Free Area 51: The Reply-2 by Robert Doherty Page B

the Rover is so limited that it would take several lifetimes for it to make it there and it would run out of power long before it got a tenth of the way."
    "There were many requests by my friend and others to get the orbiters to take a picture of Cydonia," Nabinger noted. "Those requests were never acted on."
    Nabinger had to wonder if Majestic-12 had known anything about Cydonia and the connection with the Airlia and that was the reason NASA had so blithely ignored the Face and Pyramid and the entire region even though they had pictures of it.
    And if that had had anything to do with the selection of the Mars landing site for Pathfinder.
    "That action is being taken by NASA as we speak," Sterling said. "They are going to use the last reserves of fuel Viking II has to reposition it so that it can take a closer look at Cydonia.
    "The issue is, what is there? Is there any hint from what you received from the guardian when you were in contact that the Airlia had left an outpost on Mars?"
    Nabinger shook his head. He had told no one of the last vision he had had, and he didn't see that it applied here. "No. But you have to remember that there was much that was left out of what the guardian gave me. So many unanswered questions. What about the message? Didn't it give you more information?"
    "You'll see for yourself when it gets released," Sterling said. "I want you to stay alert. We need to know if there is communication between the 78

    guardian and whatever is at Cydonia. We suspect it is most likely another computer left by the Airlia, but if we can get a dialogue going with the Mars guardian, perhaps we can access the Airlia data base by tapping in. Just think of that!
    "Besides, the one on Mars has made communication with us now. There's no reason to think it won't continue to do so. Also," Sterling continued, "you are not to release any news of this message to the media quite yet."
    "I thought—" Nabinger began.
    "I have to go now. That is all." The screen went blank.
    In the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, eight hundred feet underground, a system that had originally been developed to detect ICBM launches during the Cold War suddenly sprang to life.
    "Sir, we've got activity in the Pacific. Sector four-six-three."
    The Warning Center watch officer, Major Craig, looked over his shoulder. "Can you identify the signal?"
    The screen watcher stared at the information in front of him: infrared maps of the Earth's surface and surrounding airspace downloaded every three seconds from satellites in geosynchronous orbit twenty thousand miles up.
    "Multiple contacts. Very small." He took a deep breath. "Signature matches foo fighters."
    The term foo fighter came from World War II, when American airmen reported small, glowing spheres that they occasionally spotted on mis-

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    sions. What had not been generally reported was that the first several times foo fighters had been spotted and aircrews attempted to engage the flying spheres, the planes had been knocked out of the sky. That had led to an Air Corps-wide policy ordering crews to ignore the foo fighters, which in turn had led to no more fatal incidents. What had been particularly intriguing was that during the Enola Gay's run in to Hiroshima it had been shadowed the entire way by two foo fighters, almost leading to a cancellation of the mission. The consensus now was that the foo fighters were the guardian's way of gathering information and, when needed, directing force.
    "What about the Navy ships there over the site?" Craig asked. "They pick anything up?"
    "The fighters are coming up fifty miles west of where the ships are, over the horizon from their radar."
    "Send the Navy the data," Craig ordered. He knew it was too late for the Navy to do anything, but at least they couldn't complain that they hadn't been informed as quickly as possible.
    "Put it on the screen," Craig ordered. The large screen in front of the room displayed a Mercator conformal map of the entire