Surge Forward

by Nate Castle

  “So now they also have all of our intel and research that we have spent the past six months gathering,” Logan said.

  “Yes, and no. We have all of the computers automatically backed up to a central server that’s located underground in the Situation Room. So, the aliens do have our intel, but at least we still have a copy of it. Also, it will likely take them awhile to crack the algorithms and all that firewall nonsense that we protected the data with. We got this hacker dude to make everything really secure when we got the system up and running,” Hank said.

  “Aren’t we missing a craft?” Logan said.

  “Yeah, Garrett and his ladies took one for a test drive, but they haven’t returned yet,” Hank said.

  “One problem after the next. Do we have a location for them?” Logan said.

  “We will soon enough, unless the aliens destroyed that craft as well,” Hank said.

  “We have to call Taylor, he needs to come back here, “Logan said.

  “Agreed, let’s get you a secure line,”Hank said.

  They left the R&D tent and headed to the tunnel access point. Once underground, they entered a room which acted as the White House communication center. Logan picked up a phone, found Taylor’s emergency contact number listed on a sheet of paper, and dialed it.

  “President Taylor, Logan Sheffield here. We have a major problem and we need you to come back here, sorry to cut your vacation short,” Logan said.

  “You can call me Thomas now, I’m no longer the President. That is unfortunate news, I won’t ask for details. Yes, Sierra and I will head back to DC immediately. From the looks of it, you didn’t get to enjoy the Nantucket estate for very long did you?” Taylor said.

  “Yeah but that’s just life I guess. We’ll see you soon sir, travel safe,” Logan said, and hung up the phone.

  “We need to locate some gas masks in case something like this happens again,” Hank said.

  “I agree. And then I think we need to find Garrett,” Logan said.

  “Let’s go this way, I think our best bet is in that building,” Hank said as he pointed to a building a few hundred yards away across the street.

  They reached the entrance and the sign on the door read ‘Building 204. Machine Repair & Maintenance’. The building had six large garage doors on the side that could be opened if you needed to bring in a large machine. The building was well organized, with everything labeled on storage shelves.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Logan said.

  One of the alien crafts was parked in the middle of the floor and what looked like the prototype of another craft was positioned next to it.

  “Someone from our camp must have towed this craft in here so they could use it as a reference when building the prototype craft,” Hank said.

  “Tow it? With What?” Logan said.

  “Oh you’d be surprised, they’ve gotten pretty creative around here,” Hank said.

  “The good news is we still have this craft. The bad news is the 95% probability that the aliens will be back again to destroy or fetch this craft. They are too smart to simply not realize that they didn’t destroy all of the crafts. They must know it’s here, or at the very least, be looking for it,” Logan said.

  “We aren't gonna let them destroy this craft without putting up a fight. I got a project in the works. Follow me, I’ll show you,” Hank said.

  He escorted Logan back to the White House and into the tunnel. They had forgotten all about the gas masks that they originally went to the machine shop to get. They entered a room, the one that Hank had been working on his weapons project under the radar. Hank popped open a hidden closet which contained a variety of military style weapons. At first glance they looked like they hadn’t been modified, but upon closer inspection, you could see each one wasn’t the stock model, it had been rigged up. Logan waited for Hank to describe his creations.

  “What we have here is an assault rifle, however I widened the barrel to a custom fit. These bullets I created shatter upon impact and when they do, they release a boron & silicon compound from the center of the bullet,” Hank said.

  “So in a nutshell, if you shoot an alien with this gun, the bullet itself won’t hurt it, but the aftereffect of the boron and silicon will?” Logan said.

  “You betcha bud. I’ve got a few other items too. Check this one out. It’s a grenade launcher, and guess what is inside the grenades? Now I’m taking into account that the aliens are smart and so in a battlefield scenario, they might be able to pick up a grenade quick enough and throw it out of the way before it explodes. For that reason, I have developed a boron and silicon gel that I have rubbed on all of the grenades, so if an alien picks one up, it will be poisoned by the gel,” Hank said.

