by D F Capps
The look of distrust was back on Pasternov’s face.
“You are asking me to trust you, but you do not trust us to operate our own sites?”
“I know.” Andrews nodded reluctantly. “But, it’s actually a matter of timing and communications. By the time we can notify you of a saucer intrusion and you can focus the transmitter, the saucer will have come and gone. They’re that fast.”
“And what if we share detection and tracking signals? Can you trust us to respond in a timely manner?”
This was how he was going to close the deal—autonomy and local control.
“I can. As soon as you have your command facility built, I will turn over operational control for your part of the globe to your people. I will send you all of the technical specifications that will be needed.”
Pasternov studied him for a minute.
“So what happens in seventy-two hours?”
Andrews leaned closer to him. “I will demonstrate to you and the rest of the world that we are no longer enemies. If you will reciprocate in kind, I will send you twelve fighter craft and four large particle beam cannons as a sign of our friendship.”
Pasternov pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “And if I don’t?”
He may anticipate a threat from me, but he’s not going to get it. All I have is the new reality. “Then every human being on the planet will become the disposable property of the Zeta Greys.”
Pasternov settled deeper into his seat. “There is not a lot of trust between our countries. You are asking a great deal.”
I am, Andrews thought. “We both have a great deal to lose. If we can’t learn to trust each other there won’t be anything left, anywhere.”
Pasternov looked as though he were in agreement. “I will seriously consider what you have said. In seventy-two hours, we will see.”
“Until then,” President Andrews said. They stood, shook hands, and Andrews walked out into the cold and climbed into the back seat of the fighter craft.
“Take me home, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 34
The scramble alarm woke Diane at 12:57 a.m. She grabbed her robe and tied it as she raced barefoot from her room to the elevators. Ryan was right behind her as they crammed into the elevator with Helen, Clay, and their RIOs.
“Saucer intrusion! Saucer intrusion!” came over the PA system. “This is not a drill! Repeat: This is not a drill!”
Diane stared at the elevator display as they ascended to the ready deck. She glanced at Ryan. He was standing there in his boxer shorts, hands trembling, breathing hard. The door opened and they all sprinted to their ready rooms. Diane threw off her robe and put on her uniform and flight suit. She was tying her boots before she even thought about looking at Ryan again. He was dressed, helmet in hand and running out the door as she finished.
She ran to her fighter craft. Ryan was already seated and powering up the craft as she jumped into the pilot seat.
“Wiggle your controls,” Ryan said.
She moved the control stick through its movements with the thruster control in the off position and scanned the control panel. The canopy closed. She heard the motorized screws securing the canopy to the cockpit, sealing it from the outside atmosphere.
“All displays and indicators normal,” she said.
“Roger that, preflight check complete. All systems are go.”
She nudged the thruster control and the outer surface of the fighter craft took on a bright white glow. She lifted off, raised the landing struts, slipped into the vertical shaft, and up to the flight deck. Hollis stood next to the main blast door button with his comm headset on.
“Comm check,” Hollis said. “All units report in.”
Diane took a deep breath and exhaled before keying the radio. “Jink ready.”
Her heart raced as she glanced to her right at Buddha.
“Buddha ready.”
He nodded to her and grinned.
“Hellcat ready.”
On through the squadron it went. Everyone was good to go.
“Single saucer intrusion. It entered from space over southern Mexico and is headed north at high speed. Target will pass our location in the next ten seconds.” He hit the button to open the blast door. The red lights flashed. “You will be approaching from behind. Saucer is expected to go to ground in northern New Mexico. Good hunting.”
The last three days of flight time had brought them up to full speed. Their new confidence brimmed in their chests.
The flight deck lights turned green. Diane and the other five pilots bolted into the air.
“Stay close to the ground,” Diane said. “It’ll make it harder for the scout saucer to pick us up.”
“Copy,” came from the other crews.
Diane’s heart raced, her adrenalin flowed, and her mind felt especially focused. This was what made flying such a rush.
“OB1 on the right.”
She placed where each team should be in her mind. “Jink left.”
“Hellcat on center.”
Good choice, Diane thought. Best place for the kill shot. Hellcat needed an emotional boost after her encounter with a tree, maybe this would help.
They spread out with OB1 sweeping fast to the east of the scout saucer on their navigation displays. Diane and Buddha slowed slightly to let OB1 and Hellcat move into position.
“Target is slowing and dropping below ten thousand feet. Range closing fast. Initiate jinking and commence firing upon visual contact,” Diane said.
“Roger that.”
Hellcat made first contact as she and her wingman, Mad Dog, opened fire. The scout saucer was caught by surprise with a particle beam cannon hit to the left edge. It shot up and to the right, firing back, only to be engaged by OB1 and his wingman, Silver. Diane and Buddha pulled up sharply to engage the scout saucer, which shot higher and moved away to the left over Colorado at high speed. She and Buddha pushed the thrust to seventy percent, closing in on their target. The scout saucer continued firing as all six fighter craft moved in on it. Diane was closest. Her second shot hit the scout saucer on the underside, near the middle. The light beam flashes from the saucer ceased as it began to tumble in the night sky, falling to the ground. Each team zoomed in, hitting the scout saucer repeatedly with their particle beam cannons.
