Earth Keepers

by Jorge Alejandro Lavera

  “Because the defenses include the laser cannon that is programmed to destroy anything in the air within ten miles. As a precaution, we must verify that it is a real attack and not, for example, a passenger plane,” Althaea explained to Juan Carlos.

  Images from Alpha’s control center appeared on the third screen. They could see people fighting on one screen, Halius and Nikaia on the floor on another, red lights, shouts, shots.

  Tzedek was stupefied but only for a couple of seconds, and then shouted:

  “Althaea, is the EMP protocol active for Alpha?”

  “Two minutes,” advised Niobe.

  “No, it isn’t, I’m going to activate it remotely now. Niobe, it has to be from both cities to activate it remotely. Initiate the EMP protocol for Alpha, I’ve got it ready,” ordered Althaea.

  Niobe typed furiously and said:

  “Ready in three, two, one, now.” They both typed something and transmitted the order to Alpha, which started protecting its houses and gadgets.

  “They won’t be ready in time,” Niobe said.

  “Tzedek, they won’t be ready!” Althaea confirmed in despair.

  “We can’t do anything for them,” Tzedek lamented, while they heard a sharp buzz that suddenly went quiet. The laser cannon had fired. The nuclear weapon detonated at a high altitude. The computer was already looking for the second missile when the explosion bathed the city in light. All of the exterior surfaces threw off sparks and bolts of light towards the ground and from one object to another. The light inside the buildings flickered and then returned to their normal intensity, while the shock wave made everything tremble.

  The cannon fired again and destroyed another missile. This one was not aimed at them, but as it was destroyed closer, its effects felt stronger.

  The communications screens went dark.

  “We’ve lost contact with Alpha and Rho,” murmured Niobe.

  The cannon fired once again. A third missile had been aimed at South Africa, too close to let it fall. There was no missile on course to intercept it, so the laser selected it and fired, destroying it at high altitude. As this was almost at the limit of distance, the effects of the explosion were barely visible, and they felt nothing but the light from the explosion.

  The radars and satellite data continued working, but nothing else was approaching them or in their vicinity.

  IMPACT

  Rho, Alpha, Delta, November 27, 2027, 3:13 p.m.

  Alpha, 3:13 p.m. (Rho time)

  Nikaia finally left Halius on the floor. He was injured but breathing. He went to his console. Outside, he could hear punching, shouting and shots. Until that moment, she’d been paralyzed by panic, but she forced herself to get it together when she saw that the windows were closing. Outside some lights in the sky were forming an incredible aurora, like the northern lights, but that phenomenon should never happen in this location.

  She verified the screens and tried to establish contact with the other cities. She also saw a number of red lights, warnings, and indicators.

  The communication panel with Rho lit up, but the Delta screen remained off.

  Rho, 3:14 p.m.

  “Tzedek, there are multiple impacts in the upper atmosphere. The whole upper atmosphere is ionized and electromagnetic pulses are increasing. The satellites closed automatically before the first overload. We’ve lost the ability to observe the rest of the world, even...” Althaea informed him.

  The communication screen with Alpha was lit up, but there was static and interference.

  “Tzedek, there is....” They were cut off. “...returned, Halius....injured...what....protection? Marsan chose...” they heard Nikaia, but all broken up.

  “Nikaia, the laser cannon, activate the laser cannon!” shouted Tzedek.

  “...sabotage...ational...” Nakaia was saying and suddenly the image was cut off.

  Alpha, 3:14 p.m. (Rho time)

  “Nikaia, the laser cann...active...las....can...” Nikaia heard Tzedek shouting through the interference.

  The buzzing of the cannon was heard, but instead of being fired, it dropped again as if it had deflated.

  “Tzedek, the cannon was sabotaged, we had a sabotage, the cannon doesn’t work!!” screamed Nikaia. She looked at the screen. There were only forty seconds to impact. She looked at the wall, entered a command on the console and jumped over towards Halius. She picked him up under his armpits and pulled desperately. Thirty seconds.

