Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth (9 page)

All of this had happened in the time that elapsed since I had left Earth, but to me it had only been a little over 2 years.  Hearing Wabussie read from his vid pad the translations of events which had happened made me feel like it was all happening at that very moment, my battles with the Brotherhood seemed small and insignificant by comparison to what happened on Earth.

“According to the broadcasts we received next,” Wabussie continued, “it was about three months later that a large asteroid was spotted heading toward the Earth.   Broadcasts said it was about 40 kilometers in diameter?”  Wabussie said glancing from his vid pad to me.  I was shocked.

“Did they send up
THORS’ HAMMER
to destroy it?”  I stammered.

Wabussie looked down at his vid pad and said.  “It says here that apparently all the devices and missiles that the Earth governments had for defense against asteroids and meteors had been used against the attack from the Chinese when used the moon rocks against Earth.  The broadcasts said that
THORS’ HAMMER
was sent out, but it had used all its anti-matter and nuclear bombs and missiles in their attack against the Moon base and Beijing.  They only had lasers, pulse weapons and particle beam weapons still functioning and those weren’t powerful enough.  The standard missiles that the military was using at the time would not fit on THORS’ Hammer and there was no time to build or modify one.

Even so, a crew of men loaded as many conventional nuclear war heads aboard the ship as they could so they could  intercept the asteroid and blow themselves up as near to it as possible to divert it from Earth.”  Wabussie stopped reading and stared at the vid pad.

“What happened?”  I asked.

“It says the ship blew up before it reached the asteroid.”

“What?  How?”

“It doesn’t say, only that it blew up.  There was some speculation they may have been arming the warheads before they reached the asteroid and something went wrong, but no one knows.  Two weeks later, all transmissions from the Earth ended.”

I sat there dumbfounded.  This couldn’t be.  How could they have been fighting for all that time in such a large war and  have the war end, only to be destroyed by an asteroid just a few weeks later?  What was left of the Earth?  How much damage could have an asteroid that size done?  The asteroid that hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs was believed to only be 4 to 6 kilometers in diameter; this asteroid was over 40 kilometers in diameter.

“I want every one of our crew back aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
as soon as possible.  Tell them to wrap up whatever they are doing, get someone to take charge of the tasks they were doing and to be aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
in 20 hours.  Commodore, plot a course to Earth; I want us underway in 20 hours. Check out how close our route takes us to Alle Bamma; if it’s not too far, I want to stop by there for a day.  Commander,” I said, turning to Wabussie, “I hope you do not mind my leaving you and Commander Sokaia in the hands of Captain Felenna to see to your return to the Federation aboard the
MIZBAGONA
. I’ll leave it up to you to return the solbidyum we recovered back to the proper authorities.  I need to get to Earth as soon as I can to see what has happened and if there are any survivors.”

“I understand Tibby. It will be no problem at all traveling with Captain Felenna on the
MIZBAGONA
; it’s a fine ship, perhaps not quite as luxurious as the
NEW ORLEANS
, but a fine ship nonetheless,, and Felenna is a good Captain.  I wish I could be going with you, but I’ve already been away from my post with the FSO too long, and Commander Sokaia has been away from her troops as well; we both need to be getting back to our duties.

“Tibby, I can’t tell you what an honor it has been being with you near the action on your missions.  What the Federation owes you is far beyond the rewards you have gotten, even though I know you think you have already received too much.  I truly admire you, and all of your crew for that matter.  Thanks again for everything.”

A few hours later found Kala and me seeing Commanders Wabussie and Sokaia off in the hangar bay.  They had Logden with them, accompanied by two of my troopers for guards. He would be making the trip back to the Federation with them to stand trial for stealing the solbidyum shipment.  As their shuttle departed the hangar in route to the
MIZBAGONA,
a message came through on my communicator from the Commodore.

“Tibby, I’ve checked, and we will be passing very close to Alle Bamma on our way to Earth, I’ve charted it into our navigational plans, we should arrive there in two weeks.”

