by Howard Marsh
“Why does the line stop at the point near Earth?” Harry asked.
“This data comes from storage on the ships that crashed on Earth, so this is as far as the fleet got by then.”
Harry was impressed by the ability of these aliens to evacuate their entire planet and set off on a search for a new place to live. They executed a plan that let them explore as much space as possible, while keeping their elapsed time at some reasonable level so that only one or two generations needed to live in space.
Giovanis summarized what Nebula had found. “It turns out that the group that came here appears to be the only one that had any luck. Earth will suit their needs, and we have records of the messages that they sent to tell the fleet that we are now the target of their search for a new home. Fortunately, we were at an extreme edge of their search pattern in this region, not any closer to the main fleet. This bit of luck, plus the crashes of the three spacecraft, gave us many decades of time to understand what was about to happen and to prepare for the arrival of their invasion force. Here’s what happened. It was a stroke of luck that gave us this chance to defend ourselves.”
Giovanis then pointed to one of the thin lines that moved further than normal, well beyond the limit at which it should turn back.
“This is the group that found us. They should have turned back to rejoin the fleet, but they had just collected data on our solar system that showed a possible new home world, Earth. But we were still too far away for them to tell very much about Earth other than rough estimates of orbit and size that appeared consistent with what they’d need for a home world. So they sent a signal to tell the fleet that they had a good prospect and were going to proceed about eight light years beyond the previously agreed limit so that they could obtain better data to confirm the lucky find. When they did confirm that Earth would be suitable, they sent a second signal to the fleet and began their more intensive reconnaissance here. Unfortunately, we have no records of any replies from the fleet, since the crash occurred before any message could have made it back here.
“It was a risky decision for them. They knew that the current plan was for the fleet to begin to move toward the next destination at about the time that the exploratory groups reached the predetermined limit of their search. At those speeds, the fleet could still receive messages. Relativistic effects wouldn’t yet prevent that, but by the time the messages caught up with them, the fleet would be much further away from Earth, probably too far for the exploratory group on Earth to rejoin unless they knew precisely where the next loiter point would be and could go directly there.
“But they weren’t so concerned with catching up with the fleet. They were counting on finding that the Earth was suitable. It was a gamble, but the initial data looked so promising that they couldn’t afford to pass it up. They knew that the fleet would return at high relativistic speed as soon as it received the message with the good news. But it wouldn’t get to Earth until many years later, since the distances were huge.
“Long before the fleet arrived, the exploratory group on Earth could complete preparations for the invasion and could fly back toward the fleet at near light speed to meet it as it approached, rather than waiting on Earth and growing old. That was also risky, since when they travel at high relativistic speed, they can’t communicate, so all the planning and navigation is based on their best guess at what each of them will do. There apparently was no prearranged procedure to cover what this exploratory group decided to do. We’ll never know exactly what they planned, but that doesn’t matter at this point.”
Giovanis paused to wait for Harry’s reaction. “So you’re telling me that this fleet is now returning to invade Earth?”
“That’s right. If they’d been headed directly toward us from the start, they would have reached us a few thousand years ago, and they’d be living here instead of us.
“But the relativistic time dilation works in our favor too. When they move at relativistic speed, their time reference slows down, so ever since they received the messages and started to head back here, the time that passed for them is almost nothing at all. We’ve had a lot more time to prepare our defenses than they’ve had to prepare for the attack. That’s one of the few things that work in our favor.”
Giovanis explained that the best estimate was that the main fleet or some advanced elements could arrive in as little as five years from now. Once again, he explained, this was all educated guesswork, but it was what Nebula was preparing for.
“How can you be so sure of all of this?” Harry asked. “Isn’t it based on a lot of supposition? All you really know is that a few UFOs crashed and contained some stellar maps and other charts. The rest seems to be a big stretch.”
“We admit that there is some degree of speculation, but we have a lot of data from their computers, not just the star maps and navigation charts. We made a lot of progress understanding their language, and they definitely are on a scouting mission to find a place where they can live. The navigation charts, with all the small tracks fanning out from the main body are clear evidence of an intensive search, and we have no doubt that their home world was destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by the supernova. Also, we found that the aliens who came to Earth have been taking a lot of data related to biology, chemistry, and other attributes of our biosphere. And they’ve been building infrastructure that can only be for the purpose of supporting a military build-up in preparation for an invasion. That’s what we found on Mars and what we think they were also doing on Titan. They’re definitely establishing bases near enough to Earth to support an invasion force and far enough away to keep out of reach of our own weapons.”
“Why do they even bother with these reconnaissance groups? Why doesn’t the main fleet just go to the star systems that look promising and explore intensively, from close range? Wouldn’t that be a lot easier and more efficient?”
“There are a couple of reasons. One is that they probably want to keep the main fleet far enough away from potentially suitable worlds in case an advanced race does live there. They wouldn’t want to risk their entire population, so they keep at a safe distance while the reconnaissance teams explore. They’d be able to flee at near light speed if danger was reported. The other is that they want to explore a large region of space near each loiter point. So they position the fleet near the center of that region and send multiple exploratory groups out in different directions toward interesting stars. They look for possible worlds to settle on, but they also look for minerals and fuel sources to scavenge. They want to cover a large volume of space at each point, not just explore in close proximity to their loiter point.”
