The Circle

by Harold R Watson

  This development left us completely on our own to fight off the Atlantean’s Arma da. After all these additional forces landed on the enemy’s moon base, they had renewed confidence that they could wipe us out before the summer was over. Their new Commander sent us a message. He introduced himself. His name was familiar to us.

  “Greetings people of Earth. This is Marvin Roberts. I’m back!! And, I’m pissed!” he said emphasis added.

  “You thought you finished me years ago when you blew the hell out of that cave back on that little planet in the neutral zone. Well, I don’t kill so easy. Now it’s your turn to suffer my wrath as I get my revenge.”

  “The only thing that might save your hides is a complete and unconditional surrender now. We’ll give you twenty-four hours to give your answer. We won’t give you the option go back to Starsis like my predecessor offered.”

  You will become our prisoners and we will train you for your new positions as our slaves. If we don t have your unconditional surrender by then, we will launch so many forces that we will blow you off the face of the earth in spite of your star gates. It is foolhardy to resist us.

  Oh by the way, don t expect any reinforcements. We ve already defeated them on our way here. They afforded us very little resistance with their puny little forces. The ones we didn t destroy ran like scared mice back to their holes. Enjoy your final hours of freedom if you surrender and your final hours of life if you don t.

  If you decide to force us to attack, we will take no prisoners. Your warriors, your women, and children will all die. Good night and sleep tight. I ll call you tomorrow for your decision.

  Tess looked and me and said: He s pissed! He doesn t know what pissed is! I ll have an answer for him but he wont like it!

  I love Tess when she gets an idea. I knew she must have one but I had no way of knowing what it might be. I guess I ll find out in the morning along with everyone else.

  CHAPTER 20-DOOMSDAY MACHINE

  “Remember the secret project the scientists had been working on in our secret base. We’re going to test it tonight when the moon is full,” Tess said as she looked at me.

  “Now can you tell me what this weapon is?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” she answered, “but you can go with me to help us set it up.”

  “I don’t even know how to get to the base,” I said.

  “Lucky for us, I do,” she said. “Come on, we don’t have any time to waste,” she said as she grabbed my hand. “Put on your flight suit and hurry!” she told me.

  She was already wearing hers. She drove us to where THE TOY was waiting and we went aboard. She took off and flew out into the sunset over the lake until she reached a place where she dove the bird into the water at a rather steep angle.

  THE TOY changed from a flying machine into a submarine as she made her way to the room with the locks that I remembered from long ago when we first left Earth.

  Once inside the locks, the top panel closed and the water was pumped out leaving THE TOY resting on a platform with was lowered into the entrance to the secret base.

  There, we were greeted by Dr. Collins. He drove us to the place where the project was located. Tess had already made him aware of the graveness of our situation with the Atlanteans including their ultimatum that we make a complete and unconditional surrender within twenty-four hours or face annihilation.

  We were down to twenty-two hours now.

  Is it ready? she asked.

  I just need to run up the probe and point it, he answered. Once I do that, I will need to adjust the transmitter power, he said.

  What is it, some kind of jamming devise? I asked.

  You might say th at, Dr. Collins laughed. It ll jamb alright.

  While you two take it to the island, I will bring THE TOY and meet you there, she told us.

  Let s get it to the locks, she said.

  With that, we all climbed aboard and sat in the seats that Dr. Collins pointed us to and he began to drive this big machine toward the locks.

  Tess left us to board THE TOY while Dr. Collins and I remained on the machine. Soon the machine became a submarine and we headed for the surface of the lake. Once there, he maneuvered the craft to a small deserted nearby island and drove the big machine up a ramp which had been prepared just for it.

  On the island was a cave where the machine could be taken to hide it from detection from above. The cave had ceiling panels which slid open exposing enough of the night sky so the telescoping probe could be raised through the opening. Once it was through the opening, Dr. Collins made some adjustments and told Tess that it was in position to be fired at precisely midnight eastern time..

  He showed her the only switch left to push and she told us both to leave in the speedboat tied to the dock and to return to the port at Cleveland to await her further orders. She told us that history should record that only she was the responsibility for what would happen at midnight when she flipped the switch. She then said that she would join us when she could.

  The mystery surrounding the big machine was just that, a mystery. I still didn t know what the machine was supposed to do. Dr. Collins said that in theory, it should work but that it had never been put to the test.

  He then told me it was a planet splitter designed with enough power to split apart a planet the size of the moon. He admitted that he didn t know for sure if it would work and that he didn t know for sure how the earth would react without a moon if it did work.

  The original design was contemplated many years before the holocaust to be ready should large meteors threaten to strike the earth from outer space. It was being built under a contact with the government but was not completed when we all had to leave Earth during the holocaust.

  He told me how Tess had asked him to take his top scientists with him into the secret base and try to finish it with enough power to split the moon apart if necessary. She said she hoped it would never become necessary to use it but Marvin Roberts has forced her hand.

