Everett knew then the assault team was bound to run into more Grays inside the vast ship, and the admiral also knew they would never make it as far in as they had planned.
“Attack team Alpha, we’re placing charges right here. We’ll get cut to pieces before we get to the target area.”
“Attack team Alpha, this is Bravo, we understand, we are running into heavy Gray activity. Will progress further and see if resistance is lighter, over.”
“Bravo, negative, say again, negative. Set your charges at current pos. I repeat, your current position. I believe the nukes will be enough to set off a chain reaction inside the ship. Look at the walls, the whole thing is one big massive power cell, over.”
* * *
Ryan and Jenks heard the radio calls and exchanged looks.
“Carl will never have the time for his team to find another way out. And we’re all out of heavy ordnance.” Ryan felt helpless as he knew Everett would set off the charges regardless.
Jenks looked frustrated as he tried to think. He removed the cigar and threw it hard against the glass. “Goddamn it, I knew that asshole Toad would go and blow himself up!”
“Ryan, do you copy? Over,” a call pierced their helmets. “Ryan, do you copy? Over.” The call came in the clear.
“This is Ryan. Jack, is that you?”
“Listen up, we have control of the last functioning rail gun, but we have Grays crawling all over the place. Leave the section you’re currently in and make your way back to the same location where the admiral and his men entered the saucer. We have the coordinates and will blast open the hole again. Get those men off that are near you and Lieutenant Tram will bring your team over to the escape pods, over.”
Jenks whistled. “Ballsy, but that may be the only way of getting two birds with one stone.”
“Roger that, what about you?”
“Just follow orders, Jason. Now get a move on; I fire this thing in two mikes, over.”
Jason saw the first of his assault team as they started to gather at the damaged section where the deflector plow was buried deep into the saucer. That was when he felt a strange vibration course through the shuttle.
“What in the hell is that?” he said to Jenks.
“Oh, shit,” the master chief said as he looked closely at his radar screen. The familiar displacement of space and time started to show up on the sweep of radar. “We have a large buildup of power emissions coming from that ship. I think it’s trying to power up to form a time-displacement wormhole. Goddamn it, can we catch a break here?”
Jason didn’t hesitate further. He tried to fire his maneuvering thrusters, but they failed to fire.
“Forget it, mister, we’re bone dry on JP-5 for the thrusters. All we have is main engine power. You’re going to have to push us through the steel of the Lee to get us out.” Jenks quickly replaced his helmet. “Bravo team, do you understand the plan? Over.”
“Weapons set and operational—ten minutes to detonation. Team Bravo regressing to evac point, I hope someone’s there to cover our asses,” said the SEAL lieutenant.
Jason grimaced as he looked over at the master chief. “Sorry about this.” He pushed the joystick on the left armrest to its stops, at the same time firing the starboard maneuverings jets. The shuttle started coming forward, farther into the damaged section of saucer. The large deflector plow scraped hard against the tiles of the shuttle as Ryan applied more forward pressure. They heard cables and electrical wiring snapping like piano wires as the shuttle cut through the stabilizing rigging for the plow. Jason applied more fire to the starboard OHMs burn. The shuttle started turning as they entered the interior of the giant saucer. The inside of the cockpit glowed green and blue as the walls of the ship illuminated the men’s two faces. Then Jason felt the pressure holding back the shuttle ease as he broke through. He turned tight and then she was free.
“Go, go, go!” Jenks shouted. The small shuttle broke into the open with her main engine shooting a long flash of bright blue flame, her engines at full power. She sped along the centerline mass of the saucer, heading for the scabbed-over area where Carl and his men had vanished, hoping Collins was right about a rail gun being operational.
* * *
Tram was at the very bow of the Garrison Lee, waving the attack team forward. He saw Grays close behind and so he lowered himself behind the large deflector plow, then brought the very old gift he had received from Jack Collins four years before to his shoulder. The M-14 was settled into a conjoined seam of steel for a steady support, and the Vietnamese sniper took careful aim. The Grays were firing at the men trying desperately to escape through the hole. They started to scramble over the area the shuttle had just destroyed when the first of the Grays started shooting.
The SEAL lieutenant was shot in the back before Tram could cover him. The small man cursed his slowness but still drew a bead on the monstrous being bearing down on the retreating assault team. He fired. The 7.62 millimeter round caught the first Gray in the exact center of the helmeted head, dropping him immediately. The second powerful round took the next one in line and was just as deadly. The third took two shots to bring it down. The assault team now had the time to go hand over hand across the plow to reach Tram’s position.
Tram raised the rifle and pointed back toward the very bow of the Lee and the escape pods waiting there.
“General, we have succeeded. I will now come to you,” Tram said in broken English as he moved to follow Team Bravo to the superstructure of the burning Lee.
“Negative, Lieutenant, get the hell out of here. That’s an order!” Jack said forcefully.
Tram looked amidships, where Collins was inside the number fifteen rail gun. He watched as the small turret turned toward the formerly damaged area where Alpha team had entered. Tram cursed and then followed the team to the escape pods. His battle was now over.
