by Adam Benson
"Besides you, does anyone else know about this site, or may have seen the wreckage?" Captain Cavitt chimed in.
"I took that piece I showed you out to m’ neighbor’s house t’ git their opinion of it." Mack told them dryly. His mind was beginning to wander toward sleep. "They’re the Proctors. It was them that told me about the reward."
Captain Cavitt nodded and started writing something in a notebook he had on his lap. Mack could see the wheels turning in both of their minds, and he saw Major Marcel starting to form another question in his mind.
"Well." Mack said before either of them could speak again. "I know y'all probably got a lot of questions about all this, but if'n y'all don't mind... it's been a mighty long day, and I'm sure you can imagine that I didn't get a whole lot of shut-eye last night." Mack could see the idea in Major Marcel's head suddenly grind to a halt. It was obvious that the Major was very excited and wanted nothing more than to ask question after question, or to drive out to the sight right that second and see it all for himself, but Mack didn't have it in him to go on.
"I understand." Jesse said plainly. "We can certainly pick this up in the morning."
The next morning all three men woke to the sound of mourning doves cooing softly all around them. The sun had only just begun to crest over the horizon and the desert between them. A rich pink glow enveloped the whole house and poured in through the open windows, carried in by a cool breeze. Mack had slept pretty deeply and had actually slept in longer than he normally did. He groggily got up and walked over to his kitchenette and stared at it. He thought about whether or not to light his stove and make a breakfast or just eat it cold.
Mack felt embarrassed by his cupboard. It was mostly just cans of beans, and a few other canned foods. Occasionally, he might catch a rabbit, or some quail and cook it up for dinner, or if he had gone into town, he might get a steak or grab a sandwich with some of the other ranchers, but otherwise Mack's cupboard was stocked with food for a simple life. There was no grocery store nearby; his nearest neighbors were almost ten miles away. The land he lived on was desert. Little of value grew on it, and it was primarily only suited for keeping sheep. And thus, Mack's cupboard was stocked with cans and cans of beans, corn, green beans and more beans. There was no running water. There was a well nearby that supplied him most of what he needed, and the stove would take at least twenty minutes to get hot enough to cook anything.
"Ya'll care fer sum beans?" Mack said at last to his two waking guests. "'Fraid I ain't got much else. Wadn't plannin' on company."
"Beans is fine, Mr. Brazel." Jesse smiled at him as he tucked in his shirt.
"Thank you, sir." Sheridan said dryly, tidying up where he had slept. He did not want beans. Beans sounded like a terrible breakfast.
Sitting around the table eating their cold beans, both Jesse and Sheridan quickly realized that their host was not the talkative sort. Mack sat there quietly eating his beans as though no one else was in the room. Major Marcel and Captain Cavitt sat across from him politely eating their breakfast and waiting for Mack to say anything, but he never did. He just sat there munching his beans.
With a clink of his spoon dropping into an empty bowl, Mack looked up at his two guests. "Ya'll 'bout ready?" He said suddenly.
The two military men exchanged a quick and eager glance before turning to Mack and saying in unison, "Yes sir"
RAAF Captures Flying Saucer!
Dayk stood in the broken cargo bay of the Chronis looking down on the three body bags that now occupied the space. It was not the cargo that he imagined for the hold on this trip. They had worked fast to cut Dr. Fossor free from the wreckage and pull Dr. Amikes out of the collapsed Chronis’ engineering section after the primitive human had run screaming from the top of the rocks that separated the ship from the road.
He took a bite of his dry ration bar as he left the cargo bay to head back out into the early morning sunlight. He could hear cicadas buzzing in the distance, just beyond the dead zone that surround him. The whole place still smelled awful, saturated in death and chemicals. He pulled the Temporal Key out of his pocket and activated it with a thought. In the boredom of waiting, Dayk found himself checking the key over and over again. Nothing had changed, except the thirty-two-year anomaly floating off the outer edge of the shape.
