Chapter 27

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Tech Sergeant Warren Gano was ready to shit his pants. He had already verified his finding three times.

‘Fuck,’ he thought, ‘why did this shit have to happen on my shift?’

He sighed, there was nothing for it but to call it in.

Fifteen minutes later, Warren felt like the boy who had taken a stick and poked at a hornet’s nest. Of course, instead of hornets, officers seemed to be crawling out of everywhere. Every damned one of them wanted an explanations. Why? Who? How many? And anything else they could think of that he couldn’t possibly know. In other words, it was a total clusterfuck.

If they had only waited for everyone to gather, he could have explained everything to everyone all at once. No, that would be too easy and definitely not the military way. Each and every one of them wanted to show how important they were by demanding answers. Of course they wanted those answers RIGHT NOW. Which meant he was going through it for the fourth time and probably not the last.

General Curtis sat back in his ready room, to listen to this urgent report. The coffee he was drinking was easing the grumpiness he was feeling over having been gotten out of bed two hours early. He did have to admit that traffic was a lot lighter at this time of morning.

“Sirs,” the man began, “it seems we have at least nine hundred to a thousand targets inbound. Latest telemetry shows them already past the Moon.”

General Curtis sat up and nearly spit out the swallow of coffee he had taken in. After a couple of coughs he asked, “Who else knows of this?”

“Well, Sir, SETI in New Mexico contacted Moffet Field for verification of a radio signal they were tracking. Even without access to one of our satellites, which we have so far been able to deny them, they shouldn’t be able to triangulate the source.”

“Okay, go ahead with what you were saying,” the general said.

Now, though, he was much more focused on what was going on.

“Yes, Sir. Radar is pretty useless on targets that far away. We reoriented our SR73 satellite, so it was looking outward. The imaging is grainy, but it looks as though between nine hundred and a thousand targets are inbound. We are still trying to get them to reorient the Hubble, but the back log of use time is making it difficult.”

“So, what the hell are we talking about here ... meteors?”

“No, Sir. It is definitely not meteors.”

“How in the hell can you be so damned certain?” General Curtis demanded.

“Sir, we can tell because the objects are slowing down. If they were meteors, they would be speeding up as they entered Earth’s gravity field.”

‘Fuck’ Curtis thought as he walked over to a phone he pushed the number for his secretary. She was on immediately.

“Shelly, get me the Secretary of Defense.”

On the other end he heard his secretary reminding him that it was early and the Secretary of Defense was probably still asleep.

“Shelly, I don’t give a flying rats ass if he is comatose! Wake his ass up! This is a matter of national security...” General Curtis broke off his tirade, took a deep breath, and then added, “Shelly, I’m sorry I yelled at you, but this is important.”

Margaret Holmes walked down the hall of the White House towards her briefing with the President. She shook her head as she looked over the latest poll results one last time. Ever since the Secretary of State had taken over the Presidency, the PAR (presidential approval rating) had skyrocketed. Even the media was hailing him as the first true common sense president since Kennedy.

“Good morning, Margaret,” she heard as she came through the open door.

She looked up to see President pouring himself a cup of coffee from a carafe.

“I saw you shaking your head as you came down the hall, what’s up?”

Margaret laughed. Most people would have thought John Hayes’ comment was contrived to fit in with a younger group, it wasn’t. It was just who he was, and it was part of his natural charm.

“Sir, I was just going over the poll numbers. They have gone up, again. Even the media hasn’t found anything negative to publish about you. I was shaking my head over the difference in the numbers these past few months have made.”

“Well, we will leave that alone. You know how I feel about comparisons to previous administrations.”

Margaret saw the smile on President Hayes face so she knew she wasn’t in too much trouble.

“Sir, the Secretary of Defense has asked for an immediate meeting with you this morning. He, of course, claims that it is once again a matter of national security; but as usual, has refused to say more.”

John Hayes sighed and said, “I know I promised not to comment about the previous administration, but that man is a thorn in my side. Damned convincing, too. He makes ‘chicken little’ seem like an amateur. If I hadn’t taken the time to double check my facts we might have been in two more conflicts by now. Which reminds me, how are things going in Iraq?”

