It was. Their sacrifice would go uncelebrated, unremarked. Possibly a tiny footnote in the Covenant’s book of minutes. Perhaps a moment’s silence across the galaxy. And then things would return to normal and carry on. The galaxy was blissfully unaware of humanity’s existence.
Dr. Beck leaned back and pursed his lips. He pressed his fingers together.
“Then what exactly was the Bug ship we destroyed?” Dr. Beck said. “Clearly not one of their warships.”
“Far from it,” Lucy said. “It was a regular extermination ship. Low-level defense and weaponry. Sent here to ensure we get wiped out. There were only a handful of Bugs present onboard. One of them must have been sent to the surface a couple of weeks ago to find Lucy after she escaped. It was a regular worker trying to cover up their own mistake at failing to kill Lucy. The extermination ship largely works on automatic.”
Dr. Beck snorted and shook his head.
“We were almost eradicated by a machine operating on autopilot?” he said.
There was something somehow sick and inhuman about the setup. If you were going to exterminate an entire species, at least do it in person. It was at least humane, even if it was less efficient. But these things weren’t human, Dr. Beck had to remind himself. They wouldn’t react in disgust to the same catalysts humans did.
“The Bugs are doing this, right now, on a massive scale,” Lucy said. “They’re experts. They’re not going to waste valuable resources just to make themselves feel better. Who knows how many species they’ve wiped out across the galaxy. We’re the next in a long line. They don’t want to concern themselves with the mindless activity of eradicating an entire planet.”
“Being wiped out is one thing,” Dr. Beck said, “but to be wiped out in such a blase way. . . It’s disgusting.”
The others nodded, in agreement with the doctor. There was something very wrong about how the Bugs were conducting their business.
“It doesn’t matter how they’re doing it,” Lucy said, turning the monitor off. “We have to stop them. And getting in touch with the Covenant is our only option. But hey, I’m open to other ideas. If any of you have a better solution, I’m all ears.”
No one piped up with an alternative.
“What happens now?” Jamie said.
“We get away from here,” Lucy said. “As fast as we can.”
“Where?” Jamie said.
“Anywhere,” Lucy said. “It doesn’t matter where. We don’t want to be here when the Bug frigates turn up. We need to hide until Computer mends the hyperdrive system. Only then do we stand a chance.”
“What about Earth?” Donald said. “There won’t be anyone here to defend it.”
“Neither can we,” Lucy said. “Our best hope of helping them is to leave.”
Donald and Dr. Beck were silent a moment.
“Lucy’s right,” Donald said. “Cold, but right. You need to leave and find somewhere safe. Then get a message to those in the Covenant. Tell them what the Bugs are doing. Make them pay.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Dad,” Donny said, locking eyes on his father.
“You know me,” Donald said.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Donny said. “Wait for us to send the message and keep your heads down.”
“You focus on what you need to do,” Donald said. “Boys, I’m very proud of you. Even if this doesn’t work out, I want you to know I love you both very much.”
Jamie and Donny weren’t sure what to say, embarrassed to be hearing these words, and yet joyous at the same time.
“I love you, Dad,” Jamie said.
He reached out and put a hand on his father’s holographic hand, looked into his shimmering eyes. Jamie wore the same look.
It was Donny’s turn.
“You’re all right,” he said. “For a dad.”
He grinned, showing his real feelings in his face even if he couldn’t do it with words.
“You take care of yourselves,” Donald said. “If you manage to get through this somehow, and you end up crashing on an alien planet somewhere, make sure to find yourselves a nice couple of martian ladies.”
“Dad!” Jamie said.
“I’m just saying,” Donald said, holding up his hands and following it up with his characteristic booming laughter.
It was the sound they would always remember him by.
80.
DONALD WIPED his hands over his face and thumbed the tears out of his eyes. He didn’t try to hide them. He was unapologetic about his emotions when it came to his boys.
“It was worth it,” he said. “To speak with them one last time.”
“It doesn’t need to be the last time,” Dr. Beck said.
“That’s hardly our decision now,” Donald said. “I’m only glad the boys will be away from here when the frigates turn up.”
A red light flashed on the communications equipment.
“What’s that?” Donald said.
“Let’s find out,” Dr. Beck said.
He pressed the button.
“Hello?” a voice said. “This is Lieutenant Mathers at the City of New York. We picked up a signal of a massive burst of energy emanating from the Earth’s surface. Then we noticed communications are no longer blocked. In fact, they’d been removed for some twenty minutes before the blast. We want to know if it worked. If the Bugs are gone. We could sure use some good news right about now.”
Another blinking light. Dr. Beck pushed another button.
“This is General Matsuyaki,” an accented voice said. “Stationed at Tokyo City. A short time ago we noticed communications were beginning to get through. Our sensors are old and did not pick up any significant signal from Earth’s orbit and wondered. . .”
“You see?” Dr. Beck said. “We’re not as alone as you think.”
The hope in the doctor’s voice was infectious. Could it really be possible?
