selection of re-heated, flash-frozen goodness, and took a shower in one of the temporary set ups which drew water from the atmosphere and both heated and purified it during the day using sunlight alone.
After that, I joined Chapman, Amir, and Hendricks as we watched the screens which folded out of a large suitcase as a kind of mobile control center. I mentioned as much and ended up feeling like a dumbass because that’s exactly what the thing was. I’d been feeling pretty damn edgy since the swarm circled us the previous night, so I’d kept a closer eye on where the members of Sierra Team were, just in case I needed to hide behind them at any point. I found a couple dozing, no doubt recharging their batteries in case they had to spring into action in the night, saw two on the wall watching the setting sun, and even found the massive German guy, Weber, sketching on a notepad with a pencil. Dressed now in clean clothes and having re-laced my boots, I struggled to get comfortable with the sidearm strapped to my right hip. I was unaccustomed to its weight and bulk and kept knocking it on things. Leaning over so that I didn’t get the butt digging into my skin, I watched the screens.
“Why don’t we rig some lights?” Chapman offered.
“You really want to announce our presence here just yet?” Amir countered.
“UV lights?” I offered.
“Possibly,” Hendricks said, his tone of voice implying that only a portion of his consciousness was on the conversation, “it certainly would help with the clarity of our night optics and that of the drones.”
“I’ll get to it, then,” Chapman said, his own mind wandering no doubt to who and what he needed to make it work.
“Annie, what about the automated defense grid?” Amir asked out loud.
“Automated defense grid can be activated, however ammunition is at a premium,” she said. “I would advise against any direct defensive action until we have studied th—”
“Yes, we are all in agreement on that front,” Hendricks interjected, “I believe Mr. Weatherby would like to know how long it would take to set up.”
“Eight hours, utilizing a team of five engineering personnel,” she shot back as soon as he had finished speaking.
“Okay,” Hendricks said, “we can get that done before nightfall, but I want it powered down unless I give authority, understood?”
Our circle nodded their agreement, and a single up-tone sounded through Hendricks’ radio.
~
Just beyond the tree line overlooking their metal-ringed camp, ten young men and women watched in silence. They saw nothing, no movement outside of the scorched white pods, marked by their re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Occasional noises washed up to their vantage point, and just after the sun reached its peak in the sky they saw the distant movement of people atop the walls, building small tripods on which they mounted box shapes with protruding barrels.
“Harrison,” one of them hissed to the immobile leader of the party as he stared resolutely, unblinkingly at the camp, “we need to move soon to be home before nightfall.”
Harrison, tall and scarred, thought about what she had said. He gave no indication that he had heard, less still that he was thinking about it or heeding her words. The air of arrogant mystery kept him above them and in charge, he believed.
“We move,” he said finally, “and we come back tomorrow.”
~
As darkness fell, and the last of the twenty-six automated guns were secured on top of pods at set distances apart for their firing arcs to interlock, everyone retreated inside the main tent which was becoming more of a camp mess hall than the sleeping compartment it was the previous night. As I washed my hands at the designated hygiene station and joined the line for some chow, a familiar figure fell in beside me.
“Cat!” I exclaimed, meeting my lunchtime watcher again for the first time in a year. Or at least what felt like a year for me.
“Dr. Anderson,” she said coyly with a smile that seemed as warm and welcoming as a tropical beach, “how are you?”
“Me?” I said, flustered. “I’m fine. What about you? When did you get out of the freezer?”
“This morning,” she said, “not an experience I want to repeat, let me tell you.”
I looked at her, drinking in that levelling goodness she brought me every day when I was trapped in my lab in Texas arguing with a computer system. She looked different, somehow, like I was just seeing her for the first