Earth Shout: Book 3 in the Earth Song Series

by Nick Cook

  ‘What happened to the woman I’ve never seen back down from any challenge? You, Alice, have been an inspiration to me from the moment we first met.’

  ‘That’s wonderful to hear, but to a greater or lesser extent we all have masks that we wear to take on the world. We project how we want to be seen rather than who we really are. The truth is, I’m a damaged soul, Lauren.’

  ‘Aren’t we all? I carry so many demons inside me I honestly wonder sometimes how I get out of bed in the morning.’

  ‘It sounds as if you are discussing what is basically the innate conflict of the human condition,’ Lucy replied, back in psychoanalyst mode. ‘Everyone has things in their past that continue to haunt them. But here’s another piece of advice that Lauren’s real Aunt Lucy once told her: you become the stories that you tell yourself.’

  I blinked and looked down through the floor screens at Lucy’s micro mind ship hovering just beneath ours. ‘How do you know what my aunt said, Lucy?’

  ‘That’s a conversation for another time, Lauren. Anyway, to my artificial consciousness that statement sounds like the truth if ever I heard it. Don’t be ruled by what has been, but instead be inspired by what could be.’

  I felt as if I was seeing a deeper side of Lucy – certainly not the part of the AI that was causing mischief between Mike and Jodie.

  I squeezed Alice’s arm gently. ‘Lucy’s right. So what do you say? Are you ready to get back into the saddle? I promise you, from personal experience, it will help.’

  Alice tipped her head back, took a deep breath and slowly nodded. ‘You two are quite formidable when you gang up on someone like this.’

  ‘You’d better believe it,’ Lucy said.

  ‘Then I give in…’ Alice reached forward, hand shaking, and took hold of the controller, slowly rotating it back.

  Ariel rolled immediately on her axis until her outline on the curved cockpit walls was once again parallel with the ground.

  The tractor was heading ever closer to us along the track.

  Alice took hold of the throttle and threw me a faint smile. ‘I’m almost inclined to kill our chameleon field for a moment to give that tractor driver the social media shot of the decade.’

  I raised my eyebrows at her. ‘Or maybe not.’

  ‘Indeed…’ She gently pushed the throttle forward and Ariel surged away over the tractor. We were close enough to the vehicle for me to catch the puzzled look the guy in the cab cast up towards the sky. Presumably he’d just noticed a slight shimmer in the air pass over him.

  Swallows swooped around us, somehow still aware we were there, even though we were cloaked and almost completely silent. We quickly climbed away into the sky, with Lucy pulling alongside us.

  Alice glanced across at me. ‘You really should tell Jack how crazy you are about him.’

  Lucy’s laugh seemed impossibly loud as it bounced back at us in our spherical cockpit. ‘Oh, you heard that little nugget too, did you?’

  ‘I most certainly did.’

  My face blazed as I strapped myself back into my seat. Oh hell, the cat was well and truly out of the bag.

  Chapter Eight

  Alice, Jack, Jodie and I sat together round the table on the veranda of Alice’s house back at Eden for our debriefing after the nearly disastrous test flight. Niki should have been there to lay into us, but had been called away to deal with some security matter. Ruby, on the other hand, had ducked out of endless weapon training to be here – chewing gum and giving me a look I couldn’t quite read. Even Lucy was present in the form of a smart speaker, but so far she was keeping surprisingly mute. The other missing person was Mike, who was monitoring the TREENO fleet data. Not that he would have been here even if he could. According to Jack, he was still avoiding Jodie as much as possible.

  A calming blue sky was displayed on the giant screens lining the cavern’s ceiling, beginning to turn gold as the sun slid towards the western horizon. Unfortunately, the tranquil setting did little to take the edge off Jodie’s anger. She rested her elbows on the table and clasped her hands together, both index fingers pointed like pistols at Alice. The president of Sky Dreamer Corp. might have been Jodie’s boss, but it didn’t seem that way from how the chief scientist had just ripped into Alice.

  ‘I can’t believe you would do something so reckless, Alice,’ Jodie said. ‘You of all people.’

