The Saucer Club

by A. J. Gallant

  John turned off the trail with Stella following close behind. “The walking is gonna get a lot harder from here. This uneven terrain is hard on the legs and back. We're not young anymore.”

  “I know,” said Stella. “John, what the hell was Randy thinking letting them carry him out into the forest? I mean he can't walk so how does this make any sense?”

  “Kids don't think like adults,” he said. “Maybe he was trying to get away from our fighting. Maybe he was just trying to fit in with the others. It hasn't been easy for him since the accident. If I hadn't been more interested in booze than my own son this would have never happened. This is my fault and we both know it.”

  She knew that playing the blame game wasn't going to get Randy home. “It takes two to fight John. I just want him home. He's gonna be grounded for six months.” They were silent for a minute. “What'll we do if something has happened to him? I couldn't bear it.”

  “We have no idea what's going on but we have to believe that's he's okay.” John thought that the longer he was missing the odds increased that something awful had happened to his only child.

  They continued silently for over a half hour simply listening to the sounds of the forest, trapped deep inside their own minds. A crow flew overhead screaming and they hoped that it wasn't a bad omen. John thought that if they didn't locate Randy then what?

  John thought he saw something in the trees but from this distance he didn't know what the hell it was. There was movement of some sort. Stella stopped and tried hard to see whatever he was seeing. It was flying around about three feet off the ground. “Stella, what the heck is that? Do you see it?”

  She did see it, darting in and out from behind the trees. But even though she saw it she didn't know what it was. “What on Earth?”

  They both ran in the direction of the flying thing but couldn't see it anymore. It was immobile behind a tree, scanning it in fact. They stopped running but continued to walk to the area where they had last seen it. Was it something that the police were using?

  “John, what the hell?”

  “I have no idea. Maybe the police have some sort of probe in here.” Again he saw it peek out from behind a tree. “Look, there it is!” John ran to it and was suddenly face to face with the sphere. It was a translucent silver color with some sort of light, like a firefly floating around inside it. It backed up and scanned the both of them with purple light as he aimed his rifle at it and shot, but it effortlessly dodged the bullet.

  “John! Why would you do that?”

  “It was doing something to us. Did you see that strange light?” He had never seen the likes of that before. “Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Alien technology?”

  “John, don't be silly.”

  The sphere shot a 3d image above their heads and they stared up at it; it showed Randy being lowered into the saucer and it flying away, past Mars and then past Saturn. Stella was now so weak with fear that she had to sit down. She must be hallucinating. The ball went up over the trees and vanished.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  BRODY WAS TRAPPED INSIDE THE OLD CABIN hugging the cub for comfort; the bear protested being hugged so tightly. Whoever was out there was probably going to make their move soon. He was now quite sure than if he made a run for it he would be shot and that they would probably shoot his bear too. Again he peeked out one of the cabin cracks and could see someone peeking from behind the tree. The distance was too great to tell who it was but it must be the police.

  “Well little fella,” said Brody to the bear. “They got us. I can only see one guy out there but I bet we're surrounded. There are probably twenty of them out there with dogs and rifles and machine guns. You rob one little bank and see what happens. They don't play fair.”

  The bear hit Brody upside the head with his paw and it hurt. Again he peeked out and was unsure of his next move. He thought that it might be best to run like hell and then again maybe not. What if he was shot in the neck and was paralyzed from the neck down? What if he ended up paralyzed from the neck up? Was there such a thing? What if he ended up in a coma and he could still hear people and still feel pain but couldn't move at all? And all they did all day was poke needles in him and he couldn't even scream? It was important to be able to scream if they were poking needles in him.

  “Well bear, I guess I'm going to give myself up. If I were you I'd run off because they'll either shoot you or put you in a zoo where other bigger bears will boss you around. Although when I get out of jail I could probably break you out, that's if I could figure out what bear was you. And then we could come back here to the cabin.”

  The bear climbed on Brody and complained.

