BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 22
Captain Stewart said, “I understand, General. I’ll put my people on it right away.”
The speakerphone squawked live again, “She’s turning colors again— We have four confirmed bolts heading toward us. My God, what is Mother firing at?”
The General looked hard at Captain Stewart and said, “Woods is right! Mother is taking out our air bases! He must be desperate to stop a second attack on his Collectors. Make sure you remind your pilots of the test drop, to be aware of any of E-1’s fighters.”
20
CAPTAIN STEWART WENT ABOUT MAKING THE arrangements for the test drop with amazing speed. The command center was extremely high tech, and he could contact anyone in the world, instantly, and issue orders. He had told his pilots the test was risky in more ways then one, that E-1 would once again send down his fighters to destroy ours as soon as we would begin to attack his Collectors. Although the battle was long over, the Captain was sure that E-1 would be on alert and as soon as his search planes were in the air, they might encounter the alien fighters again. He instructed them to fly as low as possible until they reached potential targets. He also informed them of how one of his pilots survived the alien fighter by just simply hitting the brakes. This caused the fast-flying enemy to miscalculate target-lock and fly on by. Our pilot then locked-on and nailed the alien fighter by firing his Maverick missiles.
Soon everything was set and waiting for the F-10s to find one of the unwanted intruders. While Captain Stewart was issuing orders around the world, he was also receiving back information. E-1 was now shooting light rays at an alarming rate. The targets were air bases around the globe. The insight to evacuate all bases of fighter jets now seemed a brilliant stroke of genius, thanks to Woods. He had issued the command to evacuate the bases by the closest of margins; otherwise hundreds of thousands of men, women and planes would no longer exist.
While Captain Stewart waited, General Stormer was going over in his mind exactly what had to be done if the Collectors were magnetized. He wanted to make phone calls right away to military nuclear weapons depots, but decided to wait until the test proved Woods’ theory was correct, an agonizing wait.
“Blue Base Control, this is Air Blue Two. I have a visual on a Collector in Sector 26. Please advise.”
Captain Stewart responded, “Fly low, try and keep visual contact with it. I’ll send our I-7s up ASAP, but I want you to fly cover for them. If an alien fighter comes in, do what you can to distract or kill it until the I-7s have dropped their cargo.”
“Affirmative Blue Base.”
Captain Stewart immediately activated the closest I-7s to Sector 26. Again, he repeated his caution to be careful of getting too close and to keep an eye out for bogeys. If everything went as planned, he told them to stay in the area and confirm what happens when the metal objects were dropped.
When Captain Stewart was finished General Stormer asked, “Where is Sector 26?”
“Just south of Miami, lucky for us. We have helicopters properly equipped right in that area all ready. It shouldn’t take more them five minutes for these guys to pull this off.”
“Blue Base One, this is Air Blue Two, I have a bogey coming in fast. I can still see the target and have two I-7s on my radar above the target. I’m turning up and flying a pattern in between the target and the I-7s. That should draw attention to me and allow the choppers to do your test.”
“Blue Base to Air Blue Two, good luck, son, and keep us informed.”
“Light Air One to Blue Base One, I just heard your conversation with Air Blue Two. We are over the target and will airmail the payload ASAP and get out of here. Problem is, the thunderstorm is raising hell with our choppers. Right now we’re at six thousand feet directly over the target but feeling no effects from the monster. If we drop now I don’t know if the payloads will be affected. The wind might blow them away from the target, then the test wouldn’t tell us anything.
“I’m going to slowly descend until I get some indication that this sucker is magnetized. Light Air Two will stay up here until I find out anything.”
Captain Stewart said, “Okay, Light Air One, but keep talking as you descend so we know what’s happening.”
“Be more than happy to oblige, sir— Actually this is a little nerve wracking and it would be nice to be talking to someone. I’m now at five thousand feet directly above the target, still nothing. The up- and downdrafts in this storm might be giving mixed signals, but right now I still don’t think the target is magnetized. Forty five hundred feet, four thousand, holy shit!
“I just lost all controls, gages going berserk, don’t know what direction I’m headed but I feel like a force is pulling me down.”
Captain Stewart quickly responded, “Drop the payload and get the hell out of there.”
“The release on the payload is electrical, sir, and I’ve lost all power. We’re headed down, sir.”
Captain Stewart yelled, “Let the chopper go— Get you and your men out, now!”
“Okay, sir. We’re jumping out now. We have no idea of our location or how close is the Collector.”
“We have your position and will send a rescue helicopter to pick you up.”
“Light Air Two to Blue Base, I still have visual of the target. We are five thousand feet above it but have lost total contact with Light Air One. We heard the conversation, sir, and think we should head down to try and release our test payload. Light Air One hit trouble at four thousand feet. I’ll bring it down to forty-two hundred and release.”
Captain Stewart said, “No, I’m not risking another crew. We know the damn thing is magnetized, so get the hell out of there.”
“Sorry to question you, sir, but if I don’t go down and find out a safe level to release the payloads, won’t we be risking all our pilots, and maybe more than that? We need to know if we can drop the warheads and leave safely, sir.”
