Earth

2027

"Where are you?"

Theo paced in the lab of the underground bunker, clutching his phone in a steely grip. When Rory had concocted this plan to have everyone separate and handle their own objectives, Theo knew going radio silent had never been on her mind. Ever since Vehru and Morfrain had nearly killed Jace and Rory had transmitted all of their classified data to his hand mod, he hadn't heard her voice. Sure, she'd sent text messages, but those had been few and far between. Rory claimed she needed a few days before she could talk because the line wasn't secure. She promised to come to him in person and told him not to worry about the alarming fact that Jace had shown up suddenly to steal the hand mod.

Something was terribly wrong.

Rory would never leave him to suffer in her silence. She'd have found a way to either see him or send a meaningful, heartfelt message to him.

He dialed her number again and nearly threw his phone when it went straight to voicemail. "It's your husband," Theo said, on the verge of yelling–and he never yelled. Never. "The world is in total chaos. Call me. If you don't, I'm assuming you've been kidnapped by Vehru and I'm taking drastic action."

Had it been stupid to announce that when Vehru and her replica surely monitored Rory's phone? It didn't matter. The commander was not stupid enough to think that Theo would do nothing about the fact that his wife had disappeared and that hundreds of Aerolux's reigned terror on their planet.

Theo slammed his phone onto the table and leaned against his hands with his eyes closed. Vehru's Lumiean forces had invaded twenty-five percent of the world's countries under various guises of peace–humanitarian aide offered in war-stricken regions, military base attacks to free Lumiean hostages that clearly didn't exist, even food delivered to the homeless in a hundred of the world's largest cities. He literally saw Jace passing out sandwiches on the evening news the night before.

That asshole had better respond to him too. It wasn't right to think of him that way. They were all under immense pressure. Then again, didn't Theo deserve to have at least a few minutes of pettiness to think poorly of the other man who loved his wife, at least in the privacy of his own mind?

It didn't feel right. An advanced alien race with powerfully manipulative AI had invaded Earth and planned to conquer the planet. He couldn't waste energy hating the only other person who loved Rory as much as he did. They were on the same side, even if it didn't look that way right now.

Anyway, Theo didn't actually know how to connect with Jace. He assumed that posting on online forums would garner Vehru's attention. And if Jace was half the soldier Rory had purported him to be, then he wouldn't miss these shoutouts either. Surely, someone would answer him. If not, he'd force their hand. Rory had gotten quite good at that over the past year.

Theo glanced over to the handmod lying on the table beside his phone. He'd lost the one Rory initially gave him to husband number one. Specialized troops had already started wielding the handmods. It made Theo nervous, because the crisis had forced them to rush, and there'd been a casualty already from a soldier trying to create an energy ball that went out of control. Using the handmods improperly wouldn't help them. It would hurt them. The data drop from Rory had invaluable information about how to use them and to harness their full potential, even how to repair them when broken or troubleshoot common problems. The uncertainty of how the military would handle their use made Theo itch even more to try it for himself.

These handmods had many more uses than simply war. Rory had utilized them as a bioengineer and despite that her work often involved weapons or first aid, he knew from reading research in the data drop that bioengineers had explored many other uses. Theo was a biologist, not an engineer, and had only dabbled in the field of bioengineering and biomedical science, but had good friends he could trust with an expertise in the area. Combining his knowledge of astrobiology and specifically their alien invaders with his friends' engineering abilities could make for explosive gains should they utilize the handmods properly.

Maybe Rory would respond if Theo uploaded a video of him wielding the contraptions. Silly thought. If she could talk to him, she would. That would only confirm what Theo knew to be true, because Rory worried greatly about Theo using the handmods without proper training, which she obviously wanted to provide now that she had regained her memories.

Theo left his phone and handmod on the table while he sat down at his computer. Headlines rolled in, each unthinkable. He avoided them and instead chose to watch footage. General Price had restricted Theo's access to much of what he would have been able to review in the past, but he could see more than the general public. Scanning newly uploaded classified videos, Theo clicked through several featuring the aeroluxes. His muscles clenched at the memory seeing so many aeroluxes emerge from the ocean and disperse in all directions.

In this video, an aerolux appeared over a town in rural Iowa so quickly that it looked as if it teleported, though he knew it actually traveled much slower than the speed of light. Someone happened to catch this instance on video while recording military vehicles passing through their town.

Three soldiers dropped from the aerolux onto the ground in the center of town. About a dozen pedestrians had been walking along the sidewalk, shopping, and now screamed. One elderly man froze in place while everyone else fled into the stores.

Theo clenched his teeth as the now familiar sight of Lumiean soldiers. They dressed either in all black or camouflage depending upon where they were. Always with helmets and gloves so not a single scrap of skin showed. They looked soulless and imposing.

"We haven't come to hurt you." A woman spoke and lifted her hands up in the air. "We're traveling through cities to offer aid and give you the chance to communicate with us, should you choose to do so. Your town was on our list because your water isn't clean here. We want to fix that for you."

The old man who had frozen took a step back, but still spoke anyway. "Why would you do that?"

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"It doesn't have to be this way. You've always known that deep down. Life shouldn't be so hard and so cruel. The Federation helped my planet. We want to help yours. We're not here to hurt you."

"Don't trust a word they say!" A teenage girl sprinted out of a store while her mother chased after her, shouting her name. "Can't you see that this is bullshit? They're manipulating us."

The mother grabbed her and jerked her back while the girl fought.

"Go back to your planet!" The teenager spit on the ground and wrestled away from her mom for just long enough to grab a rock. Her mother locked her arms around the girl before she could lob the stone at the soldiers. "This is our world. You can't have it!"

