by Nick Braker
The strange man never gave his name but he had provided Alexandria with key information that had kept WSO from imploding. If it had not been for his help, she wouldn’t have been appointed as WSO’s director, a position she would have been passed over for because the favored candidate, Jim McPherson, knew how to play the game. Several phone calls from the strange raspy voice over the course of a few weeks provided proof the favored candidate was corrupt; bribery and embezzlement being a few of his crimes. As crazy as it had sounded to Alexandria, the man’s information had proven true. She could not deny his credibility.
His last call, after she was chosen as WSO’s new director, was the hardest to believe. He had told her that four young men would deliver a spaceship from another galaxy as proof of their worth to WSO and Earth. At the time, WSO was unaware of Aliri or Kron activity on Earth and his story had been pushed aside in her mind. She had never thought of it again until this year when Tom Sanguine had called her, informing her that he and his men had captured an actual spaceship... with four male and four female owners.
Was that man Alara’s alien father, the one whose name Alara would not speak? Could it be any of the Aliri? What if Kron had made the contact? If the Kron were responsible, it only made sense if it was the man who hired Tess to kill Magnus. It made no sense if her informant was from Kron as he had wanted nothing in return for his help except the consideration of bringing four young men into the WSO training program.
Alexandria made a conscious choice to believe the Aliri had helped her nearly three years ago in order to provide a way to get Magnus and his team into WSO. Since these aliens clearly helped Seph and her friends fifteen years ago, it was logical to conclude the Aliri were responsible. It also meant they intended for Tess to be part of WSO. Magnus had been right... again.
Alexandria was no fool. She did everything possible to track the strange caller down. She had tried to trace the call two and a half years ago and recently had agents in Belgium pouring through phone records there in hopes of finding the one who had called Tess. Alexandria’s gut told her he would not be found unless he wanted to be. Today, she was certain, he was alien in origin. Other than that, she could only hope his help was genuine. So far, it had been.
Earth - Washington, D.C.
Saturday, October 31, 1987 - 11:00pm
Grep
Grep gently poked Seph in the ribs as he brushed by her. She jumped, squeaking aloud and setting her glass of tea down. He laughed, retreating to the other side of the research lab table. He faced her squarely, keeping an eye on her as he had just painted a virtual bullseye on his back. He knew she was already planning her retaliation and had probably started a background process in her mind to find the perfect way to return the favor. She grinned back at him, adjusting her white lab coat. She had her hair in a bun wearing a white hairnet to keep her hair from contaminating the equipment. Grep wore the same style lab coat and cap.
“You are in a feisty mood this morning,” Seph said.
“We’re almost done with this damn thing,” Grep said, pointing at the new planet buster bomb affixed to the table between them.
The newly created bomb was larger than Dr. Thorpe’s prototype by 1.2 feet. It now measured 6.92 feet in length and weighed 97.32 pounds. The destructive force of this bomb would be overkill for the planet of Kron but Grep and Seph had argued with Alexandria that it needed to be. They agreed that a greater destructive potential meant a 12.43% greater chance of destroying the alien planet should the weapon’s deployment not go entirely as planned. The additional megatons of explosive force would not delay the project and therefore they saw no reason not to do it.
“That is not the driving force behind your good mood this morning,” Seph said, not looking up at him.
Grep shook his head, wondering why he even tried to surprise her with anything. She knew him better than anyone and had already assessed he was hiding some good news from her. “I figured it out,” he said, watching her carefully.
Seph’s head didn’t move as she adjusted the electronic fuse but her eyes snapped up to stare at him, her long outer lashes springing upward with the motion.
“Do tell,” she said.
“The biggest hurdle is power, right?”
She nodded, lifting her head and pulling her protective gloves off. She threw them down in front of her, a grin forming on her face. “And?”
He did a mental count in his head, delaying his answer. Grep wanted to stretch this out.
“The suspense is killing me,” Seph said, “and you are doing it on purpose.”
“The problem with reaching Kron, even at light speed, is the distance,” he said, finally answering her. “So, your initial idea to use a portal to get us part of the way turned out to actually be a good one. I know we dismissed it right away since the power levels needed to sustain a portal light years away are not possible but...”
She tilted her head to the side. “But?”
“We don’t need to sustain a portal that far out,” he said smiling.
“Of course we would. How else would-” She paused. “You said sustain,” she continued, excitement growing in her voice. “Oh my, that is it.” Seph had figured it out.
“We just need to open the portal for an instant and time the ship to enter the portal at that moment,” he said. “The power levels are unsustainable and will burn out the portal generator, but the portal’s endpoint in space will be 20.27 light years closer to Kron. If our tests prove successful, we can fly the ship through the portal the instant it forms. A portal’s lifespan, without power, is 1.1 seconds regardless of distance separation. It’s the same reason the portal in France briefly remained active even after Magnus destroyed the generator. The peak power output will be designed to create a hole in space closer to Kron. The ship will have plenty of time to enter and exit before it collapses. We just have to ensure the system can form the portal, maximizing its endpoint as close to Kron as possible.”
