The more he read the more he realized that although there was a lot of explanations about different scientists’ theories out there, most of this stuff was still not quite fully understood. He was too tired to try and make sense of it all, but his gut feeling was starting to create his own theory.
Jeff gave a look at his watch and couldn’t believe it was eleven o’clock. He shut off his computer and went in to wake Janet. He found she was already up and making coffee. She smiled at him as he came into the kitchen. “I saw you working on your computer and decided not to bother you. I just made some coffee and was about to bring you a cup, everything okay?”
Jeff went over to her and kissed her gently, “How could anything be wrong when you’re here with me? I was just doing some investigating on that beautiful aurora borealis we saw last night. Didn’t realize it was this late, I better take a shower. Thanks for making the coffee. I need something to keep me awake after you truly took every bit of energy out of me last night. Not that I’m complaining, mind you,” he said, smiling.
Getting dressed, they acted like two young lovers, pinching, jabbing, kidding and kissing. Finally at eleven thirty, they headed out to make General Stormer’s meeting at the station.
No one was late, and the hum of everyone talking about how the TV coverage had continued non-stop since they had left early morning. As soon as they sat down, General Stormer began, “Hope everyone got some rest after such a long day yesterday. First of all, I want to inform you that I had our military install their best scrambler available, in this room for this meeting. It’s designed to keep our conversations undetectable by anyone. Hopefully that includes E-1. Before anyone gets upset about that, let me just say that we’re going to be talking about the alien pilot and some other ‘sensitivity topics.’ I’ve taken this precaution in the hope that we can openly discuss what has happened and what our next steps should and will be.
“Okay, I have talked to the president and nothing new has happened since E-1 evaporated the three alien ships and our two F-10s. I have the Director of the CIA looking into exactly what kind of activity happened during the elimination of the ships, and trying to find any pattern to the other Collector ships out there. He’ll notify us as soon as he has anything.
“Donemore, have you anything new on our alien friend in sickbay?”
Donemore said, “I have tried everything short of cutting it open and can’t find a thing that makes sense. All the x-rays, sonic grams and MRIs have revealed no internal organs or bone structure to support the body. There are no external openings that I can find, probe, put a scope into or just examine. Until I cut it open, I won’t know if these tests are just not working on the alien or if they’re correct. Unless everything else fails, I certainly don’t want to cut it open just yet.
“The glittering liquid that Woods discovered on the ramp of the spacecraft is the aliens’ internal fluid. Tests on that just show a bunch of electrons racing around. Again, nothing makes sense, not to how we as humans are put together. The only thing that has happened that startled us was when we took x-rays all over its body, it moved. Call it a spasm or whatever, but every time we took an x-ray the thing would flinch, then nothing.”
The General rubbed his chin like he was in deep thought, then replied, “Donemore, keep at it. If you reach a dead end, call me before you decide to cut it open.
“Woods, have you received any new information from your teams at the sites?”
Woods responded, “I received reports from all of them a few minutes ago. They don’t have anything to report except that all the aircraft are gone. There are no signs of fires, debris or radiation. The only thing anyone has reported was the smell in the air after the rays hit and evaporated the ships.”
Jeff was starting to get fidgety listening to the two reports from the FBI Agents. Since doing his research this morning on his computer, he had formed a theory that would sound absolutely ridiculous to these people but decided to bring it up. “General, I know you stated from the beginning you wanted facts, but also wanted any gut feelings we had about this project. This may sound really off the wall but I have a theory on what might help Donemore in making some determinations on the alien body.”
The General replied, “Jeff, you found this thing and if you’ve got a gut feeling, I want to hear it no matter how crazy it might sound, today or tomorrow. Besides, after the last few days’ events, how can we think anything is off the wall? What’s on your mind?”
Jeff gave a quick glance at Janet and began. “Remember when Woods, you and I were in the alien spaceship and I mentioned we all looked like we had just stuck our fingers in an electrical outlet because of the funny reaction of our hair inside the craft? Then Woods asked me about the strong smell and I said I thought I knew what it was? I didn’t have time to tell you then, but the exact same thing happens when I’m out lightning chasing. Hear me out—
“Whenever Al and I were close to a thunderstorm that eventually shot a lightning bolt to Al’s meter, just before the lightning hit, the hair on our arms and head began to rise. The second the bolt hit the ground, there was a tremendous flash, followed by a deafening crackling sound and then the strong smell of ozone filled the air. Theory has it that an electrical charge begins to build up just before a lightning strike is pending. If you ever rubbed a balloon against the carpet then held it near your hair or arms, you could see the hair lift up toward the balloon as it passed over. This static electricity, some say, is your first warning that a lightning strike is pending. When the lightning bolt finally strikes, it basically fries the air and shakes up the molecules. Normally, the oxygen in the air occurs as a free element. When it does, oxygen is a diatomic molecule, which is a fancy way of saying it consists of two oxygen atoms, or O2.
“Ozone, however, is a tri-atomic molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms, or O3. The three oxygen molecules are bonded together forming a wide triangle. This makes Ozone very unstable and allows it to react easily when certain forms of energy, like an electric arc from a thunderstorm are applied to it. When the ozone reacts, it creates a sweet pungent smell. That’s the same smell that was in that ship when we entered. I’m sure of it.
