Here we are with another episode of Alarm Clock Dawn. Yesterday Johann had some very difficult news to break to the XenTek board of directors. The plot is now getting otherworldly; the belief systems of those in power are beginning to be challenged. Things only get stranger and more complex from here. I hope you enjoy today's adventure!
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Did you miss Episode 13 of Alarm Clock Dawn? If so click here to read it.
Johann continued. “Over the past fifty years we have been reverse engineering technology exclusively awarded by the government to the highest bidder. The highest bidder was us, or, more accurately, my father, Michael Pfizer, and it was the wisest investment he ever made. This technology was recovered from the wreckage of alien spacecraft from another civilization, one several millions of years older than our own. It was our task at XenTek to figure out exactly how this technology worked, duplicate it, and market it under our various brands. With the release of the Holo, the treasure trove is nearly exhausted.”
Time slowed as if in a vacuum and a collective gasp was heard around the table. This crowd wasn't easy to take off guard and Johann appeared to have done just that.
“I don’t believe it!” Sheik Albazar exclaimed, overcome with emotion. “Do you realize what will happen to our stock if word of this ever gets leaked?” His eyes were bulging and beads of sweat began glistening on his forehead under the bright lights shining overhead.
“Rest assured that we have a very firm control of public perception,” Johann said. “We run the media and there is so much disinformation out there that the public wouldn't be able to sort out the truth if it was right in front of them.”
The board again started to chatter amongst themselves. Just as Johann had banked on, once given a few moments to absorb this, it seemed like everything was making sense to them. These people were far too thankful for the power and wealth they received to be angry about being lied to all these years about the products that provided it. Nevertheless, it was apparent that the façade they knew as their world, their very reality, had been taken from them in an instant. They were visibly dazed by the idea that their life of precious privilege might be in jeopardy.
Johann ran his fingers through his thick silvery hair. He stood up, removed his suit coat, and continued.
“Since the beginning of recorded history, there have been reports of strange sightings in the sky, but before mass communication and any means to visually record them, the events were easily chalked up to religious experiences, mental illness, mirages, or simple hallucinations. It was easy to explain away. In the last fifty years, right after the government’s first experimental atomic explosion was detonated in the desert, the sightings increased dramatically overnight.”
“People began reporting strange lights glowing in the night sky of seemingly unnatural origin, aircraft with no visible means of propulsion that seemed to defy the known laws of physics, strange and increasingly elaborate geometrical patterns were found etched in fields of corn and wheat.”
“These events all became increasingly difficult to explain. Our big break came just months after our second round of atomic test explosions when a handful of these crafts crashed very close to where the atomic tests were being conducted. The wreckage was a literal glimpse into the future, a treasure trove of technology but the most unusual find was something previously unimaginable. As the records indicate, two living, breathing beings were found dazed and stumbling close to the crash site. They were humanoid, two arms, two legs—really, more similar to us than they were different but they were from a place we later learned was so far away it seemed unfathomable. The news spread around the surrounding area like wildfire and the military realized that they must quarantine the crash site, gather up the wreckage, and start a massive disinformation campaign to rinse clean the whole event from the collective psyche.”
“One of the beings died from his injuries within a few short days, but the other, the one reports called Norm, was kept for months, locked away in a remote military base. The government lent its brightest minds to the interrogation effort and soon learned that although he could speak, he preferred not to. Instead, he communicated telepathically. It was astonishing how quickly this skill was developed for some. They learned Norm was a scientist and part of a larger team exploring our universe.”
“Norm told us their sensors had picked up an atomic explosion, and they rushed to investigate. Something affected their craft’s propulsion systems, though, and they crashed. Norm said his people were missionaries who had a general reverence for life and held a profound interest in civilizations in our particular stage of evolution. The interrogation team drilled Norm with questions about their technology and how it worked, but it soon became apparent that he was a scientist, not an engineer.”
Evelyn slowly stepped from the darkness and spoke with such ferocity that she startled a few of the board members seated around the table. “Sir, I beg your pardon, but did you intend on telling them what else Norm said?”
Johann cleared his throat and spoke up. “That’s quite enough, Ms. Poltier!” The accent he tried so hard to hide was becoming more pronounced with his agitation.
“But sir, with all due respect, the board deserves to know the whole truth,” Evelyn protested.
Alarm Clock Dawn is the first novel of a trilogy. The sequel entitled, Truth Is Stranger, will be published in the Spring of 2017.
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