The Lieutenant looked at her then at James.
“I hardly know what to say. I can’t have civilians giving orders to military people,” he said at last.
“I totally understand,” James said.
“Here is what we can do. My people will lead you back to DC. They will be responsible for their own safety and to do what they think is necessary. From what I am hearing you have faith in James to protect you so he can be in charge of that element. My people will take point and you follow up.”
“That works for me,” Alice said.
“Yep,” Joe replied.
Linda nodded affirmative.
“Sergeant, Corporal. You heard all of this. Your assignment is to get them to DC. Safety is their own concern. You are free to act as you see fit to protect yourselves,” he told them.
“Yes sir,” they replied.
“Oh, one more thing. They are right. He saved them not only once but twice so he seems to know what he is talking about. You might want to consider that as one of your options,” Swanson told them.
**
Sergeant Medion dropped back alongside James as he was walking along.
“I heard the stories about how you survived. You just stood there?”
“Didn’t move a muscle. Just closed my eyes and waited, I didn’t even bother to bend over and kiss my butt goodbye,” James told him.
“I don’t know if I could do that.”
“I supposed you know about Ben, one of our other members. I told everyone to freeze and they all did but poor Ben. He just lost it and took off. One thing for sure, you cannot out run them. You can’t shoot them down with those things,” James said, pointing to the automatic rifles they were carrying.
“If we do see one. You will just stop and do nothing?”
“I certainly will and you will do well to do the same thing no matter how hard it seems. It has saved my life at least twice. I know they work off movement. You run and you are vaporized,” James told him.
“Geez,” was all he said and picked up his pace.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The service for General Erickson had been short. While everyone felt his loss deeply, they knew they were still at war and they may soon be facing another ship.
The biggest concern at present was that they had depleted almost their entire stock of missiles.
“Give me the count,” Colonel Clorets said.
“Sir, we have forty one SAMs left. Hardly anything for the planes. We do have a few cruise missiles but as you know sir, they are very slow.”
“Get every plane loaded with whatever we have. If one of those things shows up we will only have one shot at it this time. Maybe we can at least disable it like General Erickson’s plan. We will use the same coordinated attack plan.”
“Yes sir,” the Major replied.
Colonel Clorets was a good second in command but he lacked the charisma, leadership ability, and tactical knowledge of the General. Having the general gone was going to test his ability to rally the remaining airmen around him.
He put on his hat and jumped into one of the Hummers and headed over to the hanger where the pod had been offloaded.
“Attention,” someone shouted when he walked in.
“Oh for Christ sakes. Go on about your business,” he said briskly.
The airmen were swarming over the pod trying to determine what it was made of and how it worked.
“Anything?” he asked Lieutenant Proctor.
“Well sir, from what we can tell the intelligence seems to stream back and forth through the umbilical that was severed. Commands appear to travel at the speed of light or darn close to it. When it detects an object, the image is sent to the mother ship, for lack of a better word, and then the command to destroy it is sent back down. It happens almost instantly.”
“So when we severed the cord it could no longer function and just fell out of the sky.”
“Yes. At least as far as we can determine. We think the center is spinning at a high rate of speed. See this small opening?” he said pointing to tiny holes.
“Yes, what do they do?”
“That is where the electrical jolt or whatever it is comes from. It is directed to the target by the communication between the Mothership and this pod.”
“Then we need to find a way to sever all of the pods.”
“That is certainly a good starting point. What we don’t know sir, is if they have a way of replacing them. The Mothership is huge. It might have a facility that can repair or replace any they lose.”
“So maybe instead of going after the Mothership as you call it, we should shoot down as many of the pods as possible to try to at least slow them down,” Colonel Clorets replied.
“That will work in the short run. Look how much time we have gained by downing that big sucker. We haven’t had one attack. When we shot down a pod, the others just kept going. Don’t get me wrong Colonel everything we can do to lessen their ability to damage us is important but bringing down those big guys is the long term solution,”
“I’ll take that under advisement Lieutenant,” he said.
The Lieutenant saluted as the Colonel climbed back in his Hummer and headed to the flight line.
**
“Colonel. One of those, whatever they are, seems to be moving this way.”
“Show me?” he said as they rushed outside.
The soldier pointed off to the west where a large patch of white light was moving in their general direction. The pattern was somewhat erratic but the Colonel had no idea what that meant.
“Alright, I want you to go get everyone ready at their battle stations. I’ll be in the tower and will give the signal when I want the planes to launch,” he told the soldier as he started towards his Hummer.
The soldier watched as the Hummer disappeared. The man was no leader that was for sure he thought as he headed to the SAM command trucks. General Erickson would have been right here with us. This guy was a loser.
