Thanks to everyone for the reviews this time around. I'm glad my AU version of Krayt didn't throw anyone off too badly.
Beth Weasley--I'd read that the AU authors had a pretty clear goal for Anakin, but that George cut them off, which is why all the old NJO and Young Jedi books talk about Anakin's destiny, then he dies. As for it being almost over, rest assured, we have a lot more to go.
Snowfur--I was actually on the fence about Kyle dying, but he has a very important role coming up, so he had to live.
jfr07--I'm glady Anakin as Krayt didn't ruin it for you. I appreciate the kind words, and like I said to Beth, there's a lot coming.
Author's Note: It seems as is this story is coming to an end, but it is not. Heaven Falls was conceived originally as a sequel to Gods of Dark and Light. In that regard, Parts I & II serve to establish a Jedi presence on Earth. However, Parts III, and even more especially Parts IV and V deal with the Ori threat. Each Part is a self-contained story, but all are part of the whole. Not only is Heaven Falls NOT finished, we're not even halfway through. I hope all of you continue to read and enjoy.
Thank you!
Darth Marrs
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Breathe
Earth, The Day After
How do you face disaster?
After the denial has passed and the worst you thought possible has happened, how do you find the energy to look up, take the next step and move on with your life?
As of January 24, 2002, India had a population of approximately 1,028,426,226 people. The world population was 6,224,150,112.
On the evening of Saturday, January 25, 2002 local time, India had a population of 23,246 people, all of whom were scattered along the far southern coasts of the subcontinent. By the time rescue operations were mounted by the international community that number had dropped to just 12,561.
The effect on the world of Darth Krayt's single act of malice was even more profound, though. The displacement of the Indian tectonic plate unleashed the greatest tsunamis seen in the history of modern humanity. A wall of water a thousand feet high swept over the islands of the South China Sea, erasing all traces of humanity from Malaysia and Indonesia. When the worst of the waves receded, entire cities had been swept away. Over 25 million people died in Malaysia alone, with another 4 million from Singapore, and an estimated ten million from Thailand. Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan were all destroyed, Burma was devastated by both fire and flood, and even as far inland as Laos and Vietnam, millions died.
On the other side of the Indian Ocean, Yemen and Oman were swept clean by the massive wall of water that shot over Arabia. All the nations of the Persian Gulf suffered both from the ash cloud and the flooding, not to mention the massive earthquakes. Kuwait, for instance, like Oman and Yemen, simply ceased to exist. All of East Africa suffered.
The northwest and north coasts of Australia were swept clean, with cities from Dampier to Darwin completely destroyed. Millions more died. In central Asia, the Himalayas and the Middle East, tens of millions more perished under the fallout of the impact points in Northern India. Although the ash cloud was miraculously halted over Eastern Africa and Eastern Europe, any country that fell under it was paralyzed, with hundreds of thousands of related deaths due either to heat, suffocation, or some combination of the two.
Even on the other side of the world, the impact was felt. Earthquakes rocked the Western Hemisphere from Rio Gallegos in Argentina to Anchorage, Alaska. Smaller tsunamis struck all along the West Coast, although the deaths were in the hundreds rather than thousands or hundreds of thousands. On the East Coast, a much smaller surge hit, causing wide-spread flooding in Florida and other coastal states, but deaths were minimal.
In the course of one day, the planet lost over a sixth of its population. The bodies of the dead, if laid head to toe, could circle the world over two hundred times. Of course, many of those bodies were beyond recovery. Many were, in fact, beyond even remembering. When an entire nation dies, all records are lost. It was not enough that over a billion people died; the evil of the Sith was so profound it also destroyed any history that they had ever existed.
As of January 31, 2002, the population of the planet earth had dropped from 6,224,150,112 to 4,858,992,546.
How does any one person, or for that matter, any one nation, comprehend numbers so large?
Breathe.
When Max Evans woke up the Monday after the battle, following the death of whole nations, it was to find his fiancée by his side. She was already awake, staring at him. He saw a tear pooled at the bridge of her nose, on the verge of dripping down to the pillow.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He whispered, though he did not know why.
In a husky, strained voice, she said: "Did you see the pictures?"
The pictures she spoke of showed the refugees from what was left of Pakistan and Afghanistan trudging slowly toward the Iraqi border. The blast that had destroyed India shattered all the nations around the subcontinent as well, though without the trauma of the fireball, which was shielded partially by the Himalayan Mountains.
The pictures showed not just civilians, but also large lines of American soldiers serving in Afghanistan, who now walked side-by-side with the very Taliban forces they had fought just days before. One particular picture showed a large, husky serviceman with a thick mustache carrying not only his weapon and backpack, but an Afghani boy of three on his shoulders and a bloody and unconscious five year old girl in his arms, while the children's mother walked beside the American crying in shock. It was that picture more than any, Max knew, that had kept the love of his life awake all night.
