by Kurt Winans
“Oh getting on as they say. What can I do for you?”
“I’m checking on the progress of your engineering team. You know that they are working on the last element of phase two for the lifeboat, and it needs to be completed before we can move forward.”
“Yes indeed. Well let me go check on that for you, and we will get back in touch soon.”
With that the screen went blank, and Janet felt yet another level of frustration. The young boy seated next to her said, “I can contact Crewe again if you want me to. Then at least when he comes back we will already be connected.”
“That would be great, and thanks.”
When the administrator entered the room, the smiles on the faces of the engineering collective should have been evidence sufficient to answer Janet’s inquiry, but he somehow missed it. Then he said, “Janet in Dripping Springs has been in contact with me again, so how’s it coming along?”
The oldest of the group, knowing well of the young administrators short coming replied, “I will talk to her for you if you would like. We have some good news for her. This model that we have just completed will work better than any of the previous versions.”
A short time later Janet received the report from the young lady via the communication screen, and she responded with, “That’s good to hear, and I have faith in your collective abilities. I’m sure that it will suit our needs.”
“Thank you.”
“Now, how soon can you get the machinery loaded onto your shuttle? Hank has informed me that assembly of the added propulsion system is waiting for the final segment of the hull to be sealed. That can’t begin until all of the internal machinery and hardware has been placed within. In short, we can’t move forward until the Crewe delivers your payload!”
“I understand Janet, and I’m sorry if we have slowed things down a bit. I will have some of my colleagues load the hydroponics system onto the shuttle straight away, and then I’ll ask the pilot to launch as soon as he is ready.”
With that the new hydroponics system was moved onto a nearby version of the SST, and transported to the awaiting shuttle. The pilot of the Crewe, trained by Hank, was waiting eagerly for them. He played it off as if he was unaware, but Janet had already telepathically informed him that the payload was coming his way. He watched as they loaded the machinery aboard, and then he began his pre-flight checklist.
Several hours later, while visualizing a fully deployed solar sail array from his hovering position aft of the lifeboat, Hank received a projection from his former Mayan student. The man had been a major asset during the assembly of the hull and docking clamps, and was now proving that he had been the correct choice as a candidate to pilot the shuttle for his population center. Now on his third flight up with cargo from the former British Isles, he was reporting that the Crewe had just passed through the upper atmosphere and would arrive at the lifeboat shortly.
After maneuvering toward one of the vacant docking clamps, Hank then suited up for another walk within the still non-atmospheric confines of the hull. When the cargo from the Crewe was brought through the only opening that remained in the mainframe, Hanks reaction was one of bewilderment. He then asked, “What is this thing?”
His student responded verbally, “I have been informed that this is the new and improved version of the hydroponics system.”
Hank was amazed, and although he didn’t doubt that the information he had just been given was what had been conveyed to the Mayan pilot, he quickly projected to Janet, “Hey mom. Are the engineers from Crewe on the level with what they have just delivered?”
“What do you mean?”
“The payload that they sent us must be incomplete.”
“Well I’m told it’s the new and improved hydroponics system. Why? There’s not some problem with it is there? Was it damaged during transit?”
“No. It’s not broken or damaged as far as I can tell, and your words do echo those of the Mayan pilot who delivered the payload.”
“Well then what is it Hank?”
“It’s just that the machinery is so much more compact than any other version that I have seen before.”
“Well I suppose that would be a good thing given the amount of space available in the lifeboat. Besides, they claim it will be better than any model before it, and I don’t really care about the size of the machine as long as it works!”
“That’s true. But what if it doesn’t produce enough output, or worse, doesn’t work at all? In that event maintaining our food supply would become an even bigger challenge than we had originally thought.”
A few months later, with several more missions behind him, Hank moved back inside the Dripping Springs. He was quite pleased with the work that had just been completed, as the last pair of the six solar sails and their accompanying boom and mast structures were now fully connected to the lifeboat. The men and women who had performed the task had done an excellent job, and had earned the right to revel in their success. Installing this most recent pair had definitely been the easiest of the six, and Hank was glad to have it that way. As the most forward set, they would be positioned on the hours of the clock from ten through twelve, and twelve through two once they were deployed. That also meant that their respective booms and masts wouldn’t require retraction before landing on Mars.
While waiting for his three construction crewmates to return to the shuttle and relax, Hank decided to practice with his long range telepathic ability. On previous missions he had always communicated with those working on constructing the lifeboat, or others such as Janet or Kristyn on the planet surface below. Although he had projected with the alien on several occasions while resting between missions in Dripping Springs, Hank now finally had the opportunity to communicate with his friend while in orbit. With a determined focus that his mother Janet had instilled upon him throughout her many lessons of telepathy, Hank projected, “Can you hear me out there?”
