The Defense

“A beautiful day, isn’t it, Sam?” I nodded as the sun shone down, mixing with a warm spring breeze, gazing over to my companion who was staring up at the blue sky.

“Yes, Jack” I agreed. “And perfect weather for Earth Day 2030.”

He didn’t answer, just squinted a little and sipped his water bottle. After a moment, he pointed upwards, his tone curious. “Do you see that, Sam?”

I didn’t. Instead I was too busy joining the crowd of botanical enthusiasts in our latest efforts to save the planet: Planting a new tree.

“Dig it deeper. Yes, the hole needs to be bigger. It’s a sturdy fellow.” Feeling a bit like Johnny Appleseed, I crouched down, nodding approvingly. “There we go.”

A tug on my arm pulled my attention away briefly. “Sam.”

“Hold on, Jack.”

Settling the sapling into its new home, I began to pile dirt around it. The newest addition of green to the nation’s capital was—

“Sam!”

Shaking me firmly, Jack drew my eyes back to the sky. A blip of black, growing closer and closer, hurtled towards the earth.

“What is that, Sam?”

“How should I know?”

“You’re in the President’s Guards. Don’t you know everything that goes on?”

As he spoke, my personal pager’s alarm rung, a piercing beep that had only been heard before in tests, never during an actual event.

Leaving the crowd, I turned to my companion, both our eyes wide. “An emergency, Jack.”

“From the president?”

“We need to go.”

The rush to the mansion only took minutes and we soon found ourselves face to face with President Weston’s worried visage, her expression strained and taunt. Behind her, a familiar news anchor filled the TV screen.

Together with the other Guard members, I listened as she spoke without introduction.

“We’re being invaded.”

Invaded?

My mind struggled to make sense of her words, until I felt Jack jab me and nod towards the screen. The newswoman’s words gripped my stomach and twisted it tightly.

“A fleet of foreign vessels has appeared in our sky, and all scientists around the world are confirming they are extraterrestrial.”

Jack’s voice whispered in my ear. “Well of course if it’s alien, it’s foreign.”

A Guard next to me turned from the TV to the president. “Friendly?”

She shook her head. “Decidedly not.”

Then the president stepped closer and said, “Go to the base, meet with the General and follow his orders. My friends, we will all have to work together to dispel this threat. Otherwise…”

Pausing, she stepped over to the window. From my position, I could see the black shapes growing closer.

“…We will lose our existence on this earth to an alien invasion.”

Jack pulled me out of the room, his tone excited. “Aliens, Sam. Can you imagine that?”

I really couldn’t.

Another buzz, but not from my personal pager. Instead, my cell phone was lit up, its caller’s smiling profile picture very familiar: My ten-year-old niece.

“Hello, Mira.”

“Uncle, is it true about the aliens? Are they coming to take us over?”

“No, Mira. We’ll stop them.”

“Uncle—’

“I can’t talk more. But I love you. Listen to your mother and keep safe.”

“Don’t die, Uncle. And definitely don’t go into any of their spaceships. I’ve seen those movies.”

After hanging up, I followed Jack to the waiting SUV. With a smile, he threw his empty water bottle into the recycling bin, arching an eyebrow. “Ready to save the planet?”

The drive to the base was quick, the General’s words even briefer: This is our planet. Fight them off.

And so we did, as best we could.

In the chaos around, I teamed up with Jack to man the defenses, protecting the capital’s east side.

At first, as the ships dumped thousands of smaller vessels into the sky like raindrops, I thought we were doomed.

“Jack, there’s so many.”

“Yep, the more, the merrier, eh?”

“Can we get them all?”

“Keep shooting, Sam. It’s survival, isn’t it?”

Survival.

Yes, keep going.

The small vessels then spit out smaller capsules, individual ovals that showered deadly alien pellets down at us.

“Duck, Sam.”

