The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series (26 page)

“The cavern was mapped very clearly. It showed up like a Christmas tree. I wonder why they dug it out,” Isaac said.

“I have a theory about that,” Justyna said. “They probably used it to test the Extinction Switch.”

Isaac narrowed his eyes as he pondered this. “You might well be right. I just hope to God there isn’t any debris floating in it where we dewarp.”

“There is one other unknown,” Justyna said. “That map, originally made by ISI when they were prospecting Vesta, is over twenty years old. What if the inhabitants of Ent… Vesta built, or dug out, something so big that its center of gravity has changed?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“I’m not. Think about it. The point we’re aiming for is big, but it’s only about twenty kilometers out from the center. If they made another cavern, for instance, that’s further out, it would change the gravity map enough that the one we have is invalid for our purpose. The CG of Vesta would only have to shift by a couple of hundred meters to make what we’re attempting impossible.”

Isaac was strapped into his white seat on the left side of the cockpit, and Justyna on the right. This windowless oval room was ten meters forward of the hold, connected to it by a tunnel. There was a hatch at either end, completely sealing the two spaces off from each other. The hold was now completely depressurized.

“Hail,
Arcadantera
!” came a familiar voice over the radio.
Revenant
had dewarped five kilometers away. Her hull shone brightly in the sun.

“Hi Kato,” Isaac said.

“That sure looks like a good ship from here,” Kato said.

“Likewise.”

“So, this is it. You’re carrying the most important payload of any warp ship since my dear daughter was rescued all those years ago,” Kato said.

“Yes we are.”

“How are you doing Justyna?”

“I’m fine, Sir.”

“No need for ‘sir’, Justyna. You guys are flying right into the eye of the storm, carrying the hope of us all. You’re the best of the best, flying one of the finest ships ever created.”

Justyna chuckled. “I just hope we make it out of there before it goes off.”

“You’ll have ten minutes, and I doubt they’ll even know you’re there since you won’t show up on any radar. I should have written ‘to Seung Yi, with love,’ on it while I was there. Still, this should be the end of him once and for all. Godspeed,
Arcadantera.
”

Isaac turned to Justyna. “I guess there’s not much left to do or say.”

“Right. Nobody except Kato and the Pentagon know we’re even going.” Both of them saw a vast array of indicators, readouts, and controls projected into their minds using their neural implants.

“Weapon status good,” Isaac said. “Warp systems, ZP source, gravitometry are all good.”

“Concur on all,” Justyna said.

“Course set for Vesta internal coordinates 23.66 degrees west, 45.9 degrees south, 21.75 kilometers from gravitational center.”

“Start.” At that, the
Arcadantera
disappeared from spacetime. The view outside turned black, as her six-and-a-half minute warp flight began.

“I want to go back to the Alpha Centauri runs after this,” Justyna said. Isaac nodded. His eyes remained glazed over, as he focused on the information displayed in his brain.

Justyna sat back and closed her eyes. “God, please let this work,” she mouthed silently. “One minute,” she announced, soon after that.

“Let’s see if the simulations were accurate,” Isaac said, in his usual reassuring, calm manner, born of years in the cockpit. One of the displays they could see was a grayscale gravity map of their surroundings. Soon, the humble 500 kilometer-wide Vesta was shown, as they approached it. Normally, gravity maps were rendered in real time, from the ship’s instruments. However, being inside of a large rock meant that the gravitational field was so strong as to overwhelm the detectors. Hence, the twenty-year-old map of Vesta’s interior had to be used.

Isaac and Justyna saw the rock all around them, and then the spherical void in which they were to dewarp. Its position was known exactly, in relation to the center of Vesta. What nobody outside of that world knew was that Manufacturing Facility Number 4 had been built ten years previously. It was so large that it threw the body’s center of mass off by over a hundred meters. “Dewarping,” Justyna said, after one final check of the large ship’s position.

