by Mark Tufo
“Mike, we need to talk.”
“Alright,” I stammered.
“Why haven’t you been talking to me?” she blurted out.
Now I was completely confused. “You’ve been giving me the cold shoulder for three weeks and you want to know why I haven’t talked to you?”
“I’ll admit I’m feeling a little guilty about the whole thing, but after what we shared I thought you’d try a little harder instead of just falling off the face of the planet.”
“Huh?” I couldn’t even begin to grasp where this conversation was going. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Whatever gave you that impression?”
“You did. You’ve been extremely cold and distant.”
She completely blew off my argument and headed off on her own little tangent. “I’ve talked to Mark.” I looked at her with an unknowing stare. “The halfback at Penn.”
“Oh,” I answered.
“I told him that I wanted to break up.” My heart was doing back flips. “I’m not ready right now to be in a steady relationship, but if you’ll have me, I’d like to start again with you. But slower.” Now my heart was doing front flips. I must not have been all thumbs if she was breaking up with the Penn State stud for me. And then like a needle she burst my bubble. “I told him long distance relationships are too tough and I just couldn’t afford the time away from my studies to keep visiting him.”
“So you never actually told him about us?”
“I didn’t think there was much to tell actually.” My stomach started its somersault routine all over again.
‘Slow’ quickly turned to smoldering and then like a couch with a hidden cigarette it burst into a bright flame. We missed whole days; we’d emerge from our shade-drawn candlelit room only out of necessity. Food, water, bathroom breaks, that was about it. I ate, slept, and drank her in. If she left the room, I couldn’t wait for her return. Our relationship was that intense. Paul began to become a little perturbed that the time he and I were spending together had been reduced to virtually nil. And even on those rare occasions when we did hang out, it was usually with Beth along. Our friendship was strained a lot throughout that first freshman semester, but I didn’t even notice it then. I was so in love I couldn’t even see straight.
CHAPTER 11 – Journal Entry 11
I was able to gain a little perspective during winter break. Paul and Beth both went back to Massachusetts for the month layoff. I remained on campus, loaded down with extra credit so I could stay in school. You’ve never quite experienced loneliness until you’ve spent a Christmas by yourself. My Christmas dinner consisted of warmed over McDonald’s, which I had purchased the night before just for this occasion. I received calls from pretty much everyone I knew. The month went by fast, I spent the majority of it in the library getting my scholarly noggin screwed back on. Paul came up a few days earlier than expected which was greatly appreciated, especially since I had finished all my projects three days prior and was going absolutely stir crazy.
“It’s good to see you!” I had been sitting in the dorm lobby watching the tube when Paul strolled in.
Paul came up and gave me a hug. “It’s good to see you too. What have you been up to?”
“Going nuts,” was my reply.
“Come on, let’s go have a beer.”
“I can’t tell you how much I’ve been waiting for those words.”
We went to a local bar that was pretty lax on the whole ID protocol. We drank, played darts and shot some pool all night. It definitely felt like old times. It was then that I realized how little we had been doing this kind of thing. Just hanging out and rapping with each other.
“Hey, Paul, I’m sorry I’ve pulled away so much this last semester.”
“You noticed that too?”
“Okay, so I guess I got a little wrapped up in the whole Beth thing.”
“I totally understand. She’s definitely the type of chick that you can get totally wrapped up in.”
“Tell me about it. But I promise I won’t spend nearly as much time with her this semester as the last. And when we hang out it’ll just be a guys’ night out.”
“Sounds good to me. When does she get back?”
I looked at my watch. “Two days, twelve hours and forty-six minutes.” Paul was looking at me incredulously, shaking his head. “I’m just kidding.”
“Ass.” He nailed my arm with a punch.
* * *
Beth came back a couple of days later. There was a little awkwardness there. But we quickly got it over with.
“Did you miss me?” I asked her.
“I saw Mark.” I thought I might double over. I tried to regain control of my emotions before I spoke. I was unsure how to proceed, so I waited for her to continue. It didn’t take long, I learned at least one thing about women, if you leave enough open-air time in front of them they feel compelled to fill it. “He told me he missed me, and that he wanted to get back together with me.”
“What did you say? Did you tell him about us?”
“I told him I missed him too.”
What! I screamed in my head. “I’m not sure I understand?” I was attempting to quash the mounting horror I was feeling. I wasn’t doing too well with that.
“I’m not sure what to do. I have strong feelings for both of you. I’ve been going out with Mark for two and half years—it’s hard to just let go.”
“Did you spend time with him?” That was the best way I felt I could broach the subject. It was vague but we both know what I meant. She never answered that question directly, that was all the answer I needed.
