by Paul Teague
Mike was feeling massively conflicted – he was learning things here that were quite explosive. He had direct access to inter-governmental secrets of the highest order. If he’d been under any less time pressure, he’d have quite happily sat there for days just reading all this stuff.
But he was scanning – and he had to do so at extreme speed. There was no time to dwell on anything, he needed to read, assimilate and move on.
He and his team were sifting through clues which dated back many years. They hoped to find a fragment which might help them to move forwards against the constant threat of Troopers launching their final assault on the bunker. It would surely come, it was only a matter of time.
He had to get through as much of this data as he could before that happened – before they got trapped in the shoot-out that was heading their way.
Mike nearly skipped a file, thinking that it was of no importance, but he jumped back because its presence there jarred.
He’d been a toddler when Ronald Reagan had announced his Star Wars defence programme, but as a teenager and a hacker it had been on his radar because it had moved into hacking folklore
If you could find The Global Defence Matrix and leave the Government a little message? Well, that was the Holy Grail for the hacking community.
However, nobody ever managed to find a trace of it. In fact, many hackers dismissed the project as propaganda, suspecting that the USA were just using it as a tool to worry their political enemies.
That’s the only reason why curiosity made Mike return to the file. What was it doing here if the defence strategy was just a fiction created by an American president?
He scanned the files – it was like a potted history of a famous project. He could see how it had been started by Reagan, renamed by Clinton, then mysteriously disappeared under Bush.
During Bush’s first term it had become a Global Consortium matter, taken out of the President’s hands.
‘That must have been some decision to take,’ Mike thought to himself. To think that all this stuff was going on and nobody knew.
Everybody was blaming Bush for the Gulf War, while really there were far more sinister things going on right under our noses.
As Mike read on he realized the enormity of what he was seeing. This was a global defence matter; it had moved beyond being just a tool for the USA many years ago. And they had succeeded too, they’d managed to create a complete defensive matrix around the entire planet. It could shoot down any nuke: they all had a detectable signature, and until they could remove that trace, they were all rendered pretty well useless.
Mike felt a moment of anger thinking about how terrifying the prospect of all-out nuclear war had been for his generation. He’d have liked to have known about this, why was it kept from the population?
He read on, battling against his every instinct to become distracted. It was worth it – he found the information that he was after. He had to burrow quite deep down into the data to find it, but it was all there.
The full set of codes to activate the entire Global Defence Matrix were all held in that documentation. God forbid that any of Mike’s old hacker chums would ever have found this.
Magnus would need to know about this straight away. Anything related to defensive or offensive processes was crucial now, especially with Quadrant 3 being the last remaining area to be free from sabotage. Mike sent the codes directly to Magnus, and he copied in Viktor too. The quiet and mysterious Viktor.
Mike didn’t know much about him yet, but he had to trust the process. Viktor was a Custodian, he’d been appointed to a leadership role by The Global Consortium, he needed to see this information, along with Xiang.
Time to move on. Mike forced himself away from the defence files and onto the next data set. All around him, like summarizers on budget day, his tech team were sifting through these files, passing on everything that might be of strategic importance.
Mike was just opening up the next file when Magnus’s face appeared on the screen at his console. He was worried and not making much effort to hide it.
‘Mike, you need to come straight to the MedLab. It’s not good news I’m afraid, it’s Amy ...’
Identity
‘Nat,’ I whisper as loud as I dare, then remember that I can probably try this telepathically now. Neither of us is used to communicating that way just yet, it’s more instinctive to talk, but either way I get her attention.
She smiles when I show her the Comms-Tab. It hurts her though, her lip is cut and bleeding. Then I show her the slip of paper. This gets a much stronger reaction than the Comms-Tab.
‘Where did you get that!’ she explodes. I scrunch my face at her.
Not quite telepathy, but a clear warning for her to keep her voice down. I’d never have placed myself in the position of wise and learned, but compared to Nat, who’s really impetuous, I’m the model of maturity and careful consideration.
‘We have a friend out there,’ I reply, and I go on to describe him as best I can.
‘It can’t be Dae-Ho,’ Nat responds. ‘He died, I was there.’
‘You died and I was there!’ I remind her.
‘Good point!’ she acknowledges. ‘If it’s Dae-Ho, that’s incredible Dan. He’s the one who helped me to escape from Pierce in the first place.’
Again, I get a glimpse of a story that still lies untold. Nat was away for three years – who knows what happened to her in that time? I’ve been quick to condemn her rage and impatience, but I have no knowledge of what she’s been through since the day of the accident. Who am I to judge her?
‘We need to get Dae-Ho and his friends out of here with us Dan,’ she resumes. ‘They’re being held against their will – their families have been threatened.’
I’m quickly getting a better sense of why Nat hates Pierce so much: everything he touches seems to turn to something hateful or violent. I need to get a message to Simon and I’m also anxious to let Magnus know where we are. I’m beginning to think better of sneaking off like that now – we should have told them where we were going.
