At the bottom, they leap onto the top of an elevator parked at the base of the shaft. The muffled sound of alert honks and red flashing lights seep through the narrow seam between the elevator and the shaft. A blast emits from the chest plate of one Grey, creating a hole in the elevator top, which the Greys drop into.
Inside the elevator, they look out the open door. The corridor ahead of them flashes with red lights. Not a soul is around. While following a tracking signal emanating from their scanners, the Greys move along the corridor to the main hangar room. As they enter the open bunker, there is nothing in sight. The scanners reveal hidden wall panels and a large floor panel the size of a truck, under which sizzling acid pools and remnants of solids dissolve into nothing. They look into a meeting room and computer room off the side of the hangar. The electronic equipment has been shorted-out, tiny flames burning around the charred spots. The only item intact is a large meeting table.
They extend the search into side corridors approaching an archive storage room. The scanners detect floor panels, in rows like shelves. Beneath those panels is more bubbling acid and nothing else.
They move to a vault door. With two chest blasts, they put a foot-wide hole in the door. Scanning through the hole, they detect the entire vault floor is a panel with acid in it, except in the acid is a hyperrectangle cuboid unaffected by the caustic contents. One Grey puts a black triangle on the vault door and activates it. The triangle illuminates orange then splits into hundreds of glowing nanobots that pulverize a large section of the door into dust, leaving an irregular shaped five-foot opening before the nanobots deactivate. Still outside the vault, the Greys activate another triangle, and toss it onto the floor panel. The triangle glows orange and disperses, eating an irregular shaped opening, exposing the liquid beneath that sizzles and dissolves the dust from the nanobots pulverizing the panel.
One of the Grays removes a disc from its silver suit. It holds out the disc with its extended arm, and the cuboid shoots up out of the liquid to the disc. The liquid acid splashes and wicks off the cuboid as it flies to the disc, creating corrosive burns on the walls and floor panels. However, the corrosive acid does not stick or cling to the cuboid, so by the time the cuboid connects to the disc, the cuboid is clean and shows no sign of corrosion or damage. The Grey slips the cuboid into a sack and seals it.
Planting three trapezoid implosion ordnance devices, the Greys activate them as they head back to the elevator. Without hesitation, they scurry through the hole in the elevator ceiling, and climb up the elevator shaft with extreme ease and speed.
Outside, the Greys come up the side utility stairwell. As the cloaked Grey craft uncloaks, the three Greys step onto a metal disc that has been resting on the ground. The disc raises up to the craft, lifting the three Greys with it, and then seals to the hull. Cloaking, the ship disappears.
The ground rumbles from the implosion in the bunker below, causing the massive dome of the museum to collapse inward and the museum mound to sink. Paved streets and parking lots near the museum stress crack from the explosion's tugging force. Gas lines in the museum crack and burst, ignited by the sparks of twisting metal, causing an explosion to crater out the remains of the museum building. Flames fueled by the gas leak is the only light in the entire area. People rush out of the nearby restaurant, hotel and inactive highway cars, staring at the explosion aftermath.
Finding Nemo
Chapter 7
Bottom Of The Antarctic Ocean.
A Grey craft trolls along the Antarctic Ocean floor, seven thousand meters beneath the Antarctic ice plate. They come across a stripped hull of a Grey craft resting on ocean bottom. The partial hull is clean of sea growths or corrosion, and is conspicuously situated in plain view with no obstructions.
As the Grey craft slows to a crawl above the gutted hull, it scans over and past the craft remains, detecting the outline of something geometric protruding from the sea floor, poking out a meter. It is a flat edge with a rounded corner wider than the scan. The edge connects to a flat top which goes beyond the scan range, the whole thing covered with a thin layer of sea silt.
As the Grey ship moves forward towards the geometric protrusion. A strange five-meter-long quad barrel extends from a turret emanating atop the geometric object in the ground. At the end of the four connected barrels is a flat circular plate with a hole in it the size of one barrel. Silt drops off the barrels as if the barrel just stopped moving.
