There really wasn’t much to see on the Tachyon output screen itself. In the rear of the domed room, a large screen had been set up with seating in front of it for the guests. Here computer enhanced data from the Tachyon scope was displayed. They could see the event horizon and the accretion disk that the ice had formed. They could also see faint dots. The ice chunks were too small and too dark to actually see, but they were indicated. The computer was able to place dots on the screen to represent them. Each dot represented about 250,000 detected objects and the number of dots being pulled toward the alien ship was truly scary.
They watched in silence as the alien ship, almost a light year away, hurled the absolute destruction of all the inner planets—Amular included—toward them.
Dr. Summers was assigned the task of explaining what they were seeing. He said, seemingly more to himself than to his audience, “At the unnatural speeds many of the comets are being accelerated to—and we’re seeing some relativistic speeds, up to 1% the speed of light—many will begin to reach the inner system in under seven years.”
“My God,” President Wicker muttered, “If we survive the alien, we still face this…if the grav-bombs don’t get them all.”
Dr. Summers overheard the remark and said, “The grav-bombs out there will not get all of them, but hopefully they will get enough to give us a fighting chance against the rest.”
The Loud and Adamarus had planted grav-bombs at precise points along the object's path over 150 years ago. These bombs were all at the upper limit of their yield, far too powerful to be used anywhere within the inner system.
The ice chunks that were pulled inward with the black hole were all headed toward it and therefore they would eventually clump together at certain points. The majority of the bombs were located and set to go off where these clumps would form. But this would be months from now and all of them would detonate well behind the alien ship—the ones going off today would target the alien ship and any comets that might be following close to it.
There had been a lot of discussion on this issue, but since the Loud thought the bombs would have no effect on the black hole or the ship within it, the Loud had positioned almost all the bombs where they would target the comets. However, there were several large clusters of these top-end grav-bombs that were devoted to just the alien ship. These were placed just outside the ice cloud. These were set to go off at the inner edge of the cloud in the hopes that some of the heat would knock off some of the trailing comets. These would be the first to go off and a timer above the screen counted down to that event.
Dr. Summers looked down at his PDA then cleared his throat. “We have some initial estimates on the number of comets that will be directed toward the inner system.”
Dr. Summers paused long enough for Wicker to say, “Well?”
“Ah, yes, sorry. The initial number is, at least…” he cleared his throat again, “…two point seven million.”
“Two million?” Harrington muttered in disbelief.
“Point seven…at least,” Dr. Summers said needlessly.
Everyone else seemed shocked into silence. President Wicker finally spoke, “The estimates we got a week ago were only thousands.”
Dr. Summers shrugged, “It was just our best estimate.”
The timer finally counted down to zero and everyone watched the display. What looked like small circles appeared, expanded a little, then vanished.
It was obvious what had happened…or, what had not happened. Dr. Summers formally announced it anyway. “The black hole seems unaffected. The event had no effect on the majority of comets.”
Wicker said in a very disappointed voice, “I thought these bombs were going to be so damn powerful—so damn big. Those circles were tiny.”
Dr. Summers said, “Please remember, Mr. President, the object you saw next to the explosions is the size of a gas giant…actually only slightly smaller than Aster. Those explosions were incredibly large.”
Wicker just grunted. For months he had been afraid that a demand would come from somewhere to conduct Radford’s test and send the four Loud ships away but none had come. Perhaps it was true and Radford was dead.
The show was over for now—the next explosions, the ones targeting most of the comets, were three months away.
---
Cinder, The Hideaway Shipyards…
At the Hideaway Shipyards, Brandon was packing, getting ready to leave. Relatively speaking, he wasn’t going that far away, but it was far enough to make frequent visits impossible and Evelyn was not happy. She sat in a corner as he packed his suitcases.
“I hate this,” Evelyn said. “I know that we’ve been extremely fortunate being together while other couples have had it a lot worse. I don’t care. Why did they have to pick you to build the damn thing?”
Brandon was in complete agreement, but there was nothing either of them could do. She had to stay and finish the remaining projects underway at Hideaway and Brandon couldn’t say no to President Wicker. Moreover, he was the best person to lead the star cannon’s assembly.
He glanced at a model of the star cannon hanging near the outside view port. He had to admit he was a little excited about the project.
“We’ll be okay, honey,” he consoled her. “We'll get to talk in real time every day—Adamarus and Grace had to do this for 16 years when he was assigned to the ice cloud. We only have to do it for three years.”
She got up and hugged him, then wiped her tears and started helping him pack.
---
Above Amular’s North Pole, The Anderson Shipyards…
Professor Woodworth, Jan Anderson, Dr. Harrington and three other crew members walked through the spacious control room of the History Station. In reality, it was a miniature ark without all the space for passengers. It had the same engines, but was outfitted with all the latest observation and recording equipment.
Harrington paused when she came to the seven sleepers. She turned to Woodworth, “And we’re supposed to do what if our defensive effort fails?”
Woodworth grimaced, “I’m sorry, Lorraine.”
They were supposed to leave the star system at top speed to escape Iceis’ anticipated explosion and, with luck, meet up with the ark ships, both the human’s and the Loud’s, if all went as planned.
