"Can I help you with something?" Tyler asked anxiously.

The man wore a black trench coat that only exposed a small part of the dark lapel and black tie he was wearing underneath. The coat was dripping from the heavy rain that was outside. The most unusual feature about the man was the dark glasses he was wearing that hid his eyes.

"I must delivery this package to Dr. Jesse Wright," the man said with an accent Tyler didn't recognize.

He raised a small dark brown envelope and showed it to Tyler.

"Can you tell me, where is Dr. Wright's office?" He asked.

"Sure," Tyler answered. "Just turn left at the end of the hall there. His office is the first one on the left, across from the communications lab."

As Tyler spoke, he heard another crash, again at the docking bays at the rear of the building. The man glanced toward the end of the hallway nervously. Tyler caught a very brief glimpse of the man's eyes behind the dark glasses. His eyes appeared to be completely black. No whites, no pupils.

"Please," the man said appearing suddenly very anxious. "I must ask you do something. It is very important. Give this package to Dr. Jesse Wright. Only Dr. Wright can see this. No one else!"

"Are you serious?" Tyler asked. "Is this some sort of joke?"

The man grabbed Tyler's wrist tightly. Tyler was a lean two hundred pounds at just under six feet tall. He was capable of defending himself, yet the man’s grip seemed to freeze him in place.

"Lives have already been lost for what is in this package," the man said coldly. "You must do as I ask. Deliver this to Dr. Jesse Wright. Do you understand?"

"Okay," Tyler said warily.

Both of them noted the sound of running footsteps approaching from down the crossing hall.

"Quickly, you must hide the package!" the man said.

Tyler opened the door to a shelf inside the cart and stuffed it behind some cleaning supplies. He heard the running footsteps turn the corner toward him. He raised his head up to see who it was. The man that had given him the package had disappeared. Two formally dressed men in dark suits ran directly toward Tyler.

"Get your hands behind your head and get down on the floor!" One of them yelled as he aimed a large silver handgun at Tyler's head.

Tyler put his hands behind is head in confusion.

"What's going on here?" Tyler asked.

"Get down on the floor now!" the second man yelled nervously.

Tyler fell to his knees. He could see that both men were very nervous for some reason. Even though he was unarmed and they had weapons pointed directly at him, they seemed oddly fearful of him. A third man appeared from behind the two armed men and examined Tyler.

"That isn't him." the third man said.

The two armed men lowered their guns, and all three quickly moved past Tyler, down the hallway. He stayed down on his knees, with his hands behind his head for a long moment. Tyler's heart continued to race, and sweat had formed on his brow. The echoing footsteps disappeared down the hallway. It took him a moment to realize he could put his arms down and get off his knees. He took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

"Thank God the weekend starts tomorrow," he said out loud to himself.

