Post contact first days, p.24
Post Contact: First Days, page 24
‘The secretary of defense just told me there was some miscalculation in the Pacific where we and the Chinese fleets were having a stand-off. It’s gone hot. Ships lost, lots of casualties. Right now, the president is on the phone to the Chinese president. If they can’t talk it down, it’s going to go all the way.’
‘What does it all mean, Paul?’
‘It means, honey, that we need to get away, right now. This craft isn’t on the friendly recognition list for any side, so we’ll be a target for everyone. And my duty post is up here.’
As they continued to climb, Kingston pointed out little black specs darting to and fro near the horizon. ‘Those are combat aircraft,’ he said.
‘Are we in danger from them?’ said Lily.
‘No, I don’t think they are concerned with us right now. If they come closer, we’ll need to think again.’
High in the sky and almost directly above them, there was a single white flash, nothing more. ‘What was that?’ said Fay, pointing to where the flash had now almost faded.
‘There’s another.’ Lily indicated a point in space far above.
‘What do you think they are? Could they be missiles that have gone astray?’ said Fay.
‘Maybe. But I don’t know what they were being aimed at, certainly not us,’ said Kingston. ‘What do you think, sir?’
‘I’d say we’re looking at satellite killers.’
‘How bad is that?’ said Gail.
‘Once that starts, it’s guaranteed there will be tit for tat. We need satellites for communications, for navigation, to know what the other side is doing, and they’re key in our expanded ICBM shield. Everyone needs them. If we lose one, we have to balance the account. After the first hit, everyone will start hitting anyone’s satellites. It’s only short steps from the big powers taking out satellites to shooting missiles at capital cities.
‘Pilot, pick it up. I want us out of the atmosphere now.’
‘On it, sir. And I have all scanners running at maximum. I’ll know if anything comes our way,’ Kingston looked intently at his sleeve, gave the gentlest of touches to some control then, looking up, ‘I’ll keep you posted, sir.’ He disappeared through the doorway, returning to the LPA.
‘Can we avoid something if it does come at us?’ Gail had lowered her voice, hoping the girls wouldn’t hear. At once, the girls picked it up.
‘Well, can we?’ said Fay.
‘We’ll be fine. We can outrun any jet. While we’re still in Earth’s atmosphere, a hypersonic missile might just about catch us, if we’re unlucky and the pilot isn’t paying attention. As long as we know to dodge it, there’s no problem. Don’t worry; this baby is a thousand times more manoeuvrable than any missile. Give it another couple of minutes, and we’ll be in the clear.’
Fay nodded. Resting a hand on the doorway, she leaned into the navigation room. ‘Kingston, stay on your toes in there,’ she said with a grin.
The pilot looked up, for a moment confused, and then grinned right back at her. ‘I’ve got this. Trust me, I’m a pilot.’
Lily jabbed Fay in the ribs and hissed. ‘Fay, not here. Not now!’
‘He seems nice,’ said Fay, turning to watch as the curve of the Earth continued to expand with their increasing altitude.
Gail put her arms around her daughters. ‘Let’s sit down, girls. Keep out of the way.’
The general took a moment to watch his wife and daughters as they clustered together on the bridge seats, talking in hushed tones. He said a silent prayer of thanks. Among all the chaos, he’d got them out, just in time. What would he have done if they had been away shopping or sailing or … anything? He looked down on Earth, shivered and looked away.
‘General, sir, sorry there’s something odd. The craft’s scanners are reporting unknown life forms aboard,’ said the pilot.
‘Where? How many? Do you know who?’
‘Two, sir. In a storage room, next deck down, roughly midway along the passageway.’
‘How come you’ve only just noticed them now?’ said the general.
‘Sir, since leaving the Potomac, I’ve been fully occupied running the craft. And sir, I’m sorry, I didn’t think to check.’
The general frowned slightly then gave a nod. ‘Why would you? They must have come aboard when we stopped at my home. It’s a lesson to learn for the future: always shut the door. It didn’t occur to me that we’d pick up stowaways there either.’
