Uninvited Ch. 04: The Way Home

"I'm not gonna lie," Kadavy grunted, leaning on the wheel well of the tractor as he examined the engine. "It's been hard running the farm without workers, it's doable, but far from ideal. If we can teach these aliens I could really use the manpower. We can plant wheat in this season, all of your equipment is in working order besides a few things like fuel and a couple of flats, I can take care of that. Spare no rod kid, let's get these Mutons orientated and the crops sown. We can start at first light tomorrow."

"Can you bring them some pigs when you come back?"

"Aye, I can do that. I have a feeling they're gonna be worth the investment."

We said our goodbyes and he returned to his truck, turning off down the dusty road and heading home. He would bring anything we needed when he returned the next day. The Mutons seemed happy for the time being, at least as happy as a Muton could look, their expressions twisted into a perpetual scowl by their low brows. The largest Muton stopped me as I left the barn, towering over me and blocking the door, his size and weight all the more apparent in his new proximity. I had never been so close to a Muton before without it trying to pull my limbs off.

"RUM-BA," he declared, slamming a fist the size of my head into his broad chest with an audible slap. I lifted the tablet computer, but it provided no translation. He repeated the vocalization and gesture, cocking his heavy head at me. "RUM-BA!"

Oh! Was that his name? Roomba? Well, that certainly lessened his intimidating aura, being named after a novelty vacuum cleaner. I pointed to him, and repeated the name. "Roomba."

I wasn't sure that my pronunciation was accurate, but he seemed pleased, and moved aside to allow me to pass him. He closed the door behind me as I left and made my way over to the farmhouse, eager to see Vi again. She was waiting for me in the hall, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed over her chest.

"His name is Roomba," I said, and she cocked her head, not getting the joke. "Oh, come to bed, I'll explain it later." She didn't protest, and followed me up the steps to our bedroom. We seemed to have gotten over our spat, I could tell that she wasn't happy about the presence of the Mutons, but she was no longer angry with me at least. In time I would show her, she would see for herself that I had been right when my reformed Mutons were driving tractors and combine harvesters through the fields. Until then, it was easier to just let the subject lie.

"They aren't going to fit in the damned cab," I said, watching with exasperation as Kadavy tried to push one of the smaller Mutons into a tractor. The cab was wide and tall enough, but the steering wheel came so far forward that a Muton just couldn't fit behind it. We had cranked the chair back as far as it would go, but it still wasn't enough. The other Mutons stood around looking confused, their arms crossed as the sun beat down on them.

We were out in one of my fields, the earth was unsuitable for planting and full of wild growth, and so the first task Kadavy had set for us was pulling up the weeds and tilling. The tractor would drag a plow behind it that would tear up and loosen the soil with its set of trailing claws, like the talons of some giant, metal bird. It would kill most of the invasive plants, too, it was a fairly simple job and the Mutons should be able to handle it. That is if we could actually get them into a tractor. I was sure that the aliens could pull the plow behind them, they seemed strong enough, but we weren't operating a slave plantation here. We had all of the modern amenities and we were going to use them.

"You know what, fuck it! Tell him to pull it out," Kadavy called to me. I raised the tablet, typing in the phrase, and the device blared a series of guttural calls. The alien scratched his bald head, and Kadavy mimed tearing the seat from the cab. The Muton looked to Roomba for confirmation, and the great alien nodded to him. He grasped the chair in his hands and braced one foot against the chassis of the vehicle, loosing a great grunt and ripping the seat out with a wrenching of metal. Bolts flew through the air, and Kadavy ducked under them, laughing as the Muton hurled the seat into the field.

"I mean, he's gonna have to pick that up or it will trash the plow, but fuck me if these guys aren't strong!" He urged the Muton up into the cab, and this time it squeezed inside, sitting on the rails where the chair used to be. It was in! Kadavy wiped his brown with his sleeve and climbed up beside the creature, beginning to demonstrate how the wheel and the pedals worked. There was a whole dashboard full of functions that would attach and detach trailers, raise and lower plows, all manner of things. For now we just needed to teach them was acceleration, braking and steering.

