by Clyde Key
* * *
At mid-morning Ed had the group assembled by the veto craft. Marilee Sharp was already in the plane and Lynette Searles was in the cockpit, and just finishing pre-flight checks when the others arrived.
Tilson entered the craft first, followed by Sisk. Then Ed pulled the door shut behind them and latched it. “You have a plan, I take it?”
“Of course. You take us to meet the Visitors and then Tilson and I will speak with them. We’ll use sign language if we have to.”
Ed nodded. “If you think so.” Then to the pilot, he said, “We’ll be going to Desertview. That’s the little town where we found the aliens last.”
“Visitors! You’re not to call them aliens. They are our Visitors,” said Sisk. “With your insensitivity, it’s no wonder there’s a problem communicating!”
“That Visitors crap was all AABC, Arlene. I’m in the army now and it’s different.”
Then the veeto engines started and the noise stopped their discussion. Ed decided not to tell her about the blue button. Tilson may have known about it since he had used the aircraft many times in his official government capacity, but he didn’t seem anxious to chat with Ed anyway.
A few minutes later, the veeto plane was circling Desertview. Searles pointed to a tract of houses at the north end of the small town. Ed pushed the blue button. “Yes. I see the globes. Can you land in that wide street over there?”
“I believe so. I’ll give it a try.” Searles soon had the craft parked in the middle of the town’s main street.
Soon all but the pilot were out of the aircraft and on the street. “I don’t see any Visitors. Why did we land here?” asked Sisk.
“They’re here and they’ll find us—soon,” said Ed. “Do you see those globes?”
“Globes? Where?” asked Tilson.
“Lined up around the houses. They’re all around us.”
“Oh my! Yes, I see them now. They’re arranged so neatly they almost look as if they belong, like shrubbery,” said Tilson.
“Where there are globes, there are aliens. They may not be willing to venture too near the veeto plane,” said Ed. “Let’s walk away from it and see. Except for you, Marilee. I want you to stay at the plane in case something happens so you can get word to Lane and Major Baines.”
“If you insist,” said Marilee, although she looked for a moment as if she might refuse the order.
They walked about two hundred meters away from the airplane, and Ed said, “This is probably far enough.”
“Maybe it is,” said Sisk, “but this isn’t a good place to meet. The smell is awful here! I think there must be something dead around here.”
“That has to be the aliens,” said Ed. “I’m sure most of the corpses are probably gone by now.”
“Corpses? What corpses? Gone where?” Tilson’s face reflected pure horror when he realized what Ed was talking about.
“The smell is definitely getting worse,” said Sisk. “Let’s go somewhere else.”
“My ears are hurting,” said Tilson. He held both hands clapped over his ears. “We’ve got to get away from this noise!”
Arlene Sisk made a face and turned to speak to Tilson. “Noise! You’re...” Then she saw them. “Oh good Lord! Is that the Visitors, Ed? What has happened to them?”
Ed looked and saw a line of aliens filing quietly from between two nearby houses. The aliens were lining up so they would block Ed and company from their aircraft. “They’re trying to cut us off!” said Ed. “Hurry! We can make it back to the plane!”
Tilson started jogging back, but Sisk yelled, “Come back here! We’re just going to talk to these poor creatures! There’s not going to be a fight!”
Tilson stopped, but only when he saw he could not escape back to the plane. Then he returned to stand beside Ed and Ms. Sisk. They watched as the first aliens reached the repeller rail at the side of the street. “Oh, the way they move, how are they ever going to get over the rail?” she wondered aloud. “Ohh. That is terrible!” she said, as she watched aliens going through the process of separating body goo to flow under the rail before the skeletony part jumped over. Then she just watched with her mouth open as aliens soaked their gooey substance back into their mottled, wrinkled bodies. At length, she said, “I guess we’re going to have to put stiles over all the repeller rails for them.”
“I think we just have to keep them away from us,” said Ed. “There’s no way we can ever coexist with these manure piles!”
Ed turned back toward the aircraft and Marilee. He waved his hands and yelled, “Get Major Baines on the comphone! I think we’re going to need some help here!”
