AREA 51: IMORTUM

by Stone,Kord

  Jerren was about to pull out of Anubisis’s head when he thought about the battleship sitting beside TDS 4 at the bottom of Area 51. Jerren sifted through Anubisis’s memories of that ship, Anubisis had been working on it for a few thousand years off and on. Apparently Anubisis had been able to board the vessel despite telling the military otherwise.

  Jerren saw the layout of the interior and what happened when Anubisis finally got the computer powered up. A cold chill ran down his spine and something went wrong with the memory, forcing him out of Anubisis’s head.

  Jerren stood there contemplating what he had seen.

  A second later Jerren was startled when he heard Inola’s voice say, tell nobody.

  “Why can’t they know?” Jerren asked.

  I have my reasons. Tell nobody for now.

  A moment later Eneria arrived on the ship. Jerren felt her approach and he turned and taking Eneria into his arms he asked, “Are you alright?”

  Eneria smiled up at him and said, “I am fine. I suppose your brothers told you what happened with him?” she gestured in Anubisis’ direction.

  “Yes, and even though he didn’t hit you it still makes me want to kill him,” Jerren hugged her tightly.

  Eneria sighed, “Actually he did hit me once, but he regretted it immediately. These suits are amazing. When I saw your brothers bleeding on the floor, I raised my armor and rushed in. Anubisis struck me in the face shield and broke his fist even worse than it already was. If your brothers would have had their armor up I doubt they would have taken any damage at all.”

  In an attempt to lessen his own irritation, Jerren asked, “So, how is Terrah doing?”

  Eneria frowned, “she seems fine for now, but the ship is another story however. We could not locate the AI. It looks as if it was uploaded into the binding disk, and moments before the ship powered down a transport was initiated.

  “The extended period TDS 4 was offline must have really done a number on the ship, I think it will be best to keep TDS 4 phased until we can get it to the pyramids generator at Daregon, and there is not enough energy to reset the system as long as we have it phased, so we will have to wait until the ship is on the pyramids generator to initiate the uploaded version of the AI. Terrah agreed and is in this engine room with her sisters at the moment.

  Alise entered the medical room with an entourage following her saying, “Everyone should be here in a moment. Then we can begin the interrogation.”

  “That won’t be necessary, I—” Jerren began saying.

  “What won’t be necessary?” Jason’s voice called out from behind the group who had just entered.

  Jerren turned to see Jason and Justin entering and he started over, “I was saying we won’t have to interrogate Anubisis, with him in stasis we can look into his head, and I saw what we need to know.”

  Jason looked impressed and asked, “How did you accomplish that?”

  “It’s rather easy actually. You do it the same as before only this time you need to use a tactile interface,” Jerren said to their confused stares.

  Jerren chuckled and explained what he did with the girl in orbit of Abydos, and what he felt, then Jerren said, “Put your hand on Anubisis’s forehead,” and Jerren explained the method he used to sift through the memories.

  Now understanding each of them approached Anubisis and one by one they attempted it. A few minutes later Calia said, “That is much easier than the other way,” Calia then looked from Terrah to Saleria then to Vellia, “I think the three of you should see this too, it is not pleasant, but…” Calia had left her statement open as Saleria, Vellia and Terrah stepped forward.

  After ten or so minutes, Terrah stepped back looking as pale as her sisters did, “What do we do with someone that sick and twisted?” Terrah croaked out.

  Jerren placed a hand on Terrah’s shoulder and he felt her unease lift. He noticed Jason and Justin had each done the same with his other sisters, and Jerren answered her, “We have orders from Inola, their entire family has been sentenced to death. I really didn’t wish you to see that, but you needed to know why we’re going to do what we have to.” Terrah nodded and Jerren asked Jason. “Do you want me to pronounce?”

  Jason nodded grimly at Jerren saying, “I can’t get close to him at the moment.”

  Jerren nodded understanding full well, because he was only barely able to refrain from ripping Anubisis to pieces over what he did to Jason.

