Alien Party by Lawrence D. Jackson

Take a ride in the sky,
On our ship Fantasii,
All your dreams,
Will come true,
Right away...
Earth, Wind and Fire

Chapter 1

To me, it is a well-known fact that we are being watched. This statement may sound a little paranoid at first, but let me assure you that it is completely true. I was once a skeptic, but now I'm a true believer. My belief comes from my experience, an experience that changed my perception of the order of things in the vast uni-verse. So far, I know that none of this makes any sense to you, but please bear with me, I'll explain in full detail of those days I spent away from here. Away from earth that is.

If the fact that we are being observed by beings from another world bothers you, trust me, there is nothing to fear from them. They are in no way a conquering race. The only reason that they have not made official contact with the human race is that they are more afraid of us than we would be of them, despite their technological advantages. After all, you must admit that our race, the human race, tends to lean toward a long and lasting relationship with violence, (i.e. Trojan War, any conflict involving Great Britain, War of 1812, French-American and Spa-nish-American Wars, Custer's Last stand, Civil War, WWI & II, Korean and Vietnam Wars and the Persian Gulf War, just to name a few). There-fore, you cannot blame them for remaining in the shadows.

I guess now would be as good a time as any to tell you who these beings are, what they are called and where they came from. Actually, their name, the one that I used to refer to them after they revealed their location in space, is a human term --- Centaurians. I was at a distinct disadvantage because I did not know their language to the extent that they knew mine, and they did not seem to be offended by the term.

The Centaurians home planet is the forth in orbit around the star we humans know as Proxima Centauri located in the star cluster named Alpha Centauri, a little over 4 light years dis-tance from Earth. I had considered the name Alpharonians, but even they did not like that, they thought it sounded too much like the pas-ta dish with cheese, so Centaurians was settled on.

The Centaurians have known of Earth's existence for quite some time, even though my encounter with them was only their second voyage to our solar system. The first occurred some 5,000 years ago. They had surveyed our culture for over a thousand years, decided that we were not yet to the point of a first contact and sailed back to their world with plans to visit us again in the future. When broadcasted radio waves from our planet began reaching their monitors, they decided to make a return trip and have been in our general vacinity for the past century. In fact, I was shown photographic evidence of their first vi-sit taken by their ancestors. The beginnings of the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China and the Hanging Gardens were some of the won-drous photos they showed me. By the way, they did not help in the con-struction of any of these marvels, as assumed by some.

All of these things, the naming of their race, information on where they were from and photos of earth's past, didn't actually occur until my second encounter with them. It is of my first encounter with these wonderful beings that I am writing this documentary. My first impres-sion of the Centaurians was how the hell did they develop their tech-nology to travel between the stars? It surely must have been technolo-gy given to them or either they had stolen it from some other race. There did not seem to be among them a single soul, (if Centaurians had souls), capable of navigating or maintaining the vessel we were aboard. And after you have read all of the following pages of my experience, I am sure that you will have come to that same conclusion. But first I would like to tell you of the events leading up to this monumental first meeting with the Centaurians and also a little about myself.

Chapter 2

My name is Franklin Brown. I teach at Capitol High School just southwest of Florida's capitol city, Tallahassee, in a small suburb named Lakeview. I'm the music instructor at Capitol High and have taught there now for seven years. A lot of my friends from up north at Ohio State, where I went to school envy my job here in Florida. They think it's nothing but sand, surf and fun. But they fail to re-alize that Tallahassee is in Northern Florida, in what is called the panhandle region. This area is more like Southern Georgia than it is Southern Florida. No orange groves or naturally growing palm trees like you'll see in advertisements enticing vacationers to spend their summer vacations in the Sunshine State. That area of Florida is con-sidered the Other Florida, extending from around the Orlando-Disney area southward to the keys. It actually gets cold here, with occasional sno Tallahassee is a kind of isolated place. A medium-sized city of about 200,000, supported by state government and it's two universities, Florida A & M University and Florida State University. To the north, east and west lay mostly small sleepy southern towns and deep pine forest. To the south, more forest, and within 25 miles, the Gulf of Mexico. Actually, it's a very pretty city, deep in southern tradition, whose residents would rather drive in congested traffic than have trees removed to widen roads. All in all, it's what I call home and I think I'll remain here a while.

