Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power. Newton explored the meaning of gravity.
Last month electric lights, telephones, automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin, television and nuclear power. And now, if America’s new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.
This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, and new dangers. Surely, the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.
So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward--and so will space.
If this capsulated history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space…
…There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too…
...Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, ‘Because it is there.’ Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it.”
When the president concluded his groundbreaking and forward thinking address, Tonwen leaned over to whisper into Hastelloy’s ear. “In boasting about that rapid human advancement I noticed that he failed to give us any credit. It must have been an oversight, because you know that he knows the truth. Every president from here on out will know the truth.”
Chapter 55: Enemy or Friend?
Frank endured the heat for as long as he could. When the skin on his bare shoulders began to smolder and crack, he knew it was time. Pressing his shirtless back against the roof while using his legs to push up was out of the question, the metal was too hot.
“Lie on your backs, plant your feet against the roof and pretend you are at the gym using the hip sled,” Frank instructed. In the process of repositioning, he grazed his right arm against the side. A soft sizzle and accompanying aroma of burnt flesh hit him moments before his reflexes pulled the arm away. He forced the pain aside to focus on the task at hand, or rather foot.
“Push!” Frank bellowed and felt like he was attempting to dislodge Mount Everest. The load got noticeably easier when Alex and Professor Russell added their strength. Together they managed to tip an edge up six inches. The rush of fresh cool air felt like an arctic blast compared to being under the copper kettle.
Frank managed to get his legs up to full extension and felt confident he could now carry the load of two people. “Alex, slide out there and push those stones back into tipping position.”
“You sure you can handle it, because if you drop it while I am under the lip, I’ll be half the girl I used to be.”
“Just be quick about it,” Professor Russell said.
Alex retracted her legs, and rolled out from under the overturned sarcophagus. Frank soon heard the grinding of stone scraping across stone until she gave them the all clear. “Okay, let it down.”
Frank lowered his legs until the lip of the sarcophagus rested on the stones. He attempted to pull his feet down but found he was unable to remove his feet from the ceiling. At the same time, his feet felt like they were on fire, causing him to reach up, untie the laces of his boots and yank his feet out. To his amazement, the shoes remained attached to the ceiling, with the rubber soles of his hiking boots bonded with the cooling metal.
Now shirtless and shoeless, Frank rolled out from under the copper coffin to lie facing straight up with Alex and Professor Russell standing over him. Beyond their heads and smiling faces. Frank saw a sky filled with vibrant, twinkling stars. The actual stars this time, not the seashells and jewels impeded in the ceiling before. The bombs had completely blasted apart a manmade hill with a volume of over one-hundred twenty million cubic feet of packed dirt. Lucky for them, most of the blast’s energy went up and out rather than downward. Otherwise, copper sarcophagus or not, they would have been flattened.
“No shoes or shirt, but I suppose we can still provide you service,” Alex joked while she and the professor aided Frank back to his feet.
“He…help,” came a weak voice from under the coffin.
“Oh my God, Gallono,” Alex exclaimed crawling back under and came out holding a set of arms. Professor Russell grabbed one of the limp arms to help Alex pull him clear. Frank could tell the man was in critical condition from the two gunshot wounds; he was just barely managing to remain conscious.
“The com…communicator,” Gallono whispered.
Frank reached into the front right pocket and pulled out the familiar blue disk. The sight of it gave Frank pause to consider his options. If Gallono sent word back to Hastelloy that the regeneration chamber was no more, then their Nexus device would become active again and this dying man would live once more. Was that a good thing?
He considered this man part of the enemy for over thirty years. He could wait until Gallono passed before using the communicator. Along those lines, he could say to Mark, who would be listening in to the conversation, to go ahead and take out Hastelloy. That would leave them only two aliens with which to contend.
This was the opportunity of a lifetime to end things, yet looking down at Gallono’s fading eyes he did not see an enemy, or even an alien. He saw an individual who sacrificed himself for a higher purpose, knowing he might be giving up his immortality. The man may not be a friend, but he certainly was no enemy this day, and Frank could not justify killing anybody who he did not consider to be an enemy.
Frank made up his mind, placed the disk on Gallono’s bloodied chest, and pressed the man’s thumb to it bringing the device to life.
The now familiar face of Hastelloy appeared in the blue cone of light, but try as he may, Gallono was unable to form any words.
Frank jumped in to fill the silence. “The Alpha regeneration chamber has been destroyed. Have your man inside the Nexus chamber turn it back on right away. Commander Gallono is not going to make it much longer.”
