BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER

by Michael Mazzarelli

  Janet spoke first. “I just got back from Splendid China and there are at least thirty dead and hundreds suffering and probably going to die from this thing. I don’t mean to sound cruel, but how can we not afford to shoot them down, even if the pilots are in danger during attack mode.”

  Woods responded, “I understand where Janet is coming from, but I don’t think we should take the offensive and shoot anymore down, not at this time, anyway.

  “The first one discovered this afternoon did no damage at all to the ground and the F-10s were not attacked. The second one early this evening did all the damage after we shot it down, and there was retaliation. Going all the way back to when Jeff and Al first discovered these UFOs, what has been different?”

  Jeff said, “The one that showed up on radar was the one that caused the damage.”

  “Bingo! No radar picked up the first ship we took down this afternoon, but Harry called us on the one this evening,” Woods said. “We have at least three or more over the central Florida skies now according to those pictures, but has Harry or Air Blue picked them up? No! I still think that this one ship has had some type of mechanical problems and did all the devastation we have seen in the last few days.

  “Too, these ships seem to be robots. Maybe the small craft is the controller and was caught off guard when we shot down one of its high tech flying machines.

  It’s obvious that these aliens believed we could not detect them, until this afternoon when we shot one of them down. Once the controller realized one of his own was down, he was on full alert if any of our aircraft went after the ETs. I believe that’s why it went after our F-10s as soon as we fired on the second ship.”

  Janet said, “So even if they are friendly, do you still think they’re just going to sit around and wait to be shot out of the sky like ducks in hunting season? We destroyed two, maybe three of them today. I would think they now know we can detect them and are not going to sit by while we declare open season on their presence! We can’t take the wait and see attitude. We must shoot as many as possible down now while there’s still a chance. It might save countless lives.”

  General Stormer calmly said, “If we assume these aliens have been around for a long time and have been intentionally hiding so they are not seen by us and have not caused any problems, then should we believe they are now dangerous to the continued existence of planet Earth? We have two answers to this. One, they are friendly and are here for only reasons they could explain but don’t want to interfere with our evolution. Second, they have been looking for a weapon that will destroy us and finally found it and are testing it now. Which scenario fits, friend or foe? Did we take the first aggressive act by shooting an alien space ship down? In our eyes we were responding to the destruction they caused on several different occasions. But if they were not aware of the one ship that had a problem, then in their eyes, we are the aggressors, by shooting down two of their ships.

  “I’m not convinced one way or another.”

  Woods said, “Have we heard about any other devastation similar to what we have seen here, anywhere else in the world? If we have half a dozen UFOs in our area, are there others in different parts of the country, the world for that matter? I personally think we should get some answers before we go gunning for more aliens, as clearly, their technology is superior to ours.

  “General, would it be a good idea to have the CIA reposition that satellite to another part of the world encountering frequent lightning storms? If it picks up more of these floating stadiums and there have been no reports in that area of devastation, then I think the aliens are friendly—or at least not a threat unless we threaten them.

  “While we wait, if anymore damage is done around here or if the smaller craft starts shooting at us, then I feel we should attack everyone of these spaceships— especially the smaller one if that is feasible.”

  “Okay, I’m going with Agent Woods on this,” General Stormer said. I’ll tell the CIA command center to reposition over an area that Jeff finds to have similar weather to the Orlando climate this time of year. Any new aggression or devastation generated from UFO activity, we go after them. Otherwise we wait for the satellite results. I’ll put our F-10s and F-16s in the air around the clock to be ready if something happens again.”

  “Sir, I don’t want to be disrespectful, but jets in the air patrolling the area instead of being in the normal flight pattern into OIA might spook the remaining spaceships. I would just keep them mingled in with the commercial aircraft so as not to attract attention, but be close if something does happen,” Agent Woods commented.

  “Doesn’t that infer that the aliens cannot differentiate between commercial and military aircraft? And isn’t that ludicrous?” Jeff said.

  Nonetheless, the General agreed with Woods. Then, because it was late and he knew they all had a long day, he told everyone to get a good dinner and some rest before the next emergency popped up, as it surely would. Tired minds did not think rationally and right now he needed clear alert people at his side. “I’ll contact you by cell phone if something happens,” the General said. “Otherwise, I’ll see everyone here at 0700 for an update.”

  As soon as everyone left, General Stormer called the Director of the CIA. “I know you don’t like to here this, but I need you to reposition the satellite again.”

  “Not a problem, General, after I saw the first results, I knew you were going to need conformation of some sort. Besides, after seeing these things, I realized this could be a much bigger problem than just doing surveillance and testing over Iraq. The whole world is at risk here,” the Director responded.

