THE TREE OF DAYS............

THE TREE OF DAYS…………….

“That’s him over there I tell you”…
“Your nuts,, he doesn’t look anything like him”…
“I don’t even know why you guys bother,, there’s no such
person or tree”…
“There is I tell you…my brother-in-laws cousin saw it for himself and I’m telling you that old man knows where it is…he’s the only one who knows where it is”….
“Oh,, yeah well if your brother-in law saw it,, why doesn’t he know where it is”…
“It was my brother-in-laws cousin”…
“Whatever…he’s lying”…
“He said he was blindfolded when he went there,, that’s why”…
“Well,, what did he tell you?...did he see the future?”...
“Yeah,, that’s what he said,, he said he could see himself
walking down the road and he could see a pouch that was in the grass…that’s where he got the money for his new wagon”…
“I’ll bet he just stole the money”…
“If your so sure that old man can lead us to the tree of days,,
why don’t you go over there and ask him?... So we can see our future”…
“Go on its was your idea,, I’d like to know my future… maybe I can win some money gambling because I’ll know what the cards are”…
“Hey yeah… go ask him…we could make a lot of money”…

(Glimman,, takes a long drink from his cup of warm ale to gather his courage…and with an unsure look about him,, he
goes over to the old mans table)…
“Are you Hastenfoe?”,, asks Glimman in a barely audible voice…
(Glimman,, looks back at his friends for encouragement)
“Who?...never heard of him?...leave me be”…
“Your him,, I know you are”…
“Leave me be,, I tell you,, or I’ll have the keep throw you out on your ear”…
“Do you know where the tree of days is?”...
“The what?”...
“My friends and I want to see it,, we want to know what our future is….we can pay”…
“What?...what can you peasants pay?...how much?”...
“We have money,, we all do…we’ve just sold our grain at the market”…
“I don’t believe you,, show me”…
(Glimman,, opens a small leather pouch and lays a
gold coin on the table)…
“See”…
“It will cost you more than that if I take you to the tree of days”...
“I knew it,, I knew it…you are him…how much?...
When can we go?”...
“The three of you want to go together?”...
“Yes,, that’s right”…
“Very well,, I will lead you to the tree of days…
Each of you pay me 1 gold coin now and when
we return here,, you will each give me 3 more gold coins”…
“That’s a lot of money,, it will be almost all we have”…
“Do you what to see your future or not?...only I can lead you there and only I can show you the secret”…
“What secret?”...
“The secret of the tree of days...how to see your future of course…even if you knew where the tree was,, I’m the only one who can show you how to see into the future”…
“This had better not be a trick old man”…
“It is no trick…besides there are three of you,, and I am just an old man”…
“Wait here,, I will talk to my friends”…
(Glimman,, returns to his friends at their nearby table…
Each of them has been watching and listening carefully)
“He’s Hastenfoe,, alright…and he will take us to the tree were we can see our futures”…
“When,, and how much?”...
“I suppose he could take us tomorrow and he wants
1 gold coin each now and 3 each when we return”…
“4 gold coins each!!!...its too much…I can not afford so much,, I have lenders to pay”…
“Me too…it is too much”…
“Think of the money we can make by knowing what the future is going to be…we could wager on everything,, anything”…
“How far into the future will we see?...did he say?...
Just to see what happens tomorrow,, its not worth it”…
“Ask him how far into the future…and tell him we will give him 3 gold coins now and 6 gold coins when we return… that’s all”….
(Glimman,, talks again with Hastenfoe and tries to explain his friends concerns and then returns to his table)…
“He says his price is firm and can not be changed,, it is what he always charges…he says we will be able to see at least
30 days into the future…but he can not say if we will be able to see anymore than that”…
“Very well then,, give him his 3 coins and tell him we will
meet him at the stables early tomorrow morning”…

(The morning sun was just rising over the lowland hills when
Glimman and his two friends arrived at the stable… Hastenfoe was already there waiting for them)…
“Hurry up will you,, we should have left an hour ago…get your horses”…
“We don’t have any horses,, we just have our mules and our wagons”…
“Leave the wagons here,, hurry up”…
“How long will it take to get there?”...
“It takes as long as it takes”…
(The first days journey was thru the Southern farmlands,,
Glimman knew most of the towns and villages along the way
and the riding was not to difficult…on the morning of the
2nd day Hastenfoe blindfolded all three men and tied their mules together to form a long train with his horse leading the way…Glimman and his friends couldn’t tell which way they were headed or even if they may have been traveling in circles or perhaps they were being led Northward over the same trail they had just traveled…at night the campfire was
started well after the sun had set… Hastenfoe was very mindful not to let anyone know where they were and he gave them no hints to where he was leading them…it was before mid-day on the 4th day that the caravan halted… Hastenfoe helped the three men down from their mules and undid their blindfolds)...
“Are we there?”... Glimman asked excitedly…
“Not yet,, we have about a half days journey into the forest”…
“We will walk from here,, leave your mules here”…
(Hastenfoe lead his horse thru the forest brambles and thickets…A pathway only he could follow,, for he had been down this path many times before)…
(The suns rays were just beginning to flicker thru the forest limbs from the West,, when Hastenfoe and his followers finally stopped… there before them was the largest tree that Glimman and his friends had ever seen…20 men reaching finger tip to finger tip could not reach round the trunk…its limbs and branches seemed to defy gravity itself they were so massive it seemed that their very weight,, breadth and length should make them fall to the ground…the bark was black as night and as rough as jagged stones…and yet there were few leaves on any of the branches or limbs…the tree of days rose from the ground on what appeared to be large root legs that bend and curled as if to grab hold of the land and never let it go)…
“This is it right?...damn,, that’s the biggest tree I’ve ever seen…it must be over a thousand years old”…
“Yes,, this is the tree of days”…
“What do we do now?...when will we be able to see our futures?”...
“Soon,, your future will be here soon…lets make a campfire first and have something to eat…evening is the best time to view the future”…
(The campfire was prepared and the evenings meal of stew,, flour biscuits and tankards of ale were consumed)…
“What about our futures now old man?”...
“We are here,, when can we see them?”...
“You can see your futures now if you wish…
Each of you fill your tankard half full of water and ale…
Glimman you go first…break off a piece of tree bark and place it in your drink…no,, no don’t use your knife…just ask the tree of days to let you have a piece of bark…that’s it…now place it in your drink”…
“You two,, do the same”…
(All three seekers of the future now watched and waited as their tree bark slowly dissolved in the ale)
“Now what?”...
“Who wants to be first to see their future?”...
(I do clamored Krest)…
“Very well then…just drink your ale,, all of it,, and you will
see visions of your future before you”…
(Krest was at first wary of the tankard of ale but as he took
the first swallow he found that he could not stop and drank it all as if he was a man in the desert)…
“I,, I…can see things,, there’s my house and my wife…
there’s Bertum stealing my mules reigns again…
I can see”………..
(And so it went thru the night as each man drank his portion of ale,, and saw his future…some were happy with what they saw and sometimes they were confused by the images before them…then as the ale and the anxiety of the journey melted away before the campfire,, each of the three seekers feel to sleep)…
(As the three men slept and dreamed of a bountiful future,, Hastenfoe,, slit the throats of each man one at time)…
(He then placed each body against the tree of days,, and watched as the tree slowly enveloped their bodies into its massive trunk)…
“I have brought you three more…how many is that now?”...
“You have brought me 317,, you still owe me 183 more before our bargain is fulfilled…you wanted eternal life and this I have given to you…you will live until your debt is paid to me”…
“When I made that bargain with you,, I was an old man,,
I am still an old man,, I will always be an old man…I wanted
to have my youth again…and live forever as a young man,, not as I was when we made that bargain”…
“You said nothing of being returned to your youth,, you merely said you wanted to live forever,, and that is what I gave you…I have been kind in allowing you to alter our bargain,, by letting you feed me with these stupid seekers of the future…you have merely to finish with 183 more and I will release you…your future is known to you,, it is only up to you on how long it takes to reach the end”…

(A tale of caution for the traveler thru life… remember that the future is not written,, and that even if it were,, perhaps the
person standing next to you,, could be part of your future for
good or for evil,, or perhaps his future is your doom)………

THE POLITICIANS ROUNDTABLE........

