Time Drifters

My little twist on the Roswell Crash.

 

TIME DRIFTERS”

 

1

The computer’s voice came to life. “Sleep cycle ending. System override engaged. Stand by for vital fluids influx. Brain waves and heart not stabilizing, no heartbeat detected. Stand by to initiate shock. Charging to three hundred joules. “Shocking!” The buzz could be heard throughout the chamber. The body jumped in its cryogenic tube. “No response. Charged, shocking!” The body jumped again. The computer took further readings. “Detecting heart beat. Increasing oxygen to cryogenics pod.” The computer continued relaying in its robotic voice. “Brain waves stabilizing. Good morning Captain Ventilly, how was your rest?”

Daniel tried to sit up, but was still too weak. “W-what? Where am I?”

The computer calculated its response. “You are orbiting Earth.”

He shook his head to clear it before his next question. “Computer, what year is it and what’s the ships status?”

“You are currently in orbit of the 3^rd planet of your solar system, your home planet of Earth Prime. The year is 1947 Sir. I am preparing to start the atmospheric scans.” The computer paused, “I am also jamming several radio frequencies from military radar sites. They are primitive in type and are of no direct threat to us. I am detecting no other types of scanning devices at this time.”

 Daniel slowly sat up and lowered his feet over the side of the now open cryo tube bed. “Tactical status?” He asked.

The bodiless voice of the computer responded, “We are cloaked and refracting all light sources.” I am currently scanning all radio frequencies for target information. Life support has been engaged in the crew quarters and bridge. Do you wish to awaken the crew now Sir?” The computer asked?

“Negative computer. Give me some time alone. I want to check a few things out first.”

“Yes Sir. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“No thank you computer, continue scans for target. That is all for now.”

“Yes Sir, as you wish. Countdown to mission is 73 hours.”

Daniel Ventilly stood before the liquid mirror. “Standard size.” The mirror phased into view showing his beardless face and baldhead. He hated these time runs. The Wormholes could some times make your hair grow faster. Even when they were in stasis pods. All Astronauts going on deep time missions had to have their hair follicles removed before each mission, but they never seemed to get them all. It wasn’t so bad, they could put them back, but the worst part was they removed them from all over your body. Because of the gravity shifts and to save space for research equipment only medium sized crewmembers were allowed. No one was over five feet five inches on the whole crew. Most were shorter.

The ship was designed to their height. It looked like a set of Frisbees layered over each other with one slightly smaller offset. The crew consisted of a doctor, engineer/ lander pilot, a historian who was also the communications officer, a security specialist who doubled as the co-pilot of the mother ship and the captain who also piloted the ship itself. The ship was made up of the main and secondary landing craft/rescue ship. They would separate when needed to cover more ground or to pick up any crew on away missions.

Daniel grabbed a towel off a small shelf, wiped his face and headed for the bridge down the short corridor. Once there he took his command seat on the small bridge. The ship wasn’t that large either. The computer would do most of the navigating for him. He wouldn’t even touch the controls unless the computer failed, but that was highly unlikely. “Computer, scan the regions near the Earths poles for possible cloaked ships.”

“Scanning Sir.”

Moments later. “Sir I am not picking up any cloaked ships. But that does not mean that they are using a cloaking system that we can detect or understand.”

Daniel thought for a moment. “Look for holes in the scan, such as unexplained atmospheric anomalies. Heavy storm activities out of season, anything along that line.”

“Yes Sir. Should I wake the crew now so they may start their assignments?”

“Ok computer, shock em and rock em!”

 The computer paused before its reply, “I beg your pardon sir?”

“Just wake them up computer and tell them they have ten minutes to report to their stations.”

 “As you wish Sir.”

He hated a computer with no since of humor. It was also hard to believe that the whole computer took up a space the size of a Grape fruit! It was very well protected with heavy shielding. The engines only took up the space it would take for one of those old time footlockers. The ship was built for smallness, period. It had a class two bio-magnetic shielding that was powered by its anti gravity drive. They were linked together and worked in harmony. The ship could run under standard power. She had landing engines that were for emergencies only. Other wise the landing craft did all the planet hops.

