BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 28

  Everyone stood in silence.

  Jeff was the first to speak. “I have been very content standing here watching the destruction of the alien menace. I’d like to stay and watch our killer die.”

  Before anyone could answer, the dark sky went as bright as day. Then everything went white. They tried to look skyward to see where the light was coming from, but for what seemed like an eternity they saw nothing but pure whiteness. It was like looking directly at the sun, only the whiteness was all around them. The eternity lasted some ten seconds then the sky went dark again. After a few seconds their eyes adjusted from the bright flash back to darkness again. When they looked up everything was still the same.

  Donemore said, “What the hell was that? Did anyone see where that light came from?”

  “It probably was one of the many helicopters the military has in the air searching for Collectors,” Woods said. “Maybe he didn’t realize he had his flood lights on!”

  Jeff had been looking at Mother’s predicament and said, “This is one time, Woods, that I am super happy to say you’re wrong! Look!”

  Everyone looked toward the alien moon and noticed that on the top left side, a red dot had appeared and was glowing brighter than the rest of the ship. The red dot began to grow and as it did so, so did the brightness. As the red spot grew larger and larger it began spreading out in a perfect circle. In the very center of the circle a small but very bright white spot appeared, as if a volcano had erupted and fiery red lava was spreading out equally in all directions. As the redness spread out from the center, the brightness grew greater. The night sky started getting lighter and the objects around the group of onlookers became clearer. Slowly night was turning into day.

  The General said, “I think that blinding light must have been the Ion warheads exploding! At the speed of light, the brightness from the blast going off reached here immediately. The blast wave must have been the red spreading out across the alien moon. If I’m right, that means we are seeing the Mother supernova!”

  As the five stood there and watched in awe, something different caught the General’s eye. “Look over there!” he yelled, pointing at an explosion going off low to the horizon but definitely high up in our atmosphere, then another went off and another. There was no noise, just the bright glow of an obvious explosion. The sky was as bright as day now and as each new explosion went off it seemed to always be right next to the last. Because the sky was so bright, they could see that after each explosion went off, it left a large dark cloud behind. The explosions kept going off, bright light then dark cloud. A pattern was starting to form in the sky from the first blast to the last. It instantly reminded them of what a space shuttle launch was like, seen at a great distance. The shuttle couldn’t be seen, but the red glow of its engines could, and clearly followed by a large white cloud. The higher the shuttle got, the longer got the huge white cloud, trailing behind. Finally, when the shuttle was out of sight, the white line of clouds left behind drew a line in the sky from ground to the unseen shuttle. This was the same, only the clouds were black and the line stretched from the horizon up to the next bright explosion.

  “What the hell is happening?” Janet asked. “Why are explosions going off so close to Earth?”

  The General said, “I have no idea.”

  Woods had been watching the unbelievable sight in the sky and said, “Remember when the CIA Director showed us pictures of the alien pilots flying circles in formation around Earth? I think that’s what’s blowing up. The Collectors!”

  Maybe as the blast from the Ion warheads spreads across Mother’s expanse, the Collectors homeport can’t send a signal anymore. Perhaps if they can’t find or communicate with home, they are programmed to self-destruct. Maybe that’s why Mother was in such a hurry to destroy the Collectors we shot down—he would have to explain the blast.”

  Donemore said, “That certainly makes sense to me. Especially looking up in the sky and seeing a black line from the horizon on up across the sky, now almost to the opposite horizon.”

  “If that is true,” Janet said, “maybe all the Collectors are blowing up and we might still have a chance. Jeff can you call NASA and see if the supercharging has stopped?”

  “No, the wireless is down,” Jeff said, “unless we go inside and use a land line, I can’t call.”

  As they continued to look skyward, the explosions continued, now faster and faster. Soon there was a dark line painted across the sky of the now full daylight brightness, and the white spot on Mother was growing larger and the fiery red glow was spreading out further and further from it. Strangely, it wasn’t just spreading across the alien’s ship but moving outward into space.

