The Secret Bunker Trilogy

by Paul Teague

She was aware of this massive force driving towards her – however hard she ran, she could feel him gaining on her. Damn this long corridor, it seemed to go on forever.

  She saw the lift entrance ahead, looked down to check the SymNode on her hand, and glanced back partially to monitor the progress of the Trooper.

  She heard activity to the side of the lift. The other Troopers, they must have made it through whatever mess Dan had made after the explosion.

  Amy drew her weapon, slammed against the lift entrance and pressed the button to open the doors.

  To her left she had time to glimpse Troopers breaking through the debris from the explosion. They spotted her straight away and drew their weapons.

  The Trooper on her tail slammed into her with such a force that it took her breath away. She wanted to crumple to the floor, every instinct told her to give up and stop fighting.

  But Amy was determined to get through this; she was getting the helmet and the SD card back in the lift to Quadrant 3 and she was going to do everything she could to save Dan and Nat.

  The Trooper was about to strike her head. His speed was inhuman, he seemed to be supercharged, Amy could barely keep up with him.

  She took another blow, she could feel herself slipping out of consciousness, but with one huge and final effort she leapt into the lift as the doors opened.

  The Trooper hesitated for a moment, as if he’d doubted himself momentarily, then he followed her into the lift, ready to resume the blows to her body.

  As he picked Amy up by her hair, she struck out and hit the buttons to her side. The doors slid shut just as the other Troopers drew up outside.

  The Transporter lights activated and Amy sank to the ground, finally beaten by the ferociousness of the Trooper’s blows.

  Chapter Four

  The First Trooper

  Davran Saloor didn’t know what had happened to the father of her children. The last she saw of him was at the end of their trial. It was not so much a trial as a lynch mob.

  There was never any question about their guilt, only the nature of the punishment that would be applied.

  It was held within the confines of an O-Fed court hearing, with one representative from each planet presiding over their fates.

  The Helyions had intimidated the nine remaining parties – with the exception of Earth and Zatheon – to vote with them. The representatives from Earth and Zatheon felt as if they were presiding over a terrible injustice, but were powerless to intervene.

  Davran Saloor was Ostracized with immediate effect.

  Scattered throughout their respective universes, were pods – ironically created with Zatheon technology – in which ‘criminals’ were placed in isolation. This had been agreed in the early days, when there had only been three members of The Off-World Federation. There was no reprieve, this is where you spent the remainder of your days.

  For Zatheons, that was a very long time; their lifespan was twice that of human beings, the oldest Zatheon had been known to live for 207 Earth years, in almost perfect health.

  Davran was shipped away to an ISOCell immediately, destined never to see the father of her children – or the twins – ever again.

  She was sentenced first, and she never knew what had happened to Jeff. According to the rules of The Covenant, Jeff should have spent the rest of his days Ostracized as well, the same fate that had been deemed suitable for Davran.

  But there was further Helyion interference here, an unprecedented departure from The Covenant and an agreement made between certain allies – and those too scared to resist. At the O-Fed meeting, as far as the Zatheons were concerned, Jeff had been Ostracized. He would be allocated a random ISOCell and no single person would ever know where he’d been abandoned in space. It could be anywhere in the eight known universes.

  As he was being escorted for transportation, there was some sleight of hand. O-Fed documentation certainly showed that he’d been Ostracized, but the truth was a different story.

  Jeff had been ‘procured’ for early research purposes. This was instigated by a Helyion known as Zadra Nurmeen, who would himself be alienated along with his friend Henry Pierce in the years that followed.

  They’d be removed from the Genesis 2 project on moral and ethical grounds.

  That could mean a number of things of course. In this particular case, it related to crimes against humanity. To be specific, experimentation on live human beings. Using exoskeleton technology procured from an innovative, young entrepreneur whose company was known as Magnum Enterprises.

  Control

  Henry Pierce felt as if he’d been born for this moment. His useless brother was incarcerated, and soon he’d be dead or shackled in a laboratory somewhere, helping Henry to achieve supremacy among the remaining O-Fed planets. Either way, he’d kill Harold eventually. And now he was surrounded by the faces of the world’s leaders.

  They’d been forced to watch the scenes that had just been played out on the main deck of The Nexus. Paralysed by the darkness on Earth, only able to communicate via subconsciousness and holographic representations, they were powerless to do anything.

  They could debate and vote all they wanted to, there was only one vote that counted now, and that was his own. How good it felt to be able to force these treacherous wretches to watch as he destroyed their planet.

  Many of the faces on these screens had been behind his ejection from the Genesis 2 project all those years earlier. These members of The Global Consortium had turned their backs on him, and now they would pay for that.

  They protested at him via their screens, but as the voices grew too loud, he simply muted them. The power was all his, and it felt good.

  But there was one voice left. He didn’t hear it at first, and one by one he silenced the protestations of the world’s leaders, helplessly pleading with him and offering to make deals to save the planet. This was a familiar voice. It was the voice of his brother, creeping back into his head after all those years apart.

