Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Consequences

Now let me bring you to the present day. The date is November 12th, 2017.  My age: 38.

I am currently standing on the deck of the USS Portland, a destroyer. We are currently near Boston, waiting for two unusual passengers to arrive. It is now 1300 hours, and my esteemed guests are running late. 

I lean on the ship's railing and take a deep breath, while the seagulls cry around me looking for something to eat. The weather is calm this afternoon, so is the ocean. Still, it is rather cold here on deck but I need the fresh air, so I pull up my jacket to protect my ears from the cold. 

My shift will start in five minutes, so I have some time to reminisce about times long past. Back then I lived close to this location, which brings back many memories. Unpleasant memories. 

Even though people are much more open minded these days, I never again thought about dating. Perhaps I really needed to visit a therapist back then, perhaps they could have helped me? All of these years, I had only focused on work, and it helped me stay sane. 

My thoughts were interrupted when a speedboat approached our ship, leaving a wake in the water behind them. Two men are helped on board, and I walk towards them. You guessed it, my mission today will be to babysit those two guys.

"Good afternoon gentlemen, I am Petty Officer 1st Class, Mark Chapman. But just call me Mark," I said while shaking hands with one of them.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Mark. Nice to finally meet you. I am Daniel Barker, scientist at Boston University. Call me Daniel."

I was only a bit jealous that he represented Boston University, then replied "Nice to meet you Daniel."

The other one then shook hands with me, I nodded and only said "Mark."

"Ahmed Holman, nice to meet you. Ah, call me Ahmed." Ahmed looked a bit young for what they were about to do onboard. 

"Nice to meet you too, Ahmed," I said.

"Ahmed here will assist me in our little experiment today, he is a senior at our university,"  Daniel said. He must have noticed that I doubted whether Ahmed should be here at all.

"Good, now that we have introduced ourselves, how about you come with me and set up your equipment? 

No offense, but my captain wants to keep your visit here as short as possible."  I said.

"Ah, yes. None taken Mark, we are aware of this. But I hope that the captain knows that we were invited here and the experiment will still take about 3 hours in total," Daniel replied.

I motioned for them to follow me, "yes, he knows. Please follow me gentlemen. Be careful not to touch anything, this is a military ship, we don't want any surprises."

"Yes, sir," Ahmed said. 

"At ease, Ahmed. Just Mark will do. You are not enlisted,"  I said in an assertive tone of voice.

"Ah, eh yes...Mr Mark." Ahmed said, looking down at the deck.  

He didn't see me smiling, I really love to show off my military way of speech to civilians.

When we reached the center of the ship, I guided them into a small meeting room which was cleared of any military equipment, so they can do no harm here. Well, that is the theory at least. There are two guards outside, making sure that our two guests don't wander off.

A few minutes later, their equipment was brought down here. I sat down and decided to watch them set up their equipment until I noticed they probably could use some help. "Do you need any assistance? Electronics are my specialty," I said.

"Really?" Daniel said.  

"Sure, shall I set up your frequency spectrometer?"

Ahmed looked at me in disbelief, after which Daniel said "yes, the man knows his equipment. Go ahead Mark, we could use your help."

After about thirty minutes, the room was alive with glowing screens, some showing wave patterns, others only rapidly blinking lights. This would have been a dream come true for my past self. But they don't need to know that I am still secretly enjoying this.

Daniel then motions for me to come closer, and says "I don't know how much you have been informed about this experiment?"

"I only know that this involves a potentially more secure way to exchange messages with other Navy vessels," I answered.

Daniel then pointed to a metallic case with lots of buttons and also cables coming out of it.

"Well, that is true, but it is more complicated than that. Let me explain. This case holds a single hydrogen atom, temperature controlled to almost zero degree Kelvin." His eyes were locked onto mine, a serious expression in his eyes. He was obviously trying to see how much of that I had understood. 

"The point at which atoms stop moving you mean?"

Daniel looked surprised at my reply but then continued to explain. "Indeed. That is the point of this experiment. See, there is another one of these cases located at our university. We have linked the two hydrogen atoms together. The theory is that even though there is a long distance between them, either atom should vibrate in tune with the other one. Their paths are linked in the subatomic structure. Something that we do not yet fully understand ourselves."

"So that is why you are here. To actually try the communication part?"  I asked.

Daniel then said "yes, we are now ready to start and will test the communication now."

"Okay..." I said, frowning, "but that is not what I meant. Why are you here on board? Surely you could have tested this yourselves already?"

Daniel then glanced at Ahmed, and Ahmed then answered my question, "we have already successfully tested this setup. The military funds our research, so we feel...that we need to show some of our results."

"I see, so that is why we now have a small camera in the corner. You want some proof of success, right?" I asked.

"Yes, that is the idea," Daniel said smiling, "now if you don't mind. I want us to start."

I asked them to wait for a minute, so I could contact the bridge. They gave us the green light and confirmed that we were a safe distance away from the coast. 

I walked back into the room and said "alright, you may procee.....what happened here?"  

"Ahmed here had to throw up, so I needed to clean the place," Daniel said, rolling his eyes.

I looked at Ahmed, he did look a bit pale, but he was busy monitoring the equipment. He is alive and I am not his mother, so I don't care. 

I smiled and said "no sea legs, huh.."   

This is not my day, babysitting these two, and one of them has already emptied his stomach on my watch. And I'm even expected to protect this ship from anything these two might do to her.

Daniel smiled and said "good, now we can start. I didn't tell anyone when we would start our experiment, except you, Mark. So the reply might take a few minutes. This is the send key, it works just as in morse code, and when you hear a beep it means our colleagues in Boston have pushed their green button to return the signal." Then he pushes the big green "send" button for a second.

