Chapter 2: Prepare for War
John Koenig found himself in the softly shimmering golden room. Behind him his human body was asleep on his bed in Berg, tossing and turning restlessly. "Vana?"
"I am here, John."
He looked around, reaching out with both hands. "Why can I not see you, Vana?"
He felt a soft rush of air, a gentle sound like a million diamonds spilling, and then felt a light touch on his shoulder. He spun around. Before him stood the radiantly beautiful woman he had met before on Zenno. Happily, he gripped her shoulders, his eyes searching her face.
"Your mind is still troubled, John. It was difficult for me to come to you."
"I'm just glad to see you, Vana! But yes, I have a lot on my mind."
"The war against your people. The intergalactic council has been meeting in minds because of that. I am still too young to be part of that, but the Zennoite elders do participate."
"Can you help us Vana? We stand no chance in intergalactic war!"
"My people are a people of science, John. The science that is our assigned role in the universe, is studying why civilizations behave as they do. We have no war machines."
John stroked her shoulders gently. "I don't know what to do, Vana. Arra… the queen of Atheria, warned us, and we are strengthening our defenses, but we don't even know where the threat is coming from…"
"I can only offer you comfort, John. Talk of war, that I cannot do. But the people of Atheria are highly evolved and at the apex of the intergalactic council. It is a great honor that they warned you. You must follow your mind."
"I'm trying to, Vana. But you know that I'm still learning. It is easy to fall back into old patterns of thinking, and I find myself afraid when I look at my people, knowing that we might all be wiped out because of some unknown enemy."
"I see your fear, John, but I also see that you have great strength of mind to ascend beyond that fear. That is what you must do now."
"I don't know how, Vana. Sometimes I think I've got it, but then it slips away and my mind is just dark."
"I too, am learning to reach beyond the limitations of my mind, John. I have not yet found how to cross the bridge between our worlds. You can only be with me now while your soul is loosed from your human body, like during sleep, but I long to be part of your world forever. The key is love, and my quest is to find that one small door that will allow me to cross over."
"Oh, Vana, it would be wonderful if you could join us on Berg. Your world is beautiful, filled with light, but ours is beautiful in its own way. And you will enjoy my people! Your world seems so… lonely."
"Yes John, our world is a world of minds. Mankind still thrives on physical interaction with other beings. You cannot yet live in my world; that is why I need to reach yours. It is easier for me to go back to the way it was on Zenno millions of years ago, than it is for you to venture into the unknown realms of living in the mind until you are ready."
John leaned in to gently kiss the radiant woman in front of him. "You have given me some comfort, Vana. It was good to see you. You are very beautiful…"
John sat up in his bed, unsure of what had woken him. A glance at his lunar alarm clock showed him that he had had a good 6 hours of sleep, and he felt relieved. Sleep had been elusive with all the things bombarding him and his people. His mind felt somewhat refreshed. Then he remembered Vana and looked around.
"Vana?" he whispered, but all was silent. There was a deep longing in his heart, but after a moment he pushed it away. On Berg they were preparing for war; their very survival depended on these preparations, and he needed to focus on that one thing. With a deep sigh he dragged himself out of bed to prepare for yet another long day.
"So, Victor, what have you got?"
John was in the laboratory in Uzazi, where Victor's desk was piled with papers, models and various other unidentifiable paraphernalia. "Well John, in my opinion we have three options for our bunkers." He pulled out a diagram. "We already have the tunnel on Erath. We could enlarge it, drill horizontally into the ice and create a cavern in the ice, use the thick ice sheet itself as a form of protection."
"Erath is not stable, Victor. Nor is that ice sheet."
"I know John. But evacuating some of our people to Erath until this… war… is over, might serve the same purpose as a survival ship. If Berg is destroyed, they could continue…"
"What is the second option, Victor?"
"We could build a bunker here in Uzazi if we dig very deep directly under the lake. We could use modified sheets of carbon to shore up the edges of our dig, just like at the tunnel, and build a large underground living area."
"And the third?"
"The bunker could be dug at Kukua. There are some areas of stable ground there, with not as many shallow water tables. There are hillsides that would make it easier to start an access tunnel." Victor pulled out some more diagrams.
