He stopped pacing and went to the board with a marker in his hand.
“I’m going to go through each division one at a time. I want you to give me your current status and what is being done. AWC, let’s start with you. Operational status first.”
“Sir, we have no eyes or ears on the ground or in the air. We are totally blind. We have lost all communication with the other NORAD bases. We are currently checking every possible connection to see if something somehow severed the trunk lines that supply our power. So far we have found nothing but my men are working on it,”
“What about our redundant systems?”
“Nothing. We thought of that first and tried to get them on line. They show the same blank screens. I hate to say it, Sir, but it looks like some EMP got to the equipment.”
“Do you honestly believe that?” the General said.
“Sir, I can think of no other explanation.”
“So, here we sit in HQ NORAD and we have no idea about what is going on in the world.”
“Yes sir.”
“Excellent. Just frickin’ excellent.”
“Yes sir.”
The General glared at him for a second.
“Now, Colonel Webber, what is going on in OIW?”
“We are essentially in the exact same boat. No communication functions. Like AWC, we are NEOE. We are replacing all interior components of the LAN-3 and LRLO but so far we have nothing that is up and running.”
“Any other comments?”
“General. I know everyone in this room is thinking the same thing but they are afraid to come out and say it because it might look bad in their records. Hell, you already have enough notes in mine to pretty much assure that I go no further so I’ll just come out and say it. Someone or something attacked us. It is my personal belief that it was not just us but the entire country. I believe the events of the other night along with the other incidents that we all want to pretend didn't happen are all interrelated. Since I doubt that any country today is capable of knocking HQ NORAD offline that just leaves the alternative. Something from someplace else has launched a preemptive attack on us or for all we know, the entire world,” he said.
Everyone in the room looked directly in front of him. No one wanted to make eye contact with the General or Colonel Webber. The room was so still you could hear hair growing. The General rubbed his forehead and rolled the marker in his hand. Everyone was waiting for the explosion they were sure was coming. The mention of alien space invasions was absolutely a NO-NO of the highest magnitude.
“Colonel Webber, thank you for that insight. I must say, no matter how ill-advised it was to say something like that, I admire your fortitude. Everyone else must have no balls. I am, much to the surprise of everyone here, inclined to think you may be on the right track.”
Heads shot up and everyone looked at the General to see if he was luring them in. He seemed totally composed. The officers looked at each other wide eyed. General Martin was accepting Colonel Webber’s assessment? Impossible. Unthinkable. No way in hell.
“I further believe that we could well be some of the few survivors in the US. Now I don’t know about the rest of the world but definitely something has happened that is unprecedented in the history of America. I sincerely hope others have survived, including our President and Congress. I just don’t know if they had a chance to react.”
“Sir,” one of the officers said.
“Yes Captain Barns?”
“Sir, are you serious? You actually believe that we have been attacked by something from another world? I mean, do you really think that or are you just waiting to drop the other shoe, so to speak?”
“Son, I adamantly believe that is exactly what happened. If fact, I am going to have a team suit up in radiation gear and go out of the ETE and determine what actually happened.”
“Do you think we should send someone out there until we know for sure it is safe?”
“And how would we know when it’s safe? We have no eyes or ears or NEOE as you like to put it. I can’t think of another way, can you Captain?”
He didn’t answer; he just looked at the table in front of him.
“Sir.”
“Yes Colonel Webber?”
“I would like to lead that team.”
“I was sure you would. Select five men that you think can do the job and get suited up. The sooner we know what is going on outside the faster we can make accurate assessments.
“Yes sir. Thank you sir. I’ll have my team assembled at the ETE in thirty minutes. I would like to have firearms issued to the team as well,” Captain Webber said, as he headed for the door.
In typical military fashion ETE stood for Escape Tube Emergency.
“I think that’s a wise decision. We have no way of knowing what you might encounter. Take more than just side arms. Get some real firepower to take with you. I don’t want you to vanish as well. And please, take it easy out there. If you don’t like what you see get your butts out of there and back in the compound,” the General said.
“Thank you, General. We’ll take care,” Colonel Webber replied.
“No, thank you,” the General said.
Everyone was shocked for a second time. The General saying ‘Thank You’ to someone? It was obvious to everyone in the room that not only had aliens attacked the U.S. but they had left one behind in the form of General Martin.
CHAPTER
SIX
Deep Space
Time and distance measurements are only relevant to the people who accept them as standards that are understood and agreed upon. This is true at least for the general population of earth. Of course while most countries use metric as the standard, America has, for the most part, shunned that acceptance.
