by Ira Tabankin
“That all depends on you. I am prepared to share the technology you’ll need. As you know, I’ve already started sharing it. In the previous few years, you’ve gone to an all-jet air force, you’ve fought your first all-jet dog fights, you’re designing smaller nuclear weapons, and you have begun to think about rockets. I’ve promised to help you design better weapons and bring new technology to your people while also teaching your people what they need to know about how to use the technology to defend your planet. After that, it will be up to you. General Bradley, you led men in your last major war, what do you think? Will your military be ready to fight for your homes?”
“We will fight and we’ll win.”
“Good. Let’s return to the conference room so we can discuss the timeline for the next year…”
Truman asked, “Do you really think you’ll be gone for an entire year?”
“Mr. President, I may be gone for longer than that. I will fly past the Earth every few months to contact Everett. As usual, leave your questions with him to transfer to me.”
Three hours later, Truman and Bradley left to return to Washington. Bradley wrote on a small note pad he showed the President, “Do you really think he can save us?”
“If not him, then who? We haven’t even thought of most of the things he’s shown us. Thinking machines that we wear? Energy as a weapon and that ship? I don’t understand how that small room he showed us is his engine. Nothing he shows makes any sense to me, yet it works because he uses it. I guess we have to take him at his word. If he wanted to conquer us, he could have already done so and he wouldn’t be helping us improve our defenses.”
“I agree. I didn’t understand any of what he told us, antimatter, anti-gravity, wormholes, stealth, artificial intelligence, particle beams, and lasers. I’m so confused, my head is spinning. How does General Yahnig keep it straight?”
“I don’t know. I think Kalteck must be educating Yahnig, which is good for us. Did you notice he and Kalteck have developed what I’d call a friendship? They’ve also begun to silently communicate together,” said a smiling Truman.
“I did. You selected the right man for the task. I’ll admit I was concerned he might have been too young, but he’s proven himself. I suggest we assign a protection detail to protect him. We can’t afford to lose him. He may be the only person who understands some of what the alien is talking about.”
“I agree. I’ll talk to the Secret Service.”
“Sir, I suggest we assign a platoon of MPs. He is military and I like to think we can protect our own. In addition, I think Secret Service protecting a member of the military will raise some eyebrows.”
“Excellent points, but remember his security is now in your hands. As you’ve said we can’t afford to lose him, so don’t!”
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Kalteck and Everett sat around a small table in the lab, Everett watched the ship heal itself while they both drank beers. “Everett, I’d like to give you a special gift.”
“A gift? You don’t have to give me anything, I value our friendship as a gift.”
“I too value our friendship, which is why I'm selfish in giving this to you. I have a reason for it, which I’ll explain after I explain the gift.”
“I take it your gift isn’t allowing me to go with you.”
“No, that I can’t risk. President Truman and your General Bradley wouldn’t forgive me if I lost you.”
“Okay, I’m all ears.”
“I want to give you the gift of nanites.”
“Okay, I’m confused. Why do you want to put microscopic thinking machines inside of me? I want to control my own life.”
“My life span is much longer than yours, I enjoy your company, in fact, I like you. I don’t want to have to train a new partner in twenty or thirty years. The nanites will keep you healthy and extend your life so you and I will be able to drive the Earth into the future and ensure your people can survive the coming war. We make a good team and I want to keep us a working team.”
“How will I be able to explain to people I’m over one hundred years old and still coming here to work.”
“Yes, that is the little problem we’re going to have to deal with. In forty of your years, you will have to disappear from the public. You’ll have to remain hidden. We’ll both become recluses hidden away from the public until the enemy arrives. I believe before that happens, we will have to explain to whoever your president is at the time we need to move our base of operations someplace in the middle of nowhere.”
“What about my wife?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t take the chance she’ll say something to one of her friends, which will break our secret. I can give you something which will ensure she doesn’t come down with a painful disease, but she will pass when her heart gives out from old age. I can ensure she won’t suffer from cancer, nor will she have a stroke or suffer her mind deteriorating as she ages. When she does go, it will be with her in her sleep or almost instantaneous. In either case, I promise you it will be painless.”
“If she ages and I don’t, won’t that create rumors? I love her, I don’t want to leave her.”
“I can program the nanites to slowly gray your hair and put some false age spots on your hands. You can adopt clear glasses. Your people will assume from the changes you’re aging. Many of you human men don’t show the symptoms of aging like your females. What do you think?”
Everett sipped his beer while thinking over his future. His beloved wife will age and fail, but he will continue as a young man. “How long will I live?”
