The Legend of Earth (The Human Chronicles Saga -- Book 5) (26 page)

They all nodded and then Adam began to compose the first
video
message for the Fleet. All the Humans gathered around the camera, including Tindal and Riyad, showing their smiling faces for Allen and anyone else interested in their well-being.

The team was still intact, Adam noted – including Kaylor and Jym. It was a miracle that he could say that, considering all they’d been through over the past five months. They’d gone from the planet Hyben, to a Juirean Class-3 warship, and then to the Klin stronghold on Marishal … and now even to the planet Juir herself. They’d certainly been through a lot. Luck – and fate – had been with them so far. But now they faced the greatest threat mankind had ever encountered, and with only a few days – or even hours – to prevent it. Yes, Adam’s team had all survived this long, but now, after all they had been through, they wondered if they would have anything to return to after all their luck had been used up?

The answer to that question would depend on what happened on the far-distant world of Earth.

Chapter 30

Although no sirens sounded in the Pentagon, the sudden upsurge in activity within the south-facing section of the massive building was like fire alarms going off throughout the structure.

The moment the message from Admiral Nathanial Allen had been received, hundreds of people in the building – as well as thousands more around the world – had sprung into action. Initially, no one knew what to do, but the simple act of having their bodies in motion helped to maintain a sense of sanity and purpose.

Admiral Bill Keller was in his private quarters when the message came through. For the past three years, he had voluntarily sequestered himself within the section of the Pentagon called the Complex, the cluster of offices, conference rooms and intel centers that made up the nerve-center of the planet’s central military space command. Since the devastating attack by the Juireans, Keller had opted to live his life exclusively from the Complex. His responsibility was 24/7, so it only made sense for him to be at work 24/7.

The truth of the matter was he had nowhere else to go. His home in Fairfax, Virginia, had been destroyed by the raging inferno caused by the Juirean energy bombs, even though no bombs had struck close to his residence. Yet with all emergency services completely overwhelmed, his 1928-built, 4,800-square-foot Colonial had ended up being just so much additional fuel for the fires that spread out from the center of D.C., consuming the affluent suburbs of Fairfax, Falls Church and even as far north as Rockville, Maryland.

Just prior to the Juirean attack, Bill Keller had the foresight and opportunity to send his family away from the high-target zone that was Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, that still did not prevent their deaths from a rogue cluster of Juirean bombs that hit the tiny hamlet in western Pennsylvania where they’d sought refuge. They would have been safer to have come to the Pentagon, yet Keller had no way of knowing that at the time.

It was just after five in the afternoon when the message came through, and dozens, if not hundreds of staffers who had just left for the day, made wild U-turns and returned to work.

“What do we know?” Keller asked as he entered the main situation room for the Complex. Already present were seventeen other high ranking officers and intel types, including Air Force General Richard Blake, commander of all the Earth’s space-based forces. General Blake had been a big-wig at NORAD until the Juirean attack. Now his territory of responsibility had blossomed to comprise everything from the Earth all the way to an area of space called the
Barrier,
at the very beginning of what the Juireans called the
Far Arm
of the galaxy.

“Nothing more than what the initial report indicated, Admiral,” Blake said. “We’ve heightened all awareness and detection resources but haven’t found any abnormal activity.”

Keller was afraid of this. A small group of infiltrators, using the same type of ships as they had, would be almost impossible to detect within the organized chaos that was space travel these days. With literally hundreds of military, corporate and even some civilian spacecraft flitting around the planet at any given moment, Blake’s command was like that of an air traffic controller, trying to juggle all these disparate interests for the mutual satisfaction of all.

Keller grimaced as he surveyed the main status screen, which took up nearly the entire south wall of the situation room. It showed the planet Earth in the center with a literal haze of constantly-moving white contacts encircling the planet.

The shipbuilders were still cranking out over five new warcraft a day, all of which had to be flight-tested within the solar system and beyond. At the same time, civilian contractors were continually testing new prototypes and innovations with other spacecraft, also within the space around the planet. Even a few of the very-rich had managed to obtain private spacecraft of their own, usually through special arrangements with their host governments.

And all of these spacecraft carried with them one unifying – and terrifying – distinction: they
all
resembled the ubiquitous Klin flying saucers in appearance.

How, through all this mess, was Keller to find a few invaders carrying nuclear weapons and bent on the destruction of his world?

