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Science Fiction and Fantasy
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| Encounter on North Stone Part II | |
| By TomOBrien | ||
| 03 April 2008 | ||
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Back story: Tom meets and befriends the stranded crew of a downed inter-galatic star ship. Their commanding officer believes that Tom can help them with some damaged electronics. Their vehicle has made a "hard landing" in an unused hayfield and they have retreated to an abandoned barn. Chapter one part II Words = 1375 Just to be cautious, I went in through the ragged opening low, kind of crouched down, and then quick side stepped to my left, just in case it was a setup and some goon was waiting inside the entrance. All it got me was a barked shin on some old, rusting farm equipment unseen in the dark. I became aware that there were others in the barn. Straight ahead of me across the width of the barn I saw two other folks huddled in a small circle of fading sunlight that was leaking in through a high window. The young girl had gone on ahead toward that dim light and I followed. Both of the other folks appeared to be men. One was lying on his back while the other one was sitting on the floor with his back against some old, rotting hay bails. The one on the floor had a growing pool of fluid seeping out from under him. His eyes were closed. The one sitting was holding his right arm tightly across his midsection with his left hand and seemed to be struggling to stay conscious. I again noticed that electric, "ozone" like smell. The best description I can come up with is metallic, a rather pleasant, sweet metallic sensation. A number of years ago, just after I was discharged from the US Navy, my first civilian job was as a plasma sprayer. The plasma spray application involves feeding a metal powder under pressure to a high density, welding tourch flame in a process that turns the metal powder to a liquid allowing the operator to "spray" the liquid metal onto a work piece, e.g. the wear areas of a gas turbine engine component. When the metal powder initally hits the flame there is a destinctive odor that I always thought of as sweet and matalic. I looked back at the girl and said. "What the heck did you do to these guys? Did they get fresh with you kid?" She either didn't understand or was in no mood for humor. "What happened?" I asked her in a gentler, more matter of fact tonne. She gazed at me for a few seconds and, with her hands at he sides, palms turned outward, she said one word. "Haulp?" "Yeah. Help is right." I said. I put the back of my hand to the face of the guy on the floor. Cold. I felt around his neck for a pulse. Nothing. I peeled back one eyelid. Pupil fully dilated. "I think this one is dead." I said, and looked at her for a reaction. Nothing. I started to get just a little bit nevrous at this point. I reflected on rather I had touched anything that would leave fingerprints behind. I do have a finger print record on file with a couple of different agencies. I unconsciously scrubbed my finger tips on my pant leg and directed my attention to the guy sitting on the floor. He looked at the girl and said something that sounded like "Coker-chee?" She merely returned his gaze. In retrospect, now that I think about it, he was probably saying. "This is the best you could do?" Or maybe more like."This is it?" Sorry pal. I'm your best bet. At least for right now. I touched his right arm and he grimaced and grunted. I touched his shoulder and he gasped and pulled away. His arm was hanging down, limp and a bit twisted. He had a pretty nasty bruise above his right eye that was beginning to swell to the point of closing his eye. He was looking past me to the girl and something seemed to pass between them then. I turned to look at her and she had started for a doorway in the far wall opposite from where we came in. In for a penny, in for a dollar, I was thinking. I followed her across the barn and out into the field. We waded through tall, sparse field grass to what looked like a mound or small, low hill. She stopped, turned and looked at me. I looked at her, then at the mound. I walked closer. The realization hit me all at once. "OH-MY-GOD! What the heck is this?! WHAT IS THIS?" I reached out to touch it but quickly snatched my hand back before I made contact. I put my hand out a second time and again yanked it back, almost involuntarily. I wanted to touch it but I was terrified. An uncontrolable shudder ran through my body. "I am not believing this! What the hell am I looking at?" I asked pretty much of myself. I turned to looked at the girl and in a hoarse whisper asked her point blank. "What is this thing?" She held my gaze for a few seconds but said nothing. I started to walk around it. It appeared to be about the size of a small truck, or what we call a cube van. The surface seemed to be made up of numerous obtuse, sharp angles, juttings and outcroppings. I seemed to be looking at about a twelve or fifteen sided structure that was about twenty feet on a side and about ten feet high, but in the rapidly fading light it was difficult to say for sure. With my eyes adjusting to the dimness a little better, I noticed a substantial 'dent' in one area of the exterior about waist high. This cavity was eight or ten inches in diameter about three inches deep at the center. The surface area around and into the concave of the cavity appeared to have been scoarched and melted. There was a pattern of smaller, pock-mark like indentations, an inch or so in diameter, but shallower and scattered in a pattern from low left to high right of the larger damaged area. This was just too much! I sat down right there on the cold ground. My head was spinning. My stomach did a flip flop and for a brief minute I thought I was going to toss my lunch. Am I looking at some sort of vehicle!? I wondered. Can this be real? Am I on Candid Camera or something? Have I been punked? What the heck is going on? I looked around half expecting to see some of my buddies or family members pop out of the bushes laughing at me. "Got ya' good with this one Obie!" But no, that wasn't happening. Just then the girl said something like, "Zhee Ka." And she indicated an area of the exterior of the "vehicle" near the large indentation. I got up from the ground and moved in for a closer look. There was a soft, slowly pulsing amber glow here that seemed to originate from inside of the structure. As I moved in for a closer observation I could see what appeared to be electrical components of some sort which seemed to have been pulled from a rectangular slot-like opening, near the damaged area. "Zhee Ka !" she said again to me. This time with more enthusiasm. And then. "You - peez -haulp?" Her eyes searched mine for a moment. She had taken on the demeanor of a perosn trying desperately to communicate an urgent requirment in a totaly unfamiliar language. I met and held her eyes for a long moment. Again, like some primeval warning, I felt a chill that started at the top of my head and ran down the back of my neck to my shoulders. "Sweetheart." I said while maintaining eye contact. "I'm afraid that you are going to need more help than I can give you. Maybe if you had crash landed in Bill Gates' or George Lucas' neighborhood you'd have a better shot at help, or even Rod Serling's for that matter. I'm sorry but I really don't think there is much that I can do for you." I had a thought just then and crooked my finger in a "follow me" gesture beckoning her back the way we'd come. We went back to the old barn and checked on her two companions whom I'd started to think of as Burt and Fred. Burt was the dead one. He did sort of resemble Burt the Muppet from children's show Sesame Street. The other one, with the shoulder injury, bruised face and swollen eye was short, dark and swarthy-looking reminding a lot of my uncle Fred. I laid the back of my hand on Burt's cheek again just to be sure. He was really cold now. On a hunch I stepped toward her with the intention of putting the back of my my hand on her face. I wanted to see if she was warm blooded. You never know, I might be pronouncing this guy dead based on the fact that he was cold and cold just might be his natural state. I took a step forward while raising my hand and the next thing I knew my knees unhinged and I sat down on the floor hard enough to bang my teeth together. "Whoa! What the hell happened?" She was standing over me with her hands raised in what was an obvious stance of self-defense. I quickly put both of my hands up in a universal gesture of surrender. "Whoa! Hold on there Pixie! Please, don't kill me!." She took a step back, gave me that pleading look again and said, "You - Haulp. Peez?"
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