“Track them, yes,” Brianna said. “Destroy,
no. The sling rocks will mask the orbs so they aren’t detected in time to be
destroyed. By the time they do pick them up on their systems, they’ll be coming
in too fast.”
“Can we do anything?”
“We’re still out of weapons range,” Torque
said. “I can’t push the engines any harder.”
Sam turned and began to pace. He mumbled
something under his breath then let out a sound of frustration.
Halah flipped a few switches. “I’m getting
intermittent grid signals again.”
“Keep trying to contact our fighters,”
Brianna told her. “I hope they’re on their way.”
“They are,” Leila said.
Everyone turned and looked at her. She
tapped the side of her head. “Not Erik personally, yet. But others. I’m pretty
sure.”
“Even so,” Torque responded, “they can’t
help us now.”
“There might be another way.” Halah turned
to Torque. “Those cloaked vessels. Odds are they’re fighters, otherwise why
cloak yourself. Agreed?”
“There are cloaked vessels out there?”
Brianna asked. “Why wasn’t I told?” She squinted at the screen. “Where?”
“Here.” Halah pointed.
“How do you know? That looks like dead
space.”
“It would take too long to explain.”
“If they’re even actually there,” Torque
began. “It’s only speculation on Halah’s part. If so, we don’t know if they’re
friendlies or not. If they’re Earth allies and have fire power, they would
already be helping. I’m not registering any change in energy from that section
of space.”
“Maybe they’re hesitant to expose
themselves to so many Egesa ships,” Brianna said. “If they know another fighter
is on the way to help, they could engage.” She picked up a headset and nodded
to Torque.
He flipped a switch. The message wouldn’t
even go through if the grid was still cutting in and out. But he could see that
his sister was determined to try. “You’re going to give away our position to
the Egesa.”
“If I don’t and the orbs hit their targets,
those major government centers on Earth will be destroyed. The result will be
mass panic—the perfect setup for Egesa troops to take advantage of. They’ll
storm in and enslave or kill whoever’s left before we have enough warriors here
to stop it.”
“Do it!” Sam said.
Brianna adjusted the frequency on the
earpiece until the channel cleared. “Emergency transmission to cloaked vessels
in orbit around Earth. Assistance requested. Please respond.” Nothing. Not even
static. “Emergency assistance for Earth requested. Respond.” When she still
received no answer, she huffed out a heavy breath. “You’re sure they’re there?”
she asked Halah.
“I’m sure.”
She opened her mouth to try again then
stopped herself. After a tense moment of silence, she said, “You send a
message, Torque. Your voice is more commanding than mine. If they can hear us
and are from a planet where females are subordinate, they might respond to you
more readily. Keep it general.”
He nodded. “Orbiter 3090 to unidentified
fighters orbiting Earth. We are tracking five d-orbs heading toward major
population areas of the planet. Requesting destruction assistance.” He
purposely didn’t identify themselves as Xylon, following Brianna’s lead.
Neither of them wanted their orbiter blown out of space by the Egesa if they
could avoid it.
“Did either of our messages transmit?”
Brianna asked Halah.
“I can’t tell.”
“I’m not seeing any action,” Torque said.
“Let me try,” Sam said.
“You?” Torque frowned. “What the hell
difference can that make?”
“If they don’t even know who you are,
they’re not likely to help. If they have an alliance with the United States or
one of our western allies, I might be able to get them to act.”
“Your arrogance knows no bounds, Briggs.”
“Fuck you, Torque.”
“Stop it. Let him try,” Brianna ordered.
Sam reached for a headset and slipped it
on. “This is Lieutenant Colonel Samuel ‘Ramrod’ Briggs of the United States Air
Force. There are currently five d-orb weapons heading for Earth’s atmosphere.
Request assistance from any fighter vessels in the area. Destruction from the
planet’s surface problematical. U.S. squadrons are currently out of range, but
will assist shortly. Please respond.”
“Squadrons?” Torque asked with a smirk.
“It never hurts to sound like there are a
lot of us on the way,” Sam answered. “If they heard all three messages, maybe
they’ll think that multiple squadrons are cloaked and en route out here
somewhere.”
