“I’m glad to hear the voices of Andy, Geoffrey and Ms. Valentine in your recording. What’s the status of John Tindal and Riyad Tarazi? I hope they’ve made it through with you as well.
“I have to be honest with you, Captain, I’m seriously contemplating turning for Earth right now, no matter what the results of our defense against this attack ends up being. Even if we’re able to stop this one, it doesn’t mean they won’t try again. More information about the Kracori would probably go a long way to helping me reach a decision.
“It looks like the fleet and your ship are still about a month and half apart, seeing that we’re both rapidly closing on one another. Unfortunately — according to your initial report — any success in stopping this attack, as well as the status of the fleet, will have been determined long before then.”
Allen left the unspoken consequences of his words linger for a moment before changing the subject. “Let’s keep a steady stream of reports going back and forth, even if they’re mundane ‘nothing new to report’ reports. It will help both of our moods knowing that the latest intel we have will be the most up-to-date possible.”
Then Allen leaned in a little closer to the screen. “Adam, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for your warning. Even though the news was shocking, it would have been infinitely worse to have received a message from the Earth describing the horror taking place there, and with no warning at all. You’ve given us hope — and a chance. Let’s keep our fingers, toes and whatever else crossed. Awaiting your next message — Allen out.”
There was a collective sigh of relief from all on the bridge. “So no attack yet, at least not as of four hours ago,” John Tindal said. “That’s encouraging.”
They all nodded and then Adam began to compose the first
The team was still intact, Adam noted — including Kaylor and Jym. It was a miracle that he could say that, considering all they’d been through over the past five months. They’d gone from the planet Hyben, to a Juirean Class-3 warship, and then to the Klin stronghold on Marishal … and now even to the planet Juir herself. They’d certainly been through a lot. Luck — and fate — had been with them so far. But now they faced the greatest threat mankind had ever encountered, and with only a few days — or even hours — to prevent it. Yes, Adam’s team had all survived this long, but now, after all they had been through, they wondered if they would have anything to return to after all their luck had been used up?
The answer to that question would depend on what happened on the far-distant world of Earth.
Chapter 30
Although no sirens sounded in the Pentagon, the sudden upsurge in activity within the south-facing section of the massive building was like fire alarms going off throughout the structure.
The moment the message from Admiral Nathanial Allen had been received, hundreds of people in the building — as well as thousands more around the world — had sprung into action. Initially, no one knew what to do, but the simple act of having their bodies in motion helped to maintain a sense of sanity and purpose.
Admiral Bill Keller was in his private quarters when the message came through. For the past three years, he had voluntarily sequestered himself within the section of the Pentagon called the Complex, the cluster of offices, conference rooms and intel centers that made up the nerve-center of the planet’s central military space command. Since the devastating attack by the Juireans, Keller had opted to live his life exclusively from the Complex. His responsibility was 24/7, so it only made sense for him to be at work 24/7.
The truth of the matter was he had nowhere else to go. His home in Fairfax, Virginia, had been destroyed by the raging inferno caused by the Juirean energy bombs, even though no bombs had struck close to his residence. Yet with all emergency services completely overwhelmed, his 1928-built, 4,800-square-foot Colonial had ended up being just so much additional fuel for the fires that spread out from the center of D.C., consuming the affluent suburbs of Fairfax, Falls Church and even as far north as Rockville, Maryland.
Just prior to the Juirean attack, Bill Keller had the foresight and opportunity to send his family away from the high-target zone that was Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, that still did not prevent their deaths from a rogue cluster of Juirean bombs that hit the tiny hamlet in western Pennsylvania where they’d sought refuge. They would have been safer to have come to the Pentagon, yet Keller had no way of knowing that at the time.
It was just after five in the afternoon when the message came through, and dozens, if not hundreds of staffers who had just left for the day, made wild U-turns and returned to work.
“What do we know?” Keller asked as he entered the main situation room for the Complex. Already present were seventeen other high ranking officers and intel types, including Air Force General Richard Blake, commander of all the Earth’s space-based forces. General Blake had been a big-wig at NORAD until the Juirean attack. Now his territory of responsibility had blossomed to comprise everything from the Earth all the way to an area of space called the
“Nothing more than what the initial report indicated, Admiral,” Blake said. “We’ve heightened all awareness and detection resources but haven’t found any abnormal activity.”
Keller was afraid of this. A small group of infiltrators, using the same type of ships as they had, would be almost impossible to detect within the organized chaos that was space travel these days. With literally hundreds of military, corporate and even some civilian spacecraft flitting around the planet at any given moment, Blake’s command was like that of an air traffic controller, trying to juggle all these disparate interests for the mutual satisfaction of all.
Keller grimaced as he surveyed the main status screen, which took up nearly the entire south wall of the situation room. It showed the planet Earth in the center with a literal haze of constantly-moving white contacts encircling the planet.
The shipbuilders were still cranking out over five new warcraft a day, all of which had to be flight-tested within the solar system and beyond. At the same time, civilian contractors were continually testing new prototypes and innovations with other spacecraft, also within the space around the planet. Even a few of the very-rich had managed to obtain private spacecraft of their own, usually through special arrangements with their host governments.
And all of these spacecraft carried with them one unifying — and terrifying — distinction: they
How, through all this mess, was Keller to find a few invaders carrying nuclear weapons and bent on the destruction of his world?
He wished he knew….
“We need to ground all corporate and civilian spaceships immediately,” General Blake was saying.
Keller nodded. “I concur. Then we need to set up a challenge-and-response code for our military craft.” He walked up to the large screen and motioned with his hand in a big circle. “We then need to form a shield around the planet, tighter than anything before.”
“Admiral, with the velocities we’re talking about, we’re going to have to establish the perimeter pretty far out,” said Carla Ferguson, the president’s senior science advisor. “Do we have enough ships to form an effective shield?”
“Sadly, no,” Keller said. “And you’re right, Carla, the further out we go, the larger the gaps between our ships. That’s why we need to monitor every contact approaching, and if the challenge isn’t answered properly in a millisecond, we blast the contact out of existence. There may be some collateral damage, but that’s just the price we’re going to have to pay for saving the planet.”
“These damn aliens probably already know our weaknesses and are ready to exploit them,” Blake said.
“Hopefully they won’t know we’re expecting them. That could be our ace-in-the-hole. General Blake, coordinate the deployment of the ships; I’ll get with intel and work on the challenge/response codes. We need to figure a secure way of delivering these to all of our warships. Right after I brief the President, I’ll also shoot a
