I hope you enjoyed the trip so far. Comments and critiques (or better improvement suggestions) are always welcome… 
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CHAPTER TWO:
December 21, 2012 – 02:30:36 CDT (UTC-6)
Houston, Texas (USA) – Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (Briefing Room)
After they had left the cave with their new friend, Captain Brosnan and his crew had reported back to Mission Control and received the command to instantly return to Earth with Captain Sterling.
Immediately after their landing two days later the Altair crew and Captain Sterling were taken to a strictly secured and sealed off meeting room deep in the bowels of the Johnson Space Center, where they already been expected by Commander Doyle Hanson, Norris Wyman and NASA head Charles Bolden, as well as his Deputy Lori Garver.
Wyman Norris took the floor first.
“Nice to have you back, Captain Sterling. I did not expect to ever see you again. And then just as you have looked like back then. How is all this possible?”
“Well, Commander, that’s a very long story, but I can at least try to summarize it.”
“We will listen curiously, Captain. I suppose the whole thing has something to do with the alien technology that my people saw in this cave on the moon?” said Charles Bolden.
“That is correct, sir. As you probably know, my mission in 1985 was to explore the South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side of the moon, from which we then assumed by earlier recordings of American and Soviet lunar probes that a very large impact body had pierced the lunar crust at this place – we suspected a big meteorite.”
“That is known to me.”
“Well, what you don’t know is that this impact body was actually the debris of an alien spacecraft, which broke apart over Earth about 65 million years ago due to damage, it had just suffered in a fight. The other part crashed in Central America – more precisely on the northern Yucatán Peninsula.”
“Yucatán? Do you talk about the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, which is associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs?” Lori Garver asked.
“That’s right, ma’am.”
“Pretty strong stuff, if you ask me.”
“Then you will be certainly be blown away by the rest of my story.”
„Go on, Captain.“ Bolden said.
“I can’t tell you, what became of the aliens, who survived the crash, but I assume that they are still somewhere on Earth, since they were stranded here after the crash.”
“And how do you know all this?”
„I was about to talk about that. When I entered the South Pole-Aitken Basin in 1985 to collect rock samples I discovered, just like your people did, a weak signal that seemed to come out of a cave. At this point I had already lost radio contact with Earth, but we had anticipated that possibility so I didtn’t really worry about that.
Intrigued, I entered the cave and followed the signal to that very room where Captain Brosnan and his crew found me two days ago. Shortly after I had entered it, the devices in the room switched on by itself and a computer voice started to talk to me – in English to my even greater surprise.
The computer told me that the facility was a kind of monitoring station for the already mentioned aliens – called the »Mata’Nui« – and that it’s purpose was to look out for this other aliens with which the castaways were fighting back then.
When I asked the computer to explain all this to me, all of a sudden cables emerged from the console in front of me and connected themselves to my head. Shortly thereafter, the complete saved history of the Mata’Nui until their arrival on Earth was transferred directly into my brain.
I learned that the Mata’Nui were an extremely advanced humanoid race from the planet Matu’Ran of the Ca’Luan solar system in the Antlia Dwarf Galaxy, and traveled the entire universe with the help of artificial wormholes – you might know them as Einstein-Rosen bridges- with which they could bend space and time at the universal level. The latter I only mention because I will come back to it soon.
Anyway, the home planet of the Mata’Nui was completely unprepared when it was someday attacked and conquered by a group of homeless extraterrestrial races who describe themselves as »Harvester« and move from planet to planet to pounce like a swarm of locusts over its resources, until only a dead world is left.
After decades of bitter struggle against the invaders, the people of the Mata’Nui were almost completely wiped out – except for a few hundred survivors who eventually managed to escape aboard one of their last remaining functional space cruiser and to open a wormhole through which they wanted to escape.
But before that could happen, they were attacked by a Harvester battleship and involved in a fight, during which both the Mata’Nui ship and the wormhole were hit hard. The latter thus started to destabilize and just as it collapsed it sucked the Mata’Nui ship in and flung it into our solar system, where it crashed on Earth as mentioned before.
To my relief the transmission broke off at this point. Unfortunately, the machine wasn’t quite done with me, since it had chosen me as part of a so-called »Harbinger protocol«.
