by Bob Mayer
“I have always enjoyed your sense of humor, Sergei,” Clark said. “You maintain it even now, which is admirable. We know we have both violated that treaty. A vertical launch will work. The booster will run out of fuel before reaching the target, but if aimed correctly, inertia will send the warheads onward.”
“Ah, my dear General,” Krasmav responded, “you know me well. But if we do that, then we have to fire to intercept as the Core comes overheard, in volleys. We will not be able to concentrate our power.”
“It’s all we have,” Clark responded. “The good news is the detonations should be far enough from the atmosphere. I’m sending the launch profiles my people have worked out for both of us. Wait one.” She pointed at one of her staff.
She waited as the information was transmitted.
Krasmav finally responded. “You seem very knowledgeable on all my launch sites, missile profiles, and the location of my missile submarines. I am glad we never went to war. It appears, how do you say it, that I get first crack at this?”
“You do,” Clark said. “The Core is on path for intercept to your easternmost missiles in two minutes. Can you launch by then?”
“Already sent the order, my friend.”
*****
The furthest east Russian ICBM cluster was very close to the border with the Ukraine. It was equipped with SS-X-30 Satan 2 ICBMs each with ten heavy warheads capable of FOBS: fractional orbital bombardment. What this means is that the payload is lifted into low earth orbit, the warheads are dispersed on pre-determined paths to de-orbit over their targets. This design was developed to defeat American tracking and counter-missile intercepts. Theoretically, this would allow Russia to attack the United States with orbital nukes coming in from the South Pole.
******
The Core picked up the signature of the first launch in under two seconds. The response was immediate.
As the first Satan cleared its silo, a particle beam accelerator on the surface of the Core fired a burst of energy. The bolt of energy traveled at the speed of light, as opposed to the gathering speed of the initial rocket booster.
Thus the missile blew up less than two hundred feet above its launch silo.
The fortunate aspect was that because of safety protocols, the multiple nuclear warheads in the nose cone were not yet armed and didn’t detonate when destroyed.
The Swarm wasn’t content with the missile. The accelerator fired several more times, obliterating the launch silo and the surrounding terrain for a distance of five miles.
Recognizing the threat, the Core reacted faster to subsequent launches, hitting missiles before they cleared the silo.
Then it hit the main base launching them and the adjacent town, slagging them.
Data gathered from military communications were analyzed by the Swarm and the targeting matrix was updated. Russian military posts that didn’t have strategic missiles were hit as the forward edge of the Battle Core passed overheard.
*****
General Clark watched the Russian feeds go dark and the low orbit, spy satellite feeds of the destruction on the other side of the globe.
She had the phone to her ear. “Sergei.”
“Yes, I am seeing. It’s got everything targeted. Everything we have. I do not think you will have any greater fortune with this plan.”
Clark looked at the main display covering the front wall of the Opcenter. The curve of the Core was approaching Moscow.
“Can you get out?” she asked Krasmav.
“And go where?” Krasmav replied. “This is my duty post.”
The line reached the suburbs of Moscow.
“I can hear detonations,” Krasmav said. “I have issued orders for our other facilities to stand down. Perhaps the alien will miss one or two and they can survive this initial onslaught.”
The static was getting worse. Clark heard a loud sound in the background noise. “Farewell, my friend.”
“Ah,” Krasmav said. “Perhaps we will meet in Valhalla.”
Clark gripped the phone tighter. “I never took you for a religious man.”
“It is not religion,” Krasmav said. “It is the place warriors go after fighting bravely.”
The line passed over Moscow and the phone went dead.
General Clark began issuing new orders as the Core continued its eastward track.
*****
At Area 51, Turcotte sat in the pilot’s depression. Tens of thousands of cars and trucks were racing toward Area 51 from all directions. Planes were landing on the runway, some so anxious, they collided on approach and crashed. The antiaircraft batteries had fired their last missiles. There was no outer security. The mothership was hidden inside Hangar Two and the ruby sphere wasn’t yet on line.
Turcotte looked at the thin line of mercenaries and New Zealand peacekeepers in a perimeter around the entrance to Hangar Two.
They wouldn’t hold long.
Turcotte banked the Fynbar toward the intruders. Fired a long burst from the Tesla cannon directly in front of them, incinerating the desert floor, until the coil ran out of power. He circled around.
It hadn’t slowed them a bit.
This wasn’t going to work.
He flew back to Hangar Two.
****
Yakov, Nyx and Labby were on the bridge of the mothership. Julius sat in the over-sized pilot’s chair, a line of sweat on his face.
“I will take over,” Yakov announced.
There was no argument. The Russian sat down, looked at the various displays.
He muttered something to himself in Russian, but Nyx heard him.
“You know enough,” she replied in the same language.
Yakov indicated a gauge. “We are not on line yet.”
“We will be,” Nyx said. “It is getting close.”
