Dark as Daylight Ch. 11

Note: All persons in this novel are fictitious. If you are looking for a great deal of sexual activity, this story is not for you. The scenes that are included will be evocative, rather than just for the sake of sex itself.

This story is for your reading pleasure. Its length is undetermined, because I do not know where my mind will take me as I proceed along this journey with you. I hope you will stay with me, and this story, until it reaches its inevitable end.

This story is copyrighted material, and is owned by Prolonged_Debut10. My information is on file with Literotica.com. Any attempts to reach me should be forwarded through that site. I am definitely over eighteen years old, and a citizen of the United States of America.

Chapter 11

43. Switzerland

"That bastard gave us up. Now they know who we are, and what we were planning to do. We are going to have to go so deep underground, where no one can find us. Having plastic surgery to change our faces, remove our fingerprints, and having our voices changed will require time, but we must do it. This is a disaster of epic proportions.

Friedrich, what are we supposed to do about the attacks that are scheduled to go off tonight? Do we let them go off as planned, or do we call them off?

The entire planet now knows we planned to blow up the American Super-rocket and along with it that isolationist President of theirs." Germany cannot afford to have 40,000 American soldiers leave the country, with all its military equipment, and their dependents. It's a loss of nearly 150,000 people. The drain on our economy will be disastrous, and our country may never recover."

"Otto, you are being too pessimistic. I agree we are going to have to disappear, but the Senate and the Congress of the States has to approve those troop movements. Where are they going to place all these men and women, when they return home.

They have shut down so many bases, and their military housing is so poor, due to their budget cuts, they will have them living in the streets, like paupers. Let's wait to see what happens.

Tonight we will leave for Berlin, and from there to Helsinki, and finally to Turku. We have friends who will hide us there, indefinitely. They have fine doctors, and for the appropriate amount of money, they will do as we ask."

"How are we supposed to get our money out of Deutsche Bank, without leaving a paper trail, Friedrich?"

"Bearer bonds naturally. We will walk into the vault, as always, but this time with a large steamer trunk. We fill it with $10,000 bearer bonds, and when we leave, it should weigh about 230 pounds, more or less. It will give us about $70 billion to work with over the coming years."

"I won't even ask you how you figured that out, but I will take your word for it. That leaves us about $4 billion short of what we have in there. What should we do about that?"

"Bring a very large suitcase, Arthur, a very large suitcase."

"I have a bad back; I think I'll bring one with wheels."

"I don't care what you do, just stuff as many bearer bonds in it as you can. We will leave instructions for Steigman to remove the money from our accounts to pay for the bearer bonds that are missing from his secure storage area. That's how you take a large amount of money out of a bank, without a paper trail."

Otto said, "In other words it's stealing, and paying for it later."

"You may look at it that way, but I don't.

Go to your homes, and take just what you need for a one week's travel. Leave everything in order, as if you were going to return. I will have a friend remove a car from a parking area, and change its license plates. He will make sure the owners never complain, while they are alive. Let's meet here, and we will leave for Germany in three hours.

"What about him?"

"We should be very happy Aubrey never knew about him. He would scalp us, like in one of those old-fashioned Westerns he likes. The only difference being, we would still be alive when he does it. I'll call, leave him a message on his dead drop phone line, and tell him what we're going to do. When we get to Turku, I'll call him again, and give him a way to contact us, if need be. He may want to break contacts with us, permanently."

Arthur said, "That sounds good."

"Otto don't forget to pack food for yourself. We are not going to stop on the way for you to eat."

"I am a true German. I am not thin like you. I love my food and it shows. If we were stuck on a mountain top, I would survive for a longer time than you. Stop making fun of my girth."

"Otto, you would die climbing the mountain. Go home, pack your clothes, and pack enough food for the trip."

"I will pack enough for all of us, Friedrich. I will even pack one sausage for you. It will be enough to fill you up."

"You are wasting time that we don't have. The world knows of us, and I don't want the police at my door."

"I will be back in two hours."

"So will I, Friedrich. If the police come, they need a warrant to come into the house. Don't let them step inside, or don't answer the door."

