“Son of a bitch!” General Harding screamed as the missiles burned out, pounding his fist on a desktop.
Riker stared at him, wondering at the possible repercussions of firing military weaponry at a civilian aircraft. A civilian aircraft that did not appear to be a threat to anyone, even if it wasn’t in compliance with the law. Should I have objected to that on the basis of the order being illegal?
Riker wasn’t sure, but he had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
***
Nolan had had his eyes on Tiona while she stared out the windows over their heads. He’d glanced up at the hovering helicopters. One was circling over them, but as Nolan watched, it had arced into the part of its circle that wasn’t directly overhead. Tiona gave a command to her AI and suddenly Nolan’s body slammed down into the acceleration couch, weighing 900 instead of 180 pounds as the saucer’s four Gs of acceleration added itself to the Earth’s one G of attraction. It felt like the force he’d experienced at the bottom of the plunge on a big roller coaster, but that had only lasted for a second or two. This weight felt like it was steadily crushing him for a full nine seconds before it suddenly eased off.
Nolan had felt a little dizzy under the heavy acceleration but it cleared quickly. He looked at Tiona to see how she was, but she appeared alert. She had her head lifted up to study the screens in front of her and her seat was lifting itself out of the reclined position. As he started to lift his own seatback, he turned to look at Dr. Eisner.
Eisner’s head was flopped lifelessly over to the side! Nolan popped his buckle and started to roll out of his chair to go to Eisner’s aid. Tiona said, “Stay buckled in! We aren’t safe yet!”
“But Dr. Eisner…!” Nolan said turning to look at their professor again.
Tiona quickly glanced at Eisner herself. “He’s just unconscious, I hope. Five G’s of acceleration causes dizziness and fainting in a lot of people.”
“Surely those helicopters can’t shoot at us up here!”
“Helicopters can carry air to air missiles…”
“But…! They wouldn’t fire a missile at us!”
“I hope not. And I’m not at all sure I’ll be able to see them, but if I do, I’d like to be able to maneuver without worrying about you getting thrown around.”
With one more glance at Eisner, who groaned and rolled his head, Nolan lay back in his acceleration seat. He saw that Tiona had only elevated hers a few degrees to let her see the screens, so he lowered his seatback to that same level and started watching the screens himself. The screen in the middle had to come from a camera underneath the saucer as he saw the city lights displayed on it. They were gradually receding. There were so many lights on the screen, that he had a hard time making any sense of it. Suddenly all the stationary lights disappeared. He realized that Tiona had been murmuring to the AI, and a few seconds later all the lights which were following one another on roads disappeared as well. The image now had a scattering of lights moving around on it, presumably coming from aircraft.
Nolan studied the image, wondering whether there was any way to tell which of the many aircraft were those landing or taking off at RDU and which might actually be the helicopters or other military aircraft.
Suddenly he noticed four bright lights separate themselves from two of the aircraft that were flying next to one another. Military planes fly next to each other, civilian ones don’t! The four bright lights moved ahead of the planes, then slowed, dimmed and became stationary. Those are missiles! Launched, flying ahead of their aircraft, then turning directly up at us! They’re dimmer now because we can hardly see the engines behind them! “Tiona! They’ve launched rockets at us! From those two planes that are just to the right of center on the screen.”
“I know,” Tiona said grimly. “I think you’re supposed to turn suddenly when they get close to you… so that you turn out of the conical field of view of their seeker head. Do you know anything about it?”
“No,” Nolan said, surprised that Tiona would know anything about evading missiles. “How would we know that the missiles were getting close?”
Tiona frowned, “I don’t know.” After a moment, she said, “I’m going to try increasing our speed. The air’s pretty thin up here; maybe it’s thin enough that we won’t encounter a lot of ‘sound barrier’ turbulence.”
Nolan felt his weight increase, though not to the huge levels it had been at initially. There was a slight vibration, probably due to air turbulence, but it didn’t seem severe enough to worry about.
