A Drop in the Ocean

by James Cooke

  The rest of the Island flowed away from this central peak magnificently, like a lost world, wild and untamed. Although there were no trees on the Island but only lichens and ferns, the vast areas of verdant green were intermingled with larger areas of black cinder ash and rocky outcrops. Brian could sense that Sarah was struggling with the pace, so he asked Dr Carter if they could stop and take a rest.

  ‘Jesus Brian, I don’t know if I can go much further. How far is it now, anyway?’ Sarah coughed the words out, trying to catch her breath.

  ‘Not too far my dear, just over that ridge four hundred meters or so, then it's downhill all the way to the cinder cone. But we mustn’t stop here long; we only have about six hours of daylight left.’ Dr Carter replied. Sarah panted in exhaustion which Brian found, naively, surprising because he had merely assumed, she was fit, judging by her slim build.

  ‘Are you okay, Sarah?’ Brian asked.

  ‘Yeah, just not use to it I guess, there’s nothing like this back home. And the wind, oh my god does it ever stop blowing?’

  ‘Very rarely, I’m afraid; you just get used to it.’ Dr Carter replied.

  Lucy stepped forward to gain our attention.

  ‘I can hear it. I think we are close, but we don’t have much time.’ said Lucy.

  ‘Time, time for what?’ Jones piped up.

  ‘Does Jones know Dr. Carter?’ Brian asked.

  ‘Know what dammit, what the hell is going on?’ Jones retorted.

  ‘Tell him, Lucy, tell him what you told Dr Carter earlier.’ Brian asked.

  Lucy repeated what she had explained to Dr Carter earlier, and she went on the say, ‘and if the machine is ever activated, it will release millions of nano-bots which will quickly replicate ten-fold within three hours and carry on at that rate. When they encounter any life, plant, or animal, they will attack and destroy the very building blocks of life at the molecular level that you call DNA and RNA. All that will be left will be a residue of elements. I believe the term you use to call it is Grey Goo. At some point in time afterwards, the creators of those Nano-bots, the very same beings that you saw in the crashed spaceship in Canada, Brian, will return to earth. If they see that the Kel-Taire has worked and done its job, then thousands more will come and take ownership of the planet for themselves. They will have a completely blank canvass in which to make the world suitable for themselves.’

  Jones smiled and shook his head, disbelievingly.

  ‘On the basis that that grey goo is merely a hypothetical state of matter, never proven, I’d be crazy to believe that was even possible, No, simply put, I think you’re fucking crazy.’

  Dr Carter became agitated.

  ‘For god’s sake, Jonesy, calm down. Whether you like it or not, I believe it to be true. But don’t you see, we have the opportunity to save the planet, that’s why we’re all here, why Lucy is here. So, c’mon my old friend, let’s help them?’

  Jones appeared to calm down a bit, but Brian could see that he was still shocked, he knew it was a lot to take in and accept the off-the-cuff explanation, that’s just too bad, thought Brian. Turning to Dr Carter, he said, ‘Okay Dr Carter, there you have it. We’re all good to go, ready when you are.’

  Dr Carter sighed with relief.

  ‘Very well, in that case, follow me, it’s all downhill from here, so it should be somewhat easier.’

  Sarah raised a smiled and nodded in agreement. As they carefully traversed down the hill against the horizontal rain while negotiating the boggy terrain, Brian wondered what on earth he’d gotten himself into, once more.

  Brian suspected his workmates back at the depot would never be able to imagine this hell on earth of a place let alone being in the company of a beautiful alien android on their way to save the fate of humanity. Although it all seemed utterly surreal, he knew that in all seriousness this was for real and the task at hand was down partly to himself.

  ‘There, do you see it? That’s the cinder cone I told you about,’ Dr Carter shouted above the infernal wind.

  At last, at least a chance to get out of this howling gale for once thought Brian.

  ‘Okay Dr let’s get inside as quickly as possible, shall we?’ Brian shouted back.

