Jesse's Starship (8 page)

“Uhhh, Sir?” Howard looked at his aide, “Senator Ingram has said that all funding for the Pentagon will be stopped immediately and will remain in force until he speaks with Mr. Sanders. He further says he has spoken to the President and he is holding on the line to see if you are going to comply with his request.”

“Tell him I am not going to comply.” The aide spoke into the phone.

General Thornton said, “Admiral, is that wise!?!”

“We will discuss this with the President in private. We will not allow this to go further than it has already gone.” Howard looked at his aide, “Tell the Senator our decision.” The aide nodded.

General Branton said, “Tell the Senator your decision. I personally don’t agree with it. You’re going to do this without my support. Personally, I don’t understand why you’re getting into a pissing contest with the Major. He told you he would answer your questions and it’s not like he doesn’t know what’s going on. You’re on your own if you choose to ignore the Senator.”

“Uhhh, Sir.”

“What now?”

“The President is in the Oval Office and has ordered you open a channel so he can be a part of this meeting.” Howard stared at the aide and blew out a deep breath. He looked at Mike with hatred in his eyes and said, “Patch him in and invite the Senator to join us.”

“Yes Sir.”

Admiral Howard leaned back in his chair and continued to stare at Mike who just smiled and looked like the cat that ate the canary. The President appeared on the central wall monitor and Jack Ingram came walking into the room with a scowl on his face. Mike watched him and thought he was, as Tilly would describe, walking with a purpose. He glanced at Mike and nodded. Mike returned the nod as Jack moved next to his chair. Jack looked up at the monitor and said, “Thank you for getting me in, Mr. President.”

“Actually, I didn’t get you admitted. According to my sources, you were going to be refused admission until I joined this conference.” The President looked at Admiral Howard, “Would you care to explain why you refused Senator Ingram’s request to speak with his relative?”

“Sir, I request the Senator be asked to leave the room so we can discuss the reason in private.”

“Is the information of a nature so serious that one of our leading lawmakers shouldn’t be allowed to hear it?”

“It is, Sir.”

“If that’s the case, why haven’t you informed me about it before I forced my way into your meeting?”

Mike shouted, “He wasn’t going to inform you, Mr. President.”

Howard yelled, “YOU WILL BE SILENT!!!”

“I thought you wanted me to talk.”

The President said very slowly and deliberately, “You will both shut…up.” The President looked at Mike, “You’re the one taken from your home in Arizona.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Why did you say the Admiral wasn’t going to inform me?”

“He wants you to have plausible deniability about what’s happened.”

The President stared at the Admiral for a long moment. “Is that true?”

“It is.”

Jack said, “Mr. President, I can listen to what’s going on and save you from hearing it.”

“I’m not like the last President that didn’t want to know anything; it’s time the Admiral learned that lesson. What is so serious that you wouldn’t tell me?”

“Mr. President, I really think you should reconsider.”

Mike said, “He doesn’t want you to know that four Raptors and an Apache were shot down by an alien spaceship.”

“GUARDS, REMOVE THAT MAN AND PUT HIM IN A CELL!!”

“Admiral, I told you to shut up. Do you want to go to that cell?” Howard’s visage was a mask of rage. “Is what he said true, Admiral?”

“Mr. President, please reconsider this.”

“Admiral, you are relieved of your duties. I expect your retirement papers on my desk by this afternoon. If you fail to have them there, I am going to publicly fire you; is that clear.”

“But Mr. President!”

“Guards, please escort the Admiral from the room.”

The two marines that had walked to Mike’s chair turned and went to stand beside Admiral Howard. Howard stood up and straightened his jacket. He looked at the other four Chiefs and walked out of the room. The President looked at General Thornton, “I hope I don’t have to fire all of you in order to have someone obey direct orders. You will tell me what’s going on.”