‘Thank you, sir. Shall I go and investigate?’
‘No, stay put. You’re needed here. If something out there is fired our way, I’d have no idea how to dodge it. Pilot, is your sidearm loaded?’
‘Yes, sir, it is.’
As a precaution, following the transfer of his command to Base Primo, Dower had authorised the carriage of small arms by designated staff on transport craft visiting Earth. ‘Good. Keep it loose, you never know,’ said the general, pulling out his neat little shoulder holstered pistol and running through the checks he did automatically every morning. ‘I’m good too,’ he said, re-holstering the weapon. Now, let’s keep a channel open between us so you know what’s happening.’
Alert to the intruders, Kingston maintained constant monitoring while talking the general in on their hiding place.
In position, the general drew his pistol, took a breath and swept his free hand across the door. Silently, it slid open. The general darted through and, in a single seamless motion, stepped sideways to have his back to the wall while he scanned the storeroom, his eyes and pistol moving as one.
Both eyes and pistol stopped at a line of benching upon which two familiar figures sat. Swires and Modiac raised their hands in a slow and consciously unprovocative manner.
‘Don’t shoot, general. It’s us, Senior Agent Swires and Agent Modiac. You know us.’
‘What the hell are you doing on my craft?’ said the general, still training his pistol on the two men.
‘We saw you land at your home; I thought we might be of assistance to you, so we got on board. Then everything happened so quickly. We just slipped in here to avoid holding you back during take-off, and we’ve been sitting tight until you’d got fully underway, that’s all.’
Dower was unconvinced but at the same time was unable to commit resources he didn’t have to guarding the two agents. ‘You could have come out earlier.’
‘We didn’t want to distract you during take-off,’ said Swires.
The general interpreted that as not wanting to be put off the craft before take-off. ‘You’ve managed that now. Come on, out.’ He twisted the pistol muzzle toward the door. ‘Let’s go up to the bridge.’
Swires and Modiac edged past the pistol and into the passage. Hands still up, they started toward the bridge. The general followed behind. At a point along the way, he holstered his weapon. ‘Put your hands down; I’m not going to shoot you. But pick up the speed; I need to be back on the bridge quickly.’
The three men stepped into the navigation room behind the bridge to be met by a suspicious stare from Kingston.
‘At ease, pilot. These two stowaways are, or rather, were part of my command until a few days ago. They sneaked aboard while we were collecting Mrs Dower.’
‘Do you want me to go back down, put them on the ground?’ said the pilot.
‘No, I think that opportunity is well past,’ said Dower, while eyeing Swires with distaste.
‘I can be very useful to you,’ said Swires. ‘You won’t regret it, I promise you.’
‘Believe me, I’m regretting it already, Swires. The pair of you go sit down over there in the corner, don’t speak. Let me pretend you’re not here … if you want to stay.’ The general looked to the doorway as his wife appeared.
‘You two!’ she exclaimed. ‘Paul, these are the ones who tried to bully their way into the house before lunch.’ Gail scowled at the men.
‘I know, but they won’t be bullying anyone else any time soon,’ said Dower.
Lily and Fay joined their mother at the doorway. Lily looked at the two men with distaste, Fay with a slight smile of triumph at their being reduced to sitting on the deck.
The general ushered the three women back onto the bridge and took a moment to study the viewscreen. Kingston had made great progress while he had been below. Now Earth was reduced to the blue ball that he knew moved every human viewer. There were more little flashes far below them.
‘I think there are more and more satellites being shot up,’ said Fay. ‘Seems to be happening almost constantly now.’
‘I think you’re right. Pilot, can you hold position here for a while? I need to understand what’s happening. Try to contact our commanders again,’ said the general.
‘Yes, sir. Do you want me to bring us over any particular location?’
‘If you can get us over Washington that would be good. And stay alert. We’re well up now, but I don’t want to take a rogue hit.’
