The Spiral Road by Kevin Kinnen

Author:Kevin Kinnen [Kinnen, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-21T22:00:00+00:00

43

General Worthington stood in the breach, making his last stand against the supernova, and supervising the retreat of his people. They were inside the giant Object, clustered around the doorway, urging the last few troops to greater speed as they hurried towards them. Loud sirens had been keyed, warning any latecomers of the impending radiation shower. As the last squad pounded up the earthen ramp, flying through the doorway in a rush, Burke stayed clear to one side. His aides and the Major were also there, while Captain Filkes stood just inside, marking off the late entries on his tablet. The tally was complete, all military personnel present and accounted for, although Filkes wasn’t happy about the margin. Their sweep had rounded up and confirmed all the civilians at the site were inside.

The General had been watching the sky, as though he could somehow see the threat coming. And for just a moment, he actually thought he did. His eyes perceived faint, golden sparkles, dancing in the upper atmosphere, for all the world like billions of fireflies between the stars. Almost at once, the blackness of space seemed to lighten, as if a fog had suddenly interposed itself. Before he could be sure of anything, the exterior clock blared the countdown to zero. There wasn’t a soul left moving in the wings of the military areas, all the soldiers having obeyed orders not to cut it too closely. He stepped inside for just a few seconds, looking away from the door, and thus he missed it entirely. As he walked the short steps over to the Major and the Captain, they looked up at him, and both men paled. He spun, knowing in his gut what he would see.

The door was once again closed. In fact, there was no indication that a door had ever existed. Where it had been, a smooth, crystalline wall faced them, identical to the one across the anteroom chamber. Even the dimple that corresponded to the one on the exterior had vanished. A hush fell over the babble of voices, as others noticed the change. Burke seethed, and walked over to glare at the wall that used to be a door, deprived of even the choice of when to close it. Not that they had known how. He was well aware that not everyone who had intended to shelter in an Object had reached one yet. There were stragglers outside, perhaps coming down the road even now, simply running late. They likely wouldn’t have suffered any real damage yet, the exposure rates were low and intermittent. Their alien benefactors had slammed the vault closed the instant the radiation had arrived. He wondered why, to himself. Perhaps the shelter required complete integrity to protect them, or there was some other perfectly worthy reason to lock the gate. But he hated the cold logic that drove any such decision.

“As you were!” he yelled at the troops and men behind him, who instantly went back to whatever they

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