Derek Brunner leaned back from his work, finally satisfied. His independent manga comic series was gaining in popularity, and he didn't want to hurt the trend with any dip in quality. He needed all the money he could amass for certain future plans. Derek's fans seemed to like his use of actual ancient myths and legends regarding magical beings in his story lines. For that meant the reader could often look them up in third party reference sources for extra insight into the characters and what might (or might not) happen next. He uploaded the files to his web site, then made his way to the largest room at his command. Derek had converted it into a miniature studio. Several cameras were positioned about its perimeter. He set the automated camera sequence, picked up his sword, and began executing the choreography he envisioned for his next comic episode. For he was his own male model for much of the series: the camera shots served as convenient templates for his illustrations. His fiance Macey often served as a model for the females in the manga. Once you had such structural forms in your imagery, it was easy to resize and adjust them to represent even wildly different characters and looks. For Derek, the hard parts were getting the swordplay and martial arts moves right in his imagery. So he'd had to take classes for those. For the next several minutes the studio environment would be defined by the sounds of Derek's wordless exertion, and the sweep of his sword against imaginary foes. With occasional flashes of light marking the cameras' capture of the scene. ++++++++++++ Jake Durham knew he had to calm down: to focus. But it was tough. For there were so many things he wanted to do, and so little time in which to do them. Jake urged himself to concentrate on the one thing which needed doing now, rather than the 1300 things he wanted to do over the next several days. He needed to create a fresh musical score for a new video his multimedia group was putting together. To do that, he needed to clear his head of everything else. At least for a few minutes. But that was just about the most difficult thing in the world for him. “ Macey!” Jake yelled for his sister. Not moving from his present cross-legged sitting position on his bed. Carrying his long and lean frame through life the last few years (after his mid-teens growth spurt) regularly reminded him that the world was designed mainly for the convenience of average-sized people, and not his own kind. Or for the 'little folks', as Jake sometimes thought now of all those smaller than he (which included almost everyone he knew). Although he'd never mentioned it to anyone, he often secretly felt a little relieved whenever he encountered someone else similar to himself in size. “ Yeah?” Macey's voice wafted back; from the sound of it, she was several rooms away. “ Have you finished with that visor yet?” “ Just a minute!” Moments later Macey entered his room, carrying what appeared to be oversized, wraparound sunglasses. “ Here. I did what you wanted, about the noise cancellation and radio wave tuning options. The noise cancellation and lightshow can be switched off, but not the radio reception that drives the lightshow. I also haven't had time to calibrate it,” Macey told him, as she handed him the visor. “So you probably should only use it for a few minutes at a time. It starts feeling weird after that--” “ That's O.K.-- I'll manage,” Jake replied. “Thanks. Now get out-- please.” “ Whatever,” Macey rolled her eyes and turned and left the room, closing the door behind her. Jake looked down at the visor. He'd wanted something to silence the sounds of his environment while at the same time soothing his visual input, to help him stay focused. Closing his eyes made things worse rather than better. But keeping them open caused everything in his field of view to often make his mind wander, too. Macey had recently begun playing with the new BeThere hologram appliances on the market, and seemed to have a talent at getting them to do things others couldn't. So far Macey had only used her new hologramic gadgets for playing with her cats, or putting on light shows for little kids, or playing a UFO prank on their dad out of doors. But Jake figured her new toys might come in handy for a video sometime, too. Jake made sure the various micro-switches were properly configured, then put on his new techno-shades. Immediately his surroundings became deathly quiet, and an intriguing light show filled his vision... ++++++++++++ Macey Durham returned to her room, and the costume she was designing for a Halloween party some weeks away. Her cat Weasel as usual was way too interested in the process, so Macey finally had to put her outside and close the door. Macey enjoyed designing and making costumes. She often helped Derek with such things, when he felt he needed some custom apparel photos to improve the quality of his manga. But this was going to be her best costume ever. She was sure it'd be a hit at the party. And that Derek would like it enough to possibly add a whole new character to his manga to accommodate it. Macey was sure though that her family would shake their collective heads at her choice of theme: a humanoid cat. They all thought she liked cats just a little too much. But ever since Avatar's release, Macey had felt both inspired and challenged at the same time to outdo the famous Hollywood director, in terms of his otherworldly feline characters. And now-- at last-- she had the design that would do it. Like Jake, Macey too had wide-ranging interests, and often found it difficult to stay at the same thing for very long. So she tried to always keep something like a virtual Lazy Susan of different projects going all at the same time. That way when she momentarily tired of one, she could just move to the next in her imaginary carousel. Putting together the isolation visor for Jake had been interesting. But her biggest tech feat so far had been the UFO prank on her dad. She'd had to set up hidden gear all around a certain spot outside, then put together a wrist device to activate and control it. By itself, the large bracelet-like gadget only appeared to turn into a powerful strobe light when switched on. But in the properly prepared environment, she could amaze everyone with its capabilities. It turned out to also be useful for punishing her cats when necessary (without hurting them). For they didn't like the flashing light at all. Jake didn't either. So it worked somewhat similarly on her brother. Macey's true aim with the hologramic tech though was artwork. She intended to create a few dozen pieces with it, and put on a show at an upcoming tech convention. Maybe sell some of the works. Maybe sell some books detailing how she built and programmed them. She already had three how to guides completed, and four others in outline form. The holo gear, she'd found for surprisingly good prices online. Programmable switches for it all, too. Luckily it could all be configured via scripts similar to what she'd used to edit net forum threads, growing up. ++++++++++++ Jake quietly watched the lightshow in Macey's visor, and concentrated on his breathing. He'd only recently learned about using certain controlled breathing techniques for purposes of meditation. The eerie silence created around him by the visor's noise cancellation feature helped a lot. He felt like he was the only person on Earth. Then something bizarre began to take place. He heard voices. Strange voices. Startled, Jake removed the visor to see who'd entered his room. But there was no one there. And not a peep of the previous voices he'd distinctly heard. Jake wondered if Macey was playing a prank on him, like she had their dad. Only acoustically this time, rather than with light and shadow. Or maybe, he realized, the radio wave tuner in the visor was picking up some stray signals from the atmosphere, as sometimes happened with speaker gear. Well, he really needed to create that new music, so he decided he'd either ignore the voices, or try tuning them out with the adjustments