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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1
“A spaceship – here? Damn it, don’t waste my time with this kind of garbage,” Jack Baker, forty-one year old Chief of Staff to President Conrad Oberti said. “I know it’s April Fools’ Day, so please…”
His secretary raised her voice. “Jack, listen to me. A gigantic spaceship is really up there. Turn on the TV; see it for yourself.”
Jack grabbed his remote, hit the on button and waited until a picture of a full yellow moon came up on the screen. He realized a dark box-like shape seemed to be parked between the moon and the telescope. “Is that it?”
“You’ve got it on mute.”
“Oh shit,” he murmured, and pressed the mute button in time to hear the recognizable voice of a popular news reporter say, “… that the spaceship is about 63,000 miles above us.” A dramatic pause, and then she said, “NASA‘s spokesperson just released new information.” Again another pause. The picture changed to a split scene with the reporter sitting behind a desk shuffling papers and the moon displayed on the other half. She looked up into the camera and read, “NASA just released this new information. They estimate the speed of the spaceship at 6,876 miles per hour, which means it’s moving with the earths’ rotation. NASA reports that it seems to be parked directly above Washington DC…” The ugly buzz of his telephone forced Jack to press the mute button and at the same time grab his phone. “Yes, Mr. President, I will be with you in about two minutes.”
Jack got to his feet and said to his secretary, “Call my Cell phone if anything happens. If Oberti doesn’t know about this yet, I’ll see that he does.” He grabbed his briefcase and hurried from his office leaving his secretary holding the remote and looking for the mute button to bring back the sound.
Ordinarily Jack Baker joined the President and two or three of his top advisors early every morning to discuss a wide range of subjects ranging from national security to political intrigues by the party out of power. A Secret Service Agent opened the door to let Jack enter the informal living room in the President’s family quarters where the Director of the CIA, John Henry and General David “Sandy” O’Brien were already seated and talking with the President.
“Find a seat,” President Conrad Oberti said as Jack walked in. President Oberti’s sixty-inch television screen displayed the same moon and the spaceship Jack had watched just minutes ago. Oberti had obviously muted the TV. “Good morning, Jack. I suppose you know about the spaceship by now,” Oberti said.
“I learned about it a few minutes ago,” Jack replied. How long have we known about it?”
Director of the CIA, John Henry said, “I’m told it moved between earth and the moon about midnight our time, and hasn’t moved since. We have lots of eyes watching it.”
Secretary of Defense, David Sandy O’Brien said, “NASA is trying to gather more information about it. One of our military satellites should send us decent close-up pictures soon.”
Oberti fingered his chin while he thought. Until the spaceship did something to draw more attention to its presence, I should plan a lot of what if scenarios. If a lot of panic develops, I will ask for time to talk to a joint session of Congress. That might calm the situation. In the meantime there is this goddamned budget meeting. “I think we don’t need to listen to the BS the media is going to feed the public for the next few hours. Let’s turn off the TV and talk about the CIA and military budgets we’ll be sending up.”
Jack was surprised and burst out, “You don’t want to discuss the presence of a really big spaceship first?”
“Hell no. It’s there, there’s nothing we can do about it except speculate, which the media will do in spades. So, Gentlemen let’s get down to the business of increasing budgets at a time when my administration is committed to decreasing the national debt. I can give you one hour before I’ve got to meet with a group of legislators. They want to talk to me about single gender marriages.”