What started as monitoring expirmental russian spacecraft has turned into a cross-dimensional mystery. When aliens with unknown motives land on earth for three minutes and leave with only one man, it's up to French detective Jean Claudé and his omni...
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T-minus ten hours, The Bulk Observatory, Nevada, USA
The Bulk Observatory sat perfectly still, hovering twenty feet above the Nevada desert. The imposing dome, America's most secretive operation, eclipsed the midnight sky. The spiral arms of the universe stretched behind it, illuminating the darkness of night. The supermassive building stared forever to the stars, decoding the scarce flickers of energy that struck earth, reading the night sky, perceiving farther into the universe than anyone had before. Colonel Hunter stared at the vast, black desk stretching before him. LEDs flickered to life, displaying the observatory's map- the most detailed view of the milky way in existence. The dim light wafted through the dark room, flickering lightly over the faces of the others. Colonel Hunter shifted uneasily, waiting for someone to begin the emergency meeting.
"You see this dot," the lead scientist began, pointing to a small blip on the map of the galaxy. "It's an experimental Russian spacecraft. It came onto our radar quite by accident- they don't know we've seen it. The entire project is a deadly secret. The ship is called защитник- the Protector. It's currently in testing near the Kuiper Belt, where they thought they could avoid protection. They didn't know about our observatory. We picked up huge amounts of gravitational waves coming from the Protector. They're using gravitons- quantum beads that build the curtain of gravity- to create the world's first force shield. Anything that comes towards that ship is disassembled by the sheer force of the gravitational waves. Five minutes ago the gravity levels skyrocketed, an electromagnetic haze engulfed the ship, seventeen wormholes briefly appeared, and the spacecraft disappeared. This blip on our map is its last known location."
"That's a weapon to fear," Colonel Hunter shivered. "An invincible ship that can pop from here to the Kuiper Belt in an instant."
"We thought it was a Russian weapon too, but the NSA's Tailored Access Operations intercepted a call to a Russian mole in Boeing- they had nothing to do with the Protector's disappearance."
An eerie silence fell upon the room. All that remained was a rhythmless clicking.
"What does ORACLE have to say about this?" A university professor asked.
"It is uncertain."
The board sat in nervous, twitching silence. The darkness of the room hid each person's fear, as they watched each other from secluded corners of the chamber.
T-minus ten hours, the Alps mountain range, Italy
The two hikers trekked slowly across snow-drenched peaks, shuffling through the frozen waters of winter. Slowly the base camp shrank behind them, dwindling until it was only a memory. The two explorers continued through the imposing slopes, onward and onward towards the summit. One of them turned slightly to the left, and spotted the freezing body, squirming inside its spacesuit.
T-minus nine hours, The Bulk Observatory, Nevada, USA
"There's more bulk movement," the lead scientist muttered, pointing to a row of red lines, as they drew themselves across the interstellar map. "They're red. That means we have gravitational waves, electromagnetic waves, and hyperspatial waves heading right for us."