 

 

2

Jeri McConnell was the first to arrive at her station. She had been Daniels security officer on his last mission to Egypt two years ago. At five feet five inches she didn’t look tough enough to be the security officer, but Daniel knew better. She was cool-headed and had saved the mission when locals had detected them. Their water supplies had been damaged some how between the slipstream of the wormhole and normal space. They were forced to land and were stocking up at an oasis when a group of camel herders came upon them. They must have looked strange in their light refracting suites. With the extreme heat the suits had started to fail sporadically. They were blinking in and out right in front of them. Jeri had remotely controlled the cloaked landing ship overhead and blew up a sandstorm with the landing jets that scared them off. He was lucky to get her assigned to this mission.

            “Good morning Sir. McConnell reporting.” She said as she sat in her flight chair. She started doing her system check. “Checking shields and target tracking systems. Weapons are coming online and in stand-by mode. Powering up landing craft for systems test.”

He watched his read out screen as she typed away. It showed him everything going on at every station on the ship at the press of a button. All he had to do was select and watch the readouts.

She turned to him. “Ship is in stealth mode, we have not been detected. Starting scans of possible future target location.”

            “Morning, Holloway reporting.” Came a voice over the ships intercom.

He spun his chair to face a small view screen over his left shoulder. “Morning Doctor. Scan us and lets see what the wormhole has done to us this time.” Daniel ordered.”

 The bald older mans face smiled. “Yes Sir, scanning. It will take a few minutes for the computer to compare with the preflight scans.”

“Roger that Vincent, let me know later if we’re alive?” He laughed.

“Bowman reporting, we are T minus seventy-two hours and fifty-one minutes from mission.” Came the voice of the short slender woman. Sandra Bowman was the time line annalist; she would have had beautiful long brown hair had she not taken this mission. He thought she would cry back at the medical center in their time line when they removed it, but to his surprise she just sat there and held still with no complaints whatsoever until they were done. The only part she seemed to mind was when they put her feet in the stirrups to remove her pubic hairs. Hell, no one enjoyed that part, most of all the men. What if that damn machine started pulling more than hair off, was the going joke at mission control.

She sat at the station back to his left. Daniel would work closely with her. She was the one who told them where to be and when. She knew everything that would happen, or so they told him. He knew that things changed when you time slipped. The fact that they were there meant things would change, had changed. Next came the call from the small rear compartment of the ship.

“Sir this is Hetman reporting. The ships main engines are in orbit holding and the landing engines are powered up and on standby. Output is normal. There are no fluctuations in the anti-grave dive at this time. We’re good to go.”

            Kevin Hetman was only about 5ft 3 inches. He was probably the shortest mail crewmember. He had volunteered for the time shift missions. What a nut, Daniel thought. The guy seemed to love every minute of every mission. Most likely it was because he went on almost every away mission as the pilot of the landing craft. It was the only way he was allowed to fly. Back on earth he had more hover and glide car violations than anyone in the whole time institute. The funny thing was that as soon as he got into the pilots seat on an away he was the most by the book person Daniel had ever seen, funny how some people were just that way.

Daniel wanted this mission to go over with out a hitch. It was a black mark in history that had never been given its proper looking over. At the time of the incident the government was very secretive and was developing new weapons and aircraft. The cover-ups would last all the way into his time of 2203. Almost all records would be destroyed within fifty years of the incident or hidden away for so long they could not be found. They were here to find out the truth once and for all. They were not to interfere with history unless they could prevent the incident and make contact with the unknown craft.

The mission header read, in 1947 a craft of unknown type and unknown origin may have crash-landed in the United States. The possible crash location was in the desert, an area just slightly outside of a small Town on a farm. It was said to have had a crew, numbers unknown. It was also rumored that a second ship had crashed a ways away from the first craft and that a living being was found.

The Drifter, as their ship was known, was sent here to scan the area and attempt to contact the other ship. If it was not possible to contact the Alien ship they were to record all the events leading up to and after the crashes.

