Stolen Worlds

by Bob Blink

  That, of course, had proven false in this instance. Very false and ultimately deadly. Their effort had become a complete disaster. They had lost nearly everyone on the crew along with the entirety of the very costly equipment required for this type of undertaking. There would be no recovery from a failure of this magnitude. Financially, the loss was catastrophic, and who would want to join a team that had made such a deadly blunder. They would have to return to the home system knowing that any future efforts were lost to them, and the glorious years of comfort would not be achievable any longer.

  He cursed knowing that a properly armed expedition would have faired differently. Those involved in the project weren't military, and the expedition lacked the weaponry a properly outfitted military force would have brought, which would have made short work of the uprising that had chased them off the planet. But his management had deemed the expensive support for warships and trained warriors an unacceptable drain on their profits, and having never needed such support in a lifetime of acquiring other worlds, had refused to allocate the funding. This was the horrible result.

  They should have run after the moon base was destroyed, taking the destruction a sign that they had badly misjudged these creatures. But his race wasn't accustomed to accepting losses from primitives without fighting back. Stubborn, and without proper tactical experience, they had moved determinedly forward using poorly thought out techniques that had worked in the past with less capable adversaries. The result this time had been costly.

  No one would be interested in a return venture. The world had been marginally acceptable for their purposes from the beginning and now the primitives were aware of them and also some of their limitations to make any further attempts feasible. Besides, by the time they completed the long journey home and sought to assemble a new expedition, some other group would have fulfilled the requisition for the remaining planets desired. That would make going after the world completely pointless, even if it had been a prime planet. Almost all their members were now dead, and their vital equipment destroyed.

  He groaned at the magnitude of the failure. There was nothing to be done, and he'd have to live with the thought for the long trip home, and then accept a lower standard of life for his remaining time. It wasn't fair! He wished there were some way to repay the primitive responsible for his fate.

  Chapter 31

  Aftermath

  Two Weeks Later

  The damage done by the conflict was immense. Most important were the people killed. Brave military men from multiple countries had died by the score, but so had untold numbers of supporting civilians. The largest loss was in China, where the nuking of Beijing resulted in millions of deaths, and likely many who would have a very shortened life as a result of the radiation poisoning. Other areas where nuclear weapons had been used had also seen large civilian casualties, although several of the battle areas were thankfully well away from human populations.

  Mankind's space program was dealt a horrible setback. Everything that had been carefully built-up on the moon was now gone. A careful step-by-step rebuilding would be required to regain all that had been lost. Many of the satellites in orbit around the Earth along with the Chinese space station had been lost, some in the most recent battle, but all as a result of the alien presence.

  The Earth itself had seen cities destroyed, and multiple nuclear bombs discharged with the resulting spread of radiation. Some areas would be uninhabitable for a great long time, while others would contaminated sufficiently that people would need to avoid extended exposure. And, of course, the radioactivity would spread around the world in ways that weren't certain as yet.

  The good news? The acceleration had not yet returned, and there was hope that it wouldn't, at least anytime soon. It all depended on what action the departing aliens might wish to take. Mankind had survived his first encounter with a hostile alien culture. It was probably unwise to hope they would never return, but hopefully it wouldn't be for a considerable time, which would give the inhabitants of Earth a chance to prepare against the possibility. After all, humans now knew a bit about how the aliens operated and what things were threatening to them.

  The captured, wounded aliens died of their wounds within a couple of days of the end to the fighting. Little could be done for them given no knowledge of their biological systems and what medicines might help, and which might be deadly poisonous. One briefly regained consciousness, but made no attempt to communicate, obviously distressed to find he was badly hurt and in the hands of barbarians. There was an on-going debate whether dissection of the bodies was appropriate or a violation of the alien's rights. An autopsy might tell them something useful in the event there were further incidents, including their remaining prisoner who was still alive, undamaged, but clearly not doing very well.

  They didn't know what he might be able to eat, and had found nothing in the two sites that was likely to be seen as food. He wouldn't communicate, despite some indications he knew a bit of the English language, and refused to consider any of the items they brought beyond a bit of water from time to time. As a result, he was getting noticeably weaker, but then what did they have to offer. He'd been left behind by his companions, and the primitives he was now with didn't have interstellar travel, so he knew he wasn't getting home, ever.