“Sir, a week ago Mr. Sanders contacted one of our satellite Monitors and requested he take a look at a barren piece of land just outside of Phoenix. The Monitor saw a U-Haul truck parked in the desert and while he was watching, another U-Haul truck appeared out of nowhere. He ran multiple scans of the trucks and after a moment, the second truck was backed up and it disappeared.” Thornton saw the President thinking and he said, “We eliminated camouflage netting; the trucks were so hot from sitting out in the desert, the satellite would have seen them through any netting with an infrared scan. Something was able to hide a truck from our most sophisticated satellite. Colonel Jameson ordered an Apache from Luke Air Force base to investigate the scene. A short time later he requested the base to scramble four Raptors to support the Apache.”

“Why did he do that?”

“We had no way of knowing what was being hidden from us.”

Mike said, “There had to be a spaceship there.”

Everyone in the room turned toward him wondering what he knew.

J
ess awoke to light coming through a viewport. He started to sit up and his chair moved out of the reclining position and returned to its normal configuration. He walked over to the viewport and saw a planet below. He said, “Do we have to have this helmet on to communicate with you?”

“No, you can voice your thoughts; however, when you wear it I can see your thoughts and better understand what information you are trying to ascertain.”

“I’ll put the helmet on if we run into difficulty; however, until ordered differently, communicate using sounds.”

“Order acknowledged.”

Elle heard the last response and opened her eyes. She saw Jess remove his helmet and she lifted hers off as well, “What’s going on, Jess?”

“Our ship has brought us to a planet.” Jess nodded at the viewport and Elle came over and looked down on the world below them. “Computer, why did you bring us here?”

“You questioned me earlier about my ability to destroy a planet.”

Jess looked down on the planet and saw a lifeless ball with nothing but rock and crevasses on the surface. Jess felt a chill go through his soul, “How did this planet appear before it was destroyed?” A holographic image appeared and they turned around from the view port and saw a blue and green planet hanging in space. There were giant space stations in orbit above it and large cities could be seen on the surface. “Computer, were there other installations in this planet’s star system?”

“There were colonies on six planets doing mining operations. They were destroyed as well.”

Elle shook her head, “This is horrible!” Jess nodded as he stared at the massive destruction done to a once living planet. Elle said, “Is this what’s going to happen to Earth?”

“Earth?”

“That’s the name of my planet.”

“Yes.”

“And there’s nothing we can do to stop it?”

“You’ve stopped it; for the moment.”

Jess continued to stare at the dead planet, “As long as we have control of this ship, they won’t destroy our planet.”

“That appears to be the current situation. I think they understand that, although you are a violent species, you would not deliberately destroy an entire planet without being pushed into insanity. They aren’t willing to risk pushing you over the edge by destroying your world.”

“Are they able to track your transmissions?”

“Yes.”

Jess reached over and put the helmet over his head, “Are they able to track your transmissions?”

“I see your intent; I can prevent them from finding me by changing locations rapidly.”

“Please deliver the following message to them along with a list of their fifty most populous planets.”

Jess began speaking and the ship flashed away from the dead planet.

• • •

Hetzel was furious. His species would not be granted access to the Q ships after this foul up. He yelled into his monitor, “You will find that ship and destroy it.”

“Do you have any suggestions as to how we can make that happen?”

Hetzel knew the task was next to impossible. Suddenly his speaker emitted an electronic voice, “It is our understanding that you intend to destroy my planet. You should know that if you move forward with that plan, we will go to the following planets and destroy all of them.”

The message ended and Hetzel yelled, “Tell me you got a line on that transmission!”

“We actually got seven hundred different lines while it was being communicated. Apparently the ship changed location three times every second while broadcasting it. We can go to the last location but I suspect it won’t be there.”

Hetzel hit the panel with an arm and shook his head, “I’m going to have to tell the Governing Body what’s happened.”

“That isn’t good.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. However, the only way we’re going to catch that ship is to wait for it to return to that planet. You will take your two ships and remain close to the planet’s atmosphere it was stolen from and keep your weapons active. If it shows up, destroy it.”

