The Prime looks about at the progress and is most pleased with his crew. Even though the assignment lacks excitement, it is crucial that they be successful. There have been no more incidents from the indigenous people making this assignment quite mundane, really.
Location:
Amazon River, near Afua
Brazil
Many locals scatter at the sight of this massive craft, the hum from its approach causes animals and birds to scatter in panic. This armored behemoth is almost one mile wide and about two miles long, and from the exterior, closely resembles the craft in the Australian outback. The space craft makes a turn toward the water as it gets closer to the ground. Hovering now over the river, the water seems to dance to the noise of the craft as it comes in to land. Enormous armor plates slide away allowing massive landing struts to extend downward. A few onlookers drawn to the noise can only gaze in bewilderment at the scene. One side of the space ship has a huge rent in it that travels completely around the side, and up out of sight. The sides of this long fissure are scorched and look as though the area has been melted away. Other similar signs of damage are evident all over the spacecraft.
Landing struts enter the water up and down the length of the ship, as it lands in the flowing waters. As these landing pads sink into the muddy waters and make contact, they churn even more muck into the water, which is quickly taken downstream. The massive craft takes some time before it comes to rest. With the hum ceasing suddenly, the only sounds come from animals and birds as they flee and or make their annoyance at the disturbance known.
The bottom of this craft rests well above the flowing waters of the mighty Amazon River. Birds that were just starting to settle scatter again as metallic clunks, groans, and squeals suddenly fill the air. Along the ship’s underside, four long independent sections are being half-submerged into the water. Panels slide away at the front and rear of these long sections, allowing water to flow freely through them. It takes a keen eye to see that a lot less water flows out than flows in, and it’s murkier.
About an hour or so later, birds again take to the skies, animals drinking at the banks of the river scatter, as yet again the clunks, squeals, and groans that accompany sections of the space ship opening, resonate through the afternoon sky. This time the very top of the craft opens, allowing smaller craft to take to the air. These aircraft are unlike anything even seen before, about the size of a large jumbo jet, with stubby wings that are just too short, these ungainly aircraft also hum as they ascend. Three such alien aircraft take off, and head skyward until they disappear into the distance. About every twenty minutes thereafter, another such craft takes off. This continues for hours. Finally one returns, but this does not stop the cycle, as a flying craft now comes and goes every fifteen to twenty minutes.
Each of these craft hold a substantial amount of water, and yet for all the craft that come and go, the river’s flow seems unaffected. Some of these airborne tankers head up to space, others head off in various directions. These craft are clearly providing supplies of fresh water to their fleet.
As the routine continues, some of the locals get back to fishing cautiously from the riverbank. They have families to feed, so against this backdrop of an alien space craft, the fishermen keep doing as they have for generations. Other fishermen take advantage of the newly created shade, a welcomed addition, as they get back to fishing from small mid river islands.
Within a few days folks downstream notice a small drop in the water level, but being only a small amount, it goes unreported to any authorities. The newly exposed rocks make great spots to fish or dive from.
Location:
Array Operations Center (AOC)
80 KM West of Socorro, New Mexico
The many arrays lay broken and twisted, an impact crater almost in the epicenter of the arrays gives testimony to the cause of their destruction. The operations building, being away from the arrays, seems relatively unscathed. Barbara, the director, pans her binoculars left and right making sure she gets as much information as possible before making any decisions.
Without taking her eyes off the scene before her, she issues her instructions. “Dave, take your crew and check the buildings. Then get me some power, I want those computers up and running.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dave replies as his mind races through various scenarios.
“My title is Director, not ma’am, thank you very much.” She does not mean to sound impetuous, but never the less it comes out that way.
“Brett, find that old telescope you guys had and look for the alien spaceships.”
“Ok, will do.” He knows roughly where it is, and judging by the condition of the building it should be undamaged.
Panning the area one more time she then puts her binoculars down. “Let’s get to work people.” With the slightest nod from her, they head down to the damaged site. The small team travels silently in two vehicles, awed by the destruction of one asteroid. Even with four wheel drive it's tough to navigate through some areas, the impact having thrown up tons of sand and soil.
Once the team arrives they move quickly to assess the damage, and working as though another strike were imminent, they get a report to Barbara within the hour. Brett sets about locating the team’s standard telescope, more of a hobby item, but still quite powerful by normal standards.
“The building is intact. The generators should be running shortly.” Dave reads off a small check list as he continues his report.
Barbara smiles as she hears the diesel generators power up, lights flicker, and though many splutter, spark, and fail, many others light up. Computer terminals come to life here and there, allowing technicians to gather data, which they do as fast as they can.
“Hey Barbara, I mean Director, come and look at this.” Brett seems quite perplexed as he indicates for her to look through the telescope.
“What am I looking at Brett?” Barbara can't seem to find what Brett wants her to look at. “Oh, I see it now, a small satellite. It does not look like one of ours.”
