Intervention: A Science Fiction Adventure (25 page)

“Computer, display
three photographs. One of a submarine, one of an underground missile
silo, and one of a typical aircraft used to drop large payloads.”
The computer instantly complied. Christopher stood in front of the
three displays. “Chair,” he said. Instantly a chair rose up out
of the floor and he sat down. Cindy walked over and stood next to
him.

“Chair,” she said,
and sat next to him.

“These are the three
means of delivery they are planning to use to deliver the bombs. I
believe the aircraft will pose the biggest problem.” Christopher
thought for a minute. “I have an idea, but in order for it to work,
we will need to know exactly when they plan to begin the operation.”

The computer remarked,
“There has been very little information exchanged by means of radio
regarding Operation Down-size. It would seem as if all of the
information is exchanged person to person, in an attempt to safeguard
the operation. It is doubtful they would risk information as critical
as the date and time of the operation. It is possible, however, to
implant several of the key people involved in organizing the
operation with monitoring devices. I could then monitor them to
obtain the information we will need concerning the date and time they
plan to execute the operation.”

“That will help,”
Christopher remarked.

“What are you
thinking?” Cindy asked.

Christopher paused for
a moment. “Well,” he went on, “as far as I know, they rarely
open the other doors on the land-based missiles. They only open the
outer silo door to remove or install a new warhead, and only once a
month during periodic systems checks. I think it would be safe to
assume that they wouldn’t open the outer door in the few days
preceding their launch. Computer, could you somehow seal the doors so
they would not be able to open them when the time came?”

“Yes, using a laser
of the right intensity, I could melt the edge of the door just enough
so it would bond or weld itself to the surrounding structure. It
would have to be done during daylight so the laser will go unnoticed.
It will also have to be done in short bursts in order to minimize any
visible smoke from the super heating of the door material. I estimate
the time required to effectively seal the doors of all of the silo’s
worldwide to be three hours twenty-seven minutes.”

“All right. That will
take care of the land based missiles. Now we need to work on the
submarine based missiles. Computer, how many submarines are there
worldwide capable of launching ballistic missiles?”

“Thirty-nine,” the
computer responded.

Christopher went on, “I
have to assume those submarines have already been refitted with the
neutron warheads and will remain submerged until they launch, and for
some time after I would imagine. Computer, is it possible to do the
same thing to the missile hatches on the submarines?”

“No. the use of a
laser beam would be impractical. The beam would reflect off the
surface, and what it did penetrate would be refracted beyond use. It
will require a different method, but it can be done. Use of a
particle beam would be the most effective. It will penetrate the
water like a laser does the air.”

“How much time will
be required?”

“A maximum of seven
hours twenty-three minutes. The actual time will be less, but I will
have to scan their positions several hours before launch time for
their current positions, at which time I can give you a more precise
time frame.”

“That leaves just the
aircraft to deal with,” Cindy surmised.

“I just thought of
something. Even though they never made mention of it, they will
undoubtedly use surface ships to launch cruise missiles. We’ll have
to somehow disable them as well, but how?” Christopher pondered.

“That one is easy,”
the computer offered. “I can disable their electronic control
systems, as well as their guidance systems in the missiles themselves
with an EMP similar to that produced by your nuclear devices.”

“That will work,”
Christopher replied. “They’ll be under radio silence, and too far
away from anything else to be of any threat. After the pulse, they
won’t have the ability to communicate at all, short of waving flags
at each other. That takes care of everything but the aircraft.”

“I hate to say this
at a time like this,” Cindy interrupted, “but I’m starving. I
haven’t eaten a thing for quite a while now. What I wouldn’t give
for a pepperoni pizza.”

Christopher turned to
Cindy. “I’m sorry. I guess we’ve been at this for hours. Now
that you mention it, I haven’t eaten for some time either. We could
both probably use a break, and a pepperoni pizza sounds like just the
ticket. Computer, have you got any tricks up your sleeve for this
one?” There was a pause. Christopher commented, “You can save the
world, but you can’t order a pizza?”

“I didn’t say I
couldn’t order one. It’s getting it delivered that’s the
problem.”

Christopher and Cindy
both laughed. “No problem, we can call in the order at a remote
pizza place, then in stealth mode, set down behind it and shift me
out when nobody’s around. I can just go around to the front, walk
in, and get the pizza. Do you still have my old clothes?”

“That won’t be
necessary. Your suit is made from my metal and can take on any
appearance,” the computer responded.

“Then it’s settled.
Let’s find an out of the way pizza joint and order us some dinner.”

“What are you going
to use for money?” Cindy asked.

“I’ll make you a
credit card to use for the purchase,” the computer responded.

“And what would you
like to drink with your pizza?” he asked Cindy.

“A soda.”

“I’ve selected an
appropriate location and placed the order. The young lady who took
the order said it would be ready in about twenty minutes,” the
computer reported.

“Terrific. Do you
think we can get there that fast?” Christopher joked.

It was not a very busy
night at the pizza palace. The craft set down in the back, and
Christopher was shifted out. He walked around to the front and into
the pizza palace.

“Can I help you?”
the young girl behind the counter asked.

“Carry out for Adams.
Could I also get a couple of sodas with that?” The girl retrieved a
box being kept warm on top of the oven and grabbed a couple of sodas
from the cooler.

“That will be twelve
thirty-one all together, and be careful—it just came out of the
oven so it’s really hot.”

Christopher paid for
the pizza and sodas, thanked the lady and returned to the rear of the
building. He was shifted back into the craft. Once inside, he asked
the computer, “Can you give us a table and chairs?” The computer
responded with a scene right out of an Italian restaurant, checkered
tablecloth and all. “Perfect,” Christopher said as he set the
pizza and sodas on the table.