  Brody looked at the bear with tears in his eyes. “Here, give me a goodbye kiss before I go.” He kissed the bear right on the lips and the cub wiped it off. He headed for the door and then stopped and looked back at the cub. “If they shoot at you I'll throw myself in front of the bullet; I'll pretend you're the president. I'll take a bullet for you little fella.”

  He exited the cabin with his hands high in the air. Brody headed toward the tree where the guy was hiding. He was grimacing and preparing for the pain of a bullet as the cub followed him but then Jayden stepped out from behind the tree. “Jayden! What are you doing here? I thought you were the police?”

  Jayden shrugged. “I'm too scared to be alone in the forest. And I'm hungry. And lonely.”

  Brody grabbed him and gave him a crushing hug. “Look little fella Jayden's come back to us. My prayers are answered! Come on I'll get you some fish.”

  Jayden nodded. “I'd rather have some fried chicken and a chocolate bar.”

  Brody looked at him. “Jayden, I'm not magic.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  TWO SILVER SAUCERS were flying in such close proximity to one another that they appeared to be piggybacking as they flew over the pyramid on the alien planet. Inside the dwelling a large sphere along with two smaller ones led the boys out through the back wall to a larger and fancier looking ship. The kite-shaped craft almost appeared to be covered in diamonds it was so shiny. It was silver with two areas of red along its side. It reminded Sam of a sports car. Randy walked up to it and touched it, sensing a vibrating field of energy. A fourth globe appeared, it was rolling with a triangular section of energy on top of it and tossed it onto the battleship and they all watched as it took its place near the far end of the spacecraft. It seemed that was the final piece to the brand new ship.

  “Wow, that is one cool looking ship,” said Sam. “Looks a lot different than the saucer.”

  One of the smaller spheres entered the new craft and came back out and went back in, and then they all followed it inside. It was indeed a lot different than the other ship; the walls were as dark as the night sky with red alien writing running through it as it went through calculations. One circle shot a red beam into another and then into another until it had finished lighting up a complicated shape, which turned yellow as it commenced the process all over again.

  “Wow, it is so cool in here!” said Jake.

  “Yeah, it'll make a great coffin,” said Michael.

  Jake nodded. “Yeah, the fanciest one ever.”

  Johnny shook his head. “Man if this is a dream I hope we wake up soon. This thing better freaking fly itself. What the hell are we supposed to do if those other aliens destroy the Earth?”

  Randy nodded as he thought. “Why don't the spheres attack that other stupid ship? Why do we have to do it?”

  “I don't know,” said Michael. “Maybe they have rules and they're not allowed to fight? But if they can't fight why would they make a ship that can fight? I don't know I can't think straight! Anyway if the Earth gets destroyed what does it matter if we all get blown up?”

  Sam nodded. “I guess he has a point there. This place is just too weird to live here.”

  The nose of the ship had become completely clear and see-through as it lifted off and in no time they were leaving the alien planet's gravity. They
put their backpacks down and sat on the empty floor as a translucent blue ball pushed its way out of the floor making Randy move aside. The ball remained forty percent inside the floor. It was the size of a basketball and Randy discovered that he could spin it. When he tapped it a boomerang arc of light shot out of the front of the ship; he hit it ten times really fast and ten arcs of light shot out of it.

  Jake ran over to the translucent ball. “Here let me try it.”

  Sam shouted at them. “Stop! We don't know if we have an endless supply of those things? Do you want to go up against that alien ship with no ammo?”

  “Damn,” said Jake. “I guess you're right.”

  They all watched as the ship increased its speed, passing what looked to be a banana shaped moon that had been shot full of holes. Or were they craters? The strange moon was the color of rust and had a light blue haze surrounding it. There was some sort of weird machine on it with like fifty legs that was digging down into its surface; it struck a pocket of some sort and orange liquid started to squirt out of it; the liquid was drifting off into space. The machine appeared happy at what it had discovered as it jumped around.

