“Excuse me.” Alec bumped into a technician pushing a cart filled with electronics.
“I wonder what’s going on.” Clay said as they walked upstream through a crowded corridor.
“I’ve never seen the base this busy. It’s like rush hour.” Alec sidestepped two people as he tried keeping up with Clay.
“The operations room is this way.” Clay made a sharp left down a side corridor that was just as crowded. Alec dropped even further behind as he got caught on the wrong side of a desk sized floating food platform being pushed by one of cafeteria workers.
He grabbed one of the pastries on it. “Thanks Mary.” He said. She gave him a wink.
“Do you really think he’ll give us a ship?” Alec asked finally catching up to Clay taking a bite of the raspberry Danish. After returning from their disaster of a meeting with the Kan-ji, all Alec and Clay could think of was to join their wives; and not just to wait for their kids to escape, but to attempt a rescue… and they needed a ship.
“I guess we’ll find out.” Clay pushed open the door to the operation room. It was filled with people. Most sat at desks, working on laptops, computers and communications equipment. They were the same people Clay and Alec had gotten to know over the past weeks. Large monitors along the walls showed news channels along with video communications.
“Dolores!” Clay said looking at a large monitor next to Joshua. Alec looked up to see Jodi and Dolores talking with Joshua.
“Oh, hi Clay.” Dolores replied as he stepped next to Joshua.
Alec hurried to stand next to them. “Hi Alec.” Jodi said as he entered her view.
Joshua greeted them with a smile. “I was expecting you.”
“We want a ship.” Clay got right to the point.
“Sure. I’ve got one ready for you.” Joshua answered.
“Huh?” His answer caught Alec by surprise.
“Alec.” Jodi said excitedly looking down at him from the monitor. “We’ve just talked with the kids. They’re OK and together. They’re planning on escaping.”
“Did they say how?” Clay asked.
“We couldn’t talk very long. They called us for another reason. We’ve just been discussing it with Joshua.” Dolores answered.
“I’ll explain it to you while I show you you’re ship.” Joshua told them. “Girls, will you excuse us?” He said to their images.
“OK, talk to you later.” They said together and the monitor went blank.
“What’s with all the activity?” Alec asked as Joshua guided them out. Joshua pointed to one of the monitors. On it was a view of the giant Seeker ship. Around it, groups of dots were moving, like clouds of insects. Alec and Clay stepped up to them for a closer look.
“Oh no.” Clay said.
“Look!” Alec pointed to another monitor showing the news. Behind the anchorman the same scene of the seeker ship was shown. “How are they getting that video? I know it’s coming from the ANIMUS. Are they hacking us?”
“We’re streaming it on the web. In fact we’re making public most of the data we’re collecting.” Joshua said. “Follow me, I’ll fill you in.” He rushed them out of the room.
“Were those ships?” Clay asked.
“Yes. Your wives told us that Jessie found that the Kan-ji are planning an invasion. Those pictures confirm it.”
“Who are we flying out there with?” Alec asked, expecting they’d be flying with a squadron.
Joshua didn’t answer right away as they worked their way through the crowded corridors on their way to the hanger. “You’re not going to the seeker ship. I’ve got other plans for you.” He finally said.
“We need to rescue our kids. With all those ships out there I think we could sneak in during all the confusion. Maybe we can get some help from Eugene.” Clay said.
Joshua remained silent while they neared the once secured hanger doors that were now propped open. A constant stream of people came and went carrying, pushing and pulling all sorts of equipment and devices. Once inside, they found the hanger abuzz with activity. The hundreds of ships that were in pieces just a few short weeks ago were now whole again; shimmering with their new coverings of anti-gravity blankets. Many were flying in and out through a large opening in the ceiling.
Looking around Alec observed. “Even with all these ships, I still find it hard to believe we could make a dent against their firepower.”
“We do have a couple of more bases like this one.” Joshua told them.
“A what?” Alec stopped and stared at him. Clay did the same. He should’ve known. Joshua always had a backup plan, why wouldn’t he have a backup base. Even though he understood Joshua’s intent, he still felt hurt his technology was being shared with strangers.
“Well... more like three.” Joshua corrected.
“That gives us more than a thousand ships.” Alec said wishing the number was more like ten thousand.
“Fifteen hundred.” Joshua corrected him again.
“How come I didn't know about these other bases?” Clay quipped. Alec grinned at the thought that Clay had been one-upped by Joshua. He knew Clay prided himself at knowing everything that went on at the base.
“Sorry about that, but we monitored all your activities. We simply made that information available to our other bases. I have very little contact with them.” Joshua said. Alec watched Clay’s expression go from angry to hurt to just accepting the fact that Joshua was right in doing what he did.
