David

“You just HAD to go in gung-ho like always! It’s a wonder that you even passed the written portion of the mech exam! I mean, did you even read the user manual?” I shouted as I waited for a response. I waited some more. After a full minute had passed, I turned around. Instead of the goofy look of one of my best friends from mech training program and that damn xeno that he was photographed with, I was met with an error message. Curiosity got the best of me as I crept up to the monitor and read the message.

“QE Connection lost. Please try again later.”

I froze. The only time that this would happen is if something happened to either Alex’s computer, or mine. I didn’t imagine that it was Alex’s, because unlike the piece of shit mech that he had practically bought from a junkyard, those computers with QE connections were top notch. The likelihood that his computer would break a little more than a month into him working on that ship of his was simply preposterous. And my machine was working perfectly, so that only left one possible outcome. Something must have happened to the civilian QE relay station, which happened to be on the Strength Through Diplomacy.

I started to breathe more heavily as I thought of the possible ramifications of this information. Forcing myself to even out my breathing, I pulled out my phone and dialed one of my colleagues. “Jefferson here,” he said curtly.

“Hey, Jefferson, I need you to go to your computer and see if you can get a message to someone not on this ship. I’m having a bit of trouble with my QE connection, and I want to see if it’s an isolated incident,” I explained.

“Sure thing,” he said as I heard some footsteps. “I don’t imagine that mine will be down, but it’s always good to get a second opinion about these kinds of things.”

The line was dead for thirty seconds. “Jefferson?” I asked.

“Strange,” he said. “Mine is out too. Perhaps they’re taking the system down for maintenance?”

My blood started to run cold. “Has there ever been a recorded case of that, though? From what I understand, the system works for as long as the particles remain entangled, and there hasn’t been a recorded case in the Galactic Community of that happening.”

Silence reigned on the call. “Oh, God,” he suddenly exclaimed, voice full of horror. “Something must have happened.”

---

Elias, Ten Minutes Before

“Dude, I’m not saying that United Terra should allow athletes to get targeting implants to make them better at their respective sports, I’m saying that if they did, it would be hilarious, and I would watch a lot more sports.”

I put my face in my hands. Our portion of the ATC tower had been embroiled in this conflict of wills and opinions for the last ten minutes. There was a lull in the number of ships that were arriving, causing the discussion in the first place, but that didn’t mean that there was no work for us to do. I sat there trying to block out the conversation as I focused on guiding the last merchant ship left in the nearby space to one of the many docking bays. As soon as I saw that they had successfully docked, I shut off my mike and turned to my co-workers. “Can you guys just shut the fuck up? It’s bad enough that I’m here on my day off, why the hell do you guys have to go on about this shit?”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Damn dude,” said Lucas. “It’s a bit of a slow day, excuse us for wanting to not hate the time that we spend here.”

“Well, I’m not opposed to workplace discussions, but it’s really distracting when you’re shouting on the top of your lungs about that shit!” I shouted, rubbing my temples. “And besides, there is no way that United Terra is going to legalize targeting implants for sports. That’s just going to ruin all the sports that rely on precision like that. And even if they did legalize it, most sports would ban it just out of principle.”

“What are you scared of? Japan finally beating the US in shooting?” said Katsura, a native of Japan.

“Damn right I am,” I said proudly. “How else are we supposed to keep up the tradition of kicking everyone else’s asses at sports?”

“You didn’t beat Morocco in speed shooting last Olympics,” said Lucas, arching an eyebrow.

I waved my hand dismissively. “That was a fluke, and we all know it,” I said trying to hide my butthurt feelings. “Besides all that, we still need to do our jobs.”

Katsura motioned to the holograph of the airspace around the Strength Through Diplomacy, which showed one single dot, a thorn in the side of everyone who has worked here for the past 36 hours. “Yes, because there’s a plethora of things to do right now. Unless you’d want to be the one to deal with THAT one.”

I shuddered. “We’re going to have to get them docked at one point or another regardless, so we might as well just do it now.”

He smiled, gesturing to my station. “Have at it then.”

God give me strength. “Suttlecraft 37Z, this is the Tower. You have been cleared for landing. Proceed to Hangar Bay 33, Docking clamp 55,” I said as I reserved a space for them there with a few taps on my console.

I heard an audible groan come from the radio. “Finally! Thank you tower, proceeding to Hangar Bay 33, Docking Clamp 55.”

I switched off my mike. “Yeah, stop being an impatient son of a bitch and perhaps you’ll get in faster next time.” I turned to my coworkers. “I think that’s the last civvie ship in the airspace, right?”

Lucas turned around to look at his console before turning back to the holographic display of the airspace. “It looks like it!” he said with a smile. “Now back to the topic on hand.”

I groaned as they went back to their argument about targeting implants. “God have mercy on my soul today.”

It was then Katsura’s turn to arch an eyebrow. “Well since you seem to be so weary of this conversation, what do you want to talk about?”

I thought for a moment, relishing the idea of getting away from the topic of targeting implants. “You know, I think that we need to bring back the mech games.” I turned to Lucas. “You remember those, right? The first year that mechs were sold to the public, people were going crazy about the idea of two mechs duking it out in a stadium. I took my kids to one of those matches before they went out of style and banned.”

“Do you really think that people would be willing to pay an arm and a leg to go to one of those things?” asked Katsura. “And what about the organizers? Mechs, even the shitty ones, still cost quite a bit of money.”

“But those are a massive driver of local economies wherever they were held,” supplied Lucas. “And besides, we haven’t exactly had any kaiju fights with xenos that are shown to the public quite yet.” His eyes got a bit misty as he thought of that. “Imagine it, a real-life pacific rim.”

“I hope that you’re talking about the 2133 reboot, that was so much better than the one that came out last year,” I said.

“Nah dude, the original is where it’s at,” he said, putting his fingers together in an arch. “The CG may be laughable by today’s standards, but it still holds up surprisingly well,” explained Lucas. “The reboots, especially last year’s hit a bit too home for a lot of people, and I prefer the originals of things anyways.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, and I bet you think that Alien from 1979 was the best alien film.”

He opened his mouth to respond, when an earthshattering explosion was heard, even through the airtight bulkheads of the truly massive ship. The shockwave came a moment later, shaking the ground so hard that we all fell out of our respective chairs. I looked around wildly, trying to ascertain the source of the explosion. “What the fuck was that?” I shouted over the blaring of alarms going off telling us to evacuate the area.

Katsura’s eyes widened in horror as he looked past me and onto the holographic overlay of the airspace. “I think we have bigger problems now,” he said pointing to the display that was rapidly filling up with hostile ships. “I think we’re getting invaded.”