Invasion Chapter 1 Part A

*Author's note: Chapter one in "Invasion" is long so, I had to seperate it into two parts*

Chapter 1 Part A

Christine Reynolds wakes up from a nightmare, covered in cold sweat. She gasps in the cold air, that’s normal for everyone living in the underground base, like a fish on dry land. She untangles herself from her blanket and sheet, running the short distance to get to her bathroom. Chris stumbles into the dark bathroom, gasping for air, as she fumbles to open the bathroom mirror to get to the medicine concealed behind it. Her hands touch familiar bottles, but she flings them into the sink; vitamins, aspirin, and cold medicine. Then her hands touch the medicine bottle she wants as her shaking, fumbling hands try to keep a tight hold on it.

With urgent need, Chris grips the bottle in one of her hands and twists the lid off with the other. She dumps the small, triangular blue pills in her hand, picks up two of them with frenzied fingers, and swallows them dry. Chris’s small, lean body shakes for a few minutes and then the calming effects of the medicine starts its magic in her system. Feeling much calmer and steadier, Chris recaps the medicine bottle and places the bottle back in its original position. She picks up the other fallen medicine bottles to return them to their proper places, too, and then she closes the mirror. Chris turns her face away from the mirror at the last second, unable to look at her reflection. But as she walks out of the bathroom, she catches a glimpse of her face in the mirror out of the corner of her eye.

She shakes her head, knowing what she already looks like with her short dark hair, cream colored skin, dark brown eyes, and black tattoos all over her face, shoulders, arms, hands, torso, legs, and feet. The “tattoos” aren’t tattoos at all. They are veins blackened from wearing her uniform. The black lines run all over her body; some are thick, some are thin, and they all crisscross or loop over her skin. They are the distinguishing marks of a Warrior.

Chris comes to a halt next to her bed, thanking Nareek, who invented the medicine that helps her and the other Warriors. The medicine is a sedative to help her relax (or to sleep) after the dreams and it helps fight off her depression. She rarely takes it unless the dreams are too much for her to handle. She knows some people who need to take it every day just to do their job.

Feeling tired, Chris looks at her alarm clock, resting on a small nightstand next to her full-sized bed, to see that it’s oh-five-hundred. She considers lying down for another hour to sleep, but she knows it won’t be enough time to rest and to shake off her nightmare. Knowing what will help wake her up and relax her even more, Chris heads back into the bathroom for a shower.

“Lights,” she mumbles, feeling relaxed and a little sleepy.

The lights in the bathroom come on strong and bright, making Chris curse at herself as her eyes water from the sudden change from pitch black to blinding white.

“Lights off!” Chris snaps as the bathroom is bathed in darkness once again. “Thank you.”

She pulls off her thin black tank top along with the grey long sleeved shirt and black stretch pants she’s wearing. She throws her clothes to the side with reckless abandon, not caring where they land. Then, Chris steps into the small shower, closing the solid glass door behind her. Finally, she twists the clear knob in the center of the wall in front of her. The water comes out ice cold, making Chris curse again as she opens the glass door, jumping out of the shower, feeling her skin prickle from the freezing water and the cold air being pumped into the base. She forgot that it takes awhile for the cold water to warm up as it make its long journey down to her section of the underground base.

Chris grinds her teeth, annoyed. She holds out her hand in the shower’s stall, feeling the numbing water hit her fingertips. The moment the cold water turns warm she jumps back into the shower again and sighs. She washes herself fast, just to get it over with, and then lets the hot water pummel her body, feeling the water loosen tense muscles caused by her nightmare. Chris leans her head forward, closing her eyes, as she rests her head against the shower’s wall. As the hot water streams down her bare back, Chris allows her nightmare to replay itself in her mind.

