BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 17

  The Director answered, “You wanted me to look into this new moon and what I discovered had to be personally delivered. Are you sure we can talk openly here?”

  Captain Stewart said, “We have the best technology available to encode and scramble our incoming and outgoing communications here. Even if E-1 has found us, it’ll take him awhile before he can break the codes to decipher our conversations.”

  The General replied, “I also took the precaution of going to a public telephone and making my calls from there. I don’t believe we left any evidence that indicated we were heading to this Navy base. I think we’re safe but before you say anything, let me get my team here to hear what you have to say.”

  While they waited for Stormer’s team to be summoned, the Director asked Captain Stewart if there was a way for him to display the photos and video he had brought with him onto the display screens in the room.

  Stewart responded by making a call to one of his men and within seconds a Naval officer was standing next to them and was instructed on which pictures to show first.

  Once Donemore, Woods, Jeff and Janet joined the General, Captain Stewart and the Director around the huge conference table in the center of the room, Michael began with his information.

  “At our last meeting in Washington, General Stormer requested that our agency gather as much information as possible on the space ship, or the alien moon, whatever you wish to call it. First, we requested every available observatory that could see the new moon to focus in on it and take as many photos as possible. You can see the results here.”

  As the Director spoke a photo of a round, glowing white object appeared on three different display screens. It looked very similar to our moon except there were no obvious craters or valleys, just a smooth white surface void of impact craters.

  The Director continued, “As you can see, there is no indication of any activity based on these pictures. All the photos from each observatory came back the same, albeit from different angles. It looks like a giant ball just sitting up there in orbit, like our own moon. Then we repositioned a few of our satellites, including one of our new top-secret experimental cameras, figuring from space we could focus at a different angle and hopefully get some new information. Our so called “eye in the sky” satellites gave us the pictures you’re seeing now.”

  Again three screens displayed an assortment of fixed pictures, starting from quite a distance away and gradually getting closer to the new moon. The first pictures looked similar to those that the observatories had taken. Even as the pictures started showing closer and closer views, it seemed the surface was just as smooth as a large beach ball. Soon the pictures displayed were completely white, as the camera took pictures so close that the blackness of space was no longer in the picture field of view. It seemed as if all the pictures were the same for the next few minutes, as the camera focused closer and closer. Then the pure white surface of the new moon suddenly started showing oblong shaped lines.

  “What you’re seeing now is a picture taken as if we were a thousand feet from the surface. From our calculations, the oblong lines are the exact size and shape as the ‘flying football stadiums,’ the name so-coined by Jeff. If they are, we theorized that the spaceship is a perfect sphere with the entire surface made up of E-1’s so-called Collectors.

  “Now, follow along—a With this in mind, we wondered why none of the Collectors in our pictures were missing. There couldn’t be Collectors down here on Earth while at the same time units of space on the Mother ship’s surface was covered by the objects, the Collectors. To investigate further, we used our experimental satellite.

  “The next video is from our new SDVR satellite.”

  The three display screens went to crystal clear video as the entire group watched in amazement. The SDVR first showed the new moon from a distance, but then with amazing speed it focused in on the alien sphere at an angle that couldn’t be seen from Earth. The white sphere soon became like a three-quarter sphere moon. As it came closer, it became obvious that the white area was facing Earth and the dark area was more toward the darkness of deep space. There were small white dots in the picture that extended from the new moon’s dark side, toward Earth. With digital clarity the camera zoomed in closer and focused in on the white dots. Soon a white dot turned into a perfect picture of one of the aliens so called Collectors.

  “It seems that each Collector has a pattern of leaving the Mother ship, flying to an area on Earth where thunderstorms are active, collecting the energy it needs and returning to base, the alien moon. The activity around the ship’s dark side reminds me of a bee’s nest. The Collectors find thunderstorms like bees find flowers. Once filled, they fly back to the ‘nest’ and do a unique maneuver. They turn the long protruding spikes into the Mother ship and lock-in perfectly. This is all done before the sun allows us to see it here on Earth. I imagine this enables the Collector to feed its precious cargo into the Mother ship, while the bottom of the stadium blends in perfect with the surface of the spaceship. To our old observatories, the alien Mother ship looks like a perfect sphere because the bottom of the Collector blends in so perfectly.

  “My opinion right now is that this ship was originally designed this way, not ‘reconstructed’ as E-1 would have us believe. This would lead to the big question as to why he would lie about having to ‘reconstruct’ his ship. The Collectors seem to be doing what he described, only according to our calculations there are millions of them.”

  The group was quiet. Deathly quiet. The fact that this spaceship was as busy as a bee’s nest, with millions of Collectors flying in and out rattled everyone to the bone.

  The Director continued, “There’s something else we stumbled onto that may or may not be related to the alien ship. I repeat—may not be related to the alien spacecraft. Each Observatory has reported a blackout of their picture only for a microsecond, but there is a definite pattern to the blackout. Our ‘eyes in the sky’ have confirmed this, but can’t focus in on it or determine what is causing it.”

