NanoSwarm: Extermination Day Book Two

by William Turnage

  “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” Jeff said. “It seems that they tried to adopt democratic principles.”

  “I was worried that this was a temple to the god Claire,” Melinda said.

  Holly tipped her head back to focus on the face of the seated figure staring firmly down at them.

  “It still could very well be.”

  Melinda walked deeper into the building, and Jeff and Holly followed. On the walls around the statue of Claire they found depictions of Mattie in various war-like poses. Several smaller life-sized statues carved into the walls showed Mattie and Claire together, standing in front of a large crowd. One statute showed a younger version of Mattie with a group of women gathered around his legs, clinging and reaching up to him seemingly in worship.

  “Fucking groupies,” Melinda snorted, rearing back and kicking the statue.

  It shook, and a small crack formed at the point of impact and quickly moved up the entire side of the statue. Mattie’s head tilted ever so slightly, then fell.

  Just before it hit the ground, it stopped, frozen in midair.

  “What the hell?” Jeff exclaimed, moving closer.

  Suddenly a man appeared out of nowhere in front of them. He literally appeared out of nothing.

  “Greetings, patrons,” he said in English. “Please refrain from damaging the relics in the memorial. If you need assistance, please initiate your neural connections.”

  Mattie's head floated for a second before moving back to the top of the statue. A red light glowed where the head connected to the neck, as some mechanism sealed it back in place.

  Holly approached the man. He was Caucasian, exceptionally tall with short blond hair and blue eyes, and in his mid-thirties. He wore a pleasant smile, even while scolding them. Yet something wasn’t quite right about him. Holly reached out to touch him and sure enough, her finger passed through his chest.

  A hologram—just as she thought.

  “Our neural connections are not functioning. Can you help us, please?” she asked the holographic projection.

  A green light flashed out from the ceiling, scanning each of them.

  “You are nonregistered humans. Please remain here. The authorities will arrive soon.”

  Holly didn’t like the sound of that.

  “Come on,” Jeff said, waving his arm for Holly and Melinda to follow him. “We need to find out more about where the hell we are before we get taken in by the authorities.”

  Holly certainly agreed with that.

  They jogged out of the memorial, down the marble steps, and out into the courtyard. Before they could get back into the narrow streets of the ancient city, a moving object appeared in the sky overhead.

  It came in fast and hard and landed right near Mattie’s statue in the middle of the courtyard. It was a craft of some kind. The three of them stopped running, but moved close together.

  Holly’s first instinct was to run from the strange craft, but if they wanted to find out what had happened over the last two thousand years, then they needed to show courage. Jeff gestured for Holly and Melinda to stand behind him, and he walked forward to greet whoever was going to come out.

  A side hatch opened, and a huge, powerful creature emerged, galloping toward them.

  Dear God, no.

  Holly screamed, “It’s a Vorsh! One of the alien invaders! Run!”

  Chapter 46

  Two Days After the Time Jump

  Morning, Early Spring, 331 BC

  Babylon

  Paulson walked along the perimeter of the encampment on a hill overlooking the banks of the Euphrates, surveying his people at work. They were busy erecting more tents, and fortifying the perimeter defenses. Everyone had a lot to do to prepare for their upcoming meeting with the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great. He was still amazed that they were actually in the past. The time jump worked, and they had a chance to change the fate of man, to bend the river of time. But much work lay before them.

  Before any of that though they needed to take time and remember the fallen. He was on his way now to a memorial service for those they'd personally lost and for the billions they left behind in a future he hoped would never come to pass.

  They’d taken heavy casualties—twenty five dead, another forty injured, including many family members. Thank God his family was safe, even Gretchen, who was recovering from his errant knife throw. They still had enough specialists and generalists to complete their mission, or so he hoped.

  As for the traitors, he was still deciding what to do with them. He was unsure whether a trial would be feasible or not. They had no jail here, and if he chose some type of banishment, they’d simply come back and try again to stop him. Perhaps the only solution would be a wartime execution by firing squad. Until he made his final decision, they were holding all of them, bound, in a heavily guarded tent.

  Mattie approached through the tall grass. His devastating wounds had already healed. Paulson wondered if they’d ever harness—hell, if they’d ever understand—the power of the nano technology that enabled Mattie to heal and that gave him his extraordinary strength and agility.

  “Are you ready, sir?”

  “Yeah, Mattie, let’s do this.”

  Paulson and Mattie walked over to the gathering of over two hundred people. Graves had already been dug and the bodies lay draped in cloth over to the side. Among those was Howard Nichols. The man he'd thought was a traitor who ended up saving not only his life, but Gretchen's. His sacrifice probably saved the mission as well. He was an unexpected hero whom Paulson would never forget.

  Grieving survivors sobbed in the audience as Paulson stood before them. He swallowed a lump in his throat and held back his tears as he began his speech.

