When I Get Up in the
Morning
By
Curtis Eickerman
Preface
This is a work
in process. If you have read some of this before and are returning to find
more of the story please be forewarned that some of the material you have
already read may have changed. Names, time periods, descriptions and some of
the action may have been altered to better connect with the rest of the story.
I expect that this type of alteration to the story will continue until I have
completed it. It may even happen after it seems to be done. If you have
recommendations about the story please feel free to leave comments in the Guest
book.
Latest changes as made as of 4/4/2004
Chapter 1
~ Rise and Shine ~
It
wasn't a particularly auspicious day as days go, but there was something
unusual about it in an unobtrusive way. It was one of those mornings where
Kent Holland just felt good about waking up, even though it was still early and
there was no reason for him to be so alert. He decided to go ahead and get up
even though he should have known that the feeling wouldn't last, and he was
right. After getting into the bathroom Kent turned on the radio only to be greeted
by a hissing sound instead of the usual morning talk show patter. Assuming he
had simply bumped the dial so that it was between stations, he turned the
tuning dial up and down the AM broadcast band only to be greeted by a
continuing uninterrupted hissing. Of course the radio would pick a morning
when he was in a good mood to act up. So, insisting he would not be beaten
into submission by a simple cheap radio, Kent switched to FM. What an amazing
difference, still just a hissing noise greeted his ears. Again, tuning the dial
gave no relief from the monotonous sound. Giving up in defeat, he turned the
radio off and continued his morning ritual.
After
Kent was cleaned up and dressed he went down
to the kitchen and began getting ready to brew some coffee. Absentmindedly he
also switched on the small portable TV in the kitchen. More hissing. No
stations. Now he really was loosing his composure. He could feel his good
attitude dwindling rapidly as he changed channels only to find the TV was just
as uncooperative as the radio had been just a few minutes before. “Great, now
I have to replace a broken TV as well as that lousy radio,” he said to
himself. Not wanting the morning to get the better of him, Kent grabbed his cup of coffee and headed toward the family room
and turned on the other TV. Hiss. Click... Click… Click… Click… Click. Now
he was finally wondering what was going on. Flipping on the stereo he was
again greeted by…. hissssssss. Nothing was working. Now, he was beginning to
get a real funny feeling about all of this and began thinking he had somehow
entered the Twilight Zone. But he thought to himself, "Come on now. You
know that isn't possible. There is some perfectly logical explanation for all
of this."
After
taking a deep breath and getting his composure back He decided to go outside
and pick up the morning paper from the driveway. As he left the front door he
got this same funny feeling that something just wasn't quite right, but
everything looked fine. Still there was something...... but he just couldn't
seem to put his finger on it. “Nuts,” he thought. “The paper hasn't come yet.”
No, that wasn’t it. He listened. It was too quiet. Not just normal quiet,
but too quiet. No birds, no traffic in the distance, no cars pulling out of
garages, no dogs barking, no kids on the way to school. Too quiet. Way too
quiet. Kent looked all around him and everything
looked perfectly normal. Houses, cars, clouds in the sky, but no noise and no
newspapers in anyone's driveway. Spooky, but he couldn't believe that what was
going on was really the way it seemed. For some reason he felt he must be just
jumpy because of having a broken radio and a couple of wacko TV sets.
So,
Kent decide to shrug it off and go back into
the house and finish getting ready for work. Getting his things together he
was finally on his way. He got into the car in the garage and pushed the
button to raise the garage door. “Ahhhh, at least something works right around
here!” he exclaimed to the rising door. The door raised, he started the car
and backed it out. As he did, he turned on the car radio by force of habit.
Somehow though, he was not surprised by the unrelenting hissing and absence of
stations. “That's it,” he thought. “There has been a power outage that is
affecting all of the radio and TV stations in the city. That's all it is.
Nothing to get jumpy about. Sure, that's it,” he reasoned. Kent then proceeded to turn off the radio and continued backing
out into the street. He put the car into drive and headed for work.
After
a couple of turns he was approaching the main street near his house.
"What in the world is going on here?" He couldn't help from
exclaiming out loud. Now he was beginning to get the shakes. There were no
cars on the main street. There were always a bunch of cars driving by at this
time of day. Not that day though. Hissing radio, hissing TV, no birds, no
cars driving by. Images from old Twilight Zone shows flashed through his
mind. “That's silly. Why can't I stop shaking?” He sat for a while just
staring up and down the street as if just waiting for someone to come by, but
no one did. Finally, he decided to drive on toward work. As Kent turned right onto the main street he checked for traffic by
force of habit then suddenly felt very silly for having done so.
As
he was driving down the street things didn't get better. For block after block
there was simply no one around. There were no cars, no kids, no cats, no dogs,
no birds...... nothing moving anywhere. Kent found himself stopping at traffic lights
and watching for the cross traffic that never appeared. At one intersection he
purposely drove through the red stoplight. He thought, “If there is at least
one police officer in this town it is as certain as death and taxes that he
will pull me over and give me a ticket and end this nightmare.” No luck, no
police. Where are they when you need them? He drove by a donut shop. No,
they weren't there either. He couldn't help but chuckle. He sure wished the
stereotype worked this time.
Finally,
Kent pulled over to the side of the road,
although he kind of wondered at the time why he didn't just stop in the middle
of the street under the circumstances. He found himself asking all kinds of
questions and all of the answers seem to be, "I don't know." “Am I
dead?” He didn't feel dead. “I don't look dead....at least to me.” For a
dead man he seemed to be driving a car pretty well. So, no he didn't think he
was dead. “In that case is everyone else dead? Hmmmm.” It seemed to him that
there would be some evidence of that around somewhere. Visions of bodies lying
around all over the place entered his mind and this left him shaking even
more. But, no there were no bodies lying around. “Maybe I've snapped. It's
happened. I've stressed-out, wigged-out and am playing with half-a-deck and my
elevator is no longer going clear to the top floor. Do crazy people ever ask
themselves if they have gone crazy?” This seemed doubtful. “Still, maybe I'm
the exception.”
There
didn't seem to be any other rational explanations. “Crazy, that must be it.
I've lost touch with reality. Either there are people here and I can't see
them or maybe I'm not really here at all. I'm locked up in a rubber room
somewhere and just hallucinating all of this.” Kent
took a few deep breaths trying to get the sakes under control. “No! I'm not
crazy. There is no reason for me to be crazy. Things haven't been going bad;
there is just no reason for me to go off the deep end. And this all seems
entirely real. No inconsistencies like you have in a dream. This is the city
where I live, this is the car I have driven for the last five years, these are
the buildings I drive by every week day on my way to work.” He struggled to
get hold of himself. “This is real! I am real! This is happening!”
Then
he started to wonder if whatever was happening was just here or was it
everywhere? It couldn’t be everywhere. He wondered about his family that was
scattered all over the country. His father in LA. His mother in Albuquerque. His sister in Dallas. His aunts, uncles and cousins. His friends. “This can’t
be real, but what if it is?” he thought to himself. He reached for his cell
phone, “Damn.” With all the craziness this morning he had forgotten to pull it
out of the charger and stick it in his pocket. Then he realized he was trying
to make sense out of something that made no sense. He just wanted to hear his
alarm ringing and find out this was all just a bad dream. Everything about his
whole life was just…… gone.
