Terri swung the shuttle around so the back of it was towards the lifeboats before it broke the surface. Water cascaded down the wings as it surfaced. The people at the oars of the boats began rowing as fast as they could to put distance between them and the strange vessel. Some of them leveled M-16 rifles at the strange ship as they prepared for the worse.
Terri sat in the pilot's seat as Jonathan stood up from the co-pilots seat. Mike was sitting at the Tactical Station monitoring the situation.
"I count twenty life signs," Mike said. "They're all armed and I would guess they're all panicked."
"Panicked?" Jonathan asked.
"Yeah, the way they're rowing trying to get away has panicked all over it. Jonathan be careful, some of them have weapons leveled at the shuttle," Mike said.
"I guess I would too," Jonathan said. "Some strange vessel surfacing right next to me would scare the shit out of me."
"No shit," Terri said.
"I'm going down to talk to the survivors," Jonathan said.
"Be careful," Terri said. She had rotated her seat around to talk. The shuttle was now on autopilot and set to hold position. Jonathan winked at Terri as he nodded.
"Yeah, all we need is our Commander getting his ass shot off the second day on the job," Mike grinned.
Jonathan rolled his eyes, "What and leave you in second in command, never. The whole place would go to rot; I've seen your room at your house. I mean who would pick up after you?"
Terri laughed, "He has you there."
"Yeah, yeah, live it up. Go get out of here," Mike said.
Jonathan smiled as he winked at Terri, who just giggled again as she swung back around to monitor the shuttle. He stepped into an oval at the back of the room and floated down past the midlevel Armory and day cabins to the departure bay. It was like the lifts on the base, you had to think about where you wanted to go. The nanites then told the computer where you wanted to go and moved you there. People could be move through the tubes at the same time; Atlanta had told him it affected the nanites in his body as they were all coded to the individual. Though they were not affected by magnetism they generated a field when someone used a lift. The computer locked on to this and used this to move the person. Of course there were still ladders on the walls in the tubes and conventional lifts, these were just faster. The farther you had to go the faster it transported you.
The one thing that bothers him when he understood how the system worked was if there was a loss of power. However, he soon found out the system was powerless; the transport tubes generated the field through a special coil creating a field. The computer used power to interrupt the field and turn it up for descending and off for ascension. Was strange thinking about it, more power equaled weaker field less power equaled stronger field. So if the power failed a person would just hang in the air and not go anywhere because all the fields would be the same. Then they just used the ladder to pull themselves to the next level or where they needed to be. He just thought of it as a human rail gun, same principles. There were of course special harnesses for visitors who didn't have nanites.
Jonathan's feet lightly touched the ground as he stepped out of the lift. Andie was there sorting through her medical supplies. Bill handed Jonathan a dark blue suit, it was made of some type of flexible polymer. Jonathan looked at Bill as if asking a question.
"Power armor, it should stop a bullet if they start shooting," Bill said. Bill was already wearing one; his rank had transferred to the left breast of the armor.
Jonathan put in on over his head as he pulled the manual for the armor up in his head.
The armor was type-three assault armor. It was standard with a personal shield and built in personal computer. The material was what was called smart fabric, even though it was made from a special Cardinium alloy that didn't conduct energy or create it. The suit melded itself together when the front and back were pressed together. Then created the rest of the suit that would eventually cover the limbs of whoever wore one. This allowed suits to fit multiple races as long as they had the nanites to control it. The key to the suit was the personal nanites, they told the suit it was on a person and that that person was allowed to wear the suit.
'Suit construction complete, self check initiated ... Diagnostics complete all systems green. Power output with in operating parameters, ' a metallic voice echoed in Jonathan's head.
"Wow," Jonathan said.
Bill grinned, "Yeah, I said the same thing. The suit acts as an environmental suit too. If it detects any harmful contaminates it will construct the helmet to protect the wearer. You can also put it in battle mode by thought and it will do the same thing as well as power up the personal shields. Atlanta prepped me as we went to the shuttle, she said there were heavier models on the base but theses should protect us just fine."
"Nice," Jonathan said. "Well, let's get this show on the road."
Jonathan reached the back hatch and cycled it open. The Coast Guard personnel gasped when he came into sight. The rowers even stopped rowing once they realized they were looking at another human. Jonathan stepped out to the edge of the lowered hatch in a slow deliberate manner. His hands held open and slightly out from his body.
