Episode 2: Out There!

“Slow down, Kid. You don’t know anything about this hardware. I doubt anybody does.” Malibu Brand repositions his gun belt and wipes his brow of beaded sweat. Desert like they had crash landed in the heat was unbearable. Humidity next to none, however.

“Above your pay grade.” James Ian Pryce calls back without looking, his rapid pace without running conserved some energy at least. “The superpowers of the world all knew about different alien species since like forever, they were just advised against public knowledge out of fear of conflict. Eisenhower made a pact with aliens years ago. Well, ahead! Time is irrelevant now. Anything we do here in this void might not even affect any future. I won’t know until we get inside that crate and look around.”

“How the hell could you know that?” The Sergeant grimly scowled with skepticism. He was not the believer type until seeing this colossal spacecraft. It had to be from out there unless maybe from the far, far future. With carcasses of vehicles scattered about from all eras that was probably more logical than any alien race. But again, he could be wrong. It wasn’t like curiosity wasn’t tagging along with the soldier.

“I hacked the Pentagon when I was eight. Never knew I even did it. Area 51, Dulce Base, Denver Airport, a dozen more locales. All interconnected by alien races allying with us to conduct our future. Those are just in the U.S., plenty more in the Soviet Union. Argentina. Norway. All housing alien tech and live aliens.”

Malcolm squints at the boy’s honesty if all of that was not malarky. Did he really know as much as he said? Under the care of Colonel Goddard, the kid was definitely an acquired haste. Taste even! The boy was a brain drain type that’ was for certain. Was James Ian just playing games? Obviously, if Ruby Goddard, ranking officer from the think tank R.E.G.I.O.N. was his caretaker there must be more to the kid than met the eye.

“Ships as big as a four-block radius. Finding a door will take some time.” The giant of a black man hissed looking around at the chromatic silver-plated ship. With the sun beating down on its hull which by the looks of it wasn’t even dusty, the reflection was blinding. Luckily there was shade under part of its overlapping structure. It was best to start looking there to gain entrance if that was even possible.

James turning to face him, reaches inside his jacket’s interior pocket, pulling out a latex glove. He lifts it toward Malcolm with a devilish smirk.

“Easy as pie.”

Pulling the glove over his fingers he fits it properly on his hand, then takes the time to smooth out the micro thin fibers embedded within the glove. Once snug he lifts his palm toward Malcolm to show him that his fingertips were glowing green. “This ship is of Goranthian design. The glove mimics the DNA and residing identity of alien officers that habitat within these types of ships. Watch and learn Sarge.” He then touches the ship’s surface and awaits a section of the ship to open up a lowering staircase of gravity steps.

“BEEJEEZUS!” Malcolm steps back three feet in awe, “You just happen to carry a glove like that on you?”

“Never leave home without it. I know. I know. Kid you’re a God.” James chuckles, “Just really, really, really smart. Come on it’s safe to enter. Although I’m not certain what might be inside that’s alive. These freighters were science vessels as much as warships. The Goranthians are a peaceful race but do man up if necessary to protect what is theirs. Ever see released video of rockets being zapped out of the sky? We had a guardian angel that day. Rather a Goranthian Angel.” With a coaxed whistle James sends Xander up into the craft ahead of them. As the dog vanishes James looks at the ground and closes his eyes. As if in deep thought.

Malcolm observed with a disbelieving wince but remained calm. If this kid gained access in five minutes, there was definitely more to his story. He just hoped the kid was on their side. If R.E.G.I.O.N. had to track him down and capture him there must be a rogue element involved. But again, that black site was like Area 51 in its hidden agendas. Stories mind you! Certainly not any clearance he was connected to.

“Six dead. No survivors. There’s seating for eight though. Might be Goranthians still around somewhere. They’re a docile race luckily. They age slower than humans do so that’s in their favor. Primarily they only eat plankton-based carbon. That’s why they generally reside off of Catalina Island in the trench. Come on Sarge.”

James takes off up the steps and stops at the top to look back. Lagging behind out of momentary distrust in what lie ahead Malcolm Malibu Brand swallows dryly, gazing up at James in awe. “I’ll be incinerated by a death ray in no time. Sure! Why not!” Finally, Malcolm treads the path and joins the boy in a cool darkness within.

“Hey Kid? How did you know there were six dead bodies up here and all?” He watches as James Ian kneels beside his faithful pup to scratch behind Xander’s ear.

