Alien Storm

by Don Viecelli

  Ryan and his friends were put into one of the bedrooms. A guard was posted near the open door. They were allowed to use the only bathroom in the place and someone went out for pizzas. Lake Gogebic was the U.P.’s largest lake and well known to the locals for its great fishing. Apparently, this was the cabin Colonel Nash used for his favorite sport. It was past midnight before everyone went to sleep except for two guys guarding the cabin outside in four-hour shifts. Colonel Nash wasn’t taking any chances. Ryan tried to stay awake as long as he could, but he too finally fell asleep. He set his wristwatch to wake him at 4 am. He figured everyone would be deep asleep by then and he had to make a call.

  Ryan felt a low vibration on his wrist at four o’clock in the morning. It was still very dark outside. It took a few minutes before he could shake the cobwebs from his mind and sit up in his bed. Jason and Tom were snoring in their bunks. He listened carefully for sounds outside his door. The guard was asleep in the living room. He could see him slumped over in his chair. He heard voices outside the cabin. It must be the two guards still on duty outside. He had to take a chance. He didn’t know when he would get another. He reached inside his boot beside the bed and pulled out his cell phone. He turned in on under the blanket. He had turned the volume off, so only the lights on the LCD screen came on. The signal strength was strong. Apparently, the fishermen on this lake liked their cell phones enough for the local wireless company to put a tower up in the area for their use.

  Using the voice capability on the cell phone to talk to his sister was out of the question. He decided to send her a text message. It would only take a few minutes to type the message using the alphanumeric keypad since it was second nature to him. What should he tell her? He thought for a moment and started typing on the keypad with his thumbs. “Hello, Sis. Sorry for not calling. Ran into trouble. Held hostage by paramilitary group called FLM. Need help. By Lake Gogebic. Use GPS to locate us. Send help. Love, Ryan.” He finished typing the words out and hit the send button. It was gone. Now all he could do was wait. He hid the phone back in his boot. It would be daylight soon and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he was beginning to worry what Colonel Nash had on his mind. Things were definitely not looking up and if his sister didn’t send help soon, he and the guys would have to make a run for it. He wondered if he could get the evidence back before it was too late. Then he fell back to sleep.

  Chapter 21

  Milwaukee Air Force Base:

  Working late at the air force hangar, Bill Murphy was getting tired. He cursed at himself for the frailties of old age. He really wasn’t all that old. He was only 60, but he hadn’t been taking very good care of himself. His daughter constantly reminded him of that fact every time she saw him. His wife had divorced him years ago. He lived alone. He drank too much, smoked too much and he never exercised. His excuse was he loved his work and he didn’t have time. He was too busy working on his latest project, whatever that was. He would get so involved that he would not eat properly, get enough rest or take any time off. He was a workaholic, a classic Type-A personality. His doctor told him he was too stressed and he needed to relax more or he would not see 65. The proof of that was his high cholesterol levels and in his bad heart. Bill already had five stents placed in various arteries and a quadruple bypass operation last year. He had been warned by his doctors to take better care of himself or they would be seeing him again real soon.

  Bill chose not to think about his condition. He took his medicine and hoped for the best. It was too late to change his lifestyle as far as he was concerned. He had just finished his latest project for NASA and was looking for another project when Dr. Ian Romonof at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena had called him yesterday morning. Doctor Romonof said he had some work for him to do if he was interested. He described the work and what he needed. He never mentioned it was an alien UFO crash. Bill boarded a passenger jet in New Mexico for the ride to Milwaukee and landed at the base the same day. He didn’t know the real purpose of the work until he was escorted to the hangar and shown the disks. He learned about the aliens a short time later. As soon as he saw what the disks could do, he asked for information from the autopsies on a hunch and things progressed rapidly from there.

  It was now 3:00 a.m. in the morning. He never took any time for dinner. He had a smoke break an hour ago and enough coffee to keep up a horse. Most people had left for the night hours ago. Only the guards outside his lab were still on duty. He had one of the disks in his hands. He had been trying for an hour to identify the specific frequencies the disk operated on. He learned it operated as high as 100 Gigahertz, which was at the top end of the electromagnetic radio spectrum for earth-based communications, but it could also operate as low as 10 hertz, which was the low end of human audible frequencies. This didn’t make sense unless one surmised that the aliens used low frequency brain waves to communicate with the device. Maybe the chips the aliens had implanted into their brains were used to enhance the signal, to make the disk work farther away or send signals faster. Who knows? It would take more tests like they performed at the medical lab today. And how did they get the implanted devices to grow axons, or nerve fibers to send electrical signals to other cells in the brain? It was a mystery, one he hoped he could solve.

  The disk in his hand seemed to draw power from light, especially light from the sun. Indoors lighting was okay, but true sunlight made it glow even more brightly with the color changing from a light blue to almost golden yellow. Mr. Murphy was convinced the disk could even operate off cosmic rays that were dispersed throughout the universe by the stars.

