Arthur Leach and two other men were talking at the front of the room near the podium while the large group of people found their seats.
“Hello everyone,” Leach began as a couple of stragglers arrived. “I’m sorry we needed to wake some of you so early. You will be briefed on your individual roles. Some of you have primary duties, while the rest are considered backup personnel to be called upon when required. You will remain at the Pentagon until further notice.
“Most of you are aware that this morning at 0300 hours we received a second message from FLO. The message requested that the following personnel in addition to myself and other key staff be present at the landing site to greet the Envoy. Note that the list was transmitted in alphabetical order. Last name first.”
Alphabetical order. Just the way we would send it, Doug thought.
Janet and Doug looked at each other as Leach opened a folder and began reading from the list. Doug didn’t recognize many of the names but that afternoon he and Janet would join them all at the landing site to greet the Envoy.
– 22 –
“But my name isn’t on the list! If I show up how will I explain my presence?” The scientist was beside himself. He spoke in a raspy whisper into the small mobile phone they had given him, one that could only dial one number. He didn’t want to disappoint his handlers, but he was fearful of being questioned by the regular security personnel at Andrews. “What will I say if I’m caught?”
“Leave that to us,” the handler said. You’ll be driven to Andrews separately and taken through security with the proper ID. Just ensure you stand with the largest groups of people, and don’t speak unless spoken to. Make sure you have a good view when the Envoy arrives.”
– 23 –
The TAC Suburban containing Doug, Janet, and three other scientists headed towards Andrews. An agent was in the driver’s seat. Agent Bishop was in the front passenger seat. During the ride Bishop turned to face the group and went over some last-minute security protocols. The group would stand behind the main greeting party unless directed otherwise.
During the trip the subject of the list was brought up by Dr. William Grant, who Doug knew worked on a different shift.
“I’m not ashamed to say I’m nervous! The Envoy’s transmission listed people by name. That’s troubling. One, they know who we are. Two, they may be expecting something of us. But what?”
Nobody replied. They were all thinking the same thing.
The SUV arrived three hours before the appointed landing time; the primary group arrived ninety minutes before that. The base had been closed to traffic soon after the message had been received. Only essential base personnel remained in the immediate area, along with a few dozen agents sent to brief and supervise them. The rumor was that two Marine battalions were deployed in a dense security perimeter around Andrews, and that both UAV drones and multiple AWACS platforms were flying continuous surveillance patrols.
At every security checkpoint there appeared to be three-man teams of MPs, but they were wearing unfamiliar shoulder flashes. Doug asked Bishop who they were.
“Special Reaction Team,” Bishop replied. “If they’re here it means we’ve got the best possible people in place if something goes bad.”
Even with the SRT and Secret Service on the job, the President was not attending. Doug thought he was probably in some secret bunker in case the Envoy turned out to be hostile. The Vice President and the Secretary of State would be among the delegation at Andrews. There were about thirty delegates present, not counting support personnel.
The sacrificial lambs, Doug thought, offered to the alien Envoy in case they’re hungry after they land. Nobody from the UN has been invited either. He almost laughed out loud.
There was a short rehearsal in which each person was directed to stand at their appointed place, while Leach and a military advisor spoke to the crowd for a few moments. The Envoy was still at least an hour out, so the group was directed to an airport hangar for some refreshments. The shade was also appreciated, as the mid-afternoon sun had gotten quite strong.
After the rehearsal there was nothing to do but eat sandwiches, stand around and fidget. Everyone was on edge. Nobody knew what to expect, and the terse nature of FLO’s communiqués didn’t help.
The small group that Doug and Janet arrived with stuck together. Doug didn’t know many of the other scientists very well because some had been brought in later or been on a different shift, but they had the common issue to bond over and compare notes.
A communication station had been set up in the hangar. There were several large monitors inside and outside the large entrance. Some of the monitors were used to display instructions, while others were set up similarly to those in the station room back at the Pentagon. Satellite images, airborne camera transmissions, and terrestrial signals could be shown. Some of the monitors displayed a countdown to the Envoy’s ETA. 00:26:39. Twenty-six minutes to go.
At the twenty minute mark the delegates were instructed to take their places outside. The sun was behind them, but it was still uncomfortably hot. Doug started to perspire almost immediately.
The monitors were showing a small dot in the clear blue sky. The image was mottled by heat shimmer and air pollution. After a minute the dot grew to a shaky white blob against the blue of the sky. A few minutes later the view switched to a clearer shot. The sleek ship was clearly visible, a mostly white upper section with a darker underside. The view switched again. It was clear that they were getting view angles from ground, drone and AWAC cameras. The Envoy ship banked and turned to line up with a runway. Doug momentarily looked away from the monitor to scan the sky, but he couldn’t see it.
“There it is!” someone shouted, and the crowd turned to look at the area of sky where he was pointing. It was very small, but left a curved vapor trail, making it easier to spot. Janet pulled Doug’s upper arm in close to her as she saw it. Despite the anticipation of the Envoy’s arrival, he was aware of her touch. It felt reassuring. He put his hand on top of hers.
