Judgment Day (67 page)

CHAPTER 146 ALONE IN THE VOID

I have never obtained any ethical values from my scientific work.

—ALBERT EINSTEIN

T
he first kamikaze sphere rocketed up from the surface, sonic booms in its wake. As the atmosphere thinned the sphere accelerated at a rate that would crush a human occupant. The crew of
Voyager
detected the sphere on radar, but precious seconds were lost as commanders were notified and confirmation received. By the time the collision course was confirmed, collision was inevitable.
Voyager's
mass was just too great to put into motion before the sphere reached it.

The sphere struck
Voyager a
glancing blow on the starboard side, just forward of the drive. A gaping hole was torn in the side of the converted submarine, the explosive decompression blowing soldiers and equipment into space. With hull integrity destroyed, the ship buckled at the point of the collision, the gravity fields distorting as the drive bent around the side of the ship. The multiple gravity fields now pulled the ship in different directions; its submarine hull had been originally designed for the even pressure of the ocean depths, and later modified for the even pressure of an internal atmosphere. Now the interior bulkheads buckled, seals broke, atmosphere rushed for the vacuum of space, and men and women died by the hundreds.

Docked aft of the flight deck, the deep-space cruiser
Nova
survived the initial collision, its crew radioing Colonel Watson they were in trouble. Realizing
Voyager
would never fly
again, Nova's
pilot powered up the deep-space cruiser, ordering his crew to release the docking clamps. Once his own fields were in place they were protected from the gravity waves uncontrollably sweeping the ship below. Warped by the collision and the resulting gravity waves, the docking clamps wouldn't release
Nova
, and the pilot ordered they be cut loose. As the mother ship tore itself to pieces, a crewman in an environment suit was locked into the airlock with a cutting torch to free
Nova
. He had just begun cutting through the first latch when
Nova's
radar picked up another sphere on a collision course.

Nova
was still firmly latched to
Voyager
when the second sphere struck the Ark-class ship midships. The collision killed most of the surviving army. The soldier in the airlock, already in a space suit, survived the collision and the explosive decompression. The collision finished the soldier's job, tearing
Nova
free of
Voyager
, expelling him into space.

The soldier found himself floating between the two ships,
Nova
somersaulting through space toward planet America.
Nova's
belly was split from bow to stern, leaking atmosphere and bodies.
Voyager
, just below him, was slowly crumpling its huge mass into a ball. He had no propulsion unit, but it didn't matter. He had no place to go. His gauges told him he had a two-hour life span. Then below him he saw something rising from the planet. A ship like
Nova
, followed by a shuttle. He called over his radio for help, but the ships angled away, picked up speed, and soon disappeared into deep space leaving him alone in the void.

CHAPTER 148 DARK FUTURE

All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them.

— i TIMOTHY 6:1-2

"That was your shuttle, I'm afraid," Grandma Jones explained. " 'Course if they did it the way I told them we might still use the drive as a generator."

"I'll kill you," Fry said, getting to his knees, reaching for his pistol.

Suddenly a half-dozen black men came out of the church, rifles cocked and ready. The soldiers aimed at the men on the porch as more gun barrels appeared on the roof. Then rifles appeared on every rooftop along the street and from under every porch and every crawl space.

"Put your guns down," Grandma Jones said.

Colonel Watson looked around nervously.

"Don't you be figuring your chances, Colonel, 'cause you haven't got a one," Grandma Jones warned. "There are a couple hundred guns pointed at you and your men and most of the people holding them don't like white people much."

"There's no point in picking a fight," Simon counseled, nervously studying the dozens of rifle barrels he could see. "We're stuck here until help can come."

"Help? Help from where?" Thorpe asked. "We left only a shuttle and a sphere back on Earth. A shuttle doesn't have the range to get here."

"They'll learn how the drives work," Simon said. "They'll come for us."

Thorpe shook his head in disgust.

"Without me they don't have a chance," Thorpe said.

"We're stuck here," Fry said. "But this isn't the time to make our stand."

Watson looked around, trying to see if there were as many hidden guns as Grandma Jones claimed. Reluctantly, Watson gave the order to surrender. As his soldiers put their weapons down, women crawled out from under buildings and circulated, gathering rifles, handguns, and grenades. Knives and ammo belts were taken next. When the soldiers were disarmed they were ordered to sit in the middle of the street, surrounded by men with rifles.

Now women appeared with ropes and began tying the hands of the captives.

"What's the point?" Meaghan Slater protested. "We have no guns, we have nowhere to go. Why tie us up?"

