LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 6: Time For Plan B
Tessa tried not to have a nervous breakdown as she dragged Garcelle(?) towards downtown. She wasn’t ready to try flying from the city centre. Not when both the Canadian and US militaries were surely all on high alert. They’d just jump straight into the bus—wait. The Entity didn’t have Garcelle’s wallet. So it didn’t have a bus pass.
Tessa stopped in her tracks in the middle of the industrial harbour area, which had been the most direct route to downtown. They were a good twenty minute walk from home. There was no way to get there before it was surrounded. It was probably already surrounded. No. She could just… right. Cash back from a grocery store. Or find an ATM. But those tended to only give twenties, and she didn’t want to waste a twenty on the Entity’s bus fare…
She shook her head. There was no point thinking about wasting an extra fifteen bucks in a matter of life or death. When she was travelling with an alien.
They just had to get money, pay to take the bus, and hope no one expected them to take a city bus when being pursued by the US military.
With that decided, she started walking again, the Entity looking confused about them having stopped, but not saying anything.
The alien designed energy detector was a hassle to move, but they managed to load it on a truck. Or, rather, the sailors managed to load it on a truck while Dr. Montgomery yelled at them, reminding them how much more valuable it was than all of them put together.
She was rather annoyed by the refresh rate on its scanning sweeps, but it seemed the Asset was not moving very quickly. If it was moving at all.
As they reached the Halifax peninsula, she noted it didn’t seem to be home, but was hiding out in an industrial area on the waterfront, and ordered the driver to head in that direction.
As they approached, the radio chirped to life, informing her that the Canadian Armed Forces and local police had set up checkpoints on the bridge across the harbour as well as several of the rail crossings out of the city centre. She had limited expectations on their ability to stop the Asset, but, at least, they might slow it down.
Her men, armed with equipment from their grey friends in the Corporate Alliance were better prepared to deal with it. She wasn’t sure if they would be enough, but they had a chance. Especially with air support at the ready, the carrier group to their south moving closer and several planes already scrambled.
“What—wha—what?” Tessa mumbled, having arrived at the Water Street bus terminal to find the digital schedule announcing all buses were cancelled. “Nononononooo…”
Turning, looking around the shops that sat next to the bus loop, she saw the ferry terminal was crawling with police. And… were those soldiers?
Yep. They were doomed. Utterly and totally.
“People are saying something about terrorists that were hiding in the port area,” the Entity whispered. “Did we walk right past them?”
“The port area?” Tessa asked, getting a nod from the entity.
She hissed a string of profanities under her breath while pulling the Entity away from the terminal area. They were being tracked, weren’t they? If they were being tracked, then there was nowhere they could hide.
Well, maybe they could try running to China or Russia and seeing if the Americans weren’t ready to risk a war.
Cuba might work? It was closer, and she’d been once or twice. It was a nice tropical country. Not too far for her family.
They would just have to… fly through US airspace. Ok. Not the best plan. Not that any of the alternatives were great to be gay in.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a military helicopter flying overhead, hammering home the urgency of doing something right now.
“We have to at least get out of downtown,” she mumbled, realising that other people were in danger from their being here. “Somewhere quiet.”
She started hurrying across downtown, towards the Citadel and the Commons. There was a lot of open greenspace around there, so there hopefully wouldn’t be too many people around. They couldn’t really go back south to the industrial areas, that was basically surrendering themselves, as there were surely already soldiers checking the area. And north led to the naval yards. Which was even worse than the south.
She made it about half a block before the Entity scooped her up into a bridal carry, as if she weighed almost nothing, jogging along their original path. “You are panicking.”
“O-of course I’m panicking! We’re surrounded and the largest military on Earth is moving in!” Tessa hissed just barely above a whisper.
She still had some vague hope they could hide… though, maybe trying to hide while also trying to avoid other people wasn’t the most practical combination of goals. She didn’t want to endanger anyone else.
“I think that—” the Entity began, only to be drowned out by a half dozen jet fighters racing overhead at a disturbingly low altitude.
The Entity nodded, coming to a halt. “The skies are less clear than I had hoped.”
“That’s why flying is a bad idea,” Tessa hissed.
“The ground will also be full of enemies soon, however,” the Entity replied. “I could—no. You would not survive that.”
Tessa stared at her sort-of-alien sort-of-girlfriend with fear in her eyes.
“I will interpret that reaction as an indication that you are against the idea of being reconstituted after the flight,” the alien being said simply.
“Very much against that, yes!” Tessa replied.
“Hmm…” the entity said, looking back up at the sky. “Trying to keep a human alive leads to significantly reduced options.”
Tessa wasn’t sure what to reply with when she noticed Garcelle’s hair starting to glow and float about. And… wait. They weren’t on the ground. They were only about 50cm above the sidewalk, but that was still enough that someone was going to—
“Freeze!” a police officer shouted, pointing a pistol their way. “Come—come back down to the ground!”
The Entity turned to him, an eyebrow raised. “Why?”
“Wh—why? I—or else I’ll shoot!” the man shouted. “Three! Two! One!”
The Entity watched him, while Tessa worried about getting hit. There was a pause after he stopped counting, before he made good and pulled the trigger. The bullet burst into a harmless flash of light before it reached them, the shot having apparently been a non-issue for the Entity.
It did, however, make a great deal of noise. Noise that brought attention.
Suddenly the pair found themselves under a hail of fire from snipers. The flashes of the bullets being eliminated by the Entity’s—aura? Forcefield? Tessa wasn’t sure what to call it, but, either way, the flashes were closer now than they’d been with the single shot.
The Entity’s eyes narrowed, the reddish glow within them getting stronger as its hair began to flit about in a non-existent wind.
Tessa reached forward, grabbing its face. “Please. Don’t kill anyone.”
