by JK Stone
“There’s something I still don’t understand. If Lantis was on Terra when this ship was knocked off of the pyramids beam, then why didn’t someone from Lantis come to your rescue sooner?” Terrah asked.
Doran shook his head and said, “The Lantins had not decided on Terra at that point in time. The conditions were still very hostile even after three hundred and sixty thousand years, though there was a hundred mile wide zone of the equator region that was habitable.
“The ship had performed that time jump I mentioned before, and we had traveled back five hundred years. We found that an interstellar war was going on over planetary mineral rights.
“After we resolved the conflict, Horuisis had contacted Baelac. He told Baelac that he needed to see him at Terra, so we headed there to wait for him.
“Baelac knew that later in the timeline, Lantis had made it to Terra, and he just figured the meeting was about that move.
“In hindsight with what you said about Enyali taking over TDS 5, I can see she and her nephew must have set the trap for us.”
A beep sounded and Doran said, “The data is uploaded.”
“Okay, here we are,” Doran brought the probe’s telemetry up and added, “I had only just launched the probe before we were hit.”
Terrah nodded and watched the display as Doran advanced the imagery. Doran had been right, within seconds of launching the probe and connecting TDS 4 to the pyramids beam a massive ship appeared and barreled down on them.
A second later it showed TDS 4 entering Earth’s atmosphere in an uncontrolled descent, and a moment later a larger ship appeared and began to make a beeline for TDS 4 when the massive ship that had knocked TDS 4 off of the beam opened fire hitting the other ship, and it too began a rapid descent into Earth’s atmosphere.
Terrah halted the playback and rewound to a point where the third ship came into the clearest focus, then halting the playback she asked, “Is there a way to enhance that ship?”
Doran nodded and once the image was clear Terrah heard an indrawn breath from him.
“What?” Terrah asked.
“That is the Prometheus…”
Doran must have seen her confusion and he added, “The Prometheus is, or was the Lantin flagship, and Krysali was in command of it.”
“From the Prometheus’s trajectory can you locate a possible crash site for the ship? Terrah asked.
Doran nodded and said, “Not by the trajectory of the Prometheus alone because we lose a lock on them once they go behind the planet, but using the known crash site of TDS 4 and the relative speeds along with the descent slope relative to TDS 4, we can use basic physics and geometry to plot a rough location. It looks as if Krysali’s ship attempted to get into position to cradle our ship before they were fired upon.”
Doran advanced the playback from the probe until the visual lock on TDS 4 and the Prometheus were lost as they plummeted on the back side of the planet, then he performed the calculations and said, “Alright I have the trajectory overlay for both Vessels. Where exactly was this ship located?”
Terrah looked at the globe, but with all of the ice covering the planet, she was unable to point to exactly where Area 51 was. Thinking about it a moment, Terrah smiled and brought up a current view of Earth, then positioning the globes over one another and using major landmarks to match the two globes positions she said, “Here, this should be within a few feet of it.”
Once Terrah had isolated the rough position of Area 51 on the ice-covered Earth, she watched as Doran applied the overlay and he pointed saying, “the wreckage should be somewhere in this range. There were several hundred feet of glacier in that location at the time of the crash, but after all that time I seriously doubt we will be able to find much of the Prometheus or Krysali’s remains to ascend anyway.”
Terrah brought up the current image of Earth again and laughed nervously.
“What was that laugh about?” Doran asked.
“That mountain range is what we call the Colorado Rockies, and the general location you pointed to is where a high-security military base is located. We call it NORAD,” Terrah said as the realization of what they were hiding beneath the Cheyenne complex struck her.
Chapter Eighteen
“We need to head back to Earth and scan that location and see what, if anything we can find,” Terrah said.
Doran nodded and within seconds they were back in orbit of Earth, and Terrah began scanning the Cheyanne mountain complex and there had been several pings for items that didn’t originate on Earth. Terrah performed a deep scan of the area and asked, “Could that be the sh—
There was a brilliant flash and shaking her head confusedly, Terrah peered at the scan data, there had been several pings for items that didn’t originate on Earth, but there was nothing that would account for ship sized wreckage at that location. Not finding what she was looking for, Terrah had Doran widened the scan parameters.”
“I have a lock on a depleted venitrium alloy. The Prometheus’s hull was comprised of it. One second,” he said.
A moment later Doran added, “How is that possible?” Doran asked sounding shocked.
“What?” Terrah asked as she slid her seat to come to rest beside Doran’s.
“The Prometheus appears to be damaged but intact for the most part, with the speed the ship crashed, I would not have expected to find a piece of wreckage larger than my fist, but there it is. I am picking up a single life sign but it is very weak.”
“How hard will it be to transport me down there?” Terrah asked.
“Not too hard, the ship is buried beneath twenty meters of rock and sediment but that will not cause us an issue. What are you planning on doing?” Doran asked.
“I want to go down and assess the situation firsthand,” Terrah stood and added, “I’ll be ready in a moment.”
Terrah made her way into decon and was just about to call for Doran to transport her when her sister’s voice called out.
You have to tread carefully here Terrah.
