chapter 13

For the rest of the afternoon Divona familiarised herself with the city and all its otherworldly inhabitants. There were hundreds of the greys hidden amongst the general population, concentrated mostly in manhattan and the inner surrounding areas. She would appear to them and ask them all the same questions. Who are they and what do they want. Unfortunately none of them had any useful information for her which ended up being frustrating and also somewhat concerning.

While her real body was busy zooming around the city, back at the hotel her clone kept a close eye on her two humans. Audrea watched the news all day while Michael listened closely to her live updates about what her real body was up to on the outside.

"How many is that now?" Michael said.

"One hundred and seventy eight." Divona said.

"Damn, that many huh? And just in New York city? They must be crawling around everywhere."

They then looked at Audrea who sat across the couch with her knees to her chest watching the news reports with trepidation.

"…The media is going mental over the crane incident and now with all these strange disappearances. If only they knew the truth…" Audrea said.

"Should I tell them?" Divona said.

"No, it would start a panic, although, you may have already shown them too much…"

Divona tilted her head in confusion. Audrea pulled out her phone and showed her a grainy picture of her flying through the air.

"This picture was taken moments after the crane incident, and its gone viral. That's you, isn't it? You need to stop being so careless. Someone took a picture of you and it got on the internet. I thought you could turn invisible?"

"Must have got her when her invisibility was down," Michael said. "It's nothing to worry about, it's just a picture, and a bad one at that, easily manipulated. It'll be forgotten in a few days."

"Some have also claimed to see the same blue haired girl walking in the streets of New York. One major media outlet is already connecting the dots."

"I can change my hair to a different spectrum." Divona said. And just like that her hair went to a bright red.

"I don't think that's going to work Divona, let's not worry about that for now. What are we going to about the greys? Its not like you can go to every major city and get rid of all of them, right? And what if more come to replace them?"

"I must acquire more power." Divona said. She looked up at the roof, or rather through it.

"...Why are you looking up?" Michael said.

"I must become more powerful. I must travel to the local star." Divona said.

"The sun? You're talking about the sun?"

"Yes."

How much more powerful can you get?" Michael said.

Divona continued her stare of the ceiling "Generally, I have three levels of power, and currently I am on the first level, the weakest level. At this level, I am too weak to protect the earth, myself, or both of you. I feel that it is my duty."

Back on the outside, Divona had enough of New York and looked up for something more ambitious. She soared high up into the sky, moving so fast she broke the sound barrier ten times over, sending a thunderclap that permeated and shook the atmosphere in her wake. In no time she reach the outer atmosphere, and soon after that space itself. The pull of gravity weakened until it was near zero, and she looked outwards into the vast void of nothingness, of vast empty space.

Divona had never seen the earth before, at least not the real one before its late reconstruction eons from now. The original earth was just as beautiful, and for reasons she couldn't explain, it brought her chills. The lone blue marble oasis seemed small and fragile but even for her it still felt like home deep down.

But while the earth was majestic and nice to look at, the one object she was truly interested in was the sun. It shined bright with incredible intensity that lit up all around it; a near endless bastion of energy made out of superheated gasses, over a million times bigger than the earth, the ultimate fuelling station, or the ultimate graveyard. In the vastness of space it seemed rather big and close by, but that was just an illusion. It was much further away that it seemed, in fact, it was over one hundred million kilometres away – nothing to sneeze at.

She could move fast, so fast that she could cross the entire earth in one second- or ten percent the speed of light, but even with this amazing speed, it would still take over an hour to get to the sun, and the same time to return back. She had left one of her clones behind to protect Michael and Audrea, but its power was limited compared to her main body and if any serious situation would arise she feared it would not be able to sufficiently protect them. Her number one priority was to defend Michael and Audrea, but she knew she couldn't do that effectively without getting stronger, and absorbing some of the vast power of the sun was the only way to do that.

While Michael and the Divona clone were talking sciency things, Audrea kept nervously looking at her phone. Being tracked didn't worry her thanks to Divona's hacks, but the thought on whether she should use to inform her work on what was happening crossed her mind. She was still technically a government employee in her home country, England, even if she was suspended from active duty or so she had been told. She excused herself and despite Divona's protests, urged not to be followed. She told them she would be back soon, and left only to get a quick coffee which in itself wasn't entirely a lie. Once outside in the streets she searched desperately for a payphone but not having any luck finding one. She was in a foreign city and she had no idea where she was really even going, or if such things existed here still. She couldn't use her phone as she was paranoid using it, even with Divona's hacks. She became so desperate for a phone, she walked up to a handsome young man who sat at a coffee shop and started a conversation with him.

