Roswell Fanatics

0800 Betty’s Restaurant, Tonopah Nevada

Liz had been working as a waitress on and off since she was twelve. She knew when a tip was too big. After the third outrageously big tip from the law enforcement table, she’d had a short talk with Betty Ann. A few telephone calls were made and the other waitresses agreed with the plan. Quickly a hand lettered sign was made and placed on the table.

• • • All tips from this table will
      be sent to the college fund
      for the two children of a Nye
      County Deputy killed in the
      Line of duty three years ago.

By nine AM it was apparent that the tips had not only not diminished, but money was being left by the patrons from other tables who noticed the sign as they left the restaurant. “Beth” and Anna’s popularity with the local law enforcement had never been higher.

1000 Det. 24 Commander’s Conference Room, Area 51, Nevada

The elderly man had a baseball cap on his head that said, “USAF Retired.” He was wide eyed and smiling.

“Gee sir, I never figured I’d ever see Area 51 again. A lot has changed,” said retired MSgt Jaime Alvarez. He looked at Laurie DelGado. “It was really funny when you called me, Ma’am. A female officer in Biosciences? And a Hispanic at that? Cripes, when I worked there Dr. Blaukopf and Dr. Schreiber treated me like part of the furniture…like I barely existed. Of course, I guess their sons are different.”

Slammer wasn’t sure that the changes in Biosciences were nearly as great as the retired MSgt believed they were, but really didn’t want to dwell on it right now. He had assembled a small group, Jim, Laurie, Peter, and himself, and with a tape recorder rolling, he wanted to get as much information as possible from the elderly gentleman.

“MSgt Alvarez, we are trying to fill in some information from the very early part of the program, from before the spacecraft debris was even moved to Area-51. MSgt Hedges indicated to us that you had knowledge about that time,” said Slammer.

“Well, sir….yes….sort of….it’s only hearsay, really…it would never hold up in court.”

“Can you tell us about this knowledge? How you got it? Where it comes from?”

“Sure Colonel. I’d be glad to. You see, originally I come from Fredericksburg, Texas. There were a lot of German immigrants that went to Texas in the 1850s. My wife comes from New Braunfels, Texas. Both towns had a lot of German speakers and we learned German in the high schools. There’s a lot of German culture there…make damn good beer, too. Matter of fact during Prohibition all the brewmasters went across the Rio Grande. They’d make beer over in Mexico, then smuggle it back across the border. Hell, when I was in High School I played in a band that did Mariachi music for fiestas and became an oompah band for Oktoberfest.

But the doctors…hell, to them I was just a dumb enlisted troop, and an “inferior race” one at that. They didn’t know I spoke German, and I didn’t care to socialize with them enough to tell them, not that they would have anyway. But they’d talk over things sometimes in German when we were working in the lab. So that’s why it’s hearsay….I’d just listen, pick up stories.”

“What we are interested in, MSgt Alvarez, is a story about another alien who survived the crash….some thefts?”

“Oh, I remember them talking about it alright…especially after the alien escaped.”

Eyes widened around the room. They got even wider as the MSgt continued to tell the story.

“Yeah, they thought they had all the aliens…the four dead ones, and the one who was unconscious. But then four pods disappeared from the hangar they were storing the crash debris in…”

“Pods?” asked Dr. Stanbeck. “Do you mean like cylinders?”

“No, these weren’t the cylinders…these were pods…about..well, like the size of a small refrigerator. According to what the Doctors said, they appeared to be biological specimen incubators, but they weren’t incubating. They couldn’t get inside them, even though they could see little fetuses in each one.”

“The pods were incubating the fetuses?” asked Laurie.

“Well…no…they looked like they should have been…but they weren’t. The Biosciences people couldn’t figure it out…asked a physicist. He said something about a ‘stasis’ field. I never really understood that part, something about stopping time. Anyway, there were four of them in the wreckage stored in the hangar…then one night all four just disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Yeah, apparently most of the Air Police were just guarding the one injured alien…they thought they had them all, really didn’t guard the wreckage that well, it was on an airbase and all. Somebody sneaked in and stole those pods. So they set a trap for him…watched the building. It turned out it was another alien….one who had survived unhurt. He almost got away…got over the fence….well, not over, I guess he burned some kind of hole through the fence…..but eventually they ran him down…up by an old radio tower up north of Roswell. He apparently had stolen something they called an ‘orb.’ He didn’t have it on him when they caught him though.”

“Did they bring him here?”

“No…hell sir, that was before this place was even built. No, they took him someplace else. I don’t think it was even an Air Force place, I think it was civilian. They still had a lot of those old Presidential findings back then about aliens…you know, the ones they used to lock up all those Japanese in all those camps out West? I think they used some of those to lock him up in some secret civilian prison. It sounded like from what the doctors said, they tortured him for two years trying to get him to give up the location of the pods….the orb. Finally he went mad….somehow broke out…killed a few guards with his bare hands just to get away…killed some pregnant lady to steal her car…..was never seen or heard of again. Apparently nobody knows what became of any of that stuff. That’s really about all I know…and like I said, sir, that’s all hearsay. I’d have thought the doctors were all bullshitting me, pardon my French, Ma’am, if I thought they’d have known I spoke German.”

MSgt Alvarez was asked more questions, but it really did seem that was all he knew. He was turned over to SMSgt Ormsby for a tour of the facility, lunch, and an early afternoon flight back to McCarran.

After that came the discussion.

“Peter, what can you tell us about your search of the records?”

“Actually, I managed to find an old black and white picture of what I believe we are talking about.”

He projected the graphic on the screen, an old black and white photo of a pod with circular tubing around it at wreckage site, half covered with other debris.

“I also went through the mockup of the spacecraft, knowing what to look for now…trying to find where four pods like that would fit. The only reasonable place is this one compartment..” and he projected another graphic, “ and if that’s the case they appeared to be hard wired to draw electrical power from a bus fed directly by the cylinders. Now a stasis field….an area where time stands still, that’s theoretically possible, but it would require a lot of energy, even for a volume of space that was fairly small. Once the spaceship broke up, they would have had to have been operating on something like battery power. Probably they had much better technology than we have, but barring a totally redundant power supply like another cylinder, I would think that these pods would have used up their reserve supply years ago.”

