UNEDITED
Above the Earth
“Oh my god,” The President mouthed as they saw the Earth beneath them.
“We are so screwed if this Pod opens to space, we don’t have a spacesuit or any way to save ourselves.” David told the President.
The President spoke to David, without turning his head from the view, “You think maybe you might stop complaining for a moment and enjoy the ride?”
“I’m not paid to enjoy the ride, I’m paid to keep you safe.”
“David, I’m telling you, we are safer here than back in Camp David.”
“How can you be so sure of that?”
“Because if they wanted to kill me, what could you and your team really have done to stop it?” The President asked his secret service agent, quietly.
David looked out the window to the blue globe below them. Finally, after a few minutes of thought, he asked a question, “She visited you both times in the DUCC, didn’t she?”
The President nodded his head as he admired the view, “Yes, yes she did.”
—
Germany’s President and his friend from their countries counter-surveillance group admired the world for a few minutes before a voice over a speaker in the Pod asked them if there was anything they would like to see before the trip to the QBS ArchAngel?
“The moon,” Max had whispered before Theodore had said anything. He seemed surprised when the President was looking at him, “I’m sorry, I was thinking I would like to see where the American’s landed and placed their flag, and now where the Chinese have their little Moon rover.”
Theodore shrugged, “Sounds good to me.” The two men watched in awe as the Pod turned towards the moon and then laughed as the acceleration hit them and they raced into space.
—
The Queen’s Suite, QBS ArchAngel
Bethany Anne laid on her bed, resting. The Lowell’s had picked up Christina a few hours before, but the emotional drain of watching after her niece was still affecting her.
“TOM, please put these diapers memories into my long term memory. Anytime I think about having a child with Michael, please play them.”
I thought you enjoy thinking about that future?
“I do, but until I deal with this Kurtherian issue I need to focus,” she replied.
Still haven’t given up hope?
Bethany Anne switched to speaking to TOM directly, No. That rat bastard promised me he would come back and I’m holding him to it. If I have to travel the fucking Galaxy to find a way to travel back in time? I’ll do it. That prick is coming back, one way or another. I’m not giving up on him, ever.
The two friends stayed quiet, just enjoying their time together for a few moments.
>>Bethany Anne, the world leaders are arriving in ten minutes.<<
“Suppose I should get dressed,” Bethany Anne grouched as she slid off the bed and stood up, stretching. “God, give me the opportunity to fight a hundred Forsaken before another ten hours with a baby, please.” She stepped towards her closet, built to look exactly like her closet from the house in Florida.
“Because, that would be a fucking cakewalk…” she mumbled as she stepped inside to change.
—
David gawked as they came closer to the spaceship, “Mr. President, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.” The twelve hundred foot long craft was silhouetted against the darkness of space, the light of the sun caressing the features down it’s length, “Where are the engines on this thing?”
“David,” the President answered, straining his neck to try and see down the side as they approached the landing dock, “I have no idea.”
“Would you please,” a female’s voice told them, “stay in your Pod until you see others approach? We are landing all fourteen pods at one time. We do not have the gravitational fields holding in air working at this time.”
David looked up at the speaker, surprise in his voice, “But, you expect to make that happen?”
Surprisingly, the voice answered him, “Yes Mr. Dennison, we expect to make that happen.”
David watched as they were about the eighth Pod that was entering the large area. He noticed two more Pods landing to either side of them. Soon, red flashing lights were running along the walls and a muffled alarm was going off. It took a couple of minutes and both he and the President could tell that the alarm was becoming more clear. Finally, the light switched from red, to blue. Seconds later, a large group of people in beige outfits with bright green bands around their arms quickly entering the landing bay. The pod doors began to open.
David had already unbuckled his belts and stepped out before the President could get up. He positioned himself so that he couldn’t step out of the Pod before David felt comfortable that these people were helpful, not harmful. He could see many had confirmed that everyone was ok, and then quickly stepped back out of the way.
What David thought he was going to protect him from, a hundred-thousand miles from Earth, was beyond the Presidents ability to imagine.