*****
In a small hold near the rear of the ship, Mrs. Parrish leaned over the regeneration tube, looking at the body inside. “Perfect. He is so perfect.”
She lifted the chain from around her neck and took the ka off it.
Maria and George watched. There was no one else in the hold, as per Mrs. Parrish’s orders.
Mrs. Parrish inserted the ka into the designated slot on the control panel.
*****
Turcotte landed just behind the perimeter. Opened the hatch and stood on top of the Fynbar next to the Tesla cannon.
Colonel Mickell came running up. “What are you doing?” He climbed up. “Rennie knows his troops have gotten a fatal dose of radiation. They’ll hold to the last men. I think the mercs will too. We need your fire support.”
Turcotte tapped the Tesla cannon. “I can fire as well from here. Better actually. But that won’t hold.”
Mickell spread his hands. “Then what?”
“’The better angels of our nature’,” Turcotte said.
*****
Mrs. Parrish reached into a pocket of her sundress and retrieved two cigars. She stripped the end off one and snipped it.
“Maria, do you have the lighter?”
“Should you not wait for Mister Parrish?” Maria asked. But she handed over a lighter.
AREA 51
Turcotte fired a sustained burst from the Tesla cannon over the heads of the New Zealanders and merc, incinerating the concrete in front of the crazed hoard charging them.
The display of power finally brought the front of the crowd to a halt, those behind pushing on them, but for a briefest moment, there was silence
“Fire into the air,” he yelled to Rennie.
The peacekeepers let off bursts of automatic fire.
“Listen to me!” Turcotte yelled in his best parade field command voice. “Listen!” He fired the cannon again, level, in an arc over the crowd. Absolute silence reined.
The eyes of thousands of desperate people were directed toward him.
“In the ship behind me,” Turcotte shouted, “is the future of mankind. Of humanity. Children. Five thousand of them.”
Some pe
ople began screaming back, mothers holding up babies.
Turcotte fired the Tesla, bringing quiet.
“The future of man,” he repeated. “The mothership is at capacity. None of us—“ he kept one hand on the cannon, the other sweeping out, indicating the soldiers in front of him—“can go on it. None of us. Myself, these men. None of us are going. We are here with you.”
Surprisingly, there was no outcry from the growing crowd.
Turcotte pointed up. “We are being invaded. By a species that hates intelligent life. But we are more than that. We are humans. We are mankind. We must insure our future. We must let this ship launch.”
*****
Mrs. Parris inhaled deeply, then exhaled. She was watching the tube.
“I never liked the smell,” Maria said.
Mrs. Parrish was surprised. “What?”
“His cigars. I always hated it.”
“I don’t need this from you now,” Mrs. Parrish said, turning back to the tube. “Not now. Remember. I’ve saved you. Twice now.” She leaned over peered through the small window at the body. “How long does this take?”
“Forever,” Maria said, holding up a ka.
Mrs. Parrish blinked. “What? What is that?”
“It’s Mister Parrish,” Maria said. “You inserted a blank.”
Maria dropped it to the floor and stomped on it. Hard.
George snarled at Mrs. Parrish as she rushed forward, crying out in despair.
*****
The front of the crowd was wavering. More and more were arriving on the outer fringes, screaming, pleading, their voices a cacophony of desperation.
“Mike,” Mickell said, pointing.
Turcotte looked over his shoulder. The hatch was closing on the ruby sphere.
“I’ll stand with you,” Turcotte said.
Mickell shoot his head. “No. We’re done here. You get in your ship and go. They’ll need you. You held them long enough.”
*****
“What?” Nyx asked as Yakov said something she didn’t quite catch.
“I am praying,” Yakov said. He gently adjusted the controls.
“That is good,” Nyx said. “I suppose. It appears the sphere is on line. The hatch is closed.”
The ship lurched several inches.
*****
Turcotte slid into the Fynbar sealing the hatch. He looked up as the mothership glided by overhead.
He felt something on his cheeks, reached up and wiped the tears away.
Then he took off. He took one glance below. Saw Mickell as the crowd surged forward. His comrade in arms dropped his weapon and waved.
Then he was surged under.
Turcotte directed the Fynbar skyward, following the mothership toward space.
THE END OF THE BEGINNING
MOTHERSHIP
Leahy settled into the other pilot’s seat, but Yakov had his hands on the controls.
“Do you know how to activate FTLT?” Yakov asked Leahy.
“Hold on.” Leahy had the Tesla computer set on the console to the right, her hands on it, eyes closed. “It’s linking,” Leahy said. “I’m linking to the ship.”
“Ask it how to go into FTLT,” Yakov said, “because I have no idea. And, please, quickly.” He tapped the flexpad to his side. “Mike? Where are you? We can open a hold for you.”
“Negative,” Turcotte said. “I’m staying. Get those people the hell out of here.”
*****
Maria sat with her back against the locked door to the room containing the regeneration tube. She could hear Mrs. Parrish’s screams, but she’d locked the door.
