Chapter 28
Confusion reigned in the city center, as everyone demanded answers all at once. They'd all seen those missiles, if only a split second before they hit. Noah spread his hands at the barrage of questions and demands, having no information for them. The orbital feed had shown a flare of light down there, consistent with a fireball at Simon's location.
For her part, Diana was in shock. Those missiles had probably been FIM-92 Stingers—one of the most common ones in use by the US military when Cain had been launched. They were most threatening to low-flying planes and helicopters. The plane hadn't been moving that fast, but those Stingers didn't leave much behind when they hit.
"They have breathers," she heard herself saying into the din. "They weren't that high up, or moving fast, and they have breathers. They could have made it. Noah!" She turned to his drone. "Do you have any flyers near them?"
Noah shook his head. "Two were on the plane with them, but I'm not getting any signal from them. The closest other one I have is back at Cain's ship. It would take half an hour to get up there."
Peripherally, Diana was aware of Adam nodding over at his wife. In another moment, he was issuing orders to clear the room of everyone but himself and a few other of the oldest men. Sarah approached Diana with a stricken look on her face. "Come on, let's get you out of here."
"They could still be alive!" Diana insisted. "Noah, you have to get drones out there, and make sure they're armed like the ones you have at your core drive! If Simon and Steve made it, they won't go too far from the plane, so that's where you should go!"
"They're doing everything they can," Sarah went on firmly. "Let's leave them to it. Now, Diana," she said more forcefully.
Reluctantly, Diana let herself be propelled out of the room, her mind racing. What could have caused Cain to go off like that? He was programmed to kill aliens, not humans, and that plane's design should have been obviously human to him. Also, she couldn't believe Simon and Steve were just gone like that! One second, excited explorers trying to find a long-lost grandfather of sorts, and then just... no more.
Sarah took Naomi aside briefly, but still within hearing. "Take her home and stay with her, please. She shouldn't be alone right now."
Home. That was a good idea. She didn't know as much about programming and hacking as Simon did, but she might be able to use his setup to tap into Noah's network. That way she could at least see what they were doing to find him. She might even be able to advise Noah from there, in secret.
After they left the building, Diana turned to Naomi. "I'll be fine on my own. Noah can drop in, if the President or anyone else gets any news they want me to hear. I'll be fine, ok?"
Naomi looked skeptical, but nodded anyway. She probably thought that pushing the issue right now would do more harm than good.
-.-
For more than two hours, Diana made frustrated attempt after attempt to do what she had planned to do. Simon had done his job a bit too well, it seemed. He'd been so intent on keeping their own computer system isolated from Noah's network, that she hadn't found any way around it. Short of leaving her house and going over to a neighbor's, she had no way of knowing what was going on! That was a non-starter idea, too. No one would tell her anything, she was sure.
She went to the simulator next, loading up scenario after scenario. Those had been Stingers, she was sure. They were meant to be portable, so Cain had probably used his own drones to fire them. She knew the limitations of Noah's manufacturing pretty well by now. If he loaded up his own armed drones and flew them out, it would take most of a day to get there. If he built weapons and applied them to flyers that were closer, it would probably take just as long. In fact, he probably was doing that at this very moment.
The question was, would it do any good? Noah was more advanced than his brother, but clearly less militant. Cain already had the weapons, and was obviously willing to use them. The chances were, any drone, or anything else they could send in there, would end up exactly like Simon's plane!
She got several calls from friends during that time, but she only thanked them for their concerns and well-wishes, and then hung up again. Before they had a chance to suggest that they should come over. The last thing she wanted right now was company, though she did leave the front door open a crack, just to let fresh air in. The worry and frustration gave way to fatigue at all the pacing and helplessness, and eventually she dropped off in her simulator chair.
What woke her was a strange hissing noise. It was coming from the door, she thought, as she sat up in the chair and wiped at her mouth. She was feeling a little light-headed, too.
Then a high-pitched sound rang out from outside. It was continuous, rising in pitch and then falling again. It reminded Diana of some of the old movies she'd watched, and then her breath caught. It was the oxygen warning!
