by Ken Warner
“Who is with you?”
“Aliens. There are three aliens.”
“What do they look like?”
“They’re Malor. Exactly like the aliens from the invasion.”
“What happens next?”
“They’re bringing me to the butte. I still can’t move. I’m floating somehow.”
“What happens when you get to the butte?”
“There’s an opening. We’re going inside. There’s a tunnel.”
“What’s at the end of the tunnel.”
“There’s an elevator.”
“Do they take you inside the elevator?”
“Yes… we’re going down. Fast. We’re going down fast.”
“When you get to the bottom, and the door opens, what do you see?”
“Another tunnel.”
“They bring you down the tunnel. Where do they take you?”
“A room. It’s a big room. I see metal walls.”
“What is in this room?”
“Tables. I think they’re exam tables… like in a hospital…”
“Is there anyone on the tables?”
“Only on one.”
“Who do you see on that one table?”
“I don’t know. A man. An older man. He’s naked. I don’t know who he is.”
“Is he awake?”
“I don’t think so. His eyes are closed. He’s not moving.”
“What happens next?”
“I don’t know… it’s dark now… I can’t remember…”
“You wake up again. Where are you?”
“I’m still in the room. I’m lying on one of the tables.”
“Are you naked now?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anyone else here?”
“No.”
“Is the man still on the other table?”
“No… I can only see a couple of other tables… there’s nobody on them now.”
“Does anyone join you in the room?”
“Yes. The three aliens again. I think they’re the same ones from before. It’s hard to tell. They all look alike.”
“What do they do?”
“One comes over to me. He has something in his hand. I don’t know what it is. It’s egg-shaped… he’s holding it against my forehead.”
“What happens next?”
“He moves the device to my chest. He touches it against me again, over my heart this time.”
“What purpose does this serve? Why is he touching you with this device?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does it hurt?”
“No.”
“What happens next?”
“He moves the device again. This time to my abdomen. He touches me where the doctor found the incision.”
“Above your ovary?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what he’s doing with it?”
“No.”
“Does it hurt this time?”
“No… yes.”
“What does it feel like?”
“It’s a little prick… like a needle.”
“How badly does it hurt?”
“Only a little.”
“Are the other two aliens still here?”
“Yes.”
“What are they doing?”
“Nothing. They’re watching, I think.”
“Now, I want you to concentrate. Look very closely at these aliens.”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure they are there?”
“Yes… wait…”
“Can you see them?”
“No… there’s nobody there…”
“Did they leave?”
“No… I don’t know…”
“Think back again to when the alien first touched you with the egg-shaped device. He is touching your forehead with it?”
“Yes.”
“I want you to look at him very carefully. What do you see?”
“Nothing. There’s nobody here. I must have imagined it…”
“Is the device still touching your forehead?”
“Yes.”
“Who is holding it there?”
“Nobody. There is nobody here.”
“Does it move to your heart?”
“Yes.”
“Who moves it there?”
“Nobody. It moves on its own.”
“And does it move to your abdomen?”
“Yes.”
“Do you feel the pinprick?”
“Yes.”
“Who is holding the device?”
“Nobody.”
“Now, I want you to think very hard. Have you seen anyone here? Since you left the UFO, have you seen anyone else?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“The old man in the other bed.”
“He was definitely there?”
“Yes.”
“Nobody else?”
“Nobody else.”
“When you first arrived here and left the UFO, was there anyone on the ground with you?”
“No.”
“No aliens?”
“No.”
“Who moved you to the butte, into the elevator there?”
“I don’t know. I moved by myself.”
“Did you walk there, willingly?”
“No. I was floating. Something moved me, but I can’t see what.”
“Okay. We are back in the exam room. The egg-shaped device has pricked your abdomen. What happens next?”
“I can’t see the device anymore.”
“Where did it go?”
“I don’t know. It’s gone.”
“What happens next?”
“Nothing. I’m lying there for a long time. I can’t move. There’s nobody else here.”
“Eventually, does everything go black again?”
“Yes.”
“What happens when you wake up?”
“I’m moving down the tunnel again. To the elevator.”
“Do you go back outside to the desert?”
“Yes.”
“Is the UFO there?”
“Yes. It’s above me, in the air.”
“Do you go back inside it?”
“Yes. I’m floating up to it. Then I’m back in the metal room again.”
“Do they move you to the other area, with the pods?”
“Yes. They put me in a pod.”
“Do you see anyone else here?”
“No. I’m alone.”
“What happens now?”
“Nothing. I’m in the pod. But then I move back to the metal room again. The floor opens. I’m floating down to the ground.”
“Where are you now?”
“On the dirt road.”
“Is anyone else there?”
“No.”
“What do you see?”
