Darkness on a Pale Blue Stone (26 page)

"Here," Adam said, looking down a large stairwell at the edge of the room. The opening in the floor had been left open by those going to the meeting. They gathered around at the head of the stairs, though everyone except Lash was concerned about going underground into the unknown. Without hesitation, she proceeded down into the bunker, cautiously followed by Adam, Sean, and Jake.

They heard voices once they reached the bottom. The sound led them down a nearby hallway. As they peered around a final corner, they could see the massive congregation of New Salvadorians in a large circular room. Through the open doors, Lash could see rows of pew-like seats forming circles around an area in the center of the room. In that area stood a woman, speaking loudly.

"Come on," Lash whispered. She led them over beside one of the doorways. They took care to stay out of the eye-line of those inside the room. From here, they could make out what was happening in the council room.

The woman was still speaking. "...but we still do not know! We must be patient, or else we risk
everything
."

Gresson's deep voice now echoed through the room. "We risk everything if we continue to sit around and wait! We cannot maintain the interference signal!"

"If I recall, the signal is now capable of continuing on a more permanent status," the woman retorted. "You may have saved our lives, Alexander. We are all aware of that. But the time you have bought us is
why
we should be cautious."

Gresson scoffed. "Cautious? This is not about being cautious! Our work is not done. Surviving a gunshot doesn't mean we get to forget the cancer. The signal saved us from annihilation, but it is not the final cure."

"What a fitting analogy," Adron sarcastically interrupted. "You should also know, Alex, that one cannot expect the effects of a 'cure' to be entirely... sublime. This is the real world, not some philosophical experiment. We are not puppeteers."

"Not only is that irrelevant, but
you
are the ones attempting to pull the strings of humanity's future, not me! I do not wish to recreate the world, only to save it. Humanity is lost if we do not intervene."

"We already have intervened!" another man exclaimed. A few cheers and murmurs around the room made it clear the opinion was shared. "A different course has been set. Anything more and we risk
everything
."

"Who are we to interfere and then leave them alone with this... this
carcass
that was once Earth!" Gresson cried out.

"They will rebuild!" another voice said.

"But not if this signal remains on," Gresson adamantly declared. There was silence for a moment. His statement seemed to have finally earned the contemplation of those in the room.

Sean turned to the others. "What the hell are they talking about?" he whispered. Lash held a finger to her lips. As they turned back to the room, the four of them collectively gasped as someone appeared in the doorway.

"Hey! Who are you?" she asked.

"They're the one's Alexander brought in!" someone else said. The room shook as everyone leapt from their seats. Many hurled accusations at Gresson, a few charged to remove the four intruders, but most were merely caught up in the moment. Several of those closest to the four grabbed them by the arms before they could resist and pulled them down the hall.

Minutes later, Lash, Sean, Jake, and Adam were thrown to the ground in New Salvador's courtyard outside. Lash, now able to move, checked for her gun, but it had unsurprisingly been taken, as had the guns the other three had carried. The angry mob that had formed around them seemed poised to take violent action. They stood in a massive circle around the four of them, shouting, cursing, and waving their arms.

"Enough!" Adron bellowed from behind the crowd. They fell silent as he stepped through them until he was in the center.

"They must leave!" someone shouted. Agreement was made clear by many others.

"No! They deserve to..." Gresson protested.

"Oh, shut up!" someone yelled.

"How dare you go behind our backs like this!" another cried.

"I had nothing to do with this," Gresson said. The following shouts made it clear he was not believed. "You cannot just send them out with no where to go!"

"One day," Adron said. "They stay in your home, under guard, for one more day. Then, they leave. Don't ask for anything more."

Chapter 37

Near the Moon - August 29, 2072

"Are you ready?" Vadim asked. The moon was now the only thing visible in the pod's front window. They had already reversed the direction of the rockets and fired a few decelerating blasts, but they would soon need one long, final burn for the descent to the lunar surface.

Andre crossed himself while offering up a short prayer, then replied, "Yeah."

Vadim pressed on the screen in front of him a few times. "Everything looks good. Final burn in 3... 2... 1..."

The blast dramatically slowed down the pod, though the incredible deceleration could not be felt by the two men inside. Beyond the acknowledgment from the computers, the only thing the men could perceive from the rockets was their hum that now echoed through the pod's frame.

"How we doing?" Andre asked breathlessly.

"We might be... the two luckiest bastards in the damn galaxy," Vadim replied with his heavy Russian accent.

Andre let out a laugh, then sighed in relief. He nodded his head and said, "Nice work, Vadim."

Vadim stretched out a patted Andre on the shoulder. "You too, you too."

They watched as the visible detail of the moon's surface increased as they descended. They could now make out the mining base that was their destination.

"It is going to feel so good to get out of this thing," Andre said.

"Tell me about it," Vadim said with a grin.

They watched the lunar landscape loom closer for a few silent seconds. Andre then closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat.

"So, how'd we do on fuel?" Andre asked. "I know we..."

"
Shit
," Vadim said in Russian.

Andre anxiously looked over. "What?"

Vadim did not answer. Instead he began running calculations on the computer. Andre checked the fuel himself and realized that at the current burn rate, they would run out of fuel nearly a kilometer above the moon's surface. As Andre watched, the rate of their fuel loss accelerated.

"What's going on?" Andre asked desperately.

"I don't know. This pod wasn't made for this..." Vadim replied

"Vadim, can you get us to the surface?"

"We are going to get to the surface, like it or not."

"I'm aware of that! Can you get us there
safely
?"

Vadim did not answer. Andre looked out the window. They were less than a minute away from the surface now.

"Vadim!"

