One Giant Leap

by Keith Martin

  “I do get the gist of what your saying to me Commander, but you also ordered me to train only the best to fly your G-Class Shuttles. I was performing my duties to the best of my abilities as you ordered me to do Sir. I have completely digested every second of every flight every cadet of his class ever had control of, from a video game when they were three years old to date. He is the best of them all hands down. With a few years training he will be as good or better than most. There’s no time like the present to teach an eaglet to fly. Why hold back so much natural talent by doing missions to Mars sleeping in a drum pointed at a planet? Sir? I found the best, I see no point in wasting the taxpayers dollars training him to do what he can do in his sleep right now.”

  Fred really loved this kid and that was some first class bull he was slinging. But he couldn’t just let him off without flaming his tail feathers a little or the whole base would think he was going soft. “Commander… there will be no more of this kind of thing in the future between us. If you feel a cadet has earned the right to take a seat in my G-Class Shuttles we will agree on the mission they will be given to pilot, not you. Do I make myself clear Joshua?”

  “Sure thing Fred. Sorry I circumnavigated command protocol, it will not happen again Sir” He made his peace with God.

  “Get the hell out of my sight, and get to Earth right now. I want Con Man on the stick as much as possible and ready to solo within sixty days. Do I make myself perfectly clear Jackal?” He gave Jackal his Leave.

  Jackal saluted smartly showing his respect for his Commander. As soon as Fred returned it, he pivoted on the balls of his feet and headed out the door like a flash before Fred fired up that torch and scorched him again. His tail feathers had a good scorching and he was out of there before the Old Man burned his butt to the nubs.

  He found Pete and Berry waiting outside Command in the hallway to see what the verdict would be. “Com Man you are piloting the mission back down to fetch a load. Get to Suit Up, I will be right behind you.”

  “I have a jumpsuit for you, lets go and I’ll have your whites washed and pressed before you get back.” Berry started them all towards Suit Up. He was in control now and was not going to take no for an answer. They had time to shave because of the little BBQ in the Commanders office. The shuttle was refueled, its cargo long since disgorged by the skilled unloading crews. It was reloaded with trash headed to Earth and now sat ready for the return mission and time was money.

  * * *

  The Earth’s pull grew stronger as it passed the Moon and it took a direct bead on the blue planet. The Moons gravity put a slow spin on the meteoroid as it passed twelve miles from the surface. This pull was causing the meteoroid to curve into a shallower angle of entry into Earth’s atmosphere. As it made contact with the outer layers of atmosphere it just skipped along heating up, Fracturing and breaking apart as it started to glow in the violent friction of the dense air. Microscopic fragments pealing away vaporizing in the high reaches of Earth’s protective atmosphere, as it burned and started to really heat up.

  All the small chunks that broke off the meteoroid vaporized on entry, turning to dust by super heating in the friction of the atmosphere. The thick atmosphere of Earth was protecting us again from the dangers of things falling from space. As the meteor slowed, it gave in to the Earth’s gravity, falling deeper into the atmosphere. The friction grew more intense and the meteor started to glow, it turned red hot as it was super heated. More of the surface flaked, chipped and burned away. It was all vaporizing and turning to harmless dust.

  At its core there was a pocket of ice. No bigger then a grapefruit. The super heating meteor mass vaporized it instantaneously, like a massive bomb going off in the core. The rock blasted apart into thousands of chunks.

  The shotgun blast of debris falling deeper into the atmosphere as it crossed over Canada. Most of it vaporized, yet a few small fragments rained down reaching the surface of earth. Nothing so big it would do any real damage in the remote areas they impacted. A few trees were blasted as if hit by lightning, a few small craters dotted the northern landscape and dust fell over large areas.

  The energy of the blast sent it on a new trajectory. There would be little physical proof that this meteor ended its life here on Earth.

  The largest chunk was no bigger than a common softball.

  * * *

  When the thick clouds of suspended water snuffed out their glow of heat over northern Canada, the meteors surface started to change. A seed of life lay dormant within the rock for thousands of years. It now felt the cooling of water and air, which was all it needed to trigger a new existence. It grew exponentially with an expansion rate that was unknown on Earth. 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256-512-1024-2048 the cells split in milliseconds.

  It soon out grew the surface of the little meteor fragments and started to flake off into the air. But instead of falling to Earth, this new life started to bind with the oxygen molecules, its growth accelerating.

  The trail of expanding life seeded into the atmosphere was eighteen hundred miles long when gravity finally pulled the last of it to Earth.

  * * *

  The game was back under way after minutes of cheering and youthful excitement. A small girl of seven or eight years of age, who introduced herself as Cindy, skipped over to her and asked Shianne if she would like to come down and cheer the teams from the sidelines. “That was my big brother Jimmy who hit the ball real far. It was his first real bigger hit. If you come down to help us cheer for him, my daddy said I could give you a soda. Want to come cheer with us?”

  She was a little blonde angel and the invitation was too much to resist. Her face was lit up with joy after witnessing the hit her brother just made. Her dad never took his eye off of his little girl as she crossed the lawn to make this invitation. Cindy extended her small hand to Shianne. “Come on or we will miss the game.”