  Agents Woods and Donemore, Jeff and Janet, although tired, decided to go together to get something to eat, maybe a stiff drink. Since the Air Squadron was just down the road and probably the most quiet restaurant in a city full of noisy tourists, they headed out straightway. Janet was describing the horrors they dealt with out at Splendid China, the death, pain and destruction obviously draining her to a point where she was speaking softly and at times almost in tears. Janet was sitting in the front seat and had moved closer to Jeff as he drove along; Agent Donemore did the same with Woods in the backseat. The dramatic events of the day and the destruction Janet was describing gave the women an overwhelming need to be close to someone they cared for, sort of a last date.

  Once inside the restaurant, they requested an isolated table near the window. Because of the late hour, they almost missed the cut off time for serving dinner, but it also had cleared the room of almost everyone. The hostess showed them to a booth next to the windows, overlooking the airport runways and asked if they wanted anything to drink before dinner. They all ordered wine, but vowed once this was over they were going to come back here and tie one on with stiff drinks at the bar.

  Janet started talking again about the disaster, that if this happened again, our air force had better bring down every one of the acid killing machines. Agent Donemore agreed. It was hard not to.

  Agent Woods replied, “I don’t think that’s going to happen again. Don’t you guy’s sense something’s missing here? Why would the aliens have tested such destructive power with only one ship, when they had at least six or seven in the area, maybe more? They must have known that if the one test worked, the devastation, injuries and people dying a horrible death was going to make us aware of their presence. Why not use all their ships and do a real test, like maybe take out the entire eastern seaboard?

  “I still think this one destructive ship is a fluke. The bigger question is what are they doing here. We’ve been inside two of the ships and there are no signs of any life form. One step further, it certainly doesn’t look like these ships are abducting humans and doing research on us because there is no one around to do the research. They just seem to be some kind of huge, probe robot ships that like thunderstorms and have gone out of the way not to be noticed until now, discounting of course the devastation from the acid rain first discovered by Jeff.”

  They were all
tired, too tired to comment on Woods’ remarks, the proponent most in agreement with Woods being Jeff, who was now half smashed on table wine.

  At 07:00 a.m., everyone was sitting in the control room waiting for General Stormer to come in with the morning brief. He was on the phone with the CIA Director, who was giving him the latest report. When he put the phone down, the General turned to the group, white as a ghost and said, “The CIA has moved the satellite to two different locations and found four in south Florida and three in the Bahamas. The time frames on the software analysis indicate that they’re not the same ships being picked up in central Florida, which means they have at least six to seven besides the half dozen in our area!

  “If that’s the bad news, the good news is that there have been no reports of destruction, not in the spots just cited or anywhere else. It looks like we’re infested with these things, but only that one out at Splendid China has caused any problems. We have not located our F-10s or the small craft that presumably attacked them. Maybe we’ll get lucky now that the sun’s up and we have light to help us search.”

  “Have our scientists found any clues yet that tell us anything about these aliens or their ships?” Agent Donemore asked.

  “Storms will be rolling in again around noon. Do you have any idea on what you’re going to do if these aliens show up here again? Jeff inquired.

  “No, and it seems they really didn’t want us to know of their presence. But now that we shot down two of them, I don’t know what to expect. The President is aware of all options and this very issue is currently being dealt with at the White House.

  “Some issues,” Stormer went on, “if they wanted to attack us, would they be able to do it without the cover of thunderstorms? What is the craft’s connection to the damned storms? I guess we’ll have to wait and see when the clouds roll in.

  “Even if they’re friendly, I’m real uncomfortable knowing there’s so damned many of them around.”

  “General, you have a PRIORITY RED (for your ears only) call on line two from the Secretary of Defense,” a voice announced over the speakerphone.

  “I’ll get it in my private office,” the General stated.

  9

  WHILE THE UNITED STATES WAS ABOUT TO MAKE history by proving UFOs existed, an astrological event bigger than anything ever witnessed in the history of astronomy was happening. Soon everything would seem insignificant compared to the momentous event about to unfold before the world. The 305 meter radio telescope at Arecibo in Puerto Rico, the site of the largest curved focusing antenna on the planet, was about to speak as never before, the world’s most sensitive radio telescope whose primary purpose was to monitor our solar system and deep space for signals from alien life. The first signals from deep in our solar system sent monitors and gages dancing. Alarms and printouts were seemingly endless. Something major was happening, but the technicians monitoring the instruments didn’t know exactly what, needing specialized scientists to review the information. Realizing the problem and importance of what was going on, the Arecibo officials sent out urgent calls as fast as possible.

  At the same time, Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona watched in awe as a spectacular event was unfolding. Pluto, the ninth planet in our solar system, only discovered in 1930 and lately in hot debate as to whether it really qualified as a planet or just a big ice ball. After all, Pluto was only slightly smaller than our own moon and, compared to its neighboring monsters Neptune and Uranus, it was insignificant in size or position. But either Pluto had a mind of its own and was extremely pissed off by these new insults of being downgraded to an ice bag or it never really belonged in our solar system in the first place, so it really didn’t matter. Either way, it was the topic of conversation from both Arecibo to Kitt Peak, Palomar to Mauna Loa. Pluto was moving out of its planetary orbit and seemingly closer to the sun. The concept was, however, impossible in the world of Einsteinian mechanics, but the photographic plate didn’t lie.