Leaving her husband Leewood to his fate on Amular, she thought bitterly. But the same was true with so many others. She said no more.
Woodworth said, “Take a good look. A crew will be taking her away tomorrow to position and test her. We’ll be following…when the time comes.”
---
Amular, the Trinity Compound…
Ted Desman woke at the usual hour and then, remembering that today was ‘the day’, his stomach twisted and turned.
He absolutely didn’t feel like going for his normal run. Of course, he had to. Today, of all days, everything must look normal. He put on his running attire and headed out the door.
Afterwards, he got ready for work and then he exchanged three of the water bottles he normally wore with the three mystery water bottles from the hollow under the bathroom tile. He also took out three more of the phony plastic imitations, compressed these and placed them under the three mystery water bottles. These would expand and replace the mystery water bottles as he deployed them. He then filled the one real water bottle that he would carry and drink from today and placed it in the belt.
With this new arrangement, the belt felt lopsided due to the far heavier bottles, but it would be okay. He was ready for the grand magical trick so many months in the making. It was far better than the part others would play today, of this he was certain.
---
Iceis, the Star Cannon…
The assembly of the Star Cannon had been in progress for a couple of years now. Brandon gathered with the others in the control room of what had unofficially become known as the sun-gun. Made up mostly of huge mirrors and lenses, this was one of the weapons designed by Howard Dawn that many people were pinn
ing their hopes on.
He’d been separated from Evelyn for years outside of the two 30-day vacations they’d allowed. The problem was it almost took a week to get over to Hideaway and another week to get back, leaving only two weeks for them to be together. However, she took off from work at those times and they did have two wonderful weeks to themselves.
Today was the first real test. The Star Cannon was only 50 percent complete, but there was enough to put out one hell of a heat beam.
They would be firing at one of Serena’s remaining moons. Even though the gas giant was at its closest approach to the sun, the moon was still well over 150 million miles away from the weapon. The moon, its name was Marrow, was just a big ball of ice, and they did not expect to completely destroy it. This was more a targeting exercise, though everyone was curious about how much damage the Star Cannon would do. Radin was out there with two battleships to take care of the rest of the moon with grav-bombs.
The countdown began, “Ten, nine, eight…” Brandon held his breath. He knew that everyone at Hideaway would be watching. Hell, everyone everywhere was likely watching this test. “…three, two, one, engaging.”
It would eventually be a gigantic ring of 24 collection mirrors and lenses, but for now, there were only 12. Motors swung aside the reflective disks that covered the mirrors and each directed the energy it collected and concentrated to a central lens assembly set a quarter mile out. The central lens assembly was far more than a simple lens. Mirrors inside of it bounced the energy back and forth, allowing it to build up much like a laser. Then when the power approached the limit of the structure’s containment, the lens opened, releasing the energy…but not this time. For this test, they would release it at 50 percent of structural containment.
The funny thing was, there was nothing to see—there was no beam of light or anything else, but…if anything got in the invisible beam’s way, it would know it. They would release five bursts over a 30-second period, and then…they would see what they would see. It would take just over 14 minutes for the beam to reach its target.
---
Over 150 million miles away, the Leviathan Battleship, Essex, and Radin’s temporary flagship, The Spector, were both positioned where they could see the ice moon, but they had also positioned the molten rock moon of Hades between themselves and the Star Cannon. As Radin had joked, he wasn’t entirely sure how good a shot Brandon was.
Radin sat in the captain’s chair and waited. They had magnified Marrow on the main viewer.
At exactly the preordained time, a cone of ice and vapor exploded from the sunward side of the moon and then from the opposite side. Then the moon broke apart. Radin sat up—they had really expected nothing like this. Within eight seconds, the moon was gone.
“Please get me Mr. Eden on the Star Cannon,” Radin ordered.
The Loud’s Tachyon communication system was everywhere now and Brandon’s reply was immediate. “Did we hit it?”
“Brandon,” Radin said, “have you fired yet?” Laughter exploded on the bridge. “Just kidding! You hit it dead on and the effect was spectacular. Marrow is gone. You should be receiving the video any time now.”
It really pissed Radin off that they had to destroy most of the moons of two gas giants because of the approaching alien. He wondered how things were going almost a light year away in the ice cloud—how many comets the alien ship would pull out, and how many would be vaporized by the monster grav-bombs Bugs and Adamarus had planted there.
---
Amular, the Trinity Compound…
Ronny sat in the heated guard box next to the main gate reading a sci-fi book. She sat at the window that would allow her to see arriving vehicles. Behind her, Jerome sat at the desk watching a video. Neither noticed the mist that started coming from the heater vent. Five minutes later when the armored vehicles sped up the road, neither could sound an alarm because they were both dead.
The gate was a quarter mile from anything else and no one heard the lead armored vehicle crash through the gate, nor saw the seven other armored vehicles following it.
One of the ten guards in the operations building heard the vehicles approaching and had time to say, “What the hell?” before the rockets tore into the building, killing everyone. Thirty seconds later, two more rockets destroyed the main administration building, killing all eighteen of the men and women working there.
