BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER

by Michael Mazzarelli

  It wasn’t long before the plane came to a stop and a big black limousine pulled up next to them as they came down the plane stairs. Woods had the alien over his shoulder again and after he dumped it into the limousine, everyone else jumped in.

  Within minutes they were at the evacuated state prison and personally met by the Warden. After one look at what Woods had pulled out of the limousine and thrown over his shoulder, he wasted no time bringing them inside and showing them the setup where the electrocutions took place. After they were introduced to the head guard that was knowledgeable with how all the equipment worked, the warden made a hasty retreat.

  Woods explained to the head guard that he wanted the alien set up exactly the same as any other person being executed.

  “Ain’t goin’ to be so easy,” the guard said, after taking a closer look at the little pilot. “Whatever this thing is, looks kinda dead already. Don’t know how I’m going to get him to sit straight in the chair.”

  “Why don’t you guys take your leather belts off and use them to strap him in an upright position,” Donemore said.

  Woods looked at Donemore and said, “You’re always looking for a way to get my pants off. This is one time I’ll amuse you.”

  Within a few minutes the three men had the limp and lifeless alien strapped in tight. The guard showed the three how to turn the electricity on and off, then requested to leave.

  Woods looked around the room, found a chair and pulled it up next to the alien. He then placed the pilot’s helmet on it and gave everything a second look over before he left. As he walked out, he locked the door between the viewing room and the strapped in alien, then walked over to Donemore and Jeff.

  “Jeff, I’d like you to hit the switch and stand by it in case I want it shut off right away,” Woods said. “Don’t kill the power unless I say so, or you see something drastically going wrong.

  “Donemore, if you can stand by that door over there and glance up at the Mother ship every once in awhile, we’ll know if E-1 is picking up on us. If we get this thing to respond like at the hospital, I’ll ask the first questions. You guys jump in with any thought, but only after I get it to respond. Any questions?”

  No one made a sound as they walked to their assigned areas. The silence and suspense was nerve wracking, but before they had time to think of what could happen when this alien from quadrant 3359 in unknown space came back to life, Woods yelled, “Okay, Jeff, hit the switch—”

  As soon as Jeff turned on the power, everyone stared at the alien for some sort of movement. Normally, a prisoner will stiffen and spasms will grip the body as soon as the power is turned on, the head guard had told them. This was not “normally” and as they watched, they all had the same thought. The guard had mentioned the alien looked lifeless. Was he right, was it to late? Nothing was happening, and they couldn’t even tell if the power was actually turned on. There was no visual sign that this was working or going to work.

  “Maybe we waited too long,” Woods said as he glanced back to look at Donemore. As he did so, he noticed she was not looking at him, but her eyes were widening as she stared at the alien pilot. He quickly turned and noticed the alien’s eyes were wide open. Those big black eyes were staring directly at him and it took him a minute to shake off the stare and gather his thoughts.

  Even though he didn’t have to, Woods leaned forward to speak into the open speaker between the two rooms. “Before you contact E-1 to try and kill us again, let me first tell you that he made a damn good effort to kill you the last time we woke you up. So if you contact him, we’re out the door and you’re the only one that your precious leader will eliminate.”

  No response was forthcoming. Woods gave a quick look at Donemore to see if the new moon was turning colors, she shook her head sideways.

  “We know E-1 would rather kill us than save you. We also know that he’s trying to hide the fact that your Mother ship has millions of Collectors moving back and forth from our planet to your moonship.

  “He told us that we’re a primitive civilization but he has acted like the barbaric one by killing our leader and waxing the hub of our military operations, the Pentagon. So you have a few options, call him and die, or talk to us and tell us why you’re here. Maybe we just don’t understand what’s going on and you can clear up the picture for us.”

