by Dean M. Cole
Looking over his right shoulder, he saw the three beings still hadn't acknowledged his presence. As far as Victor could tell, they hadn't even reacted to his graceless dismount of the imagined planetary-scale precipice. A walking thesaurus in the vernacular of her son's unending failures, his mother would've described that little foible as maladroit.
Shaking off the thought, he studied the figures. From his closer vantage point, he realized they were standing behind a console. Oriented toward the center of the wide clear wall, it was about four feet tall and topped with an angled curving glass. Like holograms in a science fiction flick, enigmatic three-dimensional multicolored figures floated over its surface.
In height and width, the three beings appeared to have the same proportions as a human. Each had two arms and two legs. However, Vic couldn't discern anything beyond that in the ship's dark interior.
The holograms seemed to respond to their manipulations, although it was impossible to tell what they were doing from this distance. He saw the center figure's shadowed head look beyond the control panel as if studying something outside.
Falling back to his original plan, Vic crept along the invisible wall—keeping a respectful distance from the miles-high ledge.
He divided his attention between the aliens on his right and the incredible panorama to his left. Below, cities formed beautiful pools of scintillating lights. As the ship continued eastward, their prevalence increased until there was more city than dark countryside. Then it abruptly ended. White light gave way to the zigzagging black boundary of a dark ocean. "Holy shit," Vic whispered. They were already passing over the Atlantic Ocean.
The ship started a slow rotation. Originally oriented backward, its clear wall had been facing west. Still traveling east, the vessel turned through north. As it slowly rotated to face the oncoming eastern horizon, a carmine sun peeked from behind Earth's curved surface. A thin red beam sliced from right to left across the cabin's dark interior. Rising through the layers of the atmosphere, the orb changed from red to orange and then to yellow. As the vessel continued its clockwise eastern rotation, the sun painted a sweeping mural of shifting colors across the room's left wall.
Having reached the front center, Victor took a deep breath and turned to face the beings. Silhouetted against the eastern horizon's glow, he stood between their apparent control console and the clear wall, feeling naked, exposed. However, the ship hadn't finished its rotation. His hosts remained dark voids in the room's brightening interior. Behind him, the sun continued along its horizontal arc, its brightening rays slowly banishing the ship's internal shadows. Marching inexorably across the ship's interior, the sun's light finally fell across the trio.
Victor froze, unable to comprehend what he saw.
"This doesn't make sense." Confusion morphed into anger. He screamed, "What the hell is going on here?"
Unresponsive, the three perfectly normal human beings simply stared back.
"What are you doing? You nearly kill me and my wingman, you crash my fighter, and scare the shit out of me. What the fuck?"
Silent and expressionless, they continued to stare at Victor.
He looked around. "Where'd this ship come from, anyway?"
Infuriatingly, they just stared back, mild humor the only detectable emotion.
Finally, the center one answered in a heavily accented language. Victor didn't understand the words. They sounded like Afrikaner, but all wrong.
"What?" he asked.
The apparent leader held up his right index finger in a hold-on gesture. His other hand moved back to the strange looking panel.
A rotating, three-dimensional green hologram of a human brain emerged from its surface. Rising above the control panel, it hovered between them. Victor looked from the hologram to the man with a questioning look. To his surprise, the holographic brain mimicked his head's movements. Thinking it might be a coincidence, Vic turned his head left and right. The green brain did the same.
A vertical stack of holographic cubes streamed through the air to the left of the brain. Each block had a different color and a unique symbol. No longer worried the ship's occupants might be toothy aliens with a taste for human flesh, Victor stepped in for a closer look. He thought the symbols on the boxes might be part of some arcane computer language.
The center man apparently found what he was looking for. He made a gesture, and the cascading cubes rolled to a quick stop. Reaching into the hologram, he tapped a virtual box. To Victor's surprise, the cube moved as if it had mass. As it slid out of the column, a new cube, identical in color and symbol to the one now in the leader's hand, coalesced out of thin air, filling the vacated slot. Raising it to eye level, the man looked at Victor through the semitransparent purple cube and grinned. The holographic brain swelled to the size of a beach ball. Winking at Victor, the man tossed the cube into it.
Forming concentric rings, small waves radiated from the point of impact, like water disturbed by a falling rock. An oilcan popping sound rang out as the cube breached the surface.
Dizzying vertigo buckled Victor's knees. He fell backward. Something resembling a lounge chair rose from the floor and caught him. He sat unmoving, disoriented by a strange tingling sensation. It felt like something was tickling his brain. As the impression passed, he shook his head.
Victor looked up at the three men staring down on him. Before he could ask them what had happened, the leader spoke again.
***
"Before I could say anything, he spoke again." Victor said. The enigmatic smirk returned. "And, I understood him perfectly."
Confused, Jake closed his gaping mouth. "What do you mean? Was he speaking English?"
"No, he was still speaking in that strange language."
"And, you could understand him?"
"Yep."
Maddeningly, Vic didn't elaborate. He just sat there grinning.
Jake grew impatient. "What? What did he say?"
After a theatric pause, Lieutenant Croft continued. "He said, 'Welcome home, brother.'"
