Orbs II: Stranded (24 page)

The whine from the automatic pulse gun barked to life as the minigunner opened fire on the now-defenseless Spiders below. The rounds tore into the aliens, sending them crashing across the cracked dirt. Blue mist filled the area where the aliens had clustered. Nothing but gory chunks of meat left where a dozen of the creatures had stood moments earlier.

Overton didn’t waste the moment. With a deep grunt, he willed his legs forward and closed his eyes, sprinting for the safety of the chopper. His lungs burned with every breath and pain shot down his wounded shoulder.

Smith’s weight was unbearable, but it also gave him strength.

Only a few more steps, you old turd.

The chopper had lowered nearby. Skidding to a stop, he kicked alien body parts out of his way and attempted to lift Smith’s body into the air. Grunting, he pushed her off his shoulders with all his strength toward a pair of hands reaching down from above.

When Overton saw it was Bouma, he smiled. The marine had been loyal on every mission, never questioning orders, never hesitating when faced with danger.

With a final push, he heaved Smith’s limp body into the air. Bouma pulled her into the safety of the chopper. Gasping for air, Overton
waited for his turn.

The Spiders were getting closer now. They circled around him.

Desperate now, Overton attempted to lift his right arm. It fell back to his side, limp and numb.

“Overton!” Bouma yelled, reaching down for him.

With every bit of strength he had left, he jumped for Bouma’s hand. Their armored fingers interlocked for a brief second. The world slowed to a crawl. They both knew exactly what the other was thinking. The tide had finally turned. Humanity had a shot at survival after all.

But for Overton, the fight was over. A Spider’s claws tore into his back, puncturing clear through his chest. Gasping, razor-sharp pain rushed into his lungs and webbed down his body. He crashed to the ground with the claw still inside his chest.

“No!” Bouma yelled as the chopper pulled into the air.

Overton coughed out a mouthful of blood. “Go,” he managed to choke out, raising a hand to wave the bird away. He watched the chopper rise farther into the air, Bouma’s visor slowly getting smaller as the man reached down for him. A spasm rushed through Overton’s body as the Spider ripped its claw free from his chest and tossed his limp body into the air. He landed in the heart of the horde, crashing onto the dry ground with a thud.

The Spiders ignored the escaping chopper and surrounded his body, forming a circle around him, their claws taunting him as they dug through the ground.

“Fuck you,” Overton tried to yell. But a deep, terrible choking sound came out instead. He watched the Spiders scamper closer to him. In a blur of shimmering blue light they engulfed him. Claws jerked and tore at his body. Mandibles released hungry shrieks. Their claws ripped through his armor. Stars bled across his vision.

He coughed again as a claw tore into his stomach, jerking him into a sitting position, before another claw nailed his shoulder to the ground. He screamed in pain, but the agony faded as the life drained from his body. He caught one final glimpse of the chopper between the repeated stabs, and he tried to smile. He had saved Smith and most of his squad. The mission had been a success.

His lips twisted into a half grin as a
claw came down on his visor, splintering the glass.

CHAPTER 33

S
OPHIE
emerged from a deep sleep to the sound of voices. She struggled to open her eyes, suddenly filled with panic. Her mind was clouded in fog.

She narrowed her eyes and focused on the blurred faces.

“Sophie . . .” one of the hushed voices said, as if to test whether she was awake. Holly stared down at her.

“It’s okay, you’re safe,” said another voice.

She recognized the voice as Emanuel’s, but didn’t have the energy to look at him.

“How long have I been out?” Sophie asked.

Emanuel whistled. “She’s back!” he yelled. “You’ve been out two days. And you have one hell of a concussion.”

“The ship . . .” she choked.

Emanuel smiled sourly. “NTC almost blew it out of the sky. The Organics didn’t even retaliate; they simply disappeared.”

“NTC?”

“Captain Noble from the submarine
Ghost of Atlantis
had been tracking the Biosphere radio signal. They showed up with a chopper just in time.”

Sophie raised a hand to her battered head. She couldn’t remember any of it. The last memory she had was of the explosions.

“How did I get out of the ship?” she asked, rubbing her forehead.

