by Rob Roth
“Take cover, men! Someone get eyes on those hostiles!”
“Got one Lieutenant,” Rodriguez called out as he fired three rapid shots, silencing one of the snipers.
“Window on the right, two o’clock!” yelled Haseem, as three more shots rang out, eliminating the second threat.
After five or ten seconds of silence, Severs called out “Good work men. Proceed with caution.”
Once again, the men resumed their choregraphed steps. Whenever they encountered a structure with a shut door, a squad of seven men would break off and gather in front of it. Then in a very practiced routine they kicked in the door and five men entered. They quickly swept through the rooms making sure everything was clear while two remained outside to guard their flank.
Severs’ platoon consisted of three squads, and he was participating in the sweep of the buildings along with his men, allowing Lieutenant Stevens to take the role of acting officer, as part of his training. After 45 minutes of ground operations, they had not encountered any hostiles other than the two snipers.
Lieutenant Severs’ squad came upon another structure with a locked door, and the men started to split off and organize into positions for breeching, when a call came in from the base commander.
“Lieutenant Severs, Colonel Jeffers wishes to talk to you about a new set of orders that he has just received.”
“Copy that Stevens. Go ahead and take my position with the squad. I’ll take it from here,” Severs said as Stevens handed him the radio.
Colonel Jeffers was relaying a new set of coordinates to Severs, requesting that his platoon rendezvous with Delta Company, just as the squad now led by Lieutenant Stevens breeched the door. An explosion roared, knocking Severs off his feet and leaving his ears ringing.
“NO! God NO!” Severs yelled out, although he could barely hear his own voice because of the concussion from the explosion. The two flanking soldiers were injured and on the ground near Severs. He pulled himself up on his feet and staggered over to the large hole in the wall where the door had been seconds earlier. Climbing over rubble, he could see the bodies of the five soldiers were strewn about in the room. Noticing a slight movement from one of the bodies, Severs rushed over and found that Lieutenant Stevens was still alive, although just barely.
“Stevens! Can you hear me Stevens?” Severs asked as he gently shook Stevens’ shoulders.
“Lieutenant Severs…” Stevens said weakly as he fought to keep his eyes open, looking at Severs.
“Stay with me man! MEDIC! MEDIC!” called out Severs.
“Lieutenant, I feel so tired...”
“Stevens, hang in there. Keep talking to me Derek. Hey, where are you from, anyway? Where’s home?”
“Maples… Indiana sir…”
“Oh really? What is your town like? Lots of maple trees?”
“Not… really, sir… Its… farming country… fields of corn… I grew up on a farm… horses… cows…”
“That sounds really nice, Stevens. You have a girlfriend?”
“Just… married, sir… Right before… I deployed…She’s the prettiest, sweetest girl…”
“Oh really? What’s her name?”
“Madeline… I… I don’t want her to be left alone…”
“Stevens don’t talk like that! You will make it back. Hell, it’s barely a scratch. MEDIC! MEDIC!”
“She’s… so… pretty…”
“You have a picture, Derek? Show me a picture.”
“Right… here… Sir… I keep… her with me,” Stevens said as his hand slowly tapped his vest over his heart.
Severs saw the pocket and pulled out a picture of a pretty young woman with red hair and green eyes.
“Yes, Stevens. Madeline sure is a pretty girl. Now, you don’t want to leave a pretty girl like that alone, do you? You got to keep fighting to stay awake, Derek… so that you can see Madeline again. Derek? DEREK?”
Severs realized that Derek’s eyes were open but unmoving.
Lieutenant Severs wept uncontrollably over the loss of Derek and the other four men. Afterwards, the feeling of loss was replaced by the feeling of guilt. He should not have had Lieutenant Stevens take his place and breech the door. It should have been him that was killed in the explosion, not Stevens. He owed his life to Stevens — to dedicate his life to the service and protection of others. From now on he would put other’s lives ahead of his own. He had a huge debt he needed to pay.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON - TUFO
Later, in a very private meeting in Steinmacher’s office at Command and Control, Captain Severs repeated all the perceptions his mind had received to Davis and Steinmacher, as well as it could be communicated in words. He then summarized his analysis.
