries of the United States Space Force. On behalf of my government, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the planet Earth.” He held out his hand; Shaw hoped that Toke or Chao had taught the aliens that particular greeting.
The captain tucked her helmet under one arm as her other glove suddenly folded itself back off her hand; her hand was also covered in blue scales and had elegant-looking little claws at the end. She reached out with her suddenly-bare hand and accepted the general’s handshake with an air of finality.
“I accept your welcome,” she replied.
That seemed to be the cue for the others to remove their helmets as well. In the case of the spider-dudes, their ‘face’ protection simply folded back like the captain’s glove. Shaw braced himself, but he had to admit that they had something more like a face than a terrestrial spider. Plus big black eyes that reminded him of a pug his family had while growing up. Okay, he could handle that.
The big dudes, however, had faces with weird mandibles and dark blue eyes. They reminded Shaw of something…oh, yeah. Those movies. Well, hopefully they didn’t engage in the same behavior as the aliens in those films. The snake-guys’ helmets also just folded away, and their ‘faces’ were even stranger. Three jaws spaced evenly around where a normal head would be, plus eyes at the tip of each jaw. One of the snake-guys darted his head around, taking in his surroundings. He seemed particularly interested in the temporary walls. Shaw’s translator just caught his murmuring of "hmmm, modular panels, ingenious! Also carved granite? Will have to ask Kexal.”
The captain turned back to the general and smiled; Shaw reared back a bit at seeing lots of needle-sharp teeth. Sadaf’s species were predators for sure. “General, do you mind if we get out of these suits?" she asked. "We have been inside them for far too long.”
The general released her hand. “By all means, go ahead.”
__________
The aliens got out of their suits while inside the ship and out of sight; apparently there were certain procedures of getting them off which involved pulling things out of other things. Chao was glad to let them have their privacy. She did not want to find out all about how the various species dealt with waste. In the meantime, General De Vries pulled Matt off into one corner. The pair were now in the midst of a very quiet but also very animated discussion, probably something along the lines of why Matt shot four people.
Chao was glad to not be involved in that discussion. She looked around as the various aliens emerged back out of the ship. Some of them wore black uniforms trimmed with silver; those who went without were the snakes…no, the knuall-toua, she had to start using the right term…and the spidery xyrax.
At the moment she felt a bit at a loss of what the hell to do next; she’d been going full-bore on language lessons with one of the ahun named Nadash, even throwing in what bits of Thai she remembered from her upbringing. She looked curiously at Nadash as she emerged from the landing craft. She had silver eyes, not amber like the other two, and had some silver fractal patterns visible at her temples.
Nadash padded over and gave Chao the same small bow as Sadaf had performed earlier. “I thank you for your assistance, Ms. Chao. I will continue my improvements to the translator program, including other Earth languages, but for now it appears that the English translation matrix is almost complete.”
“Thanks, Nadash.” Chao looked around at the walled-off tunnel which was their new, hopefully temporary, home. “I wonder how long we’ll be in here.” A sudden horrible thought struck her. “Wait, Nadash! What about food? I don’t know if you’ll be able to eat any of ours.”
The auhn responded with a gentle smile. “We have brought supplies. Also we have systems on board which can handle our waste. But yes, that’s a very good point. I shall ask Dhuz to perform testing, if you can get us samples of your food.”
“I will. Come on, let’s get all of you introduced to all of us.”
During the following whirlwind of greeting and handshakes (or tail-shakes in the case of the knuall-tua and pedipalp-shakes for the xyrax) Chao managed to keep it together. She even managed to find the xyrax cute once the spider-like aliens were out of their suits; she’d had to fight the urge to pet them on their fuzzy ‘heads’. But still, she couldn’t shake the realization that she was about to have a lovely little panic attack; what had been hypothetical alien visitors were now very real. And then there were the ominous bits of information she’d received about the Breakers…
She managed to walk around the front of the craft and sit next to one of the cots before her legs gave out. Chao hugged her knees to her chest and lowered her head, trying to just focus on her breathing. She heard some complicated tapping of feet approaching her position, but she didn’t look up.
“Ms. Chao?” asked Kifa. “Are you well?”
Now she did look up at the pilot. Normally being this close to a giant spider would have made her scream, but Kifa’s big, puppy-dog eyes stopped her from doing so. “I’m okay, Kifa. I just needed a moment. It’s a lot to take in, you know?”
“Yes, it is momentous for all of us as well. It’s been many, many years since the Coalition has discovered a new sapient race. We xyrax were the last to be discovered, before you.”
“Oh? Well, it looks like it worked out for your species.”
Kifa straightened up a little in pride. “Yes! We evolved as a cliff-climbing species. Very good at going vertical and upside down. We make excellent pilots and navigators!”
Chao began to feel a little better. “That is pretty neat…um, Kifa, I have a favor to ask. If it turns out to be insulting, I apologize in advance.”
“Oh, I’m sure it will be fine! What is the favor?”
“Can…can I pet your head?”
__________
McCoy had just finished her debrief with the general and looked around the enclosure; she realized that she hadn’t seen Chao in a while. Maybe the civvie had decided to take a nap? She rounded the gray bulk of the alien’s craft, and just stood there blinking in surprise.
Chao sat cross-legged on the floor next to one of the cots, her eyes closed and a beatific smile on her face. Kifa, in turn, lay halfway in her lap while making little cooing noises of bliss. Chao’s hand stroked gently through the soft fur behind Kifa’s eyes.
McCoy grinned at the adorable sight, and almost wanted to break in with something snarky like get a room, you two! Instead she settled for discreetly clearing her throat. Chao’s eyes opened to look over at McCoy, but she did not stop her petting.
“Hello, Corporal McCoy!” called out Kifa with its usual cheerful tone. “Humans are very good at giving pets!”
The corporal leaned against the alien ship and crossed her arms. “Well, at least we’re good at something.”