Once the team was seated again General Martin asked each crew mate to explain each part of their research to the other members, in an effort to educate everyone on what was known up to this point and get ready for the long voyage ahead. Kim Cross was the first one to stand and take the projector controller in her hand. She stood to the side of the screen as the projectors intense light bulb shone a still image of a twin star system.
“This is Zeta Reticuli, a binary star system that has been, thus far, unexplored by manmade craft. However, we were able to secure live images of this fascinating system through the human consciousness experiments that Colonel MacDonald was overseeing under Project Nightingale. Before subject 3092N expired we were able to go further than we ever have with the project and produced the images in my presentation.” Kim said. An image of a twin star system began to grow larger and clearer.
“What the project team was initially looking for were shadow objects that passed in front of the stars that could tell us there was something large orbiting them, like a planet. The trick was to find a planet that was in the Goldilocks range that could support life. Once we zoom in you begin to see dramatic changes and some interesting features.” Kim pressed her presentation clicker button and the star to the left enlarged until they could all see a multitude of planets orbiting a large star.
“What you see here is Zeta 1, and off to the right, big surprise, is Zeta 2, these stars are roughly 39 light years away from earth. You can see them with a telescope, but what the telescopes won’t pick up are the four planets orbiting Zeta 1. One of these planets contains humanoid life and therefore we suspect it has an atmosphere much like that of earth; we just don’t know which planet yet, as we were unable to identify it through subject 3092N’s visions. The radiation levels between the two stars are low enough to sustain life and we estimate them to be between six to eight billion years old.” Kim said. As she spoke the General placed a small platter on the table much like the one Mac had in his pocket. It displayed four planets orbiting Zeta 1 in a perfect hologram.
“As I said, we have no idea which one of these planets supports human life from our view of them externally. Before subject 3092N became non-viable and stopped showing us images from Zeta 1 we saw three wolf men dressed in medieval garb walking across a grassy plain. Yes, you heard me right.” Kim said.
“Well, I suppose we couldn’t expect the entire universe to look like us, right? If we don’t come at them with weapons, maybe they won’t mind a bunch of strangers landing in their front yard.” Mac said.
“Positivity is a good thing, Colonel, and I’m glad you feel that way, because you’re going to be our public relations officer.” General Martin said. “You didn’t think you’d just be flying the craft did you?” He was grinning again.
“Befriend wolf men on a foreign planet when we don’t know if they even speak our language?” Mac said, more to himself than the others. “Do we have any idea why we couldn’t capture their planet during the consciousness trial? For that matter, those wolf men may have been a part of 3092N’s hallucination as his mind began to break down.” He said, and looked at the General.
“Actually, we do know they’re real based on the integrity of the subject’s mind at the time of discovery. Why aren’t there any telescopes out that way, you may ask? Well, the DSEC lobbied against exploration of that space after reading the records of the Sumerian kings unearthed during a war with Iraq back in 2010. Allied soldiers found hundreds of clay tablets written in ancient Sumerian containing the stories of extraterrestrial genetic manipulation and cloning of early humans, and a bunch of other classified information that I can’t talk about.” General Martin said. Neal Jorgenson stood and walked to the front of the room.
Neal nervously cleared his throat and scanned the room for a moment before speaking.
“I’m going to, uh, discuss the Poseidon and her capabilities, because in my experience as a mechanical engineer I’ve never seen anything like her before.” Neal said. He took the remote from Kim and moved the presentation forward. The large metallic disc appeared on the screen.
“Have any of you flown the ship yet?” Mac asked.
“We’ve taken her out a few times to test out the Poseidon’s capabilities, but nothing major. The ARV that killed the last crew was modeled after this one, but I’m sorry to say, we don’t have a complete grasp on how this craft functions. What we do know is that it operates on zero point energy, in other words, it pulls free energy for propulsion out of the quantum field for use in her hyper-drive intergalactic engine.”
With sudden abruptness a major dressed in a flight suit burst into the room.
