Weekend Worlds: Directions to Earth, Part II

Dear Readers,

  Yesterday I began to tell the story of mankind's return to Earth, far in the future, in a time stream where the planet will be lost from humanity's records.  We left the major players when they discovered a major peril, a fail-deadly system left on and ready to annihilate them.

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  Today, the conclusion.

  Always,

   Dr. John Skylar
   Chairman
   Department of Anachronism
   University of Constantinople

"You know what this means, right?" Not everyone possessed Jan's historical expertise.

Mick shook his head.

"If the signal is reliable, it means that an old nuclear arsenal thinks it is under attack.  From us."

His lips formed a line, then broke, "And what does it plan to do about us?"

"As far as I know, launch itself.  I'll need to talk to the ship historian.  I estimate we have thirty to forty-five minutes to solve this one, or the search for Earth becomes humanity's most expensive barbecue."

Mick did not blink, "Can you be sure of that estimate?"

Jan shook her head, "No, of course not.  We might have ten minutes.  I'm optimistic.  Get me the damn ship."

He re-tuned his handheld to connect with the ship.

She heard a click through the earbud, then, "This is the Captain.  Advance party, are you trying to raise us?"

"Yes sir," Jan answered, "We've encountered something of a problem."

"And that is..."

"Sir, it's...Well, why not listen for yourself."  She nodded to Mick.

He tapped away at the screen and transmitted the message recording to their vessel.

After it played out, the Captain spoke again, "I can see where that would be a problem.  Regulations would say, on any other world, we get back into the atmosphere and head out.  Your recommendation, Lieutenant?"

"I don't know, sir.  I wanted to talk with the ship's Historian.  There might be a way to shut this thing down.  We might have time."  Jan rubbed her forehead.  She saw no

"All right, I'll have a chat with Rich, then."

They listened over the line while he engaged the in-ship communications system.  They heard only the Captain's half of the conversation.

"Rich?  Yeah, it's Captain Vine.

"Yes, well, I'm fine, thank you for asking, but we have a bit of a problem here, it's-

"I was getting to that.  There's this message, I've transmitted it to your console."

They waited while the ship's historian listened to the tape himself.

"Rich, where do you get off telling me to stop worrying-

"Oh, it's a film.  I see.  And they have such a device in it?

"Well, what do they do in the film, then?

"That's not really an option.  Rich, can we get realistic here?

"Hmm.  All right.  Thirty minutes, you think?  I'll work out some plans."

They heard a click while the Captain closed the line.

"All right, Jan, here's how it is.  Looks like this thing is real and the missiles probably still work.  We've got thirty minutes until they launch.  That means 25 minutes to come up with a solution.  Get back to the ship and to my pod immediately.  Don't tell anyone else about this."



"Yes, sir," she answered.  Jan waved her hand in the air and yelled for Sol, "Pack it up, we're back to the ship!"

When he got closer, she saw a furrowed brow, and he asked, "Going back?  Why?  Place seems fine to me."

"Mick read a bad signal and we're doing to evaluate.  Everyone needs to be on board.  Come on," she gave the last word the edge that meant 'Order.'

"Yessir," Sol knew when he should not argue.

They rushed back through the airlock, and Jan headed straight through the circular central corridor to the Captain's pod at the bow.  She did not bother to knock.  Pleasantries wasted enough time in the conversation with the ship's historian.

"Ah, Lieutenant.  Do you have any recommendations for me yet?  You're the head Mission Specialist."

"Sir, I still don't quite know what to do.  The system I know about involved thousands of distributed warheads.  The complementary system held by their enemies might also be automatic.  We could be looking at a nuclear wasting of this planet if we don't stop the launches."

The Captain's eyebrow went up, "Stop the launches.  There's an idea.  Do you know of a possible countersignal?"

"Details on the system are not something I know, sir.  I doubt anyone knows those kinds of things, not even the historian."

"Hm.  All right.  What about destroying the sites?"

Jan considered this, "We could detect heat sources on the surface and blow them to hell.  It would take some time, though.  We don't have enough drones to go after all of them individually."

"So more than thirty minutes?"

"Yes, sir.  A lot more."  She knew the Captain knew the answer to that question, and wondered why he asked it.  Perhaps to confirm.  That thought led to another and another...

In the background, the Captain said, "All right then.  We'll have to take off and report Earth destroyed, then.  Suppose we tried our-"

"Wait!  I have an idea," Jan cut him off.

"What's that, Lieutenant?" The Captain accepted the interruption, given the dire situation.

"The way that the system I read about was set up, a missile launched from Moscow activated the missile sites around the country.  Missiles travel a lot slower than light, and this one would have a limited broadcast range.  It's only been about eight minutes since we set down, and we don't know when in there it launched.  If we kill that one missile now, we might be able to stop it from activating more sites."  She breathed when she got to her pitch's finish line.

"Good plan.  I'll launch drones now."  He tapped the command console and she heard the rumble of drone engines through the ship's walls.

The Captain looked to her, "What next, Jan?"

"Sir, why are you making me call all the shots here?"

"Because I'll get the credit anyway, and this is your mission as long as we're in atmosphere.  Tell me what you want me to do with my ship."

