Critical Path

The figures, at Mike’s estimation, stood approximately twenty feet tall. Although bipedal, they hunched over and used their massively muscled upper limbs to propel them forward, not unlike a great ape.

Their heads were triangular and heavily scaled. In the blue atmosphere of the planet the aliens’ scales and body fur appeared to be purple with gray accents. As a group they stopped just outside the edge of the trees and lifted their strange heads into the sky. They trembled and raised their arms.

“I think they’re howling or something similar,” Mai said. “We’re working on the audio track encoding and will confirm at a later date.”

“It’s… incredible,” Maria said.

“Truly,” Layla replied. “It’s not like it’s surprising; the croatoans have done the same on our planet, and we’ve come to terms with them being aliens to us, but to see another world, another species… that’s just… I’m lost for words.”

“You weren’t the only one,” Mike said. “It took me a good few minutes to compose my thoughts.”

“The most amazing thing, though, is that this is just one location of many. We don’t know where it is yet, but it seems we’re not unique in our treatment by the croatoans; they’ve done this to hundreds of other planets,” Mai said.

“Also worth noting,” Mike added, “is how close to Earth this place is. It seems that the croatoans have identified a criteria not just for their harvesting, but also planets that support life, with an atmosphere not too dissimilar to Earth’s.”

“So you’re saying the croatoans have done the very thing we’ve been trying for so long?” Layla added.

“Yup,” Mai said. “But this is just the start. We’ve got a lot of video to filter through, but we’ll compile the most interesting footage and put in a drive with a portable player for you to take back to Charlie and Denver in case any of it will help them prepare for their mission.”

As the footage turned to black, Mike switched off the system and leaned against the workbench to face Maria and Layla. He recognized the look of wonder and fear in their eyes. It was quite the experience to see proof of a new alien world, let alone a species. Sure, it wasn’t especially new after the croatoans rose up, but it confirmed something humankind has searched for hundreds of years for: that there are many Earth-like planets out there populated by intelligent species.

And like those species, they had one thing in common.

The damned croatoans.

Destroying their gate world wouldn’t just keep Earth safe, but if that’s what the bastards use to travel throughout the galaxy to other planets, then perhaps they could help keep other species safe from their voracious root appetite.

“So,” Maria said, clearly anxious about something, “about this mission. We didn’t quite tell you everything.”

“Oh?” Mike said, crossing his arms across his chest. “What else is there?”

Maria hesitated, unable to find the words. Layla stepped in, placing her hand on the younger woman’s shoulder as if to absolve her of the guilt. “Basically, we need you and Mai. They have a ship in Unity, but it’s damaged. When they first rose up and joined the fight, they were cut off just before the ice age after suffering huge losses to their engineers and leaders. The remaining aliens worked with the humans and thus settled Unity. Over time as they lost people during the ice age, they also lost the knowledge of their ship.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Mai said.

“Go on,” Mike said.

Taking a breath, Layla continued. “When the pods landed, they captured the council members from the mother ship: only one survived. One they call Hagellan. Quite the head honcho, by all accounts. Now, he knows what’s wrong with the ship and how to fly it and engage the jump engine back to the gate world, but…”

“But he needs someone to get the parts necessary and help fix it?” Mike finished for her, clearly seeing where this was going.

“Yes,” Maria said. “But that’s not quite all.”

Mai rolled her eyes, losing her patience. “Just get on with it, girl. What is it you want from us?”

Maria seemed to shrink away from Mai’s tone. Despite her age, Mai could be quiet fierce, not that she meant it personally; she just wasn’t one for wasting time. People of his and Mai’s age didn’t have the time to waste with nonsense.

“It’s Charlie,” Maria said. “He’s agreed to the mission, but he doesn’t trust them and wants a backup plan. He wants you to build him another bomb in case they try anything once they’re airborne.”

Mike looked to his wife. It was like looking in a mirror sometimes. Her eyes glinted and a smile stretched on her lips. At the same time, they said, “Count us in.”

“And as it happens, we had already started on another,” Mai said. “We like contingencies.”

“We can have it ready within a few days,” Mike said.

“They sent us to bring you back to them tonight,” Layla said. “Hagellan wants to speak with you personally to help get the engineering team set up and to brief you on the parts he needs from the wreckage of the others ships.”