Day 4
1 October 1956
Yakutsk, Siberia, USSR
“Good. Can you tell me about the events in the clearing now? How did you get there?”
Jennifer begun to retell the story, much more confident this time, as she didn't need to lie and had prepared for this in advance. “I was in the forest, lost, cold and alone, and heard voices in the distance. So I went towards them. I heard gunshots after some time, a few I guess. After that, I heard thunder, then some screaming. I think they were startled.
“Visibility was low. It was difficult to see with the snow falling in my eyes. I may have already been in the clearing by this time, but I didn't see anything. I was focused on trying to avoid tripping or stray branches. Eventually, though, I caught sight of some of the people standing, wearing coats and hats. Three, perhaps. One of them was carrying another person who wasn't protected from the cold. As soon as they saw me, they started to leave. They fired in my direction to cover their departure. I froze, then dropped to the ground to prevent from being hit.
“On the ground I saw two people. Male and female, I believe. Both were dressed for the cold and snow. One was motionless, the other, the man, said something I didn't understand. It took a bit for me to do anything about this. I was shaking, my heart beating rapidly.
“After the other people left, I made my way to the man. He was injured, shot in the leg. I told him I was lost, that I didn't understand what he said, that I needed to stop his leg from bleeding. He told me to take his coat and hat and go towards the east, there was a city about an hours walk away. I was so tired, my focus had shifted from saving myself to saving him. I told him I didn't think I could walk that far. On his suggestion, I tied his leg with his belt before falling unconscious.”
Jennifer paused and grabbed the clipboard with her drawings. She took out one of the clearing. “Here, I have some diagrams of what I remember. They may be difficult to read and inaccurate, but hopefully they are still helpful.”
Ivan took the drawing, looked at it, then folded it up and put it in the back of his notebook. “Thanks. Is this all you remember? Could you get any details of the attackers?”
“No. … Well, I think they had fur hats and coats. They had boots as well. I don't know the colors, but they were not bright. I don't recall much else. … I am sorry I can't help more.”
A story of an American woman who finds herself in the past in Siberia. Picture book format, currently updating twice a month. View the story posts in chronological order with the archive tab.
23 October 2018
14 October 2018
Initial Arrival 30
Day 4
1 October 1956
Yakutsk, Siberia, USSR
Ivan came back later, perhaps about half an hour later. Jennifer was no longer crying. He sat down and took his notebook out again. “Do you want to continue?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He opened his notebook again. “Before coming here, what was your job?”
“I worked for the air force, a civilian, programming computers and doing calculations.” Jennifer had rehearsed this, so she knew what to say. The truth is more unbelievable and would hurt more people if believed. But she was still embarrassed to lie and uncomfortable with lying. And she couldn't control her reaction, so this would have been obvious to anyone watching her. There was nowhere to run, so she just hid.
Ivan, however, either didn't notice or didn't care this time. “Where did you work?”
“Is this relevant?” This is never going to work. I can't do this. But she did remember some things based on her discussion with the man from the clearing. “Cheyenne Mountain Complex, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.”
“How did you get to Siberia?”
“We flew in a plane.”
“We?”
“My brother and I were there, with some of the soldiers.”
“Why were you there?”
“We were in a plane. I got into an argument with some of the soldiers. They didn't like me. They called me a communist sympathizer. I think they considered my brother to be complicit as well, since he was the one who helped get me the job. So they knocked us unconscious and threw us out at some point with very little gear.”
“That seems very unusual.”
Upon contradiction to statement, Jennifer panicked. She knew he would be able to tell she was lying by her inability to hide her discomfort. As her brain was panicking, one of her thoughts she managed to state out loud, “But how else would I have gotten here?”
“But why would they risk entering Soviet territory? Or giving one of their people to the enemy? How did you even get past the radar?”
“I don't know much. And spy planes have been sent which evaded the radar. I don't know how these things work.” After a long pause, she remembered something. “I think there is one which flies at higher altitude, like 60,000 ft., maybe.” Jennifer believed Ivan didn't understand as he didn't respond immediately. So she thought for a bit, doing the mental calculation. “About 18,000 m.”
“You didn't fall from that height, though, right?”
What am I supposed to know of how these things worked. “I don't know.”
“And what happened to your brother?”
It was the first time Jennifer felt she didn't need to lie, at least not completely. This let her calm down a bit. “I don't know. He … dropped … first. But, when I got to the ground, he wasn't in sight. I never saw him again.”
1 October 1956
Yakutsk, Siberia, USSR
Ivan came back later, perhaps about half an hour later. Jennifer was no longer crying. He sat down and took his notebook out again. “Do you want to continue?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He opened his notebook again. “Before coming here, what was your job?”
“I worked for the air force, a civilian, programming computers and doing calculations.” Jennifer had rehearsed this, so she knew what to say. The truth is more unbelievable and would hurt more people if believed. But she was still embarrassed to lie and uncomfortable with lying. And she couldn't control her reaction, so this would have been obvious to anyone watching her. There was nowhere to run, so she just hid.
Ivan, however, either didn't notice or didn't care this time. “Where did you work?”
“Is this relevant?” This is never going to work. I can't do this. But she did remember some things based on her discussion with the man from the clearing. “Cheyenne Mountain Complex, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.”
“How did you get to Siberia?”
“We flew in a plane.”
“We?”
“My brother and I were there, with some of the soldiers.”
“Why were you there?”
“We were in a plane. I got into an argument with some of the soldiers. They didn't like me. They called me a communist sympathizer. I think they considered my brother to be complicit as well, since he was the one who helped get me the job. So they knocked us unconscious and threw us out at some point with very little gear.”
“That seems very unusual.”
Upon contradiction to statement, Jennifer panicked. She knew he would be able to tell she was lying by her inability to hide her discomfort. As her brain was panicking, one of her thoughts she managed to state out loud, “But how else would I have gotten here?”
“But why would they risk entering Soviet territory? Or giving one of their people to the enemy? How did you even get past the radar?”
“I don't know much. And spy planes have been sent which evaded the radar. I don't know how these things work.” After a long pause, she remembered something. “I think there is one which flies at higher altitude, like 60,000 ft., maybe.” Jennifer believed Ivan didn't understand as he didn't respond immediately. So she thought for a bit, doing the mental calculation. “About 18,000 m.”
“You didn't fall from that height, though, right?”
What am I supposed to know of how these things worked. “I don't know.”
“And what happened to your brother?”
It was the first time Jennifer felt she didn't need to lie, at least not completely. This let her calm down a bit. “I don't know. He … dropped … first. But, when I got to the ground, he wasn't in sight. I never saw him again.”
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