Legacy Of Korr
Page 23
Alissara put the hose on the table. She pushed her seat closer to Mara and leaned toward her. “It’s okay. We want to avenge our world, too.”
Shara nodded. “I’ve never despised anyone or anything as I despise the Manakaris.”
“I want you to know that I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you’re both safe.”
Alissara chuckled. “Safe is boring. Let’s crush some skulls.” She reached for the hose, but Shara beat her to it.
“You’re adopted,” Shara said. She inhaled and breathed out the smoke.
Alissara tried to get the hose, but Shara kept it out of her reach. Every time Alissara reached for it, Shara pulled it back and laughed. For a moment, Mara’s mind drifted away from the inevitable war and the bleak future.
“It’s getting dark. We should head out,” Mara said.
“Can we stay a bit longer?” Alissara asked, eyeballing the hose.
Shara’s eye widened. “I thought you’d run to the ship to see the rest of our people.”
“Don’t guilt me,” Alissara said, grabbed the hose, and smoked. “They’ve waited thousands of years. They can wait ten minutes.”
Mara chuckled. “Shara is right, you are adopted.”
*****
The full moon lit up the desert. Not enough to wash the night away, but enough to make the sand, the cacti, and the mountains glimmer. Nothing moved but the sand as the gentle winds pushed it forward. A nice change after the warm day in Cairo. Mara’s feet sunk in the sand, and her eyes focused on a wide flat hill in the distance.
The ship was buried under the hill. She recalled the intricate defense system, which would tear the American battleship apart.
“Wait here,” Mara said. “If you make any abrupt moves, the defense system will attack you.” She motioned her sisters to follow and hovered forward toward the small hill.
The sand made a hissing sound as it crawled beneath her feet. Mara hovered higher off the ground, making sure not to touch the sand which moved away from her and rolled forward and up the flat hill. It formed a pillar on top of the hill. It became higher and higher as Mara approached. When she reached the pillar, it was ten meters high.
Mara stopped, closed her eyes, and hovered high in front of the giant pillar. She had to prove her legacy.
Her core lit up. The energy flew from the fiery organ into the small vessels until it reached her eyes. Mara kept her eyes closed. The energy squeezed into smaller veins. Her skin glowed. Mara pushed the top of the Queen’s staff. She was ready.
“I’m Mara, Daughter of Carilia,” Mara said, in Logha, and opened her burning eyes. Green flames splattered forward like lava from an overflowing volcano. “I have my sisters Shara and Alissara.”
The sand pillar leaned sideways, then it collapsed to the ground. Two smaller pillar emerged in front of her sisters and swayed as they examined their identity.
The two pillars ahead of her sisters collapsed, and the sand crawled to form a pillar that faced Mara. It grew bigger and leaned forward with its pointy end, a meter away from Mara’s face.
A hole opened in the pillar.
“Welcome, Princess.” The voice came from the hole. It was deep, hoarse, and amplified. “What can I do for you?”
Mara’s eyes burned brighter. The royal advisor is alive. “I call upon your help. Aid me in the war against the Manakaris.”
“You have no right. Your mother lives.”
“The Queen is incapacitated, but I’m the rightful heir to the throne, and I need you to help me or get out of my way.”
Small pillars of sand, coated in a smoldering green color, protruded around the three of them, and a hole opened atop of each pillar.
“Are you threatening me, young Princess? I’ve outlived five generations—”
Rage erupted in Mara and spilt around her. It surrounded her body with a dark-green halo. “The Manakaris destroyed Korr, and my mother is between life and death. I have no time to waste. I need my people. Get out of my way, or I will put an end to your long life.”
“I do not take kindly to threats, even from an heir.”
“This is a final warning, move out of my way, or burn.”
The pillars lengthened and turned to tentacles. They attacked her from every direction.
Mara hovered higher, avoiding their attacks. She delivered one power wave after another. She destroyed them.
The sand rolled forward and formed a large pillar which leaned toward her. She pushed her hands forward delivering a devastating wave that shattered the pillar. The floor of the desert became agitated. Worse than any sandstorm. A hole opened in the ground a few meters ahead, and the royal advisor appeared. An ancient Korran with gray hair, pale skin, and faint, green eyes.
Mara stared at the, now, older advisor.
She hovered toward Mara and examined her for a minute. “When I last saw you, you were fifty. You’ve grown.”
Mara’s eyes and skin stopped glowing. She smiled. “I thought you were dead.”
“Death wishes,” Dara said, and turned her back to Mara and hovered forward.
Mara followed her for a minute before the advisor motioned her to stop.
Dara ascended and waved her hands in a circular motion around her body. The sand crawled away from the area beneath her to expose the battleship—a disk-shaped, gray-looking, giant Korran vessel. Mara, and her sisters landed atop of the battleship.
“Can you awaken them?” Mara asked.
“Yes, but it will take a while.”
“How many?”
“A thousand soldiers, a few officers, and five pilots.”
