Jimmy's Dreams: Some Dreams Are Nightmares

by Saxon Andrew

  “How long will it take for the missiles to hit, Sir” Juan asked.

  “They’re incredibly fast and they will hit in less than four seconds from eighty-miles out. They’ll penetrate the asteroid’s surface and detonate five seconds later. You’ll have less than ten seconds to escape.”

  “Why have you set the launch at eighty-miles?”

  “Colonel, the Chinese will be firing on the first asteroid at that exact moment.” General Willingham looked at the three members of the crew and the six Navy Seals sitting with them, “I believe that if these aliens are determined to stop us, they may start hostilities before the Chinese can fire their missiles.”

  “Sir, you might want to consider another launch point,” Juan suggested.

  “What would you suggest, Colonel?”

  “What’s the maximum range of the missiles?”

  “A hundred and eighty miles.”

  “Then a hundred miles out is when we should launch.”

  The General stared at Juan and said, “The Chinese and Russians may not be pleased if our attack damages their shuttles.”

  “I think their shuttles will be attacked before they can launch, if there really is an alien craft out there.”

  “What do you intend to do, Colonel?”

  “I’ll be keeping a close eye on the Chinese Shuttle and if it shows any indication of something out of the ordinary, I’m going to full power to the engines and move toward the asteroid at full speed. I’ll launch immediately if we see anything approaching our shuttle. I’ll follow the three missiles in and go over the top of the asteroid at full speed. If I were an alien planning to attack the shuttles, I would start moving toward the Chinese Shuttle from the port side first, take it out, move toward my shuttle, destroy it and continue on that path to take out the Russian Shuttle. If I surprise them by moving out of their path quickly enough, they’ll be forced to make a choice of chasing me or continuing after the Russians. I think they’ll see that stopping me before I can launch is likely not possible. At least I hope that’s the way it plays out.”

  The General stared at Juan and said, “Do what you think is necessary Colonel. I’d keep the engines hot if I were you.”

  “You can count on that, Sir.”

  “Any questions?”

  The crew began asking what made the General think there was an alien ship and he began showing images from the Hubble Space Telescope. In an hour, they knew they were going into harm’s way at full speed.

  • • •

  Captain Wisecup looked over and said, “I understand you ordered the rangers and their weapons to on board the shuttle.”

  “If we have to open the bay doors for them to use their weapons, we’re probably dead, Gary. The only chance we have is to hit the engines and run. Getting the six of them off along with their recoilless rifles reduced our mass several tons and allows us to accelerate faster as well as carry additional fuel.”

  Gary nodded and looked at his panel, “Sixty seconds to lift off.”

  Juan sat back and gripped the chair arms. Rendezvous with the asteroids was four days out. He wondered what Jimmy was doing. He knew he had to be worried about his dream being changed. He felt the shuttle start shaking and after what seemed like an eternity, the shuttle lifted off and accelerated at eight gravities. It was the longest ten-minutes in Juan’s life.

  The main booster fell off and the second stage ignited. The shuttle was several thousand pounds heavier than ever before because of the extra fuel tanks installed. Juan decided the extra fuel was more important than being lighter. “Russian and Chinese Shuttles are approaching from the port side, Sir.”

  Juan saw them on the monitor and felt the second stage separate and fall away. A small engine added to the rear of the shuttle ignited and the shuttle lept ahead at high-g’s and after ten minutes, it dropped off and the shuttle moved out at high speed toward the two shuttles moving toward it at an angle from their launch on the other side of the planet. The three shuttles used their bow thrusters to turn together toward the incoming asteroids. Right now, they were just small specks of light but they began growing quickly. Juan said over the intercom, “Settle in and make yourselves comfortable. We have four days before anything happens.”

  • • •

  They were twenty-four hours from their launch positions and Juan stared at the asteroids in the distance. They were getting larger by the hour and the closing speed was incredible. “Sir.”

  Juan looked over his shoulder and saw Lt. Green staring at him from behind her missile control panel, “Yes, Mellie.”

  “I don’t want to die. I’ve never been kissed and I do want a family. I’m going to miss all of that.”

