Don't Mess With Earth

by Cliff Ball

Both men glanced at each other with worry on their faces. Gagarin turned off the radio, and then said to Komarov, “Well, I don’t plan on committing suicide just because I’m told to. My plan is to record everything we see out here and when our country or even the United States plans on exploring the solar system further, maybe they’ll come across the Korolev and see what happened. Do you agree?”

  “Yes, I agree with you, Colonel. I’m always amazed how quickly the Motherland abandons one of their own, but it is what it is. Let’s get to work plotting our current location, our rate of speed, where our course is going, and see just how long we can survive out here.”

  Two days later and over five hundred thousand miles from Earth, the Korolevs’ data recorder was recording everything, the two men were asleep in their chairs, and then a mysterious shadow appeared over the spacecraft. The ship was jostled, which caused both cosmonauts to awaken, and they felt as if they were being pulled upwards, even though it was supposed to be an impossibility with no gravity in space. Gagarin got out of his chair, went to a window and looked outside, and what he saw shocked him. There was a spaceship of unknown origin out there, and it appeared to be pulling the Korolev into the ship. Gagarin went over to his supply bag and pulled out his pistol, and checked it to see if it had bullets, which it did, and began weighing his options. Komarov saw this, his eyes went wide, and he asked, “You don’t really plan on shooting your way out of this, do you?”

  “No, I don’t, but this is a protective measure. We have no idea if they’re hostile or what they even look like. I just want to be prepared in any case and it looks like we won’t have long to wait to see our benefactors.”

  The Korolev was pulled inside the spaceship into what appeared to be a hangar bay of some sorts, from what Gagarin could see, since he saw craft of various sizes sitting in the hangar. The bay doors closed, breathable air was pumped into the hangar, and both cosmonauts experienced gravity again. Gagarin decided to open the hatch of the Korolev and see what’s out there, but, he made sure he kept his gun with him. Both men climbed out of their ship, looked around, and waited next to the Korolev for someone or something to appear. Their wait didn’t last very long when a door opened and what appeared to be four humans came walking towards the two Russians, as Gagarin and Komarov nervously stood next to their spacecraft waiting for whatever came next.

  What appeared to be an officer of some sort walked up to both men, and said, “Greetings. I am Commander Gregor Lomanco of the Terran Base on Mars. We detected your spacecraft here drifting severely off-course for what we assume was a mission to your moon. Even though we officially try never to interfere with human activity, this is one time we thought it best to come to your aid. Unfortunately, we can’t return either of you to Earth, since it would open up too many questions about us, and it would help if you lowered your weapon. Now, who are you?”

  “I am Yuri Gagarin and this is Vladimir Komarov, we are cosmonauts from the Soviet Union,”

  “Oh, yes, I recognize you now, you are the first modern human to reach orbit. Congratulations by the way, that really put the Americans on the spot, didn’t it?” interrupted Lomanco.

  “I’m sure it did, uh, Commander. Who are all of you and I’m not the first human in orbit?” asked Gagarin, taken aback by what he’s heard so far.

  “No, Mr. Gagarin, you are not the first human to orbit Earth, sorry. We are the Terrans. Our ancestors came from and left Earth more than three thousand of your years ago, near the time of Noah’s Flood. We established a base on Mars long ago to watch your planet and wait for it to become technologically advanced enough to make official contact. Over the years, there have been some Terrans who have tried to interfere, but they were taken care of, and right now, no one from Terra is meddling in Earth affairs. Will you be missed by your country or did the failure of your spacecraft mean certain death for you?”

  “We were on a secret mission to the moon, which wouldn’t have been broadcast to the world until we were on the surface. Unfortunately, our engines malfunctioned and took us off course, so we were ordered to terminate the mission and basically commit suicide. I refused and we are here on board your spaceship, while back on Earth I would have to assume our commanding officer has made up some stories about our supposed deaths. Now, I guess we are even unofficially the first humans to make contact with another spacefaring culture. What will you do to us?” asked Gagarin.