Seph did a quick jump and clapped her closed hands with excitement. She squealed in delight and darted around the table, holding her arms out to Grep for a hug. Grep wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight. He felt her pull the neck collar of his shirt back and she dropped something inside his shirt.
“Aaahhhhh!” he screamed, as the cold from the ice running down his back leeched the heat from him.
She kept hugging him, gripping him tightly. Grep couldn’t get away and he couldn’t get the ice out as it melted on the lower portion of his back.
“Sweet, sweet, revenge,” she said, kissing him.
Chapter 22
ANOTHER PORTAL
Earth - Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, November 4, 1987 - 07:00am
Grep
Grep paced, his mind pushing hundreds of questions and possible answers into his consciousness. The empty WSO lab contained advanced electronic devices and computer equipment designed from the technology acquired from the Kron ship. It had taken months of research and study between the five of them to understand it; understanding that led to design and then to manufacturing. WSO had everything it needed to combat the threat to humanity and Alexandria had situated herself in place of bureaucratic red tape. Her organization received anything it needed and as fast as it needed it. Humanity’s survival was at stake and someone had the foresight to remove any barriers that would create delays.
They weren’t done yet, not by a long shot. Several components and prototypes lined the counters along each wall of a massive lab devoted specifically to Zarabeythe, Josephina, Mira, Jules and himself. The new technology was in various states of completion and represented decades of advancement that would propel humanity forward. Hopefully fast enough that they could use it to defend themselves against a universe of aliens they previously didn’t know existed.
The embedded lighting systems in the ceiling were designed with a high color rendering index and an enhanced lumen output. The effect was conducive to enhanced focus and... he chided himself. Rando
m thoughts like these were commonplace to him now but Grep didn’t want to think about any of that. He had a different goal. Grep needed to figure a way to convince Alexandria to let him go on this mission to Kron. WSO, or more accurately, Earth planned to deliver a bomb that was destructive enough to obliterate the entire alien planet. Alexandria had ordered them to prepare the spaceship, build the bomb and to create two machines to generate an instantaneous portal, one to send them and another one to return them. The spaceship and the bomb were the easy parts. Building the machines that generated the portals in space had taken every waking hour from all five of the Aliri augmented humans, it had involved the most stringent security measures ever devised and it took WSO nearly every asset to support the project. In total, six people knew of the endeavor. Grep surmised the Aliri probably knew which meant that Alara knew. If this was the case, then eight people were aware.
Grep’s mind still fed him suggestions. He dismissed numerous options as dead ends since they had no chance of success. His ideas ranged from pleading to threatening resignation from WSO if Alexandria didn’t comply. His conclusions all led to the fact that he wasn’t going. His fists clenched tightly and he pounded the counter next to him.
“Damn it,” he yelled.
Seph, Zara, Mira and Jules would fly the ship from earth to Kron via the portal. Unfortunately, they could not create one that would drop the ship or even the bomb inside Kron’s solar system. The closest drop point they could generate with the Kron-Earth hybrid technology would still require a 32-day trip at twice the speed of light. The longer they delayed, the greater the distance grew between Earth’s solar system and Kron’s solar system. They both existed in the Milky Way but were moving away from each other. They needed to launch their attack as soon as possible.
The girl’s trip through space was for the sole purpose of reaching Kron’s solar system. In theory, reaching Kron was easy but doing so contained a host of unknowns. Unknowns that included the possibility of alien pirates, black holes, planets, asteroids, et cetera. The danger could not be calculated and that scared Grep the most. He needed to be there. They would need him but Alexandria had put her foot down. He wasn’t going.
Grep had to come up with a plan. He wouldn’t stay behind.
Earth - Washington, D.C.
Thursday, November 5, 1987 - 09:00am
Mira
Their spaceship hummed to life as Mira touched the control panel’s activation point on her screen. She stretched in her chair and yawned. They were all tired. Even with their Aliri augmented bodies, they still needed sleep and over the last several weeks, they’d had very little. Earth needed them. They had a plan to destroy Kron and they focused all of their efforts into it.
The system booted instantly and Mira immediately selected a remote login to Zara’s communication and historical record keeping system. Mira’s navigational systems focused on actual sensor data and real time feeds to provide her a spherical map of space around the ship. Zara’s station though had preexisting constellation maps already loaded and Mira needed to know what celestial objects were present at their anticipated destination. Both the wormhole’s destination point and their arrival time had to be selected. Celestial objects like stars and solar systems moved through space like planets moved around stars. Mira was assigned the task of picking the portal’s endpoint and base that choice on projected paths of planets, meteors, stars and other dangerous objects from the information in Zara’s system. They had to avoid arriving near or inside any object. Even a gravity well, if strong enough, could be dangerous.
