Alpha Contact

by P. K. Hawkins

  ALPHA CONTACT

  P.K. Hawkins

  Copyright 2017 by Severed Press

  Chapter One

  As Captain James Bernhard exited his jeep on the way to his “special meeting,” he looked up to the clear blue sky over McGinnlas Air Force Base in search of the likely reason he was here. Despite it being the middle of the day, the mysterious object currently orbiting the Earth could still be seen like a single star shining at a time when none should be seen. He wasn’t the only one looking, he realized. All around him, any of the Air Force personnel that happened to be out in the hot Nevada sun were doing the same thing. The object had been there for a week now, yet apparently, no one had grown so used to its mysterious presence that they could stop staring up at it in awe.

  During the first day that the object had appeared, the entire base had been in emergency stand-by. One week on, the order still stood, and everyone was on edge and curious, but a sense of the normal had returned to the people’s daily routines. It was amazing to Bernhard how that could happen. One day, out of nowhere, an obviously constructed object that was not of human origin could appear in low Earth orbit, showing the entire human race once and for all that they were not alone in the universe. Seven days later, people were back to complaining about election ads on TV and wondering if the Cubs had it in them to make it to the World Series again.

  Of course, that didn’t mean that the world hadn’t changed. It just meant that people had a remarkable ability to adapt to it.

  Bernhard entered the administration building and stopped at the security checkpoint, which was understandably tighter than it had ever been in the past. And security at McGinnlas was always tighter than normal. This place had been the site of many top secret tests over the years, or so it was rumored. In truth, quite a bit of what went on here was above Bernhard’s security clearance. But even without most of that knowledge, Bernhard had a pretty good idea of why he had been called in to see Lieutenant General Novak. The only surprising thing was that he hadn’t been called in sooner.

  It was probably because of petty bureaucracy. That was always the reason things got done slower than they should.

  After clearing security, Bernhard was led down several non-descript hallways to an elevator that could only be accessed by handprints. From there, his escorts took him down several floors to a subbasement that probably wasn’t supposed to exist, and then through several more boring, unadorned hallways before they brought him into the lieutenant general’s office. Like everything else in the building so far, the office was drab and completely lacking in decoration. There was nothing about it that said Novak did business here on a regular basis. This could only be a temporary set-up based on the current state of emergency.

  Novak, who had been going over several papers on his desk, stood up at Bernhard’s entrance. Bernhard’s two security escorts quietly left the room and shut the door, audibly engaging the lock behind them. Bernhard stood at attention and saluted.

  “Lieutenant General,” Bernhard said.

  “At ease, Captain,” Novak said. He gestured at a chair in front of his desk. “Please sit. Normally, I would explain to you why I’ve called you here, but I’m sure by now you already have a pretty good guess.”

  “Yes, sir,” Bernhard said. “I would believe that word has finally officially come down from the president regarding what we’re to do regarding the, uh, object.”

  “Officially, it’s being dubbed in all our documents as Object 1156-C, but really, no one is calling it that. The news media has apparently come to the consensus that it’s to be called the Visitor. Not terribly creative, I know, but there are a lot worse things it could be called. If we had let people on the internet name it, they’d be calling it Alien McShippenstein or some other such nonsense. But you’re correct. An official course of action has finally been decided upon. You’ll have to forgive me, though. I know a lot of what I’m about to say is public knowledge already, but I have to make sure this briefing is completely by the book. You understand, I’m sure.”

  “Absolutely, sir. There’s too much riding on all of this. I get that you’re going to need to make sure your ass is covered.”

  “Indeed,” Novak said. He slid a copy of a file folder across the desk to Bernhard. It had the obligatory Top Secret – Eyes Only stamp, although Bernhard doubted that the intelligence within included much that hadn’t already been discussed ad nauseum by late night talk show hosts. That lack of detailed, privileged information was, after all, exactly the reason Bernhard believed he was here.

  Bernhard opened the folder and perused the first reports on top of the stack inside.

  “The Visitor appeared in low Earth orbit at 0946 hours Greenwich Mean Time, six days ago,” Novak said. “Weight and length of the object are difficult to determine, as it appears to include some kind of stealth technology that confounds even basic video devices. Basically, the only way anyone has been able to get a look at it at all has been through telescopes. And even that effort is made more difficult due to the fact that it is maintaining a geosynchronous orbit that always keeps it on the day-side of the planet except for a period of roughly eight minutes after sunset. That it’s a made object rather than naturally occurring is not in doubt, given what we’ve been able to see regarding its shape and proportions. No country or group on Earth has taken credit for its existence, so the assumption is that it is extra-terrestrial in origin.”

  Bernhard nodded along with all this. This was still within the realm of things that everyone knew. Now was the point where Novak would start giving him more privileged information.

