The trip out of Canada was pulled off with amazing precision. Bill had them through airport security in a flash and they were on a private jet winging their way back to Las Vegas. Nick sat silently in his chair looking out the window, the tiny lights of towns and cities passing slowly underneath him. The magnitude of what he was about to undertake was threatening to drown him, pull him under and suffocate him in his own fear and anxiety.
According to Bill there was a base on the dark side of the moon where the majority of the fallouts from the Annunaki civil war were stationed. It was from here that the attack force would make its approach to Nibiru. It made sense really, as it was on the dark side of the moon there would be little chance of being detected as they made their way out into space. Nick had always dreamed of going into space but to actually be doing it was exhilarating and terrifying all at once.
Their plane was descending now, the lights of the city below getting bigger and brighter outside his window. They made their way through customs, once again at an accelerated pace and out into the Nevada night air where a car was waiting for them. Bill and Nick both climbed into the back seat and settled in. The car took them on a highway straight out of town, heading into the desert.
Nick broke the silence first “How am I getting into space?”
“The easiest way for us is to send you out of our Groom Lake facility. People are always seeing strange ships and lights there so it won’t attract that much attention” Bill replied, his gaze unwavering from the side window he was looking out of.
“You mean Area 51?”
“Yes, back where we started. There is a ship going up tomorrow night and the weatherman is calling for a low cloud cover so that will make it a little easier to keep everything under wraps. We will start running some other drills to distract all the watchers out there and send you up. If everything goes according to plan you will be on the moon a few minutes after takeoff”
“A few minutes” Nick blurted out the incredulity evident in his voice.
“Remember were not talking about something Earth built here. The ship you will be on can go near the speed of light.”
“Won’t we be picked up by satellite?”
“We have some jamming technologies at our disposal for that”
Nick shook his head slowly. “I guess these things shouldn’t surprise me anymore.”
Bill looked over casually and smiled “No I suppose you should be getting used to them by now”
The car rolled on through the desert and soon came to a high gate with a guardhouse on the left hand side. As they approached two armed guards came out of the building, one came to the driver’s window, the other taking up position at the rear quarter panel of the car with his gun drawn. The driver and the guard briefly exchanged words and then the guard took a quick look into the back of the car and said “OK”, turned and went back into the guardhouse and opened the gate. They passed through the gate and continued on up the darkened road. A building came into view and the car approached it and drove down the side and around the back and pulled into an open bay door and came to a stop near a short flight of steps that ended at a single, windowless door.
Nick followed Bill out of the car and up the steps. As they approached Nick heard a low beep and the door popped open about an inch. Bill grabbed the handle and opened it all the way, indicated for Nick to enter and then followed, shutting the door securely behind them. They were in a short, brightly lit hallway that ended at an elevator and made their way toward it. As usual the elevator was silent and fluid in its motion. They came out of the elevator at another floor that looked deserted as no one was about. Bill stopped at a silently opening door and entered with Nick following. It was a small room containing only a bed and a bathroom and small table pushed up against the wall with a single chair keeping it company.
“Try and get some rest tonight. You’re going to need it for tomorrow” Bill intoned and with a curt smile left the room, the door sliding silently shut behind him.
Nick was exhausted. All the traveling in the last few days and all the new revelations he had been exposed to were starting to take their toll on him. He crawled into the tiny bed, wrapped the blankets tightly around himself and fell into a deep, uneasy sleep.
After he had eaten the breakfast that had been brought to him Nick tried to rest some more but found sleep was elusive, the butterflies building in his stomach at the thoughts of his impending flight into space.
It must have been after midday when his door opened and a gray entered and signaled to him to follow. Nick did so hoping that being active would improve his mood, but couldn’t shake the feelings of fear he was having. They made their way to the elevator and after a brief trip ended up in a small medical lab with some more grays and a few Annunaki milling around. Bill emerged from a small group that was meeting off to one side and came over and shook Nick’s hand with a jovial “Good morning Nick. I trust you’re ready to go?”
