Shout!

Friends

Chandramoon

Libertine

Cam

Tony

~~~~~

When Cap. Keith presented his report to his superior officer, Major Hendrick, it wasn’t quite what he expected. No big fan-fare, just a few innocuous questions and as a sidebar kind of joke asked what the Sgt. had been drinking. Actually the report had to wait…a new mission had come through the channels and the 10th was needed for this one; time to go to work. That meant that whatever happened back at the kill-zone would just have to wait, and this is not what either the Cap. or the Sgt. wanted. They felt that what had taken place back there required a lot more explanation, more digging, and certainly the hope of seeing this thing again, possibly making contact somehow. But it was not to be today. A group of twenty or so suspected terrorists were tracked to a small town to their South-Southwest. The 10th was assigned to get there and recon what they saw and get that information back to base as quickly as possible. If any further orders were to come, they would come then. In other words…they didn’t have a green light to fire upon the terrorists, they would have to get the authorization; something that none of the men liked.

So it was just a brief respite for the men of the 10th. All the moaning and groaning from before about wanting to get back to base to rest just started up all over again. Sgt. McGowan’s simple solution to that; start calling them children, which they didn’t like. And children cannot be near as specialized as this team is, so being called a child was more of an insult than anything else, and Keith new this. The small convoy took off with the lead vehicle occupied by Captain Keith and SSgt. John McGowan, which was a bit unusual, as protocol would normally have them split up into two separate vehicles with the captain in the second vehicle. But the feeling was that should there be anymore strange contact it would be best if both of them were viewing it together and could report simultaneously what they were engaged with. Although there wasn’t much faith that that would happen. The fifteen-member team also took on ten more Marines to supplement themselves and to make the playing field a little more even. It’s better to have too many Marines as opposed to not enough Marines, and that was the entire branch’s motto. At the thirty-kilometer mark Captain Keith called for a halt so as to check his bearings, he wanted to be sure of what he saw up in the distance since some little villages are unmarked on the maps and you never know who or what’s waiting for you. And one of those unmarked villages was already in sight.

Once NASA and NORAD put a label on the object it made things a little bit easier only as it pertained to referencing it. So UFO or not, they gave it a name, but still could not explain what it is nor what it’s doing. NASA would have a mapping satellite, which is code for ‘spy satellite’, and just by chance, coming into that particular orbit in T minus 42 minutes, and the thought was to get information to it so that they could perform a re-configuring of the mirrors and the cameras so as to get the best pictures as possible, plus input commands to the on-board computer to say what they wanted done. It’s not an easy task…especially when considering the slow speed of the UFO, and the satellite cannot be slowed down to match it because if it did it would fall out of orbit and crash to the Earth a burning wasted mess. So timing and accuracy was of the highest priority right now, since when the satellite passed over the UFO it would only be for a second…maybe two, so they had to be super-fast so as to get as clear a look at the UFO as possible because an accurate assessment was needed now. At some point the President of The United States would have to be notified and that meant that others would know of their find as well. And it’s the others that are always suspect in NASA’s mind and this is the majority thought process.

As far as the captain was concerned this was not their target but an outer village of the town they sought. “Cap…I’m thinking maybe going around this place might be the best thing since we don’t have it on the map, and command didn’t say anything about it.” Keith replied, “Looks to me like another central command ‘fuck-up’ and once again we got to make adjustments that weren’t part of the original equation…I’m getting sick and damn tired of it. It screws up the works!” Keith looked at the SSgt. for ideas as he trusted McGowan implicitly, and not to mention that they had become friends even though officers are not to fraternize with the enlisted men. Keith thought that part was bullshit and on several occasions pestered his SSgt. to apply for OCS, Officers Candidate School. McGowan could easily pass, plus he had enough college credits to gain entrance, which is a requirement to get into OCS. McGowan looked ahead, “Well cap. We’re pretty used to their shit-traps and I suspect this is one of ‘em. So lets bypass this little shit-hole and get down to business…that town ain’t too far ahead, and besides, we are ahead of schedule, you know?” The captain said, “ Yeah we are…and it looks like we won’t have any hills or embankments to contend with, pretty flat so easy travel, but that also means nowhere to hunker down if need be.” McGowan agreed and said flatly, “Yeah, lets just hope there won’t be any hunkerin’ down needed.” So they headed on.

