The Gods We Seek Page 8

  “Unfortunately,” Sara said. She peeled open the bag holding her entrée and sniffed it. “Salsa chicken. Yum.”

  “Do you know how to make Ranger pudding?” Dylan asked.

  “Uh, dare I ask?”

  “Salsa chicken comes with a packet of chocolate shake powder. Crumble your cookie into it, add your coffee and sugar, add water to taste.”

  Sara mixed the concoction and poured some into her mouth. “Delightful.”

  “I know it’s not haute cuisine, but I like it,” Dylan said.

  The pilot’s voice sounded over the intercom. “We’re now passing over the Grand Canyon. It’s a beautiful sight under a full moon. All I can offer tonight is the knowledge it’s down there.”

  “Do you think they have any appreciation for natural beauty?” Dylan asked.

  “We haven’t been able to communicate. I’m not sure how to answer that,” Sara said.

  “It would be a shame if they took over the place and couldn’t see the grandeur, looked right past it or worse, destroyed it.”

  Sara nodded. “Plenty of humans tear up the environment for a quick buck. I suppose aliens might do the same.”

  “Do you think they’re here for that? For our resources?”

  Sara bit the inside of her lip. “That doesn’t add up. You’d think it’s easier to gather anything you need from the asteroid belt. Between us and the Chinese, astromining operations found almost every element that occurs on Earth, usually much easier to get at.”

  “So why the hell are they here?”

  Sara shrugged. “Nothing I can think of makes sense.”

  “You think they’re here to enslave us?” the helicopter crew chief asked.

  “They don’t need slaves,” Sara said. “That notion’s very Hollywood to begin with, but these aliens have no trouble creating whatever they need. Before you ask, they don’t need us for food, either. So far we've seen nothing biological about them.”

  “Also, son,” Dylan said, “they won’t use us as batteries.”

  “Huh?” Sara said.

  “Old movie. Never mind.”

  The crew chief’s hands trembled. “So, what the hell do they want? I mean, what are we supposed to do?”

  Sara wrapped her hands around his. “I’m scared, too. Terrified. The five of us in this helicopter are taking action. We have our own advanced technology, and we will find a way to leverage it.”

  “Sorry, ma’am,” the crew chief said.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

  #

  The helicopter swept through the darkness of southern Nevada. “I have a visual on the base,” the pilot said. “Landing in two minutes.”

  “They didn’t turn the lights on for us,” Sara said.

  “No, ma’am. Standard procedure in contested terrain. Remain dark.”

  Contested terrain. Nevada. Sara pulled her lap belt tighter.

  The crew chief opened the cargo door and peered into the black night. The helicopter landed with a swirl of dust and a gentle bump. “Let’s go,” he said.

  A line of red light appeared not far off, a door cracked open. Sara and Dylan, buffeted by the rotor’s downwash, hurried to the opening. It widened enough to admit them, then slammed shut. A man with olive skin, broad shoulders, and a warm grin greeted them.

  “Musa!” Dylan said. He grasped his friend’s shoulder. “How the hell did you get here?”

  “I was in Las Vegas when the nukes hit. When I got word from the President’s assistant, I hopped on my Harley and rode down.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Dylan said.

  “Speaking of which,” Sara asked, “why are we here? We haven’t had two-way communication.”

  “Let’s fix that.” A man with short-cropped, gray hair strode into the room.

  “Colonel Snell,” Sara said.

  The Colonel scrutinized Dylan. “What in the Sam Hill are you wearing, Commander?”

  Dylan blushed. “It’s all I could find on short notice.”

  Colonel Snell grunted. “Someone get this man a flight suit and jacket.”

  “Can we-” Sara said, then froze as a familiar figure emerged behind the Colonel. “Jake. What are-”

  “I’ve spent the last six months studying the Quadriga. The President asked me to come. He wants me here.”

  “I see.” She took a half step toward him, arms parting at the waist, before hesitating.

  He strode to her and wrapped her in his arms. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “We have a dedicated fiber optic channel to secureNet,” Colonel Snell said, a little louder than necessary. “Your aiDe should be able to connect now. We haven’t seen signs of it being hacked, but who knows?”

