***
February 2005
The OBF1 team were geared up for the latest mission, loaded with supplies, weapons for defense, and a range of devices for long and short range audio and visual communication.
“We have a go!” boomed a voice over the loudspeaker.
“Right guys. Listen up! Let me remind you this is a brief visit. Assess the situation, hand over the goodies and high tail it home,” stated Gene Tremaine, the leader, to his two colleagues.
Though his team had visited this destination many times, a never ending fascination of what was before them or what could happen was always present. These men had adventure in their blood—a natural pre-requisite.
Throughout their specialized and intensive training, the single most emphasized dynamic instilled was abundantly clear; complacency means death, and not just for this select team.
This particular destination was to the planet Ahmadeus in the far regions of the Gamma 4 Quelain Galaxy. This galaxy was two hundred and fifty million light years away from the Milky Way and very much unexplored by the team.
Tremaine checked his wrist computer for the ETA.
Through the door, it would take eight point five seconds Earth time to get there. All things considered, a short time, given the fact that they would be traveling through an astronomical portal that would allow them to step from one planet to another. The speed of light did not factor into this form of travel, nor did the effect of heading out millions of light years away and going into the past. In other words, the door, officially known as the Black Star Portal, or BSP, defied the accepted astronomical laws of physics as we know them. This was one reason why it was the most closely guarded secret of mankind to date.
For some reason, Tremaine’s normally hardened concentration flashed back to the beginning.
Over the past five years, the Odyssey Bourne Force project was run via a covert and mysterious civilian group known as Divisions. Not one person could be singled out as the instigator, though Divisions had an overseer. The common belief was it all began with a few enthusiastic night sky watchers with cosmic interests and unimaginably deep pockets. The group rapidly expanded and collectively was known as the Secret United Earth Powers. They consisted of a diverse, secretive mix of private businessmen who had invested money and resources and were the backbone of Divisions. Some of the members had interests and contacts in private enterprises dealing in microcomputers, electronics, well-funded R & D scientific laboratories, and numerous skin factories specializing in metals and steels combined with materials not relative to Earth.
The doorway had been used for off world exploration to discover other forms of intelligent life, and to bring back technologies that could be useful on Earth, especially in regards to defense, historical, and medicinal purposes. Divisions were not answerable to any reigning governmental bodies or armed forces. Ironically, it had clandestine connections within areas of each. The day to day running of the administration was very strict. Incoming and outgoing personnel were scrutinized via eye scans, codes, and voice recognition, and if necessary, blood samples. It was more sophisticated than any military type of operation. The President was aware of the organization, but as long as it was not encroaching on the laws or upsetting his armed forces protocol, he turned a blind eye. He did not want to know, unless it affected his country directly. His representative sat in the monthly S.U.E.P. summits. As far as he was concerned, Divisions was another line of defense. He knew the public must not become aware or find out–unless their backs were against the wall.
If the worse came about, he always had the plausible deniability answer.
What the President, and S.U.E.P. had in common right away was the belief to keep this project secret from the public for as long as possible.
The device, or key used to open this enigmatic doorway to the stars, was made up of an elaborate collection of palm sized crystals, though only six were required for the door to unlock.
The crystals were clear except for varying black marks, like veins, engraved into them. They were placed in a specific order on a pedestal six meters in front of the BSP. A total of sixty-six crystals had been located, but they had not dispelled the fact there could be more.
With numerous combinations, the “crystal keys” were scanned and harnessed together in an elaborate computer program put together by a scientific team for ease of deployment. This was no mean task.
To activate, a powerful laser was required to shine through the positioned crystals spreading the resulting rays of light onto the BSP. An unexplainable form of metamorphosis occurred, rendering the black stone from a solid opaque to a white liquid energy that further changed into a rainbow vision of blinding beauty. This energy image gave the impression of a huge television, without the restrictions of a screen. Millions of fiber optic multicolored threads moved faster than the eye could follow. To Tremaine, it looked more like a crackpot’s psychedelic dream machine.
Ironically, the stone door itself was so black, if one shone a normal battery torch on it, the blackness swallowed the light; it would not reflect. Only light concentrated through a powerful laser via the crystals transformed the body of the stone into an astronomical gateway. The size of Earth’s BSP was five meters high by three point five meters wide by one point five meters deep. It was, to date, the only known stone to exist on Earth.
To any uninformed observer, the travelers walking through the Portal disappeared. In reality, within a tiny thread of time they were light years away, on another planet walking through a sister doorway.