“We’ll go there now.”

Hetzel waited and prepared himself for what he knew was coming. He swelled with a pull of atmosphere through his skin and pressed a button. A creature with a grey colored face appeared and he began speaking.

• • •

The President was shocked speechless at Mike’s comment and General Branton said, “He’s right, Mr. President.”

“What proof do you have?”

“I’ll play the recording of what happened but I need to lock in the security protocols before I sent it.”

“I’ll terminate this channel on my end and go down to the safe room under the White House; I’ll call you back from there. Those channels are all protected and encrypted.”

“Yes Sir. We’ll be standing by.”

Jack looked at Mike, “What do you know about this?”

“I met a young man about two years ago who was living in the desert. He told me a story about how his entire family disappeared without a trace while he was only thirty yards away. There was no sound when they disappeared and the police report on the incident verified his claim. It was categorized as an unexplained disappearance. He was convinced that the only plausible explanation was that they were abducted by aliens. He lived in the desert believing that if they came once, they could come again. I thought he was crazy for a long time but once I got to know him…well, he isn’t crazy.”

The President appeared on the wall monitor again, “Show me what you have.”

General Brandon looked at Mike, “It looks like you’re going to get your wish; I really hope you can help us understand what happened.”

Mike looked at the huge monitor and saw a U-Haul sitting in the desert. He watched the video intently and watched it freeze when two green colored creatures emerged and walked to a spot about thirty yards from the thing blocking the satellite’s view. The view moved in close and it was clear the two were not human. “I thought the one that went into the ship was human?”

“He appeared to be, Mr. President. This is where the attack started.”

Mike continued to watch the video without commenting and when the force field strobed with the first two Raptor’s missiles, the video froze. Inside the force field a spaceship was clearly visible.

The President asked, “How big is that thing?”

“Two hundred and twenty six yards long and sixty yards across.”

The video continued, showing the destruction of the first two Raptors just before the second two of Raptors came in and were blasted out of the sky by the spaceship’s defenses. The Raptor’s missiles once again revealed the spaceship. Mike watched the video intently and after another minute he took his eyes away.

General Thornton said, “The satellite Monitor recorded a heat source leave the area at a speed that was incredible. It went out of the atmosphere in less than ten seconds.”

The President stared at the last image and his brow furrowed, “Why weren’t the two trucks destroyed?”

“We don’t know, Mr. President.”

Mike said, “One of the two aliens on the ground extended the force field when the Apache arrived.”

Everyone in the room looked at Mike. Jack said, “How do you know that?”

Mike looked at General Thornton, “Will you run the video back when the Apache comes over the rise and freeze it.” The image on the screen changed and the next one showed an aerial view looking down at the Apache as it came over the rise. Mike said, “Please split the view showing the alien closest to the ship’s location and the Apache.”

The Lieutenant controlling the display made several adjustments and then the screen split into two images. “I want you to notice that this is the precise moment the Apache appeared. The noise of its approach would have been masked by the line of hills surrounding the depression. Start the video in slow motion and I want you to watch the alien closest to the spaceship.”

The video started and the Chiefs saw the Alien lift his arm and do something to his wrist. The two aliens immediately disappeared from view. Mike said, “While that alien extended the force field, the other one lifted its arm and pointed it at the Apache, causing the Apache to explode.”

The President stared at the video as it was rerun and said, “Did you see anything else, Mr. Sanders?”

“Go back to the area those two aliens went to.” The monitor changed and Mike said, “Now bring the view in close to that dark form in front of them.” The view moved in quickly and they saw a body of an alien lying in the sand.

General Branton said, “We went over that area with a fine-tooth comb. We discovered ten clumps of ash surrounding that area the aliens are standing on. When the ship departed, the form you see on the video now was also a clump of ash.”

“What conclusions can you draw from this, General?”

“It appears the alien was attacked by a group of ten armed bandits and managed to kill all of them.”