Third Contact

by James Wilson

  Finally, the day came when Tina’s water broke. Connie had been there for numerous births and knew just what to do. They planned ahead and worked closely with the Eark specialist and made all the preparations. There were no Eark drugs that Tina felt comfortable taking for the pain, so she had to endure. Joe was there to catch his son and cut the umbilical cord as he was born. They named their healthy baby boy Solaris.

  CHAPTER 62

  ATTACK

  Video of Crafa firing his weapon into the orchard and the resultant death and damage that followed caught the attention of the entire planet. Within two days, the new head of the IPDC, General Gehlhausen, had received calls from four of the regional leaders asking what he was planning to do in response.

  “Muriah, please send a message to the council members that I’d like to have a meeting as soon as possible,” he politely directed his secretary. “Ask them all to invite their regional leaders to attend. We need to consider what our response will be.”

  Three days later, the council members and leaders of all the regions gathered in the council room. Their seats formed a large U with a podium for the speaker at the top of the U. Addressing the room from the podium, General Gehlhausen said, “Ladies and gentleman, thank you all for coming on such short notice. As you all know, the business at hand is most urgent. The first thing I want to do this morning is allow General Perry Denton to talk to you. General Denton is currently stationed on the Asteroid Ambrosia and joins us on the holodisplay via satellite link. We asked him earlier to explain to us all what our present and future strike capabilities are. Here is what he said.”

  The lights over the podium turned off and General Denton’s image appeared in the center.

  “Good morning, folks. As most of you already know, in the last century, the IPDC started developing heavy weapons. These weapons are modeled after the twentieth century’s hydrogen and plutonium bombs. Today’s weapons use a material far denser than plutonium, called neutronium. Because the material is heavier, it also has more explosive power. From Einstein’s equation, we know that more mass yields more explosive energy. Unfortunately, this dense material is difficult to produce and transport.

  “Early in this century, with the completion of our neutronium production plant orbiting Mercury, we started producing neutronium at a rate fast enough to produce one bomb every twenty one years or so. Our testing in the 30s has given us confidence in the power and reliability of this weapon system. One of these bombs could turn our entire planet into a molten hell and wipe out all of life on Earth. We now have four bombs ready to launch, with two more becoming available in another two years. In addition, we are only about six years away from completion of our second neutronium production plant at Mercury. The new plant will operate at a thirty percent higher capacity than the first, adding significantly to our production capabilities.

  “Neutronium production is extremely energy intensive. The Mercury orbiter is relatively close to the Sun, which provides a great source of power. With the Sun providing power, neutronium is produced at the Mercury plant and sent on a three-and-a-half-year journey to the Ambrosia weapons lab in the asteroid belt, where it is processed and assembled into a bomb. We also have a second asteroid, Cleitus, which serves as our launch platform for the bombs. From Cleitus, we have the ability to target any part of either of the two Sol bases. Transit time from Cleitus to the Sun would be just under three years.

  “I asked my team to put together a proposal to strike at the heart of the alien bases. What they came back with, and I agree that this would make the most sense, would be to launch two bombs, one at each of the two alien stations around the Sun. Hopefully, we can take out both stations at the same time and cripple their operations. This would still leave two bombs in our arsenal.

  “We also have ongoing research into a weapon with far more destructive power than the neutronium bomb. We are calling this one the black hole bomb. It uses a material far more dense than neutronium. However, we don’t expect to have anything ready for testing for several years, and no production weapons will be available for ten to twenty years at best,” General Denton concluded.

  The holodisplay faded away and General Gehlhausen stood up and addressed the room. “It is our intention to have a period of debate. We are asking you to go back to your regions and let the people decide how they would like to proceed. We already have the proposal put forward by General Denton’s team. Of course, another choice is to continue to do nothing. If anyone has another proposal, we would ask that you please send that to us within six days. We will share all new proposals, if any, with the group at that time. In two weeks’ time, we will gather here again and take a vote on all proposals, and we will move forward together.”

  No third proposals were ever put forward. Before they returned for the next meeting of the IPDC, a clear agreement was beginning to emerge. The first vote was on General Denton’s proposal to send two bombs, one to each of the stations at Sol. The vote was unanimous. The people of the Earth stood united: they would launch a strike at each of the two alien bases as soon as possible.

  The bombs first had to go through final inspection and assembly. After that, they had to have their flight computers programmed. Next, they would have to be moved from Ambrosia, deep in the asteroid belt, to Cleitus, which was much closer to the orbit of Mars. Finally, they would be loaded onto the launch bays. The two bombs would go through all of these steps in parallel. They would launch one at a time; thus, the second bomb would leave Cleitus about two days after the first, but would be programmed to reach a slightly higher velocity so that they would impact the two stations at the same time.

  The bombs were on their way to the alien stations six months after the IPDC voted to launch the strike. Leaving Cleitus in early 4858, they were scheduled to impact in late 4860. The trip to the Sun was uneventful as the bombs slowly picked up speed all along the way. The bombs were able to get past the first set of defensive measures that had destroyed the communication probes that were sent in 30s.

