Neighbors
Page 26
“Mine says we just lost communications,” another officer said.
“What the hell is going on?” the commander asked, exasperated. “Reset
the system, run diagnostics. Is this cyber?”
“No, sir, closed circuit systems confirm physical system damage.”
“Were we hit with something? I didn’t feel anything.”
The closed-circuit command phone rang, and the commander picked
it up.
“Commander, what is the status of our systems?” asked the captain.
“We have nothing working at the moment. Do you have
any information?”
“Yeah, a laser beam just cut the hell out of our ship. We’re got
propul-sion and a couple other systems, but we are a sitting duck. The battle group is responding.”
“Sir, I think this whole thing was a mistake,” he turned and whispered
more quietly, “The orders are bad.”
“You and me both.”
The line disconnected.
* * *
“The bombers are heading back, sir.”
“Do you think it’s because they’re on fire?”
“I’m sure that has something to do with it, sir.”
“Destiny reports one destroyer is toothless. Carrier is launching
alert fighters.”
“This is getting out of hand. Put a message out in the clear.”
The communications officer tapped a few buttons on her screen. “Com-
munication is ready.”
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“This is Alex Prager of the UEF. We have defended ourselves against an unprovoked attack by the small contingent of armed forces within the
United States. Up to this point, we have attempted to disable craft and ves-
sels laid against us and minimize the loss of life, while you have shown no
such consideration. This situation is needless, and it’s escalating. I propose a cease-fire. I await your response.”
Alex turned to glance at Cindy. She appeared sullen. “Hold position
and have the Destiny join us at our location.”
* * *
General Green was watching the confrontation unfold in the situation
room while he racked his brain to come up with a solution that would solve
the problem. Short of committing murder, he was willing to try anything.
He noticed the growing frustration on the President’s face. Alex’s message
of a cease-fire played across the screen. The General thought an artery was
going to burst in the man’s forehead.
“Order them to attack, now!” the President shouted.
An idea occurred to the General, one both wrong and a long shot, but
it was better than doing nothing as the country ripped itself apart.
“Belay that order!” General Green stepped forward from the wall and
approached the President.
“Sergeant, get him out of here!” the President responded with venom
in his voice.
“You have become mentally unstable since the stressful ordeal of sur-
viving an alien invasion. I invoke the twenty-fifth amendment to remove
you from office before you destroy what’s left of this country.” General
Green spoke smoothly and calmly.
“King shiddit! You complete moron, that’s not how it works!”
“It works if the people in this room say it works.” General Green eyed
the officers stationed around the edge of the room, watching him.
General Gabe stepped forward. “I second that motion.”
“Majority rules. All in favor, say ‘Aye.’”
The room was silent as everyone looked back and forth between the
President and the Generals.
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The President stepped toward General Green with a dark smile.
“You’re—”
“Aye.”
Everyone in the room snapped their head towards Lucy, the President’s
Chief of Staff.
If anything could phase the President, it was that. He stood completely
perplexed, staring at her as though he couldn’t understand what on earth
was going on.
“Aye.”
“Aye.”
“Aye.”
“Shiddits, that’s not how it works!”
“Sergeant, please remove the President from this room.”
The sergeant at arms looked like he was going to piss himself as he ten-
tatively stepped forward.
General Green noticed the hesitation of the Sergeant. “You can help
bring down this country, or you can help save it.”
The sergeant scanned the faces of those in the room, all of whom were
staring at him, waiting for him to make a decision. It felt like the weight of the world sat squarely on his shoulders. He knew the President was right,
but he also knew the General was right as well. He thought about the Zorn
returning, and he thought about his family.
“Mr. President, if you would please come with me?”
“The hell I am! You’ll have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.”
The Sergeant radioed for assistance.
* * *
“Sir, we have communications with the battle group!” the communication
officer said.
“Put it on.” Alex sat forward in his seat, hoping he knew where this
was going.
“Alex Prager. I have been ordered by the acting Commander in Chief to
stand down. Will you do the same?”
“I will.”
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The line abruptly disconnected. Alex looked around the bridge and shrugged.
“Nothing, if not concise,” Cindy commented.
“Acting…” Alex trailed off. “Take us back to the Complex.” Alex closed
his displays and took a deep breath as he relaxed into his seat. Then he
opened the image of the unknown alien ship sent them. Another message
appeared on Alex’s screen, and he reached forward to open it.
