by Ed Thrush
Ed’s mouth just hung open, “I’ve obviously been missing something.”
“With respect sir this is way beyond even the top secret labs, only a small core knows about it. You would never have seen it even in the documents you have access to. The idea is to increase the power, punch through clouds and disintegrate space satellites from the ground.”
Rhea noted wryly. “Well it before we see more grab and run from our extraterrestrial friend here, we better get moving”
Ed struggled with the suit.
“Nothing ever fits you does it, Rhea looked sideways at him.
“Not when you don’t have any odd sizes, I’m a 35 waist not a 34, not a 36. It either squishes me or falls off. If we had time I would order a Russian suit and try that”
*****
Chapter 10
Monday 7:30 PM _ JOURNEY
They climbed out of the hatch into the bright full-spectrum lights that were rigged up. Rhea looked at her timer readouts, “Ed, it’s been opening about every two hours now-I guess it has enough sunlight stored up, we should be due in 15 minutes if that holds true. It will take us that long to get there. They have the net over it; we have a cable running from that and a platform, let’s get on it.”
The three walked under the net and onto the platform. They harnessed in and rose quickly. The platform stopped just under the lip where the probe had opened.
Rhea reached around for the entrance point. “Okay, get ready!”
“Are we liable if we lose Zagreus?”
“Ed, if we lose Zagreus, he never existed anyway.”
Zagreus’s eyes grew big
“We’re just kidding; you have to lighten up a bit when the fate of the whole world is in your hands.”
“That’s fine by me.” Zagreus said not very convincingly.
Rhea hunkered down. “Let’s go slow and low, we don’t know what is coming out if anything.”
Something with a long gray shadow started to appear, it was very thin and gossamer. It was almost not there at all.
Zagreus was trying to get a better look, “What is that made out of? How does…”
“Get down! Lay flat!”
They hit the bottom of the platform.
The object was not really gray; it was almost silver with a sheen and movement like mercury. The shape made no sense; it was 500 feet long with basically no thickness, just like a glass razor. A razor is exactly what it acted like as it swept clean through Zagreus’s top headlamp and sliced through the netting without even the flutter of butterfly wing.
Ed looked over his shoulder.
”So much for the great net idea.”
“We can track that later.” Rhea said, realizing that depending on the short term damage the fast moving scalpel caused, the military might well start trying to destroy the probe before the “death ray” arrived. She was losing faith that any new weapons would be helpful.
There was no time to think, their only door inwards began to close, and there was only a few seconds before they would miss their opportunity. “Go, Go, Go!”
They scrambled, ran and jumped into the mouth as it began to close. The bright lights and noisy generators were being shut out quickly as the lips of the port sealed, until it was completely black and dead quiet. Dead as a cave in the middle of the earth.
*****
Chapter 11
Monday 7:45 PM _ MIRRORS
The lamps showed nothing at first, just a large void. Zagreus had to use the handheld since his head lamp was chopped off. “We’re only in the foyer. This must be used to expand the devices before they are launched. Let’s move on, something will come into range,“ Rhea said, as she stumbled forward.
It was impossible to walk easily as everyone had vertigo. The “hallway” was deep carbon toner black, absorbing all light. All that was visible was the light directly reflected off the suits, making them much too bright. As a result the floor, ceiling and walls appeared to go on forever into nothingness. Ed caught a reflection far out in front. “Look ahead, there’s a shaft appearing, that must be where the controller unit is. It probably gets the explorer devices from below.”
They walked into a huge snakeskin walled room. this led to the main shaft which looked like an immense warehouse down in an bigger sinkhole There were oddly shaped packages, each on a type of claw shaped shelf. Each shelf had a shelf behind it, there were several layers. It made for a dizzying 3D grid. As they moved forward they illuminated the control center, which lined the upper portion of the walls. Zagreus was overwhelmed and seemed to speak for the others, “It’s just…too much.” It was as if somebody decided to make an insane rock video based on Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, but using all the sets from every sci-fi film ever made, all overlapped into one shot, all moving at the same time. It hurt to look at it all. There were layers upon layers of simply fantastic machinery that appeared like all the crazy images of perpetual motion machines, incredible looking tiny fingers of intense light, fast moving small things like neon ants, odd low humming noises, but no wires or cables. It appeared harmless, like some Las Vegas nightmare effects gallery – an over the top alien casino, at least at first glance.
But Ed fought his visual confusion and thought he recognized something.
“That’s not electricity or energy as we know it, that’s a type of micro fusion plasma arc.”
And just like that it stopped. Ed shook his head in recognition.
“That was the door mechanism I bet, why use wires or cables when you can shoot energy right to the device.”
“Because, birdbrain,” Rhea prodded. “You fry people and anything else in-between. Obviously they (whoever they are or were) calculated all that. There must be a mapping of all the air space akin to a three dimensional circuit board.”
“Or maybe…” Zagreus stared at his array of readouts “it only uses the empty space part of the time, these carbon like dots on every surface are reading all sorts of magnetic fields and they are on the move.”
