Nick awoke with a start, eyes snapping open, fully expecting to be standing in front of a white jeep Cherokee. Slowly the truth of his surroundings sank in. Looking around he realized that he was no longer on the mountain top watching the skies.
Instead he was in a room of medium size containing the bed he was currently lying in, a small bathroom tucked in the corner and in the middle of the room was a table with a plain wooden chair on either side. Rolling into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, Nick put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes, trying to dispel the disbelief that was permeating his brain. Dozens of questions bubbled to the surface of his thinking.
“Where am I?” and “How did I get here” being the main ones. Try as he might he could not remember anything after seeing the white jeep.
Feeling the need to do something, he got up and walked around the room looking for any clue as to his whereabouts. There was nothing of interest to be found. No phone, no television, no clock, the door had no doorknob or other visible means of opening it. The whole room had a sterile feel to it, like he was a specimen being held in some sort of container for observation.
Nick looked up at the ceiling, half expecting to see people looking down at him writing things on clip boards as they whispered excitedly at his every move. Swallowing hard he tried to quell the rising sense of panic that was creeping up from the pit of his stomach.
Crossing the room Nick lay back down on the bed and closed his eyes and took some long slow deep breaths to steady himself. Using the same breathing techniques he used when he meditated Nick drifted into a deep state of relaxation and the stress of his situation faded away with each long, refreshing breath. He lay quite still for some time, just focusing on relaxing.
From the depths of his brain the feeling came. That strange feeling that some part of his brain that he didn’t normally use had suddenly sprung to life. His forehead started to tingle just above his brow between his eyes. He thought he could hear voices. Not just one but a jumble of voices, like hundreds of conversations all taking place at the same time and he was only allowed to hear brief snatches of each one in hushed whispers.
Nick’s eyes shot open and he clenched the sides of the bed in panic.
“What the hell was that?” he thought. “Am I going crazy?” He lay his head back down but made sure to keep his eyes wide open and his focus on the situation at hand paying close attention to any voices trying to surface in his brain. The tingling feeling in his head faded however and he didn’t hear anything else.
Nick must have fallen asleep again, as he was awoken by the distinct sound of footsteps coming into his room. He turned to look and he saw a man in dark clothes gliding into the room carrying a tray laden with food. The man appeared to have come right through the wall because the door was neither open nor closing as a proper door should be if someone had just used it.
Nick spun around to sit on the side of the bed and that feeling of being connected to something larger than himself was on him again, crashing over him in ever increasing waves. Not as strong as it had been the last time, as though he was gaining some amount of control over it. Now with a closer look at the man the memories came back to him.
“You’re the guy from the jeep at Campfire hill, and, I think, the guy I saw outside Andrew’s apartment” said Nick, his eyes wide in surprise.
“Your right on both count’s Nick. My name is Bill McGraw. Come, sit down. I brought some food. You must be hungry, you haven’t eaten in two days” said Bill, smiling in a friendly way.
“Why am I here?” Nick demanded, ignoring the sudden rumbling in his stomach “I was allowed to be at campfire hill. You have no right to detain me” he blurted out.
The friendly smile disappeared and Bill gave Nick a scathing look that was unmistakably designed to show who had all the power. When Bill spoke however it was in a measured tone, like he was really holding back a verbal tirade “As I said, Nick, come and have a seat and eat some food. Everything will be explained to you in due time” and he set down the tray of food he was carrying and stood by the table waiting.
Reluctantly Nick pulled up a seat to the plate of food Bill had placed on the table. With everything that was happening Nick didn’t realize how hungry he was and he attacked the food on the plate like he had never eaten before.
As he ate Bill sat down at the table across from him and silently studied him. Not intensely but with an attention to detail that made Nick feel that if he had to, Bill could recite word for word their entire conversation, perhaps even know what he was thinking. Finishing the food, he pushed the plate away and reached for the bottle of water.
“I suppose I should say thank you” Nick said, his words sharp and purposely devoid of any thankfulness.
“No need. I understand how you must be feeling. Waking up here, not knowing where you are, how you got here. Must be unnerving” Bill said with an air of indifference.
“Unnerving is one way to put it. Terrifying would be more accurate. You said everything would be explained to me” Nick said, deciding to forgo any pleasantries and get to the heart of the matter.
“I wasn’t lying to you Nick. I am going to tell you why you’re here.” Bill replied “Before we get started though I think we should relocate to a more comfortable environment”
Without another word he stood up and went toward the door. As Bill neared the door, it didn’t swing open or slide open. Instead it seemed to just disappear, dissolve into nothing. Standing beside the open doorway he motioned for Nick to come with him.
Apprehensive at first, Nick decided that if Bill was going to harm him in some way he could do it here just as well as anywhere. So he got up and walked through the doorway and out into the hall as Bill indicated, stopping momentarily on its threshold to see if he could figure out what had become of the door.
