The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (52 page)

“
You really couldn’t find anything a little
bit more suitable?” asked Oliver.

“
Are you really going to go there?” replied
Karl.

“
Just step on it,” said Melissa.

The mortars, rockets, and countless rounds of
ammunition were now redirected towards the dump truck, but were
found to be ineffective due to its new shielding. As the second
ellipse reached its full velocity it started to act as a giant
magnetic field and anything that had even the smallest amounts of
metal, within a one hundred foot radius, was quickly pulled in.
Once the nearby military and civilian personnel started to realize
the magnetic attraction, they began to remove any metallic objects
from their bodies.

“
Are you seeing this?” asked Melissa as she
looked in the side view mirror.

“
I tend to keep my eyes forward in situations
like this,” said Oliver.

“
I agree,” responded Karl.

“
It looks like the second ellipse is trailing
us, but keeping its distance.”

“
Good let’s hope it stays that way,” said
Karl.

“
It will,” replied Oliver.

“
I think this is a wonderful time to tell us
what in the world just happened,” demanded Melissa.

“
All I can tell you is Izri
sure thinks ahead. He obviously created a fail safe for us. All I
know is this technology is
Tureissian in
design and it acts as a defensive shield for the people inside it.
From the looks of it we have nothing to worry
about,
” explained
Oliver.

“
Why, could something go wrong?” asked
Karl.

Oliver looked towards Karl and said, “It’s a piece
of alien technology! How am I supposed to know? Just drive.”

Finally showing signs of sheer
frustration, Melissa looked at her father and said, “You really
need to start keeping us apprised of this stuff! Now how are we
going to get away? We’re in a dump truck and in case you haven’t
noticed, there are numerous military aircraft and vehicles
surrounding us. And from the looks of it, they’re starting to
maintain a safe distance from the magnetic ellipse. In addition, we
have the energy shield to deal with, and oh, did I mention our top
speed is 50 mph?”

“
I’ve never seen you like this
before, Melissa, I recommend you sit down, breath, and be quiet!”
yelled Oliver. “You think I know what lies ahead, because I don’t.
However, I can tell you this, I trust Izri when it come to these
matters, and I’m most certain this escape will go off without a
hitch. I just wish I had my moose slippers.”

“
Where am I? Hello. Can anyone
hear me?” asked Spencer as he frantically started to reach out in
front of him finding nothing but darkness. “This can’t be, am I
dead again? Can someone please tell me what is going on?” As
Spencer started rethinking what he had just accomplished, he
started seeing a small speck of white light. Spencer was unable to
determine its origin, but really did not care. He was just happy he
was not seeing darkness anymore. He tried to focus on this white
light and the more he did, the closer it came, until he saw nothing
but white light. Spencer continued to think to himself he was
rising to the heavens, until he heard someone mutter the word,
“baffled.” Slowly the white light took on different shapes and
colors until he was able to make out what he hoped to be an
illusion. Spencer counted not two, not five, but ten armed soldiers
with very large firearms pointed at his location. This obviously
made Spencer scream, “Don’t shoot,” but unfortunately for him, he
had not obtained control over his vocal cords.

Commander Calchera ordered security to lower their
weapons and placed them on standby. “Let’s not jump to conclusions
until the scan is completed. In the meantime, I want you to create
a mental connection to Izri’s host body, I want to have a
conversation with our surprise guest before we release him.”

The senior technician acknowledged the order and
disseminated the responsibilities to make it so.

Meanwhile, the Commander realized
this task was going to take at least an hour, so he returned to his
office and attempted to make contact with Oliver’s team.
After sending an electronic communiqué to
them,
he
was
able to triangulate their position to be approximately ten miles
outside the Darwin airport in Australia, moving at a rate of 50
mph.

Once Serafina finished her
conversation with Melchior, she walked into the stasis chamber
where Spencer’s body was being preserved. She pushed aside one of
the control operators, and punched in a series of commands on the
main panel monitoring Spencer’s life signs. Serafina soon noticed
there were in fact life signs, but no brainwave patterns. She
questioned the operator who was monitoring this station, and
learned that Spencer’s brainwave patterns stopped approximately
fifteen minutes after his arrival. The operator advised Serafina he
had notified a med team for revival, but those orders were
rescinded by his commanding officer because there were no med teams
available at the time. Serafina stopped with the questioning on
this matter, and assumed the mental purge had already been taken
care of, so she turned to the control panel and entered in her
security code. Serafina looked up at Spencer and with an
emotionless face said, “Please forgive me,” Serafina then executed
the command that incinerated Spencer’s body leaving only
ashes.

After the task was completed, a
secondary operator notified Serafina and advised her someone was
trying to communicate with Oliver’s team. It was fortunate for
Serafina that Central Circuit owned forty five percent of all
satellites in orbit and this particular signal was bouncing off one
of theirs. Serafina ordered the operator to re-route this
communication to their facility in Sydney, but make it appear to
the senders that any communications being sent back to them were
coming from Darwin. Once this task was completed, Serafina ordered
a Central Circuit satellite to be repositioned so it could provide
live feed of what was taking place in Darwin. Furthermore, Serafina
was able to determine the transmission was coming from a Floater
due to its unique coding. This was certainly no
surprise.

“
The one who controls the flow of
information always has the upper hand,” thought
Serafina.

