Revelation Day
The White House, January 6, 2016 -- 8:00 a.m.
Albert Swoboda released a sigh of contentment and said, "Mr. President, the White House serves a fine breakfast. Perhaps now you will tell me where we are going today."
"Well, Al, in about five minutes we will board Marine One for a quick flight to Andrews."
"Bill, if I had known that I would have met you at Andrews. You know I hate to fly in those damn helicopters!"
"Mr. Speaker, I have always enjoyed flying by helicopter with you as it is the only time that you are at a loss for words."
Aboard Air Force One, 15 minutes out of Andrews AFB
"Al, are you suffering any long-term effects from our helicopter ride."
"I almost lost my breakfast, but I am doing fine now. Will you please tell me where we are going?"
"We will soon land at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina where we will board an Air Force helicopter for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. My chief of staff selected this roundabout route to throw the news media off our trail. I kept our itinerary secret to prevent your aversion to helicopters from interfering with our trip."
"What makes you think I will consent to fly in another helicopter? I intend to stay aboard Air Force One to await your return."
"Before you decide to remain on the plane, let me explain the purpose of this trip. Do you remember the flurry of reported flying saucer sightings in the middle of the last century?"
"Of course I do. I am not senile yet, though I am beginning to worry about you."
"Well, three weeks ago the Air Force informed me that some sort of time machine from the future crashed and exploded in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico. Military authorities quickly assumed control of the crash site and imposed a news blackout. They also moved the crash site debris and four abnormal, humanoid bodies to Wright Field in Ohio."
"If this time machine traveled back through time from our future, how on earth could its occupants be unlike us? Why were they described as having abnormal, humanoid bodies?"
"Their hands and wrists were nearly nonfunctional and they were lacking reproductive organs. In addition, they exhibited several major physiological deformities suggesting the results of a monstrous medical experiment gone awry. A colonel, who apparently considered himself a religious fundamentalist first and a military doctor second, conducted a cursory autopsy. He then declared the crash victims to be an "Abomination in the eyes of the lord," and ordered their immediate cremation."
"Why does this concern us now?"
"Read this copy of the message engraved on a metal plate recovered from the wreckage."
The three data globes aboard this craft contain information from your future and will reveal their contents at an appropriate time. Premature disclosure of this information may needlessly alter the future therefore; we have enclosed each globe within a protective force field. Attempts to breach these force fields will destroy the data globes.
"They recovered only one data globe from the wreckage and concluded that the crash destroyed the other two. After reviewing this information, President Truman verbally ordered the newly formed U.S. Air Force to, "Hide this stuff in a hole and lose the hole. Inform the White House when the message is delivered." He must have believed this would occur on his watch, as he left no record of this event or his order.
"After all these years, the data globe recovered from the wreckage began to beep at one-minute intervals a month ago. Last week a countdown clock appeared on its surface and the count zeros out at twelve hundred hours today. I wanted to be present when it revealed its message, but my staff advised against it as the UFO folks would notice any visit I made to Wright-Patterson. I decided that the chance this device might represent a hazard eliminated the option of bringing it to Andrews, so I had it moved to Seymour Johnson. Do you still wish to remain aboard the plane when we land?"
"No, I would attend this event even if I had to fly with the Wright brothers! I just hope that I can hang onto that fine White House breakfast."
Aboard a C-17 at Seymour Johnson AF Base -- 11:55 a.m.
The data globe, supported in a special cradle and positioned in front of about forty aircraft seats, was approximately three feet in diameter. The active, scintillating exterior of the globe simulated the color and luster of a pearl and displayed a digital count down which seemingly mesmerized its audience. President Delaney, the Speaker of the House, and a bevy of civilian and military officials sat silently as the count slowly approached zero.
When the display reached zero, it began to blink, and the glowing outline of a hand appeared on the surface of the globe. A message then began to appear word by word that read, "This device will open when Dr. Brian Butler places his right hand in the place shown. Mr. President, I address the following to you. Belay your impatience sir; we must clear the deck before you can get underway."
All eyes turned to the president to observe his reaction to the message addressed to him. The speaker, growing concerned when he saw the stunned expression on the president's face, asked, "Bill, do you understand that message?"
Suddenly the president abruptly stood and said "Butler, damn it, Butler sent the message. The message displayed on the globe included an exact quotation of what I said to Doctor Butler yesterday in the Oval Office." The president turned to the nearest Secret Service agent and said, "Inform your supervisor that I want Dr. Butler found and delivered to Andrews ASAP." Turning to his chief of staff, he said, "Set up a flight for him through the local Air Ops office and order them to keep it subsonic. I do not want a trail of broken windows drawing attention to us. Al, lets go to the O'Club for lunch. I don't know about you, but I intend to drink mine."
Pizza Hut -- 12:45 p.m.
Brian stepped out of the taxi and held the door for Mandy as she gathered up her purse and scarf. As the cab pulled away, she said to Brian, "I am really looking forward to moving to Portland and ending this lifestyle of hotels and restaurants."
Brian spotted them as he reached for the door. With a sigh of disappointment he stepped away from the door and said, "Mandy, did you tell anyone where we were going?"
Before she could reply, a familiar voice said, "Dr. Butler, they have sent us to fetch you again."
