"If we can just get one pillar, Commander, we can stand a chance," Ali smiles.
I sit back in my chair. "So, Ali, do you have a plan?"
"Yes, Commander." He pauses.
"Well, Ali, we don't have time to waste. What is it?"
Ali walks over to a screen that rises from the gazebo floor. The screen lights up and he types on the panel. "As you can see, Commander, we have pin-pointed a possible location where we may find a spaceship." He points to the monitor, but it only looks like trees.
"What are you pointing to, Ali? I can't see anything through the forest. Is that the Rocky Mountains? No, it can't be. It's too flat—plus, it's by an ocean."
"No, Commander, that's Washington D.C."
I'm shocked. "Where are the monuments? The White House...the Abraham Lincoln Memorial?" All I see is forest, and round-shaped buildings.
"I truly am sorry, Commander. I know it's been a long time since you have been to the surface. A lot has changed. All the world's monuments were taken down. Most of the world is overgrown by trees now. All the power lines have been demolished as well. The world has regrown."
So, Lana erased all of history, and had the nerve to forge a new one in her image—how she believes things "should be." The audacity.
"Is this only in the United States?" I ask.
"No, this is a global phenomenon. All the religious temples...the pyramids...practically all man-made structures have been taken down."
I grind my teeth. "So, what's your plan?" It's time to focus.
"This building, right here, is the primary station," he says, pointing at the building that houses the space shapes. "It's not well guarded, because no one has ever tried to break in. There may be a few armed guards, and a few pilots, but that's it. We can break into this building and take the pillar." He sounds confident.
"Ali, that sounds too easy to be true. What's the catch? How do you even know about this place?"
Ali takes off his glasses and cleans them with the handkerchief from his back pocket. "A few years ago, there were two brothers, named Kiaan and Nihal, who had a mission to document everything they saw on the surface. Their mission was only supposed to last a month, maximum, but a week after their expected return date, their family had still not heard from them. And neither had we. So, I sent Rajesh and Ajay to go look for them." He looks down.
"What happened?" I ask.
He puts his glasses back on and looks at me. "When my men went to find them, they did not succeed. Every month I would send Rajesh and Ajay to search...this continued for a year, until they finally found them. Their corpses. We had to give the terrible news to their family. Both brothers were lost forever. The family was devastated. We were devastated. They were good men and great researchers."
YOU ARE READING
Only Eye
Science-FictionWhen the male population is nearly wiped out by the Y-virus, decommissioned Commanding Officer, Ryan, is sent undercover to eliminate the woman who created it. There's just one problem: She was the love of his life. The year is 2060, and the world i...