CHAPTER 12 - Seventy miles South of the Boulder Municipal Playground – Cheyenne Mountain
“Lieutenant, I asked you a direct question. What is that?” Captain Moirane said. He was a man used to having his questions answered in a timely manner. A little over six feet tall and built like a flying fortress, he struck a very imposing figure. Captain Moirane had worked his way up in the Marines Corps, he was what the troops called a Mustang. He was an enlisted man who had crossed over to the officer ranks. These type of officers have had arguably the most loyal following among their troops because they knew what it was like to be a grunt in the field. So it was with great hesitation that Lieutenant Blankenship, a boot lieutenant out of Georgia University, answered the captain with a pure look of amazement.
“Sir, I just don’t know. We’ve been tracking it for three hours since that civilian observer called it into NASA. At first we thought it was a huge meteor, but then twenty minutes ago it changed direction. It’s on a direct collision course with Earth.”
“I’ve got two questions for you, Lieutenant. I’m going to be very specific and I want very specific answers. If you do not know the answers at this time, I want you to do everything in your power to obtain them. Because my next call is going to be to the President and I had better damn well know what I am talking about. Do you understand me, son?”
The lieutenant understood well enough to know the term ‘son’ was not used for endearment. “Sir, yes, sir!”
“Lieutenant, I want to know exactly how big that thing is and I want to know exactly how long we have until it makes contact with my beloved planet!”
“Sir, yes, sir. The science officer is en route now.”
“What’s his ETA?”
“I would say about now, sir,” the lieutenant snapped.
“Captain, why was I awakened at this godforsaken hour? This had better be the emergency the lieutenant made it out to be. I’ve had just about enough of your emergency response drills,” Dr. Schoville said with just a hint of venom. The professor, a short balding man in his middle sixties, looked more like Larry the janitor than one of the world’s leading astrophysicists. That was further pointed out by his disheveled appearance. It was almost comical, blue jeans with a pajama top and one slipper paired with one loafer.
“Why, Professor, it’s good to see you too,” the captain said sarcast
ically. “I see you’ve pulled yourself together well tonight.”
“Oh, do zip it, Captain,” the professor said as he plopped down into his control seat. “As much as I like you, I have no desire to banter this evening.”
“Professor, I would not have called you out of bed at this late hour unless it was absolutely imperative.”
“What happened?” the professor grunted. “Did the cow jump over the moon?”
“Object J-2378 has changed direction, Phil.”
The professor looked up with a jerk. For the captain to forget protocol and use his first name obviously meant he was serious. “But that’s impossible—meteors don’t just change course. Did it collide with another object and veer off?” the professor asked incredulously.
“No,” the lieutenant spoke. “One minute it was heading off into the delta quadrant and then it hesitated for about ten minutes and then changed its heading exactly in this direction.” The lieutenant appeared nervous and a little bit relieved; the man he was talking to was infinitely more capable of answering the captain’s questions.
“That, my dear professor, is why we woke you at this godforsaken hour,” the captain added. The professor looked nearly as nervous as the lieutenant.
“Lieutenant, could you be a champ and get me a very big cup of coffee? I think I’m going to be here awhile,” the professor said resignedly.
* * *
“Captain, for the two hours I’ve been studying this object, it is by no means a natural celestial body,” the professor said later. Had his scientific side not been so curious, he actually might have been afraid.
“Professor, for the record, what exactly are you saying?” the captain demanded. “Do you expect me to call the President of the United States and tell him a space ship with little green men is on a collision course with Earth?”
“First off, Captain, I’m certain this ship will stop before it impacts with our planet and from what I can tell there are no little green men manning this ship unless there are millions of them,” the professor half-stammered out. “The ship appears to be roughly half the size of our moon and will be in a tidal influencing position in less than two weeks at its present speed. But I’ll be honest with you, Captain. This ship hasn’t been traveling the stars at its present speed unless it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of thousand years old. I’m sure these beings have some sort of hyper or warp drive, if you will, that could have them in our neighborhood more in the vicinity of a day or two or quite possibly even an hour or two. If I were you, Captain, I would get on the phone with the President now.”
The captain could not even begin to fathom how he was going to start this conversation off. He had been through two wars and dozens of skirmishes, but at this moment, on this night, he felt that he was the most out of his depth he had ever been in his entire life.
“Lieutenant, call the President and get the Joint Chiefs of Staff out of their beds. I also want General Burkhalter up here as well.”
“Sir, yes, sir!” the lieutenant shouted, sweat pouring off his face in rivulets. The captain noted that and was mildly amazed considering the ‘mountain’, as it was affectionately called, was air conditioned to near freezing temperatures to keep the machinery running at peak performance.
Less than an hour later, the captain found himself, via satellite hookup, staring face-to-face with the most powerful people on the planet; the President, his military leaders, and some of the most prominent cabinet members along with the senate and house chairmen.
“Good morning, Captain Moirane,” the President said almost jauntily for this time of day. The captain was surprised the President knew his name, much less that he was in an affable mood.
