The blast patterns we were receiving suggested that the targets were internally patchy, sort of like Swiss cheese, with solid and void elements. Weird. At least whatever resulted from the catastrophic failures seemed to pose no threat to Earth. Then again, not knowing what we were dealing with made that assumption a bit tenuous.
What became immediately clear was that Earth had to prepare to be boarded. All the enemy vessels had not been destroyed. That meant Darlene and her people were open for business. We all found ourselves, once again, in the Situation Room. I was beginning to hate the place.
“Okay, I want to thank General Sherman, Dr. Jones, Dr. Ryan and Dr. Sadozi for joining us, personally,” began President Payette. “Thank God they were able to damage the Edoozers attack force. The people of this planet cannot thank you enough.” He gave us a half bow.
Everyone applauded real loud. Okay, I'll admit it, it was nice. Some things you never get tired of hearing.
“Once the enemy fleet is closer, and hopefully visible, General Sherman will be able to fire on the ships and might just end this conflict before the aliens reach Earth. However, we cannot assume that will be the case. So we must ready ourselves for the two potential threats. They can bombard us from space, or they can invade. General Masterson, can you update us on your predictions of how the invasion might unfold and how you will respond?”
“Yes, sir. Lights. As you see in the first image, we have four main models. One presumes they will stop in near-Earth orbit and fire weapons at us. Next sees a bombardment followed by a landing, like D-Day at Normandy. Three is a direct landing with the enemy spreading out circularly or in spokes. Finally, they might deploy many smaller assaults and land they at widely separated locations around the planet.”
“Any way to know which they'll use?”
“No, not before first contact, Mr. President. Once it is clear what their offensive capabilities are, and once they learn ours, I imagine any prior plans'd be out the window. We have to prepare for variations of these themes. To my great surprise, all of the major armies of Earth are, as of now, willing to pitch in and work together. Tell people they're all about to die, and cooperation springs up like flowers in spring. I've personally spoken with the military leaders of the twenty five largest countries. Knock on wood, nationality and past grievances are all on hold. Not one country we've contacted has shown anything but an absolute commitment to coordinated self-defense.”
“I'd assumed that since it's abundantly clear to our enemy that we can damage their ships, they'll spend as little time between our cross hairs as possible,” observed Tank.
“I tend to agree. So, we anticipate a rapid ground assault?” asked Payette.
“I believe so,” replied Tank.
“Darlene?”
“I must agree with General Sherman,” replied the head of the joint chiefs.
“A question, if I might,” began the defense secretary. “What if our enemy is able to throw a lethal attack at us, quickly, from orbit?”
“Then we're off the hook for planning our defenses, on account of we're all dead,” I volunteered quite seriously.
“Let's pray that will not be the case,” responded the POTUS.
“If they land, they'll stay in tight formations,” I stated.
“Why would you think that?” asked Darlene.
“Just a hunch. From what I've seen, I think Edoozers live in a tightly organized society. The way they travel in space and their response to our damage. To me I think ants and bees, not lone wolves.”
“Interesting,” mused Tank. “I didn't see it that way, but now that you mention it, I think that is a good insight. Thank you, Jon.”
“General Masterson?” asked the president.
“I will keep that insight in mind.”
I was underwhelmed. But then again, she did have all those scrambled eggs on her hat, and I didn't, at that point in my life, even own a hat any longer.
“Will you allow us to use nuclear weapons inside the atmosphere, Mr. President?” she asked pointedly.
“If possible, I'd obviously like to be consulted before you do so. But operationally, you're in command. If you feel it's necessary, then you are free to use any weapon and employ any tool,” he responded.
“Understood, Mr. President. Thank you for your confidence and clarity,” she concluded.
“Well, we're all very busy, so I suggest we adjourn. God's speed to you all.”
As we were walking out, I spoke to Tank. “So you think one of those scenarios is how it'll go down?”
“This is war. I don't have to tell you, of all people, that's the case. One thing I know about war is that nothing happens as planned. Plans are things we do to occupy our time and impress others with our brilliance. When the shit hits the fans, the only thing you can expect is the unexpected. That's what'll happen when the bad guys get here.”
“I don't feel all warm and fuzzy hearing that.”
“Good. If you did, you might make a good Darlene, but that's about it.”
“You're not too impressed with her, are you?”
He grunted quietly. “She's head of the joint chiefs. That means she's a sound politician. It says nothing, however, about her abilities to command our last stand. Until she proves her mettle under fire, I'll hold off on effusive praise and boundless confidence.”
*********
Thirty seven days later, a massive radar signal entered range. It was inside the orbit of Jupiter and making for Earth at a breathtaking pace. We had maybe three days to finish our preparations. Everyone was so freaked out when that was announced. Even most looters stopped looting. There were three distinct blips, representing three equal-sized ships. They appeared to be spherical, non-metallic, and not too dense. For what it was worth they weren't heading right at us. Maybe they were angling for just the right orbit, and planned an orbital battle after all. We were about to find out.
