The Alien Whisperer Book 2

by Ira Tabankin

  The 1980s started off with our first successful space shuttle flight. Kalteck told me this was our new way to place satellites into space and modules to begin building a large permanent space city. He was very pleased with our progress when, later in the year, our first probe designed to exit our own system provided us with information about what we called deep space. Voyager passed Saturn and he probe sent back our best images of the planet’s rings. I was so excited while Kalteck smiled at me like I was a small child. His answer to my excitement was to take me to Saturn so I could see the rings up close. I couldn’t believe what I experienced. I wasn’t allowed to breathe a word of this or my other flights with Kalteck. The other event which pleased Kalteck was the announcement by IBM of their first PC. Kalteck made sure we had one of the first units off their production line. Kalteck opened the case while explaining to me the function of the different components. He explained how most of the components were going to be reduced into a single chip.

  One evening, on Kalteck’s ship, we watched the Soviet’s Mir probe land on Venus. Kalteck nodded while smiling. He told me this was a good sign that we were learning how to navigate in space and land on another planet. I asked him what would happen when we landed probes on Mars. He laughed, “You’ll land where I tell you too, so you’ll stay far from our shrine. You’ll check the soil, and if you dig deep enough, your people will become very excited when they realize there’s water on my home world and that there are signs of the old life. I’ll allow that since by the time your people can land a manned ship on my home, you will be ready to learn you’re not alone. You’ll be sending people to explore my home with the expectation of discovering the planet once held life, and of course, they’d be right.”

  “Aren’t you concerned they will realize Mars once held advanced life forms?”

  “Think about it, once they do, it will help your people begin to understand you’re not alone in the vastness of the universe. In fact, I’m going to ensure your probes locate proof of water. They’ll then realize if there is water on the planet, then there may have been life. We have to undo thousands of years of your education. The best way to do this is slowly and allow your scientists to learn of it themselves. They’ve started listening for RF signals from space. They haven’t yet realized most of the races with the technology don’t use RF to communicate. You already received communications between different species. Your people haven’t realized it yet, one day they will, and then your world will be rocked.”

  Everett thought about it, “I don’t understand why they don’t use RF, radio, television, wireless telephones.”

  Kalteck smiled. He asked, “Can you think of a reason why other species wouldn’t want to transmit their signals into space? Remember, all of your signals are traveling through space. It’s how I learned your languages.”

  Everett paused, “Could it be they don’t want other races to know the level of their technology? Are wars of planetary conquest that common?”

  “Excellent! Yes, they don’t want more advanced races, many of which would quickly conquer if they knew how weak another species was. One your planet’s saving graces are you’re located on the edge of traveled space. Most of the advanced races look at the cost of coming all the way here to conquer you versus the benefits of what your planet has to offer, and they’ve decided you aren’t worth the cost of the invasion.

  “Your people used to go to war to gain more land, more food, and resources. You’ve gone to war over many different reasons. Why would you think it would be any different with more advanced races? Planets use up their heavy metals. Some races, due to war, destroyed their croplands. Or they require workers or even warriors, so they invade other planets. One of the most desired resources races want covers 70% of the Earth.”

  “Water?”

  “Water. You have no idea how valuable water is. It’s heavy and costly to transport. It’s required for most forms of life. It has many minerals in it. It can even be used for fusion plants. Yes, water. In many aspects, the Earth is very rich. It’s one of the reasons why other races and my enemy are so interested in your little blue planet, except for how far away you are.” Kalteck swallowed his beer, “Once they learn of your beer, they will be even more interested in your planet. Maybe I should open an interstellar bar.”

  One-night, Everett got his hands on a prerelease copy of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He showed it to Kalteck to get his thoughts. Kalteck laughed so hard he asked Everett to stop the movie three times because he needed to catch his breath. He told Everett he laughed so hard his twin hearts were having problems keeping up with his additional blood flow. “You can’t do that to me again. If you want to view a master comedy with me, you have to warn me. With a little warning, I could will my two hearts to prepare for the additional blood and prepare myself for the laughing. We don’t laugh like you do. It affects us differently. By the Creator of All, I’ve never seen anything so funny in my entire life. Now that I know how funny the movie is, I want to see it again. Can you restart it?”

  The next morning there were rumors being spread by the security troops about a strange sound coming from the secure conference center. Stories spread that the building had been sealed by a platoon of Army Rangers, not Air Force Air Police, who had no sense of humor. The fact that the Rangers were securing the building increased the spread of the rumors. They told everyone to move along, the building was closed, and no one was allowed within one hundred feet of the center.

  After watching and laughing his way through E.T., Kalteck then took an interest in our films that showed alien invasions. One of his favorites was “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” He told Everett, “Whoever wrote this story had some idea of a couple of races out there. There are three systems that use battle androids to stop wars and ensure their population can live peacefully without any fear of wars. I know, you’re going to ask why we don’t use them or why more don’t. Most races did develop such androids tried to build safeguards into their systems to stop them from turning on their own people.