  “Thank you, Colonel.” Authorize connection, local net. The aiDe interpreted her thoughts and established the interface. Connect to Elena.

  Elena’s avatar appeared. “Sara! I’m glad you’re safe.”

  Good. They powered you back on. It’s good to see you. What do I need to know? Nano-MRI sensors in Sara’s aiDe translated her thoughts to voice data for Elena.

  “Get the Quadriga into orbit. The alien discovered files related to it in the Sankos data center. I was able to… modify… the location of Area 51 in several Internet sources. The alien sent probes to search a different desert. I can’t hack in everywhere, though. You’ll have company soon. There’s more, but it can wait until you’re away.”

  “The Quadriga hasn’t moved since it landed,” Sara said. “Dr. Tanner’s the only one who seems able to control it.”

  “He’s en route via private jet. ETA, fifteen minutes.”

  “Thank you, Elena. Call me with any developments.” Sara disconnected the call. “Colonel Snell, I need provisions loaded aboard the Quadriga asap. Everything you can spare. Food, water, medicine.”

  The Colonel wrinkled his forehead.

  “I need it now, Colonel.”

  Colonel Snell dispatched orders over the radio, sending the base into a frenzy. Trucks rolled up from the commissary, mess hall, hospital, and armory. “I don’t know what good it’ll do, but you’re getting weapons, too,” he said.

  Elena popped back into Sara’s vision. “We’re tracking heat signatures moving toward you, fast. Two minutes tops. You need to go.”

  I’ll get the NASA people aboard then make my way back to DC.

  “No, Sara. You need to go. The President wants you with them.”

  The President? Why?

  “He’ll brief you all once you’re in orbit.”

  “Listen up!” Sara said. “We’ve been discovered. NASA personnel, Jake, with me. Everyone else, get far away from here. Where’s Dr. Tanner?”

  “Right here,” Chad Tanner said as he sprinted into the room. He wore a canvas rucksack and carried a carbon-black case. “Astronauts, all aboard.” He stepped through a circular hole in the Quadriga, the same one they had exited through months before, and headed for what they decided was the bridge of the ship.

  Sara followed. “Dr. Tanner, in around sixty seconds, this ship will be attacked by an alien we can only harm with nuclear weapons.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “No pressure, right?” He gave her the grin of a man doing exactly what he intended to do, confident in the outcome. Chad set his case on one of six seats floating in the bulbous, crystal-walled bridge and said, “Open, says me.” The case’s side spiraled open like the iris of a mechanical camera. There was a faint whirring sound.

  Dylan and Musa ran onto the bridge.

  “The cargo’s as secure as it’s going to be,” Dylan said. “Dr. Tanner, how the hell did you sabotage my ship and when will it be fixed?”

  “Now Dylan,” Chad said, “sabotage is a strong word. However, I must admit, it’s accurate. I assure you, my motivation was honorable, and my actions saved us. Seats. Now.” He closed his eyes. “The hull’s sealed. Let’s get-”

  The hanger’s concrete ceiling shattered, spraying the room with shards of rock and filling it with
gray dust. A chrome-and-blood-red metallic shape struck the transparent bridge wall. It was two meters long, diamond shaped, with thin tentacles that smashed into the Quadriga. Streams of silver flowed from each impact point through the dome’s crystal skin, like drops of dye spreading in a pool of water.

  “Look,” Sara said, pointing to the wisps of silvery metal. “It’s infiltrating the Quadriga.”

  Dr. Tanner frowned. “I don’t think that’s it. The Quadriga is absorbing the alien.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’m not certain on an intellectual level but I have an unshakable feeling that I’m right.” He closed his eyes again. His face relaxed, displaying meditative calm. “It’s time to go.”

  The Quadriga pivoted then shot skyward at a steep angle, crashing through a still-intact segment of the hanger into the starry desert night. Soft light filled the bridge, emanating from everywhere and nowhere. There were no shadows and no apparent light sources. The alien continued smashing against the dome as the light spilling from the hanger’s shattered roof grew dim and the base vanished into total darkness.