As soon as we had hard targets, we let fly with the wormholes. But, as I mentioned, space warfare is a strange beast. When you shoot at a ship, you're shooting not at the ship, but where it was minutes ago. Unless they were complete idiots, they'd be zig-zagging like a drunken sailor on a stormy sea. Yeah. The only place not to aim was where you saw them. But, massive computer algorithms had been created for just that reason. They directed the actual firing.
Then, what Tank predicted, happened. Just after entering the orbit of Mars, two days later, they abruptly changed course. They made a beeline for Mars 1. That had to mean they discovered our small outpost there. They were going for the easy pickings, damn them to hell.
We all gathered in the Situation Room as fast as possible. Here's what was said, leaving out the several second time lags caused by Mars's distance.
“Mr. Andare, this is President Payette speaking. Are you aware of the direction change of the Edoozer's fleet?”
“Yes, Mr. President, we are.”
“And, I'm told your station and the smaller satellite ones are completely defenseless. Is that your opinion, also?”
“Yes. Unless we start throwing stones, we have nothing to defend ourselves with.”
“You could fire your transport ships at them,” said Darlene. “But I doubt that would have any effect.”
“That was our conclusion, too. The consensus was, why bother?” he said grimly.
“You could spread out, everybody grab a rover and run,” said the Navy chief.
“We might, yet. But, ultimately, we'd be doomed. Our ground ships can sustain us for only a few days, maybe a week. Any assistance from Earth would take, as we all know, months to arrive. Unless we have access to our main generators and supplies, we face only a choice of how to die, not whether to or not.”
“I'm afraid I cannot fault any of your logic,” Darlene responded somberly.
“If you can think of anything we could do that might help Earth, please let us know.”
“With no proper defense, I'm afraid not. It would have been nice to get a preview of their fig
hting capabilities, but since you cannot test them, we won't be that lucky,” she dismissed, the coldhearted bitch.
Tank chimed in. “I'm thinking, Jimmy, that they'll want to get a look at a human. If they only wanted to blow you up, they could have already done that from where they are. Otherwise, you're obviously only a tiny, defenseless contingent. Why bother taking you out?”
“Yippee. Something worse than death to look forward to. I hope everything I've read about alien probings turn out to be just crazy talk,” Jimmy replied with a humorless chuckle.
“More likely just one or two of you, Mr. Andare,” responded Darlene. “The rest will probably be killed or ignored.”
“Thanks, I think,” Jimmie responded, clearly stunned by the frankness of the head of the joint chief's words.
“What?”
“So we're dead meat, but a few of us can look forward to also being butchered dead meat.”
“General Masterson, I'll take it from here,” said the president. “Whatever happens, I'm ordering you to do everything possible to survive. It's our job to fight these bad guys. And please know, you're all heroes to me, though it may sound like hollow consolation, from where you all sit. I will see to it you each receive the Metal of Freedom, and The Metal of Honor, for those military personnel stationed with you, Mr. Andare.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“They'll be landing, if that's their intent, in six hours,” Tank stated. Unless there's a change, we'll leave you be and contact you again in five and a half hours. Okay?”
“Sure thing, Tank. Oh, and tank you for your support.” Jimmy giggled like a little kid. “Always wanted to say that, dude.”
“I hope you feel better, old friend,” replied Tank.
When we reestablished contact I saw that the Mars people had been quite busy. They had cameras on separate feeds pointing everywhere from numerous sites. Unless the Edoozers jammed their transmissions, we were going to get a good look at them and whatever happened.
“As you can see,” said Ben, the designated narrator, “that ship is remaining there five hundred meters up. We can't hear or feel anything. Not sure what powers her. No one sees doors or windows. No hatches have opened, yet. The other ships are staying in orbit, seven kilometers up, as I'm sure you—”
The camera shook violently. “What the he … over there. What in God's name is that?”
Ben sounded awful, scared witless. Several cameras spun and stopped on an Edoozer. My heart basically stopped. There was a single figure rapidly walk/running toward Ben's position. How it got there and what the groundquake was about was unclear.
“We are defenseless,” Ben screamed in clear panic. “Please stop and—”
The ten meter-tall stick figure seized Ben around the chest with one of its seven arms. Blood immediately showered down toward the ground. Ben was trying to scream, but couldn't expand his lungs enough to do so.
The president vomited. Several people in the room joined him.
The Edoozer was almost impossible to describe, it was so foreign to my eyes. Aside from tall and thin, it was covered in a rock-hard appearing scaly skin. Several arms ended in pincers, other in articulating claws or fingers. The elongated head sat on a thin neck. It had a row of what had to be eyes and two openings that were probably mouths. The seven arms came off randomly from the slightly triangular torso with the seven legs spidering out from a common point of origin. It did not have what I'd call wings. The projections were more like stegosaurus plates, five of them along the backside.
“He shaking Ben” a new voice cut in from behind. “I think he's already dead.”
A series of flares were fired, with a few striking the alien. At the contact points, the intense flame die quickly and inexplicably. The monster seemed to not even have noticed them.
The Edoozer brought Ben's bloody remains right up to its face and studied them. Using two other arms, it pulled him apart like a young boy might a butterfly he'd captured. Ben quickly became a stringy, gooey mess. After inspecting one piece of Ben, it hurled it randomly to the ground. When it was finished with Ben, it ran in a staggering manner to the nearest human. Whoever that was ran, but not far. It snatched her up, but much gentler. No blood gushed out and that woman was definitely screaming loudly in abject terror.
