A Paradox in Retrograde (30 page)

As the others strained to contemplate the meaning of
what they had been told, Landaus returned to the command chair. There he began resetting the coordinates for
a rendezvous with Nibaru. He easily recalled the necessary code and nimbly entered them into the keyboard on
the control panel. A low hum filled the cock pit asthe
fusion rockets were primed and readied for escape velocity. Lights flashed on the board as the artificial brain of
the navicomputer calculated the formula.After a moment
the ships machine voice spoke into his headset. "The course has
been plotted and verified." Again on the screen he watched as a
red blip that represented the ship mimicked in two dimensions
the course that would take the ship from its high earth orbit and
place it at the perfect angle for insertion on far off Nibaru. He
gave the order for all his crew to don their pressure suits. This
time he would take no chances. At the appointed moment all
aboard had already been secured and the sound of rocket count
down filled their ears. A second later the engines fired. As the
thrusters struggled to break gravities bounds the pressures mounted within the cabin and they were all pushed deep into their flight
chairs. With the primary rockets engaged the ship at first shook
violently then leveled off as the ship reached nearer to escape velocity. An instant later in their rear view panel they watched as
the orb of the earth began to slowly shrink away behind them.

Once free of the gravitational effects of the Earth an all clear signal was given. They unbuckled themselves from their harnesses
and began to get down to work. They had to make every moment
count so the work began immediately. Amida's sole job now was
only to control young Leif. Despite their claimed intentions, he
was not at all pleased to be used in such a way. He would be
called on again once they were in the presence of Aaralaat.

Nibaru on its cycle around the sun traveled along on an ellipse
that intersected the solar plane at an angle of forty five degrees. It
currently was falling from the northern solar hemisphere towards
the south. Soon, in several months’ time it would be within its
closest approach to the Earth. Its distance now wasroughly equal
to that between the Earth and Mars. It appeared to them however
merely as a distant point of light. Racing near relativistic speeds
they watched over the course of hours as the orb grew more and
more distinct. Each of them in their own way was affected by the
marvels that the heavens afforded them.

Soon the proximity alarms again began to ring out.By now the
crew having learned from their mistakes understoodthese routines would save their lives. Each then in preparation had made
ready by securing themselves into their suits and harnesses.
Once this had taken place, Landaus and the rest were again free
to stare in wonder at the sights before them. All but overwhelmed by the sight before them, they held their collective
breath as with each passing second the image of the glowing orb
of Nibaru grew larger and brighter through the view screen.
There within the planets shadow the ship was made puny. The
corporal called out excitedly, "We're coming in hot." A moment
later the ship began to shake violently as the tidal forces bearing
down on them threatened to tear the ship to pieces. To counter
this growing gravitational pull, the on board computers automatically began making final corrections to the ships trajectory as
required for orbital insertion. The wild shuddering stopped and
the ship began to level out. The ship though moving at an incredible speed in a breaking maneuver descended into the upper
atmosphere. The ship now glowing in a bright shade of red
seemed to skip like a stone across the top of the atmosphere. In
doing so the ship completed two entire orbits, during which time
the crew and its precious cargo were subject to a bone jarring
turbulence. To their relief it all came to an abrupt stop as the
vessel was finally captured into a planetary orbit and its momentum absorbed. In an attempt to slow the ship down slow enough
for a soft landing the automatic retrorockets beganto fire. Landaus counted the seconds as the roar of the rocketsresounded in
his chest. The ship then began its controlled free fall. They
could feel then for the first time the weight of Nibaru pulling
heavily on their bodies. Soon these stresses were doubled and
doubled again. Landaus watched as his field of vision was
forced into a narrow tunnel of light. Sensing these tremendous
pressures, their pressurizing suits struggled to force the blood
back to their brains where it was most needed. With the negative
pressure of the suits brought to bear, their senses returned just in
time.

