Titan Stand

by Max Jager

  "I wouldn't advise it son," came the reply, "Those morons don't care about anybody but themselves."

  "I've got an idea," chuckled Matt. Stepping out the door, he noticed a large group of reports and camera crews wandering around. When they spotted him it was a big rush in his direction. Holding up his hands he called for order.

  "Matt Grainger?" they all started asking, "Is it true there are aliens from another world here? Could you care to add any more? Could we speak to them?"

  Hoping his parents weren't listening, Matt held up his hands.

  "I'm going to make a statement here, in fact the ONLY statement so listen the FUCK up! First of all, my friends have said all they are going to say. They have no intention of speaking to the president in any way shape or form so get that out of your fucking moron heads. Secondly, I've said everything I'm going to say as well. Third, everybody, and I do mean EVERYBODY; get your fucking asses off our lawn!" Holding up the small pistol he found on Ussen Ommo, he announced.

  "The Golians have an interesting device for dispersing crowds which I'm holding here in my hand. It's called a "psypyx device." It creates mass hysteria, should I happen to activate it, all of you will piss your pants at the fear it will generate. It won't kill you or leave lasting effects, but each of you will experience a horrific fear, fear like you've never known. I don't want to do it but so help me if you fuckers don't get out of our yard…"

  He continued to hold it up so everybody could get a good look.

  "I sure as hell they don't call my bluff," he thought, "Or my goose is cooked."

  The reporters eyed the device warily then one of them asked,

  "Would you consent to a press conference say downtown in front of city hall later on?" He thought about it for a moment then replied,

  "Deal, how about this afternoon, say around two." They all agreed, then began to slowly move towards the front yard, and the street. Matt waited until all were gone, then went back inside. His parents were amazed that he had dispersed the crowd.

  "Well I promised them a press conference down at the city hall at two this afternoon; I figure we should have all our shopping done, as well as Kaitlyn's deposition, along with visiting her mom's grave."

  When they left the house, there were still several vans parked on the street, Matt noticed one from Denver, Another from Albuquerque, and Salt Lake City. Upon spotting Matt and his family they made a rush towards them, but his dad was too quick screeching out of the driveway giving all of them the finger.

  "David, that wasn't very nice," exclaimed his mother,

  "Too" frigging" bad!" Came his reply. Their first stop was a florist his mom knew where they had a floral wreath made up then out to Greenmount where Kaitlyn's mother was buried. They all walked over to the grave where Kaitlyn placed the wreath. Matt watched in silence as Kaitlyn began to cry, then said aloud.

  "I'm so sorry mom, I tried, really I did. I don't know, we just never seemed to get along did we? Well…I'm off on a new thing now, I've been to the stars mom, I hope you'll be proud of me."

  "I…I had some things…The fairies helped to put my mind at ease, I hope you're in a better place now, rest easy mom." With that Kaitlyn bent down and kissed the stone. She then turned to Mr. and Mrs. Grainger, saying.

  "I'll give you another one of these diamonds if you have a better stone made for her. Mom always wanted to be someone, but things just never turned out that way."

  ""You don't need to do that," replied Mr. Grainger, "We'll be glad to do it, what kind of stone?" Kaitlyn thought for a moment, then spread her arms.

  "About this size, grey marble, like that one over there, naturally her name like it says here, 1986 to 2015, and below it, Survived by her daughter Kaitlyn who went to the stars. Then just put I love you mom."

  "We will see that all that is taken care of Kaitlyn," said Mrs. Grainger, "That's quite touching."

  "I can't remember ever telling her that," said Kaitlyn, tears streaming down her cheeks. Matt and his parents left Kaitlyn to be with her thoughts as they headed back to the car. She soon joined them,

  "I'm good, let's go."

  The next stop was the police station where Kaitlyn gave the detectives a statement, and cleared up some remaining questions.

  "Those idiots really had a hard time believing I wasn't even on this planet," she later told Matt.

  "Everything cleared up?" He asked,

  "I certainly hope so, let's go get that stupid press conference taken care of, I'm in the mood to shop."

  Everybody and his brother was there filling the whole street as well as the side areas. Fox, CNN, the BBC, Matt was wishing he hadn't agreed to this, but it was too late now. He began by giving a brief re-cap of meeting Greg, but not mentioning Coryville, or its exact location. Then it was on to Amber and the Nora-Lee. Then a general description of what life was like in the Loridian trading empire. Fort Kamata, Golia, Denedra, as well as a whole planet of androids. He than answered a number of questions.

  "We understand some of your pictures show Centaurs and leprechaun's, is it true they really exist?"

  "Absolutely, not only them but fairies, dwarves and even pixies."

  "How about this man Roy VonDran, is he really from earth?"

  "I said he was, didn't I. He gave me letters which I've sent to his family. He was kidnapped by the Uwan and later dropped off on Denedra."

  "Did they harm him?"

