Jesse's Starship (2 page)

She stared through the window and saw a rather attractive male student pass by outside. He reminded her of the young man that had come and visited her a year earlier. She was moving into the freshman dorm her first day at the University of Arizona and heard a knock on her open door. He was standing in her doorway and he looked rather grungy. Not a bum…but close. She was surprised he didn’t stink as dirty as he looked.

Are you Elle Moreland?”

“I am.”

“Do you have a moment?”

“What do you want; and who are you?”

“I’m Jess Smith and I just want to ask you a couple of questions.”

“What questions?”

“When I was ten years old, my family disappeared in the desert.” Elle sat down slowly on her bed and stared at the young man. “I was about thirty yards away at the moment it happened and didn’t hear or see anything. One moment they were there and the next they were gone. I’ve read a police report that you experienced something similar.”

“GET OUT OF HERE!”

Elle saw the instant sorrow the young man’s face, “I apologize for intruding. I just need to find some answers.” He turned and walked out of her doorway. Elle felt her tears but, after a moment, she jumped up and ran into the hallway. She looked both ways and saw the man exit the building at the far end of the hall. She sprinted down the hall and slammed the door open as she rushed outside, “Wait! Please wait!” Jess turned and saw the young woman running toward him. “I’m sorry; I’ve just had so many people question me about this and not believe what I tell them. I have so many nightmares about what happened.”

The young man looked into Elle’s eyes, “It’s the not knowing that drives me toward insanity.”

Elle nodded, “I know the feeling well.”

Jess saw a bench a few feet away and pointed to it. Elle followed him over and they sat down. Jess stared at the freshmen moving into the dorm and sighed, “I apologize for my appearance. I put on my best clothes but, as you can see; my best leave much to be desired.”

“You look like a bum, no offense.”

“None taken; you’re right. I’ve spent the last two years living in the desert where my family was taken.”

“What do you mean taken?”

Jess turned and looked Elle in the eyes, “I was ten years old; do you think they would have willingly left me behind?”

Elle sighed and shook her head. “Why are you living in the desert?”

“If they came once; they might come again.”

“Who do you mean, ‘they’?”

The young man stared at her and said, “Elle, are you familiar with Occam’s razor?” Elle nodded. “When you eliminate everything that can be removed, what remains is probably true. You know what that is. Will you tell me what happened?”

“Why?”

“It might help me see if something I removed needs to be put back in. I just don’t know if I have all the information.”

“Is Jess a nickname?”

The young man smiled, “One of my childhood friends told several bullies to back off. He said I lived on the Jagged Edge of Sanity and they’d regret starting something. From that point on he called me Jes and soon everyone else did as well. I added an SE later.”

“Did they?”

“Did they what?”

“Start something?” Jess gave a small nod. “And?”

“I took some very serious frustrations out on them. It took four teachers to pull me off.”

“How good are you at keeping promises?”

“I promised myself I would never give up on finding my family.”

“I’ll tell you what happened if you’ll promise me one thing.”

“What is that?”

“If you
ever
uncover anything substantial on what happened, you will contact me immediately. Not a week later, nor a day, immediately.”

“I live in the desert. I don’t exactly have the means of making a call.”

“Then you will make the means to do it; you have to promise me.”

Jess stared at her and sighed, “I promise to contact you as quickly as humanly possible if I find out anything.”

Elle got a faraway look and started talking. “We were camping in the desert outside Albuquerque. We rented a motor home and my mom and I said good night to my father and younger brother. They chose to stay outside by the fire; John loved hearing ghost stories my father created for him; he was only seven years old.” Elle fought her tears and kept her voice steady. Jess thought Elle was one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. Her hair was blonde and her eyes were the clearest blue. She didn’t have any makeup on; she didn’t need it. She was about six inches shorter than he and very nicely put together. He saw they shared one trait; they both had troubled eyes.

“What time did you go inside the motor home?”

“It was about eleven.”

“It was also eleven when I left my family for a few moments.”

“Why did you leave?”

“We didn’t have a motor home and I felt nature’s call.”