An instant later, the ship's hull penetrated into the dense lower
atmosphere. The friction of reentry increased greatly, causing the
space surrounding the ship again to burst suddenly into a fiery
lightshow. The heat upon the ship's hull intensified and with every meter it dropped, the craft's alloyed skin shined a brighter
shade of cherry red. Though the ship was insulated against such
extremes of temperature, they none the less could feel the sweltering heat within the cramped control compartment attempting
to bake the very life out of them. Nothing in Landau's life till
that point had prepared him for such a ride. He trusted those who
had sent him there and he prayed that they had earned that trust.
Through the view screen before them, a red and orange glow illuminated the sharp lines etched upon his face. As the ship around
him shuddered he wondered aloud, "Will we survive this?" All
the while the drag of the atmosphere on the craft's skin had continued to slow its velocity. And it slowed the heat and fiery glow
diminished. Soon it was all over. Then there below for the first
time, the planetary features became visible. Oriented now for atmospheric flight the ships lifting body prepared to glide like an
airplane.

Landaus checked life support systems on his monitor. Everything
seemed safe and so removed his helmet. He lowered the descent
heat shield that covered the carbonized glass window and looked
out upon the landscape. The polished stone of the battlements
gleaming in the setting sun passed in a blur below him. On cue
the ship's auto pilot throttled back the engine. Deployment of its
long and shiny gliding wings came next, extruding from the hull.
Now with the grace of a great metallic bird the ship banked
sharply into a circling pattern above the enemycity. There below he saw a great stone building that matched thedescriptions he had been given of the temple of Earth. Landaus said to
the sergeant "There is our destination. It's a pyramid not unlike
those on Earth"

The Corporal unfastened the safety harness and moved back towards the ship's hold. There he found to his relief that their fragile cargo had survived reentry. He carefully checked each of the
mechanisms and they all appeared to be functioning properly.
As they were designed to do, the digital read outs flashed continuously. This indicated that the bombs were still safely in stasis
mode. He returned to the cock pit and reported to Landaus. "All
is as planned Colonel. The weapons have survived reentry they
look as if they are ready to be deployed."

For the sake of the mission it had been a great stroke of luck that
corporal Lex had been on duty that day. For although it had been
Landaus who had personally trained the corporal in the handling
of explosives, his skills in this area had since surpassed those of
his teacher. His abilities now were such that within the course of
those few short hours of which their journey had consisted Lex
had managed by cannibalizing parts from the lower deck controls
to produce many of the tools they would need. Of these was included the dead man switch that they would use to brazenly bully
their way into the palace. From those same panelswere also acquired the many yards of wire and fuses as well as the wireless
transceivers that would be needed to remotely detonate the
bombs. After hours of concentrated effort toward these ends they
had barely noticed that Nibaru was now upon them. As this realization came to them they knew that though their plan was a
thread bare one, it was all they had. It had to work.

From high above, the patchwork of corridors and roads of the
Nibaru city resembled to Landaus the radiating spokes on a great
wheel. On board schematics had told them that all of these routes
eventually would lead one to the city's central boulevard. It was
there at its far end where the royal palace resided. They hoped
that once they had found their way that their journey would be a
simple one. In theory it played out simple enough. While observing the scale of the Nibaru city Landaus's secret doubts
again percolated; for their success was far from guaranteed. Despite these reservations Landaus's outward spirits for the sake of
the mission remained high. All that he could depend on was that
soon he would again be tested.

