Chapter 17: Congressional Investigation

A little over a year ago, I had informed the President and other world leaders of the meteoroids and virus. The American politicians started off by passing a bill to fund virus research in a closed session of Congress. They then spent the money on building shelters. They said the shelters would be used to protect the American public from the meteoroids, but the shelters would not hold even a thousandth of the American population. The real reason was the Congressmen wanted to hide deep underground when the meteoroids started hitting the Earth’s surface. I can’t blame them for their feelings for I and the Ark Society would be deep underground when the meteoroids arrived.

Thankfully, the President was of a different opinion. When he learned that the Congressmen had spent the monies allocated for virus research on shelters, he hit the roof and came down with both feet on Congress. This was of course done in a closed, joint-session of Congress because no one wanted the public to find out about the true situation.

During the next three months, the Israeli and Arab Governments signed a treaty. No one in the region believed that the treaty would last 6 months. However, the local Governments were working together on a secret research effort. No one would talk about the details of the research, but a great deal of disinformation had been released about Al Qaeda having a flesh-eating bacterium and planning to release it in India and Bangladesh. According to the disinformation, the Israeli and Arab Governments were concerned that the bacteria would spread to their part of the Middle East, so they were trying to develop a way to kill the bacteria.

Carla and I kept in touch with Mr. Eli and Sheik Sala, who planned to visit us in another month. Yes, within a week of our leaving Israel, news of the meteoroids and the flesh-eating virus had been leaked to the media. Instead of denying the rumors, the local politicians confirmed that the rumor about the meteoroids was true. A meteoroid shower was on its way, but it would not be as severe as the rumors claimed. The politicians said that they had not been told about a virus, and believed that someone had heard about the flesh-eating bacteria that Al Qaeda planned to release and had linked the bacteria to the meteoroids - all perfectly reasonable and logical. In the past, there had been numerous rumors about Al Qaeda having biological weapons and those rumors had been proven to be untrue, so the fear melted away. Since the public learned the bacteria did not exist, everyone assumed that the Government research would end. Interest in the Government’s research program seemed to just fade away, even though the research continued.

The Arab and Israeli Governments had formed a plan. The bulk of their populations would remain on the surface during the meteoroid strikes, and use whatever shelter that was available. Temporary shelters would be constructed to house a large segment of the population. The people in these shelters were primarily medical personnel and their assistants. The governments believed that as the planet turned, there would be short periods of time in which the planet would shield the local area from the meteoroids. During these periods of time, the medical personnel would return to the surface and administer the vaccine to as many of their people as possible. If their plan worked as drafted, they would only lose about 40% of their population to the meteoroid strikes and the virus.

Bob and Sharna were aiding them by creating numerous small shelters scattered around the Middle East. Food and water was being stockpiled in the shelters for the medical personnel’s use while they waited in the shelters for the meteoroid strikes to end. A few of the braver personnel had volunteered to exit the shelter and provide aid to injured people during the meteoroid shower. That wasn’t as dangerous as it sounded for there would be long gaps between meteoroid impacts in a specific area. However, a series of impacts in a small area within a short duration was also highly possible. It was possible to move from cover to cover without injury, but the odds were that the person would eventually be hit by a meteoroid. Bob and Sharna believed their plan would work, but they also believed the death toll would be much higher than the authorities estimated. They estimated that less than 40% of the Middle East population would survive.

Of course, the news of the meteoroids published in the Middle East made its way to Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Asia. Since the Middle East media treated the news as rumor and overblown fact, the rest of the world’s media discounted the news of the meteoroids and virus. Yes, they did report news of the Israeli and Arab activities, but almost everyone believed their response to be overreaction.

While the world’s politicians kept the news of the virus a secret, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other Government funded medical centers were working to create a vaccine. Bob and Sharna had obtained samples of the ice crystals and transported the virus to a few select research facilities that were equipped with the necessary containment equipment. The Ark Society also shared the manufacturing process Bob and Sharna had developed to produce the vaccine with the researchers. Unfortunately, their vaccine was not suitable for distribution to other locations for it was only viable for 42 hours, and Sharna recommended that it be injected within 6 hours of manufacture to be most effective. They would be able to manufacture enough vaccine for the Ark residents, and possibly a few of our local hospitals. Unfortunately, the manufacturing process produced only small amounts of vaccine and the vaccine had to be produced in a vacuum, so they would produce the vaccine in outer space and bring it back to the Ark. That would not help the rest of the world, and that increased the difficulty of the researchers manufacturing the vaccine.

