“Where am I?” Ray asked with a hoarse voice, recalling he was somewhere in Las Vegas, but exactly where in that city he didn’t know. He slowly sat up, his back aching terribly from the effort.
“You’re in a high-security interrogation chamber two stories under the Las Vegas Police Department,” replied Gotlieb calmly.
“Why?”
“The woman who called us said you were acting pretty weird and you might be violent. We can’t think about letting you go till we ask some questions,” replied Gotlieb again, his earlier sarcasm gone.
Suddenly Ray looked down and realized he was wearing the very garments they claimed he tried to steal from the clothing store.
“Hey! Why do I have these clothes on? I thought you charged me with stealing them!” Ray exclaimed.
“The manager took pity on you and let you keep them. What you had on before was so out of whack, you stood out in that mall like a sore thumb, according to the manager. I guess she got rid of your original garments. Quick-thinking lady, but I would have liked to have them here for evidence.”
Ray smiled for the first time since he arrived in the future and said, “That’s just peachy.”
“Yeah, I guess so, old man, but now we have to get on with the questioning. Some of these questions are gonna seem pretty weird to you, but we have to know the true story behind all this.”
“Ok, Captain. I have to tell you I’m not really myself. I’m tired as hell, and I’ve just had another dream.”
“Dreams? Yeah, we want to know more about those too. While you were sleeping, you were crying out loud about ‘Rockoids,’ alien attacks and calling out for someone named Zanther. Who’s that—your girlfriend?”
Ray just stared, sat back and sighed. Now everyone knew about his dreams. He figured he’d be a candidate for a straitjacket next the way he was carrying on.
“Okay, old man. First question: Do you own a hovercar?”
“No way. I never saw one of those things until you arrested me.”
“Why not? Do you like walking or do you just use public transportation? Was your license revoked?”
“No, I don’t have a hovercar because we never had anything like that in my lifetime.”
“Trying to tell us you’re from the past, eh? You really expect us to believe that bullshit? I’ll tell you what—it’s impossible! How could you have gotten here from the past if we’re not even close to discovering time travel yet?” Gotlieb asked, almost shouting. “Now tell me the truth! Did you stow away on a spaceship? Are you trying to infiltrate Earth?”
Gotlieb thought he was laying it on a little thick, but he didn’t want to put this strange fellow at ease, even for a moment. Clearly this stranger was hiding something. There was no way he could be a time traveler. Working time machines did not exist….at least there were none he personally knew about.
“Spaceship, are you kidding? Next you’ll be saying a tornado in an underground lab dumped me into that shopping mall,” Ray said matter-of-factly.
“Tornadoes, huh? You expect us to believe there are tornadoes underground, in a laboratory and they take you through time? You gotta think we’re pretty damn stupid here, buddy! Next you’ll be saying aliens abducted you from the past and dropped you into the future.” Gotlieb sneered at him.
Gotlieb began to suspect they had the biggest staggerhead of all in their midst…maybe he was even on Telnon-C (a highly addictive hallucinogenic drug manufactured on a distant alien world).
At this point, the scientist came forward, glancing sharply at Ray. Gotlieb was about to say something, but the scientist raised a hand to stop him, and asked, in a very serious fashion, “Y’all were in Area 51?”
Gotlieb protested. “I’m not finished questioning the suspect, sir.”
“Captain Gotlieb, I am your commanding officer, and when I feel like asking our guest some questions, I have the perfect right to do so. Now I’d appreciate it if y’all would just move aside…and that’s an order!” The scientist’s booming Texas-bred voice was sharp and direct as he gave Gotlieb a stern look.
The police officer started to say something, but quickly stopped himself, shutting his mouth so the words he truly wanted to say couldn’t be used against him later.
“I just wanted to know if there were really any alien bodies hidden there. The idea was bothering me, so I didn’t want to be…bothered any more.” Ray said, not betraying his true feelings on the situation in the least.
“Who told you about Level S4 and the a—,” the scientist started to say.
“Excuse me, sir!” Gotlieb interrupted, sounding increasingly irritated.
Ray was starting to believe the relationship between Gotlieb and the so-called scientist had more history that he first thought—and not a terribly friendly history at that.
After making sure Gotlieb and the scientist weren’t going to argue, Ray responded to the latter’s question, “Are you listening to me now?”
Ray continued without waiting for a response.
“Good. When I was in Level S4, I saw the Rockoid bodies.”
“Rockoids?” exclaimed the scientist and Gotlieb almost in unison.
“Isn’t that what the alien bodies you captured are called?” Ray asked.
“No. We speculated they might be Rockoids, based on what little intelligence information we had about them, but we never got a definite confirmation,” replied Gotlieb.
Gotlieb stopped in his tracks and laughed. “That’s really clever of you, Perkins. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“In my dreams that’s what they were called,” Ray said.
“All right, those dreams seem to be bothering you so much, why don’t you just tell us all about them?” asked Gotlieb.
“Now you’re a psychiatrist too, eh?” Ray retorted sarcastically.
Gotlieb glared at Ray, but said nothing.
