Before them, it appeared that every police car in New England had gathered. Levi noticed state and local authorities present.
“What the hell is going on here?” asked Dana.
“I don’t know. We’re about to find out.”
A local cop was flagging them down. Levi pulled up to him and rolled down his window.
“Who are you guys?” the cop asked.
“American Space Transmission Research Association,” said Levi. “We’re tracking some strange readings and we were lead here.”
“You can’t be here right now,” the cop said. “There’s been some sort of terrorist attack, or accident, or something.”
“Terrorist attack? What happened?”
“I can’t be more specific than that, and even if I did know what was going on I couldn’t tell you.”
“But we’re scientists,” said Dana, “this might have something to do with the phenomenon we’re tracking.”
“Pull over to that area over there and wait,” the cop said. “I’ll tell the feds you’re here when they arrive.”
“The feds?” said Levi. “It’s that serious?”
“Apparently. Now please, would you get out of the way?”
Levi nodded, and began to pull away. He drove the Bronco to a relatively empty part of the vacuous pier and turned around, pointing the nose of the vehicle towards the activity. He put the truck into park.
“It looks like the area of interest is the pier itself,” said Dana.
“It does. They’re all gathering around there. I don’t see what they’re interested in, though.”
“Me neither.”
Levi’s attention was diverted back towards the entrance to the pier. A pair of black Ford sedans had arrived, followed by a camouflage Humvee. The driver of the lead Ford spoke with the officer at the gate, and continued on towards the water. Levi looked astonished.
“The military? That was fast. This must be some serious shit.”
“I think we might be in over our heads,” said Dana.
17. October 7, 2003
It was midnight, and all was quiet in John Scherer’s backyard. The waxing gibbous moon cast a pale light across the lawn. The wind picked up a bit, sending leaves recently freed from their homes swirling lazily about. A horizontal shaft of light appeared thirty feet above the yard, and began to grow. A ramp, jutting out of nowhere, began to lower. The ramp made contact with the ground, and a Ford Expedition appeared. The truck rolled down the ramp silently and into the yard. Three figures followed the truck’s path down the ramp. They turned and looked back at the ramp. It began to close. A fourth figure stepped out of the Ford and joined the others. The ramp closed, leaving only the night sky above the yard.
“Remarkable,” said Ray. “It’s almost completely invisible.”
“Aren’t birds going to crash into it?” asked Christie.
John closed his eyes. He had a more casual connection to Seth available now that the ship was built, a connection that was easier on him but offered less direct control of the ship.
“Birds won’t come anywhere near the Faith,” John said, opening his eyes. “They can sense the electromagnetic disturbance.”
“Come on,” said Ray, “let’s get some sleep.”
The group headed inside. Friday expressed her displeasure with yet another absence by John, and Tycho added his feelings on the matter from the depths of the basement. Christie went downstairs to tend to the dog while John fed his own animal.
“So, what’s our plan for tomorrow?” asked Ray.
“I’ve got to go to work,” John said. “If I’m going to quit, I’m going to do it in person. I feel bad enough not giving them two weeks notice.”
“Not me,” said Ari.
“We already know how you feel about it. Anyway, Ray, that won’t take very long. The first thing we need to tomorrow is sit down and take a really hard look at our finances. After looking over the finished superstructure of the ship I realize just how much furniture we’re going to need. I have drills that can cut through aluminum but we need circular saws as well. Those we can probably rent, along with any other tools we might need. There are going to be many more costs involved in this project than we initially thought.”
“I can borrow an infrared transceiver from work,” said Ari, “but only if they think I still work for them. I’ll do a half day tomorrow and come home sick, this time with the transceiver and anything else I think we need. Maybe the day after next I can actually quit.”
“Sounds good. Christie says she’s still in the clear for Tuesday. She doesn’t have class but she will be blowing off some of her office hours.”
“Okay,” said Ray.
“Well, then, let’s get some sleep. We’ve got an early start tomorrow.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Ray.
“Yeah,” said Christie, emerging from the basement, “we get to sleep in if we want.”
John smiled. “True, but once you remember that there’s a one hundred foot long spaceship in the backyard, you may not be able to.”
Hey, guys,” Ari began, “we haven’t discussed something I think is rather important.”
“What’s that?”
“What the hell happened to the battleship after we were done with it?”
The others were silent. John shrugged.
“According to Seth,” he said, “we took what we needed and left the rest. I guess we took a little bit from the whole, as opposed to one solid chunk. The process must have left the ship’s hull destabilized. Even a small drop in density could have caused the steel to buckle.”
“Yeah, but disintegrate?”
“Hey, I’m no expert. I’m just glad we got a ship of our own out of the deal.”
“The downside,” said Christie, “is that people are going to notice the destroyed ship a lot sooner than a missing chunk of sub-decks.”
“What are they going to do, dust for fingerprints?” said Ray.
“I’m just saying that if we were going for a low impact approach we’re not off to a great start.”
