Timelines

by Bob Blink

  “We could show them the complex,” came the objection.

  “Yes, we could,” I admitted. “But even neglecting the consequences of that action, getting government support here would still take time. It will divert a significant part of our limited resources that should be used in getting ready and examining the data we have available to us. If our claims were granted enough credibility to warrant an inspection team, that would probably take at least a couple of weeks from the time we first attempted to approach the government. How long do you think it would take to make them believe what we have is real? All this time we would be on our own. We had better be ready to defend on our own during that time. If we can defend it ourselves that long, why not indefinitely? My gut tells me we don’t have much more time than a month, but I could be wrong.”

  “I’m sure there’s a way to make it happen quicker,” came the doubtful reply.

  “Maybe,” I conceded. “And how would they see the threat? All we have is video of a few aliens. They don’t look particularly threatening. We have had years to get used to the possibilities. We have seen a bit of their technology, as well as some of our own future capabilities. The government and military will examine this threat based on their experience with other human threats. They are going to be as interested in studying what we have found as defending it. In fact, they will probably err on the side of protecting the hardware. I cannot see them mounting more of a defense than we can put into position ourselves. We have to win the first battle,” I reminded them. “Lose the control room, and as we said earlier, the aliens will be able to isolate us.”

  Carol jumped back into the conversation. “Let’s talk a bit about the implications bringing in the government at this point.” She looked at the audience. There were only a handful that were uncertain. The rest obviously felt the same as those of us on the front stage. “Once the government and military are here, they will own the facility. From that point on. They will not help us, then go away after the threat is removed, assuming that ever happens. All of us will become secondary participants, if we are allowed to continue even in that role for very long. They will want our knowledge and expertise, but only until they have brought their own team up to speed. After all, we kept it from them for years. Why should they trust us once they no longer need us.” Reactions by the audience were predictable, as various people realized they could be cut off from the task to which they had dedicated a large part of their lives.

  “Why are we all here?” she asked rhetorically. “It’s because we feel the importance of finding out what the purpose of this complex is. Now may be the best window of doing that we will ever have. Do you think that priority will be shared by the government? With the same urgency? Of course not,” she answered for them. “Most of us have worked for the government for many years in our various consulting roles. The initial focus will be on establishing the new leadership, with all of the turf wars we typically see between the various government agencies. There will be weeks of confusion as different sets of priorities are raised and evaluated. I wouldn’t be surprised to see several different leaders put in charge during the first few months. And, of course, there will be the red tape and committees to oversee every step of the way,” she added.

  We had all seen the inefficiencies and bureaucracy associated with government programs. Decisions would be based on budget considerations, philosophy differences, turf battles, risk assessment, and personal opinion. And during this time, our group would be prohibited in taking any action we didn’t get prior approval for.

  Carol continued. “I can see an environment in which the new team leadership doesn’t appreciate the risks and just how high the stakes really are. After all, how quickly can they be expected to come up to speed? Decisions need to be made now. They won’t have months of time to learn as we did. We all know how reluctant these people can be to taking outside advice. There will even be groups within the government who believe we should consider contact with the aliens before taking any aggressive action. If such a course were taken, the battle could be lost before it even starts. If the aliens wanted to interact with us, they have had centuries to take that step. It hasn’t happened.”

  She took a deep breath, and then added as a reminder. “Don’t forget what we would be handing over. When we decided to start this effort, we all agreed the risk of putting the power and temptation of this device to any government was ill advised. We are talking about taking an action that would ultimately do just that.”

  It was time to give them a bit more to think about. “Consider the implications if we win this first battle with the aliens,” I suggested.

  “If we win?” came the question.

  “”When we win the first battle, hopefully we will have access beyond that sealed door, and have more of an idea what we are facing longer term. At that time we will have reached another decision point where we have to determine again what our best course of action will be. We can’t expect the conflict will all end after we face down the small un-expecting group that will be coming back to check on the new tunnels. The failure of that team to return to wherever they came from most likely will trigger a bigger response. At that time we may be facing a threat even the military would have to take seriously.”

  I could tell many of them had not considered anything beyond the initial conflict. “But we really don’t have much choice,” I reminded them. “We have to hope that the time we gain buys us the time and opportunity to learn enough we can decide on appropriate responses. I see a period of some very tough decisions coming our way. The decisions need to be based on knowledge. It may become necessary to try and destroy the complex. But will it do any good? Would the aliens just build another facility, which we wouldn’t have access to, thereby leaving us even worse off? Our task has to be to try and learn what their goals are and how to be certain their influence is permanently removed. It may not be possible to do all of that,” I said.

