In the City of Tomorrow: Chapter 23

As Amy fought desperately to strengthen the protective shield that surrounded the ship, Amanda used the nanites to get a picture of what was going on. To her the Starfire II became a small model suspended in space. She gasped when she saw that it was surrounded by thousands upon thousands of ghostly blue beings. The beings were angrily firing pluses of energy at their ship, battering it mercilessly. The shields were taking a severe beating. The nanite network Amy had created was able to produce an enormous amount of energy, but they simply could not handle an attack of that magnitude. Neither of them had planned on such an immediate and violent response.

Remembering their earlier battle with the Poneri, Amanda quickly reconfigured the ship’s long-destroyed weapons systems into a much larger version of her sister’s handheld Poneri gun. As soon as they were in place she routed the ship’s power to the weapons and began firing.

The intense white bursts of energy scattered the Poneri but did not drive them off. Their overwhelming numbers continued pounding the vessel. The shields were failing rapidly and Amy could not provide enough power to sustain them.

“This isn’t working!” Amy screamed. “Just get a fix on their origin, Atzi, so we can get out of here!”

Amanda nodded. She watched as the Starfire II‘s automated defense program managed to vaporize a few groups of Poneri that had ventured too close to the ship. Almost as soon as they were destroyed, however, a new group arrived to take their place. By monitoring their arrival Amanda was able to get a fix on their origin.

“Got it!” she exclaimed. “They’re–”

At that moment the shields collapsed. The energy blasts from the Poneri tore the ship apart, blasting the bridge into atoms. As the ship disintegrated around them Amy grabbed her sister and the two vanished.

Amanda found herself standing in a room that appeared to stretch out into infinity. The floor of the room was covered with a luxurious white carpet. There were no walls or ceiling. The area was well-lit but the light did not come from any visible source. The room itself was furnished with a leather couch and and a white recliner.

Amy gasped for breath and collapsed onto the couch. “That was too close,” she said. “Oh my goodness. Another second and we wouldn’t have survived. That was awful.”

“What happened?” Amanda asked. She sat down beside her sister. She was surprised to see how exhausted Amy was. Sweat poured down her face and she looked completely spent. Her eyes were closed.

“Disaster is what happened,” Amy replied. “I was expecting a few Poneri, not their entire army. The ship just couldn’t take that kind of attack.”

“So you brought us to the Infinite Room,” Amanda replied.

Amy opened her eyes and nodded. “Steve said that the Poneri couldn’t get here. I guess he was right – here we are, and I don’t see any Poneri.”

“But how did you know how to get here?” Amanda asked.

“The nanites know,” Amy said. “You know too, I bet – you probably just haven’t thought about it. My guess is that Steve explained it to them. What I do know is that I’m glad he created this place.”

Amanda nodded. “Thanks, Tiger. You saved us both. I guess we know not to do that again.”

“But we’ll have to do it again,” Amy replied wearily. “We can’t just leave the Poneri out there. We need to hunt them down and destroy them. You did get that star system collapsed, didn’t you?”

“I did – it’s gone. And I was able to find the origin of the Poneri. From what I could tell they were coming from a ship that was en-route to Earth. Based on their course and speed I’d say they’ll get there in about four days.”

“So you saw the Starfire?” Amy asked.

“No, I didn’t. But I did notice that their point of origin was moving, so that makes me think they’re on a ship.”

Amy nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to fight them again?” Amanda asked. “I mean, we almost died just now!”

“Who else is going to do it?” Amy asked. “The alternative is to do nothing and let them destroy the Wall. That is going to cause real problems.”

“But we almost died!” Amanda exclaimed.

“So we’ll prepare better next time. We’ll create a Starfire III that is armed to the teeth and stuffed with the most powerful energy plant that we can make. In fact, we’ll create a whole armada of them to take with us. If there are thousands of Poneri then we can bring thousands of ships to fight them.”

“But what about the Wall?” Amanda asked.

“We’ll strengthen it,” Amy replied. “We’ll take all of our scientific know-how and make it so strong that even the Poneri can’t punch a hole in it.”

“But won’t the Rangers notice?”

“We’ll probably have to run all of this by Governor Nicholas first,” Amy agreed. “But that’s why Steve left us here – to fix this problem. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

* * * * *

The following afternoon Governor Nicholas was working in his office when he heard a knock on the door. He laid down the treaty he was reading and sighed. Someone always seems to be interrupting, he thought. “Come in,” he called.

