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Noah did not waste time flying the two ships back to Pinecrest Lake. He wondered if he should have pre-warned Jonesy who was by his lonesome in the small ship. ‘Too late now,’ he thought.
The two ships shot to ten miles above The Mojave in one second. They darted northward and froze ten miles above Pinecrest Lake in two seconds, then dropped like a stone, actually much faster, and froze one hundred feet above the middle of Pinecrest Lake in another second.
Although there was no one there to hear him, Jonesy uttered a very audible, extempore reference to bovine excrement.
The sky to the east was becoming quite bright and it would not be long till sunrise.
It was the dawn of Wednesday, September 29, 2123. Checking out the sleeping camp on the shore of the lake, on his spherical holographic display, Noah noticed a man, he wasn’t sure which one, break some twigs and sticks. He watched the man stir the still-glowing embers of the fire from the previous night. The man then placed the twigs and sticks on the embers and before long the fire burst into life. Noah next watched the man place a coffee pot over the flames. ‘I’m definitely ready for some of that,’ he thought to himself. He noted that the man had not yet noticed the two ships hovering above the lake. Ever so slowly, he brought up the iridescence of the two ships. He then moved them down to the shore of the lake just to the north of Melvin and Carla’s tent.
For the whole time that Noah was in the transporter ship he refrained from making contact with the floor by maintaining his levitation. He thus stayed free of radioactive contamination. Jonesy was also contaminant free because he never ventured out of Noah’s ship.
Before he opened the hatches, Noah thought about the Mojave group possibly contaminating the camp and the lake. He was happy that the majority, if not all, of the high contaminant had been washed off in the waters of Ash Meadows Spring. The majority that was left was the substantially less radioactive desert sand that was stuck to their boots and the horse’s hoofs. He considered that ideally these should be washed, however not in the lake because it provided the group’s drinking water. They should be
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washed in something like a bucket, miles away from the camp in some inaccessible spot.
He realised that he would have to perform that task himself while levitating. The bucket should then be left behind. As well, the interior of the transporter ship should be swept out clean of the desert sand residue, as best as possible, in the same place far away from the camp.
Noah understood that the radioactivity of the sand was quite low grade, not really representing any danger over a short period, however he nonetheless did not want to take any risks of anyone accidentally ingesting some. He turned to the group in the transporter, who was still visibly blown away by the experience they were having, and spoke to them in a soft, reassuring voice.
‘I am going to open the hatch in a minute however I would appreciate it if you all stayed put for a while until we can wash your boots in a bucket of water or some such thing. You may stand on the lowered ramp, that will be OK, but please do not step off the ramp onto the ground. The same goes for Fury. If you girls could control him, please.’
‘We shall do as you say, Noah,’ said Fin.
‘Thank you, Noah,’ said Tip with gratitude in her voice.
‘Yes, thank you,’ added Griffin with a hint of discomfort in his voice.
‘That is very good and all will be well. I shall go and speak to the group on the ground and explain to them how we found you. Jonesy will join me. I would not be surprised if some of the group come to greet you, especially the children. They are very friendly and will show you much kindness I’m sure. Please resist the temptation to step off the ramp.
‘We will do as you say, Noah,’ said Fin reassuringly.
2
That morning, it was Ace, the helicopter pilot, who was first up and about tending to the communal campfire. Under normal circumstances it would have been Jonesy’s task as he always liked to rise before the sun.
Ace failed to notice, in the predawn semi-darkness, the two softly-glowing, almond-shaped discs silently hovering about a hundred feet above the centre of the lake. His attention was tightly focussed on breathing life back into the fading embers of the previous night’s fire. He failed to notice as the two discs, one much larger than the other, began to glow brighter and slowly descend towards the water. He even did not see them come to a levitating stop one foot above the shore of the lake and about fifty yards beyond Melvin’s tent.
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Melvin was next to rise. He was awakened by the sound of breaking sticks, which he immediately recognised as someone tending to the fire.
