Ascendancy: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  Julie was saved from totally turning into mush as Emily came in to help her get ready. Julie had to collect a hug from her too. After all, her near sister was an important part of this too.

  Smiling, Emily told her, “You’re going to be so beautiful, Sis. I’m so glad it’s time; you and Zeke are going to be so happy, I know.”

  “And to think you had such an important part, Em. I’m glad that you’re here with me. You’re looking quite pretty yourself.”

  “Yes, but it’s your day to shine. Let’s get you ready.”

  Smiling at the two, the First Lady rang for the attendants she had arranged to be available. “I’ll leave you two with it. Let me know if you need anything.”

  With Emily and a number of attendants to help, Julie put on her dress and stared at herself in the full-length mirror. It really was beautiful. Her beautiful blond hair was pulled up on top of her head and, just as Zeke had suggested those weeks ago, it was held up by her hair comb, the one she had gotten from her mother in what seemed a lifetime ago. Finally, her friend the makeup lady did her so perfect touch up and Julie was ready. Everything in her life had led up to this point, but none of that mattered now. Only this moment!

  “Zeke, are you ready, my love?” she sent across their mental link, her feelings spiking within their connection.

  Zeke’s experience was a little easier. He was helped into his tux by his dad and his friend Joe. His dad tied the bow tie that came with the tux. His shoes were brushed until they shone, his hair touched up, and the makeup lady applied the lightest of makeup. With that he was ready, although he nervously paced the small room where he was waiting. His thoughts were similar to Julie’s, although his foremost thoughts were for her as always.

  Suddenly, Zeke got a mental message from Julie and felt the edges of her excitement and nervousness embedded in it, “Are you ready, my love?”

  “Yes, yes!” he sent back. “I’ve been ready for a long time.”

  #

  It was a beautiful wedding. The First Lady’s gardens seemed to almost glow with quiet magnificence. It was the perfect setting and the weather couldn’t have been better. The very small group attending included only family members, their closest friends, the Envoys and their newly combined families, and the President and First Lady.

  Finishing up the attendees were the members of the wedding party. Joe was Zeke’s best man, but Zeke’s father was also in the wedding party. Emily and Caitlyn were Julie’s bridesmaids. As Julie had told everyone, she had waited until she could have her father there and he was able to give her away in the time-honored tradition. The Space Force chaplain conducted the ceremony, wearing his Space Force dress uniform. His fatherly presence made him perfect for his part in the service.

  Even though she knew her mother wasn’t there, Julie still felt her presence. She remembered her mother talking about seeing the wedding in a vision, and Julie knew somehow that was letting her feel her mother’s love and happiness. It helped her fill the void she still had in her heart for her mother.

  Although the actual attending group was small, Julie followed up on her promise to Xiu to let them VR broadcast it all over the world because so many had asked to see it live. A very small VR crew did the VR broadcast in a quiet, professional manner, so well managed that everyone forgot they were there. They also took a number of VR pictures only for the wedding couple.

  Julie had no idea that the real audience included many millions, or she’d probably have been even more nervous. If she had cared to check, she would have found the number watching exceeded by far the latest royal wedding that had been such a media sensation only a few months back.

  As soon as the wedding was underway, the couple forgot their nervousness. As Julie and Zeke said their vows, their eyes were only on each other and their love was obvious to everyone. The eyes of many in the wedding party and all over the world were full of tears of joy. Even the chaplain and the President had tears in their eyes, as did both of the Envoys.

  To Julie and Zeke, their connection only increased the intensity of the moment. The strength of their love was so amazing. Somehow, Julie could feel the final touches being laid upon the huge tapestry she knew was their temporal reality. Everything in that moment was as it was meant to be. She felt like she could feel an echo from the other Julie and Zeke in their other reality, their own version of perfection.

  When the ceremony ended and Zeke was invited to kiss the bride, it seemed like the whole world broke out in cheers and celebration.

  In the temporal void, the part of the universe that allowed those who knew how to tap into it the ability to send information back in time, a huge spike was reflected, centered around the Earth in both realities, effectively blocking the void. It would take well over a decade before a connection would be possible. One group involved in that temporal war would celebrate too.

  #

  After the wedding, they had a small reception in another area of the gardens on the Presidential estate. Julie had changed out of her wedding dress into another dress that would allow her some freedom of movement. Julie and Zeke were standing talking with the President and First Lady when Chen Wu came over to the two of them, handing them a red envelope.

  “This is a traditional Chinese wedding gift,” he told them. “And it is only a symbolic gesture for the gratitude I feel for what the two of you have done for the world and for my family.”

  He handed them the envelope and explained about the red pocket. It contained an amount of money that represented the lucky numbers that the Chinese believed were meaningful for the newly wedded couple.

  He explained a little about the numbers he had chosen and something about those numbers echoed in the minds of Julie and Zeke. However, before they had time to think about it, both the President and Chen were suddenly interrupted by their AI’s with an urgent call. Receiving the call on his earpiece, Chen turned very pale. Julie and Zeke rushed over to support him, just as in her vision.

