The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (24 page)

Tomalson took
the envelope and put it in one of the pockets of his fleet uniform. “We’ll need
to move fast.”

“General Braid
has made sure the right people are at Fort Knox. They’ll look the other way
when your people arrive.”

“Who knows
what we’re planning?”

“Just General
Braid, you, me, and Major Aldrich.”

“Who’s Major
Aldrich?”

“A Marine. He
made many of the gold transfers to the Profiteers when they were on Earth. Once
you send the signal, he’ll ensure the right guards are at the facility. They’ll
let you and your people in, no questions asked.”

Tomalson let
out a deep breath. “I can’t believe we’re doing this. We’re talking about
stealing all the gold at Fort Knox.”

“I would
rather see that gold at Newton where Governor Spalding and Fleet Admiral
Vickers can put it to good use. With Stroud in charge, it’s only a matter of
time before the Profiteers hit us again. He still doesn’t see them as an actual
threat.”

“Kurt will try
to stop them,” Tomalson said knowingly. “Even with Stroud in charge, he’ll come
to Earth’s defense.”

“I know,”
answered Mayfield with a sigh. “But by then the gold may be gone. This way we
keep it safe.”

Tomalson stood
up and saluted the president. “We’ll set the operation up for tomorrow night.
I’ll get the gold safely to Newton.” Tomalson turned and left the office,
planning to immediately take a shuttle up to the
Retribution
.

As the door
shut behind the fleet admiral, President Mayfield let out a deep and frustrated
breath. In the last few weeks he felt as if he had aged one hundred years. It
was a damn shame politics would send Earth back to the Stone Age. If the
Profiteers did return, as Fleet Admiral Vickers said they would, they might
very well nuke the planet once again.

If they did, Mayfield
didn’t think the planet would recover. Unfortunately all Marlen Stroud was
interested in was power. The lives of the people on the planet meant little to
him. Mayfield firmly believed Stroud’s lack of concern for the people of the
North American Union would eventually be his undoing. Regrettably, by then, it
might be too late for Earth.

-

Major Nathan
Aldrich stood outside Fort Knox at the small military airfield that served the
gold depository. It was just after midnight, and, looking up into the night sky,
he saw the shapes of half a dozen large shuttles descending. Their engines were
baffled to limit light, and they were running in stealth mode so their descent
was nearly silent. The shuttles came down, making vertical landings.

A hatch on the
nearest one opened, and a ramp slid down to touch the tarmac. From the hatch
and along the ramp came a number of large trucks. The first truck pulled to a
stop next to Aldrich.

“I’m Captain
Latimer of the
Retribution
,” said the Marine driving the vehicle. The
Marine had his hand on his pistol as he waited for a response.

“Major
Aldrich,” Nathan replied. “Everything’s been arranged. I have my Marines at the
gate and posted at key positions inside. I’ve passed the word we’re running a
top secret security drill for tonight.”

“Let’s hope
everything goes smoothly,” the captain said. “Hop in and let’s get this show on
the road.”

Stepping
inside the truck, Nathan took his seat. “The main gate is shut, but it will be
opened when we approach.”

From within the
six shuttles, a total of twenty-four large trucks headed up the road toward the
gold depository. As they approached the main gate, the soldiers on guard duty
opened it and saluted as the trucks drove by. As soon as the trucks were
inside, the gates were shut, and the guards continued on as if nothing unusual
had occurred.

Reaching the
main loading entrance, the trucks came to a stop. Marines jumped out from the
back of the vehicles and lowered ramps. Instantly small work robots emerged, pulling
fully loaded antigravity sleds.

“Robots!” said
Major Aldrich in surprise. He hadn’t seen robots like these before.

“Yes, how else
did you think we could move so much gold in six hours?”

Nathan nodded.
“Follow me inside, and I’ll clear the way to the vaults.”

Entering Fort Knox, they went down a wide and long corridor. The gold depository had been remodeled
a few years back for added security and to allow more gold to be stored in its vaults.
They reached the first of four twenty-one-inch-thick heat-and-blast-resistant
metal doors. Nathan stepped up to a glowing security panel and placed his hand
in its center. After a moment the panel turned green, and then Nathan entered a
security code. With a number of loud clicks, the massive door slid open.

