

The Time of the Attack

By GKE

Book 1 of the Omega Series
Smashwords Edition.

Copyright 2011 Gregory Ellis

Discover other titles by GKE at Smashwords.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Epilogue

Author Info
Prologue

Earth of old could no longer support us. We greedily snatched up every natural resource we could until all that was left on Earth was decay. The Earth had been tapped of its resources and was no longer fertile. Crops withered away and the whole world was starving. Many wars broke out over resources. Some nations united to form new super states. The two most notable of these were the American Union and the United Arab and Russian States. This is where our story begins. It's been the story of man since the very beginning. How does one survive in an evil cruel universe?
Chapter 1 The Treaty

"They can't be trusted," she said almost shouting. "Madame president, all due respect but we really don't have a choice. We can either attempt to do this peacefully or we will end up in a war with UARS. I've been through a war or two and they are bloody affairs that should be avoided if possible." Joel Jordal could see the president tense up and then she forced herself to relax.

"You're right but doesn't this all seem a little suspicious? UARS supposedly comes in waving a white flag saying we want peace in humanity's race to the solar system and providing a system for that which seems too good to be true. Also I'm a little wary of it ripping up many well established treaties."

"The Articles of Space Colonization are really an extension of those treaties. The only thing that changed is allowing a military presence in space with nuclear armament and it allows for colonization of Antarctica and objects in space. The heart of the treaties that space exploration be used for the good of man is still upheld, as any resources gained through our ventures must be shared with the nations assigned to us under the treaty. If we mine the moon for rare Earth metals we must share them. If our farming of Mars comes to fruition we must share the crops. The heart of the mater is preserved."

Joel didn't think a little embellishing would hurt, but he knew he shouldn't underestimate the president too much. After all she was the one who united the Americas under one banner after the border war. She took the fear of more wars and turned it into the hope that if we ban together we might have a chance to make it through this crisis. She was almost unanimously elected to the presidency. By no means was she a tyrant but always had the best interest of the Americas firstly and then the world in mind. She was also a great debater and could win almost any argument she wanted to.

"90 percent of what you said is exactly what those treaties were made to protect against. Antarctica wasn't supposed to be colonized and the only military allowed in Antarctica were supposed to protect civilians. No weapons were supposed to get into space much less nuclear ones. Space exploration was supposed to be for scientific exploration not exploitation." The president was a little worried. How could her military advisor want to reverse all those good ideas? Her ancestors had wanted space to be an area of peace where science could abound. They never wanted it to become a war zone.

Joel had to chuckle at this. "No one expected there to be no weapons in space. Earlier treaties banned nuclear weapons but no one prevented conventional weapons from going up there. In fact everyone praised our use of the LLAMA array to destroy 99942 Apophis. The treaty that attempted to ban conventional weapons was never signed. Every nation thought it was good in principle but no one would sign it. We are at war. It's humanities last great fight for survival and the resources of space will be split between two nations whose relationship is rocky at best and the whole of humanity is counting on us. The only way this won't come to a full war somewhere along the way is if both sides keep the better intentions of man in mind and follows them. Failing that we need a state of brinkmanship and Mutually Assured Destruction. We need to build ourselves up to the point that UARS would be mad to attack us."

"Whose says they aren't mad? Hunger and desperation makes people do crazy things. We're not dealing with sane rational people here. Hell I don't even think we're being as rational as we need to be. We're running on fear and that's causing paranoia and the paranoia needs something to be paranoid about. There's no way to get around the treaty if we want any kind of peace and no guarantee UARS will keep their side of the bargain." The president was slightly out of breath. She paused for a moment and breathed.

"All treaties are based on trust. Each side has to become vulnerable in some way and each side keep to what they agreed to. Whether it's a military alignment or a space treaty both sides give up something and take something. Most of all they have to trust each other or the treaty is worthless."

Joel chimed in, "So you're recommending a state of mutually assured trust?" Joel didn't move but the president sighed heavily then let out a sort of half chuckle half snort. "If only we could come to that. So we have no choice. Do we have a guinea pig for the FTL test?"

"Ashley Shepard served in the border wars. She's the best pilot I've ever seen: pulling off maneuvers I wouldn't try in a million years. She can most defiantly handle herself in a dogfight if it comes to that. There's no pilot that would be better in my opinion. There are a few alternates candidates but none with the split second almost instantaneous reaction time she does."

"So we have a pilot. How are moon base preparations coming?" It wasn't that she didn't already know but she liked hearing Joel talk. She especially loved the way he got frustrated in a debate because of the way his face contoured.

"Simon Walsh says we can have it running in three months which is right when we'll have the Beagle prototype finished." There was quit in the room after Joel finished that statement. The president seemed to want to say something, stopped, and then started again. "That won't happen again will it?" She looked worried. Joel didn't know what to say. The future was uncertain. They had calculated for everything that could possibly happen so nothing should go wrong, but that was also the generally held opinion before the incident. It was a tough decision. The president had a heart of gold. If he mentioned any harm that could come to the test subject she would push back the test. That was one thing they could not afford. They also could not get sloppy and let the thought of impending doom push them to do things badly or the earth would suffer.

"The chance of harm now is astronomically small. We wouldn't put a human in one of these things if we didn't think there was a good chance to survive." Did he word that right? Did he put too much gloom and doom in it? How could he have worded it differently? The president looked doubtful. There was a pause in the conversation and the president seemed deep in thought. After a long while she began to speak.

"I want you to oversee the Beagle tests to make sure everything goes well. How do you feel about the cold?" She was joking so that was a positive sign. Or it could have been the circumstances were driving her mad and she had to make light of something. "Not well. I wish we could do it in Florida like the old days. Such a nice warm state." The president chuckled a little. "Well if you can find a place large enough in Florida to make the Moon and Martian domes we will move the project to Florida." "Here's hoping! When does the treaty get signed if we are going ahead with it?"

"Well I will call the first emergency session of the American Union Congress and I present my case for fully supporting the treaty. Congress is already familiar with the treaty so we should be able to put it to an immediate vote if I stress the urgency of the matter."

"You think they'll go along with the loss of the array?" The president then shifted in her seat slightly. "The only way the UN has power is if the nations under it give it power. That's why the League of Nations failed. The array would give the UN the power to enforce its charter. Plus we haven't used the Laser Based Anti-meteor and Anti-missile part of Labonte Laser Based Anti-meteor and Anti-missile Array since Apophis. It's not that great a loss."

"Its surveillance technology is old but it's still some of the most advanced." The look on the president's face changed from contemplation to a blank look. She then shrugged. "If were going to gamble we may as well gamble big! If we don't give up the array it will look like we're not compliant to the terms of the treaty." "Antarctica here I come," Joel said with a grim look on his face.
Chapter 2 The Snoopy

One year later

It was a cold clear day. Well it was almost always cold in Antarctica but clearness was at times a rare gift. Snowstorms could ravage an area for days. Today however felt like nothing could go wrong. Joel hoped this would be the case. Today was the first human test of the faster than light capable ship, the Snoopy, with Ashley Shepard at the helm.

Where was Ashley? She should be prepping for the flight but was nowhere near the preparation area or the shuttle. Joel looked around. She was absolutely nowhere in sight! Where was she? It wasn't like her to be late, especially for something this important. Out of the corner of his eye Joel noticed some movements behind some crates. He headed towards them. On the other side of the crates was Ashley sitting on a small crate. She was shaking but it wasn't because of the cold. "What's up?" Ashley turned her head slowly towards Joel. The shaking had abated.

"Oh I'm just about to get blasted at speeds that one of the greatest minds in history thought impossible," was Ashley's response. Her voice was very hollow. "Well Simon could explain it better but best as I understand it subspace does not obey the laws of nature especially gravity. It's been tested safe." Now Ashley pivoted on the crate so that her whole body faced Joel. "You forgot the ish. Lucy, the beagle, came out of an FTL test splatted against the windshield and then someone has the brilliant idea to name my test craft after some long forgotten beagle? I don't think it's as safe as you think! That's not even considering Beagle 2. It seems cursed to have anything related to that breed in the name of a ship or probe."

Joel took a moment to collect his thoughts. "Snoopy is the symbol of safety. Following a fire on Apollo 1 the space program was redesigned completely and Snoopy deemed the image to represent aerospace safety. The Silver Snoopy Award is one of the greatest awards in the space program given, 'For professionalism, dedication and outstanding support that greatly enhanced space flight safety and mission success.' They wouldn't dare invoke the name of Snoopy in the naming of a craft without being one hundred percent sure it was safe for human flight. As for Lucy the shuttle type, Beagle Class, is named in remembrance of her. We shall never forget the Alamo or Lucy."

Ashley looked calmer but still very nervous. With a soft sigh she said, "Lofty speech doesn't always inspire confidence." "Well than what about experience then? You've tested riskier craft and you survived the border wars dodging missiles left and right..."

Ashley's mind went to a different place. The border war seemed like yesterday but also years ago. When the majority of the world finally saw that it was doomed everyone went crazy. They had no reason to be shocked. Scientists, Economists, and all manner of professionals had been saying it was going to happen for years, and even decades beforehand. The scientific community was the first to see the inevitable. They saw we were using up more and more resources to serve the huge populations growth. People tried to make that seem like the population increase was the problem, but all it did was to accelerate the problem. The Earth would be eventually tapped of resources whether the population was seven billion or twenty billion. Even the using up of resources was just the start of the Earth's woes.

The Earth gradually became infertile. Crops that were once alive withered and seeds refused to sprout. The world previously had always been able to produce enough food for everyone and yet the poor starved. This was not the case now. Everyone starved no matter the race, religion or creed. The rich bought up all the food they could but their reserves would soon be expunged.

This is where the economists come in. They saw another problem that was about to happen. Every economy is based on the buying, selling, trading and bartering of goods. If there are no goods to trade every economy collapses. The economists saw it coming but it was too late to do anything but make charts of how it would happen. When the economy did crash people gave in to madness. A human being can only take no much grief without going mad or coming up with extreme coping mechanisms. Money hadn't meant anything for a long while; there was nothing to buy or it was insanely expensive. When everyone was told that all the money they worked their whole life to acquire was worthless it was the last straw. Chaos ensued. If money couldn't inquire things other methods had to be taken into account. On the small scale riots broke out everywhere fighting over the last of Earth's resources. On the global scale nation after nation looked to their neighbor to see if they could be invaded.

One of the most notable of these was a planned joint attack on the United States of America by Mexico and Canada. They planned a ground invasion. It made no tactical sense Ashley thought momentarily coming out of her retrospect state. Joel was still blathering on about things Ashley didn't want to listen to.

That was a horrible day. American intelligence had found where the forces were amassing. The attack made no sense. It was like shooting fish in a barrel for the USA. Some autonomous drones were given orders to bomb some of the assembling sites. The others had to be bombed by pilots in fighter jets. The attack made no sense. Her mission was to fly into enemy territory and bomb one of these sites. It almost went according to plan.

Ashley had made it halfway to the target. The enemy's attempt at an attack made no sense. Suddenly Ashley heard a beeping noise. "You've got a bogie on your six," a beautiful calm female voice said. "Thanks computer, I really hadn't noticed! Heat seeking missile?" "Yes there is a high probability that assumption is correct. You haven't been able to shake it and the radar image looks in many regards to be similar to a missile." "Believe it or not that's unhelpful. You got any idea how to shake it?" "No," the computer said emotionlessly. "Great! Thanks! Until you come up with an idea would you please be quit?" Suddenly Ashley had an idea. It was crazy but it might just work.

She took the plane into a nosedive. "Please pull up! This flight path is not recommended." "Quiet! Let me concentrate or we're both going to be toast!" The plane was coming closer and closer to the ground."Yeehaw," she yelled. This was quite a rush. At the last possible second Ashley pulled up and put the plane horizontal. The missile chasing her was not so fortunate. It crashed behind her. The plane barely made it past the blast radius of the missile but survive it did. "What do you think now computer?" Ashley asked triumphantly. "Reckless. ETA to target two minutes at maximum mach." "Confirmed. Patch my radio into headquarters." "Done," the computer said quickly. "Command ETA is two minutes to target for mama bear." "Mama bear original target coordinates have been confirmed. You have a go." The voice she heard was one she would eventually come to know quite well. It was Joel Jordal's. We did meet under bad circumstances Ashley thought to herself. That was a horrible day.

Ashley was at the target coordinates. "Bringing up satellite telemetry and video feed," the computer said. The video and telemetry appeared right in front of her and looked to be embedded into the window of the cockpit. There was a massive group of people with various machine guns amassed next to a small looking shed. Must be some sort of weapons locker or the entrance to an underground base of operations Ashley thought.

A strange feeling enveloped Ashley. Why was no one shooting at her? She was flying at relatively low altitude and the plane wasn't exactly noiseless. They should at least be trying to take pot shots or something. "Command please confirm target." "Target has already been confirmed mama bear. Fire at will." "They aren't even shooting at me. This doesn't feel right." "Maybe not but those people could kill a lot of Americans when they precede with their invasion plan. We can save many lives but we have to nip this in the bud now. Your orders are to fire, now do it!" Ashley let a huge sigh. I'm going to hate myself for this! "Mama bear fox one," she said as coldly as she could muster. She then quickly flipped a switch. The missile seemed to descend very slowly. Every moment felt like an eternity. It was almost beautiful to watch. The missile seemed like a swan in flight gliding with its feathers glimmering in the sunlight. It looked determined to complete its goal.