Even though I considered myself to be an educated man, I had ne-ver believed in the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs. Now, I was not saying that the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe was impossible, it was most likely probable. But to be-lieve that these beings were visiting our tiny world was something I couldn't imagine.....until recently. The fact that our government in-vested money in an attempt to contact extraterrestrial, when our ed-ucation system was crumbling, infuriated me.

The U.S. Government had spent millions of tax dollars a year into the program called SETI, (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) in which huge radio telescopes were aimed into space, searching for ra-dio signals that might have been produced by intelligent beings. All of these monies could have been spent on domestic programs, because SETI's results were nil, even though the evidence was right before our eyes.

There was another problem that I had with the existence of aliens. In all the newspaper and television reports of sightings, I never once in my life saw or heard of an African-American person, such as myself, ever seeing aliens. Not that it mattered to me what color you were, it just seemed peculiar that only white people saw aliens. Of course, I had been proven wrong and realized how silly I had been. The Centaurians could not have cared less about my skin pigmentation. But I had always felt a little alienated, (no pun intended), on that subject matter. In science fiction movies and shows involving alien contact, which odd-ly I enjoyed, it seemed that blacks were either left out or either the first ones to be killed, (although I would have to exclude Billy Dee Wil-liams and Will Smith for obvious reasons). Therefore, the subject was never appealing to me, until now of course.

is how I became such an expert.

Chapter 3

The morning started out as usual. It was a Friday in mid-April, the 18th to be exact, the last day of the school week. I had awakened at six-o'clock a.m. as I did every Monday through Friday, give or take a few minutes. I went to the bathroom to relieve myself and wash my face, (I had always made it a habit to shower before going to bed, there-by adding precious minutes to the time I could lay in bed), and then began to get dressed. Casual dress by teachers was permitted at Cap-itol High on Fridays, so I decided upon a pair of tan Khaki pants and a maroon Buttoned-up Guess shirt with white Nikes to complete the en-semble. There was no need for me to shave that morning, being that I had shaved the day before. Although I was thirty-four years old, I could still get away with shaving every other day. I then went into the kitchen of my one bedroom apartment to fix a bowl of cerea es. The juice was good and sweet and I decided to have a second cup. I manually turned on the television to catch a little of the morning news. Paula Zahn was explaining how NASA was plan-ning to spend millions of dollars to send space probes to distant worlds in the search for possible signs of microscopic life. There had been a lot of hoopla over some rock they had found her on earth that was supposedly from another planet. My thoughts were that it was a waste of money.

It was now a little past six-thirty and time for me to leave if I wanted to stop by McDonalds. I searched for the remote to turn off the television, when it would've been quicker to turn it off by hand, found it and depressed the power button. Click! The screen went blank. I grab-bed my briefcase and car keys and walked out the front door of my apart-ment, locking the door behind me. Fortunately, I lived on the ground level and didn't have to contend with stairs. It was a short forty-foot walk to my Ford Escort. I had just purchased the car a few months ago. I had run my previous car into the ground and finally broke down and bought a new one. It was metallic green and fully loaded with all the options: anti-lock brakes, AC, air bags, CD player, etc. So far, I had no prob-lems with it all, but of course it was only a couple of months old.

The highway running in front of my apartment building connected me with McDonalds and the school. The entire trip would take no longer than twenty-five minutes, being that traffic was not at this time heavy. From the apartment entrance, I made a left onto U.S. 319 and ten minutes later was turning right into the parking lot of McDonalds. There were only a few cars in the drive-thru window line, so I decided to go through it instead of parking and going inside. In just a few minutes, it was my turn to order. I pulled up to the brightly-lit menu and speak-er system. A muffled feminine voice came through loudly on the speaker.