  The room remained quiet. The last comment by the Director didn’t seem to matter. Everyone remained hypnotized by the last pictures on the display screens of the huge Collector ship.

  Woods broke the silence, “I knew that neon alien was lying from the beginning. The question now is what is he doing with a million Collectors flying to and from our planet in search of high-voltage energy? It must not be good news for us, otherwise why is he going through such lengths to make sure we wouldn’t find out any of this information? Adding fuel to the fire, he vaporized the White House and the President. I suggest we take that alien pilot I have been lugging around, stick an electric wire in him, light him up and ask some questions. Even if he contacts E-1 again, at least these light bulb aliens will know we know what’s going on. As well, perhaps E-1 doesn’t know how much we know at this point.”

  Janet responded, “I hate to be the devil’s advocate here, but what if he really is telling the truth and didn’t want to frighten us with the number of Collectors out there?”

  Donemore replied, “I think the fact that the Mother ship was obviously built to have all these Collectors as part of the original design means they’re not doing what he says they’re doing. I agree with Woods, let’s try the alien pilot one last time to try and get some answers. It can’t hurt. On the other hand, we can’t afford to have E-1 vaporize this place. We’re running out of real estate.”

  The General responded, “I agree with Woods and Donemore, except for the ‘It can’t hurt’ part. The last time we brought Mr. Brightness back to life, E-1 destroyed the White House, a hospital, hundreds of people and killed our President. We still don’t know what the last death ray did.

  “Where can we try and bring the little alien pilot asshole back to life again without something else being destroyed?”

  Jeff spoke up, “I have a few suggestions. First, Florida still has “Old Sparkie,” right? One of the few remaining electric chairs in the country, I think, still use
d to execute prisoners? If you make a call to the Governor, I’m sure he’ll allow you to use it. That would be a perfect setup, because you could strap the alien in and if you revive him, he’ll be in a totally controlled environment so you can try and communicate with him. If something goes wrong, just turn the switch off. If E-1 lights up, leave the prison and let the alien die by the hands of his leader’s lightning bolt.

  “My second suggestion is related to the microsecond blur you mentioned. Being around cameras most of my life and using them while lightning chasing, I have experienced the same sort of blur. I may be wrong but what you’re picking up on film is something flying directly in front of the direction the camera is aimed, only at a different focus. For example, if I were on the ground focusing my camera at a Collector directly over me during a storm and a bird flew by right in front of the camera, my replay would only show a blur for a microsecond. But if I were filming the Collector as it moved far away from me and the same bird flew from either direction, it would eventually come into focus. I suggest you take the film of the blur and slow the speed down until you can see the object. If that doesn’t work, aim your new SDVR at the horizon and film at the highest speed your camera can record. This should pick up the object and if you adjust the speed of the film you should be able to see what it is.”

  Just as Jeff finished speaking, a Navy officer approached the table and said, “Captain, I’m sorry to report your fears were correct. We now have visual confirmation, do you wish it projected to the display screens?”

  Captain Stewart softly responded, “Yes, thank you.”

  Everyone at the table looked with great curiosity at the Captain but no one said a word. Within seconds, the big alien Collector was replaced by a video taken from a military helicopter overlooking an area that before was the home of a unique shaped building called the Pentagon. The huge center for the United States military was gone. There were no signs of fire, smoke or debris, just a whole lot of nothing.

  “That sonofabitch must have thought the Pentagon controlled all our military functions and if he destroyed it we wouldn’t have the capability of destroying his precious Collectors. Well, we’ll see if he was right,” the Captain stated.

  General Stormer couldn’t believe his eyes; “My temper caused this. If I hadn’t told E-1 I was going to take two of his Collectors out just to piss him off, he wouldn’t have destroyed the Pentagon. Thousands of people, gone forever…”

  Captain Stewart replied, “Don’t be too hard on yourself, General. I would have acted in the same manner. I agreed with the actions you took then, and I believe every person that heard your orders from here to the Pentagon were happy you did it. This may not come as any consolation but loud cheers came from this very room when you gave the order. He killed our Commander in Chief and everyone wanted some sort of action.”

  “Thank you, Captain, but this eye-for-an-eye thing doesn’t work with an alien that can kill from a distance as far away as our moon. We took down two of his millions of Collectors and he killed thousands of people with a single burst. I think we have to take this latest killing as a definite sign that E-1 does not want us to know about or interfere with what we now know to be huge numbers of Collectors. With that in mind, I like Jeff’s idea about testing the alien pilot again.

  “Woods and Donemore, could you get with Jeff and find out how soon you can get to “Old Sparkie.” Keep me informed before you throw the switch, I want to be updated on what is going on before we light up the alien and possibly the Mother ship.”

  Woods replied, “We’ll make it happen as soon as possible, General.”

  As Woods, Donemore and Jeff left the room, Janet looked at the General and said, “Sir, Jeff and I were doing some research before you called us in here. Do you mind if I leave and continue that or do you have something else you wish me to do?”