* * *
Everett watched as the last charge was set. He felt the hair inside his suit rise as power coursed through the ship around him. He had heard the master chief and his opinion earlier that the saucer was trying to open a wormhole. The giant saucer started to shake as the power increased.
“Last charge is set,” he called. A rocking explosion sounded from close to a half mile away. Jack had done what he promised and opened the hole. The rail gun discharged once more, opening the hole wider and slowing the reatomizing of the material making up the alien saucer’s hull.
“Okay, Alpha, your door is open!” Jack called as he saw the shuttle limp close in. The braking jets were still and silent as Ryan slammed the black nose into the void. “Your ride’s here, Admiral, move it!”
“Jack, get the hell out of there, don’t worry about us!”
* * *
Collins escaped the turret just before the Grays blew it to shreds. Fifteen of them fired continuously and didn’t even notice when Jack slid out of the opening between the two electrically charged barrels. He thought for a moment that his bulky suit was going to get caught, and then with a deep intake of breath he pushed through. He floated freely for a brief moment until he was able to reach out and grab a floating cable that arrested his flight before he drifted away between the flaming wreck of the Lee and the power-distribution saucer. Steady explosions were starting to rock the broken battleship from stem to stern as her munitions and coolant tanks started to cook off as the flames reached the many storage lockers buried deep inside the ship. As Collins watched the bridge area finally let go as the Lee’s forward particle and Argon gas storage area exploded in a blue cloud of debris. The bridge separated itself from the superstructure and went hurtling into the large saucer. The steel slammed into the large alien craft, creating a large hole that quickly started to heal. Jack chanced a look at the hole he blasted through the saucer’s hull and saw Ryan taking on Carl’s assault team.
Suddenly the area of space around the saucer started to waver before Jack’s eyes and he thought that he was finally succumbing to his head wound. Then his stomac
h started to turn over as his gloved hand tried to keep a hold on the drifting cable holding him in place. As he spun he saw the whiteness of Antarctica far below. He wondered if Sarah was safe, and that was all his mind could take in at the moment. A hand took hold of his suit and he thought he saw Carl’s face.
“Damn it, Jack, you accidently shut down your oxygen mix.”
Collins felt himself rolled over and then the cold, refreshing blast of air as it filled his helmet.
As Everett turned him over he saw that the shuttle was ready for them. He pushed and pulled Jack free of the wreckage of the Lee as she shuddered, and then there was silence as she started to wrench away from the fast moving saucer. Everett saw the shuttle as Ryan tried in vain to hold her in place, but the Garrison Lee finally broke in two directly amidships. The stern section whipped around and in its wake it slingshot the shuttle forward and away from the two men.
Carl reached out and grabbed the remains of the aluminum United Nations flag as her battered stern came around. That was when his eyes fell on the tunnel opening for the escape pods.
“Make a run for home, Ryan, we can’t make it!” Carl said into his mike as Jack started to come around. His eyes tried to focus but all he could see was the deflector plow finally releasing its hold on the giant saucer and go hurting into low orbit.
“No fucking way, we’re coming to get you.”
Jenks came on next and belayed the order. “We don’t have the fuel, we’re going to have to find a clear and very long runway as it is. We’ve lost lower hydraulics and that means no landing gear.”
“You heard the man, Jason, fire your main engine and get back to Camp Alamo. You can’t miss it, use the ice for a runway. Now get to it!”
With one last look at his two friends Ryan realized he had to save the men crammed into the cargo hold. Angry, he throttled the shuttle forward.
“I take it the rescue didn’t go well,” Jack said as he finally came around. He grabbed for the dislodged stern section that held the battered flag.
“We only have to float here for a few seconds longer, buddy,” Everett said as he held onto Jack tighter.
“How much longer?” Collins asked, knowing what Carl meant.
Before he could answer, a small rescue pod bumped into them. Inside they saw the serious face of Tram as he guided the escape pod closer. He threw open the Plexiglas cover and then gestured for the men.
Carl knew the limitations of the pod. It held six and Tram already had six plus himself inside. He pushed and pulled Jack along the flag and then shoved the weightless body toward the open hatch.
“Take him, Lieutenant; I’ll catch the next one.”
Collins tried to reach out and take hold of Everett’s arm but it was too late. He felt hands on him as the men of the Bravo assault element pulled him inside the small pod.
Tram placed the escape vehicle into automatic and the small craft shot forward, hurtling toward the ice continent far below.
Everett watched his friends leave and was content.
The swirling pattern of the vortex started in earnest as the dimensional wormhole started to form. To his surprise it whipped up a debris storm and his eyes widened as he saw an empty escape pod come at him from out of nowhere. He let go of the flag and reached for all he was worth. He caught the open canopy of the dislodged and empty pod. He held on as he tried to pull himself up and in. He finally managed to make it and immediately buttoned it up.
“Carl, damn you,” Jack was heard saying.
“I’m not dead yet, buddy.” He placed the pod into automatic to allow the computer to take him home.
“Get away from there, the wormhole is on you!”