The ship would stay cloaked and watch the crash sights to see what was recovered, and to find out where the remains if any were taken as well as debris from the crash site or sites. The crew would also land and, using stealth suites attempt to enter the base where the first live alien was said to have been taken and affect observation or rescue if possible. Daniel wished he had a bigger security team if it came to that. His crew was trained to defend themselves if necessary, but covert ops of this type just wasn’t up their alley so to speak. His thoughts were interrupted.

Jeri the security specialist was speaking to him. “Sir! I have a possible track near the

North Pole. It seems to be moving south towards North America. It may be a ghost tracking.

But the course it’s on would bring it into the area of the target zone for our mission in about seventy-one hours at its present speed. Its speed is comparable to a spacecraft under low power such as ours.

Sandra Bowman sat forward. “Transfer tracking to my station and record everything we pick up. I want full scans starting now. Plot course for intercept. Lets stay alert people, we don’t want to scare them off.” She turned to Daniel, “Sir, should I start contact protocols now?”

 Daniel thought about it, “Negative Lt. Bowman hold off, lets try to see what they are up to first”. Daniel said. “That’s one of the things we need to know, why they were here, or are rather why they are here as it is now. Lets see if they detect us first. If they do, we’ll try to contact them, if they don’t, we’ll see what they do up until the deadline to prevent the crash.”

She turned back to her station and watched the track on her screen, “Yes sir, I’ll set up multiple messages for the computer to transmit in very known language. Should the first be about their impending crash? Or should I hold off on that one until last Sir?”

Daniel thought about it. “No, I want that one to come up front. That transmission along with a greeting in all known languages will be first. We’ll see if that gets their attention? If it doesn’t we’ll use the Shift Net to try to stop them from going in too close to earth.” Then added, “We’re really going to screw up the history books on this one people. I hope our government knows what we’re doing? They wont in about seventy hours and change if all goes well. Hell, we wont if it all changes after this. Great job we got people, wouldn’t you say?”

He didn’t wait for an answer but spun around. Damn time paradoxes! He thought to himself. “Ok, Jeri, start looking for other possible tracks incase this one turns out to be some Russian spy satellite we’re tracking. No telling how big it’d be if it were. If they even had them in this time? I want options incase we don’t find the unknown craft.

“Yes Sir” Came the chorus of replies.

He knew they were scared, they all had lives they had put on hold and those lives could change if anything went wrong. If all went well they would fake the crash and let history continue with its mystery. But they would know, and so would the people of his time line.

 He turned to the engineers’ station, “Kevin, watch the engines and shields. Don’t let us Phase into sight right in front of some astrometry major with a telescope counting stars.”

“Yes Sir, she’s holding steady. Shields still aligned. And Landing craft is standing by.”

 Daniel stood up and stretched, “Bowman, you have the bridge. We’ll eat and sleep in shifts now. I want that track checked every half hour besides the auto track unless it changes course. If it does that, call me right away. I’m sending a slipstream report to Launch Control informing them that we are on station and may be tracking the contact. We’ll see what they have to say.” He turned to a small camera mounted on the hull of the ship. Computer.”

“Yes Sir?”

“I want a shift change every four hours. Open a coded slip stream channel and transfer it to my cabin for a coded transmission to Launch Control set for the space time we left.”

“Yes Sir, orders understood.” The computer replied.

With that Daniel walked the short distends to his cabin. It was more like a closet with a computer screen hanging on the ceiling above his bunk. He could virtual type or talk and the computer would do the rest. He shut the hatch and lay down on his bunk. Resting his head on the small soft pillow attached to the foam mattress.

“Computer, start recording transmission”

“Recording Sir, you may proceed.”

“This is Captain Daniel Ventilly. We are tracking a possible contact headed for the target zone. Requesting any other data that may have been found after we left. We are seventy-one hours to target mission time. Our ship hasn’t been detected. We will report at regular intervals starting twenty-four hours before incidents time occurrence. Ventilly Out.” He lay there a moment staring at the small screen above his bed.

