Earth

2027

Liberation Day

The fists beating on the door jolted Rory and her boys from their sleep. Benji launched from the couch in a full bark, while Chip ran circles on the floor, whimpering.

Rory had not been home for long when she fell asleep on the ground with a box of hand mods nearby. So much had happened that she could not process. She'd spent hours briefing General Price and other military officials on her most recent memories. Those that she was willing to share, at least. And then she'd worked on updating the training plan for the hand mods.

Fortunately, Vehru had not taken over any television networks yet, and the fake videos continued to only pop up online. But Rory didn't doubt she could and would target cable news when it suited her.

So, with the weight of the day and night before pressing down on her, Rory struggled to her feet at the commotion. Theo rushed in from the other room and together they opened the front door.

Uniformed officers met her on the other side, along with the Base Commander, General Lucien.

"It's urgent."

She nodded and they left immediately.

The familiar noise of jets rose from a hum to a piercing screech. Rory and Theo hopped in an SUV with the base commander and were quickly sped down the street.

"What's going on?" Rory peered out the window.

"Vehru." Lucien lifted his radio. "We have them secured. On our way. Out."

"What about Vehru?" Fear set a tremble in Rory's voice.

Lucien looked at her, frightened, and serious. "She's here."

Rory pulled the hand mods from her pocket and attached them. Theo stared at her.

Lucien looked in the rearview mirror. "Are those–"

"Yes. Are you going to stop me from wearing them?"

"General Price gave you access. As long as you don't use them on us, no. I'm not stopping you."

"Good." Rory rolled down the window and listened.

"There's UAP activity," Lucien said. "It's been increasing all over the world, but we spotted a dozen nearby before losing them."

There was more he wasn't telling her. "Where else is it happening?"

When he didn't answer, she closed her eyes.

Theo wound his fingers with Rory's as he stared out the window. Normally the base was quiet at night. But it had come alive within minutes as they sped for the main entrance. Jets flew around the perimeter. Military vehicles flooded the streets. They passed a soldier instructing a mother Rory recognized to return to her home.

The three minute ride felt like ten.

They skidded to a stop before the gate where soldiers had amassed. Lights flooded the area and a helicopter hovered overhead. Rory jumped out of the SUV and followed Lucien as he led them through the gate.

Vehru stood there, alone. Hundreds of weapons pointed at her. Jets and helicopters circled. For all appearances, she was unarmed, though Rory knew that was far from the truth.

General Lucien turned in a tight circle, looking at his base and all the soldiers under his command. "We will continue to wait for orders. General Price is coming." Then he turned back to Vehru. "Do not move a muscle."

"Don't worry, General. I'm here to talk right now."

The right now part of the sentence chilled Rory's skin. Theo wound his arm around her, drawing her close.

The entire base waited in tense and uncomfortable silence. Rory felt as if she was watching the waters on the beach being sucked back in the minutes before a massive tidal wave swelled over the land and swept their lives away. This was so much bigger than her. Who was she to be standing here right now in a world on the brink of disaster?

That wasn't the right way to think, though. Rory had to do something.

The attacks were about to escalate from cyber to military, because Vehru did not want to wait for the Earth to capitulate. She had her deadline to meet and her Federation to keep happy.

So it was happening.

This was it. Liberation Day.

She could feel it in her bones. There was no turning back now. No hiding and no more waiting. Her entire life had built to this moment, from her time in childhood training for the program, to the past twenty years that the Witness Program had taken over her life. This wasn't how she'd thought it would happen back then. There was more on the line than she could have imagined.

Two worlds, two homes, two families, two lives that she would never reconcile.

One choice.

Rory couldn't fuck this up.

Another vehicle screeched to a halt and General Price exited, stare locked on Vehru. "Do you care to explain your blatant aggression," he asked.

"I'm here to demand that you release the prisoners of war." She looked at Rory. "Starting with my Witness."

"Rory is free to go."

"Rory has never been free to go anywhere on Earth. That changes now. And I want the rest of my people you're holding captive."

Wow. Vehru was really committing to this claim. Enough that Rory actually worried for a moment there could have been a government program she didn't know about. But why would America do that? It was stupidly dangerous. Of course, that really didn't mean anything. This country had done so many foolish things. Rory had seen the fear, though. If they had Vehru's people right now, they would have been negotiating an exchange.

