Earth (Vetrix)

by Bill Bush

  Allison felt sick. The Snaders were going to attack Earth because of her and Josh. “Does Dyson say when they plan to attack?”

  “It looks like we just missed them,” Nicole said. “According to this the Snaders left last night. “They left behind a few men and women to look after the children and elderly.”

  “So the Snaders are attacking Earth right now because of me and Josh?” Allison said.

  “Allison, it isn’t your fault,” Chezlor said.

  “He's right,” Nicole said. “You’ve read yourself that the Snaders have been planning for a long time to attack the Earth. It was just a matter of time.”

  Chezlor stood up quickly, staring at the locator in his hand. “There’s a Snader coming!”

  “Let me see.”

  Allison took the locator from Chezlor and watched the screen. Nicole and Chezlor started putting things back the way they found them as quickly as they could.

  Allison said, “It’s Dyson!”

  “Let’s hurry!” Nicole said. “Allison, will you help us?”

  “Wait!” Allison said.

  Nicole and Chezlor continued to frantically straighten Dyson's room to the way they found it.

  “Josh is with him!” Allison said.

  “Oh, no!” Nicole said. Now she stopped and looked at the transmitter with Allison.

  “And there’s Alya,” Allison said.

  Chezlor joined Allison and Nicole to see what was happening outside. “And there’s Flipper,” he said.

  They watched as Jake crawled out of the hole, with Fox bringing up the rear.

  “They’re all together,” Nicole said.

  They ran out of the spaceship to meet the returning group.

  Nicole sprinted to Fox when she saw all the blood on him. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I’ve been better. Dyson saved my life. He saved all of us.”

  “Dyson helped us escape!” Josh said to Allison.

  “I know, we just read all about it in his journal.” Allison turned to Dyson, “Sorry for reading your stuff, but thank you for helping us escape.”

  “You’re welcome,” Dyson said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to cover my trail better. I’m afraid we have a war beginning above us.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Allison said. “In fact, it’s as much our fault as yours. If we hadn’t come down here, none of this would have happened.”

  “It sounds like you just added fuel to the fire,” Chezlor said. “The Snaders are angry, brutal, and uncompassionate. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. That’s why they are attacking Earth.” He paused. Everyone was looking at him, and he suddenly looked uncomfortable. The tension was thick. Chezlor looked back at Dyson and continued meekly, “Um, sorry, no offense to you.”

  Dyson laughed out loud. “No offense taken—it’s true!”

  Everyone relaxed and laughed.

  “What are we going to do now?” Jake asked.

  “We have to get back and warn everybody,” Flipper said.

  “How are we going to do that? No one has listened to us yet,” Josh said.

  “But now we have three Gudes and a Snader to back up our stories. With the Snaders on the attack, they will surely believe us,” Flipper said.

  “Our orders are to remain anonymous,” Fox said.

  “We have to help out,” Alya said. “We can’t let the Snaders attack without helping to defend Earth.”

  “We will help out, but we need General Jaxxen on board first,” Fox said. “We will contact him when we return to the surface. Then we can contact the proper authorities here on Earth and discuss with them how to proceed.”

  “Thank you!” Flipper said. “It’s terrible having no one believe us about meeting aliens.”

  “Let’s get back to Flipper’s house and see if we can find out what the Snaders are up to.” Fox turned to Dyson. “Are we able to teleport out of here safely?”

  “No, but give me a minute.” Dyson rushed into the spaceship.

  At the mention of Flipper's house, Allison filled with panic at the thought of telling Flipper about his mom. How could she say anything after what happened with Uncle Dennis? But she had to.

  ”Flipper, I … I dreamed while you were gone. I … and I saw…”

  Flipper watched her with eager anticipation, but she choked.

  Nicole came to her rescue. “Flipper, what Allison is trying to say is that she saw Dell teleport away with your mom.”

  Flipper stood as still as a statue, seemingly unable to absorb the information. Allison wondered if he believed it. She didn't know if she would if she hadn't witnessed it herself.

  Dyson rejoined the group. “I switched off the blocker so it’s safe to teleport now.”

  Fox grabbed Dyson, Chezlor held Josh, Alya grabbed Allison, and Jake held Flipper, and they all teleported back to Flipper’s living room.

  Chapter 19

  Eric had been so sure of the existence of aliens that he spoke out about it both when he was a University professor and when he was doing research for the government. His outspokenness got him nothing but a trashed reputation and a lot of grief from fellow scientists. There was one positive consequence—it led him to his current job as a private researcher.

  He had been hired by an individual to research some wild things. The invention he was now testing was something he only believed could exist in his imagination—at least until recently.

  His boss, whom he had never met, frequently gave him ideas and information to research. During his research last year Eric discovered a process that got him really excited. He spent about eight months developing his invention. After successful small tests Eric took a gallon of pure water, ran it through his machine, and filled his Jacuzzi with water. The machine literally multiplied water.

