Chapter 16 - Reaction

   Joe had sort of disappeared on a routine walk to the gym to work out. Adelaide was worried about him. She didn't know where he had gone, what he was up to, nothing. She didn't think he was "punishing" her by pulling one of her patented disappearing acts she had previously been known for. After all, when she had done it? She didn't fall off the face of the earth, she was around campus. Work, class, phone... all normal. Joe, mysteriously disappeared.

   The police had been less than helpful. Over 18 and then some, its not a priority when a man just over 30 disappears. With no known problem, it wasn't illegal to go away for a little unannounced vacation. University students disappeared and reappeared all the time. During semester, a weekend disappearance wasn't unheard of. Young people run off and do things, and come back when they're done. And as summer break had just started? Well, in the summer such things happened frequently.

   Without being scheduled to teach summer classes, there was even less reason for the police to start an all out manhunt for a girl's missing boyfriend. They had to take her "official" missing person report after three days had gone by with no word. Take it, yes. Act on it? It was hardly a priority. The police simply treated her with a well practiced concern, which was fake, to get her out of their hair. If anything turns up? We'll call you. We have the report, you'll be the first to know.

   Adelaide had found herself staying at Joe's apartment, and missing him. They had grown so close, and now this. Then, the late night phone call? Christ. She couldn't go back to sleep, but couldn't bug anyone until people were awake and moving around. When she was beginning to think it was morning enough to risk calling someone, her phone rang. She snatched it up, hoping it was Joe. It wasn't.

   "Hi Barge."

   "Adelaide? Are you watching a news feed?"

   "No. I'm more concerned with Joe being missing. I could care less about the news."

   "Adelaide. Are you sitting down?"

   "I am now. What."

   "I have news on Joe."

   She was ecstatic.

   "Great!"

   "Adelaide? Stay sitting down, and turn on a news feed."

   "Okay. Which one..."

   "Pretty much any one of them."

   "Why."

   "Its Joe. He's on the news feeds. All of them."

   "Why?!?!"

   "You'll see. Make sure you're sitting down for this."

   "Okay."

   "Call me back, if you need anything."

   "Okay, Barge. Thanks."

   "He's my best friend. I miss him too."

   "Bye..."

   Adelaide turned on the usual news feed her and Joe used, and was glad she was sitting down. It was during a commercial, and she waited for the news feed to come back on.

   "And, we're back on the latest breaking story. The anomaly. Do you have any updates for us?"

   The view switched to the reporter doing their thing on camera.

   "Little details keep coming in. As of right now, the basic facts are still as follows. This story broke, when two of the Hubble imaging scopes, trained on the mysterious black square known as simply the anomaly? Changed size again. It got bigger than ever, with no warning. Shortly thereafter? Both Hubble's captured detailed images. Of an orbital shuttle, going at high speed. Directly into the anomaly. Just like the probes that disappeared? The orbital shuttle is gone. But, unlike the probes... the mysterious black square, shortly after being penetrated by the orbital shuttle? Disappeared and hasn't been seen since."

   "There's no official word yet released? But rumors from people inside the corporation are going fast and furious. What seems to be clear at this early stage? One of the orbital shuttle pilots, headed directly into the anomaly. That's confirmed by seeing the Hubble feeds. The rumors, are that the pilot had a passenger. What is known as a G-ride, apparently. People get rides if they can manage it, and this passenger obviously did."

   "Until official word is released, the rumors are all the same. The pilot? Was one of the original station pilots, who has worked as a pilot since the initial construction phase of the orbiting space stations. He was one of their top pilots, apparently. With no warning? He suddenly announced his intentions to make what he described as his 'attack run', on the anomaly. The anomaly is informally known to the space stations and pilots, as 'the bogie'."

   "Sources wishing to remain anonymous, said their pilot was once a combat pilot, and was actually a decorated combat pilot at that. While this is all shocking enough already? The even bigger story. He must have succeeded. Not long after his orbital shuttle disappeared into the anomaly like the probes before him did? The anomaly disappeared and hasn't been seen since. There are rumors floating around, as of yet unsubstantiated? That the former combat pilot was on some sort of a secret military mission, and now it seems he succeeded."

   "We're not releasing full details of the pilot yet? Until his wife and son can be notified of what's happened. Or of his mysterious passenger, who appears to have been in the craft on this self described attack run, willingly. The passenger seems to have been a research professor, at a major university, apparently working on his doctorate degree. Sources close to the story claim that in his last messages? The former combat pilot claimed his passenger had 'something' with him, that they both believed could take the anomaly down."

