The Deception

by Janet Shore

  The Deception

  The Deception

  Copyright © 2017 by Janet Shore

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Published by: Mindnova Press

  Email:mindnova@aol.com

  ISBN:978-0-9969526-3-7

  Dedicated to J.

  Chapter I

  Matt was surprised too often by his college professor’s absolute statements. He thought at times that he should just walk out of the classroom, down to registration, and withdraw from the class. Instead, he sat glued to his seat waiting for the next outrageous declaration. Professor Smith continued his lecture on myths,

  “There are no such things as aliens from another world. This myth began as a social aftershock of regional military conflict. New technology replaced the fantastical creatures of ancient lore. The government’s current investment in searching for intelligent alien life is a waste of taxpayer dollars. How many of you believe that aliens have visited Earth?”

  Over half the class raised their hands, some rather sheepishly. Matt did not raise his hand for fear of jeopardizing his grade. Professor Smith surveyed the room,

  “Well, those of you who raised your hands are wrong. Military accidents are sensitive matters due to the classified nature of their operations. A false cover story is usually issued. They are the main source of so-called close encounters with aliens.”

  Suddenly, the bell rang. The students in the room jostled each other as they headed for the door. Matt gathered up his notebook, stuffed it in his backpack, and joined the crowd funneling toward the exit. Professor Smith shouted to the crowd,

  “Don’t forget that next time your paper on ‘Real Myths in my Life’ is due and counts for one third of your grade.”

  Matt walked down the dimly lit hallway, pushed open the hundred year old door, and was met by the cool fresh air of the green campus grounds between the classroom buildings. His roommate, Charlie, ran to catch up with him along the walkway.

  “Matt, can you believe that guy? That paper counts for a third of our grades. What kind of ‘Real Myths’ are we supposed to have?”

  Matt stared at his friend with frustration,

  “I don’t know Charlie. I just don’t know.”

  Charlie joked, “I’ll tell you a real myth. That I lose my virginity today.”

  Matt laughed. Rebecca also chuckled from behind them,

  “You are right about that Charlie.”

  Matt and Charlie were surprised that Rebecca was right behind them the whole time listening in.

  Charlie retorted, “Well, then what are you going to write about?”

  Rebecca said, “I’m not sure yet. I have to go to the UFO meeting tonight. Maybe it will give me some ideas.”

  The three decided to go to the meeting together. Charlie and Rebecca were enthusiastic that somehow seeing the other side of the question would help them on their assignment. Matt reluctantly went along. His mind was elsewhere dreaming of the day that he might land a professional job actually searching scientifically for extraterrestrial life.

  At the meeting, the room was packed. An elderly gentleman came to the podium,

  “My name is Alfred Minor. You probably know me as the fabled Agent 7. It is true that I worked for the government, but I was never referred to by any designation besides Alfred Minor, my given birth name. If you want further proof, you will have to look at public records. The Agent 7 designation is a myth.”

  The word “myth” sent shivers down Matt’s spine. He listened closely as Alfred Minor separated fact from the fable of his activities with the government,

  “I cannot comment on material that is classified. No doubt, the fact that I cannot go further into classified matters will lead most of you to conclude that I am covering up important information about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

  Matt felt that Alfred’s disclaimer fit well with Professor’s Smith’s position. Alfred continued,

  “I want to begin my remarks by pointing out the obvious difference between extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial intelligent life. An example of the former might be a bacterium, with very different replication chemistry than our own, found on Saturn’s moon. An example of the latter, of course, would have intelligence. Somehow, its origin would be off world. In order to hone in on what we mean by alien intelligence, we need to understand our different senses of intelligence amongst earthly things. Every machine from a thermostat to a supercomputer has more or less intelligence regarding its predesigned functionality. The same could be said for plants and animals, each an expert in the details of its own adaptive environment. The critical demarcation is language. The more sophisticated the language, the more capacity for analysis of wider and wider domains of knowledge and function. Just imagine what a conversation between two dolphins is about, and you can see just how far we are from understanding intelligence on Earth. How much more ill-prepared are we to encounter a non-earthly intelligence?

  When you run the numbers, even with all of the habitable exoplanets out there, the percentages are small that our civilization would be happening at the same time as their civilization. Further, unless their propulsion systems are the stuff of science fiction, there just is not enough time for the launch generation to reach their destination light years away. Of course, they might be nomads, with ark-like multi-generational ships, or they might have advanced suspended animation, or they might be totally machine-based, with no decay rate of aging. All things considered, it may be easy to imagine alien life on Saturn’s moon, but not easy to imagine intelligent alien life from another star system.”

  Matt thought that everything Alfred said so far led to the conclusion he had heard in class, that aliens were a myth. Alfred continued his presentation,

  “Having said this much, I want to share something with you. I have seen them. I have spoken with them.”

