Twilight Earth Page 6

  After the first half-hour, he knew that they would be going back into the chambers. Two hundred and fifty years had indeed passed. All the new and experimental equipment that had been installed in the pods seemed to be working perfectly. That, however, was the extent of the good news.

  Accessing the log files from the closest military base almost reduced Ben to tears, but he needed the information stored there. Listening to the calm voice of the commanding officer and then his replacement and her replacement, brought home to Ben just how many and how hard those left behind died.

  “Friday, April twenty-first. Brigadier General William Rice, Commander American-Pacific Defense Forces. Guardian Shield Main Marine Depot, Leavenworth, Kansas, United States.

  “At zero-one-twenty-five this morning, the approaching fleet began its attack by taking out most of our satellites, then beginning a massive orbital bombardment. In the first hour of this war, most of the major cities of Asia and Europe have been destroyed with nuclear weapons. The progression of the attack is moving faster than our orbital rotation, indicating that more ships are joining the attack as they arrive in orbit. The destruction has been massive, but not total. We have received reports that there are survivors in isolated groups. While very powerful, their weapons are not killing everyone.

  “A note about those weapons; my geeks are telling me they don’t think those were normal nukes. Although the destructive force was in the hundred-plus megaton range, the residual radiation is far, far lower than it should be. They believe that the area will be safe for habitation within a year. Dr. Thorenson believes they might have been using anti-matter, but the rest of the Geeks seem widely divided on that.

  “The Invaders are also using high powered beam weapons, again fired from low orbit, against the shallow, and hardened bunkers. Early intel is telling us that they are skipping about half of the shallow bunkers.

  “This could mean one of two things; they lack the ability to detect the underground facilities, or (we feel this is more likely) they are intentionally leaving those bunkers alone. What they want with us can’t even be guessed at this point, but we're hoping they’re planning on taking slaves.

  “Counter to the belief that they are intentionally skipping the Bunkers, is the fact that they seem to be using chemical weapons as well. We have reports of people near the attack sites simply collapsing into a coma. Again, the Geeks are working on it, but as with all things, it takes time we don’t have.

  “Command launched our ICBMs and nuclear tipped Pegasus missiles against the enemy in orbit, but the missiles and the bombers were shot down. Those missiles that did manage to get through, encountered some sort of defensive shield covering the hulls of the enemy ships. They detonated, but failed to do significant damage.

  “A few moments ago, Intel reported to me that indications are that the enemy is preparing to deploy on the planet. This information comes to me from Command, along with the order not to engage. I don’t understand the order, but I will obey it. I’ve sent a query back to Command and as a precautionary measure, ordered my forces to stand-by.”

  Ben skimmed through the reports and logs, noticing that there seemed to be a huge database of information. That was when the last log file got his attention. The voice was of a very young-sounding girl.

  “Marsch thirty-second, year seventeen, Deri Meril, Recorder. In the wake of the last attack, the count is only two hundred twenty thousand remaining. The Council has ordered full evacuation. Even though the Sal'andori and the Lizards have left, the planet isn’t for us anymore.

  “Handed down from Master to Prentice since the year one; we’ve been told to finish the last message so:

  “’Bedouin travelers, Sal'andori know about you and will be waiting at your first stop. Take the long ride for safety, good luck and may all the gods and Goddesses watch over all of you.’

  “This is the final entry for the Guardian. I am leaving for my ship from here. If anyone ever finds this record, know that the human race has abandoned Earth so she can heal. Perhaps, one day, our mother will forgive us and once again welcome us home.”

  Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Ben tried to access the satellite feed, but wasn’t surprised when it failed. So he accessed the stored data from it, and had better luck.

  Although the bombardment didn’t yield a lot of radiation, it still threw a tremendous amount of dust into the air; enough that it triggered a nuclear winter. From there the ecological situation got bad.

  A massive tectonic event had been building along the eastern Pacific Rim and the bombing of Honolulu, Seattle, Portland, and all the major cities of California ended up doing far more damage than intended.

  The damage to the pod network was frightening. The earthquakes severed ground communications and collapsed the transport tubes, but telemetry said that with the exception of the mid-pacific pods, the rest of the pods were still intact and functioning.

  Pulling up the remote telemetry screen, Ben saw that the former west coast was back in the network, except for the six large pods in Hawaii; they had red X’s behind them indicating that they’d been destroyed. Sixty thousand lives had been ended while they slept due to the eruption of the volcano that had formed the Hawaiian atoll.

  Going back to the stored data from the satellite, it confirmed the complete destruction of the Hawaiian Islands.

  Similar issues had developed all over the rest of the planet, but none of the other pods were listed as destroyed. Currently, the network reported that it was complete and functional. Apparently the repair robots were working very well.

  The words ‘polar shift’ caught his eye then, and he quickly skipped to that part. The data didn’t say why, but roughly nine years after the initial attack, the planet once again moved the poles. Looking at pictures of the planet didn’t help; it was completely covered by clouds.

