The Last Invasion
Chapter Twelve
The work-horn sounded. “Uhh... three hours sleep,” Martin mumbled. “Ohhh... Laura? Oh for those days. I would call in... but no place to call... and no phone to call on.”
“You were up reading and writing all night. I’ll bet you are really tired,” Laura said.
“Wow... I feel... very old this morning.”
“Here’s some tea.”
“I had some weird dreams.”
“Not for long you didn’t.”
“Let me wake up. Thanks for the tea.”
“I think I will go on that tour this afternoon,” said Laura.
“No!” Suddenly Martin was wide awake.
“Why?”
“Laura, you can’t. You mustn’t.”
“Wha.. why?”
“Laura, something bad is going to happen. Real bad. I know it.”
“Well... okay. I won’t then.”
“Good.”
“Can you tell me why?”
“No.”
“What did you dream?”
“It doesn’t make sense. It was one of those crazy ones.”
“Yeah?”
“I had one of those disintegration guns slung across my shoulder and was holding up a quart of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. Then, I put it on the table, backed off and blasted it with a disintegration beam.”
“Yeah? You did stay up too late.” She rolled her eyes.
“The really weird part is that as I was blasting it, I was singing All The Things You Are by Jerome Kern.”
“Oh Marty. Too much party.”
“Grace was in the dream somewhere. But, I wasn’t singing to her or anyone. Don’t have me locked up but I was singing to the Ginger Ale.”
“Well... did Ginger Ale appreciate it?”
“She sure did. It was as if she was absorbing the energy from the disintegration beam as if... as if she was... drinking it in."
“That makes no sense.”
“No, it doesn’t. Oh my mental processing grids.”
“Mental processing grids?”
“Oh. New terminology I picked up reading that manual last night after talking with Courtney. Remote Viewing. It is really fascinating.”
“I’ll bet. I’d like to learn it too, you know.”
“Okay. I’m up. And... this is for you. You are, the promised kiss of springtime, that makes the lonely winter seem long. You are, the breathless hush of evening, that trembles on the brink of a lovely song.”
“Is that what you were singing to Ginger?”
“Sure was but now I am singing it to you. You are the angel glow, that lights a star, all the lovely things I know, are what you are.”
“That’s beautiful but... the voice could use a little improvement.”
“No doubt. No doubt. But, Courtney tells me that singing a favorite song helps in the RV process and the real help comes from the sound vibrations themselves, so any song someone likes will do. Oh. Also meditation. Hey. I’m going into the other room to meditate for twenty minutes.”
“Well, you’d better get on it. We only have... 35 minutes left before the motor cart comes by.”
“I’ll make it. Fix some oatmeal. I’ll shovel some in on our way out.”
“Okay. Good meditation.”
“Thanks.”
Martin sat quietly in meditation. He hadn’t done it in quite a while but it was just like swimming. You never forget. He had always been able to sense when the twenty minutes were up and never needed an alarm. It was the same on that morning. As planned, he quickly ate a bowl of oatmeal and they went outside to be picked up.
On the way to be dropped off at their different work-sites, Martin could not get the song out of his mind. He kept seeing himself zapping that quart of Ginger Ale and singing. Its disintegration was not fast like everything else he had ever seen hit by one of those rays, but slow. For the entire song, there Ginger sat, just drinking in all that energy like an elephant sucking up the Nile. Someday, my happy arms will hold you, and some day, I’ll know that moment divine, when all the things you are, are mine. And by the last note, Ginger was fully vaporized. Weird indeed. Martin was amazed that such a silly dream could be so clear. What did it mean? He didn’t have the slightest idea. But, it definitely was not a stressful nightmare. Martin felt good but still, in spite of that, there was a pall hanging over his morning. He couldn’t shake it.