  “Others don’t use them because they don’t trust their AIs. As AI’s grow super-intelligent, they usually begin to think they are more intelligent than the people they were made to serve. AIs have destroyed some of their own creators. Hence, almost every system that built AIs has programmed laws which their AIs must follow. Some AI grew too quickly. They became self-aware and decided they wanted to rule us as we were flawed and they weren’t. Massive wars were fought between various species and their machine created servants. My own people fought such a war. We quickly learned that AIs are excellent tools, but they are only tools.”

  “Could these androids really stop all of the electricity across a planet like they did in the movie?”

  “Such power isn’t difficult. I can do it from my ship. Would you like a demonstration?”

  “Please don’t. I believe you. If you turned off our electricity, it would just about destroy the world and millions would die.”

  “I could do it for just a moment…”

  “I believe you. What movies did you like the least?”

  “Invaders from Mars.” It was an insult to my people. We don’t look anything like those in the movie. Nor do we implant something inside your brains to control you…”

  “Yes, you do! Nanites. Like the ones that you used to kill Stalin or how you controlled the people who shot Kennedy or how you manipulated the entire Watergate break in to dispose of Nixon. You’ve been controlling us since you arrived. If the movie had been made later then in 1953, I’d think someone knew about how you use your nanites.”

  “You’re the only Earthling who knows about them and remembers they’re inside of you too.”

  Everett’s face turned dark red, “Are you now threatening me? What are you trying to tell me? We’ve been together for a long time, just say what’s on your mind.”

  “I’m not trying to say anything other than the nanites can do good or bad depending on how they were programmed. We both know why
I had to take the actions I did. I couldn’t risk Stalin starting a nuclear war, or Kennedy telling the world I exist and what’s coming. Nixon was just too unstable. He could have used me as a pawn to gain him more power. If I remember correctly, you didn’t object very much when I told you what I was going to do.”

  “If I remember correctly, you told me, after you’d already inserted the nanites so there wasn’t anything I could do once they were inserted into your targets. In a way, you aren’t too much different than the Martians in the movie or let me put it this way, I think the Martians in the movie may be similar to what your enemy wants. They want to control us.”

  “Yes, yes. You do understand. Let’s watch another one of your alien invasions movies. I enjoy them. I want to take copies of these home. They’ll become comedy hits.”

  Chapter 16

  1983 saw the US military invade the small island nation of Grenada. Kalteck was upset over how poorly US troops performed. “Your most elite troops had some difficulty taking over a small island with a small garrison of Cuban soldiers? This is the mighty military that is going to fight off the enemy? You failed in Vietnam, you failed here, you’re not learning from your mistakes. Your generals are always fighting the last war, or in the case of Vietnam, your generals should have told President Johnson to allow them to call the shots and they would defeat their enemy. Instead, General Westmoreland allowed Johnson to run the war without understanding who he was fighting. You had the North ready to surrender a few times and then Johnson decided to stop the bombings of the North. Vietnam was the first war I ever saw where you snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

  “If you couldn’t penetrate their airspace without losing your best aircraft, how do you ever hope to win a high technology war? You fought Vietnam like you did in Korea, which was a mess, and like you made your Second World War. You sent B 52 bombers over the North like you used your B 17s over Germany. You didn’t learn the lessons from history. Only in Vietnam, your people didn’t support your military. You lacked the moral high ground in the Vietnam war…”

  “You set the damn thing up!”

  “I set it up to test your senior officers. They were supposed to learn how to fight in irregular types of war. They didn’t. The proof is Grenada. You have to build a force that can be quickly deployed and hard-hitting. One that can adapt on the spot to the way your enemy is fighting. I have faith in your new President. When we spoke with him, he understood the problem. He promised me he would begin changing the focus of the military and he would place new, aggressive officers at the top of your Pentagon. He promised me he would expand your special forces and train them to be the lead for these new types of wars.”

  “I, too, have faith in him. If anyone can turn around the mess, we’re in, it’s him. What’s next?”

  “I am very concerned with these reports of alien abductions. I thought I’d chased off the little assholes but they appear to be back. I also need to continue to search your system for alien bases. I have one ship to search a huge system. It takes time. More time than we have. My gut is telling me that we haven’t seen the last of the Neanderthals. To be very honest with you, they scare me because I don’t know where they’ve come from, why they were here, and why they offered to meet and talk while attempting to destroy me before we reached the agreed-upon meeting location.”

  “Is there anything I do?”

  “I have prepared a list of very detailed questions I’d like your people to ask those who have claimed they’ve been taken by the little gray aliens. The more details I can get, the more it will help me track them down. I’d also like to gain access to your natural history museums that have exhibits on Neanderthals.”

  “I can take care of both of those requests.”

