Pilgrimage (The New World) (32 page)

As Patty emerged from the dressing area in comfortable jeans and her favorite University of Maryland sweatshirt, Ross was completing a phone call to the head of the security detail that protected the White House. He was informing them that the incoming object would probably attempt to land on the nearby lawn, and they were hereby ordered to allow it to do so. Prior to that conversation Ross had contacted the commander of the nearby armed forces that had been attempting to shoot the object down, and had ordered them to cease fire immediately. The general had not been happy to receive the orders, but he had no choice but to comply as the instructions had come directly from the very top of the chain of command.

A short time later Ross stood on the south lawn area of the White House, and waited for the door, or hatch, of the alien spacecraft to open. He was nearly completely encircled by the secret service for protection, but he somehow knew it wasn’t necessary. He clutched the small metal trinket that the alien had given him at Camp David, which was now ice cold again, in his left hand, while leaving his right hand empty in preparation for a welcome handshake.

The assembled members of the media, which were located in their customary positions nearby, had been filming the spacecraft’s every move since a few moments before it had landed. A few of them began to shout out questions in the direction of the President, but were then interrupted as the hatch opened. Ross smiled broadly and reached out his hand to welcome his old alien friend as he descended the ramp, and not a sound could be heard from anyone else who was witnessing the historic event.

Patty, who was watching from the relative safety of the upstairs balcony, stood with mouth agape in total shock and disbelief. She now realized that her husband had been telling the truth about the existence of the alien species all along, and he had kept his vow that he would someday prove it to her.

Ross listened intently to the thoughts of the alien, and occasionally responded verbally to his guest. Those who were witnessing the encounter could not understand what he was responding to, because the alien had not projected his thoughts into anyone else’s mind but Ross. The private conversation now being witnessed by perhaps millions of people worldwide continued for more than twenty minutes, while those standing nearby remained silent. Then Ross pointed toward the spire of the Washington Monument and said, “Right next to that would be perfect”, before he once again shook the hand of the alien.

WHILE SEEMINGLY MOST
of the entire planet had become mesmerized by the live television footage of the encounter between President Ross Martin and an unknown creature from some far away alien world, a vessel of tremendous size was beginning to rise from the depths of the southern Atlantic Ocean. Not a soul on Earth was aware of the spaceships existence until now, as it had been resting on the bottom in extremely deep water for well over two Earth centuries.

When the alien species had returned to this solar system after an absence of several Earth centuries to construct their small base on the Moon for another round of scientific observations, they had also placed the larger transport vessel in a well hidden spot on the planet surface. At that time, the dominant species of
₹-829-Ԅπ-3
didn’t possess the technology to explore and map the deep ocean floor, so it was a perfect hiding place.

In much more recent times that technology became available to the people of Earth, so the aliens had been forced to leave the vessel where it was or risk detection by moving it. Secrecy for the aliens was no longer an issue though, as it became imperative that they remove the large spaceship from the planet surface before the impact of the asteroid.

Ross was perhaps the first person on Earth to learn of the larger spaceships existence, as his old alien friend had just informed him of it when they communicated on the south lawn of the White House. Among many other thoughts that were transmitted, the alien had informed Ross that the spaceship would soon emerge from the ocean depths, and rise into the sky. At that point someone was bound to notice the strange craft, or satellite systems would detect it, and word would spread quickly. The transport ship would first go to the far side of the Moon, so they could gather up equipment and personnel from their observation base. It would then ascend to a higher Earth orbit, and provide the location where a fleet of similar spaceships from the alien home world would rally up with her.

That was the moment in the conversation that Ross’ jaw fell open, as the alien presented him with an amazing offer. It was limited in scope, but it would provide a miniscule portion of the human species with an interesting option. In what was to be a mind blowing opportunity to ensure that the dominant species of
₹-829-Ԅπ-3
, or Earth, would not become extinct, the aliens were prepared to relocate a small sample of them to another solar system. The twelve spaceships that would join the deep water vessel in orbit were due to arrive soon, and they would remain in that orbital position until shortly before the impact of the asteroid. At that time all but the deep water vessel would land on various areas of Earth to collect those who had been selected to venture on to the new world.

Ross stopped his old alien friend for a moment to quietly ask some very important questions. The first was the obvious one of how many people of Earth could the transport fleet relocate to the new world, which was quickly followed by the perhaps more important questions of how, and by whom, would those people be selected?

Throughout all of the time since the alien had informed Ross privately of the impending asteroid, they had been keeping an even more watchful eye on the activities of the planet. The aliens had indeed been intrigued at how some percentage of the global population had been working very hard in a determined effort to save their species from extinction. However, it had also been noticed that a substantially larger number had done absolutely nothing to help the cause, and therefore this offer would not be extended to those people.

The alien continued by informing Ross that only one other condition existed, but other than that they wanted no part in the selection process. It would be up to Ross and other world leaders to come up with some method of how to choose the lucky ones, but there was limited time to develop and implement said method. Each of the twelve transport ships could accommodate up to eight hundred people for the voyage, but the selected passengers would need to be at specific locations for pick up when the time came. Ross was then informed that the coordinates for eleven of the locations would soon be transmitted to him and those locations would not under any circumstances be altered. The final transport ship would be sent to pick up Ross and his family, along with others who would be going from the surrounding area, and Ross could choose the landing location.

Although honored to be automatically pre-selected by the aliens as one of less than ten thousand pilgrims in quest of the new world, Ross couldn’t understand why he, or his family, deserved such preferential treatment. With the planet wide population now close to eight billion, the number of people who could relocate to a new marble in space represented slightly more than one one-hundredth of one percent. The alien informed Ross that his selection as one of the dominant species on this planet that must survive was their second condition to the overall offer. Ross didn’t know it at the time, and had never been informed by the alien at either one of their subsequent encounters, but the second alien that he had helped to survive on the Moon many years before was the commanding officer of the alien that Ross had originally made contact with.

Ross was now learning that the alien who Dennis encountered was actually one of the highest ranking officials in their space exploration fleet stationed in this sector of the galaxy. That particular alien was responsible for allowing Ross to have his second encounter with the extraterrestrial species while on his fishing trip, and why the first alien had visited Ross again at Camp David.

In his reports to the home world, the high ranking alien official had notified them about the events that took place on the Moon of
₹-829-Ԅπ-3
, and the recent development of the dominant indigenous species of the planet itself. Several follow-up reports submitted during the next thirty-six planetary cycles around the host star stated that closer observation of the species had revealed significant progress both technologically and philosophically. The most recent of those reports had also informed the home world that the species could very well become extinct due to the impending asteroid collision. He had been able to persuade his superiors, and eventually the command council, that the dominant species of Earth was worthy of survival, and was then given permission to pursue a course of action that could make that possible. The alien informed Ross that the command council had also given his commanding officer the option to personally select a few of the species that would survive, and Ross was at the top of his list.

BY EARLY AUGUST,
nearly all of the people from various parts of the globe that intended to seek refuge within the vast network of shelters were either already in them, or very close to the entrances assisting with final preparations. In the United States and Canada, it was believed that nearly a quarter of a million people could be housed in the two hundred and fifty mountain shelters that had been completed and provisioned. Similar numbers were hoped to be saved within the Andes of South America, while reports from Europe and Asia were even more optimistic.

Ross had never toured any of the facilities outside of the United States, so he had no way of personally verifying the state of readiness that each continent claimed. He would just have to take their word for it, and frankly the hopeful survival of his own citizens within the borders of America had long before become his main priority.