Tiona said, “Oh! What happened to the missiles?!”
Nolan had been watching them. “They winked out one after another rather than all at once. I think they burned out of fuel. We’re probably okay now.”
“Except that we can’t go home…” Tiona said morosely.
“There is that…” Nolan said, staring out at the brilliant stars in wonderment. “I’ll check on Dr. Eisner,” he said, unbuckling his harness and sitting up.
Before Nolan even turned around, he heard Eisner’s voice. He sounded a little confused as he said, “What happened?”
Nolan stepped to Eisner’s side and took his wrist to feel his pulse. “We sustained some pretty heavy acceleration there when we took off.” He turned to Tiona, “Five G’s, right?”
Tiona nodded. “Four plus one for Earth’s gravity.”
Nolan continued, “Tiona says a lot of people get dizzy or pass out at five G’s. I guess we just found out you’re one of them.”
Sounding very uncertain, Eisner asked, “W-why did we take off? Seems incriminating to me. We weren’t doing anything illegal, were we?”
“Probably,” Tiona sighed, “this isn’t a licensed aircraft, spacecraft… whatever. But I don’t think it’s a crime that justifies them threatening to shoot at us.”
“They said they were going to shoot?!”
“Yeah, unless we opened our doors. I assume you remember there was a guy trying to board us?”
“But, but why not just let him on board? Surely they just wanted to make sure we weren’t a danger?”
Tiona shrugged disconsolately, “You’re probably right. I think I overreacted, thinking of the government and the military as some kind of bogeyman that might imprison us to steal our invention.”
Nolan spoke up, “I don’t know, that general—whatever his name was—sounded really hostile.”
Eisner started bringing up his seat back, his head swiveling as he stared out the windows at the stars. “Wow, we’re really in space!” He craned his head, “Where’s the earth, right beneath us?”
Tiona said, “Yes. Do either of you have any ideas on how we might get ourselves out of this mess?”
Nolan said, “What we need is publicity. If the whole world knew about us, we could come down and the military won’t dare shoot at us. We still might get arrested for flying without a license, but they wouldn’t fire at us.” He paused, “What kind of communication system do you have to reach earth with? I assume you can’t get on the ‘net.”
Distractedly, Tiona said, “We can connect to one of the sat-phone networks from up here,” she shrugged, “or from the ground for that matter. Who should we call?”
“NASA,” Nolan said. They’d be able to check and see that we are really up here in orbit.”
“Just call the main number?” Tiona asked dubiously.”
“Yeah, I don’t know anyone there, do you?”
Tiona shook her head. Both she and Nolan glanced at Dr. Eisner as if hoping he might know someone there. He shrugged his shoulders helplessly, “My wife has a niece, who’s trying to become an astronaut, but she wouldn’t have any pull, she’s young.”
Tiona said, “Okay, I’ll try the main number, but it’s the middle of the night down there.” She mumbled to her AI.
Once Tiona had stopped talking to her AI, and it was presumably placing the call, Nolan said, “Can you tilt the saucer so that we can see the earth?”
“Uh-huh, sure. Strap yourself in.�
��
A couple of seconds later they became weightless when Tiona turned off the big thrusters. Then the saucer gently rotated 110 degrees so that they were looking out the upper windows at the Earth. Despite his stomach doing a few flip-flops, Nolan breathed, “That’s amazing!”
Eisner said, “Uhhh, I think I’m going to throw up! You got a barf bag?!”
Tiona spoke a word to her AI. Weight came back onto them, though only at about thirty percent. Then Tiona turned to Eisner and said, “There are bags in that pouch on the back of Nolan’s seat.”
Eisner scrabbled in the back of Nolan’s seat and pulled out a bag. He put it over his mouth and held it there for a minute, but apparently having some gravity back settled Eisner’s stomach because he took it away again. “I feel better now, thanks.”
Tiona had a distant look as she listened to her AI in her ear. “We’re only getting recordings at NASA’s Houston office and at JPL. Any other ideas?” She spoke to her AI and the saucer slowly righted itself, the earth rolling out of its windows.