Ashley stopped herself. This was no swan; it was a missile, a weapon of destruction. There was nothing glorious about it. Slowly, it seemed, the missile propelled itself downward. Finally the missile exploded with a spectacular orange burst of flame and heat. The orange was there for a second then it dissipated leaving in its wake decimation. "Targets have been neutralized." "Satellites confirm. Good job. Return to base mama bear."

She had to do the test flight. This may not be what she completely wants and her life may be in mortal danger but it would save many lives. Many people were hoping on the space program for their very lives. She then focused her mind on to what Joel was saying. "I mean can you believe the nerve of that guy Labonte? First he creates the LAMMA array that he names after himself and then accidentally discovers subspace while trying to get to an alternate universe. What's the first thing he does after he discovers the potential for space travel? He insists that measures of faster than light speed be named Labontes. The nerve!"

Joel noticed that Ashley just now seemed to be paying attention and that in turn she previously hadn't been. I must have bored her to death with my rambling. "Anyways you'll be fine. You have to survive! You have to explain to me how you think there can be a god with all the evil there is." Joel hoped his joke was taken well. He wanted to raise her spirits and it wasn't completely in jest. Religious people always fascinated him with how they could believe there was a loving god in the midst of all the decay ruin and hate that defined humanity.

All right we really need to get her to the shuttle Joel thought. We are already a half an hour behind schedule and clear days like these don't happen every day. "Are you ready to boldly go where no one has gone before?" He reached out his hand towards Ashley. "And boldly splitting infinitives as we go? Why not?" She grabbed his hand and lifted herself. "Buy me a drink after all this is over and I'll tell you all about it!" "I look forward to it!" Joel was broadly smiling. Man could he hold a smile Ashley thought.

With that she headed to the prep area and the locker room. She quickly donned her flight gear and then headed to the shuttle.

Unlike the shuttles of the Apollo and other earlier space programs the beagle class shuttle was designed to take off like an airplane and land like one too. The Snoopy was beautiful sleek ship. Ashley climbed a ladder into the cockpit. "Welcome Captain Shepard," the ships computer said. "Oh I forgot about that! I'm never going to get use to these ships computers," Ashley complained loudly though there was none to hear her but the computer. "Run preflight checks." "All systems operating at maximum efficiency," the computer replied quickly. Well maybe there were a few advantages Ashley thought.

"T-minus?" "5 minutes," was the computers response. Ashley pushed a few buttons. "Ashley to home base is everything ready for the launch?" "Yep. Everything checks out. T-minus 4 minutes." The voice was the lead scientist of the project Simon Walsh. "All this is quite fascinating. You will be the first human to travel faster than the speed of light. This is really historic. If Labonte were still alive he'd be amazed to see how far we've come." "Or how far we haven't. The only reason we are testing FTL technology is because Earth that was is dead. We killed her. I don't call that progress when everything we are doing is to save ourselves."

"T-minus 2 minutes," the computer said loudly. Two minutes to fame or a footnote in a history book. Two minutes to being the most famous person in the galaxy or dead. She said a quick prayer like she did before every risky flight. It ended in a "God please help me!" "T-minus 1." "Beginning initial burn," Ashley said as she operated the controls to do just that. "T-minus 59, 58, 57..." Down and down went the countdown: slowly but surely. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." The ship shot off the runway gaining altitude quickly. Once it reached a certain altitude the ship went from horizontal to vertical very quickly, almost instantaneous to any observer. The ship quickly gained speed.

The ship continued it's upward climb until it left the Earth's atmosphere. "Engaging Subspace shunt," Ashley said as she manipulated the controls. "Inertia negators at maximum capacity," the computer said. The ship sped up quickly. ".5 Labontes. Now it's at .8, 1, 1.2, 1.3," the computer counted off. Ashley started to feel like a heavy weight on her chest. "1.4 Labonte." The weight started to feel like an elephant. Grayness started creeping up on Ashley's vision. "Breathing," she thought. She started to do a series of breathing exercises. Hyac, hyac, hyac was the sound these exercises produced. The grayness started to go away. "1.5 Labonte." "Mission accomplished. Heading towards Moon Base." The ship slowed gradually. When it reached .3 Labonte Ashley used the subspace shunt to reenter normal space. Eventually the ship slowed to a stop and the inertia negators were automatically turned off to conserve energy. Ashley quickly unstrapped herself from the chair she had been sitting in. As she got up she stumbled but caught herself from hitting the chairs on the left side of the one she was initially in.

Ashley stood upright. She had a pounding headache. She then had an uncontrollable urge to throw up, which she did. The vomit just hung in space. It looked like it would just in that spot hung forever. Inertia however was slowly propelling the vomit towards the wall of the shuttle and Ashley knew this would make a mess. She rushed to grab a wastebasket that was strapped to a wall. She used the wastebasket to force the vomit into the bottom of the basket. She rotated the wastebasket with her forefingers to negate any inertia.

She then set down the basket on the "floor" of the ship. The vomit remained where the basket had been previously. "Computer enable artificial gravity 1G." The vomit went into the bucket with a thump and a splat. Mission accomplished Ashley thought. She quickly tied of the bag in the basket. She then strapped the basket back against the wall.

"Snoopy are you there? Ashley are you alright?" came Simon's voice over the radio. "Yeah, sorry! Snoopy to Earth base: I am alive but it felt like I was pulling way more g's then I was told it would be. I almost blacked out. I also have a bit of a headache but other than that I'm good. Tell Joel he owes me that drink immediately when I get beck to Earth." "Copy that Snoopy. The moment you get back to Earth," was the response on the radio. This time it was Joel's voice.

...

In the Earth control room joyous shouts could be heard. Joel let them have their fun for a few minutes. After that time was up he started yelling. "What do you have to celebrate? You could have very nearly killed her! Ashley was supposed to pull at most 2 g's but instead she peaked at 15 g's. Any other pilot and it wouldn't have gone so well! What went wrong?" Everyone in the room looked worried. No one would dare speak and a chilling silence filled the room.

Finally after what seemed an eternity Simon spoke up. "The inertia negators didn't compensate as well as we thought they would. The design should have negated all the forces and left it at 1g but for some reason the device only operated at fifty percent of its capacity. All lab tests showed that it worked perfectly. Once we find and isolate the variable that caused the failure we should be able to continue on with the Mars project. Even a failure can yield a lot of good scientific data."

"There should have been no failures! We're talking about a human life here!" "As far as we could tell it was a hundred percent safe. It was an accident Joel. They happen. Yes they are tragic but it is no reason to halt the Mars project, especially with what is at stake." Simon looked apprehensive.

"Fine but you better find out what the problem was or there will be no Mars. The project relies on quick transport of goods back and forth. Without the FTL drive that is not possible." "It's more of a subspace shunt that allows for," Simon's voice trailed off. This wasn't the time. "We will get right on that," Simon said quickly.

...

Ashley still wasn't feeling her best. "Computer can you fly us back to moon base without killing us?" "Survivability estimate 90 percent." "Great please do it." "Please sit down and strap yourself in." She did that.

When Ashley arrived at the base she was greeted by a large group of people. "Hello Miss Shepard and welcome to Moon Base." The person who spoke to her was the commander of Moon Base Paul Lighter. "Permission to come aboard," Ashley asked half heartily. Paul laughed a little. "No need to be so formal. We have a reception waiting for you and a guaranteed good time. If you'll follow me."

"Honestly I'd prefer a good nights rest. Is there any chance you can show me to my quarters and we reschedule the good time?" "Of course. The flight did go a lot differently then expected. Should we say later today?" Ashley winced a little. "Tomorrow," Ashley asked with a pleading look in her eye. "Of course tomorrow will be fine too. Follow me and I will show you to your quarters. The medical staff will want to do a full examination after your rest." "Great," Ashley replied sardonically.

...

"Power distribution problems," Simon said. "When we were running tests we didn't have all the systems running. For animal test flights we hade life support, inertia negators, and other systems running but there were some systems that were running during Ashley's test that weren't during our other test flights. The power distribution network gave priority to these systems instead of the inertia negators. With a fourth of the power the negators could only do a fourth of the job." "What were the systems running during Ashley's flight that weren't present during other tests," Joel asked.

"To name a few radio communications was one. Hearing a dog's howls and barks really isn't that helpful. Also the ships computer was never fully on. It ran some minor systems during the animal flights but for a human flight it has to plot courses, interact with the pilot, and worse case scenario completely take over the flight should the human be incapable. During the test flights we just remote controlled the ship from Earth making the systems unnecessary to have on and a lot of the missing energy went to the computer systems." "Ok so is it fixable?"

"Yes. All it should take is a software patch on the current system. Once the Snoopy is Earth side we should check the electrical conduits and pathways to make sure that isn't attributing to the problem. If it isn't then problem solved. If it is then some rewiring should fix the problem. Until then I would recommend that the Snoopy only travel at sub-light speeds."

...

Ashley hit the bed and fell asleep almost immediately. It seemed like she had slept for a few seconds. She looked at a clock. Hours had passed. To test or not to test that is the question. Better get it over with she thought. She went to the medical lab. She was given a large battery of tests. She didn't know which was more stressful: the flight or the tests.

Straight afterwards she headed back to her quarters. She was physically tired but her mind was racing thinking about her future. A door chime rang and then there came a knock. "Misses Shepard, may I come in?" It was a voice she had heard before but couldn't quit place. "Open," Ashley said and the door slid open. It was Paul the Moon Base Commander. "I just heard from Earth and the Mars project has been given the full go ahead. You have been reassigned to that as per your requests." "That's great!" Nothing could have made Ashley's day any better to hear those words. "Is there anyone from the Beagle Project who is getting transferred to the Mars Project?" Paul's face looked deep in concentration. "The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Joel as the commander and Simon as the lead scientist. Other than that all I have no idea." "Well thanks for the info. The news certainly made my day. "What more than a FTL flight," he asked. "Yep. Hey is there any chance I can use the array to place a call back to Earth?" "Well ordinarily I would say no and you have to get in the long line of people waiting to call home but after all you've been through today I say yes. Computer authorize Miss Shepard for that call home." Paul then started to move towards the door. "I leave you to that call." "Thank you," Ashley said as he left.

Ashley debated about whom to call. All her relatives had passed away long ago and most of her friends would be more accurately described as acquaintances. Stupid military she thought. Ashley joined at a young age and ever since then she felt like she was just hopping around from one assignment to another. She was always transient and never able to set down roots. Sometime during Mars my contract will be up and I'll be free of the military. Then a strange thought occurred to her: could she make roots on Mars? She now knew whom she would call.

...

They were pushing the project too fast. They were getting clumsy. Mistakes were happening. The president's holographic image was starring at him, waiting for an answer. "Madame president my recommendation is that we postpone the project. The Beagles are not ready. Ashley almost blacked out on her flight. A seasoned pilot, one of our best, almost blacked out."

"It was a simple accident. Has the problem not been rectified?" "That's exactly my point. We are making mistakes! We need to take this slow! We need to delay! Yes the problem has been rectified but what is the next problem? What if there is another problem we haven't found?"

"What's up, Joel? You're usually never this cautious, especially when dealing with issues concerning UARS. Yes mistakes happened but that never stopped any from continuing on with the space program. The Apollo fire, the Challenger disaster; through it all we carried on."

"Yes but both shouldn't have happened. The Apollo was due to faulty wiring and a completely faulty design. Challenger was due to an O-ring with a known defect. Each time they took a step back to make sure the design was safe. Here we are just trying to patch and fix a design not for one moment examining the full breadth of the situation. Sure we'll examine to see if the wrong electrical pathways were part of the problem but we will never step back and see if the shuttle design as a whole is fundamentally flawed. Why are you not concerned about this? In the beginning you were the cautious one."

"Joel when is the last time you got any sleep? Your eyes look really bloodshot. We chose the shuttle design because of how many successful missions it worked on. No one died and the flight is survivable. The whole world rests on the fact that this mission work."

"It's been a few days but it is not compromising my judgment! We are making huge mistakes here!"

"How could it not affect your judgment? Sleep deprivation has been known to cause mental fatigue and the inability to put an emotional event into context and making a decision based on that clear context. Please Joel get some rest and give me your report in the morning." The president's image faded out. She was crazy. Why would it be an emotional event for him? He had sent many soldiers to their death and saw them die. Ashley was no different. He was just mad that they were trying to push to continue the project with a possibly faulty design. Ashley meant nothing to him. "Call coming in from moon base from an Ashley Sheppard. Would you like to answer?" Came the voice of the computer. Why was she calling Joel wondered?

"Bring it up," Joel said. A holographic image of Ashley came up in the room. "Hey did you hear the good news? We've been reassigned to the Mars Project. Rumor has it your up for the commander position." Joel tried to forge a smile hoping it would convince. "Yeah that's great!" "You owe me a drink mister! When are you going to pay up? There is a celebration up here for me tomorrow and the day after I should be heading back to Earth."

