Chapter 16: Chapter 15: Night -part 1 ???????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????

It is now 0100 hours here on Earth, well past midnight. I was dozing off, coiled up in a bunk bed. I couldn't really fall asleep because my thoughts kept returning to the impending arrival of the Groknac. I can't even stretch my legs, as my feet would end up out of my rather short bed. It's very quiet in this guest room that they temporarily assigned to me, nothing more than the sound of the airconditioning gently humming.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Suddenly my comm.device is beeping loudly, yanks me out of my light slumber and forces me to sit up instantaneously. My heart is beating insanely fast. Within only seconds I push the red button on my comm.device and accept the incoming message. 

"Vencan to Vohali, respond," the SO said impatiently. 

"Yes....yes...I...am awake...." I stuttered, breathing heavily.

"Sorry to wake you, the enemy has performed an illegal in-system jump. They are now passing the fourth planet from the star. Their ETA here is less than an hour."

"Oh goddess...no. Thanks for the update, sir, I will inform the people here. Be safe up there."

"May we meet again. Vencan out."

I quickly get into my uniform and open the door, only to crash into a guard right outside my door. 
"Ouch, get off me now! This is an emergency, I need to speak to the general, right now!" I said, lying flat out on the floor, still feeling a bit dizzy from my interrupted sleep. 

The guard moved at lightning speed and pulled me to my feet.
"Sorry, miss, follow me," he said, while reaching for his radio.

We then ran to the meeting room which was only one level up from here, reachable by a flight of metal stairs. While we were running, he radioed Security so they could wake the general.

 

I was panting in the meeting room from all the running and when I finally calmed down, I started pacing restlessly. The door then suddenly opened in a hurry, and the general entered the room, fully dressed except for his uniform jacket and he quickly scanned the room to see who else was in here with me. He then covered his white t-shirt with his jacket, then fastened the buttons. 

I blushed for a second, facing away from him, "general, I received word that the enemy fleet is now moving past Mars, they have performed some illegal maneuvers to get here faster than expected."

"I see, ah, en you can watch now."

"Sorry," I said, still blushing.

The general smiled, but only for a second, then said "follow me, I sure hope NORAD can track them by now."

We quickly walked towards the room we were in before, the room where all airborne objects in range could be tracked visibly on the huge screens.

"Lieutenant, are we tracking any objects around Mars at the moment?"

"No general, there is no activity yet," the lieutenant said while focusing on his monitor and adjusting his headset.

"Switch to radio telescopes, you should see blobs blocking the normal cosmic background noise around Mars," I suggested. 

The lieutenant looked at the general for confirmation. 

"Do as she says, we need her help."

"Yes sir, this will take a minute. We normally don't interface with radio telescopes."

"Well, this is hardly a normal situation."

"Yes sir."

 

Surprisingly the interface was set up within only ten minutes. Ten minutes that I used to get coffee and tell the general that I was a bit disappointed. I had already told them to re-route all possible tracking equipment through here. Well, it was night and we were all very nervous, so our conversation ended when the lieutenant had something to report.

"General sir, we are detecting some faint echos, but they have already moved past Mars," the lieutenant said.

"Put the image on the screen."

We are now looking at a graphical representation of our solar system. The sun in the middle, then circles around the sun for each planet's orbit around it. I see red blinking dots halfway between Earth and Mars. On another viewscreen I see the processed image as received by our radio telescopes, bright stars are everywhere, except for some dark patches. Bingo, that's where they are.

"Lieutenant," I asked, "how up-to-date are those images?" 

"One moment......they are updated every five minutes, ma'am" the lieutenant said, and I nodded to thank him.

I faced the general and activated my comm.device, to speak to the SO.

"What is it officer Vohali? We are a bit busy up here."

"Yes sir, I realize that. We are now able to track the enemy movements from down here. I was thinking about the Groknacs illegal in-system jump maneuver. While you are still able, could you please send an emergency message to our reinforcements? Ask them to do the same maneuver? Or perhaps do ten mini-jumps after each other? I don't think anybody will complain in this situation."

"I already would have, if not for the uncharted gravity waves in this system and hence the illegal part. But I will see what I can do, we sure need the help. Anything else?"

"No sir, that is all."

"Good, Vencan out." 

I could hear nervousness in the SO's voice, and that is understandable. One escort vessel is no match for what the Groknac are sending this way.

"Do you think the reinforcements can be here on time?" The general asked, now with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Honestly, I don't know much about these kinds of maneuvers. I think this is one of those times when we need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best," I said, looking a bit apologetic. After noticing his coffee I was again longing for another cup of coffee. 

"I was afraid you were going to say that," the general said. He put down his cup on someone's desk and walked towards the lieutenant. 

At that time my tummy let me and everyone near me know that it needed to be refueled.
"Shh, quiet you. Not now." I am sure nobody heard me speaking. Okay, I am busted....I saw someone looking at me, then at two desks away from me, then back to me. I focused on that location and an instant smile formed on my lips. Cookies... glorious cookies. I nodded and smiled at my savior and she returned the smile for a moment, then continued to work.

While stealthily approaching my food source, I address the general. 
"General, I see that we are currently at DEFCON 2, may I suggest asking the president to upgrade to DEFCON1? We need every asset worldwide ready to intercept incoming craft within the hour."

"I see your point Ayanna, but our forces are already at the highest combat alert, besides, we are under orders to allow the president some sleep unless he is absolutely needed."

