The Pole Shift

Captain Grady and the General

On his return to Main Island he went to the General, reporting that  the two thousand or so were openly supportive but there was hidden unease. Captain Grady suspected the General already knew this but showed no outward thinking. The General said:

                "The payload drone is circling the raft, the strange one. It's not in range, but holding." The Captain experienced the same regret he had felt when he realized the survivors on the raft were capable, earnest. He didn't want them killed. He nodded at the General, waiting for him to set the ball rolling. Both men watched the raft from the drone's camera, it was twenty kilometers away and hazy, the General switched to an orbiter and the men examined the hologram.  Grady noticed the granite outcrop shaped like a flat head had been made a little more comfortable. There were two chairs and a portmanteau between them. He suspected there was food and drink within, perhaps something technical? The General was trying to please him, or something was. They both sat down as the raft bobbed on what seemed like the enormous rock at their feet. They scrutinized each person, yes, they were young. There seemed to be no definite leader, they turned to the woman who was perhaps 30, Grady said:

                "She gives assurance, not leadership" and the General nodded. They looked on. There was a podgy boy with a scarred face, next to him sat a humble figure, a friend.  They turned to an Asian girl who was light on her feet, they watched her skip across the rope bound raft like an acrobat.  A pale girl plaited at electrical cable.  A large strong boy was strengthening the ties to a twenty foot shipping container.       

            They examined each part of the construction, and their eyes were captured by the cylindrical nose of something, different. "What's that?" Grady was off his seat and pacing around the hologram.

                "That's how they survived, a life pod."

                "One of ours?"

                "Yes."

                "How?" But there came no answer. Grady suddenly thought of Macka, his equal, a colleague.  They both had similar roles in the clandestine of humanity , they were both social  carpenters and military factotums. Macka had been assigned a job he had not spoken of two years ago. He turned to the General:

                "Macka?"

                "Let's see." The General spoke some quiet words and Grady had the absurd sense that he was casting a spell. On the edge of the hologram the payload drone banked towards the raft, it's own hologram appeared in separate display, and Grady watched transfixed. The drone was moments away from launching it's Long Bow Hellfire missile. There came a blue streak, and the drone disintegrated in an orange explosion. Moents later the faces in the remaining hologram all shot up like startled deer and looked to the horizon.

                "Whatever took out that drone didn't belong to us. It came from the land, plasma? Electrical? Macka had something to do with the pod but..."

                A boy appeared from within the sphere of the life pod. He too looked to the horizon, he put his hand to his ear and muttered something, then smiled. The General heaved an enormous agitated sigh. He said:

                 "We've got trouble."