by Cliff Ball
“Clear as a bell,”
“Area 51 is where we test new technologies and put to use technology we have gained from a crash landed alien spacecraft that was shot down in July of 1947. We think Mars is used as a base for advanced humans who have been watching and manipulating Earth for more than two thousand years. The surviving alien from the crash told us that his species has been at war with those humans and other humanoids for well over a thousand years. We plan on introducing advanced technology to the rest of the world when the Apollo missions go up and when we have other space missions, cover our butts to keep people from wondering how come we’ve advanced so far so fast. One of these days, the advanced humans and the aliens will get what’s coming to them.” said Yeager.
“I find all of this a little hard to believe, sir.”
“Understandable, Mr. Carpenter. Imagine what kind of reaction we’d get from the American people if they found out about all of this, some would believe, others would say it was the end times, or it was all some kind of Soviet mind trick. Would you like to see the alien and what’s left of his spacecraft?”
“Yes, sir, this should be interesting.”
On their way to see the alien, Carpenter saw a sleek looking, black in color aircraft, much different in design than any other aircraft he had seen before. He asked about it, and Yeager replied, “That is our newest supersonic aircraft, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. It can go faster than mach three according to our preliminary tests and the new type of skin is radar absorbing, so it can’t be detected by normal means. Lockheed’s Skunk Works built it for us, we gave them the recommendations for the engines and how to construct the skin, and they came up with the design themselves. Their engineers have no idea how fast it can go and the bird itself will probably stay classified as long as we have the Soviet Union to deal with. We’re probably twenty or thirty years more advanced than we ought to be thanks to our friend.”
A few minutes later, they entered a small building near the runway. Carpenter was thinking this was far too small for an alien and its spacecraft, until Yeager and the two men in black walked into an elevator, Carpenter followed them in. The elevator went down for five minutes and came to a stop, so Carpenter realized there was more to Area 51 than meets the eye. As he walked out of the elevator, he saw a massive cavern carved out of the bedrock two miles beneath the surface, and a hive of activity going on. Yeager said, “This was built below the surface because we wanted to make sure none of this was destroyed by a nuclear war, and we have three shifts a day on the twenty four hour cycle, so there will always be people down here. In case of a nuclear war, we have enough supplies down here to last for twenty years, along with a hydroponics bay in the process of being built, which should keep us fed for a very long time. Not only that, but our employees’ families live in nearby Rachel, which appears to everyone on the outside to be inhabited by a bunch of UFO nuts, but that’s not the case; it’s our attempt to misdirect and misinform the media and general public. If the country is invaded and nuked, the families can be down here in less than thirty minutes. This is all just a small part of the underground installation and its inner workings you’re looking at, Carpenter.”
“Impressive.” Carpenter managed to say, awed by what he was seeing.
Yeager led Carpenter to the room holding the alien, who apparently was watching a movie. Carpenter wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but a tall, gangly bluish looking creature from beyond the stars wasn’t it. The alien heard them, turned around, and said, “Greetings General Yeager. I’ve been watching a somewhat fascinating movie made by your primitive movie studios; it’s called The Day the Earth Stood Still. I must discuss it with you sometime, when you aren’t busy. Who is the visitor?”
“This is Scott Carpenter, a test pilot and occasional astronaut. Scott, this is Ostoro, Ostoro, meet Scott. We just sent him up in Zeus, where he used the sensors and discovered a spaceship leaving Mars. I’d say he’s sort of shocked to discover all of this, including an alien in our midst. Would you say that about covers it, Carpenter?”
“To say I’m shocked would be a bit of understatement, sir. I have heard rumors about aliens, but I thought they were small, gray, and big eyed, not big, blue, and small eyed. Next you’ll tell me they don’t fly in flying saucers,”
“Actually, they don’t. Ostoros’ ship was just a scout, not the full sized spacecraft he keeps telling us about. In Earths’ atmosphere, his ship appeared to be a flying saucer due to the cloaking technology of the Ragnor. As for the rumored appearance, you can thank our friends at the CIA for coming up with what we call Grays. Ostoro has helped us immensely over the last fifteen years, and once this all comes to light, he will be justly rewarded,” remarked Yeager.
“As my human friends like to say, I’ll believe that when I see it. I still say your species is much too primitive to understand anything beyond your planet, but I’m sure all of you will disagree. You and the Soviets will probably end up with nuclear war and wipe out humanity before you have a chance at my people, which would be a most pleasant ending in my opinion.”
“Before we get into another philosophical discussion about this, I think that we should show Carpenter some more advanced technology. Come with me, Carpenter.” said Yeager, as he directed the astronaut away from Ostoro.
Yeager and Carpenter walked over to a workstation that had some sort of screen and all sorts of small electronic devices laid out near it in sort of board pattern. Yeager walked over and flipped a switch on the electronic device, it powered up, and a bunch of icons showed up on the screen. Yeager said to Carpenter, “This is the one of the next newest technological marvel that all of mankind will be using in the next decade or so. It’s a desktop computer with an advanced operating system, but currently we’re working out the bugs for military use. Sometimes, we get this green colored error and have to re-install the software, and it usually happens when we’re working on something important,”
“A personal computer that is small and sits on top of a desk, nobody’s going to believe it. What’s going to happen to the room sized computers when these hit the mass market?”
