Eyes of an Eagle a Novel of Gravity Controlled

by S. A. Gorden Неизвестный Автор

  A loud scream echoed through the woods and the tattletale told him that only he and Trreee were left alive. Ed whispered into the communicator for Trreee to back away from the fight and circle around behind the bulwark of trees. Ed kept a slow covering fire over the positions of the attackers trying to give Trreee time to swing behind. He felt lightheaded as the blood loss started to weaken his body. Something about the turned up dirt penetrated the battle haze that ruled his mind. The smell. What about the smell? The dirt smelled like the field that he played disk ball on before he went into military training. Something hit him again.

  The landing ship flew in close to the ground when the telemetry on the assault team showed them taking casualties. It flew over the conflict area but the undergrowth masked the fighting. It became obvious that assault team was lost. The landing ship circled high and armed three chemical bombs. The copilot saw a fast approaching plane. He used a chemical laser to destroy the plane and ran a sensor sweep for any other approaching craft. The copilot had to cut the sweep short as the pilot swooped down to launch the rocket guided bombs on the farm buildings. The pilot saw a vehicle pull up to the buildings just before the house, garage, and shed disappeared in an explosive haze of dust and fire. The copilot started his sensor sweep again. He was just in time to see the three antiaircraft missiles before they impacted the ship.

  The high protector observed the destruction of the landing ship. Its sensors pinpointed the position of two of the three attackers, which were destroyed instantly. The other attacker would only appear for second on his screens before being lost in the folds of the planet's surface. The high protector started to lower its orbit trying to lock on to the attacker who got away when the first rail gun projectile passed by. The ground assault was forgotten as the pilot fought for his life.

  Commander Zblot and Captain Ree watched the raid dissolve into disaster. Uubee and his assistant watched what was happening from the secondary monitors in the crew quarters. They sat in stunned silence as first the assault team, the landing ship and the high protector all were destroyed in sequence. Their first indication that they were under attack occurred with the lasers smashing into the open viewing and remote sensing ports, burning out all outside communications. The ship's automatics fired a response but the armored doors on three of the eighteen ports refused to close. The second laser volley hit the ship. Then a third.

  “Captain Ree. What hit us?"

  “According to the readouts it is some sort of phased energy beam. They can't damage the hull of the ship but they wasted the sensing ports."

  “Can they be fixed?"

  “I am getting damage control reports now ... It will take just a little over three standard time units to finish the repairs. The sensors can be replaced in just under one time unit but the three jammed doors will take the bulk of the work."

  “Good. Before light returns to the landing site we can avenge our comrades by blasting the entire region with plasma bombs."

  All members of the crew were conscripted to repair the ship or load the bombs in their launch tubes. The last door was being repaired and the last bomb was being loaded when the ship was rocked with an explosion.

  “How did they hit us? What did they use? We are days away from their planet with their best technology."

  “They must have found out how to use their gravity control."

  “What did they use?"

  “There is no radiation ... It must be a kinetic weapon. We should be safe. Debon! We are being covered in lava!"

  “So what. We are exposed to higher temperatures when we go near a star to travel between space."

  “We are in flight then. We shed the energy build up through exhaust ports. We can't shed the energy. The ports are filled with lava."

  “Can't we..."

  * * * *

  Tabby and I were about to run into the woods but Move-over yowled and started scratching at the metal shed that had the flying submarine in it. We looked at each other and thought why not. We climbed into the submarine with Move-over right behind us. I had spent the most time during the YS1's trials with the flight controls while Tabby had worked mostly with the engineers. I climbed into the pilot seat. We

  weren't planning on being in the air for long so I pushed the power controls as high as they would work near the ground. We were airborne within 50 feet of the main doors of the shed. I somehow knew that if I climbed we would die so I steered the craft into the valley in the treetops that marked the logging roads that crisscrossed the countryside. The wings of the YS1 brushed the treetops while the body of the plane road between them.

  I was just about to ask Tabby where we should go when an owl flew across the front of the plane following a crossroad that headed towards where the sounds of the firing we had heard earlier.

  “Tabby, do you think we should follow?"

  I heard a faint “Yes."

  The owl suddenly banked away and ahead of us was another flying creature. Streaks of light erupted from the creature. What were they? Muzzle flashes? I suddenly knew it was trying to kill something in the woods. Uncle Ben? I jammed the controls to full power while aiming at the creature. The computer read the control settings and adjusted the power to the gravity spheres at the front of the plane to full power and turned off the secondary systems along the surface of the wings. The night became darker and the gravity spheres started to whistle. The creature turned in midair. I could see it trying to bring up what looked like a gun. Just before impact everything to the side of creature faded into black. There was crashing and tumbling and finally we were on the ground.

  I climbed out of the plane first. The night was silent. I heard my Uncle's voice. “Dan. There are no bad guys left in the woods. We have some wounded men. Come out and help.” I followed Ben up the logging road. The leader of the FBI surveillance team was sitting up next to a tree trunk, binding a wound on his side and arm. He looked up. “What about Sam and Todd?"

  Ben replied, “Sam is gone. I haven't looked for Todd yet."