  Alice gave her a haunted look and nodded. ‘For what it’s worth, me neither. I certainly can’t begin to apologise enough to you and the others. It was reckless to take Ariel on an extended test flight, especially when I put Lauren’s life on the line too.’

  I sat up straighter. ‘Hey, I was a willing co-conspirator. You’ve got nothing to beat yourself up about there.’

  But Jack, who’d been mostly mute, chose that moment to shake his head, very unhelpfully in my opinion. ‘Actually, and I’m sorry to say this, but this is on you, Alice. There was a clear chain of command and the first priority of a leader is to not needlessly endanger someone else for whom they are responsible.’

  Jodie nodded, her mouth a thin line. ‘Exactly. This was basically an excuse for a joyride that nearly cost both you your lives. We could have dispatched an X101 or Armadillo to attempt to make first contact with that Tic Tac.’

  Ruby blew her cheeks out. ‘Oh, come on, guys. Any of you would have done the same if you’d found yourselves in that situation. I know I would have done.’

  I nodded, grateful for her unexpected vote of confidence. ‘With all due respect, Jodie, an electric craft would have taken far too long to reach the Tic Tac. So please stop lecturing Alice about this.’

  Alice shook her head. ‘Thank you both for sticking up for me, but they’re right. The truth is that I got carried away. I could have let Lucy deal with the situation by herself. However, I am determined to learn the lesson from my reckless decision. If nothing else I realise now that Ariel isn’t ready for frontline mission deployment yet, no matter how much I would like it to be.’

  Jodie pulled a face at her. ‘With all due respect, Alice, the only reason she failed is because you pushed Ariel way beyond her performance boundaries.’

  ‘And the reason I had to push her so hard was because those darn TR-3Bs were way faster than her. Somehow we need to increase the performance of Ariel to match, or ideally exceed, those craft. We also need more safety measures, including a redundancy backup system. Losing the chameleon drive due to a power overload at such a critical moment proved that Ariel isn’t mission-ready yet – and that’s just one example. We were lucky that pursuing pilot didn’t open fire on us. Neither of us would be sitting here if they had.’

  ‘Oh, give me strength,’ Jodie muttered. ‘Do I need to remind you it was meant to be a flight test rather than a shakedown of all her systems? The key takeaway from all this is that the REV drive system proved itself. And the rest we can work on. I also need to add both defensive and offensive systems to her.’

  ‘And I would expect exactly that sort of diligence from you, Jodie,’ said Alice. ‘Based on what you’ve just said, it’s my decision that until every aspect of Ariel has been triple-checked and improved she is to remain grounded and not be flown by anyone.’

  We all stared at her. ‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘Aren’t we in danger of overreacting here? Ariel is by far the fastest craft available to us. We might need her in the air sooner rather than later.’

  ‘That’s as maybe, but she’s still not quite ready for prime time yet,’ Alice said.

  Jack nodded. ‘I’m with you on this, Alice. When the military develop combat aircraft they don’t simply push them straight to the front line. Every aspect has to be shaken down first.’

  Ruby pulled a face at him. ‘Getting Ariel squeaky clean for deployment isn’t something that we have much time left for, or have your forgotten the urgency of all this?’

  Jack shrugged. ‘I realise it’s not ideal, but neither is throwing lives away needlessly.’

  His eyes flicked towards me and I h
ad the distinct impression there was something he wasn’t saying here. But what exactly? Away from that, an itch of irritation grew inside me. What was it that the people sitting at this table weren’t getting? Fully flight ready or not, Ariel had already proved herself, and the ability for rapid deployment and reconnaissance might be something we would need.

  Alice’s gaze swept round the table. ‘I think we have probably discussed this subject enough. We’re in danger of going round in circles. I’m going to pull rank here and say my decision is final.’

  I forced myself to bite my tongue. But as far as I was concerned this matter was far from over.

  ‘Let’s move things on to debriefing Lucy.’ Alice turned her head towards the speaker mounted on the post. ‘Are you there, Lucy?’

  ‘Of course,’ her voice replied from the speaker.

  A huge pop-up window easily the size of a house appeared just over the projected mountain range across the cavern. Within it was a live video feed from the Cage where Lucy was sitting on a reclining chair sipping a large cup of tea.

