Contents

• The Puppeteer
• Strange Occurrence

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“The Puppeteer”

Rudy stepped out of the car which he had parked out on the street near one entrance to the park.  He felt good:  energetic, fit, and tailored in his new workout outfit.  The sun was out and it felt warm enough for him to take his shirt off for his workout on the stairs and his walk along the shore afterwards.  As he walked along towards the stairs that dropped down to the beach, he glanced at his arms and legs.  He decided his work at the gym was starting to pay off.  His biceps seemed a little bigger and his arms and legs looked nicely trimmed.  He liked what he saw.  Although he had recently turned 40 he was still in the game!

Today, he decided, he was going to try for 5 rounds on the stairs.  Each round would consist of a walk down the stairs, 15 pushups on the picnic table near the bottom of the stairs, and a run back up to the top.  Afterwards he would cool off by walking to the wall on the other side of the camping area. 

Rudy had finished his workout and was walking along the asphalt path that ran along the beach towards the wall.  He hadn’t been able to run up the stairs 5 times as he had planned, but at least he made it part way up the last round.  Next time he would do it and maybe go on to do a sixth.  He heard the waves crashing, but didn’t pay much attention to the ocean as he walked.  He glanced at the people walking in the opposite direction as they passed by him.  He tried to guess whether they were checking him out, but it was difficult to tell given their sun glasses.

As he neared the wall at the end of the path a man stepped onto the path from behind the last mobile home and began walking towards him.  There was nothing unusual about the man other than how he was dressed.  He was wearing a long coat, hat, and sun glasses, not typical beach wear. 

The man stopped in front of Rudy and looked right at him.  He held up what looked like his cell phone, but seemed a little large for one.  Suddenly Rudy’s world seemed to just stop.  The sound of ocean waves disappeared into silence.  He seemed to freeze in midstride.  His world grew suddenly brighter.  It felt as though a snapshot was taken of his life at that moment and the world paused to let him experience it for some moments.

And then, just as suddenly, things returned to normal.   He was walking forwards.  He felt his foot land on the path in front of him.  The sounds of people and waves returned.  He looked around in front and behind him.  The man he had seen was gone.  People around him were acting like nothing had happened.  Apparently he was the only person to experience anything odd. 

Later, looking back, he would pick this experience out as the start of it all.  But right now it just worried him.  Was he getting sick?  Maybe he had almost fainted.  But now he felt just fine, not sick at all.

————–

Several days later Rudy was walking through the outdoor market that ran every Saturday at the university near his house.  Afterwards as he was walking back towards his condo, the man in the long coat at the beach appeared in front of him.  At least, Rudy thought it was the man.  The man was no longer dressed in a long coat and hat, although he still wore sun glasses.  The man held up his hand as if to signal that Rudy was to stop.  Rudy did stop.  At least his legs suddenly stopped moving.  Rudy hadn’t intended them to stop.  They just stopped suddenly moving, his forward momentum almost leading him to fall forward.  Rudy started to speak, “What the Hell…” but before he could finish his sentence the man put a finger to his lips and Rudy’s mouth clamped shut.

Next the man made a complex signal with his right hand.  It was almost as if the man was speaking in signs.  Rudy’s right arm immediately responded by raising itself above his head.  The man made another sign and Rudy’s right arm went down.  The man then made the same signs with his left hand and Rudy’s left arm went up and then back down.

Rudy tried to shout at the man, but again the man immediately put a finger to his lips and Rudy’s mouth clamped shut.  The man walked over and leaned against a car that was parked along the street.  After some complex signing, Rudy’s legs walked him over in front of the man and stood there.  The man pulled out his weird cell phone (or what looked like a cell phone).  “I have some questions for you.  Let’s start with your name?”

Rudy said nothing.  Apparently there were limits as to what the man could force him to do.  Answering questions was one of them.  The man again made some complex signals with his hands.  Rudy’s hand went up about chest level in front of him.  It made a fist.  Then Rudy’s arm slammed with force into his chest.  Rudy reeled from the pain to his chest.  Rudy’s arm slammed a second time into his chest.  “Answer my questions,” the man said softly.