Marilee turned to the aircraft and yelled something to the pilot who waited at the open door, but Ed could not hear what she said. Then he saw her running toward the line of aliens with her laser pistol drawn. “Don’t shoot!” he yelled. “Don’t provoke them!” He saw her stop then, about half way between the aliens and the veeto plane.
Arlene Sisk stared at the queue of aliens that was forming a large circle. She turned slowly around, as the circle closed around them, obviously aware that there was no escape. She would certainly make contact with The Visitors then, because there was no way to avoid it.
“Actually, Mr. Halloran, I only wished to speak with one or two of them.”
“Well, pick any one or two you wish. I guess it’s time to start talking now.”
“Visitors, good morning to you!” she yelled. “I bring you greetings from the government of the United States of America, on whose portion of the Earth’s surface you have landed. I must speak with your leader.”
“That didn’t work before,” said Ed. “It won’t work now.”
“What is going to happen to us?” Tilson’s chin quivered and his voice trembled as he spoke.
“I’m not sure,” said Ed, “but I think we’re going to be captured.”
They were completely surrounded by the aliens who stood a few centimeters apart in a circle of about 50 meters. Then the circle broke and started forming into a smaller circle with aliens two deep. “I must speak with your leader!” Sisk’s voice was raised in a frightened squeal. “Please! Which one of you is the leader?” But the aliens stood deathly still.
“Make them stop the noise, please,” begged Tilson. He held his hands tightly over his ears and his face was distorted with pain. “Can’t you please make them stop?”
Sisk turned to Ed. “What on Earth is he going on about?”
“The aliens seem to make some kind of high pitched noise,” said Ed. “Not everybody can hear it, but it drives the ones who can buggy!”
“Why? What can they accomplish by that?”
“Look real close. Can you see eyes anywhere on them?”
“No. I can’t see eyes. I can’t even tell if they’re looking at us or where.”
“They’re looking at us for sure. That’s what the sound is about, I think,” said Ed. “I think they use the sound for navigation, like bats.”
“If they use sound to see, then how do they speak?”
“Beats me. As near as I can tell, they don’t. At least they haven’t so far.”
“My Lord!” cried Tilson. “Since they’re closer, I don’t know which is worse, the smell or the noise!”
“They’re just standing there!” said Sisk. “Are they going to capture us or what?”
“I’d say we’re already captured, wouldn’t you?” asked Ed.
Then the globes came. Alien globes began to collect, forming a wider circle just outside the alien’s circle. Then more globes came, until the circle finally had grown into a dome. Despite the desert heat, they stood shivering in the gray?green pall that radiated from the globes’ surfaces.
Tilson’s chin still quivered and tears began to stream down his face. “We’re going to die. We’re all going to be eaten alive by stinking monsters. What an end! What a miserable end!”
“Shut up, Tilson!” Arlene Sisk’s words were loud and sharp, and startled all
of them.
Then Tilson said, “The noise—it’s stopped!”
“I wonder why,” said Ed. “Maybe they don’t need to see right now. After all, we sure aren’t going anywhere.”
Then three globes darted from the formation and came to hover a few centimeters from the ground, one globe in front of each of them. As Ed had seen once before, a dark space appeared on the surface of each globe. Each started small, like a dot, and grew to about 60 centimeters across.
“What’s happening, Ed?” asked Sisk.
“They want us in the globes,” he said, “but don’t do it. Stay completely away and don’t touch them!”
But one globe moved up very near to Tilson, who jumped back away from it. It moved once more, and again Tilson jumped away. But then another moved toward Tilson and soon he was caught between two globes and a line of aliens, which he would not touch. Then, suddenly, he was drawn into one of the globes. He was taken in so fast that Ed’s lasting impression was the instant that only Tilson’s feet stuck out from the globe. And then his feet disappeared too.
“Is this it, Ed?” asked Sisk. “Is it all over now?”
Before Ed could answer, one of the globes moved to Arlene Sisk. She did not jump and dart about, as had Tilson. She stood her ground as the globe came up and nudged against her and then, in an instant, she was swallowed up in the alien machine.
The third globe moved up about twenty centimeters in front of Ed. “Oh well, I guess we all have to go some time,” he said, and he reached out and touched the globe.
