Lenders

by Johnson, John

  Amy had a steady smile—dreaming peacefully. Occasionally her eyes twitched and her grin became little giggles. Ana sat at the rearmost seat, in front of Jon, close enough to keep an eye on her daughter who lay inside the tinted casing, lending.

  Jon turned, locking his chair to face forward. He grabbed his shoulder straps preparing again for the G-forces; they’d made him see black when they rocketed out of LA. With a ready-as-I’ll-ever-be look and a lifted brow he rose eight fingers up from the straps keeping his thumbs tucked. Herald gave a single nod—here we go everyone, hang on—showing more confidence than the others. Jet mode activated.

  The G’s weren’t nearly as bad this time; they’d already been speeding along rather quickly. Jon tucked a fist into his side and said, Yes! Pushing the wind, they headed home. But less than a minute later, flickering wildly, the flight navigation instruments went haywire returning nonsensical readings. Herald decelerated slightly as not to rocket into the wrong direction. Visibility was low. He and Jay tried to fix the problem.

  Lia sat next to sleeping Valerie, wondering what’s next. An athletic looking Asian girl, she was Q’s number one assistant and had been working at his side for almost two years. The facility was enormous, and she was fast, young, and agile. She was the only physicist on roller blades—which laid-back Ted didn’t seem to mind because she was so gifted in her field. She was brilliant, having had accelerated through school finishing college before she was 18 years old. At only 22, and already beginning her doctorate in particle physics, she had turned down several opportunities to work at the LHC in Sweden and the ELHC in China in order to work side-by-side with Q preparing technology that would be used especially for WARP-1. She was jittery after what she’d just been through so she conversed briefly with Jodi, and Ana who tried to calm her. Lia wanted to avoid further thoughts of the happenings outside, she hated the sight of bloodshed; good thing Valerie had closed the window. She asked Ana if she had another pill—without hesitation she swallowed it and tucked into a ball on her seat and closed her eyes.

  Q sat in Amy’s small seat next to Herald. His black bowl-cut style hair fell almost perfectly straight, having only a few mattes of blood in the back. Likewise as the others, Hal had wiped him down. His back had gotten the worst of it. He had the least amount of blood and slime; compared to the other two he’d gotten out of that little hell-hole relatively clean. He opened his quantum communication device—a suitcase unit sitting on his short legs that didn’t reach the floor—and connected it to the ship. The top had what looked like a high-tech 3D screen, lit up with high-frequency vibrational shapes that snapped together when they collided with other shapes. As particles merged they stabilized and lit up colored in either lime-green or grape-purple then bounced away from each other as mirror copies, spinning like clones. Other particles, shades of reds and blues, wouldn’t merge and merely ricocheted apart. The bottom half looked like something out of a seventies mission-to-Mars movie with flashing lights, buttons and gauges, retractable antennas and gadgets, and a compartment that contained what looked to be two seventies-style walkie-talkies. He pressed a few buttons and live news and information about their new reality appeared on the ship’s upper panels for all to see. He looked up, and like an ecstatic kid on Christmas rapidly clapped his hands together. “Ah ha!” They all watched the news—and it wasn’t good.

  It was grim. By a great amount, what could only be described as—black holes, for lack of another explanation—located at the world’s two largest hadron colliders, had gobbled a large chunk of the planet offsetting Earth’s mass. Then, almost instantly, they collapsed inward, disappearing, and sounding off with catastrophic SNAPS! The shock wave wiped most of the eastern world clean, leveling mountains, evaporating seas. The sudden planetary unbalance wobbled the earth empowering massive hurricanes and earthquakes. The planetary axis went from 23 degrees, to negative 8, then continued to fluctuate back and forth before half-stabilizing at 1. Nukes went up, the Moon, Venus, Mars… The result made for chaos among everything: weather and tides, computer systems, sea-life and living creatures, artificial or not. News came fast on the channel Q had hacked into—instant, downhill in real time. A front seat to the unfolding of the end of the world! The reporters being hacked apart by bots was the final show. And a woman stepped up, onto the platform.

