The Wrath of the Revenant

by Terry Marchion

  Tremain folded his arms.

  "I'd be happy to -- but can't you transfer the photos here?" The military man shook his head in a crisp side to side movement.

  "No can do, Professor. The higher ups are requesting your presence here." Tremain nodded in agreement.

  "Well, I can't argue with your superiors. I'll be there in the morning." He paused, then asked, "May I bring an assistant?" The Colonel thought about it a moment, then nodded assent.

  "We'd like to keep this as quiet as possible, you understand. Don't want anyone to think we're wasting their investment. One assistant only, if you don't mind."

  "Yes, of course, Colonel. I'll see you in the morning." The man gave another crisp nod, his short-cropped hair seemingly molded out of his head.

  "I'll send a man to pick you up at 0700." And with that, the connection was cut.

  Tremain threw his hands out in front of him.

  "Well, would you look at that?" He walked over to Christopher and Celeste. "I help them design a new satellite and not a word from them for weeks until they need my help again. The nerve."

  Christopher grinned, noticing his uncle's obvious excitement underneath the bluster.

  "He called you Professor?" Christopher asked.

  "Yes, well, he used to be one of my students, way back when I first started teaching. He was a great organizer and strategist, but the finer points of my field of study escaped him. It turns out not everyone has a mind for mathematics." Tremain shook his head in mock sorrow. "I steered him towards the military. He's done all right for himself, as you can see." Tremain looked sidelong at his nephew. "Of course, Christopher, you can be my assistant tomorrow, if you want. Unless you have something better planned." He gave a wink to Celeste.

  Christopher quickly shook his head.

  "I did promise to help Celeste with her math homework, but I can help her later. I just have to let mom know." He jumped up and moved to the lab exit, Celeste close behind. "I'll meet you here. What time?"

  "Seven on the dot."

  Christopher waved to Desmond, who waved back before going back to clean up the mess in the back of the lab. The techs involved were doing their part, pulling out parts of their cooking failure and just as quickly dumping the contents into a large trash can while turning their heads to the side to avoid the smell. So much for THAT lunch.

  "Can I give you a rain check on the tour?" He asked Celeste while waving his hand in front of his face to disburse the last of the acrid smell.

  Celeste nodded and wrapped her arm around Christopher's. He could so get used to this.

  "Anytime."

  He wondered how long he could draw out the walk to the train station.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The military vehicle pulled up to the Hawking building precisely at seven a.m. as Tremain and Christopher stood waiting in the chill morning air. Overnight, it seemed, the wind had picked up and a smear of dark clouds could be seen on the horizon.

  It had taken some convincing for Davie to let Christopher accompany his uncle as assistant, but the truth was she couldn't say no to her son, especially where her brother was concerned. Tremain had really become the father-figure in Christopher's life. As eccentric as he was, he was still a good influence on the young man. Tremain gave Christopher a nudge.

  "Look sharp now, Christopher." Tremain teased. "It's show time."

  The driver, a young man in uniform, gave a salute as he opened the door for the two.

  "Professor Tremain." He said in greeting. "The Colonel apologizes for not coming himself, but he's been held up at the base." They drove off into the morning mist.

  Christopher watched as they exited the University district and drove past the open market, where the vendors were just starting to set up their wares for the day. Soon, they were leaving the city altogether.

  "Where's the base, Uncle?" Christopher whispered. Tremain pointed ahead of them.

  "About an hour's drive up the coast. Just under the space elevator."

  The drive was scenic if nothing else. In the misty distance, Christopher could see the faint silhouette of Ebbett's Island. He knew it had become a resort area, accessible only by ferry or private boat. Up ahead he could see the faint filament of the space elevator extending into the sky. They were getting close.

  The filament grew clearer as they approached. Christopher could see it was very thick at its base.

  "The elevator was a marvel of construction when the colony ship arrived." Tremain explained as he motioned to the ever larger object. "The original cable was only half this size, but did its job admirably, allowing all the colonists and the equipment to disembark easily with very few problems."

  Christopher looked out the window following the cable until it disappeared into the clouds.

  "It's pretty strong?"

  Tremain chuckled.

  "Yes, it has to be. Not only to be able to carry heavy loads up to Platform One and back, but also to withstand the heavy forces of the weather. I helped create a self-repair system we built into it a few years ago. Should hold up for many more years to come."

  "How long does it take to get up to the platform?"

  Tremain furrowed his brow, performing the equations in his head, motioning in the air in front of him.

  "Let's see, about twenty-five thousand miles up, speed around an average of two or three miles an hour in atmosphere, much faster once in space . . . Around three days, give or take an hour or two."

  Christopher whistled, glad he didn't have to ride up the thing. The driver gave a short laugh.

  "It's not a bad ride. The view is awesome, for one thing. We call it "space club" up there on the Platform."

  "You've been up there?" Christopher asked. The driver nodded.

  "Yep. I've taken two tours since graduating from the academy. We're up there about two months a tour. It's good work. Someday I'll make the ride all the way up." Christopher looked up into the sky.

  "It goes up higher?"

  Tremain laughed.

