Jejomar strode among ranks of kamikaze drones on the launch pad. A wartime commander inspecting his troops. The specifications on each drone scrolled down his lens as he stalked past. They were all identical, flying bombs with little brains. Mass produced by a specialised 3D printer that was itself a creation of a bigger printer. A swarm of spherical, black titanium balls with a diamond warhead at one end and four boosters at the other. Each one powered with a mini helium3 fusion reactor. With a thought, Jejomar changed the view in his lens so he could see the entire swarm. Four hundred beautiful deadly drones, waiting in formation, ready for their orders.
He stood by himself out in the Sea of Serenity, surrounded by the drones. Any evidence the moon-base ever existed had disappeared, all the debris had been cleaned up, fed into the kilns, and recycled. The bodies were decompiling, along with all the other bio-waste. There was nothing left but a shallow crater and some dark stains on the regolith to remind him of his loss. The grief still burned inside him. He had devoted himself to these plans of revenge ever since. It had become an obsession and it had partially filled the black hole in his heart. He walked back to where the others were waiting, exo-suits gleaming in the sterile light.
“Will it be enough?” Jejomar sent his telepathic question to Dakila. Dakila had lost his legs when the shuttle’s wing crashed into the transporter and only barely survived the trauma and blood loss, but he had recovered and had been upgraded. His legs had been replaced with six articulated, mechanical limbs. Dakila’s torso sat upright like a centaur, he bounced lightly on his limbs as he inspected one of the drones he had designed. Their production had been quick. Assisted by the cloud of tiny manufacturing robots they had been developing. He had been testing them out here on the Sea and he had declared them ready.
“Four hundred is more than enough; it is overkill Jejomar.” Dakila swept one of his lengthy metal limbs over the swarm. “By the time they fly 340 thousand kilometres, when they ignite their boosters, they will be travelling at such a speed they will slice through anything in their way.”
Jejomar nodded and stroked one of the drones like a pet. “They will only live short lives. But we can make more.”
“Each drone carries a thermonuclear fusion bomb ready to detonate on impact, yielding a one-hundred kiloton explosion. Which is small on its own, but we have four hundred of them. The diamond warhead is the most dense carbon allotrope ever created. I think it will be enough, I would like to be there to see the destruction. It will be beautiful.”
Jejomar turned to Dakila, unused to hearing such emotion from the engineer. “We will witness Dakila, it will be as if we are there. The swarm is an extension of the Masama, our arm that reaches out across space.”
Ojerime approached them. She bounded across the regolith in her exo-suit, her limbs retracting and extending with each leap. “It’s an impressive army.” She stood to her full height. “These drones could have been used to travel across the Moon, to explore and discover, to help us evolve and grow but instead we are sending them to war. They will sever the ties with our home planet. They will never be recovered or recycled.”
“This is our home, not Earth,” sent Jejomar. He gestured at the summit of Montes Haemus, the slopes were covered with solar panels and the summit had been extended and sculpted into a smooth black circular crater with a glinting, grey cloud of tiny machines hovering at the top. “We should be proud of what we have built. Our ties with the Earth have already been severed; we are protecting ourselves. They will not attack us again.”
“I am proud,” sent Ojerime. “We have all worked hard. Our new home under the mountain will house generations of Masama. But I have reservations about attacking Earth, we should leave them alone. Revenge is a dangerous motive.”
Jejomar turned to her and moved closer. Ojerime was like a sister to him, she knew him better than most, but her words provoked him, and his temper flared. “My daughter is dead. Twenty-eight of our Masama family also died when we were attacked. But this is more than simple revenge. We are going to confine the humans to their polluted planet, cut off their access to space and protect ourselves.”
“I also mourn for our dead, and I also wanted revenge after the shuttle attack. But if our plan is successful, millions of innocent people will die. We were once like them, we were once human, can you not remember what that was like Jejomar?”