Then he remembered the electrogravitic craft that was scheduled to arrive. Suddenly he became sick to his stomach. When they dropped him off, he had to bend over at the side of the road and throw up. There goes breakfast, he thought. But, he felt better and started humming his song softly to himself. It certainly seemed to keep him in a more even mood as he began his work with the crew putting the final touches on the greenhouses they had erected. It was fairly easy work without any heavy lifting and just a matter of seeing to it that all the equipment was functioning properly and all the building connections were sound. These technological marvels were fully insolated. It was clear that with the heaters, CO2 generators, fans and incredible bright lighting that was installed, these greenhouses would produce food during the winter. Martin wondered how they were generating the electricity for the lights. Then he saw some sealed metal containers at one end. There were no wires running from them but somehow Martin knew these were the power supply. Wow, he thought, they could run whole cities off those, no problem. He wondered if that’s what they intended to do eventually.
As Martin worked he kept an eye out to see if he could recognize any of the resistance members he had met at the meeting. He didn’t remember all their names but knew he could recognize their faces. He did see a couple of them whom he had seen before but Bill didn’t seem to be around. He is probably at another work site, Martin thought. At noon the food wagons pulled up to distribute the sparse lunch that they periodically gave. Some days they went without anything to eat all day long but today, food arrived. It was a cafeteria style take-a-bowl and spoon, get the slop and a piece of bread. Afterwards everyone got to drink water. Apparently the Chinese Reds had some way of purifying this water because no one ever got sick from it that he’d heard of. After the lunch, which only lasted twenty minutes, his crew was loaded on motor carts and taken to another location to begin erecting more greenhouses. Bill wondered when the craft would arrive and how it would be handled.
As the time approached for it, he grew more tense. He was so glad that Laura had changed her mind about going on the tour today. He didn’t know the timing that the resistance had planned for their attack and assumed it would be another day after they had cased out the situation but something strong had really risen up in him when she had told him her plans to go on the first tour. He couldn’t explain why such a strong ‘no’ had popped up in him but knew it must mean something.
At the new worksite he kept an eye out for any resistance members that he might recognize but didn’t see any.
After he had laid down some aluminum fittings he checked his pocket watch. It said 1:30 P.M. He had just put it back in his pocket when an announcement came over the loud speakers. “Your attention please. Although all of you may not desire to go on the tour of our war-craft today, we have decided that all should see this marvelous piece of future as it arrives. Everyone will get onboard the busses that will be pulling up shortly and we will go down to the town square to witness the arrival.”
Martin saw the busses already beginning to pull up as the announcer spoke and everyone seemed happy for the surprise. He boarded a bus with the rest of the workers and they were taken to the square. Lines of Chinese soldiers were everywhere with their beam rifles on the ready. Security was tight. The crowd was behind a roped off area that circled where the craft was supposed to land. They were kept back by the Red soldiers out in front. Everyone was quite excited. The crowd buzzed and talked among themselves. They seldom had the opportunity for much communication during the work hours so everyone was very thankful for this little outing. It was a welcomed break.
Martin strained to see if he could spot any members of the resistance. Bill is probably here somewhere, he thought, and probably everyone else including Courtney. He couldn’t recognize anyone because of the huge crowd. Finally, he spotted Laura over on the other side. He made his way through the crowd over to her.
“Hi,” he said.
“This was unexpected, huh?”
“Yeah. These constant surprises and changes of schedule are probably designed to keep us off balance.”
“Marty, how long to you think we’ll have to wait?”
“Knowing their efficient timing, probably not long.”
After only a minute or two the announcement came. “The ship is about to arrive. Everyone look to the east.”
Martin and Laura gazed up into the sky toward the east. The sun was not in their eyes, it was afternoon and they could see clearly. At first they saw nothing although they were watching very carefully. Then someone in the crowd cried out, “there it is!”
Martin could see a tiny red dot in the east. It grew bigger.
“That’s it,” said Laura.
It was coming in fast and grew bigger and bigger rapidly. It seemed to start slowing when it was about the size of a red basket ball. As it grew closer it got bigger and bigger. It seemed to be rotating very rapidly. The edges of the sphere were somewhat fuzzy. It came to a halt about 50 feet overhead and it was huge. It must have been at least 100 feet across. There were gasps of amazement from the crowd. They watched it as it just silently hovered there, a great red ball in the sky. Then something started to happen. It began to move clockwise very slowly around in a circle over the crowd behind the ropes. It proceeded to the open center, hovered and then suddenly descended to about 25 feet above the ground and hovered there. It became clear that it had been rotating and the rotation was slowing down. Martin and Laura could see that it hadn’t been a sphere at all but had edges.