“Those computers will probably be thrown out and a computer with these small electronic parts and a small hard drive could speed up how things are done. Who knows though, this is just an experiment at the moment anyway. If we do decide to let the public know about personal computers, we’ll have to make a couple of computer geeks really rich and famous. Next, I want to show you how we have managed to come up with all of this.” remarked Yeager.
Both men approached a huge steel door with a keypad installed next to it. Yeager typed in a few numbers, the door slowly lifted, and the two men went inside. As with everything else, Carpenter saw a hive of activity going on, and as he approached the area that Yeager was taking him to, he found out what it was. The alien spaceship was being worked on; parts were being taken out, parts were being put in, but, the ship was much smaller than Carpenter expected. He guessed it was because the ship was a scout like he was told earlier. Carpenter walked around the ship and came away impressed, and then said, “Wow. This is pretty cool. Have you guys managed to figure out the technology behind how this ship works?”
“Not all of it, but the more we learn, the more we figure out what makes the Ragnor technology work. Our alien friend helped immensely when he wrote an English language version program for his computer, which has helped expand our knowledge of how his ship works and of the universe. Einstein would probably be overwhelmed by everything we’ve learned so far, but he was informed of the alien crashing back in ’47, but he wasn’t in good enough health to take part in the initial set-up of Area 51 as a secret base for this kind of research. Anyway, whatever happens in the near future, this spacecraft isn’t going to be used for our initial forays to the outer planets, we’re going to build prototypes first. But, before we do that, we’re going to send out probes to the outer planets and beyond, see what’s out there before we actually venture beyond the inner sola
r system.”
Carpenter asked about how the United States was progressing in technology and then asked about test piloting the SR-71 Blackbird, which Yeager agreed to let Carpenter do. Carpenter got into the SR-71 and put the aircraft through a series of tests, even maxing out the speed of the plane, going slightly above mach 3, and climbing as high in altitude as he could without actually going into orbit. Carpenter came away impressed with the new aircraft and joined the ranks of Area 51 test pilots, with faster and more agile fighter jets coming through the pipeline, along with the next spacecraft in NASA’s inventory, the space shuttle.
Chapter Eleven
“This is Walter Cronkite, live on CBS here at Cape Canaveral on November 9, 1967, covering the launch of the unmanned Apollo 4 on top of the Saturn V rocket, which is the largest launch vehicle ever constructed and its first flight. My temporary newsroom is located four miles from the actual launch site, so as not to be affected by the shockwave of the rocket being launched. We’re waiting now for the command to launch the Apollo 4, officially marking the start of the missions to the moon that President Kennedy declared we would do back in 1961. CBS News would also like to take the time to honor the men who died in January in the now officially named Apollo 1 capsule. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died in a cabin fire while going through a simulated launch test. The pure oxygen that was being used along with high pressure in the cabin caused a massive problem for the three men, resulting in a catastrophic fire, and they were not able to get out of the capsule due to the escape hatch not working. We at CBS dedicate this launch to them. We now join the countdown for the launch of Apollo 4,”
The Saturn V rocket gleamed in the early morning sun on Launch Complex 39A, since the launch was scheduled for seven in the morning Eastern Time. The whole rocket was steaming from the near frozen liquid hydrogen-oxygen used as the fuel. The countdown was nearing the end, “10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Apollo 4 is now a go for launch.”
The rocket engines fired, billows of fire and smoke went through the launch site and the Saturn V lifted off. A bigger than expected shockwave from the rocket thrust pulsated away from the launch and pounded the makeshift CBS studio, along with everything else in its path. Cronkite, who was still talking and pontificating about the launch, found himself dodging pieces of his studio, while still trying to talk on live television. The cameras switched to the rear view of the rocket a few minutes later. It showed a magnificent view of a marble blue Earth, and then showed the interstage between the first and second stages falling away back to Earth. The cameras on the rocket also were jettisoned and those parachuted back to Earth, landing in the ocean to be retrieved, and used again later. The Apollo 4 achieved orbit and stayed there for a little over eight and a half hours before re-entering the atmosphere and making a splash landing in the ocean. The first time testing of the Saturn V rocket and its components was part of the all-up doctrine that had been decided upon in 1963 to test everything together instead of separately in order to achieve a moon landing by the end of the decade, but that meant that everything had to work the first time, since multiple testing would have hampered the goals of landing on the moon on time.
Meanwhile, a group in the Soviet space program, led by Kerim Kerimov, was building a secret launch vehicle of their own to attempt a moon landing before the Americans. Even though the rockets that were officially being tested were complete and utter failures, this group, who was similar in nature to the mission of Area 51, had tested a version of their own rocket as far from prying government eyes in Moscow as was possible and still be inside of Russia. They decided this would be a one shot deal, since it was unlikely this could be a secret for very long if the men chosen for this mission managed to land on the moon, but it was a risk these loyal Russians were willing to take. This one launch was a mirror of the Zond moon program, including using the Soyuz 7K-11 spacecraft, and the modified combination of the N1 and Proton rockets for traveling and landing on the moon.
