Chapter 2

I suggested, “I take it you mean your mother ship or some other mobile base in orbit.”

“That is a fairly accurate description. I will return to orbit and download my accumulated data from my current visit, including my discussion with a Homo Sapiens.” “May I ask how you make your repair?”

“You may ask, but I must be vague about our technology. You seem to have some basic knowledge about nanotechnology, so I shall simply say that nanotechnology is the main part of the process. That is as far as I can say anything specific. We are averse to telling other species information they may not be ready for.” “I understand. With us, some matters must remain secret for security reasons. We thus have similar restrictions among ourselves. When do you expect to be able to take to the sky again?”

“Sometime between now and one hour from now in your time-frame; that is all I am willing to say. Do you wish to wait until I leave? There is no need for your presence for that. Indeed, it might be better for you if you leave soon, so that your presence does not draw attention to me plus your presence will not be associated with my departure. I will though adopt a new image that better blends in with the surrounding landscape until I leave. I will not illuminate myself as I am not trying to make a display in the sky on this occasion.”

“Incidentally, why do you light yourself up in the sky?” “Confusion is a wonderful technique for hiding reality. It is helpful for us, to cause confusion among the local species. They will devise all sorts of explanations, none of which will be what we actually look like. We will be simply a ball of light, or so shape we adopt that the locals will make something of. Do you agree that this is what happens?”

“Oh, most certainly so! I have seen and heard so may explanations about what they call UFOs or UAPs: that is Unidentified Flying Objects and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Both terms do not tell you anything except ‘we don’t know what it is’, but the popular consensus is aliens visiting us. By that, they mean physical beings, but you have just explained the idea is not rational. What is seen are machines, not living entities. When we send probes to other bodies, we send machines and not people; just like you.”

“That is so. As long as these speculations are making wrong assumptions, that suits us. Why would any living being want to travel immense distances and then not make contact with the locals? That is a silly assumption; don’t they see the fallacy of that?”

I explained, “The people who have these beliefs are just that way: willing to ignore basic physics and astronomical distances and instead operate on their peculiar assumptions, usually based on what other people have claimed or assumed. I think that works into your own desire to cause confusion.” “Excellent! I am pleased to hear that from a genuine thinking human.”

As I took on this compliment, I heard a swishing sound, faint but getting closer. The voice clearly heard this too, as it exclaimed, “A small flying object approaches!”

Worriedly, I scanned the sky around us. There was nothing noticeable anywhere near, but then I spotted a small object coming closer; a para-trike angling in towards me. The swishing sound told me that its engine was off; unusual. The noise was probably the air rushing past its wheels.

As it got closer, I saw the pilot was anxiously steering it towards a landing. Probably an engine failure, causing him to need to land it somewhere. Fortunately slightly below me and the trees was a grassy area, and that was probably the intended landing site. As I watched the attempt to land, I noticed there were two white helmets in sight, so a pilot and passenger. This was not a good place to crash land, as we were miles from the nearest road. All that was here was the occasional track made by sheep moving around. At this time of year, they were probably at a low level in the valley, enjoying the best grazing.

I spoke to my alien friend, “I’ll move down to where they will likely land, and see what their problem is. Put your covering image back up.”

The pilot successfully engaged the wind speed and direction, and found a line for a soft landing. These things have such a low stalling speed that they are practically at walking pace when landing without engine power. Sure enough, the machine glided gently to a stop and settled on the grass. I still felt myself giving a sigh of relief, as every landing of a microlight aircraft has the possibility of failure through turning over as they land. This one had nothing other than a light breeze to contend with, and thus landed safely.

I sauntered over to meet the two occupants and tell the men where they now were, and how far they were from the nearest road. They obviously had seen me and steered for me as a contact probably with a mobile phone for calling for rescue, in case their own phones did not have enough range. It was a wise precaution, I agreed inwardly.

After a pause when they allowed their parachute to collapse behind them, they stepped out of the little machine and stood up. They were not very tall, but that suits paragliding. Then they slid off their helmets and shook their hair, allowing the flowing locks to free themselves. The pilot and passenger, despite their pale grey coveralls, were clearly females!

I came closer and called ahead. “Problem with your machine?” I asked. The pilot lady admitted, “Leaking fuel tank. It is under the engine, so we couldn’t smell the fuel. The engine spluttered and conked out, and we had to land. I spotted you just now, and hoped you had a charged mobile to summon help.”

“I do, and you are welcome to use it, but we are a long way from civilisation. My car is parked a couple of miles from here, as I was walking the hills for a few hours, all on my own, exploring the countryside. I knew to have a fully charged phone on me. Don’t you have a phone?” “Yes,” she allowed, “but we didn’t expect to land so far from help, so our phones are low on charge. I don’t know what range they will have in this valley.”

She looked at my face as we got close, and I looked at her face. Damn, she was pretty. I decided to introduce myself. “Time I said ‘Hello’. My name is Robert Jenkins, better known as Bob. You are?” “Phyllis Percival; Commonly known as Phil, just to confuse folk who don’t know me to see. My passenger is my best friend, Jenny Benford. We were at school together.”

I offered, “Welcome to Sutherland and its wide open spaces. Visitors here are usually in caravans, and don’t stop between towns or villages except to spend the night in a lay-by, contrary to the rules of the road. The hills are generally empty except for walkers like me.”

“All alone?” she queried. “Yes. Alone and single again. I was married once but it didn’t work out and we divorced. I moved up here to enjoy the countryside, and appreciate the joy of being alone. What about you girls?”

