The Legend of Earth (The Human Chronicles Saga -- Book 5) (29 page)

Chapter 36

Admiral William Keller continued to stare into the sky until the last remnants of the distance explosion had dissipated. He waited, as did all the others, for a follow-up burst of blinding light, an indicator of a nuclear blast within the atmosphere. He was sure D.C. would be one of the Kracori’s primary targets, even though their stated purpose was to irradiate the planet rather than destroy strategic targets. But still he waited.

And he waited.

After about an hour in the cool air of late November, with the light fading from a tranquil and swollen orange sun on the Western horizon, Keller finally laughed out loud. He had seen the relative position of the Kracori spaceships on the large monitor screen, just before the EMP struck. He knew they had been only minutes away from launching their attack.

Was it possible that the attack had not occurred? He couldn’t be sure, since he was standing in only once solitary position on the planet. But if they had attacked, wouldn’t he have felt
something
?

To answer his question, an Air Force senior master sergeant came running out of the nearest Pentagon door and scanned the massive crowd standing outside. Keller, with his prominent gold shoulder boards of his dress uniform, stood out amongst all the rest. The sergeant ran up to him with a paper in his hand. The forty-six-year-old E-8 was out of breath.

“Sir, the EMP was not as strong as initially suspected – probably from a fusion device – and we still have comm hardened against such events.” He took a couple of deep breaths before continuing. “Reports show no, I repeat no, nuclear explosions within the atmosphere or impacting the surface!”

He handed the sheet of paper to Keller, who saw it was all in a mass of teletype text, hardly readable without deciphering it line-by-line. Keller was good at reading this kind of message – seeing that it was standard for most military orders – but he had no time for that now.

“No impacts, no air bursts reported?” he queried the master sergeant.

“That’s correct, sir. Apparently all the alien ships exploded in space. That was what caused the EMP.”

As was unbefitting a full-admiral, Keller sat down on the warm black asphalt of the Pentagon parking lot and crossed his legs. Word was spreading like wildfire throughout the thousands of others with him and soon there was such a cacophony of cheers and celebration that all military decorum broke down completely. People were coming up to him, patting his back and reaching down to shake his hand, believing that he had had something to do with their salvation. He accepted their accolades, for even Admiral William Keller, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, didn’t know what had just happened.

Chapter 37

Adam was in the kitchen of the Kracori spaceship checking the processor supplies when Tindal called him to the bridge. A message had been received from the fleet indicating that a longer, more detailed update to the situation on Earth was to be received in five minutes and that all crewmembers should be present.

If the preliminary message was meant to prepare them for bad news, it did just the opposite. As all the Humans met on the bridge, to the person they were white as sheets and nearly sick to their stomachs. It was the longest five minutes in all their lives.

Adam knew immediately that the worst had occurred the moment he saw Admiral Allen’s face. It was drawn and hollow, the bags under his eyes doubly-pronounced from the last video of him they’d received.

“I won’t sugarcoat this you guys,” Allen began. “We lost contact with the Earth about two hours ago. It was in mid-message, and since then, nothing.” He appeared to choke up, but then gathered himself and continued. “We don’t have any actual confirmation of the attack, but I have to tell you this is the first time since we left the planet that we’ve been out of communications for this long.” He attempted to smile. “It would be a real bitch if this was some glitch that just happened to come at the most inopportune time. You know these things happen; I’m surprised we haven’t had a breakdown in comm before this.”

The sickly-looking smile vanished as quickly as it came and Admiral Allen continued, his voice now deadly serious. “As you’ve probably already guessed, I’ve turned the fleet and we are heading home. I’m sorry about this, but I had no choice. Even without concrete confirmation of an attack, I couldn’t delay it any longer. The word has spread throughout the fleet, and if I hadn’t done something soon, I would have had a mutiny on my hands.” Again the wry smile.

“Adam, you and Andy – and all the rest of you – are very resourceful people, in fact more capable than any other sailors I’ve had the privilege of serving with. I’m sure you will find your way home. Hell, not even a galactic empire has been able to stop you yet!