Mara’s eyes dimmed. They darkened. Her family wasn’t alone anymore. More than a thousand Korran survived. That’s why her mother blocked the memory. The Queen made sure the Manakaris didn’t know about the Last of Korr. Mara shook her head and watched as the guardian pressed the tip of her staff. The ship vibrated for a few seconds before it took off.
Mara’s eyes gleamed. The battleship was working. The guardian landed the ship on the sand, opened a door, and glided through it. She activated the awakening protocol and stepped back.
“What happened?” Dara asked, her smile fading.
Mara told her everything as they waited for the soldiers to awake. Lights came on inside the battleship and disappeared from the old advisor’s eyes. She expected bad news not annihilation.
Mara looked around. Hibernation chambers, housed ten soldiers each, spread around the battleship. In them, the crew lay down in a deep sleep. They were the same age they were when they landed on Earth. The chambers’ doors opened. Light, green gas came out, and within minutes, soldiers aroused. Although dizzy at first, they regained their strength within the hour.
Mara walked the hallways of the battleship. Her eyes dim with nostalgia mixed with euphoria. Her people survived. She spun around to face Alissara who was more emotional.
“Send the US battleship home,” Mara said, “We’ll go back aboard this ship.”
Alissara exited to tell them.
“I assume this will help with your dilemma.”
Shara smiled. “Of course. If we use our people for the ground infiltration, I only have to adjust short-distance warping to human anatomy.”
“And for our people?”
“No adjustment needed. I will roll out the technology. We can start building teleportation chambers tomorrow.”
*****
A few hours later, Mara was in Area 51 before sunset. She landed the large Korran battleship outside the building on the surface. Jessica, the Secretary of State, had flown to Nevada to discuss accommodations and logistics.
The Secretary received Mara with a wide smile. “Congratulations, Mara. I can’t imagine how happy you must be to find the rest of your people.”
“It’s beyond words.”
“I bet,” Jessica said and waved a file in her hand. “There is an old mining town near the base that can accommodate your people. If you agree to it, I will evacuate the town this week.”
“I’m sure we can find a reason to make it uninhabitable.”
Mara laughed. “You’re ruthless.”
“They don’t like to admit it, but our people elect us to make the tough decisions and do the dirty work they know is necessary but wouldn’t do themselves.”
“Well, it’s a great idea.”
“I get one or two of those a year,” Jessica said with a short laugh. “I imagine they’ll be a lot of help in our preparations. Are they trained?”
“They’re seasoned soldiers who trained for a thousand years, and the ship is a powerful vessel, but it might need modifications and tweaks. I’m afraid we still need the same level of commitment from you.”
“Yes, the President approved it.”
“And your allies.”
“They’re on board,” Jessica said. “We’re building two manufacturing facilities for ships and weapons in Canada and Europe, but we’re bringing the soldiers here for training.”
“I’ll have Shara inspect their facilities before they start manufacturing battleships.”
Jessica nodded. “I’ve arranged for that. I hope you’re not overwhelmed, training thousands of soldiers.”
“No, it’ll be a breeze now that I have my soldiers to help me. Besides, we can do basic training here for two months and send them back to Europe until it’s time.”
Shara worked out her problem, but Mara was far from figuring out hers. How many of the Manakaris remained? Was this—the preparations, the ships, the soldiers—enough?
She recalled the last thing she had seen before she’d warped away from Korr. The black hole that’d expanded and expanded. It sucked in thousands of Manakaris’ battleships. Her ship had been far from the influence radius, but she’d felt the massive pull. The last thing she had seen before she warped was battleships, pulling away with blazing speed to escape the invisible tentacles that stretched for thousands of kilometers. But how many? A question that would decide the fate of Earth.
*****
Code Red
May 25, 2032 – Days to Earth destruction: 12
Emily marched to the director’s office. Her face was pale and her eyes were red with black pockets underneath. For a year, she followed the alien army’s moves. Flashing lights on her screen. That’s all they were. Now, the lights became real. The energy signature became more defined. It was becoming alive.
With Shara’s set up, Emily isolated the individual signatures of the ships—the larger ones, at least. This, far from helping, brought the digital monster to life. She could imagine the ten thousand ship metal monster, inching closer to Earth. Every time they warped, she felt the rope around her neck tighten.
The director was busy with his work as usual. Emily knocked and waited until he looked up from his hologram.
“They’ve reached the Great Andromeda Nebula.”
His lips trembled before he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “How long do we have?”
For a long moment, she examined him. He was wearing the same suit he’d been wearing for the past two days. His hair was messy, and his eyes were red. He hadn’t slept in days. Under different circumstances, she’d tell him to go home, take a shower, and get some rest. But given the dire situation, no one was going anywhere.
She probably looked worse. She couldn’t tell. It’d been a while since she looked in a mirror.
“Ten days. They’re moving faster than we expected,” Emily said.
She tried to make it sound like a scientific fact, but it came out as a death sentence. Ten billion human beings were on death row with no chance at a stay of execution.
“Oh, dear god,” he murmured, and covered his face with his hands.
