Aliens in the Allagash

by Gary Striker

  “How do you know”, Jane stared with dagger eyes?

  “It’s my job to know”, Steve laughed, “I have an extraordinary talent, which provides a paranormal window into the future”.

  Jane looked mesmerized knowing that she was being fed a load of Slattery bull!

  “I have another gift of great significance that allows me to read the birthday card that your mom sent”.

  “Don’t make me use this finger”, Jane threatened as she pointed it at his lips and then poked him in the ribs.

  Steve and Jane decided to stop at Jim’s office on the way back to Eagle Lake to compare notes and plans.

  “Hey guys”, Jim greeted as Steve closed the door behind him. “I heard that you set the meeting on fire”?

  “More like a small atomic blast”, Jane clarified as Jim broke into a smile.

  “We’re expecting the equipment from Darren tomorrow. It should be here in the morning before ten o’clock”, Steve reaffirmed, “and I’ll keep you posted on any updates from the lab. I’m quite sure that Darren hasn’t slept since he got that thing. I plan to talk to him later.

  “Remember”, Jim said, “If you need anything or have anything going on tonight, we need to know about it, and darn quick. We’ll have patrols from Winterville, just south of you guys, to the border crossing at Fort Kent. The Canadians are also alerted. Anything that we spot needs to be shared immediately.

  “What has me concerned”, Steve said, “Is that they don’t know what they will be dealing with, and we do”.

  Jane looked inquisitively and thought the better of sensibilities, considering the unexplainable nature of what they encountered.

  “Why didn’t you just tell them that bullets have no effect on Martians”, Jane asked with a sly smile? “Let’s go home”.

  Despite the tenuous nature of recent events, a surprising calm overwhelmed Steve. After forty one years, he was finally with someone that he wanted to be with and in a place that fit like his Tony Lama boots.

  “I have a few of these emergency notices”, Jane commented, “Let’s stop in at the Bald Eagle and leave a few with on the desk. I need to pick up a couple things for dinner”.

  “What? No fiddleheads”? Steve looked perplexed.

  “You’ll get steak and like it, mister”, Jane said as Steve pulled into the Bald Eagle parking lot.

  There was quite a bit of activity in the parking lot with folks discussing the events of the day among themselves. Jane noticed Chad standing next to his State Police patrol car surrounded with inquiring locals. The Bald Eagle was also famous for its pizzas and the alien crisis was a definite boon for business. Somebody fabricated a sign for the entrance stating that closing was at 7 P.M., in about three hours. The loggers were called in from the surrounding areas and some stories were already circulating, but no incidents were report as of yet.

  “Let me grab a couple of things I need for dinner”, Jane said as they made their way into the small establishment.

  Steve was gathering up batteries and a few essentials should they lose power. He was thinking about his Southern California hurricane and earthquake preparedness days.

  “We could use a gallon of that denatured alcohol for the lamps”, Jane said as Steve picked up the container in front of him. He was amazed.

  “Back in L.A., they would drink this stuff, which is why it’s not sold there anymore”, Steve thought to himself, “but around here, these folks know how to survive”!

  “I knew you couldn’t resist a pizza”. Steve chided Jane as he opened the car doors.

  “It’s not for dinner, Wolf Man”, Jane said as she defended herself, “It’s for late night snacks. I have the next three days off and who knows what we might have time for”?

  “You had better get yourself some extra clothes”, Steve declared with a big smile, “Those could get torn to shreds if you keep talking like that”.

  Jane conversed with a few of the folks in the lot as Steve made his way over to Chad’s patrol car.

  “Hi Steve”, Chad said as he recognized the new face in the neighborhood. “It looks like we got the word out and everybody’s ok with it. They’re concerned, but no panic”.

  “Listen to me, Chad. Whatever we’re dealing with is extremely dangerous. Be on guard and don’t let up. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice quiet night. But if you need anything, call me, any time.

  “I appreciate that”, Chad replied in a thankful tone, “I’m working the area south of Wallagrass to Winterville. A patrolman friend of ours from the Madawaska force is stationed down there to help quarantine the area for the night. Steve, what’s going on around here? Are we dealing with more than just a maniac”?

  “I don’t know what we’re dealing with”, Steve replied, “But I do know that son-of-a-bitch shot behind the saw mill wasn’t one of us”.

  Chad looked wide-eyed and discontent with his sanity on the line.

  “You can lock me up after this is all over, Chad. For now, expect anything and avoid any type of encounter. We’re going to find out more about this thing in the next couple of days, I promise. For now, we just need to keep everybody safe, without anybody else getting hurt. We also need to know if there are any strange things going on outside of our area”.

  Chad and Steve shook hands as they bid each other a safe evening. Chad realized that his current duty assignment appeared to be way out of his job classification.

  “It should be like a ghost town around here tonight”, Steve declared as he drove the short distance to Jane’s house.

  The sun was starting to set through broken clouds as Steve hauled firewood for use in the woodstove and kitchen range.

  “Goddamn, it gets cold around here in a hurry”, Steve grumbled as he pulled his collar up.

