Chapter 35

Command Staff,” said Adam, “we are about 10 minutes from starting our final approach into Norfolk NAS. Our sensors show very little air traffic around us, but we are detecting frequent electronic probes from the ground. These are consistent with targeting signals and definitely not air traffic monitoring.”

“How are you handling the probes?”

“Currently we’re reflecting just enough to give a weak return, but still letting NAS’s radar see us. It is a bit tricky.”

“Good. Are the Star Fighters seeing the probes?”

“This is DSF10,” said Clare. “The four of us are seeing the signals.”

“Let’s do this,” said Tara of Sarah’s Clan. “DSF10, have your flight return the signals with a higher attenuation. That should confuse them.”

“Aye. The flight led by DSF22 is in the vicinity.”

“DSF22, your position?”

“Five kilometers behind and five kilometers to their port at flight level 1 5 0. We are also seeing the signals.”

“That a little surprising if it is targeting acquisition. You heard our instructions to DSF10.”

“Aye. We will do the same and broaden our formation.”

“Thanks. Stay alert. Watch for any approaching aircraft. Only Alpha2 is visible.”

“Will do,” replied DSF10 and DSF22.

On reaching the approach into NAS, Alpha2 followed the normal glide path down until it was over the end of the Norfolk runway and then leveled out. It quickly slowed and turned off at the first exit as directed by Approach Control. While pausing on the taxiway it hovered ten meters above the surface. Once Maureen received clearance, they headed toward the transient ramp. A combination of ground control and ground crew guided them to a parking spot in front of the VIP reception area with their door facing the waiting crowd. When the ramp agent signaled that they were in position, the shuttle descended until it was a few centimeters above the ramp.

Looking out the window, Briana’s Clan saw Commander McGrath’s group watching their arrival. Off to the side, they could see a crowd standing along the nearby fence. As soon as Maureen gave the okay, the door opened and Briana, Cass, Cindy and Adam went to meet their passengers. After brief introductions everyone began boarding. When Cathal was next to Adam he said, “Cathal, someone is painting us with a target acquisition signal.”

“What?”

“Yes. We’ve been sensing a targeting signal since before we started our approach. Do you have any objections to us taking it out?”

“Fuck, no. Can you tell where it is?”

“No, but our escort can.”

“Sabrina, take out the system.”

“Affirmative.” Pause. “Done.”

“Thanks.”

“Cathal, it’s done. We will have the details in a few moments.”

Cathal looked back over Adam’s shoulder and grinned as he entered the shuttle. “Well, my guess is that it was a large step van, because one just burst into flames on the ramp in front of a hangar.”

“Could be. That was quite a group of observers along the fence when we taxied up.”

“Well, our activity would be hard to keep quiet. This base doesn’t have many VIP visitors, so when it does the word quickly gets around. So with any lead time at all people turn up to see what is going on. It doesn’t help that our group and General Walker’s group kind of stand out on a Naval Air Base. I guess we should have worn our Marine uniforms.” While they were talking, the shuttle door had closed.

“Adam, do you have a phone I can use? I should let someone know about the step van.”

“Here,” said Briana, handing him a satellite phone.

While Cathal talked to his office, Maureen began the departure routine. When she reached the end of the runway, she asked Departure Control the status of traffic overhead. She had to query them twice before being advised that there was no traffic over the base. She then requested permission for a rapid climb to flight level 1000 immediately after liftoff. After she again repeated it twice they gave permission, but warned her not to break the sound barrier below flight level 200.

As Maureen turned the shuttle on to the runway, Briana said to those in the cabin, “You may want to look out the windows as we leave.”

Alpha2 started its roll down the runway. They had only moved a few feet before beginning to rise. By the time they reached the 2000 ft marker on the runway they were more than 1800 ft above the ground and continuing to rise nearly vertically. In the cabin, several gasps were heard as their guests watched the ground rapidly disappear below them, with little sensation of movement.