"I have the concealment area under the floor in my closet. I can use that in an emergency."

"Very good, I'm leaving."

"Two hours, not more."

**************

44. Space + Time + Travel

The press corps was sitting in the auditorium awaiting the briefing from Doctor Juan Alvarez. The tension in the room was so great, there were arguments between experienced reporters, that nearly turned violent.

Doctor Alvarez finally walked on stage, and up to the podium, at 6 PM on the dot.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I will take questions after I give my statement, but you'd better give me questions only about the statement I give and nothing more. I will not answer anything that is speculative. I will only answer questions that are factual, and pertain to the message we received from the spacecraft Good Luck 1. Each of you has received a full copy of the message, so you should not have any trouble asking questions about it. My statement will be very brief, and as I said to you, very factual."

"First I want to introduce you to the five luckiest people on this planet. They were the first to hear the message sent by the spacecraft, and received by the VLA. Doctor Steven Wilkerson, Doctor Alessandro Melassa, Doctor Jane Meadow, and postgraduate students Gladys Knightley, and Stella Forster.

Shortly after 4 AM this morning, Doctor Steve Wilkerson heard one of the servos for one of the VLA radio antennas move, from its pre-positioned stations. Normally this is an anomaly that has to be fixed manually.

As he was climbing the ladder to reach the servo controls, the twenty-six other radio antennas moved. Every alarm in the building sounded. A message of unknown origin was being received. It was not background noise from the stars, or left over from the Big Bang.

My fellow scientists went to their stations and began tracking this anomaly. It was broadcasting a signal in clear voice transmission. Doctor Jane Meadow called, and told me what was happening.

I rushed to the lab, and watched, as our computer digested what was coming in. We both agreed, it was definitely coming from a spacecraft heading on an intercept course for Planet Zero. For those of you who are not familiar with that term, Planet Zero is Earth. All of us were stunned, and each of us was thrilled that our space travelers are still alive, and have reached the destination they aimed for.

Gliese 561 is a red dwarf star. The planet, Gliese 561G is a tidally locked planet, which means one half of the planet faces the sun all the time, and the other half doesn't see the sun at all. The important part of all this is Gliese 561G is twenty light years away from Earth. The Good Luck 1 arrived there in a little more than 3 years. This tiny spacecraft moved many times faster than the Speed of Light.

Einstein was wrong.

It's not the 1^st time he's been wrong, but this one is a big one. This was his last untested theory. Now it has been tested, and he was wrong. Traveling great distances in space is no longer incomprehensible, because of great scientists and engineers, like Even Luck, Dycke Schneider, Patricia Valentino, Harold Chase, Delicious Luck Thyme, and Gordon Luck. Their names will join those already in our history books, as trailblazers and visionaries, who not only looked up at the stars at night, but did something about it, and got us there.

You all know about the greetings going out to those they left behind. They are personal, and were intentionally left out of your briefing material.

There is the statement given by Doctor Lincoln Aubrey, about his attempts to abduct, destroy the messenger rocket, and the spacecraft. The transcript of that information has been forwarded to the FBI to see if it is possible to prosecute these men, here on earth, when they only evidence against them was testimony given, in a spacecraft, nearly 20 light years away.

The possibility of these men holding his entire family captive has been forwarded to the German authorities for investigation.

The Swiss authorities have been notified that these people are suspected of living in their country.

All of this has been done, through the University of New Mexico, not through the United States State Department, or the FBI. We did not want to get into the bureaucratic red tape that sometimes delays action for days, weeks, or months. If what Doctor Aubrey said is true, action had to be taken immediately, not one second later.

These actions should pave the way for new laws for intergalactic treaties, to be sure men like Doctor Lincoln Aubrey can testify, in absentia, against the likes of his tormentors: Friedrich von Bierman, Otto von Osterhagan, and Arthur Schultheise.

That is the end of my statement. I will take questions now."

"Doctor Alvarez, you said this new planet, Atwater Luck is 20 light years away. How far is that in miles?"

"72 trillion miles."

"Do you really believe they traveled 72 trillion miles in a little more than 3 years? It sounds a little fishy to me."