“What do you mean, and how were you speaking with me in that meeting, you were sitting right across from me.”
Vellia’s voice had mirth to it as she said, Linear time nonlinear time, It’s a gray area. You can’t let anyone, even my earlier self know what we are speaking about. Like I told you before, we have a three-day window to accomplish this. The faster the better on this task, and saving Krysali is only the beginning. I would do it myself, but my circumstances at the moment are a little complicated.
When you go down to the Prometheus you have to alter Krysali’s stasis pod to use up more energy. She must awaken exactly two weeks before you ascended Baelac, then you have to go back to Earth date January eighteenth two thousand five to prevent an EOD technician named Braydon Macleod from dying in the Bagdad Green zone. I have to go for now. I’ll explain more once you make it to the green zone.
Terrah had been a little jumpy before Vellia talked to her, and now Terrah’s nerves were on edge. Terrah remembered hearing Braydon Macleod’s name being pushed through for a posthumous medal of honor when she was stationed at the pentagon.
Terrah had been wrapping up an investigation in the green zone a little over two weeks before being transferred to Area 51, and she remembered speaking with the man only days before he sacrificed himself to save the others in the barracks with him.
Terrah had looked into the incident after hearing the name and read the reports. Apparently, a hand grenade had been tossed into the room, and Macleod threw himself on it saving all but his best friend who had attempted to protect Braydon and the others at the same time.
Terrah took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves then said, “Doran, I need you to time jump this ship to two weeks and two hours before I ascended Baelac.”
Doran didn’t even question why, he just performed the time jump, and once in place she had Doran transport her down to the Prometheus.
*****
Terrah was walking around the main floor of the Prometheus. Th
e ship had been impressive for being a wreck, it was in pristine condition on the inside, and after being guided around by Doran, Terrah entered what appeared to be a large medical bay with three medical units and five pods that kind of resembled coffins with tiny glass windows.
Peeking into each of the pods, Terrah found the girl in the pod with a cluster of wires attached.
Examining the pod and the power consumption meter, Terrah began to adjust the settings a little at a time until she had the pod consuming more energy than needed. According to the display, Krysali was supposed to remain in stasis for another hundred years before the unit was scheduled to bring her out of stasis.
Terrah shook her head, knowing exactly what Krysali would’ve found upon waking in another hundred years. A radioactive wasteland, if Inola was still not allowing them to prevent it.
Terrah heard a beep and looked down to see the power display had shifted from a yellow to red and Terrah drew her weapon and vanished before the pod would awaken its occupant.
A few minutes later Terrah heard an alarm go off, then the vacuum seal released as the pod began to open. Terrah watched in silence as a beautiful woman that closely resembled her and her sisters emerged from the pod.
Terrah would put the woman’s height to be just an inch under her five foot eight inches, she had black hair and almost topaz blue eyes.
Krysali seemed to be appraising the pod’s display and a moment later she said in the ancient Lantin language, “Piece of crap,” And she kicked the pod before hopping about the room in obvious pain.
Terrah wanted to laugh but she held it in. Jason had told her that nobody could hear her if they didn’t have one of the golden suits on, but she still didn’t want to risk it.
Krysali seemed to sense someone and swept her hand out and through the location Terrah was standing in, then shaking her head, Krysali exited the room.
As soon as the door closed behind the woman, Terrah called out, “Doran, I’m ready to return,” And a moment later she was standing in the middle of Decon and a static zap indicated she was clean.
Terrah had a feeling Doran was going to ask so she headed him off, “No I don’t need medical. I need you to time jump us to Earth date January eighteenth two thousand and five then place us in a stationary orbit at a latitude of thirty-three point three zero four four degrees and a longitude of forty-four point three nine five one five degrees Earth standard.”
Once again Doran didn’t even ask why, he just performed the jump then said, “We are there.”
“Alright, now I need you to launch a probe to a latitude of thirty-eight point nine zero two degrees and a longitude of negative seventy-seven point zero two degrees and I’ll be right there,” Terrah said as she headed for the control room.
Terrah sat down at her seat, and she had to repress a laugh. She could feel Doran wanted to ask what that was all about, but he just sat there quietly. Failing to hold in her humor any longer Terrah chuckled and said, “You can ask.”
Terrah barely got that out when Doran did just that.
“I saw Krysali’s life signs growing stronger, why did you leave her down on the planet, and why did we come back to this date and launch a probe?” Doran asked.
“I’m only doing what I was told to do with Krysali, and as for why we are here, I need to prevent someone’s death down on Earth, and to do that I’ll need a uniform.” Terrah accessed the probe that Doran launched, and knew exactly where to send it.
Terrah maneuvered her probe into her base housing and into her bedroom. It was almost two weeks before she was reassigned to Area 51, and all of her possessions were packed for the move.
Terrah chuckled inwardly at the thought of what she was doing. She had lost a couple of uniforms on that move, and now she realized that she stole them from herself.
A moment later Terrah targeted and transported one of her dress blue uniforms and a desert BDU to the ship, and placed it in base storage, then she re-summoned the battle dress uniform.
