Pilgrimage (The New World) (34 page)

One thing that had surprised Ross was that there was never a need for some sort of worldwide lottery to decide who would be saved. From the very beginning of the process, the aliens had informed the people of the Earth that only a limited amount of room would be available on the armada of transport spaceships. For some reason beyond Ross’ comprehension, so few people had shown any interest in colonizing a new world that a campaign needed to be developed in order to convince more people to take the journey. It had only been during these last few desperate days that many people had a change of heart, but it was too late for any of them to request passage.

At noon eastern standard time of August 22, 2022 Ross Martin resigned as President of the United States, and his former Vice President, Thomas Walton, assumed the role of Chief Executive. Ross had become only the second person in the history of the country to resign from the Presidency, but the circumstances were vastly different from what had caused the previous occasion. Ross knew that his former Vice President was a good man who would do his best to lead what remained, if anything at all, of the nation after the catastrophe. The former Governor of Wisconsin, had been on the ticket as Ross’ running mate during both of the Presidential campaigns, and had been an instrumental part in assuring their first victory by helping Ross carry several key mid-western states with large numbers of Electoral College votes. Thomas Walton’s many years of quality public service to his country had earned him the right to be the President even if only for a short time, so Ross was honored to hand him the reigns.

Some viewed Ross as a coward for leaving the office just days before the impact of the asteroid, but he didn’t care. Within moments after resigning from office, Ross had retrieved the necklace from the reading lamp on his former desk, and had put it back around his neck. He then began a solitary walk within the walls of the White House that would take a few hours. He wanted to say goodbye to what remained of the staff and friends who had been so loyal to him throughout not only his years in the White House, but in some cases for decades. There were several people missing during his tour, as those who had accepted the New Year’s Eve gift of a guaranteed spot in the Strickland’s Colorado shelter had made their way west several weeks earlier.

The family was waiting for him upstairs in the residence so that everyone could say their goodbyes to each other in private, and Ross took that opportunity to present his now ten year-old grandson Luke with a very important gift. Luke had admired the fishing pole with the red bow on it every time he had seen it, so Ross thought it was only right to pass it on to him. He asked Luke to take care of the precious object as he reflected back to the day he received it from Grandpa Hank, and to pass it down to his own grandson someday if he could. Aurora, who didn’t want her not quite six year-old niece Janet to feel left out, presented her with a little white kitten that she had named Snowflake. The little girl instantly perked up at the sight of the kitten, and promised her Aunt Aurora that she would take good care of her new best friend.

Ross took the lead on what could only be described as an awkward situation by giving each of his grandchildren one last kiss on the forehead, and then his only son-in-law a firm handshake. Next was the goodbye hug with his youngest daughter Rachel, and she burst into tears when Ross asked her, “How many grains of sand are there on the beach?” Aurora joined in the hug with her father and younger sister, as she reminded them, “There were way too many to count!”

A moment later Ross, with tears welling up in his eyes, moved towards Patty to say goodbye to his soul mate of some sixty years. They had been through it all together and had held each other up through the difficult times, but they had also seen tremendous joy over the years. Ross had lost his grandfather Hank, father Robert, and best friend Dennis during his much younger years, while Patty had lost her mother Elizabeth and best friend Betty in more recent times. On the positive side they had raised two wonderful children, which eventually led to a couple of grandchildren, and had enjoyed the comforts of Ross’ tremendous career path.

They held each other in a long embrace, and through the tears Patty uttered, “Please stay with me!” Ross returned the emotion with quivering voice by saying, “Will you please join me on this pilgrimage?” They both wanted to stay together so much, but they remained at an impasse as neither would yield. With a final passionate kiss, they said farewell.

Within an hour after the tearful goodbye, Ross and his group were preparing to board the alien spaceship. He waved goodbye to the well-wishers in the surrounding crowd, and turned to climb the long ramp leading into the vessel. As the last two people to board, Aurora carried the American flag from her grandfather Robert tucked under her arm, and Ross did the same with Grandpa Hank’s. When the armada would arrive at their new home world, many flags of various countries would be flown to signify different cultures and nationalities associated with the human endeavor. Ross could think of no more fitting American flags to fly than the two that he and his oldest daughter carried.

Rising slowly at first above the National Mall, the alien transport ship began to pick up some speed to escape the confines of Earth’s atmosphere. Many of the people aboard stood quietly at the large viewing windows to watch the planet grow smaller with distance, but almost all of them remained silent until the ship entered space. Several moments later the ship moved into formation with the rest of the armada at a safe high distance above the Earth, so the much smaller moon and quickly approaching asteroid could be viewed in their current positions on the far side of the planet. Jessica then turned to her brother Ross and told him she could finally understand the beauty of space, and why he had been so captured by the allure of it ever since they were kids.