  "Of course it does, Christopher, there needs to be an anchor, you know." He rubbed his chin as he did more math. "So twenty-five thousand miles plus the distance to the Lagrange point."

  "Lagrange point?" Christopher asked, not familiar with the term. Tremain looked sideways at his nephew.

  "Haven't they taught you anything in school?" He chided. "The Lagrange point is the point of equilibrium between two large bodies in space, so in this instance, New Earth and our star. So we're talking about a million or so miles here." Christopher's eyes grew wide.

  "And you want to go all the way up there?" He asked the driver, who gave one crisp nod.

  "Yes sir, I do. It's a little longer than a one-month trip up to the anchor, but we have to do it once in a while to make sure everything is still in good shape up there."

  "Only one month?"

  "No gravity or friction to fight against, so we can move at a good velocity."

  Tremain leaned in closer to Christopher.

  "You'll never guess what is being used as the anchor either." His eyes glinted as Christopher mulled it over.

  "I don't know. What?"

  Tremain gave a mock-serious look.

  "The Mayflower. Or at least what's left of it."

  Christopher's eyes grew wide with the thought.

  "Seriously? I thought they tore it apart to build the original colony."

  Tremain nodded

  "They did, well, what they could use. What remained was basically an empty shell. One they could either leave in orbit to eventually decay and fall to the surface or extend out to become the anchor to the space elevator. You can see which one they chose. Platform One was built a few years later."

  The car had by now reached an imposing gate. Pausing at the guard post, the driver flashed his I.D. at the sentry. The gate was opened and they cruised through to a sprawling complex of buildings, each with a satellite dish mounted to the roof.

  They pulled up to the largest of the buildings, where the dri
ver let them out. The base was built on a natural plateau overlooking the coast. The wind whipped at them as the exited the car.

  "That view doesn't suck." Christopher said as he looked out beyond the huge cable and elevator base structure to the ocean beyond.

  "Quite." Tremain answered. He looked up at the elevator cable as it rose into the sky. "Too bad we can't go up this time. I would have liked to see the view from up there."

  "Maybe next time, Uncle."

  They were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. They turned to see an officer facing them.

  "Ah, Colonel, we've arrived." Tremain walked over to the soldier and shook his hand. He motioned to Christopher. "And this is my assistant, my nephew Christopher." The Colonel gave Christopher an appraising look, which made the young man a little uncomfortable, but he stood his ground. The Colonel nodded and smiled.

  "Good to meet you, Christopher." He turned to Tremain. "If you don't mind, I have the images in question queued up for you."

  Tremain motioned to the door.

  "Lead on, Colonel."

  The interior was abuzz with activity. A small entrance way led into a dark room filled with huge screens. Facing those screens were two rows of terminals, all of which were manned by soldiers wearing large headphones. Christopher looked at the screens, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. On one screen showed a vectored representation of the planet, with dotted lines traversing around it. Christopher assumed they were the trajectories of the satellites in orbit around the planet. Made sense, so they could keep track of them all. He knew most were weather satellites, but some were GPS and communication satellites and still others were military and scientific. A few of the weather stations were following an ominous looking cloud forming over the ocean.

  "Uncle, look at that storm." Christopher whispered.

  Tremain glanced over at where his nephew was indicating and stopped short. He beckoned to the Colonel.

  "That doesn't look good at all."

  The Colonel nodded towards the screen, folding his arms.

  "That is the mother of all storms building off the coast. It's not moving, only gaining in intensity." His face was grim.

  Tremain was aghast.

  "That's not possible!"

  Colonel Griffiths nodded once, his eyes never leaving the screens.

  "We agree. It's not natural, whatever it is. Our severity meters only go up to category five. This one is projected to be even stronger. The winds right now are speculated to be at about a Category Four."

  "Speculated?"

  "Yes. Every weather drone we send up gets hit by some sort of lightning charge before it can take any measurements. I've stopped sending any."

  Tremain gulped hard.

  "How strong to you think this will get?" He asked, calculating the size compared to the landmass it was near.

  "If it keeps growing at its present rate, we're looking at possibly 800 mile-an-hour winds with the storm covering almost the entire coastline." He rubbed his face. "We're talking total devastation, Professor. Once that thing hits land, we're toast." He stared at the image on the screen a moment longer. "I'm coordinating with the Senators on how best to evacuate. We'll have to move quite a bit inland to avoid the brunt of the storm, but we have to try."

  Tremain thought of the immense task before them. There were over five million people living in the colony cities. To evacuate them all would be almost impossible. The colonies would be wiped out.

  "How can I help?" Tremain asked

  "We think we might be able to disrupt the convection of the air-to-water, but it's all speculation right now." His eyes snapped to the scientist. "But that's not why you're here. This way, please."

  The Colonel led them to the far corner of the room, through a door to another room where three images were displayed large on the smart wall in front of them. The lone terminal in the room was manned by another soldier.

  "Here we are, Professor." The Colonel addressed Tremain. "These images were taken about two seconds apart as we calibrated the optics in the satellite. The one on the left was taken first with the middle and right images following. As you can see, we have an anomaly.” Tremain walked right up to the screen, his nose almost touching the image as he examined each one. Christopher stayed back by the door, taking it all in.