Nolan said, “How long can we stay up here?”
Tiona shrugged, “A month, pretty easy. What did you have in mind?” She grinned ruefully at him, “We’d miss a few classes.”
“Oh, wow! I was just afraid that we had to get back down in the next few hours.” He snorted, “I guess we could just get a good night’s rest and call NASA in the morning.”
Tiona pursed her lips as she considered it, “I guess it won’t kill me to miss tomorrow morning’s class,” she said, grinning about the inanity of worrying over a missed class in view of what else was going on in their world. “I’ll just have the AI set up to station keep about 200 kilometers over Texas.”
Eisner frowned, “An orbit that low over a fixed point wouldn’t be geosynchronous.”
Tiona arched an eyebrow, “It won’t be an orbit. If we were in orbit, we’d be weightless and you’d be barfing. The thrust we’ll have to use to station keep at 200 kilometers will give you weight and make you feel better.”
Eisner looked embarrassed, “Oh, yeah. It’s just hard to come to grips with having the ability to use continuous thrust like that.”
Tiona said, “I’m going to call my dad and let him know what’s going on, see if he’s heard anything. Then we can try to get some sleep.”
Nolan said, “Oh! Get your dad to call the news services!”
Tiona rolled her eyes, “That’d be a mistake. He’s not very good with people, and having him call a news service could be disastrous.”
Eisner said, “I need to call my wife too. It was bad enough that I told her I was meeting one of my female students at 11 o’clock at night, without me being gone all night!”
Nolan said, “Maybe your wife could call a news service.”
Eisner choked out a small laugh, “Surprisingly, I’d actually like to ask her to call a news service. After all that seems like the last thing a philandering husband would suggest.”
Tiona said, “Okay, my AI is putting through the call. I’ll put it on the intercom so we’ll all know what’s going on without me having to repeat it to you.”
A few seconds later, a slight pop signaled the connection. They heard a familiar voice, “Tiona Gettnor I presume?”
“General Harding?!”
“The same, young lady. You need to get your ass back down here now!”
“Y-you launched missiles at us!”
“You’re flying over my country in alien technology with unknown capabilities!”
“This isn’t alien!”
“I suppose you and your daddy built it in your garage?”
“My dad,” Tiona’s words stumbled, “h-has nothing to do with this!”
“Oh? Funny thing the NSA’s archives have you and your dad talking about a ‘saucer’ this afternoon. You were going to take it out…”
“If you’re listening to our conversations,” Tiona interrupted, “then you know we did build it!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Harding said, a scathing tone in his voice.
“How are you intercepting my call?! That’s got to be illegal!”
“Not during a state of emergency!”
“We are not a threat! Let me talk to my parents!”
“We’ve got a team on its way out to arrest your parents. As soon as you give yourself up, we’ll be happy to put you in touch with them.”
“AI! Disconnect this call!” Tiona turned wide-eyed to Nolan and Eisner, “What are we going to do?!
***
The house AI woke Vaz and Lisanne. “Many unknown persons are approaching the house.”
Vaz sat bolt upright in bed. Lisanne leaned up beside him sounding confused, “What…?”
Vaz grabbed Lisanne’s hand and started pulling inexorably, “We’ve got to go!”
Lisanne found herself dragged across the bed and pulled to her feet. Vaz jerked open a closet door and pulled out a bag. Moments later, Lisanne was pounding down the stairs behind Vaz, still staying, “What?”
The AI said, “Men are at all doors of the house. They are demanding entry at the front door.”
Vaz pounded down the stairs into the basement, Lisanne now following behind him without being pulled. “What are we going to do?”
Vaz’s answer was cryptic, “Leave.”
“In my pajamas?!”
Vaz locked the door from the stairs into the basement; then led her through the basement of their house and into the basement of the Johnson’s house locking each door as he went. He tossed the bag he’d pulled out of the closet upstairs onto a table and opened it. To her surprise, Lisanne saw clothing and toiletries. Given Vaz’s reluctance to travel, it was hard to imagine he would have a bag like this prepped.