THE POLITICIANS ROUNDTABLE……………..
Hello sports fans,, Dan Hack here,, Glieve Buckley is on vacation,,
or dead or something this week so I’m filling in for him today,,
on THE POLITICIANS ROUNDTABLE …

Tonight’s guest is that master of double speak,, and being able
to lie out of both sides of her mouth at the same time while smiling,,
HRM Hillary Clinton Rodham,, as she likes to be called…
Here to discuss her excuses about the current Presidential
Campaign vs. Barack Obama…its only a few short days left
before the Pennsylvania voting and we here at the
POLITICIANS ROUNDTABLE certainly are not very fortunate
to have her here tonight in all her Regal Majestic glory…
to fully explain what has gone wrong with her campaign and
we shall hear from her Majesty herself just who it is she blames
for everyone hating her…

Here she is now,, only five minutes late…please rise and bow to
HRM Hillary Clinton Rodham…

Thank you Stan…sorry I’m late I had an urgent phone call
from Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko about NATO’s
refusal to accept the Ukraine into NATO membership…
I assured him that I would personally fly to Brussels and
straighten the whole thing out,, its obvious to Me that once
again George W. Bush has mismanaged United States Foreign
affairs and that only I can resolve this matter in a timely and
equitable manner for all sides concerned…just as I alone did in
Northern Ireland and in Bosnia…I certainly hope we can keep
to the schedule we discussed,, I have a private 777 jet waiting
for Me at the airport to take Me to Tibet so I can arrange for
the Chinese Government to let the people of Tibet choose
their own destiny…

I don’t mean to sound callus or anything your Majesty but its
not 3am,, do you take calls at other times of the day to?...
And remember as per our written contract agreement for you
to appear on this show,, I can ask any question that I like,,
as long as it was on your list and you won’t have me fired,,
shackled or have the IRS give me an audit covering the last
30 years of my life…

Why yes,, Steve I do…as I’ve said many times during My campaign,,
I’m ready to go on day one…I’m available to solve any problem
at any time anywhere in the world because only I have the needed
experience that the job of President of the United States requires…

Excuse me your Highness,, but you have also said that you are
just warming up…how can you be ready on day one,,
if your just now warming up?....

Stu,, just let me say this,, I was misquoted and My words were
taken out of context…what I said was ‘I was getting warmed up
because the stage lights were hot and I needed to take my coat off’…

Well,, that certainly does clear that issue up,, and I for one am glad
you’ve had time to cool off…these stage lights aren’t too hot for
you are they?...we can have the air conditioning turned up…

No thanks,, Dirk I’m very comfortable on My throne here…

Good,, we certainly don’t what to see any heads rolling today (ha,, ha)…

We are not amused…

Your Majesty you were the heir apparent to the Presidential
throne just 8 months ago,, and now you have fallen behind
Barack Obama both in the delegate count and the race as a whole…
why do you think that is?...

Well Sean,, that’s a very simple question for Me to answer…
The people of this great land that have cast their votes for Me,,
own a color TV,, and the misinformed voters who have cast their
ballots for Mr. Obama have black and white TVs…I have come
to the realization that all of Mr. Obama’s supporters do not realize
that he is Black and a heretic Jew hating Muslim…so therefore
at all Mr. Obama’s future campaign stops My staff will be giving
away free color TVs so that everyone can truly see what
color Mr. Obama really is…

Uhh,, yeah…lets move on to the single hottest issue during your
campaign so far,, and that is your trip to Bosnia when your husband
Bill Clinton was President…Can you explain what all the confusion
is about and what really happened during your visit there?...

Why yes I can Sam…just so there’s no confusion in the future,,
this is what I remember,, this is what really happened…
and I can assure you that My staff will be more than loyally
happy to sign any papers or take any kind of polygraph tests
that anyone may need to verify that what I’m about to tell you
is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help
Me win the Presidency…

It was a dark and stormy day in March 1996,, Bill had been
requested by the Bosnian Government to come to Sarajevo
and try to bring a much needed cease-fire and peace to the war
torn region…but the secret service,, and the entire military
command structure felt that it was too dangerous for Bill to go,,
that it would be impossible for 1.5 million US soldiers to protect
the President in a foreign land…So I was asked if I could substitute
for him and to personally hand deliver a message from the
President of the United States,, My husband,,
to the Bosnian President…and this I did,, while under constant
enemy sniper and mortar fire…The airport had been nearly
captured a few days earlier and it was surrounded by AAA,,
the C-17 cargo plane we were in was being punctured by flak
and we were all wearing Kevlar vests and wrapped in protected
Kevlar blankets…When suddenly an explosion rocked the plane
and killed everyone in the cockpit…we were helpless…
with no one to fly the plane…

Luckily I had 2 hours of Cessna flight training when I was in college
and I quickly made the command decision to try and pilot the
stricken aircraft to Tuzla Air Base while still taking tremendous
AAA from the ground…It was all I could do to manage the wheel
and try to keep the plane level…we were both losing fuel and
altitude…But I remained calm,, there was just to much at stake
and my only baby girl Chelsea was also aboard…We were still
about 30 miles away from the runway and at about 50,000 feet
when we lost all power to the engines…it was obvious to me that
the engines were on fire and would soon explode killing
everyone inside the plane…At that time there were only eight of
us still alive in the aircraft,, so I decided that we would use the
emergency parachutes and jump…I was the only one on the
plane that had ever used a parachute or jumped from a plane
at this height,, due to my visiting Ft. Bragg, NC,, where I was
given the opportunity to make a tandem jump with one of the
Army’s Golden Knight instructors…But this would be no practice
jump over friendly territory,, it would be into the unknown…
While I helped everyone on with their parachutes and gave
them instructions on how and when to pull the rip cord,, it was
discovered that only seven of the parachutes were still intact,,
the rest had been torn apart when AAA went thru the plane…

There was nothing else for Me to do but remain behind and try
to land the disabled C-17 as best I could,, without power and losing
altitude fast…luckily everyone made it out safely and I gave Chelsea
a final good-bye hug from Mommy,, I’m only human you know…
Can you see the tears in My eyes as I think back on that
terrifying moment?…No?...more onions please…
I returned to the pilots seat and tried to steer the aircraft as best
I could,, the radio was smashed and there would be no help from
the ground…It was just Me and that giant aircraft all alone in the
sky over Tuzla…I realized that I wouldn’t be able to land the
aircraft and then I started to look around for another parachute,,
something to help me…that’s when I noticed that in a crate in the
back of the plane was a box with an emergency life raft,,
just incase the plane had to make an emergency landing in the ocean…
Well to Me this was a emergency…I scrambled to get the raft
out of the crate and just as another round of AAA was hitting the
plane I managed somehow to push the raft and Myself out the
side door,, I quickly pulled the inflation handle and used the now
fully inflated life raft as a parachute and drifted safely to the ground…
I can only say that when I look back on that mission of peace
to Bosnia,, that God must have wanted Me to live,, perhaps
that’s why I’m running for President today…

Ehh,, I see…well I’m afraid our time is almost up,, and I would like
to thank HRM Hillary Clinton Rodham for joining us today…
Thank you ladies and gentlemen,, next week on the
POLITICIANS ROUNDTABLE we will have Ron Paul,,
Thank you and good night……..

Editors note: Please address any mean and nasty comments
to: Dan Hack,, BBC London post box 26J…..

Special Special Editors note:
I’m happy to report that Mrs. and Mr. Rodham are just normal
everyday people like you and me…the fact that they are
gazillionares means nothing…they still have their servants shine
their shoes one shoe at a time……...................

A COSMIC SIGN part 4.................

(day 4 on the Vastitas Borealis plateau of Mars…outside the
strange structure)…

(Colonel Pike)…Carol set up the ground radar imager against
this ‘door’,, lets see if there’s anything behind it…
(Carol Stafford)…roger….according to these images the ‘door’ is
about 12 inches thick and there appears to be a hollow space
behind it…my guess would be its some kind of shaft,,
as we thought last night…
(Colonel Pike)…OK,, lets dig out the bottom of this “door’ and see
if we can pry it open… Jim use the boom to have a closer look at
that switch up there,, maybe its a control button…

(after about 35 minutes of digging and removing crusted layers
of Martian sand against the ‘door’,, the bottom is finally cleared…
the dirt and sand around the edges of the ‘button’ have also
been removed)…
(Colonel Pike)…what’s that ‘button’ look like now?...
(MS Jim Borman )…hard to say…should I push it?...
(Colonel Pike)…yeah,, push it…lets see what happens…
(the robotic claw pushes the ‘button’,, and there seems to be
some movement…again the claw pushes…this time it snaps
backward into place and a great rumbling within the structure
can be heard…everyone steps back,, not knowing what to expect…
suddenly there a loud clang and the doors slowly move to one side…
a darken hole now appears where the reddish stained doors
used to be)…
(Colonel Pike)…lets get some light in there…