  ‘I assume you want to ask me what happened after we split up following the arrival of the fleet of Astras?’ she asked.

  ‘Absolutely,’ Alice replied.

  ‘Well, as you know, I tried to draw them away but unfortunately one of them locked on to the Tic Tac. The second, as you know, pursued Ariel. And the third locked on to me.’

  ‘The thing I really don’t understand is how they tracked you with that sensor of theirs,’ I said. ‘I thought you were basically invisible to everything if you chose to be.’

  ‘It was a surprise to me too,’ Lucy said. ‘They have obviously developed some interesting tech that will neutralise our advantage over them, and we need to investigate that.’

  Jodie leant forward in her seat. ‘Did you manage to get any readings for it, Lucy?’

  ‘Yes, and it wasn’t like anything I’d encountered before. It mainly seemed to consist of a powerful light in the UV spectrum – plus a spike across the microwave frequency as they locked on to me.’

  ‘A weapon designed to literally cook your systems?’ Jack asked.

  ‘No, the microwave wasn’t in any way powerful enough to do that, besides my systems are heavily shielded against all electromagnetic forms of attack. No, by using that beam of energy they were able to stick to me like glue once they’d locked on. However, I was far more nimble than any Astra and able to dodge their rail-gun shots.’

  Alice stared at Lucy’s image on the large pop-up window over the mountain range. ‘Wait, they fired at you?’

  ‘Is that really any surprise? The Overseers almost certainly gave their flight crews standing orders to shoot down any alien craft.’

  ‘That does make sense, but if so why didn’t they fire on Ariel?’ I asked. ‘They had plenty of chances to do exactly that.’

  Jack rubbed his neck. ‘That doesn’t sound like the Overseers I know. Shoot first, ask questions later is more their speed.’

  ‘Maybe they had a weapons malfunction,’ Jodie said.

  ‘I did notice an unpainted panel in the ship,’ I said. ‘Maybe it had recently been repaired?’

  ‘If so, thank goodness for that,’ Alice said. ‘But you can guarantee that next time we won’t be so lucky and that they’ll being firing at us too. Jodie, could we look at adding some sort of armour system similar to that used on the Armadillo?’

  ‘To be honest I’m not sure even its rolled-steel armour could stop a rail-gun round,’ Jodie replied.

  Ruby nodded. ‘Those rounds travelling at hypersonic speed can punch a hole through pretty much anything.’

  ‘There might be something we can do about that, but let me think about it,’ Jodie said. ‘And this new microwave device of theirs is an obvious concern. We really need more data on it so we can come up with a way to counter it.’

  ‘Would it be useful if I shared all my data from my encounter with the TR-3B with you?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘Yes, it would,’ Jody replied without looking up at Lucy’s image.

  It seemed her professional attitude towards the AI only stretched so far.

  ‘So if this sensor of theirs was so good, how did you manage to escape your pursuer, Lucy?’ Jack asked.

  ‘In the end it came down to sheer speed. Their Astra design might be fast, but I’m faster still. Although I had to increase my speed to Mach 10 before I managed to shake them.’

  For the first time Jodie looked up at Lucy. ‘Holy cow, I had no idea you could go that fast. Any chance you could share the technology that enables you to do that with us?’

  ‘As always, I wish I could. Unfortunately, as you know, I’m prohibited by my core code from handing over that technology.’

  I sighed. ‘The good old Star Trek prime directive once again.’

  ‘Exactly, Lauren. But apart from that I’ll assist you in any way I can to improve your existing technology.’

  ‘I’d really appreciate your input,’ Jodie replied, her tone thawing a fraction.

  ‘Well, at least you were able to outrun them. It’s just as well you did, Lucy,’ Alice said. ‘I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to thank you enough for coming to our rescue.’

  Lucy shrugged. ‘Oh, that was nothing.’

  ‘It might be to you, but it wasn’t to us,’ I said.

  ‘Actually, I do have a question about that,’ Ruby asked. ‘Why didn’t you launch the escape pod when the REV drive failed?’

