| |
ICELAND:
Jadin feels the thud from the tires as the commercial jet touches down on the concrete runway. Since Alex’s call for help, she finds it nearly impossible to sleep. A million questions race through her mind, and she can hardly wait to make first contact.
The jet taxies to a stop at the air terminal, and she stands and snatches up her small carry-on. When the door opens, she hurries past the flight attendant and jogs up the covered walkway. She is first in line at the customs checkpoint and sees Alex and Okana standing on the other side. She passes through without issue, and hurries over to join her friends. “I can’t believe this is really happening. Is he handsome?”
Alex grins and indicates they should head to baggage claim while they talk. “He’s not ugly, and doesn’t appear to have any hair. I think he has a companion. He was speaking to someone, but I couldn’t see them.”
Okana grabs the large metal case from the revolving conveyor, and smiles at Jadin. “Welcome to Iceland.”
Alex grabs her suitcase from the carousel. “Let’s go make first contact.”
Jadin smiles and clasps her hands together against her chest. “I know. This is so exciting. Thanks for letting me join your team.”
Alex indicates the exit, and walks next to Jadin as they follow Okana out of the terminal and along the sidewalk. “Did David complain about not being able to join us?”
Jadin looks up at him. “A little bit, but he understands that what he needs to do with my sister is just as important. You know, I thought my research at NASA was exciting, then I met you and your friends and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
When they reach their friend’s private hangar, they introduce Jadin to Huckabee before continuing through the building to the airplane, parked on the tarmac a short distance away. After putting Jadin’s metal box and suitcase in a side storage compartment, Alex sits up front next to Okana, with Jadin in one of the back seats.
Once airborne, they head north over Iceland’s volcanoes and glaciers, then across open water to the ice sheet. Alex looks back between the seats. The sunlight streaming through the window illuminates Jadin’s light green eyes, and he immediately thinks of the person in the ship. “You and our mystery man have something in common. You both have green eyes. I hope it works to our advantage.”
“Me too.”
“Hey, my eyes are green”, says Okana.
Jadin reaches forward and puts her hand on Okana’s shoulder. “I know. I brought an earpiece for you.”
Jadin lets go and looks at Alex. “David and I figured out a way to adapt them to a hard drive with an updated version of my translation software. I just hope they’re compatible. The technology looks similar, but our ship could be a newer version. You did say it came back to fix this planet after their accident. That means waiting thousands of years for the volcanic activity to stabilize before returning. Our ship’s technology could be an upgrade.”
Okana turns in his seat to glance over his shoulder. “We really don’t know for sure that this ship has been here for that long. Maybe this ship is a newer version?”
Alex thinks about it. “We know it was forced to the surface by magma, like our ship, but nothing else. We can speculate all we want. Let’s just hope we can find a way to communicate.”
Jadin leans back in her seat and stares out the window at the expansive ice sheet stretching out to the horizon. She also sees a reflection of her smile in the glass.
Alex turns back to the front window as they approach the ice sheet. He notices the same mystery boat waiting three-hundred-feet from the edge of the ice, but the only inflatable boats in the water belong to the USS Davis.
Sparkling ice crystals swirl into the air as Okana brings the airplane down onto the white surface of the ice. He taxies to a stop a short distance from the opening down to the spaceship, then shuts down the engine.
Alex climbs out and opens a side door to let Jadin exit the craft. Girdler and two of the Seal team approach, and Alex introduces them to Jadin.
Girdler shows them an image on his smart phone. “This is a YouTube recording posted on the Internet this morning.”
Alex studies the image of a mirrored object below the ice sheet, taken from directly overhead, and more footage of the spaceship in the water below the ice sheet. “Damn! All right. We don’t have much time before all the crazy UFO enthusiasts descend on us.”
Alex retrieves their backpacks, handing them to Jadin and Okana as they gather around him. Okana slides Jadin’s metal case into his before slinging it over his shoulders. “All right. Let’s get started.”
Girdler cannot restrain his curiosity for a closer look. “I’d like to go with you this time.”
“Does the rest of the crew know what’s down there?”
