Extraterrestrial Refugees
Chapter three

Oscar’s phone was going crazy, dinging and vibrating multiple times in a row as the messages suddenly started flooding in after almost a half hour of dead silence. He dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “It seems like communications have been restored,” he mumbled. The black phone on Charles’ desk began ringing. He pointed a finger at Oscar as he picked up the phone.

“You, get to work. You know your assignments.” He put the phone to his ear. “Hello? Mr. President.”

A long list of tasks he needed to delegate for the Secretary of Defense ran through his mind as he turned and left the room. Top priority: making sure the United States Air Force and army had been deployed and were enroute to the supposed landing site. Oscar looked at his phone as he briskly walked to his desk in the foyer. With a few swipes of his finger, he saw how the internet had already been swamped with images and videos. The first images he saw were ones apparently captured from the International Space Station of a massive and sleek silver spaceship approaching Earth.

Oscar scrolled as he sank down onto the exercise ball he used in place of a normal office chair—he did not want to develop all the health problems that killed his father. He viewed a shaky video taken from a cellphone. “This is what I’m seeing right now from my front door,” a female voice narrated in the background. A giant comet-like object was streaking across the sky in a blaze. Seconds later, a fleet of combat planes blasted by in formation overhead. “This is insane. I literally think it’s the end of the world. Oh, my goodness… what do I do?”

Oscar bobbed his head. “Military has obviously been deployed,” he mumbled to himself. Every phone in the room was ringing; the noise made it difficult to think clearly. He could feel the list of tasks slipping from his mind. This was the first catastrophe facing Oscar and it was his chance to prove himself to Charles and the United States government. Messing up could taint his reputation for the rest of his career. He rubbed his eyebrow and took a deep breath. “Focus,” he whispered to himself.

He grabbed the phone on his desk and got to work making important phone calls. Once he had contacted everyone he could remember Charles telling him to, he shifted his gaze around the room. Everyone he could see was gaping at their cell phones or computer screens. Oscar decided to join them.

There were now images from the Hubble telescope cropping up, showing the arrival of the large space ship. Oscar zoomed in, trying to examine the ship in greater detail.

His phone started vibrating in his hand. It was his mother. “Hey, mom,” he said as he answered it.

“Oscar, what’s going on? Are there really aliens coming? My sister just called me. She said I should call you because you’re in the government and you would know.”

“Mom, did you see the broadcast? Did everyone see the broadcast?” Oscar asked.

“Well, I missed the first few minutes of it, but then I watched a recording after Jen called. So, yes. Is this all real? Not just some prank?”

Oscar looked over his shoulder at Charles’ door, anxiously waiting for it to open and for him come out barking more orders.

“You’re not giving me any answers,” his mom complained.

“Sorry, mom. I don’t have any answers at this point to give.”

At that moment, Charles walked out of his office. Everybody scurried to hide their phones and jump to their feet. “The Air Force has been sent to welcome our visitors. The army is rolling out. Oscar, you aspire to be an ambassador someday, right?”

Oscar nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Now’s your opportunity to replace out if you’d be any good at it. You’re coming with me to New Mexico.”

* * *

It was difficult to tell if the cloud of dust that enveloped the Fortuna was from the ship’s landing or from the flock of airplanes and helicopters that whirred around it like wasps around a carcass. Gemma looked out the window as she quickly unbuckled. She needed to get down to the gate. She would, again, be the first face the people of Earth saw coming off the vessel, followed by the rest of her team.

“We’ll be right behind you,” Clarence said as they marched down a long corridor. Gemma looked out the windows as they walked. The dust was starting to clear. She could see a long stretch of dirt road. On it was a hoard of motorists barreling toward the ship. Clarence noticed them too. “This was my biggest concern about giving our coordinates—the fanatics.”

“There’s going to be a crowd. Crowds are dangerous,” Barkley huffed.

“On the contrary, Barkley, this was a critical part of the plan,” Gemma said. “The crowd offers us a degree of security. A buffer between us and their military.”

“Right, a human shield. You’ve seen how little they value life. You think the risk of losing a few civilian lives is going to keep them from dropping bombs on us?”

“We can only hope,” Gemma said.

She was met by the team of technicians at the gate. “Gemma, we’re connected to their communication network,” a technician said. “You can now speak with them.”

Gemma bobbed her head. “Hello, this is Gemma speaking again. May I speak to your leader?” She hated to sound cliché and say anything that resembled the cheesy films about aliens she and her team watched to ‘educate’ themselves, but there was not any better way to say the same thing without overcomplicating things.

“This is Captain Rem speaking. We are loaded and ready to fire. I repeat, we are loaded and ready to fire. Don’t make any sudden movements,” a male’s voice said over the communication device.

“We would like to come out now and speak with your leaders,” Gemma explained. “I will remind you, we are completely unarmed and there are children aboard this ship.”