For the next 20 minutes, Rudy answered the man’s questions.  Each time he answered a question the man typed into his device.  The man started with questions about Rudy’s living conditions and family.  He seemed particularly interested in whether Rudy lived alone, where his family lived, and how often they visited him.  He thought about lying, just make some things up.  He wondered whether the man would be able to detect if he lied, but he didn’t because he didn’t see much point in lying about his answers to these questions. 

Finally the man asked, “Where do you work?”

Rudy answered, “Lockheed.”

“What kind of company is that?”

“You don’t know what Lockheed…?” Rudy’s mouth clamped shut.

“I ask the questions.  You answer them.” 

The man went on to ask several questions about Lockheed and what Rudy did there.  Rudy answered them.  Finally, the man said, “OK, we’ll continue this another time.  I will be sending you a text message when and where I would like to meet next.”  The man then walked back towards the market as Rudy continued walking away from the market towards his Condo.

Once he left the man, who he was now referring to in his mind as “the Puppeteer”, all he could think about was what the man wanted from him and what he could do about it.

——————–

Rudy sat on his deck with a beer.  He didn’t know what to do, so he had done nothing since yesterday when the Puppeteer had confronted him.  He thought about talking to a friend.  But who?  Most of his friends were either married or in close relationships.  It would be difficult for them to keep this from their wives.   His friend Andre was probably his best bet, since he was single and lived alone, but he had no clear idea how Andre would react to what he told him.  And he wondered what the Puppeteer would do if he did tell somebody else.  Would the Puppeteer be able to find out that he did?  And how would Puppeteer react if he did find out?  He hadn’t told Rudy not to talk to anyone else, so maybe it was OK.  Rudy’s problem, however, was that he was terrified.  He was terrified that the Puppeteer might somehow be able to find out that he had told somebody.  He was terrified what the Puppeteer would do if he did.  Simply put, Rudy was parallelized with fear and unable to act.

Tomorrow he had to drive over the hill to Sunnyvale to work.  In some ways he was thankful.  He could get out of his Condo and out of this city.  It felt like it would be a kind of escape.   Maybe he should just stay over there.  His Mom would love for him to stay over at her house.  Maybe if the Puppeteer texted him while he was there, he could just ignore the text message.  What could the Puppeteer do about that?  Could he find him at his Mom’s house?  Could the Puppeteer control him remotely, make him smash his hand through the window to punish him or something like that?  But one thing really bothered Rudy.  Of course he had, like the Chicken Shit he was, given the address of his Condo to the Puppeteer.  So the Puppeteer could certainly find him in his Condo.  But how did the Puppeteer find him at the Farmer’s Market?  He surely hadn’t known his address at that point, so he couldn’t have followed him from his Condo.  So he must have some other way of locating him, maybe like some form of implanted GPS.  If so, the Puppeteer would know he was at his Mom’s house.  He would know where he was wherever he was.  That thought terrified him.  There would be no lasting escape.

As he was running through this in his head, the house phone rang.  It was an unknown number and he let it go to voice mail.  The voice of the Puppeteer came on and said, “Pick up the phone.” 

Rudy thought about pretending he wasn’t there, but after a moment he answered the phone.  “Yes.”

“Please walk to and meet me at the South entrance of the park near the post office tomorrow at 10AM.”

“But I have to go to work tomorrow.”

“Don’t go and meet me at the park at 10AM,” the Puppeteer said as he hung up his phone.

—————————-

It took Rudy about 30 minutes to walk to the park from his Condo.  When he arrived at the South entrance, the Puppeteer led him to a spot near a picnic table.  The Puppeteer set his device on a tripod facing off to the side facing near where Rudy was standing.

“Let’s get started.  We have a lot of work to do.  Let me see you cell phone.  What’s the pass code?”  After looking it over the Puppeteer set the phone to vibrate mode.  “From now on the phone is to be kept in vibrate mode.  And you are to be within 6 feet of the phone all times.  If you go to the bathroom, you are to take your phone with you.  When you go to bed you are to have the phone next to you.  Is that understood?”  Rudy just nodded.  The Puppeteer set the phone on the picnic table next to him.