“Same with you Alec, we passed along your designs and modifications. We also needed to transfer some of your engineers and techs.” he looked at him. “You see, we needed each of these bases to be run independently. We're preparing for the worst, and if any one base is compromised, we need the others to stay operational.”
“We’re just concerned about our families.” Clay said flatly.
“Are fifteen hundred ships enough to take them out?” Alec asked.
“The military told us to stay out of this.” Joshua said. “For now, our job is to collect intelligence and do reconnaissance.”
“Are you actually going to follow their orders?” Clay asked.
“For now… we need time to retrofit all our ships with the Alec-Blasters.” Joshua said.
“What?” Alec said. It was his latest invention, built on a similar concept of the weapon he gave Jessie. “I thought there were only a couple of prototypes made. Didn’t we decide that they weren’t ready for use?” He asked nervously.
“Sorry Alec, but they’re in production and being installed as we speak.” Joshua said.
“That’s not good.” Alec recalled their initial tests. He never expected the devastation… especially from a low power test. After they had fired at a burned out vehicle, the glowing blast didn’t dissipate after destroying it like they expected… the small glowing ball continued traveling until taking out a large chunk of a mountain a quarter mile away. They named the hole in the mountain ‘Alec’s Pass’. Worst of all they named his gravity pulse weapon the ‘Alec-Blaster’. “I thought we decided that there was too much chance of collateral damage.”
“Stan figured out how to control its range.” Joshua said. “We ran a few more tests.”
Alec shook his head. “I thought you weren’t going to do any more tests on Earth... we agreed that if we were going to do more tests, we’d do it in space, where we couldn’t do much damage.”
“Don’t worry, we did. You’re looking at the test vehicle.” He said as they stepped into a natural alcove at the back of the cavernous hanger.
Alec expected to see another of the modified shuttle busses like the one their wives were given, but instead he saw a World War II bomber. Clay brightened and immediately walked around examining it.
“This is a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar.” He said in awe. “I’ve read about them, but never seen one in person… sweet.”
“You’ve got a good eye.” Joshua smiled proudly. “I found it in an old aircraft boneyard. We replac
ed the engines with weapons and radar…. and cut down the wings. It’s the best craft we have.”
Alec looked at the old plane. It was large, with twin tail sections extending back from the wing engines. The main fuselage was monstrous, shaped like a giant elongated egg. There were also four small turrets, two on top and two on the bottom along with clusters of missiles mounted to the wings.
“I don’t recall turrets on this model.” Clay examined one of the small three foot round dark glass bubbles attached to the crafts bottom side.
“Alec-Blasters.” Joshua said.
“Nice. Four of them I see. That should give us plenty of firepower.” Clay said admiringly.
“Would you like a tour of the REFLECTION?” He opened the side door of its huge main fuselage. “At one time it could have held over sixty passengers, we modified it and added a galley, a bathroom and some cabins. Even with all these amenities, there’s still plenty of room left in the cargo bay.” Joshua said as they walked down the hallway separating the cargo area from the pilot’s cabin.
“Very impressive.” Clay said sticking his head in the pilot’s cabin.
The inside reminded Alec of an over-sized RV. “What made you build this?” The detailing of the ship was impressive. Everything, from the interior’s wood trim to the artfully painted name on the outside must have taken months… or even longer.
“This was to be my command ship. It was our first project.” Joshua sounded regretful.
“Nice, real nice.” Alec said sitting at the galley’s dinner table. “So what is going on? What’s our mission?”
Joshua sat at the other side of the ample galley table. Clay leaned against the counter. “Your kids told us more than just about the pending invasion.”
Alec gave all his attention as Clay sat next to him.
“First I need to give you a little background.” Joshua started. “Do you remember that listening device your wives and Sheldon attached to that Seeker ship?”
Alec nodded. Clay folded his hands in front of him while waiting for Joshua to continue.
“As you know, we’ve found that the Kan-ji technology is in general, not as advanced as ours. As a matter of fact, we have found that it’s quite a bit more primitive.” Joshua paused letting it sink in.
“I’ve wondered that myself.” Clay said. “I’ve yet to see anything impressive from them, other than those oversized ships.”
Alec nodded in agreement. “But they must have a power source we’re not aware of. If you think about it, mankind’s main limitation to space travel has been not having enough power to leave Earth’s gravitational pull.”
“Right, we saw the power of those spacecraft.” Clay added.
“I wondered what was fueling them.” Alec looked at Joshua for the answer.
“I can’t tell you that.” He told him. “But we have found they have a kind of transport technology. Jessie called it a portal.”