“Computer, open a micro slipstream and send message”

            “Slipstream opening, beginning transmission. Message away Sir.”

Daniel was tired. He’d slept like the rest of the crew the whole trip, but your mind kept going during “the big sleep” as it was called. Contrary to popular belief you still dreamed, and it wasn’t a blink of an eye thing to travel back in time. It could take months to travel the wormholes. That’s why they removed the hair follicles. If they didn’t they’d spend half their mission shaving. “Computer, lights off, and wake me when my shift starts”

“Yes Captain.” Came the now long familiar metallic reply.

Daniel fell asleep quickly. But his rest was uneasy.

            The computer awakened Daniel four hours later. He stood up and turned to the wall near his hatchway. “Computer, personal cleaning cycle initiate.”

“Initiating!” Came the reply.

He and his suit were sprayed with a mist of chemicals and then air-dried. It was fast, and it kept them all from stinking the ship up on long missions. The ship wasn’t big enough to carry the water they’d need for bathing, but could carry the small amount of disinfectant canisters needed for the same job. The waste was recycled, their fluids also. He hated to think he was drinking filtered urine half the time, but they were told it was cleaned and safe for them in a bind. It still didn’t matter; he tried not to think about it. After a few seconds the cycle ended. Daniel opened the hatch and walked out onto the bridge.

“Ok people where’s the target now?” He asked as he sat down at his command console.

Jeri turned in her chair. “Sir, the track is heading for the target area still. It seems to be keeping its same speed and course. It appears to be running scans of the planet like us Sir.

Daniel thought about it a moment. “All right, lets drift that way a little. Set the main drive to draw on the gravity of the moon to pull us in that direction. I want to see if it changes course to investigate us, or if we are truly invisible to it?”

“Yes Sir.” Teri replied, and then called over to the engineers’ station “Kevin, make the adjustments for gravity field propulsion.”

“I lieutenant, changing system settings now.” Kevin started punching in the necessary adjustments on his console in a flash.

Teri looked down at her scanning screen “Captain the track is still on course, no change as of yet.”

Daniel switched to her screens view and looked the track over, “Ok lieutenant keep an eye on it.” The asked, “What time does Bowman come on duty?”

Teri answered without looking up. “She just hit the rack sir. She has four hours to go.”

Daniel hit the intercom switch. “Ok listen up. As we approach our mission go time we’ll have to sleep less. We’ll be using the stimulator pills to stay awake. I know they might make some of you jumpy, but we’ll stay busy. We are all professionals here with a job to do. They pay us well, so any slight discomfort is worth it.”

Kevin went back to monitoring his read-outs checking and re-checking the fuel cells. They were fine, all within their limit for power out put and power storage. His job was boring to him. The computer did most of the work. It would take an act of God for him to have to stay awake on this mission. “At least he’d get to fly on this one.” He thought with a smile.

 

3

Doctor Vincent Halloway sat at his computer checking and re-checking his readouts. They had all come out of the time sleep pods at least an inch shorter that when they went in. Their skin pigmentation had also changed a little. They were lighter than when they went into the pods also. No one probably noticed with the ships stealth lighting engaged. He’d have to tell the captain and set up scans every hour to keep an eye on everyone. There had been times in the past when Slipstream travel had caused physical changes in other crews. Most of the time the changes went away upon return to the normal time line. His job was to keep them alive until the mission was completed, after that until they were back in their pods. He would lower the stimulator doses to compensate for their smaller size. The only problem was that they might keep shrinking by his readings. He would speak to the captain about it. He decided now was as good a time as any. “Halloway to Captain Ventilly.”

There was a moment’s pause. “ Yes Doctor, what is it?”

“Sir, could I see you in my cabin for a moment?”

Daniel knew he wouldn’t ask if he really didn’t need to see him. “Ok, I’m on my way Doctor.”

He stood up and headed for the Doctors cabin. “Lieutenant you have the bridge.”