“Why would anyone do something like that….freeze embryos in time?”

“Well,” said Laurie. “We freeze human embryos now, at fertility clinics and the like. But the fear is that if they are frozen too long, even in liquid nitrogen, they degrade somewhat. I imagine if you had something you thought was really valuable, and had this technology, you’d just freeze them in time to leave them undisturbed without worrying about damage in the freezing and thawing process, or while they were frozen. The real question would be…what’s valuable enough to do that with?”

“Well if you asked my wife,” said Slammer, “..she’d tell you kids. We can’t have any…she had cancer as a child….the radiation treatments caused her to be sterilized. But if you asked her, she’d tell you the most precious thing in the universe is a child.”

“Maybe this is the only way that fetuses can safely travel in space,” said Jim. “Maybe something about the FTL drive would harm them. Though with four pods…and only one female….that doesn’t make too much sense.”

“It’s more than that, Jim,” said Laurie. “These incubators are huge….I mean…huge for fetuses. It looks like they could not just carry a fetus to term but…heck…you could get them to maybe six years old.”

“Don’t tell my Mom that, Laurie,” said Jim. “She still gives me a bad time about things I did in the ‘terrible twos’.”

“Well, whatever the case…when the incubators ran out of power, whatever was in them would have quickly died,” said Laura.

“Not necessarily,” said Peter. “There is something called probabilistic fault tolerance.”

“Peter, I’m just a lowly fighter pilot,” Slammer said. “You’ll have to explain that one to me.”

“Well Slammer, some things are just too important to ever be allowed to fail catastrophically…like a nuclear reactor. Even if the worst disaster possible occurs, you don’t let it fail. Take the example of the nuclear reactor. A nuclear reactor is basically an atomic bomb that is kept from exploding by control rods that absorb neutrons to keep the chain reaction from being self sustaining. In theory, if you pull the control rods out, you have a nuclear explosion, but we don’t allow that because we engineer reactors to avoid that possibility. Back in the 1960s there was a military reactor in Idaho. It was what was called a water moderated reactor, using water to slow the neutrons down enough to permit them to propagate the chain reaction, but with control rods to keep it from happening. One day they started maintenance on the reactor…cleaning the control rods. They shut off the safety mechanisms so they could pull the rods, one at a time, to clean them. They had done one rod when the shift ended. The night shift came on…just three caretakers really, but they thought they’d help out the day shift. They kept pulling rods to clean them…but didn’t put the clean rods back in. As they pulled the third rod, the reactor went critical. But because it had been designed to depend upon the water to slow the neutrons enough to sustain the reaction, when the pressurized water became super-heated steam, the steam explosion destroyed the reactor milliseconds before it could become an atomic bomb. The three guys on the night shift all died, and there was a huge mess to clean up, but the reactor never became a bomb.

Chernobyl was an equally stupid mistake, with no containment facility to stop leakage. But even so, instead of becoming a bomb…a bomb that would have taken out the three adjacent reactors as well and been infinitely worse at spreading radiation, no nuclear explosion actually occurred.

We know that the aliens utilized probabilistic fault tolerance. Even a catastrophic failure of the first cylinder…a nuclear explosion in the engine room, did not destroy the ship or kill the people on board. They even appear to have designed the cylinders to withstand a crash landing. Even when an idiot barbarian used three diamond cutting wheels to cut into it….even then, the cylinder gave a warning right up until it was opened…and even then damped the explosion. Now THAT is truly probabilistic fault tolerance.”

“So how would that apply to the pods,” asked Slammer.

“Well I would think that the energy needed for a stasis field would be far higher than the energy needed for just an incubator, so as the power failed…”

“You’d bring the fetuses to term and hatch them…” said Laurie and Jim simultaneously.

“Exactly,” said Peter.

“So we may have as many as five aliens walking around out there someplace?” asked Slammer.

“Yes,” said Peter. “Possibly more. If they missed one adult alien at the crash site…they may have missed more. Not a lot, surely, the living space in the spacecraft was not great, but certainly it might have held more than six…perhaps as many as ten.”

“So what can you tell us about the orb?” asked Slammer.

“It’s also quite interesting…although I don’t really understand it. The one we have seems innocuous enough….here is a picture of it. It’s believed to be either a communicator or a control device. As you can see on what we believe to have been the instrument panel, there are two depressions, one on either side. The orbs apparently locked in to these and were removable only after an impact severe enough to have destroyed the ship. But why they were designed that way….why they were duplicated…..why the alien would want to steal one…well I have no basis to even speculate.”

“I do,” said Slammer, the blood draining from his face. "I’ve seen a setup very much like that. When I was a young cadet at the Academy, I did a summer tour at Vandenberg Air Force Base, where they trained missile crews. I got to see a training facility for the Minuteman control silos. There were two keyed switches…just that far apart. If the duty crew got orders to launch their missiles they would both turn their keys simultaneously…they were placed too far apart for one person to do it, and spring loaded to the off position. You had to have two people simultaneously and independently giving the launch enable for the missiles to fire.”

“So you think this was some sort of nuclear weapon?”

“No,” said Peter. “We found nothing that even resembles offensive weapons, but I think Slammer is probably right. But it wasn’t an offensive weapon…it was a defensive one.”

“Defensive?” asked Laurie.

“A suicide device. If you were going to be captured by someone…someone that would torture and kill you…someone that was evil…you detonate one of the cylinders,” said Jim.

“Or if they were truly evil…truly powerful….a threat to your species….someone you could not allow to have your technology…to track back to your civilization….perhaps even something…worse….a suicide weapon that would take their planet out before they could attack yours.” said Peter.

“Well the alien wouldn’t have bothered to take away the pods if he were just going to destroy the world anyway,” said Jim. “I might see him blowing up a cylinder…to deny us the technology…..but I can’t imagine the pods being far enough away that a 35 megaton explosion wouldn’t have gotten them too. Besides…If he was only one person…with one of the orbs, he wouldn’t be able to set it off.”

“Well Jim,” said Slammer, “..that analogy may not be perfect. Survival of the culture always comes above all else. If you were designing a fail-safe mechanism…do you make it fail-safe that you can’t have your world destroyed without two man control…or fail-safe that you can’t have someone else’s world destroyed without two man control. Remember, it was only one man….a very important man to be sure, President Truman, that authorized the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’m not too sure that if you were to design a system, you might not design it so if all else failed, one person could trigger that destruction…if the situation went disastrously bad.”