He quickly moved his cart toward Dr. Wright's office. He had no idea what was in the package that the odd looking man had given him. All he knew was that he wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible. He wanted to just deliver the package and get back to business as usual. Tyler knocked on the open door to Dr. Wright’s office. Wright was talking on the phone as he motioned for Tyler to come in. Their late night meetings had become routine, as Dr. Wright had been working long hours for the past several weeks. Tyler often cleaned his office around him as he continued his work. Dr. Wright was a very personable man. They had a few friendly conversations on occasion. Tyler was fascinated by the work going on in the labs, and looked forward to any opportunity to learn more about it. Wright seemed to be a rather gregarious person. He was slightly heavy set, with a mustache that showed a lot of gray, and gave away his years. His demeanor was somewhat grandfatherly toward Tyler. He spoke with a relaxed southern drawl, that was oddly comforting. Dr. Jesse Wright was the Assistant Director in NASA's Department of Human and Extraterrestrial Communications. His department had become a high priority to NASA in the year 2002, when a signal of alien origin was inadvertently discovered coming from the planet Mars. It was discovered by two researchers at Australia's Sydney University of Technology. The signal was originally seen as interference in a unique type of high gain receiver developed by the two researchers. This new type of receiver was able to sort and capture alpha and beta brain waves from a relatively remote location. It was part of a system intended to aid paraplegic victims. Someone at JPL (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) happened to notice the interference problem in their device, appeared in conjunction with one of their robotic mission communication windows. It was then that the interference was recognized as a signal coming from Mars. The signal had only been identified as patterned and complex. Dr. Wright's department was formed specifically for the purpose of deciphering meaning from the signal, and creating, at the very least, a rudimentary form of communication that the astronaut crew could take with them when they launched for Mars in November to investigate the signal source. It was considered critical to the mission that the astronauts be capable of establishing communication with the sender of the transmission. In fact, this was the basis for the accelerated mission schedule, as the original manned Mars mission, originally to be launched from I.S.S. (International Space Station) had been postponed until the year 2029, due to a long list of development problems and budgeting shortfalls. Discovery of the Mars transmission created an intense interest in a manned Mars mission, which led to a more direct mission plan. It became widely believed that there very well could have been an advanced form of civilization or technology hidden on Mars, and that its discovery could bring a variety of technological and social benefits, that in turn, could be directly converted to economic benefits. With this in mind, large portions of the critically needed funding were acquired from various private sectors in the world market. Department Of Defense industries provided the greatest levels of support, in exchange for preferential distribution and control of any new technologies that might be created from the mission development or discovered on Mars. But, seven years had passed since the signal was first discovered, and no one had been able to decipher any real verifiable meaning from it. Some began to question if the repeating signal had been created by an intelligent alien source, especially when the satellite probe and ground surveyor showed nothing at the believed transmission site. Many began accusing NASA of creating some kind of hoax, in an attempt to regain waning public interest and funding, citing that the signal happened to be pinpointed very near the location of one of JPL's robotic mission. Opponents of the zealous Mars Direct manned mission plan were once again beginning to steal the headlines, citing that the mission created unnecessary levels of risk compared to the originally schedule I.S.S. mission plan. Dr. Wright's department was under heavy pressure to find some way to decipher a verifiable meaning from the transmission, but time was running out, and the upcoming launch was facing delays and possible termination as a result of their lack of success.

"Yes, I have it on my screen now," Dr. Wright said to the caller. "I hate to say this, but I think there's a pretty good chance we've looked at it from this angle already."

He listened to the caller for a moment.

"Yep," Dr. Wright said. "That's exactly what I saw, but the boys in the lab said it just didn't add up that way. I don't know exactly why, but they seem pretty sure. But, I will get them to take a look at what you sent us and see if any new angles come from it. Thanks a lot for gettin' that out to us. You know we need all the help we can get on this thing at this point. We really appreciate it."

Another brief pause.

"Sure," Dr. Wright answered. "I'll let you know if we find anything at all on this."

He slowly hung up the phone while staring at the data on his computer monitor.

"Dr. Wright?" Tyler asked. "Can I bother you for a minute?"

"It’s no bother," he replied. "What's on your mind Tyler?"

"A man gave something to me," Tyler answered. "He emphatically stated that I should deliver it to only you. He said it was very important, and I have reason to believe him."

Tyler handed Dr. Wright the small envelope.

"Why didn't he bring this to me himself if it were so important?" Dr. Wright asked.

"He acted like he was in a big hurry," Tyler said. "These two guys in suits showed up right behind him with guns. I think they were looking for him. It was all really strange."

"You mean just a few minutes ago?" Dr. Wright asked.

"Yes," Tyler answered.

"That must have been the commotion I heard in the hall a few minutes ago," Dr. Wright said.

Wright opened the envelope. He was unable to remove its contents as they were tightly packed inside the bubbled plastic padding that lined the inside of the envelope. He shook it hard over his desktop. A clear jewel case that contained a silver disk fell out, along with a small piece of notepad paper. The paper fell to the floor at Tyler's feet, face up, displaying the hand written message. Tyler picked it up. He could not help reading the brief message scribbled out on the page.

Dr. Jesse Wright:

The disk enclosed contains the keys to understanding the Mars transmission. Someone in your office is sabotaging all efforts to learn the true meaning of the transmission.

