ANOMALY
Strap in and hang on!

Foreword

As it turns out, we may be nothing more than specks of galactic dust in a manufactured environment within a vast universe. By our own human measure, we are highly evolved creatures. However, by comparison to at least one other life form from a distant star system, we are but simple-celled amebic representations in the early stages of an experiment that no longer meets the criteria for continuance.

The test manifested a race of creatures so enormously hateful, self-absorbed, and egotistical they threaten their very own existence. While a small particle of hope exists for mankind, The Keeper's mandate is clear. Time and history will pass for these specimens at midnight, on the thirty first day, of the tenth earth month, in the time of the evaluation.

Within the container, The Keepers automatically awaken from their quiescent suspension. If it weren't for an unexpected event during the planet’s Pleistocene glacial epoch, they would have found their task a simple one. Now, The Keepers must resort to a massive earthly effort to repair their vessel and terminate the experiment before their own time expires.

Real hope is endemic in all clear minded people.

It is a blessing for those who are industrious,

and a curse for those who are lazy.
                                                                                           Edmund Hulton

Chapter One

During the early morning hours of October 3rd, a star spangled canopy draped dead silent over a frosted landscape surrounding the rural New Hampshire lake known as Burns Pond. At the northeastern most end, two translucent objects slowly flitted from side to side like marionettes manipulated by an invisible puppeteer. The configurations, each bearing an irregular oval girth of approximately four feet, were crisply silhouetted by a full moon perched at the southwest end of the lake. They loomed as enigmatic gaseous membranes of undulating width and height, magical specters with no perceptible weight or observable depth. The two asymmetric apparitions appeared as if they were blots of diluted ink on the nightscape.

As wind rustled through the trees attempting to cast off their summer’s dress, a faint silver glow began to emanate from beneath the center of Burns Pond. Becoming brighter and more radiant, the glowing incandescence slowly absorbed the entire coal black expanse of the lake. Like a giant phoenix rising from the ashes, the huge cylindrical-shaped ship of death sluggishly split the surface and began to emerge from its watery cocoon. Dormant for over two million years, the vessel continued its ascent until fully exposed. Perhaps a mile wide and twice as high, it cast an eerie aurora over the emptied pond and outlying hillsides. As if shaking off the languor of a deep sleep, the object lethargically rotated while hovering only feet above the plane of the pond. All sound was abated as if encased in a soundproof vacuum. Silent was the rustling of leaves, and noiseless was the void of water lapping at the shore's edge. Every sonance was suffocated as if the scene was a surreal enlargement of a black and white photograph. With muted haste, the unnatural substances glided out to the vessel and vanished through its outer skin. In that instant, the artificial illumination was extinguished, the surrounding countryside returned to night, and as arduously as the ship had ascended, it began to slip beneath the opaque abyss from which it surfaced. Lake water slowly rose in concert with the ships descent until it gently eddied over the last of the submerged hull. A bone chilling breeze returned and water sloshed gently on the rounded stones at the shoreline. All was restored as it had been, but our planet would never be the same. The residents of the near by town of Whitefield had no inkling of the immediate and abysmal consequences their participation in the "Burns Project" would have upon them, and all of mankind.