"Did you ever watch a rocket take off, Mister Alexander?

"I've been at the Cape several times to watch rockets take off Doctor."

"Did you go to Texas to watch the Good Luck 1 take off?"

"No I didn't. NASA said it was a hoax, and it would never fly."

"Do you feel like the biggest ass in the room now, Mister Alexander?"

"I don't like your inference Doctor."

"It wasn't an inference; it was a fact."

"Next question. Yes, Miss Perry."

"According to your handout, Doctor Aubrey sounds like an agent provocateur. How did he get through the initial screening process?"

"That's not part of this briefing Miss Perry. You will have to go to Charleston to ask that question, and get that answer."

"Next question. Mister Raven, your question..."

The briefing went on for more than 45 minutes. How fast, how far, will we get another message? Will this rocket get closer to Earth? Will it get close enough for Satellites to take pictures of it?..."

When Doctor Alvarez had enough, he put an end to it, and went back to the lab to listen to the broadcast again. He sent out a message to all stations on the net, requesting them to get a bearing on this signal. He wanted to know how far the rocket was from Earth. Traveling at a speed of 96,000 mph might sound fast to normal human beings, but to scientists, who deal with distances in trillions of miles every day, it is like a snail crawling the length of a football field.

His phone rang. "Doctor Alvarez, this is Wilkerson."

"Yes Steve, what do you have?"

"We have the bearings in from Norilsk, Russia, Torneakven, Sweden, and Alice Springs, Australia put together with ours just as you asked. You are not going to believe where this little rocket is, or what Doctor Luck must have put in it to get it to move so fast at the beginning of its' travels' that it got this far so quickly."

"We all know that guy was a genius, and his son was a chip off the old block. Everyone that went on that ship had a specialty; there was no deadwood on it, at all. So tell me where is it?"

"Here goes doctor, and remember, 'Don't shoot the messenger.'

"Celestial Observation: X -1.697. Y -1.357 Z - 3. 838."

"You're out of your damn mind, Steve; it can't be that close. When the hell did they launch that thing?"

"I don't know Doctor, but you are the one that said he was a genius."

"I want the Galactic information, and I want it yesterday."

"I knew you would say that, so I already have it. Are you ready?"

"What do you think?"

"Galactic Observation: X 3.169. Y-3.155. Z -0.8018. Do you believe it now, doctor?"

"If it was any closer to that star, it would have burnt up. Who do they have up there that put the navigational coordinates in?"

"I don't know, but he's damn good. He missed Alpha Centauri by 6 ½ million miles. The radiation would have killed any human, who was that close."

"Have Meadow send out a release on Twitter. You do it on Facebook, and I will set up another news conference. Hopefully that asshole will not be here this time."

"Why don't you do a video conference, Doctor? You can announce it today, and schedule it for tomorrow evening. Whoever is online can ask you questions from around the world."

"Now I know why I keep you around, Steven. I'll call the communications director and set up."

"Doctor, the reason you keep me, and the entire staff around is to keep your job. We make you look so good; they are going to build a statue of your likeness, and place it in front of the laboratory.

We want you to know that after you retire, and leave for places where there is more green than yellow surroundings, we will be throwing tomatoes at it every day."

"I will keep that picture in my mind. Do you realize how expensive tomatoes are in this area? To think you would spend that amount of money to pay homage to me, is heart rendering."

"Come on Doctor, we have work to do."

************************

"I'm glad your friend was smart enough to get this large van. You two can sit in the front seat and watch the grass go by. I will gladly sit back here, with my basket of food and wine, and wile away the hour, during this tedious drive"

"Otto even in this wonderful German engineered automobile, I had to put the heaviest part of our belongings on the opposite side of you to keep it level. If you get any heavier, you are going to have to sit in the middle of any car, and purchase two seat on an aircraft."

"I always fly first class, and I fit in those seats just fine."

"I've seen you in first class, Otto. Trust me, you're going to need two seats soon. Do you weigh 180 kilos yet?" (400 lb.)

"I never weigh myself. I go by the way my clothes fit; and they fit me beautifully, can't you tell?"

