Earth To Centauri_Alien Hunt Page 4

  INHS Asvini, Mumbai

  Indian Naval Hospital Ship, INHS Asvini, had played the role of the premier research and referral unit of the Indian Navy for hundreds of years. It catered to the whole of the Western Naval Command. The hospital was located at the south end of the city of Mumbai in Colaba, overlooking the waters of the Arabian Sea. The buildings were reminiscent of this mega-city’s history. Multiple upgrades over the last few decades had ensured that the hospital still fielded top of the line health care for the Indian Navy. Deemed inherently more secure and secluded, this was where Lucy and Joe had been brought.

  Lucy’s room was completely sterile and bereft of anything except medical instruments. Nurses and doctors in suits and masks were in constant attendance. Since it was expected that her baby would not be carrying immunity to any of Earth's diseases and the mother and her baby could potentially be carriers of any number of unknown pathogens from HuZryss, Lucy had been confined to this room since her return aboard Antariksh. She had only managed to catch a few random glimpses of her new home planet during the flight over from VSCC to Mumbai. The trip on the quadcopter had taken place during the middle of the night, and all she had seen were the lights of a few cities as she sat cocooned in her sterile suit while the craft rapidly took care of the 1700 km distance from T'puram to Mumbai.

  A small double-paned window allowed her a limited view of the world outside her room. She'd spent many wistful hours staring away at the sea across the rocky shore, just a few hundred meters away. A few fishing and naval vessels were visible in the bay. Lucy could not remember when she had last seen so much water in her life, or such a grey cloud-covered sky.

  She'd been fascinated by the continuous babble of voices that floated up to her room even through the sealed windows. But overall she felt confined and bored with the inactivity. There had been no further news from her new friends. Fortunately, Dr. Khan always seemed to be at her side. Joe, she'd been informed, was in the room next to hers undergoing tests of his own.

  Today, after the completion of her examinations, she was sitting on the bed staring at the screen on the opposite wall. There was some program being displayed on it. The Earth people had called it a ‘television' and she'd not yet fathomed its purpose. She'd meant to ask Dr. Khan but there'd always been something else that seemed to be more important. He'd told her that the delivery was only a few days away and everything seemed to be normal. She sat up on the bed. She'd been feeling restless over the last few days, and there seemed to be a constant dull ache in her back. She knew she was foolish by not asking for help from the caregivers. But she felt shy in the presence of so many strangers. The discomfort was mostly bearable, and she'd learned to handle it stoically.

  She felt another sharp pain in her abdomen. I hope everything's alright; she thought as the pain disappeared just as quickly as it had erupted. She took a couple of deep breaths and adjusted her pillows to be a bit more comfortable. There were a couple of beeps from the monitors on the wall, but then they'd been beeping away the whole time, and she'd tuned out their sound.

  There was a soft knock on the door, and after a short pause, it opened to show the form of Dr. Khan. He was covered in a diaphanous sterile suit from head to toe and was accompanied by a nurse. His face bore the familiar smile he always wore whenever he came to visit her. He entered the room and walked softly to her side as the airtight door sealed off behind him.

  “Hey Lucy, how's the mommy-to-be doing?” he asked standing over her, and holding her hand for the briefest of a moment. He turned to check the instrument banks and a small frown crossed his features as the nurse handed him a data pad with the readings over the last few hours.

  “Have you been experiencing any pains, Lucy?” he asked.

  “Just some aches in my back, but nothing much, Doctor,” she replied.

  “Are you sure?” he asked again looking at the readings.

  “There was a sharp pain in my stomach a little while ago,” she ventured. “But it's gone now,” she added hastily, lest she causes more concern.

  “Hmm, my dear, I think the time is near. That…” he said a little dramatically, “might be the beginning of labour pains. I hope you will be able to handle it. We can still go for a surgery if you change your mind?”

  “No!” she said, vehemently shaking her head. “I can cope with this.”

  “Okay, it's your call, Lucy,” accepted the doctor, while inwardly he admired her determination.

  “I have to ask you something,” she started tentatively. “Can I go outside and touch the water?” It was a very innocent request, and the doctor wished he could fulfill it.

  Instead, he shook his head in regret. “Not just yet. You’ll have to stay in quarantine for at least a week after the child’s birth. But I promise you; I will personally show you the wonders of this Earth, starting from this magnificent city of Mumbai. We will ride the old trains, walk along the white sandy beach of Chowpatty and the new underwater city. You can gorge on every type of delicacy this city has to offer,” the doctor said with his eyes shining. “In reasonable quantities of course,” he added almost as an afterthought, ever mindful of being a medical man.

  “Oh,” Lucy's face fell. “How's Joe doing?” she asked changing the subject.

  “He's doing well. Nothing wrong with his appetite or his mood.”

  “Can I see him? I haven’t seen him since we reached this hospital.”

  "Of course, of course. I think he is doing well enough to walk the few steps to your room. Just give me a few minutes.” The doctor turned on his heels and marched out of the room. He returned a few minutes later leading Joe, who smiled broadly.

  Lucy nearly jumped out of bed at Joe and hugged him tight, her distended belly not allowing her to quite put her arms all around him. He hugged her back with equal intensity. For a short while their world was radiant again.