The real problem occurs when time is a concept rather than a given fact. Distance only means something if it can be measured from a fixed place. Something as simple or complex as the creation of the heavens and the earth gets distorted when we try to place fixed values on time.
The Bible says that God created the heavens and earth in seven days. Whose days are we talking about? Earth days? God’s days? Does God have a watch and if so, is it in synchronization with our concept of time? Probably not.
****
When the first intergalactic vehicle suddenly dropped out of space compression it was still some 190,000 earth miles away from our planet’s surface, approximately 48,000 miles inside the moon's orbit. The travelers were from a galaxy just barely discernible even with our most powerful telescopes. They had no physical characteristics resembling anything humans had ever seen before, even in our most graphic movie and television shows.
To humans they would appear to be nothing more than transparent energy fields that changed forms in a variety of rhythmic patterns. Far advanced from the humans on planet earth, they had picked up energy pulses from across the far reaches of space and had decided to explore the source.
The inhabitants of the craft were from a world that had been exploring the universe for millions of earth years. Their exploration had two separate but important functions. The first mission was to catalogue the various species that they encountered and to determine their functional ability.
The second, and more important, was to find new planets where they could colonize. Their world was orbiting a dying star.
Their method of travel, using negative matter that allowed them to compress space in front of their craft and expand it behind it, permitted them to travel unimaginable distances in relation to the human’s understanding of the concept of time and distance. The technology they possessed was far greater than we had ever imagined or could even comprehend.
Scanning the earth for lifeforms using various methods, they were able to detect only the most primitive species.
Much like humans view bacteria or mold that grows, to their culture we appeared to be not much more than algae. Since their existence was not derived from a carbon based life form, we barely registered at all.
Only a few escaped death by sheer luck. Those people who happened to be deep enough underground at the time of the scan were the only ones who survived.
****
The explorers, failing to detect life as they envisioned it, simply logged the information, marked the position of the planet they had just surveyed and went on to other locations.
Not being human, they had no feelings of remorse or guilt. They simply came, explored, and moved on to other planets in the universe. It was not done with malevolence or malice. In truth, they did not even realize that they decimated almost the entire population of what they considered to be overall a primitive planet.
Those who died in that instant were transformed from human form to nothing more than globs of jellied ooze. They felt no pain or even realized what was happening. One moment they were going about their normal everyday lives and the next, they ceased to exist.
The survivors, on the other hand, would find a different world when they emerged from their protective shields. They would have no way of knowing how they escaped or what they had escaped from. All they would know for certain is that the world they once knew no longer existed.
*****
Does God exist? If he does, what was man’s role in the universe? Why did this happen? Were those who survived morally better than those that perished? Was man’s existence displeasing and starting over as a species after what happened? These questions and many more would have to be considered by those who emerged from their protective lairs.
How do you rebuild entire nations with a handful of people? How would society arrange itself without borders, laws, and mass communication? The challenges facing those who survived would rival those of the most primitive creatures on this planet.
In this massive cleansing of the planet, past mistakes could be corrected or civilization could cease to exist. The future was up to those that had miraculously been spared. The events that followed would set the framework for what civilization would be like for the next centuries and the generations that followed.
All of the survivors were now on a level playing field. How each reacted and the path they chose would determine civilization's fate.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Sun Dome
Randy had walked for almost half a mile, finding cars deserted along the road. Each was the same. The same goop was always on the driver’s side but many had more spots in various locations. He, at one point, tried to reach in and start a car but the engine did nothing.
He had managed to open the hood on one of the vehicles and found melted components all around the engine compartment. Whatever had caused the people to vanish had disabled the vehicles as well. Nothing was helping him to get Rachel out of the cavern.
He found a truck with a back cover over the bed and searched around. He found a long coil of sturdy rope and decided maybe he could rig a way to get her out. What he really needed was a working vehicle to tie the rope onto so he could pull her out of the cavern. At each vehicle he would stop and try to start the car but the results were always the same.
He wasn’t sure what to do next. He didn’t want to get too far from the egress of the cave. He knew Rachel would start to become anxious and might try something that could cause her to injure herself.
He was just about to give up and head back when he saw an older Jeep CJ 7 at the side of the road. It had a raised suspension and 33 inch tires. It was obviously built for off-roading. He rushed over and tried the ignition. The engine turned over several times and finally it started. He was ecstatic. A working vehicle. It was built before all the computer components had been added to vehicles.
His next obstacle was the acidic slime on the seat. He couldn’t just jump in and take off. In the truck a few hundred yards before the Jeep, where he had found rope, he had seen a small shovel. He raced back to the bed of the truck and retrieved it. When he got back to the Jeep he shoveled several scoops of dirt onto the seat. It wouldn’t be comfortable or make driving very easy but he couldn’t think of anything else under the circumstances.
