Empire 1: Humiliation Page 14
action tonight and I'm assigned to keep you men safe."
"Has this base ever seen action before, Captain?"
"No sir. You senators sure know how to time your visits."
The Discovery left Deep Thrust within half a million kilometers of Earth. Alexander emerged from his acceleration chair, somewhat shaky. He immediately drained and jettisoned his pocket flask. He had nursed it nearly ten hours without getting the expected comfort. He was scared.
Automated traffic control requested identification. He ignored them. No Empire, terrestrial or celestial, could overtake him now. That knowledge comforted Alexander but little. He began braking without turning the cruiser. Doralee was at home on Mercury, playing with her mother right now. She trusted her father. His eyes misted. Innocent lives on a half a dozen worlds depended on him, but most of them would never believe it. If he failed and the Church showed mercy, they might die without realizing their error.
Alexander touched a small blue button, locking onto Michael's return beacon. He nervously activated the HGR. He would have to beat the Daystart o the landing site by at least half an hour.
He squinted at the HGR as everything in his quadrant materialized before him. The Daystar was not there.
Darkness now completely engulfed the meadow. A light overcast hid the moon, forcing the three couples to move very slowly.
"Michael, how far along is this Great Crusade you talk about?" asked Annette.
"I must say that monitoring the local broadcasts surprised me. They didn't so much as hint at it. If this is the only intelligence the Council has, I can understand their reluctance to believe in the present danger. This fleet should be ready in less than a year. If we don't strike soon, we may not be able to strike."
They walked to the spot where the return beacon was buried.
"Carl," asked Michael, "could you give us a hand setting this thing up? It's heavy."
They un-earthed the silver cylinder and set it on end. A few moments later, it began to unfold and four large legs peeled off to lie flat on the Earth. From the end of each leg rose four rods that shimmered in the intermittent starlight. When fully activated, the cube formed by the rods displayed everything for a thousand meters above them in an area of eight square meters. Normal civilian traffic showed up in various shades of red. Military traffic displayed blue, unmanned vessels displayed white, and unidentified objects displayed green. The various shades depicted the various Empires.
Most traffic moved east to west and far to their south. The entire display area didn't show a single green blip. The area directly above them contained nothing but white blips.
Michael rested the crystalline control panel on the ground before him and adjusted the interplanetary transceiver for dual frequencies, to pick up both the Discovery and the Imperial shuttlecraft. At the eastern edge of the holographic radar (HGR) a blue blip began approaching and descending.
"Earthpost Q to Discovery." Michael's touch fired the crystal before him.
"Discovery."
"Where is the Daystar on your HGR?"
"Negative on the Daystar. Nowhere on Discovery's HGR."
"Annette, my father didn't send a shuttlecraft for us." Michael sat back. The crystal almost died. He leaned forward and touched it again. It fired from deep within and responded once more. "Earthpost Q to Discovery. Any other spacecraft on your HGR at all?"
"Negative. The only things on my HGR are registered satellites. Any guess what's going on?"
"None."
The Discovery descended to 45,000 meters and decelerated smoothly.
"Senator Thurber, I'm sorry, but I really don't know much about what's going on," said Captain Bensen. "I'm just the supply officer. I'll tell you what I know. We were trying to get our systems fully operational for this inspection, but we've been unable to get the parts for our obsolete systems. Well, about this time yesterday we have a dozen, and I counted a full dozen, SSTs land and all of these civilian technicians come pouring out. I don't think even Colonel Carson knows what's going on. He's been in constant contact with the Pentagon ever since they got here."
Senator Thurber looked at beehive of activity. "How long have they been working like that?"
"Ever since they got here, more than twenty-four hours."
"And you have no idea what's going on?"
"Only that we're going to see some action tonight and I have to keep you here."
"What kind of action?"
"Perhaps nuclear. That's rumor though."
"That's impossible. I'd know about any kind of a nuclear attack."
"There is one thing I forgot to tell you. The Colonel shut our control center down and diverted its power out to those SSTs. When the attack comes, we're firing up every plane and every generator we've got and diverting everything we've got out there. Whatever's going on it's power hungry. Mega-amp power hungry."
The three couples sat silently in the darkness for several minutes. Annette moved close to Michael and asked, "Everything's going all right, isn't it?"
"I don't know, Annette. Everything looks fine, but where is the Daystar? I sense something wrong."
"Discovery to Earthpost Q."
"Earthpost Q."
"I've done an automated scan on every part of this section of space. There's nothing Imperial out there. Have you received any messages?"
"Negative. Scan the Occidental defenses closely."
"Roger. Beginning automated scans."
Michael's crystals had their fire change from red to blue to green and back to red again. With each change the fire grew weaker.
"Discovery to Earthpost Q."
"Earthpost Q."
"Your father's quit waiting on the Lord. The Occidental outpost has twelve SSTs assembling a particle beam gun. It's Imperial, Michael. Your father set us up. I don't have a chance."
"Is it operational?"
"Yes, but it's not fully charged yet."
"Destroy it."
"I'm by myself. The only way I can fly and fire at the same time is to route the fire control through the forward directional sensors."
"Do it."
"I'll kill everyone down there. There's over a thousand people there, mostly women and children."
"Get out of here. Deep Thrust now."
"Too far into the atmosphere. They'll be fully charged before I can get enough altitude to activate."
"Eject."
"The Discovery doesn't have any kind of life boat. Status change. They've locked on to me."
"Get in a supply drop capsule with a bottle of air."
"I did promise to return home alive. She's on autopilot, so if they don't fire, she'll still put down at your landing site."
"MOVE!"
"Discovery out."
"Mike," called Randolph. "I overrode the HGR's static circuitry. We can magnify the Discovery to watch for Alexander. Control the section you want magnified with the third crystal. Use the backs of the 5th and 6th crystals to control the amount and clarity of magnification."
The entire cube rippled and enlarged on the point of light Michael had identified as the Discovery but blurred and shifted.
"Randy, your override's not holding."
"I'm shifting the control crystal to the second one. Try it now."
"Got it."
A small silver cylinder dropped from the Discovery as the first crystal on the control panel in front of Michael began pulsating bright red. Michael ignored it and concentrated on keeping the capsule in focus.
"Randy," asked Carl. "What does the red light mean?"
"It's picking up the energy flux just prior to the particle beam firing."
"Did Alexander escape in time?"
Michael took his hands off the crystals and they dimmed. He looked at Carl. The eastern horizon glowed like a distant dawn.
"I don't think so."
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