“OK, I want you to walk to that tree over there.  For this one time, you can leave the phone here and not take it with you.”  Rudy started walking.  He got about 8 feet from the phone and stopped or, rather, his legs stopped.  He could no longer move further away towards the tree.  “OK, now head to your right as far as you can.”  Rudy started walking to the right.  Again, his legs stopped when he was about 8 feet away from the phone.  “Again, walk as far right as you can.”  Eventually Rudy made a complete 8-foot circle around his cell phone.  He was unable to move outside that circle.  His legs would just stop when he tried.

“OK, put the phone in your pocket.”  The Puppeteer fiddled with his device.  Rudy’s phone started vibrating.  Rudy watched in horror as his hand went into his pocket and pulled out his phone.  He tried to stop it but his arm and hand were out of his control.  His hand raised the phone in front his eyes.  His eyelids widened and he was forced to stare at the phone in front of him.

“What number was texted to you?” the Puppeteer asked.

“3.”

“Good, set the phone on the table and step back a few feet.”  Again the Puppeteer fiddled with his device and Rudy’s phone started vibrating on the table.  Immediately his legs walked over to the table.  Then his hand picked up the phone and held it in front of him.  “What number was texted to you?” the Puppeteer asked.

“4.” Through a series of similar experiments, if you can call them that, they went through all the numbers from 1 to 10.  Then they went through a series of other experiments of various kinds that all seemed to blur together.

Finally, the Puppeteer handed him a paper bag and said, “You can go over to that table over there and eat lunch.”  While Rudy ate and rested, the Puppeteer worked on his device.  Sometime later he had Rudy return and stand in front of the device as it was pointed towards him on the tripod.  Suddenly Rudy’s world stopped just as it had that time at the beach.  Like then his world became silent and filled with light.  His breathing froze in mid-breath and his hand froze in mid-gesture.  Then just as suddenly Rudy’s world returned to normal. 

“OK, please stand over there.”  Rudy stood about six feet from the Puppeteer.  His phone vibrated.  His hand pulled it out of his pocket and held it up in front of his face.  The phone displayed the number “7”.  Immediately upon seeing that number, Rudy’s legs rapidly ran towards the picnic table he had had lunch at.  When he reached the table, his legs leaped up onto the top of the table and then over to the other side.  He was then returned to his own control over his body.  

“We’ll meet again tomorrow at the same time.  You are to go directly home and not to leave your house.  You are not to answer the phone or call anyone.  If I want to speak with you I will call you and leave a voice message telling you to pick up.”

On his way home Rudy was passing a bakery he frequented and decided to get a treat for himself.  He wasn’t sure he deserved it, but he sure needed it.  But as he started to cross the street to get to the bakery, his legs stopped him.  He tried moving back to sidewalk and had no trouble doing so.  He walked a little further on the sidewalk and then tried again to head to the bakery.  But again his legs stopped him.  For the hundredth time that day fear swept over him.  “What am I to do?” he thought.  I’m getting more and more trapped. 

As he was nearing his condo he glanced at his car parked in front.  “Maybe I can drive out of here,” he thought.  He began walking towards his car.  “So far, so good.”  As he neared his car he took his keys with the remote out of his pocket and pressed the button to unlock the car door.  He heard the door unlock.  “It worked!”  He reached over to open the car door, but his hand and arm weren’t able to.  He could grab the handle, but nothing more. 

He gave up on the idea of driving away and began walking to the front door of his Condo.  As he was passing his neighbor’s door, his neighbor came out and called to him, “Rudy, what’s up?  Why didn’t you go to work?  Are you sick?”

Rudy was about to answer him when he suddenly started coughing.  He couldn’t stop and was unable to talk.  His legs turned him around and started him walking away from his neighbor.  His arm raised up as if to wave to his neighbor as he was walking away.  He was heading away from his Condo so he tried to turn towards it.  His legs were now working.  He headed rapidly towards his front door still coughing uncontrollably.  Finally he unlocked his front door and walked in.  His coughing fit stopped.

