Chapter 35 Times running out

The Pentagon, Washington DC

The analyst looked at the series of photos that had been relayed from the Hubble Telescope and then looked again. A chill of disbelief flooded over the young woman who had joined up after 9/11, passing up a chance to work for the Rand Corporation to serve her country. "Sir, you better see this," she called out to her section head.

"What is it Captain Dutton?" Colonel Osprey McLynn asked, coming over to her cubicle. "Have you figured out how the aliens reinforced themselves?"

"Yes sir, I did," she confirmed. "It seems they were tucked into a comet cloud and dropped in as it passed earth. The thing with this one though is it may have been mechanically produced to shield them."

"Like a smoke screen?"

"Kind of."

"And we missed it?"

"Well yes, we did," she confirmed a bit testily. "But we weren't really looking for anything like that if you remember. Plus our access to the satellites was spotty. NSA has been a bit stingy at giving access. Apparently there are a lot of people interested in satellite taskings."

"Politics," McLynn spat out in disgust. "Even in war we still have to deal with this crap. We're the ones who're supposed to watch space and we're not given the resources we need."

"Part of it too was we were spending our time looking down at the earth and not out to space which I guess makes sense," Dutton reflected, trying to shift her boss' attention from what should be to what was. "Anyway that's not really important because I think I've found something pretty big."

"Okay, what have you got?" the Colonel asked, his curiosity rising.

"I was able to get access to the Hubble Telescope's recent captures. I figured if another group came after the initial invasion we might want to see if there are any more."

"Makes sense."

"It's a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack but I found something. Take a look at this," Dutton declared, pointing to some satellite photos she pulled out.

The Colonel adjusted his glasses and looked at the images she spread out on her desk. "Okay?" he said, not sure where to look.

"Look at this," Dutton circled a cluster with a grease pencil. "What does this remind you of?"

The electrical engineer officer suddenly caught the drift. "My god. Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes, the same type of meteor clusters that the initial invasion came in." She pulled some other photos out to lay them beside. "These are images and scans that we got back in August when they first hit us. Now they're taken closer then these ones but are bang on. There's also another thing."

"What's that?" McLynn asked, feeling his pulse quickening.

"I've calculated their size based on distance away compared to the first ones and they're bigger."

"You're sure?"

"Positive," Dutton nodded her head for emphasis.

"Where are they coming from?" the section head responded, still not wanting to believe what he was being told.

"This is the Epsilon Eridani region of space sir," Dutton answered.

"How soon until they get here?"

"I'll need some more time-lapsed data from the Hubble to know for sure but my rough guess at this point is 12 to 14 days."

"12 to 14….," McLynn's voice trailed off as the severity of what he'd been told sunk in. Then his head snapped towards a waiting orderly. "Get the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on the phone. This is a priority one. We need to show this to him right away. Get your stuff together Captain. We're going to the White House."

Area Command Headquarters, Los Angeles Theatre of Operations

"Everyone, stop what you're doing and gather around right now," General Daily ordered tersely, holding a copy of the message he'd just received from Washington. Scanning the gathered group who looked at him curiously he asked, "Where's Captain Blatchford?"

"I'm not sure sir, I think she left the headquarters a few hours ago," the duty officer answered.

"All right then," he responded in irritation, "this can't wait. We've received a flash message from General Dempsey and the Joint Chiefs. In fact this has gone out around the world. The Hubble Telescope has spotted massive alien movement heading towards earth from outer space." He allowed the sobering news to sink in.

The room became even quieter then it had been before. No one moved or even shuffled, it was as if everyone had the breath sucked out of them by the news.

"What…what does that mean sir?" an Army Lieutenant working in communications asked.

"The Chiefs are not exactly sure son. It could either be more reinforcements or it could be civilians coming to colonize. But this we know: it's a bigger group then came last summer. Neither option has much optimism to it. This is likely why they've counterattacked- to push out in preparation for this arrival. Washington figures the squids will be here in somewhere around two weeks."

"Two weeks?" a Logistics Major gasped involuntarily.

"Does Washington know how they reinforced at least?" an Army First Sergeant asked.

"Yes, they figured out they came hidden in a fake comet trail. They've scanned around to make sure they're aren't any other surprises…"

"Besides this one sir," the Sergeant cut in grimly.

Daily didn't allow the interruption to bother him. He understood what the troops must be feeling right now since he shared it with them. "Yes, besides the bomb I just dropped on you Sergeant. So we know what we're up against and yes, the clock is ticking." Then with grim determination he declared, "I want all section heads to meet in 15 minutes. We need to begin to plan for this new element since you can be sure a chunk of this group will be coming here. And someone find Captain Blatchford, I need to talk to her."