“Well, Sir, as you know, they fought over the placement of the base. No one wanted it in their territory, but placing it in the center so it bordered on everyone’s territory, worked. The base will be finished in six months. But, Sir, you know that Redding will not be as easily detoured as I am.”

John Hayes sighed again. “Tell him he can have twenty minutes. Do you know when he is going to be here?”

Sir he and General Curtis have been waiting for forty-five minutes.”

“General Curtis you say?” John Hayes asked with a furrowed brow. “That’s a new one for Redding. He has never brought backup, before. Have Rudy bring in another carafe of coffee and two extra cups. Then let them in. Oh, and have Rudy bring some Ibuprofen with the coffee, I have a feeling I’m going to need it.”

Thirty minutes later in the same office

“Jesus, Frank! Are you buying into this science fiction fantasy?” John asked the General he had come to respect, but was now re-evaluating his opinion.

“John, I may not agree with David’s embellishments, but there are unknown objects approaching Earth. They are slowing down and spreading out. I am not prepared to say that this is an alien invasion force, but I would suggest we raise our alert status.”

‘Okay,’ John thought, maybe my opinion is still sound. ‘At least he tempers his news with a bit of skepticism.’

John Hayes was still mulling all of this over when a knock came at the door.

He scowled at the door as General Curtis stood and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. President, but I thought the joint chiefs should be in on this meeting.”

Katr Piannk wondered who her visitor was in the back of her mind she hoped in was Admiral Raymond Jansen. Especially since it was getting harder and more uncomfortable to walk. Her swiveling hip joint for her four legs was getting stiff and didn’t want to move as it always had. When she got to the park she saw a young man with a clear mask over his nose and mouth. She figure it was something to filter the air. She was mildly disappointed that her guest wasn’t the admiral. It did make her very curious though.

Katr slowly walked up to the human and said, “I’m Katr Piannk. I understand that you asked to speak with me.”

The young man seemed flustered and said, “I am ... I did ... Yes, I would like to speak to you.”

Katr sat on the bench it was difficult, but not impossible. It was also a relief to do so. “What can I do for you?”

“I am Ensign James Thomas Denning, but you can call me Jim. Everyone on the base knows what you did for Lieutenant Commander Evan McAshton (Red One). I personally wanted to meet you, maybe speak with you. Though it wasn’t necessary to save the commander, you didn’t know that and put your life in danger. It is something everyone here can appreciate. It was a truly heroic action.

Because of my desire to meet you I volunteered to come and pass on the thanks of the people here, or most of them. There are those that still believe it is a ruse to learn more about us. I have to say you are not what I was expecting. Your coloring is lighter with more flesh color than the Hruth in the video of the attack. There are other changes, but I can’t place them.”

Katr smiled, “I thank you Jim for coming here and offering thanks. As for my coloring the pinkish spots you see used to be light gray. The light gray areas used to be a darker gray. For me and the other Hruth here in this area, we are changing. If the med-tech are to be believe we are returning to our origin, which is human.”

Jim’s mouth opened and closed several times before anything came out. “I don’t think anyone other than the med-techs that know your origin. I think for now I will keep that between us. It is difficult to say how some people would react to that.”

Jim looked at his watch and said, “I truly would like to talk to you some more, but for now I have to get to my duty station. It was a pleasure meeting you Katr.”

With that he turned and left. Katr was confused about the whole meeting. It left her wondering what the true purpose of it was. It was unlikely that she would get any answers any time soon, if ever.

John walked out of his day room and onto the bridge of the Prometheus with a smile on his face. He had been wanting to do this ever since he had first found the scout ship. Now he was going to shake things up a bit.

The guard near the door shouted, “Admiral’s on deck!”

Everyone, except Kiri, jumped to their feet and stood at attention. John shook his head.