145 attachments
downloaded—Kalibri
Alex clicked on the link, which took him to a new file that had unlocked
on his data pad. One text file followed by pages of schematics, designs and
other information.
Greetings Alex—if you get this
message, I have passed into the
void, and you have survived the
Zorn attack. Congratulations on
your success. At the time of my
passing, I predicted a ninety-three
percent chance you would fulfill your
agreement and assist the Thean
homeworld, providing you are alive
to do so. There’s a lot of information
I initially withheld from you, partly
because of justified concern and also
because I don’t have the authority
to give you some of this information.
Since I am dead, I believe I am
relieved of all core bindings and
have thus released new information
to you.
The most important thing you should
be aware of is the inhibitor I placed
on your subspace communication
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network. Currently, its setup to filter
anything except Human, Zorn, and
Thean subspace signals. Instructions
are included to show how to remove
the filter. Tread lightly, Alex. This is a
double-edged sword.
Secondly, I included a translation
program for the only two species we
have made successful communication
attempts with.
The rest of the information includes
advanced fabricable technologies
that I had time to develop, which
is compatible with your technology
and biology.
My hope is that you put this
information to good use. Events
may occur which may trigger future
messages. Wiping the main UEF
servers will eliminate this possibility.
May you live long and happy.
* * *
General Gabe was sworn in as the new President days after the UEF clashed
with the navy. Remaining government representatives were assembled, and
while they did not approve of the coup, they agreed to accept the outcome.
Not that they were left with many choices.
They granted General Green special dispensation from prosecution in
both civil and military courts. He did not go without punishment, how-
ever, as he was removed from military service.
* * *
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Laura opened the door to Alex’s office and allowed Major Grissom to enter.
Alex stood and gave the Major a look over as he approached his desk. The
man appeared to be the same age as his father. His uniform was sharp, and
he looked the embodiment of professionalism. He considered everything
his friends told him about the major and decided this man was someone
anyone would follow.
“Good afternoon, sir,” Grissom said with a broad but steady voice.
“Please, call me Alex.” Alex sat down in his seat and paused when he
realized the Major was still standing next to the chairs. “Major, you don’t
have to stand on protocols around me. The assistance you provided us
helped save lives, and for that, we are forever grateful.”
The major sat in the chair and considered Alex for a few moments.
Alex felt awkward. “Major, have you given any consideration to joining
the UEF?”
“Yes, that’s partially the reason why I was touring the facilities when
the attack occurred. I was sure I didn’t want anything to do with the UEF
before the attack. I am not sure anything has changed since.”
“Please major, I don’t appreciate a suck up.” Alex gave an obvious smirk
at the joke, but it was like smirking to a stone wall. Alex put on a straight
face and leaned forward on his desk. “I’d like to hear your reasoning.”
“Well, since you’re asking, sir. The UEF is a circus, run by those with
no experience in handling large-scale issues, and where almost anyone can
make a unilateral decision that can have profound consequences. There’s
little to no discipline, and the entire organization hinges on you staying
alive. Since you’re not immortal and your death would likely cause a frac-
ture of the organization, it’s just a matter of time before the UEF descends
into chaos.”
“All true. What else?”
The major tilted his head, the corner of his lip frowning. “If you’re not
going to take my words serio—”
“Major, I absolutely take your words seriously. I have considered them,
have already agreed with them, and I am ready to move on. If you think
you’re going to offend me, don’t bother worrying, as I have always thought
that a person who cannot take criticism, admit their faults or accept help
from others is a person doomed to failure.”
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“Well, in that case, I could go on.”
“I’ve got a better idea. How about you join the UEF and fix things
from the inside?”
“Sir, Alex, this organization needs an overha—“
“I agree. Let’s hear your ideas.”
“Well, let’s start by centralizing and expanding the chain of command.”
* * *
After the meeting finished, a council of command was formed. This com-
mand team would fill five chairs and decide all future UEF activities and
important decisions in a majority vote. Voting would always be done via a
secret ballot, to allow votes to remain anonymous.
The council included Alex, Cindy, Grissom, and Gloria. Alex leveraged
Grimm against the US government for initiating the attack. As a part of a
larger bargain, he and several other members of the military were annexed
into the UEF permanently. Grimm’s last order from the Acting President
was to continue service to the UEF.