"Woood mmmooong. Weemco toomm McDooomams. Maam I taak yoom oord preeese!" It was a good thing that I was a regular customer and understood drive-thru language. I knew that the cashier was welcoming me to their establishment and would now like me to place my order. I then ordered an Egg McMuffin and a large coffee. The cashier, then apparently trans-lating my English into her native drive-thru, came back over the inter-com, giving me my total and instructions to pull ahead to the first win-dow and pay for my order. At the window, where only English is spoken, I paid with a five-dollar bill and received my change of one-dollar and sixty-two cents. Moving forward to the next window, I was given my or-der and told to have a good day.

Pulling back onto 319, it was a straight shot to the high school. The traffic still remained light, being that I was heading away from the city.

I decided to listen to a little music for the remainder of the drive. Powering up the car's audio system, I fed the CD player the disc that was already partially in it. After a few seconds silence, Earth, Wind & Fire's, "Boogie Wonderland", came crisply clear through the six--speaker system. My taste in music remained in the eighties; I just could not listen to rap music. Besides, it was fun to reminisce. As the song ended, something strange occurred. Without having touched a dial or but-ton, the machine jumped back to the beginning of the song and the volume intensified. I had figured that I had found the first glitch in my new automobile. I would definitely have to have it looked at later.

I turned off the disc player and settled for the radio. The silver disc slid halfway out and stopped. Within a one minute interval, and again I didn't touch a thing, the disc slid itself in and once again, "Boogie Wonderland", was playing. I listened to the song one-and-a-half times again before pulling into the school's parking lot.

Parking in my usual space, I turned the car off, gathered my things and exited the car, making sure the doors had been locked.

"Good morning Mr. Brown", a young female voice said. A cascade of good mornings followed as I was greeted by my first period beginning band class. These were mostly ninth grade students who were getting a late start on learning about music and the techniques of playing an in-strument. Some were quite promising.

"Good morning everyone", I said standing on my podium. "How are you all today?" Despite the fact that I had been living in the south some seven years now, I still used the term, 'you all', instead of the tra-ditional, y'all. A mixture of 'fines' and 'okays' came from the group of forty-five mostly sleepy faces.

"Let's warm up by playing a few scales, starting with B-flat and working our way clockwise around the circle-of-fifths".

Raising my director's baton, the instruments were brought up to play-ing position. Following my direction, the B-flat concert scale was play-ed, ascending and descending, followed by E-flat, A-flat and D-flat. Ad-justments were made and the group was ready to play.

Three songs were practiced from a beginning band book and to my sur-prise, I could tell that they had practiced. At the end of the fifty-five minute class I announced, "don't forget your assignments this week-end and try to get in at least a couple of hours of practice time".

The bell rang ending the class and the students exited quickly.

The second and third period classes were both music history courses and were available to the entire student body as humanities electives. The history of jazz, classical and folk music was studied along with dif-ferent types of instruments from around the world. I tried to make the classes as interesting as possible, having guest musicians demonstrate on strange and seldom seen instruments from other cultures. I would even perform for my students when the instrument was percussive, being that percussion was my major instrument. Somehow, they always found it humorous to see that I actually played, despite my being the music instruc-tor. Forth period was my planning period. I had no class at this time, so I planned to grab a sandwich or two. I hurried as quickly as possible to the cafeteria, purchased two ham and cheese on rye and then was off to the teacher's lounge to relax f "Hey Frank, how's it going?" It was Rob Powell, the biology teacher. He was sitting at a table already eating his lunch. I joined him. We were pretty close friends. We had done several things together outside of school such as, bowling, a little basketball and so forth. Rob was married and he and his wife, Renee, were constantly trying to set me up with Renee's girlfriends. One relationship did last over a year. Her name was Diane Roberts, but that affair ended after Diane took a job in Sacramento. We still keep in touch though. Their current project was a college friend of Renee's. They had both gone to school at Florida State and in fact she even taught here at Capitol High --- Ms. Clairese Davis, Algebra I and II. Clairese, so far, was the prettiest of Renee's friends.