As the scout saucer fell into the lower atmosphere over Wyoming, the three teams slowed and followed it down, each confirming where it crashed.
“Target is down,” Diane reported. “Return to base.”
Hellcat started to lag behind the rest of the squadron, then she shot out in front.
“Hellcat, what’s going on?” Diane asked.
She heard Hellcat swear under her breath.
“My craft is acting up again. It’s not right.”
Not again, Diane thought. “Can you make it back all right?”
“Affirmative,” Hellcat replied.
Diane could hear the anger in Hellcat’s voice. Who could blame her? Flying these craft was dangerous enough when they worked right. When they didn’t operate properly . . . ?
* * *
“Good job,” Hollis said as he entered the debriefing room. “First kill honors go to Lieutenant Zadanski with contributing credit to everyone else. Special mention to Lieutenant Catalano for first hit on the enemy scout saucer. Ceti Research ground crews are recovering the debris in the Wind River region of Wyoming as we speak.”
Helen Catalano stood. “Sir, my craft is acting up again. It’s undependable.”
What now? Hollis thought. “I’ll call Ceti Research. They’ll have it fixed sometime this morning.”
Catalano shook her head. “With all due respect, sir, I’m not getting stuck with a hangar queen. Send this one back to the taxpayers. I’m not flying it.”
He read her defiant attitude and resolve clearly enough. Prima donna? he wondered. He leaned back in his chair and tipped his head slightly. Dr. Cowen looked for prima donna attitudes carefully
in his initial interviews. It was a disqualifying personality trait, although her concern was probably fact-based, and accurate.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll make the call. You’ll have a new craft tomorrow.”
She nodded. “Thank you, sir.” She sat down.
The flight crew’s mood appeared sullen, except for Zadanski, who grinned from ear to ear. This was not what he expected to see. Simmons was his usual peaceful self.
“What’s going on?” Hollis asked.
“I’m happy,” Zadanski said. “I don’t understand why everyone else is so bummed, well, except for Simmons, of course.”
Hollis looked around the room. “Obers? Catalano? Silverstein?”
No one would make eye contact with him, nor would they say anything.
“Clay? What is it?” Zadanski asked.
Obers was clearly uncomfortable. “Nothing.”
He looked away, and then at the floor.
“It’s obviously not nothing. Talk to me,” Zadanski demanded.
Obers glanced at her, then returned his gaze to the floor.
“Tell me,” she said with an understanding tone.
“I don’t know. Well, I do, kind of, but I don’t understand it.” He twisted awkwardly in his chair. “All of these months we’ve trained to shoot down a scout saucer, and now that we have, it just feels too strange.”
The others nodded, except Simmons. He just sat there watching everyone else.
“It feels good to me,” Zadanski said. “What are you feeling?”
“It feels surreal to me, like it didn’t really happen,” Obers said.
“We were all there,” Zadanski replied. “We all shot and hit that scout saucer. It went down and crashed. We’re recovering the debris. It happened.”
Hollis was baffled by their response. “What did you think we were doing here?” he asked.
Zadanski had a puzzled look on her face. “Clay? Have you ever seen a real UFO before?”
He shook his head.
“Have any of you?” she asked.
“I’ve seen two on the radar scope,” Atkinson said. He looked directly at Zadanski. “But I’ve never seen a real one . . . until now.” Atkinson looked away.
“Clay?” Zadanski asked.
“I guess I didn’t believe they were real,” he said quietly.
“And now?” Hollis asked, surprised by their reaction.
“I feel like they are overwhelmingly real,” Catalano said. “Now, at least.”
“And before?” Hollis asked, trying to understand why they were feeling this way.
Catalano shrugged. “Not so much. I guess I bought into the theory that they were real, but not the actuality, you know?”
“I understand,” Zadanski said softly. She looked at Hollis. “If I may, sir?”
He nodded.
“Seeing a real UFO changes you,” Zadanski said. “It alters your perception of what is real and what isn’t. It turns everything you know upside down and inside out. I know that because it happened to me, nine years ago, when my twin brother was abducted by a UFO and killed. This is no longer the same world you woke up in this morning. This is a new reality—in many ways a terrifying one, but a real one, nonetheless. You are going to have to adapt to the new reality, soon. Your life depends on this shift in perception, because these things are dangerous and deadly. They will not hesitate to kill you.”
Her explanation made sense to him. Finally Hollis understood their response.
“We are now officially at war with the Zeta Greys,” he said. “I just want to remind you that picking a fight is a long way from winning that fight. Stay vigilant, stay situationally aware, and stay alive. I have four bottles of champagne on ice in the cafeteria for all of you to share if you feel up to it. Then get some rest. You’re going to need it.”
“Champagne anyone?” Zadanski asked. “Ryan? Clay?”
Atkinson shook his head. “I’m going to bed.”
“Me, too,” Obers said as he stood up.
One by one they got up and quietly went to their quarters.
