The Deception

by Janet Shore

  Both men sat down in the sofa chairs at the one side of the office. There was a side table with a lamp between them.

  “Thank you, but I’m fine. Dr. Thomas, what do you know so far?”

  “Well, I got a call from Dr. Jenner at the Exoplanet Institute that there would be an alien visitation here, and that the government would be providing security.”

  Agent Granger interrupted,

  “Yes, that’s right. We have already taken the liberty of briefing your own security staff, I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all. Agent Granger, may I call you Bill?”

  “Certainly, may I call you Steve?”

  Bill and Steve spent the next hour and a half getting to know one another. Trust is vitally important and Dr. Thomas wanted to make sure within reason that he knew everything that the government did about what was to come. Dissecting speculation from the evidence left a gap for the two men that neither could fill. When faced with such a gap, only extensive preparedness allows for flexibility when the time comes. Dr. Thomas asked,

  “Do you think they are reptilian, humanoid, or insectoid?”

  Agent Granger laughed,

  “You have been reading too many UFO magazines. You left out energy being, what about that one?”

  Dr. Thomas laughed with his new friend.

  Thousands of miles away at the pentagon in Washington D.C., the scene was a bit more serious. In a small conference room, were three individuals representing the past, present, and future of the government’s continued surveillance of potential extraterrestrial phenomenon. Seated from left to right was an older man with lots of medals, General Chip Arnold, a younger man with only two rows of medals, Major Lance Sanders, and representing the POTUS, dressed in a dark blue suit with an American flag lapel pin, white house staffer Pedro Sanchez. Pedro passed out a piece of paper with official letterhead signed by the president. Pedro began,

  “Gentlemen, take a minute to examine the President’s orders in this matter. It establishes the scope of our power here. To protect national security, all of our confidential deliberations in this meeting are classified top secret. I will be responsible for any public statements we agree are necessary.”

  General Arnold exhibited facial surprise with raised eyebrows, some facial contortion, followed by his left hand moving the skin of his cheek toward his mouth. Major Sanders sat stone faced as he read the orders.

  Chip Arnold spoke up,

  “If the three of us unanimously recommend a nuclear option, then the administration will interpret that there is no conventional alternative to respond to the alien threat.”

  Major Sanders replied,

  “All of those clauses are boilerplate. Our mission is command and control of the direct communication with the aliens and to assess what it is that they want from us, and whether or not we can accommodate their request. If that is possible, then we might request knowledge from them in a scientific and cultural exchange that will advance both of our respective agendas.”

  Pedro placed both his palms on the table,

  “Gentlemen, they could accidently become a worldwide threat that we have to respond to. Just as they accidently destroyed a rover on Mars. Or they could cause deliberate destruction under the guise of an accident. Due to their potentially overwhelming capabilities we cannot afford to withhold a response based on a theory about their motives.”

  Pedro flipped the latches on his briefcase. He pulled out a small black cardboard box. Lifting out a worn brown cloth, he spoke more calmly,

  “Because of the uncertainty of the impending situation, the National Archives were ordered to release this to us.”

  Pedro flipped back the corners of the cloth exposing a strange metallic object that had markings on it that matched the markings on the spheres that were recorded on Mars.

  “It would seem that we are dealing with an entity that has visited Earth in the past.”

  At the Exoplanet Institute, Matt became a bystander again as Chuck commandeered his console. Another sphere was nearest to rover #836. Matt didn’t mind at all. He was excited, soaking up the new experiences like a sponge. He felt very lucky to be in the right place at the right time to witness history unfolding. Chuck maneuvered to within fifty feet of the sphere. The two-way communication protocols were in place. The ambient clicks and beeps of the room were interrupted by the familiar synthetic voice,

  “Your messages can be transported. Let us store your messages. Eventually, your sun will expand past your orbit. Your messages can survive. Your technology will not be ready. Let us help you spread your messages.”

  Chuck looked at Dr. Jenner. The sphere communicated more naturally now. Dr. Bergson offered a suggestion,

  “Ask them what messages they are talking about.”

  Dr. Jenner reached for the console to patch the live feed from the sphere into the pentagon meeting room so that General Arnold, Major Sanders, and Mr. Sanchez could be briefed in real time. Chuck typed,

  “What messages are you talking about?”

  “All messages.” was the reply.

  Dr. Zhang explained, “I believe they regard all human messages, both literal and pictorial, as important. They are definitely referring to all past, present, and future messages. Future projections of data accumulation to the time of the expansion of the sun would probably exceed 10 to the power of a trillion or more bytes. Then, that conglomeration would need a Rosetta stone of its own of considerable complexity to be able to communicate a way for an arbitrary intelligence to navigate the data by type or content.”

  Dr. Bergson shook his head, “This makes no sense. What is in it for them?”

  Chuck typed,

  “Why are you interested in protecting all of our messages?”

  There was no response. Chuck repeated the question. Still, there was no response. Suddenly, the sphere took off vertically at high speed and disappeared.

