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