He walked down the short passageway to the Doctors compartment. The Doc had the biggest cabin on the ship, a wall slid away to reveal the medical center. Lucky none of them were Closter phobic. The missions could be as long as a year at times. The crew would vie for away mission status at every turn. They only had about sixty-seven hours and change until the real mission started. He hoped the doctor had good news? He reached the Medical centers hatch and knocked before walking in.

“Yes Doc, what do you have for me? Good news or bad?

Vincent looked at him. “That depends if you want to ride any roller coasters in the near future? We are getting smaller, in mass and height.”

            Daniel face showed his shock, “Ok how fast, and can we complete the mission before we are in danger?”

            Halloway looked at his computers screen again, and punched in some figures on his calculator. “I think it’s about an inch every twenty hours now. That would make you, now at five feet five inches and even five feet two inches by mission go.”

            Daniel’s head dropped. “Can it be reversed, or will we all be midgets by the time we get home?”

            “Dan, it happens some times. The human body reacts to all the wormhole travel. It almost always fixes its self as we retrace our route home. We will have to get the hell out of here fast after the mission or we may not be able to reach the controls. Just kidding!” He added with a laugh.

            “That wasn’t funny Doc; I’ll let you tell the crew at dinner tonight.” He turned to leave, then spun back towards the Doctor. “You have five hours to decide what you’ll say. If you think for any reason that we are in any danger at all, we’ll call this one off for the better of the crew. We still get paid, just no contact bonus. Keep me posted.”

With that Daniel headed back to the bridge. He felt the eyes of his crew on him, even

Hetman was forward checking the equipment of the bridge for false readings. More like he was waiting to hear what was going on. He knew they were worried about the doctor’s report. They would be told at dinner, and if they wanted to, they could vote to abort the mission. After all, they were a freelance crew. Most of them had worked with him other missions, but they had the option to withdraw at any time up to six months from the launch date.

            For the next five hours they sat in silence. Everyone was doing his or her job as always. They passed looks at Daniel here and there. He must have been staring out the main viewing port too long in thought. Shortly after the computer sounded its metallic voice.

            “All crew please report to the mess hall. The evening meal has been prepared.”

            With that all station were put on auto and checked. The computer would run the ship until they returned an hour later. Every view screen had a sister screen in the mess hall so the stations could be monitored from there if need be.

            The crew all filed into the mess hall, sat down and started eating. Daniel waited until they had eaten their fill and were making small talk. The questions started almost right way with Kevin.

            “Doc, is every thing alright with us, we in trouble?”

            The doctor looked over at Daniel for a second before replying to him, then back at the engineer. “We are not in any danger at present, but we do have a problem of sorts.” The whole crew was watching him now so he continued, “Now hold your questions until I’m done people. We lost some body mass and height in transit to this time. We are still losing both at the rate of about an inch every eleven hours. Let me stress, we are in no immediate danger.”

            Sandra asked her question first. “So we’re short already, and getting shorter to boot? I think I get enough short jokes back in our time without this crap!”

Daniel cut in. “Hold on Bowman, the Doc says we should be fine once we get back to our own time line, don’t start to panic.” He could see that didn’t seem to help much.

            Sandra sat there for a moment; everyone else seemed to be just staring at his or her now empty plates. “Well, can we complete the mission or are we aborting?”

            That seemed to get the others attention, and they all started to talk at once until Daniel raised a hand. “Hold on people, you’re next McConnell, what’s your reading on this?”

            “Well sir, if we can complete the mission I’d say we go for it. We could all use the bonus for platform shoes now.” She said with a smirk that got halfhearted laughs around the small table.

            Next was Kevin. “ Ok, if the Doc says we will get the mass and height back, I’m good for go as long as I can reach the controls.”

            Daniel turned to the group, “Ok, everyone votes now, we continue, or abort and go home now with no bonus?”

            It didn’t take the crew long. They voted to continue the mission. The Doc told them they were all to report any strange feelings or dizziness. With that they all returned to their stations.

 For the next forty-eight hours everything went as planed. They had to watch how they moved about as they were smaller and tended to miss judged reach, but other than that, all went as well as could be expected.

