Lori reached over to squeeze her hand.
Cory got the wire off the cap, and the cork blew of its own accord.
People exclaimed, jumped out of the way.
Champagne flowed out of the bottle onto the table, dripping onto the floor.
The image on the wall changed to show their table extending, with John seated at it with them, with his own cup, enjoying with them.
“So lets get this party started,” John’s image said.
Lori cried harder while she held her cup to Cory for some champagne.
All cups filled, Lori couldn’t restrain herself. “I love you so much, John!”
“I love you, too, Lori. But no tears now or we’ll be drinking them in our glasses.” John held his glass high for all to follow. “Here’s to Lori,” he said, “for being the best wife a guy ever had.” Everyone nodded and began to click glasses, but John continued. “And here’s to everyone else, as well. It’s good to see you again, Cory, and my little doll Marie! Damn, you look good!”
All chuckled.
John continued. “Here’s to everyone of us: We’re all part of the process that brought us here to this fantastic ship with the galaxy’s smartest A.I.—”
Marie and Lori smiled.
“Ooooh! Gene!” Gadin said.
“Patting herself on the back! Shameless!” Cory said.
“That has brought us to the age of transmutation, health, and longevity. You’re my kind of people. And I’ve been so proud to love you all.”
Tears flowed freely down Lori’s cheeks as all drank the toast.
CHAPTER
29
A rapid gong jarred Gadin from his sleep.
Marie was already gone.
The gong repeated.
Gadin rolled over in his bed. “What is it with you people!”
Adrien was on Gene’s bridge. Ella was beside him.
Cadence was on the HUD. “It looks like a riot, Adrien.”
Gene opened a window on the HUD to show people fighting in the old city of Jerusalem.
Lori walked into the room. “I think we’re about ready,” she said. “from my end.”
“Is everybody up?” Ella asked Gene.
“She made sure we are,” Gadin said, walking onto the bridge with the other 1st Centuries.
“You’re wearing a white bath robe?” Cory asked with a chuckle.
“That’s all that was there! My clothes are gone.”
Cadence’s Oval Office was large on the HUD. “Hello everyone.”
“Good morning, Madam President,” Oliver said.
“Good morning. How long will it take you to get there?” Cadence asked Lori. It’s morning there, now.
Lori thought. “We could do it in juist a few minutes, but that would scare people even more, so I think we should take it slow. Maybe just over an hour.”
“When will you be there?” Ella asked Cadence.
“Film crews are already there for the coming war. I’m not going to be on site, because, frankly, I think it best I not appear to be involved.”
Georgina Wells, Secretary of State, walked in to the Oval Office. “Skyping with the Mother Ship on your laptop?”
She gave Cadence a paper. “We’re going to have war on our hands. The groups in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza are all blossoming. The transmuters are up and running again, but the fight over them is changing focus to Israel. I’ve got people trying to keep a lid on it, but we’re losing it.”
“Adrien— Lori: Can you make it any sooner?”
Adrien’s head sagged. He glanced at Ella and Lori, and nodded gravely.
The connection with the President ended.
Gene’s HUD went back to showing Earth-moon proximity, data flying over it relating to various measurements.
“Where are we going?” Cory Peck asked the Ahleths.
Adrien’s mood was heavy.
Oliver said nothing.
Hanah and Wood stood by each other, obviously in support of whatever was done.
A glance from Adrien—
Ella spoke up. “Gene, please make preparations to bring this ship to Earth. We must depart as soon as possible.”
“Working,” Gene said.
“Lori, you drive. Get us there. Don’t wreck the place while you’re at it, if you can.”
Lori nodded and stepped closer to the HUD, began managing displays. The screen changed from their region of space to various navigation displays, including possible rourtes.
“Colonel Wood,” Ella continued, “Would you mind changing out of your uniform? Perhaps a business suit, for this?”
“Okay, if you wish.”
Colonel Wood’s uniform morphed into a business suit worthy of Wall Street.
He looked surprised, but smiled at Hanah.
“Hanah— You still going to wear that dress?”
“What’s the occasion?”
“This— Gene? You think a formal?”
“I think in this case, a white formal, maxi, shoulders but no sleeves would do nicely. Pleated, thin material, light, slinky, flowing.”
Hanah’s face brightened. “Yes!”
At once, her dress did so become.
Hanah held the material to the sides and watched it flow gently back down.
“Oliver, your suit is fine, but for this, you’ll need to be sure and stay inside the ship. I don’t want anyone to see you.”
“I’m so embarrassing!”
“No. But you’re the Vice President of the U.S.A., and that won’t do for this. Too political.”
“You’re—”
“I’m just a science advisor—I agree that’s bad, but I’m also Ahleth, and I may be needed. We’ll see.”
A large chair chair formed near Adrien, and he took a seat in it.
Another chair formed near Lori, and she sat as well. “Ollie, would you like to fly in your own space ship? For this mission?”
“Would I?!”
“Lucky sod!” Cory said to him.
