Jack and Jill IV
Chapter 31
Three days later
This morning was busy for everyone except for Storm. The sun was up so he was swimming in the pool and willing to allow Jayne take over the security of their compound though his own two weapons and extra clips were close by. Not that he was expecting any trouble this early in the enemy attack.
No one was out of their bedrooms just yet. Jayne had woke up to Alexis giving him an excellent blow job. She really was getting better at this.
Kate had pulled out Rick's catheter to replace his urine bag and found that junior was wide awake so she had started giving him a blow job before putting on a condom and getting on top to ride him.
The day before, Kate had found a metal chair with no arms out on the patio and had "borrowed" one that she could move into the shower so Rick could sit while she gave him a shower.
Eventually everyone met at the pool while Kate went into the kitchen to start on breakfast for all of them. This was when Jack had everyone at the pool followed by Kate looking at the TV that Jack presently had control over.
"What are we looking at?" Alexis inquired since to her everything Jack was showing her looked like just a hole.
"They are digging sixteen holes. According to the computer I'm presently scanning they plan to dig sixteen holes that are eight feet in diameter and will be four hundred sixty feet deep," Jack told them.
"They're going to do it!" Kate grinned wide.
"The plan they have is a variation of the one you talked about," Jack said. "Most of these are located in various parts of Nevada, New Mexico, and west Texas. Based on my calculations if they dig the holes correctly they will hit sixteen different ships."
"Hooray for our side!" Alexis raised her arms high.
"There is more. They have apparently shared this plan with the Russians. I cannot monitor progress they are making, however, their computers are showing twelve sites where holes are being dug. They have iron works that are presently building the caps that will go over these holes.
"They will be using flatbed trucks to move them to the sites due to size and weight. I estimate about three weeks or more till they are ready to fire them. They are already searching for new sites based on ship placement.
"Your planet is just so different." Jack wasn't sure he believed these people.
"Will it work is the question." Kate looked at him, waiting for an answer.
"If our calculations are correct depending on just where the ship is hit," Jill stated. "There are several possibilities, one it will blow a hole dead center and the ship will die and slowly lose orbit and crash into the planet somewhere."
"That doesn't sound good. An aircraft carrier crashing will cause a lot of damage." Storm didn't like that option.
"Another is that it will hit something critical and simply blow up with most pieces burning up on re-entry to your planet," Jill offered.
"Much better and the third?" Storm liked the sound of that one.
"The damage will cause it to start spinning widely. It may in turn crash into another ship causing any number of options or it may go spinning off out into space or be caught in the gravity well of your system's sun and burn up."Jill knew any number of options were possible. All bad for the Amplitur but possibly bad for the planet.
"Save for slamming into our planet I like most of them," Kate remarked.
"Right now the cap is being made of iron with other properties and titanium. They are discussing various coatings to achieve the best result. It should actually work." Jack was still impressed.
"I want credit for if it does. The Beckett Effect or something." Kate said excitedly then saw the looks she was getting. "Keep looking at me like that and you can make your own breakfast," she threatened and watched everyone lose the look she was getting.
"That's better. …Beckett Missile. Kate Killer. No, that one sounds terrible." Kate needed a good name.
"Breakfast killer?" Alexis suggested and giggled and Kate pointed at her and left to go make breakfast. "I'm putting a lot of paprika in yours just for that," Kate warned her.
"So this will actually work?" Alexis questioned.
"They just have to have the hole pointed the right direction. It will cause serious damage," Jack confirmed. The idea of it was so totally different.
"Where are the puppies?" Alexis suddenly asked and left them to search for them. She needed to make sure they had water and puppy food.
"You know if we shoot down that many ships in orbit that's going to be a real shock." Rick liked the sound of it. "Except we have to set off a nuclear device underground to fire the thing."
oOo
"Movie night!" Kate proclaimed and walked in with a large bowl of popcorn. "We don't have too many of these so don't get addicted," Kate cautioned everyone but Storm who was already outside working.
"My turn," Alexis announced and went through the available options. "Perfect, nice, and funny. Our planet is under attack. Someone wants to turn us into slaves so we need humor."
