Alfredo and the Bullies

Kelly Jonsense was born in 1947 and grew up in a very rough neighborhood in New York City. The Jonsense family lived in an apartment above an Italian restaurant called Ristorante Alfredo. The man who owned the restaurant, an Italian immigrant named Alfredo Fettucine, also owned the apartment where Kelly's family lived. The Jonsense family was very poor and could not afford to eat in the restaurant, except on special occasions, but they got to know Alfredo and his family very well. 

One day, Alfredo approached Kelly and told him that his dishwasher had quit and that he needed someone to help out in the kitchen for a few days until he could hire a new one. Kelly was too young to work legally, but agreed to help out in exchange for a few free meals for himself and his family. "OK," said Alfredo, "if you wash dishes for me, I will let you and your family have dinner in my restaurant for free." It sounded like a good deal to Kelly, so he agreed and they shook hands on it.  

As it turned out, Kelly was such a good worker that Alfredo stopped looking for a new dishwasher. Days became weeks, then weeks became months, and Kelly kept working for Alfredo. Kelly's family kept eating their free dinners at Alfredo's, delicious meals prepared especially for them by Alfredo himself. They could have anything they wanted from his very extensive Italian menu, and as much of it as they could handle. It was a good deal for everyone.

During the day, of course, Kelly was a student at the local elementary school. Because he lived in the city, he could walk to and from school. On some days, he would carry a packed lunch in a brown paper sack. On other days, he would carry lunch money in his pocket. In addition, he always carried a big stack of books. Unfortunately, he often encountered three bullies on his way to school in the mornings who enjoyed making his life miserable. They called him "Smelly Kelly" and demanded that he hand over his lunch sack or his lunch money. If he didn't, and sometimes even if he did, they would push him into a mud puddle. He would arrive at school wet and muddy and with nothing to eat for lunch.

Tony Bologna (known as "Tony Baloney" in the neighborhood), was what you might call the brains of the outfit. Max was the muscle, the one who seemed to live for the moment when Tony would tell him to push Kelly into a mud puddle. And then there was Freddy, who usually remained in the background, laughing and cheering the other two on. 

Normally, they just tormented Kelly in the mornings, when there was a lunch sack or lunch money to be stolen. On one particular day, though, they decided to also torment him on his way home from school. "Where's your lunch money?" demanded Tony, knowing full well that he had already taken it from Kelly that morning.

 "You already took it," replied Kelly. "Don't you remember?"

"Are you calling my friend stupid?" demanded Max as he poked Kelly in the chest. 

"Yeah," said Freddy, "are you calling him stupid?" 

"No," said Kelly, "I'm just reminding him that - ." 

"No you're not!" interrupted Tony, "You are calling me stupid! You have some nerve, Smelly Kelly! Push him into the mud puddle, Max."

"Yeah," agreed Freddy excitedly, "push him into the mud puddle, Max!"

And, of course, Max did just that.  Then they rode off on their bicycles, laughing like hyenas. They left Kelly lying in the mud, wet and dirty and frustrated. He was supposed to go to Alfredo's right after school and knew that he was already going to be late. He would be even later if he went upstairs to change his clothes. 

Kelly didn't want to be any later than he had to be, so he decided to go straight to work in his muddy clothes. After all, he reasoned, he was just the dishwasher and would not be seen by the customers, so what difference would it make? And he knew that Alfredo did not like tardiness.

"Where have you been, Kelly?" demanded Alfredo, noting that he was ten minutes late. "And what happened to you? You look like you just came from a pig pen!"

"Sorry," answered Kelly, "I got pushed into a mud puddle by some big kids on my way home from school."

"Bullies, no?" replied Alfredo.

"Bullies, yes," said Kelly. "They do this all the time, usually in the mornings."

"I see," said Alfredo. "You know, Kelly, that used to happen to me, too, when I was about your age back in Napoli."

"Where's Napoli?" asked Kelly.