  "He told me they just examined him that was about all. They didn't treat him badly, so he started helping them, you know, fix stuff, and fight off dangerous animals. He told me that eventually they got bored with him and dropped him off on Denedra where he met up with Kiggham Stenuck, an Elvin Warlord, the two have been best buds ever since."

  Quite a number of questions centered around VonDran and the fact that someone from earth was living way out in some unknown galaxy, the media seemed rather intrigued with that one. Finally the stupid questions started arriving,

  "Do these races mean us any harm?"

  "Not that I'm aware of he replied. They know about us, but we are simply too far away to trade with, and according to some I've talked to, we have nothing they are interested in anyway." Then came a flurry of questions asking why the Ruddorians were refusing to speak with the president or the UN.

  "Well it's quite simple really," he replied, "I advised them not to."

  This admission really brought on the howls of indignation,

  "Who gave you the right to tell them that?" Came the demands.

  "The politicians did it to themselves," he replied, "You know as well as I do it would have been nothing but gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, asking them to solve our problems give us technology, shit like that. Well that's not them. Like I said, we have to have something they will trade for, I've met two or three people who have already been here, and looked us over, eh, you know how it is, nothing to see here, let's move on."

  The questions just started to get stupider so Matt waved his hands,

  "This press conference is over, your popping those "stupid" pills again,just leave me alone." Before the crowd knew it he was gone, ducking out through the city building to where his parents were waiting. Knowing the streets better than the outsiders, his father was able to get clean away heading for the big sporting goods store out on the edge of town.

  "Now I already told you guys so don't get upset," said Matt, "There's a bunch of stuff I need to get so don't get too upset." Stopping at the bank his dad took out fifteen hundred dollars in cash, as well as asking Matt not to get too crazy with the charge card.

  Nevertheless, the damage was pretty severe, two top of the line compound bows along with four dozen arrows and broad head points. A crossbow with four dozen bolts again, with broad head points as well as a scope. A night vision scope for his AR, good quality binoculars, two cases of 5.56 ammo, and two cases of shotgun shells. Various and sundry camping supplies that happened to catch his eye as well as new clothes for both he and Kaitlyn. New boots, cold weather coats hats and glov
es along with more mundane items such as underwear and toiletries.

  His folks also sprung for a top quality camera with extra memory chips. They also picked up several reference books on emergency medicine, the US Government, and the earth in general. They even stopped at a gift shop where Matt bought souvenir tee-shirts coffee mugs, and even those old style pennants' with Durango Colorado on them. Along the way, both he and Kaitlyn were beginning to be recognized, but after a quick chat they were able to excuse themselves. After racking up quite the debt his parents were starting to get nervous so they stopped at one of the larger jewelry stores in town and had two of the diamonds appraised. It took a lot of convincing and a call to the police to assure the appraiser these weren't stolen

  The appraiser had never seen anything like them; most diamonds ran from colorless to a yellow hue these were of a soft blue, with each carat approaching 2.30. The jeweler told them that they could get much more selling on an international market, but because of costs and mark-up he could only offer them eight thousand dollars for each diamond. He also demanded on knowing where they came from.

  "Don't you pay any attention to the news?" asked Matt, "Kaitlyn and I have just returned from the stars, these stones came from the planet Ussen Ommo."

  "Have you any more?" Asked the man,

  "We might," replied Mr. Grainger, but for now let's just go with these OK?" In the end, he offered them eight thousand, five hundred dollars for each, and that they consider him if they decided to sell any more.

  "See dad," said Matt, I won't mooch off you." The rest of the day was spent dodging reporters and phone calls somehow they got hold of his dad's cell phone number as well as Kaitlyn's.

  Arriving back at home they discovered that the reporter had forgotten his threat to use the psypyx device and to threaten its use again might not work this time. As they carried everything inside the media people clustered around, although there was a police presence, they didn't do a whole lot. Once again his father was really pissed off deliberately swearing into the microphones and camera to discourage and ruin any footage they might have taken. Like so many caught in similar circumstances, the Grainger's became prisoners in their own home

  "I'm sorry you guys for putting you through all this," confessed Matt, Slavek will land out there in that old ball field down the street, hopefully we can hold on until then."

  Chapter 54

  Titan Stand Chapter 54

  And so they hunkered down besieged by armies of reporters. At one point the neighbors to the left of them turned the garden hose on a group of them who kept walking on their lawn.

  "If it weren't for our jobs," exclaimed Matt's father, "We'd just take off; maybe go see my brother up in Fort Collins or something."

  "Well by tomorrow, your troubles will be over," replied Matt. Ever since the reporters had shown up Mr. Grainger had kept the phone turned off but he was expecting a couple important calls so he was forced to turn it back on again. Everyone was growing weary of the reporters who had gotten his number, as well as the crank calls. When the phone rang this time he was about to let it ring, but Kaitlyn picked it up.

