Nest Among The Stars

Unknown - Part 3

No snow was falling as Michael passed over the hedgerows of Brittany. There was disturbingly little evidence of weather activity to be seen. The ground was white, but only slightly so. Brown earth and blades of grass showed through the faint covering; a thin, dry layer of snow that swirled in the shuttle's wake as it traveled less than twenty-five meters overhead.

The ground snow steadily deepened as the Meuse was approached and flakes were to be seen in the air just after the shuttle flew over the river. Less than a minute later, the sun disappeared behind a slow-moving formation of thick clouds that seemed to rise from, and stretch well above, a forest solid with snow-laden evergreens. It was a scene of romantic purity contrasting sharply with the harsh urban sterility of where Michael had been less than an hour ago.

Despite the increasing abundance of snow to be seen, Michael felt uneasy. It was the way he had felt when the automatic door at the New York shuttle station refused to open without the proper security protocol being followed, and when Gabe had queried him about the Aliens.

The amount of snow to be seen on the ground was not sufficient indication of a weather related cause for the transmission stream disruptions he had come to investigate. Additionally, he saw no prevailing winter weather pattern requiring his authorization for Gabe to alter. The snow in evidence looked to have been gently built up over time and not the product of a massive storm rampaging across the landscape. There was nothing to suggest violent winds tearing at the trees or whipping up long waves of white dunes. The snow on the evergreens was stacked high on the boughs in gently rounded mounds, while the ground was a soft smooth blanket. It was a growing concern that hopefully would be alleviated when he arrived at the transmission hub station.

Energy was transferred around the world in digitized packets, transmitted where required. There was no need for vehicles or other physical modes of transport. Everything that functioned on Earth simply drew energy from the air as required to meet its need. Transmission terminals directed the energy from the various locations where it was created to where it was needed and the terminals themselves had centralized hub stations to assist in directing the flow. It was one of these many hub stations Gabe had reported as almost ready for a complete operational failure. Michael proceeded on course to this transmission terminal hub located in a Franco-German sector field just outside of a small pastoral village.

Little changed in what he saw as he continued over the beautifully barren countryside. Thin veins of roadways kept plowed with mechanical efficiency connected the various centers of human activity, now dormant. Keeping well below any cloud cover, Michael held the shuttle to an increased height of fifty meters, rising only slightly more when necessary to avoid treetops.

He flew slowly, enjoying what he was doing. Deer could be seen foraging near the edge of isolated woodlands, their tracks attesting to numbers greater than those allowing themselves to be seen. A few rabbits were visible, noticed despite their camouflaging winter coat only because they quickly leaped up, bounding away startled by the shuttle's sudden presence.

It was then that Gabe informed Michael of the need to prepare to land at the hub. Reluctantly, he relinquished the controls to the computer so that it could attend to the landing, the standard protocol followed for hundreds of years.

Gabe set the shuttle down in an open field only a few kilometers from a picturesque German village that had existed in the same location for a millennium. The landing skids, now extended, sank almost twenty-five centimeters into the softly packed snow. The shuttle rested next to what looked like a large concrete box, the entrance to the hub facility which lay buried beneath the frozen field. Despite its location, placed awkwardly in an environment of overwhelming natural beauty, there had been no attempt to hide the entrance or soften the harsh lines of its construction.