“Can you do anything to help?” Alex asked.
The captain sighed before shaking his head. “No, and I’ve already asked. We’re technically still in international waters, and getting permission to engage actively is going to take too long. I doubt we’d get permission, anyway, to tell you the truth.”
Suddenly, the captain of the American destroyer looked off screen, his face suddenly severe. A moment later, he looked back at them with his bushy eyebrows lowered. “However, doesn’t look like everyone has that problem. The Russians just launched several surfaces to air missiles. Either they’re trying to help, or just adding insurance.”
Alex looked up at their own radar screens, a sense of panic flooding through him as he saw several more red icons appear on the holographic map. Since the Russian ship was closer to the island, they couldn’t tell if the missiles were aimed at the Brokkr or the unidentified missiles. “Can we tell where they are headed?” Alex asked, turning to Nathan.
The big Australian looked intently at several readings on his display while talking quickly into his comlink, but it was Piper that gave them an initial answer.
“Yes! Tracking shows that they are headed for the, what did you call them? Vampires? Why are they called vampires?” Piper half-yelled. “Either way, they’re going to get them!”
“I’m sorry, miss,” Tad, her DPA said. “But they will not achieve an intercept. They are going too slow and their designated intercept time is five minutes and fifty-two seconds. Calculated time for destruction of the Brokkr is three minutes and twelve seconds.”
Piper glared at her DPA before turning back to her display, her eyes flashing across the numbers before the look on her face told the rest of them Tad was right. It would be too late.
“At least they tried,” Helen said, looking with consideration back toward the island and presumably toward the Russian ship. “Is there anything we can do?”
The entire room became quiet, each of them sifting through their thoughts at a mile a minute. Alex looked like he was silently cursing himself, clearly frustrated that all of his supposed intellect was going to fail them at the last moment.
“Slow it down,” Johan said from his seat. “Slow it down, now.”
“What?” Alex asked, looking up from where he was leaning against the table.
“I said, slow it down,” Johan continued, his gravelly voice almost startling in the silence. “The Brokkr, I mean. If those missiles are only within the range of the EMP gun things for a moment, you need to give them more time, yes? The only way to do that is to slow down our ship. Can we do that?”
Alex gave the old man a wide-eyed look with his mouth hanging open. A moment later Piper jumped up and pointed excitedly at Johan. “Yes! YES, it will! We have plenty of fuel. Let me make the calculations really quick to see how much we’ll have to slow it down.”
Alex moved over next to Colleen, and all three of them deliberated over the numbers before Alex called the project lead below.
“Brian, I’m going to need you to slow down the Brokkr’s ascent to the numbers that Piper sends you.” Alex paused, listening to the other side of the conversation before speaking again. “Yes, I know that’s crazy, and it won’t make orbit at that, but we’ll need to slow it down to take out those missiles, then we’ll push it back up to speed once the danger is past. I know. I’m taking responsibility, of course. Do it now.”
They all turned towards the main control floor, watching as people scrambled to send out the needed commands, and slowly the speed indicator that was ticking by next to the Brokkr began to slow. There was no way to tell from the actual cameras locked onto the ship, but the overall orbit line began to alter dramatically, the projection leaving orbit and actually showing the vessel crashing back to earth several thousand miles away.
“It’s all up to you now, Piper,” Her brother said, turning back to his little sister and clapping his hand on her shoulder. When she looked up, it was clear she understood the terrible weight of the request. Rather than crumble, she scrunched up her face and got back to work, putting up the amount of time the EMP guns would have to knock out all four missiles.
It ticked over from two seconds to a minute, and then a minute and a half. “The guns can fire every forty seconds,” Piper breathed. “That gives us two shots each, but not three.”
“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Helen said, hugging herself. “That’s not mind-numbing, is it?”
“There will be no room for error, Piper,” Nathan said, coming up to the young woman. “But your computers are good, and your equipment is good. You got this.”
Piper swallowed, keying in the final commands to the turrets. When she finished, she leaned back and nodded, looking up at Nathan and then everyone else. “I hope so because now there’s nothing to do but wait.”
The minutes, and then seconds ticked by while they all watched the radar tracks. It was clear the Russian intercept missiles were going to be far short, but the icon for the unknown missiles and the Brokkr grew closer and closer together. The Russian missiles were still minutes out by the time the countdown for the EMP turrets to fire came.
There were no visuals of the firing, though there would have been nothing to see but the guns turning and humming. The EMP blast itself was invisible, but they arched out toward the missiles with deadly fingers for their electronic targets.
First one, and then another winked out, falling from the heavens with now-darkened engines. Alex quietly spoke into his comm unit, instructing someone to send submarines out toward the projected place they were going to fall. He wanted to see them, and hopefully find out who had sent them.
Forty seconds passed with every eye watching the board. Now was the time to succeed or fail. The indicators on Piper’s display showed the turrets firing again, and once again there was a flash where a missile became inactive and began to fall toward the ocean below.