The vessel suddenly shook violently and
those standing almost lost their balance.
“What the hell was that?” Leila asked,
grabbing Sam’s arm for support. “Did someone fire on us?”
“No,” Halah said. “Something just got too
close and the space displacement rattled us. Another cloaked ship, moving fast.
Maybe more than one even.”
“Why the fuck didn’t we get a collision
warning?” Torque shouted.
“Is it the Egesa?” Leila asked.
“I doubt it,” Halah answered over the alarm
that finally kicked in, too late to do them any good. She flipped it off. “None
of their other ships are cloaked. I’ll see if I can ping our locater off them.
We might be able to get some info if I can hit them just right.”
“What’s the status with the d-orbs?”
Brianna asked.
Torque studied the satellite views and the
data screens. “Still on their targets.”
Sam cursed and dragged a hand through his
hair. “What else can we do?”
“From this distance,” Halah said. “Nothing.
At our current speed, which is full out, we’ll be three minutes too late.”
“Any info on who passed us, Halah?” Brianna
pressed. “Anything from the computer? We need information.”
She shook her head. “Sorry. Not yet.”
“It looks like Beijing and Moscow are going
to be hit first.” Torque brought up another screen. “They’re close enough now
for Earth to detect and I’d say they’ve been picked up. I’m registering
adjustments in some of the satellites. Looks like they’re scrambling to
respond. I’m seeing an increase in transmission waves.”
“Can we tap in with the handheld units to hear
what’s going on down there?” Sam asked.
“I’ll see.” Brianna grabbed one of the
units.
“Sam?” Halah asked. “Do you recognize this
activity?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed as he studied the
screen.
Damn ship. Torque’s stomach churned at not
being able to help. If they’d been flying one of their fully upgraded fighters,
they’d have been there by now and could have shot down at least some of those
d-orbs before they made it into Earth’s atmosphere. “Well, Briggs?”
Sam nodded. “The Earth’s missile defense
systems are being activated. Here, here and here.” He pointed to various
locations. “They’re going to try to intercept the orbs. That’s my guess.”
“They won’t be able to fully activate those
systems in time,” Torque said.
“Any action in response to our messages?”
Brianna slid the handheld into her belt. “I can’t get anything on the vid-cell.
It’s not strong enough at this range.”
Halah checked the screen. “I’ve got
something. The ships that passed us are moving into a military-style formation
around Earth. The supply ships spotted seem to be aligning.”
“How can you tell that?” Brianna asked. “I
see the supply ships but I don’t see anything else.”
“It’s slight. There!” Halah pointed. “And
there. See the displacement as they’re moving. I loaded a software program into
the computer databanks that can identify a positioning vessel or vessels based
on an in-progress theorem of mine. It’s not perfect yet, but more accurate than
not, from what I can tell.”
“But are they friend or foe?” Sam asked.
“The ships are firing on the d-orbs!” Halah
announced before anyone could respond to Sam’s question. She flipped the view
on her data screen so everyone could see what was happening. “They got one.
Two. Egesa fighters are moving, trying to find them.”
“They’re firing while cloaked?” Brianna
asked in astonishment.
“Seem to be. From the trajectory of the
beams, it looks like several ships are firing, which should help to confuse the
Egesa. But if they don’t get out of here fast, Daegal will get a lock on them.
Three d-orbs destroyed. Now… All of them. Wow.”
Sam let out an audible sound of relief.
“Not quite.” Torque tapped the screen.
“Look.”
Sam stepped closer. “What?”
“They were too far down in the atmosphere.
They all weren’t completely destroyed. Some disintegrated, some blew up, but
the planet is being pelted right now by debris. This is different than the
sling rocks. Some of these chunks will take out large areas.”
“Shit!” Sam stepped away and paced. “I’ve
never felt so damn helpless in my life.”
Leila came forward. “Casualties?”
Halah turned toward her. “They’ll be high.
No cities will be destroyed, but the damage will be major.”
“Any further response from the Egesa?”
Brianna asked.
“They’re in a search pattern,” Halah
replied. “They’re trying to figure out what the hell happened, I imagine. We’ll
be within range of Earth in one minute.”