“That was awesome,” said Admiral Johnson, without taking his eyes from the window.

Once they reached 100,000 feet, Maureen turned toward Dóchas. This time she did not turn off the transponder.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Briana, “again, welcome aboard. Based upon the number of overnight bags I see it appears that everyone is prepared to stay overnight. We are pleased that you want to spend that much time with us. There are a couple of things we would like to cover before we are very far from Norfolk. First, we are a clothingoptional society. How you dress, or not, is solely your choice. We want you to do what you are comfortable with. The clothes we are wearing today are what we wear when greeting those from other cultures.

“Second, I hope no one minds but we have changed the venue for the meeting. Instead of having it at Comrie we have moved it to our spaceship Dóchas. We think that most of you will have already anticipated this.

“On arriving on Dóchas, we will be met by our Command Staff, along with the three naval officers,” said Cass. “Kevin is still recovering, but he will be available as needed. As agreed to in the agenda for your visit, the Command Staff will show you a presentation. This is to acquaint you with our background, our plans, and provide a general comparison of the physical differences between us. After questions are answered, we will break into interest groups. While on Dóchas, we require that you be accompanied by one of our crew, except when you are in your quarters. This is for your safety, since all of our emergency procedures rely on telepathy. We are certain that any crew member you ask will be willing to accompany you, unless they are already involved in another task. If this is the case, they will ensure that someone comes to assist.

“In case of an emergency you are to follow the directions of your escort without question. When you are shown to your quarters the safety items will be pointed out and procedures reviewed. We request that you do not attempt to leave your quarters if there is an emergency. There are designated crew members who will come to you. If you stay more than a couple of days you are required to attend a training course on safety procedures.”

“Telepathic?” queried Cathal, “well, that clarifies some aspects of our analysis. Especially some observations we made when we were with you in Washington with MacFarland and O’Toole visiting the AG.”

Ellie replied, “We already gave you credit for figuring that out. You only get credit once.” Her comment caused everyone to chuckle.

“I have to admit that it wasn’t high on our list of possibilities. Its ranking had more to do with the probability of it being possible than anything else. So you confirming that you are telepathic is enough for me to make it the only item on the list. Adam, you used telepathy to ask someone to take care of the problem back there, right?”

“Yes. You are correct. I asked our escort to take out the source and it was the step van. The electronics in it are probably scrap.”

“Escort?” asked Admiral Johnson. “What happened?

“After making contact with NAS approach control, someone began painting us with a target acquisition signal. I asked Cathal if he had a problem with us taking it out. Considering the probable intent, that seemed to be a safer approach for everyone rather than waiting until the system locked onto us.”

“As for our escort, if you look out either side you can now see them,” said Briana. “They were cloaked earlier.” Everyone looked out the windows at the Star Fighters flying alongside them.

“All I know about telepathy comes from science fiction stories,” said General Walker, drawing attention back into the cabin. “Can you tell us about telepathy and its implications?”

“For us, telepathy is essentially the ability to share or exchange thoughts without verbalizing them,” responded Abaigeal. “Some of the ideas that have been in fictional stories on Earth are not true of us. We use telepathy to exchange active thoughts and ideas, just as we are now doing verbally. Most of us can see another person’s shortterm memories, however, we normally only do that if we have their permission. For us, permission is a critical aspect to the way we interact. If you are telepathic, you will know when someone is attempting to poke around in your mind. It does not take very much effort to figure out who it is. If you are not telepathic, then the aggressor will cause you to be uneasy and you will seek to avoid them.

“Our form of telepathic communication can give to others the appearance of group think, as those on Earth use the term. For us this is a dynamic exchange of thoughts that allows us to contribute our own view as we see the dialog develop. Since we share thoughts, we are able to do a multidimensional analysis as we generate our ideas. It also enables us, at times, to act as one.