John paced for a few minutes. "How are you doing on the design for the force field, Victor."
"Ready to set up, John. But, our equipment is somewhat limited. We might have to decide between a full strength field for one community, or two smaller ones to protect both Uzazi and Kukua."
"What if we set up a full strength field for Uzazi, and build our bunkers in Kukua? We can set up our war room here, focus our defenses here, and when the war finally breaks out; evacuate most of our people to Kukua and the bunkers. Hopefully whoever is initiating this war will focus all their efforts on Uzazi, giving our people in the bunkers a chance."
The scientist nodded. "Makes sense, John."
John took up pacing again. "I think, Victor, that this war will be fought out there in space, and perhaps with missiles seeking to destroy our community. I just don't see ground troops as a war strategy. So, we need to prepare some of our eagles as fully fledged warships, and build the best defenses we can against bombs, lasers, missiles or whatever the hell those people would want to sling at us here on Berg."
"Paul tells me that Alan has taken a fleet of freight eagles to Erath to pick up all the weapons and vehicles we salvaged from the Superswift. That will be a huge help. Look," Victor dug around for yet another diagram. "We've come up with this modification of those ATV vehicles, fitting them with pneumatic arms and a bucket to create a backhoe of sorts. The soil is not very hard here on Berg. With a little fleet of these, digging our bunkers will not take long. It's the shoring up of the dig that will require careful engineering."
"Let me guess, Victor. You've already come up with a plan?"
"We are able to synthesize Polyacrylonitrile in enough quantities now to create sheets of very strong carbon fiber. I've set up a section of our manufacturing unit focused only on that since we already started the process for our tunnel on Erath. Once the sheets are synthesized, they can be shaped for many different purposes. As we dig deeper, these sheets can be molded and fitted inside our cavities to create support structures. They are stronger than steel, but much lighter and easier to work with."
"Good. So, let's build our bunkers in Kukua and get our force fields set up around Uzazi. We need to make sure our eagle hangar is well protected. We cannot predict what our enemies will do, but any war strategy would include disabling enemy military equipment. Those eagles may be the only thing standing between us and annihilation."
They both looked around as Helena Russell pushed open the laboratory door. "Victor! John!" She briefly squeezed Victor's hand, which he had held out to her in greeting. She took in the diagrams. "Talk of war," she sighed.
John nodded. "We're doing our best to prepare our communities, Helena."
"I know, John. It's just sad that this should be happening now, when Sandra and Paul's baby is less than a month from being born, and the remnant children are recovering. We should have been focusing on the children, the future, instead of this… this war." Helena too was expecting, as were several other women in their communities.
John rubbed her arm. "Well, Helena, I'm counting on you, on Sandra, Angela, those of you in leadership positions to encourage the other women. And to take good care of yourselves."
She smiled. "We are, John. We have a little group who meet to sew baby clothes." She saw the two men glance at each other. "We don't have any baby clothes," she said defensively. "Babies do need clothes."
"I would expect so," John retorted with a smile.
"We had nothing in our inventory as there were never babies on Alpha except for the strange episode with Jackie Crawford." She looked from Victor to John, trying to figure out if they were making sport of this. "Actually, that's why I came. I had to talk to Victor about… diapers."
Both sets of eyebrows shot up.
"Babies do need diapers, you know. Now the old fashioned cloth ones, nothing wrong with those except work, but I was wondering if manufacturing could whip up some disposable ones."
Victor looked at John, who shrugged with a smile. "Don't look at me. She came to ask you."
The scientist rubbed his chin, and finally nodded slowly. "I'm sure we could. We would need to manufacture some kind of hydro gel." He noticed both John and Helena watching him, not trying very hard to hide their amused smiles. "I'll get someone on it," he replied with a shrug, smiling somewhat shyly himself. "I'm sure we have information… somewhere."
"While you're here, Helena," John suddenly changed the subject, his face more serious now. "There are some freight eagles on Erath. Should we transport any medical equipment still there, here?"
"I think it's a good idea, John. We're expanding the medical unit in Kukua and every bit will help."
