The Inheritors of Earth

by Jerry Ahern

  A Marine Colonel stood up from the table, “Hold it Dr. Rourke, I am Colonel Donald A. Davenport, the lead member of this debriefing team and the first thing I want to know is how does a civilian have the authority to institute a Delta Red Condition, or for that matter even the knowledge of a Delta Red Condition. I know much about your history Sir and hold you in the highest regard; however, this is a military matter and I’m in charge here.”

  Rourke waved for the Lieutenant to sit down. Reaching into his back pocket, Rourke retrieved his wallet, thumbed through it for a minute then walked around the table and laid something in front of Colonel Davenport. Rourke knew he had to regain control and do it right now.

  “Colonel, I appreciate your regards but not your knowledge of me or my family. If you will notice Sir, this is a military identification card, just like the one you carry. If you will notice also Sir, it lists my rank as General. If you will further notice it carries the signature and seal of the President. That Sir means I am hereby ‘pulling rank’ on you; now here’s how we’re going to do this. Lieutenant Torquelson is about to brief you people on what happened. Then I’m going to show you some evidence. At that point you and your people may ask any questions you wish. Is that understood, Colonel?”

  The Colonel, after checking Rourke’s ID, nodded once and sat down, obviously not enthralled with having been dressed down but smart enough to know when he was outgunned. He flipped the card across the table to Rourke, who calmly smiled, picked it up and (rather enjoying the moment) took his time replacing it in his wallet. Then he turned to Lieutenant Torquelson and said, “LT, you have the floor.”

  The SEAL Team Commander took a deep breath and began to recite the briefing he had prepared on the flight. Rourke fumbled with the case closures, finally laying the two pieces of the water-proof case on the floor out of the way. Pulling the Sting 1A, he cut the seals of each bag individually and checked each layer of protection for moisture. He laid the intact camera on the table and asked one of the technicians to download the memory card and get the photos ready for display on the main screen.

  Torquelson finished his briefing; he saluted and sat back down. John Rourke stood, thanked the SEAL Commander and said, “Were it not for the SEALs under Lieutenant Torquelson’s leadership none of the rest of us would be here right now. Here is what we were fighting.”

  The first several shots were of the Captain Dodd clone with his hel met still on. “This environmental suit was completely impervious to the SEAL weapons. Unless the military has been holding back on me, neither the Russians, the Chinese nor us have this kind of technology. We have a new player in this game.” The next shot was of Dodd with the helmet removed.

  Michael spoke up, “I know him, that’s....” trying to first remember the face and then struggling to find an explanation. “That’s Dodd, one of the original Eden Project team, but he’s dead.”

  “Yes, it is Dodd and Dodd is dead, this has to be a clone. There is one more frame you have to see,” Rourke nodded to the tech to flash the last frame up on the screen. “This folks is a tattoo I found on Dodd’s chest. It took me only a moment to remember the last time I saw this design and it was the only time I’ve seen this design until now.”

  The crowd was murmuring trying to decipher the tattoo’s significance. Finally, Colonel Davenport stood up, “Doctor General Rourke, are you telling us that you declared a Delta Red Condition because of a tattoo? Sir I find that irresponsible.”

  Rourke slammed his hands down on the table and said softly and slowly, “Let me tell you something Mister. I have only seen this design one other time in my life and it was back before the Night of the War. I was on a special covert mission inside of what used to be Canada’s Arctic Circle. This design was on the belt buckle of a dead pilot whose craft had crashed. It was a craft of unique design and origin whose existence was never publicized. You could even say the craft had an out-of-this world design. It would also be fair to say that the craft and my mission were not ever acknowledged—they were covered up. You might also like to know that the dead pilot was as unique as his craft. In fact, Sir, he was an alien, he was an extra-terrestrial.” Rourke paused, never one who favored cursing, he believed it showed a lack of intellect and vocabulary, but in this instance... “He was a God-damn ET.”