“If we assume that we spend a day at Alle Bamma, how long will it be until we arrive at Earth?”  I asked.

“With our enhanced engines, running at max speed it should take us about six weeks.” He responded.

I sighed.  “I know I gave a departure time earlier of 20 hours, but if everyone gets back before then, I want us leaving as soon as the last is aboard.  Maximum speed!”

“It will be done; I’ll let you know as soon as we depart.”

Just a little over six hours later I received word from the bridge that we were underway.

Over the next few days my strength returned rapidly and my bruises faded.  The nanobots in my body searched out damaged tissue and bone and knitted it together; a week later, other than for my missing eye, I felt pretty much like my old self again.  The illusion of being returned to my earlier physical state was soon shattered when I decided to do some minor workouts in the gym.  I began slowly practicing some Tai Chi moves and quickly discovered that my sense of balance was way off.  I had a difficult time trying to keep balance on one leg while extending my other.  I found a few other leg and arm movements demanding as well, and a few I was unable to do at all.  Suddenly, I felt very tired and very afraid.  I left my exercise and headed back to my suite, there I threw myself on the bed and stared at the ceiling.  I was feeling lower than I have ever felt in my life.  Earth was gone, or at least it sounded that way, and here I was, in an alien universe, disabled, or at least I was from my perspective.  I knew I wasn’t really disabled, but I felt terribly impotent without my normal skills.  I’m not sure how long I lay there cursing myself internally when I became aware that Kala was standing in the doorway staring at me.

“You feeling sorry for yourself now?”  She asked calmly.

I was a bit embarrassed for her to find me like this, but I answered with a sigh, “I’m sorry to say I am.  It’s all a bit much.  All the events on Goo’ Waddle, Tanden’s death, Shydak getting away, my crash, and now finding out that my home world of Earth may have been destroyed!”  It’s a lot to deal with.

“You seemed to be dealing with it pretty well until you discovered that you no longer have the speed and agility you had before.  Are you sure it’s not your masculinity that is troubling you?”

Her words stung, but I knew she was right.  The idea that I may never be able to perform at my previous level of skill with my martial arts made me feel like a cripple.  I knew that was not true, but I still felt that way.”

“Tibby, you’re going to have to give it time.  It will take months of exercise for all your muscles and nerves to relearn all that was lost.  Give it time; don’t give up.”

“I rolled over, got up off the bed, walked to her, put my arms around her, and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips.  “Thank you.  I’m sorry I’m being so negative, but with all that happened in the past few weeks, it’s hard for me to be positive.”

Kala squeezed me tighter and kissed me back and then pulled away.  “Just focus on thinking about our family and raising our kids.  That should give you something positive to think about.”

“You’re right!”  I said with a smile, “By the way, you never did tell me just how long you have been pregnant.”

“How long WE have been pregnant!”  Kala emphasized, “I didn’t do this alone, you know.

I smiled, “No you didn’t.  Okay then, how long have WE been pregnant?”

“Ten and a half weeks, unless the med unit is malfunctioning.  I should start showing soon now.”

At that moment the door alarm indicated someone present at the door.  Kala walked over and opened it. Jenira came bounding into the room, looking about futilely as though she expected to see some disaster.  When she looked at me and didn’t see any problems, she relaxed.

“What’s this here?  Kala said looking at Jenira’s back.”  As I looked at Jenira, I noted two handles extending beyond her shoulders, as she turned facing Kala, I noted that they were two short swords.”

“Where did you get these?”  Kala asked.

Jenira began to pantomime and gesture an imitation of someone, and Kala and I began trying to guess.

“Marranalis?”  Jenira shook her head disappointedly and continued with her gestures.

“Kerabac,” I guessed.  Jenira shook her head again and began pantomiming more.

“Padaran?”  I tried, and Jenira clapped her hands and shook her head yes.

“Tibby, we need to contact the learning band and download the Federation Sign Language for the Deaf so you can communicate better with Jenira.”

“Whenever you think I am up to it, I’ll be glad to oblige.”