“No point in cloaking,” Torque told her.
“They know we’re here.”
“Not if those messages never went through,”
Brianna responded. “We have no idea who those other ships are, if they
responded because of our message or on their own. They’re obviously not Egesa,
but until we know who they are, I want to keep a low profile. Go ahead and
cloak us until we assess the situation.”
“Will do.” Torque hit the controls.
“What’s the status in Colorado?” Sam asked.
“That’s where the exchange contact is and where we’ll be making contact.”
“Where is the general area on the screen?”
Halah asked. “Point.”
“Here.”
“Checking.” She brought up the satellite.
“A lot of damage. Zoom me into the right coordinates for a closer look.”
“There.” Sam tapped the screen.
Halah made some adjustments and shook her
head. “Could be better.” She turned to Brianna. “Where’s the nearest Xylon
substation around this location? Do you know?”
“I can plug in the formula. The computer
will have the information.” She tapped the screen several times until a green
dot appeared. “There. They’ll be underground.”
“If they were deep enough in the station,
they’ll be all right.”
“I’ll check it out once we get down there,”
Torque said. “Then we’ll coordinate with you and Briggs,” he told his sister.
“What about me?” Leila asked.
Sam turned toward her. “You’ll need to stay
with us until we make contact. Then we’ll hand you over to my colleague. She’ll
help you coordinate with the scientists. If she’s still alive.”
Leila nodded.
“What’s the plan if your contacts were
taken out?” Torque asked.
Sam shook his head. “It’ll be difficult.
The only thing we’ll be able to do is try to move up the chain of command and
hope they don’t toss us in confinement, thinking we’re nutty and a danger risk.
Very few people are aware of this exchange.”
“Any actual indication that the Egesa know
we’re here yet?” Brianna asked.
“If they do, they’re not concerned,” Torque
told her, turning back to the instrument panel.
“Wait.” Halah flipped a screen. “Look. Egesa
sting fighters are offloading from Daegal’s main ship. They’re moving into a
net formation to cover the planet.”
“There must be thousands of them,” Sam said
in awe.
“A small force, compared to what they could
have brought here. They obviously weren’t expecting much resistance,” Brianna
said to him in return. “What happened to those other ships, Halah?”
“Gone. I can’t find them. Looks like they
cleared the area before getting hemmed in by the Egesa.”
Torque stood from his chair. “Get us down
there, Halah, before they engage an energy shield and block off access.”
“I haven’t tested the transport control
yet.”
“We’ll have to chance it.” Brianna grabbed
her jacket and slipped it on. “Gather your equipment, everyone.” She checked
her weapon and shoved it into its holder on her belt as the others scrambled to
get ready.
* * * * *
Planet Earth, State of Colorado, U.S.A.
Underground Tracking Facility
Jaeda finally made it back to the control
area. It still looked intact, but chaos had erupted. She rushed over to Kirk’s
station. “What the hell happened?”
“Those meteors I was tracking entered the
atmosphere and started hitting the planet. Then we picked up what looked to be
alien crafts coming in, heading fast to five different cities—all capitals,
including Washington. Our military, and the military in each area, engaged
their missile defense systems. Before anyone could fire on the crafts, they
were destroyed.”
“By whom?” Not her contacts.
“Unknown.” He handed her the datasheets.
“The fragments, some still large in size, hit and caused major damage.”
“Was that the jolt I felt earlier?”
Kirk shook his head. “That was one of the
meteorite chunks—small potatoes compared to these larger fragments. The upper
levels on our south side were hit hard.”
Her heart clenched. “Casualty reports?”
“Specific numbers unknown at this time.
Look at this.” He led her over to another screen. “Now we’re tracking thousands
of small ships orbiting the planet in some sort of pattern.”
Damn it. She recognized those ships. They
were sting fighters. Now she knew for sure who was out there even though she’d
pretty much already figured it out. This just confirmed it. Earth needed help
and they needed it fast.
“What happened to you?” Kirk suddenly
asked, looking her up and down. “You’re covered in grime.”
“I got stuck in the elevator.” If it hadn’t
been on its way down to the lower levels when the facility was hit, she might
have been one of their casualties.