The Secret Bunker Trilogy

by Paul Teague

  As it was, inhabited by a vast array of different species, it was untouchable under interplanetary laws. But if the terraforming went wrong, if the planet were to die?

  Well, that would be another story.

  The Queen

  The Troopers worked as one, controlled by The Queen. She was all powerful, and they never even thought to question her commands. They would receive their instructions via the black devices buried within their necks.

  They had been culled from humanity, the finest physical specimens enhanced by incredible technology. All answerable to their Queen, who was part of this unholy trinity. But nobody knew who she was.

  She was able to control this dangerous army with complete anonymity. And so it would remain until the final battle.

  Launch

  He took a deep breath as he carefully keyed in the coordinates sketched out on his console. He had been here before, where life and death were precariously perched on a knife edge and brave decisions and terrible risks had to be taken to preserve lives and win freedom.

  But who knew how things would play out if these missiles reached their targets?

  He confirmed the coordinates and it was done.

  Deep beneath the Black Sea, fifty submarine drones were armed in an instant. Each one carried a massive nuclear payload. Within the hour, they would reach their final destination.

  Birth

  The twins were beautiful. They looked exactly like the doctor said they would. The human genes were dominant – they would blend in perfectly on this planet.

  They would remain undetected, able to live a normal life.

  Each one was perfectly formed, a boy and a girl. But she would be compelled to abandon her children on Earth and trust the humans to show them the kindness that they had offered to herself and her husband.

  She had to return to her own planet to face trial by the Elders. She had committed the ultimate crime. She had revealed to the humans that there was life elsewhere among the stars.

  Chapter Two

  Three Hours

  Everybody looks shocked as Xiang delivers the bad news about our imminent genetic destruction. We have three hours to live … three hours to fix this thing or die at the hands of this deadly NanoVirus.

  We’re all desperately concerned about James, and for a short time we’re at a loss about which problem to focus on first.

  Nat is the only person breaking the silence. When we were parted by the accident I’m sure that neither of us knew language like she’s using now. In fact I’m sure she’s used a few words that I still don’t know as she describes her hatred of Doctor Pierce.

  Not for the first time today I feel calm and level-headed in the face of extreme stress.

  ‘We need to move fast then,’ I begin. ‘How will this Nano thing work when it kicks in, Xiang?’

  Nat stops her ranting. She’s obviously angry and frustrated, but like me she’s also focused on how we stop this genetic sabotage.

  ‘I feel fine at the moment,’ says Nat, a little embarrassed by her outbursts as she realizes that everybody has been watching her dramatic tantrum.

  ‘How come I seem to be more advanced in the viral process Xiang?’ she adds, mastering her temper at last.

  That’s a good question, and I feel exactly the same way, I haven’t felt so healthy in years.

  Xiang presses a few buttons on her E-Pad and a graphic appears on the main screen in the briefing room, where the atmosphere has become incredibly tense again since the relief of Dad’s good news about the drones. There are two graphical images of bodies – me and Nat I’m guessing – and Xiang talks us through the science bit. The technical words sound like ‘blah, blah, blah’ to me, but I get the gist. Essentially our bodies are like two boilers. When they both reach full pressure, they’ll explode. Only there’s no gas involved here, it’s a genetic process. And the two boilers in question are me and Nat.

  We’ll continue to function until we both hit that critical mass. One boiler won’t explode before the other. When the process is complete in both of us ... boom! Except there won’t be an explosion, Nat and I will just die. This process will effectively mean that we cancel each other out, we will devour each other – genetically speaking. What a reunion!

  Xiang sends the data to our Comms-Tabs so that we can monitor the process of genetic breakdown and the time that we have left. Nat is at 66.5 percent in the process, I’m at 35 percent, that’s not comforting me.

  Xiang has monitored and simulated the speed of the viral process. So far she thinks we have three hours and two minutes before we both reach the 100 percent stage. One hundred percent meaning the end for both of us. To think that the first time I ever get to a 100 percent score will also be the last time it ever happens. Darn, typical Dan Tracy luck!

  The time-remaining counter keeps fluctuating on my Comms-Tab – at times it’s as low as two hours and forty-nine minutes. It’s a bit like the fuel data on a car dashboard, projecting miles to go until you run out, but varying constantly dependent on your speed.

  ‘What accelerates or slows down the process Xiang, any idea?’ asks Dad.

  ‘I’m not sure yet,’ replies Xiang, who’s winging all of this like the rest of us.

  ‘With your permission Dan and Nat, I want to re-route your vital signs via your Comms-Tabs so I can figure out what makes the process speed up.

  ‘If we can isolate those factors, we may be able to buy you more time.’

  Mum steps in – she’s been quiet since we lost contact with James, but she’s obviously thinking things through, coming to terms with recent events in her own way.