“I remember enough, I remember fighting, killing for no reason, obeying orders I did not understand. I was never treated like a human. We were slaves, we were treated like pakshet”. Jejomar did not enjoy recalling the past. There were too many bad memories. But debating with Ojerime gave him the chance to articulate his opinions and justify his actions. “Have you forgotten how Lago tried to have us all sterilized? He experimented on us, manipulated us, lied to us. You heard their plan, to bring those people here, wealthy, entitled tourists that would defecate all over our home. Would you see that happen? Our Moon overrun with obese humans, building hotels, leaving their waste, ruining our pristine home as they have ruined their own planet?”
“Lago is our enemy, not the entire human race.”
Jejomar was confident in his plans. He had the support of the majority and the survival of the Masama was his main concern. Talking about the humans stirred a lurking anger inside him. “None of them are innocent. They will all die eventually. Our intention is purely to keep them Earthbound, so they cannot escape and spread their sickness to the rest of the system. We decided this democratically. Ojerime, we are the future, not them.”
“I agree with everything you have said Jejomar I am just uncomfortable with us assuming such god-like power.”
“We are not pretending to be gods. We are doing what we have to do. The Earth has been ruined by its inhabitants. We are preventing them from ruining anything else. One day, we might go back, once the planet is safe and the infestation of humans has become extinct.”
They stood staring at each other for a second. Jejomar knew that she did not care for the humans, but she didn’t feel the same levels of hatred as he did. They had all lost loved ones and Ojerime was more empathetic than most. He valued her intelligence, and the invaluable support she provided for him. She had been instrumental in organising the Masama exodus to the Moon. While Jejomar had been their spokesperson and leader, making decisions on their behalf, it was always with Ojerime’s advice. The way the Masama communicated now was beyond telepathy. It was easy as looking at someone, projecting an idea in the right direction. Ojerime was smart. She had developed the telepathic implant they had inherited from BPI into an electro-chemical interface with the cerebrum, creating a shared virtual realm for the Masama. Jejomar had happily relinquished any ideas of leadership in exchange for a democratic consensus, group decisions were easy to achieve when everyone was connected in a virtual space. Although they still often relied on him for the casting vote.
He was convinced they were doing the right thing. Dakila’s decapitation of the annoying man Christophe may have been an instinctive over-reaction that provoked the suicidal shuttle attack, but these kamikaze drones were much more than a simple plan for revenge. It was for the good of the solar system.
“You are my conscience Ojerime, the voice of reason and a reminder there is still a human heart beating in my chest. But we are on our own in space and we must protect ourselves. Since the first algae formed, since the first creature crawled from the primordial soup and stood on two legs, the rules of life have always been adapt or die. I am not denying my ancestry, but we have adapted, they will die.
“Come, it is time,” sent Dakila.
They stood together as the drone swarm was activated. The first drone to rise from the dusty Sea was in the centre of the formation. Slowly and in a perfect configuration, like a sheet being picked up from the centre, the drone swarm ascended smoothly against the Moon’s minimal gravity. They expanded into a giant grid hanging in the sky, then disappeared into the blackness. The Earth hung in the sky like a ripened fruit, glowing with blue, green, and white reflected light.
***
On the viewing deck at the bow of the ferry, the ocean breeze came as light relief from the tropical heat. Ava held on to her cap and looked up at the towering structure that disappeared into the hazy high-altitude clouds. From this angle the elevator cable was a skinny silver thread that bisected the blue sky in two. She followed it down to the base as they drew near. The artificial island in the Bismarck Sea had grown since the orbital elevator had been in operation. As they approached, Ava had caught glimpses through the ocean spray of the floating deep-water port. A two-kilometre-wide circle, catering for everything from speed boats to cruise ships. It was a bustling hive of activity, like city of Port Moresby where they had boarded the ferry. The three of them had flown from Miami in their vertical lift rotor and blended in with the bustling crowds. They were well prepared to confront Lago. Ava was calm, and determined she would not let her emotions get the better of her. She looked up at the Sun and shivered in the heat.
“It’s impressive,” said Noah as Ava returned to her seat.
“Hundreds of workers died in the construction,” said Mahdi. “Filipino and New Guinea labourers were treated like slaves, paid a pittance. It’s hard to get food or water out here, many of them just disappeared with no investigations.”
