The Strangers Read online

"Stand down, General." The President locked onto the man in question. "That's an order."

  Thank god.

  I tested my bonds, pulled away from the men who held me back. Reflexively, they tightened their grip. "I'm not your prisoner," I snapped. My words broke the silence.

  The President looked over. "Release her," she said firmly.

  The General shook his head. "What news?"

  Maria raised an eyebrow. "Stand down."

  The General stared back for a long moment before giving his men a firm nod. All weapons were lowered.

  A man screamed.

  As I turned toward the source, I saw a flash of Etrallian flesh as the prisoner on the floor kicked another soldier's feet out from under him. With several vicious blows, an entire line of men went down. Bone cracked and I winced.

  The Etrallian was at the door, fighting through the thick of soldiers. Fighting for his life.

  The guns came back up and I heard the simultaneous click of a dozen rounds loading. The General had just enough time to look surprised before the Etrallian was out the door and dashing across the tarmac toward the nearest ship.

  "Seize him," shouted the General.

  "Let him go," Maria Burgess ordered. "We're releasing the others as well."

  If the General looked surprised before, I thought he might have an aneurysm now. "Release them?" He asked between clenched teeth. "Madam President, I--"

  "You have your orders, General."

  "But why?"

  "Because, General. We're going to cut a deal."

  MARS

  When the President told me about the UFO, I wasn't sure I'd heard correctly. Pluto was some long-forgotten ball of ice at the edge of the galaxy, so it was no wonder I was momentarily lost. When it was demoted from planet to ice chunk four decades ago, most scientists had lost interest in Pluto, even if it was named after the god of the underworld.

  No planet that couldn't make the news was on my radar. And not much of anything was on my radar these days besides the Etrallian situation combined with our imminent water shortage.

  I can tell you one thing for sure: the god of hell or death or whatever was definitely laughing at us today.

  "Mars." President Burgess was still staring at me sternly. I wanted to tell her I was paying attention, but in truth, I was still processing.

  "So," I began slowly. "You're telling me the Etrallia weren't lying."

  The President steepled her fingers on her desk. "Not everyone believed they were."

  "Of course not." I thought of Lena and her righteousness anger. God, she was going to love this. For however long she had left, anyway. "The Vanlith, this alien race the Etrallians threatened us with...you think they're real."

  God of death, please don't let them be real.

  "Whether they are real or not, something is out there."

  On the edge of the solar system. Our solar system.

  "But Pluto's billions of miles away. Hell, we've only managed to send a few probes out there."

  The President's brow furrowed.

  I didn't like it one bit. When the leader of your people looks concerned, the anxiety is downright contagious. It was a good thing I was the only one in her office.

  "Our people have done some calculations. Based on the probe's readings, this object is moving far faster than anything we've ever built. There's no chance it could be a wayward probe."

  "It could be an asteroid. A comet." I grappled for a logical explanation.

  Maria shook her head. "It's not following that sort of trajectory. It seems to be following a linear pathway, unaffected by the gravitational fields of planets."

  "Too straight to be space dust, too fast to be a human vessel? Hell, did you check with the Etrallia? Maybe they lost a ship along the way."

  The President didn't smile.

  It didn't make any sense. First, one race of aliens shows up on our doorstep and now this? As if we didn't have enough to worry about. "You're sure. You're absolutely sure?"

  "We're positive."

  Right, of course they were. She wouldn't be telling me if this was some hunch, a mere possibility.

  "How long?" It was the only question that mattered, wasn't it?

  The President's dark eyes found mine. "If it continues on its current trajectory, it'll be within range of Earth in two years."

  I drew a breath. Two years. The number relaxed me a little though I knew it shouldn't. Two years was nothing when you considered it had taken a decade for us to get our first research probe all the way to Pluto.

  I tapped my fingers nervously on the desk. "Okay." I took another deep breath since it couldn't hurt. "Okay, what do we do?"

  The President raised an eyebrow. "Do?"

  Surely she had a plan. Surely we had a plan.

  "There's nothing to do except prepare," she explained. "If this enemy truly is advanced and if they want what the Etrallia say they want, then we'll have no choice but to mount a defense."

  I was dumbstruck for a moment as I thought of our tattered population. Those who weren't dying were busy sorting out the situation with the Etrallia. What sort of defense could we possibly muster, even with two years to prepare?

  "Tell me the Etrallia will help us."

  President Burgess sighed. "You're coming to the meeting tonight, Mars. I only wanted to brief you like I briefed the others. Believe me, I don't like this news any more than you do, but we'll do what we have to do." She stood and I realized our meeting had come to a close. "It's not about who gets to survive anymore," she told me. "It's about whether any of us will."