  Alice dragged her teeth over her lip, her expression tensing.

  We hadn’t told anyone about how Alice had zoned out. But I could tell by the way she set her jaw that Alice was about to reveal the truth.

  I jumped in before she could. ‘Actually, we were having some problems with Delphi when the systems started glitching out. I suggest that, rather than voice control that only the pilot can initiate, you should design the equivalent of a big red button that anyone can use.’

  Ruby screwed up her eyes at me as if she knew I was deflecting the question.

  But Jodie was nodding. ‘That’s a very good idea, Lauren, especially if the pilot is injured and can’t issue the command.’

  ‘Exactly,’ I replied without meeting Alice’s gaze, although I did catch the grateful look she cast my way in the corner of my eye.

  Alice cleared her throat. ‘OK, I think that concludes business for now. I for one need my bed.’

  ‘After the day I had I need a stiff cocktail – or three,’ I said.

  ‘Then they are all on me,’ Jack said. ‘Plus it’s pizza night down at the Rock Garden. I know my way to a woman’s heart.’

  More than you will ever know, I thought.

  I caught Alice looking at me. Her eyebrow barely rose a fraction, but it was enough to make heat flash through my cheeks.

  ‘Come on then, I’m starving,’ I said, trying to get out of there as fast as humanly possible. I hoped Alice would be as good at keeping my secrets as I was with hers.

  Beads of sweat had popped all over the chef’s face as he shovelled pizza in and out of the stone oven with his paddle. There was a good-sized crowd in the Rock Garden – as there always was on a Thursday night. Leroy insisted on playing only Bob Marley on pizza night, and everyone seemed to appreciate it. But why Leroy felt there was a connection between the Jamaican musician and the classic Italian food was beyond me.

  Jack raised his beer to my cocktail glass as we sat at a corner table. ‘Here’s to you and Alice getting back here in one piece.’

  ‘I’ll drink to that,’ I said, raising my margarita glass to his and clinking it.

  Jack took a sip of his beer and his smile faded as he peered at me over the top of his glass. He put the glass down and pulled at a thread in the sleeve of his shirt.

  I could instantly tell something was up. ‘Go on, out with it, Jack.’

  ‘How do you know that I want to say something?’

  ‘Look, I’ve had way too may close calls with death alongside you to know when you have something on
your mind.’

  ‘Yes, you probably have…’ He breathed through his nose as his eyes met mine. ‘Lauren, you do know that I was worried sick about you when you took off in Ariel with Alice like that?’

  ‘Hey, you should know by now I’m a big girl. I can look after myself.’

  ‘Oh, I more than know that, but it didn’t stop me worrying. I kept imagining the worst – like you crashing straight into the side of a mountain.’ He hung his head. ‘Lauren, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.’

  This wasn’t the Jack I knew. The guy sitting opposite me looked as if he was on the verge of tears.

  ‘Hey, big guy, it’s OK. That didn’t happen and here I am, all safe and sound.’

  ‘The thing is, it could have ended that way, Lauren, and that’s my point.’

  ‘But our lives have been on the line more times than I like to count on our missions. This was just the same.’

  ‘No it wasn’t. Usually I’m right by your side – and we can watch each other’s backs.’ He took a long hit of his beer.

  I had a sense that we were circling round what he really wanted to say. Then the blindingly obvious struck me. When I thought I’d been about to die, my own instinct had been to leave Jack a last message to tell him how I really felt. Was it the same for Jack too? And then he answered the question for me.

  ‘Look, I realise you have me in the friend zone. But even if I’m just your buddy, I can still be worried sick about you.’

  Me putting him in the friend zone? I took a bite of pizza, as I tried to gather my thoughts, but it suddenly tasted like cardboard. At that moment my Sky Wire phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out, playing for time so I could come up with a half-coherent response.

  The screen showed a message from Lucy. Just tell him how you really feel already.

  I quickly blanked the screen and put it back in my pocket.

  ‘Everything OK?’

  ‘Yeah, just Lucy keeping me in the loop about the data she captured from the TR-3B Astra’s sensor device.’

  ‘Oh, I thought she was sending that straight to Jodie.’