"What exactly are E-2 and E-4 platforms?" Greer snarls, perturbed by the mini-lecture on unfamiliar weapons.
"Systems we don't talk about. It's top secret, need to know," Metz counters with equal passion.
"Not any longer," Wilford steps in. "Do we have them in production?" Wilford interjects, ignoring the spiritual comparison. "I've never heard of them."
"They're not yet available for field use," Metz replies.
"Then what are you talking about, Metz?" Greer snarls.
"Skunk works, gentlemen, but I can assure we have working prototypes at Area-51. We haven't tested them with humans but they work. They're powerful and dangerous."
Greer isn't convinced. "What components are in these new devices? How can hand-held units be so dangerous?"
"Components aren't new, Director. For E-4's most of what's needed include electrolyte capacitors, microwave transformers, copper coils, and triggers. The rest depends on software and middleware. For E-2, we need a nuclear device."
Zote listens to the bantering as the debate begins ramping. "I will study your devices, Dr. Metz," the android interrupts. "If it needs adjustments, I will make them and use it against Cyborg. It is weapon systems unknown to Creators."
"Absolutely not; why risk you taking on Cyborg directly, Zote? That makes no sense to me," Wilford retorts. "You're not expendable. If damaged, who's going to fly Navi?"
"I will train Billy," Zote answers matter of fact. "His brain can absorb complexities of interstellar navigation and he is young."
Billy Goddard blushes at John Myers as Zote makes his case, the suggestion one Wilford jots down as something to remember. "That's fine if Billy agrees, but we're talking about disabling Cyborg to confiscate Navi, not flying it. Billy can't help do that."
"Then I will take my translator to deploy them," Zote answers. "It is now expendable."
"I thought EMPs weren't harmful to humans," Wilford counters.
"Most aren't if away from the blast but this one can be dangerous to humans and machines, sir," Metz explains. "Results on monkeys and mice suggest human left-hemisphere processes are at risk of short-circuiting the brain and interfering with logic. It also causes severe muscle spasms and central nervous system distortions."
"What's the primary purpose of this weapon?" Wilford follows. "It sounds diabolical."
"It's intended for limited, targeted use against invading forces. For example, if North Korean troops flood the DMZ we'd deploy E-4s across designated areas that stop initial waves before the tank and artillery battles ensue. Think of it as virtual walls that don't rely on banned toxins like Sarin, Anthrax, and Cyanide. Yet, it's equally effective against machinery with memory chips, controllers, batteries, diodes, capacitors, sensors, and other vulnerable components."
"All right, you and Zote get together on EMPs," Wilford decides, "but I don't want friendly fire issues. Find a way of using it when our troops aren't in danger. I want our troops engaging Cyborg first. If you have to use the minion then so be it but Zote is off the table for now."
Chapter Sixteen
Rubber meets the road
he more quality time spent with the Area-51 and Global Space teams gives the alien android increasing confidence the path forward is the best way to save the dwindling family of Creators. The revolutionary machine's artificial intelligence, far exceeding Earth's progress, is diligent giving Metz optimal effort. As Zote gains experience with human language, nuances, phrases, and ingenuity that seem unlimited like his brain, the android's resolve grows to defeat the menace. Seeing these gifted scientists and engineers, disinterested in power, fame, control, or dominance, demonstrating mathematical and scientific prowess provides assurance Creators might someday flourish boosted by medical skills the robot knows lags on U-tom, perhaps the key cultural gap between these opposing civilizations.