  “All major countries throughout the entire world have been involved in closed-door meetings since the beginning of the Visitor’s appearance. At this point, it has done nothing to give us the impression that it is hostile, yet all attempts at contacting it have failed. I’m sure you’ve already seen that, among certain groups, the Visitor’s presence has been an agitating force. There was that cult in Ohio four days ago, as well as the growing unrest in Russia and India due to certain charismatic opportunists. What you are probably not so aware of, although maybe you have suspected, is that a number of countries are prepared to go to war over this.”

  “It did occur to me that such a thing was likely, sir,” Bernhard said. “Not that I completely understand the motivations.”

  “Just between you and me, Bernhard, anyone who talks that political-science mumbo jumbo about motivations is full of bullshit. There are powerful countries, and there are not so powerful countries that want to pretend they are. All of them see this as an unprecedented opportunity to flex their muscles and act mighty.”

  “Included the U.S., I’m assuming,” Bernhard said.

  “Even if we didn’t want to, we’d have to. Everyone’s got their militaries on stand-by, and intelligence seems to think that it’s not just because some of these countries are preparing to defend against alien attacks like they say they are. Even little countries that no one thinks of as having any power, they’re preparing to use this as an excuse to move on any international rival at all in the name of shoring up their defenses. I could go on and on about this, but the base point isn’t going to change: there is an alien ship in orbit just hanging out, and until we know why, the political situation throughout the world will destabilize. It has to be addressed.”

  And this, Bernhard knew, was the core of why he had been invited here today. “We’re finally going up to it, aren’t we?”

  “Yes, we are, but as you can guess, every country in the world wants their own people up there. If someone gets in that ship and discovers that the aliens, if there even are any, want to be allies, then they want their own country to have exclusive access. If anything on the Visitor is not an ally, then they want their ow
n people to take them down, be the heroes, and have first dibs on any technology they might find. And it’s pretty much a guarantee at this point that there will be advanced technology. If the wrong people get their hands on something like, say, some kind of interstellar warp drive device, then they’re the ones who become the new super power in the world.”

  “And that’s why it’s taken so long for us to consider sending anyone up, isn’t it?” Bernhard asked. “Treaties have to be formed. Vows not to use any violent technology against other countries, and promises to share anything that might be otherwise useful.”

  “That’s exactly correct. You should hear some of the garbage coming out of the world politicians’ mouths at this point, except most of it is so classified I’d be tried for treason for telling you. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of grown people out there acting like spoiled children. But now there’s an agreement. It hasn’t even been announced to the public yet, and the White House is trying to keep the specifics of the agreement under wraps until the mission is well underway.”

  Much of this was included in the first couple pages of the folder, although in much more formal language with lots of buzz-words. After Bernhard flipped through those initial parts of the file, he came to the stuff he really needed to know.

  “The US and China are working together to take point on this, it looks like,” Bernhard said.

  Novak nodded. “With England, India, Australia, and South Africa all taking a large part in the set up and behind the scenes work.”

  “No Russia?” Bernhard asked.

  Novak smirked. “The reason they aren’t participating is classified, which is a shame, considering how amusing it is.” The smile disappeared from his face just as quickly as it had appeared. “Given the breakdown in relations with Russia over this, the Soyuz vehicles we’ve been using to send astronauts to the International Space Station for the past two decades won’t be feasible for this mission, not to mention that the large amount of manpower and equipment that needs to be sent up wouldn’t fit anyway. So, for this mission, we’re pulling out one of the old mothballed Space Shuttles.”

  Bernhard whistled. “Is it even safe to still use those things?”

  “No, and it’s going to be even less safe considering how rushed this operation is being put together.”

  Bernhard nodded. He’d had enough Air Force buddies go over to NASA to know that any space mission, no matter how small or insignificant, took an insane amount of planning. And now the eggheads in charge were being expected to set one up in…

  “When is this mission happening?” Bernhard asked.

  “You’re going up tomorrow,” Novak said.

  Bernhard tried not to act shocked. Not only was that kind of timetable next to impossible to set up safely, but he hadn’t fully expected to actually be part of the team that went up to the Visitor. He’d known he would be involved in some way, but he’d expected to be part of training the group that went up or as some other form of ground support.

  “Is that going to be a problem, Captain?” Novak asked.

  “No, sir. It’s just highly unusual, is all.”

  “Yeah, well, name one part of this whole thing that isn’t highly unusual,” Novak said. “The entire world was caught with their pants down around their ankles on this one. Once upon a time, the US government had contingency plans set up for possible alien contact, if it ever happened. But such a thing has been neglected over the last couple of presidents, and not because of anything to do with political parties, either. Plain and simple, no one believed this was anywhere in the realm of possibility, and any efforts to plan for it were a waste of time and money. Now we’ve had to dig deep within our archives to find old plans to deal with first contact with an alien species, then remove all the references to outdated equipment and political boundaries and whatnot.”

  “So what you’re saying, sir, if I may speak freely, is that the plan I currently have in my hand is a cobbled together Frankenstein-monster that will likely blow up in our faces at some point.”

  “Officially, I have to deny that and say that I have the utmost faith in everyone that drafted the Alpha Contact Contingency. Unofficially, hell yeah. This is going to be a shit-fest of epic proportions.”