It certainly looked like it was starting out differently. It looked like a cartoon hearse that was being driven by a madman. Then the road opened up, he went down, and arrived at a massive castle that could only be reached by a long bridge.
"Hotel Transylvania?" Kate stared at Alexis.
"It's funny," Alexis asserted. "You can wait your turn and watch what you want to watch. Now hush or I'll miss something." She could threaten Kate with a strike. Except if she fired her now where was she going to get the help her dad still needed? Besides she was warming up to Kate.
oOo
Alexis was still a little sore from last time so no sex for them tonight. But that didn't stop Jayne from showing up and sleeping in her bed with her.
Jayne was a little less conflicted. Alexis was clearly smart, a little funny when she wanted to be, very pretty, very sexy, and the opposite of him in so many ways. He was betting she didn't have much experience at sex, but she was catching on fast and was actually pretty damn good in bed now.
"I can hear the wheels turning from here. What are you thinking?" Alexis asked him.
"Trying not to think of anything at all while keeping my ears open. If Storm encounters a problem I'll be racing out of here naked." That had Alexis giggling.
"You can put your shorts on if that will make you feel better," Alexis offered even if she was planning on staying completely naked.
"And miss letting you touch me?" He didn't think so. "Now go to sleep. Tomorrow's another busy day." This time it was Jayne telling her to go to sleep for a change.
"We can ride the horses, right?" Alexis was curious. Or were they meant for something else?.
Jayne looked down at her. "Yes, why?"
"Can I have riding lessons?" Alexis asked him. "I've never been on a horse before."
"Never?" That was maybe a bit of a shock. Surely she had ridden some poor pony that lived its life in neglect going from state to state and having little kids riding it.
"I was born and raised in New York City, Jayne. I've never even left the city till lately. Not too many horses in the city. So that was a yes?" Alexis looked up at him hopefully.
"Come find me when you're ready and we'll have you riding a horse in no time," Jayne told her and his cheek was kissed for that.
They were both content and eventually fell asleep.
oOo
Storm was cleaning debris out of the pool when Kate showed up with Rick for his morning workout. That chair in the shower was helping a lot. What she was having a little trouble understanding was the hand-held shower head with its own valve handles next to the tank type toilet.
"Bidet possibly," Rick had suggested.
"Using a shower head!?" Kate shook her head. That thing could just stay there and remain unused. They had obviously planned for it to be there but who would want to use that thing?
Kate got Rick into the pool followed by her two puppies. "Charlie, you're first." She had little trouble picking him up and putting him on the top step. Kate tried coaxing Lucy into the pool. "You going to get in by yourself, Lucy? Come on, be brave, pretty girl. It's just one big step."
"Okay we do it the hard way." Kate picked her up and put her in the pool.
Suddenly there were two more puppies. "You two want in?" It also told her that Alexis was close since these two were at the pool.
Soon she had Rick swimming. She was standing in the pool and all four puppies were trying to walk past each other around the pool and not fall off into the deep end. Being wet was fun, swimming for their lives was another.
Eventually one of them failed and was now swimming. Naturally it was Charlie. So Kate rescued him and put him on the edge of the pool where he shook himself dry. He raced back and forth yipping at the other three till finally he fell into the pool on the step and proudly walked back and forth, secure in the knowledge that Kate would save him from drowning.
"How did you get back in the pool?" She had her eyes on Rick. "Good boy!" Kate petted him, kissed him, and let them go back to playing while wet. The puppies didn't get to stay long and Kate had all four out while Rick continued to swim.
A splash while she had eyes on Rick told her that Charlie was back in the pool. The other three had obviously watched him do it so they were practically hanging over the edge trying to figure out just how he had done that.
oOo
Kate maneuvered through the land mines of sleeping puppies. "Lunch." Kate set it down and let everyone help themselves. "We need a plan for the pool. Charlie's figured out how to get in but not back out and the other three don't look to be too far behind him," Kate warned everyone but mostly Alexis.
