“Yes sir I do. That’s why I send the reports for your eyes only. Not to the GAO and not to the Secretary of Defense. Only you have access to this information,” Devin said.
“No one prepared me for this,” the President said, running his hands through his hair.
It was a habit he had had for years. Whenever something was difficult to grasp, he ran his hands through his hair. It was a nervous habit that he didn’t even realize he had until his wife mentioned it once.
“No one is ever prepared for this,” Devin said.
The President spent several minutes walking around and touching the alien craft. The general helped him look inside so he could get a better picture of the technology they were trying to understand.
It doesn’t have all the gauges like our planes. How do they do that?”
“Sir, if we knew that we would have already been testing them in space. It is an agonizingly slow process. We actually reached a standstill until we obtained an element our people call Element-115. We have known for some time that the trigger for all of this was the element UuP 115. It does not exist here on earth to any degree. Unless we could figure a way to produce it, we would never be able to duplicate what these saucers do. Over time we have been able to obtain enough of this element to compress it, machine it and turn it in to fuel for propulsion.”
The general had just told a lie to the President. It was a lie by omission of how they had actually obtained the material needed. He was counting on the entire experience to keep the President off balance so he wouldn’t ask probing questions. His gamble worked.
“So now we can…what? Go to other planets?” the President asked.
“In time. The next thing is to determine how they control the craft. Like I said, we have made a small amount progress but our team today seems to be headed in the right direction. I can’t tell you when we will have an actual operational craft,” he said.
The President shook his head. This was like a movie, total science fiction stuff. Yet here he was, able to reach out and touch one of these things.
“If you don’t mind, I would like to show you something else,” the general said.”
The President followed him over to an elevator and watched as Devin inserted his card. Within a few seconds the elevator doors opened.
“I have to warn you Mr. President. This isn’t your normal elevator. It is very fast and you may find your stomach in your throat. That is normal,” he said and pushed the button for Level — 2.
Immediately the bottom seemed to drop out from the President’s feet and he gasped.
“What the….”
“Something isn’t it?” the general said, smiling.
Almost as suddenly the elevator came to a halt making the President feel like he had just been hit with a fifty pound bag of cement.
“This is designed to work that way?” he asked as the exited the elevator.
“Time. It’s all about time. The shaft goes down another 800 feet and we don’t want to spend time just standing around. It is designed for maximum efficiency,” Devin explained.
“Another 800 feet? Who knows about this place?”
“Besides the staff and you?”
“Yes.”
“No one. No one knows how many levels are below the main one and we intend to keep it that way,” he said.
Devin seated the President in one of the carts that were waiting.
“What are these?”
“We call them RTC or rapid transport carts. They are pretty fast but nothing like the elevator,” he said and pushed the only thing on the dash which was a large green button.
The cart hummed for a second and then took off down the tunnel. When it came to the end of the tunnel it gently stopped.
“That wasn’t so bad,” the President said climbing out.
The tunnel had been about three hundred yards long and twenty feet in diameter. Bright lights lit every inch of the path the carts took. When they stopped they were in front of a huge door with massive hinges. In the middle was a smaller door, similar to the one they had entered back on the surface. Devin activated the code and they were admitted.
“Please stand here,” Devin said, indicating the two footprints painted on the floor. The President did as instructed and a machine scanned his body. He could see his skeleton and everything he had in his pockets. The resolution was phenomenal.
“Thank you sir. Now, I have to go through the process,” he said and the machine once again scanned the general’s body.
“Why do we both have to go through the machine?” the President asked.
“The system is designed to ensure that no one entering the first door is carrying anything that could be concealed. Classified material, weapons, recording devices, cameras. Unless all parties go through the scan, the system assumes it is under attack and will issue an electrical jolt to the person who didn’t.”
“Good God. Are you all that paranoid down here?” he asked.
“Good question. Ask me the same thing when we get ready to leave,” Devin replied.
