July 4, 1995

President Whitmore's Speech

When Major Mitchell Gave President Whitmore the intercom with which to make his speech little did he know that the intercom was broadcasting via radio waves to millions of people in hiding around the world.

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join with others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. 'Mankind' that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interest. Perhap's it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom...not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world said in one voice: 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"

The crowd at Area 51 in northern Nevada gave great cheers to this message and millions more listening around the world were just given new hopes.

It was not long after this speech was made that Captain Steven Hiller and David Levinson, a graduate of MIT and former New York City television network repairman were flying the downed alien craft from the Roswell, New Mexico crash into the belly of the Mothership where they uploaded the Jolly Roger computer virus. The virus caused an overload of the ship's systems and they used what remaining power they had to stay in flight but unfortunately for them this meant disabling of all shields which is exactly what the human forces on Earth needed to win the war. President Whitmore himself led the fight over the deserts of Northern Nevada and Utah and it was an old Vietnam Veteran named Russell Casse who ultimately sacrificed himself to save those on the ground and in doing so revealed the ship's weakpoint. One missile to their primary weapon would cause the weapon to backfire and destroy the 15 mile wide ship. Whitmore ordered the team on the ground to spread this information to others around the globe and by day's end all 36 city destroyers were taken down.

Meanwhile back in the Mothership Hiller and Levinson were not able to detatch their craft from the ship's docking bay so they ultimately accepted that they must pay the ultimate price to save the world. Levinson had already successfully uploaded the Jolly Roger Virus but he still had one more thing to send out, a signal that would create a cackling skull and crossbones on all the alien's computer screens. Once that signal was planted into the Mothership it then filtered into all the corresponding ships back on Earth and a laughing Skull and Crossbones was the last thing many aliens saw before their craft were shot down. Hiller then fired of a Hydrogen Bomb nuclear Missile taking out what was believed to be the alien leader. Somehow doing that made their ship detach from the Mothership's docking bay and they realized they were free but had 90 seconds (extended from the original 30 seconds) to escape. Hiller flew the ship at full capacity towards the exit with several alien fighters following in pursuit. Just as they approached the exit the door began to close to which Levinson said "must go faster! must go faster!" Hiller put the petal to the metal and escaped just before the door finished shutting. In relief he shouted "Elvis has left the building!"

Meanwhile back in the Mothership there were 10 seconds remaining on the hydrogen bomb. One alien saw the timer and had a hunch that they were doomed. Once the clock stuck 0 the bomb exploded in a bright flash engulfing the Mothership and sending it flying out in all directions in thousands of pieces. Hiller and Levinson just barely escaped the debris but managed to land in the Bonneville Salt Flats just over the State line.

Colonel Edmond Forrester

Colonel Edmond Forrester was a retired member of the United States military whose career started in Vietnam in 1967 as a PFC. During the events of the last few days however he was not on duty but was on vacation at the K-Bar-L Dude Ranch in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana. He was however able to communicate with friends who were still in the service via satellite telephone.

Forrester stood at the top of Sun Butte looking up towards the Montana Big Sky. It was like a fireworks show only way better for not only was it beautiful but it was also a sign of victory. The debris of the mothership was burning up high in the upper atmosphere. It was a spectacular site. Another guest at the ranch, Taylor Marshall, a handsome young blonde hair and blue eyed boy who was only 13 stood by Forrester's side "wow! I've never seen anything like it." To which Forrester replied "It is quite a site isn't it son?" Taylor's brother Andrew Marshall age 10 also stood there watching as did their parents Georgia and Robert. Though they were beyond happy that humanity had won the battle they could not stop thinking about Laura Marshall, age 16 who was studying abroad in Oxford England and everybody knew that London was one of many cities around the world to be taken out as was their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, which was just more than a year from the day they were to host the Centennial Olympic Games. Taylor then proceeded to say one of his favorite lines from one of his favorite movies "Ssssssssssmokin!". After the fireworks show was over everyone looked down off the mountain at the ranch below and then hopped on their horses and rode back down to the ranch.