"There's some wood in the workshop. You just need a way to not make the wood too slick to walk up on very big puppy feet," Storm said and helped himself to lunch.
"Right after lunch?" Kate looked at Alexis who nodded. She could take her horse riding lesson after she prevented her puppies from drowning in the pool now that they had gotten them interested in using the pool.
oOo
Two weeks later
They had settled into a routine of sorts with an occasional exception.
This morning Storm was adding chemicals to the pool to balance out the water. That meant no swimming for Rick so Kate took him straight to exercise with what equipment they had.
Then suddenly Jack and Jill both materialized. "We need the others. TV room, please. Quickly." They had like ten minutes.
Finding everyone for Kate had turned out to be easy. Jayne and Alexis were together and Storm was still messing with the pool before lunch and then bed.
"So what's up?" Storm queried as he stood there and watched the TV come on. What it showed was unusual.
"This is one of the tubes with a nuclear device at the bottom and a cap. These are the others that the United States is video monitoring. And these are the ones that the Russians are watching. They are going to launch the tops, if that is a good enough word, in series starting in six minutes.
"I have done the calculations myself and theirs are accurate enough to hit something if this idea will actually get something that weighs this much out of Earth orbit," Jack asserted. "The damage will be severe."
"Our calculations still stand. Any number of events from this will happen. We have also learned that the digging teams in the United States have already moved to parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska, while the Russians have moved their dig teams deeper into their territory," Jill added.
"Timing will be critical. If they overestimate the speed the caps will travel they may possibly miss altogether. Or it may rip the front of the ship off, hit dead center, or hit aft.
"Three minutes," Jack said. "The United States is using a W54 nuclear device. They each have a twenty ton explosive yield. It should be sufficient to launch the cap out into space. The United States have designed their cap to tumble. The Russians are free launching theirs. Two minutes."
They all waited and watched with bated breath. "Thirty seconds," Jack warned them. "5…4…3…2…1." Suddenly the cap was just gone. The ground swelled up then collapsed down into a hole.
"Switching to the radar they are watching. The red squares are mine. I'm highlighting the ships being targeted. And the caps should be hitting the ships…starting now." They all watched as a white dot collided with a red square.
"Switching to Russian video. Launching in 5…4…3…2…1." And just as before suddenly the caps were just gone and the ground swelled up and collapsed into a hole.
"Switching to United States radar," Jack said. Again the ships were red squares and these white dots rose up to meet them.
"All targets have been struck. Analyzing."
Storm and Jayne high-fived. "YES! That is how we fucking fight!" Jayne yelled at the TV.
oOo
It took Jack fifteen minutes to complete what just happened. "The United States fired sixteen of these objects in total. All sixteen have struck their targets. Of these sixteen, four have exploded and have sent parts flying everywhere including down into the atmosphere. Not all of them will burn up in orbit. I cannot tell you what the damage is to ships near them, though.
"Out of that another four were heavily damaged, I believe, and they have veered off course and struck one other ship each. Out of those eight ships four of them are falling down to Earth while the other four are heading out into space where all four will be caught by the gravity of your sun and burn up.
"The other targeted eight ships have all begun to tumble out into space where all but one will be caught in the gravity of your sun. I am still tracking the four headed for your planet. It looks like all of them will land somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. I cannot yet say if any islands are in their path.
"As for the Russians, all twelve of their caps have struck targets. Of those twelve, six have exploded and sent debris everywhere. Of the other six, four are tumbling out into deep space though they will be caught by the gravity of one of your gas giants and crushed. The other two are tumbling down to the planet. At present I believe they will land just barely out in the Atlantic Ocean," Jack informed them.
"THAT'S HOW YOU FIGHT ALIEN SHIPS!" Storm and Jayne hugged and moved around to either shake someone's hand or hug them.
"Twenty-eight out of two hundred twelve plus whatever damage those missiles caused." Rick liked it.
"What are the chances an Amplitur or two were on any of those ships?" Kate inquired.
"Jack? …Jill?" Alexis wanted an answer to that question as well.
