by JK Stone
Terrah looked down the corridor in time to see what was left of the armor Bias had taken to wearing fall to the floor and seem to dissolve away. Jerren then planted a scorching kiss on Eneria, and Terrah smiled warmly at the open affection Jerren showed for his AI.
A moment later Jerren called out, “Terrah could you open the hatch a moment, it won’t work for me.”
Terrah focused on opening the hatch for Jerren, but it wouldn’t open for her, so she replied, “Something’s wrong, I can’t open it either.”
Jerren and Eneria made their way toward Terrah, and almost to the control room Jerren asked, “Can’t you reset the ship yet?”
Terrah shook her head and said, “No. The ship is almost fully restarted, but it still won’t work.” She’d attempted several times while making her way through the mess, but the ship was just not responding to that command.
Terrah saw Jerren blanch at the thought, and thinking ahead Terrah got Eneria’s attention by asking, “How are we supposed to get this ship out of here? We don’t have control of the bay doors.”
Eneria came up beside her and said, “Bring up the navigation console.”
Terrah did and a second later Eneria let out a disappointed sounding grumble before saying, “you have enough energy to perform a single phase jump about one hundred and thirty-seven thousand kilometers, that will put this ship almost half way between Earth and the moon’s orbit.”
Terrah didn’t know how she was going to accomplish that without killing everyone in the structure above them, seeing as how they were over three hundred feet below the surface with no way out, and she asked, “Won’t we crash into the structures above us?”
Eneria put her hand on Terrah’s shoulder and said, “No, when you phase, you will pass through the other matter.”
Eneria then looked around a moment. “Is your AI online yet?” she asked.
Terrah closed her eyes and concentrated a moment. She was unable to find the AI’s program. “Not yet,” she said. “is that normal?” she asked.
Eneria had a flash of what appeared to be worry cross her face before she said, “It could take a little longer.”
Terrah looked down at the console and noticed something strange. According to the display, gravitational waves had slowly begun to build in power just after she had closed the hatch, and a second later Terrah heard the familiar voice that she now knew was Inola’s call out in the room.
Move that ship!
Eneria gasped then shouted, “Jerren, get to the master control room and move our ship now! That battleship is powering up!”
Jerren seemed to jump when Eneria shouted and took off at once for the master control room as Jason and Justin were returning to her ship.
Eneria shouted, “I will help Terrah launch her ship!”
Terrah did everything Eneria instructed her to do, and a few seconds later she heard Jerren’s voice call out.
“Did you hear that?” apparently speaking to Alise and Calia, because Alise was the one who answered him.
Alise had replied, “Yes, we were monitoring everything over the life monitors. We are setting up an overwatch triangulating on TDS 4’s phase jump location. I just sent you your coordinates.”
Jerren spoke a moment later. “Okay, I’m in position. What’s the battle plan?” he’d asked.
“If the battleship engages TDS 4, fire everything we have at it,” Alise had responded.
The ship was just about powered up for the phase jump when Jerren shouted, “No! It won’t work… Position the ships like we did to restart TDS 4 and activate the Ion pulse generators on their phase jump location… Eneria can you hear me?”
Terrah jumped again when Eneria barked out, “Yes, what is your plan?”
“As soon as you phase jump, shut down all ancillary systems. We have the Ion pulse generators set to charge that ship, we’ll be just out of phase. When you have enough energy, you need to activate the phase, but only enough to maintain it with the trickle charge we can provide you,” Jerren explained.
“Got it, we will phase jump in five seconds,” Eneria called out.
*****
The phase jump went smoothly, and Terrah shut down all ancillary systems as Jerren instructed. Thirty seconds later she saw Eneria look down at the console and she sighed in apparent relief.
“We are getting a lot more energy than before with the unobstructed beams, the ship will be able to maintain a point two five phase in another thirty seconds,” Eneria called out.
Calia replied a moment later saying, “The battleship is launching right now, and whatever was blocking our signals is gone. There are ninety-six lifeforms down on that portion of the base. When that ship busts through they will not survive it. Do we transport them up?”
Terrah’s heart thrashed as fear for Pops rose in her, and she berated herself for not going and getting him onboard when she had the chance. A sense of panic befell Terrah for the safety of her guardian, then relief set in a moment later at Jerren’s next statement.
“Yes, I’ll take a third of them,” A few seconds later adding, “I have mine,” Jerren replied.
Alise spoke next saying, “Alright, I have mine as well.”
“Okay, I have the rest,” Calia had announced, and a few seconds later she added, “The battleship is breaking through the surface. It will be in weapons range of TDS 4 in ten seconds… five, four, three. ENGAGE PHASE!”
Terrah was beginning to panic now. TDS 4 was still a few seconds from being able to phase. She was about to shout that out, but a moment later Jason shouted, “Justin, the wall now!”
Justin nodded, and Terrah watched as Jason and Justin climbed over the fallen debris and positioned themselves between the wall and the console then reached out to make contact with both. A moment later the battleship fired several energy blasts at their location and Terrah saw the lights in the room brighten significantly then the power in the ship seemed to surge.