"Things will never be the same," Max said.
Liz nodded and wiped the tear away before it fell. "General O'Neill said the U.S. is diverting all military resources overseas to aid in relief and recovery efforts. Most of Europe is doing the same. I saw on CNN there's already talk of scrapping the old UN and creating a new one."
She stopped talking. Around them, the safe house in Colorado that had become their home creaked under the early morning cold. They could hear light footsteps moving down the stairs, and Max guessed it to be Siana. The Jedi woke up at dawn no matter how late her day was.
"Max?" Liz whispered.
He focused on her, as always drawn into the brown depths of her eyes. "Yes?"
"Were you scared?"
Max wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in. "The only time I was more scared was two years ago, when Agent Pierce said he would kill you if I didn't cooperate with him."
"I was scared," Liz confessed. "I was glad when Roberta and Rain said we wouldn't be able to transport to Antarctica. But then Kyle was able to destroy the Antaran ships and most of the ash cloud, and suddenly Roberta said we could go. She didn't even ask—she touched that pen of hers and suddenly we were there with that monster. I was so scared. I was ashamed."
"But you stood by us," Max told her as he kissed each eye. "You joined your power to ours. You're one of us now. And I will never be apart from you."
She nodded solemnly. "So, what are we going to do next month?"
"You mean in a week? On your eighteenth birthday?"
"Yeah."
"I'm going to marry you, that's what."
She looked into his eyes and said: "Show me what you're going to do after that."
Breathe
The planet is still. Across the surface of the earth, for the first time since the inception of air travel, not a single aircraft is flying. Railways have been closed down. Few if any cars are on any roads from Kansas City to Beijing. The only people moving are the millions of refugees from the nations around India, trudging away. The direction is less important than the distance, and so they walk. Some to Iran and Iraq, some to China. But they just walk.
The rest of the world that survives, however, listens. In English, or in translations to every language spoken, the people of Earth listen for the first time to a single voice.
The voice speaks to them of lost innocence and deep mourning for the dead. The voice tells them that beings from beyond the stars fought a battle over Earth's skies, and through the heroics of members from the United States Air Force and two alien beings, an ancient device was found that was able to defeat the threat.
The people of Earth listen with gaping jaws and wide eyes. Many in the Americas dismiss it as a joke, but those in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, who still have access to television after the devastation, know instinctively the voice tells the truth.
"We are not alone," President William Charleston III summarizes. "We can no longer sit complacently by while the events of the larger universe pass us by. We have suffered uncountable loss these past few hours, but only by working together as a single people—a single humanity—can we ever hope to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.
"And that, my fellow citizens of Earth, is the one lesson we must take away from this: this can never happen again. Only by working together can we ever hope to achieve that goal. To all the leaders of the world, I hope you will join me soon so that we can move forward to the future."
Breathe
The sedan pulled up to the curb of the broken house in Newport News, Virginia, and stopped on the edge of a muddy street still littered with debris and seaweed. The whole town stank of rotting fish and worse.
Dana Scully climbed out of the car and leaned against the door, her hands covering her mouth. "William was staying here," she whispered as Fox Mulder came around the car to hold her. "William was here," she whispered again. She looked up at Fox. "Where is our son?"
"He's right here," a familiar voice said.
The two agents turned to see Senator Robert Kinsey, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, holding their eighteen-month old son. He was walking toward them from a stretch limo three blocks down the street. William's shock of red hair shone in the early morning light.
Beside the senator walked two large, imposing men in overcoats. One looked just like one of the supersoldiers killed in Roswell.
"Well, Agents, you seem to have won," the senator said. William began mewling in the senator's arms. "My master's fleet has been destroyed. Tell me, how did you do it?"
"We're not sure," Mulder admitted as he walked to the front of the car. "It was an alien device of some kind. Beyond that, I just don't know."
"Let me have my son," Scully said.
"I don't think so," Kinsey said with a waspish smile. "I have been working with the Antarans through the Syndicate for 30 years now. And when the Syndicate betrayed our masters, I helped oversee their destruction. That chain-smoking hypocrite Spender was the last of them. I don't know how he got to you in DC so soon after that damned Jedi crashed, but rest assured I took care of him shortly after."
"Please," Scully whispered, "please don't hurt my son."
"Hurt him?" Kinsey said with a harsh, pained laugh. "I'm not going to hurt him! I'm going to let my masters take him back to Antar to study him. They might hurt him—vivisect him, probably—but I won't. Don't worry, though, his death will mean the survival of a species. His DNA is unique. Don't you see why you two were abducted? You are the first truly hybridized humans to have a viable offspring. William's DNA can be transferred directly into the Antaran genome without rejection now. He will give their bodies an infusion of human physical strength and stamina to augment their already incredible minds. They will become the most powerful species in the galaxy, and they will be eternally grateful to me."
