Discovery
It was a chilly evening; snow had started to fall lightly on the ground. Late-migrating birds flew noisily overhead as they eagerly formed a tight ‘V’ shape, disappeared into the blinding red-orange sunset that illuminated the frosty mountain range in the distance. Richmond, Virginia’s Public Park was filled with people bunched up in warm polyester overcoats and heavy Car Hart jackets as they all watched the last few rays of sunlight slowly sink into darkness. Without the sun, the sky lay sparkling with stars where the scattered snow clouds hadn’t covered. A large crescent moon loomed overhead, as it tried to burst free from its dark prison.
The temperature seemed to plummet as the sun no longer warmed the Park. A middle-aged woman wearing a red knitted scarf and a maroon overcoat, her hair pulled into a tight golden bun, called her son and daughter over to her. As her young children, both under ten years old got up to leave, the girl, dressed in a thick blue velvet dress with white lace trimming, and fake rabbit fur head cover dropped the stuffed animal she had been carrying. A passerby, a tall young man, dressing in casual slacks and dress shirt covered with an off-white lab coat, bent down to the girl and picked up the small animal. Brushed it off he gave it back to her, as he left he patted her on the head and smiled innocently.
“Mommy…Mommy! Can we get something warm to eat on the way home?” He heard the girl say to her mother as she joined her brother on the opposite side.
“Yes dear, we’ll stop by your fathers work and pick up something... Button your coat; you’ll catch a cold!” The mother told her daughter as the man looked at his watch, walking down the street. The man’s name was Richard Harrison, an Astronomer that worked for NASA. He was one of the youngest ever to have been admitted at the age of 27 years old. He smiled as this thought came to his mind. The wind blew harder as he made his way to his car, a midnight black Ferrari with Chrome bumpers and handles that gave it a powerful “I’m better than you!” look. Snow had covered the outside of the car, he was proud of it; the only other things that were above this were his job and his beloved girlfriend.
Richard opened the door, pulled out his keys and started up the engine. He turned on the heat to melt the thin layer of snow that had accumulated on the windshield. Still thinking of his love, Richard pulled out of the parking lot and sped down the road, tires screeching. He turned the wipers on to relieve the windshield of the snow that had not melted. Every few minutes Richard checked his watch, noticing that he was running later than usual, he tapped the gas pedal and looked up at his rear-view mirror to see if he was followed. Not wanting to chance the possibility of getting yet another ticket he slowed down as he approached a sizeable semi-circular building barely 15 minutes later.
The windows were ablaze with yellow light and the high street lights that glowed an off neon blue. Richard pulled into the parking lot and climbed out; he sank a good four inches in cold, wet snow. Slamming the car door and pressing the lock button on the key ring, there was a quick, mechanical “Beep-Bleep” and he walked away slowly, tromping through the snow, some stuck to the bottoms of his shoes. The wind now blew so hard that it ripped the hair bow right out of his long tightly braided hair, which almost immediately flew behind him in the icy wind, ice crystals quickly grew in his silver-blue hair making it stiff and brittle. He pulled his lab coat tighter and ran to the entrance of the building, knocking off his shoes.
“Hello there, Richard!” One man across the room called to him as he staggered into the large domed room. The place was warm and inviting, a sense of uneasy peace flooding every inch of its walls.
“You OK? You look...a little ‘Wind Blown’...ha-ha-ha Ha!” said another employee jokingly.
“Shut up Collins, stop joking…around…and finish your work!” Richard scowled fiercely, his eyes narrowing, his breath coming and going. Richard tried running his fingers through his hair but no such luck was apparent, a few strands of his icy hair broke away from his head to suggest that he stop.
“Sorry, Sir!” He said and walked fast down the right-hand walkway and disappeared into a small room. Collins’ lab coat was trailing behind him furiously.
“Uh-huh...it’s windy out there...AND it’s snowing!” Richard said finally catching his breath. He crossed to a nearby chair that was placed near an open heater and sat down. Richard turned his head to the heater, and the ice crystals and snow in his hair melted away into beads of water, falling to the floor. One of the other researchers sat down beside him and asked if he needed anything. Replying to him that he was fine and to continue what they were doing, Richard, now ice-free and dripping with water, stood up, stretching with an audible grunt. Shaking his head vigorously; freeing his hair of any missed water and ice particles, any that were lost were sent flying in various directions around the warm room.
