| General Fiction posted April 4, 2014 | Chapters: |
...37 38 -39- 40... 
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Using the new resources.
A chapter in the book Yosemite
Rescue Begins At Home
by michaelcahill
| Background Mankind has almost destroyed the earth. A pocket of survivors in Yosemite fights an unknown enemy to protect its small portion of what remains. |
Previously, the bunker revealed many secrets and equipment began to be utilized and constructed. Pockets of survivors were discovered, some within Yosemite itself. Another attack by the enemy had minimal results as the survivors proved to be ready and prepared to combat it this time. More and more information came to light. Johnny had an idea. We join the story now as he is about to ask Nikolai a question about the equipments capacity.
It occurred to me that the new mind equipment might come in handy in our rescue attempt. I knew Nikolai had some fancy name for the equipment and cringed when I called it "mind equipment". I didn't have time to learn the science. Using it had to be my focus.
"Nikolai, we've been talking about transmitting signals long distances. What about short distances? Can we control the signal? Can we send it two miles away and no farther?"
Nikolai paused briefly. "Of course, Johnny. I haven't been thinking in those terms. That would be simple. The closer the target the greater the concentration and the easier the targeting."
That opened up some interesting possibilities. "Christine, I think we could draw those people here with our own projections. If they are packing to leave then someone is receiving the enemy transmission. Why not send them ours instead?"
Christine smiled. "I am in favor of that, of course. It's safer than a blind trek through the forest to a reception that is uncertain. But, Johnny, I don't know the first thing about…well, any of this."
Nikolai interjected, "There is nothing to know. I simply hook you up and you start thinking and concentrating on the message. Not just you. As many of you as possible. Anyone that registers on the equipment. It isn't some mind game. It's simple electronics. It's television. Well, I can see by the look on your face, Johnny, that it is not important that you completely understand."
We all burst out laughing at that remark. I could feel the look on my face and knew it wasn't the look of great intelligence. A puppy seeing its master levitating would be the equivalent. I truly didn't understand the technology. Christine did, perhaps she could explain it to me when we had some leisure time.
We decided to go with the people on hand. Making a madhouse out of the bunker needed to be avoided for as long as possible in my view. Christine, Lester, Mark, Sarah, myself and Ma, who'd been holding out on me it appeared, were all hooked up to Nikolai's array of equipment. There were monitors and wires going everywhere. The solar panels had the bunker lit up like a Las Vegas casino. A picture of the bunker with a large number of people eating a meal filled a large panel directly in front of us. A short script flashed line by line directly under it.
YOSEMITE RESCUE CAMP OPEN
COME IMMEDIATELY
YOU ARE IN DANGER
FOLLOW THE BEACON
SAFETY
That constituted the entire transmission. The screen switched to the next line every five seconds. Nikolai instructed us to speak the words clearly in our mind and not vary the tone. Speak in a monotone he told us.
Nikolai had some final words. "Remember what I told you. Don't add anything to the message. It is important that each individual mind combine to make one mind. The message is simple. You want these people to follow the instructions. You want them to seek the comfort and peace of that picture. It is the truth. You are saving their lives. You must put all of your effort into these thoughts."
Nikolai flipped a switch. I felt a light buzz in the back of my head. It was nothing like what an incoming transmission felt like. This just tickled a little bit. The screen started slowly rolling. The lines changed from one to the next, over and over, one after the other. Five seconds seemed longer than I imagined they would. We were all doing what we would be doing until Nikolai turned the machine off.
A large searchlight stood on top of Half-Dome to act as the beacon. It shone for miles in all directions.
Carlos, Turner and Tom had the regular military at the ready just in case we drew the wrong people in. It had taken some coaxing to get me to agree, but the threat of being defenseless with Christine, myself and Ma indisposed gave me no choice. Thank God, Annie, Jen and Linda were there to watch over everything.
Time began to stand still for me. Christine and the others would verify that same feeling with me later when we talked about it. Christine had a sense of people approaching the camp. None of the rest of us had that. All of us sensed Christine as a guiding force walking calmly through our thoughts guiding us. Personally, her smile became a part of every cell in my body and her laughter a part of my spirit.
Nikolai flipped a switch on his console and the sensations of the experience slowly drifted away. No one felt a jolt back to reality. No one ever felt like they had left reality. It felt more like reality simply expanded or perhaps we had discovered a corner of it we hadn't seen before. A part of the experience remained with me.
Christine smiled as she spoke softly to me, "Your still shuffling around in here, Recon Johnny. I kind of like it. To be honest, I love it."
