by Janet Shore
Maria Katriel emerged from her hut clutching her back uncomfortably. She breathed in air full of freshness with hints of pine scents and flowers. Surely, this place must be paradise. Then, she looked up and saw Earth, distorted by the roof of the dome, and realized that this was not paradise, it was an experiment in bio-engineering whose goal was to help man survive off world. She climbed in her jeep to drive the short mile to the laboratory building. Normally, she would walk around the entire dome for exercise, but since she entered her third trimester, the jeep became essential even for short trips.
Maria walked into the laboratory. Dr. Michael Jones from the Exoplanet Institute got up from his console to intercept her,
“Maria, you shouldn’t be here. We can handle the experiment. You really need to rest. Didn’t Dr. Warwick tell you that you will be going into labor soon?”
“Mike, don’t worry. I just needed to get out for a minute. I didn’t intend to do any work. Dr. Warwick is coming by this afternoon to check me out. He has all the equipment necessary set up for the delivery. When the contractions start, I will be going straight to his medical clinic on the other side of the dome. I feel fine, really.”
Dr. Jones grimaced,
“Well, everything is normal here. Frank and Hans are at the West side fixing the barrier. There really isn’t anything to report, except those spaceships. They seem to buzz the top of the dome. Have you seen them fly over?”
“Yes, it is very curious why they have taken such an interest in this dome. There are dozens like it all over the moon. They haven’t seen as much activity as we have.”
Dr. Jones replied, “I know.”
Maria spent about a half hour at the laboratory, and then she returned home. Dr. Warwick was waiting for her. After a thorough exam, he gave Maria a serious look, and said, “Make sure you get to the medical clinic at the first sign of contractions.”
She gave him a wry smile, “Yes doctor.”
One of the biggest challenges for the experiment at Fra Mauro A was the grow cycles for the plants, and the sleep cycles for the animals due to the fact that the lunar day or night at any point on the moon lasts about two weeks. Two weeks of daylight followed by two weeks of night affects the crop yields in unusual ways. The insect activity, vital to the plants is interrupted, as is the frequency of the feeding cycles of the animals on the insects, plants, and each other. The designers of the experiment on Earth considered using artificial lighting to simulate the Earth’s 24 hour day and night even adjusting for seasonal changes. Technically, the lighting was not difficult to do, but the decision was made that if the biosphere could be made to work efficiently in a lunar day and night cycle without significant genetic modification, the result would be more important for future exoplanet terraforming. The Fra Mauro A team’s individual quarters had special lighting and sleep alarms to maintain their circadian rhythm on a twenty four hour cycle.
It was one week into the lunar night when Maria noticed lights outside the dome during her sleep cycle. She jostled Frank awake,
“Frank, look outside, there are some strange lights.”
Frank rolled out of bed, slipped on some pants and a jacket, and emerged from their hut. He gazed up at the sky through the dome. After a few minutes, he saw a strange green glow in the sky at the other end of the dome toward the medical clinic. He returned to bed,
“I don’t know what that green light was over by the clinic, but we can check the video monitors in the morning. It could have been one of those alien fly overs.”
Maria was concerned. The medical clinic was empty. Everyone was asleep in their huts. A Jazene spaceship was indeed hovering just outside the dome over the clinic. Suddenly, a transport beam penetrated the transparent dome without restraint, delivering a dragon-like shaped presence into the woods behind the clinic. The reptile moved through the thick brush, exploring its new surroundings. It would need energy to recharge, so it found a small flat rock next to a tree, and set up a device powered by a small nuclear battery. With the recharge station complete, the reptile gathered pieces of underbrush to conceal the device.
On Earth, at the Naples International Airport, Interpol agent Samir thought he heard a strange noise coming from the next room. He opened the door to see Ahmed’s device levitating in the air, lights flashing, speaking in Italian,
“They have arrived on the moon. We must intercept.”