  In the background nurse Aisha did all she could to hide her disgust. This was precisely what RE had warned her about in all their meetings - aliens would one day beguile their way on Earth and take over our beautiful planet.

  The arrival

  T he TrueKif ship was nearing Earth and tension was rising among the crew. The pilot had wanted to use FTL flight almost all the way to Earth, so they could remain undetected for as long as possible, but with the increasing number of interplanetary objects in uncharted space, this would have exponentially increased the risk of collisions. The ship had to fly at cruise speeds only, and that was irritating. They had kept away from planets, moons and asteroids which may have human bases but still the risk of detection rose rapidly at low speeds. The only consolation was that they were less than a day away from Earth and they did have basic navigation charts right up to the landing point.

  As the co-pilot kept an eye on the navigation system, identifying and plotting a course for their final flight to Earth, the pilot skillfully maneuvered the ship to the dark side of the moon. It landed deep inside a crater. They had decided to sit tight in that position for a few hours to get some rest while Earth completed its orbit. The pilot worked on finalizing the shortest route to their destination. A short flight might give them time to land undetected and give Jur and Biw a few vital minutes.

  ********

  Back on Earth, over the last few days more than a hundred objects had been tracked, investigated and dismissed. The search for the unknown intruder seemed to be leading nowhere. There were no reports of any contacts from any of the resources and as an ISC scientist remarked - the solar system was a vast and pretty empty place. Without any leads, there was very little to be done except keeping up the vigil.

  Seven hours later, the TrueKif ship lifted off and turned towards Earth. The pilot had decided to make the final dash for the destination at faster than light speed, as soon as the ship was in position - it would be riskier, but they could probably avoid any tracking devices looking for them.

  “Radar contact, sir, I have an unknown vessel moving at 100,000 kph, just entering radar range
!” the technician manning the tracking system on MG1 moon outpost called out. Even as his supervisor raced over to his station, the tech called out again. “It's accelerating fast. It's... it's gone. Radar contact lost! I say again, radar contact lost. It was accelerating, and then it just disappeared, sir!”

  “They must’ve accelerated to light speed,” cursed the supervisor under his breath. “Get me ISC command immediately and transfer the last known coordinates to them.”

  “Affirm MG 1. Data Received by ISC. Sir, moon base reports an anomalous radar contact. The ship has accelerated to light speed towards Earth,” the technician at ISC called out.

  “Sound the alarm!” responded his supervisor. As the klaxon blared across the two linked command centres, startled technicians and scientists scrambled back to their stations. The atmosphere went from lethargy to chaos in a matter of seconds. The senior supervisor at ISC dropped his cup of coffee and was in front of the tracking map the moment the alarm sounded.

  “Do we know their general heading?” he asked.

  “No sir, telemetry data is still coming through.”

  “Copied,” the supervisor acknowledged and transferred controls to the next in line – the Indian Air Force, whose team was also embedded in the same control room. “Handing over to IAF control for further action, standing by to support.”

  “Affirm,” replied the IAF supervisor on duty. Then he, in turn, called out, “Saini sir, handing over command of all assets to you.”

  Air Commodore Saini, in charge of all air and land assets, did not waste words but simply nodded and instructed his technician. “Alert the hypersonic fleet. Prepare them to engage unknown aircraft. Coordinates to follow.”

  A series of commands went across to various armed force command module across Earth. The confirmations came back within seconds. An expectant hush fell over the room while the alarm klaxon continued to blare away in the background.

  “Radar contact again; high Earth satellite has detected the spacecraft entering Earth's atmosphere, bearing 1-2-0 degrees 1-2-0-0 nautical miles from waypoint 4,” the IAF tech called out. The TrueKif ship had used FTL for a few seconds only. As the ship decelerated and entered the atmosphere there was a large flash.

  “Scramble all available assets to those coordinates,” commanded Saini. “Give me the estimated time to intercept, for our planes. Quickly!”

  “ET twenty-five seconds for USAF 1-3 and thirty-five seconds for IAF 0-7.”

  “Display map. Overlay expected intercept velocity and coordinates. Let's hope they reach in time."

  The primary display immediately changed to show two vectors converging towards the last known position of the TrueKif craft. Velocity and other data crowded the screen.

  “It's going to be extremely close,” breathed the IAF tech as everyone followed the trajectories of the three crafts.

  “We're not being paid to watch, son. Extrapolate the current trajectory and get me the commanders of naval and land tracking assets. This guy seems to have a destination in mind, and we may need to engage him from the ground.”

  “Speed and bearing unchanged. It's headed right for us.”

  “Get me the present position!” the Air Commodore nearly screamed at the tech, his patience wearing thin with the needless commentary.

  “Yes, sir. Bearing still 1-2-0, 7-5-0 nautical miles.”

  “This is Air Commodore Saini to commander, Western Naval Command. We have one intruder. Confirm you have it on your radar?"

  The reply was immediate, and a hologram-image of the naval commodore appeared. As if on cue, multiple ground assets turned green from red on the central display. The two hyper-craft could be seen steadily reducing the distance to the alien.

