Condition Zero, page 25
part #6 of The Earth Saga Series
“I am going to make this very simple.” Ken started. “You are going to do what I say or,” He walked over to Michael, brought his hands up to either side of the man’s neck, and then brought them together swiftly, then jerked up, taking the head clean off the torso. “You’re dead!” Ken shouted, tossing the severed head into the crowd while side-kicking the body off the roof of the car before it could crumple to the ground.
Before Ken spoke again, the raider flew up behind him and pointed its weapons at the crowd for thirty seconds, then flew off. Keegan watched as the ship raced high into the sky before turning back, and finally taking up a position hovering over the street.
“This is Kelly.” Ken pointed at Kelly. “She is now the Chief of Police for Albuquerque, and until such time that an official representative of the governor or the federal government arrives, she is in command of this city, and its people.”
Ken waited before he continued, all the while eying the crowd.
“When we leave, you are going to help Kelly put this city back together.” Ken pulled out a communicator from his pocket and handed it to Kelly. “This is a communications device that connects Kelly with not only me but the Terran Strike Group in orbit. If she signals that there is a problem. That you are uncooperative, or that there is more violence, we are going to come back down here and kill all of you. No quarter given.” Ken shook his head. “If we are to survive this as a species, we need to work together. That means no more murder. No more rape. No more stealing.” He pointed at Kelly. “If she has any doubts, I will have no doubts about my course of action.” Ken paused for another moment, his hands on his hips. “Who is the senior ranking member here?”
Keegan watched as the Guardsmen looked from face to face, searching for that one person that they could all point their finger at, but it didn’t come to that.
“I am.” A female put up her arm.
“Come with me.” Ken ordered. He jumped down from the Toyota with Kelly in tow and walked back towards the building.
Keegan turned around and looked at the county government office, then up and down 5th Street. It was deserted. Shaking his head, he started to wonder what he was going to tell Ryan when he got back to the Seven. Her kid was dead. Or just missing?
“Doc.”
Keegan spun around to see Tom walking towards him.
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry we didn’t find your kid.” Tom said, his rifle slung, and his blast shield flipped up.
“Yeah.”
“What are you going to tell your wife?”
“I don’t know.”
96-Kerguelen Island
Doctor Gaius Stephenson was out of breath. He’d never really had an interest in sports growing up, always a preference for academics, and while he wasn’t fat, he certainly wasn’t fit, and the hike from the southern tip of Kerguelen up the rugged hills towards the island’s highest point was taxing.
The wind the blowing off the southern Indian ocean was nearly ice-cold, and even though the team of Tohil scientists and Master Doctor Prure were able to take rest stops whenever they pleased, Gaius was still exhausted. He wondered why they hadn’t flown closer to the object of interest instead of being set down kilometres from it.
Fortunately, the robots that were accompanying the group brought with them shelters which were erected at every stop while warm drinks and food was provided. It allowed Gaius one of those rare moments of peaceful reflection surrounded by like-minded people, and without the constant supervision of John Robert, who had always been hovering over him since the incident in Paraguay.
When the group finally reached the group of local scientists, there were several minutes of introductions, after which the chief scientist on the island turned things over to the care of Dr Stephenson.
“Thank you, Dr Francis.” Stephenson said, then looked up at the side of the mysterious object. “And what do we have here?” He asked no one in particular.
“A sarcophagus?” Blurted out one of the French scientists. “It reminds me of a pyramid.”
Stephenson looked up at the massive structure, stretching over three-hundred metres above the ground. Its sides were almost vertical at the base, then tapering off into a point at the top. The part of the structure that was at eye level was smooth to the eye, and only at a point sixty metres off the ground did things get more interesting. Along the side of the structure that Stephenson was facing were three holes bored into the structure. Each hole was thirty metres in diameter and was placed evenly along each side.
“What do you make of the holes?” Stephenson asked, pointing up towards the port directly above where he was standing.
Dr Francis shook his head. “We’ve noticed those, and while they don’t appear to be emitting anything, they could be a source of air supply for the interior of the structure.”
“Why would they need air inside the structure?” One of the Tohil scientists asked. “If this has been dormant for so many years, then there couldn’t be anything alive inside.”
Stephenson nodded. “There might not be anything alive inside now, but perhaps something was kept in some kind of cryogenic state, and the oxygen is for when they are awakened.”
“A giant monster?” Someone suggested.
Stephenson smiled. “I hope not.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “What about intake ports for some kind of machinery on the interior? Something that requires vast amounts of oxygen?”
“There is another possibility.” A Tohil scientist said. “What if they aren’t intake valves, but designed to release something into the atmosphere.”
“Such as?” Stephenson asked.
“Some kind of gas or stream from the internal workings of the structure.”
Stephenson looked at the closest alien scientist. “Can we send a drone into one of the openings?”