I walked over to Jenira and looked at the swords, “May I look at them?”

Jenira got a serious look on her face for a second. bit her lip in contemplation, and then reached back over her shoulder and extracted a single blade with her right hand.  She cautiously brought the blade around, laying the flat side of the blade with the sharp edge facing toward her body in her left hand and extended her arms out, moving the blade toward me.  I carefully accepted the blade and examined it.  It was a slightly curved blade and looked very much like the smaller Japanese swords I had seen on Earth; each had about a half meter long blade.  I carefully moved my finger across the edge of the blade and was shocked as I realized this was possibly the sharpest blade I ever touched.  The entire sword was well crafted and sturdy; and while not overly ornate, it obviously was of high quality and expensive.  Carefully I handed it back to Jenira in the same manner that she presented it to me.

“Be very careful with those,” I admonished her.  She returned the sword to its scabbard with a smooth move that shocked me.  I had expected she would struggle with it, since it was on her back, and it required her to reach over her shoulder to accomplish the feat.  “Those are extremely sharp blades.”  Jenira nodded but didn’t smile.  “You don’t practice with those blades, do you?”  I asked, as visions flashed in my mind of Jenira making clumsy swings with the swords and slashing whoever was practicing with her.

Jenira shook her head “no” and then signed something with her hands.  I looked at Kala, who translated.  “Jenira says they use practice dummy swords for sparring, never the real thing.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I was envisioning my crew hobbling about the ship looking like me in a few weeks if they were using real swords like these.”

“Tib, you know what I think you need-- if you’re feeling up to it, that is?  I think we need to go to the lounge and listen to Kerabac and A’Lappe performing.  Who knows, if you feel up to it, we may even be able to dance a slow number or two.”

I had to admit that Kala’s idea sounded good to me.  Kerabac and A’Lappe made a fantastic duo. That, coupled with the fact that Kerabac had a singing voice similar to the old Earth singer, Nat King Cole, made listening to him a real delight.  I could see Jenira’s light up when Kala suggested it, and I suspected that Jenira liked listening to them as well.

Since I was still a mass of scars, even though the nanobots were slowly doing their work at removing them, I decided not to wear the short-sleeved shirts I normally did when going to the lounge.  I opted to wear one of my dignitary cut suits with the Nehru style collars instead.  These would cover the scars, and the only visible evidence of my crash would be my eye patch.  Kala picked out a lovely short, tight-fitting dress in a shimmering aqua fabric that took my breath away.  She noted me staring at her and said with a grin.  “I decided I should wear this now because in a few more days, I won’t be able to wear anything like this again for several months.”  “I suddenly got a mental image of Kala wearing the same dress, only with a large protruding stomach and wearing fuzzy bedroom slippers; I had to grin.”

“What are you thinking Tibby?”  Kala said with an amused look.

“Oh, I was just thinking that I can’t imagine you wearing anything that you would not appear attractive in.”  And that was no lie; I think Kala would look beautiful in anything or nothing at all.”

We could hear the sounds coming from the lounge before we reached it; Kerabac’s rich voice, accompanied by A’Lappe’s instrumentals, echoed.  As we drew closer, I could hear that Kerabac was singing one of the Nat King Cole songs I had taught him while we were on the planet Alle Bamma months earlier.  It was the song
NATURE BOY
, another of my personal favorites.  As we entered the room, I suddenly realized that he was not singing the words exactly as I had taught him; he was substituting for the normal lyrics and sang, “
There was a boy, a very strange enchanted boy, they say he traveled very far, to every star, that man has ever seen
,” He went to sing the rest like this
, “A somewhat modest guy who opened every eye, for very wise was he.  And then one day, while we were far away, I came to hear him say, and these words he spoke,  Of many things, of men and kings, these words he said to me, the greatest thing I’ve ever learned is the love that now within me burns and just to love and be loved in return.”
I thought he had finished the song just as Kala and I were taking a seat at an empty table by the stage, but Kerabac continued on.