by Gary Striker
‘Duty’ was preparing a temporary meeting room as the visitors arrived. Jane provided introductions to all and the group settled behind closed doors.
“First, Colonel, excuse me”, ‘Duty’ said as he established a priority meeting agenda, “there has been some movement, however small, in the creature’s torso and the eyes”.
“I was expecting this, sir, but not quite so soon”, Darren answered in surprise! We have a similar story developing back in the lab with the Correlator device that Steve found. We’re going to have to make some tough decisions if we plan to control this thing”.
Darren excused himself from the group to attend to his examination of the creature, as well as the sample cultures he prepared from the dead specimen.
The Colonel was taking in the extreme abnormality of the conversation as Jane reiterated her intent to ‘Duty’.
“Perhaps we need to show the Colonel exactly what we’re concerned about?”
‘Duty’ put both palms on the table and said, “Let’s do it”!
Everyone could sense that the playing field had been leveled as the Colonel’s expression showed noticeable signs of concern and uneasiness. ‘Duty’ led the team into the prisoner staging area where he conducted a briefing prior to entering the holding cell. The deputies on guard duty had strict lockdown instructions to maintain security should the creature become active.
Darren added portable lighting to the containment cell with various colored party lamps that he bought at the local hardware store. Specific spectrums of light were required for contrast enhancements of various macroscopic observations. The cell area had certainly taken on the mad scientist appearance with electronic test equipment staged in makeshift racks. Even the hospital volunteered a cardiac monitoring station and stethoscope.
Steve was busy attaching various test probes to the creature as ‘Duty’ and the team filed into the holding area. The deputies were vigilant as Darren attended to his tasks. A vivid green glow illuminated the creature, which added to the essence of danger. Steve addressed his friend with a request to join Darren in the holding cell.
“We want you to have close personal contact with this thing”, Steve appealed, “and it could be extremely hazardous, but it is the reason you’re here. Are you willing to take a risk”?
“I know some dumbass son-of-a-bitch who could have gotten his ass blown away, but instead chose to take a risk and save my own butt”, the Colonel stated, “and what do you think I’m going to do? Run”?
Everyone in the containment area laughed as the tensions seemed to ease a bit. Darren led the Colonel to the creature with instructions to touch a lobe that was located near the base of the neck. If it were anyone else besides Dave Harris, this would have represented a determining moment of sanity.
“Oh shit! What was that”, the Colonel asked as he flinched back and away from the creature?
Darren requested that the Colonel put his hand back in the same spot.
“I’m going to attempt communication with the creature through a series of modulated pulses that I will apply to what I believe is the creature’s central processing system. This acts much like a sonar system on a submarine. The pulse signatures match that of a Correlator device that Steve took from a creature that he encountered at the sawmill.
Dave was apprehensive but complied with the request. Darren gave the signal that the electronic message was about to be activated. Dave nodded his approval.
“Oh my God”, Dave exclaimed, “I feel it, it’s electric”!
At that moment, the creature exploded from his ‘coma’, hurling Darren and the Colonel into the cell bars. Cheyenne instinctively tackled the monster, but was thrown aside as it came to life.
“Don’t fire”, ‘Duty’ commanded his deputies, as he directed the Laser-Taser beam at the creature’s eyes!
Subsequent to the rude awakening, the creature immediately became somewhat subdued after receiving a blast from the Laser-Taser. Cheyenne was back on top of his alien friend as he brought it to the floor. The deputies were assisting Cheyenne and the two victims of the creature’s wrath. Other than a few pronounced bruises, they were having an easier time shaking off the physical effects as opposed to the mental ones. Steve stood back as the Colonel made his way out of the holding cell, more dazed than hurt.
“Well, no guts, no glory”, the Colonel stated with an expression of amazement! He was having difficulty equating this experience to others he had in hazardous duty locations.
“You know, Slattery, in all the years I’ve known you, there has never been a dull moment”, the Colonel began, “but this episode takes it over the top, even for you!
“If you’re impressed now”, Jane said, “Wait until you see these pictures of yourself sailing across the cell”!
“Dave, we need to talk”, Steve said, “These law enforcement officers are putting themselves in harm’s way against an enemy of far superior capability. We’ve lost one deputy already and others have been killed, maimed or are currently M.I.A.”
“How have the authorities reacted”, Dave asked?
“Our biggest fans are the National Inquirer and some Area 51 U.F.O. alien encounter group”.
“The State Inspectors will be back Monday”, Jim added, “and so far their investigation results have reserved all of us a room at the State Mental Asylum. The F.B.I. will not get further involved and has pulled the plug on us, despite the evidence, which they buried for job security reasons.