“Okay,” Lori nodded. “Both of you?” She glanced at Ella who seemed to agree. “Okay. Gene, would you show them to Alexander and Bessie? Ollie to Alexander, and Cory to Bessie?”
“Oh! This is too much! What about me?” Gadin said.
“I’ll watch after you,” Marie walked over to Lori. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Lori looked to Marie, gave her a small hug, then glanced to Gadin for a second. “He may need you.”
“Okay.” Marie walked back to Gadin. “You want to go have sex again? It’ll take your mind off this.”
For the first time in almost 12,000 Earth years, the great mother ship began to move. From outside, in space, it was undetectable. The exterior of the ship wasn’t so much “black” as it absorbed most of the electromagnetic energy that it received, so it appeared without reflection, dark.
As it moved, stars winked out as it obscured them, winked back in as it moved past.
NORAD, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado:
“Has it moved yet?” The general asked.
The tech sergeant scanned his consoles. “Sir, I can’t even tell where it is to start with.”
A moving sliver of light opened in the blackness of space. Two flying disks emerged, took flanking positions beside the mother ship.
“Lets give them warning?” Lori asked Adrien and Ella. “We aren’t there, yet, but what if governments knew we were coming? Make things better or worse?”
Adrien and Ella appeared to consider.
“Don’t telegraph your moves to the enemy,” Colonel Wood said.
“But they’re not the enemy,” Hanah said.
“We’re moving?” Gadin said, a little pale.
Marie put her arms around Gadin’s neck and leaned on him.
With a quick glance at Adrien and Ella, Lori turned to the HUD. “Gene, please zig us ‘up’ so we’re coming in from above the moon’s orbital plane, and then send a signal, like a transponder. Light us up for them.”
/> “Working,” Gene said in her surreal, intersex voice.
“Display, please.” Lori said. The HUD dropped its 2-D representation and adopted 3-D, rotating under Lori’s hands, to show them rapidly moving ‘higher’ to re-angle an approach to Earth as if not from a Lagrange point.
“Emitting something like ‘radar,’” Gene said. “Lights on. E.M. absorption Off.
Bessie’s HUD suddenly displayed a representation of Gene.
“God!” Cory shouted.
NORAD:
“SIR! I’ve got them!”
“Where are they?” the general asked.
The sergeant worked controls to provide a 2-D map of nearby space, showing a large dot for the ship with a projected path to Earth.
“Where are they going?”
The sergeant’s display pinpointed—
“The White Sea?” The general was disgusted. “North of Moscow? The commie Reds!”
“That path,” Lori said to Colonel Wood, “will help us miss satellites in Lower Earth Orbit.”
“You can’t dodge out of the way?”
“I don’t dodge,” Gene told him. “I go. I move. Sometimes I sway, but I do not dodge.”
“I’m afraid she’s too big, Wood,” Lori said.
“How big?”
“Have you seen ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’?” Lori asked.
Gadin nodded several times.
Lori wrinkled her nose with a smile.
Gene answered him. “That was me when I was five.”
Tracking commands were alarmed in numerous other countries. People jumped. Orders shouted. Directives flew.
Air forces were put on alert.
Fighters were scrambled.
Missiles were made ready.
“I’m sensing the area is hot,” Gene said on her bridge.
“Compensate,” Ella said. “Don’t hurt anyone, but keep it to a minimum, please?”
“You going to be okay with this?” Lori asked Gene.
The 3-D HUD made a grimace in the middle for a second. “I don’t need ‘atmosphere.’”
Cory in Bessie asked, “I need a chair.”
Bessie formed him a chair.
He sat.
“Can you put your HUD on Estella’s television back home?”
“She can,” Alexander said in his thick Scottish accent. “But she is not there. Tracking her phone says she’s at the market, just now, probably buying hair care products.”
Oliver sat in his own chair in Alexander. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“I can’t get you to stop asking stupid questions,” Alexander said.
“You don’t like me!” Oliver said.
“I don’t like—” Alexander hesitated. “No, actually I do. If I were human, I’d go for you.”
NORAD:
The sergeant marked in alarm for the General. “Sir! The blip is moving at an alarming speed!”
The general studied the display.
The major next to him asked, “Should we prepare for an eventuality, sir?”
“No,” the general said. “Let it come.”
Estella had just put eggs into her shopping cart, when her phone rang. She picked it up and answered the call.
“Hello, Honey,” Cory said. “What are you up to?”
“About five-six.” Estella seemed pleased. “Where are you?”
“Oh, I’m in a flying saucer in outer space somewhere over Russia at the moment. Maybe a hundred thousand miles up at the moment.”
Estella gripped the shopping cart. “What?!”
“Yeah!” Cory said. “I can really get it up! What’s surprising about that? You saw ‘em pick me up!”
Estella seemed weak at the knees.
Two other ladies by the yogurt came to her assistance.
“Hey,” Cory said calmly. “Turn skype on your phone.”
