Silent Invasion (eBook)
357 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-947937-53-6 (ISBN)
Amber van Hosteen is working at her dream job at News Corp in New York City. That is, it's a dream until she discovers large corporations are corrupting governments around the world, sponsoring questionable projects, and building huge factories in lawless places for an unknown purpose. Determined to learn who is behind these crimes, Amber follows a trail of clues to a remote village in North Africa. Jeff Smith is a senior CIA agent. When his team discovers a material that cannot be made on Earth, and his director does not want to believe him. Jeff is reassigned to follow Amber to Africa, little suspecting it will lead him to the answers about the mysterious material. Amber and Jeff have met before. He once tried to stop her from getting a story, so when he comes to her rescue in a dire situation, she is less than grateful. Soon, however, they find themselves forming a fragile alliance. When they discover an unimaginable nightmare, they quickly realize they can trust no one except each other. Soon, Jeff and Amber are being chased around the world by members of the Hidden Hand, a secret society with influence at the highest levels across many governments. What Amber and Jeff have discovered will change the world forever if they don't put a stop to it. But who will believe them, and will they even live to tell the tale?
Chapter 1
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Jeff Smith walked quickly into the outer offices of the high-tech lab located under the rolling hills of Virginia. He walked right past the receptionist in his haste to reach Alon’s lab. One of Alon’s assistants was chasing Jeff, saying, “Sir, you must wait in the waiting room. You cannot just walk into the labs! Sir!”
Jeff spotted Alon and said, “Hi, Alon. What did you find out?”
Alon looked at his assistant. “It’s okay. Thank you for your help.”
“Why do you always do that, Jeff?” Alon asked, half-joking as his assistant frowned and walked off.
“We are 100 stories underground in a maximum-security lab. If I couldn’t be here, I never would have made it below ground.” Jeff was a senior CIA agent in charge of ten other agents. He hated waiting and was used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it.
Alon just shook his head with a smile. He then got very serious. “Jeff, where did you get the material you brought me?” Alon had emigrated from Israel with his parents when he was a teenager. He was a full US citizen and a gifted scientist, but some in the upper ranks of the CIA still did not trust him.
“Alon, this entire operation is now class 11 secure. You know what that means.”
“It is well over your pay grade,” Alon said with a smile.
“And probably not over yours,” Jeff said, smiling back. “But seriously, Alon, this is strictly need-to-know basis. No one can get this information without explicit authorization. Use me to request approval.”
Alon smiled and spread his arms wide. “I agree.”
Jeff looked around to ensure no one else was in the lab. “We found this material at a crash site, underwater.”
Alon looked confused, “Underwater? That cannot be. There is no corrosion. The surface is perfect—as if it were polished yesterday.
Did you clean it up? What was it part of? What kind of water? Ocean? Fresh?”
“Slow down, Alon. It’s a long story. No, we did not clean it up. It was in the ocean, about five hundred miles south of Anchorage, Alaska, about five miles off the coast of Queen Charlotte Island. We don’t know what it is; some salvage company found the wreckage while looking for a World War II submarine.”
“The wreckage was confusing at first. There was a semi-circular pattern to the wreckage, but what we found were these flat, roughly triangular pieces like the sample I gave you, very neatly placed, each one slightly overlapping the next. The metal was in perfect condition. We thought it must be new, but the salvage company said it spotted it weeks ago and had just gotten around to this site. It was underwater at least a month. There is no telling how long it was there.”
“There are other ways to tell,” Alon said.
“You’re right; I misspoke. That part of the ocean floor has no direct inlets from rivers. The only deposits are from sea creatures dying. Based on the lack of any significant deposits on top, we know it has been there less than 100 years. We also know the salvage company spotted it about one month before. So, we know the wreckage is between two months and 100 years old.”
Alon was deep in thought now. Jeff decided to give him time to think.
Finally, Alon broke the silence. “Okay. Shall I share what I’ve found out?”
Jeff nodded.
“This substance is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. After close visual inspection, I found nothing. No flaws, no cracks, no imperfections. Then I found nothing on its surface. No dust. No rust. Not even bacteria were present on the entire surface. That was strange, so I attempted to slice off a sample to analyze chemically. Guess what. I could not cut off a sample. I tried saws, torches, and lasers. Nothing worked,” Alon said as he raised his hands and dropped them at his sides in frustration.
“That’s not possible,” Jeff said.
