The figures stepped onto the roof before Enoa could speak, before she could offer any warning. Only then did the Earthship’s proximity alarm begin, a series of shrill chirps that sounded from speakers in the walls and floor and whatever control unit April carried inside the Aesir.

“They’re looking for a way in!” Enoa felt the figures form a line at the far side of the roof – fifteen of them, single file. They walked directly above them, moving together with deliberate steps, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, from one end of the roof to the other.

“And you’re waiting to get out.” Orson laid his hand on Enoa’s shoulder and steered her back toward the ship. Cathy also hadn’t gotten aboard. She still waited outside, pistols drawn. “Ted, April, can you open that door from where you are?”

“It can get stuck.” Teddy called from inside. “It opens halfway sometimes. The space is cramped because we decided to add the second bulkhead at the last minute.”

“Will the Aesir fit if the door’s stuck like that?” Orson stepped around Enoa and Cathy and jumped inside. They didn’t follow him. Enoa heard the click of an opening storage locker.

“I don’t know if I’m good enough to fly out with it that tight!” Jaleel yelled, none of his usual pre-flight excitement to be heard, as he sat alone at the front of the ship.

“Yeah I’m not sure about this, man,” Teddy said. “I don’t have the exact measurements. I think so?”

“I think so isn’t gonna cut it.” Orson reappeared. He held the I.F. Maker under his left arm and gripped the lantern in his right. It gave off an almost-volcanic crimson glow. “If I have to blast it open, I’ll pay you back. Doc, how are we doing with those sensors?” Dr. Stan arrived behind him, holding her new datapad and a long length of cord.

“I’ll be ready.” She walked to the sensor station and plugged the datapad into the Aesir. “I should have a better time now.”

“Just don’t try to hook onto any networks or Ruby will lock you out and be real pissed with all of us.” Orson clipped the lantern onto his sword sheath. “Teddy, April, what’s the consensus on the door? Are you opening it here? Am I opening it over there? Or are we going to need a new exit?”

Enoa tried to extend her senses beyond the gathering on the roof, to feel further, to all the forces surrounding them, or at least far enough to know if any of their pursuers were working to find other entryways into the Earthship.

She failed. Her mind and will focused only on the even footfalls across the roof. No living, human force had ever walked in such synchronized perfection as the figures above them.

“You’ll fit,” April said. “Half will do.”

“I’m really not sure,” Jaleel yelled again.

“You’ll be genius!” Dr. Stan powered on the Aesir’s side monitor. The screen filled with a purely numeric display.

“Yeah, Jaleel.” Orson set the I.F. Maker on the ship’s table and slid a spare solar cell inside. “It’ll be just like your Star Wars.”

“My Star Wars?” Jaleel laughed. “Thanks, Grandpa.”

“We have no time for this.” Cathy stared up toward the ceiling. Had her own gear caught a fix on the force above them? “They’re about to reach the garage door.”

All fell silent when the figures gathered on the door. They stepped together onto the metal, footfalls ringing out hollow.

Then an immediate scratching sound started, a slight scraping. The motions were precise, systematic, as unseen hands probed the door, searching for purchase, for a way inside.

“Enoa, Cathy.” Orson jumped from the Aesir. “Get. In. Jaleel, hover. Hover now. Get moving as soon as they’re belted.” He sat the I.F. Maker on the floor. “April, get ready to open that door as soon as everyone’s set.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” Jaleel answered.

“Ready!” April said. But Cathy made no move to board the ship. She aimed both pistols toward the garage door.

“I think we’ve run out of time,” she said.

“You can see them?” Orson asked, but she had no chance to answer.

The garage door opened. It groaned, a creaking echo that rattled through the ceiling, like the entire building fought against the strength acting on the door. Cathy and Orson ran toward the opening. He’d drawn his sword, adding its blue glow to the light of his goggles and the red from the lantern.

Enoa saw a sliver of star-strewn, desert sky through the thin gap in the garage door, but heard no sound from the force massed above them. Cathy fell into a crouch. Her boots’ armor plating shifted, slid until it touched the floor – an IHSA mechanized feature to help maintain her balance or stay braced against the concrete. Cathy aimed both pistols at the opening. Orson’s blaster slid into his hand. He trained it on the doorway, but stayed standing.