“As you were, people! Now listen up, because this is an important lesson. If we had been under attack, you standing up and moving away from your consoles could have gotten some of your shipmates killed. I know that you all wish to show respect for superior officers, but Captain Kirkuria, would you tell the crew proper bridge protocol concerning this matter?”

“My pleasure, Admiral,” Kiri said with a smile. “Bridge protocol is as follows: if you’re on duty, on the bridge, and an officer is announced, it is perfectly acceptable to continue what you are doing. If your screen is clear, and you wish to acknowledge an officer, you may turn your head and nod. However, that does not give you permission to ignore an officer if your duty does not require your full attention.

“For instance, the guards stationed at the door will come to attention. On the other hand, unless we are completely stationary, the navigators must keep their eyes on their consoles. As Admiral Whitmore suggested, use this as a learning experience.”

John nodded to his wife. He approved how she explained bridge protocol without it sounding like a reprimand. He was surprised it wasn’t included in their training. He made a mental note to ask Sam about it, when he had the chance.

Walking to the command chair, he waved off Kiri’s attempt to stand and offer the chair to him.

“So, Captain Whitmore, how goes our experiment?”

Kiri smiled up at her husband. Becoming a captain had been a surprise for her. She had not expected it, especially since she was pregnant, and would have to start her maternity leave in four months.

“I have the ship well within the view of ground based visual equipment. The people on your planet are, as you say on Earth, ‘running around like chickens with their legs cut off.’”

John smiled and said, “I think the phrase you’re looking for is, ‘running around like chickens with their heads cut off.’”

Kiri’s brow furrowed and replied, “I don’t know what a chicken is, but is it possible for something to run around after its head is cut off?”

John was careful not to chuckle. After all he had first hand knowledge that few others did, having grown up on a working farm.

“The chicken is similar in size and shape to the Yabber, on Rhyler. However, it doesn’t have fangs, nor is it venomous. At any rate, the chicken is used as a food product on the farm. The normal way of killing them, is to remove their heads. If you didn’t keep very good control of the chicken, it would run here and there, or in circles until its heart had pumped all its blood out.”

Kiri’s brow furrowed further. It sounded cruel, but she knew John was not a cruel man. She would have to research it more.

What she said was, “Running here and there without a head to give direction, is a very good description of what is happening down there. Would you like to view things over the United States? All of the saucers are getting ready to make their slow, but very public trip across the country. When they reach Washington D.C. the two designated for that area will break off. Captain Thomson has the Locust on station watching over the saucers so we would have video feed.”

As per orders, the saucers came out of the atmosphere in a slow descent. By the time they came in over the east coast of Canada every tracking device that could, was tracking them. The saucers then turned southwestward, and headed up the St. Lawrence Seaway, toward Quebec. This allowed them to make a dramatic public appearance. The path they continued on took them over Ottawa and Toronto. The saucers then flew a zigzag sort of pattern that took them over nearly all of the major Canadian cities.

Interestingly, the Canadian military planes that shadowed them seemed more curious than aggressive. They were not warned off, they were only watched. The saucers were careful not to interfere with standard air traffic. They did fly at a low enough altitude to make them easily visible from the ground.

Of course visible and discernible are two different things so they flew lower than any air traffic controlling agency would ever allow a plane not landing. John wanted it clear to everyone who saw them, what they were. The two thousand plus ships came in slow and covered a rather wide area. The idea was to give the public visual proof that flying saucers existed. He was sure that once they saw that saucers existed, they would be able to make that small leap to extra terrestrial life existing, or so he hoped.

After passing over Calgary the saucers flew over Whitehorse and Juneau before heading toward Vancouver. All was going well until they approached the Canadian United States border. The saucers were met at the border by two flights of military jets.

The planes were ordering the saucers out of U.S. territory at first, and then they ordered them down. John had given what he called suggestions in how to deal with this contingency. The saucers simply ignored the demands and proceeded toward Seattle paying the jets little attention. That changed only slightly when the jets opened fire. They couldn’t let the munitions fall to the ground once the shields had absorbed the kinetic energy, so it was added to the raw material stores for the replicators.

