Savant ; Rising

by Hatchett

  “We can’t see the house.”

  Jason looked and realised that Andy was right. There was no house, just rolling fields and trees.

  “Amazing isn’t it?” Jason replied, suddenly stopping the vehicle.

  “What are you doing?” Andy asked in concern.

  Matt leant forward to see if there was a problem, grabbing his pistol just in case.

  “The dome isn’t infallible,” Jason said cryptically.

  “What?” Andy replied, still wondering where this was going.

  “Look at the drive,” Jason said.

  Andy and Matt both looked at the driveway in front of them and realised that it just stopped abruptly after a few metres and then there was nothing but grass.

  “I see what you mean,” Andy said. “It’s like taking a leap of faith that there is something on the other side.”

  Jason took the vehicle forwards slowly, and as they pierced the edge of the dome, the bonnet of the SUV seemed to disappear.

  “Weird,” Jason muttered.

  Once they were through the edge of the dome, everything was once again visible to them; the large house with the barn next to it, the helicopter sitting on the lawn next to two Laakuu shuttles and a group of people near the front door, waiting for their arrival.

  Jason wound the SUV around the last of the driveway and parked in front of the house. The three occupants got out and were soon enveloped in a barrage of hugs and pats on the backs with various ‘well done’s’ thrown in.

  At last, their friends stepped back, smiles on all their faces.

  “Good to see you guys,” Harry said on behalf of everyone there.

  “Good to be back,” Jason replied, with his own grin. “Where is she?”

  Harry and a couple of others stepped aside and there was Jess, holding what looked like a burning crystal ball. She had a wicked grin on her face, as if she’d just played a great trick and was waiting for the applause.

  Jason strode forward, and careful not to knock the ball, gave her a hug and whispered ‘thanks’ in her ear. He was swiftly followed by Andy and Matt, then they stood back and looked at her.

  “Let’s all get back in the house,” Harry suggested, and the group broke up and started heading back to the building.

  “What’s that?” Jason asked, pointing to the ball.

  “That’s the AI from one of the shuttles. I’ve named it Bishop, after the android in the Alien movies.”

  “Appropriate,” Jason agreed.

  “Bishop is a mine of information,” Jess gushed.

  “Is it hot?”

  Jess looked at Jason with a confused look on her face.

  “Hot?” she asked, clearly puzzled.

  “It looks like it’s burning,” Jason pointed out.

  Jess looked at the ball and smiled.

  “Yes, it does, doesn’t it? But its normal temperature. The flames are just Bishop’s mind working. The more it thinks or works, the faster the flames move.”

  “Cool,” Jason replied, suitably impressed.

  They entered the house and went straight to the kitchen where Hilda was preparing drinks and food as usual. Jason was sure she never did anything else, even sleep.

  “I need a shower and a change of clothes,” Jason said, heading back out of the room. “Won’t be long.”

  “Me too,” Andy said, and Matt nodded in agreement.

  58

  Once showered and changed they met up in the kitchen and took seats around the table.

  Jess had Bishop on her lap, with a hand cupping the sphere gently.

  “I suppose you want an update?” Jason asked Harry.

  “No need,” Harry replied, which surprised Jason. “We’ve seen all the footage and it’s like having first-hand experience of what you went through.”

  Jason, Andy and Matt were stunned.

  “What?” Jason asked.

  “How?” Andy asked at the same time.

  Harry smiled, pleased to see their confusion.

  “Look at the TV,” Harry suggested.

  Jason, Andy and Matt all looked towards the TV on the wall, which flickered on and began to show some of the highlights of what had happened since they had left The Manor the previous day.

  It was like watching a blockbuster movie and a very surreal experience when they saw themselves doing the acting.

  Once the footage had ended and the TV flicked off, the three were speechless for a few seconds. Then they got their wits back.

  “Again, how?” Andy asked.

  Harry smiled and nodded towards Jess. Jason, Andy and Matt turned towards her with questioning looks on their faces.

  “That was Bishop,” Jess explained. “I showed Bishop what I had seen, and Bishop took what it had seen plus what the other AI unit in the second shuttle had seen and put it all together.”

  “Amazing,” Matt said, stunned. “It was like watching a movie.”

  “Wasn’t it?” Karen said rhetorically as she entered the room and walked across to the table. “It shows you were lucky.”

  “Hi. Where’ve you been?” Matt asked.

  “A few of us went out to look for provisions and any survivors.”

  “Is that safe?” Matt asked, concerned.

  “Safer that what you’ve been up to,” Karen retorted, as she took a seat.

  The group were silent for a few moments, taking everything in. Eventually, Jason broke the silence.

  “What now?”

  “Good question,” Harry said. “Now we figure out the best way to fight back.”

  59

  Kinaejah was raging.

  All craft had returned to their bases and they were all being thoroughly checked out. Thaejah had been in touch with the other Elders and they were going through the same process, but despite hours passing, nothing had turned up.

  “How the fuck have these puny humans managed to do this?” Kinaejah screamed for the umpteenth time.

  Thaejah was at a loss to provide an answer, and the longer this went on, the more precarious his position would be. Kinaejah did not suffer fools or traitors, but what more could he do?

