Aliens in the Sky (3 page)

“Tell me what else to do,” Adam said.

“I don't know what else to do,” Sally snapped back. “I just know that you can't trust gross-looking aliens with hand phasers.”

“They only have phasers on ‘Star Trek,' ” Cindy said.

“How do we know these guys didn't write the TV show?” Sally asked.

Adam spoke wearily. “We're getting nowhere with this arguing. I'm going down and demand that they release Watch. You can come if you want, Sally. But I don't think it's a good idea.”

“You mean it's all right for you to be a hero and not me?” Sally asked, getting to her feet. “Really, Adam, you're a bit of a sexist. A girl can save the day just as easily as a boy.” She glanced once more
at the saucers. Only one alien was visible, near the door of the first ship, the door through which Watch had disappeared. “I wonder if there are boy aliens and girl aliens.”

“I think that's the least of our worries right now,” Adam said.

“You never know,” Sally replied. She leaned over and patted Cindy on the back. “If we don't come back, and you do manage to escape, write a book about me when you grow up. The world has to know what it lost tonight.”

Cindy was not in a joking mood. “I wish you guys plenty of luck.”

Together, Adam and Sally crept from behind the rocks and walked slowly in the direction of the two saucers. The alien standing guard reacted quickly to their approach. Stepping toward them, he drew his weapon and pointed it at their heads. Adam and Sally immediately put up their arms. Up close, the alien was even more strange looking. It had no nails on its fingers, not a trace of hair on its body. Its huge black eyes were completely devoid of emotion or feeling. They were so cold they could have belonged to an insect. Adam felt a sinking feeling in his chest. He doubted that he'd be able to reason with the creature.

“Hello,” Adam said. “We come in peace. We mean you no harm. My name is Adam. This is my friend, Sally. You have another friend of ours inside your flying saucer. His name is Watch. We just want him back. That's all we want.”

“But we do have friends in high places,” Sally added. “And they would avenge our deaths with great relish.”

“Shh,” Adam cautioned her. “I don't know if it understands us.”

The alien just stared at them for a minute. Then it gestured with its hand weapon. It wanted them to walk into the flying saucer. Adam shook his head.

“No,” Adam said. “We want our friend back. We don't want to go in your ship. Give him back to us and we won't bother you anymore.”

“Yeah,” Sally added. “And remember that you're a visitor to this planet. Show some manners, will you?”

Apparently the alien didn't like Sally's tone. It took a step forward and grabbed her right arm. She shook it off—the alien didn't appear to be that strong—but it immediately grabbed her again. It pointed its weapon directly between her eyes. Sally
recoiled in terror. That was enough for Adam. He was through talking. No more Mr. Nice Human.

Adam launched himself at the alien.

The alien spun on him. Leveled its weapon.

Adam saw a flash of green light. Heard Sally scream.

Then everything went black.

F
or Cindy, watching Adam and Sally fight with the alien was the hardest thing she had ever done. Cindy knew from the start the battle was hopeless. It especially hurt that she could do nothing to help her friends. A second after the alien shot Adam, it turned its weapon on Sally. To her credit, Sally didn't turn and run. She tried to attack the alien. But the creature was too quick for her. The black instrument in its hand spurted another blast of green light, and Sally collapsed on the ground beside Adam.

Cindy didn't even know if either of them was still alive.

She didn't have long to grieve over her fallen pals. She heard sounds behind her, farther up the hill. The other two aliens were either returning to their ship or else closing in to take her captive. Sprained ankle or not, Cindy swore to herself she would not be taken without a fight.

Climbing to her feet, hobbling on one foot, she listened hard, trying to determine the course of the aliens. They did not appear to be coming directly toward her. Rather, they were following the path of a narrow valley that cut through the side of the hill where she was hiding. Actually, it was more of a ravine, cut by the winter rains. It was only a hundred feet off to her right. Cindy decided she would hide above the lip of the ravine, and shower down rocks on the aliens as they came by. If she could get hold of just one of their weapons, she thought, it would help to even out the fight.