"Well the president wants to have a parade midday when you get back so maybe after that? Washington does have a few good bars." "Great nothing seedy please. Can't wait!" She was smiling brightly then started to have a look of concern. "Sorry I haven't had much sleep in the past couple of days, well none at all more likely. It defiantly is going to be interesting and goodnight or good day or whatever it is up there." "Alright goodbye." Her image quickly vanished. Could the president be right?
Chapter 3 Parties and the Answer to Life

Ashley had never liked parties. Whenever she went to a party she was the one off to the side chatting with people she knew but not getting to know the rest of the partygoers. At this party, however, that was impossible. Firstly she hardly knew anyone here. Secondly every wanted her as the center of attention. If she tried to sneak of to the side she was always dragged back to the center.

Everyone wanted to hear about her epic flight and assumed that it was some grand adventure that she felt exhilarated was she was on it. Ashley found it odd that they didn't want to hear how she threw up and nearly blacked out. They wanted to make the story of her flight another chapter in the epic of human history and history did not like boring tales. She tried to set the record straight but no one would listen to her.

Finally she gave up and just headed to the buffet table with a long series of drinks and refreshments. As soon as she had filled her plate and cup a spontaneous shouting began. "Speech! Speech," they yelled. That was another thing Ashley didn't like: speeches. She would take a six against one dogfight rather than give a speech any day. That wasn't to say when she was forced to do a speech she wasn't completely inept. Even through nervousness she could form words that slowly formed sentences and eventually started to form coherent thoughts. This crowd was not one that was going to give her a chance.

She moved to a more open part of the room and grabbed a chair to stand on. After she stood on it Ashley cleared her throat. Get over the nervous; just continue with the speech. She was sweating slightly.

"I'm not normally one for speeches so please forgive me if it doesn't come out artfully crafted. Our ancestors envisioned space travel being a great medium for scientific discovery. To boldly go where no one has gone before was the idea. Very few ever truly thought our reason to travel to the stars would be to scrape by an existence for those back on Earth because we managed to decimate our home world. This should not be a celebration. Sure we have managed huge technologic leaps but it was only to save our own skin. These leaps were suppose to be used for something greater than this but now they are reduced to parlor tricks and illusions showing none of their true potential." She couldn't think of anything to add. She stepped down from the chair quickly. The room was somber. No one seemed to want to talk. All just stared at Ashley, shocked. Ashley felt as if every eye was barring down as if the deep staring glance would somehow make sense of what they just saw.

Ashley could tell the mood in the room wasn't going to improve anytime soon. She slowly walked out the room and headed back to her quarters frustrated. None of them would see the point. They would all shrug it off in a few minutes and talked in hushed tones of how Ashley lost it during a party in her honor. No one would see the point. Was war all anyone thought about anymore? At the party all she heard was people droning on about war with UARS like it was inevitable and that her flight was a great achievement in the fight against UARS. When would the bloodshed end? Fight after fight and for what: a few scraps of food or a few resources? When would it end?

...

The parade the next day didn't go much better. The moment Ashley was earth-side she was put on a float and told to smile big. She didn't feel like smiling but did it anyways for the crowds. At the end of the parade was the president who was supposed to make a speech. She noticed Joel was next to the president. When Joel saw Ashley he flashed her a huge smile. Only a few hours till the drink Ashley thought. The speech turned out to be the typical political rambling that this was for the betterment of the AU and that this day would be forever marked in history and that Ashley was a hero. She could not wait to get out of there!

When the parade and speech finally ended Ashley and Joel walked to a local bar. Ashley was optimistic for the experience. They walked into the bar and Ashley's first impression was grimy. "Don't worry about it. It may not look like much but it's a decent place. Use to come here all the time. Though it does seem a little more rundown than I last remember."

"A little?" Ashley quipped. "Ok a lot but let's try and enjoy ourselves shall we?" Joel replied. Ashley gave a half smile then a sigh. She noticed some movement next to a barstool and headed towards that. The entity responsibly for the movement turned towards Ashley and Joel. "Joel great to see ya. I didn't hear you come in! Manners manners. Whose your friend?"

"This is Ashley Sheppard." "The Ashley Sheppard?" "Yep the one, the only, legend of legends, Ashley Sheppard." Ashley rolled her eyes while saying this and made sure Joel saw. Joel in turn chuckled. "So what will the legend be having then," the proprietor asked. "A Shirley Temple."

"Sorry it was more of a rhetorical question. All we got is our own homebrew beer, which conveniently enough we call beer and water. The beer is quite good. It's a recipe that's been handed down from my many greats granddaddy that lived during prohibition. Can't make or get much else the way the world is now. Already used up all my reserves for an end of the world party. Boy was that one hell of a party. Drink till the end comes is my motto but now all I've got to do it with is this homebrew stuff. The end does seem inevitable doesn't it?"

"I don't think so," Ashley said quickly. "While everything on Earth or our universe must come to an end eventually I don't think it's humanities time just yet. We still have a chance of pulling through. Slim but it's better then nothing."

"Maybe. Sorry I've just been really depressed lately, end of the world and all. Did you want the water or the beer?" "Water will be fine thanks." "I'll take that beer Bob." "All right. I'll be right back." "Do you really think there's a chance humanity can survive," Joel asked pondering. "Maybe but only if we work together and follow the treaty." "Well you have more confidence in humanity then I do. Back when we were about to sign the treaty the biggest concern was if UARs would keep to it. I pushed for the signing of in spite of the misgivings but I've always doubted it would hold and everyone would follow it."

"You have too much of a warrior in you. Warriors sometimes have trouble in times of peace adjusting." "It's not peace I have a problem adjusting to. I've had to fight for peace many times and it was bloody when I did. I would welcome peace but will it ever come?" "Yes I have a feeling we will find peace someday Joel." "A feeling? I trust them just about as much as UARS."

There was a silence that followed that statement. "It's hard to believe in anything these days. All we see is poverty and desperation and the end of humanity is no longer a question of if but when. I'm surprised you can do it."

Ashley laughed. Joel looked puzzled. "What's so surprising about it? There is the divine in every moment. Take a moment, close your eyes, and just smell the air. Take in every scent." Joel closed his eyes. He took a deep breath in through his nose. All he could smell was beer. Thee room wreaked of it. "All I smell is beer, Ashley." "You're not trying hard enough. Do it again." Joel repeated the process and got the same results. He tried a third time. He smelled something else. It was faint and he couldn't decipher what it was. He moved his head forward, closer to the scent. It was airy and flowery but not overbearing in any manner. In fact it was almost completely opposite. If you weren't looking for it you would have never smelt it. "You're wearing a bit of perfume. It's a nice scent" "Took ya long enough."

Ashley's eyebrows were in a frown but her mouth was smiling. "Your conscious mind at first smelled the beer and since it didn't find that smell particularly appealing your conscious mind blocked it out. Along with that other smells were blocked too. It gets weirder. Touch your chair or the bar next to us. Feel the textures. Feel the divots and cracks." Joel did exactly that. Whatever Ashley was trying to say he was intrigued. He felt the bar. It was smooth and cold. It was some kind of marble. When did Bob get a marble-toped bar? Had he not been in here that long or merely not noticed? "The conscious mind misses or blocks out so much beautiful detail from day to day and that beauty is divine. If it didn't we might always be looking at the things we normally miss and we would get analysis paralysis." "That might not be such a bad thing. We'd always be forced to the smell the roses." Joel was smiling. She did have a point. "Now you're getting it. So much we miss but when we stop and take notice a thousand details you originally missed. Imagine how much you've missed in just our time here." "That still doesn't completely explain why you believe in a god."

"There seems to be a pattern to the universe, some sort of strange order. Civilizations may rise and fall, species may die and the ecosystem adapts, and the tide flows in and out. Through it all there seems to be some order. That's the best way I can explain it to someone set in non-religious beliefs."

Joel gently reached for one of Ashley's hands. She initially jerked it away but then decided to let Joel have it. "It's not that I'm not open to change. No one has given me any compelling argument why I should believe in some wispy entity called god." "Joel where is this relationship going? Won't it be against regulations?" "Your referring to military fraternization protocol," Joel said more as a statement then a question. He let go of Ashley's hand. "Strictly speaking I am not your direct superior officer. That is your squadron leader's privilege. Plus the Mars mission is through NASA making it a civilian op. NASA may not like fraternizing in the workplace but for such a long-term mission as Mars their policies have changed vastly. Furthermore my position on Mar's base is almost entirely overseer for the president. The commander position is little more than flowery rhetoric." Ashley gave an uneasy smile then relaxed. "Well I'd like a promotion even if it was flowery rhetoric. Ten to one I'm not the squadron leader especially considering what you just said." "You're right someone else has that position. I do however have it on good authority that a certain crack shot pilot who of late has been testing experimental craft is getting the position of wing commander for Flight A. Along with that comes a rank promotion." "Are you serious?" Joel raised his glass for a toast. "To Mars and the opportunities it brings." "To Mars," Ashley said emptying the contents of her glass.
Chapter 4 Prelude to War

Antarctica - Mars Base

"When is the secretary general going to show up," Joel asked. "He should be coming in any minute. Radar hasn't shown any ships." Simon seemed frustrated. "Why isn't he on time?"

Simon sat at one of three stations in the center of the command room. These three stations formed a triangle configuration. Each station had an upright computer monitor. Embedded into each station was a keyboard that on either side of the keyboard had a large button. Next to these buttons were trackballs embedded into the station. Most of the ships systems could be controlled from these three stations but they were designed for controlling the satellites of the LLAMA array. The trackballs were especially useful in controlling the images received from the array or manual control of the array's lasers. On the screen in front of Simon was a picture of a large metallic dome with several graphs and readouts overlaid.

"He is a busy man. We can stand to wait a few minutes, but that's not what your really worried about is it?" Simon pointed to the screen. "The reactor UARS is planning to test today could power a small country. If anything goes wrong it could probably take out a small country or irreparably flood it with radiation." "What's this? A scientist that doesn't look forward to a great scientific discovery?" "It's not that. Sign me up to be the first to go to the geological enigma of Miranda but that big of advancement in the wrong hands with a multitude of chances for catastrophic failure is not my cup of tea. It's so dangerous and uses so much nuclear material that UARS was forced to tell us about it and let us monitor the test to make sure it's safe under treaty law. You know the English translation of what they call that reactor loosely translates to 'Anti-god reactor'? With that much power who needs a god is their supposed rationale."

"How is the monitoring going?" Simon hit a few keys on the keyboard. The screen image split with the video feed of the dome moving to the left half of the screen. On the right was a serious of graphs. "So far no activity. They are still in the prep stages." "Can you output this to the holographic generator?" Simon pressed a button on the keyboard and the center of the triangle formed by the stations lit up. Almost instantly the room filled with holographic projections of the metallic dome and 3d graphs and sensor readings. A beeping noise was heard. A radar display came up on Simon's screen and was projected into the room. "We have one, no wait three bogies. Blackjack by the size and shape of them." "Confirm," Joel said quickly but even before he could get the words out Simon was typing. A video image of three ship ships in a v formation came up. "Satellite imagery confirms three blackjacks," Simon said.

Blackjacks were not black in color but instead where white crafts used by the Russians then UARS when the super nation was formed. These craft tended to have great maneuverability. "This is the Sinop carrying the Secretary General with fighter escort," came a radio message. "Proceed to Landing bay," Joel replied quickly. He turned to Simon. "I'm headed to meet them. Unless you want to give the general his tour for the inspection." "I bore you sometimes with my technobabble. The Secretary General would be exponentially more bored if I gave the tour instead of you." "Fine. Don't help me out. You have the bridge. Keep monitoring the dome." "Will do."

Joel left the bridge and headed to the flight deck. Joel was not looking forward to this. Joel was never a very social person. Sure he could be sociable if forced into the situation and he was a decent conversationalist but it always felt awkward to him. With people he knew he was extremely social with no awkward tendencies but somehow it was different with strangers or people he didn't know well. He could bark orders easily enough but put them in a scenario where him and those he gave orders to have to meet socially and to Joel it would just be weird. He always wondered how he got to be the president's advisor. He had been a good officer with an impeccable record and while well liked was never known for his social skills.

That had changed to some degree when he became part of the president's cabinet. He was forced into long discussions and debates with the president and other government officials. He even appeared before congress one or twice. Still one thing hadn't changed over the years. No matter how good he was or had become at talking it still felt uncomfortable. That's what made Joel apprehensive about the meeting with the Secretary General. He had to show the Secretary General the ins and outs of the base and the AU's plans for Mars. The secretary would then make his recommendation to the Generally Assembly. A bad impression could ruin the AU's chances of farming Mars.

Wait hold on Joel thought. Him recommending us not to go was about as likely as the Secretary General signing his own death warrant. That's exactly what it would be. The Earth needed this mission to keep its population alive. This calmed Joel slightly and he walked with more confidence and speed to the hanger bay. When he got to the hanger bay he saw that none of the blackjacks had landed. "Clear the deck. Ships incoming. Electromagnetic catch systems are active," came a voice over loudspeaker. After a few minutes the first blackjack landed and was soon followed by the other two. Joel rushed over to them once all the crafts had come to a stop.

