Let Sleeping Dragons Lie Part Two
Notes : I have no idea exactly how the military alphabet code works or what/why the letters stand for what words. I doubt they would use such simple code words too but it's my story so just go with it.
Malmstrom Air Force Base does exist but I have never seen it so I am making up anything about it besides its name and where it is located.
I have never been in the military so I have no idea how it all works on bases so I made up what I needed. Malmstrom Air Force Base does exist but I have never been there or seen it so I am making up what it would look like.
Walkerville does exist and it does have an overlook to it but again I have never been there, I have just seen pictures of it so I have modified it to fit my needs.
Part Two
Jared was dreaming. He had to be because if he wasn’t he was surely about to die. His whole body ached and he was cold and wet and the very air around him pulsed with energy, noise, and light all battering his body and making him go slowly numb. The cold was making his body sluggish and his symbiont didn’t appear to be able to help him. It was doing the best it could to keep him alive and was putting him in a healing coma-like slumber but he was too out of it to understand what it was doing. His mind was a jumble of emotions, memories, plans, and random thoughts but he was unable to focus for more than a few seconds at a time. He knew he was in trouble but wasn’t able to help himself and he didn’t know if help was coming. He felt matter under his hands that squished and slid through his fingers if he tried to grasp it too hard. He was outside somewhere he realized as the smells came to him and his eyes slowly focused. He was unable to see colors in the dark and the brief flashes of light messed with his sight. He wondered if he had made it home. But if he had wouldn’t someone be coming to his aid? He struggled and managed to drag himself for a distance before the pain and cold made him lose consciousness again.
**********
“Chief, we have something!” One of the newer recruits called out without looking up from his screen.
Chief Master Sergeant Shepard sighed internally and went over to see what the young man thought he had found. He had been running the unit that kept track of foreign satellites and missile sites for a while now and was annoyed by the endless revolving door of new recruits on short duty assignments. It was his job to make sure if any country had any kind of craft that flew above the average airspace height of a helicopter he would know about it. He had technicians who processed out public air travel so they also saw the many private and often illegal travel from the rich or smugglers. Notes were taken on those flights but his unit's main focus was defense and monitoring missiles and satellites.
He glanced down at the technician’s screen and almost did a double-take at the information compiling on the screen. An unidentified craft had come into the atmosphere over the United States. There wasn’t an image of it besides a miniature scale dimension shaped like an egg. It didn’t match anything in the known database and he had heard no rumors of any kind of new craft designed for surveillance or attack. It wasn’t acting like a missile as it was slowing down and maneuvering. But it wasn’t any kind of plane or jet either from its speed and range of distance it covered in maneuvering. Or where it had come from if the theoretical reverse plotted trajectory was accurate.
“Teams two and three switch to match monitoring, find out where this thing is going. Team five see if you can get any images, I want to know what this is. Team four get all airbases ready to deploy jets for a fly-by. Team one get a private jet ready for me and call team one of our engineers.” The young men in the room scrambled to follow his command. He snatched the reports the computer had begun to print out of the action going on. He scanned the report until he found the estimated entry point where the craft first can to their attention. Next, he carefully read the computer calculations of where it might have come from and had to reread it twice to be sure.
“Find out where that thing is going! Now!” He shouted as he folded the report and stuck it in his breast pocket. “Bring the information to my office asap” he stalked off to said office. He had a phone call to make and he needed to do it in private.
With the office door closed and locked, he went to his desk and opened the top drawer. Reaching into the drawer and to the underside of the desk, he pushed a button hidden there. It sent out an impulse that would jam up any listening devices. Not that he expected there to be any, he was very meticulous about having his office swept routinely. Then he sat and picked up the receiver to one of the many phones on his desk and punched in a code. The line became secure and he dialed a number he had memorized when he had first taken command of the unit. The line was picked up after three rings.
“General Keyes this is Chief Master Sergeant Sheppard. Code: Echo, Charlie, Hotel, Oscar.”
“Received, code: Victor, Oscar, India, Charlie, Echo. What is the situation?” A monotoned voice asked as if this was a normal situation.
“We have a visitor sir.”
“Do you know where it will land?”
“We are working on it, sir. I have teams standing by to welcome it in if necessary but it appears to be headed for our yard.”
“You know what to do,” it was a statement, not a question.
“Yes sir.”
“Then go get it and be sure to show it our deepest hospitality.”
“Yes sir,” the line went dead and he put the phone down. He sat for a while his mind going through various plans and scenarios unit there was a loud knock at the door. It was time for action. He went over to let in the technician with a single page in his hands.
“The projected landing sir” the young man handed him the paper and stood at attention.
“Get the transport team the destination and have the engineering team on board the plane, I want to leave the minute I get there. Keep monitoring the situation and keep me informed of developments. Alert the nearest base we are coming in case we need support. Make sure this doesn’t get out and silence any media if it does.” He moved to a small closet and pulled out a go-bag and dry-cleaning bag. “That will be all,” he passed the man and headed to the front of the building where there would be a jeep and driver waiting for him. It was a short trip to the airstrip and the plane where the engineering team was waiting as ordered. They were in the air within half an hour. Mark had never been to Montana before or Malmstrom Air Force Base but that was about to change. He settled in for the five-hour flight to keyed up to sleep despite the late hour. There would be time for that much later when this was all over.
********
Morning came with bird song and Jensen cracked open his eyes to find the room bathed in dim light. The storm appeared to be over from the sound of things and the presents of the light. Jensen would have liked to sleep in but there was too much to do. Pauly had moved up to stretch out beside him in the night so he had to nudge him off the bed before he could get up. The room was cold and no doubt the floor would be too. He pulled a pair of socks from his bedside table wishing he’d had the forethought to put them on last night. With socks on, he made his way to the bathroom to take care of his morning business. The power was still out but there was warm water for his short shower. Dressed in a thick fuzzy robe he went to fix himself some breakfast.
He looked out all the windows as he passed to assess any damage to the surrounding property. Besides a few branches and lots of leaves, the yard looked pretty good. All the big trees around the cabin and barn had been cleared when the cabin was built and there were just shade trees now. There were a few big trees by the workshop but they stood tall still. He would have to check on the back of the barn, workshop, upper pasture fencing, and the lower pasture that wasn’t used anymore. He made a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon and coffee, giving Pauly half an egg on his kibble before going back into his room to get dressed for the day. It was still cloudy and slightly windy outside but the major part of the storm had passed. It might rain later so he dressed warmly and in heavy hiking boots with thick warm socks. He shoved a pair of fingerless gloves into the pocket of his heavy work coat before going out the back door.
Pauly ran around the yard sniffing at all the branches and piles of leaves making his territory least the old markings have been washed away. Jensen headed to the barn first to check on Molly. Circling the building he didn’t see any damage but a nice portion of a treetop lay a few yards from the back. Unlocking and going in the front he was greeted by an annoyed sounding ha from Molly who was sticking her head out the stall door. She didn’t seem frightened or agitated and he thought she was probably just annoyed and he could deal with that.
“Did you have a long night Molly girl?” He asked as he pulled a lead line from a hook next to the stall door. She haw’d at him again and stamped a hoof in answer. “All right let’s get you out into the fresh air and you can take a nap before we get to work.” He clipped the lead to her harness and opened the stall door. She started for the open barn door and he had to leave the stall door open or be dragged away. Once outside she stopped to shake her head and snort. Even with the cloud cover, the outside of the barn was lighter than the inside. It didn’t take her long to recover and she started off towards the pasture. Pauly joined them zipping around to look at all the new things on the ground before rushing back to their side an occasional stick in his mouth that he would drop when the next one caught his fancy.
The pasture looked to be fine and Jensen let Molly lose before walking the perimeter just to be sure. The fencing looked sound and besides a few branches here and there the pasture was unaffected by the storm. Jensen left Molly and went to look around the workshop and the back of the cabin. One of the older apple trees behind the cabin had fallen down and there were a few big branches scattered about but nothing had been damaged. The last place to check would be the lower pastures. Jensen went back into the house for a refresher of coffee before he and Pauly headed out. The lower pasture was a ways from the cabin down a small slope. The front half had been cleared of trees but the latter half had a few left and backed up onto uncut forest. There was a small retention pond in the lower pasture as well that was no doubt half if not completely full after all the rain last night he guessed. After a few minutes of walking, he came to the top of the slope and started down. At the bottom, it was a few minutes more before he came to the gate. The fencing looked good and the gate opened just fine. He began walking the perimeter starting from the right and going to the left taking a path with the least amount of trees to the most. A line of shade trees and hedge bushes made a line into the pasture at the back where the retention pond at the end was as expected, full of water.
Going around the pond the clouds shifted letting a few rays of sunshine filter to the ground and he froze in place. He blinked several times and shook his head as if to clear both his sight and his brain. He looked again and it was still there. A shimmer of the air that made some kind of oblong silhouette appear and disappear with the shifting of the sunlight through the clouds. At times it was both gray and shiny silver that held undertones of the rainbow, like a freshly wet oil slick in the rain. He had to be hallucinating, there couldn’t be anything there and yet he could feel its presence as if was letting out an invisible pulse. He moved towards it as if being drawn by some kind of magnetic force. He felt both wonder and dread as he got closer and the shifting in and out of sight got faster. It was about the size of his truck if someone had put a structured tarp over it. It must be heavy too since it had sunk a few inches into the softened earth he noticed as his eyes swept over it looking for clues to what it was and how it got into the pasture. There was a path of torn grass at least four yards long and he was surprised he hadn’t noticed that first.
When he was within two feet it seemed to solidify and stop shifting colors. It was the silvery rainbow of an oil slick and there was a faint pulsing, humming energy like high voltage electricity that was felt but not heard. He looked at it for a moment and when nothing happened he lifted his right hand slowly to touch it. There was no heat or cold feeling from this distance and he was ready to pull his hand back should he encounter a temperature change. Or an electrical shock, but then again if it was a big shock he might just get fried before he could back away. Wouldn’t that be something, to be fired by an insane sculpture of some kind left in his field. No one would find him for a while and that would suck. But he just had to know what this was and touching it was part of finding out. Before he could make contact though the surface where his hand would land shimmered and a stream of…something…liquid metal…shot out and encircled his wrist. That was the best way he could think about it before he started freaking out his heart rate instantly began to race and he jumped and tried to step back. But the thing around his wrist kept him tethered in place. He didn’t want to touch any more of it than necessary so he grabbed his arm above the wrist with his left hand to try and pull it back and break the bond. The thing that had him got thicker and split in two, the new rope-like tendril encircling his left wrist.
