Colonel Alfred Bellows was sleeping comfortably next to his wife when the phone rang. Being a physician, as well as an Air Force officer, the phone ringing in the middle of the night was nothing unusual.
"This is Colonel Bellows," the good doctor groggily answered.
The voice on the other end instructed, "Colonel Bellows, this is Colonel Jones, be outside your house in 30 minutes in BDU's"
Amanda woke to see her husband putting on his olive drab fatigue uniform.
"Don't tell me your going to war." She half joked. This new job her husband had was strange, but she began to like Nevada. She could hang out with other wives and enjoy the wide variety of entertainment Las Vegas had to offer. Plus, now that he was away from NASA, Alfred was a lot more relaxed. Also, in the marriage department he was much more attentive, which definitely made her happy. She liked this new Alfred.
Dr. Bellows smiled, "They need me at work, don't worry, I'll be home soon."
"At 2:30 in the morning?" Amanda asked, not expecting an answer.
Jones came by in a dark sedan, and they went towards the flight line at Nellis. This was different, usually Bellows went to the test area known as "Area 51" in a civilian plane from McCarren Airport. Plus, this time he was wearing fatigues… he normally wore his civilian clothes to work. The car drove up to a black, unmarked, Bell UH-1 "Huey." Jones and Bellows entered the helicopter. Bellows noted that while wearing military flight suits, the crew had no rank or identifying markings on them.
When they touched down at Area 51, Bellows and Jones got into a jeep. The driver took them to an old run down hangar. Bellows followed Jones to an elevator at the end. The elevator propelled them quickly below the Earth's surface. When the doors opened, Dr. Bellows noticed they were in a huge underground hangar. At the end of this hanger was a huge saucer shaped craft. Jones was surprised at how non-plused Bellows was by the sight. It was as if Dr. Bellows saw unusual sights regularly.
A very young scientist who kind of looked like a mannequin approached them and introduced himself, "I am Dr. Brackish Okun, welcome to Dreamland."
Dr. Bellows simply asked, "Major Nelson has something to do with this, doesn't he?"
Dr. Okun answered, "The astronaut, no Major Nelson doesn't have clearance."
Colonel Jones stepped in, "Dr. Bellows is working on human factors on our test craft, I thought he might be interested in also working on non-human factors."
Dr. Bellows regained composure and added, "This reminds me of a test craft we had at NASA. Majors Nelson and Healy ended up crashing it and some farmers mistook them for Martians." Dr. Bellows smiled at the recollection.
Colonel Jones clarified with, "That craft was manufactured here, using principals from this ship, which crashed at Roswell Army Air Field in 1947."
Finally the enormity of what he was looking at hit Dr. Bellows, "The stories were true? You have managed to hide an extra terrestrial space ship for over 20 years?"
Dr. Okun smiled, "Sometimes the preposterous can be true, Doctor."
Dr. Okun then took Doctor Bellows on the most incredible tour of his life. Dr. Okun was pretty incredible also, earned his doctorate while he was still too young to vote. Okun, like Bellows, decided upon a life of public service. While there was considerable difference in the age of the two, they became fast friends.
Amanda wasn't too pleased when Alfred explained he was now working nights, leaving for work as soon as it got dark, and returning shortly before dawn. At first she thought he getting too old to be keeping vampire's hours, but he seemed to enjoy his work (which, of course, he never told her about). The added benefit was that whatever he was doing did put a lot of spring in his step. Sometimes, they spent hours in bed together before he went to sleep in the afternoon and she went off to Vegas "with the girls". The other wives often wondered about the smile Amanda Bellows had on her face when she greeted them on their way out to "do the town."