CHAPTER 20 Ed Straker was in his office the following morning. He was feeling very mixed emotions about the unmasking of SHADO. He toasted the foot of the Lonsdale cigar he just clipped and leaned back, pondering the ramifications of the last 24 hours. Alec entered the office looking a bit worse for wear. “Looks like you didn’t get much sleep either, Ed.” He said. Alec went to the dispenser in the corner. Ed was about to question an 8 AM cocktail when Alec picked up a mug and the coffee decanter. He smiled. “I think I might have gotten a cumulative total of three hours…” Said Straker. “It’s an unsettling feeling to think the world knows we’re here now.” “My comfort level for this job hinged on my having both a public face and a covert one.” “When things got uncomfortable, I could always retreat to the alternate world.” “Alec, I never thought I would say this, but I miss the mindless banter of actors, directors and script people.” “Their self-inflated egos, delusions of importance and oddball personalities were such comic relief.” “I miss all those hard-working crafts people and support staff that could make an entirely new world on a soundstage in an afternoon.” “Being among them all while playing a more serious role than any of them could have ever dreamed of was a kind of release for me…” “Before you get too far on your nostalgia tour Ed, let me remind you of a few items…” Said Alec. “Nobody except us knows where we are headquartered or that we have a base on the moon.” “They don’t know any face but Prosser’s and they knew that one already.” “All the world knows of is our mission and our logo.” He added, “General Prosser may have unzipped our collective fly, but our trench coats are still very much secured…” “It needed to be done, Ed.” “We need back-up on this mission from every nation that gives a shit about humanity.” “Have you considered the possibility that for one fleeting moment in the history of mankind, we all might put aside our animosity based on race, religion and political persuasion, and work together for the good of all?” Straker began to smile. It reminded him of President Reagan’s speech years ago. “I’ll give you one more item for consideration Ed.” “How much more full will our lives be if we can have real loving relationships with real women?” “No more hiding our lives from people we care about, Ed.” “Wrong, Alec!” Said Straker, with some irritation. “Our loved ones would become targets, and our time and effort would be spent trying to protect them.” “The most they could know is that we were active duty military service or something like that.” “The only way SHADO personnel will ever be able to step fully out of the darkness is if the need for us goes away, Alec…” “This is Space Intruder Detector, Red Alert…” “There is an inbound object on course 347-128, Red.” “Range, six million miles - speed, Sol 8.” Straker and Alec stepped out to Ford’s station. He had Major Ellis on the monitor. “What have you got, Gay?” Asked Straker. “One inbound UFO, General.” “It will pass Moon Base in seven minutes.” “Interceptors have launched.” Straker paused, rubbing his chin. “Is this one following the same trajectory as the last few UFO’s, Gay?” “Within two degrees of the last six, General, same velocity.” She said. “Do we have a terminal location yet, Gay?” He asked. “North Atlantic Ocean, no land nearby…” Straker said, “Get me SkyDiver Two, Ford.” “Waterman’s in that area now.” “This is SkyDiver Two…” Said Lew Waterman. “Lew, I want you in the air to intercept that UFO if it alters course.” “Gay, hold fire on those Interceptors – I’m going to play a hunch…” “Yes General, what do you want us to do?” She asked. “Let it pass…” Said Straker. Alec perked up looking curious. “What are you playing at, Ed?” He asked. “I suspect we’ve been shooting clay pigeons for the last six weeks.” “We’ll know shortly…” “Sky Two, air born…” Said Lew Waterman. Straker said, “Lew, if my hunch is correct, you won’t have to fire a shot, but if it so much as twitches I want it blown out of the sky.” “Roger that, General,” he said. The UFO passed the waiting interceptors and Moon Base. No change in course or speed. Straker, Freeman and Ford watched the radar display closely. The UFO entered the Earth’s outer atmosphere and began to burn. At a high altitude it broke up into a stream of fragments, leaving a vapor trail behind them as