"It's a city in Italy, where I came from. In this country, it's called Naples, but in Italy we call it Napoli. Anyway, when I was a boy, a group of bullies used to do the same thing to me, but a friend from Japan showed me how to stop them. Would you like for me to show you the trick?"

"Sure!" exclaimed Kelly. "I'm getting really tired of all their nonsense."

"Alright," said Alfredo, "I will show you the way. I'll teach you in the back alley. It's called judo, which is a Japanese word meaning 'the gentle way'." 

"The gentle way?" repeated Kelly skeptically. "I'm not sure that being gentle will work on these guys."

"Don't be so sure," replied Alfredo, smiling. "judo allows you to use your opponent's momentum against him. He must attack you first, and then you simply deflect his attack. His momentum, for example, might carry him over your shoulder and down onto the ground behind you. You just have to learn how to do it."

"Cool!" said Kelly. "Show me how to do that. The next time Max tries to push me into a mud puddle, he will end up there."

"OK," said Alfredo, "but first I need to have you wash the dishes and mop the floors. We can start your judo lessons early tomorrow morning. How about 6 AM?"  

"You got it!" said Kelly, giving Alfredo an enthusiastic high five.

The next morning, a Friday, Kelly received his first judo lesson. He received additional lessons on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings. Then, on his way to school on Monday morning, the three bullies, as usual, surrounded him on their bikes.

"Smelly Kelly," began Tony, "where is your lunch money?"

"Not today," said Kelly defiantly. "You can't have it today or tomorrow or any other day."

"Whoa!" shouted Max. "You want me to push him into the mud puddle, Tony?"

"Have at it!" said Tony. "You are going to regret this, Kelly. You are TOAST!"

Max charged at Kelly, who easily deflected the attack. Max's momentum sent him flying over Kelly's shoulder and he came down right smack dab in the middle of the mud puddle. 

"Kelly Jonsense takes no nonsense!" shouted Kelly.

Max was embarrassed and his embarrassment quickly turned to rage. "You're gonna pay for that, Smelly Kelly!" he shouted as he lunged at Kelly. Kelly calmly deflected his attack once again, sending Max to the ground for a second time - but at least it wasn't into a mud puddle.  

Max tried twice more with the same result and he began to get frustrated. Tony and Freddy began laughing at him, which made him even angrier, but he was beginning to realize that there was nothing he could do to Kelly that wouldn't cause him further embarrassment. "You try it!" he shouted to his friends, who quickly stopped jabbering at him. 

Finally, they tried to save face by yelling, "See ya tomorrow!" at Kelly, as if anything would be different the next day. Kelly continued on to school and had an especially delicious lunch that day in the school cafeteria. When he got to work after school, he high-fived Alfredo and told him all about how he had stopped the bullies.

The next morning, the three bullies were nowhere in sight, and they never bothered Kelly again. He did notice that they were picking on a few of the other kids, though, so he went over to help them out. When the bullies saw Kelly coming towards them, they got on their bikes and pedaled away as quickly as they could. 

In a matter of days, Kelly had gone from being a victim to being a protector of the bullied. He had become a hero at his school and he liked the feeling. He always shouted "Kelly Jonsense takes no nonsense!" when he intervened to protect someone. It became his calling card.  

Kelly began giving judo lessons to anyone who wanted them, even to the bullies. He realized that it would do the bullies no good, since judo is a purely defensive art. The attacker almost always loses against someone trained in the gentle way of judo. It could not be used to attack someone so Kelly figured that it might help the bullies to realize what they were up against. 

Thanks to Alfredo and Kelly and the power of judo's gentle way, the bullies at school stopped bullying the other students. Walking to and from school became a more pleasant experience for everyone. 

Kelly's interest in judo led him to take more advanced judo courses at a local dojo and he began to study other martial arts as well. These studies would come in handy later in life, as we shall soon see. But something else was about to happen that would capture Kelly's interest like nothing had before. 