Arcadantera
re-entered spacetime inside Vesta. The rear of the ship smashed into the inner wall of the cavern, with enough force that the spinning warp machinery was thrown from its bearings. Its huge momentum tore the ship apart. The nuclear cluster was torn apart, and didn’t detonate. However, the entire cavern wall was blasted apart as
Arcadantera
herself exploded. The concussion sent a massive, highly destructive shock wave out in all directions.

----

Seung Yi sat at the end of a long dark wooden conference table. Zan Tang sat on his right, and Tai Zu on his left. The other ten high council members occupied the rest of the seats. The conference room was rectangular and generously-sized, with mottled red walls. Its place in the High Council’s artificial-gravity centrifuge meant the floor curved up very slightly along the room’s length. Above the table was a 3D midair projection of the domed Martian city of Marineris. All of its thousands of buildings were rendered perfectly, along with its kilometers-deep underground section. Different parts were shaded red, blue or green. One nasal-voiced council member halfway along the left side of the table spoke. “The shaded areas represent the stages of the city’s occupation over the next fifteen years, by population growth. In the beginning, of course, we will have more space than we could ever need. After Master Yi has chosen his primary residence and we have chosen ours, we will need to balance the number of people in each area with the maintenance it needs to avoid falling into disrepair in the decades before full repopulation.” There were grunts and nods of assent around the table. Seung Yi looked on with his usual stony, unwavering expression. Suddenly, everything and everyone was smashed against the left wall of the room as though by an unseen fist. The air was rent with a terrible screeching, grinding around, as screaming, flailing bodies hit the wall. The heavy table crushed several Councilors. Then, the chaotic mass abruptly flew to the front of the room, with even greater force. Furniture splintered and blood spattered everything. Unlike the initial punch, this force was unrelenting.

The explosive shockwave that was pulverizing much of the the inner workings of Ceres had caused the centrifuge’s thick axle to shear off its bearings. The massive disc rubbed against the rocky inside of the chamber that housed it, grinding and shaking itself to bits as it did so. The walls were shredded into twisted pieces of flying metal. Gray rock could be seen going by rapidly, through the gashes.

Finally, the terrible crashing and grinding of metal ceased as the centrifuge ground to a halt. The artificial gravity was gone. Splintered pieces of metal, wood, and bodies floated back from the end of what had been the room. Seung Yi, Zan Tang, and Tai Zu had been on top of the heap, and hence had not been crushed. Zu howled as blood spurted from his left eye, where a flying shard of metal had embedded itself. Seung Yi gave an animal-like roar. “THEY DID THIS! THEY WILL PAY NOW!” The incandescent man launched himself towards the far end of the conference room, where a door stood open.

Tang slapped Zu’s right arm, looking at him in alarm. “He’s going to use the Switch! Now!”

Zu looked back with his one operative eye. “Does it still work?”

“No time to find out! We have to stop him!” Tang half-yelled. He looked at Seung Yi, who was already disappearing through the door near where they had been sitting, and then back at Tai Zu. Dazed people struggled and writhed, pushing everyone above them towards the middle of the room as they floated.

Seung Yi stopped his forward movement using the door frame, and then proceeded to float slowly out of sight of the others. Amazingly, the power had not gone out. He was soon near the one meter-wide globe of Earth that was projected in midair at one side of what had been his private antechamber. Once he reached it, he grabbed an armchair that was floating by and deftly kicked it in the direction he had been traveling. The reaction from this caused Seung Yi to stop in front of the control panel for the Extinction Switch.

In front of the globe was a midair dialog box about the size of a dinner tray. It had three password entry fields. Seung Yi clicked on each, and punched in the ten-letter code. The words ACCESS GRANTED appeared briefly, before fading away. A globe of the Earth appeared. Above the globe was a button labeled ARM. Seung Yi reached out and touched it. It changed to say ACTIVATE. Using his right forefinger, he drew a circle around the landmass closest to him, which happened to be Europe.

