Lost in Magadan: Extraterrestrials on Earth

“True. But, I imagine if they show up here, they will come with overwhelming force. We are not likely to prevail in a fire fight either way. Besides, I bet they have more important places to secure than an abandoned base.”

Snap watched her take off her armor, revealing a dark blue, form fitting uniform. “I guess I need some sleep too,” Snap said, as he stood to take off his armor.

In a few minutes, they were wrapped up in Cold War era blankets, gazing at a fire fueled by old wooden storage crates. The firelight danced among the stalactites on the ceiling making strange shadows as the two warriors tried to relax. Only now did Snap really have time to think about his fallen brothers.

Snap settled in on a mound of gray wool blankets that insulated him from the chilly concrete floor. Furier had stacked up several blankets into a make shift bed. Both sat on one side of the crackling fire, watching the light reflect off the run-down equipment from a bygone era.

“Do you think the Russians will find us here?” Furier asked as she ripped open a sealed package containing a dark green bar. She broke a piece off and offered it to Snap.

“Thank you,” Snap said, taking the food from her hand. “No. I think Command will pick us up in a few hours, long before the Russians have time to look for us. The Russians will be too busy securing the crash site to worry about us.”

“Why don’t your people just destroy the Impegi with a missile?”

Snap shifted in his blankets, and said, “I don’t really know, but I assume it has something to do with politics, and not starting World War Three.”

“World War Three?”

“Yes. Some egg head probably calculated that Russia would not react to us nuking barren tundra, but a crashed ship is going too far. Way beyond my paygrade,” Snap said with a smile. “You know I just found out last week that there are extraterrestrials, aliens if you will, on this planet. Now, I’m sitting in this Cold War bunker with one right next to me. Did you know that they keep your existence, your people, a secret from almost everyone on this planet?”

“Yes, I was aware that your leaders keep us a secret from the people of Earth. It is different on Vitahic, I grew up learning about Earth, humans and your cultures.”

“Wow. How many inhabited planets do you know about?”

“Our space travel and exploration is limited to about twenty percent of the Milky Way Galaxy. We know of several planets that can, or do sustain some type of life. We have diplomatic relations, good and bad, with six different planets.

“As you can imagine, I have so many questions about you, your planet and your people. I hope you don’t mind me asking,” Snap said.

“No, I don’t mind at all. Obviously, we have been trained not to disclose our identity to the general population on Earth; but, clearly, you are already aware of our existence. What would you like to know?”

“Everything, tell me everything about your world,” Snap said, eagerly, mesmerized by the flickering fire light being reflected in her eyes.

“Well,” she started out thoughtfully. “Being on Earth is like going back in time, several hundred, maybe a thousand years. It would be like you traveling back to your Renaissance Period. Back home we have all but eliminated sickness and starvation. We don’t have governments and corporations, at least, not in the same sense that you do.”

“How did you get rid of sickness and starvation?” Snap asked.

“Genetic engineering and managed population growth. The two go hand in hand. Our scientists developed a way to manipulate DNA prior to birth, so that we were born with absolutely no defects. We experienced rapid technological advancements in the fields of genetic engineering, and it wasn’t long before everyone was born, not only defect free; but, also, immune from most common illnesses. Soon, we saw rapid population growth because people were living longer, putting additional strains on our resources.”

“Our leaders tried everything from regulating birth rates among the population to outright euthanasia, nothing seemed to work. This was a dark time in our planet’s past; there were resource wars, and millions were killed. Until the next scientific breakthrough in gene manipulation; they figured out how to custom design babies. But, not just eye and hair color; no, they were able to select skill sets and interests. At this point, we could basically order babies to fulfil specific needs. If we were projecting a shortage of medical professionals, we could order up a batch of babies that were predisposed to be interested in medicine and science.”

With a confused look on his face, Snap asked, “How did that stop the wars and starvation?”