They both knew all too well the trip would be quick, but the disembarking of passengers would take time and his ship would need some adjustments after its first maiden voyage was complete.
Hannah’s crew watched as the Ark Royal lifted off and was out of sight in a moment. They saw the shields open and close by only a quick flash of light in the sky. The Ark Royal was now on its way back to Earth II loaded with its new inhabitants.
book two
chapter five
Once again, the ranch seemed quiet, and everyone went back to monitoring what was going on around the United States from the ranch.
Some foreign nations that had already infiltrated American soil were well established and in control of many things, Americans once took for granted.
Everyone was so afraid of an alien invasion that no one realized they had already been invaded. The enemy was embedded in every part of the government, transportation, food supply, business, and land ownership.
Hannah knew that they needed a transport system that could pick up larger numbers of people who sought asylum on the ranch, and the transport pods just could not keep up.
As soon as the Ark Royal lifted off, Hannah contacted Syra on Earth II for a conference on what was best to do next given the situation they were in.
First things first, Hannah quickly spoke up!
Greetings, and great news Syra! Captain Zee had a successful launch only moments ago and is now on his way back home to Earth II. I am sure you have already heard from him, and he has likely already arrived by now!
Is it possible to borrow your Ellead for transporting larger groups from across the states to the different refugee camps we have set up? The transportation pods are still very much needed, but in larger cities, they just cannot keep up.
Syra, of course, had never turned Hannah down on anything and was not about to now. The notice came in that the Ark Royal had just arrived, and Syra thanked Hannah for all that she had done and said she would be contacting her soon with updated information for her and the Caldiron Ranch!
Hannah loved her beloved Earth and America. She knew she would work tirelessly to save it even if it meant relocating as many as she could.
But it would also be difficult to protect those that wanted to stay on Earth, each day it was obvious more would be left behind than those camps could support.
The conferences were always way too short when Hannah made contact. But there was never any waste of words, and it was always clear that whatever Hannah needed, she would get.
Many farms were now going through more testing to see if they could produce good healthy vegetables and water and feed for cattle.
It had been about a year since anyone could have fresh produce and most longed for it in their diets. But getting sick and dying was not worth that part of their diet, and many had gone to canned foods and any other safe foods to eat.
Many still did not have clean water because there were not enough filters to reach every home. So, if they could not afford to buy the filters, they had to boil every ounce before consuming it.
Everyone knew that the Russian-owned American company that produced the filters for the U.S. was pocketing millions of dollars on these filters that should have been priced at hardly anything.
But unfortunately, thought Hannah, there was a lot of price gouging. It was that inflated pricing that was affecting every product sold in America!
The transport pods the captain left behind continued to bring refugees to the other six camps and all within those camps thrived.
Every day the news was reporting people missing, many of which even their own families had no idea where they had gone. They had simply disappeared off the face of the Earth as far as everyone was concerned.
Many in fact, had left the Earth. But three times those numbers that left, stayed and were in those camps in various locations across the land.
The refugee camps were successful so far and growing in numbers. But Hannah knew they were having to wait for some more equipment from Earth II in order to add more land to the refugee list.
Everything seemed normal that day; as Hannah and her crew worked tirelessly to continue to contact people to let them know, they would send transport when they could.
At this point, many were just too afraid to be caught standing in a large group!
The government had already declared that those missing were abducted by Syra and her aliens. Large gatherings were now considered people who were conspiring against the new administration or waiting for transports to one of the refugee camps everyone was talking about.
One of the biggest problems Hannah now had was some government agents were managing to infiltrate her groups. They would then send back as much information on locations and anything else they could manage to find out.
It was time to get to the bottom of this, and Hannah and her crew got together to figure out what their next move would be.
“My dear crew, thank you all for all your hard work!” Hannah said.
Everyone answered almost at once saying “You’re welcome!”
Charles spoke up quickly and said, “If anyone has any suggestions on how to better organize our operation, please let us know.”
One of the tech bots suggested they broaden the camps they already had and not set up any new ones! It was clear that getting people to safety was getting harder to do.
It was a success when they expanded the Caldiron Ranch’s size, and everyone agreed that may be all they really could do.
Getting Ellead’s help now meant moving people from the six other camps to the ranch as the ranch’s area expanded and that quickly became the new plan.
Ellead would no longer be needed to transport people to new camps as this was getting more dangerous and a message was sent back to Earth II of their possible new plans.
Hannah and Charles had worked so hard the past year that time had gone by quickly for each of them.
Charles looked at Hannah and said, “Do you realize I don’t even know if you have a middle name!”
“Well I don’t know much about you either; I haven’t had the time, neither of us has!” Hannah replied.