available in the visor. Jake soon noticed he could only hear the voices once he'd achieved a certain level of relaxation-- or focused attention, maybe. And he couldn't quite make out what they were saying. At least at first. But the more he heard, the more coherent they seemed to become. Eventually, Jake realized it seemed like he wasn't hearing the voices with his ears, but literally inside his head: inside his very mind. That freaked him out a little, and he interrupted his session again. It took him a few minutes to think up a possible explanation: that he was hearing the voices with his ears after all-- only backwards from the usual method. That somehow the visor (or its noise cancellation feature, maybe?) was causing the sounds to resonate inside his skull, so that he was hearing it from the inside out, rather than the more typical outside in. At least that's what Jake told himself. As he donned the visor once again. The weird gaggle of voices made for by far the strangest radio broadcast Jake had ever heard-- or ever heard of. There were at least two or three different voices. And they all sounded a little off, somehow. Almost like they came from voice boxes close to-- but not quite-- human. The voices must be part of some radio show, Jake thought. And the unusual sound of the voices simply a contrived audio effect, meant to entertain an audience. But there were never any commercial breaks. And the more Jake began to comprehend what the voices were saying, the weirder it all seemed. After a while Jake noticed something else about the voices. The totality of what he was hearing only partially resembled a conversation. Some of it was definitely one voice speaking to another, and that other responding. But other bits seemed more like unspoken thoughts instead. Like he was eavesdropping not only on someone else's conversation, but their very mental processes too. Once he could fully grasp the meaning of what he was listening to, Jake got the impression the voices represented three people on a vessel of some sort. Three main people, that is. There seemed to be several others as well-- but for some reason they had no voices of their own. And were less important; like servants maybe. Suddenly all three voices exhibited varying degrees of alarm and anger and fear. Fear of discovery by someone. Fear that their superiors would punish them for it. The vocal flare up became too intense, and Jake yanked off the visor, instantaneously returning to the normalcy of his quiet room. Among the last things heard from the voices had been something most unexpected. For their concern about being discovered seemed to point to discovery by humans. How whacked was that? Jake shook his head. Then was stunned to notice the time on a nearby clock. It said it was after midnight! But he'd only sat down just minutes ago, he was sure! A trip into the kitchen confirmed it though. Everyone else in the house was asleep. He'd actually been listening to the mysterious voices for almost six hours! Jake shook his head again. No way! He realized he must actually have dozed off and dreamt the whole thing. But he'd never slept for hours sitting upright before; that was definitely something new. Oh well, he thought: it'd been an interesting dream, anyway. Hopefully he could stay awake the next time he used the visor, and actually make the music score he needed. Jake cooked and ate a pizza, then went to bed. ++++++++++++ The next day Jake was surprised to see news on the net about a strange sighting over northern Europe, hours before. It seemed a decidedly odd craft had become visible in the natural northern lights, and many were calling it a UFO. The photos seemed undeniable. Soon after though, those reports were followed by others saying it was simply a manmade satellite in the photos. Jake though wasn't so certain. For it seemed the timing of the sightings had eerily coincided with the alarm expressed by the voices in his visor. Alarm about “humans” spotting them. Yikes! And so Jake's interest in the voices was piqued. He knew it might all truly be a coincidence-- and he still thought he might have dreamed the voices-- but he figured the new developments warranted another check, all the same. To see if he truly did hear them in the first place. ++++++++++++ In the days to come, Jake discovered the voices did exist, after all. To the consternation of his video production buddies, he dropped most everything else he was doing, in order to concentrate on the voices. And no: Jake didn't inform friends or family as to what had suddenly seized his attention this way. For one thing, he didn't have enough solid evidence regarding it to feel confident discussing the matter. But he was definitely documenting the phenomena now: making notes about times and dates and locations discussed by the voices, as well as anything else which seemed significant to the puzzle. It was around that time that something new came about. A new voice Jake had never heard before begin speaking, and all the other voices uncharacteristically went mute. Normally, the phenomena often resembled a cacophony of competing monologues or points of argument: so much so as to frequently reach incoherence. But when this new voice spoke, suddenly all else became still. The new voice was that of authority, Jake realized. A superior to all the original voices. The authority entity briefly interrogated the others; gave them a few new orders, and then was gone once more. The subordinate voices haltingly began to resume their normal discord again. The surprise intrusion by the authority voice made Jake wonder if he could speak to the other voices too. So he tried. Tried to project a thought at them. Then when that didn't work, tried the same thing verbally. But nothing came of it. Jake removed the visor and went in search of Macey. “ Macey, can you make this thing transmit on the same bands it's receiving?” “ Why?” Macey asked absentmindedly, as she stroked Weasel's fur. Macey possessed her own meditative practices, which mainly consisted of playing with Weasel while listening to music. Jake had just interrupted the music part. “ I just want to try something. Can you do it?” “ Well, it won't be pretty.” “ What do you mean?” “ The visor's self-contained at the moment, but to broadcast I'll have to plug in another component with its own battery, and it'll probably have to hang off your belt or something-- with the wire running up to your visor.” Jake considered that for a moment. “But you're sure it'll transmit on the same frequencies it's currently receiving signals on?” Macey shrugged her shoulders. “It should. Try it and see.” Macey got up from her sitting position on her bed, dropping Weasel to perform her usual fluid mid-air twist maneuver of landing perfectly and disappearing into the hallway, all in under half a second. Macey stepped over to a set of shelves lining one wall, pulled out a bread box-sized plastic bin, and plucked from it a plastic item about the size of a pack of cigarettes, with a tangled white wire attached to it. She looked up at her much taller brother as she handed it to him. “ Do not lose this,” she warned him. “It's part of my pranking remote control.” Jake smiled. “The one you pulled on dad?” Macey smiled back. “Yeah.” Then her smile vanished again. “So don't lose it-- or break it!” Jake laughed. “I won't!” And with that he turned and left her room. “You better not!” he heard Macey yell after him. “Or I'll put warm tuna in your ear when you're asleep and trap Weasel in your room!” Possibly getting the capability to interact with the voices made Jake more cautious. Because he might only have one chance to speak to or with them, before they pulled the plug on their end somehow. And being that he was now virtually obsessed with discovering their true identity, he couldn't afford to blow that one shot. So Jake continued to monitor the voices without using the transmitter, for another whole week. ++++++++++++ Jake gradually became ever more certain he was actually-- somehow-- eavesdropping on aliens. Macey's visor accidentally