TRUST NO ONE THERE.

"Did you recognize the person who gave you this," Dr. Wright asked. "Do you think he was one of our people?"

"I really don't think so," Tyler said. "This person was very strange. I'm sure I would remember seeing him if he worked here."

"What do you mean by strange?" Dr. Wright asked.

"His eyes...they were," Tyler stopped.

"What?" Dr. Wright asked.

"I don't know for sure," Tyler said. "I'm just very sure he wasn't a NASA employee."

Wright took out the disk and inserted it into the drive in his computer. The computer scanned the disk and rapidly displayed several lines of text.

"It looks like a program file," Tyler said.

"But to what?" Dr. Wright asked partly speaking to himself.

"It would be hard to tell by reading one page of code," Tyler answered. "There seems to be a terminator in the wrong place, or there is a missing variable in this spot."

Tyler pointed to the screen.

"This variable seems like it could be calling for a note value, but the constant value seems to be missing," he added.

"What do you mean by a note value?" Dr. Wright asked.

"I mean a numerical frequency value that would make an audible tone," he replied.

"Really?" Dr. Wright raised his brow as he answered. "Could you show me what you're talking about."

"You mean make it play the tone?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, exactly," Wright answered.

"I suppose," Tyler said. "I would need to use your keyboard."

Dr. Wright got up from his chair and rolled it to Tyler.

"Go right ahead," Dr. Wright said.

"I'm going to cut this section out and use it to create a new program," Tyler said. "For now I'm just going to guess at the missing constant value and loop it into this particular variable operator."

Tyler quickly typed in the new line of code and then test ran the small program. An almost vocal sounding tone was produced over the computer's speakers.

"That's very interesting," Dr. Wright said. "But what do you think it means?"

"Hard to tell from just this," Tyler answered.

He switched back to the original program file data and scrolled down the page.

"There's several more string variables of this type," Tyler said.

"Do you think you could pull out all those lines and see if they collectively add up to something we might be able to use?" Dr. Wright asked.

"Sure," Tyler replied. "That would be easy to do."

Tyler glanced at the code page total, displayed on the bottom of the screen. He saw that there were two thousand and forty-four pages of code.

"Except there are over two thousand pages of code here," Tyler said. "This might take a long time, and I would get in some trouble if I were to spend all night working on this."

"I could speak to your supervisor on my way out and take care of that," Dr. Wright said. "What’s his name?"

"Mendor," Tyler answered. "It’s Mrs. Mendor."

Dr. Wright stayed and watched Tyler scroll down the pages of code for some time. Tyler had an unusual feeling of enthusiasm and excitement about what he was doing. He felt that he was doing something very important, but he wasn't completely sure how or why. In part, this was because he sensed Dr. Wright's excitement about what they had just discovered. It also occurred to him that he was working on a NASA project that only the doctors and engineers would normally be allowed to participate in. This was a group of people that had always seemed above and beyond him, yet he always thought that if his circumstances had been a little different; he could have been far more to NASA than just a maintenance engineer.

Dr. Wright stayed until around midnight, listening to Tyler build a group of tones from the data. Finally becoming exhausted, he asked Tyler to continue on his own, saying that he would be back in early the next morning to check his progress. Tyler spent the entire night pasting hundreds of lines of code, one at a time. Before he realized it, his entire shift had passed. He had been able to scan the entire two thousand and forty-four pages by the end of his shift. It was just after 7:00 a.m. when the lab director, Dr. Gernhardt, walked by Wright's office. Dr. Gernhardt was the head of the Department of Human and Extraterrestrial Communications team, and Dr. Wright's boss. Tyler didn't notice him going by. Dr. Gernhardt had glanced at Tyler as he passed, but at first wasn't sure what to think about Tyler's being at Dr. Wright's computer. It then struck him as odd that someone in a maintenance uniform was working at a secure computer terminal. He stepped into Dr. Wright's office and looked over Tyler's shoulder at the data on the screen. He quickly reached over Tyler's shoulder and turned off the monitor.

