by Unknown
Now, with the world getting ready to crash down around them, he was stuck underground, hiding like a scared rabbit.
Deep down inside, he always knew that the natural catastrophes and climate changes that had been accelerating over the years had deeper, more logical reasons than just carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. He’d always felt that there was something more powerful at work—the changes had been far too severe and had been coming far too fast, faster than scientists had estimated.
Now, his inner suspicions had been confirmed—he wished they hadn’t been, but at least it was a known quantity for him now. The doubts that had been nagging his mind for so long were gone.
A planet named Gargantuan was on its way. Its magnetic pull was tearing the Earth apart, and its effects had been slowly but surely increasing for decades. To the point now that, because it was so relatively close, the effects were getting more severe by the day. It had been just a gradual thing in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, so gradual that people just wrote it off with the comment, “Well, that’s the weather for you. If you don’t like it, wait a minute.”
No one had a clue that something sinister was sneaking up on their peaceful little world. That their world would never be the same again, and that most wouldn’t even survive to realize that horror.
If the magnetic attraction didn’t destroy Earth, the damn interloper had colonies of beings living in it. Underground, just like him.
No one knew what they looked like, telescopes hadn’t picked up any living beings on the surface, but there was plenty of evidence that colonies existed underground. There were tunnels, the openings large enough for small spaceships to enter and exit. And, on the backside of Gargantuan, there were probably larger tunnels for the larger ships.
Or, perhaps those ships were always just hovering…somewhere. There had been enough UFO sightings over the last 100 years to indicate that they were possibly everywhere. There had even been alien bodies discovered, according to Allison. Little beings that looked like bizarre deformed human toddlers.
But, were they the same beings that inhabited Gargantuan? Or, were they from a different source entirely? What indeed was the Earth up against—an assault from several different worlds perhaps?
She had told him that the dark side of the Moon had what Majestic 12 and NASA determined as being ‘scout bases.’ What the hell? Scout bases?
No wonder these UFOs were being seen everywhere if they could easily zoom in from a planetary body as close as the Moon. Had they been inhabiting the Moon, underground perhaps, just like Gargantuan? Surveying Earth for the big year when Gargantuan was close enough for a mass invasion by the major forces? Were those scout bases picking the spots, the vulnerable spots? Was it their job over the last century to intervene and disrupt our wars, to make certain we didn’t harm the planet too much before Gargantuan arrived?
Did the living beings on Gargantuan plan on taking over Earth and moving out of their dark barren planet? Would they even be able to survive in our atmosphere? Right now, they lived underground and had some kind of artificial atmosphere, but had they adapted? Or did they have the technology to adapt?
Or, was it possible that these scout bases on the Moon had already sent inhabitants to live amongst us…or under us? Had they been here for longer than we would want to know? Did they move amongst us? Had they tested everything to the point that they already knew the Gargantuan residents would survive just fine?
The aliens would only have one shot at it—to be able to extricate mass numbers of living beings from Gargantuan and move them down to Earth.
There would be a relatively short window of about a year or two, as Gargantuan rounded the Earth in its elliptical orbit. Back around the Sun again, for the beginning of its next 3,600-year orbit.
If they waited too long to migrate down to Earth, it would be too late. They would be too far away for a mass evacuation and would have to wait another 3,600 years before their next chance at it.
Maybe it was now or never?
John’s brain wouldn’t stop spinning. The questions kept coming and the paranoia was getting worse by the minute, not the least bit helped by the four shots of cognac.
It was either the booze or his idealistic nature, maybe a bit of both, but John was convinced that he had a role to play right now. Not later, but right now.
He wanted to be the next president, regardless of whether the country was in a mess or not.
The country…indeed the world…needed him.
So did the current sitting president. He had to have already been brought into the loop on all this, and he would need a few good men around him, rather than those paid hacks that made up his Cabinet.
The president would need someone from Congress beside him on this crisis, someone who truly represented the people. Someone he could trust.
He needed Senator John Hartford.
There had to be solutions: military, chemical, biological. They just had to pick the best ones; hell, maybe all of them would be needed.
But, they couldn’t all just hide underground and let this happen without a fight.
It was entirely possible that Allison’s fears could be wrong, too. Maybe Gargantuan had already done its worst damage to the Earth and nothing more of any note would happen.
John needed to talk to some scientists.
Maybe the little creatures who inhabited Gargantuan would just leave them the hell alone? Maybe they didn’t want Earth at all. That fear might have been misplaced. The worst case scenario may not happen.
John got up and walked over to the phone on the kitchen counter. Like everything else, it too had limited scope. And, no buttons to push. It automatically rang through to one destination as soon as the receiver was picked up.
The winery office.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Gerndle. It’s John Hartford.”
He heard her giggle. “Well, of course it is, John. You’re the only one down there!”
“Yes…yes, of course. Listen, Allison said I could come up and take short walks outside if the coast was clear. That I should check with you first.”