Terrah was not sure she could put the uniform on over the bodysuit, she had been told by both Jason and Jerren that the bodysuit seemed to devour anything placed on it, but cautiously she tried it anyway.
To Terrah’s relief, the uniform didn’t vanish, so she continued dressing and once she was finished and had her hair in the severe bun that always gave her a headache, she asked, “So what do you think? Do I still fit in this old outfit, or does it make my butt look big?”
Doran appeared to be speechless and Terrah was about to ask what was wrong when he said, “You look perfect. Is that what you used to wear?”
Terrah laughed and said, “Yes, at this point in my history, I was a Major in the Air Force. That’s what this cluster indicates.”
She pointed to her collar, and then continued, “Anyway, I needed this uniform to be on the base and not draw any undue attention. I’ll need you to transport me to the surface.”
Terrah brought up a live overview of the area and added, “Right here will be fine.”
Doran nodded and Terrah made her way back to decon, and a moment later, she was standing in a vacant female latrine.
Looking in the mirror, Terrah made sure her uniform and hair were in proper order, and that’s when she noticed her eyes. She and her sisters always had bright blue eyes, but they almost had a glowing radiant look to them now. Shaking off the oddity of her eyes, Terrah was about to exit the latrine when Vellia’s voice halted her.
Perfect, you need to find Braydon Macleod now. His truck will be entering the base in a matter of minutes, you will recognize him—
Terrah interrupted Vellia saying, “I’ve met the man before. So, am I just supposed to prevent the kid from throwing the grenade into the barracks?”
No. You have to prevent Braydon from removing his bomb suit until he gets into his barracks. You have to delay him for three minutes and forty-three seconds while slowly leading him to his barracks, Vellia instructed.
“Why not just prevent the incident altogether?” Terrah asked
There are other things in play here as well, and everything begins to unravel if you don’t do exactly as I say. Vellia said sounding quite exhausted.
“So, doing it this way, Braydon will be alright?” Terrah asked.
Vellia was silent a few seconds, and then she replied, Yes. Now you need to get moving.
Terrah heard the reticence in Vellia’s voice, and wondered what she was holding back, but held her tongue and exited the latrine just in time to see the EOD’s armored personnel carrier come to a halt in front of the building.
Rushing to the rear of the vehicle Terrah saw Airman Macleod step out and just begin to remove his bomb suit, and she called out, “Airman, I need a moment of your time.”
Macleod peered up, and it looked as if he were about to salute her so Terrah said, “At ease Airman, you need to come with me?”
Macleod looked nervous as he asked, “Am I in some sort of trouble?”
Terrah shook her head and said, “No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Could this wait until I remove this suit? It’s kind of a pain to get around in,” Macleod asked.
“I’m sorry Airman, but I am late for a flight back to the Pentagon already, the transport is being held up for me as it is. We can talk on the way to your barracks, you can remove it there,” Terrah ordered.
That was when Terrah realized that she hadn’t considered what she was going to say to distract him, then she recalled the reason she had been in the green zone originally. Terrah seized on that and as she walked and Braydon kind of waddled Terrah asked, “That IED you just disarmed, was there anything unusual about it?”
MacLeod raised a brow at her and said, “Yes, how did you know? I haven’t even—
“We have intel that would suggest that a large shipment of M795 explosive projectiles have fallen into enemy hands,” Terrah said, knowing full well from reading the after action review, that had been what Braydon had just disarmed.
Braydon nodded
and said, “Your Intel is correct, I just disarmed one of them on a roadside.”
Vellia’s voice sounded in Terrah’s head a moment later and she almost jumped.
Begin walking faster toward his barracks.
Terrah did, and she asked, “Were there any indications that the explosive has been in contact with chemical or biologicals?”
Braydon looked oddly at her and said, “There were traces of Sarin but not enough to indicate direct contact, samples were taken after I defused the bomb, and they were sent in for trace analysis.”
Terrah nodded, and then she asked a few more questions she already knew the answers to. She was running out of things to ask Braydon, but luckily, she didn’t have to come up with anything else.
Alright, you can let him go now, Vellia told her.
Nodding Terrah said, “Thank you for your time and service Airman. That will be all,” Then Terrah turned and headed back toward the latrine.
Terrah was just about to reenter the latrine when she was knocked off her feet and landed hard on the ground.
Already edgy Terrah saw the rank insignia on the man’s uniform and snapped out, “Watch where you’re going, sergeant,” and as she made it to her feet she looked up at the man who’d just collided with her, and she swallowed hard at seeing that the man in the uniform was none other than Bias U’san.
Bias had just whispered something to a child who instantly ran off. Then sounding overly snide, U’san said, “I’m sorry Major, but I have to be going. It’ll be in your best interest if you just forget you ever saw me.”
A bit taken aback by his response Terrah automatically snapped out, “What was that Sergeant?”
Bias smiled evilly back at her, then flipped an ID out showing CIA on it, and said, “Does this clear it up for you Major?” before briskly walking away.
Terrah had hustled into the latrine and just closed the door behind her when she heard the grenade detonate. Yelling and sirens filled the air, and Terrah was fighting the urge to go back and make sure Braydon was alright, but Vellia halted her.