John nodded. “Yeah. The only thing I’m ultimately concerned about is making sure that nobody gets hurt. People can speculate about what happened to the Portland all they want as long as they don’t find out about us. For everything else that we do, we have to minimize, if not avoid completely, taking advantage of or victimizing anyone.”
“Do you consider theft part of that equation?” asked Ari.
“Yes. We needed the Portland. Anything else we need we should be able to buy. Besides, it’s too risky stealing things. We don’t need any of the members of the team getting arrested.”
“What if it’s not so risky after all?” Christie asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Look at what Seth just did. He absorbed all that material from the Portland. He must have some sort of matter transportation and reformation ability.”
“Right, so... wait a minute...”
“You’re suggesting we might be able to simply ‘beam up’ anything we need?” asked Ari.
Christie nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. John?”
John closed his eyes and turned towards the backyard.
“Seth says it can be done,” he said slowly.
“Why don’t we try it out in the morning?” Ray said, smiling. “We can start with something harmless like the leather captain’s chairs you wanted for the bridge.”
“Okay. Cool.”
“Until then, let’s get some sack time. I’m about to pass out where I’m standing.”
“Roger that. I’m going to take one last look around the ship and see if we’ll need anything else.”
__________
“Okay, we have just gone from odd to super freaky,” said Levi.
Levi turned off the highway in the Bronco towards the hotel they’d stayed in the previous night. He was becoming more and more agitated with the entire situation, especially with the involvement of the CIA. Le
vi was flabbergasted that the CIA let them go after what they told them, and he strongly suspected that they’d be back in touch at some point soon. Levi’s cell phone rang, and he just about ran the Bronco off the road.
“Hello,” he said gruffly.
“Yo, Levi, this is Chris.”
“Chris, you would not believe the stuff that is going on over here.”
“Really? What’s going on?”
“I can’t talk about it right now, it’s too complicated. When I get to a land line I’ll call you back.”
“Okay. I have some new information for you, though.”
“Shoot.”
“We got another signal from the Woburn location.”
“Holy shit. Hey Dana, they got another signal from Woburn.”
“Awesome,” said Dana.
“It gets better,” said Page. “I have the location down to the decimeter.”
“Outstanding, now we’re getting somewhere. Give me those coordinates, we’ll head there now.”
Fifteen minutes later, Dana and Levi were standing outside of a house in Woburn. The name on the mailbox said “Scherer.” Dana was holding the GPS unit out in front of her.
“This is definitely it,” she whispered.
“There are some lights on,” whispered Levi. “Let’s be careful.”
“We’d better hurry. If the CIA has found a way to track the signal, they could be on their way already.”
Dana and Levi crept towards the house, keeping to the shadows. The neighborhood seemed unusually quiet. Silhouettes of people could be seen at times through the windows, the sight of which caused Dana and Levi to freeze in their tracks. Dana leaned over to whisper to Levi
“If the source is inside,” she hissed, “what then?”
“I suppose we go knock on the front door,” Levi said, his response more reasonably hushed. “I’m not giving up so easily.”
By the side of the house, the pair encountered a four foot high fence. A gate through the fence into the backyard was unlocked. Levi lifted the handle and opened the gate carefully. Dana slipped through and Levi followed her, gently returning the gate to shut. They made their way towards the large, open backyard. Levi was looking to his left and Dana to her right as they cleared the rear edge of the structure. Dana gasped and halted. Levi walked into her.
“What the hell,” Levi growled.
Then he saw what had made Dana stop in her tracks. There was a ramp in the backyard. A ramp that led into a dimly lit room which was quite obviously not present in any other dimension but the second. It was like looking into a television screen without being able to see the sides. Levi took a couple of steps to his left to confirm this view. Whatever space the room at the top of the ramp occupied, it was not in this backyard.
“What the hell are we looking at?” Dana squeaked.
“I don’t know.”
There was a Ford Expedition parked a couple of yards away, and Dana was compelled to go hide behind it. Levi seemed to have more fortitude and began walking toward the ramp.
“Levi, wait.”
Levi did not wait. He reached the bottom of the ramp and stepped upon it. He waved Dana on, smiling. Dana huffed and crept up after him.
“This is not smart,” she whispered.
“Come on, we have to know what we’re dealing with. We’ve been chasing this thing all over New England.”
Dana and Levi reached the top of the ramp, and the full space of the room became apparent. Despite the emptiness of the room, its nature was plain. Dana vocalized it.
“We’re on a ship.”
What else could it...”
Levi interrupted himself. Somebody was whistling. Levi and Dana did not move, completely uncertain of the source of the sound. Levi realized at last that it was coming from a nearby hallway. There was a stairway leading up to a room above this one, and it was the only place to hide, so Dana and Levi took up shelter behind it. It was lousy cover.
A man emerged from the far hallway and crossed the room to the ramp. He took a look around, his expression one of pride. He walked down the ramp and disappeared into the yard. The ramp began to close. Dana grabbed Levi’s arm tightly.
