by Don Viecelli
“I will now answer questions. Yes, Miss Weston, I shall honor your questions first.”
“Kaye stood up and faced the President. “Mr. President, thank you for your kind remarks. I have been honored to work with you and your military people on this investigation. I have two questions. When will the bodies be returned to the Tularians and how will they help us protect our planet from these solar storms?”
“The Tularians will pick up the bodies and other items we recovered at the crash site as soon as it can be arranged. I’ll not divulge the time or the location for security purposes, but they did tell me that they wished to honor their dead according to their customs. As for your second question, the Tularians have offered to help us build a giant solar shield in space that will act similarly to our own planet’s magnetic field and help shield our planet from magnetic radiation. The technology will provide many benefits, which are still under investigation.”
The question and answer session lasted for twenty more minutes. Then the President stepped away from the podium and shook hands as he walked out of the room. The reporters scrambled to leave. They had stories to file. Other reporters gathered around Kaye and tried to ask a million questions. She had to fight her way out of the room with Kurt and Debbie leading the way to leave the building. She had an interview to do with the CBS national news network and a flight to catch with Colonel Hampton at 4:00 p.m. if she wanted to film the bodies before the Tularians picked them up. Dave said he would pick her up after the interview. So far the public did not know about her visit with the aliens and she wanted to keep it that way until the interview session on TV. Kaye figured that would be the time to hit them with this bit of news. When she got back to Chicago, she planned to bring her brother and his two friends on the program and interview them. The possibilities seemed endless.
Chapter 32
Somehow, they all made it out of Andrews Air Force Base on time. It was a bit of a shock to Kaye and her crew when Dave told them they would be flying with the President on Air Force One. Secretary Patterson and General Walton were also on the plane and were sitting with the President. They were discussing plans for the alien visit and how to prepare the bodies for transport. General Anderson and Dave would listen to the plans and General Anderson would pass instructions to the staff at Milwaukee Air Force Base over the satellite phone. He also called the FAA Chairman and requested that all airplane traffic be suspended for one hour at the airport starting at 7:00 p.m. This was no easy task and the reason had to be kept secret from the public. The number of details to resolve over the next two hours would keep them very busy until they landed.
Kaye was busy talking to Kurt and Debbie about the events of the day. The TV interview after the press briefing was a great success. Her knowledge of the situation and the events that led up to the briefing were remarkable. When she revealed to the host that she and the others were taken aboard the space ship and met with the aliens, they were just stunned by the news. No one could have scripted the interview questions and answers any better. She had to beg the producers to let her go so she could catch her ride to the airport with Dave. She was a celebrity before she left the building. She wondered if it would interfere with her ability to tell the news objectively. It wasn’t over yet. When Dave picked her up, he informed her that she was one of the few reporters allowed to ride with the President and film the landing of the Tularians. Kaye got on her phone and told the whole story to her boss in Chicago. He was absolutely amazed and happy for her. He saw the TV interview and said she looked great. They couldn’t wait for her to take her co-anchor seat next week.
Air Force One landed at Milwaukee Air Force Base at 6:05 pm. The plane parked next to the Air Force hangar where the alien spacecraft debris was being stored and analyzed. A contingent of Secret Service Agents opened the passenger door and led the President down a mobile ramp to the runway. Everyone else followed the President. Once they were on the ground, General Anderson led the group into the hangar. Dave helped Kaye with her things. Kurt and Debbie followed with their camera equipment.
The sun was still out and wouldn’t set for another two hours. The place was a beehive of activity. There were vehicles driving in and out of a large hangar at the end of one runway. There were still military and commercial jets taking off and landing at the airport. Several large Army trucks were parked near the hangar. People were everywhere. Kaye thought she recognized some faces from the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Visitors Center parking lot. She guessed they drove some of the trucks that were parked outside. Several Army men were clearing a large space near the building at the end of the runway and setting up some sort of light markers. Beside the hangar, Kaye saw several TV news vans parked in a row with people busy setting up for a filming session. Most of the national and local news stations seemed to be there. One of the vans was from her Channel Two News station in Chicago. She recognized the crew. Dick told her on the phone that he would send a news van for the event. The word must have leaked out. The President wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to record the visit from the Tularians. It would help convince the unbelievers.