  The alien pilot was glowing a bright white now and there was some motion as it tested the restraints that were holding him to the chair. It seemed like a flash bulb went off when he closed his eyes and opened them again. Then came the sound of a wounded animal. “It doesn’t make any difference if E-1 tried to kill me. We would all gladly die for him. I take great satisfaction in telling you that I have been too long without power and the charge you’re giving me now is far too much for my shell to absorb. I’m overloading and will soon cease to exist. You wonder why we are here. With my dying words, it gives me great pleasure to tell you E-1 is near, I can feel it, you’re all going to die!”

  As soon as the alien mentioned that E-1 was near, Agent Woods had turned to look at Donemore. She was already out the door, looking up and studying the color of the Mother ship. A quick shake of her head indicated nothing was happening on the home base.

  Woods turned back to the alien pilot to ask more questions, but it was too late. The alien’s eyes had an orange flickering deep inside, like watching a fire burn at night from a distance. The big black eyes were glowing brighter and brighter as the fire seemed to build. Then small sparks started to shoot out from the aliens white skin to the leather clamps that held him securely strapped in. The sparks grew bigger and began to spread out around his body. Soon large arcs of electricity surrounded the alien’s entire body, shooting from one side of his body to the other. Others would arc from his body out toward the walls. The alien pilot began to look like a small thunderstorm as the arcs grew larger and larger until they looked like lightning shooting in all directions.

  Woods yelled to Jeff to shut the power off, but it had no effect. The three stood there and watched as the alien was completely surrounded by lightning bolts that were now shooting out from him and immediately returning to be absorbed by the now fading neon glow of his skin. Finally, a tremendous bolt of lightning shot out and circled the room. The flash was so bright everyone put their hands up to their eyes as if the setting sun had just hit them square in face. There was a huge crack of thunder, and with his dying words they heard him say, “E-1 is near. I can feel it. You’re all going to die.”

  Then the room went dark and the alien was no more.

  16

  WOODS CALLED THE GENERAL AND FILLED HIM IN on what had just happened with the alien pilot. “I can’t believe that sonofabitch didn’t even contact his boss,” the General said.

  “He had the chance, too, sir,” Woods said. “The helmet was in the room, but if E-1 knew what was going on, he didn’t do anything about it.”

  “That’s the kicker, why didn’t he do anything about it? E-1 has responded to our past actions rather harshly, I would say. I would have acted the same way I might add, but for him not to respond to our killing one of his pilots surprises me. Evaluate everything that happened and brainstorm it on the flight back here. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  Once on the plane and heading home, Jeff called Janet on his cell phone and explained everything that happened and was careful in choosing his words. “Janet, this thing was coming back to life! I need you to give Allen a call at NASA and bring him up to speed. Push him hard for that data I asked for. Also, see if the Captain has a place where you can start reviewing my storm chasing videotapes. Look for anything unusual that we may have over looked. We should be back in a few hours. Good luck.”

  A few hours can seem like days, and this was the time. As they entered the room back at the base, the General and Captain were both on the phones at the conference table. Agent Woods gave them a nod and within minutes both were off the phone. “Anything new from our night light?” Woods asked.

 
; The General answered, “We haven’t received a phone call and he hasn’t fired at anything. It’s too quiet and it’s making me rather nervous. Maybe the pilot couldn’t contact E-1.”

  “The little fart did say he was too long without energy,” Woods said. “That might have meant he was too weak for ET to phone home.”

  Jeff interjected, “He also said that E-1 was close. If he knew that, maybe he did communicate with him. We can’t be sure what he did, but I would like to check with Janet on something the pilot did do while we were flying up to the state prison. General, I have a hunch as to what happened on the plane and asked Janet to do some checking for me. Captain, could you tell me where she is, as I would like to check on what she’s found out.”

  “Certainly, Jeff,” the Captain responded and hand signaled a nearby officer and told him to take Jeff to Janet.

  The General commented, “Jeff, your gut feelings and theories have been right on the money so far. Keep up the good work and if you find out anything, no matter how small, please let me know right away.”

  “Will do, sir, and thank you.”

