The Portal Effect

Chapter 20

Two days flew by, and finally it was time to go meet the person who had summoned us. The note was signed by a General Bruce Anderson and said simply to go to the Lincoln station to meet with him.

When my group, McFay, Cody, Andvari, Sarge, Riley, Keegan, and I, arrived, there was three men in uniform waiting for us.

"Come, the General is waiting." spoke the one in the middle. He appeared to be a colonel. Without any other greeting, the trio turned and headed into the building. As we followed, I looked at all the pictures and cases of medals and awards from years past. It was a timeline, from the very beginning to the present.

Above us was a Saturn V booster, and to our left was a scaled down model of several of the Apollos and Geminis as well as other satellites and spacecraft. I could practically hear Leo's mind working, itching to look at the models.

Five minutes and three staircases up later, we arrived at a hall of offices. At the very end, half a football field away, was the office we were headed to. The door was open. We walked to it, our escort slowly dissipating until only the colonel remained. He knocked on the door to announce our arrival.

"Come in." called the General. We all walked in except for the colonel, who walked the other way.

The room was rather big, appearing like a conference room rather than an office, even for a general's office. He was sitting at the end of the large table, many papers laid out in front of him.

"Ah. Hello. Welcome." General Anderson stood up and walked over to us to shake our hands. He was tall, black hair cropped neatly, well built. His uniform was pressed, decorations adorning his shoulders.

"I hope you have been well taken care of. And I am greatly sorry for your loss of Mr. John Stone." he said after shaking all of our hands. We all nodded.

"I know this might be a strange request to have called upon you, but I wanted to thank you all myself for helping the airfield remain untaken." General Anderson said.

"May I ask why then you had it blown up?" James asked. He cocked his head.

"Now that the Insurgents know about the codes and the four bases, we needed to eliminate the possibility of them finding another way to access the nukes. I did not make the decision lightly and have already sent out men to the families of those we lost. In one week, we will be having a service to recognize them and give their sacrifice a proper burial." he explained.

"But why not just..." James started, but Nick elbowed him to get him to shut up.

"I understand why you might be confused, but we did not have the luxury of what you might be thinking. I hope you can one day understand. But in the meantime, I would like to offer you all recognition bands." the General said. McFay gave me a side look.

"We would be honored." I said, stepping forward slightly. He nodded, looking relieved.

"I also wanted to ask if you would like to see something. It pertains to your group, as you seem to know the most about it." he spoke after everyone else agreed.

"What would this be?" Cody asked.

"I think it best to just show you. Only a select few know about it. They are the ones that recommended I send men to get you in the first place." As the General spoke, he looked at Keegan.

"I am sorry about your losses." he said, shaking Keegan's hand again. Keegan nodded, but he kept his face neutral.

We followed the General from the room, his attendant cleaning his papers and setting them down in a folder rack.

"Only people with clearance in this sector know of what I'm about to show you. But we don't know what to make of it. My people brought it in a week ago." General Anderson spoke as we went to an elevator.