Tatum's War

Tatum’s lingering scream reverberated off the metallic walls, hurting his ears, which made him stop. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, while his eyes adjusted to the white light blaring from the translucent panels around him. Blinking furiously to make his eyes adjust, the lack of detail on the metallic strips separating the panels, made it hard for his eyes to focus. He looked down at his feet. He stood upon a floor with blinking lights in a circle like a target gradually going from a large circle to a bullseye under his feet. With his head still trying to grasp the fact he wasn’t standing in Mr. Chance’s back yard anymore, and determined to figure out exactly where he was, Tatum focused on slowing his breathing.

What happened? I touched that gray orb, felt my body go ridged, then ended up here. Wherever here is. Breathe…okay…

Suddenly, bright flashing red lights replaced the blinding white lights, while alarms began to go off. Above the din of the alarms, he heard a swoosh sound and his back felt a cold breeze blowing on it. Tatum turned around. An open hallway enticingly presented itself beyond the red lights and blaring alarm. He stood three steps from the door. He took one step forward when people began running past the entrance. As his mind began to process the images his eyes were sending, the people came into focus and began to show their differences. Blue, red, green, and hairy people were running by dressed in similar uniforms. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He couldn’t fathom the different colored skin and skin textures. If he had somehow appeared on a movie set, the costume designers had to be some of the best. He took one more step forward when a person, a foot taller than himself, with soft brown skin that appeared to be short tight fur, stripped with white and two tone browns, stopped in front of the entrance looking at him. Golden eyes narrowed, small ears swiveled forward making him stop and stare at it. Unlike the others that had run past in uniforms, this person or alien appeared to be in some kind of loose workout attire. His voice tried to find purchase in his throat when the alien/person grabbed his arm and pulled him out into the chaos of the hallway.

The hallway was easily large enough to accommodate people walking side by side but everyone was running to whatever destination their duty required now. Uniform gray beams and tubes ran along the ceiling before turning and disappearing into the walls to either side. Doors swooshed open and close while people ran in and out of rooms hidden beyond the gray metallic walls. Everyone entering the hallway appeared to be going in the same direction, forward.

The alien/person that had grabbed him, who had clearly been working out, since their workout uniform clung tightly to their back from sweat, steered him along the corridor for a short while. Tatum’s head swiveled around trying to glimpse all of the strange sights before him while his brain struggled to comprehend the images being sent. The alien/person stopped abruptly in front of door, which opened; the alien/person pulled him toward them and unceremoniously shoved him forward into a room. The door promptly shut behind him.

The room was small. So small in fact that if he had been any taller or wider he couldn’t have fit. That’s why, when his eyes adjusted to the low light, he couldn’t believe that a chair could be sitting in front of him before an even darker wall. A small red light blinked above the door behind him. His mind raced with thoughts of the door opening again and being sucked out into space. He unconsciously placed his hands against the sides of the wall to hold himself in if that did occur. With a quick decision, Tatum jumped over the chair and pushed himself into it. At least, he thought, if the door did opened, the chair would keep him from getting sucked out, though he conceded that it wouldn’t keep him from suffocating. He glanced over the armrests back at the door to see if there were buttons to open the door like an elevator. He didn’t see any. Frustrated, Tatum heaved a heavy sigh.

“What the fuck.”

Suddenly, the wall in front of him blinked into existence showing him a black screen with pinpoint lights distributed equally on the wall. Then a quick flash of unrecognizable symbols ran across the wall, followed by a HUD display appearing. In the center of the wall, a crosshair rotated with unknown letters scrolling beside it. Situated at the top right and left corners, two circles began constantly updating like the radar of a ship. Along the left side several symbols that looked like two guns, and one really big gun blinked red. On the right side of the wall, a bar ran vertically with blue at the top and red at the bottom.

“What is this place?” he said in awe.

While he continued to examine the wall, a small yellow dot appeared in the middle of the rotating circle at the top of the screen. Tatum watched it grow in size, then the yellow dot broke into smaller yellow dots.

“Are those ships?” As if his verbal observation was a command, a screen appeared next to the bar showing some kind of space ship.

The ship was long and shaped like a cigar. Other symbols appeared next to the ship display.

“Those must be its stats.” He smiled. “Maybe the video game guys weren’t that far off.”

As he continued to study the stats, purple lights streaked out on either side of the wall startling him. Looking at the radars, red dots began to detach themselves from the yellow dots. The ship scanner switched from the cigar ship and displayed a round sphere. Suddenly, the red spheres began to disappear from the radar.