Space Fever

When Kelly was ten years old, he heard on the radio that the Russians had launched a satellite into space. They called it Sputnik, the Russian word for moon. It wasn't much of a satellite, just a small metallic ball about the size of a grapefruit with several antennae sticking out of it. And all it did was broadcast an electronic beep, just to let the world know that it was there.

To Kelly, though, it was as if that electronic beep was speaking directly to him. "Kelly," it seemed to say, "put on your big boy pants and come play with me in the heavens! A great future in space awaits you!" And from that day on, all Kelly could think about was going into space. He watched with growing excitement as America also began launching satellites into space. Then it was chimpanzees and people. Years later, as a college student, he was glued to the TV set as Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon. "I wish that was me," thought Kelly. "And someday," he vowed, "it will be."

In grade school, Kelly wasn't a very good student, always daydreaming about space. Then one day an astronaut came to New York and stopped by his school to meet the children. It was billed as "Astronaut Day" and everybody went to the auditorium to meet a real live astronaut. When the astronaut arrived, though, Kelly was disappointed. He looked so ordinary. He wasn't wearing a space suit, just a regular everyday business suit. He looked no different than a million other guys.

The astronaut gave a little speech about his experiences in space and then began walking through the auditorium to meet the kids on a one-to-one basis. When he got to Kelly, Kelly asked him what it would take to become an astronaut. "Well," said the astronaut, "you will have to study hard and learn everything you can about mathematics, science, aeronautics, and so on." Kelly said that he wasn't very good in any of those subjects because he was too busy dreaming about going into space. "Buckle down, young man," said the astronaut. "Learn all you can. You never know what might turn out to be important someday, or even save your life. The more you know, the better off you will be"

"Alright," thought Kelly, "no more nonsense! I'm going to learn everything I can about all that stuff, even more than the teacher wants me to learn." And when Kelly made up his mind about something, he didn't fool around. He read all of his textbooks from front to back in one week and made sure that he understood everything in them. Then he went to the school library and checked out every math and science book he could find. The school librarian had to limit the number of books he could take out at one time so that there would still be a few available for the other students. 

After a couple of months, he had read all of the books in the library, so he went to the high school to see if he could check out some of the high school books. The librarian there said that she was sorry but that he would not be able to check out any high school level books until he was in high school. Kelly was disappointed, but had better luck at the public library. That kept him busy for several more months. He also read all of the newspapers and magazines that he could get his hands on, scouring them for any news he could find about events in outer space.  

Before long, Kelly had become something of a walking encyclopedia, at least as far as outer space was concerned. He knew all about the sun, the planets, and the moons, as well as the asteroids, meteors, and comets. He even knew about the different kinds of stars, galaxies, black holes, and other exotic objects in the universe. He was especially fascinated by the BIg Bang theory and the idea of an ever-expanding universe. He began to wonder if there was intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, if there was another Kelly on another planet looking out into the cosmos and wondering if there was any life on or around the distant star that we know as the sun. 

 When Kelly was in middle school, he and a group of like-minded friends started an after-school club devoted to the study of space. They called themselves the Astronuts because, as Kelly put it, they were all nuts about space. They began building rockets and got better and better as time went on. The Astronuts entered their rockets in a number of science contests and always brought home the top prize. They even had stories written about them in the local newspapers.     

Kelly had always been something of a natural athlete, good at just about everything he tried. He loved basketball, soccer, baseball, swimming, and just about anything else that involved running, jumping, or playing with a ball. Kelly enjoyed these sports at school and on the playground, but they were just for fun, a distraction to kill time when he didn't have anything more important to do. When he got to high school, though, Kelly discovered a talent for a particular sport that would change his life forever in a very unexpected way.  

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

When Kelly got to high school, he tried out for the junior varsity football team. He hadn't intended to, but a couple of his friends talked him into it. They were going to try out and thought that it would be a hoot if all three made the team. Kelly really didn't know anything about football, so he was not especially excited about the idea. He didn't really expect to make the team, but he figured that he might as well give it a try to keep his friends happy.

