Sacrifice:The Shenkar War

Secluded Government Bunker in the Midwest of the United States

              The President of the United States studied the two nervous men as one spoke.

             
“As far as we know, Mr. President, the only ones besides us who have knowledge of the spaceship are the United Kingdom, Russia, and Japan, sir,” said the young scientist nervously.

             
“Yes, it seems the ship came in from a vector that brought it in behind the Moon, shadowing it from everyone. The only reason Russia, Japan, and the UK know about it is they all currently have scientists on the space station and caught a glimpse of something. Yet they are still not sure what is there,” explained the second scientist. He then added rather hesitantly, “Also, we were contacted directly from the inhabitants of the ship wishing to meet.”

             
“What do you mean ‘they contacted us directly wishing to meet’?” demanded the President.

             
“Well, it seems that they--the aliens, I mean--sent a narrow beam transmission saying that they wish to meet with the leader of the most powerful nation of our world about a dire threat to the humans of Earth. Since the narrow beam transmission was only directed to our NASA facility in Maryland, we can only assume that you are the very leader they spoke of.” The nervous scientist mopped his brow as the sweat kept forming.

             
“Let me get this straight . . . so what you’re saying is, they speak English?” said the President, a bit skeptical.

             
The two scientists looked at each other; then the first scientist replied.              

             
“Well, no, sir. It was a mechanical voice that came through the transmission.”

             
“So we don’t know what we are dealing with--because I can also safely assume that we don’t know what they look like either?” asked the President, sounding a little angrier than he meant to.

             
At this, the first scientist looked about ready to faint. It was plain that this young man didn’t get out much, never mind the fact that he probably never dreamed he would be in the presence of the President of the United States.

             
“Well . . . yes, sir, that would be correct.”

             
“Okay, never mind that we don’t even know what we are dealing with. Can you tell me anything about this dire threat they spoke of?”

             
“No, sir, they simply sent a transmission saying that they wished to meet with you as soon as possible about a dire threat.”

             
“And you don’t find that a little disconcerting?! My god, what use are you, people?!”

             
The President laid both hands on his desk and slowly took a few breaths to calm himself before he spoke again.

             
“When is this meeting to take place?”

             
“In just over two hours’ time, sir. They said they will meet at these coordinates with all the information we need.”

             
“Okay, we will reconvene in two hours for this meeting. On your way out, please send in General Kelvin.”

             
Both scientists hurriedly gathered up their notes and left. The President sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes as he thought to himself.
My god, how can the people of the world handle another disaster?

             
It had only been two years since the world was devastated by the Avian influenza pandemic. In only a year, the world’s population went from nearly seven billion people to less than half that. Of the nations of the world, only the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan suffered the least amount of casualties due to their ability to contain the infected and their medical facilities’ ability to fight the virus. With the bird flu originating in China, they were the country who suffered the worst casualties, with a death toll of 1.2 billion, while the United Kingdom suffered the least casualties of 15 million. The United States had closed their borders at the beginning of the outbreak, but that almost failed when illegal aliens from Mexico crossed anyway, desperate to flee from the virus. The President had needed to recall all naval forces to stop any water incursions, and he deployed the full military might along the Mexican border with orders to kill anyone attempting to cross. It had been the hardest decision to make . . . tens of thousands had died from bullets.

             
“Jesus, Adam, you look like hell,” came a familiar voice.

             
The President looked up to see his friend standing just inside the door, looking at him with concern. For a man who stood six feet two, 210 pounds, General Frank Kelvin could be very quiet when he chose to be; he hadn’t even heard him enter the room and close the door. Then again, Frank was ex–Special Forces, so his ability to move with stealth came as second nature. The President managed a slight smile, stood up, and strode around his desk toward his friend, hand extended.

             
“
Frank, it’s good to see you. Have you been briefed on the situation?” asked the President as he reached Frank and shook his hand.

             
“
Yes, and I must say, I find it a little unsettling.”

             
“
Tell me about it. I wake up this morning to be told that I need to come here to meet with some aliens from another world--all of which needs to be done in total secret, without the knowledge of my Cabinet!”

             
“
Am I safe to assume you didn’t invite me here for my incredibly stunning looks?” Kelvin said while smiling broadly.

             
“
Ha, you wish! No, I don’t care what they said about total secrecy. I want you in command of security when this meeting happens.”

             
“
You can count on me, Adam; I won’t let you down,” Kelvin said seriously.

             
“
Thanks, I knew I could.”

Government Bunker

             
Soldiers were stationed everywhere, all handpicked by Kelvin for exemplary service to their country. If this was some sort of trick, then he would be as ready for it as he possibly could be. Kelvin took one more look around, then made his way to the landing pad where the aliens would be arriving. After he met with them and made sure everything was on the level, he was then to escort them to the meeting room.

             
As he was going over the details in his head, he suddenly became aware of a humming noise from above. Kelvin looked up to see a silver craft that looked something like a futuristic plane slowly descending. As it came to a rest, its wings, which on approach were angled down, slowly angled up to prevent them from hitting the ground. The craft shimmered eerily in the light of the landing bay. Kelvin couldn’t see who the occupant or occupants were due to the darkened canopy.

             
After several minutes, the sound of a vacuum seal breaking echoed throughout the bay as a hatch on the side of the craft opened and two humanoids who could only be defined as “alien” descended the ramp and made their way over to the General. Kelvin had to stifle back a laugh; this had to be a joke. Both aliens fit the description you always heard when people talked of being abducted or seeing aliens, commonly labeled as Graylings.

             
Both creatures stood at around four feet ten inches tall. They had gray skin with big solid black eyes, a small opening in the face that Kelvin took to be a mouth, and four fingers on each hand. The only difference from the descriptions in the stories was that these two wore solid black uniforms, except for a white sunburst that covered the left breast. One carried what looked to be a handheld touch screen computer in its left hand.

             
They came to a stop in front of the General, and the one without the small computer extended a hand as if to shake his. Forcing a smile, Kelvin extended his and slowly shook the alien’s hand. The hand was icy cold with a slight clammy feeling to it. As he did this, he heard a mechanical voice that seemed to come out of nowhere, and he also realized the mouth wasn’t moving. It took him a second to realize that the voice, in fact, was coming from what looked like a small metal button on the collar of the alien’s uniform.