In the Company of Wolves: The Beginning

by Steve Lang

In the darkness of his hyper-sleep pod, Mac dreamed of a far off land where he and his children were reunited again. It was a brand-new world, one where the sky was blue and the air free of pollution. Mac sat cross-legged in a field next to his smiling son Bobby, as Serena played with an odd creature that appeared to be a large mole about three feet tall, standing on hind legs, both playing a game of ring around the rosy together. Serena was waving a long pink ribbon through the air and laughing as she ran in circles. As he sat watching his daughter, a large Minotaur possibly ten feet tall sat next to Mac and laid a hand on his shoulder, pointing to Serena and chuckling good naturedly. The Minotaur handed Bobby a small sharp knife crafted with a bone handle. White fluffy clouds rolled across the azure sky as Mac, sitting in the middle of the two, put an arm around his son’s shoulders. Mac was wearing brown leather pants and a white cloth shirt made of old, sturdy linens that tied with a thin drawstring around the neck. On his feet were black boots crafted from dragon scale leather. To his dreaming mind’s eye, the boots’ texture reminded him of alligator skin. From around his neck hung a gold chain, and on the chain was the wedding ring he had been wearing when he was married to Carol. On both sides of the ring were small rows of sharp teeth from some predatory animal.

  As Mac looked on with a glad heart at his daughter playing in the field, dark clouds began to roll in from the west. His brow furrowed out of sudden worry, and like a page turning in a graphic novel, he was now standing on a field of battle beside the Minotaur wielding a large battle-axe. Mac was the wolf again, ghost-white and snarling, prepared for war, and at the tips of his fingers were long black claws. The enemy soldiers were fuzzy, nondescript creatures: blurs he could not quite make out, like a mirage in the desert. He could see what looked like cavalry, but they seemed to exist somewhere between reality and fantastic imagination. Mac waited for the first battle cry as wisps of fur stirred in the gentle breeze. Two more figures arrived at Mac’s side. They were the warrior wolf men he had seen in General Martin’s corbamite captured movie. Snarling and vicious, they were taller than him with knifelike two-inch claws at the tips of their fingers, long muzzles and sharp, gleaming white fangs. The wolf on his right looked down at Mac and bared his teeth with approval, then turned his attention back to the inevitable carnage coming their way. Mac was scared, his pulse was rapid and he tried to stave off tunnel vision as the adversary came into view. Then in an instant he was gone, far away from the battle. He floated among the stars like a baby in his mother’s womb until he was rudely awakened by the opening of his pod and the friendly eyes of Lieutenant Jack Sparling.

  “Good morning, sir! We sure are glad to see you awake. The rest of us were awakened by the ship when we hit Zeta, but you were asleep for hours after your pod opened. We were beginning to wonder if you had gone into a coma.” Jack said.

  “What time is it? Where are we?” Mac asked, his voice shaky and cracked. His head was swimming and he felt like he had just been awaken from a three-day bender.

  “We’re in the Zeta Reticuli star system. Take a look out the window.” Jack said. He was grinning from ear to ear.

  Mac stood up, noticing the hunger in his belly first, and then the wobbliness of his legs next as he attempted to walk toward the window. He rubbed his temples and the months of sleep out of his eyes and looked out the dome at a large blue planet, roughly three times the size of earth. There were huge clouds rolling through the atmosphere and he could see continents of lush green surrounded by blue oceans.

  “Lieutenant Cross, as our science officer, what do you make of this planet? Is this the one we’re looking for?” Mac asked. He was groggy and famished, and was digging through the crate of MRE’s they had brought with them. He settled on beef stew with mashed potatoes and peas, and as an added bonus he got a stick of gum with his meal.

  Mac knew they might find other habitable planets on this journey, but the fact that this could actually be one was hard to believe. Kim was holding a pistol sized gun in her hand with a mounted digital readout.

  “What’s that?” Mac asked.