(the four astronauts each direct their zeon flash lamps into the opening)…
(MS Jim Borman )…damn its big,, a lot bigger than I thought it would be…
(bang,, bang,, bang)…Colonel Pike strikes the floor with his
Geo-hammer…sounds solid enough…wait here,, I’ll go in first…
(Colonel Pike enters the room,, it seems to be about 56 ft wide
by 56 ft wide with a ceiling at about 60 ft,, the walls are rust colored,,
stained from the Martian soil,, there are two ‘buttons’ on the door wall)…
(Colonel Pike)…send in the rover…OK that’s good…
Steve…stay up here while we investigate where this thing goes….
(MS Steve Scott)…yes sir…
(Colonel Pike)…all right everybody lets find out what this is…
(MS Jim Borman )…doesn’t seem to be much corrosion or
decay Colonel…
(Colonel Pike)…probably due to the fact that there very little
moisture on Mars,, I would guess that once you build something
here,, it’s going to be around a long long time…the power must
be geothermal or maybe fusion of some kind to still be operational…
have the rover claw push one of those button up there…
(the front doors close and the room starts its decent)…nice guess
on which button,, Carol…
(Carol Stafford)…50% percent chance sir…
(the decent takes about 20 minutes,, it’s a noisy ride,, with the
sounds of cables or wires banging against the cab…occasionally
there is a prolonged scraping sound on a side of the car…
the ‘elevator car’ comes to a sudden and uneven stop…the doors
automatically open into a darkened room)…
(Colonel Pike)…lets do a radio check…Steve can you hear me?...
(MS Steve Scott)…yes sir,, a little bit of static but clear…
(Colonel Pike)…. Aries are you there?...
(Captain Yuri Kahn)…yes sir…no problem with reception…
we’ve heard ever word…
(Colonel Pike)…good make sure you keep recording…
Send the rover out about 15 feet,, lets see what we have here…
(the rover slowly moves out into the vast darkened room ahead,,
its tracks leave their impression in only about ½ inch of Martian soil)…
(Colonel Pike)…anything on the radar?...
(Carol Stafford)…looks like a large wall of something to the left with
circular columns just in front,, and to the right appears to be a
lot of smaller columns….the room is huge…too many obstructions
to get a definite size...
(Colonel Pike)…OK…lets raise the xenon lights on the rover and
give ourselves some light…everyone stay alert and in sight of
each other…lets go…
(MS Jim Borman )…Colonel,, I’ve reached one of the circular columns…
they appear to be metal about 7 ft across and are capped with some
kind of mushroom structure about 25 ft above the floor…
the wall appears to be made of a stone like material…there’s a metal
bar along the floor that’s about 1 ½ ft in diameter,, running along
the wall bottom….
(Carol Stafford)…Colonel…look up there…what do you think?...
(Colonel Pike)…could be some kind of switch mechanism…
lets have the rover arm move it up and see…
(the rover claw arm is positioned near the switch mechanism
which projects from the wall about 4 inches and is located about
30 ft above the floor surface,, the claw arm pushes the
devices’ lever up)…
(there’s an almost instant high pitched whining sound as if
huge electrical generators were suddenly started…the floor has
a slight vibration to it and it seems that there’s some movement
to the atmosphere inside the room)…
(MS Steve Scott)…Colonel sir,, can you hear me?...
(Colonel Pike)…yeah,, go ahead Steve…
(MS Steve Scott)…I don’t know what you guys did down there,,
but you must of started some kind of chain reaction…
the whole southern face of the plateau,, is starting to vibrate and glow…
looks like large chunks of Martian dust and rock are starting to
fall away from the cliff face,, there appears to be some kind of
structure underneath… I think you had better get out of there fast…
before the shaft is closed off by falling debris…
(Colonel Pike)…yeah we feel it down here too... we’re starting back up…
everyone back inside the elevator cab…hurry…
Leave the rover…
(MS Jim Borman )…can’t reach the buttons sir…we need the rover…
(Colonel Pike)…here take a rock and see if you can hit it…
Try again…
(the Martian rock smashes against the button and the doors close…
the metal cab starts its rise back to the top,, falling debris constantly
hitting the top of the cab,, making the walls vibrate and echo…
about 20 minutes later the cab reaches the Martian surface and
the doors open once more)…
(Colonel Pike)…Steve what are you still doing here?...
(MS Steve Scott)…waiting for you sir…
(Colonel Pike)…you should have left…Yuri how’s the ship?...
get her ready for immediate lift-off…
(Captain Yuri Kahn)…yes sir…we have already started primary
start-up sequence…
(Colonel Pike)…everybody back to the Aries…take only what
you can carry….
(once everyone is safety back inside the command ship Aries,,
everyone straps themselves in and Captain Yuri Kahn guides
the ship off the Martian surface…thru the front and port windows
a large reddish dust cloud can be seen along the southern edge
of the plateau,, and what appears to be an ominous glowing
vertical surface)…
(Colonel Pike)… Yuri,, where is the Hercules?...
(Captain Yuri)…she’s about 35 minutes away on the far side of
the Northern pole…when she comes around she should have a
clear picture of what’s happening along the plateau…

(Hercules)…sir I can clearly see the Southern face of the plateau now…
it appears that most of the Martian dust and rocks have fallen away,,
exposing a glowing structure… transmitting images now…
(Colonel Pike)…what the?...Oh God…I’ve seen this type of
structure before…not this big,, but I know what it is…I grew up in
Youngstown,, Ohio…and on the corner of 5th and Walbash
there was a structure just like this…at night it would illuminate
the whole block…Carol can we still communicate with the rover
inside the structure?...
(Carol Stafford)…I think so sir…
(Colonel Pike)…good,, have the rover pull the switch down…
to shut this off….
(Captain Yuri)…Colonel what is it?...
(Colonel Pike)…it’s a diner sign,, it probably says something like
“Eat at Joes”…just like the neon signs when I was a kid………..

.............The end............

Special Editors Note:

Stop your groaning...What's the title of this story?...

Aliens have to eat too you know...............

A COSMIC SIGN part 3...............

(28 months later…at Cape Canaveral,, Fl)

“Hello sports fans,, Dan Hack here reporting to you live from
Cape Canaveral,, Fl…we’re only about ten minutes away from
the historic launch of the twin Hercules/Saturn 3 rockets which
will be blasted into obit to form the fuel tanks for the 22 month
long journey to Mars by Colonel Pike and his 7 person crew…
the Hercules solid fuel tanks have been prepared and the
three Saturn booster rocket will be ignited to blast them into orbit…
Hercules 1 will be followed by Hercules 2 and then once an attitude
of 8 miles high is reached the Saturn boosters will detach and
the momentum should if all goes right safety carry the
Hercules fuel tanks into orbit…Where their internal computers
and navigational systems will slowly use the onboard thrusters
to achieve a stationary orbit of about 11 miles…When the two
giant Hercules fuel tanks are safety in orbit NASA will use ground
control computers to link them up for their mission to Mars…
Everyone here is praying for the weather to hold and that
everything goes as planned today…if everything goes as scheduled
then on Wednesday two days from now…Commander Pike and
his crew will be blasted into space from the newly constructed
launch faculty near Houston and will link up with the fuel tanks
to start they’re 2 year journey to Mars…

6, 5, 4, 3, we have ignition,, 1….we have lift-off of
Hercules 1…

Dan Hack here,, the roar of the Saturn booster rockets is
deafening,, the ground is shaking even where we are at 20 miles
away…there she goes…
Hercules 2 is starting its booster rockets now and has cleared
the towers…it looks like a great lift-off for both Hercules rockets…

(22 months 8 days and 14 hours later the combined Hercules
fuel tanks and the command ship have reached the Martian lunar
system…the first of the Hercules fuel tanks was jettisoned
8 months ago and now just the Hercules 2 fuel tank and the command
ship prepare to establish a stable geosynchronous orbit near
the Northern polar region)…

(command ship Aries)…Houston starting our ORM…all systems
normal…releasing mooring clamps from command platform
Hercules gt281…starting roll maneuver at 15 % …
Forward 5…down 4…Cable separation complete…forward 30…
down 5 %...thrusters only…42 forward...clear of Crane arm…
all systems normal…roll 82 %...all stop…

(it will take approximately 8 minutes each way for communications
between Houston and Mars,, plus decoding time…communications
have been coded due to the Secret nature of the mission,, all the
public knows is that this is the next step into the vastness of space…
Colonel Pike has now told all the crew members the real reason
for the haste and secrecy surrounding the mission…The crew has
once again become excited about Mars and the mission…
after 22 months in the void of space an adventure into the
unknown of possible first contact with another race has everyone
aware of the historical significant of each of their actions and
the mission itself)…