"I told you," Grandma Jones said. "We want our own planet. We don't want to be competing with white people. We're not going to let it all happen again."

"We passed two empty towns," Meaghan said. "We'll go there to live."

"We'll be needing those towns soon enough," Grandma Jones said. "What we don't need is unhappy white soldiers marauding around the countryside. I decided there's only one thing to do."

"You're going to kill us?" Simon blurted.

"No, I wouldn't permit that," Grandma assured them. "Of course, that may have been kinder than making you slaves."

"Slaves?" Colonel Watson said as his hands were tied. "You can't be serious."

"What else are we to do?" Grandma asked. "You're trained killers. We can't let you run loose and we don't want to kill you. Besides, we need laborers."

"I can help you keep the Fellowship's generators running," Thorpe said, trying to curry favor.

"We're done depending on white people," Grandma Jones said. "We'll either do for ourselves, or we'll do without."

Holding up his tied hands Fry said, "These will never hold me."

"We've got chains," Grandma Jones said. "The forge is heating up now. And don't forget what happens to runway slaves."

Fry paled at the threat, thinking of whipping, maiming, and gelding.

"We're not all white!" someone shouted from the back.

Simon looked around, finding a quarter of the soldiers people of color, although only ten were African-American.

"When we can trust you, we'll set you free," Grandma Jones said.

"You can trust me now." Simon said as his hands were tied. "I don't want to be a slave."

"No one ever wanted to be a slave," Grandma Jones said, standing and walking toward Simon. "It's a hard life—not just the work that puts you into an early grave. It's the spirit-breaking injustice of being owned. Having someone else decide when you eat, when you sleep, whether you live or die." Looking over the prisoners she said, "You've got women here, so there'll be children." Then looking at Meaghan she said, "I'll do my best to protect you, but you need to know, your children won't all be white."

Meaghan Slater paled at Grandma Jones's prediction.

"That's the hardest part, seeing your children born without hope of a better life. Worse yet, seeing your children sold at auction."

"You can't do this to us," Simon said, tears running down his face.

"I really am sorry," Grandma Jones said. "It will be hardest on you. Your children won't know any other life except what you tell them about. Your grandchildren won't know nothing about being free."

"Please, we can live in peace together," Simon pleaded.

"It'll be hard on you at first, but you'll adapt," Grandma said with compassion. "I know right now the future looks dark for your people, but they say the first hundred years are the hardest."

CHAPTER 148 LAST LOOK

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all the vegetation in the land.

—GENESIS 19:23-25

H
ands tied behind his back, hood covering his head and cinched around the neck, Mark was pushed roughly into a chair. Mark landed sideways on the seat. Immediately the guards began kicking his legs, driving them to the front of the chair. Such petty abuse was common and he had learned to suffer it in silence. Mark could tell by the smell of the air they had taken him outside. As he sat in the chair, his back ramrod-straight, his shins aching and bleeding, he breathed deep and long, enjoying air that was free of human smells. He wore only hospital pajamas and the air was cool. He quickly chilled, goose bumps forming on his skin. He didn't mind. He would suffer a blizzard to be outside.

Shivering, Mark heard heavy military footsteps, stopping a few feet away. Then one man approached, his voice loud in Mark's ear as if he were inches away.

"We have your technology, your cult is destroyed, your people dead, imprisoned, or captured. Your God did not choose well."

It was Manuel Crow. Crow's career was built on lies, but if the Fellowship was destroyed it would be the one truth he would tell. Either way, Mark had failed God.

"We've sent a fleet to capture planet America," Crow hissed in his ear. "Everything that was yours is now mine."

Mark listened for Crow to mention the other world, but he spoke only of planet America.
He didn't know!
Mark's heart leapt with joy. Planet America had been a blessing, but it wasn't the planet of Ira's vision.

"Nothing to say, Shepherd?" Crow asked. "Then I've got something to show you."

His hood was torn off, Mark finding it was night. He looked up to see Crow towering above him, sharp features barely distinguishable in the dark.

"Look to the west," Crow ordered.

Mark looked at the stars above him, relishing his first view of the sky in months. Crow's hand slapped the side of his head, his eardrum ringing.

"To the west!" Crow repeated.

Mark followed his point, seeing nothing at first, then spotting a bright dot that wasn't a star.

"It's the first of your asteroid bombs," Crow said. "There are many more coming."

Now Mark suspected Crow's victory was not as complete as he claimed.