As
Kent sat there trying to keep from going
crazy, he began to hear a far off noise. At first he thought it was the car
making some new obnoxious noise so he turned it off. The new noise was still
there, but from inside the car it was hard to tell where it was coming from.
Still scared to death, he stepped out of the car to see if he could tell where
the noise was coming from. It seemed to be off to the right and ahead of where
he was headed. “Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he mumbled. He got
back into the car and started driving in the direction of the noise. He kept
hoping the noise meant people.
After
driving several blocks in what he thought was the right direction, he stopped
and got out of the car again to see if he was still on the right track. Yes,
it was still ahead. A few blocks further and.....yes here it was. He didn't
know what was going on but it certainly seemed that he had found the source of
the noise. It's was an almost deafening rumble now coming from a small
building in the middle of a vacant lot. Funny he didn't remember this area
having a vacant lot, but then again he didn't really remember driving around
this particular part of town either. "Well, I guess it's time to find out
what is going on," he said to no one and commenced to get out of the car
and headed toward the building.
As
he got closer it occurred to him that calling this, whatever it is, a building
was not quite accurate. It was a cube, about fifty feet on each side with no
windows and one unusual door on one of the sides facing him. He decided to
walk completely around the building once before trying the door and discovered
there were no other openings. No other doors or windows. Walking up to the
door he found himself at a loss. It was hard enough to think in the deafening
thunder coming from the building, but now he found that he was faced with a
door that had no doorknob, push-buttons, handles, catches or hinges. Still, Kent was convinced it was a door though he was not sure why.
So, he tried to push on it. Nothing. He tried to get his fingers into the
crack enough to pull. No luck. Trusty Swiss Army knife. Nothing doing. The
constant thunder from the building was really getting on his nerves now.
Finally, in some combination of desperation, anger and frustration he kicked
the door just as hard as he could. The door didn't budge, but the thundering
noise changed. Still it was just as loud as ever but now at a slightly higher
pitch.
Convinced
that this building had something to do with what was going on and was keeping
him from finding out what was happening he got increasingly angry. He kicked
it again even harder. The door still didn't budge, but the thundering sound
raised in pitch to a hum. This made him even madder and he kicked it again.
Now it was wailing. Kick. Whistling. Kick. Shrieking. Kick. Squealing.
Kick. Silence.......... "Oh brother," he thought. "Now I've
done it." He found himself holding his breath waiting for something to
happen. Nothing did. Silence, just silence. “Oh, well... what have I got to
lose at this point.” He gave it one more kick. The door slid open without a
sound. "Great," he thought to himself, "now I've really gone
and done it." Not really knowing what "it" might be.
After
an eternity of seconds Kent finally pulled himself together enough
to creep forward to the now open doorway. All he could see was black. It was
a bright sunny day outside but the inside of the building was so dark that he
couldn't see anything. It was kind of like walking into a movie theater after
the movie had started. After just a couple of steps forward he realized that
stepping through the doorway might not be such a great idea. After all, he
didn't really kick the door down. The building sort of let him enter in
response to his kicking. There was just no way to know if it was going to be
as cooperative about letting him back out once he got in. After thinking about
this for a moment he decided to go back out to his car and look for something
he could use to keep the door jammed open just in case.
After
a few moments of looking around in the trunk of the car he decided that his old
tool box itself was probably the best answer. Lugging it back to the building
he set it in the doorway with one last grunt and shoved it into position.
"There," he thought, "that should keep the door from closing on
me." Kent reasoned that even if the door did try
to close the tool box would keep it jammed open far enough that he could
squeeze by and still get out relatively unscathed. Once again he began
entering the building only to find himself rather suddenly disoriented by the
darkness. Stopping for a moment to let his eyes adjust and regain his sense of
balance, he realized the inside of the building was not totally dark. There
was a dim light in the room, but it was not coming from any specific source.
It was as if the walls themselves were glowing slightly giving him enough light
to begin to see around inside the building.
Unfortunately,
even with the cooperative lighting of the building he found that there wasn't
much to see. Nothing actually. The walls of the building were large, smooth,
and completely devoid of attachments, protrusions, decorations, or anything at
all. Because it was so hard to see anything on the hard featureless surface,
he began feeling all along the wall as he walked around the inside of the
building. After all, there wasn't much else to do. The inside of the building
was completely empty except for him. After he completed one circuit from the
door all of the way around the building and back to the doorway he felt pretty
discouraged. There wasn't so much as a rough spot on the wall. Well out of
his reach and stretching almost 50 feet above were all of the rest of the 4
walls and the ceiling hanging over his head.
Kent was sure this building had something to
do with what had been happening. Yet, it also was defying all of his attempts
at getting to its secrets. Whatever made the noise must have been hidden in
the walls, yet he could find no sign of it. He was certain the building must
have a purpose, but there were no clues to what that purpose might be. The
building reacted to his kicking and allowed him inside but now was totally
ignoring his presence. After deciding that he might have pushed his luck too
far Kent start heading for the doorway. After
all, it occurred to him, the building might just stop ignoring him at any time
and he was not sure what the reaction might be. Visions of being inside a
gigantic trash compactor flash through his mind. He reached the opening and
stepped over the tool box just as the door began to close. The tool box became
jammed between the door and the edge of the doorway and the door itself simply
stopped moving. It didn't crush the tools or rebound. It simply stopped, as
if it had done its best and didn't really care that it was incapable of closing
completely.
Once
again Kent was faced with the reality that he
appeared to be totally alone. After leaving the building he was struck even
more strongly with this realization. Here he was trying to out think a
building and forgetting that everyone was gone. But, he didn't really forget
and now it was brought home even more. So, he decided to retrieve his tool box
and go see what else unusual might be happening around the city. The door
didn't resist his effort to dislodge the tool box, but as soon as he had
removed it the door finished closing. He was tempted to begin kicking it
again, but he decided not to do so. He really didn't want to know whether it
might not ignore him next time.
After
throwing his tool box back into the trunk of the car, he got back in and
started the engine. It occurred to him that this is about the point in the old
horror movies where the car fails to start, but in fact it roared to life and
was ready to go wherever he commanded. He finally decided to drive on into the
center of town. It just seemed logical that whatever had affected the city
might just be right in the middle of it. Of course he realized that he was not
hearing radio stations from anywhere period, but still he hoped whatever was
going on was just local.
As
he drove toward the center of town he was abruptly startled by something moving
besides him. A shadow flashed over the car. "It must be a plane passing
overhead," he thought. "A plane!" Kent slammed on the brakes, jumped out of the car, and started
spinning around looking up into the morning sky. Finally he saw a small speck
in the sky now quite far away and receding with astonishing speed. It was
already too far away to see what kind of plane it might have been. By the way
it got out of sight so quickly though he feeling quite sure it was not a
passenger plane, but more likely a small private jet or military fighter.
Still, there was the nagging feeling that even as far away as it was it should have
looked more familiar. He chalked this passing feeling up to being jittery, and
rightfully so, and got back into the car.
