Exodus – 2044
Andrews Air Force Base, Washington, DC, August 10, 2044
"I don't like this. We should have stayed down here with him. With them. The original plan was for us all to bail out."
"Plans change, Nammie, The Seer knows what he's doing. So do Nefertiti and the rest. They have to stay downside if the rest are going to have a chance." Lillith settled back in her seat, the truth was that she was as unhappy about the group splitting up as Naamah was. This was just the first phase of the break-up. Once topside, she and one group would be going on to Space Habitat L-4 while Naamah took another to L-5. A further group would be going to Luna City. The American Circle was being divided up between the three space colonies so that if one got hit by an infection it wouldn't take them all out. It was one of the aspects of Operation Lifeboat that wasn't part of the official plans.
"There's more to it than that. He's up to something. You know it, I know it. The people who are staying downside aren't all essential personnel. Look at them, The Seer himself, Nefertiti, Sacawagea, Tom Lynch, Tommy Blood, Henry, Nell, Bill Shaych, just to name a few. You can’t tell me that list has anything to do with securing the country against plague. It works the other way too, Iggie's on the plane with us and he's likely to really need her."
Lillith glanced around, a habit born from untold numbers of years living in the shadows. The precaution was unnecessary here, the United Airlines Star Clipper was being flown by Phaeton Phoebus Apollo in his identity as an Air Force Colonel. The 250 passengers on the leased aircraft were all long-lifers although the manifest didn't say that of course. In theory, anybody in the USA wishing to go topside could apply for one of the available places. They were tested for their ability to cope with the peculiar conditions of living topside and the range of skills they had was evaluated. It had been stressed that the space colonies should have a complete cross-section of American society with a comprehensive selection of all the available kinds of skills and expertise, even if some weren’t perhaps immediately useful in the space environment. After all, the space colonies were America’s lifeboat and the last-ditch reserve against an assault.
In reality, the truth of that claim was a little stretched. There were over 150,000 people living in space now, 60,000 split evenly between L4 and L5, 90,000 on the Moon. In addition, there was a small number on Mars and the military personnel on the MOWS platforms and Heinlein Station. Most of the successful applicants had been chosen to go up fairly and honestly, the only time the system had been manipulated was to make sure that all 6,000 long-lifers in the Washington Circle were mixed in amongst their number.
"Of course, he's up to something. In all the years we've known him, has he ever not been up to something? I must admit, he's never kept it from us before though." Lillith glanced around. "Is Gusoyn on board?"
"Up in the cockpit with Apollo. It’s good to see him with a partner again. It must have been horrible all those years on his own. Talking about time, has the Seer told you how long we’ll be topside for? I asked and he just said 'as long as it takes. Sometimes he makes me want to scream."
"Coming from somebody who made quite a few people scream in her day."
"In my day? That's rich. I'll have you know I can still screw the truth out of somebody."
Quite. Lillith glanced at the redhead sitting beside her. Indignation had driven away from her worry over the stay-behind party. For a while anyway. "I tried as well. Eventually, he broke down and said well be up topside for at least eighty years, probably for more than a hundred. And there’d be no physical contact at all once the barrier is dropped, which is very, very soon. Even now, quarantine is pretty strict. We'll have to spend 45 days at MOWS-22 before going up to Heinlein Station and another 30 days there. I guess we must be the last group going up. He also said something else. 'You have to be alive to thrive'. Look at the people on this plane, he got out everybody he was really close to. I think he was determined to get us both off Earth no matter what."
Theoretically, the government group was on a trip to evaluate conditions in Space after the people had been evacuated upwards. There had been reports of the overcrowding on the space stations as people backed up in quarantine before transferring to the Lagrange Habitats and Luna City. Everybody on board knew that the quarantine barrier was coming down so they would be unfortunately trapped when transit up to the space stations was finally stopped. The way the plagues were spreading, that was imminent.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We are about to start rolling, please make sure your seatbelts are fastened, your seatbacks are erect, your courtesy table is folded away, your tails tucked out of sight, and your horns hidden under your hats."
"Hahaha, Apollo." Lillith mumbled under her breath.
The Star Clipper lurched as the doors closed, then the spaceplane was rolling backward, Lillith presumed that it was being towed by a tractor but there was no way to see. She stared out of the window, frantically gathering memories, realizing this might be the last she would see of Earth for a very long time. The view of the airport buildings slipped past her and she could see the Flightline, mostly government and executive transports but there were also detachments of fighters and bombers parked near the runways.
More and more unauthorized flights were trying to get into U.S. airports. Probably just loaded with desperate refugees seeking shelter from the gathering holocaust around the world. It didn't matter, the aircraft was shot down anyway. The ships that tried the same thing were sunk with the same ruthless determination. America had been hit by the first waves of infection just like everybody else but now the country was fighting back. Nobody came in and if anybody went out, they stayed out. There were quarantine camps for any essential personnel movements. Lillith knew that the final touches were being made on the plans for the assault that would destroy The Caliphate's biological warfare capability. Unfortunately, they'd buried the installations across the whole territory, small sites in villages and hamlets or the back streets of cities. Destroying the biological warfare capability meant destroying the whole country. 'Here we go again.' The Seer had said. Only this time it was a quarter of the world that would have to be laid waste.
