ENCOUNTER by Hep Aldridge (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

was full of questions, so I gave him the Readers Digest version of things and told him we would fill him in later. He wasn’t too happy but told us to be careful and said that he would shut down all testing of the cubes immediately.”

“Good,” I said.

“Potential disaster averted,” Joe added.

As we ate our meal, we discussed our encounter and what we had learned from Jeannie. All agreed that if this information got out, it would turn the world upside down in every scientific field known to man.

Doc said, “Colt, we didn’t ask her about the longevity thing that the priests have been talking about.”

“You’re right; with all the other stuff we were hearing, I completely forgot about that. More questions for tomorrow. Joe, no camera alerts?”

Joe pulled out his tablet and said, “Nope, none so far. If they pick up movement, this baby will let us know,” he said, tapping the screen.

I got up and took my canteen to the fountain in the square and filled it. We had tested the water to make sure it was safe to drink when we first got here and found it to be exceptionally pure, cool, and refreshing. I sat down on the stones at the edge of the pool and took a swallow, quickly getting lost in my thoughts and not noticing Dimitri coming over to sit next to me.

He reached down and filled his canteen, and after a few moments of silence, said, “Colt, I remember us sitting at the bar in the marina, Nautical Spirits, that first day you approached me about starting Risky Business,” he chuckled. “I thought it was kind of a crazy idea, but what the hell, why not. A little adventure might be cool. But now… all this,” he spread his arms, taking in our surroundings, “the galleon, the sunken treasure, the mysteries, all the bad guys, and now aliens. Holy crap, this is the kind of stuff you see in movies. I still have to pinch myself to confirm it’s real and not a dream, and I’m in the middle of it.”

I laughed and, after a moment, said, “Listen, Dude, I still can’t believe half the stuff we have done or been involved in over these past few years. If we tried to tell someone this story, we would get laughed out of Dodge. No one would believe it.”

“Well, then, I guess we better keep it to ourselves.”

I paused and finally said, “Guess so. Kinda makes you wonder, though… what’s next?”

“Oh, no, I’m not even going there. I’m just taking one day at a time, and I’ll deal with whatever we get handed because I’m pretty sure there’s more to come.”

“Amen, brother, amen.”

We sat in silence for another half hour, our minds reeling, both lost in the swirling revelations we had been handed today. Eventually, we got up and went back to the group, talking quietly amongst themselves, going over the day’s events.

Joe looked up and said, “Well, did you two come up with any revelations?”

Dimitri laughed and said, “Don’t you think we’ve had enough of those today?”

“Guess you’re right,” Joe said and laughed too. “We’ve been talking about everything we learned today. How are we going to let people know about it? I mean, this is world-changing, re-writing history stuff.”

“That’s precisely why I don’t think we should,” I said.

“What do you mean, Colt?” Joe replied as Dimitri and I sat down on the lowest step.

“I don’t think we should tell anybody about this.”

“Really?” he replied.

“Stop and think about it. What good would it do if we did tell everyone? This place would turn into a zoo. You’d have governments fighting over ownership, militaries and crackpot opportunists all trying to get the tech for themselves to use for who knows what. In the current state of world affairs, it’s hard for me to see a peaceful outcome to that announcement. But that’s just me and my thinking,” I said.

There was silence as everyone considered my statement. O’Reilly finally spoke up.

“I think you’re right; a bombshell like this could cause world unrest and instability at a magnitude we have never seen before. Religion, military, a worldwide power struggle of epic proportions.”

“But think of the good it could do,” Doc said in an almost pleading voice.

“We’ll see. We don’t have to make a decision tonight; think about it. We’ve got some time,” I replied.

It had started turning dark, and we realized how late it was getting.

“I think I’ve had enough for one day. I’m hitting the rack and suggest you all do the same. If today was any indication, tomorrow promises to be another eventful day in Jeannie-land.” With that, I crawled into my sleeping bag as the others started doing the same. As the darkness grew deeper, I thought, at least Jeannie knows when to turn out the lights, and quickly fell asleep.

I awoke the next morning to an interesting aroma, not quite like freshly brewed coffee but close. As I sat up, I saw a low table set up in the middle of our little camp that hadn’t been there before. On it sat a black stone pitcher with steam coming out of it and an assortment of fresh fruits, some assorted loaves of bread, and what looked like an array of cheeses.

We all woke up about the same time and were staring at the table. Dimitri, who was closest to it, reached out, picked up a piece of cheese, and took a bite, followed by a chunk of bread and a piece of fruit we recognized as a banana.

After munching down on it, he said, “Man, I don’t know who called room service, but this is really good.”

We all made our way to the table and followed Dimitri’s example. I poured some of the dark liquid from the pitcher into one of the cups provided and took a sip. It wasn’t coffee, but it was close, and the rich flavor was a delight to the palate.

Between bites, Joe said, “This has to