  It hadn’t really shifted much, which was why the satellite had been able to stay in orbit. But the North Pole was now in the center of what used to be the Russia. None of their maps were really valid anymore since the east coast had dropped under the ocean and the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions had done pretty much the same to the west coast.

  Most importantly, right now, most of the planet was in a minor ice age. Ben only hoped it would be habitable when they once again awoke.

  Cleaning up the remnants of the meal he’d been unable to finish, Ben made his way back down to the medical bay.

  “I was about to come looking for you,” Jon said. “I’ve lost the data feeds from the Hawaiian pods.”

  Ben nodded sadly. “That’s because Hawaii no longer exists.”

  “No! That’s not even possible is it?” Jon asked.

  “Yeah, it is. Between the bombing, Mauna Loa and the earthquakes, it’s just... gone.”

  “How bad is it?” Jon asked.

  Ben snorted. “We’re going back into the freezers. That’s how bad it is. The war is over; we lost, but it also left the planet in an ice age. Even if we all woke up now, we’d need to stay down here. Besides, someone left a warning that the enemy knows about us and they’re most likely waiting for us.”

  “If they know about us, what’s to stop them from digging us out?” Jon asked.

  “Both the ‘Sal'andori’ and the survivors abandoned the planet two hundred and thirty years ago. There’s a ton of data, but from what I can gather, neither race could live here anymore. There was a mention of a third race called Lizards, but I had trouble finding data on them. What I did find indicated that they were fighting the Sal'andori as well as us. The report said they left the same time as the Sal'andori.

  “I can’t reach the satellite to confirm surface conditions, but I am going to take the warning seriously. I got the impression they knew about the first awakening, but not the second,” Ben replied.

  “What if they do?” Jon asked.

  Shrugging, Ben answered. “It won’t matter; we can’t sleep more. Once we all awaken, we’ll stay down here until we can figure out
what’s happening on the surface and take the appropriate action from there.”

  “Ben, we’ll go insane down here. I love my family and the rest of the folks seem real nice, but we’re gonna need to get outta here, or people will start to flip-out.”

  “Is that the clinical term for it?” Ben asked smiling slightly.

  “Damn right it is, now answer the question!”

  “We’re not isolated down here. Every pod is connected through a transport system that is constantly maintained. There is also the communication network and the entertainment database. Don’t worry, with the replicators and the hydroponics, we could live down here for a very long time,” Ben explained.

  “It sure seems like we’re relying on the technology more than we should,” Jon said halfheartedly. He knew that they were relying on it completely. If any of it failed, people were going to die. Jon knew that as well as Ben. Jon just needed to complain about something.

  “Did you get to eat something?” Ben asked.

  “First thing I did. Damn, I was hungry! Damn freezers don’t feed you like they should.”

  Ben chuckled at his friend. “Come on then, let’s go take our last nap. A whole new world awaits us.”

  “Provided we live long enough!”

  Survival Pod 0001a

  Fulton's Prairie, Missouri

  Former United States

  Even in the best computers systems, or the best designed equipment, there is always the possibility for failure of some kind. Someone once said, the more complex the piece of equipment, the more likely the event of failure.

  The most complex computer system ever built was the one developed as the master computer for the Pods. Each pod had redundant systems of course, and multiple safety protocols to ensure that the chance for loss of life was reduced to the absolute minimum. But failure is always an option.

  When the primary computer went down due to component failure, the back-up system immediately came online to assume control of the network, but the original failure took place during a data back-up to the memory store, which corrupting the data.

  The new system did the best it could with the information at hand and successfully assumed control of the network and all the smaller computers connected to it; including the ones controlling the Hibernation Chambers.

  The new computer was intelligent enough to realize some of the data was bad and corrected it, but since it was unable to contact the surface, or the satellite to verify the date, it was forced to accept that the current date was accurate and proceed from there. It had no way to know the date wasn’t June 23rd 5235 BC.

  Since the computer could only use that date as a reference, it waited until the originally programmed released date arrived. Finally, April the twenty-second, 3020 AD arrived; it began the long awaited process of awakening the remaining members of the human race on the planet.

  Waking up was far more difficult than it had been the first time. Again, the first thing Ben noticed was the cold. This time though, he felt like he imagined he would feel after being rescued from freezing. He felt like his blood was only slowly beginning to flow in his body. Making his extremities burn and hurt.

  He was stiff. He tried to lift one hand to look at his fingers and it was like trying to pull it out of concrete. When he did get it high enough for him to see it, it took a few moments to realize the reason his fingers hurt so much was because his fingernails had grown so long.

  He pushed on the door to the chamber and it opened slowly. Ben honestly couldn't tell if the door was resisting his push, or if he was just that weak. However, the air smelled a little stale and he thought he saw some dust as he opened the pod door. His first impression was that it had been longer than the programmed one-thousand-year sleep.

  He groaned as he all but fell out of the pod and sat on the bench immediately in front of it. After he mustered the energy, he turned slightly at the sound of another groan. Jorga had managed to push the pod door open and was blinking her eyes repeatedly.

  Ben got up and pulled the pod doors open for the remaining three chambers. He smiled at Deirdre when she opened her eyes. Marcy and Kait groaned like it was a school morning.

