SECTOR 64: Ambush (16 page)

The commodore stomped to the forward view port. Ahead, half a universe worth of stars exploded from the fish-eye. As the light streaming from the stars astern joined the photons from ahead, the star field fully encircled the formation of ships.

Glaring through the port, Salyth studied the water-rich world that had blossomed ahead of his fleet. The celestial body hovered where the ball of stars had been a moment earlier. The planet filled the
Forebearer's Retribution's
viewport. Salyth scanned the visible continents. Greeting its final sunrise, their ship's initial target lay clearly visible along the day-night terminator. The light loving mammals were in for a rude awakening.

Radars of varying bandwidths painted all sixteen of his ships within moments of their arrival. Some originated from the multitude of orbiting machines surrounding the blue planet. Salyth drew his sharp scaly lips back in a fearsome snarl.
Look at us all you want. It will make no difference. Soon, Lord Thrakst will know he chose wisely.

Turning, he faced the assembled officers. Silhouetted against the blue, brown, and green sphere, he lifted two clenched fists. "Now, the Argonians will truly know the pain and fury of the Forebearers."

Jake's position, inches from the view-wall, afforded a beautiful panorama. Richard had rotated the
Turtle
back to the east. Facing forward, the ship glided ten miles above the Moon's barren surface in graceful silence. More cratered than the familiar near side, this half didn't have the gravitational umbrella of Earth hovering permanently overhead. Looking down, he watched as pockmarked proof passed intransigently under the
Turtle
.

Lieutenant Croft turned toward Jake with an excited expression. "We might be able to see a lunar lander from this altitude, definitely if we're a little lower." He turned to Richard. "Can we visit one of the Apollo landing sites?"

Richard considered it for a moment, then nodded. "There's one not too far from where we'll emerge from the far-side. I think we have time for a flyby. We'll have to change our flight-plan when we contact Control…" He paused to check his watch. "In thirty-five minutes."

Jake and Victor exchanged glances.

"Too bad we don't have time for a landing," Jake said with a meaningful look.

"Good try, buddy. It wouldn't matter how much time we had. We can never land there. They're designated as historical sites, and we have strict orders not to go there."

After a moment, Jake and Victor nodded.

"Guess they don't want us trudging through Neil Armstrong's historic footprints," Jake said.

"Cheer up, boys. Like I said, we'll still do a low pass. In the meantime, are you ready to see the rest of the ship?"

"Upstairs?" Jake asked.

"Yep."

Scanning the interior, Jake didn't see an obvious way to the upper floor. The room had no stairs or openings. Although, considering how they had passed through walls to enter the ship, he knew the latter wasn't a problem.

Apparently reading the confusion on his face, Richard held up a finger. "Guess it would be easier to show you than to explain." He turned and walked toward the center column of the ship. A green meter-wide glowing ring appeared on the floor. Reaching the circle, Richard stepped into it. After two seconds, his feet left the floor as an invisible force lifted him toward the ceiling.

An instant before Richard smacked headlong into the solid ceiling, a familiar crackling static sound echoed through the ship. An opening with the same diameter as the lower ring appeared in its smooth surface, and Richard disappeared through it.

"Come on up."

Jake and Victor looked through the view-wall at the scrolling terrain. Reluctantly, they pried themselves away from the incredible scene.

Richard's voice drifted through the overhead opening. "Don't worry, you're not gonna miss anything. We'll be on the far side for a few more minutes. Besides, this side is pretty boring anyway."

"Boring?" Jake said. "That's the last thing I'd call it. Jaded much?"

Ahead of him, Victor hesitated at the ring's perimeter.

"Any time now, ladies."

Tentatively, Victor extended a probing boot into the circle. Impatient, Jake gave him a shove. "Let's go, Lieutenant." Stumbling into the halo, Victor looked at him with an apparent protest forming on his lips. Before he could speak, Vic's eyes widened, and he looked down. Then he lifted from the floor.