(commander Bill Collins,, and mission specialist Sandra McDivitt
have been left in charge of the orbiting command mother ship,,
Hercules gt281,, Colonel Pike and the others will descend to the
surface of Mars and investigate the strange structure seen on
the MRO months earlier,, little else has been learned about
the mysterious structure since those first few days)…

(Houston command)…Mars Aries…all systems are go for
MLM…Mars weather tracking clear…proceed with MLM
and exploration of the Martian surface…

(command ship Aries)…Houston…main decent engine start…
GR activated…maneuvering jets at 20%...1580 down…
forward 785…down at 33…forward 580…down 710…
speed 18 forward…maintain decent Angle 6 down …
Vastitas Borealis plateau… structure at 12000…forward 140…
down at 6…forward 60…down 2…forward 10… Forward 10…
kicking up some dust…landing lights…left 20…left…
down 5 left 10…forward…forward…down 2… left a little…
contact lights…cut engines…left…left… contact…

(Captain Yuri Kahn has set the command ship Aries down within
300 ft of the strange structure,, much closer than anyone
could of hoped)…

(day 3 on the Vastitas Borealis plateau of Mars…
the “one small step” speeches are done and six national flags
have been planted in the Martian soil…soil and rock samples
have been taken and various scientific instruments have been
placed about the Martian landscape…its now time to investigate
the strange structure)…
(Colonel Pike and 3 other astronauts stand near the giant structure,,
Captain Yuri Kahn and mission specialist Karl Young remain inside
the command ship Aries,, just incase
something or perhaps ‘someone’ unexpected appears)…

(Colonel Pike)…damn its big…Steve...what do you make of the
construction?...
(MS Steve Scott)…not sure,, texture appears to be like poured
concrete on Earth…but its starting to lose its cohesive nature…
obviously formed in someway…you can see the joint lines…
(Colonel Pike)…see if you can break off a sample for analysis later…
Jim go around back of the structure and see if there are any other
openings or markings…Carol go with him…nobody wander
around alone…and stay alert for loose rocks or fissures…
remember this is where the landslide occurred…Steve what
about this recess?...a door maybe?...
(Colonel Pike bangs on the ‘door’ with his small hammer he normally
uses to break off rock specimens,, a dead metallic sound,,
banging again he gets the same result)… Steve…what’s that up
there?...see if you can use your camera to get a closer look…
(MS Steve Scott)…can’t really tell,, a lot of red dust covering it,,
maybe a switch of some kind…I’d estimate its about 28 ft above
ground,, and about 3 inches by 3 inches…need to get a closer look…
(Colonel Pike)…yeah,, that’s going to be a problem…
Jim,, Carol,, get back here to the front…we’re going to go back to
the Aries and compile our finding and start again tomorrow
morning with a new plan…

(inside the command ship Aries,, everyone is seated at the
crew table,, looking over the photos,, radar images,, maps,,
and discussing what each of them saw)…

(MS Steve Scott)…Well,, I’m not sure what it is…but I will tell
you this,, its old,, very old…
(MS Jim Borman )…Yeah,, I have to agree with Steve,, if that
thing was buried just by the Martian winds and now as hard as
those sand particulates have compacted,, I’d have to guess that
its been buried for at least 1 or 1.5 million years…
You know something,, as a kid I grew up in Cleveland and we’d
always play on the apartment roof tops…well,, that thing out there
reminds me a lot like the top of an elevator shaft that goes
to the roof…
(Carol Stafford)…That’s one big elevator shaft…
(MS Jim Borman )…Yeah well,, you know not everything in the
universe is built to human scale…
(Carol Stafford)…Well,, it should be…(laughter)
(Colonel Pike)…Take it easy,, I agree with you…it looks like the
top of an elevator shaft tower to me too…
The question is how do we get in and where does it lead…

(during the night,, a plan was decided on and the needed equipment
was lower from the command ship and made ready for the
next exclusion,, most important among this,, were the three
Mars buggies and a telescoping boom arm with a robotic claw
that could reach to a height of 60 ft)…
----------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF PART THREE…………

A COSMIC SIGN part2...................

Sir,, sir,, wake up we’re about to land…
(the flaps and the lowering of the landing gear quickly bring
Colonel Pike back from his dreaming,, it had already been a long day)…

(Standing on the hard packed desert sand,, Colonel Pike watched as
the B2 bomber taxied its way away from him and lifted off at about
a 40 degree angle…it only took a few minutes before it was too high
and too far for him to see it anymore…the desert landing strip
was surrounded on all sides by mountains,, this must have been
a lake bed at one time he thought to himself… there were a few
clusters of what looked like farm sheds and 1950 era Quonset huts
in the distance…A small motorized cart was steadily coming towards
him,, leaving only a small dust plum to rise in the sky…
his ride to somewhere he thought)…

Colonel Pike,, get in…I’m Ted Johnson12…
What?...where am I?…
Sorry sir,, everyone here is called Johnson…well since you’re here,,
I guess its alright to tell you,, this is the Groom Lake research
facility in Nevada…everyone else is here,, you’re the last to arrive…

(Ted stops the cart near a small storage shed which is adjacent to
one of the large Quonset huts)…

This way Colonel…
(both men step inside the small shed)…
Please put your feet inside the red shoe outlines on the floor Colonel…
Level please…(a female voice emanates from somewhere
inside the small shed)…
Level 47…
Please present identification…
(Ted presents his ID badge to a small mirror on the wall)…
(Prepare for retina scan)…(Ted leans closer to the mirror)…
(Rising from the floor in front of Ted and the Colonel is a metal bar)…
Colonel,, hang on to the bar…
OK…
(the floor of the small shed starts its descent to level 47,,
it’s a quick 12 minute controlled freefall)…
(a pair of stainless steel elevator doors open into a gleaming
white corridor)…
This way Colonel…
What is this place?...
Oh,, this?...this is just the Administration building…there are
other building scattered around for R & D and such…
(stopping in front of a reception/security desk,, Colonel Pike
receives his ID badge and a security level microchip imbedded
behind his left ear)…
Now,, don’t ever take that badge off,, not even while your taking
a shower or…you know…it will make all the alarms go off and you
won’t like the results…believe me…
This way…they’re waiting for you…

(Conference Room 36D)
Hello John,, nice to see you again…
Hey Pete…what the hell an I doing here?...what’s this about?...
You’ll find out in a moment…have a seat…
(the conference room is a rather large room with an ellipse shaped
table in the center,, projection screens can be lowered from the
ceiling along any wall…at the conference table 12 men are already
seated,, some of them Colonel John Pike has already met or knows
from reading the newspapers… Pete Worden,, Nasa chief engineer
of digital satellite imaging,, director Charles Elachi director
of JPL operations,, Vice President Kelly,, General Bradkroff of
the Joint Chiefs…the other men look familiar from the small
world of Nasa and JPL)…
(director Charles Elachi,, presides over the meeting)…
Gentlemen as most of you already know,, today at approximately
05:00,, images broadcast back to Earth by MRO near the Martian
polar region showed an avalanche occurring in near real time along
the cliff wall of the Vastitas Borealis plateau region…
the broadcasting and analysis of those images was immediately
stopped and all data was transferred to NASA Delfi2 internal code,,
since then all MRO data has been removed from and transferred
to the DOD imaging analysis units here at Groom Lake….
Lights please…
(click,, click…a small digital projector rises from the center of the
conference table and a projection screen lowers from the ceiling
along the West wall)…
Gentlemen,, this first image shows the cliff wall two days before
the rock slide…a typical Martian cliff face with a top approximately
350 ft above the main Vastitas Borealis plateau valley…
This second photo shows the same cliff face just as the
rock slide was occurring…the next 6 photos show much the same
thing with the cliff wall being obscured by falling debris and red dust…
This image is why all MRO data has now been classified…
The bottom left hand corner of the original image has been digitally
magnified to show more detail…
(a red laser pointer points to a whitish structure along the
Vastitas Borealis plateau)…
These next photos show increased magnification and have also been
digitally enhanced…as you can plainly see now,, there’s what can only
be described as a,, hmm,, ‘manmade structure’...
Its estimated that the structure is about 120 ft high,, and 80 ft wide
by 80 ft wide…this dark recessed area,, we believe is a door of
some type about 60 ft high…MRO is expected to make another
fly-by in about 2 hours,, we should have more data about this
structure by the end of the day…the folders in front of each of
you contain all that we know above the Vastitas Borealis plateau
and photos of this structure… Needless to say this is beyond
Top Secret and is considered “eyes only”…