"Mr. Secretary General this is an honor," He said to a man climbing out of the first blackjack. "Joel Jordal, I presume?" "Well I am defiantly not Livingston. Shall we begin the tour?" "Yes immediately." "Well the first thing of note is the electromagnetic launch and landing system. It is a real improvement over the Aircraft catapults of old." Joel patted his pockets. One had a large spherical bulge while the other had one in the shape of a small box. Joel forced the sphere out his pocket. It was a tennis ball. "If you'll follow me," Joel said. They walked a short distance and then Joel abruptly stopped.

He threw the tennis ball. It bounced once on the floor then it traveled a short distance before it seemed to hit an invisible wall and then bounced back to Joel. "This is a device we use to land craft while in space or a toxic environment. The oxygen in the landing air is pumped out leaving this area a vacuum but the shield allows us to still have oxygen in the storage areas." "What about when you need to move the craft that just landed to the storage areas?" The general asked. Joel smiled and lifted the tennis ball. "Now that's the good bit. Passive mode."

"Acknowledged," came the voice of the computer. "Was that some sort of ships computer?" "Yep. It allows for easy voice control of most of the domes systems and the ones in the shuttles allow a ship designed to be flown and operated by three personnel to do the same with a single pilot." Joel threw the tennis ball. It hit the floor once like before but instead of hitting the shield continued on. "You deactivated the shield?" "No. Objects that are programed into the system can pass through the shield. The shield is formed by holographic waves. Those waves can either be programmed to form a solid wall or to bounce off solid objects that try to pass through which allows for an airtight seal when used as shielding." "Impressive," the Secretary General said. "Yes it is. The Martian LAMMA array has a similar system that can form a planetary shield. Did you get the proposal to upgrade the Earth array to do the same?" "Yes and now that I've seen the technology firsthand I will most defiantly approve it. By the way, nice retrieval system."

An attractive brunet was walking towards them carrying the tennis ball Joel had thrown. "The tennis ball demo? Really?" "Hey it's effective! Mr. Secretary General may I present Ashley Sheppard, one of our best pilots." "It's an honor." "Likewise," Ashley said quickly. Joel saw the Secretary General smiling widely. Joel saw opportunity and struck. "Secretary General if it's all right with you Ashley can finish your tour. I'm swamped with things to do." "That will be excellent," The general said. "Hey I mind," Ashley said abruptly. She was starring at Joel. Then she realized what she had said and how it could be taken. She quickly turned to the Secretary General. "No offense meant." "None taken," the general said but his smile had abated. Joel was running out of options. "That's an order Sheppard." "Fine but you owe me!" "Yes I do," Joel muttered as under his breath as he quickly as he left. He could just barely hear Ashley say, "Shall we when he left the hanger bay for the command room.

When he got there the room was flooded with activity. The three people at the triangular station were discussing the data incoming from the UARS reactor as best as Joel could tell. "How are the tests going?" "Power-up of the reactor went fine. Power output is a bit higher than UARS was expecting but within tolerable range." came Simon's response. "Good keep monitoring." A few minutes an alarm beeped. "That's impossible! Their reactor has suddenly gone into meltdown. We need to get of here. We're probably within blast range and could get hit with an extremely heavy dose of radiation. This base is built to block out a lot of radiation but I'd rather not have this be the testing ground." "I agree. Set a code red. We need to launch."

...

Ashley sighed rather loudly as she watched Joel leave the flight deck. "You have to forgive him. He may be a great military man but he does not like public speaking or interactions with people he doesn't know. It amazes me sometimes how he ever became the presidents advisor." She was walking quickly. The Secretary General was almost jogging to keep up. "And other times," he asked. "Other times I see him come up with a brilliant strategy or make an impressive argument in a debate and then I see why the president might want him as an advisor."

They quickly walked up a flight of stairs and came into a very open room. "This our holographic deck. On Mars there will not be a whole lot to do that's not related to science and the mission so this room is our main way to stave of boredom." "Quite impressive. I'm sure it will get a lot of use." They went up a few more levels. They had already passed a greenhouse that was to provide food and oxygen for the mission and some areas related to the mechanics and computer systems of the dome. They came to a level with rows upon rows of circular doors. Next to each was a handprint scanner that just looked like a recessed handprint in the wall. Ashley started down one of these. "This level is personal quarters." She stopped in front of one of the doors and placed her hand in the recess. The doors slid open. These are my quarters. Sparse but livable." In the room there was against one wall a sink and a toilet. The toilet had a curtain that could be pulled around it. There was against another wall a series of shelves and cabinets for storage. Against the third wall was a bed that could be pulled up and folded into the wall for more room in the room but currently it was down and unmade. "Another interesting thing to note is that each and every room can have 6 planes of gravity. Each wall can become the floor or ceiling thanks to the invention of artificial gravity. On Mars the artificial gravity will supplement Martian gravity to give us an Earth gravity level. However the 6 planes of gravity can be used to make repairs a lot easier if the repair needs to be done on the 'ceiling' or a side wall." Ashley exited the room and headed for the stairs again. They went up a few levels and came to another circular door.

"And through that door is the command center or bridge if you prefer. At the very heart of this dome." Ashley put her hand into a large handprint recess in the wall next to the door. She also put on some goggles that were hanging on a hook. "Access granted." The doors slid open. Ashley put the goggles back on the hook.

The first thing that struck the Secretary General was a sense of awe and wonder at the technology in the room. The walls were lined with stations that had various purposes that he couldn't make out. Next to the door was another setup similar to the one on the other side of the door with a large handprint recess and goggles on a hook. There were also two guards standing on either side of the door. He then looked to the center of the room. That's when a sense of chaos struck him.

An alarm beeped. "That's impossible! Their reactor has suddenly gone into meltdown. We need to get of here. We're probably within blast range and could get hit with an extremely heavy dose of radiation. This base is built to block out a lot of radiation but I'd rather not have this be the testing ground." "I agree. Set a code red. We need to launch." Joel turned. Had he heard the doors open? He turned and was quite surprised to see Ashley and the Secretary General standing there. Then he remembered the situation. "Ashley we need an immediate launch. Flights A and B need to launch." "We've had no prep time!" "And we have no time. In a few minutes this area is going to be flooded with radiation from an UARS reactor. Get moving!" "Yes sir." She was starting to run out of the room. She turned around and looked quickly at Joel. "Look after him." "This is the safest place for him. Now go!" Joel finally saw Ashley leave the room with the doors automatically opening and closing for her. He quickly turned to Simon. "Spread the word." Immediately a klaxon started blaring. Simon began speaking to everyone throughout the base. "Code Red. Immediate launch is necessary. Everyone get to his or her stations. This is not a drill. Flights A and B are go for immediate launch and flight C has stand-down." Simon pressed a few keys so the message would loop through the rest of the base.

...

Ashley ran as fast as she could. Still it looked like it took forever to get to the flight deck. When she did get there it was a beehive of activity. Already it looked like a few Beagles had been launched and the rest had flight crews bustling around them trying to get them ready. One such person quickly greeted Ashley. "Sheppard the Snoopy is ready to go." "Great I'll head to the locker room," but she was cut off before she could say anything else. "No time. You are to suit up in the Snoopy. Good Luck." With that she rushed to her ship quickly mounting the ladder that was next to her ship and then pushed it away. A flight attendant saw her do this and moved the ladder completely out of the way. Ashley quickly suited up and got into the pilots chair. "Run preflight checks." "Already done. Good to go." "Snoopy to base. Go for launch?" "Snoopy you are go for launch." She moved her craft to the runway and flew off. She already saw a large number of Beagles circling the base. She joined them.

"All flights report in," she heard on the radio. "Flight report in," she radioed to her flight. "Uno" "Shiloh" "Odie" "Porthos" "Maria". "Base flight A here and in position," Ashley said. "Likewise for B," came another voice. "Base to flights: Deploy grapplers." Instantly electromagnetic grapplers shot out form each shuttle and attached itself to the base. "All grapplers deployed. Prepare for ascent." The craft maneuvered so they pointing upwards. "Begin ascent," came the voice from the base. All the shuttles began a rapid acceleration. As they rose up so did the base. It was a relatively slow climb. "Base I think we're clear," Ashley radioed. "Confirmed. Release grapplers on my mark." There was a rumbling sound. Engines on the underside of the base were going through a startup sequence. "Mark." Instantly the grapplers retracted back to their craft of origin. The bases engines fired up making the base shoot upward while shuttles were hustling to get of the way. In this way eventually all the shuttles and the base reached an orbit around Earth.

...

Command Center

"Enhance image 50%," came Simon's voice. The image on his screen zoomed in and enhanced a picture of an UARS dome. "Simon what are you doing," came Joel. "We should be waiting for news from headquarters or the UN but instead your looking at videos." "I have a hunch. I saw a flicker on the video feed of the test a few seconds before we launched. Look at that black shape coming out of the dome. Doesn't it look like a missile?" Joel walked to the spot Joel was referring to. "You're paranoid. That could be almost anything. Enhance 100%." "The holographic image in question can only be enhanced twenty percent more before pixilation will occur. Would you like to continue with the one hundred percent?" came the voice of the computer. "No go twenty." Instantly the image cleared up and the black shape morphed into something looking suspiciously like a missile with this Arabic lettering embezzled on it:

"Maybe not so paranoid. Get Aerospace Defense Command on the line." The images of the base and the missile moved to one side of the room. On the other side of the room came the image of a command center and a General standing in the middle of that room. "Joel what do you want? We're busy here with this whole UARS debacle." "We have found evidence that it was not a reactor malfunction but a missile launch. Are you receiving the hologram we're sending you?" "Yes confirming image source. Oh that's not good." The general in the room looked very angry. Get the president on the line he shouted to someone at a station. It took a few seconds but the image of the president appeared. "Joel, General, what's going on? Do you have further developments on this crisis?" "Yes Madame president," Joel said. "We have evidence that it wasn't a reactor failure but instead a missile launch."

The president seemed to turn her attention away from Joel and to the general for a moment. "Why would they nuke themselves? Have you checked sensor readings lately? All of Antarctica is bathed in radiation. Lethal doses anywhere but the most outermost rim of the continent." "That's impossible," Simon screeched. The General and Joel both had puzzled looks. "Take it as you will but it's what the data shows. Back to the events at hand, this picture is damning so I authorize the actions listed under article 12 subsection 6 of the articles," came the president's voice. "I'm a little rusty on my articles. That's the one that authorizes us to take a defensive position in orbit of a territory if any major threat to the longevity of the mission." "Yes, Joel. Prep for the FTL Jump and ready for combat." "Yes Ma'am," Joel said while Simon muttered sullenly and shell-shocked, "More of a subspace shunt". The Secretary General spoke up. "Protocol 6 is a bit extreme. All you have is supposition and blurry photos. No better then UFO fanatics." Everyone in the turned to look at the Secretary General, shocked. Most had forgotten he was even in the room. "All due respect Secretary General the evidence speaks for itself and the decision is in my hands not yours. The Mars Base will be in a holding pattern around Mars at which point you and the UN can send them home or tell the them to land but the prerogative to send them into orbit is mine." The president looked indignant. "Very Well continue on but I request someone put me back earth side. I have no intention of going to Mars." "Joel, continue to Mars no pit stop until the position is secured." This time it was the Secretary General who looked indignant.

"I will not stand for this! Take me back to Earth!" The Secretary General raised his fist. "Guards restrain him," Joel said quickly. They did exactly that. "Flights A and B prep for FTL Launch in one minute. Enter subspace only on our mark." All the craft including the base sped up. "Three, Two, One, Mark." To any outside observer the trip would look instantaneous. To those traveling in the ships however it took three minutes of being in a sub layer of space-time where the laws of physics don't completely apply to reach the orbit of Mars.

"Flights form a defensive position around the base," came Joel's voice. He turned to Simon. "Any word from Earth?" Simon looked annoyed at the question. "From their perspective we only just left. Communications between Earth and here have a ten-minute latency. I just sent a message saying we've arrived. So it may be ten to twenty minutes before we receive a message back.

Joel sighed. "Crazy day." "No kidding. The impossible has happened," Simon quickly replied. "And that would be?" "Nuclear weapons are not that powerful and they don't spread radiation like that. Every nuclear weapon is designed to use all or at least the vast majority of the nuclear material in the reaction that creates the explosion." "Well apparently UARS has built something that is great at spreading radiation. Any guesses as to what that could be?" "Offhandedly I can't think of," he began but stopped suddenly. A look of sheer terror came across Simons face. "No they couldn't have." His face turned to a look of resignation. "God help us all, the idiots built a salted bomb." "Which is," Joel asked annoyed at how long it was taking to get an answer. "The end of humanity. A salted bomb is variation of a nuclear weapon that is designed to render an area uninhabitable for long periods of time by spreading high levels of fallout over a vast area. Of course it's all theoretical because no one has built one." Simon sighed. "Till now at least. A salted bomb has a typically smaller blast than your normal nuclear weapon but as insanely large as the blast at Antarctica was they could take out any nation on Earth with a bang and a whimper. And they'd probably cause a nuclear winter doing it." Now Joel began to look solemn. "The end of the world." Everyone was silent for a long while.