“General, I apologize for interrupting, but there’s something you have to see. A terrorist group just blew up two nuclear reactors in Japan, and seven in the United States. It’s mass chaos, sir!” The Major said.
“Alright, briefing postponed. What’s this fresh new hell?” General Martin asked.
He pushed a button on the projector and the image of the Poseidon vanished, giving way to a reporter in a grey hooded jacket and red bowtie, a glum expression plastered on his face.
“A newly emergent terrorist group calling themselves the Chaos Order has shut down energy production centers in Japan and for one quarter of the United States today when they detonated briefcase-sized atomic weapons at three reactors in Fukushima, Japan, and seven here in the United States.” The reporter said. “This latest attack comes on the heels of a new bill which collapsed the IRS, World Bank, IMF, all private banks and credit lending institutions into the Federal Reserve Bank, making the Fed the largest financial institution in the world. The Fed was also granted the power of property seizure for default on private home loans, with an addendum that grants authorities the right to imprison citizens in financial default into mass detention camps set up by FEMA years ago.” He said.
Then he showed a helicopter image of a black crater where a small city had once been. The smoking, charred remains of a million hopes and dreams were reduced to a nuclear nightmare. The screen glitched and wavered as the reporter’s image was replaced by a dummy in a suit hanging from his neck off from a replica capital building in Washington, DC. An unseen person off camera began to talk in a robotic voice as the dummy began to catch fire and burn.
“This latest decision made by Capitol Hill has extended the ruthless power of a minority of scoundrels who mean the people of this world great harm. The vile are they content hiding in the shadows waiting for their time to strike. While this won’t make much sense to most of you now, we live in a world already crumbling under the boot heel of a unified elite who have orchestrated and financed every major war for more than five hundred years. These monsters are hell bent on enslaving the people of this world. Chaos Order has a solution to the problem, and it is fire. You elite few think you’ll be safe in your bunkers below ground, secreted away from the rest of the filth you look down upon, but when your children’s children emerge from below ground, those of us who survive will be ready, and while new eyes adjust to the sunlight above ground we will gouge them out and end your mongrel race. This is the end of your game. There are no demands, no amount of money you can pay and there is nowhere to hide.”
The image of the reporter came back into focus and it seemed to everyone that the young man had not experienced any disruption on his end, because he was still reporting with a nasal, downtrodden voice. More images of ruin appeared on the screen as charred bodies littered unnamed city streets devoid of life.
“Oh my God!” Kim said. They looked at the mass destruction being shown from a helicopter, miles from one of the destroyed sites.
“I am now getting news that we have some video footage of what appears to be a cell leader from Chaos Order. Our policy here at KPPX is to prevent our viewers from witnessing such mass devastation, but currently, we are being held at gunpoint by one of the terrorists.” The reporter said. A second later a loud bang could be heard from somewhere behind the camera and a dark red hole opened up in the r
eporters forehead. The images of ruins and rubble behind the dead reporter changed to a map of the United States where there was a big red dot on Missouri over the Callaway Nuclear Power Plant.
“My kids.” Mac said. A white streak of terror ran up his back as he thought of his children being murdered by a psychopathic terror group.
“Colonel, we’ll get your children and bring them here. We’re forty stories underground in the bunker and nothing can get through those walls. Major, we need to act fast. Get a chopper and evacuate Colonel MacDonald’s family out of Missouri.” General Martin said.
The General handed a piece of paper to the Major. Mac could see his nametag read Stevenson. He looked back at the screen. The camera was now trained on a man in a Storm Trooper mask, a remnant of a famous movie franchise from the twentieth and early twenty-first century. He had a black leather jacket zipped up to his chin and was holding a semi-automatic hand gun as he stood in the center of the frame.
