LUCAS’S P.O.V

  Winter slowly pulled the door open, revealing two soldiers, dressed in green uniforms, standing side by side at attention. One looked to be a cheetah, while the other was a dark furred horse.

  The cheetah was tightly holding a small folder close to their chest. “Hello ma’am,” he said, “Is this the residence of Lola W. Reid?”

  “Uhm, yes. I'm Lola.” Said Winter, if that was her actual name?

  “I'm first lieutenant Sav, and here with me is private Briars.” The cheetah said, “We are informing you that we will be operating near your property line. An exclusion zone has been created that borders the southern end of your property. No civilians are allowed in this area until we further notify you.”

  “Alright…” said Winter, “And you all went through the trouble to tell me this personally?” She asked skeptically.

  Sav handed her the paper he had been holding. On it was winter's property outlined in yellow. Right on the end of it, a large area bordered in red was present.

  “Yes, we are telling you this because it is a matter of the military working in smooth cooperation with local residents. This brings me to the next matter, as we are on the lookout for missing persons. If you happen to see any suspicious activity or people, there is a number listed at the bottom of the paper I gave you.” said the cheetah.

  The horse fought back a grin, “You can also have my number-” he said, giving Winter a subtle wink.

  Lieutenant Sav shot his head at Briars, lips snarled. The cheetah swiftly moved his hand upwards, smacking the horse in the back of his head so hard he went stumbling forward a few steps.

  As he caught his fall, the horse immediately snapped back to attention. “That will be all.” said Sav, “Have a good day, Miss Reid.”

  As the two soldiers made their way off the porch, the cheetah turned back. “I don't believe I have your name,” He said, looking at me. “I'm uh,” my brain scrambled for something to say, “Lucas Burke.” I said, not catching my potential mistake.

  “You have a good one as well then, Mr Burke.” replied Sav. The two soldiers finally made their way off the porch and to their little convoy of humvees, boots thudding on as they did so. I could almost hear the cheetah yelling at the horse as they left.

  Winter shoved me back inside the house, slamming the door behind her as we got inside.

  She put her head back up against the door, locking it as she did. “Jesus christ..” She whispered, “I thought they were here for you guys.”

  I nodded, “I'll let everyone know.” I said as I gave Winter a quick pat on the shoulder. She smiled, “Now we know the disguises work.”

  Meanwhile in the kitchen, everyone was on the floor huddled up against the cabinets. “Everything's good, at least for now.” I said, “You can come out.”

  Avera was the first one up, and she immediately began helping the others to their feet. Excluding Conrad, everyone was still holding a survival pistol.

  After Kyle and I helped Michael get up, winter joined everyone in the kitchen. “So we are still unknown to them?” Asked Avera, “Are we in danger?”

  Winter shrugged, “I believe you all are fine.” She said, “Looks like they are in a manhunt for the Adastra's pilots, but they probably don't have a clue what you look like.” Winter handed the paper that Sav gave her to Avera.

  Avera studied the paper closely. “This doesn't seem too close to the EX-5.” she said, “Considering how close some of the wreckage landed.”

  “Yeah, surprisingly.” Scoffed Conrad, “I don't even know how we got that close to where you guys landed. It's statistically impossible.”

  His words caught my attention, “You guys said you were forced out of orbit, right?” I asked. It was weird. If they didn't control where they went, how did they end up where we were?

  “Correct,” Kyle said, “As we told you, our engines armed themselves. They fired for a short period and subsequently shut off without warning.”

  Conrad continued, “In which they fired for exactly the time needed to make us land here.”

  “And you don't know why the engines activated?” I asked. Conrad and Kyle both shrugged, “Nope.” they said.

  Conrad stood by the sink. He looked like he was just about to fry his head from thinking. “That voice…” He said, waving a finger, “It didn't want us to share information.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “You mentioned that,” commented Vita, “Some intrusive voice that was yelled into you and Kyle’s minds.”

  “Not just that,” said Conrad, pausing his now jittery hand. “We never ejected, did we? No, someone did it for us! Right, Kyle? You had been completely blacked out, and I… I saw the… What did I see?”

  Kyle looked confused but agreed. “I never even thought of setting off the ejection charge…” he commented.

  Conrad shot into a straighter standing posture, “The figure, yes! That's what I saw!”

  Avera seemed confused, along with everyone else. “I'm sorry, what?” She said, “You're saying you saw somebody?”

  Conrad nodded, and he confirmed that he saw somebody.

  Even Garrett was interested. “How would that have worked? You were the only people on the Adastra.” He said, “It would have been impossible for a 3rd person to have been on board.”

  “Well, I never noticed anyone getting on board besides Kyle.” Added Conrad.

  Before Conrad could say anything else, Winter stepped in. “Well I've got a theory, maybe. If you guys, the EX-5, accidentally crashed here in Kansas, that would make me and Oscar the only people to have made contact with aliens. And Kyle and Conrad here, stealing the Adastra, set off to find you guys. They got here to earth's orbit, but you guys couldn't find the EX-5, right?”

  Everyone nodded, “And what are you getting at?” Asked Avera.

  “I'll get to that,” Winter said, “The adastra had to land at some point. Chances are they would have landed halfway across the globe. That would mean dozens of more people would have made contact with, well, aliens. But for whatever reason, the engines on your ship suddenly fired, causing you guys to land where the EX-5 went down.”

  “I'm starting to get it!” Said Vita, "If that means what I think it does…”

  "Yeah,” replied Winter, “And if Kyle and Conrad weren't ejected from the ship, they would have been killed. Your bodies would have been found, further contaminating earth's society. Someone made sure you both were able to safely meet up here with the EX-5's crew, which has limited the amount of contact you guys have made with my own people.”

  As Winter finished her explanation, the kitchen went eerily quiet. You could have heard a needle drop.

