The Noah Satellite

by Allan E Petersen

  The cold hard fact was that Liana and Quastima were gone never to return. Maria’s idealistic side hoped that they were now in a better place. Her life with the House of the Nazarene, Santo and Belle started so many years ago when first encountering Liana in the Amazon jungle. Now for the first time in all those years, there will no longer be a Liana in her life. She broke her daughter’s tight hug and lovingly said,

  “You two are the reason my heart beats.”

  And then,

  “Let’s go get supper.”

  Over a sullen dinner, Maria saw the occasional furtive eye contact between Santo and Belle. There was a guilty concern in his face and a great glow of pride in hers. She understood something was up, that a happy secret was being kept from her and she knew what it was. She knew Santo had let her pilot the D-wing. She knew her man and grew proud of her family.

  That night, with her head deep in the pillow and with no distractions to stem the flowing memories of Liana, she cried once again. Santo was torn because he could do nothing to heal her deep pain. Just as she was balanced on that thin wire between sleep and still awake, she heard a voice in her head.

  “Let not there be tears for me honey. They finally came for us but the portal was only open for a few minutes. We had to hurry. We are now home and in a better place.”

  It was a small consolation to learn that Liana was now finally home. When Maria’s eyes closed for the night, they also closed on the chapter of her life with Liana. Santo was only too pleased when she rolled into him and planted a good night kiss smack on the lips. He whispered,

  “You know I love you right?”

  Through an unseen smile that he knew was there anyway, she offered her favorite reply to his affection,

  “You better.”

  Chapter 53

  The two parents standing on the porch of the Manor had a different take on the morning than the two children walking downtrodden through the garden path. A cloudless blue sky allowed the morning sun to shine down on the Nazarene estate. By that standard it was a pleasant morning for Maria and Helga. What made it even better was that school had started and they were watching Belle and Robert slowly walking down the path as if two prisoners on the way to jail.

  To Belle and Robert, it was a cloudy and dreary morning. There might as well have been thunder and lightning bolting from the dark cloud above. It wasn’t fair to have the school holiday over so quickly. They never even got a chance to explore the cave they found in the seaside cliffs. Worse, finding the secret entrance to another dimension was the most exciting thing that ever happened to them and they were not allowed to mention it to anyone. It just didn’t seem fair. It was a miserable morning.

  Watching the children disappear around a bend, it was a good morning for the moms. It was then that Helga noticed something strange about Maria. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Romero the gardener looked up from tending the roses and smiled at them. Although Helga smiled back, she saw that Maria pretended to ignore his greeting. Helga knew that Maria saw the politeness. Knowing Maria respected the help, she wondered if something was wrong.

  Now that the children were out of sight they gave each other a high five, turned and walked back into the manor. Inside the grand hall, Helga couldn’t let the discourtesy go and asked,

  “Is there an issue between you and Romero?”

  Knowing that espionage is a complicated and at times a deadly game, Maria understood that the less people caught up in the web the better and so played the ‘boss role’ and ignored the question. Helga was wise enough to understand and not push the issue. She also understood that the answer was ‘yes’.

  Shortly after, Maria was in her laboratory still arguing with her cantankerous computers. Apparently swearing at them did not help. She wondered why the Great Grays would even bother using such irritable universal pulse processors. That their processing power was practically unlimited was of little consequence to somebody still learning how to master such omnipotence.

  Her biggest success was getting the program to image the alien DNA technology correctly. According to the descriptions of the mysterious aliens in the Siberian Triangle given by Helga and Pia, the image that came up on the screen from the stolen DNA in the cave matched their oral descriptions perfectly. Now, thanks to shaman Greg Red Cloud the task was to image the DNA extracted from a giant skeleton found in a secret cave in the Grand Canyon. Just as she was about to tap the ‘run’ key there was a gentle tap on the door.

  As Waldorf timidly entered, there was apology written all over his face.

  “Sorry to disturb your work but there is something I need to get off my chest.”

  She understood that when something was bothering him, it was important and best to take it seriously. She pointed to the far table, more accurately to the coffee urn and said,

  “Not a bother at all. I need another coffee anyway.”

  As she poured steaming coffee into her cup she asked,

  “So what’s bothering my Laboratory Officer today?”

  He didn’t drink coffee but the Bulgarian sweet Banitsa rolls on the plate looked appetizing and so he took two and joined her on the sofa. Despite trying to hide it, she noticed that he took two pastries. With a smile and a tease, she asked,

  “Does Helga know you are straying from her imposed diet?”

  After a great chomp into one, with a full mouth he managed to say,

  “Only if you tell her.”

  A look of victory swept over her and she said,

  “Well then, let’s see how the day goes shall we?”