  Juan sighed and looked at Gary sleeping in his chair next to him. “I think all of us are misfits of some sort, Mellie. I find it hard to believe you’ve never been kissed.”

  “Comes from being raised in a conservative Christian home and being too darn picky. I though being chosen for this mission was a giant boost in my career.”

  “You should have told the General you wanted out when he offered it to you.”

  “But what is going to happen on Earth if these asteroids aren’t stopped?”

  “Death will happen either incredibly fast or dying slowly from starvation or freezing to death in the nuclear winter that follows.”

  Mellie sighed, “I guess I decided that if I have to die, looking at the stars would be a good place to do it.”

  Juan smiled, “That’s as good a description of bravery as I’ve ever heard.”

  “Sir, do you really think there are aliens waiting to attack us?”

  “I have absolutely no doubt about that, Mellie. If I were in their place, I would have already attacked.”

  “But the Hubble didn’t see a spaceship.”

  “I suspect it was hidden behind an electronic screen or a force field. But there is something moving in behind the asteroids that is blocking out the light from distant stars. Count on it, Mellie; they’re there waiting for us to arrive.”

  “Sir, if I’m so brave, why am I so frightened?”

  “Because you’re human, just like the rest of us.”

  “You don’t look or sound afraid, Sir.”

  “I’m living on borrowed time. I should have died on at least ten missions I had in the middle-east. I made peace with my life back then and every day since then has been a blessing. I’m fearful but I have control of where I’m taking this ship and how I fly it. The poor souls on Earth will have no choice but to stand there and watch their death coming at them with nothing they can do to avoid it. You and I are lucky in that regard, Mellie.”

  “Thanks, Sir. That helps.”

  Juan nodded and lowered his eyes. He had decided to crash the shuttle into the asteroid if all else failed but Mellie changed his mind; he wanted her to have that first kiss before she died and that meant he had to get her back to Earth. Besides, the shuttle wouldn’t do much more than leave a small spot on the giant rock hurdling toward them.

  • • •

  Juan looked at the three asteroids and saw that they had been placed perfectly. They were originally separated by six hours but their orbits had been changed during the long fall toward the sun. Now they were separated by a large distance between them and all three of them were approaching earth beside each other on different approach trajectories. It was like having a circle with three lines moving in toward the center of it on different paths. One was going to hit on the left side of the circle, one was going to hit in the center, and the third was going to hit on the right side of the circle almost simultaneously. The circle was Earth and the Aliens must have decided that having them all hit simultaneously would do a better job. That required all three shuttles to head toward the three asteroids in a straight line. Juan looked out to the right and saw the Russian Shuttle off in the distance as a speck of light. He looked to the left and saw the Chinese Shuttle. He thought for a moment and said, “Gary, I need you to keep a close eye o
n the Russian Shuttle. The attack could start there. Mellie, I need you to keep a close eye on the Chinese Shuttle. Use your optical cameras and get a good picture of them on your monitors. If either of you see anything different about them, immediately yell at the top of your voice, ‘RUN!’”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Gary turned the starboard camera toward the Russian Shuttle and brought it into focus. He stared at it and glanced at his console, “Two hours to missile launch.”

  Juan started the pilot flames in the engines that would ignite the fuel. He pushed the engine handle slightly forward and felt an immediate push. He pulled it back and heard the Russian Commander yell, “Stay in line!”

  Time seemed to take forever for each minute to pass. He knew that every observatory on Earth had them on their scopes and the Hubble Telescope was also sending a feed back to the major news channels. Juan didn’t know if that was a good idea but the demand by the public could not be denied by the political leaders. If something was going to happen, it would have to be soon. Gary said, “Fifty minutes to launch…”

  Mellie yelled, “RUN!!! The Chinese Shuttle is changing color.”

  Juan immediately pushed the engine handles fully forward and the Endeavor lept forward and roared toward the distant asteroids. Mellie yelled over the roar of the engines, “The Atlantis was just broken in half. Something hit it and blew off the wings and snapped its spine!”

  “Were its bay doors open?!” Juan yelled.