  I hoped we all might. The peace agreement was tonight and it would decide things, for now at least. Thought I didn't want to think about it, the journey ahead would be the difficult part.

  "Forty-eight hours ago, I couldn't have imagined humans and Etrallians working side by side on anything," I admitted.

  The President nodded. "Now, we'll have to ask their forgiveness."

  Maybe we'd even have to beg them.

  LENA

  All conversations hushed as Curran took his seat.

  The President stepped forward. "We were wrong to deny you water."

  I wondered how long the Etrallians had waited to hear those words. I wondered if they ever thought they would.

  The President stood tall before them, her guards at her back as she addressed the Council.

  Curran was studying her carefully, green eyes unreadable. He looked good on the high seat. He looked comfortable, though he wasn't imposing. I didn't get the same sense of awareness I had when Galentide was alive. When I walked into the Council Room, there was no great, watchful presence. There was only Curran. Smaller than his predecessor, but savvier perhaps.

  He nodded to the President.

  I took it to mean he had accepted our apology. We were getting off easy. An Etrallian would have been punished for admitting such a mistake. An Etrallian would have been shamed among their people, honor tarnished for years to come. What did they really think of us?

  "Is this the reason for your visit?" Curran's eyes were locked on President Burgess. I didn't envy her the scrutiny of that gaze.

  "Not entirely," she said.

  At this, Curran sat back in his seat, reptilian eyes narrowing. "If you've come to collect a debt for your part in what transpired, I'm afraid we don't recognize such things among our people. The ascendancy was completed without interference from humankind, though we thank you for returning our people, those you held prisoner." He pronounced the last word carefully.

  The President bristled. "That is not why we have come, I assure you."

  There was a long, uncomfortable silence as the hall fell quiet. Not so much as an Etrallian antenna twitched.

  "You are our neighbors and you came to us for help. We have decided to give you unlimited access to our oceans if you agree to share your purifier."

  Curran and the rest of the Council digested this. They did not talk amongst themselves, they merely studied us suspiciously bef
ore turning to their leader for guidance.

  "All of your people have agreed to this?" Curran gestured skeptically.

  "A majority," the President affirmed.

  "And we will not be attacked..."

  "No," she said firmly.

  "You speak for all of them?" Curran asked tersely. "Are you their appointed representative today, Madam Burgess?"

  I tensed at his tone.

  The President closed her eyes, then opened them again. "I speak for the Committee today, Curran of the Etrallia. The Committee of Earth would like to offer you ocean access so that you might take care of your people."

  "Ah," he nodded. "The original offer. The original truce. This is what it has come to." He continued to nod to himself.

  In the beginning, I'd tried to convince them otherwise, but I guess now was better than never.

  "Again, we were wrong to deny you--"

  "Yes, yes." Curran waved her off. "Very well." He sighed, looked at each of his counselors in turn. "We accept your offer."

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Especially given the current situation with the Vanlith."

  I swallowed. I couldn't think about them. We had to take things one at a time. The first objective was to get the Etrallia back on our side, help their people so that they might help ours. It was our only hope now.

  "Have you talked to your warlords?" Curran asked casually. "They will be upon you soon. Upon all of us should we stay."

  If they stayed? Until now, I hadn't even considered the possibility that the Etrallia might refuel their water reserves and then leave us to our fate. But of course, they had that power now.

  President Burgess blanched. "I suggest we all meet together so that we can discuss preparations."

  "Yes," said Curran, his voice deep and gravelly. "But there is still one other matter, Madam President." He stood and the rest of his Council stood with him.

  The President, bless her soul, stood her ground, but I could feel the men beside me shrinking backward. At their full height, the Council could have lunged on us, never mind the guns we had strapped to our waists.

  "How can we trust what you say is true?"

  It was a good question, but luckily one we'd anticipated.

  "What's to keep you from imprisoning our civilians once they step foot on your planet?"

  The President relaxed. "As a gesture of good faith, we've brought you the water you need. Enough to last the year."

  The shipment had already been packed onto a shuttle, thousands of gallons, ready to be unloaded onto the Etrallian supply ship.

  "You will have access to water whenever you need it," the President explained. "We ask only that you consider our truce and work with us to prepare for this new threat."

  Curran smirked. Or something close to a smirk. He showed his small, pointed teeth as his lips curved back. I thought he might laugh, but he didn't. He only cocked his head. "I thought you didn't believe us, Madam President. You suspected it was a ploy to persuade you to give us water."

  The President dropped her eyes before raising her head again. "We have good reason to believe you speak the truth."

  "You believe us now, eh?" Curran was clearly enjoying this.

  "As you know, our technology is inferior in many areas. We are fully aware of this. However, recently a space probe of ours picked up a signal from one of the outer planets of this solar system. A ball of ice, really. We call it Pluto."

