Peter David - After Earth

“Now, Santana, he’s got some nice moves,” Kincaid said, jerking her chin toward a very muscular man in his thirties. He was doing isometric exercises in just his shorts.

“And you know this how?”

“We’ve danced,” Kincaid replied. “A few times.”

“I date closer to my age,” Senshi said.

“And closer to your weight class,” Kincaid said.

“So I like them lean, big deal.”

“I prefer my Rangers to have some power on them,” Kincaid said, waving at the bearded Santana.

“Gotta jet,” she said. “I go on duty in a bit.”

“Hope you see some action,” Kincaid said, her tone intimating she didn’t necessarily mean official Ranger business.

Senshi swallowed her retort and split from the track, heading for the lockers and a quick shower before going on patrol.

She was on the evening shift for the month of Egypt and was patrolling with Janus McGuiness, a man just a few years older than she was. He was broad-shouldered and had nice sandy hair.

“You watch the Meteors’ game last night?” he asked as they rounded a corner not far from where her family lived.

“Their defense is…”

“The word you’re searching for is sucks . The fourth quarter was a travesty,” he said.

“The Comets took every advantage,” she agreed. “Kochman was on fire. What’d he score, seven or eight in the last minutes?”

“With luck, they can beat the Sapphires next and stay in the playoff hunt,” McGuiness said. He grew thoughtful for a moment and then added, “Why don’t you and that guy…”

“The name you’re searching for is Braden,” she said, a smile finding its way to her lips.

“Yeah, him. You, him, Mallory, and me,” he suggested.

“Sure; if the stars align, it sounds ideal,” she said.

Senshi was about to add something more about the Meteors’ poor defense when their navibands simultaneously sounded off.

“Ursa,” McGuiness said, his voice dropping into the deadly serious tone that reminded her of the general. “Four spotted in town.”

She was studying the feed on her own wrist device and saw that one was nearby. Close to the apartment building where her family lived. That became her priority, and she broke into a trot. McGuiness was on her heels.

“You see something?”

“We have to evacuate the people, and I’m starting at my house,” she declared. He merely followed along, which was wise of him. Her family meant everything to her, and she wanted to make sure Faia and Kitai were safe.

The complex, carved deep into the cliffs that made up Nova Prime City, was a honeycomb of oblong apartments. Their home was a few floors above ground, meaning she had to make certain they were on their way to the nearest shelter.

“You ever see one?” he asked from behind.

“Just the vids during training,” she answered over her shoulder. No one was certain how many were left after the last incursion four decades earlier. Some definitely had survived, and the fear was that they had been breeding. However, no one knew where they lived, and so it was an ever-present threat.

“They’ve gotten bolder, coming into the city as they please,” he explained.

“Why can’t we find their home?”

“If you could camouflage, would you make it easy to find your nest?”

“Point taken,” she said just as the alert siren pierced the cool evening air.

Instantly, there were the sounds of panic and movement. Senshi increased her speed as the apartment structure came into view. Other Rangers came from the opposite direction, and McGuiness, the senior officer in the area, gestured for them to fan out, enter the other buildings, and escort people to shelter.

“One is two blocks over!” one of the others, an older man, shouted.

“Faster, then!” McGuiness replied.

McGuiness followed Senshi into the family’s building and gestured at her. “I’ve got the top floor. You get the kid to safety.”

She leaped up the stairs three at a time and was quickly on her family’s floor. Senshi banged on doors, yelling for them to get to safety, then shouldered her way past those crowding the corridor to get to her own door.

The automatic locks recognized her naviband signal and allowed her into the apartment. “Mom!” she called. No answer, so she must be at the turbine labs, working late again. Kitai at eight was old enough to put himself to bed.

“Kitai!” she yelled, hoping he was not scared despite the siren still blaring.

She strained to listen for his high-pitched voice amid the sounds of people and Rangers yelling. Ignoring the commotion behind her, she moved toward his room.

“Kit?”

“Senshi!” he replied, finally making himself clearly heard.

He wasn’t coming out of the room, and so she ran across the distance and found him still in bed, a reading tablet by his side. She burst through the smart fabric that acted as the room’s door, cutlass at the ready, and he grinned at her.

“Kit!” she said with frustration. “Why aren’t you out in the hallway? Why didn’t you come when you were supposed to?”

He didn’t reply, and she realized he was scared. Who wouldn’t be, with an Ursa alert and no parent in the apartment? Part of the price of being a Raige was hearing many Ursa stories.

“Never mind,” she said, deciding that determining the reasons for his paralysis would be of no use. “Kit, we have to go. Right now.”

He stared at her, his eyes seeming to focus on her weapon.

“Right now!” she yelled, insistent.

That seemed to do the trick, and as he struggled to climb out of the hammock, his foot got caught and pulled one end of the bed from its fittings. It wrapped around the boy as he fell hard to the floor.

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Senshi muttered as she started to move toward him so that she could disengage him.

The background noise was overwhelmed by a loud, terrifying screech. She’d heard that sound before, but only on vids. This was live and far closer than she was comfortable with. After all, she was in her own home, trying to get her brother to safety. This was not the time for her first meeting with the six-legged killing machine.

The Ursa’s cry made her brother freeze, still tangled in the hammock. Honestly, if she weren’t eleven years older and a trained Ranger, she’d probably be paralyzed with fear, too.

Instinct took over, and without realizing it she thumbed the controls on the center of the cutlass; thousands of filaments curled to life, forming twin blades.

“Is that…?” Kitai said in a strangled whisper.

Senshi nodded.

“They surprised us,” she explained to Kitai. “They keep invading the city at random times,” repeating what McGuiness had said just minutes earlier. She stepped forward quickly and swung the cutlass toward him. As the blade neared her brother, Kitai let out a startled cry, but the cutlass neatly cut away at the hammock, freeing him. He tumbled to the ground with a thud and wriggled free of the bonds.

Senshi spun about, the cutlass in both hands now, and tensed, awaiting a fresh cry so that she could gauge where the beast was. She prayed she could get her brother to safety, but if it was already in the building, the odds of that happening were slim to none. Over her shoulder, she asked in as confident a tone as possible, “You’re not afraid, are you?”

“No,” Kitai said, but she could tell he was close to freaking out.

There! A second high-pitched howl of animal fury, and Kitai jumped several feet in the air.

“Yes,” he admitted.

She nodded in confirmation, refusing to admit that she, too, felt a cold knot form in her stomach. She might have trained for this, but not here, not in her home. Instead of replying, she turned and faced the doorway, tensing her body.