Far below them the entrance to the vertical landing bay opened
like a great yawning maw. Spiraling toward it like an eagle toward its prey the ship in an ever tightening circular course
closed the distance between itself and the port. The ship suddenly banked sharply inward as it now prepared to come in for a
landing. Without prior warning to the crew, the ships proximity
sensors initiated the landing sequence by firing the retro rockets
in a specific preset sequence. In an instant the computers calculated the intricate parameters required for auto negotiating a vertical landing. Landaus, with little time to spare recognized this
for what it was and yelled out to the crew, "This ship is preparing itself for a vertical landing. You all had best make it back to
your harnesses now or you'll all be in a world of hurt." The crew
leaving their gear where they had stood raced to make it back to
the safety of their seats. The firing of these rockets had a disorientating effect on the crew. As the ship prepared to bring itself
to a sudden and dead stop it left them to move of their own momentum. Over the course of the next several secondsits own
momentum was countered by the rockets until its trajectory had
come to an abrupt stop hundreds of meters directlyabove the
landing bay. There for a moment it hovered for final adjustments. As it did its hollow graceful wings began to retract back
within the body of the ship while simultaneously deploying its
landing fins. Once that had been completed the ship began then
to rotate slowly nose upwards from the horizontal. Anything not
secured began now to make its way falling down toward the aft
of the ship. The crew who without a moment to spare had secured
themselves within their harnesses now had to dodge a barrage of
missiles as everything that wasn't nailed down flew about the
cabin wildly. The crew struggled to guard their faces from the
hail of debris that for the moment had not yet settled. As they endured this, the computer without further interference finished the
job of landing the ship. With the computer controlled rockets firing in quick succession, maneuvering the ship downward seemed
effortless as it floated gracefully toward the waiting ground.
With little room to spare within the tight quarters of the bay, the
ship settled gently into a perfect three point landing mere meters
from the other ships. The crew exhaled in a collective sigh of relief.

With the all stop the engines cut off and with the exception of the
sound of the retracting metal hull, all around them suddenly went
eerily silent. They were surprised but relieved by the fact that
their arrival had not caused the type reaction they had anticipated.
In fact looking out through the windows revealed to them that
their presence there had caused no reaction at all. There was no
angry greeting party. Grunhuf brushed aside the debris and loosened his harness and sat up to look out through the cockpit window. There was nothing of what they had before seen from the
air. All that he saw were row after row of silhouetted ships and a
ribbon of rose tinted sky cast against the dark jagged outline of
the landing bays leading edge. "Where are we? It looks as if
we've landed somewhere deep in the ground. We'll never get out
of here." The crew with their heads tilting upward strained to see
anything beyond the edge of what was in effect a great canyon of
steel. Sensing the crew's anxiety the voice of Amida resonated in
response. "It is well we have landed here well out of sight. Soon
enough we will face your enemy now there is time for cautious
preparation."

"Yes but how are we to get out of here? That wall has got to be
three hundred meters tall." Grunhuf retorted sharply.
"That estimate is as good as any. But you must not worry. Here
is where their ships make landing. Logically their must be a
means through which goods and personnel are transported between here and the rest of the city. I have no doubt that the ships
computer should contain a data base of such a route." Even before these words had crossed the room Landaus had begun the
process. He entered the search parameters of his query into his
control board keyboard. There upon the screen appeared a schematic highlighted in neon green that represented a means of exit
from their current location. "Send diagram to main screen."

Grunhuf from the beginning had distrusted and disliked Amida.
Now he was growing increasingly tired of what he interpreted as
his condescending attitude and so tried to turn the tables on
Amida. "That's well and good Amida, but how do you suppose
our friend Leif here is going to feel about being used in such a
manner especially against his own kind? Is how you're controlling him and perhaps us as well not just like what your brother
has done back on Earth?" For a moment there was silence as it
seemed the spirit of Amida was for once, at a loss for words.
Then he spoke. "I take no pleasure in any of this. My powers I
have used I think for good. Influencing some controlling others,
yes I have done these things. I hope for the day I am relieved of
this burden. Perhaps tonight I shall get my wish. I hope for your
sake, it is so." Landaus seeing that no good could come of such
an argument took the lead and spoke in the name ofreason.
"Please gentlemen this bickering is getting us nowhere there is
much work to be done. I suggest we get to it. Grunhuf for this to
work I am going to need you focus on the mission instead of on
which little or nothing can be done about. Can youunderstand
that? "