Well,
at least now he knew there was something else moving around the city besides
just him. So, he started paying a little more attention at intersections as he
continued his drive through town. The thought crossed his mind that there used
to be a joke about the last two people on the face of the earth getting into a
car wreck. It seemed that they ran into each other at an intersection in the
middle of nowhere, but he couldn't remember the whole joke. Now the punch line
seemed like it would be kind of meaningless. As he turned a corner near the
center of town a familiar unusual sight greeted him. There it stood; an empty
square block with a lone 50 foot featureless cubical building sitting in the
middle of it. “Well, at least this one isn't roaring at me,” he thought. However,
he wondered if it was also making noise earlier and whether it might have
stopped at the same time the other building did.
Kent pulled the car over to the side of the
road and parked it. He still hadn't gotten used to the idea that it would be
perfectly safe to stop right in the middle of the street. He sat there a few
moments thinking about what he should do next. Should he go over and see if
this building also has a door? He couldn’t see one, but that doesn't mean
there isn't one on the other side. If he found a door, should he kick it like
he did the other one? Should he just leave it alone? Should he just go
somewhere else and forget about this second building? He decided he had to at
least go over and have a look at the building just to see if it also had a
door. If he found one he had decided to go ahead and kick it if it didn't
respond to more subtle methods of persuasion.
As
he reached the building and begin walking around it he saw that in fact this
building also had one doorway that was still closed. He stood in front of it
for a while then tried pushing on it. Nothing. He knocked on it. Nothing.
He pounded on it with his fists. Nothing. Finally, he went ahead and started
kicking. Sure enough, the door started to open. One last kick and it slid
silently out of the way to reveal the interior of the building.
There
were no surprises there. It was another totally empty interior. It had the
same subtle lighting, and same featureless smooth walls. This time he didn't
even bother to get his tool box door stop. He wasn’t even interested in going
inside. Whatever the secrets of these buildings he was convinced that they are
going to stay well hidden from him at least for the time being. Suddenly he
started feeling overwhelmed with everything that had been happening. He
certainly didn’t feel like the hero in some novel who charges off into the
unknown taking on every adversary without a moment’s hesitation. That just
wouldn’t be him; he was a normal everyday person who was now faced with the
most abnormal situation he could possibly imagine. This wasn't something he
was trained for, and he certainly was not ready to take on this challenge like
the Terminator, or even Buzz Lightyear for that matter.
So,
for the moment he just sat on the ground leaning up against this improbable
building and stared at the other buildings around him. Then the realization
hit him that he had better make sure that some practical things are taken care
of before the sun went down. He needed to make sure that everyday necessities
were still available and plentiful for the time being, however long that may
be. At this point he was beginning to wonder if this situation was going to be
resolved somehow in hours, days, months or ...... years. “Naw, can't be that
long,” he thought. What a thought.
Kent said out loud, “OK, it's time to get up
off my rear and start taking care of business.” He got back to his car and
realized much to his chagrin that it looked like the first order of business
would be to find a gas station. He had forgotten he had intended to get gas on
his way into work that morning. Now, it was getting emptier than empty and he
had better find some gas in the next four or five miles. It occurred to him
that he didn’t remember the gas tank being quite that low just yesterday but he
chalked it up to being a little rattled under the circumstances.
As
he pull into a gas station he realized this might not be as easy as he first
thought. He usually used his bank debit card to get gas, but he was wondering
if this was going to work today. Well, maybe..... After all, the traffic
lights had been working. But, luck was not with him in this instance. The
display on the pump showed, "ERROR" and there was no response to
pushing any of the buttons. So, not being ready to give up just yet he went
inside to see if there is some kind of switch which would override the
computerized stuff and get the pump running. Never having worked in a
convenience store before he was not familiar with how this might be done, but
it sure seemed possible. After spending 15 minutes looking around and pushing buttons
he finally conceded defeat at the hands of the computer gods, but at least he
had an idea.
Across
the street was an auto parts store and they should have just what he needed.
After breaking the window in the front door, and feeling terribly guilty about
it, he went inside and found just what he was looking for; a gasoline siphon.
Again feeling guilty for walking out without trying to pay, but wondering why
he should be feeling that way, he went to his car which was parked near another
car in the parking lot. He briefly wondered who the owner of this car might
have been, then he flipped open the gas filler door. Using the siphon he
drained 5 gallons of gas into a gas can he brought with him from the store.
Then he transferred the contents to his tank and went back for more. He only
got another 4 gallons before his source of supply was exhausted, but 9 gallons
would do fine for the time being and there were plenty of other cars around to
choose from. After all, 9 gallons should give him a couple of hundred miles to
work with he thought.
Putting
all his gas pumping equipment into the trunk of his car he set out for the
nearest grocery store. The first store he saw had a large banner hanging on
the front proclaiming, “Open 24 Hours”. Well, it occurred to him; at least he
shouldn’t have to deal with any locked doors this time. As he swung into a
parking place he realized just how much of a creature of habit he was. Without
anyone around he still insisted on parking in a regular parking place having
even passed by the handicapped spaces. It would actually have been rather
comforting right about now to get a ticket for illegally parking in a
handicapped zone. So, he decided he would try it the next time he parked the
car.
As
he walked up to the front doors of the store he began wondering if the
automatic door opener would be working, and much to his relief it did. A quick
look around the store confirmed that this would not be one of those days where
you have to wait long in line. In fact, it looked like everything would be on
sale for 100% discount today, and maybe for a lot of days to come. The thought
of just how many days that might be gave him the shakes and he put it out of
his mind rather quickly. Since Kent knew he didn’t really need anything
right away and since the store was obviously well stocked he decided to leave
without taking advantage of the tremendous sale prices.
On
his way out of the store he glanced down at the newspaper racks to see if there
were any papers. Sure enough there were some. He figured they were probably
from yesterday, but what the heck. He dropped in a coin and opened the hood
and grabbed one of the papers. Opening it to the headlines he was left even
more confused. The headline just seemed to make no sense. “President Williams
Surveys Flood Damage in Virginia.” President Williams........ President
Williams....... Who the heck is President Williams? The president was Sam
Colton. What was this nonsense about a President Williams? There was even a
picture. It was the typical not-so-high-quality newspaper picture of someone
totally unfamiliar. Feeling a little unsteady he walked over to a nearby bench
and sat down and again stared at the newspaper. He was really beginning to
feel like he was losing his mind. Then, he happened to glance at the date at
the top of the page just to see if this was actually yesterday’s paper or
today’s paper. Since he was looking to see if it said Wednesday or Thursday,
he was first a little dismayed to see that it said Friday. Then almost
immediately he noticed the month and year. This paper was dated almost 10
years in the future.
Chapter 2
~ World Ends, news at 11
~
After
a little bit of mental calculation he concluded that the paper was dated about
9 years and 10 months in the future. Or another possibility was that he had
somehow lost not only everyone in the world but also the last 9 years and 10
months of his life as well. Neither possibility seemed particularly
appealing. Then he realized that he was still just sitting and staring at the
newspaper as if staring would somehow make it right or make it go away. It
also occurred to him that this might not be yesterday or today’s paper and even
more time might have elapsed between his yesterday and this today than the 9
years and 10 months confronting him in the newspaper. How could he find out?