  I said to the man, “Can you walk?"

  He shook his head yes. “Up the road a little ways is a yellow submarine. Tabitha is there. We will meet you there with Todd.” The man stared with a blank look on his face. I pointed, “Go up the road.” I helped him up. When I turned, Ben was already making his way over a mass of broken trees. Ben was bending over something by the time I caught up to him. It was a man. Half of his face was burnt away and his left arm was missing at the shoulder.

  Flashes of light and a rumble through the ground followed by a roar in the air. Ben looked up. “The farm is gone."

  The man was alive. Something had burned the stub of his arm keeping the bleeding under control. Ben finished checking him over. “We can move him. I will take the shoulders you lift the feet.” We picked our way around the dead fall. We had barely started when there were flashes in the sky followed by more explosions.

  The FBI man was sitting in the same position but now his back was leaning against the submarine when we arrived with the wounded man. Tabby was looking over what was left of the flying sub. The front sphere looked like it was crushed from the inside and the wings were just broken stubs. “Tabby. We need to get the men out of the woods. Can we use the sub?"

  “The back sphere is working and we have two wing spheres left on each side. If we put the wounded on top of the wings and power up the spheres, we should be able to push everything out of the woods backwards."

  “Let's get them on."

  Tabby was climbing into the submarine to turn the power on to the spheres when we heard the helicopters. Ben listened. “Marines. We should be safe heading back to the house."

  I was pushing on the wing next to the man without the arm. Tabby was on the other side while Ben pushed from in back. The yellow submarine moved easily. The vents on the wing spheres started to whistle. Blood from the wounded man dripped down the wing to the vent. Red strings of bloody air vibrated into the night sky. The melancholy sound from the whistling
vents brought back a memory from my childhood. My grandmother would visit and tell stories and legends from Finland. One of the stories was about a mythical man who knew everything but was never able to find a wife or have a family. This man, Vainamoinen, would play and sing beautiful sad songs for the gods and all of the creatures of the earth. In my child's mind, I had always thought of the strings on the Vainamoinen's harp being a sad red in color. The harp Vainamoinen used was called a kantele. I knew I would call the gravity spheres kantele from now on.

  We were coming close to the edge of the woods. Ben yelled, “Yo. Marines. Coming in with wounded." “Who are you?"

  “The wounded are FBI. The rest of us used to live at the farm."

  “Come out into the open and stop."

  We stepped out of the woods and into hell. There was an orange glow coming from where the buildings used to be. Red flares were marking the road and a landing site for the helicopters. Flashing lights from police cars and ambulances strobed just past the next dip in the road. Dark silhouettes ran across the orange, red, and flashing lights disappearing into the darkness of the surrounding fields.

  Chapter 18

  Rebuilding

  I don't know what woke me. It could have been the throbbing headache or the hard ground. I woke trying to figure out where I was. Soft puffs of warm moist air touched my neck and I knew the warmth coming from my side was Tabitha. I moved, the throbbing increased, and claws sunk into my chest. Move-over had been lying on top of me. I opened my eyes and Move-over stared back. I remembered.

  I left the tent with Tabby and Move-over still lying together.

  Outside I could smell the wet burn of what was left of my farm buildings. It was midday. I looked across the farm. The missing buildings made everything look larger. The army trucks parked around the field gave the feeling of being on a low budget movie set. A single crow was sitting on a power line watching. There was less noise than I thought there would be. Men were moving around. Some were examining the destruction, others were moving back and forth with a seeming purpose, and a few stood around on obvious guard duty. I got a few steps from the tent and a young man in green stepped in front of me.

  “Sorry, sir. You have to stay here."

  I smiled at the young man trying to stand straight and look soldierly. “Kid. I am not a sir. Why don't we just find someone that we can talk to?” I looked at the kid. I hurt too much to push around him but I was cranky enough not to give up.

  “I'm Major Burrows. Corporal. You can stand guard. I will talk to Mr. Karpinen."

  “Yes, sir."

  I started to walk past the Major. “I am sorry sir but you will have to stay here till we are sure it is safe."

  “Major. We would be dead or fighting for our lives if it wasn't over. Don't you get it? We just won our first interstellar battle. And like I told the kid. Don't call me sir.

  “I need a phone. You either find me one or I will walk to my neighbors."

  “Mr. Karpinen you just can't..."

  “I can't what?” While the poor Major tried to figure out what to say and do, another man walked up. “Mr. Karpinen. I am Harry Zimmerman, FBI."

  “Good for you. Do you have a phone?"

  “Yes. But we would like you to be discreet with who you talk to."

  I stood with my hand out until Zimmerman gave me his phone. I dialed Tabby's home. While I was waiting for one of her parents to pick up, I asked Zimmerman, “How is Felix and the other man?"

  “They are stable...” I raised my hand stopping the conversation.

  “Earl. Daniel here. Tabitha is alright. She is sleeping now ... Yes, there was a bit of a problem ... Do you know a good contractor for some fill work and a basement and septic? ... Really ... I'll have Tabby call when she wakes up ... Sure ... Bye."

