The Nexus Colony
Page 37
“You haven’t told us everything,” Korbett said.
The doctor had hesitated for a moment, contemplating, then nodded his head affirmatively. He turned and looked through the glass at the carved-up body down on the metal table. Other doctors were still milling around the autopsy table. “You’re right,” he had replied. “There is something more. That’s what’s got us all puzzled.”
“What? for Christ’s sake,” Korbett had responded somewhat impatiently, then apologized.
The doctor sloughed it off. “Antarctic man here…well, he’s had his appendix surgically removed.”
There had been a moment’s silence, Korbett not quite sure what the doctor meant by that. Finally he asked, “That all that unusual?”
“Well…” the doctor had replied, “Yeah. Actually it is. I guess a lot of these early man specimens have been found to have had organs and appendages removed. Always a butcher job, though.”
“But not the appendix,” Maislin had commented.
“Not to my knowledge,” the doctor replied. “But it’s not so much the appendix.” He looked at Korbett.
“What is it then?” Korbett inquired, controlling his patience.
“It’s the way it was removed.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was cut out,” the doctor had said. “No marks. No visible scar, although that might have withered. It was surgically removed by an extremely skilled surgeon.”
“How skilled?” Maislin inquired.
“Like I’m talking a precision cut so perfect that I’d like to have that guy on my staff.”
“Could they do that back then?” Maislin asked.
The doctor shook his head. “I doubt it very much. There’s only one procedural technique that I know of that even comes close to being able to perform that precise a surgery.”
“What might that be?” Korbett had asked.
“Laser technology, gentlemen,” the doctor had replied.
Somebody other than Korbett could have explained away the presence of the caveman, but the issue of the missing appendix only served to complicate the matter. There had to be a connection between the two—caveman and alien…Antarctica—but Korbett was glad it wasn’t going to be him who had to try to explain it to the President and the Joint Chiefs. For that matter, he wasn’t sure even if anybody was going to be able to explain it. The whole thing was out of sync. Antarctic ice was supposed to have been there for a million years. If this “caveman” was indeed modern man, he couldn’t have existed like this a million years ago. So much for modern science.
Korbett was most impressed, however, by Mike Ruger. Even in the short time he had spoken with him, Ruger seemed to have a level of integrity that was a cut above most people Korbett had known in his lifetime. Rula Koslovsky had called Ruger, wholesome and commanding. The man had an incredible sense of resolution. Bill Korbett admired that quality in people. Few had it. These were the kind of people who were able to survive no matter how bad the odds got. God only knows we’re all going to be called up to that level of resolution some day in the future.
Ruger had respect for everything, not just people. He may be a man of few words, but those words so far seem to convey profound meanings. It was Ruger who said to them a few hours ago at the briefing: I think The Ice is only something temporary. It just seems to us like it’s been here for all time. But it’ll go away some day. I got the feeling that’s how those aliens are regarding us humans.
Mike Ruger was an interesting man. He was right about what he had said. Korbett recalled the last few minutes of conversation before he departed for the White House and the briefing with the President. His team—they were all right in what they had said, not just Ruger.
Rula Koslovsky put it succinctly: We do not yet know their purpose, nor have we yet figured out their agenda. We only understand that we are yet to be deceived.
Vandergrif said: To what self-serving purpose they have come is still far beyond the human purview.
Maislin’s comments put it well into perspective. Perhaps it was as Eli had suggested: Maybe we, in our arrogance, are laying claim to that which truly is not ours to claim. We accidentally stumbled onto one of their colonies, they tried to discourage us from exploring it, and then when we persisted, they scared the living shit out of us!
But of all his charges, it was probably Willard Darbury who put it best into perspective: We know they’re here, and they know we know they’re here. And occasionally they find it necessary to demonstrate their mastery over us. They choose to do so where they have found us to be the most vulnerable. They hurt us in our minds, for they know we are unable to reason their agenda. That they are loathing of our human existence seems testament to the deep, dark malevolence of their nature. We shall neither be permitted to interrupt their world, nor shall we be permitted to understand why they interrupt ours. We can only pray that some day they will go away and leave us to our own end.
Ted Payne interrupted his thoughts. “You got thirty minutes,” he said.
Korbett hadn’t heard the door opening. Thirty minutes. What was probably the most significant event in human history had just taken place—extended contact between humans and extraterrestrials—and the President of the United States was giving him thirty minutes to brief him and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Korbett sighed deeply, stood up putting on his best military posture, and marched confidently into the chamber.
But somehow, some way, he managed to present a masterful briefing that left everyone in the room in a hushed silence after he had finished. Korbett closed his notebook at the conclusion and looked around the room. He thought at first it might just have been the magnitude of what he had reported, that they were all just letting it sink in. There was absolute silence throughout the room. It took a few moments before it sank into his own brain. These generals and this admiral—an assemblage of the most powerful military men in this country—they had heard this kind of briefing before from men like Bill Korbett. His wasn’t the first. There have been other encounters. Many others. They offered no comment. They asked no more questions. They simply sat in their high-backed leather chairs, powerful in their human arrogance, but powerless within their human means to do anything at all.
The President unfolded his hands, which he had been resting in front of him on the huge, oak table. His eyes peered around the room, focusing in on each emotionless face. Then lastly, he turned to face Bill Korbett.
The President only responded, “Thank you, General Korbett.” Then he turned toward the Joint Chiefs of Staff and said, softly, “That will be all for now, gentlemen.” The meeting ended as quickly as it began. The President arose and abruptly left the room. There would be no record of it. Not now. Not ever.
Bill Korbett left the White House grounds without even bothering to say good-by to Ted Payne. The chauffeur drove out through the iron gate and entered the traffic congestion of Washington. It was deathly quiet in the back of the car, and Korbett was glad that the driver had courteously closed the privacy panel. Overwhelmed, Korbett couldn’t help but to ponder the situation from the whole big picture. One damn big picture. How to get a mental grasp on it and put it into some sort of perspective…
The alien visitors were most likely present at the dawning of mankind. Maybe they were even instrumental in bringing about the dawn. We may never know things like that. We may not be allowed to know. That we should even render thoughts about the possibilities of our origins on this planet Earth being engineered by an alien culture was frightening in itself. We have been here on this Earth a long time. They were here along with us back then, and even before that.
But the most frightening thought of all was knowing that they were still out there and they still haven’t left.
th friends