  The President of the United States had called a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after General Stormer’s 07:00 a.m. meeting to discuss the issue and whether Pluto’s movements might in any way be connected with what was going on over central Florida. Because of the events of the last few days, a conference call was set up between Washington and General Stormer’s control room. No one wanted to pull the General away from a possible alien evasion, but he had to be consulted on what to do about Pluto’s move, consulted in the sense of being appraised of an additional unknown variable in the equation. To be sure, the General was not an expert on astronomy, but the latest readings, as of the previous five minutes, showed that it was heading possibly toward Earth. All indications showed that the planet Pluto would collide with Earth in forty-eight hours, therefore eliminating the human race. Pluto was approximately thirty-six times further from the sun than Earth, and to traverse such a distance in forty-eight hours indicated a method of travel faster than what human minds could comprehend, something quite less than the speed of light, predicted in Einsteinian mechanics (E = MC2), but something approaching Earth at a speed rendering Earth technology helpless to do anything about in just forty-eight hours, for to travel the distance between Pluto and Earth in forty-eight hours meant the object would have to travel at the incredible speed of 75,000,000 mph, or approximately 1/10 the speed of light, thus covering the distance of 3.6 billion miles in two Earth days.

  “We don’t have anything in our arsenal,” the General said, “that could possibly destroy an object the size of our moon and traveling at such a mind-boggling velocity. Even if we could get all the countries of the world that had missiles and nuclear warheads to re-target, we couldn’t organize a coordinate launch in time to deflect the threat away from us. Hell, at an approach speed of 75,000,000 mph, we couldn’t even see it coming! If we launched too late, whatever that means, the explosions would only create smaller pieces that would still be too big for our atmosphere to burn up,” General Stormer explained.

  The President of the United States said, “You’re telling me that even with all the new top secret weapons at our disposal, including LASERs and new ion warhead missiles we have in orbit, nothing can be done to stop this thing!”

  “Sorry, sir, everything these new weapons were built for was to prevent missiles from reaching our soil from another country on our planet. We never expected something from outer space like an asteroid, let alone a planet, to collide with us,” General Stormer replied. “Nothing is impossible, but we’d have to come up with a plan with twenty-four hours, using the next six to twelve hours to put in place, and the last twelve hours to launch and pray that it can be hit far enough away from Earth that we are not inundated by deadly debris.”

  “God help us! I’ll contact the rest of the world leaders and tell them what’s going to happen. We’ll monitor the approach of Pluto and pray that a miracle happens in these final hours. I’ll also set up a press conference immediately so I can inform the American public,” the president said.

  “Our STAR WARS Weapons Systems are for in-atmosphere targeting, sir, and not intended to repel an invasion from outer space,” Stormer added. “I would insist, however, that you put our brain trust guys on the problem immediately and see what they can come up with, sir.” General Stormer returned to the meeting room and informed everyone about the conversation he just had with the leader of the free world. “We’ve worked so hard and looked for so many years to find other life besides ours in the heavens, to prove we were not alone. Now, as we are on the verge of proving that Man is not alone, we are about to be eliminated by a fluke of nature and, ironically, those we’ve searched for may now become the lonely ones. “We have two days before the collision. Those that have family and want to leave have my permission to go. If anyone wants to stay, we’ll keep working on the project at hand. I don’t feel like sitting around waiting to die, so I’m staying. Agent Woods, contact your team of scientists at each site and tell them the same thing.”

  Agent Woods looked a
round the room then whispered something to Donemore. She in turn nodded her head. “Sir, Agent Donemore and I would like to stay on, here, with you.”

  Jeff and Janet didn’t have to speak to each other, their eyes saying it all. Janet placed her hand in Jeff’s open palm and said, “We would like to stay on also, General.”

  General Stormer looked at his group and said, “I appreciate what you guys are doing. After the rest of the scientists are informed, let’s get down to business finding proof that life exists outside our solar system. I’ll accept death much easier if I know that mankind is about to be annihilated for a greater purpose.”

  The world’s attention turned to the heavens, to the stupid little ice ball planet named Pluto. Somehow this pea of a planet had moved out of its orbit around the sun and now headed on a trajectory intercept with Earth, forty-eight hours hence.

  Within two days all of us were going to die, in an instant, in one gigantic impact, Earth history would be over, no more searching for the mystery of the dinosaurs, no more Dead Sea scroll finds, no more debates between religious jealots and strutting atheists, no more NBA Lakers. To each individual, this meant something different. The people that had good moral fibre and believed in some greater being, began gathering their families together to pray and spend their last hours with the ones they loved. Others with no concern about their actions took it as a free ticket to do whatever they wished. They began breaking into stores, banks and cars, stealing everything they could get their hands on. The perverts and low life of society began raping women, torturing and killing at will. The police didn’t do anything because they couldn’t, or just didn’t care because they were headed out to be with their families for the last days of human existence.