Phyllis revealed, “Both of us are on our own. I was with a man for a while, but we separated when he cheated on me, the scumbag. Jenny has not had that problem, being happy to be on her own, but we were friends at school, and use our holidays for trips together.” “So you don’t have someone waiting to hear from you if you get into trouble?”

“Now that you mention it, no. Have you got a contact waiting to hear from you?” “I expected to have, but my cousin was called off on a job to do with his work. I didn’t think it would matter, as my car is not that far for a healthy walker to get back to. I never thought someone like you might arrive with a machine needing to be lugged for miles.”

Jenny chipped in, “So even if we call for help, our flying machine will have to stay here until we can get a farm tractor to shift it for us?” “I am afraid so, unless the wheels can be used to move it, which can be problematical on rough ground. Your situation is not dangerous, not an emergency as such, so calling the emergency services is not advisable. You can get a lift from me to wherever you want to get to. There are only two choices, each end of the road.”

I noted that Jenny was just as attractive as Phyllis, and Jenny was eyeing me up speculatively as I looked at her. I hastened to become a better host. “In the circumstances, I think I had best guide you ladies to my car, and we can take it from there. With a leaky tank, it doesn’t make sense trying to take fuel to your machine from my car anyway. Besides that, it has a diesel engine. I presume your machine has a two-stroke petrol engine?” “It is, so the best solution is get to civilisation and have a tractor retrieve the paratrike to the roadside where we can have it collected.”

I chuckled, “Civilisation, as you call it, is a long way from here, as you may have observed looking down from the sky. You might find a farm with a tractor and trailer not far away, but the nearest garage able to do a pick up of your machine from the roadside or more likely the farm is probably at Bettyhill, twenty miles away from here. Where the hell did you start from, anyway?” “Durness. We persuaded a lorry going this way to take us and our machine to Durness and we flew from there to see the vast expanses around here. The fuel tank may have been damaged while on the lorry. We carried the fuel separately to avoid safety issues, and filled the tank just before we took off. I suppose we should have checked for leaks first.”

I was looking into her eyes as we spoke, and I felt something else pass between us. It was most peculiar, like nothing I had felt before, and as I started to think about it, her eyes rolled up and she slowly collapsed in front of me. I was enough ‘with it’ to grab her and hold her up as her eyes closed and she went unconscious and sagged in my arms. I also heard a gasp from Jenny, and when I turned my head she was also falling down. I couldn’t catch her too, so she landed on the grass and rolled over onto her back, eyes closed in oblivion.

What the hell was happening?, I wondered. My alien friend supplied some sort of answer. He said in my head, “Goodbye, friend. Enjoy your new mates.” With that, I ‘felt’ – I don’t know how I did that – the alien craft leave the ground and go shooting off skyward. I had my back to it, so I have no idea how I was aware of this, but when I got around to checking, it was indeed gone. I think the sensation was it leaving not just the ground, but leaving my head, for my mind felt a little different somehow, not so well connected anymore.

I held on to Phyllis and tried to get her to wake. “Phyllis? Are you okay?” She stirred and her eyes opened. “Uh ... eh? Yes. I am okay now, I think...” She was still unsteady, but recovering. She turned her gaze to me. “Thanks, Bob darling. I love the way you are holding me, so strong but so gentle, but why?”

I told her, “You lost consciousness, that’s why. So did Jenny, but I could not catch both of you. Would you see if she is alright?” She turned her head and saw Jenny starting to stir. “Jenny? Are you with us again?” She gazed at me again, wonderingly. “Bob, would you help Jenny up please? I think she too needs your arms round her.”

I wondered at her words, but I let Phyllis go and attended to Jenny, pulling her off the grass by her arms and assisting her on to her feet. She staggered a little and fell against me, forcing me to hold her in my arms like I had done with Phyllis.

“Oh ... thanks, Bob dear. Your arms are so welcoming. I don’t know what came over me, but I am getting over it. Hold me close for a little while until I recover.” I blinked at this second term of endearment but let it pass. She was discomfited by her collapse, I could see, so I continued to hold her steady. She appeared to be comfortable with me holding her.

But why did both of them lose consciousness and collapse at the same time? I felt fine, so it was not something in the air affecting us all. It only affected the two women. Then it occurred to me, what the alien had told me as it departed, “Enjoy your new mates.”

It was just words passing through my head at the time, but was it actually more? Had it engaged with the minds of the two women? That might explain their sudden collapse, but their reactions? That was not normal. Then I also thought of my own reaction to them. The ‘something’ that had passed between me and Phyllis just before the collapses began? Was this some link that the alien had established between me and the women. I recalled how struck I was with both women’s faces once I had met them. Had the alien taken that further and made us romantically interested in each other? How could it do that, or was a simple linkage enough to bring it on?

For that matter, how could it link with my own brain? It had managed to do that in some way, so had it merely extended that to the two ladies, then had somehow gone further and made another link between them and me. That link must have been made on an emotional level, which explained why it had referred to them as ‘your mates’. It had known exactly what it was doing, I concluded. Perhaps it was a form of thank-you for my allowing it to learn from my brain: giving the two women to me to be my mates in life. Did they in turn see me in that way, and have no objection? I had to clear this up.

“Jenny, Phyllis? Tell me this: how do you perceive me, having just met me, a complete stranger?” They swung their heads to look at each other, as if seeing each other anew. They smiled at each other, and both uttered the fateful words, “Love at first sight?” “Really? Both of you?” I questioned them. Phyllis spoke for them, “Yes. We are best friends and now we have both found the same man to love. What’s not to like?”