Admiral P. Johnson was enjoying his 5 am cup of coffee with his dusty steel-toed boots propped upon his solid stained oak desk the day that everything went down. He hadn’t gotten much sleep since taking over this base, but he didn’t seem to mind. He had his dinky wooden picture frames of his bulked German shepherds that his ex-wife was watching while he was away, a noisy coffee maker, and a crew he knew he could count out. Most nights they would crack open a couple of six packs and watch foreign news, making uneducated comments about their economies and whatnot. That was all he felt like a man really needed. It was simple.
Everything is simple, he thought to himself.
He sat up to set down his coffee when Miss Amanda busted through the door.
“ADMIRAL!”
“Goddamnit Amanda, you almost made me spill my coffee, tha’d be the second time this week, what the hell is this all about?”
“Sir. We’re getting a signal.’
“A signal? Now what in the hell do you mean we’ve got a signal? I’ve told you before when them Chinese are calling, we just run ‘em through to Dave. Did you run them through?”
“No, sir!”
“Aight now don’t get smart with me no—”
“SIR. There is a spacecraft 30 minutes away from breaching our atmosphere.”
“Huh? Now that sounds like a job for NASA.”
“NASA doesn’t fucking know anything about this!” Amanda lashed out, “Now get off of your ass and get down to the council right now or so help me God I will pull the alarm.”
He sighed, running his hand through his hair. Stood up. Pushed his chair in, and slowly made his way toward the door. “This better be fuckin good Manda.” The moment he exited the door, it hit him. His men were already in uniform, the ladies were typing viciously at their computers, newbies were running around with suitcases, and papers were flying everywhere. And then the alarm was pulled.
All throughout the building, the red light flashed in sync. The blaring sirens ate away into everyone’s skulls, and the people of the force began to rush down the halls to the council room.
Admiral Johnson picked up his pace, his boots slamming into the concrete floors with visceral force. His crew began to catch up with him.
“Gee Admiral, what the hell do you think is going on?” A nasal voice pecked from behind him.
“Oh don’t you worry Jose, we’ll get’em.”
“Get who, Admiral, Sir?” His voice shook a little.
“Them damn commies! I’ve told ya’ they’re bound to play tricks on us. Spacecraft in the atmosphere bullshit.”
They made it to the council room and took their respective seats, Lieutenant Susa next to Admiral Johnson, both caddy corner to the main podium, where a woman wearing a tight bun and lab coat stood. The people finished filing in, the door shut and locked behind them, and the alarms silenced. The room was full of questioning murmurs and confusion.
She tapped the mic, “Hello.”
It began.
“My name is Louisa Blandchard. I am the head of our Air Surveillance team. Late last night a signal came in.”
“Geesh, the signal again,” Johnson muttered.
“This signal was unique to anything we’ve ever seen before. There is a manned spacecraft headed towards Earth. I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not that. This is a ship outside of our technology, not something we could build to sustain life. It is set to land 40 miles south of us in 1 hour and well, now 16 minutes.”
The crowd began to squirm.
“We’ve already spoken with NASA. We’re in contact with all units in the area. As it would be, we are the closest base. We move in 20. Be prepared. We have no idea what is out there. We will be meeting Doctor Becker from the Extraterrestrial Intelligence sector on the scene. We have been told not to act with force, as our mission is to swiftly get the foreign ship in our custody, as well as the life form. Check the banner to see what group you are assigned to, and stick to your job. Now let’s move.”
The crowd was in an uproar, the men scrambled their asses out the door, gearing up for whatever was coming. Everyone made it out of the room except for Admiral Johnson, Lieutenant Susa, and Doctor Blandchard.
“No rush, huh Admiral?” she asked.
“Miss Blandchard—”
“Doctor Blandchard, Sir.”
“Doctor Blandchard, now are you sure this is all, ya know, legitimate and everything?”
“With all due respect Sir, this is my job, not yours.” She sealed the deal right there and swiftly made her way out of the room.
