Armada Chapter 17:
At dinner, Zack notices that there are some love connections happening between his teammates:
I took the last empty seat, between my father and Milo. Graham sat next to Debbie, and only then did I realize from their body language that the two of them were crushing on each other in a big way. Milo noticed it, too, and rolled his eyes, then nudged me and nodded at the two of them, then at Chén and Whoadie, who were both making furtive eye contact, too.
Good thing this book is about 60% over and we’ll have plenty of time to get invested in these budding relationships.
Chen asks when they’ll be allowed to contact their families, and Zack’s dad explains it’ll be about an hour before the big attack. That’s when leaders around the world will reveal what’s happening, which is cutting it pretty close, but I guess there’s no perfect time to reveal something like that.
Shin nodded. “The population is already beginning to panic, judging by what’s on the global news feeds. People all over the world saw those EDA shuttles with their own eyes this morning when they were flying around to pick up essential recruits. The media has been airing and analyzing footage all day, along with information about their connection to Chaos Terrain’s videogames. The whole world wants to know what’s really going on.”
Okay, yeah, maybe they should get started telling people juuuuust a little bit sooner. Although, the argument against it seems to be that by telling at the last minute it will make them more likely to fight (but I thought everyone who will be fighting was already debriefed?) and give society less time to break down.
Everyone starts talking about the family they left behind. Some of the people that were recruited years ago have lost parents, etc. While Shin is talking about his personal experiences, things get a little weird:
Then his expression brightened, and he reached over and gave my father’s shoulder a squeeze before slapping him on the back. “But my friend Xavier here had already gone through the same thing, and he helped me get through it. He lost his folks, too, a few—”
Shin cut himself off, then shot a nervous glance over at me and then my father, who was again staring intently at the tablecloth.
“Anyway,” Shin said, forging ahead, “right now I’m just thankful they got to live out their lives peacefully, and that they’re not around for … what’s about to happen.”
Everyone around the table nodded, save for my father, who seemed to be slowly turning to stone.
What is up with Zack’s dad? WHAT IS HE HIDING?
Everyone starts talking about how talented and amazing Zack’s dad is and how many medal’s he’s won already. Zack is determined to tell all of this to his mother when he reveals to her the truth that’s going on. Xavier continues to be weird about all this, and it still seems to me there’s more than him just being nervous about her reaction to all this.
We also find out that the “Daedalus Observatory…the largest radio telescope ever built…” was made to talk to the aliens, but they weren’t interested. Also, a task-force called the “Armistice Council”, which included Carl Sagan, has been trying to negotiate peace with the “squids” but have been ignored. It’s revealed that way more is known about the aliens than is being let on, and Graham confirms Zack’s suspicions about how none of this is really adding up.
“The Europans had this huge advantage over us, but then they slowly, gradually lessened it on purpose, instead of just slaughtering us over a weekend. Why? Why send a small group of scout ships every year, year after year, to study us, mutilate our cattle, and attack our secret moon base?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “But they weren’t really even serious attacks. They never try to destroy the entire base or kill everyone inside during their annual Jovian Opposition assaults. Instead, they always do just enough damage to prove that they could destroy the whole base if they wanted to. Then they leave without actually doing it. Why?”
Shin interrupts to tell him to knock it off and stop scaring everyone before the big fight. Even Zack is kind of like, “Oh, I’d rather not hear this and just fight even though five minutes ago I was really interested in these questions.”
Graham also says theirs a rumor that because of a crash a few years back (in Florida no less!), they actually have been able to study some of the aliens’ bodies…Shin denies all of this and says they have no idea what the Europans look like.
The conversation quickly turns to Xavior, and Shin angrily tells him to tell everyone about his theory. He then storms off, and Graham explains the three of them have been arguing about all of this for years. Oh to be a fly on the wall.
“But what if the Europans waited until now to attack because they have a hidden motive— one we still can’t ascertain? Maybe we’ve misinterpreted their actions? Or maybe they’ve misinterpreted ours?”
“What the fuck is there to misinterpret?” I heard myself ask. “They’re coming to kill us all, just like they’ve been promising to do since before any of us were born. The time for negotiating has passed, don’t you think?”
My father shrugged. He looked cornered. “I don’t know, Son,” he said. “Maybe.”
For some reason Zack is furious because his father isn’t being inspiring enough before they go into battle. This makes absolutely no sense with what we’ve read up until this point. I mean, Zack gets angry constantly, but I really don’t get his reasoning here.
Zack angrily retreats to his room to angrily read some of the letters his father wrote for him. He reads the first one his father wrote, right after he was supposed to have died. It is seriously just re-explaining the whole fucking plot to us. Couldn’t Zack have been like, “The letter started with my dad explaining what had happened” and then shown us any interesting parts? Actually, this wouldn’t make any sense because there are no interesting parts in this letter.
Zack summarises the other letters for us, which detail how his dad figured out the conspiracy before he was recruited. The letters also explain that the EDA considered recruiting him young, but his psych evaluation didn’t check out until he was older.
Things got really hard on Xavier, and there was a point was on antidepressants/video conferencing with a therapist/begging to just be able to see his family so he could remember what he was fighting for. I’m so glad we got to read the letter which explained that video games were used to train people to fight against aliens but not the ones about actual interesting emotions.
There are also video recordings:
“What if figuring out the aliens’ true motives is the only way to beat them?” He shrugged and glanced away. “Or at least survive them? At this point, I think surviving might be humanity’s best-case scenario.” He looked back into the lens. “I hope all of this makes sense to you, if and when you actually ever get to see it. If you do— please forgive me, Son. For everything. And no matter what people call me— no matter what they say about my own actions, I want you to know that I did what I felt I had to do— to protect you and your mom, and everyone else back on Earth. Please know that I did what I did because I didn’t think I had any other choice. If you’re still alive to see this message, you’ll know I made the right one.”
After seeing this, Zack goes to his father’s room. It’s actually an amusing scene because his father is playing a practice mission and keeps saying his, “You’re welcome” thing out loud. I wonder how I would have felt if one of the many players who called me a ‘noob’ and told me to ‘care more’ while I played League of Legends turned out to be my long-presumed-dead father and it turned out League of Legends were actually preparing us all for a time when we were all champions and would have to run through a forest to take over the enemy’s nexus. I think it would be a complicated series of emotions to experience.
Zack and his dad go to find somewhere to talk in private.
