by TJ Ryan
Further into the building’s sub-basement, along a maze of corridors and turns, the two of them found a door marked “Maintenance.”
“Is it really this simple?” Ravnak asked.
Mayne scoffed at him. “We’re trying to get a few hundred fusion warheads armed. Nothing about this is simple.”
This door had no lock. It didn’t need one. Anyone who had gotten into this area would already have given the proper code clearance. When the General opened it they found the nerve center that had allowed the control room to track and display all of the warhead weapons for them. This was allowed for control of those remote locations, all on a global scale.
Or at least, it used to allow for that. Before a chunk of the cement ceiling had fallen down and smashed through several important-looking cables.
The lights flickered in this room. Dust had settled over everything. Several consoles that stood as tall as Mayne’s chest and Ravnak’s nose stood dark.
“Is there even power going to these stations anymore?” Mayne asked in a panic. He rushed into the room, swiping dust off buttons and knobs, lights and switches, then moving around to the back of the consoles to see if there were access hatches to allow him to get in.
Behind him, still halfway through the door, the professor shook his head, blinking away tears that filled his eyes. “Oh, no. No, no, no.”
If this plan of the President’s didn’t work, then his plan of evacuation would not, either.
“Don’t just stand there!” Mayne roared at him. “Get in here and help me! You’re the big brain. Use that damned knowledge of yours and make them work!”
That spurred Ravnak into action, but once he was inside and was inspecting which particular conduits were damaged, he knew it was all for nothing. “There’s no way. The power cables, the transmission lines, everything that should make all of this work…it’s gone. Broken. I can’t…there’s no way…”
Mayne grabbed him by his funny little checkered lapels and shook him, hard. “Then you figure out a way! I need this to work! If we don’t make this happen then there is no hope for our planet!”
Ravnak’s teeth clacked together. His brain rattled inside his skull. Somewhere in all of that, an idea shook loose.
“Stop it!” he finally said, slapping Mayne’s hands away. “I have an idea. Oh…this is going to hurt.”
“What? What is it?”
Mayne demanded an answer, over and over, but all he got in return was a funny little smile from the frail little big-brained man.
“Go,” Ravnak told him. “Get back to the main control room and be ready to fire the missiles. All of them, right? All of them, all at once.”
“Well, certainly. That’s the only chance we have. But what are you—?”
“Don’t worry about me,” Ravnak assured him. “I’ve already made my peace. I’ve already decided that I won’t be on the escape boats. You either, and I’m sure that’s occurred to you. The two of us are two old relics of a forgotten age that make our last and final act one of service to humankind. It’s a pleasure to be working alongside you, General Mayne.”
The General took Ravnak’s hand when he offered it and the two of them shook.
“But…” Mayne didn’t know what to say.
Ravnak clapped him on the back. “No worries, General. Be there, and be ready. The missiles will fire.”
That was the last Mayne saw of the man. He rushed back to the control room, ready at the station, staring at that broken black line on the screen and wondering how in the name of God the professor planned on fixing the problem with no power at all.
* * *
“The human body,” Ravnak said to himself, “is basically a wet battery. When at rest we produce, um, about a hundred watts of power. Yes. That’s right. A hundred watts of power.”
He heard the tremor in his voice. There was nothing he could do to stop it, so he didn’t try.
“We are also brilliantly built conductors.” Working with the red conduit, he used the multifacet tool he always carried in his pocket to strip back the protective rubber coating with a knife blade. When the metal of the blade scraped the bare wire underneath, sparks flew.
Good. There was power.
“Power,” he repeated out loud. “Humans carry our own power, and we enhance other power sources.”
He swallowed, and swallowed again, trying to work up some moisture in his throat. “We are power.”
It took him a minute to find the other end of the red conduit. When he did, he went to work scraping it down to the wire just like the other side. His hands were shaking so badly that the knife slipped. The sharp edge cut his skin at the wrist and sliced a neat, red line.
Oh well, he thought to himself. Might as well start on the next step.
Painful as it was, he widened the cut in his wrist. Then he did the same on the other hand.
* * *
General Mayne practiced the sequence of buttons and switches that would activate the missiles until he could do it all in three seconds. At the end of each attempt a flashing red “Operation Failed” showed up on the computer screen.
He checked the black line on the map. Still broken.
“Come on, big brain,” he urged Ravnak. “Whatever you’re doing down there, do it fast!”
He checked the other part of the viewscreen that he had programmed upon returning to this room. It showed the countdown to the Zalite arrival. Twelve minutes.
Another screen showed him a real-time image from satellites in the atmosphere. Red orbs dominated the blackness of space.
This was going to be close.