We had weathered the storm of making the meteoroids and virus known to the world leaders, but now I had a different but related problem. I was meeting with my Advisory Committee to discuss the Congressional Subpoena requiring me to appear before a Congressional Hearing in Washington D.C. to answer questions about the lease we had with the Forest Service.

Bob had checked on the hearing and had learned that Thomas Tyler was upset with the Ark Foundation and me because he had lost his job after George Lyle had helped the Ark Foundation. He blamed me personally for his situation, so he had met with one of Washington’s grandstanding Senators and informed him about the oddities of the Ark’s construction schedule relative to the timing of our obtaining the leases to build the Ark. At least that was the public reason for the hearing. Bob let me know that the Senator’s real agenda was to take over the Ark and this was his opening move.

We decided that there was no way that we would be able to conceal the fact that the excavation had been done before we got the leases. The public release of information regarding the meteoroids and virus was not scheduled to occur for another nine months. We decided to shoot down the Senator’s plans by making an early release of the news to the public about the meteoroids and virus. Making that announcement at the Congressional Hearing would provide us with the best possible coverage and hopefully disrupt the Senator’s plans. However, even though we were going to tell the truth about most of our activities, there were several items we did not want to discuss and there is also the difference between telling the truth and telling the whole truth.

Harry, Sam, and I were sitting in a Washington D.C. Congressional meeting room at a wide table with a microphone in front of me. Harry was with me as my lawyer and Sam was there as a resource for me, since he had been the one who had negotiated the lease for the Foundation. It was now 9:45 AM and the meeting was scheduled to start at 9:00 AM; we were not happy campers. Harry had tried to find out what the delay was and how long we would be kept waiting, but no one would give us a reason for the delay. One of the reporters in the audience told Harry that this was typical for the Congressman who was chairing the meeting. It appeared that the Congressional Committee Members were flexing their muscles by making us wait. I told Harry and Sam that two can play this game, and then I settled down in my chair and took a nap. Finally, a side door opened and the committee members entered the room and took their seats. Harry and Sam made a production of waking me after the Committee Chairman called the meeting to order.

The Chairman called the meeting to order and addressed me, “Mr. Reppa, I do not appreciate people sleeping in this chamber.”

I said, “Noted.”

I think he was expecting an apology, which I was not going to provide. He looked as if he were going to pursue the matter; but instead, he started the meeting. After several minutes of introducing the committee members and describing the purpose of the Congressional Hearing, he finally got around to asking me a question.

“Mr. Reppa, would you please explain to this committee the purpose of this shelter that you and the Ark Foundation are excavating beneath the Serra Nevada Mountains?”

“Well Mr. Chairman, to start with the shelter excavation is complete, and secondly, neither I nor the Ark Foundation did the excavation.”

“What! You took out a lease to build shelters at four locations and to interconnect them with tunnels. What do you mean that you are done with the excavation, but did no excavation?”

“It simple, sir, the excavation was essentially complete when we formed the Ark Foundation, and at this time the outstanding excavation has been completed.”

“Mr. Reppa, if you and the Ark Foundation did not excavate your shelter, who did?”

We had talked about this when I had received the subpoena and decided that since we were being pushed into a corner, we would go public with the information about the existence of Bob and Sharna, the meteoroids, and virus. So when the Chairman asked who had done the excavation, I replied, “The shelter, or Ark as we refer to it, was excavated by two of my friends, Bob and Sharna.”

“What are Bob and Sharna’s last names, Mr. Reppa?”

“They don’t have last names, sir.”

“Then where are your two friends?

“I’m not sure where Sharna is Mr. Chairman, but Bob tells me he is hovering about four feet off the floor and two feet to the right of the bailiff’s right shoulder.”

The bailiff got up and quickly moved away from his seat to the amusement of the spectators.

“Mr. Reppa, we are not amused by your joke. If you fail to take these proceeding seriously, we will have you detained until such time as you start telling us the truth.”

“Mr. Chairman, I am telling your committee the truth. Bob and Sharna are energy-based life forms from another galaxy. The reason we cannot see Bob is that he has no physical form and we humans cannot see energy. They came to Earth two million years ago and stayed to pursue a genetics experiment, and they claimed the Earth at that time for their experiment. As far as they are concerned, they are the true owners of the planet. Thus in their opinion, they do not need anyone’s permission to excavate a shelter.”

“Mr. Reppa, I find you in contempt. Bailiff, place Mr. Reppa in handcuffs and place him in a holding cell until this meeting is over and we decide what to do with him.”

The bailiff came over to me and placed me in handcuffs, then led me out of the room. While this was happening, I was talking with Bob.