  The attack sites had all been investigated to varying degrees, but sufficient to establish that the nuclear weapons deployed had more than done the job. Nothing was being faked or covered over by the aliens in the manner they had hidden the sites initially. Complete and total devastation marked all of the sites where warhead or bombs had been detonated, and none of the ships that had been struck by missiles survived either. Wherever the surviving aliens had gone, it wasn't to any of the known sites, and a completed mapping of the Earth suggested there were no more hidden away. Of course, that couldn't be guaranteed since the method of finding them depended on the magnetic signature, and with the main sites destroyed, the equipment that had produced that strange signal might currently be powered down.

  The surviving sites on Devon Island near Canada and in the Australian Outback had been studied to the degree possible in the short time allowed by experts in many disciplines, but very little had been learned. Much of the equipment was still powered, but seemed to be idle, and what it did or how the controls worked was beyond anyone's understanding. Maybe with time, but the designs were so foreign and the technology so advanced, few held out much hope of discovering much useful. Several scientists were of the belief that the key components were located at the larger moon site that no longer existed. A big question was how the locations got their power as nothing looked like a power source, yet they continued to stay active as time wore on. Whatever the source might suggest where the immense power required to move entire planets came from, and something that would be extremely beneficial if we could learn how to access it.

  Only one thing was a certainty. The smaller ships had been designed with the intention of being modules allowing for rapid assembly, and presumably disassembly later, of the bases. They were flown in, landed in appropriate layouts, and simply interconnected, with the larger, now absent ships as the central control for the local systems. It was unfortunate that all of those ships had been destroyed or disappeared.

  The various governments and the media in particular were very concerned about just where the aliens had gotten off to. Most worried they had gone for help, and wondered just how long before they might return with an even larger force that the world's military wasn't prepared to resist. Theories were raised that the aliens we encountered were not military, and as a result had been somewhat easily overcome, whereas the next group would arrive prepared with their full military capability.

  There were too many questions and no answers, but an immediate effort between nations was put into effect to as rapidly as possible replace the lost space assets and to create an orbital based defense system to deal with a return should it materialize. Better weapons were going to be required
if another war with these invaders were to be fought. Military leaders from around the world agreed that the last battle could have ended much differently had the aliens employed even a bit more tactical strategy, suggesting these hadn't been military minded personnel. That wouldn't be the case next time. The encounters had shown what worked, and what hadn't, which served to direct appropriate assets and suggest the creation of others. Whether these projects would be complete when and if the aliens returned was unknown. It was unfortunate they couldn't question their captive to learn about how his race was likely to react to their recent defeat.

  The issues with both Russia and China having weapons in orbit contrary to previous agreements was overlooked. There were going to be lots of weapons in orbit going forward, and dwelling on old news was seen to be counterproductive. There was also the matter of considerable fallout in those areas were numerous nuclear weapons had been discharged.

  It hadn't been long since this had all concluded, and scientists were still trying to determine just what the likely effects of the Earth's modified orbit were likely to be. Astronomers had quickly measured the new orbit, discovering the current annual period was actually 380 days, which for some suggested a new month needed to be created and added to the calendar, a frivolous concern given the more salient impacts of the change.

  "Professor Gelon, I'd like to show you something," Tony Symmes said as he entered the office of his favorite professor.

  Professor Gelon was still bound to his wheelchair, and would be for some time yet, but the worst of his injuries had been successfully dealt with. He had all manner of reports and suggestions to be made to the government, and was preparing to depart for Washington later in the day for the second time since the aliens had been chased off.

  He glanced up and smiled at Tony. In his mind, had it not been for the insightful investigation by his graduate student, this wouldn't have turned out as well as it had.

  "What have you got?" he asked, pushing aside the mess on his massive desk to make room for the handful of papers Tony carried in his arms.

  Ten minutes later he looked up and said, "Pack your bags. You are going with me to Washington. This needs to be shown to the President."

  "Yes, the President. He's no big deal. He's grown a bit since this started, but he still doesn't get a lot, but he has people who do. Bring Gwen if you want."

  The next morning Tony sat nervously in the briefing room while Professor Gelon opened the meeting from his wheelchair at the front of the room. The President, and a number of people Tony had seen before, some in person and some on television sat attentively around the large table.

  "Before we get into the details and reports this meeting is supposed to address, I would like my assistant, Tony Symmes, soon to be Dr. Symmes by the way, to make a brief presentation. This just came to my attention and I believe it needs to be seen immediately.

  Tony stood and nervously approached the podium with it's control for the projection onto the monitors that surrounded the room. He cleared his voice, and started, a bit timidly at first, but quickly finding his footing.

