“Anyone have a black marker?” Andropov asked.
“There are some inside the building.” Dave used his radio. Thirty seconds later one of his men handed him the marker.
Andropov started writing English versions of the German labels on the console. “That should give you enough to take off and land this thing.”
Dave touched a circle under the word RAMP. The ramp slowly closed. He touched it again and the ramp opened. “Okay. That was easy enough.” He touched the bottom of a tall rectangle and slid his finger up a little. The whirring sound already coming from under the floor increased slightly.
Jake noticed a dull white glow to the outer surface of the saucer that wasn’t there before.
“Vertical,” Dave said, as he slid his finger up a different rectangle. The saucer began to rise and then stopped about a foot above the ground. “Why won’t it go any higher?”
Jake looked over at the ramp. “The door’s open. Wouldn’t you want that closed before we take off?”
Dave touched the circle for the ramp. It closed and the saucer rose into the air. Navigational markers appeared as red lines against the light blue background of the images outside the saucer. A large circle lit up in the center of the console revealing the contour of the area around them in fine wavy lines.
“It looks almost three dimensional,” Honi commented.
Dave read the rest of the words Andropov had marked on the console, and slid his finger down on the vertical control. The saucer settled down on the ground. He touched the circle for the ramp and the door opened.
“Get your team. We’re going home.”
Jake, Stafford, Ken and Andropov sat buckled into a harness on the circular bench seat along with the rest of the President’s Unit. Dave and Honi sat in the two seats in the middle of the control console.
“I’ve cleared us with Super Hornet Fighter Squadron 113 so they don’t open fire on us,” Dave said. “We have a carrier off the east coast, not too far from D.C. where I can drop your team. I’ll leave the rest of my unit there, as well. This saucer has an appointment with a secret base in Nevada.”
“Area 51?” Honi asked.
“Nope,” Dave replied. “Way too much public attention there. We have another base for this baby.”
The ramp closed, the saucer lifted slowly into the air. Dave touched a circle. Honi leaned over to read the label. “Landing struts,” Dave said. As soon as they were ten feet off the ground red images appeared around the walls and on the center circle of the control console.
“What are those?” Honi asked.
“Enemy aircraft. Well, not our enemy, their enemy.”
The saucer accelerated up for thirty thousand feet and paused. Dave touched the edge of the navigation circle in the center of the control console at the far edge and slid his finger around to the right. The saucer rotated so they were facing north. He slid his finger up the speed control rectangle. A white glow filled the passenger section and the saucer took off. Honi could feel the pull of the acceleration, but it wasn’t bad. It was more like a commercial plane taking off.
“How fast are we going?” she asked.
Dave looked at the console. “It’s in kilometers, so if my conversion is correct, something on the order of five thousand miles an hour.”
“What?” Honi shouted.
“You want to go faster?”
Honi grinned.
“Take your finger and slide it up here.”
She touched the control rectangle and slid her finger up. She could feel the acceleration again. “How fast now?”
“Around eight thousand miles an hour.”
Honi looked at the large navigation circle. The terrain was passing below them at a smooth pace; fast, but smooth. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a small green dot that had appeared at the bottom of the navigation circle. It was closing in on them rapidly.
“Uh oh. That’s got to be the other saucer.”
“The one from the battle last night?”
“Probably. I don’t know how many saucers they have around here, but that would be my guess.”
“What are we going to do?” Honi asked, tension clear in her voice.
“Touch that circle over on your left,” Dave said. “The one that says ‘shield.’”
Honi touched the circle. Nothing happened.
“Built in IFF,” Dave said.
Honi looked at him, her question clear on her face.
“Identification, Friend or Foe. Remember how all the Super Hornets around us showed up in red?”
“Yeah.”
“Red for foe, green for friend.” The other saucer was now alongside them, matching their speed. Dave touched the green dot for the other saucer to see what would happen. Honi heard talking in what sounded like German.
Andropov leaned forward and whispered, “They’re asking what you’re doing.”
He appeared to be listening carefully, and then spoke in German, “Ich habe anweisung bekommen das Ich vor der katastrophe mich auf einen anderen standort zu begeben habe.”
“What did you tell them?” Jake asked softly.
“I told them I received orders to move to a new location before the catastrophe,” he whispered.
Honi heard the response in German. It didn’t sound angry, just confused.
“Nein,” Andropov said in German. “Ich konnte einsteigen ohne das Ich gesehen wurde.”
“Meaning?” Jake asked quietly.
“I said no, I was able to board without being seen,” Andropov whispered again.
She heard more German words.
Andropov answered in German, “Ich weiss nicht, Ich folge nur den befehl.” He looked over at Honi, a worried expression on his face. “I said I don’t know,” he said quietly, “I’m just following orders.”
“You think that’s going to work?” Ken whispered.
She heard quiet mumblings from the other saucer, and then the sound stopped. Dave touched the green dot again.
“That’s not good,” Stafford said.
“Are they going to shoot at us?” Honi asked.
“Only if they can disengage the IFF system,” Dave replied. “We can turn off the IFF on our fighters. My guess is that they can, too. We have to find that control!”
Dave searched the labels on the console, but not everything had been translated. “Come on, it has to be here. What would they call it?”
“Try anerkennen or anerkennung,” Andropov said.
“The light for the other saucer just turned from green to red!” Honi shouted.
“Anerkennung!” Dave said, tapping the circle under the label.
“Shield!” Dave shouted. “That one.”
Honi tapped the circle Dave had pointed at. A red ring appeared around the interior dome of the saucer.
“Now tap the red dot!”
Honi tapped the red dot that represented the other saucer. A white light flashed from the edge of their saucer toward the other saucer, but it was met in the center by another white flash from the enemy craft.
“Shoot high!” Dave shouted.
Honi tapped the console just above the red dot as Dave plunged the saucer down. They could see the saucer in the display on the interior wall. The other saucer shot upward and was hit by the light flash. The shot from the other saucer grazed the top of the dome above them. Dave maneuvered their saucer under the enemy craft while Honi kept tapping the red dot. The light flashes impacted the underside of the other saucer, but nothing appeared to be damaged. The other saucer was firing back, but Dave’s unexpected move had caught them aiming in the wrong place. Dave changed course again. Honi kept tapping the red dot as it moved on the console display, and the light flashes kept hitting the other saucer. There was still no apparent damage to either saucer.