  The biggest questions, though, were what was inside the disk and what did it do? How was it made? What type of material did the aliens use? How did it survive the crash without any visible scratches? What did the symbol outside each disk mean? How did the disk store information? What did the disk do with the information? Could he extract it? The questions were endless. He put the disk inside his lab coat.

  He rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted. He knew he should get some rest. He would need it in the morning, which was only hours away. A cot was set up in the corner of the lab. He never had any plans to leave the building. The other scientists working with him knew what he planned to do, but they chose to have dinner together and sleep in the hotel nearby. They would be back early in the morning, fully rested for another exciting day of discovery. They tried to convince Bill to come with them, but he would not do it. He told them all to have a good time and he would see them in the morning.

  He looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost 3:30 am. Time to quit. He shut down the monitor in front of him. He stood up and immediately felt dizzy. The left side of his body seemed weak. His arm hurt. He reached for the top of the monitor to steady himself. “It will pass,” he said to himself. He was just tired. He started to sweat and he loosened his shirt collar. Then he felt an immense pain in his chest. It was hard to breath. He could no longer deny the obvious. He felt similar symptoms before, but not this bad. He was having a heart attack. He clutched his chest. The pain was unbearable. His vision blurred and he labored for each breath. He cursed at the bad timing, but no sound came out. He knew he was falling, but he passed out before he hit the cement floor. The computer monitor he was trying to hold on to crashed to the floor beside him.

  Bill saw himself leave his body. There was no pain. He could see his body lying on the floor below. He was disorientated for a moment. This wasn’t real. He saw the guards rush into the room. They were yelling something. One of them was calling for help. Then he sensed something above him and he turned. The ceiling gave way to a bright light that encircled him. He wanted to cover his eyes, but there was no pain, no fear. He felt very much at peace. He started to rise rapidly toward something in the distance. He saw shadowy figures, but couldn’t make out any details. Their outlines were visible with the light in the background. There were hundreds of them. They seemed to be waiting for him. He floated towards them faster and faster. He could
see two people in front. He thought he recognized them, but it couldn’t be. They were his parents. They looked much younger, like when he was a child. As he approached, he could hear his father saying something. It became clearer as he got closer. When he almost reached him, his father told him to stop. “You must go back, son. It’s not your time. She’ll take you back.”

  Bill felt sorry for himself. He wanted to stay. He wanted to talk to his parents, to tell them he missed them and he wanted to know where he was. At first, he thought his father was referring to his mother, but she just smiled at him and told him to turn around. To his left were more figures. They took on a different shape. They looked different, but just as peaceful. Then it hit him. They were aliens. There were four of them. He recognized one of their faces from the medical lab. She floated over to him and grabbed his hand. She was talking to him, but there were no sounds. A voice just appeared in his mind. She told him her name was Elon. She was the chief navigator on the ship that crashed. He must go back with her. He had to accomplish something for them, but didn’t explain. “It would be all right,” she said. Then they turned away from the light. He felt himself rushing back as if something were pulling him. The bright light disappeared and he found himself back in the lab floating above his body. One of the paramedics was calling to him. He had a syringe in his hand. He jabbed it into his body. Bill felt pain and lost consciousness.

  * * * *

  It was the sound of glass breaking that attracted the guards in the building. They knew Bill was still working, but this sounded bad. They raced to the lab and saw Bill lying face down on the floor. He was lying beside a broken monitor. A strange blue light was glowing around his body. Something was going on, but they didn’t know what. One of the guards called 911 on his phone. The other guard rolled Bill over on his back and checked for a pulse. There was none. He started CPR. Within seconds, the blue light disappeared. The guard continued CPR until the paramedics arrived on the scene and took over the resuscitation attempt. Things did not look good. The man was in cardiac arrest. The paramedics carried a portable automated external defibrillator called an AED. They used the defibrillator to shock his heart. The EKG remained flat. They plunged a syringe filled with liquid into his heart to stimulate the muscles and clear the blockage in his coronary arteries. They shocked his heart one more time. They finally got a heartbeat. Bill’s vital signs were weak, but he was alive.

  The paramedics wheeled him out to the ambulance for the short trip to the hospital emergency room. It would be up to the hospital doctors now. The maintenance crew would clean up the broken equipment on the floor in the morning. Someone turned off the lights in the lab and shut the door. No one counted the remaining disks. The one in Bill’s lab coat stayed with him on his way to the hospital. They removed his clothes in the emergency room and put them in a bag under his bed. The doctors checked his vital signs and took a M.R.I. They found a blockage in one of his arteries. A new stent was placed in the artery. The patient would be put on new medicine to reduce the probability of this happening again. Bill was taken to the 24-hour emergency care room for observation. Hopefully, he could be moved to a regular room sometime tomorrow. He was very lucky. The guards and paramedics had acted quickly. There was little new damage to Bill’s heart. If he took better care of himself, he could expect a long life. It was up to the patient.