  Thaejah had been thinking about the situation since the first shuttle went missing, and mentally berated himself for not doing more at the time, but he had just been so tired. He was at a loss to explain how the humans could possibly understand their technology, especially as they didn’t know anything about it and hadn’t got their hands on anything until recently. So, he couldn’t believe Joshua or the girl, if they were still alive, could’ve had anything to do with it.

  Therefore, he believed that it had to be a traitor, possibly one of the Elders working for the other side. But which one? Of course, he was with Judaejah, Torjah and Badaejah in disliking what Kinaejah had done and was still doing, but none of them had the backbone to do anything on their own and he certainly hadn’t. So, that left the others. Possible, but in Thaejah’s estimation, very unlikely because they were all loyal to Kinaejah.

  So how could it have happened?

  Thaejah thought back to when the humans first realised that the Laakuu were living amongst them. Three years ago, give or take. He thought back to the Worldwide human attack with electricity…that was Joshua and the girl’s doing he was sure…and Kinaejah, or Mason as he was known then, going on the rampage…the capture of Mason and bringing him back to face the elders and turning things around…wait a minute!

  Thaejah focused on the time he was still Declan, when he was at Mason’s house…and his cave below ground. That had to be it! Mason, or Kinaejah, he corrected himself, had his real body there in a cryogenic chamber, against the rules, so what else did he have down there?

  “It’s that fucking Joshua!” Kinaejah shouted. “It has to be. He’s the only one who has inside knowledge and he’s working with the humans.”

  The outburst brought Thaejah back to the present.

  “I’m not so sure,” Thaejah opined, before really thinking things through.

  Kinaejah roun
ded on him, ready to tear his head off for disagreeing.

  Thaejah held up his hands as if defending himself, despite the fact that Kinaejah was still the other side of the room.

  “I can’t see Joshua or the girl doing all this…unless…” Thaejah started.

  “Go on!” Kinaejah demanded, staring hard at Thaejah, as if baiting him to say the wrong thing so he could take out his frustration on him.

  “…unless they’ve managed to get some of our equipment.”

  Kinaejah laughed sarcastically.

  “And how could they do that?” he said smiling, thinking Thaejah was making himself look stupid.

  “Well,” Thaejah began, knowing he had to be very careful how he phrased his next comments. “You remember you had your body in a cryogenic chamber in that cave under your house?”

  The smile slipped from Kinaejah’s face.

  “What about it?” he said, menacingly.

  “Well, I was just wondering what else you might have had down there,” Thaejah said weakly.

  Kinaejah paused, thinking about it.

  “I just wondered,” Thaejah continued, “if the humans found anything once we’d left.”

  Kinaejah was still thinking about it, his face betraying some of the emotions he was going through. From thinking about the equipment, to concern that he might have left something there which was coming back to bite him on the arse, to realising that there was nothing that could help the humans and smiling that none of the current predicament was his fault.

  “Nothing,” Kinaejah confirmed. “There was nothing that could help them. A few communicators, some rods, orbs et cetera, but nothing that could take over our craft.”

  “Are you sure?” Thaejah asked, immediately regretting his words. Kinaejah wasn’t one to be questioned.

  “Of course, I’m fucking sure,” Kinaejah shouted. “Do you think I’m fucking stupid?”

  Thaejah lowered his head in submission, mentally kicking himself for speaking what was on his mind rather than thinking first.

  “No, I’m sure it has something to do with Joshua,” Kinaejah said. “We need to find him.”

  ‘Here we go again’, Thaejah thought to himself. ‘Everything comes back to Kinaejah’s fixation on Joshua’.

  “We’ll do our best,” Thaejah replied, “but we’ll need the craft to do so.”

  “Then get them fucking checked out quickly!” Kinaejah roared.

  1 Month Later

  60

  It had been a very busy month at The Manor.

  The first week had been spent deciding on the best plan of action, while Jess also spent a lot of her time with Bishop, trying to find out the extent of the AI’s capabilities. She had been very pleased with what she found.

  The second week had been spent refining the plan and the following two weeks had been used in preparation.

  Kate and Hannah worked around the clock, sending out coded radio messages and trying to garner support from the multitude of Underground members throughout the country. People had been living day to day and just surviving for over three years and there were more than enough volunteers ready to join the cause. As all the Laakuu craft were temporarily out of the way, it enabled these people to travel unseen and hassle-free, their destination being the suburbs of London where they met up and stayed with likeminded people.

  The two shuttles had turned on their cloaking devices and had been used almost continually over the past two weeks, ferrying equipment and people to the London suburbs without detection. However, they still needed to uncloak to unload the equipment, so they avoided doing it anywhere near the forcefield wall in case the Laakuu guards saw them or Laakuu craft suddenly appeared. After all, it was only a matter of time before their craft would be back in circulation and Sam had reported that the first few shuttles, drones and Battlecruisers had already been sighted from time to time.

  Harry, Jason, Karen, Joshua and Jess took time out to visit the Dulce Base in the US to discuss the plans with their American counterparts. The cloaked shuttles were untraceable, and with the rest of the Laakuu craft back in their hangars being checked over, there wasn’t much chance of them being spotted in any case.