Colonel Pike,, you may wonder why you have been brought here…
Yes sir…I have been…
You’ve been selected to lead the crew going to Mars to investigate
this structure…your military and leadership experience during the
Panama conflict and the fact that you have been training crews
for the past 7 years just for a mission to Mars makes you the ideal
choice to lead this mission…the President agrees,, as do I…
congratulations…
Uhhh,, thank you sir…
The funding for this mission has already been approved and will
be paid for partly thru NASA and thru the DOD budget…
due to the secret nature of this project most of the construction
of the launch vehicles and the command modules will be built at
the Skunk Works and at Houston’s rocket assembly faculty…
it is expected to take two years before the launch vehicles and
the command ship will be ready for launch,, until that time all
communication with the press about a Mars mission will come
solely from my office…does everyone understand?...
(Yes sir was the common response)…
(Colonel Pike)…Sir,, with the military involvement… how big a
role will they have?...NASA has always been a civilian agency…
(General Bradkroff)…May I answer that question?...
Certainly General…
Colonel Pike your concerns about this being a military operation
are unnecessary,, the President has made it very clear that
NASA is in charge of the mission…the DOD is merely here as
advisors and because we have the necessary facilities and experts
to build the components for this journey quickly…Plus of course
our contractors are already under Top Secret classifications…
we do however insist than one of your crew members be a
military weapons expert of our choosing,, from a personnel list
supplied by you of course…we feel that any delays in starting this
project will only mean the greater likelihood of someone talking
about what was revealed on the photos today…and do to this being
an unknown possible alien encounter,, well frankly there might
me some military technologies that we can gather for use in our
nations defense should anything be found…the President also
agrees with this thinking,, as I’m sure you’ll agree…
(director Charles Elachi)… Colonel,, you’ll be in charge of selecting
and training your 7 person crew,, you’ll also be commander of
the Mars mission once it is in space ,, but until that time,,
these 12 men and yourself will have to cooperate and make
the necessary hard decisions to get this mission to Mars…
everyone in this room is working towards that goal and the
President will in a couple of months announce to the public
NASA’s new Mars Mission…
(Colonel Pike)…Yes sir…my concern was only for the safety of
my crew and that there would be no confusion about this mission
being led by NASA not the DOD…
-----------------------------------------------------------
END OF PART TWO…………

A COSMIC SIGN..............

THIS STORY HAS A YAWN RANKING OF 12,,
IT’S A LONG STORY…BUT TO BE NICE I’LL POST IT IN
SEGMENTS…HOPE YOU CAN FOLLOW ALONG…

(Johnson)…Sir,, you had better see this…
(director Petersen)…What is it Johnson?...
We have some new images from MRO streaming in now sir,,
appears to be an avalanche or rock slide near the northern polar region…
Real time?...
Yes sir…nearly…
OK,, I have it… Damn…that’s going to make a lot of the geologist’s boys happy…
Shit… Johnson… Johnson…lock down your data link and transfer all MRO images to NASA Delfi2 internal code link only,, transfer MRO data for the last three days to my
terminal,, then lock down your station and meet me in my office…Johnson?...
Yes sir…

(knock,, knock)…Sir?...
Come in Johnson…
What is it sir?...
What security grade are you?...
I’m just a grade 2 sir… what is it?...
Well,, you’ve just been promoted to grade 4,, sign this…
What is it?...
National Security Act #157m6nl…giving you top secret clearance…sign it or I’ll have you put under house arrest until I can clear things with director Elachi…
Yes sir…
Thanks Johnson,, it will make things a lot easier if you cooperate…anything I tell you now is strictly top secret and you could be shot or put in prison for life if you should divulge any of this…do you understand?...
Yes sir… you have my cooperation…what is it?...
How much of the MRO avalanche data did you see?...
It was just beginning to be de-coded when I noticed the dust cloud sir,, that’s when I notified you…I saw maybe the first twenty seconds of it sir…
OK,, good… have a look at this and tell me what you see…
Zoom into the lower left hand corner at the beginning of the landslide…
Just a lot of dust sir..
Zoom in as close as you can…
Oh,, shit…
Yeah that was my reaction too…
(click)…sorry to interrupt director Petersen…But my phone
systems locked up with everyone wanting to know what’s wrong with the MRO data…what should I tell them?...
That’s OK Shirley,, tell them we’re looking into it and we think its just a temporary glitch…oh,, and have Bob Jenkins come to my office immediately,, my office not on the phone…then book me a flight to Houston for this afternoon…
Yes sir…
Thanks Johnson,, just go back to your station and act as
confused and frustrated by the MRO data glitch as everyone else…and remember what I said about this being top secret…
Yes sir,, I can see why…

(27 hours later at Nasa’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab #3 in Houston)

(four men in black suits along with 1 marine MP,,
approach the guard at the entrance to practice dive pool #2…
Flashing badges of ID they ask…”where’s Colonel Pike?”… the guard points to a 40ish year old man in a blue jumpsuit and the far end of the practice pool)…

Are you Colonel Pike?...
Yeah that’s me…
SSN 456-98-2378,, born Youngtown,, Ohio?...
Yeah,, what’s this about?...
Come with us sir…
I’m not going anywhere,, I’m right in the middle of a
practice drive for STS #131…
Sergeant please escort the Colonel…(the marine MP moves behind Colonel Pike)…
OK,, OK,, what your authority?...
That’s classified…
Jim,, Jim…finish up for me here will ya?...these gentlemen have something important to talk with me about…

(3 black Hummers roll away from the research building,, windows tinted black,, body and frame of each vehicle sits lower than normal due to the armor plating and bullet proofing)…

Where are we going?,, can you tell me what’s up now?...
Sign here sir…you know the drill…
Yeah,, I know… sounds like a ‘Panama go now don’t tell
mission’ again…
Exactly sir…
If we’re headed to the airport,, you guys are going in the
wrong direction…
(silence)
(for 35 minutes the black caravan continues down the road,, seeming for all the world oblivious to anything around it…a creature unto itself with only one purpose in life…finally it halts parallel to Highway 10)…

Please get out of the car now sir…
What the hell?...there’s nothing here but the highway…
(a strange quiet not normally associated with the busy Highway 10 surrounds the caravan…no vehicles
going in either direction…an eerie quiet as the men wait)
What are we waiting for?...there’s nothing here…
Your ride sir…
(a sonic boom breaks the quiet,, Colonel Pike looks up to see the white contrail of a jet plane high above…another sonic boom)…
(A solid black B2 bomber makes a low pass over the vacant
highway and lands towards the Western end of the highway,,
taxing forward until its alongside Colonel Pike and the parked Hummers…a small step ladder descends from the underbelly of the bomber as it waits,, its engines are deafening)…
Your ride sir…
(Colonel Pike is stunned,, he knew he wasn’t that important for someone to shutdown 20 miles of highway,, was anyone?)…

(Ascending the small step ladder he is helped up into the
bomb-bay hatch by a young man in what looks to be a
Halo-jump suit,, there are two other men already seated on the small woven strap bench,, Colonel Pike can’t see any service or rank insignia )…

Put this on sir,, (the young man hands Colonel Pike a
jump suit the same type as the one he’s wearing)…just in case sir…strap yourself in…it can be bumpy…
Where are we going?...
Best strap yourself in sir…
(the small ladder rises and the bomb-bay doors swing shut…the giant engines of the bomber propel the ship ahead with ease,, the noise inside the hanger bay is overpowering,, and would be intolerable if not for the flight helmets everyone was wearing…it wasn’t long before the B2 was once again in the sky and Colonel Pike could only wonder
where it would land)…
---------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF PART ONE…………

THE OOZING GOO..............