  “This device reads atmospheric conditions and can tell me if the planet supports human life.”

  “Well does it tell you if the air is safe? Can we land on this planet and not die, in other words?” Mac asked.

  “The air has higher than acceptable methane gas levels, but that could just be the region I’m scanning. At the very least, we could check it out. Our flight suits will protect us from most atmospheric conditions and the helmets in our bags will filter out harmful gases while they concentrate low levels of oxygen to breathable levels for humans.” Kim said.

  Mac noticed that the corbamite plate resting on the console now displayed the image of a single star and four planets revolving around it. The largest of them was closest to the crew.

  “This device seems to track us by our current location as well as our intended destination. I suppose we’d better go check it out since we’re here now.” Mac said.

  Mac felt his adrenaline rising and an electric anticipation surged through the crew as they came closer to the large blue planet.

  “We may be the first humans on record to have visited this place, it’s kind of exciting, right?” Stephanie said.

  “It’s the adventure of a lifetime. I think that’s why we’re all here.” Mac said.

  They were through the planet’s ionosphere and descending through a thick bank of white clouds. The Poseidon flew with such a smooth motion that to Mac it seemed as if he was on a funky astral escalator.

  “This is so cool!” Mac said. He wished he had been given a script to read, like Neil Armstrong when he stepped out onto the not so barren landscape of the moon, and delivered his immortal quote one small step for man, but in the absence of TV cameras and speech writers, this is so cool was all he could think to say.

  The Poseidon glided below the cloud layer. To the west they could see there was a canyon where a few miles beyond lay a massive industrial city. Columns of smoke rose high into the sky, bleeding their gray and black into the pure white clouds. As Mac stopped the craft with a gentle motion of his hands over the controls, they hovered, watching.

  “Well, where do we go from here? What’s your scanner read Kim?” Mac asked.

  She pointed the pistol-shaped scanner at the canyon and city. “Looks like the methane has dropped to acceptable breathing levels in the canyon area and beyond, but out here they are still a little too high. We might want to get closer.” Kim said.

  Mac steered the Poseidon toward the canyons, and as he did the crew saw a translucent wall glimmering in the sunlight like a glass shield. Mac tried to steer out of the way but it was too late and they collided with the almost invisible shield. It was like moving through a waterfall as the wall spread around them, allowing the Poseidon through and then reforming once more as they passed. Kim checked her device.

  “Oh, wow, there’s no methane in here.” Kim looked puzzled. “This dome must have blocked it. Oxygen levels are normal outside right now. This whole city is in some kind of bubble. See how the clouds part around it?” She shrugged.

  “I’m not comfortable landing in that city over there. I know I don’t have any experience dealing with extra-terrestrials, but most earthlings would shoot before asking basic questions if an alien craft were to land in their front yard. I can only speculate what the people of this planet would do if an alien craft plopped down and strangers suddenly came out of nowhere, asking for help. I imagine it would not go well. Let’s land in that canyon over there and get a better look.” Mac said.

  “But we’re not talking about walking down to the town, right?” Kim asked.

  “Yeah, the closer we are to our getaway car the better.” Stephanie said.

  “We should be prepared to bug out pretty fast if this all goes south.” Neal said.

  “Everyone calm down, I just want to look through the telescope to check things out a bit so that we don’t rush in there and get ourselves into trouble.” Mac said. />
  “Well, we have the plasma rifles if things get too hot. Also, we need to make sure we don’t get ourselves trapped in between those buildings down there.” Jack said.

  “You all have a point, and that’s why we’re going to work as a team to make sure we’re as safe as possible down there. That’s if we go at all.”

  The Poseidon glided to a flat spot atop a butte and the crew got out.

  “The air’s sweet here. Temperature’s not too bad either. It reminds me of spring in North Carolina.” Stephanie said. She put a pair of binoculars up to her eyes to get a better view of the city below them. Her digital reading inside the binoculars told her the nearest building was ten miles away. “I’m not seeing any movement. Should we get closer?”