After a few halting starts, the Muton seemed to get the idea, and I used the computer to explain to him that he needed to drive up and down the rows. Off he went, the plow tilling the soil behind the tractor and tearing furrows as it turned over the dry dirt on the surface to reveal the damp, fertile soil beneath. Kadavy knelt to pick up a handful of it, sifting it through his fingers and revealing a couple of twisting, pink worms.

"This'll do, the soil is healthy. When he comes back around, tell him to explain it to the rest of them, and make sure they know what they're actually tryin' to achieve. When they've done your fields they can do mine too."

"Got it, so what happens next?"

"Well we need to till all the fields first, we're turning over the soil to bring up the nutrients, that's what the crops are gonna need to grow when we plant them. Once that's done we have to water them and spray pesticides, maintain them, make sure they grow healthy and nothing damages them. Last phase of the operation is using the combine to harvest the grain and prep it for transport, at least those are the simplest terms. I got a silo full already from last season, but you're starting from scratch. Grain seeds will last three or four years at a stretch and still be viable, but I have plenty in storage if the first crop fails."

"Hey, I appreciate what you're doing for me Kadavy, I won't forget this."

"Don't mention it kid, to be honest you've been kind of a godsend. I'm an old man now, I'm not sure how long me and my wife could have kept operating the farm on our own without any outside help. We used to get seasonal workers but that all dried up when ADVENT was brought down. Your Mutons are gonna add ten years to my lifespan." He straightened up and shielded his eyes against the sun, watching the tractor reach the end of the field and turn around, heading back the way it had come to till the next row along. "Well he hasn't crashed it yet, so there's that."

I was suddenly aware that the other Mutons were standing idle, waiting for instructions, and so I called Roomba over and began trying to explain tilling in greater detail. Kadavy fed me the information and I did my best to relay it with the tablet, well aware of the limitations of the translation software. I was learning too, this was all new to me, and so I felt a certain camaraderie developing with the aliens as I tried to interpret Kadavy's rambling.

As I had suspected these Mutons had no idea of what farming was, even the most basic concepts were a mystery to them. That suggested to me that they had been born and raised in a sterile environment, perhaps as disposable shock troops, and that they may never have set foot on a planet that they weren't intending to conquer. Plants were a mystery to them, they had no frame of reference for fertilizer or growing seasons, no idea how grain was harvested and processed into something edible. It would all have to be taught, but they seemed eager to learn, this was the first purpose they had been given since the psionic network was silenced.

Vi seemed to have more common sense than these aliens, a knowledge base that fell more in line with what I would expect from a human, did that suggest that maybe her people were more recently inducted into the Elder's army? Did she have memories of her homeworld, or like these aliens was she grown in a tank and bred only for war? Maybe Vipers were afforded higher status within the ranks of aliens, and thus were provided with a more comprehensive education? They certainly seemed to be rarer than Mutons on the battlefield.

I watched the tractor pass me and continue down the field, the driver was taking to the job well, they were going to do just fine.

By the time the sun had begun to set, both mine and Kadavy's fields had been tilled, and we had scattered seeds using one of Kadavy's machines called a Seed Drill. It attached to the front of a tractor, was loaded up with seeds, and then planted them at an even depth and spacing as it drove across the newly upturned soil. The Mutons had done a good job, each had been given a turn driving the tractor and they seemed to have gotten the hang of it. Only Roomba was too large to fit, but he seemed content to take on a supervisory role. It might simplify things to just go through him, rather than trying to teach them all at the same time, they seemed unwilling to take initiative without his approval. Had he been their squad leader, or was he some kind of tribal chieftain? I couldn't communicate well enough to ask such specific questions, nor necessarily understand the answers.

Kadavy had rewarded them with two pigs, and they seemed satisfied with the transaction. He gave one to me for Vi as well, and I waved him off as he drove his Ford pickup along the road home, the Mutons returning to their barn with the pigs draped over their shoulders.

Vi chanced a glance outside today as she leaned out of the front door, staring down the Mutons as they lumbered across the dusty courtyard, her expression more suspicious than hostile. I was sure she would warm up to them in time, at least enough tolerate their presence. She greeted me and took the pig that I was dragging, taking it into the garage where she liked to prepare the meat for cooking.

