They stood there gazing over the crowd of scientists gathered around the elongated intergalactic vessel that had gently landed on the shortly cut patch of grass just a ways off from our top secret research facility.
Normally, the clearing was used for gently probing the earth and extracting liquid a from the soft mound that was routinely fertilized and pollinated with advanced synthetic crops that had been developed in conjunction with the National Space Agency.
These newer crops had been sprouted at the Earth’s most outer atmosphere while orbiting parallel to the moon. The crops used a new technique to test for the feasibility of agriculture in a semi gravitation less environment.
The moon’s position in relation to the sun during this experiment meant that the floating lab was experiencing the least amount of fluctuation as it gently glided along our planets last layer of atmosphere.
The eco-pod subtly entered and exited the Earth’s exosphere oscillating between the ionosphere and outer space. This provided the least amount of friction as the pod went from gravity less outer space into the thin layer of exosphere then deeper into our planets sky. It stayed for equal amounts of time in all three layers and it’s time in the ionosphere provided the warmth and radiation need for the pod to stimulate it’s contents.
The neap tides below the pod provided a harmonious ocean for our scientific team injecting and extracting data into the DEEP COM network. While most of the networks processing facility were on land, this project warranted temporary facilities on the ocean’s waves in order to minimize Lorentz Transformations while the pod was in the hydrogen and oxygen rich exosphere.
As the researchers bobbed up and down the calm ocean’s wave that day our pod began having extremely high frequency oscillation with extraordinary velocity increases in a very short period of time. The whole team worried that the pod would release it’s expensive contents prematurely into a worthless plot of land or wild, overgrown jungle never to be seen again.
Our hearts fluttered. We all stood still with our mouths wide open. The lead scientist clutched his heart and began sweating profusely as his other hand reached out towards the video wall panel. After a few minutes it was evident that the pod would retain it’s contents but we all scrambled to figure out a way to lower the frequency to a safe level. This project was the life work and sole major achievement for a large portion of the team. We could not fail before we begun.
“Dr. Jones. We have a problem at loading station one”
“What is it?”
“The network is requesting and outputting data faster than we can keep up with”
“There appears to be a problem with the pod. We’re working to get it under control”.
“Is there an ETA for repair?”
“Not yet, we’re working on it, stay alert soldier”.
Just then the pod exploded in a glorious flash of light. Our lead scientist toppled to the floor. The rest of the team stared dumbfounded at the wall panel.
“Ummm. Dr. Jones … Ms. Jones, I really think you should see what’s happening on my screen”
I quickly paced over to Bryan’s desk to see what he was bewilderdly staring at. A strange mist was sprinkling down over our clearing.
“Project your screen on the wall panel Mr. O’Connel.”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
I looked over at him with a look of exasperated anger. He know I hated when he called me ma’am. As I turned towards the wall panel, I noticed no one had attended to Dr. Weisenberg still collapsed on the floor.
“Will somebody get Dr. Weisenberg some medical attention?”
As I turned back towards the panel, I noticed half of the staff was casting knowning looks towards me and Mr. O’Connel. Great what else could go wrong today?
“Dr. Kyoto, please gather the equipment to take samples of the site. The rest of you put on your hazmat suits and get things ready for Dr. Kyoto when he gets there. Mr. O’Connel, put all ocean stations on high alert and instruct them to halt all research efforts until further notice.”
The room had cleared out and the last two scientists were taking Dr. Wiesenberg out of the command center in a strether, his poor face covered with an oxygen mask.
“Lock the doors”
“I didn’t mean to call you ma’am”
“Yes you did, I know how much you enjoy getting a rise out of me and as much as I enjoy getting a rise out of you, fratenizing with each other in front of other staff members is going to get us both locked up separately on some remote island or dropped off in a huge Metro with a steady dose of psychotropics while we sleep”
“Sorry, ma’am”
God he knew how to press my buttons and as much as I wanted him to passionately rip of my clothes and throw me into pangs of ecstacy as I carresed his young, firm body, now unfortunately was not the time.
“Stand up soldier”
He stood at attention unable to contain the longing in his eyes.
I inched myself closer to him as he stood their motionless, his breathing intesifying and becoming noticibly more audible as each second passed by. I couldn’t help myself any longer.
I placed both hands on his chest and pushed the top half of his body firmly unto the desk. His feet remained planted on the floor as I quickly stradled him and unzipped his pants. He was just as quick to grab my waist with one had while his other hand gently slid my government issued research panties off to one side of my inner thigh.
