Gracie’s Touch

Chapter 3-2

She listened as the supply ship gave the needed code for admittance to the mother ship for refueling. As soon as the large panel doors opened on the outer edge of the ship, Gracie patched into the computer system through a backdoor she’d discovered a couple of months ago. The Alluthans were getting better at closing the doors, but they were still arrogant enough to think the humans too primitive to learn their language, much less their computer codes.

Gracie left a digital copy of her notes on deciphering both for Adam. She wanted to make sure all her work over the last five years was not wasted. That was one nice thing about having parents who were researchers, they believed in taking notes and showed their children how to do it also.

Gracie smiled as the virus she uploaded finished. It was a simple one that grew every time it was uploaded to another system, changing its signature to make it more difficult to detect. It would wipe their system clean once finished. The Alluthans would lose control of everything.

Gracie watched as the supply ship connected to a docking port, and an arm extended, recharging the fuel cells. She monitored the activity, frowning when she heard a disembodied voice on one channel, giving directions for the attack on specific sites around the world. They were pinpointing some of the major areas where the rebels were.

Patching into the channel, she watched as the programmed instructions flooded her screen. She frowned again as she focused on the rush of data scrolling down it. Her breath caught as she picked out keywords.

Typing quickly, she began redirecting the fighters to other areas away from the original commands. Most of the areas were over open water and shouldn’t pose a threat to humans.

A warning flashed at the bottom showing a probe flash as the intrusion was detected. Gracie glanced at her other screen. The program to disarm the Alluthans defense systems was almost complete. It was spreading, but not as quickly as she wished. Gracie quickly typed in a few commands and watched as the warning faded.

She continued uploading one code after another, determined that if the Alluthans found and stopped one virus, they would not be able to stop them all. She uploaded the last one and looked at the power-cell indicator. Refueling was done, and it was time to leave before they opened the platform to begin loading and found her.

Gracie punched in the release code and waited anxiously until she heard the sound of the fuel arm disengaging. She hit the program that would take her home with a sigh of relief.

Maybe, just maybe, I will get to be with Chance, she thought as a wave of hope swept through her.

She felt the thrusters kick in as she started to return the same way she had come, and was almost to the open panel doors leading out into space when a voice came on over her audio com. She listened as it gave a command for her ship to return to the docking port.

Gracie punched in a command to override the auto-command when the operator tried to take over her controls. She listened as the voice came over again.

“Supply ship 100982 return to docking port 2-225.”

Gracie smiled as she saw her programs kick in. She had an ace up her sleeve if she needed it, but she needed to be far enough away when she dealt it not to get caught in it.

Gracie flipped the audio and gave her announcement to the millions of resistance fighters on the Earth far below. Gracie’s eyes gleamed with tears as she gave the command that would hopefully bring this war to an end.

“Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. This is Gracie reaching out to touch you with love and hope. Today the people of Earth are ending the siege of the Alluthans. Rise up and fight, for freedom is ours. This is Gracie’s Touch saying, Freedom for all!” Gracie’s husky voice called out to all the millions on the beautiful blue-and-white ball below her.

She watched as lights flared all over the globe as the united governments and rebel forces joined together and made a decisive assault against the aliens who thought them too weak to win.

Gracie was about to hit the button that would speed her way home when the supply ship shuddered violently, throwing her to the side. Gracie’s eyes frantically flew to find the cause. She punched in the command to silence the alarms as she fought for control.

No fighters followed her as they were unresponsive due to the command to shut everything down. Gracie could see multiple failures occurring on the mother ship, but it would take longer for each system to completely shut down. The mother ship was turning to follow her. It sent out several bursts from its pulse cannons.

Her shields immediately came online, but the bursts took a toll on them, and they read eighty-five percent. Gracie felt dread seep through her. If the mother ship followed her and the self-destruct program activated, Earth would be in peril from the fallout. The only way to ensure the mother ship did not endanger the Earth was to lead them away.

Gracie quickly programmed a new route into the navigation system. Tears blurred her vision as she sent the command and felt the supply ship turning. She increased her speed, knowing it would not be long before the mother ship lost all power and the self-destruct initiated.

She braced her palms against the front console as another jarring jolt hit the supply ship. She was moving as fast as the supply ship could go without sending it into hyperdrive. The navigation panel said they were nearing Mars.

She didn’t know if the signal she sent would make it to Earth or not, but she had to try to send one last message. She had to tell them she was sorry and say good-bye. Gracie opened the communications program and typed in the password for one of the satellites she used to send her transmissions.

“This… this is Gracie,” Gracie waited a moment. She trembled as she continued. “Chance, this is Gracie saying I’m so sorry. I won’t be coming home after all.” Gracie drew in a shaky breath and forced herself to continue.

“I hope you get this message. I wanted to tell you I love you. I want… need… to thank all of you for saving me so long ago. Chance, you and Adam, Adrian, and Mark will always be with me. Please keep up the fight for freedom, knowing I’ll always be with you every time you think of me. Th-this is Gracie, saying goodnight and good-bye, my love,” Gracie ended the transmission as tears choked her and her vision blurred so badly she couldn’t see anything.

Impatiently, she brushed the tears away. If she was going to die, she was going to take those pissant aliens with her. Gracie programmed the supply ship to enter hyperdrive and set the mother ship’s navigation system to follow. She also set the self-destruct to half the time. Both ships would explode during the light jump making sure nothing else was damaged.

Gracie watched out of the front view as the stars seemed to blur together. Within seconds, she was pushed back against her seat. She closed her eyes and waited for the end. Everything seemed to slow as she felt the push from the mother ship as it exploded. The shockwave threw the ship forward with such force, the shoulder strap on the harness broke, throwing her forward. As darkness descended, Gracie drew a picture in her mind of Chance holding her in his arms and smiled.