The Legend of Earth

Chapter 36



Admiral William Keller continued to stare into the sky until the last remnants of the distance explosion had dissipated. He waited, as did all the others, for a follow-up burst of blinding light, an indicator of a nuclear blast within the atmosphere. He was sure D.C. would be one of the Kracori’s primary targets, even though their stated purpose was to irradiate the planet rather than destroy strategic targets. But still he waited.

And he waited.

After about an hour in the cool air of late November, with the light fading from a tranquil and swollen orange sun on the Western horizon, Keller finally laughed out loud. He had seen the relative position of the Kracori spaceships on the large monitor screen, just before the EMP struck. He knew they had been only minutes away from launching their attack.

Was it possible that the attack had not occurred? He couldn’t be sure, since he was standing in only once solitary position on the planet. But if they had attacked, wouldn’t he have felt something?

To answer his question, an Air Force senior master sergeant came running out of the nearest Pentagon door and scanned the massive crowd standing outside. Keller, with his prominent gold shoulder boards of his dress uniform, stood out amongst all the rest. The sergeant ran up to him with a paper in his hand. The forty-six-year-old E-8 was out of breath.

“Sir, the EMP was not as strong as initially suspected – probably from a fusion device – and we still have comm hardened against such events.” He took a couple of deep breaths before continuing. “Reports show no, I repeat no, nuclear explosions within the atmosphere or impacting the surface!”

He handed the sheet of paper to Keller, who saw it was all in a mass of teletype text, hardly readable without deciphering it line-by-line. Keller was good at reading this kind of message – seeing that it was standard for most military orders – but he had no time for that now.

“No impacts, no air bursts reported?” he queried the master sergeant.

“That’s correct, sir. Apparently all the alien ships exploded in space. That was what caused the EMP.”

As was unbefitting a full-admiral, Keller sat down on the warm black asphalt of the Pentagon parking lot and crossed his legs. Word was spreading like wildfire throughout the thousands of others with him and soon there was such a cacophony of cheers and celebration that all military decorum broke down completely. People were coming up to him, patting his back and reaching down to shake his hand, believing that he had had something to do with their salvation. He accepted their accolades, for even Admiral William Keller, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, didn’t know what had just happened.