Pilgrimage (The New World) (33 page)

To that end, there was a new concern for Ross. As was to be expected, many people in the country had begun to have a change of heart about their respective choices. A vast amount of citizens who never lifted a finger to prepare for the coming of the asteroid were now interested in saving their own neck. Ross knew it was basic human instinct to search for a way to survive, but that survival should not come at the expense of others. The people who would occupy the shelters had earned the right to do so, and Ross was determined to provide them with that opportunity. Most people understood that the entire process had actually been completely fair and unbiased with regard to selection, because it had nothing to do with a person’s race, creed, religion, economic standing, or even sexual orientation. In short, if someone possessed a necessary skill set, a strong work ethic, and a belief that the shelters were the best option to survive the ordeal, then they had been implanted with the microchip to assure them a place within what they had labored to build. It was that simple, and in Ross’ mind no one had the right to snivel about it.

In spite of that belief, there were countless numbers of people in America that were leaving their homes and heading up into the nearest mountain range, because it presented at least a chance to survive. Ross felt confident the same could be said in other parts of the world, but once again that was not his problem. Many would be peaceful in their initial intent and never attempt to make their way into one of the shelters, but there would be others that would cause trouble. Ross also knew that the military presence at the entrances needed to be intensified as a safety precaution, and had done so several weeks before in anticipation of the current situation.

There had been hope that another change of heart would take place, but Ross had been unable at this point to make that happen. On July 7
^th
, the day that Ross turned seventy-two, there was the typical birthday celebration in his honor at the White House. The event was the final social gathering to be scheduled at the mansion before many of the staff would begin their trek to either their assigned shelters, or to join their families in what could be the final weeks of their lives. Ross had used that venue to speak to those assembled about the third option that had been presented on behalf of the alien species. He had hoped to convince several of them to join him on the travel through space in quest of the new world, but only a few had shown even a glimmer of interest. The truly sad part was that he didn’t have Patty’s support when he spoke to them, as she had no intention of taking part in the ridiculous notion of colonizing anything. From the time of the asteroids discovery, their original plan was to have the entire family safely housed together in the Colorado military complex of NORAD. Patty was not happy that Ross had now wanted to splinter the family by altering that plan.

Several weeks before Ross’ birthday, the aliens had provided Ross, and other world leaders, with the locations of where the transport ships would land. Two of the sites would be in the United States, so Ross had informed those people who were interested via a televised speech just exactly where those sites were. The aliens had allowed Ross to make the selection of one site, and he had chosen Washington D.C. The other site may have seemed strange to most people, but it made perfect sense to Ross when he also considered the ten other global locations.

To go along with the New Mexico desert near Roswell, the transport ships would also pick up passengers in Australia, China, Italy, and Russia. The locations within those four foreign countries, as with Roswell, were in areas where either a large quantity of UFO sightings had occurred throughout the years, or an alien scout ship had allegedly crashed. In most countries of the world that information had never been made available to the general public, but science teams and UFO believers began to put the pieces together soon after the aliens revealed the coordinates of their intended pickup spots.

Their other set of coordinates had revealed landing sites in remotely populated areas of the planet such as Nazca, Peru and Chichén Itzá, Mexico. Those locations were a mystery to Ross until he put them together with the two other more populated locations of Stonehenge, England and Ayutthaya, Thailand. The light bulb in his mind then shone brightly when he saw the final location was adjacent to the giant pyramids of Giza, Egypt. Those five locations each represented an area of the planet where long ago cultures had existed, and they each also contained elaborate ruins or monuments of ancient origin that had never been completely understood or explained.

Ross thought to himself that the Incan civilization of Peru could have been strongly influenced by long ago observational visits by aliens, and that same alien species was trying to help the Earth now. It actually made perfect sense, as the vast and strange markings on the ground near Nazca could only be recognized from high in the air. Their presence had always baffled historians, and they were only one of the mysteries of Peru. Add to that the substantial amount of ancient ruins at multiple sites that included Saqsaywamán near Cuzco, and the world renowned Machu Picchu high in the Andes, and Peru was loaded with unexplained structures.

The stones that make up the structures at those locations vary in size and shape, and some are larger than cars, but they are fitted together so perfectly that a piece of paper can’t be pushed in between them. The current engineering capabilities of Earth can hardly duplicate that level of precision, and the Incan civilization didn’t possess the computers to calculate, or the machinery to place such large and heavy objects into their seemingly perfect positions.

Similar structures of magnificent precision can also be found on the Yucatan Peninsula of eastern Mexico, and to the south throughout Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. Those were built long ago by the Mayan culture, which suddenly vanished from existence seemingly overnight. Thailand, in Southeast Asia, also has huge temples and other structures from a more recent time in human history, but how they were engineered and built has yet to be fully understood. Ross began to see a pattern of perhaps several ancient civilizations having somehow been helped along by this, or another, alien species.

