TDM 03 "A Gray Morning"

"You're - human !" he can barely say the last word, as if it's something alien and not spoken of regularly. Right then he dropped his gun and fell backwards in fear, scampering to get away from them.

Want to read this in a different language ? Change the TO field to your own country and click the TRANSLATE button after going HERE THE DREAM MACHINE The Lost Saucer Can't Get Off This Crazy Ride ! © September 2013 Written by David Wicker Please do not reprint without permission [ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER ] CHAPTER 3 - A GRAY MORNING * * * This chapter is Rated: EVERYONE Just then a bright blue button started glowing on the console in all of the confusion and panic. Fi explained to Alice, "That's the emergency stabilizer ! Can you hit it ?" Alice struggles against the weird time effect, "I think so. Hold on." She stood and staggered over to the console and tilted her head left and and right to try and focus, she finally smacked it down hard. A camera-view of the area where the UFO appeared earlier outside is replaced by a psychedelic rainbow hue that shimmers over the outline of where it was, and is then replaced by a 'deafening' white explosion that encompasses all. Suddenly the inside of the ship is shifted hard in the other direction and everyone falls to the other side of the ship and the normal pleasant warbling motor of the flying saucer quickly reaches a high pitch and tendril lights stream in the opposite direction. "What's happening !?" Alice cries in panic. "It's okay, honey." Fi assured her. "The saucer is just trying to calculate a maneuver out of this. Give it a moment." "It's - alive ?" Alice queries fearfully. Fi nodded her head affirmatively, "All things are alive, kiddo. Haven't you ever been to Living Island ? Hold on tight, it should find a solution in just a second !" And true to queue, after several more tense moments, the saucer suddenly righted itself and a few friendly bleeps sounded from the main speakers and the lights returned back to normal. "Let's see where we are." Fi said, and still magnetized to Fum they both struggled to raise up as she checked to look at a wall console beside her. "Great !" she said after a moment of deciphering the display. "We haven't moved at all. We're still over your house, Jerry." Fum, who is facing them now adds, "Well, kids. It was a fun ride, but it's time you got back home." Fi nods and turns to face the center console whipping Fum behind her, "Right now Alice. Go and face the console like before." "Like this ?" and she faces the controls. "You've got it. Okay, now carefully move the control forward and right. Do that and we'll land - and that should also release the magnetic connection between me and Fum. The magnetism will then return safely back to Earth. Ready ?" "Yeah, I think so." Alice replied nervously. "Then do it." Fi commanded. Alice gripped the control and carefully pushed it forward and then to the right. The same familiar chimes for getting a command correct played again and the warbling sound started to lower in pitch. After another moment the warbling sound of the flying saucer went even lower in pitch and finally stopped. After an uncomfortable moment of still seeing Fi stuck to Fum, Jerry spoke, "So when do we land ?" Fi sounded agitated, "We HAVE landed ! I don't understand it ! We're still connected !" and she wiggled her torso making a metallic scratchy sound but Fum stayed attached to her. "Something's wrong. Alice, you see that silver square button ahead of you ? Hit that, would you please ?" She does so and the acrylic bubble in the center lights up to show their house, but the door is closed and it's daytime instead of night when they left. Alice panics, "Oh gosh ! Look, I enjoyed the ride and all, and - I'm sorry - but we gotta go ! It looks like it's the next day and Jerry's parents are gonna kill me if they can't find him." Jerry adds, "Yeah ! They'll kill me too ! It'll be a double-header !" More canned laughter emits from the speaker and even Jerry glances up at the ceiling with a look of disgust. Alice hits the control she saw earlier to open the hatch to the saucer and sees the front door. A bird chirps tentatively in the tree nearby but sounds odd - 2somehow. Jerry starts to go with Alice but stops, "Hey, wait ! We can't leave them like this !" and he points to Fum. Fi motions her head to the opening, "No, you two go on ahead. There's one thing I can do that will get us out of this mess and I should've done it earlier. We'll be alright." Jerry still hesitates, "Are you sure ?" Fum speaks now, "We'll be fine, Jerry. Just watch your step on the way out, wouldn't want you to trip now." "Well ..." Jerry is at a loss for words but reaches around to hug Fum as he bends over to receive it. Finally he shakes his hand, "I'm gonna miss you, Fum." Alice in turn reaches over to hug Fi from the other side who bends over the other way to receive hers raising Fum up off his feet. "Yeah, you too, Fi." "Thanks, we'll miss you kids too, but don't worry, we'll be fine." Fi assures them both. "Will we ever see you again ?" Jerry asks her. * * * "Only time will tell." Fi says. "Now, shoo, go