Dead Man's Switch.
Lieutenant Dak Kerrigan and General Mitchell stood in the elevator, as it sped downward into the earth.
"How much did they tell you?" Asked the General.
"Only that I'd be working in isolation. In a top secret bunker in the Arizona desert."
Pausing, he went on.
"Forgive me, sir, but shouldn't a bunker be inside a mountain?"
The General chuckled, reflected, and stated grimly. "Let's hope that they think the
same way as we do."
Kerrigan wondered who "They" were.
Finally, after at least five minutes in the elevator, the two officers walked out into a small,
family-like room.
The General was no-nonsense about the procedure.
"After I leave, this room will automatically weld shut. You are 14'000 feet underground,
and will be behind 25 feet of blast proof solid-steel doors. You will have food, water,
heat, and electricity for 1 year."
The General turned his back to Kerrigan.
"You are probably wondering why you are here."
"Actually, sir, that was the first thing on my mind."
Kerrigan had good reason to be suspicious. He had been woken up at 4:00 in the morning
by several military agents. Afterwards, he had taken a long drive from Fort Carter in lower California, after saying good-bye to his nephews, Tom and Jake, the only family that he cared to visit.
His father and mother were dead, killed in an accident at Edwards Air Force Base when
he was 14. His sister had become a writer, and had moved to a city in California, had given him two nephews. They were the closest thing that he had to children, now.
His wife, Sydney, had left him after their son, Saddler was hit by a car, and later made an amazing recovery in the hospital, only to vanish.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the General.
"These photographs were taken by the Hubble space telescope."
Kerrigan took the photo. It showed a squadron of cockroach-shaped space ships flying in formation.
"And this is only ONE of the strange phenomina in the region of California. Most of it seems centered over right were your nephews live. The point is, the reason that Washingon is so worried is that these images match the alien ship that we have at Area 51."
Kerrigan knew what the General meant by that. In 1981 the government had captured a huge ship, at least the size of 10 school buses. It was shaped like a giant battle ax. On the ship, they found dozens of life forms. They found giant worms,
seven foot tall bladed monsters, and small ape like beasts on the ship.
The "Blade Ship" carried at least two of the "Bug Fighters" that the photograph was showing.
"I still don't understand,sir."
The General chuckled.
"I can remember myself at your age. Always unable to see every possibility that was in the future. The idea is, Lieutenant, that the aliens know that we know about them. In fact, about 5 years ago, the Astromoners at NASA noticed that the constillation of Scorpio wqas somewhat distorted. 3 of the stars were missing. We sent several probes into the area, but none returned. We believe that a type of alien "mothership" has cloaked itself into orbit around our world. The reason that NORAD has moved to Defcon 3 is because the same squadron of Bug Fighters that are in this photo distroyed the hubble."
Kerrigan stood, shocked. In his 14 years of militaty service, he had fought in the Gulf war, Bosnia, and El Salvador. Never, had he believed that he would be involved in an alien invasion.
"So why me? Why this bunker?" Pondered Kerrigan, into the air.
Grimly, General Mitchell looked into his eyes. "Should worse come to worse, the UN has had this installation sice 1991. Should the alien enemy invade, and try to enslave or conquer the human race, one man is to press this button." He motioned to a small device on the wall.
"In that event, every nuclear and chemical-biological weapon on the planet will immediately launch."
A Doomsday system.
"The reason that it is code-named Operation Dead Man's Switch, is because in the event that you die, the system will immediately launch on reflex. The idea is that we won't make it, but neither will they. We think that they know about it, and we hope that they do. It would be better to intimidate them than to kill both of us, but should you live the full year and not be communicated by the Pentagon, you are to assume that mankind has been defeated by the aliens."
General Mitchell looked on, and Kerrigan asked his question.
"Sir,Is it possible that the enemy could disarm the system?"
"No. Not without setting it off. There is no way that they could see all of the traps. Relax, soldier. We've thought this through. Only we have the De-activation code, and only you are authorized to deactivate it."
The General looked at him with stone eyes.
"So, Lieutenant. Are you ready to help save the planet?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Good. And good luck to you too,lad. Godspeed."
Kerrigan saluted the General, and it was returned.