She felt the Star Clipper starting to shake as Apollo ran the engines up, the aircraft's nose dipping with the added power. Then, he let go of the brakes and the spaceplane bounded down the runway, picking up speed as it ate the distance towards the yellow paint and orange lights that marked the end of the tarmac. Long before that point was reached, the Star Clipper lifted its nose and soared skywards. Lillith heard the crumping noise as the undercarriage retracted and the whine as the flaps retracted. The aircraft was still accelerating despite its steep climb, below people would be looking up as the sonic boom echoed around them. Were they reassured by the noise? The sign that America was still working despite the chaos that was engulfing the world. Or was it a cause for further demoralization, a perception that the rats were leaving the sinking ship? That mental image made Lillith squirm uncomfortably.
Outside, the sky went black and the stars started coming out. Lillith felt the spaceplane shudder as Apollo switched the engines over from turbojet to scramjet mode. It lanced upwards again, pushing towards the invisible boundary that marked the end of Earth’s atmosphere and the beginning of space. Before that boundary was reached, there was another shudder as the engines switched over from scramjets to rocket power. That change also enabled the reaction control system built into the aerodynamic control surfaces. Now, the Star Clipper could fly and maneuver in space. It had left the Earth behind and the probability was that, no matter what the terms of the lease said, it would never be going back.
MOWS-22, High Earth Orbit, August 20, 2044
Lillith got out of her bunk, luxuriating in the low gravity that allowed her to walk easily. For almost all of her long life, her feet had hurt, normally a tolerable low ache but sometimes, when she’d been standing all day or when the weather was cold, a tearing pain from the damaged joints made her want to cry. She never had, she kept it to herself and even her closest friends didn't fully understand the extent to which her burned feet still crippled her. Even Paul didn't and Lillith’s thoughts caught at that. He was still down there somewhere, probably in one of the Triple Alliance’s undersea cities. Suriyothai had got her people out and slammed the door early. When the first waves of infection had started to spread, her country had been right in the line of fire and her loyalty had always been to her own country first. That had caused more than a few disputes over the years. Still, her decision had been vindicated, Asia had been ravaged by the super-influenza and pneumonia that had gone with it but the undersea cities were alive and thriving.
The door had slammed up here too, just three days after her party had arrived at MOWS-22. The space colonies had been cut off, thrown on their own resources, and unable to contact Earth. They were clean of plague, clear of infection and they had to stay that way. Everybody who was scheduled to come topside was up, anybody else who tried to make the trip would be left to drift in space. There had been a quiet campaign in the weeks before the door slammed, getting as much in the way of space plane assets topside as possible. All the MOWS stations had their full complement of fighters and bombers, transport aircraft were docked wherever possible. Space around Heinlein Station looked like a shopping mall parking lot while the situation around L4 and L5 was reported to be even worse. The transports were already working hard, Luna City was the center of a major refinery construction effort that was supplying the space stations with what they needed to function. There was a battle to survive up here as well, but it was a battle of technology and that was a war everybody knew Americans could fight and win. The struggle on Earth, against plague, wasn’t so clear an issue.
Lillith bounced out of the packed crew quarters module and bounded down the communications channel to the mess. The food there was boring and sparse, it had to be, MOWS-22 had more than three times its normal complement of people on board and was struggling to keep them fed, watered, and breathing. Still, the mess hall had entertainment and that was something else that was needed. As she neared the hatchway, painted with the green stripes that indicated there was air on the other side making it safe to open, she met Naamah coming in from her module. She was hurrying.
"Lillith, hurry up, you’ll miss the announcement." Lillith frowned, she hadn’t heard there was one due. "News must have come in while you were asleep. The President will be addressing the nation in, Naamah glanced at her wrist, two minutes. The Caliphate tried a mass missile launch earlier today. You should have seen the fireworks display downside, it’s lucky we're up here."
The flat-screen television picture wasn't that good. MOWS-22 was high and it wasn't in the best position for television reception, Lillith guessed that this transmission was being rebroadcast from one of the other stations. She was just in time; President Flynn was already at his podium.
"My fellow Americans. We stand now at what may well be the darkest time humanity has ever faced. I do not need to tell you of the dreadful toll that the plagues now raging worldwide have inflicted on us all. Those of us living in the southern and western states have experienced the ravages of disease for themselves while those in the rest of the country have suffered less only as a matter of degree. Yet, our situation is fortunate compared with that in many other parts of the world. Reports from Africa already suggest that survival there is the exception, not the rule. We have all heard of the terrible carnage in the far east as the super-flu ripped through the crowded cities in that part of the world.
"And there appears no end to it, as fast as one plague fades away, another takes its place. Our biologists tell me that this is, in part, natural, that it is a common feature of all pandemics of this kind that infection falls upon us in waves. But, they also tell me that these particular plagues are very unstable and that this is evidence that they are not naturally occurring but are genetically engineered. These plagues are not acts of nature, they are acts of war and the world knows how we respond to acts of war aimed at us.