  I think we better get everyone to shelter under the dome before midnight, he said.

  We put out the order for all our people on the surface to report to the dome immediately to take shelter.

  Midnight came as we looked up at the full moon. It wasn t long befo re the moonlights of the bright moon dissipated from one large light into a million smaller lights.

  The planet splitter had worked. The Atlanteans and their moon base were no more. Before long, there were a whole series of earthquakes splitting large fissures in the landscape. When I say a whole series, I am talking about ten major quakes in our area in the next twenty-four hours.

  The quakes might accomplish the same results that the Atlanteans had threatened. In the confusion caused by the quakes, we had lost contact with Tess.

  Finally after conditions permitted, Dr. Collins and I got into the powerboat and headed out to the island where we had left Tess. When we arrived, we discovered that the island had been severely damaged by the earthquakes. When we reached the cave, we discovered the entrance blocked by a landslide.

  We radioed back to the domed city and requested a salvage barge with earth moving equipment and rescue workers to help us uncover the cave entrance. Meanwhile, we tried to dig using what little equipment we had in the boat.

  Doctor Collins said, Let me check on something, as he remembered Tess had a mini-sub moored in a concealed under water rear entrance to the cave. I have some diving equipment. I know approximately where the underwater entrance is if you want to join me for a little swim.

  Sure, I said as we headed back to the boat to motor around to the other side of the island.

  By the time we arrived to the spot Dr. Collins decided to drop the anchor, we were both in our diving suits with our air tanks strapped on. It was still morning and the daylight was a blessing. Dr. Collins took some readings tryi
ng to confirm we were in the vicinity of the under water cave entrance.

  We should be very close, he said. I m not sure exactly so we ll each take this marker balloon and send it up to the surface if you find the entrance. If you don t find it within fifteen minutes, come back up and see if I have left a marker balloon for you. I ll do the same if I don t find it in fifteen minutes.

  What if neither of us finds the entrance? I asked.

  If neither of us finds the entrance, we ll re-anchor down the beach a hundred yards or so and try it again. There was a directional marker on the beach before, but it is not there now. It was probably covered up during the earth quakes, he said as we both went into the water and swan away in opposite directions.

  I didn t find the entrance by the time my fifteen minutes was up so I returned to the surface. I saw Dr. Collins swimming toward the boat. He too failed to find it.

  Let s take a short break to fill our air tanks and rest a bit and we ll move on down the shore and try again, he said.

  When we moved to our re-anchor spot, he said we would use the same scenario again. This time, I found the entrance and set up my balloon to guide Dr. Collins to the spot.

  I swam through an underwater cave about fifty feet or so and then upward a few feet until I came up into an area of the cave with a land mass a ceiling extending about ten feet above the water line. It was dark in the cave but the light I was carrying allowed me to illuminate the area. I called several times into an opening that was apparently the rear entrance to the cave, but no one answered. I decided to wait for Dr. Collins. He arrived about twenty minutes later.

  We then made our way into the cave together. We were able to locate the big planet splitter machine partially buried under the debris from the landslide but there was no sign of Tess or THE TOY.

  I didn t see the mini-sub when we came in, Dr. Collins said. That means she made it out ok ay. It s for sure that she is not here, he said.

  I think we should go back the way we came in and take the boat around to meet the salvage crew to tell then where to begin to dig out the cave entrance. In case some big chunks of the moon make a bee line for Earth, we might need the big machine again to protect ourselves.

  I made one last path around the big machine to be sure that I had not missed anything. If Tess had been there, we would have found her, I convinced myself as we let.

  Tess will probably be back in the domed city before we get back, he said trying to reassure me.

  When we got back, we were informed that our receiving antenna had been broken probably in one of the quakes. We were able to transmit by not to receive. There had been no word from Tess.

  Hours turned into days, days into weeks and still no word from Tess.

  We discovered some very disturbing news about our planet. It had begun to move toward the sun. It was hardly noticeable at first but as our database grew during the first month or so after the moon had been destroyed by the planet-splitter, there was no room for doubt. We were moving toward the sun and our rate of speed was increasing by the day.

  At this rate, we calculated that the earth would crash into the sun within the next thirty days. Long before that, it would become too hot for us to survive above ground.

  I called a meeting of our top scientists and put Marvo and Dr. Collins in charge of trying to find a solution to our problem before we were all doomed.

  The next day, we met again. No body had any ideas that might work.

  I had only one source left. I said to everyone present to bow their heads while I led them in prayer. Call upon God to send us an answer to our problem. In five minutes, I will close our gathering in prayer and again send you to your homes to contemplate a solution. Five minutes later, I began to pray out loud.