"Our bunkers will need a small medical unit too," Victor interjected. "Perhaps we should not focus as much on expanding the above-ground facility in Kukua, but rather get a decent unit set up in our bunkers."
"Bunkers?" Helena asked.
"Yes," John explained. "We are starting on an extensive underground facility in Kukua, away from here, where I expect most of the action will be once this war starts. We'll evacuate most of our people there and it would act hopefully not just as a shelter, but as a place to survive until our enemies have destroyed all they desire to."
Helena hung her head and moved instinctively closer to Victor, who simply placed his hand on her shoulder. "I just don't understand this," she said. "First, the earth ship. Now, these unknown enemies. It's as if someone or something really has it in for us. And all we are trying to do is build a future for ourselves."
Nobody had any answer to that.
The drone of ATV engines as they raced in and out of the tunnel being dug in one of the hillsides bounding Kukua sounded to John like the buzz of angry insects. If the situation had not been so serious, he would have smiled at some of the creativity from his people. Old spacesuit helmets, the visors removed and the heavy neck sections cut away did duty as construction helmets. Moon buggies had been connected; the seats removed from all but the front unit to create a makeshift mine train to ferry out the dug up dirt. Men were racing around, covered in mud and dirt, work continuing at breakneck speed. He spotted Paul gesturing to some workers and went over.
"Paul!"
"Commander!" The younger man smiled, his face streaked with dirt. "Work is going really well!"
"That's great news Paul! The Professor here?"
"I don't think so, Commander. Toshiro and some other guys from engineering are deeper down there with the plans. Last time I saw the Professor he said something about the force field towers. He's not on his commlock?"
John shook his head. "It's nothing serious Paul." The Commander then proceeded down the gently sloping tunnel.
"We're digging at around 20% incline, Commander," Paul explained. "This tunnel will stretch approximately 500 meters into the ground, from where we will start digging straight down to create a large chamber." John waved at the workmen as they wandered deeper into the tunnel. "The completed chamber is actually going to be three storeys," Paul continued. "The top storey will be meeting, recreational and medical, with living quarters under that, and the deepest part bunker will contain last resort panic rooms." He reached a moon buggy and held up some material that looked suspiciously like part of a cut tree from Berg. "This is the best part," Paul smiled. "It looks like a tree, right?"
John nodded.
"But it's not. It's just made to look like it. These will be sunk all the way through from the surface, but it really is a tube that will house power cables, water pipes, air hoses and communication fibers for the bunkers. We can run those underground from the base of these fake trees all the way to our main power unit and water supply. As long as those remain standing, the bunkers will have unlimited power, air and water. But," Paul added, sensing the Commander's coming question, "the bunkers will also have a backup generator and emergency water supply, of course."
They had reached the end of the current tunnel, where workers were fixing vertical supports and stretching big sheets of carbon mesh to shore up the dig. Several of the converted ATVs stood around, the drivers taking a short break while the support team strengthened the tunnel. John sighed deeply and for the first time in many days felt… hope?
"This is great, Paul!"
Paul nodded. "We have teams working around the clock, Commander. We'll get it done… in time… I hope."
John patted the younger man on the shoulder. "Thank you Paul. How's Sandra?"
"Doctor Russell says any day now, Commander," Paul smiled.
"And you go, Paul, to be with her as soon as you hear."
"Yes Commander. Thank you." They had reached the mouth of the tunnel again. It had been dug into a small hillside, to help camouflage the entrance. No doubt some kind of barrier would be constructed, to be closed once people were safely inside.
"Commander!" Alan Carter came jogging over. "David told me I'd find you here. We're ready to take the probes."
A few days ago the leadership team had come up with the plan to orbit some drones around Berg, and even Erath, to act as an early warning sign for any warships entering their solar system. For a brief period they had entertained the idea of orbiting some mines, but eventually decided against it. Landmines in war torn areas of earth had been a horrific problem for years; dotting the space around their planets with lethal mines could, in the long run, create more problems than solutions. Long range drones with their own scanners would pick up ships long before their planet bound scanners would.