CHAPTER FIVE
"This is where it gets interesting," a new voice said from the doorway.
Jake turned to see a wiry middle-aged Air Force brigadier general enter the room.
All three men scrambled to their feet and snapped to attention in response to the sudden appearance of a very senior Air Force officer.
The officer chuckled. "At ease, gentlemen."
Relaxing from rigid attention, Jake turned and read the general's name tag: TANNEHILL. It was the uttered name that had ended his interrogation. Looking at Richard, Jake cocked an eyebrow. "And, the plot thickens."
Walking to the head of the long table, General Tannehill motioned for them to take a seat. He grinned at Jake. "You don't know the half of it, son."
The three men sat down. Jake leaned back in his chair. "Well, sir, I haven't felt this naive since Betty Sue Alford kissed me during third-grade recess."
The general smiled. "I'm not sure I can be as enlightening as Betty Sue, but I'll try to clear up a few things for you." Sliding out the end chair, the general sat. Leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table, General Tannehill pointed at Jake. "Let me start off by saying I'm very impressed by how you've handled yourself. All the way through the incredible events of the last two days, you've acquitted yourself nicely." Tannehill gave him a knowing look and winked. "Even considering last night's taxi flight to freedom."
Jake's face flushed. Richard and Victor both laughed.
The senior officer leaned into his chair and held his hands up in a penitent gesture. "I hope you'll accept my apology for all the subterfuge."
A million questions ran through Jake's mind. "Sir—"
General Tannehill extended an index finger. "Before you ask, allow me to give you a brief history lesson. Hopefully, that'll clear up most of your questions."
Surrendering, Jake leaned back in his chair. "Sir, you have my complete and undivided attention."
"Well, as you may have g
uessed, we're not alone. It turns out the Milky Way Galaxy is teeming with life." He pointed through the ceiling. "There are thousands of sentient species out there." General Tannehill paused, allowing Jake a few seconds to absorb the news.
Jake's mind reeled with the new revelation. He looked around the room, expecting to see one of its occupants grinning. They weren't. The general's assumption that Jake had guessed they weren't alone was wrong. He'd been prepared to accept that the Air Force or some other governmental agency had acquired radical new technology. The presence of humans aboard the strange ship only reinforced the notion.
Jake turned incredulously to the general. "Thousands, sir? No disrespect, but you're pulling my leg, right?" He pointed at Victor. "Lieutenant Croft said the ship's occupants were human."
With an understanding smile, General Tannehill held up a hand. "Bear with me, Captain."
"But, sir, if there are thousands …" he paused, searching for words. "They'd be hard to miss. Surely we would've seen them long before this."
The general's smile expanded. "We did. May I continue?"
Shocked, hands raised in surrender, Jake sat back. "Sorry, sir, please do."
Tannehill smiled sympathetically. "It's okay, Captain. I've been in that seat myself." Leaning forward, he activated a computer embedded in the table.
The room darkened and a storm of lights swirled overhead. Looking up, Jake froze in open-mouthed amazement. After a few seconds, the pinpoints of light coalesced into a vibrant hologram that filled the space between the long table and the ceiling. "It's beautiful," he whispered.
Nearly filling the room, a stunning twenty-foot-wide three-dimensional rendering of the spiral-armed Milky Way galaxy rotated majestically over their heads.
General Tannehill continued as if a hovering hologram were an everyday occurrence. "The predominant species is an ancient race called the Argonians. Steeped in tradition and spread throughout hundreds of star systems, they founded a transgalactic government thousands of years ago."
"While it was started by the Argonians, it is an inclusive, representative government, providing peace and stability equally to all, regardless of species or stature."
He toggled the computer's touchscreen. A truly alien bust filled the display. Chirping melodiously, a feathery, bird-like creature's obvious sentient eyes peered through a colorful plume.
"Argonian?"
Tannehill shook his head.
Fading, the avian was replaced by a furry squeaking mouse-like being. Beaming with intelligence, its eyes twitched nervously back and forth under a gold flight helmet. Then an alien with a grouper's fish face spoke in a deep tone, the meaning of its gurgling words a mystery. An accelerating myriad of visages paraded through the hologram, morphing through various species: reptilian, amphibian, and several more avian and mammalian analogues. Jake was unable to class some—including one that looked like a talking rock with a matching gravelly voice.
The last one faded, and the hologram vaporized.
Jake's gaze dropped to the general. "Their eyes." He paused, searching for the right words. "Regardless of color or shape, they all burned with … intelligence."
"Astute observation, Captain," General Tannehill said with an appreciative nod.
"So, which one was Argonian?" Jake asked.
"None." Apparently disinclined to expound, the general continued his presentation. His fingers danced over the embedded keyboard, and a new hologram coalesced overhead. He pointed at the rotating icon. "The Seal of the United Galactic Federation, the Argonian founded institution that has successfully governed the galaxy for thousands of years."
Several unidentifiable symbols adorned its surface. However, Jake was surprised to see familiar images of interlinked rings, birds, and green leaves prominently displayed on the revolving hallmark.