  When the bomb approaching the South Pole station got within 500 miles of its target, it was discovered by a robotic sweeper bot, hundreds of which patrolled the area around the stations for debris, asteroids, comets, or anything that could impact the stations or any of their support vehicles. The bot began firing a high-intensity photon beam at the incoming bomb. Slowly the bomb began to heat up; after five minutes passed, the bot called out for help from any of its peers to aid in the destruction of the object. Two more guards arrived in a few minutes and also began firing upon the fast-approaching object.

  After about seven minutes of constant bombardment by three robot guards about 150 miles from the target, the neutron bomb heading for the South Pole station exploded. Everything within fifty miles of the explosion was destroyed, including the three robot sweepers, a few other robot ships, three transport ships, and the seven Eark they were carrying. The South Pole station was mostly unaffected by the blast.

  A short time later the bomb heading for the North Pole station hit its mark. The blast was so powerful that it was able to breach the high-density outer skin of the station. Every Eark on that and the nearby floors was instantly killed. Three floors above and two floors below the point of impact were also destroyed. Fifty-three Eark lost their lives in the blast; another twenty-five were injured, and several others suffered radiation poisoning.

  Because of the radiation, everything that was left of the six affected floors would have to be scraped and completely rebuilt; it would take the Eark several weeks to rebuild. With the exception of the lives that were lost, they would make a complete recovery. Earth took its best shot and was only able to scratch the aliens. It didn’t take long for this harsh reality to set in on Earth’s population.

  CHAPTER 63

  BOMB DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

  The Eark always traveled with a menagerie of different species of animals. Most species they brought on their journey originally came from their home world, Timouri. A few had origi
nated on Timouri and later evolved into new species when introduced to foreign planets that the Eark discovered on their expeditions. They also had a few species that they got from one of the other harvesting species from a nearby sector of the galaxy. Most of the animals they brought along were used for food. They stocked separate pools, each with a few species that they thought went well together to make different Eark cuisine.

  Captain Agafya and Oxana had just finished their dinner. They usually ate live seafood while enjoying a swim in one of the buffet pools. The captain was just putting his communicator badge back on when the badge’s alarm light turned on. There was a nearby poolside communication terminal where he could check the source of the alarm. Just as he was reading the information about the explosion outside the South Pole station, a second explosion knocked him to the ground. The room only shook for about eight seconds, but it took Agafya a minute to regain composure. After he saw that his companion was okay he went back to the terminal.

  Three first lieutenants at the North station reported directly to Agafya; another four were posted at the South station. There were always at least two first lieutenants or higher on duty at any given time at both stations, with one always posted in the control room and the other overseeing operations. Most of the first lieutenants also had one or more second lieutenants under them. The second lieutenants usually were in charge of one or more of the various departments.

  The captain called the first lieutenant on duty in the control room. “Vanya, what the hell is going on?”

  “Sir, a massive explosion occurred about 150 miles from the South station. The sweepers picked up an incoming object heading directly for the station. The object exploded after being fired upon. The explosion destroyed several vehicles in the area, and resulted in the loss of seven lives,” Vanya said.

  Vanya continued, “About a minute later, our station experienced a second explosion. It looks like the second one hit much closer to the station. I’m showing breaches on the six decks above the transformer unit. All the elevator shafts are filled with debris and out of service. I’m working on getting some pictures of the damage. I’m going to dispatch a service bot to the area.”

  “Okay. After you do that, send a transport ship to pick me up at the residential terminal,” the captain ordered.

  Enroute to the control room, the captain contacted the other on-duty first lieutenant.

  “Lieutenant, I want you to assign one of your lieutenants to investigate what happened and have them map out the full trajectory of the objects that hit us. I want to know where they came from. Also get one of the second lieutenants from the South to independently do the same analysis. I want a full history of all potentially hostile movements in this whole system tomorrow morning.”

  This task would be fairly straightforward as the North and South stations each had several wide spectrum cameras that tracked and logged all objects in the entire solar system. All the lieutenants had access to this information, and the other reconnaissance information recorded since the start of their journey.

  CHAPTER 64

  THE EARK STRIKE BACK

  The next day, Second Lieutenants Petya and Stas met via holoconference an hour before the meeting with the admiral. They wanted to go over what each had found in their independent searches overnight. They had mapped out the same trajectory for each of the two bombs and each correctly pinpointed the source of the bomb to be the asteroid that the humans call Cleitus. Stas found that the bombs originated on Ambrosia and were sent to Cleitus about six months before launching. He also found a satellite around P1 that was frequently sending heavy material to the asteroid Ambrosia. Petya had also found a base on P3’s moon where there was a small stockpile of heavy material and possibly more bombs.

  The morning meeting was held in the conference rooms adjacent to the main control room at the North and South stations. The two rooms were linked so that everyone could see everyone else, either in person or via holoprojection. Those present included all the first lieutenants, a few of the second lieutenants, Captain Agafya, and Admiral Nikodima. First to speak was Lieutenant Vanya with a description of the damage to the stations.