  Mac was standing with hands on hips surveying the area. “It’s dead out here, except for these cockroach looking things that appear to be interested in us.” Mac stomped one with his boot and wrinkled his nose as green pus splattered on the ground. Ten more appeared to replace the dead one.

  “What the hell are those things?” Jack asked. Twenty more came up over the edge of the butte.

  “I’m going to assume they’re trouble. We might want to continue this observation from another location.” Mac said.

  Stephanie walked to the edge of the butte to find there were millions of little bugs covering the cliff face.

  “We’ve got a lot of company coming.” Stephanie said.

  Mac was stomping more of them and now the entire crew was following suit. “Back to the ship!”

  They all jogged back as their path of egress was covered by the swarming green blooded cockroach bugs.

  “You think they’re dangerous?” Neal asked.

  “No idea Neal, but when odd little bugs display that much curiosity I automatically assume they don’t have my best interests at heart.” Mac said.

  “They look hungry to me.” Kim said. More of them clambered over the side. “This is getting scary.”

  Neal was pulling up the rear as everyone ran up the ramp and he fell into a pile of the encroaching insects.

  “Guys! They’re all over me! Get em’ off! Get em’ off!” He screamed and jumped up wildly slapping at his suit, knocking them off by the hundreds. Mac was terrified; he hated bugs. He felt helpless as his engineering officer jumped up and down screaming.

  “Get over here, Jorgenson!” Mac screamed.

  “I think one went down inside my suit! Yaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhh!” Neal said, panicking. Mac ran out into the swarm to retrieve Neil. He knew it was against all common sense and now feared for his own wellbeing. The cockroaches were on the ramp now and as Stephanie and Kim brushed them off with their boots Jack raised the ramp several inches.

  “Lieutenant, you need to get your ass on board. Now!” Mac screamed. He was trying to still his own terror as he stomped across an ocean of little bugs. “Damn, these things came on fast!” He said. Mac slapped the remaining roaches off of Neal, looped his arm around Jorgenson and walked with him back to the ramp.

  Once inside they buddy checked each other to make sure there were no more on them or the ramp and entered the craft. Mac raced to the control console and their ship was airborne in seconds. Looking through the dome window, they could all see that the tiny cockroach bugs had begun to abandon the butte. Images of a legion of those strange little insects paraded through Mac’s mind as an involuntary shiver ran through him.

  “I’m not going to sleep for a week after that. That shit was crazy!” Kim said.

  “Same here, I don’t think we met the welcome committee.” Mac replied. “After that, I don’t know why, but I’m willing to throw caution to the wind. Let’s go check out that city and see if this place gets any better.”

  “You think this is the planet from the video?” Jack asked.

  “Somehow I doubt it, because I don’t see the same environment here that we saw in the corbamite movie. Something seems…off.”

  “Maybe it was the swarm of bugs that just almost ate us.” Stephanie asked.

  “That didn’t help, but no, it just feels too quiet.”

  They flew over the city and could see that the streets below were vacant. The only movement was from the smoke exiting a chimney atop a manufacturing plant on the northern end of town. The city was lonely, quiet, and empty.

  “There’s an odd vibe here, guys. I can’t explain it but I think something bad happened.” Stephanie said.

  It was an industrial town and on every street there were restaurants, apartments, and little shops all constructed from corrugated sheet metal, rising above yellow brick wall bases. Cars resembling those from the nineteen fifties, back on earth, sat adjacent paved sidewalks waiting for their owners to return. But there were no people or other creatures outside.

  “This looks so earth-like. I never imagined we’d see this so far from home. You think the people here are humans?” Kim asked. No one answered.

  “What kind of readings are you getting on the scanner?” Mac asked.

  Kim looked down at her pistol shaped environmental reader. “Air’s fine outside. We could get out and walk around right now.”

