Sacrifice:The Shenkar War (5 page)

             
Liam stood up and followed the man to the only other door in the room. The door opened, and Liam stepped out into the parking lot. A soldier motioned with his hand for Liam to head to the helicopter. Climbing up inside, he saw that Evan was the only other occupant. Securing himself in the seat across from Evan, he couldn’t help but wonder again what was going on.

             
Soon, the helicopter started and lifted off, heading south. They traveled for about twenty to thirty minutes before they started descending again. Looking out a window, Liam could see Hanscom Air Force Base below. He could see other helicopters landing and taking off, other people leaving the stationary helicopters, ordinary men and women like him and Evan.

             
Once their helicopter was on the ground, Liam and Evan climbed out and were instantly ushered toward a hangar by a soldier. Liam had barely any time to look around before they were inside the hangar. There a podium was set up on a stage, and in front of the stage were about fifty metal chairs. Milling about those chairs were close to equal that many people. Liam and Evan made their way to the chairs and sat down.

             
“
Well, this is quite the dog and pony show . . . maybe we are wanted for biological experiments,” said Evan, finishing it off with a laugh.

             
Liam chuckled as he looked around, then turned to Evan.
“
You are just looking forward to the body cavity search.”

             
“
Oh, you are a laugh riot; you really should have gone into comedy instead of law enforcement . . . smart ass!” But no matter how hard Evan tried to look offended, all he succeeded in doing was breaking out in laughter loud enough to catch the attention of more than a few people around them.

             
Liam’s laughter cut off as he saw new people entering the hangar from another door, heading toward the stage.

             
“
Holy shit! That’s the President,” Liam said as he pointed toward the advancing group.

             
Evan’s head whipped around and his mouth dropped open.
“
I hope he didn’t find out I didn’t vote for him. Did you vote for him?”

             
“
Yeah, that’s it . . . all the people who didn’t vote for him have been rounded up, and we are all going to be executed,” Liam said sarcastically.

             
Secret Service spaced themselves throughout the hangar, replacing the soldiers. Once all the Secret Service personnel were in place, the doors closed. At this point, President Adam Sheehan reached the podium and stood while everyone took their seats. Clearing his throat, he then spoke.

             
“
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being so patient, as I know it has to be hard for you being left in the dark on this. What I am about to tell you isn’t public knowledge, and when it does become public, the chaos it will generate will be phenomenal. Recently, we the people of Earth have been contacted by an extraterrestrial sentient race, a race calling itself the Meshtrell. They have come to Earth with a warning, a warning of impending destruction . . . destruction calling themselves the Shenkar, a religious, warlike alien race who are on a mission to subjugate or destroy all sentient beings they find.”

             
A disgusted snort came from Liam’s side, from Evan.
“
Typical religious fanatics,” muttered Evan.

             
“
The Meshtrell are a race that was almost destroyed by them. They fled their home planet in search of a race that could stand against the Shenkar. They believe we are that such race. With advanced technology, the Meshtrell will help us build a fleet of ships to fight back. Whether we fight back or not, the Shenkar will find us. As I see it, we have no choice . . . we fight or die!

             
I am sure that, by now, several of you are wondering why you have been brought to this place. The reason is that, unimpeded, one of the Shenkar’s scout ships will find us, and a month after that, their fleet will arrive and most likely destroy us . . . the way I see it, the human race will not stand for being slaves. Unfortunately, it will take six months to train personnel and build a fleet capable of withstanding the assault. We plan to send one battlecruiser to launch guerilla-like assaults against the Shenkar as they bring in their fleet for the assault on Earth. The battlecruiser will have a complement of five hundred light and heavy fighter-class ships. These ships are a special type of craft that require special pilots to operate them, and that’s where you people come in. All of you men and women have something in common . . . to be blunt, you all want to die.”

             
At that, murmurs broke out among the group, all with looks of everything from shock to puzzlement on their faces.

             
“
By the looks on your faces, I can see that wasn’t anything any of you expected to hear. Well, it is the plain truth . . . you see, we need people who hold no value for their lives. You will give it your best, you will give it your all, and you will give your lives to give us the precious time we need to build the Earth Defense Force.”

             
The President paused to look around at the fifty men and women, working up to what he had to say next.

             
“
The second reason for the need for men and women of your nature is that in order to fly the fighter craft, the pilots must be enhanced. With alien nanotechnology, you will have the reaction times of twenty men, your bodies will be enhanced . . . in short, you will be superhuman. But for all the enhancements you receive, in the end, the Shenkar will destroy you. I know it is a strong thing to ask of you, but please, think of all the lives you will save by giving yours.”

             
With that said, the President just looked from one face to the next, then gave a slight nod before saying, “Does anyone have any questions?”

             
Nobody moved at first; they all just stared dumbfounded at the President. Then the President pointed into the crowd, saying,
“
Yes? You have a question?”

             
Liam turned and saw that Evan had his hand raised.

