Surge Protection (The Sheffield Chronicles Book 1)

by Nate Castle

  “Are you kidding? I was born ready,” General Kaplan said.

  They hurried out a back door and found Logan and Shelby waiting near the bushes where the superchips were hidden.

  “What are you guys doing, you need to take cover,” Logan said.

  “Change of plans, we are with you guys on this one. You take the lead Logan,” President Taylor said.

  “Right on!” Logan said.

  They couldn’t risk being spotted by aliens or else the aliens might change course and come towards them rather than entering the White House as planned. The one advantage they had was that the aliens had not mastered the art of stealth. Every step that they took could be heard from a great distance.

  “It sounds like they have entered the White House. There were no screams from the volunteer team, so that must be a good sign,” Shelby said.

  “Gametime,” Logan said as he reached into the bush and pulled out a bag containing the superchips.

  With Logan in the lead, they rounded the corner of the building and saw the volunteer team still standing there, this time they didn’t have their hands up in the air though. They raced over to the volunteer team and Logan began passing out superchips to each person.

  “See if you can get the chip inside the craft. If not maybe put it underneath the craft or find a spot where you can attach it,” Logan said to the group.

  Out of the twenty volunteers a few were shy and slow to approach the alien crafts, but the majority hurled themselves forward as if they were shot out of a cannon.

  21 A NEW NORMAL

  ..................

  “Time to go, the aliens have entered the White House,” Garrett said to Noel.

  They had been sitting in the chopper for the past twenty minutes, waiting for the right time to take off. Garrett kicked on the engine and flicked a few switches into their upright position, lifting the chopper off the ground just like Carter had instructed him how to do. Noel was strapped into what looked like a rock climbing harness. Garrett thought he was good to go, but forgot about one button.

  The chopper slammed into the ground, luckily only falling from about ten feet.

  “You sure you know how to fly this thing? Jesus,” Noel said.

  “Oh yeah, the second time’s a charm,” Garrett said.

  He went through the motions again, this time making sure to flick the switch that he had forgotten on the previous attempt. They made it higher than ten feet this time, now idling above the roof of the White House. Garrett flipped the chopper around so that the nose was now facing the alien crafts. He slowly pulled forward. Noel was crouched around the Durango X3, waiting for Garrett’s cue to fire.

  “You got this Noel! Go when you’re ready,” Garrett said.

  Noel pointed the DurangoX3 at the nearest alien craft, set the distance button, and pulled the trigger. Her shot was right on target. They almost expected the metal arrow at the end of the cable to bounce off the craft, but shockingly it pierced the surface ending up on the inside wall of the craft.