picked up and decoded some sort of communications band the aliens themselves used to both monitor and command roving ships like that carrying the three voices. Jake never heard any voices other than the three, and occasionally the superior. Apparently the ship of the three was the only one currently in range of Earth-- or else each ship had its own unique band, and so he'd have to retune the visor to find another. But no way Jake was going to change the visor band: he was sure that would only lead to him losing the original signal and being unable to find another. The visor of course wasn't translating the language of the aliens into English. But whatever info the alien radio signal carried, part of it consisted of the very thoughts of each of the three crewmen onboard. And when suitably relaxed, Jake could readily understand those parts-- somehow. Whenever an alien actually spoke, both the thought and the spoken word were carried in the signal-- and so Jake was fast learning their spoken language in that manner. In the first week Jake had routinely lost comprehension of the voices whenever he moved out of a relaxed state of mind. But since then he'd been working to notice how his mind felt in that state, so that he could try switching it on and off more conveniently. And he was now finding it easier and easier to do every day. For instance, he could now walk around the house and fix something to eat, or even do certain chores, without losing his understanding of the voices from the visor. ++++++++++++ Jake had by now known about the voices for something less than a month Jake reviewed what he'd learned. It seemed the voices' superior was always or usually eavesdropping on them just like Jake was. And so would likely hear Jake too, if and when he spoke to the crew. However, there always seemed to be at least several hours lag time between the subordinates saying or thinking something, and the superior responding to it later-- except when the superior called them first: at which point there seemed to follow realtime interaction. Jake figured the lag time might have something to do with the distances between the crew and their superior, or maybe the superior was monitoring lots of other crews too, or perhaps the superior himself had to refer to someone above him for many things, before getting back to the crew. Heck: it could even have been all three. But whatever the reason for the usual communications delay anytime but for those contacts initiated by the superior, it meant Jake might have that much time to try something crazy on the crew, such as... What if he could trick the crew into landing their spaceship somewhere nearby-- and actually disembarking from same? Lead them into a trap? Capture them, and their ship? Wouldn't that be something for the history books? And Jake was sure his dad would love it, too. But they'd likely have hand weapons. And maybe be invulnerable to anything the human race might throw at them. So trapping them had to be a wholly con game-based affair. It seemed to be a sure thing that if a firefight broke out, the aliens would definitely win. There was also the problem of the constant surveillance their superior kept on them. It seemed directly linked to their brains. So that link would have to be cut too-- or else risk reinforcements showing up-- or an automated self-destruct being armed in their spacecraft. Yes, the several hours delay in the superior's normal response would be useful, but a self-destruct on the ship might not possess such a delayed reaction. Plus, if the communications link could be cut at some point, even when the other aliens did mount a response, it might be too late for them to discover where the crew and their ship had disappeared to. Jake had seen his share of science fiction flicks. He thought he had a good idea of what to expect and plan for. First things first: Jake needed to get the aliens to come to him. Or to his preferred location. For he certainly couldn't go to them! Or even to any other spot very far away on Earth. He also needed them all to disembark from their craft, to make them more vulnerable. There needed to be a good and secure place to lock them up nearby, if they could be successfully captured. The entrapment area needed to be secluded and isolated from likely intrusion or observation by other human beings. The spot needed to have a good-sized parking lot or field nearby too, for the ship to land-- and be well hidden from most casual observation. Once Jake had listed all these essentials, he instantly knew the perfect place: a small movie theater his ex-girlfriend's uncle used to own, before he sold it. Jake was intimately familiar with the place, and knew more than one way to get in without a key. At least if the place hadn't been changed overly much. The new owner had begun some renovations like blocking cell phone signals in the auditorium, but then been forced by a downturn in the market to shutter the place and wait for better times. Jake was pretty sure the cell block had been completed though. And that seemed likely to block the aliens' thought broadcasts as well. The theater had a secluded parking lot behind it, and numerous stout and lockable storage rooms inside. If he could get the aliens into one end of the auditorium, that would also leave plenty of buffer space for him at the other end, when they met. Jake thought he might be able to deal with any hand weapons the aliens carried with a command projection. But just in case he couldn't, he'd take his dad's shotgun-- and his automatic pistol too. Jake knew well how to use both. The pistol would be easy to conceal. But not the shotgun. For that, Jake would need to borrow a friend's long black leather coat, and let the shotgun dangle under one arm from a makeshift attachment. Jake couldn't figure out any practical way to alert Macey and Derek to the possible need for weapons, without making them possibly spill the beans about the trap to others, or at least certainly not show up to help him spring it. So he didn't. Hopefully the pistol and shotgun would be enough. And if not, they would run for it. And once outside the cell signal shield, call 911. Of course, Jake knew lots of people-- probably including Macey and Derek too-- would say the smart thing to do would be to notify the government, and let them handle it. But Jake was sure the government would ignore him. And if they didn't ignore him, that might be even worse. At best he'd be cut out of the loop, the government would catch the aliens and their ship with his info, and nobody (including himself) would ever know what happened after that. It'd all be classified top secret, and Jake wouldn't even be able to take credit for alerting the government in the first place. No: Jake figured he'd try to do it himself, first. Then maybe later alert the government, if things went wrong. And if things went right, maybe play with some alien gadgets for a while before telling anybody...yeah, that sounded like a plan worth pursuing! And that way he might prove to the world what he'd done-- before the government could hush things up-- and maybe get a book and movie deal out of it too, even if the government seized the UFO itself after that. Yeah! ++++++++++++ Unfortunately, try as he might, Jake could only come up with most of a plan: not a complete one. He was going to need help. Not only to spring the trap, but to create it, too. But he was going to need help that could keep a secret. At least for a while. Macey had not long past proven her own ability for that in the prank pulled on their dad. Nobody in the family had had any inkling what she was up to until afterwards. Not even Derek. And Macey had apparently spent weeks setting it up. Plus, Jake had to admit that even though she could be a royal pain at times, she also possessed some surprising skills. Like putting together the visor that'd helped him discover the aliens in the first place. And come to think of it, the trap Jake needed to spring on the aliens needed to be a lot like a prank. A Macey prank. Then there was Derek. Jake