“We’ve talked about our casual, or working telepathic link up to now. There is a more intimate form that is experienced within family groups. For us, a family group consists of 4 to 12 adults, where an adult is one who has reached puberty and matured. Both have to be true before an individual can become a spouse in a family, or clan. All the individuals in a family have an open telepathic link with each other. This we refer to as a mindlink and it is through this mindlink that we share everything, including longterm memories and sensations.”

Just then, the monitor at the front of the cabin came on as Maureen announced, “The International Space Station will be on your left as we pass.” As the shuttle approached nearly everyone shifted around so they could look out of the windows on the left hand side.

Once past the ISS Cindy said, “A fuller explanation of telepathy will be covered later by the Command Staff. We hope our explanations have answered your initial questions.”

“Yes,” responded General Walker. “I am looking forward to seeing the presentations as I have more questions, and I suspect the others do as well.”

“This is the tallest group of people I have ever been around that weren’t athletes,” said Mrs. Walker. “Are all of you this tall, or should I say big?”

“Well most of us are between six feet nine inches and seven feet, although Sarah’s Clan is quite a bit taller, being seven feet eight inches. All of us have fairly broad shoulders compared to Earth’s norms.”

The focus of the group returned to the cabin monitor again as Dóchas came into view. Maureen made a circle of it before turning toward a hangar bay. It was very quiet in the cabin during the approach as they watched it on the wall monitor.

“Don’t we need a pressurized suit to wear?” asked Cathal.

“No. Dóchas maintains an environmental envelope around it. This permits us to operate without airlocks or pressurized suits. Gravity is equal to about seventy percent of Earth’s. However, those working on the exterior of the ship do wear a special suit.”

Just then, the door opened and Sarah stepped inside. “Welcome to Dóchas.”

Once the visitors had exited the shuttle, Briana introduced them to the Command Staff members. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” said Maeve, once everyone had been introduced, “we would like to continue this in the conference room. So, please follow Sarah and Joyce.”

When they reached the conference room, they were met by Keriann, Kelly, Chester, James and Clarence, along with several others. After the greetings Tara said, “There is coffee and rolls, so please help yourselves. We will start once every one is seated.”

Due to the size of the group the conference room was arranged classroom style, but with the rows of tables forming a semicircle. This minimized the number of people looking at the back of someone’s head.

Command Staff gathered at the front of the room and began. “As Sarah said earlier, welcome to Dóchas.” The visitors’ expressions were ones of amazement as they heard the group speak as one. “We know you asked some questions about telepathy on the way up here. Our ability to speak spontaneously this way is only possible because of that ability. As we progress through our presentations, we will respond to some questions this way. We believe this will demonstrate that our answers are dynamic and not rehearsed.

“We presume that you know very little about us beyond what has been in the papers. We did send a DVD to many of Earth’s government officials. It contained essentially the same material that is available on our Internet website. Considering the short time the information has been available, we are going to take it that you haven’t seen them and show them now.” Several nodded their acceptance. “It covers who we are, where we come from, why we are here, and how we differ from those on Earth.”

“How can we verify it?” asked Cathal.

“For most of it, you can’t,” responded Command Staff as one with a smile. Their quick response in unison caused more looks of amazement to appear on some of the visitors faces. “The observations you make while you are here will lend credibility to some of it. While here, all of you will have access to our library, which may help you in that respect. However, unless you are telepathic there are some aspects of the library that will limit your comprehension and access.”

“So it is like reading the bible or other ancient historic text?”

“Yes,” replied Keriann.

“Once the presentations are complete, we will answer any general questions you have, but we would like to save answering anything specific until later. Just focusing on the general questions will probably take us to lunch time. At lunch, we will join the rest of the family in the dining room. We know that this group has at least three separate interests. So, after lunch we propose splitting into groups based upon those interests. From our perspective we see General Walker and his associates as one group. The second group would be Commander McGrath, those from NCIS and, likely, Admiral Johnson. Last would be Cathal and his associates. Is this acceptable?”

