The Cocoon Trilogy

by David Saperstein

  “Yes, Mr. DePalmer. The future. I believe you will. Good-bye.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO – WHY WE GO

  “We are aliens!” Ben Green spoke to his nine group commanders. His wife, Mary, the Perlman’s, the Finley’s, Bernie Lewis, Betty Franklin, Aunt Rose Charnofsky and Frank Hankinson had all been programmed as the Antareans promised.

  “Alien is a strange word to use.” Mary told her husband.

  “Alien is an alien word,” Alma Finley responded. “I understand so much now. What was strange before is no longer strange, but truth. I cannot conceive of any life form as alien.”

  “Yes. It is only life,” Joe Finley added. “But, we’re not of this planet anymore.”

  Frank Hankinson stood and walked to the center of the processing room. “I feel as though...” He searched for words.

  “As though you don’t belong here?” Betty asked.

  “No. As though I never belonged to one place. I feel a part of something much larger.”

  Aunt Rose spoke. “We did belong here once, and I for one, will not forget how it was. But now we are grown.”

  Bess touched Art on the neck, close to the place where Beam had made the final incision. “And we will grow even more! Isn’t it wonderful?”

  Ben stood and surveyed the empty room. “How long ago all this began, or so it seems.”

  The new commanders understood.

  “It’s time,” Ben said. “Amos is ready. The boats are approaching.”

  Without another word, the commanders of the Geriatric Brigade left the room that had changed their lives forever.

  Only the last words of nine hundred forty-one lives, meticulously transcribed and recorded for their families and loved ones remained with instructions that what had happened remain a secret. In those messages were the new perspectives about life and future. Messages from a new race to one that must develop or perish. Individuals speaking a one - asking that which any human could ask of another – love, peace, respect, freedom, caring, equality. They had come from many parts of the country, each with a personal, final reason; that special desire that gave them the courage to journey into the unknown.

  Many wrote to those they loved about love. Extra words and thought were for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. With their new awareness they knew the potential of a child’s mind. They encouraged to reach, to touch a place that would grow that mind beyond the narrowing influence of adults.

  Is it curious that they came so readily? As we grow old, they wrote, you understand a great deal more about potential ... human potential. You know the value of life and the wonderful gift that it carries. You have patience, even as you are discarded by the younger who wish to be among the more “beautiful” people. We are a race which finds aging too painful a reminder of what we will become.

  If one voice could speak for all of them, it would say, simply: “We have done this to help our fellow beings elsewhere because we were set aside from doing that here. And, because they asked, and because we are needed.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE – UNWELCOME PURSUIT

  Jack kept the stern of the Manta III tight to the right side of the dock. Terra Time, now captained by Arnie Fischer, berthed on the left. The Razzmatazz, with Phil Doyle on the flying bridge, snuggled close in behind him.

  “My God!” Judy Simmons exclaimed. “Is that Mr. Green? What happened to his head?”

  “He’s a commander now,” Jack told her with a hushed respect in his voice. “They are all commanders.”

  Amos and Beam met the group of ten commanders at the top of the path. They all touched and gathered for a moment. This is good, Amos Bright thought to all of them. What we have done here will always be remember. Now let us go home.

  They walked slowly toward the dock.

  Tony Stranger stood next to Ralph Shields on the deck of the Razzmatazz watching the procession approach. They had both been hired by Jack to run the Antares complex under the firm supervision of Mr. DePalmer. “This was worth being locked up for weeks. What a story! Look at them.”

  Shields was concentrating on trying to recognize the previous tenants of the Antares condominiums. He felt as though was walking a delicate line between reality and a dream world.

  Sandy touched Arnie’s arm. “Oh, look at them. Aren’t they glorious?”

  “Special. I feel very special to be here. To see this.” He told his wife. He put his arm around her and held her close.

  The tranquil moment was suddenly broken by the crackle of Phil Doyle’s radio and the simultaneous sound of Madman’s chopper as it swooped over the pool and hovered over the dock. “Hey, you guys down there. Better haul ass now. This place is crawling with cops. They’re coming in from all sides. They’re armed and look like they mean business.”

  All the pieces had finally come into place for Detective Sergeant Cummings. The bus went to the Antares complex. The owner of the nursing home lived at the Antares complex. There had been mysterious assaults at the Antares complex. The owners of the Antares complex had just sold the place, or actually had given the place away to a charter-boat captain. It took two days for all the information to filter through to Cummings, and then three hours to get a judge to issue the court order. Now he was here in force to bust the largest kidnapping ring in the history of the state of Florida...or so he thought!

  As he came over the hill running in the direction of the helicopter, he saw the three charter boats, in single file, with engines at full throttle, moving away up Red Lake Canal toward the main channel. He keyed his radio.

  “Betters,” he called to his partner, “You in the canal yet?” A voice crackled back from the police boat at the mouth of the canal. “Roger, Sarge. We have it covered.”

