Chapter 46:
Homecoming

Farmland gave way to the wide Russian steppe as Jack and his alien companions headed toward the Ark. The nearly flat land went on and on, covered in short tufts of grass and little else. It was the most boring country Jack had ever laid eyes on, and he’d seen some pretty boring places in his time. This one took the boring cake and ate it with a boring glass of milk.

Worse yet, the sparse grass of the steppe made it more difficult to keep Felix well fed, and the small flyer couldn’t maintain top speed for as long as he could in sunnier, more abundant regions. Progress slowed to a crawl across that flat, uneventful countryside, and the only bright side was that the Oikeyan legion would undoubtedly be slowed as well.

The travelers camped under the stars and ate reheated alien field rations twice a day. The food was a version of the same multi-colored stuff Jack had eaten in prison, but more energy dense and flavorful. It was bitter and nearly unpalatable. While it provided all the nutrients he needed, his stomach constantly felt empty, and from the sour look on the rhino’s face, he felt the same way.

As they traveled, Kai took it upon himself to teach Jack the Oikeyan common language called Mirresh, which was used for interspecies communication. As Kai described it, every race had their own variety of ethnic groups, each with its own languages and dialects, but all Oikeyans knew Mirresh, and their public discourse and law were exclusively conducted in it.

Much to Jack’s surprise, it was easy to pick up. So easy that he was speaking Mirresh with a limited vocabulary within the first week. Prior to that, he’d believed himself incapable of learning a second language, let alone one from beyond the stars.

Once they could communicate, Jack got to know the three other aliens, despite his instincts otherwise. The rhino’s name was Dojer, and his race called themselves Rozom. He belonged to the worker caste, which entailed having a long-legged bug bonded to his blowhole as a child. It caused him to grow larger and stronger than the rest of his kind, and develop a hard, silicate armor. Surprisingly, the bug was also intelligent, but his species, known as Marakhya, were shy and preferred to let their Rozom do all the talking. Jack couldn’t even begin to pronounce the Marakhya’s name, and was glad it wasn’t too friendly.

Dojer however proved to be very talkative after a short warm-up. The hulking creature was full of stories that all ended with puzzling punch-lines and him belly laughing, but which left Jack confused. Rozom humor just wasn’t Jack’s cup of tea.

The two jackrabbits were a mated pair named Ferash and Niko, and their species called themselves Kitsu. If these two were any indication, the Kitsu were a playful and almost childlike race with boundless curiosity and a keen interest in machines. They hounded Jack for just a peek at his guns and other gadgets, and when he finally caved in, the pair took turns taking everything apart and putting it back together again. This would have infuriated him, but they did a better job cleaning and maintaining his gear than he ever had.

Jack got the impression that Ferash, the male of the pair, was a dreamer and maybe even an artist of some kind before he became a soldier. He often went off alone to stare at the horizon in deep thought. Niko, his mate, let him be during those stretches and instead spent the time avidly listening to Dojer’s weird stories.

Both Ferash and Niko yearned to raise children, but thought it a mistake to bring new lives into such a troubled world.

Much to Jack’s surprise and dismay, the Kitsu were affectionate. Their extended families shared close living quarters and often slept in communal rooms, which Jack discovered one morning when he awoke to find both Ferash and Niko cuddled up against him. He shooed them away the first few times but it became more effort than it was worth. Besides, they were warm.

At least Dojer didn’t want to cuddle. Jack didn’t think he could cope with that. Or survive it.

They reached the Ark after nearly three straight weeks of travel. Dojer, Ferash and Niko stayed with Felix, hidden in one of the few nearby copses, while Jack and Kai approached on foot. Soon, they were in the vast, sprawling village that had sprung up around the underground shelter. The place filled Jack with both hope and despair. It provided a clear example of what the human race had been reduced to, as well as their ability to plod on in the face of abject adversity.