“Aaaaargh!” Zan Tang launched himself furiously at Seung Yi from the doorway, with a long jagged piece of metal in his hands. Seung Yi’s expression changed to one of absolute shock, as the charging Tang drew the metal shard back in a stabbing grip, ready to strike. Yi instinctively pulled his right arm back to shield his head, while he reached out with his left towards the ACTIVATE button. He pressed it. It turned red. Tang reached Seung Yi. He pushed Seung Yi’s already-raised right arm further up, away from his body, and plunged the sharp metal straight into his chest.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Kato's Grief

Kassandra still had her active camouflage engaged, causing her to look like a static outline. “Mom! Dad! Wake up!” she said urgently to the two sleeping figures before her on the sidewalk. Akio opened his eyes partially, and then wide with fear as he saw the apparition standing before him.

He nudged Zara, who had her head on his side. “I think it’s Kassie’s ghost!”

“What?” She opened her eyes. “Oh, my God!”

Kassandra pulled her ski mask off. “Oh… sorry! Forgot about that.”

“Kassie? Is that you?” Zara said as she propped herself up with her left hand. She rubbed her eyes with her right. Akio was pushing himself up to a sitting position, staring wide-eyed.

“Yes, it’s me.” Blake and the others had now begun to gather round. Zara and Akio looked around at them. “Who are all these people? Why are you dressed like that?”

“Oh, yeah. I live underground now, and these are my friends. But, how did you get here?”

“We came looking for you.” Zara said. “You said you were in Lyon. We searched the upper city for days.”

Akio spoke over her: “Then a war broke out up there. We barely escaped with our lives.”

“You risked your lives? Looking for me?”

“Yes,” Zara said. “Sweetie, I can’t believe you’re here.” Zara was now sitting up. She opened her arms. Kassandra and her parents hugged for a long time. “Your hair’s so short. It hasn’t been like that since you were a baby.”

Blake looked around at the others. “For once, I don’t know what to say.”

“We really need to be careful,” Thaddeus said.

These words seemed to bring Kassandra back to reality. “Uh, it’s extremely dangerous down here at the moment. The fighting up top is probably about to spread to down here. We saw the army trucks moving in. We need to get you guys back to Silo 7.”

“Silo 7?” Akio said.

“Yeah, that’s where we live.”

“I can’t walk,” Zara said.

“I’ll carry you again,” Akio said.

“I’ll carry her,” Blake said. “You two look like you’re in rough shape.” He crouched and scooped Zara up into his arms, carrying her bridal-style “We’ve got to get back as quickly as possible. Luckily, it’s only five hundred meters away.”

The group began to move off quickly down Rue Borchal. The intersection with Circular Route 20 was checked carefully before they proceeded. “Looks like this place has already seen its share of fighting,” Akio said, as he surveyed the debris and smashed vehicles in the road.

“Yeah,” Kassandra said.

“How did you get down here anyway?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we get back.” The group only had to hide one more time before reaching the safety of the anterooms of Silo 7.

“What is this place?” Akio asked, as he looked around in wonder at the white corridors and disused control rooms.

“Wait till you see what the rest of it’s like,” Kassandra said. Thaddeus punched in the code for the door, and they stepped onto platform 30A.

“Holy crap!” Akio said, looking around at the seemingly endless space. He looked over the edge. “Does everyone live at the bottom?”

“No, on the platforms.”

“Unbelievable. How deep is it?”

“Hundreds of meters. Anyway let’s go; we’re getting left behind.” Blake, who was still carrying Zara, was already halfway along the catwalk to the center ring. The others were with him. Kassandra and Akio hurried to catch up.

JC was standing tall and defiant, in conventional military camo, as they approached. “No. Absolutely no more strangers. We haven’t the resources for our own people, never mind waifs and strays. They are to be knocked out and dumped.” He saw Kassandra, the only one without her ski mask on, and Akio approaching. “I have a feeling you’re responsible for this, Nishimura.”