Rhea looked back over her shoulder at her explosive load, “Will it affect this nuke?”
Ed thought for a second, “If we were not toasted, then it’s probably okay. Let me just say we may have other forces at work here. We need to constantly do checks on everything, life support, energy packs, and if you hold still for a minute, I’ll hit the self diagnostics on this firecracker. Clock, arming circuits, explosive integrity, radiation levels, all optimum. Looks as good as a portable nuclear bomb could look.”
In one big rush, all the deep black tiny spots from the hallway and the floor quickly filled every spot in the craft until no one could see. Compete blackout. Like being buried alive.
Rhea called out, “Everybody okay?”
“It’s exerting a slight pressure on the suit …seems to be holding though, ” Ed noted cautiously.
“Zagreus here, I feel like I’m in a giant bowl of really tiny berries, but I’m alive.”
Ed could at least see some critical readings that are projected on the face shield.
“I’m not sure what we really got here, but it can’t be too destructive. It’s the three dimensional wiring system, the nerves among all the equipment when there is no device launch going on.”
“I can feel something really weird.” Zagreus was moving his hand around. He felt his hand touching his back even though it was in front of him.
Rhea move her hand to her belt and gave a little gasp, “Hey that’s me” as felt a hand touch her shoulder, but it happened when she moved her own hand. This stuff must be transmitting our movements in some kind of stream – and retransmitting back to us? We have about an hour to maybe get out of here. I’m going to try to turn around toward the door.”
“Go slow Rhea I think…” That was the last she heard from Ed. As she turned a bright tingling sensation filled her body. She felt wonderful, and then it became more intense, a rushing noise filled her whole body like a roller coaster out of control, dropping fast, weightless, blood tingling too much
in her belly, a million drills were in every one of her pores, she began to scream.
“Rhea! Rhea, hold on! Just freeze and tighten up!” Fighting the urge to collapse she froze while her spinning head was blinding her from even her bright helmet indicator light display. The thrill washed through her, a wave of scenery appeared.
She was calling to her brother, “Tommy push me higher!” Tommy grabbed the chains holding little Rhea’s swing and ran forward making her go so high up she giggled hysterically, the wind rushing through her hair, the blood draining from her head, falling back, weightless…the blood washing back though her belly. The white wave of hyper noise and vibration passed though her.
She began to calm down a bit and came back to consciousness, she gasped for air. “Bad move I think, I thought I was going to die. I was drifting back to my childhood, I was really losing it. My brain may have been pulsed very fast. Those damn things were sending some frequency back against and through the suit. When I turned and moved, it was like some supersonic vibrator from hell. I think I remember you about to say something to me, I suppose you figured that out. So what did we learn here? No sudden movements anyone, least we knock ourselves or one another out and maybe out for good.”
Ed made a face, even though no one could see it.
“Well, when you are swimming in a transmission medium and you send a sudden chaotic signal, I realized it might just start a small intense storm of sorts. But I think it’s not just a communication network, but a security medium that reflects any unknown energy back onto the target, contains it, and disables further transmission of it. Even though intense, whatever it was bounced right back to you and missed Zagreus and me. You know we have lots of video, and tons of readings since we came in here, so let’s just run like hell for the door as soon as this clears up.”
“Hey guys, mind if I very slowly put some of these things in a sample box, I have it right here on my belt? Zagreus waited for an answer.
“Why not?” Rhea said, ”No one seems to be minding the store, hopefully there is no automatic inventory of these nerve dots. I have to leave my little explosive package on the way out.”
Zagreus moved his hand to the sample jar as if he were reaching out to a striking snake, with no perceptible speed. As a result it was more than 5 minutes till he made it to the sample container.
“I could still feel that energy moving around us, but only a little, go easy on the container,” Rhea warned.
Zagreus undid the latch as if in molasses and slowly opened the lid. He assumed the canister was filled up, because it was impossible to tell. Then he closed it.
Ed sighed. “Well this killed a little time, we only have 15 minutes to go, if there is a ‘go’. Zagreus and I should take that time to very very slowly turn around and get into position to make the run, it going to be tedious but we may need the extra seconds, because if that blade returns we have to go back out low and dive for the platform.” Rhea slowly set the arming buttons on the bomb and put her hand in position to release the straps holding it. Not a nice way to say goodbye, but these guests were not only wrecking everything in and around the house but might take the whole damn house with them. She tried not to think about family, but she could not shake the ominous feeling that huge sections of earth could lay waste as result of this curious probe.
Resisting the urge to move faster Zagreus and Ed each put their foot across the other to make a 180-degree turn almost as if frozen in time; the muscle strain to avoid any outward movement was difficult. Zagreus could not help comment, ‘I’m going so slow it seems like insanity. Rhea piped in,” Just go fast if you really want to see crazy, trust me.”