A silhouette, head and shoulders, loomed over the opening. It was a featureless purple, mottled, made to vanish when seen in the starlight.

“Hello!” The figure spoke in a manic voice. Then the scores of other androids behind it answered.

“HELLO!” Their voices boomed. “YOU ARE DETAINED! SURRENDER FOR IMPRISONMENT OR EXECUTION!”

The figure in the doorway reached into the opening. Its arm and shoulder slid inside, stretching flat – Enoa saw the limb actually flatten out and reach easily four feet down into the open air. The color of the arm changed, shifting hue to the same dull tan of the walls.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

The arm was still adjusting its coloration when Cathy buried a bullet in the thing’s forehead. The bullet hole sparked, and the silhouette faded to a light gray. Enoa could see clearly then that the figure had no ears, no nose, and only small indentations where its eyes should be.

“What are you doing, Enoa?” Orson yelled without turning around. “Get in the ship. You…”

Three bursts of light flew past the prone android body. One struck Orson in the shoulder. The fabric of his coat smoldered. He staggered backward, but he sent a blast of his own out through the opening. A second shot took Cathy in the breastplate. She stayed where she was, firing past the inert figure and out into the open air.

The third flew well past them both, burning a dark streak across the garage floor, only feet from the Aesir. Enoa heard yells from inside the ship, drowned out by a deep bellow from Teddy.

“Enoa!” Jaleel hissed. “Get in! Get in!” But she took another glance toward the opening, where more figures could be seen, a writhing mottled mass of moving starlight.

The figures fired more energy into the garage, and Enoa waited no longer. She jumped up into the ship. Jaleel immediately cycled the door closed. It shut as soon as she pulled her cloak clear of the entryway.

“Why did you wait so long?” Jaleel yelled.

“Why did you close the door?” Enoa yelled back. “I don’t care what Orson says. We’re not leaving here without him. And what about Cathy?”

“They both have more armor and better weapons than we do!” Jaleel answered. Enoa felt the slapping sensation beneath her – the Aesir had taken off. “I’m gonna turn us around and send a blast at whatever’s back there. Let’s hope they don’t have any physical projectiles or we’re screwed.”

In answer, scattered bursts of energy exploded against the Aesir’s rad shield. It jarred Enoa from the floor, and she rose to her feet.

“There’s more room to get belted in on the couch, Enoa!” Teddy waved to the sofa. He held tight to the sheathed dagger he wore.

“April,” Dr. Stan said. “I believe it’s time to open the door all the way.”

“Cathy was supposed to come with us.” April held a small blue remote control for the door. “We need to check on her Council. They could be in danger, if the Baron’s threat was the truth.”

“We can’t leave without Orson!” Teddy clenched his right hand around the dagger’s hilt. “No way! We’ll all fight here, or we’ll all run to the Council. I built this place. I’m not letting Orson defend it alone.”

“Guys!” Jaleel yelled. “I can’t hear Ruby! Ruby talk louder.”

“THE SHIP’S MAIN COMPUTER CAN DETECT ENERGY SIGNATURES DURING ACTIVE PULSE.” Ruby’s voice boomed down from the top speaker.

“Quieter, Ruby!” Jaleel said. “Please.”

“The ship’s main computer can detect active energy signatures,” Ruby said. “Would you like me to display this information on the main monitor?”

“Yes, please,” Jaleel said.

“Could I please see that information, as well, Ruby?” Dr. Stan asked.

“Certainly.”

“Can we bounce that to me too?” April asked. “I would like to see if the House Monitoring System can adapt to these androids. I might get a clear look at what’s happening outside.”

“I can do that if Ruby will allow a direct link,” Dr. Stan said.

“What does any of that mean?” Enoa retracted her staff and clipped it to her belt, as she ran to the front passenger’s seat.

“Looks like we can only see these things clearly when they’re moving,” Jaleel said.

“Then give me the tri-cannon.” Enoa fit her seatbelt into place. “We’ll shoot the things up there, grab Orson and Cathy, and get out of here.”