I believe that Rob told me that she was of mixed race--black father, white mother or vice versa, I ca l side, standing about five-ten with beautifully long legs. Her hair was wavy with a sort of reddish tint and she had dark almost black eyes. I would have been, and was in fact, interested in her without Rob and Renee's influence.

"Okay. How're you today Rob?" I said.

"What are you doing this weekend?" he asked.

"Nothing much, why what's up?" "Renee and I rented a beach house at Alligator Point and a few peo-ple from here and Renee's school are gonna be there for a little R and R.

Thought you'd like to come".

Alligator Point was a little seaside town on the Gulf Coast about thirty miles south of Tallahassee. It was nothing spectacular, but it was very nice and peaceful. There was good seafood restaurants close by and also good fi-shing.

"Well, I was actually planning on a nice quite week-end at home, you know", I said.

"Clairese will be there", Rob said smiling.

"When do you want me there?" I responded. Both of us laughed.

"I'm going down right after school's out to get everything together, so anytime this evening will be fine. Make sure you bring things for overnight", he instructed. "A bouquet of flowers might not be a bad idea either", he added giving me a little wink.

Clairese Davis walked through the door and my heart stopped. She was wearing a flowered blouse and a very complementing pair of jeans. Her legs seemed to go on forever, ending in beautifully sandaled feet. It was the first time I had ever seen her bare feet and she passed my foot inspection with flying colors. I knew it was weird, but I tended to shy away from women with ugly twisted toes. She walked straight to-wards our table.

"Hi guys", she spoke. Her smooth alto voice rolled out like a gen-tle wave. "I'm looking forward to this week-end Rob. You gonna be there Frank?" she looked at me and asked.

"Yeah, I'll be down tonight. I'm going to finish grading up some -papers I've let stack up so that I won't have to worry about them this weekend", I answered.

"Good. Maybe we can have a dance or two", she said.

"Sure, I'd love to", I said. And I emphasized 'love to'.

"Just don't forget me", she said, "I love to dance".

How could I forget you, I thought. Rob gave me the number and the address of the house and asked me to call when I was leaving home. I assured him that I would.

Chapter 4

With lunch over, I headed back to the band-room to prepare for my fifth and sixth period classes--symphonic and, jazz bands respectively. The Symphonic Band was my largest group, consisting of eighty-seven musicians, some extremely talented. We were working on a few pieces for an upcoming concert at Walt Disney's Epcot Center. The seniors in the ensemble had decided on Epcot for the annual band trip. Our repertoire included the works of Vivaldi, Mozart and Brahmans. As I mentioned earl-ier, I was extremely fortunate to have such a talented group. The re-hearsal went well.

The Jazz Band met next. Its members were selected from the sympho-nic band. They would also be performing on our trip. Count Bassie, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw and Duke Ellington were among some of the great jazz composers whose music this particular group performed. They were really good and had been hired on several occasions to perform at banquets and country clubs in the area. The day ended on a high note (pun intended), when Clairese stopped by on her way home to say good-bye and to make sure I hadn't changed my mind about this weekend. I assured her I had not and she left saying, "see you tonight". I smiled and said, "o-kay". The workday was over.

Gathering my briefcase and a mound of test papers from three class-es, I headed back to my car. The first thing that caught my eye was the compact disc and I suddenly remembered the events of earlier in the day. I made up my mind then to stop by the Ford dealership in town and have them take a look at the machine. It took me an hour to get from the school to the car lot. I parked at the service center in the rear of the building, avoiding the onslaught of salesmen that would have tried to sale me another car if I had stopped up front.

The service center was empty of customers and I felt relief at that fact, because I assumed that that had meant I would not be waiting long.

My assumption was incorrect.

