by Mel Todd
"That is also where one of the tidal waves will impact. It should be there in an hour if the density and speed calculations are correct." Ash's' voice didn't provide relief, it just added to the guilt and stress wrapping her like a sticky cocoon.
Taking a deep breath she moved west and south, avoiding the lurid marks on the US. "South America? Which country is this?"
"Argentina," Toni said quietly next to her as she stepped up and traced over the spot. "This is lower Brazil, near Paraguay. While this one up here is Suriname. If the dots show the reach of the impact, that country is all but gone."
McKenna didn't know how she could keep breathing, why her heart didn't break, but she followed north, trying not see where the last few were. "This is Mexico, the middle, but I have no idea how close to anything that is."
Her eyes shut and she inhaled then forced herself to truly see the country hanging in front of her. "Southeast. Maybe Kentucky or Tennessee. This one is up near Minnesota. The last one is Nevada? Maybe Utah?"
As she finished listing the last of them, she just sighed. Her throat was so tight, it hurt. But her kids were safe. Her town and friends were safe. For now she would take what she could get.
"Ash, where are the other tidal waves going to hit, can you tell? Or put up here where they landed and where the waves are headed?"
Three bright white spots appeared on the view screen. One off the coast of Australia, one in the middle of the Atlantic, the other off the coast of Peru.
"So many lives," she breathed out. "How much time do they have?"
"The shortest about four hours, longest ten or more."
It meant she had a few more minutes. "Okay, we need to work on getting the people here off. The time pressure is off." Switching to Speech she checked in on Cass. ~How goes it? Still getting people out of there?~
~Yes. Our backlog is almost gone, but what was all that shaking about? I checked and everything looks fine down here, but that was unexpected.~
~Complications as usual. But it's done now. Keep it up, I'll explain in a bit.~ She refocused on the people in the room with her, specifically Rarz. Now that she could think, she thought about the ones that had been taken, slipping out of their hands as the invaders fled. But the ones that were on this ship still needed to be rescued.
"Rarz, once we empty this ship, can you create a portal to the other ships so we can do the same thing? Get our people back and rescue others?" As she spoke Ash went still, his tail as always giving away his emotion status by how still it held as they waited for Rarz to answer.
"That would be highly unlikely," he said slowly, his voice heavy and McKenna felt the weight drop back onto her shoulders. Her knees wanted to buckle it felt so impossible a weight to bear.
"Why not?" Her voice croaked as the words came out.
He titled his head, looking at her, but what caught her attention was the tail twitching towards Toni and Toni's absolute focus on him, her whiskers tight against her muzzle.
"Creating a portal between a ship and a planet, when you can all but see the ship from the planet, is challenging. To create a portal from a planet to a ship that I have no idea where it is? I do not think this is even possible. The universe is huge."
"But you do it blindly to other planets," Toni put in, her voice challenging, aggressive almost, but McKenna didn't care. How could they have come so close only to fail now?
"A planet is huge and has a center of gravity I can sense. When the connection is created it is that well of gravity I attach to. Even then we can test to see if there is atmosphere or if it is a habitable climate. Within sight I can estimate the same way I know how far to step. The ship took me a bit, but I could see it, and sense it, with its own gravity circling your planet. Now I have no idea where it is."
Toni subsided, but McKenna understood the urge to argue, to get him to agree. But arguing with physics usually meant you lost.
"So what are our options?" McKenna asked bleakly, feeling like she could sleep for a year.
"Options about what?" Rarz looked at her, his thick ridges of brows drawing down.
"Getting back our people. Stopping the Elentrin as a whole. Getting help. Making sure that this never happens to anyone again." She didn't care she didn't have authorization to say that. This could never happen again, and she needed to do what she could to prevent it.
"There are many, but they will take time and much planning. There is no easy answer that I am aware of."
McKenna nodded, a stiff move that felt like the weight of an invisible sword lay against her neck. "I need to talk to the people on the planet. Roark, will you come with me to head down to the surface? At least we have time to deal with the prisoners on this ship. But they need to know about the others; the ones I lost."
Roark looked at her, his eyes serious. "Yes. Want to head down there now?"
"This isn't something I want to tell them about remotely. Ash, can you get me the coordinates of where those asteroids landed and the time to tidal wave impact? I think they should already know this, but just in case?" Ash nodded and a minute later approached with a printout. It wasn't in English but she figured she could translate it when she got there. Nodding her thanks, she shoved it in a pocket in her kilt. "JD, Perc, will you guys watch the guests? Rarz, will you come with me and explain the issues? They’ll need reinforcement as to the truth of this reality."
Rarz lowered his head on that flexible neck. "As you request."
A horrible shudder shook the ship hard enough McKenna fell, narrowly missing hitting her head on a workstation. Thelia wasn't so lucky and her face slammed into one. McKenna cast her a glance at her outcry and saw blood streaming down from her nose, transfiguring the beauty into something out of an anime horror movie.
How can she look stunning covered with blood?
