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Contact with aliens has been dreamed about, imagined, told in stories and on stage, in films and novels for centuries. And yet when it finally happened, it was unlike anything anyone ever expected.

  Eleven weeks on station over Mars, the large drop pods filled with supplies long since sent on their way to the twin Martian bases, and Beagle had received a cryptic message from Houston, sent via Spirit base.

  "E.T. has arrived."

  The next few hours had been filled with panic, excitement, fear, and questions. Captain Stanley Russell and his second-in-command, Commander Irina Samovitch, rounded up the entire crew into the climatology lab, the only place on the ship capable of holding all ten of them at once, and told them to focus on the remainder of their mission, which was to spend the next four months continuing to analyze the Martian atmosphere and landscape. Only so much data could be collected from rovers and land bound bases, and they needed to learn as much as possible before a larger colony was attempted.

  But the questions continued, no one focused on their work, and Houston finally began beaming video highlights of the first contact with the Hrwang. Everyone watched the two hour daily summaries and were able to, more or less, keep up with their work, although Stanley felt responsible for every missed deadline and worked twice as hard to try to keep up with the analysis.

  It was unreasonable. Thousands, even tens of thousands, of scientists spent their entire lives studying Earth, and yet Stanley's crew of ten, along with assistance from the ground bases, were expected to learn just as much about Mars in six months.

  Even without the distraction of the aliens, it was an impossible task.

  And yet Stanley watched the videos with the rest of his crew. It was the most important thing that had ever happened to Earth, and he wanted to know as much as anyone else.

  The Hrwang had contacted Earth, claiming their vessel was just past Saturn and making its way towards the inner planets. It would arrive at Earth in a few days.

  The message was in English, which the aliens claimed to have learned by monitoring broadcasts since they had entered Earth's solar system.

  And they claimed to be human.

  In response to repeated questions, responses delayed by many hours due to the distance to Saturn from Earth, the Hrwang said they were just as human as the people from Earth, and just as human as every other intelligent race in the galaxy, and even went as far as transmitting the genome map of the Admiral Commander of their vessel, which so closely matched a human genome that conspiracy theorists decided the Hrwang had abducted humans and used them to generate the map and to translate their messages into English.

  The aliens claimed the only viable translations of the word 'Hrwang' into English were Human and Earth, as it was also the name of their planet. When questioned what star their planet orbited, they simply replied, "The Sun."

  The approach of aliens to the Earth generated the expected hysteria, and the video summaries included footage of riots and looting. Other messages came to Stanley from his friends at Houston, and he knew that militaries all over the world were on high alert, survivalists had gone to ground, stock markets had crashed, grocery stores could no longer stock shelves, and news pundits claimed they knew more than they really did, as always. Some predicted a new renaissance in human history as new technologies were learned from the visiting aliens, who were obviously human, while others predicted it was all a trick, and the aliens came in false guise and would seek to enslave the world.

  Stanley had seen those movies as well.

  He advised his crew to wait and see, and when the video summaries of the actual contact came in and the Hrwang seemed friendly, seemed human, and communications between them and the United Nations Secretary-General seemed to go well, Stanley felt relief.

  He tried to share his relief with his crew, but their feelings were mixed. Commander Samovitch, of all people, expressed the most doubt and concern. Stanley had hoped she would keep a 'stiff upper lip' and be a good soldier, but instead she had sown discontent.

  Now, in Beagle's cockpit with Samovitch on his left and Lieutenant Commander Purcella on his right trying to contact Earth nonstop, Stanley had nothing better to do than sit in his command chair and stew.

  After an hour of listening to Purcella repeat, "Houston, this is Beagle. Come in, Houston. Houston, this is Beagle. Come in, Houston," Stanley wanted to scream at the man, to tell him to shut up for two minutes. At their current orbital position it would take over fifteen minutes for the response anyway.

  "Come in, Houston. Houston, this is Beagle, come in, please."

  Stanley finally put his hand on top of the panicking man's hand.

  "Give them a few minutes to answer."

  "Yessir."

  The mostly quiet came as a relief, the faint static from the console and the whirring of fans the only sound until Irina shifted in her seat.