"So," Mulder said, "is this the part where we beg for your mercy?"
"No, I'm going to kill you no matter what, and begging is undignified."
Without warning, the supersoldiers on either side of the senator glowed bright white and then disappeared. Kinsey spun around to see two women pointing pens, one in her fifties, one a young-looking thirty. With a growl, he reached into his coat pocket for his own weapon when he felt something cold and round against the back of his head.
"Give me my baby you son of a bitch," Scully growled.
"I'd listen to her," Mulder advised. "You do not want to make this woman mad."
"If you shoot me, you might hurt the baby," Kinsey pointed out carefully.
"He'll heal," Scully said. "You won't."
Kinsey twitched. So did Scully.
As the former senator from Ohio began tumbling to the accompaniment of William's terrified screams, Mulder carefully plucked the infant from the dead man's arms and handed him over to his partner.
Scully dropped the gun, wrapped both arms around the boy, and fell to the filthy, smelly street to rock him. She unconsciously began to sing her favorite song, "Joy to the World."
Mulder walked up to Roberta Lincoln and Rain Robinson and shook their hands. "You were tracking the Senator?"
"Just like you and the President asked," Roberta said.
"And you heard?"
"Every word. We'll get a copy of the recording to the Justice Department by this afternoon." She leaned over and gave Mulder a hug. Rain did the same. "Go to her," Roberta finally said. "She needs you. And trust me, love, you need her too."
"I know," Fox said. He walked back to Scully and their son, knelt beside them, and held them both. When he happened to look back over the fallen body of Kinsey, the two women were gone.
Breathe
"So what's next?" Samantha Carter said to Jack O'Neill as the two sat on the edge of the fishing pond behind the general's log cabin.
"I'm flying out to DC tomorrow," O'Neill said. "You're in charge while I'm gone, by the way."
"Gee, thanks."
Jack shrugged. "Anyway, we're looking at a pretty large-scale redeployment of our international forces. And we're having trouble with Iraq and North Korea still. Saddam's refusing to allow refugees to pass through and so there are about two million people on the Iran side of the border unable to get out. And North Korea is saying the whole thing was a plot by the U.S. to destabilize the world. They're threatening war."
Carter shook her head. After a minute or so, she said: "My dad's dead."
Jack nodded. "I know."
She took a deep breath. "I should be grateful. He should have died years ago from the cancer. But then Selmak healed him and gave him a second chance." She shook her head. "You know, it didn't even seem real. I mean, it happened so fast. He was just standing there, shooting the zat, and then this Krayt character waves his hand, dad goes flying through the air, and he cuts…" She paused, then took another breath. "Jack, I'm so tired."
"Then resign."
The answer shocked her into silence. She stared at him, as if she couldn't believe what he had said. He did not look at her, though. The general kept his eyes on the water as he cast out a reel. There were no fish in the water. He never enjoyed catching them, just fishing for them.
"Resign?"
"Sure," Jack said with a shrug. "You could still work as a civilian. And you'd make a whole heck of a lot more money. You know how much they paid that Janeway lady you worked with in New Mexico? Beats the snot out of the Air Force pay grade. Hell, I'd insist on keeping you in the SGC, unless you wanted to take over operations at Area 51. I've been told the job may be open soon since Jackson Roykirk resigned."
She continued staring at him, searching for something. And finally, she found it: an almost imperceptible twitch in his right eye that no one else could possibly have noticed. "If I resigned my commission," she said slowly, "then fraternization rules wouldn't apply, would they?"
Jack shrugged and cast his reel again.
Slowly Carter turned and stared out over the water. She sat in silence for the longest time, searching for the right words. Finally realizing there were no right words, she simply spoke. "You know I love you, don't you?"
"For a while now," O'Neill admitted.
"And you love me too, don't you." It wasn't really a question.
He shrugged. "Maybe."
Sam fought a smile. "You know, every man who has come into my life since joining the Stargate has died."
"I haven't," O'Neill said. "Besides, if you're that worried about it, go join Area 51."
"Who would I answer to?"
"Some general who has no idea what's going on there."
Her grin split wider. "You're leaving the SGC, aren't you?"
"Maybe."
She stood up, took three steps, and then knelt down before the general. This time he did not evade her look—he met it squarely. "You're a lot older than I am," she noted.
"Think of me like a fine wine," he said.
"You ever drink wine?"
"Not if I can help it."
Grinning uncontrollably now, she reached up, put both arms around his neck, and whispered, "Then I formally resign my commission."
"Resignation accepted," Jack whispered back.
Breathe.