Vehru was just creating her own reality, planting seeds of doubt in all those watching, and likely planning to release a recording of this, real or fabricated, to the world. This was simply liberation. She was simply coming to save her people, not invade America. Soon, she'd save the rest of the world.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Sickness twisted in Rory's stomach.

General Price shook his head. "You and Rory are the only people here who are not from Earth."

"Disapointing lies, General. I'm not leaving here without my people."

His voice lowered to a growl. "We don't have your people."

Rory clutched Theo's hand and whispered harshly. "You have to go, Theo. Right now."

Theo shook his head. "I'm not–"

"It was a mistake for you to come." Rory twisted to face him. "Now. I'm her witness. I'm safe. I'll find you later."

"Where am I supposed to go?"

Rory breathed in sharply. Missed crucial moments in the exchange between Vehru and Price. "Head for the dogs. Vehru will let civilians evacuate. She'll want to be able to claim she's for the people." She tugged him closer and captured his lips with hers. "Be careful."

He caught the back of her head, nose against hers. "I love you. Don't take long to come to me."

"I won't."

He drew back, meeting her eyes. "I'm trusting you, Rory. You cannot get hurt."

Her heart twisted within her. "Same for you."

Theo dragged her close for one last embrace. Then he broke away, and took her heart with him.

Rory turned back toward Vehru, curling her hands into fists.

"The federation prefers to maintain peace," Vehru said.

"Then why are you making demands which make peace impossible?"

"Why should peace ever be impossible?"

General Price yelled to someone behind him. "Is the president on the line yet?" Then back to Vehru. "Commander, we cannot offer you something we don't have."

Vehru's eyes scanned the base and the soldiers gathered. She looked up to the jets and the helicopters. Then back to General Price. "I know you don't want to go to war with me. If you aren't willing to produce the captives, then evacuate the base. Leave it to me and I will find the captives for you."

"We are not giving you this base."

"I've been doing this for much longer than you've been alive." Vehru took a step forward. "Longer than the United States of America has even existed." Vehru looked at Rory for a moment, carving chills down her spine. "You can choose to return the captives to me and give this base to me today. If you do, the show of faith will mean a great deal to the Federation. Anything less than this and the ruling powers of your world will spend as much time as we give you arguing over what to do. War will come, whether it's with us or among yourselves. In your neighborhoods. Your homes."

"The illusion of choice is a cruel one when you've already decided we're at war."

"What does your president say? Will you surrender the captives? Will you surrender the base?"

Rory's heart beat so loudly she felt as if she was hearing the pounding of all the hearts of everyone gathered. It drummed in the painful quiet as the general stared at Vehru.

Then he spoke in a resolved and sorrowful voice. "No."

Vehru lifted both hands without taking her eyes off the general.

The lights in the base shut off in a wave, leaving them with only the headlights of vehicles.

In the moonlight, Vehru lifted her chin to the sky, and suddenly the constant whirs of the jets fell eerily silent. Gasps spread over all those assembled as the aircrafts in the sky disappeared in the darkness. Rory covered her mouth, catching sight of a pilot's parachute opening against the dark sky.

An explosion shook the ground. Flames erupted from somewhere on the other side of the base. Then another. The jets and helicopters were crashing all around them, like a horrifying display of fireworks.

People were screaming in the base. Rory hoped that Theo had made it home to the dogs. That he held them tight and gathered what little he might manage to carry.

Discs broke free from Commander Vehru's shoulders, flattened into a wider shape, and then dispersed over the crowd. Thin beams began to shoot rapidly from each. A soldier right in front of Rory was struck by one and immediately slammed onto the ground, limp.

Gunfire erupted. Chaos ensued.

General Lucien caught Rory's arm and dragged her backwards through the throngs of soldiers.

"We have no communications." He cursed and threw his radio on the ground. Shoved her toward an officer she didn't recognize. "Get her out of the line of fire."

Rory hadn't created a shield in a very long time, but she focused now on using her hand mods to erect one. As it began to form, light glinted above her and she looked up to see Vehru ascending into the air, hovering at least thirty feet above the base. Sprays of bullets danced off her body, some of them ricocheting back down to the ground. Several pain-filled screams littered the crowd of panicked soldiers.