Kerimov was also wondering who he could recruit for this glorious mission for the motherland, when he thought of Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin was currently the deputy training director of Star City, but was also trying to re-qualify as a fighter pilot, so Kerimov approached the first man in orbit with his proposal. Gagarin was flying a MiG-15 when Kerimov came to Star City, so Kerimov waited near the tarmac for Gagarin to land. Gagarin landed thirty minutes later and pulled up to the hangar where the aircraft would be stationed, and got out of the aircraft. Kerimov greeted him, “Colonel Gagarin, it is good to see you again. I have a mission that I’d like for you to go on, if you’re interested,”
“Comrade Kerimov, anything you’re involved in, I would be most interested. What would you like me to do?”
“Perhaps we should take a walk, prying ears and all,” Gagarin agreed and the two men walked to the edge of the woods near Star City, where Kerimov began again, “Some engineers, scientists, and I have been secretly building a launch facility to get us to the moon before the Americans. Our government knows nothing of this and we wish to keep it a secret from everyone, until a landing has been made. I want you to be the pilot of the spacecraft and also be the first person from Earth to walk on the moon. What do you think, Comrade?”
“I think this could get us a bullet to the head is what I think. However, I would love to go back into space, and even get a chance to land on the moon. What do I have to do?”
“Come with me to our launch facility and have a look, and then you can decide what you want to do. You’re co-pilot will be Vladimir Komarov, who is already there, waiting for us to return.”
Two hours later, they approached the secret location by air and Gagarin saw the launch pad with the biggest launch vehicle he had ever seen attached to the launch pad. This must dwarf the Americans’ Saturn V rocket he thought, he hoped it worked the first time, and didn’t explode and kill everyone in the vicinity like so many other launches had done over the past ten years. Gagarin decided he was impressed with what he saw so far, so his decision to stay was going to be much easier. The plane landed two miles away from the launch site, and Gagarin saw Komarov waiting for them to taxi the plane to the hangar. Kerimov and Gagarin got out of the plane and Komarov came over to greet them, “Good afternoon, comrades. I am looking forward to our next mission, when can we get it started, General?”
“If everything goes according to plan, we will launch in two days time. Your spacecraft is named Korolev, after our head rocket engineer, who died last year. The engineers must pump a lot of water from the Artic in order for the engines not to overheat and cause a fatal error. Not only that, but the fuel needs to be pumped in and keep cooled until the launch. In the meantime, let me show you around the facilities, comrades.” said Kerimov.
Two days later, Gagarin and Komarov were taken to the launch site, went up the elevator to the spacecraft, and were strapped in with the help of the flight engineers. They conducted pre-flight checks of all the instruments for fifteen minutes, while mission control did the same. The countdown was begun five minutes after the two were strapped in, and continued on for twenty more minutes. The engines activated when the countdown ended, causing a massive fireball and smoke to envelop the site, while the two cosmonauts were experiencing 15 g’s and were glued to their seats while the rocket was lifting off. A trail of smoke followed the rocket into orbit, where all the stages fell away, leaving the Korolev spacecraft alone in orbit. Gagarin fired the rockets on the ship to leave Earth orbit and headed for the moon, which would be a three day trip.
As the two were on their way to the moon, Gagarin peered into the windows and marveled at the beauty of Earth, feeling as he did when he went up the first time. He felt then as he did now that there must be a God out there somewhere, he had a hard time since his first orbit going with the communist official line of atheism. He never dared voice his thoughts out loud because doing so would get him purged and he didn’t want that. Defecting to the United States would do him no good ei
ther; the KGB would hunt him down and murder him in cold blood, all for the supposed good of the Russian people. If Gagarin could, he would stay out here forever and not go back to Earth. He wasn’t sure how Komarov felt and he wouldn’t dare ask him.
Halfway to the moon, they felt some sort of explosion hammer the Korolev, all the emergency lights on the instrument panel lit up, and a rather annoying and deafening alarm bell went off. Komarov silenced the alarm, and asked, “What happened?”
“I don’t know, something must’ve malfunctioned and short circuited. We’re going to have to inspect the entire craft and find out what’s wrong. I might have to break radio silence and contact Kerimov, but only in the worst case scenario possible, because Star City Mission Control may pick up our broadcast, and then everyone involved would be in serious trouble. Let’s get to work, Vladimir.”
An hour or so later, Gagarin discovered that the Korolev was severely off course, not headed for the moon at all, but for a course towards the outer solar system. One of the coolant tanks for the engines exploded they had discovered, which had caused the ship to veer off course. He had to risk contacting Kerimov, “Kerimov, this is the Korolev, please come in, Kerimov.”
A short burst of static came through, and then Kerimov’s voice came through the receiver, “This is Kerimov, Korolev. If you’re breaking radio silence, I assume you’re in some sort of trouble. What’s wrong?”
“We’re seriously off course, and have no way to correct the problem. Mission has failed, repeat mission has failed. What are your orders, sir?”
“Terminate the mission with all due haste, Colonel. As of now, all radio contact is terminated. I’m sorry, Gagarin. Kerimov out.”