Author’s Note: To mark the first anniversary of the publication of The Lightning in the Collied Night, I offer you with a wink and a smile a micro-story that is based on the first scene in that novel’s sequel, The Loss of What Is Past. This story depicts an event that might have occurred one year after that scene, had Loss not ended as it did.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
SPOILER ALERT: There are spoilers below for The Loss of What Is Past.
January 23, 1961
Jack Kennedy gazed through his office’s three tall divided-light windows at the snowflakes wafting gently down from somber clouds onto the South Lawn of the White House. Just what we need—more snow, he thought ruefully. Most of the eight inches of snow that had inundated Washington for his inauguration three days earlier was still on the ground. The day had dawned gray and frigid; Kennedy was looking forward to the sunny skies predicted for later that morning.
He swiveled his high-backed chair away from the windows. As a voracious reader and student of history, he was familiar with the rich heritage of the imposing, timeworn mahogany desk in front of him—the Theodore Roosevelt desk, as it was known. He’d read it was the first desk ever used in the Oval Office and had been used by every president from Teddy Roosevelt through Dwight Eisenhower, except FDR. Kennedy appreciated the desk’s legacy, but he knew Jackie was less than fond of it, to put it mildly.
She loathes this old desk, Kennedy thought with a hint of a smile. And not just the desk; the first lady had told him the interior of their new home “… looked like it’s been furnished by discount stores.” She was planning a complete restoration of the White House and was combing every nook and cranny of the old executive mansion for a replacement desk. Teddy, I hahdly knew ye, Kennedy thought wistfully as he patted the scuffed, dark wood desktop.
His thoughts were interrupted by a buzz from his desk phone. He punched the illuminated button and picked up the receiver. “Good mawning, Evelyn. Hahhppy Monday.”
“Good morning, Mr. President,” the cheery voice of Kennedy’s long-time personal secretary Evelyn Lincoln replied through the phone. “Admiral Burke is here for his appointment; Dr. Dryden is with him. Shall I send them in?”
Kennedy raised his eyebrows in surprise. He knew Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh Burke wanted to see him about what the admiral had described as “a matter of national security.” I wondah, why is Dryden with him? Hugh Dryden was serving as acting administrator of NASA until James Webb moved to Washington to assume the administrator role.
“Ah, yes, Evelyn, please show them in.” Kennedy rose carefully from his chair; the cold, snowy weather was doing no favors to his troublesome back.
After welcoming the visitors to his office, Kennedy motioned toward the two sofas in the center of the room as he headed for his rocking chair and sank slowly into it.
“I’m glahhd to see you, Doctah Dryden, if a bit surprised,” Kennedy said to the round-faced man with wire-rimmed glasses. “Before we get to the ahhdmiral’s topic, would you give me an update on Mercury?”
After glancing at Burke, who nodded slightly, Dryden replied, “Certainly, Mr. President. As you know, Navy Commander Alan Shepard was selected a few days ago as the primary pilot for the first manned space flight on Mercury-Redstone 3.”
Kennedy turned to Burke, “You must be wicked pleased about thahht, Ahhdmiral.”
“Can you tell, Mr. President?” the square-jawed man with graying blond hair said with a grin.
“Will we beat the Soviets, Doctah?” Kennedy asked. He was aware the Soviet Union was scrambling to be the first nation to launch a human into outer space.
“I believe so, sir. We’re aiming for late March for Commander Shepard’s flight. We’re working on resolving some issues from the test flight with Ham the chimpanzee while we await delivery of Redstone 3 at Cape Canaveral. We don’t think the Soviets will be ready before April.”
“Good. Thahhnk you, Doctah Dryden. Please keep me up to date on Mercury, ahhnd Gemini ahhnd Apollo also.”
“Of course, Mr. President.”
“Ahhnd now, Ahhdmiral,” Kennedy said as he turned toward Burke, “what is this mahhttah of nahhtional security you wish to discuss?”
Burke shifted slightly on the sofa, glanced at Dryden, cleared his throat, and looked at Kennedy. “Mr. President, I assume you know about the voyage of the bathyscaphe Trieste to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench one year ago today?”