Kelly's friend Gary was very excitable and wanted to be on the team, imagining himself as the quarterback and Kelly as one of his receivers. Jimmy, on the other hand, was a much calmer sort. For him, it was more a matter of wanting to hang with his pals than with the heroics of the sport itself. He was a pretty big guy, though, and might do well as a lineman. Kelly figured that he would would end up in the stands watching and cheering his friends on. That was fine with him.

Things took a surprising turn, though, once the tryouts got underway. Basic skills like running, throwing, and catching were the first order of business, and as it turned out Kelly was pretty good at all of them. At first, he was a bit afraid of the odd-shaped ball, which was pointed at both ends. The first time it was thrown at him, one of those points seemed to be zeroing in on his face. Alarmed, Kelly threw his hands up in front of his face and, to his amazement, they closed around the ball as if by magic - a catch! His hands seemed to know what to do even if he didn't. He was a natural. 

In addition to his ability to catch the ball, Kelly could run. His times were faster than anyone else's. In fact, according to the junior varsity coach, his times were faster than anyone's on the varsity squad. The coach was getting very excited about the prospect of having Kelly on his team, but he knew that Kelly really belonged on the varsity squad. Reluctantly, he called the varsity coach, Luigi Rigatoni, over to look at his new hot prospect. "Not bad," said Coach Rigatoni, trying not to seem too excited, but he knew that this kid was exactly what his team would need to win a state championship. 

Gary and Jimmy both made the junior varsity squad, but Kelly was offered a spot on the varsity team. This was a rarity for a freshman, and some members of the team were not happy about it, but Coach Rigatoni reminded them that they would need someone of Kelly's caliber if they were to have any chance of winning a state championship. As they got to know Kelly, they all began to like him. Some of them also remembered him from elementary and middle school, where he had made a name for himself for standing up to bullies, so they knew that he was a force to be reckoned with.

When the season began, Kelly's talent carried the team from one victory to another. By the end of the regular season, they were in first place in the local standings and were poised for a run at the state championship. They won easily in the quarter-finals against a team called the Lions, won a squeaker in the semi-finals against the Tigers, and would have to face a team called the Bears in the finals. Following their win in the semi-finals, Coach Rigatoni said "Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!" Everyone in the locker room laughed, but they all knew that beating the Bears would not be easy.

The Bears had won the state championship each of the last three years and most of their seniors had been on the previous year's team. They were battle-hardened and would be very hard to beat. Kelly's team, the Rockets, were hopeful but most of them expected to be eliminated in the final game. Kelly did not. He believed that if they put forth the effort, they could beat the Bears. And he had a pretty good idea how to do that.

The game took place on a neutral field, a large stadium at a nearby university. It attracted a large crowd and the players were feeling butterflies before the game. Once it started and first contact was made, the butterflies went away and both teams got down to business. It was a tough game, made even tougher by the arrival of heavy rain. The field was wet and muddy and very slippery, so the passing game was put on hold as both teams decided to run the ball. At the end of the first half, the Bears held a seven point lead, 17-10. Much of the crowd had already left the stadium because of the rain and the expectation of an easy win by the Bears. There was gloom in the Rockets' locker room.   

"There's no way we can beat these guys," moaned Max, the team's quarterback. "Kelly is our biggest asset, and without a passing game he is just sitting on the bench. Has anyone got any ideas?" Max, you may recall, was one of the bullies who had tormented Kelly in elementary school. He was a senior now and had befriended Kelly, who had become his best receiver. As a senior, this would be Max's last shot at a state championship.

"Remember when we were in elementary school?" asked Kelly.

"Yeah," responded Max, laughing, "don't remind me. You judoed me."

"I'm not sure that 'judoed' is actually a word," said Kelly, "but I think that we could use the same principle against the Bears. Passing would be very risky in the rain, but I think we could win if we were to mix a little judo into our running game."