Eventually Joel was the one to break the silence. "Surely they know that and wouldn't launch it knowing all this." Simon just shook his head. "Knowing this they would have never built one. It's not a sane man's weapon." There was more silence. "Simon order C flight to launch and take up a defensive position." "Done." More silence followed. Everyone in the room was tense. Finally a chirp came. Everyone in the room jumped. "Communiqué from Earth," Simon said. Joel nodded. Simon pushed a few buttons and the message started playing. The president cleared her throat. "The UN has put in an emergency vote and you are allowed to land on the planet. Furthermore you have been granted full access to the llama array including weapons and shielding." The president paused for a moment. She seemed out of breath. "What I never approved either of those," yelled the restrained Secretary General. "Maybe not but the general assemblage has," Simon shot back. The president resumed. "However and most unfortunately you have to allow UARS to land on their side of Mars. The UN is not completely convinced that these events were meant as an attack." "Finally some sanity," the Secretary General yelled. "You are not to engage UARS unless they make further offensive moves against you. Your fourth flight will bring supplies and reinforcements ASAP. Message ends." Joel turned to the Secretary General and the guards.

"Release him." They complied. "Computer we are imputing authorization for complete access to the array." "Standby," the computer's voice came. "Please input the vocal pattern of all the high ranking ambassadors of the Security Council and the General Assembly or the Secretary General's vocal pattern." The secretary General smiled. "Complete lockout," he said quickly, almost maniacally. Simon's display went black. He began rapidly typing. He paused, cursed, and quickly said, "We have absolutely no access to the array," before resuming his rapid typing. "Guards gag him and take him to the brig," Joel said quickly. They did so very quickly and very roughly. "Come on you misaligned malfunctioning piece of hardware! Don't you recognize a backdoor when you see one?" "Isn't that more of a software problem," Joel asked. "So shoot me for using the wrong terminology for once in my life. Something is desperately wrong with the satellites. I can't access the back door." "Why do we even have a back door? Didn't the treaty expressly forbid that?" "Yeah but the military didn't care. They had me and a few others put one in before we ever gave it over. Don't tell the president. I was sworn to secrecy."

Joel looked shocked and offended. How are we suppose to expect UARS to uphold a treaty if we are breaking it within the first moments of it's life? His trail of thought was quickly interrupted. "There's no way to hack in. At least not in time to be remotely useful." There was a clicktey clack coming from the other stations. "Were there any other files in the data burst we got from Earth?" "No just the presidents message and then the UN discussion and vote." Simon paused and smiled brightly. "You're a genius," He said joyously. Simon turned back to his screen and started typing. "Computer use this file as confirmation," he said.

"Analyzing," the computer said. Simon was stroking and caressing his station. "Come on baby don't fail me now." "Timestamp confirmed. Analyzing audio and video. Vote carried unanimously. Checking authenticity of file and holographic images. Authenticity confirmed. Error conflicting orders." Simons hit his head against the station. "Checking precedents. Analyzing." Simon lifted himself slowly. "Will of the many over the few. Secretary Generals orders removed due to quorum and an over two-thirds majority vote. Complete access to the Labonte Laser Based Anti-meteor and Anti-missile Array granted to the American Union." Joyous shout could be heard throughout the control room. "Simon prepare us for landing. You other two cover our tail with the array." All three of the people at the station in the middle of the room said in unison, "Yes sir."

"All ships prepare for descent. Grapple on my mark," Joel radioed to the beagles. "All ships are in position," came a voice. "Grapple in three, two, one, mark," Joel said. Almost instantaneously every Beagle shot out its electromagnetic grappler and attached the grappler to the base. "Begin descent," Joel called out. The Beagles headed towards the surface of the red planet. At first they were dragging the base towards the planet, but when gravity began to affect the base the beagles propelled upwards to make sure the base didn't hit the planet at too high a velocity. Slowly the ships and the base began their descent till the base gently landed on the Martian surface. All the ships detached the grapplers and landed on the bases airstrip. Ashley and her ship, the Snoopy, were first among these. She immediately ran for the control room.

When she got there she was slightly out of breath. She flung here hand against the handprint scanner and the doors slid open. Everyone turned to see what the disturbance was. Joel looked a bit shocked. "Oh I forgot about that," he said quickly. "You promised," Ashley said pointedly. "Yes I did, but this is not the time." "It's exactly the perfect time. It shows through it all UARS cannot break our resolve." "Fine just keep it short and as neutral as you can." Joel turned to Simon. "Patch her in throughout the base." Joel turned back to Ashley who was smiling then mouthed the word, thanks.

"Today is a historic day. The day humanity first makes it to the Mars. However, I want to remind you of another historic day. On July 20th, 1969 the people of Earth made it to another celestial body, the moon. Before we ever walked on the surface of the moon Buzz Aldrin asked that anyone listening to give thanks in their own way. Whatever deity or lacks there of you believe in I would like us to take a moment and give thanks. I, like Aldrin, am Christian so my way is to take communion. You will find bread and whine throughout the base that was intended for this. Please gather these supplies if you wish to participate in communion." Ashley went and grabbed the supplies in the command room. She tried passing it around but only the guards and a few people at the outermost stations in the room took any. When it came around to Joel she was saddened he didn't take anything but continued on. "There is a price to be paid for wrongdoing. In Christianity that is an ultimate sin needing an ultimate and perfect sacrifice. So Jesus said, 'Take, eat; this is my body'." Everyone who had taken bread ate. "And Jesus said, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.' Thank you for your time." Ashley quickly drank the wine as did everyone else who had taken any. Joel looking slightly frustrated said, "Happy?" Ashley's response was a smile and the words, "Yes very," before she headed out the room and to the landing bay. Joel turned to Simon. "Always the religious one her. Any sign of UARS?" "No, sir." Joel turned to the guards. "Go back and get the general you put in the brig and escort him to the flight deck. Have him and his escorts leave immediately." Yes sir they both said quickly.
Chapter 5 The Martian World War

The guards had come back from their escort mission. There still had been no UARS activity. Everyone was really jumpy and a blinking glaring DEFCON 2 sign in the air did nothing to relieve tensions. "We have subspace fluctuations," Simon yelled. Immediately Simon brought up the satellite image from where the fluctuations were coming from. A number of small domes and ships surrounding them appeared. The apparent commander of their mission sent a message to the AU dome. The commander's image appeared saying that they would be landing on their side of the planet. Joel wanted to immediately raise the planetary shield and fire everything they had at the domes and the ships but couldn't. He sent a message back thanking the UARS commander for the heads up.

"Simon patch me into the intercom system," Joel said. "Done," came Simon's reply quickly. "All pilots and the squadron commander to the briefing room. Repeat, All pilots and the squadron commander to the briefing room." He turned to look at Simon. Simon replied with a knowing look and said, "I have the bridge." Joel headed for the briefing room.

...

"Well not that we're all assembled we need to formulate a stratagem. UARS has landed their bases without resistance like we expected. We have confirmed sighting of 15 ships and 3 domes, which may be holding more fighters. We figure the reason they haven't attacked us up till now is they are waiting for reinforcements to attack." Joel stopped to get a breath. The squadron leader looked at him asking, "If I may?" Joel nodded.

"The first thing you should probably know is that blackjacks have amazing maneuverability in atmos. However that is Earth's atmosphere and with Mar's less thick atmosphere that advantage may be lessened. In space neither really have the advantage in maneuverability. The blackjacks should have standard lasers like our Beagles but they may also be carrying missiles, which might be nuclear in nature. If they are nuclear they will likely have a failsafe point which once passed the missile cannot unlock from it's target and deactivate. The array's shields will be up. While a bunch of geostationary satellites forming a shield around a planet and themselves may sound wonderful please keep in mind that it's limits have never been tested. It is suppose to filter out all sorts of radiation and be able to shield against a nuclear detonation but this has never been tested so be cautious. We're hoping to be able to split the UARS forces into two groups with the shield: one on the planet and one in space. Our primary target is the enemies within the planet's atmosphere because they can cause the most damage to our bases and interests. The second set of forces will not be able to come to Mars but a worst cast scenario is that they start a siege and try to starve us out. That's why A Flight will be engaging those forces while B and C will be taking the in atmosphere enemies." He paused for a second. "Any questions," he asked. No one had any.

...

The bridge was a beehive of excitement. Everyone was looking for the slightest sign of UARS aggression. None had been found. Joel and Simon were sweating, as were a few others in the room. Everyone wanted to see something so they could hurry up and get the fight over with but at the same time no one wanted a war with UARS. When some beeping came from the computer everyone in the room jumped. "Subspace fluctuation," Simon said. "Something huge is coming out." On the screen and in the room everyone could see 18 Blackjacks suddenly appear.

"Oh that is really not good. There is abnormally high level of radiation. They have one or more anti-gods." Simon said panicking. "They don't want to use them. It would make no sense to destroy such a valuable resource as Mars. Blanket threat," Joel said hopefully. Simon looked doubtful. A message came from the UARS bases. It showed some UARS military person saying they have five minutes to surrender. "Wait five minutes," Simon asked. "No let's get this over," Joel replied. "Action Stations. Repeat Action Stations. Launch all Beagles and prepare for attack," Simons voice rang throughout the base. Simon started rolling the trackballs and pressing the red buttons next to them. The UARS ships easily dodged the incoming lasers.

A Flight was nearly outside the Martian atmosphere and about to pass through the shield. B and C flights were half way to the bases and they could see blips on the outermost part of the ships radar system. They were heading towards them. Shots rang out but most of these were misses or did little damage. Flight A had just crossed the shield and began to engage the enemy too. Dogfights broke out everywhere. Each pilot was dodging leasers up and down left and right looking everywhere to make sure no one outflanked their ship in any of a thousand or more directions while they tried to get a few hits on the enemies. In space 7 UARS ships had been destroyed. One beagle had been destroyed. Another had its wing explode and another was dead in space with no power. It was eleven against four now. In the atmosphere the casualties amazingly were mostly blackjacks and the majority of their forces had been destroyed.

On the bridge there was a dull roar. Orders were being issued and people at the stations communicating with each other. "Good news! UARS only seems to have one nuke and an anti-god." Simon yelled. "And the ship carrying the nuke is headed for the planet. Crap." He tapped a button on a headset he was wearing. "A Flight. All form up on the blackjack heading towards the shield." Simon was trying desperately to hit that ship but all his attempts were dodged though he could have sworn he nicked a wing. None of the Beagles had any better luck. "Missile is deployed. Attempting to stop it." He had a perfect shot lined up. He fired. What looked like lightning sparks formed in front of the missile. "Crap it's shielded. Impact in five, four, three, two, one." A brilliant explosion occurred with a sizable fireball that quickly dissipated and large lightning bolts appeared everywhere. "Sensors are temporary blind but the shield held," Simon shouted joyously.

Up in space the situation was bleach. The Beagles had managed to bring it down to a six on four fight but they had sustained massive damage in the process. Systems were on the blink and there were some holes in the hull but thrust, acceleration, and weapons systems still managed to work. Ashley had a sense of forbidding. She could place where it was coming from till she saw a missile on radar. "Base anti-god has been launched," She radioed quickly but almost in the same instance she heard the command, "Scatter," coming from Joel. All the beagles did getting as far away from the missile as they could. Ashley however could not seem to shake it. "Computer, status of FTL drive," She barked. "Irreparably damaged. Unstable." A fraction of a second later more contacts showed up on radar. "Base the anti-god seems locked on me and my FTL systems are shot. Please advise."

Joel turned white. This couldn't be happening. More reinforcements from UARS had showed up and a nuclear missile was locked onto Ashley. Simon just had a puzzled look for a few seconds then radioed, "Head for the UARS domes. Don't pass through the shield till I tell you." "Belay that," Joel yelled angrily. He rushed over to where Simon was sitting and put his hand around Simon's throat. "What the hell do you think your doing?" Simon was gagging. Throatily he replied, "She's dead almost anyway you put it and that could stop the attack." Joel lessened his grip allowing Simon to breathe easily but his hand was still in position to choke again. "You're not going to do it!" Joel shouted. "There has to be another way." The Squadron Leader turned to them. "Plus that doesn't get us what we want. If they don't back down we'll just enrage the bear all the more." "The chance that they will back down is worth it. We'll not win this war any other way. UARS seems to have endless reinforcements." Simon said sullenly. "What about fallout," Joel asked shaken backing away from Simon. "The yield on this bomb is the same as the Antarctic one. It would only take out a relatively small area." "Relatively small! That yield took out Antarctica! I won't let you! Guards take these men."

Neither of the guards moved. Simon turned to the Squadron Leader. "Do you agree with the plan?" "No but it's our only choice. Guards take him." They complied immediately with Joel shouting this is mutiny while being dragged to the edge of the room. Simon began typing rapidly. "Anti-god has been programed into the shield to pass through with you. Godspeed Snoopy and I am very sorry." "Is Joel there," Came Ashley's voice. "No detained for the moment," Simon said quickly. "I see. Beginning descent." "All ships give Ashley cover then run like hell," Simon radioed.

Ashley passed through both shield layers. Then she began her descent. No need to worry about g-forces now she thought and made the ship go as fast as it could. "Yeehaw," she called out. Wait what was this? Why was she making an exited sound when she was about to die? She slowed down her speed. She prayed aloud. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Joel prayed a different prayer. He didn't care much as to what deity or cosmic force it was he just wanted them to save Ashley. Ashley saw the domes. She wanted to say more. She wanted her last words to have meaning. All she could think of were these: "If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Ashley crashed into a dome. The anti-god followed and a brilliant explosion occurred.