“Telepathic link. I see and hear through his senses. Brain surgery at age twelve. Trust me I have it all going on.” The teen then moves around exploring the ship with low visibility. He locates a panel to the left of the staircase and looks it over under the green light of his covered fingertips.

“Navigation failure. Power core is depleted. I know on the outside this boat looks like it just left the car lot, but this baby has been stuck here a while. Neutron core takes decades to fade when unused. I think I can get it re-energized to keep us warm and safe from outside elements.”

“Can it be flown?” Malcolm stands unconvinced fully.

“Nope. Dead in the water. I’m smart but the navigation links are tied into their cerebral cortex. These guys have been dead way to long. Even if I fixed the ships navigation, I would need a live brain. I read up on the Goranthians but falsifying brain pattern’s is more complex than mechanics. Quantum or socket turning.”

“Anything we can use here at all?”

“Ohhhh, yeah! I can hook us up big time.” He begins by removing a choker like collar around one of the bodies necks.

“These are Linguistic Collar’s. With this we can decipher any language that it hears or determine what we see in written form by coordinating with our own cerebral cortex. It might help if we find anybody else that survived here. French and German. Alien and Atlantean.”

“Atlantean? Say what?”

“Come on Sarge. All the myths are true. The Government’s know more than they let on. You should know that.”

“Yeah! Well, I don’t. Until now. What else do we have?”

“I’ll catalogue things here. Why don’t you go back and get the others. We can use the ship as a safehouse.”

“Not leaving you Kid. Colonel’s orders.” Malcolm stands tall.

“That’s cool. Come here Xander.” James crouches in front of his dog and attaches the alien collar to his existing collar.

“Go get the other survivors Boy.” The German Shepard swivels on his paws and darts down the steps out on to the rocks below and out across the grueling desert floor. He then scurries through the wreckage to join Ruby and the others. The group had just made its way out of the plane with Jack. The sun felt reviving accompanied by a gentle breeze. Hot as hell, that breeze seemed to be there in their time of need. God must have been looking down on their survival.

“There’s the kid’s dog.” Elle acknowledges its approach as Ruby and Cameron lower Jack to the ground, allowing Ruby to kneel and greet the dog.

“Where’s your Master?” The dog pants as the collar spouts what the dog hears and sends it back to James telepathically. In reply the collar spoke in the dialect of James.

“Bring everyone over to the spaceship. Front doors open.” Every set of eyes there bulge out as the dog appears to speak in human tongue. Sophia Ridge in particular leaped behind Cameron for protection.

Shaking her head Ruby Goddard sighed heavily, “Brainiac! Alright, James. We knew we needed a shelter for the night. Better there than us scouting all evening with Jack in tow.”

“Bring the Colonel’s arm with you. We can freeze it here. I think internal power can keep the cells alive long enough for me to re-attach it.”

“You can give him his arm back?” Cameron huffs.

“We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Six Million Dollar Man, for you old timers. I love the classics.”

“Whatever.” Ruby turns to Elle, “Go wrap the arm up for travel.”

The woman ventured back up inside the crippled hull and return’s in under ten minutes. Once the group was in unified ready, they carried what was possible toward the large ship in the distance. With the burden of Jack’s weight, it took them thirty minutes to reach the steps. At the base of the ship, they had to stop and marvel at its grandeur.

“I always knew they existed. Fucking Brass.” Cameron hissed and shook his distrusting head. Behind Cam, Sophia dropped her bags of food, water and knapsack of clothing feigning exhaustion. Her hair was a mess, and it made her crazy. Fucking fashion model!

“Is it safe?” She frets crossing her arms with a fearful glare.

In response Xander moves over and nuzzles her leg with a whine. He then yelps at her causing her to crouch down and pet him, tail wagging. Licking her face then her neckline the dog proceeded lower to her cleavage. She giggled at the canines attempt to cheer her up. As the dog lays down at her feet his eyes look up at her with his head on his front paws. Ruby growls and snatches Sophia up to stand beside her. The Colonel rolls her eyes and sternly looks at her.

“You’re being played. The whiz kid just looked up your skirt.”

“What?” Sophia turned pale. Zero panties beneath her skirt she smiled briefly then realized who it was ogling her inner thighs. “Ewww! Double eww! Go away Snowball!” Xander sat up and howled at her and added a vocalized, “Hubba! Hubba!”

“Knock it off James. This isn’t the time for perversion. We’re coming up now.”

Sophia looks down at the dog when she hears the boy’s voice, “WOOF?”