Admiral Johnson turned to the Lieutenant, “Susa!”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Come with me to the lab, I need to speak with somebody whose head is on straight. Aliens? Really. Be serious with me.”
The men marched into the lab, and their attention was caught immediately by the big computer screen following a red target just outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Can I help you?” a voice asked from behind a small workspace.
“Yes, uh, we were just wondering how big of a deal this really, ya know, the alien shit.”
“It’s real. It’s a big deal.” the voice said while typing into their computer, not glancing up once.
“Admiral, let’s get a move-on then, I mean, the screen is right there,” Susa spoke up.
“Do NOT tell ME what to fucking do! Who the hell do you think you are, boy, huh? I run this place, not you! And if I want to stand here I’m gonna fucking do it do ya’ hear?” Johnson bellowed. “Now I’ve spent my whole damn life on this God-given Earth and I know Aliens ain’t real. Mary would always fucking talk about them back in the day, but it was always just some hocus pocus shit. I don’t want to hear another peep outta you, not even a ‘Yes Sir,’ now you will stand here with me and we will sort this out.”
Suddenly a tap on the glass pulled them both out of the conversation. They looked over, becoming aware of the large glass window they were arguing in front to see Doctor Blandchard standing there, pointing at her watch.
“Fuck this, let’s move.” Those were the last words Johnson spoke again until they were secured in their transport.
—
Wow! What a beautiful blue planet! The Alien thought to himself. It was about time for him to break the atmosphere. He buckled his seatbelt and began aligning the coordinates.
Beep Beep Beep
He pressed all of the buttons to brace the ship, unsure of what the gravity would be like, and prepared for landing.
Immediately upon entering the atmosphere his ship flew left and caught fire. It didn’t scare him, he knew he couldn’t die this way. He began extending his energy field to hold the ship together more compactly, diving deep into the sky now. The ship rattled and tatted, soft beeps and buzzes breaking the silence of his breath.
This outta be a good landing. This atmosphere feels natural to me. He thought to himself, just before a commercial plane came upon him and clipped his landing wheels clean off.
Oh.
The ship spiraled straight down now, with no probable landing location. It was completely dark outside, something he had never experienced before. He closed his eyes and braced for impact. Whatever was out there was going to get him now. He could sense how close the ground was.
The ship smashed into the ground, a much denser pad than he expected, as the ship scuttled into the dirt in a blaze of fire, debris flying up around him. The ship stopped shortly, almost tipping over its own weight.
He survived.
The ship whirred down, and everything was silent except for the faint crackling of grass catching fire. Quickly, he busted himself out of the ship to subdue the flames. He knew they took wildfires seriously here.
Upon exiting the vehicle he was taken aback. The abyss lay before him, a liminal dark field, the eerie outline of black tree branches, the distant sounds of cars rushing by, and an occasional red flash coming from a tower. Where was he?
He hadn’t absorbed much about places like this, this seemed like the kind of landscape you would see 20 miles outside of any given city in the presumed “Midwest,” but he knew couldn’t be that far off from his destination, so he started to walk.
He walked and walked and walked just until the earthly sun began to poke its rays over the highway. As the sun rose, he noticed what he believed to be a fuel station, and decided to head towards it. It was stand-alone, just off of a highway exit.
This will do.
The parking lot was abandoned, but the open sign was on. He opened the door slowly, so as not to startle anyone, and heard the most annoying bell on a rope that he had ever heard in his entire life. His energy field recoiled at the noise.
“Now what the fuck is that! Cheryl. Get the gun.” a voice spoke from behind the plexiglass-guarded countertop.
“Hello, I was wondering how far away Consumerism Corner is from here?” The Alien politely asked.
“What the fuck are you doin here.” the voice questioned back.
“Oh, I’m sorry – I am new here. I’m like E.T. you know? You know him?” The Alien pointed out a ray shaped like a
finger and motioned it towards the man.
“Oh honey we know E.T. and your kind isn’t welcome here, we’re people of God!” A woman spoke sharply, pointing her rifle straight at his chest.