"There are others close behind that one," Crow continued. "This planet is in for quite a pummeling, thanks to you. The experts tell me thousands will die from the initial bombardment, and millions more from the starvation, disease, and war that will follow."

"You brought this on yourself," Mark said, refusing to be blamed. "Besides, if you have our technology, why didn't you stop them?"

"We tried, but you booby-trapped them."

"You can evacuate the target cities and installations. No one has to die."

"There won't be any warnings and no evacuations. Tomorrow, after the first strike, I'm going to declare martial law. In a month or so I'll suspend the Constitution and disband Congress. There will be some resistance, of course, but I have my people ready to take care of loose ends. Most people will be too busy worrying about survival—and cursing you—to worry about the loss of a few freedoms. I might even whip up a pogrom against fundamentalists like you, orchestrate some church burnings, maybe a few lynchings. That should break the back of the fundamentalist movement. Best of all, thanks to you, I don't have to worry about term limits. I'm president for life."

Mark knew it would happen just as Crow said. Inadvertently, Mark had given Crow what he wanted—power.

"Now look up above you, Shepherd. Look at those beautiful stars. You gave them all to me, and to my lord, Satan. Now say good-bye to the sky because you will never see it again."

Then Crow pulled the hood down over Mark's head, cutting him off from the heavens. Now he was lifted to his feet and dragged away.

"Thank you, Mark Shepherd," Crow called after him. "You've given me more than I ever dreamed of."

Inside the hood, tears flowed down Mark's cheeks.

CHAPTER 149 PROMISE

Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, "The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into . . . a land flowing with milk and honey."

—EXODUS 3:16-17

Sometimes Micah thought that God asked too much of his people. So many had to die to reach the world God had shown to Ira so many years ago. Now named Promise, the new world floated in the void, the second world in a six-planet system, just as Ira had seen in his vision. Promise's mass was similar to Earth's, the gravity nearly identical. There was less tilt to the axis, and the climate had fewer extremes. Two-thirds of the planet was temperate, with mild winters, summers where the highs rarely exceeded eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit. While leaving planet America had been painful—they had invested so much in that world—most of those who were building homes on the surface were ecstatic about their new home—but not Micah. Shelly and the children never made it to planet Promise, nor did the sixteen hundred people on the ship with them.

Micah would give up his vigil once he decided whether to curse God and die, or accept God's will and go on with life. Until then he would continue to come to the space station control room day after day, refusing to step on the new world without his family.

"Micah," Sandy said, touching him gently on the arm. "It may be nothing, but we're picking up something on radar . . ."

Micah was out of his seat in a flash, studying the screen. There was something out there, but they were too new to the planet Promise's system to have mapped all the comets and asteroids. Then the radio crackled to life.

"This is
Covenant. Can
you hear us?"

It was Shelly. Micah lunged for the microphone, Sandy leaning aside.

"Shelly, it's Micah. Are you all right?"

"Micah . . . I'm fine. The children are here. We're okay."

Pinching his eyes tightly closed, Micah fought to keep his tears from flowing. Sandy hugged him, then keyed another microphone.

"This is Sandy, Shelly. Micah is a bit overcome. Welcome to Promise. How many are with you?"

A long silence followed.

"We had mechanical problems," Shelly said. "There were too many of us. We couldn't all survive. We had to make a choice."

Those in the control room now gathered around the speakers, hearing the sorrow in Shelly's voice.

"Only the children are left"

Gasps of horror filled the control room.

"We need food and water. The air is bad. Bring us oxygen and C0
₂
scrubbers."

"We'll bring you supplies,
Covenant,"
Sandy said. "We have everything you need."

The control room was silent now, each thinking of those they knew on the ship. Then Micah remembered Ira was on the
Covenant and that
Shelly had said there were no adults left.

"What of Ira, Shelly?"

"He's here, Micah. He won't speak to me. I knew we needed him. I wouldn't let him die with the others."

The radio crackled again, then Ira was speaking.

"Is Luke there, Micah?" Ira asked.

"He's here, Ira. He's fine. He'll be glad to know his daddy is coming home."

"What of Mark? Did you find Mark?"

"No. I'm sorry, Ira." Then Micah said, "Ira, tell Shelly I'm coming. Talk to her. Forgive her. She did what she thought God wanted."

Then Micah sprinted from the control room to
Exodus
. It would be days before
Covenant
could be docked at the space station and he wouldn't wait that long to see his family. He would bring them the supplies they needed, and then bring his family safely to the station. Then they would make the final leg of the journey to the promised land, together.