His watch! Sure, it had a month, day and year display.
That’s
it, just hit the right button. Great, his watch thinks it’s Thursday, just
like he did. It was also 9 years and 10 months out of wack with the
newspaper. Well there were other watches in this world. He walked back into
the store and went over to the Camera and Photo department where, sure enough,
they had some watches. Still feeling a little guilty he broke into the display
case and grabbed one of the watches. After punching a few buttons he
eventually was greeted by the information he was searching for. It looked like
that wasn’t yesterday’s paper after all. According to the watch, he was 10
years and one month out of synch with the world. The newspaper was three
months old. “Guess that explains why it looks so yellow,” he thought. Then he
thought that he was probably looking a little yellow about now too.
“OK,
I need some answers, and so far I am not getting many,” he said to the watch.
“Where can I find out what has been going on?” As he was turning to leave the
store he saw a small portable TV in the store. Of course, why didn’t he think
of this before? He ran over to the telephone booth outside the front entrance
and opened the directory to look up the address of one of the local TV
stations. There it was. Committing it to memory, he dropped the book and
began running to his car.
After
a quick drive to the station he approached the entrance. Trying the front door
he was rather surprised, but also thankful, to find it was not locked. As he
entered the station lobby he thought how impressed he had always been when the
hero of a story always seems to know exactly where he is going and what to do
when he gets there. Let’s see.... door number 1.... Door number 2.... Or door
number 3? No hurry and he really didn't have to be right the first time so
door number 1 it is. Broom closet. Oh well, it’s not like anyone saw him do
it. So, door number 2 then.
This
door was much more rewarding. After going down a hallway past several offices
he finally saw some signs that he was approaching a studio area. Newsroom.
Yes! That’s the sign he was hoping for. Good, he thought, there was video equipment
in here and tapes lying around. Some stored up on shelves had labels. Looking
over the labels he was relieved to see just what he was looking for. These
were tapes of daily news broadcasts covering the last couple of months.
Pulling down the last tape on the shelf he took it over to the video recorder
and inserted it, turned on the monitor and punched Playback. Thankfully, the
tape had already been rewound and an evening news broadcast began to fill the
screen.
The
opening segment finally finished and a local news commentator appeared on the
screen. Strangely Kent didn’t recognize the face, but at this
point he was not sure whether he would recognize his own mother. The announcer
looked visibly shaken. “Good evening,” he began, “As we all know now, it was
almost 10 years ago that the alien probe entered our system. At the time there
was much excitement and enthusiasm over the plans to recover the probe even
though we did not know what it was at the time. Now, however, it seems that
recovering the probe was one of the worst mistakes of mankind. The disruptions
that at first were not even noticed have now reached epidemic proportions. As
a result this station will leave the air in just a few minutes. We take this
step with deep regret, yet all of us have been severely affected as have all of
you out there. Many of us have lost family members, friends, and co-workers to
the phenomena. Now it comes to this. As we shut down our broadcast facilities
we will attempt to leave them in an operational condition in the hope that the
situation will somehow improve. So, I would encourage you to tune your TV sets
to this channel from time to time in the hope of seeing us back on the air.
With that we want to wish those of you who are left the very best and our hopes
and prayers are with you as we are sure yours are with us. May God protect
us.” At this point the TV station logo replaced the announcer for a couple of
minutes then the tape ended leaving Kent viewing the snowy screen he had gotten
so familiar with just this morning.
Well
that was certainly a little maddening. Now Kent
knew something, but he wasn’t really sure exactly what. Clearly this was going
to take more research to determine what happened ten years ago, how some alien
spacecraft was involved and what this phenomena was that the announcer was
talking about. However, the most maddening thing was trying to reconcile a 10
year old problem with his life that was perfectly normal just yesterday. He
certainly didn’t know anything about a spacecraft appearing 10 years ago, and
nothing about any disturbances that were getting worse and worse.
For
a few moments Kent just sat there, not knowing what he
should do next. Should he start plodding through the shelves of tapes
attempting to put together what had been happening? Should he go somewhere
else? Should he just go try to do something normal and get his mind off of all
the craziness? Yes, that sounded good. He was quite sure that whatever was
going on would probably wait for him to get something to eat. Carefully he
removed the tape from the video recorder and placed it back into its holder and
returned it to the shelf where he had found it. No need to make a mess of the
place he reasoned. Then he headed out of the building and back to his car.
Food
was next on Kent’s agenda, but where should he head he
wondered. Fast food places were certainly out even though he was tempted to go
to the nearest one just to be sure. It seemed like the best idea was a grocery
store, so starting the car he drove to the nearest one he could remember.
Kent was only just beginning to get the hang
of not stopping at intersections, or even slowing down, but just a block before
reaching the Value-Mart a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye
caused him to slide to a stop in the middle of a major cross street. What he
had seen he wasn’t completely sure, but no sooner had the car come to a stop
than he flung the door open and jumped out and began searching the skyline. He
was sure he had seen something. Perhaps it was the same thing that he had
glimpsed earlier. Looking between buildings he finally caught sight of the
aircraft, or whatever it was. It didn’t quite look like a plane, but Kent was struggling to determine just exactly what he should
call it when it abruptly changed directions and disappeared as his view was
blocked by a nearby building. “Damn!” He just wished that whatever it was had
been closer. The brief sight had just magnified the loneliness that was
beginning to sink in now.
As
he stood there in the middle of the intersection he began to appreciate just
how alone he felt. Now he knew whatever happened had probably happened a long
time ago even though to him it seemed like just yesterday everything was
perfectly normal. This was something he had trouble reconciling, but he was
beginning to accept it as an inescapable fact. So, not only were people gone,
but they had probably been gone a long time and he was terribly unlikely to
find anyone. The aloneness was becoming overwhelming and he began sinking to
his knees right there in the middle of the street. Praying yet not knowing
what to pray he continued to look at the sky. Then he saw the aircraft
reappear and realized this was no ordinary plane.
It
was moving through the air, but not exactly flying. It was moving something
like a helicopter, but clearly was not that either. Part of the time its
motion was slow and smooth, yet at time the motions were rather abrupt as if
the craft didn’t find it necessary to bank or make arcing turns. Instead it
made some right angle turns without ever noticeably slowing. It almost seemed
to be tracing a pattern in the sky rather than just going someplace. It
reminded Kent of the times he had seen police
helicopters orbiting the area of a crime while they were searching for someone.
Rather
abruptly it occurred to Kent that possibly they were actually looking
for him. Maybe they had noticed his car moving down the street just about the
same time he noticed them. “Them?” He laughed out loud. That word conjured up
visions of an old science fiction movie about giant ants. Yet he did feel that
someone was in that aircraft and they certainly appeared to be looking for
something, but now he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to be found. Kent recalled the somewhat cryptic video tape account and knew
he didn’t really know enough to be real sure he actually wanted to be found by
whoever was up there looking things over.
