23:40 Hours Eastern Time, November 11th

En-route from Phoenix Shelter, Arizona

It had taken less than six hours to organise everyone’s evacuation from the shelter, and the only reason it had taken that long was because not all of the scavenger teams had returned from salvage detail when Jason had come back with his frightening report.

This fast evacuation being accomplished was no small feat; people resisted, having known the shelter their whole lives, and insisted that the danger was overplayed by Jason. Those that knew him better were the first to pack, and they insisted on going armed to the teeth, almost impossible since there was barely enough ammunition and weapons left to arm a small detail, much less the entire shelter population.

Janet had whipped them all into shape for this mass exodus, and she insisted on leading them out herself despite the protest from her guards who implored her to “be reasonable and accept protection against such a hostile menace”.

She had simply looked at them both as if they never knew her at all. Sit back under protected guard while her people risk their own lives? What kind of coward would that make her?

With only what they could carry and make do with, and a few hand-fashioned weapons among the point guards, everyone marched out of the shelter and up to the hostile surface, their destination was a small sub-shelter designed for the city’s congress and senators back before the first bombs fell.

Janet had sent a salvage team there a number of weeks after she took over the running of Phoenix, much to the horror of her staff, who were superstitious about the place, but it had proven deserted and, more importantly, reasonably secure in comparison to Phoenix.

Nuclear winter still affected the surface.

This would be a long trek.

Two days passed.

Cold had set in on the levelled city that they had weaved through, and the journey was made treacherous by the fact that the weather was in fact so cold, frost had begun to appear on the ground.

Janet had moved from the front, through the ranks of people whom had maintained their formation thanks to her strict training, to the rear of the group, and back toward the front again.

She completed three round trips front and back, and on each trip she had noticed the absence of a small number of people. Some of them appeared elsewhere in the formation, and she reamed them for breaking position. Some had replied that they wanted to walk with their friends or comrades, and she reamed them all the more for placing people’s lives at risk in futile searches just for the sake of a little conversation.

Others had not reappeared elsewhere.

Jason Mensar and his sister were among those who had vanished.

Mark Hayward too.

Janet quickly made her way back to the head of the group, to alert her guards as to the situation, and she told Edward what had happened.

“How long ago did you last see them?” he asked, surprised.

“Eight hours back, just after we moved off from our last rest point,” she replied, frustration at their disappearance causing her to snap harshly.

“Any idea when they left?”

“How the hell should I know Edward?” She snapped fiercely. “You forgotten how big this group is?”

“No,” Edward replied coldly. “I have not.”

Janet would have issued a blistering reprimand, except she knew he had a right to reply so coldly to her. After all, she had lashed her tongue at him for asking an innocent question.

“I’m going back to look for them,” she told Edward. She looked toward her guard. “Find shelter around this area and set up camp for the night,” she told him in a tone that brooked no argument. Then she began to move back throughout the group.

It took twenty minutes to sift through the crowd for one final check, and none of the missing persons had re-appeared. She was rather perfunctory in her questioning of the last group she had seen Jason with, and they informed her that he decided to cut loose and join the rear guard, with the others going along as well.

Janet would break his neck when she saw him again.

She stormed off away from the group to go look for Jason. Among those missing now were Jason, his sister Leila, Mark Hayward, and two guards.

Why had the guards not informed her of their intentions? And why had they gone along with the kids in the first place? Their duty was to make sure they all stayed with the group.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped when she realised Edward was following her back along their trail. “You’re supposed to stay with the others!”

“Not when my children are missing I’m not,” Edward replied with a finality Janet had not expected.

“Get back and join the others,” She snapped back.

“No,” Edward replied gently. “I will not go join the mass exodus when I know my children are missing.”

“Understand Edward, your children will be punished… Severely.”

Edward nodded. “I’ll be glad to help, I assure you,” he replied. “However, it does not change the fact that they are my children and I will not sit by and do nothing while they might be in danger.”

Janet had expected Edward to be stubborn. “Understood.”

They continued on their way, eventually finding them grouped together further back along the track. An argument had erupted between Jason and one of the guards, which from what Janet could hear, was about why he was taking so long to get moving and rejoin the group.

“SILENCE! EVERYONE!” Janet roared loudly, disregarding any possibility of their being discovered – she was livid. The whole group glanced nervously at her, though the guards visibly relaxed when they realised it was Janet.

“Now which of you wants to tell me why we’re all hanging back from the main group?”

“Mensar here decided to take an extended break,” one of the guards said, his tone lacking inflection.

“I needed a piss… So what?”

