by James Octavo
Gifts From The Stars
by
James Octavo
Published by James Octavo
Distributed by Smashwords
Copyright © 2015 by James Octavo
All Rights Reserved
Cover illustration Copyright
Val Krash/Shutterstock
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Other Titles by James Octavo
‘The Legend of Lor’s Lost Tribe’
and
‘When Is A Video Game No Game’
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - California
Chapter 2 – Nevada
Chapter 3 – Utah
Chapter 4 – Colorado and Kansas
Chapter 5 – Dog Days in More Kansas
Chapter 6 – We’re Not In Missouri Anymore
Chapter 7 – Ground Zero
Afterword and Other Titles
Chapter 1 – California
Out of a California forest, more than a dozen whooping and hollering people come running. They each carry colorful gem-like crystals of various sizes from pebbles to baseballs. All the pieces sparkle with various colors and intensity of colors from aquamarine, minty cubes to lemony citrine. They have diverse shapes from hexagons to spheres to octagons.
Even dogs carry the glistening pieces in their mouths, running toward a clearing where other people sit at wooden picnic tables.
“Let's see what you got there,” a white-haired man says while his dog runs to him with a orange cylinder. Behind the dog, a teenager with a yellow pyramid follows and falls exhausted on the bench.
“You won't believe this, gramps,” the boy says as the man takes the cylinder from the dog's mouth.
“There are thousands of these in the woods. Everyone's picking them up. What do you think they are?”
“Hmm. It feels like a gem.” He pulls out reading glasses, squints his eyes and rubs them. “I must be seeing things. They look like the crystals I saw on the news yesterday.”
“On the news?”
“Yeah. People at a Pacific beach thought they were rich when they saw baubles like this washing ashore.”
“Were they?”
“Don't know. The news lady said they brought some to a gemologist. But still no answer.”
“Where’d they come from?”
“No one knows. They first thought they fell off a container ship.”
The teen taps on his phone. “They don’t say anything more about it on the ‘net.”
“Let's see the one you picked up. Maybe the material's different.”
As the other people approach the tables with their objects, they gather around the white-haired man.
“Okay, you're the chemistry teacher,” a lady in the crowd asks. “What are they?”
“Don't know. Some look like precious stones. But they could just be industrial gems or common crystals.”
“Well, come back with us. You need to see this,” she says, pointing to the forest.
Hiking back to the woods, the teacher sees the reason for the excitement. Spread over the forest, thousands of the objects blanket it, turning it into a bright polka-dot patchwork. More eerily, others stick in the trunks of trees as if they grew from them like moss or mushrooms, giving the woods the look of a magical fantasyland.
“It almost looks like a neon autumn leave fall.” The teacher leans over to pick up more of the gems.
Hundreds of trees glow with the bright yellow, orange, and green shapes attached to them.
“This can’t be right,” the retired teacher says. “I can understand a joke on one tree. But how could it be done on this many?”
“And they don't look like someone placed them,” his grandson says. “There's no seam where bark begins and a crystal starts, like they sprouted.”
“Don't talk nonsense,” the older man says. “These are mineral or artificial in nature.”
“I tell you, I tried to remove them and they won't budge. It's like the tree and objects are one.”
“You're right.” He pulls hard on a blue sphere impaled in one of the trees. “But this can be done with plastic mixtures.”
“No. Not when there's thousands of them. Think of the work needed to place each one.”
“Whatever it is, we’re not going to understand it.” The teacher rubs dirt off a red ruby and raises it to the light.
“How about calling Aunt Nora?” the grandson asks.
“She’d be the one to ask. With what I tell her, she might bring her whole department out here,” the teacher says, noticing people fighting over the objects.
“Even her goofball boss Dan?”
“Well, he’s her boss. And they do like each other.”
The next morning the group of scientists arrive at the California forest, now crowded with food vendors, curiosity and wealth seekers digging, trading and searching for their own rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. The scientists at the site, some with suits and ties, others wearing lab coats over suits, while some looking casual in jeans and sweatshirts digging around the trees and ground.
Leading the group, Dan Ophelder, a tall, well-dressed man digs with a hammer and chisel in a tree. Next to him, examining a bark encrusted purple star is his colleague Nora Jonston draped in a simple but stylish dress.
“Dad was right. This is incredible.” She twirls her long brown hair while she stares hard at the star. “These pieces on the ground have smooth surfaces. But the ones in trees combined on their surfaces with parts of the tree, as if the objects and trees intertwine like roots in the earth.”
“Yes. Both retain their separate chemical properties. Maybe a plastic mold mixture,” Dan says.
“No. This can’t be plastic mixtures.” She takes one of the blue opals and puts it on her chest. “Look. They’re beautiful. I could wear it on a chain as it is.”