  Chapter Two

  Outside Bernhard’s quarters in Florida, where he had been transported to immediately following his meeting with Novak, he could hear chaos as orders were shouted, heavy equipment was moved about, and people called out confused questions in both English and Chinese. This was what happened when a hastily thrown together international operation had to be ready to go with only twenty-two hours to go until launch time. Bernhard knew chaos well. He’d trained for it. But the chaos he could deal with was in battle or while flying. A massive sea of human bodies being ordered around by diplomats with no clue about military operations? Not so much.

  In his bunk, Bernhard lay back on the sheets, fitted in a pair of ear buds, then cued up some Ozzy Osbourne on his MP3 player. As much as others might make fun of him for it, Ozzy was his go-to when he needed to calm down, concentrate, or just meditate on his life. The early post-Black Sabbath stuff especially, with Randy Rhodes’ scorching guitar solos, worked best to set his mind at ease. As the opening chords of “Bark at the Moon” began, Bernhard opened up the folder again and once more poured over its contents. He, for better or worse, was going to be the commanding officer on this mission, and although he sincerely hoped it would be quiet and calm, he needed to be prepared and knowledgeable just case it wasn’t.

  While he was nominally in charge of the entire group that would be going up to the Visitor, his main command was of the 843rd Special Operations Squadron, or at least those three other members of the squadron that would be accompanying him. He’d worked with those three men – Bart Hodges, Aaron McNeil, and Daniel Zersky – many times before, and he trusted their abilities. It was everyone else on the team for the Alpha Contact Contingency that was unknown to him. And there were a decent number of people; more than he was comfortable bringing.

  The American military contingent consisted of the four from Special Operations, as well as three Army Rangers: Mark Sorensen, Daniel Stroebel, and Justin Hatch. While Mark Sorensen was nominally in charge of the rangers, Novak had been clear that Bernhard was the highest in the American chain of command. While the various branches of the military could sometimes butt heads with each other, it had been decided from higher in command that it was most likely that the mission would require a mix of Air Force Spec Ops and Army Rangers, so there was no helping it. Bernhard simply had to hope that everyone would play nice together.

  The Chinese contingent consisted of six people, although Bernhard had very little information on them other than their surnames: Teng, Chow, Ngai, Yeow, Taam, and Tshien. He didn’t even know which branch of the Chinese military they represented. Apparently, this had been one of the conditions the Chinese had set in exchange for letting the Americans take charge in other areas. Especially with so many countries throughout the world suddenly at each other’s throats, China wanted to keep their own capabilities and tactics as secretive as possible. Had they all been able to plan the Alpha Contact Contingency further in advance, the US would probably have more intelligence regarding who these people were and what they could do.

  Bernhard rubbed his head. He saw so many ways in which this whole mission was a recipe for disaster, but there was nothing that could be done for it.

  And none of that even took into consideration the civilians that would be coming up to the Visitor with them. Bernhard was about to go over their info again when he heard a knock at his door. He turned the music down, pulled out his ear buds, and sat up on the edge of his bed. “Come in.”

  He recognized the face of the woman who entered right away from the file, although it took him a second to remember her name. Jane Johnson. Right. With a name like that, no wonder he had trouble remembering it. Innocuous name aside, she was going to be an important part of this mission, and Bernha
rd was suddenly glad for this opportunity to meet the lead science advisor for the American side before they went up.

  It also didn’t hurt that she was absolutely beautiful.

  Not that she likely believed that. She had that mousy way about her that said she wasn’t entirely aware of her looks. She had long black hair pulled into a tight ponytail and thick glasses, as well as a white lab coat. Something about that struck Bernhard as funny. He’d thought scientists in white coats was just an outdated stereotype, but apparently, he was wrong.

  “Dr. Johnson,” Bernhard said as he stood up and offered his hand. She took it, although he felt the way her hand shook nervously. Maybe she was skittish about meeting him, but it seemed much more likely that she was wracked with excitement and fear regarding what they were all about to do. He couldn’t blame her.

  “Captain Bernhard,” Johnson said. “I know that we’re supposed to meet at the mission briefing, but I was hoping I could talk to you alone first. If you have a minute?”

  “Sure. Did you want to go to the canteen for this?” Not that he actually wanted to go out into that sea of craziness out there just yet, but he was sure the woman would be more comfortable talking in public than she would be here in his room that consisted of little more than a bed and a desk.

  She surprised him, though. “Actually, I don’t think you want us to be in public for this?” She said it like a question, as though he somehow knew what she was going to ask already and wanted his opinion on it before he even knew she was here. He found it cute, if a little strange.

  “Why don’t you sit down?” Bernhard asked, motioning at the desk chair. She took a seat, her foot immediately tapping in a rapid staccato movement against the floor. Either she was really nervous being here, or else it was just some kind of personal tick. Bernhard sat at the edge of his bed. “How can I help you?”