Shout!

Friends

Chandramoon

Libertine

Cam

Tony

~~~~~

Part Six:

In the logistics of war or battle, when many bullets, bombs, or missiles are fired simultaneously there is a reason, and it’s not for target practice or to waste munitions. Both Keith and McGowan knew this and while looking off in the distance Keith asked McGowan, “There was a purpose for all of those shots, or whatever they were, and it damn sure wasn’t just to show-off. That thing knew what it was doing, knew exactly where and why and what it was aiming at, and knew that we needed to stay back. And…it wasn’t shooting at empty buildings, so where’s the bodies?” McGowan wasn’t sure what to say but his brain was traveling at ninety miles a minute, he said, “I don’t want to be one of those science fiction or philosophical knot-heads that would say, maybe we just aren’t supposed to know. Because regardless of the fact that I know nothing…everything in me says that we are supposed to know what this is all about, and why. Question is; how are we supposed to find out? I’m sure that our friend was trying to talk to us before he fired, but,” and he just trailed off from there.
Cpl. Collins walked up to Keith and McGowan, “Excuse me captain… you may not have noticed but a whole bunch of the town folks are coming out…they’re all sayin’ the same thing, ‘they’re gone’, ‘it took them’, ‘they’re gone’.” Keith said, “C’mon, lets go find out what they know that we don’t.”

Captain Keith told Cpl. Stevens and Cpl. Jones to take two groups of eight men and fan out and keep inspecting the hit-sites and radio in if they see anything different. He, McGowan, Collins and the rest approached the first group of onlookers to come up. Collins spoke first and as best he could ask as specific questions as he could. This group along with the others walking up became so animated and loud that Collins couldn’t understand a word, and putting his hands up and trying to shush them wasn’t having any affect. “Whoa-whoa-whoa!” The captain yelled out, loud enough that most took notice and stifled themselves, “corporeal, go ahead and try again” he said. Cpl. Collins pointed to one man and told him to listen carefully and not talk until he was done asking questions. By this time everyone else had heard what he’d said and became quiet. Collins then addressed the man and asked him if they all had seen the figure dressed in black, yes, the man answered. Had you ever seen him before today, yes, he answered, but only once. Do you know it or where it’s from or why it’s here, no, the man answered. Collins was interpreting for Keith at the same time; Keith just nodded. Collins again…were there people in the buildings that are now destroyed, yes, the man answered. Did you or do you know who they were, yes again, the man answered. Who, asked Collins. The man proceeded to tell Collins, Keith, and the rest of the Marines that the men who were in those buildings and houses were members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist factions from Iran and Syria and that they were lying in wait to ambush the Americans. And that their leaders had forcefully taken over the town’s people’s homes and places of business and threatened that anyone who tried to warn the Americans would be executed along with their families. While pointing around at the destroyed structures he said that the terrorists are now dead, and that the man in the black suit had killed them and had liberated their town. Cpl. Collins translated verbatim to his very confused looking captain.

Chief Sacks…his hands shaking, could hardly believe what was happening, and neither could anyone else in the control room. Into his mic Sacks said, “We have received and read your transmission and understand it. Are you able to tell us who you are and to explain your purpose here? Are your intentions to land on our soil and if so where and how? Please acknowledge transmission.” Everyone in the entire control room let out a collective exhale since all were holding their breaths except for the boss, and even he wasn’t sure whether he was breathing or not. Sacks stood up looking over at his com. director, “We are recording this yes?” Jody Heinemann, herself shaking said, “Absolutely boss but I’ve also been running analyses on the voice we’re hearing to try and determine if it’s real, or if it’s computer generated or some other form of vocal synthesis. I’m running samples in every diagnostic category I can think of, but I can’t guarantee anything.” “Jody you’re beautiful” Sacks said, and then to everyone else, “I want anyone and everyone to start thinking of place to put this massive ship in the event that that’s what they want to do. Alvarez and Pierceton I want you two to figure on what a proper dialog should be or sound like. Obviously they sounded like us and even used the word please but we don’t know if that’s how they hear us. Also I want someone to maintain a timeline between one transmission to the other. In other words…the amount of time that elapses between theirs and ours. We’re also going to need complete containment from the outside until we know what we’re dealing with. It’s safe to assume that by now others out there have seen this big ship just hanging out up in our sky, but I don’t want anyone answering any outside lines and likewise anyone making any calls to the outside. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why.”

Just then the main intercom speakers again began crackling to life, Sacks yelled out, “Alright people, it’s go-time so lets look lively and miss nothing!”
“To the individual that responded, we are unable to comply with your requests at this time, however you should be aware that this vessel is not able to touch ground. In the interest of time we ask that you would maintain attentions to the visual screens. Momentarily we will transmit ground coordinates and will then wait for your transmission to confirm your understanding of the exact location. At that time we would further instruct you on the nature of our request.” At that very moment the control room’s main screens flickered, then went blank, and then these numbers appeared. ‘Bloody amazing’ Sacks thought.
33.783784.151___0.00856.0.015128___33.784355.151.177968___0.01887.1.02.035128.
Jody Heinemann was the first to speak, “Anyone care to hazard a guess?” Alvarez took a few steps back from where he was standing and moved more to the center of the screen to get a better view. In typical Alvarez fashion, hand cupped under chin, “If we’re looking for a sequence in this thing it would be slightly out of order…I mean, these numbers aren’t random and it’s mostly binary numbers in there. This looks really familiar to me for some reason.” “Ya know why?” Pierceton chimed in looking over at Sacks. “Those are longitudes and latitudes…I need a map of the world and a ruler and we’ll get this.”
