A Crop Of Issues
by 
dharker
|
Posted: Monday, April 4, 2011 Word Count: 500 |
“We’re getting reports of more appearing Sir”.
Kelly Peters delivered her news to Colonel Masterson and stood to attention waiting for his response.
“Stand easy Kelly”, Ken Masterson had worked with Kelly for a number of years now and had learned to trust and respect the brilliant young Master Sergeant. At only 24 she was the brightest computer technician he had ever seen.
“Yes Sir!”
NORAD had been notified when the second 20 mile diameter “crop” circle had appeared overnight across the Everglades in Florida of the United States. Most seemed like regular circles, large swathes of reed and latterly grass land. Some however were lines terminated by semicircles at each end. Ken called Kelly to come forward to the displayed map of North America.
“So where are these new circles Kelly?”, he stood to one side to allow her access to the display.
“Here, here and here Sir. This time three linear features running in succession South to North. We have footage of the last ones appearance Sir”.
“My initial analysis routines show they’re slowly extending Northwards towards the central plains.”
Ken moved forward to get a better look at the data table.
“Do you still have the program? I think we need to escalate this issue and I’d like to better understand where this is leading.”
“Of course Sir! I’ll copy the routines to a shared drive and give you unlimited access”.
She touched her earpiece momentarily, a look of concentration on her face.
“Sir I think you’d better see this. The imaging techs have cleaned up the footage we got of the third formation.”
She sat at the data table interface and started typing. A large window appeared, overlapping the North America map, with high altitude footage of the Mississippi Delta. The camera zoomed in on a farm in the centre of the formation. Only flora seemed affected; several bemused cattle ran around obviously spooked but unharmed.
“What the hell?…”, Ken muttered under his breath.
Again Kelly touched her ear, started typing and cleared the aerial footage from the table. In its place a satellite image of North America zoomed out.
“More reports coming in Sir. I have a hunch, I’m patching in the high orbit surveillance satellite.”
From this distance the whole of the Earth was in view and the continental United States could clearly be seen. Across its length the formations showed faintly from Florida and into Canada as far as Kugluktuk on the North West Passage.
Kelly switched the imaging to ultraviolet and the formations now shone out crystal clear.
“There seems to be a pattern Sir, can you make it out?”
She tilted the image angle bringing the formations to the horizontal.
“Sweet Jesus….”, muttered Ken, then apologetically
“I’m sorry Kelly, what was the question again?”
“There seems to be a pattern Sir, can you make it out?”
“I think I do Kelly, the formations are morse code:
..-. --- .-. -.. . -- --- .-.. .. - .. --- -.
FOR DEMOLITION.
Kelly Peters delivered her news to Colonel Masterson and stood to attention waiting for his response.
“Stand easy Kelly”, Ken Masterson had worked with Kelly for a number of years now and had learned to trust and respect the brilliant young Master Sergeant. At only 24 she was the brightest computer technician he had ever seen.
“Yes Sir!”
NORAD had been notified when the second 20 mile diameter “crop” circle had appeared overnight across the Everglades in Florida of the United States. Most seemed like regular circles, large swathes of reed and latterly grass land. Some however were lines terminated by semicircles at each end. Ken called Kelly to come forward to the displayed map of North America.
“So where are these new circles Kelly?”, he stood to one side to allow her access to the display.
“Here, here and here Sir. This time three linear features running in succession South to North. We have footage of the last ones appearance Sir”.
“My initial analysis routines show they’re slowly extending Northwards towards the central plains.”
Ken moved forward to get a better look at the data table.
“Do you still have the program? I think we need to escalate this issue and I’d like to better understand where this is leading.”
“Of course Sir! I’ll copy the routines to a shared drive and give you unlimited access”.
She touched her earpiece momentarily, a look of concentration on her face.
“Sir I think you’d better see this. The imaging techs have cleaned up the footage we got of the third formation.”
She sat at the data table interface and started typing. A large window appeared, overlapping the North America map, with high altitude footage of the Mississippi Delta. The camera zoomed in on a farm in the centre of the formation. Only flora seemed affected; several bemused cattle ran around obviously spooked but unharmed.
“What the hell?…”, Ken muttered under his breath.
Again Kelly touched her ear, started typing and cleared the aerial footage from the table. In its place a satellite image of North America zoomed out.
“More reports coming in Sir. I have a hunch, I’m patching in the high orbit surveillance satellite.”
From this distance the whole of the Earth was in view and the continental United States could clearly be seen. Across its length the formations showed faintly from Florida and into Canada as far as Kugluktuk on the North West Passage.
Kelly switched the imaging to ultraviolet and the formations now shone out crystal clear.
“There seems to be a pattern Sir, can you make it out?”
She tilted the image angle bringing the formations to the horizontal.
“Sweet Jesus….”, muttered Ken, then apologetically
“I’m sorry Kelly, what was the question again?”
“There seems to be a pattern Sir, can you make it out?”
“I think I do Kelly, the formations are morse code:
..-. --- .-. -.. . -- --- .-.. .. - .. --- -.
FOR DEMOLITION.