The Pathfinder Project (4 page)

“Monitor communications. For
what?
”
Thomas responded irritably.

“We don’t know yet, Tom,”
Kaufield told him. “That’s what I need you to find out. It sounds like there’s
some kind of unknown attack underway, and whoever is doing it is interfering
with military communications as much as possible while firing on our fleet…
probably a jamming field of some sort. They’re also nuking Earth! I want you
and your specialists on this right freaking
now
. Find out
how
they’re doing it.”

Behind him, a door opened and a
Marine walked into the room. “I heard, Captain,” he said tensely. “How bad is
it?”

“I need you to place the base
on full alert, Colonel Neeland,” Kaufield replied. “I may be head of this
project, but you and your troops are the ones assigned to protect us. Be ready
for anything…”

“An announcement has just been
made on all civilian frequencies,” noted Mary, the expression on her face all
the apology he needed for the abrupt interruption. “Someone representing an
organization called the Brotherhood of the Dragon is claiming responsibility
for the attacks.”

Kaufield whirled to face the
Colonel. “There you have it. This so-called Brotherhood is attacking both
military and civilian targets. They also have some sort of jamming field in
place that is interfering with ship-based electronics.”

“Then I suggest we implement our
disaster contingency plan,” the Colonel replied.

“Deactivate key systems and
evacuate all personnel underground?” Kaufield weighed the idea warily before
nodding in agreement. “If they’re using nukes, then we can expect to get hit,
too.”

“Agreed,” Neeland replied.

Switching his Comm to a base-wide
frequency, Kaufield quickly cleared his throat. “
This is Captain Dennis
Kaufield,
” he stated firmly. “
We are declaring an emergency disaster
situation. Everyone is ordered to drop what you’re doing and gather together
all the supplies and equipment you can carry. Evacuate to the
Pathfinder
’s
shuttle bay. It’s deep enough underground that we should be safe there for the
time being. Everyone, and I mean everyone, assemble there ASAP. Based on what
I’m seeing up here, I estimate you’ve got less than thirty minutes
.”

The Operations Center suddenly
became a flurry of activity as on duty personnel began packing their essentials
and shutting down consoles. Within minutes, only the Colonel, Dennis and Mary
remained. As the last of the technicians left, Thomas Roh entered the room. The
tall, spindly computer technician was firmly shaking his head negatively – it
was difficult to tell at first glance whether his frustration was directed at
the situation in general or something specific. He was nearly thirty years old,
and yet – to Kaufield – he still looked like an acne-scarred kid fresh out of
high school.

“The enemy is
NOT
jamming
us, sir. It’s something else,” he concluded confidently. “We had all our
systems on the
Pathfinder
up and running and there was absolutely
nothing interfering with our tests – not even the smallest glitch.”

“Yes, but the
Pathfinder
has new, state-of-the-art systems,” Dennis pointed out.

“That is a valid point,” mused
Thomas thoughtfully. “None of our stuff has officially been used yet on
official, operational vessels. Perhaps our software and hardware isn’t as
vulnerable.”

“It’s got to be something
else,” Mary objected. “All signals from Earth are
gone
, primarily
because of interference from the massive bombing and attacks on the orbiting
satellites.” She listened closely for a moment. “But the local wireless traffic
is
full
of ship-in-distress calls. If they
were
electronically jamming everyone’s systems, we wouldn’t be able to hear those.”
She looked at them, white-faced with terror. “Would we?”

“If you’ll excuse me,” the
Colonel said solemnly, “I’m going to go see about assembling my Marines. Don’t
stay above ground for too much longer, folks.” he cautioned sternly, and then
headed for the closest exit.

“Have you been able to raise
the Commander of that supply shuttle?” Kaufield asked curiously.

“No, sir. If they’re still
alive then they’ve stopped transmitting on their end.”

Thomas had put on a set of
headphones and was listening intently. “We’re getting creamed,” he said,
whistling softly. “The military has lost entire warships already.”

“Could it be some sort of EMP
weapon?”