4

They were thirteen hours and change from mission go. Daniel turned to Mc Connell. “How’s the track doing? Is it still closing at a matched speed to us?”

She looked at her screen. “Yes sir! Target is closing at matched speed. It’s shadowed our every move. Sir I suggest we back off, we’re thirteen hours fifty-three minutes from mission goal. We could switch to a higher orbit to see what it does?”

            Daniel felt that something was wrong. “Negative, I’m taking us into a lower orbit now while we’re over the target zone. Get your team ready; we have ten hours to check the area out before the crash happens. Lets see what’s going on down there. I want to know if the downing was intentional; or just an accident?”

            The away team would be Mc Connell, Bowman while Hetman would pilot the landing craft down to the surface. Daniel would stay in the main ship with the doctor as high cover and keep an eye on the track. He knew it would be hard with the ship in the upper atmosphere, but the computer would do most of work of keeping the track marked and the ship at station keeping. Their ship could close on the target in the blink of an eye, but this was a cat and mouse game they were playing with history and the truth. The people wanted to know; their job was to find the answers.

The three away members headed to the bridge of the smaller ship. It also held their mess hall and small bio hall. They would bring back soil and water samples from the area before and after the crash if need be to compare before and after crash readings. They closed the hatches took their stations and brought all the systems off of stand-by.

            Daniel heard Mc Connell’s voice over the transmitter.

 “Captain, we are all systems go. We have gravity dive on stand by and are ready to disengage from the mother ship. The reactive shielding is refracting all known light sources. We’re ready to launch on your command.”

            Daniel waited a second before answering. “Ok, you are clear for launch set course, and keep a beacon on us, I want to know where you are at all times. There are a few aircraft in the general area, but are most likely non-military in nature. You should slip by anything they have. Remember, if you are picked up on their radar, don’t panic, they can’t see you with the naked eye. Just stay calm and go on with your mission. Get the samples and get out. We’ll decide if you will take a closer look at their air base after you are back on the Lander. “Ventilly out!”

5

            The small disk slid forward out of the docking clamps and with hisses of the small jets moved towards the lower atmosphere. As soon as they were one thousand feet from the Drifter Jeri hit the gravity drive switch. The ship gave a small shudder as it took hold and used the planets gravity to slow their decent. The drive would use differing magnetic poles to move the craft soundlessly through the air. It had taken man a long time to master this means of travel. Now they could use it to go from planet to planet and explore by using the pull of one planet and then pushing off it’s gravity field to go to another or back to Earth. Some called it sling -shooting because it required at least one orbit for a good push off. Now they were using the drive to keep them from falling too fast. The ship reached thirty thousand feet six hours later and they did standard evasion maneuvering for security reasons to make sure they weren’t being tracked. Nothing came their way. They checked both possible crash sites first for activity. After seeing none the crew started getting ready for the landing and their short departure.

Jeri decided to get Bowman and herself ready for their walk. She was in charge of the mission. But once on the ground would follow her lead except during security matters. After all, she was the expert on this time era. She handed out the standard survival packs and their weapons. While they had settings that could level a house in one shot, they were security locked for stun settings to protect only. If a setting was changed it was recorded in a micro chip in the handle the user would have a long report to fill out explaining why he or she had over rid the setting. The weapons would also self-destruct if a non-crewmember tried to fire them. They wouldn’t blow up, but all circuits inside would over heat and melt! The idea was to keep anyone in the wrong time from getting a hold of such an advanced weapon.

After they were dressed they returned to their seats for landing. Kevin had brought them within fifteen hundred feet of the future crash site on the farm. He was starting their decent from about three thousand feet. Their whole trip down had taken seven hours with their low orbit and high altitude air sample taking along with the readings that were always done to check atmospheric changes over the years. As they neared the ground they could see a farmer off in the distant fields to their right. He was probably the guy who would make the report of the crash later the next day. Now only a mere five hours from the time of the crash, as the records showed any way. They were here to set the records straight on the matter.

Back on the Drifter Daniel had another problem. While he was talking to Hetman at the controls of the lander the computer interrupted him.

