They all agreed in the end. To do otherwise would have been to ignore their duty, to protect their country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The countries themselves had not become rotten or corrupt. Yet. However, they had all been subverted by the alien influence. They had all seen it, experienced it for themselves in their own lands.
The doorbell rang, echoing through the house announcing John's arrival. Jack went this time. As he opened the door, he saw a man aged beyond his years, all the youth drained out of his face. John looked like he had just been handed a death sentence. Jack let him in without a word, suddenly feeling a cold chill moving though his own body. He pointed to the drawing room, closing the door he followed. A deep hole had opened up in the pit of Jack's stomach, all hope, and joy drained into it, releasing despair and misery in their place.
The chill followed John into the drawing room. As each face turned to look at John their reactions were the same, the fear and hopelessness was almost tangible. Their faces dropped, Sally involuntarily shivered. George gulped. The news was obviously bad, very bad by the look on John's face.
'Thank you all for coming.' The words came out of John's mouth without any emotion. 'I have something to tell you, but I think it is best if the news is delivered to the Group as well. Have you the web access I asked for?'
John had sent out details of how to join his conference system to the Group before he had left. The conference system was part of his virtual classroom so he knew it would be secure. He could have just asked them all to join, but he wanted the reassurance of people around him when he delivered the news. He didn't know why, he just did.
The screen blinked into life. He logged into the virtual classroom and initiated the conference. Everyone invited was waiting. Now they could see John and one another.
'Hello. My name is John Deeth, some of you know me others do not. For those who do not know me I am a scientist working for the group. I am also working for the Sunarr; they wanted me for my expertise in gold extraction. I agreed, reluctantly, so that I could gain information about the Sunarr, their technology and plans. Several weeks ago, I received one of their computers, called a Sekkos device. I spent some time getting used to operating it. Today I received what appears to be their geological survey of the gold resources on Earth. At first I found little unusual in it. The detail was incredible, they have, I suspect, every vein of gold on Earth mapped for extraction. On top of this, they have other sources mapped too. The seas for example have trace amounts of gold in them. They are planning, at some stage, to extract that too. This brings me to why I have called you all together. There is another source of trace amounts of gold that they are planning on harvesting. Us.'
The room was quiet. So too were those in the conference. Jayanti Kapoor spoke up, voicing the question they all had.
'What do you mean us?'
'We, that is humans, have trace amounts of gold in our bodies. The Sunarr are planning to extract this too.'
'How?' Jayanti couldn't grasp what he was saying.
'I don't know, yet. But if I had to guess it would be through liquefaction.'
'What's that?'
'In this instance it would be the process of converting a water saturated mass into a liquid to settle out the heavier elements.'
'That's gross.' Sally said, feeling sick at the thought of it.
'I still don't get it.' Jayanti said, refusing to believe it 'What exactly would happen?'
John looked directly at the screen, keeping his tone even he explained. 'Once the Sunarr have extracted all the gold vein deposits, the mines, they will turn to other sources. One of those sources is humans. They will take us, probably a hundred or so at a time and place us in a large cylindrical device. The device will be pressurised and heated, then it will spin at very high speeds. Once finished they will siphon off everything else, leaving the trace amounts of gold behind. They are planning on exterminating the human race in order to get as much gold as they can.'
Anita rushed out of the room, heading for the toilet, Sally went after her. The rest were stunned, numb, no one had expected this. It didn't change their mission but it raised the stakes far beyond anything they could have imagined.
'They couldn't do that. People would object, we wouldn't stand for it.' Jay was still in denial.
'Who are the people? They have control of the governments and the military. I would guess that they would start with those peoples in each country that were considered inferior. Criminals, the insane, the homeless, and the elderly. Then it could be immigrants or minorities. We have seen this in our own histories, have we not? Why are you so surprised that aliens would value us more than we do ourselves?'
Jay couldn't answer. John had spoken calmly and without overt emotion. His argument was sound, Jay knew this, but even so, it was a horror beyond comprehension. Jay needed to get back on top of this.
'So what do we do?' Jay asked.
'That's not really for me to say. I have just presented you all with the facts. I believe it should be up to the group to decide what additional action to take, if any.' He paused before continuing, 'There is something else.'
'Oh and what's that?' Jay asked, wondering how anything else could be deemed to be important after this news.
'The Sekkos device scans hand movements allowing it to be operated. It also uses the same scanning system to upload data. The information on the geological survey was delivered on a crystal or diamond. It was similar in appearance to the one that was contained in the Solomon’s gold box. I believe that I could insert it into the Sekkos device and find out what it contains. However, I have not done so as it would expose the knowledge of this to the Sunarr if they came to inspect the device. That is if it is genuinely not connected to their systems. Otherwise, I guess they would be alerted automatically. I just want the group’s approval that it is wise not to take the risk at this juncture.'