From off camera a flare arced in and struck the monster on one of its legs. It kicked at it and seemed to wince from pain, but then ignored the attack. It studied its new prisoner. Then the damn thing spoke.
“Eeerard meflock meflock. Oderpanty. Agashure.”
Not surprisingly the woman didn't answer back.
The Edoozer shook her violently and repeated what it's just said.
“I don't understand,” howled the captive. “I don't understand. Please put me—”
The Edoozer tossed her away like a candy wrapper. It then stepped quickly to a nearby camera.
In a hissing, high, piercing squeal it spoke. “I yam Bodyy Maker-lop. I will knowwww who ooo sent my clan shippp to nowhere. I ammm outside of angry. Give me who impaired my clan ships.”
“The damn thing speaks English,” said the president.
“Quick study,” Tank responded.
“And there's no time lag,” I observed. “We hear it as the mouth pieces are moving.”
“We can't do that, can we,” Payette asked Tank.
He shook his head. “Not by a large margin.”
“What do we tell it, Mr. President?' asked the chief of staff.
“Can I speak to that thing?” he asked.
“Ah, yeah, sure,” said a technician. She scrambled to make it happen. Thirty seconds later she yelled, “Your voice should come out of the camera's speakers, Sir. Go ahead.”
While the connection was being set up, the body maker continued crushing and then questioning more scientists. It seemed to have the order wrong. It was horrific. I finally had to turn my own head.
“Body Maker-lop, I am President Franklin Payette. I command the people you have just murdered. I ordered the destruction of your hostile fleet. I alone am responsible.”
It dropped another corpse and approached the camera. “I hearrrr youuu but must not seee yooou.”
“I think it wants visual as well as audio, Sir,” said Tank.
“Can we do that?” he asked the tech.
“I guess I could feed you to the camera's monitor. The beasty'd have to figure out it was behind the camera.”
“Make it so, quickly.”
After a minute, she said, “You're live, Sir.”
“I'm President Payette. Can you see me now?”
The Edoozer twisted its long neck but found the monitor rather quickly. “You arrre the one whoo nowhered my clan ships?”
“Yes. I am prepared to talk peace, if you are.”
“Peaccce? Whatttt is peace?”
“Are you seriously asking what peace is or are you mocking me?”
“Wwwhat iz peace?”
“The absence of war. No conflict. Friend making.”
“I make not war. Clans assimmillllate time. Non-clan beings matter zero. If they die, good. If they do not die, good. No war. No peace. Never friendssss.”
“Then we shall fight you and destroy you.”
“Who makkkke my clan ships impaired and nowhere?”
“I told you, I'm the one responsible.”
“Youuu are nothing. Insectttt greaterrr than you. Who make anti no-timmmmme thrower?”
“What the devil is he talking about?” asked Masterson.
“Frank,” said Tank, “may I speak?” He stood.
“Please do.”
“I made the anti no-time throwers. I made clans go nowhere. I impaired your clan ship.”
“Jesus, Tank,” I shouted, “are you sure that's wise?”
“I'm actually pretty sure it's the opposite of wise,” he said with a dark chuckle.
“Who is high speakerrrr?”
“No one. I am the only one talking.”
“Nooo, Tannnk. High
voieeece speak more. Who is high voice?”
I leaned into the shot. “Me, you son of a bitch. I'm Jon Ryan and I'm your worst nightmare.”
“No nightmares. No dreams. Just I am, Jooon Rrrrryaaan. You and low voice Tank mates?”
“No.”
“Buttt you and Tank nowhere my clan?”
“Yes. And the second you're airborne, we'll fry your ass, assuming, of course, you have one,” I stated.
“I have four, as you will sooooon knoow.”
“What are you saying?” demanded the president.
“You I ask to go nowhere. These two, I will have and nowhere myself.”
Sapale stood behind me and jumped up and down. “Don't forget about me, ass candy. I helped kill your ugly crew, too.”
“These three I will have.”
“You will not get them without the fight of your—”
The body maker reached over and smashed the camera with one blow. Other cameras, before they were smashed, documented the dismemberment of all the ground personnel on Mars 1.
*********
“Well that went down the shitter pretty fast,” stated Tank.
“It was how it was going to end,” responded Masterson unemotionally. “The minute the Edoozers set course for Mars, they were all dead. We knew that. They knew it, too.”
“Yeah, but it's sure ended awful for the ones we saw.”
“Where's their vessel now?” asked Payette.
“My monitor says it's still … belay that. It has disappeared.”
“Something that big can't just vanish,” scorned the president.
Tank jogged over to see Masterson's screen. “Though it has.” The pair studied the image a few seconds. The Tank exclaimed, “Holy crap, it's right on top of us.”
The ambient light flickered in intensity and red lights glowed to life and spun. A klaxon sounded.
Two guards burst through the door. One shouted, “Mr. President, we're under attack. Come with us now.” They trotted toward him. “Everyone make way.”
Ryan Time Page 14