  “The first object was intercepted by three of our sweeper bots and detonated well over 100 miles away from the South station. Seven Eark were in transport vehicles nearby and were killed by the blast. The second bomb went undetected by any of our bots. It impacted the North station approximately three floors above the transformer. Six floors were breached and another fifty-three Eark were killed. We estimate that each bomb released an equivalent of about a hundred thousand megatons of TNT.”

  Following Vanya’s damage report, Second Lieutenants Petya and Stas reported on what they had found regarding the origins of the bombs. Next, Admiral Nikodima spoke. “Now that you are all up to date on what happened at our stations and where the objects originated, we must decide what course of action we should take.”

  Lieutenant Savva, who had taken over the life science department when Vensecosk left for P3, was the first to speak. “I lost my first child in the explosion here at the North station, and I say we make sure that that asteroid never fires another bomb ever. Let’s hit them with a beam of Sunlight so intense that that asteroid is eviscerated.”

  Raisa, from the South station, voiced in on one of the holoprojections. “We need to do even more than that. I say we do exactly what Savva has suggested but go further and take out the other asteroid where the bombs originated. We should also eliminate the station orbiting P1, which it sounds like is the source for their fissile material.” Everyone seemed to agree.

  Petya spoke next. “What about the moon around P3? We probably shouldn’t just let that go. We don’t want to get hit again. We need to eliminate any possibility of that.”

  Chevekov, now somewhat of a hero since his return from the P3 mission, was also invited to the meeting. He said, “I agree that we should eliminate completely the two asteroids and the P1 station, but before we destroy the moon around P3, maybe we should think for a minute. P3 is an amazing planet. We haven’t seen anything like it since our ancient ancestors roamed Timouri. We have not yet even begun to understand the diversity of life there, nor its origins. Also, we should consider that whatever is living in this system has been here for a long time, and we have invaded their space. Yes, they have attacked us, but maybe we gave them a good reason to attack.”

  There was a brief pause in the room as they all digested what Chevekov said. “You make a very good point, Chevekov,” Agafya said. “Maybe instead of destroying the Moon, we should make a pinpoint strike and just destroy the base.”

  Petya added, “Yes, I agree with the captain and Chevekov. I think we should destroy the moon base. We should blast a hole in the surface of the moon the size of the base.” He began drawing on the screen in front of him.

  His drawing was projected by one of the available holoprojectors for all to see. First, he drew a circle and said, “Let’s say this is the base. We take out a circular section just a bit larger than the base. Next, we laser out a pattern like this.” He drew what looked like a complete Stella Metentis around the circle. “We should also coordinate the attacks so that the two asteroids and the two bases are all destroyed at exactly the same time.” His idea was well received and agreed to by a unanimous vote.

  CHAPTER 65

  DEFENSELESS

  In the two years since the neutron bombs had left Cleitus to strike at the alien bases at the Sun, General Denton had been working on improving the launch systems. One of his goals was to reduce the time required to get bombs from six months to less than one month; this would require bombs to be stored at Cleitus, rather than on Ambrosia. The new launch pad loading system was complete, and construction on the new storage area at the core of the asteroid was in the final phases.

  Currently, Cleitus was about a six-hour shuttle ride from Ambrosia; the time required to travel between the two asteroids varied depending on where they were in their respective orbits. Since
the launch in 4858, General Denton made the trip to Cleitus every other month. With less than an hour to go before reaching their destination, Cleitus had just come into visible range on the forward display when there was a large explosion on the display. The pilot, Captain Philip DeLeon, announced, “That was our asteroid sir, I’m going to bring us in for a closer look.”

  Captain DeLeon spoke into his radio, “This is Rock Hopper 4 to Ambrosia base. Cleitus has been destroyed.” There was no response.

  As they approached the place where Cleitus used to be, they could see that nothing was left. They were unable to reach Ambrosia base on the radio and feared the worst. “Sir,” DeLeon reported, “we do not have enough food or fuel to make it back to Earth. We can make it to Mars, or there are a few colonies out here in the belt.”

  “Let’s see if we can reach anyone at the Mars base, Captain. I think that would be our best hope,” instructed the general.

  General Denton informed the Mars base operator and told her to make sure that General Gehlhausen got the message as soon as possible.

  With their last two bombs, most of their neutronium, and Ambrosia and Cleitus gone, people of the Earth had no remaining attack capability against the aliens. If, as the general suspected, the destruction of the asteroids was caused by the aliens, they had no way to defend themselves against another such attack. They were entirely at the mercy of the aliens.

  CHAPTER 66

  HOW DID THEY GET HERE?

  General Gehlhausen just walked back into his office after finishing his first of three meetings for the day when his secretary, Muriah, told him there were reports from the Moon that needed his immediate attention. LunarSat2 had taken pictures of the devastation. The entire lunar base was gone, and in its place was a sculpted canyon in the shape of the alien’s solar base. The general sat down with a heavy heart, as he had just lost several good friends and a couple family members.