“From my point of view, yes, but why?” asked McGrath.

“Well, basically distinctly different interests. If we include the former TTC members that we believe General Walker’s group wants to meet with, it creates a rather large crowd. We will all be together at times while you are here, so you will have a chance to meet and talk to everyone. Also, we would enjoy having you sit with us at meal times, but feel free to sit wherever you want to. We will introduce you to the family at lunch.”

“I have heard ‘family’ used several times,” said Mrs. Walker, “but each seems to be a different meaning.”

“It can be and likely was,” replied the group. “It depends on the context. When we say ‘family’, it can refer to our immediate family, which includes our spouses and children. It can refer to a slightly larger group which includes our close friends. Our work groups, in many ways, are like a family group. It can also be used to refer to all of us here, Comrie and An Clochán.”

“Comrie? An Clochán?” responded Admiral Johnson.

“Comrie is an island in the Western Atlantic. It is near where you first saw our shuttles and Star Fighters. An Clochán is our settlement on Mars.” They saw Cathal start to speak. “Yes, you can visit them if you want to. To do that, you will need to stay with us for at least one night and it would be easier if it was two for each location.”

“Command Staff,” said Briana, “I think we need to start the presentations as I sense that many of the questions will be answered by them.”

“Good point.” With that, a holographic image formed in the middle of the room. It showed Amy and Jim in front of an image of Dóchas from several years earlier as they began to tell the story of how they arrived in this solar system, about their home system and how the Command Staff came to join them. At that point, the Command Staff led the presentation, to explain how they began seeking people to join them, their runins with the group known as the Chosen Ones, and their tentative plans for the future. Connie and Judy gave the last presentation, which was a comparison of their species to those on Earth.

The room was quiet for several moments after they finished. “I am not sure what to ask,” said McGrath. “I do have a letter for you from the President. He said that he was embarrassed by how long it has taken him to respond and that he hopes you will accept his apology.”

“Please tell him we understand and accept his apology, even though we don’t feel an apology was necessary,” replied Command Staff, as Sarah accepted the envelope from him. They read the letter. “We accept his invitation to visit. We will be in touch, as indicated. All of you are welcome to read the letter.” With that Tara handed it to Admiral Johnson.

“Are there any questions?” asked Command Staff as they watched the letter being passed around the room. They were surprised to see several of the guests raise their eyebrows as they read it.

“Why were you near the carrier?” asked Commander Lee, the Director of NCIS.

“Curiosity. We noticed your ships after we left Comrie and decided to take a look. However, when we flew past the CSG the first time, we sensed that something was not right. We were not able to identify the cause of our concern but did narrow it down to the carrier. In part because of that concern, we opted to have our Star Fighter pilots shadow your group. By doing that they would gain more experience in atmospheric operations. In particular, they were told to monitor the carrier for any unusual activity. This would give them the additional experience of tracking other objects around them, those being the other aircraft in the sky while the carrier was conducting flight operations.”

“Sensed?” responded Commander Lee.

“Yes, it is related to our telepathic ability. Some of us can sense others around us and usually their frame of mind. That is only one aspect of the term ‘sensed’. Another is the way our pilots use it. You may think of it as being similar to intuition.”

“Knowing that we couldn’t see your Star Fighters weren’t you putting everyone at risk?” asked Admiral Johnson with a harsh tone and irritated expression.

“We understand how you could draw that conclusion. These were fully qualified pilots. Our ships are flown by a team consisting of the pilot and an AI. Yes, it was a learning experience for them, but rest assured, there was no increased risk to anyone. A Star Fighter AI is fully capable of operating the craft on its own, but only when operating in conjunction with a pilot does it reach its’ full potential. The two are linked together such that both can see the full spatial envelope around them and any risks. The pilot adds some subtle information about what they sense to their combined view. This is a much larger envelope or sphere than the one your pilots can utilize. Their response time is also shorter, and a change in direction can be more acute.”

