by Ira Tabankin
A Novel
The Alien Whisperer
Book 2
1959-1999
First edition
Copyright in February 2020.
Ira J. Tabankin
Knoxville, TN 39720
Dedication:
This book is dedicated to my wife and true love.
Cover Design By
Graphic design by Matt Margolis.
Thanks:
I’d like to thank my beta readers, who helped me with their knowledge, comments, and encouragement. I’d like to thank Darryl Lapidus, and D. Thompson, who edited and made this edition possible.
Note:
Please note this isn’t a politically correct novel. Please recognize artistic license is used throughout this story. Any tense disparities are the author's view of the story as it's written.
Work of Fiction:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A Note on Punctuation:
Much of this story is a conversation between people. When we speak, we don’t do so in the same manner as the written word. Pauses in the written word aren’t usually there when we talk to each other. As such, the punctuation used in conversations is written as people speak, not as it would be in a written paragraph.
Copyright February 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Ira Tabankin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Ira Tabankin has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks, and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
Prologue
For centuries men have looked to the sky and wondered, ‘Are we alone?’ Some ancient societies looked up and thought the stars were windows from heaven, others thought they were gods watching us, and some said they were messengers from heaven. For years, flashing lights in the sky became the topic of stories. First in pulp fiction, comic books, and later on the large and small screens. In most of the movies, the aliens weren’t friendly. In the 1950s, the U.S. Air Force launched a program they called, “Project Blue Book” to investigate UFO sightings. After forty years, their final report said they could account for almost all of the sightings. Almost but not all. Some they couldn’t find a logical or natural reason for.
The crash at Roswell in 1947 was an actual alien ship crash. It’s pilot, Kalteck had survived a dog fight in orbit over Earth. He ejected from his damaged ship in what he called a life pod, a slim, glowing mini spaceship that was not only able to safely travel to Earth but could also carry him to the moon and back.
Kalteck was teamed with a young U.S. Army Air Force officer by the name of Captain Everett Yahnig, who was a military aide to President Truman. Captain Yahnig was also an ace, having shot down more than five enemy fighters over Germany in the Second World War. Truman prided himself on being able a good judge of people. He had taken an instant liking to Everett, who he promoted to Brigadier General pending Senate approval.
Truman assigned Everett to head up a new program which was going to be used as a cover for Everett’s real job which was to be the interface between Kalteck and America’s technology companies in order to increase the Earth’s technology so it could defend itself against an invading enemy fleet which was due to arrive around one hundred years in the future.
The enemy was Kalteck’s enemy from their old home world, which to the surprise of Everett and President Truman, had been the planet Mars. They learned that Mars had once been a living, thriving planet, with lush forests, oceans teeming with life, and two groups of beings Kalteck’s, who had lived in the northern hemisphere and the Emperor’s who had lived in the southern.
The two fought each other for over a hundred years. They used massive antimatter bombs and meteorites miles across. When the South had destroyed the North’s mining planetoid, which had been between Mars and Jupiter, the debris had been turned into weapons that cracked open the planet’s mantel. The Emperor’s scientists, needing rare minerals, tapped the planet’s core weakening its magnetic bubble, which kept the atmosphere contained around the planet.
Kalteck took to Everett and drafted him to be not only his interface with American companies but also with the Soviet Union. Everett made many trips with Kalteck to Moscow, where he met Chairman Stalin and later First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. Kalteck gave Everett a special gift, nanites that would help keep him alive for over one hundred years. Since Everett was the first human to have nanites, Kalteck wasn’t sure how long he’d live. He’d never let Everett know he was a walking experiment, one Kalteck would study for a very long time.
While Liane, Everett’s wife, wasn’t given nanites due to Kalteck not recognizing she was a critical member of the team, he did provide a drug to Everett, which would ensure Liane wouldn’t suffer any of the normal human diseases as she aged. She wouldn’t ever get the flu or cancer. Rather, one day, while sleeping, her heart would simply stop, and she would painlessly drift off. Everett wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He was glad she would never suffer as many did.
Part of Kalteck’s plan was to push both the Soviets and Americans to launch an artificial moon which would transmit a code to an alien invasion fleet. The code was to inform the oncoming fleet their target was already spoken for, and they should turn around or locate a different target. The Soviet Union beat America in the launching of the probe, they called it Sputnik 1. The small artificial moon broadcast the signal which was received by the alien ship’s AIs who accepted the message, without waking their crew from suspended animation sleep, and the AIs turned the fleet around.