The message was repeated over and over again. Samir summoned the rest of his Interpol team to witness the activity from the device. Someone suggested getting General Arnold of the Pentagon on the phone. The device did not stop. The conference call connected.
“General Arnold, this is Samir from Interpol in Naples. We need you to hear this.”
Samir pushed the triangular conference speaker phone as close as possible to the levitating object. General Arnold did not speak Italian. He looked around the room only to get blank stares and shrugged shoulders from both Major Sanders and Pedro Sanchez. The General responded,
“Samir, translate the message for us. We can hear that it is repeating the same phrase over and over again.”
“Yes sir. It is saying ‘They have arrived on the moon. We must intercept.’”
“Ok. Let us know if any other messages are spoken, or if the device does anything else.”
Samir replied, “Yes sir.”
General Arnold immediately contacted Dr. Matthews at the ALC,
“Dr. Matthews, our latest intelligence from one of the alien devices here on Earth has given a repeating message. These are the devices that belong to the Danali, the enemies of the Jazene.”
Dr. Matthews asked,
“What did it say?”
General Arnold replied, “It said, ‘The Jazene have arrived on the moon. We must intercept.’”
Dr. Matthews explained to the Pentagon group that they had heightened UFO activity from two distinct types of ships. He was very concerned that this new information may indicate that both sides plan to land soon. If they were enemies, then there was a clear and present danger to the ALC and all of its projects due to possible collateral damage in any direct conflict. Dr. Matthews was totally unaware that the surge in unusual activity at Fra Mauro A had anything to do with the cryptic message.
Inside the Frau Mauro A dome, the reptilian creature prowled around the outside of the medical clinic. Owls, squirrels, and other animals carefully observed the strange being. The animals scurried quickly away if the giant reptile moved in their direction. At the hut, Maria woke Frank for a second time,
“Frank. My water broke.”
Frank jumped out of the bed and quickly dressed, picked up the bags for the clinic, and loaded them in the jeep. By the time he came back in, Maria was ready and slowing making her way toward the door.
“Be careful, honey.”
“I’m fine, Frank.”
Frank alerted Dr. Warwick. They would meet him at the clinic. Both jeeps approached the clinic from opposite directions. The reptile dragon lifted his head when he heard the vehicles. The creature moved behind a tree. The jeeps arrived almost at the same time. The three made their way into the clinic. Maria got onto the delivery table. Everything inside was already in place. Frank thought he heard a noise outside. He went outside to check, and then came back inside. After a couple of hours, the contractions began in earnest. Outside the reptilian moved closer and closer to one of the walls of the clinic. The red creature moved seamlessly through the wall straight into the delivery room. Maria screamed her lungs out as she was giving birth. She opened her eyes to see Dr. Warwick smashed against the wall from a wide swipe of the giant lizard. She screamed even louder than from her birth pangs at the sight. Frank lunged toward the creature only to be swatted down like a fly. The red dragon stood directly in front of Maria’s womb ready to take the baby. Just then, a bright transporter beam came down through the ceiling enveloping Maria. The baby’s head was out. The reptilian creature shrieked and reeled from the brightness of the beam coming through th
e ceiling. Above the dome, one of the Danali ships was exchanging weapon fire with the Jazene that were circling the dome. The Danali ship was also responsible for maintaining the transport beam that sliced into the medical clinic with skilled surgical precision. As if the white beam had hands, the male child was delivered. It was a healthy baby exercising its lungs fruitfully for the first time. The lizard lunged at the child that was hanging in the air. Maria was hysterical, out of her mind with fright and horror. Suddenly, the transport beam and the baby disappeared. The Danali spaceship outside the dome had the child. The ship with child ascended vertically into the blackness of space. All but one of the Jazene ships followed in pursuit. Maria somehow freed herself from the table and ran past the lizard, out the door, into the wilderness of the forest. Crying, bleeding, beside herself with worry for her husband, her child, the doctor, and the entire Fra Mauro A project, she ran and ran. The forest floor cut her feet as she ran. The reptilian creature recovered from the energy surge due to the transport beam, and ran out of the door in pursuit of Maria. The beast let out an unholy sound. Maria looked over her shoulder but could not see anything. She ran into a clearing. Looking up she saw a spaceship approach very close to the dome. She heard another bizarre shriek from the creature. A transport beam came through the dome to return the red dragon to the Jazene ship.