"Who are you?" a man wearing sergeant stripes asked.
"My name is Commander Hunter. Are you in need of assistance?" Jonathan asked.
"What branch of the military?" the man asked.
"Well, I'm, uh, from a secret branch, it's need to know," Jonathan said. "I take it you're in command?" Jonathan saw him glance over at a woman in the back of the boat, who gave a slight nod.
"Yes, I'm in command. We require assistance, our ship sunk before we could get word out," the man said.
Jonathan nodded, "Well, lets get you people on board and then we can take you where ever you need to go. I'll have to ask you all to give up your arms though."
Several of the people looked at each other, mostly the people with their weapons trained on Jonathan. "I don't think we can do that," the man said.
"You can't get on this vessel while you're holding arms. I won't allow it as it would put us all at risk," Jonathan said.
"You mean you," another man said. He was one of the people with a weapon trained on Jonathan.
Jonathan locked the man with a gaze that left no room for argument, "No, I mean us. This vessel will be traveling underwater and if a weapon went off accidentally it could be very hazardous for everyone. We will give you your weapons back once we reach our destination and make sure everyone is ok."
"We're not giving up our weapons," the first man said.
"Well then, you're not getting a ride. I'll offer anyone who wants a ride and is willing to give up their weapons," Jonathan said.
Several people stood up as they all looked at each other.
"You're going to leave us out here to die?" the second man asked.
"No, I'll call it in. However, once I leave you're on your own," Jonathan said.
"You can't do that," another person said.
"You're wrong, I can and I will. I've offered you assistance and told you what it took to get that assistance and you don't want to comply. I'm putting trust in you by allowing you on this vessel and you don't care to return that trust. That isn't my problem," Jonathan said. He pointed at the four people who had stood up. "The people who stood up can come aboard, just hand Lieutenant Commander Hawkins have your weapons before you enter."
Ten of the people handed Bill their firearms as they stepped into the back of the shuttle where Andie started checking them out. The woman the man had looked at, the one Jonathan assumed was actually in command, stood up and made her way toward the front of the small boat.
"My names Carla Taldage, I'm the ranking officer here," Carla said.
Jonathan's eyes flicked to the man who had been speaking.
"Don't blame him," Carla said. "They were just protecting me."
Jonathan nodded, "Yeah, I knew you were in command."
"How did you know that?" Carla asked.
"Eye's don't lie. At one point I asked a question and he looked back to get your answer. Even though you gave a subtle nod it was enough to tell me who was in charge," Jonathan said a small smile on his lips.
"I would like to apologize for the deception," Carla said.
Jonathan smiled; he was going to like this woman. She might be rough around the edges but she had a good head on her shoulders. That was if they decided to join his crew. He had decided to extend the offer, they would need a security force and there was probably a few engineers and such mixed in. "No need to apologize, I understand."
{Jonathan.} Terri's voice said in his head.
{What's up?} Jonathan replied.
{We need to get moving, Mike has intercepted communications from two F-16 fighters. They have picked us up on their radar. Their base has ordered them to do a fly over and inspect the area.}
{Great, get ready to move out. I'll try to be fast.}
"Are you ok?" Carla asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry to rush you but can we talk inside. I have other important matters to deal with and I'm afraid it's do or die time," Jonathan said.
"You are going to take us back to main land America, right?" Carla asked.
"Yes, probably not right away. But, I promise you I will get you back to where ever you want in the next week," Jonathan said.
"For some reason I trust you," Carla said. She was looking deep into his eyes looking for the littlest sign that he was lying to her and saw nothing but honesty.
"It's my looks," Jonathan said as he winked. "I'm just so damn handsome women everywhere trust me."
Carla laughed as several of the other women giggled.
"What?" Jonathan put a look of hurt on his face.
"I don't know if I would go that far, although you are kind of cute," Carla said.
Jonathan grabbed his heart, "I think I'm wounded." This got another round of laughing as a few of the guys rolled their eyes. "Sorry to break up our fun but can we get people loaded? We need to get underway."
It was a fast process; the last ten people joined their comrades in the back of the shuttle surrendering their weapons as they entered. Jonathan reached out and shoved the lifeboat back away from the shuttle and then cycled the back hatch shut.