It was July 21, 2013; three years ago to be exact. Chris and her best friend Dani where sitting beside each other on a park bench, watching their two kids play as they enjoyed the last remnants of summer before fall could set in. Chris kept her eyes on her son, who was an exact replica of his father, with dark hair, dark blue eyes, and a full serious mouth. Chris would never tell her son how much she hated the way he looked like a younger version of the man that broke up their happy family, but she secretly did.

Dani was watching her daughter, too, who looked like her with long blonde hair and big green eyes. Dani shifted her eyes over to Chris to see her friend’s glare and small frown.

“You haven’t heard from him have you?” Dani asked.

“No,” Chris said, her voice flat. “I hope he’s happy with Little Miss Perfect.”

Chris heard Dani sigh as she looked away from her daughter to stare at Chris’s son, Thomas.

“Well, he’s missing out. Tom-Tom is going to be twice the man his father is and it will be all because of you,” Dani said looking back at her friend, just in time to see Chris’s scowl deepen.

“Dani, I love and respect you so, please, shut the hell up,” Chris said in a tight voice.

“No because you need to talk to someone about the divorce. You need to talk about everything,” Dani begins as Chris growls in protest. “Listen, am I not your best friend? Weren’t we inseparable in high school? We’ve been friends for forever! And you were my maid of honor at my wedding and I was yours! Chris, I know you’re hurting. Who knows more than me?”

Chris was about to answer Tom-Tom because he was hurting just as much. She had been married to Thomas Jones Sr. for nine years. They had their first born son after being married almost a year and now they’re divorced since Thomas finally admitted to Chris about his infidelity to her. Thomas told Chris he wanted to leave her just as their son reached his seventh birthday. The two of them were both hurting at the loss of the man whom they loved. But now they meant nothing to him.

“I don’t want to talk, Dani. If I wanted to talk, I would go to some shrink or something. I don’t want to talk. I like hating everything and everyone right now,” Chris said.

“You don’t hate me, or Tom-Tom, or Angel,” Dani points out, her tone confident. “You love us or you wouldn’t have agreed to come out here with us today.”

Chris doesn’t mention how she was going to go over to Little Miss Perfect’s lair of love to mutilate and then kill both April and her ex-husband as they slept together in April’s large four poster bed at her condo. She saw it as a sign from above, when Dani called for them to go out with the kids, that she had plenty of time to perfect the many different ways that she could take her revenge on the cold hearted bastard, and his little whore, for ruining her marriage and her son’s life.

“You’re right,” Chris agreed. “I love the three of you, but I had something else I was going to do today. You just put it on hold.”

“You were going to castrate Thomas and mutilate April’s face, right?” Dani asked with a sweet smile.

A reluctant grin comes and goes on Chris’s face.

“No,” she said unconvincingly because that’s pretty much what she intended to do before she killed them.

“Yeah, right,” Dani laughed. “The only thing I’m afraid of about all of this is that the cops will pin accessory to murder on me. You see I know about your evil plan and I don’t think I’ll stop it.”

This time Chris laughed with Dani. Chris knew Dani was right. The pain and anger held inside of her these last few months had turned into a dark, swirling knot in the pit of her stomach. She knew she couldn’t keep all that darkness inside her small body; she had to get it out somehow.

“They’d never pin accessory on you because you’re persuasive around men and ruthlessly cunning,” Chris said, smiling. “Plus, you’re devious and your plan to get me to talk is working.”

Dani’s green eyes widened in mock surprise, even as they glittered with mischief as Dani asked Chris, “What plan?”

Both women laughed together again and then Chris became serious.

“Okay, okay,” Chris said calming down. “What do I do now? Do I spill out everything or do I tell you when everything began to go wrong or…”

“This isn’t logical, Chris. It’s emotional. That means it doesn’t have to be in any particular order,” Dani interrupted her friend. “Tell me what’s bothering you the most.”

