“Is that so, then explain to me why the banned Yersinia Pestis bioweapon was on board your ship. Not only that, you used it to infect the Pharaoh.” Hastelloy insisted. “You signed a treaty not to carry such weapons on your ships. Now here we are with a man dying of the disease your people engineered. Your word doesn’t even measure up to a pile of cow crap in my book.”
Goron stood dumbfounded at Hastelloy’s display of knowledge about the disease he carefully inflicted upon Pharaoh to hasten the pyramid construction time line. Nothing was said, but he clearly didn’t like getting called out on his completely illegal actions.
Hastelloy continued his verbal assault. “You look stumped, let’s come back to that issue later. Let’s move on to something more pressing for your people. Do you really think the Novi will just run and hide when word gets out that twenty million soldiers are dead? That’s extremely naïve, so let me improve your thinking.
“When word gets out that 20 million soldiers are dead, the masses will be enraged. The Novi people will insist on immediate and decisive vengeance and they will get it. If the senators of the council are anything, they are politicians that bend to public sentiment when united behind a common goal. This will give the war hawks in our government the green light to implement the all out, scorched planet, warfare they’ve been pressing to wage for generations.
Goron let loose a dismissive snarl. “We’ve repelled your offensives before, and we’ll do so again if it comes to that.”
“Rage and revenge are powerful emotions, especially from a people who haven’t dealt with them for a very long time,” Hastelloy countered. “Why take the risk of invoking that wrath? If you do make it home and return with a battle fleet, why not capture the Nexus and hold it as a bargaining chip to force a peace summit? You’ll still have your position of strength for the negotiations. This meets your criteria for victory does it not? Unlike any who have come before you, Goron, final victory and peace are within your reach right now. Don’t squander it.”
For more than a minute, Goron stood silently chewing the inside of his cheek as he pondered Hastelloy’s words. A loud commotion off to the east cut through the silence. Both men glanced over at the noise to see what was happening. Slowly, the metallic hull of a nearly crushed Alpha ship crested the hill of sand. Hastelloy was awestruck by the extent of the damage. The lower decks of the ship were completely crushed and compacted on top of one another while the bridge sat on atop the crippled ship looking practically untouched.
Gallono let out a laugh. “Rough landing I see. Either that, or the ship was designed for the lower decks to house Alpha who stand two inches tall.”
Goron returned the remark with a smug stare, “The landing allowed the two of us to survive and eventually win the day, which is all that matters.”
The Alpha leader then looked at all four Novi crewmen in turn, ending with Hastelloy. “I must admit. You’re not quite the demon I thought you to be, Hastelloy. In the end I fight for my people and their principles, and you fight for yours. I just happened to fight better this time. How does it feel to be taken to school by a being with 10,000 years less experience than you? Class is dismissed.”
With that said, the two Alpha turned and headed toward their ship. Over his shoulder, almost as an afterthought Goron made one final statement. “Your idea to use the captured Nexus as a bargaining chip has merit. You might have saved a lot of lives, but not your own. I will have my revenge for the pain you’ve caused my pack. For now, enjoy watching the beginning of your end.”
As the Alpha walked farther away and were out of ear shot, Hastelloy looked over at his first officer. “Really Gallono? When I am trying to convince our enemy to preserve the lives of our soldiers in the Nexus, is it the best idea to point out his entire crew was crushed to death in their crash landing?”
“You were serious about that?” Gallono asked. “I thought you were just having some fun with him so he’d have less time to put the beat down on you. It must be said that if pleading with the Alpha to hold the Nexus as ransom was your backup plan, then that plan really sucks.”
“You can never have too many backup plans, even bad ones,” Hastelloy replied.
He looked past his first officer to catch the attention of his helmsman, “Valnor, based on what I see before me now I need to amend my prior assessment about their landing. Yours is by far the best piece of piloting I have ever witnessed.”
