Igniting its anti-matter vortex chamber, the station, roughly the size of Manhattan with an attached energy production facility the size of Long Island, began to produce the energy needed to send a defensive electromagnetic shock wave, piggybacking on its neutrino generators, towards the third planet. It had already activated days ago, when the first commands to do so had come in from the fourth planet in the form of an intrusion alarm.
As fate would have it, the location of the station at the heart of the fifth planet’s red spot was primed and facing inwards towards the sun and the puny third planet. The anti-gravitational thrusters sent copious amounts of energy outwards from its central transmitters, keeping the station floating in place amongst the maelstrom of destruction circling it. It started its charge and prepared to defend its equipment against what appeared to be a technological runaway aberration of its intentional biological design.
These things sometimes happened in one of every few thousand worlds, and the alien technology was ready for the rise of the homo sapiens on the third planet. It would eliminate that advantage and return those inhabitants to a more suitable level of advancement for its harvesting and reaping. It sent its first pulse carrier waves to herald the arrival of their destruction, as well as instructions to its facility on the fourth planet.
The hunters would begin their work.
NASA SPACE COMMAND
Houston, Texas
In the near future, Year 4, Day 189
“SPLENDID,” PRESIDENT Powers said from the main screen at Houston’s Control Center.
“That was a bit touch-and-go with Commander Sun,” Vice President Lee added from next to her. “Was that your idea or our intelligence agencies’?”
Rock keyed his mic; there would be no automatic or unintentional broadcasts with the executive branch on the line. “It was our idea, after the NSA and Mister Smith shared the importance of the relationship between Commander Sun and Commander Shen, so I’d say it was a team effort.”
Mister Smith smiled for the second time that year and nodded in agreement. “This has worked out well for all of us. Now, we need to shut the alien base down and mine its secrets.”
“That sounds good to all of us,” President Powers said. “I can also state, officially, that General Wang has been located and is currently confined to his underground bunker. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the generals capture him and hold him accountable for what he has done.”
“That was horrific,” Marge said, looking at the screen.
“It was,” Powers said. “We’re offering all the assistance we can to the people of Beijing. It’s up to their interim government if they accept it or not.”
“I can’t see how they would turn it down,” Mister Smith ventured, feeling rather emboldened by their success. “With the number of casualties, they need every nuke scrub team we can offer.”
“Well, the casualties, while considerable, could have been worse had that nuclear bomb detonated above ground,” Marge said. “As it is, the fallout will be considerable and somewhat wide-spread downwind.”
“We’re doing what we can,” Powers repeated, then changed the subject. “Any word from the Horizon on resuming its lower orbit so we can get back to work?”
“We’re working on it,” Rock said. “The turnaround time is still considerable despite our planets being at close to their nearest distance from one another.”
Marge checked her monitor for transmission times and started to calculate how long it would take until they could expect a message. The flashing of her secondary monitor, however, drew her attention, and she tried to pull it up but couldn’t.
She pulled her headset back off her head and allowed it to hang around her neck, then and started to walk briskly across the room, catching the attention of Mister Smith.
“Where are you going?”
Marge didn’t look at the man and fought the urge to run—she couldn’t resist. It took only seconds to reach console eighteen and she punched a key to wake the computer from its sleep mode and dark screen.
What she saw terrified her. She screamed across the room, “We’re under attack!”
“What are you talking about?” Smith said, walking towards her, followed by Rock.
“The doomsday scenario we discussed over three years ago,” Marge refreshed the man’s memory. “It’s going to happen. We need to get our planes out of the skies, and our nuclear plants offline.”
President Powers was still wired in and could hear everything through Mister Smith’s microphone. “Doctor Jones, are you certain about this?”
Marge nodded, but it was Rock who spoke, “This is off the scale, Madam President. I hate to agree, but this looks imminent.”
Gloria Powers looked at someone off screen, saying, “Execute Safe Nest, now.”
Rock turned to Jack. “Can you refresh our scans from Jupiter?”
“Damn,” Jack said, turning and hitting his keys in rapid succession.
“Marge, give me some good news now,” Rock pleaded.
Mister Smith interjected, “That display doesn’t look anything like the playback from the Moon four years ago. Are you certain the equipment isn’t malfunctioning?”
Marge stood up straight and looked at the man. “The screen is a simple digitizer representing one pixel per neutrino incident at its base scale. We should only see a single flash here and there. The moon incident resulted in a cascading array that the screen represented as thousands of pixel flashes per wave.”
“So?” Smith said, not patient enough to hear Marge finish.
“This,” Marge said, moving so he could see the screen again as it simply lit up in a solid wall of light, “represents so many neutrino strikes that there aren’t enough pixels to represent them one on one.”
“What does that mean?”
Rock explained, “It means we’re receiving neutrino waves with an intensity far beyond what was recorded four years ago. It means that something big is about to happen.”
