31 March 2042
It was a few minutes before 1500 when Colonel Kyle Martin strode into the outer office. He was a Marine through and through; ramrod straight back without the effort that it would seem to take and eyes that constantly moved, taking in every detail of a room. He exuded the confidence of a senior officer and the wariness of a man used to danger. He spoke briefly with the secretary and then sat in a chair to wait.
General Davies took a deep breath and prepared himself for this meeting. He had never seen Colonel Martin shaken, not even during the hearings that occurred some six years earlier. If that had gone differently, he would be hard pressed to imagine Martin still in uniform, and that would mean that this meeting, and indeed this mission, would be much different.
The door opened right at 1500 and Martin walked in.
“Have a seat Colonel Martin,” General Davies gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Coffee?”
“No thank you General,” Martin said as he sat and made himself comfortable.
A quick nod from the General to his secretary was followed by a secure click of the office door closing. Davies lowered himself slowly into the large, well-worn leather chair facing Martin.
“So Kyle, it’s been a few years, hasn’t it?” Davies said as both men settled in.
“Yes sir, I believe it was right after Hyderabad.” A slight wincing was detected in the Colonel’s body language, but his voice remained firm. “I believe you were relieving me of command at the time.”
“Look Kyle, that was six years ago and I didn’t agree with it then. The President was adamant that you be relieved of command. Congress wanted you court-martialed, thrown in a cell and left to rot. It was only the direct intervention of Admiral Rider that you avoided being put before an inquest.” Davies leaned back and took a deep breath. “The Medal of Honor should have been yours, and everyone who knows of the situation thinks so. What you did was absolutely the correct course of action… as the rest of the world will eventually find out. But I didn’t call you here to hash over old times.”
A long awkward pause filled the room with a sharp silence.
“Why did you call me here?” inquired Martin.
Again a long silence. It was useless to try to make him uncomfortable by waiting, though, so Davies just pushed forward.
“Kyle, how familiar are you with NASA?”
“My sister was a flight specialist until the Endeavor was lost. I guess you could say that fifteen years of having an astronaut in the family makes me pretty familiar with the agency.”
“That’s what I thought,” Davies continued “Do you know what happened Kyle? What really happened?”
Martin’s eye twitched and he stiffened as if weighing his response.
“I have made a few inquiries with some friends… and… I know that the official story is part of a cover-up.”
“Yes, yes, I assumed you would have figured that out. Well, time to show you this.” Davies pulled out a folder from his desk drawer and placed it on the desk.
“Sir, that folder is marked SC-07, I don’t have that clearance.”
“You do now Colonel Martin, you need to take that with you and study it.”
“This has to do with Cindy’s death?”
“No, this is your next assignment. I will tell you what happened to your sister. The Shuttle Endeavor did not crash on the moon. The Shuttle Endeavor was destroyed in orbit around Mars.”
Martin was clearly stunned. His mouth moved several times and he had to swallow before speaking. “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t see how that’s possible. I had dinner with Cindy three days before the accident. The shuttle couldn’t have been at Mars. We don’t have that capability.”
Davies’ smile was strained as if he were trying to hold back laughter. “That’s what I thought, Kyle. But I found out last week that we indeed do have that capability. In fact, we can reach Mars in less than six hours in the best case, and less than forty hours even with Mars at the furthest possible position.”
“I’m sorry sir, but did I hear you correctly? We have the capability to travel to Mars in a few hours?”
“Yes. I don’t know the technical mumbo jumbo, but essentially the Shuttle goes to a location where they hook it onto a separate… well basically just an engine with an engineering crew, and that engine has the power to take it to Mars in a matter of hours. They had brought the engine, the Torpedo they call it, back to Earth orbit to keep working with it when they stopped getting signals from the Shuttle. They thought it was a communication failure, but when the Torpedo returned the next day to bring the Shuttle home, they found that the Shuttle had been destroyed.”
Martin sat staring at a point on the wall. Davies had seen him like this before. It was during the final hours before the assault on Hyderabad and Martin had made up his mind to use the pholux rockets to destroy the city. It was a decision he couldn’t turn back on once it had been made. It was also a decision that changed the course of the war and his personal career.
“Sir, what is my mission?” Martin softly asked.
“I’m sure you know that there is even more than you can imagine Kyle, and your briefing folder holds all the data. In short, the United States has made contact with an alien race and we need a competent escort detachment for our diplomat. You will need to pick your team, report to Kennedy and go through the NASA training.”
“An alien race?” Kyle asked skeptically.
“Yes, this is a first contact situation which is why it is at the top level of security. It’s all detailed in your package,” Davies said, patting the folder.
“Do you anticipate trouble?”
“Am I a Marine?”
They both laughed for a few seconds before falling back into the professionalism that the severity of the situation required.
“Kyle, you need to make sure your team can handle any situation. No specialty without redundancy and no one looking to make a name for themselves. Linguistics are a plus, as are any diplo skills.”
Davies leaned back and looked at the ceiling for a few seconds before locking eyes on Martin and leaning in as far as he could across the table.
“Because of the danger involved, no one under 25, no one married, no one with minor children. That is from the top.”
Martin broke eye contact for just a split second. Davies knew that his daughter, Sara, had just turned 18 the month before.
“I need Ramirez,” Martin stated as if asking for a cup of coffee.
“No. Out of the question.”
“Then you can find a new CO.” Martin started to stand.
“Fine.” Davies sighed leaning back “I’ll have to pull some strings and lean a little, but you’ll have him.”
Both men sat in their chairs and looked at each other with a feigned casualness.
“If you want Ramirez, you can have him. But it’s a risk and you know it.” Davies was irritated by this demand, but also had expected it. He knew he was going to spend the rest of his political capital. He figured he might even end up owing quite a bit to some people he didn’t like owing things too.
“Fine, it’s a risk. We’re Marines and Alex is the finest Marine I have ever seen.”
“Ok, well, I think that’s all for now. You have some reading to do and some decisions to make. You need to be at Kennedy in three weeks, so you better get started.”
“Thank you for this opportunity, General. It was good to see you again,” Martin said as he stood and started to leave. “And thanks for telling me the truth about Cindy.”
Davies waited until Martin had walked down the hall and through the double doors before calling his Secretary in.
“Donna, clear my schedule today and call my wife and let her know I’m coming home now. Make sure she has a drink ready for me when I get there.”
He knew change was coming, and he may have just unleashed the harbinger of doom or an angel of deliverance upon mankind. Kyle Martin might destroy all humankind or lead them to a greater age, but it was unlikely that he would have no impact on history. And it was General Willard Davies who showed him the path.