Chapter 1

Chapter 1

United States, 1954

 

Colonel Walter ‘Walt’ Stevens stared at the message on his screen, not fully understanding who had sent it or how it had indeed managed to appear on his television screen.

 

Message: FAO Colonel Walter Stevens

                  US Navy Aerospace Division

Start:         ‘AT ALL COSTS END THE SECRET SPACE PROGRAM. THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY         DEPENDS ON YOU GRANDFATHER.

MAJOR MATTHEW STEVENS, SECRET SPACE PROGRAM’      :End

 

Walt worked as an Aeronautical Engineer for Lockheed. In fact, he was their Chief Engineer in charge of developing the company’s Propulsion Systems Program. Set up shortly after the end of the war with Germany, Walt had been recruited direct from the Navy with whom he still held a tentative position. In 1944, and after graduating from MIT with a First in Aeronautical  Engineering Walt had enlisted in the US Navy in time to see out the last year of the campaign. Wanting desperately to do his duty Walt never actually saw any combat and was immediately given a commission and posted to a secretive base in the Bavarian mountains to aid research into prototype aircraft that had been part of the NAZI war machine before they had fled the underground complex. Walt had excelled in this field and continued his work after the war with Lockheed. There was no application process for Walt or any of the other one hundred applicants sat alongside him at Andrews Air Force base in early Autumn 1945. None had actually applied for any of the jobs they would eventually find themselves undertaking. All had been specifically selected for their expertise in their given fields.

The letter had been more of a summons than an invitation to attend. Many of the attendees, including Walt, still wore military uniform. As the panel of speakers addressed the audience Walt didn’t immediately recognise them all. He did, however, recognise the man sat in the middle of this panel of five, who waited patiently until the others had completed their addresses before speaking himself.  Then, and only then, did the President of the United States, Dwight D Eisenhower, stand and begin to talk.

Walt recalled his short motivational speech. It stuck with him over the years and sprang to mind now as he read the strange message on his television screen. Why he felt there was some sort of connection between the two messages he couldn’t say but thinking back it struck him as having some comparisons. He again recalled Eisenhower’s words.

‘Gentlemen. Beware the Military Industrial Complex, of which you are now a part of. There is no going back. This is the future that awaits all humanity.’

Walter recalled that at this point in the President’s speech the lights being switched on at the far end of the aircraft hangar, in which they were sat. As the lights illuminated the object at the far end, there were audible gasps from some of the audience. People stood, others pointed, some even clapped.  It was then that Colonel Walter Stevens realised that all the rumours were in fact correct. The Roswell incident was true, the crafts existed, and one of them was situated in this hangar, just meters away. Floating a few feet above the ground.

The last thing Walt remembers from that first day is the president’s final words, ‘Welcome to the Secret Space Program’.

 

Walt kept looking at the television screen and the message that was displayed. Messaging systems were developing all the time and Walt was aware of many developments within the industry using a form of instant messaging but for the general public, even the military, it was not yet in existence.

The Secret Space Program was itself in its infancy and Walt, as an integral part of the program’s development, was aware of most of the current technological development programs. This was not one of them.

Walt whispered to himself, ‘Who is Major Matthew Stevens? and why was he referring to him as grandfather?’.  He thought about his own son, only three years old and asleep upstairs. Significantly, his name was Matthew Stevens. ‘Was this significant?’. He knew this particular three year old did not put this on the screen.

Opening his desk drawer Walt took out a pencil and a single sheet of writing paper. Sitting in front of the television Walt copied the message as it read on the screen. Putting the paper back into his drawer Walt decided another record, more evidential in nature, was needed. Grabbing his camera from the shelf above the desk he proceeded to take several photographs of the television screen. Satisfied he had all he needed he turned off the television. He stood for several seconds then switched it back on. The message was no longer there. It had disappeared.

Placing the camera into his work briefcase Walter called to his wife before closing the front door, ‘Back Friday Brenda’. There was only a muffled response, as usual.  Closing the front door quietly Walt drove the thirty-five miles to the airport, parked up his recently purchased Chevy motor car, and boarded a private charter jet along with sixty other passengers. Ninety minutes later Walt, along with the other workers, alighted the aircraft in the hot Nevada desert.

Four silver coloured shuttle buses were waiting to take the workers a further eight miles into the stifling heat of the desert to a complex, part underground, part over ground, and could accommodate a workforce of three thousand at any one time. Given the nickname of ‘The Dream Factory’, by those that worked there, the official name for this highly secretive compound on all Majestic Twelve documents was Area 51.

Reviews

[Gary]

Another good chapter. I like the way you leave me with more questions than answers. You know how to want me to read the next chapter.
One small note. I would really like to know what "the crafts" looked like. Trust me when I say I feel a bit guilty asking for more descriptions. I am horrible at describing things.