             
“
Yes, I was just curious . . . uh, well, if we are all going to go to die, I was just wondering if we are going to get paid?”

             
Liam groaned as he put a hand over his eyes. Trust Evan to think of money at the time of Earth’s bleakest hour.

             
The President looked taken aback at first, but to his credit, he recovered more quickly than Liam would have if he had been in his place.

             
“
Well, I don’t see why we can’t work something out,” the President said, smiling.

             
“
Well, all right, sounds good to me! Sign me up!” Evan replied.

Hanscom Air Force Base

              Over the past few days, men and women had filtered into the base where they were given the same speech by the President and then after which they were shuttled to living quarters on base. Finally, it seemed that everyone who was coming was there--a total of 395 men and women. A general announcement had followed the last group saying that training would begin the following morning.

             
Liam’s alarm blared as it shook him from his sleep. It hadn’t been a very deep sleep, as he’d been plagued by the usual dreams of the bird flu except for a new edition. He had dreamt of Leah, a dream of her crying that he had died and he had not even said good-bye. Scrubbing the night crust from his eyes, he sat up and pulled back the sheet that covered him, swinging his legs out over the floor.
Here starts the beginning of the last days of my life,
he thought to himself.

             
Standing up, he walked into the bathroom and started the shower. Opening the closet in the bathroom, he looked at the uniform jumpsuit that hung inside the door. It was completely solid black except for a white sunburst on a pocket over the right breast with the name Brennan in white on the left breast. Military-issue black combat boots finished off the uniform. Closing the closet, he stripped off his boxer briefs and got into the shower. Thinking to himself, he couldn’t help but wonder how the alien technology was supposed to enhance them or, more to the point, how it was to be inserted into their bodies.

             
After showering, Liam finished getting ready and donned his new uniform. Taking a look at himself once in the mirror, he then opened the door to his quarters and left for the building he had been told to report to. On his way, he met Evan and Crystal McKenna, another recruit. Crystal was a pretty girl, around five foot six inches, with long curly blonde hair, a fair complexion, green eyes, and a few freckles across her cheeks and nose that gave her that “bring home to Mom” look.

             
“
Hey, Liam,” Evan called out as Liam approached them.

             
“
Hi Evan, hi Crystal . . . how are you both doing?”

             
“
Uh . . . as good as expected, I guess. I don’t really know what to expect with all of this,” said Evan

             
“
My stomach is doing flip-flops over all of this. I mean, they really haven’t told us exactly what to expect,” said Crystal.

             
“
I know what you mean . . . all they have told us is that they are going to stick a bunch of alien technology in us, and then we are going someplace to die,” agreed Liam.

             
They walked on the rest of the way in silence, thinking to themselves of the possibilities of what was coming. Their destination was a large brick building with no windows and only one door. A guard stood outside, checking the identification of each person entering. Once inside, Liam looked around and saw a simple office.
Not much of a training facility
, he thought. Off to the left, what Liam took for a closet door opened and a scientist stepped out.

             
“
Please follow me. You three are the last to arrive.”

Stepping through the door, Liam saw stairs leading down. The group of four descended three flights of stairs to a small room where an elevator waited open. The scientist motioned to the three to enter and then stepped in after them. Looking at the keypad, Liam saw that there were only two buttons
: up and down. The scientist pressed the down button. After a few minutes, the elevator stopped its descent, and the doors opened to a large room.

             
Spread throughout the room were several dozen groups of ten eight-foot-long white chambers standing upright with glass doors on them that were large enough for a human to stand in. Cables ran in and out of the rear of each chamber leading to a large central machine found at the center of each group, all giving off a low humming noise. If Liam were to guess, he would put money on it that there were 395 chambers.

             
“
Please come with me,” came a voice from Liam’s left.

             
Liam turned to see a scientist standing there. As they followed him, Liam noticed that several tubes were already occupied and several men and women were in a state of undress. It looked like they were preparing to get into the chambers they stood next to. Finally, they arrived at a vacant chamber, and the scientist turned back to Liam and spoke.

             
“
Please remove all of your clothes except your underclothes and get into the enhancement chamber. Someone will be along to explain what will be taking place.”

             
With that said, the scientist motioned for Evan and Crystal to follow him and walked to the next vacant chamber.

             
Liam removed his uniform and got into the chamber. He noticed that while the chamber stood upright, the inside allowed the occupant to recline slightly. Leaning against the chamber, he waited a few minutes before a scientist came up.

             
“
Comfortable, Mr. Brennan?” Without waiting for an answer, he started to attach medical leads to Liam’s chest. “These are for monitoring your heart rate, and these will monitor your brain pattern.” The latter two leads were attached to either side of his head at the temple. After a few minutes, the scientist appeared to have finished. Liam’s curiosity got the better of him.

             
“
What am I to expect? Will this be painful?”

             
“
Actually, I can’t really say. You people are the first to undergo this procedure. All I know is that I am to make sure you are prepped and then I am to monitor your vitals.”

             
“
You have to have some idea of what I am to undergo?”