by J. Blanes
“I don’t know and I don’t care. What I know is that it doesn’t hurt to try.” No matter the odds, Keira would not give up without a fight. She looked for her phone in her camera bag, where she had put it before they had left the pickup. She used the flashlight app to illuminate the seat. “Let’s look at this thing closely.”
Albert didn’t share Keira’s hopes, but he admired her determination. He crouched and started looking, too.
“OK, if the manual release really exists,” Albert reasoned, “we must assume the person in the seat should be able to reach it easily. Dylan, could you move your hands and look for anything that might feel like a switch or a button?”
Dylan did as instructed. He touched with his hands everywhere they could reach on the seat, but he found nothing special, just smooth fabric and metal. At the same time, Albert and Keira studied it from every angle, up and down, front to rear, with similar results.
Keira felt sad, as she thought this time that she had surely been right. “At least it was worth trying,” Albert consoled her.
“He’s right,” Dylan added, “and I really appreciate your efforts, deep from my heart.” He touched his chest with his hand as he said this, just on top of the spot where the straps crossed. Suddenly, the straps released him and quickly disappeared back into the seat. When he saw himself free, he got up in a hurry.
“How did you…?” Keira was baffled. There was Dylan, standing in front of her, as if nothing happened.
“What did you just do?” Albert inquired curiously.
“Nothing, really, I just touched my chest with my hand,” he replied.
“Show me.” Before anyone could object, Albert sat down on the same seat. It didn’t matter that his body frame was much bigger than Dylan’s; the straps emerged from a higher position and had no trouble in securing Albert, too. This didn’t seem to trouble him a bit. “Now, show me,” he repeated.
Dylan touched his own chest, the same way he had done before. Albert replicated his hand movements, and the straps released him. He got up and sat down again. This time he methodically inspected the straps, especially where they crossed.
“Could you please light it up here with your phone?” he asked Keira. She put the phone screen directly above the straps.
“Look,” Albert said. In the middle of the section where the straps crossed, a small square-shaped, metallic object stuck out. They had missed it before because their focus had been on the seat itself, not the straps. “Behold our switch,” he announced in a grandiose way, “or button, I should say.”
Keira pressed it with her forefinger, and as expected, the straps retreated. She had been right and smiled; the ship had its secrets after all. Perhaps if they found out more about them, they could control it.
“What about the ramp?” Dylan suddenly realized that if the straps could be released manually, maybe there was a manual release for the ramp, too.
They all approached the ramp and examined every inch of it, touching anything that stood out above or below the surface area. Then, they repeated the operation on the adjacent walls. They gave up after several exhausting minutes; if the manual release existed for the ramp, they couldn’t find it. The ramp remained closed.
Keira sat down on the floor against the wall in one corner of the room, looking depressed, her hopes of getting out of there dashed to pieces. Dylan sat next to her, and then Albert did the same. Keira shed some tears, and she soon found herself crying silently. In the quiet room, her muffled sobs resonated in Dylan’s heart like thunder in summer, filling it with sadness. He wanted to console her, but for the first time in his life, he was at loss of words. He felt so helpless and frustrated that he wanted to scream. He gently took her hand and held it.
“There’s still hope, you know.” Albert’s intriguing, sudden words stirred a glint of hope in Keira’s eyes, although Dylan was the first to speak.
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t tell you before, because I didn’t want to create false expectations.” Albert paused to think, carefully pondering his words before talking again. “You know I consider myself a scientist, and I’ll never take things as certain without a solid proof. But I’m also a good observer, and I like to formulate hypotheses based on what I see…”
“Yeah, yeah, why don’t you spill it already?” Dylan had run out of patience.
“I think the ship won’t move if we don’t sit down on the seats, and that could buy us enough time for others to find us.”
Dylan and Keira raised their eyebrows at the same time. They didn’t understand his reasoning and remained in silence waiting for him to explain.
Albert understood their silence and resumed his explanation. “I’m pretty sure the seats glow because the ship wants to direct our attention toward them. They’re the only things in here, and I don’t believe that’s a coincidence. The ship’s waiting for us to sit there so it can secure us with the straps and start flying to wherever it’s programmed to go. That’s why it hasn’t moved yet; it doesn’t want us to get hurt during the flight. At least, that’s what I believe it’s doing.”
“So, if you’re right, we can sit here on the floor and wait for someone else to rescue us? How would they find us in here?” Dylan asked.
“Our phones,” Albert replied. “It’s very fortunate that Keira has brought her phone with her.” He looked at them and noticed that they still didn’t fully grasp the whole picture. “Look, as you know, my parents will arrive early this evening from their trip. In fact, in less than two hours they’ll be at the farm, worried to death when they don’t find us there. They’ll call us, we won’t answer, and in no time they’ll be looking for us with the state police and probably the feds.”
“We’re not minors. Don’t they have to wait at least twenty-four hours before looking for us?” Dylan interjected.
“Maybe, maybe not. Remember, you’re persons of interest in a high-profile case. Detective Powell will surely speed things up.”