“Three more,”
said Nathan, returning to Captain Latimer and indicating they could proceed
forward.

As the
Marines, robots, and antigravity sleds continued down the corridor, they passed
several guard stations. The guards watched as everyone and everything passed
but didn’t say a word. These Marines had been handpicked by Major Aldrich. They
were completely loyal to the major.

“I wonder
what’s going on?” asked Private Malone as he watched several small robots pass
by, pulling an antigravity sled. The sleds reminded him of how the Profiteers transported
the gold to their shuttles when they had been on Earth. Malone had been
involved in several of those transactions.

“None of our
business,” replied Marine Corporal Lasher as the last robot and antigravity
sled passed. “I trust the major, and I know when to keep my mouth shut.”

“How do we
enter this in the logs?”

“We don’t,”
replied Corporal Lasher as he slid a miniaturized computer flash drive into his
security console. The small flash drive would change the images on all the
security cameras to show nothing unusual had occurred. It would also shut off
all the alarms and motions sensors inside the vaults.

-

Major Aldrich
watched with interest as the small work robots unloaded and loaded the
antigravity sleds. A total of 380,000 four-hundred-ounce bars of gold were to
be removed, nearly 150 million troy ounces. From the incoming loaded sleds,
they took identical-looking bars to replace the ones they removed. The gold
bars looked exactly the same and even had a small layer of gold on the outside.
However, once past the outer layer, the rest of the bar wasn’t gold but a
specially created alloy, which weighed the same and had many similar
characteristics.

If anyone
looked at the bars or even picked one up, they wouldn’t notice any difference.
To find out the bars had been substituted, they would have to drill inside one.
Care had even been taken to ensure the bars had the correct identification
markings.

“How will you
get all these gold bars to the
Retribution
?” asked Aldrich. He couldn’t
see how all this would be loaded on board the six shuttles, not unless they
wanted to leave the trucks behind.

“We’re not,”
replied Captain Latimer. “We have several small cargo ships on standby, and the
first will land shortly. They also contain more of our fake gold. If everything
goes as planned, we should be gone before the day-shift guards arrive.”

Nathan nodded
as he watched several of the small work robots pick up a pallet of gold and
place it on one of the antigravity sleds. In its place, another pallet of fake
gold was set down. “It’s a good thing the nearby army post is mostly empty,
with its soldiers sent to help in the rebuilding effort.”

“Wouldn’t
matter,” responded Captain Latimer. “Our stealth systems on the shuttles and
the cargo ships make our vessels undetectable to Earth-bound detection
systems.”

-

For six hours
the work proceeded at a frantic pace. The two cargo ships came down and landed
next to the shuttles. Heavily loaded trucks made numerous trips to the airport
and back to Fort Knox at a steady pace. Finally, just before the sun rose, the
last truck delivered its load of gold to one of the cargo ships and then
proceeded to a waiting shuttle.

“That’s it,” Major
Aldrich said as he watched all the Marines board their respective vessels.

“Thanks for
your help, Major,” Captain Latimer said. “You have no idea how important this
mission is.”

“I suspect I
do,” answered Nathan. “If the rumors going around are true, and President
Mayfield is removed from office, then this gold is better off somewhere else.”

Nathan watched
as Captain Latimer and the rest of his Marines boarded their respective
vessels. Moments later the two cargo ships and the six shuttles rose straight
up to vanish into the slowly lightening sky. Nathan would return to Fort Knox and double-check to ensure everything was as it needed to be. No one could
suspect what had transpired here overnight. Nathan felt a little odd knowing he
had just participated in the greatest theft in modern history.

-

A few hours
later the day-shift guards reported. “How was the night shift?” one of them
asked Marine Corporal Lasher.

“Just
routine,” Lasher replied with a yawn. “Had a security drill we ran last night,
but, other than that, nothing exciting ever goes on around here. This has to be
the most boring post of my career.”

