by Paul Teague
Around her the screens showed a constant flow of data – she was in direct communication with her troopers, wired into their consciousness, creating a hub that thought and acted as one.
Although she was a captive here, this prison had once offered her food, water, recreation and comfort. Now it had become a living hell. The abomination that had been inflicted upon her looked like a botched job lashed up by a crazed professor. She could not move – she was completely paralysed by this inhuman and torturous process which was using her body as a host and which would eventually leave her lifeless. Somebody had done this to her, someone who was deeply evil and had no compassion or respect for life. From this lonely place the Queen had been chosen to preside over the slow death of the Earth.
* * *
Contempt
* * *
The Pierce brothers looked at each across the control console, one with contempt and hatred in his eyes, the other with fear and loathing.
‘Henry ...’ Harold began, but he couldn’t find the words to continue.
The minute he’d seen his brother, he’d realized exactly what was happening. Banished from the Genesis 2 project all those years ago, Henry Pierce had had access to the data from the simulations, all the early planning and implementation of the project, and the Covenant. Which was why Zadra Nurmeen was at his side once again – it all made sense in an instant.
The delay with the lighting in Quadrant 1, the sabotaged neuronic devices, the hijacked shards … everything that had gone wrong with this project so far had been down to his brother. And Zadra Nurmeen. Harold had believed that Zadra had been banished from Off World Federation business, but it was obvious that this evil pair had managed to stay in contact, working together all that time. But for what?
Harold Pierce looked at his brother. He had to be stopped. Henry Pierce was pure, hyper-intelligent evil and although he’d learned to conceal it since his clumsy days as a young, spiteful child, he could never survive in the inner circle of the Genesis 2 project. Eventually the evil would break out and conquer his intellect, his rationality and his sense of right and wrong.
So it was with sadness and trepidation that Harold Pierce talked to his brother. As he began to speak, he understood that he would be forced to kill him – or he would be killed himself and the entire world put to death without mercy.
* * *
The Plan
* * *
Every detail had been considered in the Global Consortium’s planning. It was important that the Quadrants could exist in open sight in these days of internet communication and satellite surveillance. They didn’t want another Area 51 on their hands.
It had proven so easy to select the old military bunker facilities across the globe, then install the technology that would ultimately be used to deliver Genesis 2. While everybody had their eyes on the military big dogs like Cheyenne Mountain, work had been going on for many years on the four key installations that would support this global strategy. But it was what lay beneath the bunkers that would have created the biggest spark among the conspiracy theorists. Below each main bunker structure, work had begun many years ago to create vast underground containment areas for something that was not of this Earth.
Unknown to anybody else, other than the members of the Global Consortium, this work had involved off-world input, invoked as part of the Covenant which governed our planetary sector. Underneath each bunker, vast metal arks had been built. When the Consortium triggered Unification, these underground craft would be deployed to a task it had always been hoped would never be needed. Beneath each bunker was one part of a huge space ship, a Quadrant, which was capable of leaving Earth and docking together with the other three Quadrants to form one gigantic structure in space, thousands of miles above the planet. This structure was known as the Nexus.
As soon as Unification was initiated, the Quadrants would power up and emerge from their hiding places below ground, gliding out from the hillsides into which they’d been built and leaving the upper levels of the bunkers intact. The circular structure would be docked around the central hub, from which the Global Consortium would run this new world, as the perils that had struck the planet played out on the Earth below.
Each Quadrant had a specific purpose: for food, power, technology, and the creation of life itself. But Unification meant one thing, and it was only in the direst circumstances that it would be sanctioned by the Consortium. This was an evacuation of Earth.
* * *
Re-grouped
* * *
The shaking and vibration was prolonged and frightening. I was desperate for it to finish, but it continued for several minutes. It felt as if the whole place was about to collapse in on us. Cups and E-Pads were falling off the desks, and Mum told us to get underneath the large, solid conference table in the middle of the room in case the roof started to sustain some damage. Everybody in the briefing room was shaken by this, the room hushed. We were all fearful for our lives. Except Viktor, who remained cool and impassive. He appeared to have done this before.
Eventually the rumbling stopped and the stillness afterwards was wonderful. We all stayed quiet for a moment before emerging from under the table, as we gained confidence that it was over. We exited the briefing room and entered the control room where Magnus’s team were shaken, but returning to their screens in the way they’d been trained to do.
A few minutes later we got a rundown on the latest data. What appeared to have happened was that Levels 3 and 4 had separated off and become airborne. A tech op posted a digital replay on the screen – we couldn’t see the real thing because of the darkness outside the bunker, but we could see it digitized in front of us. The Quadrants all pieced together to create one vast structure, each part with its own function.
