CHAPTER 93
WRUCK REPEATED THIS, while everyone gave me looks that said they thought the Treeship was going down.
“Thank you for confirmation, Doctor Gaultier,” V.A.R.I.S. said. “Explosives have been deactivated.”
“All of them?” Wruck asked.
“Yes, Doctor Gaultier. All explosives in and around Kharg Island and all explosives on the underwater docking area have been deactivated.”
The entire room let out its collective breath. Heard breaths being let out via both cell phones, too.
“Getting off the line,” Jerry said. “Landing is commencing.” My phone turned off. No music came on. Put my phone into my back pocket. Wished I had my purse—needed to get all these extra clips out of my pants.
“We’re getting off, too, Chuck,” Stryker said. “We’re all watching the landing.” White’s phone disconnected and he took it back as well.
“Well done, V.A.R.I.S., thank you,” Chuckie said. Wruck did the repeat. “And now, V.A.R.I.S., I’d like full printouts for all plans, missions, projects, and protocols, completed, currently active, and upcoming.” Wruck repeated again.
“Yes, Doctor.” The sound of printing started.
“How did you know what to say?” Jeff asked me, as we turned to watch the television.
“It was that or ‘I’m the Queen of the World.’ But when I boiled LaRue down to what her driving motivation was, it was hatred.”
Rahmi had brought in a broom and dustpan from the cleaning supplies closet and was sweeping up the dead bad guy dust into a bucket. “Since when did you get so domesticated?”
She shrugged. “One day, when The Great Tito and I marry, I will have to share in the care of our home.” Resolved that, no matter what, that marriage was happening as soon as possible. They’d had literally the longest engagement in history. Rahmi smiled. “I knew you would be victorious.”
Chuckie turned around. “We wouldn’t have been without you, Rahmi.”
She cocked her head. “Why so?”
“If you hadn’t said what you had, Kitty wouldn’t have said what she did, and I wouldn’t have made the connection. As with everything we do, it was a team effort. Your mother, sister, and fiancé will all be very proud of you.”
She beamed at him. “Thank you, Charles.”
“Time to watch a ship none of us could conceive of before last week land,” Jeff said. “That’s an executive order, folks. Let’s join the rest of the world and see what no one on Earth ever has before.”
We all clustered around the screen. The Treeship was huge and, as the sun hit it, it glowed in rippling shades of green and blue. It was beautiful and amazing and gigantic.
Chuckie and Wruck had the computer system turn the sound on for the TV, so we got to hear the announcer’s commentary. Realized why Cliff had had the sound off—they were kind of vacuous. Until commentary switched to Mr. Joel Oliver.
Oliver was sharing the history of each of the races confirmed to be in the Treeship. We’d done this at a very high level during my Impromptu World Teleconference, but Oliver was going into far more depth. He also had Lyssara and Themnir as guests, voiceovers only, since all video was focused on the ship. They added interesting facts and tidbits as well, sounding buzzy and sloshy respectively. But it was cute and not off-putting.
The Treeship took an hour to safely dock. But it didn’t seem like it. And Adriana didn’t have to count down to anything.
“Six years ago, I’d have had to have all of Imageering hide this,” Christopher said softly as Oliver announced that the Treeship had successfully docked.
Naval ships from all the countries that bordered the Persian Gulf and yachts owned by kings and princes in the region were all heading to the ship to offload the passengers. And no one was shooting at anyone else.
“Six years ago the world was different,” White said.
“Not as different as it is now,” Jeff said.
“The world is the same,” Reader pointed out. “It’s the people on it who are different now. And that’s a good thing.”
“Our brave new world,” Chuckie said.
“The world you always told me was out there.” Was next to Jeff, our arms around each other. Reached out and took Chuckie’s hand. “How does it feel to never be wrong?”
“Well, as I keep on reminding you, I was wrong about where Hoffa was buried.”
“Right, you know, finally tell me, where is Hoffa buried?”
Chuckie’s mouth opened but everyone’s phones started ringing. We all stopped looking at the screen and answered our phones. My call was from my mother.
“Hey Mom, amazing timing. Every one of our phones just started ringing.”
“Because Walter just confirmed that the Aicirtap have entered our solar system.”
“Crap.”
“And they’re moving faster than any of the other ships have so far.”
“Does it get any better than this?”
“Yes. The lone Z’porrah ship has managed to stay ahead of the Aicirtap, but they’re not sure that they’ll make it to Earth before the Aicirtap overtake them. They are begging for help.”
