Project Earth I: Origin

by Lidier Fernandez

  “Well, whether I am allowed to go back or not, my responsibility level is now higher than ever before. I will do whatever I can to mend my past mistakes and not only help you guys, but also find ways to become more capable and powerful.”

  “I will quit my normal job tomorrow. I have better things to do than just go to a shop to build engines every day. There is a whole planet to be saved here, and Lord knows what else,” I tell him, leaving no room for doubt.

  “That’s very brave Lee. I did not mean for you to make such a drastic decision—”

  “I think it is nothing but fair. Don’t you worry about a thing! Let me talk to Gina about it.”

  “As you wish man. As you wish.”

  I tell Gina about my conversation with Jon right away including whom I had been and how I failed them. I also share with her that I plan to do everything I can to help them, and I tell her of my intentions to maybe someday go back, even if it is a temporary visit or to be assigned to some mission. I feel a very strong urge to be up there.

  Gina gets a bit worried about the idea of me ever going away. “But you wouldn’t abandon us, would you?” she asks sounding very concerned.

  “Of course not, you silly thing!” I assert with a convincing tone. “You and Sarah are the only thing that would keep me from going anywhere. I would take you with me, if that would be okay with you and them. But…I don’t even know if I can ever visit the Base again. And I shouldn’t have those ideas right now. I need to concentrate on getting them out of the lake as soon as I can!”

  “Right! Let’s make plans for the near future and focus on that for now,” Gina agrees.

  “Very well. Oh, by the way, I am going to quit working tomorrow. No more part-time stuff. I will make sure that the book gets published soon and then I will keep writing in order to finance this whole project. Things will be fine. I just decided that.”

  “Well, let it be that way,” Gina says. “We will trust you and support you.”

  “Thanks babe. I really appreciate you trusting me and backing me up all the way!”

  Chapter 17

  Success in Writing

  I get up the next day and call Grant right away.

  “Hey Grant. Did you have time to read my book?”

  “I sure did mate!” he says. “It is amazing…all the stuff you wrote. I don’t know how you came up with all that material! All the science fiction stories and even pictures—I have no idea how you got those with some of that weird writing on the bottom. That makes it look so real,” he goes on. “I got so busy with it…well, I hope you don’t mind, but I decided to have eight thousand copies printed. They will start printing them this week. This book could become a bestseller in no time! What do you think?”

  I am speechless for a moment. “Wow, I don’t know what to say man. I…” I hesitate again.

  “Well, sorry for not getting your permission before proceeding. I sent you an email with the proposal. Didn’t you see it? We can still stop the printing, if you don’t agree.”

  “No, no, that’s fine Grant! I just didn’t know…I wasn’t expecting…it is a really good thing you see, and I did not know it could happen so fast. I haven’t read my emails for a few days. I’ve been so busy with other projects around here that I haven’t had time to even get near the computer. But there is no problem whatsoever about you making the decision and publishing it.”

  “Okay. Check the email I sent you with the proposal, and let me know if it is okay with you.”

  “I will. Thanks again man. Thanks for making it happen. You are the man!” We both chuckle.

  I check my email and sure enough there is an offer of $5,000 for the author’s copyright paid up front and 25% of the sales paid monthly. The suggested retail price of the book is $12.00 each, with $9.00 going to the publishing house, and $3.00 paid to me. The first 12000 copies will be printed, published, and distributed into the major bookstores around the United States. They will sell online as well.

  “I guess that’s a start. More than making lots of money, I need my name to become known, so I can write more, and thus make more money in the future. I don’t think one can easily become rich just writing books—you’d have to be really famous and write a lot, which is not my purpose anyway. I just want to make enough to take good care of my family, and continue with this new project.”

  I immediately answer Grant’s email,

  “Go ahead, Grant. The proposal is good. I also plan to write another book or two. I will pass it on to you as soon as I am finished with them.

  Regards,

  Lee (The Writer)”

  Half an hour later he responds:

  “If you keep writing these types of books, we can partner up and have our own publishing business.

  Best regards,

  Grant (Your Manager)”

  I am really excited and decide to call Jon to tell him the news, “Hey Jon, Grant says my book is going to be printed and published by next week. I will get a check and then…” I fill him in on everything that had taken place with Grant.

  “I am very proud of you Lee. Well done!”

  “Well, you and Leo gave me most of the stories,” I say to him, “so thank you for that, and thank you for making me believe I could do it!”

  “It’s a team effort brother. Nothing just happens.”

  “Right! But see, I am more self-confident now. I can see how I can cause big things to happen. I always thought it was all ‘God’s Faith’ and that we just put things in His hands.”

  “I think God’s hands are already too full. Everybody on Earth seems to put everything in His hands. You guys should give Him a hand.” We both chuckle.

  “You are right Jon. And like you mentioned before, if…if we call ourselves ‘the children of God’ we should have inherited quite a bit of power within ourselves, that means we are powerful,” I agree enthusiastically.

  “It sounds like you are getting it. I like the way you think.”