He panicked and just about lost his mind huffing in short breaths as his heart beat fast enough it might burst from his chest his mind urging him to run. He pulled with all his strength and after a second the bond broke and he fell backwards onto his butt continuing the fall and thunking his head into the wet muddy grass. He could feel more bonds beginning to form around his ankles and jerked and kicked his legs only to find he wasn’t tethered to the…whatever it was. He sat up and scrambled back several feet from the thing, he had no other word for it now, like a crab but it made no other move to ensnare him. When he stopped, he took deep breaths and tried to calm down a bit as he watched for any more signs of movement. The thing shimmered again and after a few seconds of flickering disappeared. He knew it hadn’t gone away, he could still somehow feel its presence but he just couldn’t see it anymore. He could feel it on his body too and he held up his arms to see a thin band of the silvery stuff around each of his wrists. He could feel it on his ankles too even though he couldn’t see it when he looked down at his legs. What the fuck was this nightmare.
Pauly who had been oblivious to his struggles and situation began to bark as if he’d gone mad and he flailed around thinking he might be under a new attack as he had just been a moment ago. But that was not the case when he finally spotted Pauly a few yards away and almost to the tree lined fence. Pauly was jumping up and down, back and forth, head lowered, barking at something on the ground. He couldn’t see it very well and picked himself up hurrying over to save either whatever it was from Pauly or Pauly from whatever it was. From his upright position, he could see it was long and covered in green-gray cloth. Feet stuck out from one end and brown hair from the other. It was a person and they weren’t moving.
He sprinted over to the person’s side hoping they were still alive and wondered if they had been attacked by the thing behind them. Was this person responsible for that thing? He decided it didn’t matter at the moment he just needed to make sure the person was alive right now. He knelt down next to the prone figure who was facing away from him, arms tucked underneath their body. Up close the person was huge, bigger than him and he was no slouch at just over six feet tall. The clothing was baggy and shapeless but did show moment as the person breathed. Pauly went silent as he knelt by the person’s side and seemed to stand guard. Jensen focused on the person and hoped Pauly would give a warning if the thing behind them decided to attack.
He checked the person over visually for injury and not seeing any wounds or fresh blood decided to take the chance on rolling them over. He supported the head and neck and as much of the back as he could while he did so just in case of internal spinal injury. The person was cold and wet and could have been suffering from hypothermia if they had been out here all night. He slowly and gently turned the person over onto their back. It was a man. A handsome man. He had what would have been shaggy brown hair had it been dry, a straight nose that was wide at the base, full wide lips, and the beginnings of a beard over what may be a cleft chin and what his grandma called a beauty mark on the left side of his face. He was breathing raggedly and gave a flinch when he was finally on his back but didn’t show any sign of consciousness. Jensen picked up his wrist to check his pulse and noticed that he too had the silvery bands around his wrists, but his were thicker. The pulse he found was light but steady. He had to get the man back to his cabin where he could take care of him until he could get better help or get to the hospital.
Jensen’s grandfather had insisted that he learn survival skills and first aid was one of those skills. Having been in the military for half of his life he had taught Jensen when he was young before enrolling Jensen into Red Cross classes as a teen and Jensen had taken some first aid and even a basic nursing class in college. It was common sense if he was going to live semi-isolated on a mountain that could be cut off from their small town in the winter. When his grandmother and grandfather had been ill towards the end of their lives he had brushed up on his knowledge to better care for them. He knew what he had to do in the short term. The only problem was getting the man back to the cabin. He ran his hands over the man’s body checking for breaks and finding sore spots when the man flinched or groaned. His ribs may have been broken or bruised but nothing else and his left shoulder didn’t feel right. The whole time he worked he kept thinking of ways to get the man back to the cabin. He couldn’t carry the man, who had to be at least seven feet tall and probably weighed at least sixty or seventy pounds more than he did if not more. Just lifting him was going to be an issue too if he had to go more than a few steps at a time.
Finally deciding what he needed to do he got back to his feet. “Pauly” he called the dog over to him and pointed to the man, “lay down.” Pauly gave a small whine but when he didn’t say more, Pauly lay down next to the man. “Stay. I’ll be right back. Stay,” and with that, he sprinted towards his workshop. Getting the door unlocked took a second because he was in a hurry and had almost dropped his keys. His hands had started shaking with the adrenaline, he had just noticed was still running through him. He guessed he had been feeling it since the thing in the pasture attacked him but he hadn’t had time to notice once he saw someone who needed help. Once inside his workshop, he went to the corner where a streamliner loaded with raw materials stood. He pushed the materials off and pushed it out into the grass where its wheels still rolled but not well. He had to fight with it as he pushed it over to the barn. There he grabbed some plywood, ropes, and horse blankets. Putting the wood on the streamliner he quickly tied it on with the rope. He grabbed a body harness for Molly and pushed his jerry-rigged stretcher to the pasture. Molly came when he called and he quickly fitted her with the harness and tied the tail ends to the handle of the streamliner. He then led Molly down to the back pasture. He made a wide arch around where he had last seen the large silvery thing and it flickered as he went by. Pauly was still lying next to the man and wagged his tail when he saw Jensen and Molly.
“Good boy,” Jensen gave him a quick pat when he reached them. “Up boy,” he said as he pulled one of the blankets off his makeshift stretcher. Pauly obeyed but didn’t go far as he squatted down next to the man. As carefully and gently as he could he lifted the man and turned to put him on the stretcher. His earlier assessment was right the man was heavy, and he wondered how he was going to get the man into the house. The stretcher might make it through the front door but he wasn’t sure. “One step at a time,” he muttered as he arranged the man as best he could to be in the middle of the stretcher before covering him with the blanket. Using a rope to tie him down so he wouldn't slip off on the bumpy ride to the house was awkward and he tried to be gentle and not cover any injuries. Once he thought he had done a good enough job he led Molly up to the house constantly watching the man for distress and to make sure he stayed in place. The trip up took longer than the trip down as he didn’t want to justle the man too much.
He brought Molly right up to the cabin door and untied the stretcher. He was able to pull it through the door but just barely. It got stuck for a moment before a hard tug got it in all the way by shifting the wood and almost dislodging his cargo. Once the man was inside he quickly went out jogging Molly who was not happy at the pace back to the pasture where he pulled off the harness leaving it on the ground just outside the gate and ran back to the house. Pauly who had followed them back to the cabin was at the man’s side when he got back. He gave Pauly a quick pat on the head and pulled the stretcher towards his room. It wouldn’t fit through his door and he quickly untied the man and getting a grip under the man’s arms lifted and half carried half dragged him through the bedroom into the ensuite bathroom. It was dim and he tried the lights but the power was still out. He cursed and laying the man on the bath rug jogged back outside and to the back of the cabin where the generator was. Its monitor showed it had run twenty minutes ago so there was likely some hot water. He opened the operating panel and switched it on to cover the whole cabin's electrical grids and hoped it would hold up and not blow a fuse before jogging back into the bathroom.
Now that he had light and was assured of hot water he could start first aid. He needed to get the man cleaned, warmed and any wounds bandaged. Then he would see about calling for help if he could or if he would have to take the man into town himself. They didn’t have a hospital but they had a good clinic and the clinic had a service that could take anyone to the hospital if it was needed providing care the whole way. He got the first aid kit out of the bathroom linin closet before kneeling down at the mystery man’s side. First on the list was to get the man out of his cold, wet clothes and wash him with warm water that would clean any wounds and warm him up. The man’s clothes had a lot of ties, something that was like velcro but wasn’t and what he assumed to be elastic holding it all together. Once he had the man’s clothes off all he could do was stare. Besides the numerous wounds, none of them looking life-threatening, or all that bad for that matter there was something very very wrong. He closed his eyes and shook his head a blush starting in his cheeks, rushing up towards his hairline and down towards his chest. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes to check again. Yup…still not right. The guy had an interesting mutation or anomaly or done some really…interesting…alterations to his dick. Or it was something else entirely that he hoped really wasn’t the truth because if it was the whole world was in for a surprise. Deep down he knew but he had to be sure.
Reaching beside him and fumbling with the first aid kit not taking his eyes off the mystery on his bathroom floor he managed to get the kit open. He did have to look away at last and into the kit to find what he needed. A penlight that Jim Beaver, the town doctor and one of his grandfather’s good friends had given him. Jim had helped put together this little kit and keep it up to date and stocked. He was also a midwife and the coroner and had taken care of Jensen’s mother and baby sister during the birth and after. But enough with getting sidetracked he had work to do he chastised himself as he turned back to his mystery. He turned the light on and gently lifted one of the man’s eyelids with his thumb shining the light into the eye. The pupil constricted which was good, but the pupil was slitted which was…not. He let go of the eyelid and sat back on his heels and looked the body over again slowly and more carefully. This time he noticed the ears. The slightly longer, slightly pointed ears. He did not have a man on his bathroom floor. He had brought an alien into his house!
That meant that the thing in the pasture had to be his spaceship. It had looked nothing like the many variations of what a spaceship was supposed to look like. It looked more like a giant silvery egg when he could see it at all. Oh, wait there were drawings like that but the aliens that went with them were either always gray/silver or green. Or Mork from Ork…and he was getting sidetracked again. To be fair he had a fucking alien on his bathroom floor! He sat and stared wondering what exactly he was going to do with an alien when Pauly whined from the doorway. He looked over at Pauly who whined again and lay down looking at the alien with sad eyes. He signed “You’re right boy” he acknowledged and started to do what he had set out to do. Help.