Weeks ago, with Adam's blessing, Noah had informed everyone in Greater Harmony about possible dome failure risks. He had multiple redundancies in place, but if they all failed, the air inside the dome and outside would equalize quickly. Everyone on the ground level would suffocate if that happened!
Diana practically vaulted out of her chair and over to the door. She slammed it shut and checked the O2 seal on it, and then opened the drawer next to it and fumbled for a breather. It took longer to get on than she'd hoped, but she took a deep breath and felt blessed oxygen feed into her lungs. Her house was one of the few that was airtight, but its internal O2 level had gotten dangerously low while she'd slept.
The dome had been compromised somehow. Maybe one of the airlocks had malfunctioned, or there was a leak where some of the panels connected. Taking a few more breaths to try and oxygenate her blood, Diana opened the door again. It doubled as an airlock, so she closed the inner door and headed outside. At this distance, she could make out a few people over towards the city center. Abruptly the siren cut off, and was replaced by Adam's voice. "Everyone grab a breather and head towards the nearest pressurized environment. The city center is being fitted as a refuge for any citizens who don't have their own pressurized homes. Everyone stay calm, and we'll get through this together." His voice cut out again, replaced by the siren once more.
Diana's eye caught sight of motion, and she gaped up at the dome above. Off to the east of her home, a huge, ragged hole had been cut in the pristine triangular segments. Or punched, from the looks of it. Whatever had struck the dome must have been moving pretty fast, and the sudden rush of pressure out had caused the hole to get even bigger!
If there was any good news, it was that the hole was above an abandoned area for now. There was no one out there to get hit by falling debris.
One of the caretaker drones was walking past her place, heading to the city center. It caught sight of her and turned right away. "Diana, you have to get inside. The O2 connector is active—you'll have plenty of air to breathe in there. You can't be out on the street, though."
"Noah, what's going on? What did that?" She pointed up at the hole above them. The drone hesitated, so she folded her arms. "I'm not going inside unless you come with me and tell me what the hell is happening here!"
Noah paused for just a moment more and then moved with her to the airlock. Once inside the house, it gave a human shrug. "The impact was caused by a fast-moving object. Possibly a missile like the ones that hit the plane. So far, no casualties have been reported."
It was a good thing there were only a few dozen people living in Greater Harmony, she realized. "Was it Cain?"
"The President thinks so, as do his advisors. I've been ordered to arm as many drones as I can with point-defense capabilities, and send them to Cain's location. I'm... not confident I'll be able to shoot down any missiles fired at us, but at least it will give him more targets to deal with."
But Cain's crash site and core drives were over eight hours away, even at the speed a missile could travel. Diana checked her watch, and then shook her head ruefully. She'd been asleep longer than she'd thought. "Wait, how did he even know where Greater Harmony is? If he's been dormant since before we got here, he shouldn't know anything about us!"
"Most likely, he accessed the information from the plane Simon was on. It had navigational logs leading back to this location."
Diana nodded distractedly. "So he found out where we were, and sent a missile out here? No, it's too far. A Stinger missile can't hit from that far away. Its max range is only about eight kilometers."
"I see you've continued your studies," Noah responded dryly, gesturing at the open door to the simulator room. "No, it wasn't a missile that hit the dome. It was probably a drone, carrying some kind of explosive payload. The satellite shows more on the way, but I'm reasonably certain I can stop them before they get here."
Something else occurred to her. "What about Harmony? Would he know where the kids are, too?"
Noah hesitated, and Diana felt something horrible stir in her gut. "I'm afraid Harmony was also compromised, at about the same time."
There were hundreds of kids living there! "How bad is it?" She asked, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice. "You don't have to sugarcoat it with me. Say it as it is."
He let out an electronic sigh. "At least fifty dead, from initial counts. Most of the students took shelter in the dorms, which bought them enough time to get ahold of breathers. The smaller domes were unaffected: only one drone was sent, and that was right to the middle of the complex. The neonatal unit was undamaged, so all the equipment there is safe, as are the unborn."
Diana set her jaw. "Did Lessa make it?" She was one of the few little girls who had seemed to understand Diana's desire for peace and quiet back then, and she'd been more than willing to oblige.
Noah nodded, and she let out a sigh of relief. "Lessa was in the northern greenhouse when it happened. She's fine, and on her way to safety now with most of the survivors."