Once he was satisfied with his work he placed his hand on the pile of dirt. Nothing. The dirt was acting as an insulator against the acid. He quickly climbed in the driver’s side and raced back toward the cave. When he got back to the spot where he had found the road, he turned and bounced across the rough ground to the mouth of the cavern.
****
“Rachel,” he yelled down into the opening.
“Randy?”
“You were expecting someone else?”
“What took you so long? I’m freezing to death down here,” she yelled back up.
“I’m going to get you out.I’m throwing down a rope.”
“Okay,” she replied, her voice quivering.
“When you get it, tie a loop so you can stick your foot in it. I’ll use the Jeep to pull you up.”
“What Jeep?”
“Don’t worry about that now. Just get the loop tied. Make sure you have a good knot in it so it doesn’t come undone.”
“I’ll try.”
“No Rachel. Don’t just try. Make damn sure it’s secure before I start pulling you out.
“All right, I will.”
A few minutes later she yelled that she was ready.
Randy tied the other end of the rope around the front bumper, making sure it was secure.
“I’m just going to go back up the Jeep. I’ll go slowly so you can hang on. Make sure you hold on tight. It’s a long fall back down to the bottom.”
“Just be careful,” was all she said.
Randy got in the Jeep and put it in reverse. He slowly depressed the gas while letting out the clutch. The rope went taut and he backed up a few inches at a time. Watching the opening, he continued to back up until he saw Rachel’s head emerge from the cavern. He stopped the Jeep and ran back to the opening.
“How you doing?”
“Just hanging around,” she replied and he had to laugh. She was going to be fine. He reached down and grabbed her hands and pulled but it was too much dead weight hanging like that.
“I’m going to have to back up a little more. Watch your hands,” he warned as he went back to the Jeep.
Two minutes later she was standing at the edge of the opening.
“Damn, am I ever glad to be out of there. It was getting very cold. This wet suit isn’t that much protection.”
“Yeah. The temperature seems to be dropping here as well. I think the cloud coverage is the main problem,” Randy said.
“How did you get the Jeep?”
“Found it along the side of the road.”
“And you just took it?”
“Kind of. I don’t think anyone minded. At least no one said anything.”
“Did you ask first?”
“Not really.”
She looked at him strangely trying to determine what he meant by that. She decided he would explain when he was ready.
“Look, let’s get out of here and find someplace to get in out of the cold. The Jeep doesn’t have a top and I think the temperature is going to continue to go down.”
“What the hell is happening? Have you ever seen clouds like those before?”
“Never.”
“Are we just going to leave our equipment in the cavern?”
“Unless you want to go back for it. I sure the hell don’t.”
“But the cost.”
“Trust me, I don’t think that is going to be a major concern,” he said, coiling up the rope and throwing it in the back.
He started the Jeep and started to climb in.
“What the heck is that
?” she said, pointing to the pile of dirt on the seat of the Jeep.
“A seat cushion.”
“What? It’s dirt.”
“Yeah, but it protects my rear.”
“Randy, what’s going on?”
“Honestly, Rachel, I don’t know. Just hang on a minute and I’ll show you what I’ve found so far,” he told her.
She frowned but didn’t say anything. It was so out of character for him not to tell her what was happening. He always explained everything when they were diving together. His base of knowledge is one of the things she found most amazing about him.
They drove over the bouncy ground until they reached the highway. Rachel stared in disbelief. Cars were abandoned all up and down the road for as far as she could see.
“What..?”
“Yeah, that’s the same reaction I had. What the hell is going on? I don’t have an answer but I have a theory.”
“Yeah?”
“I would rather not say just yet. I want to get to the nearest town first. I think it’s this way,” he said, turning south on the road.
“This is crazy. Why would everyone just get out of their cars and where did they go?”
Randy didn’t say anything, he just kept driving. He had to weave around cars still in the street. Some had run off the road and many had smashed into others. It looked like a war zone in some places.
The Jeep only had a quarter of a tank of gas and he was already thinking about how he was going to siphon gas out of the abandoned cars along the road. He would need a hose and a bucket or container of some kind. They came across a semi that had slammed into several other cars head on but there was no blood or bodies to be found.
“What is that stuff?” Rachel asked, point to the slime on the driver’s seat.
“I’m not sure but don’t touch it. It will burn your skin,” he said holding up his finger.
A black circle had appeared where he had touched the spot in the first car he encountered.
“I don’t understand,” she said simply.
THE END - Book I - Of THE EVENT SERIES Page 7