“Not really”
Bill barked out a laugh.
“Where are we?”
“This is the preparation area. We have to get you into a space suit and there are a few medical preparations before launch. C’mon over here and we can get you started.” Bill made his way over to a table and motioned for one of the doctors to join them. A tall, lanky Annunaki detached himself from the group he was with and came over as well. “Nick, I want you to meet Leskal, he will be preparing you for your flight and he will also be piloting the ship you will be taking.” Bill said by way of introduction.
“So this is our boy” Leskal said telepathically to Nick and Bill causing Nick to wince slightly.
“Nice to meet you Nick” Leskal continued clapping his back “How has your training been going?”
Nick readied himself and really focused on his reply. Furrowing his brow a little, the familiar tingly feeling forming in his brain, he concentrated on Leskal and replied “Nice to meet you as well. The training went well. Now I need to keep practicing”
Leskal smiled and replied “Impressive. You are only the second human I have encountered that is able to do that, Bill here being the first.”
“My skills pale in comparison to Nick’s though” Bill offered.
With that Leskal moved off a ways with Bill and conversed. Nick tried to eavesdrop but found that he was blocked from hearing what was going on so he sat down on the table and waited.
Bill came over to where he was sitting “OK Nick, I’m going to leave you with Leskal so he can get you ready for your flight. He will be your contact until you leave for Nibiru” He paused and looked at Nick for a moment, Nick tried to get a sense of what he was thinking and it seemed for a moment that Bill was reticent but then immediately went back to his usual intense self and spoke again “It has been an honor working with you. I know you can pull this off Nick and when you do, you will be a hero here on Earth for millennia to come. I look forward to shaking your hand when you return.” Then he turned and walked out of the room.
Leskal watched Bill go and when the door shut behind him turned to Nick “Time to get started Nick. If you could lay back on the bed here there are a few medical tests we want to run and then we will get you a suit.” Nick lay back on the table and relaxed as best as he could as the doctors and Leskal used some medical devices to test him. They never explained what the tests were for or what the results were. They just went efficiently about their work and when it was over Leskal told Nick to follow him and they walked out of a door at the end of the medical room.
The room beyond was well lit with tables and chairs here and there and along one wall, cupboards ran from floor to ceiling. Leskal walked smartly over to the cupboards and opened one, rummaged around inside for a bit and emerged with a strange looking suit. It was nothing like the big and bulky man made space suits he was accustomed to seeing on television and movies. This one was sleek and sharp and looked more like a tailored superhero outfit than a space suit. That was until he put it on.
It immediately conformed to his body and felt loose and comfortable, but at the same time it felt like it could stop bullets if it had to. Leskal explained that it was designed to maintain the bodies ‘systems’ at the high speeds they would be traveling at. Still marveling at the suits design they left this room for another that would be best described as the control room. There were two rows of computers with several Annunaki manning the controls all facing a window that overlooked a disc shaped craft. The feeling in the room was lightly tense with everybody facing their terminals in deep concentration, their faces reflecting the strange purple glow Nick associated with their higher technology.
Leskal was hurrying along the back wall toward an exit at the far left end with Nick rushing to keep up. Leaving the control area they walked down some steps to ground level and strode quickly across the cemented launch area and approached the ship. It seemed much larger up close than Nick had imagined it would be. There was a small ramp that led them into the ship itself and once inside the ramp retracted and the door shut so that they were in a small vestibule. A green light came on and scanned them three hundred and sixty degrees. After a moment the green light went out and the inside door opened, giving them entrance to the ship.
“What was that green light?” Nick questioned.
“It was a scan for biological agents. It’s just a precaution really. The tests I gave you already confirmed that you were clean.” Leskal replied.