“All right,” Ray sighed, “I’ll tell you what I can.”
Ray took a deep breath and began to relate the story about the onset of those horrible nightmares. He talked briefly of his military experience, his war injury, and treatment at a military hospital for problems the staff attributed to an undiagnosed psychiatric condition.
Ray told of his earliest dreams about the first Rockoid space battle and, especially, the face of that gorgeous alien woman with the haunting violet eyes.
Zanther!
Even as he spoke, he could see her face and figure. He wanted to call out to her, but held his tongue. She could only be an illusion!
There was no Zanther.
Or was there?
Ray continued talking for what seemed like several hours, interrupting his narrative only for brief periods for soft drinks and bathroom visits, and continued on in earnest.
Gotlieb and the scientist prompted the conversation with a few questions along the way, but for the most part let Ray continue all by himself.
Ray tried to recall as many details as he could, concentrating on the development of his computer game and how he wove the details of those dreams into the program. His explanation was only interrupted by a long-winded lecture on the part of the scientist, in which he told Captain Gotlieb about the “primitive” games in vogue during the early part of the twenty-first century.
As Ray finished the final part of his description, in which he told Gotlieb about the face of the Rockoid woman in detail, the captain grinned and said, “Been a long time since you got laid, old man?”
Ray’s anger intensified at that remark. At this point, in his already confused and frustrated state of mind, he was on the verge of punching Gotlieb out. Galvanized for action, Ray stood up abruptly, as the policeman tensed.
Ray thought better of it and sat down again, staring straight ahead. He realized that if he became violent now, there was no chance whatsoever that they’d let him go. Then again, what did it matter? Where could he go, what could he do? If this was truly the future, he was indeed a stranger in a strange land.
Ray struggled har
d to ignore Gotlieb’s sarcasm and said, “Okay, Mr. Police Captain and Mr. Scientist, what do you think of all this? Am I crazy or what?”
Both Gotlieb and the scientist sat back a moment in their chairs. Then they got up and went into an adjoining room, where they talked in an animated fashion between themselves for a few minutes. Briefly, it even looked like the two were arguing about something; their mouths were opened wide, as if they were shouting at each other.
Through it all, Ray heard nothing. Evidently, the walls were efficiently soundproofed. His intelligence-bred instincts took over and he looked over the interrogation room for some means of escape. A burly officer protected the single door at the far corner; could he overcome the guard? Probably not. He imagined that folk in this century had combat abilities way beyond what he knew. For sure, he would be subdued, perhaps injured, killed. Even if he managed to escape, where would he go? No doubt he’d be caught and incarcerated again, and maybe this time he’d be put away for good.
Ray could do nothing but watch and wait. He saw the police captain uttering a few words into his wristview (as Ray later learned the device was called), waiting, as Gotlieb seemed to receive instructions. He had a grim look on his mustached face as he continued to discuss the situation.
Gotlieb returned to the interrogation room alone, and took a long, hard look at Ray.
“Hmmm. I hate to say this, Mr. Perkins, but you got us in a real bind here. Many of the things you’ve told us so far are true,” said Gotlieb suspiciously. “Some of it is classified, meaning you’re either a spy from somewhere or you’ve tapped into some unknown source of information.”
“Yeah, you can call me James Bond….”
“James who?”
“Never mind.”
“You don’t think I’m a spy, do you?” Ray asked, almost in a state of shock.
“No, we don’t,” Gotlieb responded calmly. “All the evidence shows what you’re saying is legit.”
“Evidence?” Ray wondered what they knew.
“We use voice patterns to check for signs of deception, and you are definitely telling the truth—at least you think you are.”
At this point, Ray figured he’d better fess up and show his trump card. He could no longer hide a certain detail of his dream that had been bothering him ever since his interrogation began. Maybe it was important, maybe it wasn’t; he might as well get it out in the open in case there was any significance to his statement later on.
“All right, I left out one key detail. The aliens in my dream, the Rockoids…well…they didn’t attack us first. We attacked them.”
Gotlieb seemed almost shocked in his response, which was also tinged with derision. “That’s impossible! The Alliance never attacks unless it’s attacked first! That’s a hard and fast law. It’s the standard by which we operate.”
Gotlieb paused for a second.
“You break it, you’re thrown in the slammer for a few centuries!” exclaimed Gotlieb, almost laughing.
“Then why were all the other parts of my dreams true? Huh? Try to answer that one, why don’t you?”
“Honestly, I don’t have a clue. We do know that dreams aren’t always literal descriptions of a real event. Maybe your own personal fears are affecting your dreams. That’s something our psychiatrists are going to have to figure out.”
“You mean I’m nuts, right? If that’s what you think, maybe there’s no point in continuing this nonsense!”
Ray stood up.
“That’s it, I’m outta here. Bye!”
Before Ray could walk a single step, Gotlieb raised his hand, signaling him to stop. “Wait, Perkins! We don’t want to restrain you. You’re still in custody. Now calm down.”
Ray seethed with nearly uncontrollable anger. His breaths came fast, as he panted and sweated. The logical portion of his mind soon took over; it took another couple of seconds for Ray to regain control, but he sat down again, slowly, reluctantly, fighting his inner demons to remain as calm as he could under these crazy conditions.