  “We will not have you killed if that is what you’re asking. We can either have you stay on Mars with us, or send you back to Terra, that all depends on what my superiors say. Are either of you fine with that prospect?”

  Gagarin and Komarov looked at each other, Komarov shrugged, and Gagarin said, “We will accept wherever you want us to go. Just lead the way.”

  As the two Cosmonauts were being processed by the Terrans, back on Earth, Gagarin was right about Kerimov making up a story about what happened to Komarov and Gagarin. Kerimov, after remembering what McNamara threatened him with years earlier, told the Soviet leaders that Komarov died in a spacecraft accident involving one of the Soyuz class spacecraft, including going so far as to make listening posts around the world hear him complaining and cursing the craft as it failed to deploy the parachute on the Soyuz as it was coming in for re-entry and then crashing, killing Komarov. As for Gagarin, Kerimov waited a few months and announced that Gagarin and a flight instructor died while on a routine training flight of a MiG-15UTI, because weather conditions were really poor and turbulence from both breaking of the sound barrier and windy conditions caused the aircraft to crash. Both men were given state funerals, although the bodies of both men were burned beyond all recognition according to Kerimov, so open caskets were not used, and nobody realized there were no bodies in the caskets when they were buried.

  Chapter Twelve

  "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." said Neil Armstrong, as the lunar module Eagle touched down on the moon.

  “Acknowledged Eagle, we’re all relieved you made it to the surface. Now, you two need to begin the extra-vehicular activity that’s planned for this mission. Houston out.” ordered Charles Duke, acting CAPCOM for the landing.

  As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin began preparing for their EVA, Aldrin broadcast over his radio, “This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way. Thank you.”

  Six hours later, Armstrong was in his spacesuit ready for what was next, and then he opened the hatch on the lunar module, and stepped down the ladder to the moon’s surface for the first time. On his first step, he said, “"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The first footprint of mankind onto the moon was relayed back to Earth in real time on television, hosted, of course, by nervous CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite.

  At Area 51, everyone stationed there was also watching this on TV, spellbound by what they saw. Chuck Yeager, after the television broadcast, made an announcement, “My superiors wanted me to inform all of you that with the accomplishment of landing on the moon, we should now make more of an effort to get us further into space. We will be working on trying to build actual spacecraft to be secretly used while NASA goes about showing the public what the United States can do, albeit in baby steps. Occasionally, if we’re allowed, we will put hybrid technology on the Apollo spacecraft to see what works and what won’t. Sometimes, we may even test the limits of human endurance in space, that all depends on what my superiors want. We will also work on bringing some of our technology to the people, advanced computers, more efficient microwave ovens, solar power, and anything else we can conjure up. Let’s get to work, people.”

  Nearly a year later, Apollo 13, the third moon mission, was set to go to the moon. As James Lovell, Fred Haise, and John Swigert were on their way to the moon, an explosion occurred on their spacecraft two days into the mission. An oxygen tank e
xploded, damaging the service module, causing the three men to utilize the lunar module as a lifeboat. Back on Earth, at Area 51, they had caused the oxygen tank to fail, with a radio signal sent to a receiver with a small explosive device on the tank itself, but they hadn’t meant to damage the spacecraft. Through a team of engineers, Area 51 let NASA know how to help keep the three astronauts alive for the trip around the moon and back to Earth. The intent was to see if humans could survive on low oxygen levels in space, but, the whole experiment turned into a bigger problem, fortunately for the Apollo 13 astronauts, they survived, but were unable to land on the moon’s surface. Area 51 learned, along with NASA, what was necessary for human survival in space under extreme conditions, without losing a life doing it.

  Meanwhile, at the Mars Base, they were monitoring all human space activity, when they heard the radio transmissions between Houston and Commander Lovell. Since the base commander didn’t want to be informed of such trivial matters, the officer on duty asked for Yuri Gagarin to be brought to the command center. Gagarin had asked to stay on Mars because he wanted to see the progression of human space flight while he was still alive. Once the former Russian cosmonaut arrived, he was asked, “Mr. Gagarin, do you think we should go and rescue the Americans who have their damaged spacecraft?”

