Chapter Sixty-Two

“We should go. Get our thermal gear; it’s deathly frigid there, even with all the thermal grids.”

Her parents did not protest as they boarded the dropship, then made their way to the site where the report came from. Viktoriya consistently nudged them to move faster, desperate to get to the location.

“Can this thing actually go any slower?” she shouted sarcastically as she smiled. “See? I do sarcasm now, Ha-ha.”

Even from a distance, they heard blazing guns, heavy artillery, men shouting over the top of their voices on the comms, and gigantic sheets of ice cracking.

The ice erupted into the sky in a fountain of white around the perimeter of the enormous alien vessel, followed by the yells of the men and the shattering sounds. The alien craft slowly made its way up from underneath the surface, breaking free.

Viktoriya saw its shape and perimeter from underneath as they moved closer.

“Holy hell, it’s enormous!” her mom shouted as an icy chill ran down her spine.

“Wait a minute. There is only one alien in that whole thing?” Rosa exclaimed.

Viktoriya’s eyes remained glued on her target, watching as it rose majestically, undisturbed by the many rounds glancing from its surface.

As she continued to stare, she noticed the blue translucent shield that encased the entire visible surface, almost like a second coating. Wherever a munition found its mark, the shield became more visible, only for that moment as it flew off in some other direction.

Their dropship slowly landed a distance from the skirmish near a command drop-in bunker. With no warning, Viktoriya looked at CLEFF and unbuckled.

She did not allow herself to stop and think. She did not consider the possibility of a friendly bullet accidentally finding its mark on her or that the alien could retaliate now, and they would all be dead.

None of that could be considered.

She could do this.

She could stop the creature, even though she could not understand how.

“It seems it uses some sort of plasma field to deflect the rounds,” CLEFF said, standing next to Viktoriya, following her lead, and removing his safety harness. He engaged his gunnery array, opening his chest cavity and positioning the weapons, ready to take any necessary action.

“We will not need that… At least not yet, I think.”

“Affirmative,” he replied as the weapons retracted once again into his chest.

Her parents had barely unbuckled from their seats before seeing the two leap out of the ship and race toward the modular bunkers.

“Vik—” her mom screamed, but they continued on their way past the soldiers, heading to the ascending ship.

“I can do this!” she yelled to herself as she took off, sprinting like a bolt of lightning.

“Viktoriya, stop!” her mom screamed as loudly as she could, but it was no use as Viktoriya raced toward the military officers. Her parents all but halted just beside the officers, who were orchestrating the assault as their daughter continued fearlessly.

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“Cease fire! Cease fire!”

They all held their fire, staring in disbelief at Viktoriya and her android, watching to see what she would do next. She quickly snatched a rappelling gear kit from a stack next to the supplies drop-in bunker and sprinted toward a snowmobile.

“C’mon, CLEFF!”

“Get her! Tackle and hold her down! Stop her right now.”

“Sir, um, that CLEFF droid. No way I’m chasing after her; that thing is unstoppable.”

“Hold your fire. Stand down immediately, all units!”

Her heart was pounding, and an icy shiver, not from the weather, but the astonishment of the big disc-like ship, raced along her spine. The ship was pulling up from under the surface, shattering the sheets of ice upward in huge shards as it slowly rose. The low-pitched thunderous cracking of the breaking ice echoed all around them.

She heard the men behind yelling at one another. Victoriya scrambled for what to do, as the hum of the snowmobile skidder drowned their sounds as it came online.

She and CLEFF sped away toward their enemy, throttling the snowmobile for all that it had to give, trying to reach the craft before it broke through the layer of ice completely.

“If I can hit the right angle off that shattered ice bank at the edge, we might be able to jump this thing up onto the hull and then take the drilled hole in from the top!” she yelled to CLEFF as they advanced.

He scrutinized her plan before yelling back, “Ah. That’s not gonna—Um, Okay, let’s do it!”

Her mom’s heart pounded as she stared at her daughter, pressing her way onward toward terrible danger. A target that even the entire military team at hand could not bring to a halt.

Her dad clenched his wife’s hand, but even he did not know what to say. He stood there, frozen.

Watching.

Viktoriya fixed her eyes forward. Everything appeared almost still and focused within her reality. She shut out the voices, yells, and sounds. Shut out the jarring vibration of the machine carrying her and CLEFF into peril. Only her goal remained—only her destiny and the part she must play in delivering humanity from certain destruction.

She aimed to reach the ship and stop it from ascending. She felt the lingering gaze of the men behind her. The stillness as everyone watched her, waiting for what she would do next. But she would not allow fear to take hold of her.

“Sir. Sir!” one man shouted, moving toward them.

“We have an unauthorized dropship heading in!” he spoke, and they all raised their heads to see another craft making its way toward the alien ship.

“Sir, orders? Should we bring it down?”

“No!” Rosa yelled before the team leader could answer.

“Stand down! My daughter is on its path. If you take it out, it may crash onto them.”

The men cast glances at each other as they became mere spectators in what was supposed to be a military mission under their control.

Eva switched her gaze between Viktoriya and the dropship as it moved closer to her daughter.

Her Halikkon watch vibrated, displaying a string of code, and her jaw dropped in awe upon recognizing the pilots’ broadcast ID code.

“It can’t be,” she muttered under her breath, her eyes fixed now on the fast-approaching dropship.

One commander shouted, “Sir, we have the ID on the pilot—known fugitive, authorized kill on sight.”

“What is it?” Rosa asked, but Eva’s attention remained glued to the incoming craft. Finally, the whole team turned their gaze to see if there was something they were missing as Rosa lifted his wife’s wrist to see the watch display, muttering, “That’s not possible. I know that code. I recognize it.”

“What’s going on?” the men asked.

“It’s Aura! It’s her. She’s piloting that thing!” Eva shouted.

“But how? We saw…” Rosa added as the ship slowed upon moving closer to his daughter.

Viktoriya was still searching for a way up onto the alien ship when she noticed the distant ship coming in fast. She had first wondered what it was, but as it closed in on her, she knew it was a dropship.

“Viktori-Ya, our angle of ascent from the ice bank will not achieve the proper trajectory. Therefore, we must abort and find another way.”

The girl glanced between the descending ship and back to the alien craft, almost breaking out of the snow by then.

“Viktori-Ya!” CLEFF called loudly from his comms device audio.

“Okay, okay.”

The sound of the vessel and cracking of ice had now drowned every noise, but she still heard her heart pounding as she slowed down, with her eyes fixed on the dropship.

As it drew closer, she could not help but feel like she knew who it belonged to, almost recognizable. Even so, she could not figure it out.

“The vessel headed our way, registered to pilot ID VH99010, stating her name is Aura. Shall I transmit?” CLEFF shouted.

Viktoriya gasped.

“Aura?” she said as more of a confirmation than a question.

But CLEFF said, “Yes, shall I patch her through?”

Her gaze remained fixed on the craft, watching as it moved closer, churning the loose snow up from the icy ground as it approached.

“Vik?” CLEFF called again.

“It’s Aura! She’s alive? How did she survive the—Yes, put her through, CLEFF!” she yelled over the roar of the engine, with a giant smile on her face, as tears welled up in her beautiful, happy eyes.