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.