After she reviewed the live
satellite feed of the activities in Darwin, Serafina was pleasantly
surprised of the ongoing escape being conducted by who she
suspected to be Oliver, Melissa, and Karl. Once she felt she had
enough information on what was going on in Darwin, she opened a
communication audio channel and transmitted her authorization code.
Within thirty seconds, Serafina established a secure channel with
the Floater faction and prevented them from making contact with
Oliver.

“
This is
Commander Calchera
from the
underground facility known as the LP.”

“
It is a pleasure to hear from you Commander,”
replied Serafina.

“
We noticed a large quantity of
enemy fire near the Darwin airport. I take it our plan did not go
as expected?” he asked.

Not being completely knowledgeable of the situation,
Serafina decided to play it safe and gave limited details of her
involvement.

“
I am sorry sir, but I was ordered to stay on
the outskirts of the facility until Oliver sent notice.”

“
Well from the looks of it you won’t be
waiting much longer. We activated our escape clause.”

“
I am sorry, what escape clause,
I was not informed of this.”

“
No, you were not and neither was Oliver. We
decided to place a number of cloaked orbital shield modules within
the crate of medical supplies, just incase you needed to be
extracted.”

“
Why were we not told of this?”
asked Serafina thinking this would have been a normal question to
ask if she was really in Darwin communicating with
command.

“
We didn’t want to share this
knowledge just in case they did a mind probe on any of you, which
according to our undercover agents, was exactly what they did when
your team checked in. This gave them a little bit of knowledge of
who you all really were, but not your intent. I figured they were
going to continue to draw this act out another day or so, then
decide to use some unpleasant measures against the team. Anyway, we
were not willing to take that risk so the orbs were activated.
Plus, after learning the infected were cured we decided to change
our approach.”

“
To what, if I may ask?”

“
No, you may not, it’s
classified,” responded
Commander
Calchera
in a weary
tone.

“
Yes, sir. Are there any orders you want me to
pass on?” asked Serafina.

“
This would be why I was
contacting your team. You will notice approximately fifteen miles
out from Darwin heading south on Route 1 is a large hole near the
Tortilla Flats. Once you arrive I want whoever is driving to drive
directly into that hole.”

Serafina was already familiar
with the technology currently employed on the escape vehicle, so
she had no real need to question the
Commander
’s orders. However, she
wanted the false façade she was portraying to look legit. “I am
assuming there will be some type of safety net and further
transport upon our entry into this hole you speak of.”

“
Yes, once the
ellipse shielding detects a free-fall it will
suspend itself and anything attached to it. After this occurs, we
will deactivate the shielding from the underbelly of the vehicle
and extract the passengers into our tunneling device. After you
explain this escape route to Oliver, use the phrase, ‘cradle drop,’
he should understand and trust your Intel. Any
questions?”

“
None, sir, I will relay the
message.”

“
Good, Calchera out.”

Serafina immediately opened a
secure channel to a satellite office on the outskirts of Darwin,
relayed the current quadrants of the hole, and instructed them to
put together a large payload of highly explosive materials.
Serafina knew dropping explosives down a hole this size, seconds
before the target vehicle fell in, was going to be a logistical
nightmare, but she knew of no other way.

After Serafina’s conversation
with command, her suspicions were confirmed. The Floaters had not
yet learned her loyalties had changed. Little did she know Izri
failed to report her actions to Commander Calchera or anyone else.
Serafina knew the past occupants of her team had intelligence she
wanted, so if this meant incapacitating Oliver, Melissa, and Karl
and holding them against their will, then so be it.

“
Plus, how would I explain to Commander
Calchera my decision not to go back with Oliver, if I allowed them
to get away,” thought Serafina.

“
Confirmation complete on Jade
and Reece, their transfers are normal. Permission to remove them
from their pods?” asked the senior technician.

“
Granted,” replied Commander
Calchera.

“
Yes, sir.”

As the pods broke their seals
Jade and Reece stepped out carefully and were guided to their
respective changing rooms where they showered and were given a
fresh set of clothing. Both asked a number of questions, but kept
receiving the same response, “I’m sorry ma’am or sir I can’t answer
that.” Once cleaned and dressed they were able to get some food
before their debriefing. Jade was escorted into Commander
Calchera’s office where she was asked to take a seat.

It did not take much effort from
the Commander to get Jade to talk, just simply the question, “What
happened?” As Jade went into detail of her involvement with Zaccai,
Melchior, and Izri, Commander Calchera was fixated on every word.
Jade explained about Evolutionary Freedom, how the harvesting of
the humanoid consciousnesses was going to be revealed, and
how
Tureissians
were on the brink of a civil war. Lastly, Jade mentioned
about the Weed Virus, why it was deleted from all infected Earth
humanoids, and why there were no longer going to be any new viruses
implemented by the Tureissians. This new intel left Commander
Calchera speechless.

At this point, Jade dropped the last chapter on the
good Commander, and informed him of Project Illuminate, which she
was currently still trying to interpret. To the best of her
understanding, this software would somehow connect humanoid
consciousnesses to some type of unknown source that she had not yet
figured out. Jade explained, “The only other piece of knowledge I
have regarding this software is it was developed for both factions
to use. I just don’t know how to use it yet.”

“
I see, I will forward all of
this information to command and download all relevant information
on this Project Illuminate from your PIC. One last question, where
is Izri?”

“
I don’t know. Last I saw him was
when I was in Prime 2’s chambers. He hasn’t contacted you
yet?”

“
No, unfortunately not. Thank you, Jade, you
have served your planet well.”

“
Thank you, now, I have some questions of my
own,” smiled Jade.