Wei was shaking his head as he tried to come to terms with what he was looking at. “It’s an extraterrestrial lifeform, but you say possibly engineered?”
“Yes.” She then frowned, adding, “And we’ve already lost two people to it and a whole habitat. Should it ever get to Earth, I hate to think would happen.
They stood in silence for a while, watching the black lotus.
A voice sounded out over the PA. “Everybody, we’ve got some news coming in from Earth. Bad news. You might want to get to our comms area so you can see the video feeds.”
Wei looked at Ghost, but she just shrugged. She then reached out and took his hand, leading him back to the heart of Xanadu, as she said, “Come on.”
They hurried, and after a few tunnels found a crowd gathered in the comms area. All of them, every single one, was following the various news feeds from Earth. Nine networks in various languages reported the story on every screen.
BREAKING NEWS!
They all told of the same calamity, one of fire from the sky and devastation on the ground. Millions were dead.
A swarm of meteors had hit Earth.
Wei looked around him, stunned at the news like everyone else. Some watched the feeds slack-jawed; others were crying. Amongst it all—and the blather of newsreaders who filled their airtime with speculation and too few facts—the Renegades around him asked the question that had only begun to bubble to the surface of his own consciousness.
Where were the meteors from?
Were they just rocks or chunks of ice from space, or were they carrying black lotus?
For a moment, with his gaze lost as he tried to follow nine news feeds, he saw the dark silhouette of Dog from Base Five Two, still standing there in a ruined corn field. The dead medic grinned at him, lit by the flash of a dying grow light.
Chapter 42
Houxing MingLing Yi (Mars Command One), Mars
Yong brought the images up so Tung could see.
There it was, the gully where the Renegade rover and Mars Command Five’s drone hub had met.
On the last orbiter pass, there had been a debris field—not huge, but big enough even for a compromised NASA orbiter to pick up. But now the site seemed clear.
Commander Tung peered close at the screen, a smirk on his face.
Examining the image, Yong said, “Something is different.”
Tung grunted with satisfaction, and then leaned in to magnify the image. “There is a fresh layer of dust that has fallen over the site. It’s thick, as if a dust storm has passed over the area.”
Yong raised an eyebrow and asked, “What happened?”
With a wry smile, Tung said, “You know not to ask that.”
Yong nodded, having guessed that would be the only answer he would get.
Tung patted him on the shoulder and turned away. “I’m off duty now. I’m going to catch up on some sleep. Don’t disturb me unless it’s something important.”
Yong nodded.
Tung left the command room and headed for his office, relieved his shift was done and yet another problem had disappeared.
Buried by the dusts of Mars.
He passed through his office, not stopping, despite his desk display flashing an alert. It looked like it was a news story from back on Earth. He ignored it.
After the past week, he was exhausted. He just wanted to get back to his quarters and relax. And he knew just how he wanted to do it.
He passed through the corridor, scanning in at the doors at each end, and then grabbed a drink before heading for the shower.
While the hot water washed over him, he heard another news alert sound out.
He toweled off and took another drink, but was getting impatient.
Where is she? She should be off duty now too.
He went to the apartment terminal, determined to ignore any alerts as he sent off a text message to Liu Yang: Are you finished yet?
After he sent it, he took another mouthful of drink and fought the urge to look at the news alerts waiting on the screen.
So far there were five of them.
That was too many to ignore, although he was trying.
All he wanted to do after the past week was enjoy a peaceful night at home with his wife.
Yet, as he watched, the alerts were joined by a mix of system-generated messages, emails, and fresh urgent news feed stories.
Even as he turned to finally open them, giving in, the newest screamed out with fresh alerts.
PING!
A call came in, a voice call. It was her. He accepted it, slipping a headset on, as the trickle of alerts became a flood.
PING!
BEEP!
PING!
PING!
Most of them were breaking news stories.
He answered, “Hi, what’s going on?”
Her tone was tense. “Haven’t you seen the news?”
Tung was already opening the feed alerts.
BREAKING NEWS: METEOR STRIKES!
A MILLION DEAD!
AUSTRALIAN INFERNO!
He was shocked, but didn’t see why she seemed so tense about it. “I’m looking at it.”
“This is a problem,” she said coldly.
“What do you mean? It’s in Australia.”
“We’ve had the same meteor strikes here.”
He frowned. “The same? Base Five Two? There’s not likely to be any connection.”
She paused and then said, “There’s more to the meteors than you think.”
He lowered his voice, “Do you have another secret to tell me?”
Deadly serious, she answered, “They aren’t just rocks. There’s something inside them.”
Chapter 42
Valentine’s Day, 2037 A.D.
The news feeds were all the same whether you were watching them on a secret Chinese base on Mars, the Russian mining installations on the Moon, or somewhere on the teeming home world of Earth.
BREAKING NEWS!
A series of meteors had come down, not unlike what had been reported on the Moon by the Russians a few years ago and observed both previously and recently on Mars.
Five meteors had come in low and fast, slingshotting around the Moon, somehow undetected until it was too late. They had entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
By the time warnings were ready to go out, the expected impact zone was projected to be the Australian Outback.
They were wrong.
Five meteors rained down on the state of Western Australia, unleashing huge fireballs, crushing shockwaves, and a rain of molten rock. Each one of the meteors had landed in devastating proximity to the huge state’s handful of population centers.
Perth was the first to go, a lonely city of three million, destroyed in a ball of fire. The flames were then doused by a tsunami generated by another impact. The regional cities of Busselton and Bunbury, Geraldton, Albany, and Kalgoorlie all suffered similar fates.
The death toll was expected to be in the millions.
The federal government in Canberra was in shock, while nighttime skies burned orange over the rest of Australia. On the other side of the continent, in the streets of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, the air stank of smoke and ash fell like snow.
The international community had already begun to mobilize offering aid.
But from the site of the disaster, an area bigger than Texas, no communications came out at all. Satellite images showed a burning wasteland with a new coastline scarred by huge craters.
The western third of the continent had been incinerated.
And, amongst the smoke shrouded ruin lay hundreds of blackened seed pods.
The black lotus had arrived on Earth.