Melting Sky

 

 

Pestilence. N: a contagious or infectious epidemic disease

that is virulent and devastating; specif : Bubonic Plague

 

 

 

MELTING

SKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then

 

Everyone thought it would happen.  Maybe subconsciously.  In California it was joked about for decades, every time the fault-line would shift and rattle L.A., people wondered when it would be ‘the big one’.  Then the experts began discussing the even more worrying fault off Oregon and Washington.  It seemed the west coast of the United States could be considered a gamble.  But no one worried enough to move elsewhere.  The Midwest had tornadoes, the east, blizzards, the south, hurricanes. That was until Zeus came.  Zeus.  A rogue asteroid the size of a football stadium… was one of the millions that populate the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and mars. Somehow it left its place.  Science speculates why some do.  Is it the gravitational influence of the massive Jupiter as it passes, or, as some speculate, the very light of the sun; photon energy pressing with the weight of a shot glass, and over millennia influencing’ the mammoth rock out, and beyond the subtle reach of the belts own gravity.  What ever the cause, sometimes solitary asteroids found their way out of the pack, straying into the buffer zone of empty space between Earth and Mars. In the emptiness of space these lonely rocks seem few, a loose collection that circulate inside the main asteroid belt.  Many have been found and cataloged, trajectories mapped and computed into the future to calculate their threat to the Earth. Zeus had been.  That was until it bumped into something else out there.  Maybe another asteroid.  That something was large enough to send Zeus, like a cue ball mis-struck, careening on a wobbling track that some hoped would draw it into the sun’s massive gravity well.  The sun tried.  It reached out, grasping but unable gain full purchase, it diverted the meteor even more, bending its course inside the curve of the Earth’s path, and into contact with its own gravity.

The diverted Zeus slid through the atmosphere, almost gently, dipping its toes before finally immersing itself, a fiery conflagration that ripped the skies apart, burning a path across the north Pacific.

And the world watched as frantic inhabitants of the west coast of the United States jammed freeways trying to get to high ground.  Newscasters in every language cried out in ragged emotion, or whispered in hushed shock as death drew near.  Carol Ann Crowley, the Fox anchor woman who was in the chair at the time, watched in horror the events unfold, “It looks like a mountain of molten rock”, she was weeping, she knew, but couldn’t help it, “like the skies are melting”.

Zeus slammed into the ocean off of Northern California.  The cue ball had found the corner pocket.  The force of the impact set off seismic events all up and down the coast.  The big one finally came. 

Between the devastating earth quakes and the monumental tidal wave that blew inland, much of the population along the coastal low lands, including the big cities, perished.  The tidal seas that decimated the coast, washed past what was left of San Fransisco flooding the fertile San Joaquin Valley and destroying the capital and most of the states central cities.  The waters poured through the Seattle sound, flooding the low lying cities, and even pushed up the Columbia River, wrecking havoc in the populated Willamette Valley of Oregon.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.  With the flood waters came a viral strain that spread an epidemic across the west.  The experts argued about whether it came from the meteor, or was something dredged up from the sea bed.  But in mass the people surviving the devastation fled east hoping to stay ahead of the plague.  It wasn’t to be.  The densely populated east wanted nothing to do with it.  Road blocks were set up all along the Mississippi River, many of the bridges blown, the people turned away… or shot when they tried to find another way across. 

The world looked on in wide-eyed wonder as America stumbled, and bled.  Some rejoiced, even taunted.  A few, Britain, Israel, not many others; offered help.  But in the end, the Western United States incurred desolation.  Which bred pillage, lawlessness and… heroism.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

Years later.

 

 

“Charlotte.”

"Yes, Jerry?"

He studied the heat scorched expanse, an empty landscape of rock and sand dropping away from the high plateau he'd crossed.  The highway, a ribbon of gray, deteriorating asphalt, lost itself in the near distance; waves of heat roiling up like a furnace, wreaked havoc with what should have been a good view. 

"How far is it?"

