The General thought a minute and finally said, “I guess it can’t hurt much now. I will show you but I think you are going to be disappointed.”
“Maybe so but I think not,” she said.
The missile complex control center was in the center of the base. Each passageway had two heavy hardened blast doors in case something went wrong during a launch. The launch control room sat in the middle of the four and was also connected by a passage way to each silo through a double set of blast doors. The control room was accessible by climbing down a vertical ladder for fifteen meters and then down a sloping angled tunnel.
“You are not really dressed for this,” Yegor said, looking at her dress and high heel shoes.
“I will manage,” was all she said. Yegor led her over to the entrance.
“We will have to climb down about fifteen meters and then we will start down the entrance shaft. I think your shoes are going to make it very dangerous.”
Without saying another word, she slipped out of the shoes.
“That’s one way to solve the problem, Yegor said.
“You go first,” Matryona a said.
“I think you might want to go first,” he said, pointing at her dress.
“It is okay General, I am not worried about you looking up my dress,” she said smiling.
They started down the shaft and reached the bottom without incident. The General opened the blast door and the proceeded to the second door. Repeating the previous procedure he opened the last blast door and stepped into the control room.
“Here it is, not much to look at without the computers and various other components.”
“It is larger than I anticipated,” she said.
“It just looks big now. With everyone in here and the equipment, we didn’t have much room to maneuver."
“Where do the missiles take off from?” she asked.
“The silo tubes. This way,” he said. He led her down one of the four long tunnels. Dim bulbs were glowing overhead. He opened the second blast door and she followed him inside.
“This is the silo itself. The missiles were right behind that door,” the General told her.
“May I see?”
“There isn’t much to see, he said opening the door. She ducked and climbed inside.
“How big is the missile? I mean, how much space does it take up?
“See the large clamps? Those hold the missile in place until we are ready to launch.”
“So that gives about a two meter area.”
“Yes, why?”
“I heard one of my husband’s tarts talking to someone about what it was like to make love in a silo while leaning against a nuclear missile.”
“I see. I guess it takes all kinds,” he said.
“She seemed to think it was a big deal,” Matryona said.
“The other three launch silos are in the same condition.”
“I am satisfied. We can go now, my feet are getting cold.
“Then let’s go back and you can retrieve your shoes before someone comes,” Yegor said.
Matryona had just started up the ladder and Yegor was waiting, looking everywhere but up. A huge rumble rocked the silo and Matryona lost her grip and fell backwards. Yeager was able to catch her just in time.
“My God, what was that?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. Wait here,” he said and started up the steps. When he opened the outer door, he was confused by what he saw. The leaves were all off the trees and the mountain looked like it had been cleared of all foliage. The sky was a churning mass of dark clouds.
“General?” Matryona called.
“Yes. Just a second. I am trying to see if it is safe to come up,” he shouted down.
The buildings were still standing and Matryona’s car was fine. Other than the sky and barren landscape, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He quickly checked his RadDector, a small device that could detect gamma, beta, fast neutron, and X-rays. Nothing was out of the normal range. He held the device vertical and made a full 360 degree sweep of the area but it was clean according to the RadDector.
“Everything seems to be alright. It appears to be safe,” he yelled down to her.
“Can I come up now?”
“Yes, it’s clear as far as I can tell,” Yegor said.
Matryona climbed up the ladder and looked at the sky, “What is that all about?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“It is so dark out, like someone stole the sun.”
“It certainly is strange,” he said as she put her shoes back on. He walked her to her car.
“I told you there wasn’t much to see down there,” Yegor said.
“No, but now I know she was telling the truth. She talked about the doors and the clamps that held the rocket motors in place. From what she said I know she was not just making it up. My husband did take her down there.”
Yegor decided there was nothing more he could say so he just walked her to her car.
“Thank you General,” she said as he held the door open for her.
She slipped behind the wheel and he closed the door. She rolled down the window.
“I know that was hard for you. It goes against your military training but I really do appreciate your allowing me to see the silos.”
“Like you said, it won’t be an hour before kids and others show up to see what went on here and take anything that's not nailed down.”
“Good luck to you General. I wish we could have known each other better.”
“That is very kind of you. Good luck to you Matryona Mihailvo,” he said with a quick bow.
She tried to start her car but nothing happened. She tried again but nothing.
“Is there a problem?” Yegor asked.
“Yes. It won’t start,” she said, trying once more.
Yegor had her open the hood and immediately saw that some of the electrical components were melted. It seemed very strange.
“I think we are going to have to have someone come take a look at it. Something seems to have shorted out,” he said.
“Can you call someone for me?”
“Certainly,” he said as she climbed out.
They walked over to this office and he picked up the phone. There was no dial tone. He pushed the receiver several times but to no avail.