Chris fell silent for a moment. She told herself that if any of this were logical, she would’ve found a solution to save her marriage and would’ve found a way to make her husband stay home with her. Chris looks back over at Tom-Tom, playing with Dani’s daughter, Angel. She watches as Tom-Tom pushes Angel on the swing. Chris knew her son was trying his best to have fun, for Angel’s sake, but his blue eyes were darker and his mouth was in a similar frown to Chris’s as he tried to figure out why he’s father left him, too.

Without warning, Chris blurted out in anger, “He doesn’t even call Tom-Tom to check on him!”

“That insensitive, sniveling, little weasel,” Dani said, smiling.

“Tom-Tom adores Thomas and it hurts him that his father has no lingering interest in him. I mean look at him! He’s confused and moody… he doesn’t understand why his father left us and doesn’t love us anymore,” Chris said wanting to punch anything—anyone—for putting that frown on her son’s face.

“Explain to Tom-Tom all the reasons why his father’s a bastard,” Dani said.

“How can I explain that to him? How can I explain to a seven year old his father stopped loving us because he wanted something he and I couldn’t give him? I can’t tell Tom-Tom his father ran off with perfect little April because she can satisfy his father in one area that I can’t,” Chris said, her anger turning into bitterness.

“That’s a load of shit, Chris, and you know it,” Dani said, her voice hardening. “God, when we were in high school, Thomas couldn’t keep his hands off you.”

Chris laughed bitterly and said, “Yeah, until I grew old and then he wanted a newer model.”

Dani leaned closer to Chris, her expression becoming serious.

“That’s his problem and he made a mistake. We both know he’ll grow tired of that whiny, superficial, little brat. Then he’ll come to his senses and crawl back to you,” Dani said in a matter of fact voice.

Chris turned her head to look into Dani’s eyes, seeing the double meaning behind her friend’s words; that not only would Thomas come back to Chris, but he would come back to Dani as well. It’s one of the secrets Chris has known about for years, but in order to preserve her friendship with Dani and to keep her husband, Chris turned a blind eye to their “activities” together, even though it almost ruined Dani’s marriage to her husband, Troy.

“I’m not like you, Dani. I know you took Troy back after letting him suffer for a couple of months when you both had marital problems and I’m glad it worked out between you and him. But I’m never taking Thomas back. He has pissed me off and I don’t want him after how he’s treated Tom-Tom and me. He can keep his little superficial girl and as soon as I have the money, I’m taking my son and leaving this place to start over,” Chris said.

Dani frowned and moved away from her friend, studying her.

“You’re serious,” she said.

“I wanted to tell you after our divorce was final, but I was pretty messed up over it. Besides, Thomas might miss me, but I don’t think he’ll come back to me either. He wanted the divorce, Dani, not me. I suggested that we separate for awhile, try to work it out, and make things right between us. He told me that’s my problem: I’m too stiff, I think too much, and I’m more like a general than a wife. I told him I can do better, I can be better. He said he wanted a divorce and then he handed me the divorce papers,” Chris explained and paused as her eyes watered.

“Dickhead,” Dani snapped to no one in particular. “You gave him nine plus years of your life, a good home, a son, and that wasn’t enough for him?”

“Nope and do you know what really, really pisses me off?” Chris asked, feeling renewed anger surge in her body.

“No. What?” Dani asked.

Chris opened her mouth to vent, when a loud buzzing noise, like a microphone sitting next to a speaker, erupted all around the playground. It was so loud everyone, including the kids, covered their ears and grimaced. Chris looked over at Dani with a question in her eyes. Dani shrugged telling Chris, “I don’t know what that noise is” in response to her friend’s unspoken question. As suddenly as the noise started, it stopped, leaving behind a faint humming sound.