* * *
“Batteries,” Ravnak said to himself, barely above a whisper. “Batteries work by using two opposite poles to create an energy flow.”
He was crying now, but he didn’t bother to try stopping the tears. He was about to die. The entire Earth was about to die, except for those lucky few souls who got into the escape ships on time. He hoped beyond hope that people had reached his ships by now. They would have to clear the Zalite armada, then get into their cryo chambers while in deep space, and then the ships would do the rest. The ships would take them to safety.
But for now, everything hinged on Professor Viktor Ravnak remembering how to wire a battery.
Bracing himself for the pain, Ravnak held one side of the stripped conduit down by the protective coating, below where he had bared the wire.
Then he worked the fiber-optic aluminum wires into the slit of his left wrist.
His hand went numb immediately. That might be a problem, considering he still had to do the same thing to his other arm.
* * *
The Zalite were here.
The satellites showed their approach. Mayne could do nothing but watch helplessly as they used their laser weapons to slice through satellites and carve out pieces of the planet. Entire forests disappeared in blazes of fire. He watched one image of a city he didn’t recognize incinerated with multiple blasts delivered so fast his eyes couldn’t follow. Millions of people, dead in a matter of seconds.
They weren’t lasers, the computer screens insisted stubbornly. They were some form of particle beam weapon that was unknown to the database. Mayne growled and slammed his fist against the keyboard. He didn’t care what it was. He wanted to fight back!
He watched the black line on the screen.
Still broken.
* * *
Ravnak fumbled the other conduit up and into position, aligning it with his wrist. He was in so much pain already. So much pain!
This would end it. At the same time, it would give the human race a fighting chance.
Blubbering like a baby, he thrust the wire into his flesh.
Pain was the last thing he knew. Pain, and a blazing light that seared his eyes from the inside.
* * *
The black line connected on his screen. Green lights lit up. All systems go.
“Ha! Take this, you bastards!”
General Mayne ran th
e sequence. The indicator lights all flashed go.
The missiles had been activated.
Mayne sat back in his chair. He breathed out a heavy sigh. All he could do now was wait for the end to come.
CHAPTER FIVE
From space, it looked spectacular.
The fusion missiles held beneath the surface of the planet, all over the planet, had been activated. The Krii Zalite never saw what was coming for them.
All at once, every single one of the fusion warheads activated. The explosion rocked the planet. It ignited the atmosphere. Flames spread across the world in swirling eddies and storms. The conflagration caught the Krii Zalite ships unawares. They were consumed. They were smaller pops of explosions amidst the dying throes of the planet below.
The planet shook. It rotated backwards on its axis. The poles shifted and the orb wobbled before settling back into its position as everything continued to burn. All life on Earth ended because of the plan set forth by President Harlon Jessmer. Humanity on Earth was dead.
Rather than let an alien species have their home, it was decided to burn it to ash. No one would have it. Not for generations of generations. Eventually, it was hoped, humans would return to their Earth and make it livable again.
For now, the Earth burned.
From the twenty escape ships that had cleared the planet amid the flames, people watched their home die. They watched their cities become so much slag. They watched their friends and family burn.
But, they were alive. Thanks to the foresight of Professor Viktor Ravnak, they would live. The human race would live on.
The Zalite invaders were gone. So was the Earth.
Together, all the escape ships turned their nosecones toward deep space. Still in shock, the survivors put themselves into the sleep chambers. When they woke up, they would start over. The human race would survive.
One day, they would return.
- END –
Get Book 1 HERE.
Note from the author:
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Destroy The Planet, the prequel short story to The Broken Earth Saga. If you liked what you read, please consider leaving a review. Also be sure to check out the next books in the series!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TJ Ryan is a Canadian author, born on the rainy West Coast (or is that Wet Coast?) of British Columbia. He spent his early years traveling the world, obsessing over new cultures and culinary experiences. Preferring spaceships to airplanes, he has now settled into his little slice of rainforest paradise, escaping reality through Science Fiction.
He’s still getting over the strange transition from Canadian to US spelling, but he’ll get there soon!
If you’re interested in getting advanced review copies of his books for free, you can join his MAILING LIST. You will also be the first to know when he publishes new works, and will have the opportunity read his books before they’re released to the public.
You can also visit his BLOG to keep up-to-date on his writing, and read sneak-peaks of his works in progress. He loves connecting with his readers, so don’t be shy to send him a message on FACEBOOK or TWITTER.
BOOKS BY TJ RYAN
The Broken Earth Saga
DESTROY THE PLANET
THE DEAD PLANET
THE CONTESTED PLANET
Other Books
DIVERGENCE (coming winter 2016)