  Jerren placed his hand on Anubisis’ head forcing him to remain silent. Jerren nodded to Jason and said. “Bring Anubisis out of stasis.”

  Anubisis’s eyes opened and Jerren recited his crimes and handed down the sentencing, “Anubisis-Atum-Osiris, you and your family have been found guilty of the following offenses:

  “The production of weapons of galactic destruction to ensure the subjugation of less advanced species.

  “The deification of selves and other family members to rule supreme as deities over less advanced species.

  “The willful and malicious torture and killing of an honorable and faithful steward of Imortum Time Dilation Ship five to gain supremacy.

  “The sedition resulting in the genocide of the Lantin people.

  “The torture and mutilation of innocents and less advanced species to force the servitude of less advanced species.

  Jerren recited Inola’s words once again, “These crimes being so heinous in nature, only one punishment shall be rendered upon you, and your progeny. The sentence is to be death, carried out in the humane technique set forth by the people you once counted as brethren. Do you have any final words before your sentence is carried out?”

  Jerren removed his hand from Anubisis’s head and with a calm and unnervingly cold and callous voice Anubisis stated, “When my Aunt finds out what—”

  Eneria stepped forward and cut Anubisis off, “Enyali has already been found guilty and her sentence has been carried out.”

  Anubisis scoffed at her, “Who are you to judge me!? You have no idea who I am. You may look like the Imortum, but they’re all gone and left us in charge… you have no authority here!—”

  “I GRANT THE AUTHORITY!” Inola’s voice rang out.

  Shaking off the ringing in his head and the seriously disturbing images that had just flashed through his mind, Jerren placed his hand back on Anubisis’s head, and had Jason place Anubisis back in stasis. A moment later Anubisis’s eyes closed and Jerren turned to face Jason and nodded, and another moment later a brilliant light flashed and Anubisis’s body was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The nine of them stood there in complete silence a moment before Jerren cleared his throat saying, “I think we need to move this to the conference room for our meeting and discuss our next steps,” The group agreed and they made their way to the second level.

  Jerren took his seat and Jason convened their meeting.

  Looking to the group at large, Jason asked, “Were the rest of you frozen in place?”

  They all shook their heads and Jerren understood it must have only been he who was locked down during Enyali’s execution. Realizing why Inola had done it Jerren said, “Inola locked you down, she did the same thing to me with Gebb, Nuit, and Enyali’s executions.”

  “Why?” Jason asked.

  “I would surmise for the same reason as me, to prevent us from inflicting damage on a condemned prisoner. I know you have every reason to wish to harm him, but it’s over now. At least where Bias U’san is concerned,” Jerren could see the tension ease a bit in his brother.

  Jason sighed and said, “You’re right.”

  Saleria said, “Why would you wish to harm him?”

  Jason looked down and Jerren could tell Jason was in no mood to explain, so Jerren answered for him, “When Jason was in the Air Force he worked in the Office of Special Investigations. He was captured by the enemy in Iraq while on a mission to determine if a terrorist cell had acquired an old Soviet nuclear weapon, and he was subjected to severe torture. We had no ide
a who Bias U’san really was until recently. Aside from being a genocidal maniac, he was also personally responsible for some of the more brutal torture Jason endured.”

  Jerren paused a moment and Saleria nodded solemnly in apparent understanding, and then Jason proceeded with their meeting.

  “Jerren, you said you found what we needed?”

  “Yes, Anubisis and Horuisis built the ship that’s encasing TDS 2. And there’s good news and bad news on that front. The bad news is the hull is comprised of a Tungsten alloy hybrid material that’s linking the Imortum technology from some of the dismantled pyramids generators throughout the ship. The Tungsten is like a superconductor, but the Imortum tech acts like a heat sink, not only with heat but energy as well.”

  Justin said, “That would explain why our weapons couldn’t do anything to damage the ship, what’s the melting point of Tungsten?”

