Halcyon's Wake: Faith
Chapter 4

Contact

Over the next 48 hours, Mouse became the big man on campus. If crews weren’t working on transferring provisions and prepping the dwarves for transit, they were hanging out in the hangar listening to Mouse preach about the aliens and what he knew. It was hilarious to hear prominent scientist’s who’d once scoffed at UFO buffs asking questions about Nordic aliens and ascension to different dimensions. Mouse was digging it. The dude was in his element.

Beth wasn’t.

I hadn’t seen her for more than five minutes since the President gave us our orders. She’d simply said “Yes, sir” and shot out of the cargo bay without even looking at me. Not exactly a promising start for the person I was likely to spend the rest of my days with. Colonel Garner told me she was working on our provisions and resources, and in the mean time I set up the communications protocol with Luna base, and oh yeah... I met my first aliens.

Turns out the female Russian I’d thought I hung up on wasn’t Russian at all. She was an Australian scientist and linguist named Christina Franks, who’d been stationed at Luna base for 10 years... working with freaking aliens! Once we knew the comm frequencies to Luna, Mouse set up a video link in Ops, and I had the most bizarre briefing of my entire adult life. Beth even came out of hiding to sit in on it, but her body language told me it was only because she had to. I really couldn’t understand why this upset her as much as it did, but I figured we had plenty of time ahead of us to sort it out.

Colonel Garner, President Bielski and Mouse hovered behind Beth and I in Operations as the monitors to Luna base flickered to life, revealing Dr. Franks standing in the center of what I presumed to be Luna’s own operations center. Banks of monitors and stations appeared to her left and right in a broad semicircle, manned by three people - and one of the Grey’s. I heard Mouse let out a tiny, awestruck giggle. I was completely dumbfounded, and apparently so were the rest of us.

Dr. Frank’s began laughing. “Forgive my saying so, but you should really see the look on your faces right now - absolutely priceless!” She had a warm and inviting smile, instantly likable. ‘Priceless’ sounded more like ‘proisless’, no mistaking her thick, Aussie tongue. She pushed back an errant curl of fiery red hair into a mane of crimson curls that cascaded beyond her shoulders in waves, affording us a glimpse of very-green eyes above lightly freckled cheeks. “Some of our residents do take some getting used to, I’m afraid, but I assure you the shock will eventually pass.” The other people monitoring the banks, and the alien joined Dr. Franks in the center of the room with steps more akin to gliding than walking, it appeared there was some gravity on the station, but much lighter than earth-normal. Looked like it might take some getting used to.

“I’m Christina Franks, I run the communications division; to my right is our resident Brit, Dr. Colin Peters, head of research; and to my left are Doctor’s Blake and Shelley Hanks, who oversee our medical facilities,” Each of those introduced gave a nod and a kind wave. “...And this is Balthus of Zeta Reticuli, a permanent consultant, if you will, and liaison between us and other species. He doesn’t say much. Director Salek will be joining us in just a few moments.” The alien Balthus raised a three-fingered right hand, glanced at those he was with, then returned to a station whose purpose eluded me.

“So that was first contact,” I mumbled. “Kind of thought it would be a bigger deal.”

Christina laughed. “I assure you, sir. It gets better.”

From a corridor behind her a very tall humanoid emerged, towering at least two feet above the rest of the group.

“Forgive my tardiness, Mr. President. I’ve been overseeing the preparations for your group’s arrival. I’m the Director of this facility, please call me Salek.” Salek was fair complected, with a tousle of sandy blonde hair that reminded me of a frontman for some 80’s metal, hair-band . He had enormous, almond-shaped, oversized eyes of a deep turquoise, like high-end Navajo turquoise; and what I can only describe as delicate features hung on an impressive and imposing frame. Kind of like a trimmer, albino version of Shaq - with David Bowie hair and a full, resonant voice that demanded attention, but conveyed a honeyed warmth.

The President introduced each of us, then fell silent - shocked to speechlessness.

“I know you all have many questions - and all will be answered in due time. Suffice it to say that right now, we need you as much as you need us. I hope you believe me when I say we were supposed to meet on entirely different circumstances, but fate seems to have a cruel sense of humor.”

“The vessel you called ‘Halcyon’ is manned by a species foreign to even us; their technology and the presence of the sky-skin they left over earth has had a dampening effect on our own propulsion and other systems from the moment they were first discovered entering the solar system. Our vessels have been unable to leave the moon’s orbit and were unable to intervene as planned during the global crisis; mankind failed itself - but we also failed in the role we were supposed to play, and for that I must apologize...”

“...And to answer the question that’s on all of your minds, I am part human and what you call ‘alien’ - a hybrid. I was born here on this station, and you may not completely understand this yet, but I’ve also been the sole director of this facility since its inception. You’ll understand better in the next few days, I assure you. I will leave you in the capable hands of Christina, who will work out the logistics of the next few days. It was an honor and privilege meeting all of you.”

“And you, Director Salek,” the President said. “Forgive me for being taken aback. This is quite the shock, and I, too, wish it were under different circumstances. I hope we can be of a great benefit and service to one another, and I look forward to meeting you face-to-face.”

President Bielski and Colonel Garner left Ops to continue overseeing movement preparation, leaving Mouse, Beth and I to lay the groundwork for other things to come.

If all went according to plan, the Dwarves would fly tethered to the moon powered by the ion engines designed by Mouse specifically for these vessels. They were originally designed to be space ferry’s, taking rich space tourists on a ten day cruise to the moon and back. Looked like this was gonna be more of a one-way trip for most of them, but not all.

Mouse would spend a few days on Luna Base getting up to speed on their systems, then return with Christina, Colin — and Balthar to upgrade our observation equipment and see what we could learn about the sky-skin and the source of the trans-dimensional radiation dampening the alien technologies. The Dwarves would serve as supply vessels to keep us replenished from the ample lunar stores, and as shuttles for the eventual transfer of personnel somewhere down the road.

I don’t think I’ve ever needed a drink more than when we finally finished that call. All those conversations about E.T. I’d had with Mouse came flooding back, and I wish I’d paid closer attention. One little tidbit I hadn’t forgotten, though. In all of Mouse’s stories, the Zeta Reticulans were supposed to be the bad guys, and now one of them was apparently moving in.

There goes the neighborhood.

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