Some of the news crews recognized her from the press briefing and TV news interview in Washington DC. They rushed forward with their cameras and started shouting for an interview. Luckily, there was a fence and guards between them and the hangar and they couldn’t get near her. Dave quickly escorted her inside the hangar. “I guess everyone knows who you are now?”
“Yeah, it’s going to take some getting used to. I’m not sure I like it.”
“Don’t worry. They’ll probably forget all about you in a month or so.” He grinned at her when he said it.
“Thanks. That’s the story of my life.” She smiled back at him. “Where are the bodies? I would like to get a shot of them before it’s too late.”
“Follow me. They’re still at the medical center. We need to prepare them for transport anyway, so we might as well see them now.”
Dave led the group to a Humvee parked in the hangar. He asked for a driver to take them to the medical center where the bodies were still being held in the medical examiner’s room. He called Doctor Aimes to tell her they were on their way over. Everyone got in and they left the hangar to drive the short distance to the hospital. Kurt checked his camcorder on the way over. Kaye noticed more vehicles trying to get inside the military base. The word must be getting out that something unusual was about to happen. So much for secrecy, she thought. As they neared the hospital, they saw military guards everywhere. Dave had to show a clearance badge to be allowed through the checkpoint. Finally, they were allowed to enter and drive up to the front door. They got out of the vehicle and walked inside. Dave led them to the medical examiner’s office. Doctor Aimes was waiting for him.
“Hello, Doctor Aimes. I would like to introduce Kaye Weston, Kurt Flannigan and Debbie Meyers. Kaye is the reporter for Channel Two News in Chicago. She’s filming the situation on the crash investigation for the President.”
“Hello, Miss Weston. I recognize you from TV today. Mr. Flannigan, Miss Meyers.” She shook everybody’s hands.
“It’s nice to meet you, Doctor Aimes. Colonel Hampton has told me about you,” Kaye said.
“Well, we better make it quick. Colonel Hampton told me on the phone that you want to take some pictures of the bodies. We’re preparing them for transport to the base now. You just made it.” The doctor led them down the hall to the body storage room. It was cold inside. “We took hundreds of pictures of the bodies during our autopsies. You’re welcome to go through them and pick out the ones you like.”
“That would be great, but we would like to film each body for the record ourselves.” Kaye was polite, but firm in her request.
Doctor Aimes went to the far side of the room where the refrigeration doors were. She opened one door and pulled the first body out. A blast of cold, white air blew out the open door. The body was covered in a white sheet. Doctor Aimes pulled the sheet halfway down the body. Kur
t was shooting the scene and moved in closer to get a better shot. The body seemed small and frail. So different from Kaye’s memory of the live aliens she met during her visit on their ship. Kaye asked Doctor Aimes to remove the entire sheet. The body was one of the females. Kurt continued to film.
Doctor Aimes showed all four bodies. Two of the bodies were in pretty bad shape from the crash and the doctor pointed out the types of injuries and how they had to sew the pieces back together again. Kaye made sure they got a good shot of each body and recorded the doctor’s comments on each one. Doctor Aimes didn’t say what they found during the autopsies and Kaye didn’t ask. It was all in the medical report that was turned over to General Anderson. When they were done, Kaye thanked Doctor Aimes and then they left the room.
“How’s our patient doing, Doctor?” Dave asked referring to Bill Murphy, the computer scientist who had the heart attack.
“He’s much better today. We moved him to a regular room. Do you want to see him?”
