Powers Ch. 00

Skyrockets took off behind Julia's closed eyelids. She gave out with a sharp yell and ground herself against his face. Oh hell yes, echoed through her mind. She would have to try this more often. The orgasm wasn't a big monster but it was sharp and focused right on her clit.

Julia rocked her hips as the orgasm rolled on and on, growing as it did. It was a totally new sensation to her and she reveled in it. As her clit became more enflamed and sensitive, her hips slowed and finally she rose up, getting away from Brad's maddening tongue.

The sounds of Brad gasping for air bounced around the back of her mind for a moment or two before it registered. Julia looked down at the top of Brad's head sticking out from under her skirt for a moment in confusion and then she groaned as she slowly got to her feet. Muscles protested in her thighs and lower back.

Her legs were shaking and her knees wanted to let go as she stepped to the side and looked back down at Brad. His face was a mess from his forehead to his chin. Her eyes moved down his body to find his dick lying fully hard on his hairy belly. She marveled at that and considered sitting back down on it. Her shaky legs and sensitive clit made her drop the idea.

She grinned as she turned and walked toward the small bathroom. If it was still that way when she finished her shower then she might reconsider but for now, it was good to know that it was there. There was an old saying in the theater about leaving them wanting more. Well, it applied in this case also.

She chuckled softly as she opened the door and entered, locking the door behind. Brad could wait until she was finished, that and if he could get himself untied from the shirt. She was being and feeling selfish but she didn't care in the least. She felt like she was back in control.

Julia laughed as the phrase, "The bitch is back" floated around in her head. Brad's place in her life had changed and she had changed, all because of a twisted up shirt. Life was funny that way, a bitch in fact.

*****

Julia took her time in the shower, cleaning herself up thoroughly, even washing her hair. The hot water was limited she knew but she used it all. Brad would have to wait for it to reheat before he got his shower. Somehow that sounded right to her. It would keep him out of her way for a while anyway and maybe reinforce the idea that he wasn't the boss or even needed.

After drying off, she brushed out her short wet hair and dressed. Her knee length skirt was slightly wrinkled but good enough. She never wore more than the basics in makeup and she could redo her face easily out of her handbag in the car. She noticed the lazy smile on her lips and grinned.

"You are one hell of a piece of work. You fuck the guy stupid and then just leave him lying on the floor. You are so bad sometimes," she said to her reflection in the mirror. All it did was grin back at her and nod.

With a deep breath and a soft sigh, she turned and opened the door. Brad wasn't on the floor any longer; he was curled up on the bed and snoring softly. The thought that she had blown his socks off and totally screwed up his mind made her grin again. He'd sleep for several hours if she didn't miss her guess or Harrison woke him up.

She'd have to make sure that didn't happen. She turned to the door and headed for the living room area. Harrison was sitting at the small breakfast nook that served as a dinning table. He grinned up at her and shook his head.

"Brad is sleeping, lets keep it that way, shall we," Julia said grinning back at him.

"One little sharp yell from you must be a new record for quietness between you two. I didn't hear a peep out of him. Did you kill him?" was his reply.

Julia laughed and shook her head. "No, he's still alive but just barely. I shocked him terrible, rode him hard twice, shocked him again, and then tried to smother him. All in all, a great time was had by all, especially me."

"I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that show," Harrison said with a deep chuckle.

"Well, you were there in mind and spirit, if not for real." Julia told him. When he looked at her quizzically, she laughed and shook her head. "A lady can't be telling all her secrets, now can she. You'll have to ask Brad about it but don't be surprised if he blushes beet red and changes the subject."

"In that case, I'll just let my own imagination and fantasies fill in the blanks. I kind of like this job and I'm getting too old to be out looking for another one."

"Good choice." Julia told him. "Is there any breakfast left or did you eat it all?"

"It's on the stove, give me a minute, and I'll heat it up."

"Stay where you are, I know which end of a spatula to point which way."

*****

It was daylight by the time Julia was once again sitting in her car. She had run her brush through her hair again now that it was dry and decided to forget the makeup. A little lipstick would be all she would need. Anyway, people were starting to arrive and she wanted to be there as they did.

She started the car and pulled up to the gate. "Dr Julia Herron." She told the gate guard as she flipped out her Government ID card and passed it over to him.

The guard studied it and her for a moment and then stepped inside his shack to use the phone. On his return he said, "Yes, Dr Lance is expecting you. He's in the construction trailer to the left of the main building entrance."

"I understood Dr. Lance was dead or seriously injured from an accident."

"Yes he was injured but he's very much alive." The guard replied.

"Can you tell me anything about what happened to him?" Julia asked. Sometimes the little people could give insights that were lacking from the main reports. They had less to hide in most cases.

"That you'll have to take up with the doctor," The guard said stiffly. "I wasn't there."

"Who was there?" Julia asked softly, trying a different approach.