“And that may be so,” said Peter. “And perhaps even there existed a way for the survivor to modify the explosive power of the cylinders through that device…to use it like the scuttling charge on German submarines, to destroy just the ship. But I would propose another possibility as well. Since the alien rescued the embryos first, I don’t think his intention was to destroy the world, for that would have surely destroyed them as well. I think his intention may have been to have a device available that could disarm the other dangerous parts of the ship…that could override any attempts to examine or use them that may have been dangerous. Perhaps he could remotely override our efforts. Whatever the case, I fear we will never know. The other orb is lost, and ours appears to be nonfunctional.”

“Well, I think we need to concentrate on that orb, get all the departments involved at least coming up with theories about it. I think if we understand it, we may understand a lot of the other equipment. But once again, I don’t think we can tinker with it. If it’s a control mechanism…it may seem inactive, but so were the cylinders …until someone cut into one with a diamond saw. I don’t think we can afford to do anything but theorize about it right now,” said Slammer.

“What about the twin to it?” asked Jim.

“Let’s just hope to God it’s in a safe place,” said Slammer.

There were a few muttered ‘amens’ around the table after that comment.

12:15PM Downtown (what little there is of it) Tonopah Nevada

Max and Liz used their lunch hour to do a little running aroud Tonopah, since they no longer had a room upstairs. The went to the alternative high school, got signed up for GED study programs and after taking a quick aptitude test, a junior college correspondence course each. After that they went to a second hand computer store. There they used some of their gambling winnings to buy an older computer with a recent upgrade to the processor and memory. It had a dinky screen, but would be OK for their college and GED studies. The computer guy told them that the modem was only 24K, but at their place out by the airport the telephone lines were only good enough to handle about 16K anyway. He warned them to go easy on sending graphics, but that it should do fine for email. While Max sent a quick message, Liz paid the man, then borrowed his phone to call the local phone company and arrange service for them out at the duplex.

As they hurried to get back to the restaurant before the end of their lunch breaks, Max saw Liz wince.

“Liz, what’s the matter?”

“When we get home tonight, will you fix a bruise I have… just about 4 inches above my tailbone?”

“Sure. Did you run into something at work?”

“No. It was that raised handle on the door of the top loading washer. I didn’t notice it at the time….I was sort of preoccupied. But I’m pretty sure that’s what did it.”

“I’ll fix it…no problem. Want to go somewhere now and do it?”

“Right, Mr. Evans. And then somehow Anna can’t take her lunch because we are 45 minutes late getting back.”

“Well,” Max smiled, “I offered.”

“Well maybe tonight you can send a message to customer service at Maytag…telling them to recess that dang handle.”

“I don’t know, Liz. It was pretty comfortable where I was….”

“I can’t believe you actually said that Max Evans…..I’m married to a male chauvinist pig.”

“Oink-oink..”


3:30 PM, The Evans Residence, Roswell New Mexico

Diane Evans had been shopping when her cellphone had gone off and Isabel had made her somewhat conspiratorial sounding request. But she’d made it sound important, so Diane had hurriedly driven home. As she came into the kitchen from the garage, she called out, “Isabel…I’m home.”

“We’re in here, Mom.”

Diane quickly followed the voice to Isabel’s room, and entered it to find Isabel and Alex sitting side by side on the bed, serious and somewhat worried expressions on their faces. She sat down in the chair in front of them.

“I’m here, honey. What’s wrong?”

Isabel looked at Alex uncertainly…as if drawing courage from his presence.

“I need to tell you something, Mom. And please don’t tell anyone about it. You know Alex, right…”

”Yes, Isabel, of course I know Alex, you know that…”

“Well..I have to tell you something. You know …Alex and I have a kind of special relationship and….”

“Omigawd. You’re pregnant?”

“Pregnant??! No Mom, I can’t believe you said that. Alex and I haven’t even had sex yet. He just brought me a message from Max. Alex knows me well enough that he could understand .....well.....why I didn’t want to share it with the Sheriff or anyone, so he brought it directly to me. I read it and….and I think I do want to share it with you.”

”OK, Isabel. Can I see it?”

Diane read the e-mail from her son to his sister.

• Dear Isabel,
  
  You know of course I miss you, miss the whole family. I’m sure Mom and Dad are worried, maybe you are too. Please reassure them for me. Things are going well….really. Things are stable here, we have reasonable jobs and have a place of our own that’s inexpensive, but works well for us. We have both started back in school, and just bought a computer so we can email everyone a little more often.
  
  I carried Liz across the threshold of our first house last night. Izzy, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy. I feel that I finally truly have found my home.
  
  I won’t belabor the fact that you were wrong about Liz. Wrong when you feared how she would react to the truth about me. We all make mistakes, and I was wrong too. I realize that, and I wanted to write and tell you.
  
  I was wrong all the times when you wanted to tell Mom the truth…and I wouldn’t let you...when I didn’t think she could really handle the truth and still love me.
  
  Just as you did with Liz, I underestimated the ability of people who love you to accept who and what you are. I was wrong to make you promise to not tell her…and I release you from that promise now.
  
  I realize Mom and Dad are under a lot of stress over the elopement and all, I don’t know if now would be a good time to tell her or not, but I trust you and trust her, and leave that to your decision. And with her there with you, I imagine even breaking it to Dad would go OK.
  
  I really meant what I said in my other message…that you should embrace your human side. Of course, that was metaphorical….although Liz assures me that Alex is a very nice guy too…LOL.
  
  I wish somehow it could be sooner, but I anticipate seeing you in about eighteen months when Liz turns eighteen. Say hi to Michael for me.
  
  Love you, Sis.
  
  Max

Diane looked up at Isabel, tears in her eyes. “You know Max’s secret? You’ve always known it?”

“Yes, Mom,” she said. “But it isn’t just Max’s secret..it never was. It was my secret too, I just hid it better than Max did.”

“Well what,” asked Diane. “What is this secret you two have kept from me for so long.”

“I’m not really sure where to begin, Mom. Do I begin in 1947? Or in the cave five miles off the old road to Albuquerque where you and Dad found us walking? Or five months ago, when the girl my brother loved more than his own life….when that girl was lying almost dead on the floor of the Crashdown?”

