AWAKEN - HUMANITY: Book One

Chapter 9: Nuovo Mondo: Aftermath

Captain Carmichael watched helplessly as the blue light started to pulsate, the bursts of energy less frequent but more powerful, now splintered into two directions. One forward spewing its light onto the base and the surrounding area and one upwards, piercing the clouds and into the atmosphere.

She touched her nose as wet stuff dripped onto her lip, she stared at her fingers covered in thick blood. Nose bleed, she looked around her, no one in sight, she brushed the blood onto her leg, she knew what it was, what it meant.

The sound of engines came from behind her, she turned around as a shuttle craft suddenly dropped from the sky, its thrusters underneath throwing dust up into the air around her, she looked away closing her eyes as she felt the particles hit her face and hands.

The craft landed, its hydraulic legs hissing as the air dampeners provided a more comforting landing. The side ramp quickly opened and Davina stood by the open doorway, her black all in one suit marked with dust and dirt. She pulled her long black hair back and made her way down the ramp, she was tall and fit, her muscles tight in her jumpsuit from the continued keep fit regime she gave herself. She glanced upwards at the cave entrance, then to the side of where the two burning bodies were now just small mountains of ash, tendrils of smoke snaking upwards into the air.

"Davina." The Captain said with a relief and a small smile.

"Captain...what is going..." another blue burst escaped the cave, this one souring skywards, they both watched as it pierced the low thick clouds. "...what the hell is that?"

"We don't know and its killed some of the crew, our communications are down, and we need to get in there and turn whatever that shit is...off." The Captain wiped her top lip with the back of her hand.

The communications officer Harry Childs appeared from the damaged dome, "Captain we still have no link with Galaxy One..." he stopped and noticed Davina, "...hi Davina..." he gave a short wave then cursed inside his head for giving such a feeble wave.

Captain Carmichael turned to speak just as the clouds above broke away revealing another shuttle craft lowering itself down, its thrusters glowing red. She pulled her security officer towards her as they both stepped back. She was not expecting another shuttle to arrive until Starlight One docked and that wasn't until...the Captain started to wonder, had they arrived already, was this them? Shit this was not a good time, her mind raced with thoughts as the craft landed and the side door opened revealing Christian the security officer from Galaxy One. His short stocky build and cropped black hair gave him a military kind of look as he stared down at them both.

Davina spoke first. "Christian...why you here?"

Christian walked down the ramp. "Shelly told me to drop down as the communications have failed, just to check everything is..."

A sonic boom, then just a second delay before the force of the boom hit them all, Christian sent flying off the ramp landing on his back knocking the air out of his lungs. Davina and the Captain thrown onto the ground and Harry sent staggering backwards back into the dome.

The blue light erupted in a short burst from the cave spewing its deep dark blue colour down onto the ground below, skimming the tops of the shuttle crafts reaching out further into the barren wasteland.

The Captain moaned as she pulled herself back onto her feet dusting down her already dirty jumpsuit. "We need to get up there."

Harry shouted from the base dome, "Captain we have incoming call from Starlight One?" he shrugged his shoulders then wiped the blood from his nose with his fingers staring at the redness congealed on them.

Christian shouted pointing skywards. "What the fuck is that?"

They all looked up, the sun was obscured by distant clouds but between them, the open sky, white sparkling balls of flames were clearly entering the atmosphere. A lot of them, all at once, a sea of glistening sparkles heading down.

Captain Carmichael ran into the dome, "this is Captain Carmichael speaking..."

"Captain this is Captain West of Starlight One, I have your Senior Officer Shelly here with me I will allow her to inform you of the current situation." The voice changed to Shelly.

"Captain we got hit by a blue beam of light, from the surface...Galaxy One is..." a second of silence, "...down... Captain we had to abandon the satellite."

Awkward silence filled the room, the Captain looked at her communications officer who just stood there with his mouth open. He stepped back and shook his head in disbelief.

"Those on board?" Captain Carmichael asked.

"We lost a shuttle to the blue light as well whilst transferring to Starlight One." Shelly crackled over the communications channel. "We have fifty percent of the staff here safe on board positioned safely behind the moon."

"That's good shelly..." She fought back tears, the deaths of the innocent, pointless deaths. "The blue light is from here, the artefact or something around it has activated, we don't know what but it is still pulsating, I've lost a few of the ground crew and some still trapped up there."

Captain West came onto the conversation, "We will shuttle down to you once we have contacted JFK Two, I will despatch..." the communication channel closed.

"Harry, what's happened?" She turned to her communications officer waving her hand sin the air, "shit I ned this back up." She left the room stepping back outside.

Davina was leaning into her shuttle pulling out a rucksack, checking the contents inside, across from her Christian was loading up his small pulsar rifle with a fresh charged cartridge, carefully snapping the barrel back in place.

Davina shouted over to the Captain, "well?"

Captain Carmichael pointed up at the sky, "those..." she looked up, the sparkling flaming objects were now scattered far and wide, "...that's what is left of Galaxy One entering the atmosphere."

Christian stopped and stared at them both. "We have lost Galaxy One...but how...Shelly?" He stumbled with his words. "Is shelly okay..."

The Captain calmly added. "She is on board Starlight one, safe along with half the crew."

Davina looked at Christian, "and the other half?"

The Captain just shook her head in despair. "We need to get up there..." she pointed at the cave trying to change the subject, trying to refocus, all those pointless deaths, she thought, what a waste. She shook the thought from her head, must focus on the here and now. "...but first we need to suit up."

Christian gave his Captain puzzled look. Suit up? You mean full space suite...why?"

The Captain started walking over to the base, "we need to protect ourselves from whatever that is throwing out, we need as much protection as possible."

She turned to Harry. "Harry you suit up as well just to be safe, but I want you to stay here, fix that damn communications link, keep us informed on the earpieces, we can use local channels for them so we can all stay in contact."

Davina zipped up her rucksack and headed towards the entrance, "what about them?" she gestured with her head upwards at the sky and the falling debris. "Some of that is going to hit here you do know that right?"

The Captain spun around at the door. "We will just have to hope and pray they burn up enough so by the time they reach us they will have less impact." She tried a reassuring smile but it came out more like a grimace.

Christian started to walk over to them. "I don't know what is worse, falling debris from the sky or projectile death rays from a cave..."

They entered the base to suit up.