The view from Sun Butte Montana

Surprise Visitor to Area 51

Northwest Utah on the Bonneville Salt Flats not too far from Area 51 in Northern Nevada

Meanwhile President Whitmore, his daughter, General Grey, Connie Spano, Jasmine Hiller and her son Dylan were standing on the Bonneville Salt Flats looking at the downed alien destroyer as well as the "fireworks show" in the sky as they watched the debris from the mothership burn up in the upper atmosphere.

"Happy 4th of July Daddy!" Patricia Whitmore exclaimed to her father.

"Same to you munchkin," replied the President.

Captain Steven Hiller was holding his new stepson looking up "Didn't I promise you fireworks?"

"Yeah" replied Dylan.

Meanwhile something else caught everyone's attention, a descending aircraft off in the distance.

On board the 1967 Haviland Twin Otter there were two men in the cockpit, one was USAF Colonel Paul Kelly (Face and Voice of John Heard) and the other was Andy Baumgartner (Face and voice of John Candy). Kelly and Baumgartner did not know each other for long and Kelly did not know the President but Baumgartner was an old friend of President Whitmore from their days in law school at Vanderbilt where he earned himself the nickname Vandy Andy. Baumgartner and Whitmore became very close friends and Baumgartner was Whitmore's best man in his wedding and would later become Godfather to Patricia. Born and raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula Baumgartner learned to fly from his father at a very young age and would grow up to be a very successful attorney before being elected to the United States Senate in 1988. In more recent years Baumgartner had narrated a few historic documentaries. Baumgartner was a large man, weighed as much as over 300 pounds as recently as 1993 but over the past two and a half years he had slimmed down to 240. A very kind man and talented public speaker as well as piano player with exceptional people skills Baumgartner would eventually resign as senator to go on to bigger and better things.

"You know Colonel I always thought Area 51 was in more southern Nevada not too far from Vegas." Commented Baumgartner.

"Well actually that's the decoy Area 51, we figured with a place as important as Area 51 it's best that most people don't' know where the real one is, but it's here in Northern Nevada near the Utah Line. Even most military maps do not list the real location, but they all list the decoy. Okay this is the approximate radar location that Area 51 told us and there's some smoke," commented Kelly, "It's the Bonneville Salt Flats lets land this bird!"

The aircraft touched down on the flat desert floor and began to reduce speed as it approached the crowd of people. Once the craft came to a complete stop Baumgartner stepped out and the first person to recognize him was General Grey.

"Mr. Vice President?" shouted the General.

"Aye General that's me! I am Andrew Elliott Baumgartner Vice President of the United States" responded Baumgartner. "And that man over there is Thomas Jefferson Whitmore the President of the United States."

President Whitmore was in shock but also very happy to see his friend still alive. "Andy, we thought you died at NORAD!"

"Most of the joint chiefs did as did all of my secret servicemen. They died saving us. Sally and the kids are okay. They'll be arriving on another flight later. Colonel Kelly received an anonymous tip that you were here so we came. When the guys at the base told us that you were out on the Salt Flats, they gave us the coordinates and it was my idea to fly in and surprise you."

The two men hugged each other and both laughed and cried tears of joy. Like Reagan and Bush, Whitmore and Baumgartner had one of the best President and Vice-President working relations in United States History. "So sorry to hear about Marilyn, but regarding these terrible series of events…well….I said this on election night and I'm going to say it again" Baumgartner commented "Congrats Boss we did it!"

Patricia came running up to her Godfather "Uncle Andy!"

Baumgartner embraced his goddaughter with open arms and picked her up"hello there munchkin! Your Uncle Andy may still be getting smaller but you, you just keep on getting bigger and bigger!"

Andy then went back over to the President. "Oh, Andy we have a hard job ahead of us," said Whitmore.

Andy replied "You are not kidding boss, but look on the bright side of things, we won the war, and all of this happened in a non-election year, can you imagine what sort of a nightmare we would have been in had all this happened a year from now? Right now we can focus on reconstruction as we should, then next year we can worry about re-election."

Whitmore thought for a moment before responding "You know what you are absolutely right." Then he looked over at Connie "Connie do you think four months would be enough time to rebuild the electoral college in the event that this were to happen a year from now like Andy said?"

