OCTOBER 6TH, 1612 HOURS (1512 HOURS MOUNTAIN TIME)
General Tauring left the stall and walked over to the sink. He placed his hands under the faucet and immediately the water and sanitizing liquid soaked across his palms. He quickly washed his hands.
He heard that unmistakable wobbling squeak, signaling the men’s room door slid open. He looked to his right. Hakan was just walking around the entrance wall corner.
“Hakan, my main man,” General Tauring said, grabbing a paper towel from the automatic dispenser. He dried his hands and then crumpled the used paper into a ball. Once tossing the wet ball into the can, he walked toward Hakan and stared the big bastard straight on. “Need your help. And it’s gonna be soon.”
The Indian stared right back, but not with his usual assured face; he had more of a perplexed, curious mug. He reached into the side pocket of his pants and pulled out a folded paper. “Got your message. Printed it out. Seems this base has quite the cryptic problem.”
“Well if that ain’t one of the best understatements I’ve heard in a while, I don’t know what is.”
Hakan unfolded the paper and eyeballed it for a moment. He looked back at General Tauring. “You couldn’t have met with me in your office?”
“Hey, I have my reasons, okay? More private, comfortable here for me.” General Tauring folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the nearby wall.
One of those irritating, smug smiles nearly drew across Hakan’s face, but he stiffened his facial muscles and prevented it. He eyeballed the paper again. “How tall was Lang before all this started? And his age?”
“About six feet tall, and thirty-five years old. The kid, about five foot one inch, and twelve years old.”
“And now, after what you guys have termed the sixth decrease event, Lang’s only about four foot four, not including the hull and its air space?”
General Tauring snickered. “Stevens claims that’s about the average size of a nine or ten year old kid.”
“And Evan. Three feet nine inches?”
“Yeah, that’s right. About the size of your average five or six year old. And their old ’97 Suburban is now about the size of a compact car.”
Hakan read the paper some more. “And one second our time is now about 1.68 seconds their time. How is that being measured?”
“Jennings rigged an advanced optical sensor to view the Suburban’s digital clock. Key was left on, in the accessory position. And we’ve found any battery within the hull keeps running like it hasn’t been used at all, or is simply being constantly replenished. Jennings’ team wrote a computer program to determine the exact time difference.”
“Have these time and dimension changes been cumulative?”
That was a surprise. “Why, Joe, I’m impressed by such thoughtful insight. No, they’re not cumulative. All new values appear to be calculated from the beginning heights, dimensions, mass and time, although the seconds gained per each decrease event time span have been cumulative, which is only common sense. And don’t know if you’ve read further, but the fourth, fifth, and sixth decrease events all happened at seven minutes after the hour, though their spread was eight hours apart, our time.”
Hakan stared at him. “And there are seven people.”
“Right. And the hull’s images observed by Indalo total seven. Not sure of the significance yet, but I’m sure we’ll know soon enough.”
“And the speed of light is supposedly traveling faster.” Again Hakan eyed the paper. “Currently about 3.69231 x 10^8 meters per second, verses the usual speed. Jennings team rigged something up for that too?”
“Right. Her team has been using an interferometer-type design, along with a computer program to periodically monitor light speed within the hull…that is, when the hull permits it.”
“Ornery cuss, huh?”
“One could say that, Joe, couldn’t one.”
A crooked smile appeared on Hakan’s mug. “And colors differ from the point of view, at decrease events?”
“Yes. Exactly. We believe it has something to do with energy and ROY-G-BIV.”
“Yeah, I remember that. Got ya.” Hakan allowed a full smile to form a moment. “And Jennings just tried…” He looked at the paper again. “Solvents, fire, freezing, photoelectric work functions, water displacement, and thermionic work functions. But I thought the hull is not here. And when her team placed the Suburban in a dark room, at one point it was felt, but later, it was not.”
“Correct, Joe. The Turrones’ hull emits orange light when in a dark room. The Suburban didn’t. And all her team’s destruction attempts – let’s just say they’re an aggressive form of communication, while at the same time giving us possible strikes at weakening or destroying the hull’s presence nearby. She wants to try a car crusher, a Wakefield particle accelerator, and an antimatter confinement chamber next. She also wants to attempt blocking the hull’s mind control on one of her team members, or see if camcorder videos allowed by the hull will be viewed at headquarters’ DC labs. It’s all about checking the hull’s mind control distance capabilities.”
"EBE involvement suspected?"
"That's the consensus. Hoping you can help with that too."
"Of course." With intensity, Hakan studied General Tauring’s face for a moment. Damn Indian. “But Indalo had a wussy meltdown?”
“Correcto, again.” General Tauring threw his arms up. “God damn it. I don’t know why I even chose that wuss. It was his damn college scores. But…I digress. Indalo is convinced all seven moving images he saw are future events that will occur.”
“And how the hell does he know that?”
“Well now he’s not sure. He thought the hull put the thoughts in his mind, but at the same time he can’t explain why he saw me hit Evan with a nightstick.”
“I think you’re right, General. Some of his own interpretations, or even his imagination are clouding the images. Did you straighten him out?”
“Tried. I told him to report just the facts and not his coloring of those facts. And I told him I don’t want to see a US Air Force captain fearful of dying. It’s absolutely pathetic. Heck, the hull hasn’t killed anyone yet. It’s just reducing their size and scaring them a bit. But he claims we need to wait and see – if the images start coming true, well then, looks like he’s correct.”
“Sounds like a fair determination. So, are we talking a life force transfer once more?”
“Yes, we are. I’ll have you meet with the Turrones first and hopefully a transfer with one of them will get us some solid insight immediately. But my main concern is the arrival of the other five tomorrow afternoon. Now, I know I’m skeptical of Indalo’s supposed premonitions, but if they are accurate, the fourth one is quite concerning. He saw all the hull people becoming the size of toddlers. They moved very quickly and could pass in and out of walls effortlessly, until they could no longer be found. And with the other EBEs leaving, not much help left to handle this. Time is of the essence.”
“Understood, General.” Hakan swallowed, and became pale for a second, but then his demeanor flushed with strength again. “I will figure this out. I assure you.”