Нэнси Кресс - Terran Tomorrow

“Signal station, come in—code red, repeat code red!”

“Signal station here,” Li said, sounding startled. “Sir?”

“Execute Operation Flamingo in five minutes. Repeat, execute Operation Flamingo… verification code Delta Whiskey Alpha. Repeat, Delta Whiskey Alpha.”

A bullet whizzed past his helmet.

Instantly Kandiss was firing. Goldman covered Jason’s body with his own as he shoved him back down the stairwell. Jason yelled, “Go! Go!” and all of them scrambled through the hatch, followed by a torrent of rain splashing down the steps. Goldman stayed to lock the hatch as the rest of them ran back through the tunnel.

Something heavy rumbled overhead.

A sniper… the stray bullet had come from a sniper, but more of the New America force had not been that far away. And now they knew where the hatch was.

Ten minutes. They had maybe ten minutes…

Boots rang staccato on the metal plates of the tunnel floor. Behind Jason, Goldman pounded along until he caught up to the others. The tunnel was wide enough for only three raggedly abreast.

Go, go, go… ten minutes. He didn’t know what would happen if they were still in the tunnel when the Return dropped down from orbit.

In the other dome, Zack and Lindy bumped Colin’s powerchair down the steps, one at a time. Colin winced but didn’t cry out. “Christ,” Lindy said, “you’d think the Army would have sprung for powerchairs that can climb up and down steps!”

Zack puffed, “You don’t want… my opinion… on what the Army chooses to spend on or… not.” God, he was out of shape. Lindy was lifting and hauling easier than he was. “Jenner, you okay?”

“Yes.”

“I’m trying to not… sorry!… Okay, we’re down.”

“That’s the airlock and decon to the tunnel,” Lindy said, unnecessarily. “Zack, scan it open and then you stay here.”

“I’m an RSA survivor and—”

“We don’t need you. Colin will listen at the tunnel hatch, and if it’s safe, I’ll go out and contact the signal station.”

“This whole idea looks stupider now that I consider it.”

“Good, I’m glad you think so, because you’re not participating any farther than this. Just wait on this side of the airlock to help with Colin’s chair after we get back.”

“If there’s a hatch, what makes you think you can lift it alone?”

“It will have hydraulics.”

“Do you know that for sure? You don’t. And, Lindy—what if there’s a code to open the hatch?”

“There is. I know it.”

Zack didn’t ask how. She’d been married to Jenner; she could have been told, or have stolen, any number of supposedly restricted things. He said, “I don’t think you should—”

“Zack, now!”

Zack put his eye and finger to the scanner. It said, “Retinal scan and digital chip match. Dr. Zachary McKay.” The airlock/decon chamber slid open.

Colin powered himself inside behind Lindy and raised his hand to the CLOSE DOOR button. The door closed.

Zack sagged against the wall. Would he ever see either of them alive again? And if Lindy succeeded in this mad scheme to alert the signal station, would either the soldiers there or the Return act without orders from Colonel Jenner? In fact, could anybody even pilot the Return now that Branch Carter was in a v-coma?

Spaceship, Monterey Base, signal station—each locked separately, unable to reach the others except by desperate measures, no better than the caged sparrows in the bird lab. Was this any way to run a war?

Decon could not be rushed, but without decontaminating everyone, RSA would win. They all went through the decon process at once, a tight fit for so many bodies. Jason counted each agonizing minute, squashed against Goldman and Kandiss. Kandiss’s AR-15 jammed into Jason’s side.

When decon was done and the airlock finished cycling, they exploded into Enclave Dome’s storage area.

Thirty seconds. They’d made it with thirty seconds to spare.

Zack couldn’t see Lindy and Colin—why didn’t the airlock have some sort of wall screen to the tunnel beyond? Or something like that? Or—

The world shook and screamed and threatened to break apart.

Zack threw himself into the airlock and slammed his fist onto the DOOR CLOSE button. Another explosion shook everything—an earthquake? Now? It seemed long minutes before the airlock opened on the other side. Colin, the superhearer, sat just beyond the airlock with his hands pressed tightly to his ears; tears made trails through the dirt on his face. But he cried out to Zack, “Get her out!”

Lindy lay a short distance along the tunnel, which rained dirt and stone from gaps between the sagging ceiling plates. Zack grabbed Lindy, who was conscious but looked dazed—had she hit her head? She screamed when he grabbed her under her armpits and dragged her, but Zack had no choice. If that had been an earthquake, there could be aftershocks and the entire tunnel could collapse. He shoved Lindy into the airlock, closed the door—thank the gods that it still closed—and pushed START DECON. Come on, come on…

Decon hadn’t finished when everything shook again. But the airlock was part of the original alien structure and didn’t crack. Lindy moaned. Zack said, his voice too loud and too shaky, “Earthquake!”

“No,” Colin gasped.

No? Then what?

“Bombs.”

Whose? Did New America have those kinds of weapons? The dome had held… but what if it didn’t go on holding?

Lindy moaned again. Then silence.

Jason said into his mic, “Major Duncan?”

“Operation Flamingo successfully executed, sir.”

“On our way up.”

J Squad, too disciplined to cheer, nonetheless looked as if they were hallooing and slapping each other on the back and high-fiving. But there was only Goldman saying, “Well done, sir.”

They climbed to dome level and dispersed to stations per the OPORD. Jason, ignoring the frightened civilians—J Squad would explain and reassure—climbed to the command post and looked out through night-vision goggles.

The Return , its mission finished, had already lifted back to orbit. The bombs it had dropped, the most powerful nonnuclear weapons ever developed, had incinerated everything around both domes in a quarter-mile radius. In the eerie night-vision green, the scene was something from a nightmare. Forest burned, although the thickening rain would take care of that. It was already bringing down the dust and smoke of the carnage. The twisted metal of Strykers gleamed wetly. Debris lay everywhere, along with what was left of bodies. It would take days to clean up everything and refortify the tunnels.

Jason had gambled that the domes themselves could withstand the ordnance. The bombs had been experimental ten years ago; no one knew how powerful they still were. Now Jason knew. The Return would be back at first light. This job was only half finished.

He wasn’t going to report to HQ until it was. Strople wasn’t going to stop him.

Colin said shakily, “Can you get Lindy up the stairs? You can leave me here and put her in the chair!”

“No,” Zack said. “I don’t dare move her any more without a doctor—I have no idea where she’s hurt. I’m going for help.”

Lindy quavered, “ I’m a doctor, I—” but Zack was already sprinting up the stairs. At the top, he found himself unable to unlock the door at the top. Christ!

Colin called, “What is it?”

“The door isn’t recognizing me—I don’t know why not!” It must have something to do with the earthquake, or bombs, or whatever the fuck had happened. He pounded on the door with his fist; nothing happened.