  "This is she, what do you want, we're not giving interviews anymore, I…"

  "Yes, I'm the one that sent you all that stuff; hold on just a moment please."

  Turning her head, she announced,

  "It's Doctor Norman Frik, the guy I sent all that stuff about Coryville, Greg Tate, and Amber. Yes doctor it's all true every bit of it. Well they are not with us right now." She continued to talk to the man for almost half an hour then citing the fact that she was on someone else's line bid him goodbye.

  "What did he want?" Asked Mr. Grainger.

  "He wants to meet us as well as the Slykhor's." Matt laughed,

  "Good luck with that; we're outta here come midnight tomorrow."

  "Uh actually he lives in North Las Vegas," continued Kaitlyn, "But he really wants to meet us."

  "And just where are we supposed to do this?" Asked Matt.

  "Umm, well this is going to sound corny but he says when we leave here to swing over to Nevada and a little town called Rachel. Says there's a restaurant there called the "little alien inn" or something like that. It's supposed to have some sort of tie-in with the extraterrestrial highway. He also told me that the owner has done a lot of things for him, now he'd like to return the favor."

  "Well let's just check this out," said Matt. Looking at the website he added.

  "Look there, the place is only open to ten oops sorry can't make it." Kaitlyn gave him a stern look.

  "You know Matt this guy has always been on the up and up, he's not a faker like a lot of the others, that's why I sent him all that stuff. Just once would you do something for me?"

  "Well how do we know what Slavek and Tiag will want to do? I mean we can ask, but the fact remains that this place will be closed."

  "I've got his number, let me call him."

  "Be my guest," he replied.

  Kaitlyn called Doctor Frick again then handed the phone to Matt.

  "This is Matt Grainger what can I do for you doctor?"

  "Well as I have already told Miss Parkinson it would be so nice to meet everyone in Rachel at the Little A'Le Inn, I know it might sound rather silly, but it would mean a lot to me as well as the owner."

  "Well I'm sure Slavek and his sister won't mind, but we're hauling out of here at midnight tomorrow, doesn't that place close around ten?"

  "It does," replied Frick, but if I have your solemn promise you will stop by I think I can get her to stay open a little longer." Matt knew he was making a decision he really didn't have the right to make but he sighed,

  "All right doctor we'll stop by. By the way is there a place to land?"

  "Oh yes, right behind the inn I'll make sure we have a flashing beacon to light your way."

  When he was off the phone, he looked at Kaitlyn,

  "Happy now? I certainly hope this guy isn't a flake, I've just committed us to something I really didn't have the authority to do."

  "Chill boy!" replied Kaitlyn it will be a lot of fun."

  The following day was spent packing all the new gear they bought, washing dirty clothes, and watching the news. The media was wall to wall coverage of "the alien" story. The fact that Matt and Kaitlyn had not come out of the house since the press conference, didn't stop them. On top of that, the religious fanatics and "crazies" were all over the news as well. If that wasn't bad enough, the air force was thinking about pressing charges against the Ruddorians for overflying restricted airspace, as well as causing fear and panic. As the time grew close to midnight Frick called again to say that everything was in place and ready to go.

  "You don't have a mob of people out there do you?" Asked Matt.

  "Only two fellow researchers as well as some of the regulars who stop by all the time, no need to worry."

  "Well I hope not," replied Matt, "You don't want two pissed off Ruddorians mad at you."

  Shortly before midnight, Matt called Liam,

  "Change your mind about going?" He asked.

  ""Man I'd love to Matt, you know I would, but…Well you know how it is?"

  "Well look could you do something for me?"

  "Yeah sure."

  "We need a diversion. Text everyone you know get on Facebook, and Twitter, make everyone think the Ruddorians are landing back out at the cell tower site. There's still too many fucking reporters outside we need them to think we're all going out there."

  "You got it Matt, oh, one more thing."

  "Yeah?"

  "Thanks for asking me, it meant a lot, even if I can't go. Good luck and take care of yourself out there, and tell Kaitlyn I mean her as well."

  Both Matt and Kaitlyn then started furiously posting on Facebook and tweeting that they would see all their friends out at the cell tower. Liam and a couple others also started posting that they could see the ship coming in. It wasn't long before the remaining cable, and TV station vans pulled out heading for the cell towe
r to see an actual UFO land. Unfortunately the real "UFO" was landing down the street. Everyone grabbed gear, bags and equipment and tossed them in the car for the two minute ride. Just like clockwork they could hear a low rumble as Slavek descended. Turning to his folks Matt hugged his mother paused a moment then hugged his dad as well.

  "Well it looks like this is goodbye…Again," he announced, "I know you two will worry, but believe me things aren't as dangerous out there as all this science fiction garbage suggests. Oh, one more thing. I told you I'd try and find a way to get word back to you on how we're doing, I have the coordinates to this field, and anything I might send back will land here. Just kinda keep an eye out every so often OK?" The ship was in cloak mode and the engines were still running, Tiag came down the ramp,