Chapter 1
January 2nd, 1959 landed on a Friday, so Everett and Liane took the day off, giving them a four-day weekend. They decided to do something neither was usually able to do, they slept until they woke. Neither set their alarm clocks, enjoying the luxury of uninterrupted sleep when the bright red telephone which had a fifty-foot cord so Everett could carry it into any room he happened to be in, rang. The ringing tone was very unusual, almost a warbling tone, which increased in volume the longer it went unanswered.
Everett thought he was dreaming. He thought the ringing noise he heard was part of this dream, a dream where a stupid phone was attempting to wake him. He rolled over and covered his head with his white feather pillow before realizing he wasn’t dreaming. The red phone was actually ringing.
He knew the phone never rang with good news. It was connected directly to the Oval Office and the office of the Secretary of Defense. If it rang, one or
both of them urgently wanted to speak with him. Being three hours behind Washington had its advantages and disadvantages. One of the largest disadvantages was the President would be starting his day while it would still be in the very early morning hours in Las Vegas.
Everett reached over and pulled the handset under the pillow with him. He didn’t want to wake Liane and he didn’t want to fully wake himself by getting out of bed. He had hoped this was a question he could easily answer and then close his eyes and fall back to sleep. It was cold outside. He never thought it would get cold in Las Vegas, but he quickly learned not only did it get as hot as an oven, it also got as cold as northern Ohio and to his surprise, it even snowed, which brought the city to a complete halt.
“Hullo?”
“General Everett Yahnig? This is the White House operator calling.”
“Yeah?”
“Please hold for the President.”
Everett quickly sat up, waking Laine, “Everett, are you there?”
“Yes, sir. What can I do for you?”
“Have you been keeping track of your friends in Moscow? You haven’t been there lately, have you?”
“Mr. President, no, I haven’t been there. I’ve always followed my orders to inform you when Kalteck takes me to Moscow with him. I haven’t heard from him in a while. I assume he’s still out there in space searching for the enemy. Sir, has something happened in the USSR?”
“Has something happened? You’re telling me you don’t know?”
“Sir, I’m sorry, Liane and I have been sleeping in this morning…”
“Everett, early this morning, the Soviets launched another Sputnik. They’re calling this one Lunar 1. They’re sending it to the moon.”
Everett stood up next to his bed in shock. Kalteck hadn’t mentioned anything to him about a launch to the moon this early in the plan. “Everett, I’d like you on the first flight to Washington. I want to see the master plan our friend left in your possession. I want to see when Kalteck expected us to be able to launch a device to the moon. I don’t believe there’s any way our friends in Moscow could have launched Lunar 1 without a lot of assistance, a lot more than then he’s given us. I want to understand why your friend is showing the Reds special treatment when the agreement was for each of us to be given equal access to his technology.”
“Sir…”
“Don’t explain now, I want you here as quickly as possible with your report detailing what’s been going on.”
“Yes, sir.”
Liane broke out laughing at Everett, who had been standing in his underwear at attention next to the nightstand with red handset still in his hand. “I don’t think he can see you standing there, and if he did, I think he’d tell you, you’re out of uniform.”
Everett looked at himself in the mirror and broke our laughing, “I think you’re right.”
“Why did they wake you? Please don’t tell me you have to go into the office today?”
“The good news is I don’t have to go into my office. The very bad news is I have to fly to D.C. as soon as possible. He’s upset and wants to see me.”
“Can I come with you? I can be ready to leave as quickly as you.”
“Well, he didn’t tell me to come alone and he didn’t order me to fly military. Call the airport to see what they have available, book our flights, and then book us at the Hilton near the White House for two nights.”
“Really? I can go? I haven’t been to a real city in so long…”
“Las Vegas is a real city…”
“No, it’s not and we haven’t had time to drive to L.A. in over a year. I can’t wait. Why don’t you shower and take the shuttle flight to your office, I’ll pack for both of us and I’ll meet you at the terminal.”
“What if there are no flights to D.C.?”
Liane laughed, “Have faith in me. I’ll get us on a flight. Now go get dressed. I don’t think your staff is going to be impressed with you showing up in your underwear.”
