Alien Storm

by Don Viecelli

  Major Drew got on the radio and told the rest of his men to approach. In a few minutes they had the power generator running and the lights on in the cabin. They searched the entire cabin. The boys and the evidence they were looking for were missing. Only the boys’ backpacks remained. He went over to the kitchen area to talk to Dave. Kaye and Kurt were with him.

  “The boys are gone. We found their backpacks and a camera, but the disk is missing. Maybe they got away and took the stuff with them. The medic is trying to wake the others up. They looked drugged, but they’re coming around. Maybe they can tell us what happened.”

  “My guess is the aliens beat us here, Major, but I don’t know why they would take the boys.” Dave looked at Kaye. She was trying hard not to cry, but there were tears in her eyes. He touched her arm. “We’ll find them, don’t worry.” He wished he could be more certain of that.

  “Major, Colonel Nash is coming around,” one of the men told Major Drew. They moved to the living room where some of the men had moved Colonel Nash. They gave the colonel some water to help wake him up. He looked upset and shook his head to clear the cobwebs. “What happened?” he asked.

  “My name is Major Drew, Colonel Nash. You and your men are under arrest. Can you tell me what happened here? Where are the boys?”

  “I don’t know. I was asleep in the bedroom. I don’t remember anything.” He refused to say anything more.

  It was the same with the others inside the cabin. Nobody remembered anything. The men outside said they saw a blinding light and then they passed out. They didn’t remember anything else until they woke up. It was a mystery. This went on for an hour. Finally, Major Drew ordered the men taken away to the county police jail.

  While the Major and his men searched the cabin, Dave and Kaye decided to walk down to the lake to look at the Northern Lights. He thought it might help relax her. It was just after midnight and the sky was on fire again from the aurora. This time it was mostly green curtains of shimmering light hanging in the sky. The glow lit up the lake as its reflection bounced of the water and back into the night sky. The lights made their skin glow green as they stood at the edge of the dock. Dave took Kaye’s hand in his. She didn’t resist. “I’m sorry we didn’t find them, Kaye, but we will. I’m sure they’re all right.”

  Kaye looked into his face, “I’m sure we will too. Thanks for your concern. Do you really think the aliens took them?”

  “It’s possible, but I’m not sure why? They just want the bodies and the disks back. Let’s go back inside. Major Drew will be done soon.”

  Kaye was about to answer when her cell phone rang. It made her jump and almost lose her balance. Dave grabbed her arm to steady her. Kaye reached into her pocket and brought the phone to her ear. “Hello? Who is this?”

  “It’s me, Kaye! Ryan.” He sounded out of breath.

  “Where in the hell are you, Ryan. I was worried to death about you. Are you okay? How are the others?”

  “I’m sorry, Kaye. I didn’t mean to worry you, but they wanted me to call you right now.”

  “Who wanted you to call me? I don’t understand. Where are you?”

  “We’re above you—in the spaceship! The aliens want to talk to you and the man beside you. They want to pick you up. Don’t worry. They’re friends.”

  “Look, Ryan. I don’t have time for jokes. Tell me where you are. Now!” Kaye was getting madder by the second. Dave was trying to decipher what was going on. A crackling noise made him look up. He saw the UFO. Before they could move another foot, a bright light beamed down on them. It should have blinded him, but it didn’t. He felt himself losing consciousness. He grabbed a hold of Kaye who was staring upward with him. Dave didn’t feel like he was falling. It felt rather peaceful. The last thoughts he had were of floating. Then the lights went out.

  Chapter 29

  Dave heard a voice—no, several voices. Someone was shaking his shoulder and telling him to wake up. He didn’t want to. He wanted to go back to sleep, real sleep. Not the kind where you felt half awake or restless, but deep, relaxing, no dreams sleep. The kind he hadn’t gotten for the last four days. He tried resisting, but the voices won’t give up. He finally opened his eyes. He was lying down on some sort of couch. Kaye was looking at him intently. There were some other people behind her. He sat up and tried to shake the cobwebs out of his brain. “Alright. I’m up. Give me a minute,” he finally said. He looked around at the room. It was sparse. “Where are we?”

  “We’re on a spaceship,” Ryan blurted out.

  Kaye gave him a minute to focus. Then she spoke, “This is my brother, Ryan, and his two friends, Jason Collins and Tom Halbrook. They all went to high school together.

  Dave stood up. The gravity seemed heavier. He remembered what happened. He shook their hands. “We’ve been looking for you guys.”

  “We know. My sister told us. Nice to meet you, Colonel Hampton,” Ryan said.

  “How long have I been out?” Dave asked.

  “Not very long. About ten minutes. You seemed to be tired. Maybe the light affected you more,” Kaye said.

  “I remember the light. What happened after that?” Dave asked, shaking his head.

  “They brought both of you up to the ship,” Ryan said. “It’s like an elevator shaft, but no elevator. Once you’re in the beam of light, you just float up to the ship. The aliens put you in here with us and left. They said they were taking us somewhere and to wait in here.”

  “You can talk to them?” Dave asked.