“It seems to me this was a tragedy that could have been avoided. Colonel, I don’t believe the visitors meant to do us harm. They were just trying to protect this egg of theirs, which is somehow related to the survival of their race. One can understand how the aliens may have overreacted, finding their whole existence being threatened.”
Steinmacher nodded thoughtfully, with a look on his face that Severs had trouble deciphering — almost like the Colonel was staring into the past. Nevertheless, the Captain took the quiet as an invitation to continue.
“I personally feel it’s our duty to find whoever took the egg and return it to the visitors. Even if the act of taking the egg was unintentional, it did help contribute to the situation leading to the deaths of those four brave men.”
Severs tended to look for the good in everyone, giving them the benefit of the doubt whenever opportunity afforded and evidence to the contrary had not yet refuted beyond reasonable doubt.
“Thank you Captain, not only for your analysis, but your bravery in risking unknown consequences by undertaking the task of communicating with the visitors. I also am of a mind that we should search for those who removed the egg and retrieve it. Call in Sargent Conard and let’s see if he has found anything.”
Captain Severs couldn’t help but notice Steinmacher had left out the part about returning the egg, causing him to briefly wonder if he and the Colonel were really on the same page, but then dismissed it as merely an oversight.
Sargent Conard came in and provided a brief update.
“Sirs, the satellite was only focused on the canyon area yesterday between Noon and 3 pm. However, images did confirm a white Jeep was there that whole time. After 3 pm the satellite switched views to Phoenix and Tucson and so we could not track the Jeep further. Several images showed the Jeep at the edge of the canyon and what looked like a rope leading into it.
“That certainly confirms what you thought, Captain,” replied Steinmacher. “Someone was definitely there and visited the impact crater. Please proceed, Sargent.”
“In conversations with the DMV we have about fifteen hundred white Jeeps of that model between Flagstaff and Winslow, and they are pulling the names of the owners and renters now. Once we have the list we will start searching for any connections — calling people and trying to eliminate as suspects those whom we can, in order to whittle the list down. This may take a day or so, but I believe we can come up with a relatively small list and then zero in on the perpetrators.”
Conard was excused, and Steinmacher continued his discussion with Severs.
“Captain, our priority now is to find those who stole the egg and recover it as soon as we can. Once we have done that, we may have a unique opportunity to advance our relationship with the visitors in unimaginable ways. Just consider, if we are instrumental in saving their whole race, I can foresee great opportunities for us to learn from them and benefit from their advanced technology. Perhaps we can eventually travel to the stars ourselves with their help.” With that summation, Steinmacher ended the meeting and dismissed the attendees, leaving him free to think about the egg.
“Well, well. After 7 years, I finally may have found the leverage I’ve been looking for…” Steinmacher smiled.
Captain Severs left the meeting,
and as he was headed to the dining hall, Davis caught up with him.
“Captain, may I have a word with you?”
“Certainly Davis, what’s on your mind?”
“Sir, the order of events you reported through that artifact or whatever it is, just don’t jive with what I saw on the ground. Those aliens had no idea their egg was missing when they popped in. I saw them immediately destroy our helicopter before they had any idea that what they were searching for was gone. It was only after they attacked DeMarco that those aliens performed a detailed search of the helicopter and in the canyon and discovered the egg was missing. I’m pretty sure they were lying to you.”
Captain Severs thought for a moment, considering the possibility but unwilling as yet to dismiss his hope this was an accident.