People around them, from all walks of American society, began to gasp and murmur at the awe inspiring sight, and Ross felt confident that a similar reaction was taking place on each of the other eleven transport ships. Tragically, it had taken such an unfortunate event in the history of the planet, and mankind, to assist this new group of people in their understanding of what the astronauts of the past sixty plus years had all been so giddy about.

Ross had been informed by his old alien friend that the armada would remain at this location in high orbit until shortly after the impact of the asteroid, so that historical information could be obtained for their own data base. He also informed Ross that the message would be delivered to all those aboard the other ships in the event that anyone wanted to view the event.

According to the countdown the impact would take place the next day, but a startling revelation had just occurred to Ross. From their current position the Earth looked to be about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length from ones face, and the Moon on the far side resembled a softball. Perhaps it was an optical illusion, or a final supreme act of denial, but the incoming angle of the asteroid looked as if it might actually miss the Earth by the narrowest of margins.

Ross wondered if it was possible that the tremendous gravitational force of our sun was having enough of an impact on the asteroid to drastically alter its course during these final days. Even if that were true, he decided it was probably in the best interest of all those around him to keep that thought private for the time being. After all, no good could come from creating some level of false hope among the other passengers.

THE FOLLOWING DAY
Ross returned to the viewing window with Aurora and Jessica to find the asteroid much closer to the Earth, but the angle still looked a bit off. Knowing he probably only had a few hours until the impact; Ross informed one of the alien crew that he wanted to visit with his old friend before it happened. A few moments later, Ross was escorted to a more secluded area of the ship where he and the alien could communicate privately, and Ross asked him a series of very important questions.

Their discussion began with a reflection back to their first encounter on the Moon, as Ross said, “I never thought about why you were walking around on the surface.” The alien had been searching for the emblem that he had lost when Ross had beat him to it, but the alien wasn’t supposed to be out walking around on the surface in the first place. His old friend’s thoughts informed Ross that he had wanted to get one more look at the planet before they departed for their observational rotation of this and the neighboring solar systems, but he had to do it secretly. That’s when the alien lost the emblem, and he needed to find it again or he would have been in big trouble. What the alien didn’t know until after Ross had responded to Dennis’ shout of panic was that his commanding officer had come out onto the lunar surface looking for him.

Ross was now learning the true intent of why both of the aliens were out there, and the encounter with Ross and Dennis had obviously been quite accidental. Their species had wanted to minimize further contamination of
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, as there were already enough people on the planet who believed in alien life. That belief or knowledge, at least partly, had been because of the Roswell crash of 1947, but it went beyond that.

Ross remembered from a previous encounter, that the alien Dennis had encountered on the Moon was the flight leader of a formation that had lost one craft in 1897. The alien that Ross encountered had been in the same capacity when one was lost in 1947. What he didn’t know until now was that one of the aliens that died in the crash of 1897 was the father of the alien that Ross knew so well, and had been the best friend of the alien that Dennis had encountered. That alien had then, out of guilt or loyalty towards his best friend, taken his son into his command structure. For the most part it had worked out, but there were occasions when it had not always been smooth sailing. Ross’ alien had been forgiven for the loss of the scout ship in 1947 for obvious reasons, but had not been allowed back to the planet since that incident.

It occurred to Ross that the locations of the two crashes were very close to each other in terms of planetary geography, and he suddenly understood why. The alien that Ross knew wanted to view the site where his father had been killed in his crash, and the objective of the mission when he was the flight leader would take him close to that location. That may be why atmospheric conditions in the area of Roswell were ignored by the alien even after his formation was spotted in western Washington earlier in the flight, and that led to the crash.

Because of that completely understandable decision, he had been banned from future scouting missions of the planet surface. It turned out to be a costly decision for him, because if the alien wanted to have any future prolonged looks at the planet in solitude, his only opportunity would be to venture out on the forbidden lunar strolls whenever possible. It was probable that his commanding officer had known the alien most of his life, and had simply come out onto the surface to protect him from being found out by higher authorities. Everything was clear now, as Ross suddenly realized the emblem on his necklace needed to be returned to the son of the pilot who had died while wearing it. He took the necklace off, looked at his alien friend, and said, “I believe this emblem came from your father’s uniform, and I want to give it back to you.”

Feeling as if their relationship had been elevated to a new level, Ross said, “I have one more question for you.” In responding to the all-important question of whether or not the asteroid would indeed impact the Earth, the aliens thoughts reminded Ross of his exact message when the two met in the woods of Camp David nearly eighteen months before. My superiors, some of who you have now met, sent me to inform you that, “The impact of the asteroid will alter the conditions that support life on the planet significantly”, but you were never informed that the asteroid would directly impact Earth. The alien continued by adding that Ross would indeed be the last human to set foot on the surface of the Moon, because that is what the asteroid will crash into.