  As they approached the cinder cone, Brian could see that it was in fact much more substantial than he’d imagined, but then, of course, it would have to be he told himself, large enough to accommodate a spaceship. To the uneducated eye, it was for all intents and purposes a miniature volcano with distinct sides and a near-circular rim.

  ‘I’ve left a rope ladder in place but it’s not very safe, it’ll only take off one person at a time.’ Dr Carter explained.

  Brian could see straight away what he meant, for the ladder was only supported by two metal poles hammered into the compacted ash of the cinder cone rim. Brian chose to go down last in order to remain vigilant until the last second in case anybody, that being Eghert and his men, saw them. He had a subconscious belief that no matter where you are, no matter how remote and isolated, somebody, somewhere, was observing you, however totally irrational that concept was. As he swung a leg over to descend, he had an ominous feeling that somebody really was watching them.

  Chapter 24

  ‘I’ve got you now, you meddling amateurs.’ Eghert muttered to himself, as he viewed six persons descend into the cinder cone, through his binoculars, from the top of the central volcano.

  ‘So that’s where you’ve been going all along, and as for you Dr Carter, I’ll deal with you later.’

  Eghert raised his fist and indicated to his squad to move forward in the direction of the cinder cone.

  As Brian made his descent, he couldn’t help but notice that it wasn’t as dark and ominous as it first appeared from the top of the rim. In fact, the shaft was illuminated by something that gave it a green appearance although he couldn’t see a light source. Fortunately, it was much calmer and warmer inside the cinder cone, which came as a welcome relief from the constant and heat sapping winds, topside.

  ‘See here; this is the main tunnel.’ Dr Carter said excitedly.

  Brian reached the bottom where the others were waiting and saw the tunnel Dr Carter had referred to, about eight feet in diameter and irregular in profile. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all the same, in that they resembled rock that had been specially carved out and not at all natural. They all set off down the tunnel with Dr Carter up ahead armed with a powerful torch, but as it happened, he didn’t really need one as the way forward was illuminated with the same green phosphorescent glow Brian had noticed earlier. After about a hundred feet or so, the tunnel opened out into a much larger chamber which again was illuminated in a vibrant shade of green.

  ‘Absolutely fascinating, isn’t it.’ exclaimed Dr Carter.

  ‘What the hell is this place, Dr Carter?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Well I don’t exactly know, but there are more tunnels and chambers like this, some of which have drawings.’

  ‘Drawings Dr Carter, what sort of drawings?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Over there, my dear, your friend Lucy has already found some.’

  Lucy stood facing the far corner of the chamber facing the wall. She appeared to be trying to read whatever it was on the wall judging by the motion of her hands and head. Brian walked over to her and asked her ‘What is it Lucy, have you found something?’

  Even for a layman, Brian could see that it wasn’t your typical prehistoric caveman type drawing but something far more complex, in fact, similar to a technical blueprint. Sarah noticed their interest and came over to join them.

  ‘Wow, what the hell is that?’ she asked gawping at Brian for answers. Jones had also joined the gathering and switched on his camera.

  ‘I’m afraid it’s no use trying to take pictures; they won’t come out, I’ve tried several times.’ Dr Carter explained.

  In front of all of them, in an area of about six square feet, was a detailed holographic image in phosphorescent green that provided a 3-D map of the tunn
el system they were in. Down one side of the map, an unrecognisable script suggested that this wasn’t of earth origin. Suddenly a video image appeared of a star and its solar system. It wasn’t their own sun. Six large planets orbited a giant star; Tau Ceti.

  Then they all saw something emerging from the middle planet, something swarming out, like wasps from a disturbed nest. As the objects came into view, Brian could see that they were the same design of space spaceship that Dr Carter had described before, each with several spheres all interconnected to form a cuboid shape. Not only that, before they bore a striking resemblance to the crashed space, he had seen back on the ice fields in Canada. The video images faded before returning, then another solar system came into view, a recognisable one, their own. A flyby type sequence then showed Pluto, followed by Neptune and Uranus and so on until it homed in on the big blue marble, Earth. As the flyby homed in further, they could see detailed images of clouds and oceans, then land masses. It seemed to be slowing down as it flew over Africa moving southwards, then back over the ocean. It continued to zoom in. Then a tiny land mass appeared, an Island, Marion Island!