“Marty, it looks like... pointy tips.”
About that time its rotation speed began to rapidly diminish. The crowd watched in amazement as a huge red five pointed star unfolded in the sky above them.
“Oh my God,” said Laura.
There it was just hovering about 25 feet from the ground. It was huge and cast a dark shadow running back toward the east from which it had come. Now it was completely stationary in the sky. The huge Red Star of the Chinese Communists was hanging over their heads like a predatory spider.
“What a psychological operation this is,” said Martin.
“No kidding,” said Laura.
Martin was amazed. “It looks like it’s glowing. It must have some kind of field around it.”
Then they heard someone in the crowd shouting. “No, no you damn fool! Not now! Stop!” Someone pushed two Chinese soldiers to the ground and ran out into the open center. He had a beam rifle and quickly aimed it straight up at the Red Star. He fired and almost at the same instant one of the Chinese soldiers disintegrated him, weapon and all. The huge beam from the weapon had hit the ship and just bounced off due to the protective field. Then, there was a huge commotion. Two people from the crowd had grabbed Chinese soldiers from behind and Martin could see that they had pistols. As they strong armed the Red soldiers using them as shields, they began shooting at the Reds. They brought about four of the surprised soldiers down with bullets before they suddenly exploded with two loud bangs killing them along with the Chinese soldiers they had grabbed. It was a bloody mess.
The announcer came on. “Citizens, remain calm and stay exactly where you are. All is now taken care of.”
It happened so fast that the crowd didn’t have time to react. Some had barely seen it. The Chinese soldiers requisitioned about a dozen citizens out of the crowd for cleanup. Everyone watched the grisly process of dealing with the corpses and scrubbing the blood away. It made Martin and Laura cringe.
Then, the announcer said, “Poor misguided souls. Now they have lost their lives and for what? Absolutely nothing. The officials have now decided that the tour is temporarily cancelled for security reasons. The ship will drop off two visitors from Peking who have been brought in to help with local organization and the war-craft will then go on its way to return at another time so that the tours we promised may be conducted. But, you did get to see some of our technology today. We are sorry for the inconvenience brought about by those who tried to spoil it for you. Nevertheless, our security was on the alert and those miscreants didn’t get very far. Unfortunately some of our soldiers were killed, but giving our lives for the People’s Revolution is what we are all prepared for. We warned you all about trying to use conventional ammunition against us. We just explode it as you just so graphically saw. Perhaps you were surprised at the shape of our war-craft? You once had a cheesy television series called Battlestar Galactica. Remember it? Some of the older ones of you do. It was a kind of capitalist hero Bonanza in outer space. What you have seen here today is Battlestar Practica with no need for fictional melodrama.”
The announcer paused for a moment.
“I was just told that in spite of the fact that the tours have been temporarily cancelled, an exhibit will be opened right here in the pavilion on the square. It will take a little time to set up but it will have information about our new technology along with videos of the craft and scheduled lectures. Once that opens, it will go on for several months, so everyone can schedule a time to come see it. Again, everyone will be allowed to take three hours off work. That’s all for now and again we are sorry for any disappointment you may have. Please line up and board your buses for transport back to your work areas. Thank you.”
“Well, that was utterly disgusting,” said Martin, “I’ll see you at home tonight, sweet.”
“I’ll see you then darling,” said Laura. They embraced and each went to board their bus to go back to work.
Chapter Thirteen
Chp. 1 : Chp. 2 : Chp. 3 : Chp. 4 : Chp. 5 : Chp. 6 : Chp. 7 : Chp. 8 : Chp. 9 : Chp. 10 :
Chp. 11 : Chp. 12 : Chp. 13 : Chp. 14 : Chp. 15 : Chp. 16 : Chp. 17 : Chp. 18 : Chp. 19 :
