Free Star Trek The Original Series From History's Shadow by Dayton Ward Page B

with his own eyes, to get a sense of what the witnesses had seen. The vast expanses of undeveloped land and the surrounding mountains would seem the ideal place for a craft to fly in near seclusion, whether a product of top-secret military research or otherworldly origin. An examination of the ground over which the unknown object had been seenhad yielded nothing in the way of physical evidence, and the sweeps Marshall had conducted with the Geiger counter also turned up nothing.
    The Jeep ahead of his, which was carrying Lieutenant Pearce and driven by the on-duty range safety officer, slowed as both vehicles rounded a bend in the road and approached a quartet of small buildings. They had passed the buildings on their way out to the area where the sightings had been reported, and there had been no sign of occupancy. Now, however, a five-ton cargo truck sat before the largest of the structures.
    “Wonder what’s going on?” Wainwright asked, guiding the Jeep to follow the lead vehicle off the road and onto the patch of gravel that served as a parking lot in front of the buildings. On the other side of the truck was another Jeep, which, unlike theirs, had no top. “They weren’t here before, right?”
    Marshall shook her head. “No, sir.”
    “Maybe they’re dropping off supplies for an upcoming exercise.”
    Three of the buildings were Quonset huts; long, single-story structures fashioned from sheets of corrugated steel bent over a curved metal frame with a plywood façade covering each end of the resulting shelter. The fourth building was a larger, two-story warehouse. According to the safety officer—an army captain named David Cardillo—the buildings were staging areas for equipment and personnel assigned to training exercises in this area of the installation, and similar arrangements were scattered across the base. In and of itself, the outpost was unremarkable, as was the cargo truck and the trio of soldiers standing near its back end at the warehouse’s entrance.
    Shutting off the Jeep’s engine, Wainwright watched Captain Cardillo and Lieutenant Pearce emerge from the passenger side of their vehicle. Cardillo, though of average height, possessed the brawny frame of a boxer or wrestler, his tan uniform tailored to his muscular frame almost like a second skin. Pearce, dressed in an Air Force blue duty uniform, was of slighter build, looking almost boyish standing next to the more imposing Cardillo. The enlisted soldier acting as their driver remained behind the wheel, though he was not visible through the rear window due to the fading sunlight. As the safety officer walked toward the soldiers and their truck, the threesome all came to positions of attention and rendered salutes.
    The safety officer returned the salutes, and Wainwright heard him ask, “What are you boys doing out here?”
    “Guard duty, sir,” one of the soldiers, a corporal, replied. They were dressed in typical field gear, including helmets and sidearms in black leather holsters suspended from the green cartridge belts around their waists. One of the troopers carried an M1 carbine rifle slung from his left shoulder. “The rest of our unit’s due here tomorrow at sunup.”
    “Due here for what, Corporal?” Cardillo asked.
    “Weapons training, sir,” the soldier replied. “We’re getting ready for our annual requalifications.”
    From his seat in the Jeep, Wainwright was able to see the frown on Cardillo’s face as the captain asked, “Really? I don’t know anything about that.”
    Behind Wainwright, the Geiger counter squawked.
    “What the hell?” he asked, frowning as he looked over his shoulder. The illuminated gauge on the unit’s face allowed him to see the indicator needle twitching. It was just a few ticks away from the gauge’s zero mark, but the reading was steady.
    What the hell is right .
    “Where’s it coming from?” Marshall asked, and they both looked to the warehouse before which Wainwright had parked the