“Acknowledged,” Hastelloy said with surprise in his voice. “You could have chosen to wait until after he passed to contact us. Instead, you chose to save the life of my best friend. That is an unexpected kindness that I shall never forget. Now, the three of you need to get out of there before the real explosives arrive. Hastelloy out.”
Alex and the professor hesitated over leaving Gallono lying out in the open waiting for incendiary bombs to start falling. It took a hard yank on their arms to get them moving toward the pile of rubble where the sealed southern door once stood. “Gallono will regenerate and be fine, but the three of us don’t have that luxury. Come on now. It’s time for me to see if there is anything to the latest barefo
ot running craze.”
Epilogue: The Reply
In a quiet corner of the 5,000 square foot White House Situation Room, Mark sat next to Hastelloy and the Scientific Advisor. All three watched the President speak on the phone with one world leader after another; all the while masterfully executing the old Potomac two-step. The politician in him came out in full force as he sashayed and pirouetted around specific questions and accusations to evade ownership or responsibility for what happened.
The first call placed had been with the President of the Russian Republic. The former Cold War adversary was understandably unnerved by the unannounced launch of a nuclear missile. Particularly since the missile’s flight path took it over the North Pole and ran perilously close to Russian airspace. It was a proverbial shot across the bow in the Russian president’s view, but he was pacified with the promise of an international summit to address the incident.
Next up was the Prime Minister of England and the President of France after that. Both nations were nuclear powers and warranted a conversation, but they were also close allies and needed very little convincing that the incident was not some prelude to war.
Mark sat up in his seat a bit straighter when it was announce the President of the People’s Republic of China was on the line. China was a nuclear power as well and deserved an explanation, but they were also on the receiving end of American bombs dropping on their most prized national treasure. Did they know it was American planes that did the deed, or would they assume some other explanation? The next phone conversation would reveal the answer.
“President Xi Jinping, it is an honor to speak with you today, sir,” the American President offered in greeting. “I would like to take this opportunity to explain the situation surrounding the missile launch earlier today that mistakenly passed near Cairo, Egypt.”
“At the moment a missile that came no closer than three thousand miles from Chinese territory does not hold my interest, Mr. President. I am concerned about a series of intermittent radar contacts our military traced from Egyptian airspace all the way to Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum. There, the ancient pyramid was mysteriously destroyed by a series of deep, penetrating explosions.”
The Secretary of Defense depressed the mute button on the speaker box in front of him and said to the President, “There is absolutely no way they detected our planes. He is fishing for an admission of guilt.”
The American president took the phone off mute and proceeded to do an admirable job of feigning surprise and concern to go along with his reply. “The Pyramid of Xi’an was destroyed today? My God, that is a tragic and incalculable loss to our understanding of your people’s distinguished and ancient history. I can assure you, no American aircraft or missiles flew beyond your nation’s borders today, or any time in the last several years to the best of my knowledge. There must be some other explanation. Tell me, could the destruction have anything to do with the scattered reports we have received about some sort of armed uprising within your borders?”
“There is no uprising or armed conflict of any kind taking place inside of China!” the excitable man on the other end of the telephone barked back through his translator. “Your reports are mistaken; now back to the question at hand. You lost one of your stealth bombers over Egyptian airspace earlier today. This fact is not in dispute. All evidence points to your radar evading aircraft altering course to execute an attack on my country.”
“With respect, that is an unfounded accusation…”
At that point, Mark tuned out the meaningless words being spoken. Both sides knew what happened, yet neither could fess up to it. The American’s did attack China, but for a good reason which helped the Chinese. China would never admit there was any internal fighting within their borders, especially since their adversary was probably interpreted to be the reincarnated spirits of Emperor Qui Shi Huang and his army for violating the inner sanctity of his burial mausoleum.
When the call with China ended, Mark intended to listen in to the pending conversation with the President of Egypt, but his attention was pulled away by the Scientific Advisor answering a phone call of his own.
“My God. Have you…have you verified the source?” the silver haired man asked.
An instant later Hastelloy heard a gentle chime emanating from his pants pocket. He pulled out the blue communication disk Mark had seen him use before, which brought to life the virtual face of one of his men resting in his lap. “Captain, we just received a reply to the probe’s message.”
“Is it the Novi?” Hastelloy asked.