Janet slapped him, hard. “Speak only when spoken to.”

“Fuck you,” he said scornfully.

Janet hit him, hard, with her fist this time. “I said speak only when spoken to.”

Jason glared for some time, but Janet matched his glare with equal determination. Eventually, he turned away. “Fuckin’ starin at me,” he muttered.

“Your holding up the group could have put lives at risk Mensar. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I told you I needed a piss!”

“So you thought that you’d cut loose from the group without telling anyone?!”

“I told your guards-”

“And I’ll deal with them as well for not telling me but you should know well enough by now not to-”

“Oh for fuck sake man,” Jason whined, waving an arm in the air. “I just needed to get away from all those guys!”

Janet glared back at him. “You’d risk your life for some peace and quiet?”

“It’s not like-”

“WHAT ABOUT THE LIVES OF EVERYONE WITH YOU?” Janet snapped and roared loudly, pushing him back so forcefully he fell to the ground. “Never mind the fact that your father and I have risked our own necks by breaking away from the group to come looking for you!”

Jason had stood back up again by now. “I never asked-”

Edward hit Jason and he fell to the ground again. “I’m your father boy… What possesses you to think I would not come looking for my son?”

“Okay! Fine!” Jason shouted the reply, sighing. “It won’t happen again, okay?”

“Just get moving, we need to get back to the group,” Janet snapped, pushing him back in the direction they had come from.

They were just catching up with the tail end of the evacuees, and were less than three hundred metres behind the rear guard when Edward noticed something he would remember vividly for the rest of his life. In the distance, almost too far to see, were swirls of mist, moving far too rapidly to be a natural phenomenon, and apparently with no supporting gusts of wind as the air was almost still this far back from them. They were also glowing a fierce and sickly purple, almost lilac colouring. He turned around and was about to ask Jason if this was what he saw, but the fear on Jason’s face already answered that question for him. When he turned to look at what was going on among the people near the front of the evacuees, he was surprised, and no less afraid than anyone else among him, to find that the swirling mists had diminished slightly in size but were moving rapidly back through the group, with people left fallen wherever the mists fell. He watched further as those fallen began to levitate in the air, their bodies emitting a dark purple-blue glow around them as they appeared to change size. They were too far away to notice what exactly was happening to them, but Edward did not need to be any closer to know that every human being within reach of those mists or whatever they actually were, was in danger of losing their lives to this new menace.

His tranced state was broken when Janet started to dart out past him toward the mists, one of the guards’ weapons in her hands. The guard whose weapon was taken had started chasing after her, along with the other guard who had slung his rifle over his back.

“Fuck, pops!” Jason was saying. Ordinarily, Edward would have told Jason not to call him that, he hated it, but there was hardly time for that now, so he looked at him questioningly. The boy was scared stiff. “Don’t let her near those things, they’ll kill her!”

Jason had just echoed Edward’s thoughts perfectly, but he would not have been able to catch up with the others even if he were in healthy enough condition, they were too far ahead now, and were nearly fifty metres closer to death.

He need not have tried in any case. He realised, as both guards caught up to Janet and tackled her to the ground, kicking and screaming, that they had no more intention of letting her get any closer to those things than he did. He ran to catch up with them as they were coming back with her in tow, despite her struggles and attempts to break free of them, their combined strength was greater than her rage fuelled energy, and eventually she was unable to fight any longer and was left panting for breath as Edward joined them.

“Edward, tell them to let me go,” she told him breathlessly but with a fanatical edge to her voice. “Tell them!”

Edward shook his head. “No,” he told her in an equally sharp tone. “I’m not going to order them to let you run to your death.”

She struggled anew and this time her target was Edward, but the guards had not relaxed their hold and she was still stuck fast. “Those people are DYING!”

“Yes they are,” Edward said quietly, refusing to allow his emotions to take over – some of those people that were dying out there were his friends, and even his enemies did not deserve such a death. “And we will never be able to avenge them if we all die today.”

“I’m gonna KILL YOU!” Janet roared, struggling and almost succeeding to break free of the guards grip. “HEAR ME?”

Edward said nothing as he carefully studied Janet’s face, which was contorted in rage. Eventually, she was forced to look directly at him, since in her ranting and ravings, he continued to say nothing nor flinch, or make any movement of any kind either toward or away from her.

“Feel free to kill me any time you want,” he replied in what was almost a whisper. “But right now, I have no intention of allowing any more of us to die!”

“You bastard!” She spat the words at him. “Look at what’s happening to your friends out there!”