“It symbolizes Lago perfectly,” said Ava. “It’s a giant vanity project. Bigger and better than anyone else but totally impractical.”
“Space elevators are the cheapest and cleanest way to get into orbit,” said Noah. “With the current level of technology anyway, and you have to admit, it looks pretty cool.”
“Some people see it as just another form of pollution,” said Ava. “Lago lives up there on the asteroid like some self-proclaimed king of Earth, using the elevator to transport his rich friends into space and grow his mining operation. He’s already given up on Earth. He wants to pillage whatever he can get his hands on in space. Anyway, there will be other ways to get into orbit without having to ride this giant fucking phallic symbol.”
“Such as?” asked Mahdi.
“Mass drives, impulse drives, laser propulsion, even balloons. Bigger versions of the EM inverter filaments in our suits. And Lucinda has been experimenting with electro-magnetic propulsion used in an anti-gravity engine. It uses Earth's own gravity against it.”
“Also, slightly more theoretical but not impossible is matter transport,” said Noah. “Once we have somewhere to transport the matter to. Our suits are capable though. You could fly into space with one if you had the time.”
“Really? How long would you survive in space wearing one of these?” asked Mahdi.
“Days, maybe weeks. The suit's skin is more than just camouflage. The mesh fabric reverses the gravity surrounding it and carries currents of smart energy powering the cells. It adapts to the environment, scans for threats, controls temperature, and recycles urine into mineral rich water. You would probably die of boredom before anything else.”
“Great to know I can drink my own piss if I need to,” said Mahdi.
The island had a ten-metre-high BPI logo emblazoned across the dock reminding Ava they were entering enemy territory. They breezed through the layers of security, their stowed suits and hidden E-bombs were disguised and didn’t trouble the scanners. Their forged documentation easily convinced the customs check. The travelator took them straight into the climber reception where they mingled with their fellow passengers.
Ava adjusted the pink wig under her baseball cap and scanned the crowd. She put her hand on Mahdi’s shoulder and whispered. “We don’t get many chances to use all of our enhancements, but if you need to, you can listen to people’s thoughts. It’s very rude of course and we don’t do it with friends, but in situations like this, just focus on someone and concentrate.”
Mahdi scanned the room, eyeballing the passengers. They were a mixture of BPI technicians in uniform and wealthy business people. His concentrated gaze went from one passenger to another, lingering on each for a few seconds. His brow furrowed, he scowled and began to swear under his breath. “Arrogant, entitled, elitist, fat bastards,” he muttered.
They found their prominence class module and settled in. Ava put on her dark sunglasses, and concentrated on the view. There was no escaping the Sun shining through the huge window.
“Are you ok?” Noah must have sensed her unease.
“Just being here, on this elevator, in this module makes me feel… I don’t know, dirty, guilty, somehow complicit in Lago’s ideology,” said Ava.
“It was easy enough to hack their system and get this module for free,” said Noah. “I can understand if you would rather see Lago dead, but upgrading him, reforming him, will be so much more beneficial, and symbolic, for everyone.”
Ava bowed her head and stayed silent, wrestling with inner demons. Even the mention of his name made her anxious. She was still repulsed by men with facial hair, she was suspicious of men in general. She couldn’t imagine a reformed Lago, but it was a good plan, and she had every intention of sticking to it.
***
Ojerime loved spending time in the virtual realm. She could be anything, anyone, anywhere she wanted to be. Only limited by her imagination, the possibilities were infinite. She had been working on this digital space, taking their ever-present telepathic link to the next level. Today, the realm was one of the calderas at the summit of Olympus Mons. The red plains of Mars rolled out towards distant horizons, kilometres beneath them. Masama avatars moved around the caldera, they could take on any form they chose. Ojerime watched a bleached skull conversing with a cloud of gas, there was an octopus, a giant tumbleweed, various creatures, ships, circling comets, and weapons. Ojerime’s current avatar was a metal owl perched on a rock. She tracked dust storms rampaging across the lowlands, battering the Tharsis bulge, swivelling her head all the way around.