“Let them bury this”, the Colonel stated, “I’m filing an Official Congressional Brief with the Air Force Mobility Command and the Maine State Senators. They can kiss each other’s butts trying to explain their inane decisions. I’ll need everything you have and all the help you can muster to put it together. We don’t sleep until this job’s done”!
Dave looked at his friend, Steve, and acquiesced to a simple question, “Is that what you had in mind”?
“Precisely”, was Steve’s one-word response!
Everyone was taking stock of recent events and the need for additional security measures. ‘Duty’ was issuing commands like a pissed-off Drill Instructor. He offered the meeting room and all administrative resources in support of the Colonel’s request. The Colonel had already provided his Wing Commander with a cursory briefing. It was enough to raise eyebrows, but not enough to commit anyone. Dave planned to have two briefing presentations ready before his exit in less than twenty-four hours. One of the Briefs would remain behind, just in case. Jane made the round trip to Eagle Lake to retrieve the photo records. The office clerk assisted Darren with compiling a quantifiable summary of significant observations and recorded data.
Saturday was coming to a close as the sun set above the tree line located behind the Police Headquarters building in downtown Fort Kent. The Colonel elected to reserve a room at The Northern Door Inn should any consultation be required with Darren to finish the report. Additionally, Dave requested a comprehensive briefing on recent alien activities that would be substantiated with photographic evidence. In particular, and beyond the photos of the alien life forms, he was particularly interested in the aerial views of Ben Lake, and the abnormality of the lake surface.
Pilot Reports, or PIREPS, as they are referred to in aviation parlance, were very disturbing. In addition to Gary’s PIREP, corroborating reports from airline transport pilots appeared to reflect an alarming trend of lost communication and malfunctioning navigation systems as well as some loss of aircraft control while transitioning the Allagash region. This included one of the Air Force Mobility Command’s own aircraft. A thorough inspection of the malfunctioning systems found nothing, which in itself was particularly disturbing to the ground and flight crews.
Darren finished his examination of the creature contained in the holding cell with some disconcerting news.
“Today’s the day for it”, ‘Duty’ said, “Let’s have it”!
The group was assembled at the entrance doors on their way out. Everyone’s attentio
n was on Darren as he looked toward Cheyenne.
“Your friend back there is a bit restless. This is not good”.
“What’s going on”, Cheyenne asked, “do I need to have another consultation with him”?
The group appreciated Cheyenne’s sense of humorous Acadian wit, which for Cheyenne was not wit at all.
“Up until now, the creature responded to the Laser by shutting off its systems and going dormant, at least for the most part. Apparently, it has managed to at least partially reprogram itself to become less sensitive to the green beam spectrum. This is one of its vital communication links. Now, additional systems within the data processing structure remain active”.
Darren showed two biometric recording tapes and pointed out the distinct differences between the two.
“What does this all mean”, Bob asked with a thoroughly confused expression?
Darren continued, “In a normal digital architecture such as we might see in a central processing unit of a computer system, there are a number of independently isolated functional groups. They perform specific tasks and control or communicate with the other logical groups. Our alien friend possesses a similar architecture, except millions of these logical units are mapped into one assembly. In modern microprocessor substrates, or building block units, all of the conditional logical state decisions are made in the Arithmetic Logic Unit. To the lay person, this is referred to as the ‘Brain’.
“So what does this all mean”, Jim asked, with everyone’s attention focused on Darren?
The creature’s Arithmetic Logic Unit, or Brain, was essentially dormant, or for the most part, shut down as a result of a contact anomaly with the Laser beam. Now, the Brain is functioning normally”.
If by chance, or not, quite a sizeable audience had assembled to hear Darren’s dissertation. Everyone sensed a voice of impending doom.
“He’s waking up, isn’t he”, was Cheyenne’s query to Darren?
Stone cold silence descended on the room. Cheyenne’s observation was an intense adrenaline pump for all listeners. Everyone assembled the logical building blocks as to what was happening within the inner recesses of their alien friend. The prognosis contained nothing but unsettling elements.
“Cheyenne is right”, Darren began, “Our friend is coming to life. Hypothetically, we have missed our window of opportunity to disable the creature. It is highly unlikely that we would be able to make him do anything except for what he is programmed to do”.
“And what would that be”, Bob asked?
“Our friend is transmitting repeating data frames, each packet contained therein has a precise digital signature. It’s too complex for us to properly analyze, but it is repeating. He’s signaling his counterparts and there is nothing we can do about it. When they find him, if they haven’t already, they will make every effort to rescue him”.
Steve recalled an earlier comment that Cheyenne made. Working it to the group’s advantage was another challenge.
“We don’t know what happened to all of the people that disappeared”, Steve hypothesized, “For all we can speculate, those folks could still be alive and held captive”!
“Are you saying that we have us a hostage situation”, Cheyenne asked with his wryly grin?
“Not quite”, Darren corrected, “We don’t know if we have him, or if he has us”?