Kerrigan watched as the General walked out the door and up the elevator. He watched as the doors welded themselves shut.
There was no going back.
Day 2
Kerrigan immediately adapted to his new surroundings. A large binder, he found, was filled with instructions on the operation of the Doomsday system, as well as the limited information on the aliens. The government had known for some time about their presance in orbit around the earth. But, it was top secret. Only a few select generals and CIA operatives, and the President, of course, knew the trusth. However, they thought that it was some type of scientific expedition, but the government hadn't even worked up the courage to try to contact them.
Kerrigan woke up, sharply at 6:00 A.M., by the harsh sound of General Mitchell's voice.
"Lieutenant! Lieutenant!" Barked the General.
The Lieutenant sat up from his bed, to see the face of General Mitchell in a computer monitor at the foot of his bed.
Kerrigan immediately jumped up and saluted and covered up his boxer-short-clad body with some fatigue pants and a shirt.
All in the time it took the General to return the salute.
"Sorry, sir. I wasn't expecting this communication."
"Well," the General started, "Don't be too upset about it. you won't get too many of them. And the only ones that you will recieve will be from this location. We don't want the aliens too feed you false information."
"Now. I have some good news. The aliens have landed. Last night, another Blade Ship of theirs landed at Edwards Air Force Base. Amazingly, they are totally human! Their leader, Visser Three, wants a conferance with all of the leaders of the free world at a conferance in Geneva. I'll be one of the delegates."
"What is the outlook, sir?"
"Cautiously opitmistic. They claim that they have come to defend this world from a race of conquerors called the Andalites. They also claim that a band of Andalites is on Earth, trying to sabotage their efforts to protect us. They have given us a location, near where your nephews live, and we have captured one of them. He is quarentine in a bunker in Alaska, but he refuses to tell us a thing."
Kerrigan looked into the Genral's face.
"Could we trust them?"
The General paused for about 3 seconds, than replied: "Of course."
Day 68
Kerrigan was bored. He had played thousands of games against the computer in chess. He had read every book and watched every movie a hundred times each. He had even played Space Invaders. From time to time he wondered if that very game was being played right now, 14 000 feet abouve.
He could only sit and wait.
Day 109
The Liutenant knew that he wasn't supposed to have any contaxt outside, except with General Mitchell, but he couldn't help it if he re-aligned the satallite dish, and got more information. Was he?
The radio voice crackled: "...millions have taken to the streets. Armies of Hork-Bajir have swept residential areas. the resistance known as the Animorphs now has over 7 million morph capable troops. The Leader, 'Prince' Jake (static) has met with the Andalite prince Galuit on the orbiting dome ship. The remaining United States governemt has enacted the draft so that all men and women over 16 must fight. The Andalites have, after much debate, decided to aid us in whatever forms we require, including morphing, Z-Space, and shredder technology. In other news, the Andalite Warrior Aximili's assassination attempt on Visser Three failed today..."
It faded to static.
Day 241
Kerrigan wondered many things while underground.
He had tried to re-align the dish with the satallite, but to no avail.
Most of the time, he slept. When he didn't sleep he played polker with the computer. He now owed a machine 94 000 dollars. He was ready to bring a crow-bar to it. If he had a crow-bar, that is.
One night, he dreamed the same dream he did every night.
He was playing polker, and losing as usual, when the alarms prompting him to press the button that would shut off the Doomsday device turned on. Klaxxons wailing, he rushed to input his palm scan and retena scan, as well as his 25 diget combination and key card. And he did, with no difficulty.
He then would push the huge red button and the device would shut off.
He pushed it.
It didn't shut off.
He kept pushing, and pushing untill a large red spot appeared where he was connecting with the button.
He heard the monotonous, female voice counting down the seconds untill Armageddon.
Then the balst doors opened and huge, bladed monsters stormed in, slicing his throat open.
He woke up hearing a voic in his mind.
[My life is not my own when the people have need of it. I, Andalite warrior, humbly give my life in the service of freedom.]
Then, it was as if a thousand voices had cried out in terror, and were suddonly silenced.
The final of 5 Andalite Dome-Ships had been shot down, in a Kamakazie attack by Yeerk-Bug Fighters.