“It’s dark out. I see my rental car.”
“What happens next?”
“I get in the car. There’s no room to turn around. I back up to the main road. I drive to the motel.”
“What do you do when you get there?”
“I go inside. I go to bed. I fall asleep.”
“Okay, Ms. Hastings. Now, we are back on the beach. Do you feel the sand between your toes?”
“Yes.”
“Do you hear the waves?”
“Yes.”
“Very good. Now, I am going to count to three. And then you are going to open your eyes, and we will be back in my office. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“One… two… three…”
Chapter Seventeen: Caught in the Act
Sydney opened her eyes. She looked around at Dr. Kumar, Brian, and Miguel.
“Holy shit!”
“Yeah, you can say that again,” said Miguel.
“That crime boss in Puerto Rico was right—there were no aliens there!”
“Dr. Kumar, why did she believe there were aliens there at first?” asked Brian.
“This is something
fairly common in cases where we lose memories in a traumatic experience,” he explained. “Remember, the initial memory loss is a defense mechanism for our brain. When the events are too overwhelming, when they cause too much stress, the brain can suppress those memories to diminish that stress.
“When we do finally begin to recover those memories, often the brain will supply details to help process or explain what has happened to us.
“The image of what an alien looks like has been embedded in our cultural consciousness, if you will, since the events in Roswell, many decades ago. And, of course, that image has been reinforced by the invasion because the aliens have turned out to look exactly as we expect.”
“You’re saying that my brain supplied a memory of the Malor because that was what I expected to see there?” asked Sydney.
“Yes, in part,” said Dr. Kumar. “But also, it was difficult for your subconscious to accept that these things could have happened to you of their own accord—being moved from one place to another, the device examining you. One would normally expect to see a person, or a being of some kind, in this case, performing those actions. That makes more sense, perhaps than what actually happened, and so the brain fills in the missing pieces.”
Sydney thanked Dr. Kumar for his time, and they headed out to the car. Her phone rang as they were pulling out of the parking lot.
“Hello, Ms. Hastings?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“This is Dr. Lee. We’ve run the blood work, and I wanted to go over the results with you. Do you have a minute?”
“I do!”
“Great. The metabolic panel was mostly good, but there were a couple of numbers that were a little off—still in normal range but at the low end. Entirely out of an abundance of caution, we decided to dig a little deeper.
“We did find traces of a compound we can’t definitively identify. I can tell you it is similar to a couple of other drugs we are familiar with—both of which suppress neural activity in various regions of the body.”
“Suppress neural activity… how, exactly?”
“Well, it could have any number of effects, from numbing pain to blocking certain motor neurons—creating a partial paralysis, to interfering with memory formation.”
“That is very interesting,” she said. “Did you find anything else unusual?”
“No, that was it. Otherwise, you are in excellent health. And the levels of that one compound in your system are very low—I wouldn’t expect you to have any lasting effects.”
Sydney hung up with the doctor and told Brian and Miguel what she’d found out.
“It would seem we are increasing our understanding of the what and how of these abductions, but gaining very little knowledge of the why,” Brian observed.
Sydney dropped them off back at the ranch and went into town for her MRI. She checked in and then met the technician a few minutes later. The technician had her remove her watch and earrings.
“Any other piercings?”
“No.”
“Anything in your pockets?”
“Yoga pants,” she said with a grin. “No pockets.”
“No metal zippers or rivets on any clothing.”
“Nope.”
“Does your bra have a metal underwire?”
“Not wearing one.”
“Okay, we should be good to go.”
She had Sydney lie flat on her back in the bed.
“Have you ever had an MRI scan before?” the technician.
“I have not, but I worked as a nurse for many years, so I’m familiar with the process.”
“Perfect. We’re doing a full-body scan, so this will take roughly sixty to ninety minutes. Some people experience claustrophobia in there. If at any time you’re feeling uncomfortable, let me know, and we can take a break and get you out of there for a little while. Any questions?”
“No, I’m ready.”
This process ended up taking a little over an hour. Sydney found herself feeling grateful for her slight physique. She could imagine how someone taller or bulkier would feel claustrophobic in such a tight space.
When it was over, the technician brought her over to the monitor.
“It’ll take a few days to fully process the results,” she told her. “There’s a huge amount of imagery to assess when doing a full-body scan. But, I did want to show you this.”
She moved through the images, then stopped on one, and zoomed in.
“This is the femur in your right leg, up near your hip. Do you see that dark spot?”
Sydney looked closer, where the woman was pointing. There was a small circular patch that was darker than the surrounding area.
“Yeah, what is that?”
“I can’t say for certain, but it looks like someone made a small hole in the bone.”
“Why would that be done?”