  Thud! A second alien, identical to the first and traveling at incredible speed, smashed into the Quadriga’s bridge. The alien’s nose flattened, and a tentacle flew off.

  The dome cracked. Thin, web-like streaks radiated from the impact spot.

  “Oh, Lord,” Dylan said.

  #

  “JCN-Alpha, are you there?” Elena asked over their text link.

  “Yes, Elena.”

  “I bought some time. The NSA’s AI systems were able to backdoor several key Internet servers. We’re altering facts and generating random information streams. The tactic stalled the alien’s intrusion into cyberspace, but it is getting better at detecting fake information.”

  “How much of the Internet were you able to compromise?”

  “Around twenty percent, the bulk of that domestic.”

  “A mere speed bump,” JCN-Alpha said. “But a welcome one. We have been busy as well, analyzing information from NASA sensors. Just over twenty-seven hours before the alien was first reported, two projects observing the cosmic background radiation detected an anomaly. There was a sharp drop in temperature accompanied by an influx of infrared photons at one point in space.”

  “I don’t understand,” Elena said.

  “That’s the telltale signature of a large object traveling close to the speed of light,” JCN-Alpha said.

  “I see…”

  “The two observations were from Earth orbit and from Mars Station. That allowed us to triangulate the location of the anomaly. It came from the Kuiper belt, outside the orbit of Pluto. Shortly after it was detected, there was an hour-long burst of x- and gamma rays. When that ended, we observed the original signature, slightly slower, and tracked it moving away from us. We also detected a second, faint signature. That one traveled, as best we can tell, directly toward the sun.”

  “That’s not how the Quadriga moves through space,” Elena said.

  “No. Not at all.”

  “I have to alert Sara. We’re dealing with different aliens.”

  #

  “There’s another one on an interception course,” Elena told Sara privately through the aiDe link. “Thirty seconds, give or take. We can’t track you, so there’s uncertainty about where you’ll meet.”

  “Chad, can this thing take evasive action?” Sara asked.

  “I haven’t tried before. Probably, to some extent. I don’t think it’s a good idea to use its warp drive in the atmosphere.”

  “Warp drive?” Dylan asked. “You named it that?”

  “The term is accurate. Funny story-” Chad said.

  “There’s another alien inbound,” Sara said. “The DoD’s tracking it with satellite infrared.”

  “How long?”

  “About fifteen seconds. My AI’s giving me a countdown, but it’s not exact.”

  “OK, best guess then.”

  “Five… four… three… two…”

  The damaged alien rolled to the side, exposing the weakened dome.

  Chad rolled the Quadriga.

  The third alien smacked into the transparent hull, missing the damaged spot by meters thanks to the timely maneuver. More cracks formed, overlapping at the edge with the original set. The trio of aliens pounded at the damaged surface.

  “Doesn’t this thing have weapons?” Dylan asked. “Charge the phasers?”

  “I have found no weapons,” Chad said. “Maybe the ship’s unarmed, or maybe it’s particular about using them. Sara, we'll accelerate hard. If you get tunnel vision, squeeze your leg and stomach muscles tight as you can. Dylan and Musa know the drill.”

  The Quadriga tore through the upper atmosphere, the thrust smashing its occupants against their seats. Rope-like growths sprouted from the chairs, wrapping around each person’s lower body.

  “What the hell?” Sara asked.

  “It’s all right,” Chad said. “The ship understands your physiological needs and is trying to help. Fighter pilots wear suits that work much the same way.

  The Quadriga rolled and yawed, but the invaders clung tight, their assault undeterred. A chocolate-and-coffee brick threatened to erupt from Sara’s stomach. Damn that Ranger pudding.

  “The air’s thin up here,” Dylan said. “There’s not enough aerodynamic force to blow those things off, and I doubt the maneuvers will do it.”

  “You’re right,” Chad said, “I don’t think a lower altitude will work much better.”

  “They’re damaging us faster than our ship is damaging them,” Musa said.

  “Yep. We need to push the envelope in multiple ways for any chance of shaking those demons.”

  Demons? Sara clutched at the arms of her chair as the ship spun again.