  Stanley ignored her until she shifted obviously again.

  "Yes, Commander?"

  He sought to appease her a little by calling her by her rank.

  "You know it's the aliens." She should have added a sir, and she knew it and Stanley knew it. She thinks aliens have destroyed the world and she's being petty, Stanley thought.

  "I don't know any such thing."

  "What else could it be? Have we ever lost communication before?"

  "Of course we have. When we're on the far side of Mars we have no communication. And when the sun comes between Mars and Earth, we'll lose contact for over a week."

  "We've never completely lost contact before. Relays through Spirit or Opportunity or satellites, even the unmanned supply ships, have always kept us in one form of contact or another, and we're a long time away from a solar blackout."

  "You're panicking, Irina." If she wasn't going to call him sir, he wasn't going to use her rank.

  Purcella stopped their argument.

  "Opportunity base wishes to speak to you, sir," the lieutenant commander said, removing a headphone he had cocked on one ear. Stanley nodded and Purcella flipped a toggle that allowed the radio to be heard over a speaker.

  "Beagle, any luck contacting Houston?"

  "Negative," Stanley replied. It seemed like such a cliche to use words like 'Negative' and 'Affirmative', but it did actually make a difference in understanding over a staticky radio.

  "Folks are getting worried down here, Beagle." The voice, probably Major Crayton, sounded just as worried. Why couldn't these military types keep it together?

  "Let's just wait and see what's going on, Opportunity."

  "We can't stay here forever without support from Earth, Beagle."

  Stanley glared at Commander Samovitch. Why did the military people insist on telling him things he was quite aware of? Well, he could tell them something they should already know.

  "Three unmanned resupply vessels are on their way. They wouldn't be affected by anything that might have happened on Earth, which is probably just a temporary communications interruption anyway. That's enough food and supplies for both bases for over a year."

  "A year's not as long as you might think, Beagle."

  Why couldn't the man just call him Stanley, or Captain Russell?

  "A year can be an eternity, Opportunity," Stanley said.

  There was silence for a few minutes at the other end, then the speaker crackled.

  "Just keep us posted if you hear anything. Opportunity out." Major Crayton sounded upset.

  "You should be more understanding, sir," Irina said. "They don't have a vessel they can return home in, like you do."

  Stanley crawled up out of his chair and headed for the doorway. He turned and looked back at his second-in-command and the communications officer.

  "Didn't Napoleon say something about keeping your head when everyone else around you is losing theirs? You military types should heed his advice." Stanley turned quickly and pushed hi
mself out the doorway and down the connecting corridor to the main part of the ship. He could hear Commander Samovitch's muttered words behind him as he floated away.

  "Napoleon lost."

  "I think it was a poem by Kipling, sir," Lieutenant Commander Purcella added, but Stanley ignored them, bumping his head and cursing as he floated along the passageway.

 

  Captain Christina Owenby walked purposefully down the concrete corridor, trying not to jostle those around her, clutching her computer and lunch to her chest should someone jostle her. She would never be able to pick them up off the ground if she dropped them, so crowded was the mass of evacuating military personnel.

  She and the rest of 614th had watched satellites dropping like flies. She realized that the pattern of destruction meant there were at least three Hrwang vessels, not one. They had only detected one and the Hrwang ambassador, the Admiral Commander, had not told them any different. But before she had assembled enough data to present her findings, the evacuation alarm sounded and the Colonel told them they had bigger problems.

  Nukes were dropping.

  "Jada!" Jayla screamed from the deck of her Daddy's cabin. "Jada!"

  She ran back inside, watched the monitor for as long as she could, then ran back to the deck. She screamed for her little sister, but the sixteen year old didn't respond. Jayla was eighteen and nominally an adult, but she felt like a scared child.

  "Jada!"

  Her sister had taken off hiking. As if hiking mattered when aliens visited the Earth and suddenly their shuttle disappeared from its parking place in front of the United Nations. More video showed the delegation hurrying on to the craft and it simply winking out of existence. How was that possible? It had entered the Earth's atmosphere like any human shuttlecraft, but now it simply disappeared.