The Grey craft stops, scanning the barrel. The disc at the end of the barrels rotates. From the base side of the Grey craft, a pulsing orb fires at the rotating disc. Just then, the opening on the disc turns revealing bore holes in the barrels, which fire hyper-velocity projectiles traveling supersonic speeds. One hyper-velocity projectile strikes the pulsing orb before it hits the barrel, causing the orb to flash burst. Continuous HVP's from the barrel hit the force shield surrounding the Grey craft, causing the shield to pulse and flash. However, the shield stops the projectiles.
The disc at the end of this underwater railgun continues rotating, firing HVPs again and again on the shield. Another pulsing orb fires from the Grey ship and is again destroyed by the Gatlin railgun turret. Shot after shot blur out the barrel, yet the Grey ship's wavering shield destroys the projectiles. The Grey craft fires two more orbs at the railgun. Shots from the Gatling railgun fire ceaselessly, destroying the orbs and pummeling the fluctuating force shield into failure. The incessant HVPs pierce the Grey craft at supersonic speeds, punching holes through the bottom hull. Several of the projectiles go completely through the ship, while others get stuck exiting the ship's top hull, their tips poking out.
As it bubbles and sinks, the Grey craft loses power filling with salty sea water. The spinning railgun disc stops rotating. The turret and the railgun barrels lower, settling into a groove, fitting flush with the surface beneath it.
A rumbling shakes the silt as the large geometric object moves. The flat side and rounded corner of the massive object rises out of the ground, floating upward until it ascends twenty meters, exposing another curved corner turning into a flat bottom. It is over a hundred meters wide and twice that in length. The strange massive ship lacks the sleek seamless construction of a Grey craft, no real aerodynamic form. It bears the irregularities and quirks of human design and assembly.
With no obvious form of propulsion, this massive orthotope shaped ship propels toward and over the sunken Grey craft. With great control, the ship descends and stops feet in front of the Grey craft. Arced pincer clamps protrude from the ship's bow hull and clamp to the sides of the sunken Grey craft, locking onto it. The massive orthotope then ascends as it rotates. Large block letters on its flat side spell 'BARGE'. Then with surprising speed, the massive ship propels away, disappearing into the dark depths of the Antarctic Ocean, carrying the disabled Grey craft with it.
Meeting Of The Minds
Chapter 8
Colorado Committee Mountain Facility, Conference Room.
Mr. Nix sits at the head of a smooth modern oval table with a communication system embedded in the tabletop. Along one wall of the room are large surveillance monitors showing various location throughout the facility, rotating images every thirty seconds: labs, fabrication workshops, training facilities, corridors, utility rooms and several edge monitors switching between exterior mountainside views of hidden entrances to the facility including one huge stone camouflaged fortress door built into the mountain top at the end of a paved road.
Two monitors in the middle of the wall don't change images, displaying two occupied medical labs which interest Mr. Nix. One lab has a body bandaged from head to toe, without a patch of skin showing: IV bags, a catheter, oxygen tubes and a feeding hose connect to the body. A headset covers the body's ears and eyes, connected by wires that extend to a computer tower. The other monitor displays a medical lab where Dr. Black and Dr. Diamond operate on a man. Dr. Black is cutting and peeling the skin off the man's legs. On top the exposed flesh and muscle of that leg, a
medical assistant smear gel. Dr. Diamond removes different skin from a saline tray, cuts it, then wraps it to fit the skinless leg.
Seated to the right of Mr. Nix are Walter and Burt. Burt tries not to watch the surgical procedure on the monitor across from him. At the far end of the table sit a rugged middle-aged man and the head of security Colonel Kaliber, a small stout bearded fellow and the head of facility operations Mr. Axus, and the lean psychological testing director Dr. Lost with her head shaved close on the sides and back. There are a couple empty seats.
Mr. Nix speaks into a communication console, "Medical, send two biotechnicians to Eighteen's room. Tell them to remove his bandages and the implant headset. And make sure Eighteen has no reflective surfaces near him. I don't want him seeing his reflection until I get there."
"When will you be arriving, Commander Nix?" asks the voice responding over a speaker.
"As soon as I finish this meeting. Do not leave him alone until then."