{All loaded. Let's get out of here.} Jonathan transmitted.
{Just in time too. Those F-16s are about 2 minutes out and closing fast.} Terri replied.
{You know me I like to make an exit.}
Terri snorted through the connection, {Estimated time to base less than one minute.}
Andie made her way over to Jonathan, "I have three people with fractured ribs. But, that's the worst of it. From what I gathered they were shaking the ship down and had a minimal crew. That's why there is on twenty of them."
Jonathan nodded and quietly said, "I'm going to offer them a spot on the crew. The one who take it will need a full physical."
Andie nodded then turned back to her work.
Oojoung watched the shuttle land from in a hidden spot. He double checked his cloak to make sure it was engaged as he watched them disembark. When he seen the new people he moaned silently. More people wasn't good. How was he going to explain this? He could already hear the yelling his master was going to do. It just made his stomach flip and his heart rate pick up.
He had already sabotaged the Main Reactor so it would fail if put under stress. He patted the pouch at his side, it contained the control circuit he had replaced with a weaker version. He smiled to himself at least that was one thing going his way. A few more little things here and there and the base would fall easily.
Oojoung moaned once more as he slipped from the bay. It was time to report in and this wasn't going to be a very good report. He thought about what to say all the way back to his small craft. He shook his head as he disengaged his cloak and took his seat in front of his communications console. He tapped a few controls as he shuddered.
"Speak," Prasuh said.
"Great Master," Oojoung said. "Oojoung set up so main reactor fail under stress."
Prasuh raised an eye brow, "They have their main reactor online?"
"Yes, Great Master," Oojoung said.
"I told you to stall them," Prasuh said.
"Great Master, Oojoung tried. "They tricked Oojoung, made water go away. Oojoung couldn't do anything."
"I take it they're repairing the base now?" Prasuh said. He sat back in his chair and made a triangle with his hands in front of his face. His other arms were crossed over his chest.
Oojoung's mouth went dry, "Yes, Great Master. Many busy bots running all over place."
Prasuh opened his eyes, "Have they got their defenses online or any of their offenses?"
Oojoung shook his head, "No, Great Master. Oojoung thinking they no know about those. But, new hoomans might discover them."
Prasuh narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean new humans?"
Oojoung moaned to himself, "More hoomans came in big shuttle."
"How many?" Prasuh asked quietly.
"Oojoung no knows Great Master," Oojoung moaned.
"Guess, you little useless smear of a being," Prasuh growled.
Oojoung counted to himself, twenty, he saw twenty. Ok, let's see twenty divided by two is ten. He looked up at the scowling face of Prasuh and shuddered before he spoke, "Two or three Great Master. Oojoung knows it was two or three."
"Three?" Prasuh laughed. He slapped hide desk in glee with the hands not crossing his chest. "The Humans find an Advanced Military Base under water and all they bring is three humans to help. Humans are so stupid."
"No, Great Master stupid, Oojoung and Humans smarter than who Invaru Empire," Oojoung muttered under his breath.
"What was that," a suddenly serious Prasuh said.
Oojoung's eyes widened, "Oojoung say how right Great Master is. Oojoung and Humans stupid, Invaru so smart."
Prasuh eyes narrowed for a second, "Yes, Oojoung keep doing what you're doing. Keep trying to break into the main computer and gain control of the base. I'm ordering the fleet to 130%, we will be there in less than two days."
Oh boy! Two days and Oojoung gets to see dummy Prasuh face to face. Oojoung so happy, NOT! "Yes Great Master, Oojoung happy." Oojoung said with a forced smile on his face.
"Don't fail me Oojoung," Prasuh said then faded from view.
Oojoung raised his hand at the empty screen before him and slowly raised his middle finger. Then stuck his tongue out and gave a raspberry.
Jonathan looked over the seventeen people standing in a loose crowd before him. The base needed people and he needed to start somewhere. The three missing people he would talk to later after they got released by Andie. He was never one for speeches, he hated it in school and he hated it now.
Jonathan took a deep breath, "I'm Commander Jonathan Hunter, Commander of Atlanta Base."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. "Where are we?" one of them asked. Another asked about the ship sitting in the middle of the landing bay.
