Stanley sat in front of the tv, shocked. He was still coming to terms with the event that happened the previous day.

A fig tree tried to kill us…

The television depicted a local news broadcast. In case the story was too unbelievable, it showcased multiple camera angles depicting a man’s fight against a fig tree that appeared to possess a rifle of some kind. It continued until the mysterious man along with the tree disappeared in a flash of red light. After an analysis of the footage was briefly conducted by the show hosts, they cut to a press conference being given by local government and a military commander.

“At this point,” the man in green camo began. “We believe this to be a biological terror attack. With the tree genetically modified to pose a threat to the nearby populace. The source is being investigated, but we’re almost certain that this is an isolated incident. If it happens again though, we will be ready,”

The press conference continued for some time, with other officials trying to calm the public. Right before it ended however, everything suddenly went black. The power was out. Stanley looked out the window to see if it was just his residence. It was a cloudless night, the stars lighting up the sky, but the street lights were all off.

Great.

As he considered what could have caused the loss of power, a knock came from the front door. Stanley opened the door, only to find no one there. The moon provided enough illumination to see into the street. Suddenly, an armoured man appeared in front of him.

”Hi. How’s life?” the man in black armour asked.

While Stanley worked to overcome his shock, it briefly registered that he recognized the blonde individual’s voice. He just couldn’t seem to place where he’d heard it before.

“Umm. Good,” Stanley managed, unsure of how to react to his new visitor.

“That’s great,” he started, his brown eyes examining the door between them. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw, he again focused on Stanley. “Hey, sorry for kidnapping you earlier, I tried to stop the system from doing that to people, but it wasn’t until you helped me out that I was able to fix it,”

“Okay,” he replied, eyes slowly getting wider as he realised who he was talking to.

“Anyway, can I come inside? I need your help again,”

“Can’t you ask someone else? I don’t even know you,” Stanley said, starting to edge away from the closed screen door.

“Maybe. But I already know you a little. And you’d be doing yourself a favour as well. Make sure to come back, but take a look at the sky out a window or something,” Albert said.

The street behind Albert was beginning to have a tinge of orange.

Strange, the sun won’t be rising for another six hours.

The sky wasn’t visible from the front door, so Stanley decided to take Albert’s advice and find a window.

Blue, orange and yellow. Such were the colourful balls of fire that littered the sky. From his position they appeared to be no larger than his hand. Each of them seemed to be mostly stationary, but were struggling against an unseen force to approach the earth below. They writhed in apparent discord, shooting out whips of fire at small objects that flew between them. Jet fighters, Stanley realised. The fighters weaved in between the balls of death, occasionally unleashing missiles into them. One of the balls popped, sending out a small explosion before beginning to dissipate. Most of them, however, were still waiting for their chance to attack, the different coloured spheres as numerous as stars in the sky.

Returning to Albert, Stanley realised he’d probably seen him only yesterday. The person who saved him from a murderous tree.

They’re certainly dressed the same. I guess he can help then?

“What’s happening up there?” he asked upon returning to the front door.

“There’s a space based artificial intelligence attempting to assassinate you, and probably me as well now,” Albert replied.

Excellent. Couldn’t have expected a more positive and optimistic outcome. Life is just always great. Definitely.

“Fine. How can I help?” Stanley asked, opening the door.

“Shake my hand. Not yet though, we need to wait twenty minutes or so,” he said as he made his way inside.

Stanley eyed him quizzically before shaking his head. Why can’t things just make sense for a little while?

“Alright, here’s the deal. I have defences stopping the balls of fire from getting closer to us, but they’ll lose effectiveness in twenty minutes. Just before they do, I’ll shake your hand, which is the signal for transferring the role of commander of my facility over to you. With it, you’ll be able to save everyone,” Albert closed his eyes, considering how to proceed.

“What? Why not just do it yourself?”

“I can’t. I don’t belong here, so I’m limited in what I’m able to do. It’ll only work if someone who lives here takes my place. I’d hoped there would be more time to choose someone, but we’re out of time,”

Great. Random person that fights trees wants me to take his place, what could go wrong?

Stanley glanced out the window again, noticing that the night sky was still lit up with various colours.

But someone has to do something.

A thick book appeared in Albert’s hand. “This is the manual, it’ll tell you everything you need to know in the future about the facility’s functionality. Don’t lose it,” he said, laying the book on a nearby table. “For now, you’ll just be using simple voice commands spoken into this wrist watch,” he pulled out a watch with a small computer monitor on it, similar to one he himself was wearing. Albert proceeded to explain the process of how to combat the incoming threat.

* * * * *

It was done. He was the commander now. Stanley stood in his backyard with Albert by his side. Different spheres of fire hung in the sky above them. It was a cool night, but Stanley was sweating.

Only a minute to go. What am I doing?

He waved his hand, a holographic interface appeared in response. It was a cool blue, the colour customizable like many aspects of his new watch. Weapons, defences, evacuation, go home. Those were the four menus that were visible to him. Albert had informed him of the existence of many more, but said it would be best to focus on these ones for now. Opening the weapons option, he selected one from a dozen choices. Carters Pulse was its name. A directed electromagnetic pulse designed to destroy enemy electronics in an area populated by friendly assets. Albert suggested he use it to avoid knocking any of the friendly military aircraft that were engaging their targets out of the air.

Okay, here goes.

“Please allocate targets,” a robotic voice emitted from his watch said.

“Highlight atmospheric temperature disturbances within three kilometres. Exclude any currently being generated, focus on existing sources under the control of field technology,”

The balls of fire were each lassoed by red circles, the holograms acting like a kind of heads up display.

“Wait. There’s something wrong,” said Albert as he scanned the sky. By prior agreement, he was also able to view the holographic indicators.

Stanley moved his hand away from the digital trigger, unsure what to do.

“We’re missing a few to the left, we need to expand our targeting parameters,”

Following Albert’s words, Stanley realised it was true. Not all of the spheres were highlighted. He started to panic as he realised how little time they had left.

Twenty eight seconds. He warned me that they might employ some kind of jamming. What was I supposed to do? Right, wasn’t it—

“Mark by manual selection,” Albert added as Stanley realised what was required of him.

“Add targets based upon user selection,” he said quickly, before pointing at the unmarked spheres. He looked at Albert for approval, who nodded in turn. “Fire Carters Pulse,”

Several red lines connected a single point in the distance with each fireball. The bright spheres appeared to dissolve into the night upon contact, their previous locations only indicated by Stanley’s projector.

“All targets neutralised. Casualty list exclusively consists of micro machines generating a field to control a ball of plasma,” narrated the robotic voice.

Stanley started to relax in response, but was stopped short.

“Scan the area. Make sure we’re really done,” Albert offered.

“Implement scan for abnormal radar interference, unnatural light and unexplainable electrical fluctuations,”

No problems were detected. Stanley avoided letting himself relax this time, remembering that there was still one thing left to do.

“Time to set up some defences,” said Albert cheerfully.