"Excuse me. .Mr. Anderson is it?" Dr. Gernhardt said looking at Tyler's badge. "May I ask what you are doing here?"

Tyler answered a little shaken when he realized who was talking to him. "Dr. Wright asked me to sort some lines of code."

Dr. Gernhardt interrupted speaking louder, and angered. "I can see by your badge that you are supposed to be a maintenance engineer. You are not authorized to be on any of the lab's terminals. I want you to get up and get out of here right now."

"Yes sir," Tyler answered. "Shouldn't I log off Dr. Wright's server connection?"

"I will take care of that, just leave please," Dr. Gernhardt said opening the door for Tyler.

"By the way," Dr. Gernhardt said. "You should check the men's restroom at the end of the hall. I believe there is a clogged toilet in there where your expertise belongs."

Dr. Gernhardt slammed Wright's office door shut, and sat down at his desk. He turned the monitor back on. As he looked at the data on the screen, his jaw fell open and a look of shock was on his face. He carefully watched Tyler push away his cleaning cart. He then nervously picked up the phone and dialed.

"This is Gernhardt," he said speaking quietly on the phone. "I think we're in serious trouble. Wright has somehow gotten hold of the critical link that solves the Mars transmission."

"So he knows all about the meaning of the transmission, and what we've been doing there?" the man replied over the phone.

"I don't think he's had time to fully understand what he's got just yet," Gernhardt said. "It won't take long from here though. What I want to know is where he got this data. You assured me that this wouldn't happen until it was time."

"There was a leak," the voice said.

"Do you know who or where?" Gernhardt asked seeming near panic. "Is there someone out there right now about to blow this whole thing?"

"The leak has been taken care of," the voice said. "Just stay calm. There is no need to become panicked."

"If anybody finds out what I've been doing for you, I'll be the one that's stuck in prison sharing my table and my bed with some two-hundred and fifty pound guy named Bubba. So don't you tell me to stay calm."

"Things are still well in hand if we stay composed and do what needs to be done," the voice said confidently. "Now, listen carefully, you must find a 1.5-inch disk that contains the data file. Now that we know to whom it was delivered, things can be easily managed. Can you go into his office and see if you can find the disk?"

"I'm in Wright's office now," Gernhardt replied.

"Excellent," the voice said. "Do you see the disk?"

Gernhardt searched frantically over the desk and through the desk drawers. Finally he looked in the disk drive of the computer. It was still there.

"Got it," Gernhardt said with relief.

"Good," the voice said. "You should replace the disk with our special copy of the program before Wright gets back. Check the hard disk and the server for any other copies that may have been made from the true copy of the program and replace them with our defective version of the program as well. As per usual, his study of the data will lead him to a dead end, and he will have no idea how close he really was."

"Okay," Gernhardt replied. "We may have just dodged the bullet on this one. But this better not happen again."

"We are nearly in the clear now," the man said. "If things remain the same, we should be able to get the vote to postpone the November launch as early as Monday. From there we can convince the public that we should wait for the I.S.S. mission plan to be completed. With some new I.S.S. problems, we can then easily delay a manned Mars mission almost indefinitely."

"But won't endless failures and delays seriously damage the space program?" Dr. Gernhardt asked.

"No t nearly as much as what a successful mission to Mars would create," the man said. "If humans ever set foot on Mars, the consequences could be catastrophic. You've seen the data. You know the facts. There is no other way. We must stay the course."

"Yes, I understand," Gernhardt replied.

"Could anyone else know about the data and the disk?" the man on the phone asked.

"Only a janitor," Gernhardt replied. "I'm sure he's nothing to be concerned about."

"Let me know how things proceed," the voice said. "If you have any problems, someone will be available to take care of them. Do you understand?"

"What do you mean by take care of them?" Gernhardt asked.

"Sometimes lives must be sacrificed so that lives can be saved," the man said.

"No, you're not going to do that," Gernhardt said.

"Just do your job, and I will do mine," the man said coldly, followed by an abrupt click as he hung up the phone.