"Be careful out there, Alan. We've not seen any activity since Arra's visit, but you never know. Keep your eyes open for any alien craft."
"Of course, Commander. We're taking some of the revamped eagles. A little more power, and fitted with some missile bays, to test their flight response and maneuverability."
"Good luck Alan. Keep us updated as you launch the probes, so David can make sure they're online."
Koenig watched as the young man straddled one of the ATVs salvaged from the Superswift, and headed towards Uzazi and the eagle hangar. Despite the tragedy surrounding that earth ship, he reflected, it had brought them some help in the form of the vehicles, weapons and provisions it had carried. He wondered briefly about the misguided group of 21 people who had finally boarded that ship in their quest to return to earth. That was behind them now, though, and as he climbed into the moon buggy to return to the command center, with a final glance at the tunnel opening, the little spark of hope was back in his heart. Could it be that this too would soon be behind them so they could finally focus on their future?
For the duration of the leadership briefing, John Koenig had mandated time off for all his people. Everyone had been working around the clock on the war preparations on Berg, and he wanted people to be able to watch and listen to this update from all the departments. Seeing all the things being done, John had found hope blossoming in his heart. He wanted all his people to have that same hope.
Victor Bergman currently had the stage, explaining and demonstrating the newly erected and tested force fields to protect their community in Uzazi.
"So," the Professor was explaining. "The little problem with having our eagles lift off and depart made me think of a different solution, since we did not want to have to keep disabling our force fields and then re-enabling them each time an eagle lifted off, so instead of one solid force field, the protection is now layered as three overlapping force fields. The highest layer of these is in the area over our eagle hangar. Not only can the fields be activated from the top of our towers, but also in steps from lower along them, so, about 200 meters lower, and stretching over most of our community at Uzazi, a second field can be activated. This field leaves a gap over the eagle hanger, below the highest field, allowing for an eagle to lift off before traveling forward and exiting in the gap between the two horizontal fields." He held up some diagrams illustrating this. "It provides them some protection on liftoff too."
"Nice thinking, Professor," Alan remarked.
"In addition, another force field can be activated around our communities, to act, if you will, like a fence. Since we do not know if our enemies will be landing on Berg, it seemed wise to prepare for that possibility. During our previous encounter with the Bethans we did experience a ship landing our moon, and such a vessel could aim whatever ordinance they have from our surface to attack us not from above, but from the side."
"Thank you, Victor," John said. "Great work! If and when this war finally breaks out, we'll be diverting as much power as we can to these fields, as I believe they will be our greatest chance to protect our community. David?" Koenig turned to Kano. "What have you got?"
"We coordinated with the Professor and installed some missile defense posts outside the perimeter of the force fields using missiles from the Superswift. These batteries are somewhat buried, and can be activated remotely and aimed at any vessel attempting to land on our surface." Kano indicated on a map where these were located. "We've clustered them mostly around Uzazi, but there are a few around Kukua."
"Let me say something on that point," John Koenig interrupted. "Our plan is to, when these enemies arrive, focus their attention on Uzazi. Our bunker has been dug, and is being readied as a safe, reinforced living space. Once we come under attack, non-essential personnel will be evacuated to the bunker and sealed in. All other personnel will be in Uzazi, and we hope that will keep our enemies away from Kukua. If our community here in Uzazi is destroyed, we hope it will satisfy those seeking this revenge, allowing for the survivors in the bunker to eventually restart their lives on Berg."
There was a brief silence as people mulled this sobering thought.
"But, we intend to put up one hell of a fight," Koenig said. "Alan?"
"We have modified six of our eagles to be mobile missile launchers," Alan started. "Using the freight platforms, we constructed missile bays that can be raised and fired while the eagles are in motion. The missiles from the Superswift were calibrated to become heat seeking. We have twelve of those with which we can take out enemy ships. Five more of our eagles have been stripped of all pod carrying capabilities and turned into sleek war machines, capable of great maneuverability, armed with lasers. These will be our dogfighters. Finally, we have camouflaged three of our eagles on the dark side. Three pilots will be on standby if for any reason all our other eagles are damaged or destroyed. They will be our final wave, coming at the enemy only as a last resort, concurrent with those in the bunkers being evacuated to the panic rooms on the lowest level."