“And you think they’ll use our phones to find us?” For the first time since the conversation started, Keira seemed encouraged.
“Yes, Dylan’s and mine are inside the pickup, so they’ll find them easily. Then, either they’ll track your phone here or if the GPS signal is not strong enough, the police dogs will find our scent, then the ship, and finally us.”
“What about the field wall, I mean, the force wall?” Dylan asked. He remembered how strong it was.
“The wall was there for keeping us inside, not for keeping other people outside,” Albert reasoned.
“But if …”
“Stop it!” Keira shouted, interrupting Dylan. “Please, stop it,” she repeated in a softer tone. She couldn’t stand Dylan’s questioning anymore. Every time he opened his mouth, his skepticism and pessimism drained her heart of the hope it had gathered from Albert’s encouraging answers. These constant ups and downs were getting on her nerves. She wanted to keep her heart full of hope, so she stopped him before he could drain it again.
Dylan stammered, unsure of what to next, until he noticed her pleading eyes. He realized his questions were upsetting her, and he felt devastated. Instead of alleviating the situation for her, his questioning had achieved just the opposite. Not only that, he had been undermining Albert’s efforts to keep their hopes alive. He felt ashamed of himself and could not look at her. He directed his eyes to Albert, but his friend was not in a good mood either and stared at him with piercing eyes. After an awkward moment of silence, Albert decided to speak again.
“We don’t know how many hours we’ll have to wait here.” He crouched, took his wallet out from one of his rear pockets, and threw it on the floor in front of him. “You should do the same. We need to know what we have. We don’t know when something could come in handy, like Dylan’s knife, or your phone.”
They all emptied their pockets, and Keira did the same with her
camera bag. It was a modest inventory. They all had their watches, which they kept wearing. Apart from his knife, Dylan only contributed his useless wallet. Albert was no better. He only had a pen, which he always carried in his shirt pocket, and some cash. Keira was the richest provider. Apart from her camera, phone, and wallet, she had a pack of tissues; a lipstick; a pencil; a small notebook; the camera power supply, power cord, and computer cables; a memory card; and best of all, an almost-full bottle of water.
“You’re a lifesaver,” Albert said when he saw the bottle. “If we ration it properly, we could endure many hours. I mean, if the need arises.”
They left the things on the floor and sat back against the wall.
“I’m going to turn off your phone,” Albert told Keira. “It’s too soon for the search party to get here, and we could need the remaining battery life later.”
“OK,” Keira agreed.
“The temperature in here is nicer than outside,” Dylan remarked, wanting to say something positive to amend for his past mistakes.
“I noticed it also,” Albert replied, “and it’s a very good sign. That means the air is flowing, and it also means we won’t run out of oxygen.”
Dylan and Keira hadn’t thought about that. Keira looked around at the walls. “I don’t see any air vents.”
“I have an idea.” Albert leaned forward and ripped a page from Keira’s notebook. He turned around and held the sheet in front of the wall. The sheet stayed still. Then, he moved it in front of the wall’s surface, bit by bit, until he covered all of it. Keira and Dylan followed his movements with interest, staring fixedly at the sheet. He repeated the operation with the other walls, but the sheet didn’t budge.
“It must flow from the ceiling,” Albert said, climbing on one of the seats. He moved the sheet close to the ceiling. Then, almost at the ceiling center, the paper started to flap slightly. “Aha, gotcha!” he exclaimed in joy. He could feel in his hands a soft, almost imperceptible air current flowing from the ceiling, but without any visible air vent. The ceiling’s surface had a black metallic look, and it seemed perfectly tight. Albert was puzzled. How could the air pass through it, through metal? He touched the ceiling with his fingers, trying to feel holes or slits from which the air could flow, but he felt nothing special. The surface was hard, smooth, and somewhat cold, as could be expected of any metallic surface. It was no different from the walls, except for the fact that fresh air flowed from it.
Albert climbed down and sat down next to Keira. “Well, it’s a sure thing now; we won’t suffocate,” he told her, smiling. “I’d give a fortune to know how they do it,” he added in admiration.
She smiled back at him. “I just hope your parents’ flight doesn’t get delayed.”
“Don’t worry,” Dylan said. “Detective Powell seemed to be a very competent guy. As soon as he finds out about our disappearance, he’ll locate the pickup in no time. From there, it’s just a matter of minutes before they discover the ship, and us inside. And if he can’t get us out here, he’ll bring the military if necessary.” Dylan wasn’t sure of this himself, but he had learned from his last mistake. There would be no more negative comments.
Keira thanked him with her smile. Positive thinking was what she needed, and for a moment, she forgot where she was.
“How’s your nose?” she asked him.
“It’s OK; it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“Your cheek bandage is peeling off,” she remarked.
He put some pressure over it, but the adhesive had weakened and didn’t stick on, so he pulled it off completely. Keira looked at the scar on his face, and that made her recall the events of that night. She looked down at her own hand, still with the wrist bandages, and shivered when the hit-and-run images vividly rushed to her mind. She sighed and forced herself to think of anything else, something positive, until her whole body felt a slight vibration coming from the floor. The vibration quickly got stronger, and soon the whole ship shook like a plane experiencing turbulence.