  “Well, how are we fixed for weapons Lieutenant Sparling?” Mac asked.

  “We’ve got nine nuclear cell powered plasma repeater rifles that have a maximum range of three hundred yards. They’re not super long range weapons, but they’ll make their mark. Each one has a night vision scope that can see in zero light darkness and the rounds fired will put a barn door-sized hole in anything composed of fleshy matter.” Jack said.

  “So we won’t run out of ammunition?” Mac asked.

  “Not for a hundred years, if you fired them non-stop every day, all day long.” Jack said.

  “That’s comforting.” Mac said, nodding his head. “Let’s land around here somewhere and get out over near that plant since it’s the only place where anything is happening. Maybe the locals are holed up in there or maybe they all work in that plant during the daytime.”

  “Or maybe those cockroach things got them.” Neal said. He had a sour expression and Mac looked back with a furrowed brow. Although it was a morbid thought before they got out there again, he had to consider it as an option.

  Mac landed their ship in an alley wide enough to accommodate it, and as the ramp descended Jack handed each of them a plasma repeater rifle. As Mac stepped out into the late afternoon light, he noticed an acrid, rotting smell in the air, like hamburger thrown in the trash and left forgotten for a week. Tall grey buildings formed the city behind them and a gentle breeze was blowing through the lifeless streets. Mac looked to his left and saw a small diner with a blinking neon sign written in a language similar to the hieroglyphics on megalithic temple walls back on earth. The entrance to the plant was fifty feet in front of the crew, so they all walked shoulder to shoulder in silence. Mac thought they all looked more like old west gunslingers than a crew of scientific explorers.

  “Does that reader of yours also pick up viruses and bacteria?” Mac asked.

  “It does, but it will only register known bacteria and viruses, so although it has more than five million potential threats in the onboard database, it won’t catch something we’ve never seen before.” Kim said.

  “OK, that’s not at all comforting considering we are on a planet never before seen by at least modern day humans, but good to know. Everyone use your best judgment in there and stick close, we have no idea what we’re up against.”

  They approached the big industrial door while Mac led the pack. Jack Sparling covered the right side of the door, and Stephanie Brandt the left side. The door was constructed from steel and had a hexagonal handle that turned when Mac grabbed it. He pulled the door and it swung open on well-oiled hinges, revealing a long, spacious hallway with fluorescent lights illuminating their path, but no signs of life. Mac looked back at his crew to reassure himself that they were still there and then he stepped inside. The five of them walked at a slow, deliberate pace with their rifles at the ready po
sition, until they came to a large auditorium. Inside the darkened room were chairs filled with people facing a lighted stage. Mac could see their heads and elongated craniums coming to a point at the tip of the skull and the odor of stale rot filled the air with noxious fumes.

  “They’re all dead. This is a tomb, not a manufacturing plant, and it must be on automatic power somehow.” Mac said. Something moved in the shadows at the front of the room, up near the stage.

  “Sir, there’s something in there. Let me go first, please.” Jack said. Mac nodded and allowed Sparling to move to the point position. Jack had been a combat soldier after all, and it made sense to allow him to go first.

  “Hello? Is there anybody in here?” He had his rifle at ready. “We’re here to help.” Jack said. He knew that was a lie, but if there was someone in need maybe they would come out if they thought the cavalry had arrived.

  Jack walked through the room, and when he reached the front he dropped his weapon and knelt down to pick up the perpetrator of the noise. The others worriedly squinted in the darkness.

  “Nothing to worry about from this guy.” Jack said. He picked up and showed them the frightened creature. “Looks like they have cats, just like ours from the look of it.”

  “You don’t know that’s a cat, Jack.” Kim said. “It could be a shape shifter or something more awful.”

  “Yeah, right, this thing is terrifying.” Jack rolled his eyes, placed the cat on the floor and as it ran off it meowed back at them.