“Isabel, I don’t understand…”

“Just take my hand, Mom, and look into my eyes….”

The flashes began in Diane’s mind, and they continued for almost two minutes. When she opened her eyes Isabel was watching her, tears in her eyes, hoping….but still fearful.

Diane pulled her daughter to her, and tears fell from them both as they embraced each other. “Isabel….how could you…how could that brother of yours ever have doubted….we are family dear….we will always be family. You, your brother…Liz too now. And whoever you pick..” she said, looking at Alex and smiling, “..whoever you choose, they’ll be our child as well.”

They held each other crying and smiling for 5 minutes. Finally Diane got up, brushing at the tears on her face with a Kleenex.

”We probably need a plan to break this to your Dad. I mean, he’ll be OK with it, it’s just that he’s pretty stressed about Max being gone and everything. Let me think of just how to break it to him, OK?”

“Sure, Mom…… and Mom,…..I love you.”

“I love you too, Isabel.”

When Diane left Isabel leaned in toward Alex, and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Thank you so much for being here, Alex. I was so nervous…and..it really made a difference you being here. I think that went real well.”

“Umm-hmmm,” he said, softly running his fingers through her hair. She sighed deeply, and nestled more firmly against him.

Alex was a fast learner. Most guys have to be husbands for several years before they learn how to quietly agree with the one they love, when they haven’t been paying a damn bit of attention to what the one they love was saying. Oh, he’d eventually replay most of the conversation…and recall a few pertinent details.

But not just now. In fact, Alex hadn’t processed a thing after the word “yet.”

9:00 PM 23B Airway Drive, Old military housing area, Tonopah Airport Nevada

Because they’d both run errands throughout their lunch breaks, Max and Liz had split a hamburger and fries before leaving town. Once they had gotten home, Max had healed the bruise and…well..one thing led to another, them being newlyweds, and they burned a fair number of calories and were now hungry again. So Liz was making sandwiches from the leftover meatloaf while Max set up the computer to provide their OTHER entertainment for the night.

Anna had warned then that there was no cable, and that the sole channel they could receive at the airport, off some little UHF repeater up on the mountain top, was barely useable, so they hadn’t bought a television. But the small screen on the computer would show DVDs, so they turned the lights down and snuggled up on the couch to watch the small screen.

The rental for tonight was The Princess Bride, and they’d taken a quick break for Liz to make the sandwiches, while Max got the program running.

As she returned to the darkened room, Liz made a small mistake, switching the two sandwiches. Max got the leftover normal meatloaf, she got the leftover habanero pepper meatloaf. As the narrator described Westley going off to be captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts, and the screen showed Buttercup’s grief at his loss, Max bit into his sandwich. He chewed…swallowed… and got up to go get some Tabasco sauce.

“What’s wrong, Max?”

“Nothing really…just wanted some Tabasco sauce. You want some?”

Liz took a quick bite of her sandwich and chewed and swallowed it.

“No thanks, dear. Mine tastes just fine…”

11:30 PM The Whitman Residence, Roswell New Mexico

Alex had been staring at the ceiling above his bed for an hour, recalling that one sentence...that one word. How could three little letters affect him so much? He had been friends with Maria and Liz for years..but it had never been more than frinedship...and he knew it never would...good friends, to be sure...but nothing sexual.

And with Isabel...well, that was friendship too. It was true, she'd called him over to talk that night, but only because he was one of only a few who she could talk to...someone who knew her secret. And yes, he'd actually fallen asleep in her bed...but that was just an accident for both of them. And yes, he'd admit it, he really wished that it could be more....but how realistic was that? I mean, Isabel was drop-dead gorgeous, all the guys at West Roswell wanted her, why would she want to have anything to do with him really...a computer geek...a musician?

Oh sure, what she said had come out almost like she was planning on a future for the two of them...something a lot more than friendship. And Max and Liz had certainly proven that aliens and humans were.....compatible. But that still left the question of why on earth....check that...why in the universe, someone as wonderful as Isabel would plan on being compatible with....him. They'd had one date....well, gone out for a sundae, anyway. It was stupid, he told himself, to think that somehow Isabel had made some sort of a Freudian slip talking to her mother...stupid to think that she actually someday expected them to be lovers.

He went to sleep finally, having at last won the fight to not get his hopes up about that comment, and as he went to sleep drifted off into a dream. There was music playing in the background, a large four-poster bed, and Isabel in a long red dress with a rather breathtakingly plunging neckline. Alex danced with this vision, her head against his shoulder.

Alex knew it was a dream, but he also knew that he had lost the fight with his subconscious to not get his hopes up. He knew that the moment her lips touched his and she looked into his eyes. 'Oh well,' he told himself. 'I can dream, can't I?'

Isabel looked up at him in the dream as if she had heard his very thoughts. Her lips smiled and she said, "Yes you can, Alex. We both can." She crossed her hands in front of her to touch the shoulders of her red dress and there was a brief flare of golden light, and the dress fell to the floor.


11:45 PM The Evans Residence, Roswell New Mexico.

Diane had gone to the kitchen for a cup of warm milk. She missed Max so much...and she needed to touch him...to tell him ...to make sure he knew that all that alien business....it made no difference at all. She'd heard the moans coming from Isabel's room, figured she was having a nightmare. Poor Isabel, she missed Max too.

As she entered the room...apparently the nightmare had passed. Isabel's face had never looked happier...more content. She was just looking radiant, quietly glowing, smiling like she'd never felt better in her life.

Diane picked up the yearbook from the bedspread...Oh, there was Alex....such a nice boy. She sure liked him more than all those phony guys Isabel had dated in the past. As she put the yearbook up on the bookcase she laughed at herself, thinking about catching him asleep in here that time. Not that they wouldn't be a good match......

I enjoyed the new part. I'm very happy that Diane didn't actually know what was going on with Isabel there though. That could have been, well just incredibly embarrassing.

7:30 AM Nye County Sheriff’s Office Northern Headquarters, Tonopah Nevada

As the morning shift was being briefed, the Sheriff had a handsome young man come up to the podium.

