The End is Near

Chapter 5

July 10th - Military base – Houston

The night personnel recorded the transmission coming in from Galaxy 1.01, Star Hyperion. The Commander was roused from his bed immediately.

Commander Stephen Gray was a man accustomed to late-night emergencies. Sometimes it seemed to him that there were no other kinds. Emergencies always seemed to occur at night for some reason. So he was fully dressed in less time than it took most men to put on a shirt.

He passed a hand over his cleanly shaved, dark head. One had no time for combing hair in emergencies and there was nothing less commanding than showing up with bed-hair.

He listened to the transmission and frowned. He barked a few questions and frowned some more. It seemed as though they had not worked all the kinks out of the air filtration system. There appeared to be mass hysteria aboard the Hyperion Explorer.

The Captain and his second were going on about something that had sucked the life-force out of every single object on the planet. They claimed their tests were conclusive. There had been life on the planet before. All life had now been eradicated and they claimed that all the life forms were standing like statues. Even worse, they claimed it had to have been done recently or the winds would have turned everything to dust.

There was definitely something of hysteria in those statements.

Then, whopper of all whoppers!

They claimed they may have seen the ion trails and that there was a ship headed roughly in the direction of their home Galaxy!

The Commander shook his head. He was not a man given to fantasy. Cold hard facts were what swayed him. He had known Roger Correlli for most of the young man's life. The young man had risen to Captain's-second in record time. It was partly because of the Commander's influence.

The Commander stroked his chin thoughtfully. He was not given to flights of fancy, but he trusted his people when they had earned it.

The Captain of the ship was usually a dependable man. Not exactly solid-as-a-rock, but dependable still. The man had some odd ideas about other entities and their existence in the galaxy. Roger Correlli was dependable and had seemed to be much less likely to spin fantastic tales.

The Commander had not gotten to where he was by taking chances. Safety was always best. If those two Americans believed that there was something headed for their Galaxy – then there were people who needed to be notified.

He picked up his private line and punched in a code. He broadly outlined what he had learnt and suggested a course of action before listening attentively. He nodded once and put down the phone, glad his superiors trusted him as much as he trusted his own people.

In seconds, a silent state of emergency swept through every military base in the United States. Most satellites with the range were put into use, scanning the darkness in the direction of the Hyperion.

                                                                          ~ O ~

Top secret meeting room, deep in the Pentagon.

Dark-suited males and somberly dressed females. The scent of cigar smoke accentuates the other unmistakable scent: the palpable and close scent of power.

The President is there, as is every other male or female who truly holds power in the current government. Power has never been a matter of position in this room. Just a matter of who and what you were.

The Secretary of Defense reads the report from the Houston military base. There is silence after he reads it even though there was actually no need to have read it again, for each person there had done so at least twice. They all knew the implications and the pre-prepared sequence of events that came next.

This wasn't the first time they had faced a threat from out there. They had warded off minor invasion attempts for the last few decades.

The Hollywood movies that claimed aliens could ever be friendly really didn't get it. The only thing that would ever make any creature leave the planet of its birth was desire for something more. Land, water, minerals...it didn't really matter. None of them had ever 'come in peace'. Even if they had peaceful intentions, who knew what diseases and other implications there would be. Mankind had a rich history when it came to 'peaceful' visitors and unintended consequences.

No, the silence was not because they were caught unawares or had no plan. The silence was because it sounded like, for the first time, their plan may not be enough to save them.

The President gestures and the silence is broken and the screens around the room flash alight and world leaders are brought online. They have a lot to say. From the Middle East to the far West, all leaders of note are represented and the babble of voices in different languages is immediate. The questions and even the hysteria of some are dealt with until there is eventually silence again and the President asks for the vote. He obtains a unanimous one to proceed with haste.

Tonight the warship will leave and bring to bear enough nuclear force to render an entire planet cinders. The bombs are the contributions from each country that has them, even the ones that deny their existence.

The screens eventually go blank again and the Secretary of Defence slides a thin manila folder over to the President.

"Not that it seems very important in the current context," he said neutrally, "but the Japanese inventor had a break-through. He hasn't shared any of the details yet, but here's the full report. I think he will bear watching closely for a while as he seems to have doubts about the implications of his finding."

The President nods and permission is given for the monitoring of Shio Yokahani to be increased.

The room slowly empties of all but the military aides who will take the plan through to execution. The others will be back tonight to watch that plan unfurl. The President himself will soon leave to monitor the action from a secret base in Houston.