  “Okay, watch it. There are three boats coming out at high speed.”

  “I see them.”

  The radio crackled and then let out a high-pitched hum so ear shattering that sergeant Cummins had to turn it off.

  Farther up the canal, one very expensive police launch inexplicably beached onto a beautifully manicured lawn, crossed it, and stopped in a swimming pool.

  “You did that rather well,” Amos complimented Ben Green.

  “We all did it, Amos,” Ben answered. “But I don’t think that’s the last we will see of the police.”

  Sergeant Cummings was back at his car on the radio to the Coast Guard. He described the boats and the chopper. He then called for another police launch to meet him at the municipal dock in Coral Gables. He didn’t know what happened to Betters and the patrol boat, but he suspected that it was out of action.

  As they cleared the seawall and last jetty to the open ocean, Madman Mazuski called in again. “They’re on to us, Phil. I can hear the Coast Guard on the radio. They’ll be in the air in ten minutes. And two fast cutters will be coming up behind you.”

  Ben Green took charge. “With your permission, Commander Bright.”

  “By all means, Commander Green,” the Antarean leader answered. “It’s your planet.” Ben spoke to Mazuski on the radio. “Mr. Mazuski, can you let us know when the helicopters from the Coast Guard are in sight?”

  “Roger.”

  “Once you see them please don interfere. I suggested you clear the area. At least by a mile.”

  “You gonna do to them what you did to me and Phil?”

  “Something like that. But keep an eye on the cutters for us. “Okay?”

  “You got it Mr., uh, I mean Commander Green.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR – DEPARTURE

  It was a bizarre sight to behold. Three fishing charter boats offloading what appeared to be elderly people into the water. Two of the newest and most sophisticated Sea-Horse Coast Guard jet helicopters suspended in midair above as a small Sikorsky circled them.

  Sergeant Cummings put down the binoculars. “I’ll be damned. What in the hell is happening?” His launch rode to the south of the two Coast Guard cutters that were making thirty knots toward the scene. They could not raise their helic
opters on the radio.

  The last of the old people went over the side and disappeared beneath the tranquil blue-green sea. The Coast Guard helicopters suddenly rose, as though released from a slingshot. It took a minute for the pilots to regain control of their aircraft.

  The cutters and the launch approached the three pleasure boats with horns blaring and sirens wailing. The helicopters hovered lower and lower.

  Then the ocean began to churn wildly.

  All sound disappeared.

  The water turned white and began to glow.

  A quarter-mile to the north, a huge white needle broke the surface. For three long, fantastic minutes the Antarean mother ship, a craft not of this world, slid from Earth’s ocean, pointing upward and rapidly ascended until it was dot that finally blended into the fair Florida sky and disappeared.

  All the humans below heard a single voice in their minds as the travelers sent their final message back to the sleeping Antarean cocoons safely secured and sealed below The Stones:

  We will serve the Master for you now.

  We are joined with you forever.

  Sleep and wait

  We shall find you again and bring you home.

  We Love You.

  METAMORPHOSIS

  THE COCOON STORY CONTINUES

  Book II of The COCOON Trilogy

  A novel

  by

  David Saperstein

  METAMORPHOSIS

  THE COCOON STORY CONTINUES

  Book II of The COCOON Trilogy

  All Rights Reserved © 1988 by David Saperstein

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Ebbets Field Productions, Ltd.

  Cover Design by John Jay Moore

  Cover art by Alexandra Rutsch

  Originally published by Jove Books/Berkeley Putnam Publishing Group

  DEDICATION

  To my Mother and Father

  Celia and Louis Saperstein

  who taught me to reach for the stars,

  and must surely travel among them now.

  And to the four women who took my creation, my baby

  COCOON, and helped it grow and become...

  Susan Schulman

  Meg Blackstone

  Melinda Jason

  Lili Fini Zanuck

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Roger Challop, MD - Director, Washington Heights Pediatric Group

  New York Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics

  Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons

  John Driscoll, MD - Director, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

  Babies Hospital - Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Columbia University

  College of Physicians and Surgeons

  Ming-Neng Yeh, MD - Consultant in Ultrasound, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

  Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons

  Captain Dick Pleasantdon - Boynton Beach, Florida

  Captain Joe Klein - Boynton Beach, Florida

  Capt. Alan L. Bean, Ret. U.S. Navy – Astronaut - Retired from NASA June 1981

  Mr. Robert T. “Terry” White - Public Affairs Specialist, NASA

  Mr. Douglas K. Ward - Deputy Director of Public Affairs, NASA

  Mr. John E. Riley - Chief of Media Services Branch, NASA

  Ms. Susan Allison - my original “out of this world” editor

  Ms. Susan Schulman - who did it again

  John Silbersack and Rachel Mosner – who brought me into the e-book world

  John Jay Moore – whose designs speak volumes

  Alexandra Rutsch – whose art captures all

  Ellen Saperstein – my primo editor and life-long support

  Elizabeth Saperstein – my eagle-eyed copy editor

  Ivan Saperstein – the best son and intellectual property attorney ever

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE - WHERE’S JACK?