“Greetings, good people of the world and welcome to the New World Order, part two. My name is Intolerant Mass.” The man said through his mask. He walked back to where the reporter had just been shot and pushed his slouching corpse off the desk. “We are Chaos Order. It is time that we had a little discussion with you about the stink fest hell our elected officials and corporations have thrown us into. The little red dots you see behind me are targets of interest, and since nobody listens unless you use a big stick, we decided that this would be the best way to get your attention. Today’s events, and the previous video, were only a small demonstration of our power. I can assure you now that all nuclear power stations and electrical grids will be offline within the coming weeks and months.” Intolerant interlaced his fingers on the desk as he spoke. “The power brokers of this age have come to their inevitable and timely end. We, the people of the world, the huddled masses of slaves who have had their eyes blinded to the truth for far too long, have had enough of the bullshit. We prepared a movie to show you where you came from, and while you sit and watch in denial, remember, the wealthy elite, hiding behind their wall of lies, already knew this information a long time ago.”
Behind him on the screen was a movie showing large, ornate spacecraft descending from the heavens and landing among a crowd of apelike men and women. These primitive people were fearful and backed away from the craft, running to their caves and hovels for cover. Landing gently on stony ground, walkway ramps extended from the ships to earth. Seconds later giant men and women donning gold plated battle armor strode down the ramps. They looked upon the cowering masses who remained with disdain as they took several males and females aboard their ship. The next images were more evolved, upright walking men and women, with the facial features of the apelike figures. These men and women were slaves, working in mines far underground, and what they brought with them from the dark recesses was one cart after another of gold ore. Giants, more than ten feet tall, stood by with whips and hard leather straps to beat the slaves that got out of line.
“What you see here is the best kept secret of the human race. Extraterrestrial humans came here—to earth—to mine gold, and when they grew tired of doing it themselves, they genetically engineered us to do it for them. It has been going on ever since. This all began more than thirty thousand years ago and we feel it’s finally time to, if you’ll excuse the cliché, take the power back.” His head cocked from side to side behind the Storm Trooper mask as he spoke.
“Let’s see what’s happening at the Exxon refinery in Waco Texas right now.” He said. The images of a large oil refinery appeared and after a minute or so, little figures could be seen running from the plant. Seconds later, a massive fireball exploded into the afternoon sun, sending pieces of refinery sky high. Men on fire ran until their legs could carry them no further and they dropped in heaps of burning flesh. Intolerant began to speak once the disturbing images cut away.
“Now, I know what you’re going to say. The people in these images had nothing to do with the power mongers who have held us in their financial chains for so long, right? Well, with every revolution comes a few casualties. The governments of this world, run by ancient and powerful families from the royal Anunnaki blood line, call it collateral damage as their war machines cause untold damage to generations of innocents barely eking out an existence on this planet. Meanwhile, politicians go on glad-handing each other and maintaining the charade that we are all born equal and free. The truth is you have always been free and we are about to release you from their chains!” Intolerant said.
A scuffle could be heard in the studio. Intolerant stood, aimed his weapon, and fired. Then he tossed a hand grenade somewhere behind the camera eye. It exploded, knocking out sound for a moment in the studio and rocking the camera.
“Cops are like ants at the picnic. We’re taking down the establishment brick by brick and there is nothing anyone can do about it now. Anyway, friends and neighbors, that’s all I’ve got, and if you’d like to know more truth behind the lies, go to this website.” A website address appeared below his face directing people to a truther page, and then the picture faded away and he was gone. Static hissed on the screen as the feed went dead.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the people of earth have officially lost their minds. We need to get out of here and get this mission under way.” Jack said.
“Roger that, Lieutenant.” Mac said, nodding.
“You can guarantee my family’s safety, General Martin?” Mac asked.
“They’ll be here when you open the gate. I promise, and that goes for you too Captain Brandt. We know your daughter is in Pittsburg with her grandmother. We’ll get her here. Now, the rest of you were chosen because you don’t have any family, unless there’s something I need to know about.” General Martin scanned the room, but nobody else had anything to say.
“So, what now? How do we get the ship to Zeta Reticuli?” Mac asked.
“Sir, you’ll pilot the ship until we get to approximately 155,000 miles from earth’s moon and then we’ll go into hyper-sleep while the ship opens a gravitational warp and takes us from one end of the universe to the other. The entire trip should last about ninety-one days, but due to the lack of physical space onboard—and our need to eat when awake—it’s either hyper-sleep or we starve to death.” Kim said.