Zeek, Jorge and Timmy declined to be considered for the command
council. The four on the council decided it would be best to have a rotat-
ing fifth member, to be changed every six months and selected at random
by the computer. To avoid undue pressure, the identity of the fifth coun-
cil member would always be unknown to those even on the council. The
other four secured positions would be decided by a vote whenever an open
position availed itself, chosen by the remaining four. The decision must be
unanimous. If no decision was reached within an allotted time frame, one
would be selected at random from the UEF personnel pool.
When the public asked how the fifth position could work without
their identity being known, it was explained that the fifth person would be
informed by computer. All council information would be made available to
them via the computer system, and they would be invited to attend emer-
gency meetings via a closed group message board, but attendance was not
always required. The fifth would not be needed unless there was a split vote.
If the fifth person made themselves known to the public while they were
still in the role, they would forfeit their position. There were several pages of procedures and protocols for the fifth member to acknowledge when
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they decided to accept the position, but Alex felt no need to go into detail about it to the public.
Alex knew this was necessary, as he wouldn’t be able to explore space if
everything hinged on him leading the organization.
* * *
Transport Shuttle One was designed to ferry personnel to and from the
Brandon Memorial Shipyard, which miraculously escaped attention during
the Zorn attack. The shuttle was a heavily-insulated and modified triple-
sided cargo container. The ship and shuttle builders at the UEF were flex-
ing their design legs and making ships more space-friendly. Insulation,
radiation shielding, emergency equipment, adequate lighting, twelve seats
designed to hold a person in an EVA suit, monitors, and all sort of other
things were fitted inside, plus half the space was empty to allow for the
transport of supplies.
Fena was tasked to shadow new pilots through the training program.
She was anxious as Jeremiah piloted the shuttle to the shipyard on his own
for the first time. She looked at the alignment and blanched. “Watch your
angle of approach.”
“I got it.” Jeremiah released a small burst of compressed air and let the
ship slowly rotate to the desired angle. At the right moment, he applied the
same amount of counter force to stop the rotation.
Fena looked at the ship’s orientation to the planet; it was not perpen-
dicular. It was aligned and oriented to the shipyard. A smile slowly formed
on her face. “Hey, I want you to increase our closure rate to the station two
<
br /> feet a second. When we’re five hundred feet away, reduce it to a half-foot.”
Jeremiah slowly increased power infinitesimally to the drive. Fena
leaned back and crossed her arms while the ship came out of alignment to
the station.
“Hey, ah… something happened.”
“No… really?”
Jeremiah adjusted one of the corner disks and tried to apply a counter
force to the ship’s odd rotation.
“You can’t eyeball—”
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Jeremiah sneezed, and the slider went a bit too far on his screen. The shuttle very slowly tumbled on its axis, still approaching the shipyard.
Fena let out a deep sigh. “Now what are you going to do?”
Jeremiah panicked. He reoriented all the disks to Earth and rotated
them one hundred and eighty degrees, then applied a bit of power. The
shuttle was slowly repelled by the Earth’s gravity, forcing it back into a
rough alignment. The shipyard drifted away from the front viewscreen to
the lower left corner. The ship was no longer tumbling in relation to the
Earth, but he was once again out of alignment with the shipyard.
“It’s not a plane, it doesn’t bank. Your ship’s orientation has no bearing
on which direction you’re going. You can only pull or push yourself away
from gravity sources; it’s not something you can eyeball. You have to plug
in where you want to be in the navigation system, and let the computer
adjust the disks to the various sources of gravity in the system.”
“I know how to fly it!”
“It sure doesn’t look like it… And if you are going to eyeball it, you
need to use the compressed air thrusters to orientate the ship. Don’t use the
disks for that. In fact, you could have just used the compressed air to get us to the station. Why did you even bother with the disks?”
She looked at Jeremiah, waiting for an answer. He didn’t so much as
glance in her direction. His hands slowly adjusted the ship’s orientation and
direction of travel with the compressed air.
“It’s not a plane!” she struggled to hold back from taking over.
“I know that. Why do you keep repeating it?”
“Why are you nose-first into the station? Huh, if you reorient with
Earth and come in at an angle, you won’t need to waste so much com-
pressed air. It’s not like there’s an endless supply… You did graduate, right?
Did you skip a day or something, too many sick days?” Fena looked ahead.