  * * * *

  Dave heard a loud ringing noise. It wasn’t the alarm clock that said it was five o’clock in the morning. His mind was in a fog. It was too early. He couldn’t think clearly. What was making all the noise? It was the phone. He reached over the bed and picked it up. “Hello?” He could barely speak.

  “Colonel Hampton. This is General Anderson. Sorry to wake you, but we have an emergency at the hangar and need you to come over right away.”

  “What happened?” He was starting to wake up.

  “One of the scientists, Bill Murphy, had a heart attack this morning. He’s okay, but one of the disks is missing.”

  “I’ll be right over.” Dave hung up the phone and struggled to shake the cobwebs from his head. He had been sound asleep and it was difficult to shake it off. He waited one more minute and then rolled out of bed. He jumped into the shower and turned on the water as hot as he could stand it. That helped. He started to feel better. By the time he washed his hair and the rest of his body, he was wide-awake. He got out of the shower, dried himself off and finished his morning routine. He was dressed and ready to leave the hotel in thirty minutes. He needed some coffee. He hoped he could grab a cup in the lobby after he checked out of the hotel.

  Downstairs he found a cup of coffee and added some cream. He noticed the driver outside waiting for him. General Anderson must have sent him. He walked outside with his bag and cup of coffee. The sky was starting to become lighter. It was going to be cloudy today. The driver opened his door and said “Good morning, sir”. Dave said, “Good morning” and got inside. The drive was short and in a few minutes the car pulled into the hangar. General Anderson was waiting nearby talking to some scientists in white coats.

  “Good morning, Colonel. Sorry for the early call. I know you needed the sleep.”

  “That’s all right, General. What happened?”

  “The guards called me this morning to report the emergency. Bill Murphy had a heart attack around 0330 this morning. He was working late. Some of his team members said he planned to spend the night in the lab. The paramedics took him to the emergency room. I called the doctors. They said he was recovering normally. When I got here, the maintenance crew was picking up the lab. One of the scientists got here early and was preparing to start his work when he realized one of the disks was missing. We’re not sure where it is.”

  “Maybe Bill knows where it is. When can we talk to him?”

  “The Doctors said he would be awake soon. Maybe you should go over there and talk to him. We’ll continue to check around here. It could be in one of the test chambers.”

  “All right. I’m supposed to be flying back to the crash site this morning. I’ll call my ride and tell him to delay for an hour or so and I’ll go the hospital to talk with Mr. Murphy. You can handle things here until I get back. How long do you plan to stay, General?”

  “I’m here for the duration. General Walton wants me here until the President decides what to do. I’ll help you any way I can. You’re still in charge of the investigation, Colonel Hampton.”

  “I understand, General. I appreciate the help. It’ll take me a few more days to clear all the wreckage and ship it here. Then I’ll move the command center here to complete the investigation. Let me know if you find the missing disk. I’ll let you know what I find out at the hospital before I leave.”

  “I’ll be waiting, Colonel. Have a safe flight back.”

  “I will, General. Good luck.” They shook hands and Dave got back inside the car for the drive to the hospital. It looked like it was going to be another hectic day. He thought about the missing disk. He couldn’t afford to lose another one. He hoped Mr. Murphy was well enough to help them out.

  The driver pulled up at the same hospital where they had performed the alien autopsies. He wondered if he would see Dr. Aimes. Maybe it was too early. He called Major Cole and told him he was sorry he couldn’t meet him for breakfast as planned. They were supposed to leave at 0630. He would let the Major know when he could get away. He got out of the car and told the driver to wait for him. He entered the hospital and stopped at the reception desk. He asked for directions to the emergency room. A few minutes later he was walking toward the nurses’ station when he noticed a commotion outside the doorway where the emergency care patients were kept for 24 hours. Dr. Aimes was standing there talking with one of the nurses. Someone was yelling in the room.

  “Doctor Aimes. I’m surprised to see you here,” Dave said as he approached.

  “Colonel Hampton. Good morning. I’m glad you’re here. I suppose you heard?”

  “Heard what, doctor?” Dave didn’t know
what she was referring to.

  “Your patient, Mr. Murphy, is demanding some equipment. He won’t do what the nurses are telling him. He says it’s important.”

  “I’m here to talk to Mr. Murphy. Would you care to join me?”

  “Yes, I would be interested, Colonel.”

  The nurse let them enter the room. Bill Murphy was sitting up in bed looking exacerbated. He recognized both of them.

  “Hello, Mr. Murphy. How are you feeling?” Dave asked.

  “I’m fine. I want to get out of here. Now!”

  “We have to make sure you’re all right, Mr. Murphy. You suffered a major heart attack. We need to monitor you for a while,” Dr. Aimes said.

  “I need to get back to work. It’s critical.” Mr. Murphy was pleading with them.

  “May I call you, Bill” Dave asked. Bill nodded yes.

  “Bill, one of the disks is missing. We need to know where it is. Do you know?”

  “Sure, I know. I know a lot more than that, Colonel. You need to bring me a computer. A big one.”