In the end this was going to fall to Jessica though, since the Key of Location was the only one capable of pulling off something this ridiculous.
***
Jessica was sweating, and sweating in a space suit was something that got old very quickly. Focusing energy was something John was far better at, but once it was focused she was going to have to be the one to direct it.
There! I think that’s got it! John sent to her.
He was right, she could see it. It was now or never.
Jessica focused on the Key under her suit, and pictured in her mind a doorway, a hole in space. But instead of dropping something into the hole, she dropped the hole on the entire moon of Phobos.
And in an instant it disappeared.
It reappeared twelve million kilometers away, not quite directly in the path of the oncoming asteroid storm. But it was close enough that it was going to skew the path of every single one of those asteroids with it’s gravitational pull.
The speed of light might have been finite, but gravity’s effects travelled magnitudes faster. Jessica could see immediately that Phobos was having an effect as gravity waves from the relocated moon began to wash over the large field of rock.
Every asteroid was now being tugged at by the new location of Phobos’ orbit, and in no more than an hour every single one would be on a new orbit that would take them safely around the Earth.
They had done it.
Jessica could scarcely believe it, and felt like weeping.
Eventually they would probably have to return Phobos to Mars, but for now she decided it was time for a rest.
They returned to China, and the sunlight that fell on Jessica’s face as she removed the helmet seemed warmer, like pure joy.
In seconds John had removed his helmet and was kissing her. She had a little trouble kissing him through the smile on her face and, finally, the tears that streamed down her face.
Pan walked up to them, putting his hands on each of their shoulders.
“Good job kids. Now, would you mind helping me out of this damned suit? We still have a problem to fix, and Phobos isn’t going to solve that one.”
Dangers Best Not Forgotten
The Key of Knowledge had shown Pan many things, not least of which was the incidence of intelligent life that would in any way have an impact on life on Earth.
It had shown him that there were literally billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy, and over six billion planets in the region of the galaxy known as the Orion arm, where Earth’s Solar system lived. On average, one planet in ten thousand was capable of developing life, and this certainly left plenty of room for intelligent races in the Milky Way.
But in this region of space two races dominated: the Sirians and the Draconians. At least that was how humanity had named them in eras past. And they had been at war with each other for many hundreds of thousands of year.
Unfortunately, Earth had become a nexus of sorts, an area of intense interest related to the amount of energy coursing through the solar system. The energy was being fed by the space surrounding the galaxy, so it’s natural rotation had a habit of moving the region of activity frequently, however it was Sol’s turn for the next half a million years.
And it meant that mankind on Earth was threatened. Not their lives, but their freedom, since many races fed on the energy created by misery.
The Sirians were the primary progenitor of mankind; humanoid, but taller. The Draconians were descended from reptiles, and they were fierce. Both were in fact progenitors of mankind, with traits from each appearing in the genetic code of humanity.
With these races general statements of intent were a bad idea, since there were what mankind would have considered good and bad on both sides, but in point of fact the two factions with the Earth in their crosshairs had very definite plans.
The Draconians had every intention of settling on Earth and feeding off whatever energy they could. The Sirians were intent on stopping them.
Both factions were on their way to Earth, and had been traveling for centuries aboard massive World Ships. The Sirian World Ship was fifty three kilometers long and three kilometers across, and was tube shaped. It housed two hundred thousand Sirians.
But it was dwarfed by the Draconian ship. One hundred and eighty six kilometers long, eleven kilometers in diameter, and also tube shaped, it housed over a billion Draconians.
Both of them rotated to create artificial gravity, since it was the cheapest way to produce such a force, but at a cellular level this caused problems over the generations aboard these ships. The conscious mind was not able to tell the difference between gravity and centripetal force, but the body could, and centuries of lack of gravity tended to wear on both species. They were both anxious to get off the ships.
The problem for Earth was that the Draconian ship would arrive a full decade before the Sirians. And they would be welcomed by the tens of thousands of Draconians who had been preparing Earth for thousands of years, feeding off of mankind and guiding them in a direction that would ensure total control before the arrival of their brothers and sisters.
The era of quiet manipulation of their food source was about to end, and the Draconian race was about to come out into the open for the first time since the fall of Atlantis.
