Episode Three: Somewhere in the Desert
The convoy heads east across the desert and arrives at a secret base buried deep beneath an astronomical research facility.
Fifty Miles West of Socorro, New Mexico
First Contact Facility, Underground and Top Secret
September 2022
The darkened windows hadn’t made for the most scenic seven-hour ride. On previous trips along this route, I’d appreciated the stark beauty of western New Mexico, but this time we’d traveled in silence in our little darkened box. The saving grace was Colonel Buckley and her team’s solicitude in making sure we were comfortable. It made me think we weren’t in any danger. In fact, I was eager to see what would happen next. Call me foolish, but it felt like we were beginning a grand adventure.
Kate had slept non-stop since we’d left Tucson and headed into the desert. I would have envied her ability to shut out the world, but it came from a dark place. Her brother Randy told me once that Kate would retreat to her room and go to sleep to escape their father’s anger and their parents’ constant fighting. She’d only stand up to them when they threatened Randy. It had made her timid and cautious. She really didn’t like confrontation. But then, I liked being her protector. I didn’t have any family, and Kate gave me someone to take care of.
As I had expected, the convoy arrived at the VLA, the Very Large Array. I shook Kate awake. She rubbed her eyes, stifled a small yawn, and brushed the hair out of her face.
Kate put her lips close to my ear. “Where are we, Jenn?”
Colonel Buckley was focused on her phone, and I couldn’t tell if she’d heard the question or not. I didn’t see any need to whisper.
So, I didn’t.
“We’re at the VLA, Katy. I’m not sure where we’re going next.” Kate sat up straighter and took my hand. I gave it a gentle squeeze and managed a thin smile. I hoped it was enough to reassure her; neither reassured me, as there was still a tiny kernel of unease niggling at the back of my imagination.
From the shadowy images I could see through the tinted windows, our three-car convoy had entered the Antenna Assembly Building, where they parked the antennas for maintenance; the technicians called it the Barn. The convoy came to a stop. After what I guessed was a minute, the convoy moved forward and descended a ramp. I’d been in this building a dozen times and had never seen any ramp. Maybe the colonel would clue me in.
“So, Colonel Buckley, a secret, underground base in the desert? A bit cliché, isn’t it?”
The colonel had stopped working on her phone. She looked over and shared a slight smile and an arched eyebrow. “I see your point. But we needed somewhere that wouldn’t attract attention. Scientists coming and going in government vehicles all looks perfectly reasonable here.”
I couldn’t resist tweaking her a bit. “I’m surprised you didn’t go all in and move to Area 51.”
A twinkle might have flashed in the colonel’s eyes. “Now, that would have been cliché. Too many people are watching and expecting things to happen in Nevada. As I said, we wanted to keep a low profile. And we needed a secure connection to the antennas. That’s much easier to manage if we’re on site.”
The convoy stopped, and the doors unlocked with a click. One of the tough guys from our escort opened the passenger side door from the outside; Kate and I followed Colonel Buckley out of the vehicle. We were in an oversized parking garage filled with various vehicles, mostly like the SUVs we arrived in. A slight breeze rustled my hair, probably from a ventilation system that kept the noxious exhaust from the vehicles at bay. Kate was gripping my hand and once again clasping my arm with her other. At least this time, her nails didn’t threaten permanent scarring.
“Ms. Chandler, Dr. Watson, if you follow me, I’ll take you to the briefing. The team is eager to meet you.” Colonel Buckley led the way across the garage to an unmarked, double door. I took a glance back. Massive steel doors had closed off the opening from the ramp we’d come down from the Barn. They weren’t screwing around keeping this place secret. My guess was the ramp in the Barn was gone too.
The colonel led us down a wide carpeted hallway into an expansive, well-lit space with computer workstations scattered around the open floor. A low hum of conversation gave a clue that there was work going on in the room. Glass-walled conference rooms lined the sides of the middle area, several of which were occupied by small groups. It looked like every computer lab I’d ever been in. At the far end of the space was a large conference room filled with about a dozen people and, more importantly, a buffet. I’d had nothing to eat on the trip from Tucson except some power bars, and my stomach was rumbling.
Colonel Buckley ushered us into the room and walked Kate and me over to a short, thin man, a little older than us, probably early thirties, dressed in jeans and a black One Ring Zero concert t-shirt. “Ms. Chandler, Dr. Watson, this is our chief scientist, Dr. Zakaria Mehta.”