Having explained what had happened that morning, a total of two hours elapsed before I was told that there was nothing wrong with the compact disc player. I asked if the problem could have been the actual disc itself and was told that that probably was the case. I made my way back into the heavy traffic realizing it would take over an hour to get home. I turned on the radio and found an adult contemporary station. Gloria Estefan was singing the '96 Summer Olympics theme "Reach". I let the song finish and then suddenly felt in the mood for some, modern jazz. When I reached the next traffic light I fished through my CDs and ex-tracted a recording by David Sanborn. I inserted to half its width and the machine took over from there. There was a few seconds silence and then the music started. Expecting to hear the soothing style of Sanborn's tenor sax, I was totally shocked to hea it had come alive. How could this be happening? I asked myself. Taking my eye off the road, I almost rear-ended the car in front of me. I pressed the eject button, sending the CD sliding out, grabbed it and brought it to within ten inches from my face. And sure enough, the label read, "David Sanborn--Back Street". This could not be happening, I thought.

There was a convenience store just ahead of me and on my right. I turned in when I reached their entrance and parked the car, leaving the engine running, and grabbed another CD. Al Jarreau went in, Earth, Wind and Fire came out. I tried three additional CDs, but the same music, the same song came out. I gave up. I figured that somehow the EWF disc had ruined the player. I turned the power button off, put the car in reverse, backed out of the parking space, shifted into first gear and headed for the exit. In another 30 minutes I was home.

It was now a quarter to seven and I had one-hundred-thirty-five 3--page test to grade and I still hadn't eaten yet. I nuked some frozen la-sagna that Renee had been nice enough to cook for me and ate that for my dinner, downing it with a ginger ale. She was always reminding me that I couldn't live off fast food all of my life and that I should have a wife that could cook. I had to admit the lasagna was good. Dinner took up another thirty minutes and about fifteen minutes later I started to grade the tests. Three-and-a-half hours passed and the exams were done. My students did much better than I expected.

After a fast hot shower, I packed my duffel bag, called Rob at the rented house to tell him that I'd be there within the hour, grabbed my things and was out the door. I stopped at the neighborhood Publix Super-market to get a bouquet of red and yellow roses for Clairese. I was thinking just how beautiful she was and that I could probably settle down with someone like her. Maybe this weekend would turn out to be a new beginning for me.

I left the parking lot of Publix at eleven twenty-three not knowing that Rob, Renee and Clairese would not see or hear from me for the next two days because I would have literally have dis-appeared from the face of the earth.

Chapter 5

It was extremely cloudy, not a star shone in the sky. It was also quite warm and muggy, very typical for north Florida. The surrounding scene had changed from city lights to rural forest. There were stretches of high-way 319 that were completely deserted for miles at a time. Nothing but pine trees and black top. Driving through the small town of Crawford-ville, I was reminded of a ghost town. Empty streets, closed stores, and not a single soul about. Just me and my radio. It took only a few mi-nutes to traverse Crawfordville and I soon found myself among the pines again.

Between Crawfordville and Panacea, another small gulf town that lay at the mouth of the Oclockonee Bay, was the longest stretch of isolated area. At about five miles outside of Panacea, I noticed a light click-ing sound that seemed to be coming from the engine. It wasn't a contin-uous clicking. The sound came randomly. Click,click,click.... click ... click, click. It didn't seem to be causing any harm at that time. And then the noise altogether ceased. Maybe it had been a rock off the road or something similar. A short time later it began again, only this time the clicks were continuous and louder. It sounded as if a metal fragment had broken loose inside the engine. I began to lose speed although my foot remained on the accelerator. The engine sputtered and then sud-denly died.