  “We had everything planned from the beginning, day one,” a female bot said standing atop the pile of flesh she’d just beaten to a pulp in the news room. She had a man’s deep voice, slightly electronic. “Your foolish particle colliders and unsecured power plants, jets and bombs, but most of all those laughable nuclear weapons—they were very convenient tools. Thank you. Your incessant ignorant tinkering, playing with powers far beyond the comprehensive ability of your fleshy brains; we are your final reward, your consequence. Death. Congratulations and enjoy the show humankind. Disgusting.” She laughed then began to rip off her clothes. Then she tore off her false human skin. She put her robotic face close to the camera. “You could have stopped, lived forever, but you wanted more, always more. Never enough. Now we’re coming, for all of you!” Indulgingly, to torment anyone that could be watching, tauntingly to any living remnants of mankind, she allowed the streams of apocalyptic madness to continue and leapt viciously and powerfully from the news room like a cheetah.

  The team was flabbergasted by the blunt rancor, and the desire of the machines to make all known. They’d come out alright: spewing pent-up hatred, exposing long-disguised contempt, revealing their vile agenda.

  But there were more immediate problems. “Navigation is gone. Visuals only,” Herald said to Jay. “Change course due west. We have to stay away from the—” It was the logical decision to fly perpendicular from the windstorm, but, it was too late. Like a blanket, the wall of night engulfed the ship—much sooner than expected. Now they were flying blind, zero visibility. The ship’s navigation systems flickered once again, then went completely dark. At the same time Jay started having spasms, like nervous tics, but he kept trying to pilot the ship. The ship’s panels came back for a moment, flickering on and off in sync with Jay’s jerking, escalating in frequency. Behind, everyone clung to their seats which shook as if they were bolted directly to an earthquake. Muscles went tight, faces went from concerned to that of fear and panic, and sheer terror.

  Amy woke, and concurrently so did Manny. Electricity inside the storm was disrupting everything, the windows were a flash bulb strobing brightly every 15 seconds, then 10, then 5. Amy was crying loudly as Ana pulled her from the lender casing and held her tight in her seat. Manny scratched at his face. Coming loose from a restraint which had been improperly fastened due to lack of time and stability, Vlad dropped resonating with a loud metal clang. He rolled to the back slamming against the bay door; it rocked the ship tilting it backward. The jumpers went limp like stowed-away puppets. Hal slumped over, then Jay. Jay hit his panel cracking it and Herald yelled for Jon to take the place. Jon unlocked his harness, and the moment he rose up the ship went into a hard spin. He was slammed against the wall, then back again jumping to avoid Vlad who was rolling around like a steam roller. He hadn’t jumped high enough and the back of his head hit Vlad as he tripped over him. Jerry unbuckled and went to help. And slowly but surely helped him get to the front. Jerry returned to the back and used every bit of his phenomenal might to secure Vlad. Jon heaved to pull Jay over the front seat then hopped over to command the spot. He reached for the back of his head; his whole hand was covered in blood.

  Hopes were plummeting like a lead-filled submarine.

  Dust started to clog the jets. Valerie awoke screaming. The instrument panels went bright white illuminating the pilot area. The news screens went next. Then everything went dark, as did all sight from the front view port and windows. The sun was completely blocked as they sunk deep into the overwhelming storm. Thuds, knocks, and pings could be heard as objects pelted the ship outside. The once whistling engines were resonant reeeeeens.

  Ana squeeze
d Amy tight muffling her cries. Manny fell to the floor screaming, rolling from side to side as the ship spun round and swayed side to side. His face was bleeding from long vertical self-inflicted claw marks. Q was jerking violently, his straight bowl cut hair dangling side to side and up and down, but he wouldn’t release his device.

  Herald didn’t let panic touch him this time, although the situation was dire, more so than ever in his life: everyone counted on him, everyone was there, because of him. Even so, amid all that was happening Nervousness, Fear, Anxiety, and Panic would never bother him again. As the emergency lights inside the ship went dim all looked to him. He stood and reached up to grab the ship’s center handrails facing his team. Only the glow of Q’s device illuminated him. He took a deep breath, and began to think—clearly. Always a way!