"We have no idea how long this war will last," John Koenig said. "We can only hope those seeking revenge, will stop when they have achieved a certain level of destruction, and observe what they think is annihilation of our community."
"Paul?"
"The bunker being completed at Kukua will have three levels. The top two will be regular living areas, and hopefully will be all that is needed. The third level consists of four panic rooms that can be completely sealed from the rest, with a false wall that will move to conceal even the entrance to those rooms. If it eventually comes to that point and enemy ships do land to sweep the surface of our planet with troops, those in the bunkers will move to the lowest level and it will be sealed from the surface. There are supplies for 100 people for 7 days, less if more people need to go. There are hidden surveillance cameras that will allow those in the bunker to keep an eye on the surface, but at that time absolute silence would be essential. It is our hope that the enemies will leave so that those in the bunker could emerge and start rebuilding before those 7 days are up."
John Koenig stood up, looking at all those gathered in the command unit at Uzazi. "I want to thank every one of you for the dedication and focus you've put into our efforts to protect our community against this possible war we had been warned against. We've achieved a great deal in a short time, and the work continues until the day enemy ships do arrive. We will fight with everything that is in us to safeguard every one of you. Now comes a part that is hard, but it has to be done." He paused for a minute, studying the faces before him; then faced the communications console as if to look those listening elsewhere in the eye. "When time comes to evacuate people to the bunkers, Paul Morrow will lead that group and assume leadership if those of us who stay behind are annihilated."
Paul jumped up, but John Koenig motioned for him to sit.
"Of our current leadership group, Sandra Benes Morrow, David Kano, Angela Robinson and Helena Russell will join the bunker evacuees. So will the remnant children and all other pregnant mothers or mothers with babies. Unfortunately I cannot extend the same privilege to all our fathers or fathers to be, as some of you will be needed in the war effort. Those of us remaining on the surface will fight with everything we have to ensure the continual survival of our colonies, but if we do not make it, you will be the ones carrying on our dreams. I cannot as yet, give you names of others who will be in that bunker, as much of it will depend on the form our enemies take when they finally arrive, but that will be the core group. Now, let me thank all of you one more time for your incredible effort. It is my greatest hope that this war will never happen, but I'm satisfied that we are well prepared."
Alan Carter stood up, starting a brief applause, and others joined in. Finally John turned back to the monitors. "Thank you for listening to us. Please report back to your duties within an hour."
People started drifting out of the command center, deep in conversation. Koenig knew that many needed some time to discuss all they have heard to reinforce the concepts, therefore he had allowed time. As he watched his people stream outside and things started quieting down, he became aware of a hand on his arm. He looked down into the pleading eyes of Helena Russell.
"John. I need to stay on top to help in medical."
He shook his head. "Not only are you pregnant, Helena, but I need our best doctor in that bunker for the survivors, if it comes to that. Bob will take charge of things here. No matter what happens in the war, I want to give the survivors the best possible chance to rebuild. You will have the children, and the mothers, and there is simply no one else I can entrust them to." He took her hand. "As for Victor, I'm going to need him. If anything goes wrong with those force fields, I need him to fix it. We'll be well protected here in Uzazi. It will be Alan and his pilots who are in the greatest line of fire."
"I hope, John," she said softly, "that this war never happens. I cannot bear to lose Victor, or you, or Alan, or any of our people."
"I hope so too, Helena. I hope Arra's warning comes to nothing, and that those revengeful entities can somehow be released from their bloodlust. But I'm satisfied that we have done all in our power to overcome anything thrown at us. This is not a war we are seeking, but one we are drawn into, and I can only hope that whatever cosmic forces have looked out for us in the past, will do so again."
Victor Bergman, who had been in discussion with Paul Morrow, now joined them. "Well done, John. Our people needed that!" he exclaimed. Victor's eyes rested lovingly on Helena. "We're going to be OK," he smiled reassuringly at her.
John Koenig too squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Go make the best of this little break, you two. I'm going to go get something to eat. See you later."
(To be continued...)