Gernhardt thought for a minute, then quickly dialed the maintenance office. Mrs. Mendor was there to answer the call.

Tyler found the toilet that was filled and had flooded over, just as Gernhardt had described. The mess from the clogged toilet had spread all over the floor. Without thought, he went to work. After mopping the worst of the mess up, he tried to unclog the toilet with a plunger. He thought he had gotten it cleared, but when he tested it, it again flooded over and covered the floor. He again mopped up the new mess. He then tried more plunging. As he worked the plunger, Tyler's supervisor, Mrs. Mendor, entered the men's room. She was fuming angrily, and clearly ready to attack. Tyler went on working his plunger, as to give her minimal acknowledgment. He had really come to dislike this supervisor, and had a tendency to give her a minimum of attention or respect. It was rare that he didn't get along with his supervisors, because he took his job and his work very seriously, and endeavored to be the best at whatever he did. She had a strong tendency to treat the people she supervised as inferior, rather than as subordinates. In his own mind he wondered if it was because of her lack of size, being less than 4’ 10", or perhaps because she secretly knew she was not really supervisory material, that caused her to display this constant need to belittle her subordinates.

"Mr. Anderson?"

"Yes Mrs. Mendor?" Tyler replied without stopping his plunging.

"Dr. Gernhardt tells me you were in Dr. Wright's office this morning, playing at one of the terminals," Mrs. Mendor said. "Would you mind explaining to me what made you think you had any business there?"

Tyler attempted a reply. "I was working for Dr. Wright last night, he asked me to..."

"Mr. Anderson," Mrs. Mendor interrupted, "Dr. Wright is not your supervisor. You have no business on any of NASA’s computer terminals. Dr. Gernhardt was very upset to find you fooling around on a secure terminal, and I can't blame him. Furthermore, if there were to be any changes in your work assignments, you should have checked with me first, not Dr. Wright, and then I could have told you to stick to your assigned work, and saved you from a lot of trouble. You can expect that once I turn in my report on this matter, there is a very good chance that you will be seeking employment elsewhere."

Mrs. Mendor didn't hear Dr. Wright come in and step up behind her. He had heard almost everything Mrs. Mendor had said to Tyler.

"Excuse me," Dr. Wright interrupted, "I was just looking for Tyler, Mrs. Mendor is it?" he said looking at her badge.

"Yes sir, Dr. Wright," she replied showing an entirely different, more pleasant disposition.

"I was just straightening out the problem with Mr. Anderson here, and I can assure you he won't be interfering with your work any longer."

"Yes well..." Dr. Wright replied. "I'm really sorry I didn't get with you about this last night. I just got so involved in the work, that I forgot to check by on my way out. I had asked for Tyler's assistance last night with a very important project that we were working on. This whole misunderstanding is really my fault, not Tyler's. I do apologize."

"Oh, there's certainly no need for an apology from you Dr. Wright," Mrs. Mendor answered pleasantly.

"I was kinda hoping Tyler here could continue assisting me with our project," Dr. Wright said. "If you think your department could spare him for a while."

"Of course," Mrs. Mendor answered cheerfully. "I know how extremely important your work is, and of course my department would be happy to support your research in any way possible."

"That's very magnanimous of you, Mrs. Mendor," Dr. Wright replied curtly. "So it’s okay with you if Tyler works with me for a while then?"

"Certainly, Dr. Wright!" she answered. "For as long as you need."

"Thank you," Dr. Wright said as he opened the door to the restroom. "I really appreciate this."

Dr. Wright took the plunger Tyler was still holding out of his hand, and handed it to Mrs. Mendor.

"I guess you'll be needing this," Dr. Wright added.

Tyler walked with Wright back toward his office.

"So how did it go last night?" Dr. Wright asked as they walked down the hall.

"I think I transferred all the data into the new program," Tyler replied. "I was taking a last look through to make sure I hadn't missed anything when Dr. Gernhardt came in."

"Yes, I heard about that," Dr. Wright answered. "Sorry about that."

Dr. Wright opened his office door and sat down behind his desk.