All three crewmen regarded the captain with a puzzled look. They must have felt Hastelloy was holding something back, but they let any questions go unasked as the four captives stood helplessly imprisoned. They watched in silence as the Alpha ship was dragged in front of the Pyramid and obelisk monuments. In short order the crippled ship was hooked up to power cords leading from the control unit inside the main chamber. Their trip home was now ready as the coils and control room inside the pyramid harnessed the immense gravitational forces between the earth and sun that coalesced at the tip of the pyramid.
Chapter 43: Fire in the Sky
Hastelloy made a conscious effort to shift his weight back and forth to keep his stiff legs from going to sleep on him. He watched impatiently as the two Alpha performed a never-ending routine of checks and rechecks of every minute detail. Every inch of the power cords were inspected, the excess length measured numerous times to make sure it reached beyond the pyramid’s peak. It made Hastelloy think Goron was doing it on purpose just to taunt him a little while longer.
Hastelloy couldn’t fault the Alpha leader for being overly cautious. They only had one shot at a trip home. Once the crippled ship went through the space fold the power connection would be severed. They’d need to rely on traveling to precisely the right place to be detected and rescued. Otherwise all their efforts over the past year would be for nothing and their coveted victory lost.
At long last, Goron made a gesture with both arms that simulated a rising sun. Soon after a grand procession of guards, scantily clothed slave girls, and religious priests made their way in front of the ship. Bringing up the tail end of the parade were four particularly muscular slaves pulling a solid gold chariot. Cattle or horses would’ve been more impressive, but the pestilence killed off all of the livestock. Standing proudly atop the chariot was Pharaoh in all his glory.
Pharaoh’s appearance was in stark contrast to what Hastelloy and his crew observed a few days earlier. The man they saw earlier looked to have all but his head already inside the grave. This man stood tall and proud, but something looked off in Hastelloy’s opinion. He gave a closer look and could see Pharaoh was not moving or even trying to acknowledge the crowd. All of his concentration and strength was intent on remaining upright and not falling off the back of his showy ride.
The chariot came to a stop in front of the Alpha ship. Carefully Pharaoh let go of the sides. As he stepped down from the chariot his will to present a stately image gave in to the reality of his illness. No sooner did Pharaoh let go of the chariot than he collapsed to his knees in the sand.
Hastelloy half expected Goron to turn his back on the scene, close the hatch and ride off into the great unknown, but he didn’t. In an uncharacteristic display of compassion, Goron stepped down off the hull of his ship and walked over to Pharaoh. He knelt down beside the man and scooped him up in his arms. Goron carried Pharaoh onto the ship and gently lowered him down into the bridge through the roof hatch.
“Well would you look at that,” Gallono chided. “He has a heart after all, or just a guilty conscience considering he was the one who infected Pharaoh in the first place. It looks like your little talk with that dog had an impact.”
Hastelloy gently shook his head and cracked a doubtful half grin, “I wouldn’t get too choked up over it. He’s simply laying the foundation for their return. It’ll be easier for them to enslave and control these people if they’re still revered as gods who keep their promise. It’s all about positioning for the future and has nothing to do with real compassion.”
The crowd of gua
rds, citizens and slaves alike cheered the gesture. In their eyes, the gods were fulfilling their promise to take Pharaoh with them to heaven once the pyramid was complete. There they would heal him and then return Pharaoh to the people of Egypt so he could lead them into an age of prosperity.
Hastelloy thought it strange that even the slaves were rooting for Pharaoh to live on while Mosa was lobbying for their freedom. The slaves suffered endless days of hard labor, whippings and watching their women get violated by guards before their very eyes. Yet here they were, cheering for Pharaoh’s safe return. Apparently they valued the certainty of food and shelter Pharaoh’s kingdom provided more than their freedom.
Little did they know, the crowd was really applauding the beginning of a series of events that would drag the entire planet down into perpetual hell. They’d all be forced to serve a ruthless race incapable of showing mercy and who stopped at nothing to achieve their end goals.