  Looking out into space the boys observed the stars rapidly turn into streaks of light as the ship accelerated beyond the speed of light and just like that they were slowing down as they moved past Jupiter.

  Sam was shaking his head. “This thing must travel like a hundred times faster than the speed of light, maybe even a thousand! Look how fast we got from their home planet to here.”

  “Sam,” Randy said excitedly. “The alien ship is heading for Earth and we will be too!”

  They all cheered until the reality of it sunk in. What if the bad alien ship had already blown up the Earth? What if they were too late? What would they do?

  Michael stood up and commenced to pace. “Where will we go if the Earth is already blown up? I don't want to live on a planet with a bunch of flying balls and square horses!”

  Randy swallowed as he considered. “We could be the last five people on Earth, or from Earth. And since none of us are girls there would be no more people ever.”

  “On the positive side,” said Johnny. “That would mean that Harold was blown up. Maybe we'll see his ugly head flying by.”

  “Oh that is so not funny.” Jake stood up and followed a circle that had come from the ceiling, like a small television screen; it expanded revealing the location of the ship that was going to attack the Earth and it definitely didn't look all that far from their home planet. Alien writing was calculating different things on the screen but they couldn't make out what it was showing them.

  “Hell, we gotta go faster!” Sam screamed. “Looks like the bad guys are getting closer to home. Go faster! Spaceship you need to get to Earth now!”

  Suddenly the ship gave a burst of speed and even though they had never felt the pull of gravity before they felt it this time as they all hit the back wall and started to fall out the ship into space as the ship increased its speed. They were now floating inside their bubbles out into deep space. It was definitely time to scream as the spaceship continued on without them.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  THE BOYS DRIFTED TOGETHER in deep space inside their bubbles with their ship nowhere in sight. Randy belched as he had just been fed again; he had no idea how but he was full. Sam floated inside Randy's bubble and grabbed onto him. They held on to one another for comfort but there was none to be had in this environment.

  “What are the odds that we survive this adventure?” Sam asked.

  “About 0.1 percent,” said Randy. “Look, here comes the ship!”

  The kite shaped battleship returned for the boys scooping them up and then immediately headed for the spacecraft that was planning to attack the earth. They were so happy to be back inside the craft that both Michael and Jake laughed nervously. Johnny kissed the floor as Sam danced. Randy's bubble disappeared. Within less than twenty seconds they were shadowing the enemy craft around the Earth's moon. It was a fantastic sight but with so much on the line they hardly noticed. Everything was moving so fast that they were all in a state of confusion. Was the fate of the world really on their shoulders? As least there would be no one left to judge them if they failed, except for themselves. Randy thought that the odds of them succeeding must be terrible.

  Michael thought the triangular shaped spaceship that was bigger than the state of Texas must have been noticed by the Earth, but unfortunately they were no match for such superior technology. Their rockets would probably be like raindrops on an umbrella. In fact it had been noticed but only a few were yet privy to that information. The last planet that the mammoth ship had destroyed made it necessary to undergo a tune-up of sorts; something was slightly out of kilter. Repairs were also underway from the damage that had been done to it by the spiral ships and that could take weeks, but unfortunately the damage had nothing to do with the capability of their firepower.

  Their ship also pulled into lunar orbit and started to follow the giant from a distance. The closer they got the bigger it looked. They watched in horror as they realized the size of the craft they were supposed to destroy; it appeared that they could probably put a million of their kite-shaped ships inside the monster. It looked to be an impossible task as their hearts sunk. They hoped that their technology was more advanced than the colossal spacecraft they were pursuing but they had absolutely no idea if it was or not. It seemed like suicide to fire on it.

  “We're supposed to destroy that thing!” Randy shouted. “That's impossible! We're all dead, the Earth's dead, everyone's dead.”

  Johnny shook his head. “The closer we get the bigger it looks. That thing is a freaking monster!”

