Epilogue

Epilogue







The disappearance of Julia Rayhied was never explained. The President appointed a special investigator and the Congress of the United States convened a special committee to examine the strange events surrounding the mysterious demise of America's most popular television star. The public was stunned and dismayed. Private citizens launched their own investigations, which quickly concluded that the government itself was responsible for her death. The sudden end to the UFO phenomenon only encouraged wild speculation and increased distrust for the authorities.

With the national obsession over Julia Rayhied's untimely disappearance little attention was paid to the passing of Victor Delano of Phoenix, Arizona. A sudden heart attack took the life of America's fastest rising entrepreneurial star. With the empire known as Delano Industries in the hands of young Victor Delano Junior, a sixteen-year-old high school student, the company quietly began reinventing itself. Advanced technology and unconventional applied physics became the focus of the multinational conglomerate. Investors and fund managers became skeptical of the rapid transformation and critical of the falling dividends for the once highflying Delano stock. No one on the street expressed confidence in the "kid". It was no surprise then that Wall Street merely yawned at the merger of Delano Industries and Baines International. The intelligence-gathering firm Gerald Baines had started nearly a half a century ago seemed like an odd fit for the technical-industrial conglomerate. Stranger than the merger itself was the methodical buy back of Delano shares by Baines and company using the profits from a revolutionary medical device developed at DelanoBaines that healed the victims of spinal injuries. Baines, known to have suffered a spinal injury himself, made the remarkable device available to hospitals around the world for a modest price, far below what he could have asked. Again investors cried foul demanding that DelanoBaines charge a fair market price. The criticism ended when they had managed to take the company off the market listing having completed the stock buy back strategy. DelanoBaines was beholden to no one.


***

"How long do we have?" Gerald Baines asked the young man sitting across the boardroom table.

"If we're lucky - maybe twenty years."

"Can we expect any help from Orr?"

Gell shook his head. "I wish I could say yes." The room fell silent. Gell turned and looked out the window at the metropolis of Phoenix. The desert beyond filled his heart with joy. He swung his gaze around to the old man sitting alone at the far end of the table. "With Sollalia being a fugitive now we have few allies in New Pallpoli. Deppopio is an enigma to me. Part of me thinks he is the reason I'm here at all, and part of me thinks that he actually believes his own rhetoric." Gell frowned. "It's Larrvino that worries me…"

Baines raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"He knows as well as I that the Sirenese will not stop at Earth once they realize that 'we' could not have generated the transmissions that will inevitably guide them here."

"And this means?"

Gell smiled. "There is really only one way to prevent the Sirenese from ever discovering that for themselves…" Gell's smile slowly disappeared as the light went on behind the old man's eyes. "Yes, Jerry, that's exactly what I mean."

Baines shook his head. Could it be possible that the peaceful, serene beings he'd learned about from a special man on a little diskette would be the ones to destroy the shining blue planet they so dearly loved? Would the Orrians reign death upon the Earth?

Gell continued. "I'm afraid Depp will have a hard time denying Larrvino's succession to his post. Larr had done everything he could to discredit Soll and prepare the Chair for himself. Clearly, these events favor Larr. I don't know if Sebbreba can stand against Larr without Soll's help. I am sure of one thing though - Larr would never get the consent of the people to do any harm to Earth directly."

"Then there is hope," Baines uttered quietly.

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far - Larrvino is very resourceful."

"Then how?"

"He could trigger a supernova," Gell said smartly. "Clean and efficient. Not a trace of this planet would survive; we're awfully close to Sol.

Baines frowned. "A supernova?"

It may be unusual for a star as young as ours, but it's not out of the question."

"Then we are alone, aren't we?"

"No," Gell smiled once again. "No, we're not alone. Not at all. There are six billion of us, and together we will fight and win this battle with or without the Orrians. That is why I'm here."

Jerry Baines stood and walked the length of the table. Laying his old tired hand on Gell's shoulder he said calmly... "God bless you, Victor Delano Jr. God bless you."