The Gemini Divergence (71 page)

“They are very large condensers or capacitors… Our
power grid engineers have informed me that they are part of an
uninterruptable power supply that each of the saucers will be
equipped with.”

“How do they knock out the power by tapping into and
reproducing their power?”

“The way that it was explained to
me was that the saucers will duplicate but phase shift the grid’s
power… They will reintroduce the completely out of phase current on
one side of the New York grid, thus tricking the grid into thinking
that it has zero power, when in fact all the current is there, the
voltage has just been made to appear at zero because of the
introduction of the opposite phase; but on the other side of the
grid we will not phase shift the current, but bias shift the base
line… Making the grid controllers believe that the power is surging
when in fact it is not… When the EMP device is activated over the
Niagara Falls hydroelectric plants, all of the real power will be
cut from the grid… In a nut shell when we remove the normal power
from the grid, it will try to funnel power from an alternative
source, when it then sees no voltage on one side of the grid and
double the voltage on the other side it will trigger a massive flow
of current that will blow every breaker in the American’s north
eastern grid.”

“How long will it take them to recover?”

Graff giggled as he answered, “They will have to
physically send crews and manually reset all of the breakers… It
could take days.”

“Then this method can be repeated as well?”

“Oh my, yes, we could raid different parts of the
planet at will, and knock out their grids faster than they could
ever reset them.”

“How fast will they be able to defend against this
form of attack?”

“It would take them years. They would either have to
rebuild the electrical grid for the entire planet or they would
have to figure out a way to defend every single linear foot of
power line.”

9 November 1965

Reports began to light up the switch boards of
police departments and radio stations from Connecticut, across New
York and down into Pennsylvania as multiple saucers swept over the
landscape, coming from the Atlantic Ocean, and attaching themselves
to strategic points on the power grid.

Once all of the saucers had attached themselves to
the grid, another saucer in space released a specially designed EMP
device and detonated it in the sky over Niagara Falls.

Jack and Hughes were still playing cards when the
lights and the radio suddenly cut out.

They stared at each other for a moment until they
realized what was happening. Then, they both threw down their cards
and started running for the saucer that Hughes had rigged up.

As they ran, Jack asked, “How do you know they
didn’t knock out your saucer’s power as well?”

“Because, Volmer anticipated this and insisted that
I allow him to install his protective Faraday shielding into my
saucer.”

The Raumsfahrtwaffe saucers then turned on their
phase and biasing equipment as soon as they knew that the EMP
device had been deployed.

As Jack and Hughes ran across the tarmac towards the
waiting saucer the Overseer’s artificially induced power surge
began to traverse the Niagara Falls area and they could see lights
coming on only for a brief second in scattered areas around the
blacked out city as the exploding breakers and transformers sounded
like an artillery barrage.

Sparks were falling from telephone poles throughout
the darkness, giving the impression that they were indeed under
attack.

“Look!” cried Jack, as he pointed at a brilliantly
lit saucer hovering over the power stations towards the north of
the base.

They could hear the cursing of the
Air Force ground crews trying to scramble fighters to intercept,
but the EMP device had taken out their AGE equipment; denying them
the ability to start their fighter planes.

They jumped into the saucer and Jack closed the
hatch as Hughes began to fire it up.

People all over Pennsylvania and New York were just
as interested in the spectral lights in the sky as they were in the
fact that their power had just been knocked out.

The blackout was so thorough that the phones had
even been knocked out as well, so there was no way for anybody to
alert Washington or the Air Force.

Word finally reached the outside world about the
blackout from motorists driving away from the city and then
reporting it to people once they had reached the unaffected
areas.

Once the Air Force knew, they immediately dispatched
a Hot Bird from Bunker Hill AFB and fighters from Andrews AFB in
Maryland, as well as Loring and Dow Air Force Bases in Maine.

Many witnesses later reported that the saucers began
to scatter as soon as the fighters started to arrive and chase them
away.

Some reported that the Air Force was successful in
shooting one of the intruders down and splashing it into the
Atlantic Ocean off of the eastern tip of Long Island.

Hughes successfully got into the air, to the shock
and dismay of the extremely surprised ground crews that were
unaware of Hughes’ parked saucer, and started to pace the Overseer
hovering over the power plants.

As the Overseer began to travel away to the east,
Hughes followed quietly and without lights at treetop level.

“Why don’t you get closer?” asked Jack.

“I want to wait until there are more of them
together… I think we have a much better chance blending into a
crowd than trying to pair up with a single other saucer.”

Just as they were leaving the mainland behind and
starting over the Atlantic the lone Overseer was joined by several
others, so Hughes quietly slipped into the pack.

The flight leader was unaware that one of his
saucers had been shot down and merely counted the saucers in his
formation. When he came to the correct number, he assumed that the
mission had been a total success and radioed General Graff with the
news.

As the saucers started to ascend into space, Jack
seized his arm rests with a death grip as he looked out the windows
at the earth; much further below him than he had ever seen, “Are
you sure that you put this thing together correctly?”

“Pretty sure,” answered Hughes.

“That’s not very reassuring.”

“Well I am confident enough to get into it
myself.”

Jack in a sarcastic panic, “Yeah, but you’ve gotten
into planes that you built that then crashed… and several times at
that.”

“Shhh, listen to that,” interrupted Hughes.