“Okay. Colonel Clorets wants everyone ready on his command.”
“Is he coming?”
“Not exactly.”
“Well isn’t that special,” the reply came back.
“Look, just do as you’re told and get in the command center. He is in the tower getting the planes ready to roll. You have no way of knowing what he will do once they are launched,” the soldier said trying to defend the Colonel.
The problem was it wasn’t done with much conviction because he didn’t believe for one minute the Colonel would put his ass on the line the way the General had.
To his way of thinking there were two types of officers, those who were leaders and those who were just in charge. Men follow a good leader because they have faith in him. Those in charge are followed because that is what the military says you have to do.
**
The clouds were getting darker around the edge of the white area. It was obviously where the command ship was located. Everyone knew it was just a matter of time before it would start up its destruction again. This time they had less fire power and only enough for one major defensive stand. If they couldn’t damage it on the first round, it would all be over.
“Look, as soon as the missiles leave the tube, you jump in that Hummer and get your butt to the hardened shelter,” the soldier said.
“All I can say is don’t get in front of me or you will have footprints on your back.”
“I hear you brother.”
They could hear the jets winding up in the background and soon the first one took off. While it still looked formidable, you could see hard points that were not carrying rockets due to the shortage.
“This does not look good,” he muttered to himself.
**
The planes had entered the target zone for release and were awaiting word from Colonel Clorets.
“On station,” the wing leader said just to let him know they ready to let loose and get out of the area.
“Continue approach,” came ba
ck the reply.
“Copy,” the F-22 pilot said, not happy at all with the position he was putting them in.
He was just about to say something again when there was a brilliant flash and one of the F-16s disintegrated followed by two other planes almost simultaneously. He released the rockets and immediately went to full military power and headed straight up. He could see several more planes get hit and explode as he rolled out of the climb and turned away from the threat.
One by one he could see planes being reduced to bits and pieces. As he rolled over he saw the giant command ship release the disk they had seen earlier. All he could do was hope he could get out of range before he was destroyed.
**
The defense had been a total bust. The SAMs were not released in time and the trucks were destroyed before the missiles even left the barrels. The base was systematically being demolished. Colonel Clorets had left the tower the minute the planes started being shot down and raced to the fortified blast bunkers.
“Close the doors,” he yelled when he climbed out of the Humvee.
“Sir, people are still coming.”
“Close the door,” he screamed.
The Sergeant didn’t move. Clorets pulled out his .45 and pointed it at the Sergeant.
“I gave you an order. Close those doors.”
“Colonel. Those people will die out there if we close them now. Please sir,” he said.
The Colonel pulled back the slide on the .45 and aimed at the Sergeant’s chest.
“You will do as ordered or I will shoot you on the spot,” he said.
Just then the surviving pilot came running in and looked at what was happening.
“Geez. What’s happening?”
“The Colonel ordered me to close the doors while people are still trying to get here.”
“Colonel? Is that true?”
“You shut up. I gave an order and I expect it to be carried out,” he shouted.
“Colonel. Haven’t you killed enough people today?”
“What?”
“That attack. It was a joke. You got the planes blown out of the sky and all the men and women in the missile commands killed by your lack of tactical skill. Are you going to kill the Sergeant and me as well?”
“You?”
“Yes sir. You may get one of us but not both. One of us will have time to blow your ass to hell. How put the gun down and kick it away,” the pilot said.
The look of hatred was as thick as cold soup but he finally put the gun on the floor and kicked it over by the pilot.
“That,” the pilot said, picking up the gun, “Is the first intelligent thing you have done all day.”
He turned to the Sergeant.
“He is under house arrest. When the last person gets in, close the doors and maybe we can ride this out.”
“Yes sir,” the Sergeant said letting out a big sigh.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Any thoughts on the problem?” Lemmings asked, as he watched the power fluctuation graph roll out of the machine.
“Power band limit was my first thought. That, or we need to change the sign wave to a square one. The current one is causing a big drop off after the peak.”
“Want about upping the amplification?”
“I’ve thought about that. The thing is, it is a model and even so it should be stable enough to give us a clear picture. The increases I have made do not show the corresponding escalation in vibrations,” Sarah replied.
“You said it had to happen at a very high energy level. Maybe there is a threshold.”
“You’re suggesting that if the initial test level is too low, it is below the threshold to see the resulting influence?”
“Essentially, yes. I’m just guessing of course.”
“No, no. I think you could be right. The problem is we would need a much greater amount of initial energy.”
“Talk to Willy about using one of the backup generators. If anyone can figure out a way to give you the additional power, it’s Willy.