“So someone or something is destroying the spheres. Obviously those are lasers being fired, which is cool. But are they computer controlled?” Like before, his observation became a command and a transparent screen materialized in front of him with several glowing buttons, along with a circular pad. Startled, he would have jumped out of his seat, except he appeared to be stuck to it now. No matter how much he struggled, his body would not come up.

The screen began to flash red. The crosshairs were locked onto a sphere that appeared to be heading right at him. The lights on the console flashed even more urgently and he deduced that maybe he was supposed to push one. He gingerly reached out, and touched a green flashing button. When his finger came in contact with the floating console, the green button depressed, and circles of lights wrapped around his wrist and hands, which coalesced into glowing gloves. Freaked out, he began shaking them to rid himself of the gloves as a voice sounded over a speaker behind him, making him turn his head to see nothing. The voice continued in a loud manner and began to increase in volume when he glanced up at the wall and notice that purple laser fire was shooting out wildly in front of him. Intrigued, he held up his hands and the lasers appeared to fire at whatever point he directed his hands at. Tatum smiled while he moved his hands in circles and watched the after images spell word in the darkness. Clearly having enough of Tatum’s fun, the voice shouted one unintelligible word, making Tatum drop his hands to his lap. Once there, the lasers stopped firing. Tatum recognized the command to stop whether it was in a different language or not. Perturbed, but also just a little shy, Tatum slowly lifted his hand up to the screen. Nothing happened. Tilting his head to the side, he puzzled on why the lasers weren’t firing. Deep in thought, the crosshair flashed over to a red dot and blinked. Tatum moved his hands up to the crosshair and laser fire raced out missing the target. Other laser fire began, destroying the target. Tatum scrunched his face. When another one came into the crosshair, Tatum lined it up and blew it out of the sky. Satisfied he had a working idea of what was going on, he began to rack up the kills. Tatum’s confidence began to grow, and he started to go after spheres that were off to the side, which turned his turret and he got his first glimpse of where he was.

The space station looming out in front of him made his jaw drop. The curvature of the station disappeared into the distance and the blackness of space. The lasers firing from the round section of the station reminded Tatum of fireworks without sounds. Explosions out in space were quick and gone. No lingering flames or burning wreckage. Only tumbling debris that hit the station and bounced off towards whatever distance part of the universe waited for it.

Another red flashing crosshair brought his attention back to the sphere coming at him. His arms were getting tired as they tracked sphere after sphere coming towards the station. His aim began to stray. He didn’t know how long he sat there shooting the spheres, but when it looked like there wasn’t going to be an end anytime soon, he focused his attention upon watching the cigar ships. They were clearly far outside the range of the lasers, but even so, they were situated in a formation. It wasn’t obvious at first, since the red dots were a large distraction, but it was clear they were spaced in a semicircle in front of the station. A thought occurred to him.

“Does this thing do automatic?”

The lasers flashed quickly to a sphere and destroyed it. Thankful, he let his hands drop to the arm rests and began rolling his shoulders around, while the laser did their thing. He wasn’t sure why they weren’t automatic to begin with, when he noticed that the bar on the left appeared to be slowly decreasing. Frowning, Tatum couldn’t guess why, but at least it gave him a measure of rest.

“Are there any people on those cigar ships?” Tatum spoke hoping whatever computer was inside his turret knew what he was talking about.

The cigar ship came up on the side of the screen, flashing red. Tatum didn’t know what that meant but he hope it meant no.

“Computer,” a sudden Star Trek smirk creased his lips, “can you bring the distance closer in on the radars?”

The radar screen zoomed in until only the semicircle of yellow ships appeared. Tatum thought about that. “Those must be drone ships and the spheres must be mines or something like a torpedo. They can’t be wasting that much life.” Tatum looked at the bar; one quarter was gone.

Tatum pointed at the ships. “Computer, can you give me a visual of those ships?”

The main view screen flashed and the blackness of space appeared. Tatum couldn’t see any of the ships. Puzzled, he searched the entire screen, but nothing but blackness appeared.

“Computer, I can’t see anything?” He said.

Obediently, the screen changed contrast and the cigar ships appeared. He could even see the spheres being dropped from them.

“Okay that’s better.” He scanned the entire formation but didn’t see anything abnormal.

“Let’s see. I’ve read about this. The control ship could be miles away, just like a base in America can send a drone across the world. But even then, they have to use a satellite system. So what would be the space equivalent?” He pondered that. “The only reason they have to use a satellite is because of the curvature of the Earth. Since space is straight, unless there is a planet or something out there in the way, then it could be in any direction from their fleet.”