“Oh, I’m sorry to be a bother ma’am, I am just looking for Consumerism Corner,” he said back.
“5 miles northeast of here. You got to the count of three. Now git!” She motioned him out the door with her rifle, and he fell backward into the bells, recoiling again, then scurrying out the door he had just come through.
My goodness. 5 miles northeast. I’ll be there in no time. Surely there are like-minded people like me there. That’s where everybody is.
He turned in alignment with the city, and boom, there it was. A glorious skyline. Tons of infrastructure. Lights, flashes, and cars buzzing down the highway under a big green sign that said “Toll Ahead.” There it was. And off he went.
—
The sun was starting to brighten the sky and the troops showed up exactly when and where they were told. There was a camp with tents and porta-potties, and lanes, and flags. A man wearing a neon vest stood outside waving the vehicles to the parking sector.
The vehicle pulled into its designated spot and the groups started pulling in and filing out behind Admiral Johnson. He saw Becker approaching and met him halfway in the patchy dry grass.
“Good Morning Admiral Johnson. A pleasure to meet you here.”
“Yeah, so where is it?”
“Right. I think you should follow me. Tell your men to start unpacking.”
He turned around and motioned to the unloading troops to start heading towards their stations. The Admiral and Doctor Becker, from Extraterrestrial Intelligence, began walking through, passing first aid, fuel centers, generators, and telescopes. They shuffled past the overcrowded circle of people standing in the field and pushed through to the front. Amidst the tense atmosphere of a military encampment, Doctor Becker and Admiral Johnson stood side by side, their gazes fixed upon the ethereal glow emanating from the UFO’s landing site. Surrounded by a contingent of armed troops and a flurry of scientific activity, they shared a silent exchange.
For Doctor Becker, the allure of unraveling the mysteries of the universe was palpable, his scientific curiosity driving him forward despite the risks.
However, Admiral Johnson did not share the same passion, he just had questions.
“What the hell am I looking at? Is this real?”
They looked down at what appeared to be a ghost of a UFO. A thin blue outline of the ship was pulsing on top of the grass. It was intangible, a hologram, a ghost. The ground beneath it was glowing and pulsing deep tones of blue and sharp whites, like an entangled mess of electricity.
“Admiral, this is the landing site. We’re dealing with the potential of some new form of energy here, it’s not reading on our systems, but it is interfering with some of our lower forms of technology, gas gauges on vehicles, phones ringing with no caller, and the K9s won’t go near it. It could be some form of radiation, the NCR is on its way.”
“Well, where is the alien?” Johnson asked.
“We did catch a signal a few days ago out by Consumer Corner, but we have no leads right now and we don’t know yet. We trust that you and your men will find him, regardless. Congregate at 8 in the pit, we’ll discuss routing there.”
—
And there he was, standing in the middle of the road with his boom box and microphone.
“Aliens, read more here! Aliens! Here Miss, take a flyer!”
“Proof of alien life, read all about it!”
“Aliens!”
His voice echoed off the concrete walls at a striking volume. Today he was going to share the word. Today was his day. He woke up feeling refreshed and ready to find his people. Crowds murmured under their breath as they were picking up their morning cups of coffee and getting early starts on their errands. The streets were busier than usual, but Hugh had no problem with that.
“Aliens! Aliens are real! Read here about it”
More people filed into town.
“Aliens!”
Hugh noticed several groups headed for the grocery.
“Aliens!”
They were listening.
“Aliens!”
The people were finally starting to care!
“Aliens!”
Each syllable flew off of his tongue, he was getting caught up in it! People were grabbing flyers frantically now and began surrounding him.
“Sir, what do you know about The Alien — what can you tell us?” piped up a young girl with red pigtails in a spotted blouse.
“Well I’ve been researching aliens for years and I-”
“Excuse me sir can you explain what’s going on here?”
“Yeah yeah! Who is the alien!”
“Where is he from!?”