“Oh—my—freaking—God! Holy shit…holy shit! It’s the real damn thing!” NASA’s on-duty station chief cried. Kevin Sacks had twenty-four glorious years in his service to his country. First the Air Force, then acceptance into NASA for astronaut training, then his first shuttle flight as a pilot, his move up to mission commander and his first walk in space, and finally, as astronauts have a general retirement age, he retired from the Air Force to go to work in the private sector with NASA and as a station chief. Kevin Sacks always wondered if something like this would ever happen in his lifetime…or ever at all. And here it was. “I don’t believe it…I just don’t know what the hell to say. The moment we’ve all waited for and wondered about and now it’s here, and everything we thought we were prepared for should this moment ever happen, just flew out the freaking damn window.” No one in the mission control center spoke. Everyone just stared at the photographs that the satellite had just sent back…you could hear a pin drop. What the photographs revealed was an object at least fifteen miles in diameter, and more the shape of a boomerang than anything else. It was entirely black and had a bubble shape at the top and toward the forward section of the object, and nothing to the aft like a tail or a stabilizer. This UFO did not in anyway resemble the UFO’s most commonly thought of. Like the “flying saucer’s” from the old 1950’s movies or the photographs taken by individuals that were purported to be real and untouched. It wasn’t perfectly round like a saucer and didn’t have lights revolving around it like in the movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. It didn’t look like something that should be flying much less floating, and floating was what it was doing now.

The UFO didn’t seem to make any kind of aggressive or dramatic maneuvers either toward the satellite or away from it. Could it have been due to the difference in the speed of the two objects? Though no one knew, it was of a very low priority right now because contact of some form was adamant since neither the Air Force nor the space agency had airplanes that could reach that altitude…not even the SR-71 Blackbird, America’s super-spy plane. So that meant that every available UHF, (ultra-high frequency), radio communications channel, satellite radios and most importantly, the deep space radio telescopes CDSCC, (Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex), in Tidbinbilla, Australia and SETI, (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), in New Mexico were going into overdrive and the radio telescopes were being tuned to correct coordinates and the people at them were told to remain extremely quit about this. It was Ultra Top-Secret. And although while these things were getting underway, no one had a clue as to what their broadcast might consist of. Not one person at NASA or NORAD had any ideas for a structured signal, or what kind of words could be said, if words were possible. Kevin Sacks ran to his office, flipped on his computer so as to continue looking at the photos, and whipped out a blank legal writing tablet and started to scribble down anything he could think of that would be concise and hopefully something even remotely intelligent sounding. After all…this was the big one! Sacks knew he needed more heads involved so he rang down to the floor for his two best guys, Pierceton and Alvarez. “Guy’s I need you two up here pronto and bring your best thinking caps!”

The ride around the village was more effort than what they originally thought it would be; nevertheless the best idea. Through his binoculars Keith could see a separation between the village and what would be the main town, this meant that it would be easier to get back on the main road and pick up where they left off. But it also meant much more exposure, and that was the bad part. As the convoy lined up on the road it was easy to see ahead that some of the town’s folks on the outskirts were giving them cursory glances. This wouldn’t be unusual since this wouldn’t be the first time that an American military group had come through either on it’s way on through, or to stop and interact with the people to make friends, gather information and find out what might be needed to help out. It’s not unusual to speak with the town’s clerics and elders to get a sense of what kinds of things they could use. From medical help to food, to help with school rebuilding, or even road rebuilding. While many small towns like this their wants and needs were much the same, some had different needs and the military wanted to reach out and help where and when they could. Of course it was always good public relations, but it was also just a good thing to do. At this point the captain looked over at McGowan and said, “May as well radio to the rear and tell ‘em to get frosty.” With a click on his mic he squawked to Stevens the frosty message, “Already done sergeant.” Stevens replied. “Are we goin’ on through sarg, or are we makin’ a candy stop?” “Dunno till we get there, just remember it’s still a bug hunt corporal”, McGowan said. “Aye sir.” They could not know that this would be the bug hunt to end all bug hunts. Everything from this point forward would change everything…in everyone, forever.

Comments (5) | Add Comment | Link

At 08:54, June 9, 2009, Rubicon said:
	As a side note: It's funny how long I've had this idea for this thing in my head and then when I finally get up the gumption to even attempt to put anything down in writing I'm doing it in short story form which is really changing the story up. But regardless of whether or not it's any good on paper, it's still fun to do it. Add Comment \| Link \| \|

At 11:54, June 9, 2009, Chandramoon said:
	I think it's great to get it down on paper or virtually and then you can decide whether it needs changing or editing or whatever. If you don't make a start it'll never happen. Well done for having a go - it does leave you wanting to know what happens next so that's a good sign! Add Comment \| Link \| \|

At 04:18, June 10, 2009, LauriesAsylum said:
	I can't wait for the next installment! I'm trying to visualize in my mind what the UFO looks like..:) Add Comment \| Link \| \|

At 10:39, June 11, 2009, Rubicon said:

Thanks Chandra....

Laurie...if I could draw on this system here I could draw you a picture of what my version of the UFO is. Try to picture a regular boomerang, then where the inside of the curve is, make it less of a curve. In other words....the inside is extended out so that the outer wings, (for lack of a better description), aren't so much wings then. And where the outer part of the boomerang is, at the front, there is a slight bulge. Sort of like a canopy or a bubble only with no seams or glass or anything.

Oh try as I might I just cannot think of a way to get it across the way I want. Maybe if I scour the internet I can find a picture of a boomerang and post it and try to describe what I want then.....maybe!

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