He started pulling off the sweats he slept in during the winter, “Change,” he said peremptorily.
Lisanne started undoing the buttons of her pajama top, but then Vaz stopped, stepped to her and jerked the top open, ripping off the buttons, “Faster,” he said blandly.
Lisanne had a moment as she scrambled into her own jeans and shirt to be astonished once again by her husband’s physique. The ripped, muscle on muscle, appearance that so discomfited him that he did his best to keep it hidden. She was still struggling into her shoes when he finished stuffing their sleeping clothes into the bag and closed it. He grabbed several items that looked like pieces of scientific equipment and said, “Hurry!”
As they went up the stairs out of the Johnson’s basement, Vaz spoke to the house AI, asking it if any of the strangers were around the Johnson’s house. It responded negatively, but told them that the strangers were inside their house and going through it room by room. The strangers had not yet entered the Gettnors’ basement when Vaz and Lisanne slipped out the Johnson’s house through the side door opposite their own home. Minutes later, they were going down an alley. Lisanne said, “We don’t have our AIs!”
Vaz said, “Good, they can track AIs.”
“How are we… going to do… anything?!”
Vaz just kept walking.
***
Major Riker sat, pretending to stare at the screen while his mind raced. He felt fairly certain that several of the general’s orders, especially those to fire missiles at a civilian craft, were illegal in the absence of any evident threat. The orders hadn’t been issued to Riker himself or he hoped he would have had the courage to refuse them. Now he wondered about his culpability in not objecting to orders he thought were illegal even when they were issued to others. After all, the pilots of the F-15s had fired upon orders, but they had no knowledge that they were firing on a civilian craft. If Riker didn’t object, who else would? He wanted to go up the chain of command, but didn’t know anyone with higher rank than Harding. At present, after Harding, Riker was the most senior officer other than a balding, overweight, sweating colonel who was leading some IT specialists on the other side of the room.
All in all, Riker wished he’d paid more attention to the lectures he’d had in officer’s
training about illegal orders and what to do.
Suddenly Riker heard Harding begin a conversation with the girl flying the saucer. Apparently he’d used the NSA to intercept a call from her to her parents. Riker admired her courage when she yelled at Harding for launching missiles at her. Then he wondered how she’d known missiles had been fired.
Harding issued threats against the girl’s family to try to get her to come down to earth, but she just disconnected the call.
Riker felt sick. It only got worse when a lieutenant stepped up beside him and whispered in a low voice, “Major, I’m concerned that what the general’s doing isn’t legal.”
Riker closed his eyes for a moment, then turned to look at the lieutenant, “So am I.” He sighed, “The general hasn’t given me an illegal order that I can refuse to carry out, has he given you one?”
The lieutenant shook his head. “But I think he’s issuing illegal orders to… others…” the lieutenant said uncertainly.
“Well, if he does issue you an illegal order, you should refuse it. I’m trying to get up the courage to go tell him I think what he’s doing is wrong, but I’m worried he’ll just have me arrested. Do you know anyone way up the chain of command that you can tell about this?”
“No. Especially not this time of night.”
Riker studied the floor for a moment, then said heavily, “Go out and try to find someone. I’ll stay here and try to stop the general if he does anything else.”
The lieutenant nodded and turned for the door.
Riker turned to study the general. Harding had just started yelling at someone. “Where did they go?!” The general listened for a moment, then said, “Some kind of secret passage from one house to the other?” A second later, he said, “I don’t give a shit how they got away. Track them down!”
Riker assumed that the conversation he’d just heard meant that the girl’s parents had managed to escape arrest somehow. He glanced over at the door the lieutenant had gone out through. The lieutenant wasn’t gone! One of the guards was blocking the door and said, “The general said no one comes in or goes out!”
Tiona_a sequel to Vaz Page 22