  “Absolutely genius,”Logan said.

  “Oh and one more thing, I almost forgot. All of the silicon and boron compounds contain a hint of glenobial. The research that was done on the alien crafts, showed that the outer walls of the crafts contained glenobial and that was one reason why aliens inside of a craft would be safe from the super chips that were outside of the craft, unless we planted the chips inside of the craft. Using this logic, the gleonbial acts as a blocking agent, and so you know how the aliens can’t come within 100 yards of the boron and silicon? Well with the glenobial, they won’t detect that boron and silicon is present in the area,” Hank said.

  “So after we locate Garrett, we should set up a team to defend the craft in the machinery building. How many guns of these guns do we have available?” Logan said.

  “We have plenty of guns to go around, it’s the bullets I am worried about, they take a little while to make,”Hank said.

  “Why don’t you stay here and make as many bullets as you can, and I’ll take care of locating Garrett?” Logan said.

  “Roger that,” Hank said.

  9

  Trouble Is His Middle Name

  It felt like forever before Garrett, Noel and Christina made their way down the staircases to the ground floor of the skyscraper. Christina pushed open the front door and gasped a sigh of relief to inhale some fresh air.

  “What’s the plan here, we find a car with keys in the ignition and drive it back to D.C.?” she said.

  “Yup, it should be a lot more routine than the last adventure we went on,“ Garrett said.

  “Guys, hold on, what the heck is that noise?” Noel said.

  She was referring to a whirring sound that could be compared to the sound of the remote controlled cars her family used to race on Christmas morning. They stopped in their tracks and all saw it at the same time; four high powered machines were coming towards them.

  “UDO’s,” Garrett said.

  “What?” Noel and Christina said at the same time.

  “Those are Unidentified Driving Objects,” Garrett said. “They look too advanced to be human-made, so I’m going to venture to say that they are the works of the aliens.”

  As the UDOs got closer to them, one peeled off from the group and accelerated towards the front wall of the skyscraper. Rather than crashing through the plate glass windows on the ground level though, it maneuvered in a miraculous fashion so that the front axle of the UDO acted as a suction cup to the glass, allowing the rear axle to flip up. The UDO would appear to be upside down, suspended on the glass wall of the building. With the rear axle now providing the suction, the front axle flipped up. This sequence continued over and over and the UDO ended up at a higher point with each flip.

  “It’s climbing the building, what on Earth,” Noel said.

  “I hope you’re ready for another stair climb,” Garrett said.

  “Why?” Christina said.

  “You haven’t put two and two together yet?” Garrett said, “The UDO is climbing the building to get to the alien craft. Once it’s at the alien craft, it will either destroy it or fly it away. Neither outcome is desirable, so we have to go up there again to stop it.”

  He sounded so calm, as if he was playing in a video game. Noel look
ed ready for combat, maybe she was just trying to seem cool around Garrett. Christina looked as if she were about throw up. Garrett recognized this and gave her an alternative task.

  “Christina, I’m gonna need your help on the ground. You’re going to have to create a distraction for the other UDOs. You think you can do that?” Garrett said.

  The three of them were standing just outside the revolving door entrance to the building. The remaining UDOs were on stand-by, positioned about 75 yards east. Each UDO looked like a small Caterpillar tractor because of all the attachments it had. The frame was hexagonal and on each of the six faces, there was an attachment or tool. One face had a bucket that could expand or collapse in size based on the item that was being picked up. Another face had a fierce looking drill; the kind that protruded out more the deeper it got. It could likely drill through most surfaces on Earth. The tools and attachments on the other faces didn’t share a resemblance with any objects on earth. The UDOs stood 4 feet wide by 5 feet tall and were matte grey in color. A series of antennas of different shapes and lengths stuck out from the top. Three cameras positioned at the high, mid and low points of the UDO, pivoted constantly. There were no wheels on the UDOs, they had tracks instead. The hydraulics were also noteworthy. The three UDOs parked in front of them had all used the hydraulic system to become taller; they now stood 8 feet tall.

