“Getting tossed out of China is preferable,” said Reinhardt, “since it gets us home. But, since we’ll also likely be court-martialed, stripped of our rank, and humiliated upon arrival in Auckland, I’m not too keen on that either. Other options?”
“We fly the HERC south until we hit the South China Sea,” said Mazer. “We dump the aircraft somewhere on the coastline where it can be recovered, then we find passage on a freighter back to New Zealand.”
“Where we’ll promptly be court-martialed, stripped of our rank, and humiliated,” said Reinhardt. “Option C?”
“You take Patu as your bride,” said Mazer. “We buy a few rice paddies and live among the peasants. I’ll pass as your handsome, inexplicably old, inexplicably dark-skinned son of two white parents, and Fatani will be your water buffalo, plowing the fields with you in the blazing sun.”
“Do I get to whip Fatani?” asked Reinhardt.
“Naturally,” said Mazer. “But he also gets to bite you and poop wherever he pleases.”
“Why don’t I get to marry Patu?” said Fatani.
“Because you’re the size of a water buffalo,” said Reinhardt. “We all must play to our types.”
“I’d rather marry a real water buffalo than any of you,” said Patu.
Fatani laughed.
“Your words sting me, Patu, queen of the rice lands,” said Reinhardt.
Patu rolled her eyes, and Reinhardt maneuvered them slightly to the east, heading toward a low range of mountains covered in lush tropical forests.
After a moment there was a beep from the backseat.
“I got something,” said Patu. “A visual. Not the best image, but it’s getting clearer by the moment. An American news satellite. There’s no audio though.”
“Patch it to our HUDs,” said Mazer. “Reinhardt, take us a few more kilometers along this mountain, then find a high place to land.”
“You got it,” said Reinhardt.
A fuzzy video feed appeared in Mazer’s HUD. The superimposed text on screen read LIVE.
The vid was of space. The alien ship was there in the center, small and distant and unmoving. The satellite wasn’t directly between the ship and Earth, but rather off to the side, at an angle, giving Mazer a slight view of the ship’s profile.
“I see a place to land,” said Reinhardt. “I’m taking her down.”
The HERC descended through a break in the tree canopy. Mazer allowed himself a glance outside. They were on the crest of a wide, lush mountain ridge, almost entirely consumed with dense jungle forest. The air was thick with the scent of flowers and composting vegetation.
The HERC set down gently, and Reinhardt killed the gravlens. There was a slight jolt as normal gravity took over, and the aircraft sunk a centimeter or two into the soft jungle topsoil. No one spoke or moved. They sat there, watching their HUDs.
They waited for half an hour. Nothing happened. They got out of the HERC and stretched. Mazer ordered them to take sleep-shifts. Two would stay awake and two would sleep in two-hour shifts.
A hand shook Mazer awake. It was dawn. Sunlight dappled the ground around them, shining through the tree canopy overhead. Fatani said, “Something’s happening.”
Mazer pulled on his helmet and switched on his HUD. There was the alien ship. Only now the stars around the ship were shimmering, like heat rising off a stretch of asphalt in the summer sun. At first it seemed like a glitch in the broadcast. Then the alien ship began to rotate, turning its nose away from Earth, and Mazer understood. The ship was emitting something, radiation perhaps, or heated particles, using the expulsion of the emissions to change its position.
It turned ninety degrees then stopped, with its profile now facing Earth.
“What’s it doing?” said Fatani.
Slowly the ship began to spin on its axis. At first Mazer didn’t notice; the surface was so smooth. Then a giant ring of light appeared on the side of the ship at the bulbous end, as if the surface of the ship had cracked and was emitting light from inside.
“What is that?” asked Fatani. “What’s that circle?”
The ship continued to rotate. Once. Twice. Three times.
Another circle of light appeared on the bulbous end beside the first one. Then a third circle appeared. The alien ship continued to spin. Around. And around. And around. Then, moving in unison, the three giant circles began to rise upward like columns from the ship.
“I don’t like this,” Fatani said.
Then, in an instant, one of the columns broke free, slung down toward Earth by the spinning motion, leaving a massive recessed hole in the side of the ship.
It’s not a column, Mazer realized. It’s a wheel. Tall and metallic and enormously wide, with flat sides and a turtlelike top that had been part of the skin of the ship. It was shooting straight toward Earth.
“The hell it that?” said Fatani. “A weapon? A bomb?”
As Mazer watched, the second wheel broke away, slung to Earth, chasing the first. Then the third wheel followed, right behind the other two.
“What are they?” said Patu.