"Distance depends on the variable of the way-point being considered.  You haven't given any parameters for determining where 'it' is, Jerry."

He grinned without looking up, "Where have we been heading for the last three days?  Your context is inferred by a continuing goal, unmodified to this point."

"You could have meant to the valley floor, or to the horizon, or..."

"Charlotte."

"Context is based on relevant data pertaining to the immediate situation or frame of reference, not to an indeterminate 'understood' reference. And I have never yet been programmed to read your mind, Jerry."

He stopped studying the vista spread across the desert ahead of him and sighed.  "Point taken.  OK, I'm sorry.  Now, if you will, Charlotte, tell me how far is it?"

"Two hundred, eighty-four and eight tenths kilometers"that's one hundred, seventy six point nine miles since you will ask."

Spoken, he thought, with almost no hint of a smirk.  Charlotte's voice came from just behind, as intimately close as if she were leaning over his shoulder,  murmuring quietly in his ear.  It always gave him a rather pleasant tingle up the back of his neck.  But then, he had designed it that way.  All outside sound, even what would be beyond the range of normal human hearing, was gathered through hyper sensitive pickups, filtered, modulated and fed back to him through the helmet's directional audio system.  But Charlotte always came to him through her own integrated, security shielded communications link. 

"Mmmm."  The image he was getting was, at best, hazy and short range. 

Somewhat like standard binoculars, which were still readily available, the Rextel T3 hand-held view scanners were high-tech, allowing for computer-aided or manual adjustments, that included I.R., thermal or standard optics.  The Rextel, like much of the equipment Jerry carried, was not standard, usually hard to find, and generally only carried by military"or those who could afford to pay the exorbitant prices.  Jerry had paid for very little of what he carried.  At least as far as his equipment went.

"Sophisticated as these things are..." Jerry was incrementally re-adjusting the display settings, "...and still can"t see through heat waves.  Do a scan and see what you can come up with."

"Finished."

"And?"

"I see a vulture."

He sighed and settled back onto the thumper's saddle, stowing the viewer.  "I think whoever tried to give you a sense of humor was definitely overreaching."

"That would be you.  Are we going now?"

"Yeah."  He lowered his faceplate.  Instantly the harsh glare reflecting off the sun-blasted desert gave way to the gentler hues of the helmets optics, and the prickling of sweat that had started soaking his scalp began cooling.  "You'd better send up Seeker once we're moving.  It'll give us an extra margin for avoiding road debris."

"Seeker takes quite a bit of my power.  Are you sure it's necessary?"

"We need to pick up the speed, so yeah, we'll want a decent heads up if we come up on any surprises.  We'll recharge fully when we get there"and Charlotte, I want to cover ground.  Let's make..."  Before he could finish the thought the thumper jumped forward, rocketing back onto the thin web of highway.  It accelerated till the landscape was a perception numbing blur, pressing him back as the seat automatically locked onto his suit with its security clamps.  Overhead there was a flicker of shadow as Seeker flitted up into the clear afternoon sky.  Jerry glanced at the speed indicated on the heads-up display, and grinned; the thumper was pushing two-forty.

"I am sorry, Jerry, were you ready?"

His eyes flicked across the data constantly updating around the edges of the helmets optimal view range.  Check.

"I'm fine.  You know the suit's always ready, you programmed it."  He smiled, "But you did give me a bit of an adrenalin rush."

He settled back, letting Charlotte do the auto-piloting thing while he browsed through Seeker's systems operation under load.

"Looks like that new solar skin is giving a decent energy boost..."

"Twelve point seven percent reduction to energy usage, yes, I know."

Seeker was the tag Charlotte gave to his newest piece of tech"what the brass at JSOC had dubbed Flitter, and brought into production under military contract.  Flitters were a small, lightweight and highly maneuverable recognizance drone.  And fast...with Aerospace Tech's T series magnetic thrusters tacked to a lightweight frame that used a series of ultra quiet, 'pocket' turbo-fans for primary lift, you were talking speed demon fast.  With Charlotte's help getting hacked into a secured control system, they had overridden the satellite control up-link, and wrested the probe from an Army unit out on patrol.  Undoubtedly stirring up a hornet's nest in the process.