“What the…” Keira looked at the others with her eyes wide open. Dylan had the same reaction, and neither of them had realized yet what was happening. Only Albert grasped at once the meaning of it.
“Oh, my God, hurry!” he exclaimed, with panic in his voice. “To the seats! Now!”
His warning came too late. The ship tilted back abruptly, and they hit the wall behind them with the backs of their heads. Keira screamed in pain. Then, a sudden, strong acceleration crushed them with force against the wall. The acceleration was so strong that they could barely breathe, and even the slightest movement required a lot of effort.
Albert knew they were in danger, as the ship’s flight could worsen soon. He used all his strength to lean forward and lie down on the floor. Then, he put his feet on the wall to support himself while extending his body toward the seat in front of him. He bent toward the left and extended his hand to Keira, helping her to reach the seat, too. He looked at Dylan, who was too far away for help, but at least he was already replicating Albert’s moves and was on his way to the seat. Albert sat down, and Keira and Dylan did the same a moment later.
The ship continued its turbulent flight for a few minutes. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the strong turbulence vanished. The flight was now so smooth that they would have thought the ship had stopped but for the acceleration that still pushed them hard against their seats. The lack of any apparent movement from the ship, mixed with the acceleration they felt and the unexpected silence inside the room, sent conflicting signals to their senses. They didn’t feel the slightest vibration; they could not hear the running noise from the engines or anything that would indicate motion was present. On the other hand, the acceleration they felt was real enough to tell them another story.
Several excruciating minutes later, the strong acceleration lessened to a more bearable level. They still felt it, but the worst part, the wrestling for breathing, was over. They all panted and took deep breaths.
“You were wrong!” Dylan shouted at Albert as soon as he could speak.
“It’s not my fault. I told you it was only a theory,” Albert excused himself. “It’s clear now that the ship was not waiting for us to sit down on the seats. It was warning us to do so or else!”
“What do we do now?” Keira asked with concern. “Where are we going?”
“I’m sorry, but this time I’ll keep it to myself until I’ve gathered more information,” Albert said, hurt by Dylan’s previous criticism. “I don’t want to make another mistake,” he added truthfully.
The ship continued its flight, keeping its current acceleration. They all remained in silence, lost in their thoughts, waiting for the next crazy thing to happen.
“I’m scared,” Keira confessed, breaking the silence.
“Then you’re much braver than I am,” Dylan said. “You see, I’m not only scared, but I’m also frightened, terrified, and panicky, and I almost shit in my pants.”
In another time and place, she would have laughed at a comment like this, but now, she could only smile.
“What about you?” she asked Albert. “Aren’t you scared?”
He thought for a minute before answering. He felt a mix of sensations that he had never experienced before. The excitement at the unknown and the emotional reward of discovering thrilling, new technologies struggled inside him against his desire to go back home and to get out of this mysterious and potentially dangerous situation. His inquisitive, scientific mind wanted to know all about the ship, its secrets, and its owners, but on the other hand, his primeval instincts constantly urged him to avoid danger and protect his life at all costs.
He told her the truth. “I’m scared, of course, but I’m also excited and curious.”
In fact, they all felt the same: a mix of fear and human innate curiosity. The difference between them and Albert was one of scale; for Keira and Dylan, the fear part ou
tweighed by far the excited and curious one.
“I’d be scared to death if I were you,” Dylan said.
“Why is that?” Albert was genuinely intrigued.
“Because when the aliens see your impressive brain, they’ll want it for themselves,” Dylan said, laughing at his own bad joke. This time, nobody else even smiled.
Two hours passed, and they started wondering about how much time they had to spend in this ship. Hours? Days? What would happen if the water in the bottle was not enough for them? And where were they going? Another, bigger ship? How would they get out of there? These and other questions occupied their thoughts until the ship’s acceleration ceased abruptly.
“The ship stopped!” Keira shouted.
“Hmm,” Albert murmured.
“What?” Dylan inquired.
“There’s another possibility,” Albert remarked.
“Another possibility?”
“As I said, I won’t say anything else until I’ve gathered enough evidence.”
As if it were a wish come true, the ship provided that evidence in the next few minutes. First, the room illuminated with a bright white light coming from the ceiling. They all had to close their eyes, used to the darkness of the room, and blink several times before they could open them fully again. Albert was the most surprised of the three by the lights. He had seen and examined the ceiling closely, and he could have sworn it was a single, big, metallic plate. Now, it was as if someone had embedded several round lamps in it. He smiled. He liked to be surprised.
The second and biggest surprise came from the wall in front of them. The half-right portion of it started sliding over the left part, until only half the wall remained visible. Through the gap it left, they could now see the room at the front of the ship, with its more striking feature: the big tinted window. The room was empty, almost the same size as the one they were in, without any controls, dials, pilot seats, or anything a normal plane would have at the front. However, what really caught their attention was not the room or the lack of controls, not even the big window, but what was beyond it. The most spectacular view they had seen in their lives was displayed in front of them.
