by Saxon Andrew
The Myot pressed his panel and sent the same orders to his fleets. He looked at the Welken, “We should have done this a long time ago.”
The Welken smiled, “You’re right. Now let’s go back and push the others away from the shortest route to that planet.”
The Myot said, “What about the Stalkers?”
The Welken Royal said, “Tell them their contract is ended.”
“How can I do that?”
“They agreed to give me the location of your industrial planets when they caught the escapee. That’s a pretty clear violation of their contract. I’ll also void the contract by telling them that you uncovered their treachery and have taken your grievance to the Sentinels. That way we’ll both be clear of our contracts.”
“Did they honestly agree to do that?”
“I told them I’d double whatever you’re paying.”
The Myot Ruler winced, “That had to hurt.”
“It did but the price is worth it if we can work together on this.”
“I’ll contact them now.”
“Let me know when you’re done. I’ll contact them afterwards.”
The Myot smiled, “I must say that I’m excited about the prospects.”
“I am as well. Let’s get our ships moving.”
• • •
The Pod turned suddenly and was about to skip away when all the ships pursuing it stopped. It extended its scanner and heard the orders being sent to the Welken and Myot warships. A few minutes later, the Stalkers came to a halt just after they entered normal space. They remained in place for an hour as they argued with the Myot and Welken Rulers but thirty minutes after the argument ended, they skipped away. The Pod realized it had done too good of a job during the pursuit. It had deliberately maneuvered so that the Myot and Welken Warships would skip in on top of each other. Now those two monstrous civilizations were allies. It remained in open space and thought about what it could do next. Things did not look good. It ran several computations and then dropped into the void. It fired a disruptor and it blew away like a leaf in a hurricane.
Chapter Fourteen
Lukas was back in his chair on the beach staring out at the ocean. He decided that if the invasion could be stopped, this was where he was going to live. The waves washing on shore were relaxing and brought him a feeling of peace. He felt his wrist unit vibrate and he said, “Where are you on the current project?”
“We’re going to have to build the converter first.”
“Is that possible?”
“We’ll need some radioactive material to make it happen.”
“That won’t be easy.”
“Actually, the French have developed small nuclear reactors designed to power individual residences. I’ve sent in an order for three of them and it appears they are going to honor my request.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I agreed to include them in our initial delivery of our hybrid vehicles.”
“I’m sure they still charged you for them.”
“Only double their normal price. I expected more.”
“Will those packs allow us to build the converter?”
“They’ll power it enough to produce the really high grade material we’re going to need. Once we have that, we can start moving forward with production.”
“Good. Who is going to build the converter?”
“I have farmed out six of the critical pieces to five different countries. The individual pieces won’t make any sense by themselves and so far I’ve not detected anything but normal curiosity about what they’re building. All the pieces will be delivered within another thirty days.”
Lukas ended the contact and looked back out at the ocean. Once the converter was built, the project would start moving forward at a much faster pace. He watched a seagull dive into the waves and leave with a fish. Their eyesight was incredible. “Do you call this working?” Lukas turned around and saw Salud standing behind him wearing a bikini and holding a towel. His mouth fell open and he was shocked speechless for a moment. Salud said, “What?”
“You’re beautiful.”
Salud smiled and said, “For an alien.”
“No, for anything anywhere. I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you.”
Salud smiled, walked around his chair, and sat down in his lap. She put her arms around his neck and softly kissed him. When she broke the kiss Lukas’ eyes remained closed, “I thought you could never love someone who isn’t human.”
Salud sighed, “I must confess that you’re right about that. Initially, I couldn’t accept loving you. But after spending as much time with you as I did during our short golfing career, I saw that you’re more human than anyone I know.” Lukas pulled her into his arms and held her tight. Salud smiled and leaned back, “The caddie whose lights you knocked out wrote a letter to me apologizing for his behavior and said that you were right to hit him.”
Lukas smiled and lowered his head, “He did deserve it.”
“But you wouldn’t let me kick him in the shin.”
“I’m sorry I stopped you.”
“You were looking out for me, weren’t you?” Lukas nodded. “That is what convinced me that you are the one I want to spend my life with. You’ve looked out for me from the start. From the moment you made the insertion in my equation, to the meeting with the Sentinel, and when you punched that caddie; your main worry was always about me.”
“I didn’t want to see you suffer from worry about the equation or have the Sentinel kill you because of me.”
“What about the caddie?”
“You could have handled him. I punched him to make me feel better. He really ticked me off.”
Salud laughed and fell back in his arms. After some time had passed, Salud softly said, “Lukas.”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember what you said about Kathy?”
“I said a lot of things about Kathy.”