Bill stepped through the doorway right behind Nick and as he did the door popped back into place.
“Follow me” Bill said, taking no notice of the baffled look on Nick’s face, and set off at a brisk pace down a short hallway.
The hallway was deserted with no pictures on the walls or decorations of any other type save for a few more doors similar to the one on Nick’s room. Nick’s thoughts strayed to who might inhabit the spaces beyond those doors.
The hallway ended at an elevator, the door disappearing as Bill approached, just as the one back in his room had. Stepping in Bill waited patiently for Nick to get in. There were no buttons on the elevator, just a display screen that showed that they were currently on level D1. Once Nick was inside Bill said “My office” to no one in particular. In response the elevator started to move. Not like an ordinary elevator but in a smooth and fluid way, like there were no mechanical parts moving it.
It was an odd feeling, almost like floating through the air. Nick had barely gotten his legs under him when he sensed the elevator stop and the door disappeared revealing an antechamber of medium size.
There was a desk, unoccupied at the moment, to their right and on the left a bank of tall cabinets with long, broad drawers.
Bill stepped of the lift and took a path straight through the antechamber to a pair of double doors.
Striding up to the doors, Bill placed his hand on a black panel adjacent to the right of the two doors. It lit up in response and yellow light eclipsed Bill’s hand for a few brief seconds and then went dark again and then the doors slid quietly aside and granted them access to the room beyond.
It was homier than an office though, with a three piece living room set on a nice rug with a coffee table holding court between them all tucked into the far right corner. To the left an elegant glass topped desk, tidy and neat with a phone and small table lamp placed on it with a large comfortable looking chair behind and a pair of chairs in the front. A bookcase stood behind the chair, filled with books and what looked like DVD cases and a few ornaments. To his immediate right a full bathroom and a counter area containing a heating pad and a coffee ma
ker.
Overall one would get the impression that the owner of this office was someone very neat and tidy, the high level of cleanliness giving the impression that maybe they didn’t spend a lot of time here. Even though it was nicely made, the cot the in the corner dispelled that notion immediately.
Bill slipped past Nick and walked over to his desk, opened a drawer and took some items out of his pockets and placed them into it and closed the drawer. He walked past Nick again and went to the cupboard above the counter and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of some sort. Pouring two large measures he put the bottle back in the cupboard and turned back to Nick and passed him one of the glasses. “Let’s have a seat over here” Bill motioned as he walked over to the couch area and sat down in the chair. Nick hesitated for a moment and followed suit, sitting on the couch facing what looked like a large glass window that stretched wall to wall but was opaque and dark, leaving him to wonder if it was glass at all. He took sip of his drink and looked at Bill who was once again watching him in a casual way.
Nick smiled enquiringly and waited. The little he knew about Bill, he knew he would not have to wait long to hear what he had to say. He struck Nick as ‘a get right to the heart of the matter’ kind of guy, powerful and poignant; he wouldn’t make Nick wait much longer.
Bill looked away and took a long sip of his drink and grimaced as he swallowed it. Sitting forward he placed his glass on the table with a tiny clink and clasped his hands together and looked hard at Nick. This time it was as though he was sizing Nick up to see if could handle what he was about to say.
“Well Nick, there’s no point beating around the bush on this. What I am about to tell you will change the world as you know it and forever change your life in the process”
Nick stared blankly at Bill, his mind teeming with a number of different possibilities that Bill could be referring to.
In an instant the feeling in the room changed from casual and airy to an intensity that was palpable.
Based on what he had seen since he woke up here, he knew that whatever it was, Bill was probably not exaggerating. So Nick steeled himself for what he was about to hear, good or bad, his breathing tight in anticipation.
“You’re into UFO’s Nick and all the conspiracy theories that come along with them” Bill started.
Nick frowned, trying to gather his thoughts together and get a sense of where this was going. Yes he was into all that, but that didn’t start to explain why he was here and even further, how did Bill know what he was into? He thought that maybe he had crossed the line while he was researching and ended up on some department of defense or FBI network and now they were going to bust him for it.
Bill continued “What if I were to tell you that there is some truth to those theories, a lot of truth in fact. Or what if I were to share with you that we have been visited here on Earth by alien life forms and they live and work among us here in this facility?”
Bill let the statement settle over the room which was now dead quiet.
Nick was absolutely astounded. He was sure that he could hear his heart pounding against his ribs. This had to be the farthest thing from what he expected. He just sat there blinking stupidly, his brain working furiously to try and put what he had just heard into some sort of context that would make it easier to comprehend. His response was shaped by the years of research that led to his distrust of the official line.
“Is this some sort of joke?” Nick asked
“Not at all” Bill replied matter-of-factly, waving one of his hands in the air.