The bulky giant is especially encouraged by the cognitive youngest member, Billy Goddard, a small humanoid with infectious can-do ideas and positive attitudes. Discussing how to defeat the alien cloaking device, Zote points to mathematical edits for complicated differential and matrix formulas Billy had written on a large whiteboard several hundred miles away that magically appears on the board at Area-51. With the X-37D sitting in background of the underground open environment at Area-51, Billy pauses as Zote edits portions of his formulas and matrices then makes corrections like a professor reviewing student work. Metz, Myers, and team watch, a few in Arizona recalling Billy's famous dissertation once thought to be silly science fiction. His thesis entitled Cloaking Devices, Electromagnetic Wormholes, and Transformation Optics has the Global Space Director smiling as the unlikely remote pair exchange ideas. The android's edits show how radar waves hitting the left side of the spaceship bend, leaving the right side cloaked as if the obstacle isn't there inside a protective spinning vortex. Essentially hidden inside the cloaked space thanks to pentamode metamaterials, primarily elastic tensor with one non-zero eigenvalue and five vanishing eigenvalues, it's immediately clear to Billy that tiny copper wires embedded in fiberglass could produce similar electromagnetic waves. Gradually, Metz, Myers, and others realize that pentamode shapes can defeat existing radar systems regardless of variety. It's also clear the alien spaceship's three-dimensional structure, despite being solid, behaves like translucent fluid inside the cloak. Upon Zote adding final touches for Hooke's Law, Voight notation, and lengthy Cartesian coordinate matrices on the whiteboard, Billy's jaw finally sags as his adaptive brain zeroes in. Noting similarities with other known physical laws such as fluid motion, dielectric polarization, and electrical fields, light bulbs go on ahead of others watching the painful mental gymnastics. Soon after, Billy is drawing on another whiteboard a complicated schematic of mass suspended by harmonic oscillators, subject matter familiar in quantum mechanics. Stepping away from the board and recalling an article penned in the mid-1920s by genius Nikola Tesla, it's apparent to him that earthquake detection engineered for space could defeat cloaking if electromagnetic vibrations, caused by the alien device, are captured.
"How long would it take building this device?" Metz says to the vastly underpaid employee at Global Space. "We have zero time for development."
Billy Goddard zeroes in on Zote then relays his best guess to the elite audience, one he feels grateful to be a member. "Most of what's needed is in place, Dr. Metz. I could have it ready in a day or two with Zote's help."
"Two days? How big is the device you have in mind, Billy? Space is limited on the X-37 with six to eight troops aboard," Bobby Rafferty cautions. "And don't forget, Zote is going along as well."
"It's not big, Bobby. I'd guess no more than a hundred pounds. Bouncing signals against solid material, metamaterial or not, isn't what will find Cyborg based on Zote's revised mathematics. Instead, we'll be looking for a seemingly invisible vortex around the ship that's white noise to existing radar. My guess it'll be like neon signs once we have it since invisible vortexes aren't common close to Earth."
"All right, Billy," Metz grimaces, "where are you heading with this discussion? Imagine I'm at square one. Describe in detail the device we're talking about."
"Sure; invisible magnetic fields aren't new so think of it as radial anti-wormholes." Metz and Myers rolls eyes as Billy's initial statement dazzles minds. "What the alien ship creates with the cloaking device are tunnels, similar to what superconductors do by distorting or bending charged particles. The new device, I have in mind, is a three-layer globe: two concentric spheres and interior spiral cylinder center," Billy explains using hand motions. "Its inner circle will be ferromagnetic material like iron, cobalt, or nickel. It'll need a thin shell coating of high-temperature superconducting yttrium barium copper oxide. The final shell, mostly nickel-iron alloy, is set inside in a liquid-nitrogen bath. When magnetic fields are detected on one end of the device and match one at the other end, we'll have lock on the ship's position."
"I don't know of any device like that," Metz argues. "Where do we look?"
&
nbsp; Billy pauses as the question sinks in. "What we're building is a miniature MRI machine, fellows, with a few radical reengineered modifications. Units that image mice are all we need to start working."
"How will you keep it cold?" Bobby weighs in. "I thought MRI machines need extreme cold."
"Same way hospitals do it, Bobby; we'll use liquid helium. The lab has plenty of it."
"Where is this device going to be inside X-37 to be effective? Ruptures could endanger the troops," Myers warns.