He watched through his window until his neighbor went back inside his house.  “I’ve got to get out of here!”  He went back to the front door, but of course he couldn’t open it.  He ran over to his phone on the wall.  He wasn’t able to pick up the phone.  He ran to his computer but he couldn’t turn it on.  He took out his cell phone and tried to log into it.  His hands would let him.  In a panic he grabbed a kitchen chair and started to throw it through the front window.  His arms wouldn’t let him.  He tried again.  His arms dropped the chair.  His right arm went out with a fist in front of him and smashed back into his chest making him gasp with pain.

——————–

For the next several days Rudy met and worked with the Puppeteer at the park.  They all preceded much like the first.  The Puppeteer would ask him to do various things and he would do them.  As he did what he was told to do the Puppeteer typed on his device.  After a few hours he would be placed in front of the device and blasted with white light and suspended animation.  When it was over he went back to his Condo and waited until the next day when it started all over again. 

As he was getting ready to go the park again on Saturday morning, his house phone rang.  He let it go to the voice mail.  It was the Puppeteer telling him to pick up.  He did so.  “Today I want you to meet someone.  He’s going to meet you at a campaign rally at the auditorium downtown.  Get there by 2pm.  Sit about half way down the middle aisle from the stage and as close as you can to the aisle.  Save the seat next to you.  The person you are meeting will find you and take that seat.  You don’t need anything except your cell phone.   Any questions?”

“How do I get there?”

“You will drive there.  You won’t have any problems unless you attempt to drive off course.”

“What will I be doing there?”

“The man you are meeting will fill you in.”

After parking and walking to the auditorium Rudy went through security and then found a seat a little more than half way up the aisle and about 5 seats inward.  He saved the seat next to him with his jacket.  After about 30 minutes of speeches from local political and social leaders the crowd erupted in cheers as the candidate came out, stood behind the podium, and began talking.  The person whose seat he was saving still had not arrived.  Rudy wondered whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.  He found himself unable to tune in the speech that was being delivered.

Suddenly his phone began to vibrate in his pocket.  His hand reached in and pulled it out and held it in front of his face to read.  His phone was showing the number 6.  Rudy suddenly began coughing loudly and his legs immediately stood him up and walked him over to the isle where he stood coughing.  The phone, which was still in his left hand, began to vibrate again and Rudy read the number 7 on its face.  Immediately his legs began running rapidly down the aisle towards the stage.  After a few moments people began to notice him and shout for him to stop.  One person sitting on a seat on the aisle stood up and tried to block him, but Rudy’s legs propelled Rudy through the man who fell back into the crowd.

The candidate’s 3 body guards came towards the front of the stage to confront Rudy.  When he reached the area in front of the stage, Rudy’s legs leaped onto the stage.  The three body guards all shot at Rudy at point blank range killing him instantly.  But though they killed Rudy, they apparently didn’t kill Rudy’s legs which continued running through the bodyguards to the podium.  About 3 feet in front of the podium Rudy’s legs propelled him up into the air and over the podium face first.  His arms were reaching out in front of him towards the candidate’s neck.  The candidate started to duck away, but was too late.  Rudy’s hands found their way around the candidate’s neck and began to squeeze.  Rudy’s face slammed into the top of the podium, but Rudy felt nothing, because he was dead.  The bodyguards were smashing objects over Rudy’s head and body while they attempted to loosen his grip, but Rudy’s fingers didn’t budge.  The candidate’s life slowly slipped out of him.

Finally Rudy’s hands began to loosen, but it was too late to save the candidate. 

—————————————————————-

“Strange Occurrence”

Part 1:

The ATM machine sat right on Main St.  For security it was equipped with a camera that looked to its front, capturing anyone who used or abused it.  When not obstructed by a person or object in front of it, it captured activity on the sidewalk in front of it, on the street running by it, and in an alley that ran perpendicular to the street and happened to connect to the street in front of the ATM machine. 

At 9:30AM Aaron Petrock was reviewing the ATM security tape for the previous 24 hours.  He hated this extremely boring and tedious job, as he hated most of what he had to do in his new job.  One little mistake.  He had accidentally dropped his gun, which he had a lawful permit to carry, while showing it to his drinking buddy, and it discharged in the bar.  Sure, that wasn’t good, but no one was injured and the bar was almost empty.  For that he was going to be reprimanded and demoted from his investigator job at the local police force.  Instead, without thinking much about it, he just quit. 