“They’ve seen the video and think it’s a spaceship, but I’ve managed not to confirm their suspicions.”
Alex can see the enthusiasm in Girdler’s eyes and feels bad for what he needs to say. “I’m sorry, Captain, but for now, I need for you to maintain plausible deniability.”
Girdler’s shoulders sag. “Okay. My orders are to follow your instructions, so I’ll wait up here.”
Alex, Jadin, and Okana walk side by side through the sparkling crystals blowing across the ice sheet. When they reach the ladder, Alex goes down first and waits for Jadin. When she reaches the bottom, he holds her arm as she steps onto the mirror surface of the alien craft.
Jadin tests her footing and steps out of the way as Okana reaches the lower rungs. She looks at the exposed part of the ship, where the loose blocks of ice have been removed. Sixty-feet away, the top of the ship disappeared under the ice sheet, but the mirrored surface is reflecting the sunlight back up through the ice for as far as she can see. “Oh my gosh. I didn’t really comprehend its size until now.” She notices the elevated section and walks over for a closer look. “This must be the control room.”
Alex moves over beside her. “Just the roof. It opens up a little wider below where you’re standing.”
Jadin leans against the side and studies the silver surface. She thinks of something and steps back. “Crap!” She pulls back her hood and tries to straighten her hair with gloves on, which doesn’t help.
Alex notices. “What’s wrong?”
“He can probably see us through his ceiling like we can on our spaceship.”
He smiles. “You look fine, Jadin. Pretty as ever.”
“Yeah, right. Oh well.” She leans over the roof, and smiles as she waves her hand over the mirror.
***
“They have returned, Captain. One of them is a GREEN.”
Seth opens his eyes. “Video off.” The images of engineering drawings on the monitor vanish. He looks up through the transparent ceiling at an attractive red-haired woman waving down at him. He stands from the reclining chair and moves across the room to be directly below her. He looks up and smiles when he sees her green eyes. A moment later, he recognizes the faces of the two men beside her.
***
Alex places the star on the surface of the control room and presses the ruby crystal. The roof flutters, and he sees the stranger looking up at him with sparkling eyes for an instant before staring directly at Jadin.
Okana sees the person appears to be trying to speak to her, so he slings the backpack from his shoulders and hands her the metal case.
Jadin sets it on the ground, opens the lid, and raises the screen on a laptop computer. She removes a small plastic box imbedded in the dark gray foam padding and grabs one of the small communication devices. She positions it inside her ear canal, presses a small button on the side, then stands and looks down at the man. “Can you hear me?”
Seth hears her voice, but her words are gibberish. He points at his ear. “I can hear you.” He points at his lips, then his head, giving it two shakes no. “I don’t understand.”
Jadin holds up one finger for him to see. “One.” She says, and forms an O with her fingers. “Zero”. Then does a few combinations of ones and zeros.
Seth looks down so the woman can’t see him speaking. “Pandora, is the GREEN indicating a binary language?”
“Yes.”
He looks up and nods yes vigorously, and the woman indicates she understands before moving out of sight.
Jadin kneels down and removes her earpiece, then touches an icon on the computer screen.
Seth abruptly covers his ears, trying to drown out the buzzing erupting in his head. “Audio off now!” He screams.
Jadin stands and looks into the control room at the man cowering in agony. “I’m so sorry!” She drops down and stops the program, then leaps up to see if he’s okay.
The noise abruptly ceases and Seth looks up at the woman, who appears concerned. He looks down. “Pandora, were you able to connect with her computer?”
“Yes. It is very primitive.”
“Is my audio off?”
“Yes, Captain.”
He looks up and smiles at the woman, then indicates she should continue.
Jadin kneels down in front of the monitor and slowly reaches out to the screen, feeling a sense of trepidation when she touches the icon. She jumps up and stares down at the man. He appears to be okay, so she smiles and waves at him, then kneels down in front of the screen. She studies the information, and her program is trying to interface with the ship’s system.
Alex kneels down next to Jadin to look at the monitor. “How is it going?”
