Ethan walked into the teleporting room in the Alliance base. It was no larger than the size of a living room. Only 4 terminals were accessible with one being overheated and in desperate need of maintenance. Breach knelt on the ground, his hands coated in dust and stains as he tried to fix the broken terminal. He let loose a loud cough that echoed through the deserted room and down the hallway.

“Are you alright, sir?” asked Ethan politely, tapping the man on his upper back.

“Yeah. Just some nuke-dust from the power cells getting up my nostrils,” he shrugged. “Oh, the name’s Breach. I’m the resident engineer here for the base on this level. Do you need some help?”

Ethan shook his head, “No thanks. I’m just on my way out.”

“First time?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Breach handed him a small bag, “You might need this for the food you ate last night.”

Slightly concerned, Ethan accepted the packet and walked over to the teleporter. He swiped the card he was given, and the terminal powered up.

Please select your station.

Ethan punched in the coordinates of the tree-shaped station back home and stepped inside. Don’t you dare give me another error message! Warned Ethan. His figure disintegrated into particles smaller than dust before vanishing from sight.

On the other end of the terminal, Ethan rematerialized from the very dust-like particles he’d been reduced to at the base. Even though he’d been to work every day through a teleporter, he’d never switched mediums before. Teleporting through the air was far easier and less strenuous on the person than water was. This was the first time Ethan had teleported from water to land and it was making his stomach churn.

A lump in his throat formed. The lump became larger and larger as the pressure built up. He felt a mix of fluids and solids rush up his esophagus like a wellspring reopening. Ethan barely managed to put the bag to his mouth as the vomit spewed out leaving a foul stench behind. Disposing of the bag, he scurried out of the branch and into the empty elevator. It was late at night which was far from peak traveling times so the station was dead quiet. So quiet that if a pin were to drop, Ethan could hear its echoes through the building.

As Ethan exited the elevator with nothing but a coat on to cover his blood-stained clothes, he had one place he needed to visit. Sarah’s apartment. She must’ve been worried sick for the past day or two I was gone, he thought. I didn’t exactly sign a non-disclosure agreement, but something tells me that Steve doesn’t care about legal stuff when it comes to keeping this a secret.

Arriving at the thatched house, Ethan once again knocked on the oak door. He could hear Sarah’s footsteps from the other end of the door drawing nearer. She stopped just short of the door and waited for a moment before Ethan heard the door lock unlatch. As the door creaked open, Sarah’s face zoomed through relief, worry, and rage all in a few seconds.

“Oh my God! What the hell happened to you? Where’ve you been? Where is your eye? Why are you limping?” she rambled on until Ethan wrapped his arms around her taking her by surprise.

“I’m fine. A terminal glitch dropped me somewhere and I got mugged. I’m going to get my eye replaced soon. It’s all fine…” assured Ethan.

Sarah returned his hug but let out a small groan, “have you been to the ocean recently?”

“No,” lied Ethan.

“Then why the hell do you smell like seaweed?”

“I’m just as confused as you are,” Ethan joked pulling away from Sarah.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sarah brought her open palm over the back of Ethan’s head and slapped his neck. Ethan winced as the sharp pain ran up down his neck followed by the slow burn of the slap.

“Don’t you know how worried I was? Why didn’t you call? Or message me? Or something?”

“I don’t know. I was too busy being unconscious!” hissed Ethan trying not to wake the neighborhood late at night. Sarah clenched her fists and let out an exasperated sigh before offering Ethan to sit down inside.

“Not right now, I need to get some rest and sort out some things first. I might take the week off too,” Ethan declined politely.

Sarah nodded, “take all the time you need. Just call if you need anything, okay?”

Ethan cracked a rare wide grin, his remaining eye twinkling ever so slightly. Sarah returned the gesture, but an undercurrent of confusion swept beneath it. I’ve never seen that look in his eyes before, she thought. He turned and left her house thereafter. Walking down his driveway, Ethan opens his front door with his house remote. He entered his cozy apartment. It was spotless and organized. Not a single plate was left unwashed. His work desk was clear of any rubble that most people would leave around. It was so clean, the only specks of disorder in his apartment were the laundry room and the dustbin.

The one-eyed man felt his chest tighten as he cursed the toxic atmosphere, he and so many were forced to inhale. Sorting through his drawer, he pulled out his pump and relieved the pressure with one deep breath in. He needed to get some sleep before the next day. Switching off his lights and setting his alarm, he tucked himself under his sheets and shut his eyes.

Just as he thought. The aura of sleep had visited every person in the neighborhood except him. Every time he’d doze off, a different nightmare would wake him up. So, he did what any smart person would do to dispel all these nightmares. Physics. The one thing in the world that brought him serenity in times of distress. Most would think he’d be crazy but to Ethan, it was quite simple. If dreams were driven by emotions and emotions hindered logic, then the optimal way to remove them would be to do the most logical thing possible, physics.

The realm of equations, statics, and mechanics gave him questions to think about that didn’t stir up any bad memories. So, he continued his project. He called it MindShare. A system that used the impulses in a group of people’s brains to link each other’s thoughts together thus allowing for a sharing of minds. As Ethan continued, his mind drained of thoughts and became clear and calm like an undisturbed pond. That was until a very large pebble was dropped in that pond.

The blaring sound of his alarm clock made him jump out of his skin as he quickly reached over to switch it off. Already time to go? Guess I worked through the night, Ethan thought. Unsurprisingly, Ethan was fresh as ever. He wasn’t one to require much sleep. A good five hours every two days was more than enough. An unhealthy habit presumably formed during his Ph.D. studies.

