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THE NEWS LEAKED five hours later.
“Do we know who blabbed?” President Foster asked. He stood in the new White House oval office along with Secretary of Defense Todd Blake.
“I’ve got some people trying to figure that out, but realistically we knew it wouldn’t stay a secret when we told them.”
Foster paced the room, furious. What a day, he thought. Long ago he resigned himself that he would die on this planet. Sure he wished to be on one of the STS ships, but he at least figured he’d grow to be an old man on Earth and perhaps be remembered in future history books on whatever planet the crews eventually settled on, as the president who oversaw their heroic departure from their dying planet. Now he faced a new reality which likely saw him dead in a few months by the hands (paws? claws?) of an alien species.
A steady stream of noise had been building up louder and louder over the last thirty minutes. Despite the late hour, a crowd was gathering outside the White House. He made his way to a window and looked out at the growing mass.
“I need to tell them something,” he said.
“Agreed. I had my people draft a speech as soon as we discovered the fleet,” Blake said.
“No. I don’t want a speech written by someone else. Not for this. I’m going outside to the gate.”
“Sir, I must dissuade you. They’re scared and angry. It could get violent.”
“I’m aware of the risks, Blake. I fought in Africa, damn it. I’m not doing this in the press room. I want to look in the faces of my people and answer their questions, not the reporters.”
Before Blake could protest again, he exited the office. Blake rushed after him, followed quickly by the president’s aides. Listening to nobody, he used the southwest exit and an indistinguishable roar from the amassed crowd greeted him.
Blake and at least a dozen other staff members trailed behind Foster who marched with a purpose. The president stopped ten feet from the gate and scanned the crowd. He estimated a thousand people, maybe more. He raised his hand; the crowd silenced.
“I want you to hear this from me, not from the press. Please, stream this so your fellow Americans can hear this as well.” Foster watched as hundreds pulled out their devices and pointed them at him—he was live in front of everyone on social media.
“What you’ve all heard is true.” He studied their reactions as he recalled the discovery of the alien fleet. Shock, fear, and anger resonated through the throng of people. The few parents present grabbed their children closely as they cried.
“What are you going to do about it?” a man shouted from the depths of the crowd.
“We are expanding our efforts to assemble the STS ships in space so they can begin their journey. That remains our primary goal. In the meantime—”
“What about us?!” a woman asked. He found her toward the front clutching a young child.
“Communication is being attempted with the alien lifeforms and we’re awaiting a response. They’re so far away that it takes our signal hours to reach them, and their response would take hours to travel back to us. Because we haven’t heard anything yet is no reason for alarm. If worse comes to worse we are prepared to launch nuclear missiles at their ships when they are in range.
“When I took office I understood that I waived my rights to be saved on an STS ship. I do not take my duty to protect you lightly. Since I was young I felt called to be here for our country and to help us through such a difficult time in human history. As you all know I began serving our country in the military—I fought wars for you. From there, I fought for you in the senate. And now I stand before you on the lawn of our nation’s symbol of perseverance where I will fight for you again.
“I don’t know how this will all end. I wish I had more answers for you. Tomorrow I will begin working on those answers along with leaders from around the world. But believe me when I tell you that we will not lie down for them. We will strike first. If it comes to it, we will go down swinging with everything we have.
“I’ll be happy to listen to your questions and I will be completely truthful and tell you all that we know.”
A thousand questions came at once.
As the sun rose, Ann crossed the runway to board her hovercopter that would take her back to Orlando. She was groggy and hoped to grab some sleep on the flight back. She and her father ended up talking most of the night; neither able to fall asleep after the news of the day.
She pulled out her cell and called Liam before the noise of the hovercopter made it impossible.
“Hey, Liam.”
“Good morning, Ann. How’s things up in Tennessee?”
“They’re fine as can be expected. I’m about to head back to Orlando. Boarding the copter in a minute.”
“No! You can’t come back to Orlando.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t divulge the specifics, but it’s not safe. I don’t want you here right now.”
“Liam, I can handle ‘not safe’.”
“Please, do this for me. Stay in Tennessee.”
“I can’t stay here,” she said, her voice rising in frustration. “I’m needed down there. We have to get things in high gear. The job is too important.”
“I know you don’t want to hear this, and I wish I could explain why over the phone, but I can’t.”
She heard a voice, muffled, in the background on Liam’s end of the phone call.
“Hold on a second, Ann.”
