Invaders_a sequel to Vaz, Tiona and Disc

by Laurence Dahners

  ***

  Rob Marshall looked back over his shoulder at Major Vincent. General Stoddard had sent Dan Vincent along on this trip where they were trying to get a better look at the aliens. Rob had come to like the level headed major during the ride. “What do you think?” he asked Vincent, indicating the image on the screen which showed the aliens’ daughter-ship. They’d carefully approached it along a course significantly off to one side of its vector so that they wouldn’t set off any software designed to fire the alien’s beam weapon at objects which might intersect daughter-ship’s course. At present they were a little more than 10,000 kilometers away from the daughter-ship and still decelerating toward a velocity match. Like Tiona had, they were varying their acceleration irregularly to make it difficult to hit them with the beam weapon in case the aliens decided to give it a shot.

  Vincent had been studying the image of the daughter-ship as long as Marshall had. Their telescope had a resolution of five milliarcseconds per pixel so at 10,000 km each pixel represented twenty-four centimeters making for a somewhat blurry image. Now he frowned and said, “No disc shapes to suggest thrusters. I think those are big nozzles on one end which suggests that they’re using rocket technology instead of thrusters. I suspect those outriggers are the plasma thrusters it was using earlier and that they fold back into the main body to be covered by doors. Once that happens it looks like it’ll have an aerodynamic shape, suggesting that it’s intended to enter the atmosphere.” Vincent turned to look Rob in the eye, “Since Earth is the only body with an atmosphere anywhere near its path, I need to report the fact that it looks like it could land back to General Stoddard ASAP. He’ll want to send it up the chain.”

  Marshall’s eyes jerked back to the image. He hadn’t considered the possibility that the outriggers might fold away to leave an aerodynamic shape but it seemed obvious now. His respect for his new friend Dan jumped even higher. “Damn,” he breathed. “You’re right! That thing’s gonna land on Earth!”

  Once they’d both reported back, Major Vincent to his superiors in the military and Rob Marshall to Tiona and the GSI hierarchy, they got orders to go have a look at the alien mothership.

  ***

  Karen Williams’ AI chimed, “Someone’s coming up the front walk.”

  Karen grimaced as she asked the AI for an image. About the only people who unexpectedly visited the house anymore were people cold calling to sell her something she couldn’t afford, or zealots trying to convert her to their religion. In days gone by she might have been expecting a package delivery, but nowadays she couldn’t come up with the money to order anything. She took a deep breath to put a positive spin on her thoughts, That last job app is going to work out!

  But then she thought morosely, And if it doesn’t, Ronnie and I’ll be homeless. Not for the first time she wondered whether the homeless shelter was wheelchair accessible and decided once again that, by law, it must be. Having been unable to replace her broken HUD, Karen leaned around the corner and looked at the household AI’s screen.

  The screen showed a girl in a wheelchair! If Ronnie had any wheelchair-bound friends, he hadn’t told her about them. She turned wonderingly and said, “Ronnie, do you know a girl who uses a wheelchair?”

  Without looking up from the screen he was reading, Ronnie said, “No.”

  Having moved to get a better look at the girl, Karen thought, Hey, she’s pretty. Wistfully Karen wondered if the girl might be selling Girl Scout cookies. She even briefly imagined Ronnie as the girl’s boyfriend. She knew, as the only wheelchair-bound kid at his school, just how isolated Ronnie was and she desperately wished she had some way to find him more friends. A girlfriend would be awesome.

  She’d been going to have the door AI turn the visitor away, but suddenly realized that it might be worth listening to a cookie pitch or sitting through a religious proselytization just so Ronnie could meet a girl in a wheelchair. She got up and headed for the door. As she passed closer to the AI’s screen she noticed that the girl looked surprisingly young for missionary work. The door AI queried the girl who answered, “Reven Davis. I’m here to see Ron Williams?”

  Karen’s heart skipped a beat and she turned to catch Ronnie’s reaction, wondering if he did know this girl.

  Ronnie’s eyes were wide as he stared at his mother. She thought his mouth formed the words “Reven Davis?!” though he said nothing aloud.