   "Everyone is scrambling for more information. The military is not making a statement yet. The corporation? Hasn't released any statements yet. No one seems to know anything, about what the mysterious professor on board could have had with him that could have taken down the anomaly that has everyone so frightened and concerned. People on the street, are already calling the pilot and his passenger? Heroes. Whatever they did, and why? It seems clear they succeeded and removed the anomaly. Everyone is breathing easier with the mysterious object gone. And? The longer it stays away, the happier people seem to be."

   "As any new information becomes available? Our listeners will be the first to hear it. Back to you."

   "And? There you have it. Shortly, we'll have a spokesman from the military here in the station, live, who is prepared to give apparently some initial information out. We're going to go to commercial. When we get back? The weather. Then? We'll be live with the first statement available from the military on this situation."

   Adelaide got a cold coffee, and sat and waited. After the weather, the military guy was all decked out in his uniform. He was obviously a somebody, he had shit all over his uniform. He had that patented military face going, too.

   "Hi."

   "Hello."

   "So. You have some information on this situation."

   "Yes. I'm Colonel Barnes. I'm the former commanding officer, that the pilot in question once served under."

   "What can you tell us, Colonel Barnes."

   "Well. I've gotten word, that his wife and son have been informed. Its better they hear it through the proper channels, rather than just turn on a news feed to learn their husband and father isn't coming home. This might be news to all of you? This is a family crisis for them."

   "Of course. We all sympathize with the wife and son."

   "I can tell you, that the pilot's name? Was Captain Benjamin Starkey. His military record speaks for itself. He had top marks at flight school out of college. He flew cargo planes for a time, then he flew bombers. His last tours, were spent as a Warthog pilot. A Warthog, is a low, slow cargo plane that has heavy armor and carries a lot of very substantial firepower. The Warthog is not a dog-fighter, its mission is close air support to protect ground troops and formations."

   "Could you give us an example of that? Many of our viewers might not be familiar with this."

   "Yes. Warthogs can stay in the air practically forever. They pass over the troops, and protect them. Ground forces? Love having the Warthogs overhead. When you see... in a movie? The guys are calling for an airstrike, they're having a problem. That's typically the Warthog pilots they're calling for help. You give a grid, or a series of grids? The Warthog pilots deliver their firepower precisely where and when you need it. They're informally known as the Air-hogs. The ground forces? Call them their guardian angels. These pilots take really heavy ground fire, and fly right into it all day, and deliver precise and devastating firepower. I can tell you, the Air-hog pilots? Are all known to simply have nerves of steel."

   "So, this is what the pilot that disappeared, used to do. Before retiring from the military."

   "Yes. Captain Starkey? Had a very distinguished career as a combat pilot. When the space stations started being built, then operating? The corporations recruited pilots with experience to fly these new cargo shuttles and orbital vehicles. The military, recommended individual pilots that would be a good fit for this civilian mission. And as you know, there's no better place to get highly trained pilots, than the military. I can tell you Captain Starkey had an unblemished military career, and was one of the first recommended for this new civilian mission. As his commanding officer? I can tell you first hand, I wasn't the only one sad to see him retire early for this new mission, but? It was important to both the civilian world and the military both... to get the space program up and running again."

   "Thank you for that, Colonel. So, he was a great pilot."

   "Without a doubt. Definitely. One of the best, really."

   "I don't suppose you could comment on the rumors."

   "What rumor would that be."

   "There seems to be rumors, that Captain Starkey was on some sort of... secret military mission. To observe the anomaly? Now it seems to have been a successful mission to destroy it. Can you offer any comment on that?"

   "Well? I just heard it, as you told that to me. I'm actually here in the capacity as everyone is asking for clarification, on who the pilot was. As his former commanding officer? I was able to deliver that information. Now, as to this rumor you just hit me with. Like I said, first I heard of it. Now. If there even was some... mission. Secret or otherwise? To... observe the anomaly. Or, to attack it. That's not in my department. Honestly, I simply don't have that information, nor even know or suspect if its even true."

   "Anything you could, or would, add to this, Colonel?"

   "Just that as his former commanding officer? I can tell you that Captain Starkey was a solid pilot. He wasn't just one of my pilots? He was a friend, too. I knew his wife, and the three of us have had dinner and drinks at the officers club before. She's a really nice woman, very pleasant to be around. My heart grieves for her and her son's loss... of a good husband, a good father, and a very good man. I don't think you could even locate anyone, anywhere? With anything bad to say about the guy. He was well liked in the service, and I can only assume as that was his character? I bet you hear the same thing from the pilots he worked with in his important civilian mission. He'll be missed."

   Adelaide was shocked.

   She threw herself face down on the bed, and sobbed and cried her guts out for quite some time. She refused to answer the phone or the door for a long time.