The line went silent, but still connected. He put her on hold. How could he ask this of her? It was all hands on deck to get ready for an early launch. He couldn’t expect her to sit on the sidelines while others did the hard work. She fought back the urge to hang up and board the hovercopter anyway.
“I’m back. Listen, how about you go to Dallas and work there? You can video chat with Dustin and your team here in Orlando and they can mimic everything you do there.”
“What the hell is going on, Liam?”
“When I know I’m on a secure line I can tell you, but please trust me on this.”
“Damn it. Fine. I’ll go to Dallas. I want an explanation, though. I deserve one.”
“I agree. And you’ll get one. I’ll message Dustin and let him know the situation. Thank you for doing this.”
“I’ll hold my ‘you’re welcome’ until I know why I’m doing this.”
“Understood. I love you.”
She sighed. She knew he wouldn’t ask this of her if it wasn’t important. He cared about her. “I love you, too. I’ll call you when I’m settled in Dallas.”
She hung up before he could reply.
“That didn’t sound like she took it well.”
Liam glared at Percy. The two had met up moments before Ann called him. Percy was about to tell him what he learned at the WWLO headquarters.
“You better be right about Dallas being safe.”
“Whatever is going on with the two of us does not extend to Ann. I wouldn’t put her in harm's way. There’s no WWLO personnel in Dallas anymore. They were unable to infiltrate the facility and couldn’t get organized to do any damage pre-launches. Currently, it’s safer than here.”
“Then we need to do everything possible to stop them now.”
They were talking in Liam’s office. Once the news leaked the previous night, he knew the press would swarm his home looking for answers so he returned back to his office. A comfortable leather sofa sat along a wall that he managed to sleep an hour or two on. Percy woke him up only minutes ago.
“Tell me what you learned last night,” he demanded.
“I learned Foster has balls of steel. I couldn’t believe he walked right out there to the White House gates. Did you see Blake’s face?”
“You know what I mean. What did you learn at the headquarters?”
“You can imagine their disbelief when I told them about the aliens. Some believed me, most didn’t. Then the news leaked and Foster had his social media speech to the people. Everyone believed me then. We talked about options. I tried to steer them in the direction that abandoning our attacks was the best choice, but I couldn’t exactly give myself away so that went nowhere. Instead, like I thought, they decided to accelerate their plans.”
“What’s their timetable?”
“Two weeks.”
“Shit. That’s soon. Any information on plan B?”
“I couldn’t get any. I asked and they simply told me I knew the rules.”
“That’s alright. We stop plan A. No way in hell do we allow them to blow our ship. Then we can worry about plan B.”
Percy moved over to the sofa and sat. “I think I know our next step.”
“And what’s that?” Liam asked, crossing the room to stand over Percy.
“We need to go to Columbus. We have to tell Foster and Blake. It needs to be in person, I don’t trust any connections coming out of Orlando.”
“You’re right. We need the commission on our side. They have to know the danger. And we can’t hope to stop them by ourselves. What are we going to do, raid their entire HQ alone?”
“They’d outnumber us twenty to one. And Liam, we need to hurry. I told you Dallas was safe for now, but with the new timetable who knows how long that will last? In three days it might be a different story.”
“Let’s get to it, then. I need a pilot I can trust who can get us both out of here quietly.”
Debra Sizemore sat in front of Liam’s desk facing him in his office chair while Percy stood off to the side, leaning against a wall.
“Why do you need me to fly you to Columbus? I have dozens of pilots that can do it.”
“We need you, Debra, because we can trust you. I don’t know those pilots, but I do know you. This trip cannot be on an official log and we have to leave as quietly and quickly as possible.”
“You say you trust me, but here you are trying to sneak around. So how can I trust you? This seems suspicious.”
Percy laughed. “She’s got us there, Liam.”
“I know what it looks like. I can’t tell you everything here. I’m sorry. Just know that the security of this entire operation is at stake.”
“Security? Isn’t that what this new guy is for?” She glanced at Percy who couldn’t help but flash a smile back at her.
“That’s why he’s going with us. Please, Debra.”
She considered the two of them. Although she didn’t know Percy, she had a good relationship with Liam. She made her decision to put faith in him.
“Alright. Meet me at the Z48 hangar in fifteen minutes.”
“The Z48s? Wouldn’t a hovercopter be less suspicious?” Percy asked.