"Mandy, these are the two Secret Service agents that picked me up in Portland and I suppose their appearance means that you will be eating lunch alone today."
Aboard a C-17 at Seymour Johnson AFB -- 1:58 p.m.
Brian rose to his feet as the president boarded the aircraft and said, "Dr. Butler, see if you can open that damn thing."
Startled by the irritation expressed in the president's tone of voice, Brian stepped forward and cautiously placed his hand on the device within the outline above the repetitive text display. The initial tingling sensation he felt with his hand ended abruptly and the surface of the device turned to a gray metallic appearance.
Realizing that he was standing within some sort of display, Brian stepped away from the device. A life-sized hologram of a very old black man sitting at a desk filled the air in front of the device from the future. A moment later the old man began to speak.
"Mr. President, I am Doctor Brian Butler and I greet you from the year 2068. I quoted your comment from our first meeting as a matter of personal vanity. Last year I turned eighty and I no longer resemble the young Doctor Butler you recently hired. Regrettably, I must report that I failed to accomplish the tasks assigned to me by you and your successors.
"In the spring of 2042 we detected the approach of a huge interstellar vessel that assumed a geostationary orbit above Lake Victoria on September 17, 2042. Analysis of our tracking data indicates that its point of origin was the star we know as, zeta one RET. After ignoring our attempts to communicate with it for six days, it launched two smaller vessels that exhibited phenomenal rates of acceleration and deceleration. These vessels approached the Asimov Orbital Station whereupon we lost contact with the station. The Invader's vessels destroyed the station two hours later with energy beam weapons and then returned to their mother ship.
"After several days of theatrical debate the UN declared that a state of war existed between Earth and the Invaders and then adjourned in disarray. The world began to receive daily visits by these alien warships resulting in the disappearance of thousands of people each day. Those taken would suddenly disappear with a popping sound as the air rushed in to fill the void created by their departure. In December, a ship landed to establish the first of the Invader's many force field protected bases, and the rate at which people disappeared began to increase dramatically.
The discovery of a huge pile of human skeletal remains answered the question we had feared to ask. The Invaders were simply harvesting us as food. Every attempt the world's military forces made to oppose these marauders ended in the destruction of the units involved.
"Though unable to match the technology of the Invaders, mankind began its magnificent stand against a relentless enemy. With but a slim chance of victory, we stood united and fought bravely against the Invaders as we gained knowledge of their technology and learned ways to circumvent it. Nevertheless, with the remaining population of the North American continent presently less than a million scattered people, we have lost the war and humankind will soon become extinct.
"After years of observation, our scientists and military intelligence people have reached the following conclusions:
1. That the alien vessel can open a hyper spatial wormhole between it and a similar device positioned near the enemy's home world.
2. That the interstellar conveyance of unprotected living beings and materials is possible through this Hyper spatial wormhole.
3. That they transport nine out of ten people taken out of our solar system based upon the estimated number of skeletal remains found.
4. That a short range version of this device is responsible for the sudden disappearance of those taken by the invaders.
5. Our scientists theorize that these devices are powered by energy derived through taping the energy gradient between the various dimensions.
"In a last desperate attempt to save humanity we used the Invader's technology to send the knowledge we have so painfully obtained back through time. Our vessel, the Temporal Voyager, is a flimsy, foil-covered framework that will serve as a supporting matrix for the incredible forces of the invader's science. Within this globe, you will find the entire database of the Human Enhancement Program. Within the second globe is a chronological history of future events including information regarding the viral outbreak known as 'The Red Death' and our vaccine for it. The third globe contains all the knowledge we possess regarding the technology of the Invaders and will bring you up to date on our current level of technology.
"The fact that the timer triggered the delivery of this message indicates that the four passengers of the Temporal Voyager did not survive their desperate journey to your time. These unfortunate creatures represented both the success and failure of the Human Enhancement Program. They were telepaths with a mental capacity vastly greater than ours and yet resembled an imperfect caricature of man.
"We are unsure of when our Temporal Voyager will arrive in the past although our target date is the year two thousand and ten. Several of our engineers believe that the R&D experiments we conducted in our time travel research are responsible for the flurry of UFO sightings ranging back through time to the late 1940's. If our initial experiments did create immaterial, illusionary doppelgangers of our vessel in the past, the earliest UFO reports may very well foreshadow the arrival time of the Temporal Voyager. Instrumentation aboard the Voyager will determine the actual time and date of its arrival in the past and program the three data globes accordingly. We must launch the Voyager now as our time has reached its end.
"Many believe that this venture is already a failure as we still suffer attacks from the Invaders. Some believe we will see success only after we launch the Voyager. Others believe the Voyager cannot save our branch of reality though it may save yours. I do not know what to believe other than we did the best that we could under very difficult conditions.
"I selfishly programmed this data globe to open to the touch of my hand to ensure the presence of my younger self as I speak my last words. Since we first met so long ago, Mandy, my wife and best friend has been at my side. She helped me laugh when I wanted to cry, gave me courage when I felt afraid, and filled our bed with delight." The old man's voice began to tremble with grief-stricken anger as he continued with, "The Invaders took her from me recently and I have never known such pain." Rising from his chair, he concluded with, "To you, Brian, the younger, I bequeath the burden of revenge." Suddenly, the holographic image faded away leaving behind a stunned audience.