Intelligent Design: Revelations to Apocalypse (34 page)

“Joyce! For Christ’s sake! They lied! What the hell! You’re not going to air that…”
the voice broke in again.

Reich found the power button and turned the news off. Witnessing the human toll was too much. She handed Lux the tablet and turned on her flashlight. Without further discussion, Vespere opened what looked like a basement door. It revealed a newly installed metal door. Her hand print triggered a loud sound of metal pistons moving heavy-duty deadbolt locks. The metal door hissed open. She nodded to Lux, who threw the building’s breaker system, which was placed at the basement door’s entrance—a seemingly unusual place to find a breaker box. With flashlights cutting through the darkness, all three females walked through the faux-wood door and metal blast door to a metal grate that covered a dark stairwell. As they walked down in silence several flights, they heard the heavy door above them that separated them from the surface lock ominously behind them. If all went well, the door would open just two more times—one time to let fifteen more people enter their ark and another when they all emerged to enter a brave, new world. Should an emergency occur and they needed to evacuate, a protocol for extraction and relocation to Terra was already set. After four minutes of descending down stairs, they reached the newly refurbished titanium-alloy blast door that gave access to the ark itself. The original door and its hydraulics had taken three minutes to open and close—the updated version took only one minute. Reich put her hand on a dark hand pad that came to life upon contact. In under a second, the door’s heavy locks and hinges released and the massive door opened into a brightly lit corridor and yet another door. Bella and Pax were waiting for them to arrive. As Reich entered, Pax gave her a status report.

“All occupants are accounted for, Dux Reich. The command center is on full alert. We already received information from Mars’s Master Keeper on its status. All is well and so far there is no danger. There has been incremental shifting in the Martian axis, however, and there are already a number of large asteroids dislodging from their orbits between Mars and the new sun.”

“That does not bode well,” Reich said.

She was now in front of yet another blast door. She went through the same handprint release, with a similar response as before. As she retracted her hand, she became self-conscious of her hair and what she was wearing. While she did not plan to be making any announcements, she was happy that she had worn something conservative and leader-like—she had almost gone out in her pajamas. Instead, she had taken the extra effort to put on a black skirt, thin tan blouse, and nonmatching sneakers. She remembered she had no bra on.

No one’s perfect.

“Just so you know, the two youths, Felicia and Hong, are in the command center,” Pax said.

Reich smiled. She liked the pair. They were not only gifted in science and math, but they were excellent sleuths. Her fondest moment was telling them their investigation in the past had been right. An image of her sister and two nieces flashed in her mind. She was thrilled she had located them. She knew that Spencer and Middleton would make sure to pick them up as part of the fifteen. Still, she was anxious. She wished she could do more.

The interior, refurbished walkway was busy with staff and volunteers bustling about. Even though it was three in the morning, the level of activity was as if they were on double shifts at high noon. People were moving Meals Ready to Eat boxes and freeze-dried food, a box of recently born puppies, and two crates of sidearms. The command center door was open. Lux, Vespere, and her Terran team split up to their assigned command sections. Perez, still dressed in his Sahara clothes, was at the communication center—likely giving Terra an update and passing along Martian data. Hong and Felicia were in a spirited debate over tectonic shifts and possible projections of meteor impacts. She heard Hong say “two months.” Reich’s jaw and fist tensed up. Mars and her team had anticipated seventy-five days.

Wow, they’re close. I hate it when they’re right.

Without much fanfare, Reich walked to an old-fashioned, corded, hard-line phone. By lifting it off the hook, a loud public announcement alert system came on. The command center fell silent. She imagined their training and the noise itself were effective in demanding attention.