Everett laughed and leaned over to kiss his wife. “I’m going to jump into the shower. Why don’t you put up some coffee.”
“It’ll be ready when you get out of the shower.” Liane sang, “I’m going shopping in a real city.”
Four hours later, Liane met Everett as he was walking down the steps from the shuttle flight between the airport and his base, Area 51. “How did you know when I was returning and were you able to get us a flight to D.C.?”
Liane smiled and nodded, “I called your secretary who told me she’d let me know which shuttle flight back you were going to take. In answer to your second question, how little faith in me you have, we’re leaving in forty minutes from gate twelve. I packed a spare uniform for you and your overnight toilet kit.”
“Honey, you’re the best. I love you.”
Liane stretched up to brush Everett’s hair into place, “I wish you’d give me your secret. My hair is graying, and you don’t have a single gray strand. What is your secret? Does the Air Force feed you something special for lunch that keeps you young?”
“My secret is you’re my wife. You keep me young.”
When they boarded the flight, Everett was surprised to learn Liane had booked them in first class. “Honey, first class? Can we afford this?”
“Don’t worry about it. I told the sweet ticket agent you were a Major General who had been called by the President and that we’d been ordered to get to the White House as quickly as possible, and he suggested TWA was the airline to fly. The nice agent gave us these seats for the cost of coach out of respect for your rank. I figured you’d need the extra comfort so you could finish writing your report.”
“How did you know I hadn’t finished my report yet?”
“Silly, because you’ve been home with me since the thirty-first. You told me you planned on writing it over the weekend. I figured this was as a good a time as any for you to finish it.”
“Honey, that was so sweet of you. However, my report is top secret. If I wrote it on the plane, someone might see it. I’ll jot down some notes and put it together tonight at the hotel.”
“Well, there goes my special dinner.”
“Okay, I’ll get up early tomorrow and finish it.” Liane looked out of the plane’s window smiling. She was so pleased she was getting to return to D.C. and flying was a very rare treat for her.
A stewardess smiled at the two gleaming stars on Everett’s uniform shoulders. She leaned over while holding a tray of tall champagne glasses, “Champagne? Or would you like something else before we take off?”
Everett sighed and took two tall glasses of champagne and handed one to Liane. “I see I’m not going to get much work done on the flight.”
“You might as well enjoy the flight; how often do you get to fly first class?” Everett was able to fill ten pages with notes he wrote in shorthand he’d learned to write while in high school, he planned to complete when they arrived at their hotel. The flight went smoothly. Their dinner of lobster and steak wasn’t as good as Liane’s favorite restaurant, but it was excellent for an airplane. They arrived at National Airport outside of the capital at 11PM. Everett was surprised to see an Air Force captain holding a sign with his name on it. “Hello, I’m General Yahnig.”
“Sir, welcome to D.C., I’ve been asked to take you and your wife to the hotel and then drive you to the Pentagon.”
Liane looked surprised, “At this hour?”
“Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry, but there is a working group waiting for the General to arrive.”
Everett nodded, “Honey, can you please unpack for me so I can get a head start on the meeting? I don’t have any idea how long it’s going to run so please don’t wait up for me…”
“Don’t be silly, it’s only 8 o’clock for us. I’ll be awake.”
The captain smiled, “Ma’am, I took the liberty of asking the hotel to put you in a suite.”
Liane beamed, “Thank you. That was very kind of you.” Liane thought so far this was going well, first
a first-class flight then a hotel suite. She knew Everett was going to get pulled into meetings, just being back in what she considered civilization was worth the cost of losing her husband for a few hours.
Everett was shown into the war room in the basement of the Pentagon. He was greeted by ten men and four women, all talking at once. The walls of the room were covered in paper charts and timelines. General James Rosco, the Four-Star general in charge of America’s long-range missiles waved Everett over and pointed at an empty seat. “Everett, welcome. I’m sorry to have to drag you across the country. I was hoping you had some insight or thoughts about the Soviet’s launch. We’re worried that if they could launch a missile to the moon, they would easily use the same missiles to attack us. I asked for you to join us because I’m wondering if it's possible an alien ship landed or crashed in the USSR and gave them the technology they needed to make this launch. We didn’t think they had the technology to reach the moon. We chalked up Sputnik to them modifying a German V2 rocket but launch to the moon was something we didn’t think they were capable of. Hell, we can’t do it yet.”
