Scorched Earth, Alien Wonders

I stepped out of a heavy fog to find myself standing on a mountain top. A range of high, jagged peaks were lined up as far as I could see on each side of me. Some were angular; some were pointed, while some had ash and smoke spewing from their flattened tops.

Silently, a blue dragonfly floated out of the hot mist to hover near my head. It flew around to look into my eyes. It spoke to me for a while, and for the first time in weeks, I felt completely at peace.

Then I woke up enveloped with the feeling I could only describe as soothing, emotional warmth.

It wasn’t like the other sleeping flashbacks and it wasn’t exactly a dream, either. My experience was like a spiritual connection to another dimension. It was morning, and we were all sleeping in a corner of the lab, but Cassie, Sara, and Jones, were already at the computers.

I decided to say nothing about my dream. I yawned and shuffled over to see what the girls were doing. “How are things at the hot-springs?”

“Excellent,” replied Sara. “It is beyond our wildest hopes. The water continues to evaporate into the air, but gets replenished from below, so it is a great beginning.”

“My husband is on his way here and he has something important to tell us.”

Brown, Doc, Davis, and Moore straggled over to join us.

“Steven has arranged for small groups of people from the settlement to come out and see the hot-springs,” said Sara. “Everyone is stunned that we have managed to do what thousands of scientists before were not able to do over the past century...thanks to Jonesy and Torie, of course.”

“Mom and I would like to hold a memorial service for Torie down by the hot-springs tomorrow if that would be okay with you guys,” offered Cassie in a soft voice.

“That’s kind of you,” I replied. “But it’s not our custom to hold services for someone who isn’t confirmed dead.”

I started to explain my vision, but Wilder hurried into the lab, then he bent over to put his hands on his knees, while trying to catch his breath.

“Man, I wish I had my hover-board with me, because that walk in this heat is brutal.”

“Tell us about it,” said Davis, nodding his head in empathy.

“I have good news,” said Wilder, as he walked into the center of the lab near the largest computer screen.

He filled us in on his activities behind the scenes in recent days. He learned that Drake Industries had squandered corporate finances, and was on the verge of financial collapse. This was the company that plundered Earth for all its aluminum, and other natural resources through countless centuries and Drake generations. But their ambitions were always for the betterment of themselves and their rich cronies, not for the greater good.

Wilder went over it again, how Borish Drake had been privately sending out deep-space probes searching for other civilizations to exploit, when he managed to hook up with the equally corrupt, Qualdron. They hatched their separate, but mutually beneficial plans, which were founded in shameless, self-serving greed.

Apparently, out of desperation to rescue his business from financial ruin, Drake didn’t want Cassie and Sara’s deep-water extraction plan to work. So, he sent the three stooges to destroy the lab, but he denied that he gave any orders to hurt Cassie.

Yeah, right...damn...that fat coward grinds my gears.

“The Mars council didn’t believe he was innocent of intent to hurt anyone, but he did have the stooges do his dirty work for him, so he and his sister, will get off with sanctions, the destruction of all his 3D weapon plans, and the removal of his business license,” explained Wilder.

“But the stooges, who willingly accepted a lucrative payment to do the dirty work, will be the first inmates of a newly created Martian/Earth punitive colony on a salt-swamp barge, off the coast of Nigeria,” he concluded.

Okay, appropriate enough...

It was my guess the stooges wouldn’t be desperate enough to try trudging through miles of toxic, ocean and swamp land to escape.

“Yesterday morning, I patched into Drake’s communication system to launch a message to Rosen’s coordinates so I could set up a trap for Qualdron, but guess who responded instead?”

He walked over to the computer, entered some equations then touched his wrist device. The face of a Rosenian female appeared on the screen.

“Empress Osette!” We all yelled at once.

After being on the sunbaked planet for two months none of us realized how homesick we were until the face of our world’s leader showed up right there on the screen in the lab.

“Hello, my friends,” said the fluffy-haired, pale-skinned, rosy-cheeked, Osette in perfect English with the help of a computerized translator. Then she greeted each one of us by our full Rosenian names, which I won’t bother with in this narrative, but it was an incredibly sensitive and personable gesture on her part.

“Steven Wilder and I have had long talks in recent hours,” she continued. “He delivered to me the incredibly sad news about our centurion. I doubt any of you know that Torie was my first bot-shifter when I was elected to the High Council many years ago. So, this news is profoundly disturbing to me. Anyway, more about that later...I have other news to share with you.”

“Qualdron confessed his evil plan to me yesterday,” she said simply.

Wait. What?

For the next few minutes Osette told us how Qualdron came to her sometime after his last communication with me on the binoc connection, and confessed his whole murderous, diabolical scheme.