George’s head on her lap.
“It’s all right,” she whispered to George. “It’s all right.” She was scratching behind his ear. “Sofia is fine. Everything is fine.”
George gave a contented sigh.
WARDENCLYFFE, SHOREHAM, NEW YORK
“Got it!” a tech yelled. The shield surrounding Tesla’s lab went down. The military had departed hours earlier, as Shear had predicted.
Most of the surviving techs ran for the door, but two remained. They turned to Shear.
“What are you going to do?” one of them asked.
“I got nowhere to run to,” Shear said.
“Me neither,” the one who’d asked said.
“So what do we do?” the other one asked.
Shear indicated the control panel. “We still have power. I doubt we could make much of a dent on that thing in orbit. But I, for one, am not going down without a fight.”
PRIVATE ISLAND, PUGET SOUND
“Look!” Nekhbet was pointing at the sky.
The mothership was visible in the distance, rising up into orbit as it arced across the sky.
“I knew we wouldn’t have made it there in time,” Nosferatu said, as he led her from the helicopter toward the mansion.
“But I don’t understand,” Nekhbet said. “Why have you done this?”
Nosferatu tapped his temple. “Sadly, I do not think the Swarm are that much different than you or I, my love.”
“You speak in riddles.”
“I know,” Nosferatu said. “And it frustrates you. Let us go inside.”
“But what about the Swarm?”
“Yes, yes,” Nosferatu said. “There is still that slight problem.”
“’Slight’?” Nekhbet laughed, a bit manically. “You have a talent for understatement my dear.”
“You trust me, do you not?” Nosferatu asked as he held her hand. They went into through the grand entrance. Past the large mural of the Giza Plateau.
“I’ve trusted you for thousands of years,” Nekhbet said. “In the darkness, in the depths of despair, I’ve trusted you. Why should I stop now, just because the world is about to end?”
THE FACILITY
Asha held the flexpad in her hands. It was flashing data, news reports, stories of disaster and death.
She swiped her hand across the screen, clearing it.
“The mothership is in orbit,” she told Joseph.
“I wish them safe journey,” he said.
“Now I must—“ Asha paused, gathered herself. “Now I must do what needs to be done.”
“Of course,” Joseph said.
Asha did one last check to make sure the Facility was functional. “We are self-sustaining.”
“I know.”
Asha looked up at him. “I’m sorry, father. I am scared.”
Joseph put his arms around his daughter. “I know you are. I am too. But we are the leaders of our people.” He leaned forward, whispering to her in their native tongue. “’Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart’.”
Asha nodded inside the embrace. “Yes.” Then she sealed the Facility in every possible way, cutting out all links to the outside world. Her last act was to turn off Ethos and the subroutine.
EARTH ORBIT
A particle beam burst hit the mothership. The impact shuddered throughout the ship.
“A bit more urgency,” Yakov said to Leahy. He leaned toward the flexpad. “Mike? We need you.”
*****
Turcotte glanced at one of the monitors. The forward edge of the Battle Core was coming around the curvature of the Earth behind them.
“No. You don’t. I’m going back down as soon as you get out of here. What’s the hold up?”
*****
In a small cabin behind the bridge, Nyx was alone with Labby. She was kneeling, looking the nanodog in the eyes. She reached out and put her arms around it. “I love you,” she whispered. “I love you.”
Labby nuzzled up to her and she sensed something deep in its eyes.
Perhaps?
*****
The Swarm had registered the mothership lifting off. It was a relatively minor event in the overall concept of the reaping. The Core was closing on the mothership and would finish destroying it once enough particle beam weapons could be brought to bear.
*****
“
I can do it,” Leahy said, her hands still on the Tesla. She opened her eyes and looked over at Yakov, a bit disoriented from her dual realities, the Tesla still in her mind. “Where should we jump to?”
“Anywhere but here,” Yakov said.
Leahy closed her eyes.
Darkness fell.
EARTH ORBIT
The mothership had been there one moment, gone the next, as it shifted into FTLT.
Turcotte was momentarily shocked at the abrupt disappearance. Then a momentary relief that some sliver of humanity had escaped washed through him.
That sliver evaporated as multiple particle beams flashed past, firing at the spot where the mothership had just occupied. His muscles tightened as he expected his ship to be blasted as the Core shifted aim.
But nothing. The Core resumed firing downward toward the planet.
Turcotte relaxed his shoulders as much as he could. Perhaps the Fynbar was ‘invisible’ to the Core as it had been to the Airlia systems?
Turcotte gasped as pain spiked through his brain, from the base of his skull to right between his eyes. For a moment he thought the craft had been hit and he’d been struck by shrapnel. But something through the brain? He’d be dead.
He reached up and felt the back of his head, his forehead. Nothing. But the remnants of the pain remained, pulsing. A live wire at the center of his brain.
The implant!
Turcotte took a deep breath while he closed his eyes, waiting for some sort of image to develop, a message, anything.