  “It’s bad,” he managed to gasp out. “The secret base in China that we were concerned about has been overrun by the rebels and somehow they’ve gotten the launch codes. You must understand. These are our newest missiles that no one even knows we have. Worldwide reach, low radar, hardened warheads. My man was able to get inside long enough to catch a glimpse of the launch coordinates before he was forced to leave. Washington!”

  Julie grasped his arm and looked into his eyes. “Sir, I know about the rebels and their base. But I need to be sure about the coordinates to the base. They have to be stopped at all costs.”

  Chen hesitated just for a moment, but then he nodded and sent the coordinates to her AI. “I just sent them to you. I’ve sent the word to have troops sent in, but it will be many hours before they can even begin to move that direction. I’m afraid it will be long over before they can get there, and I suspect it won’t matter by then.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Julie told him. “I think you’re right. We’ll do our best to take care of it, assuming we survive the destruction of the first missile which is more powerful than anything ever used on earth before. If we don’t, you have to stop them before they can launch a second one, even if you have to launch your own missiles at them.”

  Mr. Wu shook his head. “I’ll try, but I don’t have much hope that my government will move fast enough.” He looked at her with tears in his eye. If they failed, it might literally be the end of the world.

  Julie and Zeke started to leave, but she turned back. “Is your man out of there?” Wu nodded so she continued, “How deep are the missiles? You must understand. Zeke and I have to make sure they can’t ever be used again.”

  “I don’t know exactly. Very deep, hundreds of feet. They are supposed to be safe from even a nuclear blast. I also know that they have a lot of them and the system is designed so they can launch every 30 minutes. We’re lucky that they only were able to get the one launcher installed before my government became aware of the plot and stopped it.”

 
“What we have will take them out, I can promise you, something I hoped to never have to use, but now will. When our real enemies gave this to the pirates, we figured out how to build it.”

  “I’m sorry you have to clean up our mess, but in some ways I’m glad it’s you. I think a lot of eyes in my government are going to be opened by this.”

  Julie just shook her head. “It’s a shame it’s taken so long, but I think you’re right.” She looked him once more in his eyes. “Assuming we all survive, I believe it will be up to you to make sure we never come this close to mankind ending himself by our own hand again.” Her last statement had almost a prophetic ring to it, so that he stared at her in shock.

  Julie turned away, grasping Zeke’s arm. “Are you ready, love? It’s time; we must try this. We both know what we have to do,” Julie said. “and we have to do it perfectly or we won’t survive.”

  “I know, love.” Zeke gave her a kiss. “That’s for good luck,” he said. “I suspect we’re going to need it.

  The two rushed to her ship, which had been prepped for them to fly back to Space Tech Station after the wedding for the start of their honeymoon. Both were still in their wedding clothes, although at least Julie wasn’t in her wedding dress!

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Final Flight

  They took off and headed as fast as they could travel to the coordinates given them by Mr. Wu. His coordinates had matched those that Julie had been given by her counterpart. Julie was piloting and Zeke was working the ships systems in a way only he could do. Julie was flying their ship as fast as she could, briefly rising high enough to get an extra boost from the ship’s drive outside the earth’s atmosphere.

  Based on the vision, they knew the first missile would be launched before they could destroy the base. Due to the missile’s stealth, that meant they had to stop it with the plasma cannon and they’d have to get close enough to see it visually. They knew it would have a quantum warhead so they had to stop it or Washington would just be gone. They also knew just how bad the blast was going to be.

  “There it is,” Zeke said. “I can see the missile has just launched, but it keeps fading in and out of our radar. I can’t get a lock on it, just as we expected. You need to invent a quantum detector.”

  “Yeah, I wish you’d thought of that yesterday,” Julie told him in a fit of dark humor. “I think I could have come up with something, and then we could have used it to guide a defensive missile.”

  “I can’t tell exactly where it is, but I can give you a little bit more,” Zeke told her. “Come to this course,” he said as he flashed it to her. “What that course will do is to put us coming in so we’ll already be moving away from the missile as you fire. Then all you have to do is gun it for all she’s worth.”

  “Ok, I’ve got you. Still have to get close enough to see it,” but then she caught sight of something. “There it is. Are your ready, my love?”

  Zeke looked at her with an intensity she had never seen before. “Yes, love.” She could tell he was determined to do whatever it took to survive. She felt the same way. Their future family was depending on that.

  “Firing on three, two, one, now.” With her left hand she fired the shot and with her right she engaged the drive at 150%. She knew the engines could handle that for the very tiny amount of time they had.

  Zeke had tweaked the fields to exactly 40,000 feet. Just before they were hit with the blast the vision flashed back before his eyes again and he realized they had passed the 40,000 foot mark a tiny fraction of a second before they would be hit. Instantly, he tweaked the field to be set for an altitude just a little higher, doing it completely by instinct. He had to pick a number and 40,686 feet jumped into his head.