***
Finally, this was the crux of the problem.
Pan had seen that the Draconian World Ship had sent the cluster of asteroids towards them, so clearly they had the technology to do serious damage to the Earth. But the asteroids were planned all along as being a diversion. Many of them would not have struck the planet at all, either burning up in the atmosphere or missing it entirely.
They would have done enough damage, however, to ensure that mankind was in no condition to resist any kind of invasion.
At least, that had been the plan.
Pan was not privy to what their new plans might have been, but he was sure they weren’t about to just turn around and give up.
John’s effort to enlist the reporter had apparently paid off. In the wake of their story going public, hundreds of other reporters around the world had gotten in on the act, tracking down any evidence of the money and manipulation being used to drive government policies. Hundreds of politicians had already resigned, and hundreds more were arguing about the evidence.
Clearly the momentum was in their favor, at least for the moment. He could feel the amount of energy feeding the Draconian race waning. It was the right direction, but like a rabid dog, he was afraid it would only make them more vicious.
They had even returned the space suits to NASA, with their apologies flowing freely and the cameras rolling. For their part, the administration tried to be gracious about it and offered their use whenever they might decide it was required. They had saved the Earth once already, it seemed a small price. And good public relations.
Zack was able to go back to school with all of his friends; the government had offered their protection, and they could stop hiding, at least for a while.
So the battle was won, for the moment. It was only a small irony that it might be for naught if they could not stop the coming invasion.
***
John was trying not to hold his breath.
In truth the use of the space suits had been a “just in case.” John knew full well that they could exist in space with a little extra effort to take some air with them and contain it in a force field. But it was that catch: a little extra effort, and you sure wouldn’t want to lose your concentration. So he was practicing.
They had taken a camera with them and made a video of the incoming World Ship, but even John had trouble believing it would convince anyone who didn’t already believe they were on the way. Anybody with a home computer could produce images like that ship.
Two weeks after the airing of Tam’s original story, they had returned Phobos to Mars, hopefully without any serious impact. Mars’ orbit had been affected, but it was so slight they hoped it wouldn’t cause any seri
ous damage.
And Tam had insisted on a followup interview, John and Jessica together, and they had agreed.
But it still didn’t solve the problem of the World Ship, and John still didn’t have a clue what to do about it.
The reduced energy output of the sun combined with the weakened magnetic field around the Earth made using the local energy supply woefully insignificant to fight off a force like the Draconian’s appeared to possess.
He decided to visit Jack, who they had been able to return home since by virtue of his association with them he was now safe, untouchable. Jack, it appeared, had been doing some reading.
“So this whole electric thing,” he said, offering John a beer and grabbing two from his fridge, “it’s kind of interesting.”
John laughed. “That’s one way to put it.”
“No, I mean the plasma physics of it, it’s completely scalable. That means that the kind of effects you see in the laboratory are exactly like the results you see in deep space. The only difference is that as you scale up, the effects take more time to manifest. But otherwise they’re identical.”
“You think that can help us?” John asked as he took a drink of his beer.
“Well here’s the thing. That Key of yours, it manipulates electricity, plasma basically, at levels that you haven’t even reached yet.”
“Yes, but the problem is that there’s only so much electricity in the solar system to use.”
Jack smiled at him. “Who says you only have to use the electricity that’s here?”
John almost choked on his beer.
***
He was truly and utterly, finally, out of his mind, and Jessica was convinced of it. John’s idea was crazy, and it made Phobos look like a cheap parlour trick.
But he was right. Earth needed a defense, and his idea, if they could pull it off, would certainly provide that.
She stood looking over the Earth, without a space suit this time. Jessica had been practicing the containment of an air bubble around her. It certainly offered a certain amount of freedom over having to put that damned suit on all the time.
John was beside her, in his own bubble. They had a list of places to visit to look for candidates.
The thing about the planets in the solar system is that they’re far apart from each other. Really, really far apart, though animations from various sources tended to not give an accurate sense of the scale. You could fit Jupiter between the Earth and the Sun over nine hundred times without any of them touching. The gravitational effect was something else entirely, but even gravity was insignificant compared to the force of the electric current running through the solar system.