The General touched Captain Stewart’s arm and said, “He’s right, let him go.”
“Okay, Light Air Two proceed, but talk us through everything you’re doing.”
“Will do, sir. Descending to forty-five hundred feet. Forty-four, forty-three, steady as you go, forty-two and holding, sir. Still have full control of the aircraft, releasing payload now.
“Pulling up to five thousand feet and leveling off. Everything worked just fine, question now is, did the payload get released close enough to be sucked in, sir?”
“If you guys wasted a beautiful 1957 Chevy, then I can confirm the Collector has sucked it in.
“What a sight! A great oldie stuck to the side of a radical alien spacecraft! Looks like a design for the Hard Rock Café!”
An excited voice then came over the speakerphone at the control room. “I saw the helicopter, then the drop, then the payload chutes open, then watched the Collector suck it in like it was feeding on Mother’s milk.”
Captain Stewart said, “Air Blue Two? Is that you?”
“Yes, sir. I did what you told me and cut in front of the bogey with my afterburners on. He picked up on me like a search dog hot on the trail of a fresh smell. Your advice worked perfectly, and I poured on the gas until I was at Mach-2 and waited until he was on my ass. I then hit the brakes and whoosh he over shot me like a Bullet Train on a Freighter. As he flew by, I sent him a ‘Welcome to Earth’ message with two of my Mavericks.”
Captain Stewart and the General looked at each other and gave a high five. “Great work, everyone! Head home to base— We’ve a lot of work to do.”
The General looked at Woods and said, “Your theory was right. Now we have the huge task of thinking out the battle plan and coordinating it all. I want everyone to think of what needs to be done and we’ll outline it on one of the screens. For example, we have to find enough warheads, put parachutes on them, find the Collectors and drop the loads on cue. Then we have to worry about timing. If we don’t coordinate the drops within a given time period, they just might explode over us. Okay everyone, get the idea? Let’s get started.”
1. Check on how much time we have left before the atmosphere is so supercharged we all start dying.
2. Find out how much nuclear bomb tonnage was needed to take out something the size of the moon.
3. Find out how much nuclear bomb tonnage was available worldwide?
4. Check weather maps and finding the Collectors.
5. Locate bases with helicopters capable of carrying the bombs and closest to the potential targets.
6. Coordinate getting the weapons to the bases or have the helicopters fly to the weapons.
7. Set timers on the bombs to detonate three days after they’re dropped.
8. Hook up parachutes to every nuclear bomb.
9. Set the timetable when to begin dropping the first to the last bomb.
10. Have fighters protect each helicopter as it approaches the Collectors.
11. Communicate the plan to the rest of the world leaders.
As the group sat and stared at what seemed like a short list, the General started to issue orders. “Jeff, contact NASA and have them and your friend narrow down how much time we have left, to the last hour if they can. Then you’re in charge of checking the weather patterns around the country to locate the best possible thunderstorm threats in the next few days. These will be our target zones.
“Michael, can you get your people to work out a drop window? If they figured out a pattern to these things, let’s hope they can narrow down the drop to commence immediately.
“Captain, will you contact the rest of the world leaders and tell them everything we discovered. Let’s hope Russia and China have warheads that can be used. Also, you’re the man that knows where our aircraft have evacuated to, so you’re in charge of locating helicopters and protective fighters once I find the location of the weapons we’re going to use.
“I’ll call the President and fill him in, then make the necessary calls to our military people. Our nuclear scientists should be able to figure out the destruction power we need to take out Mother. Then and only then will all our nuclear depots be contacted.
“They’ll put the timers and parachutes on. If they don’t have enough bombs, we’ll have to dismantle some missile warheads. But we’ll do whatever it takes to get enough power to blast that alien prick out of the sky using his own unsuspecting Collector ships to carry back the bombs into his belly.
“Let’s all get to work. We have a way to save Earth, so let’s get it done. If anyone runs into problems, I want to know about it yesterday.”
Jeff made a quick call to his friend at NASA. The project headquarters had been monitoring the atmosphere by the hour and according to the latest reading things had stabilized. We were now on a five-day deadline. One hundred and twenty hours left to accomplish what seemed like an impossible task.
Jeff thanked him and asked to be notified if anything changed. When he hung up, he noticed everyone was still looking concerned around the control room. He announced loudly so everyone could hear, “General, we have one hundred and twenty hours left. Five days, unless something unusual happens to change that.”
General Stormer said, “Lately that has been a gross understatement. Something unusual happens every hour on the hour, like clockwork. Thanks, Jeff, we’ll make plans for a five-day deadline.”
Deadline, Jeff said to himself as he walked over to where Woods was sitting. Talk about an understatement. The heartbeat monitor was attached this time to good ol’ Mother Earth herself and in five days the planet would be a flat-liner if they didn’t come through.
When he reached Woods, he slapped him on the back and intuitively said, “You had a hell of a theory, my friend. At first, I thought that alien fighter you investigated had fried your brain when it frizzled your hair. But that weird brain of yours was way ahead of anyone around here. Good thinking, Woods. Let’s hope the powers to be can accomplish the task and we can beat the damned deadline.”