  The General watched the fiery red lava move. He wanted the blast to keep spreading to engulf the pieces that had broken away from the main ship. If it didn’t, and a large piece of that huge spaceship hit Earth we were still going to die. The white spot was still getting larger as he stared skyward with such intensity that he looked like he was mentally controlling the blast.

  Woods looked down for a second to relax the stiffness in his neck and noticed how intense the General was in his vigil. He again turned toward the sky and said, “What’s wrong, sir.”

  Everyone heard the comment and looked over at General Stormer. The General said, “I wish the Ions had exploded when Mother was one big ship. With the pieces being blown away from the original perimeter, the blast has to be strong enough to take out all the leftovers floating around up there. Otherwise, it would only take one to get through our atmosphere and impact Earth. It wouldn’t make any difference whether it hit land or water. The situation would be an ELE, an extinction level event for all Earth life forms. Those that survived the impact would later die in the cold storms from the ashen air.”

  Silence again. Woods said, “That Collector we sent up had eight Ions aboard, and I assume they all went off if they are as unstable as you had indicated. That one blast according to the scientists was enough to disintegrate Mother. The spreading red should be enough.”

  The General continued to stare at the alien moon as if controlling it and didn’t answer Woods. Because the General didn’t respond, the entire group stared skyward as if in support for superior military presence. They watched the white spot grow on Mother. As they did, the fiery lava redness expanded as well. It was now becoming apparent to everyone that as long as the white spot expanded, the lava would continue to flow out in front of it. The fiery redness was expanding faster than the white and had now covered almost half of Mother. It also extended equally out into space and engulfed four of the large pieces that had broken away from the main body. As each piece of the destroyed ship was over taken by the fast moving lava gas, or whatever medium it comprised, something unusual happened. Once the piece was consumed it slowly started turning white.

  Jeff said, “We got half of them— Come on, Ions, rule.”

  The night had turned into day. Not because of the hour, but because of the expanding white spot’s brightness. The sky now looked like a compact disk that one would put into a CD player. The hole in the center of the CD was all white, the entire rest of the disk dark red. The CD was getting bigger and bigger and was spreading across Mother and out into space at a fast rate. But this perfect configuration of white center and larger red outer circle was starting to change. The now overtaken pieces of Mother were getting white and a deeper redness was extending out from each of them. It was like the larger CD was cloning itself.

  Everyone cheered, “Go! Go! Go!” as the fiery lava-like outer ring expended further and further until finally it engulfed the remaining pieces of Mother’s destruction. It was over. The Collectors were destroyed, the alien invader, E-1, and his huge ship were being destroyed and the last pieces being disintegrated by the blast. The danger seemed over. Mankind was saved! The cheers went up “We did it! We did it!” People were joyous everywhere.

  While Jeff, Janet, Woods and Donemore continued to celebrate the joy of knowing that the
8000 NBTs blast of Ions had done the job and saved mankind, the General looked skyward again.

  Janet continued to celebrate by giving hugs and kisses to everyone. It wasn’t until she tried to kiss the General that she realized something was wrong.

  “It’s still spreading!” the General said.

  She immediately looked up, then stepped away and walked back to the group. “I think we have a problem. That would strongly indicate to me that this Ion blast has its good points and bad. And the General hasn’t told us the bad.”

  Again everyone looked skyward and watched as the entire area of what use to be Mother turned white and the fireball of redness that extended out from the huge center spread well out into space. Granted, the blast had obviously been devastating and disintegrated every piece of Mother, but no one had told it to stop. It was definitely spreading—and not in Earth’s favor.

  Something new was happening. The white spot of the original blast was still spreading outward but not in a perfect circle. The whiteness in the top left side had a large piece missing. And although the fiery lava redness surrounding the white center was spreading even faster, the top left side of the circle was also missing. Another change was that the fragmented pieces blown away from Mother were now completely white and generating their own fiery red circles, different in size and ranging from large to small, and in a definite pattern. The largest circle was the first one reached by the original blast and the smallest was the last piece consumed by the red lava expansion.