“At least one hundred fifty years, maybe two hundred from when I place the nanites in you.”
“Since I’m forty-one now that will make me almost two hundred and fifty years old before I die, I’d be the oldest person in the world.”
“You’d never be able to tell anyone your real age. After a certain point, you’ll have to remain hidden, so people don’t begin thinking something is unusual with you. You wouldn’t want some future administration to think you hold the secret to living forever. If they thought such, they’d lock you inside a lab and run a million painful medical tests on you.”
“You paint such a nice picture. Can I think it over?”
Kalteck swallowed his beer in two gulps, “You can, however, it might not make any difference to the outcome…”
“Damn it. You’ve already put them inside of me, didn’t you?”
“I did. When I got us the beers, I placed them in your glass. You made it easy. You like your beer in a glass instead of drinking your beer from right from the bottle.”
“Damn it. Why didn’t you give me a choice?”
“Because I, and your world, need you. We were thrown together and I’ve decided I want to keep you as my partner through this process. Just think of the things you’ll see. From your Second World War to your first interstellar war, all in your lifetime. And the great news for you is when the time is right, I will not only take you with me in my ship, I’ll let you pilot her.”
“I don’t know whether to thank you or choke you. You’ll really allow me to pilot her? Speaking of the nanites, I don’t feel any different, will I?”
“No. The nanites are already reproducing themselves in your bloodstream and your organs. They’ll stay there, keeping you healthy and helping repair any damage or diseases that happen to your body.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of having to hide after my wife passes. I’ll have to spend the rest of my life here, hidden underground?”
“No, we’ll build a new headquarters so you can stroll around outside, only no one will ever know your real age. We might even change your name and identity so you can have a semi-normal life.”
“Did you tell the President?”
“I haven’t yet, should I?”
“Yes. It should come from you. Please make it very clear I didn’t agree to this before you went ahead and put them inside of me. I don’t want him to think I asked you for it.”
“I will make it very clear to him that I did it without your knowledge or agreement.”
“What if he asks for the nanites?”
“I will have to turn him down. I don’t want any politician living that long. From what I’ve seen they are all too much attracted to power. Anyone that comfortable with power could be a danger living for over one hundred years. On my planet, we all live to the same general age, so none have an advantage over us, and our council members can only serve one twenty-year term. You may think twenty years is long, but remember, our life spans are much longer than yours.”
“Want another beer? I might as well have one too.”
“That’s another thing you should know, the nanites will metabolize the beer and excess food in your body. You’ll never be drunk again, nor will you ever become overweight. The nanites will determine the perfect mass for your body and that is where you’ll remain.”
“Really? I can eat all of the cake and pie I want and I won’t gain weight? My stomach always had issues digesting pork will I still have the same issue with the nanites?”
“You’ll be able to eat anything you want. If that’s the way you want to test the nanites, then you can start tomorrow morning. You’ll never get sick again, but you should never donate blood, or you’ll transfer the nanites, and they’ll become confused when they enter a new body. If they are placed in a female, they will not only become confused, they may turn themselves off in their confusion or they may begin trying to change the female to male which may come as a rude surprise to the person who received your blood.”
Everett spit up his beer. “Yeah, I could see how that could be a problem. I have a delicate question…”
“Ah, yes, when you make love to your wife. I programed the nanites to recognize if they’re transferred via sexual transmission. They will die, so no worries, did I forget anything else because I can still alter their program?”
“I can’t think of anything else. I guess I should thank you.”
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Truman sat behind his desk in the Oval Office deep in thought. He’d asked not to be disturbed. He’d listened to Kalteck explain what he’d done to Everett and what the effects were going to be. Truman was at first angry the alien had done something to one of his general officers without his permission and then he quickly realized it made sense. Future administrations would have to be secretly informed about Kalteck and Yahnig, but they wouldn’t have to worry about selecting Everett’s replacement. Truman was initially jealous of Everett’s long life and then decided he didn’t want the stress of having to disappear when his normal life should have ended. Truman made a mental note to talk to Everett to see how he felt about having been modified without his permission and how he was going to explain the change to his wife. He wanted to make sure Everett could continue to serve in his current position.
Truman wrote a top-secret executive order allowing Everett to serve as long as he wanted to and to continue to pay him based on his rank and the normal maximum time in grade, or he’d be earning a million dollars a year when he reached a hundred years as a general officer. Truman laughed, thinking about the payroll clerk in the Department of Defense who had to process his pay. He made himself a note to make sure his pay was transferred to a secret account paid from the White House budget once Everett reached his sixty-fifth birthday.