  After Jeff left, Woods asked, “You guy’s have any ideas where to go from here?”

  The General replied, “We’ve been calling around to see who survived the Pentagon destruction and have located the Vice President. I should say President, because he was sworn in as soon as the President was confirmed to have been in the White House when it was vaporized. I filled him in on what the Director found out and what happened with the alien pilot. I let him know that as far as I was concerned, E-1 was not what he appears to be and I needed his approval to figure out a way, if the time came, to eliminate the new moon. He was aware of our project and has told me to continue on with our work here and do whatever has to be done, but above all, keep him informed.”

  Donemore looked at the General and said, “Do we have the capability of doing that? I mean, I would think E-1 would take preventive action if he noticed us sending missiles into outer space. Those preventive actions could kill a lot of people.”

  Stormer said, “We still don’t know if this alien is hostile, so we’re not going to be sending missiles up until we know for sure. But we have to assume the worst and at least prepare for that or some other plan of attack in case he is a threat to our race.

  “Unless someone comes up with some answers, we are investigating any and all possibilities of how to immobilize or destroy a target that big and far away. My gut tells me this E-1 is a bad guy.”

  Woods said, “I agree, sir. I have been getting the wrong vibes ever since I first heard him speak.”

  “I know the feeling,” Jeff said, as he and Janet entered the room carrying some tapes. Jeff handed the tapes to Captain Stewart and asked if he could display them on the big screens in the room.

  “When I told you I had a gut feeling about what was happening, I didn’t tell you everything. That’s why I asked the General if Janet and I could do some more research. Remember when I said, 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 I didn’t tell you was that during the flight up to and back from Washington I noticed an Aurora. These Auroras, commonly known as the Northern or Southern Lights, are spectacular light shows resulting from the interaction of charged particles from the sun with the atmosphere of the earth. In my research I found that Auroras are quite frequently seen from high northern or southern latitudes but in rare cases like the large geomagnetic disturbance that happened in March of 1989 are they seen from more equatorial latitudes. When I checked on what a large geomagnetic disturbance was it referred to the Earth’s Magnetosphere, Ionosphere, Solar Winds, Fair Weather and Lightning. Although there were a lot of explanations about different scientists’ theories out there, most of this stuff is still not quite fully understood. For example, the magnetosphere is that area of space, around the Earth, that is controlled by the Earth’s magnetic field. It is not an empty wasteland of space. Instead, the magnetosphere is full of streaming particles, electromagnetic radiation, and constantly changing electric and magnetic fields. We’ve learned that Earth’s atmosphere is protected from the solar wind by our magnetosphere. Even so, some solar wind energy does enter our magnetosphere and atmosphere and can cause a small amount of our atmosphere to be lost to space. Solar wind energy in our magnetosphere can also cause what are known as space plasma storms. These storms can cause communication and science satellites to fail. They can also cause damage to electric power systems on the surface of Earth.

  “A large space storm in 1989 made currents on the ground that caused a failure in the Hydro-Quebec electric power system. This prevented six million people in Canada and the U. S. from having electricity for more than nine hours. The same storm caused the atmosphere to inflate and dragged some of our satellites into a lower orbit.

  “Sorry, I’m rambling on with all this scientific stuff.

  “The bottom line is that when I checked on any unusual solar activity, there was none! Can you believe it! So I shouldn’t have seen the Northern Lights this far south. So why did I see it? My gut feeling was the alien Mother had something to do with it. So, Janet and I have been reviewing all the tapes Al and I recorded during our lightning chasing adventures and have discovered something quite unusual. I think you’ll find this rather interesting when you see it.”

  Jeff then asked Captain Stewart to run the videos.

  At first there was nothing but bright lightning streaks on the big screen, followed by the loud cracking of thunder. Jeff and Al’s voices could be heard in the background yelling descriptive adjectives after each strike. Then, when the next lightning bolt brightened the sky, a picture of the huge dark object came into focus. It was the rod-protruding, flying alien Collector ship. Jeff and Al’s voices could again be heard yelling to one another, “Can you see that Al?” What the hell is it? Don’t know, but I can definitely see a large object up there that I don’t think is one of our weather planes! Let’s get the hell out of here! I’m with you!”