The Alliance scientist nodded then ordered the closest droid to launch a drone. The machine did as it was told and had a small flying unit buzzing towards the opening above Stephenson’s head within sixty seconds.
“Doctor, you can view the imagery from this datapad.” The Alliance member said, handing the pad over to Stephenson.
Stephenson took the pad and was quickly surrounded by several other Tohil scientists and a few of the local French. The imagery that was coming into the pad was crystal clear and showed the side of the structure as the drone gained altitude until it was level with the opening.
“The drone will proceed with caution.” The Alliance scientist said.
Stephenson nodded and watched as the drone activated a flood-light and filled the interior of the hole with light.
“Looks rather barren inside the shaft.” A scientist commented.
He was right. The shaft itself was featureless with smooth sides leading towards a grated panel at the end of the cylinder.
Reaching the grate, the drone took its time peering through the slats before attempting to force entry unsuccessfully. On the other side of the slats was a massive room with what appeared to be a single pyramid shaped black object in the middle that was covered in a myriad of tiles, hoses, and other unidentified objects, and with the exception of the light that the drone was putting out, the entire chamber was dark with the exception of a faint glow that was coming from the other side of the object.
“Can the drone get inside that space?” Stephenson asked.
“One room?” A French scientist asked. “That’s all that is in there?”
The group watched while the drone went about a few non-invasive attempts to get through the grate separating the tunnel from the vast interior room until it moved back and used a laser scalpel to cut one of the slats off, creating a space just large enough to fly through.
Once inside the room, the drone started to move around the object that was in the centre very slowly, capturing as much detail as possible. When it reached the opposite side it had entered from, it stopped and hovered in the air. Its camera focused on the only illumination in the room.
“What is that?” Someone asked.
The light that the image was showing was a dim yellow light that looked like it was on the bottom of a bar, and was being illuminated upwards slowly.
“Power?” Someone said.
Stephenson tilted his head to the side. “That is an option.”
“It could be the reactor coming on-line.” A Tohil scientist suggested. “Whatever the device is for, considering its size, could require a huge power source. This could be it.”
“If this is the power source, then what is it powering?” Someone asked. “This appears to be the primary device within the structure. The structure was built around it, or it was placed inside, most likely to keep it out of the elements and safe. I would suggest that we are seeing the unit coming on-line, not a power source.”
“If your hypothesis is correct, then we have to ask what is the device?” Stephenson said. “Who put it here and why.” He looked at Master Doctor Prure. “You’ve been rather quiet.”
Prure rubbed his chin, gave the screen a closer look, then walked back to the side of the structure, and touched it. “It’s warm.” He said. “And from the size and shape and overall look of this structure, I have a theory as to who put it here.”
Everyone stopped looking at the screen and looked over the old Portean surgeon.
“I think this structure could be Zarosian.” He said calmly.
“Zar-what?” A Tohil scientist asked.
Prure walked back towards the group of scientists. “It is theorised that the Zarosian’s were one of the, if not the, first intelligent beings in this galaxy. They developed space travel and then proceeded to travel the stars creating us in their image.”
“I think your history is a little off.” A Tohil scientist started.
Prure put up his hand to stop the man’s protests. “I don’t mean that they created bi-pedal creatures on every world, I am suggesting that they created the conditions for life to form.”
“Does anyone else share this theory?” Stephenson asked.
Prure shrugged. “The concept was being studied on Jarosis before the war started. That’s where I heard about it, but once the war started, most of the science and data for the project was most likely lost with the destruction of Jarosis.”
“So, this could be just one insane theory of some dead scientist?” A Tohil man asked.
“Yes.” Prure responded.
“And these Zarosian’s.” Stephenson started. “What became of them?”
“No one knows. They disappeared.” Prure replied. “As I recall, one of their ships was recovered from Ranf 3, but that was decades ago.”
“Let us just, for a moment, accept the possibility that this is indeed a Zarosian contraption.” Stephenson started. “Why would it be here?”
“The more important question is, why has it powered up?” Prure said.
Stephenson looked up at the towering structure, then at the faces around him. After a few minutes of consideration, he looked at the closest Alliance member. “The light inside the structure. How close does it appear to be to the top of the gauge?”
“It appears halfway up the gauge.” The alien responded.
“Are we to assume the light was at that position when the structure revealed itself?” The French scientist asked.
“And if so, does that means we have at most a day or two until the light reaches the top.” Stephenson said. “We’ll have to wait until then to see what happens.”
97-The Seven
When Keegan got back to his room, he was exhausted. Everything about the trip to Alburqurque had sucked the life out of him. Seeing his house in the condition it was in. The killings that Tom and Ken had committed. The horrors that he had seen perpetrated by the demented soldiers in his hometown. It was all too gigantically fucked up for him.