They say it fell straight from the stars and crashed into Puget Sound,,
and it made a tidal wave perhaps 100 ft high,, with a surge that went
inland for maybe a hundred miles,, and it produced an earthquake
of about 5.7 on the Reiter scale,, I don’t know if that’s true or not,,
but that’s what I heard anyway…

What I do know is this,, that almost every scientist and astrophysicist
from around the globe,, wanted to get a look at this thing to see
what it was,, perhaps it was a meteorite or a piece of a comet,,
or maybe just some space junk that had fallen to the ground…
Well anyway,, they brought all their equipment and ships and
planes and submarines,, so they could retrieve this thing,,
whatever it was,, and then they could study it,, in their labs
somewhere…I guess it took about a month to find it and then
dig it up,, from what I hear they loaded it aboard a ship and
encased it in a lead box,, to keep it from getting contaminated
by our atmosphere or whatever… Kinda funny now,, when you
think about it,, we’re protecting it from us,, kinda funny,,
after all thats happened since then…

Well,, from what I know,, they took it to some lab in Baltimore,,
I think it was,, I wasn’t there so I’m not sure what really happened…
All I know is what I’ve heard and what I read in the papers and
saw on TV…
Well,, apparently these scientist took it to their lab and did all kinds
of experiments on it,, and they x-rayed it,, and looked at it under
high powered microscopes,, to figure out just what it was…
The best guess anyone had,, was that it was a meteorite,,
but they wanted to run a Gas-spectrometer test of it,,
I think that’s what they called it,, well to do that,, they had to
slice off a small piece of it and then theycould put in their machine…

Well,, I guess,, that’s when all the fun started,, they had this
meteorite all sealed up in a special lab,, and then they cut
just a small hunk of it off,, and as soon as they cut that piece off,,
some green slimy liquid goo,, came oozing out of it…

Well,, I guess,, that took everyone by surprise,, and they were real
excited about this green goo,, thinking it might be some kind of life
form or something,, you know,, that would be quite the discovery
if it was,, so I guess,, they scooped some of it up and put it in some test
tubes so they could study it closer,, just to see if it was a lifeform…

And they moved these test tubes into another lab,, one of those
extra extra clean rooms,, where everyone wears one of those plastic
moon suits,, that way they could study it real close and kinda get
hands on as it were… Now this is where things get a little jumbled
and I’m not sure if anybody knows what happened,, and I guess
it doesn’t really matter anyhow,, this is what I think happened,,
well,, I think maybe one of those scientists must have dropped
one of those test tubes onto the floor,, and it shattered and sent
glass pieces everywhere,, and I suppose that one of those glass
pieces went flying and must have cut right thru one of those
plastic moon suits of theirs,, well I think that was kinda of the
end of everything… Cause just as soon as that moon suit had a
hole in it,, that green slimy goo,, went right into it,, and well,,
that poor scientist fellow,, well,, he was kinda eaten up,,
and melted like,, by this green goo,, it seems that this goo feeds
on organic matter,, any kind of organic matter living or dead,,
any kind…. Then I suppose it escaped thru the air hoses and
breathing tubes or whatever,, cause it got out,, and it started
feeding on everything,, chairs, paper, walls, carpet, people,,
everything and anything that was organic,, and it kept growing
and growing…

Well,, of course the scientists and the military tried everything they
could think off to kill it,, they tried fire, and chemicals, acids, foams,
herbicides, pesticides,, everything,, but it didn’t do em any good,,
besides once it was out of that lab,, it was already too late,, it had
gotten too big and it had spread into everything and it even went
underground feeding on all the plants and roots,, I guess…

Yep,, they tried everything,, except the A-BOMB of course,,
no reason to spread it all around if they weren’t sure it could
do the job…
Well,, it took only about 2 years for it to consume every organic
thing on this planet,, yep,, it even went into the oceans and ate
everything there,, hell,, I even heard that it could eat the
microbes in the air…
I don’t know,, I’m no scientist,, all I know is that its everywhere
now…I don’t think it has a mind or anything like that,, I just
think it is,, that’s all,, it just is…

Who am I?.. I’m just one of the very few survivors of the human
race,, that’s all…There aren’t that many of us left,, I guess,,
haven’t heard from anybody in a long time,, maybe their all
dead now,, who knows…Me,, I’m just stuck here at the north pole,,
I’ve been here since the day it started,, there were 12 of us then,,
and now it’s just me and Henry Gladnoff,, all the rest have either,,
just taken off into the snow or they have shot themselves,,
just me and Henry left…

But we won’t be around much longer,, our supplies are almost gone,,
and then it will be the end for us… No where to run,, and no one
left to bring us supplies,, so we just pass the days waiting…

It seems that the green slimy goo,, doesn’t like the cold we have
up here,, at least not yet… Oh,, it can take the cold and the snow
but not the extreme cold and snow we have here,, it doesn’t make
much of a difference tho,, there’s nothing out there now,,
except that green goo… So I’m sending this transmission out,,
before all our powers gone,, to give you a warning,, maybe someone
will hear this,, who knows,, but I’m sending this warning out anyway…
Stay away from this planet… Don’t attempt to land,, stay away,,
and I guess I should also say that you should learn from our fate…
Be careful about what you stick your nose into,,
because it just might bite back……………………

THE SUPPLY DEPOT..............

Halt who goes there?...
It’s just me Sarge…
Who’s me?...
Me Private Tushmouse,, Colonel Mortimer sent me up here
to see if you needed any help…
What’s the password?…
I don’t know Sarge,, I was just transferred here three days ago,,
nobody said anything about a password…they just sent me up here…
Step into the light so I can see you better…
Yes,, Sarge…
What’s was your name again?...
Private Tushmouse …
Yeah,, you look alright,, sit over there…
Thanks Sarge,, what are we doing here anyway?...
Didn’t they tell you anything buckethead,, G-damn almighty…
how long you been in the service anyway?...
This is my fourth week sir…
What??...Hell I knew you weren’t old enough to know to sneeze
downwind,, and don’t call me sir,, I know what the freak-in hell
I’m doing…
What are we doing Sarge?...
Well,, if you must know…we’re keeping an eye on the enemies
food supply depot…
Food Sarge?...
Yeah that’s right…have a look (Sarge points to a small hole near
the floor)
That’s it Sarge?...wow it looks big…its so close we could almost
reach out and grab it…
I wouldn’t try it kid,, the last couple of melon brains never
came back…
I sure am hungry Sarge…
Didn’t you get your food rations last week?...
Yes Sarge I got em…
What did you do with them?...
I ate em,, I was so hungry…
Don’t you ground turds know anything?...You’re suppose to
save some just for emergencies like this…
Sorry Sarge…
You’ll be even more sorry in a couple of days…

Atten-up…
At ease men…
What’s it look like up here Sergeant?...
About the same as last week,, General…
Still no change in the enemies supply depot?...
Not much sir…you can see it plainly from over here sir…
(the General and the Sergeant peer cautiously thru the
small opening)…
That’s it sir,, (Sarge half-whispers)…
As you can see over to the left there is some
poles at about 30ms and then there’s a small stand of
what appears to be strawgrass that could be used for cover…
then it would be an open field dash without cover to the
supply depot…
What do you think Sergeant?...
I think it could be done,, sir…but they’d have to move fast and quiet…
Private…what about you?...could you make it?...
Well,, well,, I suppose so sir…it looks pretty quiet…I haven’t seen
any guards or anything…
I’m looking for a volunteer private…
Yes,, yes sir,, I can do it…
Sergeant,, get Private Tushmouse ready for the mission…
we can go tonight at 2:30 hours…I’ll alert the western command
post to do some diversionary maneuvers to help…
Yes sir…

(2:20 hours)
Atten-up…
At ease men…ready here Sergeant?...
Yes sir…
How abut you private?...
Scared sir…
That’s ok son,, being scared is what could keep you alive tonight…
Ok kid,, it about time… remember head for the poles and use
them as cover as best you can,, then head for the strawgrass and
wait to make sure everything’s quiet and you haven’t been spotted…
got that?
Yes Sarge…
Then creep out slowly,, don’t rush it,, then when your within reach,,
use your snagging pole on the spring arm as hard as you can…
then don’t move,, don’t even breathe…you’ll know what to do after that…
Yes Sarge…what if?...
There is no what if,, we’re counting on you…now get ready…

There it is… the diversion along the western wall…….
Go kid…
How’s he doing Sergeant?...
He’s made it to the first pole sir,, making his way to the strawgrass…
he’s there…wait kid,, wait….
Ok,, he’s creeping out now sir…just a few more ms…
He’s activated the spring arm sir…
(snap,, fling,, hop,, bounce,, the spring arm releases the catch bar
in an instant and the food depot bouncers wildly along the floor…
Private Tushmouse stunned by the sudden actions of the
supply depot,, panics and hurries back towards his lookout position)

(meeoow,,, meeooow,, claw,, bite,, snap,, blood oozes,,
its over in just a second)…
The cats got him sir…
Damn… where’d it come from this time?...
Couldn’t tell sir…seemed to be waiting tho,, came from above…
What about the supplies?...
Still out of reach sir…I could try to reach it with a snagging pole…
Well,, do what you can Sergeant…
What about that cat sir?...
Q-division is working on a plan to put a bell on it,, so we can
always know where it is…
Yes sir…
Get some sleep Sergeant,, I’ll send another volunteer up here
in a day or so…
Yes sir,, good night sir………………………..

HOW SOON WE FORGET...............

