Project Earth I: Origin

by Lidier Fernandez



  Project Earth

  I

  by

  Lidier Fernandez

  Project Earth I

  Copyright 2012 Lidier Fernandez

  Published by Lidier Fernandez

  Formatted by IRONHORSE Formatting

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my lovely wife Tina

  Table Of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: The First Discovery

  Chapter 2: Exploring the Lake

  Chapter 3: A Deeper Search

  Chapter 4: An Adventurous Family Visit

  Chapter 5: Sarah Is Born

  Chapter 6: Monumental Discoveries

  Chapter 7: The Wonders of a Discovery

  Chapter 8: New Plans

  Chapter 9: My Second Encounter

  Chapter 10: Live Communication

  Chapter 11: Cruel Facts About Society

  Chapter 12: Construction Planning

  Chapter 13: Part Fired-Part Hired

  Chapter 14: Making Key Decisions

  Chapter 15: Construction Begins

  Chapter 16: A New Reality

  Chapter 17: Success in Writing

  Chapter 18: The Dig

  Chapter 19: Things Go Awry, Necessity Goes Up

  Chapter 20: Doing the “Un-doable”

  Chapter 21: Our Visitors

  Chapter 22: The Ship

  Chapter 23: Connecting With Another World

  Chapter 24: Energized

  Chapter 25: A visit from Grant

  Chapter 26: Increasing One’s Certainties

  Chapter 27: Developing “Project Earth”

  Chapter 28: Repairing the Ship

  Chapter 29: Another Adventurous Day

  Chapter 30: A Special Delivery

  Chapter 31: Chief

  Chapter 32: A discovery in Space

  Chapter 33: The Base

  Chapter 34: The Mission to Mars

  Chapter 35: The Rescue

  Chapter 36: Home

  Chapter 37: The Future

  Chapter 38: Progress

  Chapter 39: Another Journey

  Chapter 40: A Special Day

  Chapter 41: A Frightening Encounter

  Chapter 42: Home at Last

  Chapter 43: The Broadcast

  Chapter 44: A Changing World

  Preview of the Sequel to Project Earth

  About The Author

  Prologue

  Man has, since the dawn of time, searched for answers about his origin, and about space. He has developed precise sciences and technology to conquer Earth, to go out in space, step on the Moon, Mars, and other nearby planets and stars. But there is one thing man hasn’t been able to conquer, himself. His mind and his true potential ought to be discovered.

  When looking at Earth as a small planet in the solar system, in a galaxy called the Milky Way, which compared to others, is small in size, one begins to realize the vastness of our universe.

  It is the year 2020 and a recent encounter with life from outer space has shaken up humanity and brought about a new viewpoint of life for all. But let me tell you my own story of what really happened. It has remained a secret to all but a select few.

  Chapter 1

  The First Discovery

  It is a beautiful sunny afternoon in the autumn of the year 2020. I am taking a dirt bike ride around my ten acre property near the deserts of California. I am riding by the lake located in the middle of a small valley, surrounded by trees and vegetation.

  As I approach the lake, I start to feel an impulse of being drawn towards it, and start to ride closer and closer to one of its sides. I can feel some type of energy emanating from the area. It is about five o’clock. The sun is shining. The temperature is about seventy degrees Fahrenheit, just perfect for riding my dirt bike.

  I approach the lake, throw my bike on the ground and walk towards the edge.

  As I approach the area, I feel a really nice sensation. “It feels good around here,” I think to myself. “I don’t see anything different from before… water, a bunch of trees and plants, nothing else.”

  While continuing to look around, I walk closer to the edge and scan the water and trees nearby.

  “I wonder what it is. I have been here many times. I built the bike track a year ago and used to ride here almost every weekend, except for the last couple of months, but never felt this sensation.”

  I rush back to our house and ask my wife Gina to come out to the same spot with me and have a look at the lake. I want to get her first reaction, so I decide not to explain what I have encountered. She gets on my bike wondering what’s going on.

  We arrive at the same spot I was at before and I drop the bike, while pointing in the general direction. Gina looks at the water and then looks at me. She seems a bit confused, so I ask her, “What’s happening babe?”

  “I don’t know,” she replies, “I feel kind of dizzy. It is a funny feeling. The baby is moving too. Could it be because I am pregnant and shouldn’t be riding on the bike?”

  “No sweetie, that’s not it. It’s the lake! There is something in this area of the lake. I feel it too. That’s why I went to get you. I thought it was just my imagination.”

  “It’s a good feeling,” she replies with a smile.

  “I know. It is kind of cool! I’ll tell you what, Gina— this lake is not very deep, and we both like swimming and diving. Let’s do a search!”

  “Well honey, I am eight months pregnant, so you are going to be doing the searching,” she points out.

  “That’s true.”

