The hatch slammed shut. Eriff stopped screaming for his parents and simply screamed, until his throat was in danger of shredding raw. Someone would hear him before his voice gave out. Someone would come.
“Quiet!” A stinging slap across his face brought his attention back to the captain. Eriff shook, gasping and sobbing. “That is enough, little rimmer,” he warned in a low growl. “With luck, you’ll be a REEF. Start acting like one.” He threw Eriff into a small room and locked the door.
Sunshine poured through a single porthole on the far wall. Eriff crawled to it, clinging to the rim throughout the launch of the mighty starship.
The effects of the pistol’s paralyzing blast lingered. His stomach rolled; his arms and legs trembled. Humiliated and afraid, he dashed away a stray tear.
I am weak.
Weakness had kept him from preventing what happened to him. But what if his body was made so strong by machines that he never again had to worry about it failing him? What if no matter what kind of trouble he got into, he’d be strong enough to get out of it?
What would it be like, he thought, to be unstoppable?
The huge ship trembled and shook, but Eriff’s shivers slowly stopped, as if he’d grown too cold for even that. The farther he was taken from home, the colder he got, until he felt nothing at all. He stayed at the porthole long after Sandreem shrank to a blue-green star and disappeared, staring outside until his tears had dried to tracks of salt on his cheeks and his heart was as hollow as the void of space outside.
The door slid open. The captain sauntered in and leaned a shoulder against the wall. With those miss-nothing eyes, he studied Eriff. “I was right about you,” he said finally.
Eriff recoiled. This off-worlder knew nothing about him. Nothing. Hatred welled up in his throat, almost choking him. He gathered every last bit of it and concentrated it in a glare he wished could be as deadly as he felt.
A slow, satisfied smile curved the captain’s lips. “Yes, indeed. Once we get those emotions under control, you’re going to be one cold son of a bitch.”
One
Present day
EARTH CELEBRATES TRIUMPH OVER ALIEN FLEET
Off-duty Patrolman Relates Personal Terror in Encounter with Extraterrestrial Killer
SACRAMENTO, California—With the entire world at the edge of their seats, U.S. President Laurel Ramos announced that the alien invasion force threatening Earth had been turned away. “Today we have two new heroes—California State Senator Jana Jasper and her extraordinary extraterrestrial friend, Cavin Caydinn. I hereby rescind the state of emergency and declare this day a national holiday. Senator Jasper, Major Caydinn, today we celebrate your courage and vision as one world newly united by a common cause. A very grateful world, indeed.”
Over the weekend, Jasper, 32, and Caydinn, 34 (est.), were taken by officials to an undisclosed location in the western United States where the pair were successful in deterring the invasion.
The tale of terror and daring had a romantic beginning. Jasper, the youngest child of U.S. congressman John Jasper and former Soviet ballet dancer Larisa Porizkova, met Caydinn when they were children. Caydinn’s father, a scientist, traveled to Earth to determine its suitability for acquisition, a fact not immediately known by Caydinn at the time. Sources close to the couple say that after landing in the invisible spacecraft on the Jasper family ranch, young Caydinn sneaked away to explore on his own and encountered the girl. “It was love at first sight,” enthuses Evie Holloway, thirty-five, Jasper’s sister.
Despite the passage of over two decades, the pair never forgot each other. According to sources close to the couple, Caydinn abandoned his post as a high-ranking military officer to warn Jasper that plans were underway for a takeover of Earth. Despite several attempts on his life by a biomechatronic assassin (popularly known as a cyborg), Caydinn seems to have triumphed, Jasper at his side.
The Jasper family is a political dynasty with roots dating back to California’s earliest days. The clan laid claim to a permanent place in world history with their highly visible role in the invasion crisis—a role they are likely to continue. The family remains in seclusion following the death of legendary patriarch and former California governor Jake Jasper from complications of a stroke.
Recovering in the same hospital, Patrolman Greg Rowe, 46, spoke for the first time on battling the enemy in our own backyard. After being treated for second-degree burns to his right hand, the