“Sorry to have to shotgun this information past you, Mac, but this is a project we’ve been working on for two years. We should have been there and back by now.” General Martin said.
“Let’s get moving then. It looks like we don’t have a minute to spare. World War III is knocking on our front doors and we’ve got children to save. See you when we get to our destination, Dick.” Mac said. He stepped away, got dressed in a flight suit away from the team grabbed his duffel bag filled with clothes and other gear needed for the long trip.
“We had everything ready for you weeks ago, because I hoped you’d make the decision to go. I just wish it wasn’t under such shitty circumstances. Carol will be missed, Mac. God speed, Colonel MacDonald. Be careful out there, and remember your training, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.” General Martin said. Something was written in his expression that Mac could not place. Was it fear? Then the General’s face became stoic.
“Yes sir, see you in a few months.” Mac brushed off the comment about his wife; it was still too soon and he was trying to keep himself together for the sake of his new crew.
“We’re all counting on it.” General Martin said.
In minutes, Mac was in the captain’s chair of the captured alien spacecraft. The ship was stocked with weapons, water, food, and first aid. Jack hid the TSA-2056 in a clandestine compartment on the floor, sliding a thin metal plate back over the hole. After he did, there was no evidence that the panel existed; in fact, there were no rivets, or bolts or separations of any kind on the entire ship. It looked like it had been poured in a refinery as a single unit but with a smooth matte finished metal Mac had never seen before. There were human-sized pods at the
back of the craft and his eyes traveled down the devices to multiple tubes running to some sort of generator. There were no controls on the dash in front of him, just some flat areas on the console and a few buttons with hieroglyphs on them. A wide screen displayed the hangar outside.
“Those pods are the hyper-sleep chambers where we’ll sleep during our journey.” Neal said. He smiled, but Mac wondered if any of them had ever been placed in a coma-like state for any length of time.
There were no hand controls on the flight console anywhere. “How am I supposed to fly this thing with no stick?” Mac asked.
“Here, Colonel…Mac, try this.” Stephanie said. She moved her hands over the panel in front of him and the ship rose from the floor, suddenly hovering above the ground.
The landing gear retracted as Mac played with the touch controls of this magnificent machine. One accidental quick swipe drove the ship forward in the blink of an eye, but he stopped just before slamming into a hangar wall and killing three workers who were stacking crates.
“Whoa! That was interesting.” Mac said. He gave a sheepish grin as he looked around at the crew, who were standing there watching him. “Let’s try that again.”
This time he sat back in his chair and looked out the clear dome to the hangar and beyond the doors to open desert.
Mac focused and slowly moved his right hand in a gentle motion over the sensitive touch panel, and moved the ship forward. The craft glided like a hockey puck on a frozen lake. When they were clear of the hangar doors he instinctively placed his hand on a panel to the left and the craft rose high into the afternoon sky. Moving his hands over the left and right panels gave Mac total control over the vehicle and in a moment the space ship darted forward like a bullet from a gun. The crew took their seats and watched their new commander get the hang of the Poseidon in a short time. They were off toward the stars leaving the only home they knew behind in a bid to save their future.
“So, what do we do now? I imagine you all get to sleep through this trip, but what about me? Do I have to fly this thing for three months?” Mac asked. The earth was far below them now as they were speeding toward the moon.
“Do you have one of those little plates, the ones made out of corbomite?” Stephanie asked.
He reached inside his flight suit and felt the little disc.
“Place it on the console, Mac. Watch this, it is so cool.” Neal said.
“Yeah, I love it.” Kim said.
Mac placed the small black disc on the console and waited.
“Think about Zeta Reticuli. Just free your mind and see the twin stars.” Kim said.
Mac let his mind flow and the twin star system appeared in his mind. As it did the stars appeared to hover above his corbamite plate.
“And that’s your autopilot.” Stephanie said. “You leave that there and the ship communicates with the energy you transferred to the corbamite plate with your thoughts.”