“That is strange, we have no connection.”
“I don’t understand,” Matryona said.
“Neither do I. Come on, I will take you to town and we can get someone to come out and get your car,” Yegor told her.
“Nice car,” Matryona said as they climbed into the old Gaza-24.
“Nothing but the best for the military,” he said, holding the door open for her.
The car started immediately. They drove the old car over a bumpy two lane road on the way to Sverdlovsk.
“What the…” the General said as he came upon a motorcycle lying on its side in the middle of the road.
“Who would just leave their bike like that?” Matryona asked.
“Stay in the car,” Yegor said, climbing out with his pistol in his hand.
He walked over to the bike and looked down at it. The cycle seemed fine except for a few scrapes and a broken headlight. A belt buckle was lodged in a pool of slime unlike anything he had seen before. He bent down to get a better look at it and saw some coins, two 5 copeicas and a 5 rouble coin. He decided not to touch anything and went back to the car.
“What was it?”
“I don’t know but we should hurry to Severdlovsk,” he said, taking off down the road again.
They stopped six more times to look at abandoned vehicles and all had the same slime in them. Something was terribly wrong but Yegor didn’t say anything.
When they got to the outskirts of Severdlovsk several cars were blocking the roads. Some were on the sidewalks and one was embedded in the front of a house.
“My God. What is going on? Where are all the people?” Matryona
asked.
“I think they are gone,” Yegor said.
“Gone? Gone where?”
“Dead.”
“What? Dead? How can that be? If they are all dead, why aren’t we?”
“I don’t have any answers for that just yet.”
He drove to the center of town but it was the same. No one was visible but he could see the blobs of goo on the sidewalks and street. He concluded that they were the remains of the people.
He knew it wasn’t a nuclear device. Even a dirty bomb emits gamma and beta radiation and nothing was registering above normal. Whatever had caused this was more sophisticated than anything he had ever heard of before.
“What do we do now?” Matryona asked.
“I think we need to get to Gukovo. If we find the same thing there then we will have to go to Moscow.”
“Shouldn’t we just stay here and wait for someone to come?”
“I am sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I should go to Gukovo. You can remain here. If I find the same thing has happened there I will come back and get you.”
“No, I don’t want to stay here alone. I will go with you,” she said.
“It is a long way on these roads in this old piece of junk.”
“I’m not staying here alone,” she said determinedly.
Yegor looked at her for a second and then started the drive to Gukovo.
CHAPTER TEN
USA
“Where are we now in numbers James?” Colonel Webber asked at the weekly meeting.
“We have thirty-six thousand two hundred and sixty-seven people. One hundred and eleven women are pregnant,” the Lieutenant replied.
“Any significant problems?”
“Just the usual small stuff, nothing major.”
“Thank you James. Larry?”
“We have five in jail. Two will be released next month. The other three still have a ways to go. We executed one man yesterday for attempted rape.”
“Has that been released to the radio station yet?”
“No sir, I wanted to wait until I informed you first and had approval to make the announcement.”
“By all means, go ahead. You don’t need my approval for that. I think it sends a message that this will not be tolerated,” the Colonel replied.
“Sir…”
“I know Randy. You don’t think much of capital punishment. I appreciate your views and respect them but I am simply not going to let the few remaining survivors be killed, raped, or taken advantage of by malcontents, criminals, and riffraff.”
Randy didn’t reply. There was no use arguing over this again. He had expressed his dislike of the capital punishment system and the way it operated but he was the sole dissident when the vote was taken.
“Tim, what about the patrols?”
“We are still finding people. We found a group of sixty in Missouri in a cave yesterday. They had been living in it, afraid to come out. They would send scouting parties out at night to gather food and then hide out in the cave during the day. Some of them finally stumbled across one of the signs we have been putting out all over the place. Even then they were skeptical. They thought it might be a trick. They are being airlifted here as we speak.”
“That is great news. I wonder how many more poor souls are in hiding, afraid to come out?” the Colonel mused.
“I think we will be surprised. I’ll bet there are still several thousand out there.”
“Hopefully the signs will help and we will continue to see them straggle in. Ed, what about intelligence?”
“Not so good sir. The group in Utah has been growing and fanning out. We have stationed extra guards in New Mexico to make sure Randy’s people are safe but even so, it may not be enough if they stumble on them and decide to take over the place.”
“What is the estimated strength of this group?”
“Groups. Two main groups. May I?” he asked pointing to a large map on the wall.
“Please.”
“The first is here. They are calling themselves the Salt Lake Freemen. They seem to be about eight hundred strong. Quite formidable and well-armed. They even have tanks.”
“Any aircraft?”
“Not that we have detected so far.”
“And the other group?”