The pilot returned his attention to the LPA while Gail took her husband’s arm. ‘Paul, what’s going on with those two men? How well do you know them? They were pretty heavy with us earlier.’
‘I know them, wish I didn’t. Heavy’s the right word, but it seems they were nothing that you and the girls couldn’t manage.’ He stooped to kiss his wife, and she reciprocated.
‘Come on you two – this isn’t the place for that kind of thing!’ said Lily in mock shock.
‘Arriving over DC now, sir. I’m going to go geostationary,’ said Kingston.
‘What are they?’ said Lily, the anxiety in her tone had the general turning to look again at the viewscreen and brought the pilot back onto the bridge.
‘Jesus. Jesus Christ, no don’t do that!’ said the general. Letting his wife go, he moved toward the screen. ‘Fools, they’ll end it all!’
‘Paul, what is it?’ said Gail.
‘Look far up to the north, the high Arctic and see the same thing repeating further south here and there, over the States. Those point flashes followed by the broadening light, like sheet lightening. Those are ICBMs coming over the pole and being intercepted by the defence shield. Fools, every one of them. The president will be obliged to respond.’
Fay had gone quite white and leaned on Kingston’s shoulder. Lily stood next to her mother who slipped an arm round her.
‘Is this it? Is it the end?’ said Gail.
‘It’s it, but it’s not the end just yet. You’re seeing missiles intercepted high in the atmosphere by our new defensive shield. Look over there, a point flash and nothing, that’s a missile being killed. The sheet flashes are bombs being detonated high in the atmosphere on intercept. Bad for the high atmosphere but maybe it won’t be so bad at ground level.’
‘Oh, Paul, what can we do?’
‘Nothing, honey. Nothing at all. And with that mess in the atmosphere, we won’t get a signal through for a good while, even if there is anyone able to reply.
‘Pilot! Let’s get to Base Primo, fast.’
Chapter 72. S-3 in the Fold
A troop of marines was working out, doing an aggressive run around the gallery. The sound of their pounding boots echoed along the central passageway as Browning kept an approving eye on the marines’ efforts from his vantage point midway across the gallery’s footbridge. He continued a conversation with Lieutenant Grieves, considering details of a work plan for the troops while watching out for Jamie’s arrival.
Right on cue, Jamie appeared at the fore-end of the central passageway and stepped onto the aft-bound travelator.
Browning set off for the nearest stairs down. As the travelator carried Jamie beneath the footbridge, Browning stepped on to join him.
‘Where to?’ said Browning.
‘All the way today, I’ve arranged to link up with Martha Solomon.’
‘That’s good. I haven’t really had the chance to spend much time with Martha so far, and the concourse is quieter at the engine room end. Good location.
‘She knows her stuff; she’s good. I told Ossie to come too. He’ll meet us back there; he’s probably solving something on the way.’
The travelator carried them past access to various accommodation and workspaces, past the hangars Jamie had visited the previous day. They passed the Gravdrive Power Unit, the Folddrive Power Unit and finally reached the aft-end and its engineering access. Leaving the travelator, they joined Ossie and Martha who were engaged in a deep conversation about S-3’s propulsion systems.
Jamie called the group to order. Each provided an update about their team’s progress in understanding the Leviathan’s systems. Then they agreed multidisciplinary teams would be established to ensure all the crew were ready to work together – an essential requirement for efficient construction of Base Terzo once it was decided which planet should host it.
‘Have we learnt anything new since entering the Fold?’ said Jamie.
Martha raised her hand slightly. ‘I’ve been ferreting about to see what some of the more obscure kit we have on board might be for …’ She threw Browning a teasing glance. ‘I’ve had to keep out of the starboard hangar – I didn’t think it was safe with your lot bouncing around in the hoppers.’
Browning laughed. ‘There were a few hairy moments, but they’re getting the hang of it now, mostly. What did you find? Anything interesting?’
‘It’s all interesting, Baz. In the port-side hangar, there are lots of machines, all stored so tightly together it’s hard to get through to see what they might do and what’s in the rows behind. We’d not really had a chance to look there in the days prior to departure – it was all just a rush getting on top of essential systems. We just had to trust the other equipment and stores had a purpose.’