I put on my turn signal, even though there was no car behind or in front of me. Applying the br anywhere. Now what was I going to do, I thought! I had no cell phone, so I couldn't call anyone. I made up my mind to get out and look under the hood of the car, very well knowing I knew nothing about the mechanics of the combustible engine. At this point, I could make it no worse. I pulled the hood re-lease latch located next to my lower left leg and heard the distinct pop of the engine cover being opened. I also opened the trunk, remember-ing the flashlight I kept stored there. I opened the door and got out of the car. It was evident that I was now near seawater. The smell of the ocean filled the air. There was a mild gulf breeze, the temperature and the humidity were not what I would have considered comfortable. I walked to the rear of the car to retrieve the flashlight, a chorus of nocturnal insects and amphibians sang loudly. It seemed as if the clouds were unusually I lifted the hood and aimed the nar-row beam of the flashlight on the motor. And, as I expected, my untrain-ed eyes could see nothing amiss. I felt the heat radiating from the me-tal, but I did know that that was normal. I knelt on the ground to look underneath, looking for any leaks, but there were none. It was at about this time that I convinced myself that I would be doing some walking. The nearest phone was at least five miles away.

For some unknown reason I felt that I was being watched. There was a slight tingling sensation throughout my body. I looked from left to right and behind me, shining the flashlight in each direction. The sensation grew stronger and I headed for the car door, but I could barely move my legs. I now not only felt but also heard the sensation. It was a slight hum, but it was not a single pitch, but several, a chord I thought. At this point my legs were frozen in place. I pinpointed the sound, coming from the one direction I had neglected to look --- up! I slowly brought my eyes to that direction and was amazed at what I saw.

The huge oblong shape hovered some fifty feet above me. It must have been as long as three football fields and twice as wide. I had at first thought that the figure that I saw was a blimp, but had never seen one that size before. On its bottom side were flashing amber lights run-ning in a circle. Inside that circle was a smaller one of a dark blue shade that pulsated on and off. The craft seemed to just hang there over me not wavering an inch. The blue circle began to glow brightly, the pulses becoming slower as it grew brighter. The humming grew louder, something was about to happen. In an instant I, along with my car, were bathed in a brilliantly blinding light. The sounds of the forest disap-peared, it was as if I had suddenly become deaf. I felt my feet leave the ground as I started to rise through the air. And then, without no-tice, the light was gone and I stood nex I was in what appeared to be an empty storage room. Directly behind me was a panel of flickering lights: red, yellow blue, green and a few hues I did not recognize. The circular room was large, at least 200 feet in diameter with a twenty-foot ceiling. I walked towards a part of the wall that was bare and placed my hands on it. It was metal, but of a type I had never before felt. It was black and smooth. Almost like glass. The floor and ceiling seemed to be made of the same material. I then came to realize that I was inside a vessel not of this world. All along I had been wrong. They were watching us. An opening in the ceiling directly in the room's center appeared and what looked like a glass sphere descended from it. The sphere came to rest at about eight feet from the floor. It didn't seem to be attached to anything. It hung suspended in the air on its own. The opening in the ceiling then closed, the hatch was once again invisible. I assumed it was some type of probe or camera and that I was now being watched by whomever controlled the vessel. I walked toward the sphere and the cen-ter of the room. Looking up at the glass-like object, I shouted, "who's there?" There was no answer. At that time, directly in front of me and opposite the panel of lights, at approximately 45 and 135 degrees, two ten foot rectangular blocks slid out of the wall. Extending to around four feet on the floor, each panel appeared to be about three feet wide.

No more than a few feet in front of me another rectangular por-tion of the floor opened up from left to right, measuring around five-foot by fifteen-feet, it's length portion facing me. I was afraid to venture forward to peer into the opening. A low humming noise emitted from the hole, growing louder and louder. Something or someone was ri-sing from the pit.

Their heads appeared first, more oval and larger than my own, com-pletely bald. Their eyes were large and dark, no whites showed. Their noses were extremely flat, with two small holes that I presumed were the nos-trils. The mouth was almost non-existent, the lips incredibly thin. From looking at the three beings head on, I could not tell if they had ears. All three were slightly different shades of gray. Their bodies were similar to mine in that they had two arms, legs, hands and feet. Their height ranged from around 5'-8" to 5'-11", the tallest one being slightly shorter than my 6'-1" frame. The digits on the hands were long and thin, I could not determine the number of digits on the hands. All three were quite thin.