"What the hell was that?" The words were shouted over the sound of wailing alarms that cut through her skull with brutal pain.
Ash had also fallen, she realized the only person still standing was Rarz, who seemed to have centered his weight between his legs and tail.
"Must be nice," she muttered as she got back up, the deck still swaying alarmingly. "Ash? What just happened?" Images of spaceships blowing up from a hundred movies washed through her mind and she tried to banish them and not think about the thin metal between them and a quick death.
"One of the shuttles must have hit systems that smoldered for a while. That last explosion came from life support and canister control. Life support is failing, and we have approximately three of your hours left before oxygen will become an issue. While there are escape capsules, that would necessitate leaving the Kaylid here to die."
Before she could say anything, Cass's frantic thought burst in. ~Something's wrong, all the canisters are flashing red. They’re showing a countdown timer and I verified both control rooms are showing the same timers.~
~What do they say?~ JD asked before McKenna could, stress coating his thoughts.
~Essentially that all ship-based life support functions will stop in three days. There's a note that they’ll then go to backup power. I can't get them all out in three days. We only have one portal and not enough people to do it. We'd have to have full teams in here cracking them open to pull that off.~ Her tone wavered at the beginning, but the terror was there.
~Okay. Keep going as fast as you can. Give me a minute.~ McKenna turned to Ash. "You said there were escape pods. Have any been used?"
His tail twitched but he walked over to another console, touching icons. She followed him as he walked and saw Thelia standing upright, with blood staining the light green robe. It created streaks of darkness that felt off. Other than her bloody clothes and her the red and swollen nose, she still seemed unaffected by their imminent death.
Ash looked up from where he had moved. "Yes, about ten have been used. There were twenty Elentrin as crew on this ship, with the Ambassadors visiting occasionally. That means there are twelve left," he paused and looked around at the blood still on
the floor. "Make that eight."
"Make that three. We killed five. Two in a hallway and three in the engine room." She noticed Roark start when she said that, but the confusions she had felt then seemed a lifetime away.
Conscience is the first causality of war. Who said that? It is true, truer than I think I’ll ever be comfortable with.
~Cass?~
~Yeah, we all okay?~
~Not really. We need to step up the operation. I'm sending Toni and JD down to get the other rooms open, we need them running through that damn portal. And if I tell you to bail, you damn well better bail down that hole. You got it?~
~Kenna? What’s going on?~ Cass's tone felt stressed and tense.
~It doesn't matter. You shouldn't run into any more resistance. Get those rooms open and get people running into the portal if necessary." She turned to look at the others. "JD, Toni, Roark, you all head down there. Roark, Coran tell the powers that be what’s going on. Let them know about thee visitors earth is going to get. I'm assuming they can track these pods, but just in case they should know. But move it. And if you think this is going sideways, bail and bail fast, but rescue whoever you can. Roark, I need you to tell them I'll try to land in White Sands. It's the only place I know of that’s big enough to maybe handle this ship. It's the least likely to have people or houses around that I can take out. Make sure they understand I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never flown a spaceship before." She said all this out loud and via Speech.
People started to protest and she held up her hand. "I don't have time to argue. I have to stay here and Perc doesn't have kids. The rest of you need to get out no matter what, and Roark will have more weight with the military than I will. Every minute you argue with me is another person that we can't get out. Now GO!" Her voice echoed and after two long looks, JD and Toni took off at a run.
~Don't think this is over. I'm not leaving without you,~ the thought all but growled in her ear as JD left the room.
~I love you. But you need to be safe. Make sure Cass is too. She's good for you. Take care of my kids, please.~ And with those works McKenna shut down the connection, feeling JD and Toni pounding on it, but she kept the door shut tight.
She turned to Perc and forced a smile, exposing too many teeth. "If I just sentenced you to death, I'm sorry. But I can't hurt either of them more than they've already been hurt."
Perc crossed his massive arms over the furred chest and his eyes locked with hers. "No place else I'd rather be."
Chapter 38 - Falling to Earth
The pictures of aliens emerging from a portal supported by military personnel have gone viral. No one knows the source and the White House and other military sources are not responding to any questions. Where was this taken? What is this portal? Why are we helping the aliens trying to kill us? What is going on? What are the bright lights in the sky that have headed towards us? Are they alien missiles? Weapons?~TNN News
"Ash, is there something we can give our guest to knock her out?"
"I believe so, though I will need to run down to the medical center to obtain it." His reply started slow, though by the end of the sentence he sounded sure.
"Go get it. Perc, go with him please." They both nodded, Perc nodding her way before the door slid closed behind them.
"Rarz, how well can you control the portal from here? What happens once we get into the atmosphere? Does anything change? What if we crash? Can the portal be made big enough to set the ship down where I tell you?"
McKenna could have sworn his jaw dropped as he looked at her, shifting his weight back and forth. "Truly you humans think around things in ways that have never occurred to any of our people. I will be fascinated to see what long association will bring with it."