“This is Greg Derkacht from Fallon. He has been accepted to the state police academy and will be starting there in three weeks. Until then, he’ll be staying in Tonopah and the academy has requested and we have approved for Greg to do some ride-alongs with us. For those of you who have never had a ride-along, please remember that Greg is a civilian, he will not be armed and will not have a Kevlar vest. He is an observer only, and will not be allowed out of the car if there is a dangerous situation present. He is here to get experience, but we need to be aware of liability concerns for the county, due process for anyone we stop, and last but certainly not least the safety of Greg. Any questions about those policies?”

After a few seconds with no response, the Sheriff turned to the young eighteen year old and said, “OK then, welcome Greg. Hope it’s interesting for you…but be careful.”


8:00 AM Betty’s Restaurant, Tonopah Nevada

Liz and Anna continued to be introduced by law enforcement personnel who knew the story of the rescue of Deputy Walker to those few who did not yet know the story and both girls became subject to the same kind of good natured kidding that the law enforcement people gave to one another. At 8:15, Mrs. Walker and Alissa Sarah stopped by, saying hello to everyone at the law enforcement table and giving everyone an update on the Deputy’s medical condition. He was improving daily, and would be back home within a week.

Max was dragged in from the front desk and thanked again. Almost immediately he noticed that Liz was holding little Alissa Sarah again. Liz was going “gitcheee-gitchee,” and the three moth old was cooing and smiling back at her. Somehow the look in Liz’s eyes was making him profoundly uncomfortable and when Mrs. Walker suggested that maybe Max might like to hold the infant, he practically leaped at the chance to get little Alissa Sarah out of his wife’s hands.

It didn’t work quite as well as he expected. Alissa Sarah started smiling, giggling, and cooing at Max. Mrs. Walker immediately said, “Why she’s never taken to any man like that before…not even her own daddy. Boy, you’re going to make some kid a great father.”

Max’s eyes instantly went to Liz, and the grinning look that was returned sent shivers down his spine. He made an excuse about having to get back to the front desk that sounded lame even to him, and beat a hasty retreat from the room, glad to see that Mrs. Walker was now holding little Alissa.

1020 Det. 24 Main Conference Room, Area 51 Nevada

The meeting had started 20 minutes ago, but as Major Halby, the chief of Civil Engineering had been speaking for about ten minutes.

“As you see from these slides,” said Major Halby, “..it isn’t just the area behind the wall in Biosciences, but most of the laboratories are structurally deficient…many actually unsafe.”

“How did this happen, Major Halby?” asked Slammer from the head of the table.’

“Well sir, the bulk of the facility was built in 1948 and 1949…..that’s a half century ago. Worse..this was the time of the WWII demobilization…the military had little money…few resources. There were still shortages of steel and concrete as construction long stalled by WWII finally got going. And the orders were to get something up fast…because the spacecraft had to be removed from Roswell….too many newspaper reporters were sniffing around there. Frankly, a lot of the construction on the base was poorly done when it was new. A half century of wear and tear…changing building and life-safety codes….well, if people from the safety center had clearances that would let them get past the gate, we’d have probably been closed down twenty years ago.”

Slammer knew all this….he’d already had the conversation with the young Major…and asked Halby some very pointed questions as to why the Chief of CE had done nothing about this the three years he’d been assigned. Major Halby had saved copies of his letter to the former commander, memos about meetings held where longtime researchers, mostly civilians like Blaukopf and Schreiber, but some military department heads as well, had objected…pooh-poohed his concerns, not wanting to see experiments interrupted or equipment moved. Ultimately, previous commanders had always opted for the status quo.

“And the Hangar B facility, Major?,” asked Slammer.

“Well sir, if the intention is really to build a storage facility with the security of a nuclear weapons storage area….”

”And it is,” said Slammer.

“Well then…the whole building has to be demolished. I mean sir, it’s a wooden building…you just can’t get there from here. As a matter of fact, eighty percent of the buildings here at the detachment simply need to be demolished…to start over.”

Several hands went up. Slammer nodded to the individual who put his up first.

“Sir…all the equipment….even our quarters…the experiments….what do we do while all this goes on?”

Slammer nodded to Jim, who started a powerpoint presentation. Talking as he clicked through the screens.

“This is a picture of Tonopah Test Range which is in the northwest corner of the Nellis Range Complex. In the foreground you see the runway and industrial work areas. In the background…about six or seven miles north, are the billeting areas, dining halls, gymnasium….basically the living area for people who once worked at the industrial area. It was expanded to its present size in the early 1980s as part of a classified program called Senior Trend, the operational development and fielding of F-117A Stealth Aircraft. It was built as a secure and highly classified facility….later declassified in the early 1990s, and eventually mothballed when the F-117s were moved to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

Now this base is really not a suitable base either, but it is considerably newer, more secure, and more functional than Area-51. We propose using it as an interim base…..for about six months, while the current base is largely demolished and rebuilt. Any questions?”

“Sir, will we be able to do our current experiments there?”

“Well,” said Slammer, “…that’s what I’m depending on the people in this room to tell me. I’m certain that a lot of research can continue…some clearly can not. But we can take advantage of the opportunity to get out of our boxes….to have everyone..from ALL units work in concert on certain issues….for example….this.”

Slammer held up the orb.

Most of you know Dr. Peter Stanbeck, and many of you have seen this. He believes this is a communication or remote control device. We can’t cut in to it…that’s too dangerous. But we can x-ray it, CAT scan it, MRI it, ultrasound it, do one heck of a lot of brainstorming about it…..and there are other similar projects that can be done…big picture….multidisciplinary projects. Our time needn’t be wasted, even if we can’t fo quite everything we’d like there.”

“Any other questions?” asked Jim.

“Uh…we’ve always been kind of in the middle of nowhere here…..Tonopah Test Range got any civilization around it?”

“Well, not much,” said Jim, putting up another Powerpoint Slide. “Here’s the aerial mapof Tonopah Test Range. It’s 21 nautical miles from the Tonopah Airport….that’s an old Army Air Corps base, by air…but about 35 by car. The town…only 2000, but that’s bigger than the ones around here close…it’s about 40 or so away driving.

“I realize this is going to be a hassle, people,” said Slammer, “…but we’ve really got no other option. This place isn’t safe, until it’s rebuilt we can’t work here. Unless someone here has a better idea that place is our best option.”

The department heads looked around the table. It looked like nobody had any better ideas. They resigned themselves to a six month stay at Tonopah Test Range.