  “Yeah, with these things.” Ryan pulled something out of his ear. It looked like an earpiece of some kind. It was blue in color and made of molded plastic. “When they speak, we can understand what they say. Sounds like normal English. It’s amazing.”

  Dave looked at Kaye. “How are you doing? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, thanks. I wish I knew what was going on. Why would they take us?”

  “That’s my fault,” Ryan volunteered. “The aliens were asking us all kinds of questions and I told them about you, Kaye, and what we planned to do. That’s when I suggested to them we call you. They figured out where you were by our cell phones.”

  “Look you guys,” Tom yelled, “out the window. We just passed a planet. Wow! We’re really moving.”

  It was true. They flew by Mars like they were on an express train. They had no sensation of movement or weightlessness. Obviously, the aliens had figured out how to neutralize the effects of motion and generate gravity. Dave looked around the room. It was rectangular. The walls were smooth with one small window, a panel screen on one wall and a door. Inside were a table, six chairs and a couch. The lighting was adequate, but he couldn’t find any bulbs or light fixtures. The air had a slight musty smell and you could hear a circulation fan somewhere in the ceiling. It was warm in the room. There was also a slight vibration in the floor and Dave could hear a humming noise. He assumed it was from the propulsion system. He looked out the window and wondered where they were being taken. It didn’t take long to find out.

  “Man! Look at this!” Ryan yelled. They all looked out the window. They were approaching another spaceship, but this one was huge. They could see a hangar door opening on one side. They were headed straight for the opening. There were floodlights all around the door. But the most amazing sight of all was the big gaseous planet rotating below the spaceship. Jason asked the question, “What planet is that below?”

  Dave thought he knew the answer. “It looks like Jupiter.”

  “How can you tell?” Ryan asked.

  “Because of the Great Red Spot on its surface.” He had seen many pictures of the hurricane looking mass of red clouds swirling counterclockwise on the planet, but none with the blood red colors he saw below. It was truly an unforgettable sight for all of them.

  The smaller spacecraft slowly approached the open door of the mothership. Within minutes, they were inside. It was very bright. It looked like an immense hangar with several other spacecraft similar to the one they
were in parked in various locations. The spacecraft glided to a parking spot and suddenly became very quiet. The vibration and low humming noise disappeared. Suddenly, the door behind them opened. Dave saw three alien beings standing before him. They looked very similar to the bodies Dave’s team recovered from the crash site on Earth, only these aliens were alive and very expressive. The clothes they had on were very colorful and flowed like Arabian garments. It took him by surprise. There were insignias on their shoulders and something else that looked very familiar. Each alien had a disk hanging from a chain around his neck. The aliens were very close in weight and height, probably around 80 pounds and 5 feet tall. The middle alien had something in his hands. He looked at Ryan and said something in a very high-pitched voice. Then he handed the objects to him. Ryan took them and looked at Kaye and Dave. “He says to put these in one of your ears. It will allow you to understand what he says.” Ryan handed the ear devices to them. They did what the alien asked. The aliens were already wearing translators in their ears.

  The middle alien spoke first. It was a high-pitched voice, but completely understandable. “Welcome to our ship. My name is Ayton. I am captain of this craft. If you follow me, I will take you to our commander. He wishes to talk to you.” He turned around and led the way out the door.

  Dave and Kaye followed behind the aliens. Ryan and his two friends did the same. They walked down the ramp to the floor of the hangar and were amazed at the size of the room. They could barely make out the ceiling high above them. They had no idea how big this ship was.

  Ayton led them to a transporter vehicle that could easily hold all of them. There were no wheels. It just floated off the ground. After they stepped on board, the vehicle took off on a command from Ayton. Everyone, but the aliens, tried to grab a hold of something to keep from falling, but it was not necessary. There was no sensation of motion, no gravitational forces to push or pull them at each turn. It was as if they were all standing completely still. Only the vision of floors, walls and stationary objects going past them proved they were moving at all. Still, Kaye grabbed Dave’s arm for support as they moved forward.

  The vehicle left the hangar and suddenly rose upwards off the floor. They sped forward as doors opened ahead and closed behind them. It was like a wild ride you only experienced in a virtual ride simulator found in an amusement park on Earth. Dave could only imagine what effect this type of technology would have on Earth one day. They soon arrived at their destination. Ayton and his aides stepped out of the vehicle first and led the way into a large conference room. There were several aliens already seated at the long round table. Ayton motioned for the group to sit down at the table in the available seats.

  As they took their seats, one of the aliens introduced himself. He looked like the others, only older and a bit heavier. There were more worry lines around his eyes and forehead. The eyes did blink once and he used his hands for gesturing in a slow deliberate way. He spoke in a lower pitched tone. “Welcome. My name is Orlutinion. I am the commander of this ship. Seated with me at this table are members of our Administrative Council. We are from the planet Tular, which is located in the same galaxy as your solar system, but 50 light years nearer to the center. We are on an exploratory mission in this part of the galaxy. One of our spacecraft was studying your sun and experienced a mishap when it approached your space station. The crew was trying to help one of your people. The spacecraft could not be saved and crashed on your planet. We would like to ask you some questions.”