  Now he was just outside of Washington D.C., on the five thousand acres he purchased last year so he would have open space to run tests. Last month he hired some men to dig a large hole—about the size of ten swimming pools. He calculated the hole so it would hold two hundred and fifty thousand gallons of water. Now he was using that hole for his experiment.

  The machine was two feet tall, two feet wide, and four feet long. It wasn't heavy, but it was awkward to carry, even with the handle Eric put on top. The parts inside that made it work took up very little space. The reason the machine was that big was to allow the water to flow through and be manipulated properly.

  There were two tubes that connected to the machine—one to suck the water in, and the other to spray it out. The tubes weren’t necessary, but made the process a lot smoother.

  Eric started with a gallon of water in a bowl. He sucked it up, ran it through the machine and dispensed it into a bucket. Two gallons. He sucked up the water from the bucket and dumped it into a fifty-gallon barrel. Four gallons. Four gallons became eight gallons, then sixteen, then thirty-two. Next he ran the water from the barrel, through his machine, and into a horse trough. When the horse trough was full he began pouring the water into his newly dug hole.

  The machine wasn’t fast—he was on day four and his soon to be pond wasn’t halfway full. Speed would come later. Everything with his experiment was going as well as he expected. In a few days he would have a pond he created from a single gallon of water.

  He had been getting excited about the possibilities of his newest invention when he got a call from his boss. There was an assassination of the President, very possibly by a purple alien, and he was out in the middle of nowhere! Eric immediately went from ecstatic to frustrated.

  When his boss had told him he could set up his lab anywhere in the world, Eric chose Washington D.C. He wanted to be near the government so he could spy on them to stay informed of secret activity. It proved to be a good decision. With the technological advances he made he was able to gain classified information and knew a lot of things the public never heard about. However, he had not yet been able to learn anything about the government’s involvement in aliens, which has alwa
ys been his greatest interest.

  He couldn’t believe his bad luck! The world was possibly undergoing an alien invasion and he was out in the middle of nowhere. He got in his car and sped to Washington D.C. He was fifty miles away, but made it back in less than thirty minutes.

  He went straight to his lab. His “lab” was actually a large two-story, five-bedroom house. Eric used every room of his spacious house to perform experiments, filling them with scientific equipment and materials. He made space where he had to for living necessities—a small mattress on the floor; a few food items in the pantry which was primarily full of chemicals; and all of his toiletries were contained in one drawer in the bathroom.

  He parked his car in the front, which he had only done one other time, and ran quickly into the house.

  As he passed through the living room he noticed a foul aroma. What was that smell? One of his ongoing experiments must have gone bad. Maybe one of the lab animals died. He didn’t have time for that now. He changed into a specially designed black outfit, grabbed a bracelet, his radio, and his recorder, and ran back out the door.

  He needed to get to the new President as fast as he could. He had to find out what she knew about the alien attacks. As he drove toward the White House he listened to his radio, which he built to allow him to tap into secure communication channels, primarily so he could listen in on the Secret Service. He soon learned that President Charles was on her way to Camp David for security reasons. Eric immediately turned the car and headed toward Camp David as fast as he could.

  Not that the President was going to tell him anything. His plan was to sneak into Camp David and listen in on President Charles’ meetings. A few months ago Eric had invented a special bracelet that allowed him to become invisible. He still wasn’t sure if he was invisible to animals. They could either see him or they could tell he was there through other senses. He hadn’t tested that aspect fully yet.

  People, however, never saw him. He wore a special outfit he designed to work in concert with the bracelet. He didn’t have to wear the outfit, but it was either that or go naked, which he tried a couple of times and didn’t like the feeling at all. It was like the many dreams he had where he was around a lot of people without any clothes on. He really hated those dreams.

  As he approached Camp David his anxiety and heart rate rose. He had only tried out the invisibility ability a few times, and never around the government. What if they had the technology to detect him? He was about to find out.

  A couple of miles from Camp David he parked his SUV out of sight. He put the invisibility bracelet on and walked.

  He was still uneasy with the fact that although he was invisible to other people he could see himself. It felt like others should be able to see him if he could, so when the guards opened the gate to allow a black limo to pass through and he walked in without a word from anyone around, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  It only took Eric a few minutes to find President Charles. She was in a large conference room with several advisors. Everything in the meeting room looked as Eric would have expected—expensive and new smelling furniture, plush cream-colored carpet, a long, rectangular table with the President sitting at the head. Everything looked normal except for one person—the man seated two places to the right of the President. His skin was almost a fluorescent red, like he might glow in the dark. Eric couldn’t take his eyes off of the man. He was in awe and assumed he was looking at his first real alien. It took him a few minutes to realize he wasn’t paying any attention to the discussion and hadn’t turned on his recorder.