So, some kind of odd leadership test, then. "All right, sir.  We need to get airborne and look for heat signatures.  That will be a sign of a launch prep.  Each of our drones can probably take out ten or twenty installations before they run out of power.  The ship itself can probably take out the same amount.  That means eleven in total, so optimistically we can kill about two hundred sites."

"Good," he patched through to their pilot, "Take us up, but keep us in the atmosphere.  We have urgent business up there."  Captain Vine killed the channel before the man could question his order.

In less than a minute, they felt the ship vibrate its way to life.  An altitude monitor on the Captain's console began to count up.

The Captain's eyes now stayed fixed on the screen. "Okay, Jan, I'm reading that our drone killed the missile successfully.  It didn't make it far from Moscow.  Shall we have a look at the heat distribution?"

She nodded, and he brought it up.  All four eyes in the room went wide.

"Sir," Jan managed, "That looks like almost three hundred installations, probably a thousand individual warheads.  It doesn't look good for my plan, sir."

"All right.  So we run?" she could detect no bias in his voice.

Jan struggled to find the right decision, "Sir, at this time, I...I recommend that..."

"You recommend that we give it a try, is what you recommend," the Captain finished her sentence for her, "And because you want to use the next twenty five minutes to try and save the world we've spent so long to find.  We'll still have time to run."

Jan gave an emphatic, "Yes, sir!"  She wanted to do it, but she did not know if he would think it wise.

"All right then.  I'll launch the drones, and I'll put the ship's weapons and route on computer control,"  the Captain put his words into action.

Jan felt the drones separate, one by one, and then a slight lurch as the ship followed its route.  "Sir," she pointed out, "We're not going to know if we've succeeded until after any weapons we miss are launched.  The heat from our weapons will mask launches until the weapons get into the air."

Captain Vine smiled, "Good point, Jan.  That's why you're the specialist.  How do I solve that problem?"

She thought about it, "As soon as we finish our route, sir, we get out of the atmosphere.  We can worry about the planet just fine from orbit."

"All right, Lieutenant.  That's what we'll do."

It did not take long for the computer to finish the generated route.  The Captain recalled the drones to join the ship in orbit, and they waited.  Five minutes.

Then ten.

Then fifteen.  The weapon residual heat dissipated.  Some of the sites still looked active.

"Damn," Jan said, then, "Sorry, sir."

"No, not a problem, Jan.  The drones and the ship have re-charged, but by now any missiles would be launched.  For some reason they did not show up on radar, though.  I think we could take them out in the air, perhaps?"

Her face fell.  She knew this answer already, "Doubt it, sir.  It was easy to hit them on the ground because they were clustered together in missile sites.  In the air that will be a lot more difficult.  I estimate there are still about a hundred warheads that are either airborne and shielded from us, or about to be in the air."

"Well, damn was right, then."  The Captain shook his head and sighed, "We were so close, so fucking close, and then to lose it on this stupid war machine.  Really.  Makes me glad we did away with nations when we left this place."

She tried to offer him something, "Well, sir, we could at least enjoy the view of it until they hit.  And maybe only 100 warheads won't be enough to destroy the atmosphere."

Captain Vine nodded, "Yeah, sounds like a good idea."  He brought up the external display, and they watched Earth's blue green form underneath them.

Jan's eyes wandered to the radar at times.  It picked up a few contacts here and there.  Perhaps interference, she thought, until she saw the number increase to nearly sixty.  She took her eyes away.  Jan did not want to watch her dreams and career destroyed by these weapons.

She looked back at the globe.  It sat there, a beautiful jewel in a dark crown, its moon visible just over the horizon.  At least the Moon would still be there.  From what she knew, they could find a wealth of historical materials on the Moon, at least.  Materials about their history, maybe things that would fill in some gaps.

She waited with the Captain a few minutes more.  She felt it strange to wait for the end of the Earth in this way.  To see a legend end this way.  It felt how she imagined it would be to meet King Arthur, but on his deathbed.  Or perhaps the last dragon, only to be forced to slay her to save yourself.

Jan wanted to see this world since the age of six.  She dreamed of it, often, as a little girl.  And now, it slipped away from her.

The clock indicated that the attack would be over by now.  Perhaps they would not see the explosions at this level of magnification.  She turned back to the radar screen.  Sure enough, the number of contacts now read zero.  Not a target in the sky.

"Sir, looks like it's over," her voice broke right on the end, and she started to tear a little.  Still, military discipline kept it measured.

Captain Vine answered, "Huh.  Well, what do you say we go back down there, then?"

Through a light sob, Jan said, "What did you say, sir?"

"I said we should land again.  Washington DC would be nice to see."

How could he even suggest it?  They just watched the planet get obliterated. "Sir, we'll be in direct risk of fallout, and-"

All he did was laugh at her.

"Sir, I can't believe you're laughing at a time like this."  It seemed absurd to her, at least.

He smiled, and words rolled out, "Jan, I can't believe you don't remember yet."

"Sir?"

"They're nuclear warheads, Jan.  Nuclear materials have half-lives.  It's been centuries, so even a little decay would leave them all fouled up," he stopped to laugh more, "And just think about the state of the firing mechanisms...though, I have to say, you responded well to the situation.  Just have a faster memory next time."

Jan turned beet red.  "Sir, I can't believe I forgot-"

"Don't worry about it.  Go open a bottle with the rest of the crew, I'll land the ship."