“Will you talk to him and tell him it’s okay to let me use it?”
“Why can’t you just tell him?”
“Oh, you know how he is about his machinery. He seems to think a man has to tell him.”
“Ha,” Lemmings said, “That man would do anything you asked. He follows you around like a puppy dog.”
“Paul that is so untrue.’
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
“Give me a break.”
“Sarah do you ever look in the mirror? I mean really look? You are the one bright spot in this hole,” he told her causing her mouth to drop open.
**
Sarah cheated.
“Willy, Doctor Lemmings said that you could put the spare generator online for me to use for my experiment.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I just came from there.”
“I take it you need a lot more power.”
“That’s the thinking at this point. In fact, I don’t know the limits of the generator but I need as much power as you can get out of the thing.”
“Sort of the ‘I’m given' er all she’s got Cap'in thing,” he said in his best Scotty accent.
“Yeah, something along those lines. Can you do that for me?”
“Sure. It will take me a while. That generator hasn’t been online since the initial test. I’ll want to warm it up slowly to make sure the oil flow and bearings are in good shape.”
“By all means. Oh, and a trunk cable.”
“I figured as much. A battery cable isn’t going to get it done; that’s for sure. I’ll locate some suitable gauge cable while the generator is warning up. It shouldn’t take me more than an hour.”
“That would be terrific. I’ll get everything ready in the lab and you can drop by when you are ready,” Sarah said.
“See you in a few,” he said and hurried off to find the necessary cable.
Sarah half smiled. Not exactly a puppy dog but he did seem earnest about helping her. She headed back to the lab and spent the next forty-five minutes recalibrating the data terminals for the increase in power.
**
“Doctor Knott. This is some serious power. I’m talking 480 volts and 2000 kW. You get this wrong and it will fry you big time.”
“I appreciate your concern but I don’t see any other way.
“Look, this unit has a single unit and multi-unit capability. That means I can drain off some of the juice and switch it back when you need it. The control panel is all the way in the auxiliary machinery room so we would need to communicate by headset.”
“That sounds like a winner. Is it straight 60 hertz?”
“I can give you 50 or 60.”
“Wow. It just keeps getting better and better.”
“One last thing. I may want to change the sine-wave. Can I do that through the oscilloscope?” Sarah asked.
“No way. Not with that thing. It would fry it in a second and you too if you happened to be attached to it. We are going to need something a heck of a lot more substantial before you starting trying to change the sine-wave.”
“Can you make such a thing?”
“I guess. I’ve never done it before but I understand the principal behind it.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” Sarah said.
“What exactly do you want it to do?”
“I want to change the standard sine wave into a square, triangle, or saw tooth wave.”
“And I suppose it goes without saying, you want to be able to control the duration of each.”
“Now you have it.”
He looked at the oscilloscope and shook his head. It probably seemed simple to her but it was pretty deep for him.
“Willy, don’t let the math get in the way. It’s all pretty simple stuff and besides, I can take care of that part. I honestly think it would be better if we worked on it together then if you have any questions I can walk you through it,” Sarah told him.
“
Alright. I’ll build it if you can tell me what to do.”
**
Sarah burst into Lemmings office talking a mile a minute.
“Whoa, whoa. Hold it. What in the world is going on?” he asked.
“I’ve got it.”
“Something a little more descriptive would help Sarah,” he said looking over the top of his glasses.
“I figured out a way to stop those things, whatever they are.”
Lemmings sat up, “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. Come on down to the lab, I’ve set up a demonstration.
Lemmings tossed his glasses on the desk and quickly followed Sarah to the lab. He had a hard time keeping up with her.
“Here,” she said pointing to a large disk in the center of the room. Suspended above it was a similar one.
“Now we know whatever caused the destruction did it from up above. The ring on the top represents the enemy. We also know it uses plasma to do the destruction. I’ve set several cement blocks in the center of the ring on the floor as you can see. Those are buildings,” she said excitedly, handing him a pair of safety glasses.
She waited until he put them on.
“Now this is low power but you will certainly get the picture. What I have done is stimulated the electrons so that the minute the top ring fires, it will be sensed by the bottom ring. The bottom ring has a modified sine-wave that will be introduced and travel up the stream as it descends. Before it can reach the blocks, it will render the top ring harmless,” she said.
“But that would take an incredible amount of power to cause the electrons to swim that fast upstream.”
“Yes and no. Yes it takes a good bit, but no because I have modified the sine-wave so that it uses the gaps in the original wave to slip through.”
“And this works?”
She picked up the microphone.
“Willy, bring it up to speed,”
WORLDS END Page 13