SODIUM:4 Gravity

by Arseneault, Stephen

  We had a good talk and again my spirits were raised and self-confidence renewed. He somehow always knew the right things to say. I next talked to my mother where I was asked where I had been and why had I not called sooner. I gave her the standard answer that I was not at liberty to say. She let out a "humph" sound but I knew it was only the sound of a mother concerned for her child.

  I considered myself a tough chick. I had a thick skin and a sometimes foul mouth. I would fight at the drop of a hat or step in to defend a friend. But emotions could sometimes get to even the toughest of us. I felt a bit ashamed of the relief that came when the call ended. I had been only moments from breaking down. The months on end in space were pushing my sanity. I was beginning to brood when the sleep aids of my BGS hit my bloodstream and I quickly dozed off.

  The zero-hour counter was down to 98 days. Earth's defenses continued to build. My irritation with not being able to fight continued to grow. Sitting on station, cruising at only half SOL, was like a plague on my soul. I wanted action. I wanted combat. But my orders were to sit tight and watch.

  On day 94 I got news of another attempt at a raid. Four more Ghost ships were on their way and would be impacting the fleet within the hour. They would be traveling at more than ten SOL. It was the fastest safe speed they could employ while passing through the alien vessel with the active skin.

  I again watched patiently as the combat counter trickled down to zero, the target was the mega-ship. As the counter ticked away I could almost feel the sweat beading on my forehead due to the anxiety of waiting. At zero we got evidence of the attack.

  One of the destroyers again took a hit. It was obliterated, leaving nothing but a cloud of debris. The other three Ghosts had missed all targets. Immediately the surrounding matrix of alien fighters moved their perimeter outwards.

  Shepard ran several calculations and came back with the bad news. Even at ten SOL the alien mega-ship would have time to react and destroy any attempts at an over SOL assault. Our best weapon against the alien fleet was now useless.

  I again pressed Command for permission to launch an assault of my own. Again I was denied. I felt helpless as I sat and watched as the alien fleet closed in on my home. Being an observer did not sit well with my psyche. I thought several times of just turning the ship back towards the fleet and going at it alone.

  But I had another person on-board. I had no right to throw Shepard's life to the wind along with my own. And what right did I have to take this incredible craft that I was piloting for my own. Were there not others who were willing to give their lives while following orders? I was not a troublemaker, but I was having a difficult time with what I considered to be sitting on the sidelines.

  Our world would be in turmoil in only three short months. The alien fleet had us way outgunned. Our best weapon was our speed and they had found a way to counter its benefit. I felt like I was sitting on the train tracks and my shoe was caught under a rail. The train was barreling down upon me and my foot would not come free.

  I thought about my mother and father yelling at me to at least do something. I thought about my aunt, uncle and cousin and how the aliens had taken them from me. Then I thought about my grandfather and about what he would say or do.

  He would tell me to stay strong, to be patient and to give it my best when the time came for action. It was his image that brought me courage, it was his image that gave me confidence and it was his image that rallied my flagging spirits.

  When the time came for battle I would either stand or fall. Earth and all I knew might perish, but it would not be because of my lack of trying. I would fight the good fight and I would fight to win.

  Man's survival lay in the balance. We were in need of a miracle and with each passing day the chances of that miracle happening seemed to be slipping away. Would Man come up with a solution to this debacle? Would we be able to overcome the overwhelming odds? I sat back in my chair looking at an image of the alien mega-ship cruising along. I wasn't so sure of our chances.

  Chapter 5

  The fleet was fast approaching. We had 18 days until its arrival. A new attempt at stopping the incoming alien assault had only inflicted minor damage. More than 500 active skinned nukes had been launched and set in the path of the incoming attackers. The nukes were dropped into position with timers set to arm and fire upon the alien’s arrival; we called them "space mines."

  The alien fleet had altered course slightly, traversing only an edge of the mine field. Upon detonation of the nukes, estimates were that 147 alien fighter craft had been destroyed. A second field had been laid out only to have the alien fleet maneuver around it using random course changes. Space was such an immense place.

  Our factories had been working night and day. Our cities fortified and our military trained. The stress at home was overwhelming with some dropping from the workforce due to the inability to function with the tiresome schedules and the threat of the coming war.

  Production had slowed just when it was most critical to our survival as a small percentage of the populous was beginning to crack, some had given up altogether. Even the politicians in their daily speeches of encouragement were beginning to show signs of fatigue. Man was teetering on the edge of destruction and hope of victory and survival was beginning to wane.

  The Military Command had a grim outlook with simulations turning in billions of deaths with some of the best-case scenarios. Some had gone as far as calling for an Earth ship to be built that would carry a chosen few far away from the coming menace.

  They would fly to the stars in search of a new home for Mankind. But the masses were not interested in putting forth effort to ensure Man's survival. Their interest lay in the survival of themselves, their world and the lives they still had to live. Their desires were to save all living humans and not just a select few. The Earth ship idea had been met with extreme resistance.

  Outside of the cities, efforts were made to construct underground bunkers. Many had the notion that when the fighting began they would be able to hide away until the aliens had been defeated. Others complained that valuable resources were being wasted.