The crowd began forming and people began questioning him left and right about The Alien. He was overwhelmed, enamored, astounded. The crowd hushed.
And then it happened.
“Aliens! Finally, someone who can help me.”
The tall angelic figure stepped forth, taking a flyer from the man. Hugh stood in shock. The crowd widened. The Alien stepped forth.
“Can you help me, Sir? I’m here for a visit. I thought your kind was welcoming to beings like me, and you’re standing here, surely you’re a friend.”
Hugh’s eyes widened, his breath was caught, and he was in awe. The crowd was massive now, cameras were flashing everywhere. It was something straight out of a movie, the first handshake.
“We have to go,” Hugh uttered. “We have to go, right now.”
Hugh started pushing through the crowd, mindlessly throwing out his hands and pushing people to the side, he bolted with only his microphone in hand, which was swiftly torn from the speaker as he made it out. His flyers rained upon the crowd as the group dispersed to catch what they could. Children were crying, adults were screaming, Christians were waving their hands to signify the antichrist. Chaos reigned as Hugh sprinted through the streets, his heart pounding in sync with the frantic shouts behind him. His breaths came in ragged gasps, each step fueled by a mixture of fear and adrenaline.
The microphone, now a lifeless piece of metal, swung uselessly at his side. Flyers continued to flutter down like confetti, landing in puddles and sticking to shoes. The cacophony of the crowd’s uproar seemed to chase him, a relentless wave of anger and confusion. His words played back in his mind like a foreign language.
“Aliens.”
It couldn’t be true, could it? After all of this time, all of his hard work, days and days and years even of handing out flyers, and now here he was in all of his glory. This being of light and electricity. And it approached him? Of all people? His flooded mind couldn’t breach words from his mouth so he just kept running, praying to a god inside of him.
He looked to his left and saw nothing besides the blurred crowd in the distance through beads of sweat. To his right, The Alien, keeping a subtle pace behind him as if apprehensive.
They booked it to the left and began approaching the apartment complex.
Shit, he thought, Beth.
They made it all the way to the front door of the apartment without missing a beat and came to a skidded stop.
“Okay,” Hugh heaved now, “We’re here.”
“Is this where you live? How kind of you to welcome me to your home!”
“Okay, Okay, think, think, think, think–YES okay! Okay.”
Hugh pushed open the front door to a crack.
“Hey, Beth, are you still here?” Hugh asked through the peephole.
“Hey, Hugh! You’re never back this early! What’s up?” she asked.
“Well uh, it’s been uh, a rather busy day and uh I was wondering if maybe you could run to the back really fast and print me another set of uhhhh my paper and things?” He asked, breathy and hot.
“Sure thing hun! I’ll be back in a jiff.”
He turned to the Alien.
“Up the stairs, keep going until you get to the floor with a big patch of carpet missing, you know what carpet is right? Yeah, 5th door down—” he fumbled with his keys and dropped them, picked them up, and dropped them again, and shakily he handed them over — “Fifth door on the right! Go go go!”
The door flung open and The Alien complied. He jogged his tall lanky body barely out of sight, knocking Hugh’s hat clean off of his head just before Beth rolled back to the desk with his stack.
“Wow. Okay Hugh, here you go. See ya later!”
Hugh grabbed the stack and started jogging up the stairs after The Alien when Beth cut him off.
“Hey, aren’t you going back out? Aren’t you in a rush or something?
“Uhhhhhh yes, yes I am, I just uhhhh, I really need to go to the bathroom — I’ll be right back.”
“Well, there’s a community stall down here.” she retorted.
“Oh, no, too late now, bye!” He said swiftly and continued his trek upwards.
He stood in front of his door momentarily, attempting to gather his thoughts, then burst inside, slamming the door behind him.
