“Sir! The package retrieval was successful, and the film is in the lab now.”

“I knew that part, Lieutenant  It’s why we are here. Why I am here. Why are you here? What have you  got for me?”

“Yes, Sir. They prioritized random frames from each magazine, as you directed. I have the rushed prints for you here. They said the film was very brittle, for some reason, and had to be separated carefully.” He paused, as if making sure he conveyed a message exactly.. “There were enough extra frames to analyze the chemistry, so they are confident that all the exposed material can be salvaged. The color film will require equipment not currently on-site, but it is in route. The rest are being done right now, and will come by courier ASAP.”

He had asked for a quick selection- it was important for the officer in charge to be proactive. But there had been no particular reason; he just wanted to do something. Apparently there had been some interpretation of his simple request Color film, too? Two cameras? Good Lord. He sighed. SNAFU, again. “Let’s see them. Lay them out, on the desk.” Let’s just see what all this fuss is about, he thought. And, “prioritized”? Why couldn’t anyone in the military speak plain English unless there were lit cigars in the room? Should he order some in,  and offer the shave-tail a stogie? He smiled again. It was the last smile of the day. He picked up one of the photos.

“What…are these? What am I looking at? Those look like… !  What the Hell is this, Lieutenant? “  He waved one of the prints in the face of the suddenly terrified junior officer as if to accuse him of  perpetrating some sort of sick joke. The man’s confused expression said otherwise - he had no idea what was wrong. Obviously, the lieutenant had not peeked at the contents of the unsecured manila envelope- as he himself might have, given what it contained- so he softened his tone. “Here. Look at this and tell me what you see.” He handed over the photo, gesturing at the top of it.

“Sir, it looks like…sort of like  an Indian?” Bewilderment and fascination fought for control of the man’s facial muscles. “He’s smiling…”, the lieutenant added, almost too softly to hear.

“Yes, he is. Now please tell me, why would  there be a statue or whatever that is of an INDIAN CHIEF on the PLANET MARS?!” His voice had raised again, he couldn’t help himself. “And how large is it, anyhow? I don’t see any indication of scale, here. They didn’t land on the damn place, so how far away was this?” 

“I don’t know, Sir. Any of it. I don’t know.” He was sure he must be in trouble, somehow.

“It’s all right, son. I don’t think I was probably supposed to show you that anyway, so you may as well look over the rest of them. I doubt the Brains in the next room will have as much common sense as you do, and I suspect I’ll need all of that I can muster. I might have to recommend you for a promotion, just to cover your new clearance level.”

The two of them spent the next several minutes puzzling over the small pile of  photos, not speaking. At one point, the General was distracted by a motion, and glanced over at  the  lieutenant, who was  turning an image first one way and then another, as if he could not decide which way was right-side up.. Returning his attention to the one in his own hand,  he was startled to see an apparently different picture. No. wait- there was the thing he’d been trying to…what was going on? This was madness! The images seemed to defy simple perception. “Lieutenant, get out of here- and let’s wait until your promotion is filed to mention what you’ve just been doing. Not that you will ever be able to mention it to anyone anyway.” He punctuated that last point with a stern scowl.

“Yes, Sir.” Somewhat reluctantly, the lieutenant  placed a photo back on the desk and moved toward the door. He was reaching for the doorknob when the general, just to elicit a reaction,  said ,

 “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about an Invasion, right? Done deal, looks like.” The reaction was more than satisfying. He liked this man. But he had some thinking to do. “No one disturbs me for the next hour, understood? If more pictures show up, you bring them to me, but I don’t want to see anyone else.”

“Yes, Sir!” Not sure at all how he felt about anything at the moment, the suddenly-promoted, thoroughly confused aide quickly departed.

Obviously, whatever this was, it was very real. Now the General understood why he was here, why the Brass wanted someone with experience, but new as well. This was potentially a very big problem. This was a bad-seed Baby Huey, and he was supposed to figure out how to baby-sit. That damn Nazi rocket would not be the last one to take such photos, and plans needed to be made lest the future just won at such terrible cost became an anarchistic nightmare. He really didn’t like the idea of the Truth becoming Man’s Greatest Enemy…but then, it seemed that Patton had been right after all- History was bunk. First Roswell, now this. Was he confronting Destiny or disaster? He quickly suppressed that train of thought, and searched for a positive angle to use as a personal anchor.  This wasn’t the escapist pleasure of Amazing Stories, this was too impossibly familiar. Bug-eyed alien monsters would have been much better.  This was the Abyss, the Void. Smiles or not, it felt Unknowable.