  “What killed these people? I don’t feel right about this place, and I definitely don’t think this is the correct planet. We should go.” Kim said. Neal started coughing like something was caught in his windpipe and bent over, placing his hands on his knees.

  “Guys, I don’t feel so well.” Neal said. He lurched forward and vomited dark, viscous, slimy matter onto the floor. It splattered with a sickly slap, like tar being ejected from a machine. Then he fell to his knees, rolling over on his back. There were blue veins running up his neck toward the temples.

  “Neal!” Stephanie shouted.

  “Stay back from him, we have no idea what he’s got!” Mac yelled. “Oh my God! Neal, your neck.”

  As Neal lay on the floor, one of the roaches popped its head out from under the collar of his space suit and another one crawled out of his open mouth. Neal gave a choked, gurgling sound and struggled to get off the floor as two more of them appeared next to the one perched on his lower lip. He batted them away in horror and tried to stand up while spitting two of the roaches onto the ground.

  “They’re inside him!” Jack said and wretched, as they helplessly looked into Neal’s terrified eyes.

  “We have to help him.” Mac said. He was stunned, however, and had never seen anything like the horror before him.

  Neal tried to get off the floor one more time as his mouth worked to get words out, but then with one final breath, he collapsed and died forty light years from home in an alien manufacturing plant. The roach things escaped Neal’s mouth and skittered into the darkness, secreting themselves away from the vengeful feet of the space explorers. The small team stood silently, looking down at Neal’s body, mourning their sudden loss. Jack got an idea and walked into the auditorium flashing his light on the faces of the dead. The people of this planet looked almost human were it not for their elongated heads and almond shaped eyes. Death and desiccation had stretched the skin so tight against their skulls that their silhouettes were stiff and rigid, like figures in a wax museum. When the light hit one of the aliens in the face, a curious roach popped its head out of an eye socket.

  “I know what killed the people in here. We need to run!” Jack yelled. He ran for the door as the rest of the team chased him.

  “We’ll have to leave Neal. I’m sorry.” Mac said. He was in a fast jog and on their heels were a few hundred of the cockroaches. Their numbers were growing as the team ran for the ship.

  “Let’s just get out of here before any more of us end up like Neal.” Kim said, breathing heavy as she hustled along with the others.

  They burst through the door and as they did, the ramp descended. They could see that the buildings were covered in the cockroaches and the path to their ship was disappearing at a rapid pace.

  “When we get onboard everyone strips! We’re not taking a chance that any of those things gets off this planet” Mac screamed. He was last onboard with Kim in front of him. She jumped for the elevating ramp as Mac followed a second later. The craft rose from the ground and hovered twenty feet from the street.

  “Everyone, shuck your suits, now! We have to make sure none of those roach things are inside our suits. We’re all adults here so I expect you to act like it. Underwear, everything, off, now. We’re going to do buddy checks. Ladies, you can check each other and hop into the latrine. We’ll stay out here, but this happens before we leave. Those things killed Neal pretty quick and we cannot risk another incident.”

  The crew found no more bugs inside their suits, and after everyone regrouped and calmed down there was time for an emotional release and small ceremony for Neal. Mac said a few words about him as they performed a mock burial, and went around the circle each telling their own story of how they best knew Neal. Mac then consulted the miniature corbamite plate and their holographic image of the star system for the next closest planet for investigation. They had not yet ascended to outer space as the Poseidon cruised over the cockroach planet, still beneath the protective oxygen bubble a mile from the ground, when they passed over some crumbling monuments. There was an ancient obelisk and what appeared to be pyramids in the dense jungle below.

  “There are pyramids down there!” Jack said.

  “He’s right; they look very familiar, too.” Kim said.

  Mac motioned for the binoculars by making a gimme signal with his upturned fingers and Kim handed them over.