You are reading story First Contact…my way at novel35.com

Nothing happened initially. But only a few seconds later a beep could be heard from a speaker inside of the equipment.

"Alright," Daniel said, "all seems to be working perfectly. Would you like to try this as well?" 

"No thank you, I am only observing here. Maybe you should try actual morse code, or something only your colleagues could know. I am not yet convinced that your colleagues are the only ones who are receiving the message."

"I see your point," Daniel said, "but the atoms were linked in our lab. Any outside interference would immediately disable the link between the atoms. It's just how nature works, and that happens to be a big plus for military communication. When someone has indeed tampered with the link, it will simply no longer work."

"Alright, call me impressed. Now try some actual morse code," I said, trying to see the actual benefit of this setup.

"Eh, sorry, I don't know the morse code, Mark," Daniel said, sounding truly apologetic.

Then Ahmed said, "maybe we could use something else? Each atom vibrates at a natural frequency. What would happen if we warmed up the hydrogen atom a bit, so that it would vibrate at its native frequency?"

"No, Ahmed. The idea is sound, but that is untested. We don't want any issues here," Daniel replied.

"No, you don't," I added, a serious expression on my face.

Then one of the equipment malfunctioned for a split second. The surge protector kicked in and disabled that 

faulty equipment within a millisecond...no harm done. But Ahmed was so startled that his elbow hit a button on the atom's casing, raising its temperature quickly above zero degree Kelvin, followed by another safety mechanism kicking in, beeping loudly and instantly re-freezing the test equipment. 

"What have you done!" Daniel shouts at Ahmed.

"Nothing! I was startled, I didn't mean to!"

"Is everything safe here?" I asked with concern for the ship.

Then, for a few seconds, the beeps coming from the speaker sound more like a digital pattern, like an old fashioned modem.

"Eh...it really shouldn't have done that...but yes, we are safe," Daniel said, with a surprised expression, "but the test has failed. The atom was heated above zero degree Kelvin, so the atom has moved a bit. We can no longer send a signal now. It has to be re-calibrated in our lab. It can't do anything anymore."

"Well, that is a pity. But that is what tests are all about, so I suggest you pack your equipment and you can try again in the future. I look forward to seeing your equipment installed on our ships."

"Thank you Mark." A disappointed Daniel said.

"Good, I will be waiting on deck, ask those guards when you are ready so your equipment will be carried up again."

"Yes, Mark. Of course. We won't be long. This should take only fifteen minutes."

And indeed, fifteen minutes have passed and the two were already well on their way back to the shore using the speed boat.

After explaining the unsatisfactory results to the ship's XO (=executive officer, second in command), my babysitting job was finally over. I didn't mention the vomiting part to him though.

A few hours later, my shift had ended. It was already dark when I was on deck to take in some much needed fresh air, but then something happened.

Suddenly the alarms sound on the ship, the XO's voice shouts through the ship's speakers:

General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. Inbound hostile aircraft.

I turn around and want to run to my station to make sure that our electronics are secure, but I don't get the chance. Only a second or two after the order was given, an extremely bright light was hovering above our ship, completely blinding me. Then, all lights go dark on our ship, it looks like a shipwide power failure. Oh my god, what is that thing? 

Then, from whatever is above us, a very loud male voice can be heard:  

"This is Rescue One. We are here to help. We will come aboard." 

I am still blinded when I hear sounds behind me, and when I turn around, I can only vaguely see shapes...they..they are much taller than I am. What are they? They are coming down using cables, are they abseiling?

I instinctively make myself as small as possible, I am not armed, so I cannot defend myself. 

Then I hear someone shouting, "boarding party, stand down, or we WILL open fire!" 

The shapes are coming closer, ignoring the warning. Then I hear the sound of gunfire all around me, but the shapes are still moving, stopping only a meter in front of me. One of them shouts "Please! Stop your fire, we are here to help, repeat, stop your fire."

Then the XO shouts "cease fire. cease fire." And the gunfire stops. The XO then shouts "state your purpose!"  But he is interrupted by another bright light appearing above us.  

One of the first boarding party shouts to me: "leave this vessel now, they will kill everyone!"

That is when the other ship also drops off people onto our deck. I am now caught in the middle of two unidentified boarding parties, something that should be impossible.

The second group is opening fire, but they use beams of light. What is going on? Should I jump off the ship?

Then the first group uses the same type of light beams to return the fire. Our people are caught in the middle, the XO is hit, so I crawled over to him, he still has a pulse, good.

Then the bridge exploded from the inside, nooo!! The captain! And with the XO is incapacitated, should I assume command?  

The first group approached me and a femininie voice said, "Please! Tell your people to leave this vessel, or they will kill you."  There was something in her voice that made me feel as if I could trust her. 

I had only a split second to think before acting. Can I trust them? They had noticed me before, but they didn't harm me. This situation is getting out of control, so I decided to comply and shout to my people "abandon ship.. abandon ship..repeat..."

But then my leg was hit by a light beam. Oh my god it hurts like hell! And I can feel that I am losing blood, but I can't see a thing in this light. But the pain tells me more than I want to know, I can't jump off the ship anymore, I can't swim like this.

I yell in pain, not realizing that the tall person with the feminine voice from earlier now bents over me, blocking some of the light. I see a female face, but with big blue eyes, what are they? I now see that she is also hurt, red drops leaking from her suit. 

Then I hear the familiar sound of weapons firing from afar, then impacting right above us, visibly damaging the second ship, the first one not moving a bit. This is friendly fire, ship-launched anti-aircraft missiles, shooting at whatever is above us. This really is not my day. Then I slowly lost my consciousness, not noticing that some of her blood had entered my wounds.