Janet and Donemore were siting near by and also congratulated Woods, “Thanks,” Woods replied, “but a theory is only good if we can accomplish the end result. We don’t get it done and I don’t go to the head of the class.”
Donemore said, “Well, you had the right idea, now it’s in the hands of the professionals, as they say. Looks like we have time on our hands. Wish there was something we could do that could contribute to the overall good.”
Woods said, “While these guys work on the plan, we could head back out to the crashed Collector with the attractive personality.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Donemore said. “Maybe we’ll find out something helpful. Janet, do you want to go with us.”
Janet replied, “No, I want to stay with Jeff and help here if I can. I have great confidence in the General and know he’ll do his best, but if this plan doesn’t work, what time we have left I’d like to spend with Jeff.
Jeff put his arm around Janet and said, “I thought I was going to be stuck looking over all those weather patterns with the curvy ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ all by myself. Now I’ll have my own curvy ‘high’ next to me.”
Janet blushed a little and said, “You’ve got work to do. I’m here to help, not distract.”
Woods and Donemore told the General they were headed back out to the Collector and if he needed them just call. When they reached the street level and exited the building, they were startled to look up into the sky and see Mother. It was the color of the sun as it breaks the horizon and declares morning to the world. They stopped and stared, as one light ray then another was sent out from its surface to unknown targets on Earth. As they headed out to a waiting helicopter, Woods looked at Donemore and said, “A lot of our military men, women, aircraft and bases are being destroyed, even now as we are ferried on this chopper. If Mother keeps this up, we might not have enough personnel and aircraft left to pull off the plan.”
Donemore said with a certainty, “That’s probably why he’s going to keep firing.”
Woods replied, “Let’s just hope that the Captain’s orders to evacuate covered every base that neon bastard is firing at, now and from here on.”
It was only after the helicopter lifted off and they headed toward the downed Collector, that the title “Beauty and the Beast” entered Woods’ mind. There in the clear, night sky was our own beautiful moon, mysterious, ancient and fascinating. Next to it was a beast of constantly changing colors, death itself. First a light red, then a darker red, then a brilliant orange, and when it reached the brilliance of the morning sun, a streak from the surface shot out across the dark sky and headed toward Earth in devastating finality. He knew the beast was there to destroy us, but the beauty of it all in the evening sky was breathtaking to behold.
The pilot was warned beforehand not to come in to close to the magnetic Collector, so they landed a good mile away. Woods had called and asked to be picked up by the FBI agent-in-charge, the one responsible for securing the site. As soon as the helicopter landed, a car took them to a safe visual distance from the downed Collector. This would turn out to be the most important reconnaissance mission of their lives.
Agent Audet met them straightway and gave an update on what had transpired since they had left the command center. While he talked, Woods and Donemore stood there in awe and watched this huge football shaped structure moving ever so slightly from side to side. They felt the ground shake under them and heard the rumbling noise. “It keeps wobbling back and forth like it’s trying to free itself. Our scientists can walk right up to it as long as no one is wearing any metal. They haven’t found any visual damage and believe it is slowly freeing itself from the loose sand. Other than that, there’s nothing new.”
Woods looked at Donemore and said, “I wonder what will happen when the robot software program tells it to head home and it doesn’t respond?”
Donemore said, “Maybe it’s preprogrammed to self-destruct if it can’t return to Mother.”
“You might be right,” Woods said, “and if you are, we have no idea how big a blast that will be. I’m sure our agents in close proximity will be killed. Maybe we should evacuate the entire area.”
They both agreed and contacted the General to get approval. “Sir, I don’t believe we need to have anyone around this thing doing anymore tests. If it does blow, our people will be killed, if it frees itself so what.”
“Okay, Woods,” the General said, “tell everyone to clear the area and then you and Donemore get back here. I have enough information to put a battle plan into motion and would like to present it to the group.”
Woods motioned to Agent Audet, “Have your men evacuate the area as soon as possible. Also, set up roadblocks a mile out from this thing and don’t let anyone near it. We feel it might self-destruct, but have no idea how big a blast that would be. Agent Donemore and I are headed back to the control room. Let us know if anything happens.”
Agent Audet replied, “I’ll handle things here, good luck stopping that monster in the sky.”
21
AS SOON AS EVERYONE WAS SEATED AROUND THE conference table at the control room, General Stormer started. “Okay, going down our eleven-step plan, here is what we’ve found out so far:
1. We know we have less then five days to pull this off or mankind is gone.
2. Our scientists have determined that we need to have at least 2500 NBTs to have a chance to blow up something the size of Mother.
3. The total tonnage is good news and bad. The good news is we have warheads in storage at nuclear depots, factories and on active missiles totaling over 2500 NBTs. The bad news centers around the active missiles. We have to disassemble the rockets to get at the warheads, which will take time. We have begun disassembling the missiles and estimate it’ll take at least a day and a half, maybe two to get the warhead completely removed. This is cutting it awfully close, but hope to have them done in time. Meanwhile, we’ll begin using the readily available storage depot warheads and use the missile bombs when we run out.