Heat swelled and Rory braced herself just as pressure pushed her backward, snapping her half-formed shield off. In a blink, Vehru's soldiers appeared all around the base. At least a hundred just in the area that Rory could see. They all moved immediately, each with clear direction.

While the troops from Rory's home planet flooded the base and soldiers turned their guns from Vehru to the new enemies, the Commander zipped through the air too fast to follow in the dark.

It hit Rory then as she watched the people from her world disappear into the buildings that Jace must have been here.

Jace and Theo both in a base that Vehru had attacked.

Rory had to move. Had to do something. But she was torn between finding Jace, or Theo, or Vehru.

First, she should make sure Theo could evacuate. Then, she could find Jace and see what the plan was. He seemed to have his memories intact.

The officer who had been with her was so stupefied by the sudden battle that he didn't notice Rory jogging away until she'd made it several yards.

"Wait!"

Before the man could come after her, Vehru landed right before her. Rory's breath caught in throat. The Commander lifted her palm and a thin beam of light shot out straight to the officer behind her. He collapsed on the ground, trembled for a moment, and then fell utterly still.

Moonlight shone off Vehru's torso, momentarily breaking up the illusion of a normal body. Rory glimpsed the impenetrable shell of Vehru's form in flickers of light. Not even a scratch on her.

"You need one last boost. Your memory is just so sluggish." Vehru's palm flashed over her eyes and Rory quickly lost her hold on the world.

The gunfire, the flames from the wreckage, the soldiers on each side, and their screams all vanished.

Rory was no longer Rory. She was buried in a terrible day from ten years before that she had not been able to bear remembering.

Aeryn plastered her hands against the window of the room that Vehru had locked them both in ten years ago. On the other side, Morfrain held Jace back as he roared.

"No," Aeryn shouted. "No! I can't leave them." She beat her palms against the glass. "I don't want to do this. Vehru, please. Please, don't do this to us." Her eyes found Jace's. "I won't leave you, Jace." She sobbed against the glass. "I won't leave our baby! I won't."

Jace snarled and tried to break from Morfrain. But the other Commander only sighed and gripped his throat.

Vehru's eyes looked sad as she glanced at Aeryn. "I want to give you a goodbye. Tell Jace to calm down."

"I will not let you take her." Jace's burning stare found Vehru's. Spittle sprayed when he screamed. "Aeryn!"

Morfrain lifted his free palm to Jace's eyes and then her husband's body jerked in a spasm. No. Aeryn covered her mouth. Not this.

Jace dropped to the ground, screaming as his body convulsed. His eyes rolled until the whites of his eyes showed and his cries died out into silent shrieks.

"Jace!" Aeryn beat the glass again. "Stop it! Don't hurt him!"

"I'll take care of them." A tear slid down Vehru's face as she covered Rory's eyes with her palm. "Sleep."

Her entire world sank into a void. Jace was the last thing she heard. Jace gasping and struggling for breath.

It was gone. Her memory. Her life. Her forever. Her baby.

Gone.

When her eyes opened to the darkness of night and she could once again hear the screams of terrified soldiers, the fullness of Rory's grief consumed her so entirely that it squeezed the life from the last decade.

It wasn't just the moment that Vehru had ripped her world apart and taken her memory that returned to her. Whatever had been done to her that day had just as suddenly been undone.

Rory remembered everything.

Now she knelt upon the grass in the base with the world erupting around her, but within her all was finally still. The stillness not of peace, but of death.

Coldness bore down to the center of her soul. She'd once told the people of Earth after she'd been shot that the danger came from within and that she would not let fear or hate fester within her.

Vehru had pushed Rory beyond fear and hate. Beyond breaking. Beyond death. What of her life had been left untouched?

With slow determination, she rose to her feet and looked into Vehru's eyes. The exact moment Rory had known for certain that her husband would raise their son alone gripped her now and forevermore in a memory that she'd never again escape.

"You made a mistake." Rory looked beyond Vehru's nearly indestructible bio-synthetic body and past the hundreds of years that fooled the Commander into feeling like a god. She stared straight through to the human soul within her. "A big fucking mistake."