"I won't answer that question. Don't forget to pace yourself, with your food. It's 1100 km (700mi) to Berlin. I wouldn't want you to run out of anything, before we get there."

"Be nice to me, Friedrich; I'm sitting behind you. A bottle of wine, across the back of your head would hurt."

"I apologize Otto. We have been friends too long to argue like this. It is just the pressure of the day that's getting to me.

I have decided not to call off the attacks for tonight. I want to distract the Americans. I want to keep them busy at home, while we do what we must, and travel north to disappear. I never believed it would come to this. I was sure Aubrey would take care of the spacecraft. His mind was sharp, but his will was weak, when it came to his family. Our threats to wipe his name from the roles of those families living on this planet destroyed him.

When I held his youngest in my arms, and told him what a shame it would be if that little boy was to be the end of his family's lineage, there were tears in his eyes.

He promised me his life in exchange for the lives of his family, but most especially for the baby I was holding.

When I agreed to his proposal, he fell to his knees, and kissed my feet. I felt honored at that point."

"I wonder what they going to do, after they land?"

"I don't care. I just want to get out of Switzerland and into Germany, before the Swiss start checking cars at their border. Program the computer Arthur, so I know where I'm going."

"Friedrich, all you have to do is remember two roads to get us to Berlin. You take the A6 to the A 9. When you get on the A9, get off at the exit to you Aunt's home in Berlin. It's not that hard to remember."

"Oh God, we are all making fun of one another. We are all nervous. Otto give me something to eat; maybe it will calm me down."

"Bratwurst or sausage?"

"Bratwurst please."

***********************

"Good morning William, any news?"

"I spoke with General Marcus, and it was all quiet last night.

I spoke to mom a little earlier, and heard a very funny story, about Lucius and Paul. It was quiet, in Glen Falls last night, also."

"I wonder if the news scared them off."

"I doubt that dad. The tip of the spear is probably on the run. These are the mercenaries who were hired to perform a specific job. As long as they were paid, and we can't contact them to verify it, as we did in New York, they are going to fight."

"I guess it was wishful thinking on my part."

"We can always wish dad, but wishes don't always come true."

"Has your brother, and his little friend surfaced for food?"

"If he has, I haven't seen him."

"Well, no one has been known to starve to death, within 72 hours of going on a diet. He may be weak when he finishes, but it will be only in his knees."

"Not necessarily, there are other positions, and from what he said to mom, before we parted company, he's watched enough pornography on the internet to know how many there are."

"I hope I didn't wait too long to introduce him to the wonders of sex. Pornography is not the way to learn how to treat a woman."

"Dad, he's had excellent examples all his life. He watched me as I grew up in China. I never treated any woman unkindly.

He watched you and mom at home. Although both of you confused the heck out of him, with your verbal interplay, the love you two have for one another was always evident. He sees it in Gwen and I also. He's not going to treat Audra any differently than we treat our wives.

He may have a rough start, because he's nervous, and cannot control himself. However, once he gets an understanding of the mechanics of sex, he will be able to read what his and her bodies are saying to each other, and feed off those signals. He is brilliant beyond belief, and if he doesn't die of leg cramps, he will have the time of his life."

"Neither of us died of leg cramps, Will."

"Well good morning little brother. I don't believe I'll ever be able to wipe that smile off your face. Did you enjoy dancing?"

"We haven't gotten to the dancing part yet. We've been changing beds all night, and most of the morning. Audra and I believe cleanliness is next to godliness."

"And how many beds have you changed so far Miss Audra?"

"15 so far Mister Zabo."

"15 in one night?"

"Well, it's almost noon, so it's one night and one morning."

"Active mammals aren't you? Are you hungry?"

"Yes, that's why we decided to take an hour off. Actually, it's 10 minutes to get here. 10 minutes to order and for the food to get here. 20 minutes to eat. 10 minutes to talk; and 10 minutes to get back to a new bed, and decide where to start again. We don't want to waste any time."

"Should I ask who put you under such strict time constraints, or should I guess?"

"It wasn't Patrick, Mister Zabo."

"It sounds like you are enjoying yourself?"