That answer broke the dam on questions and they continued until the chime sounded, indicating that lunch would be served shortly. Many times Command Staff all participated in an answer, while at other times they responded individually.

On hearing the chime several of Sarah’s Clan said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the chime indicated that lunch will be served in an hour. The four ladies by the door will show you to the guest quarters so you can freshen up and rest before the meal. There are two aspects of Dóchas that may make you uncomfortable. First, our primary AI, whose name is Star, monitors every compartment. You can gain assistance from her anywhere, just by starting a question with her name. Yes, she can monitor conversations any place on the ship, but she only does so in certain circumstances. That is when the sound spectrum indicates distress or a similar event in a compartment. So, if you scream, the monitoring will begin immediately and continue until it is determined whether assistance is required or not. If assistance is needed, monitoring will continue until the situation is resolved. Second, as mentioned before, you need an escort when not in your compartment. Any resident here can be your escort, just ask. They will only decline if they have another task with higher priority. You are probably wondering why we mentioned the need for escorts again. Simply put, it is for your safety. As we’ve noted earlier, all emergency procedures are dependent upon telepathic communication. At this point none of you are telepathically capable. Besides, we don’t want you to get lost.”

“Are you implying some of us could be telepathic?” asked Brad.

“That is a possibility.”

“What would it take to find out?” asked Casey.

“A physical, along with a mental evaluation, you would need to give the doctor permission to carry out the mental evaluation. Before you go too far with that thought though, you need to consider what would happen to you after returning to Earth if someone learned of your ability.”

“Oh my, you’re right. A person would quickly become a human lab rat, if they were lucky.”

“It is a decision for you to make. There have been some telepathically active people who returned to Earth. Before they left, we assisted them in adjusting the ability so that it basically just functioned as a danger or threat detector. By doing this they would still know if there was a threat approaching, thus giving them time to avoid it or respond. Under some conditions it would become fully active. Even with these changes there is still a risk.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Good, now we will leave you in the hands of your guides while we go see our children and get ready for lunch.”

Command Staff was waiting in the dining room when their visitors arrived. After checking to make sure the accommodations were acceptable, Sarah had Star sound a chime. As soon as she had everyone’s attention, Command Staff introduced the group with Commander McGrath.

Several of the former TTC members came over and invited General Walker, his wife and two aides to sit with them. Kevin joined Keriann, Kelly and Chester as they sat with the NCIS group. Cathal and his group, along with Admiral Johnson, joined Command Staff as they sat down to eat.

“They won’t believe us when we get back and tell them about the food,” said Casey. “NASA has everyone convinced that space travel takes special food.”

“When the ship’s environment is in a weightless condition, I can assure you that food is consumed differently,” replied Erin. “Fortunately for us, that is seldom the case.”

Each of the groups chatted about their different experiences as they got to know one another. In each group, at one time or another, the conversations touched on the social environment. The responses left the guests convinced that everyone was there because they wanted to be, and happy to have the opportunity.

Rusty and Sally watched Cathal, Casey, Eric, Charles and Brad as they kept glancing around the room, trying to see everything that was taking place. Both could see that the group was fascinated with everything they saw, while categorizing everything at the same time.

“Sarah, Sally, watch this.”

“Guys,” said Rusty, “you could really see a lot more if you walked around when you’re done eating. Anyone here will talk with you and answer your questions.”

They blushed. “Were we that obvious?” asked Cathal.

“No, I wouldn’t say that. All of you seem more like kids in a toy store.” They laughed at the comparison.

“I have to say this is the most interesting trip I have ever been on,” replied Casey with the others nodding agreement.

“Rusty,” said Cathal, “how long can we visit? I don’t see being satisfied with just one day in the toy store. We would like to visit the place you call An Clochán.”

“So you need that much time to case the joint?” asked Terry with a smile on her face.