  This lifestyle was a return to the roots of the pioneer days, or was it? The system seemed more practical, more reliable, and certainly more enjoyable than anything that hi-tech had to offer. And, as an added bonus, it all seemed to work better and with no hassles.

  “No electric? No problem”, Steve thought to himself, “We still eat and we still stay warm. Plus, it doesn’t hurt the romance factor, either”!

  Jane had changed into a sexy flannel nightgown devoid of underwear. She was busy getting the preparations for dinner in order, seemingly all at the same time.

  “I like that better than the elf suit”, Steve judged out loud, drooling at the nightgown.

  “Take me, you fool”, Jane exclaimed as she planted the big squeeze on her man.

  “Won’t this nighty be too hot for you when the place warms up”, Steve asked?

  “I’ll need a big smart sexy hunk to help me through that crisis”, Jane replied in a tone of desperation.

  Without a change of atmosphere or expression, Steve asked, “What’s for dinner”?

  “If I kicked you in that gorgeous butt of yours, you wouldn’t know why I did it”, Jane lamented and returned to her duties.

  “French Onion Ribeye Steak”, Jane answered.

  “Excuse me”, Steve questioned?

  “You asked me what we’re having for dinner, Einstein”, Jane reminded her honey.

  “I never realized that one person could be called so many names”, Steve questioned with raised eyebrows.

  “You are uniquely qualified”, Jane said while sharing her observation.

  While Jane prepared dinner, Steve cruised around the house on a safety mission, closing shades and securing locks. He stopped at a gun cabinet in the hallway next to the kitchen.

  “You have enough fire power here to blow Canada off the map”, Steve declared as he surveyed the weapons.

  “Those were my daddy’s guns. There’s more scattered all over the house”, Jane added, “He loved those things”.

  “Do you mind if we take one or two of these upstairs with us”, Steve asked?

  “Are you expecting company tonight”, Jane inquired?

  “I hope not. I’ve got big plans”, Steve declared with a wryly smile.


  Jane peeked around the doorway in a slinky Lauren Bacall move, taken right out of an old Bogart flick.

  Steve grabbed his woman and hoisted her into his arms. Jane couldn’t resist another thrashing at the hands of her idol and mentor, Miss Bacall, as Steve looked down at her.

  “What are you trying to do, guess my weight”?

  “No, honey bunches. The way you eat, I wouldn’t be able to do this after dinner”, Steve said as he took a bashing to the chest.

  Steve found two shotguns of choice among the ten guns in the cabinet. He also located several boxes of 12-gauge buckshot, which would be the perfect complement to a beautiful old Winchester Model-12 and a Remington Wingmaster.

  “Soup’s on”, Jane announced as Steve sauntered into the mess hall.

  “Damn”, he exclaimed, “You could bottle this aroma! I don’t need to eat, just inhale”.

  “Suit yourself, smartass! All steak leavings go to Cheyenne’s dog, Max”.

  Steve considered his options.

  “That dog is gonna get real skinny if he’s depending on me for leftovers”, Steve assured his chef.

  Dinner was pleasant with candle lights and wood fire. The thought of anything ominous lurking in the future was far removed.

  “You could get very accustomed to having me around here”, Steve said in humble fashion as the cleanup chores proceeded.

  “There is that possibility, towel boy, since your cleanup skills have improved considerably”, Jane observed in her usual sarcastic mode. “I’m just torn to pieces about my unexpected time off. What will I do with myself on these long lonely nights”?

  “Let’s discuss that upstairs like two normal sex crazed adults”, Steve said with a straight face.

  “Well, one adult, for sure”, Jane returned with her usual victory smile.

  Jane was removing her new Aztec earrings and admiring the bracelet while pondering the moment. Steve kicked his boots off and slumped back in the easy chair.

  “When did we sleep last”, Steve asked wistfully while consulting his watch, “It’s almost ten o’clock?

  “Wrong question”, Jane corrected with a smiley sneer”, “It’s when will we sleep again, caveman”?

  “Where do you get all these names”, he asked with a puzzled frown?

  Steve sat on the bed waiting for his woman while staring out the window. Something had gotten his attention.

  “Steve, your jacket’s moving”, Jane said as she pointed to the corner chair, “Look, there it goes again”.

  “What the…” Steve began in a puzzled state as he focused on the jacket.

  “Do you hear something, kind of like a buzzing sound”, he asked?

  “You must have mice in here”, he said while carefully picking up the jacket. “Shit, there’s something in the pocket!

  Steve dumped out a metallic blue bead about half the size of a marble. It vibrated across the floor with a slight glow.

  “That thing was wedged in the seam of Marie’s saddlebag”, Steve recollected, “I thought it was a piece of her jewelry. It looks bigger now”.

  At that moment Steve’s phone rang.

  “I reckon there’s no rest for the weary”, he confirmed.

  “Hello Darren”, Steve answered after consulting his caller I.D.

  “Sorry to call so late. I ‘m at the Cal State research lab with a few of my old colleagues. The Crime Lab got shut down”.