With this in mind they travelled, moving from solar system to solar system looking for the right candidate.
The idea of it boggled both of their minds, but they were in too much of a hurry to think much about it. It was just something that had to be done, and there’d be time to marvel at their journey afterwards. If they succeeded.
The Keys showed them things their eyes could not pick up, magnetic fields and lines of plasma currents, electric conduction from the star to it’s planets.
They found what they were looking for in the Orion Nebula, over thirteen hundred light years from Earth. The planet was the right size, and the surrounding area had enough current to do the job. And the entire system was uninhabited.
Jessica could feel John call out to his father.
A moment later, Pan appeared beside them. He had been practicing being in space without a suit as well, at John’s request.
It was time.
The three of them started to concentrate. Pan pointed out the direction of the strongest filaments, while John concentrated the electrical energy. It was Jessica’s job to take that concentrated energy and create the hole in space that would swallow an entire planet.
Each of their keys were glowing brightly, being pushed as hard as the humans were capable of pushing them. What to Jessica had felt like an hour was done in only a few seconds. The planet, a gas giant half again as large as Jupiter and twice as massive, disappeared, along with a significant portion of the nebular material surrounding it.
With a blink they returned to Earth, and saw the new world.
Earth was no longer a planet. It was now a moon of the massive gas giant that laid between Venus and Mars. The influx of nebula plasma that came with the planet lit the space around the sun in bright shades of purple, orange and yellow.
Jessica could see the new magnetic field protecting the Earth, and the solar system. The influx of all that extra energy made approaching the Sun something that was now going to consume magnitudes more energy than it would have only moments before.
The skies would be filled with thousands of comets over the coming years as the change in electrical potential registered on every loose rock in the system.
But she was worried; was it enough to deter the Draconian World Ship?
***
John was exhausted. They all were.
Moving a planet! Even though they had done it, it was beyond belief. Except for the new sky. Looming large now was a massive red and orange spiral of gas and energy. It was a sight that literally took his breath away.
He sat beside Jessica on top of a ridge overlooking their new home, hidden away safely in Hawaii. They were safe now, so the government said, but he still didn’t trust them.
Zack could still go to school, but John would teleport him back and forth. Hell, it was still easier than the commute he had before the Key had ever entered his life.
Scientists were busy debating the dangers to Earth now with the new red giant in the skies, and John was sure there were many. Tides were going to be affected, seasons, everything. But John had worked with Jack to try to select just the right planet. Something large enough to have a powerful electric impact on the system, but not so large as to completely blot out the sky and disrupt every growing season on the planet.
There would be changes, for sure. The only other argument was what to call it. So far the popular vote seemed to be Hermes. John hadn’t known the reference and had to ask Jessica to explain it. Hermes was the messenger of the Gods, the protector of travelers and thieves. It seemed appropriate.
Three days later they got confirmation that the Draconian World Ship was turning around. More accurately, it was going to literally ride the wave of new energy around the solar system and head somewhere else. John could only guess at their reasoning.
It was over.
***
The centuries had made Pan somewhat more pessimistic than his son. He knew the danger was still out there.
The Draconian World Ship may have passed by Earth, but there were still a few tens of thousands of them around pulling the strings. Temporarily exposed to the light, they’d hidden, but they’d be back.
If indeed they never left, which was more likely.
The problem with groups like this was that deception was piled upon deception to the point where even the people who thought they were “players” were nothing but distraction.
But Pan had an ace up his proverbial sleeve, the Key of Knowledge. It had a way of sifting through the garbage, finding motive and patterns, seeing intent where it was hidden.
They were going to need that edge, because good or bad, there was another World Ship coming. It was clear that the Sirian’s were not turning around. They were still a few years out, and apparently had enough time to adjust their systems for the increased energy output of the Sol system.
And there was one thing nobody else seemed to be asking. What race made the Keys? Surely whoever had mastered the technology to produce these little trinkets had far more power than either race, and they had apparently been to Earth at least once in the past.
Pan now understood that he was not limited by time and space, but he had to tread carefully.
But he had to find the builders.
Keys (The Syker Key Book 2)
The World Keys (The Syker Key Book 2) Page 7