Jonathan raised his hands motioning for silence, "Please, I'll answer questions in a minute."
The room quieted down as everyone stood watching him.
{Commander.} Atlanta transmitted to him.
{Atlanta, I'm kind of in the middle of something here.}
{I know, I wouldn't have interrupted if it wasn't important.}
Jonathan sighed, {What is it?}
{You're needed in Command.}
{Can you give me a few minutes?}
{Yes sir.}
{Thanks.}
Jonathan turned his attention back to the people before him. What could possibly be wrong now that Atlanta needed him in Command?
He sighed again as he started speaking, "I would like to welcome everyone to Atlanta Base you are the first people to step foot on this base, besides us, in over 2000 years."
That got some looks; one guy even circled his ear.
"Right," someone said.
"I'm serious, have you ever seen a vessel like that?" Jonathan pointed at the shuttle.
"Have you ever seen armor like this?" Jonathan tapped the armor he was wearing.
"What about rank insignia's like this?" Jonathan said as he pointed to the hologram on his chest.
"Or a language like this one here?" Jonathan pointed to a wall that that had writing on it.
One of the women spoke up, "It looks like a mix of Egyptian and Mayan writing."
"Right, it's an ancient Eutharan language," Jonathan said. "We stumbled on this base and we have decided to use its secrets to help Earth."
"How many of you are there?" someone asked.
Jonathan leveled a gaze at the person, "Enough, but were looking to have people join us. We need serious people who want to really hel..." A scream from one of the women stopped him. People looked to where she was pointing and several people started to panic.
"STOP AND CALM DOWN!" Jonathan shouted.
One of the Queen Spider Bots was making its way across the bay towards the ship storage. It stopped for a second and took in the assembled people and then continued on its way.
"But, what the hell is that?" the woman asked. She was pointing a shaking finger at the five foot tall spider.
"That is a drone, we call them spider bots. They maintain the base and vessels in the landing bays," Jonathan said. "They won't hurt you as long as you don't attack them. That one is a Queen Drone. She commands the smaller units and directs their activities."
"Wow," a couple of the people said.
"It is completely AI driven, it makes its own choices and is self sufficient," Jonathan said.
"Artificial intelligence?" someone asked.
Jonathan nodded.
"Impossible," another said.
"Atlanta," Jonathan said. Atlanta appeared next to Jonathan.
"Yes, Commander?" Atlanta asked.
"This is the base's AI entity. She controls the main functions of the base and is a holographic projection," Jonathan said. He waved his hand through Atlanta to show everyone she was a holograph.
"The Commander is correct," Atlanta said.
"Smoke and mirrors," someone said.
"As I have said, I'm not trying to trick anyone. Atlanta is the bases computer," Jonathan said.
"Prove it," someone else said.
Sometimes Jonathan wondered how the human race ever survived. Some people made dumb people look intelligent.
"Does everyone agree that the shuttle is empty?" Jonathan asked. "If not go inspect it and come back when you're happy."
Several people went in the shuttle and came back a few seconds later.
"Empty?" Jonathan asked one of the returning people.
"Yes," they answered.
"Good, Atlanta store shuttle four and mark it for maintenance," Jonathan said.
"Yes, Commander," Atlanta said.
The shuttle's rear hatch closed as it left the floor and slowly moved to the left side of the bay. The wall folded out as arms latched on to the shuttle and guided it in to an empty hanger.
"Ok, Atlanta return to what you were doing. I'll be in Command in a bit," Jonathan said.
Atlanta nodded and disappeared.
"I'm not joking or trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. I'm offering each of you a position on this base. We will be responding to events around the globe. We will be trying to make the world a better place for everyone," Jonathan said. "There however, stipulations if you agree to stay."
Carla spoke up this time, "What kind of stipulations?"
"You can never leave once you sign up," Jonathan said.
"And if we decide to leave?" Carla asked.
"You can leave if that's what you want. I promised to take you to mainland America and I will. I will drop you anywhere you want and never bother you again," Jonathan said.
"What's to stop us from telling people about this place?" Another asked. Several people nodded in response.
"Nothing, we're not planning on staying hidden. But, until we show up in public how do you think they will view all the stories you tell them about a sunken base on the bottom of the ocean with advanced technology? Lost city of Atlantis anyone?" Jonathan said.
