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The Summer of Discontent
Part 5: The Strike
WORLD JOURNAL MONTHLY
June 21, 2011
THE STRIKE!
The Plan to Save the Earth Comes Together!
Correspondent: Aaron B. Jeremy
What Has Gone Before: There's a Plan to defeat the next great winter by moving the Earth back to its old orbit. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/discontent1.txt ) After much effort, The Plan is finally ready.
Major Paul S. Terry, U.S. Navy - Retired, was in his rowboat on Saranac Lake that morning as usual. The Trillions had landed there last year. But he'd been fishing there long before that. No reason to stop now. For some reason, the constant humming of the spaceship attracted the fish.
The aliens had their guardians out, with umbilical cords back to their ships. But they'd always let him pass. Today was no different.
Major Terry rowed his ship near the shore, nearest the mile-tall spaceship of The Trillions. Then he said in a voice not his own, "It is time."
Another body came out from his! It was Ellipsis!
Several days ago, at the local Veterans' Administration office, Major Terry had gone to receive his pension check as usual. An official was waiting for him there. He talked about a Federal agent who would use some sort of secret hyper-body protocol to inhabit the Major's body and watch the aliens! Major Terry agreed then.
Now, the Major knew this mission was much more than observation. He wasn't angry, though. He'd have done his patriotic duty anyway. Now his job was to stay out of the way. Major Terry was always ready; his fisherman vest was buoyant. As Ellipsis rose into the air, the Major dived overboard!
Good call. Alien death rays destroyed the rowboat! But Ellipsis blasted the spaceship with mostly-invisible energy. Its constant humming went silent! Major Terry had gotten him inside the aliens's defensive line.
Other U.S. heroes appeared on the shoreline in bursts of flame! Major Terry could tell the Mighty Tim was arriving. They started fighting the alien guardians.
Ellipsis posed in mid-sky. Several guardians went down! He must have smashed their minds!
Ellipsis flew to the spaceship. Its wall stopped him - but only for five seconds. He dissolved it and flew through!
The Mighty Tim disappeared in his burst of flame, carrying one Asian guy. Major Terry guessed, they'd gone inside the spaceship.
Mighty Tim came out - with Ellipsis. Mighty Tim said, "We have control."
Ellipsis laid his hands on him, and said, "The blockade comes down now. We Will Break Through."
But then someone else appeared in a burst of flame! Some girl dressed like Sherlock Holmes said, "Peace! We've opened it! Do what you have to!"
Mighty Tim looked around, and said, "Pam!"
The Bride of the Ultimate Darkness was there, along with her Best Man. She said, "We're still on!"
Darkness covered the sky - and not just that. The only light came from the energy field of Ellipsis and the flames of the Mighty Tim's battle staff, plus a few other heroes with energy powers. Everything else was dark.
Some of the Earth heroes on the shoreline were howling. They'd gone crazy! Major Terry felt like going into fetal position himself - only he was floating in Saranac Lake!
Then the sky came back! The people's howling died down.
Mighty Tim asked, "Is that it?"
The Bride said, "Yes. New new orbit."
Major Terry had made it to shore by then. He waded up and asked, "What was that?"
The Bride of Darkness was tired, but she still spoke first. "That was Ultimate Darkness. It just changed the Earth's orbit."
"That's what this is about?"
"Yeah."
"But can we get the old orbit back now? We're out toward Mars now!"
The other heroes looked at the Bride as she spoke. "It won't be the old orbit. But hopefully it beats the last one."
The Mighty Tim joined in. "It'll still be a little cold. We'll find out whether that's a good cure for Global Warming, or not quite good enough for Global Cooling. Maybe we can fix it later. But President Obama's ready to take the blame either way. He says he's used to being hated for his compromise solutions. But yeah, I supported this compromise."
Technicians swarmed in after the heroes had secured the area. Major Terry found out from them...
The Earth's trajectory had indeed been changed. Earth's orbit would now be 372.5 days, with closest approach to the sun at Earth's old orbit again, on the 23rd of July 2011.
Major Terry hoped it would be good enough.
Author's Notes:
Phew. Finally. It may not be perfect, but I'm definitely done writing it.
I do have more stuff I can be writing, and the next RACC High Concept Challenge might shake some loose. But I might take a break for a bit. Cover art time? Probably...
Crusher Joe Corrigan (should the U.S. Vice-President be mentioned in this story) is a character created by Joe Fucile. Barack Obama (should the President be mentioned) was created by his mommy and daddy. The Best Man of Darkness (a.k.a. "Little Bill") is a character created by Vaughn Gross, though I doubt Vaughn would recognize him now. All other characters in this fiction are copyright 2011, Eiler Technical Enterprises. All this year's stories are online at www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/.
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