Chapter 4 “Home”
After the President left each of them was whisked away by the secret service and questioned individually. It seemed like every agency wanted a crack at them, they must have told the same story a hundred times. Finally they were able to go home under constant surveillance.
Steve went to his hotel and headed straight to the bar. He ordered a shot of scotch, grabbing it almost before the bartender finished pouring. He threw it back and grimaced as it washed down.
“Rough day buddy?” The bartender held the bottle ready to pour another.
“You have no idea.” Steve motioned for a refill. He took this one and went to sit down. Finally by himself, Steve began to reflect back on everything. He felt something a deep loneliness, for some reason the events of the past few weeks filled him with regret that he had no one to share his life with. Being married to his work, he had little time for a relationship. All his life he wanted to be an engineer working for NASA. He had worked his way up through JPL became a manager in the Mars Rover Program. Personal relationships were always hard for him. He had girlfriends throughout his life, but he found he enjoyed solitude.
He chuckled slightly at himself for what he was thinking. Of all that had just happened he ended up thinking about his own personal life and not the drastic change of course in human history. It was too much to process so he took another drink. The world had changed and nobody knew it. He looked up at the TV playing the evening news, just the regular garbage and no mention of an alien invasion. How could this be kept a secret? He knew that something like this was almost impossible to believe. He causally looked around the lounge; a young lady sat staring intensively at her smartphone, tapping on the screen. Four guys sitting watching sports in a typical male bonding session. The bartender talked politics as he washed the beer mugs. He got up and looked out the window, watching people going about their daily lives. He felt sorry for them, he wished he could put his head back in the sand and forget about everything. He sat down as the dizzying effect of the alcohol washed over him. He thought about Joe and how it all happened. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, like the Mars rover being returned in a pickup to your front door. Damn good way to convince us, he thought.
Tom went straight home and hugged his wife and kids. He felt sorry for his children. He did not know what kind of world they would grow up in. Tom sat down in the hallway and stared at the wall. Our world is based on a 30 year mortgage. We go to work in the morning and come home at night, day after day after day. How is the world going to react when they find out about this?
“What’s wrong honey?” Tom’s wife Eleanor looked concerned.
Tom never showed his emotions, he always held it back. He looked at his wife but he could not tell her the incredible things that were happening and she knew not to ask. It went with his job. He held her and started to cry, slowly at first and then the emotions poured out of him. He sobbed like a child in her arms.
She had known him for 12 years, they had 2 children and she had never seen him cry like this. Even at the birth of their first child his eyes only got watery. She thought she saw a tear at the end of Grand Torino when Clint Eastwood's character died, but that was it. She feared the worst.
“Honey, honey what’s wrong? Did someone die? Are you sick, do you have cancer?” Eleanor covered her mouth in horror.
“No, no nothing like that, sorry I did not mean to scare you.” Tom wiped away the tears from his face.
“What is it then?”
“Something at work, I will tell you as soon as I can.” They silently embraced each other.
Dr. Becker went home filled with excitement. She wanted to go over her notes and document everything. Like everybody, she often wondered about extraterrestrial life, but it never went any further than that. Getting her PhD in Chemistry and being a ‘realist’, it took evidence to convince her. A sign above her office read ‘let the data guide you’. She did not buy the story they were being fed, the truth always lies somewhere in-between, she thought.
As she poured over her notes trying to find the inconsistencies one thing popped out, that Onney guy. She remembered him saying, ‘You know I don’t think this is a good idea. You know we are going to get in big trouble for this.’
She thought, what the hell does that mean? Big trouble with whom? She also remembered them talking about Earth’s history. Joe said we had help. What kind of help? Could these people have been involved with us throughout our world’s history? Perhaps influencing and guiding historical events? She would recommend more people be attached to their team. They need some kind of historian and a psychiatrist.
During the evening of the next day the President called an unexpected cabinet level meeting on the current situation, it took everyone by surprise. He did not soften the blow, he told it to them straight. Fear and anger filled the room. Everyone spoke at once.
“Only one person? How do we know this is not a con-job?”
