Charger the Soldier (26 page)

"Fuck this!" Thad snarled as he removed a
long dagger from the holster on his leg and thrust it hard into the
front of the alien. There were screams, then a fight, and alarms
rang out everywhere. Danny grabbed Dieter and Hanna and forced them
to leave Thad, who was now being attacked from all directions by
enraged aliens.

Struggling to move faster, the three worked
their way to the exit and, out in the void of space, they ignited
the thruster packs and rocketed away from the surface of the mother
ship. As they did so, Dieter pressed a button on his wrist, sending
the signal back to Earth to detonate the weapons. In the darkness
of space, and unable to hear any sound on their headsets but
breathing, the three saw the ship begin breaking apart. There was
no dramatic light show, no thunderous explosion to lend effect,
just the sight of the enormous space-borne vessel crumbling into
pieces.

There was, however, an impact. But, instead
of blasting them in the chest like a shockwave on Earth, they found
themselves being sucked in the direction of the destructing ship.
The trio fought desperately to thrust themselves away from the
mother ship and, after what felt like an eternity, they
succeeded.

"Well, let's hope Harris will do as he said,
and get that shuttle up to us ASAP," gasped Danny, out of breath
from the struggle to escape.

Hanna again spoke and Dieter willingly
translated for Danny. "She said he will, for she threatened to fall
back to Earth and land on him if he didn't."

The three drifted for some time before their
helmets' heads-up displays detected a ship heading toward them.

But it was not an Earth craft. The small
alien ship came nearer and nearer, seemingly out of control and
drifting. The three decided this was an opportunity to capture an
alien space pod. Danny reached out and simply grabbed hold of the
craft and all three, as they were tethered together, were pulled
onto its trajectory.

Hanna spoke in German and Dieter translated.
"She said you caught it, so you get to go in first."

The three snooped around the surface of the
small craft for some time before Danny managed to find what he
thought might be a way inside. With a bit of jimmying, they gained
access to the small, cramped escape pod. Inside lay an injured
alien, one very different from any they'd seen before, with many
insignias pinned to what might have been a uniform. "Think we
caught the alien boss?" Dieter asked Danny.

"Shit, maybe," came his reply.

Hanna could not contain her desire to cause
trouble. In broken English, she shook the alien, back-handed it
hard, and said, "You da boss?"

Danny began laughing, and Dieter couldn't
help joining in. Hanna looked so ridiculous slapping the alien. The
alien surged to life and hit Hanna hard enough to knock her across
the ship, where she collapsed, unconscious. Then it stunned Dieter
with some type of shock weapon, and he blacked out, too.

The alien rose from its chair, a hideous dark
mass, staggering, but seeming to spread out in all directions in
the small space. Its gold-colored multi-faceted eyes focused on
Danny, who'd been tossed about in the melee because he was still
tethered to the other two. The alien shuddered for a moment, then
staggered toward Danny, creating from a front appendage a blazing
hot phosphorescent plasma weapon like an axe, dripping glowing hot
liquid metal on the floor.

"Shit!" snarled Danny as he struggled to
unclip himself from the tether. The alien seemed disorientated and
swung wildly at Danny, who shifted enough to dodge the attack. The
small confined space of the ship made it all but impossible to
avoid getting hit, but Danny managed it. The alien struck hard but
haphazardly into bulkheads and consoles, sending sparks flying
everywhere, temporarily blinding itself long enough for Danny to
slip behind the beast. Danny had no weapons now but his own
ingenuity.

Danny placed his back against the ship's wall
and, with both feet, kicked the alien hard in the back, sending it
into the opposing wall. It crashed, stumbled, and slumped down just
long enough for Danny to thrust himself forward. He wrapped one arm
hard around its neck and, with the other arm, grabbed the weapon.
With all his strength, he pulled the weapon slowly toward the
floundering alien, and began cutting into its black heavy body
suit, working his way inward toward the flesh.