  A voice I didn’t expect to hear in this meeting took the floor. “What they are saying is true,” Jeff Cohen said loud enough for everyone to hear. A few people looked at him doubtfully, knowing his status and wondering why he was speaking out. “Getting the government and the military to take you seriously enough to take appropriate actions isn’t going to be easy. Or timely. Especially after some of the events of the past year. Right now there are some people within the government that are wondering about the events surrounding the year long disappearance of Kurt Morris and his sudden return and death. His odd claims, the games with the hidden coded files that embarrassed certain groups have not gone over well. You aren’t directly tied to that. None the less, should you come forward with the claims you would have to make about this place, you can be certain some people in high places are going to wonder if this is just more of the same. The military has a long history of doubt when it comes to aliens. Some of you should know of their position regarding flying saucers and alien sightings. It’s going to be a very hard sell at the top levels.”

  “How would you know what the military thinks?” asked one of the men standing close to Jeff.

  “Because that’s whom I really work for,” he said turning to look at me. “I’m in military intelligence and covert operations. One thing our group does is track missing people and government leaks.”

  Oh shit I thought. I wonder how much he passed back to headquarters along the way before we brought him here. At least this helped explain some of the inconsistencies I had seen in his role as a flunky for Agent Williams. Perhaps it also explained why he stuck with the man when he had started taking extreme actions. But why is he helping us out here?

  Jeff continued with his own assessment of the time to really get military support on board, which matched ours fairly well. He indicated it would take a month, perhaps a little less if he was able to participate, which he expected wouldn’t be happening. Even with his input, the military would have significant doubts and would have to check the validity of what we presented to them. Either wa
y, it would take long enough to get them involved we needed to be prepared on our own. With that, he smiled, and turned the floor back to us.

  In the end, it was almost unanimous that we would proceed as planned. Only two of the people felt we should start moving forward with the government against the chance they would be needed later. They agreed to put together a plan for making an approach, which they would bring to us in a couple of days. Mike noted to me later he would have appropriate measures put in place so that their actions could be monitored against the chance they might try to expose us officially on their own.

  The final order of business was to discuss the relocation plan. A reduced team would remain at the base. Everyone staying was a volunteer, and more wanted to stay than we needed. Teams were made up for each of the period offices, again on a volunteer basis. The rest of the team would be headed back home, with the bulk of the displaced people being sent to the Canadian facility. That would eliminate the need to explain the sudden appearance of people at the Seattle office. It would also allow active work to continue.

  Each of the teams would have a complete set of records. In the event contact was lost with the center, they were to assume we had lost the encounter and should take appropriate actions to make the data as public as possible. It might make it difficult for the aliens to continue their activities, although more than likely all claims would be dismissed. The home team would attempt to contact the government, but without access to the complex to validate the claims, it was unlikely they would be believed. Still, there was no harm in trying. Some of the materials were pretty convincing.

  As people dispersed, going back to their assigned tasks and packing for those being relocated, I went in search of Jeff. He and I needed to talk.

  Chapter 32

  Time Complex

  Effective Date: Thursday, 14 September 2006

  I was amazed at the changes ten days of dedicated effort had produced. The control complex had been a beehive of activity twenty-four hours a day since the conclusion of the meeting the other day. Mike and his security team continued to work on their defensive preparations, while John and his team continued their efforts to unravel the secrets behind the alien computer and control systems. The contrast between the activity here in the center and the normally busy base was striking. For the first time in many years the base seemed nearly deserted. A skeleton crew remained on hand, mostly those on Mike’s team. A small group of John’s people had elected to stay and work as well, due mostly to the availability of the powerful analytical tools located there. It wasn’t going to be possible to move that equipment on short notice.

  Both Naiya and Carol were off on projects. I had to admit I was uncomfortable with the situation. It made sense to have us spread across different time zones, but I still had the small concern in the back of my mind that we could easily end up cut off from one another. The relocations were almost complete, thanks to Naiya’s organizational skills. People had chosen based on interest, project need, and family commitments. The two largest teams were in Canada and in the Roman office. The tunnel room had been filled with people coming and going the last couple of days, but that had ended now. Naiya was currently on site at the Roman office making last minute adjustments and accommodations. It was surprising how many people had demonstrated an interest in relocating to that time. It had been necessary to acquire additional facilities in another part of town to house everyone. In the end, we had elected not to follow-up on Al’s suggestion to set up a base far uptime. There wasn’t sufficient time to put an infrastructure in place to properly support a team of people. Two of the more rugged adventurer’s had elected to set up a small camp for a couple of weeks, but it was as much a desire to explore a bit rather than anything official.

  Carol was uptime again. She had been bringing back more of the computers that were being taken to the various sites with copies of all the information we had gathered over the years. Each of the three sites was to be as complete and independent as possible in the event one or more became isolated. She was also making a last run at bringing back items that would support our planned stand against the aliens. Over the years she had investigated technology that could be adapted as a weapon. The large plasma boring tool that was being mounted opposite the multi-frequency laser was an example. It was a last ditch weapon, as the heat generated would be incredible, and would force everyone out of the complex if it was ever activated. As powerful as the device was, it had been unable to burn through the thicker plate of alien steel. I noted that each team member had a special vacuum suit that would form fit to the body in the even of a loss of pressure. The suits only had a limited air supply, but would provide protection enough in the event of a breach that led to vacuum.

