Author's notes: Ok this is not meant to be a full chapter. It's just a "Meanwhile back at the Ranch…" kind of moment.
So enjoy the short interlude.
Meanwhile back at the Ranch…..
**Begin Story**
"How are we doing people?"
CIA Deputy Director Mitchell asked the assembled staff in the Operations Center at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The room was dim with the lights turned low; the only substantial source of light was the main viewing screens that made up almost an entire wall of the operations center. The gaze of everyone in the room was fixed on one screen in particular. It was displaying nothing but static.
An assistant was busily talking into a headset microphone, trying to answer the Deputy Director's question. After a moment he covered the mic with his hand, looked up at Mitchell and said, "Stand by sir."
Mitchell fidgeted nervously in his seat. He stood up when the tension made sitting unbearable. His frayed nerves were justifiable. He'd called in a lot of favors and endured more than a few suspicious looks to chase this ridiculous hunch.
If this doesn't work….. He thought.
After a few moments the static snow on the screen began to give way to an image. It was fuzzy at first, but quickly became crystal clear.
The assistant was busy speaking in his microphone again and then looked up at Deputy Director Mitchell.
"Confirmed sir. The Predator has cleared the eclipse. We have a live feed."
YES!
Mitchell looked at his assistant and replied, "Alright, start the clock."
"Yes sir. Estimate eight minutes to loss of signal."
"Mr. De Lancie. Is NASA getting this?"
"Yes Deputy Director we are."
Phillip De Lancie's image spoke from the adjacent screen.
"And it is beautiful!"
On the main screen was another world, in all its colorful glory. They saw wide open fields, mountains in the distance, and clear, blue sky.
"Look! There are roads down there!"
Mitchell spoke to his assistant. "See if you can get the sensor operator to follow one those roads. See where it leads to."
After a few moments the men saw the image move and line up with a road, a dirt road from the looks of it. Then after a few moments there was a collective gasp from the people in the room.
"Is that…a village?"
Sure enough on the screen there could be seen a collection of buildings, proof positive that wherever this was, there was civilization. The human race was not alone in the Universe.
"Zoom in there." Mitchell ordered. "De Lancie you seeing this?"
"I'm seeing it! I'm seeing it! Oh my God look at them all! Is that a market?"
The drone's camera had captured a group of people in what appeared to be a town square, hustling and bustling, in what could only be described as an open air market.
De Lancie continued exalting. "They look just like us." He breathed.
"How many people do you think live there?"
De Lancie thought for a moment. "This is just speculation, but I'd say no more than a few hundred, maybe a thousand."
The drone continued onward, giving the viewers shots of farmers tending their fields, their flocks of livestock, and their homes. The men and women in the room continued to stare in awe for what seemed to be an eternity. Suddenly, the assistant called out.
"Three minutes to loss of signal."
Mitchell began issuing orders. "Alright tell the pilots to get the drone away from the village. We don't want that thing crashing down there. Have them look for a place put it down, like a lake or a river or something."
Mitchell then addressed the NASA scientist on the other screen.
"Are you getting the data you need from your sensor package?"
Phillip De Lancie looked off screen, seemingly at his computer.
"Yes Director we are. Just have them keep our sensors pointed at the sun for as long as you can. The more sunlight we can analyze the better."
"Sir the pilots have found a lake. We're going ditch there."
They continued to stare intently at the screen for as long as they could. They watched the lake grow ever larger on the screen, closer and closer, until finally, the screen went blank. Deputy Director Daniel Mitchell ran his hand through his hair and exhaled deeply. He looked at the screen still bearing the image of the NASA scientist.
"Did you get what you needed Phil?"
"Oh yeah! We got it!" De Lancie then looked directly at the camera." We'll be in touch." And his image vanished from the screen.
Mitchell then turned to address everyone in the room.
"Ok people, I don't have to remind you that everything you just saw is classified. DO NOT breathe a word of this to anyone!"
Mitchell began staring at his laptop, watching the playback of the images recorded by the unmanned craft they just sent to another world.
"How much do those MQ-1s cost?" He asked nonchalantly.
"About four million dollars, "his assistant replied.
Mitchell continued to stare at his laptop.
Worth every penny.
**Scene Break**
NASA scientist Phillip De Lancie stood before the staff at the NASA Astrophysics Department looking very excited, all business, but excited. He paced, gestured and spoke loudly with his hands as he gave the people in front of him their new marching orders.
"Everything that you are currently working on stops, right now."
He pointed to the image on the conference room screen.
"This is now our number one priority. This is what we are searching for."
He looked each and every member of the team in the eye to emphasize just how serious he was about this.
"You get on the horn to every single one of those observatory jockeys, and you tell them the same thing. Whatever it is they are doing, is dropped. I want every observatory in the world searching every star in every piece of sky for this!"
Again, for emphasis he pointed at the image on the screen.
"Because the person who finds me this, gets their name in the history books. I'm talking right up there with Galileo, Copernicus, and Neal Armstrong!
"You tell them to analyze EVERY….SINGLE….STAR! I don't care how long it takes! I don't care if it takes the rest of your lives, your children's lives, and your grandchildren's lives! You do not stop searching until you find THIS!"
Once again, he leveled his finger at the screen.
He looked at his staff.
"You still here? C'mon let's go!" He said, clapping his hands together.
The men and women rose from their seats and quickly exited the room. Phillip De Lancie continued to stare at the image on the wall. He kept repeating the same word to himself over and over again, as if it was a lullaby.
"Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful."
The image was a rectangle with bands of color laid out side by side, the result of taking light and splitting it into its individual components. This particular image was produced by the instruments onboard the predator drone that just flew into the eclipse.
It was a spectrogram of the Halkeginian sun.