Nothing came back, so he tried again, “Hello my alien friend, this is Hank. Can you hear me?”
The response was then quick, and showed a measure of good humor that may have been learned while sharing a friendship with Ross. The alien projected, “It has always been my practice to never respond to a human unless they identify who they are first, but yes Hank, I can hear you. Oh and by the way, stop screaming at me.”
After a slight laugh, Hank replied “Sorry about that.”
“It’s alright Hank, besides it shows me that you have been practicing. Your projection strength is much better than when we last communicated.
“Thanks.”
“Is there something that I can help you with?”
“Perhaps, I mean, I don’t really know.”
Having observed Hank upon occasion throughout his short human lifespan, it was known that he was rarely, if ever, at a loss for words or direction of his thoughts. That trait had continued as Hank developed his ability to project, so the alien sensed that something was distracting the young man. He then projected, “You seem troubled Hank. What’s on your mind?”
“Well, as we move closer and closer to our planned departure from Earth, I have been thinking about all that has transpired since you brought us here.”
“That would seem to be normal for your species.”
“Yes it is, but those memories reminded me of a place that a few of us visited with Ross and a possibility that I raised at that time. Although I forgot about it for several years, the thought of it has resurfaced lately. I was wondering if perhaps you could help me to know the truth.”
“I understand, so what was this possibility that you are referring to?”
“When my father discovered the exhibit for Ross in the Cheyenne Mountain museum complex, and that some of the items within the display had been donated by members of Ross’s family who had survived the apocalypse, I wondered if there might be someone within the population of new Earth who had descended from those survivors. In essence, did we have a distant relative living among us?”
“And you seek the answer to that question now?”
“Well, yes. Can you help me with that?”
“Are you sure that you want to know?”
“Sure, what harm could it do?”
“Alright, then yes I can help you Hank. You did indeed have a distant relative who descended from Ross and his wife Patty. As only one of their offspring had offspring of their own, that daughter was the root of the modern day citizen whom you seek.”
“Well that’s cool, but you said that I did have a distant relative. Is that person dead now?”
“Yes Hank. I’m sorry, but she is. She died several years ago at the hands of the virus.”
“She died. That’s a shame; I would have liked to have met her and, if possible, become friends.”
“But you did know her Hank, and you were friends. In fact, you met her for the first time on the day that you arrived.”
“I did? You mean that she was right here in Dripping Springs all the time and Ross never knew it? Who was she?”
“Her name was Tori Nobles.”
Janet initiated telepathic contact with her alien friend again, as she needed additional guidance. She, although not entirely alone in the endeavor, was laboring over the most difficult decision that any supposed leader could face. How Janet would address the all-encompassing question of another person’s life versus their death could not be taken lightly, but for the vast majority of the population, that question had already been answered. The inevitable outcome of death that awaited every member of the human species had, at least on Earth, been accelerated as a consequence of the virus. She could still hope to do something for the children of the world though, but Janet felt uneasy about what fate awaited some of those who were not yet infected.
Although the lifeboat construction was now only a few months away from completion, there remained the taxing question of who would be on the passenger manifest. There simply wasn’t enough room for every one of the children who were still free of the virus, so unfortunately, some of them would need to be left behind. Those unlucky souls would then contract the virus and eventually perish. Janet pondered that quandary, and the unusual twist in the odyssey that Hank had learned from the alien, as she had recently replaced yet another youthful administrator that had fallen prey to the virus. In so doing, she had assumed the position that had once belonged to Tori, who was her own descendant of more than twenty-six centuries and countless generations.
In seeking the advice from her alien friend, Janet then projected quite plainly, “This is the most horrific of decisions that I have ever been made to be part of. How can I possibly decide which of the children of my species should not be given at least a fighting chance of survival?”
Having listened to Janet’s quandary, her longtime alien friend then experienced a feeling of sympathy toward her. The magnitude of her question was perhaps unequaled for any species, and the solution of such was rarely an easy one. He projected, “I understand that this current challenge is most difficult for you and other members of your species to fully comprehend, but focus remains the primary necessity when searching for the answers to your plight.”
At that point Janet lost her cool, and she was hopeful that her projection toward the alien would be heard with the same volume and frustration with which it was intended. In Janet’s mind she screamed, “I’m getting really tired of being told that I need to focus! I have been doing everything that I can to rectify this never ending problem from the beginning, and every time that I come to a stumbling block, all you can project at me is, stay focused! I’m starting to realize that Ross had it easy. Both times that he was faced with relocating a segment of the population; all that he needed to do was figure out who wanted to go along with him. He was never faced with the question of who he had to leave behind to die. So I say enough of the need for me to focus already, what I really need is some help!”