In the control room everything was silent. What could one say in a moment like this? A beep broke the silence. "Incoming transmission from UARS," Simon called out. A Russian appeared in the room. "We surrender under Article 13 of the Articles of Colonization." Simon looked to Joel. Joel looked back with a face of intense rage and anger. "Are you two done?" Simon nodded. The guards released him. "Send this message in reply. You will land at the coordinates given. You will then walk to our dome. If I see so much as one weapon on you I'll toss every last sticking one of you out an airlock as is my right under the Articles." Joel nodded to Simon. "Make sure the coordinates are four clicks away from this base." "Will do," Simon replied. "Stand down," Simon radioed and then sent the message.

"Wait hold on sir. We may want to make an amendment to that. We have one possibly two survivors in space in heavily damaged craft. It would be a good show of faith if UARS rescued them and they were the first things shown before we open our airlock to UARS." "Fine make it so. I'll be in my quarters." "If you need to talk-" Joel cut him off abruptly. "You are quite possibly the last person on this god forsaken piece of rock that I want to talk to." With that Joel left the command center and headed to his quarters. He immediately sat down on the floor and grabbed the box from his pocket. He opened it. There was a beautiful engagement ring in it. Guess I won't need this he thought and tossed it aside. He grabbed a remote and rope from a storage cabinet in the room.

He jumped onto his bed and rolled against the wall. He pushed a button on the remote. He rolled up to the wall until his body touched the ceiling. He pushed another button and then stood on the ceiling and started tying.

In the command center Simon had just finished sending a report to Earth. "Simon the UARS party is just a click away," called out the Squadron Commander. "I'll get Joel. Joel UARS is almost here." All Simon heard was silence. "Joel please respond." "You don't think he," the Squadron Commander said but was cut off by Simon running out the door. When he arrived outside Joel's quarters he slammed his hand into the hand scanner. "Unauthorized," the computer responded. "Override, Zed Zed 9 Plural Zed Alpha." The doors slid open. Simon saw a remote and small box with a shiny object and Joel chocking to death in a noose. He dove for the remote pressed a button. He, Joel, and the box with the shiny object all flew upwards to the ceiling. Simon felt like he may have broken something. Joel was coughing and breathing hard. He removed the noose and started rubbing his neck. "I was going to ask her to marry me." "I know but this is not the answer." Joel sighed and took a few seep breaths. "What's going on with the base?" Simon gave Joel a quizzical look but wasn't going to press the issue. "UARS are inbound and almost here. Still waiting for orders from Earth for what to do with them." "Then let's swing by the command center and then the flight deck." They went through the long process to get out of the room.

When they got into the command center the Squadron Leader immediately turned to them looking worried. "Reinforcements should be here within the hour. UARS left moon base alone. We are to escort the UARS prisoners in waves back to Earth to stand trial. You two are ordered to report for a court martial hearing. Guards escort them to the flight deck and make sure they are on the first ships out of here. Hope it goes well for you."
Chapter 6 The Court Martial

Aerospace Defense Command - Colorado Springs, CO

Simon was shaking. He had no idea what to expect from the court martial hearing. Sure he had committed mutiny but it saved Mars Base. Simon looked around the room. There was a judge, jury, and prosecution all where he would have expected and Joel was next to him. Simon would have accused Joel of insane bravery from his demeanor. Almost every part of his body gave of a vibe of cool confidence and maybe slight disinterest in the events about to take place. However the eyes gave Joel away. In those eyes was a look of panic, longing, and unrelenting sadness.

"We are here today to determine the punishment for two of our own. For the sake of brevity the accused will be referred to by their first name. Simon, you are accused of mutiny. How do you plead?" Simon tried to form the thoughts that would become words. They didn't really come. "There were mitigating circumstances," Simon shouted. "You will keep a civil tone in this court. Joel you are accused of dereliction of duty, compromising the chain of command, and pursuit of a relationship that was in clear violation of regulations. How do you plead?" The overwhelming sadness in Joel's eyes grew. "Guilty your honor." A few people let out surprised gasps but Simon saw it coming. The judge was taken aback for a second but turned to the prosecution.

"We shall begin," the judge said. "I'd like to call the accused as a witness," said the prosecution. The judged nodded. Simon walked up to the stand. "You are accused of mutiny. You have the right to not self incriminate or make any statement all. Any statement you say can be held against you. Do you understand these rights?" Simon nodded. "Why did you commit mutiny?" "Objection your honor. Implication of guilt," Simon's attorney shouted. "Prosecution will rephrase the question," the judge said. "Did you commit mutiny during the attack on Mars base and if so why?" "Joel refused to give the order that saved Mars base. I had to step in." "Were you aware of the relationship Joel has been accused of and that it was in violation of military code?" "I was aware of the relationship but not the violation. They never seemed to compromise chain of command." "Were you previously aware that a relationship with a superior office is expressly forbidden under military code?" "Yes," Simon said solemnly. "Why did you never report this violation?"

Simon had to think for a moment. Why did he never report them? Joel was his friend but that wasn't it. "Well," asked the prosecution. There was only one thing he could think of. "They were really good together. You really don't see that a whole lot. They seemed deeply in love and neither tried to manipulate the other. It seemed like a great relationship." There was a slight pause then the questioning resumed.

"Would you explain the situation surrounding the mutiny for the court please?" "There's not much to tell. We had taken heavy losses especially with our forces in space. I saw the anti-god lock on to Ashley. Based on intelligence the base received form Earth there was a huge probability there was some sort of failsafe point and that point had already been reached. Ashley was in most cases dead so I suggested the one path that would likely net us the largest advantage. Joel was opposed to the idea so he was restrained and I told Ashley to head for the UARS domes." "Did it ever occur to you to you to detonate the nuke on the shield surrounding Mars at the time?" "Yes and Ashley might have survived if the shield held but that also had the possibility of killing our own, admittedly few, pilots in space at the time." "Were you also aware that a little over nine percent of the planet would either be destroyed or heavily irradiated?" "Yes I knew it would destroy a relatively small part of the planet. It did cause UARS to back down and stop the attack." "No further questions." "Defense," the judge asked. "No questions."

The court then went on to review a holographic security recording of the incident. Joel winced and had an incredibly pained expression when the recording got to him choking Simon. The expression changed to guilt then a conflicted look. Other evidence including a mountain of data was presented. It seemed like it was taking days. The Judge asked for closing remarks and neither side gave any. He then told the jury what they could and couldn't do. They went of to make their decision.

After what felt like hours they came back out and handed the judge a slip of paper. "Simon and Joel will you please stand," the judge said. Both complied. "Simon you have been found innocent of the crime of mutiny. Consequently I was ordered to tell you of your promotion to Commander of the Miranda mission." Simon smiled and laughed. "Joel you admitted guilt. Anyone else would have a dishonorable discharge at this point. You however have been given an honorable discharge. Take it and leave." Joel headed for the door. "I'll be out in a minute. I want to talk to the judge." "What do you want," the judge hissed. "I thought the proposed Miranda project had been shelved due to not having any known physical resource value?" "Don't look at me, I just do what I am told." "You said anyone but Joel would have a dishonorable discharge. Why didn't Joel?"

The judge paused and thought for a moment. "Would you believe dedication and years of service?" Simon shook his head. "No it's got to be something else." "This is completely off the record but a presidential pardon came for him while the jury was deliberating. It, however, was going to be a cold day in hell before I let someone like that remain in the military. The president be damned." "Thanks for the info," Simon said while rushing to catch up with Joel. He spotted him about to turn into another hallway. Joel turned when he heard Simon. "I don't know why you are running. There's not much point to it." "To what running? Of course there's a point. It's great exercise and allows you to catch up to friends so you can have stimulating discussions with them." "To anything." "Ah don't start that again. You lost her. Stuff happens. I'm very sorry for what happened and I hope one day you will forgive me for my part in it. Though it's not a reason to give up all hope." "Wasn't your fault," Joel said gruffly. There was an awkward silence for a bit.

"Hey I'm probably going to be stuck on Earth for a while so you, me, and my niece should go to the zoo. She has been wanting to meet you for a while." "It amazes me that a nation so scraped for resources is wasting them on a zoo." "It's a good morale boost. Plus they have some endangered species there." "Humanity has a good chance of falling on that list too. You don't see the animals helping us." "That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you gentlemen about," said a strange looking person neither Joel nor Simon had noticed while walking. He held out some ID, which showed him to be CIA and his name to be Peter Lancaster. "Word on the street is that you two are wanted by UARS. They have you two listed as the most valuable intelligence assets who would have knowledge into the AU's actions. We want to give you to them." "That sounds like a horrible plan," Simon quipped. "Not really. You would try to gain their trust. Say your defecting because you can't stand the AU's actions or something. Work them for information while they try to work you. It would give you the chance to prevent something like this recent skirmish from happening again. Please, at least think about it. Here's my card."

"I will think about it," Joel said as he and Simon were walking away. "Hey! Aren't you the one always warning me about CIA spooks?" The conversation was cut off when they reached a blast door that led to the outside. It opened slowly. Simon and Joel quickly slipped through the opening that was forming. The door then began to close slowly behind them. It was a beautiful peaceful day. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue and it was warm but not unbearably so. There was less air than Simon was used to because of higher altitude but Simon was trying to cope. A white spaceship appeared out of nowhere and began firing lasers.

"Dive," Joel shouted. They ducked next to some motor vehicles. "Can we make it to the base?" Simon asked. "No blast doors are closed. They'd never let us in. Go for the guardhouse on three." There were some shots that came close to where Simon and Joel were hiding. "Three," Simon yelled. They ran for the guardhouse. A few lasers narrowly missed them. Simon and Joel got into the guard house were looking around for weapons with the guard who was already there. Simon felt like his lungs were on fire and was panting heavily. They found one rocket launcher. "I'll go," Joel said. He loaded the weapon quickly and rushed out. He lined up and was about to take his shot when the ship disappeared. He went for some cover next to a motor vehicle and waited for the ship to reappear. He waited and waited. After what seemed like ten minutes later he felt a tab on his shoulder that made him jump. He turned to see that it was Simon. "Don't do that!" "Sorry. No subspace fluctuations detected. It's gone." They headed back to the base.

In a large room a lot of people were talking and arguing, especially Pete Lancaster. Everyone turned when they saw the two walking in. "What the hell's going on," Joel asked. "Like I said they want you. They may have been going for a grab or just wanted to make sure you two were alive. The timing was beyond coincidence. I think we have a spy in our midst." Peter looked worried. Another man spoke up. "You're both to be confined to this base until further notice." "So much for the zoo," Joel said.
Chapter 7 Infiltration

"Why do you want to do this," Pete asked. "I want to make them pay for what they did to her. I want to take the extreme measures that will prevent this from happening again." "Good enough for me." So it began. Joel was given a crash course in the art of being a spy and what he would most likely encounter. After about a week Pete declared him ready. That night Joel couldn't shake the feeling someone was following him but soon he passed into sleep.

When he awoke. He found himself tied to a chair. Some guy in a mask with a solid build was in front of him. "He's awake," the masked man said. "Begin," Came another voice that sounded like it was coming from behind Joel. He turned to look but before he could turn far enough to see a hand was grabbing the back of his head and forcing him to look forward. His bonds to the chair were released but his legs were still tied together and his hands were tied behind his back. Joel was forced into a kneeling position but as he fell he saw a bucket in front of him.

His head was shoved into the bucket. Joel wondered how long he could hold his breath. Seconds passed. 10 seconds Joel guessed. He started counting up from there. 20 had passed. 30 then 40. He was starting feel out of air. Joel knew he couldn't last much longer. He no longer could restrain himself and let the unconsciousness engulf. Before it came his head was pulled up. Oh how sweet the oxygen tasted even though it felt hurtful to his lungs. He breathed in deep but quick breath panting. "You will tell us everything you know." "Who are you? Who do you work for?" All Joel got for a response was a grunt.

Then the voice from behind came again. "Let's start out with something simple. What is the current deployment of your Beagle ships and do they carry a nuclear armament?" Joel didn't know what to say. Lie or tell the truth? Which should he do? He had no idea who these people were or what they wanted. "Don't know. I'm not exactly mister popularity with being discharged and all. I can tell you no that no beagle ship has every carried a nuclear armament but they are capable of carry a wide array of missiles which may or may not be nuclear." "If that's true how come no beagles were equipped with missiles at the battle of Mars?" "Because they are resource heavy. A laser only needs energy and a few parts and you can take as many shots as you have energy for. A missile is one time use and takes more resources. Plus we weren't expecting an attack that day."

The questions continued and the tortures seemed crueler or easier on the whim of the voice behind him. He told them the same answers trying to remain consistent. As times he had no memory of the day's events. On days like those he wondered if he hadn't blabbed everything he knew about anything. He was always returned to a small room with a toilet and a cot. The first few days he looked for a way to escape the room. He found none. On the fifth day he considered various ways of committing suicide. He thought of drowning himself in the toilet but given recent experience he didn't want to go that way. He also thought of using the cot and as a noose or something but could find no way to do it. The lights were always so bright and there were always loud noises. He was given scant food and water. On the tenth day they tried a torture Joel had heard theorized but never heard of anyone using it.

