by Terry Smith
Chapter 10
Is There a Solution?
The next morning everyone went to the table. There was no breakfast waiting for them.
Woody started the discussion, “This is going to be up to us to try to rectify this problem we are having. The Neighbors have resolved to cut us off and to have no more contact with us. We could possibly exist with what we have right now, but things will be so different we will probably have a difficult time. Yes, we love each other and are content to be with each other, but now we know there can be more here and not having that will be unacceptable. Can we do anything?”
Again, everyone spoke at once, but this time the words were soft and just words of hope, not of a solution. Woody asked “Does anyone have any ideas? Evin, let’s start with you. You are the idea guy in our group. Give it your best.”
Evin started with “I was up all night, tossing and turning and trying to make some sense of all of this. My concern now is more for The Friends than for us. We were lost when we were traveling through space, and they saved us. Now they are in danger, or at least they believe they are in danger, and it is now up to us to save them. I really don’t feel that anyone on Earth has the technology to locate this planet. I don’t even think they know we are here; it was just a transmission trying to locate us. We didn’t respond, so Jim, can they track the transmission to know where it went even though you didn’t respond?”
Jim looked down and said “I did touch the respond button but quickly decided not to respond. There is a slim, very slim, possibility that they could have recovered that, but it would really be a great accomplishment to track it that quickly especially since there was no actual response. We are probably a million miles away from Earth and the transmission would take hours to reach them.”
Evin said “We need a plan to help The Friends keep people from Earth from coming here. That should be our main goal at this time. And then, maybe, we can recover our position with them. We have no military might, and none of us have any knowledge about how to develop any type of defense system. Woody, I guess this would be your area.”
Woody thought, and finally responded. “We need a mechanism to keep the people from Earth from locating this planet should they have been able to locate where we are from Jim’s quick touch of the transmission key. They may think that if we are still alive we have landed somewhere that could support human life. They may be desperate since things seemed to be going so bad when we left Earth. If we could somehow get The Friends to let us see what they are looking at on Earth we can see what the people of Earth are facing. But at this point I doubt if they would let us into that building.”
Jim jumped up with “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier. Maybe because I am not sure it will work. Our basic rocket has some of the most sophisticated systems for evading enemy threats including radar jamming, the ability to make our vehicle almost unidentifiable and sending micro-waves out that gives the enemy multiple false readings. But first we would need to get the rocket airborne past the magnetic field of this planet.”
“We do have some fuel left in the rocket that was originally to be used for our return from Space Station America back to Earth. When we lost control of the vehicle the ship was basically flying on its own and we were using no fuel. We don’t know why or how, but it was. We could remove the new addition to the Space Station that was attached to the rocket, or at least what is left of it, plus the container that was used to transport all of the repair parts and the supplies being transported. That would leave basically just the core rocket. We haven’t considered doing anything with the rocket in the past as the fuel would not get us far beyond just leaving this planet’s magnetic field which would not do anything for us.”
“After the rocket reaches the height necessary we could release all of the defensive weapons. These weapons would begin floating around the massive space that we traveled through during the long period of our flight. Neither NASA nor any other country would be able to identify what all of this trash represents and our vehicle would simply become one of these objects. Supposing NASA was aware from our brief transmission that we still exist they still could not identify where we are as the transmission was very brief and not enough to identify the location of the source.”
Woody jumped in “Jim, you are indeed a genius. Do you think we could actually launch the rocket? It has been sitting idle for many months and we are not even sure that everything still works. And the big question, would someone need to be aboard the rocket to activate the defensive weapons?”
Jim smiled and said “I would need to be on board which I would gladly do. Hopefully the Friends will be of assistance at that point and return the rocket to this planet after I launch the evasion tools like they did before, but if they don’t I will be up shit creek. I am willing to do whatever it takes at this point, so that is taken care of. As far as will the rocket work, I have been bored many times since we arrived and one of the things I do to amuse myself is to go through the basic checklist for our rocket to verify that everything is operational. Everything that I have checked is good. There are some things that can’t be checked, but we would just have to trust in blind luck that they are ok. We would need a pad to support the launch. We don’t have one sitting around, so we would need to build one.”
Evin chimed in “Jim, you are indeed a brave person in addition to being a genius. You are the type that would jump on a hand grenade to save his military unit.”
Jim laughed, “No I wouldn’t, I would push Dave on top of the grenade.” Now everyone laughed, even Dave but with a glaring eye at Jim.
Evin continued, “As far as the rest of us, we would still be in the same mess we are in now. We hopefully will be saving this planet and The Friends, but we may continue to be isolated from them. They are obviously very upset with us. Maybe they don’t think we violated their trust, but they probably do realize that if we weren’t here none of this would be happening with the people from Earth. And, I don’t want to be a pessimist, but if it fails we would be further down the old proverbial shit-hole than we are now.”