  Outside, there was suddenly silence. The rebels noticed the aurora and flashes, the red lights inside guiding them to underground shelters, where they went running... Halius complained. Twenty seconds.

  “Help me, damn it, move it!” shouted Nakaia, exhausted. They were near the door to the bunker that had opened in the wall. Halius started to react and pushed with his legs, helping her move them into the shelter. They closed the door tightly, as they threw themselves towards the second inner door, first rolling down the stairs. Ten seconds. They opened it and got to the other side.

  The second door was just closing when the missile aimed at Alpha reached its destination.

  Delta, 3:14 p.m. (Rho time)

  Niobe verified the data. The overload caused by the electromagnetic fields had been absorbed and diverted by the Faraday cages that covered every surface throughout the city. The radiation and heat had been intense for a few seconds but the blinds had easily resisted. The crops on the periphery of the city that stayed open to the air would dry out and need to be decontaminated if they couldn’t be burned safely, but everything inside the city blocks was covered and protected.

  For safety reasons, they’d have to observe for a few days where the bombs impacted and the direction of the wind, but for now, it seemed like they’d survived without any problem. He made a mental note that he’d have to congratulate Tzedek for his choice of location of the cities, and for dividing them up into three, though he had to question how and when they’d become targets worthy of intercontinental nuclear missiles. He thought of Alpha and got a lump in his throat.

  Rho, 3:15 p.m.

  “Tzedek,” wavered Althaea, looking at the news on the screens, and a sob escaped her.

  “What? What’s happened now?” asked Tzedek, grinding his teeth.

  “It’s....Alpha, there was a direct hit. A missile hit Alpha directly.”

  “For the love of Gea.” Tzedek covered his face with both hands. He stayed that way for a couple of seconds and then, lowering his hands, asked: “And Delta?”

  “It was able to defend itself. Their communications antenna was fried, but when they activate the secondary one, we’ll be able to communicate,” Althaea confirmed.

  “Are we out of danger? Have all the missiles hit their destinations or been intercepted?” he asked.

  Althaea reviewed the data and informed him:

  “More than one hundred sixty exploded on interception at the edge of the stratosphere, we intercepted five of them with the laser and some thirty-five arrived at their destination, thirty of those in the Northern hemisphere, spread out between the United States, Europe, China, India and Russia. Only one landed near us, in the center of Buenos Aires. The entire atmosphere is ionized. Tzedek, I don’t think there’s even one area outside of our cities that has electricity. The side of the Earth that’s in shade now is dark, except the areas in flames. The electromagnetic fields burned all the circuits—all the electric and electronic that still worked. And the last two missiles just fell in Alaska.”

  “The ones that were aimed at us, where did they come from?”

  “They all came from the United States. You know, it’s impossible that they aimed at us accidentally. There are no military objectives or important cities nearby. For some reason, the United States had us on their list of cities to destroy in case of conflict,” Althaea observed.

  “We’ll probably never know why, but they did a great job. They exterminated a third of our species and a third of their own,” grunted Tzedek bitterly.

  “We don’t
know that for sure, Tzedek,” Althaea noted. “Halius and Nikaia are probably dead, but we didn’t see Musa on the screens. Maybe she and others were able to shelter in the bunkers?”

  “You’re right...well, if Musa was able to reach shelter, we have to rescue her. Is there any way to reestablish communication? At least so we don’t go there before knowing if there’s any need to?”

  “Hmm, excuse me,” Juan Carlos cleared his throat. Until now, he’d been quiet and out of the way. “I understand that we’ve just survived a worldwide nuclear war, but is there any chance I can see my daughter?”

  “An automated nuclear war, in fact, but it’s the same for all intents and purposes. Sofía was with Damaris looking at houses, they must be in a shelter. Althaea, look for her while I verify that we can cancel the alert.”