  How could she resist such a perfect invitation? She had the afternoon free, so she took Cindy’s hand saying. “Ok, I’ll come down and help cheer, but you have to show me who to cheer for.” She stood and began picking up the remains of her lunch.

  There was a loud “BANG”. It spun her. She didn’t realize it, but she had kneeled down while emptying her hands, shielding Cindy from the direction of the sound with her own body. She looked for her backpack knowing she was in big trouble if the family found out she had her pistol with her and didn’t save her own skin. Was it some nut with a gun in the park? Or was it just a backfire from a car? Her reflexes didn’t give her time to think of anything except protecting the child. She scanned the area while reaching her pack to get her weapon out and strapped on. She noticed many of the players had hit the ground reflexively; these city children were trained to duck at the sound of gunfire.

  She wondered for a split second, how mankind could survive in a life filled with fear. Her heart was racing. “Are you ok Cindy?” She asked; making sure she was unharmed.

  * * *

  It landed in the rose garden just a few hundred yards from the ball field. Even as small as the meteor was it hit with enough force to blast a crater four feet across in the flowerbed of the rose garden and level everything around it for fifteen feet.

  “I’m okay. What was that sound?” Cindy asked looking around wide-eyed.

  She stood, running her belt through the holster to finish readying for what was to come next if anything; Cindy was still holding her leg tightly. Then Shianne spotted movement.

  At first she wasn’t sure it was there. It looked like a wall of heat moving out from the gardens. It quickly grew taller and wider as it moved. It was clear but it almost had a shine to it, like a wave of heat off the deserts floor. Her mind raced as she watched it coming her way.

  ‘What was about to hit her?

  Was she going to survive it?’

  3 The Wave

  As the shine flexed and moved across the lawns in front of her, she witnessed all the boys and men simply falling where they stood as it passed them by. They just
keeled over and dropped leaving all the girls and women standing there wondering what was happening. There was no pain, no fear, no one screamed out at first. All the males were just falling over as the shimmering wave passed leaving no male alive.

  As the wave passed her Shianne felt nothing at all. But she knew that the males where gone, this was no trick being played out. She knew they were all dead, she could feel it with every fiber of her being.

  Then came the sound of women screaming in anguish and crashing cars. Women shook their dead sons and husbands trying to find any sign of life.

  A mounted patrolman lay on the ground next to his mount, the horse was sniffing his dead body.

  Spreading out into the city it was killing every man in its path. Shianne looked across the four hundred feet of turf between her and where she first spotted the shimmer thinking of the speed it had reached her.

  The sounds of the city starting to come apart at the seams reached her mixed with the wailing of those left behind filling the air.

  “Cindy, I want you to stay right here.” She didn’t wait for the child’s response. She ran to the closest downed child, the right fielder. He looked perfect, not a mark on him. She ripped open his shirt and listened to his heart. There was nothing. She started C.P.R. and kept it up for a few minutes. The boy didn’t respond at all, he was dead; there was nothing she could do. There was no bringing him back.

  Inside she started to panic. She looked out over the bodies that lay haphazardly across the playing field as far as she could see. They lay everywhere…. Hundreds of men were just down and were not moving ever again. “Oh God, how far will this spread?” She asked of the Lord raising her eyes to the heavens.

  “What’s wrong with Jimmy and Daddy?” Came a small, scared voice from beside her.

  It was no time for lying to the little girl. She gave it to her as easily as she could. “I’m sorry Cindy, they’re in heaven now.” She scooped Cindy into her arms and held her close as Cindy started to cry. “You’re going to stay with me until we find your mother, ok?”

  “I want my daddy and Jimmy!” Cindy replied through her tears. It was clear that she was at the edge of shock.

  “We have to go now; can you tell me where you live?” The child couldn’t stop the flow of tears and couldn’t speak. She took Cindy over to her father’s body. She started to go through his pockets looking for his wallet. She knew it could be the only way of returning Cindy to her family. She also checked for his pulse. She knew what she would find, but she had to be sure for Cindy. There was nothing, he was as dead as the rest of them.

  She found the wallet and his driver’s license; she now at least had an address to check. It wasn’t far, just a few blocks. She said a silent prayer that Cindy’s mother would be home. “Ok Cindy lets go find your mommy. I’m sure she is looking for you by now.” She scooped her up and headed out of the park at a fast walk.

  Making their way through the city, the scale of what was happening became clear to her. The dead lay on the sidewalks and in the street, cars and trucks had wrecked with the dead at the wheel. Some of these had smashed into those walking at crosswalks. Some woman where down, but it was clear that they were killed or injured by something other than the wave of heat, or whatever it was Shianne had seen.

  The few restaurants they passed looked like a scene out of a war movie, bodies slumped over their meals or fallen next to their tables.

  There was no blood, just death everywhere she looked. Women walking with tears in their eyes. Some walking blindly. All traffic had stopped. All of them where having to step over or around the bodies covering the ground. Most appeared to be in a trance.

  Everyone was in a state of shock.