  I looked up and saw the Major and Zimmerman watching me. “What's your problem? I got to get things fixed up before winter. Summers are short around here.” I saw Tabby climb out of the tent. I smiled. I knew the two men wouldn't have a chance now that she was awake.

  A month later I was trying to make a new trailer house livable when Gertrude, a friend of my mother, came to the door with a casserole. By then everybody knew most of what had happened. Gerti said, “Dan you need to patent your work. I know you are busy here but the Coffee Klutch can handle it for you."

  “Gerti. What do you know about what I've been doing?"

  “Well when you had your demonstration Oggie decided that aerospace would be a place to put some of our investments in. Well we bought into Lockheed Martin and got control of some proxies ... Anyway we know possibly more about what is being done with your discoveries than you do."

  “Okay, Gerti. If I have you take care of my patent rights and business, how much is the Coffee Klutch going to ask for?"

  “Ten percent."

  Gerti convinced me to let the Coffee Klutch handle my business. I was just about broke. It seems that insurance companies don't payout for acts of war. The U of M still wanted me to work on their research project so they did foot the bill for a new metal shed. This one was insulated and fully wired for telecommunications and industrial power requirements. But the rest of the bills left me with just enough for a used trailer house. It was going to be a cold winter except for the warmth of Tabby and Move-over.

  * * * *

  Spring was my favorite time of year. It was muddy and frequently cold and wet but it was also spring. I

  just finished blocking into firewood one of the trees downed in the firefight from last year with my new chainsaw. I sat on one of the blocks absorbing the warm spring sunlight and the small noises of the forest creatures. I sat until the sweat evaporating caused a shiver to travel up my arms. I got out the six-pound maul and started splitting the green wood. I sensed Tabitha walking to me.

  She smiled as she swayed into my arms. She buried her face into the base of my neck and inhaled deeply. “What are you doing?"

  “I am smelling your sweat."

  “What for?"

  “Don't you like the smell of me when I sweat?"

  I had never thought of it that way before. She was right. There is an eroticism with the aroma of fresh sweat dripping off a clean body. Before I had the time to think more, we were rolling around on the only dry spot of ground. Unfortunately for us, it was also the spot where I had finished blocking the tree. It is fun rolling around in fresh sawdust but you will spend the rest of the day fighting the little wood chips in your clothes and clinging to most unusual crevices of the body.

  We were walking back to my trailer pulling at the irritations in both our shorts when I asked, “I am going to start the cabin next month. I want you to look over the plans. You need to make sure everything is there that you want."

  “Daniel. Are you asking something of me?"

  “I sure am. I just asked you to make sure the cabin has everything you want in it."

  “Daniel!” She followed that by reaching behind my back and pulling up on the back of my shorts.

  “Okay. Okay. No more violence. I want to marry you. And if you don't want to marry me, I want you to live with me. I just want you."

  Laughing she replied, “That's better. I will think about it. But I want to see the plans first. Where did you say you were going to put this cabin?"

  I told her about putting the cabin deep into the woods on a small rise. The road back to the cabin would travel past the current trailer and lab buildings. The cabin was going to be on the small size with large windows looking in every direction. But underneath the cabin there was going to be a large complex, a full computer lab, a research lab, library, etc.

  Tabby wanted to know how I could afford everything. When I told her that since my patents were granted, I was making over a million dollars a day, her mouth dropped. “Aren't you afraid I might marry you just for your money?"

  “So what. I want you any way I can have you."

  The rest of the afternoon was spent in the pleasant task of picking little pieces of sawdust
off our bodies.

  It was much later and we were standing together in the field watching the star filled sky. My hand had wormed its way past Tabby's clothes and was resting on the warm curve of her thigh. Move-over had followed us out to the field and was weaving a pattern between our legs. Small clouds moved in darkening the stars but not blotting them out completely.

  “Do you remember how things darkened when I jammed the controls on the sub to ram that flying alien?"

  “I wasn't looking out but I remember something happening to the lights. Could it have been the battery drain under full power?"

  “Think back. Was there something unusual about the way the darkness happened?"

  “I think your right. It seemed darker when we got off the axis of motion."

  “Let's go to the lab. I need some serious computer time."

  Since my stereo was destroyed with the farmhouse, all I had for music was a boombox and a dozen CDs that I had purchased over the last few months. Tabby kept the music playing while I waded through the information that I had backed up on secure servers before the attack.

  I knew back in high school about Einstein's rubber sheet theory of the universe and gravity. He explained that the universe was like a rubber sheet and every object in the universe was like someone underneath the sheet pulling it down. A planet would make a small dimple in the sheet, a star a larger one. A galaxy would make a large section of the sheet lower than the rest. Anything traveling through the universe would act like a marble being rolled on the sheet. If the marble was far enough away from a dimple, it would travel nearly in a straight line. If the marble was closer, the dimple would bend the motion so it would bend off course. If the marble came too close, it would circle the dimple in orbit and eventually fall into the hole caused by the body making the dimple. Einstein also said that the combined forces of all the objects in the universe would bend the whole universe around itself in a massive curve. Making it possible to go in one direction until you came back to where you started.