Dr. Beck pressed a button and listened to another message.
81.
“WHERE ARE we going?” Jamie said.
“Pick a direction,” Lucy said.
Jamie pointed to a random cluster of stars.
“To the Seven Sisters it is,” Lucy said. “We’ll never get there, of course. At least, I hope not. We’ll be in a pretty poor state if it took that long for Computer to fix the hyperjump engine.”
“How long would it take?” Jamie said.
“About ten thousand years,” Lucy said. “Give or take a century or two.”
“Ten thousand?” Jamie said. “But it’s only a few inches on the map.”
“Be careful,” Lucy said. “Things may be closer than they appear.”
“Huh?” Jamie said.
“Never mind,” Lucy said.
She engaged the engine, letting it warm up and move slowly forward, gradually working up to lightspeed.
“Do you think everyone will be okay?” Jamie said. “Back on Earth, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” Lucy said. “The Bugs might decide Earth is too much trouble and leave us alone. But it’s unlikely.”
“What are the chances they’ll try to blow the whole planet up?” Donny said.
He was thinking about their father.
“Low,” Lucy said. “They’ll want to reap some resources for all the time and trouble they took to wipe us out. They want a good return on their investment.”
“You think our message in a bottle plan will work?” Isabelle said, leaning back comfortably in her chair.
“I don’t see why not,” Lucy said. “It worked for the Bugs. Why wouldn’t it work for us?”
They sailed into the darkness and the great unknown.
82.
“WE KNOW where the Bugs will be, if not when,” Dr. Beck said, thinking through their situation. “If we can damage them, cause them harm in some way, we should do everything we can. Perhaps we can slow them down in their pursuit of the Mothership.”
“You’re forgetting they might destroy the planet with their ad
vanced weapons,” Donald said.
“Unlikely,” Dr. Beck said. “If they could have done that without alerting the Covenant, don’t you think they would have already? No. They’ll investigate what happened here, install another extermination ship—perhaps with an armed escort this time—and chase the Mothership. They’re the real danger. But maybe we can make a nuisance of ourselves here too.”
“What do you mean?” Donald said.
“There are large Cities still active across the world,” Dr. Beck said. “And they still want to fight.”
“There are other giant cannons?” Donald said.
“No,” Dr. Beck said. “But they will have other weapons at their disposal.”
“Like what?” Donald said.
Dr. Beck looked at Donald and turned his head to the side. A look of childish glee on his face.
“I think it’s about time we turned the tables on these creatures,” Dr. Beck said. “Give them a piece of the dread they gave to us.”
83.
SOMEWHERE OVER the Ural mountains in the former country of Russia, a large hatch door opened.
A large rocket blasted into the sky, great clouds of billowing smoke trailing behind. They were more than capable of breaking out of the Earth’s gravitational pull, not that anyone had ever thought it was a good idea before. But when your entire species was on its knees and there was nothing else to lose, why not fire them?
They had fitted the aging rockets with simple maneuvering devices that would work in space. Rudimentary, but it was the best they could do with the limited time they had.
The rocket joined sixteen hundred others as they snaked across the sky, creating a spider web. The City of the Ural mountains had responded to the call, and answered with vigour.
84.
BY THE time the Fall had happened, India had just overtaken China in becoming the most populous nation on Earth. It was still one of the poorest, but hey, you couldn’t have everything.
With India’s poor level of infrastructure, the Rage virus had been especially destructive. People were used to living in very close proximity and this only fueled the spread of the virus. One of India’s greatest strengths—its population—had been turned against it. But now, it was ready to use that strength against their enemies.
The virus in its current form would not be devastating to the Bugs as it had been to humans but it didn’t matter. Even if only a handful of Rages got aboard the Bug ships, they could tear through the Bug ranks like a billy goat through paper. At least, that was the hope.
For the past few years, the City of Mumbai had been researching the Rage virus and how they might create a cure or else a vaccine. Their efforts had been fruitless but they did have a large number of rockets and a huge number of cheap spacesuits to clothe them in for the journey ahead.
They launched entire rockets packed full of the beasts and blasted them into space. Perhaps nothing would come of it, or perhaps it would deal a deadly blow. Who knew.
The City of Mumbai had responded to the call, and responded with vigour.
85.
ALL ACROSS the world, rockets were being launched and lasers focused, everything coming together to rest in one place.
“This is happening across the whole world?” Donald said.
“From all the remaining Cities,” Dr. Beck said. “Remarkable, don’t you think?”
“Yes,” Donald said. “We’ll give the Bugs a fond farewell they’ll never forget.”
86.
THE MOTHERSHIP was tearing through space at the fastest speed possible, and still, it felt like they were hardly moving. It was their self-imposed night time and Lucy couldn’t sleep. In truth, she could sleep but she didn’t want to see those alien images anymore. Every time she closed her eyes she saw the purple shore, the dark cave, the regal Bug and the mysterious cave paintings. It had to mean something. She couldn’t find the answer.
