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Station Chief Kevin Sacks knew as he sat at his desk with Pierceton and Alvarez on either side, that there were just so many variables they were facing. There is no training for an event like this. Oh sure, there’s talk and imaginations, there’s hypothesis and theory, and then there’s just the bull sessions that the tight knit and small world of astronauts will have sometimes as they sit while having some beers together during happy hour, or at the family barbeques, and wondering about the ‘what ifs’, and ‘what would I do’s’ and so forth. This wasn’t one of those times. And it was extremely hard for the three of them to concentrate on the task at hand…or any task for that matter. Sacks was still completely overwhelmed by the mere sight of the thing. Incredibly large, a very flat black color, and boomerang shaped of all things. Well, that was the best description he could give at this point. Only it’s much thicker in the inside curve, so maybe you could say like a fat boomerang. But…right now they needed to figure out what kind of transmission they would send. In Sacks world, and in the world of his compatriots, the universal language is mathematics. Actual language can be formed using mathematics, and even visa-versa. So should that be the first variable Sacks wondered. Should some sort of message be composed in a mathematical equation, or perhaps use the English language that they speak, and add the mathematical equivalency with each word. As they each spoke, wondering out loud at each other, their voices began to get louder and louder in excitement and anticipation, and blood pressures were all rising…it was all too much right now and focusing was becoming more and more difficult.
Captain Keith motioned for his convoy to move ahead but at slow speed, because as they drew closer it was obvious that something was different, quite different. Usually it was a mixed bag…some folks would come forward to wave and give a thumbs-up, kids would come up and run along side the vehicles, while others would duck back into their small homes or shops, and the older men of the town while sitting outside at their makeshift sidewalk cafés sipping on the strong Iraqi or Turkish coffees would point and converse amongst themselves about what, could be anyone’s guess. But something this time wasn’t quite the same and Keith could not quite decide what it was. People were staring more than usual with no smiles or waves and many seemed to be pointing in the direction ahead. There were just enough points from the folks around them that Keith once again called a halt, and this time it wasn’t to consult a map, he needed to be stopped while he conferred with McGowan about the strange vibe that he was getting. “Mac”, as he sometimes referred to McGowan. “Are you getting the same strange feeling about this that I am?” “I am” McGowan replied. “But tell me more about your strange feeling cap. Would you be talking about those people pointing?” The captain said, “I would, but you know as well as I do that the innocents don’t point to where the bad guys are, they usually just look away, or look as though they don’t know nothin’, but they seem to be pointing in a way that says ‘you guys better take a look up there cause something ain’t normal’”. And the townsfolk were right…something was not normal.
Sacks and the team got word that the radio telescopes were lined up to the right latitudes and tracking, but tracking what they didn’t know. The radio telescopes main functions were to send out radio transmissions into deep space with the idea that at some point, if there were other life forms out there and were receiving these transmissions that they would somehow make an attempt to respond. The transmissions being sent from Earth are numerous and of a wide variety. Anything from popular music to past presidential speeches, to television shows, to talking about mans forays into space, and pretty much anything that one could think of that might get the attention of others to let others know that we exist. The people at SETI and the CDSCC were waiting on instructions on what they were supposed to do send out there. While neither facility has the tracking capabilities that NASA or NORAD has, they did have the ability to tune their telescopes to objects in motion, just not the ability to identify exactly what it is that’s in motion. Kevin Sacks could only stare at his blank writing tablet, neither words nor ideas were forthcoming regarding what kind of worded or mathematical transmission they might send to this floating object. And to make matters worse they just got an alert from the floor below that their UFO was descending below and out of it’s original orbit. In other words…it was dropping down toward Earth, and not with the type of speed normally necessary to break through this atmosphere. Man’s Space Shuttle or Gemini or Mercury type space vehicles require a tremendous amount of speed in order to break through the Earths atmosphere and then stratosphere, and the amount of heat causing friction is a phenomena all to itself, not to mention the most dangerous part of any mission. But incredible speed is necessary to get through…this vehicle was apparently just going to float through.
SSgt. McGowan called to the rear to have a translator come to the forward. It was decided that they would try to communicate with someone they had made eye contact with on the way in and someone who had earlier pointed. It seemed to Keith and McGowan both that their best option at this point was to try and ask a townsperson just what it was that they were pointing toward, and see if they could identify whether or not there were bad guys up ahead. Fear of retribution usually keeps the people from divulging much if any information on terrorists, where they are, or about their activities. No one wants themselves or their families hurt or worse because they talked when they shouldn’t have, but then you have others who are just plain fed up and want these bad people gone no matter the expense. Cpl. Ahmed Collins was an American born Iraqi who joined the Marine Corps right out of high school because he felt a sense of duty and because he knew that the Corps would be his ticket into college since his parents, who fled Iraq during the first gulf war, did not have the kind of money necessary for a higher education. But growing up his languages were split between English and Arabic and he was fluent in Arabic and this made him very valuable to the Marines as not just a fighter, but a translator as well. His services were constantly in demand…and he was needed now.