Getting the alien into his shower took some work and, in the end, he ended up getting soaked as he had to stay in the cubical with the alien to wash him. The alien started to shiver at the first touch of warm water then to acclimate and grow warm himself as time passed. As he got warmer, he let out some moans and groans as Jensen cleaned his various wounds. There were cuts, not too deep but numerous, abrasions where it looked like he had been dragged across rough ground, and a number of small burns. The aliens’ ribs were bruised but didn’t feel broken and the shoulder had a huge knot in the muscle as if it has been displaced and reset recently. He had no body hair, not even around his privates but the hair on his head was surprisingly soft and very thick. It took two shampooing’s to get it clean and he was not going to condition it. Once the alien was completely clean getting him out of the shower was also a struggle. He again laid the alien down on the rug and grabbed a towel and started to dry him off patting gently around the wounds lest they reopen. A few had in the shower and he was interested to see that the blood was red all be it much darker than his. Without the water to dilute it, it looked almost black. He didn’t touch it with his bare hands now or in the shower just in case it was hazardous. Once the alien was dry he put on medical gloves and took out gauze, medical tape, and bandages. He didn’t know how the alien would react to the chemicals in the disinfectant and healing creams so he didn’t use them. He dressed most of the wounds before propping the alien up against a cabinet and wrapping his ribs as best he could.
He couldn’t leave the alien naked so he went back into his room and looked for the biggest pair of baggy shorts he had and the biggest t-shirt. Getting them on the alien was a pain in the ass and the alien moaned and groaned but didn't wake up as he was maneuvered into the clothes which were small and tight on him. Jensen hoped he didn’t have a serious head injury that couldn’t be detected without hospital equipment. Once dressed Jensen managed to lift him awkwardly for just long enough to get him to the bed before dropping him unceremoniously down on the covers. More struggling got the alien under the covers and mostly relaxed looking. Without professional help, it was all he could do now but to wait for him to wake up.
Of course, help would not be coming since he doubted anyone else would be reacting so calmly to the presence of a real live alien. Come to think of it he didn’t know how he wasn’t freaking out right now. Maybe it was shock. All he knew was that for the moment they were on their own and he was going to do whatever was necessary to see that the alien was okay. That decided he went to clean up the bathroom and dry off and change his clothes. As he did he kept the door from the bedroom to the bathroom open except to mostly close it when he changed in case the alien woke up. He may have seen the alien naked already but that was necessary he didn’t plan to again and he didn’t plan for the alien to see him naked. When he was done he sat on the floor facing the bed, back against the wall next to the window which let in the sun to shine on his guest. He didn’t know how long he sat there watching but it had to have been over an hour when he had had enough. His butt was numb and his legs were headed in the same direction when he got up. He had to wait a minute for full circulation to be restored before he could move. He took the alien's wrist to check his pules and freaked out when the silvery band on his own wrist, which he had forgotten about, seemed to melt and reach out to the band on the alien’s wrist which had mirrored his own band. Before he could pull back they had merged and he found he was stuck.
His wrist got warm where the silvery band sat but it didn’t hurt. There was a slight tingling feeling and the hairs on his arm rose and he got goosebumps. The combined bands flowed together and around their wrists like liquid metal and he couldn’t tell one from the other now. This went on for a minute before the flowing slowed and the bands separated. He still had one and the alien had his, he couldn’t tell if anything was different between the two from what they had been before they merged. The warmth faded and he found that he was a bit tired, like he had just spent energy doing something other than cleaning up a heavy alien and sitting around. He wanted to sit back down and rest and watch a bit more but he didn’t dare sit next to the alien and if he sat on the floor he might not get up for a while and he had things he needed to do.
He was going to leave but the silver band wasn’t finished with its odd behavior yet. The band on the alien’s wrist thinned and flowed up his arm towards his shoulder. As it did it wound around and over any wounds it came across, and Jensen watched in fascination as they began to heal. Bigger cuts closed and scabbed over, smaller ones became red lines of scar tissue that would disappear within months, and abrasions and burns did the same. By the time it reached his shoulder his arm didn’t look any worse than if he had been out trimming a hedge without long sleeves to stop stray branches and thorns from poking and scraping at him.
Obviously, the band wasn’t metal even though it looked like it when not active and it had come from the alien’s ship. Was it another alien? If it was how did it function without any real kind of body structure? Then it came to him as he yawned and he felt a little dizzy with the answer. A leech. The thing was a bit like a leech. It had taken energy from him somehow and given it to the alien to heal him. Oh god was it taking his life?! He brought his arm up and grabbed the band and tried to pull it off him but it didn’t budge. Was it going to suck all the life out of him and slowly feed it to the alien until he died? The alien didn’t look that injured but he didn’t know if the band would stop once it was healed or if this was how the alien ate? He couldn't sit and think about it or he'd go crazy. Also, the bands couldn't react and work if he wasn't close by. Or at least that was what he hoped. He had to get away and then maybe he would be able to think with a clear head.
“I am so screwed” he groaned out loud as he left the room. He had come this far in saving the alien, could he kill it if it was really a threat to him? He wasn’t sure about it just at the moment. He had never been big on hunting even if he lived in the mountains where pretty much everyone did it. His grandfather had hunted, and so had his father. If the need arose his grandmother had hunted too and they had taught him how to do so as well. He hadn’t particularly liked it but he could do it and if he ever got totally cut off from civilization, he would do it to survive. He would never trophy hunt but he could and would hunt for food if needed. If a wild animal attacked him and he had no other choice but his death or theirs he supposed he could and would kill it, but since that had never come up he really didn’t know. Besides feeling a little tired he didn’t feel anything else different about himself. He didn’t hurt or ache and he went into the second bathroom to look in the mirror and confirm he didn’t look any older because he didn’t feel any older.
He went into the kitchen and began to fix lunch since it was after noon and he was hungry. Taking care of an alien was hungry work. He made two ham sandwiches and had an apple and some chips with them and some water. He ate at the butcher block island over a paper towel his ears focused to hear if the alien woke up. His mind played scenario and scenario of what could happen over the rest of the day and the next. Had anyone seen the ship come down? He wasn’t sure if it had crash landed or if it had been a planned landing that went awry. Either way, he had to move the ship somewhere someone wouldn’t stumble upon it. Or that a government satellite wouldn’t see it. Because he had seen enough movies to know that if the government even thought a spaceship came down they were going to go after it. If it turned out the alien or ship or whatever was trying to eat him he’d turn it in but until then he was going to keep it safe.
After he was done eating and cleaning up, he went to check on the alien before he decided exactly what to do next. The alien lay exactly where he’d been put except the silver band was back around his wrist. Jensen stayed in the doorway, he wouldn’t approach unless the alien woke up or he needed to do something to take care of him. Keeping the bands away from each other was going to be hard but he was determined that they wouldn’t get close enough to merge again. When he was satisfied all was well and that the alien wasn’t going to wake up any time soon he got bundled up again and went outside taking the makeshift stretcher with him.
His plans to clean up the storm debris would have to wait. He had to get the ship out of the pasture. The only question was how to do it. He didn’t think it would attack him again since he already had matching wrist and ankle bands with the alien. But he didn’t want it to get any ideas about Pauly if he got too close or Molly who he needed to help him get the ship out of the pasture. He wondered if it rolled or could he make some kind of sled for it like he had the stretcher. If he needed some kind of sled how was he going to get the ship onto it? One thing at a time he supposed. He went back into the house, closed his bedroom door, and left Pauly inside so he wouldn't get in the way and the ship couldn't do anything to him before going out again.
He went down to the pasture to inspect the ship to figure out just how he was going to move it. He approached where it had been wearily and it flickered into sight. When he was close enough he stretched out a hand to touch it unsure of what would happen. His hand met the hull of the ship and he waited for a reaction but nothing happened. He gave it a little shove but it was solid and didn’t move. He was going to need a sled of some kind to get it moving. He went back up to his workshop to think about what to use. He also needed to figure out where he was going to stash the thing. He might be able to fit it in the workshop but it would be a tight fit and he did need to keep working on his dragon sculpture so he could deliver it as promised. He might be able to get into a stall but again he didn’t know how it would react around Molly.
“First things first” he muttered to himself and wondered if by the end of all this he was going to be crazy. Wasn’t talking to yourself a sign of being crazy? No time to think about that now he had a spaceship to collect and that was crazy enough. He had two streamlines so he would start there. He brought both into the workshop and placing them apart untied the board from the first and placed it in the middle of them. It might be big enough he guessed, now he just had to figure out to make it stay in place. He circled it before getting his nail gun out and nailing the board to the inner edge of the streamliners. He then got a longer rope and looped it around the whole thing. He got up and stood on the board and bounced a bit to test it. It held so he pushed it back out into the yard. He grabbed a few pieces of chopped wood from the woodpile, a shovel from the barn, more rope, and two metal poles from his shop before closing it up. He placed the items on the sled so he could use them to lever the ship up a bit to get it on the sled. Hooking up Molly this time wasn’t as easy as the first time around since this was bigger and he needed longer rope. But he got the job done in the end and he was able to guide her and his new sled down to the pasture.
When the ship flickered into appearance Molly’s ears went down and she stamped a hoof and brayed at it. It rippled in color in response and Jensen was taken a bit aback. Again, he had to wonder if the ship and the bands were one and if they were somehow alive. He eased Molly closer but kept an eye out should the ship reach out to her. It remained itself and he pulled the sled up to its side. He placed a hand on the ship to rest for a moment because he was beginning to get really tired from the work and from what had happened earlier with the wrist bands. He thought about the ways he could get the ship onto the sled so he could get it back to the barn. He grabbed one of the poles, stepped back, and angled it under the ship to see where he would need to place the wood. The ship shimmered and in the blink of an eye started pulling the pole into itself. Jensen let go and stepped back reaching for Molly to pull her away.