"It'll be outside, boss, atop the X-37. It has to be outside to collect the purest signals. Inside poses too many problems with internal system disturbance and interference."
"All right, make a detailed list of what's needed and I'll get them by the time you arrive," Metz replies. "Time is wasting. Oh and by the way Billy: great job, kid. When can you get him here, John?" he asks Myers.
"No problem; we have special access to an Apache. He'll be on it within the hour," Myers answers leaving Billy perplexed by the sudden decision.
Andromedan Spaceship
Parked in the exosphere, an outer extremely hot and cold thin fifth layer of Earth's atmosphere four-hundred miles high, Cyborg deploys numerous external work crews to fix hull damage. Picked as safe distance from orbiting objects, the biomechanical creature finds comfort with radiation pressure from sunlight exerting more force on hydrogen atoms than Earth's gravity. Meanwhile, Cyborg readies war-bots and shuttle pods that will carry the invasion force to the surface. Expecting heavy resistance at first until dominating its weaker population, onboard rhenium-based crystal computers decide on four heavily populated areas to begin the war upon detailed scans.
With the square-shaped mobile tactical war-bots resting on moving tracks, teams of lab minions prepare the huge fighting machines with defensive platforms, plasma weaponry, hypertherm cutting torches, and armor tracks to increase mobility. Ultra-lightweight metamaterial aerogel armor protection, based on odd geometric shapes supported by equilateral triangles, provide space-age shields from enemy projectiles that happen to break through. Internal radioactive diamond batteries will be super-charged giving the thirty-foot monsters extra staying power should the war exceed expected timelines. Massive legs, necks, and limbs will gain dexterity and flexibility once at full power. Bioengineered synthetic veins throughout solid frames will stimulate artificial brains, controllers, filters, and central processors making the machines seem invincible to humans.
Central Command
As the massive Pentagon operation on war footing feed designated ground base commanders around the country with the latest intelligence, it's unclear how best to deploy forces across the United States given three thousand miles of assorted terrain and logistical nightmares. Relying on Zote's caution for defending heavy populated areas, military strategists are in a quandary how to minimize civilian losses in early action. Alien machines landing in New York City, Chicago, or Dallas could kill huge numbers in minutes before resistance takes form. With top commanders meeting in the White House bunker, Wilford calls the sobering pre-war meeting to order.
"All right; let's get started," Jack Wilford tells participants including key cabinet officials and staff. "Where do we stand protecting our people?"
The Secretary of Defense begins once Wilford sits. Moving to the front with interactive LED-touch screens, Bull Greer watches as the United States map, complete with elevations, cities, and military information appears on the digital smart screen. "What we have on the board is a plan placing rapid deployment forces across the country with heavy focus on large cities. Some more obvious locations, such as New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles already have company-strength mechanized units in place. Other cities are being determined as we speak. Once we know where they land, resources will shift using C-130s."
Hitting a virtual button at one side of the map pulls up a list of men and materials deployed in Chicago. Greer hesitates as this and other large city plans unravel with real time updates. "Based on what the android told us, we split Delta and Seal teams to spearhead efforts in each metropolitan area, supported largely by Marines, Army Rangers, Green Berets, Seals, and SWAT. Forces are deployed in five separate locations per metro so counter-offenses can commence once war-bots land. Initial focus is to destroy shuttles so Cyborg can't recall his monsters. Once here, we'll be fighting until shuttles and war-bots are destroyed."
President Wilford stops DoD Secretary Greer as the Joint Chiefs prepare weighing in, each of the seven men assigned plans per location. "Before moving on, gentlemen, what's the initial assessment of civilian losses? I assume your teams will wage war with that in mind."
