The Story of Ethan Myhers

Chapter Five

Chapter 5

                My enjoyment of the outside didn’t last long, a car had just pulled up, and Simmons was heading my way and no intention of stopping. He was a tall man with a huge stride as he walked over to me you could see a few grey hairs poking out of his hat, his uniform was perfectly pressed not a crease or mark on it, doing little to hid that fact that for an older man he kept in good shape. His eyes where a dark brown that gave him a piercing stare with a hint of ruthless behind them. And as he walked he gave of the sense off belonging a sense of power. As he walked along past me he turned a stern gaze to me ‘Myhers no time to lose there are two more choppers just behind me.’ As he moved his head to move with him not missing a step with some reluctance I turned and headed in alongside him.

                ‘Well then how are we getting on?’

I ran down the progress we had made while whilst we walked at a rather brisk pace, while a young officer tagged behind, presumably an assistance that a man of his position would of course have earned.

‘Here we are Sir.’ We turned into an office ‘we have set up an office for you, Simon will be up shortly to get all the computers in here hooked up to the sever for you.’

‘Coffee?’ he stated more than asked.

‘Yes Sir, Claire?’ before I had even finished calling her she appeared.

‘Can you get a coffee in here please? ‘

‘Right away Mr Myhers’ she smiled and was gone again.

Simmons turned to his assistant ‘Clark get everyone to where they need to be, I will need a few moments with Mr Myhers, when the young women returns with our coffee hold on to them out there I will be out shortly to get them.’

‘Sir’ Clark nodded closed the door and was off.

‘Take a seat Myhers’ I pulled up a seat and we both sat down, he then picked up the bag his assistant had been carrying for him, he opened it up and produced two glasses and bottle of single malt 12year old scotch. ‘After the past few hours I think this is necessary’ as he poured a small amount of liquid into the glass, ‘So Ethan we have a lot of work ahead of us, and I we haven’t had a lot of time to talk, this is a high pressure situation, and like I said I don’t want a lot of dicking around.’ He passed a glass to me not breaking eye contact.

‘If you have something to ask Sir then please be direct and ask.’

‘Good, I don’t know you Myhers, I mean I have read your files and we have had a few interactions over the years, but what I’m asking is, can you handle what is coming? Or are you going to lose it on me? I can have someone else take over now, no shame in it at all?’ he stopped sat back with his drink, the floor it would appear was mine.

I took a sip of the smooth scotch, ‘Well sir the way I see it, is that I am at the front of one of the biggest scientific discoveries in the modern world, while I am extremely grateful and also understanding why the military is here, this is a scientific discovery, and I feel I should be here.’ He stared back at me as I spoke giving nothing away cradling his scotch. ‘As for you can get someone else to take my place, I have so far possibly lost a good friend of mine, and good men have been put into danger due to dissections both you and I have made. With all due respect meant general over my dead body.’ Having sufficiently dug myself into a hole I sat and awaited the reply. Simmons smiled.

‘Myhers I am asking can I relay on you, I like you, but you don’t get to my position by letting your emotions make decisions for you, I will take you on your word. But I expect the best from men, and I get then best from my men, you will be no exception. So can I relay on you?

‘Yes Sir’

‘Excellent, now then you and I are in charge here, so we will need to sort out a chain of command with each other.’ I sat back and nodded feeling as if I had passed some sort of exam.

‘Ok well anything scientific your are of course in charge of, what I would ask is that anything that could in any way effect the security of this site, you would clear with me first. The probe is under military lock and key you boys will want to poke and pay with it, which I agree needs to be done, that however must always go threw me. There is no discussing that, nor would I expect there to be. The team under out medical care, they are under the medicals control, those lads are a whole law onto them self’s, can over ride me if they want Christ sake. But we will keep an eye on it. I want all your personal records in front of me, I want to vet them myself, I don’t want or like unexpected surprises. Finally and rather important, I don’t want this getting to the press. They will be already sniffing around what’s going on like flies round shit.’ We had once had a conversion about he felt the term free press, was purely made to make his job more difficult. ‘I don’t want to see this on someone’s my space, tweet, facebook, or so help me who ever does it will have a shit storm rained upon them the likes of which they have never seen before.’

‘Very sell sir, on my side I understand there will be security levels in play here, myself and Simon need the highest level of clearance here, I would rather no surprises myself, also my assistant Claire will need in most areas, aside from that I can’t think of much right now, I will bring anything else to you as I think of it.’

He then got up went to the door and called Clark to go and get Simon, he trailed another seat over and sat back down. ‘What is going on General?’

‘Wait for Mr. Masters, if you want him to know what you know.’ I took another sip of my scotch and waited within 5 minutes Simon appeared, ‘Yes General Simmons?’

‘Take a seat Mr. Masters, Myhers here wants you to have the same facts as him, so it’s easier if you are both here for this.’ Simon darted a look at me and sat down. Simmons poured him a glass and handed it over to him.

‘As you know the object that you have been tracking we have been aware of for quite some time, however there is something that very people knew about. 12 years ago there was a signal picked up from space, when we looked into the direction of where it was coming from we found the object that hit us a short time ago. The signal it sent was only broadcasted for a short time, however we did record it. It was series of different beeps, that when worked out where simply 314.’

‘Pi’ Simon stated.

‘Yes Mr Masters, so we have known for some time that this thing was something intelligent, hence why you had this place when you applied to track it Myhers and why all the resources that have been used today have been so readily available to you.’

I looked at him in disbelief. ‘I am sorry Sir but this might have been something that we could have done with knowing, I mean you KNEW this thing was intelligent and you didn’t think at any point it might not be friendly!?’

‘Calm down Myhers, of course we thought it mightn’t, but the fact is this thing clearly was more advance than anything we had in the past and the military applications this might have had could have been ground braking. This decision was made far above myself, and further again above you, to keep this quite. It was though that things would have moved much too slow if you knew this, and the panic it might of caused. I can understand that you are angry but those are the breaks. I was given clearance to let you know on the way over here. It doesn’t change anything that is going on now.’

‘That doesn’t matter, knowing this would have made massive changes to what we did, and more importantly we could had a better plan of action laid out.’ I couldn’t believe this ‘this is why science is so hesitant about working with the military.’ Simon simply threw the drink down his throat and got up.

‘Ethan come find me when you are done here I have a lot to be doing’ he then turned to Simmons ‘I have a lot to get done.’ Simmons nodded and Simon walked out of the room.

Simmons sat back taking finally taking a sip from his glass, as if a battle had just been fought ‘I trust this will not affect you being able to do your job? There are times I can’t tell you something, but if it is ever my call you will know agreed?’

‘It doesn’t seem like I have much of choice in the matter’ I was furious ‘No you don’t’ he simply stated back.................