Moons of Jupiter

by V R Tapscott

  After staying silent for a bit, Georgia grabbed a piece of bacon for herself and said, “Yeah, when I walked in here and realized Jane was hurt, I was pissed. I didn’t see anything that I could do about it, especially when everyone was being so hush-hush about what had happened. I guess I should have pushed harder at the time. Let’s kick its ass.”

  Olive stilled for a moment, then said, “Hang on just a sec.”

  She ran off downstairs. A few minutes later, she came running back up with something interesting looking in her hands. Some kind of gun, apparently.

  She put it on the table, and I was impressed by her being able to handle this relatively heavy gun and still run up and down the steps. She’d been hitting the digital gym pretty hard.

  “This is a genuine spaceship ray gun. Yeah, I know that sounds kinda cliché, but it’s true, specially since I made it in a spaceship manufacturing facility. Now, we have to remember, to deep down remember, that we can’t kill it. Nothing we can do to the shell will ever destroy it. I have a twin to its ‘brain’ in my left leg. It’s how I’ve been able to become what I’ve become, and to continue to develop it. I pretty much live in that tube, and generate this body on the outside of it. I know, that sounds pretty weird to you normal people to hear that. But think about it - you basically live in that three pounds of meat between your ears. All the body around it, and that supports it, is generated by that same three pounds of meat. I just carry my brain in a different part of my body.”

  I have to admit that it was sounding kind of weird - we’d come to think of Olive as just another human, but of course she was far from being human, no matter how carefully she created the illusion. But she was indeed also a human being by the very standards I’d set early on for Kit. That every human starts out as a tiny personality that grows as they grow. That she and Kit had just started from a slightly different seed.

  Olive went on, “So, if we destroy the body that supports the isolation tube, and keep pecking away at it, keeping it from recharging, then at some point it will run out of power and not be able to move anymore. I should be able to track it wherever it goes. The biggest problem will be that it can teleport anywhere. But, that requires a lot of power, and even though it’s reckless in using its power, it still has to keep track of how much it’s using and how much is left. So, teleporting won’t be something it does any more than it has to. Sooner or later, no matter what equipment it’s managed to gain, it will have to invade us here in order to take our manufacturing and power facility. So, we run around pecking at it, keeping it busy and push it to attack us here.”

  At this point, a wide predatory grin stretched across her face.

  “I’ll have a surprise or two or three for it when it arrives here.”

  Bailey spoke up, “You WANT it to attack here? This house?”

  “Well, more specifically, the barn, but yes. Right now, it’s laying low. It’s creating facilities and using the stored power from the Hydroponics unit. Which is considerable. But the output of power just to take off that mountain was a giant amount of its total. In fact, it must have been about empty when it got hold of those parts. Of course, the amount of power from the ‘ponics unit was huge compared to the amount it stole from Jane’s suit. It’s still a very finite amount, though, and I know from Kit’s experience how long it takes to grow a complete manufacturing and power facility from scratch. It’s not something that can be rushed unless you have power to spare, and you can’t have power to spare until you have the power facility. So, it will be taking it as fast as it can and has its power needs charted out, down to the last erg of energy.”

  I nodded at Olive. “So, if we push him out into the open, she’ll have to fight back, expending energy she’s not got and can’t afford.”

  “Exactly. And sooner or later, it will have to make the decision to spend some of its store of power on exterminating us. From its pattern, I’m fairly certain it’s got some kind of god complex, and it thinks of you humans as being far below it. If you start making it feel the pinch, it will have to show you that it’s more powerful than you.”

  Georgia tossed in, “So, what do we do? Just show up at the place we know it’s hiding its base and start shooting at it?”

  Olive nodded. “Exactly. We track it down, drop in on it and start shooting.” She frowned. “Now, there is an alternative way. It’s by far the best way, but I doubt you’ll let me do it.”

  Jeannie Bond spoke up this time, “Yes, why not just go in alone and do it yourself? I assume that’s what you’re talking of. Why risk one of us to be a pest when you can’t be killed?”