At first she can't make out what is so special about the satellite, but within a few minutes as comprehension dawns on her, she feels numbed by her observations. Satellites, many satellites are in orbit, more than enough to cover communications. No, these are much more foreboding than that, plus the numbers, dozens of them in just the area of the sky that she can see alone. As Barbara scans the sky back and forth with the telescope, she sees more of them, hundreds of them, all with a single antenna, all pointing downward toward Earth.
Panning the telescope she almost falls back as a huge shape seems to jump out at her. Shaking off her surprise she looks again and after refocusing, spends a long time panning over the enormous space craft. Even without an easy reference point this craft is obviously massive. With what looks to be overlapping, or linked armor plates, this behemoth seems to have been damaged. Areas of the ship are darker, scorched, or burned, other sections have what look to be dents or furrows. While she looks over the ship, a smaller craft catches her eye. It appears to be docking with the larger craft, after a while the smaller craft undocks, then heads out of sight down toward Earth somewhere.
Barbara steps back from the telescope as she comes to grips with what she saw. “Brett, hook up a camera and record everything you can.”
After about three hours, the team shuts down the computers and generators and without further ado, they leave. Some of the team members wonder if the Gamin even knew that they were there, or if they even care what they were doing. Barbara's team will spend a long time going over the data collected. The images and video captured by Brett are as intriguing, as they are disturbing. All this does is add to the list of questions raised about the aliens and their intentions.
Location:
Deutsche Academy der Wissenschaften
(German Academy of Sciences)
Halle an der Saale,
Germany
The facility consists of many buildings, some with underground bunkers, of whi
ch some of these are designed to contain biological materials. A few of these facilities extend deep underground, and fan out in many directions. Down in these depths, away from prying eyes, the scientists here work hard to create cures and more.
Cindy Klein looks around the room at the people gathered, all seated as she stands at a podium. Some of those attending arrived a few days ago, others this very day. With a small tap tap tap on a microphone she gets everyone's attention. The dozen people present occupy very few of the available seats and could easily hear her without it. Obviously though, she is used to a much larger audience as she begins.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Cindy Klein, the lead geneticist of this facility, and from now on, your point of contact. You all represent various arms of your governments. I know all of you by name, and have followed you quite closely these last few years. We have Radclyf, of the SAS from England, Hayato, representing the Japanese, and Olaf, from Russia. With the military arm well covered, we also have medical specialists and geneticists from various European countries.”
At the mention of his name, Radclyf sits up and starts to pay a lot more attention to his colleagues, and especially this speaker, Cindy. How the heck does she know me? He wonders.
Pausing she gazes around the room, knowing that by naming some of those present she has their undivided attention.
“You're all probably wondering why you are here in Germany. Well, let me start at the beginning. Project Archangel was originally intended as a counter terrorism group set up by a few member nations. Any member nation that suffers a terrorist attack is eligible, at their discretion, to activate the entire group. To date, this has never happened as you know. The asteroid strike on St Petersburg was cause enough to activate the group. We believe that these aliens, the Gamin, have compromised all public computer systems and most private systems as well. However, we feel that this facility offers us a unique opportunity. Even if they know of this facility, it's a just a genetic research facility, where we enhance food and look into the genome for answers to humanity’s many problems. Much of what we do is on isolated computers. There are no public networks or servers to be hacked, just a few laptops with external drives. But I digress momentarily. What we are here for today is this.”
With a push of a button, a screen appears showing a vial with a swirling green gas. Radclyf and Hayato both stare at the screen in surprise, they catch each other's eye and nod slightly.
“Some of you have had dealings with this biological weapon. One liquid drop forms a vapor that even at one part per billion is considered a lethal dose, albeit it takes a few hours to kill at that level. The only cure we have must be administered prior to exposure.”
Cindy has their attention, all right.
“Your mission is this, lay low in safe houses that we have prepared. Should you be discovered, your own governments may hunt you down in the name of peace. Over the last year, a number of weapons caches have been created in various cities. Each of you will be informed of what you need to know in regard to their location. Should our alien visitors get violent, we have enough of this material to rid the planet of them. In the meantime, you are to learn as much as possible about them. We need to find a way to get this material onto all of their spacecraft.”
She pauses and looks at the group in reflection before continuing.
“We knew something was out there in space headed this way...”
Interrupting her, one of the medical personnel stands up and says in dismay. “You knew they were coming and did nothing.” He is totally disgusted as he shakes his head and sits back down.
Cindy gathers herself and replies with renewed confidence.
“Yes we knew something was headed this way, but we only found out a few days before they arrived. Even then, the data was so obscure it was deemed inconsequential, possibly just background radiation, anything but a space fleet. It was finally an Australian facility that confirmed what was coming, and they only picked up a meteor shower, at first anyway. These aliens say they are here in peace but if they are not you people are our contingency plan. You're our only hope to stop these Gamin should they start a ground war. However, no matter what opportunity presents itself, do not start any action until instructed. We may yet find peace a possibility.”