Cadence Hemsley sat in the Oval Office before a large television monitor with General Beck of the U.S.A.F.; Harold Trim, Director of the F.B.I.; Eugene Liebner, N.S.A.; Jimmy Duffet, Chief of Staff; Doreen Washington, Press Secretary; and Georgina Wells, Secretary of State; and Dr. Tina Louise Augustine, President of Westech.
The butler brought them tea.
“Thank you for having me, Madam President,” Dr. Augustine said, 20 years old, new to being female, with a “T” on her left temple. “You have such a lovely home.”
Cadence smiled warmly. “Well, thank you, sweetie.”
“Ain’t this a great program?” General Beck noted. “Got any pizza?”
Jimmy Duffet saluted him with one finger.
The earth’s terminator—the division between day and night—cut through Europe, Greece, the Mediterranean, and south through the Saharah Desert. The oceans were brilient blue, with faded green and brown where there was land. It was morning.
“There is a satellite in the way, Lori,” Gene said. “Moving, closing, azimuth one two Zero degrees.” She displayed it on the HUD for Lori.
“Can we ‘sway’ to the side?” Lori asked.
“A little.”
The huge mother ship’s course altered slightly.
Bessie and Alexander hugged her flanks per norm, but the huge satellite, barely missing Gene’s hull by inches, bore down on Alexander with alarming speed.
Alexander dodged. “Watch it!”
A little smile appeared briefly on Gene’s HUD.
“Can you miss everything in LEO?” Wood asked.
“Sorry,” Lori answered for Gene. If you count small items, there are more than 21,000 orbital bits above 10 centimeters, and if you count those smaller than one, there are over 100,000,000.”
“What do you do with those?” the nerous Gadin asked. “Will they pierce us like bullets? I saw ‘Gravity.’”
Lori shook her head, turning back to her displays. “We let them disintegrate on contact.” She added, distracted. “Like little clouds of dust.”
Gene began to slow her approach through LEO and into Earth’s atmosphere, though not slow enough to prevent apparent flame around the three craft.
Arcing over the White Sea, the huge ship and her two shuttles headed south at an altitude of about 20,000 feet, mean sea level.
“I’m going over Moscow,” Gene said to all ships and persons. “I realize we’re in a hurry to stop a war, but we also need to prevent the next one. I think they need to see this.”
“Launch the fighters!” the Russian general orderd. “Get the missiles online!”
Russian fighters take off from a runway.
It was a busy day in Red Square, the centeral square of Moscow. Major streets originated there and webbed out over the city.
A mother and her three children walked—
“Mother!” The boy pointed.
“Gene,” Lori asked, “Can you give us a view of the city beneath us?”
The huge 3-D screen switched back to 2-D, as if a monstrous, 180 degree, semi-circular HDTV.
A ship the size of a city slowly crept overhead the Square at an antitude of about one thousand feet, which—because of the gargantuan size of the ship—appeared to be brushing the building tops. It was roughly circular in design, perhaps twenty miles in diameter and not more than a mile in height. Several features were blocky as if for a purpose. There were some spires in the center, running straight up for thousands of feet.
People screamed in the Square and started to run, when a booming announcement came from the overhead ship.
Ella spoke on the bridge in fluent Russian. “People of Moscow. Do not fear us.”
Ella’s voice boomed out the bottom of the mother ship. “We’re the Ahleth who have provided the transmuters. There is no danger. Please: there is no danger. We’re not here to hurt you. What we’re doing is letting Putin know to stop killing people—and while we’re at it, why do you let him stay in power? You’re the reason he gets away with all this sh— Stuff.”
Hanah laughed on the bridge.
“If you’re going to liv
e for a very long time, we hope you will all some day learn.”
Slowly, the mother ship turned on its axis as it accelerated faster to the south.
Russian fighters approached the mother ship, when suddenly their engines quit without fanfare. Pilots ejected as their planes fell.
“All you do it shut off the electricity,” Gene said. “like ‘Day the Earth Stood Still,’ I think it was. Gort!”
Gene brought the mother ship over populated areas of Ukraine, without a message played.
In short course, all fighting stopped. People stared at the three ships above them.
CHAPTER
30
The Oval Office had a larger monitor brought in. Cadence and several others watched the feed from various sources play.
The riot had frightened the entire city of Jerusalem. People were beaten. A man stabbed another man, until yet another man, standing with his back to the Western Wall took an AK-47 fired a lengthy volley over the heads of the crowd.
“Where are the Israeli Defense Forces?” Cadence demanded.
“They’re everywhere!” Georgina Wells said. “Spread out thin. It’s erupting everywhere at once—and not just Israel. It’s through out the Middle East. Look.”
Georgina took the remote and began to change channels, all feeds from various sources from onsite crews to satellites.
The video on their monitor showed the violence.
“Can we send in arms?” Cadence looked to her advisors.
“Where?” General Beck asked.
“Maybe Lori’s group—” Georgina began.
“Lets go to the lower bridge,” Ella said to everyone.
Ella got up to walk, and everyone followed her.