Earth Keepers

by Jorge Alejandro Lavera

  They rocked, and suddenly felt a thump that echoed throughout the ship. And a few seconds later, again.

  “Damn it, the submarine is hitting against the side of the Grandiose,” Robert exclaimed.

  They felt another blow and then a rumble.

  “What was that?”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say the submarine broke loose and the noise was the gangplank falling into the ocean.”

  Robert unhooked a radio set from his belt and activated it. He went through various frequencies until he found one capable of penetrating the insulation that surrounded them.

  “Commander. Over.”

  “Captain, are you okay? We had to move the submarine away. Over.”

  “I assumed so. What happened? Over.”

  “We’re tracking numerous explosions by computer, the majority in the northern hemisphere. I’ll advise you when they’re over, keep your cover in the meantime. Over.”

  “Nuclear explosions? Were any of them close? Over.”

  “From what the computer shows, most of them were interceptors, although we don’t know which ones will hit land or where. We already registered several explosions in the high atmosphere, some quite close, but at high altitude. I’ll keep you updated. Over.”

  “Understood. Over and out.”

  “Why did the lights go out on the ship?” asked Giuseppe.

  “A magnetic pulse, generated by the nuclear explosion.”

  “And why is the submarine’s equipment still functioning?”

  Robert raised the radio.

  “Military equipment. It’s all protected from electromagnetic pulses.”

  Leora remembered something and got quiet. In theory, the Grandiosa was also protected, but there had been a few occasions when the company had demonstrated that if it could save money by skipping some expensive items, it would. If the security measures were not well implemented, the chances of the ship’s circuits being burned were very high. She hoped that was not the case, otherwise they could be the most expensive sardine can in the world. The fact that the electricity was cut off did nothing to reassure her.

  The ship shook again, more gently than before. There were some metallic noises. Leora didn’t have any internal communications and was unable to leave the room, so she couldn’t know what was happening.

  “Robert, is there a way to see the ship from the submarine?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you ask them if they can see any damage to the ship?”

  Robert did so and the response was not encouraging.

  “They say that the side the submarine hit against is open to the sea.”

  “Hell, I was afraid of something like that.”

  That kind of damage to the decks at sea level would dramatically shorten the trip. Leora was covered in cold sweat.

  BUNKER

  Rho, November 27, 2027. 2:30 p.m.

  While Tzedek and Althaea were telling their story to Juan Carlos, Sofía was listening to Damaris’ story, which was basically the same. Damaris was similar to Althaea, but with darker hair and turquoise eyes. They weren’t sky-blue or green, but both.

  “Damaris, tell me the truth, is Tzedek responsible for the virus? Did he want to eliminate all humans, just saving a few?”

  “No, Sofía, absolutely not. We just wanted to undo to some extent the damage that the human genome had suffered. The result should have been a more benign and peaceful species, not a slaughter. The Atlantean who supervised the lab with the virus, Marsan, betrayed us and made it lethal,” she explained.

  While they chatted, she showed Sofía from the Tower the houses that the city had and invited her to go to see the closest ones.

  “We still have a lot of empty ones, so you can have whatever one you want, and since your father’s work will be at the Tower, the closer, the better. Do you want to see what the houses look like?”

  “And if my dad comes out?”

  “I’m sure he’ll be there for a while and anyway, they’ll tell him where we are. Don’t worry,” Damaris assured her as they left. She gestured to the security people. One of them nodded and the other one followed them.

  “All of the houses are similar. Where you notice the biggest difference is in the location and the number of rooms. Look, this one that’s nearby has two bedrooms, let’s go see it.”

  They walked onto the property and followed the path towards the house. To each side were tons of fruit trees and beyond, they could see a vegetable garden. When they got to the door, Damaris rested her hand on a plaque located at the side, a small light changed to green, and they could hear the door unlock.

  “All the locks in the city open for us until they’re programmed for a specific person. Once it’s programmed, only you two can open it. Tzedek can, too, of course, in case of emergency.”

  Sofía exclaimed:

  “And what about privacy? What emergency could there be that Tzedek would need to enter our house?”

  “In the city where you lived, the police and fire personnel could break down your door to do their work. Here we try to not break things if it’s necessary to enter urgently. Besides, the doors are almost unbreakable,” Damaris explained with a smile, entering the house.

  Sofía followed her, loving the new smell that everything had. In addition, there was a lot of light coming through the panoramic windows. The rooms were spacious, but the house was empty.

  “Where does the furniture come from? Do we have to buy it?”

  Suddenly, a siren sounded stridently throughout the city. Sofía couldn’t tell where the sound came from that preceded a voice that said “This is an emergency...”

  Sofía ran outside. She looked towards the Tower and saw that all the doors and windows were closing with metallic blinds, the walls and roofs were covered with a kind of mesh of the same material. Her mouth dropped open when she saw that, at the top of the Tower, the roof had opened, and a type of gigantic cannon appeared, almost like science fiction. Whatever it was, it didn’t look like it shot cannon balls. While she watched, the apparatus lifted up, turned and pointed to the northeast.