“You said that even in her manipulating way, she had given you something that you would always remember.” Lukas nodded. “I want to see if I can get you to forget that.” Salud leaned back and stood up. She extended her hand and Lukas stood and took it. She led him back to his quarters and, within a day, her mission was accomplished.
• • •
The first metal building was completed and construction on the major manufacturing plant immediately started. Salud shook her head, “This is not the main building?”
Lukas shook his head, “No, this is where the main components will be built and then moved to the other building to be assembled.”
“Why don’t you just do both in one building?”
“The converter will be producing the exotic metals we’re going to use and there will be people working in the assembly process that shouldn’t know about it.”
“Where are you going to get the labor?”
“Most of them will be coming from Barbados by boat each day. There are also people living on the other end of the island that Joey has approached and are interested in the work. The economic conditions here aren’t very good.”
Salud nodded and leaned back in her beach chair, “I like it here.”
“We have a hundred years lease. We can live here if…”
“You manage to stop the Fellowship.” Lukas nodded. “What happens if you can’t?”
“We’ll be forced to escape. We’ll go out like my pod and try to find a safe place to live.”
Salud stared at the ocean and finally said, “I don’t want to leave here.”
“Then let’s do all we can to stay.”
• • •
Jinks stared at the time video taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shook his head, “It appears the numbers out there have suddenly gone up.”
Stoney nodded, “And the newcomers are pushing the others away from their current locations.” Stoney paused, “I wonder why they’re doing that?”
Jink
s looked at Carter, “Have you run an analysis on those ship’s locations”
“I have.”
“Which ones are on the most direct path to us?”
Stoney lowered his eyebrows as Carter looked at a printout, “The new arrivals are on the most direct path to Earth.”
“What can you tell me about the energy readings you’ve recorded?”
Carter looked at Jinks and shook his head.
“You don’t know?”
“Sir, the energy being used is hotter than the heart of a nuclear explosion.” Jinks stared at him and Carter rubbed his forehead, “The discharges between those ships is more powerful than anything we can produce on this planet.”
“What else, Carter; you’re not saying something?”
Carter’s brow furrowed and he stopped the video. He ran it back and brought the view in closer to two of the ships, “Watch this closely.” They stared at the video and they saw several bright flashes leap out and hit one of the ships. The ship that was hit immediately fired back at the first ship and it exploded. Jinks looked at Carter, “The weapons fired by the first ship did not harm the one it fired on.”
Stoney said, “Then we were right about the white clouds surrounding them; they’re some kind of protective field.”
Carter nodded, “They are force fields. The first beams that were fired would vaporize anything it hit on Earth and we don’t have anything near a force field to protect us.”
Jinks nodded, “And our nuclear missiles would…”
“Not even faze them.”
Stoney stared at the monitor, “Why are they waiting?”
Carter shook his head, “I have no idea. There’s nothing we could do to stop them.”
Jinks stared at the monitor and thought about what the MIT professor had said to him. He stood up and left the room. Carter looked at Stoney, “What’s wrong with him?”
Stoney shook his head, “You need look no further than what you just showed us.” Carter tilted his head and shook it. The Captain was right. But Stoney looked at the door Jinks had walked through; there was something else going on.
Jinks arrived at the street and took out a throwaway cell phone. He dialed a number and heard a young woman’s voice, “M.I.T.”
“May I speak with Professor Vazquez?”
“I’m sorry. Doctor Vazquez no longer works here.”
“When did she leave?”
“A week ago.”
“Did she leave a forwarding number?”
“I’m sorry, we don’t give out our staff’s telephone numbers.”
Jinks hung up and stared at the street. Cars were filling the streets as the rush hour was at full blast. He watched the thousands driving past him and knew they were oblivious to what was happening. It was probably better they didn’t know. He started walking down the street and pulled his collar up against the cold wind. He believed that the being that had come here was still on the planet. Why wouldn’t he have come to the government to get help? He walked for another hundred yards and saw those ships attacking each other. If this being could build a means of stopping those ships and the government gained possession of it…”
He stopped at a bench and sat down. He focused on what would happen and it didn’t take long for him to see that world domination didn’t have to come from space. He took out his phone and pressed two. “Yeah Boss.”
“I’m sitting on a bench a mile and a half north of the office. Come get me.”
“Are you crazy? It’s freezing out there!”
“Then you should hurry.”
Stoney stood up and ran out of the office. Something had changed with Jinks. An hour later he knew what it was and his world underwent an upheaval. Two hours later they were back in Washington maneuvering the satellites in orbit. A week later, they found what they were searching for. They waited another week and then Jinks went to his commanding officer and resigned his commission in the Air Force. He was pressured to stay but he told them he was unable to deal with the stresses of his current assignment. He needed some alone time to get back to normal. They reluctantly accepted his resignation and he walked out a free, but unemployed, man.