  Reven had been looking around as she rode up the walkway in the thrust chair. The yard of the little house seemed neatly kept up, though the plants seemed under watered. The house itself looked like it was suffering from a lack of maintenance. Not like slobs lived there, just some trim that was peeling. The trim looked like it had been scraped and sanded, just not painted. The AI’s camera didn’t track her movement as if it was stuck in one position. She gave the camera a little wave as she introduced herself in response to the AI’s query.

  Karen opened the door and looked down at the girl whose pale blue eyes and short black hair seemed to fit perfectly with her even features. She had on a cute blouse and a pair of jeans. She’s gorgeous! Karen thought. It’s so sad she’s stuck in a wheelchair. “Can I help you?”

  The girl grinned at her, “Actually, I’m here to help Ron. Is he here?” Then her eyes dropped down and off to Karen’s side. She smiled, “Hi Ron.”

  Karen looked back and saw that Ronnie had wheeled around the corner. She expected him to correct the girl or at least say something about his preference for “Ronnie” over “Ron.” He didn’t, and Karen thought to herself that she probably wouldn’t correct a girl this pretty if she were him either. Instead he said, “Reven Davis!” In a reverent tone as if he couldn’t believe it, even though they must know each other; after all she’d recognized him and he’d recognized her.

  Karen turned back to the girl who calmly said, “Yep.” Her voice sounded calm, but her eyes were sparkling.

  Ronnie got a look of concern. He said, “What happened? Why are you in a wheelchair?”

  Reven grinned and the chair suddenly spun to the side, “I’m not! I’m in your new thrust chair”

  Karen’s eyes widened as she saw that the wheelchair had no wheels. It was floating above the floor of their porch! For a stunned moment she wondered why she’d never heard that they were mounting wheelchairs on thrust discs, but then her mind caught up with what the girl had said, “Your new thrust chair.”

  In dismay, Karen thought, She’s here to try to sell us one of these for Ronnie. One of these things we can’t possibly afford! Karen’s heart sank knowing how much Ronnie would love to have something like this. Not just because it had to be better than his current wheelchair, but because he loved the latest tech of any kind. Even if they hadn’t been able to afford any new things since the divorce and especially since the loss of Karen’s job. Karen desperately wanted to slam the door in the girl’s face and somehow keep Ronnie from even knowing…

  But Ronnie was rolling down the hall toward the front door. “Thrust chair?” he asked excitedly.

  “Yeah!” Reven said, beaming as Ronnie rolled up to the door. “Check this out!” she said as the wheel-less chair spun the rest of the way to face away from them and towards the stairs down off the porch. Then, instead of heading for the wheelchair ramp next to the stairs, the chair headed directly to the stairs themselves.

  Heart leaping into her throat, Karen reached out after the chair in an effort to keep it from tumbling down the stairs—but it didn’t. Instead, it smoothly descended the stairs, maintaining the same height above them as it had over the porch. There wasn’t even any evidence of bumping as it passed over the treads! Once she’d reached the bottom, the girl turned in a smooth tight circle and headed back for the stairs where the chair smoothly climbed back up! My God! Karen thought numbly as she glanced at her goggle eyed son, Maybe if I sold a kidney we could get one?

  Looking poleaxed, Ronnie said nothing.

  Reven lifted an eyebrow at him, then said, “And, if you’re tired of l
ooking up at everyone…” she tugged something with her hand and the chair suddenly lifted up to put her eyes on a level with Karen’s. Grinning maniacally, the girl backed the chair down the stairs—which it did smoothly, descending at a standing height above the tread this time. “And if you want to dunk the basketball?” now the chair shot up to put her head about ten feet off the ground. She descended and slid the chair back over the porch at normal wheelchair height. “No more lifts to get into cars. You just need an empty spot in the vehicle.” She tilted her head, “That’s only if you need to ride in a vehicle because it’s cold or something—‘cause the chair will take you anywhere a car will, and go just as fast,” she winked at Ronnie, “as long as you don’t mind getting splattered by bugs.”

  Staring at the chair, Ronnie breathed, “Holy shit!”