  He reached into his pocket and turned the miniature recorder on. As long as he kept the recorder in his pocket it would remain invisible—another advantage of wearing the suit. He developed the recorder to pick up conversation clearly from his pocket, without sounding muffled.

  He also developed it so it could literally record for days without running out of storage space. Unfortunately he could only record audio. He was still working on developing a similar contraption that could record video for extended periods of time.

  The battery in the recorder could run for days. In fact, he believed he was getting close to developing a perpetual power source. He never would have believed that was possible until recently. It seemed like during the last few years his boyhood imagination was coming to life before his eyes. Being invisible, spying on the President who was meeting with an alien. “What boy didn’t daydream about that?” Eric thought to himself.

  The red alien spoke, which drew Eric out of his thoughts. “We have the teleporting blocked in all the major countries. Within a few hours we will have the whole Earth protected from the potential of teleportation.”

  Teleportation was real? Eric could hardly contain his excitement.

  “Very good, Chili,” President Charles said. “We can’t have the Gudes interfering with our takeover plan.”

  Eric knew it! He thought there has always been something fishy about Vice President Charles, though he never could put his finger on it. Now he had her on record saying that she was involved in a takeover plot. He wished he had a video of the red alien so he could convince others what he was seeing was real.

  “Have you had a chance to speak with the other new world leaders?” Chili asked, his tone full of arrogance.

  “I’ve spoken with a few of them,” President Charles said. “Our people are in the process of organizing a world-wide summit next week in Washington D.C.”

  Chili nodded. “Good! Once we frame the Gudes for an attack on the world leaders, the people of this planet will be begging the Snaders to protect them.”

  Gudes? Snaders? Eric was confused.

  One of the President’s Secret Service agents rushed into the room, interrupting the conversation.

  “Ma’am, you have visitors.”

  President Charles was visibly agitated. “I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed.”

  “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but this is an urgent matter.”

  The “visitors” didn't wait for the President to okay their arrival. Four more red aliens came crashing into the room, armed and aggressive. That is, until they saw Chili sitting beside the President. They stopped dead in their tracks and stared.

  Everyone at the table stood and the two Secret Service men rushed to the President’s side. She stood her ground.

  Although he was in a corner and away from the action, Eric thought he could still get hit by a stray shot, but he didn’t care. This was like Christmas. Five aliens in the same room! And what entertainment they were turning out to be. The four red aliens and Chili were staring at each other, all with stunned, goofy expressions on their faces and their mouths wide open.

  The largest of the four aliens asked, “Which one of you is the President?”

  President Charles had piercing eyes and clenched teeth and fists. “What do you think you are doing barging in here?”

  The tall, husky one who seemed to be the leader pointed his gun at the President, which promptly got the Secret Service guns pointed directly at him.

  He seemed unfazed by the guns aimed in his direction. He addressed the President in a matter-of-fact manner. “We are going to take over the world.” His perplexed expression remained and his eyes never left Chili. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  Chili emphasized every word. “We are in the middle of a world takeover.”

  Finally the red alien let his gaze leave Chili. It went straight to the President. “From my observations I would say you are the one in charge.”

  The President still spoke with force, but now with a hint of curiosity. “It never occurred to me the Snader's persuasive ability would be used against my secret service. Stupid humans! Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  “I am Red Fox, leader of the Snaders. As we speak we have two hundred and ninety-three spaceships dispersing all around the Earth. I am here to take you prisoner, or kill you if necessary. It doesn’t matter to me. In a few hours we will begin our assau
lt on this wretched planet.”

  “You think you’re going to take over this planet with three hundred spaceships?” The President seemed quite amused at the prospect. “You are going to have thousands of airplanes attacking each of those spaceships before you can get a shot off.”

  Red Fox shot right back. “I don’t see you doing anything!”

  “Yesterday we pulled off the assassination of dozens of the world’s leaders and convinced the people that it was the Gudes who killed them all.”

  Red Fox looked back and forth between President Charles and Chili. “We’ve been planning our attack for decades. We are going to destroy the major cities and governments of this world.”

  “Do you really think you can survive this mission?” Chili asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Red Fox said proudly. “We are going to contact our fellow Snaders on Rex so they can complete the job we start.”

  Chili took a couple of steps toward Red Fox. “We are in the process of gathering the new world leaders together so we can kill them all at once and make it look like the Gudes are continuing their attack on Earth. These people will beg the Snaders to protect their precious planet against the evil Gudes. We already have thousands of Snader spaceships on their way to Earth. Taking over this planet is going to be easy.”

  For the first time Red Fox looked unsure. He glanced back at the other three red aliens with him. One of them approached Red Fox and they whispered so no one else in the room could hear.

  Red Fox spoke to Chili, as if the President wasn’t there. “She’s a human. Why would you work with her? No one but Snaders can be trusted.”

  “Snaders?” Eric thought. “That must be what the red aliens are called.”

  “She’s part human and part Snader,” Chili said.