"Safety? We've lost air pressure in both of our domes! Where could be safe after all this?"
Noah hesitated again. "I'm sorry, I'm under orders from the President. I can't tell you that, or anything else for that matter." The drone looked out the window, over to the city center. "He's recording a statement even now. You and everyone else will get the message shortly. Now, this drone is needed in the city center, so I have to go."
The caretaker hurried out, and Diana shook her head. She shouldn't have expected any more than that, really. Noah was still connected to every drone in this hemisphere, but he wasn't in charge anymore. Adam was.
Nearly sick with worry again, Diana sat next to the kitchen table and stared at the phone. First Simon, then this dome, and then all those kids? What was coming next?
-.-
What seemed like days later, the phone buzzed with an incoming notification. It was an address, from the text on the screen, from the President to the whole population.
Diana hadn't heard any more information since the caretaker's abbreviated explanation. Noah had apparently stopped the next attack, but no one she'd called had any more idea of what was going on than she did.
Adam's face appeared on the phone. He'd always seemed serious, even as a kid, but Diana could see the grimness etched in his features now. "Citizens of New Eden; this is a dark day for our civilization. We've been attacked, without warning or provocation, and we've suffered because of it. By now you've all heard of what happened to my friends Simon and Steve, and the casualties at the Harmony dome."
His lips tightened briefly with anger, and he stared into the camera, wherever he was. "We don't know what this 'Cain' wants, or why he's intent on killing us, but let me assure you we will not take these acts of aggression lying down. We will strike back with the fierceness that is the human spirit and the fury that is God's wrath, and we will see to it that he regrets ever making an enemy of us!"
At that, he lessened his tone a bit. "That said, we have to protect ourselves first. Under advice from Noah and my Cabinet, I have decided to evacuate Harmony and Greater Harmony. The domes weren't built to withstand military attacks like the ones we've faced, and they won't protect us if the enemy strikes again. Our people will have to split up, heading to multiple locations that our enemy doesn't know about, for your own safety. You can be sure that this is a temporary relocation," he added firmly. "Once we've turned that thing into scrap metal, we will return. The domes will be repaired, and we will all resume the lives we knew."
He looked down for a moment. "For those of us who have lost loved ones in these attacks, I can only say this: we feel that pain with you. We will mourn with you when the time comes, and we will never forget the people we've lost. But now is the time for action, not grief.
"We face an implacable enemy, with advanced weapons and no moral restraint. While Noah is currently building weapons of our own that we can use to defend ourselves, our enemy has been here longer. He literally has the home field advantage against us, but we have an advantage of our own. As impressive as his weapons and drones are, they can't match human reflexes. They can map terrain down to the micrometer and plan their attacks accordingly, but each of us, even a child, can react more quickly than the fastest of his drones."
Diana frowned. What was he getting at? Evacuation made sense, assuming everyone had someplace to go. Simon had spoken of multiple mining operations all over this continent. He'd mentioned underground mushroom farms, and fish farms being set up in contained environments. Most likely the people were being spread out all over. Still, if Adam thought they could go up against drones armed with Stingers and whatever else Cain had to throw at them... he was being suicidal!
"That is why, using my authority as President, I am hereby initiating New Eden's first military draft. While our most vulnerable citizens are being evacuated, all men at least twelve New Eden years of age will be required to submit for pilot training, at remote locations that are being set up even now. I will be training with you, as will my Cabinet, and Chief Justice John. We'll be flying remote drones at first, but our enemy does have radio jamming capabilities. In time, we will all be flying individual jets. Fast, maneuverable, and heavily armed. That is how we'll beat the enemy back. That is how we will survive as a species!"
That actually might work. Noah's physical limitations weren't quite common knowledge yet, but Cain should have the same difficulty parsing visual data and responding to changing physical circumstances. He might have been built for war, but he still had the same proverbial blood as his brother. A bunch of pilots out there who couldn't be jammed, and could act independently... might be enough, even if the enemy had better weapons.
"We will not be cowed by this, New Eden. We will not be discouraged. We are the Children of God, and we carry His will with us into battle. Remember that we are made in His image, and draw strength from it. We will win this fight, and return to the lives we deserve. Count on it."