“Please, call me Zak. We are so excited to have you with us. Your work on the Saturn signal was mind-blowing. Sheer genius. Your algorithms adjusting for …”
Colonel Buckley put a light hand on Dr. Mehta’s shoulder. “Dr. Mehta, I’ll leave you to the briefing and catch up with you later.” The colonel turned to us and, after a quick nod and a short “ladies,” she left the conference room.
Zak walked us around the room, introduced us to the rest of the team, and, thank God, got us some food. The buffet was fantastic, but then I felt like I’d been on starvation rations. And Kate was not shy about indulging her appetite. Several team members joined us in filling plates, and the group found seats around the conference table.
The suits had brought our laptops into the conference room, and Kate could access her AI, Jessa, to decrypt the messages. The research team had one antenna dedicated to Saturn whenever possible, and the current signal the antenna was capturing was the same as the data we’d been using. Even the translation of the older beacon data from Saturn that Zak and his team had been working on was the same as what we had decoded. I could hardly believe that was just this morning. Despite all their efforts, though, it seemed like the team was stumped.
I closed my laptop and pushed my chair back so I could see Zak at the head of the table. “So, Zak, it looks like the messages from Jupiter and Saturn are similar. We’re being warned to stay away.”
“Correct, Ms. Watson. And we respected that caution. We’ve re-positioned the Juno probe to stay away from Jupiter. Publicly, NASA blamed it on the main engine failure, but the truth is—we didn’t want to get any closer.”
Kate raised her hand. Of course, she did, never being one just to jump in. I leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Katy, I think you can speak up.”
Kate covered her mouth with her hand and leaned toward me. “Well—you know, Jenn. I don’t want to be pushy.”
Zak lifted a hand to invite Kate to speak. “It’s alright, Dr. Watson. No need to stand on ceremony around this crowd. We’re certainly not shy about voicing our opinions.”
That drew a round of smiles and chuckles from the group, and I could see Kate relax a bit.
“Okay. Then call me Kate. But it seems to me nothing’s changed in the last fifteen to twenty years. All we’ve gotten are warnings to stay away. What do you need us for then? And what do you need a secret base for? Seems a bit of overkill.”
Zak sat up a little straighter at Kate’s comments. “Well, it seems you’re not shy either once you get going.” A wide grin from Zak kept Kate from tensing. “But to answer your questions, I’m sure you can see the implications of our discovery. Until we know more, we can’t risk revealing to the public that we have direct evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. And the signals haven’t always been one hundred percent the same. During the conjunction in 2020, the signals from both planets changed and sort of mushed together, overlapped, intermixed almost. We’ve been able to separate which signals came from which of the two gas giants, but we don’t know what they mean. We’re concerned about not being able to translate those signals, and so far, we don’t have any way to respond. That’s why we hope you’ll join the team. You two might be able to decode those signals and find a way for us to answer.
###
They had been nice enough to give Kate and me a double room so we could spend some time together in private. We’d tried to talk but fell asleep, exhausted from the long day.
In the morning, we met with Colonel Buckley and learned the terms of our arrangements if we chose to join the team. We would move into the underground research complex that included a residency wing. Our communications with the outside world would be monitored, and we’d be given a cover story to explain to our friends and family where we were and what we were doing. It would be a constricted life we’d lead for the indeterminate future.
On the other hand, we’d have all the resources we needed and unfettered access to the data from the gas giants. We’d be on the cutting edge of communicating with a new intelligence. That in itself was a profound discovery. How could we not want to be part of that? How could I ever go back to listening to dead signals, knowing other life was right here in our own backyard?
Kate, however, wasn’t as keen on the idea of moving here.
“Jenn, I don’t think I can do this. What about Randy? I’ll never see him.”
“Your brother will be fine. He’s married now. He doesn’t need you to take care of him anymore.” I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of that. Kate had always protected Randy and looked out for him. But Randy seemed to be making his way lately.
“And I won’t be able to see the baby. Sharna is due any time now. How can I leave her?”
“Katy, your brother, and Sharna will be okay. And you can still call and visit. You just need to be alright with the suits listening in and having an escort when you visit. Other members of the team tell me you’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t know, Jenn. This is a big change.”
“Call Randy. See what he says.”
So, Kate went off to call her brother. I didn’t know what Randy would say. I had no one but Kate. My decision to join the team was easy. But if Kate left, I didn’t know if I could stay. But missing out on this discovery, contacting new life, I didn’t know if I could give that up either. I could only hope Randy would convince Kate to stay, and we could continue our life together.