"OK," said Coach Rigatoni, "let's not get crazy. Let's stick to football fundamentals. On a sloppy field, anything can happen. Either we or the Bears will grind out a win and we will just have to live with the result. Just do your best out there."

That seemed to end the discussion, so the team returned to the field for the second half prepared to slog their way to what most of them expected to be a defeat. They just wanted to look respectable at the end, which meant keeping the Bears' margin of victory as low as possible.

In the third quarter, the Bears scored a touchdown and a point after. The Rockets got a long drive going after that, but eventually had to settle for a field goal. Going into the fourth quarter, the Bears had widened their lead to eleven points, 24-13. Things were not looking good for the once-mighty Rockets, and it showed. Almost everyone on the team looked deflated and their performance began to take on a lackluster quality.

The Rockets were the first to score in the fourth quarter, bringing the score to 24-20. This brightened their prospects considerably, but the Bears countered with a field goal, making it 27-20 with just teo minutes to play. "At least," thought Kelly, "it wasn't a touchdown." Still, the Rockets would have their work cutout for them against the Bears tenacious defense.

The Bears kicked off and the Rockets brought it out to the 27 yard line. The Rockets went to a no-huddle hurry-up offense, but were having trouble moving the ball. On fourth down, they were still  seven yards short of a first down, but Max threw a quick pass to Kelly, who was tackled immediately. The officials had to measure and it was determined that it was a first down. "Whew!" thought Kelly, that will keep us alive for another four downs. The next set of downs went better and the Rockets found themselves just short of the 50 yard line, and the next set put them at the 30. The next three plays produced nothing. Suddenly, it was fourth and ten and the clock was down to seven seconds. They needed a touchdown and they needed it on the next play. Or else.

The ball was snapped and Max quickly passed it to Kelly, who scampered into the end zone. The crowd went wild, making the score 27-26, but the Rockets were now faced with a dilemma. If they kicked the point after, they could tie it up and take the game into overtime. On the other hand, if they were to pass or run the ball into the end zone, they would get two points and would win the game. Coach Rigatoni had one time out left, so he called the team over to the sideline to discuss his strategy. 

"We're gonna go for the tie," declared the coach. Max and Kelly, and probably most of the team, wanted to go for the win, but the coach was adamant. The kicker came out and they set up for a point after kick. It did not go well. The Bears blocked the kick, which flew straight up into the air. Kelly grabbed it as it came down and began to run toward the goal line, with three tough defenders blocking his path. He got past the first two, but then found himself facing Frank "the Tank" Callahan, the toughest defender in the league.        

The crowd was on its feet, ignoring the downpour, and the players were slipping all over the muddy field. Kelly suddenly remembered his judo training and deflected Frank's attack, send him flying to the ground behind him. Then Kelly ran into the end zone and spiked the ball. Two points! And with those two points, Kelly brought the Rockets their first state football championship. And keep in mind that he was only a freshman!

Kelly continued to impress in his remaining three years of high school. As a senior, he received many football scholarship offers from colleges all over the country. Kelly had never forgotten his dream of going into space and vowed to use his football scholarship to get the education and training that he would need for that. He rejected offers from UCLA, Notre Dame, Clemson, Ole Miss, Alabama, Texas, Stanford, and a half-dozen others, zeroing in on Purdue for its engineering and aerospace programs. Purdue has been called the "Cradle of Astronauts" because of the many who studied there, including Neil Armstrong, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1955.

Decisions, Decisions

In 1969, Kelly watched as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out onto the surface of the moon, 

reigniting his own dreams of going into space. The following year, Kelly earned the same degree as Armstrong had and then had to make a hard choice about his future. Kelly was considered a hot prospect for a professional football career, but knew that if he went down that road, his dreams of going into space would go up in smoke. Still, it would be hard to turn down the money and the glory that would likely flow from a pro football career, especially for someone like Kelly who had grown up poor. Surely, everyone thought, he would be crazy to turn that down. 