“Oh… anyway, we got ready for bed and Mom stuck her head outside to tell them goodnight…they weren’t there.” Jess got a faraway look and remembered. Elle said, “Mom started calling for them and soon started screaming. I went out and she was in full panic mode. It didn’t take me long to join her.”

“Did you see anything where they had been sitting?”

“The fire was in some sand directly in front of the motor home’s door and their chairs were close to the fire when we went to bed. The chairs were turned over and I saw that where their feet had been…”

“What?”

“It looked like their footprints were longer than normal and stopped three feet from where the chairs had fallen.”

Jess saw Elle’s distress but he had to ask, “Like they had been lifted over the back of their chairs.”

Elle’s tears started in earnest and she nodded. Jess gave her a few moments and Elle blew out a breath, “They were never found. Mom lasted about eight years before she just quit living. My mom’s sister took me in when they moved her to a home. Now she sits and stares at the wall.” Elle looked at Jess, “What traces did you see?”

Jess shook his head, “I was ten; I didn’t know enough to even look. I probably erased any traces by running around like a crazy person.” Jess stood, “Thank you. I know what this took for you to share this.”

“You WILL keep your promise.”

Jess stuck out his hand and Elle shook it, “I will. I am very sorry for intruding.”

Elle watched him walk away and felt the empty place in her heart. She saw a kindred spirit in the young man and knew he had the same hole in his. She pulled herself together and went back into the dorm to unpack.

• • •

Jesse turned twenty and looked forward to his trip into Phoenix each Thursday. Mike had started bringing him vegetables and corn from his farm each week and though Jess initially refused the help, Mike finally convinced him he could make his money go further by accepting it. Besides, he had more than he needed or could sell. Jess reluctantly accepted and his lifestyle underwent a change. The first thing he bought was new jeans and desert boots. Now he wouldn’t look like a bum when he showed up in Phoenix. Jess found he liked Mike…a lot. He was honest to a fault and Mike recognized early on that Jess’s family didn’t just walk away.

They were a few miles away from Jess’s drop off point and Mike looked at Jess in the passenger’s seat, “I’ve never been much on UFO sightings or so called alien abductions; but I’ve gotta tell ya, I don’t see any other way they could have gone missing. I understand why you don’t share this with anyone. I initially didn’t believe you.”

“And now?”

“You’re not crazy. I looked on the internet and found the Sheriff’s report that was filed ten years ago about your family and it verifies your account of what happened.”

Jess sighed, “It would be easier if a hole had just appeared and swallowed them up; but it would have taken the car as well. I’ve eliminated every possibility and extra-terrestrial life is the only answer that keeps falling out.”

Mike smiled, “Now that’s a fifty cent word where aliens would work just as well.”

Jess chuckled, “Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. The books I read have affected my vocabulary.”

Mike looked to the south. “There are some banditos that sometimes come this far north and cause trouble.” Jess’s eyebrows went down and Mike quickly said, “I know; I know; there would have been a lot of noise if it was their doing.” Mike paused, “It worries me, Jess.” Jess stared at Mike and he continued, “If they took your family, they did it for a reason. I don’t really believe it’s like ET with a glowing finger, these aliens aren’t nice. They must be planning something.”

Jess nodded, “I guess.” They arrived at the two boulders and Jess opened the door and looked at Mike, “If they are planning something, I hope their plan isn’t complete.”

“Why not?”

“They’ll have to come back.”

Mike nodded, “Still haven’t given up hope, have you?”

“No, I guess I never will.” Jess slammed the door, “I’ll see you next week.”

It was still an hour before sunset and Jess started his hike. A hundred yards into the desert he saw footprints leaving the desert about ten yards to the left of the trail he normally took. He continued his hike and arrived at the four boulders that were six hundred yards further into the desert. He retrieved his P-40 and saw the footprints still paralleled his path. Someone had walked out of the desert. He checked his trail and only saw his boot prints on it. He jacked a round into the H&K and stepped off the trail. He went over to the tracks and looked around. There were no footprints, or tire tracks going into the desert on either path and those two trails were the only way in and out. The tall saguaro cacti blocked any other route. Where did that set of foot prints come from? He continued toward his cave and the footprints continued about twenty yards left of his path. They were moving toward the exact spot his family had disappeared. Jess veered to his right and went around a hill and then moved toward the place where it had all happened ten years ago.