  “Yes, they opened them an hour ago. I could see the recoilless rifles firing. Sir, there is a large space ship moving out from behind the Atlantis and accelerating toward us.”

  “KEEP ME POSTED ON IT, MELLIE. IF IT CONTINUES TOWARD US, LET ME KNOW IN TIME TO LAUNCH!”

  “SIR, IT’S CHANGED COURSE AND IS NOW HEADED TOWARD THE ENTERPRISE!” Mellie yelled over the engine’s roar.

  Gary stared at his monitor and yelled, “THEY’RE MOVING UP ON THEM AND OPENING FIRE WITH SOME SORT OF WIDE BEAM. IT LOOKS LIKE THE RECOILESS RIFLE ROUNDS ARE BEING DEFECTED AWAY BY THE BEAM.”

  The Endeavor was traveling at 75,000 miles an hour as it roared up on the asteroid. Gary looked up at him and shook his head, “The Enterprise has also been destroyed. The alien ship is turning and headed our way.

  “Standby to launch! Ready…launch them Mellie!”

  Juan saw the three missiles jump out ahead of the Endeavor and track in on the front of the oncoming giant asteroid. Juan used the bow thrusters to raise the bow of the Endeavor and watched as the three missiles impacted the asteroids surface and disappear just before the Endeavor flew over the top of the forty-five-mile-wide rock. He dropped the bow and flew in behind the asteroid just a few seconds before a brilliant flash appeared on the rear monitor. “Where’s that ship, Gary?!”

  “It was moving toward us at high speed but it suddenly turned around and is moving toward the Chinese asteroid, Sir.” Gary looked up from his monitor, “Why did they turn back, Sir?”

  “I’ve got them on my monitor, Sir!” Mellie said loudly. “They’ve moved up beside the Chinese asteroid and are firing that beam into the side of it.”

  Juan shut down the engines and used the bow thrusters to turn the Shuttle around a hundred and eighty-degrees. He checked the fuel status and once the shuttle completed the turn, he pushed the handles fully forward again. The Endeavor decelerated at eight gravities as the three fought to keep their breath. It finally came to a stop and then began accelerating back toward the distant asteroids. Juan said, “They know the asteroid that was going to do the maximum damage to the planet has been destroyed where they can’t use it. The blasts blew off the front third of the rock shattering it into pieces and the huge remainder of it is spinning out of control and has fallen far behind the other two. My instruments show it has been deflected on a lower trajectory and is moving too slow to intersect Earth’s orbit. It will pass below and behind Earth. It appears they’re moving one of the other two asteroids back into the trajectory where it will hit the United States. I suspect they ignored us because they don’t have much time to change its path.”

  “Sir, there are thousands of small rocks that were blown off the front of the asteroid. Some of them are still right in the middle of the other two asteroids and moving out ahead of them.”

  “Well, Mellie, that means there will be smaller craters on Earth but a lot more of them. Fortunately for us, the asteroid shielded us from the nuclear blasts and radiation on the front of it. Let’s hope we can get back before they hit.”

  Juan was thankful he had dumped the rangers and their weapons along with the huge missile launcher that was originally planned to be in the bay. He had the huge bay in the Endeavor loaded with giant fuel tanks. It was that fuel that allowed him to accelerate from thirteen-miles per second to forty-five-miles per second. He passed the two remaining asteroids two weeks later and Gary calculated they would arrive less than twenty hours before the impacts.

  “Where are we going, Sir?” Gary asked.

  “Can the ‘Sir’. We’re just three people looking to survive at this point. One thing is certain, any place in North America is pure suicide to land this ship.”

  “Do you have any ideas…Juan?” Mellie asked.

  “I do but I need to contact some friends to see if they will work with us.”

  Mellie looked at her panel, “Mission Control is attempting to contact us now.”

  “Don’t answer. They’ll order us to fly the ship into one of those asteroids and it won’t do anything more than make a smudge on it. Let them believe the nukes knocked out our communications.”

  “If we’re not landing at Canaveral or Vandenberg, where are we going.”