Before he could the pole was gone and a single humming note like a tuning fork being hit sounded for a second. Then the ship lifted off the ground an inch or two. Jensen could only watch in fascination until Molly stamped her foot again and tossed her head a bit. The ship was almost level with the edge of the sled. He didn’t want to lose another pole since it was his working material but if it made the ship float he’d do it to get this over with. He took the second pole and poked the end of it on the base of the ship. It only took a second and the ship began to absorb the second pole. Again, it rose into the air this time just over the height of the sled. Jensen moved the wood off the sled and took the shovel in hand. Holding the spade end he used the wood handle to poke the ship. “Come on, let’s get a move on” he muttered as he pushed and hoped his idea would work.
The ship moved very slowly but it moved and he pushed it until it hovered just above the sled. He used the rope, tying one end to a piece of wood to hold that end on the ground, he threw the rest over the top of the ship. He went around to the far side and placed a hand on the ship and stooped to pick up the rope. The ship sank a bit and rested on the sled which groaned under the weight but didn’t break. Jensen made quick work of looping the rope around it twice and tying it off before it could settle more. He led Molly back to the barn as fast as he dared the wood creaking every once in a while, as the ship settled.
Once they got to the barn, he had the hard task of backing it in since he wanted to put it in the very last stall in the back. By the time he had maneuvered the sled into place, it was bowing in the middle and pulling the handles towards each other. He unharnessed Molly first and she was glad to trot away from the ship. She went out of the barn and he followed her but left her to stand in the yard knowing she wouldn't run away. He went into his shop for another metal pole. Back in the barn, he fed the pole to the ship for lack of a better term and it lifted again just enough that when he untied it, he was able to slide it off the sled and into the stall before it lowered itself to the ground. He used a tarp to quickly cover the ship before he left everything else where it was and went back to put Molly into her pasture.
With her safely corralled and the ship hidden, if not very well he realized he was exhausted. He closed the barn and went to let Pauly out of the house. He checked the time and saw he had been out working for almost two hours. He checked on the alien but he hadn’t moved at all. Taking the old fashion windup bell clock from his dresser he went out to the couch. He deserved a nap, but he still had work to do so it couldn’t be a long one. He set the alarm of the clock, placed it on the coffee table, let Pauly back in then lay on the couch and was asleep as soon as he was horizontal.
When the alarm woke him, he felt better and he went to check on his guest again. Still sleeping he hadn’t moved and Jensen wondered if he too needed something to eat now. The ship had taken metal and the bands had done something to him but he wondered if that was because there was nothing metal for them within reach or touching them. Would the alien eat metal too? He hesitated a moment before going over and looking down at the alien’s face, more specifically his mouth. Taking a fortifying breath, he reached out and opened the jaw by pulling on the chin and then pushed the lips back to see inside his mouth. He pulled his hands back immediately when he saw the alien had sharp teeth. The top front and bottom were human-like but the eye teeth were like little fangs and the rest were sharp little points. He couldn’t see into where the molars might be if he even had them and he wasn’t going to try.
It seemed clear that the alien ate food, otherwise, he didn’t need such sharp teeth, but just what he ate was a mystery. He would wait to figure that out until it was absolutely necessary. He hoped the alien would wake up tonight or tomorrow so it could feed itself. Humans could go days without food if they had water. Aliens, especially human-looking ones had to be the same. Right? He would give the alien water so he wouldn’t get dehydrated until he woke up. He knew water had to be safe since he had probably ingested some during the storm even if he hadn’t been conscience. Unless that was part of the reason why he was unconscious but he didn’t think so. If he took the water well Jensen might try some of the broth from his soup. It would hydrate him and give him a little nutrients and hopefully not kill him.
With that settled he left again, leaving the door open this time, and took Pauly back outside. There was still some daylight left and he had work to do. He spent the next few hours until dusk cleaning up the yard and pasture around the cabin. He cut up limbs and moved the ones he could use for his winter fires to the barn to dry. The others went into a corner under a tall pine to be burned later. He then put Molly back in her stall with some extra oats and an apple as a reward for her work during the day. He locked everything up and went back into the house to fix dinner. The alien slept on even as Jensen gave him some water which didn't seem to have any reaction one way or the other on him. Jensen repeated yesterday evening's routine of cooking, eating, and reading by the fire. Before he went to sleep he took some broth into his room and slowly spoon fed the alien. The alien didn’t wake, but was able to swallow the broth with prompting, and didn’t die from drinking it. Jensen watched him for a few minutes after feeding him just to be sure all was well. He felt better about checking the alien’s vitals this time but was distressed by a repeat of the morning’s episode. This time once the bands had separated the alien's bands crept up both of the alien’s arms and they met on the center of his chest. They mingled and started their way back to their respective wrists, or so Jensen thought. On the way back to its resting place the band healed the still wounded arm.
Jensen didn’t feel any extra tried this time when it was over and wondered if it had to do with the ship eating the metal poles. The ship, the bands, and the alien seemed to be connected to each other but just how he wasn’t sure. One obviously benefited from the other. But that mystery could wait, the couch was calling. It would be a bit chilly tonight so he got extra blankets from the hall closet and made up a bed on the couch. He reset the alarm on the clock not sure he would wake with the dawn tomorrow from the day he’d had. Pauly lay down next to the couch and he gave the dog a good scratch around the ears and then fell asleep.
He dreamed of space, dragons, molten metal that flowed into all kinds of shapes from animals to nature and back. He dreamed of mountains and giant neon green trees and oceans that looked purple. He dreamed of flying. But in the morning the dreams quickly faded until by mid-day he wouldn’t really remember them at all.
********
The trip to Malmstrom Air Force Base took longer than expected as there was a massive storm front over the area. Communications hadn’t been the best but he had gotten a more precise landing area from his base team before they landed. They needed to look for the visitor somewhere around the area of Butte. That was about three and a half hours away. They would need supplies and equipment from the base so they would have to head out first thing in the morning since it was the middle of the night. He would take some personnel from the base as drivers but his own men would do most of the searching. When they landed Mark was first off the plane and greeted by the base’s commander, a man named Peters.
“Sir,” the man saluted “we have quarters set up for you and your men. Is there anything else you need tonight?”
“No, but I’ll have a list of supplies I’ll need in the morning. I’ll need a few men as well. I don’t know how long we’ll be in the area yet.”
“Yes sir, understood” Peters waved an arm and three jeeps drove up to meet them, Mark’s men having gotten off the plane by now. “I’ll have your equipment taken to our warehouse for storage. It will be held under lock and key until you need it. My men will take you to your quarters and if you need anything at all call the watch and they will get you what you need.” He saluted again and went to see to the unloading of the equipment so the plane could be put back into use.
Mark got into a jeep and as soon as it was full it moved away from the airstrip. About fifteen minutes later he found himself in a half barracks that was well built and insulated from the noise of the airfield. He had his own small room at the front of the building while his men had beds beyond. It was a basic open floor plan he had been used to as a younger man before rising in the ranks. His men set their gear under beds and immediately started the task of changing and washing up. He left them to it and went into his room to find the same style bed but with a decent mattress, a small table, two chairs, and a small bathroom with a toilet, sink and corner standing shower stall. There was a phone that he could use to order anything from. He set down his own go-bag and performed the usual nighttime routine. All the while he thought about what he would need to do over the next few days. Tomorrow he hoped there would be more information from his base to narrow the search area for the visitor. Maybe even some information about what type of visitor. Earth had been visited by a number of alien entities in its vast history. In early times what that was like was anyone’s guess as honest well-documented encounters were short on reliable information. Only with the beginning of the twentieth century did the government take a serious interest and start collecting and sifting through information to put together its visitor’s task force.
They collected facts, artifacts, and specimens when they could and since the sixties had been able to track any that came close by or even to Earth. It was rare but it did happen. The much hyped and stereotypical “greys” did exist. There were also three other kinds that had been documented with photographic and motion picture evidence. They even had one species successfully taxidermized after medical study and autopsy. Only one of the four species had been close to humanoid, and it was the basis for biblical angels. It was very tall, had thick leathery skin that was white to the point of almost translucent in places, six wings, three on each side, three eyes, fours arms and hands, six fingers on each hand. Its hair was metal like and it had extra large lungs and two sets of vocal cords. It had also been hermaphroditic in sex as far as they could tell. Its blood had been translucent and acidic and its two rows of teeth were all flat like molars.
He had not seen the body himself but he had seen detailed pictures. There were only vague blurry pictures and footage of its spacecraft. The craft had been very large, black without color or lights, and could fly both vertically and horizontally. If that was the kind of visitor that was here now it wouldn’t be too hard to find. They just had to get to it before some local stumbled across it. If that happened he’d have a mess to clean up and while he would do it, it wasn’t his favorite assignment. Media would be taken care of by another branch of his operations should the need arise. What he needed tomorrow was mostly transport, men, and information. The rest he had to trust he had with him already. Until then he would need his rest because he wasn’t going to get much of it until he found the visitor, its craft, or had evidence it had left somehow. He laid down as was asleep in moments his dreams filled with images of winged aliens.
The morning brought with it news from his base unit that the craft had indeed gone down up in the mountain region west of Butte. It had not come back out of the mountains and the satellites had been unable to pinpoint it as it went down and they could not yet find evidence of its crash site because the forest was thick and the craft was small. It was smaller than a 747 and was somewhere within a three-hundred-mile radius of Butte. Because of the storm no one in the area had seen or heard it come down, at least no one who was coming forward. There wasn't anything on any websites either.
He arranged for a convoy of five trucks to take his men, his equipment, and equipment for a base camp to Walkerville just north of Butte. It was smaller so there would be fewer people, more gossip maybe but the isolation was good cover for the story of covert operations training they would tell the locals they were doing. There was a large plateau at the edge of town that was high enough to look over the town and into the mountains beyond where his men would search. They would be able to see if any kind of craft tried to leave. Their communication towers could also reach each other from the various peaks at that elevation. He added a squad of ten men from the base to help run the camp while his men did the searching. They had everything together and were on the road by noon.
They got to Walkerville by early evening and were quick to set up camp and their story about training in the mountains. He had everyone working to set up the communications equipment they would place on the surrounding mountains the next day. They discreetly asked around town about the storm and anything strange but there was nothing. With the base set up and preparations made for the next day Mark drew up a roster and assigned quadrants to be searched. Tomorrow the real work would begin.