the both of you before you get in trouble." And with that they both run off of the platform and Fi says, "Close hatch." and the hatch closes. Alice and Jerry are outside and look back at the flying saucer. "Hey, how are they - " Jerry begins but is interrupted to hear the familiar warbling sound and the UFO rises up in the air and then takes off into the bright daylight. "That's how." Alice concludes and goes and knocks on the door. "How will we explain we were out here ?" Jerry asks her. "I haven't gotten that far yet." she looks at Jerry's backpack and whacks it with her free hand. "We can say you heard a weird noise and we both went to investigate." "What about telling them about Fi and Fum ?" Jerry inquires. Alice smirks, "Not unless you wanna get grounded, mister. You tell them that and they're going to think you're telling them stories." "Yeah." Jerry looked down at his feet unhappily. After a moment Alice knocks again. There is only silence. Finally she seems impatient, "Why aren't they answering ?" she looks at Jerry, "Do you still have your key ?" "Yeah, I got it right here." Jerry answers, but there is concern in his voice, like he too, is worried no one is answering the door and it clearly is the next day. "Lemme see it a sec." she says. He hands it to her. There is a cute shiny blue plastic sleeve around the key with a dolphin's tail sticking out the back. "What's this ?" she asks curiously. "Oh, I got that at Seaworld as a souvenir, thought it would look great on my key." "It's cute." she says and holding the tail, she puts the key up to the lock. Suddenly there is a violent spark and flash of electricity and both are blown back several feet from the concussion. "What the hooba-jooba ?" Alice asks trying to collect her senses and looks at the door where there is a dark burnt scorch mark on it. Fortunately she's not hurt as she was handling the plastic sleeve of the dolphin around the key. Just then a loud alarm sounds, from what appears to be a speaker mounted on one of the telephone poles ! "Oh no ! Now you did it !" Jerry yells, looking around in panic. "Yeah, but what did I do !?" she says raising her voice trying to speak over the alarm. In mere moments a man approaches them, apparently some kind of futuristic security guard wearing a motorcylce helmet over his head that masks his face. "What're you kids doing down here ?" he addresses the pair and points a strange looking gun at them held tightly in his left hand. "This is my house !" Jerry says indignantly. "Haha." The guard says mirthlessly, "You know as well as I do this is a museum piece reconstructed from 20,000 years ago." Still holding the gun on them he investigates the door, "And it looks like you damaged it ! You'll have to pay for that you know !" Before they can even fathom what he just said he suddenly lunges at Alice and grabs the keyring from her. "Metal !" he says in both a surprised and shocked voice. "That's illegal in Angoria !" He becomes all official again, "You two are under arrest for possession of this stuff !" "Metal is illegal ?" Alice says still trying to understand what is happening around her. "That's what I said, what are you two, idiots or something ?" and he waves the pistol closer to Jerry. Jerry looks a little closer and sees that the pistol is in fact, not metallic, but some kind of acrylic. Just then a red-light starts to shine near the firing chamber, apparently preparing to shoot. Jerry immediately stands up and holds his hands above his head, "Nossir. Look, I'm sorry - we - don't know where we are !" "A likely story." the guard says and thankfully the red light diminishes. Then the guard taps his belt where a bright violet light shines. He has a look of confidence on his face, "We'll figure out who you two are soon enough." Just then the violet light shoots out a cone-shaped beam across Jerry who laughs. Alice looked at him with confusion but with a harsh look from the guard, she too, stands up and raises her hands over her head. "It tickles." Jerry explains to Alice, clutching at his sides and you can see wiggling squirming ribbons of electricity dancing all over his body. The guard, however, is not so amused, "Laugh it up, kid ! We've gotta nice prison cell just for the two of you and we'll see how much smiling you do there." the guard says severely, and then pulls out an acrylic box from his belt to hold it in his right hand, like a box of cigarettes. He looks down at it, more than once, as if he can't believe what he is seeing. "You're - human !" he can barely say the last word, as if it's something alien and not spoken of regularly. Right then he dropped his gun and fell backwards in fear, scampering with his feet to get away. In the fall, his helmet comes off and you can see that his face is GRAY, solid gray, like his face were made of stone ! Alice is more curious at the sudden change because now he looked terribly frightened as if both Jerry and Alice were alien to him instead of the other way around. "Keep away from me !" he cries in panic and fumbling forward on the ground he retrieves his acrylic pistol to point shakily at the pair of them. END OF CHAPTER 03 Return back HOME   You are Earth Visitor #