"Understood, Commander. Biotechnicians are entering Eighteen's recovery room right about now."
"Thank you," replies Mr. Nix, disconnecting.
On the monitor showing the lab where the bandaged body lay immobile, two technicians enter. After taking off the headset, the technicians remove bandages with great care, revealing a bald round head with large round eyes, resembling the features of the Grey's hybrid skin spawns.
Without looking up from a digital pad she is reading, Dr. Lost expresses her impatience, "With respect to your elderly guests, Mr. Nix, can we get this meeting started and over with before I'm as old as these two gents?"
Mr. Nix looks away from the monitors and toward each person seated around the table, "As you can see on that monitor, Dr. Black and Dr. Diamond will not be joining us. They are amid transitioning Nineteen to the hybrid spy program."
Dr. Lost has discontent in her tone, "I thought Seventeen was the last one, then I see these two. I was unaware we had more candidates. Why was I not notified?"
"Because they haven't reached the testing stage yet. Despite Seventeen's success, our history with the hybrid program showed a high probability Seventeen would not complete training, let alone complete his mission. So, I had two more candidates prepared to replace Seventeen while you trained him. Candidate Eighteen has been recovering for a couple months and, as you can see there, has completed recovery. His training will begin after I confirm he has successfully adjusted to his new identity. I recruited Nineteen two weeks ago, and as seen on this monitor, he is just beginning the surgical transformation by having the hybrid spawn skin graft. Between the skin, eye and ear transplants, and skull bone restructuring, Dr. Black will be inaccessible for the next twenty hours."
Burt shifts uneasy, "I find this process fascinating on paper, and have the greatest respect for Dr. Black's abilities, but I don't do well watching live procedures. I am fine with dissections and autopsies, but live operations on people I...I...I can't...I feel the skin being peeled off my own legs. I'm sorry."
Mr. Nix dismisses Burt's comment, "Just ignore it, Burt."
Walter injects, "If saying that to Burt worked..."
Burt can't relax and blurts, "My seat is facing the operation. I'm sorry, forgive me."
Burt gets up and moves to the other side of the table into one of the empty seats, his back now toward the monitor. "I'm better here. Let's continue."
After a pause, Mr. Nix continues, "If we are all settled in now and Dr. Lost is finished complaining...the main purpose of this meeting is to review and assess the impact and implications of the Grey's infiltration assault of our four Grey Bunker Archives last week, and the status of recovered artifacts since the elimination of the Grey deep-sea Pacific colony. This is an obvious ramification of Seventeen's sabotage, and Grey aircraft sent back in time through a dimensional anomaly."
Flipping through digital notations on her pad, Dr. Lost says, "If I understand the briefing for the meeting correctly, Agent Seventeen caused five of their craft to perform a temporal jump into the past."
Mr. Nix confirms, "Correct. US Military recovered the four escort ships over an eighteen-year span, from 1947 to 1965. The primary transport is lost, whereabouts unknown. The 1947 Roswell craft, artifacts and specimens were stored in the Grey Valley Bunker in California. Walter and Burt destroyed most of those artifacts yesterday when the Greys found the bunker. The Grey Mountain Bunker at Eagles Peak, Texas housed the 1953 Kingman Arizona craft and artifacts. The Greys caught that bunker completely off guard and infiltrated it with little resistance. All personnel were killed. We stored the 1962 Arkansas craft and specimens in the Grey Water Bunker at Carters Lake, Georgia. That bunker was flooded, but not before its personnel died fending off the Greys. And last, the Grey Dome Bunker in Wapakoneta, Ohio contained the 1965 Kecksburg, Pennsylvania craft and artifacts. That was the only bunker we had time to warn of the Grey's intentions. They completed a successful evacuation before the assault, resulting in no human casualties, but did not have time to evacuate any of the artifacts, so they destroyed them. After each infiltration, the Greys demolished the bunkers. Our efforts this last week to salvage even human remains from the rubble has been fruitless."
Colonel Kaliber asks, "Any speculation what happened to the transport craft whose whereabouts are unknown?"
Mr. Nix answers, "We reviewed the possibilities, but have no conclusion. For now, consider it lost."
