Wooden Ships (6 page)

“When you were one year old, playing in your back yard, we presented this device to you. You touched it with your left hand, which programmed it to your DNA signature, and only you can activate it by holding it in the palm of your left hand. As for the scar over your left eye, that was an unfortunate event that occurred.” E-2 continued to explain, “When you think of something you wish to know; it will show and tell you everything as holographic images.”

“Please take care when using the device that no one will see the images it will project, you might cause some consternation to those that see it activated if you do.” E-1 explained.

Adam slowly reached for the device, it had a cold feel to it and it hardly weighed anything. After examining it for a few moments, the Entities instructed him to put the device away.

E-1 asked, “Adam, there is so much more we need to convey to you, may we continue?”

“Yes, please continue.”

Chapter – Seven

O
n a sunny afternoon, a man dressed in a jogging suit took a leisurely stroll down a residential street, the same street that Adam and Jen happened to live on. As he walked past Adam’s home, he stopped and took a mental note: a modest home painted blue with a small front yard and a one-car garage. He then continued his walk.

At the end of this street parked, was a black Lincoln Navigator with dark tinted windows. The type undercover government personnel seem to drive. In the driver seat, sat a man watching this neighborhood. He seemed to be looking for something unusual. However, you could tell by the look on his face that he did not know what. The man in the jogging suit who was walking caught his attention. He carefully watched as the man walked up to his vehicle, opened the passenger door and then climbed in.

“I like your disguise.” said the man sitting in the driver seat.

“Thanks, but if I were wandering around this neighborhood wearing a black suit, I’d probably stick out like a sore thumb!” said Mr. Reynolds sarcastically, “Hopefully I didn’t draw any attention to myself.”

“Well I think you achieved your objective,” said the driver. “Did you see anything out of the ordinary?”

“No, but I think I have a good idea where the energy surges could be coming from,” said Mr. Reynolds.

Sitting in the backseat were two additional agents with top-secret electronic sensing equipment, monitoring the neighborhood. The devices were so sensitive they were capable of sensing someone using a microwave oven at three hundred feet. As they adjusted the controls for sensitivity, Mr. Reynolds leaned back and asked; “Did either of you two gentlemen detect any energy disturbances?”

Both agents shook their heads almost simultaneously and muttered, “No!”

“I think we’ll head back to headquarters but we’ll come back later this evening and monitor the neighborhood again,” said Mr. Reynolds.

After college, Mr. Reynolds joined the Navy as a Cryptologist, the science of studying, analyzing, and deciphering secret codes and ciphers. However, after six years, the Navy offered him a job working on secret projects for the government. When his superior informed him of unusual energy surges, detected by a government spy satellite that were emanating from somewhere in this neighborhood, Mr. Reynolds gladly volunteered for this special assignment. When he learned these were not just ordinary energy surges, but something a little more unusual, he was even more intrigued and eager to investigate them and find out the source of the strange anomalies.

Mr. Reynolds assembled a team of three agents to help in his investigation. Roger and Jim were technicians, certified on the latest top-secret electronic sensing equipment. Mr. Sullivan had a degree as a foreign language specialist and counter intelligence agent, and acted as Mr. Reynolds’ backup. All the agents were well trained and armed.

At the end of Adam’s workday, he began to get excited to go home, because tonight he and Jen were going to ask more questions of the
device
that E-1 and E-2 had given to him. The night after Adam’s dream encounter with the Entities, he used the device to show Jen how the Sun exploded, destroying the Earth and the whole solar system. The destruction was unbelievable and very scary. For Jen the display terrified her. She had a difficult time trying to comprehend the messages from the device. How could such a tiny wafer of nothing project stunning holographic images by just thinking of something? She wished Adam would get rid of it. She was convinced that if the government found out about that device, they would take it away from Adam and lock them both up for good. However, Adam didn’t seem worried. He assured her no one could use the device except him; it’s programmed to his DNA signature. However, that still didn’t give Jen any comfort.

As Adam turned down his street he didn’t notice the black SUV parked on the corner, however he did see that Jen was already home.

He pulled into his driveway, grabbed his coat, and climbed out of his car and locked it. He walked up to the front door of his house and paused. He got an eerie feeling as if something wasn’t quite right. He carefully looked up and down the street trying to find something out of place, but the uneasy feeling soon left him and he unlocked the front door and entered.

“Jen, I’m home!” he announced as he hung his coat in the hall closet.

“I’m in the kitchen.”

He walked into the kitchen and saw that Jen brought some Chinese take-out home for dinner; he guessed she wasn’t in the mood to cook.

Down the street in the back seat of a black SUV, two agents, Roger and Jim were adjusting their electronic sensing equipment hoping to detect any unusual energy surges coming from their vicinity. Mr. Reynolds, sitting in the passenger seat was watching the house that Adam just entered. It was getting dark so he put on a pair of night vision goggles to help him see any activity.

“How was your day?” Adam was smiling hoping this would put Jen in a good mood.

“How do you think my day was? I had a very hard time concentrating on work. I kept thinking about all this stuff.” Jen sternly said with a look of deep concern in her eyes.

Adam decided to keep quiet for now. He walked over, gave Jen a hug, and kissed her on the forehead. Jen tried to forget about everything, and as she sighed, she began to relax.

During dinner, they both ate quietly. When they finished eating, they sat there looking down at their plates not saying much, until Jen spoke-up. “Adam, please tell me about all this stuff again, I’m still trying to make sense of it.”