The site was situated in a small depression among large boulders and a half circle of small rises. It was a perfect place to camp. There were few large cacti and the winds were blocked by small hills that surrounded it on three sides; there was only one way in. The Saguaro Cactus were numerous outside the clearing but not in the depression. Jess crawled up one of the rises and looked down on the flat depression. He stared and finally spotted where the footprints started.

They seemed to just have appeared out of nowhere and left the depression. There were no tire tracks where someone could have stepped down to the ground. It didn’t make sense, unless someone skydived into the area. It was downright dumb to skydive into the limited number of cacti in the depression; it would be begging for a load of needles. He slid down the rise and walked over to where the footprints started; he raised his head and determined they moved in a direct line toward the road two miles away. He heard a crackling sound before a large dragonfly flew by his head and landed three feet beyond him. He took a step to take a look at it and saw it was twitching and smoking. Something had burned it.

Jess didn’t move a muscle. That dragonfly hit something that killed it. He moved his eyes right and then left. He looked at the ground in front of him and didn’t see anything abnormal. He slowly turned around and looked in the direction the dragonfly had come from. He looked left, right, and then looked at the ground. Three small lizards were lying dead on the ground. They had all been burned to a crisp. He lined them up and determined that something two feet in front of him had killed them. He slowly backed away until he was fifty feet away. He stepped behind a boulder and picked up a small pebble. He threw it in the direction of the three lizards and saw it fly over them and explode into dust.

“They’ve come back!”

Jess pulled a stick and tied some ground foliage to it. He raked his tracks with the crude rake until he was in the rocks and then turned and rushed to his cave. He changed his shirt to a black long sleeve t-shirt, took out some camo-paint, and applied it to his face. He put on a desert camouflage hat and moved back out of his cave. It was getting dark and he expected that whoever had walked to the road was going to come back.

He took his most prized possessions out of a thick plastic bag; a pair of night vision goggles and high powered binoculars. He climbed over the wall outside the cave and went back to the depression. He climbed the tallest rise, stood up and faced in the direction of the road. From the top of the rise, he could see car lights as they moved toward him from the direction of Phoenix. He looked through the binoculars and found he could easily identify the vehicles that passed the curve at the two boulders. After an hour, he saw a set of car lights approaching that looked different. He raised the binoculars and saw it was a cab; the light on top made it look odd from a distance. He watched the cab come to a stop at the boulders and someone got out. After a moment, the cab did a u turn and headed back toward the city. Jess turned, slid down the rise, and sprinted back to the depression. He crawled behind a large boulder fifty yards from the deadly zone and waited. It was going to take about forty minutes for whoever got out of that cab to arrive. He continued to see small flashes as insects were burned by the invisible barrier. He knew it had to be some kind of energy field that had killed the lizards and dragonfly. It was invisible and he wondered if anything was hidden behind it. Night fell fast and he put on the night goggles and waited.

At ten o’clock, he saw a shape moving up the trail and he increased the amplification. It was a man and he wasn’t carrying anything. He walked casually, appearing to not have a care in the world. He looked to be around thirty years old; average height and weight. He had a Diamondback baseball cap on his head and a Boston Red Sox tee shirt. The guy had to be an alien to wear those two items together.

Jess moved a little further behind the rock and noticed his black shirt had a brown stain on it. Darn it. The boulder was mostly iron ore. The rust stain would never come out. The man arrived at the location of the energy field and looked around. He lifted his arm and began doing something to his wrist. The man pointed his arm in the direction he had just come from and swung it around. Jess rolled over behind the large boulder and kept his head down. He shut off the night goggles and listened. He waited a few moments and heard a buzzing sound. He peeked around the boulder and saw a spaceship.