Justification For Killing (6 page)

Chapter Five

VIETNAM
REVISITED

Back in 1967, Papa
Scarburg, the first Robert Edward Scarburg, was a Green Beret
Master Sergeant in the 5th Special Forces (SF), Airborne (ABN), in
Vietnam. Most of the time his men just referred to him as Sarge,
Doc or the Vietnamese’s equivalent
Bac
Si
. While in Laos on patrol Sarge and his
SF A-team were captured and marched across the border of Laos deep
into the jungles of Cambodia. Papa was a prisoner of a Spetsnaz
Colonel named Nikita Ergorov. Spetsnaz is a Blue Beret awarded
Russian SF officer. This sadistic officer subjected Papa Scarburg
to extreme torture.

Colonel Ergorov
tortured Sergeant Scarburg by tying his hands behind his back,
suspended him from a beam in a remote shack in the middle of the
Cambodian jungle, and tried to extract information on something
called
The P.H.O.T.O.
There were two problems with the Russian Colonel’s methods.
First, no amount of torture was going to extract information from
Papa Scarburg and second if he were predisposed to talk he could
not since he knew nothing about this thing called
The P.H.O.T.O.
The
Colonel would ask over and over about
The
P.H.O.T.O.
, Papa Scarburg would, over and
over, give only the Colonel his name, rank and serial number. This
was unacceptable to the Russian bastard (that’s what Papa Scarburg
called him). After each question, the Colonel would cut a piece of
flesh from Sarge’s chest. His carvings eventually formed the shape
of a large ‘S’. The Colonel bragged since Papa Scarburg thought he
was ‘Superman’ he would give him a ‘S’ on his chest, so he could
imagine himself to be this Man of Steel.

Papa Scarburg
survived this horrific ordeal and later was visited in the Army
hospital by his son Captain Robert Edward Scarburg Jr. Known now as
the Captain. The Captain had official U.S. Army orders for him and
his Papa Sergeant Scarburg to return to Cambodian. If possible,
they were to discern the location and if found return with any and
all information concerning
The
P.H.O.T.O.

After the Army nurse at
the hospital showed the Captain the large letter S scar on his
Papa’s chest he went out and had an identical ‘S’ put on his own
chest, but not craved, tattooed and somewhat smaller. From that day
forward, Papa Scarburg was known as Big S, and the Captain has been
called Little S.

After Big S was
released from the hospital he, along with Little S formed another
A-team and ventured into Cambodia looking for a place called Pac
Toul. Pac Toul was thought to be the answer to
The P.H.O.T.O.
question. The Special
Forces A-team left South Vietnam with thirteen team members,
including Spook the CIA operative.

The team parachuted into
Cambodia and walked, clawed and fought their way to a remote spot
in the jungle known as Pac Toul. On arrival, Big S’s original
thirteen man A-team had been reduced to only three - Big S, Little
S and Spook. At Pac Toul, they encountered some ‘things’. Things
even today they are not supposed to talk about. One thing they did
find was a slave labor camp of prisoners, all scientists. Aliens,
from the planet Sunev, had abducted these scientists from all over
the world and forced them to work in their laboratory. Did you
catch the name ‘Alien’, well that was whom they were?

As the team was storming
Pac Toul, the extraterrestrials removed all the prisoners from the
building with the exception of one person. This captive hid within
the building and was overlooked and not taken. The rest of the
prisoners were taken onto a circular disc and were being removed
from Pac Toul when something went horribly wrong, and all the
captives were accidentally killed. No, not all, there was the one
who hid she survived.

The captive hiding from
the aliens was a young student chemist named Ling Lu. She had
befriended one of the aliens by the name of Anhur. The aliens,
especially the alien leaders, treated the captives with disdain;
however, Anhur considered Ling Lu to be his friend and assisted her
as the prisoners were being moved. With his help, she was able to
slip away and hide unnoticed as the others were being herded
outside. Without Anhur’s aid Ling Lu, most likely, would have been
killed along with the other captives. An intriguing side note
concerning the aliens: the leaders wore elaborately carved golden
medallions suspended on ornately woven, gold chains, the workers
wore identical carved medallions; however, the worker’s emblems are
made of silver and hung on the same ornate but silver
chains.