Part One
https://angelzfurys.livejournal.com/36410.html
Malmstrom Air Force Base does exist but I have never seen it so I am making up anything about it besides its name and where it is located.
I have never been in the military so I have no idea how it all works on bases so I made up what I needed. Malmstrom Air Force Base does exist but I have never been there or seen it so I am making up what it would look like.
Walkerville does exist and it does have an overlook to it but again I have never been there, I have just seen pictures of it so I have modified it to fit my needs.
Part Two
Jared was dreaming. He had to be because if he wasn’t he was surely about to die. His whole body ached and he was cold and wet and the very air around him pulsed with energy, noise, and light all battering his body and making him go slowly numb. The cold was making his body sluggish and his symbiont didn’t appear to be able to help him. It was doing the best it could to keep him alive and was putting him in a healing coma-like slumber but he was too out of it to understand what it was doing. His mind was a jumble of emotions, memories, plans, and random thoughts but he was unable to focus for more than a few seconds at a time. He knew he was in trouble but wasn’t able to help himself and he didn’t know if help was coming. He felt matter under his hands that squished and slid through his fingers if he tried to grasp it too hard. He was outside somewhere he realized as the smells came to him and his eyes slowly focused. He was unable to see colors in the dark and the brief flashes of light messed with his sight. He wondered if he had made it home. But if he had wouldn’t someone be coming to his aid? He struggled and managed to drag himself for a distance before the pain and cold made him lose consciousness again.
**********
“Chief, we have something!” One of the newer recruits called out without looking up from his screen.
Chief Master Sergeant Shepard sighed internally and went over to see what the young man thought he had found. He had been running the unit that kept track of foreign satellites and missile sites for a while now and was annoyed by the endless revolving door of new recruits on short duty assignments. It was his job to make sure if any country had any kind of craft that flew above the average airspace height of a helicopter he would know about it. He had technicians who processed out public air travel so they also saw the many private and often illegal travel from the rich or smugglers. Notes were taken on those flights but his unit's main focus was defense and monitoring missiles and satellites.
He glanced down at the technician’s screen and almost did a double-take at the information compiling on the screen. An unidentified craft had come into the atmosphere over the United States. There wasn’t an image of it besides a miniature scale dimension shaped like an egg. It didn’t match anything in the known database and he had heard no rumors of any kind of new craft designed for surveillance or attack. It wasn’t acting like a missile as it was slowing down and maneuvering. But it wasn’t any kind of plane or jet either from its speed and range of distance it covered in maneuvering. Or where it had come from if the theoretical reverse plotted trajectory was accurate.
“Teams two and three switch to match monitoring, find out where this thing is going. Team five see if you can get any images, I want to know what this is. Team four get all airbases ready to deploy jets for a fly-by. Team one get a private jet ready for me and call team one of our engineers.” The young men in the room scrambled to follow his command. He snatched the reports the computer had begun to print out of the action going on. He scanned the report until he found the estimated entry point where the craft first can to their attention. Next, he carefully read the computer calculations of where it might have come from and had to reread it twice to be sure.
“Find out where that thing is going! Now!” He shouted as he folded the report and stuck it in his breast pocket. “Bring the information to my office asap” he stalked off to said office. He had a phone call to make and he needed to do it in private.
With the office door closed and locked, he went to his desk and opened the top drawer. Reaching into the drawer and to the underside of the desk, he pushed a button hidden there. It sent out an impulse that would jam up any listening devices. Not that he expected there to be any, he was very meticulous about having his office swept routinely. Then he sat and picked up the receiver to one of the many phones on his desk and punched in a code. The line became secure and he dialed a number he had memorized when he had first taken command of the unit. The line was picked up after three rings.
“General Keyes this is Chief Master Sergeant Sheppard. Code: Echo, Charlie, Hotel, Oscar.”
“Received, code: Victor, Oscar, India, Charlie, Echo. What is the situation?” A monotoned voice asked as if this was a normal situation.
“We have a visitor sir.”
“Do you know where it will land?”
“We are working on it, sir. I have teams standing by to welcome it in if necessary but it appears to be headed for our yard.”
“You know what to do,” it was a statement, not a question.
“Yes sir.”
“Then go get it and be sure to show it our deepest hospitality.”
“Yes sir,” the line went dead and he put the phone down. He sat for a while his mind going through various plans and scenarios unit there was a loud knock at the door. It was time for action. He went over to let in the technician with a single page in his hands.
“The projected landing sir” the young man handed him the paper and stood at attention.
“Get the transport team the destination and have the engineering team on board the plane, I want to leave the minute I get there. Keep monitoring the situation and keep me informed of developments. Alert the nearest base we are coming in case we need support. Make sure this doesn’t get out and silence any media if it does.” He moved to a small closet and pulled out a go-bag and dry-cleaning bag. “That will be all,” he passed the man and headed to the front of the building where there would be a jeep and driver waiting for him. It was a short trip to the airstrip and the plane where the engineering team was waiting as ordered. They were in the air within half an hour. Mark had never been to Montana before or Malmstrom Air Force Base but that was about to change. He settled in for the five-hour flight to keyed up to sleep despite the late hour. There would be time for that much later when this was all over.
********
Morning came with bird song and Jensen cracked open his eyes to find the room bathed in dim light. The storm appeared to be over from the sound of things and the presents of the light. Jensen would have liked to sleep in but there was too much to do. Pauly had moved up to stretch out beside him in the night so he had to nudge him off the bed before he could get up. The room was cold and no doubt the floor would be too. He pulled a pair of socks from his bedside table wishing he’d had the forethought to put them on last night. With socks on, he made his way to the bathroom to take care of his morning business. The power was still out but there was warm water for his short shower. Dressed in a thick fuzzy robe he went to fix himself some breakfast.
He looked out all the windows as he passed to assess any damage to the surrounding property. Besides a few branches and lots of leaves, the yard looked pretty good. All the big trees around the cabin and barn had been cleared when the cabin was built and there were just shade trees now. There were a few big trees by the workshop but they stood tall still. He would have to check on the back of the barn, workshop, upper pasture fencing, and the lower pasture that wasn’t used anymore. He made a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon and coffee, giving Pauly half an egg on his kibble before going back into his room to get dressed for the day. It was still cloudy and slightly windy outside but the major part of the storm had passed. It might rain later so he dressed warmly and in heavy hiking boots with thick warm socks. He shoved a pair of fingerless gloves into the pocket of his heavy work coat before going out the back door.
Pauly ran around the yard sniffing at all the branches and piles of leaves making his territory least the old markings have been washed away. Jensen headed to the barn first to check on Molly. Circling the building he didn’t see any damage but a nice portion of a treetop lay a few yards from the back. Unlocking and going in the front he was greeted by an annoyed sounding ha from Molly who was sticking her head out the stall door. She didn’t seem frightened or agitated and he thought she was probably just annoyed and he could deal with that.
“Did you have a long night Molly girl?” He asked as he pulled a lead line from a hook next to the stall door. She haw’d at him again and stamped a hoof in answer. “All right let’s get you out into the fresh air and you can take a nap before we get to work.” He clipped the lead to her harness and opened the stall door. She started for the open barn door and he had to leave the stall door open or be dragged away. Once outside she stopped to shake her head and snort. Even with the cloud cover, the outside of the barn was lighter than the inside. It didn’t take her long to recover and she started off towards the pasture. Pauly joined them zipping around to look at all the new things on the ground before rushing back to their side an occasional stick in his mouth that he would drop when the next one caught his fancy.
The pasture looked to be fine and Jensen let Molly lose before walking the perimeter just to be sure. The fencing looked sound and besides a few branches here and there the pasture was unaffected by the storm. Jensen left Molly and went to look around the workshop and the back of the cabin. One of the older apple trees behind the cabin had fallen down and there were a few big branches scattered about but nothing had been damaged. The last place to check would be the lower pastures. Jensen went back into the house for a refresher of coffee before he and Pauly headed out. The lower pasture was a ways from the cabin down a small slope. The front half had been cleared of trees but the latter half had a few left and backed up onto uncut forest. There was a small retention pond in the lower pasture as well that was no doubt half if not completely full after all the rain last night he guessed. After a few minutes of walking, he came to the top of the slope and started down. At the bottom, it was a few minutes more before he came to the gate. The fencing looked good and the gate opened just fine. He began walking the perimeter starting from the right and going to the left taking a path with the least amount of trees to the most. A line of shade trees and hedge bushes made a line into the pasture at the back where the retention pond at the end was as expected, full of water.
Going around the pond the clouds shifted letting a few rays of sunshine filter to the ground and he froze in place. He blinked several times and shook his head as if to clear both his sight and his brain. He looked again and it was still there. A shimmer of the air that made some kind of oblong silhouette appear and disappear with the shifting of the sunlight through the clouds. At times it was both gray and shiny silver that held undertones of the rainbow, like a freshly wet oil slick in the rain. He had to be hallucinating, there couldn’t be anything there and yet he could feel its presence as if was letting out an invisible pulse. He moved towards it as if being drawn by some kind of magnetic force. He felt both wonder and dread as he got closer and the shifting in and out of sight got faster. It was about the size of his truck if someone had put a structured tarp over it. It must be heavy too since it had sunk a few inches into the softened earth he noticed as his eyes swept over it looking for clues to what it was and how it got into the pasture. There was a path of torn grass at least four yards long and he was surprised he hadn’t noticed that first.
When he was within two feet it seemed to solidify and stop shifting colors. It was the silvery rainbow of an oil slick and there was a faint pulsing, humming energy like high voltage electricity that was felt but not heard. He looked at it for a moment and when nothing happened he lifted his right hand slowly to touch it. There was no heat or cold feeling from this distance and he was ready to pull his hand back should he encounter a temperature change. Or an electrical shock, but then again if it was a big shock he might just get fried before he could back away. Wouldn’t that be something, to be fired by an insane sculpture of some kind left in his field. No one would find him for a while and that would suck. But he just had to know what this was and touching it was part of finding out. Before he could make contact though the surface where his hand would land shimmered and a stream of…something…liquid metal…shot out and encircled his wrist. That was the best way he could think about it before he started freaking out his heart rate instantly began to race and he jumped and tried to step back. But the thing around his wrist kept him tethered in place. He didn’t want to touch any more of it than necessary so he grabbed his arm above the wrist with his left hand to try and pull it back and break the bond. The thing that had him got thicker and split in two, the new rope-like tendril encircling his left wrist.