After enjoying their
pizza, it was back to work. They had what would prove to be the final
and most difficult phase of their plan to work out yet. They had to
figure out a way to stop the aircraft.

“Unfortunately, we
can’t just seal the Bombay doors shut on all the aircraft while
they’re in the air. There wouldn’t be enough time to be sure of
getting to all of them before they dropped their payloads. So we’ll
have to think of another approach. We don’t want anyone to get hurt
in the process, so we can’t just blow them out of the sky. It would
be nice if we could disable them on the ground in such a way that
they wouldn’t have enough time to repair them, say, something like
a narrow particle beam shot through the entire aircraft including the
engine.”

“That would be a
simple procedure,” the computer remarked. “They would still be
able to get some of them airworthy.”

“If we were able to
ground most of them, wouldn’t that be enough to stop them?” Cindy
asked.

“No. They will still
be under the impression that they have land-based missiles and the
submarines as well. A few less aircraft wouldn’t be enough to stop
the entire operation. We must stop every single aircraft.”

After a moment of
silence, Cindy spoke up. “If we can’t keep all of them on the
ground, isn’t there some way we could convince the ones in the air
not to go through with dropping their payload?”

Christopher exclaimed,
“Cindy, you’re a genius! There won’t be that many aircraft in
the air, so we can deal with each one of them one at a time. What
would happen if we…,” Christopher went on to explain what he had
in mind. Cindy and the computer both agreed it would be a little
risky, but it was the best chance they had. So it was decided. They
had a workable plan.

Christopher and Cindy
felt safe in assuming that the American leaders would play the key
role in the organization of Operation Down-size. They assumed the
President would be notified just in time to reach the appropriate
shelter by those in charge of the actual planning of the operation.
They would need more advance notice than that if their plan was to
work. The military leaders would be the obvious targets. They would
be the ones making the decisions behind the scenes for Operation
Down-size. They would start with the top generals. Their first choice
was General Harding, the general who gave Christopher and Cindy’s
Operation Down-size orientation. He was obviously heavily involved,
and no doubt, one of the decision makers. The computer was able to
locate the general quite easily. All they had to do was to wait until
nighttime when the general was fast asleep.

Being an early riser,
General Harding was fast asleep by eleven that evening. The computer
located him at the Operations Center at MacDill Air Force Base in
Tampa, Florida. In preparation for the procedure, the computer
transformed the craft’s interior once again.

“I have formed a
separate room where both of you can observe the procedure. It is
necessary that I maintain completely sterile conditions throughout
the procedure. Also the room must be filled with a gas, which would
render both of you unconscious. This is necessary for two reasons.
First, it will prevent the general from waking up during the
procedure, and second, the device is designed to instantly dissolve
when exposed to your atmosphere. This is a safeguard against being
accidentally discovered during any surgical procedures. I will
require no assistance. The general will remain unconscious throughout
the procedure, which will take only two minutes. The general will
remember nothing, nor will he realize he has been implanted. The
implant is not detectable by any of your current technology. If you
will enter the observation room, I will seal the door and fill this
area with the appropriate gasses and get started.

Christopher and Cindy
went into the observation room the computer had created and the door
was sealed behind them.

They stood watching as
a flat table-like slab rose from the floor in the middle of the room
on the other side of the window from them. A few moments later, they
saw the outline of the transparent general emerge from the wall and
onto the window from them. He quickly became solid as the computer
completed the shift. A long narrow arm formed out of the ceiling
above the general, stopping a foot or so above his head. Instantly a
brilliant blue beam seemed to scan the general’s head. The beam
started at the tip of the device protruding from the ceiling and
spread out to a flat line a little more than the width of the
general’s head, starting at the top of his head scanning down and
back up.

The entire scan took no
more than a second. As quickly as the device had appeared, it
disappeared back into the ceiling. Christopher and Cindy watched as
another device seemed to grow out of the floor between them and the
general’s head. As the device neared the general’s head, the tip
of the device spread out to form the shape of the skull. Upon
reaching the general’s head, the device settled against the side of
his head. Then from the center of the device, a small narrow
probe-like item, smaller in diameter than the lead of a pencil, was
precisely inserted into the side of the skull just above the ear.

A moment later, the
probe came back out, but the small tip was gone. Four brilliant blue
beams focused on the point of incision. They rotated in a circle
remaining focused on the same point. After about thirty seconds of
this, the beams ceased, leaving no trace of an incision ever being
made. The device separated from the general’s head and returned
into the floor. A moment later the general began to turn transparent
as the computer shifted him back to the bed where he was taken from.

A few seconds later,
the computer returned the interior to its normal state with the
addition of two chairs in front of a view screen. “Now watch,”
the computer said, “as I create a noise to awaken the general in
order to test the implant.”

Christopher and Cindy
watched the dark blank screen. A moment later the screen blinked, or
rather the general did. He awoke to see what the loud noise was and
turned on the light next to his bed. “What the hell was that? Is
somebody there?”

Christopher and Cindy
were amazed. The view projected onto the screen was the general’s.
It was as if they were behind his eyes, seeing exactly what he saw as
he saw it. The door to the general’s room swung open. “Is
everything all right, sir?” the young captain asked.

“I guess so. I just
thought I heard something. I was probably just dreaming. Thank you,
Captain.”

“Yes sir,” the
young captain replied as he closed the door. The general took another
look around the room, then shut the light off and went back to sleep.
Christopher and Cindy were beside themselves. “This is fantastic.
We can see and hear everything the general does!” Christopher
exclaimed.