After the data transfer was completed, a glass cylinder lowered from the ceiling above me, closed around me and was filled with a strange gas that made me lose consciousness. When I woke up, I found myself with strange new abilities in an other dimension.
Just a few days ago I managed to return to the moon base where your people found me shortly thereafter.”
The people at the conference table stared at him in amazement and bandied confused looks. Charles Bolden spoke first:
“I have many questions, but the most important first: Are these the same Harvesters, of which you have spoken towards Captain Brosnan and which are allegedly on their way to Earth?”
“Exactly, sir.”
“But that was 65 million years ago, how is that possible?”
“Excuse me, I probably didn’t made it clear enough that the Mata’Nui were transported not only across space but also through time itself into the past of our earth.
The events of which I spoke earlier actually occured only about almost 86 years ago – or more precisely in 1927. So enough time for the Harvester to track down the Mata’Nui and follow them here using their warp drives. At least that’s what I conclude from the calculations by the computer in the lunar base, according to which the harvester reach Earth in less than 10 hours. “
“10 hours? If this is true, we have to put all armed forces on alert immediately.” Lori Garver cried out scared.
“What you should do of course, but it will unfortunately not do much. Even your entire nuclear arsenal can’t do nothing against these bastards, as you will soon see.”
“You already said something like that on the moon to Captain Brosnan. I quote:
» The Harvesters are coming and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. No one can stop them and the following events, but we can still save the future of the mankind, if we find the Walker. «
What exactly you mean by that and who or what is this »Walker«?“
Captain Sterling had made himself comfortable in his chair and exuded a calm that had the opposite effect on all the others present.
“Do you remember the strange abilities that I mentioned? Well, I don’t know exactly what the Mata’Nui have done to me, but besides the fact that I hop uncontrolled through parallel universes and dimensions and don’t age like expected since, I have the gift to perceive alternative time lines, which lead to different versions of the future.
In none of these time lines, we can fend off the attack of the harvester and each time it ends up with humanity either exterminated or enslaved – sometimes both. However, there is also one possible future in which we can defeat the invaders after numerous struggles within a few years and send them fleeing.
But for that to happen we need the help of that very man whom I only know by the name of Walker. According to the alien database in my head, this man has been changed just like me a long time ago by the Mata’Nui and is ever since traveling seemingly uncontrolled back and forth in time. “
“Jesus! Travel to other dimensions and through time – what next?” Wyman Norris groaned, while massaging the temples of his aching head with his fingers.
“If I hadn’t seen the alien devices with my own eyes, I would personally cause your immediate admission into a nuthouse.” added Dr. James Cohen of the Altair crew.
“Oh – believe me Doctor, it will still get a lot crazier. You don’t even know what the help of Mr. Walker looks like.”
“What is that supposed to mean now?” Charles Bolden looked at the man, who appeared as if he were risen from a science fiction film, with uplifted eyebrows.
Like me Mr. Walker received a special gift, of which he is probably only vaguely aware. He is able to instinctively locate people with specific genetic characteristics and to influence these genes so that their owners develop supernatural abilities – super powers if you want to say so.
If we manage to bring these mutated people together and to organize a resistance, we may succeed to realize the time line, of which I have spoken, and possibly even create a better future for the surviving humans.”
The silence following this statement was becoming very oppressive, when Charles Bolden abruptly turned to a screen that was located on the wall the behind conference table and had yet remained dark.
“Did you get all that, Mr. President?”
The display lit up and the face of Barack Obama, who had apparently been switched in via live connection all the time, became visible.
“I did. The most urging question to Captain Sterling that vies for my attention at this moment is: what can we do to prepare for the attack in only a few hours and to save as many lives as possible. I hope you have a suggestion for that also?”
“Well, sir, since it might be too late to evacuate the major cities, which are certainly the primary target of the invaders, and panic just puts the people even more in danger, I would suggest that you at least inform the governments of other countries and then to get yourself, your government staff and as many military units as possible to safety as quickly as you can. And I think I also know where you should be heading – does the term »Area Zero« mean anything to you?”
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TO BE CONTINUED!