"I believe there is something congesting the road ahead."

"Where?"

"Twenty miles.  I do wish you would let me use kilometers, Jerry.  It is so much easier.  Should we back off?"

"No.  What are you seeing?"

"Maybe...it could be a road block."

"Let me know when you can see what, and how many."

The data readouts he got from the helmet were sophisticated, he'd worked hard on that, hacking most of the best functionality in through the embedded control chip.  But with all the standard VDD; temperature, barometric pressure, speed, distance, and a good deal more"there was still little that would relate to the  blur of barren landscape flashing past.  At least not in a timely manner.

The thumper swayed gently from side to side as Charlotte guided it past occasional road debris far in advance of what any human reflex could respond to.

“I’m picking up readings Jerry.  It is a roadblock.  Vehicles parked across the highway where a bridge spans a dry stream bed.”

“Numbers?”

“It looks like...six humans, and, one-two-three...Oh dear, six Zbots.”

Jerry whistled softly.  “Six?”  Where would Badlanders get even one Zbot?  “Can you tell for sure if it’s Badlanders?”

“No, but we don’t have time to talk about it now.”

“Right.  Uh…tweeter in a shadow.  Launch as soon as we hit range.”

“Our remaining supplies are…one.  Are you sure you don't want to just turn around?”

“Do it!”

“Acknowledged.  Launch sequence initiated, on hold...”

The steady thrum of the thumper's power-plant vibrating in the background didn't lessen the tension Jerry felt watching the landscape tick past.  Skirmishes and quick maneuvers weren't that unusual.  This smelled different.

With the economic crash that everyone predicted and no one could quite take seriously, much of the country's infrastructure crumbled.  The cities of the desert, unable to continue importing the massive quantities of water, became ghost towns, haunts for those less inclined to fit into society.  The poor and desperate, unable to afford living in the cities inhabited this wasteland, as did the thugs and gangs who preyed on them and anyone else they could scoop up.  They were all bent on survival.  Taking opportunities was the name of the game.  Jerry was used to this. 

Since the day the collapse took his life away...   The hoped for normalcy that most of the remaining population sought in the cities was no longer appealing to him.  He had rolled it up like an old blanket, and chucked it all.  There was so much turmoil, that one more soldier disappearing from the ranks didn't mean much.  The powers that were had only one thing in mind; scrape together what remained, and try to hold the fort and start over.

Suddenly Charlotte's voice was back, “Launching in eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one.”

There was a low, resounding WUMP, and a column of white fuel exhaust began tracing a slow arc up into the brassy sky, followed nearly imperceptibly by a tale-tale jerk, and the flash of something black and eel shaped disappearing ahead, skimming just above road's gray surface.  Immediately the thumper shivered to a nose down, sliding stop.

“Impact in twenty seconds.”  Charlotte’s voice was calm.  Jerry squinted through the heat dancing off the expanse of flatland ahead.  “Should be picking up the...”  In the distance there was a sudden staccato of weapons fire.

“Poor saps.”

The thumper's audio pickups were relaying the steady crackling of ammunition being expended, uselessly, as those waiting at the roadblock attempted to shred or detonate the arcing missile they saw beginning its descent toward them.  In looking up, though, they completely missed the ominous flicker of something dark flashing toward them along the gray stretch of highway.  The column of spent fuel exhaust on the descending missile sputtered and died, as the empty tube tumbled slowly, awkwardly; it was nothing more then a distraction.  The ground hugging Tweeter increased elevation slightly at the last, and concussed ten feet above the road-block.  The resulting THUMP could be felt even where Jerry’s boots rested on the thumper's floor plate.  A blue halo crackled in the distance.

“Sending Seeker for a closer view.”  Charlotte’s voice was light.  “No movement… well, maybe some twitching from the humans.  The Zbots are all down, and definitely...not twitching.”

