2 Minutes to Midnight

by Steve Lang

  dark planet

  A marine biologist cleaning an endless sea of plastic junk is abducted by an advanced race, but where are they taking him?

  A continent sized island of plastic drifted into the middle of the ocean, choking aquatic life, and driving animals like the albatross to the brink of extinction. Majestic birds that had once soared gracefully through the sky on large wingspans allowing them to glide motionless for thousands of miles had fallen on dark days, and were very near extinction. Todd Bender was talking to his intern, Michael Dean, who had working on his Biology degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. They were floating through the great Pacific Ocean garbage patch, a toxic ocean of humanity’s discarded trash.

  “We’re going out here to try and stop the spread of this plastic soup that’s choking the sea life. Well, that’s the plan anyway, but first we have to gather data. Did they tell you anything about our mission at the university?”

  “Not really. The ad said you were looking for someone to help in an oceanic cleanup effort. College credits would be awarded for selected participants. I was the only one who applied, and now I think I see why.” Michael answered.

  “Lucky you, now you’re that much closer to graduation.” said Todd.

  “So, what got you out here, really? This is a long way to travel for a small crew just to clean up some plastic.” Michael asked.

  “What got me out here was the albatross.”

  “OK, what about it? It’s a big bird, but I don’t see what it has to do with this.”

  “The albatross has evolved for fifty million years, having lived almost its entire life in the air, while only coming down long enough to have babies. These floating plastic particles—to their eyes—resemble shiny fish scales and, they assumed that it’s food for their chicks. Once pristine coastlines are now lined with the corpses of thousands of baby albatross whose tiny digestive systems are clogged to busting with indigestible refuse.” Todd explained.

  “Jesus, that’s terrible,” said Michael.

  “I knew about the plastic because I watched a documentary on it when I was a kid, and it’s what led me into the field of marine biology. I wanted to help, but I didn’t know about the albatross, not until I saw their bodies washed up on shore, bursting with indigestible plastic lighters and candy wrappers.”

  “I get why you wanted to come out here, but how are you going to do it?” Michael asked.

  “I’m not one hundred percent sure, but an engineering student named Boyan Slat devised a way to clean this all up by using passive plastic collection devices linked together around trash patches. His idea is currently being built and tested, but our primary mission is to explore some of this trash, and work together for a solution, and to create greater public exposure.”

  Michael nodded. Todd was always up for a good adventure, and had joined a scientific team concerned for the future of earth’s oceans, but there was such an overwhelming amount of waste that the puzzle seemed endless. Todd, his intern, and five other scientists had been out at sea for five weeks. When Todd first volunteered he had had no sense of the enormity of the problem facing his team, and their planet, but after multiple weeks of sitting in the soup he had started to get a more real understanding of the dilemma. Their research was complete for this trip, and they would return home in the morning. For Todd, the trip’s outcome had been frustrating, because whatever their intentions, they were going home and the toxic plastic trash still remained.

  Their research vessel, The Sweet Marie sat motionless on a still and windless sea. Her crew was sleeping soundly in their racks below deck when a spotlight shone through one of the portholes. Todd woke up irritated at the bright intrusion on his slumber. The others were fast asleep, but he had never gotten used to the ocean’s unpredictable rise and fall, and therefore he was a light sleeper. Todd needed to know what the source of the light was, and shuffled groggily above deck. A moment later, Todd realized that he was staring at a hovering disk off the port side, but as bright as the light was it did not hurt his eyes, and instead only obscured his view of the intruding craft. He stood alone on the tiny floating craft in the center of a gigantic ocean, panicking, with nowhere to run.

  “Holy shit…” Time stopped in that instance as his terrified mind struggled to process what he was seeing.

  Todd wanted to scream and run, and he considered diving over the side, but before he could do anything rash, an invisible tractor beam enveloped his entire body. It froze him in place, lifting him off the deck. Todd was unable to move a muscle, and felt frozen by shock to the point of blacking out as he rose from the boat.

  “This is for your safety.” A voice spoke into his mind, and then he lapsed into unconsciousness.

  Sometime later, Todd woke up on a metal table still fully clothed, but effectively paralyzed. A voice inside his head began to speak.

  “You are in excellent physical condition, and will live a long life.”

  A door slid to the side and a man walked in who had eyes a little bit larger than his own, but otherwise looked human. Todd found that he was able to move again and sat up on his table.

  “We are here to help your people,” The man telepathed.

  In his mind Todd saw images of great wars, famine, disease, vast desserts where were once lavish fields of green grass grew, now barren, and many more disturbing prophesies.

  “That’s not real,” he said.

  “No, not yet. There are a number of scenarios that could play out on your planet. One of them is that none of these happen, and you solve your problems before time runs out. But, our random number generator picks that scenario most often.”

  “What do you mean? Are you going to hurt me?” Todd asked.

  “No, we mean none of you harm. Certain political and geological events over thousands of years have been calculated to bring about these predictions for the future of earth.”