Looking at Jen, Adam saw a person who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He looked Jen straight in her eyes, carefully picked his words and began telling her again what the Entities had told him, “There are these alien creatures that travel through the universe in search of planets they can pilfer natural resources from. They can detect these planets from thousands of light years away and when they have completed pilfering, they destroy everything.”

Jen responded; “Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?”

Looking embarrassed Adam said; “Yeah I do, but it’s what the Entities told me.”

“And our planet is on their hit-list? Is that what you’re telling me? And exactly what are they going to take from our planet?” demanded Jen.

Adam had a serious expression on his face, “Water, air, minerals; anything and everything they want or need.”

From the back seat of the black SUV parked down the street, one of the technicians monitoring the neighborhood started getting excited. His equipment was capable of eavesdropping on people’s conversations by pinpointing his Bi-directional device toward any building.

“Hey Reynolds, you might want to hear this!” Roger handed Reynolds an extra pair of headphones, he put them on and listened intently.

“First off, where are these aliens traveling from?” asked Jen.

“From a planet near the giant red star, Betelgeuse; that is the head star in the constellation of Orion’s Belt,” explained Adam.

The technicians, Roger and Jim started to chuckle from the back seat of the SUV, as one of them commented; “What the hell is this guy talking about?”

“Please tell me you’re recording this,” said Reynolds.

“Oh yes, I wouldn’t miss this for anything,” stated Roger.

Adam carefully continued to explain; “They provoked the star Betelgeuse to Supernova. The shock wave from this Supernova has propelled thousands of their spacecraft through space toward earth. Each ship has large solar sails that tow them through space. Betelgeuse is approximately 640 light years away, and the aliens’ spacecraft are capable of reaching 90% of light speed by catching this shock wave. It will take over 700 years to reach our solar system.”

“
700 years?
Are you serious, we’ll all be dead and gone by then?” Jen said, trying to find a loophole in his story.

“You don’t understand the aliens have already made Betelgeuse Supernova, they did it 700 years ago. It’s a matter of time before we see it from Earth, and when we do, these aliens will already be stationed just outside of Pluto’s orbit, waking up from a long hibernation. From this position, they will attack earth by shooting a weapon into our atmosphere. This weapon will explode and the gas from it will incapacitate everyone on earth. When that happens they will arrive in thousands of scout ships and start to plunder Earth’s resources. We won’t have the wherewithal to defend ourselves; it will be like taking candy from a baby.” Adam stopped to let Jen absorb this information.

From the SUV down the street - “Oh my God, this guy must be nuts!” said one of the technicians. “Where did this guy get such a vivid imagination?”

Reynolds didn’t know what to think. He just said; “Please, let’s be professional about this. Keep your comments to yourself.”

He was more concerned about the unusual energy surges than a wild story about dooms-day prophesies.

Rubbing her forehead with her hand Jen said; “So if I understand you, some evening we will look up in the night sky and see that the head star of Orion’s Belt, Betelgeuse, Supernova right? It’ll look like Orion blew his mind.”

Adam hadn’t thought of it that way, but that was a good way to put it; “Yes, it probably will look like that, remember the device showed us what happened to Betelgeuse?”

Reynolds sat straight up; “Did you hear what he said about a device?” Everyone in the SUV acknowledged. “What did he mean about using a device?”

“Yes, I remember,” Jen took a deep breath and said, “but how do I know it’s not some sort of trick the Entities are trying to pull on us? They might be making this whole story up for their own benefit?”

Reynolds began to wonder whom these Entities and aliens were that they kept referring too.

“All I know is when the shock-wave reaches our Sun it will cause a sunspot that will continue to grow until it completely covers its surface; it’s as if the shock-wave is trying to blow out a candle, but in this case the candle is our Sun. The whole event will be similar to a solar eclipse but this solar eclipse will last for years, either way this solar eclipse will be devastating to life on Earth. When the aliens finish plundering Earth they’ll cause our Sun to supernova and obliterate our whole Solar System, only to ride that shock-wave to another Solar System, to rob resources from another world with no regard for the unsuspecting inhabitants that could live there.”

“Yes, I know, but you can’t blame me for having a hard time accepting this,” Jen had a sad look in her eyes; “you are talking about the complete annihilation of everyone and everything on earth.”

Adam looked down and sadly responded, “Yes, everyone will die, but the Entities have created a new Earth in a parallel universe with replacement bodies; these bodies are manufactured and will last virtually forever. Only the ones chosen will receive new bodies, you and I will receive new bodies. The rest of the energies will be stored in a highly advanced memory repository and used for research and development – no one will be forgotten.” As Adam tried to reassure Jen, he said, “I know this sounds crazy, but we don’t have any choice.”

Looking concerned, Jen said, “What do you mean we don’t have a choice? We must have a choice!”

“There’s no stopping these aliens, they are on their way to destroy us. The Entities are going to save us; they created a new Earth for us... that is our choice...” Adam convincingly said.

“I am so glad no one is listening to this conversation, they’ll have us locked up in the crazy-house for sure.” Jen said cynically.

Adam wasn’t sure if Jen was trying to be funny, but their conversation did sound crazy.

Everyone in the SUV started to chuckle, even Reynolds.

“And tell me again why do the Entities want to help us?”

Adam leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath before answering; “There are two reasons why they want to help us; the main reason is to help preserve humans. They see a very innocent species that are barely beginning their evolution. Most other species have evolved to the point where they do not remember what it was like to see everything in the universe like a child. They do not want humans to perish and never experience what the universe has to offer. They also want to destroy the aliens by making our Sun supernova before they have completed stealing our resources – they want to destroy and rid the universe of them once, and for all. These aliens have wiped out thousands of species for only one purpose: to steal their resources. They are the parasites of the universe.”