But the other continued on.
“Dammit!” Piper yelled. “Dammit! It missed!”
“Wait! Piper, is there anything you can do to rush the firing?” Alex said, trying to keep his voice calm.
“Piper bit her lip when Colleen leaned forward. “You can still fire them early, but it won’t be as powerful.”
“Yes, it’ll burn out the capacitors, but it’s not like we’ll need them right after! I can do that!” Piper yelled, swiping her hand from a corner of her display and bringing up a second set of controls. It was a separate countdown that showed when the next weapon firing was going to be, but Piper overrode it, instructing the guns to fire early.
“There may not be enough power to reach. They were already passing at the maximum range.” Piper whispered.
No one spoke after that. At least two people were actually holding their breath when the time counted down, and the guns both fired. Immediately afterward, there were several alerts flashing, showing that both turrets were now inactive, but that wasn’t important. Every eye was on the radar display, each praying that they succeeded.
A Second passed, then another, then the course for the missile showed a small difference, but that was enough. It was still traveling, but something had affected its trajectory to make it fly away from the Brokkr.
Piper had done it. They had all done it! The Brokkr was going to make it into orbit, and begin its journey to build the space-station Gateway. Everyone on the floor leaped up, cheering and hugging each other, mirroring what Alex and the rest of them were doing on the upper deck.
Alex turned, jubilant as he went to go shake Johan’s hand. The man was not a hugger, but he was part of the celebration and Alex was going to make certain the old man was part of it.
Only as he approached did he notice the glazed look in the man’s eyes and the slight smile on his face. Johan had seen the last missile shot down, but he would never see anything else. Alex stopped, quietly kneeling down next to his friend before closing his eyes. “Goodbye, my friend. We’ve started our journey, and we’ll always remember you.”
Pa
rt 2 – Gateway
Modern science says: 'The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.' From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom.
Nikola Tesla
Chapter 1
Time: April 3, 2030
Location: Brokkr hanger, Mid-orbit
Nabhitha grinned as she floated across the bay. They had just done the final checks on the Brokkr, and everything checked out. Within the hour, they would be sending the Brokkr for its first deployment. They wouldn’t be doing any building yet but wanted to take it on a spin around the local space to make sure all the systems were functioning as they should.
Nabhitha and the rest of the small crew that was currently inhabiting the small construct had arrived several days ago. To the shock of the world, they had traveled on what looked like a standard airplane. The craft was not what it appeared to be, and had been developed to operate in both atmosphere and space, preparing for the day when they would require a constant and reliable transportation system to their first space station.
With the launch of the Brokkr, heralding their true launch capabilities, Empyrean was no longer constrained and had sent up its first orbital craft a week later along with several more traditional rockets carrying large tanks of construction material. Those floated a few kilometers away from the Brokkr, sitting in a holding pattern until needed.
Nabhitha reached the control room, floating through the center of the room until she reached the gently blinking communication gear. Touching the correct icon, she smiled at seeing her friend Piper’s face. “Hello, Piper! It’s good to see your face. How are you doing today?”
“Good, though still jealous I didn’t get to go up. How is it up there?” Piper inquired, smiling her brilliant smile at her friend.
“The lack of gravity takes some getting used to, I’ll admit. Not being able to eat or drink for the first two days was also not fun. Albert Canelli took great glee in eating in front of me, making me sure he is part goat since it only took six hours for his digestion system to resume.”
“Smack him for me, Nabs,” Piper said. “I can just bet he was sucking down some of those nutrient paste packets and grinning at everyone.”
“He was,” Nabhitha confirmed. “But we will forgive him after he’s finished with checking the atmosphere scrubbers.”
Piper grinned and flashed her friend a thumbs up. “Good for Commander Amobi. I didn’t think he’d put up with Canelli’s antics, though the man is a good engineer. Listen, I wanted to wish you all well up there and don’t pay attention to the news. I know it will be tempting, but it will just distract you.”
Nabhitha grimaced and shook her head. “I already turned it off twice today. Are people really thinking we’re about to land troops and take over the world? There are seven of us up here.”
“I know, and I think that’s just the crackpots who still think the world is flat. At least not everyone is freaking out, though. We’ve had a lot of messages from people and groups that support what we’re doing. I think the press release we sent out right after the launch helped, but once we actually start building, that will show folks we’re not out to take over the world or shoot them with a shark gun. It’s really quite silly.”
“There will always be people who won’t believe us,” Nabhitha said. “Only time and experience will help. Still, once we start including others up here, I’m sure it will be better. We just have to get our own infrastructure started first before we can deal with customers.”
“Alex is already renting space to interested parties, though the first spot won’t be ready for a few years. As you said, we need to establish ourselves first, but telling everyone our plans has also helped.”