After being rejected by her for a position on the High Council, Osette told us his motives were twofold; to create a way that he could be viewed by her as a world hero for exposing an evil plot by immoral humans to raid Rosen and steal its aluminum...a made-up plot that never existed.

“And secondly,” she said. “He wanted to rid himself of a favored rival for a coveted council seat: Earth name Dr. Lithia Jones.”

After that last statement from the Empress, we all looked at Jones, who was apparently unaware of our leader’s preference to fill the position.

“Yeah, I applied for it,” Jones explained, with astonishment. “But so did dozens of other qualified scientists.”

And just like that, there it was...

I finally had my answer to the vexing question of why Jones was really added at the last minute...Qualdron didn’t like his unsuspecting competition. He wanted to kill off two birds with one stone, so to speak, by adding her to the mission...knowing that none of us would return alive.

Wait until I get my hands on that piece of tropian turd.

“Empress Osette, why did Qualdron confess to you?” I asked what I was sure my team was dying to know, because I figured he may have gotten word from Drake somehow that tipped him off, and backed him into a corner.

But I was wrong, and the answer honestly did surprise me at a time when I didn’t think there could be any more surprises.

“His plan included sabotaging the transporter, which was done on the night you landed on Earth and it was never repaired. Trying to return in a damaged wormhole would have ended all your lives,” she explained. “The concept was so foreign to Rosenian morality that even Qualdron couldn’t go through with it. But after he changed his mind, he was stuck.”

Evidently, Qualdron didn’t have the expertise to repair the transporter or change the program of expiration, and he couldn’t involve more technicians without arousing suspicion. He had unwittingly boxed himself in, with no face-saving way out.

“So, he confessed, and wanted me to find a way to help you all get home,” Osette concluded. “As I was standing with Qualdron, a message came in from Drake to his personal communicator, but it turned out to be Steven Wilder instead, and that is how we connected.”

“So, Qualdron wasn’t following your orders to launch this mission?” I asked.

“Yes, to discover the true morality of mankind, but he fabricated the rumor about humans planning to invade Rosen. Sadly, his intentions were opportunistic and manipulative, but his conscience got the best of him when he was faced with having your blood on his hands.”

Unexpectedly, I remembered Qualdron’s hesitation at the end of our last talk. He started to say something, but then instead he just wished me good luck.

“What will happen to him now?” asked Brown.

“Since you all were his intended victims, his fate will be up to you to decide.”

“Now, let’s talk about getting you home. Afterward, we will plan a hero’s memorial for our old friend, Torie.”

“Empress Osette,” I interrupted. “I’m sure Torie would be greatly pleased with a hero’s send off, but you should know that he is not dead.”

Everyone in the lab looked at me with stunned surprise on their faces. I told them about all the mountains and volcanoes in my vision.

“I have a hypersensitivity to this planet, so Torie, who’s fragmented collective is still entombed somewhere underground, came to me with a message,” I explained. “And he gave me a peek at what the last gasping future of this world would have been like if water hadn’t been coaxed to the surface when it did. The water extinguished hundreds of molten-liquid tendrils that would have given birth to the beginning of volcanic activity on this planet beyond imagination. It would have sealed Earth’s fate forever.”

“Are you saying that Torie’s life force is still capable of being recovered?” asked Moore. “Don’t toy with me, top dog!”

“Is that what you are saying?” Osette chimed in with a hopeful look on her face.

“Yes, Empress...and his message to me in my vision was strong, concise and to the point.”

“He said, ‘get me the bloody hell out of here.’”

Everyone in the lab started laughing and cheering at the staggering thought of Torie’s impatient essence wandering around soil particles deep underground grumbling about his predicament and looking for a way out.

Empress Osette appeared to be deep in thought about the situation. Then she spoke with great conviction.

“Indeed, we will get Torie out of there!”

She looked down for a minute, and appeared to be accessing additional information on her end through another source. At one point, her face left the screen for a few minutes, as she consulted with her analysts. Then Osette returned to the screen and continued with her instructions.

“Tonight is the expiration of the transporter program from Earth back to Rosen. I will have the wormhole repaired and ready to bring you all back home, but here’s what I want you to do and you must follow these instructions precisely.”

Osette explained that upon approaching the wormhole at the ascending location, we would see a giant, magnetic-radon pulse coming from the transporter, penetrating into the ground.

“If Torie’s collective is within a 300-mile radius, he will be recovered and brought home, but you must not get too close to the extraction area as long as the pulse is doing its search.”

Good advice...

She told us to wait safely from a distance then to enter the wormhole quickly after the pulse is retracted, before the expiration parameter engages.