Kent knew that something in motion was a lot
easier to spot from the air than something stationary. He remembered this from
the airline trips he had taken for work. Cars and people moving were always
more noticeable. Yet he wanted to get out of the middle of the street so he
began slowly making his way to the nearest building that he felt would offer
him some semblance of protection against being observed.
At
this point he cursed himself for the one time he had chosen to stop his car
right in the middle of the street, but there was nothing he could do about that
now. He just hoped that his car wouldn’t attract too much attention from
above. As he moved out of easy line of sight of the craft, he also wanted to
continue observing it as it came closer to his position. He was hoping there
would be some markings or identification of some kind that would give him a
clue whether he should want to attract their attention or continue avoiding
them.
Kent was now pretty well concealed in the
entryway of a building where he could still continue to observe the craft that
came steadily closer. The craft continued its pattern until finally it was
directly over his car. “Damn!” Kent cursed again out loud. Of all the
stupid times to stop where he did, he thought, but there was nothing to be done
about that now but watch and wait.
The
craft simply hovered over the car and slowly descended. Kent guessed that it was probably couple of thousand feet in the
air while it had been searching. Finally it stopped its decent at maybe two
hundred feet. This was giving Kent a real good look at it and something
else as well. For the first time he heard the sound. It was that same low
rumbling he had heard earlier coming from the first white cube building he had
encountered just this morning. It wasn’t terribly loud but it was unmistakable.
The
craft just hung there for what seemed like an eternity. Kent tried hard to really understand what he was looking at. It
wasn’t easy. This didn’t look like anything he had ever seen before. The
craft was very dark and was triangular in shape. It reminded Kent of a B2 bomber he had seen flying over the Pasadena
Tournament of Roses Parade. Lord, how long ago was that? Of course, this
thing just hanging there in the sky conflicted with him being able to think of
it as a B2. This thing clearly was not “flying.” Whatever was keeping it in
the air obviously had nothing to do with aerodynamic wings, jet engines, or
helicopter rotors.
Then
Kent noticed the craft was slowly rotating as
if surveying the surroundings very slowly. He was pretty certain his vantage
point was well concealed, but he noticed that he was beginning to get the
shakes. This was getting to him. He wanted to get inside the building to
hide, but was sure if he moved he would likely be spotted. So he waited and
watched as the craft continued to rotate.
As
he watched, he concluded that the sharpest point of the triangle might likely
be the “front” of the craft if there was any such thing as a front to it.
Slowly the front was coming around in his direction. Closer. Closer. Closer.
Then it felt to Kent like his heart just stopped. With the
front of the craft pointing directly at him, it stopped rotating. Kent wanted to run, hide, dig a hole, break through a wall,
something, anything. He desperately wanted to be anywhere but where he was.
At the same time he was just frozen in place except for shaking like crazy at
this point.
The
craft just hung there for years. Actually if was just seconds, but it seamed
like years to Kent. As Kent
watched in horror, the nose of the craft began dipping down until it was
pointed directly at him. Again it stopped moving and just hung there doing
nothing. Kent pictured himself being blown into
oblivion at any instant by some unimaginable weapon from the strange craft.
Seconds ticked by for what seemed like hours. Then it happened. The nose of
the craft slowly began to rise back to its original position. When it was
again level, the nose rotated away from Kent and the craft began slowly moving away.
Kent was simultaneously relieved and
disappointed. Maybe he should have run out in plain sight and waved at them?
What would they have done? One thing is for sure, however, they knew he was
there, exactly where, and he was certain they could have removed him from the
face of the earth in an instant, but they didn’t. The only explanation seemed
to be that they were trying to show him that they meant him no harm, but wanted
him to know they knew he was there.
Kent could still see the craft between
intervening buildings as it continued to move toward the edge of town. It
began slowing and eventually came to a stop. Then it started descending. At
this point Kent was betting they knew he could see them
and whatever they were doing was somehow for his benefit. After standing there
for a couple of minutes he finally exclaimed, “What the heck!” He then walked
from his hiding place, as little good as it was, and went back to his car.
Making
a mental note of approximately where he thought the craft had descended, he
started the car and began making his way toward the edge of town. Surely this
was crazy, but what else could he do? Keep hiding? What was the point?
Whatever was going on around here, someone in that craft might know what it was
and he wasn’t going to find out by hiding in the doorways of empty buildings. Kent concluded that whoever was in that thing apparently didn’t
mean him any immediate harm, and just might be of some help.
Chapter 3
~ Close Encounter of the
Strange Kind ~
Kent wasn’t sure what to think any longer.
Nothing was making sense and he felt more and more like he was stuck in the
middle of some bizarre nightmare. As he drove toward the edge of town he
couldn’t help but think of normal things he had originally intended to do
today.
He
had a list of things sitting on his desk at work that he was going to get right
on this morning, or, rather, this morning about 10 years ago. This left him
wondering if he was really older and just missing 10 years of his life, like
having amnesia. This caused him to reach up and swing the rear view mirror so
he could see himself in it. It wasn’t like he had to watch for traffic. He
took a good look while still paying enough attention to keep from swerving all
over the road. He was particularly studying his hair. He figured if he really
was ten years older there ought to be a significant change in the graying that
had just started happening to him. One good look confirmed what he felt
already. He not only didn’t feel ten years older, but he didn’t look ten years
older either.
The
whole day had been so weird that only now was he beginning to comprehend some
really basic truths, or at least things he was assuming to be true now.
Everyone he knew was gone. Family. Friends. Co-workers. All gone. The
loneliness hit him right in the stomach giving him an intense sinking feeling.
It made him think for a moment about all those heroes in the movies who are cut
off from everyone around them but just keep carrying on as if everything was
alright.
Kent found himself slowing down and pulling
over to the side of the road. He pulled to a stop, turned off the engine and
got out of the car. He walked over to the curb and sat down and began to cry.
He had lost them all. Were they all dead? Had they all just gone somewhere?
He even wondered if he himself were dead. How could he tell? He just cried.
It’s
hard to know how long he would have sat there if he had been left alone, but
being left alone was just not in the cards that day. As he sat there and cried
he heard the rumble that he had heard for the first time just this morning.
“Damn you! Just leave me alone!” Kent screamed to the sky. Then he whimpered,
“Please just leave me alone…..” The rumble didn’t obey or oblige and just
continued to the point where he felt like it was probing him and prodding him
to get moving. “Alright! Alright! Have it your way.” Kent picked himself up, feeling like he weighed a thousand
pounds, and got back into the car while wiping the tears from his eyes with his
shirtsleeve.
The
car started flawlessly and once again Kent began making progress in the direction
of the strange craft he had seen earlier. As he drove he had to consciously
avoid thinking of people. He was afraid he would lose what little control he
had if he let his mind wander in that direction. Instead he let himself ponder
more mundane things. If he was 10 years out of step with the world, who had
paid the rent on his apartment? Why had there still been the quarter tank of
gas in his car? Why was the battery in his car not dead? Why did everything
in his apartment look just as it had the night before?
Kent realized that he must be getting pretty
close to the place where he saw the craft descend. This gave him the shakes
momentarily. He was excited, anxious, and fearful all at the same time. Part
of him wanted to know what the craft was all about, and another part just
wanted to hear his alarm go off and realize this was all just some crazy
nightmare and he just needed to get ready for work like any other weekday morning.