“Yes indeed, Ahhdmiral. I’ve read awl about the courageous journey by Lieutenahhnt Wahhlsh ahhnd Mr. Piccahhrd. My congrahhtulations to you ahhnd the Navy for thahht historic accomplishment.”
“Thank you, sir. But, there’s something about that voyage you don’t know about, because it’s classified Top Secret.”
Kennedy’s eyebrows raised again. “What is thahht, Ahhdmiral?”
“Walsh and Piccard found something odd at the bottom of the Challenger Deep: a metal sphere, about six feet in diameter.”
“A sphere?”
“Yes, sir,” Burke replied. “President Eisenhower directed the Navy to investigate. We worked with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to send one of its research vessels there four months ago. The vessel was able to pull the sphere to the surface using a magnet attached to a reinforced sounding cable. It was brought to Naval Base Guam for study. NASA was brought in after preliminary investigations found something … startling.”
Kennedy cocked his head to one side. “Ahhnd what was thahht?”
“Sir,” Dryden explained in a low, strained voice, “the sphere contains technology that is far beyond our capabilities, or those of any other nation on Earth. We haven’t been able to determine its purpose.”
“Could it be some sawt of weapon?”
“We think that’s unlikely, Mr. President,” Dryden replied. “The closest comparison to present-day technology is a space capsule. But it doesn’t have any controls, propulsion systems, or other equipment we’d associate with a spacecraft. It has what appears to be a makeshift seat, and there’s a small titanium sphere inside the larger sphere. We haven’t been able to figure out the purpose of the smaller sphere, either. Except … it bears a slight resemblance to a Soviet device—a tokamak.”
Kennedy’s eyes opened wide. “Tokamahhk? Isn’t thahht used faw nucleah fusion?”
“Yes, sir,” Dryden confirmed. “The Soviets first demonstrated nuclear fusion in a tokamak a few years ago. But that device was over three times larger than the small sphere the crew of the Trieste found. And we detected no residual by-products of nuclear fusion.”
Kennedy smiled slightly. “Ah you saying this is a UFO? But not a flying sausah—a flying sphere?” I wondah if they’re playing a joke on me … maybe Bobby put them up to this. Kennedy knew his younger brother, who had just been confirmed as attorney general, delighted in playing jokes on him and other family members.
“Not necessarily, sir,” Dryden replied. “There are other possibilities.”
“Such ahhs …?”
Dryden paused, glanced at Burke, then looked again at the president. “Its origin may be from Earth, but … Earth of the future.”
Now I’m certain they’re playing a joke on me, Kennedy thought. I’m going to get you for thahht, Bobby! But despite being irritated that the chief of naval operations and the acting NASA administrator were wasting his time on his fourth day as president, he decided to play along with them, for a while at least. Maybe it’s Bobby’s way of lessening my stress a bit. “Why do you think thahht, Doctah Dryden?”
“Well, sir, we’ve disassembled the electrical components and studied them; we used a microscope on some of them. A few components have writing on them—English writing, and Arabic numerals. On one component, we found what may be a date of manufacture: 23 March … 2145.”
With that revelation, Kennedy realized his visitors were likely not joking, and a chill shot down his spine. “Time trahhvel? But thahht’s just the stuff of science fiction, isn’t it? Is it even possible?”
“Einstein’s theories of relativity suggest that time travel to the future is possible, but he didn’t explicitly state that backward time travel is possible,” Dryden explained. “It certainly is not possible with current science, nor any science we’ve even dreamed of.”
Kennedy stroked his chin. “I see …. What, ah, what do you recommend we do about this discovery, gentlemen?”
Burke spoke first. “Sir, I recommend we continue to keep this under wraps. There’s no telling how news of such a UFO, or time machine, would affect Americans and the rest of the world in these Cold War times. There’s already paranoia about UFOs.”
Kennedy nodded once. “I agree, Ahhdmiral. What’s the best way to do thahht?”