I wondered if the Mutons cooked their food or not, did they even know how to cook, or was their food provided to them in some processed form by their captors? Might they become ill, thinking that they could eat raw meat? I should probably ask, in fact I had a better idea.

I flipped the pork on the grill as the Mutons sat around me beside the barn, resting on the ground, hunched over like shaved gorillas as they eyed the browning meat. Vi hovered a short distance away, coiled up in a fat pile as she sat atop the roof like a watchful housecat, drawn by the smell of the food but unwilling to take part in our multi-species barbecue. The Mutons seemed mostly indifferent to her, the smaller ones shot her a somewhat worried glance every so often, but Roomba sat confidently with his massive hands resting on his knees. I could almost imagine him smoking a peace pipe, I felt like I was catering some kind of Native American treaty ceremony.

I wasn't sure if I should feed Vi or Roomba first, there definitely seemed to be a pecking order in the Muton tribe, but I somehow doubted that Vi would care what order she was fed in as long as she got her fair share. She seemed content to stay on the roof for now at least, and so I tossed a cut of pork to Roomba after letting it cool for a moment. He sniffed it curiously, then took a small bite, rolling it around in his mouth and tasting it thoroughly. I waited with bated breath, hoping that it was to his tastes and I hadn't just ruined their hard-earned wage.

To my relief he swallowed the morsel, then surprised me by passing the rest of the meat around the circle to one of the smaller aliens, who began to eat ravenously. My assumption had been wrong then, Roomba was not an overlord, but a caretaker of his rag-tag band of exiles.

I handed him more pork with my tongs as it became available, and soon each of the Mutons had a share of the meat. I was sure the size of the portions I could grill wouldn't be enough to satisfy them, it would take a while to cook all of the meat Kadavy had given us, but we had the time and I was enjoying the communal vibe of our little sit-in.

I beckoned to Vi, requesting that she come down for her share of the pork, and she gave the Mutons a wide berth as she slithered off the roof and circled around them. Like some kind of feral beast she snatched the hunk of meat from my hands and hurried back to her hiding spot, keeping an eye on the other aliens as she wolfed down her meal.

I didn't partake, not that I had anything against a good rind of pork, but I preferred to stick to the canned food from the pantry and leave the more substantial meat to the aliens. I wondered if the Mutons were omnivores like humans, perhaps I should present them with a choice of vegetables or fruits when the money starting coming in, find out what their nutritional requirements were. They had not made any requests so far though. It occurred to me that humans seemed to be the odd one out, all of the ADVENT species that I had come across had been predatory carnivores, besides the ones genetically engineered or cybernetically enhanced, which didn't really qualify as animals at all. Perhaps it made more sense to recruit (or enslave) only the most dangerous species, but it was none the less noteworthy. The idea of living in a galaxy full of predators was not an attractive one, could we claim the highest spot on the food chain when creatures like Vipers and Berserkers now roamed the planet?

The stars were coming out now, twinkling in the cloudless sky above us as the sun dipped below the horizon. I wondered what the ships in orbit would do now, what of the battleships that had threatened the Avenger so long ago? Were they up there drifting somewhere, their crews unable to pilot the massive vessels without the psionic network to provide them with instructions? Had they taken the opportunity to turn the great ships homeward?

For twenty years the aliens had occupied the planet, their presence had become a simple fact of everyday life, it was amazing what people could grow accustomed to. Now in an instant they were gone, and like ripping off a bandaid it was going to be painful in the short term. I knew that we would adjust, in time the world would recover and all of this would just be a chapter in a history book, another historical event for teenagers to pore over in some future classroom. In my mind that classroom was populated not just by human students, but Mutons and Vipers too, but perhaps that was overly optimistic. Only time would tell, and that was a resource we now had in abundance.

I decided to join the Mutons on the ground, and try to engage them in conversation, lifting the tablet computer and beginning to type as I sat cross-legged.

'How did you come to be here?'

Roomba considered for a moment before replying, gnawing on a piece of meat with his wide, tombstone teeth.