“Jon, the way they are treating us is unacceptable. I am going to teach this pompous ass a lesson, and then maybe he will believe that Sharna and I exist and treat us with respect.”

“Bob, I agree that we need to do something, but we don’t want to do something too extreme. Let them take me out of the room, and then enclose all of the committee members in individual force fields. Raise the force fields up to the ceiling and secure them to the ceiling. Leave them there regardless of what I say until they apologize to both of us and acknowledge your existence.”

Harry and Sam later told me that I hadn’t been out of the room for fifteen seconds when the five, committee members floated up to the ceiling. They started shouting. They wanted explanations, but mainly, they wanted someone to get them down. Cameras were flashing and reporters were on their phones to get more people down to the meeting room to cover the story.

The Chairman finally pointed at Harry and Sam, saying, “You two were with Reppa. Tell me what’s going on and get us down.”

Harry and Sam looked at each other, sat back in their chairs, and smiled.

Harry said, “Well Mr. Chairman, we don’t know for sure, but we suspect that Bob is upset with you and he raised you up to the ceiling.”

“Tell him to let us down.”

“I’m sorry sir; this matter is between you, Jon, and Bob. Since Jon and Bob talk over a telepathic link, you will have to use Jon as a conduit to communicate with Bob. That is what we do.”

The Chairman shouted at the stenographer telling her to get the bailiff and have him bring Reppa back to the meeting room. In the meantime, the committee members floated below the ceiling and muttered threats about what they were going to do when they got back down.

As Harry and Sam sat there waiting for Jon, they noticed the Chairman was slowly drifting toward the window that had been opened for fresh air. Since the others weren’t moving, they knew Bob was having some fun, so with a smile to each other, Harry said, “I’d be careful if I were you Mr. Chairman. I wouldn’t get too close to that window. No telling how high you might go it you drift out of the room.”

The stenographer found the bailiff before we got on the elevator, and he returned me to the meeting room.

“Reppa, get us down.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Chairman, but I didn’t elevate you and I don’t have the ability to lower you. You made Bob angry and he decided that you needed to be taught a lesson in manners.”

There were numerous laughs from the spectators and the Chairman’s face turned red. The Chairman continued to inch toward the open window.

“Get us down!”

I paused for a moment, “I’m sorry Mr. Chairman, but Bob said ‘No way, Jose’. He also said that he wouldn’t discuss the matter with you, until you have the handcuffs removed from my wrists.”

There were further laughs and the Chairman got even angrier. He may be angry at me, but I noticed he kept glancing toward the window.

“You tell him that if he doesn’t put us down I will have him arrested for contempt.”

“Mr. Chairman, Bob says that the handcuffs are still on my wrists.”

The audience laughed, the Chairman’s face grew redder, and then the Chairman motioned the bailiff to remove the cuffs.

As the bailiff was removing the cuffs, I said, “Mr. Chairman, Bob wants to know how you plan to arrest him when you can’t see him or grasp him.”

I don’t know if the Chairman was just so angry, he couldn’t speak or if he didn’t know how to respond. Finally he seemed to regain his composure, and he said, “Mr. Reppa, would you please ask your friend to put us down?”

Once again, I paused for effect, and then said, “Bob says that he will be happy to put you back down once you apologize for your treatment of us and publically acknowledge his existence.”

The Chairman started to get angry again, but quickly regained his composure, apologized to us and made a statement acknowledging Bob’s existence. I didn’t think that his apology was sincere, but I accepted it anyway. Bob lowered the committee members back to the floor and we all took our seats, so the meeting could continue. The first thing the Chairman did when his feet were firmly on the floor was to move away from the window, well away from the window.

I could tell that the Chairman was still angry, but he did try to speak to us with respect. “Alright Mr. Reppa, would you please explain this matter to us, since we evidently do not have all of the facts?”

“Yes sir, Mr. Chairman. I am going to summarize the story for it is rather long otherwise. Late in 1970, Bob and Sharna discovered that Earth’s solar system was in the path of an immense field of meteoroids. In the 90’s, they confirmed the meteoroid field would hit Earth, so they shifted the planet-killer sized meteoroids and some of the other large meteoroids, so they would miss the Earth. They also discovered that the meteoroids are laced with ice crystals that contain a virus that is highly contagious and lethal to humans.”

The spectators’ composure broke down at that point, which led to both the committee members and the audience shouting questions at me. The noise level was so high, I couldn’t respond. Finally, the Chairman regained control of the meeting and brought the meeting back to order. He then asked me to explain my comment, so I told him the meteoroids were due to hit Earth in about three years, and Bob and Sharna were expecting the virus to kill over 85% of humanity. There were many more questions, which I answered to the best of my ability.