"General. I seriously suggest that you wake the president NOW. Within one hour your planet will see the most lethal fireworks in its history," I said, feeling very annoyed and glaring at him. But he got my message and left the room for a while.

Absolutely nobody noticed me borrowing some very tasty cookies. Then a miracle happened. A very handsome young man, a technical sergeant, came into this room carrying the most divine invention humanity has ever created. He was bringing us coffee reloads. He offered me a fresh cup and I thanked him from the bottom of my heart. Oh goddess, exactly what I needed as I need to be fully awake for the coming events.

Only a few minutes later, the general walked to me, and said "Ayanna, we are now at DEFCON1, the president was not amused. Not that I had disturbed him, because you were right, that was a good call. But he was pissed that we only now saw them moving past Mars. Suffice to say that he is moving to a secure location now and will be patching in here momentarily."

I want to ask him if we already have the visual telescopes interfaced to our systems, but something interrupts me.

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BEEP BEEP BEEP

My comm.device is beeping, it is flashing bright red, an emergency broadcast!

"Vencan to Vohali. They're here! Standby.... Shields to maximum! Full power to our main guns and turrets!  
...Vohali, our reinforcements will try your jump tactic, but they may not.....shshshshshshsh."

"Oh no...," I said. We are out of time.

Then, in the corner of my eye, I see the graphics disappearing. The radio telescopes are somehow no longer receiving anything. There is only static.

I then face the general again, "I am no military expert...but I think the Groknac are jamming us."

"Yes, Ayanna, that is my assessment as well. Lieutenant, get me the president!"

"I can't sir, it's as if all the satellites have disappeared. There is no communication possible at all."

"Then try landlines, just get me the president." The general shouted, with obvious irritation in his voice.

Only a minute later, we had the president on speaker. Good old fashioned landlines.

"Mr president, Air Force general Lawrence here, sir."

"Give me a status update, general."  

"Yes sir, the enemy is right on top of us. Ayanna is right here with me, she has asked their reinforcements to speed-up, but they will probably be too late, sir."

"Well that sucks, I was hoping for some good news by now. May god have mercy on us for not accepting their help when it was first offered to us," the president said, realizing what was about to happen.

"Yes, Mr president, but we are not defeated yet. We urgently need visual input from Earth based telescopes. Those are probably the only things still working."

"Right, general, get those telescopes plugged into NORAD," the president demanded, his voice now carrying a hint of hope.

 

A few minutes ago, just before the jamming signal started, the President's pre-recorded message was broadcast on all television and radio channels nationwide. We decided to watch the broadcast which the people here had recorded earlier, as the only thing we can do now is to wait for the Groknac to make a move. 

"My fellow Americans. I speak to you in an emergency broadcast. Soon the skies above our proud nation will light up as they have never done before. For the coming hours I ask you to stay indoors and seek shelter. Together we will....shhhhhhhh"  At this point the message was interrupted due to the jamming signal.  

 

It is now very quiet here. People realize this is the calm before the storm and are trying to distract themselves by focusing on their tasks. I desperately need to do something about morale here.
"Mr president," I said, "they say that in the darkest hour of the night, light comes just before dawn."

There was more silence for a moment, then the president replied "those words hit me hard. We have the same expression on Earth. Maybe.....we aren't so different.....you and us."

 

Only a few minutes later we had visuals coming in through fiber optic landlines, from all around Earth.

"Sir, we have visuals!", the lieutenant shouts to us.

We all immediately turn around and focus on the images...and we are simply stunned. The images show spectacular fireworks occurring right above us, right now. But they are not of my favorite kind. The crew of the Arbella is fighting to survive right now. All I can do...no...all WE can do now is hope and pray, for them and for us.

"General, sir, we are now receiving a very strong audio signal on all frequencies," the lieutenant shouted.

"On speaker!"

"Kosssh vachht kasch click click kofuh ssssshaaaa!" something terrifying screeched, then remained silent.

"Ayanna, what did it say?" The president asked.

"I have no idea, my translator doesn't seem to understand that." I said, not understanding why my almighty translator failed me for the first time.

At that moment I got an enormous headache. I felt dizzy and the general caught me before I fell down.

"Ayanna, are you alright?" the general said, obvious worry in his voice. But I didn't respond.  

 

I am now standing inside an alien ship, the air in here smells stale, foul. And it is too warm in here. I'm looking at a viewscreen that shows an image of the Earth. There is a heavy exchange of bright beams between different ships..oh goddess that's the ISF Arbella! She is under attack!
Then I get that cold, creepy feeling that something is watching me, so I turn around and see a huge lizard approaching me. 

"You here," it said in a cold haughty voice.

I tried to hide, but couldn't move or speak....I was in shock and felt really cold.

"Shalna filth. You won't surrender? Now face punishment,"  it said while its split tongue licked its lips.

"Can we talk about this? We want peace." Finally I could speak again.  

"Talk? No talk. Peace? No Peace. This world, our world." it said, before screeching so loud that it scared the hell out of me, waking me up from whatever this was.

"na....anna....Ayanna!" I heard a familiar voice. Someone was gently slapping my face.

"Wha....what happened?" I asked.

"You fainted for a few seconds. Thank god you're back."

"Ugh..I didn't faint, general." My head still hurts from that message.

"Then what happened?" 

"The Groknac contacted me telepathically. They basically said.....prepare to die."

"Ayanna, regarding that proverb. I hope dawn will come soon..." the president said, still on speaker, with obvious despair in his voice.