  The General replied, “Janet, I hope your research leads to some kind of clue as to what the hell E-1 is up to. Go on—get outta here. Keep me informed.”

  The remaining three high profile men sat silently looking at the display screen. The Director of the FBI commented, “I know you two must have lost some really close friends and well respected fellow workers at the Pentagon, and you have my deepest sympathy. I don’t know exactly how the military chain of command works, but, General, with your fellow Joint Chiefs of Staff killed, who’s in charge?”

  The General responded, “I was put in charge of this project and until I hear from the Vice President, I’ll continue making the decisions. My personal feelings are that E-1 is an enemy and with that assumption, I want everyone to start figuring out a way to destroy an alien space ship the size and distance of our moon.

  “Captain, would you contact as many of your superiors as possible and I’ll do the same. Let’s get our military working on this. All information comes in to this location under the code name Bad Rain.”

  The Director replied, “While you guys work on that, I’m going to check on Jeff’s explanation of the blur. Maybe it has nothing to do with Bad Rain, but I want to test his theory anyway.”

  “Okay, Michael,” the General said, “but I would also like you to check the thousands of Collectors coming up on the far side of Mother and try to determine a pattern of activity.”

  “Will do, sir,” the Director said.

  It didn’t take Jeff long to make a few phone calls and set up a time with The Governor of Florida so they could bring in the alien. The plan was to have the Governor call the prison and evacuate all the prisoners while Woods’ group and precious cargo was being flown to the facility. Once aboard the private jet leaving from Executive Airport, Woods asked, “Jeff, have you ever been to this prison to watch an execution?”

  “I watched one a few years back and promised myself never again,” he replied.

  Donemore asked, “Why do you think this is the best place?

  “The chair is in a totally secure room that has a viewing area adjacent to it,” Jeff said. “The glass between the two rooms is shatter proof, plus reinforced with steel. This way, if the alien pilot is revived again and gets out of control, he won’t be able to get at us. There’s an exit door from the viewing room directly out of the prison. Again, we are protected in case E-1 wants to change colors. One person can watch the new moon and warn us in plenty of time to get out before his lightning ray is totally active.

  “Communications exist between the two rooms. I figure if you put the pilots helmet near him, you should be able to talk to him. Most important, the alien will be securely tied to the electric chair and the voltage switch can be turned on and off, basically giving you total control on how much you want this pilot to return to normal.”

  Woods said, “I understand now why you suggested ‘Old Sparkie,’ as it sounds like a perfect setup.”

  Donemore agreed, “After what we went through at the hospital, I never wanted to see the black eyes of that alien pilot to open again. I wished Woods had left him to be vaporized like the rest of the hospital. But now I’m glad we have another opportunity to try and revive him. Maybe we’ll get some answers, without endangering ourselves. Good idea, Jeff. Yeah, good idea.”

  The flight to the state prison was only going to take an hour, so Woods and Donemore started bouncing ideas off each other on what to ask the alien. In the meantime, Jeff got up to go to the bathroom. As he walked down the small isle, he glanced over at the precious cargo. The alien had been put at the rear seat near the bathroom and as Jeff walked by his first glance picked up a slight movement. Jeff stopped dead in his tracks and stood there staring directly at the alien pilot.

  “You guys better get down here quick,” Jeff yelled as loud as he could to the two FBI Agents.

  Within seconds, Woods and Donemore were standing at the ready with guns in their hands. The alien was not the sack of potatoes that Woods had thrown over his shoulder and carried onto the plane. It was now starting to glow slightly and moved its hands and feet in a spastic manner.

  “Holy shit
! What’s going on!” Woods said.

  Donemore replied, “I don’t know, but the alien must be getting energy from some source. Right now it doesn’t look like it’s getting enough to awaken, but something is tickling its fancy.”

  “I’m standing right here for the rest of the trip,” Woods said. “If it opens its eyes, I’m putting a bullet in both of them!”

  Jeff thought out loud, “Do you think it’s capable of notifying E-1 of our location? I hate to be shot out of the sky by a light ray.”

  While they were talking, a voice came over the intercom that shook all three of them. It was only the pilot of their private jet saying they were starting to descend and wanted everyone to take their seats and do the seatbelt bit.

  Woods said, “I’m sitting right next to this neon light bulb and if it so much as blinks on, I’m shooting it.”

  “Woods, even if it came to life again,” Donemore said, “you can’t chance shooting it in the plane. If a bullet goes through it and cuts the fuselage, we’ll all die. Let’s all just stay here and keep an eye on it while we descend. If we have to, let’s hope the three of us can restrain it.”

  They all agreed and nervously took seats adjacent to the twitching alien as the plane started its descent. But as the plane lost altitude, the calmer the alien became. By the time the jet touched down, the alien pilot was immobile and the slight glow had dissipated.

  Woods commented as they were landing, “That was weird. I wonder what got him all excited up there?”

  Donemore said, “I hope he got altitude sickness. If he had some kind of opening, I’d have gladly stuffed a hand full of pills in it.”