Jake stepped into the glowing ring. At first nothing happened. Then he felt an invisible force encase his lower legs, and he rose from the floor.

"It grabs your legs to keep you lined up with the opening," Richard said.

Overhead, Vic reached the top and slid sideways. Jake saw Richard perched on the edge of the opening. The lift gently deposited Victor on the floor next to him.

As Jake passed through the gap, the propelling force shifted him sideward and set him next to Richard opposite Victor.

Faint static noise came from the hole as the floor solidified. Another glowing green ring marked its prior location.

Slightly smaller in diameter than the lower room, the width of the upper compartment correlated to the narrower upper section of the exterior.

The ship's central column terminated about four feet above the deck. As Richard walked toward it, Jake noticed some familiar controls in the upper surface of the pedestal. While not as complete as the set on the bridge, they apparently facilitated flying the ship from this level.

"Why did they put a set of controls up here?" Jake asked. "You can't see out."

With a practiced dramatic flourish, Richard lifted both arms. Raising his voice, he spoke with the exaggerated inflections of a magician introducing his next illusion. "This room serves many purposes." With an arcing sweep of his right arm, Richard reached down and activated a control.

Jake's heart leapt as the top half of the ship vanished. Involuntarily, he stopped breathing. Appearing to expose the floor, pedestal, and three officers to open space, the entire circumference of the wall and ceiling disappeared.

Once he realized they hadn't plunged into vacuum and weren't dead, he turned and glared at a laughing Richard.

"That never gets old. You can breathe now."

Jake slugged his shoulder. "A little warning, next time."

Turning, Jake inspected the full three hundred sixty degrees. The Moon's horizon was equally visible in every direction. It looked like they were standing on a round platform suspended over an ancient alien desert. Ahead, in the direction of flight, lay the day-night terminator. The line where lengthening shadows gave way to a fourteen-day-long lunar night drew closer every second.

"Let me try something," Victor said as he stepped up to the center column.

Richard nodded.

Placing his hand into the controller, Victor pitched the ship forward, turning the floor perpendicular to the moonscape. Then he stepped around the column and walked to the edge closest to the Moon's cascading surface.

Richard cast a questioning look at Jake.

Jake gave him an Area Fifty-One salute.

With his back turned toward them, Victor raised both arms overhead, fingers extended like a plunging diver. Looking up, he stared in the direction of flight.

Finally realizing what he was doing, the other two moved to stand on either side, and did the same. With the
Turtle's
bulk blocking them from the setting sun, only the faltering light reflecting off the Moon's undulating surface illuminated their laughing faces.

Side-by-side, with arms extended and heads tilted back, they flew across the Moon's cratered surface like three superheroes flying in formation. As the ship slid into shadow, the moment passed. They lowered their arms and wiped away tears of laughter.

"If we're still laughing like that when Space Control calls, they'll figure we've gone off the deep end," Richard said. He actuated the controls and the walls shifted back to opaque. "Want to see the EVA suits?"

"EVA suits?" Vic said. His face brightened with nervous excitement. "Spacesuits?"

Jake looked around. "Where are they? No, wait, let me guess. In the floor?"

Richard held up a finger. "Watch and learn." With his other hand, he actuated another portion of the control panel. Midway between the central pedestal and the rear wall, a semi-circle of cabinets grew from the floor.

"How in the hell does that work?" Jake asked.

"It's all about nanotechnology."

Jake pointed at the freshly formed six-foot tall cabinets. "I know, but even considering that, how do they get this much material from a floor no more than two inches thick?"

"Carbon nanotubes, the same matter in carbon composites. Except, instead of being arranged in sheets, the molecules roll into tubes one carbon atom wide. They're strong enough that if you put together enough of them to equal the thickness of a human hair, that tiny thread could easily lift the weight of a full tractor-trailer."

"How do the nanites use the nanotubes? Are they made of it, or do they use it?"

"Both. Their internal structures are made from it, but they live in an ocean of the stuff."