Jack replied before anyone else. 'I think you have made the right decision John. You're right the risk to the operation is too great. Especially in light of the new information.'
There were murmurs of agreement from the group. Jay made the decision official for the group.
'You are correct John. The group agrees to wait until it is safe to investigate the diamond.'
'Thank you.'
The group went on to discuss how this new information would be handled, to whom it would be divulged, then they moved on to other business. John left the room heading outside for a cigarette, Jane followed him.
'How are you doing?’ Jane asked.
'Well let me see. I am currently running four major projects each of which would easily make the Manhattan Project seem like a school science project. I am teaching, which is something I swore I'd never do and that to over a hundred students around the world. I have two assistants, students themselves really, one of whom seems to think it is pretty much a game and the other who genuinely doesn't care for anything but the research. I am working on things that are probably a thousand years ahead of anything we would have developed. I hardly get any sleep and I haven't had a day off....' he tried to think, '…well in a very long time. Then I have to pretend to do research for the Sunarr which looks real but isn't, which is actually much harder than doing real research. I have learned how to operate one alien device, whilst at the same time I have reverse-engineered another into schematics for a propulsion system, defence system and weapons system. Then to top it all I am the one who finds out that the Sunarr are planning to exterminate the human race. So all in all I've been pretty busy.' His rant over he turned to look at Jane.
Jane stepped forward, pushed her body against his, her arms around his waist, and hugged him tight, resting her head on his chest. She stayed like that whilst she could feel the tension and frustration ebb from his body. Finally, she looked up into his face and kissed him gently on the end of his nose. 'Well I think you're doing a fantastic job.'
‘Thanks,’ John said, 'I needed that.'
'It was my pleasure.
' She said, winking at him. 'Come on, let’s get something to eat. Need to keep our strength up don't we?'
Jane looped her arm through John's and guided him into the house.
The discussion was now centred on the plan for liberation. In order to make it work and to avoid as much as possible the loss of human life it would need to be coordinated and timed to happen almost simultaneously around the world. However with the Sunarr communications network linking every Sunarr solider with every other worldwide they would be alerted as soon as the first move was made. Any plan would almost certainly fail right there and then.
'We need their communications network to be put off line right before we strike.' Jack said looking at John.
Great, he thought, more work for me. 'I would have thought that if that was going to work you would need them not to react. Not to go on the offensive or react defensively but just to continue as if everything was normal?'
'Yes, that's true.' Jack wondering where John was going with this.
'Well in that case we will need to take their communications offline several times before we strike. So that when we do, they will just presume that everything will be OK as it has every time before. It will also need to look like a natural phenomenon or a problem with their system, not that someone is bringing it down from the outside.'
'Can you make that happen?' Jack asked.
‘Sure,’ John replied, ‘it’s not like I'm doing much else at the moment...'
'Look John I know we are asking an awful lot of you and if you think it is too much just say and we will find someone else.'
'It is too much but there is no one else. Don't worry I'll make it happen. Either that or I'll make a mistake and get myself killed. However if they torture me I'm telling them it’s all your idea!'
'Fair enough.' Jack replied, 'and when they ask me I'll say John who?'
'I think it is time to announce the party plans.' Jay said interrupting the banter and putting the group back on track.
'Party plans?' asked John, 'What are we celebrating?'
'I'm sorry John you have not been included in this until now. We, that is I, am going to approach the Sunarr with the idea of holding worldwide celebrations on the first anniversary of their arrival. This will be our opportunity to take control in one coordinated effort. I hope that the very suggestion of a worldwide party in honour of their arrival will help put them to sleep, or at least make them relax a bit. That is when we will strike. We will get only one chance to do this, so we have to throw everything we have at it. Will the projects be ready in time?'
'I guess you mean get the projects ready in time 'cause late ain't going to be any good. I'll make sure they are ready.' John replied, annoyed but not surprised by this added pressure. Well I'll just have to make my students work harder, he thought unhappily, knowing that he was already working them far too hard.
'Good. We are all counting on you. Freeing the politicians and military is only the first part, without your projects it will all be for nothing.' Jay could feel that she was adding too much pressure but just couldn't help herself, it was just that important. 'We have most of the guests needed for each of the dinner parties; there are only a few more seats to fill. The hosts obviously know nothing of this, except for those that we needed to inform, most of the guests will be totally on their own. I don't envy them that.'
John gave them a brief run down on the four projects.
'Longbow is a little behind schedule, but that's to be expected as we are working completely on guesswork and testing is a problem.'
'Why's that?' Jack inquired, expecting to be aboard Longbow when it is launched.
