Globe Tracers 6: Chaos Storm

Chapter 47: Children of the Stars

Joran:

The engines roared to life. Inside the Havart were two cabins, the forward cabin was like a pilot area. Course in space, forward and backward, right and left- these are concepts that lose meaning. My wife and I sat in the pilot cabin on two seats and watched the city above us as our ship was moved into position on the docking pad.

Hundreds of buildings stretched above the clouds, with vehicles speeding through the air, in route to jobs and homes, transporting food, families, and supplies- Victory City: The City of Noise. There was never quiet, but there was occasionally peace. It was like this place was a creature all its own, the people just cells in a body.

What was it like to not just travel, but live in a whole other world? Was my son treated like a foreign cell? Would he never be whole till he returned home?

Nah, that was just fancy talk and emotion. Beautiful as it was, this was the world my son seemed to turn down. So... what didn't we have? What didn't we have that earth did?

The movement of the ship stopped. Fay tightened her hand over mine as our ship pointed straight up. The sky above seemed to thin in a large circle, a perfect hole opening in the clouds above and the blue of the sky fading to black as the molecules in front of our ship were parted for miles in a large friction tube.

I was sucked back into my seat as the ship lurched upward, blazing towards the sky, heading straight for the separating clouds at faster and faster speeds.

Hours went by as Fay and I strained as gravity desperately tried to assert its dominance over our small ship and return it to the planet's surface. Up, up, up we went, and we weren't coming down until we decided. If we wanted, we would never come back down. Eat it, Issac Newton, humans never know what they're talking about.

Zero gravity took over for a few seconds after we left the reach of the pull of Triad, artificial gravity pulling us back down. Fay and I both gasped for breath, as we finally beheld the stars outside the atmosphere. Millions were visible so thickly covering the forward view like a blanket of lights. Counting them would be like counting the threads in a sheet of fine silk.

The shutters closed over the front windshield as a blue vortex opened before us and again, we felt a jolt as we shot into Q-ton space.

Finally, I was able to voice some thoughts that were in my mind, as the vessel went dark and slowly lit up with interior lights.

"I might have a guess of why Kyle turned on us," I said. Fay just nodded for me to go on. "He's young and stubborn- but I see it in his eyes. He loves his subordinates. He loves people. He hides it well, but not from his father. He has a big heart. I don't think he understands war. Killing millions for a small piece of land- To a boy who was ready to throw away his inheritance for one goofy kid from off the street that wasn't even that good at her job... He'll stand for what he believes like a bear, and never give ground... that must be what happened. Some war, sometimes. Maybe the insurrection, maybe the conflict with the leprechauns, or maybe even the gargoyles."

"Hmm..." Fay closed her eyes and sat back in her thinly cushioned seat. "Ya know, there are times I myself wonder- is there a different way?"

"The leprechauns tried to take over the earth. Had they succeeded, all of earth would have been turned into their cattle."

"Was that really our concern?" Fay asked.

"Wasn't it? Seems cold-hearted to even suggest it wasn't." I stood up and raised my arms, spinning, "But was it really in our hands?" I dropped my arms to my sides. "If they conquered earth they would be a space-faring empire with a world to spare and a taste for human blood. How long before they set their sights on us?"

"So, if that's what it comes down to, what can we even say to our son?"

I buzzed my lips and leaned against a wall in the small room, only ten feet now between myself and the opposite wall. The ship was roomy, but not big by any means. At least not by battleship standards anyway. "I have no idea," I admitted. "I can't call off the fighting any more than I can hold the tide on the beach. I'm the commander and chief but if I declare we won't defend ourselves and our allies the generals and congress will just rule me incompetent and hold another election for someone who will do the job right. And- fair enough, that's how the constitution was written. Point is I couldn't stop all this if I wanted to."

"If he's worried about the insurrectionists?"

"They blew up the Tarnish building just last Saturday. Seven hundred children who hadn't even made their first device were crushed or burned alive. Am I supposed to let acts of barbarism like that go unpunished?"

"No... no I suppose not." She blinked, looking at the ground. "What if it's the Purge?"

I chortled. "The Purge? The Purge is barely a war at this point. We beat those things and we've just been mopping up the remnants for a couple hundred or so years. Even if he did disapprove, there's nothing that can be done about it now."

"He did find Maelstrom."

"Well, over and effectively over are different things. Still- he called us to attack Maelstrom, so that actually supports my view that that is irrelevant to our problems."

"And your own thoughts?" Fay asked. "Me? If our son wants us to stop a war or two... I would see what could be done."

"What do you think happens if Triad stops fighting, Fay?" I announced into the ship, "Computer, bring up sector 339, angle two." A screen was projected before us. On it thousands of stars were visible, but also a mass of multi-colored energy was moving out in irregular waves, as if from one point. "Supernova. Imagine that was the sun of earth. Imagine if we knew it was coming and did nothing. Billions dead in a moment, with no chance. Just think about it." She stared at the screen.

After a few minutes, I continued. "The existence of our people, the pharaohs, is a miracle. Freedom and our strange mutant powers combine to give us extraordinary technology and with it, the power to do so much, for so many. And if we stop, if we hold back... well you can call us innocent all you want, you can say we're just minding our own business- but how do you say that to all those people?" I nodded. I held out my hands again, holding up my right and saying "We have vessels out monitoring solar events in the systems of earth," I held up my other hand, "And Sigon. If an asteroid of too large a size heads for a populated world, we will stop it. If solar winds kick up, we stand ready to restore civilizations. If doom is coming and a sentient race is ready to be snuffed out by the uncaring cosmos, we will be there. Nature doesn't care- so we do. If we don't exert control, ... think about it, Fay. Why does nature even exist? If nothing existed to appreciate it, it would all just be meaningless explosions, ever going off, with no goal. No music, no culture, no poems, no jokes, no laughter- nothing of any meaning. We fight to control the Leprechauns to protect Earth because that is our job. We have the power, so we must use it."

"Careful that we understand how."

"That's why we have so much delegation of power. But in the end, we are here, the protectors of life. It is our responsibility to stop mass invasions and enslavements that would make the worst of plagues look like nothing. It is for us to destroy abominations."

"Some would say that's the place of god."

"Do you see a god out there?" I asked. She was quiet again. "I wish I could see one too. But if need be- we will be the missing gods. Not like the Jenaids, not existing to be served, but to protect. The last seven presidents have held to this policy."

"How many asteroids have there been, or solar winds or anything like that?"

"Asteroids? A few close calls, but they might have missed earth, we're not sure, we shot them down just to be sure. Sigon WAS hit by a solar wind and we were there to help the ingrates. And as to invasions- too many attempts by Sigon to invade earth have occurred." I closed my eyes. "Believe me, if my son would return to me for standing down, my heart would long for it but... we can never stand down. He is the one who will have to stand down."

"How often have you known our son to stand down on things he really cares for?"

"And the answer to that question is what I'm afraid of."