  Not wanting to waste any time, Christina cautiously crept around the side of building to the adjacent street. Garrett and Noel didn’t move, mainly to give Christina a head start.

  “Do you think those Bots are waiting for us to move? I refuse to call them UDOs, that’s a ridiculous name you came up with,” Noel said.

  “Anybody in their right mind would call them UDOs. I guess you could called them UDV’s—unidentified driving vehicles, but that sounds like more like a venerial disease. And to answer your question, yes I think the UDOs are waiting for us to make a move,” Garrett said. “I’m assuming Christina is fetching a car. I want to give her a minute to get back here with the car so she can initiate the distraction and then we can go to the roof.”

  They waited until they heard a diesel engine start up and then decided to make a run for it.

  “Go-time, I’ll race ya to the roof,” Noel said.

  It took nine minutes of running at what felt like an Olympic athlete’s pace before they reached the metal door to the roof. They stopped for a minute to catch their breath.

  “Let’s hope this isn't the last time I can do this to you,” Garrett said and gave Noel a nice juicy kiss on the lips.

  Noel, who was trying not to blush said, “A bot is child’s play when compared to the aliens we fought off at the White House. We got this.”

  She pushed the door open and they tip-toed towards the alien craft. The bot that had scaled the building wall was now next to the alien craft. The bot had attached cables to the craft. They didn’t look like load bearing cables, but more like electrical ones.

  “It’s disabling the computer on the craft maybe?” Noel said.

  “Most likely. Here’s what’s gonna happen. I am going to bull rush it and rip off those cables, while you enter the craft. I didn’t study up on it enough, but there has to be some weapons the craft can deploy. Do your best to find the weapons and obliterate the UDO,” Garrett said.

  “You’re asking me to find a needIe in a haystack!” Noel said.

  “I’m not one bit concerned that you won’t find it,” Garrett said.

  Garrett darted towards the UDO, while Noel ran left until she reached the entrance chute to the craft. Garrett, before he left the stairwell, had grabbed the fire axe from the an emergency box on the wall. He swung the axe at the cable that connected the UDO to the alien craft. The cable acted as a slingshot when Garrett struck it and on the rebound sent Garrett flying, landing hard on the ground. The cable wasn’t harmed by the axe attempt. He glanced up at the alien craft and saw Noel enter the chute, she was now inside. After Garrett was back on his feet, he ran back inside to the stairwell. When he had to climb the elevator shaft to rescue Christina and Noel from the elevator earlier that day, he remembered seeing an alternate cable attached to the wall. He went into the elevator that was stuck in the ‘Open’ position and climbed through the ceiling panel. Once on top of the elevator car, he located the alternate cable, unhooked one end from the wall and threw it down into the elevator. He then jumped through the ceiling panel back into the elevator, grabbed the cable and began to pull. He hoped there was enough slack to make it all the way to the UDO. His hunch was correct and he attached the cable with the built in carabiner to the electrical transmission cable between the UDO and alien craft. He hustled back inside, back to the elevator shaft. The cable would act as a winch to pull the electrical cable off the alien craft, but he had to control the winch using a mechanism on the wall in the elevator shaft. This was a disadvantage because he wouldn’t be able to see what was going on outside during this process, but he had limited options.