Jody started across the room, “I’m pretty sure we got a map in the supply room and rulers are easy.” She went off to a side door and disappeared for a few minutes. When she came back she had a large rolled up map and a yard-stick, “Gotcha covered, Kevin, can we clear off your desk over there so we’ve got room to spread out?” Sacks was already on it and within seconds they had the map laid out flat, then Pierceton with pencil and ruler in hand went to work.

“Holy shit.” Sacks said looking extremely bewildered. “Holy shit.” Everyone gathered around the table, staring at the map after Pierceton was done with the coordinates had the same look. “What the hell could they possibly want with that place?It doesn’t make any sense.” Said Alvarez. “They said that they couldn’t land their ship, but if they wanted to they certainly could there…plenty of space to put that huge thing down.”
Kevin started wondering out loud, “What if it’s not that ship they want to put down?”
Kevin Sacks just couldn’t figure out what exactly this new race of people, or aliens, wanted with the Tora-Bora Mountain range, and all of the mountain ranges that separate Afghanistan from Pakistan. It’s a vast area of nothingness and even that is an understatement. Well Kevin thought…I guess we really won’t know anything until we re-establish contact and find out what their instructions are, and just what kind of assistance they need. No way that Kevin Sacks was alone in his thinking that, what could anyone with this level of intelligence and abilities possible need from us? What’s more? We’re only seeing a teeny-tiny portion of what they are and what they can do…there’s no way to gage how many years ahead of us they are, and how long it would take the human race to advance to their level. Imagine that…I’ve actually had communication with someone of an alien race Kevin thought, and then shivered. Oh, he almost forgot, he wondered what that space ship is like. It’s so huge and nothing like what we’re led to imagine. Sacks was looking at his monitor at the ship, or whatever it’s called, and marveling at its design. A huge boomerang shape at least fifteen miles from tip-to-tip, seamless, no visible signs of what would be some kind of opening, a slight bulge at the top forward section of the craft, and black. I wonder why black? Is there a specific purpose or reason for it? And their ability to communicate…was that his real voice? And the ability take control of their audio frequencies and then somehow beam those coordinates to their video screens, Kevin chuckled, ‘beam me up Scotty’, awesomely overwhelming was his conclusion.

“Falcon one to birdcage, falcon one to birdcage, birdcage come in.” McGowan was standing next to the radio guy when Team One, or call sign falcon one radioed in so he took the handset. “Falcon one, this is birdcage, go.” It was Cpl. Steve Jones, team leader of team one, “Sarge…I think you and the captain oughta come up here and see this.” “Is this super important Jones?” “Sergeant…I just think you and the captain need to come see this rather than me trying to explain it. Yes I would say it’s super important.” “Roger that and affirm corporal, give me your exact twenty and we’ll be there asap.” Jones gave his sergeant their location and since Keith heard everything anyway, and so did the rest of the team, everybody was already loading up in the lead Hum-vie. Where they were going was not at all far, but it made sense to take an armed vehicle anyway, better to be prepared since Jones couldn’t tell them what was going on. “What the fuck is this?” McGowan said out loud, echoing what everyone else was saying. Jones came running up to meet his captain and sergeant, and out of breath said, “Captain…it’s exactly what you’re seein’, they’re lining up and one by one laying down their weapons and indicating surrender, like, puttin’ their hands on their heads. I have no idea what’s going on, but captain, these are the bad guys, these are the people that only want to kill us and that we’re here to kill! We need Collins front and center to interpret what these guys are sayin’. We need to know what the hell’s goin’ on.”
Before Jones could finish they were all headed toward this weird scene with Cpl. Collins in the lead. In Arabic he shouted to the growing group, “Tell us what you’re doing…tell us what you’re doing!” “Stop, stop, before you go any further tell us what’s going on!” The man who was laying down his rifle, the same time that Collins was shouting, came toward him with his hands up and a very terrified look on his face. He was saying to Collins in an almost begging way, “Please, please…we wish to fight no more, please don’t kill us, please don’t send your weapon to us!

Captain Keith was standing next to Collins and could see the looks of fear coming from these people, but his own confusion grew as he listened to the interpretation, particularly the part about ‘don’t send your weapon to us.’ What weapon? There was no one or nothing else in the area, and he would’ve known if there was any air attacks going on. Just as Keith was going to tell Collins what to ask next Collins shushed him so that he could listen to what this man was saying. As the man was talking Collins looked over at his captain and mouthed the words, “Oh wow.” Both teams had by now made a semi-circle around the area where the weapons were being discarded, and they were on high alert because this whole thing was highly unusual. Collins looked back at Keith, “Captain…this man…these men, are describing our guy…you know, our alien guy.” “You gotta be kiddin’ me.” Keith said, “You mean they’ve all seen him, they’ve seen how he moves, and that…whatever it is he shoots?” Keith had taken to calling their being in black ‘him’, because he just didn’t know what else to call it. “Captain…they’re sayin’ that the ‘black man’ had been killing them off with great ease in places that they shouldn’t have been found. That he disappears and reappears and then shoots them from many different distances and they can’t see where anything is coming from. They’re sayin’ that we’ve created a weapon that they can’t defend against, plus they’re scared because of what this thing can do. They think that since it can disappear like it does, that it could do anything, anywhere, anytime, and they would never know. Captain…they think that we, that America, that this is our weapon…and that it’s non-human, their fundamentalism and extreme religion tells them that it’s an evil and they can make the evil go away if they stop fighting.”
“I don’t know what to say to all this.” Keith said. “Mac…any thoughts?” SSgt. McGowan was just as bewildered as anyone else. “Cap…at least for now it might be to our advantage to keep ‘em thinkin’ that it really is our new secret weapon.” Keith retorted, “We’re going to have to tell someone about this…but I don’t know who.”
“Cap…” McGowan said. “What…” Keith answered. “You may be puttin’ that phone call on hold for now…look.” Keith turned to look, “Oh shit…”

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