She picked at the rock with a claw and studied the detail. Her eyes widened, pleased with the clarity of the simulation. The only language that was needed in the virtual space was the language of thought which included words, symbols, equations, emotions, colours, entire hypotheses, and belief systems. The architecture was a product of their shared aesthetics and changed constantly, only limited by their imagination. Ojerime could tune into the virtual realm and operate in the real world at the same time. She could happily spend all her time in the virtual realm but at the moment, everyone was under the mountain, watching the projection.
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There were over one hundred Masama in the central tunnel. The tunnel had fresh air circulating so Ojerime disconnected her faceplate and looked around. Her compound eyes allowed her to see in multiple directions at once, with a wider scope than the primitive eyes she had been born with. Just one of her many upgrades, but one she was particularly pleased with. It was rare for all her brothers and sisters to be gathered in one space like this, it made her feel more claustrophobic than usual. They were watching a 3-D projection displayed above and around them. They did not really need a projection, they could individually patch into the drone feed, but Jejomar had a sense of occasion. The tunnel echoed with noise, whirring, and clicking of articulated limbs, metal on metal and the hum of machines. She could sense the anticipation as they watched the projection. She found Jejomar and Dakila across the room. “How long before they are in range?” she asked Dakila.
“A matter of minutes, the swarm has been travelling at twenty-five thousand kilometres per hour. They will soon burn their remaining fuel to achieve attack velocity of thirty-five to forty thousand.”
The projected view was from several drones sent to record the images from the best vantage points and relay them back to the Moon. The Earth was growing larger by the second, soon filling the cavernous projection space above them. Ojerime could see the elevator cable, a shiny silver thread glinting in the sunlight, and she could make out the asteroid hub, a black nugget silhouetted at the top of the thread. The swarm was close, the asteroid must have been alerted to their presence but there was nothing they could do.
Ojerime’s compound eyes did not blink. She took in all the details at high speed. The drones screamed past the asteroid hub; the swarm had stretched out into a thin tapering arrowhead shape with the lead drone in front. The asteroid launched a few defence drones, but they were useless against the onslaught. Two shuttles were stationed in front with no obvious weapons. They floated there, immobile, and impotent as the swarm flew past. Ojerime could see tiny flames from the booster rockets as the drone formation hit maximum speed. The first drone slammed into the cable and vanished in an incandescent flash that disappeared in an instant.
A window opened giving a slow-motion close-up view of the destruction. Ojerime clenched her fists, she couldn’t help thinking of all the people that were about to die. Numbers scrolled in the space above giving the speed and status of each drone as they smashed into the cable, one after another, booster rockets giving them a final burst of acceleration before they disappeared in a nuclear flare. The diamond warheads pierced the cable, embedding the drones and immediately exploding in a barrage of short, sharp fireballs. The violent flashes evaporated as quickly as they had appeared, the blasts swallowed by the vacuum. The cable shook and vibrated but the centrifugal tensions in the cable seemed to be holding it. Drone after suicidal drone hurled themselves at it but the flimsy looking cable stayed intact. Then just as Ojerime thought the cable might survive the onslaught, a small tear appeared, then it was all over.
The last wave of kamikaze drones smashed through the remaining strands of cable, and then it was severed. The attack had required almost all the drones, Dakila had under-estimated the strength of the carbon fibre cable but ultimately it had been enough. Ojerime took a deep breath of stale air. She was one of the few that had argued against this attack, but she had been outvoted. She felt empty, resigned to the fact that millions of humans would die as the cable fell back to Earth. The last few drones swept through the gap, flying through the fading nuclear flashes towards the solar farm, easily destroying the fragile frames and solar sails. The mission was completed but the death and destruction was only beginning for the people of Earth. As she watched, the cable wobbled, then began to fall away from the asteroid above, gathering speed as it fell. The climber car was still ascending towards the severed end as it started to fall, gracefully drifting back to Earth leaving the asteroid with a segment of useless cable dangling from it like a tail.
“Congratulations,” she sent to Jejomar. “Mission successful.”
“We have achieved our goal. We have crippled our opponent and ensured they remain Earthbound. We are safe. We have protected ourselves against the people of Earth,” sent Jejomar.