“OK, that sounds reasonable, but if we expect an alien invasion in maybe five years, why aren’t you alerting the governments? Don’t you need to get them to mobilize? Why keep it to yourselves?”
“There’s nothing that the governments can do to help at this point. They would just get in the way and slow things down or get embroiled in their usual bickering. Believe me; we can do the most by doing it ourselves. We’ve reconstructed the three spacecraft and have even built quite a number more, and no government involvement would have been able to speed this up. But you need to get briefed at Level-4 to go into the details of our plan. You’re going to play a big part in it. We have to go somewhere else for that, but we’ll bunk here for the night, and we’ll head out tomorrow morning. It’s already been a pretty busy day.”
They showed Harry to a guest suite that had just about everything he’d need, including shaving kit, toothbrush and paste, and even a hair brush and deodorant. The closet and dresser drawers were filled with clothes that were obviously meant for him, and they had even provided luggage for him to pack for the trip that they had obviously planned. There was even a pair of pajamas laid out neatly on the bed.
Harry decided that he might as well get some sleep. He realized that he was exhausted, and everything apparently was under the control of the people who ran Nebula. So he’d just make the best of it
and see what awaited him in the morning.
Chapter 3
“Knock, knock,” the loud sound woke Harry from a deep sleep.
“Who’s there?
“Time to get up, Harry. We have a long day ahead of us.” It was Brad’s voice. Harry looked at the clock on the nightstand and saw that it was already 8:00 am. He lifted himself up and staggered to the door.
“A bit more sleep would have been nice, Brad. You ran me ragged yesterday, and I’m barely able to think straight. Can you give me a few minutes to shave, shower, and brush my teeth, or are we about to be chased by government assassins again?”
“You have forty five minutes to get ready. Meet me in the coffee room down the hall. You can grab a quick bite and a cup of coffee, and then we’re off.”
“To where?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Now hurry up. We have a lot to do today. Someone will pack your things. Get yourself ready, and meet me in the coffee room. We don’t have any time to waste.”
Harry rushed through his morning routine and went to the coffee room where Brad was already almost finished with his bagel and coffee. He waited as Harry made a bowl of cereal for himself and ate the quick breakfast.
“OK, I’m set. Now what?”
“Follow me. You’re in for the ride of your life.”
“Oh no. Not another blindfolded ride in that Toyota.”
“Even better.”
They went back upstairs to ground level and to a door that was at the rear of the house. When Harry stepped outside, he was almost dumbstruck.
“Whoa! Holy shit! What the hell is that?”
Brad grinned. “That’s what most people would call a flying saucer, but it really isn’t all that saucer shaped.”
Harry could see that it was a large, oblate spheroid, about three meters high at the middle, with a span of about ten meters. It was the most amazing thing that he’d ever seen. It was almost featureless, except for three massive feet that protruded from hatches at the bottom and a few things that looked like doors or portholes. There was also one large door that was open, with a stairway extending to the ground, similar to the door and stairs on a normal commercial airliner.
Brad let him take it in for a minute or so before explaining. “This is one of our smaller models, mainly used as a shuttle. The others are even more impressive.”
“How can you fly this thing here without being detected? Don’t the FAA and Air Force have radars that would see you? And what about people who see it”
“That’s the beauty of this alien technology. Remember that we can control inertia and gravity in the spacecraft, and we can control external gravitational interactions to maneuver however we want. We can change the magnitude and direction of the gravitational forces on the ship without even feeling the acceleration inside, and we can do that almost instantaneously. That lets us travel in almost random, jerky motions, at any speed we choose. Radars can’t even establish a lock on us. And if we did travel in a straight line for a few seconds too long, and if a radar did lock on for a second or two, the tracking software would discard that small blip as just noise. It wouldn’t even show up on the operator’s display.”
“OK, but what about people who see you?”
“They’re usually just dismissed as UFO kooks. Like we said when you were briefed, we went to a lot of trouble to turn reports of UFOs into big jokes. Most people wouldn’t even report a sighting. They’d be too afraid of being laughed at. The ones who do report are usually just humored and sent on their way. We also chose this site and a few others that are far enough from population centers for our landings so that even if the police did investigate, they’d arrive long after we left. And that means that we need to get going now. We’ve already been here for about fifteen minutes. In you go, Harry.”
Harry was hurried along and got to the stairs just as another man appeared inside the door. “Harry, meet Milo. He’s our pilot.”
Harry climbed the stairs and shook hands with Milo who smiled but said nothing. Brad shoved him gently past Milo and into the ship. “Milo doesn’t say much, but he’s a damned good pilot. Let’s go. Time’s a-wasting.”