Woody said “If we are going to try this we will need to start soon, and we should notify The Friends what we are doing. They are probably monitoring our every move and any activity associated with the rocket will be a big red flag if they don’t know what we are working on. We don’t know if they will even talk to us and everyone that was in contact with them yesterday was told to stay away, forever.”
Larry walked around and said “I suggest we write them a letter and ask Gus to deliver it for us. He doesn’t want to interfere with the situation, but maybe he will consent to delivering a letter and we hopefully could get some type of response. I think it is worth a try.”
Woody stated that “I agree. I will write a draft and then turn it over to the group to make your corrections. I have found that just having a committee do something it never gets done, but if we had something to start with, regardless of how bad it is, gets us moving. Does that sound ok with everyone?”
Larry nodded his head “What are you waiting for? Get after it Colonel.”
Woody, with a smile on his face, commented “That’s what is wrong with you civilians. No respect for authority.”
Larry had an even bigger smile. “Hell, Woody, you are AWOL anyway. Get to work.”
This was a big laugh that everyone needed.
The letter said:
Friends,
We are very saddened that events have led us to a situation that seems to divide us. We would like to provide to you some events that occurred that seemed to bring this about.
Yesterday morning one of our group was working in the rocket cleaning it up and testing some of the equipment, which he often did. While doing these chores a transmission came over the radio that simply said “Able3-this is NASA control - come in. Please respond” The individual automatically hit the respond button as he had done ma
ny times in the past, but realized immediately that this situation was different and he did not respond. He notified Woody for advice. He and Woody waited until the rest of the group returned at the end of the day to tell them of the event.
Of course the group were amazed that such a message was received. We all felt that any communications with Earth would never occur. We had a lengthy discussion about this. As you can imagine, we all have family, loved ones and friends back on Earth, and we all miss them very much. But we also understand that we have an obligation to you, our Friends, who have welcomed us into your extended family and have treated us with love and respect.
We would never want to do anything that would endanger you and your planet, and we understand your concern that any knowledge of this planet could lead to unwanted consequences. Our allegiance to you comes before our feelings about those on Earth because we have given our solemn promise that we would protect your existence and location.
We do not feel that the inadvertent touch of the radio button could have jeopardized the location of this planet, but possibly the fact that they are looking for us provides some indication that they believe we are still alive and they may be looking for us. We do not want this to happen.
We have a possible solution that could help. As part of our main rocket we have some technology that would divert anyone on Earth from detecting our location. We had this technology on board to protect the launch vehicle from any enemy contact as there are others on Earth that would like nothing better than to destroy our missions. We feel that after some work this technology could be launched into the atmosphere above your magnetic field and block knowledge of the location of our rocket and your planet from Earth.
We want to deploy this technology. We do not want to do anything that may create some concern on your part as to what we are doing as such activity would not be consistent with our normal activities. We would be happy to explain this to you so you can feel some relief in what we are doing would be in the interest of you and your planet.
We would like nothing more than to have The Friends and The Neighbors return to the relationship we have shared up to yesterday, but our major desire at this time is to protect you and your planet from inhabitance from the people of Earth.
We look forward to hearing from you concerning this.
The Neighbors
The letter was shared with the group. Dianne said “Woody, you are wasting your talents in the Air Force. You should have been a politician as you can really spread the stuff. I think what you have written is great and don’t see anything that needs changing, does anyone else see anything that needs changing? We can ask Gus to deliver it to Thad. Hopefully this would not be considered getting involved in our problem.”
Everyone else agreed with Dianne. They didn’t need to do anything to contact Gus as he was there immediately and agreed to deliver the letter to Thad. He was pleased that they were taking steps to return to the relationship that these groups had and also to do what they were suggesting to protect the people and their planet. “I’ll see you. I am on my way to see Thad.”
The group waited. They realized that Thad would not make a decision by himself but would talk to whoever he normally talks to on such matters. The speed at which the original issue was spread seemed to indicate that the discussion would be quick. They waited, and prayed. Deep down they knew that they were praying to Gus, but prayers were what they had all done throughout their lives and they weren’t ready to stop now. Night came, and no answer.
The next morning they expected Thad would show up early. He didn’t show. And he wasn’t there by noon. And night was upon them again and still no Thad. They at least thought Gus would say something to them, but nothing from him either. And then another day passed, and still nothing. They really began to worry. Really worry.