That got a few chuckles.
"I'm not going to hold anyone hostage, but those who stay will have rules they will have to follow. Those that leave will be given their weapons back and dropped where ever they want. I'm going to go talk to your three crew members in Medical and tell them the same thing. I give you until tomorrow to make your choice," Jonathan said.
Jonathan turned and grabbed a box made of some type of plastic and dropped it in front of them, "If you decide to stay put one of these suits on. Bathrooms are over there," he pointed off to the right along the far wall. "I'll have something brought down for you to sleep on."
Jonathan stared that hologram of the universe that was floating above the planning table. Just outside the Sol System was a red triangle which had a dotted line that intersected Earth. Readings were displayed next to showing its plotted course and speed.
"So, what am I looking at?" Jonathan asked.
"That," Atlanta said. She pointed to the small triangle. "Is an Invaru battle fleet on its way to Earth."
Jonathan reached up and squeezed the bridge of his nose. It was just unbelievable, if it wasn't one thing it was another. What else could possibly go wrong and why was this fleet coming now? Did starting the main reactor alert them and now they were swinging by to check on the base? Two days! That's not enough time to warn the people of Earth and even if they did they couldn't prove it. All they would do is get laughed at or cause a mass panic across Earth. He was going to have to come up with something and fast.
"Oh man," Brad said. "I was just getting settled in."
Terri took this time to step from the lift and come running over a big smile on her face, "I know!" When she saw the distressed look on her brothers face she stopped, "What's wrong?"
Jonathan looked up at her, "What do you know?"
"I know what I want to do," Terri asked. "What's this red triangle?"
"Cool, what do you want to do sis?" Jonathan asked. "That red triangle is a battle fleet headed to earth."
"I want to fl..." Terri stared. Then she stared at the red triangle. "Battle fleet?"
"Nice, Atlanta rank her as a pilot," Jonathan said.
Atlanta nodded, "She will have to go through training and will retain the rank of Ensign until she completes her training." The background of Terri's rank hologram changed to a rotating shuttle. It still maintained the pulsing cyan that denoted her as a Cypher. "The background will change as you pass your tests."
"Congratulations Terri. So, how long before they reach Earth?" Jonathan asked.
"Approximately two days, give or take a few hours," Atlanta said.
"Man of all the luck," Mike said.
"Says you, I just found something I wanted to do," Terri pouted.
"Sure they're headed this way?" Jonathan said.
"I have plotted their course for the past four hours. There is a .01 percent chance they will pass by Earth," Atlanta said.
"Great," Jonathan said.
"Hey, at least there's a chance right?" Brad said.
Jonathan rolled his eyes, "Ship compliment?"
"Unknown, they're too far out for my sensors to pick up. I can just barely get a reading on their engine signature," Atlanta said.
"So much for those sensor drones," Brad said.
"Well, let's worry about it when we can get a reading. They might just be checking to make sure the base is dormant," Jonathan said.
"Actually, those drones might just be the thing then," Brad said.
"Huh?" Jonathan said.
Brad brought up another hologram. It was a small ball about the size of a bowling ball. "These are the drones I been working on. They're basically a spider bot with out the legs. My idea was to use them to gather data in the surrounding area and for surveillance. They run on a smaller version of our shuttles engine and have a sensor package comparable to the base. With Mike's help I can probably configure them to mask signatures too. The Queen Spider bots can build about one an hour if they have the resources to do it. Atlanta was helping with the programming, we just used a stripped down copy of the spiders programming. However, I wanted Mike to look at actually building their program from scratch," Brad said.
"Ok, you two get on that. Atlanta, I need a list of supplies we need for the base. Then we all will take a trip to the main land tomorrow to drop some people off and get supplies," Jonathan said.
"We wanted to speak to you about that," Brad said.
"About the trip tomorrow?" Jonathan said.
"Yeah, Brad and I were thinking about moving our corporation here it would give us the personnel base we needed and their all loyal. Nurses, Doctors, scientists, mechanics, military, etc etc," Mike said. "Not to mention the supplies we have at out head quarters."
Jonathan thought about it for a second, "We can do that. It wouldn't hurt us to have the extra personnel before the fleet arrives."