  “I have no idea, zero, as to how this is happening. I have no idea what the connection is between a clone of Captain Dodd and that image. What I can tell you is; once there was a dead alien pilot. I saw his body with my own eyes, I took tissue samples. I took the belt buckle with that image on it and destroyed the craft following a gun battle with the Soviet KGB’s top UFO expert, Vassily Batrudinov and Russian Spenatz troops inside the Canadian Arctic Circle. What I can surmise is this; we have a dead clone of a man from the Eden Project. The Eden Project was on a five-hundred year mission in deep space, now the clone of a man from that mission attacks me and my wife off the coast of what used to be Egypt. Lastly, because of that damned tattoo, I believe the security of the world and the human race is in danger and that Colonel, that’s why I called the damned Delta Red Condition.” The room was silent.

  Michael turned to Natalia, her eyes were wide and she shook her head, no. Michael stood up and whispered in John Thomas Rourke’s ear, “Dad we have to talk.” John nodded.

  Chapter Ten

  The debriefing took another two hours. John and Emma checked in on Paula and told Paul and Annie as much as they could. Emotionally and physically drained they asked if it was okay for Paula and Timothy, who had been at a friend’s home playing video games, to spend the night. Once Paula was assured her parents were okay, she went to help Annie get the evening meal ready. Her job was to heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, mix in 2 cloves garlic, and cook 1 minute. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, half the oregano, and bay leaf, season with salt and pepper before bringing to a boil before reducing the heat and letting it simmer. Annie was responsible for the meat balls.

  John and Emma returned to their own home and after hitting the hot tub, Emma dabbed some medicinal cream on the scrape on John’s left knee cap, a by-product of the fight on the Desperado. They crashed. It was 8:15 the next morning before they were awakened by the doorbell.

  Michael and Natalia had brought breakfast. “Dad, I’m sorry to disturb you guys, but... Like I said, we need to talk.” John had slipped on jeans to answer the door; he hollered to Emma, “Michael and Natalia are here. They brought breakfast; we’ll be on the patio, would you bring some coffee?” A grunt and the rustling of bed clothes served as his answer. When Emma brought the carafe of coffee John was already munching on a croissant.

  Michael started his story. “Look, three days ago Natalia and I were summoned for a meeting with President Arthur Hooks and Vice-President Benjamin Richardson. The Presidential security detail apologized to us, but our personal weapons had to be temporarily surrendered.”

  Natalia spoke up, “I asked Michael, ‘If you win the Presidency, will you change that policy?’ and he said he would.” Rourke smiled and nodded.

  “Anyway, we met with the President and the Vice-President. The President felt that, if I run, I’d win, if for no other reason than I’m a Rourke. That said; he felt I needed to be brought up to speed on a few important points.”

  “Richardson asked,” Natalia filled in, ‘Perhaps Mrs. Rourke would care to join the President’s wife for tea or something.’ I had picked up my purse when Michael told the President that I really wasn’t all that fond of tea and, if I stayed, it would save him the trouble of remembering every single detail of the conversation which he would have to recount accurately to me. I sat down my purse.”

  “The President told Natalia and me that there are certain topics the opposition party, the Progressives, will hit me with, to catch me with my pants down, as it were.” Natalia smiled and brushed her hand against Michael’s arm. “Phillip Greene, the Progressive’s obvious candidate, has ‘fellow travelers’ who’ve insinuated themselves in
to sensitive positions and feed him information. Greene is trying to bring the government down, of course, change the system. Greene and the Progressives will hit me on recent incidents, anomalous occurrences talked about in the fringe press, but largely ignored in more traditional media—these included UFOs.”

  Natalia interrupted, “I asked, ‘What used to be called UFOs, Mr. President? We in Russia always took such reports far more seriously than the Americans, who, for some reason seemed bent on obscuring any details which could have proven enlightening. I should think in six hundred fifty years, if they’re still being reported, there might well be something to them.’”