Ling had been working at
the Pac Toul facility as a chemist. She had been abducted from her
studies at her university in Taiwan and forced to work for her
alien captors. Her given name was Ling Lu, but Ling in Chinese
means ‘Bell’, so Papa Scarburg and Grandpa, hung the nickname of
Tinker on her.

OLE ABE

The one machine found in
the alien lab that fascinated the Americans the most was a gadget
they dubbed ‘The Edison’. This is a fantastic machine: when a still
photograph is inserted into one end of the machine, what is called
today, a CD would come out the other end. Placed into the CD
player, the photograph would become a moving picture for exactly
thirty seconds. Why just thirty seconds and no more? Tinker did not
know the answer. All she knew was anything that had been said, or
sounds created at the time of the original photograph’s exposure
could be captured and recreated on the CD. Tinker demonstrated the
‘Edison’ a couple of times, which simply astounded Big S, Little S
and Spook. The first time she used a photograph of President
Abraham Lincoln taken by the famous Civil War photographer Matthew
Brady. The following is verbatim the scene in 1967 at Pac Toul,
Cambodia:

Miss Lu asked Spook if he
would be so kind to get her a photograph from one of the dozens of
cardboard boxes stacked along the wall. Any box, it does not
matter, and any photograph he chooses, she said, would be
suitable.

Dr. Kim rummaged
around in the boxes looking at one then another picture. He would
stare intently at one shake his head and toss it back. After a
number of discards he finally settles on the ‘one’, a photograph
with a caption which read,
“President
Abraham Lincoln reviewing Antietam battlefield with Allen Pinkerton
and Major General John A. McClernand, Oct
3,1862”.

He thought,
if she gets anything from this picture I will be
surprised, it’s over a hundred years old!

Walking across the room
directly to Little S, “Take a look at this, what do you think?”
said Spook handing the Captain the picture. Spook had already
learned, in addition to his scholarly knowledge, Little S
considered himself quite an amateur historian – the ‘War Between
the States’ as he referred to the Civil War, being a favorite of
his.

Little S grasped the
photo, walked over to a bright light source, and surveyed the
picture quite absorbedly.

The Captain motioned to
his Dad Big S and said, “Come view Spook’s find.” When the three of
them had their heads close together Little S sighed and in a hushed
voice, so Tinker wasn’t able to hear their conversation said,
“Well, this picture is the real thing. This is a photograph taken
after the Battle of Antietam. “Ahem”, he said, “as we in the South
refer to it as the ‘Battle of Sharpsburg’; as I recall, the battle
took place in September 1862 – the man on the left wearing the
derby hat is Alan Pinkerton, he started the Secret Service; of
course everyone recognizes Ol’ Abe Lincoln in the middle who had
come to survey the battlefield, and the general on the right, I
suppose based on the caption, is General McClernard; however, I’m
not too familiar with him.

I have seen this picture
many times before - this is quite a famous photograph, and the
photographer was none other than the distinguished Civil War
photographer, Mathew Brady; however, let’s not provide Tinker with
any more information than she needs.” Turning to her, he asked,
"Miss Lu do you have a pair of scissors?”

“
Well, let me think...
yes, I think so, Captain. There should be a pair in the work desk
behind you,” she said pointing at the desk with her index finger.
The Captain retrieved the scissors and neatly snipped off the
caption identifying the photograph, and he, grinning like a
Cheshire cat, handed it to Miss Lu.

“
First,” she said, “the
photograph must be processed through the Magnetic Synchronizer, or
as we call it the MagSync. I’m just a chemist, so I cannot begin to
explain the theory behind how it works. I have heard others here
say the MagSync manipulates atoms on the subatomic or quantum
level, in what is called, the Nano area.”