  “Thanks. I wanted you to hear the good news. I am now going to have some breakfast, and go back to continue with the dig. It seems like a perfect day—not raining anymore. And by the way…we had plenty of rain yesterday! Can you please scare away any dark clouds that might show up?”

  He laughs, and says, “Will do my friend.”

  Gina was already up and had heard the whole conversation. She is impressed about our book being published. I say “our book”, because it is ours. We are a team, just like Jon says. All of our efforts are combined and being taken to achieve our common goals, not just mine.

  Chapter 18

  The Dig

  I have moved ten truckloads of dirt, about ten square meters each time, which means about one hundred square meters of dirt has been removed. I probably still have another two days of digging left to do.

  Two days later…

  I am done digging. I have excavated all the dirt I wanted to remove. I was also able to dig a huge trench that is going to be a tunnel connecting the garage with the house. Jon has prepared blueprints for the garage, including the floor, walls and the sliding roof as well, and I already have some modifications in mind.

  I get my $5000 check from the publishing company and a $3000 check in final wages and unused vacation time from the company I had been working for until recently. I have enough to pay for the equipment I rented, and to buy a sufficient amount of material to start building the foundation and walls for the garage.

  “Nice! Way to go!”

  I am also going to put some aside for the family; food, diapers, and other necessities.

  I call the equipment rental company and ask them to come and pick up their machines. They also do concrete pouring work, so I tell them to come back in three days with three truckloads of concrete ready to be poured. Three more days is enough time for me to lay the rebar (reinforcing steel bar for concrete) on the ground to insure a strong foundation. The garage itself will look like a huge box with nothing in it when it is fi
nished.

  I get a truckload of rebar and with the help of a couple of contractors, we are able to complete the whole thing in one day. We put down a good amount of rebar on the ground and I made sure there were extra pieces all along the edge to provide enough support for the walls and eventually the roof. I also laid some pipes to be able to run electrical cables for lighting and electrical outlets as well as some plumbing pipes for a sink.

  Jon tells me that they have already compiled enough stories to publish not one, but two more books. They are going to email them to me. I tell them I want to wait a few more days before I give the books to Grant. He wouldn’t think I could come up with so many stories so fast.

  Three days later…

  I have poured the concrete floor and now I have a bunch of rebar sticking out of it along the edges, which will eventually hold the walls. There are some extra thick pieces of rebar every ten feet, where I am going to build columns that will hold the roof. The next step will be the building of the forms that are going to hold the concrete for the walls. I complete the forms in two days with a couple of hired helpers.

  Four days later…

  The walls are done! I even poured the walls of the tunnel that leads to the house. I added an additional entrance to the tunnel at the east side of the building, facing the lake and the motocross track. Now I have a huge box with more rebar pieces sticking up and am ready for my biggest challenge—the roof.

  I pull out Jon’s blueprint of the roof structure and tell him that I have some changes in mind. All he says is, “Let your imagination fly and impress us!” His idea is to have a roof that can be lifted on one end, just enough so the dirt won’t fall out but for the ship to get inside.

  My idea is to make a flat roof. It will be on the same level as the ground, but when the time comes to open it I will make it come up a couple of feet and slide towards the back. It is going to be trick. The ship will drop in there easily.

  I also email Grant with the second book and tell him that I will be done with another one in a week or so. He is so excited, keeps telling me he can’t believe how good and fast I am at writing, and how I should have started writing long ago.

  Chapter 19

  Things Go Awry, Necessity Goes Up

  Jon calls me on the radio, “Are you there Lee?”

  “Yes I am here Jon. How is it going?”

  “Not so good!” he says, sounding concerned. “Our hydrogen converter unit is not working so well. It started acting up a week ago. We have done various things to keep it going, but don’t know how much longer it will last.”

  “That’s not good at all. What’s the worst that can happen, if it stops working all together?”

  “Our bodies will die since this equipment provides us with oxygen taken from the water. We are already kind of…weak.” His voice is starting to sound weaker and faint.

  “I see. But I figure I need at least another week to finish building the garage!”

  “We don’t have a week. This machine can stop working any time! I don’t mean to be rude, Lee, but please throw a roof on that thing and we’ll get ready to move in,” he says it in a commanding voice, while keeping a gentle and polite tone.

  “I am going to speed things up…you and Leo hold on tight. I won’t let you guys down again!” I say with complete certainty that I can handle this.

  “Bye Lee,” says Jon, his voice faint.

  “Did you hear that Gina?”

  “Yes I did,” she says with great concern.

  “His voice is not the same. I can perceive he is sad. He thinks that they may not make it. We are their only hope Gina. Their only hope!” I tell her looking straight into her eyes.

  “What’s the plan?”

  “We will order all the materials needed right away. I will work day and night. We will also get a few guys to help me during the day so we can speed things up. Your main job will be, aside from taking care of little Sarah, to provide us with food and drinks. And lots of coffee, of course, so we can keep going. And please check on Jon and Leo every so often, and make sure they are still there!”