“The thing that makes it all unique is that normally the lightning strike neutralizes the charged air and only the ozone smell is left. That’s not what happened inside that ship. The air smelled like a lightning bolt had hit, and the air inside the ship was still highly charged. Knowing this, let’s assume hypothetically that the alien spaceship internal atmosphere is designed to include supercharging with electricity. When our F-10s hit it and ripped a hole in the outer structure, the difference between our air and the supercharged interior air of the ship had to be neutralized. This would have caused some sort of electrical discharge, which created the Ozone smell. As the spaceship was crashing, whatever creates the charged interior continued to try and recharge the air, which is why the ship retained some of the static electricity when we entered. If this whole hypothetical theory is true, the alien needs to feed off an electrically charged atmosphere the same way we need oxygen to breathe. What reinforces my theory is when Donemore said that the alien moved during the x-ray procedure. X-rays are nothing more than bursts of high energy. Maybe it was enough to jolt the alien back to life, if only for a second.”
Donemore responded immediately, “Jeff could be on to something. That would explain why this alien doesn’t have any external openings. It doesn’t need to be fed like humans. It just needs the atmosphere around it to be properly supercharged and it feeds off the air. I could test Jeff’s theory by hitting the alien with the defibrillators we use on humans when their hearts are stopped and we need to jolt it to restart. I say we try it, as nothing else seems to work. But we should do it quick. If this alien needs an electrical charge to get it going, I hope we’re not too late.”
General Stormer replied, “I agree. Donemore and Woods, head down to the hospital ASAP and give it a try, maybe we can get this alien to recover, maybe even talk to us. As a precaution
, please have enough FBI Agents in the room when you try this. Who knows what this thing will do if it wakes up and discovers it’s in alien territory.
“Woods, I know you mentioned smelling that Ozone during the strikes from E-1 last night. On your way to the hospital, contact your teams and see if they can make any connection to Jeff’s theory. I’m going to stay here and see if anything new is forthcoming from the CIA Director. Call me the second anything happens.”
Jeff asked, “General, do you mind if Janet helps me do some research at the station here, or do you need us to do anything special for you?”
Stormer said, “Jeff, you’ve been on a roll. If you have something else you want to check out and want Janet to help you then go right ahead. Like I said, I’ll be here anyway. If you find something new, let me know.”
Donemore and Woods asked for the station’s helicopter and within a few minutes they were at ORMC. It took less time to fly to the hospital, than to run the wickets through all the security the FBI Agents had set up from the roof to the alien’s room. Donemore took The General’s advice and called four FBI Agents inside the room. They didn’t tie the alien down, but Woods and his fellow agents strategically placed themselves around the bed.
As soon as everyone was in position, Donemore garbed the defibrillators and yelled “clear” and a few seconds later touched the alien’s body with both paddles. Normally a human body would stiffen up as the electrical charge caused the body to spasm. Then as the charge drained into the body, the spasms would subside and hopefully the heart would start beating again. When Donemore touched the alien, there was no stiffening of its body, movement or visual response at all. She didn’t have any monitors to go by and really didn’t know what she expected to happen, but she yelled “clear” again and touched the paddles to the alien. As the charge drained into the alien, she noticed its hand flinch slightly. “Woods, did you see that or was I just imagining this thing’s hand moved?” She asked as she excitedly waited for the machine to recharge so she could give it another jolt.
Woods and the other FBI agents responded almost together, “It moved!”
As soon as the machine had recharged, Donemore yelled “clear” again and hit the paddles to the alien’s upper torso. This time both its hands moved, along with one of its arms and legs. “Its working, I just wish we didn’t have to wait for this machine to recharge.”
Woods said, “Suppose we hit it with a constant stream of electrical current? Do you think it would help or hurt?”
Donemore responded just as she touched the paddles to the alien, “Right now I don’t think it matters. What do you have in mind?”
Before she received an answer, the alien moved both hands, arms and legs again, only to collapse back motionless to the bed when the charged drained into its body.
Woods glanced around the room and noticed some sort of electrical monitoring device not being used over in the corner. He went over and unplugged the machine. Then, after he grabbed the wire, he pulled as hard as he could to rip the other end from the machine. It worked, the ends of the electrical cord were exposed. He then took the two wires, separated them about a foot and cleared the tips of any insulation. He then walked over close to the bed, plugged the cord into the closest power outlet and extended the wire over to the alien.
Donemore knew what he was about to do and backed away from the bed. As she did so, she told the other agents to stand clear of the bed. “Okay, Woods, give it a try.”
He separated the two ends of the wire and carefully held on to the insulated cord as he touched the alien with the ends. “I hope this works as planned, or we’re going to have fried alien a la sector 4829 for lunch.”
Under normal circumstances, sparks would fly, lights flicker and something would smell awful, but this wasn’t normal. At first there seemed to be no effect, but then the alien moved. Its hand closest to the electrical cord grabbed the cord and held it in place. It was working; the alien seemed to be absorbing the energy directly from the electrical current flowing through the wire. Woods let go of the wire and moved over next to Donemore, as everyone else took a step back from the bed.