  At the Mount Graham observatory, Agent Granger and Dr. Thomas walked outside. Agent Granger pointed to areas both on and off of the property of the observatory,

  “We have a sizable contingent of the Army’s UFORT battalion distributed around our location. They have established a secure perimeter. We are dug in for the long haul, so you have some new neighbors to get used to.”

  Agent Granger walked away looking down, pressing his earpiece a little deeper in his ear as if listening to some new intelligence. Dr. Thomas looked up at the sky. It was about noon. In the distance, he heard some sounds that were unusual. The sounds seemed to be emanating from a dark spot against the puffy white clouds. The spot grew with the sound as it approached. Soon, he could make it out as a trio of black helicopters flying overhead. The Doppler sound of the rotors receded in the distance.

  At the pentagon, Pedro carefully picked the alien device out of the cloth,

  “I don’t know what they meant by ‘messages’ or what kind of threat status we can assign to this new request from them. Also, I have no idea what this device does. It dates from the Eisenhower administration.”

  General Arnold spoke up,

  “Tactically, this situation from a security perspective is not unusual. We have to set up a secure perimeter that contains the aliens, if they can be contained, and protects potential intruders by keeping them away from the area. There are two kinds of weaponry to think about, long range and short range. This distinction is quite ancient. In Roman times, we would consider the bow a long range weapon, and the sword a short range weapon. Today we would consider ICBM’s, smaller intermediate range missile systems, drones, and rocket launchers as some examples of long range weapons. Handguns, automatic rifles, and shotguns count as short range weapons. Surveillance also breaks down into long range and short range. We have satellite surveillance, and we have binoculars. If the aliens conform to this pattern, then they also have a long range and a short range tactical and surveillance capability.”

  Major Sanders interrupted,

  “Yes, it may be an accurate assessment
that the categories we use for our own strategic capabilities may indeed apply to them as well. But, a very common fist fight strategy is the sucker punch. That is a matter of violation of trust. These aliens are not forthcoming with where they come from, or why they are interacting with us. Yet, they are very clear that they want to control the entire intellectual property of Earth past, present, and future, for the purpose of preservation. Preservation is a noble goal, but do we give up control, simply because they would have us believe that we will never catch up with their technology before our sun expands its radius past earth’s orbit?”

  Suddenly, the device lit up. The soft pulsating blue glow surprised Pedro. Major Sanders exclaimed,

  “Christ! Has it ever done that before?”

  Pedro nervously replied, “Not to our knowledge. There are no records at all, classified or otherwise, indicating any activity at all from this device.”

  A strange voice emanated from the device but filled the room with other worldly reverberations,

  “Your technology speed is not the issue. They have an enemy.”

  Pedro asked,

  “Who are you? Are you the aliens from the spheres on Mars?”

  “No. We are not them.”

  The device went suddenly silent and its light dimmed until it was gone. General Arnold asked,

  “Mr. Sanchez, you said that the National Archives were ordered to release that object for this meeting. Who gave that order? Did they know it was a communication device? That device has been silently eavesdropping on our top secret classified meeting. This situation is a security breach.”

  Pedro quickly wrapped it back in the cloth, put it into the box, and placed the box in his briefcase,

  “General, is there a safe location within the pentagon that we can secure this object?”

  General Arnold reached for the intercom console and summoned officers to take Pedro’s briefcase to a secure item repository that was under armed guard. Soon, an armed staff sergeant arrived, received the briefcase, and then left the room with it. Major Sanders suggested,

  “What if the device becomes active and continues to provide information?”

  General Arnold reassured,

  “The audio in the secure room is always recorded. By the sounds it made, I don’t think the briefcase itself will muffle any further communication. I also don’t think we are ready to have a conversation with it. First of all, it indicated that it was not related to the Martian phenomenon. If we can believe that, then there are at least two alien entities involved here, maybe more. Also, these entities may be artificial. We might be dealing with an alien computer. Next, it is imperative that we know who ordered that device to be brought here. Lastly, the device told us two things. Our speculation about the Martian spheres being concerned about the speed of our technology is off-track. They are concerned about something else. The device clearly informed us that they have an enemy. This last bit of information, if true, completely changes the tactical picture. We not only have to be concerned about which of these phenomena, if any, are telling the truth, but we also have to be concerned about ending up as collateral damage in their conflict.”

  Pedro offered,

  “Yet, the device that spoke up just now was very old. The Martian spheres are current. We could be seeing the display of obsolete thinking on their part. There may be no enemy.”

  General Arnold raised his voice,

  “Who ordered that device to be brought to this meeting?”

  Pedro answered, “I received it from a colleague I have known for years, Derek Taylor.”

  General Arnold hit the intercom, “Get me the white house.”

  Soon, they were patched in to the white house. Pedro spoke first,

  “Is Derek Taylor there? We need him in this meeting now.”

  “The President is listening. This is the white house chief of staff. There is not and never has been a Derek Taylor working for us, Pedro. Do you three have anything to report yet?”

  Pedro’s face turned pale. He knew Derek for years. He passed white house security every day. Their records had to show that he worked there just from the secret service files. Pedro had to think quickly. Why would they deny his existence? General Arnold responded,

  “We think our security has been breached by a listening device given to Pedro by Derek Taylor. That is why we need to interview him immediately.”