“We’ll update you with any new intel that comes in. I’m sure that eventually they’ll be able to restore some sort of comm with us. In fact, I’m surprised that comm is down. If the frickin Kracori wanted the fleet to return to Earth, we would need to be aware that an attack has occurred. Without comm, it kinda defeats their purpose. But this may be just some collateral damage they hadn’t counted on. Either way, the fleet is hard to miss. They should know of our movement by now.”

Admiral Allen paused for a moment, once more composing himself. Then Adam saw his jaw firm and the veins in his neck tighten. “One last thing:
HooYah!”

Instinctively, all four of the Navy SEALs repeated the Navy’s battle cry, startling everyone else on the bridge. But then attention returned to the video.

“Good luck, gentlemen – and lady – and God’s speed. Allen out.”

The room was silent for a good two to three minutes, with each of the Humans lost in their own contemplations. For the past three days the crew had more-or-less already come to grips with these feelings. Even though the planet had been warned, the odds of stopping an attack this far advanced were iffy from the beginning. Yet even with their expectations, it still didn’t stop the occasional tear from escaping from glassy eyes. It was Jym who finally broke the awkward silence.

“Do you want to record a return message?” he asked solemnly.

“Not right now, Jym,” Adam’s trembling voice answered. He had hoped he wouldn’t have to speak for a while, knowing that his emotions would be revealed in his timbre. “In a few minutes – I think we all need to have a moment.” But then a strong emotion rose up in his chest and he leaned in closer to the small, bear-like alien. “But you
can
start looking for a place where I can find a Class-5 starship. We’re going to need something with a little more horsepower than this tub if we expect to get back home.”

“
Horse-
power?”

The other Humans had perked up at Adam’s comment; he could see the fire burning in all their blood-shot eyes. “Yeah, something with some muscle. I don’t plan on being stranded out here any longer than is necessary.”

Chapter 38

The Kracori are an emotional race, unlike the more placid Klin. So when Jonnif received notification that a sustained-wormhole (S/W) was opening up with Eilsion, he screamed an ancient Kracori battle cry, pumped his fists and bared his teeth. Unfortunately, he was alone in his cabin when he displayed these emotions, so none of his crew could see the raw power he exhibited. However, the release of tension did calm his nerves for the short trek to the communication room.

Being fully aware of the timetable for the attack upon Earth, he had been expecting this link for several hours. By now the outcome should be known, and for Jonnif there wasn’t much riding on this information – nothing except the survival of his legend, and by extension, that of his entire race.

He had all the techs leave the room; he even told Kaddof and Mininof were told to wait outside. Unfortunately, when the face of Daninf Kicon appeared on the large screen, Jonnif knew immediately the outcome of the mission.

Even before Daninf could speak, Jonnif was already talking: “What happened? How could they have stopped us?”

Daninf did not answer immediately, instead irritated by the disrespectful hijacking of his conversation. “There is more to tell you than simply that the attack has failed, Jonnif. One of the ships did survive and was able to report.”

Daninf was visibly shaking, his own emotions boiling up inside, barely able to be contained.
 
Jonnif watched him with a surprising detachment. He knew that with the failure of the mission, his life was essentially over. But not only that, now his
Legend
would be ravaged and all those within his line would suffer as well. The name of
Vinn
would have to be changed so future generations would not share in his humiliation, and nevermore would a child born on Eilsion carry the name of
Jonnif
. And all because of an impulsive slip of the tongue on a burned-out world, twenty thousand light years from the location of the event that caused such tragedy.

In light of his future prospects, Jonnif did not feel the need to follow neither protocol nor decorum with the Langril. The members of the Ludif Council had gone along with his plan – in fact, they had endorsed it whole-heartedly. Now they act as if they had to be coerced into voting for it, as if they had been skeptical from the start. It wasn’t fair, and now Jonnif and his entire line would be made to pay the ultimate price, and just to divert some of the blame from the Ludifs.

Daninf was able to regain his composure. “I will give you a brief summary of what is known at this time; information is still coming in. For your benefit, the Humans
were
warned, so Adam Cain was able to contact his fleet. However, it was not the Humans who prevented the attack.”