America One: War of the Worlds (19 page)

Ryan asked if VIN could dip his spacesuit with its readout into the liquid to see what it would come up with. But first he asked VIN to place his hammer into the liquid.

“If it is acid, it will eat the hammer, or at least do something to it. If it is liquid methane, I don’t think any harm will come to the hammer. If it is water, it could only freeze on the hammer,”
he told VIN.

“Remember I have metal or human tissue hands. Which one do you want removed first?” VIN joked. He lent over the water having his other arm tightly on the stair railing and for a whole minute, he submerged the hammer in the water. He pulled it out and they all inspected it. Nothing had changed.

“I hate to tell you this, but I put my finger into the liquid upstairs,”
mentioned Mars sheepishly.

“Well thanks for letting us know, son. If it was acid, you would be down to three human fingers by now,”
replied Ryan sternly.
“VIN, Saturn should have the samples Mars gave her in the shuttle soon. I suggest she give them to Jonesy in SB-III and he return them to the base for testing. And I think that we are going to need a few more spacesuits with a couple more build crew in them to catch up with our gold hauling.”
VIN nodded.

“VIN, give your suit arm a few seconds in the water. At least we can get a temperature,” Ryan replied. VIN did so and the temperature came back that the liquid was five degrees above freezing Fahrenheit, exactly what he and Mars had thought it was.

Back up the stairs, Ryan noticed that they had been away from the cavern for nine minutes, and Mars checked his readouts, noticed that the pressure was again above the danger level, and pushed the door panel.

The four astronauts were shocked to see a mess of equipment in the command center, Roo and Joanne were sitting on top of the
Matt
who was moaning and struggling to get up. Both crewmembers seemed in command of the situation and smiling at them as the door opened.

The pressure was safe enough and with their suits getting low on power, the astronauts began unscrewing each other’s helmets.

As Maggie unscrewed Ryan’s helmet, Ryan gave orders to Jonesy to collect the liquid samples from his daughter before she boarded her shuttle, head back to the Retreat for reinforcements to help loading the gold in the cargo holds, the cryogenic units were about to open, and they all needed to go offline.

Ryan could see that the chamber door was open and Patricia was in there. Joanne mouthed to the astronauts to hurry up.

Within minutes their helmets were off. The air pressure was low, it was quite hard to breathe, but Ryan knew that it could only get better.

“VIN, please come and hold this man,” shouted Joanne in English. “He is writhing like a rattlesnake. Patricia needs me, and you Ryan, in the chamber. The units are about to open.”

VIN helped Joanne climb off, and helped the little man up once Roo got off him.

“I told you I was stronger, and younger than you Commander Fob, and you don’t have a tall wife to help you,” stated Roo to the
Matt
in his own language as VIN grabbed the man with his metal arm.

The commander began to struggle again, and VIN applied a lot of pressure. His metal hand could have squashed the poor Man’s old arm easily, and the
Matt
began to realize that this Tall Person’s arm was strong, and maybe not of bone and skin.

“I will stop trying to get away if you ease your grip,” stated the Commander and he stopped struggling. “You are made of metal?” he asked.

“Yes, thanks to your attack on our base, I was standing outside, and thanks to you commander, I lost my arm. That’s why I might just rip your arm out of your body, and then we’ll be quits,” replied VIN in perfect
Matt
menacingly.

That quietened down the
Matt
. Mars smiled as he took off his right hand glove off, and showed the
Matt
his hand.

“Your second attack,” stated Mars.

“What second attack? We have only attacked you once,” the
Matt
replied.

“Maybe you were asleep when I lost my arm, so maybe I won’t rip your other arm from your body,” Mars smiled.

“I need some water. I am in need of water. I will not fight you metal robots. Let me go,” stated the
Matt
. Mars eyed his father, who let go of the man. What astounded them next was what the
Matt
did. VIN hoped that he knew what the
Matt
was going to do and shielded the man from seeing the globe of Mars as he passed through to the main cavern. The man was thirsty. He didn’t bother to look in the direction of the globes as he walked out of the command center, bent down by the river and took a long drink of the ice cold liquid.