For convenience, the saucers did add Carson City to the southward travel down the coast. Getting that state capital city out of the way would save them some time from backtracking. The time savings was going to be important, since they had a lot of countries to cover, and wanted to be over all of them during the daylight hours.

For ‘some reason’, China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Fort Irwin and Twenty-nine Palms Marine Corps Base took exception to the over flights. Chocolate Mountain Naval Reservation, Barry Goldwater Air Force Range, and Yuma Proving Grounds weren’t much better as the saucers turned northwards toward Las Vegas. John was happy to receive the donation of raw materials in the form of anti-aircraft missiles as he still had many projects to complete.

As the saucers approached Area Fifty-one, all jets broke off their attacks. It was understandable when the first rail gun shell came screaming at one of the saucers. The ships shield absorbed the kinetic energy of the shell. It would have fallen to the ground without doing any harm, if it too hadn’t been snatched up for raw material.

Actually, other than temporarily adding a little extra power to the shield, the shell did nothing. John had a smile on his face as he watched. He tried to imagine what the people in charge were thinking at the ineffectiveness of their weapons.

One of the support ships did disable the huge guns after the fifth round. It was just to stop the idiocy. Each round deteriorated the integrity of the gun and soon it would fail. Possibly causing injuries. It was thought that safe was better than sorry.

By the time the saucers approached Nellis Air Force Range, the United States of America had become almost fanatical in their exercises in futility. Meaning that after the ground and air based missiles had either detonated against the saucers shields harmlessly, or vanished completely. The stick jockeys took it upon themselves to try kamikaze maneuvers. Well, a few did.

John shook his head. If he had truly wanted to invade and take over the Earth, there was little that could be done to stop him. It wasn’t his intention and definitely not a responsibility he ever wanted. Saving the Earth from the Hruth was task enough.

Thankfully John had convinced Paulie to move close by. That was another thing John had to smile about. As it turned out, the pain he had suffered when Paulie had transported him was not normal. In fact it had to do with his unstable DNA structure. Which was why his second trip wasn’t painful. Things had been to hectic enough that Paulie and he hadn’t had a chance to talk about it.

During my first transfer one of Paulie’s subroutines had been trying to stabilize my DNA structure during transport. Of course John paid the price with excruciating pain, but Paulie claims it wouldn’t happen again since John is now stable. John had had had his second try, but didn’t think about it after as he had visitors to deal with at the time. Others used it quite frequently and fortunately without the pain.

A few pilots that were attempting to ram their planes into the saucers, simply disappeared. They were reappearing in a cargo hold of the Prometheus minus the jet fuel and any remaining ammunition or weapons. John was more worried about them hurting themselves than his people, so even side arms and knives were removed.

Tractor beams held the planes in mid air after transport hoping the pilot would get the message to put their landing gears down, they didn’t. Fortunately after the first plane was set down on its belly the other pilots got the idea and lowered their landing gears. John figured he would deal with them later. The bay was empty and sealed so they couldn’t get into much trouble.

The saucers continued to zigzag across the United States trying to fly over as many major cities as possible. John was watching everything unfold as the klaxon on the Prometheus began sounding. He sat up straighter and waited.

“Sir, I have a missile launch. It had ground based origin. The alarm is sounding because it has a nuclear signature. Scan says this is a Patriot missile with a singular warhead from a M.I.R.V. of Russian manufacture.”

John blinked a couple times while the words sank in. He had thought he and Sam had taken care of that. How in the hell did they miss one?

“Get a tractor beam on it,” John ordered.

“There is already one on it sir, the problem is that someone has modified it with multiple triggering devices and simply stopping it will cause detonation. The trajectory has been altered, but it also has an altimeter trigger. It will blow soon if it isn’t stopped, Sir”

‘Paulie,’ John thought reaching out with his mind. ‘I need your help once again. A missile was launched but we can’t simply tractor it away as it will detonate. The fallout could cause hundreds even thousands of deaths. Could you transport the radioactive material out of it.’

“Sir, the missile has vanished!”

