Dante Valderez stood in front of General Thompson, swaying slightly with his posture subtly changing between authority and subservience. Dante was certainly more intimidating than the balding, pudgy, middle-aged General, although they both wore the same all-black uniforms. Dante was taller, fitter, and more ominous than the petulant man with the distended belly pushing out the bottom of his jacket, and the lower half of his face was concealed behind the mask of a respirator, with tubes running from each side of his face to the gas tanks holstered on his back. The upper half of Dante\u2019s face consisted of two black eyes and a scarred, bald head. All the same, General Thompson was in charge and treated the older, battle-scarred man with an air of contempt.
The two faced other in silence, with the large windows behind General Thompson revealing the numerous decks, command towers and gun turrets of the massive battlestation they were on, stretching out to the rolling ocean surrounding them in the afternoon sun. Soldiers in light grey uniforms were scurrying along the decks of the battlestation, in conjunction with the busy activity of the similarly uniformed young men manning rows of command consoles on the command deck with Dante and the General. Everywhere, lights were pulsing in unison and a voice was calling out the QuadriStar\u2019s state of readiness from wall-mounted loudspeakers:
\u201cDecks 11, 12 and 13 reporting as ready for Starburst. All helicopters deployed and in ring formation. Submerged turbines and surface turbines on hulls 1 to 4 idling. Nuclear reactor reporting full power on standby. Decks 14 and 15 reporting as ready. Starburst formation is complete.\u201d
General Thompson looked away from Dante to look at a console screen beside him to confirm that the battlestation was indeed ready and then turned his back to Dante to look out the command tower\u2019s windows. \u201cCommander Valderez, you practically designed the QuadriStar\u2026 is there anything more we need to attend to before initiating Starburst?\u201d he said over his shoulder to Dante.
Dante looked over at the same screen the General was looking at, nodding his head and saying, \u201cThe Starburst configuration is complete, with guided missiles standing down and offline.\u201d
\u201cI will let you give the order to initiate Starburst, unless you would prefer to let the President do so,\u201d General Thompson said as he gestured at a bank of TV screens nearby showing CCTV live video from cameras placed around the battlestation and on several of the helicopters hovering in the distance. \u201cThis demonstration of the QuadriStar is at his request.\u201d
A stern voice called out to them from a set of speakers over the video feeds, \u201cI would prefer that the Commander initiate this demonstration. I want to bring the SEA War to a decisive end with this new weather control technology. Show me how your QuadriStar will accomplish this.\u201d
\u201cYes sir, Mr. President. I envision a fleet of QuadriStars that will bring our enemies to their knees, including any opposition here at home,\u201d Dante said to the disembodied voice, \u201cusing not only guided missiles, helicopters and the on-board weaponry, but the awesome power of weather generation!\u201d
\u201cThen proceed with the demonstration, Commander, and silence the skeptics once and for all!\u201d the voice said. Dante strode over to a row of consoles near the center of the room, and took the seat of one of the officers who hastily gave it up to him.
Dante observed the four-point star outline of the QuadriStar on the green monitor in front of him, and called out in a loud voice to everyone on the command deck, \u201cInitiate Starburst!\u201d He tapped the sets of circles on each of the hulls of the battlestation on the screen in front of him, making them light up and blink. The floor and walls of the command centre started to immediately vibrate, and through the windows and on the CCTV screens, everyone could see that the water around the battlestation started to churn. Huge vents slowly telescoped out of the upper hulls, forming wide towers on each of the four arms. Dante tapped a slider indicator for power on the screen, slowing increasing it from idle to 50%, and with it increasing the humming and vibration of the room\u2019s floors and walls.
\u201cAre you seeing this, Mr. President?\u201d General Thompson called out, looking at the video feeds on the TVs, and adding without waiting for a response, \u201cThe battlestation\u2019s nuclear reactor is not only running the submerged and surface turbines, it\u2019s heating the water and the air being expelled from them. In a few moments you\u2019ll see columns of steam and water vapour rise from the vents.\u201d
Dante checked the video feeds as well, noting that the ocean water around the battlestation was turning white from the turbulence created by the underwater turbines, and billowing white clouds of steam were now starting to shoot out of the surface vents, rising upward into the clear blue sky. He slid the power indicator up to %75, and so increasing the intensity of the churning water around them and the volume of steam now billowing from the air turbines. The officers on the deck exchanged nervous glances, with the ship around them no longer vibrating but now rattling loudly, and it was noticeably heaving up and down and side to side.
General Thompson now had to shout out to the President, \u201cThe QuadriStar is now raising the ocean\u2019s surface temperature by several degrees in the water surrounding it, and is shooting hot water vapour into atmosphere above it!\u201d
\u201cTo set warm water and vapour in motion, the entire battlestation will now rotate!\u201d Dante yelled above the rattling, and slid the power indicator up to 100%. The massive battlestation started to slowly rotate, leaving boiling, churning water in its wake and the columns of rising steam twist around themselves. The command centre was shaking violently, making General Thompson grab a railing to steady himself.
Everyone was now looking at the CCTV video, watching the four hulls of the battlestation they were on rotate around its centre and see that they were surrounded by an expanding spiral of churning water. The columns of twisting steam were accumulating into a cloud above them, turning darker and denser with each passing moment.
Dante alternated his attention between the video feeds and the control screen in front of him, checking that the power was steady and the hull turbines were all running smoothly. He paid special attention to the cloud forming over the QuadriStar, showing excitement in his eyes as it grew and darkened. The noise in the command tower was now a pounding, thumping noise, and it made it difficult to hear anything else. No one was able to hear Dante laughing with glee under his respirator mask, and repeating to himself in a chant-like voice, his eyes glazed over in rapture, \u201cHere comes the rain, my children! Here comes the rain!\u201d
\u200b
*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author\u2019s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dante Valderez stood in front of General Thompson, swaying slightly with his posture subtly changing between authority and subservience. Dante was certainly more intimidating than the balding, pudgy, middle-aged General, although they both wore the same all-black uniforms. Dante was taller, fitter, and more ominous than the petulant man with the distended belly pushing out the bottom of his jacket, and the lower half of his face was concealed behind the mask of a respirator, with tubes running from each…<\/p>\n