The Noah Satellite

by Allan E Petersen

  About half way into their escape suddenly the close proximity light started flashing and buzzing. Bolted out of her proud reverie, Helga snapped alert and Pia yelled,

  “Now what?”

  It was not good news, in fact a deadly warning. After a quick check of the computer, Helga reported,

  “Well, this can’t be good. Somehow the gap between the Siberian Triangle and the ground is lowering and forcing us closer to the ground.”

  Shocked, Pia yelled.

  “What? Do you mean that the dome is coming down on us?”

  Both understood the dire consequences if it touched them. With a long way still to go and with the rate it was lowering, Pia started to have visions of being captured and living in the village with a bunch of strange people and aliens. That fear prompted a panicked yell,

  “Step on it! Go faster!”

  At the good advice Helga’s fingers flew over the keyboard programing for more speed.

  Pia had given up being scared of the D-wing zig-zagging past the trees at an amazing and blurry speed. She was now scared of losing the race to get out of the forest before being captured by the lowering force field above. When she saw Helga’s look of frustration and feverishly tapping fingers she yelled,

  “Is it working?”

  The only reply was Helga’s shaking head.

  With the deadly touch of the dome just barely inches from the top of the D-wing, the ‘close proximity’ computer was forced to lower the craft even more. The hull was now scrapping the ground and spewing dirt and debris in its wake. Pia was the first to voice the deadly result of the race.

  “We aren’t going to make it!”

  With capture looming, Helga caved into the inevitable. She would never see Waldorf or Robert again. However, quickly following that thought another entered. She was a proud member of the House of the Nazarene. Giving into defeat was unacceptable.

  Not accepting the certainty of capture, with a renewed grit for survival she faced the impossible head on. More speed wasn’t going to happen, so forget that option. They were already scraping the ground and in danger of crashing into it. She needed more room. Far ahead, she saw an opportunity. It was slim and she didn’t even know if it was possible but what else was there to do but go for it. Far ahead and to the right, through the blur of trees racing past them she saw a swamp. More aptly, she saw water.

  Because of the speed and need to avoid trees, manual control was not possible. Desperation to escape with life and limb was well out of human control. Despite putting their lives in the hands of a computer, Helga intervened and quickly entered a slight course change toward the swamp. She turned and explained to a confused Pia,

  “Water is softer than rocks and dirt.”

  That explanation didn’t help. It was not until reaching the swamp and sinking into the water that Pia understood. With the D-wing almost completely submerged and the dome almost touching the top, it tore through the swamp like a racing boat on drugs. The wake was now a torrential waterfall of spewing mud and water. Her only hope was that the swamp extended past the limits of the dome. If it didn’t, then she didn’t want to think about it.

  When daylight struck the vehicle and hope appeared, Pia opened her eyes and saw sky above instead of death. She turned to Helga and hopefully asked,

  “Are we out of it? Did we make it?”

  Exhilaration pounded adrenaline through Helga to the point she was unable to calmly say ‘yes’. With crazed eyes she manically shouted,

  “You bet your sweet ass we made it.”

  Although Pia was not willing to make such a prized wager, she was relieved nonetheless.

  Once clear, Helga took over manual control. Far ahead, at the edge of the swamp was a grove of trees or as she saw it, a place to hide. It was there that they stopped and through the high branches turned in the direction of the dome. Looking at the computer screen Helga was able to announce,

  “The dome is not expanding. We made it.”

  Just as relief waved through them, the close proximity light and buzzer sounded again. Confused, for they were free of the dome, with great concern and a touch of panic, Pia screamed,

  “Now what?”

  Helga frantically looked high in the sky and low onto the ground but saw no danger. After programing for a location of the warning, the computer indicated that it was from above and to the west. Both spun their heads in that direction and saw three small dots in the horizon coming at them fast. The computer identified them as fully armed Russian MiGs.

  Helga was stunned. She knew they were in radar avoidance and stealth mode, how was this possible? Pia asked a poignant question,

  “What has the Russian Air Force got to do with the Siberian Triangle?”

  Right now Helga didn’t care, all she understood was that the Russians had scrambled jets and intercepting them.

  The lead MiG pilot reported back to ground control.

  “I have them on visual and confirming it is an unknown. It’s a metallic craft hovering just below the tree tops. Waiting for orders.”

  Command came back,

  “It has been reported that they know everything. Under no circumstances are they to escape with that knowledge. Fire at will.”

  The pilot’s computer locked on target and his thumb pressed down hard on the firing trigger. Four deadly missiles sped toward their target.

  Seeing what was coming at them fast, Helga grabbed the controls and pulled back hard. In the blink of an eye, the D-wing zoomed high into the edge of the troposphere and out of danger of the racing missiles. In a massive explosion an acre of tundra burst into flames. Base Command ordered confirmation of the hit.