Yes,
he thought to himself, the craft ought to be very near now, and it was. As he
rounded the corner he saw it sitting on the ground in a large empty area just
off the road. It was bigger than he had expected. Kent figured it must be about a hundred feet on a side and the
top was at least thirty feet in the air. It was sitting on legs. There was a
leg at each corner and large round pads at the base of each. It reminded Kent of the feet on the Lunar module that had gone to the moon
during the Apollo days. Yes, “One small step for man,” he mumbled.
With
that, he proceeded along the road right next to the craft and at the closest
point he pulled the car over and stopped. Then he wondered if he should turn
the car off, or sit there with the engine running just in case he needed to
make a quick getaway. “Yeah, right. Like I would be able to out run them.”
He turned off the car and stepped out still wondering if this was really a wise
idea.
As
he stood there beside the car watching the craft he noticed an opening
appearing on the underside. A ramp way was dropping from the lower half of the
craft and finally rested on the ground. Then he saw it in the doorway. It was
hard to make out exactly what he saw, but clearly this wasn’t an ordinary person.
Whatever it was began making its way down the ramp and was obviously looking
directly at him. As Kent tried to make sense of what he was
seeing the best he could do was think of a praying mantis. It had a triangular
head that was broad at the top and narrow at the chin with a pair of overly
large eyes near the top corners of its head. The body was spindly but moved
with a strong but deliberate motion.
Then
Kent noticed that it had some kind of
equipment that was attached near its mid section and it was using one hand to
make some adjustments as it approached him. Kent
was surprised that he was standing his ground and not running as it finally
stopped a mere twenty feet in front of him. Finally it made a sound and
totally astonished Kent.
“Hola.
Como estas?”
“What?”
Kent was in momentary shock as visions of the
Taco Bell dog flashed in his mind.
The
creature immediately made some adjustment to the equipment again. Its hand was
making some movements along the side of the box.
“I’m
sorry. A mistake. Hello. How are you?”
“Ummm,
OK? Hello. Who are you?” Kent felt overwhelmingly inarticulate.
“Oh
good, I have gotten it right.” The creature made an interesting tilt of its
head that increased the illusion of being a praying mantis. “Even with all the
practice I was worried this might not work. I am Gerard. Please do not be
afraid. I mean you no harm. I am hoping we can be of assistance to each
other.”
“OK.
I guess I was kind of hoping the same thing. Can you understand me alright?”
“Oh
yes, thank you. My hearing is adequate for your voice range and I have been
studying your languages for a long time. However, I do need this,” indicating
the box, “because our ability to vocalize is not consistent with being able to
produce the sounds of your language.” Gerard’s hands were flying fast and
furiously along the side of the box.
“I
don’t mean to be rude or anything, but your name is Gerard? I mean, you’re an
alien. Since when would an alien be named Gerard?”
“Good
point. Actually my name is not Gerard, but there would be no adequate way for
you to pronounce my real name so I was forced to pick something appropriate to
your language and vocal capability. I can pick something else if you would
prefer.”
“Oh,
no. That’s OK. It just struck me as funny talking to an alien named Gerard.”
“In picking the name I tried to find something that would be related to my
duties as a translator. In searching the history of your planet I found that
there was a famous translator named Gerard of Cremona, who had traveled from Italy
to Toledo specially to find a copy of Ptolemy's famous book of astronomy, the
Almagest. Gerard then stayed on in Toledo to translate Archimedes, Hippocrates,
Galen and Euclid - the classics of Greek science. The name appealed to me and
I appropriated it for my own.”
“Oh,
OK. I get it.” Kent paused wondering how to ask then finally
blurted out, “Do you know why there is no one around?”
“Well,
yes and no. In fact I was hoping you knew more than I do. We are a little at
a loss to understand what has happened here as well. We know some, but were
rather hoping you might be able to explain some things.”
“We?”
“Oh,
yes. Please excuse my rudeness. There are 12 of us aboard the Bright Star.”
Gerard pointed toward the craft. “I am the only one that is able to converse
adequately in your language but the crew is most anxious to meet you soon if
you don’t mind?”
“Well,
yeah…. OK… I guess that would be fine.” Kent was feeling a little inadequate as the
sole representative of earth to these …. people? “I’m guessing Bright Star is
not the real name of your ship?”
“That’s
quite right, but Bright Star is a reasonable translation of its name.”
“OK,
I get the idea.” Kent was at a loss what else to say.
“Excellent.
We need not rush. Perhaps it would be best if I explain to you what we know of
the situation?”
“I
really would appreciate it.” Kent was feeling relieved at not having to go
first.
“Well,
before I begin I just want to let you know that we are not responsible for the
odd situation at the moment. We are trying to piece together what is going on
as you also seem to be doing. By the way we were extremely overjoyed to have
encountered you.
“Now,
for us this situation has been unfolding for about the equivalent of what I
believe you refer to as fifty thousand years.”
“Wait
a minute. You are telling me you are fifty thousand years old?”
“Well,
yes and no. This did happen fifty thousand years ago, and we were there, but I
assure you we are not that old. Please bear with me and I will try to explain
that a little later.”
“OK.”
“As
I was saying, at that time we were in transit between the Gamma and Beta
sectors searching for ore deposits that might be worth mining. I hope you
understand that Gamma and Beta are not their names in our language.
“Anyway,
while we were doing standard scans we stumbled upon something that was
obviously a craft or probe of some sort that was crossing our course. The
Captain decided we should investigate. Occurrences of this sort are extremely
rare and one never knows how important a find something like this just might
be.
“We
pulled near the probe a few days later and did some short range detailed scans
of it. It was clearly not just a derelict of some sort. It was still
operational, but apparently not exactly fully functional. The best we could
determine was that the power source of the probe was very near the end of its
operational life, but given the decay rate it was still likely to be functional
for a few thousand years.
“Our
science officer found this extremely interesting. None of our species has ever
encountered an unknown probe in free space that was still operational. Very
rarely derelicts are found, but never something still functioning.
“Not
wanting to prevent the probe from doing whatever it was designed to do we
simply followed it for several days and examined it. We carefully measured its
course and projected possible destinations with our charts. It was then that
we determined that in about fifty thousand years the probe would enter this
planetary system.
“We
didn’t know if this was its destination but it seemed possible so the Captain
had us make sure our work would bring us back to your system at the predicted
arrival time of the probe. That gets me to how this happened fifty thousand
years ago even though our lifespan is a mere five hundred years.”
“Mere
five hundred?”
“Well,
yes. I realize many species live much longer, but we are pretty proud of what
we accomplish ever with our short lifespan.”
“You
think five hundred years is short? Do you know what our lifespan is?”
“Well,
actually I guess I don’t. I never really thought to study that I suppose.”
“Well
if we’re lucky we might live eighty or ninety years but a lot don’t live longer
than seventy.”
“Oh,
I had no idea. And yet you built this?” Gerard pointed toward the city.
“Well,
yeah.”
“You
are an amazing species.”
“Thanks,
I think.”