  In the distance there were sounds of massive explosions echoed through the concrete canyons as commercial airliners lost their male crews and their ships came crashing into the city.

  Then the realization of what was happening hit her again, but with more clarity this time. All of the males here had died, not just some of them, all of them.

  Like a wave coming to shore, Shianne realized she too had been in a mild trance. In shock! Like a plane on autopilot, just doing for Cindy what needed to be done.

  She closed her eyes for a few seconds to clear her head; she knew a state of shock at this point would just be natural. She was strong willed and just breathed deeply to get her thoughts under control again.

  She spent a few minutes getting her father moving towards Vandenberg then she hit two on her speed dial and waited as it rang. She knew he would fish his personal phone out of his gear. Five rings later Joshua picked up. “Hello, Joshua Chisholm here, how may I help you?”

  Dad had taught them all to answer the phone like this ever since they could beat him to the phone.

  “Josh, Shi here, where are you exactly?”

  “I’m on my way to Vandenberg, ETA about three hours. Just got off the line with dad, what’s going on?”

  “Have you gotten word from N.A.S.A. yet?”

  “Shianne what’s going on? We’ve gotten no word from N.A.S.A. as of yet about anything. What are you talking about?”

  Pete heard what Joshua said and he went to work. First he got CNN up on a screen. It all unfolded for him in a few seconds there. But Joshua was paying attention to his sister and missed it. Pete radioed N.A.S.A. He knew they would be receiving new orders.

  “Something is killing all the males down here. I don’t know how far it will spread. I think it started in Central Park about maybe ten minutes ago. I was here eating lunch, there was a loud bang and all the men just fell over dead Joshua. All the men in the city are dead or soon will be. I don’t know how far it will spread or how fast it is spreading. I’m praying that it will move east and give us a few days or weeks to act before it gets to the West Coast.”

  “You’re so full of it Shi, that’s a good one.” He didn’t believe her at all.

  “Joshua she’s not lying.” Pete informed him shocked by what he was seeing and pointing out the CNN feed to Joshua.

  He couldn’t believe his eyes at first. But the truth littered the streets of New York City and was being broadcast live for all to see. Pete quickly rolled through all seven of the major network feeds and all were carrying the same scenes of death and destruction, with female news anchors bringing the news to the world.

  “Joshua Aaron Chisholm, this is life or death. Face it or our father dies.” She snapped back proving to him that this was no hoax. She had never talked to him in that manner in her whole life. He was now sure that all hell had broken lose on Earth.

  “Pete, HIT THE THRUSTERS, NOW! Get us to base as soon as possible. We have to save time, Con Man NOW, PUNCH IT NOW.” Joshua almost screamed.

  Pete grasped the gravity of the situation and started to prove he could really fly a G-Class Shuttle.

  Shianne heard his shouted order and knew she had broken through.

  “Ok, new ETA at Vandenberg is about two and a half hours give or take a few minutes, if we don’t kill ourselves coming in at this speed. Now tell me what’s going on down there?”

  Shianne explained all that she knew so far as Pete and Joshua watched the seen unfolding on the CNN feed.

  “My God Jackal, what’s going on down there?” She heard her brothers co-pilot ask.

  “How long will it take for you to refuel and get off Earth Joshua?” She asked.

  * * *

  With advancements in fuel technologies over the past few years the Space Shuttles no longer needed two point six million pounds of booster rockets to lift them into space. Now they just filled the wing tanks and it was good to go. Just like a normal plane it would take off from a runway headed into space. The new generation shuttles where even larger then ones used at the turn of the century, they could now take massive loads into space daily, turn around time was now only a few hours.

  The combined Earth governments had built five of these Galaxy Class Space Shuttles four years ago. They could hold three times the payload
of their predecessors, and they handled like fighter jets. Joshua was piloting them before they were six months old.

  “Dad is on his way to Vandenberg. Get both of you off the planet as soon as you can. I don’t think we have seen how bad this is going to get yet?”

  “He will be with me when I lift off sis, I promise.” Joshua assured her. He wondered how he would explain this one to the Base Commander. It would be his first mission without orders. He was sure his Commander would understand.

  A wave of relief flowed over Shianne knowing he would take control on the west coast and that he and Dad where going to live through this.

  “Where’s Ashley?” He asked.

  “She’s at the lab I think, but I’m not sure. I will try to reach her once I drop off Cindy.” She shot back.

  “I have to go now Sis, I will have to get this baby loaded and get Dad strapped in a hurry. Are you ok?”

  She could hear the concern in his voice. She knew he was an old softy inside just like their father.

  “I’m fine Joshua, just scared.” She answered him.

  “Sis do you have your weapon on you?” He demanded.

  “Yes I’ve got the Glock-45 right here with me, I had it in my backpack, four extra magazines. Why?”

  “Wear it Sis, put it on right now. I don’t want to lose you to some drugged out New York freak.” She knew this was a command. He was always the one demanding that his sisters carried a firearm with them at all times. He had given them both weapons on their sixteenth birthdays.

  “It’s ok Joshua I put it on and I will keep it on from now on.” She felt that shooting someone was something she would never have to worry about.

  “It will keep you safe.”