In the middle of lying in the dirt, I coughed on the clouds of debris thrown up by both sides, invaders and protectors. Jack helped me up in time to stare at a lowering ship before it was destroyed by a neighboring Guard’s defense.

Another companion approached us, crawling under the fence. In her hand, she held a small radio.

“The scientists have translated their language. They’re talking to us.”

“What?” A pause in the sky let me turn my attention to her. “They are saying something?”

A brief nod, then she played the recording. “Surrender. Or risk annihilation. Surrender. Surrender. Surrender.”

“That’s it?” Jack asked, unimpressed. He ducked under a new barrage, then fought back, his eyes blazing. “No surrender today. Nope, this is our planet. Not theirs. Let’s defend it.”

In the distance I saw my little tree cut down by a falling capsule. Infuriated, I fought harder than ever.

The news anchors began to call us the Resistance Against Aliens. As night fell, the black blips began to thin out, their raindrops of fighters turning from a deluge to a drizzle as the moon overtook the sun.

“We’re winning, Sam.” Jack’s exhausted tone mixed with a smile in the darkness. “The news said so too. The aliens are losing.”

“They are?”

“Good thing, too. I’m out of ammo.”

The taste of victory filled me with elation as I stood up from the dirt, cheering.

Jack’s smile was infectious. “We’ve saved our planet from invasion, Sam.”

It was true.

The aliens were defeated.

My pride and joy overflowed. Somehow, saving the entire earth from aliens was better than planting one small tree. The radio chirped happily, the news stories already flooding us with praise, calling us the planet’s protectors.

We were heroes.

“Sam, look out!”

A renegade oval capsule sped towards us, sailing over the torn ground in haphazard fashion. Leaving our defenses, Jack and I ran, trying to escape its oncoming approach.

In the darkness and chaos I lost Jack, but not my pursuer as I ran away from the capital, towards a wooded area. Up ahead, a few yards away, I saw a small cave.

Safety.

Reaching the entrance I stumbled over a vine, tumbling head over heels until I hit something hard and metal. Groaning in pain, I looked upwards, the faint moonlight reflecting off a closed door.

Outside, at the face of the cave, the alien capsule had crashed, its hatch hanging wildly open…inviting me closer for a look.

I’d never seen an alien before. I stepped closer to peer inside.

I bet it’s green with blue spots, long tentacles for arms, big eyes and—

I stopped.

A young woman…my age…her eyes closed and her breath labored, lay strapped into the seat. Around her, the consoles of an alien world lay blinking in warning.

Suddenly, her eyes opened and she stared at me. They were startlingly like mine as she tried to unlock her straps.

A hand of shock gripped me and I stumbled back into the cave, hitting the door while fumbling for the knob. Twisting it open, I rushed inside and slammed it shut, my own breaths now heavy and gasping.

Like hers.

For a paralyzing minute, I struggled to fill my lungs in the dank space, my eyes adjusting to the dim lighting. After a brief rest, I could make out my surroundings, staring in even greater shock at a wall of cave paintings.

Pictures of great beasts with claws and tails the length of city busses surrounded me as I turned in circles, only for my eyes to land on an enclosed glass case.

Inside lay two of those great creatures.

In revulsion, my eyes returned to the paintings, now noticing the small human shapes next to them, arms raised, hunting.

“Hello, Sam.” The sound of the president’s voice spun me around as the stale air grew thicker.

Her expression was half hidden in the darkness, her voice low. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

That makes two of us.

Trying to make sense of the strange space, I pointed towards the center case. “These are the aliens.”

There was a long pause as she stood still, a curious look in her eyes, as if whether to trust me or not. “No, Sam.”

Reaching out, she brushed the case with her fingers. “These are earth’s natives.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. President, I don’t understand.”

My confused reaction caused her to step towards me. Then I felt her warm hands enclosed around mine, enfolding them.

She smiled. “Thank you for saving the planet. Future generations will be told great stories about you, our earth’s hero. Yes, many, many wonderful stories.”