“That’s incredible!” Mac said. He was staring slack jawed at the corbamite disc with his head cocked to the right side as Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 glowed before him in a palm-sized three dimensional hologram.
“Look Colonel! Out the right side.” Jack said.
They were passing the moon, and as they did Mac could see ships rising off a location on the moon’s surface that he estimated to be the size of a small city. “That looks like a mining colony of some kind. Are those our ships down there?” Mac asked.
“We were told that was classified when we came up here with the General last week, but I doubt they’re ours. Look at the size of them!” Kim said. They were all looking now as their ship careened by the odd looking assortment of massive spacecraft and large land based vehicles creating mile wide tracks in the dust and space debris far below.
“See the blue lighted area above the guidance panels; you’ll touch that to put us in hyper-space when we reach 155,000 miles from the moon.” Neal said. He showed Mac an increasing digital counter and placed it on the console. “The craft will wait until then to send us through the bubble. Also, I don’t know how he knows this, but the General told us that you don’t want to be awake for this part of it unless you’re used to time travel, so it’s a perfect time to shut down in our pods.” Neal said.
“I’m for that.” Mac said. “Alright, you guys hit the hay and I’ll wait to make sure this all goes as planned.” The crew began to get into their pods while Mac watched what they did so he could repeat their steps.
As each officer climbed into their pod, the respective doors slid shut over them, sealing in the astronauts. Through the glass, Mac could see that a white gas was delivered inside the respective pods and in seconds the crew was in hyper-sleep. The Poseidon had a high dome, and Mac could see a three hundred sixty degree view of the stars twinkling far out in the void. As Mac turned to look back the way they had come, Earth was a distant little ball of blue and white, and the moon looked like a child’s marble. But something was following them. Mac looked closer. It was the massive ship he had seen lifting off from the moon coming in their direction. With frightening speed the alien moon ship was gaining on their much smaller craft.
“What are they? Who are they?” Mac said aloud to himself.
An image of tiny onyx colored men about twelve inches tall flashed into his mind. They stood upright, had two arms and legs and appeared to be humanoid, but their heads were bulbous in the back and they had long pointy faces. Their eyes were almond shaped and as if he were inside the craft with them he could see the beings communicating verbally with one another.He saw that they had rows of needlelike teeth lining their minuscule mouths. Mac got a sense that they were not friendly, and that his ship had come too close to their clandestine mining operation on earth’s moon. The beings aboard the other ship seemed to be communicating with him telepathically, and he suddenly felt their intention to destroy his crew and him. Mac touched the blue lighted panel on his console and a wavering bubble appeared in the blackness of space before them as he made for his pod. A blue flash of plasma exploded in the space beside their craft as the approaching alien ship fired upon the Poseidon. He would have been thrown to the floor if it weren’t for the gravitational field within their craft.
The Poseidon seemed to communicate with the holographic image on the corbamite plate and the image of the Zeta Reticuli star system. A translucent sphere, the head of a circular tunnel three times the size of their craft appeared. Within it he saw brilliant light for a split second and then, as another blue ball of plasma exploded behind them as the Poseidon was drawn in to the gravitational pull of a space-time tunnel. As they entered the tunnel, the blue light split into all colors of the rainbow like a prism and streaked past him with frightening speed. What Mac did not see was that as they entered the time slip, the enemy ship gave up the chase and turned back toward the moon. Mac’s pod closed over him as their ship was sent along an interstellar highway of pure light that was so brilliant and affecting that he began to experience nausea. Mac’s door shut, and as it did the inside of his hyper-sleep pod filled with the sweet smell of vanilla misting around his head. Mac thought of home, his children and Carol, as he was lulled into a long deep sleep. Just as his eyes were closing he could see Carol in the brilliant light, and their children, and she was holding them in her arms.
“I’m coming home.” Mac mumbled and he went to sleep.
The tiny corbamite plate sitting in on the console held the image of Zeta Reticuli, but now inside the hologram was a multi-colored ball of light. Had any of the crew been awake for the experience, one might have wondered if that ball of light was the exit point for their journey through the cosmos.
CHAPTER 6