The buildings were makeshift and sloppy. Impromptu dirt roads wandered everywhere, lined with firepits, all kinds of livestock, and dirt faced refugees bundled up in whatever clothes they could find. Jack felt like he was walking through a high-school reproduction of medieval times, where the students wore costumes made out of old hand-me-downs. It was mass poverty on a scale he’d never seen before, clothed in the waste of recent prosperity.

The great artificial mound that was the Ark dominated the sky beyond the village, like a crashing tsunami frozen in place. Large metal hatches covered its surface, looking like pressure release valves or connectors for impossibly large hoses.

“Great. My people are living in an ant hill,” Jack said as they marched.

“What’s an ant?”

“Small insects that live in large underground hives. Known for ruining picnics.”

“Perhaps humans and Nefrem have more in common than we thought.”

“Perhaps,” Jack said, and they continued on.

It took the better part of the day to reach the Ark’s southern entrance, a concrete tunnel at ground level set in the side of the mound. Large enough for three commuter trains to fit through side-by-side, it was guarded by a handful of soldiers in unmatched uniforms, and no traffic went in or out.

As they approached, one of the soldiers stepped out to meet them. His uniform was a dark green woodland camouflage, with a pattern common among Slavic countries. He said something in one of the many languages Jack didn’t understand.

“English?” Jack said. “Anglistina?”

The soldier turned to his mates and spat out a mouthful of words. Another of the soldiers sauntered over and said, “Only military personnel is allowed in Ark right now. We apologize for inconvenience.”

“Yeah, that’s great,” Jack replied. “I’m with the resistance out of Al Saif. Tell Colonel Galili that Jack Hernandez is here with information about the enemy. He’ll want to see me.”

The soldiers shared a couple words, and the one who didn’t speak any English jogged back to the guard post and picked up an old-style wired telephone. The handset was shaped like a barbell, and Jack had only seen models of its like in classic movies and period pieces. He almost laughed.

The soldier chattered then waited, then chattered again and waited some more. After twenty minutes of this, he returned, gave the English speaking soldier some instructions and finally returned to his post.

“He says to take you inside. Welcome to the Ark.”

Without another word, he turned and walked down the tunnel. Jack and Kai followed, and after fifty meters, they were in a whole new world.

The inside of the Ark was oddly warm, and after its cavernous loading dock, not-so-oddly cramped. Tunnels meandered off in every direction, marked by multi-colored stripes on the walls that lead to different sections and departments.

The soldier led them down a tunnel to an elevator which carried them up several levels, then through another tunnel only to ride a second elevator down a few levels, and finally through one last tunnel until it opened into a huge staging area. Mobs of soldiers moved and inventoried stacks of steel cargo containers while more soldiers in the distance performed tasks Jack couldn’t make out.

The Slavic soldier told Jack and Kai to wait near the entrance, then turned and disappeared the way he came.

“It’s safe to say something’s going on here,” Kai said as he looked around.

“Something big,” Jack agreed.

They stood there doing nothing for ten minutes, and then someone called Jack’s name. The wolfish Colonel Galili came marching across the crowded floor with a look of utter disbelief on his face. “It’s really you under that beard?”

“Not a lot of razors in alien prisons.”

Galili walked right up to Jack, grabbed both of his shoulders and shook him a bit as if to test that he was real. “I thought the guards were pulling a joke on me, but no… Here you are, Mr. Hernandez. There truly isn’t anything in this universe that can kill you orange jumpsuits.”

“Nothing yet,” Jack said, wondering how many times he’d heard that same exchange. “Listen Colonel, I’d love to catch up, but I’ve got some pressing news. There’s a big damn force stomping this way, and we need to evacuate.”

“We already know, and… let’s just say that preparations are under way.” The colonel’s tone hinted at something he wasn’t prepared to share.

“I don’t think you understand, sir. I’m talking about the kind of attack that nothing could survive. Enough firepower to level mountains.”

“We have the matter well in hand, and that’s all I can say for the time being. You’ll just have to trust me, Jack. Come, walk with me. I have a thousand questions. Your friend… he’s trustworthy?”