  It was well past dawn and our sun was making its daily journey up into the sky. Irony can be a formidable foe. Ever since Mother had posted up a similar distance to Earth as our own Moon, we had been seeing two moons in our sky. Now, instead of two moons we had two suns in our sky, and the brightness was incredible. The fast expanding white center of the Ion blast was now much brighter than our own sun. But the combination of the two affected everyone’s eyes similar to when you go for an eye exam and the doctor puts drops in your eyes to fully dilate them. When you walk outside in the bright sunlight you almost have to close your eyes to see anything. This was happening to everyone on Earth, no longer able to look up at what was happening, the brightness becoming so intense.

  The General said, “We have to get back inside before we can’t find our way in. Everyone grab hands and close your eyes and we’ll each take turns leading the group back inside. I’ll start and when I can’t tolerate the brightness anymore someone else will have to take the lead.”

  The group said nothing while they quickly followed the General’s orders. They all grabbed each other’s hands and started following as he headed toward the building. The General put his arm across his eyes and was squinting as much as possible to protect them from the brightness. He could see the entrance to the control room building, but just barely, and it was getting worse, fast.

  Finally he couldn’t take it anymore and asked Woods to lead. After they did a quick switch, Woods put his free hand up across his eyes and slowly opened his eyes, ever so slightly.

  At first he looked straight down until he regained some focus and noticed that they had reached the sidewalk leading to the main building. He moved side ways until he found the edge of the sidewalk and the grass. This difference in cement and grass not only could be seen better, but created a line leading to the door. Once he realized he had found an easy way to lead them inside, he started walking faster. He had no idea how close they were to reaching the building, when everything became a total white out. He could no longer see his reference point and was forced to close his eyes and stop.

  The group came to a halt. Woods said, “We have a total white out and I can’t see anymore, but I know we are on the edge of the sidewalk leading into the building. I will slowly feel the edge with my feet and guide us in. Don’t panic or open your eyes.”

  Woods slowly started putting one foot forward and after finding the edge he took a step. Slowly they made it to the entrance and Woods opened the door and said, “We’re here. Whoever is last in close the door and then we’ll be able to open our eyes.”

  Jeff was at the end of the line and as he reached the door, his free hand felt for the edge and pulled it shut. He opened his eyes and realized they were all safe. “We made it, guys. You can open your eyes now, we’re safe inside.”

  No one said a word until they had adjusted to the light in the hallway. As everyone looked around, Woods said, “Well, that was an ‘enlightening’ experience.”

  Donemore gave him a playful smack on the side of the head and said, “You always have a wise crack comment, but if it wasn’t for your insight and quick thinking to follow the edge of the sidewalk inside, God only knows what might have happened.”

  Everyone agreed and thanked the General and Woods for their quick actions.

  27

  INSIDE THE CONTROL ROOM, THE CAPTAIN WAS FAST studying the display screens when the group walked in. “Thank God, General!” he said quickly. “I thought we had lost you guys. I sent a few of my people up to find you, but they came back and said it was impossible. I had no idea what was going on outside until the men came back and said that when they opened the door to the outside it was like looking directly into a flash bulb going off, only the flash was never ending. How did you manage to find the way back inside?”

  Donemore replied, “It was Woods quick thinking that saved us.”

  Woods said, “It’s a gift. I don’t need my eyes open to see what’s going on, and according to Donemore I have ‘insight.’ But I’ll tell you something I don’t have, and that is some kind of understanding of what the hell an Ion bomb is supposed to do after it goes off? I don’t mean to be disrespectful General or Captain, but exactly what the hell is going on up there in space?”