What are you doing? Thalia asked him, sitting alone on a rock away from the wreckage eating her own breakfast. She had closed her eyes and started listening to the primitive radio broadcasts that were weakly permeating the air around them. She could hear them in her mind and though they were primitive, it was the only thing about this place that felt anything like home. That’s the third time you’ve checked that thing this morning. She thought to him with her eyes still closed.
You’re watching me? Dayk asked her.
No. She replied. You’re broadcasting. She smiled. I don’t think you know you were doing it.
Sorry. Dayk said. I’ll try and keep my thoughts to myself. He took the last bite of his bar and then put his rebreather mask back over his face. The air smelled better with it on, even though the heat made it feel sticky around his mouth and nose.
He took a few steps out toward the rock outcropping and opened his palm to scan the surrounding area. The holographic sphere showed him signs of life all around them. It was glowing red beyond the surrounding hills, the better part of a kilometer away. Most of it was small life, rustling in the grass, or taking cover under stones. A few small birds zipped around them in the sky. There were a few larger mammalian creatures moving about in the desert outside of the dead zone, but no humanoids. He tried to zoom the hologram in to one of the larger mammals that hid somewhere off in the distance, but there was too much interference from the surrounding rocks and hills.
Dayk marched up the to the top of the rock outcropping. He looked out across the vast open desert, the morning sun giving everything a warm pink hue. From the top, he could feel a cool breeze blowing in from the south and he briefly pulled his mask from his face to get a taste of the fresh air. Across the small valley between the wreckage and the sheep, something stirred in the distant grass. It was quickly highlighted in his vision, but he opened his palm to get a closer look in his hologram. He zoomed out the image until he saw the source of the movement. Canis latrans, he thought as he watched a coyote jogging in the false color on the far side of the sheep. He watched the animal for several chrons before turning his attention back to the world around him.
As he looked out to the horizon, there suddenly came a red blip in his enhanced vision, and he was drawn to object as it approached from a distance. There was a pillar of dust that followed something metallic only a few kilometers away from them. He looked back down at this hologram and scanned it out as far as he could detect. Dhregh!
Dayk ran back down the hill as quickly as he could. Thalia! They're coming! Two vehicles are headed our way! He thought frantically as he stumbled across the rocks.
Our people? She thought back. Or...
Primitives! Dayk thought back hurriedly. Grab our gear, this maybe it!
Thalia opened her eyes wide and put the primitive radio broadcasts out of her mind. Before she could even respond to Dayk the proximity alarms started screaming telepathically in her mind. This was it! Thalia jumped up and scrambled back to the crew quarters. I’m on it! She thought. She could see Dayk running her way as she ducked into the broken ship. She grabbed the archiver and the last two containers of un-archived water and started back out to meet Dayk. Then she remembered the pistol and ducked back into the small room and grabbed the gun from an open locker.
Head for that patch of trees! Dayk yelled as he kept running toward the hiding place.
I’m right behind you. Thalia thought as she burst into a sprint behind him. Her heart raced as she caught up with Dayk and they both jumped behind a boulder just on the backside of the clump of mesquite trees.
They sat with their backs to the boulder facing away from the crash site. They both stared intens
ely at their holograms as the two vehicles came to a stop just between them and the sheep who continued to stare awkwardly on the other side of the dirt road. In a moment three people emerged from the vehicles and began making their way toward the first debris field.
"Oh my god!" Captain Cavitt said excitedly as he got out of the Jeep Carryall. "It's really real!" Both he and Jesse Marcel ran quickly over to the debris field and started going through it like kids in a candy store.
"This is absolutely incredible." Major Marcel said as he picked up a broken section of hull material, not knowing what it was. Like Mack’s piece, it was ultra-light, far lighter than it should have been. Yet, this piece was as rigid as titanium and still almost paper thin. The two men picked up scrap after scrap, briefly examining each piece before dropping it and moving on to the next one. "You said there were bodies." Jesse said turning to Mack.