To Everett it looked as if a kaleidoscope had opened up and the colors of the universe filled the black void of space. The sight was amazing. The saucer was creating something only found naturally in deep space as stars collapsed in on themselves. The swirling tornado of dust particles, debris from the battle, and dust from space filled his vision as the saucer started to make a run for its home fleet. The smaller saucers fell into formation with it and Carl’s pod was pulled up at the same moment.
Every event of Everett’s life soon flew past his vision. He knew this to be illusion as his body and mind were caught in the displacement of time as the escape pod shot up into the swirling tornado of light. The large saucer, the processing ships, and the smaller attack craft were three hundred miles ahead of the small pod and much farther into the tornado.
“I don’t think so,” Carl said as his smile grew wide.
The twenty-four Israeli-built nuclear charges detonated right on time, catching the large saucer before it exited the displacement into the deep-space home of the floating home fleet carrying the remains of the Gray civilization. The power replenishment ship blew outward with the power of an exploding sun, vaporizing the other ships and sending them to their doom in the wink of an eye.
“Oops,” was all Everett had time to say as he glanced at the watch he had attached to his spacesuit’s sleeve just above the thick glove. He saw the exact time that was recorded on the damaged and ancient watch found in Antarctica by the British five years before, and the blood-streaked crystal. The small pod was violently thrown backward as the wave of superheated gases slammed into Everett. The pod was immediately and violently thrown free of the displacement wormhole and sent tumbling through the tunnel until it exited somewhere over Antarctica—two hundred thousand years before the Garrison Lee ever took flight.
The great mystery that no man could avoid came to pass and Admiral Carl Everett vanished into a distant past.
Soon the dimensional wormhole dissipated and nothing was left but the floating wreckage of a once proud warship of human and Martian design.
CHATO’S CRAWL, ARIZONA
Matchstick held the hand of Gus, and Dr. Denise Gilliam had her arm wrapped around the old man’s waist as they were led from the Black Hawk to the front gate. Gus wanted nothing more than to get inside his old, comfortable shack and rest with his best friend. Before they reached the gate, the copilot of the helicopter hurriedly caught up with Pete and Charlie. Matchstick stopped to see what the excitement was about. They failed to see the burly man with the cowboy hat at the open gate tense up.
“Dr. Golding, we have a flash message from Group,” the young copilot said as the pilot also joined the three men. The Marine corporal was eyeing the big man at the gate suspiciously as he noticed the man’s eyes never left the small form of Mahjtic.
Pete took the hastily transcribed note and read it. His smile was cautious as he looked up at an expectant Matchstick.
“The power-replenishment saucer and the processing ships no longer appear on long-range Earth-based imagery.”
Matchstick momentarily let go of the hand of the old prospector and took an expectant step closer to Pete. His small blue jumpsuit was too large as the pant legs dragged on the ground.
“The Garrison Lee has been destroyed.”
Charlie placed a hand on the small shoulder and lowered his head.
Pete seemed to take heart with the next paragraph written on the notepad.
“The Lee’s escape pods are parachuting into the sea and on land near Camp Alamo and rescue operations have commenced.”
The small alien took hold of Gus’s hand and smiled up at him.
“Well, you did it, you little shit,” he said with his old smile that made Mahjtic feel good inside that he could please Gus. “Don’t go braggin’ ’bout it,” the old prospector said to Golding. “He’s gonna be a bear to live with now.”
Charlie, Pete, Denise, and Matchstick, in his strange cottony voice, all laughed.
“Come on Gus, we can talk about this inside,” Dr. Gilliam said.
Marine corporal DeSilva moved closer to Matchstick. He also looked at the guard shack closest to the fence and slowly started to reach for the old Colt .45 at his belt. The young pilot of the Black Hawk saw the movement and unsnapped his holster that lay across his chest a
nd then nudged the pilot trying to get his attention. The corporal saw something that gave him pause. The big man at the gate kept flicking his dark eyes toward the old shack and then back again. He also didn’t particularly care for the way he looked back at the group and the uneasy smile that appeared. His old combat hackles began to rise.
The Marine corporal pulled the Colt from its holster, but before it cleared the leather a shot rang out and DeSilva fell into the copilot. The pilot was much faster, as he had his Beretta nine millimeter in his hand, and shot the big man who had fired into the Marine with a gun he had hidden at his side. The large round caught the man in the shoulder, knocking him off balance and before anyone knew it, Charlie Ellenshaw was on the man, taking the giant down, beating him with his fists.
Gunfire from their rear struck Ellenshaw in the back of his shoulder blade and sent him flying off the wounded bear of a man. Charlie hit face-first, his glasses flying from his face. Gus pulled Matchstick and Denise to the ground just as flying bullets caught the pilot. Three rounds stitched his flight suit but the tough Air Force lieutenant managed to get off one round as he fell backward. The nine-millimeter bullet struck the man directly in the center of his forehead, freezing him like a statue.
Gus saw the fallen weapon of the man as he fell and it clattered next to him. He started to reach for it when Denise screamed for him not to.
“Stop shooting!” Hiram Vickers shouted as he sprang from the open doorway of the old shack. He was waving his hands as the giant’s brother was screaming as if he had gone insane. “Stop, we need them alive!”
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