A Beginner's Guide to Invading Earth by Gerhard Gehrke

Author:Gerhard Gehrke [Gehrke, Gerhard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2015-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 31

“AT LEAST SHUT DOWN these alarms,” Captain Flemming said. Shouting was such a waste of energy, so he refused to do it. His low, gruff voice was lost in the blast of sounds.

The noise in the upper levels of the Commons security building sounded louder than in the lobby. A trio of technicians worked frantically at their terminals, but the alarms continued to bleat, blare, and send up a frenzy of sight, scent, and vibration alerts that indicated an emergency to all species in range. As previous alerts went unheeded, the security system added more, piling onto the already stultifying noise.

Flemming cleared his throat and repeated himself into one of the tech's earstalks. “Shut down the alarms!”

“We can't,” the technicians with the earstalks shouted. “The system is frozen. All inputs are on lockdown.”

“Only when one is truly locked out will she understand what it means to truly need to get in,” Detective Ceph said, just loud enough to for Captain Flemming to hear him. He stood just behind the Captain. Even the detective appeared irritated with the noise, his face tentacles plugging his audio sensors.

Flemming walked to a window that looked out at several other high rise towers. Lights blinked everywhere now, down every street and on every species building. He gestured Ceph over, had him lean close so they could speak.

“The entire security system has been activated, but it won't deactivate,” Flemming said.

Ceph nodded as if through his tentacles in his ears and the blasting noise he could actually hear the Captain. Flemming tugged one of the tentacles out of Ceph's ear hole.

“Listen,” Flemming said. “The crush of alert data is overwhelming and is amounting to nonsense.”

Flemming tapped a finger to his lips, considering what to do. He studied the surrounding landscape of the Commons below, fused together by an alert that couldn't be shut off, an alert that demanded attention to everything and thus nothing. The flashing lights played across the varied nearby structures with their towers, decorative crenelations, lines, and spheres. One narrow spire shined with a coppery glow, partially reflecting the blinking strobes. And below moved the citizenry of the Commons. Some would consider the view beautiful, even with the chaos. Flemming saw nothing but stress, a job that needed to be handled for the good of the colony that made up his body, his species, and by extension the entire Galactic Commons. He felt that way when the alarms weren't activated, too.

“You know what I think?” Flemming said. Ceph shrugged. Flemming pulled Ceph close and repeated himself. Ceph shook his head, not following. This was no good. With obvious gestures, he got Ceph's attention. Captain Flemming reached into the null-space pouch on the lapel of his uniform. He gingerly removed the small translator and placed it in his pocket. He nodded at Ceph to do the same. Ceph removed his.

Flemming continued to hear loud noises. But now the sounds and lights and smells meant nothing and weren't filtered into his brain through the translator. The volume of the whole mess was turned down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.