  "We've all made sacrifices and lost so much these last few days. The tragedy that has befallen us is the greatest that humanity has ever faced. Never in our history have we been faced with our own extinction. Never before have we faced a foe so advanced, so beyond our capabilities that we are like children trying to fight them. Never before have we faced an opponent without compassion, without remorse, whose only goal—only wish—is to kill us all."

  Paulson paused to survey the crowd. Despair and anger filled their faces as the sobbing spread.

  "But we are still here. We are still fighting. And there is still hope. Hope for the future of all of mankind. These great men and women have given their lives so that the human race may survive. Let us honor their memory by pushing forward, by following through with our mission and changing the world as no other group in human history has done before. Their sacrifice will not be in vain. We will survive. We will not wither away but thrive. We will be remembered throughout all of history, for we are humanity's final hope. We are the future."

  A fresh breeze struck him in his face and rustled the tall grass around them. Hope begin to fill the eyes of the people gathered. Paulson could sense their renewed vigor. His words were creating a spark, reigniting their passion for survival.

  "And remember this. The future can be changed. We control our destiny and the tide of human civilization. It is within our power to make this world a better place, to right the wrongs of the ages, to take the hands of those around us and pull them up into a better world. And when the time comes to meet our foe, we will do so on equal footing. When we stare into the eyes of the enemy across the battlefield of time they will rue the moment they ever set foot on our planet. Because together we will drive them back into the darkness of space from which they came. This is our planet! Our Earth! And no one will take it from us!"

  The crowd cheered and hands rose into the air, the sadness and despair slowly giving way to a glimmer of hope, and motivation to move forward. A chant begin to stir in the crowd.

  "Our Earth. Our Earth! Our Earth!"

  It rose louder, a growing crescendo as all voices joined in.

  "Our Earth!" Paulson yelled, his deep voice carrying above the others.

  They had a goal now, a rally cry. A brightnes
s grew in his heart, a fire filling him with strength.

  His speech was done. The people were with him.

  He stepped over to the side to stand beside Mattie and several other military personnel. The army chaplain said some last remarks over the bodies as they were slowly lowered into their final resting places. Three members of a US Army rifle party fired in unison—a three volley salute to the dead. Paulson shuddered as each shot exploded. He'd seen too much death in his lifetime. More than any man should have to bear witness to.

  Soon the funeral was done. Paulson personally spoke with each person in attendance. Many he knew, others he was meeting for the first time. Over the coming years he knew would get to know them all very well.

  After it was all done, he pulled Mattie off to the side.

  "Colonel Tedrow, we have some unfinished business to take care of. Follow me."

  #

  With so much going on around them, trying to treat the injured and set up a secure camp, they hadn’t had time yet to properly interrogate the prisoners.

  The tent where they were holding the criminals was outside the main camp, near the palm forest. The two soldiers stationed at it snapped to attention and saluted Paulson and Mattie as they approached.

  As they were about to enter, Claire emerged from the forest with a basket of fruits. She was wearing a flowing silk robe, white, and looked very much like an ancient Greek priestess. She’d already completed repairs on her android frame and appeared to be back to normal physically. Mentally, so far, she’d given him no indication that anything was amiss or that she still harbored what he assumed were feelings for him. Ironically, android women were just as confusing to him as real women.

  “This forest is full of edible fruits and abundant game,” Claire said, proudly holding her basket out. “There is enough here to sustain us until we begin harvesting our own crops.”

  “Thank you, Claire, but we have some loose ends to tie up first.”

  She set her basket outside the tent and nodded. “Of course.”

  She opened the flap to the tent, walked in, and he and Mattie followed.

  Inside were the six main perpetrators and six other soldiers who’d followed them. All were bound in heavy chains, hand and foot. A scout team had purchased the chains from a slave merchant at one of the markets in Babylon.

  “Line them up,” Paulson said to Mattie. “We’ll get right down to business.”

  Claire could track the subtlest of facial movements and monitor blood pressure and other vital signs. Those skills made her the perfect lie detector, one Paulson planned to use ruthlessly on the captives.

  Paulson stood in front of the group, and they all glared up at him, clearly incensed over their predicament.

  Congressman Lavar Winchell lifted his head from prayer.

  “I beg you to abandon this mission, Buddy, please. For the sake of Christ and all of humankind.”

  Tears were streaming down his face.

  Paulson stood in front of him, looking down on his sorrow-filled face. This group was motivated by their intense beliefs and thought they were doing the right thing in the name of God. But over the course of human history, how many others had thought the same? How many men and women had been slaughtered in the name of God?

  “God gave us free will, and I’m using my free will to save humanity,” Paulson told him. “I will do everything in my power to see that this mission succeeds. Nothing will stand in my way.”

  With Diaz left behind in the future, running for his life, Paulson was in charge. At some point they would have elections, but for now he was the leader.

  He turned and strode to Dr. Abe Conner. His cross, the means of his own salvation so many years ago, shifted against his chest when he raised his head.

  “And you, Dr. Conner. I know of your strong faith, but do you think any of this, any single action of yours, honors Victoria’s memory? That she’d be proud of your deeds?”