He froze, completely bewildered by what had unfolded. The Alien’s delicate fingers hovered near Hugh’s computer setup as if he were fascinated by the technology. For a moment, the chaos of the outside world was forgotten, replaced by a surreal sense of awe and wonder. The
being’s calm demeanor contrasted sharply with the turmoil Hugh had just escaped, and he found himself inexplicably drawn to the quiet power it exuded. It felt as if time had paused, leaving only Hugh and this otherworldly visitor in a suspended moment of silence and understanding. “This beeping noise,” spoke The Alien, “This is transmitting from my ship. Were you expecting me?”
“I, I mean, I’ve always studied, I mean, YOU, no, not exactly.” He fumbled.
“What is your name? Is this Consumerism Corner?” the Alien asked.
He paused at his humanity, something he thought was limited to our species.
“My name is Hugh.”
“Hello, Hugh. I am here from Planet J3N5N.” The Alien said with a sense of politeness.
“Hello…Welcome to Earth.”
“Oh, do you not pronounce it 3ERTH?”
“No, we do not, I uh suppose we would call your, uh, planet, uh Planet Jensen.” He smiled a little, overwhelmed but excited by the first conversation with an extraterrestrial life form.
The two walked a bit closer to each other, both parties taking in this new experience of communication, both of them aware of their entirely different life perspectives. They continued to stand there, facing each other for a moment, before Hugh gestured eagerly towards his futon.
“Please, please, sit down. There’s uh, there is so much to discuss.”
“I would agree, you know, I thought humans of 3EA-I mean, Earth, was informed of us, but based off of your reactions I am confused. Is it regional? What about E.T.?” He asked sincerely.
Hugh burst into laughter from the stress and miscommunication of it all.
“Humans don’t care about aliens like that. To most of us, you’re a joke, a conspiracy, something our government uses to hide their advanced technology,” he leaned in closer, “But I know about you. I’ve always believed in you. In fact, my life’s work has been dedicated to studying aliens. I actually have so many questions for you — I mean, I never thought I would get to encounter such a spectacle in my lifetime!” He spoke.
“Well,” the alien shrugged, “I don’t know if I am the alien you want to talk to then.”
“What do you mean by that, I mean of course you’ve made it here, unafraid?” Hugh questioned.
“I didn’t come here on usual circumstances, I suppose…” The alien trailed off, then sighed.
“Is this something you want to share with me?” inquired Hugh, “Maybe I should start with your name first?”
“I don’t have a name. The others from my planet communicate identities through energy transfer. We just sort of know where we fit in, and who we are. To be honest, Hugh, I’ve never met with anyone from another planet. I’ve done my fair share of space travel, but not much interacting outside of radio signals and com controls.”
Just then their conversation was interrupted by a screeching siren wail. The Alien’s electric field buzzed up around him, clearly showing a disdain for the noise.
“It’s because of me, isn’t it?”
The Alien faced Hugh now and they shared another moment of tense silence.
“I believe so.”
He hopped from his seat and ran to the window, peeping through the blinds, and what he saw he could not describe. He stared down, and several floors below, bellowing from the hot asphalt crowded a mob. Someone must have caught their trail. Swarms of people were running with bags, looking for shelter, and trying to make their way back home. The siren continued to echo its way back around to the apartment, and the fear set in.
Hugh whipped around sweating, back pressed firmly against the wall.
“They know. They know. They’re outside.” he said trembling.
“How safe would we be if they knew?” asked the Alien.
“I can guarantee you that we wouldn’t be! They’ll tear you apart! They’ll send you away! I don’t know! But you’re the first alien on Earth with no explanation! We gotta get out of here!”
Just then the phone on the wall rang.
“Should I answer it? Oh my God! Should I!”
Hugh was pacing around the room now, frantically pulling at his hair, beads of sweat rolling from his scalp. The Alien watched in silence.
“Fine!”
He paced to the phone, shook out his frustration, and answered.
“Hello, this is Hugh.”
“Uhm hey there Hugh, this is Beth.”
“Beth?….Oh! Beth! Yes, of course.”
“Yeah so anyways, there are some men outside asking for you.”
