Taking a deep breath, Naomi completed one last check of the current course and speed of each Land Buster before setting her priorities. Here we go, let’s see what I’ve got to work with.
Projecting along those flight paths, she ascertained that most of the missiles appeared focused on major cities around Europe, Africa, and the North and Southern American continents. Even so, not all adhered to the exact same criteria.
Deciding that civilian casualties were her main concern, Naomi opted on a hot response, and the sighting nodes of all six stations under her command locked onto the first batch of B91s she had selected from the list. Seven scarlet beams sliced out of the heavens, annihilating them in a brief flash of crimson and white light.
Turning her attention to the final five missiles, Naomi re-checked their trajectories. The one heading toward a location just south of La Palma – the most northwesterly of the Canary Islands – puzzled her the most, as it appeared to be actively tracking something.
She scrutinized the area more closely, and discovered a large vessel sailing serenely toward the southern tip of the island. What? Why is…? While there was still time, Naomi ordered further close range scans of the paths of each of her remaining targets.
Grand Master Owen sensed her agitation. “Something wrong, Naomi?”
“There might be. I’m just checking something off about this last bunch. Hang on and I’ll...” Moments later the results were displayed before her, and she shared them simultaneously with her commander and the head of the Inquisitor contingent listening in astrally. “Take a look at this.”
The Royal Yacht of Great Britain, HMS Queen Elizabeth IV – on her maiden voyage with the future King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth on board – sailed sedately toward La Palma at a brisk twenty-five knots. It was only two miles off the coast, and the crew was completely unaware that the vessel and its occupants were the intended targets of one of the most sophisticated weapons on the planet.
Naomi brought up her other findings, all equally as bizarre: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico; Port Tawfik at the southern end of the Suez Canal; and the ISS – International Space Station – parked in low earth orbit.
To speed things up, Naomi spoke telepathically: We’ve only got fifty-five seconds left before impact, so we have to act fast. In my opinion, these B91s aren’t behaving as they should. Just look at where they’re headed and compare that to their mission specs. It doesn’t add up.
Owen was the first to respond: So what are you suggesting?
That we take out the engines and retrieve the missile themselves. We’ve definitely got to get us a closer look at the circuitry, as I’m betting we’ll find evidence of sabotage in there somewhere.
The loud mental voice of the Inquisitor cut in: C’mon Chris, let’s do it! I’d love my guys and girls to get their hands dirty…And good call, Naomi.
Naomi glanced at the commander who merely raised an eyebrow before giving an almost imperceptible nod.
Adjusting the focus and wattage on the emitters, Naomi fired off another salvo. This time, a quintet of ruby rays stabbed out, pulsing within a static flue that sheathed each of the five rockets within a sodium web of lightning. Engines flared, briefly, then cut out, sending their payloads tumbling toward the water far, far below.
Knocked off course, the B91 aimed at the ISS hit the atmosphere at too steep an angle and began to burn, leaving a fresh fiery trail in its wake.
Though Naomi tried to relax, her inner muse was far from happy, and it showed.
Commander Owen noted her unease, and was moved to ask, “What’s still bugging you, have you spotted something else?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, Sir. After all the subterfuge, that seemed…how can I say, a little too easy? I’m worried we might be missing something. Something big.”
“Explain?”
“Well, this can’t be down to a simple glitch in the system. Why? These missiles are designed to precision hit subterranean bunkers, not ports or harbors – and certainly not orbiting space stations or luxury cruise liners come to that. I mean, come on, the Queen Elizabeth is moving for God’s sake, and it’s full of VIPs.”
Owen was inclined to agree. “It doesn’t add up, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t. So, until we’ve had a chance to retrieve them, I think it might be prudent to use a force field to either encase the . . . .”
An expanding halo of blinding intensity lit up the deck as the disabled Land Buster griddling its way through the upper atmosphere exploded. Although GOS-2, like all the other stations, was surrounded by multiple barriers of varying densities, emergency shutters began rolling into place across all observation ports.
It was supposed to be inert! So how…?
One word – danger – flashed through Naomi’s mind.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Entering her override codes for a third time, Naomi locked onto the remaining disabled rockets and hit them with a pinpoint barrage of rapid fire.
Her reactions saved thousands of lives.
The missiles lying on the sea bed just off Hawaii and in the Gulf of Mexico were extirpated instantly, the only evidence of their existence being the sharp hissing sound and huge volumes of steam produced by the rapidly heated seawater as the lasers did their work.
Conversely, those in the Red Sea just off Port Tawfik, and the southern coast of La Palma, had begun their detonation sequence. While they were eliminated before their combined gravo-nuclear warheads managed to engage, the resultant devastation was still substantial.
“Go, Go, Go!” Naomi screamed, to the respective Alpha Response Teams on the other stations still waiting to deploy.
Within seconds they were there.
At Port Tawfik, the detonation of the disabled Land Buster never reached critical mass. Nonetheless, the power of the compression matrix triggered the manifestation of an irradiated schism one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. The A-5 contingent arrived as water from the bay rushed back to fill the void, spitting a radioactive plume over two hundred feet into the air. The shockwave that followed was potent enough to generate a mini tsunami that easily breached the confines of the port and rushed out to devastate the surrounding inlet.