The group essentially shut down from overload as they attempted to assess their position and available options, if there were any.
“This has all the constituent parts for a declaration of war”, the Colonel assessed, “and our chances don’t look so good. We have no battle plan since we understand little about the enemy, and we lack that all important exit strategy should we fail”.
“So what are you saying, Colonel”, Jim asked?
“If what we witnessed here today equates to a microcosm of reality, this planet and all of its inhabitants are in deep shit”!
Aliens in the Allagash
Chapter 22
Battle Plan
Colonel Dave Harris spent half the night preparing his report. This was an official U.S.A.F. Briefing document as would be presented for Congressional consideration. He and Darren proofed the content until the Colonel finally stated, “That’s it, we’re done”!
After a hearty breakfast at the Swamp Buck, Dave Harris pointed his vehicle south to Bangor International Airport. Darren headed back to the Fort Kent Extraterrestrial Research Labs, also known as the Police Headquarters Building.
The Colonel recommended a proposal initiative that begin with high resolution satellite reconnaissance of the entire Ben Lake Wilderness Area. Intelligence crews would analyze every leaf and stick that appeared in the photos. The U.S.A.F. would have unlimited access to all collected evidence including the Correlator. The Colonel decided to take another risk and transport a sample from the dead alien carcass. Darren assured the Colonel that this particular sample would be unlike anything that ever existed on this planet.
Everyone agreed that an enormous amount of data collection was necessary for two reasons; first, they needed to identify exactly what they were dealing with, and second, to determine what the immediate and long term threat level was that they faced. With this information the Colonel hoped to be able to assemble a battle plan to at least contain the enemy threat in such a way as to mitigate their own losses. It was no secret that this particular enemy would be very formidable, not to mention full of surprises. The battle plan was similar to a State of Fleet Opposed Invasion that the U.S. Navy was well accustomed to. This fact alone set an immediate precedence for multi-service support.
The entire battle plan hedged on the outcome of one uncertainty; would the Air Force Command entertain an immediate initiative that required them to accept the existence of an alien presence? The answer was, ‘Not likely’! However, Dave was not in the least bit concerned about his career, as that was behind him. So with the ‘everything to gain’ scenario in place, the briefing presentation would be very formidable, especially considering the source. Darren was on call to attend the presentation with Steve and ‘Duty’ on standby alert.
Jane and Steve were finishing breakfast when his alien communicator lit up with a call from beyond. Steve pointed toward the ceiling as Jane shook her head in a fluster.
“That persists as the dumbest ring tone I ever heard”, Jane confirmed.
“Good morning Darren, I heard from Dave. He said that you guys put together a barn burner of a report”, Steve affirmed.
“Yes, all went fairly well. Steve, I believe that we’re running out of time”.
“What’s going on”, Steve asked with a tone of concern?
“I don’t like what my laboratory equipment is telling me. This creature is not only reprogramming itself, it is now changing its chemical composition”.
“What does that mean? Are we in trouble”, Steve inquired?
“As Dave said, ‘we’re in deep shit’. This thing is doing a molecular transposition that appears to be part of a restructuring process. It’s adapting itself to accommodate its new threat”.
“That’s great news Darren! I’ll just kiss my butt goodbye and spare all the grief”, Steve said sarcastically.
“That may be the better option”, Darren confirmed, “Hypothetically, we may have no known method to control this thing”.
“You know Darren, whenever you use the word, ‘hypothetically’, it confirms the ‘deep shit’ syndrome around here. However, something’s been bugging me since my encounter at the sawmill. Do we, hypothetically speaking, have any chance of communicating with this creature”, Steve asked while reversing his own theoretical supposition?
“That’s a question I’m trying to answer since I met that thing”, Darren answered, and since its communication system is far too complex for us to analyze, at least with what we know now, I’m going to have to say no, with a precondition”.
Steve looked very perplexed as Jane was taking in the reality treatment of exactly what she didn�
�t want to know about.
“Ok Darren, let’s have it. You always have a punch line, and I do mean ‘punch’”, Steve requested with a bit of his Texas-bred humor.
“Our Alien friend has been studying us while compiling massive amounts of data regarding our physiology and general presence. This was evident as different people transitioned within close proximity to it. Huge spikes in processing activity are recorded every time someone got near him”.
“Darren, you’re laying the groundwork for a doomsday machine. So what is your precondition for communications”, Steve asked?
“When this thing needs something, it will communicate with us”, was Darren’s sullen answer.
Jane broke the conversation with a perspective of her own.
“So what you’re saying is that we are our own worst enemy. We gave it what it wanted just by being around it”, Jane said with her own accreditation, “and just what could it ever need from us”?
“Other than sustenance, that’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question”, Darren confirmed! “As of now, we don’t have a clue”.