“Good morning to you, Mr. President,” the captain added as politely as possible. Just because the man was his boss didn’t mean he had to like him. But then again the captain had never liked any Democratic leader in the Oval Office; the military was always the first to suffer.
“Captain, I have this fairly thorough briefing in front of me but I would like your opinion on this matter. I have some very conflicting theories and proposals being thrown around here, I welcome an outside opinion in this grave matter. What are your thoughts?”
“Sir, at this time it is near impossible to theorize on what these beings want. At this time we can’t even be sure there is life on this ship, it could possibly be some sort of probe. We can hope if there are sentient beings on this ship they are merely out on an exploratory mission as opposed to a military operation. However, it is my belief we should prepare for a full scale planetary invasion, but I believe, Sir, that a pre-emptive strike, as some of your advisers are advocating, would be futile and more than likely fatal.”
“Why is that, Captain? My generals here feel we should launch our shuttles armed with all the nuclear payload they can carry and strike well before this ship ever enters our orbit.”
“Mr. President, with all due respect, these aliens—” that even sounded funny to him; the captain could hardly believe he was saying the word ‘aliens’ and wasn’t making up a story for his sons. “Well, these aliens traveled from a distance we cannot even fathom at this time in our evolution, it would be a safe call to say they are at least two hundred to a thousand years ahead of us in technology. It is my opinion and my opinion only, Mr. President, that to attack them with nuclear weapons would only prove to these aliens that we are a hostile species and that we would need to be dealt with accordingly. Quite possibly they are merely curious about another intelligent species in space.”
“Captain, what makes you think they believe we are an intelligent species?” the President said, stress beginning to strain his voice.
“Sir, it is mine and Dr. Schoville’s opinion that the only way they even noticed us was by radio and television transmissions. We had the computers running simulations for the last hour and as near as we can tell from the distance that ship is from our planet, they are watching and hearing transmissions roughly from the 1980s. Sir, another assumption we have made is that these beings most likely have already formed a not so flattering portrait of our species. The vast majority of our television matter is laced with violence.”
“So my point again, Captain; what makes you think those aliens think we’re intelligent?” That earned a few laughs and helped to lighten the mood for a least a short while.
“All the more reason to strike as soon as possible!” the commander of the Army, General Forbes yelled. Always the tactful one.
“I understand your concern, General,” the President stated flatly. “But I agree whole-heartedly with the Captain’s view, we would merely be proving to the aliens that what they are watching on our television transmissions is true and most likely, a full strike would do little more than be an irritation to this ship. No, we must seek a diplomatic solution, although it would be a lot easier for negotiations if we knew what the hell they were up to. Having the upper hand is the key to negotiations and I can assure you, gentlemen, that is not something we possess at this time. Mr. Secretary, could you please get me the Chinese Premier and the Russian President on the line? Thank you, Captain Moirane, I’ll be in touch.” The huge monitor inside the mountain winked out. Captain Moirane looked at the screen for a few more minutes, letting the full weight of these events hit him like a tidal wave.
The Captain turned from the screen and approached the lieutenant.
“Lieutenant, go home, enjoy the weekend. And remember, everything you have seen and heard today is top secret.”
“I understand, sir. I’ll see you on Monday. Sir?” the lieutenant asked.
“Yes, Lieutenant,” the Captain answered, already half submerged in other thoughts.
“Are we going to be all right, sir?”
The captain turned back to fully face the lieutenant. “Son—” and now it was clearly meant to be a term of endearment—“I just don’t know.”
CHAPTER 13 – Journal Entry 12
“Bud, what’s up with you? You
look like a whipped dog,” Paul quipped.
“Paul, Beth has got me in such a funk I don’t know if I should fart or cry,” I complained.
“What’s up?” he asked seriously.
“She didn’t come right out and say it, but I think she got back together with Mark.”
“Mike, I’m sorry, but I told you not to get too involved with her. She’s a heartbreak looking for a place to happen.”
“I know you’re right, it’s almost as if I can’t help myself. I know I’m in over my head, but when I see her…”
“Yeah-yeah, your heart takes over,” he chided.
“No, it’s not like that. Okay well it’s a little like that. But there’s more, it’s almost like I’m falling—”
“Talbot, don’t say it!” Paul looked mock horrified. “Don’t spend your entire collegiate career on one girl, even if she’s a beauty. You’ll miss out on so much and you’d better remember she still has Joe Jock out at Penn State unless she told you she has other plans for that particular problem. Face it, buddy, you’re her plaything, not the other way around. Women have needs too. You just happen to have what she needs now.” He chortled at his own wit.
“Bite me,” I said, but he really did have me thinking that I was merely a pawn in a much larger game.
“Just ride it out. I’m not saying to not enjoy your time with her, but don’t get any more emotionally involved than you already are. I can guarantee you will get irreparably burned. You are my best friend and I don’t want to see you waste away our greatest party years.”