  “I don’t think we should. The Americans are very resourceful and unless that ship is veering way off course like mine did, then we should just see what happens. Can you tap into their communications so we can listen?”

  “We’ve been doing that, but I can have you sit somewhere and let you listen through some headphones, then you can offer up any advice you have regarding the situation. Is that suitable?” asked the officer in charge.

  “Yes, that would be fine.” answered Gagarin.

  They listened to the communications for the five days the Apollo 13 crew were in flight. The Terrans seemed amazed at the ingenuity the Americans were displaying, but Gagarin knew the Americans were always ingenious and a potential force to be reckoned with. He hoped, for the Terrans sake, that the Americans didn’t become incensed about the Terrans watching Earth from Mars, because it could lead to a whole galaxy of trouble for the Terrans, or for Earth, for that matter. Gagarin hoped he wasn’t around when the Americans headed this way, for one thing, he’d have to explain how he got here and then that would lead to a big problem for Russia. Gagarin figured that would be many years from now and he shouldn’t worry about future events. Well, at least the Apollo 13 astronauts made it safely back to Earth.

  The rest of the Apollo missions, from 14 through 17, were a success. Unfortunately, due to rising costs of the missions to the moon, the United States government decided to discontinue funding of the Apollo project. NASA built the Skylab and put it into orbit on May 14, 1973, but due to the damage it sustained from getting into orbit, the space station was only used for a little over a year and was programmed for re-entry into Earth six years later, where most of it burned up in the atmosphere. The space shuttle project was announced next, so that NASA could have a re-usable mode of transportation into space. Area 51 also decided the shuttles would be perfect for more experiments that could be sent up in the shuttles’ cargo bay and deployed in orbit.

  Meanwhile, Area 51 finally decided to release the computer upgrades to the general public. They still were having problems with software and hardware bugs, so possibly letting a couple of computer nerds have access to it, for them to distribute it to the general public, would make the nerds rich, since they’d have to publish and sell upgrades every so often. A few years earlier, Area 51, with the aid of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), even invented the means for universities and research facilities to share information through a network, an early version of what would later be the internet, called Usenet. A few years later, a politician decided to take credit for the whole thing because he was running for president and he had helped pass legislation to get it up and running for the American public, but it made him look like a total moron in front of the American people.

  A scientist from Area 51 flew across the country to the Massachussetts Institute of Technology to present this new software to the right person who would take the software and reap their rewards. The person that the scientist was looking for was currently working on the BASIC programming language, a pasty looking, huge glasses wearing, twenty-something kid who seemed completely focused on his work and didn’t notice when the scientist came into the room. The scientist sat down next to him, tapped the kid on the shoulder, which startled the kid, he looked up at the scientist, and with irritation in his voice, asked, “What do you want?”

  “Sorry to disturb you, young man. Are you Will Bates?”

  “Uh, yeah. Who are you?” asked Bates, whose glasses appeared to be sliding down his nose.

  The scientist handed Bates a briefcase, then said, “The contents of this case contain something very important, and it’s related to your work in the computer field. My associates and I would like for you to look at what’s in here, then put it to use. An explantion is inside as well, since what it has to tell you is top secret and we wouldn’t want just anyone to know. Mr. Bates, from now on, your destiny is in your hands, will you fulfill it?” with that, the scientist got up and walked off.