Everything was very quiet. None of the kids on the playground played, no birds were singing, and no one was talking or laughing anymore. Everything was still, except for the faint humming sound that seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

In unison, Chris and Dani stood up from the park bench. Chris felt an urgent need to get Tom-Tom and run away. From what, she didn’t know, but something told her to get her son and run far, far away from the playground and the silent, puzzled children looking around at their surroundings. Just as Chris moved forward to run to Tom-Tom, a blur appeared in the sky, right in her line of vision, far above the park’s playground. The blur started out small and then it grew larger, and became wider, as Chris watched as the “sky” moved up and then back. That’s when Chris saw the weird man sitting in a black seat with red and white lights blinking and flashing around him in thin air.

Chris frowned at the strange man suspended in thin air, noticing how inhuman he looked. First, there was his skin, which was the color of smooth cream, but it looked shiny. It was if the man took a swim in a pool and the water hadn’t evaporated or been dried off his skin. Second, there was his face. It was oval and normal looking enough, except for his features.

His eyes were large, oval, and took up over half of his face. Where his nose should’ve been were two round holes and he had no lips. It looked to Chris as if someone added a slash mark below the two nose holes and above the man’s chin as an afterthought. Next, there was his hair, which was a glossy black that curved around his strange oval face. Finally, Chris noticed the color of the strange man’s eyes. They were a shiny, dark metallic blue, which made Chris (for some odd reason) think of devouring locusts.

The man, suspended over a hundred feet in thin air, looked down at Chris and then at Dani with a mad, happy gleam in his metallic blue eyes. Then his manically happy eyes shifted down to the unprotected children on the playground below that was staring up at him mystified, too.

A banging noise interrupts Chris’s flashback about her nightmare and she jumps away from the wall, startled. A sound escapes from her lips that resemble a whimper and a scream combined. The banging on her dorm door becomes louder and more persistent. Chris takes in a deep calming breath, twisting the clear knob in the opposite direction to turn off the hot water, and then she walks out of the shower naked.

Chris walks to her dorm door, taking an extra second to calm her nerves before she unlocks her door with a wet palm. The palm plate beeps and the solid iron door slides open, revealing a seven foot blonde woman in full uniform.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Dani asks, stomping into Chris’s room with a wild look in her green eyes.

Chris rolls her eyes and runs her hand over the palm plate to close and lock her door again. She turns around to look at her friend. Her long blonde hair is up in its usual tight bun. Her pale, beautiful face, that used to be adorned in make-up, is now undecorated. The “Hood” around her face makes her look like a beautiful, deadly cobra getting ready to strike.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Chris said, keeping the bite out of her voice. “I was in the shower, reliving my nightmare.”

Dani stares at her friend, losing the wild anger in her eyes, as they soften in understanding.

“You, too?” she asks.

Chris nods and heads back to the shower to dry off with a towel. She’s not going to be modest around Dani. They’ve seen each other naked, covered in blood and near death many times. They no longer care if they are clothed or naked around each other.

When Chris is dry, she heads to her closet. She opens it and stares at her own uniform with disdain. She grabs it and carries it to the opposite side of the bed, across from where Dani decided to sit. Normally, if roles were reversed, Chris would ask Dani about her dream, they would talk about it together, and then Chris would let Dani cry on her shoulder. It’s not like that when Chris has a nightmare. She’d rather not talk about it and focus on the mission they have to do today.

“Chris, do you ever wonder when this will all end?” Dani asks, after a moment of silence.

Chris unzips the outer layer of the uniform to get the first layer she’ll need. She pulls out a long, black suit made of a spandex and neoprene, like a diver’s wet suit. She slips the suit over her bare skin and zips it up in the front.

“Yeah, it will end once all the aliens are dead,” Chris answers, grabbing the second item she needs for her uniform.

It’s a spinal connector. It connects to her spine in a similar way that Doctor Octopus’s “arms” attached to his spine in Spider Man. It has long, thin needles that inject themselves into her spine in three second intervals. The connector controls all of the uniform’s functions from communications to distributing the uniforms’ force shield energy throughout Chris’s body without it frying her nervous system.

“I know that, Chris,” Dani snaps in impatience. “My question was when will all of this end? In two years? In five months? Or will we be doing this for the rest of our lives…when?”

