Lost in Magadan: Extraterrestrials on Earth

Like all other officers on the base, he had to follow a strict code of silence. There was absolutely no communication with Earth, other than official military business. Moon Base personnel were not allowed to return home prior to their leave for any reason, not for car accidents, holidays, or even family deaths. There was no email or video conferencing with people back on Earth. Most of the men on the base were single.

As Major Tom put on his clothes and made his bed, he thought about Marie, his girlfriend. ‘Girlfriend’ may be overstating it. She was a girl back in San Diego that he used for sex. He wanted more; he really liked her, but she could not wrap her head around him being gone for six months at a time with no communication. She protested that other military personnel could email and skype while they were deployed. It frustrated him that he could not tell her what he did.

He stepped out into a long hallway that contained dozens of doors. Each door led to crew’s sleeping quarters. On the same level as the crew’s quarters was the Dining Facility and recreational facilities. Tom had fifteen minutes before he had to be at his post; so, he stopped at the DFAC to grab a banana and cup of coffee.

“Good morning, Major Tom.” The greeting came from one of the eight full time cooks that worked in the DFAC. Archie was Tom’s favorite cook.

“Can I scramble you up some eggs, Major Tom? Or how about some grits and bacon?” Archie sounded even more cheerful than normal.

“No thanks, Archie, not today. I’m just going to get some coffee and a banana,” Tom replied as he filled up a mug and pointed to a basket full of fruit.

“Big day, huh,” Archie nodded his head as if to say he already knew. Even though he was a chef, Archie held a security clearance comparable to the President of the United States. Still, he should not have known what was happening today – compartmentalization at its finest.

“Don’t know what you are talking about Archie,” Major Tom smiled, security was not his department. Of course, on a base where everyone knew everyone else, the favorite chef is going to overhear conversations.

Archie chuckled. Archie was one of the few African American crew. In his late fifties, he had a pot belly and would normally never meet the physical qualification to be in the Air Force. Space Command was different. In addition to being an excellent Chef, prior to his first retirement, Archie had been a test pilot for experimental antigravity planes. Since Space Command wanted as few people to know about aliens and moon bases as possible, it made sense to recycle people that already had the knowledge rather than train new ones. Throughout Space Command, you would find seemingly entry level positions, cooks and janitors, filled with persons of incredible talent. It was commonplace to meet a maintenance technician that, in his first career, had been a test pilot or assassin. Space Command paid otherwise lower-skilled workers incredible salaries due to the top-secret nature of the things they may hear or see. It’s hard to convince an eighteen-year-old high school graduate that’s flipping burgers to keep his mouth shut about an interstellar space ship.

Tom walked to the elevator and pressed the button for the sixth floor where he worked most of the time. His team was developing a low yield antiproton ultra-dimensional missile to fire from the Moon Base at another planet. The missile would be completely undetectable to any radar because it would phase out into another dimension during travel time and only reappear in target dimension seconds before impact. Upon impact, the antiproton, a form of antimatter, would react with actual matter, creating an explosion equal to a 1,000-megaton bomb, yielding little to no long-term radiation. When the project was completed, the 1,000-megaton bomb would be capable of cracking the Earth’s surface and lighting the atmosphere on fire for 100 years. The ultra-dimensional aspects of this weapon were still in the experimental stages, but the antiproton missile was operational. Major Tom could not figure out why Space Command would want a missile that would break open the Earth like a child breaks open a piñata at a birthday party.