Edward could not help but do exactly that as the mists had now reached the trailing edge of the evacuees and had begun working on them. The mists had all but dissipated and those people near the front were working to round up those people at the rear.

“You see that?” he asked Janet. “They’re not dying… It’s much worse. They’ve been taken control over by that stuff, and now they’re rounding up survivors!”

“Then we have to-”

“LOOK AT THEM, DAMN YOU!” Edward roared. “Now we must leave immediately!”

Whether Janet was slowly coming around to the idea or not, none of them would immediately know, since the guards had taken matters into their own hands and had knocked her out with one of their rifles. Edward would have laid them both out for harming her had the situation not required urgent action to be taken. As it was, he glared at them both, hard, for several seconds before he did anything else.

“Carry her back the way we came,” Edward ordered them both. “There was an underground rail network back there we can use as shelter.”

“Yes sir,” they both said in unison, and lifted her up to be carried back.

Edward looked at his son. “Let’s get out of here, Jason.”

“Yeah,” he replied in a shaky voice.

Edward was not surprised… He was hardly unaffected by this himself.

03:25 Eastern Time

Edward had both guards set up a watch on an open doorway to a small surveillance bunker that was previously used to maintain a watch on the underground rail network. Nothing worked any more, not even the lights. This came as no great surprise, since the only electricity to run them would have to come from generators or solar panels, neither of which were available to them at the time. Their only source of light was one of the few remaining glow sticks that Edward had insisted on bringing with them.

Jason watched over his sister like a hawk. Mark Hayward just sat quietly, saying very little. Edward continued to keep an eye on Janet as she lay unconscious on a makeshift bunk Edward had insisted be prepared. The guards watched for signs of trouble, and the others from the shelter sat in silence.

What Edward had seen earlier would haunt him forever. Would the others be so affected by this? As soon as he thought this, he berated himself for such thoughts. Of course they would be! Only the most selfish people would assume that they were the only ones suffering because of a massive and widespread loss of life such as what everyone in that room had witnessed.

Janet was just coming around. Edward suspected that there would be repercussions now that she was awake again, and she would be demanding answers.

“Does someone wanna tell me why I was knocked out?” She demanded in a low voice.

One of the guards looked back as he heard her question. He stepped into the room. “We had no choice. There was no time to argue and we had to get away from the area.”

“You would run?”

“Yes,” the guard replied in an equally low voice, his expression was uncompromising.

“If we had not left,” Edward added. “We would all now be dead, or taken by those things out there.”

For a time, there was silence. Janet slowly got herself up to a sitting position. “How many of us are here?”

Edward winced as he heard the question. He did not want to even guess at how many they had lost, and to be asked directly by Janet how many people they had left brought it right up in front of him.

The guards answered for him. “Twenty-three survivors are with us. Some of them managed to survive because they too, broke away from the group.”

“So, you’re telling me…” Janet stopped to glare at the guard. “That over three thousand people were lost today?”

Her tone was almost a whisper, but there was no doubt in Edward’s mind, that she was seething beneath the surface.

“We have no way to be sure if they are lost-”

“They were shot, grabbed, had mist absorbed into them, and changed into something they weren’t before,” Janet raised her voice to an almost-shout, while keeping her volume low. “I think it’s a good chance they are lost to us.”

Edward would not have argued that point, after what he had seen.

Neither did the guards.

“Well since none of you have any answer to that. Can anyone tell me what supplies, if any, do we have?”

Transporter room aboard the Kl’Deesius

11:00 Hours Ship Time, Day 79 Mission Year 51

The entire crew of the Tau Ceti were standing in the transport room, ready to be taken back to their ship. Over the previous three days, things developed quickly from a diplomatic point of view. The Klankharis Realm had agreed to make the trade before, but the formal agreement was signed between Marlon as the official representative of Earth, and Miradima, who was appointed Ambassador to Earth, news that she told them as soon as she heard of it herself.

Once the signatures were presented to the Realm Council, work began on the Tau Ceti to modify it so that it could travel in folded space. Aside from all the other surprises that the Klankharis Realm had given to the Tau Ceti crew over the last two years, perhaps the most surprising thing was, that although the humans knew how fast the Klankharis Engineers tended to work, it was not expected that they would be able to work so quickly on the Tau Ceti modifications. To their immense surprise and gratification, the Space Folding modifications were completed within two days. Tests on the modified ship were carried out immediately and were successful. This meant that their ship was capable of getting back to Earth in as little as three days.

Stephen was privately pleased that he would get to be a part of something that would surprise the heck out of NASA and the governments back on Earth. Davidson had earlier guessed that the ISS Tau Ceti would be the only ship to return with anything of this nature. Soon, they would know if they were right or not.

