Battle for the Earth

by John P. Gledhill

  **

  54

  Pausanias had invited Jumouk, Lee and Marie to a meeting on board his flagship Cronus, named after the Greek god.

  Lee was overawed by the level of technology on board the Cronus. It was also so sumptuous and made the ESG battle cruisers look like poor cousins. The conference room they were shown to was considerably smaller than he had imagined. Then he remembered the Atlantian council of three and thought: I guess they probably wouldn’t need a very big room then. As they sat down at the conference table, yet again they were waited on by the Atlantian service personnel, with drinks and food. The hospitality was endless.

  Jumouk was full of questions for the Atlantians.

  ‘Why were your weapons not on full power. I thought we wanted to destroy the Annunaki battle group?’

  Pausanias and his high council clearly had their own agenda.

  ‘Our intention was never to destroy, but to persuade the Annunaki commanders that it would be a futile exercise to try and colonise Earth. The planet must never be terraformed by the Annunaki.’

  Jumouk was still unsure.

  ‘I understand the sentiment, but half the battle group is still out there somewhere. How can we be sure they won’t come back?’

  ‘I will be talking personally to their supreme commander and assuring him that now the Dropas and humans know of our existence, we will not allow any encroachment on Earth’s space again.’

  Lee butted into the conversation.

  ‘OK, but how can you be sure they will stick to any agreement?’

  Pausanias smiled.

  ‘Lee, my friend, in the space of three hours we disabled or destroyed nearly half their battle group. I think that might have got their attention and convinced them it would be in their best interests to withdraw while they can.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re right, Pausanias, but what about the disabled and captured ships and also all the prisoners. There must be tens of thousands of prisoners?’

  ‘If, as they say on Earth, the Annunaki agree to pack up, go home, and never return, they will be welcome to take all their warriors and ships with them.’

  Lee had another question.

  ‘What about the devastation on Earth? That is going to take hundreds of years to put right.’

  ‘The Atlantian council of three has agreed that we will help rebuild infrastructures and cities. I’m sure our Dropas friends will help as well.’

  Jumouk nodded in agreement and Pausanias went on:

  ‘Anyway, these matters are for another day. Are we all agreed then? Provided the Annunaki agree to our terms, we will let them go home peacefully?’

  Reluctantly and still with hesitation, Jumouk, Lee and Marie agreed. The situation had changed, with the Atlantians appearing to be calling all the shots, as was their right now.

  Marie had been very quiet during the meeting, and Lee began to wonder why.

  ‘Are you OK, Marie?’

  Marie nodded.

  ‘Yes. Sorry, Lee. It’s just ... something still doesn’t feel right and I can’t quite put my finger on it.’

  ‘What, is it to do with the Annunaki?’

  ‘I don’t know. It’s just a feeling. I get them sometimes and the trouble is, I’m usually right.’

  The three were now being taken on the guided tour of the Atlantian battle cruiser that Pausanias had promised to Lee. The ship was massive, with guidance aids at regular intervals along all the winding passages and corridors. Pausanias was obviously extremely proud of his grand flagship and they could all understand why. Everything was state of the art, no detail had been missed or excluded. It was so user friendly you couldn’t go wrong. The computer systems were programmed with everything you could want to know. If you wanted somewhere to relax, this was it. You would never have guessed that only a few hours before it had taken part in a devastating battle.

  Up on the bridge you had an excellent view of what was happening on the ground below. Marie watched the coming and going of the ESG troops as they rounded up the last of the Annunaki prisoners; the remains of smashed assault craft were being cleared up by bulldozers; and piles of debris were being swept away. It was a real clean-up operation.

  ‘Those aren’t Annunaki warriors. The prisoners ... their workers, I mean. They’re not Annunaki warriors.’

  Marie caught everybody by surprise with this remark.

  ‘How do you mean, Marie?’

  Lee was puzzled.

  ‘I haven’t seen one Annunaki warrior. They’re all Annunaki workers.’

  She went on excitedly.

  ‘As far as I know, Annunaki workers are expendable, second class, not at all like the warrior class.’

  ‘And your point is?’

  ‘We’ve just been in a major battle and there’s no Annunaki warriors anywhere. Don’t you find that strange?’

  ‘I don’t see where you’re going with this, Marie.’

  Jumouk was as puzzled as Lee.

  ‘What about the disabled and captured ships? Where are their crews?’

  Lee had an answer for that question.

  ‘Ah, now that I can answer. Fortunately for us they were all abandoned.’

  ‘So all the prisoners we have are second-class workers?’