“Oh no, I don’t know any men, don’t let them come up here, I’m not expecting anybody.”
“Right, well, Hugh, they appear to be with the US military.”
“Oh. Okay. Tell them I’ll be right down.”
He promptly hung up the phone and stared straight at the floor.
“Do you have any superpowers? Can you disappear? Or fly?” Hugh asked The Alien with such sincerity.
“No. But, I do have an energy field. I mean I am an energy field. Sort of. In human terms.”
“Okay, what can that do?” He started tapping his fingers together. “Can you destroy these computers!”
“Yes. Why?”
“My computers! Your signal! My life’s work!” He walked right up to The Alien and peered into him. “My entire life I have been collecting data and artifacts as proof that aliens exist. I don’t need that anymore! I have you! Destroy it! Destroy it all! Oh, oh, oh, and hide! Go somewhere else, I don’t know, there’s uh, the broken elevator shaft! It’s across from the stairwell!”
Hugh got up on his tippy toes once more to peer out through the blinds.
“On with it! Destroy it all!”
He saw the Admiral below checking his watch, waiting to be let in. Within a moment, everything that Hugh had ever worked towards was gone. Every last electronic in the house was absolutely fried by The Alien’s electric waves. He didn’t care anymore. He had all of the proof he needed.
“Okay okay, I’ll come get you from the elevator shaft when they’re gone, go, go, now, now!”
He picked up the phone and rang to the front desk as The Alien moved out the door.
“Hey! Beth! You can let them in! I got myself sorted, sorry, I was just a little spooked, that’s all, all of these sirens going off and everything,” he awkwardly forced a chuckle to come off as normal, “Send them on up.”
“Okie dokie.” She hung up first.
Within what felt like seconds there was a knock at the door. Hugh gasped. He ran over to the door, tucked his hair behind his ears, wiped the sweat off of his brows, and opened the door.
“Hello there, can I help you?” he asked nervously.
“Hi there! My name is Doctor Becker and this is Admiral Johnson.”
Admiral P. Johnson gave a quick wave but looked incredibly serious.
“Oh, okay it is nice to meet you. How can I help you two today?”
“Well, may we come in?”
“Yes absolutely here,” Hugh stepped to the side and welcomed the guests, “Sorry it is a bit messy in here, I live alone.”
“Right. Mr. Hobart, we are here because you’re our last effort at figuring out this anomaly. See, we believe there is an alien or extraterrestrial life form somewhere in this region, and your system is one of the only networks of computers that registered a signal from an unidentified com a few days back. Perhaps you got a message or some coordinates that we could look at? We’re looking for a file called P.J3N5N. It is nothing to be alarmed at Sir, we’re just looking for this confidential file.” Becker said, with vague attempts at calming Hugh’s nerves.
“Well gee,” Hugh sighed, “I woke up a few nights ago to the sound of an incoming file, but my entire system was shot, I mean instantly, I have no way to fix it either.” He was lying through his teeth now. “Honest, I don’t know anything about that signal but boy it must be something special.” He half smiled and shrugged towards the Admiral.
“Look, Sir, are you positive that these computers can’t retrieve the file? I mean have you had anyone come out and look for it?” Johnson asked before Becker piped in.
“No no no, Admiral, we’ve seen this before. Remember earlier, I was talking about the phones with no caller and such. This is just a part of the anomaly. Whoever this is is too advanced for systems like these. Mr. Hobart, do you mind if we get a crew out here to confiscate your setup? I promise we’ll have it back to you, I just want some guys from my team to check it out and make sure there is no way to retrieve the file. We’d also like to run some tests and see what caused the system to shut down.”
“Sure, that is alright with me, I don’t think those computers will be of much use to you anyways, but hey, I’m going out of town this weekend, and they’re not working for me so what the hell!” Hugh faked a smile and just let everything wash over him.
“Excellent. We will send a crew in with a truck in about 45 minutes. Thank you, Sir.”
Becker reached out and gave Hugh a firm handshake before dashing out the door with Admiral Johnson, down the hall, and out to the stairwell.