Joel saw a very odd looking gun in the hands of the masked man. Joel assumed it was some sort of directed energy weapon. All thoughts of trying to categorize the weapon disappeared when he felt like his entire body was on fire. He felt like he was being boiled, cooked alive. He had to move and get away from the pain. He rolled to the left and relief came. Relief lasted for a full sixty seconds before he was shot again. Joel felt like his mind was leaving him. It felt like it couldn't take the torture and decided to up and leave leaving only a shell of a man. He had a strange dream that night. When he awoke he was bewildered. He muttered something about an orange slaying a rake and himself being a tree house before he passed out again.

Joel could no longer think and no longer feel. Part of him was glad for this as the pain was gone and he could no longer comprehend the tortures being done. Another part whispered, "At what cost?" He always tried to put that voice aside. Wait what was that? Joel thought he heard a female voice saying cruel and torture. It was nice to hear a female voice again. When was the last time he heard a female voice? "And if I should die before I wake I pray the my soul to take." Joel shook it off and concentrated on something else. Was he hallucinating the voice? He couldn't make out many of the words but the voice sounded angry, appalled even.

Was his mind seeking refuge in the idea that some female saw the torture and was going to rescue him? A twinge of hope swelled within him. Then a horrible reality came crashing down. He had to be hallucinating. "Let's try it my way!" the female voice shouted. "Your way is no more reliable. The information you get can't be trusted any more then the info we got from the torture. We hope at best to find the glimmer of truth in what he says and to see if he can be trusted." It was the voice that was usually behind him during the torture making the speech. "You've tried the whip now try the carrot," came the female voice. "Fine but you won't get anything." Joel passed out.

Days passed without any major incident. One night he had a dream where all his life troubles played out but that quickly passed. There was no torture and the food got better, if only slightly. Was this this the calm before the storm? Was his hallucination real? A knock came at the door. The door then opened slowly. A tall brunet was the one pushing the door open. "Hello," she said in the same voice of the hallucination. Joel reached a hand out and touched the knee of the woman. She felt real enough. "Are you a hallucination?" She laughed. "I have been called a lot of things in my life but hallucination is not one of them. Look I got you a short reprieve on the torture but you are going to have to cooperate with the powers that be. Do you understand?" Joel nodded slightly but firmly. "Good. I'll show you to some better accommodations where you can freshen up a bit before what we need you for."

The room she showed him was marvelous. Of course he would have thought that about most rooms at that point. There was a nice bed, there looked to be a holographic generator in the room, and the bathrooms looked like something a king would have. The strange woman left. What to do first Joel thought. Shower would probably be best he concluded. He quickly rushed to the bathroom and locked the door. After taking a hot shower that felt like it lasted hours he turned the shower off and stared at his clothes. What was the point of the shower if I have to put those on? He wrapped himself in a towel and searched for clothes in the main part of the room. He found a closet full of UARS uniforms that were roughly his size. Dare he wear the uniform of the ones who killed so many? Would the ruse be believable if he didn't? "When in Rome," he muttered and donned the uniform.

He headed outside the room. When he opened the door he saw the woman in a chair facing the door. She appeared to be reading something on a tablet computer. "All done," she said not looking up from the device. "Yes." The woman turned off the device and slid it into a pocket. "Follow me," she said. "Don't veer off." They went through a lot of hallways and took an elevator down before they found themselves in a room with three people chattering very quickly. One was a redheaded woman, a young looking Russian man, and an old looking ma of Arab descent. They walked to about an arm's length from the table. The brunet gently whispered, "Joel's here." Everyone immediately stopped their chattering and came to look in his direction. "He's here to help us," the brunet said. "What is the current nuclear armament of the AU and do they have any other weapons of mass destruction," the young man asked. "I don't know," came Joel's response. The redhead piped up, "What is the mission of the Miranda project?" "To study Uranus and its moons and also to report if any of those moons would be good for mining." "Is the project based of a space station or are they being based from one of the moons," came the redhead again. "Last I heard it was a space station orbiting the planet but I never saw plans or anything." There was silence for a while. "Can he be trusted," came the young man.

The mysterious brunet woman laughed then said, "If he can't he's bound for a short drop and a sudden stop or something far worse." The woman seemed to chill the room with those words. The redhead broke the silence. "Do you have any ideas how to contact someone on this mission?" "Radio signals and a lot of lag." The young man spoke up. "We were looking for something a lot quicker and less traceable. Possibly instantaneous." "The only way it could be instantaneous is if the message traveled through subspace and from my understanding of subspace it's impossibly." "Elaborate," the redhead said. "When one enters subspace they are trapped between the second. An infinite amount of time can pass in subspace but going back to normal space you'll come back on the exact second you left. Helps that the laws of physics don't completely apply to that region. Anyways the point is two different objects have to enter subspace at exactly the same moment or they will be trapped in different moments. Logistically that's nigh impossible to coordinate over short distances but with the added distance between here and Miranda it really does start to become impossible. If the other side is just the tiniest fraction of a second off your message would be lost forever."

"Surely there would be some way to read the signal from the outside," came from the older man. He looked to be a man in the later years of his life Joel thought. "The most someone would detect is the subspace fluctuations as the transmission passed them by and those fluctuations would be faint. The only time subspace fluctuations are easily detectable is when an object enters subspace and when it leaves." "And if someone had the equipment to detect the minor fluctuations," replied the older man. "Still impossible." There was silence. Joel took this opportunity to take a seat at the table. The brunet did the same. The redhead started tapping a finger on the table as if to an unheard melody. The younger man clicked a pen. An idea started to form in Joel's mind. "Hang on. How fast can whatever is sending the signal oscillate?" Everyone look puzzled. After a few seconds the redhead's eyes lit up. "That is brilliant. Though sending a binary sequence would take hundreds of characters." "I wasn't thinking binary. More like Morse code." Everyone's faces turned back to bewilderment. Joel joined them. "What did your history classes teach you nothing? The telegraph or the million or uses it had? Man if what they say about those who don't learn from history is true we're screwed."

"The one in question would know ancient forms of communication. That might work." The redhead looked pleased but still puzzled. "We don't need him any more," the old man said. The mysterious brunet escorted him out and back to the nice room. She took out a pen and clicked it. "There that should keep anyone from listening in. I'm CIA and we need to get you out of here. They are going to kill you soon." "I was wondering what you were doing here with an American accent. Why haven't they killed you yet?" She set the pen on the bed and grabbed a key from her pocket and rushed to unlock a door. "Because they think I'm a double agent for their side." She grabbed a bag and handed it to Joel. "These are your effects including a tablet, portable hard drive, and a lollipop. How cute." "Wait hold on a sec. The CIA recruited me to pretend to be a double agent. Why wouldn't they have told me about you?"

"Considering how you told them everything and when you did it wasn't hard to tell the lies from the truth I think it was a great decision. Plus they probably weren't expecting you to be grabbed. You couldn't shake a tail? That's not smart." "Hey I am one of the best military commanders the AU has seen." "That very well may be but you're an oaf when it comes to espionage. Though that bit about the Morse code was good. Like that would ever work." She was heartily laughing. "Hey I was being serious about that suggestion." She stopped laughing. "Well then, you are an oaf."

"Shockingly calling me names isn't helping me escape, and shouldn't we be trying to get more info before we up and leave." "I've found out about all I'm going to. Some guy code named Gog is running the show and what ever they are up to it's bad. Annoying person always giving me furtive glances. It sounds like another attack but I can't find out the when and the where. Though Miranda might be it if they are trying to send a message there. Maybe some sort of sleeper agent that needs to be activated. Anyways we need to move now." "I have a friend on Miranda. We need to warn him." "Which we can do when we escape. Let's move." "No we need to get more info especially if the attack is on Miranda." "Oh and do you have some sort of brilliant plan to go along with that?" "You are very beautiful." "Why do I not like the look in your eyes? No wait you can't be serious." "It worked in the world wars and probably later on most likely. The hard drive has a virus that can hack almost any system and the lollipop has an audio transmitter embedded in the stick. Best-case scenario you get some info out of him. At worst you provide a distraction and give me enough time to get info off the system. I can keep an ear on you with the transmitter." "That's a decent plan. Fine. Down the hallway to the right, last door on your left, is a computer no one uses but is connected to the whole system. On the ground floor is a hanger with some prototype ship they have. Head for there. If you can, wait for me for thirty to fifty minutes. If I'm not there by then just go."

Joel handed her the lollipop. She handed him the pen, then unwrapped the lollipop, and put it in her mouth. "Go," she mumbled. Joel put the pen in his pocket, fired up the tablet, and ran for the location the woman had said. He could hear a sucking noise. He opened the door slowly. There was no one in there. He quickly plugged in the portable hard drive. He moved the mouse. He could see a password prompt. It was gone a second later. He saw a file called TTOFTA on the desktop with a picture of a snow-capped mountain behind it. He copied the TTOFTA file to his hard drive. He then brought up a search for the words attack or Miranda. The only file that appeared was a file labeled TTOFTA. He checked the location of the file. It was the same file he saw on the desktop earlier. He opened it. "Pending. Israeli invasion on hold till the secrets of Miranda are found." Secrets of Miranda? Wait what did they want with Israel? No time to think. He had to leave. He quickly logged off the computer and removed his drive. He than started to run to the place where the brunet had told him to go. He met with no security along the way to the elevator. When he got out he saw a door with sunlight going through a window in a door. He ran to it and opened it. He was outside and still saw no security or guards. He looked around at the landscape. It did look like they were in the middle of nowhere. He finally spotted the hanger and a small landing strip next to it. From the angle he was looking there appeared to be no guards. Should he make a run for it? He did. No shots rang out and he was relieved when he had a hand firmly placed on the white spaceship. He caught his breath for a moment then went into the ship. No one was there. He strapped himself in.

He turned his focus to the controls. They were all labeled firstly in Russian then in Arabic. That was unhelpful he thought. He then turned his focus to the tablet. He heard a rap on a door. A creak followed. "Hey I'm bored. Wanna have some fun?" "Oh I knew this day would come." A whooshing sound was heard then a clink. There was the sound of some odd noises. This went on for a while. Then there was a male voice. "I want to show you my collection. Come on." There was silence then he heard an odd sound. It sounded metallic and grating. The male voice spoke again. "This sword is the sharpest blade known to man. You are a traitor." A scream rang out, then a cutting noise, and then the thud of heavy object hitting the ground. Joel started to panic. This can't be happening. Why do people keep dying around me? Why are these controls labeled in Russian? "Is there some kind of autopilot," he wondered aloud. "Yes there is. Where would you like to go," came a male voice. "That's slightly disconcerting." Joel thought for a moment. "Peterson Air Force Base." "That location is enemy territory. Would you like to engage shields?" "This thing has shields?" "Yes it's one of four prototypes that do." "Yes engage shields."

Now to warn Simon! He grabbed the tablet and tried to connect to the LLAMMA satellites. The words, "Authorization required, please place fingertips on a scanner," appeared on the screen. Joel put his fingertips on the screen. "Authorization no longer valid," came a female voice. "Well so much for that." Joel started looking around the craft. His eyes stopped at the portable hard drive. Surely it couldn't hack the satellites. Could it? He quickly plugged the hard drive into the tablet. In a few seconds he heard, "Assess Granted." "Send this priority message to Miranda Base specifically Commander Simon." The ceiling of the craft appeared on the screen. Joel adjusted the device so his face was on the screen. "Simon do not let anyone else see this message. You're the only one I can trust. There is a UARS spy on Miranda Station. I don't know who exactly so trust no one. I just escaped from being a highly classified undercover op so tell no one where you got this info. Be careful old friend. Message ends." The screen changed to a list of possible commands. "Connect me to the ADC." Joel's face appeared on the screen with the face of a general in top left corner. "Joel you were discharged! How do you still have access to the array?" "Long story. Look I'm in a stolen blackjack headed for Peterson so please don't shoot me down and can you inform our allies to do the same."

The general was stammering. "How'd you get a blackjack?" "You don't want to know and secondly it's classified." "How do I know you haven't defected and are going to drop a nuke on us?" "There are no nuclear armaments on this vessel," came the male voice of the computer. "What was that?" "The blackjack seems to have a similar AI to the ones we put in the Beagles." "Probably another thing they stole from us, just like the FTL drive. Fine we'll inform allies and give you a clear path. What's your current position?" "Somewhere over UARS territory. Should hit the UK in," Joel paused. "One hour thirty," came the ship. "Fine we'll scramble a fighter escort when you get near there." The screen faded back to a list of options. "Computer when you see fighter jets disengage shields. Is that understood?" "Yes it's understood but why should I disengage shields in front of enemy craft?" "That's classified." "Then I am afraid I cannot." "Fine it's an undercover operation to feed false information to the AU and create a panic. The idea that UARS is trying to create a shielded blackjack will do that exceedingly well." "You keep referring to this ship by its ATO designation." "Give me a break. I haven't been a turn coat for that long and it sounds a lot better than the ship type name." "Shields will disengage upon seeing enemy craft." "Thank you."