Jake tilted his head. "So, they're like spiders with a virtually endless supply of super strong silk?"

Richard nodded. "Exactly."

Victor froze. "Spiders?"

Ignoring him, Jake did a quick cabinet count. "Looks like it's equipped for up to ten personnel."

"Yep," he replied, checking his wristwatch. "But since we're coming up on earth-rise, I'll have to show you how they work later. Let's head down."

"Spiders?" Victor asked again.

Richard shook his head and activated the control. The cabinets melted back into the floor. He gestured to the glowing green ring. "Gentlemen."

Vic relented and stepped tentatively into the ring, jumping noticeably when it started down.

"Skittish, that one," Richard said under his breath, nodding toward Lieutenant Croft.

"Yeah, he's smart enough, but a little insecure at times," Jake agreed. He stepped into position and started down. Richard followed.

Back at the control panel, Richard pitched the ship up, returning it to level.

On cue, Earth began to peek above the Moon's night-darkened limb.

A loud klaxon rang through the ship. The wall's soft glow shifted to dark red.

Jake's suddenly flowing adrenaline ratchet up another notch as the
Turtle
self actuated its holographic display. One glance at Richard told him this was an unprecedented development.

Five feet beyond the console, the rendered Earth coalesced with its familiar swarm of green satellites. At the same time, a holographic Moon formed between Jake and Richard.

Centered over the console and pulsing with an ominous red hue, a formation of indiscernible objects hung between the Moon and Earth.

"Where the hell did those come from?"

"In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."

― Ronald Reagan

"What the hell
are
they?" Vic asked.

"I don't know!" Richard yelled over the blaring horn.

Stepping to the control panel, Jake squinted at the red dots. Unable to make out details, he placed both hands into the center of the holographic formation with his palms together. Reversing Richard's previous command gesture, he spread his arms. The image magnified and the red points resolved into an organized collection of irregular shapes. Arranged in a four-by-four diamond formation, sixteen rocky bodies cast a red glow across Jake's face. He looked over his shoulder at his two wingmen. "They look like asteroids."

"How could asteroids be in formation?" Victor said.

Jake shook his head. "They couldn't." Using a reversed pinching gesture, he zoomed-in on one of the knobbly bodies. In the magnified image's higher resolution, the selected asteroid resolved into a collection of enormous boulders cobbled together by trusses and superstructures. What he'd mistook for rocky protuberances jutting from the main body were themselves separate asteroids.

Richard looked as confused as Jake felt. "It looks like someone stitched together a bunch of rocks."

"They look like … ships," Jake said.

Wide-eyed, both wingmen nodded.

"Are they Argonian?" Jake asked, worried he already knew the answer.

Finally finding the correct command, Richard silenced the still bleating klaxon, plunging the ship into screaming silence. He turned to Jake and shook his head. "No."

"Has this happened before?" Victor asked shakily.

"No, not since Roswell, anyway. The Argonians keep a tight lid on planets like ours. No one is allowed to contact us." He paused, running fingers through his hair. "Hell, even our existence is supposed to be a galactic secret."

"Not anymore," Jake said. A deep foreboding burned through him as he regarded the
Turtle's
red walls and the red holographic rendering of the alien fleet.

"The
Turtle's
response has my short hairs up," Richard said, mirroring his thoughts.

"I know," Jake whispered.

Each vessel had a common feature at its front. However, at the current magnification, he couldn't quite make it out. Reaching in with another gesture, Jake expanded the lead ship. Stepping next to him, Richard made a rotating motion, and the ominous vessel turned to face them.

"Huh?" Jake said.

Victor moved to stand on Jake's left.

Breathless the three officers leaned closer. Not believing what he saw, Jake zoomed in again, and the resulting clarity removed all doubt. "Oh shit!"

All three men took an involuntary backward step.

"Oh my god," Victor whispered.

Manifested evil glared from the hologram.

A chill shot down Jake's spine as any hope for alien benevolence evaporated. And, unlike the Argonians, this was truly alien.