Earth's Last Angel (13 page)

At first sight the LTMs look a bit like huge metal three legged frogs, minus the head. In its place a long telescopic arm, with what looks like the tail of a fish on its end. This is the laser head, where all the action is. The head has a total of 40 separate lasers, two rows of 20 beams parallel with each other. By controlling the intensity of each pair of beams, the operator can adjust the cutting shape of the laser head, producing either a flat cut or an angled cut.

‘Hey Taneasia! Can you give Stan here a run through on your LTM please? We need him passed out, ASAP.' The request comes from Tarillia, the production shift boss.

Taneasia swings her medium built 158 cm frame around to face Tarillia.

Taneasia's hazel eyes locks with hers. ‘Of course he can ride shotgun with me, just make sure he brings his lunch, we'll be in there for a while.' She smiles to her boss and best friend.

‘Thanks mate! I'll go round him up,' replies a relieved Tarillia, her boots clanking on the steel floor as she leaves in search of Stan.

Taneasia's long straight black frill touches the waist band of her orange coveralls. Her blue work bag is slung over her shoulder, her knee high work boots polished to a mirror black finish. She stands near her LTM. She has chosen LTM 007, (she just loves the number for perfection.) Stan joins her as she locks and tags the isolation point of LTM 007, then starts her prestart check.

‘Just making sure she's good to go mate!' Taneasia comments to Stan as she adjusts her cap and walks under the belly of LTM 007.

The legs on the miner are in dock position, which means the legs are folded down, giving a good 2 meter clearance under its belly plate.

After checking out the laser head and arm, Taneasia walks back to the rear boarding ramp, de-isolates and collects her lock and tag, then climbs the steep ramp up into the bowels of her LTM, with Stan close at her heels. She takes out her headset from her bag and drops her bag into a small locker. Stan does the same.

‘Righto, Stan, strap yourself in.'

‘Yep got that.' he replies as he settles into the dicky seat directly behind Taneasia.

‘Now…how's your headset?' she asks. ‘Voice activation and volume OK?'

‘Yep, all good,' replies Stan, giving her the thumbs up.

Taneasia peers through the glass panel floor directly below her feet to see if it's all clear. She then powers up the flight computer and sounds the ignition warning horn, one single blast. After a 5 second delay she fires up LTM 007.

‘Hang on now, Stan, we're standing up!” she informs him over the head set.

LTM 007 looks like someone doing pushups as it lifts itself from the floor, all three legs extending together. With the massive miner now standing upright, Taneasia runs a systems check. She has a good look around below for any numbskulls walking nearby down on the floor.

The flight deck gives an excellent field of view through the glass panels that extend from the front to a third of the way down the body of the miner Including directly above and below the operator.

Standing at 10 meters tall on its legs, it is an imposing sight. Two short blasts on the horn mean forward movement. After a 5 second delay, Taneasia eases forward on the tramming joy sticks.

Its gait is quite strange to get used to. First the center rear leg moves forward as the cab rear lifts and moves forward. The right forward leg then moves forward with the motion of the cab dropping to the right then lifts again. The cab then tips and drops to the left as the left front leg lifts and moves forward, then moves up again to the start position.

You could well imagine riding a three legged Elephant!

After a short walk to a clear spot on the floor, Taneasia instructs ‘Get ready for launch!' sounding two long blasts on the horn.

As Taneasia activates gravity control LTM 007 lifts gently off the floor of the parking dock. The training dock dimensions are 10 km long by 10 km wide and 100 meters high, plenty of room for the fleet of LTM's to train.

For the training exercise the rocks are 200 meters long, 60 meters thick and are suspended from the ceiling by massive rock cables.

LTM 007 fires its thrusters and heads for its target rock, and as it reaches the rock it grabs on with its grappling toes, anchoring itself to the rock.

Now Taneasia brings the heads up display overlay of the job, shows the benches to be cut in millimeter accuracy, the exact amount of rock and angle to be shaved off with the laser head.

A deep humming vibration comes from the laser actuator as Taneasia preps the laser.