A strict schedule was kept, as the only known way back home was when the Earth based operator opened up the Earth doorway at a predetermined time. All off world computer watches were synchronized with home base. The away team had a maximum of thirty seconds to send a coded radio or video signal through the bright light to register at base headquarters. If they ever missed, they had to wait a further thirty seconds for home base to open the door again. Once communication was established, the team could return. If, for any reason, any other team were sending a signal through at the same time from wherever; they would receive a jamming code and have to wait until the home base operator could let them through. That had not happened yet as the scheduled missions did not coincide. For security reasons, all signals were changed upon completion of each mission.
There probably was another way to open the door from the destination end, but how to do that had not yet been ascertained. Each sister doorway they had visited possessed no crystal ‘keys’ to open them. In fact, nothing much was known about this strange doorway, nor its creators. At the moment, only Earth possessed these crystals. Even though both the crystals and the door were located on Earth, their top scientists stated the origins were extraterrestrial, which Tremaine sardonically interpreted as, they don’t have a clue.
Divisions had placed an electrical force field two meters around the door, so if any unfriendlies managed to gatecrash, they would be, in theory, trapped. This action did not make Tremaine feel any safer.
The BSP’s momentous discovery was all possible thanks to a talented young geological archaeologist, Dr. Peter Reynolds. His independent, prolonged study and deciphering of the unique, ancient scripture scattered around the Junghis Temple walls where the door was found, along with extensive research, and later an unlimited budget thanks to Divisions, made this galactic travel a reality. Later he dubbed it his Leap Frog discovery.
A thorough non-stop six months of pre-testing and probing ensued. Based on Reynolds’ theory, scientists bombarded the stone with everything from radio waves to gamma rays. Success came with the concentration of visible light. A long life battery powered toy car with a camera on board were just a few of the first tests set up once the historic and exciting discovery of the first opening of the door had been established. The first live being, a frog (hence the nickname), was sent through. When a remote probe followed and a video link was established, what everyone saw was astonishing–a
landscape similar to Earth’s that had a breathable atmosphere. They had discovered Ahmadeus, an astonishing jaw dropping quarter billion light years’ distance from Earth.
But why this particular planet?
According to Dr. Reynolds, this was not hard to answer. His meticulous records noted that when he found the BSP, six crystals were set up on a pedestal, exactly six meters in front of the BSP. The patterns etched into the crystals were later matched with star maps pointing to a planet not even discovered by Earth at the time, which later became known as Ahmadeus. When the crystals and BSP were moved into the base, Dr. Reynolds made sure everything was positioned exactly as it was found.
Then the inevitable questions were asked. Had beings visited Earth thousands of years ago using the door? Perhaps, though no solid proof was unearthed.
Was this the planet that an ancient people had visited many thousands of years ago?
According to his studies inside the Temple of Junghis, it appeared so. Ancient wall drawings showed a planet with two moons depicted, which was confirmed when Divisions’ star map computer pinpointed the exact positioning of the three bodies. Though, this scripture was tested and aged as new, compared to other stories scattered about the walls. Dr. Reynolds suspected from his interpretation of the ancient dialect that travel to Ahmadeus was more an escape than a visit, otherwise why were the crystals left this way.
The collection of crystals was packed in a clay box in the temple, half buried in the dirt floor. The box was remarkably well preserved, and the outside was covered with drawings of the crystals set in various patterns. These could be more directions to other worlds.
The arguments quickly began regarding the pros and cons of sending a person through. Dr. Reynolds had argued that he should be the one to see if a person could get through and back. When the powers that controlled Divisions intervened, it was decided the risk to Dr. Reynolds was too great. But he refused to work any further on the project unless they chose him. The powers that be relented and after intense debate, it was decided that if the first journey proved safe and successful, small, specialized teams would be organized.
Incidentally, the frog survived the journey contained in a cage strapped onto a remote controlled car. Largest leap a frog has ever taken was the going joke and was brought back by the first live team that ventured through and was now residing in Dr. Reynolds’ lab.
Dr. Reynolds’ life was beyond excitement since his discovery of such a practical form of space travel, and incontrovertible proof of intelligent alien life. The only stipulation in his contract was he could not tell anyone. But, there was nothing in his contract about discontinuing his personal journal. He was amused and more appreciative of the imaginations of the people behind popular sci-fi shows such as Star Trek and Stargate. At times, they were so close to the truth it was uncanny. He knew that if the truth appeared full face to the masses on Earth, chaos and hysteria would spread and modern civilization including most religious cultures, would crumble. Having those sci-fi shows may just help to soften the blow that will hit us all, if the OBF failed to do their job and protect Earth.
No one could predict the future.