  He saw her conniving smile and knew this would one day come back to haunt him. Getting right to the purpose of the meeting, he quickly said,

  “I want to talk to you about what happed to the Anunnaki ship when you were up there investigating the Black Knight.”

  She contributed,

  “I presume that you are referring to the computer override program that strangely cut in at a very inappropriate time.”

  “Yes but how it took control of the ship is not my concern. I understand you have that cantankerous Dr. Marls looking into it. It’s not that it took control of the ship that bothers me but rather where Presha Bhat said the override signal came from.”

  He watched in astonishment as she gulped down another mouthful of steaming caffeine. She was the leader of the House of the Nazarene for a reason. She slowly said,

  “Yes, Presha Bhat traced its origin. Apparently it was some sort of homing signal sent from the moon. Dr. Marls thought that it might have been automatically activated when the ship reached the outer limits of space, where the Black Knight is orbiting.”

  Waldorf gripped tight to the last Banitsa and held up one finger, saying,

  “Yes, I thought it might be something like that. However, that’s not what’s bothering me. Has it not come to you why there was a signal originating from the moon guiding an Anunnaki ship there?”

  He could tell by the way the coffee was held captive in her mouth that she was at least considering it. After a swallow, she said,

  “It was proposed to me in a previous meeting but I ignored it. I always just assumed that it originated from somewhere on Earth and bounced off the moon.”

  Somehow, both Banitsa had disappeared and so he looked wantonly toward the table and the rest. Thinking that another helping would be reported, that Maria did not have his back, the lust gave way although begrudgingly.

  “No,” he said, “that would serve no purpose. The question should be by who and why the ship was called to the moon in the first place? I want to know what is up there.”

  By the way she went into deep thought it was clear that his question interested her. After a reflective moment, she eventually mumbled,

  “We got that ship from an Anunnaki cave that turned out to be a war fortress.”

  Agreeing, he added,

  “And that Anunnaki ship is a war machine. That adds to the question, why would a signal from the moon recall a war
ship?”

  She asked,

  “Are you thinking that there might be an Anunnaki air base on the moon?”

  He nodded and she continued,

  “But that would serve no purpose. In the 1960’s a military base on the moon was an excuse for the moon race but was dropped when realizing the travel time between Earth and the moon.”

  “Yes, just over four days is impractical for a missile base but that travel time was calculated by the technology at the time. Although our D-wings are not capable of deep space travel, if they were, it would only be a six hour trip and a twelve hour return.”

  Suddenly she understood what he was implying. Snapping her fingers she said,

  “But the Anunnaki ship obviously has outer space capability.”

  Clearly he had guided her onto the right track and victoriously said,

  “Exactly.”

  She then asked,

  “Make this meeting clear to me. Are you suggesting that you want to go see what is up there?”

  He produced a sly grin and nodded.

  “And you want to use the same ship that received the homing signal?”

  He again nodded and said,

  “Yes, if it is not too late. You sent it to the Swiss lab to be purged of the homing signal program.”

  “Yes but I told Dr. Marls to save it.”

  She got up, walked back to her desk and said,

  “Okay, I’m interested. I’ll talk to Dr. Marls and see if sending it back up there is even possible.”

  He followed her to the desk and suggested something he had in mind all along.

  “He is only going to say he is too busy to do that right now. I should go there and light a fire under him.”

  Suddenly understanding his conniving, she spun around and asked,

  “Are you suggesting that you be the pilot?”

  He shrugged and made it sound as if it was something he had never thought of.

  “Sure, I could do that if you want.”

  Suddenly the sharp voice of a commander sounded loud and clear.

  “No, I don’t want. Something like that is experimental and too dangerous. I was thinking of installing a video camera. You can be in charge of something like that if you want. Go and, as you said, light a fire under Dr. Marls but its only to reinstall the original computer programs and mount video cameras.”

  As she sat facing contentious computers, she added,

  “And hurry back. I have another mission for you.”

  Chapter 54

  To Waldorf, his flight to Switzerland was boring, just another day of skimming under the stratosphere and seeing half of the planet from that height. However, to an ordinary human sitting in a D-wing, in effect something clearly akin to a flying saucer and seeing the curvature of the planet it would have been the excitement of a lifetime. Elite members of the House of the Nazarene were not ordinary people.

  Upon touching down on the giant ‘H’ helicopter landing pad and walking away from the D-wing, Waldorf pulled up his collar to guard against a bitter cold wind. Waldorf followed procedure and remotely sent it high into the stratosphere to wait a return signal. Nobody was waiting for him on the roof and that’s just the way he liked it. He knew the way and hated to be escorted. At the door he paused and looked straight into the face recognition computer screen and blew into the receptor. When a beep was heard, he entered his pass code and a computerized voice said,

  “Welcome Security Officer Waldorf Hismanal. We have been expecting you.”