  "When the aliens sent one of their ships to destroy the asteroid that was threatening the Earth, I was among those at Mt. Palomar observing the action through the large telescopes there. I noted that after the asteroid was destroyed, the ship did not head back toward Earth, but set off in a different direction. There wasn't a lot of time before the vehicle disappeared, but I made some projections of possible orbits based on what data I had collected."

  He placed an image on the screens showing a projected orbit.

  "While the ship might have been heading toward deep space, it looked that there was a reasonable chance that the ship was headed here."

  Tony tapped the planet Mars and the projected extension of the orbit the alien ship was in.

  "Why Mars?" someone asked. "There activity was all on Earth, and at that time they were secure in their bases."

  Tony nodded.

  "I didn't know, and I was probably wrong. So my curiosity was aroused and I started checking. I found this. The data is from a couple of days ago."

  He changed the image on the monitor with one showing a mountain range with a shadowy base. There were three long, somewhat cigar shaped streaks that were poorly defined. He'd marked a scale on the bottom of the image that said the shapes were about four kilometers in length.

  "And what do you believe those to be?" the President asked, clearly a bit confused by where he was going.

  "Ships," Tony said simply. "I believe they are alien starships."

  "Phooey," the President said. "It's probably just some feature on the surface. Look at the size your scale suggests."

  "I had that thought as well," Tony agreed, "but then I noted the almost identical length and shape of the objects, and the reflectivity compared to everything around them. Here's an older image of the same area. It's from about six months ago."

  He changed the images again. This one showed the same area, but now, instead of three objects, there were four, all looking very much like the three in the initial image, but with perhaps a bit more brightness.

  "If the images were of a Martian feature, it would not have changed. But you can see that four months ago there were four artifacts up there on the Martian plain, and now there are three. I believe these are alien starships that brought the people and equipment here for the Earth relocation effort, and now, one has left, all they had people remaining for. The other three they were forced, or chose to, leave behind."

  Dr. Gelon interrupted.

  "I agree with Tony. These are images of something artificial. The ships that are here on Earth are most likely interplanetary capable, and therefore brought into our system in larger transports that are interstellar in capability. Gentlemen, there are three, undamaged starships sitting out there waiting for us. We can't know if these aliens are coming back for them, or for us, but I suggest we seriously consider finding a way to get to Mars ASAP and see what we can learn."

  Chapter 32

  Two Years Later

  There had been no further sign of any aliens. The ships on Mars were still as they'd been when Tony had looked shortly after the attacks and a mission was currently on the way to the planet with the sole purpose of investigating the vehicles.

  The Earth's orbit was permanently changed, and with two years of data it looked like some unpleasant and unfortunate changes were a result of the alien's meddling. The average high temperatures around the world had increased by four degrees, and the average coldest temperatures were lowered by ten. That was making some areas undesirable for habitation. The glaciers were melting faster than they were being replaced, with the result increase in the ocean depths swamping a large number of coastal cities. They would have to be abandoned.

  The various nations had banded together with more seriousness than ever before. Space and weapons programs were seeing accelerated development of those systems that were believed to be most effective against a return of the aliens based on what had worked during the brief conflict. Of course, if the aliens came with their military, they may be exposed to systems that were far more effective than the planet stealers had had available. We still didn't know what the destructive glowing balls were or how to defend against them.

  Finally, the alien artifacts remained a mystery. As yet we had not found how to operate any of the gear, powered or not, and most frustratingly, where the power came from that kept the equipment operational. There were great hopes that some of the questions could be answered once the Martian ships were investigated.

  Time would tell.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright  2019 by Robert Blink

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced
, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Proof Release:November 2019

  First ReleaseDecember 2019

  Books by the Author:

  Timelines

  The Second Compound

  Reversal

  Split Creek

  EndRun

  Dirty Money

  Crossover

  Battle for Earth

  The Mind Writers

  Deadly Wilderness

  The Sixth Extinction

  Out of the Bottle

  Crossed Trails

  Infiltrator

  Lethal Politics

  Jake Waters Series

  Corrector

  Back-Tracker

  Double-Back

  Wizard's Blood Series

  Wizard's Blood [Part One]

  Wizard's Blood [Part Two]

  Ancient Magic Saga

  Ancient Magic

  Into The Ruins

  The Baldari

  KalaBhoot [Limited Release]

  The Protector Saga

  The Barbarian/The Protector

  The Sor'ee

  Dedication

  This is for my long time friend Dr. William Luebke. We have known one another for over half a century, which alone counts for something. As a professional astronomer, Bill has often provided useful information on the operation of the universe when I get into stories that involve such things. This book was no different.

  Acknowledgements