  I was here this morning to meet with John, who had asked me to come by. He had been making progress, and wanted to show me what they had learned. I continued past the control center back into the lab where John and two of his key computer people, Cindy and Bill, were gathered around one of the computers. I was a bit surprised that more of his people weren’t present today. For the past couple of days the room had been the gathering place for most of his team. Cindy and Bill had were his top two assistants, and had been a part of the project essentially from the day John came on board. I knew he relied on them for a large part of the task coordination, as well as key analytical tasks.

  As I walked towards them, unnoticed for the moment because of the animated discussion they were involved in, I was amazed to see the computer in front of them was activated. They had discovered the secret! It had to be. None of the computers in this room had been activated by the alien’s visit. Cindy, a somewhat plain looking blond, noticed me out of the corner of her eye as I approached, and tapped John on the shoulder. He looked my way and grinned.

  “You did it!” I exclaimed filled with hope at the progress. This is something we had worked on and hoped would be possible for years.

  “No,” he responded. “Cindy and Bill did it,” he corrected me. “They figured it out the other day, and that has opened up more than you can imagine.”

  He was filled with enthusiasm, but looked tired. I was willing to bet none of them had slept more than a few hours a night for days, if that. Before I could ask any questions he pointed to the chair next to him and said, “Sit, and let me show you what we have here.”

  I slid into the chair, and rolled it over next to him. The others crowded around behind the two of us as John began his explanation. “We started with the tapes we recorded during the visit. The techs are still trying to clean up the recordings of the conversations between the aliens as they made their way down the tunnel. The pickup wasn’t that good, and the recordings are noisy enough that the translator isn’t responding well. The recordings taken in the control room are quite good. The video tapes were cleaned up by the techs, and they were able to provide a lot of detail as well.”

  John was headed somewhere with this, but I wasn’t quite sure where as yet. “Somehow you must have been able to see what was done to turn on the computers,” I said, indicating the illuminated screen in front of me.

  “We could see his actions at the terminal clearly, but for the first day when we tried to mimic his actions, nothing happened. Cindy had been studying the sound tapes carefully, running the recordings through the translator, and trying to connect sounds to action. When she noted that movements and sound were synchronized, it seemed that verbal commands might be tied to the physical actions. We attempted to translate the sounds being made at the time the computer was activated, but the device wasn’t giving us anything in English.”

  “Then how did you figure this out?” I asked.

  “Cindy, why don’t you demonstrate what you found?” John suggested.

  She moved over to the inactive computer to the left of us. “We found that the aliens often used a combined physical and vocal input. Actually, the majority of the input appears to be vocal. That probably makes sense when the language is composed of thousands of
discrete symbols rather than letters.” Placing one finger of her left hand on the center key, she pressed a button on the face of an audio playback device. A series of grunts and growls came from the device, and the screen came suddenly to life. “Simple as that,” she said with satisfaction.

  I looked at the keyboard, which now glowed with faint colored symbols. Once again I wondered if the odd colors we saw might be a reflection of the range of colors the alien’s might see with their multi-eye vision. The screen in front of me had come to life as well, and was divided into several sections. Along the bottom appeared to be an operator interaction window, with a copy of the glowing keyboard in the lower right corner. Along the top was a thin window that extended across the full width of the screen, with a variety of symbols spread across the top. The symbols in the left most group was slowly changing. I raised my hand to point.

  Bill saw the movement and anticipated my question. “Time, in their system of measurement,” he said. “That will be useful in tracking some of the dates recorded in the notes and see how long ago some of the actions actually occurred.” Up to now we had no idea in what time frame any of the alien events had really happened.

  The center section of the screen was currently filled with an odd graphic, and a thin flashing orange rectangle in the center. This had to be the work area, and I assumed they had found their way past this entry screen.

  John pointed to the graphic of the keyboard. “This is what had us confused for so long,” he indicated. “Watch as I touch the center control.”

  He tapped the large central button lightly, and the set of symbols changed. “We wondered if the keyboard responded to chemical, or electrostatic contact for a while.” He picked up a pencil and tapped the center button a second time. The set of symbols changed yet again. “We found that while the ‘key’ is fixed, it is sensitive to pressure. Nothing more sophisticated than that, but it doesn’t respond unless the computer is activated as we demonstrated. He tapped the key a number of times in succession. Each time, a different set of symbols appeared. “We have been able to translate a number of the symbols. All of the mathematical manipulation symbols are represented, and well as symbols to control input positioning on the main screen, and graphic input. Many of the symbols that appear don’t translate into English. There are a dozen possible different ‘sets’, and then they repeat again.”