“OK, just wondering. Call me if you need anything...” The man called back to Richard as he stood up and walked away.
“Thanks, Henry!” Richard called to him, walking down the left hallway entering a small room that led to a much larger room on the opposite side. This much larger room was fitted with an observatory telescope. The oversized scope was the main focal point of the entire room. He got a brush and straightened his tangled silver-blue hair. Setting down at his desk, Richard glanced at a picture of Cecilia, his girlfriend and instantly thought of her, her golden hair long and curly, giving her a sense of angelic purity. Cecilia’ soft ocean-blue eyes peered through the glass of the picture frame at Richard longingly as though they had been parted for an eternity, even though they had only been apart for a week. Richard’s mind wandered further from his nonexistent work Cecilia’s eyes reminded him of a dream that he had had when he was younger.
The dream consisted of a blue-green planet nearly identical to that of the earth. The creatures were of all shapes and sizes, and of every possible element and attribute. In Richard’s dream, there was only one creature he was interested in; it was a tiny baby male demon whose characteristic was that of a god. The boy’s hair long and dark, glossy with a single white highlight that curled from the middle of the top of his forehead. The baby’s eyes were large and a bright blue color that sparkled endlessly in the moonlight. The baby’s serene face was kind and full of happiness. Above the baby demon outside there was a lunar eclipse, and then, without warning, the baby changed into a gigantic evil monster that cast Richard into darkness. This is always where the dream ended, where he had still woke up. Richard came back to his thoughts of work and wiped his face free of sweat which he often did when he thought of the dream.
“Is everything OK, Richard?” asked a disembodied voice. A man had walked in without him knowing and stood in the middle of the doorway.
“Oh! Mr. Jenkins, it’s you. I’m fine; I was just thinking about Cecilia. I’m going to ask her to marry me soon, and I wanted the time to be right...” Richard said to him, his face flushed red with embarrassment. He had managed to save himself, just barely.
“Is that all? You seem a little distant.” Mr. Jenkins asked sour toned, stroking his long gray beard which fell to the middle of his chest. His long grizzled hair gave him the appearance of a wild man that had been tortured; it was pulled back into a ponytail, which fell to the small of his back.
“No, that’s not all... I was thinking about a childhood dream I had... Would you like to know what it is?” Richard said starring at Jenkins. Rather than hide it, he decided to confess his real troubles.
“You... What? That was unexpected...” Mr. Jenkins said nearly laughing. He walked closer to Richard and saw the picture of Cecilia.
“I’m serious.” Richard shot back with a nasty tone. He glared at Jenkins.
“Fine, if you want to, but then get to work on that report for Professor Carter. It’s three days overdue, and you’ve had plenty of time to get it finished!” said Jenkins sternly. “I have a limited amount of time Richard, try and make this quick. Oh, and stop daydreaming, or you’ll get another dock in pay.”
“I will Sir.” Said, Richard, as he got up out of his black leather seat and started to pace around the room. “The dream starts out with me playing ball with my older sister, Celaria in the old park near the Deere River. She goes to sit down on the bench nearby and trips over a rock...she blames it on me because I’m younger...I help her up, and we just go home...” A childlike atmosphere overcomes Richard. He folds his arms across his chest and walks around the plain white room, ever so often glancing up at Jenkins.
“Please hurry, I need to get to Collin’s presentation soon…” Jenkins said in a rush, he became edgy and shuffled around the room. His face turned a light shade of pink.
“OK, OK... After we get home, we both take baths and get ready for bed. Mom comes in and tucks us in, and we fall to sleep. Then my dream changes to a blue-green planet identical to this one and there are all sorts of...demonic creatures with human characteristics, you see. I’m interested in one of the newborns...” Richard said calmly; he looks up at Jenkins.
“Hurry…! Finish the dream...” Jenkins yelled after another 10 minutes of Richard’s continuous babbling.
“I’ll just finish it later...you’re in a rush so I’ll just see you when I see you, OK?” Richard said brokenhearted.
