New Hope: Book 1
36

When Dr. Ellie Johnson arrived alone at the lower engineering level and entered the brightly lit room, the first thing she saw was a huge installation made up of hundreds, if not thousands, tangled cables, pipes, and machines.

“The exchange station,” she said when she realized what she was looking at, impressed by the size of the structure.

“It’s nice of you to visit us.” Ellie heard the familiar voice coming from the side and turned toward it immediately. By the wall next to the conscious but pale-looking John, stood the evil, enormous ancient robot, who was watching the astronaut’s every move. When she saw Elrael, he straightened up and made a few steps toward her.

“You must be aware that you won’t get out of here alive if you don’t start cooperating with me... See, Ellie, I know about you sabotaging the cooling system at the exchange station,” he said pointing to the installation Ellie had noticed when she entered the room. “I know very well that the devices of this subsystem will fail soon and this whole complex will go up in smoke. Along with you and your lieutenant, of course,” said the robot emphatically, who was much better at analyzing human feelings than he initially showed. “Let’s cut a deal,” said Elrael.

“What do you want?” Dr. Johnson asked carefully, knowing the robot had a physical advantage over her body’s delicate posture. However, she also knew Elrael needed her mind to even think about surviving until the end of the day.

“Fix the reactor cooling system and I’ll let you, the Lieutenant, and your companions go. I won’t even go after you, I’ll let you leave just like that,” he said confidently.

“You know well I can’t do that. If I fix the cooling system, nothing will stop you from summoning your people to our planet!” said Ellie indignantly. She couldn’t agree to fix the cooling system because she’d be signing a certain death warrant on every human being living on this planet.

“You couldn’t be more wrong. Indeed, my transmission will be sent but before it reaches my kinsmen, before they’ll be able to react to it at all, and before anyone sends a fleet here to check what’s going on, decades will pass. You and the Lieutenant will have the chance to grow old and die on your own terms. And who knows? Maybe until then, humans will discover something that will help them face us?” said Elrael. “Not that I’d expect us to be defeated in that conflict, but it’s still a greater chance to survive than a swift death in an atomic fire?” he asked rhetorically. “You’ve only got 10 minutes of life so, if I were you, I’d make a decision quickly,” said the robot.

Ellie looked at John, who in reaction to the Sarassian’s words shook his head in protest, letting her know what her decision should be.

Every additional moment spent with her would be a gift for the lieutenant, but not for the price of the health and life of future generations. This conflict had to be buried here and now - they couldn’t allow the Sarassians to find out about the existence of Earth before humans were ready to face them!

Ellie didn’t have to hear John Lassiter’s thoughts to know what was running through his mind. As a scientist, Ellie knew well mankind has been close to extinction many a time, though the causes were generally natural disasters, like the Toba volcano 70 thousand years ago, or the plague of deadly diseases in Europe in the dark middle ages. Now, the threat came from another intelligent, and ruthless race, and although humans were somehow capable of dealing head-on with a virus, bacteria, or even the ash of a volcano eruption, mankind had little chance of success in a conflict with the modern technology of a race that was geared up for the extermination of all species of intelligent beings. Ellie didn’t want... Couldn’t have all of mankind on her conscience. She won’t have them on her conscience.

In her mind, Ellie quickly came to terms with the knowledge that death was coming sooner rather than later. She knew she couldn’t yield to the Sarassian. The price was too high, even if she wasn’t the one that would pay it. Escaping somehow was also off the table, even if the robot wasn’t watching her. Elrael would not let Ellie go - even if she decided to run, it would quickly catch up and stop her - and Ellie had no intention of abandoning John. She walked up to him, caught hold of his hand, and looked him deep in the eyes, tears falling from her eyes.

“John, I am so sorry...!”

“I know, don’t worry about it. It’s a good decision,” replied the lieutenant, clearly catching Elrael, who was listening in from the side, in surprise. When the robot saw the astronaut had no intention of saving her own skin and stopping the countdown, he dashed quickly toward the two astronauts.

“Ellie, close your eyes,” said John to Ellie, who was crying, seeing the end was nearing.

Embraced in each other arms, they waited for the inevitable.

However, before Elrael reached them, he tripped mid-step, fell flat on his face with a deep thud, and stopped showing any signs of movement. The alarm that was signaling the nearing moment of a fiery end in the background had disappeared suddenly.

And only the wounded lieutenant, who decided not to close his eyes until the very end, said in surprise:

“What the hell happened?”

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