Once inside Leskal sat at one of the chairs in front of a bank of controls and gestured for Nick to take another. Leskal started pushing all kinds of buttons, checking information and was lost in concentration as he went through the controls and Nick took the time to look around the ship. Big enough for three maybe four Annunaki-sized beings; everything was sleek and well designed with a window that went around the entire cockpit area giving the occupants a clear view all around them, through which Nick could see that it was that hazy time between dusk and nightfall.
“Pre-launch check is OK” Leskal said “we will be off the ground momentarily.”
The reality of the situation settled fully on Nick and the butterflies in his stomach intensified to the point where he thought he might be sick. He jokingly wondered if this ship was equipped with air sick bags. Nick saw two airplanes take off in succession and one flew left and one right, the decoy planes, they would get closer to where it was known people were watching and perform maneuvers to provide them with the distraction they needed to get out of Earth’s atmosphere unseen. Leskal was working the controls again and the supports holding the ship up retracted the craft lurching in its new freedom and then regaining a stable position, only now it felt like they were floating on air. Darkness was really coming on now and in the distance Nick could see the decoys doing their job, performing zigzag patterns and slow flyovers followed up with quick bursts of speed, colors flashing brilliantly from their undersides. Outside the window Nick could see the body of the ship begin to spin, slowly at first and then picking up speed until it was a metallic blur. Leskal had both hands on the control panel and was pressing it in places in a nonchalant manner, the technique of liftoff so familiar to him he wasn’t even interested. Nick suddenly thought they were on one of the elevators at Dulce base; the craft rose silently but steadily until they were about one hundred feet off the ground, hovering quietly. If he wasn’t so scared Nick would have enjoyed the view he now had of the whole base.
“We’re in position and ready for flight” Leskal was speaking over the radio. The ship was totally silent; the only visible light was the glow emanating from the control console that Leskal was operating. Leskal looked over and smiled “Hold on, it’s time for us to go”
The lights in the cockpit blinked out and Nick felt like he was falling right out the bottom of the ship as they took off away from the planet at incredible speed.
They shot out of Earth’s atmosphere in the blink of an eye, the change outside the window from the lights of the base to the blackness of space instantaneous. The suit Nick was wearing must have been doing its job as he couldn’t feel any ill effect from the speed they were traveling at. The view outside was staggering, millions and millions of the brightest stars in every direction and dead ahead the moon, glowing brightly as they streaked towards it. Nick didn’t feel any lighter and asked Leskal “so these ships have a gravity generator?”
“Yes they do, it makes space travel more tolerable, especially at light speeds”
“You can travel at light speed?”
“Some of the crafts we have are capable of traveling at speeds faster than light”
As the moon grew larger in the window the ship slowed down, gently slipping into its gravitational pull and assuming orbit. Leskal was busy at the controls and they dropped lower and below them the base came into view. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly, it looked as if it was dug right into the moon’s surface with some lights visible on the surface. As they sank lower toward the moon, Nick saw a sliver of light appear, and it grew larger and larger and then stopped. They came to a stop over the gaping chasm and gently drifted down into a huge hanger that had hundreds of ships of various sizes. Many were of the same design as the one he was in but others were far larger and looked like they were designed for battle and still more that were enormous and were most likely for long interstellar travel. They drifted down, almost to the bottom and then started to glide sideways toward a side of the hangar that was lined with doors and windows and finally came to stop, the ship lurching as the docking tractor beam locked on. The ships control panel went dark and Leskal got up and made his way to where a door was slowly opening and the landing ramp extracting out and touching down on the hangar floor. Nick followed Leskal out the door and down the ramp. From the floor the hangar looked even more immense, the far wall not even visible past the rows and rows of ships docked.
“Is this the force that will be invading Nibiru?” he asked.
“Part of it, but there are other hangars on this base that are housing more ships.” He replied looking around quite impressed with the amassed collection of ships.