Cindy pauses to let her last few comments sink in. With mostly blank stares looking back at her she continues. Radclyf wonders why Cindy is talking as if they were already at war with these aliens.
“OK, enough of this, listen up. There are three landing craft that we know of, one in Saint Petersburg, one in New York, plus another is headed for France as we speak. The Gamin are calling this latest craft an educational facility. We are to be educated people, go learn what you can but be prepared. This is the one and only time you will be here, unless recalled. From now on, runners will handle information for you. Do not talk to the runners. They are not to be told any aspect of your lives, missions, et cetera. Assume at all times that they are compromised, or at the very least being monitored. You will hand them encrypted data via very special storage devices, details are in your assignment portfolios.”
Cindy steps down from the podium and walks around the room as she finishes her speech.
“Get to know each other. These Gamin say they come in peace, but we at the institute, feel otherwise. You are all to be inoculated with a variety of anti toxins prior to leaving. If you have no questions, that is all people.” Cindy waits a few seconds then simply nods her head as she hands out folders to each person.
Radclyf follows Cindy with his eyes as she continues to walk about the room. He ponders her thinking. She is so focused on the aliens being hostile she can't see anything else. Getting up, he finds Hayato to discuss the swirling gas and each other's involvement. The teammates from both sides also talk at length as they share a variety of combat stories. They do not share their assignments of course, but do wonder if the future will see them working together. Hayato wonders if politics has been at work as both his, and Radclyf's portfolios are the same size. Olaf, upon receiving his folder, leaves immediately apparently uninterested in talking with anyone.
Radclyf’s assignment is to head to a 'safe house' in the outskirts of Paris. He wishes Hayato well, takes the keys for the 'safe house' and a vehicle. Heading to the parking lot he finds his van, a non-descript grey utility van, like many others. He is alone, and wonders if he will meet his team, or if they have separate assignments. Inside the van he finds a small manila folder on the seat. He opens it, reads the additional information, and pockets the Euros.
Hayato looks at his orders and sees that his team is to take two vans and head to a safe house in Hong Kong. The long trip finds him travelling with Daitaro, while Chokichi and Akira share their own utility van. Both vans also have manila folders, though theirs contain Renminbi for China, and some Hong Kong Dollars to go with the enclosed Euros.
Radclyf hits the road and heads to Hotel Cecilia, a little under five hundred sixty miles away. After driving through the night, Radclyf pulls into the underground parking at about the same time as another utility van, just like his. By the day's end there are four identical utility vans scattered throughout the parking lot. Radclyf's entire team is here and though they are in different rooms they are all on the same level. He is perplexed at the way this has been handled, why not just send his team in one van?
A fifth person has also taken up a room in the hotel, on the ground floor. His trip from the ferry being far more leisurely, he is well rested and has taken the opportunity to acquaint himself with the area quite well. Smoke swirls from his pipe as he watches the evening news in his room.
Location:
Forest area west of Clamart
Paris, France
With the loss of the FS Charles De Gaulle, and the announcement by these aliens that a spacecraft will land near the capital, Paris, many citizens take to the streets in anger. Demonstrators demand the aliens do not land in France at all. Hundreds turn into thousands as the Gend
arme seem powerless to stop the crowd from going where they please. Eventually the French police force simply let the crowd go and focus more on protecting property and stemming what could easily turn into a city wide riot.
To make matters worse, the spacecraft appears in the distance, a speck that grows. A strange hum can be heard as the craft approaches. Many demonstrators pull out hidden firearms and shoot at the spacecraft as it nears. Being almost one mile wide and over two miles long, this space faring vessel, like the others, has pock marked armor plates on its flanks, and underside. With a narrower front and wider midsection this craft looks similar in design to those in Saint Petersburg and New York, though smaller. Many demonstrators fearing reprisals, and expecting to be attacked at any second, flee.
Many a government official now sweats, as they played up the hostility of the Gamin, even to the point of concealing that the two pilots from the carrier made it back to France unscathed. These politicians can only watch in horror at the panic that now strikes the city. Messages telling people to remain calm, fall on deaf ears. Once again, city streets became chaotic as cars crash into each other with panicked drivers ignoring traffic signals. The Prime Minister himself, appears on television in an attempt to calm the city, but to no avail. Off camera he shakes his head in shame, the aliens did not even have to fire a single shot at them and Paris, a city of millions, is in chaos for the second time this week.
The spacecraft hovers over the forest area and with amazing precision and unexpected care, lands with minimum damage to the trees below. The armor plates do not retract as of yet, as they did on the spacecraft in New York. The massive spacecraft just sits there, doing nothing, waiting. Meanwhile, on the bridge of this vessel the Prime looks about at the city in chaos. He is almost pleased at the discord created by their arrival. He knows that fear can be a great tool.
First Contact (Terran Chronicles) Page 10