The smile on Emanuel’s face disappeared, his features turning grave. “What do you mean?”

“How did I get out of the Organics’ ship?”

Emanuel stared back at her blankly. “I don’t follow . . .”

Holly touched Sophie’s wrist gently. “Sweetie, you were never inside the ship. Bouma brought you to the chopper after you were knocked unconscious in the middle of the farm.”

Sophie shook her head. “No, that isn’t right. I was inside. I saw . . .” She paused, trying to remember. “I saw
them
.”

Holly and Emanuel exchanged confused looks.

“Them?” Emanuel asked, his brow creased into an arch.

“The multidimensional Organics,” Sophie said. Excitement rushed through her as she began to remember. The Organics’ civilization on Mars, the black ships hovering over Europa. The images popped into her memory as if she were still watching them.

Emanuel pulled away from her bed and crossed his arms. “Sophie, you hit your head really hard. Whatever you think you saw was just—”

“No!” she protested, her voice getting louder. “I was inside that ship. I saw what happened to them. I saw Mars millions of years ago when the planet was partially covered in oceans. I watched their civilization destroyed by a massive volcano below the sea. I watched their ships trail a comet and collect the icy residue. I saw them harvesting the ice on Europa. There’s more, too. They have traveled to other solar systems. They’ve collected life from other planets.”

“Stop!” Emanuel yelled.

Sophie widened her eyes, startled by his raised voice.

Unfolding his arms, Emanuel crouched next to her bed and very softly said, “Sophie, you dreamt those things.”

“He’s right. It was nothing but a dream,” Holly said.

Sophie tried to collect her thoughts, focusing on the memories. They were so vivid. Just like her other dreams. Only these
were
real. Weren’t they?

Alexia’s voice crackled over the speakers. “Doctor Winston, your vitals indicate you are distressed. You have been through some severe trauma. May I suggest—”

“No, you may not, Alexia,” Sophie said forcefully. She closed her eyes and tried to recall anything that might be useful. Anything that
might prove it wasn’t all just another dream—that it wasn’t just another product of the chip NTC had surgically placed in her neck.

She reached behind her head and ran her index finger over the scar. As she did, she noticed something had changed in Emanuel’s features. He no longer looked concerned—he looked frightened.

Sophie winced. She knew how she sounded, but she also knew what she had seen. The brief moment of silence was just enough to encourage her to continue.

“Doctor Hoffman knew about the invasion all along. And he knew enough about the Organics to understand they would leave Earth desolate, just like they did Mars. He knew there was no way to defeat them. That’s why he never developed Luke Williard’s technology.” Sophie paused so she could gauge Emanuel’s reaction. He looked back at her with wide eyes.

Growing angry, Sophie sat up. In a raised voice she continued, “The Biospheres weren’t just an experiment to help colonize Mars. The mission was never to help humanity escape from Earth. Don’t you see? It was to help humanity escape the Organics.”

“Look,” Emanuel said, running a hand through his hair. “What you’re saying makes no sense. Why would he have wanted to escape from one dying planet to another? Why go through all the trouble to convince the world that—”

“Because he knew the Organics wouldn’t chase us there! He knew they would have no reason to return to a planet they had already drained and destroyed,” Sophie said. She looked at each of them in turn and then reached out to Emanuel. “Please. You have to listen to me.”

There was softness in his eyes as he looked down at her, like he actually felt bad for her. Then he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you,” he whispered into her ear. “But you were just dreaming, Sophie.”

Emanuel stood up and paced over to Holly to whisper in her ear.

Sophie struggled to move. “What? What is it?”

“There’s a lot we haven’t told you,” Holly replied. “A lot has happened in the past few days. And I suppose now is just as good a time as any.”

Sophie’s stomach sank. She had heard those words before. The last
time, someone had died. She took in a deep breath and gathered the strength to ask, “Who did we lose?”

Emanuel looked at the ground. “Sergeant Overton.”

Sophie looked at him with disbelief. When she opened her mouth nothing but warm breath poured out. Words simply wouldn’t form.

“No . . . that isn’t possible,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “He was right behind me when we reached the poles.”