“Good.  Let’s move in.  Nice work, Charlotte.”

“There was no effort in that, Jerry.  Work, by definition, involves some sort of challenge or effort.”

“Well, with those Zbots to scavenge I’m guessing we might have some upgrades coming for you.”

“Oh…”  She sounded breathy, “I wonder if they have any spammers, or neutrino stabilizers or...”

“Why don't we just wait and see what we find, I'm sure we'll come up with something.”

“If you find me a halo receiver...”  Charlotte's throaty voice was sounding like she was tearing up, “I will be grateful, Jerry.”

He laughed.  “I'll hold you to that.  For now, let's get moving.”

Under normal conditions the fading highway that draped the southwest was nothing more then a dry run.  Hundreds of kilometers of heat blasted naked rock and sand.  Sometimes the Badlanders appeared, reflexively giving chase to the thumper. But Jerry had little concern.  They were, for the most part, weak and disorganized.   Jerry squinted through the scratched and crevassed, armor plated windshield.  Maybe there'd be enough salvage to make this run profitable.  Maybe...

They crested a low rise, and slowed, settling to a crunching halt on the gravel and rock strewn highway a short distance from what had been a fairly large blockade.  The pounding of the thumper's power plant heaved to silence as he shutdown the primary.

Jerry stared at the scene spread across the roadway.  “Crap.  What the hell are troopers doing waiting out here?  I thought these were Badlanders.  Charlotte, start scanning the bands, we've gotta find out what's going on.”

“Jerry, you know I have been scanning continuously.  It is like...breathing.  No attempted contacts have been sent or received since we began our approach.”

“These guys never attempted any last second calls?”

“Apparently they felt confident.  There have been no peeps.”

“You mean, 'there hasn't been a peep'.”

“I was assuming the possibility of more then one.”

He had been sitting, peering at the scene.  Now he eased the door open.  “OK.  I'm going in.”

“Jerry...”

“Yeah, I'll be careful.”

“You know I can't drive this...vehicle, alone.  I don't want to be stuck, as you say, 'in the middle of nowhere' waiting for rust to invade my system.”

“You know you can drive the thumper alone.  You just don’t want to admit it.  Besides, your systems can't rust, Charlotte.  You could sit here for the next century and you'd be just as plucky as ever.”

“Wonderful.  A century of small desert creatures taking up residence under me is not desirable.  Please, do be careful.”

 

 

 

The blockade was standard, vehicles placed in a stitched pattern, ninety degrees to the roadway, blocking all four lanes of the bridge.  In this case there was a large, military transport, apparently what they had used to convey the Zbots, a couple of personnel carriers with their automated overhead weapons rack, and a plain, unmarked, passenger utility vehicle, with darkened windows.

“Charlotte, send Dixil out to see what you can find.  I'm going to make sure these boys don't wake up too soon and cause problems.”

Off toward the thumper he heard the drawn out hissss as the rear hatch released, and the large flat panel yawned open.  Pausing, he waited to get a quick visual check of Dixil's activation.  Immediately the entire uncovered deck began to lift.

Dixil, rechristened from service unit, Model 'DixL', was a maintenance/utility bot with a flattened body approximately a meter long and half that wide.  It moved on six independently mobile, triple sectioned legs, looking eerily like a very large, flat spider.  In front, two more smaller appendages acted as arms, and were designed to withdraw and use the numerous tools the bot carried in small access bays on its underside.

With its long legs unfolded, Dixil stepped gingerly out from the thumper's storage well, and  began picking it's way, carefully avoiding the unconscious humans, aiming for the row of immobile Zbots that flanked the end vehicles.

Jerry turned his attention to the humans.  He felt a slow dread creeping up from his gut.  Troopers, sure enough, but… the military here?  The dread rose higher.  They’d once been friends, all the family he’d ever expected to have; now he’d just kicked them in the groin.  He shook his head.  Maybe they could get away unrecognized.  Maybe they could hide out and wait for the wasps nest to settle down.  Yeah, and maybe Yuma would get snow this year.