“This could be the beginning of a full out invasion.”
“We should arrest this Joe guy and interrogate him.”
“They could have mind control and could be listening right now.”
Some of the cabinet members could not speak. Their faces were frozen, ashen white.
“Hold on, hold on everybody.” The President held both hands in the air. “Believe me, I know how you feel. This is going to take a while to sink in.” He paused and looked around the room. “A few people have been to one of their ships.” The President pointed to Steve, Dr. Becker and Tom. “In the next few days they will be going to the Outpost that monitors our solar system. Their mission will be to gather as much information as possible. Information, people, is what we need, not speculation.” He looked around the room seeing nothing but fear. “I encourage everyone to say what’s on their minds but let’s not let our emotions or imaginations run away on us.” The President sat back down in his chair straightening his jacket. “We will select some more people to be on the team to go to the Outpost. Oh, and keep your mouths shut, we don’t want to start a panic.”
Bill Bennett and Dr. Zanagar waited for the punch line as they sat there drinking stale coffee. Aliens? Spaceships? Bill thought the guys were playing a joke on him. He looked around the room for a hidden camera.
Dr. Zanagar knew something was up, he had been good friends with Dr. Becker for many years and she would not be involved with any kind of prank. Dr. Zanagar, a clinical psychiatrist, specializing in behavioral science, wrote the book on being able to tell if someone is lying. Born in Iran and a leading member of the American Psychiatric Association, he had served time in the military and loved America. If you knew him you heard the story about how he came here with only the shirt on his back, worked his way through college while raising three kids.
Bill was ex-military, Special Forces, and held a master’s degree in world history. A nice guy, outspoken, muscular and would not be pushed around. He had a bumper sticker on his pickup that said “America, love it or leave it”. He hated to lose, playing a game of cards or even darts with the guy usually ended up in a shouting match. He was married with one child. His biggest fault was infidelity, he loved the ladies. His wife forgave him for the affairs he had, at least the one’s she knew about.
“You guys are serious!” Bill almost dropped his cup of coffee.
“Dr. Becker, you were actually on one of the spaceships?” Dr. Zanager could not help but carefully watched the body language of Steve and Tom. My god their telling the truth.
“Yes, all three of us were there. And soon you will be too.” Dr. Becker replied flatly.
Dr. Zanagar stared at the floor as a big smile appeared on his face. Bill on the other hand had a look of bewilderment. Neither men could say a word, they were speechless.
The secret service were swarming around JPL, the employees were being dragged into offices and had to account for their whereabouts since they lost contact with the rover. At first it was no big deal, but thin
gs kept getting worse. JPL had secret projects going and everyone knew to not ask any questions, but this time things were different.
“Twice this week, twice I have been questioned by these thugs. I thought they were going to waterboard me.” Derek a rover engineer sat there working on his fifth cup of coffee.
“Shhhh, kept quiet, all the offices are bugged.” Chris looked slowly around.
Derek froze wide eyed, then Chris broke out in laughter.
“Man, I’m serious.” Derek looked over his shoulder.
“Relax man, you ought to switch to decaf.” Chris took another sip of his coffee.
“I am telling you, the rumors are true.” Derek shifted in his seat.
“What, that they have the Mars rover?” Chris replied sarcastically.
Derek silently nodded. “I talked to someone who actually saw it.” Whispered Derek as he leaning forward.
“You’ve seen too many movies.” Chris turned to his computer hoping Derek would leave.
“You know the 3rd rover is not even here, it’s at the Mohave test station.” Derek’s voice was so low that Chris could barely hear him.
“The rover they have here is not the engineering model. I’m telling you, it’s the real thing.” The concern on Derek’s face made Chris wonder.
“OK, so if that is true why don’t they,” Chris stopped speaking. He turned to look at his office door. Standing there were two secret service members.
“What are you boys talking about?”
“Ah, nothing at all just work stuff.” Chris forced a smile.
Derek lowered his head and sighed, he knew where this was going.
“Why don’t you two come with us, we would like to have a word with you.” Derek knew the drill and nodded.