Darkness on a Pale Blue Stone

by D. T. Peterson

  "I see. I'm not going to tell you how to handle your troops, but I will say that respect for the chain of command is something we'll need to rely on in the future."

  "You wish Ryan hadn't shot him?"

  "Not at all. I am just hoping that what happened today doesn't start a precedent."

  Valdez nodded. "Agreed."

  "Well, you should get back to it. Until we can define a strategy for an attack..."

  "Forgive me, but you said 'we' again. If I may ask, who are you referring to? The people here at this base? What exactly is this place?" Valdez asked.

  "All of us are on the same side, whether any of our people realize it yet. What I will say is that it is, and has been, my people's job to stop this invasion. So far, we have not succeeded. But with your help, we will."

  "If you and your people can find a way to kill these bastards, we'll have your back."

  Gresson nodded in thanks. The two men stood up and headed for the door.

  "Ah, before you go, Colonel. As of now, you are General Valdez. It is only fitting that you take Sanders' place."

  Valdez nodded slowly. "I appreciate it, Mr. President."

  They walked outside and made preparations for the soldiers and marines to head for Jacksonville. Gresson felt cautiously optimistic now that there was a military force standing at the ready, but he was disturbed that, if Valdez was right, thousands of 'Exterminators' had survived. While the fact that people were still alive proved that some part of the plan had gone right, it was clear that something had gone terribly wrong.

  Chapter 36

  New Salvador - August 27, 2072

  The marines left in the early evening. The New Salvadorians began to leave the wall and put away the defenses. Jake, Lash, and Sean returned to the Gresson's home.

  "What happened?" Alice asked as they stepped inside.

  The three of them took turns explaining the standoff, its violent end, and the departure of the military forces.

  "So they were headed to Jacksonville? Why?" Lucas asked.

  Lash shrugged. "From what we could overhear from Valdez... oh, who apparently is a general now... they are just going there and awaiting 'further orders.'"

  "Well, it's good to know the army is nearby, at least," Alice said. "I'd feel better, though, if they had taken this place and secured its... equipment."

  "What are you talking about?" Sean asked. Jake and Lash's curious stares asked the same question.

  "There's something I need to tell you," Michael said. "You should sit down."

  They did and Michael slowly explained that the cause of the blackout, the signal that had destroyed the lives of millions, which they had all thought their journey's purpose was to destroy, was located only a few hundred feet away. He also explained how they had no choice but to leave it on.

  Aside from several curses from Lash and Jake, no one said anything in response. They sat in the living room feeling angry, but unsure at whom their anger should be directed.

  "Why the hell didn't Gresson tell us?" Lash finally said, feeling betrayed.

  "He said he didn't think we would understand," Michael replied bitterly.

  "Yeah, no shit," Jake growled.

  "But he's right," Alice said. "If what he said is true, there is no other choice. It had to be done. We can't let our emotions distract us from that."

  "The important part is 'if what he said is true.' Are we even sure that was the real signal?" Jake asked.

  "I saw it myself," Michael said. "Hell, I fixed the damn thing. I couldn't understand it all and it's a lot more complex than Project Blackout, but based on what I could figure out, that thing is what's putting out that signal. No doubt about it."

  "Alright. So, now the Exterminators don't have their ships, but we still have to kill them. Did Gresson say what the plan was for that?" Lash asked.

  "Well, the military is part of it," Michael said. "He wants them to help track down the Exterminators."

  "This all still doesn't make sense," Sean said. "How did everyone here know the Exterminators were coming? How did they know what kind of signal would knock out their ships?"

  "When Gresson gets back, I assume we will all have a lot of questions for him," Michael said.

  They all continued to talk and wait for Gresson and Jen to come home, but by late that night, neither had. The group decided to get some sleep, though for most of them, the night was restless. Too many questions needed to be answered.

  The next morning, an exhausted Jen came home. Marie was the first to greet her.

  "We all have a lot of questions..." she started.

  Jen shook her head. "Not now," she mumbled, before heading straight for her bedroom and locking the door.

  The group anxiously waited for Jen to come out or Gresson to come home for the next few hours. They were picking out food from the kitchen for lunch when the front door opened and Gresson, equally as exhausted as his wife, burst inside. He ignored everyone and headed for the bedroom.

  "They're ready," he told Jen through the door. She answered it a few seconds later and the two of them left as quickly as they had arrived.

  As the door slammed behind them, Jake called out, "Where the hell are you going?"

  Michael looked out the window. A crowd of people were heading into the large building in the middle of the base. "It looks like another council meeting," he said.

  "This time we aren't missing it," Lash said.

  "How do we get in there without being seen?" Jake asked. "I still doubt they will just be cool with us crashing their party."

  "Hold on," Michael said, still looking out the window. Everyone waited. "Okay, looks like they're all inside this time."

  "People aren't just chilling outside like last time?" Jake asked.

  "No. From the looks of it, everyone is taking it more seriously. Jen and Gresson were the last ones to go in," Michael said.

  "I'm not waiting for another chance," Lash said. She headed outside.

  "Let's do this," Jake said, following. Sean and Adam also joined, while the others watched them from the doorway.