Although much smaller in stature, the Stonehenge site in southern England has also been a source of inquiry for many years. At that highly visited location west of London, huge stone tablets have been placed in a circular type pattern of some significance, but it is unclear as to their exact origin that dates back a few thousand years.

Finally there was Egypt, where the Sphinx and three giant pyramids were positioned in perfect alignment to either gaze upon, or symbolically represent a segment of the Orion constellation. Dozens of Earth centuries, and the atmospheric conditions of the region, had taken their toll on those magnificent ancient temples, but the craftsmanship equal to those of the previously mentioned ruins was still quite evident.

The only one of the eleven pickup locations designated by the aliens that Ross couldn’t seem to get a grip on until recently was the one along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Germany. For some reason the small peninsula just west of the border with Poland had been chosen, but even the most dedicated of UFO followers couldn’t provide the answer as to why. There didn’t seem to be enough evidence of multiple sightings or a crash in the area to place Peenemünde within the group that included Roswell, and there were also no ruins to suggest an ancient culture as in some of the other locations.

During a teleconference meeting with government leaders from the countries with pickup locations, Ross learned that Peenemünde had been the location of Germany’s rocket program in the late stages of World War II. It had been the birthplace of the rocket technology that had eventually taken mankind, including Ross, into space, but that birth had come out of a dark time in the modern evolution of mankind. Ross smiled while realizing the aliens had selected that location because it had been where an early major step had occurred in what made the inhabitants of Earth a so called emerging species that would someday soon be ready to explore the cosmos. Thankfully that same technology had not been utilized to completely destroy the planet since its development, although there had been a few times when it seemed imminent.

The current level of that same rocket technology had been put to the test of late, as NASA and other space agencies had been quite busy. Aside from the probes that had been studying the asteroid, many had been launched towards Mars. They were of course all unmanned, but they contained information about the human species and other life forms that inhabited Earth. The thought was that if all life on the planet were to perish, there would be a record of a civilization having in fact existed at some point. Some other species may someday discover the probes on Mars and learn about what had been, and what had transpired, here on Earth.

As for now, the leading military minds were preparing one last ditch effort to save the planet from impact by launching nuclear missiles at the asteroid. The action was certainly worth a try, and it would make all the generals feel better to have flexed their collective muscles, but it would be a hopeless attempt. The data Ross had received from several leading astronomers of the planet had been quite clear that it was not enough firepower to significantly damage the incoming rock. Who would have believed that a civilization who at one point in time possessed enough nuclear firepower to vaporize the planet several times over, did not currently possess enough of that same firepower to save it by altering the asteroids course.

According to Ross’ old alien friend, the transport ships would land at all of the twelve chosen locations with only three or four Earth days left before the asteroid impact, and would remain there for two days in order to pick up all those who wished to take part in the adventure of a new lifetime. The act itself would require a tremendous leap of faith because if the transport ships didn’t show up as planned, most of the people waiting for them would be nowhere near an adequate shelter.

ONE BY ONE
the huge alien transport ships began to liftoff from various areas of the Earth’s surface with their precious cargo. As each one ascended with a group of humans who had made the choice to leave their home world behind, the lead ship of the armada made preparations to board the last few handfuls of the passengers assigned to her. The ship had landed two days before upon the vast section of lawn known as the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the United States Capitol Building, and the perimeter was closely guarded by a secret service detail and accompanying military contingent. In a few short hours former President Ross Martin, his sister Jessica, and his oldest daughter Aurora would board the ship with a small group of loyal followers that included a single secret service agent and Mrs. Patterson. They would then all depart for the great unknown of space.

Throughout the previous few months Ross and Jessica had pleaded with the rest of the family to join them on their pilgrimage in quest of the new world, but only Aurora had been swayed. Patty, along with the vast majority of the planets population, refused to believe in the good intentions of the visiting alien species, and had therefore opted to stay behind. The general belief was that the alien species simply wanted to take the human contingent back to their home world, and either perform hideous medical experiments upon them, or use them as forced slave labor. The thought process was in direct correlation to what people had viewed for many years on their television screens, computers, or in movie theatres, and Ross once again marveled at the power of the world media to shape public opinion.

Rachel had sided with her husband’s viewpoint on the subject, and in spite of the extremely challenging future or possible death that lay in front of them, would stay on Earth along with their two children Luke and Janet. The family would be divided in a way that no one had ever imagined, but Ross knew he needed to be part of the surviving population that would help colonize a new world.