As they moved along the hallways, Jeff asked what was going on. One of the Agents replied, “When death is only hour’s away, people do crazy things. Assaults, rapes, looting, shootings, last minute revenge, you name it, it’s happening and the hospital can’t keep up with the injured and dying. Some doctors are staying, but most have gone to be with their loved ones when Pluto arrives. People are backed up out the doors waiting to be treated, and it just isn’t going to happen. With Pluto’s increased speed, there won’t be enough time to treat everyone anyway, even if we had enough medical personnel to do so, which we don’t. Then again, what difference does it make anyway?”
Jeff was surprised to hear about the new count down and started relating to the mixed emotions of the masses. He wanted to be with Janet these last few hours. After all, he had gone his entire life without finding true love, but in the past few days that Janet had stayed at his house, they shared food, wine, great conversations and passionate lovemaking. This weird case brought them together only to find they were doomed to a few hours of happiness. Jeff thought to himself, “Better to die after feeling the emotions love’s passions than die without it in the explosion of two heavenly bodies that will leave behind no history, no reason, no concern.” Corny but true, he mumbled.
Two FBI agents guarded the room, and Donemore was seen with a surgical mask covering her face and using some kind of instrument on the alien. The creature was lying on the bed and looking different from when it had first been discovered and put into the helicopter. All three remembered the neon glow of the head, but now the alien had the same neon glow over its entire body.
Woods said, “This thing must like you Donemore, as it sure didn’t have that much of a glowing personality when we found it. Of course I always knew you could charm the skin off a rattlesnake.”
Donemore smiled at Woods’ comment. She was used to it and rather enjoyed his barbs. “Thank you, Woods, but the truth is I cut its protective flight suit off and sent it out to our Lab to be analyzed.”
“You mean it’s naked, ready for a Playboy photo-shoot?” Woods replied.
The General quickly said, “Okay you two, knock it off— Donemore fill me in on what you’ve got so far.”
“Sorry, sir. As we were flying here from the site,” Donemore said, “I noticed and felt the fabric that was covering the rest of its body. On the right side, I saw a small amount of glittering fluid oozing out of the suit. It appears the suit was cut by something that penetrated it and the skin. After we landed and got it to a secure emergency room, the first thing I did was cut off the flight suit. The outer ‘skin’ of the alien has the glow that you see. Once I removed the suit, I examined the area that appeared to be oozing fluid. I was lucky enough to get a sample before the wound closed, but I can’t tell what caused the cut. However, it hasn’t moved a muscle or eyelid since we put it on the chopper. There is no heartbeat, blood pressure or vital signs able to be detected, normal or abnormal compared to humans. ‘Nothing’ might be normal for it, I can’t tell yet.”
“When I was in the spacecraft,” Woods said, “I noticed a broken clear panel over the control seat. I bet when the F-16s fired on the ship the impact percussion probably broke the panel or glass, or whatever it’s made of, then cut into the alien.”
“You might be right Woods,” Donemore went on, “probably explaining the wound. But what really has astonished me so far in my examination of the alien is that it has no external openings. That’s why I called and wanted you to see for yourself. There is no mouth, ears, nose, sex organs or intestinal openings at all.”
“What a dull life this dude must have. No eating, drinking or ‘Making Mary’ for him,” Woods said.
“Woods, could you be sincere, just for once! This is the precious alien you’ve been looking for most of your adult life and it’s just a joke to you now?” Donemore huffed. “How pathetic for you.”
“Sorry, Donemore, but with only a few hours left before the destruction of mankind, it seems trivial to me that this thing doesn’t have any sex organs.”
While the two Blue Book experts were exchanging verbal jabs over a glowing alien body, they were unaware of what was happening to another growing-larger, glowing heavenly body. Every expert on Earth in the field of astronomy and astro-physics was watching Pluto’s approach, and what had just happened a few moments ago was an even greater event than when Pluto had first decided to leave its orbit for greener pastures. Arecibo and Kitt Peak and every major observatory around the world confirmed the event. With the clock displaying exactly 12:00:00 hours before impact, Pluto came to a stop, not a dead stop, but such a tremendous slowdown that scientists estimated that it would come to a full stop at about the same distance as our moon from Earth, some 235,000 miles from impact.
An agent came into the room and said, “General, the president is on the phone and wants to speak to you immediately! I have the cell with me and you can talk to him from here.”
Stormer composed himself, thought a few seconds as to what to say, then said, “Yes, Mr. President, this is General Stormer. How can I be of help, sir?”
The president said, “At exactly 12:00:00 hours on the countdown clock, Pluto decided to put on the brakes. We currently estimate that at the rate of slowing, it might not reach us at all! That the Earth might be spared, is that a reasonable conclusion at this point?”
“It would seem so, though what can stop can certainly re-attain former velocity. But, yes, that’s great news, sir, especially since we have just confirmed the alien life form that Agent Donemore is currently examining. I’ll keep you informed on what we find and pass along the good news of Pluto’s slowing to our team.”
When he put the phone down, everyone was looking at him for an explanation of what constituted “good news.”
