Chapter 4

Jack raised his voice slightly so all could hear and said, “OK Glorious. It’s time. Surface and enclose us with the shield so we can board.”

When the assembled people heard that a murmur broke out. They began looking around as did the guards. Someone in the rear of the assembled people saw the lake water swirl then a metal antenna broke the surface quickly followed by a dirty, weed and mud encrusted hull. Dirty muddy water roiled and flowed everywhere as Glorious rose from the depths. She completely obscured over two thirds of the lake when she was fully out of the hole she had rested in for over 500 years. The river actually flowed backwards for a few minutes as it filled the hole in which Glorious had rested for so long. Glorious was over one thousand feet long, five hundred wide and three hundred tall excluding antenna and sensor towers. That took a lot of water to fill the hole she had rested in.

Glorious slowly, majestically moved toward the beach and gently grounded. A door opened and a ramp extended. It was dark enough outside now that the people inside the shield could see flashes of fire coming from the barrels of weapons the Marines were firing toward them. The crowd panicked and attempted to find shelter from the hostile fire. Many ran toward Glorious, others dropped to the ground and yet others just stood stupidly in their fear. If not for the shield many would have been killed or injured. To their consternation and relief, however, there were other flashes of blue white light coming from a space between the Marines and Jacks people. The bullets never reached their targets. This seemed to infuriate the men in black suits directing the search of Jack’s place and the interrogation of his employees.

Jack looked over the people staring in disbelief then raised his voice to say, “Follow Emily onto the ship quickly please. We need to board and move away before strike aircraft arrive and cause more problems. They cannot damage Glorious but I don’t want to be responsible for collateral damage if I can help it. As soon as you board and we are safely away I promise we will tell you the entire story.”

It took over an hour to get everyone on board and settled down enough for Jack, Susan and Emily, along with Glorious’s help, to give them the briefing on Glorious and their new role in Jack’s “company”. All during that period more and more cars, military vehicles and troops arrived. The area around Jack’s home and business was a madhouse.

To his intense pride none of the employees expressed a desire to leave Jack’s employ or to throw themselves on the government’s mercy. He knew Glorious said they would all stay but he just couldn’t believe the tests and interviews were that accurate. There were some people slated for base operations that were unhappy with their roles but they all admitted they would rather work ashore for Jack than not work for him at all. In spite of the manner in which they found out about Jack’s plans for them there was a rising sense of excitement in the crew as they discussed their future.

Throughout the rest of the night Glorious made three more stops to allow family members that had been spirited away by hired guards to board. During every stop she was faced with ineffective attempts by the woefully inadequate military to stop her. By dawn she had shot down a squadron of bombers and most of three squadrons of fighters that attacked her while she was picking up family members. Her stealth capability was perfect but, unfortunately, the mark I eyeball could still see her and vector in military aircraft. By the end of the night all immediate family members of the crew and base employees were safely aboard Glorious.