GUARDIANS……………….
Oh say can you see the rockets red glare,,
The bombs bursting in air…
Can you hear the bombers overhead…
Or the bullets whizzing by,,
Oh can you see,, the enemy tanks everywhere…
Do you feel tyranny and repression everyplace you go,,

Of course you can’t and neither can I…

Do you see the mushroom clouds a glowing,,
Does the enemy sleep apon your bed,,
Are you made to labor from dawn to dusk under a boiling sun…
Are you carded and herded and shipped to everywhere…
Of course not and neither am I…
For guardians have we,, that let us sleep peacefully thru the night…
Of many shapes,, genders and colors they are,, both young and old…

They do fight for me…
Apon distant lands must they go…
So that evil will not grow apon this freedoms soil…
And so it has been from the birth and so it shall be until the

end of all things…

Can you see them now?... Among us they walk…
Can you separate them from you or me…
Of course not and neither can I…

For from freedoms bosom they were made,, the same as you and I…
Guardians of our freedoms and liberties they are...
Into the valley of the shadow of death they will go for us…
Apon the land,, in the air,, and over the sea,, and yes even under they be…
Forever guarding,, forever watching,, forever striking against evils forces…
Of many shapes,, genders and colors they be,, both young and old,,

but I know not a single one…

They know of the terrors in the nigh,, of the rockets red glare,,

and of the bombs bursting in the air,, of bullets whizzing by and

tanks round the bend…
But they go and stand vigilant every night,, every day and

every hour…
From them I am given a peaceful sleep,, and apon tomorrow I will

hear children laughing,, see lovers necking on some shady bench,,

or perhaps watch an older pair walking hand in hand apon this green

and sunny land…

All this and much much more have they given me…
Forever guarding,, forever watching,, they guard my liberties…
No metals do they seek,, no awards,, no monuments do they want…
But we shall give it to them,, and with pompous speeches we shall dedicate…
But for me,, when they come marching home along everymans street,,
I will give them just a salute and a wave,, a welcoming hand,,
and apon a small sign I shall write…
Thank you,, thank you,, guardians of my nights………………………….

DO YOU REMEMBER NOW?.............................

Some would say that today,, or yesterday,, or even tomorrow is the anniversary of the desert war we and our allies are now embroiled in…it is not…this current conflict in the land of the sand people started on just one day,, a clear blue sky day…this war began because a madman,, the lunatic son a wealthy businessman decided a ‘holy jihad’ should be waged against all that do not follow his practice of Islam…
This war will not be over tomorrow or even a couple of months after a new American president is elected…America and its allies will maintain a military base in Iraq long after 95% of the troops we have there now have come home,, not so much to stabilize the region but rather to keep an eye on the other nutsos in the area…For over 60 years the guardians of many nations manned the lookout towers and the bunkers along the divided East and West Europe,, for over 60 years it held a steadfastness and a resolve to finally bring the wall down…And so it will be when the new ‘cold wall’ between Islam and the West finally establishes itself…There are no short term fixes here,, this ‘real life TV show’ will not be over in a half-hour or in an hour,, and then on to reruns of ‘Friends’ as we fall asleep in our beds…
To those of you who say this war is ‘blood for oil’…I say FUCK YOU…Do not ever equate the lives of my brave fearless guardians with the price of anything…Tell me how many barrels of crude is the life of one PFC JONES worth?...
Tell me so I can do the math of the 4000 or so warriors who have already given their last full measure of devotion,, so I can calculate how many times I was able to drive my car to work…or to put it in simpler terms,, how many loafs of bread does a dead Marine buy?...how many cartons of eggs?...

HAVE A GOOD DAY… And when you are sitting there on a park bench watching one of Gods sunsets,, remember that you do not speak German,, Japanese,, or Russian,, because guardians like those of today stood on the line that divides GOOD AND EVIL………………….

THE CATZ YOUYOU TAG..............

Once again my peaceful slumber has been disturbed by a
fuzzy haired creature from the darkness of Nanookville…
This Fuzzy haired creature is sometimes known as Catz (meow,, meow),,
she came apon me with her mukluk heathen ways and forced me
to search within my dungeon abode for 8 objects hidden away in by
basement storage room,, thus exposing my treasures for all of
Blogland to snicker at…This kind of invasion of my sacred dwelling
can not go unaddressed…So therefore I,, in my infinite wisdom,,
have devised a revenge meme tag just for her…
I call it a YOUYOU tag,, where she must expose herself to all of
Blogland,, (hopefully with 8x 10 glossy color photos or maybe
a video we can all view,, I hear she’s pretty hot looking when
she’s just wearing leather camera straps)…

The Catz YOUYOU tag………

1…when you have to get a perm for your fuzzy orange head,,
do you go to the hair saloon or just put your finger in a
light socket?...

2…when you paint your toenails bright pink,, what type of
Cheetos corn puffs do you use to keep your toes apart,,
crunchy or regular?...

3…how many Canadian loonies can you put up your nose?...

4…how many liters of hot wax does it take to remove the hair
from your legs?...

5…how many frozen cat fillets are in your freezer right now?...

6…how many chocolate éclairs have you eaten at one time?...
8?,, 12?,, 20?,, over 50?...

7…have you stopped saving your earwax in masons jars?...

8…what is the square root of PI ?...

Let just see how many she answers,, I’m betting on none…

Special editors note:
When you wander into my basement abode,, you had
better be willing to pay the bartab,, missy.....(hic)
…............ppplllltttthhhh……......

SPECIAL NOTICE

Thanks for noticing I haven't been around much lately...
The men in the white suits with no buttons in the back think I
should have some of my plumbing rerouted...They're just haggling
over how many barrells of God juice I will owe them after
everything is done...

To Catz: I haven't forgotten how mean you were to me,,
my revenge for you and your little dog too will be in the
mail shortly.........

.....mmmmwwwwwwwahahahahahahaha.......

UPDATE: 3-11-08
Boy,, if I'd known that candystripers where so plentiful around
here I would have dropped by more than once every 250 yrs...
And yes,, I must admit that my bare a$$ looks really great peeking
out from behind my cown as I walk down the corridors...
Not sure how well my pink bunny socks are going over tho........

UPDATE: 3-13-08
There Chairon stands, who rules the dreary coast -
A sordid god: down from his hairy chin
A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean;
His eyes, like hollow furnaces on fire;
A girdle, foul with grease, binds his obscene attire.
...Virgil in his Aeneid (book 6, line 369)...

the time; almost now...(friday 6 AM)...
the place; here...
the future; unknown...

to pay the ferryman or no?...
we shall see on the morrows rise..........

INVADERS FROM MARS..........

After many many months of research and thousands of requests
to Congress,, the D.O.D.,, NASA,, my Senators,, and information
I obtained thru the Freedom of Information Act,, I have finally
received the information I knew was hidden by the Government
all along…Yes,, we are being invaded by Martians…
I’m posting what I have found so you can judge for yourself…
I’ve decided to pack up what little supplies I have,, and have
loaded my dogs into my ’63 Buick so I can head into the hills
and hide from these interstellar monsters…
Perhaps with a little luck they won’t find me….

This photo shows an advanced Martian scout ship in the year 1953…
somewhere near Grovers Mill…Do not be fooled by the smiley face
on the front…This is a deadly predator Martian ship…
Its propulsion system is unknown,, but Earths top scientists
think its using fluctuating magnetic beams to hover over the
landscape…The only remaining eyewitness…
A Mr. Clieve Swubird,, said that lightning like thunderbolts
came out of the wing tips,, his three friends that were camping
with him when he took this picture,, were vaporized by
a reddish beam of light coming from the cobrahead like
structure above the main ship…He only escaped because he
was in the woods by the campsite,, taking a whiz
in the bushes…


This photo shows what is believed to be a Martian mother ship in
the year 1979…the photo was taken by Toklien Roberts
(AKA AstroBob) from SKYLAB just before it began to have trouble
staying in orbit around Earth…again note the smiley face…
The beam of light from the bottom is thought to be a particle beam
energy weapon of some kind…perhaps that’s why Skylab lost power…

This photo was taken near Chernihiv of the former USSR…
Date unknown…notice the sinister looking robot figure…
There can only be one reason for making such a machine,,
and that’s to destroy all Human life on this planet…The Human in
the photo is thought to be under mind control by the Martian invaders…
Used only because he could speak Russian…

This photo is believed to have been taken by USSR scientists
who were allowed inside the Martian ship to negotiate the release

of female captives who may have been used for cross breeding

experiments between Humans and Martians…Perhaps to

create a worldwide source of obedient slave labor…Here we

also see the same Human slave that was outside the ship……

A Martian machine used to drain the living life force from
Humans,, to supply neutrino energy to their fungus and

puss gardens…

A Martian machine for sucking Human brains out thru the ears,,

it also has the capacity to pluck Human eyeballs from your head…

It is believed that the brainless Human body is then refitted with

an electronic motor control so that Human bodies can be used for

heavy labor and that Martians like to eat Human eyeball soup

for breakfast…Note the Human hand in this picture…

a mind controlled Human already in use by the invaders…

This is a reconstructed photo of what is believed to be the Martian

supreme commander…This image was gathered by Voyager 1,,

when it flew by Jupiter in 1979…and kept secret by NASA for fear

of causing a panic among the population…

This is a composite drawing of what a Martian really looks like…

The D.O.D. calls them Marvs for short…
Be afraid…be very afraid…and run for the hills if you can………….