  “Yee haw!” Garrett said to Noel. “Now give it some slack and then when I start gaining momentum forward, press the button to lock in the tension.”

  ~~~

  Logan and the others on the ground saw the chopper approaching and made sure to stand clear when it looked like Noel was about to shoot the cable. They wanted to cheer when Noel connected on her first shoot and the cable became attached to the alien craft, but there was no time for that now.

  “Has anyone had any luck getting a door to pop open?” Logan said.

  They had been anxiously running around the alien crafts trying to find ways to plant the chips inside.

  “No, the door must only open when an alien approaches it. The system is smart enough to know if another species is trying to get in,” President Taylor said.

  “I feel like planting the chips outside or underneath the crafts might not destroy the crafts. I bet the material that the outer walls are made of blocks the signal from the chips. So basically we will be able to keep the aliens out of the crafts, but once they figure out how to disable these chips, we’ll be back to square one,” Logan said.

  “You’re probably right, but until we figure out a better plan we should cover the crafts in super chips as a temporary solution,”General Kaplan said.

  “Agreed!” Shelby said. She seemed anxious to get away from the alien crafts.

  The sound of a door opening made the group turn around and look back at the White House. Sumesh was running towards them, with a panicked look on his face.

  “Guys I was in the mechanical room trying to contaminate the underground oil pipeline. A group of six aliens came in, they spotted me and I froze. As they approached, one of them stuck out its hand and wrapped it around my waist. The others went to the oil control panel and started fiddling around with it. The alien had me in a tight grip, I could move my arms, but not the rest of my body. I figured I would most likely die if I didn’t try to escape, so I reached behind me and pulled every lever and flicked every switch that I could in the three second time span that I had available. It must have been an emergency control panel because alarms started ringing, fire sprinklers started gushing water and the oil control panel started counting down from 10, as if it would power off after 10 seconds. The alien that was holding me must have realized the problem and turned its attention to the oil control panel. It was distracted just long enough so that I could wriggle free and make it to the exit. Also, I hit a large red button on my way out of the room that made a steel fence swing down from the ceiling. So, at least for the moment, the aliens are trapped in that room, until they can figure out how to breach the ‘jail cell’ door,” Sumesh said.

  Sumesh had sweat dripping down his face. He looked exhausted and was now bent over in the ‘hands on the knees for more support’ stance.

  “What’s that on your shirt?” Shelby said.

  There was a purple substance on the left side of his cream colored polo shirt, just above his waist.

  “That’s where the alien grabbed me,” Sumesh said.

  “Sumesh, come here we gotta try something,” Logan said and escorted Sumesh to the nearest alien craft.

  Logan put both hands on Sumesh’s shoulders and gave him a friendly shove that guided him towards where he guessed the entrance would be located. The others were intently watching, a bit unsure of what Logan had in mind for Sumesh. Nothing happened when Sumesh stood in front of the ‘entrance’ to the alien craft. Logan redirected Sumesh to the left, making a b-line towards the next of the six alien crafts. When Sumesh was standing in front of its ‘entrance’, the surprise factor caught him and Logan off guard and they jumped for cover, landing hard on the grass.

  The door of this alien craft shot out towards them at a ridiculous speed. Now in its fully extended position, it looked less like a door and more like chute. Had the chute been a few feet lower, it would have caused some serious harm to Logan and Sumesh. However, it had protruded out from a point on the craft that was ten feet high, so the chute went over their heads.

  “Get on my shoulders,” Logan said.

  Logan bent down so he could give Sumesh a boost. President Taylor and General Kaplan saw what was happening and ran up to Logan and Sumesh. President Taylor interlocked his hands; Logan and General Kaplan knew his intent. They followed suit and interlocked their hands with his, creating a platform that Sumesh could stand on and be raised up high enough to reach the chute of the alien craft.

  “See if you can put these inside, but be careful, we don’t want you to get pulled inside,” Logan said.

  He pulled three super chips from his right back pocket and handed them to Sumesh. Sumesh boosted himself onto the platform the guys had created with their hands. He was now at eye level with the chute. With the chips in hand, he reached towards the round hole at the end of the chute. The hole appeared to have a liquid layer on the outside and was light blue and white in color. The colors were spiraling around the hole.

&nbs
p; “Nothing is happening when I try to put the chips inside,” Sumesh called down to the guys below.

  “Shit,” General Kaplan said.

  “Try putting your hand closer to the hole,” President Taylor said.

  “No don’t do that, then you might be pulled inside,” Logan said.

  “What do you suggest then Logan?” General Kaplan said.

  “Take some of that purple stuff from your shirt, rub it on the chips and try again,” Logan said.

  With his left hand, Sumesh reached down and dabbed the purple substance on his finger, then wiped it on the super chips he was holding in his right hand. Like magic, the hole accepted the chips. The force from the hole produced a strong wind-like force though, and Sumesh had to jump backwards to avoid being sucked into the hole. He landed on the ground hard on his back, behind where the guys had been boosting him up. It took Sumesh a moment before he could speak, the wind had been knocked out of him.

  “I think the chips got sucked inside,” Sumesh said.

  Logan, President Taylor and General Kaplan grabbed Sumesh and assisted him to his feet. The others in the volunteer group had been standing back twenty feet watching all of this go down, they were like sheep. Following Sumesh’s jump backwards, the chute to the alien craft receded back to its original position, as if Sumesh’s distance from the craft forced the chute to close.

  “What’s your analysis Logan?” General Kaplan said.

  “The substance on Sumesh’s shirt, since it is from an alien, tricks the craft into thinking that an alien is entering and so the chute opens,” Logan said. “What bothers me though, is why the first craft that we tried didn’t open.”

  “We have to work quick, I’m sure the aliens trapped in the mechanical room have found a way to breach the door by now, plus their are ten other aliens roaming around the the building doing god knows what,” President Taylor said.

  “If we put the chips in four more crafts, and Garrett’s helicopter towing mission is a success, then all of the crafts should be disabled,” Logan said.

  “Everyone get over here now! Don’t just stand there,” General Kaplan said to the rest of the group, who up until this point hadn’t provided any help to benefit the mission besides standing on the lawn with their hands up, luring the aliens into the White House. General Kaplan led the group to the next craft.

  “Sumesh take your shirt off and give it to me,” Logan said. “You’ve done excellent work, I don’t want to put you at risk any more than needed.”

  Sumesh followed orders, you could tell he was relieved that he wouldn’t have to be the guy anymore climbing up to the chute of the crafts and planting the super chips inside the entrance holes. Logan had Sumesh’s shirt in hand and a group of the volunteers had already adjoined hands to provide to a platform to boost him up. The chute on the next craft had already opened.

  “Wait, rub that shirt against mine before you go up there, that way we can disable two crafts at a time,” Shelby said.

  Logan wiped some of the purple substance on Shelby’s shirt and nodded at her in approval.Shelby made her way to the left towards the craft adjacent to the one Logan was working on. A group of five followed her, including General Kaplan and President Taylor. A loud crashing sound was heard by the group and they briefly paused to look behind them. The sound must have come from inside the White House.

  “Stay focused, we can’t worry about what’s going on in there,” President Taylor said to the group.

  “What about the people in the tunnel though?” Shelby said.

  “They should be fine. We distributed some chips to them so the aliens probably won’t be able to go near the tunnel. We’re running out of time, we have to get this done,” President Taylor said.

  “Someone should keep an eye on that craft, there’s something funny going on with it,” Logan said.

  He pointed to the first craft he and Sumesh had come up on, the one that the chute didn’t deploy from.

  22 ACE IN THE HOLE

  ..................

  “Woo hoo!” Garrett said to Noel.

  They were towing the alien craft across the White House grounds towards the active cell phone barrier on the north side.The chopper was swaying from side to side because it was towing such a heavy load, but once Garrett got the rhythm of the swaying down, he looked like a natural pilot flying the chopper. Noel had her head cocked to the right so she could keep on an eye on the craft behind her that they were towing. They were at the halfway point only a few hundred more yards to go before they would cross the cell phone barrier.All of a sudden the chopper began making a put-put, sound as if struggling to get fuel into the line. The put-put sound only fooled them for a second once they realized what was actually happening.

  “Motherfuckers!” Garrett said. “The alien craft has started its engines and is trying to tow us backwards. Every time I hit the throttle it makes the put-put sound; this thing doesn’t have enough horsepower to play tug of war.

  “Right now the alien craft is trying to pull us from ground level, but what if it takes off? Then we’re really in an undesirable situation,” Noel said.

  A loud purring sound came from the craft down below. Another motor kicked on. The logical explanation might be that the craft had to warm up before it could be used with all of the motors at full power. This was really bad news for Garrett and Noel. The force pulling them drastically increased and the chopper which was holding its ground before, was put in motion backwards

  “Release the slack, quick!” Garrett said.

  Noel found the tensioning button on the DurangoX3 and pressed it to loosen the cable. This move bought them a few seconds of time. In order for the alien craft to begin towing them again, it would have to gain more distance between the chopper, to make the cable taut again. Garrett used this to his advantage. He turned the chopper hard to the left until it made a 180 degree turn. It was now facing the alien crafts.

  “If we’re going to be towed, we’ll have more control at least if the chopper is pointing forward,” Garrett said matter of factly.