  The left image showed a typical image taken from a satellite. It was a forest scene from above, zoomed in to the point where he could almost make out individual leaves on the trees. He couldn't make out where this location was, but it didn't look close to any of the cities. The center image was the same view, a little offset, but there was a burst of light in the middle of the trees. The right most image was almost exactly like the first, with no hot spot. Tremain hmm'd and examined the center image the longest.

  "Can we zoom in even closer to the center image?" he asked. The Colonel tapped the soldier on the shoulder.

  "Do it, Mason." The soldier obeyed, manipulating a trackball in the console. The image on the wall zoomed as requested, right up to the burst of light. Tremain squinted as he turned his head left and right, tilting it as he did so.

  "Well, I think I'm fairly certain there is nothing wrong with the optics, Colonel." Tremain turned to the commanding officer. "This is something you picked up on the surface." He turned to the third image. "Zoom in on this one, please." Mason did as requested. Tremain gave this one a long examination as well. "There's something there which wasn't present in the first image, but I can't make it out." He looked back to the Colonel. "Is the satellite in position for a live feed?"

  The Colonel looked to his wristwatch, then to the monitor in front of Mason, which showed the trajectory of the satellite in question.

  "We should have it in about two minutes." The view on the smart walls changed. Tremain could now see the planet's landscape rolling slowly underneath the satellite. Mason zoomed in as they approached the correct coordinates. A flash of light shone as something reflected the sunlight. Tremain's hand shot out, pointing to the wall.

  "There! Right there! Zoom in even closer!" Mason did as instructed. Tremain gave a bark of triumph and clapped his hands. What the screen displayed was unmistakably the corner of a metallic structure. Whatever it could be was almost completely hidden by the trees. Tremain turned to Mason. "What are the coordinates of this location?"

  Mason's hands flew over the keyboard in front of him as a small slip of paper printed out. He ripped it off and handed it to the scientist. Tremain studied it for a moment as his expression hardened. He handed it to the Colonel. "If you can spare a few men, I think we need to see this in person."

  The Colonel looked at the coordinates, then back to Tremain, confusion written on his face.

  "You know these coordinates?"

  Tremain nodded, pulling out the calling card given to him by Alice and waved it in the air.

  "They are an exact match to this card." His frown deepened. "I have the distinct feeling I'm being played and I don't much care for it."

  CHAPTER THREE

  The trees swayed in the wind as small animals flitted between the trunks, looking for their next meal. A pyramid of coruscating light came and went, leaving three soldiers in its wake, weapons raised. The center soldier held up a hand and motioned for the men to fan out. They moved silently as they scanned the area. The center one held his wrist to his face and spoke into it.

  "All clear." In the area the soldiers had recently vacated, another pyramid of coruscating light appeared. As it faded, three more figures could be seen. Tremain, Christopher and Desmond. Sitting next to Desmond on the ground was a pile of equipment.

  "My transmitter worked perfectly. Saved us quite a bit of travel time, too." Tremain said as he walked over to help Desmond unpack the equipment. "We'll take some readings out here first to get a baseline, then move closer to that structure." He stood up and turned in a circle, looking up the entire time. "Which should be over in this direction." He pointed behind them. One of the soldiers tappe
d Tremain on the shoulder, then pointed in the opposite direction, deeper into the trees. Tremain, unflinching, pointed in the same direction. "Just seeing if you were paying attention." He muttered. Christopher smiled and shook his head as he helped Desmond.

  "What sort of readings are we looking for, Uncle?" He asked.

  Tremain stared into the trees.

  "Oh, temperature, radiation, that sort of thing." He shrugged his shoulders and turned to Christopher and Desmond. "Anything that could help us figure out what that structure is and how it seemed to suddenly appear." He motioned to the team leader to move deeper into the trees. Desmond stood next to Tremain with a portable scanner, the hand-held wand pointed in front of them. Christopher had another scanner, taking a second set of readings.

  The soldiers fanned out once more, the three civilians following behind. As they moved deeper into the trees, the undergrowth thinned out and soon they stood in the center of a small clearing, the trees on each side reaching up to all but conceal the artifact from the satellite imagery with their foliage.

  Smack dab in the center of the clearing, suspended in midair, stood a solid metallic slab. It was approximately six feet wide by ten feet tall, polished to a shiny mirrored finish. Christopher could see the reflections of the party as they approached it.

  He and Desmond both took readings of the slab, each walking around it in separate directions. The soldiers took positions around the clearing, backs to the slab, staying vigilant. Tremain stood and scratched his head.

  "Arthur C and Kubrick be damned, whatever could this be?" He asked aloud. Christopher joined him, holding the scanner up so his uncle could see.

  "Whatever it is, Uncle, it's not giving out any sort of energy signal." Desmond joined them, shaking his head and pointing at the slab.

  "Damnedest thing. It's solid alright. Can't see how it's staying up, though."

  Tremain nodded. He was about to say something, when there was a flash of light to their left. He whirled to see what happened, when there were three more flashes, one immediately to his right. He whipped himself around to see . . . Nothing.