"Hey there, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm really desperate for a phone. Do you mind if I borrow yours for a minute? Again, i'm really sorry asking you for this. " Audrea said, as charmingly as she could.

The man was dressed well and groomed even better. He was strikingly handsome as he looked at her and with youthful yet fierce eyes. He did hand her his phone but only on the condition that she would call him and they would have lunch sometime. Audrea smiled at him and agreed to it, even if she doubted she would actually do so. With access to a phone, Audrea moved a small distance away to get some privacy as she dialled in a secret combination of numbers she knew in her head to reach central command.

But as she finished off the last number, she was tapped across the shoulder by someone from behind. Her first thought was that it was perhaps the man who gave her the phone, but on second thought it likely wasn't him. The way this person got a jump on her was as if he or she was a fellow spook. She turned around and was horrified by who it actually was. It was Hannah, her temporary American colleague and the woman who abducted Michael before. She had the same dry face and greyed out hair, and the look of a veteran. She didn't look happy to see her.

"Give the man back his phone, Audrea." Hannah said calmly, perhaps a little too much so.

Audrea didn't really want to do as she was told, but in this case that was what she would have done otherwise. She returned the phone and sent the man a smile of thank you before moving off for that dreaded talk with Hannah.

"How did you find me?" Audrea said.

"I could have you in federal prison in about five minutes. Where is my fugitive? Where is Michael?" Hannah said.

"There's something bigger happening here Hannah. I don't have time for this." Audrea said.

"Bigger? What's bigger than assaulting a fed?"

"What do you know about the greys?"

"The greys? ….What are...the greys?" Hannah said rather unconvincingly.

"You know something..."

"The greys have not returned to our planet for fifty years. How do you know about them?" Hannah said.

"Well they're back, and I think something terrible is about to happen."

As Divona made it one third of the way to the sun, she suddenly stopped to a complete halt as she read a newly received message of distress from her nanites from earth. The message was delayed due to the sheer distance, but it was urgent enough to consider abandoning the idea of going to the sun and heading right back to earth instead. The greys were on the move and she wasn't sure if her clone had the necessary power to protect her friends.

As she floated in the emptiness of space looking at the still distant sun, she weighed her options.

So this is what it is like to be human...

To be indecisive...

To be so limited...

To be given two bad options and forced to choose...

Michael, Audrea, What should I do?

Eventually, due to her concern for her friends, she eventually decided to return to the earth. She could think super fast but even for her the option was difficult, but eventually she decided to return, hoping that she wouldn't be too late.

Audrea's words were cut short as everyone in the street suddenly ran for their lives as a insect like metal drone the size of a car suddenly dashed by the street with its sharp legs digging into the pavement like giant swords. Hannah saw it too, and they looked at each other out of mutual interest and alarm before following after it down the street. Audrea already knew where it was going, and right as she returned to the hotel where Michael and Divona were at, she noticed the drone climb up the side of the building, and right as it was about to reach their level, it was suddenly knocked off by an explosion that was created from the inside. The explosion knocked the drone away and created a hole in the side of the building. The drone didn't fall all the way down but it grabbed the sides of the buildings and continued to crawl back up to try again.

Audrea rushed towards the building, moving as quickly as she could up towards the rest, taking the stairs as there was no time to use the elevator. Hannah followed her but she didn't really care, she had bigger problems than Hannah at the moment.

When she burst into the room she noticed the Divona clone in battle with the drone within the hotel room itself. The drone had crawled inside but it was a little too large for the interior and seemed to struggle to move around which the smaller Divona seemed to take advantage of. Audrea rejoined with Michael who watched the fight in horror, and then again as he noticed Hannah standing with her.

Hannah narrowed her eyes at Michael and he did the same.

"It's you." Michael said.

"What's going on here? Who is the girl with blue hair?" Hannah said, turning her attention upon Divona.

"Long story." Audrea said.

Together they watched Divona fight a desperate battle against the alien drone. Her clone body moved just like the original, although both Michael and Audrea could tell it lacked the power of it. Her punches still had tonnes of force behind them but the drone clearly had the edge in the strength department. Divona was faster and relied mostly on dodging instead, cleverly avoiding every slice and dice the drone's front scythe like mandibles threw at her. A few of Divona's punches landed but they were ineffective so she changed tactics and instead fired a white hot laser from herself that struck the drone's metallic surface and causing it to go red hot but nothing more. It did not appear to cause any real damage. Divona then decided to ram into it, forcing both the drone out the hole and fall down upon the streets where it smashed into a parked car.