At least Mum knows what I’m up to – sort of – she’ll let everybody know when she gets back to Quadrant 3. I have a pang of concern about Mum – is she okay? I’ve barely had time to think about my family, it’s just one thing after another in this place.
We have to focus on what we know and what we can control. That means, get a message out before Pierce and his ugly alien pal discover that we have this Comms-Tab. I send a short text message.
They can’t even know about this place yet, they’re aware that something happened with the Quadrants, but how can they even find us up here in space?
Mum’s SymNode didn’t work anymore when I left her earlier, it’s only Nat and me who can get us up here at the moment. Into space. What do I tell Magnus? Simon and Kate are our best chance of escape. And perhaps this man called Dae-Ho.
I send the text anyway, and I decide to let Magnus know that the Pierces are twins too. Just like me and Nat. That might be useful information for Xiang. We must be really short on time now, maybe half an hour left until the NanoVirus gets us?
I feel helpless for a moment, like it’s time to give up, then I rally myself quickly. It’s not over yet – we fight until the final moment. This is not just about me and Nat, it’s about Mum, Dad and everybody else on Earth too. It’s definitely not just about me anymore, in fact, I’m pretty well bottom of my list now of people who I need to consider.
I remember that the Comms-Tab should be carrying Xiang’s data about this genetic destruction process that’s going to kill Nat and me. I actually tap the Comms-Tab when I see the data projecting my remaining life expectancy. It’s gone down. I have longer to live. Some good news at last.
According to the Comms-Tab, I’ve got at least a clear hour until the genetic breakdown process completes. Did I lose some time somewhere? I’m nervous about those numbers, fearing that they may be wrong because we’re in space.
I decide to ke
ep the information to myself for now, I just don’t trust it. It’s too late anyway. I have to slip the Comms-Tab into my pocket, the Troopers have come to retrieve us.
They grab me first, then Nat, and finally two Troopers take Harold Pierce by the arms. He’s barely conscious – if they keep beating him like this, he’ll be no use to anybody. Henry is accompanying the Troopers, this can’t be good.
One of the Troopers is marching one of Dae-Ho’s friends along the corridor, and the situation becomes immediately threatening. Pierce goes straight for my pockets. He finds the Comms-Tab, they must be onto us already.
He slams my head against the wall. Jeez that hurts! It took me completely by surprise, I’m dazed by the force of the impact.
He grabs the terrified guy by his hair, throws him into the airlock where we’ve just been and presses the pad at the side of the door to close it. He barely even registers as he keys in a code and the far door of the airlock opens wide into space.
Dae-Ho’s friend is ejected in an instant. One minute he’s there pounding on the door, the next he’s a distant dot in space. I’m breathless with shock, I can’t believe what he just did.
We’re marched along the corridor and pushed into the centre of the Ops Area. We’re still surrounded by the holographic faces on the small screens which line the walls, but there is a larger panel here, a main screen on which we are looking at someone – or something – quite unworldly.
Zadra Nurmeen is chuckling to himself in the corner, they clearly have another bit of antagonism planned for us. I’ve not really had a chance to take a proper look at him yet, I’ve been too distracted by watching Pierce closely – I just never know when he’s going to strike out next.
Zadra Nurmeen has a human appearance overall, yet it’s easy to tell that he’s not actually human. The number of fingers on his hands gives it away of course, but it’s more than that. He’s smaller than everybody else here, but still powerful and warrior-like. He looks like he means business. I certainly wouldn’t pick an argument with him, that’s for sure.
His clothing looks to be military, not like anything you’d ever see on Earth, and he has something slung across his back, though I can’t get a clear view of it. It’s a long, black sheath but I can’t tell what it’s concealing, I don’t think I want to know what he keeps in there. He’s so quiet compared to Pierce though, and it makes him immediately more threatening. Pierce has begun speaking again, I shift my gaze to him.
‘I calculate that you have about twenty minutes left before the NanoVirus process is complete,’ Pierce begins. His badly injured brother is coming round now. He’s on the floor at my side, and his attention is immediately drawn by what’s on the main screen.
‘So I need to know, will you help me or not?’
Here it comes, this is what they want from us.
‘You have proven to me that the NanoVirus process works well, but you twins are nothing to me, I frankly don’t care if you live or die now.’
I’ll remember to thank him for his good wishes later, I don’t like where this is heading.
‘I want you to go to Zatheon and infect the entire population. You two can help us to land an even bigger prize than just Earth.’
‘Why would we want to do that?’ challenges Nat. Does she never learn? She needs to keep her mouth shut a bit more.
‘Because it’s the only way you’ll get to come out of this alive,’ he replies, ‘and meet your real mother!’
‘I don’t even believe that she’s alive!’ spits Nat, and she starts to run at him again, only to be stopped by a Trooper who’s ready for it this time. She’s pushed to the ground again, at the side of Harold Pierce who’s now looking at the large screen. I follow his gaze.
I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at – it looks like Frankenstein’s monster. There’s a woman’s face in there – it looks human, but she has no hair and her skin is pale white, almost translucent.