“Davis, we don’t know what the visitors’ technical capabilities are. It’s possible they knew the egg was missing before they showed up, maybe from a prior visit, or maybe they were invisible to us when they discovered the egg was gone. Or surprise or fear could have overcome them in the moment. Clearly, they didn’t destroy Gromit, and they knew Gromit was right there and they had the means to do so. I think they regretted their actions and realized what they had done after they discovered Gromit was a vehicle occupied by humans. We need to give them the benefit of the doubt. At any rate, given their superior technology, I think doing so is only prudent.”
“Ok Captain, I understand and will proceed as you wish. But I think other possibilities more likely, to be frank. They could be lying about knowing the egg was missing when they destroyed the helicopter. They could be unfriendlies that are dangerous and deadly. They could be acting this way only because they need our help to recover the egg and they have no means on their own to track it. In fact, they could even be lying about their race being in danger and that thing being an egg! We don’t know anything for sure about them. But the one thing I do know is my history. In every case where an advanced civilization encountered a less advanced one, the outcome was always the same and it never ended well for the lesser civilization. I don’t aim to end up like the lesser civilizations.”
“Point well taken, Davis.”
WEDNESDAY NOON - HOTEL
After leaving the university, Jace returned to his hotel room and decided he better stash the meteorite in the room safe. It was apparently much more valuable than he had realized. It could also be much more dangerous — someone constructed it, he was certain. He was also pretty sure there was nothing like this on Earth, given how he obtained it. Whoever or whatever made it may come looking for it, so until he knew a lot more, it was best to keep it under wraps.
“…Ladies and gentlemen let me now show you the meteorite I found. Well, it isn’t really a meteorite. It may look exactly like a rock, but really, aliens built it and sent it to Earth. Oh, by the way, it is indestructible too. Yes Jace, that will go over extremely well at the conference. Maybe Dooley can even break you out of the asylum…”
After locking up the meteorite, Jace wandered over to the Barringer conference. It was about lunch time and he wanted to catch up with Dooley as well as attend some of the lectures, so he’d be better prepared when he presented in two days. Noticing the morning session had just ended and seeing Dooley and an attractive young woman standing and talking, he walked over to join them.
“Jace! Glad you were able to make it over to the conference. May I introduce you to Dr. Allison Trask? Allie is also a planetary geologist working for Panterra Enterprises. In fact, she participated in the recovery of that meteorite in Australia last year.”
“Dr. Trask, it is so nice to meet you,” Jace said warmly while shaking her hand.
Allison smiled. “G’day Dr. Larkin. I’m pleased to finally meet you!”
“Dooley mentioned he made your acquaintance yesterday but neglected to mention you were Dr. Trask.”
“It’s not Dooley’s fault,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t tell him. I was outed when he read it on my tag this morning. I must say, Dr. Larkin, your talk scheduled for the last day is one of the main reasons I came to this conference. Well, that, and I was hoping after your presentation maybe we could chat a bit about a research project I’m working on.”
“Certainly. I’m always happy to exchange ideas with other planetary geologists. That’s how we all learn and grow. Would you like to join Dooley and me for lunch? My treat. We could even discuss your research if you like. And please, just call me Jace.”
“I would love to join you both for lunch. And I prefer Allie. Don’t worry, Jace, I won’t bore you with my research questions just yet. After your presentation on Friday is fine. My research is somewhat confidential, and I was going to be talking to my boss later today anyway, so I really should make sure it’s ok for me to discuss it with you.”
Jace laughed. “Ok Allie. Lunch it is. And we will limit our discussions to our travels and sightseeing, how’s that? By the way, have you made it to the Barringer Meteor Crater site yet? It’s really an impressive site — almost a spiritual experience for those of us in planetary geology.”
As they walked off together toward a very pleasant outdoor cafe restaurant Jace knew, he wondered what research Allison was involved with. He did not miss the fact that she was with Panterra Enterprises, a company searching for exo-planets similar to Earth. Dooley already had suspicions about Miss Trask. Jace was very interested to hear if the research she was involved with could somehow shed light on any of his own recent mysteries. He was left with a favorable first impression of Miss Trask, but based on Dooley’s encounters, he suspected she was very good at putting on a cover and intended to test this out a bit.