  He pulled a lever to start the winch and the motor made a humming sound. If he could rest the lever in the downward position, he could leave the winch unattended and head back outside.Thinking on his feet, he took off his flannel shirt and tied one end to the lever, the other end to a bracket on the wall down below. There was pressure causing the lever to stay in the downward position. Climbing back down the shaft to the elevator car had become a routine for him. Once on the roof he had a better explanation of why the winch wasn’t pulling. The UDO took one of it’s ‘arms’ and bent it at an angle so that it would reach Garrett’s cable and began rapid tugging motions. Garrett felt helpless, there was nothing he could do to stop the bot from ripping off the cable. When after a handful of tries, the bot was successful, Garrett wasn't ready for the negative repercussions. The elevator shaft cable had built up so much inertia, so when it was released it came flying back towards its origin. Garrett, not thinking clearly for whatever reason, stood in its path. The cable struck Garrett in the chest, flatlining him. Had it been somewhere else, Garrett might be dead. It took him a good four minutes before he caught his breath again.

  Noel, who was frantically fiddling with the control panel inside the alien craft, witnessed Garrett’s moment of fame and began to panic. She had to do something before the UDO came after Garrett. Up until that point she had been very cautious about pressing unknown buttons because she didn’t want to accidentally shoot something out that could harm Garrett, but now she had no choice. She tapped a series of buttons and waited for a reaction from each one. A baby blue cloud of substance was ejected from the alien craft towards the UDO. Noel watched the video monitor which showed the view from the exterior camera. When the substance came into contact with the UDO, it instantly flash freezed the UDO, rendering it inactive. She couldn’t celebrate her victory though because she was worried about Garrett. She exited the alien craft and ran over to where Garrett had taken his fall. He was covered in the baby blue substance, but was moving freely. The substance didn’t have a flash freeze effect on him, which remained a mystery to Noel.

  “C’mon handsome, let’s get the hell out of here, “ she said. She helped Garrett to his feet and they made the trek downstairs to the lobby of the building. From the lobby they could see Christina creating quite the distraction. When she went to fetch a vehicle to create in order to keep the UDOs occupied while Garrett and Noel went to the roof, she had chosen a fire truck.

  “What a badass,” Garrett said.

  Noel nodded but didn’t want to acknowledge the complement he had given to her. Christina had unraveled the fire hoses from the truck and connected them to a hydrant nearby. She began shooting the water at the UDOs. At first they withstood the pressure and held their ground, but as more water came and the area began to flood, the UDOs were forced to move to higher ground to avoid being fully submerged in the water. They were gone, at least for the time being.

  Garrett and Noel ran outside to Christina.

  Garrett said, “You’re a natural Chri
stina, well played.”

  He quickly described to her what happened on the roof.

  “Do you think one of us should stay here inside the craft, that way if another bot tries to disable the craft, we can hit it with the flash freeze?” Christina said.

  “No, I mean it’s a good idea, but I’ve already put your lives at enough risk. Let’s go to D.C. and get some backup to come back here with us. If by the time we get back, the UDOs have destroyed the craft, then we’ll figure out a new plan,” Garrett said.

  10

  Hardly Presidential

  “Well, here we go again,” former President Taylor said to Sierra as they got out of an SUV, having arrived back at the White House.

  “Whether we like it or not!” Sierra said.

  They had been hoping to get away from all this for a couple months, but had only lasted about two days before duty called once again. The gas was beginning to wear off. As Thomas Taylor and Sierra walked to the tunnel where they figured Logan might be, they took note of all the lifeless bodies they passed along the way.

  “What in the hell…” Thomas said.

  “Are they…dead?” Sierra said.

  “Let’s find out,” Tom said.

  He walked up to a woman and put his finger to her next to check for a pulse. A moment later he let out a sigh of relief when he verified that she was alive.

  “Just knocked out. We need to know why though, this must be what Logan was talking about,” Thomas said.

  Almost to the tunnel now, they saw a familiar face, lying on his back. It was President Kaplan. Thomas and Sierra stopped for a moment to observe and just as they were doing so, President Kaplan rolled over onto his stomach and sprung to life. He made eye contact with Thomas and gave him an enthusiastic smile.

  “Kap, what are you doing down there buddy?” Thomas said. He was trying to lighten the mood.