Alien Storm (31 page)

“You can turn the meteors around?” Nestor asked.

“I don't know,” Sarah replied. “It's going to take a lot of strength and I'm going to need some help.”

She placed her hand in Nestor's and walked towards the beam. He got the idea and beckoned to Louise, who took his other hand. The group came forward and linked hands, forming a circle around the light beam. Even Yuri joined the group. Wei extended his arm to Major Bright to close the circle.

“You're joking, right?” the towering man said, before taking the kid's hand. “What are we going to do next? Sing a song?”

“Everyone concentrate,” Sarah ordered. “Close your eyes.”

Around the circle, all eyes shut, including Bright's. Sarah made contact with their minds and channelled their energy back through her own. She felt her own power increase in turn. Taking a deep breath, she removed her hand from Nestor's and placed it against the surface of the rock…

The meteorite was unexpectedly cool to the touch at first, but then a warmth began to grow. Sarah couldn't resist opening her eyes. The light beam shone brighter now. The smooth, mirrored surface of the rock began to vibrate under her hand. First it rippled and then began to rise in a series of peaks and dips – like spikes on the back of a porcupine. The spikes undulated and danced. It was as if the solid matter had become liquid and insubstantial. She sensed the power in the rock and the massive amount of psychic energy being used to guide the meteors towards their earthly targets. Sarah closed her eyes again…

…and is there, floating in space amidst the speeding meteors. She looks around and sees the extent of the storm – fifty objects in total. Ahead, the earth appears like a giant blue and white marble. It seems dangerously close
.

She also senses the presence of her friends – joined with her mentally as well as physically. Their thoughts come through in an excited jumble as they experience the vision of the storm
.

“Concentrate,” she orders. “We have to take control. Focus all of your attention on me. On my voice.”

One by one, she feels them settle and channel their thoughts towards her once more
.

“Good,” she encourages. “Very good.”

Now she directs her mental powers to the beacon itself, the complex web of signals – one for each of the meteors, each with a different approach vector. Alter those signals just a little and the objects will go off course. Alter them a lot and the storm can be sent on an implosion course. She begins to manipulate the beacon, drawing the strands together, making them converge at a point in space…

“Sarah.”

The voice is familiar from her meeting under the ice – the Entity. Suddenly, the alien mind is right alongside her
.

“What are you trying to do? You know this is only delaying the inevitable.”

Ignoring the voice, she concentrates on the beacon. She feels the others losing their focus in the presence of the alien
.

“Sarah, what is it?” Nestor asks. “It's—”

“Concentrate on me!” she snaps. “Don't listen to its lies and don't let it weaken us!”

“The earth will be mine eventually,” the Entity continues, its words rippling through her mind and the minds of the others like searching, grasping tentacles. “You know it is true. If you stop me today, you will just make your eventual defeat all the more terrible.”

Sarah keeps attention on diverting the course of the meteors. Slowly, one by one, their paths begin to converge. Two of them on the edge collide with such force they split apart, sending a cloud of dust and debris out across space. It is working…

“I can't allow you to do this, Sarah…”

Searing pain rips through her mind, passing on to the others. It is everywhere, engulfing everything. Beyond her own agony, Sarah senses her friends screaming in similar torment under the Entity's psychic attack. It's like someone taking an electric drill to their frontal lobes
.

“Don't make me tear your minds and bodies apart,” the Entity hisses. “Leave my beacon alone. Nothing can withstand me.”

“Make it stop!” Wei cries out…

Nestor's hand begins to slip from Sarah's grasp…

The circle starts to break…

Fighting the pain, Sarah directs her strength into keeping them together. Even though they try to pull away physically, she will not allow it. She holds them in the circle just as surely as Makarov had paralysed their bodies earlier
.

“Just a little more,” she assures them
.

“You're letting it kill us!” Octavio screams
.

Unexpectedly, it is Major Bright's voice that comes through next. “You're not dead yet, boy! Finish it, Sarah!”

The Entity howls with rage and the pain and pressure on their brains increases… For a moment it seems their heads will be crushed in the grip of the vice-like alien mind…

Focusing again, Sarah throws everything she has into the beacon. Now the meteors are speeding towards a single point. A collision occurs between the lead meteor and three others directly behind it. They create a cloud of flying rock that explodes across the void…

A fourth rock flies in and is ripped apart…

The cloud grows as one after another of the meteors zooms in and is pulverized by the massive forces
.

The storm is destroying itself
.

“Sarah,” the Entity whispers, its voice becoming fainter as its missiles are destroyed. At last the psychic assault diminishes and the pain in their brains begins to fade
.

“You're beaten,” she replies with grim satisfaction
.

The Entity laughs. “Nothing happens without my consent. This is not over between you and me…”

Its voice fades
.

The last of the meteors flies into the cloud and disappears. Sarah looks at the dust forming a silvery streak across space and…

…opened her eyes, as did the other members of the group. They stared at one another with amazement. Around the room she could see from the drained expressions on the faces of the others that they had experienced the agony of her battle with the monstrous alien force. For a moment there was only stunned silence, then Louise broke the spell.

“You did it, Sarah!” she exclaimed.

“We
did it,” Sarah corrected, rubbing the bridge of her nose to alleviate the residual ache from her fight with the Entity. Alex touched her arm with concern, but she smiled at him to show she was okay. He looked just as exhausted as she felt. But it wasn't over yet. From somewhere within the Spire there came a rumble. This was followed by a vibration that went through the walls and floor, as if something had shaken the building to its very foundations. The Spire, the technology, the beacon and even the architecture of the building was intimately linked to Makarov and the Entity. Now, with one of them dead and the other defeated, the building's stability was severely compromised.