Now he’s stuck doing this shit.  He was tempted to just skim rapidly through the tape and sign off on it.   There was almost no chance that there would be anything of note on the tape.  But he would have to sit here for at least another hour, just to pretend to be working, so nothing would be gained by speeding through it.   

He struggled to focus on the tape.  He had had one (or was it two?) too many beers last night, and though he was not hung over, he was a little blurry-eyed.  As he looked through the tape he only paused to check out the women as they passed in front of the camera or used the machine.  The rest of the time he slowly moved through the tape looking for security issues.

At about 3:50AM on the tape an attractive woman walked over and stopped on the sidewalk across the street from the ATM machine.  She was standing about 10 feet from the alley just across the street.  She was obviously a prostitute.  Who else would be out here at that time?  He zoomed in to get a better look.

Just then something happened in the alley.  An object shot down from above and landed in a blur.  Something rushed out the back of it and zoomed around the corner at the far end of the alley.  Another blur.  The object in the alley then shot back up, again in a kind of bluish blur.  The whole thing took only a few seconds.

“Wow!  That was strange.”  He reviewed the occurrence again, this time zooming in as far as he could go, and slowing the tape down as much as he could with the bank’s computer program that displayed the tape.  It was all still pretty much just a blur. 

He went back to reviewing the tape.  Thankfully an hour had gone by.  He figured he only needed to spend a little more time to “show” his dedication.  As he went through the tape his mind continually drifted back to the 3:50AM strange occurrence.  

He put a flash drive into the computer with the security tape file and began copying it.  The file was large.   It could take 20-30 minutes to copy. 

After finishing, he began packing up to leave when the bank manager stopped by.  “Everything look OK?  We’ve gotten a few complaints lately about people hanging around the ATM.”

“Tape was mostly fine; but I did see something that might be worth another look at.   Do you mind if I take a copy of the tape back to the office?  Maybe I can enhance the occurrence to see more clearly what was going on.”

“Sure.  No problem.  Let me know if you find anything we should know about.”

Aaron put the flash drive back in the computer and pretended to download a copy of the security file while he checked his phone messages.  After a few minutes, he got up and left.

When Aaron got back to the office he was actually a bit excited.  That’s a new feeling; finally something interesting to do.  But then, his boss, the spoiler, stopped by.  “Here’s what else I need you to do today, Aaron.  If you finish early, maybe help Luis.”

“Sure Boss, but the manager at the bank on Main wants me to take a closer look at a section of yesterday’s security tape.  Something questionable happened.  I have a copy of the tape with me, but I couldn’t quite make out what was going on.  I told the bank manager I would get back to him after I enhanced the tape.  He seems a little worried.”

“Oh, sure.  You better get to that.  We want to keep the bank happy with us.”

Parts of security tape files often needed one kind of enhancement or another.  The cameras used by different businesses vary in quality.  Some tapes are difficult to review without enhancing.  His office used a computer program called “Reveal” to enhance a security tape file.  But Aaron wouldn’t be able to use the program to enhance the file himself.  He didn’t know how to use the program.  Of course he had told his boss the opposite.  On occasions when he had to review poor quality tapes, he just pretended to use the software and then gave the tape a “pass”. 

He decided to see if Jayla would help him.  Her desk was in the back, so there was less chance his boss would wonder by.  Besides, he kind of liked her, and wouldn’t mind getting to know her better. 

Aaron watched while Jayla quickly located the occurrence by the time it occurred (3:50AM).  She first copied the occurrence to a separate file which she named that file “Occurrence_Original”.   Then ran the program over just the “Occurrence_Original” file and created 6 additional files.  Each of them implemented a different kind of enhancement of the “Occurrence_Original” file. 

“So, Aaron, here are the enhancement files.  Do you want me to look at them with you or do you just want to take them back to your desk?”

“Ah… Sure Jayla, it would be great to have your take on this, but the occurrence isn’t strictly speaking a bank security issue.  I’m not sure it would be a good idea to be looking at it in the office.  The boss might come by.  How about looking at these in the coffee shop?”