  Kyle, who had been standing next to Michael, began leaning on him. “We've been… We've been getting herded around like a bunch of animals, and we haven't realized.”

  “And it probably won't be the end of it.” I added. Winter began to look as distressed as Conrad had a few minutes ago.

  If someone was manipulating the things that were happening to us… who was it?

  °°°

  A few hours later; EX-5 landing site.

  We've all returned to the ship, which was no longer a big risk to us, given our new and relatively successful disguises. Conrad had yet to see the state of the EX-5. He was taken off guard just as bad as everyone else had once he saw it.

  Avera and Winter came to the conclusion that we had to leave Earth as soon as safely possible. The longer we stayed here, the more contact we would make with this planet's inhabitants. And if it was true we were being watched by someone, we couldn't risk making them act out any further. It was a shame as well, I loved it here.

  And it didn't help that we were forced to guess ourselves about all of this. We weren't sure about a thing that was happening.

  Kyle, Garrett, and Michael were busy with the EX-5's hyperspace cell, Winter, Vita, and I were busy with noting the full extent of damage. Conrad and Avera were busy going through flight simulations based on the systems that had been taken out.

  How we would end up taking off became a topic of conversation, which we couldn't fully agree on. Fuel wouldn't be an issue since there was an on board water splitter. The hydrogen and oxygen created from this process would then go as fuel for the thrusters and for life support.

  As for where we would get off the ground, Conrad suggested we could take down enough trees so we could tow the craft to the fields that surround Winter's house. I thought it wasn't a good idea, considering it would take too long and create one heck of a disturbance.

  My own idea was much more contained but was risky. If we could get the EX-5 turned around, we could use its C.A.S.T. thrusters. They stood for Collision Avoidance and Short Takeoff.

  They were like the normal maneuvering thrusters but on steroids. They were meant to help rapidly move the spacecraft during spaceflight to avoid hitting oncoming objects. (Turns out it can't do that very well.)

  And its better use was for assisted takeoffs. Some of the thrusters did point down and backward, effectively creating boosters to help it get into the air faster.

  As I completed the walk around with Vita and Winter, we all went to check up on Avera and Conrad.

  They were both perched on what was left of a fallen tree. Laser focused on their laptops, and they didn't notice us approach.

  “Will it fly?” Asked Vita, spooking Avera a little.

  “In its current state, it can't. Hydraulic line 2 is completely empty, and line 3 is at a severely reduced pressure. We won't have enough control in the flight surfaces to compensate for half the tail being gone. At the very least, the airframe has retained all of its structural integrity, which is a good thing.” Replied Avera.

  “Did you not try the crossfeed valves for lines 1 and 3?” I asked, “If we bled off some from the good hydraulic line into the bad one, it would help.” I asked.

  Avera nodded, “I tried the crossfeed. Didn't work.” She said,

  “You can do it manually from the wing” I told her, “We can worry about that later. How about the hyperspace cell?”

  Conrad hollered for his brother and Garrett. They both came over holding the hyperspace cell.

  Kyle sat the cell down, “The cell is at 61% of its capacity, which should be plenty to get us through to Aureon.” He said.

  Winter looked concerned, “Didn't you guys say that thing could, you know, take out half a planet?” She said,

  Garrett shook his head, “These things are impossible to actually blow up with how they are designed. It's the process of charging these, which is dangerous. It can create an electromagnetic pulse big enough to kill us protogens. But that's never going to happen.”

  “Yep, it's harmless.” Said Kyle, tapping the hyperspace cell with his foot.

  As Conrad and Avera finished up their simulations, I decided to join Winter, who was sitting against a tree.

  “So you guys might be leaving here soon?” She asked as she fiddled with a small stick.

  “Maybe. A few weeks at most.” I replied.

  She sighed, “Right when I get some new friends to be around, they gotta leave.” said Winter.

  “Ah…” I said, “Does Oscar not keep company?” I asked her.

  Winter flung the stick off into the distance, “He can't. With his job he has to stay in Texas or California most of the time. I actually tried to join him working at nasa, but they've been rejecting my interviews.” she said.

  “Oh…” I replied, unsure of what to say. “Well If you ever need some help applying, ask one of us. We have some experience working in space.” I chuckled a little to myself, “but surely there is something we could do to help with that.”

  “Thank you Lucas” she said, giving me a quick and slightly awkward hug.

  …THUD!

  A weird thunk noise immediately hit my ears, followed by Avera yelling, “CONRAD!” She yelled.

  Winter and I shot up off the ground, sprinting towards where the noise had come from. As we got close, we saw what was happening. Conrad had fallen backward off the log and was unconscious. Everyone was standing around him, caught off guard by what happened.

  Vita was already kneeling over him, trying to figure out what had happened. “It's like he just fell asleep!” cried Avera, “He was fine a few seconds ago!”

  Garrett was also going to check on Conrad but wasn't able to get too close. His visor went blank, and he dropped to the ground like a rock.

  “Oh god-” Said winter,

  Kyle instinctively went down to check on Garrett, but he too fell to the ground unconscious.

  Michael couldn't even get in a word as he reached out to catch Kyle. The second his arms went out, his visor went blank, and he hit the ground.

  Avera and Vita were shocked when they looked to see half of the crew on the ground within the span of mere seconds.

  Avera was next to go; as she registered what was happening, she slumped forward and fell onto Conrad's chest.

  Vita launched herself up off the ground, headed straight at me, “LUCAS YOU HAVE TO FIGHT IT!” She yelled, grabbing my arms. “DON'T GO!”

  My mind was already beginning to feel dazed. I could hear my own thoughts. Go to sleep, it told me.

  Go. To. Sleep.

  GO. TO. SLEEP.

  GO.. TO…