Surge Forward (Book 2 of the Sheffield Chronicles)

by Nate Castle

  “Jesus, so you’re saying we’re going to have to start an oil production facility too?” Garrett said.

  “No, I’m just saying what can be used to power one of these crafts. Also, there must be a huge reserve fuel supply onboard that feeds into the main line, because they needed enough fuel to make it to earth and then back to their home planet again right?” Christina said.

  “So let’s say we are able to operate these crafts and even build some of our own, what’s the end game here?” Noel said. “I mean this is fun and all, learning about the aliens and their crafts, but how does this protect us from another attack?”

  She was right, they were extremely focused on the mind-blowing technology that they hadn’t put together a plan for how the products and knowledge coming from the R&D tent were going to help prevent or stop another alien attack.

  “Valid point, we need to brainstorm some basic ideas so that the whole tent is working towards the same overarching goal,” Christina said.

  “What’s our timeline for the rebuild?” General Kaplan said to Hank. The two men were standing on the lawn in front of where the White House building used to be before it was blown up.

  General Kaplan had recently shaved off his handle bar mustache, he claimed it was a superstitious thing after they had battled the aliens. He had recently turned 54, but kept that to himself. His bald head now matched his clean shaven face. His bottom lip usually stuck out, giving him the look that he was always smiling. Maybe it was to compensate for all of the horrifying things he had seen over the years being a commander in the armed forces.

  Hank appeared a few years older than Kaplan and his slouching posture made him the same height, at 6’1”. What started out as blond hair was developing patches of gray and he carried about twenty pounds of extra weight in his belly, unlike Kaplan who was likely one of those guys who invested in a body-fat calculating machine for personal use because he was all about the fit lifestyle.

  “The plan is to start construction by Monday, and if everything goes as planned, we can have the building framed and put a roof on ‘er within two weeks. I got a crew of about 250 guys in mind. The only thing that would set us back is if there are any hiccups in getting the building materials. With the paving project complete, we will now be able to bring truckloads of materials in and out without having to worry about the sinkhole,” Hank said.

  “Excellent, my main concern is having the building far enough along in the process before winter hits. Even if the construction is not fully complete by then, we need to have an indoor heated shelter for all of these people, so that they aren’t living outside in tents during the winter months. But it sounds like based on your projections, it will be way before winter.” General Kaplan said. It was now October 18.

  “Roger that, I hear ya. I’m just giving you fair warning that the new ‘White House’ will not by any means be as luxurious as the old one, but it will be structurally strong and serve the purpose that it needs to,” Hank said.

  After General Kaplan left, Hank left the construction site to go find Garrett. Garrett was in the R&D tent. Out of the thousand-plus people on the White House grounds (that number was growing everyday), it seemed like anytime you needed to find someone, you could locate them in the damn R&D tent!

  “C’mon,” Hank said to Garrett as he nudged his shoulder.

  Garrett was close enough with Hank to follow and ask questions later. The two headed toward the underground tunnel beneath where the White House once stood. There were various rooms and storages underground that were unaffected by the explosion. Hank was given access to one of the rooms so that he could use a computer if needed, but mainly so that he would have a space where he could draw up the architectural plans for the new White House construction. Hank enjoyed the peace and quiet that this room provided and would other go there simply to escape the chaos outside.

  What the others didn’t know was that when he wasn’t working on the White House project he was slaving away at his own side project, one he feared might get the kabosh if someone found out about it. He trusted Garrett to keep the secret safe. He would tell General Kaplan and the others when the time was right, he decided.

  The top-secret project was developing a handheld firearm that could instantly kill the aliens. From previous experience, Hank had learned that traditional guns, the kind that shoot lead bullets did not have a damaging effect on the aliens so he needed to think outside the box. What he did know was that boron and silicon used together would kill an alien. But he had another dilemma. The aliens wouldn’t come within 100 yards of something that contained the boron and silicon compound, and Hank knew it would be nearly impossible for himself to develop a gun that would shoot more than 100 yards.

  “As you can see, I’m working on a little side project, and I need your input,” Hank said.

  Garrett was examining Hank’s first rendition of a homemade handgun. It was pretty impressive craftsmanship, it looked like a real 9mm pistol.

  “Holy shit, you made this?” Garrett said.

  “Yup, it’s the first of many,” Hank said.

  “I’m not sure what you need my help for, it looks like you’re well on your way to making a gun that will kill aliens, am I correct?” Garrett said.

  “Yes, but the part I’m struggling with is what to make the bullets out of?” Hank said.

  “Well the most obvious answer would be throw some boron and silicon in the mix that way, when the bullet hits an alien, it will die from the poisonous gases,” Garrett said.

  “Exactly my thoughts. But the challenge is we have to figure out how to mask the boron and silicon so that the aliens cannot detect it so that we can get them to come within a comfortable firing range,” Hank said.

  “Ahh now I understand what you’re saying. What if instead of a bullet it’s more like a dart and when the dart makes contact with something, a chamber opens that releases the gases through the tip of the dart?” Garrett said.