11:45 AM Betty’s restaurant, Tonopah Nevada

“Hi, Anna,” said the chief. “This young man is Greg Derkacht, he’s a new cadet…about to start at the state police academy.

Anna smiled shyly. The young man was attractive enough…but he was still a man. She eyed him warily…keeping her distance.



1:45 PM Second floor, North hall, West Roswell High Schoiol, Roswell New Mexico

It almost seemed like Isabel had been avoiding him today, Alex thought. He’d seen her first thing before school, but she’d ducked in to a girl’s restroom as he approached. When he’d tried to meet her for lunch after her PE class, she’d never come out of the girl’s locker room, and now, when he’d tried to see her before her final class, she had again ducked in to a restroom.

Alex was not really hurt, but he was concerned. He understood that he didn’t fit precisely into the mold of the type of pretty person ice princess Isabel would typically associate with, but he really did value her friendship….even if he was still reeling from that totally unrealistic dream he had about her last night. Perhaps it was that time of month for her…and she just didn't feel that great. That happened with Liz sometimes too, he knew. And even Maria, sometimes. Or maybe a bladder infection….girls seemed to get a lot of those.

“Don’t you get it?” Pamela Troy asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Whitman, you are such a pathetic wuss. Don’t you get it at all?”

“Get what?”

“The joke, Whitman…the joke. I mean you didn’t seriously think she was doing anything but stringing you along for laughs, did you? Isabel Evans?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Hell, Alex…come to the party. The Ice Princess has her choice of arm candy to use and abuse and then drop like a hot rock. They all get it. Even the dumb jock footballers get it. I certainly have no idea why she even bothered to lead a dork like you on to begin with, but she’s been hiding in every girl’s bathroom in the school today to get away from you. Whatever you thought you had, Whitman….trust me it’s over. It’s hard to believe even an Ice Princess would lead you on like that, and harder still to believe you didn’t know she was making a fool of you.”

“That’s enough, Miss Troy,” said the Vice Principal as she came around the corner. “Alex….I want you to go to my office right now. Miss Troy….I believe you have a class to get to.”

Sandra Hochstetter disliked cliques, but she was realistic about the ability of the school administration to control them. One of the cliques she disliked the most, was the Ice Princess Posse, of which Isabel Evans was the current reigning princess. And although Isabel had not, compared to most of the Posse members, used her status to demean guys who she dated, a number of others certainly had. And recently, she had clearly been leading on Alex Whitman, a nice young man who deserved better than to be dumped by a haughty Posse member. While she clearly didn’t approve of Pam Troy’s taunting the boy, it was apparent Evans was playing him for a sucker, perhaps as some inside joke or wager with other Posse members.

The Vice Principal watched Pamela Troy walk down the hallway, while Alex Whitman went down the Northeast stairway toward the administrative offices.. When both were out of sight, she proceeded in to the girl’s bathroom, where Isabel Evans was standing, just looking at herself in the mirror.

“Miss Evans,…it seems that your family had become awfully troublesome recently. First your brother and Liz Parker…now I understand there is a problem with you and Alex Whitman.”

“But Mrs. Hochstetter…”

“This is not the time or the place, Miss Evans. The place is my office, and I want you to go there right now. I’ll be there in five or ten minutes, as soon as I get back from talking to the principal.”

“Yes, Mrs. Hochstetter.”

Alex wasn’t altogether sure what this was all about, but the secretary had told him to go wait in Mrs. Hochstetter’s office for her return so he took one of two seats in front of her desk and tried to keep his mind off Isabel by reading an ancient copy of a parent-teacher magazine on the table. That didn’t work very well though, as within a few minutes the door opened, and Isabel came in, her eyes going from him to the floor, before sitting glumly beside him.

“Isabel? Are you alright?”

“I don’t know, Alex. That would depend on you I guess….on whether or not you choose to forgive me.”

“Isabel,…I knew I never really fit in your social circle, but…I guess I really always understood it couldn’t last. I enjoyed our date….the other times we spent together. I’ll always be grateful for those memories…even if we can’t hang around with each other any more….I’d still like to be friends.”

Isabel seemed puzzled briefly, then shook her head. “You don’t understand, Alex. I’m not trying to break up. I’m trying to apologize about how ….how I used you yesterday.”

“That wasn’t using me, Isabel. I was glad to be there with you, glad to help you tell your mom. That’s what friends do.”

Alex was puzzled, not really at all sure why Isabel was so emotional about this. His mind thought of and discarded a dozen ideas why she should be so distraught, but as it turned out….he wasn’t even close.

“Not that, Alex. I mean….dreamwalking you….getting you to make love to me in your dream…without even letting you know I was there?”

Isabel waited for Alex to respond …to yell at her……to say anything at all. He seemed to have lost the capacity for speech.

“You wouldn’t believe what…sleazy thoughts…what sleazy dreams, some teenage boys have, Alex. Until you, I’ve always dreamwalked the guys I’ve planned on dating. Sometimes I’ve decided not to date them at all……just because of how they acted when they saw me in that red dress. But I knew better last night…even before I dreamwalked you. I knew you didn’t think about me like they did. But last night….Alex, until I told Mom…I think I was like Max started out with Liz….I knew I loved you, but didn’t really think humans could really accept us. But after Liz…and after Mom…I knew you would. And suddenly…the tables were turned….it was me that wanted more….and I took advantage of you, Alex. I should have told you…told you about dreamwalking…told you in the dream that you really weren’t alone.”

“You mean you were really there…I mean….that wasn’t just my imagination..?”

“It was both of our imaginations, Alex. But yes, I was there. I felt what you did…just as you felt what I did. There are probably 20 guys that have seen me in that red dress, Alex….but you are the only one who has ever seen what’s underneath it. But I’m so sorry, Alex. I should have told you…no…I should have asked. And now I’m asking you to forgive me….to let us start over. No, last night wasn’t real…but I’d like it to be real…someday….someday when we are older…..some day when my parents are a little less freaked over Max and Liz…over…the secret. I’d like that very much.”

“Isabel…there’s nothing to forgive…..I mean…I wanted you so much…I never dreamed….well, I guess I did,” he smiled, “but I thought it was only a dream..”