“I won’t rest until you are all safely, back home on Rosen, and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen. I have much to do in preparation. I will see you, my fellow Rosenians, when you get back home, and I will talk to you, Steven Wilder, in the very near future.”

Then Osette was gone.

Our destiny was now in her hands, which made me feel better, because I had the sense she would make a kickass member of the Special Forces if she ever lost her job as leader of the 5th planetary orb in the Brahams Galaxy.

Almost immediately we realized how little time we had to make the long slog to the transporter. A slog we would welcome on one hand, because it meant getting that much closer to home, but it would be dreaded on the other hand, because without our donkey taxi service we would have to walk in the torrid heat for hours...but at least it would be for the last bloody time.

To go from little hope of getting home, to transporter reality in a matter of minutes was stunning in a very good way.

“There aren’t sufficient words to thank you for what you’ve done for mankind,” said Wilder, standing next to Sara and Cassie with their arms around each other’s shoulders.

“Perhaps we will meet again someday,” I said, lamely, because I hardly knew how to process my conflicting feelings. “Meanwhile, we will never forget our friends in Suburbia and all of you. And we won’t forget the insight we gained to Earth’s fascinating culture through the music, songs, TV shows and movies we experienced on our visit.”

I glanced around the lab and across the familiar faces of our new human friends. I knew it would be for the last time, and I wondered how sadness and joy could so easily coexist in my soul for that moment.

“We must get going, now,” was all I managed to say.

“What about the town-folk?” asked Cassie. “Will you have time to say goodbye to them?”

I looked at my team, because I knew, like mine, their heads were swirling with emotions of the rapid changes we had gone through in the last few hours.

“No...but we will make a connection again in due time,” I replied.

Rosenians don’t like goodbyes, so we all smiled our best prairie dog, and primate (Jones) smiles at the Wilder family, wished them the traditional good luck with reviving their planet then gave them little salutes one by one, as we made our final exit from the lab.

Then Jones trotted right back in and went over to the girls.

“Jonesy, we couldn’t have done it without you,” said Cassie. And Sara agreed as they both leaned down to give her a hug. She hugged back briefly then before she could get too emotional she rushed back out through the door again.

Jones caught up with the rest of us quickly, since we lagged behind a bit to give her some extra time. She had been a major contributor to the success of the water extraction project, which had happily backfired on both Qualdron and the Drakes’.

Yep, I guess it’s true that crime doesn’t pay...and karma is a bitch.

As my team and I, with Jones in the rear, walked down the familiar path heading toward Suburbia then we and took one last look at the gapping ditch and the life-saving oasis.

Small groups of humans were standing along the banks of the pond, wearing hats and holding shade-umbrellas. They were mostly just observing in awe, but some were leaning down to scoop up the muddy water in their hands like they were holding pure, liquid gold.

“Okay, let’s walk along the outside of Suburbia, because I don’t want to go into town. Saying goodbye to Daisy and the town-folk would take too long, and we don’t have the time,” I said, not wanting to admit that it would be really hard to do, and that an empty place was forming in my heart already.

“I can’t believe Qualdron took advantage of us being sent to this flaming planet to appease his gigantic ego, with the wild-duck chase he put us on,” said Moore, a few minutes later.

“Wild-goose chase,” corrected Brown. “Besides, it was worth it to make friends with the Wilder family and the incredible town-folk, not to mention being a part of reviving an entire planet. And I’m glad we got to know the truth about the enlightenment and kindness possessed by most humans of today.”

“Empress Osette gave us permission to decide Qualdron’s fate,” injected Davis. “I vote to have him exiled to the planet populated with sand hiebbies.”

“Aw, that would be too kind,” said Doc. “I’m thinking he should be assigned toilet duty at the at the High Council latrines for the rest of his miserable life.”

Sigh...

It was good to have my team back. I could even feel Torie’s presence in a subtle way. As everyone continued to express their wishes for a suitable Qualdron punishment, I dropped back to walk beside Jones.

“How does it feel to be a history-making, badass, science heroine?” I asked, looking up at her with sincere admiration. She giggled that light, frosty giggle that I had grown to adore.

“Yeah...well, it’s still too early to know how successful things will turn out for the planet, because that will take hundreds of years...but for right now, it feels pretty damn, good, actually.”

Then it occurred to me the real reason Jones had accepted the last minute assignment was no longer available.

“Sorry you lost your chance at a new lab and research funding,” I said to her. “Anyway, what was so important about it that you took the risk to be on this thorny assignment?”

“A chance to find a cure for the disease children die from most frequently on Rosen,” she said matter-of-factly.

Ah, hell...I knew at that moment my heart was no longer mine.