Maria heard a low thundering noise that shook the entire dome. A very large Danali spaceship slowly moved into place above the dome. The last Jazene ship vanished at a high rate of speed. The Danali ship blotted out the sky. Through the dome, all Maria could see was white. The ship must have been at least twenty kilometers in diameter. Maria saw something flashing above the zenith of the dome. She stared at the bright pulsating white light for some twenty minutes as it grew in intensity. The sound of the ship was deafening. She covered both her ears, closed her eyes tightly, and crouched down on the forest floor as low as she could. Finally, the Danali ship sent a transport beam from its center through the dome that spread to cover the whole forest. Everything was colored white by the beam. The entire forest was transported aboard the large spaceship. Maria and her team, as well as all the animal life at the project, were transported. There was nothing left at Fra Mauro A except the original crater. The ship slowly receded into space on a trajectory for Earth.
Soon after, Dr. Matthews was made aware by one of his scout cruisers that the bio-dome at Fra Mauro A was gone. He felt great despair as he studied the empty crater. Telemetry information was streaming in to the ALC control center regarding the giant Danali spaceship making its way slowly to a lower Earth orbit. In conference with Dr. Jenner, and the Pentagon command and control team, Dr. Matthews lamented,
“Gentlemen, I’m afraid we are outmatched. Any technology that could transport a nine kilometer wide forest will possess such overwhelming power that nothing on Earth will be able to resist their will. I have no idea why they stole our experiment. We invested billions of dollars in the project.”
General Arnold added,
“I’m more concerned about what the Danali will do next.”
Inside the ship, Maria looked up from her crouched position. The dome was still intact. Through the dome there was nothing but blackness. She did not understand in what manner she existed. Could it be that she, her team, and the habitat were now stored as information on some computer, or were they still in physical form on the moon? Were they in physical form on a spaceship? If they were in physical form, were they normal size, or shrunk for transport? Whatever state they were in, the forest was still intact. Maria could clearly hear the hooting of the owls. Having just given birth, she was hurting badly. In the distance, she could see a glow. The shadows coming from the trees between her and the glow moved violently to the left then to the right. Maria prudently hid herself as best as possible in the nearby bushes. She found soon enough that she shared the hiding space with a number of animals. The glow grew brighter. She heard a kind of electrical sound as it moved in the distance. Whatever it was, it appeared to be searching for something. Her view was mostly blocked by the ground cover that hid her. Between the branches, she thought she saw a glowing white humanoid with smooth alien features. She only caught a glimpse for fear of being discovered, so she was not very sure of what she saw. Then, she heard a jeep and saw bright headlights approaching. Hans drove the jeep, and held a microphone that was hooked to a loudspeaker in the jeep,
“Maria, Maria, where are you?”
Hans repeated this over and over again. He looked around and did not see the white alien that was walking down the middle of the road from the other direction. At the last second, he tried to swerve. It was too late. The jeep collided with the alien. Maria heard the crash. The jeep got the worst of the encounter, instantly stopping, and throwing Hans from the vehicle. The alien was unprepared for the accident. The force field that could have protected it was not switched on, but the damage to its left side was not really damage. It was more like a dent that was easily popped back into place. While the alien took a few minutes to tend to itself, Maria rushed to Hans’ side. She lifted his head to see if she could bring him around. The alien saw her, and walked straight toward her pointing a device directly at them. She felt enveloped by a warm glow from the device. She heard a voice,
“Do not be afraid. This device will restore your injuries.”