The downside to all of this was that they were going to start their return journey to Earth today. In fact, their gathering in the transporter room of the Kl’Deesius was to send them back to the Tau Ceti so that they could begin their flight. This meant that this would be perhaps the last time for a while, that the humans would see any people of the Klankharis Realm. The only exception to this was that Helen would be travelling on board the Kl’Deesius, as Miradima wanted to allay any concerns over the safety of her unborn child.

Understandably Davidson was unhappy about their departure.

“We’ve checked the power-up status of your ship,” Miradima told the others. “It is powered and ready for departure as soon as you board.”

Stephen was not the only one to notice how Miradima had swallowed heavily when she spoke the last sentence. Stephen did not mention the obvious that Miradima would miss Davidson, even if they were apart for as little as a few weeks. Nor did he mention that it might be difficult to get to see Davidson at all given United States policy on immigration, even if it was never written to take into account advanced races such as the Klankharis Realm. Still, it was an obstacle that Davidson realised, even if Miradima did not.

“It’s been an interesting two years,” Marlon replied gently, nodding. Did Stephen detect a hint of sadness in his tone? “I’ve enjoyed my time with your people.”

Stephen was no less affected than the others. These were very accommodating people and Stephen had gotten to know Miradima quite well, along with some of the other Tau Cetians aboard the Kl’Deesius. He would miss them.

“I’m going to miss you,” Davidson suddenly blurted out. He was stony faced and looked like a semblance of his former self two years ago. Maybe he was hiding his pain at their separation? Stephen decided not to guess. It was emotional enough around here already.

Miradima shook her head. “Don’t talk that way,” she replied gently. “We’ll see each other again,” she added, clearing her throat.

“I hope so,” Davidson said, almost too quietly for anyone else to hear.

“You’ll see,” she replied.

Davidson turned to the others. “Captain, could you give us a minute?”

Marlon glanced around for a bit, as if caught by surprise. “Okay Lieutenant,” he replied. “Well, I guess there’s nothing left but-”

“Captain,” Miradima interrupted. “Don’t say it. We will see each other again.”

It seemed to take some effort on the Captain’s part, but he nodded in reply. “Alright. Then I’ll see you again soon,” he said slowly.

Miradima nodded gently.

Helen approached Marlon and gave him a gentle kiss, before stepping back away from the others. Davidson stepped forward as well.

“Transport,” she told the operator. Shortly after that, everyone except Davidson and Helen were transported out in the usual tell-tale yellow flash.

“I’ll wait outside,” Helen told them both, before she left via the only door.

“I know what’s really bothering you,” Miradima said to Davidson, taking his hand. “I know it’s not easy-”

“Why did you have to tell him we would be seeing each other again?”

“Because we will see each other again!” Miradima replied with conviction. “I already have that task. I will be ambassador to Earth! Remember?”

Davidson said nothing, because he couldn’t speak.

His suddenly cold exterior in the last few hours, with the exception of a few moments ago, masked the pain he was feeling at losing contact with her, and she wanted to make him understand that they would not part for long.

“There’ll never be anyone else,” Davidson told her eventually, burying his head in her shoulder. He had never done that before, and Miradima knew it.

“There’d better not be,” she replied cheerfully. Davidson glared at her but only for a moment. He perceived that she spoke so because she was masking a longing and a pain that ran as deep as his own. “We will be together again, I’ll see to it myself!” Her tone was acerbic, but she clasped his shoulder, hard, to emphasise her feelings. Then she stepped back from the pad. “Transport,” she ordered.

And then he was gone.

Day 82 Mission Year 51.

19:25 Hours.

The Tau Ceti and Kl'Deesius both approached the Sol system as planned. They had no idea what was happening to the Earth as they were making their negotiations and agreements over the last two years, nor did they have any idea what had happened to the planet as little as a few hours after the Tau Ceti left communications range with Locksley Platform fifty one years before…

The theory of space folding went along the lines of bringing two points together so the distance between them is almost infinitesimal. In conventional space travel, moving from your departure point to your destination was best conducted in a straight line from one point to another. The vast distances in space meant that assuming a spacecraft could reach the speed of light, the journeys would take decades, as it had done for the Tau Ceti before their trade had given them Space Folding technology. The solution created by Space Folding technology essentially meant that the same two points in space would be “folded” so that they occupied virtually the same point in the fabric of space. A craft could then simply propel itself to its' destination, at which time, the fabric of space would return to it's original shape, leaving the craft at the destination, having covered much larger distances than would have otherwise been possible. The actual mechanics of how this worked were not as simplistic given the four dimensional nature of space and time, but the end result suited the requirements of interstellar space travel.