The thrashing slowed as the alien began
losing the fight. The two opponents lay motionless on the floor,
Danny breathing heavily, when the alien's head split open,
revealing a human-like face beneath. What appeared to be a helmet,
with goggles which looked like multi-faceted gold eyes, fell away,
and the true occupant revealed itself. Its mouth, though
disfigured, began moving!

One word… "Why?"

It sounded like a hiss, but Danny was sure it
said, "Why?" Shocked, he sat upright, throwing the alien away from
him as if it were a rotting corpse. He shivered at the thought, and
instinctively tried to brush the touch of the alien's body off his
arms. After a moment, he composed himself and bent down to the
almost human face of the invader, and asked, "Did you just say
why?"

Nothing happened. Danny shook the body of his
opponent and yelled, "Did you just fucking say WHY? You invaded
us!"

There was no reply. It was dead. Danny
slumped back to the floor, exhausted.

Beeping began, quietly at first, then Danny
realized the sound came from his helmet. His heads-up display was
signaling another approaching ship, the shuttle craft the air force
used. Danny swore as he realized that he and his crew were inside
an alien craft. The air force was now approaching, probably with
guns aimed.

Struggling to his feet, Danny looked about
desperately, trying to think of some way to signal the air force to
keep them from blowing his pod to bits. On the floor, poking out of
one of the bomb packs they had carried to the mother ship, was a
flag. Thad, in his American cowboy wisdom, had thought it smart to
bring an American flag to the ship they planned to destroy. As he
had put it, "Plant the mother fucker up those bastards' asses!"

Fighting his way out of the craft and into
the blackness of space, Danny threw himself off the craft in the
direction of the approaching shuttle, frantically trying to wave
the American flag so that the air force would not attack.

Through his headphones came a voice, "Okay,
okay. We can detect your suit's homing beacon and we know it's you,
but the American flag is a nice touch." The air force pilot
continued, "I think you might be a little low on oxygen, so climb
aboard."

Danny had already succumbed to oxygen
deprivation and had passed out as he hit the window of the shuttle,
though fortunately not very hard. The pilots laughed as they pulled
him onboard to safety.

P
am pinned the small microphone to her red silk blouse,
wishing she could have something new to wear. But these days,
people made do with what they had. Food was still hard to get and
everything else was nearly impossible. The small, over-worked staff
of the television studio was making sure that Danny, Hanna, and
Pam's husband, Dieter, were seated so that the cameras could
capture a good view.

The people of Earth hungered for heroes after
the brutal battering they had suffered during the war and this
would be the first live televised interview with their greatest
warriors. The long-awaited broadcast from the city center had
thousands of fans lining the streets just to catch a glimpse, on
makeshift monitors, of the three soldiers being celebrated. Pam was
grateful to see Dean hovering in the background, ready to run
errands for her on this very special day.

The destruction of the alien mother ship in
orbit had meant that salvation for humanity was finally possible.
Because the aliens could no longer re-supply their ground forces,
it had taken only a few months for Earth's military to achieve the
final defeat of the invaders. Rather than push the aliens into
pockets to control them, General Harris had decided it was easier
just to bomb them, then send in the infantry to mop up the
remainder. Not only was it easier but, whether they admitted it or
not, most people thirsted for revenge.

When the last of the aliens had been hunted
down and killed, those human survivors sent to the far reaches of
the north and south began returning to their homes and were
grateful, for a while, just to be warm. People walked city streets
again and slowly they began the massive cleanup.

The cameras started rolling and Pam
introduced the three guests. Turning to Dieter, she said, "So,
General Dieter A'Ochay, let me start with you. I understand that
you're also going to celebrate a private victory today."

Dieter looked startled. What was she talking
about? This was a complete departure from the outline she'd given
him the previous night. He opened his mouth, searching for some
kind of sensible answer.

Before he could come up with anything, Pam
beamed at him. "General, I have been informed that your wife is
pregnant."