THE CLOSET TAG............

Well there I was just relaxing in a tub of marmalade when the
buzzer on my E-gram mailbox went off…Yes it was a Tuesday,,
apparently some furry orange haired person from BC had been
imbibing fermented hops in her usual way and thus she became
fortified (if not pickled) and decided she would send dear ole
harmless me,, a tag… A closet tag no less…Her and Drowsey have
been spending too much time stuffing little cocktail umbrellas up
each others noses…But that’s another story for another time,,
8x10 glossy photos of the two of them will be included…..

Okay the rules for this meme are pretty simple:
Name 8 things you have stuffed away in a back closet and
tag three people...
Why anybody would like to look in my closet I can’t imagine,,
well I can but I rather not tell you,, because this blog is rated PG…
it says so right on the label,, Mabel…

… “stuffed away in a back closet”…ahh the first problem,,
as I knew there would be…I don’t have any closets…I keep all
my stuff in Samsonite luggage just in case I have to,, hmm,,
leave quickly,, cuz I won a free trip to Aruba,, yeah that’s it…
But I do have a basement,, and in it I have,, shall we say,,
‘a storage room’,, I can look in it…I hope that’s OK with the rules,,
if not too bad…

Now where is the key?...here it is,, wouldn’t you know it,,
it’s a skeleton key…Lets hope there are no skeletons in
this closet,, ha ha...

(click,, click,, turn,, eerrrrerish)…
Boy I haven’t been in here in a while,, I’ll have to oil those
hinges soon,, maybe…

Well lets have a look around for 8 interesting items…

How about a bare light bulb and a pull chain,, do they count?...
thought not,, oh well…..

1 & 2… hi ma,, hi pa,, how you guys doing down here? Are those
new ankle chains too tight?...”lldiuhjasda”,, no its not time to eat,,
I’ll get back to you when I’m done…

3…what’s in this steamer trunk?...lets have a look…ouuuuu...
Now I remember,, Quido and some of his friends left it here
in the early seventies…there’s a wallet…hmmm Jimmy Hoffa…

4…what’s that pile of fur in the corner…oh geez.. its Fluffy the cat…
not very fluffy anymore…shes been missing since August,,
I wondered where she went…

5…on the shelf there is a large glass jar,, lets look…
Hey its grandma’s head…she looks just the same as when
she died,, I guess formaldehyde really does work…

6…what else is up there?...ohh some black and white
8mm movies…hmm Betty Boop does Mickey,,
the Three Bears eat Goldilocks,, Snow White wakes up
Sleeping Beauty,, Popeye spreads Olive Oyl…wow look at those….

7…ohh,, there’s a meat clever here,, better not touch that,,
I’m not wearing gloves…

8…and there’s a reel of audio taped labeled…18 minutes
of conversation in the Ova…I can’t read the rest…faded too much…

OK,, now the fun part for me,, I get to tag 3 people with this
‘closet tag’ so they can show us what’s in their closet…

I tag the following 3 persons (I guess you could call them that)…
1….HillaryDillary Clinton…
2….Bill Clinton…
3….Hugh Hefner….

Lets all hope that Hugh answers this tag,, I really don’t care
about the other two slime balls,, but it would be nice to know
what skeletons they have in their closets,, I’ll bet its
a lot…………….

Special editors note:
Furry orange haired person from BC,, I'll get back to you later...
...........mmmwwwwahahahahahahah......

A SHORT POST...........

"Thank God,, that long winded crazy nutso Gt281 does a short post"...
"Why does he always try to write stories as long as War and Peace?"....

THE CASE OF THE CHEESE HEAD........

TA TA TA DUM,, DUMB

"Ladies and gentlemen,, the story you're about to read is
almost true…Only the names have been changed to
protect the author”...

Monday,, February 24… It was cold in Raleigh, North Carolina…
We were working the day watch out of robbery division…
My partner's name is Officer Gannon Morgan...
The boss is Fred Mertzman,, Chief of detectives…
My name's TuesdayFriday… Sergeant …everyone just calls
me TGIF…Don’t know what it means but it sounds exciting…
We’d been stuck at the office since Saturday,, the city of Raleigh
had been crippled by a 1 inch snow storm…All police units had
returned to the station…it was a 512 dispatch…
It was 8:45 when Chief Mertzman came to my desk and
handed me an urgent post-it note…

A crime had occurred at the corner of 5th and Walbash on the
4th floor of the MVPS building…It seemed urgent…

Officer Morgan and I attempted to use a black and white to
travel the 4 blocks to the MVPS building,, to no avail…
The city was gridlocked due to the slushy snow…We then
proceeded to the sanitation department next door and
signed out a 12 ton garbage truck to make the perilous
journey uptown…

10:42,, we arrived at the corner of 5th and Walbash,, picked up
the garbage at the corner and returned to the station…
It was too dangerous to go by vehicle to the crime scene,,
we then proceeded on foot…

1:43,, donut shop at the corner of 4th and Delmonte…
Officer Morgan ordered the blue plate special of 6 Twinkies
and strawberry ice cream,, I had my usual of 4 double chocolate
éclairs with whipped cream…The coffee was lukewarm,,
we ordered fresh coffee…
3:12,, returned to station after leaving a 3 dollar tip…
Waited for Chief Mertzman to return from the men’s room…
3:35 Chief Mertzman returned looking relieved…3:40 asked
for more instructions on the case…4:10 day watch over…
We would travel to the crime scene on Tuesday,, February 25…

Tuesday, February 25,, 9:37…Donut shop at the corner of
4th and Delmonte…Officer Morgan ordered the he-man
breakfast with a Spanish omelet,, just juice,, no java…I order my
usual of burnt toast and Texas waffles,, java,, 6 sugars and cream,,
with a side dish of strawberries and cool whip…11:05,,
went back to the station to get some paper clips and fresh bullets,,
ours had gone stale…12:02,, received phone call from a
Mz Lorelei Lorelei concerning the case,, she said it was urgent
we meet her at the corner of 5th and Walbash…
1:10,, we left the station to meet Mz Lorelei Lorelei…
1:38,, donut shop at the corner of 4th and Delmonte…
Officer Morgan needed to use the mens room,, he said it
was urgent,, I ordered java,, 6 sugars and cream…1:45,,
Officer Morgan returned looking relieved…1:47,, removed
toilet paper from Officer Morgan’s shoe…1:52,, left a 1 dollar tip
and proceeded to the corner of 5th and Walbash…
1:56,, returned to donut shop at the corner of 4th and Delmonte…
Asked Officer Morgan if he would like to accompany me to the
corner of 5th and Walbash,, he said yes…2:12,,
met Mz Lorelei Lorelei,, at the corner of 5th and Walbash…
She proceed to describe the details of the missing Mr. Parmesan…
Sounded like a case for missing persons…
We proceed to the scene of the crime,, 4th floor break room of
the MVPS building…

Mz Lorelei Lorelei proceeded to tell how she had kept
Mr. Parmesan in the refrigerator every night and they would
liberally sprinkle left over lunch meat over each other
after work…She became excited…
“Just the facts mam”,, I said…
She continued to say that she liked to roll around amongst
the yogurt containers and coffee creamers,, trying to blend in
with the condiments…An obvious 718 case (nutso)…
3:37,, returned to the station and informed Chief Mertzman of
our conversation with Mz Lorelei Lorelei…
The case was transferred to the Belvue Mental Unit on the
12th floor of the station…


TA TA TA DUM,, DUMB,, TA TA TA DUM,, DUMB

Case file #4183.ad56… Raleigh, North Carolina...
Mz Lorelei Lorelei was found guilty of making a false
police report,, and of playing with her food without a license…
She was sentenced to 18 months of janitorial duties at the
donut shop on the corner of 4th and Delmonte…

Mr. Parmesan was never found,, it is believed he return to
Italy and became the Pope,, but this could not be confirmed…

Officer Gannon Morgan and Sergeant TuesdayFriday,,
were each given commendations for bravery due to their
actions during the snow storm that crippled
all of Raleigh, North Carolina……….