Realizing that she was nearing the breaking point, the alien knew that he needed to tread lightly. If Janet went over the edge, then the entirety of the plan to save this portion of humanity could fall apart. He projected, “I realize that you are facing the most difficult of decisions regarding the youth of your species, and it’s true, on the relocation from ₹-593-Ԅπ-2-2 back to this world Ross was only searching for those who wished to make the journey. If it will help you Janet, then rest assured that the thriving population of humans back on that moon remains both vibrant and healthy. Your species as you knew it during the time of your youth on this world, and on that moon, will continue to prosper, and at least for the foreseeable future, is safe from total extinction. As to the first of Ross’s relocation efforts to that moon from this world, he faced many decisions that were just as difficult, or more so, as those that you face now. There were literally billions of your species who initially thought him to be insane when he spoke of a pending asteroid that could destroy this planet, and how he learned of it from me. It required true strength of character for Ross to look beyond that and orchestrate a plan that would ensure at least a portion of those same people could survive. One aspect of why he could sustain the extreme weight and burden of that time in your history was due to being a product of you. You need to give him credit for standing up to the daunting challenges that confronted him, and then give yourself some credit for passing on your wisdom and other gifts to him.”
“But because of your species intervention, I wasn’t even around for much of Ross’s life. I don’t understand how I could have passed on any of my so called gifts to him?”
“You can understand it Janet, if you will just allow that process to transpire. Unfortunately in order for you to move forward, you would be required to do something that you have little desire to do at this time.”
“Oh, let me guess. Stay focused right?”
“Please Janet. I’m trying to help.”
After a moment of self-reflection, and collection, Janet projected, “Alright, thanks for letting me know that those of my species still on that moon are thriving. It’s good news, really. But my concern now rests with those of us here.”
“That’s what I’m trying to help you with. I would like you to stop thinking in terms of how your human society would have looked at the situation before the apocalypse or anytime in the centuries preceding that event. It won’t help you to think of those on ₹-593-Ԅπ-2-2 either, as they would handle things in much the same way. Although your modern colony there has been somewhat integrated with those from a previous time within the human evolution, it provides no guarantee that they have adapted to the same mindset of those earlier cultures. Some of them may have viewed this situation that you now confront in a more pragmatic way. Your species on this world has evolved in many ways since the century of your birth, and now you, and others, have begun phasing your kind into a greater leap forward. Unfortunately you are still looking at it from the perspective of everyone needing to survive in order to obtain that progression. Your personal understanding of the true meaning as to who among your species must live, as opposed to who among you might perish, is far more important with regard to the evolutionary shift and the accompanying advancement that awaits each of your survivors.”
Janet had listened intently to all that had been conveyed by the alien, but had not regained her focus. Then she curtly replied, “So when all is said and done, it boils down to nothing more than the law of the jungle.”
“I do not understand what you mean by that Janet. What is this law of the jungle that you speak of?”
“It’s an old Earth term. It means that only the strong will survive, and the weak must perish?”
“There could be a measure of truth to that belief, but for each and every species within the universe I suppose that would depend largely on interpretation.”
“Well our species doesn’t work that way. The strong don’t always survive, and the weak don’t always perish.”
“Fair enough, but you know that those of you that are still alive here on Earth will need to addre
ss that fate in some respect very soon. So at the risk of upsetting you again, I ask you to stay focused. I just provided you with another clue, so I want you to think about who within your human contingent, upon this world only, are special above the rest, and why?”
As if that question hadn’t already become a significant aspect of her everyday thinking during recent months, Janet allowed it to swim around in her cranium once again. The answer to the aliens question became a growing list, and as someone who had always been rather humble, she resisted the necessity of adding her own name to that select group. Then she began with, “So the twenty-one Mayans are special.”
“That’s true, but why?”
“Well for several reasons I think, but it starts with their immunity and then goes to their ability to receive and project telepathically. Beyond that, the fact that they are adults would make them special in our dwindling population.”
“All that is true Janet, but there is another reason that we will get to in a minute that is just as important. Now, who else do you know that will be important to your future?”
“I suppose for nearly the same reasons, the five of us who were long term abductees. We don’t possess immunity, but the virus has become stagnant in all of us.”
“Yes indeed. Now Janet, follow a similar line of logic to those that you have mentioned, and then identify who else would be added to your list?”
“Well, although they are both just young adults at this point, Hank and Kristyn do possess the same attributes of immunity and two way telepathy as was mentioned with the Mayan’s.”
“That’s true. So is there anyone else?”
Janet then, as had been done many times before, pondered the thought. It was only when she accessed the content of their current conversation and the involvement of Ross that it suddenly came to her. She then projected, “Well if I were to remain focused as you so often desire, then I would have to say that Ross had something to do with it.”