  “There’s six of them that I can see, and three look like the pyramids in Egypt with some possible Indonesian influence, but I think you could put the other three in Central America and not tell the difference between these and what the Aztecs built. This looks almost exactly like one of the lost human cities.” Mac said.

  Long forgotten by the inhabitants and in disrepair, the pyramids had become victims of entropy. The jungle was encroaching, and thick vines wrapping around their ornate, decorative architecture would soon hide these magnificent edifices, burying them from even the sharpest eyes in the sky.

  “Should we go down to check it out?” Kim asked.

  “Time is short and I think we’ve checked this planet off our list. Besides, I’m not endangering any more lives to go exploring ruins with those carnivorous bugs running around down there. It’s a shame really. I don’t know how anyone could survive here with this infestation running rampant. Clearly these people made it for years up until recently. These ruins look old as hell.” Mac said.

  “I wonder how they got here, the bugs, I mean, or what caused their creation?” Jack asked.

  “Maybe they were victims of their own technology, just like us. The bugs could have been a byproduct.” Stephanie replied. Each crew member nodded agreement.

  “Or maybe the little critters came in on an asteroid, you know, life from beyond. There are a lot of people who think that’s how the flu and other viruses we have trouble fighting got to our own planet.” Stephanie said.

  “Whatever caused it, this place is a bust. We’ll leave it for some other poor unfortunate bastards to find.” Mac said.

  With one last look at the pyramidal structures below, the Poseidon was off in a flash and whipping through space again. Poseidon shot toward the next planet as the crew followed an elliptical pattern around Zeta 1. The dark was eerie, and after losing Neal all aboard were more homesick than ever. Mac felt the darkness creep inside his heart and tried to send some good thoughts and energy toward his family at home. The only light came from the brilliance of Zeta 1 and as they seemed to drift into the stillness of the void her light was beauti
ful and radiant, but foreign and unknown. From the captain’s chair, Mac felt like he was inside a ride at an amusement park just waiting for the big hill to come up around the next turn. The next planet came into view, and as it did Kim began to point her environmental scanner at it.

  “Anything?” Mac asked.

  “No, we’re still too far out, I guess.” She said.

  It was a big brown ball in the distance, and as they got closer the color did not change or get less blechy, Mac thought. At least that’s what Serena would say when she was three and looking at something that did not sit right with her. “That’s blechy, daddy!” The memory made him chuckle and took him away from the strangeness of their new reality for a moment. The distance from earth was further than any of them had anticipated, not just in physical distance, but in emotional proximity to loved ones. He feared that if they did not find the new home planet soon, space madness could ensue for he and his crew.

  “Thinking about your kids?” Stephanie asked.

  “How’d you know?” Mac replied.

  “I had a hunch. I’ve done nothing but think of my little girl since we left earth. I’m putting my faith in the idea that the device we’re bringing with us is going to open a door back to her. It’s terrifying, you know? The idea of failure and the collapse of humanity on Earth. Maybe I’m overthinking it.” Stephanie said.

  “If you’re over thinking, so am I. But we’ll carry out the mission and complete our task. I want to see my kids just as much as you do. I would not have come on this quest if I thought we’d fail.” Mac said. She nodded and gave a wan smile.

  “It is beautiful out here though, isn’t it? I mean, we’re so far from what we’ve ever known but it’s exciting to see for the first time what so many never will.” Stephanie said.

  Mac agreed and looked out the dome window as she stood beside him. Her brown hair almost touched her shoulders, and he wondered for a moment what it would be like to put his hands on them and hold her from behind as they stared into the void while he inhaled the lingering scent of her shampoo. Mac’s loneliness for female companionship was causing his imagination to work in mysterious ways, and he banished the thought returning his mind to business. He worried that someone might have seen him and quickly looked around. Jack Sparling was watching him with a smirk on his face, as if he had read the senior officer’s mind. Mac cleared his throat and blushed. Stephanie walked over to chat with Kim a moment later, leaving Mac to his own devices. He stood staring out at the vast beyond alone for quite some time after their conversation. Fighting loneliness and longing for Carol and fear of the unknown, he tuned in to the soundtrack in his mind, playing Steve Miller Band.