They sat side-by-side at their table.  Each was sipping their favorite coffee, although Jayla’s looked more like a chocolate milk shake.  Jayla’s laptop was open in front of them.  Together they went through each file, one after another.  Neither said anything while they watched each of the 7 tapes, including the original.  When they were done they both sat there silently, each thinking about what they had seen.

Jayla spoke first.  “What is that?  It looks like some sort of flying saucer landed and its passenger rushed out the back and around the corner.  But the flying saucer actually looks more like a flying water heater!  Too bad we can’t get a better look at whatever it is that is running around the corner.  Even in extremely slow motion it is impossible to see any definition in the thing running.  It appears like a dark shadow within a bluish blur of light.

They sat side-by-side looking at each other.  Finally Aaron muttered, “I know someone at Homeland Security.”

Landon Cooper of Homeland reluctantly took the call from Aaron.  They had briefly connected on a case while Aaron was a police investigator.  When they found themselves at the same location after working the case all day, they often went out together for some beers to unwind.  They hadn’t been in contact since the case had been completed.  Landon had since learned from the grapevine that Aaron had quit his job at the police department over some incident, although he had no details about it.  He wondered if this call had anything to do with that. 

Aaron guessed that Landon would worry about the reason for his call, so he got right to the point when Landon answered.  He didn’t even say hello. “I came across a suspicious, but very, strange occurrence on a bank security tape I am reviewing.  I think someone at Homeland should take a look at it.  How about I buy you a beer after work and show it to you?  I can meet you at that pub we went to on Welm about 6.  It’ll only take you a couple of minutes to look at incident on the security tape.”

With some relief Landon muttered, “Yah, I can do that, but I won’t be able to hang out.  Jill is expecting me home right after work.”

Expecting nothing, Landon was shocked by what he saw on the files.  The first thing he asked Aaron was whether he had the original tape.  Aaron said he didn’t but added that the bank would have archived the original file, and he did have a copy of the original file from which the incident files had been created.  Jayla, who had insisted on coming along, explained in more detail how she had created the incident files from the original copy.

Landon’s initial reaction was that it was probably faked, but if it wasn’t, it indicated a possible security threat.  It certainly looked like some sort of surreptitious intrusion into the country from some sort of space craft.  By who or what he couldn’t say and he didn’t buy into the idea that it was an alien spaceship.  He was mainly concerned about the technology displayed in the incident.  The apparent speeds involved in the space craft and passenger movements (but speed could surely be faked!); the odd shapes of the space craft and the passenger; the bluish light that surrounded and moved with both the space craft and the passenger.

Landon decided to play it cool.  He would look like a fool if he showed a lot of concern or worry, and the whole thing turned out to be nothing or faked.  Better to downplay it.  “Ok, this is interesting.  I don’t know what to make of it, but I’ll have our team review it.  I’ll need the copy of the original.  Our guys will want to run their own enhancement program over it.” 

A few evenings later, Aaron and Jayla sat in a bar near their office.  Both were a little angry, especially Aaron.  “What do we get out of this?  We found this.  We reported it.  Now Landon’s not even talking to me.  All he says is that they are working on it.  Most of the time, he’s not even returning my calls.”

They had thought about going to the media with the story, but that was preempted when Homeland agents came by and confiscated their tapes (although they had hidden away copies for themselves).  Homeland had also talked to the bank manager and gotten the bank’s agreement that only Homeland had authority to examine the tapes.  Aaron and Jayla wouldn’t be able to go to the media with the tapes without risking jail.

Meantime, Homeland began investigating in earnest.  The authenticity of the security tape was verified.  Investigators were sent to the site.  Although nothing was found that revealed anything about the nature of the ship or its passenger, evidence was found that something had landed at the location shown in the tape and something had moved from the ship to the back of the alley.  There were also minute traces of the movements in the dirt.  Although more analysis was needed, it appeared that the movements had caused some sort of chemical or physical reactions with some of the metal alloys in the dirt.

But beyond that the trail was lost.  Buildings in the area were searched and people were interviewed.  No leads were found. 