He panicked and just about lost his mind huffing in short breaths as his heart beat fast enough it might burst from his chest his mind urging him to run. He pulled with all his strength and after a second the bond broke and he fell backwards onto his butt continuing the fall and thunking his head into the wet muddy grass. He could feel more bonds beginning to form around his ankles and jerked and kicked his legs only to find he wasn’t tethered to the…whatever it was. He sat up and scrambled back several feet from the thing, he had no other word for it now, like a crab but it made no other move to ensnare him. When he stopped, he took deep breaths and tried to calm down a bit as he watched for any more signs of movement. The thing shimmered again and after a few seconds of flickering disappeared. He knew it hadn’t gone away, he could still somehow feel its presence but he just couldn’t see it anymore. He could feel it on his body too and he held up his arms to see a thin band of the silvery stuff around each of his wrists. He could feel it on his ankles too even though he couldn’t see it when he looked down at his legs. What the fuck was this nightmare.
Pauly who had been oblivious to his struggles and situation began to bark as if he’d gone mad and he flailed around thinking he might be under a new attack as he had just been a moment ago. But that was not the case when he finally spotted Pauly a few yards away and almost to the tree lined fence. Pauly was jumping up and down, back and forth, head lowered, barking at something on the ground. He couldn’t see it very well and picked himself up hurrying over to save either whatever it was from Pauly or Pauly from whatever it was. From his upright position, he could see it was long and covered in green-gray cloth. Feet stuck out from one end and brown hair from the other. It was a person and they weren’t moving.
He sprinted over to the person’s side hoping they were still alive and wondered if they had been attacked by the thing behind them. Was this person responsible for that thing? He decided it didn’t matter at the moment he just needed to make sure the person was alive right now. He knelt down next to the prone figure who was facing away from him, arms tucked underneath their body. Up close the person was huge, bigger than him and he was no slouch at just over six feet tall. The clothing was baggy and shapeless but did show moment as the person breathed. Pauly went silent as he knelt by the person’s side and seemed to stand guard. Jensen focused on the person and hoped Pauly would give a warning if the thing behind them decided to attack.
He checked the person over visually for injury and not seeing any wounds or fresh blood decided to take the chance on rolling them over. He supported the head and neck and as much of the back as he could while he did so just in case of internal spinal injury. The person was cold and wet and could have been suffering from hypothermia if they had been out here all night. He slowly and gently turned the person over onto their back. It was a man. A handsome man. He had what would have been shaggy brown hair had it been dry, a straight nose that was wide at the base, full wide lips, and the beginnings of a beard over what may be a cleft chin and what his grandma called a beauty mark on the left side of his face. He was breathing raggedly and gave a flinch when he was finally on his back but didn’t show any sign of consciousness. Jensen picked up his wrist to check his pulse and noticed that he too had the silvery bands around his wrists, but his were thicker. The pulse he found was light but steady. He had to get the man back to his cabin where he could take care of him until he could get better help or get to the hospital.
Jensen’s grandfather had insisted that he learn survival skills and first aid was one of those skills. Having been in the military for half of his life he had taught Jensen when he was young before enrolling Jensen into Red Cross classes as a teen and Jensen had taken some first aid and even a basic nursing class in college. It was common sense if he was going to live semi-isolated on a mountain that could be cut off from their small town in the winter. When his grandmother and grandfather had been ill towards the end of their lives he had brushed up on his knowledge to better care for them. He knew what he had to do in the short term. The only problem was getting the man back to the cabin. He ran his hands over the man’s body checking for breaks and finding sore spots when the man flinched or groaned. His ribs may have been broken or bruised but nothing else and his left shoulder didn’t feel right. The whole time he worked he kept thinking of ways to get the man back to the cabin. He couldn’t carry the man, who had to be at least seven feet tall and probably weighed at least sixty or seventy pounds more than he did if not more. Just lifting him was going to be an issue too if he had to go more than a few steps at a time.
Finally deciding what he needed to do he got back to his feet. “Pauly” he called the dog over to him and pointed to the man, “lay down.” Pauly gave a small whine but when he didn’t say more, Pauly lay down next to the man. “Stay. I’ll be right back. Stay,” and with that, he sprinted towards his workshop. Getting the door unlocked took a second because he was in a hurry and had almost dropped his keys. His hands had started shaking with the adrenaline, he had just noticed was still running through him. He guessed he had been feeling it since the thing in the pasture attacked him but he hadn’t had time to notice once he saw someone who needed help. Once inside his workshop, he went to the corner where a streamliner loaded with raw materials stood. He pushed the materials off and pushed it out into the grass where its wheels still rolled but not well. He had to fight with it as he pushed it over to the barn. There he grabbed some plywood, ropes, and horse blankets. Putting the wood on the streamliner he quickly tied it on with the rope. He grabbed a body harness for Molly and pushed his jerry-rigged stretcher to the pasture. Molly came when he called and he quickly fitted her with the harness and tied the tail ends to the handle of the streamliner. He then led Molly down to the back pasture. He made a wide arch around where he had last seen the large silvery thing and it flickered as he went by. Pauly was still lying next to the man and wagged his tail when he saw Jensen and Molly.
“Good boy,” Jensen gave him a quick pat when he reached them. “Up boy,” he said as he pulled one of the blankets off his makeshift stretcher. Pauly obeyed but didn’t go far as he squatted down next to the man. As carefully and gently as he could he lifted the man and turned to put him on the stretcher. His earlier assessment was right the man was heavy, and he wondered how he was going to get the man into the house. The stretcher might make it through the front door but he wasn’t sure. “One step at a time,” he muttered as he arranged the man as best he could to be in the middle of the stretcher before covering him with the blanket. Using a rope to tie him down so he wouldn't slip off on the bumpy ride to the house was awkward and he tried to be gentle and not cover any injuries. Once he thought he had done a good enough job he led Molly up to the house constantly watching the man for distress and to make sure he stayed in place. The trip up took longer than the trip down as he didn’t want to justle the man too much.
He brought Molly right up to the cabin door and untied the stretcher. He was able to pull it through the door but just barely. It got stuck for a moment before a hard tug got it in all the way by shifting the wood and almost dislodging his cargo. Once the man was inside he quickly went out jogging Molly who was not happy at the pace back to the pasture where he pulled off the harness leaving it on the ground just outside the gate and ran back to the house. Pauly who had followed them back to the cabin was at the man’s side when he got back. He gave Pauly a quick pat on the head and pulled the stretcher towards his room. It wouldn’t fit through his door and he quickly untied the man and getting a grip under the man’s arms lifted and half carried half dragged him through the bedroom into the ensuite bathroom. It was dim and he tried the lights but the power was still out. He cursed and laying the man on the bath rug jogged back outside and to the back of the cabin where the generator was. Its monitor showed it had run twenty minutes ago so there was likely some hot water. He opened the operating panel and switched it on to cover the whole cabin's electrical grids and hoped it would hold up and not blow a fuse before jogging back into the bathroom.
Now that he had light and was assured of hot water he could start first aid. He needed to get the man cleaned, warmed and any wounds bandaged. Then he would see about calling for help if he could or if he would have to take the man into town himself. They didn’t have a hospital but they had a good clinic and the clinic had a service that could take anyone to the hospital if it was needed providing care the whole way. He got the first aid kit out of the bathroom linin closet before kneeling down at the mystery man’s side. First on the list was to get the man out of his cold, wet clothes and wash him with warm water that would clean any wounds and warm him up. The man’s clothes had a lot of ties, something that was like velcro but wasn’t and what he assumed to be elastic holding it all together. Once he had the man’s clothes off all he could do was stare. Besides the numerous wounds, none of them looking life-threatening, or all that bad for that matter there was something very very wrong. He closed his eyes and shook his head a blush starting in his cheeks, rushing up towards his hairline and down towards his chest. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes to check again. Yup…still not right. The guy had an interesting mutation or anomaly or done some really…interesting…alterations to his dick. Or it was something else entirely that he hoped really wasn’t the truth because if it was the whole world was in for a surprise. Deep down he knew but he had to be sure.
Reaching beside him and fumbling with the first aid kit not taking his eyes off the mystery on his bathroom floor he managed to get the kit open. He did have to look away at last and into the kit to find what he needed. A penlight that Jim Beaver, the town doctor and one of his grandfather’s good friends had given him. Jim had helped put together this little kit and keep it up to date and stocked. He was also a midwife and the coroner and had taken care of Jensen’s mother and baby sister during the birth and after. But enough with getting sidetracked he had work to do he chastised himself as he turned back to his mystery. He turned the light on and gently lifted one of the man’s eyelids with his thumb shining the light into the eye. The pupil constricted which was good, but the pupil was slitted which was…not. He let go of the eyelid and sat back on his heels and looked the body over again slowly and more carefully. This time he noticed the ears. The slightly longer, slightly pointed ears. He did not have a man on his bathroom floor. He had brought an alien into his house!
That meant that the thing in the pasture had to be his spaceship. It had looked nothing like the many variations of what a spaceship was supposed to look like. It looked more like a giant silvery egg when he could see it at all. Oh, wait there were drawings like that but the aliens that went with them were either always gray/silver or green. Or Mork from Ork…and he was getting sidetracked again. To be fair he had a fucking alien on his bathroom floor! He sat and stared wondering what exactly he was going to do with an alien when Pauly whined from the doorway. He looked over at Pauly who whined again and lay down looking at the alien with sad eyes. He signed “You’re right boy” he acknowledged and started to do what he had set out to do. Help.