  Ridin’ high I got tears in my eyes

  You know you got to go through hell

  Before you get to heaven

  “Mac, we’re getting closer, but I’m not seeing any oxygen on the big brown planet. The atmosphere appears to be hydrogen-based.” Kim said.

  “That’s number two of four that’s going off the list.” Jack said.

  “Still, I wonder what’s down there though.

  There’s got to be something on that planet.” Mac said. He was staring out the window as their elliptical pattern arced around the planet.

  “That brown ball looks dangerous, and don’t ask me why, it just does. I’d like move on to door number three, please.” Stephanie said.

  “How far away is Zeta 2 in case none of these work out, Kim?” Mac asked.

  “In this ship, we could be there in a few days or a week tops.” Kim answered.

  As they passed by the planet, the team watched brown clouds part as a twister rose above the ionosphere, churning like a massive whirling nightmare across the planet surface.

  “That’s a hostile environment.” Jack said.

  “Moving on.” Mac said.

  The Poseidon sped away into the cosmic field toward their next exploration in this part of the star system. Unsatisfied, and disappointed by the lack of opportunity this planet presented, Mac took one final look back before they disappeared into the distance. A second later his eyes widened to the size of saucers as an enormous tentacle swooped up from the surface of the planet, attempting to snag their craft. He reacted with quick reflexes and raced to his controls steering the Poseidon out of the way before the unnamed horror dragged them down into the depths of the brown planet.

  “Did you see that?” Jack asked, astonished. He looked back and froze in horror as a gigantic red eye glared at them from the surface.

  “That’s not a planet; it’s some sort of creature!” Stephanie yelled. Her mouth was frozen in an O of terror as more tentacles whipped at them from the large brown ball.

  “Is it coming at us?” Mac asked. Instinct kicked in and he dodged left and right to avoid the grappling monster, taking the crew to a safer distance. In a moment they were completely out of reach, and sighing in relief.

  “It appears to be caught in the gravitational pull of the Zeta 1 star. Let’s just get as far from here as possible.” Kim said. The planet-sized monster was now a smaller ball of waving tentacles as they escaped from its unblinking red eye and deadly long appendages.

  “My god, how does something like that come into being?” Stephanie asked.

  “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Jack said.

  “Thank you very much, Hamlet.” Kim said.

  “Man, I don’t know what it was or how it could even exist. The universe is a vast, mysterious place, and I have a feeling that the things we’ve seen already are about to get even stranger. All I know is that from the consciousness experiments we performed under my command, I can tell you that we picked up some very whacky shit from the participants’ experiences.” Mac said.

  “Like what? Can you talk about any of it, Mac?” Stephanie asked.

  “Well here’s one and it’s strange. Some of our subjects saw into the crypts of the ancient dead rulers of Egypt. Essentially, they traveled back in time. We learned that the ancients built the pyramids by using anti-gravity technology and they had help from ET’s, but it’s more than that. The people of that time were smarter than we are now, more connected with the planetary energies.” Mac said.

  “Pardon me, sir, but those people were living in mud huts and moving blocks of stone with logs, right?” Jack said and smirked.

  “That’s the story we know: that the ancients were superstitious and uneducated hunter gatherers who painted weird murals and etched their walls with copper tools and sharpened stones.” Mac admonished.

  “Hey, that’s what we’re taught in school.” Jack said.

  “The truth is they knew the stars better than any of us today and our scientists are just now beginning to catch up to their understanding of math and science. Have you ever questioned how the hieroglyphics are so perfect on the walls of these shrines and ancient artifacts, and the ludicrous idea that copper chisels and stones were used to create such perfect lines? Or, better yet, how they crafted bowls and vases from metals and stones that even our lasers would have a hard time crafting today? You think they did it all with simple hand tools?” Mac asked.