they cartwheeled down and impacted the icy waters of the North Atlantic. “I’ve got you bastards now!” Exclaimed Straker. “All units stand down, cancel red alert…” “We’ve been shooting skeet for weeks, Alec.” “Tying up resources and expending time, fuel and ammunition to shoot down unmanned drones.” “They’ve been keeping us distracted while they bring their plan to fruition.” “That stops now…” Straker’s AV link chirped. He pressed the button to connect the call. “Straker…” Paul Foster’s face appeared on the desktop monitor. It was a secure SHADO line… “The General and I are still at the Manhattan safe-house.” “We’ve run into a snag here in the states…” “Let’s hear it, Paul.” Said Straker. “Since the General’s presentation at the U.N. yesterday we’ve been on the phone trying to set up appointments to visit aircraft and armament manufacturers.” “Nobody will even talk to us…” “Turns out that within hours of the address, the U.S. Congress forbade the contract or sale of new armaments or vehicles to us until they get some questions answered.” “We doubt that the shipyards working on the new subs will be effected but it means no dice on new airplanes and weaponry.” “Understood, Paul.” “You and General Prosser make your way back to the transport while we check a few leads on this end…” “We’ll contact you there.” Straker and Alec looked at each other. “The Bates brothers?” Asked Straker. Alec smiled, “Hell yes, I’ll track down the numbers…” An hour later, Paul Foster and General Prosser sat waiting in the SST on the corner of the tarmac at JFK. It was getting stuffy in the aircraft despite the open hatch to the ladder truck. Their AV link chirped, this time Prosser answered it. “General Straker, Commander Freeman, what can I do for you?” “We have a couple more destinations for you to visit before you return.” “Ford is sending the coordinates to your aircrew…” “What have you got for us?” Asked Paul. “A pair of twin brothers named Bates…” He said. “Alec and I were acquainted with them in Thailand during Viet Nam.” “Pilots that ran the bone yards and parts game for everything that flew.” “Now they own two massive aircraft graveyards, one in the Tucson area and the other in the Mohave Desert.” “Each brother runs a site.” Alec and I have already spoken with them and they have some aircraft for you to check out.” “All are recently retired from service with solid airframes and fully functional systems.” “All they have to do is peel off the plastic wrappers…” “Yes Sir.” Said Paul. “We’ll be in touch.” The call ended and the hatchway was closed. The six after-burning turbofan engines began to spool up. “Alec, I want you to go beat the bushes looking for surplus aircraft we can utilize immediately.” “These UFO drones just accelerated our timeline even more.” “I have a couple irons in the fire already, Ed.” Said Alec with a sly grin. “As long as you don’t ask too many questions…” Straker grinned. He had come to appreciate his best friend’s gift for circumventing red tape. “I’ll contact Paul and Prosser if I come up with any concrete leads.” Said Alec, walking out of the office, coffee in hand. Straker read the reports on the new shuttles and ODIN satellites. The prototypes would soon be ready for trials soon at Moon Base. Using known and proven technology had sped up the process. The lunar shuttles would be hauling components and technicians nearly continuously… CHAPTER 21 “What can I do ya for, gentlemen?” Asked Eddie Bates, standing on the top most step of the rolling ladder. The bottom of the hatchway on the SST level with his waist. “My name is Bates, Eddie Bates.” “Welcome to Tucson…” “You the guys that Freeman and Straker sent?” “We are, sir.” Said General Prosser. “This is Foster and I am Prosser.” Prosser bent and shook the man’s outstretched hand despite the grime and grease covering it. “Good, you fellas are gonna have to watch your step getting out.” He added, “This is one helluva slick ship you got here…” “Oh, sorry ‘bout the dirty handshake…” Prosser laughed. “I’d never trust an aircraft mechanic with clean hands…” Bates smiled, revealing the gaps from his missing teeth. He had long, stringy white hair, mirrored sunglasses and what may be five or more days-worth of white stubble since the last time a dull razor scraped his face. “Hey, you’re that guy that pissed off the whole U.N. yesterday…” He smiled again. “Sweeeet…” He