“You’re right.” He blushes. “Beautiful. But why would people do this. Think of the expense. And what about the ones in the ocean?”
“It is crazy, isn't it.” She holds up another gem up to the sun and looks through the filtered light, seeing it sparkle.
“This one looks like a Citrine. Do you know what Citrine means?”
“Like citrus?”
“It’s Latin for gift from the sun, because of its yellow color.”
“Hmmm? I doubt they’re gifts though, unless a rich eccentric is throwing away his money. It is like dropping money out of a skyscraper causing rioting on the street.”
“I already saw some people fighting over them. Some guys are trading them like sports cards and one guy is sitting over there meditating with his.”
While the scientists examine the scene, a young man runs towards them, almost falling, out of breath, handing his cell phone to Dan.
“Slow down. What’s wrong?”
“It's happened again. This time in a town about 200 miles east of here in Nevada.”
“You look pale. What did he say?”
”They want us there now. The National Guard's will send helicopters to pick us up.”
“National Guard? Why?”
“They said something bad happened.”
Can
't they wait? We just got here for God's sake,” Dan says.
“Nope. It's too big. They have a crisis and need our help.”
“Great. This is not what I wanted to hear. They're going to turn this into some damn military operation.” He shouts hitting the hammer against the tree. His anger remains even when the helicopters arrive, and he only mumbles a few acknowledgements as the National Guard commander directs them aboard.
“Why are you so upset?” Nora asks and jumps aboard the chopper.
“Because science will take a back seat to the military.”
“What do you mean? They need our help.”
“It happened to me before. They wanted me to examine a new form of Virtual Reality. It was awesome. But they brought me in a dishonest way. I almost wanted to quit.” (Author’s note. See the ebook ‘When is a Video Game No Game’).
“I didn’t know. You did sound so glum when you returned from the mission.”
“Yeah. So we probably shouldn’t even go,” he says as he climbs aboard.
“No. This is big. They wouldn’t fly us in copters unless it’s huge.”
“I don’t know. It might be good to get out of our labs.”
“Even scientists have to get along with people.” She musses his hair while the green machines climb into the sky. She looks out and smiles as the ground shrinks away. “Besides, this is the first time I get to fly in a helicopter. I think it's grand.”
Chapter 2 – Nevada
When their helicopters approach the small Nevada town, the scientists see it resembles western towns of old with small storefronts, including a general store, an ice-cream parlor, drugstore, post office and even a two-pump gas station. But descending, they realize this is no longer a normal town. Everywhere the pieces glisten. While the helicopters land and the scientists jump off, townspeople run to them, pulling them, pointing them toward the scene.
“Please. You’ve got to help us,” a pleading sheriff says. “Our town's been destroyed.”
Dan and Nora look at the scene, then each other in confusion.
“It looks bad,” Dan says. “But it doesn’t look destroyed.”
“Come with us. We’ll show you.” The sheriff grabs Dan’s arm.
Walking to the scene, their anxiety increases seeing the level of devastation.
Hissing sounds and the smell of natural gas and gasoline fill the air. The objects destroyed lines and tanks. Even the town's water tower is polka-dotted with pieces, letting it empty out like an open fire hydrant.
On buildings, in the road, even in the windows they see the same sparkling crystals infesting the forest 200 miles away. The objects cracked some of the windows, but most look as if someone glued them to the glass.
Stuck in the road, the objects glisten like jewels in the sun. A fire hydrant spouts water from small cracks one had pushed. The town is eerily quiet except for the hissing broken lines. Drivers abandon their cars, since they can’t drive them on the jeweled road. People walk staring in awe at the chaos of the objects stuck everywhere.
“Come with us in the post office,” one of the town's officials tell the stunned scientists.
Entering the 19th century building, they see pieces throughout the walls, glass dividers, ornate ceilings and hardwood floors. But it’s the scene in back of the post office holding everyone’s attention. Sitting on the floor surrounded by physicians, is an elderly man calmly sitting with a blue pyramid imbedded in his thigh.
“My God. Has this happened to anyone else?” Dan asks.
“Don't think so. He was the only person in the business district this morning when it all happened,” the sheriff says.
“Will he be alright?” Nora asks.
“We think so,” one of the doctors say. “It didn't appear in his bones or arteries, only fleshy tissue, so he'll be keeping his leg unless there's infection.”
“Thank goodness. But how did this happen?” Dan asks.
“We’re hoping you can tell us, Ophelder. But if not, maybe you can figure out what he's saying. Talk to him. Because what he says sounds more like magic or madness.”
Dan places his hand on the man's shoulder.
“Hi, partner. How are you doing?”