Homeland also looked into whether there were reports of anything unusual occurring after the time of the incident.  Of course, they had no clear idea of what to look for, but they examined unusual sightings on the ground or in the air, crimes and break-ins in the area, unusual injuries, unusual illnesses, and whatever else they could think of. 

Whatever it was had disappeared into the city without any further trace.  Nevertheless, the incident was taken very seriously.  The military and first responders were placed on alert.  The skies were being monitored.  Chatter on telephone calls and radio frequencies were being monitored.  The kind of measures were being taken that would be taken during an imminent terrorist threat.  And indeed that was the cover story for taking all the measures.

Aaron and Landon were drinking beer in the pub they had met at when the whole thing started.  “Look what can I tell you Aaron?  This thing is a bust.  We haven’t definitely ruled that the incident is a fake, and no one has come up with a satisfactory explanation of it, but it goes nowhere.”

“The case though hasn’t been closed and Homeland does not want the incident to get out without its explicit authorization.  What I can tell you is that if you leak this, directly or indirectly, you will be in very deep shit.  You will go to jail.”

With that, Aaron ordered two shots of Tequila, downing them one after the other.  “Fuck.”  He got up and left without saying another word.

Part 2:

Dr. Meghnad Raman’s wife, Amrita, called him for a third time to come to dinner.  For the third time he yelled back that he would be right there.  Then for the third time he went right back to the data.  It didn’t seem to portend anything serious, but something was going on with the Sun that he had never seen before.  He graphed the anomaly over the last 26 months.  It showed small but steady monthly increases with intermittent fluctuations.

Amrita yelled at him a fourth time:  “The food is getting cold.  We are starting without you!”

Finally, he got up.  He left the computer going and went in to dinner.  He ate one of his favorite dinners without tasting the food, because he was still thinking about the anomalous data.  Unconsciously, he began to eat faster and faster and immediately left the table when he was done.  His wife and children just watched as he got up and left.  This was nothing unusual.

When he got back to his computer there was a new email notification.  It was from an unknown address.  He was tempted to delete it without reading it, but the subject line caught his attention:  “Expected Upcoming Solar Implosion”.

“Solar implosion.”  What’s this about?  He knew that stars implode in on themselves after they reach the end of their solar lives and go to super nova.  But our Sun wasn’t anywhere near its end.  An implosion wouldn’t even be possible, would it? 

He opened the email.

Dr. Raman,

Recent increases of heavy elements in the Sun’s core raises to near certainty the probably of a solar implosion within 20 Earth years.  Data establishing this is found below and in other emails to follow.

The email was unsigned, but several pages of charts and data were contained in the email.  Neither the data nor the charts were explained, but superficially the data and charts looked real. 

Most of the charts and data seemed cryptic, but the first chart in the email made some intuitive sense to him, and he began to examine the supporting evidence provided. 

As he was slowly going over the data, all of a sudden it hit him.  A continuing increase of heavy elements in the Sun’s core could explain the odd data he had been looking at earlier.  He suddenly began to tremble slightly as he thought through the implications.  He forcefully restrained himself to keep from panicking.  He knew nothing about this email or who wrote it. 

Slowly as he studied the charts and data in the email over the next weeks things began to make more and more sense to him.  Additional emails with more charts and data followed.  The emails were arriving every few days and arrived about the same time.  Their subject heading was always the same:  “Expected Upcoming Solar Implosion”, but their addresses were different each time.

Every time he got an email, he replied with a plea, “Who are you?  How did you get this data?”  But his pleas were ignored.

As he studied the data and charts, he became more and more concerned.  The data, if correct (a very big IF), indicated a catastrophic event for Earth, our solar system, and possibly nearby solar systems as well. 

Without revealing the implications, he sent a portion of the charts and data around to several of his colleagues, asking them whether they could confirm any of the data and what they thought the implications were if any. 

It took a few days, but then the responses began to come it.  Each response was a “Reply to All” so all the scientists could read the responses of the others.  All the responses expressed some puzzlement and concern about what was going on with the Sun.  He could read the tension in their responses.  One was marked:  “Urgent that we all talk.  Let’s set up a Skype meeting ASAP.”  Which they did. 