Dr. Kyoto’s voice came over the loud speaker just as my panties snapped back into their place and Bryan looked down to pull up his zipper.
“Dr. Jones, I think you should come and see the site. It appears the pod contents were emptied right on the projected spot.”
“But that’s impossible, we were still two days away from the pod reaching it’s destination”
“Yes, I know but our equipment and preliminary analysis shows that the mist is in fact the contents of the pod. Have the ocean stations reported in yet?”
“No Dr. Kyoto, their on standby. … Mr. O’Connel, please contact all ocean stations and get them off high alert, request that they each prepare a report detailing the readings for past 24 hours and projections for the next 48. I’ll meet you at my Jeep when you are ready.
Dr. Kyoto. Were putting the command center on lockdown and heading over to the clearing to investigate with you. Did you bring your keycard to deactivate the lockdown when we get back”
“Yes Dr. Jones. I have it right here”.
He lifted it up towards the camera and put it back in the pocket of his labcoat. I looked around the clearing and noticed the rest of the team had their hazmat suits off. How long had Bryan and I been going at it?
“Mr. O’Connel, are the teams off high alert?”
“Yes ma’am”
“Lock down the command center please.”
“Yes ma’am, I’ll need you to place your palm here at the same time I place my palm into my reader”
“Yes, I fogot about that. Dr. Kyoto and I both have our keycards. What else do we need to deactivate the alarms when we get back?”
“Just that and your palms still attached to your bodies.”
“Dr. Kyoto. We’ll meet you there in a few minutes, we’re taking the Jeep”.
The panel shutdown.
“Dr. Jones”
“Yes, Bryan”
“I need to load the weapons into the Jeep due to the policies sorrounding emergency lockdowns”
“OK. No problem, I’ll meet you at the Jeep. I know it’s important that we follow all protocols”.
“Well not all protocols are so important”
He gave me a sly grin and jogged off towards the weapons room. Off limits to all scientists and researchers. He knew how to get me going and made it a point to ensure that I knew it. I gathered myself and walked towards the Jeep.
As we drove to the site, I thought about our mission and the multi-national cooperation that was necesarry to make it happen. Each one of us came from a different country, not one country had two participating members. We all had different areas of expertise reducing the chance of encounters at trade shows or industry events when we returned to our normal lives.
It took all our diversified background and experiences to make this project happen. Even the idea of sending the pod up to oscillate betwen outerspace and the ionosphere was a collaborative effort. No one person held the knew the entire picture or held all the pieces of the puzzle.
The Australian doctor from BOM helped come up with the oscillation patterns based on his work with El Nino and La Nina back in the 90s. We had Geoscientist from Denmark that specialized in geothermal and tidal renewable energy.
They explained how Earth was experiencing neap tides below the orbit of the eco-pod. This meant the least amount of disturbance while maximizing data transfer between our dual-hemispheric satellite network DEEP COM.
DEEP COM was a joint project between the UN’s Department of Extrasensory and Environmental Projections and its Center for Oxygenation of the Moon.
Every single scientist on this project was brilliant. I helped design and was responsible for operating DEEP COM. Although it operated as an artificially intelligent neural network, it used quantum physics to crunch thousands of petabytes of data per nano-second.
Most government officials figured we were another SETI or NASA impersonators. Even the President and heads of Congress weren’t aware of our true capabilities or how far we’d come. If I made an error in the design, my career in quantum physics would be over. Another checkmark on the list of scientist who failed at proving the viability of quantum computing.
As we pulled up along the edge of the clearing, I noticed the staff staring up towards the treeline. Brand jerked the Jeep to the side and jumped out with his rifle drawn as the Jeep rolled a several feet and stopped right before the treeline.
I hurried towards him and peeked out at the clearing from behind his shoulder. I kissed his neck and wispered for him to put the gun down. He slowly obliged as I kept whispering what I’d do to him after the rest of the staff went to for the night.
He slung the rifle over his shoulder and we walked towards the clearing. As we got just towards the treeline, I suggested he should stay behind so he is not perceived as a threat.
“Dr. Kyoto”
“Dr. Jones” It appears your projections were correct and the pod did explode prematurely”
“Then how did the samples arrive here inside that mist”
“Well we’re not sure yet but the passengers of that vessel are holding one of the more mature containers that has already sprouted”