Nabhitha nodded, looking at a message that flashed up on one of her holographic screens. “Piper, I have to go. It looks like Commander Amobi is ready to begin our first outing.”
“Okay, make sure he waves out of the window because he’s going to have a lot of people watching. I can’t tell you how many satellites have been repositioned and spun so they can look up at you. It’s kind of crazy, actually.”
“Will do,” Nabhitha said, waving at her friend who waved back. “I’ll talk to you soon, Piper.”
“Good luck! We’ll be watching from down here,” Piper said, then the screen went blank as she signed off.
Nabhitha smiled, before acknowledging the message from Commander Amobi. They were ready to go, and she was anxious to watch the maiden voyage of the Brokkr. Pushing away from the communication gear, she glided across the relatively large command room and grasped a handle underneath what looked like a huge window. It was not, instead being a massive screen that could be tasked to show a variety of things. Today, it was showing the massive internal hanger where the Brokkr rested.
Nabhitha’s job was going to come about once construction began, but today, she was primarily an observer. She heard the commander’s voice come across a speaker, indicating that they were ready to proceed, and Nabhitha listened to the response from the techs in the room.
Then it was time. Nabhitha couldn’t help but smile as the massive exterior doors began to retract, revealing the rich, diamond studded view of space beyond. It still surprised her at how clear it was, even with the lights of the hanger causing some glare, the stars beyond were far more cluttered and dense than she was used to seeing from the earth.
Her eyes drank in the vision of space for a long moment before drifting over to the blinking lights of the Brokkr itself. The large ship, its front a mix of hoses, adjustable arms, and other machines that it would use to construct the variety of habitats they would need, slowly began to extend out of the hanger on cradle.
It took ten minutes, but finally, the Brokkr was fully outside. Nabhitha held her breath as the two massive control arms released, and then folded back, leaving the construction ship free floating. She half-listened to the techs behind her, talking through the checklists and verifications with Commander Amobi. Finally, everything seemed to check out, and the great ship gently fired its first thrusters, pushing it further away from the bay doors and out into space, itself.
Slowly, the great ship grew smaller, then seemed to turn before sliding out of view. She couldn’t help but turn around, grinning like a school girl at the other techs as they all looked back and forth at each other.
“We did it,” she breathed.
Chapter 2
Time: April 9, 2030
Location: Café in Copenhagen, Denmark
Alex sat quietly at a café in Copenhagen with Helen and Colleen, sipping quietly at his tea. They were all dressed in dark clothing, still in mourning after the burial of his friend and mentor, Johan Olmstead.
“His only request was a promise for us to make sure his family was always taken care of,” Alex said, looking down at his hands. “I think this was his plan from the beginning.”
“He was a visionary, Alex,” Colleen said, smiling at her grandson and patting his hand. “I agree with you. Johan was always there to support you, but he knew you were the driving force. I think even in the beginning, he knew you were going places.”
“I just wish he could be here to see it,” Alex said before taking another drink from his teacup.
“I’m sorry, Alex,” Helen said into the silence.
“Huh? For what?” Alex asked. While not as dramatic as his grandmother, Helen had continued to de-age until she looked like she was in her late early forties, while Colleen looked like she was just in her late fifties.
“For not being able to keep Johan alive,” Helen answered. “If he’d only been willing to let me do some organ replacements, he might still be with us.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Alex said. “That was Johan’s decision. I don’t think he was interested in becoming an experiment or being dependent on a cocktail of drugs to keep him going.”
“I know, but with the wa
y things are going, that would have only lasted a decade or two,” Helen said. “I’m so close to some breakthroughs, and I’ll be honest, the inspirations seem to be coming more often.”
Alex and Colleen gave her a look that said they understood what she was talking about. They had both experienced the same thing, with increasingly jarring answers seeming to seep up from their sub-conscious with more frequency. Piper had also made that connection, as well as several other people that they’d managed to find over the years after Terry first surfaced.
“It’s definitely something,” Alex said. I’ve learned to ask the questions, and then let it simmer for a day or so before an answer will pop up. It’s not always clear. Sometimes it’s just a feeling for what information to look at, or who to talk to, but invariably it gets results.”
Colleen nodded. “For me as well. I’ve begun to test it, and am getting unusual answers. It’s allowing me to push the boundaries of my experiments, taking avenues of progress from this…intuition, rather than pure experimentation. It’s saved me an immense amount of time on a few occasions. There is one odd thing I’ve noticed, however.”
“What’s that?” Alex inquired, giving his grandmother a curious glance.
Colleen tapped her chin. “Whatever it is, it wants to make sure we understand the steps leading up to a breakthrough, rather than just giving us the end result. For example, it wants us to understand how to make gunpowder, with all the components required before it would want us to build a rocket.”
Helen nodded, thinking about her experiences. “I agree. I think I see that too, with my own work. Do you think there’s a specific plan behind it or a direction?”
Empyrean Rises Page 10