"Earlier today, the acts of war perpetrated by The Caliphate against the rest of humanity reached a peak when a mass missile launch was attempted against a large number of countries. In some cases, these attacks were foiled by missile defense systems and I am pleased to tell you that all the weapons directed against the United States were destroyed by our defenses. Other countries were not so fortunate and from them, we know that the missiles were loaded with biological warheads, genetically-engineered diseases that we can barely understand let alone cure.
"I have therefore taken two actions as a result of this attack. I have ordered SAC to undertake a comprehensive bombing offensive against The Caliphate, destroying every facility that is known to be used for biological warfare, which may be used for biological warfare or which could conceivably be used for biological warfare. This is a massive attack and we must anticipate that the effects on the climate and environment will be severe, yet whatever the cost, we cannot afford to allow The Caliphate to continue its biological warfare. Humanity cannot survive another wave of attacks like the one launched today. We are not sure it can survive that one.
"That leads me to the second action I have taken. Effective as of today, the United States is cutting itself off from the rest of the world. Nobody comes into this country, nobody goes out. Nothing comes in or goes out. Nobody comes close to us, if they try, they will be destroyed. Our primary aim must be our own survival, with the current pandemics and the anticipated famines, we need everything we can produce. There is one exception to this. For a hundred years we have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Russian people and they have stood beside us. Recently there was much pressure to blow up the Bering Strait Bridge to further isolate ourselves." The President smacked his hand on the podium. "There will be no such action. We stand beside our Russian allies, always have, always will.
"Within the quarantine is a further measure. We are strictly limiting movement around the United States. Until the current spate of disease dies down, we cannot afford to have any great contact between localities. Despite this restriction on movement, I beg all Americans to stand together. Those who live in the North have the advantage that the cold of winter means a respite from the epidemics. Those who live in the south have no such respite. Those who live in the heartland are removed from immediate confrontation with the disease, those who live on the coasts and borders have no such safety zone. Those who live in cities have resources but the vulnerability of dense populations. Those who live in the countryside have the advantage of a sparse population but suffer from a lack of resources. We, all of us, have things that others need and demands that others can fill. Sharing will be difficult yet we must if we are to survive.
"Furthermore, we have ended all transit up to or down from our space stations and lunar colonies. They are free of disease and are completely isolated. They are our last line of defense, our last redoubt. Let me speak a little more about our space colonies. They are indeed our last redoubt. They have the personnel in numbers adequate to rebuild life down here on Earth. Those space redoubts have a cross-section of the population with all its skills, attitudes, and beliefs. They have all our knowledge, all our documents, all our records, they have as much of our military resources as we could base there. They are defended against attack. No matter what happens down here on Earth, they will survive. With them, the United States of America will survive.
"All these precautions, our strategic defenses, our space colonies, everything we have to help us fight this foul pandemic of biological warfare have been carefully built over the last seventy years. You may ask how this came to be. After all, our government is notorious for changing course and being unable to maintain consistent policies over more than a few Presidential terms. The answer is amazing and when told of it, I could not believe it myself. But, it is true. There is a small group of people living amongst us whose lifespan is much greater than the traditional three score and ten. After the First Biowar seventy years ago, these people saw the danger that awaited us and they have devoted their lives to protecting America against the danger that has now become so terribly real.
"Let me be clear about this. These people, Methuselahs they are called, do not rule us, your elected representatives do that as they have always done. The Methuselahs have faithfully served them for all this time, with equal diligence, care and skill no matter which party was in power. It is our votes that decided who rules this country and will continue to do so. The Methuselahs have been our willing and devoted servants, not our rulers, and we owe them the chances we have at survival. These people are not immortal, they can die or be killed like any other human. Yet, now the disaster is upon us, they have elected to stay here with us and help us fight for survival, no matter how high the personal risk to them. With them, they have brought their skills, their experience, and their knowledge, all of which they freely and unconditionally offered in order to help our country survive. I need not tell you that this gift is quite probably the key to our survival.
"The Bible tells us Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. How much greater must these people's love for us be, that they should risk their chance at eternity for those not known to them except as their fellow countrymen?"
"Thank you, and may your God go with you."
Lillith and Naamah stepped quietly out of the recreation room, into the silence of the corridor. So that was what he was up to. Naamah's voice was awed.
"And why he got us up here, out of the way. If this goes wrong, the stay-behind party will get lynched. Talk about taking a risk, this could be a disaster. That's why he kept the people down there he did. Folk heroes, people who everybody admires. Note how it’s implied all of us are downside, up here, we’re safe for a while. Whoa, hold it."
The door was opening as two of the station personnel stepped out. "Well, what do you make of that Jim?"
"Those.... Methuselahs the President called them? All I can say is thank God we've got them in there swinging for us. We needed somebody special to get us out of this mess."
"Reckon so. Do you think Batman is one of them? "
"Must be, I sure hope Superman is. We could use that heat vision thing." The voices faded as the two vanished.
Lillith looked at Naamah with relief. "You know, I think it’s going to be OK."