The General announced with some reservation, “The President just told me that it seems Pluto has dramatically reduced its speed and experts at Arecibo and Kitt Peak are now predicting it will stop almost at the same distance as our own moon from Earth.”
“Hello, mother!” Agent Woods declared.
Everyone in the room looked at Woods, as his comment lingered in the air, seeming to echo around the room. “Mother! Mother! Mother!”
General Stormer commented first, “What did you say?”
Woods replied once more, “Hello, mother!”
Donemore looked at Woods and said, “My god, Woods! That’s it! You’re right! Why didn’t we put this together before?”
Woods replied, “Guess our minds were focused on the alien, the scientists on the planet, and no one on the big picture!”
The General added, “Looks like we’re back in business, big time. I’ll call the President back and let him know what we think is happening.”
Jeff looked lost and finally said, “Okay, I’m not getting the big picture that you all seem to have firmly locked on track. Would someone fill me in?”
Woods responded, “Pluto must be the mother ship to the spacecraft that you discovered. For us to shoot down two and have our satellites pick up at least ten to twelve more, should have alerted us to the fact that they must of had a much larger spaceship they were going back and forth from. My assumption is that when we shot down the big robot ships, the mother ship didn’t notice. But when we shot down the smaller controller ship that had one of its own species aboard, then Big Momma knew something was wrong and made a move to correct the situation. The big problem now is, if we’re right, how mad is Mommy?”
As Jeff was absorbing the new bent on things, all communications were taken over somehow by an external source and started displaying the same message. TVs, computer display screens, printers, fax machines, cell and regular phones and even the ticker at the New York Stock Exchange displayed, said, or printed the same thing:
Do not attempt to shoot down anymore of our ships. We mean you no harm. We will explain everything when in near-moon orbit.
If you looked at a TV, the message just repeated across the screen. If
you picked up the phone, it was repeated in the handset. Nothing could override the signal. The General and his group at the hospital found out soon enough that communications were cut off. They saw the TV display and when any of them tried to use their cell phones, they got the same alien message.
“Looks like Mommy doesn’t like the idea of us shooting down her little ones.” General Stormer remarked.
Jeff said, “At least it’s saying that it’s friendly and not going to shoot at us.”
Woods said, “You’re right, Jeff, and since we are the ones that shot down the two big ones, the small one, and have one of their own lying in a bed in our hospital, let’s hope it doesn’t start shooting.”
11
THE MODERN WORLD HAD BECOME SO TECHNOLOGY-dependent that without such conveniences set up and working people were lost. The President of the United States could not even use his intercom to find out what was going on, such were the communication blocks. When his cell phone started ringing again, he expected the same message that had jammed all other communications, but to his surprise was a voice on the other end, a live voice—
“My name is E-1, and I’m in charge of the spaceship about to achieve orbit near your moon. I know you’re the leader of the people that controls the area where two of my Collector ships and one Fighter crafts are missing. I want to have a briefing with you and your high level personnel in six hours. This should give you enough time to contact whatever personnel you wish and have them at this location. I will free up your military communications so you can accomplish this. All other forms of communications will continue to receive the same message as before. Please make no attempt to intercept, shoot down or take any action against my Collector ships. All this will be explained to you at the briefing.”
The phone went dead and the president stood for a second in awe. He had just been contacted by a being from an alien world and that thought took a few seconds to sink in. When it did, he realized he had little time to contact everyone he needed for the requested briefing.
The first call the president made was to the Naval Base in Orlando. His instructions were to have someone bring a military secure telephone to General Stormer. Within minutes, a Navy communication expert walked into the room at ORMC where the General and most of his team were conducting operations. “Sir, I have orders from the president to hand deliver these secure military phones to you and have you contact him immediately.”
“Thank you, Captain, please stay here while I call and find out what’s going on,” Stormer said.
A few minutes later, he was talking to the president. “I have tried everything to get in touch with you Mr. President, but this damned message keeps repeating and jamming everything. How did you get through?”
The President replied, “I don’t have time to explain everything to you now. The Leadesr of the spaceship has contacted me and requested a briefing of all my high-level personnel within the next six hours. I need you and your team on a plane and in Washington by then. The Air Force will have a private jet at the Executive Airport in twenty minutes. If you need to contact anyone, you must use the military phones brought to you. All other communications around the world are still receiving that original message. While in flight, review what you’re going to say to this alien if he asks why we shot down his aircraft.
“Also General, I don’t think we should tell him we have one of his pilots in an Orlando hospital bed. No sense revealing everything to him until we know his true intentions.”
General Stormer responded, “No problem, sir— I agree with you on keeping quiet the information on the alien pilot. See you in a few hours.”
As soon as the General got off the phone, he turned to everyone in the room and said, “Okay, everyone, listen up. It seems Mommy got in touch with our president and wants a briefing with everyone of importance. We seem to be in that group and have to be in Washington ASAP. All regular communications are down except for these military phones, so we need to plan our moves carefully.
