Kern’s vital signs were weak but stable. That indicated he had been injured but not severely. Pickett had no idea how many others had not been so lucky. The Vigilant, the Artemis, the Europa, the Oberon, the Izumo. Every major warship in the system had been destroyed, their crews killed. How many more people on Earth were also dead and still dying?
Pickett knew he would never be able to make sense of it, so he didn’t try. The Earth would never be the same again. He wondered if any of the other inhabited planets had also been attacked.
After orbiting for two hours, observing the rescue operation, chatter in his headset indicated that something was going on. He finally zeroed in on a single conversation that, if correct, meant that their problems were not at an end. A rescue ship had launched from a station orbiting Ganymede but had been unable to enter hyperspace. What did that mean? Were the aliens preparing another attack? Were they somehow blocking them from using hyperspace to prevent reinforcements from arriving?
Pickett scanned the chatter, trying to get more information, but no one seemed to know any more about it. He didn’t like being in the dark, but there was nothing else he could do. He’d just have to wait. They would all have to wait and hope that whatever this was, it didn’t mean another attack—or something worse.
34
IT TOOK SULLIVAN nearly two hours to get from where he’d dropped out of hyperspace to Earth orbit. He was stunned by the amount of wreckage around him. He’d watched the battle play out and knew the alien ship had been destroyed, but the toll had been horrific. He didn’t know why the alien ship’s shield had seemed to fail, but he guessed it was somehow tied in with the collapse of hyperspace.
He ordered the freighter’s autopilot to move slowly toward Earth. Dozens of rescue ships and fighters moved back and forth through the battlefield, the former searching for human survivors, the latter most likely for alien survivors.
Using his Bureau authorization code, he was able to get by unmolested. Even if he hadn’t had the code, he doubted too much fuss would be raised over a single freighter trying to make its way back to Earth.
Sullivan programmed the ship to return to New York. Jeff Ives was the only person he knew on Earth, so he figured his building was as good a place as any. He prepared to land on the top of the building across the street, but upon seeing the barricades and the dead aliens outside Ives’s building, he changed course and brought the freighter down in the middle of the street, his side hatch facing Ives’s building.
He raised his small energy pistol and opened the hatch. The first thing he saw was movement at one of the second-story windows. He raised his weapon but lowered it as he saw a woman already pointing one of the alien energy weapons at him.
“Is Jeff Ives here?” he called up.
The woman nodded, and Ives appeared at the window. “Sullivan! I’ll be right down.”
Sullivan waited next to his freighter, and a minute later Ives came out from the lobby. They shook hands.
“Did you do it?” Ives asked.
Sullivan nodded. “Yes. Frank helped me get an alien device off their mothership. I set it off, and it collapsed hyperspace.”
“You mean it’s gone for good?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Ives took a moment to process this information. “But it means there won’t be any more aliens coming through, right?”
“Yes. But Frank… he’s gone, too.”
Ives looked away, down the street.
“It looks like you’ve had a hard fight here.”
“We have. They got into the building at one point, but we managed to push them back into the street. Then our snipers at the windows finished them off.”
“Casualties?”
“All told, we’ve lost twenty-eight.”
“What’s the status down here, Ives? How many aliens are still on the ground?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t been able to get in touch with the Bureau. I don’t even know if there still is a Bureau.”
As Ives was talking, Sullivan swung his head to the right. One of the clawed alien creatures had appeared at the end of the street and spotted them. It rushed their position, and Sullivan raised his energy pistol, waiting for the thing to get within range.
He fired as it leapt, severing a leg. It fell but kept crawling toward them. Sullivan stepped forward, aimed his gun at its head and finished it off.
“I think we should get you to the Bureau,” he said. “They might be able to help evacuate the people you have inside.”
“I agree.” Ives turned to the woman behind him, the same one Sullivan had seen in the window. “Can you hold the fort, Gail?”
She smiled. “Of course.”
Ives smiled back. He followed Sullivan into his ship and they took off, heading for the Stellar Assembly Bureau of Investigation’s New York headquarters.
Sullivan landed the freighter on the roof of the building, and before they could disembark, half a dozen armed agents had surrounded the ship. Ives opened the side hatch, holding his badge out before him. One of the men recognized him and lowered his gun.
“Is Director Blanco here?” Ives asked.
“Yes, he’s in his office.”
“I need to see him.”
Ives and Sullivan were led into the building and to Blanco’s office. Director Leo Blanco’s eyes widened upon seeing Sullivan, but he quickly regained his composure and gestured for the men to sit.
“It’s good to see you, Jeff,” Blanco said.
“You, too.”
Blanco turned to Sullivan. “Richard Sullivan. We finally meet.”
Sullivan raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t know me, but I know all about you.”
Ives interrupted. “Sir, we have some pressing matters to attend to, but first I’d like to vouch for Sullivan.”
“How so?”
“He arrived back at Earth shortly after the initial alien attack. Since then, he’s been fighting to stop the aliens and the hyperspace entities.”
“The what?”
“That will take some explaining,” Sullivan said.