  “Bingo! Now I want you to ponder that idea more over the next day and get back to me with some concrete ideas,” Hank said.

  “Done. And I’ll even do one more thing for you Hank. I’m assuming that you don’t have access to the reserve armory at the end of this tunnel? Well I do, it’s one of the perks of working in that R &D tent. I’ll grab you some military style guns. It’s probably easier to modify one of those, rather than have to build your own gun from scratch. That way when we start mass producing these puppies, it will be a quick process,” Garrett said.

  “I like where your head’s at Gar. Just don’t get caught. We’ve already got enough paranoia around here, I don’t want people to think that we are plotting against them or something crazy like that,” Hank said.

  “Do you think there will be another alien encounter or attack?” Garrett said.

  “Oh yeah, it’s inevitable. And it’s probably going to happen soon, within the next 6-12 weeks max. If they are smart, they will try to catch us, while we are still mending our wounds, symbolically speaking. That’s why we gotta get production started on these guns.”

  “I hate to admit it, but I believe you are right,” Garrett said.

  “One more thing Garrett. Not a word about this to anyone,“ Hank said.

  “My lips are sealed,” Garrett said as he walked towards the exit door that led back to the tunnel.

  3

  Educate Yourself

  Contrary to popular belief, there were still fifteen alien crafts in the US. The one craft that had managed to escape during the White House battle six months ago had not left Earth like the humans thought, but instead it went to Yosemite National Park, where fourteen other crafts were stationed. They were isolated enough, past all of the hiking trails, that there was no concern of being spotted by humans. On average, each craft held four aliens so there were about 60 in total.

  The aliens were 8 feet tall with green scales covering their bodies. One noticeable feature was they had three legs instead of two, and they used the middle le
g to propel themselves forward when they walked. They had two eyes and a long nose similar in structure to a human’s, but had two holes instead of one where you would expect to see a mouth. Gray spikes of various shapes and sizes covered their heads. Their hands could take on different forms depending on what tasks they were trying to perform, transforming at times from a common six finger hand to hands with no fingers that formed a hole at the end that could be used for tasks that involved lifting or towing.

  They used this isolated area near Yosemite as their ‘headquarters’ or ‘home base’. Next on the agenda for them was to stop the humans from testing the alien crafts and learning how to build their own. The crafts that the humans captured during the White House battle were equipped with high-tech sensors that would send an alert signal to the main control panel of all the other crafts, when it started moving. The aliens received this notification a few days prior and sent one craft to DC to investigate the situation. The aliens in that craft were careful to not be spotted by the humans; they did a quiet flyover of the R&D tent when it was dark outside. Their findings were consistent with the notification: the humans had indeed figured out how to turn on and move one of the crafts. Whether or not they could fly it was unknown, but the fact that they could move it was a big problem for the aliens. To make matters worse, the humans noticed the cameras inside the crafts and disabled them. The cameras were there for communication between crafts; one could always see what another was doing while the cameras were on.

  There was a feature on the crafts that would send the craft back to the aliens’ home planet of Zyrgianica on autopilot. This feature was used mainly for emergency situations, such as when an alien was hurt and wasn’t capable of flying the craft, or if for whatever reason a craft needed to be sent back but there weren’t any passengers on board. It would take a while for the humans to discover this feature, as it was buried deep in the control panel’s contents, but they had come thus far, so they would likely discover it. The damage that this knowledge could do had the potential to be catastrophic. In a worst case scenario, the humans could fill a craft with super chips and send it on autopilot back to Zyrgianica. When the aliens opened the hatch upon the craft’s arrival, the power of the super chips could instantly wipe out all of the aliens on the planet.

  They weren’t going to wait for their fate to be determined, but they had to be smart when it came to how they would destroy the crafts. The plan was to disguise themselves as humans, fly to D.C., and then walk up to the White House and offer to help with the rebuilding projects. Once they had gained the trust of the humans there, they could get access to the R&D tent and set the crafts to ‘Self-Destruct’ mode. The fear was that the humans still had a surplus of super chips on hand and if they suspected or saw aliens, things would get hostile immediately, which is why the plan was to go in there disguised as humans.

  The Zyrgian aliens had the ability to change body type and size. If they needed to disguise as a human they could transform to the size of a banana slug, and then crawl into the human’s ear, taking over full control of the human’s body and mind, but maintaining the physical features of the human.

  San Quentin State Prison

  Three alien crafts landed in the bay just outside San Quentin. From there the aliens swam to shore, ripped through a guard fence using their brute strength and made their way inside the building. Most of the prison looked deserted. There were quite a few bodies scattered throughout, that must have been a result of starvation or other causes. The dead guards were likely victims of the cell phone attack that wiped out most of the population. They quietly strutted down a long hallway until they came upon a sign overhead that read Cell Block D with an arrow pointing to the left. As they got closer to it, they could hear chatter. As they had hoped, there were prisoners in Cell Block D that were alive and well, but were still confined to the cell block because they had hadn’t been able to successful breach the doors. Through a window atop an entrance door, the aliens could see boxes of food and water, stacked up to the height of the ceiling. The only explanation was that one of the other prisoners from a different cell block or one of the guards had brought about a year’s supply of food to Cell Block D after the cell phone attack, but decided not to release the prisoners. Had it not been for this ‘Good Samaritan’, all of these prisoners would have been dead months ago.