“No way,” Thomas replied. “You
could blow up the biggest nuke we’ve got right next door to one of those newer
combat starships and its electronics would still work. The
people
on
board would fry before the systems shut down.” He continued listening intently
for several minutes, and the Operations room became totally silent.

“Can you continue monitoring
from the hangar bay?” wondered Kaufield.

“Affirmative,” Thomas
responded. “Most of our fancier stuff is either on or around the
Pathfinder
anyway.

“Then let’s shut this stuff off
and get down there, too. The thirty minutes that I advised others about will be
up soon.”

*    
* * *     *

The underground hangar bay was
huge… and it had to be. In its center sat the
Pathfinder
, the most
advanced long-term exploratory Earth vessel ever built. Its central
fuselage was lengthy and massive, designed to accommodate a large population
numbering near a thousand. Sprouting from its dorsal hull at 45 degree angles
were the top two “wings”. The port wing, called the “Garden”, was duly named
due to the entire, self-contained flower and farm gardens located within.
The starboard “Livestock” wing was more like a space ranch – holding all kinds
of small animals and livestock. The two were connected along the top of the
fuselage, allowing insects and other small creatures to move freely from one wing
to the other. It was an engineering marvel.

Two identical wings sprouted
similarly from the bottom of the fuselage. One housed a complete electronics,
software and hardware “Laboratory”, while the other was an “Observatory” filled
with telescopes and other types of astronomical equipment. Nestled neatly
between the two lower wings was a roomy launch bay, containing half a dozen
shuttles along with room for a dozen single-pilot fighter craft.

Hatches along the entire port
side of the starship’s ground level hangar bay were open and waiting. Hundreds
of people were streaming through the access points and into the
Pathfinder
,
responding as quickly as possible to the unexpected evacuation notice.
Stationed just in front of the bow of the large vessel was an armed Marine
squad led by Colonel Murray Neeland. Next to him stood Captain Kaufield, Mary
Hastings and Thomas Roh. In front of them was just one of many science stations
designed to monitor the
Pathfinder
’s key systems. Currently it was
capturing and recording all communications traffic from the vast depths of the
solar system surrounding the moon.

“It looks like we’re going to
have to test your new ship sooner than expected,” Murray commented, surveying
the organized crowds of people moving aboard.

“Quite possible,” replied
Kaufield grimly. “What’s the word, Thomas?”

“Like I said, we’re getting
creamed,” he replied. “At least half the fleet is gone, including the flagship.
Admiral Henry of the
Lexington
has taken command of the surviving
fleet.” Thomas paused, listening closely. “He’s ordering all allied ships to
rendezvous at Neptune, where they’re planning to organize a counter-strike.”
He studied a list of received transmissions and shook his head. “So far, there
is nothing from the Russians or the Chinese. If their ships are still intact,
they’re being extremely quiet.”

“That would be my first
choice,” nodded Kaufield with a sigh. “Someone caused us to blink long enough
to surprise our primary fleet. It’s possible that the Russians and the Chinese
were even less prepared than we were. I know a couple of their Captains and
haven’t heard a word. Several of them would have warned me.”

The kid appeared genuinely
intrigued. “
How
do you know them?”

Smiling, Kaufield tousled Roh’s
unkempt brown hair with the fingers of his left hand. “While you toil endlessly
down here in the underground lunar caverns, some of us up on the surface have
been acting as diplomats. The top levels of the base are declassified, and we
have at times re-supplied ships from other nations.”

“When do we lift off?” asked
Colonel Neeland cautiously.

“Is that really necessary at
this point?” Kaufield studied the hard lines of the Colonel’s face closely.
“Shouldn’t we wait and see if they know about us?”

“They
know
about us!”
Mary said sharply from her position next to Thomas Roh. “I have multiple radar
contacts overhead, and one of them is the biggest signal I’ve ever seen. It has
to be one of those unknowns.”

“Where would they hide a fleet
big enough to engage most of the world’s fleets?” wondered Kaufield, clearly
intrigued. “This Brotherhood must have been planning to engage us for quite
some time. Before today, I’ve never even heard of them.”