Of course the first question he was asked at the meeting was where the data came from.  He told them about the mysterious emails and how they had been arriving every few days. 

He suggested that each scientist summarize their thinking about what the data indicated was going on with the Sun.   Although he had told them about the emails he hadn’t mentioned their subject heading. 

The scientists were all obviously puzzled and concerned about what the data indicated and all believed it might indicate that something major was happening with the Sun.  But none of them, of course, contemplated anything like a solar implosion.  After the summaries the scientists discussed their findings for another hour.

Finally, Meghnad stopped the discussion:  “I didn’t mention one other thing about the emails.  The subject line of each is, and I quote, ‘Expected Upcoming Solar Implosion’.  And the emails state the implosion will occur in about 20 years.   Let’s meet again in a few days.  I need you all to think about the data in reference to the hypothesis of a possible solar implosion.”

That night another email arrived, but this did not contain any data.  Instead, there was just a single paragraph:  “Decrease the ratio of heavy elements to light elements by more than 11.3%.  This probably can be most easily done by increasing the level of light elements than by reducing the level of heavy elements.”  Meghnad forwarded the new email on to the team without comment.

They met again in a couple of days.  Although a couple of the scientists were skeptical whether the data indicated a solar implosion, others thought it was possible.  They needed more time to work on the problem.

They decided that the skeptical scientists would continue to work on the problem of whether the data supported a possible solar implosion.  The others would consider whether a decrease in the ratio of heavy elements to light elements could reverse the trends they were seeing in the data. 

Of course the big question on everyone’s mind was whether, if a solar implosion was coming, it could be stopped.  Maybe it could be stopped, as suggested in the email, by decreasing the ratio of heavy to light elements, but how do you do that?  How do you increase the level of light elements in the sun (the email’s suggested approach) or decrease the level of heavy elements (which the email suggested was more difficult)?  These were engineering problems beyond anything that had ever been contemplated!

Abruptly, the emails stopped coming.  But the work continued.  This would turn out to be just the impetus of a world-wide effort to save Earth.  Indeed, not just the Earth, but the whole universe, and even some surrounding universes.  In the process much would be learned.  Countries would come together on a problem that faced them all. 

Part 3:

The streets were empty given the late hour and terrible weather.  The blur of movement was nearly invisible in the fog and rain as the blur moved from one nook to another.  It moved steadily out of the city towards the shoreline.  When it finally reached the shoreline it continued directly into the ocean and disappeared under the waves, never to emerge again. 

Some months later Aaron and Landon again met at the pub.  Jayla also had joined them.  After a deep chug, Landon began talking.  “Lucky you two didn’t get more involved in this.  Nothing more has ever turned up.  The investigation and alert status are officially being be suspended if and until some further leads show up.  Besides national priorities have radically shifted given what’s now being called the ‘Save the Sun’ initiative.”

“It’s all hands on deck at Homeland.  Although saving the Sun is primarily a scientific and engineering problem, Homeland and other agencies have been tasked with developing plans and strategies for maintaining order in and outside the U.S. as the deadline draws nearer.  It’s anticipated that there will be great unrest in the U.S. and around the world as we get closer to disaster.”

Epilogue:

The aliens were meeting to discuss the results of the mission to Earth.  It had taken close to 200 Earth years for their ship to reach earth and more than 4 Earth years for the ship broadcast to reach back to their planet.  The aliens responsible for the mission were all long dead.

In Earth terms the mission was considered a “Hail Mary” pass.  The alien scientists had long known about the impending implosion of the Sun.  Although their planet was more than 4 light years away from the Sun in a neighboring star system, the implosion would be catastrophic for their planet as well as for the Earth solar system. 

Although their scientists and engineers had ideas on how to reverse the implosion of the Sun, it was impossible for them to implement any of them from their location.  They were simply too far away.  Their only hope was that Earth scientists themselves would be able to discover the impending implosion and figure out how to stop it. 

But the aliens might be able to point Earth scientists in the right direction.   That was the purpose of the mission of sending an alien agent to Earth. 

Had the mission succeeded?  Had Earth been alerted to the impending disaster?  Had they mobilized to try to stop it?  They were about to discuss the findings in their meeting.