Refugee Encampment and Military Command Los Angeles rear area, somewhere outside LA

It was after 9pm when Michele finally finished at the hospital. The day had been a nightmare with casualties non-stop. She'd thought her experiences with the war thus far had hardened her to this type of thing but the volume, severity and misery of the wounded and dying had taken her nearly to the breaking point.

In some ways the experience had been comforting to the woman since she'd begun to fear that she was losing her compassion in all of this. Coupled with her personal troubles she feared what she was becoming. This reminded her she did care and still felt. The tears streaming down her face as she left the building bore testimony to that.

"Michele, I need to talk to you about something."

She heard Kelly calling out to her and turned to see the nurse standing in the doorway motioning her back.

"Today was pretty hard Kelly. I'd like some time alone if that's okay."

"Sure, I know. We all do but this is kind of time sensitive," Kelly responded with a grim look on her face.

"Okay, so what's up?" Michele asked curiously, knowing the nurse to not be alarmist.

"Libby's out with Mike."

"What? Now? How could that happen with everything going on?" Michele shot back in surprise. "That's not possible…you have to be wrong."

"No, it's true."

"How do you know?" Michele asked, still not willing to believe the report.

"Because I told her so," another nurse named Rosa that Michele recognized as part of Libby's group declared, stepping into the conversation.

"So what happened?" Michele inquired, suddenly coming out of her fog.

"She'd planned to go see Mike today," Rosa reported. "She'd brought her clothes, shoes, everything in and planned to kind of 'bump into him'."

"But how did she get away with everything going on?" Michele asked, still wary of believing this could happen. "Everyone was supposed to be on duty." But then she thought back and couldn't recall seeing the dynamic nurse all day.

"She said she wasn't feeling well so left," Rosa answered, a sour look on her face.

Michele didn't want to believe it but knowing the self-centered woman she had too. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked, wondering at the motivation of one who was intimate with the woman in question.

"I don't think it was right to skip off like that with all these casualties. It was such a hard day…seeing all those wounded men and stuff…" Emotion was thick on her voice and her eyes began to well up. Rosa paused for a moment to collect herself before continuing to speak. "So it got me thinking, maybe what she's doing with Mike isn't right either. She likes to spotlight, likes to have attention. I'm not sure she's good for him. But I've watched you Michele. I've watched you with the wounded and watched you with people. You're different then her, you're a good person. So I wanted you to know."

Michele was deeply touched by the admission and for how she was viewed. Her heart leapt that perhaps what she was doing made a difference after all. That it did count. "Thank you Rosa, that means a lot."

"So what are you going to do?" Kelly asked.

Michele allowed herself to linger on the glow of what Rosa had said before the grim reality of what she'd been told about Libby settled in. The warm glow seemed to ignite a spark. "Where would they go?"

"There's a club Libby likes, it's called Inferno. She'd go there," Rosa replied.

The spark lit into its own inferno. Despite fatigue and weariness from the day, her senses were alive and she knew what she had to do. She wouldn't give up without a fight. "Tell me how to get there," she demanded with a steely voice.

Area Command Headquarters, Los Angeles Theatre of Operations

"Sir, Captain Blatchford's here," on orderly called out to the commanding officer reporting the arrival of the Army intelligence officer as he'd ordered. It was nearly 11pm and the Marine General had been preparing to leave to get a few hours of sleep.

Spotting the woman walking in with tossled hair he charged over demanding, "Where the hell have you been? You've been gone for hours and I need your assessment."

"That's what I've been doing General. I took a recce of the shield," she answered calmly, not intimidated by the imposing African American Marine.

"You did WHAT?" Daily exploded in disbelief.

"I know you needed a good assessment of what we're up against and video and photos from the drones just weren't cutting it. So I talked a Pave Low crew from the 20th Special Ops squadron that had come back from a SAR flight into taking me to see it for myself," she reported with a slight look of amusement on her face.

"That's crazy. You could've gotten yourself killed," Daily raged but in growing admiration.

"A good reporter goes to the source of information," she responded, nonplussed.

"A good…," Daily shook his head in disbelief but then looked anew at the plain-featured woman who had just risked her life going deep behind enemy lines to get him information. "Okay, so what did you find?"

"Quite a bit which I think you'll find interesting," she adjusted her wire glasses. "First off, they have all their forces concentrated along the front. It actually wasn't as hard to get there as you might have thought. We stayed a mile behind the Santa Monica Freeway until we got to the Pacific then followed the coast line then hooked around Redondo Beach back inland. We came in low and hard, figuring we might get a pass or two if we were lucky."