The news channel at that moment broke to an emergency broadcast message.
“Turn it up,” Rock ordered.
Lisa was at the controls and sent the volume of the largest cable news network booming into the normally quiet control center. The message from a government spokesperson was loud and clear. “Turn off all electronics except one communications device. Shelter in place. Do not drive, stay off the roads, shelter in place. This is a mandatory warning.”
The message began to repeat itself and Mister Smith turned to Admiral Nicholson as the man received a text. “What do you have going?”
“Full mobilization of domestic assets and a complete stand down for all aviation and nuclear-powered ships,” the admiral said.
One network was broadcasting on their own and Lisa switched to it. “New reports indicate that all aviation is being grounded immediately. Planes are landing at the closest alternative airports.”
“My God,” Lisa said, her mic being pressed either on purpose or accidently as it came across their headsets. Some had taken them off and didn’t hear her as they listened to the main screen monitor.
Mister Smith wasn’t so tactful. “It’s your ass, Jones, if you’re wrong about this.”
Marge looked at the man, narrowing her eyes. “I hope I’m wrong and you can kiss—”
Rock interrupted her. “Now, I hope this is a false alarm, but that neutrino wave seems impossible.”
“Not if it was channeled and directed into a specific area,” Marge said, abandoning her prior thought.
They moved back to Rock’s console to bring up a series of data streams and to see what was in the communications queue. “We have insulated hard drives and paper backups?”
“Yeah, we’ve performed semi-annual drills on this stuff, Rock, but we never thought we’d have to use it. At least not this wide scale,” Marge said, moving back to her console and plugging in.
“I have news, Rock,” Jack said.
“Go,” he said simply, re
lying on their headsets to communicate across the room rather than shouting.
“Galley one has picked up a new electrical field anomaly on Jupiter, growing in intensity, and the infrared detectors have also located a new heat source there.”
“Location?”
“Twenty-two degrees south, currently moving from west to east.”
“Don’t you dare say it—” Lisa interjected.
“New magnetic field and heat source located smack dab in the middle of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.”
“I told you not to say that!”
“Well, folks, now we know the mystery of why that big-ass Jovian storm has been whirling away for centuries, if not longer,” Jack said sarcastically.
“I’m not buying it till I see it,” Lisa said.
Rock put them at ease, saying, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Go ahead and run your data collection and get it stored and backed up as quickly as possible. We may not have much time to spare.”
They worked in silence and the seconds ticked into minutes, and the minutes began to add up. Mister Smith was restless and paced the main floor behind them. The team still worked; the primary objective was to back up current data as well as send critical data to the printers located in an adjacent building, where over 40 million dollars had been spent on hard copy redundancy for all mission-critical information.
Vice President Lee came onto the screen, his face filling it. There was no sign of the president. “Director Crandon?”
“I’m here, sir.”
“Alright, you can let your good Doctor Jones know we’ve implemented the doomsday scenario worldwide. Instant emergency notifications were sent to every participating country within thirty seconds of the call. We’re going to shelter in place here. Do you or your team have a time-frame on the expected event or any update on its strength and scope? Will it hit our country, parts of it, or miss us completely?
“I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t have any data other than the speculation as provided in the scenario. We have no way to ascertain if the aliens will hit a specific city or perhaps a region.” Rock tapped up the report from an old file folder on his console and opened it. “The scenario ranges from city size to planet. It could be either of the two, or most likely in between somewhere.”
“Keep us posted, Director.”
“Will do,” Rock replied, then he started to review the scenario for the third time that year.
THE CLOCK DID ITS WORK and both Smith and Nicholson worked the phones. The NASA team had worked in silence over the better part of an hour then the two men met at Rock’s console.
Smith spoke first. “Well, our allies have heeded the call, and I can basically say that besides sowing massive panic across the globe, we’ve managed to shut down the entire industrialized world on the simple orders of one NASA employee.”
“It’s for the best,” the admiral said. “Better safe than sorry.”
“That’s so cliché,” Smith mocked. “I’d have thought there’d be a higher tolerance of risk in a military man.”
The admiral held his ground. “There is, but not when it comes to civilians and their safety.”
Smith turned to Rock. “Any news from Mars?”
Rock sighed and looked up from his seat at the main screen, which had the network news on again with the endless repetitive loop of the government warning in a smaller picture-in-picture to the lower right of the main feed. The news reporter was in front of an elementary school, somewhere outside of Chicago, showing parents picking up their children as there would be no bus service with the current government orders. “I guess shelter in place doesn’t apply to school aged parents.”
“What are you talking about?” Smith asked, looking up at the screen.
Rock turned his chair and attention to the NSA man. “I don’t blame them. I’d be picking my child up right about now as well.”
“What does this have to do with Mars?” Smith asked.