"Go ahead and have a seat there," Dr. Wright said.

He waited a moment for Tyler to get settled.

"I'd like you to work some more on this, just to see how far we can go with it, if you're interested," Dr. Wright said.

"I don't know what else I could do with the program with the limited computer setup you have in here, but of course I am interested," Tyler replied.

"You have any other ideas?" Dr. Wright asked showing interest.

Tyler paused before he answered. He felt very uncomfortable explaining his ideas and theories to Dr. Wright, since he saw him as a very knowledgeable Scientist. It had never really occurred to him that such a person, whom he greatly respected, would be asking him for his ideas on such an important scientific project.

"I was thinking the program data could be adapted to run through a voice synthesis program," Tyler answered.

"That sounds very interesting," Dr. Wright replied," Do you think you could do that here?"

"I think so," Tyler answered. "But I would probably need to bring in some of my own equipment from home. I may need to buy an adapter card for your computer, unless I can come up with a compatible part from my stuff."

"That's no problem," Dr. Wright answered. "Why don't you go ahead and get whatever you need. I think under the circumstances it would be best if we continue to do this on the night shift."

"I understand," Tyler answered.

"Could you make it back in tonight?" Wright asked. "Friday night, there will just be security and one technician in the lab, so we should be free from any interruptions."

"Okay," Tyler answered. "Guess I'll see you this evening then."

As Tyler left the building the sun had just risen and was shining brightly. There were leaves and debris from the nearby woods spread all about the parking lot from last night’s storm. As he got into his car, he noticed a man sitting in an old turquoise Ford Ranger pickup truck. The man seemed to be watching him. Tyler studied him for a moment. He had a gruff beard and wore a dirty flannel shirt. He saw him picking up something beside him in his seat. Tyler became tensed for a moment. The man raised something in a brown paper bag. He brought the bag up to his mouth and turned it up.

"I guess he's starting his weekend a little early," Tyler said to himself as he looked away.

He unlocked his car door. As he got in, the man in the pickup set aside the brown bag and quickly picked up a camera with a zoom lens attached. He snapped off five pictures of Tyler as he got into his car.

Tyler made his way home through the morning rush hour traffic, seeing the sunrise to full strength. It was going to be a cool clear day. The morning weather displayed the first hints that fall was approaching. He was exhausted, but the bright sunlight made the thought of going to bed very difficult. As was usual, numerous cars passed by, traveling in the opposite direction, most of them on their way to their day jobs. He suddenly had to brake, surprised by the line of cars in front of him that were only creeping forward. He could see the police lights flashing a short distance ahead. An ambulance passed him with its blasting siren, forcing its way down the middle of the busy two-lane road. As he slowly approached the center of the commotion, he could see where a car had driven off the right hand side of the road and had suddenly stopped after it hit a tree head on. At first he thought someone must have fallen asleep at the wheel, and had simply driven off the road. But then he noticed the holes in the back window of the car. There were several more similar holes in the open driver side door. They seemed to be bullet holes. He only caught a glimpse of the man behind the wheel of the wrecked car. His head was laying back and his mouth was open. The dark glasses he was wearing had somehow stayed in place, and still covered his eyes. He saw an Oak Ridge police officer step up to cover his body with what looked like a large white towel. The sight sent a chill through Tyler, as he recognized the man from the night before. He was the one that had given him the package in the hallway. As he passed, the traffic slowly began to speed up. A few yards further down he noticed a dark sedan that was pulled to the side of the road. Two men in dark suites were stepping out, just as he neared the vehicle. He recognized the men as the ones he had seen before in the hallway. The two men studied Tyler as he passed, as if they had recognized him. He could see them in his rear view mirror. They continued to watch him drive away, until they finally disappeared from view. There was an intense anxious feeling in the pit of Tyler's stomach that made him feel sick. He realized that the simple life he had always known had just become very complicated.          

Chapter 2 

© 1997-98-99 Ronald Reed Jackson / KEEPER & SOL Publishing . Unauthorized duplication prohibited.