There was a booming sound as the vehicle transitioned from supersonic to subsonic speed. Janet clutched his arm tighter at the powerful sound. Doug felt the boom deep in his chest.
The craft was getting closer and they could now discern its shape without the aid of the television monitors. It was shuttle-like, but it also resembled a sleek jet. It was losing altitude quickly. As it came into the local airspace it banked and circled the airport at an altitude of about five hundred meters. The ship was a beautiful design. Doug could hear the familiar sound of jet engines, but it was faint, like a modern airliner rather than a military craft. Unlike the Shuttle the Envoy ship seemed to be able to fly on its own in the atmosphere. No external engines were visible.
The craft moved away from the airport then banked towards the far runway, lining up its approach. Two Air Force F-22 Raptors followed on either side but about a kilometer behind. Doug hardly noticed them except to compare the scale when the louder jets screamed overhead as the alien craft touched down. The F-22s were state of the art technology, yet the sleek, quiet Envoy ship made them seem like ’70s-era fighters.
Soon after touchdown the ship’s engines became louder as it employed engine braking. Some of those assembled applauded as it slowed and turned off the runway towards the hangar downwind of the group. Two ground marshals in bio suits standing away from the runway’s end directed it to halt about three hundred meters from the delegation.
Leach and three other men, all in bio suits, were transported by an Air Force driver in an open-topped Humvee towards the craft. The second vehicle was a modified cube van, with medical insignia and very large side windows for observation. One other Humvee followed, containing armed Marines complete with body armor over top of combat biohazard gear. All the vehicles stopped about fifty meters from the ship, with the medical vehicle closest to it.
Three individuals dressed in biohazard suits exited the van and stood between it and the ship. Leach and two agents stood
further away and waited. The marines stood behind and to the side of them, rifles held at sling arms, a position of respect for greeting dignitaries.
Just then there was a commotion in the crowd behind Doug. He heard a woman say “Oh my goodness,” and then some murmuring. Two agents appeared and carried someone away. Doug couldn’t see who it was, but he guessed that the heat and the tension of the moment prompted someone to faint. He looked back at the spacecraft.
After a moment the craft’s hatch opened and gangway stairs deployed. Doug was tall enough to have a clear view, but Janet had difficulty even when she stood on her toes. He wished he had brought binoculars, but then thought it might have been rude to observe the Envoy through them. It seemed like they were waiting forever, but it was likely only a few seconds before he saw someone emerge.
A man descended the stairs. He was tall and athletic, but otherwise not out of the ordinary. He was wearing a blue jumpsuit, similar to the ones worn by astronauts on the Shuttle or the International Space Station. The jumpsuit seemed better tailored though, as if it could be worn as a regular uniform. Another figure emerged, this time a woman, followed by four others. Six people in all, two of them women, each wearing the same uniform style and carrying a briefcase. The craft’s stairs retracted and the hatch closed when the sixth person was on the ground.
Six visitors, apparently unarmed, Doug thought, all of them looking just like everyone’s next door neighbors. Not an invasion. I wonder if the Pentagon will be happy or sad about it. By the time the last person had reached the ground, Leach and the agents had walked to within a few paces of the Envoy. There was much gesturing and talking, but no physical contact. After a moment the six members of the Envoy entered the medical van in preparation for a quarantine of undetermined duration.
Seemingly out of nowhere, another squad of Marines pulled up in two Humvees to guard the Envoy ship. As the Envoys were being driven towards the delegation Doug became aware of just how hot it was outside. Despite the exhilaration at the situation he realized he hadn’t had any water since arriving almost three hours earlier. Like everyone else, he was sweating profusely. Hopefully somebody in command would bring everyone inside or just out of the sun.
The vehicles made their way towards the delegation. The medical vehicle carrying the Envoy stopped near the Vice President and a few other delegates, past Doug’s position. Doug could see a few of the individual’s faces through the vehicle’s large windows.
The vehicle contained an active two-way intercom so the assembled group could hear those in the van speaking. The Vice President addressed them at a podium microphone not far away. It was all very cordial. The visitors spoke everyday English, which made it all surreal. One man spoke with a French accent, another Spanish. As each individual stood up in the van to move to the intercom and introduce themselves, Doug could clearly see their face through the window. An interesting group, but again, nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact that all of these normal looking Envoy members had just arrived from another planet. Then as he could see the second woman move to the intercom, Doug froze in shock. The woman spoke.
“Hello, my name is Dr. Cheryl McBride.”
– 24 –
Doug woke up on a cot in the base infirmary. He saw Janet’s face above his, looking concerned. A doctor was adjusting an IV drip connected to his arm.
“You collapsed,” Janet said. “When you saw Cheryl, you just...”
Janet adjusted the cold cloth that had been placed on his forehead.
“The… alternate Cheryl McBride had asked for you, and she became very concerned when she learned you passed out.”
“The fact you were dehydrated didn’t help matters,” the doctor standing nearby said. “The excitement proved to be too much for some people. Three others collapsed in the heat.”