The hologram changed back to the rotating galactic plane and the general continued. "It's a big galaxy—unimaginably big. Even with all of their assets and technology, the Argonians still haven't charted every sector. So, a couple of thousand years ago, they deployed a self-propagating network of sensors."
Jake watched a grid of luminous green points spread across the twenty-foot-wide galaxy. Numbering in the tens of thousands, the rendered devices gave the entire galaxy a green hue.
"They're designed to look for a myriad of signals associated with burgeoning technological societies."
Jake nodded, enthralled.
"In nineteen forty-five, we got their attention," the general said, with a meaningful look.
After a moment, Jake put it together. "We detonated our first nuclear weapon."
"Yep," Richard chimed in. "Apparently, unnatural fission reactions rate pretty high on their list."
The general nodded. "When the Argonians detected the electro-magnetic pulse, they deployed two scout ships to our sector of the galaxy. Upon arrival, they identified Earth, a previously unknown and uncharted planet, as the source. When they began observations, they made a stunning discovery, one requiring an immediate report to the Galactic Federation," the general paused, a grin spreading across his face.
Jake was on the edge of his seat. "What was it?"
The rotating Milky Way morphed into a human head and shoulders. A man in his mid-twenties stared at Jake. Aside from the odd cut of his uniform, he looked like a normal person.
Jake looked from the holographic man to General Tannehill. "I'm confused, sir."
The general pointed. "There's your Argonian."
Jake leaned back. "What?"
"To the surprise of the scouts and the Argonian leadership, Earth had been populated by Argonians—or as we refer to ourselves, humans."
"Holy shit…" Jake whispered. Embarrassed, he looked at the general. "Sorry, sir."
The general chuckled. "I think I said the same thing."
With dawning realization, Jake turned to Vic. "That's what he meant by brother."
In reply, Vic said something, but Jake didn't understand him.
"What?" Jake asked.
Victor said a few more words, and Jake realized it wasn't English. Actually, it was a language he'd never heard.
Jake turned to General Tannehill as the man finished entering a command into the computer. A two-foot-wide holographic brain popped into existence over that end of the conference table. To its right a vertical queue of four-inch-wide cubes matching Victor's description streamed past. As each box in the descending column reached the tabletop, it vaporized. At the same time, a new cube coalesced at the top of the line. Every box was a different color, and each had a unique symbol.
The general studied the boxes. When a translucent purple one came into view, he reached in and grabbed the four-inch cube between thumb and forefinger. As if it were solid, the box left the streaming line of icons. Again, just as Victor had described, a new box appeared in the emptied space.
Holding the cube at eye-level, Tannehill studied its symbol.
To Jake, the figure looked like a curved-leg numeral seven with a horizontal equal sign bisecting its center.
Looking at Jake through the translucent icon, the general grinned deviously.
"Wait—" Jake started. Before he could finish the protest, the general tossed the icon into the disembodied mind.
An audible metallic pop rang from the point of impact. Concentric rings radiated across the holographic brain's surface.
A sudden wave of nausea struck Jake as dizzying vertigo made him feel like the room was spinning. Jake grabbed the table with both hands. A strange tingling sensation flooded his head. As it passed, he blinked several times. "That felt weird." Jake froze in shocked amazement. He'd spoken in the same strange tongue as Vic.
"Can you understand me now?" Vic asked in the same language.
"Oh my god, that's amazing," he said through an unnerved laugh. Jake switched back to English. "I can completely differentiate the two languages," he grinned widely, "as if I've spoken them for my entire life."
Looking at General Tannehill, J
ake pointed to the holographic brain and the scrolling icons. "Is that just for learning languages? Can it teach other subjects?"
The general smiled. "There's way more than that. Want to learn Kung Fu or at least the Argonian equivalent?"
Richard leaned over the table, pointing at the hologram. "It's like The Matrix without a big hole in the back of your head."
Head spinning from all the revelations, Jake felt both mentally exhausted and simultaneously exhilarated. The significance of what this meant for himself, his family, and his friends—hell, the entire world—was incredible.
His grin never faltering, General Tannehill seemed to enjoy the flood of emotions and questions streaming across Jake's face. He imagined the general probably had the same reaction upon receiving his first briefing.
Giddy with the possibilities, Jake nodded. "Please continue, sir. How are we and the Argonians the same race?"
"We don't know for sure. They've told us that some of their early colony ships disappeared, never to be heard from again. As I said earlier, it's a damn big galaxy. They theorize one may have been stranded here tens of thousands of years ago. Although, we have no idea what became of their technology or scientific knowledge. Apparently, they were close enough genetically to the Neanderthals to coexist."
"According to recent genetic discoveries, they did more than coexist," Richard added.
"Amazing," Jake whispered.
"Anyway, returning to the nineteen forties," the general said. "After reporting their discovery, the scouts were ordered to proceed. Unfortunately, before they could make contact, there was a mishap. One of the scout ships encountered a severe thunderstorm over New Mexico and crashed." The general smiled and raised his eyebrows. "An incident most refer to as Roswell."
Jake sat bolt upright. "Roswell was real?"
"Yes," the general said. "It was a freak accident. Guess it just goes to show, even though they've advanced significantly, they're still fallible humans."
"But why would they be in Roswell?"