Getting the alien into his shower took some work and, in the end, he ended up getting soaked as he had to stay in the cubical with the alien to wash him. The alien started to shiver at the first touch of warm water then to acclimate and grow warm himself as time passed. As he got warmer, he let out some moans and groans as Jensen cleaned his various wounds. There were cuts, not too deep but numerous, abrasions where it looked like he had been dragged across rough ground, and a number of small burns. The aliens’ ribs were bruised but didn’t feel broken and the shoulder had a huge knot in the muscle as if it has been displaced and reset recently. He had no body hair, not even around his privates but the hair on his head was surprisingly soft and very thick. It took two shampooing’s to get it clean and he was not going to condition it. Once the alien was completely clean getting him out of the shower was also a struggle. He again laid the alien down on the rug and grabbed a towel and started to dry him off patting gently around the wounds lest they reopen. A few had in the shower and he was interested to see that the blood was red all be it much darker than his. Without the water to dilute it, it looked almost black. He didn’t touch it with his bare hands now or in the shower just in case it was hazardous. Once the alien was dry he put on medical gloves and took out gauze, medical tape, and bandages. He didn’t know how the alien would react to the chemicals in the disinfectant and healing creams so he didn’t use them. He dressed most of the wounds before propping the alien up against a cabinet and wrapping his ribs as best he could.
He couldn’t leave the alien naked so he went back into his room and looked for the biggest pair of baggy shorts he had and the biggest t-shirt. Getting them on the alien was a pain in the ass and the alien moaned and groaned but didn't wake up as he was maneuvered into the clothes which were small and tight on him. Jensen hoped he didn’t have a serious head injury that couldn’t be detected without hospital equipment. Once dressed Jensen managed to lift him awkwardly for just long enough to get him to the bed before dropping him unceremoniously down on the covers. More struggling got the alien under the covers and mostly relaxed looking. Without professional help, it was all he could do now but to wait for him to wake up.
Of course, help would not be coming since he doubted anyone else would be reacting so calmly to the presence of a real live alien. Come to think of it he didn’t know how he wasn’t freaking out right now. Maybe it was shock. All he knew was that for the moment they were on their own and he was going to do whatever was necessary to see that the alien was okay. That decided he went to clean up the bathroom and dry off and change his clothes. As he did he kept the door from the bedroom to the bathroom open except to mostly close it when he changed in case the alien woke up. He may have seen the alien naked already but that was necessary he didn’t plan to again and he didn’t plan for the alien to see him naked. When he was done he sat on the floor facing the bed, back against the wall next to the window which let in the sun to shine on his guest. He didn’t know how long he sat there watching but it had to have been over an hour when he had had enough. His butt was numb and his legs were headed in the same direction when he got up. He had to wait a minute for full circulation to be restored before he could move. He took the alien's wrist to check his pules and freaked out when the silvery band on his own wrist, which he had forgotten about, seemed to melt and reach out to the band on the alien’s wrist which had mirrored his own band. Before he could pull back they had merged and he found he was stuck.
His wrist got warm where the silvery band sat but it didn’t hurt. There was a slight tingling feeling and the hairs on his arm rose and he got goosebumps. The combined bands flowed together and around their wrists like liquid metal and he couldn’t tell one from the other now. This went on for a minute before the flowing slowed and the bands separated. He still had one and the alien had his, he couldn’t tell if anything was different between the two from what they had been before they merged. The warmth faded and he found that he was a bit tired, like he had just spent energy doing something other than cleaning up a heavy alien and sitting around. He wanted to sit back down and rest and watch a bit more but he didn’t dare sit next to the alien and if he sat on the floor he might not get up for a while and he had things he needed to do.
He was going to leave but the silver band wasn’t finished with its odd behavior yet. The band on the alien’s wrist thinned and flowed up his arm towards his shoulder. As it did it wound around and over any wounds it came across, and Jensen watched in fascination as they began to heal. Bigger cuts closed and scabbed over, smaller ones became red lines of scar tissue that would disappear within months, and abrasions and burns did the same. By the time it reached his shoulder his arm didn’t look any worse than if he had been out trimming a hedge without long sleeves to stop stray branches and thorns from poking and scraping at him.
Obviously, the band wasn’t metal even though it looked like it when not active and it had come from the alien’s ship. Was it another alien? If it was how did it function without any real kind of body structure? Then it came to him as he yawned and he felt a little dizzy with the answer. A leech. The thing was a bit like a leech. It had taken energy from him somehow and given it to the alien to heal him. Oh god was it taking his life?! He brought his arm up and grabbed the band and tried to pull it off him but it didn’t budge. Was it going to suck all the life out of him and slowly feed it to the alien until he died? The alien didn’t look that injured but he didn’t know if the band would stop once it was healed or if this was how the alien ate? He couldn't sit and think about it or he'd go crazy. Also, the bands couldn't react and work if he wasn't close by. Or at least that was what he hoped. He had to get away and then maybe he would be able to think with a clear head.
“I am so screwed” he groaned out loud as he left the room. He had come this far in saving the alien, could he kill it if it was really a threat to him? He wasn’t sure about it just at the moment. He had never been big on hunting even if he lived in the mountains where pretty much everyone did it. His grandfather had hunted, and so had his father. If the need arose his grandmother had hunted too and they had taught him how to do so as well. He hadn’t particularly liked it but he could do it and if he ever got totally cut off from civilization, he would do it to survive. He would never trophy hunt but he could and would hunt for food if needed. If a wild animal attacked him and he had no other choice but his death or theirs he supposed he could and would kill it, but since that had never come up he really didn’t know. Besides feeling a little tired he didn’t feel anything else different about himself. He didn’t hurt or ache and he went into the second bathroom to look in the mirror and confirm he didn’t look any older because he didn’t feel any older.
He went into the kitchen and began to fix lunch since it was after noon and he was hungry. Taking care of an alien was hungry work. He made two ham sandwiches and had an apple and some chips with them and some water. He ate at the butcher block island over a paper towel his ears focused to hear if the alien woke up. His mind played scenario and scenario of what could happen over the rest of the day and the next. Had anyone seen the ship come down? He wasn’t sure if it had crash landed or if it had been a planned landing that went awry. Either way, he had to move the ship somewhere someone wouldn’t stumble upon it. Or that a government satellite wouldn’t see it. Because he had seen enough movies to know that if the government even thought a spaceship came down they were going to go after it. If it turned out the alien or ship or whatever was trying to eat him he’d turn it in but until then he was going to keep it safe.
After he was done eating and cleaning up, he went to check on the alien before he decided exactly what to do next. The alien lay exactly where he’d been put except the silver band was back around his wrist. Jensen stayed in the doorway, he wouldn’t approach unless the alien woke up or he needed to do something to take care of him. Keeping the bands away from each other was going to be hard but he was determined that they wouldn’t get close enough to merge again. When he was satisfied all was well and that the alien wasn’t going to wake up any time soon he got bundled up again and went outside taking the makeshift stretcher with him.
His plans to clean up the storm debris would have to wait. He had to get the ship out of the pasture. The only question was how to do it. He didn’t think it would attack him again since he already had matching wrist and ankle bands with the alien. But he didn’t want it to get any ideas about Pauly if he got too close or Molly who he needed to help him get the ship out of the pasture. He wondered if it rolled or could he make some kind of sled for it like he had the stretcher. If he needed some kind of sled how was he going to get the ship onto it? One thing at a time he supposed. He went back into the house, closed his bedroom door, and left Pauly inside so he wouldn't get in the way and the ship couldn't do anything to him before going out again.
He went down to the pasture to inspect the ship to figure out just how he was going to move it. He approached where it had been wearily and it flickered into sight. When he was close enough he stretched out a hand to touch it unsure of what would happen. His hand met the hull of the ship and he waited for a reaction but nothing happened. He gave it a little shove but it was solid and didn’t move. He was going to need a sled of some kind to get it moving. He went back up to his workshop to think about what to use. He also needed to figure out where he was going to stash the thing. He might be able to fit it in the workshop but it would be a tight fit and he did need to keep working on his dragon sculpture so he could deliver it as promised. He might be able to get into a stall but again he didn’t know how it would react around Molly.
“First things first” he muttered to himself and wondered if by the end of all this he was going to be crazy. Wasn’t talking to yourself a sign of being crazy? No time to think about that now he had a spaceship to collect and that was crazy enough. He had two streamlines so he would start there. He brought both into the workshop and placing them apart untied the board from the first and placed it in the middle of them. It might be big enough he guessed, now he just had to figure out to make it stay in place. He circled it before getting his nail gun out and nailing the board to the inner edge of the streamliners. He then got a longer rope and looped it around the whole thing. He got up and stood on the board and bounced a bit to test it. It held so he pushed it back out into the yard. He grabbed a few pieces of chopped wood from the woodpile, a shovel from the barn, more rope, and two metal poles from his shop before closing it up. He placed the items on the sled so he could use them to lever the ship up a bit to get it on the sled. Hooking up Molly this time wasn’t as easy as the first time around since this was bigger and he needed longer rope. But he got the job done in the end and he was able to guide her and his new sled down to the pasture.
When the ship flickered into appearance Molly’s ears went down and she stamped a hoof and brayed at it. It rippled in color in response and Jensen was taken a bit aback. Again, he had to wonder if the ship and the bands were one and if they were somehow alive. He eased Molly closer but kept an eye out should the ship reach out to her. It remained itself and he pulled the sled up to its side. He placed a hand on the ship to rest for a moment because he was beginning to get really tired from the work and from what had happened earlier with the wrist bands. He thought about the ways he could get the ship onto the sled so he could get it back to the barn. He grabbed one of the poles, stepped back, and angled it under the ship to see where he would need to place the wood. The ship shimmered and in the blink of an eye started pulling the pole into itself. Jensen let go and stepped back reaching for Molly to pull her away.
Before he could the pole was gone and a single humming note like a tuning fork being hit sounded for a second. Then the ship lifted off the ground an inch or two. Jensen could only watch in fascination until Molly stamped her foot again and tossed her head a bit. The ship was almost level with the edge of the sled. He didn’t want to lose another pole since it was his working material but if it made the ship float he’d do it to get this over with. He took the second pole and poked the end of it on the base of the ship. It only took a second and the ship began to absorb the second pole. Again, it rose into the air this time just over the height of the sled. Jensen moved the wood off the sled and took the shovel in hand. Holding the spade end he used the wood handle to poke the ship. “Come on, let’s get a move on” he muttered as he pushed and hoped his idea would work.