didn't have a lot of pull with Derek personally, but Macey did. So if Jake could get Macey involved, it'd probably be easy to get Derek in too. And as Derek just didn't talk much period, it didn't seem much info would be leaking through him. Derek seemed plenty smart, too. But Jake still didn't know him well enough to know what particular things Derek could bring to the table for the trap. But maybe Macey would. ++++++++++++ It turned out to be more difficult to recruit Macey than Jake had anticipated. For one thing, he couldn't figure out a way to approach the subject without her possibly going ballistic. For it did sound a little crazy, on the face of it: he'd accidentally stumbled upon aliens via their own surveillance system, using a meditation aid Macey had made for him from stuff bought online. He figured them to be aliens because of a recent UFO sighting in the news that coincided with him hearing them being concerned about 'humans' seeing them (plus other strange stuff he'd heard from them since). So in the end Jake figured he'd have to not only trick the aliens, but trick Macey and Derek into helping him, too. Therefore, Jake told Macey he was writing a story he and his friends might make into a short movie about teenagers capturing aliens without the help of the authorities. Jake actually gave Macey much real information about the situation, only presented as fiction. Then asked for her help on filling in the gaps. In the middle of that, Derek called Macey, and Macey included Derek in the discussion as well. And Jake ended up picking both their brains on the matter without truly disclosing anything at all. However, Jake knew he'd still want their help when the trap was actually sprung. Hopefully he could get it by simply pulling the emergency card on them. What few small hang ups remained after that, Jake researched the internet for. And voila: he had his plan. Well, his, Macey's, and Derek's plan, anyway. One great thing about the plan was it would (in theory anyway) offer maximum leverage to Jake's one and possibly only thought projection to the aliens. He'd enjoy the maximum possible credibility with them in that first broadcast, and so hopefully start the dominoes falling for their capture, soon after. Jake spent days crafting his little speech, and honing his use of their language. He was afraid to do his speech in English, due to how the aliens' own language came through the signal overlaid over their thoughts. So he figured he'd have to try to not only think but speak like the aliens too, to pull it off. He'd also keep the speech as brief as possible, and yank the plug on the transmitter immediately after, to minimize the possibility of them seeing through his ruse. Basically, he would order them to top emergency status, inform them their ship had been commandeered by the special operations department until further notice, and they were to immediately proceed to a particular location on Earth (in longitude and latitude) to find and retrieve an object about a third of a cubic meter in size, hidden in a wooden fixture within a certain human structure. The object could not be detected via their ship's equipment, or anything among their expedition accessories: they would have to find and identify it manually. Details for identification were also provided (for an object which would not exist where Jake was sending them). That was it. Jake didn't have to provide any reason for the order: the crew never asked for such justifications in their normal messaging with superiors. Jake was surprised to find all his preparations coming to a head in the early evening of Halloween: the same evening he knew Macey was going to a party in a new costume. He hoped attending the party wouldn't make Macey dally about coming in response to his emergency call. To be sure, there was still more Jake could have done preparation-wise for the event, to boost its chances for success-- but being a young man, he'd already delayed implementing his plan for as long as he could stand. The rest he would leave to luck, come what may. Jake sent his message, killed the transmitter, and then eavesdropped on the aliens to hear their honest reaction. Just as he had hoped, they took the bait! ++++++++++++ Macey was still in the middle of gathering compliments galore on her killer cat costume and makeup at the party-- and especially the little lightshows she could trigger in one particular spot of the main room due to previous preparations-- when her phone rang. Jake told her it was an emergency, please come right away, and where he was-- then hung up before she could ask any questions. Derek had accompanied Macey to the bash, and so they left together to see about Jake. Jake hoped he'd timed it properly. He was proud of himself: it'd been tough not to jump the gun and call Macey too early. Somehow he'd managed to wait until he'd actually witnessed the ship arrive and land-- and even for a while beyond that, as the crew didn't immediately exit the craft. But after they did, he couldn't contain himself any longer, and made the call. Their ship didn't lack much filling the entire parking lot. It seemed implausible that it carried a crew of only three: but Jake had never heard more than the three voices onboard the whole time he'd monitored them. There had been that nagging sense of another group of presences on-board-- but after a while Jake had decided the occasional references he heard to them had to pertain to either smart appliances of some kind-- or maybe pets. Not other aliens, per se. Jake had never before been this excited over anything, in his entire life. He was literally shivering all over in anticipation. And definitely not from the coolness of the night air. For he was wearing a long, hot leather coat, and atop that two crinkly space blankets taped together to make one large poncho-like contraption, while he'd waited for the ship to show up. The space blankets were basically thin metallicized mylar sheets meant to keep campers warm. But here Jake had been using them to minimize the emanations of his cell phone, body, and anything else the aliens might scan the area for before landing or disembarking. For the sheets acted like improvised Faraday cages. Or at least it was his hope that they did. Jake had been crouched low in the wooded vicinity surrounding the back parking lot of the theater, while waiting for the ship's arrival. A few street lamps around the parking area provided decent visibility, despite night fall. As the visor was basically a set of wrap around sunglasses with a bit of added electronics, he had them perched up on his head rather than covering his eyes. He could still hear the visor that way-- but being inside the space blankets had pretty much killed the signal. However, he knew his present level of excitement might have made the voices just sound like gibberish anyway, had the signal gotten through. It seemed the space blankets had done their job. Or at least had kept him from picking up the crew voices while so enclosed. But that had also made him antsy. For being unable to hear their thoughts also left him unable to get any warning if they'd detected his presence-- and might be about to shoot him. Or leave. But then, finally, he'd seen an opening appear in the craft, and three figures exit. For a brief moment there almost seemed to be a fourth, much smaller figure as well-- like a child-- but then it was gone. Leaving Jake uncertain of what he'd seen. He'd decided it nothing but a trick of the low light. The crew went to the nearest doorway in the building, did something to break the lock, and entered. Jake noticed they all seemed to be short and pudgy. With one in particular wearing something like a backpack. That's when Jake had finally dared to bare his head and cell phone from underneath the protective sheets, and call Macey. Jake had then shrugged off his awkward covering, stood up, and snapped a photo of the ship with his phone. That way he'd have some evidence even if everything else went wrong. Then he ran to his car, which was parked beside the