  We log into eBay as soon as we get to the house, and order a set of used scuba tanks and gear, a radiation detector, and an underwater communication system for me. I will be able to talk to Gina while I am under the water. Gina finds an underwater video camera and purchases this, too—just in case I see anything interesting.

  We are so excited about this project that we can’t sleep. I keep thinking about the strange sensation coming from around the lake.

  Both of us toss and turn all night long, unable to get any sleep, yet in the morning we feel rested, which is strange.

  Gina and I stop by the lake every day, and the intensity of the energy it emanates seems to vary, but it is always there. Even the baby inside of Gina can feel it. She starts to kick every time we go near it. I joke with Gina and tell her, “Maybe this will make us grow younger. I feel stronger when I am there, that’s for sure.”

  The diving equipment arrives a week later. We are still waiting to receive the video camera and other items. I am anxious to get the radiation detector to ensure that the energy is safe for us to be around.

  Finally, the rest of the equipment arrives, and by downloading some manuals from the internet we get everything set up and working the way we think it should.

  All set, we head to the lake. Equipped with the radiation detector, I jump into the water. No sign of any radioactivity is presen
t. I resurface to let Gina know. We test our radios to ensure both are working fine; and they are. I can clearly hear Gina as I get a few feet down.

  The lake is deep and stagnant, thus I can see lots of underwater life: many variations and sizes of fishes, plants, and algae. “I didn’t think there were so many fish down here honey. I would have become a fisherman a long time ago,” I joke with Gina over the radio.

  I stay there for about half an hour, enjoying life under the water. Then I re-surface and we pack up for the day. I got some great footage on the video camera that we want to check out.

  Everything looks very real on the screen, just like being down there looking right at things—in fact, it looks even better on video!

  “This camera was a good buy!” says Gina.

  “A ‘goodbye’ to our money!” I joke.

  “There seems to be something glowing by that area,” she says, pointing at one of the corners of the screen.

  We both look attentively at the screen. “Yep! You’re right Gina. I wonder what that is? Got to get closer next time I go there—next weekend I guess. I won’t have any time during the week.”

  “Well, can you try one of these evenings? Maybe you can see more of the glow at night?” she asks.

  I nod my head and turn to her saying, “Yeah! Not a bad idea. Let’s do it tomorrow, after I get back from work.”

  Chapter 2

  Exploring the Lake

  When I get back from work the next day, Gina has everything ready, and we head towards the lake right away. It is already starting to get dark when we arrive. With no time to waste, I put my gear on and jump in the water.

  Without my underwater flashlight, which works quite well, it would have been pitch black down there.

  “I can’t see any glowing spots, Gina. Maybe I should kill the light…” I turn the flashlight off and all I can see are the two little lights from the video camera—the green indicating ‘ON’, and the red one for ‘RECORDING’. “Holy shit! I can’t see a thing babe.”

  I keep moving forward and all of a sudden I see something. “There is a glowing light, right here honey!” I say on the radio. “I am going to get closer to that spot. It looks as if there is something under the mud.”

  “What is it?” she asks.

  “I am not sure. It’s so muddy down here, it’s hard to tell. I feel like I stepped on something hard, maybe a rock.”

  I set the video camera down and start digging with my bare hands. “This doesn’t look like a rock. It is more like a piece of metal. It has a smooth surface—rocks aren’t that smooth. Let me dig around it some more.”

  I expose an area about two square feet wide and four inches deep, which unveils a nice, smooth surface.

  “Can you tap on it, Lee? Just to see if it is solid or hollow?” Gina suggests.

  I tap on it twice—tap, tap—and find out it is not solid. It makes a dull echo. All of a sudden, I hear the sound again.

  “Not only is it hollow, it echoes when I tap on it.”

  The sound happens again without me tapping on it.

  “There it is again Gina! How can something echo so many times?”

  Gina asks me to tap on it again. I am ready to time it this time. I tap on it three times—tap, tap, and tap.

  I start the timer, “There is the echo—three seconds later. There it is again—five seconds later. There it is again—two seconds later. Three, five, and two, and it keeps going Gina.”

  I am really puzzled. The echo did not sound like an echo; it sounded more like someone trying to tap back. “That’s not right. The last one was the strongest echo yet. Echoes fade away, they don’t get stronger.”

  “Interesting,” she says on the radio.

  “What time is it?”

  “It is 8:05.”

  “I think we should go home soon,” I suggest.

  “I agree. Let’s go home and see what the video camera recorded.”

  “Okay, I will be right out.”

  We put our stuff in the car and head back home. “It was a brilliant idea you had about coming here tonight, babe,” I say to her.

  “I think it was productive. A little bit mysterious maybe,” she says.