Adjusting the settings to get the correct cutting angle, she touches the rock with the laser, instantly vaporizing a layer off it, and leaving a clean, shaved face angled to perfection.

‘It's going to be another good day,' she smiles to herself.

Meanwhile, on the next deck below, it resembles a disturbed ants nest before the rain.

Activity everywhere, people engrossed in their tasks scurrying about.

This is the domain of the prospectors. All are specialists.

The mission objective for some of these guys is ‘find ice.'

If the objective is to set up a permanent base of operations, the project needs ice. Lots of it! Our civilization will need water and atmosphere to survive and thrive.

Mondok…there's only one way to describe him, short. He's a short 4 foot 6 in the old money, short on temper, and short on patience, with a stock of fiery red frills. One thing though, get him looking for minerals and he'll sniff them out from miles away. A little red firecracker whichever way you look at him!

Now Mondok is feeling hoarse. He's been barking orders all day, it seems, and still, deck 24 is still in utter chaos. ‘Might as well, do it myself,' he mutters. ‘How we'll ever be ready, I don't know.'

The beep of the main communication system startles him.

‘Counting down to launch, in 10 minutes.'

‘Cripes,' croaks Mondok. ‘Hey, Mikey, have you finished locking in the…'

‘All crews and families, proceed to the observation deck, now. This is an order.'

‘What the dickens is the captain up to now?' mutters Mondok.

‘My God, what was that wailing?' says Mikey, rubbing his arms.

Mondok, too, stands entranced. ‘It's whale song.'

‘Hey, that's why the captain wants us on the observation deck.'

‘Well, what are you waiting for then, lad?' replies Mondok, forgetting he had them all running around battening down.

The whales had drowned out the countdown and Mondok felt a shift in the position of the ship.

‘Oh crap! We're moving.' Now it is a race to the elevators.

As Mondok and the rest of the crew wait, the beasts of the deep begin their full whale song together, surrounding the ship with their singing.

On the observation deck, they gasp at the sight of not one pod but thousands of whales. Many are parading their calves around as if they know they were being watched. Almost 3000 people crowd the observation deck, the whales are clearly visible even to those who stand at the back.

Children, fascinated with the creatures, reach out to touch the giants, showing dismay and disappointment when their hands met glass panel instead of flesh. Laughter and tears spread throughout the crowd as the ship lifts slowly through the water, escorted by the consort of whales, singing, circling and performing a whale ballet. It appears the entire planet's whale population has gathered to celebrate their journey, including Old 52, as he has became known. The loneliest Whale on the planet, he only sings on 52 hertz, He is a sole survivor, and we are the only ones that can hear him!

Captain Val joins the crowd and, noticing Tom, moves to his side. ‘What is it that's drawn them here?'

‘Us obviously, but the question is why? Hear that song? It's not their usual individual whale songs is it?'

Val listens, feeling a warmth swelling in his chest. The full chorus of whale song is in perfect harmony. He looks at Tom, awareness dawning on him. ‘They are all singing the same song…unbelievable!'

As the ship rises through the depths, their faithful friends continue to sing and are joined by a series of whistles, clicks and squeals.

‘Dolphins,' yells some of the older children to their parents.

They were now just 50 meters from reaching the surface and the whales were joined by thousands of dolphins, porpoises and smaller whales somersaulting, twisting and turning. Bottlenose and common dolphins can be seen through the glass ceiling, darting around, and over the Golden Pyramid on the top deck.

Mondok looks upwards, marveling at the sight of dolphins cavorting where they seem to belong. More so than any of us, he thinks. A chill runs up his spine. The whale song is increasing in intensity, vibrating through the very core of his being.

‘Here comes the party poopers,' says someone near him.

Mondok sees them too. Through the multi-angled camera lens, they appear larger than life. Orcas, the wolves of the sea, have approached in their hundreds, beautiful creatures but with a voracious appetite.

Mondok stares and waits in morbid fascination unable to look away, already expecting a massacre.

He looks anxiously at the dolphins on the top deck, they haven't shifted, neither have any of the other whales, large or small. They all continue to grace the ship and her occupants with their company, their reveling and their singing. To the crowd watching, they seem doomed.