building, near a front corner. He started it up, pulled around, and parked it against the door the crew had used, making it (hopefully!) impossible for them to exit through it. He left the car through the passenger side door, and ran back around to the front of the building to await Macey and Derek. Luckily he didn't have to wait for long. Derek's car pulled into the empty front parking lot (way too leisurely for Jake's excited state), and Jake raced up on foot to meet them. Jake knew they might bolt or call 911 if he did or said the wrong thing, but he was also so excited he could barely speak. Macey was the key, he knew. If he could win her over, he'd likely get Derek too by default. So Jake went to the passenger side window. “ Jake, why are you running? Are you hurt?” Macey asked. Jake was breathing heavily-- more from excitement than running. “I'm running because-- because there's something you and Derek have to see! You won't freaking believe it!” Jake involuntarily let out a somewhat hysterical combination of laugh and gasp. Macey's brow furrowed. “Jake, you haven't been drinking, have you?” Jake laughed. “No, no, no. It's just that-- there's something really great you have to see!” Macey turned to Derek, and Derek shut off the car. They got out. “ OK Jake: we'll look. But then we're going back to the party. I didn't do all this work for nothing, you know!” Macey referred to her splendid head-to-toe cat costume and matching makeup. As Jake had seen Macey's costume preparations over weeks, he was more surprised by Derek's outfit. Derek had come dressed as a warrior from his manga comics. Jake had never seen Derek in full costume before. The main thing that caught Jake's eye though was the sheathed sword. “ Is that sword real?” Jake pointed. “ Yes,” Derek replied. “ Good! Follow me!” Jake knew better than to show them the huge spaceship behind the building. Instead, he directed them to one of his secret entrances to the structure-- as all the normal entrances were locked (or blocked, in the case of the one used by the aliens). “ Jake, I don't think we're supposed to be doing this,” Macey protested, once she realized what Jake wanted them to see was inside. “Whatever's in there belongs to someone else, and we shouldn't be looking at it--” “ Shhh! Whisper!” Jake interrupted her. “There's already somebody in here that's not supposed to be here. We're going to surprise them,” Jake told her, as he led the way with a small flashlight inside. “ Who? Some of your film buddies? This is what you called us for? And said was an emergency?” Macey's tone indicated rising annoyance. “ No. It's somebody trying to-- um-- put on a UFO hoax like you did to dad. I accidentally overheard them, and made arrangements to mess it up.” “ Jake! Why would you do that? They might get mad, you know--” “ Oh yeah, they're going to get mad all right. But we'll call 911 on them if we have to.” “ Jake, I don't think this is a good idea--” Macey continued. “ Shhh! Here we are. They should be in here...” Jake whispered as he slid his light into a coat pocket and opened a door to the auditorium just enough to peek in. The door made no sound. But Jake was surprised to see a bright light source slowly moving up high, near the ceiling, bathing everything in a bright pale blue tint. Only maybe a hundred feet away were the crew, examining the stage-like construction at the foot of the movie screen. Jake noted hearing something from the visor again, now that some signal could escape the cell-proof room. But he was too excited to understand it. He struggled to calm himself; to coax out his more receptive frame of mind, in regards to the visor still perched atop his head. All three young people peered through the open crack at different heights. “ What are they doing?” Derek asked. The figures didn't appear all that unusual for a Halloween night. They were dressed oddly, with their heads fully enclosed, but otherwise appeared humanoid. “ They're looking for something that's not there,” Jake informed them. “ What? Did you get it?” Macey asked. “ No: it never existed. I made it up. Sent them on a wild goose chase...” Jake told them. “ Wait a minute...! Jake, this sounds like that story you asked me for help with,” Macey interjected. “ Yeah, it does,” Derek seconded. This was it, Jake decided. Time to tell all. “OK, here's the truth: the story wasn't a story: it's real. I heard some real life aliens talking through Macey's visor, and managed to trick them into coming here to look for something, so we can capture them and their ship...and get rich and famous.” Macey giggled. “Yeah. Right.” “ Don't believe me? Just look at 'em! Don't they look unusual to you?” “ Jake, they're small because they're kids! Or teenagers maybe. This is Halloween! They're dressed up, just like us. I admit their costumes look top notch-- but so do ours!” Macey shot him down. “ And what about that floating light thing they're using?” Jake responded. “ Well...” Macey began, but Derek picked it up-- “...it's a remote controlled helium balloon with a flashlight on it. A strong flashlight, but a flashlight, none-the-less.” Jake shook his head. “I'm telling you, those are real aliens. Their spaceship is parked in the back lot.” “ If that's so why didn't you show it to us while we were outside?” Macey asked. “ I was afraid you'd panic and run away.” “ Jake honey: if the smell of your feet after being gone with your friends for two days camping isn't enough to make me run away screaming, there's no aliens up to doing it,” Macey laughed at her sisterly put down. Then Jake remembered the photo on his phone. “ Wait. Here. Look at this. I took it just after the aliens landed and went into the building.” Macey and Derek examined the photo, but remained skeptical. Macey began her critique. “ Well, I got to admit you got the lighting just right Jake. And did a pretty good job of 'shopping one of your Blender models into a pic. But--” Then a flurry of activity and noise from the aliens seized their attention. Where previously there had obviously been only three of the strangely dressed people at the low end of the auditorium, now suddenly there were seven: four others had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The new four were also much smaller than the original three, resembling slender toddlers in size, but much more animated and confident in their movements than any human toddler could be. “ What in the world...” Macey said so quietly it was almost a mere exhalation on her part. “ I told you: they're aliens,” Jake reminded them. “I thought I saw something like this happen outside too, just as they left their ship, but wasn't sure. Somehow they can multiply themselves with miniature versions-- and then make those versions vanish when they're done with them,” Jake realized for the first time, as he spoke the words. Holy smokes...! It might be tougher to corral these dudes than he thought! Jake worried. “ Wait-- look there!” Derek pointed, and they all watched one of the smaller forms leap up at a larger one-- and seemingly disappear into thin air. “ Jake, we've got to get out of here,” Macey said, her voice showing fear for the first time. Jake was suddenly feeling somewhat intimidated too himself-- but he hated the thought of wasting such an opportunity. He was sure he'd never get another like this. “ Don't worry Macey: Derek's got a sword. I can read their minds with your visor. And I've got dad's shotgun and pistol, too.” “ You do?” Macey asked, with Derek following close behind with a question of his own: “You can read their minds, you say?” Jake responded to Derek first. “ Yeah, that's what I hear through Macey's visor: what each alien is thinking. I can also hear and understand their spoken words to one another, even though it's not in English.” Then Jake answered Macey. “Yep, I got his guns all right. You want the pistol?” “ No. I just want to leave,” Macey told him, her hand on his upper arm. “ Well, I'm not leaving,” Jake told them, and in one fast move opened the door wider and stepped into the auditorium, to move into a