  An audible gasp and chatter spread over the packed room. Alfred continued,

  “Before I give you further details, you must realize that the maps and documents that you have attributed to me as Agent 7 are all forgeries. I have yet to see any document that actually originated from me. So, before I continue, I’ll take questions regarding the Agent 7 material, so that we can get that subject behind us. Yes, please hand the wireless microphone to the gentleman in the second row.”

  “Dr. Minor, I have a copy of a document that was attributed to you as Agent 7. This one is not in the current body of literature. If you could take thirty seconds to look at it, it would clear things up.”

  The document was handed to an usher that brought it to the edge of the stage. Alfred came around the podium, knocking the microphone with a loud pop. He reached down and was handed the document. With his back to the audience, he slowly walked back to the podium taking the full thirty seconds to quickly peruse its contents. He adjusted the microphone,

  “Yes. This document originated from my office. I recognize it. Realize that it was not from any Agent 7.”

  The question and answer period went on for fifteen minutes. Then, Alfred Minor recounted for the next hour how he had met and talked with an alien from another world. Dur
ing the next question and answer period he would not reveal whether or not he was on official business for the government at the time of his encounter. Many answers were squashed by his quick reply,

  “That’s classified. I cannot discuss it further.”

  After the lecture, Matt, Rebecca, and Charlie silently left the hall. Charlie was the first to speak,

  “Dr. Minor ruined his credibility. First, he makes a case against alien life. Then, he shocks the audience by asserting that he encountered alien intelligence. Since he debunks myths in the same context as his factual claims, I’m wondering how anyone can believe him about anything at all. Maybe he really is behind all of that Agent 7 stuff. The true devotees will believe him no matter what he says. How much did he get paid for that lecture?”

  Matt replied,

  “He probably got a thousand dollars plus expenses. I don’t think you can get someone for less than that.”

  Matt and Charlie said their goodbyes to Rebecca and returned to their dorm room. Charlie stayed up late to start writing down all of the “myths” he could think of, hoping to get a topic for his paper. Matt went to bed. The television was on at low volume. Charlie believed that he could concentrate better with noise in the background. Somewhere around the middle of the night, Charlie looked up at the TV. A shocked look came over his face. He ran over and turned up the volume. Matt woke up,

  “What’s going on? Why is the TV so loud, I’m trying to sleep?”

  Charlie replied, “Matt, look at this.”

  Matt got out of bed and fell against some pillows at one end of the couch facing the television. The newsman reported,

  “We don’t know what it is yet. At about 2AM this morning, the national weather service alerted everyone to shelter in place. They reported that high wind atmospheric disturbances were occurring in our area. The threat of spawning tornados was very real. Then, reports came in from social media. Videos of blue, green, and yellow cloud to cloud lightning, or something more sustained like heat lightning. Many speculated that this was UFO activity. There are no confirmed reports of any actual UFO sightings.”

  Matt yawned,

  “I guess it’s not a myth.”

  Charlie cut him off,

  “Shush, be quiet and listen.”

  The newsman said,

  “We are going to show you footage coming in. It is raw footage shot from a phone, so bear with us.”

  The screen filled with a three minute shaky video from someone’s cellphone. The owner of the phone was shouting,

  “Oh my God, Oh my God, get down!”

  The newsman, Ned Cook, interjected,

  “That footage went pretty fast. We are going to cut the audio, and show it to you frame by frame from the one minute twenty second mark. We have Carla Wilder, a scientific advisor from the Exoplanet Institute, here with us to analyze. Carla, what do you think of this evidence?”

  Carla forcefully explained,

  “As you can see in this frame, there is clearly something going up to the cloud. From this point for the next five seconds the phone is steady enough for us to correct and enhance for clarity and to eliminate shakiness. We have sent that cleaned up version to you, can you play it?”

  Ned Cook replied,

  “We are getting that ready now. It will take a minute. What do you make of this phenomenon?”

  Carla answered,

  “We really have nothing definitive to say at this time. The fact that it happened simultaneously all over the world is something to take note of. We can report officially at this time that the Exoplanet Institute has detected unusual activity in Earth’s atmosphere. To the best of our knowledge, it is not related to any known public, private, or foreign space program. This activity is global.”

  Ned Cook announced,

  “We now have that footage. This is the Exoplanet Institute enhanced video of a five second clip of the cellphone footage we played earlier.”

  Charlie exclaimed,

  “Whoa! Did you see that? It looked like a human being sucked up into the clouds. What is that brilliant flash when he gets to the clouds? Did you see all the colors? He’s just gone!”

  On the television, Carla explained,

  “As you can see, the form being raised into the clouds appears to be human. I do not think that a tornado was responsible, even though tornados are capable of carrying animals through the air at tremendous heights.”

