Greg looked up and said, “Colonel tell me about your department and what you are currently doing.”
He straightens up, if that was possible and looked at a spot just above Greg’s head and reeled off a spiel of how important he was and how busy his computer was working. At the end of his speech, Greg leaned over and looked the colonel in the eye and said, “Colonel you mean to tell me with all of our communication systems down both in the sky and on the ground your computer doesn’t have time for an extra project?”
He replied, “If you are referring to the request of the space department I told them it was on the schedule and when we were ready they would be notified.”
Greg sat back and tried to control his temper. He thanked the guy for coming and dismissed him. He decided to go home and see the dog and the kids and relax.
Chapter 24
As usual the kids were watching movies when Greg walked in the door. Becky was sitting at the desk with a legal pad working on something. He kissed her on the top of the head and she murmurs a welcome sound. Jasper wasn’t around so he must be with the president he thought. The kids after he sat down on the sofa piled onto him and snuggled up one on each side. He stared out the window at the same scene: swirling snow with temperatures well below minus forty degrees.
Tonight’s movie was a repeat of yesterday’s cowboys chasing a stampede of cattle. Greg watched the stampeding cattle wipe out the chuck wagon, but somehow always the cook survived. Becky finished up and came over and gave him a kiss on the head and asked him when he wanted to go eat. He said, “Whenever you are ready, I’m ready.”
The kids moved to the Navaho rug on the floor and continued watching the movie. Becky sat down beside him and asked how his day went. He recapped his movements and then asked her how she was doing forming the school. “Believe it or not, we have found many teachers in our midst and soon with Bubba’s censes we can make up classes.”
He then told her about Ben Glass and a colonel by the name of Bullgorney. Ben would be seeing her soon. Ben he told her was a man for the principal’s position and the other guy she could do with him as she pleased. Becky got up and made some notes and then said, “Let’s go eat guys.”
After a spare dinner they returned to home where Greg sat down at the desk and made up a list of things to do for the next day. The kids were still watching another old black and white movie laughing at the people and movie sets of old. Greg and Becky went to bed early and talked for a long time about what they both were doing and she was shocked to find out there may be some connection with ET and this weather phenomena. Both were tired and soon drifted off to sleep with the sounds of cowboys shooting off their six-guns.
Greg had breakfast with the president the next morning. They compared notes and both were happy with the progress of reorganization and in general how things were going regarding the general population. Bubba came in with his girlfriend and the president asked them to join her table. Bubba was clearly embarrassed, but Hilary soon put him at ease talking to the lovely woman sitting beside him. She asked her how they met and jokingly asked when the wedding was going to take place. Greg looked at her and when Bubba introduced she found out her name was Wendy Bloom a doctor in the Air Force since she got out of medical school; stationed here for the last two years.
She said while she was giving physicals to the passengers from the train, Bubba was bouncing around the place like a mother hen. She found him exciting and warm. It took her awhile to, as she said, ‘Nail him down”, but she got her man.
Everyone laughed and thought she was wonderful and humorous. Bubba beamed like a new father. Wendy said, “In answer to your question Madam President, we are planning the following Sunday to get married.”
Greg was so pleased for his friend and Bubba said to Greg, “I would appreciate it if you would be my best man and I’ve already asked Chuck to give the bride away to me.”
Greg was very happy to fill the position and said so to Bubba. Becky and the kids came in just then and Greg told her the news. She gave Bubba a big hug and congratulated Wendy.
After breakfast Greg headed to his office with Jasper riding with him. He figured Jasper wanted to know where he went these days and after an hour of sniffing around his office and licking the hand of his secretary, he whined at the door and left for parts unknown. Greg started thinking about Chuck and Roy. It had been almost two days since he watched them leave. He was sure some word would come today. Meanwhile he left to check on Jenny and Clarence and to see to it Bullgorney would cooperate with their requests to use the mainframe.
Thirty minutes later they pulled up in front of the large air conditioned building which housed the massive computer. It was the latest in design and a third smaller than the previous one. It was fully ten meters long and five meters wide. They found Bullgorney in his office drinking coffee and chatting with some technicians. A stare from Greg sent the technicians scurrying and Greg stated his case. “Colonel I want you to give whatever time on the computer that is necessary for Jenny and Clarence to discover what the anomaly was, or is”
The colonel stood up but didn’t get much taller and with a scowl on his face said, “I’ve run this place for the last ten years and now you come in and demand I make time for some fool search for ET?”
Greg was getting little angry and said, “Are refusing a direct order Colonel?”
The colonel was shaking with anger and said through clenched teeth, “I only take orders from my superiors and I don’t consider you my superior.”
Greg said much more calmly, “Well you made your own bed colonel and in a few minutes you will have to lie in it,”
Greg and his people walked out the door and into their carts. Greg flipped open his phone and called the president. She listened to his story and said she would be there shortly.