Greer's sick grin at Wilford suggests the President is hoping for the best instead of focusing on reality. "Zote gave thorough review of war-bot capabilities, Mr. President. Make no mistake, civilians and soldiers will die in huge numbers. There's no way of moving populations and we really don't know where in Dallas, for example, shuttles will land. Maybe, it sets down in Frisco, Plano, or Fort Worth. This single Metroplex is ten-thousand square miles," Bull Greer explains drilling down into the city showing major suburbs and population totals, "so it'd be mistakes assuming where the battle starts. Until shuttles land, we'll hold A-10s, Apaches, F22s, and F-35s back. Zote said war-bots will make painful impressions on leadership right away. Our resolve must not waver based on casualties and troops will be in harms way soon as possible."
"What happens once shuttles are destroyed?" Wilford follows. "How long before our troops engage these robotic creatures?"
"Depends how long war-bots hang around shuttles. We'll not stick men in too close until our pilots are finished. Besides, Zote thinks war-bots will begin laying waste to humans immediately. They won't spend time defending landing craft; that's a sign of uncertainty. If that happens, both efforts will be simultaneous."
Chapter Seventeen
Alien Spacecraft
hile patient deciding the best time to confiscate the planet from humans, Cyborg finishes final touches on his overall strategy once the hull is deemed safe. Almost six weeks since the enemy damaged Navi, the careful bio-engineered entity contrasts his battle plan with stored conflicts provided by Creators as means to stress test decisions. Giving Cyborg clearance to launch war-bots, perhaps the single most ruthless destructive force created by Creators out of necessity, not preference, is about to begin. Programmed not to negotiate, retreat, show mercy, or capitulate, humans are about to face immovable objects that will not quit.
Though a simple plan based on U.S. Army War College procedures, rules, conduct, and standards, Cyborg's design relies on installing four mobile war-bots once landing zones clear using lethal plasma bursts fired from the mother ship. Sending war-bots to the surface one by one, Cyborg ensures the single-minded machines have adequate space to spread destruction across vast areas before moving to the next city. Though unsure what the enemy will throw at war-bots, Cyborg is determined to eliminate immediate threats using accurate pulse weapons ten miles above the surface. Once each landing zone is clear of hostile threats, aliens will move to the next city for another beachhead.
Standing in the largely automated bridge with several minions monitoring gauges as the massive five-tier spaceship revs engines and begins edging closer to the ultimate prize, minions feeding Cyborg specifications and threat assessments of orbiting objects along the path, ones to destroy based on input related to communication signals, potential weaponry, and engineering complexity.
At four hundred miles above the surface, a large shiny object appears below that Cyborg decides will be the first casualty of war. Approximately fifty miles away, Cyborg prepares to eliminate what flight minions describe as a silver tube-shape communication device with wings. Despite lack of thrusters or engines based on reliable scans alien project on a screen for Cyborg to study, the commander agrees about its probable importance for military applications. Instructing forward minions to activate the particle beam weapon, Cyborg man
euvers Navi until perched twenty-five miles away. Once cloaking is off line, Cyborg releases a short plasma burst that strikes the enemy object with brutal clarity.
Global Space Company, Arizona
Telemetry specialist and engineer, Bobby Rafferty, is startled when the uncloaked alien ship appears on deep space radar tracking screens. Based on feeds from several satellites he immediately informs his team then alerts Richard Metz at Area-51. Soon after, the White House East Wing bunker is contemplating where Cyborg is heading first.
"We expect Cyborg to begin taking out assets," Greer tells meeting participants including key White House staff and part of the Joint Chiefs. "That's what we would do."
"Which assets?" Wilford says nervously. "How many did we take offline so far?"
"Not enough," Greer answers. "Cyborg made repairs faster than Zote estimated. We must assume this is it. I'll get as many probes and satellites offline by tonight. People are going to have fits when televisions, phone lines, and internet signals drop. It might cause bank runs despite warnings."
"Nothing we can do about it," Wilford sighs. "We have National Guard units and cops on the streets. Let Homeland know I want red alert and make sure our pilots are ready. Clear the continental airspace as well. No more take-off from any airport. Soon as shuttles land, I want them engaged."
"How are you able to track Navi?" Wilford says to staff via the video feed from Global Space Company. "Is cloaking not working?"
The Alien Creator Page 14