‘Don’t get up yet, hon,’ Carla pleaded to no avail.
He kissed her tenderly and said, ‘You stay restin, chile, and I’ll be bringin you a nice hot cup of coffee.’ He kissed her again then turned and poked his head out from their tent.
He looked right and saw Ace tending to the fire. Then he instinctively looked left. His jaw dropped and hung limp for a second as his half-asleep brain attempted to compute the meaning of the fantastic sight virtually right next to their camp. After a moment of paralysed entrancement, he turned his head the other way and whisper-called-out to Ace who had his back to both him and the incredible vision beyond him.
‘Hay Ayce … haaaay Ayce!’
Ace immediately turned around and froze on the spot at seeing the two levitating space ships. He tried to whisper back, but he choked on the words.
Melvin crawled out of his tent and walked over to the now-flickering campfire.
‘There’s two of em,’ he whispered suspiciously.
‘Who do you think they are?’ said Ace.
‘Might be Jonesy in the small one,’ said Melvin.
‘Look at the size of the other one,’ Ace observed.
‘Yeah, it’s bigger than a barn. Wonder what it’s doin here?’
They both walked towards the two levitating ships. As they approached, they noticed a hatch open in each space ship and lower as a ramp. The hatches opened in unison. Ace and Melvin stood transfixed as they peered into the softly-lit interiors. They immediately saw Jonesy emerge from the small one and Noah float out of the large one.
They next observed wide-eyed as a huge, black stallion, restrained by two beautiful young girls, appeared near the entrance of the larger ship. Behind them was a young man.
‘Who are they?’ whispered Melvin.
‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Ace replied.
They turned their heads as they heard a resounding ‘Holy guacamole’ bellow from the main camp.
‘Me thinks Snake’s up,’ said Ace.
‘No doubt,’ Melvin concurred.
Jonesy didn’t waste any time getting off the ship. He hopped off the end of the lowered ramp into the lush, green grass on the bank of the lake. He took a deep breath.
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‘Beautiful cool air up here,’ he declared. ‘I ain’t been off that dang ship since we left.’
Snake walked over. ‘Hiya, Jonesy, who’s your pals?’
Before Jonesy got a chance to answer, Noah began to speak. The sun was just poking above the ridge to the east. It lit his face in a golden glow. He began telling them about the reconnaissance. ‘We encountered radiation levels highly unsuitable for life,’ he said with a tone of urgency. ‘The whole desert is contaminated. Some parts are much worse than others. I am beginning to have doubts whether long-term, healthy life is even feasible virtually anywhere on the North American continent. There may be pockets that are OK, like here, but basically radiation is everywhere and it will be just a matter of time before people become poisoned. You see, there will be no knowing where the animals you will hunt for food had been, or what they had eaten. Over one hundred nuclear power plants have melted down and spewed their poison all over the place.’
Noah paused for a moment. Everyone could see that he was becoming upset. He regathered his emotions and continued. He introduced the trio from the desert and the horse, all still quarantined in the big ship, to the men of the camp. He then explained how they needed to be washed down of any remaining radioactive contaminant so as not to spread it around the camp. He explained how he intended to do that. He then explained that he needed to take Griffin to Rama for specialised treatment for his radiation poisoning. ‘I need to do this urgently as time is short,’ he stressed. He whispered the last part because he wished not to alarm Griffin or the two girls. The men got the message.
Noah turned his head towards the fire and asked, ‘Is that coffee I smell?’
‘Valhalla Java,’ said Snake. ‘I got two hundred kilos of the stuff. You know your coffee, Noah?’
Noah smiled a knowing smile and coolly replied, ‘Enough to know that you know yours.’
‘I’ll pour you a cup,’ said Ace.
3
Pretty soon the rest of the camp arose to the new day. They were all astonished at the sight of the two levitating ships. They all gathered together as Noah introduced them to Griffin, Fin, Tip and Fury.