A number of other headquarters personnel had drifted over to hear the story as word got around about what the reporter-turned-intelligence officer had done.

"But there was virtually nothing there General," Blatchford continued. "Other then some light patrols there was nothing else or to the front. Terminal Island is virtually empty."

"But what about all those big ships we saw on the drone images and other troops?"

"They've been moved up. I suspect they fast-tracked them due to the Air Force sorties. I saw a fair amount of wreckage just off the bridges but there's not a lot there."

"That's good to know," Daily stated, relieved by the information. "I think we can hold what they've got then. But you may not have heard: the squids have reinforcements coming."

"I did hear," Blatchford confirmed. "That's one of the reasons I went to see this shield for myself."

"What?" the Marine General choked. "And you didn't think to tell me you were doing this?"

"And would you have let me if I did?" the intelligence officer asked coyly.

Several soldiers listening in the on the conversation chuckled involuntarily at the cheeky statement receiving a glare from the General but he didn't say anything.

"So what about the shield? Did you learn anything useful about it?"

"Yes, I learned we can pass through it," Blatchford stated calmly.

Daily did a double-take. "And how did you find that out?"

"I walked through it myself."

"Don't tell me you…" his voice trailed off in disbelief, not wanting to hear the answer.

"Since there really were no squids around I thought I could take a quick peak," Blatchford confirmed the incredible story. "We've seen them go back and forth so I thought why not us? So I convinced my pilot to drop down and give me ten minutes to check it out. He gave me five, which irked me a bit, but that was all I needed. I could pass through unobstructed. You can see it when you're there. There's a faint glow but it looks like an umbrella or maybe a mushroom would be a better explanation. A beam of light shoots up and then disburses into the shield. So there's nothing at ground level."

"This is incredible. We have the best special ops teams in the world and it takes a reporter to get us the information we need," General Daily mused incredulously. "You deserve a medal for this."

"I don't want a medal," she shot back harshly. "I want these bastards dead and I think I have a plan to do it."

Refugee Encampment and Military Command Los Angeles rear area, somewhere outside LA

Michele saw the red neon sign glowing the name: 'Inferno'. When she'd left the hospital she'd been hot for a confrontation, to put Libby in her place and once and for all let Mike know where she stood. But now, standing outside the club Michele wasn't so sure. She could hear the deep bass beat of techno dance music playing and suddenly felt like she was about to enter enemy territory. Libby had prepared, had dressed for the occasion whereas she had come from the hospital in comfortable clothes and her hair pulled back.

Came I compete? Should I even try?

Then a thought hit her like lightning. This is what it has been like for Mike going into combat against a dangerous enemy and he never shied away. Suddenly she began to understand something about his character and courage as the same fear and hesitation he must feel each time threatened to handcuff her.

The dark haired woman mused about that for a few moments, chewing on the thought and what it meant. He went into combat because he cared. She cared too so would overcome this fear.

Resolutely she strode forward, pushing the door open and entering into the club.

It took Michele's eyes a few minutes to adjust to the bright pulsing lights and ears to accept the loud sound assaulting it. Why Mike would ever come to a place like this was beyond her and a moment of disgust overcame her sensibilities.

Then she saw Libby and knew why.

Or more correctly, she saw Libby in a form-fitting black dress and stiletto heels clinging to Mike on the dance floor. While his movement was automatic, almost like he was on a parade square, she gyrated and contorted around his body like a snake, writhing with an ecstatic look on her face.

Is this what he wants in a woman? She wondered to herself in disgust. Because that's not me. If that's what he wants maybe I'm wrong about him.

Michele stood transfixed in the shadows of the club watching this spectacle for ten minutes. Several times she was jostled by anxious patrons but never propositioned. She felt quite alone as she watched the connected pair moving to the rhythm.

"What's the point?" Michele said to herself though no one heard. "I'm wasting my time."

She turned to walk away and then everything hit her at once like a data upload from the Matrix. She had felt like she was going into combat LIKE MIKE and yet Mike was not in combat and didn't appear like he was going there anytime soon despite the fact that nearly every healthy soldier who could had been moved to the front to stem the new alien offensive.

Except Gunnery Sergeant Mike Nantz.

The thought hung there for a moment and then she cursed herself for being so foolish to miss it. He was out of his element. This was not his world and maybe, just maybe, he wanted to be rescued from it.

She had to find out, one way or the other. Steeling her nerves, she turned and pushed her way through the crowd to the pair who still danced blissfully unaware on the dance floor.