After lowering Pharaoh down, Goron soon followed and closed the hatch behind. As if linked by destiny, when the hatch closed a shadow fell over the land that quickly deepened to almost total darkness. Every individual in the city looked up at the sky for the cause. To a primitive mind the sun was suddenly swallowed up by a mass of darkness that canvassed the entire sky.
Tonwen delivered his scientific appraisal of the event, “The cloud of ash from the volcanic eruption finally arrived.”
“Behold the wrath of our god,” Gallono said with gallows humor. He looked up and howled at the sky, “You couldn’t have come a week ago when it would’ve made a difference could you?”
Streaks of glowing red and yellow soon lit up the otherwise pitch-black sky. The tiny flaming pieces of rock rained down on the land like an aircraft strafing a target. The crowd faithfully gathered to watch their gods ascend to heaven scattered in panic.
“Oh yeah, there you go,” Gallono continued to scream. “Put the fear of god in them as soon as our enemies are safe in the ship. This rain of fire is going to be nothing compared to the agony those Alpha bring back with them for these people.”
The Alpha didn’t waste any time given the firestorm raining down all around their ship. As the craft lifted off the ground, Hastelloy could visibly see all four sides of the giant stone pyramid cave in at the center ever so slightly. He stood in awe of the gravitational forces needed to cause damage to such a massive structure. It was a testament to the immeasurable forces pressing down on the monument and being converted into energy by the gravity coils.
Hastelloy knew the moment the Alpha engaged their artificial gravity field when he saw the tiny flaming fragments pelting the ship’s hull suddenly stop short and simply rolled off to the side and fall harmlessly to the ground without making contact. Gradually the ship rose into the sky on its way to the peak of the pyramid.
A smoldering hunk of stone landed right in front of Gallono, and he kicked it away with all his might toward the rising ship. Sadly, it fell a thousand feet short of the intended target. “Come on, send some bigger rocks to knock that ship out of the sky.” Gallono strained against his hand shackles until blood began oozing from the edges of the restraints as they cut into his flesh.
While Gallono was in the midst of a complete meltdown, Valnor tried to hide his face from the scene, as if not looking at the events leading to their defeat would stop them from happening.
Tonwen regarded the scene with an emotionless blank stare. He’d retreated into his scientific mindset and was viewing the events as just another fascinating experiment.
Hastelloy, for his part, just stood helplessly still and watched events that were beyond his control.
As the Alpha ship rose into the sky a sparking, swirling disk appeared two hundred feet above the pyramid. The disk grew to be so wide across that had it fallen out of the sky it would have swallowed the massive pyramid and all four obelisks whole.
Without sound or ceremony the ship rose toward the event horizon. A few random sparks began hitting the giant obelisks that stood at the four corners of the pyramid. What appeared to be random lightning strikes quickly evolved into a consistent pattern: the energy bolts hit the giant stone spires one after the other in a clockwise rotation that quickly accelerated. Within seconds the pace of the energy bolts was such that it looked like four streams of energy were in constant contact with each obelisk and the entire length of the stone pillars was aglow with radiant energy.
The Alpha ship came to a halt mere inches above the pyramid’s tip and then began its final rise towards the space fold. The glow emanating from top to bottom of the obelisks was drawn back to the tip like a sponge soaking up a puddle of water and coalesced into blinding points of light.
With the Alpha ship a mere fifty feet from the space fold event horizon, salvation struck. In unison, the four obelisks lanced out with crackling bolts of lightning that struck the Alpha craft dead center. Tendrils of white electric energy wrapped themselves around the ship. For a moment, the artificial gravity field kept them at bay, but the assault was unstoppable. In the span of a heartbeat, the ship was crushed flat as a piece of parchment and then exploded outward sending flaming fragments of the Alpha vessel in all directions to join the fiery hail stones on their way down to earth.