  “What’s up”, Steve asked?

  Jane had been watching the bead dance across the floor, which then stopped moving.

  “We moved the Correlator over here this morning. It has been dormant since the event at the Crime Lab, which, by the way, has been trashed and temporarily closed”.

  “Darren”, Steve interrupted, “I found something in Marie’s saddlebag today. We visited the bike shop where they have it on display. I didn’t think much of it, just a small bead, as I assumed it was a piece of jewelry. Tonight the damn thing started vibrating on its own and walked across the floor. I’m looking at it now. It’s not moving”.

  “Listen to me”, Darren emphasized, “You need to get that thing away from your house now. I mean right now! Let me hang up. Call me back as soon as you can. Move”!

  “Will do! Call you in a few…”, was Steve’s signoff as he got dressed.

  “What’s going on, Steve”, Jane asked after an adrenaline rush?

  “I don’t know. Darren wanted me to get that thing out of here and away from the house”, as he pulled his boots on and scooped up the bead.

  “I’ll be right back, stay here”.

  Jane watched Steve trot over to lake and apparently toss the bead into the water. As he turned to head back, peculiar pulsating lights illuminated the area, then quieted.

  “It’s a bit too early in the season for the Northern Lights display”, she thought.

  Steve made it back to the house where Jane met him at the front door.

  “Darren called back. I answered your phone”, Jane said as she put it into his hand.

  “Yes, Darren, this is Steve”.

  “Oh, thank goodness, you’re ok”, he said with a voice of relief, “We’ve been performing a multi-mode spectral analysis of the Correlator. We have it in a quiet room where it can be studied without outside radio signal interference”.

  “Darren, what are you talking about”, Steve asked in a confused state”.

  “Steve, this thing is trying to communicate with somebody! We have a hybrid spread spectrum of signal activity, some of which is exceptionally high power”.

  “I’m not comprehending, Darren”, Steve said in a perplexed tone, “Who’s trying to talk to who”?

  “The Correlator is transmitting on a broad band of very high frequencies, and apparently some that are beyond our reception capability. These are regularly repeating sequences, similar to how we send digital wake-up calls, as to what your phone responds to, for example. But, here’s the catch…the transmitted signals are part radio spectrum and part light emission. The industry is currently working on laser light communication technologies that are being developed for the next generation of space craft. What we have achieved is elementary compared to what this Correlator is capable of”.

  “Ok, Darren, what’s this all have to do with that bead that I just tossed into the lake”, Steve queried?

  “The Correlator is now sitting in a quiet chamber. Radio frequency and light signals are severely inhibited from leaving this room, or getting into this room. This thing is trying to communicate with somebody or something, and it’s waiting for an answer”!

  “Holy crap”, Steve announced!

  “Under high power magnification, we found beads as you describe, but much smaller. They are embedded in a substrate channel of sorts, similar to transmission lines in our ultra-hi-tech equipment, but much more complex. They appear to have coded visible signatures in a binary pattern”.

  “I’m losing you again”, Steve emphasized in an effort to understand what he was dealing with.

  “Steve, a binary pattern is nature’s most elemental and significant means of discriminating one identical object from another. This is an incredibly substantial discovery! We feel that each one of these beads, or globes, as we call them, is part of a vast communication network. Collectively, they represent a full deck of playing cards. If one is missing, somebody will know about it.

  “How does that affect us”, Steve asked as Jane sat at her kitchen work table taking it all in?

  “From the series of events as you described, and considering the activity of the globe that you found, plus the current state of this Correlator, we feel that somebody is trying to communicate with these devices”.

  “Well, this is incredible, Darren, but you always have a punch line. What is it”?

  Steve and Jane sat at attention, awaiting the inevitable, as Darren rejoined the conversation.

  “The globe that you described is incredibly large by comparison, but by no means as big as it can get, if necessary”.


  “Now what are you talking about”, Steve asked in his usual lost voice?

  “It grows and shrinks as we would expect a living organism to behave. It also has a radioactive isotope signature that we can’t identify. We don’t know exactly what they were designed for, but they appear to be multi-purposes devices. Again, and hypothetically, based on their density, we feel that these globes possess an exceptionally high level of potential energy. The size of the globe that you found could possess the equivalent energy level of a fifty megaton nuclear device”.

  Steve stared at Jane in a daze, pondering their immediate future.

  “Darren, does this mean we’ve had it”, Steve inquired?

  “No, I don’t think so. They only seem to generate whatever power level is necessary to complete a specific task, nothing more, like simple communications that we have observed. The Correlator is becoming more active as we have now contained it, and that globe you found has obviously grown to its current size for a reason. As I said, we feel that somebody is trying to locate these devices. Gotta go, talk to you tomorrow after that package arrives”.

  Darren signed off as Steve and Jane were left staring at each other.

  “Can I tear your clothes off now, sweetheart”, Steve asked with a curled lip?

  “You may remove them gently, you brute”, Jane said as they headed up the staircase.