“Phase now!” Eneria snapped out.
Terrah didn’t have to be told twice. A couple additional blasts appeared to have been fired from the battleship, but the weapons fire must have passed through the area, then a second later the battleship took off at high speed.
Terrah’s heart was pounding a furious beat in her chest, because she had a sneaking suspicion they had almost been killed. She sat nervously in the seat in front of the console and lowered her armor.
A few seconds later Jason and Justin lowered their armor as well and Eneria called over to the others, “We were hit, but we are okay, we can explain it in our meeting. This ship should have enough energy to travel at minimal speed in about one hour. If Terrah keeps TDS 4 out of phase like this, and we travel in our current formation, then TDS 4 can remain out of phase until we make it to Daregon.”
That sounds good, let us know when you’re ready. Where do we want to transport our guests?” Jerren replied.
“Did they get General Green out safely?” Terrah asked anxiously, adding, “If so I need to speak with him.”
Eneria nodded and called out, “Terrah wants to know if you rescued General Green.”
There had been a few seconds of silence and then Terrah heard Jerren reply.
“Yes, I have him in the medical unit of this ship, I had to stun him down on the surface, but he’s doing well. Why?” Jerren asked.
“Terrah said she needed to speak with him,” Eneria told him.
Jerren could be heard chuckling over the communications, then he asked, “Anyone else we’d like to talk to before we drop them off?”
Jason grumbled out, “If I could get my hands on that CIA spook, I would rip his lungs out,” He’d said to Justin as they made their way to collect Anubisis to move him over to TDS 1.
Eneria’s laughter filled the room, then she replied, “Jason said something about a CIA spook, but I do not think there would be much talking going on.”
About twenty seconds later Terrah heard a commotion from down the corridor, and Eneria turned to her and
said, “Raise your armor and stay here!” and Eneria ran down the corridor toward medical.
A moment later Terrah heard Calia say, “I just transported my group to a safe location outside of Area 51.” And a moment later Alise announced that she had followed suit.
Around a minute later Jason and Justin entered the control room with the unconscious figure of Bias U’san draped between them. Terrah holstered her weapon and looking between them, she saw that their faces were all bloodied. “What happened?” she asked.
Jason replied, “Anubisis must have come out of stasis when we powered down all but the engines and phase. He ambushed Justin and me when we entered medical. If not for Eneria, we would’ve been toast.”
A second later Jerren chuckled over the communications. “Okay, I’m transporting some of my group into The Pentagon, some to the Whitehouse and the rest into NORAD. Everyone meet On TDS 1 in twenty minutes.”
A few seconds later Jerren called over and said, “Jason, can you and Justin collect Anubisis and we will question him on your ship. Make sure to extend the duration of his stasis for transport, we don’t want him waking up prematurely.”
“Uh, I don’t think that will be a problem…” Jason laughed as he looked down at Anubisis who was draped between him and Justin.
“What’s that about?” Jerren had asked.
“We’ll explain it in a minute, but for now Anubisis is safe,” Jason said with another chuckle.
Terrah would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall when all of those soldiers just appeared in the Whitehouse, and especially in the Cheyanne mountain NORAD complex. Aside from Area 51, NORAD was… or now is the most securable of facilities the government has.
She’d been at that installation a few times and had the ‘semi-grand’ tour back when she was stationed in Colorado Springs. But even in that facility, there had been sub-levels she had been unauthorized to enter, and now knowing what was at the bottom of Area 51, she wondered what they could possibly be hiding under Cheyenne Mountain.
Recalling that Johnathan Smith and Bias U’san were using the Cheyenne Mountain complex as their base of operations, a chill swept down Terrah’s spine. On second thought I don’t want to be anywhere near either of those facilities, just look at what they did to me after an accident. Terrah thought to herself as Jason and Justin dragged the unconscious Anubisis off of her ship.
Terrah knew the soldiers would have a lot of explaining to do, and none of them would be able to explain what had just happened to them.
Chapter Six
After another ten minutes of searching the database Terrah sighed in frustration. “I still don’t see the AI’s program in here to reactivate it,” she told Eneria.
Eneria let out a ‘humph’ and asked, “What was the last telemetry from the AI?”
Terrah looked through the database and said, “It looks as if the AI uploaded into a binding disk a few minutes before the ship went offline, but a transport was initiated at the moment the power failed. Does that mean the commander and AI made it off of the ship when the ship crashed?”
“I have no clue. I have had very little experiences with these matters. Calia, on the other hand, has dealt with more cases like this than any of us. It is possible that she will know. Maybe you should ask her what she thinks.”
Terrah nodded and called out, “Calia, do you have a moment?”
“Yes, what can I do for you?”
Terrah was astounded at how her suit would open communications with whomever she thought to speak with, and replied, “Eneria and I are having an issue finding the AI over here. The database shows that the AI uploaded into the binding disk five minutes before the ship’s power failed, and it shows that a transport was initiated and was in mid progress just as the ship’s systems shut down. Could it be possible that the commander and AI made it off of the ship? And if so, do you know how to get the AI back online?” Terrah asked hopefully.