What was the alternative? Well, for Kelly, it was a career as an astronaut, and in those days that meant a career with NASA. He noticed that all of the astronauts in the early years of the space program had been either Navy or Air Force pilots, but NASA was beginning to look for non-pilot mission specialists.  

Kelly decided to apply to NASA in the hope of becoming one of those mission specialists. He knew that it was a long shot, that he would be just one of thousands to apply for a very small number of positions and the competition would be fierce. As it turned out, Kelly was not selected by NASA. However, he was offered a chance to join a secret military space program. He would train with NASA to become an astronaut, but would not be a part of the well-publicized space programs of the day. Instead, he would participate in secret missions of an unusual nature.  It would all be very hush-hush. 

Kelly accepted the offer and announced to the media that he would not be participating in the NFL draft. The press was agog at the news and demanded to know why. Kelly was not at liberty to say, since the agency he would be working for was so secret that it did not even have a name. ""No comment," said Kelly, who never spoke to the press again. He just seemed to disappear, leaving everyone in the country scratching their heads in disbelief. But for Kelly, life was about to become very interesting.  

For the next five years, Kelly and his fellow secret agents participated in missions to place spy satellites in space, to test secret space defenses, and to disable offensive weapons placed in orbit by America's enemies. There were also missions to investigate reports of UFOs and that sort of thing, but most of the anomalies were easily explained or simply classified as benign mysteries. The idea of visitors from outer space became a bit of a joke among agency personnel, but Kelly kept an open mind on the matter. 

For Kelly, this job was a dream come true. He loved the excitement of the launch, the feeling of being thrust upward into the heavens by a powerful force, the silence and weightlessness that followed and the incredible panoramic view of the earth below. Kelly could never get enough of that view! He even loved the fiery and somewhat terrifying return to earth, the splashdown in the ocean, and the retrieval by a Navy ship. There would be no glory for Kelly and very little money, compared to what he could have had as a professional football player. But that didn't matter to Kelly because he loved what he was doing. Yes, it was a dream come true.

Fly Me to the Moon

After several years with the agency, Kelly had become one of the most talented, dependable, and trusted astronauts in the force. He reported directly to the head of the agency, General Walter Risenschein. The general had the reputation of being as tough as nails and he he lived up to his reputation where most people were concerned. That was not the case, however, with Kelly. Risenschein treated him as the son he never had. He would often offer Kelly his choice of assignments, a courtesy he seldom extended to others. And when he had to pick someone for a particularly difficult or dangerous mission, he would almost always insist on Kelly. No one else would do. Such was the case one cold January morning when Kelly's jangling cell phone interrupted his peaceful slumber at precisely 3:17 a.m.

"Hello," mumbled Kelly, still half asleep. He figured that it was General Risenschein, who was the only person likely to call him that early in the morning. And he was right. 

"Kelly," barked Risenschein,"we need you. Report to my office immediately!" Then he hung up, leaving no indication whatsoever as to what he was needed for. Suddenly Kelly was wide awake, because this was unusual. He jumped out of bed, quickly got dressed and ran out the door.  There was very little traffic at that early hour, so Kelly raced unimpeded down the highway to agency headquarters. Pulling into a nearly empty parking lot, he parked his car and ran up the steps to the main building, then ran down the hallway to General Risenschein's office. 

"Kelly Jonsense," he said as he entered the room, "reporting for duty." He saluted as he spoke and the general returned his salute. "At ease," said Risenschein, who immediately began briefing him on the developing crisis. 

Astronomers had been tracking what appeared to be a meteor headed for a collision with the moon. They expected to see the creation of a new crater.  And then something strange happened.   

The presumed meteor slowed down and gently descended to the surface of the moon. And there it sat, just begging to be investigated. Meteors don't do that, but spacecraft do. And since it did not come from Earth, it had become the source of a great deal of excitement.