“Good grief man thank the gods! I don’t have time to listen to endless nonsense!” Jenkins spat in Richard’s face as he turned and sat back down at his desk and quickly finished the report, handing it to Jenkins to give to Carter. Richard then got back up, walked over to, and peered into the immense observatory scope. Jenkins, bewildered and red-faced, left the room in a storming huff, slamming the door behind him. Jenkins apologized for his tardiness and explained to the others why he was late. The other researchers all laughed when Jenkins told them about Richard’s dream.
Richard now being all alone focused the lens to nearly 1 billion times the vision of a human and saw the outer most planet Pluto and its moon Phoebus. He was just playing around for his amusement at this time and whirled the magnification dial around. Stars came into view, and Richard did this a second time. This time, he spun the dial backward and out the stars went. Richard focused, not playing this time and slowly wheeled the dial forward again, an object that he had not noticed pulled his attention.
“Ah..., the wonders of technology... What in the world is that? ...Let’s see...shall we!” Richard said to himself as he focused the scope in even closer to reveal the gases, of which he found only red dust like storms that raged on in giant swirls. He noticed after he fiddled with the scope more, large crevasses and flashes of white light could be seen. Richard left the telescope and went to his desk to get a notebook. Afterward, he returned, pen in hand and wrote down what he had seen. Putting the pen, he was using behind his ear; he walked out of the room and down the hall to where the meeting was being held.
“Yes? What do you want, Richard?” Asked Jenkins annoyed. Laughs and muffled whispering were heard from the large group of researchers as Richard stood there in the doorway.
“I found something you might want to see…Jenkins! Come with me and see for yourself!” shot Richard, his face blotchy with anger. He had put his hands in his lab coat pockets to stop himself from hitting Jenkins in the face, even though he visualized himself doing so until he was a bloody pulp disgusted on the tiled floors.
“Humph! FINE! Lead the way…”
“Thank you.” Leading the way back to his room Richard pointed to the massive scope and Jenkins looked through it and immediately saw what Richard was talking about.
“Hmm...That’s...quite interesting...I...would like to congratulate you...” Jenkins said, defeated. His face was red, almost a maroon color, not from anger, but from embarrassment. He’d expected the whole thing to be a childish farce, nothing more than to get attention. But to his utter downfall from his soapbox, Jenkins’ underling had managed to find something of note.
“...” Richard said nothing.
“May I see?” asked Carter, walking closer to the scope. He moved his long black bangs out from in front of his eyes and removed his silver-rimmed glasses, waiting for Richard’ consent.
“Yeah, sure!” Richard said slightly blushing. Each of the researchers took their turn to look at the unknown object in the telescope. After everyone had finished, several of them told Richard that they wanted to help him find out what it was. Richard shook their hands and agreed to their proposals and asked each of them to come up with a name for the object.
“Zendrix...” said Carter.
“MP313! Hey! If we get that proposal to go through about the space exploration, we can find out what Richard‘ mystery object is!” yelled Collins as he smiled excitedly, literally jumping up and down. He pulled off his glasses and cleaned them with his lab-coat.
“Yeah! That’s a great idea! But uh, Collins I think MP313 was already being used as a moon name.” Yelled Henry. Richard turned to Jenkins and asked what he thought the thing should be made.
“It is? Well darn, there goes my idea then, sorry guys.” Collins laughed nervously finishing with a defeated sigh.
“I don’t know...you can’t do it yourself?” asked Jenkins retorting from Collins’ previous statement pulling the idea of using the new exploration program to study the new object. In the off chance there really was something of note Jenkins knew that it would take years actually to land an exploration, the team would have to find and document more physical proof of the possible star or planet before presenting it to a council. Even then they would have to convince them unanimously. Let alone after that documents would have to be sent to the president for approval which he would most likely veto. The whole thing would need a lot of work, and that didn’t even include the money for funding the expedition.
“I want everyone to come up with a name, and then I would choose from them the one I like the most...and if none sound good, I’ll make up one.”
“Hm...In that case...I would have to say...Zyna, after my granddaughter.” Jenkins told Richard as he stroked his beard absentmindedly. He then walked away toward the exit of the room. After Jenkins left, Richard rejoined the other researchers to talk more about the object. Richard copied the research he had already and gave the entire group of researchers one. He told Collins that he would notify the President about his findings when he had the time, especially after they had indisputable proof that the object that was found was indeed a planet or even a moon. Deep down Richard still couldn’t believe that he had seen something, he pinched himself thinking it was all a dream.