“I’m okay, folks! Sorry, but this is just getting out of hand, that’s all. It hasn’t been one of my better days.” Ray tried to force a sickly smile that never got beyond a sneer.
“I quite understand, Mr. Perkins,” the scientist, who came back into the interrogation room at that moment, said. “Frankly, we’re not really sure what to make of you. We’re just trying to find out what this is all about.”
“Look, these dreams…I’ve got no control over them…none whatsoever. You tell me some of them are true, right?”
“We do know that dreams are a combination of your conscious experiences and your subconscious; it’s really hard to separate the real from the fanciful.”
As the scientist got into his spiel, it seemed as if his syrupy Texas accent faded and flattened. “Remember, back in your century—and for the sake of argument, let’s assume you really are from the twenty-first century—there were all those reports of alien abductions. People were hypnotized and came up with all kinds of strange stories about being taken aboard spaceships, meeting insect-like aliens.
“While we do know about an alien crash—specifically concerning the beings you saw at Area 51—we never had any evidence of aliens experimenting with humans. These Rockoids are really quite human-like in most respects; you’d hardly tell them apart cept for the gray-green color of their skin. We haven’t had much contact with them, but we do know they have the unique ability…”
“They are all able to sense when their fellow beings are involved in great tragedies, right, Mr. Scientist?” Ray interrupted.
The scientist’s eyes betrayed his surprise that this crazy character that claimed to come from the past honed in on this key element of the Rockoid psyche. Speechless, he could only nod his head in agreement.
“You still feel my dreams about us attacking the Rockoids first are illusions, right?”
The scientist paused for a few seconds, thoughtful, but no longer skeptical. “Listen, we really don’t know what the truth is. We’re just gonna to have to examine you further.”
“Ask me anything you want,” Ray said, staring in readiness at both, with a threatening glare.
“Okay. Let’s go on. Tell me again who you are, where you come from, when you were born, and your current place of residence,”
“Okay, my name is Ray Perkins, I come from Savannah, Georgia, I’m 33, and I live in Palo Alto, California.”
Ray started to get agitated again.
“Why do you ask me over and over? I’ve told you this half a dozen times already. Hasn’t it sunk in yet?”
“Here’s the deal, Perkins. We got a big problem with some of your claims,” Gotlieb chimed in.
“Your accent betrays a Georgia background, but the city you say you came from…well, I think something’s wrong there.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake? How do you know you didn’t come from Atlanta?”
Ray thought it was rather funny he wouldn’t be able to remember where he was born; maybe his captors believed his perceived insanity extended to his long-term memory as well.
Still, Ray decided to play along and answer. “My father took all of us to Atlanta many times for business. It was almost like a second home to me, but I’m really from Savannah. Why would that be suspicious?”
The scientist interrupted, “In World War III…”
“World War Three!” Ray shouted. “When the hell did that happen?”
“Can I please finish?” asked the scientist angrily.
Ray’s mouth began to open, he sighed and nodded his head slowly.
“Okay, we’re going to have to give you a fast history lesson. If you really are from the past, you’ve got centuries of history to catch up on and not all the news is pleasant,” warned the scientist.
“I can handle it,” Ray assured him.
“I hope so, but you had better take a deep breath. A lot of things have happen
ed on this planet that may be shocking to you.”
“Please, I’m a big boy now. Just spill the beans.”
“Very well, Ray Perkins. Let’s begin this way.” The scientist took a deep breath and dove right in, savoring every carefully calculated word he uttered. “World War Three occurred in the late twenty-first century, and it was probably one of the saddest events in human history. The war and its aftermath claimed well over five hundred million people. It took decades to establish peace and complete reconstruction around the world. We are better off today, of course. The people of Earth now live in peace. We no longer have border conflicts, and we are part of a large coalition of intelligent creatures from many races and star systems.”
Ray, instead of giving one of his own sarcastic comments, simply sat still in his chair, clearly dumbfounded at the incredible news.
His voice stammered slightly as he asked, “H-H-How did this all come about? Was it a nuclear war?”
The scientist continued, oblivious to his surroundings, as he relished the chance to teach someone something without being interrupted.
Ray remained utterly silent, in a state of near total shock as he continued to hear the horrible details of the most devastating war in human history.
The scientist’s expression remained grave, as if the entire war were something up close and personal to him; in truth, many of his ancestors had perished in that dreadful conflict.
He spoke of awful destruction, cities laid to waste, disease, famine, death.
The scientist told Ray that the city of Savannah was devastated during the war; its shattered landscape left barren. During reconstruction, what remained of the once great city was transformed into a huge cemetery and a war memorial for the victims of the dreadful conflict
In Ray’s mind, all he could see was fire, explosions, gunfire, cities in ruin, bodies strewn among debris, blood, severed limbs, images of human carnage beyond comprehension.
The scientist at last came full circle, “All right, now let’s get back to the answers you gave. This part about living in California, well…”
Attack of the Rockoids Page 7