Cohort Commander Ketaan-Ra moved down the line, inspecting his assault team with the confidence that came from many such missions across the galaxy. Its mission wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t complicated either. Wait for the gateway to synchronize with the signal from the far end, activate the portal, then charge through to secure the other side, establishing a beachhead for the army that would follow.
Then all the heavy firepower and advanced weaponry available to the follow-on force would bring yet another world into the Kasari Collective. But that army would not be allowed through the gateway until his team had finished its work.
His special assault team would take some losses, there was little doubt of that. It happened in almost every assault, the result of being denied any ranged weapons that might damage or disrupt the far-gate. The far-end gateways were always fragile technological implementations, the best these primitive worlds could construct, even given a world ship tutorial. Denied even low-power disrupter weapons, his team would rely on the initial surprise and shock their assault would generate and on their martial arts training, bladed weapons, and nano-enhanced bodies to secure the objective.
There would be some security presence on the far end, but it would be minimal. It always was. Nobody opened a Kasari gateway with the expectation of welcoming in an assault force. The planet expected what the world ship had conditioned it to expect, the reason they’d gone to all the effort to construct the gateway. So the special assault team would rock them back on their heels and another portal would be secured. Then the signal would be given and the army would pour through, extending the perimeter, bringing the transporters, sky riders, heavy equipment, and the rest of the Kasari logistics train.
Finishing his inspection of his chosen dozen, Ketaan-Ra motioned his sergeant forward, assuming the position of attention as his top veteran inspected Ketaan-Ra with the same meticulous routine that he’d used on the team. Standard operating procedure. Nobody went into combat without undergoing a thorough inspection, especially not commanders.
As the sergeant moved around him, touching each item of equipment, his comm unit sounded the alert. The far gateway had powered up, preparing to go active. Once that happened, it would only be a matter of allowing the two gates to synchronize signals before the portal stabilized.
A warm glow worked its way up from his two feet into Ketaan-Ra’s legs and torso, spreading into his four arms, his neck, and then his head.
It was almost go time.
Even for Ted, reporting on the culmination of the November Anomaly project was a little overwhelming. As he started in on his coverage, he knew he sounded a little unsure of himself. As he continued, though, his veteran instincts kicked in, the nerves went away, and it all became automatic.
Having hit his stride, Ted gestured toward the cavern that fell away before his platform. “What we are about to see is the single most important event since the dawn of life on this planet, the culmination of the most ambitious science and engineering project ever conceived by man. During the next hour, Dr. Stephenson and the scientists working on the November Anomaly project will attempt to use technologies reverse-engineered from the Rho Project alien starship. Some of these technologies have never before been tested, much less utilized on this scale.
“Over the last eight months, in the huge cavern behind me and aboveground a short distance from here, the world’s best scientists and engineers have constructed four devices crucial to pulling off today’s attempt at saving the human race. The first is the only aboveground component, a power plant built using alien matter disrupter technology that will provide the awesome power required by the systems here in the ATLAS cavern.”
Ted was well aware that his TV audience was seeing not just him and the ATLAS cavern, but a sequence of 3-D computer animations designed to illustrate what he was talking about.
“Two more critical pieces of equipment are not visible in the cavern below, buried as they are within the walls of the equipment on the cavern floor below. These are actually two identical copies of the same thing, a device called a stasis field generator. They are designed to generate and manipulate powerful force fields that will be used to isolate the November Anomaly and move it into the gateway that will transport it into space.”
The shot shifted to the camera showing the ATACC, gradually zooming out until the massive Gateway Device filled the screen.
“Right now you are looking at the heart of the project, the Rho Gateway Device.”
Pausing momentarily for dramatic effect, Ted continued. “This is the engineering marvel that will create a wormhole, through which the scientists will push the November Anomaly using the stasis field generators. Once the anomaly has been pushed into the wormhole, the Rho Gateway Device will be powered down, closing the wormhole, and eliminating the threat to our planet, forever.”
The lighting in the cavern acquired an amber hue as the PA system sounded.
“Initial stasis field power countdown commencing...five, four, three, two, one. Engaging power.”
There was a brief pause, followed by another announcement.
“Stasis field generator power steady at ten percent on both systems. Commencing one-minute countdown to full power ramp.”
Ted turned sideways, to enhance the camera’s view of his profile silhouetted against the gateway.
“Now it starts getting dicey. This countdown will take us to the point where scientists bring the two stasis field generators to full power. While it’s nowhere close to the amount of power the Gateway Device will use, it’s still more than the total amount of power used by the Large Hadron Collider over the entire course of its operation.”
He found he was sweating profusely. It all came down to this...
Again the loudspeaker sounded out the final ten seconds of the countdown.
“Initiating power ramp...fifty percent...seventy percent...ninety-five percent...stasis field generator power stabilized at one hundred percent. All systems nominal.”
The sound of clapping echoed up from the cavern floor.
Ted smiled, relieved. “You can feel the tension in that applause.”
The PA system squawked. “Commencing one-minute countdown to Rho Gateway power ramp.”
Ted turned back to face the camera. “I have to admit to a little dry mouth. Unlike the stasis field generator power-up, the gateway is going to be ramped to full power without a pause. The scientists will power it up, but they won’t activate it until after the November Anomaly is isolated by the primary stasis field generator.”