Alexia’s hologram shot out of the console at the edge of her bed. The AI tilted her head and looked at Sophie. Then Sophie saw something she never expected: a faint hint of emotion in Alexia’s features. It was evident only for a second as she blinked, but Sophie saw the strain in the AI’s face before she spoke. “I’m afraid Doctor Brown and Doctor Rodriguez are correct. Sergeant Overton was killed in Colorado Springs.”

Sophie immediately forgot about the implications of Alexia’s behavior. She felt like she had been slapped in the face. She closed her eyes, her gut sinking. In a low voice, she finally managed to speak. “How?”

“Saving one of his own. Another marine named Allison Smith,” Emanuel said, grabbing Sophie’s hand. “She’s with the team in the mess hall.”

“How many survivors are there?”

“There were five, but only Smith made it through the night. The others were just too far gone,” Holly said. “They faded fast after they were removed from the poles.”

Sophie sank back into her bed, reaching again for her pounding forehead. “And Kiel?”

“The little guy showed up shortly after the NTC chopper brought you back. He has a broken leg, two cracked ribs, and a concussion, but he made it.”

Sophie marked Kiel down as one of the first men to thank when she got better. He had saved her life and the lives of everyone else by risking his own.

Emanuel leaned over her bed and kissed her on the forehead. “You need to rest now. We’ll come back later and check on you.”

Closing her eyes, Sophie let her head sink into her pillow. She knew better than to argue with him. With the loss of Sergeant Overton still sinking in, she simply wanted to go back to sleep. To curl up and hibernate.

The overhead lights clicked off and the room was shrouded in darkness. Sophie tried to relax, but she was afraid to dream. She was afraid of what she would see—she was afraid she would no longer be able to decipher what was real from what wasn’t.

EPILOGUE

C
APTAIN
Noble studied the tablet Dr. Winston had given him earlier. It held the blueprints to the RVAMP device that Dr. Rodriguez had designed. It was hard to believe that something so simple could turn the tide of a war that had seemed all but lost a few days earlier. Now all he had to do was return safely to his submarine and get the specs into the hands of one of his engineers.

As he placed the tablet into a titanium case, he thought briefly of Captain Quan and the fate of the Chinese sub. While there was now hope for humanity, there was little hope that Quan’s crew had survived. He knew they had more than likely perished, and with them his own crew members.

The massive blast doors of Cheyenne Mountain groaned open, and rays of morning light illuminated the hangar. It was another reminder of what was still worth fighting for. He turned to look at Harrington and the eight other NTC soldiers waiting for his orders. The ragtag group of scientists and children stood behind them. He studied every face. Each one, in his or her own way, represented the best of what humanity had to offer.

Captain Noble smiled as Dr. Winston hobbled over, her hand gripping a makeshift cane made out of a metal table leg.

“I want to express my gratitude for everything you’ve done to help us, Captain Noble.” She returned his smile and reached out to shake his hand.

He put both hands over hers and looked her in the eye. “You are
most welcome. Please know you have a friend watching out for you a thousand meters beneath the surface of the Pacific. We will monitor the encrypted channel and can be here within twenty-four hours if you need our help. Once we determine a strategy, we’ll inform you of the plan. We may need your help in the future. But for now, please grant me just one request.”

Sophie nodded. “Anything.”

“Just stay alive,” Noble said.

Sophie winked at him. “We’ll try our best.”

She rejoined her crew, putting her hand on Owen’s matted brown hair. He looked up at her with a grin that revealed a missing front tooth. She laughed and turned to watch the NTC soldiers walk into the sunlight.

Captain Noble turned one last time and saluted. “Good luck!” he called before disappearing beyond the doors.

Climbing into the helicopter, he took a seat away from the other soldiers so he could look out the small, reinforced window. As the Sea Serpent lifted into the air, he watched the blast doors of Cheyenne Mountain slowly close. He looked away from the mountain and into the sky. Picturing Mars somewhere up above, he thought of Dr. Hoffman. The man would be proud. Noble had helped ensure one of the Biospheres would survive after all.

No matter the odds, he would make sure Dr. Hoffman’s plan succeeded.

—End of Book II—

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