  Ned continued,

  “Carla, can we get your opinion on this black and white security camera footage. It is one of the top five trending videos at the moment. We will play it in slow motion.”

  The security camera had a fixed view of an intersection. There was a bicycle slowing making its way across the middle of the intersection. From the left side of the frame, a speeding truck was heading straight towards the bicycle. Then, before the inevitable collision which surely would have killed the man on the bicycle, the man started to float upwards holding onto the handlebars at first, but then dropping the bicycle onto the hood of the speeding truck. The man floated upward out of the top of the frame. The bicycle collided with the front windshield of the truck causing the truck to lose control and crash into the side of a building that was partially visible at the right of the frame.

  Charlie exclaimed,

  “Matt, did you see that? “

  Matt replied,

  “Could it be one of those doctored hoaxes?”

  Ned interrupted Carla’s commentary,

  “Excuse me Carla. We have a live feed from our news truck. Brett, are you there?”

  Brett took the cue,

  “We are standing at the edge of Interstate 40. If you look at the clouds themselves you can see them light up in a variety of colors. I have never seen lightning like that. We are in the parking lot of Sam’s Diner, a roadside restaurant at this interchange. As you can see, the patrons are all out here with us in the parking lot, watching this amazing phenomenon. Maybe, we can get a word from one of them. Follow me over there.”

  The camera followed Brett as he approached a mother and her teenage daughter,

  “Ma’am, if we could ask you a question. What is your name, and what have you seen?”

  The fourteen year old daughter piped up,

  “They’re aliens. They’re aliens.”

  The mother said, “Quiet, Alice. My name is Mary Sheer, and this is my daughter Alice. We were having dinner when the announcement came over the television inside. Then, we came out here.”

  Brett turned to an old man walking toward his car,

  “Thank you Mary. Sir, sir, please can you state your name and tell us what you saw?”

  The old man stopped, looked into the camera, and said,

  “Nothing, I don’t see nothing. Haven’t you ever seen a rainstorm before?”

  Brett pressed on,

  “But what do you think about the multi-colored lightning?”

  The old man stated,

  “It is a damn rainstorm. Now, leave me alone, I’m trying to get to my car.”

  Brett called after him,

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Across the parking lot leaning against a lamp pole, a young man with a satchel was looking down at a device he held, while everyone else was looking up. Brett and the camera man approached the young man at the lamp pole.

  “Excuse me sir. Please state your name and tell us if you have you seen anything unusual.”

  The man hurriedly put his device in his satchel and looked into the camera,

  “My name is Derek Taylor. I was having dinner, when the commotion interrupted a most delicious meal. I haven’t seen anything unusual.”

  Pointing toward the city sky, Brett retorted,

  “Don’t you see the strangely colored lightning?”

  Derek responded, “Oh that was expected, I just didn’t know when.”

  Brett said, “Thank you, sir”, and moved on to interview others in the parking lot.

  Derek walked away from the crowd into an isolated
area near some trees. He reached back into his satchel to fish out the device he was looking at. The device was long, fat in the middle, white with indicator lights that were flashing madly. A strange voice emanated quietly from the device,

  “The time has come. The wait is over.”

  The voice repeated the message over again, as Derek pressed on the device in different ways without result.

  Back at the dorm room, Charlie exclaimed,

  “Matt, did you see what that guy was holding before he stashed it in his satchel. He said that he was expecting all of this!”

  Matt dismissed it,

  “That guy was probably one of those UFO groupies. He probably got that device at one of their conventions.”

  Charlie argued,

  “Then, why did he stash it from public view so quickly? I would expect him to do just the opposite, and hold it up in front of the camera for everyone to see. Here, let me rewind and freeze it. Then, I’ll zoom in on it.”

  Charlie tortured the remote control until he had a reasonably blurred freeze frame of the device displayed on the television.

  Matt teased with a smile,

  “Well that really looks convincing!”

  Matt went back to sleep. Charlie watched the coverage for another hour, and then turned in. The next morning, Matt and Charlie left the dorm to go to their first classes. Matt’s physics class was on the west side of campus. Charlie’s chemistry class was on the east side. As Matt walked along, a campus police car drove up beside him. The officer rolled down the window and warned,

  “It’s not safe to be out here!”

  Matt asked,

  “Have classes been called off? We hadn’t heard of it.”

  The officer took off his hat,

  “No, classes are in session. However, with all of the missing persons reported since last night, we believe there could be organized terrorist kidnappings occurring. We recommend not traveling alone, even between the campus buildings.”

  Matt walked into his morning physics class. The room was packed with about fifty students eagerly waiting for the professor’s lecture. They waited the required fifteen minutes, but the professor did not show up. A student in the back declared,