  ~~~

  On the ground below, the group of volunteers, Shelby, Logan, President Taylor, and General Kaplan had successfully installed super chips in three of the six alien crafts. Shelby had the chute open on another craft. Logan’s crew was about to start on the final craft when they heard the rumbling sound coming from the craft Garrett was towing. They directed their attention to the air fiasco behind them.

  “There has to be an alien inside it manning the craft right?” President Taylor said.

  “Maybe, or else they are controlling the whole thing from inside the White House, using their minds. We still have no idea what these creatures are capable of,” General Kaplan said.

  “We have to get out of the way, before that thing runs us over,” President Taylor said to the group.

  The alien craft attached to the chopper was now gaining momentum on the ground towards them.

  “I highly doubt the craft will ram into the other crafts, so we’re probably safe if we wait behind these crafts,” Logan said.

  They witnessed Garrett turn the chopper around; it was pointing forward and the cable adjoining it to the craft was losing its slack as the alien craft kept moving.

  “Why doesn’t Garrett just cut the cable? This doesn’t seem like a battle he’s going to win?” Shelby said.

  “Too much pride,” Logan said, “He doesn’t want to give up and accept defeat.”

  “But he’s going to get himself killed! Once that craft gains enough momentum, the chopper will crash,” Shelby said.

  “He still believes he can maneuver his way out of this pickle,” Logan said.

  The group was standing behind the alien crafts, now closer to the sinkhole than to the White House.

  “If the craft can’t lift off from the ground, maybe Garrett and Noel will be fine,” General Kaplan said. “It will run out of room if driving on the ground, as there are only a few hundred yards in each direction before
it reaches the sinkhole.”

  “What do you propose?” President Taylor said.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong. Sierra made a second batch of super chips. She changed the proportions up on that batch, so they contain a higher percentage of one substance and a lower percentage of the other. She did that so in case the first batch of chips proved to be ineffective, the second batch could potentially be a stronger dose, right?” General Kaplan said.

  “Yes that was her intention. I haven’t confirmed with her if she was able to get the proportions she wanted,” President Taylor said.

  “Well obviously the chips we have right here aren’t harming the exterior of these crafts. If the second chips are more powerful, maybe their signal will penetrate through the exterior of the crafts. We could create a super chip barrier in the air by placing chips in trees around the perimeter. If successful, the craft wouldn’t be able to take off,” General Kaplan said.

  “Well we don’t know for sure if the chips we have are ineffective against the crafts. If there is an alien inside, the signal might penetrate through the exterior walls and kill the alien. The crafts we have tried the chips on are vacant as far as we know,” Logan said.

  “Whatever we decide to do, we have to do it fast. Garrett is running out of time in that chopper,” President Taylor said.

  The scene they had been watching didn’t make all that much sense. The alien craft that was attempting to tow the chopper was traveling at a tractor-like speed on the ground. One would think that with all of the incredible technology to build an alien craft that could travel from their home planet to Earth, they would have engineered it to be able to travel at reasonable speeds on the ground as well. These thoughts were passing through Logan’s head as he stepped back from the group so he could think hard about their next move. One more thing was bugging him, where was Hank? They hadn’t seen the guy in hours and he didn’t seem like the type to walk away from a battle and go hide in the tunnel with the rest of the White House occupants; he must be up to something.