"Kelly," said Risenschein, "I can't think of anyone more qualified for this job than you. I want you to select a small team of astronauts to go up there and find out what we are dealing with. We don't really know what to expect. Could be little green men or an automated probe, an attempt to reach out in friendship or the prelude to an invasion. I want you to find out and I want you up there in five days. The trip will take two, so you have three days to select and prepare the crew. I will cut through the red tape to get you a rocket and all the other paraphenalia that you will need."

"Yes, sir!" said Kelly, snapping to attention and saluting smartly. Risenschein returned the salute, said "I know I can count on you" and then turned his attention to other matters. He trusted Kelly.

Kelly had never been to the moon, but he had always wanted to go there. As he left Risenschein's office, he found himself almost skipping down the hallway and humming the tune to the old Frank Sinatra song "Fly Me to the Moon."  He passed an elderly janitor in the hallway, who quickly took up the tune and began to sing the words: "Fly me to the moon / Let me play among the stars / Let me see what spring is like / On Jupiter and Mars." Kelly smiled broadly as he left the building.

Kelly spent the next three days selecting and training a crew for the mission. There would only be three astronauts, including Kelly, despite the imprtance of the mission. There was very little time to prepare, so Kelly wanted to keep it as simple as possible.  

It was only then, as he began explaining the details to them, that he really began to appreciate the importance of what they were doing. This wasn't going to be just a trip to the moon; it was going to be mankind's first encounter with an alien race. And Kelly was going to lead the mission.

Once that reality started to sink in, Kelly began to see that mankind might never be the same again, that this might be the biggest event in human history. What if the aliens were smarter than humans? What if they were so much smarter than humans that they saw us as no more important than bugs? Do humans care what bugs think? Would the aliens care what we think? What if they wanted to approach us in peace? What if they wanted to conquer us and take over the Earth? What if they pretended to be friendly when in fact they were plotting our destruction? Would we be wise enough know the difference? With all of these possibilities swirling though Kelly's head, he began to doubt his own abilities. The responsibilities he had been given lay heavily on his shoulders.

Three days after his meeting with General Risenschein, Kelly found himself and his crew strapped into a small spacecraft atop a huge rocket. Then it was "10 - 9 - 8 -7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1- 0 - ignition - lift-off" and they were hurled aloft by one of the mightiest rockets on the planet. A few minutes later, it was just silence and weightlessness and a sense of foreboding as they drifted moonward. 

Forty-eight hours later, the mooncraft was in lunar orbit and preparing for a descent to the Sea of Tranquility, the site of the landing by the mysterious celestial object. Everything went according to plan and the three astronauts landed about a kilometer away. Donning their spacesuits, they exited the craft and began the trek toward the object. When they were about a hundred meters away, they stopped and began to observe the object.

Visually, nothing appeared to be happening. It was just a shiny metal object, somewhat spherical in shape with a diameter of about ten meters. There were no electronic signals emanating from the object and, in fact, there was no evidence that it was doing anything at all. This was consistent with Earth-based observations, but it was somewhat puzzling. Clearly, this was not a natural object. It was designed and built by intelligent beings capable of lofting it into space. Perhaps the occupants, if there were any, had not survived the journey, but the fact is that no one knew one way or the other. Obviously, a closer examination would be required.      

The astronauts were unable to find a portal of any kind anywhere on the object, so the idea of just walking over and knocking on the door was out. "Perhaps," suggested Kelly over the radio, "we should just go over and knock on the hull to see if we can get a response." Everyone agreed, but it was decided to just send one person to do the knocking while the others remained at a distance, just in case the object had some kind of defense mechanism. "If that fails, we will have to cut our way in," cautioned Kelly, "and that could be a lot more dangerous than simply knocking on the hull."

Kelly volunteered to do the knocking, telling the other two astronauts to hunker down behind a large boulder. Kelly approached the object and when he was right next to it, turned around to make sure that the other two were behind the boulder. Then Kelly knocked on the hull. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light, so bright that it was even visible on Earth. Following the flash, both the object and Kelly were gone, but there was no apparent evidence of an explosion. With Kelly apparently dead and the object gone, the two surviving astronauts were ordered to return to Earth.