[ARRIVE AS SOLDIER, MIND COME, VOICES SILENT]

Mind come? Voices silent? He must be talking about the psionic network, had he and his people been under constant psychic control then? Did they 'awake' one day, like emerging from a coma, into the chaos of ADVENT's downfall? That must have been shocking, confusing, frightening. I typed another question into the touch screen.

'Do you remember life before ADVENT?'

[NO LIFE BEFORE, BORN OF TANK ON SHIP, METAL MOTHER]

They were grown in tanks then, as I had suspected they had no experience of a terrestrial life. This species must have been conquered long ago, molded and changed to suit the sinister purposes of the Elders. They had obviously kept some aspects of their native culture, the tattoos did not seem like something ADVENT would have indulged, they were clearly decorative and probably had no practical purpose besides being cultural relics. Would this have been the fate of humanity too had we not succeeded? Would we have been molded and changed to fill a niche in ADVENT's growing collection of unwilling soldiers?

A sudden guilt flooded me, dizzying me with its intensity. Every Muton I had killed had been an unwilling combatant, perhaps many of the other aliens too. We had been fighting a slave army. I tried to banish the intrusive thoughts, tried to rationalize that every alien we had killed had been in self-defense, and that when the opportunity had presented itself we had struck at their leadership with the precision of a scalpel. We could not have hoped for fewer casualties, and yet the idea was eating at me. The xenophobic fervor of my fellow XCOM soldiers now seemed in poor taste.

'Are you happy here?'

[WE CAN PROGRESS]

A poor translation, but it sounded hopeful.

CHAPTER 9: INFESTATION

When the aliens were done eating and the pork was all but gone, the Mutons retreated into the shelter of the barn, and once they were out of view Vi slinked down from her perch and accompanied me back to the house. I didn't press her on the issue of the Mutons, she would have to get over her prejudices on her own, it didn't seem that she could be convinced of their benign intentions.

We got into bed, Vi throwing the sheets over us and trying to coil as much of her body beneath them as she could manage, huddling up to me for warmth. It would be spring in a few weeks, it still surprised me that wheat was planted in the winter. In a few months time the fields would no longer be barren plots of land, instead full of golden corn. I hadn't seen them that way since my childhood, and I had to admit that seeing it again would fill me with nostalgia.

As I began to close my eyes, Vi's breathing becoming deep and regular as she lay beside me, a sound started me awake. Vi heard it too, flaring her hood, her eyes glinting in the darkness. She shot out of bed, shouldering the plasma rifle she now kept beside the window, and flung the shutters open. I rose groggily, it sounded like something was happening in the barn. It had to be the Mutons, but what were they doing?

Vi was spitting fury, hissing and waving her long body back and forth like a cobra preparing to strike as she aimed her weapon.

"Hang on, don't shoot the bloody Mutons, what the hell is going on out there?"

I knew what she was thinking, her fears had been confirmed and the Mutons were attacking us, but I had more faith in them than that. They had no reason to attack us, so what were they doing?

"I'm going down, cover me."

She turned and glared at me, her eyes fierce, and hissed her disapproval.

"If you like it or not I'm going down to the barn to see what's happening, you can come with me or you can stay here."

I headed downstairs to retrieve my assault rifle from the cupboard, and Vi followed after me, knowing that her complaints would fall on deaf ears and that we were better off together. She flopped down the stairs behind me, her fat tail making the old wooden steps creak, and she readied herself at the back door as she looked tentatively through the window. I stacked up behind her, checking the magazine in my rifle and chambering the first round. I flicked the outdoor lights on then tapped her on the back, and we burst through into the courtyard, weapons shouldered as we scanned the gloom for movement.

The noise was coming from the barn all right, it sounded like a goddamned war was going on. Mutons were grunting and calling to eachother, there was the sound of splintering wood and an odd screeching cry that made my blood run cold for some reason. Where had I heard that sound before?

We moved forward, quick but cautious, until we reached the closed doors of the barn and prepared to breach them. I kicked one of the doors ajar and we stormed inside, our weapons raised as we scanned the interior. I had to hop backwards to avoid a rolling Muton, grappling with something on the ground, roaring in anger and pain. I couldn't see properly, the only light was spilling through the door, inside the barn was gloomy and full of deep shadows.