“Sir target is has changed course and increased speed. It is heading in the direction of the ground teams location.”

Daniel went into immediate action. He hit the switch on the ship to ship. “Kevin, recall the team now! The target track has changed course and speed; it’s heading your way! I want that ship up and away from that area in five minutes or less!”

“Yes sir!” came the reply over the speaker.

Daniel went to work. “Computers set an intercept course and engage main gravity drive! Arm weapons and put them on stand by, safeties off! Doctor, please report to the bridge. We’re going to have company!”

            “On my way!”

“This is Drifter to the away team, how’s it going down there?” Daniel asked over the ship to ship.

            Kevin answered out of breath. “ Sir we had a close call with the farmer down here. He decided to come and hang out near a tree in the area of the ground team. They were almost spotted while using the shifter rods to remove their tracks. They are on board and we are starting lift off procedures. We’re up in one!”

            “I copy get some altitude fast, I don’t want you down there when this happens. Set a emergency course and link up with us as fast as you can.”

            Daniel set forward in his chair. “Computer, time to intercept?”

            “We are ten minutes to weapons range. There is no way of knowing the targets weapon range or capabilities sir.”

            “Understood computer. Set shields to maximum and increase speed.” Daniel wanted to meet it away from the crash site and try to contact its crew. He also wanted to give the lander time to make orbit and link up with the Drifter. He wanted to be able to bring the full power of his ship to bare if need be to rescue, escape or fight if he had to. They still didn’t know the Alien crafts intentions.

            “Yes sir, increasing speed by five percent. Time to target is now seven minutes and thirty-nine seconds.”

            “Computer where is the lander?”

            “Sir it is now at an altitude of twenty thousand feet and climbing. I have sent our new course and speed to the Landers guidance computer, they are locked onto our signal.”

            “Thank you. Ok, Kevin, when you catch up to us I want you to take a low defensive orbit below us of about one thousand meters and hold. You are clear to arm all weapons, but I want them on stand by unless they get Froggy on us. Understood?”

            “Yes Sir, I am to rendezvous and take up a defensive orbit one thousand meters from Drifter with weapons on stand by. Understood.”

            A short time later the Lander was in position. Daniel turned the drifter towards the target they were tracking. He pressed his ship-to-ship switch. “Ventilly to McConnell, what kind of readings are you getting?”

            “Sir, I’m getting some strange ones. They seem to be using a gravity drive of some sort, but not like ours. I’m getting strange feed back from the scan. I can’t make it out.”

“Ok, keep me posted. Bowman start sending those messages now. I want to try to contact them before we are in weapons range. I don’t want a fight, just to warn them off if possible.”

            “Yes sir, sending now.”

            McConnell broke in. “Sir the craft is starting to move erratically. It’s changing course one moment, and then back to it’s heading toward us! It may be in trouble. Yes, wait one Sir. I’m getting readings from their gravity drives out put. I think it’s failing on them Sir!”

             Daniel got his people to work. “Ok people, initiate emergency rescue procedures! Stand by to implement magnetic drift net! We’ll try to snag the Alien craft as it comes into range.” 

            “Hetman to Drifter.”

            “Drifter, go ahead.” Daniel answered.

            “Sir we are standing by.”

            Daniel watched as the Alien ship came closer. He had ordered the Drifter and Lander to match the ever-changing course and speed of the Alien craft as much as possible.

He received a call from McConnell. “Sir, the alien ship is losing power and is starting to drift into the upper atmosphere!”

            Damn it! He thought. Then out loud. “People, lets move in and help them. It’s going to get bumpy so be ready for anything. Lets get under them and deploy the drift. On my mark we’ll do a sharp pull up and go to power and drag them into orbit! McConnell, you reading any weapons yet?”

            “No sir, nothing yet!”

            He re-checked his readout also, “Ok, lets do this!”

            The drifter and lander closed to within twenty feet on either side of the much larger craft. It was easily twice their main ships size when the lander was attached.

            Daniel gave the command. “Deploy net now!”