  As zero hour approached the world civilizations were beginning to get restless. The airwaves were limited to movies and music that were considered uplifting or to those that inspired fight and resistance. Many of the old war movies from the 20th century had once again become popular. Meanwhile, I sat on a Ghost ship with Shepard... trapped on a monotonous mission to watch the attackers as they crept ever closer.

  For a year Earth had been broadcasting continuous requests to the aliens for sympathy or compromise. Offers of sanctuary or negotiation had fallen on deaf ears. Our alien attackers had no interest in our pleas.

  On day 14 to zero Command began to show signs of desperation. We had orders to observe as four more Ghost ships would attempt an attack. This time, they would be using our stealth tactic in an attempt to slide inside the mega-ship's defense and enter into its hull.

  Once inside, the orders were to open fire. It would be considered a Kamikaze run by most, with chances of not coming home being high. But these were soldiers and they were willing to risk their lives in the defense of their loved ones, of their planet, of all that they knew.

  Again I asked to be included in the raid only to be denied. The QE comm embedded in my head was still considered too valuable to lose. I wondered how valuable it would be if there was no home to return too. I kept my idle thoughts to myself.

  The four Ghosts started their mission from 500 million kilometers. It was a distance at which we felt short bursts of a BHD might go undetected. It would take 15 hours for the drifting ships to reach their target. And it would only be effective if that target remained on the correct path.

  The Ghosts would move in a square formation with a 30 kilometer distance between them. The hope was that at least one would slip inside the alien mega-ship. We watched patiently as the counter ticked towards zero. With two hours to go the alien fleet made a slight shift in its co
urse. Shepard ran the calculations which revealed that only one Ghost now had a chance at an encounter.

  I wanted to enable the comm to the four Ghost commanders, but I could not do so without revealing our position. Our QE connection to home was secure and silent to the rest of the universe except for the entangled pairs at the other end at Command. Radio broadcasts were anything but silent.

  With a half hour to go the fleet again made another adjustment moving completely out of the path of the incoming Ghosts. The stealth attack mission was a bust. Shepard was livid as she had done an analysis of the fleet’s movements and had forwarded those results to Command. The Tacticians had done their own analysis and devised the current plan while excluding Shepard's data. After the fleet's last movement Shepard had simulated the assault with her own calculations which showed a correct estimate of their new location.

  At our distance it would be another seven days before any alteration to Command's plans could be put into effect as it would take that long for communications to arrive from Earth. I asked Shepard if there was any other way to contact the Ghosts without being detected. There was none. For seven days the Ghost ships repeated their attempts at crossing into the alien fleet. Each time they missed by wide margins as the alien fleet adjusted course.

  On the eighth day the raiders received their new orders. Shepard's calculations had matched the moves of the fleet. Again the 15 hour counter was reset and the Ghost raid begun. We watched anxiously as the timer approached zero. The assault yielded results.

  As the Ghosts entered the fleet's space one of the battleships suddenly veered off course and dropped its speed. Moments later bright flashes could be seen on its outer hull. The same phenomenon then happened to another battleship and then again to a cruiser. The main target had been missed but our tiny Ghost fleet was doing severe damage. A celebration erupted as cheers rang out over the QE comm link coming from Command.

  The three Ghosts ships that had made it inside were now broadcasting signals of their own. Command had worked it into the plans that once detection was inevitable they might as well broadcast what they were seeing.

  I was tuned into the video feed from Ghost 994 on-board the first battleship. Once inside they had launched all 64 of their Drillers. As the Drillers began their work the pilot performed a BHD micro-burst to move quickly back outside the large craft and to a safe distance.

  The Drillers were hard at work inside the alien vessels moving from bulkhead to bulkhead destroying everything in their paths. When the second and third Ghosts attempted their getaways the mega-ship was waiting for them. Two bursts of its powerful gravity weapon told the story of the end of eight brave souls.

  The next time around the attack counter never reached zero. The remaining two Ghost ships were detected and eliminated before reaching their targets. More than 500 Defender craft had been launched in an effort to engage in a large scale stealth attack. With the annihilation of the Ghost ships the raid was canceled as we could not risk sending 2,000 crewmen to what would be an almost certain death.

  I muted channel 1650 for a private conversation with Shepard. I pleaded with her to join me in taking some action, any action, on our own. We had one week remaining before death and destruction would be brought down upon our planet.

  We carried 63 of our 64 Drillers that were ready to be put into service if we could only get back inside the mega-ship. Shepard was steadfast in her response. So long as we had orders we would follow them. We had no way of knowing everything that Command was planning.

  She reasoned that perhaps our role in the coming days would be critical in turning the tide. That role would not happen if we were dead and scattered amongst the stellar winds. It was one of the things I appreciated most about Shepard, her reasoning was always sound.

  Back on Earth the factories continued to churn out Defenders, Drillers and coil guns. Other than the fringe few, the masses toiled on at building our defenses. Every major city was now defended by at least two dozen heavy coil guns as well as hundreds of light guns.