“Levi, let’s get out of here,” she said.
“Wait. Surely we can open the ramp ourselves. Let’s take a look around.”
Dana thought this was a baseless assumption, but her curiosity was starting to get the better of her.
“Okay.”
The ramp finished closing. Levi’s attention was drawn a long staircase on the left side of the room.
“This way,” he said.
Levi ascended the stairs with Dana in tow. At the top of the stairway was a long hallway with hourglass-shaped windows running along one side. The closest door was on their left, so Levi opened it. On the other side of the door was a semi-circular room with a long, sloping counter top. Large sweeping windows occupied most of the forward part of the room, offering an unobstructed view of the night sky. Smaller windows flanked the room on either side. Other than the counter space, the room was empty.
“This looks like the command center,” said Levi, “but it’s obviously still under construction.”
“Yeah,” said Dana. “It looks like there are meant to be chairs here.”
“Wait, look at this.”
Levi crossed to a brass plaque set into the wall. There was writing inscribed upon it.
“Temeraria Fides,” Dana read aloud, “2003.”
“Reckless Faith,” said a voice.
Dana and Levi spun around. The man they’d seen earlier was standing at the rear of the room. Three other people, one man and two female, were also there. Three of them were pointing firearms at the visitors.
“Oh, shit,” said Levi.
“Who are you?” said the first man.
“My name is Levi Marks. This is my colleague Dana Andrews. We work for the American Space Transmissions Research Association.”
“What the hell is that?” said one of the women, the taller of the two.
“Are you familiar with SETI?” asked Dana.
“Yes,” said the second man, who stood a couple of inches taller than the other.
“We’re a fledgling organization with the same goal.”
The first man lowered his weapon a couple of degrees and took a step forward.
“How did you find this ship?” he asked.
Levi motioned with his hands. “Do you mind? We’re unarmed.”
“I do, actually. Ray, would you please?”
The man named Ray nodded. He handed his shotgun to the woman next to him and stepped forward. He expertly patted down Levi and Dana, sparing no modesty in the process.
“They’re clean.”
The first man holstered his pistol, as did the taller woman.
“How,” said the first man again, “did you find this ship?”
“We’ve been tracking a signal since last Friday,” Dana said. “It piqued our curiosity so we decided to head out and find the source. We finally located it.”
“What kind of signal?” asked Ray.
“A low frequency, non-repeating, close pattern cluster waveform,” said Levi. “The signal by itself is meaningless and contains no data, at least none that we’re aware of.”
“How were you able to trace it to this location?” asked the first man.
“We triangulated it with several receivers. Piece of cake. The only problem was waiting until the source stopped moving. I guess you guys have been busy.”
“Where have you tracked us?”
“The first signal was detected in low Earth orbit above Pennsylvania, which is where we’re based. After that we received the same signal from the ground in Orford, New Hampshire. Then we picked it up again here, in this neighborhood, but we didn’t have a precise lock. After that, we followed the signal to a pier in Chelsea. Finally we got a lock on coordinates here. Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but what exactly is this ship? Who built it?”
“I don
’t know if I can give you that information,” the first man said.
“Well, you’d better decide soon before the authorities show up.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Whatever you did down in Chelsea,” began Dana, “it has the CIA and the military looking for you.”
“Son of a bitch!”
“Wait a minute, John,” said Ray. “They’re investigating the Portland, that’s all. They can’t track us.”
“Unless,” said the taller woman, “These two are in fact working for the CIA.”
Levi smiled. “I assure you, we’re the furthest thing from government agents there are.”
“Ray,” said John, “search them again, please, this time get their wallets and cell phones.”
Ray did so. He and John examined the items.
Levi pointed at his stuff. “As you can see, we are who we say we are. There’s no government identification, and no phone numbers listed for any government agencies. Just our ASTRA membership cards.”
“They could be undercover,” said the taller woman.
“If they are, Ari,” said John, “they really suck.”
“Look,” said Dana, “we can’t prove that we do or do not work for the CIA, other than offer our word. If we did, though, why would we give you advanced warning that the CIA is looking for you? But, it doesn’t matter one way or the other.”
“How do you figure?” said Ari, smirking.
“If we did work for the CIA, you’d boot us off the ship and then figure out what’s transmitting the signal we received. Then you’d eliminate the signal and disappear. If we don’t work for the CIA, then you’ll still boot us off the ship and disappear.”
“Or,” began Levi, “you could let us in on the truth.”
“Will you excuse us for a minute?” said John.
The four crew members whispered among themselves for a moment. Levi and Dana looked at each other. Levi shrugged.
“Okay,” said John. “We’ve agreed to try some quid-pro-quo. You’ve already answered a ton of questions so you get to go first.”
Levi furrowed his brow. “Uh, why are you willing to give us information if you can’t be sure of who we are?”
“Because we don’t intend to let you go,” said John.
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