The team watched the UFOs trajectory downward toward Earth. It was slow and deliberate, like, whomever or whatever was piloting this ship knew its course already…it was plotted. Trying to figure out how this object was going to get through to Earth, while mind boggling, was still secondary to the first task of trying to figure out what to say. Alvarez, thinking he would lighten the tone said, “Hey, why not just say in our language, ‘hello, how are you, welcome to Earth’, ask ‘em if they feel like talkin’.” Neither Pierceton nor Sacks chuckled at that one, lightening the tone was not in the cards right now, finding an appropriate greeting was. Or was a greeting the right thing to do anyway? Pierceton tried again only this time a little more serious, “How about we acknowledge its presence and let it know that we know it’s here, and then somehow ask what its intentions are, but do so in a non-threatening, non-hostile sort of way.” Sacks looked at him and asked, “That’s great but just what language do we try first? English or math or both together?” Then Alvarez chimed in, “We could try some sort of sonar pink or possibly flash a beacon at it in some sort calculated and rhythmic way and see if it responds in kind.” Sacks face sort of un-tightened at that and he said, “You know, that might be it, keep it real simple and blink a bright white light at it, sort of in a Morse Code fashion and see if it can do the same type thing. Maybe that way if it does respond, then both parties have a beginning and we go from that point. And if so then one or the other can try to give some sort of direction as to what to do next, that might just be it!” Now Sacks knew that simple was the solution…not the complicated theory that he first had. Now, what would be the appropriate type of lighting, something that wouldn’t come across as hostile or threatening.
Captain Michael Keith, SSgt. John McGowan, Cpl. Ahmed Collins, and corporals Stevens and Jones all grouped together at the lead vehicle as the captain explained to Collins what he wanted to ask the locals, clarity was important right now and he didn’t have time for anything to get lost in translation. Collins understood and they walked over and approached a couple of women standing outside of an indoor market. Collins greeted them in their own tongue and explained his purpose. The women both looked somewhat bewildered and confused as he asked if there were al-Qaeda members up ahead, and asked if they had any ideas as to why some of the towns’ people were pointing ahead. At first both women were silent yet looking at each other as if wondering which one was going to speak first. Finally the older of the two spoke and explained that some of the people had seen something strange earlier, and they weren’t sure if it was military related, or terrorist related, or just what it was that they were seeing. Collins asked if everyone had seen the same thing at the same time, and the women nodded yes, they had. Further questioning revealed that out of a row of fig trees a figure materialized from nowhere, this figure was dressed all in black, with a helmet or headgear that covered the entire head and it had things attached to its arms and tubes coming from its back up to its head. They went on to say that this figure just stood by the trees as though observing, and at one point it turned and seemed to start to run and seconds later it was just gone…they described it as like disappearing, vanishing into thin air. McGowan listened to the translation in sheer disbelief and looked at Jones and Stevens and then to the captain. He tried to speak but words were not forthcoming.
Chief Sacks got on the horn to the commanding colonel at NORAD to ask if he could get his hands on a blinding laser cannon. It’s a test/prototype weapon that’s used to blind the enemies just long enough to subdue them. It looks like a big shoulder mounted and fired bazooka that instead of firing a shell, it sends out a very excruciatingly painful and blinding light at the speed of light. It’s meant to temporarily burn the retinas and basically just shut the eyes down…it’s not meant as a killing weapon, but it is still in the testing phases. Sacks’ thinking was that this thing might be bright enough to shoot the light from Earth in the exact direction of the UFO. Plus the weapon would be stationary whereas anything else would be moving, and moving to fast to do much good. And since light travels on infinitely the hope is that this object would be able to pick up on it even though it is still in space, and so far it was the brightest thing he could think of, even brighter than a ten million candle-watt beacon. It had to work he thought, now the only question was could they get their hands on one…he closed his eyes in brief prayer. Colonel Lant of NORAD was aware of the weapon that Sacks was asking for. He knew that it was supposed to be used to temporarily blind pilots, drivers of military vehicles, and advancing ground troops on the battlefield…and he also understood what Kevin Sacks was thinking, and he agreed with the theory. Col. Lant immediately started making phone calls to the military hierarchy and calls to some people he knew in the intelligence business since he believed that they too were experimenting with this laser cannon. Bingo…his second call located the blinding laser cannon. Lant tried explaining in a round about way what he wanted to borrow it for, but he didn’t include the part where he and others were going to use it to try and communicate with an air-born UFO. A UFO that’s currently in space and descending down toward planet Earth. The colonel didn’t like lying, and this was lying by omission…but he couldn’t afford right now to have too many others knowing what was going on. Others will be finding out soon enough.
While Cpl. Collins was telling the other men what the women were saying, Cap. Keith was looking at McGowan and asked, “Does that sound like your mystery man Mac?” McGowan replied, “Yeah, it does, and according to the two of them it’s gone up the road a ways, and I guess hasn’t been seen since. But with moves like it makes I’m not surprised it hasn’t been seen. You have to see how it just disappears, and it looks like it’s taking off in a run before that happens…it’s truly weird, yet scary at the same time.” McGowan knew that he was using the term ‘it’ too much as a referring noun, but he just hadn’t figured out what to call, it. Saying the word ‘he’ didn’t seem to fit since no one could be certain if the figure was a he or a she, or something in between, or perhaps an animal that walks upright like a man. No one could possibly know what ‘it’ is, and until they could get up close and personal no one would. The captain and his small group felt like they had gotten about as much information as they were going to get. They now had a pretty good idea what the witnesses had seen, and they had a basic direction to take in the hopes of maybe making some sort of contact with this ‘it’. So they loaded back up and moved slowly ahead on the main road that would take them deeper into the town, and deeper into the unknown. These men were highly trained Recon Marines and were used to going into unknown places, and used to being confronted by unknown forces. But this was different…for Cap. Keith, he couldn’t even draw a visual picture since he wasn’t there the first time it was seen. The rest of the men didn’t yet have a clue as to what they were doing, and McGowan and Stevens and Jones were chomping at the bit to have another encounter with the mystery being. McGowan was hoping to have a chance to convey to it that he meant no harm, and that his intentions were peaceful toward it, and that he would like to try and communicate with it somehow. Little did McGowan know…he and the men were very soon to have that encounter. And it would be that of the first kind.
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