message back to Admiral Allen letting him know our plans. He might have some input — and I’m sure they’re worried sick out there, being that far from home and not being able to help. I know I would. Let’s get to work.”
Within minutes of informing the President of the situation, a dozen major governments around the world joined in a massive effort in grounding all non-military spacecraft and to place all their land-based defenses on full alert. They had no idea when the attack would occur, so no one knew how long the troops would have to stay on high alert. It would be nerve-racking on the military personnel attached to the defending units, both on the surface and in space, but they would have to stay vigilant.
The politicians and military brass decided not to tell the corporate and private ship owners why they were being grounded, just that it was vital that all non-military vessels clear the area. Not surprisingly, no one complained. After the Juirean attack on the Earth, they all knew that this action would not be called for unless there was a dire emergency of some kind — and the meaning of
Nine hours later, all non-military spaceships were on the ground, and General Blake’s shield was ballooning out from the planet. Carla Ferguson had been right; the number of available defenders was woefully inadequate. Blake’s four hundred sixty-six ships had to encompass the entire planet, since no one knew from what track the attackers would take. In fact, they may split up and come at the planet from all directions. All they could hope for was to detect the attackers early enough so as to concentrate enough firepower to repel them.
Some within the inner circle, those who knew the full story, began to plan for strike-contingencies, including shelters, radiation treatment centers and medical triage. After all, how bad could it be? There had been over twenty-one hundred nuclear tests conducted on the Earth over the years and still the planet survived. So what if a few attackers got through; there
Carla Ferguson pointed out that the technology of the Klin was so far advanced compared to that of Earth that it only stood to reason that their nuclear technology would be just as advanced. Where the largest nuclear device ever detonated on the Earth was in the range of 50 megatons, this Kracori race — proteges of the Klin — could have devices at several multiples of this. They may only need a few to get through to cause unimaginable damage. Or, as she explained, these weapons may be more on the line of neutron bombs, cascading deadly amounts of radiation on the planet. If it was the Kracori’s goal to destroy the homeworld of the Humans for the long-term, then a neutron radiation attack would be the better choice, and if that were the case, then no amount of preparation could protect against a decades-long cloud of deadly radiation encircling the globe.
Keller had left the meeting feeling even more depressed than when he entered.
Chapter 31
Thirty-four hours after receiving the warning from Admiral Allen, the Human shield was in place, forming a thin veil around the planet out to around a million kilometers. Nunif Juikil had watched the mad scramble of spaceships — either bolting to the planet’s surface or out to form the defensive line — with both a sense of amusement and confusion.
His confusion came from the question of how did the Humans learn of his attack? As far as he knew there had been no direct contact between the Kracori and the Humans, or any of their allies. Besides, those who knew of the plan were very few and exclusively Kracori. Even the nasty Klin had been vanquished and were no longer involved in any Kracori operations.
His amusement came from knowing that the Humans had learned too late of the Kracori plans; in fact, this latest maneuver had actually cleared the path even
Originally there had been ten ships assigned to the mission, yet when Nunif saw the actions the Humans were taking, he had sent a coded burst-message to the tenth ship ordering them to break off their approach. The other nine ships were already on station and drifting in dark mode just outside the orbital distance of the planet’s moon. They had all arrived from different directions in order to strike at all areas of the planet at once. Number ten had taken the longest route to its station, and therefore had not arrived by the time the Humans had learned of the attack.
Nunif smiled. The fact that the Humans had sent their ships away from the planet meant that they did not know the details of the attack, just that one was imminent. And now there was not a single Human vessel in the space between Nunif’s forces and the planet. There was nothing they could do to stop him.
At the predetermined time, Nunif ordered that the nineteen high-energy neutron and twenty-four traditional hydrogen bombs he had aboard be armed. Even subtracting the weapons in ship number ten from the total, his small fleet still carried within it one-hundred seventy-one neutrons and two-hundred sixteen traditional devices. These were very special weapons, with the neutron devices being the most-powerful of their kind ever built. Coupled with the destructive power of the traditional bombs and the searing radiation from the others, the planet Earth would be turned into a nuclear wasteland … beginning in approximately twenty minutes.
Nunif’s established a shallow well and headed for Earth. The original plan had called for his fleet to use gas jets to slowly drift to the planet’s atmosphere before revealing their presence. It even had an option for conversion to a suicide mission should they be detected prematurely.
But seeing that there were no forces available to oppose them, Nunif opted for revealing his presence now, especially seeing that the Humans were expecting him. Their detection devices on the planet would immediately pick up his gravity signature, along with those of his other eight ships. They would know immediately what was coming and they would be powerless to prevent it.
At precisely the moment Nunif activated the arming computers on his bombs, a small secondary timer — one hidden deep within the maze of electronics of one of the hydrogen weapons — was also brought to life. There was one just like it on each of Nunif’s other ships. The tiny device was very simple, just a timer attached to the bomb’s detonator mechanism. Once activated, the device was independent of all outside signals and power sources — and it would rundown in exactly five minutes….
Chapter 32
“Contacts, Admiral! In orbit!” The tech sergeant’s voice was pure panic; he was fully aware of the consequences of his statement.
Keller literally ran up to the station. There were nine very bright and blatant contacts on the screen — gravity signatures — and they appeared to be tracing a leisurely path toward the Earth. They had appeared out of nowhere and well within the planet’s defensive perimeter.
A phone squawked next to him; it was President Sean McLaren, the immediate successor to Danny Ryan, one of Keller’s closest friends. Ryan had been a great president, unfortunately in office during the time of the Juirean attack on the planet. But McLaren was running a very close second to Ryan. He was strong and decisive and incredibly intelligent, and also headed up the Planetary Governing Council that had been put in place right after the Juirean attack. Keller felt sorry for him, as he heard his worried voice on the phone. It looked as though Sean McLaren was destined to be America’s
“Yes, sir,” Keller said, answering McLaren’s questions. “They are alien in origin, and we have nothing to stop them with. It looks like they know it, too, because they’re being pretty damn nonchalant with their approach.”
“It would be foolish to ask at this point how they did it,” McLaren said. “What people do survive — and there will be many to rebuild the race — we’ll let them answer that question. I’m just glad there are Humans off the