Hans stirred as the warm beam cured his injuries from the accident, and a few internal diseases he did not know he had,
“What happened?”
Maria felt as if all of the malady and horror of her labor had suddenly left her,
“I don’t know. I think we are going to be ok.”
The alien spoke,
“I have restored your husband, Frank, and Dr. Warwick. They have returned to their quarters. I am Colora of the Danali. We are en route to your planet. We intend to relocate your experiment from the moon to Earth. You will need it as a sanctuary to protect you from the Jazene.”
Colora walked slowly along the road with Hans and Maria. Their fear had left them. They felt safe, secure, comfortable, and happy. As they walked, Colora explained that even as their ship made its approach to low Earth orbit, their warships were about to engage the enemy in interstellar space. Colora also mentioned that before their relocation they would be dropping off two people from Earth that were abducted thousands of years ago. These two travelers intimately knew the Danali. The coming effort against the enemy positions on Earth would require their assistance.
At the ALC, Dr. Matthews stared at the sudden alarms of unusual seismic activity affecting the entire moon. His eyes glazed over as the readings seemed incomprehensible. Without realizing it, he was witnessing the commencement of the war. The smaller Jazene ships were caught unaware of a trio of Danali ships which modulated space-time with graviton oscillations designed to destroy the Jazene by tearing apart the location they occupied. The echo of the graviton impact on those targeted locations caused outward ripples of gravitational waves. The moon was unfortunately too close to the battle. Buffeted again and again, the moon’s spin and trajectory were altered. The change was not enough for the moon to break up or come out of its orbit and crash to the Earth, but it was enough to change the stable tidal patterns on the Earth in a dangerous way. The flooding destruction from tidal tsunamis destroyed much of the coastline population on Earth. The rain disappeared from some regions. Other regions were inundated with flooding from the sky. Earthquakes increased as the moon’s tidal forces pulled at the crust in new and devastating ways. The major fault lines were ripped from their status quo causing widespread destruction.
Sweeping the smaller Jazene ships out of the way, the Danali fleet pursued the larger ships. The larger ships were not without a defense. They had a graviton deflector shield. As a tactical response, the larger elongated ships pulsated in an unusual way, shrinking their size, and emitting a gigantic fleet of additional small ships one hundred times the number that were destroyed by the graviton weapon. Like an insect swarm, the ships
surrounded the Danali fleet. After release, the source pulsated again and restored its original size. The moon displacement worsened, and the Earth wobbled.
Farther away, a much larger Danali ship rotated into position between the sun and the ships that were surrounded by a black swarm. The ship created a lensing effect of the enormous radiation from the sun. The power built sufficiently for the ship to emit a modulated beam of power which swept away the Jazene ships without damaging the Danali ships beneath. The force of the blast reached the Jazene ship that had teleported and contained the red dragon lizard creature which attacked Maria while she was giving birth. That ship spun out of control and hurtled toward the Earth. Most of the ships swept away by the blast were in a chaotic cloud colliding with each other as the three Danali ships came about for a graviton blast. The moon reeled from the blast, but the lasting damage to it was very limited. A good part of the ships were destroyed as their spatial locations were ripped apart. The remainder spun out of control toward the Earth.
Aboard the large Danali ship carrying Maria, Colora paused as he remotely reviewed the battle,
“Maria, many of the Jazene will crash land on Earth. They are plunging toward it now, as they have lost the battle against us. They will crash in random areas covering the globe. If they survive the crash, these Jazene will emerge as Peto did at Mount Graham, take a more human form, and hide in plain sight among the people of Earth. Beware the enemy that you encountered on the Moon. He is not done pursuing you. He has regained partial control of the ship and is steering it toward their stronghold in Syria. He will probably survive the hard landing now that they have regained navigation and thrust.”
Maria looked wide-eyed,
“What am I to do?”
Colora replied,
“Stay in this sanctuary and you will be safe.”