“We don't need the beacon any more,” she told Nestor. “Take the others and free the miners and their families. Yuri, take them to the bottom of the Spire.”

The Russian placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for giving me the chance to put things right here.”

Sarah smiled. “Give Laika a hug from me. Now get going.”

“What about you?” Nestor asked as he started to move.

Sarah nodded to the fragment. “I have to finish things off here. Commander Craig is piloting the stealth jet out of here, so as soon as the miners and other workers are safe, get to the landing strip three floors above.”

Without another word, Nestor left Sarah, Alex and Major Bright in the meteorite chamber. He led the others quickly down the steps and into the larger area below, moving to the nearest sleeper casket and pressing the button to open the lid. As it swung up, he removed the skullcap from the head of the bearded man inside. Almost immediately, the sleeper's eyes flickered open and he sat bolt upright, speaking quickly in Russian. Yuri ran to the miner's side and started reassuring him. Nestor turned to Louise, Wei and Octavio as another rumble went through the Spire.

“Wake them all up!”

The building shuddered again and somewhere a window exploded in a shower of glass. A fourth, even deeper rumble went through the building. The floor shook hard enough to send the caskets skittering across the floor.

Octavio looked at the ceiling and guessed what was happening. “I get the feeling Makarov's tower isn't so stable without the Entity holding it together.”

“Then let's make this fast,” Nestor said and they started moving around the caskets, waking the sleepers one by one.

Inside the meteorite chamber, Sarah turned her attention to the Spire's central computer.

“Something interesting?” Major Bright asked, moving next to her. She gave him a quick, wary glance – the man who had tried to imprison or kill them so many times. A wry smile passed across his lips, as if he read her thoughts.

“War makes strange bedfellows, doesn't it?”

Sarah ignored him and was pleased when he wandered away, examining the walls of the chamber. She didn't want him standing over her shoulder while she tapped the secrets of Makarov's computer. Alex appeared at her side.

Can we just blow up this place now?
He cast a look at Bright.
The sooner we get out of here, the better
.

Not yet
, Sarah replied as she moved to the main computer terminal.
There must be something on here about the fall virus. Makarov manipulated it to harness the psychic power of the sleepers. Perhaps there's the information we need for an antidote
.

She passed her hand over the terminal and the screens lit up.

“Hello, Sarah,” the computer said. “How can I help you?”

“I want you to upload all the information from your memory about the fall virus onto the central computer of the stealth jet,” she ordered.

“That constitutes over a million terabytes of data,” the computer replied impassively. “The transfer will take several minutes. My systems are not working at optimum level. May I ask…” The computer's voice became slurred and deep at this point. “Where is Nikolai Makarov? I do not…detect his signature…in the Spire.”

“What's wrong with it?” Alex asked.

“The sleepers are being disconnected. We're removing its power source.”

Another rumble went through the Spire. The computer spoke with agonizing slowness, “This building…is unsound…”

“Just transfer the data,” Sarah ordered.

“Yes…Sarah…”

Over the next minute the computer set to work while Sarah paced impatiently before the terminal. Finally, Nestor's voice sounded in her head.
We've opened all of the caskets. Yuri is taking the miners and their families down the stairs to ground level
.

Good
, Sarah replied.
Get the others to the stealth jet. Alex and I will be along in a minute
.

Just make sure you are
.

As Nestor signed off and she sensed them leave the chamber outside, a voice Sarah hoped never to hear again sounded from the direction of the meteorite fragment. The Entity.

Sarah. Join with me
.

“I sense…” the computer continued in the same laboured drawl, as if every word was an effort. “The structural integrity…of the Spire…has been compromised. A fatal collapse will occur…within the next eight…minutes.”

“Don't worry about that,” Sarah said as the alien voice spoke again.

Sarah. This is your time. It's not too late!

She looked round at Alex, but he showed no sign of having heard anything. Bright, however, had moved so close to the light beam he was almost standing inside it. As he reached up with his hand to touch the still-spinning rock, Sarah cried out.

“Major, no! It's not safe!”

The Entity's voice sounded in her head for a third time.
Sarah, are you really going to let Bright usurp your place beside me? How disappointing
.

Oblivious to the communication from the Entity, Bright looked round at her. “Not safe?” he said. “Not safe for you, maybe.” He turned back to the meteorite and looked at it with awe in his eyes. “I thought that I had found real power when I was first injected with the serum. How wrong I was. Now I can sense true power. When it fought us for control of the beacon…it was like being in the presence of a god.”

With that, he laid his palm on the surface of the meteorite fragment and the extraterrestrial artefact ceased to spin. Instantly, Bright's body went rigid, as if held in the grip of an electric current. His head slowly turned to face Sarah. When his lips moved, it was the Entity who spoke:

“Sarah. This is your last chance. Join me or see your friends destroyed at the hands of the major.”

Sarah walked into the centre of the chamber. “Let him go. It's over! The meteors are destroyed. Makarov is dead. There's nothing left here for you now.”

Like a puppet under the control of the Entity, Bright cocked his head on one side and his features contorted into a frown. “
But I am immortal. Defeat me today and I will be back tomorrow. Or next year. Or next century. I will always be here.”

“And there'll always be someone like me to fight you,” Sarah said defiantly. “Leave earth alone.”

“Such spirit. I would have made you a queen. Ruler of the world.”
Bright reached out towards her with his free hand. “
To join me is to live for ever.”

Alex watched in horror as a strange, vacant look passed over Sarah's face. She took a step towards the meteorite fragment, as if under the spell of the Entity's hypnotic words.

Sarah…

With a cry, Alex threw himself between her and the beam, holding the trigger aloft.