Colonel Kaliber prods, "Do the Greys consider it lost? They found us with four escort ships. Wouldn't they assume we recovered the fifth? What will keep them from assaulting every secret Committee bunker and facility trying to find it?"
Walter replies, "That won't happen. They were homing in on specific items we recovered from those ships, not seeking every bunker and assaulting them. Since we don't possess the fifth ship, we have no items for them to locate. I think we can consider this...recovery operation they were performing over."
Dr. Lost looks up at Walter and expresses in a derisive tone, "Your name is Walter? Who uses real names in the Committee? And who are you that your opinion matters? Mr. Nix, if you want me to take this old man's opinion as truth, shouldn't you at least tell us his credentials?" asks Dr. Lost.
Walter replies, "That's not my real name, Dr. Lost. Walter is short for 'Whereabouts Altered'. My original Committee name is Professor Tomb, the Head of Scientific Personnel. Paperwork showed Professor Tomb was relocated to an unknown location, and I was renamed Walter, disguising my identity as the person in charge of the scientists. But while I'm here, Mr. Nix wants you to understand I control you."
"You are the HSP? I'm sorry sir, I didn't know, I'm so...it's none of my business."
Dr. Lost becomes nervous as she sits up respectfully.
"You can relax, Dr. Lost. I know your specific skills...and extensive faults. Don't try to impress me. Just respect me," says Walter in a stern tone.
Mr. Nix injects, "If he has questions on your research Dr. Lost, answer him. If he asks for your help, give it to him. If he tells you not to do something, don't do it. That goes for everyone at this table. Understood?"
Mr. Axus, Dr. Lost, and Colonel Kaliber nod in agreement.
"Back to the Grey assault on bunkers...did they believe we had the crafts when they started their search, or did they look for those items you mention and discover we had them?" asks Colonel Kaliber.
Nix replies, "I'm sure they thought when the accident occurred, they would recover the craft before we could. When they didn't find the crafts and started a wider search, they likely suspected we had them. They probably have not figured out yet we gained their crafts last century. We should assume the Greys think we retrieved, hid, and took their ships apart within the last week. From their viewpoint, that is impossible unless we prepared for and caused their ships to crash and demolished their deep-sea colony."
Colonel Kaliber rubs his lip, thinking. "Ok, let me get this straight. We successfully infiltrated their deep-sea Pacific colony without their knowledge, destroyed it, and our operati
ve caused five of their craft to disappear into the past without a trace. We recovered their crafts early last century and hide them. Then the time loop our agent caused comes to an end, and the Greys discover we have possession of those ships less than a day after they disappeared."
Mr. Nix responds, "Yes. We are coming out of that time loop. Our lives up to this moment are results that loop. Which is why I am opposed to time travel of any sort; the outcomes are unpredictable. Walter had me believing time travel might be beneficial, because of the Grey artifacts we had in the bunkers. But now, that advantage caused us to be found possessing evidence of a heinous crime against the Greys."
"What does this mean for us, our operations?" queries the colonel.
"That is what we are trying to assess," responds Nix.
Walter injects, "Not to contradict you, Nix, but we are at an advantage from those artifacts. The Greys likely figured out we destroyed the deep-sea base from the radiation signatures left from the fission bomb, since they don't use fission. Burt and I extracted extensive knowledge from the artifacts we had at the bunker that has benefitted the Committee and your work here. From Grey biology, to the research on microprocessors we leaked decades ago that led to today's computers and mobile phones, even the devices I created to track the skin spawn micro-transmitters you used to capture spawn hybrids that made Dr. Black's surgery on that monitor there possible!"
Mr. Nix responds, "Maybe so, but having their ships disassembled in bunkers could lead them to believe we are a significant threat. The fact we had the setup to raze the artifacts exposes that we had bunkers ready for their recovery. From their view, we beat them to their own craft, even though we found them decades ago! Walter, I don't want to create friction between us just because our views oppose on the situation. You had nothing to do with causing the loop, that was Seventeen, and me sending him on that mission. I bear more responsibility for our current circumstance than anyone here."
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