  Jorga kissed him when he offered and he took the time to hold her for a moment before helping the rest of his family out of the high tech coffins. He gave each woman a hug to let her know he cared for her.

  Beside each pod was a small locker that held the clothes that each person had taken off before getting into the pods. The instructions had suggested everyone change into utility coveralls before coming to the facility, which is how Ben had coveralls on hand when he woke before.

  He pulled out the clothes and soft-soled shoes and began the task of trying to remember how to put them on. He grinned to himself as he remembered an old joke about writing TGIF on the shoe. (Toes Go In First)

  “I don't know if we're the first ones to awaken, or not, but if the Doctor is up, we should try to help the others after getting checked out ourselves. Marcy, after you wake up fully, would you check with the computer to make sure of the date? Granted, it was a bitch waking up after two hundred and fifty years, but nothing like this,” Ben said.

  After they all got dressed, Ben led the girls to the small medical facility were Jon was just finishing up with his own family.

  “Am I imaging it, or was that way worse than the first time?” Jon asked when he saw Ben.

  “I didn't get up the first time, but I can safely tell you I'm glad we can't use those again,” Jorga offered.

  “How are your girls, Jon?” Ben asked.

  “About like yours and everyone else; groaning, but alive. Some of the other pods aren't so lucky,” Jon replied quietly.

  “What? How many did we lose?” Ben asked while Jon began checking him over.

  “About two-hundred and fifty, not counting the loss of the Hawaiian Pods of course. Ben, the cryo computer is reporting an overage alarm, but the clock is correct. It would have awakened us, but the master computer overruled it, it reset the clock, but couldn't reset the alarm in my logs,” Jon reported. “Something wonky happened.”

  “I asked Marcy to look into it. Are the rest of the pods waking up?” Ben asked.

  Jon nodded. “Yeah, right now, we are all taking care of our own. There will be a medical staff meeting in twenty-four hours. Luckily, none of the medical personnel were among the casualties.”

  “I guess that's a relative observation, Jon. The human race is on the endangered species list. We can't afford any losses,” Ben said grimly.

  “What about the evacuees? Don't you think any of them made it?” Jon asked hopefully.

  “I certainly hope so, Doctor, but we can't bank on it. According to that report, there had only been two hundred thousand of them. Besides, after all this time, I really doubt most of them even remember the Earth,” Ben replied. “Let's just hope they weren't the only ones to forget about us.”

  Planet Terral III

  Cassian March

  Duchy of Cassias

  Hyclarion Imperial Consortium

  Addson Dee was very excited. She had just discovered the ruins of another ancient city. She had been lucky in that. She happened to catch a glimpse of a hard trail in the shallows between small islands that lead out into the northern barrier sea.

  She flew all the way up to the face of the glacier, and saw the remnants of a building falling out of the ice and into the ocean. Taking a great risk, the young prospector landed her skipper in the rough water, and took a few sonograms of the bottom.

  At first, she thought she had only found a small village that the glacier hadn't wiped away, but then she started getting larger and larger readings from structures still in the ice! She moved a mile to the east then a mile to the west, just so she could get an idea of how large this find actually was.

  The elders would pay greatly for the salvage if she could just lay claim to it before anyone else found it. Of course, then there was the problem of getting to it. The Northern Barrier was an
unforgiving sea. It was notorious for blowing up freakish storms, or becoming suddenly, eerily calm. The latter being far more unnerving to her than the storms. Then there were the giants that lived here.

  Huge black and white demons that lived in the water. Addson had heard of a major find to the west that was supposedly protected by the great menaces. There were also the pack hunters. Easily half the size of the skipper she flew, the intelligent denizens only had fear for the bigger killers. No, the waters on this planet were no place for young scavengers like Addson. However, a person had to make a living doing something, and getting killed in space didn't appeal to her.

  She spent the rest of the day mapping the parts of the underwater city she had found, before heading back to the Aerie. She set her course, and followed the same track as she did on her way out this morning. Even though she was low to the surface of the water, she missed the surfacing of a small buoy.

  The sensor pod, however, didn't miss her. Had she been equipped with the instrumentation to detect it, she would have been frightened being scanned this far away from the Aerie. However, she flew on, blissfully unaware that she had been observed.

  As she flew south through the mountain range called the Wall, she tried to contact her home base.

  “Great Falls Aerie, this is prospector three-nine-four, over.”

  The name Great Falls was adopted from a piece of heavily corroded metal that was found near the base of the Aerie. The 'story files tell of a city that once stood very close to where the Aerie was placed a thousand years ago. The city ruins had been one of the ancients, so it was even older still.

  Addson had once heard that someone discovered ruins on the Aramic Plateau that were older than even the ancients’ ruins. She was one of the few that agreed with the archaeologists that had flocked to the Aramic site; the human race had begun on this world. However, no matter the amount of proof recovered, it still hadn't been enough to press a claim with the Consortium.

  “Great Falls Aerie, this is prospector three-nine-four, over.” Addson repeated. This time she got an answer.