Ojerime sent a neutral recognition and returned to the virtual realm. She had no love for the people of Earth but sometimes she needed to question Jejomar. The decision to attack the cable had been democratic. There was debate, but ultimately everyone agreed cutting their cable was the best course of action, halting Lago’s access to space. Attacking the asteroid directly would have been futile as it was a solid lump of iron ore. Its mass alone provided enough protection from the kamikaze drones. Ojerime argued against the decision. The falling cable would cause mass destruction and innocent deaths, but in the end, it was a democratic consensus.
She could feel the weight of guilt, of being complicit in the deaths of millions. She found it difficult to remove herself from responsibility as the rest of the Masama had. Unlike them she still felt a connection to the people of Earth. She couldn’t deny her ancestry. The main difference between humans and the Masama was something as simple as rubbish. The Masama recycled everything. There was no wastage, every unused nut or bolt or metal scrap was fed into the solar kilns. Every gas or liquid by product was stored or converted to another usable form. Every gram of biological waste was fed into the compost and the decompilers and converted to soil or fertilizers. The Masama obeyed the laws of recycling with obsessive fastidity. Nothing was wasted, unlike the humans who had poisoned their planet with their own excess. She looked out over the red plains of Mars and sighed, the Masama should be evolving out into the solar system and beyond. Not picking fights with the people of Earth.
***
Ava never properly slept. When she closed her eyes, she fell into a deep meditative state in which the IA recalibrated her body. It manufactured melatonin, regenerated cells, and washed away neural toxins. Her brain fell silent, letting her tune out the external world. Her body and mind had been through a lot of healing in this state. She was scared of deep sleep. If she let herself go too deep she would always end up immersed in nightmarish dreams of sharp knives, operating tables, the burning Sun, and his face. She would wake up sweating, in a state of panic, trying to wipe the blood away. The IA inside her repaired what it could, but it couldn’t rebuild what had been taken. Her memories were fragmented images that she was still trying to piece together. Lago was there, haunting her dreams. Ava understood it would be better for everyone, better for the planet if Lago was changed, transformed with the E-bomb as she had transformed the corrupt billionaires in Las Vegas. This was their plan, and she had every intention of sticking to it. But deep down she wanted Lago dead. She didn’t know if she was capable of actually killing him, but she wanted him dead.
She sat up, wide awake at the first impact and sensation of the gravity shifting. “Suits!” she screamed the psychic alarm at her companions and within seconds her suit was wrapping itself around her body. The face mask folded around Ava’s head like cool cling film, bulging over her eyes and connecting two breathing tubes to her nose. She arrived in the foyer of their module at the same time as Noah and Mahdi. Electric alarms began screaming as the module floor began to tilt and she could feel her weight lessen.
“The cable must have been severed,” she yelled. “We are under attack!”
“We’re falling back to Earth. We’ll either burn up in the atmosphere or hit the surface,” yelled Mahdi above the alarm.
“If we get through the atmosphere the suits will save us, as long as the power cells last. But we have to get out of the climber. We don’t want to be in here when it hits,” shouted Noah.
“Can we help any of the passengers? There’s two hundred people on board,” yelled Ava. The module was tilting and the view from the window was terrifying as they fell from the black sky into the huge hazy Earth atmosphere rising up to meet them. Ava activated her suit stabilizers as the rate of freefall caused complete weightlessness, they held hands as they started floating.
“We can’t help them,” shouted Noah. “We could carry one each, but we can’t save everyone.”
“Fuck!” screamed Mahdi. “There must be something we can do!”
The view tilted even more; Ava could see the cable stretching out beneath them as the Earth’s rotation dragged them down towards the horizontal. The cable disappeared into the mesosphere and glowed red before it started burning. Ava knew there was no chance of disconnecting the climber from the cable or saving any passengers, even if they managed to get to the lower levels, it would be too late. All they could do was hold on and try not to panic as they fell faster.