Chris grits her teeth more annoyed at her friend then the long needles being inserted into her spine.

“I don’t know, Dani! That’s why we need this mission to succeed. We need them and they need us,” Chris snaps back and then bites her lip as the last two needles of the connector are inserted right below the base of her neck.

“Yes, but how long after we succeed on this mission do you think they’ll be able to help us beat the aliens? Chris, most of us can’t do this every day like you,” Dani said.

“Then quit,” Chris said coldly picking up her own “Hood” to put on over her head. “I can have you transferred to be a Cook or a Server. Better yet I could reassign you to be a Launderer. You know all of them hate my guts.”

Dani’s face flushes a deep red and she stands up from the bed to tower over her friend.

“No, I won’t quit and how dare you think I’ll be some domestic drone you can control! The Cooks, Servers, and Launderers hate you because you treat them like some lesser species. Besides, you know I can’t leave your side, so shut up!” Dani yells.

“Then stop whining!” Chris yells back. “The important thing to remember is if we succeed on this mission they can help us and it ensures the continuation of our species!”

Chris hooks the “Hood” up to the spinal connector. The “Hood” turns into a protective face mask once it’s activated. It has various functions once it’s activated, but the most important thing about the “Hood” is that is conceals the faces of the Warriors as well as making their voices “masculine”.

Once Chris has the “Hood” connected, she pulls on the large outer layer of the uniform made from the aliens’ technology. It’s an atmospheric pressurized suit that has red lines going up and down the inside and outside of the Chris’s legs and forms a bright red “X” across Chris’s chest as the lines end at the top of her shoulders. The suit is made bulkier from Chris’s true form, giving her the illusion that she has a leaner, more muscular build of a man. It also helps keep the Warriors safe at high altitudes and controls their body temperatures. The outer layer fits Chris perfectly from her neck all the way to her knees and then the uniform becomes scrunched and loose.

“Damn, I need my boots and bracelets,” Chris mumbles in a dark voice.

Without saying another harsh word, Dani turns to go into Chris’s closet. She grabs two thick, heavy boots and two copper bracelets to take to Chris. Dani passes the boots and bracelets to Chris as she sits down. Chris pulls on a boot, stretching the pant leg far over her boot, letting only the red tip of the boot show.

“I just want all of this to be over, Chris,” Dani whispers. “I can’t…the nightmares…”

“I know,” Chris said pausing just long enough to glance up into Dani’s eyes. “I know this is hard and I didn’t mean what I said. It’s hard on everyone; Cooks, Servers, and Launderers included. That’s why we have to win. We either win or we perish.”

Dani nods in agreement as Chris pulls on her other boot and then stretches the pant leg down over the boot again. The boots add necessary height and weight to Chris’s appearance. Then, she slides on the copper bracelets and twists the metal around each wrist twice. The bracelets turn red on the outer rims as they hum to life. They work through the spinal connector’s signal, transmitting Chris’s brain waves to each individual bracelet. This allows Chris to control her face mask and the programmed commands for her weapons. When Chris is ready, she stands up. She is not her usual five foot six in height, but seven feet tall, like Dani.

“Are the rest of the Warriors ready?” Chris asks, letting Dani know it’s time to focus on the mission.

“Yes, Captain. Nareek is readying the InvisiJet. ETD, twenty minutes,” Dani said.

“Good. Let’s move, Lieutenant.” Chris said and marches to her door.

Chris runs her hand over the palm plate one last time and her door slides open. Dani and Chris march out of the room and then Chris calls over her shoulder, “Computer, begin Lockdown on Personal Dorm, voice command Reynolds, Christine. Authorization code: 48657BD.”

Acknowledged, Captain Reynolds. Personal Dorm under Lockdown.