  ‘I suppose so. I’ve not checked. I just know we’ve got a hell of a lot of prisoners.’

  Jumouk and Lee were still none the wiser.

  ‘Oh my God! This feels so wrong.’

  Marie’s instincts were working hard.

  ‘This is a trap. I can feel it.’

  Jumouk and Lee were now very concerned.

  ‘How do you mean? How can this be a trap?’

  ‘Put yourself in the Annunaki’s shoes. What would you do?’

  Lee thought for a second.

  ‘Well, I’d rig the base so, if it was compromised, I could destroy it. A bit like Bill Graham did with the sewer systems.’

  ‘Shit! The base is rigged to self-destruct. That’s why the Annunaki left so quickly.’

  Marie was right, a device was under the main part of the base ticking down the hours, minutes and seconds to a cataclysmic explosion that could wipe out half of North America and anything in the skies above it.

  Pausanias ordered the immediate withdrawal of all craft and ground troops to a safe distance even as far away as Houston.

  Marie had realised this would be a nightmare and could take hours if not days for somebody to find the device and disable it.

  **

  Mark, Finney and Sacha were helping to coordinate the prisoner movements when they received the orders to withdraw from the base. Mark couldn’t understand it. Why withdraw after such an outstanding victory? Then the message from Maria arrived and it all became clear.

  ‘Listen, guys, there’s a self-destruct device here somewhere and we need to find it before it blows.’

  Sacha came up with the classic question.

  ‘Where do we start?’

  ‘Not got a clue. Underground?’

  ‘You think? Underground, where?’

  Mark was deep in thought when Finney hit on an idea.

  ‘Look, if it was us where would we put it?’

  ‘Underneath the control room?’

  ‘The building you would leave from at the very end.’

  Between them they knew now what to look for.

  ‘Which building?

  ‘It must be one that’s complete.’

  Finney was first to spot it.

  ‘What about that one? The tall one over there?’

  Mark followed the direction of Finney’s finger.

  ‘Sweet, that looks like it could fit the bill. Let’s give it a try.’

  Once inside it became clear that this was a building of some importance. There was a central control room complex, which took up six floors of the building, except nothing seemed to be working.

  ‘It doesn’t look like they got anything con
nected up. This is crap. Nothing works.’

  Despite Marks’s best efforts nothing did work, and there was no sign of any doomsday device.

  ‘I thought we said under the control room?’

  Sacha was right. Starting from one corner of the control complex, a flight of stairs led to a complex of basement tunnels three storeys down.

  ‘OK, where now?’

  ‘It’s got to be around here somewhere. Let’s take a tunnel each, give a loud whistle if you find anything. Let’s go.’

  Mark was the one who found it. He whistled loudly and the three knelt down to examine the device.

  It certainly didn’t look like a nuclear device. It was not as big as they had imagined it would be, but it did look complicated. There was no sign of a timing device, although it was hard to make out as most of it appeared to be covered in some kind of shroud.

  Mark was in constant contact with Jumouk and Lee on board the Atlantian battle cruiser.

  ‘I think we’re going to need someone a bit more specialised for this.’

  ‘What does it look like?’

  Mark was stuck for words.

  ‘Like nothing any of us have seen before.’

  ‘OK, hang fire, Pausanias and Marie are on their way down to you. Has it got any kind of timer on it?’

  ‘Not that we can see. There are all sorts of funny gadgets. Though, having said that, most of it’s in some kind of shroud.’

  ‘OK, as I said, Pausanias and Marie should be with you shortly.’

  Almost at once Pausanias entered the room and went straight to the device.

  ‘Marie, am I glad to see you two!’

  Mark was genuinely relieved.

  ‘It’s a matter converter. It takes matter and converts it into antimatter. The longer it runs the more explosive it gets.’

  ‘Can you switch it off or disarm it?’

  Marie knew it was a silly question. It was never going to be that simple.

  ‘Unfortunately not. Just looking at the way it’s been configured, it’s going to have to expend the antimatter before it will stop.’

  Finney looked puzzled.

  ‘Expend the antimatter - that means?’

  ‘Blow up, you daft bastard!’ muttered Sacha scornfully. ‘It’s got to blow up to stop, right?’

  ‘Well put, Sacha!’

  Mark was being facetious.

  ‘What size of an explosion are we looking at?’

  Pausanias was deep in thought.

  ‘As I said, it gets bigger as time goes on and more antimatter is added. Just now, probably enough to wipe out half of continental North America.’

  ‘What sets it off if there’s no timer?’

  ‘Eventually enough antimatter will be produced to fill the containment area and particles will seep out past the neutral seal, creating a chain reaction.’