crouching position behind the uppermost center row of seats nearest the door. Hoping the others would follow him. “ Jake!” Macey hissed after him. Although she wanted to do exactly the opposite, she followed her brother into the auditorium, taking up a position similar to his behind the central seat row nearest the door. And Derek, determined to protect her, did the same. Macey couldn't let Jake do this by himself, because Jake was her younger brother, by almost three years. Although physically Jake towered over her by a couple feet, he was still her 'little' brother, and she wouldn't let anything happen to him if she could help it. The aliens seemed to have eyes in the back of their heads. For although they'd had their backs turned when the three entered the auditorium-- and the trio had made no significant noise with their entry-- still the aliens suddenly became aware of their presence. Jake and the others would later realize the floating light device near the ceiling probably housed a camera feeding video of the entire room to its owners in realtime, giving them a 360 degree view of their surroundings. “ Oh crap,” Macey whimpered. Jake was still not getting any legible read on the aliens' thoughts, due to his own racing heartbeat and thinking processes. But he decided to try to send a thought to the aliens anyway-- then realized he'd had the transmitter unplugged to avoid accidental broadcasts ever since commanding the aliens to come here. He plugged it back in and tried again. He instructed them to put down their weapons and surrender: that they were surrounded. Or at least he tried. His current mix of excitement and fear made it tough to understand the aliens' thoughts-- and to speak to them as well. The aliens seemed confused for a moment. Then all reached for devices attached to their waists. Those were their weapons, Jake figured. Jake pulled his shotgun out of hiding, cocked it, aimed at the hovering ceiling light from his crouched position behind the seat row, and tried projecting his thoughts at them again: 'I told you to put your weapons down and surrender, NOW.' “ Jake, what are you doing?” Macey asked. “ I'm radioing them a warning through the visor: and now I've got to back it up.” Jake shot the floating light, and it sputtered out. Making an eerie squealing noise as it did. Jake briefly wondered if the flying device had been a living thing of some sort. The auditorium was plunged into darkness. Jake fished out his flashlight again-- only to find its battery going dead at that very moment, and its light dimming to nothing. And Jake had no second flashlight. Or fresh batteries. But he could also hear the thoughts of the aliens through his visor: they seemed to be trying to shoot at them! If he was understanding them correctly, anyway. But he was getting only bits and pieces of their thoughts, at best. “ Macey, Derek, stay down! They're shooting!” Jake warned. Derek and Macey cringed lower. But nothing happened. And Jake heard the confused thoughts of the aliens as they realized their weapons wouldn't work; just like their attempts to report the ambush to their superiors garnered not even an automated acknowledgement, as well. Jake realized he and his cohorts were in luck: apparently the same shielding which hampered the aliens' communications system also cut off the power to their weapons! Or prevented their safeties from being taken off, at least. But that pertained only to their main weapons; they apparently had another means of defending themselves, and Jake began to get a better sense of what the aliens' strange power of multiplication really was... “ Their weapons aren't working--” Jake explained to the others. “ How come?” Derek asked. “ I picked this place because it blocks cell phone signals-- so the aliens couldn't call for help. Apparently it blocks their guns from working too. But now they're up to something else-- does anybody have a flashlight?” Jake asked, without much hope of a positive response. In that moment he badly wished that he could have postponed the confrontation until he could somehow have gotten Macey and Derek to join him in a fully informed-- and much better prepared-- manner... “ No. Not me,” Derek responded in the blackness. “Me neither,” Macey seconded, then added. “What about the one you were using a few minutes ago?” “ It's dead.” “ Well, click it some more. Shake it!” “ I already tried all that. The batteries are dead.” “ Put some new ones in!” “ I don't have any new ones, Macey,” Jake told her, feeling his previous confidence drain away with each word of his response. “ You mean you set all this up and brought a dead flashlight? How dumb can you be, Jake?” Macey said out of fear, desperation, and anger. “ Well, I can't think of everything!” Jake exclaimed. He was just as angry and frustrated about it as his sister. Maybe more so. The darkness surrounding them seemed about to choke them all. Then something occurred to Derek. “Macey, do you still have your bracelet you were using for your light show at the party?” “ Oh yeah! I do! But it's not a flashlight: it's just a strobe.” “ Turn it on Macey!” Jake urged. “We need light, and we need it NOW!” Jake exclaimed, as his visor seemed to be telling him some scary stuff indeed. All three of them still cowered behind the last center seat row in the auditorium. Macey switched on the device. The very first burst of light revealed a terrifying sight: one of the aliens was already upon them, standing at the end of their row, almost within arm's length. Apparently they could see better in the fresh darkness than Jake and company. And move awfully quietly, too. Jake and Macey both yelled and instinctively jumped backwards, deeper behind the row. Derek yelled out of surprise too, but sprang upwards and forward instead, drawing his sword as he did so. He slashed at the being, twisting and turning as he'd practiced so many times in his motion capture photo sessions for his manga. Macey's strobe light bracelet continued to flash, painting the scene in surreal stop motion frames. Jake struggled to re-aim his shotgun to help Derek, only to have the long barrel catch between two of the previously invisible theater seats. Macey tried to help Derek by better positioning her light source to hopefully blind the alien while improving Derek's view of the fight: she thrust her arm straight up in the air with the bracelet turned Derek's way, and hoped it didn't get shot off or bitten off by an alien. Macey's flashing bracelet was more helpful to Derek than she realized. For it mimicked the flashing of his studio cameras when he choreographed his fight scenes for his manga. It was second nature to Derek now to do battle with fantastic foes by the ebb and flow of exploding light from his cameras. Of course, he knew he didn't stand any chance against real life aliens. But maybe Macey and Jake could get to safety if he could hold them off for a minute or two. Even as he fought, a part of him noted with amazement that he might well die in a scene much like something out of his manga. Unfortunately, Derek knew something Jake and Macey did not about their present circumstances: his sword was mainly for show: it had shipped from the factory with a dull point and edge for safety purposes, and he'd never had reason to sharpen it. And so he couldn't do nearly the damage he wanted to, in that moment. Plus, the alien's suit seemed to offer much protection to its wearer as well. However, the blade was mirror-like in its reflection of light, and so Macey's strobe seemed to add to its effectiveness in the darkness. At least intimidation-wise. The alien surprised Derek by actually retreating a few feet, and Derek continued to press his attack. Then a second alien joined the first, and Derek ramped up his efforts, striving to give Macey and Jake all the time he could before he was inevitably struck down. He wanted badly to tell them to run, to see them escaping, but was afraid to take his attention away from the threat before him. Plus, between the alternating brilliant flashes and depths of darkness, he knew