“You want me to believe that after all the years of denial and establishment rhetoric you’re just going to come out and admit it to me, just like that?” Nick said, shrugging his shoulders in disbelief.
“It’s imperative to me that you do believe” is all Bill said.
“Well, since I woke up here all I have seen is you” Nick said, conveniently leaving out the whispered voices he had heard earlier. “Where are these aliens then?” he continued, looking around in a mocking manner.
Bill smiled slightly and took a device out of his inside pocket and pointed it at the window they were sitting in front of.
“I thought you might feel that way so I have arranged to have a little demonstration for your benefit” he said. Pushing gently on one of the buttons on the strange device, the window changed from an opaque darkness into a large panoramic picture window, revealing what looked like a large hangar beyond it.
“Go ahead, take a look” Bill said casually, picking up his glass and leaning back into the chair, a smug look on his face.
Nick looked toward the window, then back to Bill and back to the hangar again. Filled with doubt and an overwhelming curiosity, he pushed himself up from the couch and with one last look at Bill walked towards the window.
With each step more and more of the hangar came into view. He was right up to the window looking down three or four stories when his eyes fell upon it. Nick froze in place, eyes wide open and his heart skipped a beat before starting to pound like he was running a hundred meter dash. He took a shaky step back from the window. His brain was having trouble processing what he was seeing and he stood there silent for many minutes just staring, hardly daring to move lest it all be a dream and he wake up.
The UFO was exactly as he thought they would look. Identical to the descriptions that abductees and people who were lucky enough to see one would give.
Small and saucer like in appearance, it looked like it would hold three maybe four people in it. It was sleek and smooth, the hangar reflected clearly in its polished silvery surface.
Around the hangar were other saucers of various sizes. Some were damaged from crashes and others still in varying stages of disassembly while they were being reverse engineered. Several men in white lab coats were milling around computer consoles, making notes on clipboards.
It was almost too unbelievable. All the wondering, all the arguments and discussions, everything put to rest in a matter of seconds.
“Well Nick, what do you think?” Bill asked.
Nick stood rooted to the spot and didn’t want to stop looking. He feared he was dreaming and that if he looked away when he looked back everything would be gone. His heart was racing but his brain racing even faster. He wanted to do run down there and get a close up look at them. Touch them. Go onboard and see what the inside looked like.
Bill’s droning voice seeped into his consciousness, like he was a mile away “You’re in what you would refer to as Area 51 Nick. The spaceship you’re looking at is one of several that we have recovered from various crash sites in the United States and other locations around the world.”
There was that strange feeling in Nick’s head again. It was like a bunch of bees were buzzing around in there. Turning slowly away from the window and looking closely at Bill, Nick could see that his mouth was not moving, yet Nick could hear his voice distinctly.
“I see you can hear me, and, no, you’re not going crazy. How to use telepathy is a skill we have learned from our alien friends or I should say, have rediscovered. Human brains are designed to use it but, for reasons I’ll get to, we don’t use it anymore. Our friends have helped us to awaken this part of our brain. You will learn to do it too. Like anything it just takes time and effort.”
Nick was beyond overwhelmed and heading quickly toward an anxiety attack.
“Come, sit down, I have more I want to tell you.” Bill suggested, seeing Nick’s obvious distress.
Like a robot, Nick obeyed, his head still swimming. Somehow he managed to find his way back to the couch where, more so than sitting, he slumped heavily into it.
Bill pushed a button on the device again and the window changed to display a beautiful scene of an alpine meadow. Sitting back in his chair Bill let the enormity of it all sink into Nick’s brain. He didn’t want to rush things, he needed Nick to be on board and freaking him out too much at this point would not help his cause. After observing Nick for a
short while he said “Maybe we should pick this up again tomorrow Nick. Give you some time to digest what you have seen and heard today”
A vacant nod was all Nick could muster to acknowledge Bill. Bill walked him all the way back to his room, right up to his bed and even helped him get into it. As he left the room, Bill wasn’t worried. He had seen it before. The sheer magnitude of realizing that we are not alone in the universe, that there is other life out there, does that to people, even those who were so certain that we are not the only life in the universe have difficulty accepting it as truth when confronted with it. It was as if the human brain could not pigeonhole it into a nice acceptable package so it just tried to ignore it. At first he had tried to figure out why it was that way but the answer proved to be elusive. To him it was plain logic that there would be other life. He supposed that maybe others just weren’t as logical as he was and left it at that.
How long Nick lay awake in his bed pondering what he had seen he did not know. Even though he always felt certain there was extraterrestrial life, to have it suddenly affirmed, it was as Earth shattering as Bill had alluded to. Finally he dozed off and had a fitful sleep with visions of alien ships and their occupants permeating his dreams.