  Todd remained silent, still unsure exactly what was happening.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  The alien said nothing more and left the room. Above him the solid ceiling began to fade, displaying a panoramic view of the star filled sky as they hovered far above the tiny Sweet Marie. Todd looked down and for the last time in his life he lamented an ecosystem in danger of extinction. In a microsecond the craft left earth’s atmosphere and launched into deep space. Todd was electrified and overwhelmed by the novelty of the experience and noticed that there were many other similar craft near him. They had arrived at an intergalactic highway bustling with mysterious travelers on their way to and from mysterious destinations. It all seemed like a sci-fi movie to him or an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, only in this reality there was no Crow T. Robot, or Tom Servo, or Grolsch beer, and he was an active participant in the freaky presentation.

  Starlight twinkled in from all over the cosmos, and then it was gone. The craft was approaching a very large dark orb backlit only by the sun shining on earth, and it was so big that it dwarfed anything he had seen before. By the amount of starlight it blocked out he judged its size to be close to that of earth by his best educated guess. His heart began to beat rapidly, thumping like a double bass drum, when a portal on the side of the massive black object opened, allowing stunning white light to shine through, and then they passed beyond the door. What he observed on the other side stole his breath. Within the orb was a blue sky, marshmallow clouds, flocks of birds gliding together in formation, and far below them vast expanses of beautiful landscape. The flying disk bobbed and weaved through the sky as Todd looked upon massive waterfalls feeding flowing rivers below, secluded by green, untouched forest canopy.

  “This is beautiful!” Todd exclaimed.

  “Welcome home.” The words were spoken from within his mind.

  The ship hovered over a small town where Todd saw that there were other humans looking up at them, some of them smiling and waving. The alien landed the craft, a door slid open and after Todd walked out the ship quickly departed. A
woman and man approached Todd, arms outstretched and embracing him as he accepted their gesture. They were both dressed in hand stitched leather clothing that reminded Todd of frontier movies he had watched as a child.

  “Welcome to New Earth Space Station! I’m Ellen.” The woman said.

  “I’m Todd. Any idea why we’re here?” Todd asked, more abruptly than he had intended.

  “All of us are here because we tried to help out back home. The Pleiadian people are giving us a second chance by bringing us to the NESS. Rick, my husband,” she crooked a thumb to the man standing beside her, “was a park ranger in Yosemite, and I was—am—a doctor.” She said.

  “What was your profession, or better yet…why do you think you’re here?” She asked him.

  “Well, I’m not sure, but I’m a marine biologist, and I was trying to figure out how to clean up the plastic junk in our oceans. My team and I were headed home in the morning, and then I woke up to lights in my eyes. Next thing I know, they sucked me into their ship and we were headed here.”

  “Marine biology, nice we could sure use your help. The colony keeps growing daily and with Pleiadian technology we’ve been able to accomplish some amazing things, but there’s nothing like having good old human ingenuity.” Ellen said.

  She walked with him a short distance to an overlook and in the valley below he could see a pyramid under construction. Tiny machines were zipping about levitating large stone blocks and placing them one atop the other in a step construction on eight sides.

  “That pyramid is a communication device and power station, operating much like the Giza pyramid in Egypt used to a long time ago. Soon, and with more pyramids we’ll be able to talk to anyone on the NESS with unlimited power generation no matter how far they are from this colony, and we’ll have electric light again.” Rick told him.

  “You’ve had to start all over?” Todd asked.

  “Mostly, yes. They have been studying our strengths and weaknesses for a long time, ever since the last deluge on Earth. It was not until they saw the necessity to step in and help that we were all brought here, one by one.”

  “Have they ever said that earth is doomed?”

  “Not in so many words, but they are giving us the ability to rebuild, guiding us where we need direction, leaving us be where we know what we’re doing. This place is more than just a space station; it’s a living biological entity.”

  It was amazing and Todd was overwhelmed.

  “Did they ever tell you why this planet is completely black from the outside? I mean, this is amazing and the sun shining above us is unbelievable, but…”

  “How does is all work, right?” Ellen asked.

  “Well, yeah, uh… essentially.” Todd nodded.

  “This biosphere is programmed to allow the human race to repopulate as conditions worsen on earth. The shell of this place is actually alien technology that is capable of deflecting and absorbing enormous amounts of heat, and protects the ship when it has to refuel. It pulls plasma directly from the sun and only needs to charge once every hundred years, give or take. That’s all we know about it, anyway.” Ellen smiled.

  “Are we ever going to return to earth?” Todd asked.

  “Someday.” She trailed off, thoughtfully.

  “You ready to meet everyone else?” Rick asked.

  “Let’s get started,” said Todd, and they walked toward the village.

  thanks given

  Three friends take to the woods for a Thanksgiving getaway seeking adventure, but one of them will find much more than he bargained for.

  Two days before Thanksgiving three friends, Sean, Tony, and George decided to cut ties with the traditional family get together and head up to Linville Gorge, North Carolina for a weekend away. Sean brought a twelve-pound turkey, and dressing for the festivities, and the others brought their own favorite side dish. The three of them lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, so the drive did not take long and soon they were among thousands of acres of wooded beauty.

