Area 51: The Truth (13 page)

“Do you know how to open this thing up?” Turcotte asked Yakov. “Access all the cargo bays?” “I got you in here,” Yakov said. “I think I can figure it out. Quinn gave me the manual that Majestic assembled on the other mothership at Area 51.”

“We need to get about ten thousand people in,” Turcotte said.

“I’ll see what the Master Guardian suggests,” Yakov said. “Do it.”

Yakov left the pilot room, heading back toward the Master Guardian. Turcotte reached out and tapped another control, then suddenly frowned. He’d learned to fly the Area 51 mothership using instructions written up by scientists working for Majestic who’d studied the craft for over half a century. But he realized this felt familiar, as if he had done it more than once. But that couldn’t be, he thought. He was still exhausted from his experience on Everest and he felt that his mind must be playing tricks on him.

Aspasia’s Shadow’s eyes slowly opened. The muscles in his arms and legs bulged as he strained against the ropes binding him. To no avail. Turning his head, he could see the large Russian once more in contact with the Master Guardian. Even though his body was human, Aspasia’s Shadow considered himself Airlia, or perhaps more accurately, beyond both species, especially now that he was immortal. He was unique, a new breed. But these humans. He had fought them for millennia and, despite his projected disdain, there was a part of him that grudgingly had to grant that they had something unique themselves. To have defeated both him and Artad in the race for the Master Guardian and mothership! And before that to have destroyed Aspasia and his fleet. Simply amazing.

And years ago, to destroy the Swarm scout ship, causing it to explode over Tunguska—that had been a surprise. He realized now, too late of course, that he should have paid more attention to that warning sign, but he had been too focused on the Ones Who Wait and maintaining the status quo of their covert civil war.

Yakov stepped back from the Master Guardian and looked down at Aspasia’s Shadow. “Do you wish to tell us now how long Easter Island has?”

Aspasia’s Shadow shrugged. “I don’t know.” As Yakov’s hand went toward the pistol at his waist, he was quick to add, “That’s the truth. I opened a seismic fault deep underground. Rano Kau will become active. Soon. How soon, I cannot tell you.”

Yakov cocked his head as he regarded the creature at his feet. “Why did you do that?”

Aspasia’s Shadow blinked, as if asked why he breathed air. “It is what a commander must do in retreat. Destroy all so that the enemy gains nothing.”

“A commander of what?” Yakov asked.

To that Aspasia’s Shadow made no response. Yakov started to walk past him, shaking his head. “Wait!” Aspasia’s Shadow called out.

Yakov paused.

“You must deal with me now,” Aspasia’s Shadow said. “Why?”

“Do you want to save those on Easter Island?”

“We’ll do that without your help.” “Perhaps you will,” Aspasia’s Shadow acknowledged. “But can you save all who live along the Ring of Fire?” “The what?”

“The Pacific Rim,” Aspasia’s Shadow clarified. “Easter Island will be just the beginning. It will start a chain reaction of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes along fault lines around the entire Pacific. The western United States”—he smiled—”say good-bye to Los Angeles and San Francisco and Seattle. Japan—devastated. Your own Russia—Kamchatka smashed.

“Tens of millions dead,” Aspasia’s Shadow continued. “If you think the death and destruction from the Third World War was grievous, it will be nothing compared to what is coming. Unless, of course, we make a deal, and I stop it.”

Yakov’s right hand snapped forward, his fist slamming into the side of Aspasia’s Shadow’s face. He walked out of the chamber without a word, the door sliding shut behind him.

Earth Orbit

Artad glanced at the tactical display. A terribly primitive space habitat was shown. Most strange—was this all these humans had managed to achieve in terms of conquering space in over ten thousand years? He was tempted to destroy it as they passed by. But it was so backward and offered so little threat that he ignored the impulse. The humans would pay a much greater price.

He reached out with a six-fingered hand and tapped the controls, bringing a view of Earth’s surface into focus. He centered the screen on China and nodded as he saw the Great Wall meandering across the countryside. His Shadow, acting as Shi Huangdi, had completed the construction of the wall over twenty-three hundred years ago, shaping it to match the Airlia High Rune symbol for
HELP
. An indication of just how desperate Artad’s followers had been. Over twenty-four hundred kilometers of wall built in just about ten years.