This presented a problem. He’d play enough games to know that you don’t need to be on a horizontal plane with your target. The 3D of space made it possible to be on any axis to your target. The cigar ships might be on the same plane as the station, but the control ship could be in any direction from the cigar ships.

“But what if you still traveled in a group?” The WWII movies always showed the fleet together. He knew it was a stretch, but it was the best he had.

“Computer, can you show me beyond the cigar ship in the direction they approached the station?”

The computer said something in the same strange language he heard earlier, before flashing past the cigar ships. Just on the edge of the screen, which he assumed to be the sensor’s limits, a square box turned.

“How far between the ships and the box?” He asked.

Unfamiliar symbols popped up. He shook his head.

“Okay. Do I have any missiles that can reach that?” He hoped he did.

The screen at the bottom flashed red. Tatum didn’t know what that meant, but no recognizable shape for a missile came up.

“No missiles.” He frowned. “Photon torpedoes?”

The same red light flashed. He looked up at the bar; three quarters gone. He cursed, his arms were still tired and he didn’t really want to do this anymore. Racking his brain, his gaze fell upon the larger laser looking symbol below the other.

“Computer, what is that larger laser?”

Tatum watched a scrolling message that appeared to even have numbers with the letters, but he couldn’t be sure.

“If I use that one, will it reach the square ship?”

More unrecognizable symbols scrolled passed. Frustrated and getting pissed, Tatum stared at the bar, which was almost emptied and didn’t care.

“Change to the large laser.” Tatum told the screen.

Obediently, the symbol shifted to green on the larger laser, and the HUD display went from circular to square. The laser stopped firing from his turret and the annoying voice began again.

“Computer, turn that voice off!”

The verbal assault stopped mid-sentence. Taking a deep breath, he raised his arms, waited for the square to turn green on the square ship and squeezed his hands together. He wasn’t ready for the actual shaking of his seat as five glowing red balls streaked out from his turret. He watched the red balls race along, with incredible speed towards the square ship. Yellow light, like colored rain, spewed forth from the cigar ships but the red balls appeared to absorb the lasers, though with each absorption, the red balls grew less in intensity and size. They continued on their course until they impacted the square ship. Quick flashes sputter and die as he watched. Soon debris began floating in every direction. Light from the beginning of time, illuminated bits and pieces as they tumbled off in whatever direction the explosion had sent them. Tatum watched on his monitor and felt nothing. His brain wouldn’t allow him to think about the consequences if there had been people or whatever was considered life on that ship. He viewed it much like he viewed his video games. It wasn’t real.

The cigar ships stopped dropping the spheres, and the remaining spheres were destroyed. Muffled shouts reverberated through the walls next to him and from behind the door. A slow smile spread across his mouth. A part of him took pleasure that he had defeated them, but the other part was analyzing why they had attacked the way they had. He’d noticed over the months playing GO with Mr. Chance that he had started analyzing things more critically. Patterns began to emerge in everyday things that always appeared random. At first he passed it off as nothing more than just a self-realization that he wasn’t the center of the universe. But as the months passed, he found it quite amazing at how orderly every day was. The way the wind blew in the trees, the seemingly randomness of insects crawling on the ground, the way the clouds formed and evaporated. He chuckled to himself. Better watch it. You’ll think you’re god. Shaking his head, he found he could slowly lift himself out of the chair. His neck cracked, while he messaged his shoulders. He stared at the chair, much like someone who experienced a bad amusement ride.

“Computer, how long have I been here.” His stomach growled.

More unfamiliar symbols appeared on the center screen. Tatum turned from them in disgust. The door slid open. Surprised, Tatum stared at the alien that had grabbed him from the room he had first appeared. How long ago that was, he still didn’t know. Now that he had time to study the alien/person, he observed the light two tone tan slick fur glistening with sweat. Its eyes had dark circles around golden eyes that watched him with a mixture of anger and something else. A slightly slopping nose that hinted at its species origin, twitched. Ears, completely black; moved away from its head just slightly. He followed the slope of the slender neck down to its chest where his eyes stopped. The sweat covered work out shirt clung seductively to its breasts.

His adolescent excitement turned to curiosity as he noticed a third breast tucked neatly in between the other two and slightly down. An uncontrolled slow smile began to spread across his lips. Movement made him look up in time to see the right cross before his vision went black.