Railgun: Earth under Siege

by Luis Robles

  “How did you build that, Grandpa?” I said in disbelief.

  “Everything, no matter how complicated it may seem to be, is possible; all it takes is a little dedication, time and some real effort to bring it to life.

  Then my attention shifted to that one wall which had blueprints on it for some kind of round device, with lots of arrows all about it and a couple of really big math problems behind. The way I saw it, it was taking up the largest area and had the most markups and second drafts around it. It seemed important at first glance. The table in front of it had some touches of dust on the tools towards the wall.

  Amadeus walked along the tabletops and sniffed at various objects while I browsed.

  The blueprint wall with all that work tied to it just looked so important. I asked, “What's that thing?”

  “Why, that's the engine that your grandmother was working on... It was her life's work, an engine that could sustain itself indefinitely with just the smallest push.”

  “Wow! How does it work?” I wondered.

  “Well, it was never complete. Her base idea was sound... In layman's terms, it starts with solar radiation, and self-produces material for micro-fission, which in turn would fuel micro-fusion and repeat ad nauseum... but it just didn't receive the kind of attention to complete it. No one thinks it’s possible... and then we got old.”

  “I could finish it!” I offered, feeling that such a task would make my granddad so happy. I didn't understand half of what he just told me, but it sounded easy!

  “Oh, you think so?” My granddad looked a little surprised and amused by my words. After a moment he laughed, “Well, I think you'll need a lot of work to build up to it, but you can certainly give it a try someday, if that's what you want to do. I would be very proud, that's for sure. This could very well be the thing that will save the world from itself,” he said.

  “Hey, you don't think I can, do you?!” I said to him, astounded he could think so little of his granddaughter.

  “Oh, quite the opposite, Jaika. I believe you can. I was just amused because you have such confidence. It's a wonderful trait, but so rare! It will take a lot of you to finish Grandma Jing’s work. She was no beginner in the world of science, after all. But as I told you, it’s all about hard work and dedication,” he told me as he teasingly rubbed my already unkempt hair. “And this thing right here, it will definitely need someone special, someone like you, to get it all done,” he said assertively.

  “Will you teach me how to make androids too? I need to learn a lot to do that, don't I?” I asked, readily accepting his explanation.

  “One step at a time, Jaika. I will teach you one step at a time, but robotics requires a lot of different skills as well. We will start small and progress over time to bigger projects. Does that sound fair to you?”

  I was a little disappointed but I saw where he was coming from. I lowered my eyes for a moment and gave a sigh before looking back up at him. “Alright, I'll try my best,” I told him, giving him my best mature adult tone I could put on.

  * * *

  The day went by fast after that. I lightheartedly pestered my grandfather for more pop-math quiz style questions he promised would help me make robots, while Amadeus played classical music to us.

  When it was the afternoon, we made a call out to my parents, who were happy to hear from us. They didn't have much time to talk though. It seemed they had to make a lot of preparation. They were arranging an entire speech to say to the aliens...well they told me not to call them that. My dad spent most of the call telling me how cold it was in Russia. Mom just laughed and said that he didn't pack enough clothes. When I passed the receiver to Granddad, he just told them everything we had done so far and confirmed that I was taking my medicine, and all of that.

  They tried their best to be as normal as they could be, but I knew that it must have been just as scary for them. It was silent, but we all knew what we wanted to say to one another. Only Granddad had the courage to mouth the words at the end of the call, “Be safe,” he told them. “Good luck!” I called after, which I felt was the same thing as what he said.

  “We will! Be good, now! We love you!” they called back. The call ended, and I could tell that it made everyone very happy. In a way, I was excited for them. They got to meet cool aliens…not aliens, extra-terrestrials.

  For dinner that night, we had my grandpa's traditional milkfish. Dad always told me that it was his specialty, but I hadn't ever had it myself. When Granddad heard that, he pulled out the ingredients right away with much more energy than I would have expected. He seemed to be in a good mood then, and after talking to my parents, I was too. I helped him set the table. The dish had fried shallots, garlic, coriander and scallions alongside the deboned milkfish. He proudly told me that most of the ingredients were taken from his greenhouse. I ate it thinking about my dad, and how this was his favorite meal growing up. Granddad told me more about dad's younger years, and I felt even brighter. With my small stomach, I got full real quick but pushed myself to clear the plate.

  We tried to watch something on the holographic display, but nothing was being covered, just updates about the ship, which seemed to be not doing much of anything. It was still. With it, so was our entire world. Even the rerun of children's broadcasts I loved was interrupted or had a running banner along the bottom of the display with updates. The entire world was watching.

  Granddad was sick of that quickly, so we both went to bed early. Amadeus acted as a guardian to me, and I convinced him to teach me some more things about science. Mostly, it was just random facts about chemicals I could hardly pronounce, but it made me feel like I was getting closer to my dream, and helped me sleep.

  For that night, things seemed like they'd be okay. I felt like our future was bright. Different than I had thought before the ship came, but... okay, and that was good enough for me.

  That feeling didn't last the night. I woke up the next morning feeling strange, like I forgot something. Amadeus did not come to wake me up, so I headed out of my room and went looking around for my granddad.