"I love it too, Christine. I wouldn't mind getting hooked up to this thing just for fun."
That would have to wait. We had been transmitting the message for over four hours and the results were beyond anything we might have imagined. The bunker was not a secret any longer, at least to the citizens of Yosemite. The transmission's effectiveness could be counted by the dozens.
Linda exhibited more signs of fatigue than all of us put together. She sighed. "Over seven hundred so far, and there are more coming from all over. The beacon is still on. We had to bring the troops in for crowd control. I don't mean to imply that they were unruly, no one was. Just the damn numbers, Johnny. Some of these people have been to hell and they have just got back. They're eating these rations like they're New York steaks."
.
"No enemies? No one negative or problems?" It seemed too good to be true.
Linda's expression seemed to mirror my inner feeling of astonishment. She shook her head from side to side. "No one even displayed anything negative. They all arrived in great spirits. Hell, to tell you the truth, it almost creeped me out." She let out a laugh. "I guess this must have looked like heaven after what they'd been through."
I realized that I was smiling. I looked over at Christine as I realized why. She looked so peaceful as she surveyed all of the activity taking place in the bunker. I wasn't concentrating when I called out to her softly. She turned and smiled. Words were not needed.
Nikolai waved us in to the control room. He looked pleased. It was beginning to be his normal look. He pointed to the monitor. The rescue scene that had been transmitted many times over the last week was on the monitor. It appeared as a hazy and out of focus image that moved in an unnatural motion. Ships on the water with American flags. Underneath the screen, phrases followed one after the other every five seconds: rescue, shoreline, America, country restored, rescue coming.
On another monitor, another picture was on display, a little more out of focus, but still discernable, warships, Persian flags, and Chinese personnel aboard. There was a jumble of words rapidly changing below: deception, destruction, victory, land, land, land. The word land appeared often. An aircraft carrier was among the ships. It looked huge.
Nikolai frowned as he spoke, "They are transmitting to the location you called Edward's Air Force Base. It's a call for back up. Codes and coordinates. It sounds official, Johnny. It sounds legitimate. Those bombers deployed before. We saw them. Either they stole codes, have hostages or there are traitors. But, we have nothing that can affect a stealth bomber. We can't even detect them until they enter our field of vision." Nikolai smiled and looked pleased once again. He started pushing buttons and flipping switches. He looked at a small monitor. "But, Johnny, we can scramble that signal. Oh, hell yes, we can scramble that signal!"
"Can we talk to Edwards?"
"Hell yes, Johnny. Inviting them to tea?" Nikolai looked…well, you know how he looked.
It occurred to me that the new mind equipment might come in handy in our rescue attempt. I knew Nikolai had some fancy name for the equipment and cringed when I called it "mind equipment". I didn't have time to learn the science. Using it had to be my focus.
"Nikolai, we've been talking about transmitting signals long distances. What about short distances? Can we control the signal? Can we send it two miles away and no farther?"
Nikolai paused briefly. "Of course, Johnny. I haven't been thinking in those terms. That would be simple. The closer the target the greater the concentration and the easier the targeting."
That opened up some interesting possibilities. "Christine, I think we could draw those people here with our own projections. If they are packing to leave then someone is receiving the enemy transmission. Why not send them ours instead?"
Christine smiled. "I am in favor of that, of course. It's safer than a blind trek through the forest to a reception that is uncertain. But, Johnny, I don't know the first thing about…well, any of this."
Nikolai interjected, "There is nothing to know. I simply hook you up and you start thinking and concentrating on the message. Not just you. As many of you as possible. Anyone that registers on the equipment. It isn't some mind game. It's simple electronics. It's television. Well, I can see by the look on your face, Johnny, that it is not important that you completely understand."
We all burst out laughing at that remark. I could feel the look on my face and knew it wasn't the look of great intelligence. A puppy seeing its master levitating would be the equivalent. I truly didn't understand the technology. Christine did, perhaps she could explain it to me when we had some leisure time.
We decided to go with the people on hand. Making a madhouse out of the bunker needed to be avoided for as long as possible in my view. Christine, Lester, Mark, Sarah, myself and Ma, who'd been holding out on me it appeared, were all hooked up to Nikolai's array of equipment. There were monitors and wires going everywhere. The solar panels had the bunker lit up like a Las Vegas casino. A picture of the bunker with a large number of people eating a meal filled a large panel directly in front of us. A short script flashed line by line directly under it.
YOSEMITE RESCUE CAMP OPEN
COME IMMEDIATELY
YOU ARE IN DANGER
FOLLOW THE BEACON
SAFETY
That constituted the entire transmission. The screen switched to the next line every five seconds. Nikolai instructed us to speak the words clearly in our mind and not vary the tone. Speak in a monotone he told us.