  The aliens stood outside the main entrance door and observed the prisoners for awhile, constructing a plan of how they would get the door open without the prisoners becoming aware of what was going on. 9 out of the 10 aliens that were waiting outside of the Cell Block D door, shrunk down to banana slug size, ready to infiltrate the humans. The last alien had to stay in its current physical form in order to have the strength to get the door open and also unlock another gate that kept the prisoners trapped in that section of the building. After breaching the first door, they saw roughly 40 prisoners standing at attention, wondering who had just entered the vicinity. Jaws dropped when they saw an alien standing in front of them.

  This intentional distraction allowed the other aliens that were now slugs to crawl on the floor and find the closest nine prisoners to infiltrate. The lone alien simply stood at the second gate not moving, in order to keep the focus on him. The ‘slugs’ found their targets, crawled into the hole in their ears, and instantly had control of their victims. How to get out of the second gate without letting the rest of the prisoners out at the same time, could be challenging. But the aliens were smart. The prisoners that were now being controlled by the aliens made their way towards the front entrance to the cell block and stood there, as if to confront the alien standing on the other side of the gate. The rest of the prisoners held their ground, not retreating towards the back of the cell block because in reality they had nowhere to go. The alien at the front gate, put both hands on the lock and gave it a brisk tug. The lock snapped into two pieces, rendering the gate open and with one large step, it approached the nine prisoners, reached out its arms in the universal sign for giving a bear hug, and did just that. It bear hugged the nine prisoners and carried them out past the gate.

  If the alien made it look like they got dragged out against their will, rather than voluntarily leaving, the rest of the prisoners on the block would be very weary about trying to exit themselves. The calculation was accurate. One prisoner, who must have had a death wish decided to charge toward the open gate and past the alien. Once out the gate, the alien had to re-lock it, but the lock was broken and couldn't be repaired. So instead, the alien placed its hands on the piece of iron that connected the pull down latch to the gate and applied pressure. Within seconds smoke started appearing from the iron. The alien repositioned its hands at a different spot, and out came more smoke. The gate was now melted to the latch, and looked as if someone had welded the two pieces together. That should keep the prisoners locked in.

  The alien then proceeded to chase after the prisoner who came through the gate. It wasn’t long before the prisoner was located with nowhere to go. Locked doors on three sides prevented a successful exit, and the alien had him cornered from the other side. It transformed into a slug like the others had done and crawled up the prisoner’s leg, before entering the ear. Now all ten aliens had successfully disguised themselves as humans and they were ready to leave. The whole encounter was recorded on the security cameras inside San Quentin, but the aliens didn’t think to go in the control room and destroy the video footage before leaving. Once outside the prison walls, the group swam the couple hundred feet to the crafts which were barely submerged in the bay and took off back to the Yosemite headquarters.

  Back in D.C., everyone was gathered around a makeshift stage with a cocktail or glass of wine in hand, waiting to hear what President Taylor had to say. This was the first social gathering since the alien attack six months ago, and it seemed to be good for everyone. So much time was spent working on the White House rebuild and the numerous other projects they had going, that no one ever got a chance to throw back a few dri
nks and socialize. President Taylor walked onto the stage and everyone applauded. He waited until it was quiet before he began speaking.

  “Thank you all for gathering here today, but mainly thanks for all the work you have done to help put this country back together. You are all heroes. I’ve brought you here today to make a special announcement. I’m not going to try to sugar coat it, but I am stepping down as President, active immediately. I am appointing General Kaplan as the new President. You will all be in good hands. The General was my right hand man from the moment the initial cell phone attack occurred and there isn’t a better fit I could think of them him.”

  He paused as a few members in the crowd began booing him. It wasn't the type of booing out of dislike for President Taylor, but rather people were frustrated by his decision to step down.

  “I will be close by and will likely cross paths with many of you again in the future. My focus now is going to be starting a family again. Sierra, as many of you know is three months pregnant I’m delighted to announce. Once again I thank you all for your support during these tough times, and without further adieu I present to you the new President Kaplan.“

  The people who were booing before were now clapping as President Kaplan walked on stage. There was a brief swearing in where former President Taylor said a few sentences which new President Kaplan had to repeat back, while his hand was on a Bible. President Kaplan got everyone’s attention with a hand signal and said, “I’m honored to be here standing in front of you all. Let’s have a fun time tonight before we get back to work tomorrow.”

  The crowd raised their glasses in salute. The former President walked off the stage, he was once again back to being just Thomas J. Taylor. His neatly trimmed gray hair was combed over to the right. He had a confidence in his walk, that gave others the sense that he knew what the heck he was doing, even though he felt he had let his country down in recent times.