Story #13 - Earthen Ring

Earthen Ring

He'd been right, of course, but that didn't make what was happening anymore palatable. It had taken him years to come to the conclusion and months more to divine exactly what was going to happen, so he couldn’t blame the others when they resisted; refused to see what was placed in front of their faces.

At least for a little while.

With his help, his colleagues should have been able to come to the answer sooner – with his knowledge, they should have been able to see! But for all that the community was about discovery, for all that it was about advancement, Adjunct Professor Maximillion Purchev's work was regarded as an abomination. All that had changed now, but that didn't make up for what had been done to him, the loss of career and family along with a healthy dose of humiliation.

Max pushed the thoughts from his mind as he raced up the steps of the small office tower. Most of the official buildings had been destroyed in the initial attack and the Generals had chosen this nondescript placeholder as their interim strategy center, something that had bought them at least a few weeks of time, according to his calculations. They would be found eventually, but at least from here a plan could be devised; experts could be consulted.

He frowned as he waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor. The guards at the door had been none too pleasant and none too gentle in searching him, as if he could somehow have been carrying one of them on his person. His knowledge was needed now, but that didn't mean it was understood, didn't mean it had yet been grasped by the those in charge. It wasn't a hard concept; just one that fell outside the norm.

The elevator car had been modified to leave only one button choice so Max didn't have to worry about blundering on to the wrong floor. As the cables began to pull upward he felt the building shake ever so slightly and he shivered in spite of himself. They were hunting again.

Humanity had been looking outward for so long that no one had bothered looking inward, looking down below the sewer pipes and oil deposits that covered the skimmed surface of the planet. Jokes were made about “Inners”, the small cadre of scientists that posited a potential alien presence living beneath the soil.

It had taken time to perfect the equipment he needed, time to overcome the mocking jeers, sarcastic messages and outright disrespect he'd faced for his theories. Time to realize that he had discovered something far larger and far more dangerous than he had ever imagined.

The doors opened and he stepped forward into a rigidly ordered hum; the precision of a military bureaucracy at work. Though humanity was on the verge of its own demise, the might of the military still ran as it should - with a steady, low-toned buzz.

Three searches, four checkpoints and fifty-eight questions later he stood in front of General Gregory H. Kroder, a man known for his ruthless precision and swift action. Highly decorated, Kroder had gained a strong following amount the citizenry during the last southern Asian conflict and though he wasn't well liked by the liberal media, his position as the only General left alive after the initial attack made him the man in charge.

“Doctor!” Kroder boomed in a voice three times as large as the space it filled. “Just the man I need! I think we've got a way to kill these Bringers once an' for all!”

Max sighed. Bio-Rings was the correct term, but the military was never happy until they co-opted vocabulary for their own purpose. Killing one wouldn't do much good either, it was their compound nature, the stacks upon stacks of them that allowed them such control over natural forces. It had been that same nature that saw them overlooked for so many years. Organisms large enough to encircle the entire planet, spread out in layers just below the crust. Based on available data from the first Bio-layer accidentally killed by the J2 Deep Earth Drill, the creatures were a form of parasitic alien life subsisting off of the ample resources found closer to the center of the globe.

The creatures had no interest in humanity until one of their number died. Suddenly, streets rose up unexpectedly, sinkholes opened at random and buildings across the planet disappeared in a matter of moments, leaving nations without leaders, armies without commanders and a populace on the verge of collapse.

Max kept his voice low as forced contrast to the General's, “if you have such a way, why would I be needed?” He had little inclination to help his fellow man but a chance to study the Bio-Rings more closely could not be ignored.

“To tell me if it's gonna work, Doc,” Kroder spread his hands across a large map on his desk. “We've got nukes set up all across the continent, ready to be dropped and deto'd as soon as I give the word,” he smiled, a scar of a thing on his lean face “we're going under them, Doc. Gonna blow them out from the inside.”

Max moved quickly around the table and Kroder waved to the guards to let him through. He swept his eyes over the page, seeking out the numbers he knew must be there.

Miles, feet, inches; he caught his breath. These depths would will the Rings, certainly, but have the side effect of overloading and then shutting down the earth's own core power production. The planet would freeze.

They had called him mad, driven him from house, from home, from heart, simply to prove he was wrong. The world lay in shambles as his own life, devoured by serpents that struck only when challenged.

He spoke, clearly and precisely, as his profession demanded he should, “Yes. This will kill them all.”

- D