  “Sofía, come with me, hurry,” urged Damaris, taking her arm and pulling her into the house. The security guard was already inside.

  As soon as they went in, the door closed and a metallic plate lowered over it. Damaris ran, pulling Sofía and the guard with her towards the center of the house. A series of red lights marked the path. They got to a sort of door that opened in the floor. Sofía stopped short, frightened.

  “It’s a bunker, don’t be afraid. The alarm means that nuclear arms have been launched somewhere.”

  “My God,” murmured the guard. Damaris raised an eyebrow.

  “Nuclear arms? And they’re aimed here?” screamed Sofía, frightened.

  “Let’s hope not. The alarm was activated manually from the Tower, so Tzedek must think we’re in danger. In any event, better safe than sorry.”

  The bunker was well lighted. They were still going down when they heard how the house and everything around it was secured. In the silence, the door closing sounded like a submarine hatch.

  It wasn’t very big, but it had four cots, a small toilet with a curtain around it, bottles of water, canned food and tanks of something that Sofía supposed was oxygen. There was a cupboard in one corner.

  “How long could this last?” Sofía asked.

  “It’s set up for four people for two weeks, but the only way we’d have to say here for weeks is if there was a direct hit, and then we couldn’t get out because we’d be buried by rubble. But there are explosives at the exit designed to disperse any obstacles at the entrance.”

  “Rubble? And how could we leave if an atomic bomb falls? What would happen with radiation and fire?” demanded Sofía, near panic.

  “If that were the case,” Damaris revealed, opening the cupboard, “there are suits that are better than space suits. They are fireproof and anti-radiation, as well as hermetic. We’d be able to wait a few days for the earth
to cool and then we’d walk to a safe location, which we could measure with a Geiger counter, that we have here. See? It’s measuring normal right now,” she showed her. “But besides that, there’s another subterranean exit for emergencies. Now, we’re going to calm down and wait,” she said in a soothing voice, while she pressed a yellow button on a panel on the wall, and entered a code.

  “What’s that?” asked the guard.

  “It’s a call to the Tower, I imagine they’re more than busy right now, but when they can, they’ll contact us,” explained Damaris, while she sat on one of the cots to wait, and the others did the same. Sofía sat next to her and hugged her, and the guard sat in front of them.

  Damaris felt the heat of Sofía’s body against hers and couldn’t help but hug her, too.

  “Calm down, Sofía, you’re safe with me,” she heard in her head.

  “Did you just...?” Sofía exclaimed, turning and raising her head to look at Damaris.

  “Shhh, yes, you’re listening to me with your mind. And I can listen to you if you concentrate on a thought as if you were talking.” Sofía sat up straight and took a couple of steps away. The guard looked at her in surprise.

  “What are you? How is this possible?” thought Sofía.

  “I thought you were going to ask me about what I told you before and that shouldn’t be discussed in front of third parties. Especially curious and religious third parties. It’s strange,” thought Damaris looking innocently at Sofía and then the guard.

  “So, you Atlanteans are telepathic?” thought Sofía as she began walking from one end of the bunker to the other.

  “No, not by nature. As far as we know, that doesn’t exist. Our bodies are full of microscopic technology, and one of its functions is to permit us to transmit data. In practice, it fulfills the function that humans call telepathy,” explained Damaris mentally.

  “I understand. What the hell...? How didn’t I notice before that you have six fingers?” thought Sofía, looking at Damaris’ hand and feeling a shiver going up her spine.

  “We can do some things with our minds, like influencing what humans see. It isn’t exactly that you don’t see it, but you don’t look. It’s automatic, at least when we permit it, like I’ve just done with you,” Damaris explained.

  Sofía stopped and opened her mouth to speak, saw that the guard was looking at her, and closed it again.

  “So, you can easily manipulate and fool us,” Sofía thought resentfully.

  “Look into my mind,” Sofía heard, and then felt as if a door opened into Damaris’ thoughts and pushed her through it. It was like entering a whirlwind that stabilized her and transformed into images, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings. Sofía saw images of Tzedek and felt fear and respect, then images of Althaea and felt friendship, she saw Juan Carlos and felt indifference, saw herself and felt...

  “Yes, I like you and would like to be your friend, that’s what I feel,” confirmed Damaris in her head.

  “You’re lying, you’re trying to manipulate me,” Sofía thought, sitting next to her.

  Damaris was looking into her eyes, bringing her face close to Sofía’s, and caressed her cheek.

  “We can’t lie telepathically, Sofía. If you hear something in your mind, you can be sure it’s the truth. And if you don’t believe me, test me.”

  Sofía’s heart felt like it was going to fly out of her chest. She tried to catch her breath and discreetly looked out of the corner of her eye at the guard, who was now turned to one side and was making a face.

  “Wow,” Sofía’s mind was a whirlwind. “I don’t know what to think, that is...” so she decided to try what Damaris had told her. “Your eyes are horrible...” she thought but inside, she really knew the truth.

  Damaris smiled.