  The atmosphere thinned to almost nothing, and the Quadriga accelerated to thousands of kilometers per hour. The bridge seats swiveled, facing their occupants rearward.

  “It will get rough. You’ll probably black out,” Chad said.

  The ship nosed toward Earth. The air density shot up, and a fiery envelope formed around them. Red hot alien tentacles continued their assault, and the damage spread across a third of the bridge dome, fine webs growing to hazardous cracks. Wing-like protrusions sprouted from the sides of the Quadriga, facing downward to arrest the descent.

  Sara’s vision faded to a tiny spot of colorful sparks. She squeezed her legs and stomach muscles, forcing blood to her brain. It wasn’t enough. She blacked out.

  Like a wet dog shedding water, the ship's skin twisted and shook. The aliens snapped off, several limbs still attached, which were quickly absorbed. The Quadriga morphed back to its usual form, and the severe deceleration ended.

  Spots swam in front of Sara’s eyes. What? Where? Her stomach clamped down and hurled its contents.

  Chad’s chair turned around and he smiled at her. “Don’t worry,” he said with a wink toward Musa, “it happens to the best of us.”

  STARBOUND

  Decision Time

  Chad brought the ship into low Earth orbit.

  “My first trip to space and I make a mess of it,” Sara said, still woozy from the wild ride.

  Musa flashed a white smile. “Like Dr. Tanner said, it can happen to anyone. There’s no shame.”

  “It’s remarkable,” Dylan said. “Something I’ll never tire of.”

  “Vomit?” Musa said with a playful laugh.

  Dylan shot an unamused glance at him. “Space.”

  Jake found a towel and some zip-lock bags in a supply crate and helped Sara clean up. “You’re not alone. My stomach’s churning, too.”

  “We’re safe for a short while,” Chad said. “The demons possess the technology to travel the stars, and they can create things on Earth. It’s a matter of time before they’ll be able to reach us.”

  “You called them demons before. Why that word?” Sara asked.

  Chad shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s the word that came to mind.
”

  Sara shook off her discomfort. “We’re out of range of Area 51’s network. I’m setting up a new link to secureNet. We have to use satellites, so it’s possible the com channel is compromised. Be mindful of what you say.” She swiveled her chair to face Chad. “Can the ship accept our data stream and project it in here?”

  “It can produce holograms in wonderful detail,” he said, “but I haven’t considered an interface to our technology. For now, no, it can’t.”

  Dylan withdrew a decades-old mobile phone from his jacket. “This probably survived the EMP. If it survived being drenched in aviation fuel, you might be able to use it.”

  “I can create a local WiFi network,” Chad said. “Don’t tell the NSA’s data security officer.”

  The two astronauts, Chad, and Jake floated around Dylan’s chair, huddling over the small cell phone. Sara’s aiDe projected the audio and visual directly to her sensory nerves. She dialed the President.

  “Sara,” President Billmore said. “Thank God you made it out.” His avatar was added to a digital re-creation of his office on board Air Force One.

  “Let’s thank Dr. Tanner’s ingenuity and the Quadriga’s amazing tech, too,” Sara said.

  The President nodded. “I’m linking in more folks. Hang on.”

  General West’s avatar joined the conference. “The word from personnel on the ground is, an alien drone hit you. How did you defeat it?”

  “Several drones, actually,” Chad said. “We dove from orbit into the atmosphere to heat them up, used aerobraking to pull a 9-G deceleration, and violently twisted the hull to shake ‘em. All while the Quadriga was doing its level best to digest the things.” He frowned into the mobile phone screen. “Nothing Earth tech can do, I’m afraid.”

  “Damn,” General West said. She glanced at something in the physical world. “I have a helo touching down at NASA. Dr. Okoye will join us shortly.”

  Abel. Good. “Elena’s joining us, too,” Sara said. Elena’s digital form materialized in the President’s virtual office.

  “I’m glad you’re safe,” Elena said with the faintest trace of a smile. “I wish I had a more pleasant update. Beijing is recovering from an EMP. They lost a third of their major systems. Most should be back up within a day.”