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GROOM LAKE:
Alex hurries down the steps from the jet and sees Henry waiting inside the terminal. With Okana at his side clutching the silver case, they clear the checkpoint and join him. “Hey, Doc. Has anything changed while we were gone?”
“Perhaps. Jadin and David are waiting for us in the conference room. My golf cart is outside.”
No one speaks during the short ride through the base. Okana parks in front of a single story building, and everyone climbs out and enters through the double doors. They continue along a hallway to a secure room.
When the conference room door opens, Jadin stands and smiles at her friends walking over to join her and David. “Is it a spaceship?”
Okana sets the silver case on the table, opens the lid, and grabs the laptop computer. “See for yourself.”
Alex indicates for everyone to sit down, sets the computer on the table, and plugs in a cable to a large monitor. When he turns it on, a single file icon appears and he taps it. An instant later, they see the recordings on a split screen, and hear Alex and Okana talking about being ready to go.
Alex presses fast forward. “You’re not missing anything good.” When he recognizes the block of ice he is climbing over in the video, he presses play and steps back.
Jadin watches the recording of Alex brushing away the ice crystals to expose the mirrored surface. The recording goes on for a few moments as they are walking back to the plane, then stops.
“David and I haven’t found any information in our spaceship’s computer about another ship. This indicates that this version is one of the original ships built before the catastrophe that destroyed the surface conditions. Maybe this one wasn’t working when they were forced to evacuate the planet.”
Alex thinks about it for a moment. “It’s certainly large enough to carry a lot of people.”
Okana grins. “Now that we have two ships, maybe we can fix this big one and explore our galaxy.”
Henry looks around the table at his friends. “We must find a way to retrieve information directly from the ship.”
David gets up. “I’ll go back to our ship’s control room and dig around the computer for a while. I’ll see if our communication system is compatible with the other vehicle.”
Jadin slides her chair back from the table and stands. “I’ll join you.”
Henry looks around the table. “I will inform Director Donner in the morning. For the moment, it is out of our hands.”
Alex gets up and stretches his arms and legs. “I’m going to take a shower and get some sleep.” He turns and walks out of the cafeteria to the apartments a short distance away.
Okana stifles a yawn, then heads for his own bed in the barracks.
***
The next morning, Alex finds Okana sitting at a table in the cafeteria, with a tray of food and a thermos of coffee in front of him. He walks through the breakfast buffet rather than order something special, then joins his friend. “You’re up early.”
“I couldn’t sleep. I keep thinking about that spaceship in Iceland. It’s a strange coincidence a volcano would force it up at the same time they start the SV1 program.”
“It may not be a coincidence. Paul Carter at SV1 control called me half an hour ago. There was a second signal early this morning. When it was on, the Siberian Jet Stream was temporarily diverted further south, causing torrential rains along the Pacific shores of North America. They managed to shut it down and things are returning to normal, but who knows what will happen the next time they operate it.”
Alex eats some scrambled eggs and takes a sip of coffee. “Henry set up a conference with Donner in fifteen minutes. I’m hoping we’ll be in on the investigation being set up in Iceland.”
Okana slides his plate out of the way. “You and me both. In fact, I think we should insist on it, since we have the key to get inside.”
Alex notices the time and gets up, grabbing his coffee mug and the full thermos from the table as they head outside to the golf carts. They enter Henry’s office a few minutes later, where Jadin and David are waiting for them to arrive. Henry indicates for them to sit down.
Alex sits and looks at Donner’s image on the monitor. “It’s a spaceship like ours, only much larger.” He explains what they know about the effect the SV1 is having on the atmosphere, and Okana’s suspicion about it coinciding with the appearance of the new ship. “They’re all connected, Martin. We’re the experts in dealing with alien technology, so I’m hoping you can arrange to have us do the excavation. Once we have a better understanding of what we’re dealing with, we can let the right people know about it.”
“This is a major discovery, Alex, and the President will need to work out the political aspect of the situation. I’ll wait to inform him until we know more about the ship.”
“All right.” He tells him about the incident with Hardin. “We could use a little support offshore just in case he decides to show up.”
“I’ll have a few military ships head that way shortly, and you can use them as a base of operations.
“Thanks, Martin.”