“Oh my God!” She wheezed under stress, “Why didn’t I die too?”

Stepping up to calm here Eleanor Franklin aka Elle pats her shoulder, “Worry about this later. Sun’s down in roughly two hours. We need to go back for more supplies.”

The journey upward freaked them all out. Especially the scent of decaying corpses. The distasteful mustiness of being sealed up for decades made them all cringe in spirit. Once topside Malcolm took over carrying Jack to free up Ruby. He led Cameron to a room with a comfortable casket like bed. There they removed Jack from his makeshift stretcher and got him cozy enough to relax. Elle returned with James beside her to examine a wall console with a glass enclosed space. Using his glove James activates a stasis unit before removing Jack’s arm and allowing it to float within a gravitational chamber. Closing the hatch around it he activates a cooling unit. Everyone in the room stood mesmerized by his skills.

“There. The main power core is done for, but I rerouted existing residuals to give us at minimal night lights to see by and a cryonic cask there for Jack’s limb. If it were any larger like his whole body, I don’t think we could have kept him.” James set out then to remove Jack’s bandages and replacing it with what looked like an alloy sleeve pinching off the blood flow. It required no real power so worked fine in presenting further loss. “This sheath will prevent gang green and any further blood escaping him. If you’ve noticed the atmosphere in this place, not the ship, but the outside world seems to move slower than it would in our time period. I’m not sure why yet but the gravity here is slightly off. If you stepped outside and picked up a handful of sand and dropped it again, you’d notice how low it lands. At any rate at least we’re not jumping five feet every step we take like we would on Mars. We can work together tomorrow on replacing Jack’s arm. Sedation and rest. This bed here will monitor his vitals just by being within it.” James smiles at Elle. Everyone but Sophia looked impressed. She looked as if she wanted to punch him.

Eleanor offers a fearful glare looking down at her patient, “I’ve never sewn an arm back on. The nerves alone won’t be right.”

“Alien tech and Genius I.Q. Trust me. Steady hands baby!” A smirk at Sophia, James lifted his right hand with index and middle finger piggyback. She immediately read his mind as wanting to finger her. Nope! Gotta go! Moving away from James, Sophia creased her brow. She was traumatized at every turn today and being hit on after her mother just dying and what her future looked like this dumbass was not helping. Before he allows her to leave James turns to her with a fidgeting expression, “I’m sorry. I may be a genius but sometimes I just don’t think. I won’t tell anyone you’re not wearing underwear. And I’m truly sorry about your mom. I can save a limb, but death is impossible to revive. At least, the way you knew them. Yeah, zombies are real too.”

She weeps, “God! You’re so weird. Morbid even.”

He nods and realizes his stupidity, “I’ll be going now.” With an assist! Malcolm and Cameron stepped up beside James, one to each of his shoulders. Lifting him off of his feet both men escorted James out of the room, followed by Ruby.

“Time to talk Smart guy.” Cameron murmurs. As they left the room, they moved to the control center. From there Ruby took the time to examine the alien corpses still buckled into their seats.

“Little Grey’s?” She expresses toward James.

“No. The Grey’s are an entirely different species. These were Goranthians. Similar but taller with greenish blue epidermis. Almost amphibious in appearance. Well, they are Amphibious but can easily live in both environments without suffering much. Very high tech. The gear they have here is off the charts.” James was having an orgasm of fancy.

“Do I even want to learn how you know this much?” Ruby frowns.

“Doesn’t matter here. If we were in our own time or dimension, you could have had me locked away at R.E.G.I.O.N. I hacked into every known source of data that existed on Earth at the time. Yeah, I’m that smart. If any government had info, diagrams, codes, you name it, I know of it. Photographic memory at its highest level. I use 80% of my brain. Something I never let the science community figure out. We all know how that system works. Locked down and forced to punch a clock and give up my freedom. Oh! But here is your chocolate milkshake you requested.”

Ruby puckers, “Probably so. Please tell me you didn’t plan on trapping us here.”

His eyes bulge at the prospect she might insinuate this, “No. Honestly, I never predicted this trip. But once it began, I knew my hunches were correct. It was a Time wave. Scholar’s and writers for centuries knew of it. They just couldn’t prove it. We now get to experience it.”

Malcolm groans, “Experience it? Kid, we’re going to die here.”

The boy shrugged without confidence, “I don’t like to be so negative, but you’re probably correct. Let’s just hope not. I don’t think it’s impossible to survive this and make it home.”