“Yes, it is possible the commander and AI made it off of the ship at the time. And reactivating the AI should be as easy as resetting the AI to a previously uploaded version. Just tell the computer to reset AI, and the command should allow you to select a version to activate,” Calia stated with a helpful tone.
Terrah did exactly what Calia said, but nothing happened. She finally found the uploaded version of the AI’s program, but no matter what she did the ship wouldn’t allow her to reset the AI’s program.
Eneria got a strange look on her face, sniffed and activated her armor. A moment later she said, “I think you should raise your armor. The life support did not fully restore the air levels before we shut it back down. The oxygen levels are getting very low in here again.”
Terrah activated her armor and saw the air quality was indeed hazardous, and she sighed at the thought that her ship was not working properly.
Eneria seemed to be thinking something over, and then she said, “With this mess, it will probably be safest for everyone if we keep this ship out of phase for the trip to Daregon. When I estimated the travel, it was with the power the ship was receiving at the time, but I forgot that the life support had been deactivated. There will not be enough energy to activate life support if the ship is phased, and since the ship will not allow you to reset for the new commander yet, there will be hazards if the ship were to be attacked.
“If you want to risk coming across any hostile vessels, we can activate the life support and travel in phase. Our ships will still be there to help you, but with the consortium still out there, I think it will be for the best if you keep the ship phased for the trip.”
Terrah peered around then frowned, the thought of spending even another minute in the ship in its current condition almost made her want to run screaming from the vessel. She didn’t think her sanity could handle a long duration aboard the ship with this mess, so she let out a disgruntled groan and said, “I think you’re right. It’ll be best to travel out of phase, and I’ll stay on one of the other ships until we get this mess sorted out.”
Eneria nodded and said, “With any luck, all your ship will need is a good charge. We need to head over to TDS 1 to interrogate Anubisis, we can figure out which ship or ships you and your sisters will stay on afterward.”
With a groan of frustration Terrah nodded and followed Eneria as she exited the ship.
*****
Once they were in the master control room Terrah dropped her armor and she asked, “How long will it take us to get to the planet to recharge?”
Eneria seemed to force a smile and said, “We will be traveling at a very slow rate of speed. From Earth to Daregon it will take a little over one hundred and eighty hours. But once your ship is fully charged you can travel much faster. Not to mention we can get it cleared up. Like I said before maybe it only needs a good charge.
“This situation is new to us,” Eneria stated, then added, “Justin’s ship was only powered down for fifteen thousand linear years. Your ship was knocked out of commission just over thirty-five thousand linear years ago, and the power stores were down to the point where it would not register on the display here, and we could not even open the archway without bombarding the ship with the ions.”
Terrah did the math really fast then chuckled. “Seven and a half days is slow?” she asked.
Eneria chuckled back and replied, “Yes actually, if your ship were to travel out of phase, at let us say, a positive point-five time dilation, you could traverse the distance from Earth to Daregon in a little over thirty hours without losing a charge. You could travel much faster, but the faster you go, the faster you will consume the ship’s energy stores.
“Also, the further you take your ship out of a standard TD, the faster it will drain your energy reserves as well. I have not tested it much, aside from deliberately running TDS 5 out of power a few times, but I was told that Calia and her prior commander Atlas, performed a lot of tests on her ship to see what they could do.”
Terrah thought it odd to intentionally deplete the ship’s re
sources, and asked, “Why did you deliberately run your ship out of power.”
Eneria openly cringed and after appraising her a moment, Eneria explained about her prior commander Enyali, then some of what was done to her, and once Eneria was finished, Terrah could understand completely why Eneria would’ve drained the ships power to get a reprieve from her old commander’s psychotic ways.
Terrah silently wondered why Eneria wouldn’t have just transported Enyali into deep space without the benefit of a protective suit.
It had been explained to Terrah and her sisters that Enyali and her family were sick and twisted, but after hearing what she did to Eneria, Terrah could feel an unwanted desire to see all of them dead rising within her, and she didn’t like that feeling one bit.
“Anyway,” Eneria said, grabbing Terrah’s attention. “If your power stores on the ship are depleted, it will drop you out of phase and limit your speed to the energy you can collect while traveling. In rare occurrences, you could increase the speed, but that can only happen if you were to fly through a dense Ion cloud for an extended period of time. Otherwise, you either have to charge at a pyramids generator or remain stationary in an ionically charged region for an extended period of time to gain enough of a charge to maintain higher speeds,” Eneria explained.
“Well, I guess we’ll see what we can do once my ship is fully charged. So, what do I do now?” Terrah asked.
Eneria’s expression turned grim and she said, “As I said before, we have to deal with Anubisis. Jason has him on TDS 1 for the interrogation. It will be very crowded in there with all of us, but we want you and your sisters there for it as well. Follow me.”