“At any rate,” Ives continued, “he’s the one we have to thank for bringing an end to the alien invasion. He collapsed hyperspace, closing their wormholes.”
Director Blanco eyed them skeptically for a few moments. “I don’t know what to do with that,” he said. “I’ll of course need a complete explanation as to how you did all of this, Mr. Sullivan.”
“I can provide that, sir.”
“As well as a full account of your activities with Frank Allen.”
Sullivan nodded. “I know that from your point of view Frank let you down, but after you hear everything, I think you’ll be proud of what he did.”
“We’ll see.” Leo Blanco stood up and pressed a button on his desk console. A few seconds later, three agents stepped into the office. “If what you say is true, I’m sorry to do this… but I really have no choice.”
The three agents stepped up behind Sullivan.
Blanco cleared his throat. “Richard Sullivan, you’re under arrest.”
Sullivan did not struggle as they handcuffed him and led him from Blanco’s office. Ives stood and stared at his director, barely able to contain his rage.
Blanco waved for him to sit, which he did, reluctantly.
“Jeff, I’m going to check out his story. But until I do, I can’t have a wanted murderer roaming free.”
“Sir, if it hadn’t been for Sullivan….”
“Look, do you have anything but his word to go on?”
“Yes. I have the word of Frank Allen.”
“Allen is on Earth?”
“Um… no, sir.”
“Then when did you see him?”
“It’s hard to explain. You’ll need to get the full story from Sullivan. I can try to give you the gist, but first I have injured people who need evacuating.”
Leo Blanco called in another agent and, after getting more details from Ives, sent t
he agent away with instructions to begin an evacuation of Ives’s building.
When this was finished, he leaned back in his seat. “All right, Jeff. I’m incredibly confused by all of this. I need you to tell me everything you know about what Sullivan’s been up to.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know that much. If you talk to Sullivan….”
“I’ll have Sullivan interrogated separately. I want to hear from you first.”
Ives nodded. He took a moment to organize his thoughts then began talking.
35
SULLIVAN LOOKED UP as the door to his cell opened. Jefferson Ives stepped in and smiled unconvincingly. Sullivan stood and shook the agent’s hand as the guard watched on.
“Hello, Rick.”
“Jeff. How are things progressing?”
Ives sat down on the edge of Sullivan’s bed. “Well, the Stellar Assembly is set to reconvene on Friday. It’ll be their first session since all this happened, and as you can understand, they have a lot to deal with.”
“Have any assembly members responded to your letters?”
“A few. But last time you were on Earth, you didn’t exactly ingratiate yourself to them. It might take a while before they even consider the request for a pardon. Director Blanco has really gone to bat for you, though. He’s a good man. I had a feeling he’d come around once he knew the whole story.”
“What else is going on? High-risk prisoners like me don’t get any access to the network. Is the network even still up?”
“Intermittently. Some of the communications satellites did survive the battle, and they’ve been repositioned to maximize their effect. Still, each satellite is handling twenty times the amount of data it was designed for.”
“And hyperspace?”
“Still gone.”
“I didn’t really expect any different, I suppose.”
“There’s a hypothesis going around that you might be interested in, though. Some physicist in Mumbai has the idea that the alien ship’s shield was dependent on hyperspace. It somehow wrapped a portion of hyperspace around it without actually entering hyperspace. Physics aren’t really my thing, but the idea seems to be gaining traction.”
“It makes sense. The ship’s shield failed after I collapsed hyperspace. Why else would that happen?”
“Well, if it wasn’t that, it was just dumb luck, I suppose.” Ives winked. “But I’ll give you the credit for that, too.”
Sullivan managed a smile.
“Oh,” Ives said, “radio messages have come in from some ships just outside the solar system. They were in hyperspace when it collapsed but close enough that they’ll make it to Earth. A few will need supply ships sent out to them, but one of those ships is a passenger liner. A thousand people aboard. They’ll have a long trip back, but they’ll be okay.”
“At least that’s something. I wish there had been another way, Jeff. A way that didn’t strand all those people in interstellar space. A way that meant Frank was still here.”
“I know. I don’t know if I would have been able to make the choices you did.”
Sullivan looked down at his hands. “Any luck communicating with captured aliens?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Not really. They’re ugly bastards underneath those suits, though. Wait until you see them!”
“I have. On the mothership. What will be done with them?”
“I don’t know. Life imprisonment, I suppose. What else can we do?”
“Kill them.”
“I don’t entirely disagree with you on that. But we could still learn a lot from them, even if it’s years from now. Technologically, they could teach us a lot.”
“And how about the people on the other inhabited planets?”
“It’ll be years—decades—before they’re received, but the Stellar Assembly has been sending messages to all the planets telling them what happened here on Earth and why hyperspace is gone. Without mentioning you specifically, of course. They worded it like, ‘steps had to be taken.’ You believe that? Like they did anything.”
Sullivan shook his head. “No, it’s fine. There are a lot of heroes, both alive and dead. Let this be a victory for all of them.”