"Quiet," the old man said as he turned. "What do you know? You're a child. Do as your mother says and go back where it's safe."

The female Lumiean soldier had waited patiently. Finally, she spoke again. "We won't force our goodwill on you. After we provide a clean source of water, we'll leave. You can contact us online. Your government keeps trying to take down our website, but I assure that you will always be able to reach us. We want to hear from you."

The girl had stopped fighting. Tears streamed down her face. "My daddy taught me about people like you. Wolf in sheep's clothing. That's what he called the girls at school who pretended to be my friend. Don't fall for it!"

The soldier didn't respond as the mother forced her daughter back into the building.

Theo switched to the next video and watched as three aeroluxes bombed a military base in Egypt they claimed housed captive Lumieans. While their initial base attacks had resulted in no loss of life, these had devastated the troops stationed there. Over the past forty-eight hours, more than three thousand soldiers around the world had been killed. All by the aeroluxes. The soldiers on the ground so far only offered humanitarian aid.

Vehru had released a statement saying that due to recent developments, they had to prioritize the safety of the diplomats previously sent to Earth and send a message to the countries defying the Federation by threatening the safety of their people.

Lies. Lie upon lie. Theo thought of the teenager who managed to see through it and hoped that she would live to see the end of this war. He hoped that she would never forget her own message.

Theo certainly would not.

Finally, he clicked on a video with a subtitle about Jace. This one was not yet aired footage filmed by reporters on the ground in a neighborhood devastated by the ongoing battle between an extremist group and the military.

"The Lumiean soldiers swept in quickly from half a dozen aeroluxes. While these sophisticated aircraft continued to patrol the area, the soldiers quickly intervened in the ongoing battle. The footage you're about to see was taken by a young father hiding with his children."

Black bars appeared on the screen while the camera footage played, dark and grainy.

"Stay close," a man cried, hardly audible over the sound of bombs.

Explosions shook the room and scattered dust overhead. Cracks of light branched out across the floor. The integrity of the building was in jeopardy. They needed to get out.

The camera shook as the man took a small child from a woman and they both ran, the camera aimed at the ground now.

Another explosion echoed through the room and the camera shook badly. Chunks of the ceiling smashed on the ground. Just when Theo expected the phone to call to the ground, buried beneath a pile of debris, everything stilled.

"Are you okay?" the father cried.

Theo couldn't tell what had happened with the camera pointing down still but it definitely didn't sound like they'd been buried.

Finally, the man lifted the camera up to Jace holding a shimmering shield around the family. The roof had caved in and scattered everywhere except for where the family stood.

"Thank you." The woman covered her mouth as she cried and pulled her child close. "Thank you so much."

It was no coincidence that it was Jace, a general, who had helped a family that happened to be recording. Vehru wanted this to be captured.

"We need to get to safety," Jace said.

The phone rang and Theo jumped toward the other end of the table without hitting pause. His heart jolted in his chest when saw that it was Rory.

"Thank God," he said as soon as he answered. "Rory."

"Theo. Theo, I'm so sorry."

His head fell against the table.

"I'm sorry I couldn't talk," she continued. "I'll explain everything soon. We need to meet so we can talk in person."

"Yes, when? I was so worried. I–"

"I know. I know. It kills me to think about how terrified I know you've been."

"It's not your fault."

As they talked, he couldn't help thinking that something wasn't right. Theo couldn't place what sounded strange to him, though. Her voice and tone, the things she said, all of it sounded just like Rory. Textbook Rory. Pull any memory out of countless and what he'd heard would fit right in.

Wasn't that the problem? They couldn't get further from normal. Even on their worst days, when they'd struggled through the greatest pain of their losses or the worst frustration at the limitations the military placed on them, what was happening to Earth now was so different. First, Rory hadn't talked to him for two days, and now she sounded too much like herself, when none of them felt like themselves.

"Hey, Rory."

"What?"

His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. As crazy as he felt, he couldn't deny the sinking feeling in his chest. "I love you."

"I love you too."

He swallowed hard, listening closely to her voice to see how she sounded. "I can't stop thinking about something. We tried for so long to have children. Knowing you have Levi heals part of me, because you wanted it so bad. But I think about what might have been." He paused, waiting for the catch in her voice if she responded. "It hurts, Rory."

"It hurts me too." Her voice sounded sorrowful, as it should. Sorrowful and like she tried to remain strong for him. "It means everything to me to have Levi but I'll never forget each loss we had. I wanted it so bad."

Maybe Theo was losing it. This sounded like his Rory. What was he expecting?

It was just that he couldn't shake the unnatural fear he felt when he thought about Trin laughing after Rory had thrown her through the window. That had once been Rory's friend before Vehru took over her body. Jace had been acting so strangely. "Are you okay?" Theo asked.

"Okay enough. I'll come to you as soon as I can. I promise."

"Stay safe."

"You too. We can do this, Theo. We can win this war, no matter how bleak things look."

That did sound an awful lot like his Rory. Theo had let this war make him paranoid.

Theo glanced over to where the video still played.

Jace stared at the camera as he spoke. They had moved to a room free of debris. "You're not alone any longer. We're here to fight for you, because we refuse to leave any world suffering the way you have. It's your choice to join the Federation. No one can stop you. If you call, we'll answer. I promise."

Why was Jace helping Vehru so convincingly? He must have had no choice.

Theo picked up the handmod and smashed it onto his palm with anger burning through his veins. The wire that sank into his skin and paired with his central nervous system burned badly.

Now wasn't the time to be timid. He needed to do more. He needed to become more.

It was time to figure out how to use this technology to its fullest.