All the areas I’d seen so far – the embryos, the troops, the transporters, the weaponry, the drones – all those lower bunker levels in the different Quadrants had joined together to make one ship. That explained why the lower levels were so different. They were a separate structure entirely – they had a different purpose from the upper levels. It also made sense that they had their own operations centres, much better equipped than the upper-level control room we were in now.
So, what the heck was going on? We had a lot to take on board. Magnus took the initiative.
‘We need to regroup, everybody – and fast!’
He issued a few commands to his staff – mainly to get more data about what had happened and what those four Quadrants were doing. He ushered us back into the briefing room and started to speak.
‘Xiang, you need to gather a team and prioritize Dan and Nat’s situation. Find out what accelerates and slows down the viral process, and look for a way to stop it.’
Xiang was already there. She’d been working at her E-Pad throughout the entire drama.
‘Mike, you need to continue with the files analysis, focus on Dan and Nat, and see if you can find anything about what just happened with the lower levels.’
Dad was on the case. Everybody wanted to do something now – we were all fired up.
‘I need to see Harriet and David,’ interrupted Mum, ‘but when I’m back, I want you to assign me a key task, Magnus. Don’t keep me away from any of the good jobs.’
Mum’s way of dealing with this was going to be to keep fighting. She wasn’t going to lie down and watch things happen around her. Magnus told her to grab an assistant to guide her to the rec room where David and Harriet were being looked after. She rushed off. I’m embarrassed to say I’d forgotten my little brother and sister – they must have been terrified by what had happened. I was seeing a new side of Mum right now. She was pretty kick-ass, but she was still Mum – always concerned about the family, always making sure we were okay.
Magnus continued his regrouping exercise. This was his Quadrant and nobody challenged his authority.
‘Viktor, you and I need to talk. I want to know more about these nukes of yours.’
Then he turned to
me.
‘Dan and Nat ...’ he began. But Nat had gone.
* * *
Exit
* * *
Kate recognized Simon in an instant. Without the neuronic device in her neck, with a clear and fully conscious mind, she knew him the minute she saw him, in spite of his furtiveness.
‘Simon! Why are you here?’
She knew that if Simon was in this place, at this time, with all that was going on, it must be linked to what had happened to the two of them in the past. She thought back to what they’d seen in that room before they were stunned by the lasers, whoever – or whatever – had been speaking to them during the botched military exercise. She knew immediately that it had to be connected.
Simon’s hand moved to his weapon and he pointed it directly at her.
‘Whoa!’
She held up her hands – as if that would have defended her.
‘Steady, Simon. It’s me Kate,’ she continued, taken aback by his greeting. Simon ordered her to turn around and kneel down. Kate started to protest, but decided to do as she was told. She knew this man and supposed that he had a good reason for this. She didn’t know what she’d done while under the control of Doctor Pierce, but she was beginning to get some rather worrying flashbacks. Holding the weapon to her head, he came in close and checked her neck.
‘It worked,’ he said after satisfying himself that Kate’s neck implant was no longer active. ‘Hell, Kate, you’ve caused some serious trouble here today. Are you aware of what’s been going on?’
‘No, I’ve no idea, Simon, but there’s no time to talk. We need to get out of here. The troopers haven’t yet figured out that I’m okay, but I reckon we only have a few minutes lead on them.’
The now repaired elevator arrived at its destination and Kate grabbed Simon’s weapon and marched him out into the corridor. Level 3 was busy with trooper activity and she needed to make it look as if he was a captive. She took a deep breath as they started walking along the third level. She was still unchallenged, they weren’t on to her just yet. They needed to use the transporter. She whispered to Simon.
‘Where’s safe?’
‘Quadrant 3. That is, if you haven’t taken it yet.’
‘Not yet. We aborted when the disruption above ground began, luckily for you, Simon.’
‘Lucky for both us!’
There was another violent tremor throughout the bunker, deep, sustained and penetrating.
‘We need to leave!’ he shouted. ‘They’ve begun Unification.’
There was no time to talk. The troopers had automatically moved into a high alert status as soon as the rumbling had begun.
Kate and Simon strode confidently towards the transporter. But as she placed her hand on the console, its sym node providing the electronic signature needed to activate it, the troopers turned in unison to face her, weapons at the ready. They’d received a message from the Queen. They knew what Kate was doing.
They started to fire. Kate and Simon ducked behind the console.
‘They’ve deactivated the sym node, Simon. We’re trapped!’
Chapter Three
The Covenant
* * *
The governments of the world had known of extra-terrestrial life for many years. Who could imagine we’d be allowed to leave our planet and send probes out into space without some form of intervention? As a species, we’re so egocentric. Even though we know otherwise, we still see the universe in relation to ourselves, rather than the reality that the Earth is only a tiny speck in a much greater landscape.