  I found him before the overhead projector. It was showing Russia. An open field, I remembered it clearly. It was the grey sky, the tall and oddly graceful figures that came out from the craft. Clothes draped on them like in an old painting with a multitude of transparent wings along their backs. Some of them were in jagged suits with strange colors. They made my head hurt, but they were... perfect to look at. I had never seen one of them before.

  “Where's…Mom and Dad?” I asked Grandpa.

  My eyes widened in horror as the reporter tried to explain quickly to the broadcast, to us, that it was over.

  “The diplomacy has had a… a major setback, I'm hearing. It's a very tense atmosphere here in Russia today...The bodies of the diplomats will be lain to rest…”

  She continued but I couldn't hear any more. It didn't matter what else had to be said. They couldn't have been talking about my parents, though. There were other diplomats, right? Of course. I was overreacting, I told myself. That wasn't them.

  Then the phone rang. Granddad went to pick it up with shaking legs.

  My heart was beating out of my chest. I needed to keep listening to the broadcast. I crawled up to it, my face tilted up just inches from the projected reporter.

  The creatures approached towards the woman on the display. She seemed deeply shaken by what was happening as they demanded in a very clear spoken Russian to talk to the world. They were almost polite. I didn't get to concentrate.

  My grandfather started to cry on the phone. His shoulders shook, and he began to fall forward, clinging onto one of the magnet stools. I heard the sound of his sobs and ran over to hug him, trying to hold him up with my small body, finding my face hot with tears. I started wailing into his coat.

  I was surprised by myself. I couldn't even begin to understand what life would be like after that. My mother and my father were taken from me in one day. My body was numb. It was angry. It was the sca
riest feeling I had ever experienced, and probably ever will. My hands were weak as they clung onto my grandfather's jacket for support.

  He tried to tell me everything would be okay. Amadeus tried to say something to us, as well, but I couldn't hear. Not with what had happened.

  I wanted to go back to sleep, pretend it was all a bad dream. Maybe if I woke up, it would all be back to normal, and none of it would have happened.

  Amadeus tried again. He told us that something was happening. My burning eyes lifted to see what. The display translated the creature's perfect Russian to Taiwanese Mandarin.

  “Our people will begin your Judgment, starting today. Look deep inside yourselves, each of you, unique creatures... Are you truly a force for good in this universe? Not as a whole, but as individuals. We must find out, for the good of everyone. We understand that this will take some time. We will help you find peace in the universe once again. Do not try to speak on behalf of anyone else, for that will be the end. From this day forth, fire will rain from the sky.”

  The broadcast cut out. The lights flickered across the house, but stayed on. An undercurrent of electronic sound that I had never even really paid attention to died out with a rattle.

  “Look!” Amadeus shouted and ran over to jump up to the kitchen window.

  The lights across the city faded like they were hit by a wave. Cars and public transport veered, crashed. There was a rattling in the chaos, and then for a brief moment, everyone fell quiet and the surroundings turned dark.

  Even the great Dragon Granddad had designed, like an enormous fan spinning a hundred miles from here, the machine that allowed us all to make use of the world's waste, slowed to a stop.

  My grandfather fell silent, his eyes distant .I knew that he wanted to speak, he wanted to speak his mind, but he was holding it back. I knew that it was all bad. I couldn't stand it.

  “NO!” I screamed out and ran to the door. I didn't know what I was doing, I just felt as though I had to do something. I tore open the door with my thin arms and tried to run, but there was a storm starting and the wind nearly pushed me over. The air felt harsh to breathe.

  Despite everything that he had gone through, everything that was happening, Granddad found the energy to follow me and grab my shoulder to pull me back. He managed to get over to me even with his bad knees. I'm sure it had caused him a lot of pain to do that.

  “JAIKA!” He closed the door behind us. “YOU'LL DIE OUT THERE... Listen to me, I won't lose you too. We have to stay together through this,” he said, drawing me close to him into a hug.

  Tears once again spilled from my eyes. I was powerless. “I can't let them take everything from EVERYONE!”

  “I know... I know...” he said to me. His voice cracked with wear and pain. “We won't let them... You're right. But we need to be smart if we're going to get through this...”

  “Grandad,” was all I could manage.

  I didn't know if he meant through the invasion or through the excruciating pain we were feeling at that moment. I believed he meant both.

  As soon as he said the words, he hurriedly directed us into the workshop, with Amadeus leading the way. I wondered how the hell he was still working, in the back of my mind.

  Grandfather fumbled as he operated a few codes into the wall. As soon as he did this, some generators turned on, and the hum of electricity returned to the walls properly. I looked around in complete shock. Outside, there were still no lights. Then my heart started aching in my chest, overwhelmed by the surge of emotions. I became frantic, rubbing my chest with my tiny hand as I paced back and forth.

  Grandpa turned to face me, and he held me in my arms. He then reached through one of the pockets of my jumpsuit to offer me my medicine. “Jaika, we’ll be fine…we’ll be fine,” he said and then rubbed his face. “We just have to focus for now.”