Jack cocked his head listening, “I don’t hear
anything.”

“That’s just it, there is no more wind running over
our fuselage.”

They both looked in wonder as the earth grew smaller
behind them.

“I should have brought my camera,” said Jack.

“Fitzpatrick would just confiscate the
pictures.”

“Only if somebody would rat me out that I had
them.”

“Oh yeah, what good would pictures that you couldn’t
show anybody for fear of being ratted out be?”

Jack thought for a moment and sheepishly relented,
“Shut up.”

After a few minutes, they noticed a bright star
appear to their side.

It was a station, whose protective
shield cone had hidden it from sight until they had flown past it.
Now, from their newest vantage point, they could see it, reflecting
sunlight in great mass.

“I wonder if that is the station
that I first saw from Yucca Flats, many years ago?”

As they flew closer they could see the massive
station comprised of six concentric circles, rotating on a single
axis.

The saucers where flying up to airlock doors and
waiting for them to open.

“Look at that,” Jack pointed to all of the saucers
and triangular space craft within the transparent circular
hanger.

One by one the doors opened and the saucers entered
the airlocks.

As some of the other saucers waited their turns,
Hughes piloted his saucer to the far side of the station.
“Hopefully I can duck out of sight without them noticing,”

*~*

Once the last of the airlocks had equalized pressure
and hanger crewmembers taxied the last saucer into the hanger,
Graff boasted to Schwerig, “Ha, it has been a complete success. The
squadron leader has reported that all of the saucers have
returned.”

Schwerig looked puzzled at Graff and the Squadron
leader standing before him at attention, “Did you count the
returning saucers yourself?”

“Yes Sir! All twenty.”

Schwerig recounted the newly returned saucers with
his outstretched fingers, “You fool! There are only nineteen… Sound
the alarm!”

“But I counted them several times,” gasped the
squadron leader.

“What does that mean?” asked Graff.

Schwerig scowled at the both of them, “Can’t you
see? They must have repaired one of our crashed saucers and
followed you back to the station… Alert all personnel to look out
the windows and figure out where they are… I want interceptors out
there now! Get some crews out there and scour the entire outer skin
of the station immediately!”

They stood in shock for a moment as Schwerig waved
them away with his arms as he screamed, “Jetzt, you morons, get
moving!”

*~*

“Why do we have to leave a locator beacon… and a
bomb?” asked Jack, “It seems to me that the bomb would be quite
enough.”

“Because, when they discover that only nineteen
birds returned, somebody is going to figure out that we snuck
behind them, and they will immediately start looking for whatever
we planted… So we need to leave something for them to find and
divert them from the bomb long enough for us to get away… I just
don’t know how long it will take them to figure it out.”

Jack then watched as three airlock doors opened
revealing three of the new delta winged space fighters emerging
from the station, “They figured it out! Here they come!”

“What? Already?” gasped Hughes.

“Did I forget to tell you how fast Schwerig figures
things out?”

“Yeah! I think you did… That may have been
helpful!”

Hughes waited in his hiding place for the three
adversaries to move around the back side of the station in their
hunt for the Americans.

Once they were out of sight, he
accelerated as fast as he could back towards the earth.

As they sat there watching the
station quickly disappear behind them, they then turned back around
and looked at the earth which was so large and distant, it appeared
as if they weren’t moving at all.

Jack commented, “Wow, this kind of takes the drama
out of the moment, doesn’t it?”

“Not really… Look behind us.”

Jack turned to see the delta space fighters quickly
gaining from their rear, and then snapped back around to see the
seemingly slowly approaching earth, “Shit! This is like a bad
dream… you know… the one where you’re being chased, but you can
only run in slow motion.”

*~*

“Have you found anything yet?” Schwerig queried
Graff.

“Yes, Herr Feldmarschall… The exterior crews have
found a locator transponder that was transmitting our location back
to the earth.”

“Keep looking!” insisted Schwerig, “I don’t trust
them.”

“But Feldmarschall…”

“Get your ass back out there!”

*~*

Jack cringed at the quickly approaching fighters, “I
think that their newer fighters may be a little faster than these
old ones.”

Hughes sarcastically returned, “Gee, you think!”

Suddenly the space behind them lit up like a new sun
as the nuclear device they had planted exploded.

Jack quickly averted his eyes as their cabin lit up
like a flare.

After the flash subsided, Hughes inquired, “Are they
still following us?”

Jack looked as their pursuers
began to slow down and turn, “I think they’re going back… They’re
trying to figure out what just happened.”

*~*

In Space Command’s central control room at Buckley
ANG, General Fitzpatrick listened to radio news about the New York
blackout, a technician then turned and reported, “General Sir,
AFOAT’s VELA satellites have just picked up a very large GRB, at
these coordinates,” as he held a piece of paper out for the
General.

General Fitzpatrick snatched the
dispatch and after reading it, he ordered, “I want whatever dish we
have in this vicinity to drop whatever they’re doing and focus on
this thing. I want to know what it is ASAP!”

~~~**^**~~~

The Gemini War /
Cadens Caelum

The blast had knocked all of the surviving
people within the station from their feet.

In the midst of a myriad of flashing lights
and beeping alarms, Schwerig sat up and pushed debris that had
fallen from the ceiling from his legs, then started to stand as he
commented, “At least the blasted gravity is still intact this
time.”