  The overnight visit to the US had been a fifteen-thousand-kilometre round trip but had been well worth it. The shuttles could fly at almost twice the speed of sound, around two and a half thousand kilometres per hour, so the journey each way had only taken around three hours. The shuttles had been exceptionally quiet, stable and comfortable, especially when Jess used the AI unit to morph some beds out of the structure for them to rest on.

  The Americans had been very welcoming, and although they had reservations about letting Joshua anywhere near their facilities, Harry had managed to convince them of the necessity. Indeed, Joshua had proved invaluable when they were shown some of the alien technology and managed to explain how a number of items worked.

  The Americans had been particularly interested in the shuttles, until they realised what Jess could do, and then their interest turned to her. They had soon signed up to the plan without any further hesitation.

  It had quickly been agreed that it made sense for the fight back to start in the UK because that was where the Laakuu leader was based. Everyone felt that if they could defeat him, the rest of the Elders might fall into line, and if they didn’t, then the war could continue, but against lesser adversaries. They quickly started referring to the forthcoming fight as the ‘Battle for London’.

  What they would do after the war was a completely different matter. Neither the British nor the Americans had even considered what could or should happen if they won; all focus had been on how they might defeat the Laakuu in the first place. ‘One step at a time’, as Harry was keen on saying, and there was little point wasting time considering the future when the present was all that really mattered.

  The Americans wanted to actively take part in the attack on the Laakuu, and a squad of thirty special ops personnel volunteered to go with them back to the UK. Harry explained in detail what they planned to do, and despite some scepticism and suggested changes to the plan, Jess easily convinced them that they knew what they were doing, especially once she showed them Bishop and what the AI unit could do.

  The Americans had their own EMP devices, which were far more advanced than those Harry had managed to acquire, so crates of the devices were hauled onto the shuttles to take back to Britain. The Americans also presented Harry with a few crates of RPGs, or ‘Stinger MANPADS’ as the Americans described them. They explained that it stood for ‘man portable air defence system’ and that the rockets would ‘shoot the shit outta anythin’ flying’…provided they weren’t shielded. They also included hundreds of replacement Stinger rockets for the RPGs, which they hoped would be sufficient to do more than enough damage. They knew that the Laakuu had a large number of craft so these MANPADS would be working overtime once the EMPs had taken the shields out.

  Everything had been considered and everything was in place. They just wished they had more of everything. So, all they could do was pray that the weapons they had were good enough and the plan worked.

  ‘Fail to plan, plan to fail’ the American in charge, Dwight, had said on a number of occasions. He was a large, loud four-star General, the highest rank achievable in the US Army, and shared similar traits to the well-known ‘Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf’ of the 1991 Operation Desert Storm fame. He decided to remain in the US, just in case things didn’t work out and a follow up plan was needed. Harry left him with a number of Laakuu devices just in case, and Joshua showed Dwight and his men how they worked.

  Once back at The Manor, the Americans, led by Major Chuck Groves, were introduced to the rest of the group and the shuttles were then sent to deliver the new weapons.

  Everyone went to bed early, although many found sleep hard to come by. The following day would be the start of the fight back.

  61

  Sam, Pete and Jimmy were up extra early, fuelled by unspent adrenaline. T
hey had been waiting for three long years for the chance to fight back and they couldn’t wait to start.

  They left the shop under darkness with half a dozen others who had arrived from different parts of the country and who had been sharing their premises for the past week.

  The nine of them put their equipment into the boots of two Toyota Prius cars sitting at the curb, cars which they had commandeered a few weeks earlier.

  They climbed in and set off for Clapham Common which was about four kilometres away and only half a kilometre from the Southern forcefield wall. They were expecting to meet up with numerous other groups before moving closer on foot.

  As Sam drove one of the cars, Pete sat in the passenger seat with the portable radio and dialled into the correct frequency for the day.

  At the same time, other groups and teams in Greater London were closing in on the forcefield walls from all points of the compass, and many were already in situ, hiding in nearby buildings with their weapons at the ready.

  They were all waiting patiently for it to all start and many were saying their last prayers to their Gods.

  62

  Harry, Jess, Jason, Andy, Steve, Adil, Karen, Matt, Joshua and Hannah left the house and headed for one of the shuttles, Jess carrying Bishop in her hands.

  All but Harry, Jess and Hannah were dressed in riot gear, some of which they already had in the basement, and some additions which had been provided by the Americans.

  The thirty American special ops soldiers headed for the second shuttle.

  The rest of the group stood on the patio outside the kitchen, ready to wave them off. They had already said their ‘goodbye’s’ and ‘good luck’s’ and there had been a few tears and a few short-lived arguments about who should go and who should stay.

  Harry had had the final say on who should go, harshly explaining to all that it was not a game and that there was no place for sentiment or mis-placed heroism. Those staying were either too old, likely to slow them up or be an unnecessary distraction when they really needed to focus on what they were doing. Further, if it didn’t go according to plan, those staying at The Manor would have to step up as the next line of defence.