“I
hope I have not offended you?”
“No,
Gerard. It’s alright really. Please go on.”
“Well,
the reason we encountered the probe but are here today talking about it is that
we were busy doing our job. We locate ore deposits in various places and set
up mining operations. However, much of our business includes travel between
planetary systems at very near the speed of light.
“While
we were there fifty thousand years ago it is only the equivalent of about three
years for us because we have spent so much time near light speed recently. The
time dilation effect…..
“I’m
sorry. The what?”
“As
a person travels at a speed closer and closer to the speed of light, time gets
slower and slower. If we had been traveling at exactly light speed time would
have come to a standstill for us. As it is we never actually reach the speed
of light, but we travel pretty close to it for extended periods. The effect is
that time for the universe goes by pretty fast, but for us time is extended.
“So,
we just made sure we crossed paths with the probe when it arrived here. Three
years for us and fifty thousand years, for you, later.”
“Sorry
this kind of hurts my head.”
“I
understand. Perhaps you will just have to trust me on this one.”
“Guess
so.”
“At
any rate, as we departed from the probe to go about our business we discovered
that some of the equipment aboard the Bright Star was malfunctioning.”
“What
kind of malfunction?”
“Well
at first it seemed like a number of small unrelated things. It would be hard
to explain exactly what they were, but we soon discovered the malfunctions were
all related. Each malfunction was a result of some part of the ship’s systems
losing synchronization with another part of the ship.
“From
what I have learned about your world, it would be like having the spark plugs
in your car firing out of step with the rest of the engine. It just doesn’t
run right or doesn’t run at all. It took us several days to correct all the
synchronization problems and get the ship fully operational again.”
“Did
you find out what caused the trouble?”
“Yes,
and this is very perceptive of you. There was one cause. We found it hard to
believe, but over time we ruled out everything else. Somehow the cause was the
probe. Apparently as we were changing course away from the flight path of the
probe something happened. Rather, the probe did something. We still don’t
know exactly what it was, but whatever it was caused our problems.
“This
made us highly interested in intercepting the probe when it reached your system
in hopes of understanding better what the probe had done and perhaps why it had
done whatever it was.
“So,
do you know now?”
“No.
We know more than we did, but we still don’t know exactly what happened.”
“Well,
what do you know then?”
“We
know a few things, but do you mind if I ask you a question first?”
“OK,
sure, go ahead. What would you like to know?”
“Well,
all of us on the crew have been wondering for a long time about the abandoned
Centauri ship that is orbiting your planet?”
“What
ship?”
“Surely
you have seen it?” Gerard did his best to impart a little bewilderment in his
translated question.
“No,
I haven’t seen any ship?”
“OK,
now I guess that it is I that does not understand. Please tell me if you can
see that?” Gerard pointed in the direction of the rising moon.
“Sure.
Nothing wrong with my eyes, but if there is an alien ship orbiting earth there
is no way I would be able to see that as plainly as the moon.”
Gerard
paused for a moment then said, “Very well, the question will keep for a later
discussion.”
“I’m
sorry I wasn’t very good at answering your question. By the way I also
realized that I never even told you my name and you have been very good about
explaining what you know. I’m Kent, Kent Holland.”
“Very
good to meet you, Kent Kent Holland.”
Kent suddenly felt like he was in a
vaudeville routine and corrected, “No, my name is just Kent Holland, and you
can call me Kent.”
“Oh,
thank you. Earth naming customs have been difficult for me. Thank you for the
correction, Kent.”
“You’re
welcome. Please go ahead if you have more to tell me.”
“Well,
there isn’t a lot more. We were certainly anxious to meet with the probe
again. Also given the uncertainties of calculating the time dilation effect we
actually arrived at your system a little ahead of the probe.”
“How
far ahead?”
“Actually
we didn’t do too badly under the circumstances, but we did get here first about
two thousand years ago. We realized once we arrived that we still had plenty
of time so we made several short exploration trips while we were waiting. We
then got back the last time just six months before the probe crossed the orbit
of your ringed gas giant…. Saturn I believe.”
“So
you saw the probe arrive? Is it somehow responsible for whatever is going on
around here?”
“We
think it is responsible, but we don’t quite know how. You see when the probe
arrived in your system its power system was totally drained. Remember we
didn’t think it had more than a few thousand years left in it when we
encountered it, and here we were again about fifty thousand years later. As it
entered the system it was clearly out of control. It had slowed a lot from the
time we had seen it, and probably would have ended up orbiting your sun as a
derelict except for one thing.”
“What
was that?”
“A
ship came from here and retrieved it. Well, actually, there were two stages to
the retrieval process. Some kind of drone ship snagged it from near the orbit
of Mars and towed into earth orbit. Another spacecraft was then used to bring
it to earth itself. I believe the craft is often referred to as the Space Shuttle?”
“Yeah
I guess that makes sense.”
“We
monitored the situation of many months and learned virtually nothing. Then
today we noticed that radio and TV transmissions from earth just stopped. Then
we noticed that there didn’t seem to be people anywhere on the planet. So we
began exploring more closely. That’s when we spotted you.”
“Sounds
like you guys got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning too.”
“Pardon
me?”
“Sorry,
I just mean this whole thing about yesterday being normal and today not being
normal is as much as surprise to you as it is to me I guess.”
“It
would seem so.” Gerard seemed a little lost, but continued after a pause,
“Perhaps you could tell us what you believe is happening?”
This
seemed like a pretty reasonable request to Kent
and he proceeded to explain how his day had gone. He was hoping when he got to
the part about the empty white buildings that Gerard would say that they had
something to do with them, but instead he simply listened intently. He did
seem to take particular note of the issues relating to the apparent
contradictions regarding how long it had actually been since yesterday as well
as the newscaster mentioning that there had been a number of unusual
occurrences.
Chapter 4
~ Bright Star ~
As
Kent reached the end of his tale of how the
day had gone both he and Gerard stood there and just stared at each other for a
while. Finally Kent broke the awkward silence.
“Is
this all as weird for you as it is for me? I mean the whole idea of meeting
someone from another planet, all this stuff about people missing, and the space
probe thing?” Kent was feeling a little inarticulate at
trying to express how strange this all was to him.
“Meeting
a new species is always a little difficult. I think weird is probably a good
way of putting it.”
“But
you seem to have this worked out pretty well. I mean, you know how to speak
and understand us…. well me, and You make it seem like you know an awful lot
about earth, the people and our way of doing things.”
“Well,
the translator,” indicating the box, “does help a lot. It corrects some of
the obvious errors I make. Of course doing things like greeting you in Spanish
was not something the translator could correct. Also, I have had an
opportunity to study earth for quite a while and view some of your history
first hand. So it does help.
“Still
there is no escaping the fact that first time encounters like this do
definitely qualify as being weird.
“Kent, perhaps this would be a good time for you to meet the
crew? Also, are you hungry? I realize that it is now getting pretty late in
the afternoon, and I believe we have gone well past the customary time for
eating the midday meal.”
“Both
sound fine to me. I’d like to meet your crew, and food sounds good right now.”
