“Are we headed towards World War 3?” the news anchor said. “Tensions are rising across the globe as the United States, China and Russia are accusing each other of stockpiling antimatter bombs, with Russia in particular being blamed for having an entire arsenal under the surface of Lake Baikal. As the clock is ticking, billions of souls across the world are praying and asking: will we still be here tomorrow? The tensions erupted when an antimatter bomb was allegedly detonated in outer space by a team of –”
A short man in a suit turned the television off, and the conference room went quiet. A few of the people sitting around the table finished their conversations with hurried whispers and turned their attention to the short man. There were between ten and twenty people in that room and all of them had their eyes pinned on him. Only the buzzing of the lights could now be heard.
“Thank you all for joining me here in this lovely room.” the short man said standing up.
A washed-out purple carpet and walls of the same color were the only decorations in the austere conference room. If they weren’t on the brink of extinction, the joke would have at least warranted a few chuckles, but in these conditions nobody smiled. The short man wiped away the droplets of sweat that were forming on his forehead with the back of his hand.
There were no windows in the room either, since they were in a bunker, and the only furnishings other than the long table and chairs was a side-table which held a few pots of coffee and paper cups. It was a few minutes to midnight, for all it mattered underground, but none of the people in that room had had much sleep the past 24 hours. They were going to need a lot more coffee.
“Yes, thank you all. First of all, my name is Arthur Gibbs, I work for the military and I will chair this meeting.” Gibbs cleared his throat, clasped his hands behind his back and looked down at his notes. His mind couldn’t focus on what was written on the paper. He took a sip of his coffee which burnt his tongue, and looked across the room once again. “You’ve all been called here because you are experts in your respective fields. We are on the brink of war, ladies and gentlemen, a war that simulations indicate could lead to the extinction of the human race.”
He paused and let the magnitude of his words sink in. “There are allegations that Russia has an arsenal of antimatter bombs under the surface of Lake Baikal. However, we are here to investigate another possibility. The military has reason to believe that what’s hidden underneath Lake Baikal might be an extra-terrestrial spacecraft.”
The watch on Gibbs’ wrist beeped. It was now midnight.
A sigh escaped from the mouth of one of the people in the room. It was a black man in his forties, who had just taken his thick rimmed glasses off and slouched in his chair. The badge around his neck read “Edward Abraham, Software Engineer, MindSoft Inc.” He closed his eyes for a few seconds and stroked the bridge of his nose.
His face had numerous stiches and his left eye was swollen to the point that he could barely open it. His right hand was in a cast, and one of his legs was tightly bandaged. The crutch that was leaning against the back of his chair confirmed that he’d been through a lot recently. They must really want this guy, thought Gibbs, if they’re willing to pull him out of his bed in this state.
“Is this some kind of joke?” said Edward Abraham. “We should be with our families at a time like this, and yet you bring us all the way here to tell us crazy stories about aliens.”
Gibbs pretended to look through his notes, formulating a reply in his mind. “Mr. Abraham, I assure you, the military has very good reason to believe this.”
Abraham grabbed his crutch and stood up slowly.
“Mr. Abraham, please.” A man in blue uniform, sitting across the table from Abraham, leaned forward with a soft smile on his face. “Please, sit down before you hurt yourself. You’re here now, so you might as well listen to what Mr. Gibbs has to say.”
Abraham sat back down.
The man in blue uniform leaned back in his chair. His badge read “Aaron Goode, Astronaut, NASA.” Goode winked towards the man who was sitting on his left.
The man on Goode’s left was wearing a similar blue uniform, and his badge read “Vlad Ozerov, Nuclear Engineer, Roscosmos.” Ozerov smiled back at Goode, but his facial expression was immediately replaced by a grimace of pain and he brought his hand up and clutched the side of his abdomen. “Damn it, still hurts.” he muttered.
Gibbs took another sip of coffee. “Your reaction is perfectly understandable, Mr. Abraham. In fact, I had a similar reaction myself. But allow me to offer you proof.” He pressed a button on a remote control that was on the desk next to his notes, and a white screen came down from the ceiling. The projector at the far side of the room lit up, and Gibbs tottered away from his chair and turned the lights off.
“First of all, radio telescopes have been picking up strange signals.” Rows of numbers appeared on the screen, each with its own timestamp. “At first these numbers appeared completely random, but the frequency of the signals prompted scientists to investigate. And what they uncovered is that these signals repeat themselves in various permutations across the timeframe of a few days. No pattern, but the same numbers.
“Furthermore, when allegations emerged that Russia has an arsenal of antimatter weapons under Lake Baikal, the military sent agents to investigate.”
“So much for international trust.” Ozerov said.
Gibbs let out a nervous squeak. “Yes, well, let’s move on. The agents have managed to capture footage of what they saw there.”
Gibbs tapped on the remote control and a video played on the projector screen. The image was so dark that even the people who sat right next to the screen strained to see. A loud rustling, no doubt from the wind, poured out of the speakers and filled the room. The camera moved upwards, revealing the night sky. A bright light was approaching, growing bigger and bigger each second. “Here it comes, here it comes.” said the barely audible voice of one of the agents. The camera followed the object’s descent all the way down towards a lake a few hundred meters away. The light hit the surface of the water and an enormous plume rose up from the point of impact. Waves battered the shores of the lake for a few moments, but soon the surface of the water was still once again.
“Our agents didn’t uncover anything else.” said Gibbs. “They haven’t found any sign of military activity in the vicinity of the lake, but underwater investigation would be impossible without special equipment.”
Gibbs turned the projector off and switched the lights back on. He went blind for a few seconds, and held on to the wall to keep his balance. Blinking a few times, he chased away the sharp stinging in his eyes.
“So?” said Abraham. “You think whatever fell in Lake Baikal was some kind of spaceship? It was probably just a meteorite.”
“There is more.” said Gibbs sitting back down. “We’ve had dozens of reports of strange activity all around the world. Some people claim to have seen white lights in the sky while they’re outside at night. Others claim to have been abducted and experimented upon.”
A cough resounded from the back of the room, from a man with disheveled hair and thick stubble. His badge identified him as John Dunn, biologist. The man seemed to choke on his words as he was hit by a violent coughing fit. When it was over, he cleared his throat and said: “Mass hysteria maybe? This kind of thing’s happened before.”
Dunn didn’t seem to notice, but a biologist named Stephanie Montana, sitting a few seats away, had watched him coldly while he’d spoken.
“A reasonable assumption, Mr. Dunn.” said Gibbs. “We have indeed had such reports since the 1950s, maybe even before. But their incidence has increased a hundred times over the last few weeks, ever since we started receiving these signals.”
Gibbs fumbled with his notes and picked out a file from the rest. “Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been invited here because you are the brightest minds we have. We must review the evidence and ascertain the likelihood of aliens being among us.” He opened the file. “Let’s start with an eyewitness account.”