In practice, the limitations of available power on both the Kl'Deesius and Tau Ceti vessels meant that neither of them could make a single hop of eleven light years, so the trip had to be made in numerous, smaller jumps, as all Tau Cetian vessels were known to do.

Miradima and Helen on the bridge, were both overseeing their journey to Earth, with their vessel just arriving at their final jumping point before their final jump that would take them to Earth orbit.

“Detecting transmissions made from the Tau Ceti,” the bridge’s com officer told Miradima, in native language.

“Enable Audio,” she ordered.

The transmissions were standard practice aboard ISS vessels as they approached Earth. The communications system on board the Tau Ceti had been upgraded to allow transmissions to be made over much longer distances and without the sending lag that would have otherwise have taken place.

“This is vessel I.S.S Tau Ceti to Earth Station Locksley Platform. Please Respond,” Caitlin spoke, not surprisingly in English.

However, there was no response.

This sequence was repeated six times in the space of eight minutes as the two ships arrived in outer orbit of Jupiter for their final jump to Earth’s position.

“Something’s wrong,” Helen suddenly said.

Miradima remained in control of herself despite agreeing with Helen’s sentiment that something had happened to the Earth. “Tactical, long-range active scan, third planetary body from the primary. Com, trace the signal to the destination and look for working structures. Operations, look for traces of organic structures in the sensor data as it comes in,” she ordered.

Helen glanced at Miradima. “Why organic structures?”

“Just making sure,” was all she would say.

There was a note of desperation in Caitlin’s voice now, as she repeated her call for the seventh time, still with no response.

“Commander, imaging data is now coming in for several points in planetary orbit,” the ops officer told Miradima.

“Show me,” she ordered.

Immediately, the view changed to reflect what was in Earth orbit.

“Oh my god,” Helen gasped.

Miradima was no less shocked by what they saw.

Marlon was sat in his command chair as the vessel was preparing to make their final jump that would take them near enough to Earth to orbit the planet. Caitlin had been trying to raise Locksley Platform on the channel for nearly eight minutes, and they weren’t getting any reply back. They were getting no signal whatsoever, but maybe this was because the device attached to their communications array did not compensate well enough for a clear signal to get through. None of the crew really understood the scientific principles behind super-light communications, and since there was no way of getting a signal originating from Earth to speed up past light-speed without the technology they were carrying, it was likely that nothing would get through at all in spite of Miradima's assurances that they would be able to communicate properly and in a timely fashion with Earth.

“Thirty seconds until destination point,” Stephen announced. “Clock is running for final jump.”

“Keep trying Caitlin,” Marlon told her. “Adam, any problems?”

“Diagnostic reports all systems working fine,” he replied morosely. “If anything’s wrong, it isn’t with the ship.”

“Ten seconds,” Stephen announced. He too, was worried. “Why the hell aren’t they answering?”

“I’m not even getting any beacons,” Caitlin answered, clearly alarmed.

“Err… The Kl’Deesius is manoeuvring closer to us,” John reported.

“Why?” Marlon asked, clearly surprised.

“Don’t ask me, man,” John replied, exasperated.

“Stephen?” Marlon asked, implying a request for their time of arrival.

“No idea,” Stephen replied, clearly failing to understand the request. However their jumping point had been established, and the ship automatically moved towards it, taking them across the final jump to their destination. The view of space through the cockpit displays surged as if it were suddenly stretched. At that point Earth became plainly visible as a small, dark marble in space.

It was that dark marble in space which made it all too obvious why no one responded to their communications signals. The once beautiful planet was smothered in a dark film over the surface. The once blue seas and green land masses were now tinted dark grey, and barely any sunlight was getting through.

Earth had been destroyed.

“What the hell?” Davidson called out, in a strangled tone. “Those bastards! Those stupid fuckers!”

Suddenly, Helen appeared via molecular transport. She immediately headed to Marlon and took hold of him.

John put his head in his hands and began sobbing.

Caitlin and Adam drifted out of their seats and headed straight toward each other, holding tight to each other. They were otherwise silent.

Stephen was too numb to react to anything other than to look around at this weird scene, and wonder why the hell this was happening.

Suddenly, all terminals lit up with a single text message.

I HAVE ORDERED MY SHIP TO REMAIN IN ORBIT FOR AS LONG AS YOU NEED ME.

Must have been sent by Miradima, Stephen thought. He wondered how she was reacting to this situation.

This was truly a horrific and despairing sight.