he'd be hard pressed to clearly see his companions anyway, if he tried it. Derek then realized that so long as the flashes continued, that meant Macey was still present, and in danger: and also that she would not leave him. That meant that he had no choice: he somehow had to win. It wouldn't be enough to hold off the aliens for Macey and Jake to escape: he had to win. With that understanding, all his fears fell away, and Derek suddenly felt lighter and calmer than he ever had before. The aliens seemed to him to be moving in slow motion now, and his own limbs gained a new freedom and strength he'd never known before. He had to win. He would win. To Jake and Macey and aliens alike, Derek suddenly seemed to turn into a spinning vortex of singing steel, and continued to inexorably push the aliens back and away from the young people's position. In that moment, Derek become the embodiment of the irresistible force of human myth and legend. Jake now had his shotgun free again, but couldn't shoot as Derek was often between him and the aliens. Macey screamed at Jake to shoot them, but there was no clear shot. Then Jake heard the third alien give the others a new command-- and in the ghastly stop motion of Macey's strobe light, a horrifying new sight emerged. Additional small aliens seemed to peel off the bodies of the two human-sized aliens Derek was fighting against, to begin to surround Derek on all sides. The smaller ones could actually leap from the top of one theater seat backrest to another, unlike their larger counterparts. And also scurry about low on all fours on the floor, to get around his blade. The smaller aliens all seemed to possess something like knives, themselves. To Macey and Jake, there seemed to be no way Derek could continue to hold them all off, no matter how well he could wield his sword. For he suddenly faced something like eight opponents all at once. To Derek however, the mounting odds and his dull-edged sword no longer mattered. For he knew he would win. His blade shimmered and flashed by Macey's light, and sooner or later would cut through the aliens' armor-- solely by his will alone, if necessary. To Derek's mind, the aliens could flee or die: he would allow them no third choice. Macey screamed a warning. Jake jumped over one seat row, then another, to get a clear shot, his long leather coat making it awkward. Then blasted one of the larger aliens. He pumped the gun and shot a second time, but missed, as the aliens moved rapidly to better protect themselves from the new threat. In that moment, it appeared the combination of Derek's sword and Jake's shotgun convinced all the smaller beings to rejoin with the larger ones, and the original two to retreat back to join the third at the foot of the theater screen. If any of the aliens had been injured by the shotgun blast, it didn't appear to be anything serious. Derek was breathing hard from exertion, and shaking from the adrenalin rush. “ Macey! Keep that light on them!” Jake ordered, as he quickly advanced to the aisle with the shotgun. He briefly stopped beside Derek to hand him the pistol, then continued on. Macey got to Derek next, and worriedly checked him for injuries. But he appeared merely winded, and unharmed. Jake projected at the aliens again to surrender. Then-- for the first time ever-- one of the alien voices knowingly spoke directly to Jake. Thankfully, Jake was able to understand it relatively well. Not as well as he could have when relaxed, but well enough to get by. “ You should escape while you can. Others will come for us. You should hurry,” the highest ranking alien told him. But Jake could also sense a bit of the being's thoughts behind its words-- and it was worried. “ Surrender now, or be killed,” Jake repeated. “No one comes. I have stopped them.” Jake's command of the alien thought language wasn't perfect: simple statements were the easiest for him. “ You cannot stop them,” the alien challenged. “ Call to them. They will not answer. They cannot answer.” Jake told him. Hoping it was true. Jake could hear the mounting frustration and fear in their thoughts, and their spoken conversation. The mounting desperation. The aliens were considering a last ditch effort of all out multiplication and attack-- to the death. That would apparently work out to perhaps nine aliens against their meager three. Unless they were capable of a higher multiplication rate than they had displayed so far, Jake realized with new alarm. “ Guys,” Jake spoke to Macey and Derek without turning to face them. For he was pretty sure the aliens couldn't understand verbal English. “they're thinking about splitting up into that army thing again and rushing us. Get ready. Derek, maybe you should give the gun to Macey...” Jake sure hoped Macey knew how to use it. The reality of meeting actual aliens hadn't yet sunk in for Derek. But something about the odd composition of the beings resonated with his manga. Or the myths he'd studied in support of his stories, anyway. He noted the full grown aliens appeared to be a bit shorter than the average adult human; and the little ones which clung to places made for them in the bigger one's suits, much much smaller. These aliens-- or their tiny companions anyway-- were like little people. Derek couldn't help but think that if aliens truly did exist, there had probably been lots more encounters between them and humanity than just this latest one. And so the myths he'd studied about little people like fairies and the like might have something useful in them. For instance, iron seemed to bother the little people in the legends. And these aliens had all seemed much more put off by his steel sword (steel was made of iron) than its dull edge and point against their armor seemed to account for... “ Jake, do you know their names?” Derek asked, still breathing hard. “ Yeah. Why?” Jake asked nervously. Still not daring to turn his back on the beings from another world. “ In some of the legends about little people, knowing their names gave you power over them. Speak their names-- the longest version of their names you know-- and then tell them what you want them to do,” Derek offered. Jake knew the crew was about to mount their desperate attack. And it wasn't at all clear that he, Derek, and Macey would survive it, much less win. Even with the aliens' ray guns not working. But it seemed too late to run away. And inside the auditorium, they couldn't dial 911 either. They couldn't call for help any more than the aliens could. Jake then projected at them the fullest forms of all their names he could recall ever hearing through the visor. Of course, he only knew the names of the three large ones: all the little ones seemed to be identified through some wholly different means, to which he was not privy. Jake was then immensely relieved to see the immediate reaction from the aliens. They all seemed to relax from pounce mode. Surprisingly, the aliens had no problem breathing Earth air. Their enclosed helmets were mostly worn for reasons of controls and communications, enhanced environmental scanning, and extra protection against accidents. Separating them from their helmets seemed to neutralize the threat of them communicating with their kin. Even after they exited the effective Faraday cage of the auditorium. Jake had first ordered them to discard all weapons. Macey gathered them up, and Jake and Derek both stuck them into various handy spots in their clothing, while Macey stuck one in her purse. The men had held the aliens at gunpoint during the process (though it was unclear if firearms could penetrate their suits any better than a dull sword). Jake had next done the Q and A with the aliens which revealed the helmet info, and subsequently had them hand those over as well. The removal of the helmets had been another eerie moment. But the humans had already gotten a preview of the alien likenesses from the smaller versions which usually clung so closely to the larger aliens' suits as to seem a part of them. For the smaller creatures wore no helmets or face masks. Both the large and small