Aliens in the Allagash

by Gary Striker

  “I want you to uphold your contract, now”, Jane commanded as they made their way up the stairs.

  “Are you asking me to go to bed with you, woman”, Steve asked with no smile?

  “I’m not asking”, Jane responded.

  “What do you think the chances are of us getting to spend the entire night in the sack”, Steve asked?

  “Those space monkeys had better not mess with me tonight”, was all that Jane needed to say.

  Aliens in the Allagash

  Chapter 25

  Valued Possession

  Jane was showing Lucy the fine art of cooking breakfast over an open fire, which included traditional flapjacks, bacon and eggs, and All American home fries. The coffee pot was also heating over the grill as Cruz and Steve returned from the Bald Eagle Convenience Store.

  “They’re not doing so well over there”, Steve said, “They just about wanted to give away their refrigerated items”.

  With no power for twelve hours, storing perishables was becoming impossible. Steve and Cruz brought back three gallons of milk, five pounds of butter, juices, and a variety of other foods that would otherwise need to be discarded. The only way they could keep the foods fresh was to store them in an outside shed, which Jane had already done with her refrigerated items.

  Jane had received a call from ‘Duty’, informing her that power was still an issue and the source of failure had not yet been determined. In addition, several units of the 28th Infantry Division arrived and were being staged throughout Fort Kent. Various pieces of armor were parked in the police department lot. Deputies were assisting with this effort. The Battalion Commander was in route and expected soon. All military air mobility traffic was grounded. The town folks were in the mode of ‘wait and see’ as Fort Kent took on the appearance of a military base.

  The Valley was in the news. The reporters were forced to be vague, as all communications out of the Saint John’s Valley were being monitored and classified. Gard’s news story did not air as he intended. Both area cell phone service towers were disabled for general public use and only local land line connections were available. Long Distance service was not in order. The Valley had been quarantined and essentially cut off from the outside world!

  Darren and his colleagues spent the night in the holding area with the creature. He set a ten o’clock meeting time in the Department’s conference room. Activities were also heating up in the outlying areas as the switchboard was busy all night, but without any major incidents. One peculiar thing was noted in that the big game animals were scared out of the woods and were now seen frequently roaming the streets of Fort Kent.

  Cruz and Ming wholeheartedly enjoyed their first breakfast in the North Country. Cruz pitched in with the cleanup chores as Steve was having a hard time dealing with the reality of that scene. He passed it off as a first time for everything, or perhaps he never really knew the inner man.

  “We better get a move on it if we’re going to make Darren’s meeting. It must be damn important for him to tear himself out of his jail cell lab”, Steve deduced.

  The drive into Fort Kent was picturesque as usual, but there was something very odd about the trip as everyone was sensing.

  “Have you seen so much as a bird”, Jane asked?

  “Nothing’s moving”, Cruz confirmed.

  “Something is getting ready to come unglued”, Steve said, “I can feel it”!

  Darren entered the meeting room as the entire group assembled, including every member of the original Recon Squad. The emergency generator had been supplying power since the blackout, allowing the three scientists to continue their work. ‘Duty’ closed the doors behind him as Darren and his associates began the meeting. Jane was a bit disturbed at their appearance, since it seemed obvious that sleep was not one of their agenda items.

  “You all look like a sack of spoiled moose meat”, Jane said as everyone found humor in her statement, except Jane. “I don’t want to be hauling your sorry butts out of here in the back of an E.M.S. van”.

  The threesome looked each other over and couldn’t find a point of argument in Jane’s observation. Nobody interrupted her as she continued.

  “How long have you guys gone without sleep”, Jane interrogated?

  “Hell, I don’t know”, Liam responded, “What day is it”?

  They agreed to sleep in four hour shifts for as long as was necessary, beginning right after the meeting. Jane was satisfied with the response as Darren began the meeting.

  “We were able to reasonably anaesthetize the creature in the oxygen deprived atmosphere of the closed containment room. It has a similar effect as to removing the Correlator device that Steve recovered from one of the creatures at the saw mill. This does not mean that he is under control any more than when we first encountered him. In fact, quite the opposite is true. He’s achieved near full processing power. We took advantage of this current condition”.

  “What did you do”, Steve asked?

  “Last night we confirmed our first communication with the creature. It was a remarkably simple proceedure as this thing was already familiar with our mathematical processes. We initially hoped to trigger a response of any kind by transmitting two separate binary digits and looking for an induced analytic response, like maybe a sum or mean average value of the two numbers”.

  “Then what happened”, Cruz inquired?

  “It responded with a whole numerical progression of more than a million finite numbers between zero and one. We thought that was pretty interesting since Cheyenne’s love angel was actually interrogating us. It was quite a surprise to find out who possessed superior intelligence, and it clearly wasn’t us”, Darren concluded.