  “You may have a point, but I’m just saying, we’re not told this stuff even in college archaeology classes.” Stephanie said.

  “That’s the best thing schools and colleges can do in a divide and conquer society, you guys. Why would they ever tell the slaves that there’s freedom at their fingertips, if they can only learn what the ancients knew? I’ve seen the blocks of the great pyramid levitating through the air and being placed just so. The entire structure is only 3/60th of a degree off from true north and some of those blocks weigh fifteen tons each, roughly.” Mac said.

  “I’ve heard of the massive stone blocks at places like, what was it…Baalbek. The blocks there are so heavy we don’t have cranes strong enough to lift them today.” Kim said.

  “I don’t know about all that. I mean, yeah, we’re flying in a UFO right now, b
ut still.” Jack said. He seemed perturbed by the conversation.

  “Hey, you wanted to know what we were doing, and after some of the things I’ve seen, nothing surprises me anymore. Why do you think the General sent me?” Mac asked.

  “We figured he needed an old timer to keep us in line, I guess.” Jack said. He shrugged and blushed.

  “Rude! That was uncalled for.” Stephanie said.

  “No, it’s alright. I walked away from the project when I began to see more and more people getting their brains scrambled by the drug cocktails we were injecting into them. To push their consciousness further out into the field, we had to up the game, so to speak. We had people so far under we were sure we could get them to the God Head if we wanted to, but it was a fool’s errand. When my time in service was up I told General Martin to go to Hell and moved to a cattle ranch with my family.”

  “So, they found this star system and planets after you left?” Jack asked.

  “That’s right. I didn’t even know about this ship. Compartmentalization: it’s how the government gets shit done. Well, the people who run the government anyway.”

  “So, you’re a conspiracy theorist, too?” Jack asked. He began to feel like he was treading on thin ice making such an accusation of a superior officer.

  “Hah, no, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. Who do you think funded this little trip? Do you still think it was the Air Force, or the Marines, or maybe the tax payers voted to send us out here?” Mac asked.

  “The Deep Space Exploration Consortium did, but they’re a defense contractor and beholden to the laws of our government, right?” Jack asked. He began to feel like that answer was wrong as well.

  “You’re right about the first part. The second part is untrue, because DSEC actually is a group of multinational banks and families that control the majority of the world’s wealth. The bloodlines go as far back as the Anunnaki and biblical Nephilim. These powerbrokers are the same ones who wrecked our planet with their misuse of power, and now we’re their dogs looking for a new planet to colonize.”

  “That’s crazy. I mean, it sort of makes sense when I think about it, but the fact that they let it go so far, that we let it go so far, it’s…” Stephanie said.

  “So, what happened to the great pyramid builders all over the world? If you ever saw what happened I mean.” Kim asked.

  “As far as we could ever tell, it looked like there was a global war at some point. Misuse of land combined with ancient super-technology...”

  “They wiped themselves out.” Jack said.

  “Yeah, and they don’t plan on doing it a second time, but if it comes to that again, this time they’ll flee the nest and leave the rest of the rats to drown.” Mac said.

  “Sir, the next planet is in view.” Kim said. She had been looking at the corbamite plate which tracked their movements and their next target.

  Through the clear dome of the Poseidon, the planet, small and blue at first, began to grow larger and they could see the fine, exquisite details of a new world. It was familiar, comforting, and promising.

  “The readout on my scanner looks good. There’s oxygen down there breathable for humans.” Kim said.

  The blue planet looked a lot like earth. Mac could see continents and blue oceans. There were vast mountain ranges and as they got closer he felt sure they were in the right place. The corbamite plate displayed the movie of a large field and three travelers crossing it on a sunny day.

  “Those are the wolf men I saw when the General first approached me about this trip. I believe we’re here.”

  CHAPTER 7