“For now, Alex….it can’t be real. But it will someday…..I swear it to you. And until then…we can still share our dreams…”

Further discussion was interrupted by the door opening, and the Vice Principal coming in to the room. She looked sternly at Isabel, as she sat down in her chair.

“Miss Evans, it’s very rare that I find myself in agreement with Pamela Troy on anything, but loathe as I am to admit it, I think that she is right about one thing. The way you have been toying with Mr. Whitman’s emotions is positively reprehensible.

I have tolerated it when you have done this in the past with the usual run of arrogant plastic people that you usually date, but Mr. Whitman is unlike them….he’s sensitive and caring. Sexual harassment under the school code, Miss Evans, is not just unwanted sexual advances, or unwanted touching, ….it’s also sexual advances made for the purpose of making another look foolish….of demeaning him or her, and that is clearly what you have been doing.”

“But Mrs. Hochstetter…”

“But me no buts, young lady. I want to hear you apologize to Mr. Whitman, and I want to hear you apologize to him right now!”

Isabel looked into Alex’s eyes. “Alex….I want to apologize for deceiving you about us…about last night.”

“Well Mr. Whitman. What do you have to say? Do you want me to carry this further with disciplinary action toward Miss Evans? Is there anything you’d like to say to her about what she did to you?”

Alex looked at Isabel and suddenly there seemed to be no one and nothing else in the world. As he lost himself in her eyes, all of his doubts were forgotten, all of his fears were gone, he spoke from the heart, and he spoke only to her….

“Will you marry me Isabel…? It can’t be right now…I know that...but in a couple of years….when we graduate…when we are of legal age?”

Isabel’s eyes grew wide….as did her smile….and the tears started slowly going down her cheeks.


“YES Alex….”

As she flung herself into his arms their lips found each other and they kissed deeply, forgetting to breathe for long moments.

Sitting speechless at her desk, the Vice Principal had also stopped breathing, watching an awful lot of touching going on between the two, although apparently none of it was exactly unwanted. Finally they broke.

“Yes Alex….nothing could make me happier than to be your wife, when we are old enough….and in the meantime…we’ll still have our dreams. Come on…I need to go tell Maria about this..”

Five minutes later the Principal stuck his head in the open door of the Vice Principal’s office.

“Sandra,…how did the sexual harassment talk go with Miss Evans? Sandra….?

Sandra…..?

Sandra, is there something wrong with your jaw?”

11:00 PM 23B Airway Drive, Old military housing area, Tonopah Airport Nevada

Liz knew they were still newlyweds and clearly hadn't fallen into any sort of a routine yet, but before tonight foreplay...when they'd bothered with it...had consisted of more than him sliding his hand madly around her right hip. And looking at Max....well, it didn't seem to be working either...and THAT wasn't something that had occurred before. Briefly, she was wondering how alien chemistry would react to Viagra, and then the light came on.

"It was time to change the patch, Max. It's on the other side now. The directions said if you keep putting them on the same place, they eventually irritate the skin there."

His hand rapidly went to the other side....finding comfort in the small patch sticking to the hip.

'Hmmmm,' she thought. Apparently the Viagra wasn't going to be needed after all.

"You know, Max, Alissa is cute...but I do realize that's out of the question right now."

He looked into her eyes and kissed her softly on the lips, then pulled back to see her beautiful face.

"I realize we both have our schooling...heck, I'll probably be a post-doc before we can really take the time to start a family."

He smiled at her. She was so beautiful....so desirable...and all his.

"Well, maybe we could start a family during graduate school....after I do the lab work. I mean you mostly just sit at a desk when you actually write your thesis."

He loved her big brown eyes....her tender inviting lips....her silky skin...

"And even if we started earlier, I mean you are only really big for about three months...and you can be careful, even doing labwork."

....and her neck that led you down to her beautiful breasts, with their pert nipples that would react to his touch...

"...and even if we started in college, I mean...that really wouldn't be all that bad. Lots of women have their babies in college. A lot of colleges have daycare available for married students and everything.."

...and he loved her little navel, and loved to run his hand over the top of her pubic hair....feeling her respond to him.....

"Ummmm....and I mean even if we had a baby right at the start of our freshman year...you know, 20 months from now...that really wouldn't be all that bad.....we could stagger our classes and work around child care.."

...and he loved how her body would.....wait a minute...what was she saying????

"UMMM Max....you've teased me long enough.... come closer...I need you.....now.."

As he descended with her into the silver irridescent fog his subconscious was telling him he needed to be wary of something....practically screaming it...but lost in the sensations he couldn't hear his subconscious very well, and very quickly was paying no attention to his subconscious at all.

Sometimes the moment was too important to take time to worry about the future...and this was just such a moment....

5:20 AM 23B Airway Drive, Old military housing area, Tonopah Airport Nevada

The pillow talk had been going on for 10 minutes.

A week ago, Liz was amazed about the change that came from the simple act of being married…of being..one flesh. All at once, all the rules were different. All at once…there was no battle of the sexes…she and Max were on the same side. They’d both talked about that…how different things were from how they’d both perceived them. And now they were talking… talking about those things…laying in bed together early in the morning.

“You know, Max,… I started to think about you…..started to think about how nice if we could be an…us, in the fifth grade. I mean, I always thought you were nice….but I thought about you sort of like I did about Alex….you know, just a friend…..until well…puberty. Something about having your period start really forces you to confront the issue of sex when you are a girl…forces you to realize there really is a difference. And then you start to dream of what that difference holds for you…for your future.

From fifth grade until seventh grade….well, you were the one I saw when I fantasized about walking down that aisle…when I thought about living my life with some guy. But then when everyone started dating..when we were lab partners for that first time..I sent you every signal a seventh grade girl knows how to send about us dating…about us going to that first dance. After that…well….I probably would have given up if Maria hadn’t kept teasing me….telling me you were interested.

But even in those dreams, Max….I had no idea it would really be like this…the closeness….the oneness. I expected if it ever did happen that …well…I’d be more uncomfortable with it…maybe have to spend years getting used to the idea.

Maybe this sounds funny, Max, but I really feared you were going to be more different….more alien, back when I didn’t even know the secret, than you turned out to be in real life. Maybe some of it was connecting…but really it happened after that. It happened after we ran off…when I made the decision to commit to you…and then when you told me you wanted to get married.