Moments later he ran down the hall, ready to reunite with his discovery, and peeled open
the broken elevator doors, but he was gone. The elevator shaft was pitch black. Nobody was in there.
“Hey!” Hugh called into the abyss, but nothing came back.
He bolted for the stairs but was met with an evacuation crew dressed in white hazmat suits pushing the lower level of elevator doors shut. The panic set in, they had found The Alien. He overheard the men talking about electromagnetic fields and energy detectors and everything that could possibly identify such a being as The Alien. He did his best to act natural, to just walk by and not make a spectacle out of it, and he made it all the way down the stairs to the front office.
There sat Beth, watching the news on a dinky television set. The headline “Friend or Foe” banded across the bottom of the screen, as a news reporter stood. There at the exact spot that he had once stood, every day to hand out flyers, now littered with posters and propaganda. He couldn’t bear to listen to the news, not at a time like this, with all things considered, so he decided to brace for the worst, and step into the open air.
Upon exiting the front of his apartment complex, he was met with the mob. Swarms of people with microphones ready to ask questions, people shouting over each other, signs warning against the antichrist and alien abductions. He was in no way prepared for this reaction from people and quite frankly he couldn’t believe that this many people even cared who he was. The irony of the weird alien-obsessed guy being the guy The Alien bumps into on the side of the street! What are the odds? Thoughts like these raced through his mind as he forced himself through the crowd. He got to the edge, and just before he was pulled back into the crowd by a man wearing a helmet, he spotted the Armed Forces vehicles driving away with the blue buzzing alien.
—
He awoke several hours later in a lead box. A one-way mirror showed his reflection of pale blues, whites, and sparks. His energy was depleted, but he couldn’t assess why. There was no way for him to communicate, no way for him to dictate the status of his waves, he was just there, existing in the room.
An electronic bell chimed over a small speaker in the top left corner of the room and a voice spoke.
“Hey.”
The voice sounded familiar.
“I know that you cannot see me, but I am here.”
The Alien was smart enough to figure out that the voice was that of someone behind the glass so he peered forward into it.
“I know why you are here, I know your story.” She spoke.
“Who are you?” He asked.
“I am from the Ice Planets. You are safe here for now. I have alerted the human that you are in contact with of your location, he will be here shortly.”
“The Ice Planets? Wait, am I still on 3ARTH — I mean — Earth?” He was getting frantic now, he had never been subjected to such an isolated stressor before, and without access to his energy, he didn’t know what to do. He decided to sit down rather than pace and everything dimmed around him.
—————————————-
“Sir I said I just don’t know about this! I mean be straight with me. I send all of my men out here for some hologram shit, and then you drag me to see some guy’s computers and now you’re telling me you’ve known a damn alien this whole time? What the hell is this shit?”
Admiral Johnson was laying into Doctor Becker now, he clearly had no idea what was going on or what he had gotten himself into. In fact, he was starting to regret taking this position.
He wondered what it would be like to be blind to this situation. Of course, he cared about the safety of the human race, but he felt so challenged by this. He knew his ignorance was showing, which didn’t do his anger management any favors.
“Well, Admiral, there are just some things I am not supposed to talk about. There are special orders on this one. People so high up that if the word got out, they could just smite us off the Earth! Now I told you I know where they are. We are moving the troops one last time, you hear me? I want them surrounding the goddamn place. The extraterrestrial that has this new fella in custody will only be able to hold him off for so long so we gotta be prepared. Tanks, guns, the frontlines, the works. I want every soldier out there, green hats and all. Hell! There might not even be a building by the time we get there.”
Likewise, Doctor Becker too was on the verge of losing his mind. Everything was unfolding at once, right before his eyes. He knew that the odds of containing the being were high, but he had no idea for how long. He started to regret his career path, cursing under his breath that he wasn’t getting paid enough to explain the situation to a simple man like the Admiral.
They called in the team and headed towards The Cube.