---
They brought Isabella Maximus to Grace wrapped up in a pink blanket. As Grace took her new ten-minute-old daughter, Isabella waved her arms about once. Grace looked down at her in wonder. Why, she’s absolutely beautiful, she thought.
Adamarus bent over the bed and kissed his wife on the cheek while, on the other side of the bed, Captain Nero Maximus tried to get his new sister to hold his finger only to have it batted away.
Grace turned her head, looking at her two men and then down at their new daughter, again thinking how incredibly cute she was. She looked again at Adamarus and couldn’t remember ever being happier than she was right now—this despite the blight bearing down on them now so close at hand.
Adamarus still bent over the bed, rubbed Grace’s cheek with his finger as he looked into her eyes. At that moment, his com unit vibrated. His expression never changed—he hid the dreaded interruption perfectly. The only trouble was, bent over the bed as he was, the com unit, which hung from his belt, was against Grace’s hip.
Grace immediately knew what the vibration was and her smile involuntarily dropped a notch. She sighed and pressed her cheek harder into Adamarus’ finger, “Wow, have you ever got that down—not a single muscle twitch. That’s kind of scary.”
Adamarus realized what had happed. “Oh, darn,” he muttered with a look that said he was sorry. Meanwhile, Nero looked between them in complete confusion and Isabella, for no particular reason, started crying.
Grace closed her eyes for a second, putting her smile back in place while she started jiggling Isabella to no avail. She said, “Well, at least they allowed both of my men to be here with me the whole time.” She looked over at Nero, then, seeing the confusion on his face, turned partially back to Adamarus while keeping her eyes on Nero, “Look at him, sweetheart. The poor boy doesn’t know what the heck is going on.” She laughed, decided not to enlighten her son and continued to jiggle Isabella.
Nero opened his mouth to say something but Isabella stopped him and everyone else cold by turning up the volume all the way.
“My, my,” Grace said, shocked by the output level. “Okay,” Grace said loudly above the cries, “both of you go on and do whatever you need to do. It appears that Isabella and I have some mother/daughter bonding to do.”
Adamarus had pulled the com unit from his belt and he quickly glanced at it. Upon seeing the message icon, he had to use all of his self-control to keep the surprise from his face. He had not seen this icon in over 150 years. He had to force himself to move calmly as he kissed Grace on the cheek. “I’ll do my best to come back tonight, honey.” He glanced at Isabella and raised his eyebrows, “Well…have fun.”
Grace eyed him suspiciously, “You planned this.”
He gave her a mischievous smile, winked and turned. Father and son, the latter still very much confused, grabbed their coats on the way out the door.
As Adamarus slung the coat over one arm, he stole another brief glance at his com unit just to make sure he had seen correctly. A chill ran through him. It had not changed—the black shape of a bird with a red lightning bolt through it—a Red Raven Alert.
Nero Maximus could almost have been Adamarus’ twin brother. However, there was just enough of his mother in him to set him off—mostly in his eyes and mouth. He was also an inch taller than his father, and for reasons Adamarus could not fathom, this had always bothered him a little though he would never admit it.
As Adamarus led the way to the helicopter pad, he handed his com unit to Nero. Nero looked at it, then his eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. As well they should, Adamarus thought
. There had not been a Red Raven alert in…well, 165 years. As Nero handed the com unit back, he looked at his father with deep concern. Adamarus’ face mirrored that concern, but all he could do was shake his head and shrug. They’d know soon enough.
They pushed through the dual glass doors, then came to a halt under the awning by the landing pad. It had started raining and it was now coming down quite hard. It was a dark gray and bitterly cold day, and the gusts of freezing wind didn’t help. They both put on their coats as they waited for the chopper.
“I assume I can tag along,” Nero said. The alert had gone to Adamarus, not to him, even though he had Red Raven security clearance.
Adamarus wasn’t sure. “We’ll see,” was all he said, as the first sounds of the approaching chopper reached his ears.
“Think it could have anything to do with the Ice Cloud?” Nero asked.
Adamarus blinked. He hadn’t yet considered that the two events might be related—smart boy, he thought. He leaned out into the rain, looking for the chopper as he casually replied, “We’ll find out soon enough.”
---
Matt Dolton was just as bored as any of the Marine guards stationed at the top-secret Trinity compound—day after day, the same old, same old. He often wished something…anything would happen. His CO had told him just this morning, “Careful what you wish for.”
Matt had cleaned his weapon and returned it to the armory and was about to secure the gate to the steel reinforced room when he thought he heard a distant explosion. He stopped and listened, a curious expression on his face.
Besides Matt, there were 17 other marines in the barracks and Matt heard several of them ask if anyone else had heard the sound. That was when the alarm sounded.
For several seconds, they all froze in disbelief. Then their training kicked in and all of them were running, grabbing helmets and flak jackets, then flying by the armory as Matt, who happened to be there, handed out machine gun/grenade launchers and ordnance belts. Directly after this, they were flying out the door, for all of them knew to stay in the barracks was to die…yet Matt held his position until he had handed weapons and ordnance to the last man.
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 26