  Juan smiled, “Gary, keeping in mind that the asteroid is being moved to hit the US. We’re headed toward Europe.” Gary stared at him and Juan said, “I have to get Mellie back in time to have her first kiss.”

  Mellie’s face turned red as she stared at him and saw he was serious. She smiled and said, “I might need more than twenty-hours to find someone special.”

  “Put yourself on a budget and use the time wisely,” Juan said as he stared at the giant asteroids on the rear monitor; they weren’t getting smaller nearly fast enough.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Chinese Premier and the Russian President were on the giant monitor in the War Room and they were shouting at the President, “WHY DID YOU NOT GIVE US THOSE MISSILES!?!” The Premier yelled.

  “WE COULD HAVE TAKEN OUT ALL THREE!!” The Russian President screamed.

  “Did you not see that Alien Ship destroy your shuttles?” the President asked. “Getting one ship close enough to launch was sheer luck. We’ve been working twenty-four hours a day to build those missiles and only had time to make three. We had no idea if they would work; they’ve never been tested.”

  “Easy for you to say, the asteroid targeted at your country has been removed.”

  A Navy Officer stood up and yelled across the huge room, “MR. PRESIDENT. HUBBLE REPORTS THAT THE ALIEN SHIP IS MOVING ONE OF THE TWO REMAINING ASTEROIDS BACK ON THE TRAJECTORY TO HIT THE UNITED STATES!! THEY REPORT IT WILL BE MOVED BARELY IN TIME TO HIT US. THE ORIGINAL ASTEROID WILL MISS EARTH!”

  The Premier and the Russian President heard the officer and the three world leaders stared at each other in silence. The Premier stared at the President and finally said, ‘Being angry at a time like this is wasted energy. It appears those aliens know who the biggest threat to them is and are operating accordingly. Good luck with evacuations, Mr. President.”

  The monitor went dark and he heard many of the personnel in the room start reporting riots breaking out across the nation. He yelled out to his Chief-of-Staff, “Contact Hubble and tell them to keep a lid on the aliens moving the asteroid. Notify the press that the one targeted to hit us has been deflected.”

  “They’re going to find out the truth.”

  The President sighed, “I know. Get my family to Air Force One, we’re leaving for Cheyenne Mountain. You
and the Joint Chiefs will fly out with me.”

  The Chief shook his head, “I think your leaving for Cheyenne will let everyone know what is coming. There could be a huge loss of life if you appear to be running to safety, Mr. President.”

  “The ones that die now will be the lucky ones. No matter what we do, they’re going to die anyway. Get moving!”

  • • •

  Grant Wilbanks whistled as he filled up his diesel tanks and paid for it with a credit card. He had a fifty-gallon tank bolted down in the bed of the F-250 and the hard cover over the bed concealed it. He was pulling a small camper and his wife and son kept their eyes open. Both of them were holding Glock 9’s behind their backs. Grant had the telescope disassembled and under the back seat and needed to find a place to see what was happening in space. Grant paid and shook his head at his wife and son.

  “Why did you say no?”

  “Where would we put it?” They looked at him and shrugged.

  They had left Macon, Georgia six days earlier and had now reached the Canadian Border in Wyoming and would be in Alberta in less than thirty minutes. He planned his escape years before in the event of something catastrophic happening and the land he had purchased in British Columbia had been prepared for just this contingency. He never thought he’s be running to it because of an asteroid; he figured nuclear war was the most likely thing but, regardless, the underground shelter was now going to pay off.

  They had stopped the night before at a convenience store to top off the gas tank. While they were there, he shot and killed the two people working behind the counter and they quickly began moving every bit of food and threw it into the truck’s bed. A car arrived in the middle of their moving everything and his wife walked over, smiled at the driver, and shot him, his wife and baby. They left the car at the station. They finished loading everything that could be used to survive a long time underground and he gave her a hug as they walked out to the truck, “Good shooting, Dear.” She smiled and returned his hug.

  • • •

  They entered Canada in the morning and moved toward their property still eighteen hours away as they listened to the report of the shuttles approach to the asteroids. The shuttles were still a day out from their rendezvous with them.