“I’ll call the secretary; she should be able to put me directly through to his quarters...” Collins told him.
“Who do you mean, Collins?” Carter asked curiously, looking up from the jotted notes Richard had given him before.
“The President?” He already had his little red phone out and dialed.
“What? No!” Richard made a dive for Collins, missing as he stepped out of the way, Richard fell on his face with his butt in the air in a comical manner.
“Why not? He does owe me a personal favor after all, and I did save his life AND took a few bullets for him, quite literally.” He replied a woman picked up on the other end of the phone at this point.
“Y-you’re going to blackmail the President?! Are you crazy?! There are laws; we could all go to jail! No, UNDER the jail, popping up in CHINA they bury us so far!” Continuing his rant, Richard was tuned out as Collins began explaining the situation.
Richard turned away, deciding to get his books and papers out of his desk to take them to his car to cool off. He told everyone that he would be back in a few minutes and left the room. His arms piled full, walked carefully down the hall, as to not drop any of the books he backed into the doorway to open it. Outside, the wind had stopped dead, and the night sky was wide open now sparkling with stars. The gusts of wind had blown the snow storm past them though not without leaving evidence, nearly a foot of snow had accumulated on the ground. Richard made his way to his snow-covered car and set the books on top of the hood after wiping it clean. He then got out the keys and hearing the mechanical “Beep-Bleep” opened the door and put them in the back seat after wiping them off. While walking back to the building, he stopped to smoke a cigarette.
Inside, Collins ran to the door to find Richard. He had finally got through to the President, and he had asked to talk personally. Rushing back tossing his unfinished cigarette he was told that he would be escorted personally on his private plane to pick him up the next morning, and they would then discuss the matter of setting up a launch to do more studies. Collins was to accompany them.
“What! Are you serious!?” said Richard bewildered.
“Well, what do you think?” Collins asked a smug grin spread across his face. “Told you so, it helps to be family after all.” He let out a small laugh.
“...” Richard’ mouth moved up and down, trying to say something but no words came out.
“Come on! Pull yourself together! You deserve this Richard. Personally, I would kill to get an opportunity like this...” Collins said jokingly with a slight maniacal smile spread across his face even more so than it already was.
“I hope not! You‘re going to love this part, Collins!” Richard said trying not to laugh.
“Well, you better get home! You have a big day tomorrow...with the President and all! I’m happy for Richard, really I am.”
“Did you hear any part of what I just said?” Richard told him. He put his hands on Collins’ shoulders.
“No… What?” He asked surprised. He looked at Richard confused.
“President Johnson asked for you too!” Richard said smiling down at Collins happily. Collins‘ face went slack with a blank expression.
“What…?” He asked, looking up at Richard, making sure he had heard right. “The president asked for you to come to,” Richard repeated. “He’s going to fund the space program you wanted to set up!”
“For real!?”
“Uh…Yeah! Duh!” Richard told him, he wrapped his arm around Collins and they smile at each other.
“YES! This is great!” Collins yelled at the top of his lungs, the sound of his voice echoed throughout the parking lot.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha, Collins I’m happy for you.” Richard smiled.
“The same for you too! This is great, so great!” Collins danced a bit giving a sort of half jig; he was always bad at dancing.
“Thanks, Collins. That means a lot to me...and what good that comes out of this...we’ll both split it.” Richard told him. “Unless of course your family ties are going to try paying you back for the blackmail..”
“What?! Are you crazy? ...Whatever comes out of this, it should be yours, just yours. Ha! Don’t worry about me with family; I can handle him myself Johnson usually is good for keeping his word.” Collins said surprised.
“No, I’m serious about this Collins,” Richard said holding out his right hand.
“You sure?”
“Sure.” Collins took Richards hand and shook it several times. Afterward, both of them walked back in, Collins’ hand on Richard’s shoulder.
“Ah! Richard, Kudos to you!” said Carter, he was busy picking up his research notes of his own that he had been carting to be filed away. He had ended up tossing them in the excitement.
“Don’t give me all the credit, Collins here is being funded by the POTUS,” Richard told Carter looking toward the left-hand hallway.
“What!?” Carter said bewildered, his mouth hung half open as he picked up the last pieces of paper.
“Yeah, The POTUS is funding Collins’ space program.” He repeated, “Turns out Mr. POTUS owed our boy here a favor.