The look on Dieter's face said it all. He'd
had no idea that Pam was expecting.

Danny was the first to break the stunned
silence with a quick comment to Dieter, then all those gathered in
the studio broke into cheers. New life was now an event to be
celebrated as much as any hero. A population of seven billion souls
whittled down to a few million worldwide meant that all life was
once again considered precious.

"So, you know boy or girl?" asked Sergeant
Hanna Massey, struggling with her new language. As broken as it
was, she was grateful to be able to communicate.

"We are going to let it be a surprise,"
replied Pam, with another smile.

She shifted into reporter mode and the
interview continued well into the day. Those watching began to
fully realize the enormous cost of what the three brave individuals
and the millions who had died had done to save humanity.

Near the end of the program, Pam said to
Danny, "I understand you have been given a place in government. Any
plans for the future? The elections are just months away now."

Danny politely answered in the typical
noncommittal language of a politician, and it was obvious to all
that he must someday be the new world leader.

Pam looked at Hanna and asked, "Are you
planning to return to Germany?"

The color came up in Hanna's face. "No, I
stay here. I get married soon."

Everyone cheered again and Pam was delighted.
"Congratulations!" She looked into the nearest camera. "And to all
of us. It will be wonderful to live a normal life again."

>>>

Dart speaks to Reader:

Did Danny become world leader? Yes, Reader,
he did. When the elections were held, he became the first native
American Indian president of the world's remaining population.

It was a heavy responsibility, but he kept
his sense of humor. Because, no matter his high status, his friends
never let him forget the stunt he had pulled after the destruction
of the alien mother ship, when he was heading toward the space
shuttle sent to rescue him, waving an American flag.

A few months later, Pam gave birth to her
son, Gerry. She took him with her nearly everywhere, though she and
Dieter were very active in rebuilding the world's news
headquarters. Being head of the media allowed Pam to achieve an old
dream. She made it a point, every day, to broadcast good news as
well as bad, to provide a balanced look at the world.

No, for the first few years, humanity didn't
spend much time on space travel. Because so much of the population
had been destroyed by the war, the task of rebuilding society and
mending the Earth took precedence. New life was greeted with much
joy, so babies were a big thing.

Why wasn't Charger interviewed?

That's a good question, but think back to the
beginning of this story, Reader. Humanity created him to kill, and
he did such a good job of killing that people were both shocked and
deeply disgusted. They didn't want to be reminded of what they had
created or what he had done. And he's not pretty, you know.

No, people probably wouldn't have wanted to
see him on their TV screen.

What happened to Charger? He went where all
soldiers go in peacetime, to clear rubble, build roads, and do
whatever else they're asked to do.

The werewolves, too? Oh, you mean Mac and
Jill, the Lycans. Yes, they went with Charger because the three
were linked for life.

Why do you want to know what happened to
Henry's girlfriend?

Oh, I see, Henry cared about her, and so you
care about her. Well, I can't argue with that. You'll be happy to
know she survived and in a way that may surprise you.

>>>

Beth said quietly to the young girl who
seemed to be dying in her arms, "After the invasion began, so many
good people perished that I felt guilty because I survived." The
blood from Anna's wound was warm and flowing down Beth's arms. For
a moment, Beth relished the heat from the girl's fading life force.
Months had passed in this frozen wasteland without the heat of the
sun warming her pale, tired face.

"I tried to reach him before we were
evacuated, I really did, but my parents were in such a panic that I
had no chance." The pain of the loss of her love made her choke up
and her voice break. "I was sixteen when we met. He was my first
and only lover." Beth tried to continue, but the emotions welling
up from deep inside made her sob aloud.

"What was his name?" the dying girl asked in
a faint voice.

"Henry," Beth said, fighting down the sobs
and trying to regain her composure. "His name was Henry, though
most of his friends called him Charger. And that's what he called
himself when he came home on leave that one time."