  Brian recognised the peak with its black and grey cinder ash slopes. What he saw next made him shudder. Sarah gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Jones appeared stupefied, shaking his head from side to side. The detailed holographic images showed bodies, so many dead bodies, humans, and animals alike, what could only be millions if not billions of corpses and skeletons littered on all of Earth’s continents, in various states of decomposition. The worlds green flora gradually transformed brown, dead, and rotting. All life was seemingly being extinguished and disintegrating at a phenomenal rate. Earths’ natural weather systems, rain, wind, ice, washed away all that was left so that ultimately all that remained was ocean, rock, mud, sand, and dust. The image then panned back out to give a view of the entire planet just as thousands of the silver cuboid space spaceships approached Earth’s atmosphere.

  The next images were even more disturbing. On Earth’s surface, the same cuboid spaceships had landed, and their occupiers were emerging in their tens of thousands. Skinny bipedal creatures with oversized heads containing huge cold and black eyes could be seen surveying their new world after a long trip from their homeworld that orbited the star Tau Ceti. The entire sequence was seemingly some kind of planned event, of the fate that lay in store for planet Earth. The very idea that this was planned in such detail made it very disturbing and frightening at the same time, to all of them watching it.

  They were all left speechless at first, too shocked to say anything, the silence was deafening. They all snapped out of their deep thoughts, when Lucy reached forward, as if to operate something when suddenly the holographic images that they had been watching switched back into the 3-D map, showing a labyrinth of tunnels below the surface of a single entrance, the very cinder cone through which they entered the cave system. Deep within the holographic map, a single small yellow sphere blinked on and off.

  ‘There it is, the machine that I am seeking.’ said Lucy.

  ‘Thank god for that, you’re a genius, Lucy.’ Sarah exclaimed.

  ‘I am not sure what you mean Miss Hoosier, but what I can tell you is that it is the machine which I must destroy. Should it fall into the wrong hands and be accidentally activated, there would be no way of stopping its destructive capabilities.’

  So, it seemed that here it was, possible lifeline, a fighting chance to prevent a potential extinction event.

  ‘Wait I think I know where that thing is located if this map is correct.’ Dr Carter added.

  ‘Then what the hell are we waiting for, show us the way Dr,’ Brian replied.

  ‘Yes, yes of course. All the tunnels lead off, but eventually, they all arrive at the same large chamber, just where that source is, your doomsday machine Lucy.’ Dr Carter explained.

  Dr Carter led the way through a series of tunnels which were fortunately still illuminated.

  As they ventured further and deeper into the labyrinth, it became noticeably hotter and necessary to discard the heavy outdoor coats they had been wearing. Eventually, they arrived at the central chamber, which opened up into a vast inner cathedral complete with giant stalagmites and stalactites. The appearance of the underground chamber was genuinely stunning, unlike any other chamber on Earth. The surfaces of the walls, floor, and ceiling were pulsating in different colours and which flashed across the walls and ceiling of the chamber like a film of motor oil on the surface of the water, only much brighter, provided for a breath-taking electronic light show.

  Brian moved closer to get a better look. A green light pulsed across the surface like lightning in a random fashion every second or so. There didn’t appear to be any embedded circuit on the surface in which to conduct the light pulses, which made it all the more strange. As they all stood, gawping, at the spectacle before them, it was Sarah who first noticed it.

  ‘Hey Brian, all the light pulses appear to be going to that area over there, can you see it?’ Sarah exclaimed, pointing to a spot in the centre of the floor.

  Before we could stop her, Sarah was already crouching over the spot and was moving her hands over the surface. Then without warning, something unexpected happened.