  Simon is trying to find out what happened to James. We’re still waiting to get a full update after the mast was blown up outside, and the teams in the Control Room are frantically trying to piece it together from whatever information they can access. Mum begins to speak. She’s controlled, but angry.

  ‘Now the drones are stopped, we need to go on the offensive against Quadrant 1. We’re just sitting ducks here.’

  There are nods around the table. ‘The primary problem is Kate and these troops of hers,’ she continues. ‘If we stop them, if we go on the offensive, we can solve most of our problems.’

  Viktor is the person who’s only just been introduced to this group of ours, and he’s been biding his time, weighing up the room and picking his moment to speak. He seems to have been waiting for those words: ‘Go on the offensive’ and he stands up to get our attention as he speaks.

  ‘We have access to nuclear devices,’ he says gravely. ‘If we need to, we can blow them out of the ground, like they tried to do to us.’

  The mood in the room changes suddenly. It dawns on all of us that we are talking about some big concepts here. One minute you’re on a day trip, the next you’re deciding where to fire the nukes. I didn’t even get time to buy anything from the gift shop.

  Magnus speaks, he doesn’t like this at all. There is tension in the room, this ramshackle government of ours can’t agree on the way ahead. It doesn’t matter anyway, because as the conversations start to heat up and everybody tries to have their say at once, there is a deep, violent rumble throughout the entire bunker. It is sustained and thunderous, more threatening than the drones which were firing at us previously.

  The room is silenced and we look at each other. The fear on everybody’s faces tells the whole story. Nat and I may not have to worry about the next three hours, it’s what’s happening now that may kill us.

  Undetected

  Kate was severely disorientated for a few moments. She’d been conscious throughout the events in the bunker, but like Amy and James, the device implanted in her neck worked at a subtle level, controlling her actions, emotions and words, but not disabling her memories or awareness. It was if she’d suddenly awoken from a dream and was having to realign her sense of reality, working through what was part of the dream and what was real. All around her were bunker staff who were experiencing the same sensations. Like Kate, the
y’d had the Neuronic Devices implanted prior to this mission.

  When James had destroyed the mobile mast above them, the sabotaged signals had been terminated, and everybody was left in the same confused state as Kate.

  But standing around the Control Room, like a threatening invading force, were the Troopers, armed, deadly, and on a mission to destroy the planet. Kate made her decision in an instant. This was the same decisiveness that had resulted in she and Simon standing out to Doctor Pierce all those years ago in the simulation exercise. It’s why she was here in this bunker right now, because of the kind of person she was.

  Kate knew that she’d have a very short time between regaining her full consciousness and the Troopers – or Doctor Pierce – realizing that the bunker staff were no longer under their control. She couldn’t save everybody here, but she could get out herself and maybe give the people in the only unoccupied Quadrant a head start in fighting back.

  If she could make contact with the other Quadrants, the intelligence that she could give them might put right some of the damage that she’d just unleashed under the control of the neural implant.

  Kate used a distraction strategy. Data was streaming in about the explosion close to the cottage, above ground. She barked orders at the Troopers, and they moved immediately, beginning an investigation into what had just happened. They’d find out of course that James had just blown up the mobile mast which controlled the bunker staff. But Kate would be gone by then.

  Having busied the Troopers, she walked up to her deputy and whispered in his ear.

  ‘You’re in charge Alan. Make sure you protect these people when they realize what’s going on.’

  He nodded.

  ‘I’m leaving you now, but I’ll be back … just make sure that you keep these people alive!’

  Trapped

  ‘James!’ shouted Simon via his Comms-Tab, ‘James, are you okay?’

  Simon couldn’t be sure if James had been caught by the blast from the mast explosion or if the sound of weapons being fired had meant that the Troopers had wounded – or even worse – killed him.

  Stuck near the blast doors, he had to find out what had happened to James.

  He couldn’t go outside, but he could wait for the Troopers to re-enter the bunker, possibly with James apprehended.

  He needed to take the initiative, and find out what was going on.

  He still had basic clearance in the bunker – he needed to head to the Control Room, this is where the data would be flowing in about the explosion. And the fate of James.

  Simon made his way along the corridor, bowing his head as he passed cameras and Troopers, who were becoming like ants, they were all over the place.

  Knowing what he knew about Genesis 2, these Troopers had to be a product of The Global Consortium, but Simon had never seen anything like this before. This was definitely not his access level.

  Making his way down towards the Control Room, the lift stopped on Level 2. Simon bowed his head, ready to avoid eye contact.

  Someone stepped into the lift. For Simon, it couldn’t have been worse. He was trapped in there with Kate. She was looking directly at him. And she’d recognized him immediately.

  Chapter Three

  Host

  The Queen was not among her soldiers. She was many hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, alone in space. She was connected to a vast array of computers, alongside hundreds of screens and panels. Electrodes were attached all over her body and wires ran to and from her skull, directly connecting to different parts of her brain.

  She did not seem to be awake, yet she was conscious. She had the appearance of being in the middle of a troubling dream, she was restless and agitated.