The explosion from the ship’s destruction radiated back down the tendrils of energy coming from the obelisks. When it reached the stone spires each of them was knocked backwards and rotated to the ground. Hundreds of people were crushed beneath their immense weight, and hundreds more severely injured from the flying fragments as the stone structures exploded upon contact with the ground. The sparking, swirling disk above the pyramid immediately receded in on itself and vanished leaving only darkness of the sunless sky behind.
The explosion caused Hastelloy and his crew to slam their eyes shut, and in unison jerk their heads away from the blinding flash. The concussion wave of the blast hit Hastelloy’s body like a sledgehammer, and the air was instantly sucked out of his lungs. Despite being breathless, he attempted to cry out as the unbridled pain of his eardrums rupturing was more than he could bear. Whether it was the lack of oxygen, or the loss of all spatial awareness due to the pressure in his ears, Hastelloy’s world spun out of control around him. At first he fought the sinking sensation of passing out, but it all became far too much for his body to handle, so he embraced the relief that came with the darkness.
Chapter 44: Getting the Message
Mark sat patiently in the corner while the NASA personnel resolved the craft’s spin and orientation so it pointed the right direction to begin its journey to the center of the galaxy. Next came the teams running and rerunning of every test and crosscheck known to man. They checked the power connection between the two sections. They tested the reactor, control thrusters, and stabilization gyroscopes. If there were a night light on board, Mark was quite certain they would have spent half an hour checking that as well.
Mark waited with bated breath as the laundry list of checks made it to the probe’s ultra powerful broadcast signal. Then things would get interesting.
“Okay, Jeremy, we’re moving on to the probe’s message broadcasting equipment,” Alfred said. “Let’s see if we can hear her talk to us.”
Jeremy hit a few keys and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face. That look soon turned to concern as the silent seconds ticked past. Several minutes went by without any reception from the probe.
“Is there an issue with the transmission equipment?” Alfred suggested.
Jeremy tapped away on his keyboard for a few seconds and gave his report. “I ran a diagnostic. The transmitter has power and is communicating with the onboard computer, it’s like it has nothing to say.”
A feeling of satisfaction welled up inside Mark’s heart. Here it comes he thought, wait for it.
“Have the main onboard computer download the text of the data points to be broadcast,” Alfred ordered.
Jeremy moved his fingers over the keyboard to comply and then froze mid keystroke. “
The . . . the message is gone. It’s been erased.”
“That’s odd,” Dr. Kranz commented. “Go ahead and upload the message file from here then to the probe’s receiver.
Jeremy worked his keyboard for a few more seconds and then pounded it with his fist. “I’m locked out of the receiver. It will respond to commands, but the files are locked so no programming changes can be made.”
“Try the receiver on the reactor section,” Alfred said with frustration growing in his voice. “We can use the data link between the two sections to upload the message.”
Jeremy worked for a few more minutes, then abruptly pushed back from his workstation, ruffled his already messy hair and cried out, “Damn it! The reactor’s receiver is locked down too. What the hell is going on here?”
Boom, there it is Mark mentally shouted. Game over.
“What are we going to do?” Jeremy asked, showing confidence that his boss could save the day yet again.
Alfred stood up straight and headed for the exit door, kicking a trashcan across the room as he went. Dr. Kranz stared Mark down as he passed the NSA agent and said, “I’m not sure, Jeremy. This is just one more unlucky accident we have to deal with today isn’t it?”
We both know there’s no such thing as luck or accidents Mark thought as the flight director left the room in a huff.
Alfred continued talking as he passed through the doorway. “We have to come up with something. I’m going to my office to give it a think.”
The only sound in the flight control room was a soft rustling of the papers that flew out of the trashcan Alfred kicked. All the workers in the room looked like they just saw a three-headed dragon trounce into the room and eat their boss. By the looks of it, Alfred never, ever, lost his cool like that. Nor did he ever leave a room without each person knowing exactly what they should be doing next.
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