“Not this morning. I have my pilots doing extra training on the Z48s today. I will call ahead and make sure one gets left behind. I can access the logs remotely and make it appear that it’s scheduled for routine maintenance. My people will then move it to the garage where it will sit outside the doors waiting for our maintenance team to arrive to work. Once the shuttle is left alone, we will get inside and take off as I alter the log again to show that the craft is scheduled for a long duration test flight. The flight will still be logged, but nobody will see us leave and neither of us will be on the manifest. Our logging system for the hovercopters would be much more difficult to manipulate.”
“You came up with that plan that quickly off the top of your head? Impressive,” Liam said. “What about you?”
“I feel a sick day is in order. Keep it simple.”
“Very well. Lead the way.”
Cautious of them being spotted together on security cameras, the trio agreed to split up and rendezvous in front of the maintenance garage in twenty minutes, each taking different routes to get there. Liam worried the WWLO might have someone watching the camera feed, Percy agreed.
Liam arrived first in front of the Z48, abandoned just like Debra said it would be. He checked the time—7:45. The maintenance team usually came in at 8:00. He hoped the other two would hurry.
While he waited, he admired the vehicle. Slower than the Z56 crafts, it could still travel at speeds greater than five hundred mph (Z56s can top two thousand mph). The craft was bulky, roughly twenty feet wide and fifty feet long. The inside featured a row of seats on each side and handles stretching from end to end for standing passengers to grasp. In total it was rated to carry a hundred passengers. He’d only been on a Z48 twice for short durations and looked forward to an extended trip to check out the craft’s capabilities.
Percy arrived next, followed by Debra a minute later. At 7:55 they were in the air.
During the Relocation Years the city of Columbus, Ohio tripled in size from over one and a half million to almost five million people when it opened the refugee camps throughout the city’s suburban areas. Many refugees from New York and Boston resettled in Columbus.
When the decision was made to abandon Washington D.C. as the Atlantic Ocean flooded the streets of the old United States capital, Columbus was in the running for the new location along with Denver and Minneapolis. Thanks to some political backroom deals, Columbus ended up on top.
The Orlov virus then struck full force on the new capital not long after things were up and running. The new White House saw three different presidents in the first year thanks to the virus’ unrelenting attack throughout the political ranks. Eventually the tripled population had reduced back down to the city’s original number before it opened itself up to the coastal refugees.
Now, Columbus was home to around eight hundred thousand people and falling. The nation’s birth rate the previous year was zero point six.
Liam observed the long-closed Ohio State University outside his window as they approached their landing pad on the White House lawn. The old Ohio Stadium featured visible signs of disuse. He heard that a century ago they used to have a pretty good football team that would draw in thousands. The university shut its doors thirty years ago and nobody’s gone through the trouble of demolishing it or repurposing its buildings. Only a handful of universities still operated throughout the country.
The landing went smoothly and they were ushered inside by the president’s secret service protection which, Percy assured him, had not been infiltrated by the WWLO.
The new White House was somewhat smaller than its predecessor and the outside sported a more modern design than the original, but otherwise it appeared similar enough. The architects tried not to verge too far away from the old design.
Liam, Percy, and Debra were marched through the east entrance stopping just outside the oval office’s door.
“Are you ready to tell me what is going on?” Debra asked.
“Once we’re inside you’ll hear it all,” Liam replied.
The door opened, Foster greeted them from behind his desk. “Donovan! Alvarez! Good to see you both. And I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
“Mr. President. I’m Debra Sizemore. Z Fleet Commander for The Hawking.”
“Nice to meet you. Please, everyone have a seat.” Foster directed them to sit on one of two couches that faced each other in the center of the office. “When I got your call I must admit your secrecy piqued my interest. Tell me, what is this all about?”
“Sir,” Liam began, “I must admit a breach. The terrorist organization who bombed our campus several months ago has infiltrated the STS organization.”
Foster leaned closer. “How do you know this?”
“I told him,” Percy said. “Mr. President, I am—was—still am technically a member of their group.”
“Alvarez? Is this true?” Foster looked incredulously at his former brother in arms.
“It is, sir. They call themselves the World Will Live On. In a nutshell they believe if we had the world’s best scientists working on fixing Earth instead of escaping it, humanity would have a future here on Earth. They’re willing to do whatever is necessary to make that happen.”
“Liam, why is this man not in handcuffs?”
“Because, sir, he believes—and so do I—that he can help us bring them down. He’s had a change of heart.”
“And you believe him?”
“After much consideration, I do. Unfortunately, time is not on our side and we need any help we can get.”
“Tell me everything you know.”
For the next half hour they discussed the WWLO plans and what to do about it.