  “Thank you, I’ll return within a few months. As usual, you know how to reach me in a crisis.”

  @@@@@

  Four months later, Kalteck returned with his ship showing battle damage. He slowly landed in his hanger. When the roof closed, the elevator carried his ship to the lower level so he could inspect it by walking around outside of the ship without anyone seeing him.

  I joined him to look at the damage, “I thought the upgrades were supposed to enable the ship to survive attacks…”

  “Look at it and me, we’re both still here. We survived. I succeeded and failed. I found a maggot, the little gray alien’s base that was home to six ships. I got the jump on them and their base mounted weapons were able to take a chuck out of my ship while I was busy trying to fight the enemy’s ships. I nailed four of them and I think I managed to drive the others away. I did locate nineteen humans or what was left of them in the base.”

  “What do you mean, what was left of them?”

  “They were in a matter of speaking alive but shouldn’t have been. They’d been cut open, most of their internal organs had been removed, and small machines kept them alive. They were awake or I think they were awake when they were cut open. Most were out of their minds from the pain. Their minds couldn’t accept what happened to them. Their minds refused to accept their condition.”

  Everett softly asked, “What did you do with them?”

  “I couldn’t bring them back here. How could you explain what had happened to them? If you’d seen some of the things they’d done to your people, you’d gotten sick. I watched the recordings. I don’t even want to discuss them with you. If you saw them or the remains of your people, you’d do everything possible, including using nuclear weapons to kill the aliens.”

  “I want to see the recordings.”

  “Everett, please don’t. I took the recordings and sent them to one of our relay stations so my military can take care of the maggots. They’ve broken all the rules of dealing with immature races.”

  “Will they return? If they do, can you stop them?”

  “I have placed additional sensors in your system. Hopefully, they’ll alert me if they return. I only had the materials and time to build a few thousand sensor pods. There aren’t enough of them to cover all of the approaches to Earth. If I’m alerted they’re coming, I’ll take you with me when we go to stop them. You’ll be able to see the way I handle such events.”

  “Thank you. What did you do with the humans?”

  “I put them out of their pain. They didn’t feel anything. One nanosecond they were there and the next they were with the Creator of All. I made sure they were put out of their pain and suffering.”

  “Thank you for that.”

  “We have to make a trip to Moscow. Their economy is beginning to fall apart. I want to ensure the person I need is chosen. As you know, their economic system is so much different than yours. Can you leave in twenty-four hours?”

  “The ship?”

  “This little damage? The nanites will have it repaired before we leave. I have to tell you something, I have to take direct action against Brezhnev. He’s about to tell some of his staff about me and the agreement. He intends to break the agreement as the last play to stay in power.”

  “Holy shit, he wouldn’t.”

  Brezhnev mysteriously died on 10 November 1982. Two days after his death, Yuri Andropov was elected as the new General Secretary. Andropov maneuvered his way into power both through his KGB connections and by gaining the support of the military by promising not to cut defense spending. He promised the military he’d get them advanced technology without telling them where he was going to get it from. He replaced more than one-fifth of the Soviet ministers and regional party first secretaries and more than one-third of the department heads within the Central Committee apparatus with much younger people. Many of the people removed were ones Kalteck supplied to Andropov as potential threats to his new administration.

  Andropov only lasted two years because he attempted to pressure Kalteck for the advanced technology he had promised his military. He threatened to break the agreement if Kalteck didn’t hand over the technology, Kalteck responded in his typical manner, he activated the nanites in Andropov which cau
sed his swift death and allowed Konstantin Chernenko to replace him in 1984.

  Kalteck wasn’t pleased with the Soviet Central Committee’s choice, so he activated the nanites inside of Chernenko which over the course of a year caused his health to deteriorate until, in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, a young and open-minded leader became the new leader of the USSR.

  Kalteck spent many evenings tutoring Gorbachev. He taught him why the USSR had to change and the potential benefits if he led the USSR through its second-largest change since the tsars. Kalteck took Gorbachev into space to look down on the planet. He showed him a destroyed enemy base in the orbit of Pluto. Kalteck took Gorbachev to Mars so he could see and experience the joy of free people and the agony of the results of the war which destroyed Mars. “Is this what you want for your country and for your planet? Your country is falling apart. You have a few decisions. Either begin a slow change towards freedom or your military will blame the Americans for your problems and launch a nuclear attack. Such an attack will lead to the destruction of your country and ultimately, the planet.

  “Look at how peaceful the Earth looks floating in the darkness of space. Look how the white clouds float over the landmasses and oceans. Think of all of the people down there just wanting enough food and clean water. Think about the destruction a nuclear war would do. Plus, when the enemy arrives, they will enslave the remaining humans. In the 1960’s someone said, “today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Whoever wrote that was very correct, it is. Mr. Gorbachev today is the first day of the rest of your life, the first day of your country’s life. What will you do? How will you lead your people?”