After rushing into the shower and putting on some comfortable clothes, he left the house for the station. As usual, he proceeded to the designated terminal on the back of his new Alliance card. A normal terminal? What if someone accidentally used it? questioned Ethan as he walked up to it and inserted the card.

Teleporting in 3…2…1… Please remain calm and keep your arms inside the terminal!

The screen flashed red once more as Ethan panicked. Surely not two days in a row, right? Ethan felt his stomach turn inside out as the terminal transported him. The last word he saw on the screen was the word ‘Error’. To his surprise, Ethan found himself in the teleporter room of the Alliance base. This time, he managed to keep his breakfast down and walked to the command room where he was to meet Steve and John.

On his way through the hallway, he bumped into Amber who was wearing her usual lab coat and stethoscope. She probably came from the med bay again, concluded Ethan.

“Hey, Ethan. Glad you found your way here. Did you have your breakfast sucked out of you as you exited?” she asked with a cheeky grin.

“No… That happened yesterday.”

“Oh, by the way. A word of warning: don’t use that card on any other terminal other than the one that leads you here, okay?”

“Why?” asked Ethan.

“Because that card forces an error message in the terminal that will ‘accidentally’ drop you off here. If you use it on any other terminal, it’ll plonk you somewhere else and the card will disintegrate.”

Well, that would’ve been useful to know when Steve gave it to me. Thank God, I’m a lot more organized than Sarah!

“Thanks for the heads up!” Ethan shouted as Amber walked down the hallway.

Ethan entered the command center at the far end of the main hallway. The large, automated doors opened as Ethan approached them and revealed a compact room filled with holo-desks used for mission briefings and meeting rooms. At the center was a circular table with Steve and John standing beside it.

“Good morning, Ethan,” greeted John with a gentle smile across his face as he showed Ethan to a set of elevators at the back of the room.

The elevators were the same model as those in the station. Multi-directional and high speed. As the three men entered the elevator, Steve pressed the button for the lower levels of the Alliance. Ethan felt his chest close in. Three masks popped out from the elevator ceiling. The three men grabbed the masks and attached them to their faces.

“We’re going through the seabed now, so the pressure is getting higher. The base underneath is depressurized, but the elevators aren’t. We’ll just need these masks here,” Steve said.

The elevator doors opened and the three left their masks behind. Ethan’s eyes were bombarded by the sheer amount of space in the Alliance base. The ceilings were four or five stories high, and the hangar stretched for at least 10 football fields. Airships, tanks, mechs, and Exo’s were scattered throughout the base with several people working at each station. The barracks were situated on the second level and housed equipment for every operative in the building. Its elegant design optimized the space it was afforded by housing as many people as possible without feeling cluttered.

“I told you, Ethan,” Steve began, noticing Ethan’s expression. “The Alliance is a military force as well as a relief organization. You didn’t think that tiny bunker was all we had, did you?”

Steve didn’t wait for Ethan’s response but rather directed him to the main hall. On the front wall hung three flags, each with the Alliance insignia embroidered onto it. The first was a crimson red flag with a neon green border, the second an azure blue flag with jet black highlights, and the third, a more familiar one to Ethan, a snow-white flag lined with gold.

“The Alliance has three regiments in it. The largest regiment, the militia, the covert unit or spy division helmed by our off-site operative, Jim in the Tsitsikamma forest, and then the one you’ve met and will be assigned to, the Infiltrators,” pointing to the red, blue and white flags respectively.

“You’re putting me in an elite squadron? Wouldn’t I pull the team down?” asked Ethan.

“Yes, but you’d be safe. The casualty counts in the militia are much higher than in the infiltrators and the spies mostly work alone. This is the safest place for you right now,” remarked John. “Come, let me show you to your barracks.”

Ethan and John ascended the spiral staircase, their feet clanging on the steps. They shuffled over to the first set of doorways in the corridor that had the Infiltrator’s flag carved into the wall above it. John ushered Ethan in. The barracks could have passed for spacious had it not been for the Exo-suits cluttering the left side of the open-plan room. A projector screen used for TV and a kitchen were the only two standout features that Ethan noticed. Each member had an individual station, stocked with their gear, weapons, and compressed Exo-suits.

Ethan’s station would be Kane’s old station. Breach emerges from behind his Exo suit, lifting up his welding mask.

“Have you prepared his Exo?” asked John.

“Yeah. I just finished the maintenance now, Boss,” replied Breach as he handed Ethan a cube the size of his palm.

“This is it? How’d you compress it to this size?” asked Ethan, bewildered.

“Oh, no,” chuckled Breach. “That’s the remote. That’s the Exo,” he emphasized pointing to the suit of armor sitting behind him. “Go ahead. Power it up. Let’s see that beauty come to life!”

Ethan presses the button on the cube and the Exo’s floodlights switch on. The light does not reflect off but is rather absorbed by the jet-black color of the suit making it almost invisible at night. Ethan’s jaw dropped as the suit booted up.

The hydraulic pistons slipped into place. Three streams of compressed air whistled like a kettle as the Exo suit stood up and scanned Ethan’s face. The transparent glass on the face of the Exo was tinted so that none from the outside could see who was inside. Ethan’s ears caught a zipping of cables as the grappling hooks built into the suit came under tension and reeled in. A modulated, electronic voice emanated from the speakers on the chest of the suit.

“Recognized: Ethan Rider, Infiltrator. Code: 0005. Test file uploaded for first use. Welcome to The Alliance, Mr. Rider!”