Everyone around the table nodded sympathetically.
‘There’s earth-moving machines, though that’s one thing we’d already worked out. What’s interesting is something that looks as though it’s for burrowing or tunnelling. Then there are several that seem to have no space for a driver, but I think are for mining – that doesn’t make sense to me.’
‘I must see those,’ said Ossie. ‘It makes more sense than you’d think. Steph showed me plans for remote mining craft that service Base Primo. Think of everything Primo uses and all the manufacture printing it does. The raw materials don’t just magic into being. Seems there are groups of remote, independently functioning mining craft processing asteroids for their elements. They take their cue from the automated sample craft that are programmed to scan for resource prospects during their regular sample trips and report back to Primo.’
‘I’d never thought about that,’ said Browning.
‘Yes, the Leviathans do carry onboard print facilities but only have a finite holding of raw print resources. If we’re building a base, we may eventually need to get materials locally. I’d like to see the machines, please,’ said Ossie.
‘Let’s all go see on our tour round,’ said Jamie. ‘Baz, what plans have you got for your men over the next few days?’
‘I’ve got the first troop on keep fit, the second troop are learning hoppers today and the third troop are on a familiarisation and exploration mission. You’ll probably see them popping up here and there as we go about. I’ll rotate them again tomorrow, but it’s a problem – these are action types. It’s hard when there’s nothing to do. It will get harder depending on how long the journey takes. Any ideas on that score?’
‘Why not have them mount patrols or guard duties? And allocate them to particular stations and teams,’ said Ozzie. ‘They won’t need guns or anything, but it will help integration if they are mixing with the various teams, the scientists, and everyone. They can muck in and help everyone bed in – become part of those teams right now.’
‘I’m up for that,’ said Browning. ‘As long as it suits you, Jamie?’
‘No problem; sounds good to me too,’ he said.
‘Right, I’ll think about details and get that in place. Once we reach our destination, I expect the various teams will need escorts, so let’s get them familiar with their dedicated marines from now,’ said Browning.
Jamie glanced toward Ossie. ‘Ossie has a team working on speed and journey times – it’s not easy. He reckons he still needs more data to be able to give us an ETA at the Sagittarius–Orion junction.’
Ossie gave an enthusiastic nod. ‘Yes, we’re building a better picture every hour. I’ll soon be able to predict confidently exactly how speed will continue to change over time.’
‘I still can’t imagine the speed; it’s beyond my comprehension,’ said Browning with a little shrug. ‘I’ll have to leave that to you lot.’
The leadership group stood to commence a tour of facilities. They followed Martha toward her domain: first Engineering control, then forward to the Folddrive Power Unit and on to the Gravdrive Power Unit. After that, the hangars and then onward around the craft.
As the tour progressed, Jamie thought again about their craft’s task allocation. When the brigadier had told him S-3 was to be responsible for developing the squadron’s planetary base – Base Terzo – he had felt slightly deflated. No wandering around the stars for them, just a base to build and secure.
Further reflection had modified his perspective. To walk on a new world, pristine and unsullied by pollution or abuse; it was an opportunity beyond anything he had ever conceived.
Chapter 73. White House, Bunker
‘Mr President, you need to consider our response. There must be a response!’ General Troy stood upright, ramrod stiff. Ranged behind him were the other chiefs of staff.
‘I understand that, general, and your people have done a wonderful job. For twenty-four hours you’ve managed to prevent every goddamn missile getting through to us, that’s bought us time.’
‘It has, Mr President. Our shield has held perfectly. It’s done its job, now we need to respond appropriately. We must strike back.’
Enriquez stepped forward to take the floor. ‘General Troy, the president and I both understand the maxim that a nuclear strike against our homeland demands a similar response against the aggressor. That both China and Russia have launched so many missiles but failed to breach our defences allows a window of opportunity before we need to respond.’