  “Hmm, I think I’ve already found her,” announced Althaea, noting a call on one of the screens. She pressed some keys and spoke into a microphone: “Damaris, are you there?”

  Alpha, 3:15 p.m. (Rho time)

  Musa was supervising in some gardens at the edge of the city when the disturbances started. She saw several armed people going house to house, shooting those who didn’t join them. She rushed to the inside of the nearest house, and from there tried to communicate with the Control Center, but got no answer. She wasn’t sure if no one was there or if the communications were down. Through the window, she saw a group of armed people headed towards the house she was in. She activated the emergency panel and in a few seconds, the bunker of the house opened. She went in and closed it as soon as she was inside.

  She spent some time trying to communicate with the Center, unsuccessfully. A little while later, she saw that the general alarm had been activated, and a little while after that, the nuclear attack alarm sounded. She didn’t understand why or what was going on, but she knew what to do. She made sure the door was well secured. She checked the shelter’s reserves. Everything was in order. She kept trying to communicate, which she should have been able to do, but she wasn’t able to communicate with the Center or anyone else, neither inside the city nor in the others.

  She was doing that when everything shook violently and she fell to the floor. Dust fell from the ceiling and the lights went out. The bunker without lights was absolutely black. Even though her pupils dilated to the maximum and her nanites activated infrared vision, she couldn’t see anything at all. After ten or fifteen seconds, which seemed like an eternity, the tenuous lights of the shelter went on. She went to the cupboard, not wasting any time, and took out the Geiger counter. She turned it on and breathed a sigh of relief when the needle barely registered above normal. The underground shelter was well built.

  She put her hand on the panel to activate the computer, but nothing happened.

  Everything indicated that they’d got a direct hit by some kind of bomb. There was only one way to find out.

  She opened the cupboard again, took out one of the orange suits and put it on carefully. It was adjustable and was of the best design, but it was made for humans, and fit tightly. When she was sure that it was well fitted and she was protected, she put on an oxygen tube and helmet, leaving the suit hermetically sealed. She took the Geiger counter and another gadget that was in the cupboard. Moving with difficulty inside the suit, which was like an astronaut’s suit, she headed not towards the entrance but towards one side of the bunker. She moved one of the cots and searched the floor. Finally a plate opened where she found a handle. A door opened with a puff where the cot had been before, and until then had been invisible. She quickly brought in the Geiger counter, but it didn’t detect radiation. She opened the door then and descended some stairs to a small room underneath the bunker. She found a handle on the wall similar to the one above and pulled it down. The door closed hermetically. Now she was in a decontamination room. If she had to come back, she could do it without contaminating the inside of the small bunker. She went to the other end of the small room and opened the next door. She stuck the Geiger counter out but didn’t detect dangerous radiation, though it was higher than normal. She went and started walking down a long hallway lit by small LEDs in the ceiling, every five feet or so, carrying the Geiger counter in front of her. She wondered who else might have made it to shelter.

  Rho, 3:15 p.m.

  Damaris, Sofía, and the guard all jumped when they heard an invisible voice speaking from the panel where Damaris had touched a yellow key. “Damaris, are you there?” she heard Althaea’s voice.

  Damaris got up, touched the button and said:

  “Althaea, I’m so glad to hear from you. What’s going on?”

  “Damaris, is Sofía with you?”

  “Yes, she’s here with me and also one of the guards.”

  “Good, come immediately to Control Center, all of you,” Althaea ordered.

  “We’re coming now.”

  “Damaris, come through the subfloor. The protection system is still activated, so you can’t go above.”

  “Understood, we’re heading that way,” she replied, moving the cot where she knew the hidden exit was, looked for the panel and opened it. She took Sofía’s hand and they went down to the antechamber and the underground corridors followed by the guard.