Fifteen minutes later ten electric carts pulled up with the president, secret service and about ten MP’s. Greg just sat in his cart as she stormed through the door and a few minutes later Colonel Bullgorney handcuffed were led to the brig.
Greg went back into the office and found the president talking to the second in command of the computer room. He was standing tall and taking a whip lashing from a very angry president. “He’s all yours,” she said to Greg and walked out the door.
Greg looked at the man and knew he would be all right. He turned to Jenny and Clarence and said, “Tell this man what you need and he will provide it with a smile on his face or he will follow his former boss.”
Greg left in his cart and the driver never said a word all the way back to his office. Usually he was the talkative sort and for a change he was quiet. Greg said to him, “Take me to the reactor site please.”
Fully thirty minutes later deep underground after taking an elevator at least ten floors down, he found the reactor room. It was in a setting by an underground river which was used first for cooling and then the spent water was filtered clean of radiation and recycled back into drinking water. Greg found the man in charge and they sat down in his office. Greg noticed he was a pleasant man in his late forties with a large head rimmed with hair. The office light reflected off his bald top giving him a saintly look. Greg introduced himself and found out the man’s name was Van Standish from Ohio. Married with three kids and his wife was a nurse in the infirmary.
Greg asked him to brief him on the power usage and the limits of power available for expansion. Van said, “We have an abundance of power here. We are using only twenty percent of available use. We are at your disposal for any expansion you set forth.”
Greg told him about setting up green houses and building many more residences for the added population. Van told him he had already anticipated his ideas and his crew was ready to start the construction any time he ordered. Greg warmly shook his hand and left feeling good knowing he had found at least someone who had a brain around here.
His driver was waiting for him and they walked to the elevator and shut the massive doors. Greg looked at his watch
because his stomach was growling from hunger. He noticed his pants were loose and in fact he had lost some weight. He felt good and smiled when he thought of the hot bowl of soup and bread that awaited him and the other roughly four thousand inhabitants.
In the mess hall he found his wife and Ben Glass having lunch. As he walked up to them he found them laughing and enjoying each other's company. He said, “Sorry if I’m intruding, but I was looking my wife.”
Ben stood up and shook his hand saying, “Greg, if I may call you by your first name, I want to thank you for firing me and giving me the opportunity to work with your lovely wife.”
Greg sat down and smiled at his charming wife and an aid came with a hot bowl of tomato soup, complete with homemade bread and grape jam. Greg dug in like there was no tomorrow and looked around for more. Becky laughed and motioned the aid for more soup for her husband. The aid said he had orders not to give seconds to anyone including the president of the United States. Greg laughed and said, “Never mind and give my respects to the chef.”
Greg turned to his wife and asked how things were coming along. “Very well and now that I have Ben here to help me, we should be ready for classes in a few weeks time.”
“I’m very happy to hear that and I’m sure the kids and adults will be happy to have something to do rather than listen to Bubba calling out jumping jacks all day long.”
Becky and Ben rose together and told him they had to go now and have a nice day. Greg waved at his disappearing wife and sat back drinking coffee and cake.
About that time Lt. Colonel Frank Spears walked in still dressed up in his snow suit looking serious as he walked to Greg’s table. He stripped down and an aide brought him a large bowl of soup and hot coffee. Frank sat down and still breathing hard from the cold outside trying to adjust to the warmth of the room said, “Greg we ran into some trouble in Colorado Springs. A group of guys fired on us and we quickly put them down and out. I’m in the lead group returning with a load of passengers mostly from the Academy. Chuck is stopping off at the base and he and Roy will load up the cars with supplies.”
Greg said, “Whoa slow down Frank and start at the beginning after you finish your lunch.”
Frank realized he was running on adrenaline and needed to calm down. First he ate some bread to sop up the coffee and acid in his stomach and then he poured the soup in a cup and drank it down in short gulps. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said, “Excuse my bad manners because we haven’t had much to eat in two days.”
“Take your time Frank, we are in no hurry and I would like to hear the details of your trip.”
Frank took a notebook out of his pocket and looked at his scribbles due to the cold and he was trying to make notes using a glove on his hand. He started his report by saying, “The trip up to Colorado Springs was no problem but as we neared the station where we met the chief of police before we were greeted with rifle fire from across the street. Our boys piled out and the perps were no match for our swat boys. Soon no more firing was heard and we discovered five bodies of young men lying in a snow bank next to their four wheel drives. We looked in their rigs and found mostly jewelry and cash with a few cans of food stuffs. Nothing but some rogue boys looking for trouble and I guess they found it much to their eventual chagrin.”
Greg asked about civilians and chief of police and their inspection of the Air Force Academy. Frank said, “We found the chief and some of his force at the station. He made the place his new station and they were branching out through the town finding civilians who were holed up from the storm. Most of them were transported to the station and some had made their way to the Academy and other bases around the area. One thing is very strange though we didn’t find many people. We looked around and through a bull horn called out up and down streets riding our noisy snowmobiles. Only a few came out and they had no idea where the other folks were or where they went. Some said most of the neighbors took off ahead of the storm south. I’m thinking we will discover a mess in California. I hate to think what LA looks like nowadays.”