            Beams of magnetic power shot between the two smaller ships. It was visible only on the scanners screen. The two ships shuddered as the full weight of the now powerless alien craft fell against the net. That’s when the problems started.

            “Captain.” It was Hetman. “We have problems here, the lander is starting to buckle! There’s some thing wrong with the main drive! I don’t know how much longer I can hold this climb!”

            Daniel called out. “Computer, are we nearing orbit yet?

           “Sir we are approaching orbit, thirty seconds and counting.”

            “Ok, Kevin, can you hold out for? He was cut off!

            “Sir, this is McConnell! The Alien ship just got power back up to their gravity drive. It’s operating at opposite poles from ours!” Panic was in her voice more than he had ever heard it before. “Sir! It’s, it’s de-stabilizing our Gravity drive!” 

Daniel turned to the main viewer. “Screen on!” He screamed at the computer!

            The computer started blaring “Warning! Warning! Gravity drive failure in fifteen seconds!”

            Daniel looked at the screen. He could see the Alien craft pulling away He could see a large view port with Alien faces looking back at him. The faces showed no emotion at all. They were gray toned and bald like him and his crew but with smaller mouths. They seemed to be moving around and taking turns looking out the small ports. “Doc strap in we’re going down! Computer, back us away emergency speed now!”

But there was no response for a second.

            ‘Sir, the Lander is dropping from orbit, all computer-controlled systems have shut down, our systems are also failing. The Alien’s gravity drive is shutting down our systems. We are losing com…”

            Then there was nothing. Daniel could feel the Drifter slipping into the upper atmosphere. The ships artificial gravity went next. Daniel started to float and grabbed his chair. “Christ!” He Yelled! “Hetman, please respond! Respond damn you!” He didn’t. Daniel pushed off his chair towards the rear portholes of the bridge. The Drifter had gone nose up and he was watching the Alien craft holding its orbit above him. “Why don’t they help us, we helped them!” He screamed.

            Doctor Vincent Halloway was scared as hell. In over twenty missions they had never had one major mishap. He had heard the computer shut down and then the gravity had gone shortly after. He had floated to the bridge and strapped in as ordered. He was now praying they would make it down in one piece.

Daniel reached the nearest porthole and used the emergency hand crank to open the outer cover. He could see the lander turning and falling. It looked like they were trying to use their landing jets manually to slow their decent. Daniel pushed back to his command and control chair and strapped himself in. “Ok doc, you strapped in?

            “Yeah Dan, we gonna make it?”

            “Daniel smiled. “ Have I ever let you down?”

Then it came to him as they hit the upper atmosphere like a belly buster in a swimming pool. “God no!” he thought! “Two ships! The two ships with hairless aliens! It couldn’t be? Oh God! It couldn’t be them?” He thought in disbelief. But then he knew, “It was his crew that had crashed so long ago! They were the reason for the cover up. Then everything went black as his head smashed into a bulkhead.

6

“Lieutenant. Get those people out of here, we’ll give a press release later.” The General ordered. “I want this whole area cleared and secured”

The Lieutenant ran over to a group of privates. “ Get those people out of here right now! The General wants em gone!”

            The men quickly moved out holding their M1 rifles at arms length pushing the reporters roughly back to their line of cars. One was yelling at them. “Ok, get in your cars and leave now! This is a restricted area under military control! Leave now!!!”

            The Lieutenant returned to the Generals side. The General was on a radio talking low, but the Lieutenant could still hear him and see the look on his face as he spoke.

            No I don’t know what it is, there’s another one down also at another location not so public. There were five of the beings in all. One is alive but wounded very badly. We’re taking it to the airbase. I don’t think it’ll make it. We don’t have any medical people here. We’ll have to use local’s sir. Yes Sir, we’re trying to control the local press. Don't worry sir we have them under control. We are issuing a new press release soon. Yes sir. Tell the president we’re on it. It’ll be like it never happened…

THE END

Author's Note

This is a little Sci Fi story I wrote a very long time ago.

Reviews

[kealan]

I have to say man, I enjoyed what I read, but I think Serling may've got there before you.