Lee was having a lot of time to reflect on events. Ever since the Dropas had made their presence on Earth known, it had been a non-stop, one-thing-after-another, real fight for survival, one that many times Lee hadn’t thought mankind would win.
The worst time was when the second battle group had arrived unexpectedly in Earth’s space. They had done so much at that point just to survive, and had beaten all the odds against them, only to have to start all over again. Thank God for the Atlantians, he thought! If it wasn’t for them humanity would probably be extinct by now and the Annunaki would be lording it over Earth.
He had been so deep in thought that he hadn’t noticed that the cabin temperature was rising, but a quick glance out the left-hand-side viewing window explained the increase in cabin temperature.
He’d never quite realised how big the sun was, always just taking it for granted. Seeing it now closer up, it was colossal, a truly magnificent sight filling the whole side of the viewing window and was still burning his eyes even with the solar filters on.
He checked his coordinates and the orbit of Earth. He still had a fair bit of travelling to do to ensure Earth would be safe from the inevitable solar flares after the huge explosion that would be created by the device. Nobody could know for sure exactly what would happen, but this was the only viable option, he knew.
Lee remembered when he had been a very young diplomat serving some time at the Chinese embassy in Scotland. Edinburgh was a beautiful city, and Corstorphine where the embassy was located was only ten minutes from the centre of the capital. The Scots had a perfect expression for situations where the outcome was uncertain: they used to say, ‘lucky white heather’. If ever there was a need for lucky white heather it was now.
The calculations for the release of the shuttle to its fiery doom weren’t that complex. Just so long as the shuttle exploded on the far side of the sun away from the Earth, everything should be OK.
Lee contacted the other two pilots. It looked as if they were now just about at the right coordinates. He doublechecked the figures and began to programme the autopilot. A few minutes later everything was ready. Lee set the delay of ten minutes for the autopilot to kick in and headed for the docking bay, ready to transfer to the other shuttle.
The transfer shuttle docked perfectly with Lee’s, and he opened the air-tight doors between the two shuttles, then made his way through to the transfer shuttle, not without giving out a small sigh of relief.
Although it had been a privilege to play such an important role in the salvation of Earth, the pressure and anxiety were now taking their toll. Lee felt absolutely shattered. They would have to linger to make sure the autopilot kicked in when it was supposed to, then they would need to jump into hyper-space without delay, well away from the inevitable cataclysm.
Everything went according to plan. As the shuttle began its final journey to the sun and its inevitable fate, the two remaining shuttles jumped into hyper-space and safety. They emerged from hyper-drive a few seconds later and turned to take up an observation position.
The sun was now just a pinprick in space. Lee activated the observation screen and magnified the picture to maximum. He estimated that within the next minute they should be able to see the results of their endeavours. The sun was now the size of an orange on the screen. Lee and the shuttle pilot hung over the screen not quite knowing what to expect.
Suddenly a white flash crept across the screen and then appeared in the front viewing window, making Lee and the pilot shield their eyes against the glare. As it went dark again, large yellow and orange flashes emanating from the sun could be seen on the observation screen, branching out into space in lashing, whip-like motions.
The predicted solar flares were more massive than had been predicted, but fortunately were not heading in the direction of Earth. They were, however, coming in Lee’s direction, travelling at the speed of light and pulling their slower-moving partners, the CMEs, the coronal mass ejections, in lumbering cloud formations behind them.
The solar flares did little damage to the shuttles, which were designed to withstand them, but the CMEs were more dangerous. Depending on their intensity, they could play havoc with the ships’ electronics.
Lee was monitoring them closely and, to his horror, saw that they were travelling at forty times the speed they normally should have, which was around 6,000,000 miles an hour. These were travelling at 240,000,000 miles an hour, which would mean that they would be in this area of space within two days. The intensity of these CMEs was generally determined by their speed and would be devastatingly destructive to anything electronic.
Lee guessed that it had been the explosion of the device that was the cause of the unusual solar flare and CMEs’ activity. Now all they could do was to make a detour and head back to Earth.
**
56
Jumouk had been monitoring the three shuttles’ progress from the bridge of the Cronus. As they disappeared around the far side of the sun, the proximity detectors lost sight of them, at which point Pausanias enabled the three-dimensional representation of space around the sun. Sure enough, there were the three shuttles.
As one shuttle began moving towards the sun’s corona, the other two suddenly disappeared. The shuttle heading towards the sun was gradually increasing its speed.
On the bridge of the Cronus the anticipation was almost physical, as minute after minute passed with still nothing happening.
Jumouk guessed that Lee would now be a safe distance away after being in hyper-drive, and was probably watching as well.
Suddenly and surprisingly a bright flash burst across the bridge, temporarily blinding everybody. As their sight slowly returned, the surface of the sun could be seen to be boiling at the point of the explosion of the device, solar flares angrily spitting into the surrounding space. Whiplike motions flailed into space and beyond. Fortunately, all this activity was in the opposite direction from Earth.
Jumouk was interested to see if the visual representation could pick up the two shuttles that had gone into hyperdrive.
‘Pausanias, can you home in on the two shuttles?’
Pausanias made some hand movements and adjustments and sure enough the two shuttles appeared in deep space, sitting all on their own with absolutely nothing near them.
‘Well, at least we know Lee’s OK.’
‘I never had any doubt Lee was the right man for the job. He is a very adaptable and clever human.’
Everyone who had seen the visual representation technology had been amazed by it. Jumouk was trying to guess how it worked, which was nothing unusual. Everyone who had seen it had secretly tried to work it out, but no one had succeeded.
**
Two or three days were going to have to pass before they could be sure there were no adverse affects on Earth, after the explosion in the sun’s corona. However, from all the checks that Pausanias had made it did look as if mankind was in the clear.