Greg asked what the Academy looked like and were there many cadets left on campus. Frank said, “Not so many left there and the commander granted leave to any and all that wanted to go to their families. Less than twenty percent are there now along with the commander and his staff. Their supplies are good and what few civilians that moved there, they can hold out for a couple months or more.”
Greg thanked him for the report and told him to write up a report for the president. Frank said he would take care of it as soon as he caught up on some sleep. Greg stood up and patted him on the shoulder and headed to his office. The last thing he saw was Frank digging into another bowl of soup and bread.
A message was waiting for him to see Jenny Lee when he had time in his computer room. He felt a little excitement as he rode in his cart to the mainframe room. He hurried through the doors and found Jenny and Clarence in a small office pouring over sheets of print outs. Their heads were together jabbering back and forth in a language Greg didn’t understand, but he sat down and waited patiently for them to notice he was in the room.
A short time later, Jenny looked up and smiled at him with her white teeth gleaming and with eyes of fire. She started blabbering in a same language as before and Greg said, “Hold on Jenny, I have no idea what you are trying to say to me.”
Jenny thought about it for a minute and then said in a calm voice, “Mr. Hoffman we discovered that when we slowed down the flow of information that a garbled rhythm was heard over and over. This indicates a message of sorts.”
Greg asked, “Are you quite sure it might be a message from another life form?”
Jenny looked at Clarence and Clarence dropped his chin to his chest in shyness. Jenny said, “Clarence definitely thinks it is a message from space and indeed it was so powerful it disabled our communication systems in orbit around our planet. We will need some more time to isolate it and then a long process of sorting out the different bursts is the best I can explain it in layman terms.”
Greg sat there in disbelief and he felt so small if indeed this were a message from another intelligence trying to communicate with us on our planet. But why the ice age and are they trying to communicate something else or are they trying to kill all the humans on the planet? A thousand questions and very few answers lie ahead of us he thought. He stood up and thanked them for the update and left the large machine to churn out bits of information for analysis. He headed back to his office and found the president waiting for him. She had respect for him by not sitting in his chair behind the desk He found her relaxing and talking with the secretary and Janet and Carol.
He sat down at his desk and from the look on the president’s face, she needed some good news. He said, “I’ve just returned from the computer center and they tell me that they are reasonably sure a message came from an unknown source directed at our communication satellites. They are in the process of trying to decipher it now. It will take a lot of time, but how much time is unknown at this point. We will just have to wait and see when it or what it might say. I got the point that if it is indeed a message it comes from a far more advanced place than here. I shudder to think what this all means. One thing I do know is we will have to advance our thinking and move to another level of planning if something is trying to contact us.”
The room was deathly quiet. Greg found Jasper resting his head on his lap and he scratched him behind the ear. Jasper always knew when something was not right with him or the president for that matter.
Hilary gave off a deep sigh and took a breath and said, “Well, I think we all realized someday contact would be made from somewhere out there. In addition, we should make preparations for both friendly and hostile acts that may come. Greg how sure are they it came from the area of the moon?”
“At this point in time, that is what I’m to understand, but let them work on this for awhile and then go from there. Meanwhile we must proceed as planned and put this place on a
self sustaining footing.”
“Yes, I agree and maybe we can put our best scientists on this new development and look for a way to try and communicate back if it is verified we have been contacted.”
Everyone sat there thinking about the possibility of being contacted by an outside world. Fear was the first thought to hit everyone’s mind and then if a civilization was so far advanced to travel through the galaxies maybe they were beyond the need of war or conquest. The foolish idea of little green men or aliens shown in the movies was simply ridiculous and absurd. Probes had been sent into space fifty years ago to continue traveling forever giving off radio signals and messages from Earth. Maybe something or someone picked up on it and followed its trail back to earth. The idea something might be hiding on the moon would only be the smart thing to do given the war like mentality of earthlings. So many things to think of and Hilary and staff said goodbye and Greg was left thinking to himself.
Chapter 25
Later that night after a hearty dinner of macaroni and cheese with canned fruit for dessert, Greg and family sat on the sofa watching the old movie, ‘Around the World in Eighty Days. ’ The kids loved it and even Greg and Becky enjoyed the movie. At the end of the movie and the kids asleep on the floor snuggled up to Jasper, who had spent a rare night with them, Becky asked Greg about the ET project.
He said, “Honey, I think we have been contacted and they are waiting for a response from us. They know now our equipment was too primitive for their high technology. Maybe by showing us they are there by producing this winter storm, we will key on the anomaly showing up on our computers. They must realize we are pulling out all the stops to find an answer to the change in our weather. The real question is this: what or how do we respond to their message and furthermore how do we know whether it is a hostile message or one of friendship?”
Unearthly Snowbound Page 21