He wished he knew….

“We need to ground all corporate and civilian spaceships immediately,” General Blake was saying.

Keller nodded. “I concur. Then we need to set up a challenge-and-response code for our military craft.” He walked up to the large screen and motioned with his hand in a big circle. “We then need to form a shield around the planet, tighter than anything before.”

“Admiral, with the velocities we’re talking about, we’re going to have to establish the perimeter pretty far out,” said Carla Ferguson, the president’s senior science advisor. “Do we have enough ships to form an effective shield?”

“Sadly, no,” Keller said. “And you’re right, Carla, the further out we go, the larger the gaps between our ships. That’s why we need to monitor every contact approaching, and if the challenge isn’t answered properly in a millisecond, we blast the contact out of existence. There may be some collateral damage, but that’s just the price we’re going to have to pay for saving the planet.”

“These damn aliens probably already know our weaknesses and are ready to exploit them,” Blake said.

“Hopefully they won’t know we’re expecting them. That could be our ace-in-the-hole. General Blake, coordinate the deployment of the ships; I’ll get with intel and work on the challenge/response codes. We need to figure a secure way of delivering these to all of our warships. Right after I brief the President, I’ll also shoot a message back to Admiral Allen letting him know our plans. He might have some input – and I’m sure they’re worried sick out there, being that far from home and not being able to help. I know I would. Let’s get to work.”

Within minutes of informing the President of the situation, a dozen major governments around the world joined in a massive effort in grounding all non-military spacecraft and to place all their land-based defenses on full alert. They had no idea when the attack would occur, so no one knew how long the troops would have to stay on high alert. It would be nerve-racking on the military personnel attached to the defending units, both on the surface and in space, but they would have to stay vigilant.
 

The politicians and military brass decided not to tell the corporate and private ship owners why they were being grounded, just that it was vital that all non-military vessels clear the area. Not surprisingly, no one complained. After the Juirean attack on the Earth, they all knew that this action would not be called for unless there was a dire emergency of some kind – and the meaning of
dire emergency
these days had been elevated to the level of a
planet-buster
in the minds of most Humans on the planet Earth. No one bluffed about these things anymore.

Nine hours later, all non-military spaceships were on the ground, and General Blake’s shield was ballooning out from the planet. Carla Ferguson had been right; the number of available defenders was woefully inadequate. Blake’s four hundred sixty-six ships had to encompass the entire planet, since no one knew from what track the attackers would take. In fact, they may split up and come at the planet from all directions. All they could hope for was to detect the attackers early enough so as to concentrate enough firepower to repel them.

Some within the inner circle, those who knew the full story, began to plan for strike-contingencies, including shelters, radiation treatment centers and medical triage. After all, how bad could it be? There had been over twenty-one hundred nuclear tests conducted on the Earth over the years and still the planet survived. So what if a few attackers got through; there
would
be damage and considerable loss of life, but could it be any worse than the Juirean attack from a few years ago?

Carla Ferguson pointed out that the technology of the Klin was so far advanced compared to that of Earth that it only stood to reason that their nuclear technology would be just as advanced. Where the largest nuclear device ever detonated on the Earth was in the range of 50 megatons, this Kracori race – protégés of the Klin – could have devices at several multiples of this. They may only need a few to get through to cause unimaginable damage. Or, as she explained, these weapons may be more on the line of neutron bombs, cascading deadly amounts of radiation on the planet. If it was the Kracori’s goal to destroy the homeworld of the Humans for the long-term, then a neutron radiation attack would be the better choice, and if that were the case, then no amount of preparation could protect against a decades-long cloud of deadly radiation encircling the globe.

Keller had left the meeting feeling even more depressed than when he entered.
So it all comes down to this: stop them in space, or perish. No other options seemed to be available.

Chapter 31

Thirty-four hours after receiving the warning from Admiral Allen, the Human shield was in place, forming a thin veil around the planet out to around a million kilometers. Nunif Juikil had watched the mad scramble of spaceships – either bolting to the planet’s surface or out to form the defensive line – with both a sense of amusement and confusion.

His confusion came from the question of how did the Humans learn of his attack? As far as he knew there had been no direct contact between the Kracori and the Humans, or any of their allies. Besides, those who knew of the plan were very few and exclusively Kracori. Even the nasty Klin had been vanquished and were no longer involved in any Kracori operations.