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A week later, a violent thunderstorm struck in the middle of the night. Kalteck smiled, “Tonight’s a perfect time for me to launch. No one will be outside to see my ship leave and the radar operators, if they could see my ship, which is doubtful, will think they tracked a thunderbolt.”
“I thought our radar couldn’t lock onto you.”
“It shouldn’t. However, it may see the ionization in the moisture-filled atmosphere until I get outside of your atmosphere and can engage my space engines.”
“Remember you promised me I not only could make the trip with you, but you’d let me pilot the ship one day. I know your ship is large enough to hold at least five, so the two of us won’t strain her. I want to see the Earth from orbit. I want to see the other planets and learn some of her mysteries.”
“I gave you my word.”
“Thank you. Be safe out there, we can’t afford to lose you.”
“I have no intention of ending my life. I want to see your people defeat the enemy. Remember to always have someone cleared or yourself near the special phone. I will try to contact you at least once a month. Do not worry if I miss a call or two since I may be on the other side of your system.”
“I understand. The phone has a very long cord and special ring, so I’ll know it’s you calling. If I’m not available, then my CoS who is cleared will answer it. Go with God.”
“Thank you, my friend. May the creator of all look over and bless you.”
The roof of the hangar opened. Kalteck’s ship began to travel vertically when a large lightning bolt flashed when it struck the opened hanger roof. A young private who was on guard duty spun to look towards the flash of bright white light from the lightning, he couldn’t believe what he saw. He wondered if his eyes had played a trick on him from the bright flash of the lightning bolt. He thought he’d seen a spinning disk rising up from the hanger and silently zooming straight up through the dense clouds with flashing cloud to cloud and cloud to ground lightning. Thunder shook the young private. He decided he couldn’t have seen what he thought he did, but then again he knew the hanger across the massive base was the home to the Air Force’s Project Blue Book. Could they have an alien on their side of their base?
The memory of that night remained with him for many years.
Chapter 13
Once outside of Earth’s gravity well, Kalteck sent a message to a relay station where he hoped a passing ship would stop and deliver his message home. Their scientists had discovered a way to warp space, allowing faster than light ship travel. However, they’d not been able to figure out how to transmit messages faster than light, so passing ships sent messages to relay stations that acted like post offices. Every passing ship was required to slow down when they passed each relay station so the messages could be carried to their home systems. It was slow but beat the many decades it would take sending the messages via any other way.
Kalteck’s report covered the previous few months. He knew the ruling council wanted one answer, which was could Earth’s technology be advanced enough to slow down the enemy until Kalteck’s main military force could arrive? He’d been warned before he left on his mission that it was going to take one hundred or more years for the military to pull together one massive fleet and have it arrive in their old home solar system.
Kalteck had hidden the fact that once the humans had weakened both themselves and the enemy, Kalteck’s military planned to arrive to finish off their old enemy, and then they planned to occupy the Earth. They too planned to use the Earth as a forward operating base to begin the terraforming of Mars into a livable planet again.
Kalteck’s military had engaged their old enemy all over the galaxy to stall them from attacking and conquering their old home system. All of their hopes and prayers to the creator of all depended on the backward Earthlings stalling and hurting the enemy just enough to allow Kalteck’s people to finish the job. Kalteck added his personal notes to the main report. He expressed his doubts the Earthlings would survive long enough to make it one hundred years. He asked for permission to assist in their drug industry. He didn’t mention he’d given nanites to Everett or that he’d given Everett a serum to give to his wife. He knew he’d broken one of the rules they’d given him, which was not to upgrade any of the humans. Kalteck had decided his need for a constant partner outweighed the order he’d been given.
Shortly after he transmitted his report, his early warning system announced, “Attention, attention, we are tracking four ion trails. Four ships have passed through the outer edge of the solar system. They stopped at the fifth planet, the gas giant, to refuel. They are headed towards the
ninth planet. They most likely don’t know you have already destroyed their base that was there. There is most likely a hidden fueling base in the atmosphere of the gas giant.”
“Did we leave any residue behind when we destroyed their base?”
“Not that I scanned when we left. There might some latent energy they would trace back to us. Orders?”
“AI engage stealth mode and plot a course to bring us in behind them. I want us to stay in their ion trail so they can’t easily spot us. Time to intercept?”
“821.164 of the Earth hours.”
“Engage.”
“Sir, to remind you, taking this course will not enable you to contact General Yahnig when you promised him.”
“Engage the plotted course. He will understand. I left him new designs. He will be very busy with their technology companies when they begin working on them.”