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waiting aide.
    *   *   *
    It was an hour before dawn in the mountains of western Montana when a large black saucer came drifting down the valley just a hundred feet above the ground. In the meadow near the lake, the saucer came to a stop in a hover and the gear snapped down. The saucer settled gently to the ground.
    Adam Solo exited the saucer through the belly door, carrying a backpack in his hand, and duckwalked out from under it. He stood silently, listening and looking as his eyes adjusted to the near-darkness. A chill wind blew from the west, swirling down off the peaks, but the sky was clear. Looking up, Solo saw the Milky Way, a billion stars flung like a ribbon across the sky. The moon was down, so they looked extraordinarily bright.
    After a long moment, Solo climbed up on top of the saucer. In seconds it rose gently from the ground and the gear came up. As Solo balanced himself on the sloping deck, the saucer moved slowly out over the lake, then gently submerged itself until only the top was above water.
    In seconds the refueling door opened and water began pouring into the saucer’s tank. Air came out of the tank in burps and bubbles. The starlight was just sufficient for Solo to monitor the progress of the refilling and to ensure no foreign objects floated into the swirl of water entering the refilling port.
    When the water ceased to swirl and all the air bubbles had stopped, the door of the refilling port closed and the saucer rose slowly from the water, inch by inch.
    Solo directed it to land again in the meadow. The landing gear snapped down and the saucer came to rest within inches of the spot where it originally landed. Solo carefully climbed from the saucer and stood in the grass with his hand on the curved leading edge.
    Without conscious thought, his hand gently caressed the leading edge, running back and forth as his fingertips felt the cool, dark surface while he looked around in all directions, waiting.
    Is the water tank full?
    Yes.
    Finally, satisfied that there were no people about, no witnesses, he slapped the saucer as if it were a horse and said aloud, “Go.”
    The saucer would be safe in orbit, out of the reach of everyone on earth who wanted it, except, of course, Solo, who could summon it back whenever he wished. If he wished. He wondered if he ever would.
    He turned his back on the machine, picked up his backpack and walked away as the saucer rose several feet from the grass. He turned around in time to see the gear coming up as the saucer began to move forward.
    In a swirl of dead grass and dirt, it began rising from the earth, accelerating slowly, and turned to an easterly heading. It was several hundred feet high, heading east up the valley, when he lost it in the blackness.
    Solo looked around again, then began walking around the lake to the south. There should be a road over there, he thought, and a camping area. Perhaps there were people.
    He had just reached the dirt road when far to the east, near the crest of the peaks, the saucer’s rocket engines ignited. The light reached him well before the sound. Rising slowly, then faster and faster, the saucer roared into the night sky.
    Now the sound washed over him, a deep throaty rumble, impressive with its power.
    Solo watched the rising fireball until it disappeared behind the highest peak. He waited for his night vision to return as the thunder of the engines faded.
    When the night was again completely silent and dark, he turned and walked on down the road. Ahead of him in the camping area, lights were popping on. Now he heard voices, carried a long way in the crisp autumn night.
    They must have heard the saucer too, he thought and walked on, toward the lights and voices.
    *   *   *
    The president was on his stationary bicycle in the White House gym, pumping the pedals and sweating, when an aide found him. “Mr. President, something, probably a saucer, just went into orbit from western Montana. Space Command tracked it. It