  “Oh heavenly fathe r, have you brought us so far through all our adversities only to perish now? We are without hope unless you with your divine mercy provide us with a way to reverse the pattern that has developed on this your planet Earth. Please help us. Should it be your will that we suffer death by such an awful fate, please have mercy on our souls. Thy will be done in the name of your son Jesus Christ who gave his life for us, we pray…Amen.”

  We will meet here again at 10:00 hours tomorrow morning to see if anyone has come up with any ideas that might save our planet. You are dismissed until then.

  And oh lord, please bring Tess back safely wherever she might be. Thank you lord and to you be all the praise.

  That night, I had a vision as I slept. I believe it was a divine visitation from God. In the vision, I was told that we had the means available to us to correct the earth s orbital problem. By the morning meeting, I had the answer.

  I told Marvo and Dr. Collins and the other scientist present of my vision. After they discussed it for a while, Marvo said that he thought it could work. He told the gathering what would have to happen before the plan would be feasible.

  I set the scientists to work under Marvo s and Dr. Collins directions. Within a week we were ready to make our first test.

  We had pointed the planet splitter toward the sun. This time instead of focusing a single beam at the sun as we had at the moon, we refracted the beam from a single beam into thousands of smaller beams.

  We did so with minimum power at first to be sure we would do no damage to that celestial body. Then ever so slowly, we began to increase the power in small increments. Then, after a time, we stopped to review out data to determine if any changes had taken place. Our tests indicated that our rate of decent had decreased ever so slightly so we re-activated the machine.

  Over the next twenty-four hours, we increased the power out seven times. At the end of seventh time, the decent of the earth toward the sun had stopped. We were making real progress.

  During the next twenty-four hours we again increased the power four more times and the earth began to move slowly away from the sun.

  Taking no more chances, we decided to leave the power out put constant for the next twenty-four hours and again measure our distance from the sun. The distance had increased by about 100,000 miles.

  Within another twenty-four hour period, the acceleration away from the sun with no additional power increases had moved us another 120,000 miles further from the sun. The acceleration away from the sun was increasing with this constant power out put as we moved further from the gravitational pull of the sun.

  By the second month, we had reached our optimum distance of 93,000,000 miles from the sun again. We used the big machine occasionally if we discovered any more orbital problems.

  Fortunately, none of the debris form the moon crashed into the earth. It might have had not the earth moved slightly in its orbit toward the sun before we were able to correct it.

  We gave all the praise to God for his miracle. We would surely have perished without his divine intervention in showing us how to stop the earth from being pulled into the sun. I became much more of a worshiper of God after these experiences.

  After the danger had been abated, I took one of the shuttles and headed for Colorado where a new cabin had been constructed by contractors that I had commissioned. This cabin had central heat and running water and most of the modern appliances. It was furnished with excess furniture found on the BONNIE ONE. It was much nicer than the old cabin we had but it was very lonely without Tess. I spent a month there and let my beard grow again not really caring if I ever returned to the domed city again unless Tess was with me. The girls and their husbands joined me for a couple of weeks but then they had to return to their homes and to their work.

  I prayed a lot while in seclusion at the mountain retreat. I prayed about Tess mostly. Then as a sign that all would be all right again someday, I saw bright star in the night sky that seemed to have appeared suddenly out of nowhere.

  I read about the birth of God s son in Luke, Chapter 2 and about the bright star that led the
wise men. Could this star be a sign from God that things were going to get better?

  As more weeks passed, I drew further and further away into my own little world at the mountain hide-a-way. The star in the heavens kept growing bigger and bigger and it kept getting brighter and brighter.

  One star lit night in early Fall, I looked out over the lake and realized for the first time that the star was not a star at all. It was a moon shining as brightly as the original moon. God gave us another moon, I thought as I stared at it for several minutes in shear amazement. The moon reflected off the black water of the lake making millions of tiny lights dance as if to some great musical symphony. There from seemingly out of nowhere, I noticed for the first time, the silhouette of a person. As the figure turned, I could just make out the outlines out of a woman s body. My first reaction was that Doreen or Susan must have come looking for me to see if I was still alive. I had not called them for more than a month. If they had called me, I was probably out fishing or something and missed their call.

  My curiosity finally got the best of me and I started walking from the cabin porch toward the figure by the lake.

  Is that you Damon? a familiar sounding voice called out.

  Is that you Tess? I yelled as tears began to run down my face. Could it be? Had all my prayers been suddenly answered?

  Yes, its me you old codger. I ve been trying to reach you for a week. Did you fall off the face of the earth or something? Don t you ever answer your phone? I was trying to reach you to tell you I was back and to come on home. I was worried sick that you had fallen in the lake and drowned or something.

  I believe that she would had talked all night if I hadn t reached her and wrapped my arms around her and kissed her so she couldn t keep talking.

  After we exchanged hugs and kisses for a while, we walked back up the path to the cabin.

  She told be about how she used the mini-sub to leave the cave before the first earthquake. She then used THE TOY. She tried to call me but there must have been something wrong with my radio.