Day 377
His power had cut out the night before, and the supermarket of food that he had at his disposal was rapidy shrinking. Kerrigan was simply running on a back up generator, and as he slipped into insanity, he gave up any hope of being rescued.
The alarm went off, but he didn't care.
"Screw it." He said. It was a shock to him hearing his voice after so long.
He walked into the control room.
"Ten seconds remaining."
"9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0."
"Doomsday system armed. Dead man. Dead man."
"30 seconds untill launch." A male voice took over.
"I knew it wasn't really 30 seconds." Exclaimed Kerrigan.
"Chemical weapons armed."
"Biological Weapons armed."
"Hey, General Mitchell!" Cried Kerrigan.
"If the world explodes and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?!"
"Nuclear warheads armed." The male voice droned on.
Then, for a split second the Liuetenant saw a single blood-red eye. It stared at humanity from another universe, un- passionetly, laughing.
Suddenly, the monitor roared to life!
"For Christ's sakes! Kerrigan! Answer me!" General Mitchell's face cried.
Seeing it, but not believing his own eyes and ears, Kerrigan ran to the panle and shut down the system.
"Sir! Did you beat 'em? Did you defeat the enemy?" Kerrigan was out of breath, so releaved and excited to see a familiar face again.
"Yes we did, soldier. We took massive casualties. But we found a new weapon, and we defeated them."
"Than what is out plan of action, sir?"
"First we have to find you and find some way to disarm the system. Then we have to get you out of there and bring you home."
"But for now, you just keep pushing the button. No matter what, do not let the device go off! Understood, Lieutenant?"
"Yes, sir!"
The vision disappeared, and a relieved Lieutenant Kerrigan paced the room.
"...keep pushing the button. Keep pushing the button...pushing the button..."
And far away, in Washington D.C., General Mitchell reverted to the true form of the former third Visser of the Yeerk Empire, however, he was now Visser one. He chuckled to himself, silently, than looked out the window to see Washington D.C. with brownish-yellow sky's, and the Yeerk pool that was constructed out of the Reflecting pool. the city was ablaize. And all around the world, you could hear the screams of the last free humans, being dragged to the Yeerk Pool. And losing their freedom...
Lieutenant Dak Kerrigan and General Mitchell stood in the elevator, as it sped downward into the earth.
"How much did they tell you?" Asked the General.
"Only that I'd be working in isolation. In a top secret bunker in the Arizona desert."
Pausing, he went on.
"Forgive me, sir, but shouldn't a bunker be inside a mountain?"
The General chuckled, reflected, and stated grimly. "Let's hope that they think the
same way as we do."
Kerrigan wondered who "They" were.
Finally, after at least five minutes in the elevator, the two officers walked out into a small,
family-like room.
The General was no-nonsense about the procedure.
"After I leave, this room will automatically weld shut. You are 14'000 feet underground,
and will be behind 25 feet of blast proof solid-steel doors. You will have food, water,
heat, and electricity for 1 year."
The General turned his back to Kerrigan.
"You are probably wondering why you are here."
"Actually, sir, that was the first thing on my mind."
Kerrigan had good reason to be suspicious. He had been woken up at 4:00 in the morning
by several military agents. Afterwards, he had taken a long drive from Fort Carter in lower California, after saying good-bye to his nephews, Tom and Jake, the only family that he cared to visit.
His father and mother were dead, killed in an accident at Edwards Air Force Base when
he was 14. His sister had become a writer, and had moved to a city in California, had given him two nephews. They were the closest thing that he had to children, now.
His wife, Sydney, had left him after their son, Saddler was hit by a car, and later made an amazing recovery in the hospital, only to vanish.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the General.
"These photographs were taken by the Hubble space telescope."
Kerrigan took the photo. It showed a squadron of cockroach-shaped space ships flying in formation.
"And this is only ONE of the strange phenomina in the region of California. Most of it seems centered over right were your nephews live. The point is, the reason that Washingon is so worried is that these images match the alien ship that we have at Area 51."
Kerrigan knew what the General meant by that. In 1981 the government had captured a huge ship, at least the size of 10 school buses. It was shaped like a giant battle ax. On the ship, they found dozens of life forms. They found giant worms,
seven foot tall bladed monsters, and small ape like beasts on the ship.