  Reporters had been speculating for hours, repeating all sorts of theories they didn't understand, including wormholes, star drives, jump technology, and the like. Experts were brought in, science fiction writers who were also scientists were popular, but no one knew anything. They had learned very little about Hrwang technology in the weeks since the aliens arrived.

  They looked human and acted human.

  The old science fiction shows, like the one where the aliens were lizards wearing human skins, became available again on-line and were popular. Everyone speculated as to the origins of the Hrwang, and theories abounded. America was faking it to draw attention away from the second Cold War, the one it started with the Soviet Republic after the so called fifth Russian revolution, the aliens were weird and disguised themselves as human, the aliens had the ability to morph, like chameleons, and only appeared human.

  Jayla had thrown the bs flag on that one, looking up chameleons. Chameleons couldn't really morph and they weren't even capable of the kind of color changes many people ascribed to them. They didn't blend in with just any color that was in the background. They only changed to match certain ones. They were limited.

  If the Hrwang were living, breathing mammals, like humans, they would have similar restrictions, wouldn't they?

  Jayla couldn't stand it any longer and ran back out to the deck and screamed her sister's name. How far had that girl gone, anyway?

  Wolfgang never felt any blast wave. Perhaps it hadn't been a nuclear device. Who would be crazy enough to use them anyway? They contaminated soil and water and air, leaving territory useless.

  If it were the aliens, the Hrwang, surely they would have more effective weapons than nuclear devices. If they knew how to travel light years to get to Earth, surely they had more advanced technology than nuclear bombs.

  That line of reasoning didn't make him feel any better.

  The American soldiers were speaking rapidly and he couldn't keep up. Leah held him tightly, still sobbing into his side, and he didn't want to leave her to stand closer to them.

  When several of the other hikers began arguing with them, Wolfgang decided he was in charge of the group and he needed to do something.

  He peeled Leah off of himself and she looked like a lost kitten, but he told her everything would be fine. He approached the arguing group, trying to fathom what they were saying.

  He asked, in German, the hiker who had translated before what was going on. The woman told him the soldiers wanted to head back to Ramstein as soon as possible.

  "No!" Wolfgang said in English. Everyone stopped and stared at him.

  "No. We take best hikers and run to top of dragon rock. We look and see what's happening. Towers up there." He didn't know the words in English, so he said to the interpreter, "If the network is still up, they'll get a signal on their phones up top. And we can see for miles. Perhaps we can figure out what's going on before we head back."

  The interpreter translated for the Americans.

  "How long will it take?"

  "Good runners." Wolfgang tried to estimate. "Twenty, thirty minutes."

  "I'll go, sir," one of the younger Americans said.

  "You don't think I can run thirty minutes?" the oldest American replied.

  The younger one stayed silent.

  "You're probably right." He turned to Wolfgang. "Take whoever you want, but if they can't keep up, they drop out. We need to get into network coverage as soon as possible. You make sure Captain Wlazlo makes it."

  A Polish name? Americans came from every nationality, didn't they? Wolfgang thought.

  He turned to the group and explained in German that a few volunteers would need to run up to the top of the mountain and back down again, and that they might be running for an hour. Most of the group looked down at their feet and their packs, but two of the men and one of the women volunteered. Wolfgang reviewed the path they would take.

  "Okay, then, let's go," he said in English.

  "I'm coming, too," Leah said.

  "You stay here. We will be back soon."

  "I can run," she replied and stood resolutely next to him.

  He shrugged his shoulders.

  The argument about what to do had taken longer than ten minutes. It had been more like twenty since the flash of light had passed by them. After being cooped up in the small cave, running felt good to Wolfgang for the first few minutes. A chance to stretch his legs and breathe fresh air.

  But after too short a while, running up the steep hill tired him. It had the same effect on the others. One of the German men stopped suddenly, bending over and putting his hands on his knees. The American stopped also, but Wolfgang shook his head.

  "We keep moving."

  The soldier started running again, but the other man remained bent over.

  They left him behind.

