by Vincent Pet
More importantly to Brad, it was the place that had fed his imagination throughout his childhood. In fact, it had been the reason why Brad had written his book in the first place. Area 51 was supposedly the place aliens crashed in 1947. Many people were convinced that alien corpses had been recovered from the crash site and were at this very moment conserved deep in the labyrinths of the desert base. What had aroused everyone’s suspicion at the time were the government’s awkward and contradictory explanations of what had happened that day in the desert. In the end they had left many unanswered questions which had people thinking that a conspiracy was taking place. This was further fueled by the increase in sightings over the years that followed throughout the country. In order to calm the increasing agitation of a portion of the population, Project Blue Book was eventually created. Its scope was to investigate the UFO phenomenon. Not surprisingly, most of its conclusions on the sightings that they analyzed were given a rational explanation. These usually included pranks, weather balloons, lightening, or illuminated bodies of gases. Brad had never really believed in UFO’s even if a certain part of him had once wanted it to be true. As a child it made the world much more interesting to think that the universe was full of aliens. It would be cool to have an alien as a friend. As an adult, though, he knew that it was idealistic to think that an alien race would have the same values as humanity. He doubted brotherly love could exist between two races if it was so difficult to establish this concept within the same race. He actually feared to think what could happen if humanity ever met aliens.
The hours that followed went by in a blur. After landing and having shaken a few hands, Brad was escorted to a small building at the end of a runway. This had to be Area 51, he kept repeating to himself as he was brought inside a simple looking room at the farthest end of a single, narrow corridor leading straight from the entrance. It was here that Dora left him and wished him luck. Alone, Brad took a plastic cup and poured himself some water from the cooler at the side of the door. He took a seat around an oval table in the middle of the room and waited. The walls were bare and he found himself hoping the other installations on the base would not be as bland as the one he was presently in. Not five minutes later, the room became crowded as four men entered. The one who sat in front of him had a laptop, which he promptly opened. After introducing themselves one of the men, a General William Barker who worked for the Pentagon and preferred to simply be called Barker, came quickly to the point.
“Mr. Walsh, I’m certain Miss Keen has briefed you on the conditions you have to adhere to for this assignment. I don’t think we need to repeat the oath of secrecy nor the penalties involved.”
“I understand the conditions perfectly.”
“Good! Mr. Walsh…may I call you Walsh? What do you know of Area 51?”
So it was true! He was really there! Brad remained calm in spite of his excitement.
“Not much but the usual rumors that I’m sure you are well aware of.”
“Well, let me tell you that those rumors are true.”
For a moment Brad wasn’t sure if he had understood correctly. The man to the left of Barker, base Commander Height, took over.
“In 1932, an alien race made contact with us. We agreed to meet in the Nevada desert. A small base was set up and a small delegation of men established themselves here to serve as liaison between the government and the aliens. Our records are sketchy, as most were burnt following 1947 to eliminate all proof of their existence. What we do know from that early time is that negotiations took place and an agreement was signed with these aliens. They acquired some of our natural resources and we acquired some of their technology.”
Brad listened attentively. He frowned.
“You mean, we established commerce with aliens?”
Commander Height didn’t answer Brad. On the contrary, he asked Brad a question.
“On chapter three of your book, you mention that after an initial exploration phase by a governmental institute, the continuation of space exploration would inevitably fall into the hands of private enterprises in order to exploit space for their own personal means.”
Brad had reread his book a couple of times since the meeting with Dora. It was a good thing, since he wouldn’t have been able to remember much of it if he hadn’t.
“Yes. If a capitalistic society such as our own exists on another world, it would make economic sense that after the initial explorative phase of space, private enterprises would become involved if they saw an economic opportunity. At a certain point, as more and more companies exploited space to remain competitive, and as they went farther and farther away from home, they would start erecting permanent bases to live on and launch from. As permanent bases are built and become bigger, other parts of society such as the service industry would follow. At this point, travelling from star to star would become so common that the cost would decrease as more and more ships and colonies were built. Eventually most people in that society would be able to have access to space travel. Very much like flying is for us. At first flight was restricted to a certain few adventurers. Soon thereafter, the military saw a purpose that changed the way we battled during the First World War. Afterwards, the advantage of getting to a place quicker than by rail and boat became apparent. It started making economic sense to ship goods, parts, and people from one place to another by plane. Whoever was able to place their merchandise first had a competitive edge. As technology evolved, companies started having their own private jets, and today you have individuals with their own jets who are basically free to go anywhere they wish in the world. We wouldn’t know what to do without flight, and yet planes have only been around since recently. Seeing a plane fly overhead has become so common that nobody really looks up anymore. It is common to take the plane in today’s society as it would be common for a space faring race to take a space ride to another world or colony.”