“Congrats Collins! You to Richard! ...So what, wait? Collins blackmailed the President into funding?” Carter finally said after catching the statement.
“Can we please get off the subject of blackmail? He’s a family member, and I saved his life, even got shot a few times.” Collins lifted his shirt showing off the scars left by the bullet holes as proof.
“Uh, thanks...listen...I was going to go home early so I could be ready for the thing with President Johnson.” He yawned pulling away toward the door again.
“That’s perfectly fine with me! Do whatever you want with this time. What about you Collins?” Carter said happily clapping his hands together sending the papers flying again all over the floor. He frowned plopping himself on the floor again. “I give up.”
"No, I’m staying here to finish the research paper I started. I’ll be in my room if anyone needs me! Thanks!” Collins replied as he smiled happily and turned into his room.
“OK! Thanks again, everybody! I think I’ll go home and get some sleep. See you guys later!” Richard told them all as he turned and walked out of the building to his car. He got in after knocking his shoes free of snow and drove away to his house. After an hours drive, he arrived at his large, almost mansion-like home and pulled into the driveway. Richard got out and locked his car. While walking up the steps, he got that evenings mail and tucked it under his arm, turning to walk up the white marble steps. Inside, Richard set down the letter on the oak table and strode up to his room on the second floor. That night Richard climbed into bed after a shower, he thought of none other than his girlfriend, Cecilia. Though he pulled himself from her thoughts to run down what had just happened that evening.
As his mind reeled, he found himself growing tired from his shower and growing warm under the sheets. That night, Richard dreamed almost the same dream he had had when he was young. This time, the baby had grown into a young adult and was nearly ten times as powerful as he was before. Richard began to sweat, and rolled over, moaning. The youth opened his shirt to reveal a crescent moon scar on his chest and four other symbols, one on his stomach, one each on his shoulders and one between the youth’s shoulder blades.
“No! Stay away from me!” He yelled in his sleep. The dream continued as it always had done, until the monster; the thing it had become devoured him. The demonic being had grown considerably in size sense Richard had last had the dream. The youth had become wolf-like in appearance, wings outstretched to their fullest extent. His canines had grown in length along with his finger and toenails.
He increased in height and muscularity to the extent that frightened Richard beyond anything. After the dream had ended, Richard awoke with a start, sweating uncontrollably, his sheets and coverings were soaked through. Getting up, he looked at the clock beside his bed and saw that it was 3:15 am, he walked to his bathroom and pulled off his white t-shirt revealing his bare chest. Richard looked in the mirror at himself, his hair was matted to his head and dripping with sweat, trails of perspiration traveled down his front. He turned to the shower and bent down to turn the water on; steam filled the bathroom as he closed the door. 35 minutes passed by and walking out of the bathroom fresh and clean, Finishing up he brushed his hair back and let it fall freely behind him.
Dressed in a fluffy navy blue bathrobe, he walked down the stairs and strode into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and a slice of Pecan Pie. Feeling the ever growing urge to go back to his warm bed, Richard walked back up to his room an hour later and fell back to sleep. When the sun rose, he stood dressed in a formal white dress shirt and black pants; he brushed his hair putting it into a tight braid and walked out the door into the chilled winter air. Walking down the snow-covered walkway, he pulled the keys to his car out of his pocket and unlocked it. While climbing in he pulled out his glasses and put them on, afterward, he turned on the heat to melt the snow-covered windshield until he could see and drove off to meet the President at the Observatory. Richard thought only of the meeting with President Johnson as he drove down the icy road he wondered what he would have to do in exchange for Collins blackmail. When he arrived, Johnson was already there waiting for him. His plane was vast and beautiful. It had the American flag embroidered on its side and large gold and a silver eagle on each of its wings.
“Good evening President Johnson,” Richard said. Collins had walked over to them, he greeted the president and waited beside Richard.
“Good evening. Please board the plane so we can discuss the matter of the object you found...and the Proposal. As well, Collins, I won’t forget about the blackmail you dealt me yesterday, which we will also discuss on the way.” The president was dressed in a full black suit, and his hair was slicked back. He was elderly in appearance and sported a full black beard and mustache with a single silver streak in the middle of his beard.