  At one time, as they’d worked on the Genesis 2 project together, it had been a constant, a welcome source of information, theory and learning which has hastened their progress. It had even been companionable, and he’d felt calmer as a result.

  However, the voice was long since lost, after Henry had been so forcibly ejected from Genesis 2. Soon the voice would be silenced for good.

  Either his brother would agree to work with him on the destruction of Zatheon, or he’d be ejected into space via the airlocks.

  In fact, whatever happened, his brother was eventually leaving via the airlocks … it was simply a matter of the timing.

  Manipulation

  Mike was horrified and intrigued at what he’d just read in the document. He tried to stop himself getting immersed in the details, there was so much information within these files. He had to focus on the priorities, finding information to help Dan and Nat.

  But this file blew his mind – he’d grown up with conspiracy theories and rumours of Area 51. But this was the real thing.

  This file dated back to 1967, to the birth of twins. To an alien mother. Like Dan and Nat perhaps. But it was the name that captured his attention most.

  He nearly missed it at first, because initially they’d just used the alien names of the children. Ajnur1 and Ajnur2.

  That had changed over time – the doctor in charge of the twins had obviously grown attached. After a while they were referred to in the notes as Henry and Harold.

  Then some kind of experimental trial had begun and the references had changed again. But it seemed that whoever had handwritten those original notes in the sixties, before they were scanned into these records, had needed to disassociate himself from whatever was happening to one of the children. Henry Pierce was simply referred to as ‘Child 002’ until the adoption was completed.

  But it was quite clear that his behaviour had deteriorated rapidly after the drug trials began. You could almost sense the relief from whoever was caring for these children when the fina
l adoption update on the twins was entered into the official records.

  Adoption date: 3rd May 1969

  Parents: Andrew and Jean Pierce

  Observations: Child 002 behaviour suppressed c/o maximum dosage of Tantrazinol/078-Y, prior behaviours violent and erratic. Parents delighted to adopt twins, desperate to start family.

  Recommendations: No further trials, severe adverse effects. Destroy adoption paperwork, recommend no trackbacks at O-Fed level.

  File closed: 5th May 1969

  Revelations

  Harold Pierce is tired and exhausted. He looks bruised and weary, but he seems determined to share as much as he can with us.

  We’re supposed to be deciding on whether we’re going to cooperate or not. I think we’ve already made that decision, so I’m all ears until they send in the Troopers to haul us out of this room.

  ‘Who is our real mum?’ asks Nat. We’re both desperate to learn more about her. I can’t even remember her name yet – it was something weird, but if she’s not human I suppose that’s only to be expected.

  ‘I never knew what happened to her,’ Doctor Pierce begins. ‘There was a lot of trouble with The Off-World Federation at that time.’

  We look at him, and Nat has to spell it out.

  ‘Off-World Federation?’ she asks.

  Doctor Pierce is obviously not used to having to explain himself; he’s forgetting that we’re not up to speed with all of this.

  ‘Remember I told you in my video feed that the darkness is connected to the terraforming of Earth, Dan?’ he begins. I nod and he carries on talking.

  ‘Well, it’s not Earth technology that we’re using. Very little of what you’ve seen in the bunkers is human technology.’

  I knew it! There’s no way you could buy this stuff from your local PC store – if you could, the Tracy family would have spotted it long ago. And bought all of it.

  ‘The Off-World Federation is made up of twelve planets, Earth being one of them.

  ‘The terraforming has to take place now, or there won’t be a world that’s capable of sustaining human life when you two grow up.

  ‘I think Henry plans to sabotage the terraforming. If Zadra Nurmeen is here, they’re looking after the interests of Helyios 4, they certainly won’t be concerned about Earth.’

  This is too much to take in, all this talk of planets and weird names that mean nothing to me. Nat is more on the ball.

  ‘I know that strange guy already,’ she says. ‘I saw him on the PC screen in the lab – I only got a glimpse, but it was definitely him.’

  Doctor Pierce looks full of shame, and he begins to apologize to Nat.

  ‘Nat, I’m so sorry that I didn’t see what had happened to you after your death, I thought it was a genuine accident …’

  He’s choked and having difficulty talking about this. He seems to suspect already what’s happened to Nat while she’s been away.

  ‘I honestly did not know until I saw you on the screens, until your mum went to see you in the car park, and even then I couldn’t be sure that it was you.

  ‘It came together for me then – it began to make sense to me when we had the delays with the lighting in the bunker.

  ‘It had to be my brother, he is the only one capable of sabotaging this project.

  ‘He played it well though – goodness knows how he kept hidden all these years, I would never have known that they were planning this.’

  As if on cue, three Troopers burst into the room. They escort us roughly back to the Ops Area where Doctor Pierce is addressing the worried faces on the screens that surround him.

  I don’t recognize any of them at first, only two look vaguely familiar. I’m sure that one of them is the President of the USA, the other is our Prime Minister. Both look rough, their faces don’t actually seem to be quite real, they’re like digital animations of some kind.