  Conner jumped to his feet and lunged at him with surprising speed. Before Paulson could react, Conner slammed his forehead into his nose. Bright flashes shot through his vision, pain streaked into his neck, and his nose immediately started bleeding.

  Mattie jumped between them and threw Conner to the ground.

  Paulson bent over and held his broken nose, already throbbing, and tried to stop the fountain of blood pouring from it.

  “Don’t ever say her name again!” Conner spat out in anger.

  Paulson stood upright, still squeezing his nose. It’d been broken before, so this wasn’t new to him; he’d push through the pain. Yet as he thought about Conner holding a knife at Gretchen’s throat, anger welled inside him. A rage that had been building for a long time, suppressed by years of determined focus, finally exploded from him.

  He reached out and grabbed Conner by his throat, drawing his knife at nearly the same instant.

  “You threaten to kill my wife, you sabotage this entire mission, intending to sentence the human race to death. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t cut your throat right now.”

  “Do it!” Conner screamed, his eyes wide with fury and fanatic vehemence. “I’ve failed God, and I’ve failed my wife. I don’t deserve to live.”

  Paulson tightened his grip around the knife handle. A tiny trickle of blood dripped from where the tip touched Conner’s neck. Mattie placed his hand on Paulson’s arm and shook his head.

  “Sir, we need answers from him. There may be others out there still working in the shadows.”

  Mattie was right. He would never be able to sleep at night knowing there might be more saboteurs in their midst.

  “Start talking, Conner. How were you able to do this?”

  Conner lips parted into a crazed smile as Paulson still held him tight, knife at his throat.

  “Your security systems at Chronos Two were a joke. A child could’ve hacked them. Once everyone decided to get on board with the plan, we were able to move forward very quickly. The general planned the diversion, and men loyal to him executed the attack. I planned the time jump so that we would arrive here three days before you. The field was a perfect spot for your slaughter. And we would have succeeded if these abominations hadn’t shown up.”

  Conner glared at Mattie and Claire.

  “And what then?” Claire asked the obvious question. “You would still be here in the past, interacting with ancient civilizations, disrupting the timeline.”

  “We simply planned to find a remote area and live out our days in peace, away from everyone,” Lenore said from the other side of the tent.

  “Our minimal actions would’ve had very little effect on the overall timeline,” Conner added. “If some archeologist found shell casings or other evidence of our presence in the distant future, so what? No one would believe him.”

  It was a reasonable plan for something put together so hastily at the last minute. And they nearly succeeded. Paulson and the others should consider themselves lucky to be alive, despite the casualties they’d taken.

  “So that was this attack. I assume this unholy cabal was also responsible for the bombing of Chronos One.”

  Several of the prisoners shook their heads. Two or three said that they’d never been to or even heard of Chronos One.

  “Don’t give me that crap,” Paulson spat out. “Who else could’ve done it?”

  “We barely had time to mount this assault and get through the vortex,” Senator Gordon said, his chains rattling as he shifted. “We know nothing about any attack on Chronos One.”

  “I didn’t even know there was another base,” Winchell said.

  Paulson stood, removing the knife from Conner’s throat. Now he was confused. He stepped back and surveyed the group, searching for explanations.

  Claire said, “Conner we know that you were the one that received the signal from the future com-link.”

  She'd told Paulson that information yesterday. Conner was the one she’d been trying to warn them about before they jumped.

  “We’re bac
k to you again, Conner,” Paulson said, pushing close to the scientist. “What did the message say?”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  Paulson squatted to look Conner in the eye.

  “Claire can extract the data using various invasive techniques. You won’t like them, and they could very well leave you drinking through a straw for the rest of your life, which will be very difficult since there are no straws in this world.”

  Conner gritted his teeth, but didn’t say a word.

  “Very well then. Claire.”

  “Don’t let that ungodly thing touch me!” Conner cried out. “I’ll tell you my entire story. But I want something in return.”

  His capitulation surprised Paulson. He thought for sure they would need to probe Conner’s mind to get anything out of him. His promise could be a ruse; Conner was certainly resourceful and cunning. And obviously skilled at hiding his intentions.

  “You’re in no position to bargain.”

  “But I am, Mr. Vice President. Do you want to constantly be looking over your shoulder, wondering if someone is going to kill you or sabotage this operation? You have enough to worry about here without that.”

  Paulson definitely did not want to be forever searching the shadows for saboteurs. If traitors lurked, stalking them, he wanted to know about them. He’d have to rely on Claire to know whether or not Conner was conning him.

  “Claire, is he telling the truth?”

  She stepped forward, inches away from Conner, grabbed his squirming wrist, and peered intently into his eyes.

  “Yes. With an accuracy of ninety-eight percent.”

  Paulson nodded. “Okay, Conner, you have my interest. What do you want?”

  He was sure Conner would ask for his freedom, or for freedom or leniency for his co-conspirators. That, however, was completely off the table. He would never allow them to go unpunished.

  “I want to leave a message in a time capsule for my wife. I don’t care what you do with me, but I want to try to save her in the future.”