  The courtyard was eerily quiet as the four of them crossed over to the large building in the center of New Salvador. Quietly they made their way along the wall, listening for anything inside. They soon reached the front entrance, but still heard nothing.

  "Did they really go in there?" Sean whispered.

  "Let's find out," Lash said, slowly pulling open the door. She peered inside for a moment, then swung the door wide open, which surprised Jake, Sean, and Adam.

  "What are you doing?" Jake whispered.

  "There's no one here," Lash said.

  Everyone gathered around the doorway and looked inside. The room was massive and empty, except for a collection of chairs scattered in no particular order. There were no doors leading to separate rooms. From what the four of them could see, everyone from New Salvador had come in and vanished.

  "Whoa," Sean said, looking around for somewhere they all could have gone.

  "Wait. Michael said there was a bunker under the base. Maybe there is a way down somewhere in here. Everyone check around for..." Lash started to say.

  "Here," Adam said, looking down a large stairwell at the edge of the room. The opening in the floor had been left open by those going to the meeting. They gathered around at the head of the stairs, though everyone except Lash was concerned about going underground into the unknown. Without hesitation, she proceeded down into the bunker, cautiously followed by Adam, Sean, and Jake.

  They heard voices once they reached the bottom. The sound led them down a nearby hallway. As they peered around a final corner, they could see the massive congregation of New Salvadorians in a large circular room. Through the open doors, Lash could see rows of pew-like seats forming circles around an area in the center of the room. In that area stood a woman, speaking loudly.

  "Come on," Lash whispered. She led them over beside one of the doorways. They took care to stay out of the eye-line of those inside t
he room. From here, they could make out what was happening in the council room.

  The woman was still speaking. "...but we still do not know! We must be patient, or else we risk everything."

  Gresson's deep voice now echoed through the room. "We risk everything if we continue to sit around and wait! We cannot maintain the interference signal!"

  "If I recall, the signal is now capable of continuing on a more permanent status," the woman retorted. "You may have saved our lives, Alexander. We are all aware of that. But the time you have bought us is why we should be cautious."

  Gresson scoffed. "Cautious? This is not about being cautious! Our work is not done. Surviving a gunshot doesn't mean we get to forget the cancer. The signal saved us from annihilation, but it is not the final cure."

  "What a fitting analogy," Adron sarcastically interrupted. "You should also know, Alex, that one cannot expect the effects of a 'cure' to be entirely... sublime. This is the real world, not some philosophical experiment. We are not puppeteers."

  "Not only is that irrelevant, but you are the ones attempting to pull the strings of humanity's future, not me! I do not wish to recreate the world, only to save it. Humanity is lost if we do not intervene."

  "We already have intervened!" another man exclaimed. A few cheers and murmurs around the room made it clear the opinion was shared. "A different course has been set. Anything more and we risk everything."

  "Who are we to interfere and then leave them alone with this... this carcass that was once Earth!" Gresson cried out.

  "They will rebuild!" another voice said.

  "But not if this signal remains on," Gresson adamantly declared. There was silence for a moment. His statement seemed to have finally earned the contemplation of those in the room.

  Sean turned to the others. "What the hell are they talking about?" he whispered. Lash held a finger to her lips. As they turned back to the room, the four of them collectively gasped as someone appeared in the doorway.

  "Hey! Who are you?" she asked.

  "They're the one's Alexander brought in!" someone else said. The room shook as everyone leapt from their seats. Many hurled accusations at Gresson, a few charged to remove the four intruders, but most were merely caught up in the moment. Several of those closest to the four grabbed them by the arms before they could resist and pulled them down the hall.

  Minutes later, Lash, Sean, Jake, and Adam were thrown to the ground in New Salvador's courtyard outside. Lash, now able to move, checked for her gun, but it had unsurprisingly been taken, as had the guns the other three had carried. The angry mob that had formed around them seemed poised to take violent action. They stood in a massive circle around the four of them, shouting, cursing, and waving their arms.

  "Enough!" Adron bellowed from behind the crowd. They fell silent as he stepped through them until he was in the center.

  "They must leave!" someone shouted. Agreement was made clear by many others.

  "No! They deserve to..." Gresson protested.

  "Oh, shut up!" someone yelled.

  "How dare you go behind our backs like this!" another cried.

  "I had nothing to do with this," Gresson said. The following shouts made it clear he was not believed. "You cannot just send them out with no where to go!"

  "One day," Adron said. "They stay in your home, under guard, for one more day. Then, they leave. Don't ask for anything more."

  Chapter 37

  Near the Moon - August 29, 2072

  "Are you ready?" Vadim asked. The moon was now the only thing visible in the pod's front window. They had already reversed the direction of the rockets and fired a few decelerating blasts, but they would soon need one long, final burn for the descent to the lunar surface.

  Andre crossed himself while offering up a short prayer, then replied, "Yeah."

  Vadim pressed on the screen in front of him a few times. "Everything looks good. Final burn in 3... 2... 1..."

  The blast dramatically slowed down the pod, though the incredible deceleration could not be felt by the two men inside. Beyond the acknowledgment from the computers, the only thing the men could perceive from the rockets was their hum that now echoed through the pod's frame.