  The two military leaders looked at each other and finally the General said, “Look, I’m no scientist nor do I pretend to understand how some of our high-tech weapons work. We just use the sonofabitches. I’m told what their capabilities are and use the weapons when the situation calls for it.”

  Woods said, “Cut the bullshit, General— You guys know when something new is being developed and the history behind it. Could you please tell us exactly what you do know about these Ions and how they’re suppose to work?”

  The General frowned and replied, “The Ion bomb was built because nuclear bombs were getting to risky. The only way we could have more destructive power with the nukes was to build bigger bombs. We had reached a point in the building of these bigger nuclear bombs that if we went any further we would destroy ourselves. Granted, we could eliminate any enemy anywhere in the world, but the blasts and radiation released by these monsters would eventually contaminate the entire atmosphere and ultimately kill ourselves. Something new had to be developed that had huge destructive power but wouldn’t give off as much radiation. Our scientists have been working on this for years and finally found what they were looking for, the Ion factor.

  “According to theory, once this bomb was detonated it would fuel a continuing outward blast wave by using the elements it hit and destroyed to create another reaction. The first test showed this new weapon had massive destructive power with minimum radiation, but there was a problem. The test was designed only to destroy a small town built, say, in the desert about one mile from the target detonation point. The ‘town’ was constructed out of different materials like wood, concrete, aluminum, steel, glass, and so on, to see how the blast affected different composites. When the Ion was detonated, it not only destroyed the town, but also continued to destroy everything within a twenty-mile radius of the center. A bomb that was only supposed to reach a small town a mile away, completely destroyed everything in a twenty mile radius. We’re talking total destruction, from ground zero out twenty miles. The scientists couldn’t find the town, let alone any trees, bushes or grass. Nothing was left but black soil, Ion tar, if you will.

  “Satellite pictures taken from miles up in space clearly showed the forty-mile diameter circle. It looked like a black h
ole in space, totally void of anything, black as if some prankster had painted the perfect black circle. Scientists working on the project were extremely nervous about the results, and to be sure opinions varied, as did mine and those of my colleagues at Los Alamos and the new ‘Area 51’ in Colorado. Their calculations were obviously wrong. The blast should only have gone a little over a mile but instead went twenty times projections. They wanted to stop the testing because they couldn’t tell if they doubled the size of the bomb whether the blast would be forty times greater or compounded to unstoppable. On the other hand, the military was excited about the new toy and its destructive power. To us, it was the perfect weapon.

  “A total destruction without the fear of contaminating the rest of the world with radiation. If this weapon could be controlled the possibilities would be endless, so of course the military got their way and made the scientists test further. They made and tested Ion bombs of all sizes, smaller than the first, one-half, one-quarter, one-third, and so on. They also built towns of different size to see how they were affected. After the tests were complete the scientists gave a full report to us, basically saying they were relatively certain they could build Ion bombs with a predictable blast size. Two variables were out of their control, the amount of building materials and the amount of water in the area. Simply put, if an Ion bomb the size of the first one was detonated in the desert in Arizona, a blast the size of the first bomb could be expected. However, drop the same Ion bomb on Boston, and the blast would wipe out most of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont and most of the state of New York. Although the blast would extend out into the ocean, the water would not be able to fuel any further blasts, so it would stop.

  “So, we had our new weapon and knew it was extremely unpredictable, and according to various inputs. Therefore we decided to use them only as a last resort weapon and put them on space platforms. We couldn’t chance a rocket failure at launch because the Ion would detonate and wipe out the United States, or a great portion thereof. Because of this risk and being so unstable otherwise, we decided to launch them unassembled into space, where they would be assembled once in orbit. This would eliminate any threat in case a failure happened during launch. The sizes of the Ions built were based on military targets that we felt were most likely to be a threat against us. Example, one was targeted at Moscow, Russia, that if everything went according to plan would create a blast that would fuel off everything it touched until the entire eastern half of Russia was eliminated to the oceans, or ‘black soiled’ as some scientists chose to call it.”