  “Confirm target contact.”

  “No sir. Target compromised. It disappeared before contact.”

  That was not what ground control wanted to hear and so demanded,

  “Repeat.”

  “That’s all I can say. The target disappeared into thin air. Radar and visual contact is now non-existent.”

  A harsh order was given.

  “Bug out. Return to Base.”

  The pilot reported to the other MiGs,

  “General Boris Petrov isn’t going to be happy about this security incursion.”

  Now only minutes from the D-wing reaching the safety of home base, all was quiet in the cockpit. With adrenaline back to where it belonged, Helga was able to reflect on the dangers of the mission. She understood that it was successful and they would be returning with strange images, samples of writing related to pictures and best of all, alien DNA. Then was the good part of the reflection, the excitement of a mission that she had craved.

  Now that it was all behind her, a gloomy thought invaded. The cost of the exciting adventure was almost death. At the very least they were almost captured and like the people from all eras of time living in the village, she came close to becoming a member of that strange population. That scary realization erased all enthusiasm of another mission. She was almost killed or at least close to never being seen again. Suddenly having the boring job of tending to the education of the Nazarene children sounded pretty good. She couldn’t wait to get back to that boring assignment.

  Chapter 49

  While Helga and Pia were away on their mission inside the Siberian Triangle, before school started Belle was looking forward to something to do for the rest of the day. It was not unexpected that she phoned Robert with a plan to finally explore the cave they had discovered in the cliff of the Black Sea at the end of their estate.

  She was disappointed to learn that he was not finished his assignment and confined to his room until done. She offered to send her work to his computer but he understood that was what started this whole mess. She hung up and looked lazily around her room for something to do.

  Without her partner in crime, boredom soon set in. Wandering down to mom’s laboratory, knocking and entering, she approached a busy Maria with a question.

  “Can I go and visit Liana and Quastima? I haven’t seen the
m for a long time and there are only a few days left before school starts again.”

  Looking up from her computers, Maria thought that might be a good idea. With Robert slacking off on his assignment, she knew Belle would be pestering her for attention and she was busy with the DNA imaging programs. Going to visit what over the years have become her adopted grandparents sounded like the perfect solution. Maria said,

  “That’s a good Idea. You haven’t seen them in ages.”

  She then pointed to a far table and said,

  “Call and ask if you can come visit for a couple of days.”

  Belle walked over to the table and pressed her open hand down on what looked like a simple pane of glass. Recognizing the unique chemical composition, a keyboard appeared. After entering the proper secret numbers she waited for either Liana or Quastima to answer. She knew it would be Liana responding because Quastima liked to hide from the heat of the Amazon jungle inside the coolness of the dirt mound out in the yard. Liana never understood the term ‘man cave’ thinking it was just another strange thing that the male species does to escape the company of women.

  After a few minutes with no response to her hail, Belle tried again. Eventually she turned to mother and called across the room,

  “They are not answering my call.”

  Thinking that both might be napping, she called back,

  “Yell at them. There are communication speakers throughout the house and nearby trees.”

  When there was still no response to her repeated calls, she turned back to mom and asked what was wrong.

  Although they were the last Sky People on this Planet and lived in preferred isolation in the Amazon jungle, they always responded to a call from the House of the Nazarene. Even when away from the house, the transmitter they wore as a bracelet buzzed, alerting them to a call. All they had to do was activate the mechanism indicating that they got the message and will respond as soon as possible. Sometimes they were busy. However, even if they were sound asleep, the bracelet should have alerted them by now.

  Concerned, Maria got up and approached the table. As Belle stepped aside, Maria’s fingers entered more codes and she explained,

  “Under certain circumstances I am allowed to activate visuals. Let’s have a look. Maybe they are sound asleep.”

  She then looked at her daughter and teased,

  “I hope we don’t catch them smooching.”

  All at once a look of repugnancy and disgust flashed across Belle’s face. When the grimace finally returned to normal, she managed to say,

  “Jezz mom, they are hundreds of years old.”

  From the flat glass, a blue light beamed up and in it formed a perfect 3-D view of their jungle encampment. The image showed a large shade tree off to the side of the house where Liana loved to sit and chew on her sweet roots. The house was a simple construction of logs and a corrugated metal roof. After a scan of the property and around the great dirt mound, there was no sign of them.

  After another entry code, the visual showed the inside of the house. The sparse furniture, the kitchen counter and living quarters did not answer any questions regarding the missing couple. As the visual scanned, Maria called out their name but again, there was no response. She had seen two things that greatly concerned her but said nothing about it to Belle. Turning the image off, she said,

  “Maybe we should just give them a little more time to respond.”

  However, Belle objected, saying,

  “But there are only a few more days left before school starts.”

  Clearly something was serious wrong and Maria wanted Belle out of the way so she could investigate this situation further. She said,

  “Go and do something while I look into this.”