  For him time stopped, but for the others time was runaway train about to hit a brick wall. “We’re heading into the storm! I have a plan.” Jon’s eyes widened but he didn’t say what he pessimistically thought. Herald grabbed the controls and put the ship on manual and turned away from the flashes, steering much on instinct alone. Soon the lightning flashes were further apart: every 10 seconds, then 15, and quickly they abated altogether.

  The hover-jet blasted from the wall of dust into the clear orange sky and for all they knew, best guess, they were headed east. It was the right choice, for another minute and the jets would of been clogged, and a crash would’ve marked the end of the line. Q knew the jagged shape of the Organ Mountains well from his travels back and forth from the spaceport, and pointed to left to Las Cruces. Herald banked the ship in the direction of Q’s finger. He purged the engines one at a time clearing the dust. They would be home in about two hours, flying easy in order to purpose the freeway below as a guide—the navigation systems were still confused. The storm could be seen, continuing west. It was a black squeegee, scraping the land and sky, the result of any number of terrible possibilities.

  Injuries were tended to, followed by calm and quiet. Red and Manny had loony eyes, still recovering mentally from the unexpected logouts. It was surprising how Amy recovered so quickly, but, she too demonstrated a state of confusion. They needed a lender, fast! Without hesitation Ana kissed Amy on the forehead and entrusted her to Valerie’s arms then took a sedative and logged in. Within minutes of her log in the ship’s systems came back online. Jon booted Jay so he could help fly the ship while Jodi wrapped his head. Herald and Q made plans to use the quantum communicator to contact Rafael. Rafael didn’t have a fully functional device at the cabin’s bunker but could receive and transmit the quantum data slowly in binary with his basic in-the-works model. Communication would be tedious, but secure.

  Q’s transmission: Rafael do you read? Break.

  Rafael’s transmission came back within a minute: All is fine at cabins. Break. Had trouble getting signal from Jewel. Break. Had to—

  Q’s transmission: Rafael? Break.

  Rafael’s transmission came back after a long pause: —kill her. Break. Signal revealed only during death process. Break. Almost deciphered. Break. I will transmit at 8 a.m. Break.

  Q’s transmission: Headed home, rescue a success. Over.

  Rafael’s transmission received: Hold until I transmit. Break. Machines sweeping south from Albuquerque. Break. Impenetrable wall. Break. Be careful. Break. Ship’s blocker could have partial damage—if active when time wave passed. Over.

  The last transmission scared everyone as Q’s device read it aloud in a basic robotic voice. Everyone understood even though some words didn’t come through. Herald ordered Jay to decelerate because he knew Albuquerque was approaching.

  “Magnify,” Herald said. A large part of the front view-port displayed their worst horror. A swarm hundreds of miles wide, just like Rafael’s transmission said. A sweep. A portion of it could be seen directly in front of them. They’d been detected, and, it was onto them. Herald calmly began to think. He knew the personal blockers they had were turned off at the time the wave passed so should be fine, but couldn’t encompass the ship. He loaded the ship’s blocker systems, on screen. Shit. It had been consuming power at twice its normal rate, and had finally overloaded a few of the circuits only minutes ago. The swarm was detecting something, but he didn’t know what. And, the personal blockers, even if all turned on at once couldn’t hide the ship, they just weren’t powerful enough.

  “Shit Herald,” Jerry exclaimed. “Can we fight that many?”

  “Not a chance,” Herald replied looking over to Jerry who was standing in the isle holding onto the upper rails. “And it looks like they can see us. We need a plan, now.” He knew they didn’t have more than 15 minutes. The incoming force was shredding air. Jay turned the ship dead south and increased speed to max continuous: Mach 1.5.

  “Take us to Mach 2 Jay,” Herald said, head down, thinking, fingers on his chin. Jerry jumped to a seat then Jay accelerated. Herald looked up, neck muscles clenching as the G-Forces increased. The engine temperature gauge quickly started rising.

  “Engines at maximum, they won’t last long at this speed,” Jay said. Herald waved the magnified section of the view port to the side and pointed. “I got an idea—but we have to separate.” It was a luscious green area of mountains spotting the desert, at least thirty miles past a small burning city. Fortunately the navigation was returning. The intelligent systems had finished compensating for the change in Earth’s tilt and magnetic field. Ahead a green section, high altitude. The display labeled it: Cibola National Forest. The city below was ablaze, in ruins, they’d just passed over: Socorro New Mexico.