“More scared than hurting. It really doesn't hurt much. But what happened? Is this one of your atomic tests gone bad?” the postmaster asks while he stares toward the street.
“No. To be honest, we don't know what it is. Tell us what you saw. It might help us understand,” Dan says.
“Well, I was here sorting mail around 6:30 this morning when I saw a flash of light fill the entire area,” the man says waving his arms.
“It was mainly a hot, white light and I felt tingling like electricity. The light lasted a few seconds, then the things appeared out of nowhere, all at once. They just popped out in mid-air. Some fell to the ground and others appeared inside of things. It sounded like the town was groaning as they popped inside of everything from windows, doors, ceilings…me. Everything, all at once., I was so stunned by what I saw, I didn't feel the one stuck in my leg. Basically, that was it. Everything went quiet except for settling sounds when the buildings tried to adjust.”
“How does it feel in your leg?”
“More like a numbing feeling like ice. Like it's a part of my skin. It feels attached to me like an adhesive band-aid. Will you be able to remove it?”
“The doctors will,” he says taking one last look at the strange crystal looking like a translucent knick-knack floating above exposed muscle underneath. “They're going to take you to the hospital now to remove it. We think the material itself isn't toxic and won't dissolve into your body. Meanwhile, we'll try to figure what happened,” Dan says as he pats him on the back and walks toward Nora and the other scientists.
“Well, what do you think?” Nora whispers.
“I don't know what to think. There was nothing I could tell them. They're going to airlift him now.”
“It's incredible. The crystal sealed all the skin, muscle, and other tissue so there's no bleeding. But how is it happening? What can do this?” She looks at the bejeweled chaos.
“It's beyond any science we know. Crystals we can't identify, appearing at random out of thin air? We can't answer how it's happening. We might try why,” Dan says.
“There is one thing.” Nora pulls out a map. “I don't think it's random. I’ve diagrammed the events. Look at this. The forest site in California is 192 miles due west of here. 192 miles west of there was the sightings on the beach.”
“You think in another 192 miles east it’s going to happen again?”
“If it’s going to happen I think it's probably the place. Let's measure to see where it is on the map,” she says as her finger moves across the page.
“It appears to cut a straight path east. Damn. It's right outside Provo Utah,” Nora says, looking stunned.
“They’ll need to evacuate,” Dan says. “We better call whoever needs calling and explain how bad things could get.”
“Outside a major city, it could be disaster. What else should we do?”
“We need to bring every sensing device you can imagine. Radiation and seismic detectors, Night vision glasses, strain gauges, wide-spectrum cameras.”
“You’re sounding out of control? Aren't you getting a bit carried away?” Nora asks.
“Do you want to explain why thousands of people may die with crystals in their bodies, because we failed to figure it out?”
“We’ll also be using the best tools of all.” She points to his and her eyes.
“True. But observation may not be enough.”
“When you say it so serious…So when do you think it’ll happen?” Nora asks while she jots down the equipment list on her tablet.
“We received the Nevada call about one day after your dad called. So if the place is correct maybe the time is. They should evacuate today.”
“Is there time to evacuate?” Nora asks.
“When they realize what will happen, they'l
l leave.”
“In the meantime, what can be done for the people of our town?” the sheriff asks.
“Not much,” Dan says taking one last look at the crystal confusion.
“Just shutdown all utilities for now. Later, check buildings for structural damage and remove the objects from windows and pressure bearing lines. You'll have trouble removing them from brick or metal. But you can jackhammer out the ones in the road.”
“Since the crystals aren't any further threat, I don't see why we should hold you back any longer. Good luck in Utah.” The sheriff pats Dan’s shoulder.
Chapter 3 – Utah
When the helicopters lifts off again, Nora sits next to Dan. “What do you make of the man's story?”
“If what he says is true, we're the wrong people for the job. They need a magician or exorcist.”
“Ha. Always the jokester. But there could be known science for this.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’ll save my ideas for Utah.” She bites her tongue. “I want to observe the event first.”
Later, at the suburban site in Utah, the scientists begin to set up equipment while National Guard units begin evacuating citizens. But many people stay at the edge of barricades to watch the unfolding drama. Some sit up lawn chairs and portable radios and aim their cell phones and tablets at the evacuated area, chugging beer and hot-dogs.
“The mayor says dozens won’t leave their homes, because they don't believe it'll happen. I still can't believe it,” Dan says.
“Show pictures of the town we just left. They’ll run out of their houses,” Nora says with crossed arms.
“But even so, they'll want to see it. One thing I don't know is if we picked correct boundaries. The crystals appeared in a 1,200 feet circle in the forest and the town. Did we put the barricades far back enough?” Dan asks as his eyes scan the neighborhood.