“Well, I suppose that is our liquid test done. I want the tests returned from Doctors Messer and Smidt before we drink from the water,” ordered VIN to the crew as Patricia exited the cryogenic area with a tiny
Matt
in her arms.

“Mars, Roo get a second blanket ready,” ordered Patricia. “This little thing is a baby, like your second son Roo. I’ll put him down on the space blanket and you get ready to cover him.”

Commander Fob was hustled back into the command center by Mars and VIN each side of him. Again he didn’t bother to look at the globes.

The medic cut away the sleeve of the space suit and within seconds had IV fluid entering the tiny body. Commander Fob, with VIN behind him entered to see what was going on.

Joanne exited the foggy chamber with a second child, a little larger than the first. Ryan was right behind her with the third person.

Each
Matt
was placed on a space blanket on the floor, fed through an IV and a second blanket put over to warm them up.

The space blankets designed by NASA decades ago worked extremely well to keep a person warm.

“Who are the children?” Roo asked the commander quite concerned.

“They were playing by the river when I believe the explosion occurred,” Commander Fob replied. “We always had drilled into our people that they head into a safe area if they heard any noise or rumbling outside the base. I was in the command center, they were scared by this massive rumbling in the ground all around us, and immediately ran in. The door closed behind them. I saw others running into the river chamber when the doors shut. They were not quick enough.”

“The door closed because atmosphere was lost?” VIN asked.

“No,” replied Fob. “The doors closed because of the vibrations. I checked on my command console and assumed that somebody had attacked our base. Then I tried to reopen the door, but the light glowed blue, which meant that the air the other side wasn’t safe to open the door. The children, one is a family member of mine, but not my son, had some food with them, and as base commander, I always keep supplies of water and food in case the door closed unexpectedly. It had happened to this door before, and I was waiting for a repairman to arrive from our headquarters.”

Ryan, Mars, Roo and VIN checked on the children. They were asleep, would be for several hours, and the medics and Maggie were looking after them.

“So what happened to you next?” VIN asked with the crew in the room listening in. All the crew in the room had been on the odyssey, and all spoke fluent
Matt
.

“My communications with the rest of my base were broken,” Fob replied, and got a shock when Roo, and then VIN and Mars tried to converse with him through the Matt system of mental telepathy.

Commander Fob was extremely shocked that these aliens could communicate like his race. It took him a full minute collect himself.

“We know you never communicated with your controls, only with your minds
,” he heard one of the two Tall People think to him.

“My friends are as good as you and your people in communicating,”
added Roo mentally.
“Do not try and trick them. They do not like you very much and are very warlike. I believe they do want to hurt you for the deaths of their friends by your space fighters.”

A very slight smile crossed VIN’s face. He couldn’t have thought it better than what Roo had just told the commander. To make sure that he looked like he meant business, he picked up the laser pistol and thought to the commander.

“This little machine caused that explosion you felt all those years go,”
VIN added making up the story.
“We asked for peace, and yet, your pilots shot at unarmed people, and killed many of us. I could leave you and these unimportant children here, and when we leave finish the job the explosion didn’t.”

VIN’s sentence was so believable that Roo placed his hand on VIN’s arm to calm him unknowing that VIN was already calm. VIN had lost most of his want for vengeance whilst sleep for 14 years. Commander Fob carried on in
Matt
aloud.

“I was told by others in our base, the second chamber that there were people alive there, and that I should try and get down the tunnel to them. I tried the door but it wouldn’t open. My people tried to come and get us, but I assume you know already that our suits are not protective in the vacuum conditions. They told me that the tunnel was open to the vacuum, and there was no way we would survive. Nobody was coming. After a day of consideration, the children and I realized that since we were not already dead, the air and heat systems were still working the only way we might live was to go to long sleep. That is all I can tell you. Did anybody on the other side survive?”

There was no response, and VIN put his hand in the air to warn the others not to talk.

All VIN had been taught about interrogation back in his young days in Force Recon in the Marine Corp came back to him. It was time to learn where Homo sapiens stood in the solar system compared to these
Matts
.