“Nothing,” Rock answered. “We call it humanity down here, and you could use a small dose of it.”
Before the man could answer, the screen switched over to Vice President Lee again. “Director Crandon?”
Rock queued his headset. “Here, Mister Vice President.”
“The president is secure. We’re waiting on you to advise if the event has passed. We have no reports of any city worldwide being hit by any alien shockwave. Can we give an all-clear?”
Rock turned his head slightly to his left and could clearly see the repeat of console eighteen on Marge’s screen. It continued its slow strobe light sequence, and he saw Marge shake her head no.
He turned back to the screen. “I’m sorry, sir, but we’ll have to continue sheltering in place for now.”
“Alright, Director Crandon, but I’m going to keep our communications link active right now. The president herself and most of our cabinet are waiting for an all-clear. I need to be able to relay that in a matter of seconds.”
“That’s fine, sir. We’re standing by.”
Rock motioned for Lisa to mute their mics on the channel, but the video link stayed active. The vice president turned to discuss something with another advisor and a ranking senate member who was with him.
Rock turned his attention to Mister Smith. “It takes a presidential decree to shut our country down, not the orders of any single employee of any agency.”
Smith frowned at him and walked a few steps away to make another call, leaving the admiral alone with him.
“It’ll be alright,” Nicholson said.
“I know.” Rock wasn’t sure what else to say or how to respond to the high-ranking military liaison. “I trust Marge implicitly.”
“As does the president.”
“Good point, but for once, I’m seriously hoping I’m wrong,” Rock said, turning his attention to the screen.
“Family?”
“Yeah, I called Sally as soon as I could. I made sure everyone here had ten minutes to make personal calls and arrangements. I’m surprised we haven’t inundated the cell phone servers nationwide.”
“Off the record, we have,” the admiral began, drawing a sideways glance from Rock. “There’s a small priority list embedded in the major servers, allowing key individuals access to line space and bandwidth.”
“I did not know that.”
“Few do, but again, as I said, off the record—and you’ve just noticed that NASA, at least your command and control staff, are on the list.”
“How would you know that?”
“I was the one that insisted you be on it,” Nicholson said.
Rock nodded in appreciation. “Thank you. I guess we owe you one, then.”
“Nah, just bring my men home safely.”
“We’ll do our best.”
Suddenly, the room flashed as several computers and wall switches sparked in protest at the overload of electrical energy being fed into them. The room plunged into darkness, followed by the battery lighting coming on to dimly illuminate the cavernous room. Every computer and screen when dark, despite the best surge protectors available. The odor of acrid smoke wafted through the air, giving all who breathed it the unusual and unique smell of burnt electrical wiring and components.
The room went silent as the last of the computer cooling fans finished rotating, and then a lone word came from the front console where Jack sat: “Shit.”
RED HORIZON
Mars orbit
In the near future, Year 4, Day 189
“ANY NEWS FROM HOUSTON?” Doctor Hill asked from the main galley of the ship, located at the middle of its non-rotating body.
Commander Monroe shook her head and looked around the room. Major Carter and Commander Sullivan had joined her in their command meeting, and Jules felt it best to do so near the heart of the ship after what had been reported yesterday. “We did receive a text communique that full communications would still be another twelve hours away.”
“That was from Commander Alders?” Neil asked.
>
“Yes,” Jules said. “He was able to get a low strength AM signal from planetside and then relayed it to us from on board the Black Infinity.”
“Do we really understand what just happened?” Doctor Hill asked. Awe and shock in his voice. “I mean, that damn alien ship wiped out our entire planet.”
“More like our electrical equipment,” Carter corrected the man.
“Putting over seven billion people in the dark ages is close enough.”
Jules sighed. “Yeah, not knowing how our families are holding up is bad enough. I can’t imagine that level of chaos and confusion on a planetary scale.”
“I’m sure that will be one of the first things that NASA does,” Carter said. “They’ll see to it that your families are safe.”
“That would be comforting. Anyway, we need to get down to business. Do you still intend to go into the construct with the Russians?”
“After yesterday, you bet I do,” Major Carter said, steely determination in his voice. “I’ve been itching for some payback for days now.”
“Is that the correct attitude to have for a leading officer?” Hill asked.
“It is for this one.”
Jules motioned for the doctor to remain silent. “Do you trust Maria to guide you?”
“If you trust her, that’s good enough for me,” Carter said.
“She may not be fully stable,” Hill noted, either ignoring or missing Julie’s motion.
“Well, she seems to feel quite adamant that we need to deactivate this base and whatever it’s doing, or going to do,” Neil said. “After what she went though, and the attack on our home world, I’d say we should stick to the plan.”
“Houston hasn’t signed off on it,” Hill objected.
“We know,” Neil responded.
“Will you take the Chinese commando?” Jules asked the SEAL commander.
Black Infinity Page 22