  Jake stuttered at the hopelessness of it. “We should just run away!”

  “I just hope they kill us fast!” said Michael. “What the hell is that?”

  The round screen was showing them a video of sorts. It displayed effigies of them making their way through a corridor inside the enemy ship, each one of them being an animated human shape, dropping many small objects on the floor that formed into a pyramid, looking like a farmer planting seeds. Then when their cartoons made their way back to their spacecraft it demonstrated how it would explode, with the huge enemy craft being destroyed from the inside out. The video repeated the scene over and over. They looked at one another as the reality of it was setting in.

  Jake looked puzzled. “Is it saying that we have to go inside that thing and blow it up?”

  Johnny shook his head repeatedly as he argued to the ship. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  “I'm not going in there with ugly aliens just waiting to kill and eat us!” said Michael. “Frig that! You guys can go in and I'll wait here and keep an eye on the ship.”

  Sam shook his head. “I one goes we all go. You want to be the only one left alive?”

  “No,” Michael said meekly.

  A small gray pyramid fell out of the ceiling and then another and then ten more and then hundreds. The small pyramids formed a larger pyramid and commenced to glow. The larger pyramid that it had formed was a little over two feet tall. It made a slight pulsing sound.

  “Well I guess that's the bomb,” said Randy.

  Michael pretended that he was going to kick it and they all screamed at him; he said he was only kidding. Then the pyramid disassembled itself and all the small pyramids started to stick to Randy like magnets on steel. Then they stuck to the others as well and soon everyone had more than a hundred of the smaller pyramids stuck to them.

  “So this is how we carry them in.” Randy felt like making another wisecrack about joining the club but didn't. He took one of the pyramids off him and examined it but it pulled away and reattached itself to his shoulder. “Weird.”

  “Yeah everything is weird out here,” said Johnny. “Nothing's normal.”

  Sam put his hand on Michael's shoulder. “I don't think we have any choice guys. We may as well all be dead if we have no place to go. I don't want to liv
e on that weird planed with all those balls either.”

  “Its shooting at us!” Randy screamed. He instinctively ducked as if that would do any good inside the ship.

  Suddenly three blasts from the monster ship came at them, large blue balls of energy that stretched into ovals but they were easily avoided by the fighter. Instead of backing off their ship went in closer to the enemy. They had no control over anything and were at the mercy of their own alien fighter. Their craft zipped in closer and went down into a channel on the craft that had looked small from a distance but now they realized that at least fifty of their ships could fly side-by-side in it. They felt like a paper airplane trying to fight an aircraft carrier. There was a high level of fear on all their faces. They fully expected to be blown to pieces at any moment.

  “They know we're here!” Michael screamed. “They're gonna kill us!”

  A translucent turret emerged from the floor of the monster ship and shot oval energy projectiles at them; they could see that it was going to be a direct hit and they all thought they were finished, but their shield activated and they didn't feel or hear anything from the impact. It looked like embers bouncing off steel as it hit them. Their fighter found a hole into the monster and went down into it, a gray shaft that went on for miles. It was dark and all they could see was gray energy clusters against the wall. Then they passed a robot of sorts, a cube that was releasing thousands of tiny robots that were repairing a chunk that had been blasted out by the battle with the spirals. Their ship blasted it and it burst into thousands of pieces, all the tiny robots were now confused without commands from the cube.

  “Hey, we're touching down.” Jake, looked frightened and like everyone else had no desire to be there. They all wished that they had never ever found the saucer. He hoped that he wouldn't pee his pants.

  Their ship went through several floors before touching down in a large chamber with strange green plants growing in it; the plants were rubbing against one another as if they were communicating. Sam, Randy, Michael, Jake and Johnny exited their ship surrounded by their bubbles and made their way through the plants; Sam had to pull away from one plant as it tried to hug him. They had to walk more than a mile until they found a tubular corridor leading out. They hid behind a rock-like structure in the hallway that was cycling through planetary images.