Gerard
turned and indicated that Kent should follow him on board the
spacecraft. Kent was thinking about times he remembered
seeing people going on board an alien spacecraft in TV shows and movies. Then
he thought about food, and the inevitable happened. He remembered the old
Twilight Zone show and pictured someone running up to him and yelling, “Kent. Don’t go! The book, ‘To Serve Man,’ it’s a cook book!”
This gave him the shivers momentarily. Did Gerard invite him to eat or to
become lunch? He quickly shook off the notion and followed him into the
spacecraft.
As
they entered the ship it was clear that Gerard had somehow signaled the crew
that they were coming aboard. All the crew was lined up as if for a wedding
reception. As they went down the line Kent shook hands with each crew member in
turn. As he did so Gerard told him the name of the crewmember, his rank, and
sometimes a little more information. Each crewmember could do little more than
shake hands and do their best to mimic a human smile. They had no translator
boxes themselves, and clearly were depending upon Gerard as their translator.
The names Gerard gave to each crewman were related to their duties aboard the
Bright Star.
The
crew consisted of: Dr. Livingston, the medical officer; Einstein, the science
officer; Ramsay, the chief engineer; Winchester; the tactical officer; Bell the
communication officer; Columbus, the navigator; Ford, the machinist; Edison,
the electrician; Rines, the sensor operator; and Dolittle, the ship’s pilot.
Lastly
they reached the Captain, Cook. He was introduced in the same way as the
others, shook hands and smiled, but then the Captain talked more extensively to
Gerard. Kent wasn’t sure what they talked about, but
he guessed that Gerard was filling the Captain in on the discussions that they
had just completed.
What
Kent didn’t know was that the Captain asked
Gerard if there was any explanation for the Centauri ship in orbit. Gerard
informed him that Kent seemed completely oblivious that there even ‘was’ a
Centauri ship in orbit and seemed to honestly not know anything about it. The
Captain expressed a combination of disbelief and bewilderment to which Gerard
could do little more than agree. Gerard then reminded the Captain that the
ship had likely been in orbit at least 12,000 earth years and these people’s
life spans were a mere 80 years and they had only had a fairly reliable written
history for about the last 2000 years. He told the Captain that the lack of
mention of the Centauri ship in any of the earth information he had researched
was apparently due to a lack of knowledge. They simply didn’t know.
When
Gerard and the Captain had obviously finished talking, Kent got Gerard’s attention, “You guys have been flying around
the galaxy all by yourselves for years?”
“Oh,
no. Of course not. I am sorry if I gave you that impression. The Bright Star
is only our reconnaissance ship. Our main ship, the Nova is actually parked on
the ….,” there was a pause while Gerard seemed to be stuck for a word, “your
moon.”
“Oh.
Are there more of your people on the Nova?”
“Yes,
263,314 counting the crew of the Bright Star to be precise.”
“Wow.”
“Well,
the Nova is essentially a whole city. Since we travel a lot at near light
speed, leaving families behind is simply not an option. I think the closest
comparison on your world would be something like a permanently sailing aircraft
carrier.”
“Was
the Nova also affected by the probe?”
“No,
fortunately it was only the Bright Star that approached the probe and examined
it. At the time the Nova was quite far away and unaffected by the encounter.
“The
galley is right this way.” Gerard motioned Kent
into an adjoining area of the ship.
Kent was a little concerned about what kind
of food they would be having, but those concerns were soon alleviated. It
seems that Gerard had done his homework pretty well and made sure that Kent’s meal was quite normal looking American cuisine. It
wasn’t anything unusual. It looked and tasted like meatloaf, mashed potatoes
with gravy and corn off the cob. They also had what appeared to be distilled
water to drink.
The
food for the crew of the Bright Star looked significantly different, but Kent wasn’t inclined to ask what it was. He figured it might be
best not to know.
As
they ate Gerard managed with one free hand to use the translator box to keep up
a reasonably normal conversation about various trivia. Kent was impressed how he was able to do this and eat his lunch
at the same time. Only a couple of times did Kent allow himself to marvel at
the fact that he was sitting in an alien spacecraft, eating lunch with a bunch
of praying mantises, and handling it all like it was normal.
As
lunch was drawing to a close the conversation was revolving around Kent’s experience at the TV station. Gerard was interested in
the possibility that the tapes might give them significantly more information
about what had been taking place during that blank ten year period that both
Kent and the Bright Star crew had experienced. Finally they settled on a plan
to return to the TV station after lunch to access more of the station’s video
tapes.
As
Kent described the video tape system to
Gerard, he was asked to wait a minute while Gerard discussed the situation with
Bell the ships communication officer. The
two became quite animated during this discussion and Bell clearly was quite excited. Finally Gerard turned his
attention back to Kent and explained that Bell believed it would be possible to use certain Bright Star
systems to extract information from the video tapes rapidly in a way that would
make it easier to search for the specific information they wanted.
This
sounded good to Kent and they decided that Kent, Gerard, Bell and Edison
along with a cart full of equipment would leave for the TV station right after
lunch. The Captain and the rest of the crew would continue searching for any
other people that might be wandering around just as Kent had been doing.
Kent was concerned about everything fitting
into his car, but Gerard let him know that they would be using a small recon-vehicle
that was housed within the Bright Star. The recon-vehicle was relatively
compact when stored, but expanded after deployment. When Gerard showed him how
this was done it reminded Kent of the way the lunar buggy of the Apollo
era unfolded.
After
the recon-vehicle was deployed the party of four set about getting the
equipment ready that Bell was pretty sure would allow them better
access to the video tapes that Kent had described to them. As they were carrying
various pieces of equipment to the recon-vehicle Kent and Gerard talked to the
degree that they could. For Gerard this was a little difficult because he
didn’t always have a free hand to operate the translator.
“Gerard,
one thing I didn’t think to do while I was at the TV station was to see if any
of their computer terminals were working.”
Gerard
gave Kent his best attempt at a quizzical look.
“Yeah,
computer terminals. The Internet. You know. World Wide Web?”
Gerard
managed to wiggle one hand free for a moment to say, “You mean the internet
might still be operating. We assumed since the satellite feeds were dead that
the whole network was down.”
“Well,
I don’t know. I didn’t happen to check before I left the house, and it just
didn’t occur to me when I was at the TV station. I just got so focused on the
whole video tape thing I guess I wasn’t thinking too clearly.”
Gerard
again wiggled a hand free, “Well, if there is part of the network working that
could be of great help. We had tapped into the satellite feeds to find out a
lot of what we know about your planet. It was quite helpful.” Gerard got his
hand back under the load he was carrying just in time to avert a spill.
“Well,
I just hope part of it might be working.”
The
four continued loading equipment until the last space was full leaving only
enough room for the four to squeeze into the recon-vehicle. Fortunately Kent was becoming accustomed to his new found friends and was
not terribly bothered by the close quarters. Bell
sat in front to pilot the vehicle along with Edison.
Gerard and Kent sat in the back.
Bell said something Kent did not understand. Gerard translated, “Everyone ready?” Kent nodded and afterward hoped Gerard understood. The others
said something in reply to Bell, and the recon-vehicle levitated
slightly and began moving back toward the city.