  Around her the screens showed a constant flow of data – she was in direct communication with her Troopers, wired into their consciousness, creating a hub that thought and acted as one.

  This place was once a prison to her, but although she was a captive here, her basic needs had been met and she had food, water, recreation and comfort. Now her prison had become a living hell. The abomination that had been inflicted upon her looked like a botched job lashed up by a crazed professor.

  She could not move at all; she was completely paralysed by this inhumane and torturous process which had taken over her body as a host and which would eventually leave her lifeless. Somebody had done this to her, someone who was deeply evil and had no compassion for life. But from this lonely place The Queen had been chosen to preside over the slow death of the Earth.

  Contempt

  The Pierce brothers looked at each across the control console, one with contempt and hatred in his eyes, the other with fear and loathing.

  ‘Henry ...’ Harold began, but he couldn’t find the words to begin.

  The minute that he’d seen his brother, he’d realized exactly what was happening. Banished from the Genesis 2 project all those years ago, Henry Pierce had had access to all of the data from the simulations, all the early planning and implementation of the project, and The Covenant. Which was why Zadra Nurmeen was at his side once again – it all made sense in an instant.

  The delay with the lighting in Quadrant 1, the sabotaged Neuronic Devices, the hijacked Shards … everything that had gone wrong with this project so far had been his brother. And Zadra Nurmeen. Harold had thought Zadra banished from Off-World Federation business, but it was obvious that this evil pair had managed to stay in contact, working together all that time. But for what?

  Harold Pierce looked at his brother and understood in that moment that he had to be stopped. Henry Pierce was pure, hyper-intelligent evil and although he’d learned to conceal it since his clumsy days as a young, spiteful child, he could never survive in the inner circle of the Genesis 2 project. Eventually the evil would always break out and conquer his intellect, his rationality and his sense of right and wrong.

  So it was with sadness and a sense of fear that Harold Pierce talked to his brother. As he began to speak, he understood that he would probably be forced to kill his evil brother – or he would be killed himself and the entire world put to death without mercy.

  The Plan

  Every detail had been considered in The Global Consortium’s planning. It was important that the Quadrants could exist in open sight in these days of the internet and satellite surveillance; they didn’t want another Area 51 on their hands.

  It had proven so easy to select the old military bunker facilities across the globe, then install the technology that would ultimately be used to deliver Genesis 2. While everybody had their eyes on the military big dogs like Cheyenne Mountain, work had been going on for many years on the four key installations that would support this global strategy.

  But it was what lay beneath the bunkers that would have created the biggest spark among the conspiracy theorists. Below each main bunker structure, work had begun many years ago to create vast underground containment areas for something that was not of this Earth.

  Unknown to anybody else on Earth, other than The Global Consortium, this work had involved off-world input, invoked as part of The Covenant which governed our planetary sector. Underneath each bunker, vast metal arks had been built.

  When the members of The Global Consortium had triggered Unification, these underground craft had been deployed to a task that it was hoped would never be needed. Beneath each bunker was one part of a huge spaceship, a Quadrant, which was capable of leaving Earth and docking together to form one gigantic structure in space, thousands of miles above the planet and known as The Nexus.

  On Unification, these Quadrants would power up and emerge from their hiding places below ground, gliding out from the hillsides into which they’d been built and leaving the upper levels of the bunkers intact. The circular structure would be docked around the central hub, from which The Global Consortium would run this new world as the perils that had struck the planet played out below.

  Each Quadrant had a specific purpose: for food, power, technology … and the c
reation of life itself. But Unification meant one thing, and it was only in the direst circumstances that it would be sanctioned by The Consortium. This was an evacuation of Earth.

  Re-Grouped

  The shaking and vibration is prolonged and frightening, I’m desperate for it to finish, but it continues for several minutes. It feels like the whole place is about to collapse in on us. Cups and E-Pads are falling off the desks and Mum, quite rightly, tells us to get underneath the large, solid conference table in the middle of the room in case the roof starts to sustain some damage.

  Everybody in the briefing room is shaken by this and the room is hushed again, we’re all fearful for our lives. Except Viktor, who remains cool and impassive. He appears to have done this before.

  Eventually the rumbling stops and the stillness afterwards is wonderful. We all stay quiet for a moment then emerge from under the table as we gain more confidence that whatever just happened is over. We exit the briefing room and enter the Control Room where Magnus’s team are very shaken, but returning to their screens in the way that they’ve been trained to.

  A few minutes later and we get a rundown on the latest data. What appears to have just happened is that Levels 3 and 4 just separated off and became airborne.

  A Tech Op posts a digital replay on the screen – we can’t see the real thing because of the darkness outside the bunker. We can see it digitized in front of us; we don’t need the real thing, as it’s obvious what this is. I’ve seen enough sci-fi on TV to put it together, but I’m stunned that this stuff really happens.