Dulce Truths

“Dulce because that’s the only place we’re going to find a time shed, and around the attack because that’s the only time the Grays and the Reptilians will be distracted enough for them to let their guard down around that area.”

“Blue Lake’s got a shed,” Walter says.

“Too dangerous now,” Mark replies.

“Time shed?” Turn says. It’s not the first time he’s asked, but he hopes this time he won’t be ignored.

Bennewitz rolls his eyes to that, but Walter is able to answer Turn’s question before the wild-eyed man gets a word in.

“A time shed is a small room that acts as a time machine — simply walk inside, close the door, and let the room do all the work.” He cocks his head to one side. “It’s really quite simple, and the Grays have the right idea. You see, to do time travel you always need lots of quartz crystals. They burn up quickly, meaning if you want to do a lot of jumps, you’ll need a lot of crystals.”

“And they’re hard to come by,” Mark adds. “Here on Earth we’re blessed to have quite a lot under the ground, and close to the surface. Hell, even rock hounds dig ‘em out… and year round!”

“Other planets aren’t so fortunate, including the Gray’s home world of Zeta Reticuli.”

“And the Reptilians’ home world of Draco,” Bennewitz adds, looking impatient that this even needs to be explained at all. To his way of thinking, everyone should know what a time shed is.

“Besides being hard to come by, they burn up damn fast if you’re not using them properly,” Walter continues, and just as the men reach the bottom of the stairs and come out into yet another hallway. “That’s always been one of the major problems with our time sheds at places like Blue Lake and Kirtland Air Force Base. The time shed in Dulce, however… well…”

“Well what?” Bobbie says.

“Well, the Grays built it damn good so you can typically get three jumps to a crystal, unlike the time shed in say Blue Lake, which might give you one.”

“If you’re lucky,” Mark adds, and Walter nods to that.

“And by going back into Dulce we will be lucky,” Bennewitz says. “While the Grays and the Reptilians are focused on the attacks at the entrance and those down below, we’ll use the time shed here to zap into Dulce, get to Level 3 where that time shed is, and from there we can branch out with our three-prong plan.”

“Alright, that’s it… I’m leavin’,” Turn says, shaking his head as he stops walking and makes to turn around. The others look at him with narrowed eyes, unsure of what has set him off.

“Turn, what—”

“Time sheds….crystals… Black Knight… this damn soul catcher — hell, I don’t know shit!” Turn casts an accusatory look the others’ way. “Why the hell am I here anyways? I don’t know half of what you guys seem to know.” Mark tries to get a word in but Turn puts his hand up, staying him while he continues to speak. “And now this three-prong plan? Shit — when does it end?”

“It ends soon, Turn, it ends damn soon.” Mark moves over and claps him on the shoulder as he says the words, and Turn gives a slight nod. He might be perturbed and feeling more lost than ever, but at least he knows he’s around friends.

“And it’s not like you haven’t used the Dulce time shed before,” Walter says, looking from the others to Turn. “That’s how Anderholt brings you men over, the men from other times… whether 30 years in the future like you, Turn, or 30 years in the past sometimes.”

“Though we don’t take too many men from the ol’ World War Two days anymore,” Mark says, shaking his head. “Too polite.”

Turn narrows his eyes to that, not sure what Mark is getting at, but a moment later the pilot and off-worlder breaks out into a smile, then starts chuckling. The others soon join in, a nice ice-breaker exactly when one was needed. They quiet down after that, letting their thoughts take over as they continue down the hallway. After another minute they’re there, at a door marked simply with the words, ‘storage room.’

“Well, this is it,” Bennewitz says, looking at everyone but especially Turn and Bobbie, for which everything is new.

He opens the door.

31 — The Trifecta

The time shed room was an old room. Antiquated was a better word, for the room had a terribly inefficient crystal burning mechanism. It’d have to work, however, for their plan depended upon getting back into Dulce. Besides flying the pilfered UFO they got on the mothership, using the time shed to get in was their only other option.

“There’s always the front door,” Bennewitz had said when the topic had been discussed shortly before, but that just got him a lot of cold looks and eye rolls.

The way the Trifecta plan was set forth, the men would split into three teams.

“Stu will get back into Blue Lake just after the attack on Dulce and right as the debriefing’s getting underway—”

“And more importantly,” Bennewitz had cut in on Mark there when the plan was first explained, just before they began walking down those tunnels, “as the dead are carted back in.”

“The dead?” Turn had said.