  We get home and play the video. There is something interesting about this video camera—it has infrared light capability, which captures the image beyond what the naked eye can see. Way before I had spotted the glowing area down there, the camera had already captured it. When I saw it in person, the glowing spot looked like it was only a foot in circumference, but it looked like three feet when seen on the video. Sound is also amazing. I hear myself and other noises that I was not aware of down there; some weird background noise—could be some fish talking or snoring. Lord knows.

  “It looks much better when you turned the flashlight off,” she points out.

  “Yep! Look. Right there is the glowing spot, shining through the mud. I think I am going to be digging more around it next time. I really want to see what it is.”

  “Yap! I also want to know.”

  “I am just having a hard time digging down there. I mean, it is not that deep—ten feet, maybe. But the question is: how can you dig under water?”

  “That’s a good question Lee.” She turns to me, looking as puzzled as I am.

  “I know people use ‘diggers’, big machines to dig and to drain lakes, but we don’t even know what we are digging for.”

  “Right. And I don’t think draining the lake is a good idea. It would take time and equipment. Plus, where are we going to send all the water, mud, and what not? There are also lots of fish and natural life in there.” She looks even more puzzled.

  “Well, I know what to do with the fish, you don’t have to worry about a thing,” I joke.

  “Come on, Lee. Be serious. Let’s see… let’s take a look at what we have here, and see if it is worth investing more time and effort into this project.” Gina evaluates the pieces of information we have already gathered in order to decide what to do: “We have an area that feels good to be around, and things grow very well around that spot. And we found the glowing light coming from that area. Upon further inspection, you discovered a nice smooth surface, which not only is hollow, but which ‘replies’ when tapping on it.”

  It doesn’t take her much time to come up with a conclusion: “I think it is worth it to continue the search. Tell you what,” she adds, “let’s keep it between us until we really find out what it is and, instead of investing much money into it, let’s just see what other options and resources we have.”

  “I like that idea, Gina. We’ll go there next weekend, during the day, and see what is covering that thing. Maybe it is just soft mud and I can keep on digging around it.”

  While looking through my garage the next day, I spot an old concrete pouring machine. Something a friend of mine devised to pour concrete in “hard-to-access areas”. It has four inch thick hoses.

  “Maybe I can use it as a vacuum and remove some mud,” I wonder to myself. “I will get it running and test it on Saturday.”

  Chapter 3

  A Deeper Search

  It’s Saturday morning. I put the pump, tools, and other stuff in the truck, and head to the lake with Gina.

  At the lake we get all the equipment out of the truck, hook up the pump, and I get in the water with a long thick vacuum hose. I signal Gina to turn the pump on. She does so, and a few seconds later I see water coming out from the other end of the pump. She gives me a thumbs-up.

  I dive down towards the spot I want to uncover and direct the end of the hose to the area. I can feel the hose sucking up mud the moment I put it down.

  “It’s working!”

  I go back up to check on Gina and the machine, and she gives me a thumbs-up again. I dive back down and continue with the ‘cleaning’. After a while I find myself walking on that smooth surface. It is quite large.

  I stay there for another 30 minutes and suddenly the pump turns off. “It must ha
ve run out of diesel,” I think to myself.

  I go back out and see a huge pile of mud, as well as some water running back down into the lake.

  “We need to relocate that pump Gina. I know that I have an extra piece of hose at home. We can actually attach it to the pump and make it go farther that way.” I point to an area where the land slopes down. “It will drain better.”

  “Great idea,” she says. “I think we should go back home. I will make some lunch while you go get more fuel. Then we’ll get the extra piece of hose and come back down here.”

  “You just read my mind. Let’s do that.”

  We head back to the house. Gina starts making lunch. I grab a couple of ten gallon drums and set out to get some diesel.

  My friend Jimmy at the gas station asks, “What in the world are you going to do with that diesel Lee? You are always up to something! What is it this time?”

  “Oh, well…trying to find some petroleum on my property. I am digging lots of holes,” I reply.

  He chuckles. “You must be building more tracks to ride your bike, aren’t you?”

  “Let’s leave it at that Jimmy.” I hand him the money for the fuel, shake his hand, and head back home. “Talk to you later buddy.”

  Having had lunch, we head back to the lake with all the extra stuff we got. I attach the extra piece of hose, load up the fuel tank on the pump, and get back in the water.

  The water is clear again, as we gave the dirty water enough time to settle. I can see I had done quite a bit of work around this thing earlier, but there is no shape yet. It is a big flat surface and then it goes down on the sides.

  “I just have to follow its contour and see what kind of shape it has,” I think to myself.

  After another half hour of vacuuming, I see how it starts to show its form. It has a shape like a…I am not sure; some sort of wings extending to the sides. An airplane, I guess.

  I don’t know how far down it goes. I have dug down only two feet or so.

  “I have done quite a job of vacuuming down here Gina, I wish you could see it.”

  “Good job, Lee. I wish you were this excited about vacuuming the house!”

  “Nonsense,” I mutter.