Looking for help from the skies that had never come.

Artad shifted the view to forward. They were moving away from Earth, picking up speed. The navigator had laid in a course for the fourth planet in the system. A dead world where they had placed their original communication array and defensive grid, both of which were destroyed during the civil war.

One of his Kortad alerted him to something the sensors had picked up. He switched to view to whatever it was that had been spotted. He sat up straighter in his command chair as the bulk of a mothership floating in orbit was identified, over a thousand kilometers away. He ordered an adjustment in the Talon’s course to intercept.

Within a few minutes the Talon was alongside the much larger ship. He knew it was Aspasia’s, and he’d taken in the report from the guardian describing how Aspasia’s fleet had been destroyed by the humans. Still, the gaping hole in the side where the ruby sphere and nuclear weapons had been set off by the humans was startling. Artad knew the construction of the mothership and what it could sustain.

Artad noted the unusual quiet among his bridge crew as they also viewed the damage. How had all this happened, he had to wonder. It was difficult to believe that humans, acting on their own, could have accomplished such destruction.

Artad shook off these disturbing thoughts. He ordered a boarding party to be prepared to see if the ship was salvageable. High above the Earth’s surface, the Talon and derelict mothership floated in orbit.

Easter Island

The lieutenant had hastily rigged the device from parts off the carrier
Stennis
. The instruments and transmitter were inside a metal case. Foam rubber had been duct-taped around the case, leaving only room for a wire antenna to poke out.

The device, and the lieutenant who had been given the task based on his academic credentials, had been flown to Easter Island on board an F-16 at max speed. The C-2As had just barely dropped off their first load of refugees on the carriers and were being refueled for a return flight. The lieutenant’s job was to try to get an idea of the potential danger and how much time they might have.

“Steady,” he called out as two Marines edged the device up the thermal vent that had been dug in cavern floor.

The lieutenant checked the various displays he had that received information from the instrumentation he had loaded inside the case. Everything seemed to be working.

“Drop it!” the lieutenant yelled.

The Marines tipped it over and it fell into the opening.

Even though he knew the data was being relayed via
SATCOM
to the fleet, the lieutenant called out what the gauges told him. “One hundred meters. One ten degrees.”

He licked his lips and called out the next set of readings. “Five hundred meters. One hundred eighty degrees.

“Eight hundred. Two-ten. It must be free-falling,” he added. “One thousand. Two-forty.

“One-Five-Zero-Zero. Three hundred.” He did a quick mental calculation as he watched the numbers move. “Through a mile down and no obstacles.”

He stared at the displays, not quite believing how quickly the case was falling. It was indeed free-falling. He glanced over at the opening, which was only about a meter wide. How wide was this vent below? It had to widen considerably for the case not to have hit the sides.

“Two kilometers. Five hundred degrees. “Three kilometers. Seven-fifty.

“Five kilometers. One thousand. “Seven kilometers. Two thousand. “Nine kilometers. Two thousand, five. “Ten kilometers. Three thousand.”

As if he felt the intense heat, beads of sweat were on the lieutenant’s forehead. He blinked as all the displays went dead. He quickly hit several buttons, getting the last readings before they disappeared. “Final numbers: eleven thousand, six hundred forty-two meters down. Temperature. Three thousand eight hundred degrees. I would assume it hit molten magma.” He opened up a geographic survey that had been faxed to the carrier upon request. “The crust is around twelve thousand meters thick here. Gentlemen, we’ve got a vent straight down to the outer core, which appears to be rising under pressure.”

Airspace South America

“Talk to me,” Turcotte demanded.

Quinn sounded distracted, which Turcotte imagined he must be, as the officer was overwhelmed with data. “Uh, there’s a report from the fleet. They sent some kind of probe down the thermal vent. Appears to go all the way to the outer core. And they think the magma is rising in the vent.”

“So Aspasia’s Shadow speaks the truth for once.” Yakov was disappointed.

“About the vent,” Turcotte said. He turned to the mike. “What about this Ring of Fire stuff?” “That’s the term,” Quinn began, “for the fault lines along the various tectonic plates of the landmasses that meet with the suboceanic plates of the Pacific. It encircles the entire Pacific Ocean. Along these fault lines you have volcanoes, both active and inactive, and areas prone to earthquakes. It runs along the California coast, down along the western edge of South America—”

“Wait a second,” Turcotte interrupted, looking at the screen in front of him, which showed the coastline of South America that Quinn had just mentioned. “Easter Island’s a long way from South America. How can it be part of this ring?”