“Donemore, I want you to get a team to secure this room and its guest while we’re gone. No one is to know this is here.
“Woods, make arrangements with the Captain here to deliver some phones to the teams out at the sites. You can stay in touch if they find anything new.
“Jeff, somehow we have to contact Janet or we must leave without her, any ideas?”
“I know she’s at the station and our intercom was hooked up with Bad Rain Blue Base— Maybe you could call Blue Base and have them contact her over the intercom. If only I could contact our helicopter pilot, he could bring her here.”
“Excuse me, sir,” the Navy captain interrupted. “I have a helicopter waiting on the roof to take you to the airport. The station is on the way and has a landing pad. I don’t think it would take that much time to stop and pick her up.”
The General commented, “Captain, both you and Jeff have good ideas, so see if you can help Jeff contact the control room via the naval base. If you get through, tell Janet to meet us on the pad. If you can’t, we’ll stop anyway and hope she’s there.”
The helicopter landed at The Executive Airport in twenty minutes. Everyone, including Janet, boarded the private jet. The pilot pushed the throttle forward and in a few seconds they were airborne and headed to Washington. Once they reached cruising altitude at 30,000 feet, the General filled them in, “The president has requested we review what we’re going to say if the Leader starts asking questions about his downed ships. Under no circumstances are we to reveal that we have one of their pilots in captivity. If asked, we’ll tell everything truthfully, except that we have the pilot. Hopefully they will believe us, if not, it should at least stall them for awhile.”
Janet asked, “Why do you want us covering things up?”
Stormer responded, “They are obviously superior to us in intelligence and technology and we don’t know their intentions. If we can hold some kind of edge, it seems best to do. Let’s hear what they have to say before we give up any edge.”
Woods replied, “I agree with keeping the alien pilot issue quiet, but I also think we shouldn’t tell them we have the ability to see their floating stadiums. We can explain the one that kept showing up on radar, because it was logical to protect ourselves. But we know there might be hundreds of these things around and I feel uncomfortable letting them know we can see them. This would give us an extra edge, just in case they aren’t friendly. If we tell them the truth, they might fix the problem.”
Jeff asked, “How do we explain the first one we shot down, when we never picked it up on radar?”
The General said, “Easy, we just lie and say that our military was put on full alert because of the destruction we found and when something showed up on radar, we shot at it. Simple as that. Remember, two big ships are down and not functioning. Maybe Mommy can’t tell what went wrong if she doesn’t have access to the ships.”
Everyone finally agreed and settled into conversation about events that led up to this alien briefing. While they talked, the General moved to a quieter section of the plane and made a call to the Director of the CIA on the secure military line. After a few rings, he was about to give up when the CIA Director answered. “Michael, this is General Stormer— Thank god, you got one of these phones. I need your help.”
The Director replied, “The president knew you had requested the repositioning of our new satellite and had a feeling you might want to talk to me. He sent a courier a short time ago with the explanation of the briefing, along with one of the secure military phones. It seems we got out of the frying pan and into the fire. I don’t trust this new moon we have, so how can I help?”
“I want you to do what you can about contacting any or all observatories and see if they can focus on this spaceship to see what activity is going on. If you can get the Hubbell to reposition and give us clear pictures of this thing, it would help,” the General responded.
“Excuse me, sir, but you know us snoops like to know what we’re looking f
or, as it helps the lock-on. Just exactly what do you have in mind- Maybe I can accomplish it for you,” the Director replied.
“Your new satellite has confirmed that there’re a lot of these flying stadiums around,” the General said. “If you can find some sort of pattern to their activity, track their movements, time how long it takes one to leave and return, or look inside the Mother ship if possible. It might give us something to go on in case this thing is not friendly.”
“No problem, sir. Now that I know what you’re looking for, I’ll use everything we got to collect information on our new moon. Fill me in on the briefing if you can,” the Director said.
“I’ll do you one better, I’ll call the president and ask that you be present when the briefing starts. After all, you’re the one that can confirm my story that there are an uncomfortable amount of these big dishes scattered around out there,” General Stormer said.
While the General was placing a call to make arrangements for the Director of the CIA to be present when E-1 addressed the briefing, the rest of the group continued to talk about how this whole mess came about. Everyone that is, except Jeff. He was looking out the window at the night sky, fascinated with what he was seeing. He pulled away from the window for a second to get Janet’s attention. She was sitting next to him and he whispered to her to look out the window. She saw a spectacular display of colorful lights, like waves in the ocean on a relatively calm day, rippling across the night sky, changing colors as they went.
“Beautiful, isn’t it. Do you know what it is?” Janet asked, not taking her eyes off Mother Nature’s display.
“It’s commonly called the Northern Lights,” Jeff responded.
For the remainder of the flight, Jeff and Janet sat and let the big screen in the night sky theater relax them.
When the plane landed in Washington, they were met and escorted to the White House, and once there brought to a large conference room where the president greeted them personally and made appropriate introductions. Janet couldn’t help commenting to Jeff that she had been at high-level meetings before, but this was the who’s who of our country’s political and military leaders.
BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 12