Both laughed and quickly got back to work on making plans of expanding the ranch even further out towards the east to accommodate the growing number of refugees.
And then the day came and everyone on the Caldiron Ranch was waiting for the Ark Royal to arrive. She would have things they need, and times were a lot worse now than when she launched only a few months ago.
Captain Zee reported to Hannah’s command center that he had now arrived and had brought some things with him he thought she might need.
Hannah met with the captain at his landing site and when he showed her the list, she immediately told everyone plans were changing once again!
“What?” Charles asked.
“Yes, you heard it right!” Hannah replied.
Hannah called a meeting with everyone there and she showed them the list of items the Ark Royal now carried at Hannah’s request and then some.
We can win this battle. What we can do now is offer people a second chance someday to rebuild when society finally does collapse. And from the looks of things, I am now convinced it will.
She explained to everyone that they now had the resources to confiscate at least three national parks and place a dome of protection over them, therefore, saving all trees, dirt, wildlife and the precious rivers and creeks that ran through them.
These would become the property of the people to reclaim as refugee land when the time came. Hannah firmly believed that life, as they knew it on Earth, would soon come to an end.
At most, she told everyone, we may have as little as 10 years or fewer before we run out of time, that is, if we continue on our current course.
“Are you sure we’re not over-reacting, Hannah?” Charles asked.
“Well if we don’t do this now, think about the lives lost, because we didn’t do it when we had the chance!” Hannah said
, with a great deal of concern.
The captain had tons of supplies unloaded with Ellead and Ohtrons help plus dozens of worker bots.
It took Ellead and Ohtron only a few days to start securing the national parks chosen by Hannah, and no one noticed until they had no entrance to the land!
They first started securing the Yellowstone National Park, then Yosemite and then the Sequoia National Park.
Other parks on the list that were being considered were Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Mount Rainier, Redwood, Shenandoah, Big Bend, North Cascades, and the Great Basin National Park. But they just simply did not have the resources to protect them.
All entrance and exits to the first three national parks were quickly sealed off so no one could come or go. Once the perimeter around these large parcels of land was cordoned off, they could then turn on the new shields to protect them.
This project alone would take several months and even then, they needed to continue to move people to the Caldiron Ranch. The travel pods worked day in and day out while Ellead carried the equipment in his cargo bay and Ohtron and his bitrons dropped the equipment into place to secure the national parks.
Hannah knew that if they got caught before they completed this task it certainly would make it more difficult for them to move the massive number of people seeking safety. The shroud was the most important thing they had to pull this mission off with any kind of success.
Once the situation got worse, those national parks would be all humanity had in order to save itself from extinction. But Hannah knew she needed to preserve this land for the future because all other land was slowly becoming useless for farming or anything else.
The people of the United States were becoming restless, and there was no sign of hope of anything getting any better. After they had lost many lives from the E coli last year, more reports were coming in that the civil unrest was now widespread and completely out of control!
Companies no longer offered health care of any kind. There were no more paid vacation leaves for any reason. With no benefits of any kind, nor rewards for hard work, people started to lose the incentive to do a better job.
No one bothered to sue these companies for any violations because the cases were being thrown out of court faster than they could be filed. The courts were tied up and bogged down in cases that already would never get a chance to be heard by a judge.
Across the U.S. ghost towns became the norm. With no more funding, the city halls, post offices, and government-funded clinics had no choice but close.
Still, President Anderson kept many of his followers. Some would have rather starve than to go against his wishes. All of their faith had gone into one man and his radical ideas. They continued to say, give him a chance, he’ll make it better.
Only the very rich enjoyed the luxuries once afforded by the middle class, and it was no surprise more and more people joined the rebellion against the new administration.
What no one saw until it was too late, was that Mexico and Canada had both been setting up border patrols to keep the Americans out.
Mexico was already too poor of a country to have to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees they could clearly see headed their way.
That’s when the president of Mexico had started to protect his country against the invasion. But his border patrol started shooting American refugees on sight and left the bodies as warnings! American’s were tearing down the border walls to get to Mexico.
Canada started to secure its borders to protect themselves from being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people rushing in. Many that rushed through the barriers were sent to work camps and conditions were no better there.
Thousands had made it to Florida and boats were being stolen daily for hundreds of failed attempts to reach an island in the Atlantic or Mexico. Broken-up boats began showing up along all the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and all down the east coast of Florida.
The news was reporting that fires all across the United States could be seen by Satellite and that sight had Hannah and Charles truly concerned that her prediction of 10 years may be off, and they needed to step up and get more done to save lives.
