By John Leatherman
On the evening of June 20, the president sat alone in the Oval Office, reviewing intelligence reports. The peace talks in Paris were going well—at least enough to silence the protesters at home. His reelection committee had hit a minor snag, but they were managing it. As long as he could distract the public with cloying visions of “a new age of American peace and primacy” or something like that, he felt certain of a landslide victory in November.
“Mr. President, a word?”
The president jerked in his chair. The tall figure in sunglasses, beige trench coat, and skull-hugging brown fedora seemed to have materialized from the ether next to the Resolute Desk.
“How did you get in here?”
“I have full clearance.” He flashed a badge for an agency the president didn’t recognize, then clapped it shut. “I won’t take much of your time.” He produced a manila folder and laid it on the desk, then flipped it open to a black-and-white photo of a dark, disc-shaped mass silhouetted against a barren plain. “In 1947, an unknown craft crash-landed in the desert outside the small town of—”
“Roswell, New Mexico,” the president interrupted. “I’ve heard this.” Though he’d never received an official briefing, he’d peeked at a few classified memos during his time as vice president.
Unfazed, the stranger flipped to the next photo: an intricate configuration of interlocking polygons and ellipsoids etched onto a flat, rectangular slab clutched by a pair of scaly arms with three-fingered hands. “What you haven’t heard, Sir, is that one of the beings inside clung to this tablet with its last pulses of life.”
The president studied the pattern. “What is it, some kind of map?”
“That’s what we assumed until we studied these markings.” The stranger moved to the next photo, showing the entire tablet. At the bottom were several columns of odd symbols resembling a combination of hieroglyphics and cuneiform characters. “This is the map. On the left are stellar coordinates, showing the location of a celestial body in relation to major stars. The craft had similar navigational settings—but they were off by about a quarter million miles.”
The president made the logical links. “Are you telling me those aliens were actually trying to find the moon?”
“Precisely.” The stranger indicated the columns on the right side. “Now, these markings indicate some kind of latitude and longitude. Interpreting them is tricky when we don’t know the numbering system, but we determined that the six most likely lunar locations are Mare Crisium, Mare Fecunditatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Imbrium, Mare Nubium, Mare Humorum, and Oceanus Procellarum.”
“The Apollo landing sites.”
“Correct. And among the samples returned from the latest mission, we recovered this—coated with regolith to look like an ordinary moon rock.” The stranger slid the tablet photo aside to reveal a full-color image of a blue metallic disc emblazoned with the same pattern of interlocking shapes in glistening gold etchings. It lay alongside a ruler for scale, indicating a diameter of about four inches.
The president marveled at the juxtaposition. “So, this is why we went to the moon. It wasn’t about Cold War propaganda or American prestige or the glory of science. It was all for…” He squinted at the color photo. “What is this?”
“Possibly an energy source. Or a communicator. A weapon. A portal to another dimension. Or something we can’t even imagine yet.” The stranger shrugged. “Or it may be another map. All we know at the moment is that it must be valuable for those aliens to travel halfway across the galaxy for it. We have a secure facility in Nevada where our best minds are analyzing it. We will inform you of their findings when and if appropriate. The purpose of my visit today is to inform you we do not require any additional lunar missions for the time being.”
The president frowned. “But how can we stop now? Hardly a day passes that I don’t hear some critic griping about the continued risking of American lives and dollars up there.” He picked up the color photo. “This is the justification for every penny we’ve spent. And it’s only the beginning. We need to establish a permanent lunar colony immediately!” The perfect distraction for his reelection campaign.
“I don’t think you understand, Sir. The Roswell aliens were generations ahead of us, and this item indicates a technology superior even to theirs. We should not return to the moon until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“Still, the public needs to know about this. It could change the world.”
The stranger snatched the photo. “You had a predecessor who wanted to go public. In fact, he was the very man who founded the manned lunar-landing program.” Gathering the photos back into the folder, the stranger gave the president a stern stare. “I don’t need to remind you what happened to him.”
The president sighed, his face buried in his palms. That otherworldly image burned in his brain like a hypnotic imprint. Whatever this thing was, he had to know more about it. He looked up. “How do I get in touch with—”
His head swiveled left and right. As mysteriously as the stranger had appeared, he was gone—along with the folder.
Dared he investigate this secure facility in Nevada? No, too risky. They’d disposed of his predecessor in Dallas for wanting to reveal far less. Doubtless, in the decade since, their suppression methods had become more sophisticated.
Only one way to figure this out. The president punched the intercom for his private secretary. “Rose Mary, would you please play back the tape of my most recent conversation?”
After a brief delay, Rose Mary spoke with a tremble in her voice. “Sorry, Mr. President, but it seems the last eighteen minutes were erased.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Such a fun, gripping story! And more questions than answers! Do you plan on continuing this? It’s excellent!
Glad you liked it!
Do I plan to continue it? Well, there are certain forces that might not want the whole story told… Disney lawyers representing NATIONAL TREASURE 3!
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Fun story! Definitely one explanation for what caused that gap.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
Whoa, great story!
Thanks for reading!
excellent and engaging…you had my complete attention!
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent story, very well thought out!
And now I want to know what happens next. Great story!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the extra effort to read it the day after it posted!
The allusion to LBJ and JFK!!! Love this blend of history and science fiction sooooo much!