Before long they were sitting outside in a nice café table set up for three and eating lunch together.
“So, Dr. Larkin… Jace… what business took you to Northern Arizona University this morning?”
Jace was caught by surprise at first, then realized Dooley must have said something earlier to Allison. How quick you were to pick up on that tidbit, Miss Trask. And Dooley, really! I can’t trust you around pretty women I see!
“Oh, I’m often asked to consult with various universities on special projects of theirs. I was examining various rock samples this morning. It was quite interesting.”
Jace noticed that Allison’s eyebrows raised slightly at this. Maybe you do know something, Dr. Trask.
“Rock samples? What kind of rock samples, if you are permitted to share.”
Jace wasn’t sure how much he should say in his effort to get Allison to reveal something of interest to him but decided to continue a little further.
“Just some recent meteorite specimens they had.”
“That’s very interesting. Did they have any color to them?”
Now that question was quite strange, thought Jace. Usually meteorites are just charred black. As a planetary geologist, Allison would know that. A colored meteorite? What does she know that I don’t?
“Oh, just the stereotypical black on the outside. Why? Have you seen ones with different colors? What about the meteorite you recovered in Australia?”
Now Jace saw he had caught Allison slightly off guard by the way her eyes glanced slightly.
“No, of course not,” she replied. “The meteorite in Australia didn’t survive the impact. Just fragments and dust.”
“Dust, now that’s something I’ve not seen before. The samples I examined were quite intact. Very solid, in fact.”
Jace waited anxiously for Allison to ask about the inside of the meteorite. If she knew anything about this rock she would know he would not be able to look inside it at all. However, Allison seemed content with what she had heard and seemed no longer interested in discussing meteorites.
What was this about dust?
The remainder of the lunch was quite pleasant, and afterwards the three returned to the auditorium and attended the conference for the remaining two afternoon sessions, sitting together.
Jace noticed that during lunch and afterwards,
Allison and Dooley seemed to get along well together. She acted very pleasant and warm toward Jace, but most of the smiles and jesting were with Dooley, and it almost seemed genuine on their part. Jace didn’t mind that Dooley got the attention. Jace wasn’t looking for a close relationship. That interest in him died along with the one woman he loved. But it had been too long since Dooley had someone who actually interested him. Even if it is just Dooley’s charming way of gathering information, smiled Jace. At least he seemed to enjoy it.
The afternoon speakers were quite good, Jace thought. One of them talked about the electromagnetic waves emitted by astronomical objects, and the other about techniques for identifying past or present life on other planets. Both were interesting topics that were well received, and Jace gave some thought about how he might incorporate those elements in his presentation on Friday.
After the second speaker finished, Allison excused herself to make a phone call. Jace and Dooley kept an eye on her as she went to one of the corners of the auditorium where it was a little quieter and she placed the call. At one point she pulled out a pen and paper and they could tell she was writing something down as she was on the phone. After about ten minutes she came back over and joined them.
“I've really enjoyed this afternoon with you both and look forward to hearing your wrap-up lecture on Friday, Jace. Unfortunately, it seems I'll miss tomorrow’s sessions. I've some company work I must attend to that will likely take all day. This is most disappointing as you have a pretty good lineup for tomorrow.”
“I certainly understand. And we’ve had our own share of unplanned events. Dooley and I will be attending to other business tomorrow as well. So, if it is alright with you Allie, we would love to meet up with you here on Friday morning.”
“That would be wonderful. I’ve quite enjoyed your company today and really look forward to seeing you both on Friday.”
The three left the auditorium, and since they were staying at the same hotel, walked back together chatting about the sessions they heard. Allison was staying on a different floor and departed the elevator first, bidding them cheers for the evening. Jace and Dooley went up to the penthouse level and their own two floor suite.
