Detachment 1, 1129th Special Activities Squadron, Dreamland, Groom Lake, Homey, C-Base the list is endless. The secretive facility in Groom Lake Nevada has been the center of myths and urban legends since the Vietnam War. According the the Central Intelligence Agency, the base is was testing site for the government's U-2 and OXCART aerial surveillance programs, nothing more nothing less. Unoffical sources claim its done everything from harboring alien artifacts to running test on actual live aliens. No hard evidence has ever been found, but that doesn't stop millions from swarming as close as they can get to the mysterious facility which is more commonly reffered to by its most famous nickname:
Area 51.
The history of the facility consumed most of Hana's thoughts as the shuttle approached her new place of employ. Before her impromptu interview with the HR rep a few months ago, she filed all that alien nonsense under the term “hogwash” figuring it was nothing more than a way to get people to come visit and buy cheap tourist trap junk. She’d been working at out there for months now and the most unusual thing she’d seen was that mold growing in the back of the fridge in the employee lounge. She let herself have a great laugh at her earlier suspicions and began enjoying her work fully as chief medical officer. And these annoying jittery nerves where nothing more than a few worries over her newest assignment.
...That she knew almost nothing about, save it was extremely top secret if the many NDA’s she’d had to sign were anything to go off of.
“Get ahold of yourself Hana, you’ve been here for months. You're just letting your imagination ran away with you that’s all. Now, deep breath, and focus on the positives.” The inner mantra repeated as the shuttle jerked to a stop, employees filing out and heading towards their assigned spaces.
The long white corridors seemed especially narrow for some reason as she made her way into the new building, the silence nothing like the busy medical station she was used to being in. She lamented over the fact that she would have to leave Private Johnson in Lisa’s, her assistant, care for now. Hopefully she could actually make him rest, and she might have time to pop in and make sure he actually took his medication instead of hiding under his tongue, again.
“Doctor Lucien?”
Jeezus! Bolting upright, she desperately tried to calm her racing heartbeat as she turned to the military officer she hadn’t seen right in front of her,
“I-I’m sorry Major, I was lost in thought.” She quickly straightened up, hoping to recover some of this first impression.
“At ease Doc, just checking to see if you’d gotten lost.” The middle aged major chuckled, used to jumpy first timers. He was a slightly large man, years at a desk job were probably to help blame for that, but he still had a fairly intimidating aura about him. “I hear that’s easy to do here.”
“Yes sir, thank you for doing that.” She felt a bit of her nerves disappear at his words as they made their way deeper into the facility.
“I’m grateful for you agreeing to come onto this new project of ours, most shy away from it with the little information they let us give out about it. Between you and me I hate all that political mess and the hoops they make us jump through.” He grumbled, and it may have been her imagination but was it getting darker? Was there something wrong with the lights?
“Well, here we are.” She was jerked from her thoughts yet again as they stood outside an elevator. “Now at this point I’m supposed to remind you that from this point all and anything you see or hear or find is strictly confidential and blah blah blah, consequences of disclosure to unauthorized individuals etcetera etcetera, may result in immediate termination, just everything you read in those forms you signed.” He seemed fairly at ease, but for some reason she couldn’t shake the chills making her hyper aware of her surroundings.
“Yes sir.” She hoped the feeling would pass as soon as they got to, to wherever they were going.
“Fantastic.” He smiled and opened the elevator door, It seemed no different than any other, drab grey walls, horrible music, even the little “ding!” noise when the doors opened and closed. Only, there was only a single button where the floors should have been.
“So they don’t like stairs, quit being so foolish.” She berated herself on the way down.
“Now, before we arrive at the work site, I was hoping to ask you a few questions. Off the record of course.” Major Tom asked as they continued down.
“Of course sir.”
“How do you feel about aliens?”
Well, that was...an interesting question. Or joke? Maybe he was trying to ease the tension by mocking the ridiculous rumors surrounding the area.
“I guess I’d have to meet one before I made any firm judgments about them, but I doubt they’d just stop by for an afternoon tea.” She played along, feeling a bit more at ease.
A bark of laughter came from the general, “Nope, they don’t do too well in sunlight, or so I hear.” He remarked as they came to a gentle stop.
“But on a more serious note, what do you really think of them?” ANd just like that, the tension came back, with a vengeance. Was he- no he couldn’t-those were just stories right?
Heartbeat accelerated, palms sweating, thoughts racing as her mind tried to comprehend what he was insinuating.
“All those stories are mostly what you think. Trash, nothing but wild tales and made up mumbo jumbo to sell all that dime a dozen “Area 51” merchandise to tourist.”
“ But...aliens sir?” A gag, they were pulling a huge joke on her and she was falling hook line and sinker for it, her brain tried to rationalize.
“Yep, they’re real. But nothing like those little green men movies, heavens no. Most are much more humanlike than you’d imagine. Especially the group you’ll be seeing too, though they look more like mice to me. Most of them are real timid and understandably don’t like strangers too much. They crashed here a few years ago, ship was a complete wreck, not a single salvageable, and most were injured or starving by the time we got them back here.”
The elevator finally opened, and her world stopped. A large open space, with hundreds of small buildings on the outskirts, all circled a giant dome like construction in the center. It was huge! the halls seemed to go on for miles, much larger than the building they’d just came from. The major didn’t miss a beat as he motioned her to follow.
She remained in awe as the headed towards one of the larger buildings in the underground base with a simple designation written above the glass doors:
MIRRIN MEDICAL FACILITY
“Welcome to your new office doc.” ANother voice welcomed them as they passed through the doors.
“Ah Jimmy! I thought you were off today?” The Major greeted him warmly before introducing her,
“Doctor Hana this is our lead scientist Jeremiah Gibbons. He knows more about Mirirn's than anyone else.”
“Which is a about a 50 people, including yourself.” Jimmy interrupted as she shook his hand. He was about her age, tall and muscular, not looking very much the part of a scientist save for the lab coat and glasses. “And it's just Jimmy, no need for formalities down here doc. MIrrin biology is fairly close to our own so you shouldn't have too much trouble. Just let me know of any anomalies that pop up and let me know if you have any questions.”
“Well, I better get going, got a few more bigwigs to please before I can call it a day. I’ll be back to pick up your reports Jimmy, and I expect them to be complete this time.”
“Sure thing Major.” Hana been using their time conversing to finally get herself sorted out. So, in the span of one morning, she’d transferred to a new job that involved treating aliens, figured out aliens existed, found out all the stories about area 51 were actually based on truth, and she was under a hundred different NDA’s saying if she breathed a word she’d spend at minimum life in federal prison.
“So-” Jimmy smiled as he motioned towards the inner wards that housed the current paitents of the medical wing. “Want to meet your first patient?”