"You'll have to ask Dr Lance."

Julia could pull rank on the guard but decided to let it ride for the moment. "Thank you, I'll do just that."

"Uh, doctor, there is one small thing you should know. Dr Lance can become very angry and irritable if pressed on the matter of his accident. Just a friendly warning."

"Thank you, I'll remember that." Julia replied with a smile as she let out on the clutch and accelerated away from the gate.

These people had a lot to learn about her and the lessons would start at the top and run downhill quickly, Julia thought as she parked in front of the construction trailer. Her job was to find answers and to do that people had to answer questions and that included everyone and anyone.

That fact would become very apparent very shortly. Julia had a tight little smile on her lips as she got out of her car.

*****

The construction trail was a medium sized doublewide mobile home sitting on concrete blocks in the parking lot. There was a ramp up to the side of the porch wide enough for a motorized wheel chair. Julia filed that away as she entered the front door to be met by a young man in work clothes.

"Dr Herron, I'm Bill Taylor and I've been assigned to show you around," He said in a sharp clipped voice. A voice that didn't match the clothes he was wearing.

"Then show me to Dr Lance's office," Julia shot back at him in the same type voice.

"Dr Lance isn't seeing anyone this morning."

"Sorry, wrong answer, I'm the one who decides who is see whom and when around here now," Julia said starting across the open office space toward a large glass door in the far wall. The four or five people at desks looked at her open mouthed.

"Dr Lance isn't here yet." The man protested.

"Then I'll look around his office until he gets here." Julia replied not missing a step.

Julia opened the office door to find a man in a motorized wheelchair sitting behind the desk. "Dr Lance I presume."

"Dr Herron, how good to meet you," Dr Lance started saying before Julia interrupted.

"Then why did you send the security man to try and steer me away from you and on a wild goose chase? I'm here representing the Government and you know what authority that carries so cut the crap and lets get down to business. There are people dead and missing around here and I'm here to find out why."

Dr Lance grinned and nodded. "You're just about what I had you peg for. It was worth a try in any case. How can I help you?"

Julia had been holding the door open so everyone heard her little speech. Now she closed it making sure the security man was outside. She crossed to the desk and walked around to the side so she could see all of the man she was talking to.

"You can start by telling me about the type of experiments you were running, how you got hurt, how the men died, and what was going on when the other two disappeared."

"You don't want much, do you?" The doctor said sarcastically. "Have a seat, this might take a while." He added indicating the chair in front of his desk.

Julia walked over to the chair, turned it around, and dragged it over so she was on the side of the desk and it wasn't between the two of them. She knew how power worked and she wasn't giving him any advantage. Being where she could see him in the wheelchair now tipped the scales in her direction and he knew it from the frown on his face.

"This isn't what I meant." He told her, an edge of anger creeping into his voice.

"I know exactly what you meant and why, so cut the crap. I'm not here to play games with you, I'm here to take charge and find out what is going on. After I do, then I will decide whether or not you even remain at this facility. Do you understand me?" Julia said in a soft but iron hard voice that was even harder when she emphasized the word "understand."

Dr Lance took a long deep breath through his nose and let it out equally as slow. With his temper under control he said, "This project was my brain child and no one knows more about it than I do. No one, I repeat no one can dismantle this place without me and not kill half the people between here and Washington. Do I make myself clear?"

"I'll let you know after you've answered my original questions."

The two stared at each other for several minutes. Finally, Julia said, "Well?"

Dr Lance sighed and leaned back in his chair. "What do you know about magnets and magnetic energy?"

"Opposites attract and likes repel, it lines up the molecular structure in metal, it is a field ninety degrees to electrical wires, it effects the human body in some ways that are good and some ways that aren't. The general things you are taught in school and learn in life. I could get more technical but why, you obviously already know it all." Julia replied.

Dr Lance nodded. "Yes, I know it all but I don't have the time to teach it to you, even if I wanted to." His dislike for the woman sitting opposite him was more than obvious.

Julia frowned and replied, "I don't have time to learn it all, I just want to know what the hell you were trying to do, what was the scope of your project? Were you working on a weapon, doing research on magnetic drives or something else altogether?"

"A little of all three if you must know." He told her.

Julia was growing impatient with his games. She stood up and looked hard at the man in the wheelchair. "I will convene a panel of leading scientists and congressmen since you won't answer my questions. You will be under house arrest for contempt until such time as that can be arranged. Good day Doctor," She said before spinning on her heels and heading for the door.

"What about decommissioning the facility?" The doctor asked hurriedly.

"I'm afraid we'll just have to muddle on without you," was her reply as she paused at the door.

"You can't do that, you'll destroy everything," the doctor yelled.

"We'll cut power at the reactor and shut everything down, it should be safe enough then," Julia shot back at him.

"You'll blow yourself up if you cut the power all at once. It has to be shut down a little at a time and dismantled as you go." There was panic in the doctor's voice.