‘John,’ came Paulie’s voice back, ‘I have transported the entire weapon away. It was a good thing you suggested transporting the radioactive material first. The missile detonated upon atomic reassembly. I have also removed the other fifteen missiles that were in an underground bunker of sorts. The men there were in the process of readying another. None of those detonated and they have been converted to raw material. I will scan for any other caches as we cover more of this planet’s continents.’

“It’s okay, Ensign James,” John said to the ensign that looked so worried. “Paulie has transported it and all other similar missiles away.”

The ensign nodded and went back to his screen. There were a lot of strange stories about the connection between John and Paulie. He had just seen some of it. Discretion being the better part of valor, he decided it would be better to do his job and not worry about the oddness.

The saucers continued their exposure to the population. A directive from the White House had been issued to the jets to break off the attacks on the saucers. This of course was relayed through the chain of command. Meaning that it wasn’t until the saucers were heading toward Maine, that the fighters that had been constantly attacking broke off.

The fighters pulled back and merely shadowed the saucers, with the exception of one. John got a report that although it wasn’t attacking, it was calling to them on a rather strange radio band. It was not a military bandwidth. It was so high that it probably wasn’t monitored by civilians, either. This meant he hoped not to be heard.

John had it played for the bridge. It was, “Attention saucers, I don’t know who you are, but it is clear that your ships are shielded. That suggests advanced technology. If your medical is as advanced as your defense, I request aid. My wife is dying of cancer. We have three children and I need your help to save their mother.”

The message repeated. John had the ensign at communications open a channel to Paulie.

“Paulie, transport the jet that is circling the saucers so closely. The pilot has requested aid, and I intend to give it. Put the jet and pilot in bay cargo bay C, I’ll have someone meet him.”

“As you wish John, but if you will call the pilot and have him lower his landing gear, I can transport his jet into the cargo hold you’ve been using for the other jets and the pilot outside the bridge.”

“Yes, Paulie, do it your way. I’ll have the bridge guards meet him and escort him in.”

Orders were passed and almost at once the bridge guards escorted the pilot in. Unfortunately, the guards had misinterpreted John orders forced the pilot onto the bridge with their laser pistols.

“Gentleman, put your side arms away, this man is here as our guest.”

“Yes, Admiral,” the two men chorused. The side arms were holstered, but the two men looked ready to act if the pilot gave them any reason at all. They were as bad as Mora and Penny.

The pilot snapped to attention and said, “Lieutenant Commander Gann, Sir.”

“At ease Commander,” John replied. “My name is John Whitmore and you are aboard the Prometheus. Normally during active maneuvers, such protocols are ignored. Your message said your wife has cancer. I have a medical officer on the way. Once you talk with them. We’ll sit down and talk and see what we can work out.”

“Sir, forgive me asking, but do you and your people have anything to do with the New Atlantis?”

“Why do you ask...” John left it open hoping the man would supply something more than a surname.

“Gann, Sir, James Gann.”

“Why do you ask, James?”

“I ... well ... It’s your shields, Sir. They seem to function the same way as the one around New Atlantis. I got hung up in the one around Atlantis until I turned my jet. Before they detonated or disappeared, the missiles we fired at your saucers did the same thing. My wife has tried, at my urging, to get to New Atlantis, but apparently my being active military precludes that.”

“I’ll check into that James, if so, we may add medical scans to the protocols of known military personnel and their families so that those seeking aid can be interviewed. It doesn’t mean they will get to go to the island, but they can get help.”

“So you are affiliated? Does that make you Atlantians?”

John chuckled. “No James, we are all Terran.”

“Terran, how far from Earth is that?”

One of the bridge guards let out a snorting laugh, which earned him a nasty look from John. He regained his composure quickly when he saw the admiral’s displeasure.

“What our unkind guard was laughing about is that Terra is another name for Earth. I was born and raised in Illinois.” Indicating the guard who laughed, “He was born and raised in Mar del Plata. Ensign Ouyang is from Beijing China, you get the idea.”