"Unknown. We have never been able to break their encryptions and we believe they change it often so even if we had it wouldn't help us for long. I am unable to monitor any of their ships. Still it is mathematically possible, yes." Jack couldn't discount it.
"Thirteen point twenty-one percent chance one Amplitur was on one of those ships. The number is much higher if all of them were," Jill stated and didn't think they needed to hear that number.
"I'll get the wine," Alexis said happily. It was early but it was time to celebrate.
"I'll get the vodka." Kate left them to get it.
"I'll get two beers and if Storm doesn't want one that's two for me." Jayne headed for the refrigerator.
"One dead Amplitur!" Jayne held up his bottle of beer.
"I can drink to that." Kate clinked his bottle with her glass as did Alexis and Rick while Storm actually did drink a beer. It was worth it.
Jayne asked the million dollar question. "Now what do they do besides lick their wounds? Their three hundred thousand plus troops are almost wiped out. They're down twenty-eight ships and maybe another eight or so damaged to some extent. What do they do now?"
"Can they fire anything from orbit and hit say, large populations centers?" Storm asked and watched Jack and Jill shake their heads.
"The war is about conquering planets and adding that life form to your side. Genocide is self-defeating. The most they could do is evacuate a ship and let it tumble out of orbit or perhaps create a program that will send it to one specific target," Jack responded.
"But that has never been done before in several millennia," Jill stated.
"Yet as you have stated, our planet is different. How many planets have fought back like we have done?" Storm inquired.
"None. Not in the history of the Weave and our contact with the enemy. Prior to that we cannot say. Still it is likely the answer is still none," Jill said.
"So if they still want our planet they have to attack. The question is how do they go about that now? Their usual method has proven to be a failure," Kate pointed out.
"The question is are they smart enough to generate a new plan? Based on those big rats and that other thing the answer is no. But there are other races up there, are there not?" Storm questioned.
"Only a very few. Like the Weave, very few races will involve themselves in combat of any kind. The remaining Amplitur are the real brains," Jack told them.
"So back to the question, what do they do?" Rick queried. "Any ideas you two? What would you do if you had the high ground but weren't invulnerable and your first ground combat has failed to gain you anything. You want this planet and you're willing to take a century to accomplish just that," Rick questioned both Storm and Jayne.
"They only just arrived," Jayne indicated.
"So they don't understand our politics. Or our command and control structure. They do know, however, that hitting North America and South America didn't work.
"Take Africa? But what do you gain? We know it will be less defended and easier to take control of. Maybe even land an Amplitur or two and start Suggesting," Storm considered.
Jayne had an idea and looked at Storm. "Would you?"
"I'd land in the middle of Red Square after I figure out the importance of Moscow." Storm said. "Or the White House front lawn."
Jayne shook his head. "The Secret Service will just take POTUS down to his bunker. If he's even there at all. For all we know he has been moved to Mount Rushmore or somewhere just like it."
"Yes, but they don't know that," Storm reminded him.
"Bait," Rick said confidently. "Connect some communications gear together and get him to send a signal from a location of their choice. Only he's no where near close. They fly down with an Amplitur and try and take him. Ambush. Happens all the time in the movies."
"Open air football stadium? Someplace that you can funnel them all into or close enough. Meteor Crater? Some place in Utah, perhaps. Nice deep valley with mountains all around," Jayne proposed.
"Rocky Mountains, Yosemite is all that comes to mind," Alexis mentioned.
"Afghanistan comes to my mind. We just have to talk the Russians into doing it," Storm said. "They know that area."
"Laptop." Alexis ran to get it.
It took her all of fifteen minutes from looking at images Google gave her. "What about here?" she pointed and suddenly they all saw her image on the TV. "Owens Valley."
Jack said what Google found about it. "Owens Valley is the arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States, to the east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the west edge of the Great Basin section."
"Submit what we've discussed to Madam Secretary. If they come up with something better more power to them," Rick suggested. "They don't have to accept it, but maybe they aren't thinking this."
"Send it, Jack. All they can do is say no," Storm said. "Remind them that the Amplitur are willing to try and take this planet even if it takes them a century or longer."