  “What will we do now?” I cried after I managed to swallow the tiny tablet that Grandpa had given me.

  “Amadeus, go around the house and pull down all the storm shield that we have; secure the perimeter. Go outside and come back with a full report. I want to know what is working and what is not, outside and inside the complex,” Grandpa ordered without hesitation.

  “At once, Dr. Liu,” Amadeus replied as he ran silently.

  “Jaika, we have to stay here where it is safe for now. If what just happened is what I think it is, we are in a lot of trouble. I think there was some sort of global EMP attack.”

  “EMP?” I managed, feeling a little better after taking a dose of propanolol.

  “An electromagnetic pulse, or at least that’s what it seems like.”

  Soon, he spent most of the time completely enraptured by math and would barely lift his head from the books. Until Amadeus returned.

  “Dr. Liu, may I give you my report now?” Amadeus asked.

  Grandpa nodded and Amadeus continued as he got close to us and finally sat down in the middle of the room, where we were.

  “The complex is secured. Most of your own technology, as well as Xīwàng tech, is operational. As far as common and conventional technology goes, well they have stopped working completely. However, I was able to detect some old tech still working, such as the antique payphone, and I can even sense some radio frequencies in the air. If my assumption is correct, only modern tech has been affected,” Amadeus said without a doubt. “Things aren’t looking so great outside, I am afraid. There is a lot more movement than it should be. I was able to hear people panicking and some mobs were already forming all over Taipei,” he added.

  When he heard this, Granddad turned and walked to the old bookshelf in the living room. Looking just for a few minutes, he was able to pull out an old, antique radio.

  “Grab me some gel power sources and my bag of tools,” he said, looking at Amadeus.

  A few minutes later, Amadeus came back with a pouch, and Grandpa started working on the antique radio and got it to function within a little while.

  It was all so strange to me. I knew that my grandpa was intelligent, but to see him work with such precision and skill had me speechless. And the radio, which he had called CV, I had never seen such kind that actually works. It was muffled sounding, as though the audio were in a different room and not actually there.

  Granddad lightly adjusted the tuning a bit until we were able to clearly hear what the radio had to say. “All electronics had stopped working,” the radio explained to us. I wondered who broadcasted on that old thing and why anyone would bother to say anything in such chaotic time like that.

  “Looks like the days ahead will be tougher and bleaker. I guess it’s time to rouse my old, dusty mind,” Grandpa said with a heavy sigh.

  * * *

  Amadeus and I stayed in the workshop with him for days. I watched my grandpa work; he was taking down notes furiously, flipping through books, trying to find something that seemed lost. Every now and then, I would grab a mathematic book; even at a juvenile age, they seemed to be getting easier to understand. Amadeus would come and go more often than me and Grandpa, as he made sure that we both had enough to eat, even when we didn't want food.

  One of the androids would occasionally go out to purchase emergency supplies for us. Sometimes, it would come back in disrepair but still able to bring in the needed goods, at least. It would manage to procure a couple of living chickens and rabbits, for an extensive price, and the other androids would take care of them with the plants below.

  Nothing seemed to be working anymore from this era, unless it was connected to our walls. Granddad created a unique network for transferring current that wasn't based on the typical circuit board. It was like a flowing river of energy and information. He called it GEL.

  The rest of the world didn't have the luxury, and my heart felt heavy over that. I just wanted to give to them some of what we had. I went as far as telling me my grandpa that we should open our doors to the rest of the world to try and help, but he argued that it was far from safe.

  “When in fear, or
despair, a human brain is anything but sane. If only there was a way that we could stay safe and still open the doors to the people out here, we would do it. But there is not, at least not yet. The best thing we can do is focus on the task at hand,” Grandpa would explain to me.

  The radioman called it a “pulled plug” from the world. The man seemed to find it clever, in a dark and sad kind of way. Every night, the darkness seemed like too much to bear out there. Fires became the only flickering lights to be seen in a city that was once so full of color.

  It didn't take very long. Over the course of a few days, after the world became “unplugged”, radioman told us that there were groups of aliens that were rounding up people and taking them into their ships. People were resisting, sending missiles and bio-warfare and whatever else they had to try and kill these beings. But anything that was fired at the craft would simply stop as it got near the ship. It seemed their shields were more than enough to deflect the people’s onslaught. The ship did not react to anything thrown at it; it did not move a single inch, not even to retaliate.

  We kept our connection to the outside world through Granddad’s unfaltering CV. We learned that the creatures call themselves Keepers or Miriu. We learned that while the human race made drastic efforts to relinquish the enemy, the creatures did not waver, not a bit. They simply let it happen and continued to carry on with their abductions at a casual pace. Once taken, not one of the captives was seen ever again.

  * * *

  For many years, we locked ourselves up inside my grandfather’s dwelling. After all, going outside became too dangerous. People from a distance were frightening. When androids were sent on errands outside of the walls, sometimes they wouldn’t come back. When they did, it was mostly disappointing, never having quite everything that we had sought. More than that, as the only functioning home in the area with working lights, and with a known wealthy and intelligent figure like my granddad inside, we surely were an easy target of scares.