Another man was laying unconscious on a cot near the opposite wall.
“Cheryl. Where is she?” Doug sat up, and immediately winced at the pain in his head.
“You’ll feel stronger in about a half hour as the IV replenishes your fluids. That headache is a common symptom of severe dehydration. I can give you something for the pain if you like.”
Doug nodded and the doctor went to a medicine shelf.
Janet sat on the cot beside Doug, putting her hand on his shoulder.
“The Dr. McBride from FLO,” Janet said with some emphasis, “has gone with her group for medical examinations. Just before they left Agent Bishop and I had a short talk with her when she asked for you. Aside from her obviously not being killed in her universe, there were a few other differences. Apparently the two of you only dated a short while, and never planned to get married. And…”
Doug felt weak, still in shock from glimpsing the woman he had loved, whose funeral he attended two years ago. He looked up at Janet.
“Her universe?” Doug asked, quietly. He was foggy but he’d heard Janet clearly. “It’s confirmed then? Multiple universes?”
“Yes, and there’s more,” Janet replied, nodding. “In her universe you were the one that died. A cycling accident soon after you moved to Hawaii.”
Doug thought back to the first day he had started cycling up the mountain. A Jeep travelling too fast for the road had narrowly missed hitting him head-on after a blind corner. Doug had swerved into a ditch just in time and was thrown from the bike, grazing his head on a rock. That day happened to be the first time he had worn a cycling helmet, and it likely saved his life.
Agent Bishop entered the infirmary.
“Good to see you conscious Dr. Lockwood,” he said. “Most of the delegation and the Envoy are now in quarantine at Bethesda. A large team has been assembled to push the blood and bacteriological testing as quickly as possible, but it may take some time to give them the all clear. Preparations are being finalized for debriefing of the Envoy back here at Andrews once testing is complete.”
Bishop looked over at the man laying unconscious on the other cot.
“What’s Foley doing here? His name wasn’t on the list, and he didn’t enter through security.”
Doug was surprised.
“I didn’t even realize that was Stan laying there. Maybe Dr. Lau or Arthur Leach added him to the list.”
“How well do you know Dr. Foley?”
“He’s an old friend. We did our undergrad at the same school. Why?”
Bishop didn’t answer.
– 25 –
Five minutes later Agent Bishop escorted Doug and Janet to a nearby lounge, where the two briefed Doug on the events of the previous forty minutes. The Envoy’s leader, a man named Dr. Carl Bertrand, had addressed the crowd via the intercom immediately after the initial greetings. Knowing there would be intense curiosity about them and their planet, Bertrand read from a prepared statement providing basic information about FLO.
There were more similarities than differences between the two Earths. To avoid confusion, Bertrand suggested the names FLO and the Twin be used when referring to each planet. Nobody objected. Of more interest was the fact that the history and population of both worlds were apparently identical up to the year 1970, and then they started to diverge.
Bertrand’s prepared statement was innocuous. He was so obviously human that there was some restlessness at the banality of the statement until he got through the preparatory remarks and into the part that completely silenced everyone and riveted their attention. There had been a dramatic breakthrough in computer technology on FLO in 1997. It had started with an MIT graduate named Norman Stravinsky, whose counterpart on Earth had apparently died at birth in 1971. Stravinsky had become one of the most influential quantum physicists of the previous twenty-five years. In 1996 his research team had begun the development of a revolutionary new processor which provided the biggest technological leap in the history of computer science, opening new avenues in computer applications that had been out of reach before. It was a quantum computer built on a massive scale. The Envoy leader explained that the third generation of th
e computer, Mekhos as they referred to it, had recently managed to send FLO to a different universe to avoid a catastrophic gamma radiation event that would have destroyed all life on the planet.
With those startling words Bertrand was interrupted for a few moments as he noticed several people who had been listening intently to him suddenly turn and nod to Janet Blair. Her prediction about FLO’s origin might have been inspired guesswork, but her colleagues silently offered their congratulations.
Much of life on FLO seemed to be influenced by the presence of Mekhos. Beginning in 1999 the supercomputer took an interest in FLO’s global economics and politics, giving foreign and domestic policy advice that when implemented had a stabilizing effect. At first only a few countries would follow the directives, but as more followed FLO became more peaceful than it had ever been in all of its recorded history. Before landing, the Envoy had tapped into Earth’s news archives and was shocked to learn of an enormous amount of violence and turmoil in recent decades that had never happened on FLO.
It was a lot for Doug to take in. He should have been utterly fascinated by the quantum computing revelations, but he was preoccupied with confusion at the thought of Cheryl being alive. And yet it wasn’t Cheryl. What did it mean to see someone you knew, who had effectively risen from the dead, who by way of explanation happened to be from an alternate universe? Do you greet her like an old friend or a former lover? Yet she was not the same individual you had loved. Or was she?
Would it be like coming across a long lost identical twin? No. Even identical twins are separate individuals with separate personalities. Not only was this Cheryl McBride physically the same in every detail, she had most of the same history, even to the point of dating Doug.
Dark Nights Page 8