was even thinner than Straker and wore grunge-covered overalls and a yellow, formerly white t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. The tattoos that covered his arms were probably once considered raunchy depictions of female forms, but were now distended and contorted by the march of time and loss of skin elasticity. It now looked like a bad topographic map. Prosser and Foster eased down to the top of the platform and followed Bates down the ladder stand. Prosser carried a briefcase in his left hand. “Alec said you guys would be lookin for some used but nice aircraft of various descriptions for actual full duty service.” “Well, I got over 500 acres of stuff to browse, ranging from nostalgic parts donors to recently retired combat aircraft.” Paul said, “We need fighters, reconnaissance ships, interceptors, tankers, early warning and air-sea rescue ships as well…” “Ones that are able to fly,” he added with some sarcasm. “Relax junior,” Said Bates. “I don’t sell ‘em to fly unless I’ve flown ‘em myself…” “Anything I sell you is gonna be gas-n-go capable.” “Drop tanks, flight systems and everything.” “You just gotta find your own guns, tactical systems and ordnance.” “I got some goodies you might could use, but you gotta go to see Teddy at Mohave for the big ships. He’s got them tankers, AWAC’s and stuff.” Bates pulled a walkie-talkie from the torn back pocket of his overalls. The antenna was bent badly… “Hey Rico, you still wrappin’ them one-elevens?” There was an unintelligible reply. “Well, peel the one you’re wrapping and pull it around in front of the office.” “I’m on the way with some potential buyers…” He turned back to Foster and Prosser. “You guys might be able to use these ships.” “I just got twenty pristine F-111 fighter bombers that were retired after Operation Desert Storm.” “They have the rotary bomb bays, drop tanks and all the hardware the D.O.D. didn’t confiscate.” “They all have terrain-following radar, swing wings and can hit Mach 2.5 in level flight.” “These suckers are more aerobatic than a lot of purpose built fighters were able to deal with - they’re just more than twice the size of them.” “It took two new planes to do the same job when they were retired.” “You guys bring flight suits...?” Four hours later, Paul called Straker at home and woke him up. “This had better be damn well important, Commander Foster.” Grumbled a sleepy Ed Straker. “It is.” He said. “We have twenty F-111’s, two KC-135 tankers and a pair of AWAC’s ships in a package deal here.” “We did a test run on an F-111 and the General scared the living shit out of me running flat out, feet above the desert floor.” Straker laughed out loud. “How good is the deal, Paul?” “An outright bargain, Sir.” “I think they cut a large part off the bottom line just because it was for you and Alec.” “It includes spares and the contact info for some people who professionally serviced them.” “Write them the check, Paul.” “Alec is in the Baltic states checking into a sweet deal there.” “Make it out any way they want and give them our best regards.” “Yes Sir.” “We’ve been listening to stories of you and Alec from the old days.” “Don’t believe a word of it, Paul.” He laughed. We’ll send the trained pilots that direction to ferry them back to our airfields.” The call was over and Ed Straker fell back to sleep with a smile on his face. He would sleep much better now. Alec was back the following afternoon. “Well Ed, we’ve got our interceptors squared away.” Straker looked at him. “Well?” “How about 24 used but nice, fully equipped MiG-31’s?” “The current owners are in need of foreign currency to boost a sagging economy.” “We’ll need to make some modifications for things to match up, but Mach 2.8 in level flight and multiple target tracking systems are nice assets…” “I have a line on some tactical fighters as well but Paul and Prosser will have to take care of them.” “I’ll contact them both shortly…” “The Bates brothers came through in a big way as well, Alec.” He said. “A squadron of F-111’s, tankers and AWAC’s.” “Oh, and Eddie and Teddy send their best.” Virginia entered the office. “I’m going up on the next shuttle to Moon Base.” “We have working prototypes for the ODIN satellites that need testing in their target environment.” “The optical systems and EMP generator are priority items.” She continued, “Thorvald has a sizeable