“I understand your humility, Rick, but when the Assembly does get around to the issue of your pardon, it’s possible your name and what you did will come out. You’d best prepare for that. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if public pressure forces them to vote in your favor. You could be a celebrity.”
Sullivan remained silent.
Ives stood. “I’ll leave you alone for now,” he said. “I’ll be back in a few days. Anything you need?”
Sullivan looked up. “Yes. My handheld was confiscated. I don’t care about it, but it had pictures of Kate on it.”
Ives nodded. “I’ll get you copies of the pictures. Anything else?”
“A tablet with some books. It doesn’t have to be connected to the network, but if you could load it with the Discourses of Epictetus, I’d be grateful.”
“Philosophy?”
“It’s… something that brings me comfort. And it reminds me of Kate. We used to read it together.”
“Of course, Rick. I’ll load it with a selection of general Classics for you.” He stepped forward. “Look, I know I’m partly the reason you’re in here. In all the chaos, you could have just disappeared. I want to say I’m sorry for that.”
“It’s not necessary. You’ve been on my side through all of this.”
“All right, Rick. Then let me at least say thank you. Thank you for what you did. Thank you for the sacrifice you made. And thank you for being a loyal friend to Frank, even when he wasn’t himself.”
Sullivan nodded and looked away. Ives left him to his thoughts, knowing there was nothing else to say.
Sullivan lay down on his bed, staring at the glowing light panels above him. In an instant, the distance between him and Kate had gone from a few days to centuries. If he was ever let out of prison, he’d eventually build a life for himself. He hoped Kate would do the same. It’d be a couple decades before the Stellar Assembly’s message reached Faris and she knew exactly what had happened; he hoped she wouldn’t wait that long to move on. But she would move on. She was stronger than anyone knew. Even she didn’t fully know it.
The people around them had always seen Rick Sullivan as the strong one, the soldier, the freedom fighter, the man who did what needed to be done. But without her, he would still be the same miserable, vengeful man he’d been when he met her in Orion Zednik’s holding cells back on Abilene.
His thoughts drifted from his own loss to all the other losses. How many millions were dead? The bodies were still being counted. It’d be a long time before the full cost had been tallied. And how long would it take for people to realize what the loss of hyperspace meant? How many friends and families were forever separated? He was responsible for that. It was the only thing he could have done, but it was still on his conscience.
As he lay on the bed, every death, every loss he’d played a part in—directly or indirectly—seemed to form into a stone in his gut. How many fragmented lives was he responsible for? It was true that he was a better man now than he had been. But was he yet a good man? With all the misery he’d overseen, could he really say he’d ever served a righteous cause, or was the grinning Devil still beckoning him to cross that line between right and wrong?
36
KATE AND JENNY had found a field of tall corn and had been sleeping in their cars for nearly a week before the news reports said it was safe for people to return to the cities. They were still advised to proceed with caution, but the security forces were fairly certain all the alien attackers had been killed or captured.
A few days before this announcement, however, the news had reached them that hyperspace was gone. No one knew why or how, but it was widely suspected that the aliens were responsible. Kate tried to rationalize this but couldn’t. She knew these were the same aliens Rick and Frank had fought and also knew th
ey used wormholes. If her timeline was right, the wormholes had disappeared around the same time hyperspace collapsed. No new wormholes had opened, and the aliens seemed to have abandoned their attack.
For Kate, this meant something had been done to stop them. She also had a strong feeling that Rick and Frank had been the ones who’d done it.
She bid farewell to Jenny—they agreed to get back in touch after everything was sorted out—and returned to her home. She began removing the boards from the doors and windows. It was mindless work, and her thoughts kept turning to Rick. She knew rationally that without hyperspace there was no way for him to get back to her, but she kept expecting him to walk through the door with a crazy story of how he’d managed it. If she knew anything about Rick, it was that he had the uncanny ability to pull off the impossible.
She was also waiting for Frank. Even if Rick was stranded on Earth, why hadn’t Frank come to tell her what had happened? Did it mean hyperspace was truly gone, not just inaccessible for some reason? Was Frank dead? Could he and the hyperspace entities even die?
She had only questions but no answers. In her breaks from taking down the boards, she would turn to her father’s books on Stoicism for comfort. Once again, her logical mind saw the wisdom in the philosophy but her heart would not allow her to accept it.
A few times, she had the thought that this was worse than simply knowing that Rick was dead. But did she really believe that? If she simply never heard anything again, there was always hope that he was out there somewhere.
In the evening, she went out behind her house. She scanned the woods beyond her property line. She realized now that she could have gotten her car into the woods and the farms beyond from here; without Jenny, however, she simply wouldn’t have thought about it.
She looked up at the night sky. She hadn’t been on Faris long enough to know which stars were which. Her father had been an avid amateur astronomer, and from Silvanus she would have been able to name all the brightest stars. A program on her tablet would be able to immediately identify every star for her, but for the moment, she preferred not knowing. That way, any of them could be where Rick was.
Sullivan Saga 3: Sullivan's Watch Page 15