“It’s just like the first time I tried it on our ship. It could take several minutes for the two systems to agree on a common computer language. Wait a minute. It’s working. We have a connection. Evidently, this operating system has a name. P.A.N.D.O.R.A. I wonder what the letters stand for.”
Alex has a bad feeling about this discovery. “Doomsday, I would imagine. Does that mean we could talk to him?”
“Not yet. The two systems are using the frequencies. It should shut down any moment now. I’ve given it access to all our most recent language programs, word processing, and encyclopedia programs. That should give it enough information to learn our vocabularies.”
Alex grins. “What if he’s expecting us to learn his language?”
She looks over at Alex and smiles. “Their computer is far more advanced than ours, so this Pandora program won’t have any problem translating the two languages.”
Alex feels a knot form in his stomach. Any program sophisticated enough to learn our language will also be able to learn our strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps I’m just being paranoid. “How much longer?”
“It should have everything it needs in a few more seconds.”
Alex stares at the small monitor and the screen is filled with flashing lines of code. Several seconds go by, but the information continues scrolling up the screen. A moment later, he looks over at Jadin. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes, it’s just taking a little longer than I thought it would.”
“Did you notice his eyes?”
“Yes, green like mine.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary?”
“No, just a little brighter than mine is all.”
Alex wonders why he is the only one who can see the sparkle in the man’s eyes. He stands and looks at Okana staring down into the control room. He looks down and sees the man lying back in a reclining chair, his eyes closed as if sleeping. He looks at his watch and three minutes have passed. He kneels down next to Jadin. “What’s taking so long?”
“I’m not sure. The program should have shut down by now.”
“What if the program is downloading information from the internet through your computer?”
“That’s impossible from this location. We don’t have access.”
“Shut it down!”
Jadin doesn’t argue and enters the command, but nothing happens. She tries again. “It’s not responding. Something’s wrong. I can’t sever the connection with that computer. Why are you so worried?”
“The research ship has wireless internet access from any location on the planet through various satellites. Now pull the plug or do whatever it takes to shut it down!”
Jadin closes the screen and pulls the laptop from the padding, yanking the battery from the back of the machine. She opens the lid and the screen is blank. She looks over at Alex. “It’s off.”
Alex stands and looks down into the control room. He watches the man raise the recliner, stand, and move below Jadin. When he looks up, Alex notices his green eyes seem to sparkle even brighter than before, and it isn’t the lighting causing it. They appear to be filled with anger.
Jadin feels a shiver run up her spine when she looks into the stranger’s eyes. It’s as if all the rage in the world is focused through his lenses and aimed directly at her. When he taps his ear and crosses his arms, she steps back, hesitant to reach down and grab her earpiece to hear what he’s about to say.
Alex notices the fear in Jadin’s eyes. He grabs the earpiece from his pocket, turns it on, and slides it in place as he looks down at the stranger. “My name is Alex. Do you understand me?” The man turns to face him.
“I’m Seth, the captain of this colony.”
Alex looks at his friend’s expressions, and imagines he looks just as surprised. He turns back to Seth. “Did you say this is a colony?”
“A small one, yes. I want to talk to the GREEN.” He notices Alex baffled expression. “Your leader. The woman.”
Alex steps away, removes his earpiece, and looks at Jadin. “He wants to talk to you. He thinks you are our leader and I think it’s because you have green eyes. Just go with it and we’ll back you up.”
When Jadin stoops down to grab her earpiece, Alex grabs the last one and walks around behind Okana. “Insert this so you can listen, but don’t speak. He thinks Jadin is in charge, and I want to keep it that way.”
Alex moves back around to Jadin. “His name is Seth. Are you ready?”
Jadin smiles bravely, takes a deep breath to calm her nerves, then moves forward and looks down into the control room. “Hello, Seth. My name is Jadin. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I cannot say that it’s good to meet you, Jadin. Pandora has showed me some disturbing images from your worldwide communication system. Your race is self-destructive and we will not share this world with you. I’ve ordered her to wipe your species from the face of our planet for violating genetic protocols.”