The ship moved very slowly but it moved and he pushed it until it hovered just above the sled. He used the rope, tying one end to a piece of wood to hold that end on the ground, he threw the rest over the top of the ship. He went around to the far side and placed a hand on the ship and stooped to pick up the rope. The ship sank a bit and rested on the sled which groaned under the weight but didn’t break. Jensen made quick work of looping the rope around it twice and tying it off before it could settle more. He led Molly back to the barn as fast as he dared the wood creaking every once in a while, as the ship settled.
Once they got to the barn, he had the hard task of backing it in since he wanted to put it in the very last stall in the back. By the time he had maneuvered the sled into place, it was bowing in the middle and pulling the handles towards each other. He unharnessed Molly first and she was glad to trot away from the ship. She went out of the barn and he followed her but left her to stand in the yard knowing she wouldn't run away. He went into his shop for another metal pole. Back in the barn, he fed the pole to the ship for lack of a better term and it lifted again just enough that when he untied it, he was able to slide it off the sled and into the stall before it lowered itself to the ground. He used a tarp to quickly cover the ship before he left everything else where it was and went back to put Molly into her pasture.
With her safely corralled and the ship hidden, if not very well he realized he was exhausted. He closed the barn and went to let Pauly out of the house. He checked the time and saw he had been out working for almost two hours. He checked on the alien but he hadn’t moved at all. Taking the old fashion windup bell clock from his dresser he went out to the couch. He deserved a nap, but he still had work to do so it couldn’t be a long one. He set the alarm of the clock, placed it on the coffee table, let Pauly back in then lay on the couch and was asleep as soon as he was horizontal.
When the alarm woke him, he felt better and he went to check on his guest again. Still sleeping he hadn’t moved and Jensen wondered if he too needed something to eat now. The ship had taken metal and the bands had done something to him but he wondered if that was because there was nothing metal for them within reach or touching them. Would the alien eat metal too? He hesitated a moment before going over and looking down at the alien’s face, more specifically his mouth. Taking a fortifying breath, he reached out and opened the jaw by pulling on the chin and then pushed the lips back to see inside his mouth. He pulled his hands back immediately when he saw the alien had sharp teeth. The top front and bottom were human-like but the eye teeth were like little fangs and the rest were sharp little points. He couldn’t see into where the molars might be if he even had them and he wasn’t going to try.
It seemed clear that the alien ate food, otherwise, he didn’t need such sharp teeth, but just what he ate was a mystery. He would wait to figure that out until it was absolutely necessary. He hoped the alien would wake up tonight or tomorrow so it could feed itself. Humans could go days without food if they had water. Aliens, especially human-looking ones had to be the same. Right? He would give the alien water so he wouldn’t get dehydrated until he woke up. He knew water had to be safe since he had probably ingested some during the storm even if he hadn’t been conscience. Unless that was part of the reason why he was unconscious but he didn’t think so. If he took the water well Jensen might try some of the broth from his soup. It would hydrate him and give him a little nutrients and hopefully not kill him.
With that settled he left again, leaving the door open this time, and took Pauly back outside. There was still some daylight left and he had work to do. He spent the next few hours until dusk cleaning up the yard and pasture around the cabin. He cut up limbs and moved the ones he could use for his winter fires to the barn to dry. The others went into a corner under a tall pine to be burned later. He then put Molly back in her stall with some extra oats and an apple as a reward for her work during the day. He locked everything up and went back into the house to fix dinner. The alien slept on even as Jensen gave him some water which didn't seem to have any reaction one way or the other on him. Jensen repeated yesterday evening's routine of cooking, eating, and reading by the fire. Before he went to sleep he took some broth into his room and slowly spoon fed the alien. The alien didn’t wake, but was able to swallow the broth with prompting, and didn’t die from drinking it. Jensen watched him for a few minutes after feeding him just to be sure all was well. He felt better about checking the alien’s vitals this time but was distressed by a repeat of the morning’s episode. This time once the bands had separated the alien's bands crept up both of the alien’s arms and they met on the center of his chest. They mingled and started their way back to their respective wrists, or so Jensen thought. On the way back to its resting place the band healed the still wounded arm.
Jensen didn’t feel any extra tried this time when it was over and wondered if it had to do with the ship eating the metal poles. The ship, the bands, and the alien seemed to be connected to each other but just how he wasn’t sure. One obviously benefited from the other. But that mystery could wait, the couch was calling. It would be a bit chilly tonight so he got extra blankets from the hall closet and made up a bed on the couch. He reset the alarm on the clock not sure he would wake with the dawn tomorrow from the day he’d had. Pauly lay down next to the couch and he gave the dog a good scratch around the ears and then fell asleep.
He dreamed of space, dragons, molten metal that flowed into all kinds of shapes from animals to nature and back. He dreamed of mountains and giant neon green trees and oceans that looked purple. He dreamed of flying. But in the morning the dreams quickly faded until by mid-day he wouldn’t really remember them at all.
********
The trip to Malmstrom Air Force Base took longer than expected as there was a massive storm front over the area. Communications hadn’t been the best but he had gotten a more precise landing area from his base team before they landed. They needed to look for the visitor somewhere around the area of Butte. That was about three and a half hours away. They would need supplies and equipment from the base so they would have to head out first thing in the morning since it was the middle of the night. He would take some personnel from the base as drivers but his own men would do most of the searching. When they landed Mark was first off the plane and greeted by the base’s commander, a man named Peters.
“Sir,” the man saluted “we have quarters set up for you and your men. Is there anything else you need tonight?”
“No, but I’ll have a list of supplies I’ll need in the morning. I’ll need a few men as well. I don’t know how long we’ll be in the area yet.”
“Yes sir, understood” Peters waved an arm and three jeeps drove up to meet them, Mark’s men having gotten off the plane by now. “I’ll have your equipment taken to our warehouse for storage. It will be held under lock and key until you need it. My men will take you to your quarters and if you need anything at all call the watch and they will get you what you need.” He saluted again and went to see to the unloading of the equipment so the plane could be put back into use.
Mark got into a jeep and as soon as it was full it moved away from the airstrip. About fifteen minutes later he found himself in a half barracks that was well built and insulated from the noise of the airfield. He had his own small room at the front of the building while his men had beds beyond. It was a basic open floor plan he had been used to as a younger man before rising in the ranks. His men set their gear under beds and immediately started the task of changing and washing up. He left them to it and went into his room to find the same style bed but with a decent mattress, a small table, two chairs, and a small bathroom with a toilet, sink and corner standing shower stall. There was a phone that he could use to order anything from. He set down his own go-bag and performed the usual nighttime routine. All the while he thought about what he would need to do over the next few days. Tomorrow he hoped there would be more information from his base to narrow the search area for the visitor. Maybe even some information about what type of visitor. Earth had been visited by a number of alien entities in its vast history. In early times what that was like was anyone’s guess as honest well-documented encounters were short on reliable information. Only with the beginning of the twentieth century did the government take a serious interest and start collecting and sifting through information to put together its visitor’s task force.
They collected facts, artifacts, and specimens when they could and since the sixties had been able to track any that came close by or even to Earth. It was rare but it did happen. The much hyped and stereotypical “greys” did exist. There were also three other kinds that had been documented with photographic and motion picture evidence. They even had one species successfully taxidermized after medical study and autopsy. Only one of the four species had been close to humanoid, and it was the basis for biblical angels. It was very tall, had thick leathery skin that was white to the point of almost translucent in places, six wings, three on each side, three eyes, fours arms and hands, six fingers on each hand. Its hair was metal like and it had extra large lungs and two sets of vocal cords. It had also been hermaphroditic in sex as far as they could tell. Its blood had been translucent and acidic and its two rows of teeth were all flat like molars.
He had not seen the body himself but he had seen detailed pictures. There were only vague blurry pictures and footage of its spacecraft. The craft had been very large, black without color or lights, and could fly both vertically and horizontally. If that was the kind of visitor that was here now it wouldn’t be too hard to find. They just had to get to it before some local stumbled across it. If that happened he’d have a mess to clean up and while he would do it, it wasn’t his favorite assignment. Media would be taken care of by another branch of his operations should the need arise. What he needed tomorrow was mostly transport, men, and information. The rest he had to trust he had with him already. Until then he would need his rest because he wasn’t going to get much of it until he found the visitor, its craft, or had evidence it had left somehow. He laid down as was asleep in moments his dreams filled with images of winged aliens.
The morning brought with it news from his base unit that the craft had indeed gone down up in the mountain region west of Butte. It had not come back out of the mountains and the satellites had been unable to pinpoint it as it went down and they could not yet find evidence of its crash site because the forest was thick and the craft was small. It was smaller than a 747 and was somewhere within a three-hundred-mile radius of Butte. Because of the storm no one in the area had seen or heard it come down, at least no one who was coming forward. There wasn't anything on any websites either.
He arranged for a convoy of five trucks to take his men, his equipment, and equipment for a base camp to Walkerville just north of Butte. It was smaller so there would be fewer people, more gossip maybe but the isolation was good cover for the story of covert operations training they would tell the locals they were doing. There was a large plateau at the edge of town that was high enough to look over the town and into the mountains beyond where his men would search. They would be able to see if any kind of craft tried to leave. Their communication towers could also reach each other from the various peaks at that elevation. He added a squad of ten men from the base to help run the camp while his men did the searching. They had everything together and were on the road by noon.
They got to Walkerville by early evening and were quick to set up camp and their story about training in the mountains. He had everyone working to set up the communications equipment they would place on the surrounding mountains the next day. They discreetly asked around town about the storm and anything strange but there was nothing. With the base set up and preparations made for the next day Mark drew up a roster and assigned quadrants to be searched. Tomorrow the real work would begin.
Part One
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