  Although she actually thought swearing in this situation seemed perfectly appropriate, Karen nonetheless absently said, “Ronnie!” Her mind was more focused on the fact that getting Ronnie excited about a chair like this—one that they couldn’t possibly buy—was breaking her heart.

  Ronnie’s eyes turned to Reven and he said, “But what happened to your legs?” Karen thought it sounded like he’d known her before she got hurt.

  Reven popped off an arrangement of safety belts and, to Karen’s astonishment, stood up out of the chair, saying, “Nothing happened to my legs. Dr. Gettnor just asked me to deliver the chair to you and I wanted you to see what it can do.” She flipped the armrest up out of the way, “You ready to try it?”

  Karen was too stunned by the sight of the girl standing on her own two legs to react properly. By the time she had her mouth open to say, “We can’t possibly afford that chair!” Ronnie had expertly spun his wheelchair over next to it, pulled off his armrest, and started scooting across into the thrust chair. The chair springily bounced up and down a little as his weight shifted onto it. Karen shut her mouth, thinking, I guess he should at least have the fun of one ride. Someday, when we’ve got more money, he’ll be able to get one.

  Ronnie was tugging on an object that Karen now recognized must be a little joyball that controlled the thrust chair. He said, “It’s not working!”

  Reven grinned at him, “And it won’t, until you put on that safety harness. This thing goes way too fast to ride without being strapped in.”

  “Oh,” Ronnie said grabbing for the buckle. “They should put a speed limitation of three miles an hour if you’re not buckled. Then you could use it around the house without strapping in.”

  “That’s a great idea,” the girl said.

  Strapped in, Ronnie grabbed the joyball, twisted it to spin the chair towards the stairs and shot forward over them. Karen’s hand involuntarily darted out after the chair again, but he descended the stairs just as smoothly as Reven had. It must be under some kind of AI control, she thought.

  “How do I change its altitude?” Ronnie asked.

  Reven said, “Just say, ‘set hat at…’ for instance, six feet.”

  “Hat?” Ronnie said.

  “HAAT. It stands for ‘Height Above Average Terrain.’ That’s what keeps you from bumping up and down as you go over every pebble or stair.”

  Ronnie must’ve been talking to his AI while he listened because the chair rose smoothly. When he came back up the stairs his new height put his eyes a little higher than Karen’s. He positively beamed down at her. “This is freaking awesome!” He turned to Reven, “Can I take it for a run around the block?”

  “Sure, let me grab my board and I’ll go with you.” She said trotting down the stairs and out toward the street

  “You’ve got your sky-board here?!” Ronnie said spinning the wheelchair and zipping along after her.

  “Yeah, I left it on the other side of the hedge.” She grinned back at him over her shoulder, “Had to have a way to get home, you know?”

  Karen stood stunned on the porch as Reven stepped out to the sidewalk. She bent and picked up some kind of harness that she expertly stepped into and buckled up. The girl suddenly rose up in the air a few inches, the reason for the rise hidden behind the hedge. Ronnie didn’t even go through the opening in the hedge, instead he aimed the chair directly at the hedge. The chair would have easily cleared the low hedge, but it smoothly rose when it got to the barrier and descended on the other side, maintaining the same height above the top of the hedge as it had over the surface of the lawn. Ronnie turned right and zipped off down the sidewalk. Reven leaned forward and sped after him.

  As she got farther away, Karen was able to see that the girl was riding some kind of skateboard. It doesn’t have wheels either! she realized.

  Karen wiped at the tears running down her cheeks. Tears of joy that a chair like that was available for people like her son. Tears of sadness that they couldn’t possibly afford one.

  She sank slowly into the old chair on the porch.

  Karen was still sitting and moping when she heard chattering coming from her left. She lifted her eyes to see Ronnie and Reven talking animatedly as they zoomed around the corner. It’s going to crush him when he realizes we can’t afford that thing!

  Ronnie’s chair actually banked as he swerved over the hedge and into the yard, zipping up the stairs and leaning back hard to bring himself to a halt next to his mother. The chair spun and dropped at the last moment to place Ronnie next to her and at the same height. He threw his arms around her, “Mom! This is so awesome!”