When we began to prod the sleeping giant, it had to take action. An individual species would not be permitted to leave its own planet unchallenged, because of the repercussions that could happen elsewhere. So we were visited. Not in the form of flying saucers or little green men, as the conspiracy theorists might like us to believe. It was done discreetly. The systems of government had been studied from afar – it was quite clear how this would need to progress.
And so it was that the Global Consortium was formed and Earth’s leaders signed the Covenant, a binding agreement among intelligent species from twelve planets, outlining the rules of engagement, mutual support and information-sharing that would take place.
Referred to on Earth as the Off World Federation – or sometimes O-Fed for short – by the very few leaders who even knew of its existence, a yearly meeting would take place to discuss, revise and re-commit to the Covenant and to debate any outstanding issues. The meetings were held every 203 days – Federation time wasn’t measured in Earth years – and the biggest topics of discussion for the past fifty-five years had been Earth’s impending environmental doom and the mineral crisis that was going to destroy Helyios 4 only twenty years afterwards.
* * *
Gone
* * *
I needed to have words with Nat. She’d be no use to anybody if she kept disappearing like that. She was pretty angry about Doctor Pierce earlier and I hoped she hadn’t gone rushing off to seek revenge on her own. I felt the same myself. With the minutes to my death counting down on my comms tab, I was just as keen as she was to solve this problem before our time was up. Two hours forty-six minutes to be precise.
Nat hadn’t gone too far – I could still feel our connection, and she wouldn’t be able to leave now without triggering the transporter alerts. Magnus had acted to secure the Quadrant against attack. We’d heard that Quadrants 2 and 4 – Viktor and Xiang’s bunkers – had fallen to the troopers. Their teams managed to get word to us before they were rounded up and moved to the upper levels of their bunkers. They would probably be used as hostages, human pawns to be used to force our hand. They might not even have survived.
I shuddered at the thought of what might be going on in the other Quadrants. Before these events I’d never have said I was courageous, but right then, in the heat of the situation, I was feeling much bolder. I’d have a go at anything to fix this mess, but I was at a bit of a loss. What could I do? The adults were all away discussing things and hatching plans while I was left here waiting to self-terminate, or whatever it was Xiang said would happen. I was with Nat on this. I wasn’t going to sit here waiting for the nanovirus to kill me.
The Custodians and adults could discuss their plans. I wasn’t going to twiddle my thumbs while it all played out around me. I wished Nat had trusted me to come with her – I wanted in on this. I could feel that she was still in this bunker, and I was going to find her.
I was about to slip out of the control room when the alert sirens sounded. Somebody – or something – had breached the transporters.
* * *
Rescue
* * *
While everybody had been regrouping, Nat was the only one to notice Simon trying to get attention via the comms tab. He was in some serious trouble – she could hear weapon fire as he tried to speak to her and tell her what was going on. She was certain he was with somebody, but she couldn’t tell who it was.
The sym nodes had been deactivated and so he would need one of the twins to operate the transporter. That meant Dan or herself. Dan was at the other side of the room and she couldn’t attract his attention without making a big deal of it, so she would have to do it. She slipped out of the control room, along the corridor and to the elevator.
Nat hadn’t a clue what would happen now the upper and lower levels of the bunker had been separated. She assumed that Levels 3 and 4 would just be some vast, empty hangar area.
There was no time to experiment – she needed to use her genetic advantage to save Simon. Although the sym nodes had been disabled, she was certain that everything would still work for her and Dan, and she was right. Nat was able to activate the upper buttons in the elevator. As she stared at the strange symbols placed above the level numbering, she hoped she’d got the right combination to take her to where she needed to be. This was going to be a delicate operation.
Simon was still live on her comms tab. It was looking desperate for him and his
companion.
‘Coming now!’ she cried.
The elevator began its metamorphosis and in a matter of seconds Nat appeared on a transporter platform just behind Simon in Quadrant 1. All around them weapons were being fired, and there was an explosion just to her right as she materialized in the room. She could feel that this Quadrant was moving – it felt like being in a huge aeroplane. The transporters were still working even though the upper and lower Quadrants had become separated.
‘Simon, run!’ she yelled.
Simon and his companion kept their heads down and ran as fast as they could. Simon fired randomly behind him to discourage the troopers from taking an open shot at him. As he and Kate made it to the transporter, Nat activated the console and they began to dematerialize. But in the panic and weaponry fire, Nat pressed the fifth button by mistake, the one that had appeared across the entire transporter network at the moment Unification was initiated.
They’d escaped the immediate danger of the troopers, but they hadn’t made it back to the bunker. As they exited the transporter, they stepped out into a curved corridor. Nat didn’t look back to see who Simon’s companion was, she was immediately distracted by this new place. It was lined with windows. She looked outside to get a sense of where she was. They weren’t in a bunker, they were in space.
Chapter Four
14 April 1990
* * *