“That makes sense. If they could continually transport fuel to those ships, they wouldn’t need to carry its extra weight.” Alec sat back thinking. “Those ships we saw gathering about that Seeker ship. If they’re arriving through those portals, that pretty much gives them an unlimited supply.”
Joshua nodded. “We will need to target that Seeker ship to defeat them.”
“No! Not with the girls on board!” Clay stood.
“We won’t until they are safe. But we can’t stop the military.” Joshua said gently.
“What?” Alec asked.
“The military is planning on sending nukes.” Joshua told him.
Alec and Clay sat in silence. “We need to rescue the girls.” Alec concluded.
“I don’t think you need to worry…yet. We estimate it will take at least a day to prepare the missiles, and about 2 more to reach the moon. Also, those missiles won’t be cloaked and will likely have radio telemetry which the Kan-ji seem to be adept at tracking… and mostly, I’m not sure if the nukes would do that Seeker ship any damage.” Joshua smiled. “…and I doubt they could get past our own ships.”
Alec and Clay relaxed somewhat.
“But if they have that portal technology, why do they need ships?” Clay asked.
“I can’t tell you details. My only guess is that they need ships to carry the portals, or at least start them.” Joshua answered. “Actually, we’ve found it strange that the Kan-ji have never tried trading with Earth for any perishables. Now that Jessie told us that the ships inventories and personnel are continually being replenished and refreshed through the portals…. well now it all makes sense.”
“Inventories? How did you get their inventories?”Clay asked.
“We need to thank Sheldon and Ernie for their little escapade getting that secret communications equipment. Once set up on the surface of the seeker ship, it allowed us to monitor their internal communications… even hack into their computers. We’ve found them extremely primitive and oddly enough, not very secure. They must not have discovered viruses yet.”
“So you learned all of that from their inventory databases? How were you able to translate them?” Alec asked.
“Ernie’s been downloading the ships computer cores… he has his own little Internet army and they’ve been busy translating… on-line. The only problem is there’s no keeping it secret.” Joshua answered.
“So what’s our assignment?” Clay fidgeted.
“Jessie found they are opening a portal on the outskirts of our solar system. It seems to be a big one. Its purpose is to bring in more Seeker ships… and fleets.” Joshua said.
“Why? It would seem that they could do the job with what they have from that one Seeker.” Clay wondered.
“That, I cannot tell you.” Joshua said. “I also don’t know why it’s being set up so far away. But it does give us an advantage… we can stop them before they can open it.”
“So that’s our assignment.” Alec concluded. “But why us?”
“You know the directions. Besides, we need our best pilots here on Earth.” Joshua answered.
“Directions?” Clay asked.
Joshua looked at Alec. “We believe Jessie gave us coordinates. She said you would understand.” He pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket. “She said ‘Sheldon’s welcome to go to Stan’s office at noon on July first.’”
Alec paused in thought then began laughing. “We’re going to need some maps of the solar system… no, better yet, a planetarium program… but we should be able to figure it out.”
“What does it mean?” Clay asked.
“Sheldon MOON.” Alec was surprised only he thought of it. He felt a connection with Jessie knowing that their minds worked so much alike.
“Moon? Oh yea… well no.” Clay said shaking his head. “So what? The moon isn’t anywhere near the outskirts of the solar system.”
Alec smiled. ‘Good’ he thought. Jessie’s little puzzle was enough to confuse Clay and Joshua which means it might be good enough to fool any Kan-ji that might have intercepted it. “The moon is the starting point; the origin. ‘Welcome’ is the welcome sign of the lobby at GraviTych while Stan’s office is… well, Stan’s office. That is the direction... or the vector we follow. We just need a starting point, and that’s the moon. Since the moon is constantly moving, we also need a start time.”
“So that’s the significance of noon on July first” Joshua smiled.
“Right, the Earth is spinning and traveling around the sun. So the vector is constantly changing direction. Noon on July first locks the vector in place. We take that directional vector and place it where the moon will be on that day, and head in that direction.”
“That sounds interesting, but…” Clay said gently.
“But what?” Alec looked curiously at him.
“Jessie said that? Didn’t she have… well, trouble with math? I mean, that’s a pretty sophisticated set of instructions. Anyway, how would she know the position of Earth and the moon and GraviTych on noon of July first?”
&
nbsp; Alec had thought about that and about how much she seemed to have changed when they last met. There was something about her that had grown. He trusted her. “I don’t know, but I know she’s right.” He said confidently.
“Well, let’s figure out our direction and get going then.” Clay nodded. “I believe we have a portal to blow up.”
Chapter 29 ~ It Begins
Alec's Dream Page 63