“That we have no way of giving them.”
“Correct.”
“So, they’ll be the appetizer and then we’ll be the main course?”
“It looks that way. You and Jeff need to get back to D.C. The President needs to be in the White House.”
Mom and I said we loved each other and then hung up. Everyone else’s calls had been short, too. “We need to get out of here,” Reader said briskly.
“We can’t leave this equipment yet,” Chuckie pointed out. “We can’t allow any of it to fall into enemy hands, and Kitty essentially promised Gadhavi that she’d blast this place once we were done.”
“We need to move the Killer Octopus, too, and it’s incredibly heavy.”
Jeff, Reader, Tim, and Chuckie started mildly arguing about what to do. Realized my purse was still in the alcove. Trotted upstairs. No one appeared to notice. Yeah, we were all a bit preoccupied.
Retrieved my purse and found the Poofs snoozing. Relieved myself of the tons of clips I’d taken with me and realized that I had no idea where my Glock was. Chuckie had had it last, meaning he’d probably put it down onto the computer. Couldn’t see the computer all that well from this alcove, so couldn’t confirm that.
Put my purse over my neck and turned around. To find Siler standing there with a gun in his hand. Managed not to scream, but couldn’t stop myself from jumping.
“Sorry,” he said with a small smile as he handed me my Glock. “You’re heading back to D.C.?”
“Thanks. And, well, we all got the calls. You did, too, right?”
“Yes. My call was from Lizzie. She’s frightened. So are the rest of the children. The news has announced that the Aicirtap are coming within a few hours.”
“So, I guess you’re heading home with us, then, right?”
He looked at me. “Why bother?”
That wasn’t what I was expecting. “Come again?”
“Why bother going anywhere? Why go lie to the girl I promised to protect from harm when there’s nothing I can do to stop what’s coming?”
He wasn’t wrong. Had no idea what I was going to tell Jamie and Charlie, aside from how much their father and I loved them. Didn’t want to say goodbye forever to my children. And I really didn’t want some aliens who weren’t even themselves anymore to hurt my children, especially not in the ways I knew they would.
My music turned back on. Elton John’s “Answer in the Sky” was the current musical selection.
“The helicarrier—do you think it has the firepower to stop the Aicirtap?”
Siler shook his head. “If it did, Drax would have already told everyone to stop worrying.”
The music switched to “Octopus’s Garden” by the Beatles. Looked at the Killer Octopus. “We have the means to zap them all into dust.”
“But not the time to create more of those.”
“But there are four sets . . .”
“What are you thinking?”
“Four people, each manning a nozzle. Dropped into the middle of a group, able to zap at will.”
“I don’t even want to contemplate the odds. And it might even work, except that the machine needs electricity to run, and a lot of it.”
Pulled my phone out and called Drax. “Gustav, the amazing helicarrier, can it do spaceflight?”
“Of course, what do you take me for?”
“Just checking. How fast can it fly? And by that, I mean is it up to the level of the latest spaceships to grace Earth with their presences?”
“Vata ships are all extremely fast. If you’re looking for a comparison, I believe the helicarrier is at least as fast as whatever the Z’porrah fly, probably faster.”
“Super. How quickly can you alter an existing machine to have its own power source? It needs a nuclear level of power, but it would be nice if the machine didn’t kill those wielding it.” Described the Killer Octopus, how it worked, and how I’d like it to work in the very near future.
“I’ll need to see it to be sure if it’s able to be altered, but the Vrierst could assist.”
“Excellent, make it so. And bring along any other aliens who might be able to help. Pronto.” Gave him our location and we hung up. “Now the issue will be to move it. That thing is hella heavy.”
“We were able to move it, though, since we have a lot of strong people,” Siler said. “One of whom is being called back to his post.”
Considered our options as Iron Maiden’s “For The Greater Good of God” came on. “Screw that. Come on.” Trotted back downstairs, Siler right behind me. “Chuckie’s right. We can’t leave this stuff lying around. Because we’re not going to be killed by the Aicirtap.”
This got me the room’s attention. “How are we not?” Tim asked, for everyone based on expressions. “I’m not against survival, mind you, but I’m not seeing a lot of options.”
Pointed to the Killer Octopus. “I am.” The air near me shimmered and Drax walked through the floater gate. He wasn’t alone. There were three Vrierst with him, swirling from manta to human, depending on how their personal winds were flowing. None of them bothered with introductions, they just headed for the machine.