The door opened and Amanda Stryker walked in. She closed the door behind her.

“Amanda!” the governor exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t worry, it’s ok,” Amanda replied quickly. “Everything is fine – I’ve disabled this office’s security. No one will ever know I was here.”

“So you were able to destroy the Poneri, then?” the governor asked.

Amanda sat down in one of the empty leather chairs that were in front of the governor’s desk. “Well, I guess everything isn’t fine. I meant that my being here wasn’t a security risk. As it turns out we’re having some problems with the Poneri, and that’s why I’m here. You see, the Poneri are on their way to Sol. We think they’re going to stage an attack against the Wall.”

Jack Nicholas’ eyes widened. “Are you sure of this?”

“Pretty sure,” Amanda replied.

“That’s terrible news!” the governor replied. “Is there anything you can do about it? Can you stop them?”

“We’re going to try, but that’s why I’m here. Amy wants to get your approval to strengthen the Wall. We want to make sure that the Poneri can’t get through it.”

“By all means, go right ahead,” the governor replied hastily. “Do whatever you need to do. But no matter what happens that Wall must remain intact. It must not be allowed to fall.”

Amanda nodded. “My sister is going to upgrade the equipment that sustains it in order to make it much, much stronger. But when she does that it’s going to be noticed. After all, the four stations that maintain the Wall are all manned. People are going to notice when the hardware suddenly changes and becomes self-maintaining.”

“So the stations won’t need to be manned anymore?” the governor asked.

“That’s right – they’ll just take care of themselves. It’s part of the upgrade that Amy wants to do. Think of it this way – let’s suppose that my sister upgraded the equipment to use 73rd-century technology and didn’t make it self-maintaining. Would any of your people be able to fix it if it broke?”

“I suppose not,” the governor said. “When was your sister planning on performing this upgrade?”

“Tomorrow morning. The Starfire will get there three days from now and she wanted to make sure the upgrade was in place as far in advance as possible.”

“The Starfire!” the governor exclaimed. “Why is it coming to Sol? Can’t you stop it?”

“Believe me, sir, we’re trying. We think that the Poneri have taken it over and are attempting to get home. I don’t really know why they’re heading toward Earth, but they are.”

“All right,” the governor said. “I can issue a command tonight and make sure that all four stations are evacuated by morning. There will be a lot of questions but I can fend them off for now. After the upgrade is over and my people return to their posts they may wonder what happened but they’ll never guess the truth.”

“Go back to their posts?” Amanda asked. “Why would they do that? They won’t be able to actually do anything.”

“That’s the point. When they return to work they’ll see that the problem has been solved and their job is done. Then I can reassign them to other tasks.”

Amanda stood up. “All right. I’ll let my sister know, and after the upgrade is over I’ll send you a message.”

“Thank you. That would be much appreciated.” The governor paused as he looked at the fourteen-year-old girl that was standing in front of him. It occurred to him that the fate of his civilization was resting on the shoulders of her and her sister, and there was really nothing that anyone could do to help them. Once again the most powerful man in the Ranger territories found himself helpless.

“Do you think you can defeat them?” the governor asked. “Or do we need to prepare for an invasion?”

“Amy thinks she can take care of the problem – she has a plan and she’s not worried.”

“But what do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Amanda said at last. “I’d feel better if Steve was here, but he’s not. We’re going to do our best and that’s all we can do. I don’t know how it will turn out.”

The governor nodded. “I could ask nothing more of you. I will look forward to reading your report.”

Amanda nodded. After saying goodbye she disappeared.

The governor looked back down at the treaty on his desk. He had spent years working on that treaty, which would turn the Rangers into a loose confederation of cooperating star systems. A few minutes ago it seemed immensely important but now he couldn’t bring himself to focus on it. If the Poneri destroyed the Wall and let the Emperor loose then in all likelihood the Rangers were doomed. Their entire civilization was being threatened by an incredibly powerful race from the distant past and their only defense against this supernatural army were two teenage girls with no combat experience. He felt old and tired. The stress of this job is killing me, he thought. I have too many problems that I can do nothing to fix. I’m just getting too old for this. But with Richard gone who can I appoint as my successor? Who can be trusted to guide us into the future? For that matter, will we even have a future?

Jack turned around and gazed out the window behind his chair, looking out over Star City. He sighed but said nothing.