Mack stood at the edge of the debris watching the two military men quickly rummage through the wreckage. "This ain't the most of it. Most o' th' wreck'ge is up yonder past that hill." He said, pointing at the rock outcropping. "I seen th' bodies over there."
Jesse and Sheridan both started marching up the hill as fast as they could. Everywhere they looked were signs of a massive crash. The ground was torn and charred. Pieces of strange technology lay strewn all over the place. All of it, even the broken branches and loose rubble, seemed to be pointing toward the epicenter of the crash site. Even the sparse trees that were standing nearby had broken sections and bows that were all hanging toward the crash. The debris was collected in clumps, stopped by rocks and shrubs, as if they'd been falling in toward a greater calamity.
“What do you make of that, Major?” Cavitt asked, pointing to the directionality of the debris.
“I have no idea, Captain,” Jesse replied as they crested the hill. Their jaws dropped as they looked down at the alien ship, unnaturally piled together at the bottom. Their eyes were transfixed on what lay on the ground below them shimmering in the morning sunlight.
Jesse’s heart was pounding like a drum in his chest. “Proof,” he said with disbelief in his voice. “To be honest, I never really believed in little green men.”
“I’ve always dreamt of it, sir…” Sheridan replied quickly. “I can’t believe this is real!” He stood awestruck at the top of the rocks. "How'd it get piled up like that?" He asked as he gazed at it.
Jesse looked almost as terrified as he was excited. He scanned everything below, but nothing seemed logical about any of it. “I don’t know. Whatever happened here, it wasn’t just the space ship. Rocks, trees, grass… everything… it’s all piled up.”
“Who would do this?”
“How could anyone do this. It’s all perfectly symmetrical, and it looks like it happened fast.”
“Yes sir,” Sheridan agreed.
“Where are the bodies?” Jesse asked.
“The old man said there were laying down there alongside of it.”
“Well, they’re not there now,” Jesse said cautiously.
"Where are the bodies?" Sheridan yelled back at Mack from atop the hill.
Mack hadn’t moved from the outskirts of the wreckage. His attention was torn away by the bleating of his sheep.
"Mr. Brazel?" Cavitt called down.
"They ain't down there?" Mack finally answered. "They was just layin' down there, all laid out like." Mack hollered back. "'Cept the one fella' that was pinned to a piece o' that saucer."
"Mr. Brazel, there don't seem to be any bodies down there." Jesse yelled back to him. "Are you sure they were bodies?"
"Now listen here! I ain't makin' this stuff up!" Mack called back defensively.
Sheridan turned to Jesse, and quietly got his attention. "Sir. If the bodies were laid out, then it might stand to reason that there may be someone... or something... alive down there."
"It also stands to reason that if these beings really are this advance, then they probably have advanced weapons too, and they might already be aware of us." Jesse added. "We need to proceed very cautiously."
"I agree, sir." Captain Cavitt said.
"Ya'll think I'm makin' this up, well I ain't!" Mack yelled up. He could see them talking and he couldn't tell if they were ignoring him. Mack was nervous. He was growing increasingly concerned about his herd, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near the wreckage.
As though on cue, Major Marcel and Captain Cavitt both turned around and started jogging down the hill toward Mack and the two trucks. "Sir." Captain Cavitt said as the two men got to where Mack was standing. "Do you have a firearm in your truck, sir?"
“Where did you drop the rifle you told us about?” Major Marcel asked.
"Listen, fellas. I need to get on over and tend m' sheep. They ain't had water in two days now. Ya'll don't need my help with any a' this." Mack replied, completely ignoring their question in his preoccupation.
The two men continued their way to their own truck where they both removed side arms and put them on their belts. They grabbed a tool box and another large case and started making their way back up the hill toward the main crash site. "We can take it from here." Major Marcel said to Mack as they headed back the other way. “Thank you for your time, sir,”
"I'll be back in a couple hours t' check on ya’” Mack said, turning to get back in his truck. "Ya'll gonna need anythin' till then?" He hollered up to them as they walked away.