The corporal
replacing him nodded. “That’s why I like it. What could ever go wrong here?”

Lasher nodded,
and then he and Private Malone left. A good meal and then some rest were in
order.

Malone grinned
at Lasher. “Like the corporal said, nothing of interest ever goes on around
here.”

Lasher nodded.
“I wonder what they’ll do with all that gold?”

“Take it
someplace safe, I hope,” Malone answered. “If the Profiteers come back, they’re
sure to hit this place first. I’m ready to leave this post.”

“Me too,”
Lasher responded as they climbed into a jeep to make the short drive to the
barracks. “I have a strong suspicion the major feels the same way.”

As they drove
off in the military jeep, behind them lay 150 million troy ounces of fake gold.
President Mayfield and Fleet Admiral Tomalson had ensured the gold from the
North American Union would never fall into the hands of the hated Profiteers.
Instead it would go to where it could be put to the best use for both the
people of Earth and Newton.

-

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson had taken the
Retribution
and two battlecruisers far out into the
Solar System. The three ships were just beyond the orbit of Neptune. He had left
Earth orbit on a planned patrol of the outer system due to several unknown ship
contacts picked up on the
Retribution
’s long-range scanners. What no one
knew but the command crew of the ship was that the sensor contacts were fake.

“Report!”

“All sensors are
clear of unknown contacts,” Lieutenant Bridgette Gaffney reported promptly.
“The battlecruisers
Swiftfire
and
Sturgeon
have taken up flanking
positions.”

Admiral
Tomalson nodded. All three ships had handpicked crews on board whose loyalty
was beyond question. He had already made arrangements for the families of the
three crews to be transferred quietly to Newton.

“The cargo
fleet?”

“Just crossing
Neptune’s orbit. They should be here in another two hours.”

Five cargo
ships were under the protection of the battlecruiser
Lexington
. Tomalson
had arranged for the families of those six vessels to be transferred to Newton as well.

“How soon
before we depart the system?” asked Captain Lindsey Hastings, the
Retribution
’s
commanding officer.

Tomalson studied
Lindsey. She was a young woman in her late twenties who had a knack for
military strategy, particularly where starships were concerned. She also had a
knockout figure, which helped to explain why she was such a strict
disciplinarian.

“We’ll wait
until we hear the results of the Cabinet vote early tomorrow. As soon as it’s
been confirmed President Mayfield’s been removed from office, we’ll make the
transition into hyperspace and proceed to Newton.”

Lindsey let
out a deep breath. “I can’t believe so many people believe all the lies being
spread. What happens when the truth finally comes out?”

Tomalson
leaned back in his command chair, folding his arms across his chest. “By then
it’ll be too late. From Fleet Admiral Vickers’s latest messages, the Profiteers
are planning a massive attack against Earth. It could come within the next
month.”

Lindsey’s face
paled. “Will they nuke the planet again?”

“It’s a
distinct possibility.” Tomalson looked toward the front of the Command Center at one of the large viewscreens. The battlecruiser
Sturgeon
could be
seen against a background of unblinking stars.

“So what do we
do now?”

Tomalson
shifted his eyes back to Lindsey. “We wait. We’ll know tomorrow what the
decision is on President Mayfield.” Tomalson didn’t say it was already a foregone
conclusion that Mayfield would be removed from office. At the last count Marlen
Stroud had the votes to ensure the president’s removal.

-

Early in the
morning President Mayfield was in the large conference room where the Cabinet
was meeting.

“We’re here to
vote on whether President Mayfield will continue on as the leader of our great
country,” announced Marlen Stroud, looking defiantly at Mayfield. “His lack of
leadership during the Profiteer occupation which resulted in this planet being
attacked with nuclear weapons, his reliance on Newton to save us, and the
failure to require Newton to pay back all the gold and other treasure they
spent without the express permission of this Cabinet are sufficient grounds for
his removal.”

“They had
permission to spend that gold as they saw fit in order to free Earth,” Mayfield
said in a calm voice. “If not for Fleet Admiral Vickers and what he did, we
would still be under the heels of the Profiteers.”