  Almost immediately Vellia said, “The normal melting point of Tungsten is three thousand six hundred and ninety-six Kalvin,” While rubbing her eyes and temples.

  Jerren noticed the pain that crossed Vellia’s face as she spoke, and asked, “Are you feeling alright?”

  Vellia seemed to force a smile and said, “I’ll be fine for now. Since I ate the Ambrose my migraines have returned. They were managed by medications on Earth, but the meds must have been cleared from my system when I ate the Ambrose. The migraines have been coming and going. It’s not very bad at the moment, but everything seems brighter and I’m experiencing a loud ringing in my ears. Even the air and energy in the room almost feels more tangible. I could use some Toradol and Cyclobenzaprine, but I’ll be fine for now.”

  Jerren felt for Vellia, he looked at Jason and Jason gave him a slight nod, so Jerren continued knowing Jason would take care of Vellia’s medication needs.

  “While I’m impressed with your knowledge of the Tungsten, it doesn’t matter what the melting point is. I saw one of Anubisis’s memories where DARPA scientists affixed many types of metals to the hull of TDS 4, and once in direct contact with TDS 4, they couldn’t even produce enough heat to melt led. The heat transfer was complete.”

  Jason shook his head and sighed, “You said there was good news?”

  Jerren nodded, “Yes, Anubisis and Horuisis created the armor he was wearing using the same technique as the ship. The flaw I found was in the tensile strength of the Tungsten.

  “When Eneria fought Anubisis, extreme force from the impact shattered the bonds of his armor thus exposing him to injury. We noticed the same effect when Justin’s ship rammed the TDS 2 abomination, while we were retrieving the dark matter bombs. The impact caused pieces of the ship to fragment off.”

  Jason looked hopeful yet hesitant as he said, “So, you’re thinking we should go back to the original plan we had and use these ships to carve TDS 2 out of there and destroy the rest of the ship then?”

  Shaking his head slightly, Jerren said, “That may be possible, but I think we should still leave that as a last resort. We might consider another approach first. Once we have Terrah’s ship charged, we set it up with the Ion pulse generators like we did with these ships. Then we all concentrate our Ion beams at Horuisis’s ship and if we can bombard it with enough Ions we might get enough energy to pass to TDS 2, then we may be able to open the archway and enter TDS 2 from the master control room and breach that ship from within. Our first concern will be righting TDS 4 though.”

  Jason sighed and looking between all of them he said, “We need to ensure dark matter weapons are never made on Earth again. Neither Anubisis nor the U.S. government was aware of the potential of these weapons.”

  Eneria drew everyone’s attention as she said, “nobody knew the potential of the weapons, Horuisis had sent that first bomb to the Baeton home world, and gave Enyali orders to record the effects to see if they needed to up the yield.”

  Jason seemed to shiver and said, “Up the yield? Damn, as if that blast wasn’t bad enough… with the redirecting beacons around this solar system Earth wouldn’t have received our warning. Any ideas—”

  Saleria interrupted, “What redirecting beacons?”

  Alise said, “In the Earth year nineteen forty-seven, a spacecraft crashed in Roswell New Mexico, after the deaths of the Esulan aboard, their race pushed for the eradication of all human life on Earth. As I told Jason before, cooler heads prevailed and instead of eliminating the humanoid life, they placed redirecting beacons around this solar system to prevent alien signals from reaching the planet, or signals from Earth exiting the solar system. It also warns of the hazards of approaching the planet, but some species still tempt fate.”

  Saleria had thanked Alise for the explanation.

  Jerren thought about the General aboard his vessel and asked, “Would General Green have any information we could use about the events at Area 51?” Jerren noticed Saleria and Vellia looked nervously at Terrah.

  Terrah said, “He’s been stuck on that base for just over twenty years now, so he might. He was the base Medical Director but he was forced out of that position five years ago, and given non command duties.”

  Jerren asked, “Why is he still in the service, he should’ve been retired out years ago.”