“Good morning, Mira,” Jules said, lumbering up the ramp to the upper deck. She had a large cup of coffee in one hand as she crossed the ship’s bridge to her pilot seat and the closer she got to her station the faster she moved. Jules hopped into it managing to salvage every drop of her coffee. Mira worried for Jules. Her only pleasure in life was piloting or driving. Anything that controlled a machine became her passion. She hadn’t always been this way but after meeting Magnus at WSO’s training facility, things had changed dramatically for her. Jules’ heart belonged to Magnus and nothing any of them could say or do would change that. Mira understood Jules’ love. Magnus handsomeness and supernatural abilities attracted her to him. Mira envied Jules, at least she had someone in her life, even if for a moment.
Magnus and his team had been vaporized by the Kron. Mira’s heart ached at the memory of their deaths. There was no other reasonable explanation than vaporization though Jules held a steadfast belief that the Kron had teleported them away. It didn’t make sense though. If the Kron could do that, why hadn’t they used it before? Alara offered no explanation, she never did. Warren, Brock, Ruth, Giselle, Joannah, Magnus and tens of thousands of innocent human beings, all of them killed by the Kron. They were systematically killing their opponents, one by one. A background process in her mind prompted Mira to realize she had not responded to Jules’ greeting.
“Good morning, dear,” Mira said, yawning again.
Jules’ head was buried in her instrument panel. Her eyes snapped up, peering at Mira’s.
“Your silence spoke volumes,” Jules said, taking a sip of her coffee. “I do not want a lecture today, even a heartfelt one.”
Mira nodded.
“You know I simply worry about you,” Mira said. “It has been nine days since—”
Jules scoffed. “Did you get the information loaded from the historical database?” Jules asked.
“You know I did,” Mira said. “You downloaded it from mine four seconds ago.”
“And that should be your clue as to what I do and do not wish to discuss.”
Mira’s shoulders drooped, causing her bangs to drop. They covered her eyes. She ran her right hand through her short black hair. The effort put her hair, perfectly, back in place. Mira decided a more direct approach was necessary.
“Jules, you are in control of this ship and when we reach Kron, I cannot have you focused on anything other than working with us to deploy that bomb. If you think there is a chance that Magnus is on that planet, I know you will not follow through. We have one option and one chance to stop this war. You are as stubborn as Grep and you know that is saying a lot.” Mira moved to stand in front of Jules’ station. If Magnus and team were alive, Mira had to know Jules would not sabotage the mission on the chance that they could save Magnus. “I need to hear you say it.”
“You do not want to hear what I have to say,” Jules said. Jules kept working at her station, not making eye contact with Mira.
“What does that—,” Mira started to say, “I need to hear you say you will follow through with the mission objective.”
Mira realized her mistake. She watched Jules’ face flush, her lips thin and her jaw line set as she slowly cocked her head to the side. Mira had pushed too far. Jules slammed her palm on her station and stood up. She leaned forward getting in Mira’s face.
“I will not kill him,” Jules said, her voice raising, “and if there is any evidence he is alive, you can count on the fact I will abort this mission. And let me add what I told you that you do not want to hear... I know you will not kill him either. You love him, too. Do not deny it.” Jules paused, taking a breath as Mira stepped back. “I saw the way you looked at him. Your motherly act over this group is just that, an act. You, more than all of us, struggle the most with your augmentations. You were worse than Grep and to repeat your own words from earlier, that is saying a lot. You have a dark side you keep under control and I have watched you contain and control it for over five years.” Jules was yelling. “You are so sanctimonious. Tell me, do you think I would not consider each of your backgrounds when we met at MIT?”
“Jules,” Mira said, her eyes wide in horror at Jules’ words.
“You did a great job trying to cover your tracks,” Jules said, “to good, in fact. The deeper I dug the worse your shit stank. How dare you ask me to kill the only person in this universe that I care for? I would die before I would hurt him. Fuck you,
Mira. Fuck you.” Tears flowed from Jules’ eyes. Her breathing was deep and strained. Jules stared in shock at her fists balled tightly in front of her.
“I—,” Mira said.
Jules’ eyes widened and she covered her mouth with both hands.
“I need to—” Mira said, stepping back. Her hands shook. “I need to... to get something.” Mira turned away and walked down the ramp.
“Mira,” Jules said, crying. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
Mira closed the lower floor’s door, cutting off Jules’ apology.
Chapter 23
LAUNCH DAY
Earth - Devil’s Shore Facility
Friday, November 6, 1987 - 11:00am
Alexandria
Alexandria rubbed her temple. She held on to the coffee cup in her left hand, drawing warmth from it. Their spaceship would normally radiate so much heat that exhaust vents were constructed in the Devil’s Shore facility specifically designed to release it. At the moment, only its internal systems were operational and the bay was cold. She stood inside the facility, facing the alien spaceship. The outer hull’s dark black material continued to elude their current science’s ability to manufacture it. Seph had analyzed and knew exactly what compounds comprised the special material but fabricating it was years away. The ship’s special material could transfer heat and other forms of radiation along its perimeter and then dissipate it as needed. It was also resilient, protecting the interior against many forms of assault. That made it valuable to the military who were chomping at the bit to understand it enough to create more. She shook her head. The ship was impressive from Earth’s perspective but she had to focus on other things.