If you’d told me once…in all those years…that I’d be so comfortable…laying in bed naked next to you…I’d have told you that you were crazy. But it’s all changed. When I wake up at night…hear you breathing…feel you in bed next to me…..there’s nothing alien about it….it just feels…right.”

“In the third grade I knew I loved you, Liz. Don’t ask me how, I just did. But love was different to a third grader…I did love you…just like I loved Isabel. And in sixth grade well…puberty is less abrupt for guys I guess, but gradually as I started to realize that girls weren’t just kind of …soft boys, I guess, …it was always you in my thoughts…in my fantasies. But I was sure, Liz,..I absolutely knew they could never be anything but fantasies.

But now you’re here next to me….not just my friend..but my lover..my wife…. even talking about having my child. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel, Liz? How it would make any man feel?

I don’t know any way you could tell me any more strongly that you accept me….no…more than acceptance…..far more. All those years I doubted….feared…..couldn’t believe you would want anything to do with me if you knew the truth…and here you are…..wanting my child inside of you.”

“Max, about last night. I realize I was getting carried away. I know it’s too early…I mean if the patch failed or something…it wouldn’t be unwanted…but I know it’s too soon, Max.

I know it’s a little scary being on our own….that we really didn’t plan this. But now that it’s happened, Max,…I couldn’t ever go back. I was afraid when my parents started to talk about boarding school that I wouldn’t be able to live without you back then…, I know I couldn’t live without you now. But if somehow the patch failed…I could live with that, Max,…I could live with that real easily.”

“Liz, I think it would be better to wait….at least until we are well into our undergraduate college, but you know if you can’t wait…if you don’t want to wait that long…..Liz I would have never believed 6 months ago…as much as I loved you…that you or anyone would ever accept me so completely…or love me so much…so if you can’t bring yourself to wait, Liz….and if the chemistry is compatible…I wouldn’t say no, Liz. If we have a child it will be part of you…and it will be loved and wanted Liz, I want you to know that.”

She crawled up onto his chest and looked down at him, her breasts compressing slightly against his chest as she kissed him.

“Mr. Evans….I am going to do everything I can to give you that child…maybe two or three of them. But we’re young, we have time. For now Max….well, it’s a time for us…and it’s a wonderful time. We’ll have time enough for finding out about that chemistry in five or six years.

But right now, Mr. Evans…since I’m not going to be able to have your child inside me for awhile……well, ..what’s my compensation?”

“Liz, you’re going to make us late for work.”

“No I’m not, Max…you are…if you don’t start cooperating. And besides…when we do decide to make that baby…I want to be….proficient.”

”Proficient????”

“Yes Max. A girl’s got to have a plan. Right now we work on our…proficiency…later on we work on Max junior.”


0800 Tonopah Test Range Nevada airstrip and industrial area


The aircraft was a C-12, the military version of a Beechcraft KingAir and it was cleared for landing by Silverbow tower. It touched down on the numbers, using less than a third of the long runway at Tonopah Test Range. On the east side of the runway were sixty or seventy secure hangars, once used for the Stealth fighters, with a high security fence surrounding the entire industrial area that was actually better than that around Area-51.

The C-12 taxied to a parking spot and shut down as the security police pickup drove up to meet the aircraft. The C-12 was obviously an Air Force aircraft, it had been cleared in to the area by Dreamland, and the Colonel and the Captain were in uniform, but until the security badges were checked one security policemen with an M-16 kept his distance, eyeing the aircraft and it’s passengers, until the other security policeman returned the badges and saluted the two officers.

Almost immediately, the tour began, the old wing headquarters building, fire department, security buildings, medical facility, dining hall….all were 15 or 20 years old, but they had been built well…built to last.

“They wouldn’t do as a permanent facility I don’t believe, sir…but they are better than what we have now.”

“Well, I’ll agree with you on that, Jim. The hangars are smaller than Hangar B…but we certainly have enough of them. The mockup could go in one…then the other parts distributed as best we can assess potential hazard. Certainly the closed circuit TV, alarms, security fence….it’s all better than what we have at the detachment.”

It was a fifteen minute ride to the billeting area and personnel support facilities.

“A few of the support facilities have been cannibalized by the people down at Nellis…since they weren’t really being used up here, sir. But most of it…well, it’s practically a turnkey operation.”

“I think you are right, Jim. I need to call up the chief of staff on the secure phone…keep him in the loop, but if he approves this, we need to start working on the logistics….deciding who goes where and how we get the whole site moved here….as soon as possible.”

0830 Det. 24 Cosmology Section, Area 51 Nevada.

Peter Stanbeck was just sitting there looking at the orb. He’d just been sitting there looking at the orb for three hours, hoping something would click. It hadn’t. The knock on the door interrupted his concentration, but he didn’t care. His train of thought apparently wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

“Oh, Lieutenant DelGado…please come in. What can I do for you?”

“Please Doctor Stanbeck…call me Laurie.”

“OK Laurie, but it’ll have to be Peter then. So what brings you here?”

“Well Doctor…Peter, that is… I was thinking about what you said…about the aliens believing in probabilistic fault tolerance? Well, I went to Nellis last evening and found the senior NCO in communications, Senior Master Sergeant Ibanez. Ibanez has been in communications a long time. It’s not just his work…it’s his hobby.

You told us you thought the orb might be some sort of a communications device…well I asked SMSgt Ibanez what the most absolute, bulletproof, sure fire, never failing form of electronic communication was and you know what he told me?”

“I don’t think I’ve got a clue..what is it?”

“It’s the sound powered phone.”

“The sound-powered phone?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t need batteries or anything else…they are required for use in ships…the army uses them in the field sometimes. He says they are the most reliable form of electronic communication there is.”

“But those have wires…microphones…how does that apply to the orb.”

“Well it wouldn’t exactly…but the concept would. Remember the glow from the alien’s hands that was described to us? What if the orb uses the power of the alien's own body to energize itself? What if it didn’t need its own power because if no one held it…no alien that is…it wouldn’t need to work, but if one DID hold it…it could get it’s energy to operate just from the hand of the alien that held it?”

Peter looked at her for several long seconds. “I’m afraid you might be right, Laurie. But if you are…if you are right…I don’t see how we can ever figure this out….at least, not without an alien to work it for us.”