(Four parts. 4000 words.)
One
Angel watched the battle in the sky. She was one of many beneath the California Dome, an unknown face in a frightened crowd. Once there had been many more Domes and many more faces. Times had changed. The end of Earth neared.
Tension filled the recycled air. Parents clutched their children, their warming whispers attempting to quell cries and dam tears. A collective gasp filled the cavernous chamber as pieces of a destroyed ship struck the Dome like hail.
Angel frowned.
The Mothership looked just as the others had. It stretched above the entirety of the hidden Dome, a mixture of metal and glowing plasma. Bursts of red laser-light shot from its strange hull, targeting the human ships, probing the protective barrier surrounding the Dome, buying time to charge the weapon that would end the battle.
As ever, the humans were outmatched. Their ships swarmed haplessly around the foreign foe like bees against an intruding bear.
Angel traced the marks on her arms. They were crude and uneven, made by the blade of the small knife she kept tucked away in her bag. There were fifteen in all. Five more and she would move on to whatever was next … if there was something next.
Other Domes remained standing. However, none were as populated as the California. Angel wondered how the Others continued to find them, why they wouldn’t give up their conquest of Earth. More pressingly, she questioned if the Motherships she had destroyed had only made things worse.
The vision swam before her eyes once again. A blinding light. An omniscient voice.
A higher power had entrusted her with the power to protect Earth and its inhabitants. Angel hadn’t believed it at first. Even when the first Mothership had arrived, she had dismissed the vision as nothing more than fantasy.
Then the Arizona had fallen.
Angel remembered her rage as she waded through the darkness, as she searched for the bodies of her kin among the unmoving masses. She had been the only one to survive, the only one able to breathe in the poisoned atmosphere. For hours, she had sat in the freshly-minted graveyard, her gaze on the alien ship above. That was the first time she gave the order.
The crowd stirred as more ships fell, as the Dome quaked.
Turning, Angel found a child at her side. The small boy stared at her with wide eyes, clutching a bundle of rags tightly to his chest. She looked to her arm, then back to the boy. She wanted to save him. She wanted to save them all.
But was that why she had been given the gift?
At first, Angel had thought so. She had moved from Dome to Dome, protecting those under siege from the Others. However, her efforts had been rewarded with only temporary peace. The Others had regrouped and returned. Nearly every Dome she had saved had since fallen.
Did her power even make a difference?
Silence came as the lights flickered and the false-sky overhead failed. Angel felt the crowd sink back at the sight of the true-sky, dark and colored an evil red. The lens of the Dome always failed first. The lights would come next. Then the cloaking instruments. Finally, the Mothership would lock onto its target, and the end would come.
Angel would survive. She always did. The Others knew that once the Dome’s top was broken, the fight was over.
She took a deep breath as the California went dark. The boy latched onto her arm. Human ships streaked overhead with renewed fury, their missiles brightening the demonic sky. The Mothership was unfazed.
Angel had never seen a Mothership taken down by force, but still the humans fought. Somewhere an underground resistance stood on its last legs. Try as she might, Angel had failed to find it.
“Are we going to die?” the child asked.
Angel sighed. Five more times she could help. Would it matter? Would the Others give up their fight to cleanse the Earth? Was this what she was supposed to do, or was there something more? Was she failing the one who had provided her gift?
The world was bathed in light as the Mothership prepared to strike. She could hear the child’s heart pounding in the silence.
Angel felt nothing. There was only the sublime light, the split second before the Mothership’s attack struck and the California fell. She had watched other Domes die, seen the lives lost by her indecision.
I can’t let it happen again…
Angel raised her free hand, extended her finger and focused on the gargantuan ship above. Then, she gave the order. “Be gone.”
The Mothership vanished.
The boy let go. Angel found a pair of golden eyes regarding her where the boy stood had stood an instant before.
“A ship awaits you outside,” a deep voice rumbled in her mind. “The time has come.”
Two
Angel wiped the blood from her arm. Four more times before the end.
The crowd around her had yet to move, frozen in stunned silence. It would be a few hours before the California was fully repaired. Its residents would be haunted by the sight of the true-sky for far longer.
Angel’s mind raced as she navigated through the astonished humans, wondering again why she had cut it so close. Of course, that debate meant little compared to the words of the possessed child, to the command of the divine.
Finally, she had direction.
Angel marched through the bowels of the Dome alone. Isolation was nothing new. The ruined landscape stretching between the Domes had hardened her against it. Solitude allowed her mind free reign, provided her thoughts room to breathe. Before, they had ceaselessly searched for her purpose. Only now had her mind finally silenced.
The exit to the Dome ran beneath the ground. Angel remembered the path well. Her feet guided her through the darkness with innate certainty, her footsteps echoing against the barren stone passageway. There was no other sound.