Chris leads the way with Dani two steps behind her on her right. The noise their heavy boots make will wake up the whole underground base to let everyone know it’s time to get up and prepare for the arrival of their guests. As both women march, other women come out of their dorms, throwing out similar voice commands to lock their personal spaces. All the Warriors are color coded according to their rank; which includes their bracelets, uniforms, and shoes. Chris looks over at Dani and nods.

“Warriors, activate face shields!” Dani commands over the roar all the boots are making in the narrow hall they are marching in.

Chris twists her right bracelet all the way around and a mask closes over her face. She can see the heat signatures of the Cooks and Servers as they begin to rise to prepare a large meal for the Warriors and their guests for when they return. Chris also has visual maps of the underground and the surrounding land for over fifty miles, she has a built in speedometer, she can control temp and pressure (by voice command), and she has a built in mouthpiece so she can communicate with her troops or with enemy aliens.

“Nareek, we are heading to the hanger. ETA, five minutes.” Chris said on a private transmitter to the InvisiJet.

“I be ready, Captain,” answers Nareek’s calm, clear voice.

Chris feels butterflies in her stomach from her nervousness, excitement and dread mixed all together as she and the Warriors enter the hanger where the InvisiJet is kept. She has been planning this mission for over six months. Six long months of grueling research, planning, and re-planning to make sure everything will run smooth. But she knows with the Aquarians, nothing is certain.

Chris notices Nareek and the InvisiJet instantly. She knows everyone on Earth would notice Nareek because she is one of the invading Aquarian aliens. Chris stops at the InvisiJet’s ramp in front of Nareek and so does Dani as the other Warriors file past Nareek and their two leaders.

Chris stares at Nareek, with her shiny, honey gold skin, oval violet eyes, long black hair, and her pilot uniform with a purple stripe going down the side of her leg. Nareek’s body is taller, slimmer, and more delicate looking than Earth females, but she is fierce, fearless and loyal.

Nareek is from the Royals in the Aquarian’s caste system, but she abandoned her family, her title as a princess, to fight alongside the humans. She saved Chris and Dani during the First Wave of the invasion on Earth. And although it took over a year for Nareek to gain Chris’s trust, she is now someone Chris trusts with her life. Chris twists her left bracelet all the way around and the face protector dissolves so she can look at Nareek face-to-face.

“Nareek, are you sure the transport will be in the location we’ve mapped?” Chris asks.

“Captain, I sure,” Nareek said.

“Come on, Chris, we have to give the Warriors their orders,” Dani said.

Her voice, due to the built in mouthpiece in the uniform’s face protector, comes out deep, loud, and male. It was Nareek’s idea to install a voice chip that deepens and distorts their voices to hide the Warrior’s true identities. Chris takes in a deep breath and twists her right bracelet to hide her face again.

Nareek touches Chris’s arm, a gesture of friendship and concern. Even through the layers of her clothing, she feels Nareek’s wet, cold skin that always feels like water. That’s why the Aquarians invaded Earth; it’s the only planet within two galaxies that has water in its gas, liquid, and solid states. They want the Earth for their own personal spa and they want the human race as their slaves.

Chris and Dani march inside the InvisiJet as Nareek races to the bridge to begin liftoff. Chris and Dani strap into their seats and then Chris nods at Dani again.

“Warriors, today is an important mission and we must not fail. We must succeed, even if the majority of us die. All of you received your instructions last night, but as a review, I will go over them again. Group One, led by myself, will be the first wave. We are to secure the surrounding area and combat any aliens that may harm our guests. Group Two, led by Captain Reynolds, will be the second wave. Group Two is to go into the alien transport, secure the vessel, and to get our guests out to safety, while Group One still defends the perimeter around the transport. Any questions?” Dani asks.

Everyone is silent and Dani looks over at Chris to nod. Chris looks at the Warriors knowing some are nervous about not coming back alive. Chris wishes she was one of the lucky ones who didn’t return. Behind the safety of her face mask, Chris closes her eyes to finish her nightmare.