“There’s a plate between South America and Easter Island and the Pacific Plate,” Quinn responded. “It’s called the Nazca Plate. Easter Island lies on the juncture of the Nazca Plate and the Pacific Plate. That fault line also extends north and links with the South American plate fault line and becomes the fault that runs along the West Coast of the US.

“This thing runs along the bottom of the Pacific, to New Zealand, through the Philippines, to Japan, up along the West Coast of Russia and along the Aleutians. Over nineteen thousand kilometers long.”

“Back up,” Turcotte said as he passed over the shoreline and the mothership was above the blue water of the Pacific, continuing to head west at great speed. “What the heck is this plate tectonic stuff?”

“It’s a relatively new discovery,” Quinn said. “The surface of the Earth, the crust, is made up of nine major plates, like the Pacific, and a dozen smaller ones, like the Nazca. It’s basically a crust of hard rock floating on the molten outer core. And each plate is moving, which produces one of three effects along the boundaries. When they go away from each other they form a split where material, usually magma, comes up and forms a ridge. When they collide, one plate slides under the other, producing what’s called a subduction zone. You were just at one of those zones—the Himalayas are the product of a subduction zone created by the Eurasian Plate meeting the Indian Plate. And the third is where the two plates are moving in opposite, parallel directions—the San Andreas Fault is an example of that. You’ve got all three types along the Ring of Fire, so you’ve got volcanoes and very unstable regions. When San Francisco got leveled in 1906, that was a relatively minor disturbance of the Ring—same as when Mount Hood erupted.”

“Can one of the volcanoes erupting on Easter Island start a chain reaction?” Turcotte asked. “Those other events didn’t.”

“We have to assume the Airlia—and the guardians—know more about plate tectonics than we do,” Quinn said. “I see no reason not to believe Aspasia’s Shadow about this given what’s at stake.”

Turcotte frowned. “Except he’s lied about pretty much everything else he’s told us.” “Do you want to be the one to take that chance?” Quinn asked.

Looking ahead, Turcotte saw a dot on the horizon. “We’re just about there. Is there anything we can do to stop this eruption?”

“I’ll check,” Quinn said.

“Better make that a quick check,” Turcotte said, as the mothership rapidly approached the island. He brought the massive ship to a halt above the international airport, then slowly lost altitude until the belly of the spacecraft just about touched the tarmac. Thousands crowded about, staring in awe and hope at the large ship.

“Open the holds,” Turcotte said.

Yakov was at another console, using the information he had gained from the Master Guardian. Cargo doors slid open and metal planks extended outward and downward. After a moment’s hesitation, the people poured forward, boarding the mothership. Turcotte glanced at the display. Was it his imagination or was there already a thin tendril of smoke above Rano Kau?

Turcotte stood up and grabbed his MP-5. “When everyone’s on board, let me know.” Yakov glanced over. “Where are you going?”

“To chat with our friend.”

Turcotte made his way back to the Master Guardian room, where Aspasia’s Shadow was tied down.

“Did the Russian pass you my message?” Aspasia’s Shadow asked as soon as Turcotte entered. “Yes.”

“You know the threat?” “If you’re not lying, yes.”

“I am not lying and I can stop it.” “How?”

“It is beyond your ability to understand.” Turcotte brought the muzzle of the submachine gun up. Aspasia’s Shadow shook his head. “You can kill me again, but that will cost you valuable time.” “What do you want?”

“The same thing I wanted before. The stakes on your end are higher now though.” Turcotte lowered the muzzle and didn’t say anything. A few minutes passed.

“You are running out of time,” Aspasia’s Shadow finally said. Turcotte still remained silent.

After a few more minutes, Aspasia’s Shadow stirred, pushing against his restraints. “The process will soon be irreversible.”

“You’re asking me to accept two assumptions,” Turcotte finally said. “First, that if that volcano erupts it will start a chain reaction all along the Pacific Rim. Second, that if that is true, that you have the power to stop what has already been started.”