“Yes sir, I’ll be more than happy to,” said Richard as he boarded the plane followed by Collins, who was dressed in his finest blue suit, the President, and his bodyguards.
As they sat down, they began to talk quite excitedly. Richard asked several questions about what was to be done in the next few months, which tied into what the POTUS was going to discuss with Collins. Johnson told Richard and Collins that he would set up a space exploration team that would go into the depths of the solar system to find out as much as they could about the object in question. Neither man could believe his ears; Richard was going to help Collins put together a team of scientists to study the object he had discovered. In exchange, the retaliation blackmail from the POTUS required that the whole mission remained a secret, off the file, strictly Area 51 material if the findings resulted in any otherworldly find.
“What do you want to call the...um...thing?” asked Johnson as he sat in his tan leather seat stiffly. He looked calm and stern in front of the others as he called to the stewardess, a brunette haired young woman dressed in everyday blue attire.
“Hmm, I asked all the others who were with me at the time to see what they thought...and several good names were written, but I thought out of all of them, the best name was Zina, but instead of it spelled Z-Y-N-A...I would like to spell it X-E-N-A.” Richard said seriously. The stewardess walked toward them and handed each of them a glass of wine.
“Thank you,” Collins told the woman as she turned away. He took a sip and set the glass down on the side table. “Who will be in charge of hiring the men for the exploration in space?” Collins asked Johnson nervously.
“I’ll leave you in charge of that; I trust you will make all the right decisions.” Silence fell over the three men as they sat waiting for the plane to land. Richard broke the silence by stating the plane was beautiful; he blushed having realized that what he had said was a stupid topic starter.
“Thank you, Professor Richard,” Johnson said intently looking at his watch and with his phone ringing; he cut it off as to not be disturbed by anything else while talking to Richard and Collins. The plane landed on the front lawn of the White House, the President and Richard stepped out and instantly noticed the great pool, the gardens and the giant obelisk that stood tall in the courtyard. The POTUS motioned the two men to follow him to the magnificent white building. The three men walked up the broad marble steps and pushed open the large oak doors into the equally large waiting room, a red carpet set on the floor and traveled up the steps that went to the second floor. The secret agents followed the President up to his office in the west wing.
“Follow me,” Johnson said only to Richard. With that said, they both went to the second floor where they discussed even more about the plans to set up an exploratory space mission. Within three months President Johnson had set everything up for Richard and Collins. They all stood in the control room of the shuttle that would go into space. Collins was with the POTUS and his guards watching out the window when a middle-aged man wearing glasses and a red name tag walked up to the President and asked him if he wanted to do the launch. In less than two hours they were to begin the sequence, Collins and Richard could barely contain their excitement. Both of them walked around nervously to try and pass the time.
“So what you think will happen?” Richard asked Collins as they passed each other. He was sweating a bit from nerves, actually feeling nauseated.
“Honestly, I think it’s exciting, what if we do find something out there?” Collins replied with a wondrous smile on his face, he had by that time ditched his suit top and rolled his sleeves up on his dress shirt.
The launch was now only minutes away, and everyone was growing anxious about the event that was about to unfold. Richard became more nervous than anyone there; his stomach rolled as he vomited into a barf bag finally succumbing to his nerves. Collins waited impatiently by the exit of the launch support room for the countdown to begin until the familiar voice of President Johnson came onto the loudspeaker.
“Start the countdown! 10...9...8...7...6...5...”
Richard had left the room to go outside; he wanted to see the launch up close and personal. He could still hear Johnson’s voice inside as well as out on the speakers counting down the numbers. Smoke began to fill the air as the thrusters ignited, fire shot from the hot metallic ends of the shuttle scorching the concrete.
“…4...3...2...1...LAUNCH!”
It seemed as soon as President Johnson said “Launch” the shuttle began to fire up and soar into the sky. A gigantic cloud of smoke was left behind it as it shot into the dark, eerie and endless boundaries of space. The launch was a complete success, and the pilots of the shuttle radioed back to earth and told them everything was A-OK. Richard was relieved to hear that and left the building to go back to work only before telling The President and Collins first. He walked to the parking lot and climbed into his Ferrari and drove away, just after barfing again he tossed the used waste bags in the garbage as he passed. Collins was jumping up and down at the site of the shuttle leaving the earth’s atmosphere.
