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“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.
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