The three started walking past the crates. Jack wasn’t completely sure how to answer the colonel’s question. Trust was a slippery issue. “Yeah,” he said after a spell, “he’s the one that broke me out. Colonel Galili, this is Kai… Makinen.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Makinen. That’s a very interesting uniform.”

“Finnish covert ops,” Kai said. “Very covert.”

“Very covert indeed, to have slipped in and retrieved our man here without a scratch.” The colonel had a look in his eyes like he’d just been shortchanged at the market. “I can’t thank you enough,” he said.

Kai ducked his head and said, “It was the least I could do, sir.” There was a strange look in his eyes as well, but Jack couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

“Now then, Mr. Hernandez… the higher ups will want to debrief you in full, but I was hoping you could fill in some details for me first. There were parts of your team’s report that could use a little clarification.”

Jack had a sneaking suspicion lurking around his head, but he jammed it down and instructed it to shut its mouth. “However I can help, Colonel.”

“When you were in the generator room, how did the enemy detect your presence?”

“I’m not sure. One moment we were standing there, and then the situation went all pear shaped. Red lights and sirens all over the city.”

“Why not plant the explosives then? It would’ve taken another thirty seconds at most.”

Jack’s people had left things out, and he had no way of knowing what story they’d concocted. He was in a very sticky position all of a sudden, and he decided to tie his hitch to the truth. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, Colonel, but I had already decided to abort the mission before the alarm was sounded.”

“As I feared,” the colonel said, his voice heavy with disappointment. “Do you understand how far back you set us? That bombing could have turned the entire war around.”

“-I’ve got a bad feeling about this,-” Kai said in Mirresh.

“But you weren’t strong enough to do what needed to be done. After what those bastards did to our world, you didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to finish the job. You turned your back on your own species. Crippled our ability to strike at them.”

“Jack…”

“And now you come here and tell me to run? To turn tail and flee like a coward? How dare you!”

“There were women and children. Innocents, Colonel. They are people just like us, and I won’t have that kind of carnage on my head.”

The colonel moved with such speed that Jack hardly saw it coming. The fist connected with his jaw, rocking his head, and he stumbled back and fell to the concrete floor. He climbed back to his feet with the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, and said “We have to find some kind of peace, Colonel. The future depends on it.”

“You idiot. They aren’t people. They are godless monsters. A blight on the universe, and I won’t rest until I see every last one of them killed. Cowards like you made our world an easy target, and I won’t allow you to sacrifice the last of us just to satisfy your idiot ideals.”

It was around then Jack realized he was surrounded. Armed soldiers had moved in and closed a circle around him, leaving no avenue of escape.

“You’re a traitor, Jack. Not just to our cause or our people, but to the whole world. I trusted you. I believed in you, and you threw it away. For what? For them? That’s not good enough. Go rot in a cell until I’m ready to choke you to death.”

Rough hands grabbed his arms and pinned them behind his back. Someone kicked the back of his legs and he fell to his knees.

Kai already had his hands behind his head. “-I can kill them all,-” he said, still speaking in the alien language.

“-Escape, but kill no one,-” Jack replied, more or less.

“-What about you?-”

“This is how it has to be,” he replied in English.

A guard reached out to grab Kai and the alien reacted, his movements fast and fluid like a dancing flame. He grabbed the arm, twisted it and threw the guard into the others. With his other hand, he pulled his mask from inside his jacket and slid it over his face, then disappeared.

Not precisely. It was more like someone painted the world on the skin of his uniform, a Wile E. Coyote version of a cloaking device that was never-the-less effective.

“What in hell?” the colonel shouted. “Open fire!”

Before anyone could let loose a single round, Kai leapt high into the air, sprang off the ceiling and was gone.

“Lock down the Ark. No one enters or leaves until I have that fucker’s head on a stake!”

Jack spat blood onto the floor. “You’ll never catch him.”

“We’ll see about that,” Colonel Galili said. He drew his handgun and pistol-whipped Jack, returning him to the sweet darkness where there was no war at all.