The California Dome was designed just like the others. All were built long before she had been born, a last attempt to save the human race from itself. Angel wondered who had designed them, how long they were supposed to last.
The lights flickered as she neared the ancient airlock. The exit was automated, the blinking red light of a camera the only sign of human life. The engineers that oversaw the Dome’s maintenance did not dare to venture so close to the poisoned realm beyond. They would not stop her from leaving.
Angel licked her lips as the first of the heavy metal doors slid shut behind her. As she waited for the chamber to secure itself, she reached into her bag, removed her black scarf, and wrapped it around her head. Then she donned her luminous goggles and stepped forward as the exterior door rose.
The ship awaited her outside, just as the possessed boy had said. Likely, it had fought against the Mothership a short time before. The vessel was small and gray, nearly invisible in the foreboding light of the sky above. It was only as she drew near that she noticed the man standing outside of it.
“Angel?” he asked as she halted before him.
Angel nodded.
“He told me that I would find you here.” The man didn’t need to elaborate. Angel had always questioned if the divine had spoken to others. “We can talk on the way.”
*
The man talked. Angel listened.
His name was Harris. He had been born inside the Oregon then fled to the Vancouver at the request of the divine days before his home had fallen. Vancouver was where the human ships originated, the base hosting the last of the resistance against the Others.
“What comes next?” Angel asked once the man had run out of words. Her voice was dry and emotionless. Even before the Arizona, she had never cared for conversation. She had always had a hard time understanding others, fitting in among her peers. Fortunately, there was little need for conversation anymore.
Harris shrugged from his place at the ship’s wheel. “I was only told to bring you to the Base. Thought I was going to die when the Mothership appeared. He saved me. I’ve always thought that I was imagining it when he came into my dreams, when he gave me…”
“Purpose,” Angel finished. “Are there others?”
Again, Harris was uncertain. Anxiety radiated from the man in waves. She wondered if she intimidated him, or if it was only the circumstances.
“Was it you?” he finally asked.
Angel nodded. She thought about showing him her arm, explaining her gift, but she decided against it. What was the point? It was likely the man wouldn’t understand. Once they parted ways, she would never see him again.
Four more times until the end…
Harris wasn’t finished. “Where did it go?”
“Does it matter? They always return.”
“Do you think you’re the one that is supposed to stop them?”
“I don’t know,” Angel admitted. She found herself examining the ruined world outside the ship. She wondered if it could ever be repaired. It wasn’t the first time she questioned if human survival was for the best. She had seen the pictures of Old Earth, had heard many of its morbid tales … including its end.
“How much longer?” she asked presently.
Harris manipulated the screen between them, pushing aside a series of glowing maps with his gloved fingers before finally settling on one. He pointed to two dots, one approaching the other. “Won’t be much longer now.”
Angel only nodded, welcoming the return of silence. Her thoughts shifted to the small boy who had held her arm in the California, then darkened. She saw the same boy lying on the ground beneath the gory sky, eyes open and vacant.
Is that his fate? Have I only prolonged it?
*
Sometime later, Angel awoke at Harris’ touch. An alarmed expression had claimed his bearded face. Without a word, he pointed ahead. A Mothership. Hundreds of human ships surrounded it, their missiles filling the bleak sky with light.
“Right over the Base,” he said. “They’ve finally found us.”
Angel said nothing. The man had stated the obvious. In a matter of moments, they would be upon the Mothership.
“Can you help?”
Angel nodded. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand and pointed a finger at the monstrous ship before them. “Be gone.”
Harris turned to her, his dark eyes laden with shock.
“Take us down,” Angel ordered.
Three times remained.
Three
Angel traced the marks scaling her forearm. Seventeen in total. She would add two more. Then the end would come. She could only hope that her purpose would be achieved.
Harris landed his ship alongside the others. The human soldiers emerged from their vessels wearing expressions of disbelief. They knew they should have perished, that it was only by an act of the divine that they still drew breath. Angel pressed through them without comment, following Harris toward the entrance to the Vancouver.
Truthfully, Angel hadn’t known what to expect of the resistance. It was likely that their numbers had once been great, that their eyes had once held hope. She was surprised to find a large group of women and young children just inside the Dome’s airlock, clearly awaiting the arrival of those who had just moments before been unlikely to return. All appeared shell-shocked, malnourished and morbidly pale.
Harris surprised her by shouting, his now-familiar voice rising over muted sobs. A graying man lingering in the shadows of the passageway motioned them forward.
The old man wore a simple black uniform with the symbol of Old Earth sewn over his heart. Angel knew the mark on sight, wondered where the man had gotten it, if he had been one of those who had sought relocation from the Domes before the Others had arrived.