###
Detectives Fuentes and Yazzie presented their identification to the head of security at the university. They’d spent the previous day with the Pima County Sheriff’s detective who was investigating the murder of Dr. Raymond. The autopsy report hadn’t been finished, but to Fuentes, it was pretty clear that the two slugs to the chest and the two to the head were the cause of death. After three days in the desert, the condition of the body would have made identification difficult, but the victim’s wallet was still in his pocket, and his car was still in the small, gravel parking lot across a dry stream bed from the road. Fuentes’s call to the university had confirmed that Dr. Carl Raymond was missing.
Fuentes pocketed his ID. “We’d like to see Dr. Raymond’s office and talk to whoever saw him before he disappeared.”
The head of security locked up his office and led them to the astronomy building. “I can get you access to his office, but I’m not sure who he saw before he left to drive out to the desert. We’ve been checking. All we’ve turned up so far is that one of his students and her roommate are missing. We just learned that today and have put out an all points. A Jennifer Chandler and Dr. Katherine Watson. Here are copies of their university IDs.”
Fuentes took a quick look at the two IDs and passed them to Yazzie. “What’s their connection with Dr. Raymond?”
“Chandler is a doctoral student, and Watson is a computer specialist working in the advanced AI lab. Not sure of Watson’s connection, except she’s roommates with Chandler.”
They arrived at Dr. Raymond’s office, and the security head unlocked the door. While Yazzie searched the office, Fuentes sat at the desk to search the drawers.
“This side drawer is locked. Is there a key?”
“I’m sorry, Detective. This is old furniture. I doubt anyone has a key except Dr. Raymond.”
Fuentes pulled out his pocket knife and jimmied the lock open. The drawer held only a laptop. Fuentes lifted the computer and set it on the surface of the desk.
A tall woman in a severe dark suit, flanked by two women in military uniforms, breezed into the office. She walked over to the desk and held out her hand. “I’ll take that.”
Fuentes slid the laptop towards him on the desktop and kept his hand on it. “And just who are you?”
The woman flashed her credentials. “Colonel Mavis Buckley, US Space Force. That laptop is government property.”
“Says who?”
“Says your boss. Call him. I’ll wait.”
Fuentes pulled out his cell phone and called the CID colonel in Phoenix. After a short, whispered conversation, Fuentes ended the call and pushed the laptop across the desk. One of the uniforms picked it up and stored it away in a locked carrying case. The three turned to leave.
Fuentes wasn’t quite done, though. “There’s still the matter of Dr. Raymond’s murder and the two missing students.”
Colonel Buckley stopped at the door. “The FBI will handle the murder, and Chandler and Watson are safe with me. Check with your superiors when you return to Phoenix. They’ll tell you everything you need to know. Goodbye, Detective Fuentes.”
With no further comment, Colonel Buckley and her escorts left the building, leaving behind two perplexed detectives and a security chief relieved he didn’t have two missing students and a murdered professor to deal with.
###
The tall man stood in front of the sleek, uncluttered glass desk of his client. He’d delivered the materials as required and expected to be paid—in cash.
The woman with the short slicked-back bright blue hair in the stylish but severe white suit sat forward in her white leather chair and looked up at the tall man. “Where’s the laptop?”
“There wasn’t any laptop. Dr. Raymond reported the hard drive, the phone, and the file was all the material he’d collected.”
“We put software on his laptop to spy on Chandler. Didn’t it occur to you we’d want it back?”
“No, it did not. If you’d wanted it back, you should have said so.”
“If I’d wanted an idiot to do this job, I wouldn’t be paying your outrageous fee. Go back to Raymond and get the laptop. Now. Then I’ll pay you.”
“I can’t. Raymond’s dead. He threatened to go public, and I had to neutralize that threat.”
“Well, that’s just great. Now I’m sure the Feds have the laptop, and our entire operation is at risk of being exposed. You can keep the deposit since you brought the information we needed. But I’m not paying the rest. You screwed up. Now get out.”
The tall, slim man in the dark suit and sunglasses, no hat, and no tie, took a long look at the client and reached inside his coat.
The woman with the slicked-back, bright blue hair saw the move and reached into the jacket of her stylish suit. “Don’t even think about it. I’ll call you if I need you after I figure out how to clean up your mess. Just get out before I change my mind and have you fired—permanently.”
The tall man considered for a moment, then turned on his heel and left the sterile-looking, unadorned office.
Behind the sleek, uncluttered glass desk, the woman in the severe white suit leaned back in her white leather chair and considered how to salvage the operation. She’d need to find another source for decoding the signal, and her employer, still needed to get to Mars; that was key to the enterprise. But getting to the outer planets first could now be a problem. They’d have to accelerate the timeline for building the Mars base and stay ahead of the Space Force.
Now it was a race.