“The Defense Department has a maximum-security, Top Secret underground research facility in New Mexico, at Walker Air Force Base near Roswell. I understand that Air Force Chief of Staff White was going to brief you on it later this week.” Kennedy nodded, and Burke continued. “I believe that would be the best place to keep the sphere while further research is conducted.” Kennedy looked at Dryden, and he nodded in agreement.
“Awl right … I’ll tawk with General White about it. Keep me apprised ahhs you learn more.”
“Yes, Mr. President,” Burke and Dryden said together.
Kennedy thanked the two visitors and shook their hands, and they left the Oval Office. He stepped slowly over to the windows behind his desk and noticed filaments of sunlight straining to penetrate the dense, low clouds. As he thought about his strange discussion with Burke and Dryden, his phone buzzed. He punched the flashing button and picked up the receiver.
“Yes, Evelyn?”
“Secretary Freeman is here for his appointment, sir.” Former Minnesota Governor Orville Freeman had nominated Kennedy for president at the 1960 Democratic convention. He’d just been confirmed as agriculture secretary.
“Thahhnk you, Evelyn. Please tell Orville I’ll be right with him. Ah, could you please get a copy of the recent movie with Yvette Mimieux, the, ah, The Time Machine, for Jahhckie ahhnd me to see this week or next?”
“I’d be happy to, sir. Rod Taylor is in it, also.”
“Ah, yes, right … Rod Taylah.”
“Harold and I saw it last year—it’s quite good.”
“Tell me … did the time machine look like a sphere?”
“No, nothing like a sphere. Why do you ask, sir?”
“Ah, just wondering. Thahhnk you, Evelyn. Please send Orville in now.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kennedy hung up the phone, turned around to face the windows, and leaned forward on a table. UFOs, time machines, secret bases in the desert …. I wasn’t expecting THAHHT when I rahhn for president.
Then a smile spread slowly across his face. If thahht sphere IS from the 22nd century, it means mahhnkind will survive the Cold Wah—we woan blow ourselves to kingdom come in a nucleah holocaust!
He recalled the message he’d received from Nikita Khrushchev a few days after the 1960 presidential election. The Soviet premier had congratulated Kennedy on his victory and expressed hope for an improvement in U.S. and Soviet relations. I need to send a lettah to Khrushchev. It’s time we met ahhnd work togethah to build a safah world … one without nucleah weapons. A line from his favorite scene from Henry V popped into his head: All things are ready if our minds be so.
Lincoln opened the door to the Oval Office. “Mr. President, Secretary Freeman.”
Time to get bahhck down to Earth, Kennedy thought as he straightened up and turned to greet his new agriculture secretary.
Resources:
1. (… timeworn mahogany desk …) Wikipedia. “Resolute desk.” Accessed August 15, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk.
2. (… Evelyn Lincoln replied.) Wikipedia. “Evelyn Lincoln.” Accessed August 17, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Lincoln.
3. (Admiral Burke is here …) Naval History and Heritage Command. “Admiral Arleigh A. Burke.” Accessed August 15, 2025, https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/people/chiefs-of-naval-operations/admiral-arleigh-a—burke.html.
4. (… Dr. Dryden is with him.) Wikipedia. “Hugh Latimer Dryden.” Accessed August 15, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Latimer_Dryden.
5. (… on Mercury-Redstone 3.) Wikipedia. “Mercury-Redstone 3.” Accessed August 15, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_3.
6. (… the bathyscaphe Trieste …) Wikipedia. “Trieste (bathyscaphe).” Accessed August 15, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trieste_(bathyscaphe).
7. (… a Soviet device—a tokamak.) Wikipedia. “Tokamak.” Accessed August 15, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak.
8. (Secretary Freeman is here …) Wikipedia. “Orville Freeman.” Accessed August 17, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orville_Freeman.
9. (… from Nikita Khrushchev …) Wikipedia. “Vienna Summit.” Accessed August 15, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Summit.
10. (… scene from Henry V …) Shakespeare, William. “Henry V.” In Folger Shakespeare Library, edited by Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles, 73. Accessed August 17, 2025, https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/henry-v/read/4/3/.
(Image courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Public domain)