  “What if they don’t answer? What can we do?” Gina asks with tears in her eyes.

  “I guess…nothing. But showing them we care for them so much will give them more hope. They will feel we are with them. That’s the power of communication,” I say to her while grabbing her shaking hands. She begins to look down to the floor. I grab her face, make her look straight into my eyes and tell her, “We will pull it off! You understand?”

  “I do.” She nods and wipes her tears.

  I get on the phone right away and order all the materials I will need to build the roof to exact specs—corrugated tin sheets, a ton of metal pieces, bolts, nuts, rails, wheels, welding material, two welding machines, chains, and a five horsepower motor that will make the roof slide back and forth.

  I spend the following two days and two nights building the roof and finally get it working. It moves up a couple of feet and then slides towards the back, just as planned. The final job will be to add a layer of dirt—about 6 inches thick, to cover the entire roof. This will keep the ship from being detected by radar. My plan is to use the dirt that I had previously left off to the side of the structure, and to use wheelbarrows for the job. I plan to get some sleep tonight and spend all of the following day to get the job completed. I will have my two helpers come and give me a hand.

  Early the next day I check on Jon and Leo. They only give a brief response, “We are still here,” and then hang up.

  I get to the garage and start to move dirt to the middle of the rooftop. It’s easy as the roof is pretty level, but carrying and distributing the dirt definitely turns into quite a workout.

  An hour later, Gina tells me that the guys I had contracted are not coming back. They felt overworked and decided to take a day off.

  “Well…I can’t say I did not make them work hard. They probably worked harder with me in the past few days than the rest of their entire lives!” I chuckle.

  I am now confronted with even more work. I just keep telling myself that I can do this, and I furiously throw away the water bottle and get a tight grip on the shovel.

  Four hours have gone by. I take a short break for lunch and head back to work with a big cup of coffee in hand.

  Two hours later, Gina comes running and calling for me. It’s obvious something is wrong.

  “What’s happening babe?”

  She is panicking, her face is pale. She says under heavy breaths from running, “Lee! They are not answering!”

  “Okay honey, when did you last hear from them?”

  “An hour ago. Jon could not talk much. Only said: ‘generator not working’.”

  “That means they ran out of oxygen. Did he sound very weak?”

  “Yes, very weak.” she reaches for my shoulders and starts crying.

  “I have another hour of work here babe. Get Sarah, the truck, and the radio ready to go to the lake. We have to get them out of there and into the garage!” I tell her with an assuring tone of voice.

  “But…how are we going to do that, we did not even finish digging out the ship?” she sobs as tears keep rolling down her face.

  “Remember Jon told us he will let us know how to get it out in due time? Just trust me.” I gently push her away and make her go home so I can finish the job. I have no time to lose.

  I go past the brink of exhaustion. I work my body as hard as I can for the next forty-five minutes. My legs and arms are extremely sore from shoveling and carrying the wheelbarrow back and forth. My hands are covered in blisters that have popped up on top of earlier ones I had already gotten and they are all bleeding. But nothing is stopping me. I, as a being, become exterior to my body and control it long enough to get the job done!

  Chapter 20

  Doing the “Un-doable”

  I jump in the truck with Gina and Sarah and head towards the lake.

  “Hold on tight
girls!” I tell them as the truck’s tires spin while moving downhill in a rush.

  “Did you hear from them again Gina?”

  Gina is still sobbing. “Ten minutes ago,” she says. “Jon called and said: ‘Come to the lake, we’ll lift the ship’. I could hardly hear what he said, but that’s what I think he was trying to say.”

  “Yes babe, that’s what he said. Jon told me they can lift and move things around. Remember? He wants all of us to help them. They will need all the help they can get, and that includes you Sarah!” I pull Sarah out of her seat and jump out of the truck. “We must keep in mind that the ship can’t be exposed for too long or it will be detected. Here is the remote control that opens and closes the garage roof Gina. I already left it open, so don’t push it until the ship is inside. Where is the radio?” I hand her the remote and Sarah, and pick up the radio we have been using to talk to Jon and Leo.

  I push the button hoping Jon or Leo will answer “Jon? Leo? Come on brothers, we are here!” I shout, but no answer.

  “Oh Lee!” says Gina as she grabs my hand.

  “Okay…Jon is here!” I voice.

  “I don’t hear him.” says Gina, sort of confused.

  “Jon is next to us, in spirit. He says we will all lift the ship at the count of three, and then we’ll bring it to the garage. I’ll start counting…one…two…three!”

  I use what I consider to be my most inner power and I direct it towards moving the ship out of the water. I close my eyes for a few seconds.

  I start to feel warm all over, and then all of a sudden I feel big and full of energy.

  “It is lifting!” Gina shouts.

  I open my eyes and see the ship coming out of the water. “Yes! We are doing it!” I shout.

  “You are doing it, Lee.” Jon whispers to me, “You and the girls are the ones doing it.”

  “But…”

  I tried to speak and he interrupts me with another whisper, “We are too weak to help, please get it inside!”