When UK airspace was reached the shields disengaged. "You may want to disengage the jamming device," the computer said. Joel had forgotten about it. He clicked the pen. "Come in enemy craft. Please identify. We saw a flash of lightning. Is your ship okay?" Joel quickly replied, "This is Joel Jordal flying the captured enemy craft and the lightning was shields disengaging." "Bloody hell they're shielding them now? Anyways we'll be your escorts till halfway across the Atlantic where you will meet up with an American entourage." The rest of the flight was peaceful. The tradeoff happened without a hitch and the ship managed to land without incident at Peterson Air Force base.

"You will explain yourself," came the general Joel had spoken with earlier. "I was playing a double agent, got some info, and hijacked a blackjack to make my escape. Lancaster could probably explain it better than me. He still not in the springs is he?" "No, till about an hour ago he was in prison. We thought he might have leaked your location to UARS." "A blackjack lands on top of a base and you accuse the CIA of leaking a location?" "It wasn't my decision." The conversation ended there. The odd figure of Peter Lancaster was walking towards them. "Brother am I glad to be out of there. How'd you like you're first op?" "Did you send anybody else in?" "Not me personally but there was a long term female plant in place." "She's dead."

Peter paused looking sullen. "Was it worth it?" "You're trying to put a cost on a human life? We got some intel on where the next attack may be. Is that worth it in you're ideology?" Peter sighed. "Look what we do is not pretty. There are sacrifices and we do things others wouldn't be willing to do to protect this nation. The ends do justify the means." There came a slight pause then a reassuring glance. "Are you in? Were always looking for a good operative." "Can I decline assignments?" "Of course." "Yes." Peter handed him what looked like a badge and an ID. "Raise your right hand." Joel complied. "Do you promise to always fight for the AU and follow orders given to you?" Joel thought for a moment. "I do." "You're in" "That seemed a lot less formal than I thought it would be." "Desperate times."
Chapter 8 Slayer

"You will forget all pass acquaintances. As far as the rest of the world is concerned you disappeared grief stricken after the battle at Mars." Those were some of the first words Joel heard after accepting his new position. Training was tough but not what Joel had expected. After a month Peter cracked a large grin. "You're ready, and just in time too. We have the time and place of a meeting between Gog and his superior. The room where they will be has already been bugged but I want you on hand to listen to the voices and confirm identifies. You are one of a very small number who have heard Gog and lived to tell the tale." Peter handed him a gun. "Laser Pistol," Joel asked excitedly. Peter laughed. "The power requirements would be extreme for that. Closest thing we have is an evaporation ray and you only get three shots with it. Great for assassinations though. Only leaves a trace if you know what chemicals and compounds to look for in the air and few people ever look for them. Anyways what you got there is just a standard handgun. Don't use it unless absolutely necessary." "Understood." "Your ride leaves in a hour and you'll be there about a day ahead of the meeting. Stay out of sight and don't get caught. Good luck."

The ride was uneventful. So were the hours leading up to the meeting. For what felt like an hour Joel was in a building next to the abandoned one where the meeting was suppose to take place. It was dark out but the moon shined brilliantly. Waiting and more waiting. There was nothing interesting on his tablet and no noise coming through the headphones. If there was one thing Joel hated it was waiting. Also on the list was people dying, especially people he knew personally. His thoughts turned to Ashley. He started to well up. No the mission first, cry later. He missed her so much. No stop. Ashley wasn't the only one to die. Then his thought turned to the agent he met during his incarceration. That was just as tragic. Wait was her name? Joel was shocked he couldn't think of it. Did he even ask what it was? Doesn't matter. Mission first. He heard movement. "Not here yet. Typical!" The voice was undeniably Gog.

A device sounded like it was powering up. "Finally," Gog muttered. "You have done what I have asked?" "Yes. Israel will be invaded according to your specifications." "Good," came the other voice sounding pleased. "Is there more? Anything else?" "No but make sure it doesn't happen till the event occurs. Everyone will be off their guard then." "Those are the standing orders that have been given." The device sounded like it was powering down.

Gog whoever he was he was responsible for the chaos Joel thought. Anger swelled up in him like he had never felt before. He must pay. For Ashley! For the girl whose name he didn't know! For everyone who had died as a result of UARS actions! Joel heard a door creak. He smiled. Only one exit could make that noise. He ran but made sure he made no noise. When the target was in sight he ran even faster. When he was a few feet away he cocked the gun and pointed it and the back of Gog's head yelling, "Don't move." Gog turned around again. "You again," he said with a mild annoyance. "You will pay for your crimes." "Of that I have doubt. Aren't you at least going to offer me a trade of information for my life that you think is so pitiful?" "Fine but make it snappy." "A magicians greatest trick is not that he makes something disappear. It's that he can misdirect you so he can make the thing vanish." "What the hell is that suppose to mean? Magicians went out of style when holograms came in."

Gog shook his head in amazement. He sighed. "It means all this could be an elaborate misdirection to keep you from the real truth." "Or your making up an elaborate hoax to save your life, pitiful as it may be." "Well it's obvious you're not going to believe me so your only recourse is to shoot me or turn me. It's also obvious you're incapable of the former. Your no killer." "But you are. Probably hundreds if not thousands died because of you. You're worse than the butcher ever was." "Now that is a matter of perspective. Five years down the road people will be applauding the decisions I made in these days." That did it. If he weren't already insanely mad that would have ignited ever bit of fury he had. Smug little bast-. A shot rang out. Joel turned quickly but not quickly enough to miss the sight of the deformed face of Gog as he fell. Joel ran never looking back. He couldn't stop running. What had he done? What he was he going to do? Ditch the weapon was the first thing he thought of. He ran a few blocks and buried it in a trash bin. I've got to get out of this country he thought. So he ran to where his ride should be waiting. The pilot was there. "Hey what are you doing here?" "Met with resistance. Need immediate evac." "Yes sir." They both quickly hopped into the plane.

Why did people say revenge was good? He shot a man in cold blood for revenge, in the face no less. Who would claim the body and cry to see it disfigured in that way? He could not shake the image of that face. It burned into his memory and for all the water he tried to throw on it nothing could stop that image from haunting Joel. Why oh why did he do it? Wait what are they going to say back home? No push that thought aside. What would he do? Was there a way he could spin this? Gog was the leader of the enemy. Yes he did it to assassinate a high leader of the enemy to try and cripple the command structure.

...

"I did it to assassinate a high leader of the enemy to try and cripple the command structure." "Why do I not find that believable? Your orders were to observe only. No engagement unless fired upon. What was so hard to understand about that? I had to send a cleanup crew in. Leaving the body in plain site and leaving the gun only a few blocks away. You can't even assassinate someone right. You are done. You'll be spending the rest of you're life in a CIA detention cell."

But he didn't. Apparently some higher ups in the CIA liked the idea of the assassination even as sloppy as it was. Joel suffered no major consequences. He was no longer part of the CIA but he was more or less free. He was not allowed to leave Colorado Springs or contact anyone he knew for at least four months but that didn't bother him since the only person he would want to contact was Simon. With his military and CIA career shot it was nearly impossible to contact him till he got back to Earth. Not getting punished was almost as bad as whatever punishment he would have received. Nothing could assuage his guilt. At least with punishment he would either be dead or in prison. With death he would not be feeling guilt and with prison maybe he would feel like he was paying his debt to society. Or at least be happy in the fact he could no longer hurt it. Months passed and Joel wallowed in beer and depression. The doorbell rang. That was strange. No one ever came by. It rang again. "Package for a Joel Jordal. You need to sign for it." He opened the door and took the clipboard handed to him. "You don't so good." "I'm fine. Just fine" The deliveryman did not look convinced. He handed the package to Joel quickly and left with a hollow have a nice day.

Joel slammed the door and threw the package into the middle of the room. He went back to the chair he was sitting in before contemplating ending his existence. He smelt an awful smell. It was coming from the package. He opened it. There was a head in it. Decomposition looked like the beheading happened only a few days ago Joel thought. Then he recognized the face. He rushed to grab a phone and call Peter. He got no answer but got an answering machine. "It's Joel. Someone sent me the female agents head that was killed when I stole the blackjack. They must have had it on ice or something because the decomposition doesn't seem that bad." He hung up. He had no clue what to do with the head.

Why would someone send a head to him in the first place? He was baffled. The more he thought about it the puzzled he became. Then it hit him. It was a taunt. The AU was taunting him saying the attack was about to happen and there was nothing he could do about it. He ran and hopped in a car. He didn't have much of a plan but he knew where he needed to go and the only thing capable of getting him there in time was at Peterson.

When he got there the guard asked for ID. He handed the guard his driver's license. "Military ID sir. I can't let you on this base without military ID or someone vouching for you. "The president, Commander in Chief, will vouch for me. Obviously there has been some slip up in communications but the president ordered me to Washington ASAP and I need a shuttle to get me there as fast as she wants. Surely the Bagel is still here?" "It is Sir." "Radio ahead. Have it prepped." "That would be a huge breach of protocol." "Well it will most likely be a breach of protocol or your head. Which would you prefer?" The gates opened. "It should be ready when you arrive at the strip."

Joel couldn't believe that actually worked and he was sitting in a beagle class shuttle. "Ship set a course to Israel. Enter subspace for maximum speed." "More specific destination required." "I don't know. Big city near the coast." "Tel Aviv?" "Sure why not? Any bases there?" "There's Camp Rabin" "Great head there." The ship started to take off. "Bagel you are not authorized for flight and especially not to Tel Aviv." "You filed a flight plan? Infernal machine! Ignore what he says and get me there. I am on a special mission sanctioned by the president herself." The ship complied. When it got to Tel Aviv and exited subspace three fighter jets were in position to strike.
Chapter 9 TTOFTA

"Don't shoot. I'm advisor to the president and I'm here to inform you of a possible UARS attack. My name is Joel Jordal." The jets didn't fire but neither did he hear a response. It was tense. Would they shoot or wouldn't they? "Follow us and you'll be escorted." "Will do," Joel replied back. I've got to use that line more Joel thought.

He was escorted to the camp and waiting for them was a tall man with nametag on his uniform that said Eshel. "What info do you have for us?" "A few months ago we received intel from the CIA that there was a possible attack." "Then why is this the first we've heard of it?" "No one thought it would actually happen. We all thought it was a red herring. Still I thought someone would have informed you." A ring was heard and the Israeli man retrieved his phone and opened it quickly. "I understand," was all the man said. "What exactly are you advisor to the president for?" "Military." "Great follow me to the war room." "What's going on?" "A large number of White Swans were detected." "White Swans? You're afraid of a bird?" "When that bird makes up the bulk of UARS air force then yes." "White swan? You mean blackjack?" "Yeah that's the ATO designation I think." The lights flickered.

They entered the war room to pure chaos. "What's going on," Eshel yelled. "We've loss control of the majority of our systems. Radar, sensors, radio communication, and nuclear weapons seem not to be effected." "You guys have nukes," Joel asked aloud. "Of course," said Eshel. "Speaking of, have you detected any nukes aboard the ships?" Someone yelled out, "No but they are everywhere, all over the entire nation." "What does that mean," asked Eshel. "It means they don't want to kill you, hopefully. What is the motive though?" "What was the motive for the Mars attack," asked the Eshel. "Food." Everyone was scrambling to try and regain access to the systems.

"How well do you know your Articles of Colonization? Who are the donor nations?" Joel looked at Eshel puzzled. "UARS and of course the AU. There was some smaller nation but I can never remember which." "Oh thanks," came the voice of the Eshel oozing with sarcasm. "We are on that list. We were supposed to give some our excess to Jordan. The backstabbers!" Joel though about it. It sounded plausible. "So a gambit for food and resources?" "Seems so." That didn't sit right with Joel.

"A magician's greatest trick is not that he makes something disappear. It's that he misdirects you so he can make something disappear." "What's that suppose to mean?" "It means something else is going on." "And do you have any evidence to support that?" "No its just conjecture but the CIA might." Joel grabbed a satellite phone from his pocket and dialed. He heard Arab voices. Then he heard the voices speaking in Hebrew. Then came the English. They spoke brightly and cheerfully. "Israel is being invaded by UARS. Have a nice day." Joel hung up.

"They're affecting the satellites." "What kind of virus can affect so many systems?" Joel had a sinking feeling. How did they get their hands on it? "They are asking for our surrender," someone shouted above the bustle. "Do we have any choice?" "No. They likely have control of the LLAMA satellites and even if they didn't we'd have no way to access it. You guys haven't been able to launch any planes have you?" "No whatever this is affected the nav systems on them."

"Tell them we surrender," called Eshel. Everyone in the room looked sadden by that announcement but not shocked. They knew there was no hope. "Adonai, Adonai," someone shouted out. A beeping sound came. Now everyone in the room started to look shocked. "Enemy contacts are being destroyed." "By what," Eshel shouted. "No clue." "Well get someone up top and see." "I'll go," Joel said quickly. He rushed out the room and to an elevator. When he got to the top he rushed out. "There's no way," Joel said. It was hailing. Not tiny sizes but great big golf ball sized hail. There also appeared to some sort of meteor shower going on. Blackjacks were being destroyed everywhere. The odds against both events happening at the same time and having a beneficial outcome were astronomical.

Reason no longer made any sense to Joel. All he could do was manage to mouth the word, "What?"
Epilogue

All this has happened before and all this will happen again.
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