All the same Pausanias wanted to wait until he was quite certain that the Earth was going to be safe before he confronted the Annunaki commanders and fleet. To be honest, he didn’t even know exactly where the Annunaki fleet was positioned in deep space. All he did know is they didn’t present a threat at that moment.
Jumouk was more doubtful. He didn’t know why the Annunaki had been so quiet over the past few days. They may just have been waiting patiently, expecting the Earth to rip itself apart in a cataclysmic antimatter explosion, but he wasn’t happy not knowing where they were. He kept an eye on the proximity detector but there was no sign of them anywhere.
Pausanias was now quite satisfied. Earth had suffered no ill effects from the trauma on the sun, and he could now concentrate on finding the whereabouts of the Annunaki fleet.
**
Ever since Lee had got back from deep space he had been obsessed by the cloud of CMEs travelling into space. They didn’t seem to be slowing down or dispersing but just kept going at a constant spee
d.
He had been monitoring them on the visual depiction technology with, it should be said, Pausanias’s blessing. In fact, Pausanias was quite interested in what Lee was doing. The recent events had never been properly tried and tested, and they were producing some interesting results.
Lee stopped what he was doing for a moment and stared intently at the visual depiction, beckoning Pausanias to come over.
‘Is that what I think it is?’
Pausanias looked intently at the screen, and after making a few adjustments he nodded.
‘Yes, look it’s the Annunaki battle group. They’ve put the sun between us and them, which is why Jumouk couldn’t pick them up on the proximity detectors.’
‘Can we zoom in closer and get a better look?’
Pausanias wafted his hands around and the image intensified and grew closer.
‘I can count five, no six, battle cruisers, that big transport, and, let’s see, eight other transports and what... maybe fifty assault ships, plus whatever there is inside the battle cruisers.’
Pausanias nodded in agreement.
‘That’s just about what we thought what was left.’
By this time Jumouk had joined them.
‘How far out are they?’
‘They’re still a fair way away ... wait a second, Can we just move a tiny bit closer to the sun?’
Lee was looking at the depiction from every angle.
‘I thought so. They’re right in the path of the CME cloud and it’s heading straight for them.’
Pausanias looked at Jumouk. They both still looked bewildered. Lee turned round to them.
‘Don’t you see? If it was only a normal-strength CME cloud, it wouldn’t be a problem. Look ... imagine a large ship at sea. It meets a twenty-foot wave, no problem. Bumpy maybe, but still no problem. But if you multiply that twenty-foot wave by forty and then you get a eight-hundred foot wave, end of game for that ship. It’s exactly the same scenario with the CME cloud.’
Enlightenment dawned on the faces of Jumouk and Pausanias.
‘You mean the CME cloud is going to destroy them?’
‘Well, it’s certainly going to give them an extremely hard time. Bear in mind, nothing of this nature has ever been recorded before.’
The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on any of them. A bomb that the Annunaki had planted to wipe out mankind was now threatening to do the same instead to the Annunaki.
‘What do you want to do about it?’
Jumouk was not sure what answer to expect. After a long pause, Pausanias replied, ‘I don’t know. Morally, I suppose we should warn them.’
Lee’s reaction was immediate.
‘We’ve been fighting them tooth and nail for months now. This is our chance to do away with them once and for all. They’ll never come back after this.’
‘When will the cloud hit them, then?’
Lee looked at the depiction and began muttering to himself and drumming his fingers.
‘Best guess two days but, given time, I can work it out exactly.’
‘Do that please, Lee,’ Pausanias requested. ‘We’ll meet up with them and, if there’s no change in attitude, we’ll leave moments before the cloud strikes, telling them nothing and leaving them to their own devices. Does that sound reasonable?’
‘That sounds fair enough.’
‘Good, we’re all agreed then?’
‘Agreed.’
Lee moved over to one of the other consoles to make his calculations. Jumouk and Pausanias sat down together to plan the confrontation with the Annunaki.
**
Three of the Atlantian battle cruisers appeared out of hyper-space right in front of the Annunaki fleet and opened a communications channel straightaway.
‘This is Pausanias, the high commander of the Atlantian fleet, will your commander, please respond?’
The call was put out twice more before a response was received.
‘What do you want?’
‘As you can see your plan to destroy Earth and its inhabitants has failed. Your device for creating anti-matter out of matter was destroyed. We are now warning you formally that in future your presence in this part of space will not be tolerated, and any incursion will be seen as an act of war which will result in any vessels in this space being destroyed. This is your last opportunity to leave peacefully and not come back.’
Pausanias turned to Lee and asked how much time.
‘Four minutes exactly.’
On the main communications console Pausanias continued.
‘What is your response?’
Suddenly all hell broke loose. The Annunaki battle group had opened up with everything it had. Pulse weapons fire was intense, smashing into the Atlantian battle cruisers.
Lee gave one word of command and, as suddenly as they had arrived, the three Atlantian battle cruisers were gone.
**
The Annunakis were delighted that they had finally seen off the Atlantian battle cruisers. Sutan was delighted with himself. So carried away were they that they didn’t even see the CME cloud coming.
As soon as Sutan realised what was happening, he ordered every craft into hyper-space. Virtually every system on every craft was failing as they desperately tried to make hyper-space. Air locks opened, weapons shorted out and started to explode. Life support failed.
None, apart from two cruisers and the large transport, ever made it to hyper-space. Those that did make it were damaged almost beyond repair, and faced a very long and arduous trip back to Nibiru.
**
As the three Atlantian battle cruisers arrived back at Dulles they knew they had seen the last of the Annunaki.
Now came the hard part: counting the cost of the survival of Earth to its inhabitants. At least they would be able to start afresh and had their new friends, the Atlantians and the Dropas.
Earth might after all have a brighter future ahead.
Battle for the Earth Page 28