Two weeks later, Stoney told his new commander that he could take the job and shove it where the sun didn’t shine if he didn’t want to listen to reason. Two days later, Stoney was also unemployed and met Jinks in a bar in Boston. Jinks looked at him and ordered him a beer. “You know Jinks, I never got married. I’ve given my entire life to the defense of my country. I think that was a mistake.”
“Get in line.”
“Now what?”
Jinks smiled, “We drink a beer and then another.”
Stoney raised the glass the bartender had just put in front of him and said, “Here’s to commanding officers that think they know everything.”
“And to getting our lives back to normal.”
Stoney looked at Jinks, “You must have the shakes pretty bad.”
“You know what’s happening. I thought I could handle it but…”
“Don’t let it get you down, boss. You did the right thing.”
“I really hate having to go.”
“Maybe you can go back when you get them under control.”
Jinks nodded, “I hope so.”
• • •
The CIA operative recorded the conversation and sent it to the new officer that replaced Jinks. He listened to it and dialed a number. He waited and when it was answered he said, “There’s nothing there, Sir. It’s nothing more than what you’ve seen. It appears General Jekins suffers from PTSD from his missions in Iraq. He’s starting to shake.”
The Officer listened and said, “Captain Stone is just a smart ass that spoke out of turn one time too many. You know he’s been reprimanded in the past.” He listened and said, “No Sir. I think following them is a waste of time and effort. I’ll send you the recording.”
The Officer sent the recording by courier and didn’t hear anything back from his commander. He ended the surveillance and put his attention on what could be done about the forces gathering outside the Solar System. Within a month, the Russians and Chinese were briefed on what was happening and the world’s superpowers began working on the problem together.
• • •
Lukas and Salud stared at the huge converter and Salud shook her head. “It appears we are at a stopping point.”
Lukas blew out a breath, “Without the converter, we won’t be able to move forward. Everything depends on it making the materials we need to build the ships. The metal that will be used in the hulls will be impossible without it.”
“Am I right in thinking that we don’t have enough energy to power it?” Lukas took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. He nodded. “Although we don’t want to do it, perhaps we are going to have to go to the government and bring them in on this.”
Lukas shook his head, “You know what that will lead to.”
“What other choice do we have? Joey says that he’s been stopped on all fronts. Control of enriched uranium is tight.” Lukas sighed. Salud threw the switch on the converter and watched it power down. “Let’s sleep on this and if we don’t come up with another idea…” Lukas nodded and walked over to the door. He looked back at the converter and turned off the lights.
• • •
The next morning he was out of ideas and he walked out of the cottage and down to the shore before daylight. He stood watching the ocean and heard, “I thought you might like some coffee.”
Lukas turned around and took the cup from Salud, “You couldn’t sleep?”
“No, I just hate what we’re going to do.”
Lukas took a sip of coffee and smiled, “You know, when you served this at the meeting with Joey and Trevor, I really detested it.”
Salud tilted her head, “But you drank it!”
“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. I must say that now I kinda like it.” They sat down in their
beach chairs and watched the first glow appear on the horizon. They drank their coffee in silence and soon the edge of the sun appeared and Salud shook her head, “You know, each day the sun makes me think that anything is possible.”
“It’s nothing but radioactive material in quantities beyond our wildest dreams.”
Salud looked at him, “Let’s go make the call.” Lukas nodded and stood up. They turned toward the cottage and Salud said, “Look, Joey had your new Corvette delivered.”
Lukas looked over at the parking lot and squinted at the car, “That’s not the car he bought me.” Salud tilted her head and Lukas dropped his coffee cup and sprinted toward the car. Salud stood still for a moment and then sprinted after him. He stopped beside the car and both doors opened. Lukas jumped in and Salud jumped in the passenger’s seat a moment later, “Why didn’t you tell me you were back!?”
“I didn’t want to broadcast a signal that might be picked up by the probe watching the planet.”
“I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you.”
“Thank you.”
“How did you get back without being seen?”
“I’ve spent the last month disrupting places in the void.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I had to get it down to a science. I had to disrupt the void in just the right manner so that I would be thrown here on the side of the planet away from that probe’s location.”
Lukas shook his head, “You also had to emerge from the void the instant you were in the planet’s shadow. That sounds impossible.”
“That’s why it took me a month.”
“You are a godsend.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’ve built a large converter but don’t have the power to run it.”
“Where is it?”
“Drive over to the building’s vertical door. The Corvette backed up and moved around the metal building. Lukas pressed the small remote on his keychain and the huge door stared up. The Corvette moved into the building.