  Bates was now entirely focused on the briefcase and didn’t notice the mysterious stranger leave. Bates was expecting a briefcase with a combination lock, but, fortunately, it had no combination and he opened it by just pressing on the tabs, unlocking the locks. He slowly opened the briefcase, fully expecting it to have some sort of stupid prank pop-up, but all he found was a floppy disk and a paper. He picked up the paper, which was ten pages long, and began reading it. What he read astounded him, and he had known it intellectually, aliens did exist after all! At the end of the document, this secret organization wanted him to usher in some sort of computer age with the software they were giving him access to. Apparently the software was quite complicated, but they were confident that Bates had what it took to make it work for personal computers, which had just recently been invented by a colleague of his. Fortunately for Bates though, IBM was interested in most anything he was going to come up with, while his colleague with the personal computers wanted his own company with his own software, there would be no sharing of computer components for him. What really troubled Bates was this persistent error with the software, which he tried and failed to purge when he tried going through nearly every line of code. However, if the computer scientists at Area 51 thought he could make money this way through upgrades, then who was he to argue? There were others working on personal computers with IBM, so hopefully this software would be a hit with consumers.

  Bates introduced his new company, Nanotech, to the world five years later. His software, a disk operating system called, Tech Works, was put on the open market less than a year later, for a substantial asking price, but people bought it anyway. Everyone complained of an error that randomly popped-up, which everyone took to calling the Green Screen of Horrors, which required the user to re-boot their computer and start over. This software error espcially ticked off those who forgot to save anything they were working on, requiring some to retype documents hundreds of pages long. Others, who hated Tech Works software, began working on their own versions, including Black Cap Frinex, which could be run simultaneously with Tech Works, and Grapes’ less than flexible Macroniche software. Bates soon became one of the richest men in the world, but was occasionally required by Area 51 to donate his time, money, and computer talent to aide them in the further advancement of human space travel.

  He helped design a more advanced space probe that NASA had originally wanted to launch into deep space, which was going to be called Voyager 1. The secret government scientists derailed that project and put in line a probe that would have fusion engine capability, the computer would have microprocessors that would run fifty times faster than anything currently being used, sensors that could pick up minutely detailed information about
any planet it scanned, and was equipped with a Ragnor cloaking device to disguise it from the Terrans and whomever else came across it. Another NASA robot mission, which was supposed to land on Mars and study its surface, called Viking, was also cancelled due to supposed budgetary cutbacks by Congress against NASA, or at least that was the official line.

  The Viking was transferred to the complete control of Area 51, who had its engineers upgrade the systems. The robot probe would still appear to be taking soil and atmospheric samples, but it would also be taking pictures of the entire planet, looking for the exact location of the Terran Base. The Viking was launched from the Nevada desert a year later and made the trip to Mars in eight months. The probe scanned the entire planet, found the location it was looking for, and snapped a few pictures. It landed a few hundred miles away, and appeared to be doing the scientific experiments it was programmed to do, in case any prying eyes decided to investigate what it was doing. The Terrans themselves had decided it was just a harmless probe, mostly because Gagarin had reassured them that the Americans and the Russians had wanted to explore all the planets in the solar system. He had also implied that nobody on Earth knew anything about the Terrans or the Mars Base, this robot probe on Mars was a scientific experiment and nothing more, there was no need to worry.

  Back on Earth, the pictures the Viking had taken finally arrived in the data stream and the scientists of Area 51 began poring over them. About twenty minutes into looking at the pictures, one of the scientists shouted, “I found it!”

  Everyone in the room rushed over to look and see what was in the picture. A massive dome shaped building with some spacecraft sitting on the outside was pictured. There appeared to be no defensive weapons that could be seen of any sort around the building or in the immediate vicinity, but, they did see plenty of communications devices. General James Bridger, who recently replaced Yeager as the Base Commander of Area 51, ordered the scientists, “I want these photos doctored so they can be released to various media outlets, and make sure nobody can see the actual buildings or anything associated with the base. We can’t have anyone panicking. Everyone understand?” The scientists voiced their agreement. When the pictures were doctored, they were smudged to make it appear that a face was staring out from Mars, and some newspapers posted headlines saying this was proof that Mars either currently had life or had once supported life sometime in the distant past. The idea that there was life on Mars captured the imagination of the American public, because people began asking if the United States would ever send a manned space mission to the fourth planet from the sun, everyone hoping it was accomplished in their lifetimes.