He had to alert the army or the intelligence agency or both, but fear crippled him. Emily didn’t have the heart to say anything. She was glad she never got married or had children. This would be more depressing if she had. Emily stood there and watched him for a minute or two until he lifted his head, put his glasses back on and picked up his phone.
“I have to tell everyone,” he said.
“What can I do to help?”
He jerked as if her presence surprised him. “Oh yes, keep monitoring.”
Emily nodded. She turned around to leave, but she stopped at the door. She clasped the frame with one hand and tilted her head to look at the director. “Do you think we’ll survive?”
He shook his head and sighed. “I hope so Emily.”
The army worked nonstop since the aliens had landed. Other nations around the globe did, too, for a year and half to prepare for this day. A question worth ten-billion lives burned in her brain.
Was it enough?
“I hope so,” he repeated.
She left the director’s office to her office and looked at the large energy signature that represented over a million warriors, hell-bent on destroying Earth.
A million?
Emily couldn’t determine the size of their army. They were too far. Her devices couldn’t detect all the ships. And they traveled in waves. But now, they were close, and the signature was strong. She wouldn’t get the precise number, but the approximation would be more accurate than the guesstimate they used.
Emily launched a program next to the energy signatures. Her fingers manipulated a few parameters on the hologram before she started the calculation. If she was right, her program would isolate individual signatures and give her a number. Simple idea, but it would’ve taken her weeks if it hadn’t been for the incredible processing speed of her computer. To speed things up, she broke down the process and used other servers in the center.
“Attention everyone,” the director’s firm voice caught her attention. “Intelligence agents are on their way here to take over the center. I need you to leave everything as it is, but don’t go anywhere. Stay and help them any way you can. The center is now under lockdown.”
All employees—save Emily—listened in disbelief and gasped in horror as he explained the situation in a few sentences. He emphasized that leaking any of this information to the media would land them in jail.
Minutes later, the intelligence agents, led by Noah Williams, flooded the place. They occupied the desks of the Space Center employees while the rest escorted the employees to a large meeting hall.
“Emily, come with me,” Noah said without looking her way.
Her program was still running, but she followed him in quick steps.
“Tell me everything,” Noah said. “Don’t leave anything out—no matter how insignificant it might seem to you.”
Waiting for him to speak further, Emily looked at the director, but he motioned her to start.
“Me?”
“Yes, Emily,” the director said.
She swallowed and closed her eyes for a moment to gather her thoughts. “Well, my tracking equipment tells me they are at the edge of the Great Andromeda Nebula. Their energy signature is like nothing I’ve seen before. Strong, defined, and it extends through a large chunk of the nebula. In the past, individual ships warped as soon as they charged their interstellar drives. This time, they waited and warped together.”
Noah knitted his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”
She almost retracted her statement when she saw the tense expression on his face. “Well, I’ve detected the same unique energy signature but with different strengths which I assume means varying number of ships. This time, the signature was the strongest.”
“They didn’t want to arrive in waves,” the director said.
“No, they’re not stupid,” Noah said. “They saved time by warping when they were ready, but they must have a pre-set destination—a gathering location—near Earth, but not too close that we can take them out in small waves. Now they reached their destination, they’ll warp together. It’s good news. Our plan hinged on it. Good work, Emily.”
She raised her eyebrow in surprise for
a second. “Thank you, sir!”
“If you think of anything else, let me know.”
“Well, there is something else.”
“What is it?”
Emily hesitated. She tried to explain her theory, but her lips closed shut. What if she was wrong? Her theory would lead them to the wrong conclusions. Her palms began to sweat, so she slipped them in her pockets. She felt stupid, opening her big mouth.
Noah grabbed her arm and looked her in the eye. “Emily, whatever you found out, I need to hear it.”
She swallowed before she made up her mind. “Let me show you something.”
Noah and the director followed Emily to her office. To her relief, the program had completed the calculations.
She filled in Noah and the director on her theory.
“That’s brilliant,” Noah said.
“Thank you,” Emily said, smiling. She glanced at the screen. Her smile disappeared, and her face became paler, if that was possible. “The program estimate is forty thousand battleships.”
Noah’s jaw dropped, his eyes narrowed, and he planted his hands on either side of his body. For a while, he was quiet. After a minute, he spoke. His words were cold, and his tone was official. “My agents are here to help you do your job. I’m heading to the US to support our forces.”
Her hands were shaking, and her legs felt like jelly. The responsibility was too much. Careful what you wish for, right?
*****
Battleships, airships, and chargers flooded the barren Nevada desert around Area 51. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia. The most powerful army humanity had ever assembled.
Inside the command center underground, Mara led a war meeting with her sisters, Dara, and the commanders of the four armies.
“Alissara will lead the main strike force from our battleship with Dara. General David Harris is her second in command. Once your men and battleships arrive and your chargers are full, you’ll leave for Andromeda to intercept their army. Stick to our strategy and do what you must stop them.”
“Shouldn’t you lead the main force?” The European Commander asked.
“I will stay here with Shara to work on our second line of defense.”
“Are you that certain we’re fighting a losing battle?” The Canadian Commander asked.