Making his way between the vehicles, Jerry checked the half-dozen life-signs Charlotte had flagged on his visor's display.  All were men, troopers, armored in Gravteck uni-suits, splayed out like string-less marionettes behind the vehicles.  He weighed confiscating one of the suits.  They were far newer then his, but then, his was from the war, held together with laser welding and a keen sense for cobbled technology.  He finally decided not to decide, yet, and moved on.

Further back, to the rear of the SUV were two more sleepers.  They were non-military, sporting dark business suits.  Possibly some left over government functionaries.  He checked them thoroughly.  Nondescript civies, dark glasses and hand weapons.  Observers?  He found no ID.

He moved forward and paused to peer through the SUV's darkened rear hatch, surprisingly, too dark; much darker than standard tinting.  A gnawing sensation hit his stomach.  Without stopping to think why, he slipped his personal weapon, a much gimmicked mini16 from its quick-clip, thigh carry.  Like Jerry, the gun was ex-military, by no means state of the art, but with enough hole punching attitude to make “state of the art,” meaningless.  With ammunition becoming an increasingly rare commodity, rechargeable energy weapons, though still cumbersome, had long since gained control of the market.  Jerry would eventually get around to dabbling with one of the newer ones he'd collected, but for now, his trustworthy mini16 was a weapon carrying techno-geeks heaven.  He checked the reserve, thumbed the safety, and cautiously sidled around the rear and along the side of the vehicle until he could peer through the tinted glass into the rear seat.

“Crap!”   

“What is it Jerry?”  Charlotte’s voice came calmly from just behind his ear.

“A girl.  They've got a girl, and she doesn't look like she's necessarily here by choice.”

There was silence as Jerry tested the door handle, then eased it open.  She was young, hardly seemed more then a kid.  His gaze quickly swept the interior, then came back to...her.  Maybe in her late teens, early twenties, maybe...  She was strapped to the deck plate, with cuffs holding her arms behind her.  She had tipped forward, unconscious like the others, the cuffs, attached to the seat behind her was holding her somewhat upright.  Her straight dark hair, just long enough to fall forward and hide her face.

“Damn!”

“Don't do it, Jerry.”

He frowned.  “Don't do what?”

“You can't take care of her.  You know that.”

He scowled back toward the thumper.  “She's just a kid, Charlotte.  And they've got her hogtied; probably a...well, I don't know.  What do they need a girl for out here.  What the hell's going on?”  Now he glared at the men who lay unconscious.  Breathing fine, probably wake up with one doozy of a headache.  “I can't leave her, Char.  You know I can't.”

There was silence. 

“Get me a laser cutter over here.”  He began checking the girl over.  A quick scan told him her vitals were as normal as could be expected, and there appeared to be no broken bones, though Charlotte would be able to give a better med scan.  A nudge got his attention, and he turned to find Dixil with a small laser cutter.

He notched the intensity setting to a medium low range, and cut quickly through the cuffs and straps that held her, then caught her as she fell forward.  Gently tipping her sideways, he slipped her out of the cab, and into his arms. 

Damn, she was light.  He looked down into a face that was pale, and thin, the way a person gets from being held inside and not fed.  At some point, he decided, she had been pretty.  Her skin was too smooth to be a badlander.  Her clothing, institutional.  Probably came with the package deal, he thought grimly.

Back at the thumper  Charlotte opened the rear cargo door as  Jerry slid the girl onto the gunny-seat, a long rear seat that doubled as a cot.  “When you get a chance I want a full bio, Charlotte, the works.  I want to know everything we can about this girl.”

“Do you want her party dress size and favorite color?”

“Don't be snide.  If not hurt, she's definitely helpless.  How would you want someone to treat me if they found me that way?”

“That is not a fair question, Jerry.  You are you.  She is not.”

“Well, do it anyway.  I'm going to check over their equipment.  Keep an eye out.”  For the next twenty minutes Jerry combed through the equipment and supplies, carting things that seemed promising back to stack around the cot where the girl lay.  