  As Belle sulked out of the room, Maria was wise enough to add,

  “And don’t bother Robert until he has finished his assignment.”

  Although she was busy arguing with the finicky computers, trying to get them to image the different alien DNA samples taken from the satellite, she reluctantly went back to her desk and programmed for ‘auto run’. Her departing words to the computers were a fair indication of what she thought of them.

  “I better see a full image of that DNA by the time I come back or you are scrap.”

  Santo’s Security Office was next to the manor in a small cottage once used as a hunting lodge for generations by King Rhymen and his Royal Court. On her way over she called him to report her arrival. After a fast walk through the garden path and a quick smile that she didn’t mean to Romero the gardener, she didn’t bother knocking on the cottage door. He had already been warned that she was coming over.

  Because she was heavy with concern, she prepared to sit across his desk and unload the reason for it. Although seeing her frown, he didn’t realize how serious it was and therefore teased her by tapping his cheek with a pointing finger. With exasperated eyes cast to the ceiling she reluctantly circled the desk, leaned over and gave him a hug and kiss. Returning to her seat she asked,

  “Do all the women have to do that before they can talk to you?”

  “I wish.”

  As she sat, she got right into the reason for her visit.

  “I am very concerned for the safety of Liana and Quastima. Belle wanted to go visit before school started but when calling them they were not on the property.”

  Santo said,

  “Yeah, we haven’t heard from them for a while have we?”

  With two poking fingers he keyed in his security access code. As in her office, a 3-D image of their site formed above the glass pane. After a similar scan he admitted,

  “You might be onto something. They have also missed their last two check-ins.”

  Maria knew they were supposed to check in once a week.

  Throughout their time on this Planet, the Great Grays and Sky People were not mortal enemies but they were nevertheless combative. However, now with the Great Grays leaving this planet and with only two Sky People left on Earth, possibly the whole universe, there was no need for confrontation between them. Just the same, Santo took no chances with their safety. Elaborate systems were set up to protect their secret location in the Amazon. If they were going away somewhere, they were supposed to report it. It didn’t have to be a vocal call, just a series of coded numbers.

  As Santo continued to scan the yard, Maria pointed to the chair under the shade tree and said,

  “There. See that bowl of Sweet Root on the ground? She values them too much to just leave them there like that.”

  Santo understood that she would have picked them up. When the visual entered the house, again Maria pointed out an inconsistency.

  “She would never leave that chair tipped over like that.”

  Santo knew why. For the sake of Quastima’s propensity to always bump into things she was very careful to never move the furniture around. She was afraid that he would trip over something and get hurt, worse, not able to get up.

  Although agreeing with all her concerns, Santo thought there might be legitimate reasons for their absence. He said,

  “They are getting near the end of their time, maybe they just forgot to check in. They might even just be off curing one of the natives. She does things like that, right.”

  “Yes but she never goes to them, they come to her.”

  It didn’t take long for him to figure out why Maria was sitting in front of him and so said,

  “I suppose you want me to go have a look”

  “Yes please. I’m really worried.”

  Nodding his approval of the request he said,

  “With Jessika busy on her computers and Kirk busy at home with three kids, I suppose I could ask him to take over my duties for a while.”

  She agreed adding,

  “Yes, I’ll call Katerina and ask her to look after the kids.”

  He then strangely lifted one side of his mouth and produced a silly grin. Maria knew a bad thought had just strolled into his devious mind. She knew his wicked s
ide and correctly said,

  “You are not going to call him are you?”

  “Nah. I’ll tell Han Lee to take over my duties instead.”

  Chapter 50

  Belle was annoyingly persistent and eventually mom simply gave in. Because of the victory, as she sat beside her dad in the D-wing on their way to the Amazon jungle there was a certain smugness glued to her face and overlaid with a sense of victory. Santo saw the glow and said,

  “You won so wipe that silly smirk off your face.”

  She tried, but couldn’t. Dad continued,

  “You know she was just concerned for your safety right?”

  Yes she did. She turned to dad and said,

  “Thanks for sticking up for me.”

  Dad replied,

  “Hey, how many missions do you and I get to go on anyway. I could use a good partner on this one.”

  That was another reason she could not wipe the glow from her face.

  High over the Atlantic and skimming the stratosphere, although dad was in the pilot seat, Belle watched every move he made with the controls. Most of the manual controls were in a rollerball much like a computer mouse maneuvering a cursor on the screen. She understood her dad’s famous if not somewhat simplistic explanation of how the D-wing worked. To him, it was as simple as squeezing a cherry pit between your fingers really hard until it shot out of there. If it were possible to keep that pressure on while in flight, that’s how the gravity buffers on the shell of the craft worked. Squeezing harder on the top forced it down and harder on the bottom forced it up and so on for left or right.