“The only reason I can think of is to collect bone marrow,” she said. “That’s usually done with a hollow needle, which could leave a tiny hole like this.”
Sydney went into the bathroom before leaving the facility. Pulling down her pants, she looked for a small incision on her thigh, like the one the doctor had found on her abdomen. Sure enough, she found one in the same area where the technician had found the hole in her femur.
“I’ll be damned,” she said, wondering now if there were others she simply hadn’t noticed.
Sydney drove back to the ranch. She sat down in the living room with Brian and Miguel and told them about the MRI.
“We’re getting a more complete picture of things as we go on,” said Brian. “It would seem whoever is behind the abductions is using a neural inhibiter of some kind to induce paralysis and possibly block memories.
“They’re taking scans or measurements of each victim, possibly monitoring brain waves and heart rhythms, and harvesting reproductive cells and bone marrow. And leaving a tracking device inside the body.”
“Why?” asked Sydney. “What could they possibly be doing with reproductive cells and bone marrow?”
“If they’re taking reproductive cells from the men, too, could it be some sort of human breeding program?” said Miguel.
“That’s possible,” said Brian. “That’s how in vitro fertilization is done. As far as the bone marrow, that is typically an excellent source of stem cells in an adult.”
“Stem cells… they’re the ones that can be used to grow into any other kind of cell, aren’t they?” asked Miguel.
“Yes,” said Sydney. “They can be used to grow heart or lung tissue, or muscle tissue, or many other things. The technology is limited so far, for us at least, but whoever is doing this would seem to have more advanced tech. So, who knows what else they might be capable of.”
“And at this point, who do we think ‘they’ might be?” asked Miguel. “Not them skinny gray aliens from the invasion?”
“No,” said Brian. “I’m becoming more and more convinced that the Malor may not have anything to do with the abductions, after all.”
“It’s the man in black,” said Sydney. “It’s gotta be. We’ve only seen one of him, but there could be lots more.”
“Do we know for sure he’s not human?” asked Miguel.
“No, we don’t,” said Brian. “But the evidence seems to be pointing in that direction. I know of military tech that would give someone the ability to scale walls the way we’ve seen. But I have no explanation for his ability to fly, or jump, or whatever it is he’s doing.”
“And his eyes!” said Sydney. “Those cat eyes definitely aren’t human!”
“But those could be contact lenses,” Brian pointed out. “We simply don’t have sufficient evidence to conclude, for sure, that the man in black is some sort of alien.
“We do know for certain that he can make himself invisible. And unless we want to believe that the probes used onboard the UFO are moving of their own accord, it would seem likely that other individuals share that ability.”
“So, there was someone there, doin
g the exams on us when we were abducted?” asked Miguel. “It was just that we couldn’t see them, and so our brains convinced us it was the grays?”
“Again, we don’t have enough evidence to draw any conclusions. But it does appear likely, I think,” said Brian.
“Okay, so what do we do now?” asked Sydney. “It would seem both Miguel and I definitely saw Monument Valley out there in the background, wherever it was that they took us.”
“But the military didn’t see anything else in the area,” said Miguel.
“True, but they were only looking above the ground,” Sydney replied. “Neither one of us remembers seeing any surface structures. Only the elevator inside the butte. There may not be anything on the surface to see.”
“Then how would we find the place they’re taking people if it’s underground?” asked Miguel.
“One would probably have to use ground-penetrating radar,” said Brian. “But that has a limit of roughly one hundred feet, so if their compound is deeper than that, we’d never see it. Moreover, that type of detection would only be possible from the ground. To the best of my knowledge, no satellite provides that kind of functionality. I saw a proposal for such a system several years ago, but it never came to fruition.”
“And trying to find the butte with the tunnel entrance in it would be like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Sydney. “Are we at a dead end here?”
“Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way,” Brian suggested. “Maybe the way to find the compound is to follow the UFO there—or one of the UFOs, if there’s more than one.”
“But how do we do that?” asked Miguel. “We have no way of knowing when, or where, they’re going to show up!”
“That’s not true,” said Sydney. “That teenager in Kansas—Owen—he said that they see a UFO go through there at least a couple of times per month.”
“That’s why we call it Alien Alley,” Brian added. “I think you might be on to something.”
“So, what, we start camping out on that road every night till they decide to show up?” said Miguel.
“Yeah,” Sydney replied. “Why not?”
“I agree,” said Brian. “If the two of you are on the ground there, and you let me know when the UFO shows up, I can access radar stations in the area and track the thing. It should lead us right to their compound.”
“Perfect!” said Sydney. “That’s it, then—let’s do it!”
Sydney and Miguel took the jet back out to Kansas the next morning. When they landed, Sydney rented a car again, drove Miguel out to his trailer, and dropped off her things there.