Nick followed him as they made their way to the closest door and went through it into a small landing area with an elevator at the far end. They made their way onto the elevator and took a long ride that opened into a large room that looked like it was a spacecraft training center. There were cockpits and ship skeletons and also a ship the same size as the one they just shot to the moon on, all surrounded by monitoring equipment that at the moment were still and silent. Leskal walked briskly to the left side with Nick in tow, still staring at the spacecraft assembled in the room. They barely even slowed as they approached a door and it silently slid out of their way to reveal a sleeping quarters, presumably Nick’s new home for the time being. Nick was happy to see that his present room had a window out into space; he could already see more stars burning more intensely than he ever had on Earth. Leskal broke the silence “We need to firm up your training a bit more and the real mission gets underway in seven of your Earth days.”
“How long has this base been here?” Nick asked, unable to gloss over the many questions he had.
“We have been operating this base since the Annunaki civil war the last time we were in this area. The base has actually been here longer but after the civil war fallout we couldn’t go back to Nibiru and we needed a place to house those that were still here. The bases on Earth held quite a few but we knew we needed more space and the moon was a viable place to live and stay out of humanity's way. Our explorations uncovered this base that had been abandoned. We just moved in and adjusted it to suit our needs. To answer your question though, our dating methods put this base at about fifteen thousand years old.”
Nick’s eyebrows raised in disbelief “Fifteen thousand years? That would put whoever built it in this area before you guys were. How many other being are out there?”
“There are many other life forms out there Nick. Some are more advanced than human being and others less advanced
and still others that are far beyond human and Annunaki intelligence.” Leskal replied
“Are there other races targeting Earth?” Nick asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“None that I know of. Most races are caught up in the goings on of their own planet I would think, and very few have the technology available that would enable them to travel the distance necessary to wage and maintain a war on Earth. That being said, it's a big universe out there with many races and not all of them are friendly but perhaps feel that Earth isn’t worthy of attacking”
Nick could feel from Leskal that he was holding something back. What that something might be Nick didn't have a clue and changed his tack “You mentioned more training”
“Not more as much as honing and building on what you already know. It’s crucial to the mission that your skills are at their best when you get sent out.”
“When do we get started?”
“Thralesh will be working with you once more starting tomorrow morning. Try to get some sleep Nick” and with that he turned and left the room.
Nick sat in a chair and stared out the window for what must have been hours. He couldn’t get enough stargazing. It was so beautiful but that didn't do it justice. Nick couldn't find the words to describe what he was seeing. The amount of stars and their brilliance was hypnotic and after what Leskal had said about other being he couldn’t help but feel small and insignificant and at the same time he wondered if there was a being like himself out there somewhere in the cosmos that was looking out at the stars and wondering what other life was out there. He finally found his way to bed and pondered that very question until he fell asleep.
Nick spent the next seven days going through more practice and training with Thralesh. At times Leskal would stop in and watch for a bit but for the most part it was he and Thralesh alone in the lab. He had tried to get information from her about the fate of Zalath but she would only tell him that she was being held and his attempts at probing her mind were rebuffed. Nick was now very adept at conversing using his telepathic abilities; he didn’t even get headaches or nosebleeds anymore. The bulk of his training centered on the ship he would be in and the operation of its controls. Although many were operated by hand, it also required a telepathic connection with the control panel itself. He needed to know about the state of the ship in general, like gravity controls, guidance, engines and thrusters and weapons status (if necessary, which it wouldn’t be he was assured). He would be traveling at near light speed and was comforted to know that the ship would continuously monitor and recalculate his telemetry to account for objects that would cross his path.
On the final day of training Thralesh was very impressed “Nick you have come so far with your abilities, it’s simply amazing. You are ready to conquer this mission I think.”
“Thank you” he said “Do I leave tomorrow then?”
“Your ship is being readied as we speak. Leskal will be joining you in the morning and giving you your final briefing and then you’re off.” They moved to the entrance of his quarters and Nick went in with Thralesh stopping in the doorway. “You will be a hero Nick. Not only among your fellow humans but also in the minds of the Annunaki who are outcasts due to the civil war” She eyed him appraisingly for a moment, then turned and left.
Chapter 10