“This is Angel,” Harris said as they halted before the old soldier. “Angel, this is Captain Radford. He’ll take it from here.”
“And you?” Angel asked. The question came as a surprise even to her. She recognized the pointless feeling for what it was – the innate craving for human attachment. They would never see each other again. Did she actually care about him? She wasn’t sure.
Harris smiled weakly. “I must see to my family.”
Angel turned to the other man. “What comes next?”
“I have a ship and a crew ready, just as he ordered,” Radford replied. The man’s cloudy eyes examined Angel uncertainly. “Have you ever been off world before?”
Angel shook her head.
*
Radford led Angel through the Vancouver in silence. They met no one along the way. It was evident that few remained besides the soldiers and those that had gathered at the airlock.
In the heart of the Dome’s central chamber waited a single ship, one far larger than those that fought the Motherships. Hundreds of wires ran across the ground and fed into the thrusters at its base. A small group of people worked feverishly at terminals surrounding the vessel. It was evident that they had been at it for some time.
“Will this take me to them?” Angel asked as they neared.
“It was what we were instructed to build,” Radford replied. “The Others won’t allow us to leave freely. I understand you can clear the way.”
Angel glanced at the marks on her arm. “Depends on what is in the way.”
“The roof comes first. The soldiers have evacuated everyone that will not be going with us. The engineers have readied charges to create an exit. We’ll have a shield and a small escort made up of the ones who don’t have anything left here.”
“And after the roof?”
“The Others use a ring-shaped device to travel across space. The divine ordered me to see that you make it through to the other side.” The old soldier smiled upon seeing her skeptical expression. “You’ll be responsible for the Mothership blocking the way.”
*
Angel studied the others onboard the ship.
Two pilots sat ahead of her. Their hands glided across the glowing screens expertly, checking the vessel’s vitals in silent preparation. They had hardly acknowledged her, only offering a brief glance when Radford escorted her into the ship’s cabin.
The old soldier sat beside her, his eyes staring straight ahead. His thin lips were set in a hard line, and his fingers toyed with the detonation switch in his weathered hand. She could sense his determination.
Angel followed Radford’s gaze, studying the grisly sky beyond the Dome. She thought of the boy in the California, of the humans she had passed inside the Vancouver. To her surprise, she even thought of her own long-dead family, of the first night she had spent alone. She wondered if she would see them again when her end arrived. It wouldn’t be much longer now.
As one, the pilots glanced back to Radford. The soldier nodded wordlessly then activated the device in his hand. Angel watched in silence as pieces of the Dome tumbled down and were pushed away by the energy shield surrounding the ship.
“Hold tight,” Radford ordered.
When she was a child, Angel had dreamed of leaving Earth. She had kept up with the stories of those that quested for a new habitable planet, searching for something to believe in. She often wondered if they were the ones who had made first contact with the Others.
The initial ascent was harder than Angel expected, the gravitational force nearly forcing her into unconsciousness. The dark sky blurred by. Countless bolts of crimson lightning narrowly missed their mark.
Then, they were above it all. Angel wished she could look back on the ruined planet for a last time. She almost smiled at the sentimental thought.
Ahead, the Others waited. As Radford had said, a single Mothership guarded an enormous metallic ring with a spiraling mass of light in its center. The ship’s shield deflected the assault of the Mothership as it sped toward the alien device.
As the shield began to wane, Angel watched a dozen human ships streak past. They took a protective formation around the central ship, absorbing the brunt of the Mothership’s attack, falling in rapid succession. Angel waited for the right moment, concentrating on the glowing Mothership as the battle reached its peak.
“Be gone.”
A heartbeat later, their ship disappeared through the ring.
Four
Two times remained.
Angel gazed upon an endless black horizon. The ring had brought their ship into a foreign stretch of the space, a piece of the universe unknown to human eyes. However, they were far from alone. A brilliant ship dominated the darkness before them, twice as large as any Mothership that had come before.
Angel turned at the touch of a calloused hand on her wrist. Radford stared at her with glowing eyes. His expression was grim.
“The ring first,” the possessed soldier said. His voice was different, echoing with untold power. “Turn the ship.”
The ship whirled about to face the gigantic ring. Angel bit her lower lip in concentration. However, before giving the command, she needed an answer.
“The humans could use this to escape Earth,” she said, “to find another planet.” It wasn’t an argument. It was only an observation.
The possessed soldier frowned. Lightning flashed within his golden eyes. “Your kind must remain where they are. They must restore that which they have ruined. That is the way of the universe.”
“And the Others? Why allow them to invade?”
“It was not my decision.” His sparkling eyes narrowed. “The ring.”