The "Blade Ship" carried at least two of the "Bug Fighters" that the photograph was showing.
"I still don't understand,sir."
The General chuckled.
"I can remember myself at your age. Always unable to see every possibility that was in the future. The idea is, Lieutenant, that the aliens know that we know about them. In fact, about 5 years ago, the Astromoners at NASA noticed that the constillation of Scorpio wqas somewhat distorted. 3 of the stars were missing. We sent several probes into the area, but none returned. We believe that a type of alien "mothership" has cloaked itself into orbit around our world. The reason that NORAD has moved to Defcon 3 is because the same squadron of Bug Fighters that are in this photo distroyed the hubble."
Kerrigan stood, shocked. In his 14 years of militaty service, he had fought in the Gulf war, Bosnia, and El Salvador. Never, had he believed that he would be involved in an alien invasion.
"So why me? Why this bunker?" Pondered Kerrigan, into the air.
Grimly, General Mitchell looked into his eyes. "Should worse come to worse, the UN has had this installation sice 1991. Should the alien enemy invade, and try to enslave or conquer the human race, one man is to press this button." He motioned to a small device on the wall.
"In that event, every nuclear and chemical-biological weapon on the planet will immediately launch."
A Doomsday system.
"The reason that it is code-named Operation Dead Man's Switch, is because in the event that you die, the system will immediately launch on reflex. The idea is that we won't make it, but neither will they. We think that they know about it, and we hope that they do. It would be better to intimidate them than to kill both of us, but should you live the full year and not be communicated by the Pentagon, you are to assume that mankind has been defeated by the aliens."
General Mitchell looked on, and Kerrigan asked his question.
"Sir,Is it possible that the enemy could disarm the system?"
"No. Not without setting it off. There is no way that they could see all of the traps. Relax, soldier. We've thought this through. Only we have the De-activation code, and only you are authorized to deactivate it."
The General looked at him with stone eyes.
"So, Lieutenant. Are you ready to help save the planet?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Good. And good luck to you too,lad. Godspeed."
Kerrigan saluted the General, and it was returned.
Kerrigan watched as the General walked out the door and up the elevator. He watched as the doors welded themselves shut.
There was no going back.
Day 2
Kerrigan immediately adapted to his new surroundings. A large binder, he found, was filled with instructions on the operation of the Doomsday system, as well as the limited information on the aliens. The government had known for some time about their presance in orbit around the earth. But, it was top secret. Only a few select generals and CIA operatives, and the President, of course, knew the trusth. However, they thought that it was some type of scientific expedition, but the government hadn't even worked up the courage to try to contact them.
Kerrigan woke up, sharply at 6:00 A.M., by the harsh sound of General Mitchell's voice.
"Lieutenant! Lieutenant!" Barked the General.
The Lieutenant sat up from his bed, to see the face of General Mitchell in a computer monitor at the foot of his bed.
Kerrigan immediately jumped up and saluted and covered up his boxer-short-clad body with some fatigue pants and a shirt.
All in the time it took the General to return the salute.
"Sorry, sir. I wasn't expecting this communication."
"Well," the General started, "Don't be too upset about it. you won't get too many of them. And the only ones that you will recieve will be from this location. We don't want the aliens too feed you false information."
"Now. I have some good news. The aliens have landed. Last night, another Blade Ship of theirs landed at Edwards Air Force Base. Amazingly, they are totally human! Their leader, Visser Three, wants a conferance with all of the leaders of the free world at a conferance in Geneva. I'll be one of the delegates."
"What is the outlook, sir?"
"Cautiously opitmistic. They claim that they have come to defend this world from a race of conquerors called the Andalites. They also claim that a band of Andalites is on Earth, trying to sabotage their efforts to protect us. They have given us a location, near where your nephews live, and we have captured one of them. He is quarentine in a bunker in Alaska, but he refuses to tell us a thing."
Kerrigan looked into the Genral's face.
"Could we trust them?"
The General paused for about 3 seconds, than replied: "Of course."
Day 68
Kerrigan was bored. He had played thousands of games against the computer in chess. He had read every book and watched every movie a hundred times each. He had even played Space Invaders. From time to time he wondered if that very game was being played right now, 14 000 feet abouve.