  CHAPTER TWO - A NEW RACE

  CHAPTER THREE - DOWN TO BUSINESS

  CHAPTER FOUR - TENACIOUS DETECTIVES

  CHAPTER FIVE - OH, MOTHER!

  CHAPTER SIX – EX-BOSS AND OLD LOVER

  CHAPTER SEVEN - UNDER SURVEILLANCE

  CHAPTER EIGHT - GRANDMA’S BACK

  CHAPTER NINE - ARE THEY SAFE?

  CHAPTER TEN - A SACRED MISSION

  CHAPTER ELEVEN - THE OVAL OFFICE

  CHAPTER TWELVE - TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN - A TEAM GATHERS

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN - RACING TOWARD MOTHER-PLANET

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN - A LANDING PROGRAM

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - NEW LIFE IN SPACE

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - FEDS AND COPS

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - THE STRIP CLUB DEAL

  CHAPTER NINETEEN - THE FACILITY

  CHAPTER TWENTY - THE PLAN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - THE PASSENGER’S DILEMMA

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - A RECEPTION AWAITS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - SPLASHDOWN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - LOGISTICS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - SETTLING IN HOUSTON

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX – EXPLANATION

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - STRANGE COMMUNICATION

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - TRANFER BEGINS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - SPECIAL ORDERS

  CHAPTER THIRTY – WE CAN HEAR YOU

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - POLLUTION

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO – I HEAR VOICES

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - THE FIRST EARTH BORN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR – ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMINALS

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE – THE SECRETARY’S PLAN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX - A MESSAGE TO THE GALAXY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN – THE OLD GREEK

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT – CAN THE BABIES TRAVEL?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE – THREE MORE FOR THE BRIGADE

  CHAPTER FORTY - THE FIRST DIFFERENT BABY

  CHAPTER FORTY- ONE - IN THE COLONEL’S MIND

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO - THE RELUCTANT INFANT

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE - GETTING READY TO DEPART

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR - LISTEN TO THE CHILDREN

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE - WATERSHIP AWAY

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX - A QUESTION POSED

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN - THE BLUE BABY

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT - ALTERNATE PLANS

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE - AWAITING BIRTHS AND DECISIONS

  CHAPTER FIFTY - CONFRONTATION

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE – DEPARTURE APPROACHES

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO – LAUNCH

  EPILOGUE

  THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE WE TRAVEL

  LIGHT YEARS SEPARATE OUT WAKING TIME

  SEPARATE OUR WAKING TIME

  AND KEEPING TO A COURSE

  THAT SEEKS OUT LIVING BEINGS

  BRINGING FORTH OUR MESSAGE TO

  MANY LIVING THINGS WE DO

  TRAVELERS ON THE MILKY WAY

  WHO KNOWS WHAT WE’LL FIND TODAY

  “Throughout the Universe&”

  Lyric from the musical – Blue Planet, Blue

  Written by Joe Messina & David Saperstein

  © 1974 Enchanted Door Management Co., Inc.

  FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO . . .

  The lost continent we now call Atlantis was colonized by space-faring Antareans as a diplomatic and trading center in this part of our galaxy. When they learned that a comet would destroyed the base, a number of Antareans, a diplomatic army, were left behind in sealed “cocoons” under the sea, while the rest of the colony was evacuated.

  FIVE YEARS AGO

  An Antarean Mothership, parked on the dark side of the moon, sent a Probeship down to Earth with a recovery team to evaluate the status of their cocoons and then begin the rejuvenation process that would restore the sleeping Antarean army.

  The human beings on Earth had advanced, and al
though Antares Quad Three (Atlantis) was gone, a thriving civilization now occupied the land near to the hidden cocoons. South Florida, had become a gathering place of older humans who, after active and productive lives, moved, sometimes reluctantly, to this warmer climate.

  The Antareans set up a processing facility in a partially completed condominium complex that they had purchased. They enlisted the help of a young Earth dweller, Jack Fischer, a fishing charter boat captain, to help transport the daily load of cocoons raised from the ocean floor back to the mainland for processing at night.

  Four male retirees, living in condos at the Antares complex, discovered the secret processing room that was not in use during the day. Thinking it a health spa that was part of the facilities of their condo, they used the equipment and thus began an irrevocable metamorphosis that, unbeknownst to the men, prepared them mentally and physically for travel in deep space.

  The Antareans discovered that the unforeseen pollution of the air and oceans by human civilization had damaged the cocoons. They were unable to rejuvenate their army properly with the equipment they had brought to earth. At the same time they surprised the four old men who had been using their equipment and found that because of their advanced years the processing had transformed and rejuvenated their bodies and minds, adapting them perfectly for space travel.