“Yes, I do. Let me take the group to the lobby and I’ll come back to see you.” Dave led the group back to the front lobby and asked them to wait for him. He told them he wanted to check in with someone from the investigation team who had a heart attack recently and would be right back.
Doctor Aimes led him to Bill Murphy’s hospital room. It was a private room and there were no guards on the floor. Dave knocked on the door and went inside. Doctor Aimes went back to her office. “Hello, Mr. Murphy. How are you feeling today?”
“I’m feeling much better, Colonel. The doctors say I’m lucky to be alive. I’ll be released in a few days. I guess I need to take better care of myself and I believe I will.”
“That’s great. I see they took all your equipment away.”
“Yeah, Doctor’s orders. But we transferred a lot of information from the disk before they left. Do they know what kind of information was on the disk, Colonel?”
“Not entirely, but a lot of it concerns our sun. The aliens promised to help us predict solar flares and build a solar shield to protect our planet in the future. In return, they want their bodies back and the memory disks.”
“I saw the President’s news conference today. It was pretty interesting. When are the aliens coming to get the bodies?”
“Soon, Bill. We’re getting ready now.”
“You know, I never expected to see what I did when I was having my heart attack. I’m not sure I really believe it anyhow. But it’s funny. Last night, I swear I was talking with that alien again. It had to be a dream, I realize that, but it was so real.”
“What did she say?”
“Well, that’s the funny part. She thanked me. She said my memories would be useful to them. I don’t know what she meant. It was just a dream. You can’t talk to the dead.”
Dave thought about his own experiences with the disk and wondered if it really was only a dream. Dave decided to tell him about his abduction. He briefly explained his visit with Commander Orlutinion and told him what the disk could do. Then he added the final news, “Commander Orlutinion told me the name of his daughter, Bill. He called her Elon, just as you did. It may not be a dream after all.”
“That makes me feel better, Colonel. I thought I might be losing my mind.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better. When you feel up to it and the doctors say it’s all right, I hope you can rejoin us. We need your expertise on the investigation.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks for coming to visit. Good luck today.”
“Thanks. I’ll talk to you again when things quiet down.” Dave shook Bill’s hand and walked out of the room. He was walking towards the lobby when his cell phone rang. It was General Anderson. He said they needed the bodies now and he was sending a truck over to pick them up. He wanted him to tell Doctor Aimes. Dave said he would and went to find her. It was nearly time.
They followed the bodies back to the base. This time they pulled up to the hangar, but did not drive inside. They all exited the vehicle and walked over to where President Maxwell, his Secret Service Agents, Secretary Patterson, General Walton, General Anderson and several armed guards were standing. It was almost 8:00 p.m. The sun was setting. It was bright red, a huge globe hanging in the western sky. It was very quiet. Dave wondered why. Then he realized that all air traffic had stopped. Nothing was flying in the air and nothing moved on the ground. Everybody sensed something was about to happen. The sun began to dip in the horizon. Then a dark spec appeared at the top of the sun. Someone pointed. The spec began to grow. It got bigger and bigger. A shape emerged. It was round and very large. The sun was almost halfway down. There was an audible gasp from the crowd. Everyone could see it was a spaceship, but it was so much bigger than they expected. And it was quiet. There was absolutely no sound coming from it. It grew larger and larger until it covered the whole sky above them. There were lights all around the bottom edge of the ship. Some were blinking like running lights. It was an unbelievable sight. Dave and Kaye just stood there like the rest of the crowd. Some of the scientists were monitoring the environment for radiation. Kurt was filming with his camera and Debbie just stood there with her microphone hanging from her hand. They were all too stunned to move.
