Chapter 7: Magic! And Those who Introduced it—Part 1
They came from outer space. They drifted across the sky silently, watchfully, and with an air of innocent evil. They came in the broad daylight of midday, without fear of destruction, without remorse of being discovered by everyone who happens to gaze up at the sky.
For how long had they travelled? How far did they voyage to get here?
These questions were the least of humanity's problems. One minute, humans lived a peaceful life in relative harmony with one another. The next minute they shared the Earth with an uninvited guest – either a friendly visitor or a lifeform of mass destruction that will cause seeping decay on the very state of being.
They were gliding along the clear blue sight, wandering gracefully down the steps of this atmosphere, surfing across the cloudless heavens with all connotations of serenity and harmless intent.
Of course, NYSA were deeply contrasted with this breaking situation – terror, panic and fear consumed them, chaos emerging within the organisation, across the different NYSA centres across the world, but particularly the main one in New York. Panic ensued, as after all, this was not the military's domain but their very own. NYSA knew that contact with aliens would happen eventually, but no one genuinely believed that such contact would ever happen in their lifetime. The Science Protection Units were immediately called in – therefore they were interrupted from their first-day meetings and briefings.
Leonel and the others had only just been introduced to the two overseers of the Science Protection Units. They presented themselves at the front of the miniature lecture theatre – the first one, Dr Remus Crawford was short and stubby, his hair a refined light brown and his face was slightly tanned. He looked to be about 40, wisdom flowed from the bronze blazer he wore, and a polished brilliance shone in his blue eyes. The other overseer, Dr Pandora Lorentz, was overpowering, intimidatingly tall and elegant. Within the poisonous darts that were her violet-brown eyes, she conveyed her intelligence and sharpness. She spoke softly, but Leonel had concluded that she could easily incite fear into the hearts of anyone who opposed her.
The alien spaceships were all heading north, and if they continued to follow their routes, they would be converging on a point in the Québec state of Canada. It didn't take long for the supercomputer to identify where they were going – and more importantly, how to get there before they do.
Phoebe fell behind the others as they were running to the NYSA's private landing zone for the things they launched into the air. This fleet of airborne vehicles that NYSA had mostly consisted of rockets, planes, transport ships or jets, but some of them were rumoured to be fully operating spaceships, similar to jets but with a higher capacity to leave Earth's atmosphere, to carry out military operations and to fly wherever they needed in a short amount of time.
Purity decided that she wasn't going to run away from her problems anymore. She was going to help NYSA with all her capacity. She was going to be there for her friends. She quickly caught up to them as they stepped out onto the landing bay of the centre.
It was like a mini airport, except within, it contained a large array of impressive transport ships, small fighter planes and large monoliths in hangers, saved for a war on the unlucky and unforeseen chance that one does break out.
The wind caught phoebe's golden hair as she was boarding the small vessel of great power, nicknamed 'The Messenger' for its fast speed and incredible convenience. However, this name tells little of its surprising firepower and incredible manoeuvrability.
It started gliding down the runway almost immediately after the last of the 25 got onboard, launching itself into the air with immense power, making it seem incredibly easy to propel something into the air at insanely high speeds.
Phoebe, Leonel, Purity, Juno, and Kate all still had no clue what these 'Science Protection Units' were all about. Kate and Phoebe agreed that it was a military program with NYSA's technology to prepare for the inevitable war against their enemies in Europe and Asia. Leonel and Purity weren't so convinced, although they had no strong ideas of their own. Juno didn't seem to give his opinion about the whole situation often, although he quietly pondered its connection to the supercomputer. After all, the supercomputer did make the final decisions on who would get into these units.
Having worked with the supercomputer for several months, Juno was aware of its unimaginable breadth and depth of knowledge. The dependence of NYSA on it was only growing with each passing day into the future. The decisions it made felt impossible, its calculations persistently perfected and its nature inhuman, almost supernatural.
It also felt a bit of a strange coincidence that aliens would appear on the first day of the SP units.
The alien flying objects were speeding up, now going faster than The Messenger, and it seemed like the spaceships would reach their destination before they did.
10 minutes went by. Kate gazed out the window to see a still blue unchanging sky. She didn't trust its cerulean emptiness. Another 10 minutes passed, and whilst they weren't catching up to the rapid alien ships, she felt that they were close to something, she felt they were on the brink of a great discovery. Dr Lorentz turned from the computer she was using to analyse both their ship and the ships of mystery.
"They've landed," Lorentz observed with a calm yet remorseful tone, "it shouldn't take too long to get there. We best be careful, however."
Nervousness and excitement zapped around the cabin of the ship. Leonel had read this in books, seen it in movies, and had the occasional conversation—the occasional dream. But this was real life, and he was at the forefront of their soon discovery.
Did aliens really exist?
He still couldn't comprehend the events of this day. Waking up this morning he never would have expected a fleet of ships to appear from thin air to make a series of suspicious and strangely coordinated movements. In fairness, he didn't know what to expect when he woke up this morning. The Space Protection Units were shrouded in mystery, and as Leonel looked at the 24 other people with ages varying from 16 to 25. He glanced at the coordinators – his supervisors. Lorentz seemed restless, maybe unsure of the operation so far or the future of NYSA as an entirety. Crawford was tentative, and anxious, yet stood up to make his address.
"Okay listen up!" Crawford urged, "We're arriving in 5 minutes at the site where they landed. Everyone will be given an energy blaster to defend themselves if necessary. Combat gear is also essential in this encounter. This is for your protection. We consider the safety of you all above everything else," He stopped talking and started helping everyone with their equipment.
"And one more thing," Crawford looked around with a mellow pain in his eyes as if he was trying to look away from a darkened memory, "Always look after your own life before trying to save others."
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