  The group laughed at the Cheyenne association and then returned to the business at hand.

  “What’s this going to get us”, Jim asked with a confused expression?

  “Wait! We then asked it to validate an addition problem with a simple yes or no response. We simply asked the thing if one plus one equals three. Then it went nuts! We got at least another million responses of numerical combinations that would satisfy the equation”.

  “I think we’re all having a hard time understanding where this is going”, Steve stated.

  “We’re getting to the juicy part”, Liam informed the group. We digitized a photograph in the same binary row/column format as the Arecibo message and transmitted it to the creature. This is what we got back”.

  Dennis passed around several digitized images to the group as they gasped and went silent.

  “This is the original image that ‘Duty’ supplied from his investigation records”, Darren pointed out.

  “Oh my God”, Cruz said in disbelief, “It’s Marie”!

  Indeed, the creature responded with archived images of their subject in various poses that she was put through during an apparent examination process.

  “Is she alive”, Cruz asked in his most demanding voice?

  “We asked that very question”, Dennis answered, “or at least we think we did in such a format that would produce a yes/no response. Inspection of multiple frame images showed some amount of self-animation on her part, we think. We resolved the process to a dilemma”.

  “What was that”, Cruz blurted out impatiently?

  “Our definition of life and their definition of life appears to be quite different”, Dennis answered, “We don’t know”!

  Cruz stared at nothing as the room went silent.

  “There is one more thing”, Liam added, “We feel that a rescue or escape effort may be imminent, based on the repeating radio/laser light messaging transmissions that the creature is currently executing”.

  “It sounds like we’re in big trouble”, Bob concluded as Darren took center stage.

  “Maintaining control of the creature is vital, if we would like to think that there is any hope for us. By whatever means, we must insure that it cannot escape. This cannot be allowed to happen, under any circumstances! It is our only link to thei
r civilization. Without it, we’re dead meat”!

  “Wow”, was Jim’s response, which spoke for everyone in the room.

  The silence was interrupted by an intercom message from the dispatcher looking for ‘Duty’. He answered the intercom and was informed that the Battalion Commander, Major Greer, was in the reception area. Major Greer was escorted to the conference room where he appeared in full dress ‘Boots and Utes’, or what would be more familiar as a standard utility dress uniform.

  Following introductions, Major Greer was led to the containment area and appraised of the critical no-fail security requirements and high threat level imposed by the creature.

  “Seeing is believing”, the Major stated, “But in this case I would like to think that my eyes are playing tricks on me”.

  “No tricks, sir”, was all that ‘Duty’ needed to say.

  With that, Major Greer began assessment of his own resources through the Sat-Com communication system. He ordered that a defensible perimeter be immediately established around the police headquarters building as well as a first line fortification surrounding the town with heaviest concentration on the Ben Lake side. Tactical defense and surveillance equipment was emplaced at high terrain elevation points for an optimized strategic advantage. All regular infantry personnel were armed and assigned to all locations, including the police headquarters building. Mobile gun and armored vehicle squads augmented the ground forces.

  Steve and his former recon squad were well seasoned with regimental duties. To actually see it in action once again after all the years was still a very impressive sight.

  The outside world was aware that there was peculiar happenings in the North Country. For the moment this was viewed as an entertainment venue. No specific media coverage was permitted in the safe zone, as all operations within the zone were actually being classified as a hazardous duty assignment. The Unified Combatant Command was assigned to the Allagash Tactical Operations with General Thompson as Commander under the Joint Special Operations Component, a multi-agency support group. The driving motivation for the entire operation was an imminent threat to national security. No further details were released to the press by the combat war correspondents assigned to the operation. Colonel Harris was the assigned Air Mobility task commander along with a support group function for the 27th Fighter Squadron from Langley. All in all, it was a really big show!

  The logistics of the entire ground support operation was impressive. A computerized graphic disbursement of all unit locations was distributed to each squad via the SatLink, who then proceeded to their specified position assignments. All emplacements reported active within an hour. Major Greer reported back to ‘Duty’ that all was secure. Any strange activity reports from the area would be addressed by the appropriate squad. The local citizens welcomed the strong military presence. Except for necessary daytime travel, all residents were remanded to their quarters for their own safety. ‘Duty’ was pleased and proud that everyone supported the effort and cooperated fully without a single complaint.

  While on patrol, one of Major Greer’s squads reported very peculiar looking hardware attached to a main electrical feeder line in the area closest to Ben Lake. Maine Power technicians had no idea what the device was or what it was doing attached to the line. Photos were sent to Major Greer via the SatLink. Consultation with Darren and his colleagues determined that the device was some sort of inductive transmitter, at best guess. And that it was not of this world, was another best guess!