He could only sit and wait.
Day 109
The Liutenant knew that he wasn't supposed to have any contaxt outside, except with General Mitchell, but he couldn't help it if he re-aligned the satallite dish, and got more information. Was he?
The radio voice crackled: "...millions have taken to the streets. Armies of Hork-Bajir have swept residential areas. the resistance known as the Animorphs now has over 7 million morph capable troops. The Leader, 'Prince' Jake (static) has met with the Andalite prince Galuit on the orbiting dome ship. The remaining United States governemt has enacted the draft so that all men and women over 16 must fight. The Andalites have, after much debate, decided to aid us in whatever forms we require, including morphing, Z-Space, and shredder technology. In other news, the Andalite Warrior Aximili's assassination attempt on Visser Three failed today..."
It faded to static.
Day 241
Kerrigan wondered many things while underground.
He had tried to re-align the dish with the satallite, but to no avail.
Most of the time, he slept. When he didn't sleep he played polker with the computer. He now owed a machine 94 000 dollars. He was ready to bring a crow-bar to it. If he had a crow-bar, that is.
One night, he dreamed the same dream he did every night.
He was playing polker, and losing as usual, when the alarms prompting him to press the button that would shut off the Doomsday device turned on. Klaxxons wailing, he rushed to input his palm scan and retena scan, as well as his 25 diget combination and key card. And he did, with no difficulty.
He then would push the huge red button and the device would shut off.
He pushed it.
It didn't shut off.
He kept pushing, and pushing untill a large red spot appeared where he was connecting with the button.
He heard the monotonous, female voice counting down the seconds untill Armageddon.
Then the balst doors opened and huge, bladed monsters stormed in, slicing his throat open.
He woke up hearing a voic in his mind.
[My life is not my own when the people have need of it. I, Andalite warrior, humbly give my life in the service of freedom.]
Then, it was as if a thousand voices had cried out in terror, and were suddonly silenced.
The final of 5 Andalite Dome-Ships had been shot down, in a Kamakazie attack by Yeerk-Bug Fighters.
Day 377
His power had cut out the night before, and the supermarket of food that he had at his disposal was rapidy shrinking. Kerrigan was simply running on a back up generator, and as he slipped into insanity, he gave up any hope of being rescued.
The alarm went off, but he didn't care.
"Screw it." He said. It was a shock to him hearing his voice after so long.
He walked into the control room.
"Ten seconds remaining."
"9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0."
"Doomsday system armed. Dead man. Dead man."
"30 seconds untill launch." A male voice took over.
"I knew it wasn't really 30 seconds." Exclaimed Kerrigan.
"Chemical weapons armed."
"Biological Weapons armed."
"Hey, General Mitchell!" Cried Kerrigan.
"If the world explodes and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?!"
"Nuclear warheads armed." The male voice droned on.
Then, for a split second the Liuetenant saw a single blood-red eye. It stared at humanity from another universe, un- passionetly, laughing.
Suddenly, the monitor roared to life!
"For Christ's sakes! Kerrigan! Answer me!" General Mitchell's face cried.
Seeing it, but not believing his own eyes and ears, Kerrigan ran to the panle and shut down the system.
"Sir! Did you beat 'em? Did you defeat the enemy?" Kerrigan was out of breath, so releaved and excited to see a familiar face again.
"Yes we did, soldier. We took massive casualties. But we found a new weapon, and we defeated them."
"Than what is out plan of action, sir?"
"First we have to find you and find some way to disarm the system. Then we have to get you out of there and bring you home."
"But for now, you just keep pushing the button. No matter what, do not let the device go off! Understood, Lieutenant?"
"Yes, sir!"
The vision disappeared, and a relieved Lieutenant Kerrigan paced the room.
"...keep pushing the button. Keep pushing the button...pushing the button..."
And far away, in Washington D.C., General Mitchell reverted to the true form of the former third Visser of the Yeerk Empire, however, he was now Visser one. He chuckled to himself, silently, than looked out the window to see Washington D.C. with brownish-yellow sky's, and the Yeerk pool that was constructed out of the Reflecting pool. the city was ablaize. And all around the world, you could hear the screams of the last free humans, being dragged to the Yeerk Pool. And losing their freedom...