“Uh, right.” Jaleel activated the passenger’s screen. Enoa watched the normal targeting display appear, but only the Aesir’s green triangle could be seen. She saw nothing to indicate either their friends or the androids surrounding them.

But on the windshield she saw their attackers. They looked like pale green skeletons, the moving energy inside them dimly visible, racing along their limbs and bouncing around inside their artificial skulls. Two inert gray androids dangled from the garage opening. Three more active green skeletons used them for cover, launching fire and light from their fists, unloading energy at Orson and Cathy and the Aesir’s shield. Cathy returned fire, striking one of the figures in the neck.

“Orson,” Cathy said, voice magnified by the external microphone. “Two more around the front one I disabled. Cut wide at that one, and you’ll cut them all.”

“Right.” Orson launched himself from the floor, his repulsor sending him angling up at the open doorway. The androids knew their danger. Two more energy bolts struck the coat’s fabric, but with the repulsor on full, Orson was not redirected.

With one swing of the sword, the three androids were cut apart across the shoulders. The green blurs of energy vanished, and the headless, pale-gray bodies tumbled toward the garage floor.

But the sword’s fire did not stop the flow of fluids from the machines the way it cauterized injuries in living things. Black discharge uncoiled from the things’ severed necks, like spooling licorice, piling up around the androids’ unmoving bodies.

The doorway clear, a new volley of energy fire entered the garage. Half a dozen more green skeletons appeared above the door, stretching inside.

“Ted!” Orson’s deepened, distorted voice called through his gear’s microphone. “April! Open the door and get out! They’re coming in!”

April answered the call, but she didn’t open the door. A second set of doors, dual-plated, set lower in the garage ceiling, slammed shut in their place. Four more green skeletons were crushed or cut in two by the door. The floor was littered in severed arms and heads. All pieces oozed the black licorice discharge.

The doors shut. No more movement and no more green skeletons could be seen.

“What are you doing?” Orson yelled. “You need to get out. Now we’re stuck again.”

“We’re not leaving without him.” Teddy yelled. “Jaleel, float us over there and we’ll get them.” He stood from the armchair. Jaleel nodded and guided the ship to the far side of the garage. He looked up warily at the closed blast doors.

“Teddy,” April said. “Sit back down.”

“I’ll be back in a second.” Teddy cycled the door open for Orson and Cathy, still looking at the pile of wreckage and the licorice discharge.

“Get inside and we’re outta here!” Teddy called. “They’re shooting at us too.”

“That’s because we didn’t separate.” Orson answered without his microphone. “If you went your own…”

“There are too many of them to focus on you!” Teddy wouldn’t let Orson interrupt. “Use your little ion mabob first, as a big diversion. But you’re just being dramatic trying to stay here because you blame yourself for us getting attacked.”

“That’s because it’s my fault,” Orson said. “You can say it would’ve happened anyway, but I made it happen now. I suggested coming here. I suggested going to Littlefield too. I make these problems happen now. And I have to deal with that.”

“I don’t want to leave my bike behind,” Cathy interrupted. “But I’ll be really pissed if I do leave it and still have to wait around listening to you argue. So should we change our plans?”

“Fine,” Orson said. “We’ll fire off the I.F. and use that as cover to blast out of here. How does that sound?” Enoa could not hear Cathy’s answer over April’s scream.

“They’re in the house too!” April stood from her seat. “They’re in our living room, our bedroom, our…”

Enoa didn’t see the burst of energy strike Orson clear in the stomach, but she heard it, heard the electric thump when the bolt connected to the coat and the armor beneath. She heard Orson’s yell and the heavy thud he made when he fell back against the concrete floor. And she heard the drumming of bolts against the exposed metal of Cathy’s armor.

Enoa turned toward the sounds, just as something unseen lifted Teddy into the air. He gasped and reached for his throat, but he was released, thrown backward. Teddy was still airborne when he struck the opposite wall, just above the couch.

“Teddy!” April screamed. Dr. Stan and Jaleel yelled with her. The noise was enough to disturb Wesley and the cats in Jaleel’s bunk, sending all into a frenzy of cries.

The Aesir was still ringing from their voices when the android stepped aboard.