  As the pictures of the flying stadium were displayed on the screen, Jeff said, “Does anyone see anything unusual?”

  The General responded quickly, “Shit, yes! There’s a big ugly alien ship in the picture!”

  Jeff said, “Look carefully—anything else?”

  Woods noticed it first and said, “That lying neon light bulb! He’s not collecting the lightning for his ship, he’s shooting it back into our atmosphere.”

  Donemore asked in a confused voice, “What are you talking about? I must be missing something.”

  Jeff asked that the tape be rewound and run again. “Watch carefully when you see the alien ship and what happens when the lightning strikes the top of it.”

  As the film replayed and the alien ship came into view, the sky could be seen lighting up as large bolts of lightning shot from the clouds above the alien ship, hitting the top of the big spikes sticking out of the ship. Then came the normal deafening roar of thunder, but what came next was not what E-1 said was happening. The spike on top of the huge tube that led down into the aliens ship seemed to suck the lightning bolt inside for a few seconds, then shot it back out skyward. If you weren’t watching very carefully, it looked as if the lightning was just striking the spikes and being absorbed by the ship. After watching it a few times, it was obvious that the ship did absorb the strike, but then sent out a larger lightning bolt within seconds after absorption.

  “He’s not collecting the lightning to use as energy to recharge his ship, rather seems to be attracting it, amplifying it and sending it back out into our atmosphere. These ships are not Collectors, rather they’re amplifiers. But for what reason?” Woods wondered.

  Jeff responded, “Again I hate to bore you with research, but I read recently an interesting article. I’ve printed out copies. It reads, ‘On April 28, 1990, a video image from space showed a single stratospheric luminous discharge appearing to move upward into the clear ni
ght sky. This was recorded on the space shuttle STS-32 Mission using the payload bay TV camera. The direction of this event has not been firmly established. However, the stratospheric discharge is of interest because it may provide evidence for a theory postulated by C. T. R. Wilson, in 1925. This theory predicted that electric fields can cause ionization at great heights and could therefore give rise to discharges between clouds and the upper atmosphere. Stratospheric lightning could potentially deposit significant energy into the stratosphere, causing important chemical perturbations. In addition, these lightning events may generate strong electric fields and electromagnetic pulses, which might interact with the Earth’s ionosphere and magnetosphere. Finally, strong fields at high altitudes may generate runaway electrons, which could then produce high energy x-rays, even gamma rays. Thus, it is possible that lightning may generate electromagnetic radiation, ranging from extremely low frequency to gamma radiation.’ ”

  Jeff stopped reading the report and said, “Remember on the plane when we were taking the alien pilot to ‘Old Sparkie’ and he started to spasm out when we reached cruising altitude? We were up high enough for him to feel some sort of energy, enough to make him move. Then as we descended for the landing, he seemed to die all over again.”

  Donemore’s face went white as she said, “Oh, my God! Remember when I said we did the x-rays on the alien, it moved. Jeff just said that lightning might generate electromagnetic radiation, ranging from extremely low frequency to gamma radiation. That’s the energy that brought him back to life when the plane was up high enough. They’re changing our atmosphere to support their species! That’s what they’re hiding! Jeff, please tell me I’m wrong!”

  Jeff replied, “I talked to my friend Allen at NASA, he’s a specialist on Earth’s atmosphere and the different levels that make up our air.

  “He’s doing more tests, but from what he has found out so far, Earth’s magnetosphere is expanding so rapidly that within two weeks it will reach ground level. So, yes, I’m afraid you’re right Donemore, and they’re well on their way to making our atmosphere livable for them and deadly to us. Remember the alien pilot’s last words ‘E-1 is near. I can feel it. You’re all going to die.’