Lieutenant Commander James Gann’s face fell, “Then you can’t help my wife. There is no cure for cancer on Earth”

“Quite the contrary,” said a tall thin man with a shock of red hair who had come onto the bridge to hear the lieutenant’s comment.

“Earth may not have a cure, but we do. Depending on the type of cancer and the progression, I would feel safe to say that we can have it cured in two weeks.”

“Cured?” said the shocked pilot in a questioning manner. “Two weeks?”

“Isn’t that what I just said,” offered the medical officer with a wide smile. “By the way, my name is doctor Tobias Martin, Chief Medical officer for the Prometheus.”

“Two weeks,” James Gann said again, his eye had taken on a glaze.

“With your permission Admiral,” interjected Tobias, “I think the man needs something for shock.”

John nodded and the medical officer went to the bridge’s replicator and got a small vial of green liquid. John smiled and remembered when Sam had gotten some for him. He knew the James Gann would be feeling better shortly. John watched as Tobias got the man to drink the liquid then led the man away.

Ensign Ouyang got John’s attention by saying, “Admiral, the saucers are approaching Washington air space.”

This was something John wanted to see so he turned his attention to a monitor. The full compliment of saucers went into hover and hung in the air over the capital city. John watched as two of the saucers broke away from the group and headed to their respective landing sites. The planes that had been shadowing them came in and harassed the two saucers, though they didn’t open fire.

The White House

John Hayes was standing at a podium. He had decided that it was the best interest of the public to try and keep them calm and informed. Much of what he was going to say was against the advice of others. In his opinion the recent past had been filled with one too many cover-ups and way too many lies. He was not going to continue to treat the American people like they were mushrooms. They had been kept in the dark and fed shit for too many years already. This was something he felt the American public needed to know.

“My fellow Americans. I come to talk with you this morning about something that the media has been sensationalizing since their appearance. I am speaking about the saucers that have been crisscrossing over Canada and the United States. I do not want you to panic. I appear before you today to tell you that contrary to the stories you’ve heard, and popular science fiction, the saucers have taken no overt action. At present the military is not actively attempting to detour the saucers as no hostile actions have been taken...”

‘That ought to satisfy the assholes at the Pentagon who are convinced the American public would panic if they found out our military was ineffectual against anything,’ he thought.

“The military branches of this country are, however, maintaining a high alert status while they are in our air-space.”

‘As if we could make them go away if we wanted to,’ his mind added.

“We have a report of...” His speech was cut off as one of the secret service agents tackled him to the floor. The broadcast was live, and the cameraman had orders to stay on the President. Not knowing what else to do, tracked the action as the two tumbled to the floor.

“Get off me you fucking idiot,” shouted the President. “I think you broke my collarbone.”

“I’m sorry Mr. President, but there is a saucer landing on the White House lawn,”

“And your point is?” demanded John Hayes.

“Sir, you were in imminent danger, I had to act to protect you.”

John Hayes blinked a couple times at the idiocy of the man. Finally he said, “Listen you imbecile, if they meant to do me any harm they could have blasted away with their proton cannons, or laser missiles, or whatever the hell else they have on those saucers.

“With their technology they are not going to land on the White House lawn before stepping out of their ship and start blasting away. If I have anything to say about it, you’ll be guarding the soap in the second floor men’s washroom. At least then I won’t be in imminent danger of anymore of your moronic heroism. Now will you get off of me so I can have a doctor look at my shoulder?”

“We’re sorry, due to technical difficulties the Presidential broadcast has been interrupted. We apologize for any inconvenience and will rejoin the broadcast as soon as we are able to.”

John chuckled, he had been watching the broadcast, and it was nearly as humorous as the response of the people at the Pentagon. He was sure that no one considered the possibility that something could sit down in the center of the Pentagon. The saucer had been specifically built to do just that. The problem was that they had to keep the shields active long after the ship had landed and opened. Not that the weapons fire would have damaged the ship. But a ricochet would kill a person as easily as if the gun pointed at them. After ten minutes the gunfire finally did die down.