Trying her best to move silently, Cindy half hopped and half dragged herself to the edge of the ravine. She got there none too soon. The two aliens were almost directly below her. After grabbing hold of a watermelon-sized rock, she lifted it over her head. There was faint background light from the
two saucers, although both ships were in dim mode. It gave her something to see by, but it was poor shooting at best. As she let the first rock fly, she knew she'd need a miracle to hit anything.

There was a flash of green light.

Cindy blinked. Had she been shot?

No. Just the opposite.

Below her, the two aliens lay unconscious on the ground.

“But who shot them?” Cindy whispered out loud. Looking around, she didn't see another soul, human or alien. Briefly she wondered if she had imagined the green light. Or maybe her rock had hit them—both of them. Or perhaps one of their weapons had accidentally gone off when it struck the ground. It didn't really matter, she decided. She was taking their weapons now. She had fought with ghosts and Hyeets—she could handle aliens.

Cindy hobbled down to where the aliens lay. They appeared stunned, not dead. She could hear them breathing. Quickly she stripped off their black belts and tucked one gun in her own belt while keeping the other ready in her right hand. She didn't know how these particular guns were set, if they would stun or kill when she fired them.
But fire she would, as soon as she caught sight of the monster who had shot Adam and Sally.

Cindy made it back to her position behind the rocks. But there was no chance for her to rest because the alien and his partner were dragging Adam into the saucer. They couldn't be too strong because even though there were two of them, they were struggling with Adam's body. Cindy had no doubt they would come back for Sally in a minute. Unfortunately, they had Adam beside the saucer already.

Cindy had a moment of panic. The ship was two hundred feet away. She couldn't run there; she could hardly walk. On the other hand, she couldn't stand and start shooting, not without risking hitting Adam. But she had to do something and she had to do it now. People who went in that ship did not come out.

Cindy stood and took aim. But not directly at the aliens. She aimed for the saucer itself. Pulling the trigger, she felt no recoil but saw a narrow flash of green light. It hit the side of the craft, and made the aliens jump. For a moment they dropped Adam and pointed in her direction. They raised their own weapons. Cindy wondered if they took target practice
on their home world, and whether their weapons were set to kill or stun.

The large rock beside her exploded.

Cindy dove for cover. But she was back up again in a moment, having crawled a few feet to the side. So they wanted to play rough. Cindy twisted a tiny knob on her weapon all the way around in the other direction. She didn't know what the knob controlled, but she figured it might boost the weapon's power. Again she took aim at the saucer and pulled the trigger.

Her ray gun was no longer set on stun.

The ship was alive with sparks as the green beam licked its surface. The hull of the saucer did not break, and Cindy guessed the ship was probably still capable of spaceflight. Cindy fired again, and got a similar violent response. But she had to be very careful not to aim at Adam or the aliens, who were terribly exposed. At least she had a ton of rocks to hide behind. They took another couple of shots at her and set a lot of dust flying, but they didn't come close to hitting her. They appeared anxious to get inside their spacecraft. Maybe they weren't used to humans who fought back.

Grabbing Adam, they yanked him into the saucer.

Before Cindy could get off a third shot, the door vanished.

“No!” Cindy screamed, jumping out from her place behind the rocks, almost falling over because of her bad ankle. The saucer began to glow brightly. She knew it was preparing for take off. Raising her weapon once more, she took aim. This time she fired off a series of shots in quick succession. The saucer shook under the pounding, and there were sparks and smoke everywhere. But Cindy should have realized that the saucer had weapons of its own. As it bobbled off the ground, it spun around and Cindy saw two green streaks rush toward each other along the perimeter of the ship. As they collided, a blinding beam of light flashed toward her. Cindy instinctively dove to the side and half the hill behind her flew into the air in one gigantic explosion.

The noise was deafening, the shock wave crushing. If Cindy hadn't been flat on the ground, she would have been killed. As it was, she lay stunned for several moments, recovering only when the saucer was a vanishing white dot in the sky. She opened her eyes just as it blinked out of view.

