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

There was a feeling of sorrow that went along with the story we were being told—deep grief and yet a sense of hopefulness. A hope that someday this world would change—could change, and the peace and technology that had been brought here initially by Jeannie’s people could be reborn and flourish. It was her job, and any others that were left, to be part of that change. To continue to unobtrusively observe, nurture when possible, teach, and prepare for that day, no matter how long it took, was a solemn task.

The day ended with that thought, a thought of hope for the future of this world, our world… Earth.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Day three continued our education. We focused on questions about the more significant outposts Jeannie’s people had set up and the locations. It was amazing. Every continent had multiple large sites initially, but many had disappeared over time. Not having the power resources to reach out beyond the borders of her Citadel, she had no information if any were still functioning.

We reassured her we would try and help with that if it was within our technical capabilities—an unknown fact that would be dealt with later.

Jeannie told us more about their science and technology, which brought up the topic of longevity and life extension.

I said, “The men that followed us wanted to learn if that capability was real and, if so, acquire the ability to use it, no matter the cost. We were warned it was a plot to control a large part of the population and bend it to the will of one person.”

“I understand,” she said. “I knew they had to be stopped from acquiring it. That is why I assisted you. You were fighting on the side of good, not evil.”

“So, how do you do it?” Doc asked. “Is that something you feel you can share with us?”

“I will do better than that; come with me,” and she left the room. We followed her to another building, one we had not explored. It was located deeper within the city. This building was different than the others we had visited. It had a closed door blocking the entrance. All the buildings we had visited previously had no doors, only open entrances. Jeannie walked to the door, placed her hand on it, and it opened. As we entered, lights came on, and we could see right away that this building was unique.

There were racks and shelves around the outer room walls, all containing, for the most part, unfamiliar devices, some large, some small. But on one shelf, we saw, lined up, a large number of the silver cubes like we had found on the galleon, only these were smaller and thinner. Above them were shelves that held a variety of objects that were grouped by their design. Some looked like metallic gloves, others looked like metal rods with handles, and some looked like wristbands. There were even some that looked like pistols and a kind of rifle. There must have been hundreds of them stacked there.

Jeannie turned to us, and her thoughts explained, “This is one of our storerooms for our tools and some weapons.” She turned and walked into the next room. To its left, as we entered, was a small control room. It had a physical console, much like we saw in the medical facility. Next, we entered the larger room that had two rows of six lounges arranged in it.

“This is the room of Life,” she explained with a wave of her hand.

“Is this where you do the life extension?” Doc asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “Unfortunately, it is inoperative at this time. The power requirements are quite high, and without access to the external collector/convertor, there is not enough power to maintain the cloak and basic operation of the Citadel and operate the equipment.

“I know we talked about this earlier, but let us try and help. If we can get to the device you are talking about, maybe there is something we can do. We won’t know until we find it and take a look,” I said. “You said it was on the canyon rim somewhere. If you can help us find the spot, we can fly our drone up and see if we can spot it. We can send the image back real-time to our computer, and you will be able to see it here and maybe make the determination as to our ability to repair it.”

Jeannie said, “Your enthusiasm is admirable, and there is the possibility you may succeed, so I accept your offer and am ready to assist you as I can.”

I turned to the group and said, “Well, tour time is over; time to get to work. Joe, Dimitri, you’re with me. We’ll take the drone and find the device. The rest of you, stay here and relay the information we need from Jeannie. We’ll send any video we get back for her to review. I’ll need someone to position themself outside the cloak so we can use our Comms. Eduardo and Reggie, you guys handle that.”

“Roger that,” Reggie replied and put an arm around Eduardo’s shoulder. “Looks like you and I will be spending some time on top of the platform.”

“Cool,” a grinning Eduardo replied.

We all left the building and headed back to our campsite, energized by the task ahead, its challenges and potential benefits.

Our hard-wired, two-way link was still active with the cameras outside and our computer, so it was just a matter of Joe changing a couple of simple commands to re-connect with the drone’s system. Of course, Jeannie had beaten us back to the campsite and gave us directions to the device's location as we put our gear together.

She asked if we could pull up the camera view again, which Joe did. The camera farthest away was of no help. The device was located somewhere behind it. However, the one situated two hundred yards away proved to be helpful. Jeannie was able to point