  Terrah said, “I know it had something to do with the Secretary of Defense. He wanted me to apply for a reassignment before my next promotion, but he wouldn’t tell me why.”

  Jerren wondered what that could be about, then thinking it over, he had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with her security clearance, considering what she said earlier about receiving a SCI 4 clearance by years end.

  Terrah said, “I doubt if talking to the base commander of Area 51 would help, because the chain of command there is like nothing I’ve ever seen in the military. They compartmentalized the entire base. Special projects are controlled through the Senate Intelligence committee and are funded through a special congressional oversight. I was only granted modified clearance to investigate the original incident. You would need to speak with the directors of the NSA, CIA, Speaker of the House and the senate majority leader, and they would have to spread the word across the globe to the other leaders.”

  “What about the President?” Saleria asked.

  Terrah laughed and said, “Contrary to popular belief, the President is not privy to a lot of classified information.”

  Saleria looked doubtful, and Terrah added, “Plausible deniability, but if you want awe factor, you could transport him up here as well, but it would be most effective to do it when he’s in public so they will know there’s nothing they can do about it… A lot of people believe the president has power, but he’s actually limited in what he knows or can do.”

  Jason had a concentrated look for a moment, and Jerren was about to ask what was up when he returned his focus on the meeting.

  Jerren looked at Terrah and asked. “You said you needed to speak with General Green?”

  Terrah nodded, “He was our guardian after our parents died, and he raised us ever since we were nine years old. He is…” Terrah paused looking between Jason, Justin and himself, then continued, “Was…the closest thing we had to family.”

  Jerren looked around the group, “After they speak to the general, I think we should issue our warning, then we should head to Daregon. Are we agreed?”

  They all agreed and Jason summoned and closed the meeting with a smack of his absurdly large gavel, and everyone stood to get ready to leave.

  Jerren chuckled and asked, “Eneria, could you take them to General Green? I’ll be over in a few minutes.”

  Smiling Eneria stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed Jerren before saying, “Okay, I will see you in a few minutes.”

  Eneria left the room with his sisters in tow, and once the floor closed behind them Jerren turned to the others. Looking between Alise and Calia, Jerren stated, “I had a dilemma, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t make a mistake.”

  That drew everyone’s full attention and Jerren continued, “First off when we transported the s
oldiers up for their safety I found that there were ten aliens on the base as well. I placed them in decon aboard my ship, and after I transported the humans back to Earth I attempted to scan the aliens to see where they were from and their physical conditions. At that point they had been removed from my ship, and I think Inola must have done something with them. Secondly, I made a judgment call. Terrah was safely onboard her ship and when I transported the soldiers up I deliberately left her earlier self down on the base. I don’t know why I did that but—”

  Jerren was looking downcast when Alise cut him off, “You did the right thing.” Alise gestured to Calia, “We left her down there as well, if we would have saved her, there would now be two of her, and I am getting sick of paradoxes and that would have been just another thing we would have had to deal with later.”

  Feeling a little better Jerren brought up the third thing troubling him, “I think something’s wrong with Inola.” To their puzzled expressions Jerren explained, “I don’t know why, but when Inola called out the last time, I had the overwhelming feeling that she was becoming exhausted. It feels like she’s spreading herself out too thin. I also had an image pop into my head, I think she’s holding something or someone back to protect us… not just us, but everyone, and I get the feeling she can’t hold them off much longer.”

  Jason sat hard in his seat and said, “Damn, I can’t believe I didn’t realize it. Inola has taken control of me a few times now, and now that I think of it, she seems to have had less and less control each time. I was thinking she lowered her voice when talking to us because she realized it was too much. But now I think you’re right, she has used a lot of energy helping us.”

  Shaking his head, Jason seemed to find a new resolve. He stood, closed his eyes a moment and a second later the room was rearranged with five three by three cells situated in the middle of the room. He looked around with a determined expression, “Activate your armor,” Jason said firmly.

  Jerren did and the others followed Jason’s command then a moment later the room flashed brightly and erupted in yells.