“They got Adam,” she whispered. “They got Watch.”

But they didn't get Sally. Cindy made her way to her friend, who lay unmoving not far from the remaining saucer. Smoke and tiny fires littered the landscape. Sally had a pulse, and she was breathing. Cindy hobbled to the water and soaked her shirt in it. Then she returned to Sally and squeezed the water onto her friend's face. Sally opened her eyes with a start.

“That better not be water from the reservoir,” Sally said.

“It is,” Cindy said.

Sally sat up and wiped her face with the back of her arm. “You better pray my face doesn't turn gray and my hair doesn't fall out,” she complained. “Or else you're going to be bobbing for apples tomorrow night in a barrel of reservoir water.”

“They've taken Adam and Watch,” Cindy cried.

“Oh, my head hurts.” Sally rubbed her forehead. “What are you talking about?”

“The aliens! Their ship left with Adam and Watch on it!”

Sally was instantly alert. She glanced around. “Why didn't they take me?”

Cindy held up one of her weapons. “I ambushed a couple of aliens and took their guns. They're lying over there in the ravine, unconscious.” Cindy
paused and gestured to the remaining flying saucer. “Why don't we drag them back to their ship, wake them up, put a gun to their heads, and demand that they go after Adam and Watch?”

Sally thought for a moment then smiled wickedly.

“Sounds like my kind of plan,” she said.

W
hen Adam came to, he was lying on his back. The first thing he felt—besides the floor beneath him—was his headache. He could hear his pulse in his head. It pounded like thunder. Every time his heart beat, it was as if the nerves in his brain squeezed together. He felt so awful he saw no point in even opening his eyes. But he did anyway.

“How are you doing?” Watch asked, sitting beside him. “Got a headache?”

Adam groaned. “Yeah. How did you know?”

“I had the same thing when I woke up. I felt like
my skull was about to explode. I think I got zapped by the same gun as you.”

Right then Adam remembered the alien and his nasty weapon. He pulled himself into an upright position. It took a moment before his vision cleared enough for him to see straight. Then he immediately thought he was imagining things.

He was inside an alien craft flying through space. The ship was not large. From where he and Watch sat to the opposite side, where the two aliens stood at an exotic control panel, was only about twenty feet. Except for the controls, the interior was relatively featureless and rather dim. Adam had to squint to see clearly. The floor was covered with a simple tan carpet. The walls were off-white in color. The aliens had obviously not hired an interior decorator when they built their ship. At four spots around the walls was a small circular viewing screen.

Overhead there was a glorious sight. The ceiling appeared to be one huge viewing portal. Adam thought he had seen a lot of stars at the reservoir after the sun had gone down. There had to be a hundred times as many stars visible now. The Milky Way seemed to shimmer with a magical radiance. The unblinking stars seemed to be close
enough to touch. He wondered if they had already left the solar system, and asked Watch. Watch shook his head.

“The ship changes orientation every few minutes,” he said. “Not long ago I saw the sun through the ceiling. It's a lot smaller than we see it from Earth, but it's still there.”

“Do you know where we're headed?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. But I'd assume we're returning to the aliens' home world.”

“Do you think it's in our solar system?” Adam asked.

“No. There isn't another planet in our solar system that can support life. It has to be around another star. It may not even be in our galaxy.”

“Great. What will we do there?” Adam said.

Watch shrugged. “I'm trying not to think about it.”

Adam nodded to the two aliens, who appeared to be ignoring them. “Have they spoken to you?”

“No. They act like I'm not even here. But I'm convinced they're telepathic. They communicate strictly in silence.”

“Do you think they can read our minds?” Adam asked.

“I'm not sure. If they can, I think they have to concentrate on picking up our thoughts. That's just an impression I get.”

“How come they haven't tied us up?” Adam asked.

“We don't exactly have a lot of places to run away to.”

“You have a point there,” Adam agreed.