  The pilot of the TrueKif ship was unaware of the ground assets tracking the ship, but it had an excellent idea of the speed of the two ships nearing their position. It did not slacken its own speed but inched the nose slightly upwards, preparing to find a landing position. "Find me a good place to land and hide. As close to our planned coordinates as possible," it barked at the co-pilot.

  “It's all forest area, sir,” replied the co-pilot, inexperience showing through in the panic of the moment.

  “Any large structures where we can hide?” asked the commander while it concentrated on the two ships that would be with them in mere seconds. The damn ship was built for spaceflight; the pilot was unsure how the ship would handle a dogfight in the Earth’s atmosphere and gravity. Their first aim would be to avoid a confrontation altogether.

  “It's clearing up a bit now. There are some abandoned buildings fifty kilometers from our original destination. I am reading zero power emissions, no signs of life. The structures are large enough to hide us.”

  “Then punch in the exact coordinates and let's get there.” This would take every skill it possessed as a pilot to evade the defenders and land in one piece.

  The pilot of the USAF Z99 was scanning his instruments on board when he made contact with the TrueKif ship five hundred nautical miles away, which was moving at a tremendous speed. It seems to be in one mighty hurry, the pilot thought. His air-to-air missiles and lasers were already armed and only waiting for the signal lock from the onboard computer. That came just a couple of seconds later and six missiles lanced out from the Z99 towards the TrueKif ship.

  Every eye in the control room and on the ground followed the missiles as they streaked towards the alien ship. Surprisingly, the TrueKif ship was either unable or unwilling to take countermeasures and continued steadily on its original path. The missiles gained and raced towards their target.

  “Six rocket propelled objects following us sir, range two hundred kilometers and closing. Might be armed!” the co-pilot now shrieked out completely terrified. A growl immediately silenced it.

  The pilot concentrated on pushing the craft to the limit as it hurtled down towards the ground. It had to avoid the missiles and still land in one piece, or no one on board would survive the impact at this speed.

  Slowly but inexorably the missiles closed in. Two of them exploded a little prematurely, and the ship did not even feel the high yield explosions. Three exploded just behind the ship - causing it to rock violently. It was the last one that found its mark just above the engine on the port side. The massive explosion tore the engine apart and the aircraft tilted to one side. However, the hull of the ship was strong as it was reinforced for FTL space flight and the damage was minimal. With one engine down, the pilot struggled to maintain its approach on the three remaining engines and the ship rapidly lost altitude. The hypersonic aircrafts had to break-off contact as they overflew the alien ship. By the time they turned back, the alien ship had already dipped below their minimum operating altitude.

  Meanwhile, the ground tracking radars had picked up the incoming ship and surface-to-air, SAM, missiles now fired from multiple ground launchers.

  As the TrueKif pilot reduced the speed of the aircraft to prepare for a landing, it became aware of the new danger from the ground. The surface to air missiles were closing in on the aircraft. In desperation the pilot activated the ship's FTL shields and laser cannons. As the shields engaged the TrueKif ship became invisible to electromagnetic radiation, and the missiles immediately lost track. Safe from the missiles, the ship broke through the monsoon clouds and was lost from view behind the basaltic mountains of the Western Ghats.

  The people in the control rooms looked at the screen in disbelief as it displayed ‘Radar Contact Lost' in bright red letters. With all the technology at their command they'd been unable to shoot down a single craft.

  “Excuse me,” said Saini somewhat stiffly, his face ashen, “I must brief the Prime Minister. We have failed to prevent the landing, and the search now has to continue on the ground. It's all yours now - NIA command.”

  The entire episode from beginning to end had taken less than ten minutes, and as the men and women came to terms with the situation, they realized that the enemy was now at their gate. Its agenda was unknown.
The threat was real, and they'd lost their only lead.

  Implications

  T he parting words of the commodore weighed heavily in the Crisis Management Room at the PMO as those present followed the sequence of events on the holographic display. The ministers, top bureaucrats, and military commanders were too stunned to speak for a moment, and then a babble of voices filled the room as most of them suddenly wanted to offer their opinions and options.

  The ringing of the command phone silenced them. The AI connected the call and Saini faced them on the screen - formally informing them of the failure in neutralising the enemy craft. He started taking personal responsibility for the failure, but the PM waved him off. This was not the time to apportion blame; the man had done his best.

  “I need options, gentlemen,” the PM asked the gathering in a controlled voice. “Since we don't know the intention of these aliens we can safely assume that one of our largest and most important cities in the country is now under direct threat of an unknown nature.”

  “I recommend we get all available military and police personnel on the street, sir. We must get all military assets deployed,” offered defence. “We will block all entrances and contain them where they have landed while we hunt them down.”

  “Do you realise that there are thirty million people in that city? Can you even imagine the panic and chaos that will occur when you blockade the city? And just how many soldiers do you intend to put on the streets? A thousand? A million? Even if we did manage to gather that many law enforcement officers and automated law and order units, they wouldn't be enough to cover the whole city. Especially not when it becomes known that we have a rogue group of aliens who have landed in the city to destroy it and thirty million souls go into a panic. It won't work,” stated the home minister blandly.