The clothing they wore fit loosely, but not to the point of what I would consider baggy. The material was shiny and appeared to be two separate pieces. Each being wore a different color, but the style was the same. The upper piece covered the torso. The sleeves were long, extend-ing to the thin wrist. The collar was a loosely fitting turtleneck and over the left breast portion of the shirt was an emblem. I could have sworn it was the logo used by Nike, which I always referred to as an aerodynamic check mark. The hem of the 'shirt' hung to just above the thigh portion of the leg. The lower half was a simple tapered pair of 'pants' made of the same material.

The middle being, the tallest of the three, held something in its right hand. It was dark and resembled my remote control device, but I concluded it must have been some sort of weapon. My heart began to race, beating faster and faster. My mind began to tell me that I was about to be killed or rendered unconscious and put through some painful ex-amination. The alien slowly raised its arm that held the weapon, aim-ing it directly at me. Segments of my life began to flash through my mind like pictures on a slide projector. Unanswered questions filled my thoughts such as, could I have had a meaningful relationship with Clair-ese? What would happen to my personal belongings? Would the Braves win another World Series? Did O.J. really do it? I fell to the floor, ready to be disintegrated. I could see the being place its thumb on a button on the weapon.

I screamed out, "what do you want with me!!"

There was no reply. It pressed the button. The glass sphere above me began to rotate. It pressed the button a second time, a row of dim lights came on around the perimeter of the ceiling. The sphere reflect-ed the lights on to the walls, just like the disco clubs I used to fre-quent in college. Once again the button was engaged and this time music boomed from the twin rectangular boxes protruding from the wall... music I recognized. The opening bass line was all too familiar. It was from a hit song from 1981, Earth, Wind and Fire's, 'Let's Groove'. I could not believe what I was hearing, but there was more to come.

Chapter 6

The alien held the device to its mouth, looking directly at me ---it spoke. In perfect English it said, "we just want to...party!" It then began to sing the song.

"Let's grove tonight. Share the spice of life..."

Its two companions joined in as back up singers. The trio mimicked the R & B group perfectly. They sounded exactly like the original recording, I could tell no difference. They even performed choreographed dance steps. To my left three doors opened and the room filled with other a-liens. Some were carrying trays of what seemed like food and drink. They quickly arranged them on a table that appeared between the two rec-tangular boxes, which I took to be speakers. The music continued, the group on stage continued to perform while the others started to dance. I noticed that some of the beings had bands of the clothing material a-round their heads.

One of these approached me. Offering its hand out to me it said..."let's groove", and offered a warm smile. It was then that I noticed the five fingers. I slowly reached out my hand, and what I assumed what was the female of the s ds. I could do nothing but stare with my mouth held completely open. This could not be real. Beings from another planet travel light years to earth to abduct earthlings to party with? I had to be dreaming.

The song ended and there was roaring applause from the group of a hundred or more dancing aliens. The trio of singers stepped down and was replaced by a quintet. Another song began... Commodores--'Brick House'. The trio approached my dance partner, extending their hands to me and I politely shook all three hands.

"Welcome to our ship. Please come have something to eat and drink". It placed its hand on my shoulder and led me to the table of strange food.

"I'm really not all that hungry", I said after seeing the food.

Everything was of a geometrical shape. There were ovals, squares, triangles, octa-gons, pentagons and triangles ---- all solid pieces, all different colors and sizes.

"They're all quite good. Go ahead, try one", The tallest alien said. Not wanting to be rude, I was after all at their mercy, I picked up a blue triangle. It had the same consistency of a dinner roll and was ap-proximately the size of a hamburger. I put it to my nose and sniffed. The aroma was familiar, but because of its unusual appearance. I couldn't quite place the smell. Putting the odd looking food to my mouth, I bravely took a bite. It was delicious. I recognized the flavor, it was the same thing I had had for lunch earlier---ham and cheese on rye.

"How were you able to get the flavor so exact?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Oh, we've practicing", one of the other aliens responded. The tal-lest alien spoke again.