versions strongly resembled each other-- but for the smaller ones having obviously smaller brain cases (proportionally speaking) than the larger. Although it was tempting to think the smaller ones were children of the larger ones, Jake got the strong impression that that was not the case: that the smaller ones were actually an entirely different race of some sort; which simply lived out their lives as something like smart and loyal pets to the larger species. Perhaps since birth. In terms of faces, the larger aliens could have passed as short and ugly humans in many places-- at least with certain extra head and facial hair removed. Their hair patterns definitely suggested something unusual about their lineage, compared to average human heads. Perhaps their most glaring non-human-like features were their lack of chins, and their somewhat larger than average (and slightly differently shaped) eyes. Of course, some of these things may have been exaggerated in the flashes of Macey's strobing bracelet-- and some other details missed entirely. Suffice it to say that the facial unveiling of the aliens was nowhere near as traumatic for the young trio as the events which preceded it. After that Jake had the aliens walk to the left side of the auditorium, and through a door there. He then directed them all the way to a storage room he knew about there, and locked them in with a padlock he'd brought with him for just that purpose. Derek and Macey had accompanied Jake on the march. The release of tension among the three was palpable. “ Wow Derek! How on Earth did you know that about the names?” Jake finally got the chance to ask. “ I just picked it up doing research for my manga,” Derek shrugged. “It seemed logical that we wouldn't be the first humans to encounter them-- and so maybe the legends about little people held some useful info.” Jake laughed-- a little too loudly-- as the stress of the events just past finally drained away. Macey had sure picked one heck of a boyfriend! he thought. And he was very glad Derek had been there to help! Jake shuddered to think of what might have happened if Derek had not come-- or Macey either. Yikes! Macey hugged Derek tight. “Well, I'm glad that's over! Can we call 911 yet?” “ What? You and Derek haven't even seen the ship yet!” Jake exclaimed. “ Oh yeah...” Macey said dreamily, as she and Derek looked into each others eyes, smiling. She then returned to the reality of the dark theater. “ Well, I guess since we've already been gone from the party this long, we can stay a little longer, and see your little spaceship. If, that is, there's not any more aliens in it,” she gave Jake a stern look. Jake didn't notice though, as they were all still navigating by the light of Macey's strobing bracelet in the dark theater. All the way to the door nearest the UFO. Jake reached it, tried to open it, and remembered he'd blocked it with his car. “ Oh! I forgot: I parked my car against this door so the aliens couldn't escape! We'll have to go out the other way.” Macey and Derek both laughed. And Macey wondered what Jake would do without her, as they all appeared to walk in stop motion photography towards the place by which they'd originally entered the building. ++++++++++++ To be so imposingly large on the outside, the craft seemed relatively cramped on the inside. Definitely rating as a hardship room-wise for three human-sized crewmen expected to live in it for more than a couple days or so. Due to its small proportions, it barely took more than a glance or two to see that there were no other spaces of habitable size onboard-- and that there were no significant batches of control surfaces to be seen, either. “ How the heck do they fly this thing?” Jake asked aloud, baffled by the mostly blank and smooth gray walls which surrounded them. “ Maybe they don't?” Macey offered with a shrug. “Maybe their H.Q. pilots it remotely.” “ Well, if that's so then all this has been a huge waste of time. H.Q. will just fly this thing out of here any minute, and we might get captured ourselves!” Then Macey noticed something. “ You see these thin shiny slivers running along the angles in the walls?” she asked Jake and Derek. The silvery lines were so narrow as to be almost invisible, and definitely easy to overlook. “ Yeah,” Jake responded, running a finger along one. “Do you think the wall opens up there?” “ Maybe,” Macey replied noncommittally, as she continued her examination. “ There's also something like pinhole cameras-- or projectors maybe-- here and there,” she pointed towards a few different tiny holes located about the shallow alcove which now commanded their attention. “ Macey, this reminds me of some of your hologram toys,” Derek offered. “ Me too,” Macey replied, now searching earnestly for some way to turn on the suspected holographic display. “Everybody start running their hands over everything here,” she directed the men. Their sudden focus alone seemed to switch on the device. Later, they'd discover that merely standing sufficiently close to the center of the alcove (while facing it directly) for several seconds would power it up. They'd previously been moving around too much, or else standing too far away to do it. When the alcove display lit up, it made quite the spectacle. It was holographic all right: a real three dimensional display, which seemed far deeper than the mere foot and a half of true physical depth possessed by the alcove itself. When active, the display seemed to stretch away from them and into the wall a good twelve feet or so. At first all three were dazzled and bewildered by the display. Macey was the first to get a handle on it-- being the most experienced of the trio with holograms. “ Hey! I think I can drive this thing!” Macey exclaimed excitedly, as she began poking a finger here and there through various intangible symbols among the 3D representation. The display changed in response to her jabs. “ Whoa! Hold on Macey!” Jake urged. “We don't want to do something crazy here.” “ Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear ya. I'm just figuring out a few things is all. Look here: this looks like an aerial view of where we're at now, doesn't it? And maybe this over here is the status of...um...our fuel or something?” Jake had to admit his sister seemed to be onto something in her explorations. But it still seemed wise to remain cautious. “ Maybe we should try something small. Like turning up the lights in here,” Derek suggested. “ Yeah, Macey. See if you can make it brighter in here,” Jake seconded. For the cabin had been only dimly lit ever since they'd entered. “ OK, OK, just give me a minute,” Macey muttered as she concentrated. In a moment she'd brought up what looked like a basic blueprint of the ship. Then zoomed into the cabin area. At that point though, her progress seemed to stop. “ What's wrong?” Jake asked. “ I don't know. It looks like this thingamajig here should turn up the lights, but it doesn't.” “ Maybe the controls are keyed to the crew members, and won't work for anyone else,” Jake offered a bleak assessment. “ Bummer,” Derek replied. “Well, that's sure not fair,” Macey complained. Jake shook his head. Here they were on the brink of maybe the biggest accomplishment in human history, only to be foiled at the last minute by the equivalent of an alien car key lock. If only he could simply will the lights to come on, he thought. Turn on, lights! Turn on, he silently urged. And the cabin suddenly became brighter. “ Macey, did you do that?” Jake asked. “ No. They just came on by themselves.” A huge grin split Jake's face. “ It's your transmitter, Macey! It not only projects into the aliens' heads, but gives orders to the ship, too! I just now told it to turn up the lights, and it did!” For a moment all three noisily exulted in the breakthrough. Then they quietened down again. For the ramifications were immense. Jake was the first to break the silence. “ Well, it looks like we got our own freaking spaceship, guys. What do we do now?” THE END a - j m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l