Peter David - After Earth

Their counterpart, Savant Erich Burch, at least had put on a fresh lab coat and violet gloves. At least it looked like he had an hour or more of sleep.

The three leaders of Nova Prime sat in silence as around them holo screens displayed details of the devastation that began three days earlier. When it was clear the Skrel were on the attack, they departed their vulnerable council room and settled into a makeshift operation in a conference room near the Rangers’ hangar bay, low enough in the cliff to be a hard target. It was close quarters, adding to the foul air, and bare of decoration, which matched her mood.

Khantun felt she had failed them all. She prepared the Rangers and the people for a fresh batch of Ursa, but was stunned when the eight ships entered the atmosphere and began blasting away with energy beams that packed explosive force.

It had taken over a day to realize there was a method to the constant back-and-forth flying being done by the Skrel. They were dropping incendiary devices all across the continent. The devices burrowed beneath the surface and were programmed to detonate when weight was placed on them. At first they thought animals were being shot from the sky, but it then became clear the animals were triggering the devices themselves. Savant Burch reported all it took was a few pounds of weight to be detected, and the device would explode with enough force to kill any living thing in a half-meter radius, which was deadly enough.

The dead were an unfathomable number.

“This defies everything we’ve experienced in centuries,” Burch said.

“What do you mean?” Anderson asked.

“The Savant is referring to the fact that in 243 the Skrel were very selective about where they fired. Their targeting systems were incredibly, impossibly precise. It was always things we constructed. Or people. Or livestock. Never the planet itself.”

“And did that happen the second time?” Anderson inquired.

“Yes,” Burch answered, finally reengaging with the conversation. “In 350, they returned and took more shots at us . Not the planet. Your predecessor wrote a treatise speculating about why the planet was left unharmed. You should read it sometime.”

“Ever since then, the Skrel have seen fit to come here, deposit the Ursa, avoid our cannon fire, and leave the atmosphere as quickly as possible,” Khantun said. “This defies everything we have trained and prepared for.”

“Your flyers lack the weaponry, don’t they?”

“Yes, Primus. They were never designed to handle threats from outer space. Same with the Suijin Fleet. The Skrel ships never neared the waterways. I’ve had the ships stored out of target sighting and the crews redeployed.”

She cursed herself for being caught by surprise, but really, how could she know they would choose to fire for the first time in six hundred years? Still, the Iron Queen was feeling beaten and it irritated her.

All available flying craft were being used to throw whatever weaponry they had at the eight ships that leisurely crisscrossed the continent, strafing New Earth City then picking off people who ignored the shelter order, thinking the smaller colony towns would not be targets. Tähtiinville, home to their spacecraft manufacturing, was a smoking ruin.

Everything had gone wrong. All her plans and preparations for over a decade had been useless. People were dying, the Skrel were winning, and this time they didn’t need the Ursa.

“We need a weapon of mass destruction,” she said.

“What about the F.E.N.I.X. bombs?” the Savant said, pushing his plate away.

“How many are left?”

Burch paused and consulted a readout on the display before him and held up four fingers.

“We’re going to have little left but rocks to throw at them. Those we have plenty of, and it seems they will prove as effective,” the Iron Queen grumbled. “What about the upgrades?” she demanded, refusing to appear weak, even if it was just the three of them in the room without any aides.

“We’re working on them, but scaling up has proven difficult. No one has really looked at those schematics in decades. After all, those damn ships descend, drop, and leave, all too fast for the batteries to track them down.”

“What are we doing about that?”

“I have my top people on it,” he replied.

“This isn’t working,” the Primus said. “We’re all going to die.”

“I don’t need you losing your faith, not when the people are looking to you for guidance,” Raige said, her tone allowing no argument. “Your addresses to the shelters are giving them something to hold on to. It’s the one thing you can give them that I cannot. That he cannot.”

Raige was frustrated at the lack of a plan, at the lack of action. If she could, she’d don a jetpack, grab a cutlass, and go meet a Skrel ship in the skies over the city. Since the jetpack remained mired in the R&D branch of the Mirador, the Savant’s headquarters and labs, she had little choice but to control things within her grasp.

She stabbed a control and spoke into the microphone. “This is the Prime Commander. Strongbow, send teams to the F.E.N.I.X. surface-to-air guns and have them ready to go again. Send a runner to the Mirador and get me eyes on the upgrades. Then round up the Defense Corps. Have them check shelter by shelter. Make sure we have people secure and safe. Medical emergencies are the only ones who have permission to leave a shelter. I want Defense Corps people teamed with Rangers to begin walking the streets. Those Skrel bombs bored into the ground, which means they left evidence. Find them, tag them, and keep moving. We’ll figure out how to deactivate them later.”

“Commander, it’s Sykes. Strongbow is dead.”

Raige was stunned. She blinked and sat back in her chair. “How?”

“She was bringing in fresh supplies from a warehouse when one of those bombs went off.”

“When?”

“Last night.”

Damn. Was she that wrapped up in the mission she missed her adjutant’s presence for that long? In fact, did she ever get confirmation Brom made it to Mama Sam? He must have, she assured herself. Right now it was all about maintaining focus on the mission above all else, and the mission was far from done.

“Mourn later, Sergeant. Can you carry out those orders?”

“Affirmative.”

“Execute. Congratulations, you’re the new adjutant. When you have the orders carried out, change the duty rosters, grab Strongbow’s materials, and carry on.”

She turned her attention to the Primus.

“And I need you to keep the people calm. We’re at that point in every battle when fear and rumormongering can undermine us as easily as a Skrel bomb.”

Anderson nodded.

“This is overwhelming.”

“I know, not something they can train you for. Are you up to this or not?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really, but I do have a suggestion.”

Raige studied the Primus’s expression, trying to anticipate the question.

“Take over. Lead us all.”

That was not what she expected.

“Now there’s an idea. I can focus more on the F.E.N.I.X. tech work if I don’t have all the other demands,” Burch said.

“You do remember the last time one person controlled all three offices,” Khantun said.

“Yes, it was at a time when we weren’t prepared and needed a single leader to take us forward. If I recall, it was also a Raige. Your family seems to be built for leadership. So lead us,” Burch said.

“Amen,” the Primus added softly.

“The people will need to understand that I am in command. Me and no one else. So I will accept this, but as the Imperator.”

Anderson stared at her in confusion.

“You don’t remember your history, Anderson,” Burch said. “Back around 200 AE, we had an Imperator, and it didn’t end well for him. It’s why the Prime Commander’s ancestor refused the title when she took control. But I think we need that title now. Take it and wear it with pride.”