  “This device is sucking the power out of the system, near as we can tell”, Darren explained, “and by no means do you want to get near it”.

  The Maine Power technicians were perplexed as to what they needed to do.

  “If you can cut power to this device from the ‘source’ side of the distribution line, that would be the best course of action”, Darren advised, “It would remove the apparatus form the system”.

  The technicians back-tracked about a half-mile where a fusible link could be detached from the power pole. On the ‘all clear’ the fuse was pulled from the socket and a low, but distinct droning sound ceased.

  “We got it down”, the technician reported.

  Major Greer advised the team that power had been restored to the area. ‘Duty’ was all smiles at the minor victory that they achieved. It was, in the least, a psychological triumph to have power restored to the community.

  “This is going to present a problem”, Darren advised Major Greer.

  “And what is that, sir”, the Major inquired?

  “The thing who put it there will surely return to investigate the malfunction”!

  Additional infantry units were emplaced at the scene as well as an Armor Branch platoon assigned to the area from Fort Benning. Major Greer was taking no chances, since the image of his visitor from another world was still fresh on his mind. No one actually knew what to expect or what might be required in the event of a confrontation. Additional military units were still arriving and being assigned to various holding areas.

  “Let’s hit the road”, Steve said as everyone agreed that a late lunch was in order.

  Jim’s group was breaking up except for Cheyenne, who chose to stay close to his Martian friend, as he referred to the creature.

  “Jake and Elliot packed up and left”, Jim informed the group as they were leaving the headquarters building. “They said that they had no further business here and needed to get home”.

  “I think you scared the ‘be-Jesus’ out of them when you handed Elliot the stick and told him to go poke that thing”, Steve said with a laugh.

  Everyone chuckled at the incident, which was fresh on their minds.

  “I only did what he asked me to do”, Jim said as he defended himself.

  “I can’t wait to read that report”, Jane said with a smirk as the group bid each goodbye.

  “We need to figure out what we’re doing before this whole mess blows up in our face”, Cruz suggested, “We’re under a considerable amount of duress and it might be difficult to attend to things later”.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, Cruz”, Jane said, “You know I love you, but I’m just as worried that you and Lucy could get hurt if you stay here”.

  “She’s right”, Steve affirmed, “This could turn into a hostile environment as we’ve already seen. It’s no place to be if you don’t have to”.

  “Why are you staying”, Cruz asked?

  “It’s my home”, Jane answered, “It would take more than a threat to make me leave”.

  “Are we friends”, Cruz inquired with an obvious method to his questioning?

  “I hope to God that we are the best of friends”, Jane said while giving him a North Country hug, “I’m just worried sick”.

  “I have never in my life abandoned a friend and I don’t plan to start now”, Cruz insured the group!

  “Oh, you’re just as thick headed as he is”, Jane smiled while giving Cruz a pat on the forehead.

  Cruz looked at Lucy.

  “I’m not going anywhere, I have to make lunch”, Lucy said with her determined smile.

  “Ok, I think we have that settled”, Steve said with satisfaction, “Let’s go home and give Lucy a chance to take over the kitchen.

  “There’s something about a defining moment”, Jane said as they headed back to the village of Eagle Lake.

  The weather had closed in as the day wore on. The first significant snowfall of the season was in the forecast. The temperature plummeted ten degrees in the last hour as the makings for an early season Nor’easter was in the making.

  Jane was busy looking through her father’s wardrobe for appropriate winter clothing for Cruz. She had Lucy covered as both were of nearly the same stature.

  “Here, put these on”, Jane ordered, as she handed Cruz a pile of wool shirts, trousers, and socks. “See if these boots fit. They may be a little large for you”, she judged, “My father had big feet”.

  Cruz appeared in the kitchen adorned in
his new wardrobe. Steve was attending to his wood stove duties while Jane was getting a lesson in oriental cooking.

  “Well, as I live and breathe”, Steve exclaimed at the sight of the woodsman standing in front of him, while Jane was already busy with her camera.

  “You look like that lumberjack guy”, Lucy roared with a laugh!

  “All you need is an axe and you could go to work in the woods tomorrow”, Jane surmised with a huge grin.

  Cruz was clothed in plaid wool and denim. The lace-up work boots added the finishing touch. Jane grabbed her father’s hat off the hall rack to complete the collage. Cruz played the part well and appeared to get great enjoyment out of his new look, not to mention the warmth as an added bonus.

  “Nobody back home is going to believe this”, Lucy said with a big laugh.

  The winter sun sets very early in the North Country as the late afternoon grayed out and began to give up the daylight. The snowfall was turning the countryside white as Cruz stared out the kitchen window. The wood stove and kitchen fireplace were ablaze. Cruz realized that he was a character actor in an old Dicken’s novel, which he found very agreeable.