When Nick awoke, he didn’t get up right away, choosing instead to lay there in comfort and think some more. He had managed to come to terms with what he had seen yesterday. Now the big hurdle was why did they bring me here and show me everything? What does all this have to do with me? No sooner had he thought that when the door to his room opened and someone he hadn’t seen before walked in bearing a tray with breakfast. He was very tall, probably nearing seven feet, a powerful muscular body combined with a commanding presence and an aura of intensity and power that made Nick want to pull the blankets up over his head and hide there until he left.
The strangers blond hair was cut at shoulder length and hung in a loose fashion like curtains around the chiseled features of his face.
“Good morning Nick, I am Grolen. I have brought you some breakfast. I wanted to meet you before we get down to business.”
Pain cleaved through Nick’s skull. His hands instinctively flew to head and he clutched it, as if he was trying to stop it from exploding. If he had been standing he certainly would have collapsed from the hot, searing pain flashing through his brain.
This time with his mouth Grolen spoke “I apologize; I forgot that you have had little exposure to this method of conversing. Where I come from our telepathic powers can be overwhelming for the human brain at first.”
The pain passed and Nick rolled on to the edge of his bed and arose, his legs wobbly from the exposure to Grolen’s communication. Eying the newcomer nervously he made his way to the table and opened the water bottle that was with his food and took a long slow drink.
“Bill asked me to bring this to you and inform you that when you are done I will accompany you to his office”
“You are not human then?” Nick replied as he busied himself with the food on the plate.
“No, I am not” Grolen replied nonchalantly.
Nick pondered this new piece of information as he ate. Grolen certainly looked human enough, maybe even superhuman if he really thought about it, with his physique so obviously non-human.
“Can you tell me why I am here?” Nick blurted out.
“Bill would prefer to lay it all out for you.” Grolen replied.
After a long insightful look at Nick, Grolen turned and made to leave the room. He stopped on the threshold as Nick asked “What planet are you from?”
The corners of Grolen’s mouth twitched in a slight smile but only responded “Everything in due time Nick, everything in due time”
Casually Nick finished his breakfast and found his way into the bathroom and showered and changed into some clothes he found in the cupboard. When he exited the bathroom he sat down again at the table and took another drink of water. He unconsciously played with his water bottle as he looked around at his room, wondering when Grolen would be back for him.
That thought had barely left his synapses when the door opened and Grolen strolled in. Nick wondered if he was merely waiting on the other side of the door spying on him.
“I hope you found everything acceptable.” Grolen said jovially. “If you will follow me, I will take you to see Bill and hopefully we can help you find some of the answers you seek” and he stood politely waiting for Nick.
Nick nodded his consent and followed Grolen out the door and down the hallway to the elevator. Once again the door opened as they got to it, unlike Bill however, Grolen must have communicated his destination telepathically to the elevator because Nick felt it start moving without a word being said. They rode in silence, Nick still wondering how Grolen knew he was ready to accompany him to see Bill and he thought in his mind ‘Can he read my mind?’
Grolen turned and a smile formed on his lips and Nick winced as Grolen’s thoughts jabbed painfully into his brain
‘No I can’t read your mind Nick. When you are really focusing on a thought it gets projected out into the world. I am able to pick up these thoughts.’
Grolen’s communication was painful, but this time Nick didn’t’ feel like his brain was being squished and he managed to keep his hands at his side.
As before, the elevator came to a stop with no real telltale signs and opened onto the antechamber outside Bill’s office. Walking through the room and into Bill’s office, Nick noticed that the bed was unkempt: obviously Bill had spent the night. He wondered how often he did that. Bill seemed as if work was his life so it wouldn’t surprise Nick if he learned that he spent the majority of his days and nights here.
Bill was sitting at his desk with numerous papers spread out in front of him, examining them closely. As they approached his desk he looked up. Bill seemed surprised as he hastily gathered the papers into a neat pile, secured them with a paperclip and turned and put them into a drawer behind him. Bill turned back to greet them and seemed to be at ease once more.
“Ah Nick, I have been expecting you. I see you have met our friend Grolen” Bill said, gesturing with his hand toward Grolen who inclined his head in return.
“Good morning” Nick said
“Did you sleep well?” Bill inquired
A shiver ran up and down Nick’s spine as he reluctantly remembered his fitful sleep from the night before. Choosing his words carefully he replied “I suppose under the circumstances, the sleep could have been worse”
“Well let’s hope after what we talk about today you can get some rest tonight “Please, come sit down” he said, motioning to the chairs on the other side of his desk. Grolen sat down right away but Nick, an uneasy feeling forming in his stomach, caused him to hesitate. When he did take a seat he sat rigid and stiff as if he were expecting bad news to be delivered.
Bill had his elbows on the desktop and his hands joined at the fingertips as he surveyed them both momentarily, marshaling his thoughts. Seeing no other way to approach the matter besides straight on he drew a deep breath and said “Planet Earth is under attack Nick, and you can save her”.
Chapter 4