Secondary tremors – possessing the might of a force six earthquake – leveled most of the buildings in or close to the harbor, while every single cargo crane lining the dock area tumbled to its doom.
Despite the initial destruction, radiological readings and thermal blast injuries were low, and EMP damage was confined to a two mile radius. By the time a response frigate was on the way, groundside units already had the situation under control.
Alpha Teams from Stations 4 and 6 attending La Palma discovered the missile had embedded itself into the sea bed less than a mile offshore. As the compression burst initiated, it engendered another vacuum ball, similar to the one at Port Tawfik. However, due to the geological factors involved, this one provoked a higher release of kinetic energy. As it formed, a thermoclastic convulsion vaporized volcanic rock, sediment and seawater, and transmitted the force spherically away from the hypocenter through the ocean like a whip.
The Queen Elizabeth IV never stood a chance. A powerful electromagnetic pulse knocked out its state-of-the-art stabilizing technology. Then a binate efflux and trailing bow wave caught it full on the portside, capsizing the great vessel before Guardian responders could fully deploy.
Working together, Alphas 4 and 6 managed to teleport seven hundred of the one thousand three hundred souls on board to safety as the ship went over, including the Royal Party. And as the rescue mission continued, two corvettes arrived to help in scooping up survivors, treating the injured, and assisting in the evacuation of those holidaymakers and residents caught along the southern shore of La Palma in the ensuing tidal wave.
Looking on helplessly from above, Naomi felt sick to the core at the rising death toll, and numbed by what the consequences could have been had she not been so quick to spot the deception.
“All those people,” she muttered to herself. “Who would do such an appalling thing?”
“That’s what I aim to find out!” An unexpected voice announced.
Naomi was startled to find the mysterious Ultra Class Guardian, Victoria, standing right behind her. Somehow she had managed to teleport directly onto the station unannounced, without triggering any of the alarms. Grand Master Owen was clearly surprised by her presence too, as both Victoria and Andrew were supposed to be off-world again with the Overlord, doing goodness knows what, out in the darkest reaches of space.
Victoria had been a Guardian for longer than almost anyone else Naomi knew of, even the Lord Marshal. Both she and the equally reclusive Andrew had refused promotions repeatedly over the years. And while they were friendly in company, they preferred to keep to themselves when off duty or on the rare occasions they did socialize.
The shocks weren’t over, either, for a ping announced the moment Anil Suresh materialized on the deck an instant later. His face a blank page, the Lord Evaluator took Commander Owen to one side, where they began conversing in hushed tones.
This place is getting crowded. Where’s the cake and…?
Victoria moved closer and stooped down beside the scanning module. “Fill me in on everything, Naomi.”
She knows my name? Fighting to control her beating heart, Naomi opened her mind, parceled the entire incident into neat distinctive packets, and relayed everything to her superior in a matter of seconds.
Victoria’s psyche acknowledged the transmission: Handy skill you have there. Very well done, that was a smart call, and despite what you might think because of initial casualty reports, you saved a lot of lives. We could use you in the future.
Naomi was just about to ask who “we” were and what they could possibly want from her, when she jumped, and gasped out loud. “Oh my God, no!”
As all heads turned, Naomi displayed the terrible consequences of the hybrid gamma ray - lightning strike she had just witnessed via the still open THOR-link to the Texas incident. Holding up her hand to stall the inevitable queue of questions, she then adjusted the sensitivity of her psi-optical array to highlight the fully formed micro singularity that had incarnated before what remained of the ground team.
“Authorize the ships to initiate the omega protocol now!” the Lord Evaluator snapped. “I want them –?”
WAIT!
Everyone spun to look at Victoria, whose countenance had frozen in a semi-vacant expression. Then she blinked, and the usual intensity of her luminous gray eyes came back into focus. “Sorry about that, Anil, but it was necessary.
“Would you be so kind as to oversee the mopping up operations from the missile fiasco while I go down and take personal charge of the Inquisitors on site in Texas? After absorbing the details of Naomi’s briefing, I want to make sure investigators are steered in the right direction. The quicker the bastards responsible for this debacle are brought to justice the better.”
The Lord Evaluator – technically the next in command of the Guardians after the Lord Marshal – narrowed his eyes and replied, “Certainly, Victoria, but if you don’t mind my asking, why did you countermand my order to destroy the black hole?”
“Like I said, I’m sorry, but you and I both know that would wipe out hundreds of square miles of real estate, and I want to avoid that if at all possible. Besides, I’ve just notified the Overlord of the incident at Geronimo and he’s on the way.”
Anil Suresh possessed one of the sharpest minds they knew of. But what Victoria had just said clearly puzzled him. “Adam’s on the way? How? I thought he was on another star search in an adjoining galaxy.”
“He was. I contacted him. Now he’s on the way. I’ll shoulder the consequences!”
The look she gave the Lord Evaluator said to let the matter drop.
Nodding, Anil mumbled, “Let’s get on with it then.”
Both overseers teleported from the station to undertake their respective tasks, leaving behind two very confused colleagues who were wondering what the hell had just taken place.