“All right, everyone. This is it. The second sun has appeared, and it is only now that our civilization as we know it is beginning to comprehend what is to come. While I am near-certain various governments, including our own, have already prepared for such an eventuality, we are probably the only privately funded group to be complete and running. As panic pervades above ground, we will remain here until order is reestablished or until we need to meet ships from Terra to evacuate. We are prepared for short-term and long-term contingencies, and we have an exit strategy should we need to leave. In the meantime, carry on with your assigned duties, tasks, and volunteer activities. We expect the final fifteen members to arrive in thirty days at 18:50 hours. Over the next forty-eight hours, Captain Perez and his team will provide fifteen-minute updates every three hours. And above all, be kind to each other. We are all we have left. Thank you. Major Reich out.”

She hung up the hard line and moved to her command table, a tall desk with no chairs and a series of monitors and command override controls embedded in the surface. The table’s height and design allowed for immediate conferences in the center of the action. As soon as she took her position, Perez, Principal Smith, Lux, and Pax came to her. Alpha Team was now operational.

“If you don’t mind, Major, I would like to take Hong and Felicia with me to brief the students, staff, recent arrivals, and volunteers on activities and tasks for the next week,” Smith said.

“You need any help with that?” Perez asked. Reich was pleased to see them working as a team when it counted.

“Are you kidding? Sure will. It would be great if you could meet with the students after 09:00 for reassurance. They like me and respect me, but you’re the captain so your words hold more water,” Smith said.

“Will do,” Perez said.

Smith nodded and moved from his position. As he left, Vespere from Beta Team came in for a briefing. Reich smiled as she took the principal’s place.

“Major? Terra’s High Counsel is updated and will expect any new data and a situation status every hour starting in fifteen minutes—to officially start the clock,” Perez said.

“Your daughter, Andrea?” Reich asked.

“She is below ground in her new domain, well protected by her Terran family and a certain mutual acquaintance of ours,” Perez said. His smile broadened. She was glad he had finally adjusted to being away from her and that she was truly safe.

“Lucky Earther,” Lux muttered. Her statement attracted looks and smirks.

“You had a chance to return to the ‘Promised Land,’ Lux. You and the others chose to stay,” Reich said. She knew that they would never leave.

“Terrans never flee from a struggle, even if it means running naked underground chasing a rattus. Now they’re cooking fresh meat in the vast plains of Hades with our canine companions…drinking sweet pecan liquor, dancing, open fires, and song for all,” Pax said. Even as she spoke, her expression made it evident that she longed to be home.

“Wow. Wish I was there,” Perez said with just a hint of sarcasm.

“Anyway, Dux Reich and Perez, how would you surface-dwelling Earthers cope with living within your planet’s crust on your own? You need us. That’s what we do. We could not leave, for we are a responsible species,” Lux added with a toothy smile.

Reich nodded, but noticed chestnut shells and gum still coating her teeth. She let it go.

“Much appreciated,” Reich said. She took a moment to organize her thoughts. She sometimes still couldn’t believe she was in the situation she found herself in now. Without further hesitation, she moved on to one of many agenda items that flashed across her monitor. She pushed a button on her right that activated her master computer’s hominid interface.

“Working. Do you wish for me to update you on Atlantis’s last calculations on probable planetary axis shift or another parameter?” her computer asked in her feminine voice.

“Start with analyses of power distribution to exceed base parameters, please, and present them on the monitors with voice overlay,” Reich said.

“Affirmative.”

Before the master computer started, Reich was struck with an idea.

“Master computer? How is the Atlantis Keeper? It was near end of life last year.”

Reich noticed a delay. Her team did as well.

“Atlantis Keeper is very close to end of life. She is nonetheless insistent on using all her resources to assist in her final days. She anticipates that she will not survive the probable meteor strikes or the following blast fronts and ice age. Still, she reports that she finds
meaning
in her final days. Her explanation exceeds my understanding. Thank you for asking,” her computer said.

“You’re welcome. We are all in this together,” Reich said.

“Thank you. Now, please look at your monitors and look at the top right of your screen,” the computer went on.

New life? Maybe.