“Well ... now that you mention it ... could be.” Cathal’s response drew laughter from everyone. “I can see this is going to be a fun trip for us.”

“We can see your visit possibly lasting several days at each location. That is not a problem for us, but it could be for some of those who came with you. We can provide office space for anyone who has remote access to their offices. The facilities here would give them phone and computer access.”

“Let’s see how things go today,” replied Cathal, “then, first thing tomorrow, we can work out a revised itinerary. We really don’t want to interfere with your operations.”

“We won’t let that happen, as we will put you to work,” responded Sarah firmly. “We need more galley slaves.” She paused a moment, watching their expressions before breaking into a smile, which led to everyone laughing.

“Sure glad you laughed,” said Brad, “I was beginning to think we had been shanghaied.” His comment lead to more laughter.

After taking their dishes to the serving window, they wandered around the dining room while everyone else finished lunch. Each of them stopped at times to talk with crew members. They were a bit surprised to see that everyone cleaned up their area before they left after finishing their meal. It wasn’t long until there were only the visitors and those they came to see still in the dining room.

Maureen tapped on the table, drawing everyone’s attention. “Let’s cleanup our areas and get on with what we want to do this afternoon. Adam, your group can remain here if you want to, or you could use one of the lounge areas. Be sure to show your guests the observation platform.”

“Kelly, your group can use the conference room next to James’ office. We will take the rest on a tour before returning to the conference room we were using earlier.”

“Adam, Kelly, when you take your group on tour, you will be able to see the bridge. The only limitation is that you won’t be able to actually enter very far into the area.”

“We will meet back here at 6 for dinner, as usual,” continued Tara.

“Cathal has proposed,” said Claudette, “that we all meet right after breakfast tomorrow, in order to review the agenda and itinerary for the rest of your visit. For those needing access to their office resources, please tell one of your hosts so that it can be arranged. Again, we can accommodate remote computer access, video conferencing and phone.”

“Any questions?” asked Joyce.

Command Staff gathered with Cathal’s group and Admiral Johnson. “So, you think it will take us all afternoon to tour the ship?” asked Casey.

“We suspect that with all your questions, the tour will take a long time,” said Jill, with a grin. “We are going to start out on the observation platform.”

As Command Staff with their group of guests left the dining room, Alison said, “Guys, a few of us ought to be on the bridge. That way, our visitors will be able to see a bit more.”

“Good, idea. I’ll come with you,” said Maureen. With that, Maureen joined Alison, Tara and Joyce in heading to the bridge.

After all their visitors had returned to Earth, the Command Staff gathered together everyone who had been involved with them. This included the Communications, Security and Intelligence departments, along with five Security teams. Since moving to Dóchas, James’s and Clarence’s staffs were working primarily in the Intelligence department.

“Good morning,” said Command Staff.

“Good morning,” came the reply.

“We asked all of you to join us, so we could review the visits by our recent guests. Along with this we need to review the rescue of Cathan’s friends and subsequent events.”

Shannon said, “Starting with subsequent events, the councilor and his assistants who avoided the flu virus are now the victims of their own treachery.” Her comment drew several puzzled looks.

Danny continued with, “At the farm, just before the raiders fell into the chasm, one of the transgenders was telling the other two that she had suspected that they would be doublecrossed by the Councilor. She just didn’t expect it to occur in the manner that it did. Then as she fell into the chasm, she screamed out, “You double crossing son of bitch, now you will suffer more than we ever did.” Because of the noise, we had to do quite a bit of sound enhancement before we could understand that last statement. It fits with her comments a few minutes earlier. This prompted us to put more effort into understanding the IP traffic between the farm and security system’s host.

“We tracked it back to a secluded estate. Drones were placed inside, after we found a way to evade the security system’s sensors. We found more than a dozen women living there, and at first we didn’t see any men. Of the women, there were a few who seemed to be quietly directing activities. Eventually three more people were discovered, restrained in locked room.