"There must be something we can do!" Vadim exclaimed. He maximized the decelerating blast. A loud clang rang out and the pod began to shake violently. The pod's rockets were no longer aimed directly toward the moon's surface and the two men could only stare in horror as decelerating force was wasted as the rockets pushed the pod away from the base and toward a distant destination on the moon's surface.

Andre began to pray. He recited several Catholic lines he remembered from his childhood, hoping for God to slow their descent, or to at least end it quickly. Vadim furiously gave commands to the computer, though he knew the computer was incapable of enacting them in time. The passing seconds felt like ages inside the convulsing pod.

Andre opened his eyes. They widened as he saw the display in front of him.

"We've almost stopped!" he cried in exhilaration. He reached to slow down the rockets. Before he could however, there was a pop-like sound that echoed behind him. They had run out of fuel and their speed was still too high.

The pod began to free-fall and, seconds later, it crashed into the rocky surface of the moon.

Chapter 38

New Salvador - August 29, 2072

There was a loud knock on the door. Jen opened it and Jordan walked inside.

"It's time," Jordan said.

Gresson sat in the living room, along with the eight others who had accompanied him across nearly the entirety of the eastern seaboard of the United States. They were now being forced to leave New Salvador.

"Alright," he replied. "Make sure when you get to Jacksonville that you make contact with Valdez. He can keep you safe."

"We all know that's not true," Jake said.

"It's the best we can do for now," Gresson said, visibly unsatisfied.

"Alex, I don't give a damn what Adron says. If you want, I'll escort them over there and make sure they have a good place to stay."

"Thanks," Sean said with a weak smile. Gresson nodded in approval.

"Gresson, there has to be something you can say. You all can't do this on your own. We can help! We already..." Lash said.

"I know, Lash. But my hands are tied. They're convinced I sent you to spy on our meeting and that I acted to undermine the right of council."

"If you are on this council, don't you have some power?" Adam questioned. "Can't you do something..."

"We are all the council. 'Council' is simply the word we use to refer to our discourse and decisions, not a specific group. Everyone represents themselves, though some voices do hold more weight. I am afraid those on
your
side do not hold enough. And to be honest, this is just an excuse to get rid of you, not a punishment. It was only a matter of time."

"Why? Why do they want us gone so badly?" Lucas asked.

"It is... complicated," Gresson replied.

"It always is," Jake remarked.

"So what should we do?" Alice asked.

"Wait in Jacksonville, I suppose. Someday they will understand. I am afraid, though, of what it will take to get them to that point."

"What will you do?" Lash asked.

Gresson sighed. "I... I will have to wait as well. It may take a while before they are willing to hear me out again."

"Alex, I'm sorry, but they were pretty insistent when they sent me over..." Jordan said.

Gresson nodded. He stood up, and everyone else begrudgingly followed him to the door.

"Until we see each other again," he said, extending a hand to Michael. After pausing a moment, Michael accepted the handshake.

"Stay safe, Gresson," Alice said. "And... thank you."

The group of eight stepped outside and walked slowly toward the front gate along with Jordan. They made it halfway, until Gresson ran outside.

"I've decided to come with you," he said.

"I'm happy to take them over, Alex," Jordan replied.

"No, I won't just be taking them there. For the time being, I'll be staying in Jacksonville."

"Gresson, we appreciate the gesture, but you must have much more important things to do here," Michael replied.

Gresson shook his head. "No, I do not. If I stay here, the most I can do is observe. I know how my people think. It will be a long time before I can make any progress in convincing them to take serious action. Even then, they will probably need to see the threat for themselves. While we wait for that to inevitably happen, I can keep you safe, at the very least."

"What about Jen?" Jordan asked.

"It was her who convinced me," Gresson said. He looked back at his house. In the doorway stood his wife, watching them. "She knows it's the best thing to do. With her here keeping a voice of reason at council, and with me there keeping the army in check, we are at least doing something."

"Alright," Jordan said. "Stay safe, okay? All of you."

"You too," Sean said. Jordan flashed a smile and left.

The group walked through the front gate, passed the vehicular debris, and found themselves on the road once again. They retraced their path down the backroads and returned to I-95. The warm asphalt beneath their feet was a familiar feeling, as was the lack of clear purpose they were all experiencing.

It took them merely an hour to reach the suburbs of Jacksonville, where they left the highway. The city was segmented into three distinct shorelines by the split St. Johns River. The north land mass held residential and industrial districts, the west contained the downtown district, and the east housed more residential districts. The city had survived the Arrival fairly well. No crashed Exterminator ship had left devastation similar to what they had seen in New York and, at least on the northern side, no major fires had broken out. There were many people outside, most sitting on porches with little to do or talking with others in their lawns. A few animals wandered the streets that were now filled with litter, wasted food, and abandoned cars. The smell in the air was particularly unpleasant. Gresson wasn't sure if it came from the waste or the un-showered people.

"How does anyone live like this?" Marie asked.

"Same way we'll have to," Lash noted.

"Right..." Marie said, quite unhappy about that fact.

They arrived at Imeson Park, the industrial complex at the southern tip of Jacksonville's Northside district. Valdez and his marines were staying here. It did not take long to find them. The battalion of marines had taken up the area around several warehouses, along with an old Marine Reserve building that would serve as their temporary base. The marines that had been staying there before had been more than happy to join ranks with their fellow military forces. The Army soldiers that had been under Sanders' command were segregated from the marines for the moment. All the men and women knew they were on the same side, albeit currently with an awkward command structure.

The surprised marines who first saw the group greeted Gresson and led him and his followers to Valdez.

Valdez saluted. "Well, when you said you would send orders, I didn't expect you to actually come down here, especially this soon. Either way, it's good to see you Mr. President."

"You too, General. We are not here to provide news or orders, however. We just needed to... take some time away from New Salvador."