She is attached to a panel which looks like a cross between a computer and a life support system. I can’t work out if there are more wires there or more tubes.
She’s muttering wildly to herself; her eyes are shut, but her eyelids are constantly flickering.
I don’t know what I’m looking at, but it’s highly disquieting. Whoever that is on the screen seems to be in a heightened state of wretchedness.
A tear drops from Harold Pierce’s eye as his brother moves into the centre of the Ops Area and gestures towards the large screen which we are now all looking at.
‘Twins, meet your mother!’ he laughs at us, like an evil magician who just pulled a dead rabbit out of a hat, ‘Or The Queen as we like to call her.’
‘This is Davran Saloor, the supposed saviour of the planet Earth!’
Part Three: Burning Earth
Chapter One
Recovery
Amy sat up on the MedLab bed, itching to get away and throw herself back into the business of helping Dan and Nat. She’d just been on the receiving end of the same amazing technology which had saved her life after Simon shot her earlier in order to maintain his cover. It had healed her cuts and bruises right in front of her, accelerating the natural regeneration process, and although she was still stiff and sore, she was ready for action. Again. Besides, she needed to get that backpack over to Magnus and Mike – that Trooper’s helmet and the SD card might just hold some crucial item of information.
Through the glass of her own cubicle, she could see the Trooper who’d travelled with her in the Transporter. She thought that she’d been in a bad way after their altercation, but he was looking quite rough too. He was restrained and under guard, but he was shaking and struggling.
It looked to Amy like he was going cold turkey after an addiction, he seemed to be wrestling to get by without something that he was craving desperately.
Amy wondered about the voices in the helmet, the ones that had been so meaningless and unbearable to her.
Her train of thought was broken as a concerned looking Mike burst through the MedLab doors with a worried expression on his face. He was immediately delighted and relieved to see that Amy was sitting up already and quite clearly had her fire back.
‘What on earth have you been up to?’ he asked, rushing to hug her and then breaking off to inspect her wounds. He was about to admonish her for running off like that into the heart of the trouble, but he stopped himself. They were all doing things that none of them would have dreamed possible only a week ago, himself included. And, although he was terrified for the lives of his kids – and his wife –, if he was honest with himself, he loved the adrenaline rush of it all, it was an incredible, if terrible, experience.
He could see in Amy’s face that she felt the same. Of course these events were awful, but the heightened senses let loose as a result of being in the thick of something like this? Well, it beat the humdrum of day-to-day life, even if the stakes were so high.
They ditched the chit-chat because they knew that time was precious.
‘How long do Dan and Nat have left?’ asked Amy.
‘We’re not sure. Xiang sent a text update telling us that she’d come across an anomaly and that it had extended their life expectancy by thirty minutes or so.’
‘We must be on the last hour now ...’
That focused both of their minds once again.
Forget the excitement, concentrate only on the problem.
‘Mike, look, there are some things in that bag over there which I think might be useful.’
Mike walked over to the bag which had been thrown to the side by the MedLab team. It didn’t need medical attention, so to them it was not important. More vital minutes lost as the medical team worked on Amy’s injuries.
The first thing he pulled out was Amy’s laptop, he almost laughed.
‘I’m not sure what use this old thing will be. Have you seen the tech I’m using in the Control Room’
‘Not the laptop,’ replied Amy, a little impatient with the attitude, ‘the helmet, t
ake out the helmet.’
Mike struggled to get it out of the bag, but he immediately understood Amy’s urgency when he saw what it was. The helmet was alive with digital circuitry.
Mike held it to his ear. He could hear the mess of voices very faintly without having to put the helmet on his head.
‘This is out of my league, I need to pass this to Magnus.’
Amy got off the bed, hesitantly, as she wasn’t sure if her legs would hold her. They did, and she grabbed the clothes that she’d been wearing during the struggle. They’d been neatly folded and placed alongside her bag, ready for when she recovered enough to leave the MedLab.
She fumbled in the pocket, and at first felt a knot in her stomach. She couldn’t find it. Another search.
It was stuck in the corner of the pocket. It was only a small card, but still much larger than the Micro SD cards that most people had in their mobile phones.
‘Take this.’ She handed it to Mike. ‘When I first came across Nat she was trying to get some information off this using my laptop.’
Amy tried to recall those very hazy memories of her first encounter with Nat in the car park. She could recall snippets, but no details of conversations or feelings. They had been suppressed by the device in her neck, the one that was now, thankfully, powerless to control her. Thanks to James.
She stopped a moment, and her sadness returned. In the heat of a fight or battle, it was all too easy to just forget about the people who’d lost their lives. They’d remember James later, the time to mourn would come. For now, it had to be about saving more lives. Including Dan and Nat.
Mike put the SD card in his pocket and picked up the laptop and helmet.
‘Okay, I’ll get on to this you stay here and rest.’
He knew it was the wrong thing to say the minute that the words foolishly left his mouth.