Angel nodded. The divine had given her the gift for a reason. If this was the way to save Earth and those that lived upon it, then she would obey. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the metallic ring and raised her hand.
“Be gone.”
One time remained.
She turned back to the possessed soldier. “How do I defeat them?”
The old man smiled. “Their home is too great to destroy from afar, even using my borrowed strength. You must allow them to take you within.”
“And if they kill me first?”
“They won’t,” he replied. “They want to understand the power that has nearly defeated them. They will try to harness it for themselves. Greed is the curse of the intelligent species. You will see for yourself before the end arrives.”
“How will I know when the time comes?”
“You will.”
*
Angel studied the alien ships surrounding her own. They were different than the Motherships, likely her offspring. Long, narrow and windowless, the silver vessels glimmered in the light of the countless stars.
“I wanted to thank you for helping us,” Radford said as a net of blue light engulfed their stalled ship. The old soldier drew a laser pistol from his waist and began to pace the length of the small chamber. “There was a part of me that was beginning to doubt the reason why we fought, the reason we built this ship.”
As the soldier spoke, Angel made her final two marks. Nineteen in total. The next use of her gift would bring about her end. She could only hope that she would not fail, that the divine presence spoke true, that she would know when the right moment arrived.
“You have our thanks as well,” one of the pilots said.
“And that of the entire human race,” the other added.
The four humans watched as the ships of the Others drew even with their own. The net of light expanded, its gaps filling to form a barrier around the gathering of ships. Gravity intensified.
“You both heard the divine,” Radford said to the pilots. “We must defend Angel with our lives. The Others must know who the chosen one is.”
The pilots nodded in unison.
The graying soldier beamed as the lasers of the Others began to carve through the side of the ship. “For Old Earth!”
Angel flattened herself against the far wall of the chamber as the fight began. Two of the Others died upon entry, their slender bodies exploding in clouds of purple mist.
One of the pilots fell seconds later. Then the other.
Radford stood alone against a group of the silver beings, positioning himself in front of Angel. His shield quickly failed. He went to a knee, a hole burned through his right shoulder.
Radford continued to fight. He finally fell after killing another of the aliens, a myriad of smoking holes filling his torso.
Angel said nothing as the Others approached. She stared into their black and lifeless eyes as they tore away her feeble energy shield and dragged her away. As they moved across the metal bridge between ships, she heard something that she did not expect.
Conversation.
*
Angel found herself in a waking dream. The Others had bound her to a seat within one of their strange ships. The interior was like nothing she had ever seen before. Glowing wires wound through the metallic walls and ceiling, plasma periodically streaking through them.
Angel remained silent as the aliens conversed, as their vessel docked inside the massive Mothership. She replayed the words of the divine in her head.
One time remained.
“She is the same,” one of the Others said. “No detectable difference.” The alien’s voice was a high and twisting whine, its words jumbled and rapid. Angel did not know how she understood. Likely, it was another gift.
“Further testing is required,” another replied. “She wants to know how this is happening.”
“Does that mean she’s coming herself?”
“Yes.”
Angel closed her eyes as the Others pulled her from the ship. The gravity aboard the Mothership threatened to overwhelm her. Fortunately, the Others once again secured her body, this time to a floating stretcher.
Angel calmed her racing heart. Eventually, she opened her eyes and witnessed her procession through the alien ship. Its passageways were much like the smaller ship, dark and filled with the same wires carrying bursts of blue energy. The entire vessel seemed to hum around her. Almost as if it were…
Alive. Was that what the divine wanted her to understand? Angel wondered again how she was supposed to know when the time came.
Eventually, the two aliens came to a halt. The table carrying Angel’s body gradually rotated upright, allowing her feet to touch the ground.
Angel studied her surroundings. She had arrived in a startlingly different room, white and spotless. To her left, a single, great wire ran from the ceiling to the floor below. It pulsed with a rhythmic blue energy like a beating heart.
“She comes,” one of aliens said.
The Others departed without further sound.
Angel slowed her breathing, focused on the ship around her. It was in that moment she understood the time was near. Wordlessly, she watched as the door to the room opened and another of the aliens glided towards her.
“So, we meet at last,” it said.
Angel stared into the silver being’s dark eyes. They were large and filled with glowing specks of white light, far different than those of the aliens that had captured her.
“You are their leader,” Angel said calmly. She did not know why she spoke. The words came from her mouth instinctively.
The silver being stepped back in apparent surprise. “What are you?”
Angel ignored the creature, concentrating on the ship surrounding her, on its beating heart at her side. She could feel the vessel in its entirety. It lived. It breathed. It stretched for what seemed miles across the endless black sea.
One time remained. The fated moment had come. Conversation was at an end.
At last, Angel allowed herself to smile. “Be gone.”