Eventually I received a question that allowed me to return to my story, so I told them, “When Bob and Sharna realized the danger facing humanity, they decided that humanity needed a shelter to protect a group of humans from the meteoroids and the aftereffects of the virus. They excavated the shelter and then contacted me.

“I formed the Ark Foundation and I had one of the Ark Foundation’s lawyers, a Mr. Sam Thomas, negotiate with the Forest Service for a lease that would allow us to legally complete the Ark’s construction. Once the lease had been signed, Bob and Sharna donated the excavated shelter to the Ark Foundation and we began the construction to complete it. At this time, the Ark construction is essentially complete, and we are in the process of provisioning it with the supplies the residents will require. We had planned to begin the startup phase of recruiting residents for the Ark in about nine months, but we have had to accelerate our schedule due to this hearing.”

Once again, pandemonium reigned and the Chairman pounded his gavel and shouted for order until he regained control of the meeting. The next question was about how to become an Ark resident, and who made the decisions about admittance. I quickly realized that this was one of those times when a lie might be healthier than the truth. I told them that a number of support and technical people having special qualifications had been and would be identified and recruited. The Ark Foundation would then fill the remaining resident slots by taking applications for admittance, and if the applicant met the requirements for admittance, then a lottery would determine which of the approved applicants would be admitted. I acknowledged that due to the accelerated schedule we had not identified all of the requirements necessary for admittance. There were further questions, which I answered and most of the answers were truthful.

Eventually, the Chairman ended the meeting and asked Harry, Sam and me to meet with the committee privately for a few minutes. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the committee members wanted to be admitted into the Ark. According to Bob, if they didn’t meet our admission requirements, they would try to take over the Ark, and if we did agree to let them in, they would eventually make a bid for control of the Ark.

I wanted help in certain areas that the Government could provide. I let them walk me down their garden path and emphasized that the Ark Foundation had to maintain control of the project or we would not be ready for habitation when the meteoroids arrived. I think I scared them when I reminded them of how badly a schedule was typically overrun when Government bureaucrats became involved. I knew they were aware of it, but they certainly didn’t want to admit it.

I told them that the Ark Foundation had a number of slots open for administrators and that I believed that the members of the Government would be more qualified to fill those positions than the average man on the street. I let the committee know that those slots were limited, but that there would be others, so they needed to put together a list of who they thought would be interested in filling those slots. The people they selected should follow the normal procedure by applying for admittance, but to label the envelope with ‘Attention: Jon Reppa’.

One of the questions raised by the committee dealt with our ability to defend the Ark. I answered their question by reminding them of what happened to The Brotherhood’s Sword after they attacked one of my extended family. However, I also said that we would need an External Security Force to protect us after we left the safety of the Ark. I asked him what he thought about us getting a company of Rangers to provide that protection. He replied that Congress might be able to arrange for us to receive a company.

Before we left the building, we saw that the media was waiting for us. They had set up a podium that was filled with microphones. We would have to face them eventually and dodging them now would just cause problems later. As we exited the building, we went directly to the podium and I held up my hands for silence. I started out by introducing myself, then pointed to one reporter and asked if she had a question.

“Mr. Reppa, what did you talk about in your private meeting with the Congressional committee?”

“We talked about a variety of matters. They primarily wanted to know how they could get into the Ark. I told them that we had a number of openings that they were qualified to fill and that if they sent me their application, I would ensure that it was reviewed by the people selecting for those positions. That is the limit of the preferential treatment that I agreed to provide to them; I did not make any promises that they would be selected.”

I pointed at another reporter and said, “Next question.”

“What should I do if I want a slot in your shelter?”

“There are two paths for getting into the Ark. The first path is to apply for one of the openings that we currently have for support and technical people; the openings are listed on our web site. If you are hired, you will automatically gain entrance to the Ark for yourself and your immediate family. The second path is to attend one of the seminars we will be hosting in major cities, get and fill out an application, and then wait to see if you are selected by our lottery. Lottery winners will be notified at least two weeks prior to the arrival of the meteoroids by registered mail giving them the time and place they are to report for induction.”

I pointed at another reporter and said, “Next question.”

“Sir, two weeks does not seem like adequate notice for the people to take care of all their affairs.”

“You need to look at what affairs need to be addressed. Their financial affairs are moot for when the meteoroids arrive, governments, financial institutions, businesses, and other financial holdings will no longer be of any use. Currency will no longer have any value, and no one will be interested in buying a piece of property that is so far away that they cannot use it. Besides, if you are one of the survivors, all you will have to do is claim any of the victims’ property. The former owners will not be around to object.