Woods looked at Donemore and said, “Jeff was right—it seems to be feeding off the electrical current. The problem now is, if it survives, how do we communicate with it?”
Just as Agent Woods finished asking the question, the alien’s eyes opened! The faint neon glow of its skin began to brighten as it slowly turned its head toward where they were standing. Its eyes were as black as the deep space it had come from and looked even more pronounced as the neon glow around them brightened. Slowly the creature started to lift itself up and move its legs over the side of the bed. The whole time, its giant black eyes stared at Woods and Donemore. The thought on Woods’ mind was about the oxygen content of our air. What about our air? Woods said to himself. They can’t breathe our air, can they? But maybe they can improvise—
Donemore noticed that the other agents had pulled their guns out and softly said, “Don’t shoot unless something drastic happens. If E-1 is right, this thing should be scared but friendly.”
Woods looked directly at the aliens eyes and said, “We’re not going to hurt you. Is there any way we can communicate with you? Do you understand our language?”
Donemore looked at Woods and said, “It doesn’t have any noticeable way of talking. I wonder how E-1 was able to talk to us.”
The alien shifted his head from one side to the other as if it was surveying its surroundings. It then closed its eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Then a voice came out of nowhere and echoed in the room. “You told E-1 I was not found. He will punish you for this.”
Woods looked in the corner of the room and realized the voice was coming from the alien’s helmet he had found and brought to the hospital. “It’s using its helmet as a transmitter. Damn! That means it already has contacted E-1. We have to get out of here fast.” He looked at the other FBI agents in the room and yelled, “You guys get out of here and evacuate this hospital now!”
As the four agents lowered their guns and made for the door, the alien lifted his hand and a bolt of lighting shot from it and hit the last agent to exit. Woods then took over and dove for the cord that was connected to the power outlet and yanked it out before the alien could react to what he was doing. Almost instantly the alien’s eyes closed and it collapsed back onto the bed.
“Donemore, we’ve got to get out of here. E-1 may know our location and I don’t think he’s going to leave any evidence for us to investigate, even if it means destroying one of its own.”
Donemore was kneeling over the FBI agent that was hit by the bolt of lighting. “He’s dead! I can’t believe that thing could generate that much power so quickly.”
Woods grabbed the alien and lifted him onto his shoulder. Heading for the door, he yelled, “Forget about him! Grab the helmet and let’s hope E-1 can’t generate that light-ray of his very quickly.”
In a flash, they were out the door and headed up to the helicopter. People were running everywhere as the word to evacuate immediately spread through out the hospital. When they reached the roof, they found the pilot looking skyward. Woods followed his glance up to our new moon that was turning a mid-shade of red. He remembered from the previous night the sequence was light red, dark red, orange and the lightning streaks were on their way. “Get us out of here now.” He yelled to the pilot.
Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as they boarded the helicopter and waited for the engine to start and the blades to turn, all the while their eyes riveted on the now bright red moon. The chopper finally started lifting off.
As the helicopter gained altitude and headed east away from the hospital, the new moon turn a brilliant orange and two streaks shot out from it. Agent Woods yelled, “Shit, two streaks! Why two? One must be for us!”
Donemore yelled, “Maybe it’s picking up our location from the helmet.”
Woods yelled to the pilot, “Land anywhere you can, but if
you want to save your life do it fast.”
The pilot came swooped down and away, to one of the many vacant lots in the area and put it down, hard. Donemore and the pilot dashed from the helicopter, while Woods purposely left the helmet in the helicopter, grabbed the alien and ran about fifty feet and gently placed him down, then continued running with his eyes glancing upward. He could no longer see the streaks and knew if something was going to happen it would be in the next few seconds. He caught up with Donemore who had stopped running and was watching the sky. “If we don’t get to talk again, I’ll miss that one you owe me.” With that said, he put his arms around her in a protective manner and held her tight. She knew that if they were the targets of the second death ray, Woods hug was not going to protect her. But no matter what happened she felt an overwhelming sense of comfort in his arms.
After a few minutes, he released her and they began moving around. If the bolts had been headed at them, E-1 missed, but neither one of them thought that to be true. “What did he shoot at then?” Woods asked out loud, as he pulled his cell phone out and called the General.
Back at the control room, the General was receiving reports from the station manager when the phone rang. He answered it and was obviously surprised to hear from Woods. “Are you and Donemore okay? What happened?”
“I don’t think I should explain over the phone, we’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Woods replied.
After a considerable amount of persuasion, they convinced the pilot it was safe to head back to the station. Once done, they loaded the alien onto the helicopter and started back.
Back at the station, they noticed the General pacing back and forth near the conference table like a raging bull. “Sir, what’s going on?” Donemore asked.
The General looked at Donemore and growled, “How did E-1 know the alien was at ORMC?”
Woods and Donemore carefully explained everything that had happened. When they were done, the big question came, “How did you find out that E-1 knew the alien was at ORMC?”
BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 15