“What’s going on?” Jeff asked.
“We have something that can zap someone into dust as easily as it makes living photocopies and, apparently, devolves your IQ. This is what Cliff was talking about when he said he could have saved everyone. He meant he’d use this machine. So, I want us to use it.”
“Who do you mean by ‘us’?” Jeff asked.
“Us. You, me, Nightcrawler, whoever else wants to handle the fourth nozzle.”
“We can’t allow that,” Reader said. “Jeff is the President—”
Put up the paw. Reader stopped talking. Was starting to love this power. Meaning I had to save the world or I’d never get to use it again.
“The President needs to lead. And that means he needs to protect his people. But more than that, in this case, Jeff is the King Regent of the Alpha Centaurion Empire. And since the Emperor himself came to rescue us during Operation Destruction, I’d say that precedent has been set. The good kings, the ones people want to follow, lead. Period.”
“Kitty’s right,” Jeff said. “If I go back to D.C. all that means is that they’ll shove me into the Bunker. We all saw the pictures the Faradawn shared—I don’t want to survive in order to see how anyone not deemed ‘important enough’ has been destroyed, since I already know it will be in one of the most horrible ways possible. If this is how we die, then it’s a far better death than to cower in a metal room while everyone else dies.”
“Then we’re all going,” Reader said.
“Nope. Because, as Chuckie said, I’m right. Always, I’m forced to add because now isn’t the time for modesty. You and Tim need to stay here with Chuckie and ensure that we get everything useful, dangerous, or compromising out of here.”
Rahmi zipped over. “We need to take that.” She pointed to V.A.R.I.S. “Kitty, that’s where everything we couldn’t find will be.”
“Rahmi’s right, Chuckie, we need to save this version of V.A.R.I.S. John can tell her to listen to you. Rahmi and I are both listening to our guts and betting the computer is hiding more than you’re going to get via the printouts.”
“I agree,” Chuckie said. “I want it at Dulce, though.”
“No argument. After moving V.A.R.I.S. you guys need to ensure that you reduce this place to rubble. You’ll all need help with that, meaning that A-Cs or those with hyperspeed have to stay.”
“Christopher, you stay here,” Jeff said.
This earned him Patented Glare #4. “Why?”
Jeff sighed. “You need to be with your family.” Christopher started to protest and Jeff shook his head. “Your children need you here.”
“Children?” Considered how stressed he’d been over Kozlow moving in and how adamant Jeff had been about Christopher not attempting the water rescue. “Oh, wow. Congrats! When’s the baby due?”
“Eight months from now. Faster than we’d planned, but we’re not complaining. But this wasn’t how we wanted to tell everyone.”
“But this is how it tends to roll for us. I’m with Jeff, you stay home. So to speak.”
“You have two children, and Siler has Lizzie. Why are you three allowed to go?”
“Someone has to stay to take care of the kids if we don’t come back,” Siler said.
“Ah. Uh. Yeah.” Christopher didn’t look happy with the reality of this answer, but he stopped arguing.
Drax trotted over. “I have good news and bad news.”
“Fantastic. We’ll take the bad news first.”
“This is not something that anyone on Earth could possibly have created, at least not without assistance, because the materials at the core are not from this solar system.”
“Super. Is that it or is there more bad news?”
“More. The core is made up of a metal found only on certain worlds in the galaxy.”
“Wow, and I’ll bet none of them are in our neighborhood.”
“No, they are not. Would you like the good news now?”
“I’d love some, yes.”
He smiled. “One of those planets is Netu.”
We all stared at him. “Yes?” I asked finally.
“Apologies. Netu is the Vrierst home world. They use large balls of this metal to power their ship. And they have spares with them.”
Now wasn’t the time to do a comparison between Drax and Wruck’s views of what constituted our galactic neighborhood. Now was the time for cautious optimism. “So, we can stick a ball into the Killer Octopus?”
“Oh, no, that won’t work. It’s too unwieldy and, frankly, more than a little unstable.”
“Just like the guy who created it.” So much for cautious optimism. “So, um, where does this leave us?”
“The Vrierst and I have agreed. We’ll have to manufacture something that’s more mobile and easier for humans to wield.”
“Wow, that sounds great. Only we don’t have a few months to get things into production. We have, like, maybe three hours.”
Drax’s smile widened. “You forget, I am a weapons expert, a Prince of Vatusus, and I have plenty of my smart metal available. I’ll have all the personal laser cannons you’ll need within two hours.”