"We'll be fine for now." Major Marcel replied.
Mack got in his truck and drove away leaving a trail of dry dust behind him. He would have to come back on horseback to round the sheep up and drive them a couple miles around the crash site to get to their watering hole.
What do they have in those cases? Thalia asked as she watched the men unpacking things from their vehicle.
Dayk zoomed in on one of the cases. I think they’ve got some sort of rudimentary particle detector, electric light emitters, a few hard tools, probably for prying things o…
I’m going to rematerialize my recorder. Thalia cut him off suddenly as she pulled the archiver from her flight suit. I should be recording all of this!
Better bring up a couple of cloaking devices too. Dayk said as he showed her his hologram. Projectile weapons. They might be expecting to find us.
Thalia’s holographic recorder detected nearly every kind of waveform known to exist. It recorded everything from visible light, to x-ray and gamma rays, microwaves to alpha waves. It recorded acoustic, bio-rhythmic, temporal and gravitational waves. The recordings could be holographically replayed later and include details on a sub-atomic scale. It was usually placed at the center of a worksite to capture everything that was going on around them during a mission, but it could also be worn by the archivist as they moved around from place to place. It had a possible range of one hundred kilometers but was rarely used to capture anything further than a few hundred meters away.
My guess is, they’ll go through the largest parts of the ship first. Dayk said as he continued to watch the men.
They’ll find the bodies. Thalia said as she tried to hide the blue glow of the archiver as best she could.
And when they do, this could become a manhunt. Dayk said. They’ll know that someone had to put them in the cargo hold, and that’s all it’s going to take.
Dhregh Dayk, Thalia said as the first of the cloaking devices rematerialized. We’ve got footprints all over this place. She handed him the cloaking device from her position huddled around the archiver.
Dayk took the cloak and looked it over once before attaching it to his flight suit. The devices were designed to adhere to most surfaces, but the suits were designed specifically to accept most of their tools and could remain rigidly attached until they were no longer needed.
He looked down at the ground around them and saw his own footprints clearly leading anyone curious enough right to where they were hiding. That is going to be a problem, he thought to her.
Thalia hid the blue glow a second time as the next cloaking devices w
as rematerialized. What do you want to do, then?
Now we wait. We see what they do, and then when they start following the trail, then we’ll lead them off of it. Dayk looked up from his hologram and glanced off into the desert behind them. It was wide and open, and apart from a few clumps of trees, or small pockets of tall grasses, there weren’t very many places to hide. Priority one is to stay with the ship. That’s where the rescue will come first.
How long do we wait before we turn these on? She asked as the second cloak finished rematerializing.
We have to conserve them. We wait until there’s no other choice.
Jesse found himself fighting the urge to run down the hill. He didn't know what would be waiting for him down there, but it was clearly possible that someone, or something was still alive down there. If the rancher was right, then someone had moved the bodies, and they had no way of knowing if that someone was hostile or not. The wreckage covered over a hundred yards, and there were plenty of places for a strange alien to hide out and surprise them.
When they got to the bottom of the rock outcropping, they set down their cases and Jesse motioned for Sheridan to draw his side arm. Both men held their guns at the ready and began exploring the heap of broken ship. The largest section of the ship made up the bulk of the pile, while the two smaller sections sat awkwardly up against it as though it had been moved there on purpose. They touched the ship’s surface as they moved around it. It was smooth and almost metallic, but yet it wasn't metal, and it resembled a piece Jesse had found on the other side of the field.
As they walked around the back of it, they came to the area where the ship had been torn almost in half. The hull was folded down onto itself and only offered a few points of entry. The largest opening was still accessible. Captain Cavitt went ahead of Major Marcel and looked inside. It was dark inside, but from what he could see there appeared to be two decks in this ship.