The interior had what looked like two seats for the pilot and co-pilot and ten others that were for the passengers. Brad motioned Harry to sit in the co-pilot seat next to where Milo had placed himself. “You get a good view here. Enjoy it.”
Then Brad sat himself down in one of the passenger seats, and Milo hit some buttons. The entry door closed and the spacecraft rose off the ground and shot upward at what seemed to be an incredible rate of acceleration. But inside the craft, everything felt just as if it were sitting still.
“OK,” Brad said. “Now that we’re buttoned up, we can go to Level-4 for some more explanations. First off, we’re headed for a facility called Nebula Prime. It’s our main headquarters. There’s another headquarters called Nebula Two and a third facility called Nebula Ops, our operations base. All three are under the ocean, actually under the ocean bottom. They’re very large facilities and are the heart of our program. They’re really the only facilities that are very important to us. All the others on land are completely expendable, but these are essential and have to be protected at all costs. That’s why we couldn’t talk about them at all until we were in the ship.”
Brad explained that Nebula was organized into three distinct departments. One was the administration that planned and coordinated everything, including the external contacts that provided funding, security, and other support to the undersea complexes. Another was the research, engineering, and development department. It did all the work to understand, replicate, and even improve on the alien technology discovered in the wrecks decades ago. The third was the military department. This was where the humans and their robots were preparing for the battle that lay ahead.
Nebula Prime was a headquarters mainly for the administrative department, but it also included the offices of the Director of Research and Development and the Commanding General. Each had a small staff with them in Nebula Prime, but they also had offices and most of their staff in the other facilities, where their departments were.
Nebula Two was the main headquarters for the research and development department and was where all development and production was done. It was actually the largest of the three facilities and had more engineering and manufacturing capacity than most of the first tier nations on Earth, thanks mainly to the robot workers and alien-derived production machinery.
Nebula Ops was in between Prime and Two in terms of size. A lot of that space was used to maintain the spacecraft and other machinery that the army needs. Brad explained that they were assembling a pretty big fleet, with about five hundred soldiers and thousands of robots, and all of this had to be kept away from any prying eyes, so the sea bottom was the only place for it. The ships under construction or maintenance were in the large hangar areas at Nebula Two. The ships assigned to the operational fleet were at Ops. There were also a number of small transport ships, like the one that Harry flew in, and they were stationed at each of the headquarters.
“So where do you spend your time doing your security things?” Harry was beginning to take an active interest in things. The first view of the spacecraft did something to him that changed his attitude from plainly pissed off to curious and wanting more and more to get involved and understand what was really going on. Besides, he was starting to like Brad, even though he still tried to remain hostile and angry at how Brad and the others had treated him.
“Actually, security is something that I do only rarely, mainly in cases like yours. My main job is with the military wing of Nebula. I’m a colonel in our army. I command the Advanced Force Operations team, AFO for short. It’s the group that will deploy forward and help Nebula prepare for the battle.”
He paused a moment, and then continued. “We recruited you for my team. That’s why I’ve been involved from the start.”
“Me? What in the world would you want with me? I’m no
t a soldier. Hell, I never even was in the boy scouts. I wouldn’t know which end of a gun to point at someone.”
“You won’t need to do any real soldiering and probably will never need to point guns at anyone. In this war, we don’t intend to be doing any of those sorts of things. It’ll be more like what you’ve been doing, working with machines that can almost think and getting them to do what you want them to do. Trust me. You’ll see why you’re needed on my team.”
Milo interjected at this point, the only time that he actually said anything at all. “Colonel, we’re approaching Prime. We should be docked in about one minute. The director is already there to meet you and Professor Ambrose.”
“Thanks Milo. Harry, you are about to meet our fearless leader, Director Abraham Billingsley. He’s what you might call the chief operating officer of Nebula. He’s a bit of an aristocrat of sorts, but he treats people well and is totally committed to what we’re doing. You’ll probably hit it off with him. He respects the intellectuals with all the degrees, so he may even treat you as an equal. He’s really a pretty decent chap, at least for a stuffy, upper class Brit.” And Brad chuckled, mostly to himself. Harry sensed that Brad and Billingsley must have a long history together and were probably pretty close friends.
The ship passed through a very large door that slid closed behind them and then came to rest in a very large chamber that was filled with water. The entry door was much higher than the floor, and the ship slowly descended about twenty meters before coming to rest at the bottom. Then the water level began to drop almost immediately, and the chamber was completely empty within only a few minutes. It was clear that they had reached their destination, Nebula Prime.
The trip had been so smooth that Harry felt as if they had just stayed put, on the ground, for the entire flight. But Harry’s view through the displays arrayed around the pilots’ stations told him differently. He saw the rapid climb up through the clouds, and he could see the Earth moving under them at a speed faster than anything that he’d seen on airplanes. He even saw the erratic, zigzag course that they took, right up to the plunge into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The conflict between these visual images and the inner ear’s sense of standing still was a bit uncomfortable at first, sort of like the sick feeling when he’d been blindfolded in the Toyota. But he acclimated to it very quickly and actually enjoyed the flight.