The hangar bay rumbled
ominously around them. As soon as the sound began to die down, another rumble –
this one much louder – rocked the entire underground complex. Sounds of metal
fatigue filled the hangar, and equipment setting on the ground began to
vibrate. Several of the consoles in front of Thomas and Mary abruptly went dark
– either from damage or lack of power. With everything that was happening, it
was difficult to tell at a glance.

“So I guess they’re nuking the
Operations Center,” decided Thomas wryly. “It’s lucky I’m used to being down
here all the time, because we’re probably going to be here a while.”

“They’re bombing the surface,
definitely,” Kaufield replied, as more nearby explosions rumbled through the
surrounding cavern. “They’re going easy on us – just taking out the above
ground base. If they were using thermonuclear bombs, we would
know
.” He
thought carefully for a moment and then came to a decision. “Colonel, get your
troops ready… as soon as an opportunity presents itself we’re evacuating this
base in the
Pathfinder
. We can’t take a chance that our unknown enemy
won’t get to us down here.”

“One problem, sir,” pointed out
Thomas. “We can’t go to Neptune. The planet is currently orbiting right through
the center of a massive radiation cloud that will fry our new CAS Drive if
we’re not careful.” He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “I never know when we
might go out there, so I watch the weather reports.”

“Admiral Henry included a route
through the cloud in his last military transmission,” Mary pointed out.

“No way,” responded Thomas.
“The CAS Drive’s main software is still being fine-tuned. That’s
why
I was planning to have you temporarily park her on the surface. From there, we
could make direct adjustments to the hardware and software in a non-atmospheric
environment.

“Then we don’t go to Neptune,
at least not yet,” decided Kaufield. “We’ll find another location, and hook up
with surviving vessels later.” He turned his attention to Mary. “How many enemy
ships are we dealing with?”

“Just one now,” she reported.
“The larger vessel has completed its attack on the complex and has transited
away. I’ve got one enemy transport ship on its way down – everything else has
left the area.”

“I suppose they know about the
underground part of the base, too,” Thomas ventured nervously.

“Affirmative,” Mary responded.
“The transport is setting down less than 100 meters from the edge of our
overhead hangar doors.”

“Looks like it’s time for me to
find the Colonel,” Kaufield said. “Everyone else get into the ship. And have
the command crew prep the ship for liftoff.”

“We’re nowhere near ready to
use the CAS Drive,” Thomas objected, “Captain, we could
really
damage
our systems if we don’t make proper adjustments to the software first.”

“Don’t worry,” Kaufield
replied, patting the nervous computer specialist on his shoulder.

“We’ll use the standard PTP
drive for now. You’ll get your chance to complete the work; it’ll just have to
be done out in space instead of on the lunar surface.”

*    
* * *     *

“Those uniforms don’t look like
Russian or Chinese to me,” Colonel Neeland said flatly, turning to regard the
Captain thoughtfully. “Just
who
the devil is responsible for all of this
chaos? It couldn’t be us…
right?
”

Kaufield chose not to respond,
for the moment. The two of them were standing near one of the airlock entrances
that opened out onto the lunar surface. On one of the monitors they watched a
squadron of forty or so white, space-suited soldiers marching directly toward
them. They were closely following a leader wearing a completely black colored
space suit. None of the suits appeared to have any recognizable types of
identifying marks or emblems. Approximately fifty meters from the door the
encroaching soldiers halted their approach. The person leading them continued
forward and stopped just outside the airlock. There was no other signal of any
kind… whoever it was just stood there patiently waiting.

“Do we let him in?” asked
Kaufield, glancing uncertainly at the Colonel.

“As long as his troops stay
right where they are, yes,” replied Murray. “You did say you wanted us to stall
them as long as possible?”

“That’s an affirmative,” the
Captain replied. “As far as intelligence goes, unless they’ve directly
interrogated our President they should believe our project is
way
behind
schedule. They also shouldn’t know that the
Pathfinder
has a backup PTP
drive, in addition to the brand new CAS system.” He looked quickly at his
watch. “However, Thomas and the others will need a few more minutes to complete
the pre-flight process. We’ve been planning to land the ship on the moon’s
surface anyway, so it shouldn’t take him long.”