  Alpha, 3:30 p.m. (Rho time)

  Musa moved forward until she reached an intersection. A sign on the wall indicated ‘Evacuation’ with arrows towards the left and ‘Center’ to the right. She thought for a moment and went left. She walked a long time. Every hundred to two hundred feet another passage opened into this one or bifurcated again. She kept following the signs for ‘Evacuation.’ After walking about fifteen minutes, she noticed that there weren’t any more converging hallways and that she was walking straight ahead all the time. She verified her oxygen indicator and had enough for several more hours. She kept walking as fast as she could for another two hours, but the passageway began to rise and she had to exert herself more, and slow her pace. In the distance she saw a door. Making a quick mental calculation, she must have left the city several miles ago. She finally reached the door that looked shuttered and looked for a panel, but didn’t find any, nor was there any kind of handle. She hit the door, frustrated, and it seemed to move a little. She pushed against the door and it opened towards the outside. Behind the door was a fairly large room. When she entered, she noticed that the door closed behind her. There were two more doors in the chamber, one on one side, with a rotating handle as if were locked, and another like the one she’d just gone through, right in front of her. She went to the one with the lock, turned the knob, and the door opened, revealing a short staircase that went up one floor and to another room. She checked the Geiger counter and it was still almost normal. She closed the door tightly, went up the stairs and into the last chamber. This one had a door to the left with the same handle system, and two metal bars as well that went from one side to the other with two separate hinges to move them. She opened the lock and turned the hinges until the bars lifted. It looked like this couldn’t be opened from the outside, if it was closed. She prepared the Geiger counter and pushed.

  She went outside and saw the sunlight she’d been enjoying before she went to the shelter, and the sky was dark gray with orange reflections. She went out a few yards and saw on the Geiger counter that the radiation was quite a bit above normal but tolerable for several hours without permanent damage. The door through which she’d just emerged was concealed on the side of a small hill, which was behind her. She noticed that the grass and plants on the hill were burned. She looked ahead. Another low hill blocked her view. She saw a path that climbed the hill behind her, so she went up that. She climbed for several minutes, looking behind her every now and then, until she’d reached the top of the hill. There was a lot of smoke, but not much else, so she climbed a bit more, until she stopped and turned around.

  She couldn’t help but gasp and give a choked cry. Alpha looked like the crater of a volcano. Within the city limits, everything was in flames, even the earth looked smoky and on
fire. The houses, the fields, the buildings, even the outskirts were nothing but rubble, but closer to the center there was nothing at all. In the center, she could see that the streets and the ground where the buildings had been were vitrified. Surprisingly, it looked like the walls of the city had contained the explosion inside its five miles, and outside the wall, the earth looked more or less normal. She checked the Geiger counter again, and if she pointed the sensor towards the city, the needle rose abruptly. Pointing down or in the other direction, it was high but normal. The city was an atomic oven.

  She thought what she should do. She needed information. The shelter where she’d been had held up very well, but she was closer to the edge of the city. And Halius and Nakaia? Had they made it to the bunker in the center? She looked again at the pile of vitrified rubble in the center and brought her hand up to her mouth, which hit the helmet. She checked the oxygen. If she got a little farther away, she could take the suit off, assuming no other bombs had fallen in the vicinity. But she couldn’t go without knowing if Halius and Nikaia were okay. She had to go back to the center and confirm. Besides, in the internal shelters there were drinks, food, and more oxygen. And maybe she’d find someone. Without wasting any more time, she returned to the access to the city and went back in.

  SHOCK

  Rho, November 27, 2027. 3:45 p.m.

  Damaris guided them through the subterranean passages, though fortunately they were near the Tower. They finally reached the secondary entrance to the bunker for the Center and, with her palm on the panel, opened the doors of each chamber, until they reached the last door. This one couldn’t be opened from this side.

  She pressed the yellow button and advised Althaea that they were ready to come in.

  Althaea typed the commands and opened the door coming from the shelter, on one of the walls of the room.

  “Wait here,” Damaris ordered the guard and pushed open the door. Sofía let go of her hand to run to hug her father. Damaris smiled, but Tzedek and Althaea looked very serious, so she stopped smiling and asked: “What happened?”