When they were done, the time was up. The black carbon dots withdrew. The door opener plasma mini-arcs began to fire. The lip began to open. No one spoke. They ran as fast as they could with their clumsy suits. Rhea dropped the pack, punched the code, hit a switch and set the timer light glowing. Each flew head first close to the lower lip as if diving for home plate. As they passed over the lip, it started to close with the flying blade entering and took the very tip of Ed’s elbow and heel off like a laser as he dove for the lift. The air escaped from the suit and they hit the platform. He was missing about a half inch from each area and blood flowed everywhere. Grimacing as the pain started to throb, “Ahhhhhhh, it got a couple of small bites out of me, but not too deep, my pumping heart is my worst enemy, get this platform moving.” Ed doubled up trying to clutch the cuts to stem the flow.
Rhea slammed the lever to drop the platform and they were almost weightless as they fell fast to a cushioned stop. Mark was waiting.
“All this blood, I see it out of Ed’s suit, I can’t fix you with it on, let’s get it off now. “ They all tugged at the suit. Mark wrapped gauze tight around the elbow and heel. “Looks like you lost a tiny bit of bone on each area. A little connective tissue, that is all repairable, but you could not have hit more blood vessels if you tried. Let’s move so we can patch this up, they look like nice clean cuts and should heal okay with some minor reconstruction. Lots of nerve endings there, bet it hurts now.”
Ed looked a little dazed, “Uh huh.”
“Let’s move. The timer is almost up for the bomb and you guys are in for a big shock.”
*****
Chapter 12
Monday 10:00 PM _ FINAL CUT
They were back in the underground capsule. Ed was patched up. He checked the monitors, “Times up!” And then…nothing. Everyone was silent, there were no unusual readings on the instruments. Rhea cocked an eye at Ed, “Why am I not surprised. It just absorbed or contained the bomb by redirecting the blast into itself. ” Ed stared into the floor, “what happened to that explosion in that space, I wonder if they port the energy somewhere else or some other time. Jesus, like after it leaves the spot! And then later we never know when, we get this big surprise blast.” Mike turned on the main screen. “We have enough nightmares happening right now. Maybe the best way to digest this is to just watch the news, there are many stations that still have satellite access and can broadcast. There are still quite a few transmission towers left, a large part of the electrical grid, and most major cities are still standing.”
They all began to open their mouths but Mike just put up a hand, “Just watch, this one is going to do a recap now.”
The huge screen opened with a large banner across burning and exploding images. “Global Disasters” A commentator took center screen.
“For those just joining us and are unaware of the magnitude of the destruction that you may be seeing in your locality, here is what’s happening. Tonight sometime just before 8:00 PM, a thin flying blade that had emerged from the UFO believed to be a robotic probe swept over the entire earth at a high speed close to the ground – estimated at 100 feet. This blade cut through many cities, people, infrastructures, trees, mountains and whatever was its path. Attempts were made to shoot the destructive device down once it was shown to be damaging but there was no missile fast enough to catch it, and the ones fired head on were simply cut in half and exploded behind it. The speed was estimated at 48,000 miles per hour. What was unusual to scientists is that no shock wave following it, but it caused enormous damage without that element. The 500-foot long molecule-thin object took up very little space and there was no disruption of the air before and after the knife like blade cut through. There was no sound, no warning. From radar tracking we know that it circled the world in loops around 161.8 miles apart. It is difficult to know where to begin in describing the destruction. Before I continue we will be breaking away shortly for the latest in safety and security alerts from FEMA and the White House.
Some of the more widespread damage came from decapitation of parts of the several active volcanoes. This opened up the lava flows that have already killed thousands. Dams across the globe were either punctured or had sections ripped off, thankfully only a few remote ones have fallen apart and flooded. Across many countries the cities are possibly the worst horror, if there c
an be any worse. Panic was initially widespread due to little warning. Many buildings sliced through continued to stand, the top resting on the bottom with the actual cut being microscopic, but the electrical, gas, water and other services that were cut either burned or flooded what remained. Numerous elevators dropped but the brakes saved those. Unfortunately some elevators themselves were cut in half.”
“The world death total estimate is difficult to arrive at in this early stage, but tens of thousands in large and small buildings were either cut in half or had part of their body suddenly drop off as the flying blade swept through. Many did not know what happened until blood poured out and body parts fell to the floor. The only salvation is that people with smaller amputations could get good reattachment due to the clean cuts. However all hospitals are jammed. Power in the United States is restored to only about 60 percent of the country. The best advice is to stay wherever you are. The downed power lines, open gas pipes, water mains, spilled raw sewage, oil pipelines, and industrial plants leaking chemicals make any journey suicide at the moment. Emergency responders are in shorter supply as some of their facilities were also hit. There are areas to dangerous for anyone to enter at all. Somehow only three nuclear plants have gone critical, one in Britain exploded but the contaminated cloud was small and drifted out to sea. The others in New Jersey and Germany were able to shut down, but the surrounding area in each is contaminated for miles. Blood fills the streets of our country and many countries around the world.”
Here the commentator seemed to reflect and just stared. Mike killed the screen.