  Michael took over, “The President explained that, in another few decades, The United States, in concert with New Germany, may well be able to enter space once again. But, to admit that there is even the possibility of extra-terrestrial visitation to Earth would be tantamount to saying that a very much technologically advanced potential adversary could come Earth and do as it pleases. This would put the recovering world population into a panic. I asked him, ‘So, there’s something to it, then?’ He said, ‘I didn’t say anything of the kind, Mr. Rourke.’”

  Natalia interrupted again, “I looked at the Vice-President, who had been watching me. I smiled and asked, ‘And, what was it you didn’t say, Mr. Richardson?’ He said, ‘We get things on radar, visuals our pilots spot, stuff like that. With commercial aviation starting to make a comeback, God only knows what people will think they see. This is not a cover up. We don’t really have hard data and we don’t want to alarm people.’”

  Michael took over, “The President says, ‘We’ll make sure you have access to the data Greene’s spies have stolen for him, plus a little more, so you’ll be prepared when you get hit with questions concerning the subject.’ Then I asked him, ‘What are some of the other points you want to discuss?’ Natalia told me later she was wondering if Bigfoot would be next… The President spoke again. ‘You know as well as I do, Mr. Rourke, that you’ll get our party’s nomination. You also know that the Progressive Party nominee will be Phillip Greene. He’s going to try to draw you out on anything and everything that could help him to discredit our party’s handling of the political reins for the last almost eighty years, long before anyone returned to the surface or even thought about it.’”

  Rourke had been listening intently, the croissant sat partially eaten on the plate. He stood and walked to the rail of the patio, silent for a moment. Fiddling with his watch pocket he pulled the Zippo; from his right front jean pocket he pulled the cigar case and selected one. Rourke flipped open the lighter and holding the tip of the cigar in the flame, he rolled it back and forth in the flame without puffing. When it was to his satisfaction he brought it to his lips and inhaled deeply. Slowly expelling the smoke, he suddenly turned and faced Michael, “Son,” he said between tight lips. “We’re being played.”

  When Michael and Natalia finally left, Emma called Paul and told them they were on the way to see their kids. “Paul, would it be okay if they stayed another night?”

  “Sure, if that is okay with them.”

  When they arrived at the Rubenstein home, Paula met them in the yard and after she physically checked her parents over for injuries and finding none, relaxed. Tim and John Michael played video games while Natalie and Paula locked themselves in Natalie’s bedroom to discuss “important girl stuff.” John, Annie and Paul went to the kitchen and Rourke caught them up on the happenings of the past few days.

  Paul, leaning against the counter top in the kitchen sipped his coffee. “John, what does all of this mean?”

  “I don’t know yet. I simply don’t know but it all makes me very uncomfortable. Dodd’s reappearance, more accurately the appearance of Dodd’s clone was unsettling enough. That he had that tattoo is even more unsettling.”

  Emma came in with Paula in tow. “John you need to listen to this, tell him Paula.”

  “I didn’t mean to get her in trouble. I had promised not to tell anyone and I broke my promise.”

  “What promise and to whom?” Rourke asked with concern.

  “Amanda, my roommate at school.”

  “What did she tell you?” Rourke listened with interest, finally interrupting. “Paula, can you call Amanda and have her come over here. I need to talk to her.”

  “Okay, but she’s going to be mad at me...”

  Rourke walked over, gave Paula a hug and said, “I’ll fix it Baby, I promise. Give her a call please.”

  Fifteen minutes later Amanda arrived in a Taxi, paid the driver, squared her shoulders and went up to the door to face... what. She didn’t know what. Before Amanda could ring the bell, Paula jerked the door open and began to apologize, “Amanda, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to mess up, forgive me.” That’s when Rourke hollered from the kitchen, “Amanda, come in here please. You’re not in trouble.”

  Amanda walked into the kitchen, obviously nervous and not sure if she was in trouble, but thought she might be. Rourke said, “Sit down Honey, you’re not in trouble but I do need to ask you some questions.” Amanda sat and with a little prompting from Rourke finally spilled out her story about the anomaly. The adults in the room sat silent.

