Chapter 18

“I’m dying of curiosity,” Abby said to Hannah, as the two of them sat together in the makeshift auditorium that had been hurriedly created from an empty warehouse. People were streaming in, including more than a few who neither of them had seen before.

“I saw a couple of aircraft land earlier,” said Hannah, “carrying visitors. Do you even have a clue about what’s going on?”

“None. Essence wouldn’t tell me a thing.”

“Neither would Taff. But she definitely knows all about it. I could tell.”

Abby nodded. “Kara, Essence and Taff alone know the story. Only them. I asked Noah if he knew anything, and he said he hadn’t a clue.”

Both of their significant others were seated at a head table. Besides Essence and Taff, Kara was up front, along with Noah, Mimosa, and a few others who were unfamiliar to Abby and Hannah.

Around fifteen minutes later, with the huge audience assembled in place, the meeting began. A pleasant-looking woman with a brown complexion and dark hair took the microphone. For this event, a public address system had been set up. This was unprecedented at Delmarva; it underscored the importance of the subject matter.

The woman introduced herself. “For those who don’t know me, I am Talia Ortiz, interim leader of the Philadelphia-Washington sphere of influence. Thank you for having me, and I’m happy to be here to open this meeting. As I begin, I want to give immense credit to the people here at Delmarva. More than anything else, it’s the way you’ve pulled together that has resulted in this momentous discovery we’re about to learn about.”

“Wow,” whispered an astonished Hannah. “I’ve never heard words like that coming from a Patriot leader.”

“She’s different, for sure,” Abby whispered back. “Kara was right.”

Talia continued to speak, her voice steady but brief.

“Now I’d like to turn the podium over to Dr. Essence Desai. In the months since the Fourth Incident, she’s been working tirelessly on a project that has given us critical new insight into the enemy that’s been waging war on humanity for more than twenty years. Essence, the floor is yours.”

A ripple of low conversation passed through the crowd as Essence approached the microphone. She wore a simple white lab coat, clean but plain, as if to signal that she wasn’t here for ceremony, just substance.

“Thank you, Talia,” she began. “And thank you all for being here. I know many of you have wondered what I’ve been doing these past months. I had to keep the lab closed off, and I realize that was inconvenient for a lot of my colleagues. But now the work is done, and I can finally share it with you.”

A faint chuckle swept through the audience. Abby exchanged a curious glance with Hannah.

Essence’s tone grew more serious. “I don’t want to waste words, so I’ll get straight to the point. I’ve been studying the allergen that has struck us four times now. I’ve learned a great deal about what it is, how it works, and most importantly, I’ve found something we may be able to use against it. A vulnerability.”

The room erupted in noise - questions, shouts, disbelief, hope. Essence held up her hands with an apologetic smile, waiting until the commotion settled.

She reached down and lifted a simple glass jar with a sealed lid. “The story begins here. When the Fourth Incident hit, this container – or one like it - was used to trap a sample. The design came from my colleague Taffeta Vicario. Shatterproof glass, a sealed lid lined with epoxy, and a rubber insert so we could draw samples without letting anything escape.

“But I wasn’t the one who captured it.” She cast a look to the side. “That was our community leader, Kara Eldridge. Kara collected the sample herself, even as she was facing the sudden loss of her husband, Lars. And let me add this ... Lars knew what might be coming. He and Kara agreed that if the worst happened, they would still secure the sample. Without their sacrifice and courage, none of what I’m about to say would have been possible.”

Applause rose in waves, swelling into a standing ovation. Kara covered her mouth, eyes glistening, and nodded her thanks. Essence took a breath, visibly moved, before continuing.

“I want to be clear about one thing: safety. Every tool I used, every surface the sample touched, even the original jar itself, has since been incinerated. I designed a test to detect the allergen, and I have run it again and again. There is none of it left here. None.”

From her seat, Abby drew in a sharp breath. She understood the risk Essence had taken to reach this point.

Essence pressed on. “So, what did I learn? First, the entity is terrifyingly sophisticated - clearly engineered to harm human biology. But even engineered things have properties we can measure and exploit. Using the sample, I was able to create a simple test for its presence. That gave me a foothold. From there, I began to study its structure.”

She tapped a handheld control, and a rough diagram appeared on the wall: a sphere bristling with thin filaments.

“This is a crude sketch of what we’re dealing with. Each speck of the cloud contains millions of these microscopic carriers. We know that the cloud is pitch black when it travels through space. This seems to be a dormant phase. One thing I want to emphasize: the test I’ve designed detects its presence even while it’s dormant. When these carriers reach Earth’s atmosphere, they somehow are transformed into the active phase, where they appear as a fog with a light orange tint. The allergen is then released and spread through the air. Then, when their work is finished, they retreat - back to Cronus, dormant again, traveling at nearly half the speed of light. We now have strong evidence that the planet’s disappearance from view is because these things are clustered across its surface. My colleague Jade Andrews, from Cape Canaveral, will speak more about that shortly.”

The audience sat in hushed silence.

Essence lowered the display and leaned slightly over the microphone. “Now here’s the part you’ve all been waiting for. The weakness.”

The crowd stirred, restless with anticipation.

“They are advanced. Smarter than us, faster than us. But even they make mistakes. The allergen belongs to a class of compounds that are ... unstable. Normally that instability would make them fall apart on their own. But they’ve disguised it - masked it with advanced chemistry, so it remains stable. Still, buried inside that stability is a flaw.” She paused. “It reacts with ammonia.”

A swell of voices filled the room again.

Essence smiled slightly. “On its own, the reaction is very slow. Too slow to help us. But I designed a molecular catalyst that changes everything. With it, a small amount of ammonia reacts in seconds, not years. The reaction spreads, like a fire catching dry grass. A chain reaction. I’ve tested this over and over. It works.”

Now, there was a multitude of gasps, shouts, applause.

“The obvious question,” Essence continued over the noise, “is whether we can deliver ammonia and catalyst to Cronus and wipe out the entire population there. For that, Jade is the expert.”

Jade Andrews, elegant and steady, stood and came to the podium. “Thank you, Essence. The honest answer is: maybe. The rockets we still have at Cape Canaveral are fusion-powered. Some can reach thirty to forty percent of light speed. With modifications, they could carry a payload to Cronus. The challenge is delivery.” She turned to Essence. “How much are we talking about?”

Essence was ready. “One large cylinder of ammonia - of the type we already have here - and about a kilogram of catalyst. That would be more than enough to trigger a runaway reaction.”

Another wave of murmurs swept through the crowd.

From the head table, Mimosa raised her hand. “At Cronus’s temperatures, ammonia is solid ice. Would the reaction still occur?”