"Absolutely not, and yet the Constitution requires an election every four years, I don't know what the hell we would do. Andy's right, it's a blessing that this is not an election year."

(The above paragraph states one of the two main reasons for the 1995 setting.)

Patricia was excited to see her God-father and looked forward to seeing her God-mother Sally as well as God-sisters Jenny (face and voice of Jennifer Candy) and Ellie (face and voice of Maika Monroe) and her God-brother Christopher (Face and Voice of Chris Candy). Jenny and Chris were the Vice President's biological children, Ellie was born in Romania in 1988 and adopted by the Baumgartner's. Ellie and Patricia were only a month apart in age.

"

Aliens reach their new and final world

(All telepathic interactions are translated into legible English for this paragraph.)

(Also. Before anyone rushes to judgment on this part of the story please remember this. Many great sci-fi movies include elements of the supernatural and that includes ET, Star Wars, and even Independence Day with the telepathy. Also Titanic was a romantic drama and at the end Rose goes to Heaven).

One lone alien who was on board a ship that went down in Egypt was laying down on a rocky surface and just coming around to consciousness. The last thing he remembered was seeing that laughing skull and crossbones on the computer screen and then being engulfed by flames as the ship's primary weapon was struck with several missiles. He could still hear a laughing sound and still saw flames. He stood up to see a much taller alien that he and all the others would recognize in an instant, the queen.

"Your majesty? I didn't know you were on this ship."

The queen responded "You imbecile I've been on this ship the entire time everyone else knows that I'm here."

"But I thought you were on the mothership!"

"This is the mothership you imbecile!" replied the queen.

"I beg your pardon your majesty but no it's not, the mothership has been destroyed!"

All of a sudden both aliens were confused but then began to realize just how hot this foreign place really was. Before either of them could so much as blink an eye a huge rock fell between them. They both glanced up to see a high cliff with a towering red figure who looked to be part man and part beast standing on the top with two horns on his head. Then the queen turned around to see a human with brown hair and an ugly moustache walk forward. The man's skin was burned to a crisp and he had hundreds of visible scars all over his body as if he had suffered decades of torture. "Who or what are you? And why are you here?"

"Our ship caught fire" replied the alien.

The man replied "So did one of mine, on May 6, 1937."

All of a sudden, all three of the figures were engulfed in flames. The queen shrieked then stared at the figure on top of the cliff.

"Where are we? Are we still on Earth?"

"No" replied the tall red figure, "you're not on Earth, you're in it. You all have seen many worlds, but this one is your new home. There will be no chance of conquer or escape, and you will never find a friend in me."

"Can there be a peace between us?" begged the Queen.

"No Peace!", replied the red figure.

The queen was profoundly disappointed "Well what is it you want us to do?"

The red figure replied, "Suffer and burn!"

The queen replied "My people will fight for me whether I am dead or alive. We're not some colony of beings where the soldiers stop fighting when they are so close to victory just because they have lost their queen! That would be foolish! All of us are very intelligent with the ability to weigh and to reason. If I die they will finish what I sent them out to do and they will avenge me."

The red figure replied, "You're already dead, and if you look around you then you will see more and more of your people showing up, but you will find that you do not have any power here."

The flames kept growing higher and higher as more and more aliens began rushing to the queen. Soon they were all engulfed in flames.

Back in Montana

Later Forrester was having a chat with one of the guests at the ranch, a kid named Travis who commented "for us to take out an enemy like that is like a David and Goliath Story." To which Forrester replied "Funny you should say that Travis, the man responsible for disabling the alien shields is named David." It was then time to begin the 4th of July festivities on the ranch and Taylor showed up again near the ranch bell so Forrester said "So. Do you want to ring the bell? Or should I?" Taylor gladly accepted the invitation. Then he told Forrester that he had been reading one of his Hardy Boys books "I used to love Hardy Boys as a kid" replied Forrester, "Which one is it?" "The Secret of Skull Mountain," replied Taylor.

It was later learned that the Los Angeles County detention facilities were never evacuated which means that anyone in the jail died in a towering inferno. (another reason for 1995 setting).