Baker interrupted.
“So, it wouldn’t necessarily be a government representative that would visit an unexplored part of space first.”
Brad was beginning to understand where Barker was leading him.
“Not necessarily. One would hope that a society capable of reaching the stars would have certain ethical and moral standards that all their individuals would adhere to. Although we have proof that with humanity this is not always the case. Man is usually able to technologically create things that we do not yet have an ethical understanding of. Like for example, genetic engineering; this whole question of whether it is right or wrong has left us in legal and moral knots. We know how to manipulate DNA, but we have not acquired the maturity to understand the benefits or deal with the consequences yet.”
Brad took a sip of water before continuing.
“One would hope that a private venture that comes in contact with an alien race would have certain rules to abide to. As we all know, rules are made to be restrictive, and in life we always try to bend these in our favor to get a competitive edge. A private venture so far away from home could in theory ignore certain principles if they felt the risk of reprisal was minimal or non-existent.”
There was a pondering silence in the room. Brad dared ask the question which was floating in his mind.
“Is this the case here? Have we come across aliens that belong to a private enterprise?”
Barker leaned towards Brad with a slight smile on his face.
“You understand quickly, Brad. That’s exactly why we wanted you with us. We want you to be an advisor. We will fill you in with everything we know. Your job is to give us options, anything that we might have overlooked, anything that can be used to our advantage. You have proven through your book that you have an innate ability to understand things on a different level. Your approach is unique and we might just need that originality of yours in the near future. Height, bring Walsh up to date.”
Height cleared his throat. He looked directly at Brad as he spoke.
“From 1932 to just before the Second World War, there was not
much visual contact between our two species. What we do know is that the few people who knew of their existence were greatly worried. Every time the aliens appeared, they wanted more and more of our natural resources.”
Brad shook his head.
“I don’t understand. With so many planets in our solar system, why insist on mining our Earth?”
Height looked over at Barker and grimaced before replying to Brad.
“We are not sure. It was not the minerals that they particularly wanted, far from it. It was water, plants and animals. As we are finding out through our telescopes and probes, planets like Earth must be extremely rare.”
“It could very well be.”
Height continued.
“At first we didn’t oppose their requests. We didn’t know what the alien’s reaction would be. We knew even then that we were no match for them if relations were to deteriorate. Soon though, it became obvious that we could never satisfy them and we started to say no. One of the documents that survived from then seems to indicate that in one meeting in the early forties, at least two of our men died as a dispute turned violent. What was frightening about that encounter was that the aliens never moved from where they were standing nor did anyone present see a weapon discharge.”
Brad interjected.
“Possibly a sign of telepathy used as a destructive force?”
One of the men who had been silent until that moment spoke. He had been introduced as Doctor Kevin Sharpel, a specialist in exobiology.
“We concurred likewise. It is not impossible that they are able to use their minds to kill.”
There was a moment of silence before Height continued. Brad could sense a chill of fear in each of their eyes. There was danger here. They were not just talking about the 1940s. Whatever happened then had definitely not gone away.
“Following this episode of violence, the aliens came back and requested peace.”
“Interesting. So this act of aggression against the two men could have simply been the result of an individual’s frustration towards humanity that might not have been shared by the majority of the aliens. The fact that they did apologize reveals that the murderous acts were impulsive and possibly sanctioned.”
Before Height could continue, Brad jumped in.
“Did we make peace?”
“Not at first, but they offered us one thing that we couldn’t refuse.”
“What was that?”
“The missing links of the atomic bomb that ended the war.”
Brad was momentarily stunned.
“But wasn’t that our invention?”
“Mostly yes, but some important details were handed to us by the aliens. It might have taken us another ten years if they had not interfered…and by the time, who knows how the war would have turned out?”
Brad nodded. Nothing that they could say to him now would surprise him.
“There is more. Following our deployment of the atomic bomb, the aliens came back and demanded more access to resources, including people. They threatened penalties if the contracts were not redesigned to their specifications. They even threatened to go public and it seems they menaced to rip the moon from our orbit.”
“What?”
“You heard right. They said they had the capability to drag the moon from the Earth’s orbit. We don’t know if this is true. Let me point out though, that it is feared that a few small islands in the south Pacific had been somehow eradicated and possibly taken away by these aliens. Maps before 1937 show the existence of three small inhabitable islands off the coast of Chile which are no longer present today. Or, on the other hand, the whole story about the moon could be a fabrication by the men at that time to justify our actions in 1947.”
The question begged to be asked.
“Why, what happened in 1947?”
Height exhaled slowly.
“Before I continue, there is one other thing worth mentioning which is important. In the early thirties, we were dealing with one crew of aliens whereas in the forties, we dealt with another group. The latter were more aggressive than their predecessors and we think that the former crew left with their cargo ship for home, possibly replaced by a more aggressive crew.”