  When Amanda finished, Rourke advised her to keep this meeting a secret until he had given her permission to speak about it with others. They called her another cab and Rourke paid for it. When she left Rourke dialed up his son Michael, “Are you and Natalia free right now? Good, I’m calling a family meeting at Paul’s; how soon can the two of you get here?”

  Thirty minutes later, the Rourke family sat in the living room. Rourke briefed Michael and Natalia on Amanda’s anomaly. “Here’s what I think happened. The anomaly reveals that, for a period of three terrestrial years, the Eden Project fleet remained stationary, unmoving in space. This is impossible, but the evidence appears to be incontrovertible. I surmise that, while the Eden Project personnel traveled in cryogenic sleep through the void of space, the ships were not only observed, but waylaid and visited by intelligent beings from another solar system, creatures far in advance of humankind. After the brief period of study, examination and experimentation, the Eden Project was sent along on its way.”

  “You’re thinking that was when Dodd was cloned?” Michael asked.

  “Had to have been, and probably not just Dodd—it may have involved more of the crew,” his father said. “They were cloned without their knowledge or consent and it could have gone on forever undetected if Amada’s research hadn’t noted the discrepancies and if the Dodd clone had not been killed in the attack on Emma and me.”

  Paul asked, “So what now? What do we do with this knowledge and information?”

  “That my friend is why I called this meeting,” Rourke said. “We have some decisions to make.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Had Rourke had the luxury of communicating with one of the aliens, he could have discovered that throughout the history of the galaxies, time had largely gone undefined and unmeasured; time had simply existed. Primitive species only had the capacity to deal with the present. They had no concept that time could be defined in three stages; the present, the past and the future. As a species developed, their sensory capacities increased and “memory” began to occur. Experience, anything in the present tense, could only become relevant with a memory; it was a survival tool enabling a species to remember what had caused pain and avoid it in the future.

  Still a primitive mind but a distinct improvement; should a species survive long enough, through evolution the concept of a future, a “tomorrow” could develop. It was a tool for development and planning, depending on the nature of the species, it could lead to growth, knowledge and expansion—or it could lead to death.

  One of the first races to develop the concept; learned that having the concept and being able to manage and control the concept was insufficient and almost wiped itself out. They eventually discovered that true strength lied in ‘strength of the mind.’ This was first demonstrated with a
comprehension of the two universal tools for advancement; communication and mathematics. Through these they became the first to also comprehend of and understand a fourth dimension of time—infinity.

  As their intellect increased they experienced several levels of evolution. First learning to tap into the resources of their own mental powers, the organ that humans (eons later) would call a brain, began to expand. As that intellect became more dominate and emotions began to subside, their physical bodies became less and less relevant. Sensing replaced hearing, telepathic communication replaced the need for external ears and vocal cords. Mentally controlling the bodies, their life expectancy increased to the point that reproduction was no longer necessary for the continuation of their species; sexual organs atrophied and eventually disappeared.

  Unfortunately, they existed as a singularity, no other race they encountered could compare with them. Their insatiable quest for more and more knowledge propelled them through the dark voids of space, constantly seeking stimulation by contact with others. Inevitably, the species they encountered had no more in common with them than single cell organisms. Occasionally, however, they discovered a spark of intellect they could study and investigate. During this period a metaphor for communication and first contact had been developed. The mathematical symbol for pi π with the superimposition of the symbol for infinity ∞ served to open communication.

  Pi is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

  Infinity is a reality that can be conceived only by an advancing intellect. This symbol often opened the door for investigation and study but less advanced cultures often did not wish to be investigated or studied and saw their strange visitors as threats or potential conquerors. Millions of the small physical unimposing visitors were slaughtered by lesser beings when they simply appeared individually on strange planets. Eventually, the visitors realized their numbers had drastically been depleted and their very race was in danger of extinction; yet, their quest for knowledge remained insatiable.