  ‘My god, her hands, do you see that?’ Dr Carter said excitedly. The green light was tracking up Sarah’s fingers as if they were conductors. As a pulse flashed up her fingers, I could see the shape of her bones within her hand. Suddenly she raised her head back as if in shock. Brian quickly grabbed her and pulled her away. She was breathing heavily but otherwise appeared to be okay.

  ‘For God’s sake Sarah, what were you thinking, are you alright?’ Brian asked.

  ‘Yes, I think so, I’m not sure why I did that, it felt weird, not painful just kind of tingly. Then I could see some images; it was utterly horrible, dead people, everywhere, what I would imagine to be billions of corpses. Then you pulled me away, and I must have disconnected from it.’

  ‘Hey guys, I think you might want to see this, something is moving where Sarah touched the floor.’ Jones piped up.

  A circular area of the floor, about eighteen inches in diameter glowed green, and then it slowly moved upwards. They all stood back as a circular pillar emerged from the floor until it was about four feet tall, and then it stopped. The top of the pillar was supported by what appeared to be green rods except they weren’t solid but instead resembled laser beams. A deep humming noise emanated from the object.

  ‘What the hell is it Lucy?’ Brian asked.

  Lucy glanced across to me and said, ‘It is the protective cage, for the machine.’

  Before she could explain any further, Sarah replied ‘What do you mean a cage, Lucy? To protect what?’

  ‘It contains a Kel-Taire, a machine used by my creators to terraform a planet after it has been activated. Once it has been activated, the reaction cannot be stopped, and eventually, you and everything will die as I have already explained. Fortunately for you, there are some who disagreed with the whole idea of destroying life on other planets. These individuals, a secretive group, sought ways to prevent this from happening. In doing so, they came up with the idea of sabotage and created me and many others like me. I and others like me were designed to blend into your society unnoticed and destroy any remaining Kel-Taires before they could be used.

  Now that I have found it, I must destroy it, but I am afraid that is not going to be very easy to do. If for any reason I should fail, it will be up to you. That will require the complete destruction of this Island by effectively vaporising it.’

  Jones shook his head in disbelief, ‘Whoa hang on a minute, are you serious? You mean like nuke the place?’

  ‘I do not know what nuke means, but the ambient temperature must be raised by at least two-thousands of your degrees Celsius in order to completely destroy the contents of the Kel-Taire.’

  Dr Carter appeared fascinated by this revelation.

  ‘Two-thousand degrees you say. Fascinating. To do that, it
would take an enormous thermo-nuclear explosion, something in the order of a hundred megatons. As far as I know, not even the Americans or Russians have ever made a thermo-nuclear weapon of that size.’ Dr Carter added.

  ‘Well that’s fascinating, Dr Carter, but basically, we’re fucked then unless you happen to have a whopping big hydrogen bomb laying around somewhere?’ Sarah lamented.

  ‘Hang on a minute, am I missing the point here? If this thing hasn’t yet been activated, surely, it’s just a case of taking it away to an incinerator or something like that, problem solved?’

  ‘Yeah, that sounds like a great idea Brian, all this talk of blowing up the Island is utter madness, I’m with you,’ Jones chipped in.

  ‘C’mon then, what are we waiting for?’

  ‘Brian! BRIAN!’ Sarah screamed.

  ‘What’s up, Sarah?’

  ‘Just listen for a second. Lucy hasn’t finished, she’s trying to tell you something.’

  Brian rested his hand on Lucy’s shoulder, who was stooped over and still checking the Kel-Taire.

  ‘Lucy, what is it, what’s happening.’

  Lucy disconnected from the Kel-Taire and stood up, turning to the group she said, ‘It is too late, this machine has already self-activated. There is no way of stopping it now unless it is destroyed as I explained.’

  Brian, Sarah, and Jones all goggled at Lucy, as if she had just passed the death sentence on them.

  Dr Carter was still in deep in thought, and then snapping out of it he said, ‘There might just be another way. It might just work.’

  ‘Just a minute everybody, before we all get carried away with destroying the Island, how much time do we have Lucy before that thing activates?’ Brian asked.

  Lucy touched the top of the cage; instantly, light circuits tracked into her hands.