Brad nodded as Height continued.
“The contact between our races did not seem to be too frequent after they had given us the atomic bomb. In 1947 though, they demanded a meeting with us. When we met, we demanded to see the others who we had negotiated with since they were not respecting the initial agreement. They said that they represented the mining corporation now and that the former group’s contract was no longer relevant. They wanted us to renegotiate the agreement. When we decided to break all discussions with them, they threatened to discuss with other governments of Earth. We had an accord in our contract that we represented the entire population of earth and any dealings had to be done only through us for the next one thousand years regardless of any subsequent negotiation between the two parties. In other words, if we couldn’t come to a new agreement, they had no right to negotiate with another government of Earth and whatever agreement was in place held as law until the new one was signed, if ever. When they threatened to break their word, we panicked. As the two ships were lifting off, we opened fire. We truly surprised them. We hit them by the ground and by the air with heavy artillery and with what were new technologies then that they were most probably unaware of. One ship plummeted to earth and lead to all those UFO rumors that persist to this day. The other ship escaped but seemed badly crippled by the visual accounts of that time. We have not had any contact with the aliens since that event in 1947.”
Brad absorbed the information. He tried putting himself in the shoes of those people back in 1947. He doubted he would have taken a different decision if he were present then. Aliens had become more or less a part of the culture nowadays. With books, television, and especially movies, people had come to accept the idea that there could be extraterrestrial life and that it could be benevolent. Even if it was hostile, there was that sense that man could resist, fight them and prevail. At that time, though, the idea of aliens was a relatively new concept. People still feared earthly monsters such as werewolves and vampires and these monsters, frightening as they were, had at least some sort of cultural roots. They were understandable; but aliens? What sort of terror was that? What could they do to man? As new fears were faced by a select few, it was comprehensible that they panicked and opened fire.
It was obvious that Height had finished speaking. They all looked at him as if waiting for his opinion. Brad hesitated before speaking.
“I imagine then that we recovered the fallen ship, and possibly the crew members. Alive?”
Their attention shifted back to Barker as he spoke.
“The ship was recovered, remarkably intact considering witnesses said it was shot down at a considerable height. We recovered three bodies, two of which were still alive. They both died within a week. Mind you, most of the account we have of these events come from a written summary made to the President at the time that had escaped destruction. Soon after that incident, everything was ordered destroyed for fear that the information could one day leak to the press and cause worldwide panic.”
Interesting as it was, there was something that was still not clear to Brad.
“Pardon my asking, but what has this to do with the Mars mission? I was lured here by one of your agents who made it clear that my coming here had something to do with the failed Mars mission.”
Barker nodded to the scientist.
“Before we get there, listen to what Sharpel has to say.”
Dr. Sharpel put on a small pair of glasses and shuffled his papers with impatience.
“Mr. Walsh, my group and I have been studying the recovered bodies for decades. One of the interesting discoveries we made is that their metabolism is extremely low. Their cell regeneration is incredibly slow, meaning that their cells are highly stable and very efficient. The cells we have grown in vitro don’t mutate. In o
ther words, there is no cancer in their society. Therefore, they must live very long lives, possibly tens of thousands of our years. This, of course is a conservative estimate. It could very well be they can live over one hundred thousand years.”
At this point, the fourth man of the group finally spoke. He was Dr. Franks, a physicist who was part of the team studying the spaceship.
“Which, if the case, would give them plenty of time to explore space even if they were to achieve only a tenth the speed of light.”
Brad nodded. Sirius for example, the star closest to the sun was just over four light years. At a tenth the speed of light it would take man forty years to reach it, half a lifetime. For an alien who lived, let’s say, forty thousand years, forty years would be like one month of a man’s lifespan.
Brad had a question for Dr. Sharpel.
“Do you know where they come from?”
“We don’t know, but we are fairly certain that they have cargo ships and that these ships are able to travel at least one tenth the speed of light. They have star charts on board which we analyzed and we believe we have cracked one of their routes. They have a complex star mapping system that we are not able to grasp yet. We have attempted to estimate the time it takes them to get from one star to another along this route and we concluded that a tenth the speed of light seems to be the average.”
Brad’s was starting to have a difficult time concentrating. This was all becoming complex.
“Still, the Mars mission….”
He wanted to know what had happened to Bob.
Barker cleared his throat.
“Remember the face on Mars a few years back we had photographed? Despite our efforts to keep it a secret, the photo leaked to the press. We finally were able to make the world believe that it was false and that it was simply a play of shadows. Well, it wasn’t. It was real. We always wondered where the second ship went and why they never came back. We are now convinced it crashed on Mars. The face was probably a sort of a rescue signal for the replacement crew.”