  Dave was amazed at the clarity of the speech. He heard a foreign sound coming from the commander, but the translator in his ear made the speech completely understandable. The whole situation was surreal. He looked at Kaye to see how she was holding up. We must all look like we’re in shock, he thought. He looked back at the commander. “It’s nice to meet you, Commander Orlutinion. My name is Colonel Dave Hampton. This is Kaye Weston, her brother Ryan Weston and his two friends, Tom Halbrook and Jason Collins. We’re confused about what is happening to us. Why have you bought us here?”

  “I am sorry for your confusion, Colonel Dave Hampton. We are anxious to resolve the situation we find ourselves in and leave your solar system as soon as possible. We do not mean to interfere with your world or harm anyone in it. We only want your people to return what is ours and we will leave.”

  “You must be referring to the spacecraft and bodies?”

  “That is nearly correct. We do not care about the spacecraft. We would like to have the bodies of the crew returned to us. And we would like the location transmitter and memory disks back, what we call Mo-Li. They are precious to us.”

  “I understand, Commander. We’re trying to figure out what the devices do. We think they allow you to control your ship’s computer systems.”

  “They do much more than that, Colonel Dave Hampton. They also capture the memories of the one wearing the device. It gives us a complete picture of what happens in an emergency so we can try to prevent it from happening again. It also allows the deceased to pass on any message they wish. It is a way of saying goodbye as they continue their final journey to the world beyond.”

  “We have similar beliefs on Earth, but we can’t record what’s in the mind like that.”

  “Then you must understand that we cannot allow you to possess such information before you are ready for it. It must be learned by each race in its own time. It is a law we live by.”

  “I understand, but I must tell you that I’m not the one to make the decision to return the bodies and devices back to you. I’m only in charge of the crash investigation for the people of my government. The President of our country has ultimate authority for making decisions on what to do with the bodies and items recovered from the crash scene.”

  “We are waiting for communication with your President now. He is reviewing our requests.”

  Dave was taken aback with this piece of news. How are they in communication with the President? “Then why do you need my help?”

  “We would like you to explain to your President why we need the memory disks back. We will give you something in return, information about your sun that the crew recorded and sent us before they crashed on your world.”

  Orlutinion pulled out a memory disk from inside of his robe and laid it on the table. “This is from the captain of the ship that crashed on your planet. It was one of the disks that we recovered.” The disk suddenly lit up in a blue light and a three dimensional hologram of the captain’s face appeared before the group around the table. The image was reduced in scale and hovered in midair rotating slowly as it spoke. The voice was calm and softer in tone.

  “Commander Orlutinion. My thoughts are with you. We are in dire circumstances. I wish it to be known that the fault is mine, and not that of my crew. I do not believe we will survive the incident. It is with regret that I must tell you this. I hope you are able to recover our Mo-Li and pass it on. I am transmitting what happened to our ship and our location data now. The data from our mission around the sun has been sent. It is as we suspected. May you complete your journey and return home safely.” Without warning, the image changed to a picture of the International Space Station, an astronaut floating outside, the illumination of the solar panels from fast moving ionized protons and the sudden explosion of one of the power generators on the space station above them. It was obvious what happened to the spacecraft.

  The image disappeared. Orlutinion paused before continuing. “This is the data the crew sent us from the study of your sun.” A picture of a red-hot, burning sun with planets circling around it appeared before them. It was so life like, Dave and his companions leaned backwards in their seats fearing the heat. The image changed to show only the sun, the moon and the blue colored Earth. They watched as a solar flare erupted on the sun’s surface and raced toward the Earth. Orlutinion spoke, “This is your sun. It is a young star, only halfway through its lifecycle. Sometimes, stars in this stage of their lifecycle become more active. There are many reasons for thi
s, some of which your race is beginning to understand. The activity of the sun dictates what happens in your solar system. It affects every aspect of your planets weather and existence. Your sun will produce more intense solar storms over the next one hundred and twenty-one Earth years. The worst storms will occur during the end of each Solar Maximum, every eleven years. The first such storm just hit your planet. Some will be more severe than this one was. It will depend on the rotation of the sun and position of your planet when a solar flare is produced. We can help you predict when this will happen, and we can give you the technology to help protect your planet from its effects.”

  “What kind of technology?” Dave asked.

  “We will help you build a massive solar shield in space like this.” The image before them changed to show an object with large solar wings spread out around it like a silver umbrella. It was positioned between Mars and the Moon. Commander Orlutinion continued, “It is a magnetic field generator. It will use the solar wind from the sun to generate a powerful magnetic force field similar to the one produced by your planet to protect your atmosphere from the effects of solar radiation. It has many useful purposes. Solar flares will be deflected around your planet. Energy will be absorbed and transformed into a never-ending power source. It will power spacecraft for journeys beyond your solar system. The same technology will allow you to generate magnetic shields around your spaceships for protection against radiation damage to living organisms. Your scientists are already working on technology such as this, but this will advance your science by many decades.”

  “Why do you wish to help us?” Dave asked respectfully. “I thought you said you do not interfere with other races such as ours.”