collection of rather frightening combat troops for you to deploy as needed.” “Right now, they are cross training with General Prosser’s Rolling Circus.” “Thorvald calls them “mobile bad-asses.” Straker and Freeman both laughed. Things were coming together faster than they’d hoped for. The nagging question was always, “how long do we have?” CHAPTER 22 Two days later, a very exhausted sounding General Prosser called Straker on the AV link. He and Paul had followed up on Alec’s lead for tactical fighters. “General Straker, we have found our fighters in Sweden.” “Thirty brand new Saab JAS-39’s that had been ordered by a small African republic.” “How did we get brand new fighters?” Asked Straker. “In short, a violent change in regime occurred and the new government doesn’t have the capital to pay for them.” “It is a wholesale deal and they still have ‘new-fighter smell’.” “Three of them are two seat versions for training and advanced anti-radar operations.” “We had an enjoyable test flight in one of them.” Paul leaned over the General’s shoulder. “I’m never getting in another cockpit with this man again, Sir.” Straker laughed. “Seal the deal and come on home gentlemen, we need you here.” Another unmanned drone UFO came in from deep space. It followed the same course, speed and trajectory. The Interceptors launched and took up firing positions just in case it made any surprise moves. Again, it hit the Earth’s atmosphere at extreme speed, bursting into flaming fragments. This time, the cascade of hurtling debris was being watched by a large number of small telescopes and radar installations. Since Prosser’s speech to the U.N., the number of people and instruments looking skyward had risen intensely. Humanity had been told they were not alone in the universe and were gazing skyward, some in wonder and many in fear… Doctor Douglas Jackson entered the cafeteria and found Thorvald at the back corner table. His bowl of soup was looking untouched and the sandwich had a single bite missing. Jackson sat down opposite him. “Hello, Yannick.” Thorvald said, sounding and looking exhausted. “What’s troubling you, old friend?” Asked Jackson. “I seem to lose my appetite and have less restful sleep when Ginny is gone.” “My thoughts seem to go to things that cause me sorrow, especially in my dreams.” Said Thorvald. “Are you dreaming of your late wife and daughter, Thorvald?” “Mostly my daughter, Yannick.” “It leaves me feeling empty and heart-broken…” “It is part of mourning, my friend.” Said Jackson. “You must understand that you miss more than just your daughter and her mother – you miss the joy and fulfillment of being a father, Thorvald.” Thorvald smiled weakly. It made sense. “I am so happy being married to Ginny and we have a wonderful life together, but it feels like an empty hole is always in the background.” “We cannot have children together Yannick; for both physical and practical reasons.” “Perhaps not Thorvald, but you have no outlet for the parental love that is already within you.” “I can suggest an outlet for that love Thorvald, but it might also bring those painful memories to the surface…” “Only you can decide if it is worth the risk.” Jackson scribbled something on a napkin and handed it to Thorvald. There was a name and address on the paper. “What is this, Yannick?” “An opportunity to volunteer, Thorvald.” “Discuss it with your wife.” “But this is a…” Jackson cut him off. “A place of great need, Thorvald.” The global news media was still having a hey-day with General Prosser’s presentation to the United Nations. Scholars and diplomats around the globe were debating the authenticity of the claim that the Earth was facing pending doom from outside our solar system. The scientific community conceded there was a possibility of intelligent life in the cosmos, but this SHADO entity offered absolutely no proof of their claim. The near weekly incidents of “meteor showers” were being attributed to previously unidentified clusters of small space debris being caught in the Earth’s gravity. Politicians, militaries and pundits were arguing whether or not this SHADO was simply a cover for a military group bent on world domination. That warning by a General was tantamount to a line in the sand, and that sand was on their soil… All of this was about to change and do so quickly…
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