On the previous two missions, they had not used the SARA link because of fears that the system had been built on alien technology — even Manning didn’t know exactly how the skunk works had developed the damn thing. He’d had his men begin training with it again, now that it appeared the aliens had been defeated and the guardian computers were off-line. The suit itself was armored, capable of sustaining a hit from a 7.62mm round.
“Bring them up, Top,” Manning ordered.
The six men surfaced, their black helmets bobbing in the water. Manning knew they could hear him, as mikes on the outsides of the helmets could amplify sound if needed.
“Men, we have a mission.” He held up the decoded message. “We need to be ready to go in two hours. Area of operations — Mars. It appears the aliens are building some sort of communications facility there. We will destroy that facility. That is all.”
Turcotte grabbed Yakov’s shoulder and pulled him away from the Master Guardian. The Russian was confused for a moment as he switched from the virtual world of the guardian to the real world. “What is wrong?”
“Our friend there”—Turcotte pointed at Aspasia’s Shadow, lying on the floor, the fresh blood behind his head contrasting with the pale skin that was already beginning to heal around the edge of the wound—“rigged Easter Island for destruction. There’re about ten thousand people trapped there.”
“What can we do?”
“Save them,” Turcotte said.
“Don’t we have other priorities?” Yakov asked.
Turcotte stared at the Russian. “You mean other than saving people?” “Saving the planet?” Yakov countered.
Turcotte laughed, months of worry and strain seeming to fall from his face for a moment. “We’ve already done that several times.” The smile disappeared. “First things first. Let’s do this, then we’ll worry about Mars and Artad and the Swarm and every other Tom, Dick, and Harry who threaten us.” He headed for the main corridor. “Come on. Let’s get this thing moving.” As he entered the corridor, he broke into a dead sprint.
CHAPTER 8: THE PRESENT
For thousands of years, Airlia scientists had watched worlds being formed, carefully studying the mechanics of creation. In doing so, they’d also learned the opposite: how to use that information to damage or even destroy a planet. They’d tracked the evolution of a planet’s birth at various stages and that data was stored inside the guardian computers. What Aspasia’s Shadow had prepared on Easter Island as part of his revenge was based on that information.
In the beginning, Earth was merely a cluster of small rocks that came together 4.6 billion years ago as a result of the minute gravitational forces of those rocks. Six billion years later the collection was bombarded by asteroids and meteorites. That lasted millions and millions of years, producing immense amounts of energy, which in turn produced extremely high temperatures that reduced the entire planet to molten rock. It has been cooling ever since and still has not completely recovered, 4 billion years later.
Earth is currently at a stage where its interior is divided into layers depending on the extent of cooling. There are four major layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust. Inside, the rock is still molten and in flux, producing a magnetic field. The Airlia had learned that almost all planets with living creatures were at the same stage of inner flux. The Airlia had learned to tap this source of power for propulsion for their craft whenever they were within such a planet’s field.
Dead planets such as Mars and the moon had no intrinsic electric and magnetic fields because they were cold and solid. On a dead planet, generators inside the Airlia ships had to produce their own fields at a great expenditure of energy.
The surface of Earth is a very thin skin representing less than.2 percent of the planet’s entire mass. The skin under the continents is five times thicker than that under the oceans. However, since Easter Island is so isolated in the Pacific, it has only a very thin layer of planetary crust beneath it. Thus, the molten outer core is only six miles below the island’s surface, where molten rock bubbles at four thousand degrees Celsius.
Deep under Rano Kau, the southwesternmost of the volcanoes that dotted the surface of Easter Island, a shaft had been dug by Aspasia’s Shadow’s mech-machines through hardened lava, extending downward until it reached molten rock. The shaft had originally been dug to tap the heat as a power source.
Aspasia’s Shadow, however, after millennia of war and deception, had learned always to be prepared for disaster. One of the first things he had done after arriving on the island was prepare both an escape plan — which he had executed via the bouncer — and a destruct plan, which he had activated just prior to departure. At the bottom of the shaft, just above the glowing magma, he’d placed several five-hundred-pound bombs scavenged from the American fleet.
By themselves, the bombs weren’t a threat to the island. He’d detonated them just before getting on the bouncer, and the effect had not even been felt six miles above. But the explosion had achieved what he intended, widening the energy tap beyond a controllable size. Under extreme pressure, liquid rock was now pouring upward into the vent.
Dormant for thousands of years, Rano Kau was now in the first stages of eruption.
Such an event would devastate Easter Island and kill all that lived there. However, Aspasia’s Shadow had planned for something much more devastating to happen. Easter Island was merely the first domino in his scheme.
Turcotte settled into the center seat in the pilot room of the mothership. Not long ago he had flown Aspasia’s mothership into orbit, so he was somewhat familiar with the controls. He pressed his hand down on one console, and the curved wall in front of him gave a panoramic view of the chamber outside.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Yakov asked.
Turcotte responded by pressing his other hand down on one of the hexagons covered with rune writing. The floor beneath them shuddered as the ship’s electromagnetic planetary drive was activated for the first time in over ten thousand years. The massive craft lifted off its cradle and was airborne.
“How will we get out of this place?” Yakov asked, hands grabbing on to the back of Turcotte’s oversize chair, knuckles white.
Again, Turcotte answered with action, turning the prow of the mothership toward the hole the Talon had made in exiting. It was, of course, much too small to accommodate the mothership, but Turcotte had to assume that a craft designed to travel interstellar distances would not be greatly inconvenienced by a rock wall.
He was proven right as the black alien metal hit the cavern wall, knocking stone aside without slowing. Seeing clear sky ahead, Turcotte slid his palm forward and the mothership moved out of the cavern.
“Question,” Turcotte said. “Yes?”
“Which way is quicker? East or west?”
“I think they are approximately the same,” Yakov guessed.
Now clear of Ararat, Turcotte accelerated while gaining altitude. “We’ll go east,” he announced.
A pair of Turkish jets were visible on the display, but unlike their colleagues who had intercepted the bouncer, these were racing away as quickly as possible, the pilots obviously spooked by the tremendous size of the mothership.
“Do you know how to open this thing up?” Turcotte asked Yakov. “Access all the cargo bays?” “I got you in here,” Yakov said. “I think I can figure it out. Quinn gave me the manual that Majestic assembled on the other mothership at Area 51.”