Ancient Birthright (40 page)

“That would be phenomenal. To find a detailed record of Earth’s evolution and recorded history covering millions of years.” Beldon spread his hands to emphasize his point.

“True,” Striker said, “but first, we have to get there in one piece. I think what you’re looking for in order to escape from the VLA’s tracking is a decoy.

Becca stumbled and caught herself against the bulkhead.

Saigg grasped her elbow. “Try sitting in my chair. The shape might fit you better.” With a grateful smile, Becca lowered her bulk into Saigg’s chair.

“What we need to do is build a remotely piloted decoy using one of the PTOs or powered maintenance vehicles. Something we can rig to send the same strength reflected signal to Earth that the
UE
would have. The decoy should be launched on our present course and programed to continue at the same rate of deceleration while the
Universe Explorer
veers off on a new course and ends up orbiting the Moon.” Striker pushed off the wall and walked around Saigg’s desk so that he could massage Becca’s neck and shoulders.

Becca rolled her head and sighed, “You can stop that in about a year.”

Striker continued, “The timing of the launch will have to be calculated, so the
Universe Explorer
has the greatest amount of time to clear the area of the decoy. We could mount optical and radar corner reflectors on the decoy craft. That will make it look much larger because the reflected signal will be stronger. If the decoy can make it to the inner planets of the solar system, we could even program it to go into orbit around another planet, possibly Mars. That would confuse the people tracking it and give them the idea that it’s not an immediate threat.”

#

Modifying a PTO took a little over three weeks. Several large corner reflectors were fabricated and mounted to the smallest ship, the same one the three children used to assist in the rescue mission. The fabricated radar reflectors were made from plentiful but nonessential nickel. They were even given a beautiful surface coating of silver so they would act as optical corner reflectors as well as radar reflectors. Any signal hitting the corner reflector would bounce off and return along its exact incoming track.

“This PTO has been chosen by the engineers because its propulsion system is working at a much higher efficiency than the others of its class. The PTO engineers postulate that the prolonged use of the onboard recycling system to process the
Endeavour
waste provided the engines with improved capacity and stamina. The engines have a third more power using twenty percent less fuel,” Striker told Becca.

Command Prime Garuu entered the launch bay and came to stand beside Striker. “How’s it going?”

“No problems to this point. We should be ready to launch in a few minutes.”

“How are you doing, Becca?” Command Prime asked.

“This light gravity feels great. It’s taken the pressure off my back, and my feet don’t hurt. I think I’ll make a bed over there in the corner and live here until this baby is born.”

Jamz chuckled. “I think we could find you a better nest than the corner of the launch bay.”

One of the launch crew, a burdon, walked up to Command Prime and reported in a deep hissing voice, “Fueling and remote control testing is complete on the PTO. We added several more stability struts to the reflector array. If the PTO has to do any quick maneuvers, we wanted to make sure the array goes with it.”

“Thank you, Crew Lead Dangga.”

Striker studied the soul while he spoke to Command Prime. Dangga was a quadruped with short, light-brown fur covering his body up to the head. His head, shaped much like a triceratops with three horns, was missing the large neck shield. The horns were blunt and tipped with steel fittings used to move large objects. His body shape was also very similar to a triceratops with the humped back and wide, powerful bowed front legs. Striker watched as a single burdon locked its horn fittings into the lifting points of a medium-sized PTO and moved the ship by himself. The near-zero gravity of the launch bay made the move possible. The finesse shown in controlling the large mass demonstrated that these souls were not just muscle, but had a deep understanding of the physics of maneuvering things in a low gravity environment.

Caraa walked up and joined the group as TL Dangga hop-stepped away.

Striker remembered seeing the same type of movement used by astronauts when walking on the Moon.

The PTO launched without a hitch. The real trick was to turn the
Universe Explorer
after the launch, without stopping its spin. Spider web frameworks were fabricated and placed over the center-engine-tube openings at the nose and tail of the ship. Once the frameworks were in place, two of the larger PTOs latched into the center pivot point of the frameworks and used their engines to rotate the
UE
while it continued to spin. The alternative would have been to stop the spin of the
UE
, use the maneuvering engines to turn it, and then restart the spin, an operation that would have taken hours. When the PTOs cut their engines and released the
UE
, it had rotated twenty degrees. The nose engines were then brought to full power and the
UE
quickly deviated from its original course while the decoy continued on, waiting for the VLA to come online twelve hours later and resume tracking the much smaller craft.

With the
Universe Explorer
’s new course established, flight operations recovered the two maneuvering PTOs.

While they were watching the launch crew lock down the PTOs, Becca’s water broke and caused a mini emergency as launch crew members tried to capture the fluid in the almost nonexistent gravity.

Striker lifted Becca into his arms and took off for their cabin as Jamz called for Dr. Marra Feuua and the female humans to report to Striker’s cabin to assist.

Chapter-48

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

Colonel Bitman, the installation commander, seated directly behind Duane and Linda, listened to the conclusion of the wedding ceremony. He watched as Duane jumped to his feet and applauded along with the rest of the guests gathered in the chapel tent for Terrie and Jimmy’s wedding. The size of the temporary air supported structure limited the number actually viewing the wedding to about fifty people, but the reception in the mess-hall next door was open to anyone at NRAO who wanted to attend.

Duane turned to Linda and gave her a hug then whispered in her ear, “We made it through another one. The last of our children is married and starting a family of her own.”

Linda dabbed at her tears. “I know. Now it will be just the two of us. What will we do with ourselves?”

“We could run naked through our rooms and pretend we’re newlyweds.”