  Olive shrugged. “Yes, that is what I was talking about. But if I do that, two things happen. One, you all sit here eating scones and tea and let me fight your battle for you. And two, if something happens and I do ‘die’ out there, you have no one to fight for you at all. It wins, kills you all and takes over the world. Or possibly just goes back in stasis, but I’m betting on it wanting to own slaves. Lots of them. Billions of them, even.”

  I said, “It’s not really up for discussion, Olive. And for the rest of you, exactly the same thing can happen to Olive that can happen to him. If she runs out of power, she dies. As I understand now, Olive has transferred her ‘self’ out of the main computer bank into the isolation tube. We need a better name for that, Olive, by the way. But that does mean that if something happens to pull the power from that tube, Olive is gone just as much as if one of us is. That means someone has to be fighting alongside Olive to make sure she survives. She might be harder to kill than one of us humans, but she’s going to be the one he’ll concentrate on. If Crafts of War terms, she’ll be the paladin, the ‘tank’ that will take the hits while we keep tossing death rays at him. Right, Olive?”

  “Exactly right, Jane. I can take the hits and be the obvious target, but I will be vulnerable. Of course, any of you that volunteer to be a part of this … erm … strike team, will have a skinsuit that will act as armor. I’ve reprogrammed the suits so that they no longer will give up their energy with a touch, so it can’t take your power from your suit and kill you that way.”

  Georgia spoke up, “I’m in. They can’t almost kill our Jane and get away with it.”

  “Me too!” That was Bailey, stepping up to the table in more than one way.

  “No one tries to kill my baby and gets away with it!” This from Jeannie Bond, whose rough voice carried a feeling of power and command.

  Cai spoke up, “I stand with all of you.”

  Almost overcome with emotion, I simply said, “Thank you all. Is there any more bacon?”

  Dead silence, and then everyone broke into laughter. Bailey threw three pieces of bacon at me, I don’t think that was fair. But I caught them and ate them so I guess it worked out.

  Chapter Eleven

  Strike Force

  As we assembled our elite SEAL team, I was struck nearly to the point of laughter with the vision of Charlie’s Angels. Four angels plus Cai as Bosley. Especially since Cai insisted on wearing a suit over his skinsuit. Brazen hussies that we were, the rest of us all wore the skinsuits as is.

  Mother opted to stay at home and keep things on track there, since we might be gone for several days at a time. I think she was a little annoyed at her body giving out on her like that, but at her age the thought of running through the jungles or over mountains wasn’t as attractive as it had been when she was 30. Mostly though, her desk job the past 20 years had taken her further from being fit enough to manage it. Not that she’d become fat, but the muscle didn’t have the tone it once did.

  Which was just as well, seeing my mother in a skinsuit might have scarred me for life. Even more than just thinking about it.

  I also got to see what Kit probably had in mind when he designed the basement garage. Olive had assembled a full sized saucer there, large enough for all of us to fit in. Now, the garage still dwarfed the saucer, but Kit had made big plans for such things. Of course, when I say “assembled”, I don’t me
an in the classic sense. Large clouds of nanobots simply coalesced into a ship, fully ready to fly. And all without even dimming the lights. I shudder to think of what Olive must have available for power now, if she could assemble this fully functional ship in a matter of hours and have it not visibly tax her system. I assume that the saucer was something of a joke for Olive as well, since I doubted that the spaceship plans in her library looked like a stereotypical 1950’s UFO.

  Turned out that the military did have some telemetry data on whatever had taken out the top of the mountain in Montana. Not that they had any idea what they had, but mom had managed to access their records, and found data that had been ignored, since no one with a brain would believe that something the size of a bottle of olive oil would have anything to do with taking a chunk out of a mountain. They’d initially tracked it as far as New Mexico’s Yucca mountains, where they lost it, but that gave us a starting point.

