Free Jesse's Starship by Saxon Andrew Page A

talk.”
    The President said very slowly and deliberately, “You will both shut…up.” The President looked at Mike, “You’re the one taken from your home in Arizona.”
    “Yes Sir.”
    “Why did you say the Admiral wasn’t going to inform me?”
    “He wants you to have plausible deniability about what’s happened.”
    The President stared at the Admiral for a long moment. “Is that true?”
    “It is.”
    Jack said, “Mr. President, I can listen to what’s going on and save you from hearing it.”
    “I’m not like the last President that didn’t want to know anything; it’s time the Admiral learned that lesson. What is so serious that you wouldn’t tell me?”
    “Mr. President, I really think you should reconsider.”
    Mike said, “He doesn’t want you to know that four Raptors and an Apache were shot down by an alien spaceship.”
    “GUARDS, REMOVE THAT MAN AND PUT HIM IN A CELL!!”
    “Admiral, I told you to shut up. Do you want to go to that cell?” Howard’s visage was a mask of rage. “Is what he said true, Admiral?”
    “Mr. President, please reconsider this.”
    “Admiral, you are relieved of your duties. I expect your retirement papers on my desk by this afternoon. If you fail to have them there, I am going to publicly fire you; is that clear.”
    “But Mr. President!”
    “Guards, please escort the Admiral from the room.”
    The two marines that had walked to Mike’s chair turned and went to stand beside Admiral Howard. Howard stood up and straightened his jacket. He looked at the other four Chiefs and walked out of the room. The President looked at General Thornton, “I hope I don’t have to fire all of you in order to have someone obey direct orders. You will tell me what’s going on.”
    “Sir, a week ago Mr. Sanders contacted one of our satellite Monitors and requested he take a look at a barren piece of land just outside of Phoenix. The Monitor saw a U-Haul truck parked in the desert and while he was watching, another U-Haul truck appeared out of nowhere. He ran multiple scans of the trucks and after a moment, the second truck was backed up and it disappeared.” Thornton saw the President thinking and he said, “We eliminated camouflage netting; the trucks were so hot from sitting out in the desert, the satellite would have seen them through any netting with an infrared scan. Something was able to hide a truck from our most sophisticated satellite. Colonel Jameson ordered an Apache from Luke Air Force base to investigate the scene. A short time later he requested the base to scramble four Raptors to support the Apache.”
    “Why did he do that?”
    “We had no way of knowing what was being hidden from us.”
    Mike said, “There had to be a spaceship there.”
    Everyone in the room turned toward him wondering what he knew.

Chapter Five
    J ess awoke to light coming through a viewport. He started to sit up and his chair moved out of the reclining position and returned to its normal configuration. He walked over to the viewport and saw a planet below. He said, “Do we have to have this helmet on to communicate with you?”
    “No, you can voice your thoughts; however, when you wear it I can see your thoughts and better understand what information you are trying to ascertain.”
    “I’ll put the helmet on if we run into difficulty; however, until ordered differently, communicate using sounds.”
    “Order acknowledged.”
    Elle heard the last response and opened her eyes. She saw Jess remove his helmet and she lifted hers off as well, “What’s going on, Jess?”
    “Our ship has brought us to a planet.” Jess nodded at the viewport and Elle came over and looked down on the world below them. “Computer, why did you bring us here?”
    “You questioned me earlier about my ability to destroy a planet.”
    Jess looked down on the planet and saw a lifeless ball with nothing but rock and crevasses on the surface. Jess felt a chill go through his soul, “How did this planet