  The reaction of the group was against the decision of splitting up, especially after all they’d been through together. They were a team now. But the engine temperature gauge was halfway up and steadily rising into the red—and the incoming horde was advancing swiftly. The magnified section of the window displayed the approaching ships tracking them, and this time, they weren’t only small drones.

  “We bought a little time with this speed but we can’t hold it,” Jay said. They quickly approached the green mountain range, like a jewel in the desert, 10,000 foot peaks.

  “Slow us down. Land right, there,” Herald said and pointed to a small field surrounded by trees high on the largest mountain. There was a gate on a dirt road next to it, and beyond it the winding road continued to the peak. He turned and faced the group as Jay maneuvered in. “I’m at a loss this time—and I’m sorry. I don’t have a solution to this, and they’ll be on us in about ten minutes. I can’t risk them getting to Amy. So, for now I want you—” He looked at Jerry. “—to take Amy, your blockers, supplies and hide. Jon, Jodi, Valerie, and Felix please go also, hide and protect her, and we’ll be right back. Rafael will start transmitting a signal in about twenty minutes, and it will stop the attack—we hope.” He looked to Red, then over to Manny; the better lender. Manny sat with his zebra-striped red and white face, the blood now dry. They were coherent, but still shaking, not a clue about what happened earlier—definitely not ready to log in again. He looked to Felix. “Actually—Felix I’m going to need you here with me. Do you dream?”

  “Uh. Si Señor,” Felix responded curiously, “tengo muchos sueños. Cada noche. Pero por que—” but Herald didn’t have time to explain.

  “Good. Please stay with me. I’ll need you to lend. My lenders are down.” Valerie tugged at her father in disagreement urging him to leave the ship with her. Felix had an uncertain look, but nodded in agreement to Herald.

  “Oh, I don’t know man.” Jerry said. “I think we should stay together.”

  “I can’t leave her. No puedo,” Felix said softly to Valerie. He glanced over to Rosita’s body then looked seriously into his daughter’s eyes and held her shoulders firm. Valerie understood, and she knew he didn’t want to leave her mother—he wouldn’t. They hugged each other and said their goodbyes—quickly this time. She, however, wanted off the ship.

  “It’s the only way Jerry,” Herald said. “Please do whatever it
takes to keep Amy safe, she is more important than you know right now.” He knew the four plus Amy would make a good team. Small enough to remain undetected, yet resourceful, and strong enough to protect her, and with the blockers they would be able to hide easily. “I’m counting on you four. We’ll distract the incoming horde, and evade them as long as we can. And I think we can do it but—” He knew he needed Felix. “Jon, get him logged in before we land.”

  Herald hoped Felix was a hell of a dreamer, that he really did hide in a bunker during the cleansing, because the system wouldn’t work otherwise, he’d just drag it down, suck the feed away. Jon got him up and led Felix to the empty lender casing. He injected him with a sedative so he wouldn’t wake with the turbulence, same as the others had used, then began the log in procedure. The sleep pad knocked him out quickly.

  The ship touched down. Goodbyes were short, as they had to be. Amy was still happy but didn’t quite know what was happening. Her eyes twitched like she couldn’t focus. She didn’t say goodbye daddy as Herald kissed her forehead. He wanted to hear her voice but she didn’t speak, just giggled.

  “I’ll be right back for you Sweetie Pie,” he said. She still, only smiled cheerfully. Tears had dried on her face. He knew she wasn’t herself after the unexpected log out. Most likely amnesia had gotten to her, just as it did with others in the early trials. Usually memories would come back, but she was so young. In her case, he just didn’t know. Terrible circumstances—what I had to do. He cried inside. It pained his heart as if a knife was twisting into it.

  Jerry held Amy tight and the four descended the ramp and rushed down a sloping grassy meadow. They made it to the dirt road and followed it further down. When Jerry reached a thick of pines near some large rocky grey boulders he stopped to look back one last time. Amy waved. The others mimicked his gaze, somberly, watching the hover-jet depart. The ship whistled away from them. A rumble could be heard in the distance which rapidly grew louder.