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Chis Wallace chuckled while he watched the technician hook up the acoustics on his guest. The guy was flirting with the attractive technician. From the smiles across the face of Mary, Alcroft was apparently having some success. Finally, she patted the scientist’s shoulder and pulled away. Alcroft offered her a card from his pocket. With a nervous look at Wallace, she took it and hurried away.
The red light blinked and they were live.
“Doctor Alcroft, thanks for coming in this afternoon. You guys don’t give many interviews, do you?”
A handsome face smiled into the camera. “Well, Chris, the First Contact Team channeled all its findings through Dr. Worthington. She was better looking than any of us. But she’s hard to pin down for interviews. Busy girl.”
“You are a linguist, correct?”
“Hmm. Sort of. I work for the CIA and analyze speech patterns. It helps with encrypted messages.”
“The message from Lambda was the ultimate encryption. How did you guys figure it out?”
“Very difficult. And boring.”
“The New York Times reported something about an unusual spacer. What exactly is a spacer?”
Alcroft shifted in his seat. Wallace saw he was unsettled by the question.
“Well, the code in any computer message is a binary series, just ones and zeros. Those ones and zeros translate into numbers and letters. But which ones and twos go with this number and which goes with that letter? You have to have a space between the symbols to separate them. The spacer does that.”
“So, maybe four zeros in a row might always be a space.”
Alcroft leaned forward, now eager to explain. Good, thought Wallace.
“Right, Chris. But, four zeros wouldn’t do it. They pop up too often in the message to make numbers and words. So, it has to be a larger number.”
“The Times article agreed it had to be a large number. I guess a whole bunch of ones and zeros. A special pattern, repeated often.”
“Ahh, now you got it, Chris.”
“Probably too many numbers for even you to remember.”
“Oh, no. I remembered the number. When I changed it from binary format to regular numbers it was-“
Alcroft stopped and gulped.
“Come on, Henry,” urged Wallace. “It’s been seven years. Surely you can tell us the number now.”
Dr. Henry Alcroft looked away, his lips pressed tightly together, his brow furrowed. Wallace sat back in his seat. Let’s tweek his egotism a bit.
“The Times article alluded to a strange number, but they didn’t say what it was. They probably didn’t have as knowledgeable a source as you.”
Alcroft shrugged and turned back to Chris Wallace. “No”, he replied. “Everyone on the team would remember the number. Strange coincidence. But, as you said, it’s been seven years and we’ve already gotten so much information from the Lambdons. Good stuff, you know? Okay, Chris. The spacer number…”
Wallace leaned forward.
“666.”
Wallace’s astonished blink was caught on camera. A producer a few hours later decided to include that image after the revelation from Alcroft. The scene was played over and over again the next day.
“The number of the devil… from an alien message.”
“Just coincidence. Chris. Recall the Lambdons have three fingers… two hands… six would be a base number for them. Just like 10 is for us.”
Alcroft held up both hands. “10.”
Alcroft gave the camera his most engaging smile. “Just a coinci-“
Alcroft’s cell phone rang. He picked it up. Listened. The smile left. His face paled.
“Is everything okay, Dr. Alcroft?”
“Yeah, fine. Don’t worry. Look I gotta go.”
“One more question.”
“Now, God damn it! I gotta go now! Something has happened… that- ahh- needs my attention. Sorry.”
Seven years later, no "free energy" and strange things are reported in and around the Dome. When Aster and her colleagues mount an expedition to investigate the interior, they are shocked to find it filled with humanoids having insect-like deformities. It becomes obvious their true purpose is to take over our planet. Now Aster and the scientists are trying to come up with a defense to fend off the invasion. A defense that is tied to a 2000 year old document hidden by the church. But, will it be too late?
The Locusts
Dozens of the strange locusts had descended on the marine nearest her. Gun dropped, with arms, torso, and legs covered with the little creatures, his hands were frantically brushing off the locust-like creatures, but more and more took their place. Some had purchased holds on his hands, their small heads stubbornly attached like ticks on dog while their bodies bounced up and down with soldier’s panicky movements. More and more landed on his face and he started to run wildly, screaming all the while.
One of her earliest memories from childhood was her grandmother, a farmer’s wife, chopping off a chicken’s head. Headless, the poor bird ran in one direction, then another, somehow keeping its balance. After too many horrible seconds, the poor chicken fell to the ground, twitching. The man’s aimless running reminded her of the chicken running, not knowing it was already dead.
The man screamed again, fell to his knees and ripped his shirt open. The locust must have burrowed through his clothes because they now covered his entire chest. With each locust plucked away, a red wound appeared. She watched in horror as the man fell to his knees first, his arms by his side. Then he collapsed, face first, to the floor.
She pulled her eyes from the soldier only to witness other soldiers swatting at the locust or brushing them off their clothes, all experiencing the same horror. Some held tight to their guns while they tried to wipe the locusts off their uniforms. Others had discarded their weapons and employed both hands in ridding themselves of the vile little creatures. Small bumps of cloth rippled along their shirts and pants, giving the impression the uniforms were alive. There were more and more screams.
Robert Sells has taught physics for over forty years, but he has been a storyteller for over half a century, entertaining children, grandchildren, and students. He has written the award-winning novel, Return of the White Deer, historical fiction about Penda of Mercia. His second fiction book, Reap the Whirlwind, was a thriller about the dawn of artificial intelligence and the subsequent decline of humanity. His third book, The Runner and the Robbery, was a young adult novel about a teenager and his grandfather who had Alzheimer’s disease. Revelations, a science fiction novel, is his fourth book.
He lives with his wife, Dale, in the idyllic village of Geneseo, New York with two attentive dogs who are uncritical sounding boards for his new stories. He is intrigued by poker and history, in love with Disney and writing, and amused by religion and politics.
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Sells/e/B007A6481Y%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
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ReplyDeleteGreat post, I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the excerpt, thank you.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting my fourth novel, Revelations. I would be happy to answer any questions.
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