  But the American ran slower, so Wolfgang slowed to match his pace. Leah looked back at him and he worried she thought he was weak. He nodded at the American, and she seemed to understand. She moved over to the man's other side.

  "You can do it," Leah encouraged the soldier, in English. The girl barely spoke German and Wolfgang was surprised she could speak English. Perhaps her English was better than her German. He asked her.

  "A little," she answered between breaths.

  The path grew steeper.

  After twenty minutes they were trudging up the steep slope, no longer running, but still out of breath. At the top of a particularly steep climb, the American collapsed on the ground, clutching his side and gasping.

  "Do we leave him?" the German woman running with them asked.

  "Of all of us, he must make it to the top," Wolfgang said. The others nodded understanding.

  Wolfgang watched the man. The American opened his eyes when he seemed to finally catch his breath.

  "Mountain running very hard," Wolfgang said to him, sometimes amazed at the English words he remembered. He had spoken more English today than he had since Gymnasium.

  "You ain't kiddin', pal," the soldier
replied and held his hand up. Wolfgang pulled him upright.

  The German woman moved close to him and got in the American's face. She grinned and said in German, "Tell him he doesn't want to get beaten by a girl." She turned and sprinted off.

  Wolfgang translated and the soldier laughed.

  "She's right. Let's go."

  The restaurant staff at the top were of little help. They had heard the sirens, had covered themselves as best they could, had seen the flash through closed eyes and through the cracks of closed doors, and had witnessed a mushroom cloud from the direction of Kaiserslautern. It was definitely nuclear.

  They had no contact with anyone. No network was up for phones or computers.

  Worse, the electric tram that brought tourists up the side of the mountain had stopped in a bad spot. If anyone survived in the tram, they would have to clamber twenty or thirty feet down to get to a level spot, and would have to negotiate several sheer drops to get back to any kind of path. Coming up would be even more challenging.

  The staff were preparing climbing ropes to head down to rescue them.

  "What now?" Wolfgang asked the American soldier.

  "Let's give it a few minutes. I'm going to go up to the highest spot and try again," Captain Wlazlo replied.

  They followed him out of the restaurant and up into the ruin that stood atop the hill. Wlazlo climbed a set of ancient stairs to the highest point that could be reached. Wolfgang and the others waited below for him.

  Captain Wlazlo tried several things on his phone, even waving it around in the air, and grew increasingly frustrated.

  The others with Wolfgang tried their phones, but he had already given up. There was simply no signal. He knew nuclear weapons released electromagnetic pulses that could destroy electronic devices, and although his phone didn't seem to be affected, the network system that serviced it seemed to be down.

  The Captain's agitation grew and he began cursing at the device in his hands.

  "It's no good," Wolfgang called up to him, waggling his own phone in the air. "No signal."

  The soldier ignored him.

  "What now?" the woman with them asked. The man stood next to her, they looked like friends, Wolfgang thought, and Leah stood close to him.

  "We go back and get the others, and head back to 'Slautern," Wolfgang replied. At least, to what's left of it, he left out. He tried not to think about it.

  Leah looked up at the American and asked, "What about him?"

  "He has to do what he has to do."

  The others accepted that and started to head back down the trail they had come up. Leah and Wolfgang followed, but stopped when the American called out, "Hey, wait up!"

  The four waited for him, and when he caught up, he showed them his phone. Wolfgang didn't recognize the app displayed on it, but he understood the no signal icon.

  "Look, this is classified," the Captain explained, "but a nuke just got dropped by someone, and I'm gonna tell you about this, classified or not." He paused for a second, looking at each of the other hikers, then continued. "My phone has a link to a top secret network of satellites. Anywhere I got a blue sky, I've got a signal. And now I have nothing."

  Wolfgang shrugged, not entirely following what the man was saying.

  "What does that mean?" Leah asked guardedly.

  "It means the satellites are dead."

  Wolfgang shrugged, still not completely understanding what the man was explaining. But it didn't matter. He had a responsibility to get the others back safely, and then he needed to go home. An image of his wife and daughter came to mind, and he wondered if he would ever see them again.

  "I'm going back," he announced simply and started running down the mountain.

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