Alien vs. Alien

feel that I took him for granted, I only contacted when it was important. Nothing had been Earth-shattering, either literally or figuratively, for these past months, so I’d left ACE alone.
    I sat in one of the chairs in Jeff’s office, closed my eyes, and thought in my mind. ACE, are you there?
    I waited. ACE?
    I waited a bit longer, while doing my best to hold down the panic. Maybe leaving ACE alone hadn’t been a wise plan.
    ACE? ACE, are you there, are you okay?
    Waited a few more long, silent moments. Opened my eyes, cleared my throat, and shared the scary news. “He didn’t answer. And I . . . I couldn’t feel him.”
    Chuckie nodded. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
    “Do you think ACE has left us? Or . . . died?” I didn’t know if ACE could die in the ways a human would understand, but I did know he could be injured, and we’d dissipated a similar superconsciousness, so ACE wasn’t invulnerable.
    “I don’t know. I do know, based on the intel we got from Richard White, that if Gower were killed while ACE was joined with him then the PPB-Net that represents ACE will collapse in on itself and destroy the Earth. I’d have to guess if ACE were to . . . die that it would negatively affect Gower, perhaps even kill him. Gower’s alive and well and we’re all still here, so I don’t know that ACE is dead, at least as we’d be able to comprehend it.”
    White was Christopher’s father and the former Pontifex, who now also resided at the Embassy and was my partner whenever we got to kick evil butt, which happened with a lot less frequency these days. “Have you asked Richard about this?”
    “No. The people who are most likely to get a reply from ACE are you and Gower, Mimi, Abby, and Serene. Serene’s tried to reach ACE, as have Mimi and Abby. None of them could get a response. Mimi and Abby put it down to their talent loss. Serene thinks it’s because she’s not as close to ACE as the others.”
    “But you don’t think that at all.”
    “Of course not. ACE has never shown himself to be unwilling to talk to any of them. And he was talking to you well before you gained any kind of A-C talents.”
    “Yeah, he’s always there for his favorite penguins.”
    “I’m worried that our benevolent observer has left us, and if that’s the case, Earth is back to being very alone, lonely, and vulnerable.”
    “Why so? Alpha Four are our friends, and so are the rest of the pfcNlanets in that system.”
    “Yes,” Chuckie said patiently, “they are. And how do we contact our friends when we need them?”
    “We ask ACE to connect us. Crap.” I felt sick to my stomach. I hadn’t worried about ACE much. I’d checked on him after we’d all survived the Dino-Bird alien invasion attempt, of course. “The last I spoke with ACE was when we were doing cleanup after Operation Destruction. He told me he was tired and needed to rest, just like the rest of us did.”
    “There’s a possibility that ACE left us in case he was going to die, so he wouldn’t destroy the Earth.”
    “There’s also a possibility that he’s so hurt that he can’t talk to us. I have no vote for which one of those ideas is worse, by the way, but thanks so much for choosing to have this conversation with me right before I have to entertain a bunch of politicians.”
    He shook his head. “We’ve become reliant on ACE. If he’s not there for us any more, we need to be prepared for it.”
    “Why are you discussing this with me and not Jeff or James or anyone else?”
    “Because Gower isn’t willing to admit that ACE isn’t chatting with him on a regular basis. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t told Reader.” Reader was not only the Head of Field, he was Gower’s husband. “And if he hasn’t told Reader, then he hasn’t told anyone.”
    “Yeah, I can agree there.” Chuckie was the smartest person in any and all rooms, so it didn’t shock me that he’d figured out what was going on. “So, you think Paul knows, or suspects something’s wrong with ACE and is hiding it to avoid mass panic?”
    “Yes, nice of your brain to join the party.”
    “Blah, blah, blah. Does anyone else suspect?”
    “No, I don’t think so, mostly because no one else really understands how we work with ACE, and most don’t know that he exists, in that sense.”
    “What about Naomi, Abigail, and Serene?”
    “I told them I didn’t want to bother the Pontifex with my request. When they couldn’t reach ACE, I said I’d talk to