'Well the maths are a little crazy, I won't bore you with the details, but I've had to create a new mathematical discipline to make it work. The testing is all theoretical which is making the engineers nervous and the materials and machining is well....' He tried to find the right words.
'Is well what?' Jack said, becoming increasingly worried by what he was hearing.
'...is well, tricky.' John said.
'Tricky? Define tricky please.'
'Well it’s a bit like trying to make a hammer from jelly.' It was the best analogy he could think of.
'Why not freeze it?' Anita joked.
'What did you say?' John barked at Anita.
‘Sorry,’ Anita said looking at the floor, 'it’s just that when I was little my mum used to make frozen jelly treats...I guess she couldn't afford anything else.'
'Freeze the jelly. Freeze the jelly. Freeze...the jelly.' John was starring off into space again, 'Yes! Freeze the Jelly!' He rushed over to Anita and kissed her square on the mouth. He turned to the group smiling. Anita rubbed her mouth.
'We need to freeze the jelly!' He announced to everyone. They all looked at him as if he was mad. 'Sorry I'm not making much sense am I?'
There was a resounding look of no.
'Project Longbow involves extreme velocities. The main problem we are getting is friction, both materials and air. By freezing the whole thing, we will obviate the heat associated with the friction, which has been the real killer. In tests, the thing simply exploded after three or four cycles. We need super-cooling for the primary drive but if we extend that to the whole of it we should be able to achieve a working prototype. Which is I guess all we need for the party.'
'OK what about Project Square?' Jack asked.
'Well, as you know Project Square is closely related to Project Cover so I'll deal with them as one. They are both making good progress, mainly because we have a good model for them in the gold box. We are probably slightly ahead of schedule there.'
'Well that's good news. What about Project Constellation?' This time it was Jay who asked.
'That's technically the most straight forward, assuming Longbow comes to fruition. I know we have to thank our three Generals. There is no way we could have done this without the basic building blocks and requisite materials. Not in this time frame anyhow. Constellation should be ready at D-Day plus two to three weeks. Anything else?'
'No. That's fine John. Thank you for the update and of course all your hard work.' Jay said, trying to make John feel better.
'You're welcome. I do have one question, concern really. It’s not my area but, well, one of the subjects I studied was ethical science. How the discoveries we make have implications in the real world.'
'What's your question John?' Jay asked.
'How is control of Constellation going to be governed?'
'Why is that an ethical question?' Jay asked.
'Well as you all know Constellation is designed to be a defensive platform. However, its capability could easily be turned to offensive use against Earth. According to my calculations it would render any Earth bound military capability redundant. Whoever is in charge of Constellation, would, de facto, control the Earth.'
Silence fell across the room and moved over the delegates in the conference. In their clamour to free Earth and keep it free there had been little debate about any negative outcomes. That a civilian, a scientist at that, should be the one to question their actions, their motives, and the unintended consequences that may be spawned was enough to make them stop and question themselves now. Jay spoke for the group.
'A point well-made and one we hadn't considered. We will have to discuss this and develop a plan for Earth post-freedom. Thank you again John.'
The conference ended the delegates signed out and John closed the session. Jack had his cook prepare lunch. It was a good opportunity to just get together as colleagues, as people and enjoy one another's company. The conversation was strained, these were not a genuine group of friends, they had little in common as a group except the fight for freedom. None of them had much of a social life now; no news to share that wasn't about plans, strategy, resources or developments. Almost inexorably, the conversation turned back to the fight.
'How many do you think will be killed?' John asked Jack.
'All of them hopefully.'
'I
meant how many humans.'
'It’s hard to say. We will lose some in the celebrations. Security officers probably, plus if the Sunarr react a good number of the guests.'
'What about in the camps?'
'That's a good question. Again, it depends on how the Sunarr react. Some will die in the struggle to bring down the defence grid's power source. Others when we breach the domes. That is almost inevitable. The best we can hope for is that once we have breached the dome they pack up and leave, rather than stand and fight. We want them in the open rather than have a fire-fight with civilians in between.' Jack took another mouthful of the roast lamb, it was quite pink, bloody really, and this combined with the conversation took him back to some unpleasant memories. He had seen action with both the British and American armies; he had killed and seen people killed. However, it was always the injuries that were the worst. These were what haunted him.
'What about the Sunarr?' Sally asked joining their conversation.
'What about them?' Jack replied, less interested in his lamb than he had been.
'You said, all of them hopefully, you don't really mean that do you?' Sally inquired, unsure of her position in all of this but needing to ask the question.
Jack placed his knife and fork down on his plate. He looked at Sally and saw in her the combination of youthful innocence and civilian ignorance. He collected his thoughts; he didn't want to punish her for just asking a question, and especially not when it was one he constantly asked himself.
Dark Matter Page 45
