Chapter 12

I said, “Well, now I guess I’ve seen everything whatever that was. Sheila, what did we just see in your opinion?”

“I’m not sure, Riley. I think they’re dead now.”

“I agree but what made them seem drunk? I’ve never seen that type of activity. I hope we can find out and cause that to happen to others. It may be a way to fight back successfully.”

Sheila nodded. We continued to watch the two alien bodies. I said, “I’m going to find some rope. I’d like to pull one of them out to examine. I don’t think we can determine anything more from looking at them from here.”

I looked behind us and saw Linda and Angie coming behind us. I pulled Sheila with me and we met them about fifty feet further from the edge. Sheila said, “We were going after rope. Both of the aliens slipped over the edge and ‘popped.’ We want to pull one of them out in the hopes of examining it. If we can find out what caused their problem, maybe we can cause the same problem for lots of the aliens.”

Angie said, “I saw some rope on our way here. I’ll get it and bring it back.”

I nodded. She ran off to get the rope she had seen. The three of us sat on the ground together until Angie returned. She had some rope over her shoulder.

“That looks like good rope.” Sheila said.

The four of us went to the edge and I threw the rope down the slight decline while holding on to an end. It was easily long enough. Angie slid down saying, “Hang on. I’ll tie an end on to a foot.” She tied the end on one of the aliens’ feet. She then scrambled back to us holding on to the rope to keep her balance. “The surface is a little bit slick. Let’s pull the asshole out.”

It took all four of us to pull the alien out with his suit. If the walls of the blast zone had been steeper or less smooth, we would not have been successful. We got it out and onto level ground. It stunk, badly. Breathing through our mouths, we managed to get the alien over on his back. His face plate had cracked but I was pretty sure that had occurred when it fell. What I did see was corrosion on the front of the suit! Could it be as simple as rust with air slowly getting inside? I explained what I saw and what it might mean to my three companions. I looked over the alien some more.

I said, “I want to get its suit off and get a look at what we’re dealing with.” They nodded. The alien was humanoid so I started working on a hand where its wrist might be. There was a joint there. I took a knife and began to “worry” at the joint. I managed to click something and the joint came loose. I gently pulled the glove off exposing a “hand.” It was shaped strangely and was gray with bright green lines. It wasn’t pleasant to look at and was at least some of the source of the smell. Angie had been watching me closely. She heaved but got her body out of the way before spewing the contents of her stomach over the ground away from us. I didn’t blame her. I felt nauseous, too.

It took most of an hour but we got its suit off. Inside the suit, it had been naked. It was male though not big. The face was disgusting. It was all vertical. There were three vertical slits where a nose might be. The mouth was to one side and vertical. The thing had some serious teeth. The eyes were vertical slits that were open and staring vacantly. Other than its smell, the only other thing was its color. The body was the same colors as the hand while the hair was a yellow blue-green that was sickening to see. It wasn’t hair but more like tentacles and accounted for some of the size of the helmet so those tentacles could stick up. I decided that it would be horrible looking if it could walk down a city street. Around the nose and mouth slits was some froth. I used my knife to scrap some off. I smelled it. It smelled of salt! There was little of the stink on my blade. “It smells like salt!” I exclaimed. “Could that be what caused them to act drunk?”

Sheila and Angie both shrugged. Sheila said, “It’s obvious that something did. How does that match with the corrosion on the front?”

I said, “Salt is definitely corrosive. The coast has salt in the air. Maybe these two were there before coming here.” I looked around. “Speaking of here and there, we are exposed and should leave before we get company.”

Sheila and Angie both nodded. We left the area heading back toward Joe and Nancy. I wondered what they found if anything. We reached where we had stayed. Joe and Nancy were approaching. We all sat on the front porch to exchange stories.

Sheila and Angie told our story of the two drunken aliens including a blow by blow description of removing the suit with accompanying smell and the bit of information on salt. She then turned to Joe and Nancy and said, “Okay, now it’s your turn.”

Nancy grinned, “We followed the back trails of the two drunken aliens as best we could. Their trail was irregular as you might figure. We lost the trail a couple of times but finally found their ship. We could see what looked like an airlock that was sitting open. We decided quickly to go inside and investigate.

“We went inside through the doorway into a dead ship. I noticed that it was dirty particularly at the air lock. There was what looked like rust everywhere. Even Joe was surprised because he says the army taught him to keep weapons and transportation clean. The inside door was cracked open and Joe pushed it more open to let us go through into the interior of the ship.”

Joe picked up. “Since the aliens are humanoid, the ship’s interior was, unsurprisingly, set up in a similar manner to our ships. There was a view screen at the front that wasn’t working. The pilot and copilot sit side by side. The controls seemed to be built for beings with hands. Nancy mentioned it and I will mention it again. It was dirty and corroded. To my mind, it wasn’t new dirt but quite old. I’ve seen ‘copters parked in the desert for a month that didn’t have dirt that looked this old. I think their maintenance is slovenly. The controls appeared to me to be clunky. I could see wear marks from hands on frequently used controls. The view screen was smudged!

“There was also no light on anywhere inside. I had to use my flashlight inside though there were a few portholes. I saw no sleeping quarters which suggested that we were in a day-use ship. I don’t think it was used over long periods but one day at a time.”

I said, “That makes me wonder how long they will last. Those habits get soldiers killed and the aliens have never in my opinion been careful of casualties. That means there is a bunch of them or that they will have personnel problems sooner or later.”