“That sounds lovely—it’s a beautiful day up here. I’ll make a pot of tea for us. Derik is here, too; you haven’t met him yet. It would be nice. And, yes, the coast is clear—no strange people around.”
“Great. I’ll be right up. And…could you make that a pot of coffee instead of tea? I think I need a jolt of caffeine.”
“No problem, John. See you soon.” She giggled again. “Can you find your way without directions?”
“Not funny, Gerndle, not funny at all.”
John hung up the phone. Before heading to the main door for his climb up the shaft, he stuffed his iPhone into his front pocket. No cell reception down in this place—he’d tried already.
He’d find some private time outside, a spot with a strong signal, to make a phone call or two and check for messages.
Today, he was going to take charge of his life again. There were things he could do.
His mission in life was public service, and he felt like a useless little coward hiding underground. He wasn’t doing the duty he’d been elected to do—in fact, he was abandoning it.
Allison was only doing what she thought was best. She was just trying to keep him safe and he loved her for that.
But, he was a long way from home now. A long way from danger.
And, he was a United States Senator, for God’s sake!
That had meaning.
Real meaning.
Chapter 42
It was a bright morning, one of the most brilliant of any morning he could remember over the last few glorious summer months.
Or, maybe it just felt that way—maybe he appreciated it more today.
Wyatt took his steaming cup of coffee out onto the deck and gazed westward over the lake. The water was already starting its daily dance of sparkling diamonds, even though the Sun had just started peeking up over the mountains to the east.
He
walked around the corner point of the deck and rested his cup on the railing. Then, he raised his hand up to shield his eyes as he stared in the other direction, east towards the sunrise.
Wyatt put his sunglasses on and stole a longer glance. The Sun’s glare was strong and, despite his concentrated stare, he couldn’t see anything else in the vicinity of the big yellow ball. But, as Allison had forewarned, there were indeed cloudy streaks in the sky across where the Sun was rising. They crisscrossed each other and as he watched he could see them slowly spreading out, creating a cloudy eastern sky out of what had started out as a lovely shade of Robin’s egg blue.
Chemtrails, she’d called them. On certain days—when, due to atmospheric changes, it was easier for people to see the “thing”—specially-equipped planes would go up and paint the canvas. Shrouding from view any possible sight of the intruder.
Then, late in the day when the Sun was setting, the planes would do it all over again in the western sky.
Oftentimes, during the middle of the day, the chemtrails would appear again, but their main purpose then wasn’t to hide anything. Due to the position of the Earth and the sheer strength and brightness of the Sun at that time of day, it was impossible to see the “thing” anyway.
No, in the middle of the day, chemtrails were intended to shield humans from the extreme radiation that was getting through due to the weakening of the Earth’s magnetosphere—or at least this was how Wyatt had understood it.
Allison had said that the best times to see the “thing” were at early sunrise and late sunset, when the rays of the Sun weren’t as bright and the Sun itself was more distinguishable as just a round ball, instead of being a burning sphere. The glare of that sphere during the day made it impossible for people to look up.
But, sunrise and sunset were different. At those times, with the weaker rays of the Sun being not only diffused by Earth’s atmosphere, but also bouncing off its horizon, Gargantuan would sometimes make its appearance.
Not always, just sometimes.
It all depended on the air quality that day, degree of cloud cover, and the richness of the ozone layer. When those measurements were taken by meteorologists and astronomers, the alarm would go out…or not.
If the alarm went out, then so did the planes.
At various places across the planet, this scenario played out, day in, day out—morning, noon and night. It was an expensive undertaking and one of the reasons why government deficits were climbing faster than could ever be explained to taxpayers. Balanced budgets were a thing of the past; deficits were the ‘new normal.’
But, it sounded as if deficits were now the least of the world’s worries.
The chemtrail spraying was not an equal opportunity undertaking. It was selective, designed for those areas of the world where people would be most likely to notice or ask questions about alarming sights in the sky.
So, for cost reasons, cities were the first priority. They had the most educated humans, ones not so easily fooled. If they saw the ghostly image of a strange ball in the sky that wasn’t supposed to be there, they were the ones most likely to ask.
Next on the list were areas that were vacation or retirement getaways. These places tended to have the clearest of skies, well away from the city pollution. As well, their residents tended to be the types who weren’t working, or at least weren’t working all that hard. Because their lifestyles were more relaxed, they also tended to be the types of people who would take the time to gaze at the sky, even set up a telescope.
Other than that, even the cities themselves were prioritized—right down to education and income levels. At the low end, chemtrailing was ignored—the people were too ignorant, poor, stoned, or drunk to understand anything as complex as the sky and what it was supposed to look like.
And, neither would those people even care—in those inner city areas, crime was their most cherished pastime and running around with their heads down was more common than gazing up at the sky.
So, countries and cities were able to keep costs under control by labelling every area under their jurisdiction, and prioritizing their spraying accordingly.