She explained that
whatever happens in this minuscule echelon prepares the photograph
to allow sounds and images to be extracted. She did not know how,
but she said, “In scientific terms – it just works.” The team, to
which she was assigned, never worked on the Magnetic Synchronizer.
She apologized for not being able to tell them more about how it
performs, all she knew was the ‘Edison’ used a tremendous amount of
energy to do whatever it did.”

Tinker smoothed the photo
out, straightened the corners and carefully inserted it face down,
into an adjustable picture size slot at the front of the MagSync.
She then tapped a quarter-sized button, instantly the original
photo emerged from a slot next to the one she had just used. The
photograph was next inserted into a second slot, face side down
again; Tinker flipped a switch; pressed slightly on a couple of
buttons with strange symbols; lights on the device started
blinking, and the machine began to hum into operation.

The three men looked at
each other – all were thinking the same thought – the sound this
machine was making was exactly the same humming sound the giant
white disc they had found earlier out by the river produced. Later
they would discover the disc was a type of satellite transmitter
the aliens were using to transmit images, music, news footage and
any and all information concerning the planet Earth back to their
planet Sunev. Sunev was located somewhere amid the millions of
stars in the Constellation of Orion. They accomplished this feat by
reducing all types of documents and photos to CDs and then as
Tinker said by magic, transmitted this datum on the CDs to Sunev.
For what purpose – she did not know. Obviously, thought the
Captain, the aliens were keeping tabs on Earth’s development and
advancement.

In just a few seconds,
Miss Lu walked from the head of, what could be called the front, of
the ‘Edison’ to its rear and presses a switch. This switch had
those odd looking symbols on it too.

Immediately, on touching
the button, a small drawer about one-forth inch thick and
approximately five inches wide slowly and silently slid out. Lying
on the emerging shelf could be seen a round glistening object
resembling a round, thin piece of lustrous, silver
metal.

She reached down and
picked up the shiniest circular metal-like disk any of them had
ever seen. Sarge immediately thought of a highly polished metal
45-rpm record, but totally slick. It was lacking grooves and was
about half the size of a vinyl record.

Each, in turn, wanted to
feel and touch the beautiful, round, marvelous object and identify
the composition material. Their first thought was metal – no,
plastic - no, it must be some type of an unknown polymer substance.
The compact circular disc felt extremely light, and when held up in
front of their faces their images were as striking as if they were
viewing themselves in a mirror. So”, said Captain Scarburg, “this
is a compact disc? Or as you say Tinker a CD.”

Removing the shiny, round,
metal-disc from the first machine she then performed the same
procedure on another similar machine by again pressing a symbolized
button and just as before a drawer exactly like the first came
silently sliding out.

This time they all moved
closer to get a better look at the drawer. When it slid out and
stopped they noticed it had an indented section exactly the same
diameter as the metal looking, lustrous disc.

Tinker placed the shiny
disc in the groove and again pressed the button. The tiny drawer
reversed its course and disappeared within the machine. The small
door in front closed shut.

This device had what
appeared to be a miniature television screen built into the machine
but above the drawer; however, the screen size was no more than
about ten or twelve inches in size.

Sarge
thought
, I never did see a TV that
small.

But as soon as she had
pressed the button an image appeared on this under-sized TV screen.
The screen wasn’t a TV it was some type of projector. It was
showing an image of the photograph… there was Mr. Lincoln, General
McClernard and Mr. Pinkerton but… oh no… it can’t be… this has to
be trickery… the three men on the photograph, no it wasn’t just a
still photograph anymore, the images were moving. Moving as if they
were in a television show, but there was something else… they… they
were talking to each other!!!!

In the background,
could be heard the words, partially indistinct:
“Mr. President I (
indistinct
word
) it would (
indistinct words
) better if you put
your hat back on.”