  Mom commented on that. “If he’s gone to ground in the Yucca Mountain facility, it could be a perfect place to hide. Miles of tunnels that are essentially deserted. Yucca was to be the nuclear dumping ground for the country, but it got tied up in politics and has never been acted on. That’s probably your first stop, to check - carefully, of course - the area and see if you can detect anything. From what I can see of Olive’s operation, though, you won’t see any outside activity, no matter how much of a hive it’s assembled inside the mountain. And of course, it’s just speculation that he’s there.”

  Olive nodded her head and said, “Yes, but it’s a starting point. He’s very hard to detect. The pieces of the original ship had beacons in them and that’s what Kit tracked. This one, he has no reason to have a beacon, and if he did have one it’s been turned off. Still, if I get close enough, I should be able to detect an energy signature.”

  I said, “Well, then I suppose there’s no point in putting it off any further. Let’s go alien hunting. No offense, of course, Olive.”

  She grinned. “None taken. I’m more human than I am alien, anyway.”

  Bailey razzed her with, “Just tell that to the folks in Roswell, sugar.”

  “I will next time I see them, honey.” Olive stuck her tongue out at Bailey.

  In mock anger, I said, “I never get to go on any of your adventures! You three have to take me along next time!”

  Olive giggled. “Ok, sickie. And for that matter, you’re not hardly sick anymore. In fact, I guess you must be ‘most well since your mom is letting you go on this mission.”

  At this, Jeannie laughed. “As if I’ve been able to make any difference in my daughter’s decisions any later than when she was about three.”

  “Aw mom…” I smiled at her. It felt good.

  We filed on board the ship and got situated in our nice comfortable 1950’s futuristic seats. I have no idea what TV show that Olive had pulled this from, but it had to be that. It had some of the 60’s Star Trek look about it too, at least on the inside. Which was clinched when Olive showed up wearing Uhura’s uniform with its tiny short red dress and long black nylons.

  At that, we all begged to have Star Trek uniforms as well, but Olive said it was too hard. And she blinked her Uhura eyes at us and we knew she was lying, but we still had to settle for plain black suits.

  The new ship was huge compared to what we were used to flying in, but it seemed to be just as responsive as the smaller one. And just as invisible, I checked with Olive to make sure. She rolled her eyes at me, but agreed that yes, it was invisible. Gosh!

  “It’s also got some pretty good armaments set up just in case we wind up getting a chance to shoot at him from the air. I think we’re covered, although I expect he’ll be hiding, biding his time and building his factory wherever he is.” Olive’s assessment sounded about right to me and the rest of us.

  We took off and flew over bits of Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Nevada getting to New Mexico. We flew in and landed pretty much at the door of the tunnel. It was pretty sad and dilapidated looking, I have to say. Hard to believe that billions of dollars went into this dusty hole. I guess since it’s just a hole in the ground there’s nothing to guard, so no one bothers with it. Of course, no one expects to have people fly into it with an invisible alien saucer, so there’s that as well.

  As hoped, Olive was able to detect a faint energy pulse far ahead of us in the dark. She manifested a small floating light that kept ahead of us and lit up the tunnel as we went. We crept along behind it for the first half mile or so, but as we saw nothing and no one, we got considerably more nonchalant, talking, laughing and cracking jokes. Most of the rails put in during the building of the tunnel were in decent shape, since there’s nothing much but dust down here, so we walked along on and between them. I’d almost expected there to be bits of broken rock and the like, kind of like the tunnel I’d been in looking for Kit’s parts. It was nothing like that down here, though.

  I think we all figured that if it was here, we’d find it cowering under a barrel or something. We all got tired fairly quickly of walking, so Olive made us a little plastic wagon sort of platform that rode on the rails that ran along the bottom of the tunnel. Our little sled was almost silent, thanks to the plastic wheels. It was also self propelled, so we were lazily riding along at some 4 or 5 miles per hour when we saw it.