When he finally stepped out of the raider and back onto the Seven, he had but one thing in his mind, his wife, Ryan. Her body was dead, but her mind was still alive. Trapped inside some kind of box, in what state Keegan wasn’t sure. He just knew that it was wrong and that the news from Alburqurque wasn’t going to help things. He had contemplated leaving the mind-grab device off. Letting her stay in whatever animated state her conscious was in, but he knew that was wrong. He might have lost his kid, making Ryan the last member of his family, even if she was in some kind of mental storage device.
Reaching his room, Keegan opened the hatch to find his modest quarters aboard the massive warship just he had left them, in a slightly shambolic state. Keegan knew that he was out of sorts, but the state of his quarters was subpar, even by the standards he had had in university.
Sitting himself down at his desk, Keegan picked up the device and powered it on. The system went through the standard period of warming up then running a series of function tests. That was always a part that made Keegan nervous. God forbid the thing broke.
After the customary wait, a voice called out.
“Keegan?”
“I’m here, Ryan.” His voice was low. It was either fatigue or stress.
“Where’s our child?” Her voice was excited.
Keegan took a deep breath and spotted an already opened bottle on his desk and grabbed it and took a long sip of the warm, flat beer.
“I don’t know.” He said dryly. The beer tasted like shit. He wasn’t sure how long it had been out for.
“What?”
“I don’t know where they are.” Keegan repeated and stood up from the desk and walked over to his locker and pulled out a bottle of tequila he had. He didn’t remember where he got it from, but it always worked for him in the past.
“You don’t know where they are?” Ryan asked again. Her voice, coming through the speaker, didn’t sound like the Ryan she knew. That, or it had been too long.
“I don’t know.” Keegan replied, taking a sip from the bottle.
“Well, what are you going to do now?”
That was the question. The only question.
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t really have a plan. Get drunk. Figure things out a week later. Shit.
“You don’t have a plan?”
Keegan shook his head. “Babe. The planet is in chaos.” He took another sip of the tequila. “I went to Albuquerque to look for them, but the place is in tatters. I’ll go back down in a week or two once everything has gotten settled.”
“Okay.” She said.
“Ryan.”
“Yes.”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Keegan.” There was a lengthy pause. “What about getting me out of this contraption?”
Another sip.
“I need to speak with someone about that.” Sip. “They’re not here. It can’t be done on the ship.”
“Where can it be done?”
“I don’t know.”
“You sound tired.”
Keegan smiled. “Do I?”
“Yes. You should sleep.”
“That is not a bad idea.”
“And have a distraction.”
“Excuse me?”
“Do something to take your mind off things.” Ryan said.
“But.”
“Keegan, you’ve been working almost non-stop since the event in Paraguay. You need to try and recharge your batteries. Right now, you can’t help me, and if you’re in a poor state, you won’t be helping anyone else.”
A tear started to form in Keegan’s left eye. Then in his right. Soon his face was wet. He took another sip off the bottle.
“I don’t want to lose you, baby.” He said, almost choking up.
“As long as I’m in this or someplace else, I’ll be with you.” Ryan waited a moment before continuing. “Keegan.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want you to wake me again until you can get me out of here.”
Keegan took another sip from the bottle and wiped the tears from his face.
“Do you hear me, Keegan?”
“I hear you.”
“It’ll be fine, my love.”
Keegan’s eyes started to well up again.
“Now tell me you love me, then turn this off. I want to go back to sleep.”
“I love you.”
He turned the device off and set it down on his desk.
“Fuck.” He wiped his cheeks again, took another swig from the bottle, then rose to his feet and walked over to the rooms communications panel and hit the call button.
“Bridge. Can I assist you, Dr Beck?”
“I need a shuttle to the surface.” Keegan ordered.
“Will you require security?”
“No.”
“There is a shuttle ready in hangar bay six. I will have a mode of transport outside your room in five minutes to bring you.”
“Thanks.” Keegan killed the channel and put the tequila bottle back on the desk. He needed to get back to the ABQ. There was plenty of distraction there.
98-Faroe Islands
The fishing boat pulled into Eiði just as the sun was rising in the east. The small town of just under seven hundred inhabitants had a harbour that was protected by a long seawall and was surrounded by green hills. There were other boats in the harbour, and as the fishing boat made its final approach, Anna could to see two of the other ships preparing to go to sea.
“Welcome to the Faroe Islands.” Broddi said with a warm smile on his face.
Anna smiled back at him, then looked down at her son. “This is it, Thor, this is our new home.”
99-Zavala
Shakil pushed the door in on the house he had grown up in, and the house that his aunt still called home.
“Who is there?” A voice cried out from the rear of the structure.
Shakil smiled as tears started to run down his cheeks.
“Auntie, I’m home.”
“Shakil?” The old woman moved slowly as she emerged into the living room on the front of the house. “I never thought the day would come when you would return home.” She shook her head as she reached her nephew, wrapping her arms around him. “Not when those monsters from the sky arrived.”