“I believe so. It is transmitting in our frequency and in our language using an elementary encryption scheme. It is a curiously short reply though. It simply reads ‘Our arrival is imminent’.”
“Thank you, Tonwen,” Hastelloy said without emotion as he turned off his device.
“Your man just saved our entire scientific community days of decoding and intense efforts to try and translate your language,” the Scientific Advisor commented as he terminated his own phone conversation.
Hastelloy glanced over at the man, then closed his eyes and leaned his head back into the chair’s tall leather backrest and said, “Glad I could help.” He followed that statement by releasing a heavy sigh that could have blown down an entire forest.
“You look concerned,” the Scientific Advisor commented. “Shouldn’t we be the ones worrying since these are your people coming to do God knows what, if anything, to our planet and its inhabitants?”
“He’s right,” Mark added. “This news should place you in a state of complete Nirvana. Your impossibly complex and exotic plan that was some four-thousand years in the making, laden with pitfalls at every turn, has gotten you almost exactly where you intended to be.”
Hastelloy opened his eyes and rotated his head to look at Mark with genuine concern. “I’ve spent over a third of my existence, the last 4,600 years, not only living among you, but existing as one of you. All of my men have.”
“Much has changed for us during that time as I’m sure is the case for my people. I have no idea what the perceived loss of twenty million lives in battle with the Alpha may have done to the Novi. My greatest fear, since we arrived on this planet, has been that the Novi who finally do ‘rescue us’ will be as alien to me as they are to you.”
THE END
Help me out:
I sincerely hope you enjoyed the fourth volume in the story of Hastelloy and his crew. I would greatly appreciate your feedback with an honest review on Amazon.com.
First and foremost, I’m always looking to grow and improve as a writer. It is reassuring to hear what works, as well as receive constructive feedback on what should improve. Second, starting out as an unknown author is exceedingly difficult, and Amazon reviews go a long way toward making the journey out of anonymity possible. Please take a few minutes to write an honest review.
Best regards,
Mark Henrikson
BE SURE NOT TO MISS THESE OTHER
EXCITING TITLES IN THE
ORIGINS SERIES
Book 1: Origins
Book 2: Centurion’s Rise
Book 3: Reformation
Book 4: The Reich
Book 5: A Greater Good
Sneak Peek at Origins: A Greater Good
(book 5 and series finale - Coming December 2014)
Prologue: Wrong Us Shall We Not Revenge
It had been nearly five thousand years since Hastelloy last stood inside the Hall of Justice on Novus. He remembered feeling an overwhelming sense of awe at the building’s grandeur back then. Its size, its hand crafted stone walls, the rich hardwood floors and furniture all melded together to demand respect of past traditions. As Hastelloy stood there alone inside a windowless interior room, he realized the years had done much to diminish that awestruck feeling.
The stone and mortar walls now stood covered with a seamless off-white plastic polymer resin. The floor featured the same material in an alternating black and white checker p
attern. Even the table and four chairs situated in the center of the small room were composed of the solid plastic material in a light grey huge.
This was the building material of choice these days due to its ease of use and versatility. The surface color could be changed with a simple touch of a button to suit individual tastes. Any damage to the surface from scratching, chipping, or even fire was easily remolded and repaired. It was clean, efficient, but sterile and devoid of any character or history.
The feature he now found least impressive of all was the ceiling; hovering just eleven feet overhead. All those years ago, it seemed so high overhead that it may as well have been nestled among the stars; unreachable. Today, just to prove the point to himself, Hastelloy crouched low his six-foot three frame, leaped into the air, and managed to scrape the ceiling with two fingers on his left hand.
His landing was accompanied by a soft, patronizing clap from an individual standing behind him. Hastelloy turned on his heels to find a three foot tall being with pale skin and an oversized head standing in the room’s lone doorway, “That body of yours may not be much to look at, but it certainly grants you impressive athleticism.”
“So glad you approve, Chancellor,” Hastelloy responded in a flat tone.
“I don’t,” came a sharp rebuke. The two held their contemptuous stares until the Chancellor finally rotated his hairless white head to the side and issued an order to a set of guards stationed outside the door. “Restrain the prisoner so we can speak in private.”
The Chancellor’s rounded-off triangular shaped face turned towards Hastelloy once more and watched with his large, midnight black eyes as two guards moved into the room to execute his order. Even with a third guard leveling a wave blaster at Hastelloy from the doorway, the room practically reeked of fear as the two approached Hastelloy standing more than twice their height and girth.
Origins: The Reich Page 34