  “I’m sorry. We have no information on any Derek Taylor.”

  “How can you be so sure? Have you checked all of your security files?”

  “We will certainly do that and get back to you if we find anything different. What did the listening device look like?”

  “It was one of those alien artifacts from the national archives.”

  The general’s answer was greeted by laughter from several conference call attendees at the other end of the phone,

  “You are kidding, right? We have no knowledge of any such artifact. Pedro, were you aware of anything like that?”

  Pedro felt as though he were hung out to dry,

  “I did receive an object that Derek claimed was an alien artifact. It activated itself during our meeting and offered information that indicated that it had heard everything that we had been discussing.”

  “It sounds as if you were duped by some of those UFO enthusiasts. Please be more careful about leaks.”

  Pedro objected, “No, Derek gave that to me at the white house. It must have been passed through a security checkpoint to get it there.”

  “Well, we will check again. However, please examine any material objects outside of your meeting. We require absolute secrecy for your deliberations. You have the president’s letter. He is counting on you for command and control of any Earth visitation like the Martian sphere phenomenon.”

  After the call, General Arnold spoke, “Get Dr. Jenner on the line.” There was a brief pause as the new call was patched through. Pedro paced back and forth absorbed in his own thoughts. Major Sanders poured himself another cup of coffee. The intercom sounded,

  “This is the Exoplanet Institute. Stand by for Dr. Jenner.”

  “General, this is Dr. Jenner. How can I help you?”

  “Dr. Jenner, this is General Arnold at the pentagon. We have some information for you. There is better than fifty percent odds according to our source that the Martian spheres have an enemy that they haven’t told you about. The next time you encounter one, please ask it a direct question about its possible enemies. Thanks.”

  Dr. Jenner replied, “Yes, sir. We will make that a priority one question to ask.”

  Down the hallway, Chuck stared intensely at his console which showed a live feed of all of the rovers in a rectangular patchwork. Hours passed with no activity in any of the search ranges. Chuck stood up, stretched, and walked toward the exit to get some fresh air. Outside the door, he passed by smokers chatting in their designated area. He reached the ornamental trail around the pond outside the building. On the other side, two joggers were getting some exercise. Looking upward through the branches of the trees, the cloudy blue sky complemented the cool air. After a short refreshing walk, he made his way to the cafeteria. While eating dinner alone, he wondered about how to improve communication with the aliens. Chuck’s cellphone interrupted his reverie. He pressed the ‘Send’ button to answer,

  “Hello”

  “Chuck, we have a non-spherical object on #99.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  The object was oblong, about the size of ten of the spheres. Rover #99 was maneuvered into position. The computers were online ready to translate the signal. Surprisingly, this object gave a standard handshake on a different frequency. Chuck patched the signal to a regular audio channel. A voice that sounded like multiple voices said,

  “Hello.”

  Chuck wide eyed, looked around. The rover #99 team shrugged in different ways. No one understood how the object could say “Hello” without a computer translation. Apparently, they may have figured the communi
cation issue out from their end. Chuck hesitated. He stammered,

  “Hello.”

  The object pulsed and hummed. A chorus of voices echoed.

  “We are the Jazene. Sorry about the communication difficulties. We had some work to complete from our side. Thank you for your assistance in the prior communications. We know you have many questions. Much will be answered when we visit Earth. For now, be aware that our mission is preserving your data before the coming supernova. This process will take years to put in place. Then, it will be a permanent fixture in your world. We do not want to be attacked.”

  Dr. Jenner had just come to Chuck’s console. Grabbing the mike, he asked,

  “Do you have enemies?”

  There was a long pause before the reverberating voice replied,

  “Yes, the Danali. They are not of Earth.”

  “Are you involving us in your conflict with them?”

  The strange voice answered,

  “Inevitably”

  Dr. Jenner sternly followed up,

  “Why would we want your data preservation services when they will be disruptive to our world, and put our world at risk in your conflict with your enemies?”

  The reply came,

  “You have already encountered them. A lot of people were taken. That was not the Jazene. It was the Danali.”

  Dr. Jenner replied,

  “Do you know where those people are?”

  “Yes. We have them now. The protracted struggle to get them was at great risk to our fleet. They are safe.”

  At the pentagon, Pedro Sanchez walked toward the elevator very despondent over the alleged Derek Taylor. The ding was a familiar signal. He shuffled onto the platform along with a small crowd all filled with their own lives and purposes all headed for the ground floor. Pedro did not seem to notice them at all. He was absorbed in his thoughts. His hour long commute in traffic seemed to pass in a few minutes. The outside of his townhouse was lit by fake gas lights. He walked up the stairs, fumbled for his keys, opened the door, and flipped on the interior lights. All at once, the dog, and two cats came racing out, eager to start hunting the neighborhood. Pedro’s wife Maria greeted him. Then she passed him by chasing after the pets. Pedro wandered into the dining room and sat down to eat. The meal was ready. He just had to spoon the food onto his plate. He chatted with his wife about his workday heavily redacting in his mind most of the information.