Divisions’ scientists had calculated that there were countless numbers of these sister doorways throughout the known galaxies, and beyond. But only a tiny fraction had been explored by humans, given the half decade that the OBF program had been running.
In fact, there were so many sequential positions for the crystals to determine possible destinations that an elaborate computer program was needed to accommodate the growing library. At that point, they had 13,542 recorded crystal addresses to call on. Very few had been visited by humans, mainly robots and probes, as correct atmospheric conditions had to be pre-determined before anyone would dream of stepping through. Because of the amount of worlds to explore, numerous teams, both human and robotic, were off world at any given time.
They discovered that all the established BSPs were similar to the one on Earth. An interesting experiment predetermined that once the door was activated, anything the size of a tank could go through, as the door’s perimeter was somehow stretched by the onslaught of light. Once the light had faded, the door’s perimeter returned to its solid size. Inactive, it looked like a door with no handle.
This all took months of intensive research and experimentation. It would have taken Divisions longer if it were not for the self-effacing and brilliant Dr. Reynolds, being the leading authority in deciphering geological and archaeological scriptures, and a firm believer in ALF (alien life forces), combining his expertise with ex-military Major Isaac Mason, who knew just about everything there was to know on astronomical matters. When the BSP was discovered, Divisions always had a foremost team in mind to set up all the preliminary work.
Reynolds, Mason, and a handful of gifted scientists and technicians set out to collate the expanding crystal addresses to correspond with their revered creation–a sophisticated computer program that would hold all the crystal addresses and enable ease of deployment. It was assimilated with the Divisions’ star map computer program, which was responsible for creating and recording all known and newly discovered stellar topography. It made one feel very small when faced with infinite space. The program was nicknamed Crystal Address Star Portal or CASP for short.
For preciseness and no instance of being sent to a wrong address, robotic arms were commissioned with the arduous task of placing the crystals on the pedestal that matched with the pre ordained specified computer patterns. When everything was perfect, the operating technician pressed in the release code and a glass cover that housed a large red button flipped open and started the laser, which took around sixty seconds to power up. Protective eyewear had to be worn to avoid injury or blindness, but this was only for the few moments of dazzling light that shone through the crystals on the BSP. Once the BSP, changed to its psychedelic colored rain, it was safe.
Tremaine grinned lopsidedly as he remembered the time Divisions had selected the first three-man team. They proudly put on the new uniform that carried the OBF insignia superimposed over the Earth on their upper arms. Tremaine, a US Air Force Colonel, had been snatched up. A reliable and proven leader, he had been training and running the away teams from the program’s inception. At the age of forty-five he was still single, tall, ruggedly handsome, with, at times, a tactless sense of humor that he called straight shooting. But this hid the other side; cunning, sometimes vicious man of swift tactics. A man who could think, run, and uses a gun at the same time.
Though brilliant, Doctor Peter Reynolds was shy and not really a team player. However, his many talents made up for that. He was a great linguist and possessed an IQ off the scale. He was a walking encyclopedia and generally respected among his peers. He was born with a photographic mind and could absorb foreign languages like a sponge. As a boy, he knew the study of the human past; especially archeology was what he wanted to do. Yet, as he moaned, his multi talents could never get him a date.
Finally, Isaac Mason, thirty-nine, the mastermind in helping set up CASP, was a no nonsense, muscular African American, who had knowledge unsurpassed in the field of astronautics and astrophysics. Hunting and martial arts were his pastimes, with a few trophies to boot. He reckoned, if he had remained in the military instead of joining this program, he would be a five-star general. Though he loved his role in the civilian secret new defense force like a boy with a toy, he would never openly admit it.
Along with five other specialist teams, the staff, soldiers, administrators, and their boss, Commander in Chief Paul Pilcher, were all sworn to secrecy. As Pilcher stated in his personal interviews, the requirements ruled it as a necessary and dedicated existence. Tremaine’s tongue in cheek interpretation was a deadly dedication.
Tremaine forced his mind back on the rails to his current assignment.
“Right, is everyone ready?” Tremaine barked. He gave the word to fall out.
The three men edged along the ramp towards the lig
ht, hesitated for a nanosecond, and then disappeared.
The laser light faded, leaving no trace.
On Ahmadeus, the team emerged through a replica of the black stone on Earth–eerily resembling the enigmatic monolith in Kubrick’s 2001, A Space Odyssey.
The team was scheduled to meet with their alien colleague, a Cantal, known as Sataal, a rebel ex Trimadian, who had set up small spy networks amongst the enemy Trimadian ranks. Sataal, like most of his rebel followers, had virtually evaded their evil Trimadian masters.
There were very few of them.
Chapter 3—A Cruel Evolution