* * *
Diane looked at the champagne on ice. There wasn’t any point in celebrating by herself, now, was there? she thought. She returned to her quarters. As she rounded the corner she got a glimpse of Helen slipping into Clay’s room.
She froze. What the hell’s going on? she wondered. She scurried down the hall to Ryan’s room. He’s probably still up, she thought. She knocked gently on the door. After a pause, he opened up and looked at her.
“I just saw the strangest thing,” she whispered.
He looked intrigued.
“Helen just slipped into Clay’s room.”
Ryan looked up and down the hall and sighed. “I guess it’s time. Follow me.” He walked down the hall and knocked gently on Simmons’s door. When the door opened, Simmons was wearing a brown floor-length robe.
She glanced inside his room. An eighteen inch high hand-carved wooden Buddha sat on his dresser.
“What . . . ?” This was the second shock for Diane in as many minutes.
“She needs to know,” Ryan said softly.
Simmons nodded and motioned them in.
“So the Zen thing is serious?” Diane asked.
Simmons nodded. “I’m a Zen Buddhist monk.”
“But isn’t that a non-violence kind of thing?” Diane asked. “What are you doing flying a fighter craft?”
A half smile played across his face. “Buddhists have known about extraterrestrials for more than a thousand years. We train in martial arts for a reason: life is precious, especially innocent lives. We defend those innocent lives with our skill and by placing our own lives on the line. That’s what I’m doing here. This is my karmic path.”
Diane’s mind struggled to grasp the reality of what he said. Then she smiled. “This is why Hollis put Buddha on your fighter craft.”
Simmons nodded.
“She saw Helen going into Clay’s room,” Ryan said.
“Ahhh, that,” Simmons said.
Diane looked over at Ryan. “There’s a code—no fraternizing.”
Ryan nodded.
“It’s not fraternizing,” Simmons said. “They’re married.”
Diane stepped back, her mind reeling. “What? They . . .”
Simmons nodded. “I was a witness for them. They tied the knot on leave in Vegas about a month before you got here.”
“But—” She was flabbergasted. She hardly knew what to say.
“We try to help keep it quiet,” Simmons said.
Diane sat on the bed. “There are surveillance cameras all over the place. Someone has to know.”
“Well,” Ryan said, “Collier obviously has to know; he runs base security.”
“And he hasn’t said anything? Does Hollis know?”
Simmons raised his eyebrows. “Probably. But I doubt it went any further than that.”
Diane shook her head. “The argument they had on my first day here?”
Simmons chuckled. “We try to make it convincing.”
She looked up at the ceiling. “You were in on it?”
Simmons nodded. She looked at Ryan. He shrugged and smiled. “They’re good people. We protect them however we can.”
Diane breathed out hard and looked down at the floor.
“Can we count on you?” Simmons asked.
She looked at the two of them and chuckled. “All this time, and I never had a clue.”
“Well?” Ryan asked. He stepped a little closer to her. “We’d like to keep it that way.”
She laughed out loud. “Yes, you can count on me.”
* * *
Hollis walked into his office and picked up the receiver of the red phone that sat on his desk. There were no buttons on the phone. It went to only one location.
“This is Admiral Hollis. I need you to wake him up. National security.”
“Yes, sir,” a Marine major answered.
Hollis waited patiently. Then he h
eard the president’s voice. “Howie, do we have confirmation?”
“We do, sir. First scout saucer has been shot down, no casualties on our side.”
“Okay, now the hard part begins.”
Hollis closed his eyes and nodded to himself.
“Yes, sir, it does.”
Chapter 35
President Andrews handed the phone back to the Marine major.
“Notify all senior military staff officers that I need them in the Situation Room ASAP.”
“Yes, sir.”
Andrews called his chief of staff, dressed, and walked to the elevator that would take him down to the underground Situation Room. He paced back and forth, rehearsing in his mind what he was going to say. I can do this, I can do this, he repeated to himself. Confrontations were never easy, but they were an essential part of leadership, especially in the political arena. Tension built in his chest as generals and admirals filed, one-by-one, into the room. Also present, at Andrews’s request, were officers from each branch’s military police and three members of the president’s own personal military unit. Those additions to the group left the generals and admirals nervous and skeptical.
When everyone was seated, Andrews stepped to the head of the long oval table and put his hands flat on the surface. That posture had the appearance of strength and power in it, but it also helped keep Andrews’s hands from shaking.
“I’m changing our nation’s priorities. I have met with the Russian president. Russia is no longer our enemy. You will withdraw all military assets and personnel from Europe. Move all of our armored units to transport ships, fly all of our bombers and fighters back to the U.S., and dismantle every missile installation. I want every nuclear weapon removed from all European countries, and I want it done now.”
“That’s insane,” Secretary of Defense Farnsworth said as he stood. “You can’t believe a word the Russian president says. You’re starting World War Three. The Russians will drive their tanks right over Europe. Those people won’t stand a chance without us there. The whole purpose of NATO is to defend Europe from a Russian invasion. We have contractual obligations that we have to honor. You can’t leave Europe defenseless.”