  It was a jack o’ lantern, with a single hand stuck up. Waving at us. As we got closer, a voice started talking, “Hello, welcome to my home.” This weird mechanical voice just droned this over and over again.

  We all looked at each other.

  I yelled, “It’s a decoy, back to the ship, pronto!”

  The little wagon set off at a dangerous speed, and we all clung to each other in the near darkness, the tiny werelight failing to keep pace with us.

  It was only a few minutes, but it seemed like forever when we rolled out into the sunshine. And found nothing. The ship was gone.

  I guess Olive had left the keys in the car.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mars Attacks

  Olive’s limited resources here still managed to bring us up an elevator. We all crowded inside, the doors shut, and we stood in silence for a couple minutes.

  The doors opened again, and we all tripped over each other getting back out. A hissing sound behind us pulled our attention to the barn. And to the saucer floating above it. The hissing had been a purple ray of light that reached down and touched the ground, and suddenly the trees were blazing. Next, the barn exploded in fire, and the jeep sitting in front of it also blew up with a whoosh of flame.

  I don’t know what the next target would have been, probably us. Before we could even think, bars of green light came out of somewhere near the barn and hit the saucer dead on. After about six of those, the saucer fell to the ground, crushing the barn under it. And I saw a little bolt of lightning or possibly a small bottle of cooking oil shooting off into the clouds.

  Showing great presence of mind, Olive managed to dissolve the ship, leaving nothing but the crackling of fire as the barn and everything around it started going up in flames. I could hear distant sirens as the fire department and police started reacting to the obvious conflagration here. Mother came running out of the house, sprinting toward us. I hugged her, and we all stood in shock as the fires leapt up. I came out of it a little and started spraying water on the roof of the main house. Of course, I suppose I could have started a campfire on the top of the house. Nothing fazes that roof.

  The fire department is only a couple miles away, and fire trucks started arriving about then. They pulled out hoses and started spraying the trees and bushes around to keep it from spreading and setting the county on fire. We have enough trouble with fires in this area that everyone is pretty careful about keeping vegetation away from houses, so at that point they were able to concentrate on getting the fire that was consuming the barn and the Jeep knocked down and under control.

  After a couple hours of them working, they managed to get the fire out. I’d been talking with the fire chief, and
had no explanation for what had happened. Everyone looking had seen the purple lights in the sky and since I had no explanation beyond, “It must have been lightning?” The chief had left, saying he’d be back later to do some further inspection.

  The firemen and police had all finally disappeared back to town and I wandered disconsolately up to the barn, or what had recently been a barn. The barrage had pretty much completely destroyed it, and Jerry the Jeep was a sodden hulk. I shivered to think what poor Threepio looked like.

  With the smoke still curling up in places, it was hard for me to believe this had all taken place in just a few minutes. I hadn’t seen Olive since the shooting started, so I assumed she was in charge of the amazing display of firepower that had shot BACK at our own saucer floating in the air above us.

  There were great gouges out of the dirt, and it had taken a lot of bewildered looks on my part to get the police and fire to accept the lightning theory. On the other hand, what other explanation was there? An attack by little green men?

  I heard a crunch of footsteps behind me and turned. Bailey reached my side and gave me a hug.

  “Hey, how does it look? You okay, Janey?”

  “I think it’s a total loss, Bailey. So far as me, no I’m not okay, but I guess I will be. How are you and the rest?”

  “Everyone is fine. I doubt we can thank anything but luck and the fact that whatever it is could sense the underground installation and leave the house alone. And of course, the fact that Olive fired back. Wow.”

  I nodded. “That and Kit’s architecture. That stuff is pretty anything-proof. The poor barn though - it was just a barn. Same with my Jeep. I’d started to like that Jeep, too. And Threepio. I can’t see how he could survive. I suppose I’ll get a crane up here and start having the barn hauled off. I might have to wait for the insurance adjuster, though, I guess.”

  As Bailey and I stood there looking at the damage, other people began to filter up.