Then, as a mass, the Orcas converge upon the other whales, they disperse and blend with them, displaying their own unique playfulness. The whale song has reached a new peak and it becomes clear the newcomers have added their own voices to the multitude.

‘This is just amazing,' says Tom. ‘Even the Orcas are singing the same song.'

Val shakes his head. ‘I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen or heard it myself!' His entire body and mind now vibrated with the single song of thousands of whales and dolphins giving them a guard of honor.

‘How can this be?' Tom whispers. ‘I think they are trying to communicate with us!'

‘Tommy, I think they are giving us their blessing,' Val says, now feeling a little unsteady on his feet, and slightly overwhelmed.

‘We are breaking the surface, Captain,' says Nolack-1.

‘Uh, oh, thank you, Nolack-1. Continue at our present speed.'

Val looks up at the dolphins on the top deck. They are leaving their playground but continue to leap and somersault nearby.

The great ship gently parts the surface of the sea as it leaves its ocean home and lifts steadily into the sky, sending showers of water from her hull down onto the creatures below.

Dolphins frolic under the spray, some whales lift their tails from the water and bring them thrashing down, while others arch and flip backwards.

The ocean is a whirlpool of activity and the single whale song reverberates through the very souls of all. As the call goes up from the bridge ‘she's clear!' the crew erupt in a raucous cheer as the massive ship pokes her nose skywards for the first time.

Now the real adventure begins!

Nolack-1, the super bio computer's artificial intelligence, directs the ship's course with the first mate while Val looks on, hands in his pockets.

He turns as Tom goes to leave the flight deck.

‘So, Tommy, checked out the ship, have you?'

Tom flinches. ‘Would you please call me Tom?'

‘Aw, come on, there's just Nolack-1 and me, here, now.'

Tom laughs. ‘It's a bit hard to tell if you are Nolack-1 or dad with that new implant in you.'

‘I assure you that the captain and I are two separate entities,' Nolack-1 retorts.

‘See,' says Val, his hand instinctively moving up to feel his right eye.

‘Thank you, Nolack-1, for clearing that up,' Tom smirks.

‘Anyway, you still haven't answered my question, Tom.'

‘Question was…' Nolack-1 began.

‘It's OK, Nolack-1, I will handle this,' says Val.

‘No, I was helping out down at the lake,' Tom says, ‘and I was working,' he adds seeing his father's smile.

He is relieved when Nolack-1 chimes in. ‘Captain, we have reached the outer atmosphere of Thera. Do you wish me to activate the telecast?'

‘What telecast?' Tom asks.

Val checks the screen. ‘Yes…Tom we're beaming images of the ship's launch back to Thera, so we are not mistaken for a hostile when we return.'

‘Well, that makes sense though the Ishtara, Ahamrik and One World Order will still be annoyed we went behind their backs with this project.'

Val smiles. ‘Probably, but they'll get over it…Go ahead, Nolack-1, uplink to the sky screen.'

Her perfectly modulated voice begins the announcement as live video feed of their ship appears on the Global sky screen and the screen in front of them. Both Val and Tom gaze in awe and pride as their ship rises from the depths amid the blessing from the whales and dolphins, then launches into the summer sky, upwards towards the depths of space.

‘On May 5th 2100, the Sobek was launched from the depths of the Aneatos Ocean where she was built, and made space ready,' Nolack-1 broadcasts.

‘The secrecy surrounding the project is for the safety of those who are directly involved. All care was taken not to endanger marine life with the construction and the launch of the ship. The decision to build it under the seabed was to prevent detection and interference. Not even the crew and their families knew of its true location.

The purpose of the flight must remain confidential, but it will ultimately benefit Thera. For this reason, we expect that we will be welcomed back when we return.'

When Nolack-1's voice falls silent, Val looks at Tom who is deep in thought.

‘What's up?' he asks.

‘It seems rather vague,' he replies.

‘And that's with good reason, son. We really don't know what is going to happen out there,' He thumps Tom's shoulder, ‘but we're sure as hell going to have some fun finding out!'