  "How we doing?" Andre asked breathlessly.

  "We might be... the two luckiest bastards in the damn galaxy," Vadim replied with his heavy Russian accent.

  Andre let out a laugh, then sighed in relief. He nodded his head and said, "Nice work, Vadim."

  Vadim stretched out a patted Andre on the shoulder. "You too, you too."

  They watched as the visible detail of the moon's surface increased as they descended. They could now make out the mining base that was their destination.

  "It is going to feel so good to get out of this thing," Andre said.

  "Tell me about it," Vadim said with a grin.

  They watched the lunar landscape loom closer for a few silent seconds. Andre then closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat.

  "So, how'd we do on fuel?" Andre asked. "I know we..."

  "Shit," Vadim said in Russian.

  Andre anxiously looked over. "What?"

  Vadim did not answer. Instead he began running calculations on the computer. Andre checked the fuel himself and realized that at the current burn rate, they would run out of fuel nearly a kilometer above the moon's surface. As Andre watched, the rate of their fuel loss accelerated.

  "What's going on?" Andre asked desperately.

  "I don't know. This pod wasn't made for this..." Vadim replied

  "Vadim, can you get us to the surface?"

  "We are going to get to the surface, like it or not."

  "I'm aware of that! Can you get us there safely?"

  Vadim did not answer. Andre looked out the window. They were less than a minute away from the surface now.

  "Vadim!"

  "There must be something we can do!" Vadim exclaimed. He maximized the decelerating blast. A loud clang rang out and the pod began to shake violently. The pod's rockets were no longer aimed directly toward the moon's surface and the two men could only stare in horror as decelerating force was wasted as the rockets pushed the pod away from the base and toward a distant destination on the moon's surface.

  Andre began to pray. He recited several Catholic lines he remembered from his childhood, hoping for God to slow their descent, or to at least end it quickly. Vadim furiously gave commands to the computer, though he knew the computer was incapable of enacting them in time. The passing seconds felt like ages inside the convulsing pod.

  Andre opened his eyes. They widened as he saw the display in front of him.

  "We've almost stopped!" he cried in exhilaration. He reached to slow down the rockets. Before he could however, there was a pop-like sound that echoed behind him. They had run out of fuel and their speed was still too high.

  The pod began to free-fall and, seconds later, it crashed into the rocky surface of the moon.

  Chapter 38

  New Salvador - August 29, 2072

  There was a loud knock on the door. Jen opened it and Jordan walked inside.

  "It's time," Jordan said.

  Gresson sat in the living room, along with the eight others who had accompanied him across nearly the entirety of the eastern seaboard of the United States. They were now being forced to leave New Salvador.

  "Alright," he replied. "Make sure when you get to Jacksonville that you make contact with Valdez. He can keep you safe."

  "We all know that's not true," Jake said.

  "It's the best we can do for now," Gresson said, visibly unsatisfied.

  "Alex, I don't give a damn what Adron says. If you want, I'll escort them over there and make sure they have a good place to stay."

  "Thanks," Sean said with a weak smile. Gresson nodded in approval.

  "Gresson, there has to be something you can say. You all can't do this on your own. We can help! We already..." Lash said.

  "I know, Lash. But my hands are tied. They're convinced I sen
t you to spy on our meeting and that I acted to undermine the right of council."

  "If you are on this council, don't you have some power?" Adam questioned. "Can't you do something..."

  "We are all the council. 'Council' is simply the word we use to refer to our discourse and decisions, not a specific group. Everyone represents themselves, though some voices do hold more weight. I am afraid those on your side do not hold enough. And to be honest, this is just an excuse to get rid of you, not a punishment. It was only a matter of time."

  "Why? Why do they want us gone so badly?" Lucas asked.

  "It is... complicated," Gresson replied.

  "It always is," Jake remarked.

  "So what should we do?" Alice asked.

  "Wait in Jacksonville, I suppose. Someday they will understand. I am afraid, though, of what it will take to get them to that point."

  "What will you do?" Lash asked.

  Gresson sighed. "I... I will have to wait as well. It may take a while before they are willing to hear me out again."

  "Alex, I'm sorry, but they were pretty insistent when they sent me over..." Jordan said.

  Gresson nodded. He stood up, and everyone else begrudgingly followed him to the door.

  "Until we see each other again," he said, extending a hand to Michael. After pausing a moment, Michael accepted the handshake.

  "Stay safe, Gresson," Alice said. "And... thank you."

  The group of eight stepped outside and walked slowly toward the front gate along with Jordan. They made it halfway, until Gresson ran outside.

  "I've decided to come with you," he said.

  "I'm happy to take them over, Alex," Jordan replied.

  "No, I won't just be taking them there. For the time being, I'll be staying in Jacksonville."

  "Gresson, we appreciate the gesture, but you must have much more important things to do here," Michael replied.

  Gresson shook his head. "No, I do not. If I stay here, the most I can do is observe. I know how my people think. It will be a long time before I can make any progress in convincing them to take serious action. Even then, they will probably need to see the threat for themselves. While we wait for that to inevitably happen, I can keep you safe, at the very least."