  Evil Pierce’s chum – Zadra Nurmeen or whatever he’s called – he just sits there, smiling to himself. He has a horrible, self-satisfied look on his face, but he doesn’t actually say or do anything, he just watches Pierce do his thing.

  Henry Pierce looks crazy right at this moment. He’s getting carried away with himself, and he’s clearly goading those people on the screens. He cuts himself short as we’re thrown to the ground about two metres away from him.

  ‘Ah, decision time!’ he announces, clapping his hands together as if this is some family quiz show.

  ‘We’ll do it,’ I say straight away, ‘we’ll help you.’ Nat thinks that came a bit too easy, so she chips in a ‘Like hell we will!’ for good measure. Pierce doesn’t know which of us to listen to, and he becomes immediately impatient. Talk about a sudden change of character. He walks over to his brother and strikes him. No warning, no provocation, he just seems to feel like doing it. I flinch, but Nat seems to be familiar with this erratic behaviour already.

  ‘Take him to the airlock!’ he shouts at one of the Troopers.

  ‘See if that helps you to make your mind up!’ he says.

  As one of the Troopers grabs Doctor Pierce by the shoulder and rough handles him out of the Ops Area, I see that look on Nat’s face again. I’m beginning to be able to speak to her directly now, we’re both getting better at it; this telepathy takes some getting used to though, and it’s a bit on and off at the moment.

  I try to tell her to calm down, to wait things out, but she’s not having any of it. She just can’t help herself, she hates this man.

  Nat waits for him to pass close to her, and she leaps up and beats his face with her fists. Crazy he may be, but he is not a powerful man, so he has to take this beating for the few moments that it takes the Troopers to realize what’s going on and react to it.

  Their response is violent and without compassion.

  Nat is pulled off Doctor Pierce and thrown across the room, hitting her head against one of the consoles.

  It looks like she is going to move, then she passes out, unconscious. There is blood trickling down her forehead.

  Pierce walks over to her, wipes some of the blood onto his finger then walks up to me threateningly.

  ‘You want some more of this on your hands?’ he seethes. He’s furious and humiliated in front of the faces on the screens.

  ‘No,’ I answer sheepishly. I don’t want to provoke him. I’m furious with Nat myself – we can’t afford all these temper tantrums and distractions, they’re just wasting time.

  Pierce wipes away the blood on his own face with the hand that he was just waving at me in threat.

  ‘I’ve had enough of this,’ he declares suddenly. ‘Make up your mind – you’re either with me or you take a trip in space with them!’

  And to illustrate what he means, he dishes out his punishment to Nat.

  ‘Take her to the airlock!’ he screams.

  Chapter Five

  Defence

  It was on 23 March 1983, eight months before the formal Global Consortium agreement was made in November of that year, that President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defence Initiative. The aim was to develop the technology to intercept enemy nuclear missiles.

  At the time it had seemed wildly ambitious in its scale, the stuff of science fiction, but it was only a cover for the work that would need to be done for the Genesis 2 project. Although the Star Wars initiative – as it was known – changed its name over the years, the integrity of the project remained intact, and it became fully integrated into the mission to save Earth from its rapidly approaching fate.

  As Cold War relationships evolved, mainly due to global governmental focus on the impending environmental catastrophe, the SDI became less about defence and more about creating a delivery system for the Shards.

  It was these terraforming Shards which would eventually be delivered via the satellite matrix surrounding the planet, using off-planet technology and processes which had been inspired by the early work of Davran Saloor. However, their defensive capability remained intact.

  President
Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative had become a reality many years ago. Renamed by President Clinton ten years later as BMDO – or Ballistic Missile Defence Organization – it had in fact evolved way beyond its original scope.

  Unknown to the world’s press – and largely a secret within Global Consortium circles – nuclear weaponry was, for all intents and purposes, a redundant technology. Ironically, the devices which we had built to destroy each other had become the vehicle of our salvation.

  The Global Defence Matrix – as it was now known – was capable of detecting the signature of any nuclear missile currently in existence. The next generation of warfare would involve nanotechnology and genetic combat, but that was for a future world, one which was not yet in existence.

  The system of defence which was built to protect us from each other would still have its part to play. When President Reagan announced the initiative decades ago, he could barely have imagined that it would eventually be used in the final battle for Earth.

  Lake Karachay

  The Helyion ship lay fully immersed below the waters of Lake Karachay, waiting patiently for the final terraforming process to begin. This had been planned long ago by the Government on Helyios 4.

  The unique access to Earth afforded to their emissary – Zadra Nurmeen – and his strategic partnership with the Earth scientist Doctor Henry Pierce had been most advantageous to them.

  With only fifty-three Helyion years – or thirty Earth years – to go until the destruction of their planet, they couldn’t take the risk of Earth’s terraforming project not working.

  It was experimental even for the Zatheons, and in spite of the early assurances of Davran Saloor – and her successor after she was removed from the project – the Helyions were not going to leave anything to chance.