  “See, you try to lie and you do it pretty well, but the lie is transparent and we can see through it. And more than that, I know you like me.”

  Sofía remembered Marisol and involuntarily let out a sob. The guard looked at her sideways and thought with contempt that she was scared. But actually she was distressed by what they were thinking.

  “I miss Marisol. I didn’t even know I loved her until she died, you know? Okay, it’s true that I like you, but what future do we have? I’m young, but I’ll grow old and die in what for you would be a moment of your life.”

  “No, Sofía, I have thousands of memories, no—what do I mean thousands—hundreds of thousands, millions of moments of my life that I can remember. And I’ve lost many loved ones throughout the years. One thing I can tell you for sure is that I don’t regret having loved anyone. Not for one day. Every moment is invaluable.”

  Sofía hugged her, both of them on the cot, resting her head on Damaris’ shoulder. Damaris laid hers on Sofía’s, caressing her.

  DEFENSES

  Delta, November 28, 2027. 4:07 a.m. (3:07 p.m. of November 27 in Rho)

  Almost everyone was asleep in Delta City at four o’clock in the morning, as was logical. Only the security personnel and some technicians who preferred to work at night were awake. Even the Atlanteans had to sleep every so often.

  When the alarms went off in central control, a guard immediately called Ponteus.

  Ponteus picked up the phone in his sleep and the guard practically screamed:

  “Sir, I’m sorry, but listen to this.” He let him hear the sound of the alarms.

  Ponteus’ eyes opened as big as platters, he jumped out of bed and ran toward the central command, as he shouted:

  “Niobe, get up, it’s a nuclear alert, call the others!”

  Fortunately, he slept in pajamas, otherwise he would have shown up naked at the Control Center.

  He got there in less than a minute, gasping for breath. He looked at the screens and shouted: “Damn!”

  He entered in his console and as he typed, he saw Niobe run in, and shouted at her:

  “Hurry, the EMP process!”

  Niobe hadn’t taken the time to get dressed, either, and was barely covered with a light robe. She jumped on her own console and typed in the procedure.

  “Ready?”

  “Ready, one, two, three, now,” Ponteus directed and they both executed the program. Only a couple of minutes had passed since the alert, but the missiles were already a third of the way. The whole city started to close down and cover itself, just like Rho City. The messages were heard everywhere. The houses whose owners were already inside closed and protected them automatically. In the building they were in, all the windows and entrances were covered with metallic Persian blinds and it was covered with a mesh of the same material. No one could see it, but the building vibrated when the large cannon appeared on the roof, exactly in the center. The device began to charge, with multiple humming sounds that came up very fast, like many camera flashes.

  Ponteus rested his hand on a panel on his desk and activated the screens on the wall. The cannon control system and missile tracking were also activated.

  Apollo entered, gliding over to the control center, followed closely by Harmonia. They were both in sleeping clothes.

  “Multiple nuclear missile launches. For now, the first ones were from China, then from the United States and Russia. Some two hundred in all,” said Niobe, reading the screens.

  The big screens lit up, where they could see Tzedek, Althaea and someone else.

  “Are the ones from the United States and Russia retaliatory or interception?” asked Apollo.

  Niobe looked at the screens and studied the data.

  “Well?!” asked Apollo impatiently.

  “The good news is that most of the ones from the United States are interception, at least the same number as the ones from China. The bad news is that another twenty are retaliatory. The ones from Russian are interception as well.”

  Tzedek and Althaea were listening on the screen.

  “The first ones that arrive will fulfill their function, the rest...” said Ponteus, worriedly.

  “They will not find missiles to inte
rcept,” Tzedek finished. “Any chance of them detonating nearby?”

  “I’m following and projecting the trajectories by computer. We have to close the satellites now or we’ll be without communications permanently. There are fifty-two Chinese missiles. They are all on a collision course with the American ones and the others are faster but they launched later. They’ll hit at high altitude. The Russian missiles are pointed at the same place but they’ll arrive a little later. They’ll most probably explode from the blast from the nuclear explosion of the other missiles,” reported Niobe.

  “Okay, close down the satellites, and just in case, program the polar satellites to change their orbit within half an hour, in case the ones we’re using are destroyed. We’re prepared for the electromagnetic pulses—what is it that is worrying you?”

  “Of the non-intercept missiles, there are nine from the United States that are targeting our cities directly, one at the center and two in the vicinity of each one,” exclaimed Niobe.

  They were all quiet for a few seconds.

  “How long before they are in range, Niobe? And where are those in Alpha City?”

  “Two minutes and forty-five seconds before first impact,” Niobe shuddered. “One minute to be within shooting range and twenty seconds for each change of target.”

  “Activate the automatic defenses, and shoot as soon as they’re in range. What’s wrong with Alpha?”

  “They’re not communicating and not answering my call,” Althaea said worriedly. “Could there be a failure in communications?”

  “Why are you activating the defenses manually, instead of automatically?” asked Juan Carlos.

  “It isn’t a communications problem, I have a response from the computer, and now I’m activating remote control, active cameras and control of the console,” Niobe informed them.