Linda swatted his arm. “Sshhh, not so loud.”

Bitman chuckled as he turned to follow the parents of the bride down the aisle.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand having an empty nest,” Linda said to Duane.

“That may be true, but just think about it; you can walk ten feet across the hall to their quarters and drive Jimmy crazy like any good mother-in-law is supposed to.”

“There is always that possibility.”

“Come on, we need to get in the receiving line.” Duane took Linda’s hand as they walked down the aisle between the folding chairs to join the bride and groom. Duane had just given Terrie a hug and kiss, and was reaching for Jimmy’s hand when Bitman’s pager began beeping. The display held one word “Hooker.”

“I just got a page. Hooker is onsite and coming here,” Bitman shouted to the assembled guests.

No one panicked. The bride and groom stepped back, and the best man and maid of honor took their places. The Dumas and the Merrimen families quietly walked into the mess hall and donned food service whites as they joined the team preparing the reception meal.

By the time the two black DHS SUV’s slammed to a stop with locked brakes and a cloud of burned rubber, the receiving line was progressing normally.

Six agents dressed in full SWAT gear boiled out of each SUV and surrounded the wedding party.

“We’re looking for Duane Dumas and his wife Linda. Cooperate and no one will get hurt,” yelled Hooker.

The twelve DHS agents were intently watching the wedding guests with their weapons partially raised and didn’t notice the military police closing in on them.

The man acting as the father of the groom stepped forward. “What is the meaning of this intrusion? We’re celebrating a wedding here.”

“Shut up, old man, before I knock your teeth in,” snarled Hooker.

“That’s enough, Agent Hooker,” one of the guests said. “Tell your men to lower their weapons and leave immediately.”

“Who the hell are you and just why would I want to do that,” sneered Hooker.

“I’m Colonel Bitman and this is my installation. As to why you would do that? If you don’t, my men are going to disarm you and toss you in the brig so fast your ass might not make it through the door before it slams shut.”

“I have a warrant for the Dumas and Merrimen families. As a DHS agent I have the right to apprehend them. This wedding wasn’t posted in the installation bulletin, why was that Colonel? You trying to hide something?”

“Anyone in this wedding party named Dumas or Merrimen?” called Colonel Bitman.

Silence.

“No one here by those names.”

“Now show me the warrant, and your authorization to be on this facility,” Bitman demanded.

“I don’t have to show you anything,” sneered Hooker.

“I didn’t think you had anything to back up your threats. Take your team of thugs and get out of here before I get mad. And the next time you blow through the gates of my installation without stopping to identify yourself and surrender your weapons, my men will have orders to use all force necessary to stop you.”

“We’re not going anywhere until we’ve done a complete and thorough search of everyone here,” Hooker said stepping up to stand in Colonel Bitman‘s face.

Four Humvee’s with manned turret mounted machineguns arrived and additional heavily armed troops jumped out to assist with surrounding the black clad DHS agents.

The Sergeant of the Guard ran up to the Colonel and saluted. “Sorry, sir, they bypassed the gate and drove through the north perimeter security fence by crossing the desert. They took out almost a hundred feet of chain link and several intrusion sensors.”

“Sergeant, you have new orders. From now on, any breach of the perimeter authorizes you to use all force necessary to stop the trespassers, and that includes deadly force. If Agent Hooker and his men are not off my installation in ten minutes, consider them your first targets of opportunity.”

“Gladly, sir.”

“Oh, and Sergeant, confiscate their weapons and vehicles before you send them on their way. We will need them as evidence of their attack.”

“But, its fifty miles back to Socorro,” Hooker said.

The sergeant kicked Hooker’s legs out from under him and stripped him of his weapons.

“You have your orders, Sergeant, and there’re only nine minutes left. One more thing before you go, Sergeant. I believe there is an eye in the sky over my installation. Please remove it and its support vehicle immediately.”

The Sergeant raised his radio to his lips and said a few words. The sound of tank turbines coming on line could be heard as a single anti-aircraft canon barked, and an explosion lit the sky where a large bird shaped object circled.

The driver, from the lead DHS SUV, threw his door open and rolled out of the vehicle. He knelt by the front wheel of his truck, compact machine gun pointed at the crowd. “Release the DHS agents or I’ll open up!”

“Sergeant, at the first shot, put a bullet in agent Hookers head.”

All the color left Hookers face. “Nice try, Traver, but look at your left arm.”

A circling red dot highlighted the upper arm of Taver’s uniform, an area not covered by body armor. Taver slowly lowered his gun and stood hands above his head.

The DHS team was stripped of weapons, but were permitted to retain their black Kevlar vests and helmets in the ninety-five degree temperature. They were assembled in the street and marched to the front gate by the military police detail.

Two Abrams M1A1 tanks moved out at high speed, back-tracking the trail left by the tires of Hooker’s SUVs.

Five minutes later the reception line took one-step to the right and left, and the bride and groom resumed their places.

Chapter-49

“Dad, come on. We’re missing it,”

“Slow down, Dantee, we’ll get there in plenty of time. Mom told me human labor takes hours.” Saigg picked up his pace as Dantee pulled him by the hand, and then ran ahead.

“But it’s been a long time already. Becca could have already had the baby.”

“It’s unlikely, her water only broke a little over an hour ago. Where are Reedn and Tuuan?”

“They’re probably already there. They were with Mom and Grandma Marra when Grandpa called to tell them Becca had gone into labor.”

“Where were you when he called? You three kids are always together.” Saigg had finally managed to catch up to Dantee and now started swinging her arm as they walked side by side.