  Curran looked placated. "Indeed." He sat back down.

  "The Vanlith are here. Just as you said."

  I couldn't help it. The words sent a shiver down my spine.

  LENA

  We had much to discuss, Henry and I, but little time to do it. While he was busy keeping the peace among his people and explaining that the war was over, I was tasked with briefing the Committee, making sure everything that had occurred in the past forty-eight hours was recorded. The events of the past few months would be archived for posterity and used for reference in the coming years. It seemed a worthwhile effort, but if the Vanlith arrived before we were ready, it wouldn't matter anyway.

  Still, I was a member of the civilian task force, it was my duty to report to the global Committee. For once, I did as I was told and recounted the whirlwind of the past few days. It was more painful than I expected. Even now that the truce was in place and peace seemed secure, I couldn't describe what had happened without making it personal.

  In the end, it was simply a story of two mistrustful, fearful people. A terrible war corrected almost as quickly as it had erupted. It was a mistake, I explained, to refuse the Etrallia ocean access. Just as it was theirs to keep secrets from us in the first place. The Committee wasn't so interested in my judgments.

  "Just the facts, Ms. Cordell," noted the Committee head. "Just the facts."

  The secretary continued to type.

  "And the agreements of the truce?"

  "Water for water, essentially," I said wearily.

  "Could you be more specific?"

  "We agree to allow the Etrallia to drink from our oceans and they agree to share their water converter so that we can support our people."

  "Excellent, excellent." He studied his notes. "And the fate of the scientist they call Gillis?"

  I sighed. "You know what happened to him."

  "Of course, but for the record, Ms. Cordell. Everyone must report accordingly so we can assure there are no discrepancies."

  "Gillis was tried by the Court of Elders. His own people sentenced him to death for jeopardizing their lives without consulting Galentide."

  They had executed him yesterday, flushed him out an airlock like all offenders before him.

  "It is a strict transgression of their code of honor to sabotage an Etrallian leader."

  "Yes," the man murmured, crossing off the question. "Thank you."

  By the time I returned to the Base, it was time. Our meeting with the Etrallia was scheduled for noon.

  It was the first time an Etrallian delegation had stepped foot on Earth, let alone a top-secret military facility.

  We hosted them in the briefing room, the same room where Mars and I had first learned about their race and the mission ahead. The outline of their hierarchy had been removed from the whiteboard. It was still strange to think that Galentide's name would no longer rest at the top of that diagram.

  Slowly, the Etrallia filed in, finding their places around the circular table in the center of the room. On the table laid a map of our solar system, with three-dimensional figures of all the planets and moons.

  I glanced at Henry across the table. After I released him, he had arrived in time to ensure Curran ascended, but I didn't know if that mended anything between us. I wanted to talk to him, but it would have to wait. Today was about the future of our people.

  After a few minutes of wary silence, General Wilkerson finally spoke. "There's no time to stand here gawking at one another."

  "No," Curran agreed. He braced both clawed hands on the table. "They are coming."

  "When they arrive, we must be ready," said Henry.

  Major Rhine nodded, grudgingly. "I suppose water is the least of our worries now."

  "Not the least," I said. "Second only to the Vanlith threat." I would not let them forget the people dying every day on Earth. If we didn't focus on saving them with the Etrallian technology, there'd be no one left to defend.

  "A program for distributing water will be put into effect tomorrow," the President announced. "All active duty police and a portion of all military personnel will be managing these efforts."

  "We can't fight anyone until we've had time to recover," said Mars. He looked pointedly at Curran. "I believe that goes for all of us."

  Curran gave a small nod, green eyes shadowed. I wondered about the bloodshed it had cost him to win his position. As an ascendant, it should have been clean. A battle against a rival, single-combat. Yet somehow I doubted Zubeida had made it that easy. After everything, the Etrallia had probably los
t more of their people choosing a new leader than they had the past one hundred years.

  "We all need to regain our strength," said President Burgess. "Enough water for all is a start, but we need to think long-term, as well."

  "A new game plan." Rhine studied the map of the stars.

  Our plan.

  It would be more than a battle plan, but a plan for survival. Though it would take another month or two before it was completely formed, for now, we knew that Earth was no place for our first line of defense.

  Carefully, I retrieved a new marker for the map, a small block of plastic shaped like a flag. Colony 1, I wrote on the side.

  This was the plan. The only plan we had.

  I sought Henry's eyes as I placed the flag on the model of the moon.

  We would figure this out together.

  We had to.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Eily is a Millennial writer passionate about storytelling and the power of the written word. In fact, she's set herself a goal to self-publish 30 books before she turns 30.

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