Then on the third day Thad was there early in the morning. Gus was with him. Thad started with “We have read your letter over and over. We do believe you are sincere, but we are concerned that maybe the damage has been done. We are afraid for our survival. We don’t think that your group created the problem, but your mere existence here on our planet has been the igniting factor. The people on Earth may know you are here. They may know you are alive. They may want to save you. They don’t appear to know anything about our planet, but if they come here they will soon find out that there is something about the planet that would make it a perfect replacement for Earth. From our observations we know they have developed the ability to reach us if they know where we are. It is just a matter of time. We don’t have a solution but believe your solution will no longer work under the circumstances.”
They all looked at Gus. By now they were all seeing different images, but it was still Gus to the group. “I still can’t do anything. This is a big issue that could ultimately end up destroying everything that I created thousands of years ago. It is a contrast between two types of life styles, and it looks like the Earth life style could possibly take over. They could do to this planet what is being done to Earth.”
Ivan looked down. “I have always heard that good conquers evil. I know that the people on Earth are not evil, but their constant internal battles, their greed, and lack of respect for each other have taken over. I have been so happy here because of the way people work together and enjoy life as it is. I have seen us merge with the two communities of people, The Friends and The Neighbors. More than anything I hate to see what we have established to be destroyed.”
Thad, also just looking at the ground, said “I have heard from the men and women who have established special relationships with people from your group. It appears to be true love. They have all asked if they could come live with you and as your community is destroyed they want to be with you. You know, in a way I feel the same way. And I think all of The Friends feel that we want to be together throughout whatever happens.”
When they all looked around Gus was gone, and without saying anything to them. They wanted his guidance, but knew that they must solve this problem, if there is a solution, by themselves. Thad said “Can we have breakfast? I am sure Gus will come back for some bacon and eggs.” Jim fixed his best breakfast ever, but Gus didn’t return.
Woody asked “Why is this in the hands of the people on Earth? Maybe if they don’t think we can be saved they won’t come. Could we convince them that we are in Hell and they won’t come? Nobody knows where Hell is. Between us we know that this planet is the furthest thing from Hell as anyplace could ever be. They don’t know this.”
Things were quiet and everyone got tears in their eyes, even Thad. Everyone looked like they had lost their best friend, and as if was they were losing all of their best friends. It all looked bad. Most of the group went to bed, even Thad fell asleep in the chair where he was sitting.
It rained that night and Thad moved under the cover attached to the living quarters of the group. He could hear them move around throughout the night. He couldn’t sleep either knowing his good friends had a problem that apparently had no solution. Before the group had arrived and they had the various problems that they were experiencing Thad had never cried, but this night brought something new to him. He had always thought crying was something that babies did when they were hungry or needed to be changed. He finally fell asleep, but it was not a comfortable sleep. He was somehow happy to be at The Neighborhood to share the grief that the Neighbors were experiencing.
Chapter 11
Col Lambert’s Bold Action
The next morning everyone was waking up, but no one was in any particular hurry to begin moving around. They had nowhere to go and basically nothing to do. They wandered to the outdoor table where they normally ate breakfast, but there was no breakfast. Jim was sitting at the table with the same blank look as the rest. Then they heard a sound that seemed to be coming from the rocket. The door was open to the rocket and they saw a figure sitting inside. Jim was rather possessive about the rocket even thoug
h it now had no purpose, so he ran to the open door. Woody was inside sitting at the communication panel.
Jim yelled at Woody, “What do you think you are doing? You have no need to be there, so please get up and leave the rocket. We already have enough problems from this damn rocket and its communication system.”
Everyone heard the anger coming from Jim and saw him begin to move inside. For the first time they feared there may be a violent confrontation within the group between Jim and Woody. They were almost correct as Jim grabbed Woody by the arm and tried to pull him out of the chair, but was not successful. Jim was probably stronger than Woody but Woody was not about to be taken away from whatever he was doing.
Then the radio came on, Able3, this is NASA Command, we have received your contact message. Go ahead.
Col Lambert was ready to speak and everyone was so shocked no one moved. Thad yelled, “Woody, don’t do it. You don’t know what you are doing. Please stop.”
Woody turned on the speaker control and said “NASA Control, this is Col Lambert. Do not attempt to come to rescue us. I am a prisoner in the rocket and all of the others are dead. The people who inhabit the place where we landed are extremely violent and appear to have a vast supply of offensive weapons they are obviously prepared to use with the slightest provocation or maybe with no provocation at all. I am a prisoner in the rocket and their treatment of me continues to become worse. I am prepared to blow up the rocket today as they seem to want to find our home and may somehow use the rocket information to locate you. Again, do not come here and do not try to rescue us because there is no one to rescue. Please tell all of our families that we love them. Col Lambert, Over.”