A few minutes later, while Jerry was toting some power packs and spare weapons (he decided not to take the troopers own gear), Charlotte's voice broke in over her 'always on' connection.  “We're going to have company.”

“WHAT?”

“Incoming.  Large caravan.  No discipline, so I would guess they are Badlanders.  But more then we’ve seen at one time.  More then you would expect.”

Jerry turned and headed for the thumper.  “How long till they get here?”

“They are moving quickly.  Minutes.”

“How did they get so close, Charlotte?  You should have picked them up miles out.”

“The military blockade came from the east.  The highest probability for trouble was in that same direction.  I sent Seeker that way on a tether, this convoy just now entered our immediate scan range.  I am… sorry, Jerry.”

Jerry swore.  “If they get here with these guys all down they'll probably kill them.  Is there any way we can reactivate the Zbots?”

“The Zbots were designed to reboot their own systems through secondary shielded power sources.  I have been continuously emitting a low level ion field that has hindered their reboot.  All I need to do is release that field.”

“OK, what about the troopers.  I haven't given any of them a second stun yet, anything we can do to help them wake up?”

“Certainly.  A shot of adrenalin should do that.”

“Good, give me a hypo, then power up and work the thumper around these vehicles.”

“But I can't...”

“We don't have time for this, Charlotte.  I know you can drive.  I've seen you take her out for joy rides at night.  Just do it.”

“Those weren't joy rides.  I was...practicing.  Possible emergencies require a certain degree of practical experience.”

Jerry was already moving among the troopers.  “Consider this your emergency.”

The first shots began kicking up whiffs of scorched smoke as they smacked against the blockade vehicles.  Charlotte was just nosing the thumper past the civilian vehicle, when a mixture of blaster bolts and bullets began filling the air in earnest.

“Jerry, it would be a good idea if we leave now.”

“Can you release the Zbots yet?”  Jerry had to yell to hear himself over the whine of incoming fire. 

“You need not raise your voice, of course I can.  First I'm resetting their primary targeting mode to look only west for targets, rather then behind them.  I tried to do a mass dump reset, but failed, so I'm resetting them individually. “

“Well, can you release them as you reset them?”

“No.  The inhibiting ion field is just that; a field, a blanket.  I can only release it all at once.”

“Fine!  Kick the turret into gear, auto, with a minimum range out beyond the blockade.  We need to slow these guys down.  I'm just finishing up with the troopers.  They're coming around, but slow.”

There was a sudden banging fusillade as the thumper's rooftop turret began sending out a steady BOOM BOOM BOOM of heavy bolts.  The line of badlander vehicle's immediately split, some peeling off to the right, still firing, and some to the left.  Charlotte’s maneuver had put the thumper in behind the civies vehicle with just the turret peeking over the top, when a loud crack came over the system, and a grunt.  Then a moan.

“Jerry!” 

There was silence.  Instantly Dixil appeared, skittering nimbly through the blockade.  It made its way to where Jerry lay, crumpled alongside the last trooper.  The man was even now groaning and trying to sit up.  Dixil lowered its' body nearly to the ground, sliding the two working arms beneath Jerry's scorched armor.  It lifted the body easily, turned, and crab-crawled quickly back, hugging the ground.  The thumper's front door was open when Dixil arrived, and the utility bot slid Jerry carefully into the saddle, then the main power-plant boomed to life as it scrambled over the back of the thumper and settled into its retaining well.

“Jerry.”

The thumper fishtailed around, then rocketed east, away from the blockade, even as the Zbots were released simultaneously.  Within seconds the roar of heavy weapons fire burst across the intervening distance, bringing the incoming advance to a sudden halt.  The heavy fire was all pointed west.  And the thumper was long gone.

“Jerry...”

Reviews

[InuShin]

Such an enjoyable read. The detail was amazing as I could clearly see the picture painted. I enjoyed the slow progression and reveal of the mechanics, the world. I'm looking forward to more if there is.