Some countries chose to opt out completely, because the people being governed were too primitive or were already living under varying degrees of martial law, dictatorship, or communism.
North Korea was a perfect example—they hadn’t yet had even one day of chemtrailing. Myanmar and Bangladesh were two others who chose to opt out. According to Allison, the list of opt-outs was actually quite long.
But, generally, in the developed world, there was 100 percent compliance.
Wyatt had asked her about the risk of people enquiring about the chemtrailing activity itself.
She replied to that with a really good question. “How many times have you asked about it?”
He gulped. “Not once.”
“And, you’re actually a branch of government yourself, highly educated, and you used to hold a senior position in Canada’s national investigative police force. If anyone would ask, it would be you, don’t you think?”
Wyatt felt sheepish. “You’re right. I feel kind of stupid now. I never really took much notice of them before. Sure, I’d see the streaks up there, and always noticed that they eventually just expanded into clouds. And, I’d read something about them once in a while in the newspaper, but that would usually just make my eyes glaze over. It would just be one more ‘conspiracy theory’ in my view, people looking under their beds for monsters.”
Allison smiled at that remark. “Don’t feel stupid. That’s what we’ve counted on with the chemtrailing program. They do indeed look just like weird little skinny clouds, and they’re designed to expand into authentic-looking clouds within just a matter of an hour or so after spraying.
“And, we also counted on the ‘conspiracy-theory’ eye-rolling. We’ve done a superb job of making every conspiracy theorist sound like a whack-job. They have no credibility, due to our propaganda against them. So, only the smartest people listen to them and research these things—but those people are in such few numbers that they’re easily ignored…or managed.
“We count on the fact that the average person doesn’t look up at the sky, could care less about what goes on around him, and is far too busy looking at his smartphone or taking selfies. This is a sad fact of human beings that actually works in our favor.
“We’re not at the zombie apocalypse yet, but we’re getting close. There are a lot of shallow brain-dead people walking around, too self-obsessed to care about some weird looking clouds. And, we’d rather take the chance on having to explain chemtrails than having to explain Gargantuan.”
Wyatt took a long sip of his Tim Horton’s dark roast coffee, and gazed once more at the rapidly rising sun. Nope, nothing there…although he knew now that it was there. He marveled at how fast the chemtrails had expanded outward in just the last few minutes. They were actually starting to look like genuine clouds now. He shook his head in astonishment.
Sheer genius.
Suddenly, there was a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
He turned around and smiled. Allison was standing behind him with her own cup of coffee, adorned in a dark blue dressing gown that fell all the way to her ankles. It brought out the blue in her eyes, which this morning had the hue of an azure sea. The gown was slightly open in the front and Wyatt fought the urge to steal a glance.
He chuckled. “I think you can guess what thoughts your penny would buy you this morning. Sleep well?”
“Yes, I sure did. That guest room of yours is lovely, and the bed is the most comfortable I’ve ever slept in. I didn’t even hear you snoring—the walls are nicely soundproofed.”
“Not that soundproofed. I heard you as clear as if you were in the same room.”
“You did not! You’re lying! I don’t snore!”
“Oh, yes you do, dear lady. Hate to break it to you.”
Allison pretended to sulk. “There ar
e some things you shouldn’t be honest about with a lady. Didn’t your mom ever teach you that?”
Wyatt shook his head. “No, in fact, she warned me about ladies who snore. She said they’re too darn smart for their own good.”
“Ah, a back-handed compliment. I’ll accept it.”
Wyatt grimaced. “No joke, you are very smart. It’s kind of intimidating at times, but also very stimulating. I love it.”
“Thanks, but don’t be intimidated, Wyatt. Please—just tap me on the head if I start blowing my horn too much. I get carried away with the things I know about. Everybody has a different kind of intelligence, I think. Mine was borne from many years in school. It takes a long time to become an astrophysicist, and I think all that time in school can make some of us kind of ‘bookish,’ almost professorial.”
Wyatt squeezed her hand. “No need to explain your smarts to me. I love it, and I don’t think you got it from school—you were just made that way. It makes you a very intriguing woman.”
She smiled warmly at him. “Thanks. I do feel comfortable around you, so I appreciate your saying that. It’s nice that I can just be myself, and that you’re secure enough to handle it.”
Wyatt took his cup off the railing and walked over to the umbrella table. “C’mon, let’s sit here and look out at the lake while we sip our coffee.”
Allison joined him and sat on one of the chairs facing the lake—careful not to let the dressing gown open up and show off too much of her legs.
Wyatt sighed. “That was quite the bombshell you laid on us last night. I’ll have to ring my parents today to see how well they’re adjusting to this new world we suddenly find ourselves living in.”
“We could just drive over there, Wyatt. They might need me to fill in the blanks for them on a few things.”
Wyatt nodded. “That might be a good idea, but you were pretty detailed. Might be too much information for them already.”