“Exactly! The energy from the lasers and torches was just absorbed, and the surface never got hotter. The saws slid uselessly over the material without causing a single scratch. Hammer blows bounced right off the surface with no distortion. Then I decided to place it in a hydraulic press. I set up lasers to measure any change in the material’s surface. I clearly warped it at eighty tons of pressure, but when I released the pressure, it was back to its original shape with no distortion at all.”
“Wow! What did you do next?”
“I took that three-foot-long sample and placed it under some very powerful microscopes.”
“How did you do that?” Jeff asked, amazed.
Alon smiled because Jeff clearly appreciated just how hard that would have been to do. “It wasn’t easy. Eventually, I could analyze the structure of the metal and its composition.”
“And?” Jeff asked, intensely focused on Alon’s words.
“This material is not just metal. It’s an intricate matrix of nanites.”
“Nanites?” Jeff said incredulously. “I thought nanites were just a theory.”
“No, there are some molecular machines, but they’re very primitive. Nothing even close to this material.
“How could that be?” Jeff asked.
“Jeff, there’s more. I believe these nanites behave the way they do because they’re in a default state.”
“What’s a default state?” Jeff asked.
Alon struggled for words. “The default is when they have no other orders to reform into any other…configuration.”
“What?” Jeff asked more confused than ever.
Alon took another deep breath and said, “Jeff, I believe that some intelligence can control the nanites to form shapes. In fact, the nanites could reform into anything. It’s a smart material.”
Jeff was stunned. “Do you mean to tell me that the sample in your lab could turn into a swirling set of knives that kills everyone in the room?”
“I didn’t think about military applications. I was thinking only of construction and manufacturing.” Alon put his hand on his chin and started thinking about it. Then he decided, “What you are saying is possible, Jeff, but only if an outside force acted to control the material. The material is smart but not intelligent. It could change into a knife if something ordered it to, but it couldn’t spin around without some other force affecting it.”
“Smart but not intelligent?” Jeff asked.
“Yes; it cannot think for itself. Something or someone would have to control it to make it do anything. Otherwise, it will sit in its default configuration and do nothing. What you found could have been a systems failure that caused a ship made of this material to fall apart into its default state and sink to the bottom of the ocean.”
“But then wouldn’t the remains be scattered?” Jeff asked.
“Yes. Perhaps it was sitting on the bottom when the failure occurred. Either way, I think there’s a more profound question to ask: Could this material have been produced on Earth? I think the answer is no.”
“Why?”
“First, no one on this planet has this technology. Second, the nanites themselves appear to be perfect spheres.”
“What’s so important about them being spherical?”
“Not spherical, perfect spheres. Anything produced on Earth is affected by the Earth’s gravity. No manufacturing facility on Earth has ever produced a perfectly spherical object. It cannot be done because of Earth’s gravity.”
“Cars have ball bearings. Those are spheres, aren’t they?” Jeff asked.
“They’re spherical but not perfect spheres.”
“Where else could it be produced?”
Alon motioned upward with his eyes as he said, “Perfect spheres can only be produced in space.”
As Jeff headed back to Washington, DC, he mulled over how to communicate what he had learned to his direct superior.
He couldn’t help but think, How do I tell my boss that aliens left their footprint on Earth between two months and 100 years ago? He blurted out “Bloody hell!” before he realized it.
His driver looked back to inquire, “Sir, are you all right?”
“Yes, thanks for asking.”
The driver was perplexed but decided to let his passenger elaborate only if he felt the need.
Jeff decided to break out his laptop and write his report.
* * *
An hour later, as Jeff approached Langley, he was almost done with his report. His shoulders and back were stiff, and he was tired, but as the car stopped in front of the main entrance, he moved quickly through security and the main campus quad area to Assistant Director Zachariah James’ building.
Fortunately, James was there, even though he was on a phone call. Jeff paced nervously back and forth in front of his boss’ desk.
As James hung up, he said, “Well, what is it, man?”
“Do you remember the material we found off the Pacific Coast, sir?”
“Vaguely.”
“It may be proof that alien life visited Earth.”
“Are you mad?” the director asked as he stood up.
“Sir, the material we found on the ocean floor is not metal. It’s a structure formed by nanites.”
“Nanites?” James asked.
“Yes, nanites. They’re smart microscopic machines that are not intelligent but do react to commands. They can reshape themselves and move to some extent.”
“Where did you get this fairy tale?”
“Alon’s team did the analysis, sir.”
“Alon is an Israeli. Why do you keep taking things to him?”
“He’s the best there is, sir. There’s more. These nanites are formed in perfect...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 14.11.2018 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction |
| ISBN-10 | 1-947937-53-7 / 1947937537 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-947937-53-6 / 9781947937536 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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