Everybody including Ryan stared at VIN waiting for him to say something. It took a full minute before the ex-Marine said his next word, and his fidgeted with the laser pistol, while he looked down at the ground.

Mars looked at Commander Fob. He stood straight, but he seemed to be slightly afraid of what VIN’s next move would be. So was Roo, and Joanne who understood what was actually going on, placed a reassuring hand on her husband’s shoulder in front of her.

VIN pulled the weapon up to his face and looked at it carefully. Then he looked at the commander.

“Is that all you have to tell me?’ VIN asked in a cold tone.

“I asked you if any of our other people survived?” asked the commander slowly, knowing that he was on dangerous ground.

“No,” replied VIN in one word, and Joanne squeezed her husband’s shoulder again to keep him quiet. “I assumed the explosion was your power plant, but it still runs. You are lying to me Commander Fob, or you would be already dead, not nearly dead.”

“No, the explosion wasn’t our power plant. We had the very large power plant for the spaceships and the crews, and the spaceship part of our base was in that direction,” the commander pointed to where the open hole in the ground now existed.

“That is nothing but a deep hole in the ground bigger than this cavern,” VIN replied. “The tunnels are completely broken, and so is the other base. What was inside the other base, and why did you have such a long tunnel to get there?” VIN asked. The room as so silent that one could have heard a pin drop.

The commander’s face screwed up he was thinking so hard. Now he knew that it was his spaceship hangar that had exploded, and that it seemed the blast had broken through all the protective sections his men had built along the tunnel. Also if he tried to telepathically contact any other in the other base or anywhere else in the solar system, these people would hear him. He was trapped, mentally and physically.

“How did you get to me in here?” he asked, one question still burning in his brain. “It seems that your suits are good in vacuum space?”

We entered through the big hole in the other area of your base,” VIN lied. “That area was blown up when the base attacked us a few years ago, and when my son lost his arm.”

“Are their spaceships destroyed as well, the whole base?” the commander asked now looking rather shocked.

“Yes” stated Mars angrily “and your men killed my pilot, my best friend. Dad shoot him!”

Roo rushed forward and fell on his knees in front of VIN. Roo was the only team member who didn’t understand what was going on. “Please friend VIN. Don’t shoot Commander Fob. Please! We Earth
Matts
don’t like violence. Please don’t kill him and the children!”

“Joanne, take your husband away,” ordered VIN turning around to Joanne and winking. “Shut him up in the toilet or something. Ryan will you help her please?”

Roo was dragged away screaming into the river room, and the pleadings from the poor man was heard until a door closed, and his begging was silenced.

There Joanne explained to her husband that his best friend VIN was only kidding. He was making the commander scared to get information, and slowly Roo calmed down while Ryan rejoined the group.

“These stupid Earth
Matts
know nothing about war, not like you and me, hey commander?” smiled VIN directly looking the commander in the face. The commander suddenly realized that his predicament was far worse than he thought a few minutes earlier. These
Tall People
weren’t even nice to the Earth
Matts
he had often heard about. “You are the only
Matts
alive on this planet, commander. Europa, the white planet, I believe your headquarters we attack next.”

Commander Fob now understood that these
Tall People
had the means to walk around in the vacuum of space, and they knew where the white planet was. It was called
Gook
in
Matt
, the planet had been
Matt
Headquarters for as long as the history scrolls said so, for over 200,000 Earth years, and he had been born there, as had over 500,000 other
Matts
in their history books.

He began to understand that their second base—Mars had now been destroyed by the Earth’s
Tall People
he felt a twinge of sadness. The ancient
Tall People
had also destroyed their base on the blue planet 10,000 years ago. It had been on the same area of land that these people came from. He knew that because it was in the history scrolls, he had visited Earth himself 25 years ago, and had witnesses the
Tall People’s
destruction of their own satellites through their own intertribal fighting. He had watched with happiness, the complete destruction of everything orbiting the blue planet, thinking that his base on Mars was now safe for centuries to come.