“They are the Richfield American Militia. Not as well organized, smaller, and less sophisticated. They are around four hundred and fifty strong. They are well armed but nothing to the extent of the SLF.”
“SLF, meaning Salt Lake Freemen?”
“Exactly.”
“Where is the biggest threat to our people coming from?”
“The latter. They have been seen crossing into Arizona and New Mexico upon occasion. They may never get to Randy’s people but you never know.”
“What are their actions like?”
“Thugs. They kill each other for just about anything. When they come across other survivors they usually kill the men and take the women. They have no laws.”
“How do the two groups get along?”
“They seem to have some sort of truce. They had clashes earlier but now they just avoid each other.”
“That’s good. We can use that to our advantage.”
“Margaret, where are we on weapons?”
“We have several hundred iron bombs but nothing is going to make the electronically guided ones work, at least not until we have the ability to duplicate the electrical components. Some of the scientists are working on it but it is still some ways off,” she replied.
“Keep them on it. Randy you’re next.”
“A girl, seven pounds, six ounces. Sophia,” he said and everyone clapped.
“Congratulations. Well done,” Webber said when it all died down, “Give Rachel our best.”
“I certainly will. Now, about the VLA project. Dr. Sullivan now has twelve of the dishes working and feels we can accomplish everything we need to do for the time being. The computer is now functional. Don’t ask me how, but it is. They are going to test the system this weekend. Sunday most likely. They will try to locate any objects in NEO and log their locations. Once they are done with that they will try to see if the objects are operational or if they can bring one back on line. Then it is a matter of transmitting the signals back to Cheyenne Mountain. Tying the two systems together will take a little more time but at least we will know if all this work has been worth it.”
“Excellent. Excellent. I will fly out for the initial test; you can stay home with Rachel.”
“No way. I’ve been on top of this project for almost eighteen months now. I want to see it through.”
“Then I’ll just tag along. It is a historic moment after all.”
~~
The flight to Socorro was boring but the ride to the site of the VLA was worse because of the heat and dust.
“Not a lot to see out here is there?” Colonel Weber said.
“Not much,” Randy agreed.
“This is my first time to actually see this place.”
“It’s kind of awe inspiring. The dishes are huge.”
“I’ve seen the pictures several times. They were even featured in some show about aliens or something like that.”
“Contact. I think that was the name of the show. Jodi Foster was in it.”
“That’s the one,” Webber replied.
Forty-five minutes later they arrived at the site. Dr. Sullivan was waiting for them in the maintenance building. One of the dishes was sitting on a support structure with the base removed.
“Good God. How do they get that thing apart like that?” Webber asked, looking at the huge dish.
“It is not an easy chore. It wasn’t possible until they finally figured out how to get the transporter to run. The work goes much faster now.”
“How did they figure out how to work on these monsters?” Webber asked.
“They found the overhaul manual and they have actual step by step scripts that they follow. Everything is documented down to the last deta
il.”
“It still looks like a formidable task.”
“It is but it's better than before. The damn things weigh 230 tons each. You have to be really careful when trying to move and lift them with a transporter weighing only 90 tons.
Doctor Sullivan greeted them as he came down from the top of the huge structure.
“Hello again Randy,” he said, shaking his hand, “Nice to see you again Colonel Webber, a pleasure to have you here.”
“Thank you Doctor Sullivan. Randy tells me that things are progressing well now.”
“Better. We have the antenna ready and in place. We have established linkup with them via our computer so it should allow us to locate any satellites in near earth orbit if they survived.”
“Do you think any did?”
“I haven’t a clue. I think it is possible, highly likely even, but I couldn’t say for certainty that they survived,” Sullivan said.
“When will you be ready to test the system?” Webber asked.
“Actually, we are ready. I was just killing time until your arrival. If you will follow me, we can run the test right now,” he said.
Randy and Webber followed the doctor to the main control building. A row of computer screens were aligned against one wall. In the center of the room was a control station. Men and women were monitoring the screens. Sullivan walked to the control station and placed a set of headphones on.
“All right boys and girls, it’s show time. I would like a report from each station in order please.”
“One, no anomalies. Good to go.”
“Two, no anomalies. Ready.”
“Three, good to go.”
It continued on with all eight stations reporting they were ready to proceed.
“Gentlemen, keep your fingers crossed,” he said to Randy and Webber. He switched on the master unit and sat down at the keyboard.
“Commencing test one,” he said into the headset. Starting sweepone at,” he looked at the clock on the wall, “14:42.52,” he said and pushed a button. He began typing instructions on the keyboard. Everyone was silent. Sullivan continued to type in instructions, the clock ticking off the minutes.
“Mark one at station four,” a woman said.
Sullivan typed in another command.
“Mark one at station six,” came the next reply.
THE BEGINNING Book Two (THE EVENT) Page 9