Whatever precious jewel there is in the heavenly worlds, there is nothing comparable to one who is Awakened.
—The Buddha

Perez the Younger looked out over Hydra’s Point, the peak where she and her friend had first looked out over the newly discovered cavern. It gave an excellent view of the subterranean world. And it reminded her of her friend. She rested her hands on her weapon belt. She placed her left hand on her laser sidearm and her right hand on a newly modified automatic sidearm from Earth. She was still not used to the lack of sensation in her right hand but, much to her surprise, she used it well. With her edged weapons secured on her leather vest, she could feel the light fully automatic assault weapon and ammunition weigh her down ever so slightly. Perez the Younger was now known as simply “Praetor,” for not only was she known for two battles but also the discovery of a new world. She was also known to be well armed at all times.

“When walking to the library or crawling through a hole gets you scars on your entire body and costs you your right hand, that’s a message to be prepared for anything, at any time, on all occasions.
Semper paratus
,” she often said.

Paranoid? I think not.

The hot, swamp-like air and minty-mushroom smell seemed at odds with the various campfires and dancing Terrans below her, spread out on the edge of a great plain. The warm wind blew gently as drafts from the surface filtered their way down. In two years, Hades, as the underground world was called, had just barely begun to be explored. They had made the decision not to put permanent structures in place—it was thought better to create a wild reserve for hunting, food, and minerals. The slow expansion was also deliberate, meant to help them understand and maintain the ecosystem and to make sure there would be enough hunting and open spaces for future generations. Perez felt the corners of her mouth curl up as she heard drums both close and far. At best, the expedition force composed of Terrans and Earthers was mere kilometers away.

Dressed in dark, lightweight fabric with leather strapping, Perez felt at peace—even if she was laden with weapons. It was nice to have hair to run her hands through again, and she felt comfortable in her own skin, though flawed with scars and a new artificial hand. At the time of her discovery, her greatest concern was whether her father was going to return to take care of her. She minimized the severity of the attack and how close she was to death—he probably knew that. Even with the moist, warm air, it was comfortable in the caverns. She loved looking out over the expanse. To her left and right were two stone ramps. One marked the beginning of a path to a great hunting tour and the other, less worn, marked the return. A number of Terrans had “gone native” and never returned.
How it’s all changed,
she thought.

A male voice spoke behind her. Its depth and volume identified him as an older Earther, of similar age to her father. She was pleased to hear the familiar voice. After a full year on the planet, General David Joseph Farrell had become as familiar with Terra as she was. But then, he had been looking for the planet for years. A lifetime ago, he had sat across from her in an FBI interrogation cell, telling her some crazy story of an invisible planet hidden behind the sun. She remembered being overweight then, with jelly and chocolate stains on her crumpled white lab coat. Now they were both there, looking out at yet another alien world—one hidden within Terra. The irony was not lost on her. She did appreciate her father’s efforts to keep her safe. General Farrell and his people were both soldiers and explorers, and a group that would watch out for her and her Terran family.

I guess Perez the Elder is wise.
Her smile broadened when she thought of her father, happy to be in the middle of a shitstorm.

“It doesn’t look much like the Amazon in July, but it sure feels like it. And to think that these were the lightest materials we could find on Earth,” he said while pulling at his battlefield dress uniform. It consisted of boots, fatigues, a cap, and a tank top that was soaked with sweat. He came to a stop right beside her, to take in the view. She smiled and glanced briefly at him. She took in his attire and was not remotely surprised.

“I don’t know, General. I think your uniforms might be too much clothing for this climate. While the Terrans appreciate you covering up your near-hairless body very much, it has to be uncomfortable.”

The general’s voice, deep from age and use, sounded cheerful.

“I am truly amazed that I’m considered hairless,” he said as he stood with his hands planted on his hips.

Perez caught movement not too far below, from her left. It looked as if an advance recon party was returning by the way the dance groups were trying to pull the members into the festivities and give them something to drink. Upon closer inspection, Perez could see it was a platoon of both male and female Earthers returning from their own expedition.