The climber was dragged back to Earth at an ever-increasing speed. It appeared as if the red fiery glow was creeping up the cable, closer every second. The climber started shaking violently and Ava watched pieces break free as the roar of atmospheric entry drowned out the alarm. She tried to stay calm, her mind was whirring, calculating their chances of freefall. The temperature was rising and all she could see was vapour and debris screaming past the window before cracks appeared and the window splintered, then exploded as a piece of bulkhead flew through and crashed into Mahdi, sending him flying. Ava backed away from the turbulence as shards of broken window and other shrapnel swirled viciously. She held onto the door as the hot roaring chaos enveloped her, overwhelming her. She lost control and even her suit could not stop her smashing into the module wall where she was trapped by the immense G-force. Shards of shrapnel pinged off her suit as she struggled to gain control. She lost sight of her companions, lost sight of everything, she was being roasted alive in a blast furnace. Everything was shaking and the heat was extreme, she was sure the entire structure would disintegrate, and they would all burn up together, falling back to Earth as ashes.
Then the fire was gone, the intense heat dissipated, and she opened her eyes. Her suit was smoking but she was alive. She clawed her way back across the sloping floor and found Noah clinging on to the limp form of Mahdi. The howling roar was even louder as the air whipped through the shattered climber. The cable fell through the stratosphere leaving a trail of debris and dark vapour. She crawled towards them, it looked like Mahdi was unconscious. The roaring jet-stream drowned out all her thoughts. Noah pointed at the shattered window opening, Ava nodded back, and together they dragged Mahdi’s unresponsive body in that direction.
What was left of the climber was still attached to the horizontal cable. Ava was dazed and seemed to have lost all sense of spatial awareness until her suit stabilized her. They crawled across the module wall, she could see the horizon and the curve of the Earth through the smashed window below. The roaring was so loud she used her psychic link to talk to Noah. “We’re going to have to jump out the window!”
Noah nodded and pointed. “We’ll have to support Mahdi. If we can get to the edge and push away into the slipstream, hopefully we won’t smash into anything.”
Ava nodded and tried to get herself into position on one side of Mahdi. The shredded climber was shaking violently and felt like it was about to disintegrate at any moment. They edged closer to the window, the air roared through the opening like a jet engine, pushing them back inside. More chunks of wreckage whipped past, pieces of the climber structure and its contents including passengers, some of them still strapped to their seats, some leaving bloody trails of red streamers, some still smoking from the friction of atmospheric entry. Ava couldn’t help any of them. They reached the window edge and manoeuvred into a position where each had an arm around Mahdi and could kick off out into the howling winds. Ava had time to look out at the approaching Earth as she tightened her grip.
“Now!” shouted Noah as they leaped out into the air and were swept away by the slipstream, luckily avoiding any climber fragments. Ava held on to Mahdi as they were blown back up into space, tumbling uncontrollably before her suit wrestled her into position. They wrapped their arms around Mahdi and rolled into a freefall pose. Arms and legs spread as they started to fall to Earth.
Below them was an apocalyptic scene. The cable had been broken into long ragged strands trailing plumes of vapour as the flames were blown away by its descent. The climber was a skeletal ruin, still attached to a piece of cable. The outer layers had been burnt away, the intense heat melting the hull and vaporizing all the windows, the opulence class modules were still partially intact but large structural pieces were being torn away. Ava watched the strands of cable falling across the equator, each piece thousands of kilometres long. She could only wonder at the death and devastation they would cause and there was nothing she could do to help anyone. As they punched through the clouds, Ava could see a gigantic strand which looked like it was going to fall across the entire Indian Ocean. More strands were drifting westward toward Somalia and below them, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Indonesian islands were in the firing line.
Around her, Ava could see the bodies of broken people falling. They froze in the sub-zero temperatures, suffocating and solidifying at the same time. Falling amongst the debris, expressions of pain and terror etched onto their faces. Their crushed and contorted bodies were stained red, bloodied torsos and limbs torn apart by the hail of shrapnel. She cried out behind her face mask, she had never felt so helpless, confronted with such devastation. Ava focused on a body falling past them. It was a woman; her legs were kicking, she looked alive. “I’m going to help her, hold on to Mahdi,” Ava sent, and she pushed away towards the woman.