  In a burst of productivity we had raised our Defender count to 4,186 ready ships with fully trained crews. We had launched more than 500 space based mobile coil guns and produced thousands of ground launched Drillers. Our cooperation among nations and achievements at home had been nothing but incredible.

  Earth was as prepared as it possibly could be. I wondered if my grandfather had dug a bunker for my family. I wondered if there would be a farm to return too after the inevitable battle commenced. I wondered if I somehow made it through the crisis at hand... would everything have changed for the worst.

  We were up against 14 fully functioning alien carriers that brought 15,426 fighters. We had one battleship, four cruisers and 13 destroyers to contend with along with the behemoth mega-ship. I wondered if all the saucers had gravity weapons as powerful as the mega-ship. I wondered if my simulated 8-1 kill ratio would hold.

  As I sat in my chair lamenting my existence the alarms on my holo-screen began to sound. More than 100 enemy fighters had changed course and were headed in our direction. We had somehow been detected. It would take just over an hour for them to reach our position. I alerted Command and asked for direction.

  Command soon gave the go ahead for a return home. Our reconnaissance mission had come to an end. I pushed the throttle to full and six minutes later we vanished from the aliens sensors as we passed through light speed.

  When we touched down near Lake Pleasant it was 156 hours to zero. Crews were scrambling and practice flights into space were running non-stop. We were immediately escorted to the medical facilities where tests could be run on our newly improved bodies.

  I felt like a lab rat with all the techs surrounding me with their poking and prodding. I was then sent into the next room with a handler to remove my BGS suit for an evaluation. After removal the suit was immediately taken to a lab.

  I had my wash down and again moved in front of a mirror to check on my body's new appearance. I was shocked. My waist was thinner and the muscles in my arms, legs and torso were cut and hard. Any bodybuilder would have been proud. My skin was a light tan showing off my one-sixteenth Native American blood. It was also without blemish.

  My hair had grown fast and grown long. My light brown roots had returned to their youthful blonde. Had I somehow been able to bottle what had happened and if I was able to sell it during normal times I would have become fantastically wealthy over-night.

  I put on the dull gray Astronaut Corps uniform that had been delivered and was disappointed with how it hid my nearly perfect human physique. I then walked back into the outer room where the techs once again crowded around.

  Every test was run and data gathered. My eyesight was 20/8. My hearing 50% better than average. My reaction times doubled. And my IQ had settled at 147. In almost every way I was improved.

  I was then given the afternoon to spend as I wished. I made a beeline to the training simulators where Randy and Raven were hard at work training crews. They each took a short break to say hello and catch up. It felt good to see my old team. They were shocked at my appearance.

  I asked about Tork and about his progress. His spacewalk had saved my life, but almost ended his own. He was still in rehabilitation and had regained partial use of one of his arms. Raven said he was in good spirits and that he was a fighter. He was more concerned with the imminent attack than with his own health.

  He had repeatedly asked that no resources be used on his behalf. Command would have none of it. He was a hero and whatever we could do as a nation to support him was viewed as the right thing to do... and as worthwhile PR. Those who had been injured during battle with the aliens had received a hero’s praise from the world populations. It was a part of our humanity that garnered almost universal support.

  After my short stint with Randy and Raven I headed for the mess hall to meet Shepard. The mess hall was empty of flight crews. Shepard reasoned that everyone was now wearing a BGS and getting their nutrients from a belt
pack.

  I ordered a hamburger and fries and a big chocolate shake. I began to wonder what a hamburger would taste like since I had not had one in over a year. It felt strange to bite into the warm charred flesh of the burger. The flavor in my mouth was something that had been missing. It was like seeing an old friend for the first time in years.

  When the meal was finished I felt a bloated sensation in my abdomen and had to catch myself before I let loose of a stream of urine without thinking. The meal was good and brought back fond memories of my grandfather's deep fried Thanksgiving turkey and my mother's succulent Christmas ham.

  But I was a practical person and the time-savings, simplicity and better nutrition that the BGS had to offer far outweighed the taste indulgence of a good meal. If man indeed had a future in space, I was sure the BGS would be a big part of it.

  I then invited Shepard to the base pub for a beer. Again the pub was empty of pilots and crews. We sat and chatted with two reactor assemblers about their workdays and lives. I wanted to tell of our adventures, but we were still under orders to not speak of what we had seen. It remained classified information at the highest of levels.

  From the pub I made my way back to my quarters and lay awake in bed for more than an hour, unable to sleep. The meds offered by the BGS kept us on a regular schedule, but I was no longer in a BGS. I placed a call to the infirmary and soon had a knock on my door. A nursing assistant had a small glass of water and two pills. The darkness soon overtook my consciousness. With only 146 hours to zero there would be much to do in the morning. War was now on our doorstep.

  Chapter 6

  Factories produced at an unbelievable pace. Assemblers and gun placement technicians scurried about. Stress was high, but the citizens of Earth were largely holding it together. It was a cooperative effort never before seen by Man. More than 4,000 Defender ships and their crews were trained and at the ready. Gun turrets encircled the globe readying to protect the populous. Man was as prepared as he could be.