Ellead and Ohtron worked faster to secure the national parks on Hannah’s list and then began setting up an emergency camp area which may be needed sooner than they had first anticipated.
When Ellead had done his part on carrying the equipment and dropping it off at safety points, he flew away to assist Hannah for whatever she needed.
Meanwhile, Ohtron worked around the clock having his bitrons activating the markers and slowly the security nets became active to protect the precious land.
Each emergency camp in those national parks would have a restore pod for those sick or injured, a food and medical replicator, shelter supplies and a map was drawn showing where they were for future rescue missions should they be needed.
This project was at least a year away from completion but that discouraged no one, and they continued to work every day. Having those service bots made all the difference for Hannah’s plan, and she knew they would not be able to complete it without them.
The current administration bought the first election and now it seemed they would do the same again. With all that was going on they would say to their voters, let them that oppose us leave. Run them out. We are overpopulated anyway. Get rid of those that oppose us and we will have more to eat ourselves!
This sort of message spread like the wildfires that they had had only a few years ago!
The E coli scare not only reduced the food supply, but it also caused many to not trust what they were eating, even if it was not possible that it was contaminated.
Then the president started having the Internet turned off to anyone who showed signs they were against him. Their electronics were confiscated, and their homes searched.
He began using the false information his news sources were supplying the American people to do this and do it legally! Of course, at this point, his administration did whatever they wanted illegal or not and no one dared oppose them.
What the president did not realize was most of those suffering could get their information from Hannah through various sources.
Hannah’s podcasts quickly became the only real news anyone had! Many could not figure out where she got her information, but her source was from an alien world called Earth II.
She had at her fingertips enough information to bring the current president to his knees and it was only a matter of time before she could execute her plan to bring him down!
But first things first.
By mid-summer, the other six camps were quickly filling up, and they too needed expanding. But it just could not be done! It had to be land not directly adjacent to a city. There needed to be some space between them in order to set up the perimeter.
At one of the meetings Hannah had, Captain Zee suggested that since two of the national parks were already covered in the shields and could not be penetrated, they could start moving those smaller camps to their new destination.
The captain felt that that would be a better plan than filling up the ranch with those that would not be taking his ship back to Earth II anyway and Hannah had to agree.
It made sense, and Hannah needed no time at all to think about it. With all the new service bots moving the first refugee camp should be quick.
All bots were called in to assist in moving camp one and two over to Yellowstone National Park. With its 3,500 square miles wilderness, the recreation area would provide plenty of room to put all six camps there if needed.
Most of the park was in Wyoming, but the park also spread into parts of Montana and Idaho as well. If it worked out, Hannah knew she may only need this park for relocation, and simply cordon off the others to preserve the land and wildlife. She knew it was possible that these parks may be what will save humanity.
It would be a good place to protect a lot of lives with the canyons, alpine rivers, lush forests, hot springs, and geysers. Plus, t
he Zhian shield around the land would protect everything on the inside of it.
It was decided that since it was home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, bison, elk and antelope, the new settlement and its inhabitants would survive much like the original settlers did with the first colonies over on the east coast.
Hannah and Charles agreed that moving everyone to that land would take a while and time were against them and they knew they needed to work as fast as they could.
Day after day, Ohtron worked on securing the one national park at a time but he would not have enough systems to secure any more than the first three Hannah had agreed on.
Yellowstone was now complete, and it had hit the news that the land was stolen by the aliens to create a home base! This caused more outbreaks in the streets, but Hannah did expect it. Work continued despite the uproar from the government and Anderson's sympathizers.
Those that opposed the aliens no longer cared about the Caldiron Ranch, and its small 5,000 acres. But that the national parks were stolen to become an alien home base caused a new wave of anger among the new administration.
This was disappointing, to say the least to Hannah, but her problems were mounting quicker than she was ready for. And the pressure to step up her operations had just gotten bigger.
Ohtron had already flown thousands of miles to drop equipment to protect Yellowstone when Hannah called him home to the ranch.
It was decided that they could only save Yellowstone which was already secure, then complete the Yosemite National Park to the west of the ranch and the Sequoia National Park south of the ranch because the land was also a neighbor. There would be no other land saved, and not enough equipment even if they had the time to do so.
That was when Hannah realized that she could save a few but could not save the many. All plans to save the other parks were scrapped, but she knew that the three they were securing meant saving a lot of land.
She could not save the thousands dying in the streets because of hunger, poor living conditions and the civil war now fought from state to state and out of control.
Martial law had no effect on anything anymore, and many stores sat empty. They had all been raided of anything that was useful. Pharmacies soon followed and were empty.
The Chronicles of Syra Omnibus Page 30