"Why is that doctor?" Julia asked.

Dr Lance stared at her, a frown on his face, for several minutes. He visibly slumped in his chair and whispered, "Because it protects itself if it gets the idea that you are trying to kill it."

"You talk as if it's a creature instead of a building."

"It is in a way. There is enough computer equipment hooked up in there to put a man on Mars and it has complete control over all the arrays and the building itself."

"What kind of arrays?"

"Electromagnetic pulse arrays. That's what happened to me. I tried to shut off the main power and it shot me with a short intense burst. It pulverized nearly every bone in my body from my waist down. That's how I found out we had lost control of the project. I had only suspected it until then."

"Who knows about this?" Julia asked quietly, returning to stand behind her chair.

"The Pentagon and key officials in the administration. Only the people who had to know." He told her.

He paused and then took a deep breath. "We've been trying to shut down and dismantle key sections but we have to be careful. The computer looks for anything suspiciously like a complete shutdown and retaliates. That's how the men died. We're trying to get enough of it off line so we can shut it down at the reactor without it blowing up."

"Is that damned computer sentinel?" Julia asked in disbelief.

"In a way, I guess it is but we're not sure. It took an indirect hit from one of our tests that got out of control. We haven't been able to get close to the computer since. It won't even let us try and communicate with it."

"What about the men that disappeared?"

"I'm not sure. They were there one minute and gone the next. Video just shows them winking out like a light bulb being turned off. There's no sound or flash of any kind, they just vanish."

"You keep saying this thing will explode, do you mean like a bomb?" Julia asked.

"We don't know for sure. We ran some simulations based on the power it used to cripple me and to kill those two men. If we cut power at the main plant it could draw a surge voltage and flash all the arrays at once. To be honest we're not sure what that would do but it wouldn't be good."

"What's the worst case scenario?"

"If all the arrays were pointed at each other then it would literally explode the air, either as a fireball that would burn the atmosphere or as an atomic reaction. It's a toss up on that one."

He paused a second and then went on, "With all of the arrays aligned the same direction, the building would be destroyed and an energy beam released the likes of which mankind has never seen before. What it would do, can only be guessed at. The beam would punch through anything in its path and off into space."

"How could a computer, even a sentient one, conceive such an idea?" Julia asked more of herself than Dr Lance.

"Military hardware is designed to protect itself is all I can come up with." Dr Lance replied.

Julia stood there thinking. An undulating siren interrupted her abruptly.

Dr Lance slammed his hand down on an intercom and yelled, "What's going on, talk to me people."

"Team "C" just went up in smoke." Came from the speaker in an almost hysterical voice.

"What do you mean, up in smoke? Are they crushed or did they disappear?"

"Neither, sir. There was a puff of smoke and they were gone. This was completely different from anything we've seen before. And sir, all the camera's are dead inside the building."

"Shit!" Dr Lance whispered as he released the button.

Anything else he might have said was lost in a deafening clap of thunder and a blinding flash of light.

*****

The front of the building disappeared in a flash of plasma and ionized gas as glass, brick, and steel atomized and was blown away. The house trailer didn't even leave a vapor as it disappeared, the same could be said of the guard shack and the motor home in the parking lot. None of the occupants had a clue; it was over, all over in nanoseconds.

Bits and pieces of the other side of the building were buried miles deep in the hill behind. What once were woods, now looked like a plowed field, all brown and churned, not a speck of green anywhere. The discharge at the front of the arrays had accelerated them to the rear, breaking the sound barrier in only a few feet. The hill was the only thing that kept them from light speed and the total destruction of the Earth.

The burst had lasted less than three tenths of a second and had been cut off by the brown out of the nuclear power plant. The arrays had sucked up every ounce of power and spit it out in a deadly stream of electromagnetic energy. The focus point for the arrays had been thirty miles away down the valley to the east.

The beam was a hundred and twenty feet wide when it left the facility property and less than a half mile wide at the focus point. Nothing lived between point A and point B, not even microbes in the soil. That narrow wedge of air and earth had been sterilized and shimmered with heat and energy.

The building at the focal point was another nuclear reactor power plant, actually the center reactor in a line of three. The resultant explosion wiped out six million people and half a state. A three hundred mile radius was rendered a nuclear wasteland, and the fallout was felt around the world.

From that point the energy beam fanned out in a widening path and dissipated over distance. At fifty miles, it killed every living thing on the surface and left a deep scar of perfectly flat earth. At a hundred miles, it still killed but left the rocks and surface relatively intact.

At three hundred miles all living things felt a sudden warmth and vibration. Most didn't survive more than twenty-four hours. Outside of five hundred miles it was thought that everyone and everything was safe. Nothing died but everything was changed. Only it took two generations to show up. At six hundred miles the beam left the land and moved out over the ocean.

And that is where our real story begins, two generations later.