There was a short moment of silence. “I cannot advise that at this moment.” The roar of jets and hum of helicopters buzzed in Gemma’s ears. Within the vessel, however, everything was silent. The blue-ish light in the ship and the lack of windows in that particular section gave the illusion that they were still zipping through space. Gemma’s gaze flicked to the gate. She knew chaos awaited them on the other side.

“Get those people out of here!” Gemma heard Captain Rem yell. “Who’s firing? That man has a gun!”

“Should we take him out, sir?” Gemma heard another pilot ask.

Gemma looked to her companions. “Somebody’s shooting,” she whispered.

“At us or them?” Barkley inquired. Gemma shrugged.

“It’s difficult to tell.”

They could hear footsteps approaching them. One of the computer operators ran up to them, winded. “There’s a crazy guy out there shooting at us,” he huffed.

“Are the shields working?” Barkley growled. The young man nodded. A grin appeared on Barkley’s face. “Good.”

“Armed suspect is down,” the man said into Gemma’s ear.

“Ma’am?” Captain Rem said.

“Yes?” Gemma replied.

“We cannot guarantee your safety if you come out at this time. We have no ground control our here.”

There was some muffled banging on the door. Gemma turned and looked at Clarence. “Has the ramp already been dropped?” she asked. Clarence slowly shook his head.

“They must’ve climbed up the landing gear,” he said. Gemma looked at the door again.

“What do you supposed they want?”

Clarence straightened his shoulders and looked boldly at the door. “Let’s go out and replace out.”

* * *

So they had made it. Legend’s eyes had not wandered up from his phone all morning. He watched aerial footage of the Fortuna, landed in the middle of a cloud of dust. A river of vehicles—mostly ATVs and dirt bikes—were rumbling toward the football field-sized ship. The fleet of helicopters that hovered above the space ship looked like flies in comparison. Their weapons were locked onto the ship, though Legend knew they would be useless against the ship’s defense mechanisms. He knew there would be an invisible force shield activated that surrounded the ship’s entirety.

Any amount of force made against it would be ricocheted with an equal amount of force, making an attack against them more dangerous for the attacker than the attacked. He imagined in his mind a flurry of bullets, rockets and missiles launched at the ship and bouncing back upon the helicopters and planes that had shot them. It would be a hurricane of explosions. But the Fortuna would remain unchinked.

Legend took a sip of his tea. It had gone cold, but he was too distracted to get up and make a fresh cup. He rubbed his chin, wondering how their arrival would change things for him. Would they take away his mansions and bungalows? Would they lay claim to the riches he had worked tirelessly to get? Would women treat him differently once they found out the truth about who he was?

He wasn’t sure why he thought they wouldn’t make it. After all, he had. He had lived on Earth for the past twenty years. They had sent him to pave the way for their arrival. To bless the planet with sustainable technologies they had yet to develop. He had started with nothing, his fake ID being the only thing provided to him from the team who sent him. In the beginning, his mission was a dreadfully lonely one. He had despised Earth and its people. But now, they threw themselves at his feet. They filled his bank accounts with their dollars. He had an endless supply of friends in high places. He could have any woman he desired.

Legend walked barefoot across the cold tile to a tall window that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. He looked beyond his gardens and swimming pool at the stretch of Atlantic Ocean. Many people thought him greedy and selfish, but all his houses were powered with renewable energy. He recycled everything he could. He bought only organic food. He even did his part to ‘save the bees’ by hiring a beekeeper to keep several hives on each of his estates. Yes, a lot of it was for publicity. But it was also how he was raised to live back on Tetra.

The people of Earth were the selfish ones, dragging their feet to change their unsustainable and greedy ways. He had to fight tooth and nail to bring his technologies to the world. They had been resisted at every front. And although he still faced a great deal of opposition, he was now nominated to receive a prestigious award for being one of Earth’s most impactful stewards.

He stared at a picture of Gemma’s face. She was attractive. Legend knew he wouldn’t have the same power over her as he did other women. She was far too intelligent for that and wouldn’t easily be impressed by him, seeing as his technological advancements were nothing new on Tetra. Such technologies as fuel-less vehicles had already been around for hundreds of years back home.

Home? He hadn’t considered that place home anymore for a long time. And now it didn’t even exist anymore.

Legend stared into Gemma’s eyes. Would they claim him? He could always deny it. What proof would they have? True, they did know the exact location of the ship he had arrived on. It was safely hidden in a cave on a remote mountainside—a mountain that he had since purchased. His heart skipped a beat. It was a direct link back to him. At the time he purchased the mountain, he didn’t think that would be something he didn’t want.

He tapped and swiped a few times on his phone until it was dialing his secretary’s number. The waves of the ocean reflected in his cyan eyes while he waited for an answer. “Hello, Karl. I need you to sell that chunk of land I own in Nevada. Give it away for all I care. I want it all taken care of as soon as possible.”

“The one close to Area 51?” Karl asked.

“Yes, that one.”

“Any relation to our supposed alien refugees?”

“None whatsoever.”