Mckenna shrugged. "Humans are weird and we do this sort of stuff. But now isn't the time to get into future possibility discussions. Back to the question, can you?"
His thick lids dropped to narrow slits, but he didn't seem to be looking at her, more like he was thinking. "The portal should be stable until the bulk of this planet interferes. While normally we can flex around planets or stars, this is too short a distance to do that and the tunnel is too active. The atmosphere won't make a difference as vacuum and planet are the same, it isn't a physical construct but a metaphysical connection."
Damn, there went one idea. Though the idea of this being metaphysical like some sort of astral projection is very disconcerting.
She felt Wefor hum a bit as he talked, but she didn't say anything or ask questions.
"If the tunnel were still active while we crashed, and I was not killed instantly the explosion would travel along the path of the tunnel until my death collapsed it – I believe. That has never been tested, though there is one story of lava coming through a tunnel when it was accidentally connected to a volcano. It killed the Drakyn involved and the tunnel then collapsed. The process was never repeated. But it is known that heat and energy can travel via the tunnels."
That’s good to know and gives me some ideas, but for later.
"Go on," she urged. The blinking lights and low-level alarms felt like ants on her skin, distracting and annoying but not painful.
"In theory," he closed his eyes for a minute, "yes, the math backs up the theory that while it would be possible to make the portal big enough, the velocity would not slow, which means the ship would exit the portal at the same velocity it entered." He paused again, his eyes closing for a count of ten then he opened them all the way looking at her. "Though the math game agrees that it might be an interesting experiment and a way to travel across the stars via ships. This is a wonderful idea you have brought to us." He seemed excited as he talked.
McKenna locked down her thoughts tight. ~Wefor, do you have any idea who he is talking to?~
[There is no transmission registering. Immediate response no one, but he does act as if he has been given information.]
~Add it to the list please?~
[Topic added.]
"So we do this the hard way. Great. Rarz please make sure we close the portal before we enter the atmosphere. I have no idea what’s going to happen but I'm not going to risk the deaths of the people on the ground as we do this. They should have White Sands ready for us by the time we land, but either way that area is sparsely populated."
The soft chime and slide of the doors pulled her attention to the back of the room, her body ready to attack, since they still didn't know where everyone was. Perc and Ash came back in with a large bag in each hand.
"Medical supplies. I'll dose our guest." Perc said, walking towards the captain's office, opening the bag as he did. "They have the coolest injectors. Stuff totally out of the sci-fi movies."
"While he ensures the remaining officer is sedated, I will access the escape pod." Ash walked over to one of the walls that McKenna had glanced at and ignored. It had several large ovals on it, as did another wall on the opposite side. Five ovals about six foot by two foot in size, though she realized now they all had two blinking lights on them, one yellow and one blue.
Ash walked over and pressed the blue one. For once something behaved exactly as she expected. A hiss of compressed air and it slid up, revealing a small chamber with a seat on each side. Harnesses secured to the wall and gauges, currently dark, completed it. It reminded her of the seats the astronauts had used in the Apollo missions. Granted she'd only seen them in movies and pictures, but it had that feel.
Perc walked out carrying an unconscious woman. "That stuff works fast. Counted to ten and she was down. We need to look into their drugs, this stuff is incredible. Ash was telling me she'll wake up in about ten hours with less than five minutes of being disoriented."
McKenna stepped back out of the way so they could strap her into the chamber. "Absolutely. If we get this down in one piece there might be that opportunity. Ash, you will stay, right? I don't think we have a chance without you." McKenna knew she had the manpower to force him to stay, but if she didn't have to, she'd rather avoid seeing how
far she would go to pull this off.
"Your species is my—our—best chance. If you die on this ship everything was for nothing and I would rather die than continue. Besides," he glanced around the ship, "I think my position has been made known."
McKenna gave him a sad smile, though she realized it probably didn't translate properly in this form. "We would say all your bridges are burned."
Ash thought and nodded. "That is accurate."
"Your language is so colorful, it makes me wonder sometimes." Thelia's voice, while not loud, cut through the clamor of the alarms.
"What do you mean?" McKenna looked at the enigma that stood in their midst, not able to trust her, but having no choice.
"What else we might have discovered if our culture, my people, could see past a hatred over something that happened hundreds of reyan ago? Something most of us believe falsehoods about anyhow." A melancholy note crept into her tone, then she shook her entire body making her fur ruffle. "So now what, oh mighty leader?"
"Where did you want this pod to go?" Ash asked and McKenna blinked, trying to remember.
~Wefor, what were the coordinates for Quantico? The large courtyard?~
[Looking.] A hum that she felt more than heard and then Wefor responded. [38°33′4″N 77°25′50″W]
"Once more," Ash said as he typed on a pad inside the door, but on the outside of the pod. Wefor repeated it while McKenna watched Thelia.
Ash stepped back from the pod and hit a button on the inside and it closed. When it clicked, he pressed and held the yellow button for a long breath. A soft chime just at the top of her hearing over the alarms sounded.