  Due to the level Julie had pushed the drives, the time dilation effect was higher than normal. So that instant of time stretched out for the two of them, the two desperately clinging to each other in their mental connection. Would they be able to survive? So much of the future they wanted to see depended upon this moment. All the years of love and joy they wanted to be able to spend together. Their future daughter and son they both had already come to love. Would it still be possible?

  #

  Zeke and Julie didn’t know it, but a Space Tech satellite had picked them up, and the VR was being transmitted worldwide. Someone at Space Tech had been briefed on what was happening and he was narrating the broadcast as they all looked on with bated breath. The new couple had captured the hearts of so many worldwide and that was before their desperate attempt to save the world. Many of every faith were offering their prayers up that the two would succeed in stopping the missile and that they would survive.

  As everyone watched, they saw them approach the missile, although they could barely see it. The VR system highlighted their best estimate of the path of the missile. A collected gasp went up across the world as they saw them fire the plasma pulse and then the little ship appeared to literally jump away from where they were. But an instant later the missile exploded in a gigantic fireball that almost instantly covered their tiny little ship.

  “Oh, my God!” the broadcaster breathed, and it seemed the whole world held their breath for a moment that seemed like an eternity.

  The world was not inside the time dilation effect that Julie and Zeke experienced. Not really, but to the watching audience it felt that way. That moment seemed to stretch almost forever. In the temporal void, it was indeed such a near infinite span of time and yet it was shorter than the barest instant, which is how temporal theory explained time.

  Of course, no one watching understood temporal theory. No one but the Master monk, Mama Kash, and the First Lady, who all had a pretty good idea. They understood enough, which was why they were as worried as everyone else. Instants of time such as the one they were in could not be seen across, no matter how powerful the psychic vision of the watcher.

  Finally, after everyone was about to give up, the little ship reappeared as everyone’s eyes adjusted back from the huge flash. To those watching, it was as if the world became a much brighter place, especially to the three psychics who had come to care so much for the two.

  “They’re alive! I can’t believe it!” the broadcaster finally was able to gasp out, his strong emotions matching so many of the watchers. A collective sigh of relief echoed across the world.

  Julie and Zeke had both caught their breath in that last fraction of a second that seemed to last forever to them and they both let it out at the same time.

  “You did it!” Julie told Zeke as she slowed their ship down to normal speed. She could not believe they were still alive. “What did you do there at the last second?”

  “I had the vision flash through my head again and I realized that we had already passed 40,000 feet a tiny fraction of a second before the explosion reached us. I set the fields for a little higher. And I had no idea what to use, so I just guessed and used the amount of money Mr. Wu gave us in the red pocket; our lucky numbers; 686, as Mr. Wu explained to us, the numbers he chose to wish the wedding couple good luck in their future life together.”

  “Lucky numbers indeed,” Julie said and they both laughed and kissed. “Let’s finish this and get home. We have a honeymoon to get to!”

  Zeke blushed at that, but he smiled and said, “That we do, love. That we do.”

  #

  As soon as Julie and Zeke had left the wedding reception, all the people there gathered around the VR system that was in the area where the wedding had taken place. The Secret Service had wanted to evacuate the President and First Lady to safety, but they both refused to leave. Not until they knew if their surrogate son and daughter would succeed.

  Chen Wu found himself standing between James on one side and the President on the other, his two daughters huddled together on the chairs in front of them. Seeing the two girls talking as if they had known each other forever, he had an inspired thought. Julie’s proclamation to him before she left had something to do with it, he knew.

  He
turned to the President. “While we’re waiting on our young friends to complete their mission, and assuming they are successful as we can only hope they will be, I believe we need to take the opportunity we are presented. Just look at the two girls, one raised in your country and one raised in mine. Yet here they are together and you would not be able to determine which one came from which country by looking at them. Dare we as the governments of those countries not also try to find that common ground?”

  The President gave him a big smile. “I believe you’re right. In honor of our young couple who are risking everything,” he said as they watched their little ship approaching the missile. When they saw the huge fireball engulf their ship, everyone held their breath for that powerful instant that seemed so very long. Like the rest of the world, they watched them somehow miraculously come out of that monstrous explosion.

  His smile even bigger, the President finished his thoughts. “In fact, I insist that we name any agreement we make after the two of them. I’m already planning to nominate them both for the Medal of Freedom, our highest civilian medal.”

  Chen smiled broadly in the Chinese custom. “Oh, I agree most wholeheartedly. Without those two, we perhaps would right now be on the brink of a war that the world might not survive. Let’s watch the two finish this and then you and I can perhaps go somewhere more private to talk. And my two daughters can stay here with James, who I know will be most glad to watch over them.”

  Chen watched as the two approached the base in their ship and fired their specialized missile, and even though the explosion as they destroyed the base was a terrible sight to see, he could only rejoice.

  #

  Julie quickly piloted their craft the rest of the way towards the Chinese missile base. She knew they had to finish this and put an end to the threat the base represented. The world would not be safe until they did so. What a tremendous weapon that they now possessed; at least they would use their version of it for good.

  “Zeke, can you set the fields to go straight down?”