  “Wait till you guy’s see what I have in my bag for the weekend. Party favors!” Sean shouted.

  “What you got this time, weed, coke, uppers?” George shook his head.

  “Nope, I do have some weed, but I never touch the hard stuff. It’s something we ain’t seen in a looong time. I scored some mushrooms,” he sang. “We’re gonna’ to be tripping balls this weekend boys!”

  The other two exchanged surprised glances and an electric spark went through the party. It was going to be a wild weekend away from wives, kids, and jobs, a time where responsibility would fly out the window. All three men felt sixteen, free, and all relished the sense of escaping the totalitarian rule of their parents to go exploring the great beyond. It was exhilarating. Tony had almost missed the mile long driveway due to the overgrowth of small trees, bushes and weeds.

  “We should go hiking tomorrow while the turkey is baking.” Sean said.

  “Right, the turkey! It is Thanksgiving. Who brought what for the feast?” Tony asked.

  “Sean brought the turkey, I’ve got stuffing and George brought the cranberry sauce in a can.” Tony said.

  “Because, if the cranberry sauce isn’t shaped like a can,” said George.

  “Then it’s not real cranberry sauce!” Sean finished. They all laughed.

  The vehicle reached the cabin just as the sun was descending over the trees, and the three of them unpacked the car. It was too late to go hiking that day, so they rolled some joints and hung out around the fireplace drinking beer, eating tortilla chips that George had brought, and conversing about their misspent youth.

  “Do you guys remember the time we camped out in Nick Fredrick’s woods and got lost in the dark?” Sean asked.

  “Yeah, our acid was kicking in when we got to his house and not one of us brought a flashlight.” Tony laughed.

  “Hah! Yeah, all we had were cigarette lighters to try and find our way with.” Sean said.

  “Damn, it was dark out there! I swear we walked for about thirty minutes before we found the trail again, and the whole time that LSD was screwing with our heads.” George said.

  “Riiiight! We were looking for the campsite, and never found it,” said Tony.

  “Yep, and when we found that trail again we said to hell with it and built a camp fire right in the middle.” George said

  “We were tripping balls out there all night long.” Tony said.

  “We had a cool fire, too. I remember looking into the coals and seeing skulls and bones in them, which was trippy.” George said.

  “Oh my god, and Roger what’s his name was there with us. He grabbed a branch and called it his wisdom stick, thought he was a shaman all night. Hah, ha!” Tony laughed.

  “The best part was when the sun started to come up and…” Sean started.

  “We were fifty feet from Nick’s house. Holy shit were we loud. I bet they heard every crazy thing we talked about that night.” George finished.

  “Well, if they did nobody ever said anything. I sure loved hanging out at Nick’s when we were kids. His family’s property felt like it was deep in the mountains, but five minutes from civilization.” Tony said.

  “That place was fifty acres of fun.” Sean nodded.

  The next morning they would head out on a day hike to the Linville wishing well, a watering hole for hunters that was dug during the pioneer days of the eighteen hundreds. Today, it was defunct and more of a hiker’s attraction than a survival well. The well had a somewhat sinister past, and it was rumored that more than one troublesome revenue agent from the government had been dumped into its depths during the days of prohibition. Those hills had a lot of moonshine stills back in the day, and many of them were still in production.

  “You think people were really dumped up there in that old well?” George asked.

  “Not sure, but that thing goes down to an aquifer, so if you strap a big rock around someone and dump em’ over the side, well, they’d never be seen again.” Sean replied.

/>   “Hillbilly justice. Yikes, man.” Tony said.

  The three slept that night to the deafening sound of remote wilderness silence. No cars or ambulance sirens, or neighbors slamming car doors in the middle of the night. In the morning they ate breakfast and started out for the well. It was located more than ten miles up and over the mountain and the going would be rough in some places, so in order to make it back by nightfall they would have to move at a brisk pace. The three of them had eaten several of the psilocybin mushrooms Sean brought, and as they hiked the psychedelics brought them all into a weird space. All of them knew the way to the well like the back of their hands, so there was no getting lost regardless of how high they became.

  “Guys, remember the ravine up ahead, and stay alert. We almost lost one guy a few years ago when I came up here with some co-workers.” Tony said.

  “Yeah, that sounds good man. Is anyone else feeling really funky after eating those shrooms? My head feels like a balloon.” George said.

  “The force is strong with those mushrooms man, but I’m reasonably sure they’re all organic. But, yes dude, I am feeling the funk all of a sudden” Sean grinned. The three of them hiked into the wilderness laughing like hyenas as the sun rose high above their heads. George stopped to tie his shoe.

  “I’ll catch up in a minute.” George said.

  “You sure man? We can wait.” Tony replied.

  “Go on ahead; I’ll jog to catch up.” They shook their heads and left him there.

  As George stood up he became disoriented, lost his balance, and stumbled toward the ravine. At the edge his footing slipped and in a moment he was tumbling head over foot down a sixty-degree incline, landing at the bottom with a broken leg. During his fall he hit a tree and it fell on top of him, crushing his right leg. The pain was excruciating and sobered him up enough to realize he was in trouble.