The Entity closed its eyes, glow subsiding mildly. “I know. I know… it is hard to resist my nature, though…”
“It’s not Garcelle’s nature. Hold on to that part of you,” Tessa whispered, wiping a tear flowing from its eye.
“Yes. I think I can…” Garcelle replied, glow slowly subsiding even as the forcefield held up. "Peut-être… maybe we can talk to—”
Its eyes shot open, head whipping towards the Citadel. Tessa barely had time to turn and see a volley of energy blasts headed their way. The Entity blocked the volley, but the force shield was close enough this time that Tessa felt the electrostatic bursts of the blasts fizzling.
When the flash subsided she found herself staring down at a cluster of American soldiers. Soldiers accompanied by Dr. Montgomery. The woman behind this whole mess.
There was another burst of energy fire before Tessa could properly process what that meant. She didn’t think anyone on Earth had weapons like that, not even the Americans.
Tessa also felt a crackle of energy coming from the Entity. Its eyes were open and glowing red with full force, as bright as the night it had fullen taken hold of Garcelle. There was also a look of rage spreading across its face.
“EVERYONE JUST STOP!!!” it roared, before releasing a blast of blue time energy.
Tessa was apparently safe, close enough in to be inside the bubble that formed before the energy blasted out, which let her watch as the energy wave spread across downtown. She saw as birds froze in the sky, bullets stopped en route to their position, even the waves in the nearest part of the harbour froze in place.
Apart from herself and the clouds in the sky, the only other movement came from the freshly arrived Americans, who seemed to have brought some sort of energy shield of their own.
Tessa found herself being placed on the ground, before the Entity walked forward, towards the still firing soldiers.
“Keep your distance!” Dr. Montgomery shouted, hopping onto the side of the truck, which had begun slowly backing away. “The force of its attacks decreases with range.”
The small unit began backing away, still firing as the Entity walked towards them. It seemed in no hurry, strolling casually as the soldiers hurried away from it.
Then it was in the middle of them. Tessa hadn’t blinked. Even if she had, it shouldn’t have made a difference. One moment the Entity was only a few metres from her, the next it was a good 30m away. The soldiers seemed as confused and shocked as Tessa was, scrambling to turn and fire on the being in their midst.
The truck, carrying Dr. Montgomery, started to pull into a high speed reverse for a moment. Long enough for Tessa to see it was accelerating. Only to have the Entity punch it in the engine, the alien being’s fist smashing through metal as if it were water.
Tessa rushed over, as the Entity zipped between the soldiers, shattering their energy rifles with its bare hands. Several soldiers fell to the ground in fear, before attempting to scurry off, a few running past Tessa. Others froze, apparently overwhelmed by the superhuman display.
The Entity ignored all of them and turned back to Dr. Montgomery, the greying woman still standing on the side step of the truck, in the process of lighting a cigarette.
“You seem rather more in control than the first host,” the woman said, her southern drawl sounding remarkably calm.
“It is for my chérie’s sake. Not yours,” the Entity replied coldly. “Now. Leave. Us. Alone.”
“Mhm. That’s not happening, dear,” Dr. Montgomery replied. “Uncle Sam’s not about to let something as powerful as you sit on his doorstep unchecked… And don’t think killing me would make any difference to that. I’m replaceable.”
“You might be replaceable to Washington, but the Canadian government has stronger feelings about the Regional Municipality of Halifax,” a male voice said, amplified by a megaphone.
Turning around, Tessa saw a man stepping out of a dark car of some sort and walking their way. He was wearing sunglasses and a suit, his dark brown hair slicked back, and his face was… generic.
Looking back to the Entity and Dr. Montgomery, Tessa saw her girlfriend looking as confused as she was, while the doctor seemed annoyed to see the man.
“Who are you?” the Entity asked.
The man nodded, having reached Tessa’s position and lifted his megaphone back up.
“Agent Lee, with CSIS,” he said, before turning to Tessa. “Here, have my card.”
Tessa glared at him, hands over her ears as he hadn’t lowered the megaphone when he’d turned to her.
“Oh. So—,” he began, before lowering the megaphone. “Sorry.”
Tessa made a face, but felt it was better not to antagonize the government agent who seemed to possibly be on their side. As such, she quietly thanked him for his card as she took it.
He turned back to the others, raising his megaphone again. “The prime minister has requested that these military operations be cancelled. The unnamed alien being has not caused any harm between the first night and this battle. Even in this battle it has been the forces sent to capture it that have done more damage. We believe it is best not to push matters and antagonize this being further, for the sake of the inhabitants of the Regional Municipality of Halifax.”
The Entity lit up with a smile. It was then beside Tessa, pulling her into a hug.
“We won, chérie!” it said, snuggling into her.
“You can’t be serious… that thing is a ticking time bomb,” Dr. Montgomery replied.
Agent Lee gave a nod. “Ottawa recognises the potential threat, and has agreed to maintain a joint task force at the ready if the entity turns violent. But that is an ‘if’, not a ‘when’ if we leave it be… or, her be?”
This time he lowered his megaphone before turning to Tessa and Garcelle. “… What are your pronoun preferences?”
The Entity stared at him for a moment. “This one is unsure.”
“Very well, but do inform us if you change your mind,” Agent Lee replied. “Oh… and… could you undo the time lock?”
The Entity turned to look around. “After the bullets are dealt with.”
“That… is very fair,” the agent said, before heading off to discuss other matters more quietly with Dr. Montgomery.
Tessa had to admit to not being thrilled that the man seemed to have a history of working with her, but, she supposed, you only had so much choice over your coworkers.
Sorry I’ve not been updating this as much, since I’m trying to work on the shorter novellas to get some stories on the market fairly quickly. In the mean time, though, patreon patrons do already have early access to the next chapter, if that interests anyone.