  Once inside the facility and walking through a short hallway he approached an elevator door. Again codes were entered and the doors opened. However, it was not an elevator so much as a transport vehicle taking him far into the core of the mountain. The secret House of the Nazarene laboratory was hidden deep inside the mountain. When the door opened, a team of security men in their office watched on many screens as he calmly enter the secret lab.

  The Anunnaki craft was in the middle of the large floor and suspended on steel legs making it look as if a menacing giant metallic spider was watching him approach. As he stood and looked at the impressive ship he heard a voice from behind,

  “I’m a busy man Mister Hismanal. Perhaps we can make this inconvenient meeting move right along by saying what you expect of me.”

  Waldorf slowly turned and managed to wipe a cringe from his face before Dr. Marls saw it.

  Complying with the abrupt request, Waldorf got right to the purpose of the meeting. He looked him straight in the eye and with a stern glare commanded,

  “This ship is slated for a journey to the moon so I need it functional with full Anunnaki operating computers right away. I also need it equipped with video cameras capable of transmitting real-time images back to Headquarters. I also want to be able to control those cameras from my office.”

  Waldorf then bellowed a well-practiced imposing tone,

  “And I don’t care how busy you are. Get it done.”

  The force of the command sent the Doctor back a step or two.

  However, right away Waldorf saw in the doctor’s defeated expression that despite his demand, he knew it was not going to happen right away. From a man used to control, what Dr. Marls said next came out with great difficulty and dejection.

  “Yes, of course. I can return the deleted Anunnaki computer commands in the matter minutes. Even installing video cameras will of course take a little longer but very possible. That is not the problem. The problem is that I cannot guarantee complete control of the ship. As proven on the first trip to the Black Knight, a very powerful unknown signal overrode all the computers and diverted it to the moon. I cannot guarantee safe return passage for the passengers.”

  What Waldorf said next shocked the Doctor so much that he gulped.

  “No Doctor, I do not need the ship to return to Earth. I simply need you to return the ship back over to Anunnaki command. When it reaches outer space, the mysterious signal from the moon will take over and direct it there.”

  Dr. Marls spitefully snapped,

  “You field operatives simply do not have a grasp of the real situation. How do you expect me to get the ship and the crew back to Earth? Am I simply to assume that their lives are to be sacrificed?”

  And then an insult was spit out,

  “You have to think better than that.”

  After a deep breath and very slow exhale, Waldorf managed to curtail rage. It was difficult to claim that it was a mistake to put Dr. Marls in charge of the lab when understanding that he was the one who hired him in the first place. It was a good thing he was brilliant. Under restrained control, Waldorf explained,

  “No Doctor, it will not be a manned expedition. Maria has denied my request to put a crew on board. She does not want it in the Nazarene fleet anymore. She admitted that it was a mistake to trust the Anunnaki technology. Although the Nazarene fleet was greatly depleted of D-wings after the destruction of the island it was no use putting lives at risk even using for local trips around the planet. It would only be sent to another laboratory to be retro-engineered or sit in the Nazarene hangar gathering dust forever.”

  After a thought and then sounding calmer, Dr. Marls conceded to the logic.

  “Perhaps she is correct. I cannot guarantee complete control of the computers. We don’t know what other signals will be sent and where the ship might be commanded to go next. For all we know, it might even be directed into deep space and then of course a crew would be lost.”

  He then snapped around and walked briskly to a computer command center where a torrent of flying fingers entered commands. By the time Waldorf had walked over to him it was already done. He turned to Waldorf and said,

  “I have returned the ship to the Anunnaki system. Once it has been sent into orbit it should once again receive the homing signal and be diverted to the moon.”

  Accepting the accomplishment, Waldorf added,

  “When can I expect the video cameras and control of them to be installed?”

 
“I have all that equipped here. Give me a few extra hours.”

  Nodding his approval, Waldorf made it sound like a command from a superior. It was.

  “Good, then get to it right away.”

  As Waldorf briskly turned and walked out of the lab, Dr. Marls followed and asked,

  “May I ask the purpose of sending an unmanned Anunnaki ship to the moon with video cameras?”

  Keeping his fast pace, Waldorf seemed very pleased to say,

  “No, you may not.”

  The Doctor then slammed on the brakes and watched Waldorf enter the elevator and the doors close.

  While in his D-wing and flying back to headquarters, a very cruel realization hit Waldorf hard. He suddenly realized that the Anunnaki ship with Maria and her crew onboard was on a six hour trip to the moon. When the ship broke away from the Black Knight and was racing to it, they were only hours from death and never seen again.

  Waldorf had followed the Anunnaki ship into space to transmit a computer program seconds before it picked up speed and disappeared forever. It just came to him now how close Maria and her crew, including him, were never to be seen again. When he looked out the cockpit window down onto the planet far below he suddenly became very appreciative of the view.