As he drank his coffee, Noah asked Snake if he had a bucket and a broom. Snake found the items stored away in the back of the shipping container.
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Over the next couple of hours Noah flew the desert survivors to a distant place where he washed them down with water and swept out the interior of the transporter ship. He then returned to the camp where everyone was safely able to exit the ship and join the camp’s community. Unfortunately, Griffin, Tip and Fin needed to be fully covered by their clothing to protect their sensitive skins from the daylight. Everyone, particularly the kids, was completely enraptured by Fury who delighted in all the attention.
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The whole group sat around the main fire and listened, open mouthed, as Griffin told the tale of his and the girls’ escape from the base. Right in the middle of the best part of the story, Noah interjected,
‘We shall have to leave soon, Griffin.’
Tip and Fin looked at Noah through their shaded facemasks. Fin spoke apprehensively,
‘We must go with you as well, Noah. We can’t be parted from Griff.’
‘I won’t go without the girls,’ Griffin announced somewhat defiantly. The girls bundled up tightly against him.
‘Oh great, a mutiny,’ exclaimed Noah bemused. ‘Well, as much as I would love to accommodate you, I am afraid that it is physically impossible. My ship is small and two is the most it can carry. Besides, the people we will be attempting to visit are very secretive and illusive and I am afraid that as a larger group we may not find them at all because they will avoid us. Even as a duo we shall be extremely lucky to succeed in our quest. As much as I regret it, you girls will have to stay.’
Lori, Jonesy’s wife, came over to them and placed her arms around them.
‘We’ll take good care of you while you wait for Griffin’s return,’ she reassured them,
‘and we are keener than keen to hear more of your amazing story.’
Everyone around the fire audibly agreed with her.
Thus, it was decided that Fin and Tip would stay at the Pinecrest camp for the duration of Griffin’s absence.
Once that business was over, Noah had another sip of his coffee and turned to Snake.
Everyone in the camp listened intently to the conversation.
‘I have thought about this for some time, Snake,’ he began.
Snake looked at the alien directly in the eyes, like chief to chief, and calmly uttered,
‘Hit me with both barrels, Noah.’
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‘OK, well, you already know that the whole western half of California has sunk beneath the sea …’
Jonesy couldn’t contain himself anymore.
‘Yeah, Snake, from San Fran to Mexico, to the foothills of the Sierra … all gone. The San Joaquin Valley is part of the ocean now.’
‘But that is not the worst of it,’ added Noah.
Snake’s eyes bulged with amazement and his jaw hung limp. ‘That’s not the worst of it?’
‘What’s the worst of it?’ asked Trixie in a faltering voice.
Jonesy couldn’t help himself. ‘The worst of it,’ he said in a most dramatic, emotional voice, ‘is that the whole damn country is off-the-scale radioactive.’
‘Yes,’ Noah nodded his head, ‘I couldn’t have put it more succinctly myself. In fact, the way I see it, life in America is over for about a million years, give or take a couple of hundred thousand. My estimation is primarily based on the half-life of plutonium.’
‘What? Do you mean here?’ asked Ludwig referring to the Pinecrest camp.
‘I suspect everywhere.’ Noah replied.
‘So, you think? …’
‘That’s affirmative, Snake. I think your group will need to be relocated, either to Australia, New Zealand or Tasmania. We are setting up a settlement in a place called Noosa, on the east coast of Australia. It’s really nice there and it will be a good place from which to explore all those other locations. You are the other reason I borrowed the transporter ship from a friend of a friend. I thought to leave it here while I took Griffin to Rama. When we return, we can then focus on your relocation, if of course that is agreeable to you. Nothing is compulsory. You are free to do as you wish. I am simply happy to help any way I can.’
It never dawned on any of them that Noah could have telepathically manipulated their minds any which way he wished if he had chosen to. From the Raman perspective, non-telepathic Earthlings only had as much free will as they were allowed to have.
…….
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