“New artifacts translated,” Computer said.
“What is the subject matter?” Lucy said.
“Ancient history and myths,” Computer said.
It was what Lucy had been looking for. She removed the tip of her finger and plugged the wires into a terminal. She accessed the information.
The Bugs were a single warrior race. They had conquered the entire surface of their home planet early on. It hadn’t been much larger than Mars—approximately half Earth’s size. Their planet was also dying. A newly-formed species and they were so close to extinction already. The various Bug tribes worked together to build a single starship that would take them from their world and deposit them on another—a neighbouring planet much larger and richer with natural resources. It was a huge challenge for the fledgling species.
The concept of space travel always existed within their culture. In fact, according to their legends, they didn’t originate from that small planet at all. They’d come from somewhere else entirely. They later discovered ancient cave paintings—
Lucy paused, her heart racing in her chest. This was it. This was what she was looking for.
They later discovered ancient cave paintings on a forgotten moon in a far-flung star system. It told the story of a disagreement with a powerful member of something called the Covenant. Long ago, the ancestors of the Bugs had been a powerful race. They’d spread across the galaxy, moving from one planet to the next, growing larger and larger, until one day a group of aliens came to them. They’d formed something called the Covenant.
They offered the Bugs full membership. It came with all the protection the Covenant offered, as well as sharing all scientific breakthroughs with one another. But it also meant the Bugs must control their tendency to wipe out entire species in their search for greater power. The Bugs declined the invitation and continued to prosper.
The Covenant was surprised by the Bugs rebuffing their offer as it was considered a great honour. The Bugs considered it a ploy to stop them from attaining their true power and glory. The Covenant begged them to join but the proud Bugs refused.
Lucy suspected this history was more than a little biased in favour of the heroes of the tale—the Bugs. The Covenant had clearly made the offer in an attempt to stop the Bugs from wiping out innocent species. They didn’t want to go to war but they simply could not stand idly by while this travesty was taking place. The Bugs were a rogue race and flouted everything the Covenant stood for.
There was a war. The Bugs fought valiantly but were ultimately no match for the Covenant’s combined forces. The Bugs were forced out of their own colonies, brutally murdered and cast into the depths of space. Faced with obliteration, the Bugs agreed to the Covenant’s terms.
It was later, in the deep bowels of a distant colony on the far reaches of the galaxy, that they hatched their plan to become part of the Covenant and destroy them from within. Since then, their strength grew, on course to achieve their ultimate aim of becoming the one and only force in the universe.
Lucy took a step back from the documents and ran the story through her mind. This was about more than the Earth and the survival of the human race. This was about every species everywhere.
They could not fail in getting their message to the Convenant. She could not fail.
87.
DR. BECK felt like he was watching a horror movie. The Bug ships appeared from nowhere. On his fuzzy monitor, he could make out the blurry outline of an unknown planet appearing in a square of space, a giant orange monstrosity. And there were stars too, constellations no human eye had ever seen before.
But what really took his breath away was the sheer scale of the enemy ships that came through the gateways, delivering Bug ships halfway across the galaxy to this single pesky planet causing them so much trouble.
Humans were children playing at an adult’s game. A ten-year-old entering the ring with the heavyweight champion of the world. They stood no chance against this level of technology.
The ship in the centre was the biggest construction Dr. Beck had ever seen. It had to have the mass o
f half their moon. It was a square cylinder with pointed spikes on top and bottom, a crown atop the master of the universe. Their Mothership was a pilot fish beside this great white shark.
Flanked on either side of it were two matching frigate ships, half the size of the leader but with countless sentry guns and hatches to spew out killer craft. These were true ships of intergalactic war. There could be no doubt what they had come here to accomplish.
The gateways shut behind them. They were here to stay.
88.
TWO WEEKS was a long time in the new world, and Theresa had long since given up any hope of seeing Donald and the kids again. She thought of them sometimes, especially Donny, with whom she’d had a special relationship.
After the bulk of the Reavers had left, apparently on the whim of Mantis, their leader, a small contingent of Reavers had been left behind. They were supposed to represent a threat to the commune, to murder them if they misbehaved or they received a signal. No such signal came. There had been no word from the rest of the clan for a week.
The Reaver numbers were dwindling. The commune’s weapons had been taken away but that did not mean they were defenseless. Anything could be a weapon if the creative mind was so bent. A rock could be as deadly as a bullet if it struck a skull hard enough. A bread knife could slit a throat if the right amount of pressure was applied. A plastic fork could pierce someone’s eye as easily as the sharpest blade. All three of these makeshift weapons had been used on Reavers foolish enough to venture out alone.
Theresa had become the unofficial leader of the commune. The council members were still locked in their cells below, watched constantly by armed guards. Theresa organized the commune’s schedules so they were always busy going about their chores. The Reavers were not long for this place. Their choice was easy: stay and slowly die or leave and live.
After the Fall- The Complete series Box Set Page 57