As the final countdown sounded, the camera shifted to a tight shot of the Gateway Device.
“Gateway device power ramp initiated.”
Ted felt his hair stand on end, but he couldn’t be sure if it was static electricity in the air or the tension in his body. In front of him, the producer and the camera people had a kind of tension, too, their bodies just going through the motions. They appeared to Ted like poorly designed computer simulations of the team he knew so well.
“Power at fifty percent...seventy-five...ninety...ninety-five...ninety-eight...”
There was a brief pause in the announcements.
“Gateway device power stabilized at ninety-nine point three percent of maximum.”
Once again the sound of applause rang out from the scientists and technicians assembled below.
Ted exhaled. “I know you must be wondering why they’re clapping, since we didn’t get to one hundred percent power. I sure am. For an explanation, we go to Dr. Gerta Freiholt, a physicist from the matter disrupter team. Thank you for taking the time to help us understand what is happening.”
The camera shifted to a white-coated woman with her gray hair pulled back in a severe bun. “My pleasure. As you can tell from the reaction from our ATACC crew, ninety-nine percent power is excellent. The system was designed with a certain amount of tolerance. While we would have loved to hit the one hundred percent target, anything over ninety-five percent is good.”
“That’s good to know. We have a couple of minutes until the next phase. Can you give us a quick overview of what scientists will be trying to do with the stasis field generators?”
“Well, first they are going to use the primary stasis field generator to capture and isolate the November Anomaly. Right now the anomaly is contained by powerful magnetic fields within a vacuum chamber.”
The camera switched to a view of the steel ball suspended a few meters in front of the Gateway Device opening.
“When the stasis field is directed at the anomaly containment apparatus, it will instantaneously cut through all that steel, which will fall away onto the cavern floor. However, the stasis field will move at the speed of light, so before the pieces of the vacuum chamber have begun to move, the field will wrap itself around the anomaly, maintaining the vacuum and preventing any external matter from perturbing the anomaly.”
“What about the metal casing? Isn’t it going to fall right into the anomaly and won’t all that metal knock it around?”
“No. It won’t be able to touch it. Think of the stasis field as a force field that is so powerful that it can repel anything away from the anomaly. Even an explosion couldn’t penetrate it.”
“Sounds like the deflector shields on the starship Enterprise.”
“That’s one way to think about it.”
“So what is the second stasis field generator for?”
“Good question. Once the primary stasis field generator has captured the anomaly, scientists will activate the Rho Gateway Device to create a wormhole into deep space. However, an opening into the vacuum of space would immediately depressurize the facility, sucking out the air and all of us with it. The secondary stasis field generator will form an invisible door sealing off the Gateway Device opening, before the gateway is activated. Once the wormhole has formed, scientists will confirm the far end coordinates to ensure it’s not too close to Earth or within a star. Then they will use the primary stasis field generator to move the anomaly to the gateway, modulating the two stasis fields to allow the first to pass through the second and release the anomaly into the wormhole.”
“And after that?”
“I would guess there’s going to be a big party.”
The camera shifted back to Ted’s nervous smile. “Let’s all hope and pray that happens.”
“Approaching final countdown to anomaly capture.” The last ten seconds of the countdown echoed through the cavern. “Initiating anomaly capture.”
With a sound like thunder, the huge steel anomaly containment device came apart and crashed to the concrete floor. For several seconds, the only sound that could be heard was the reverberating echoes of its fall.
Then the alarm sounded.
“Warning...primary stasis field generator power at eighty-two percent and falling. Stasis field degradation detected.”
At the ATACC, a bearded Scandinavian technician ran toward one of the large electronic racks, his long blond hair flowing out behind him as he leaped up onto the second level of equipment, ripped out a panel, rolled onto the floor, and slid his torso inside.
On his perch, high above the others, Dr. Stephenson shifted from one keyboard to the next, pounding his fist on the desktop in frustration. Suddenly his voice took over the PA system.
“Initiate procedure to swap primary and secondary stasis field generator controls. Dr. Trotsky, override the con from your position. Now!”
As the pulsing alarm blared, Ted stared in horror as the air surrounding the point where the anomaly containment device had previously been suspended acquired a pale-blue glow within what he could only imagine was the failing spherical stasis field.
A flurry of activity along the near side of the ATACC pulled his eyes away from the glowing sphere. Several people had moved to surround a gray-haired scientist at one of the ATACC workstations who had slumped forward over the controls.
Remembering who he was, Ted pulled himself together and pointed. “Get me a camera on that.”
The video feed shifted, zooming in on the group of scientists gathered behind the workstation. A young woman in a white lab coat pushed her way through, physically lifting the scientist from the chair, handing his unconscious body to two men, then sliding into his chair. The woman’s hands moved across multiple keyboards, her actions a blur, backdropped by a bank of flat-panel displays. The movements of her lithe body, the way her short, spiked, platinum-blonde hair framed her face, gave Ted a déjà vu moment, reminding him of a hot pop star rising up into the sky above her European concert audience.
“Warning...primary stasis field generator power at forty percent and falling. Stasis field failure imminent.”
As he continued to watch the exotic young physicist work, Ted heard a low moan of dread rise up from the other scientists, a moan that entered the microphones and drifted out to a network audience of billions.