Divona did not fall but instead she simply floated in mid air looking down at it. She returned to her friends and touched down next to them and Hannah who were all watching from the hole in the building with wide open mouths.

Out of Divona emerged a bunch of semitransparent tentacles- her duality matrix, a wave particle generator. It grew out of her like a tree in fast motion, except it coalesced into an oval shaped object that eventually turned solid white and looked like a giant egg. It didn't have any obvious hinges or screws or anything but the perfectly smooth material cracked open on one side and a door emerged which allowed them access inside.

"Move inside. You will be safe." Divona said.

"What's going on? what is this thing?" Michael said.

"I'm not getting in there." Audrea said, protesting.

"There is no time. My original body will take too long to return," Divona said as the drone once again made its way back up the side of the building, climbing fast like a spider. "I cannot protect you. There is a sixty percent chance the drone will defeat me in this body. Go now. Trust in me."

Michael and Audrea looked at each other, but in the end they decided to do just that. Hannah decided to follow them inside the egg shaped ship also but none of them seemed to mind much including Divona herself. They all just wanted to get out of danger as soon as possible. Inside the pod like ship there were no controls or buttons. Everything was snow white and shiny and the seats were there but they also weren't. Things seemed to phase into existence all the time. The whole place seemed like a house of mirrors in the terms of available space but the walls themselves appeared to be able to move at will, and did so in a way that almost seemed organic. The door closed behind them with Divona watching them with eager eyes, smiling one last time as the doors finally closed.

They then felt the ship move off the floor even though it made no sound. At the same time the walls became transparent like mirrors and they could see on the outside the same way they could in an ordinary car. Suddenly they began to accelerate outward and flew out of the hotel exiting from the hole and heading for the sky and a forty five degree angle, moving at a nauseating speed, so fast they broke through the clouds in seconds. They were surprised they weren't knocked to the far back of the pod from the insane acceleration but for some mysterious reason they experienced no g forces. It should have killed them, but clearly the laws of momentum were different inside the pod than they were on the outside. Instead of being cracked open like eggs, they were allowed to see and witness a speed no human being in their time had ever experienced.

They reached space and kept going outward like a rocket on a mission. All three of them were wide with terror and awe as they looked back to see their home planet getting smaller before their very eyes as they headed deeper into space. It was terrifying, even so for two out of three of them who had special ops training, they weren't prepared for this. They moved so fast Michael wondered how much faster they were moving than a conventional rocket. Of course he had a good knowledge of physics but it was difficult to actually quantify a speed without actually seeing some numbers.

"Where are we going?" Michael said.

Out of nowhere, they heard Divona's voice talk back to them. "Oral language detected. English mode activated. Greetings users, this pod is currently travelling at 15 000 kilometres per second away from the earth in a random vector to escape imminent danger."

"Audrea…what the hell is going on? what is this?" Hannah said, her dried face showing new signs of life at the sight of the pure blackness of space. She was terrified and for some reason that mad them both feel a little better.

"Unidentified user detected." The Divona voice said.

"This is Hannah, she's a work colleague…" Audrea said with hateful eyes at Hannah who passed it back to her.

"Is that really you Divona?" Michael said.

"I am not Divona. I am but a mere representation of her.." The voice said.

"Artificial intelligence?"

"Not exactly. I am a series of complex algorithms which creates the illusion of intelligence. I am not intelligent myself. My answers are all predetermined and I only serve as a user interface between you and this pod."

"Oh well, what do we call you?"

"Whatever you wish, Michael." The Divona voice said, so eerily similar to the original it was disturbing.

"Alright then, i'll just call you Divona..." Michael said.

"Really Michael? Have you no imagination?" Audrea said.

"What does it matter what we call the pod?"

"Who Is Divona?" Hannah said.

"Divona...Are you sure leaving the earth is a good idea? What if we're being followed." Michael said.

"All stealth measures have been activated. There is nothing following this trajectory. "

Hannah lost her patience as she got up in front of them both. "Can the both of you please explain what's going on?"

Audrea and Michael looked at each other and sighed sadly.

"I suppose we have time to explain things. where should we start?" Audrea said.

But then they noticed a strange object approach their pod, a large grey dish like object that was clearly some sort of ship. It clearly had no problems following them at the speed they were travelling at and just the sight of it made their hearts skip a beat. By the looks of it, it belonged to exactly what they feared, and they could only hope Divona would get them before the greys do.