Nikolai had some final words. "Remember what I told you. Don't add anything to the message. It is important that each individual mind combine to make one mind. The message is simple. You want these people to follow the instructions. You want them to seek the comfort and peace of that picture. It is the truth. You are saving their lives. You must put all of your effort into these thoughts."
Nikolai flipped a switch. I felt a light buzz in the back of my head. It was nothing like what an incoming transmission felt like. This just tickled a little bit. The screen started slowly rolling. The lines changed from one to the next, over and over, one after the other. Five seconds seemed longer than I imagined they would. We were all doing what we would be doing until Nikolai turned the machine off.
A large searchlight stood on top of Half-Dome to act as the beacon. It shone for miles in all directions.
Carlos, Turner and Tom had the regular military at the ready just in case we drew the wrong people in. It had taken some coaxing to get me to agree, but the threat of being defenseless with Christine, myself and Ma indisposed gave me no choice. Thank God, Annie, Jen and Linda were there to watch over everything.
Time began to stand still for me. Christine and the others would verify that same feeling with me later when we talked about it. Christine had a sense of people approaching the camp. None of the rest of us had that. All of us sensed Christine as a guiding force walking calmly through our thoughts guiding us. Personally, her smile became a part of every cell in my body and her laughter a part of my spirit.
Nikolai flipped a switch on his console and the sensations of the experience slowly drifted away. No one felt a jolt back to reality. No one ever felt like they had left reality. It felt more like reality simply expanded or perhaps we had discovered a corner of it we hadn't seen before. A part of the experience remained with me.
Christine smiled as she spoke softly to me, "Your still shuffling around in here, Recon Johnny. I kind of like it. To be honest, I love it."
"I love it too, Christine. I wouldn't mind getting hooked up to this thing just for fun."
That would have to wait. We had been transmitting the message for over four hours and the results were beyond anything we might have imagined. The bunker was not a secret any longer, at least to the citizens of Yosemite. The transmission's effectiveness could be counted by the dozens.
Linda exhibited more signs of fatigue than all of us put together. She sighed. "Over seven hundred so far, and there are more coming from all over. The beacon is still on. We had to bring the troops in for crowd control. I don't mean to imply that they were unruly, no one was. Just the damn numbers, Johnny. Some of these people have been to hell and they have just got back. They're eating these rations like they're New York steaks."
.
"No enemies? No one negative or problems?" It seemed too good to be true.
Linda's expression seemed to mirror my inner feeling of astonishment. She shook her head from side to side. "No one even displayed anything negative. They all arrived in great spirits. Hell, to tell you the truth, it almost creeped me out." She let out a laugh. "I guess this must have looked like heaven after what they'd been through."
I realized that I was smiling. I looked over at Christine as I realized why. She looked so peaceful as she surveyed all of the activity taking place in the bunker. I wasn't concentrating when I called out to her softly. She turned and smiled. Words were not needed.
Nikolai waved us in to the control room. He looked pleased. It was beginning to be his normal look. He pointed to the monitor. The rescue scene that had been transmitted many times over the last week was on the monitor. It appeared as a hazy and out of focus image that moved in an unnatural motion. Ships on the water with American flags. Underneath the screen, phrases followed one after the other every five seconds: rescue, shoreline, America, country restored, rescue coming.
On another monitor, another picture was on display, a little more out of focus, but still discernable, warships, Persian flags, and Chinese personnel aboard. There was a jumble of words rapidly changing below: deception, destruction, victory, land, land, land. The word land appeared often. An aircraft carrier was among the ships. It looked huge.
Nikolai frowned as he spoke, "They are transmitting to the location you called Edward's Air Force Base. It's a call for back up. Codes and coordinates. It sounds official, Johnny. It sounds legitimate. Those bombers deployed before. We saw them. Either they stole codes, have hostages or there are traitors. But, we have nothing that can affect a stealth bomber. We can't even detect them until they enter our field of vision." Nikolai smiled and looked pleased once again. He started pushing buttons and flipping switches. He looked at a small monitor. "But, Johnny, we can scramble that signal. Oh, hell yes, we can scramble that signal!"
"Can we talk to Edwards?"
"Hell yes, Johnny. Inviting them to tea?" Nikolai looked…well, you know how he looked.
 Recognized |
Getting to the point of confrontation as more and more is discovered. Excellent input and suggestions. I hope you all keep it coming. It is invaluable to me. I appreciate every word of encouragement and critique as well.
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