  “But Ronnie,” Karen said, a tremble in her voice. She didn’t want to ruin the moment, but she had to inject some reality into the situation, “we can’t possibly afford…”

  “Mom! They’re giving it to me!” He turned to look at the girl as if confirming and his voice got hoarse with emotion. “Reven says that I inspired Dr. Gettnor to build it. He saw me making a long detour for a curb cut and realized that thrusters could make wheelchairs obsolete! He asked her to bring it to me.”

  Karen turned to Reven in amazement and the girl gave an assenting nod. Karen said, “Where is he? We’ve… We’ve got to say thank you!”

  Reven frowned and gave a little shrug, “He doesn’t get out much. He said I could bring him a vid so I set up a couple of cameras” she waved back toward the edge of the yard, “in addition to the one on my AI. You can say thanks right now and he’ll see it when I get the vid back to him.”

  “We can go see him…” Karen said, even as she was wondering if the man lived near public transportation.

  Reven was shaking her head, “He doesn’t like visitors either. Really… tell him thanks here on the video. That’s the best you’re going to do.”

  After speaking their effusive thanks for the cameras, they listened for a while as Reven explained more of the features of the thrust chair. When Reven finished, she invited Ronnie to go to some kind of skate-park the next day. “You can do the same kind of stuff in your thrust chair that we do on our boards,” she said enthusiastically.

  Ronnie looked a little bit dubious, but also had a hopeful look, as if he thought he might be able to make some friends.

  When Reven rode away on her sky-board, Karen turned to Ronnie and said, “How do you know her?!”

  “I don’t.”

  Karen gave him a dubious look, “Come on, you knew who she was!”

  “Yeah I do! She’s famous on the web! That sky-board she has is the only one in the world right now and she’s amazing on it.” He turned and looked wistfully after her as she vanished around the corner, “Everyone knows who she is.”

  Just not me, I guess, Karen thought.

  ***

  “What?!” Levon snapped, annoyed at being bothered yet again.

  Fourth Officer ducked his head submissively and said, “The object that visited the lander is now coming towards us.”

  “What object?!” Levon barked angrily.

  Looking thoroughly cowed, Fourth Officer said, “Remember? Balan, the prime officer of the lander, commed to say that a large object had approached from the direction of the dou
ble planet and slowed to a near velocity match with the lander? Well, now it’s left the vicinity of the lander and it’s coming towards us.”

  A frisson of fear shot through Levon. She did vaguely remember the call from Balan. Mostly she remembered feeling angry about being bothered again. Balan had claimed multiple ridiculous things about the object. First, it had first been detected approaching at an unreasonable velocity. Second, it decelerated without generating any exhaust plume and Balan claimed it decelerated at rates that were just too high to be believable. Third, once it had matched Balan’s trajectory and velocity, it had irregularly increased and decreased its velocity so that it maintained approximately the same speed as the lander, though it was constantly changing.

  Levon didn’t know which was more terrifying: The fact that she’d forgotten the call from Balan? Or, the possibility that the—apparently somewhat intelligent—inhabitants of the system might have some means other than rockets for producing acceleration?

  “Levon?”

  Levon realized that she hadn’t responded and the fools were going to hound her until she did. Can’t even get a moment to think about it! Levon felt her other officers staring at her, obviously worried about the delay in her answer. With an irritated shake of her head, she said, “And how fast is this object approaching?”

  Fourth Officer glanced at his screens, “260,000 kilofargs/deciday (71 kps).”

  Levon shook her head in disgust, “That’s ridiculous!”

  Fourth Officer shrunk in on himself, but stubbornly said, “And it’s still accelerating at 2.7 gravities.”

  With shock, Levon remembered that Balan had claimed an object approached him earlier while decelerating at 5.4 gravities. She wondered whether this could possibly be true but decided it couldn’t. “You’ve miscalibrated or miscalculated! I suppose you’re going to claim that it’s accelerating at that absurd rate, but that there’s no exhaust plume from its rocket engines?”