“Wait!” she heard Noah cry, but Ava was determined to help someone. She was already gaining speed as the suit propelled her down towards the woman. She flattened into a streamlined plunge and dove through the air. Within seconds she was slowing the suit and preparing to embrace the woman. They connected and she wrapped her arms and legs around the woman and could feel her weight as the suit slowed their fall. She was alive, she was wearing a thermal suit and an oxygen mask from the climber, but she was freezing cold. Above the roar of rushing air Ava could hear a baby screaming, and was amazed to find an infant inside the suit, clutched to the woman’s chest, sharing her oxygen.
“It’s ok, I’ve got you, you’re both safe,” she yelled. Ava slowed their rate of descent even more with the suit’s gravity inverter as they descended through the clouds feet first. Over her shoulder she could see Noah holding Mahdi at a similar level.
Ava looked down to see the first piece of cable hit the Earth. It fell across Kalimantan, the Java Sea, Sumatra and out into the Indian Ocean like a giant lash. She could see dust clouds rising where the cable hit the land. Across the Java Sea she could make out a line of steaming white water where it had slapped the surface. It didn’t sink, held up at either end by the land masses like a giant suspension bridge, but the impact caused a tsunami wave that raced north towards Singapore and south towards Jakarta. The rest of the cable and several other lengths landed simultaneously across the Indian Ocean. They caused a huge horizontal liquid eruption across the sea from Sumatra to Somalia. The impact was obscured by swathes of steam that burst into the sky as the superheated cable hit the sea. Ava’s eyes streamed tears as she fell. It was hard to believe what she was seeing was real. The scale was massive.
Ava hugged the woman and her baby closer as they slowed their descent. She contacted John, he had been tracking their suits and was arranging to have them rescued. The other two hundred passengers on the climber would be hitting the surface about now. She looked at the expanse beneath and imagined bodies raining down on the Java Sea. She doubted whether any would have survived escaping the climber, being flung out into the atmosphere to burn, then freeze and fall. She gripped the woman and her baby tighter, wishing she could have done more. She could feel the baby wriggling between them, and its movements gave her some consolation. A tiny life amongst all the death. She slowed their descent as the temperature rose.
“My suit is down to ten percent,” sent Noah. “The extra weight is draining the cells. Your suit must be at the same level Ava.”
“I’m at twelve, the closer we get, the harder the suits have to work. We’ll lose our manoeuvrability. All we can do is slow our fall, so we don’t hit too hard.” Ava had to shout her thoughts over the sound of the air rushing past.
“We’re right above Jakarta Bay; we’re going to drop right in the middle of it!”
Ava monitored the suit; the gravity inverter was draining the cells, but it would arrest their fall so they wouldn’t hit the water too hard. She folded back her head piece. “Are you ok?” She shouted into the woman’s ear. “Is your baby ok?”
“Yes,” she replied, still shivering uncontrollably. “We’re alive.” Ava could hear the baby screaming which was a good sign.
“We’re going to land in the ocean. We’ll be ok, we have friends coming.”
They fell through the air, down towards Jakarta Bay. Looking east, across the Java Sea, Ava could see foam of the tsunami waves washing though the Indonesian archipelago. The waves were breaking up as they smashed into Java and Bali and thousands of smaller islands. Surging across the low-lying land masses and sweeping through coastal settlements. From this height the waves rushing across the Earth’s surface looked like ripples in a pond, but Ava could see that thousands of communities would be overwhelmed. Her suit warned of an approaching aircraft. Below them air traffic had increased as media helicopters rushed to get live footage of the destruction along the equator.
Ava made sure the suit had just enough power left to drop them gently in the warm sea, expending the last of its energy to slow them down. In the last few seconds, they hurtled towards the blue expanse of Jakarta Bay. Then, she felt like she was on the end of an elastic band as her descent was drastically slowed. She had time to look around at the choppy blue water before they splashed down. She was briefly submerged, but held onto her passengers before the three of them splashed up to the surface. Ava was relieved to hear the baby crying as she held on to them both. They floated around, Ava shouted for Noah and Mahdi, but her cries were overwhelmed by a deep rushing rumbling sound. She swivelled in the water and looked up. Her shouts turned into screams as a gigantic wave bore down on them.