  This seemed to be getting worse and worse.

  ‘How long? I mean ... before it blows, and how big an explosion?’

  ‘I don’t know. Producing antimatter, it’s not an exact science. Once it’s full, though, after the explosion you may be sure you won’t have a planet.’

  ‘Jesus! what can we do?’

  Sacha’s face lit up. He had just had an idea.

  ‘Why don’t we send it into deep space?’

  ‘First of all, we can’t move it without the danger of setting it off, Second, when it did go off the shock wave would send every asteroid in the asteroid belt hurtling at Earth. The ending would be exactly the same. No planet.’

  Mark brought things back into focus.

  ‘The first thing we need to figure out is how to move it without its blowing up in our faces. Then we can worry about what we’re going to do with it.’

  **

  55

  Jumouk had ordered the two ESG battle cruisers into deep space to monitor the Annunaki battle group that was still threatening Earth.

  Sutan had now rejoined his flagship, Orpious, and was feeling quite pleased with himself. If he couldn’t have Earth, he was quite happy for no one else to have it. He might have lost half his battle group, but the destruction of Earth would be a victory in his eyes.

  The campaign against Earth had cost the Annunaki’s dearly but, because they hadn’t been at war with an adversary for millennia, the cost didn’t matter. It was more about the glory. There were other planets in this solar system that could be plundered for raw materials.

  The battle group was now under repair to bring it back up to full readiness. Sutan would have liked to have salvaged some of his disabled cruisers, but was well aware that the antimatter device could go off at any time, and he was prepared to sacrifice them in return for the ultimate defeat of Earth.

  **

  On board the Cronus Jumouk and Lee were pondering the problem of moving the antimatter device. It was Lee who finally came up with a viable solution.

  ‘Why don’t we freeze the device to make it more stable? It can then be moved and freezing might slow down the antimatter production as well.’

  Jumouk contacted Pausanias and ran the plan past him. Pausanias was delighted and was very confident it would work. But where would they move it to?

  **

  Preparations were already under way to freeze the device. Liquid nitrogen LN2 was on the way and would be used to create a super-freeze state within the holding container in which the device would be placed.

  A large, metal, twin-door fridge freezer was selected to contain the device. Inside it was stripped down to the shell and then laid on its back. The LN2 holding containers were placed inside and the doors closed. The device had first been surrounded by LN2 containers to get its temperature down to minus 50 degrees, so it could be moved into the twin-door fridge freezer. Moving it was painstakingly slow, but eventually the device was packed safely into the fridge freezer. Once the temperature had plummeted to minus 50 degrees, the freezer was welded shut. The whole process had taken five hours and had been an enormous strain on everyone involved.

  Now there was the problem of what to do with the frozen package. Once again it was Sacha who came to the rescue.

  ‘I know it’s not the movies, but why don’t we run it into the far side of the sun? There are lots of reactions going on in there all the time, and if we do it on the far side any solar flares caused by the explosion won’t affect Earth.’

  The plan sounded pretty good to Mark, and he looked across to Pausanias for approval. Pausanias smiled.

  ‘I still can’t get over your constant inventiveness, Sacha. That is a brilliant plan, and it might just work.’

  ‘Well, thank you kindly, sir. It’s always nice to be appreciated, but shouldn’t we get this done sooner rather than later? I’m still feeling quite uncomfortable with this thing sitting here.’

  **

  It had been agreed that three shuttles including the fated one would fly to the far side of the sun, and when the timing was right the shuttle would be set on autopilot and sent on its way with the device to its destiny and eventual incineration within the sun’s corona.

  Arrangements were made to have the freezer taken to its shuttle and carefully placed in the hold. The final question was: who was going to fly the shuttle?

  **

  Lee volunteered for the job without hesitation. Even with the high levels of danger and uncertainty, this task could have been made for him.

  He boarded the shuttle cautiously. Time was now critical and everyone was getting nervous. The device had been on Earth long enough.

  He inspected the freezer briefly. It all looked fine and Lee once again gave thanks for Sacha’s ingenuity. Where would they be without him, he wondered?

  Safely installed in the pilot’s seat, Lee couldn’t help feeling a sense of pride, as the three shuttles took off slowly together and began their journey to the sun. As they broke free of Earth’s atmosphere, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  Two of the Atlantian battl
e cruisers took up positions to protect the three shuttles from any unwelcome Annunaki attention. As Lee guided the shuttle slowly through space towards the far side of the sun, the cabin began to feel uncomfortably cold even with the climate controls set to high.