Suddenly, the spaceship was hovering over the entire airport. A door opened in the bottom front of the craft and a bright light appeared. It was bluish white in color. A large round platform descended in the light. There were several beings of various heights standing on the platform. There were no cables. It just floated down in the beam of light until it reached a few inches above the ground. Then it stopped. No one knew what to do. They just starred at the aliens. Then someone stepped down off the silver platform and another followed. They were not aliens. They were human. There were three of them, two men and one woman. They had spacesuits on without the helmets. Dave quickly recognized the ISS symbol on the front of their suits. They were astronauts from the International Space Station. Each of them had a memory disk hanging around their neck. They recognized the President, Secretary Patterson and General Walton. They walked quickly over to them and saluted. “Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, General Walton, I’m Commander Julian Bonario from the ISS. With me are Major Jean Helms, Chief Medical Officer and Alex Vladamir, Chief Science Specialist.”
“It’s good to meet you, Commander Bonario, Major Helms, Mr. Vladamir,” President Maxwell said. He shook each of their hands. “How are they treating you and your team?”
“They’re treating us fine. It’s been a bit of a shock to us, sir, but the Tularians seem to know a lot about us. Let me introduce you to their leader, Commander Orlutinion.” Commander Bonario turned to the platform and signaled to the aliens. They stepped off the platform and walked slowly towards them. It was getting dark now. The overhead floodlights suddenly turned on. Everyone could see the robes they wore. There were five of them. Dave and Kaye recognized Commander Orlutinion and Ayton beside him. As Commander Orlutinion neared the group he spoke something to Commander Bonario. The voice was low and almost sounded musical. Dave realized that Commander Bonario and his crew had a translation device in their ears, as did all of the aliens. He knew the aliens could understand all that was being said.
“Commander Orlutinion wishes to add his greetings to you, Mr. President, on behalf of all his people,” Commander Bonario translated. “He is thankful for the return of his crewmembers.”
“We welcome you and your people to our planet,” President Maxwell responded directly to Commander Orlutinion. “We wish to again convey our sympathy and sorrow for what happened to your spacecraft and crew. We are ready to return the bodies and items now.” General Walton signaled to the Air Force team behind the President to open the doors on the medical vans and bring out the bodies, which were on gurneys. Each body was placed inside a plastic body bag covered by a white sheet and then draped by an American flag. Two people in uniform rolled each gurney to the front of Commander Orlutinion and placed them in a single row. Everyone in the crowd become quiet. Commander Or
lutinion had a small device in his hand. He walked to each body and waved his hand slowly over each head. It looked like he was trying to find someone. When he reached the third body, he paused and took something out of his robe and placed it on the body. It was an insignia of some sort. Dave noticed it was the same insignia that was on Commander Orlutinion’s robe. It must be his daughter, he thought. Commander Orlutinion walked back to the front of the group and said something to Ayton who turned and went with the others to take the bodies to the platform. The aliens wrapped a thin metal ring around each body and activated some sort of device on top. The bodies floated off the gurney as each alien walked back to the platform with a body. Everyone in the crowd watched in amazement.
Ayton returned to the group with a silver box and stood beside Commander Orlutinion. He was saying something to Commander Bonario who repeated it to the President. “Commander Orlutinion is grateful for the return of his people. He has the information he promised you in exchange for the bodies and other items you returned.” Commander Orlutinion took out a small black object and handed it to the President Maxwell. “He says this device contains the plans for the solar shield we must build. He wishes us success, good health in the future and a safe journey.”
“Commander Orlutinion, we are grateful for your help and will use the information wisely.” President Maxwell instructed Secretary Patterson to turn over the three memory disks, location beacon and other items they possessed. General Walton passed the boxes to Commander Bonario and his crew. Commander Orlutinion bowed to the President who bowed back. Then Commander Orlutinion walked over to Dave and Kaye. He smiled at them and handed them a translation device to put in their ears. When they complied, he spoke to them. “Thank you for your help in returning our people and my daughter’s Mo-Li. I wish to give you something in return. He reached inside his robe and pulled out two memory disks. He placed each disk around their neck. “You must keep this close to you when you wish to use the Mo-Li. Its power will become clear to you in time.”