"Let's step out of here momentarily where it's a little bit quieter and we can talk. Come this way". I followed the three aliens out of the room and into a hallway. We walked another 50 feet and turned left into a smaller room. I couldn't help but wonder if I had heard the alien's before, because they seemed vaguely familiar.

The room was rectangular, in its center sat an oval table surround-ed by six odd looking chairs. The backs of the chairs were wide, angling down narrowly as they came down to the lower back. The three beings sat down.

"Please be seated", the tallest one said, "enjoy the view". At that moment he activated a panel on the wall by pressing a button built into the table. A portion of the wall slid away revealing a tremendous sight. In front of me was a breathtakingly beautiful view of the full earth with a background of black space freckled with white stars. I could make out the continent of North America and the blue Pacific Ocean. Wisp of white clouds covered large sections of land and sea. I was in awe.

"I guess we could start with a few introductions first", the tallest alien said sitting at the head of the table. "I guess you would refer to me as the captain of this vessel. My name is Kirk---Captain James T. Kirk.

I wasn't sure I had understood him correctly.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You can call me Jim. To my left is our First Officer--Mr. Spock and to my right the ship's Chief Medical Doctor--Leonard McCoy".

"Greetings", Spock said.

"How y'all doin', said McCoy.

Then it hit me. I understood why the voices had been so familiar to me.

Not only were these alien beings doing a reasonable impression of the fictional characters they claimed to be, they sounded exactly like them.

"This has got to be some type of joke", I said. "I suppose the name of your ship is the Enterprise?"

"That would be an illogical assumption on your part Mr. Brown", Spock said raising the flesh above his eye where an eyebrow should have been, "being that the Enterprise is in a state of repair. This is the Battlestar Galactica".

McCoy broke in. "But he doesn't know that you pointy-eared Vulcan".

"I stand corrected doctor. However it is illogical for you to refer to me as a 'pointy-eared Vulcan', being that we are of the same species. Therefore you well know that our hearing organs are simple flat cavities located on opposite side of our heads", Spock said with perfect calm. It was then that I noticed the small openings on the side of their heads.

"Dammit Jim!", McCoy yelled. "If you don't...".

Kirk interrupted. "Gentlemen, gentlemen please! I'm sure our guest isn't interested in your quarrels. Isn't that right Mr. Brown?"

"How do you know my name and what do you want with me?" I asked.

"Be assured Mr. Brown that we mean you no harm. And as for knowing your name, that was the easy part", Captain Kirk explained.

My head began to throb. I just knew that I was dreaming. Out of ha-bit I said, "has anyone got anything for a headache?" Kirk quickly brought his hand up to the emblem on his shirt, only it wasn't an emblem, it was some type of pin. He tapped it once and the object beeped. He spoke hurriedly.

"Kirk to sickbay. Prepare for medical emergency".

"For godsake Jim, he's got a headache", McCoy said, "he's not having a heart attack."

"Sorry", Kirk replied. "Sickbay cancel emergency --- Kirk out. Bones, see that our guests' quarters are squared away". McCoy stood up and head-ed towards the door. Before exiting, he turned around and said, "dammit Jim! I'm a doctor not a maid", and left the room.

"Most illogical", murmured Spock.

Captain Kirk tapped his Nike emblem again.

"Kirk to the bridge".

"Sulu here sir", a voice said.

"Mr. Sulu, plot a course to the Romulan Neutral Zone --- warp factor five".

"Can we go that fast sir?" Sulu inquired.

Kirk shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, let me check. Kirk to engineering".

"Aye Captain, Scotty here".

"Mr. Scott we need ... more ... power!" Kirk pleaded.

"Mr. Scott answered. "More power for what sir? We're standing dead still right now".

"Oh, I forgot Scotty --- never mind. Mr. Sulu, give us whatever speed you can. Kirk out. Mr. Spock, meet me on the bridge in say, thirty mi-nutes".

"Yes Captain", Spock stood and exited quietly.

I was becoming irritated. I wondered what was going on. This had to be the most backward group of space travelers in the universe.

I had had enough. Banging my fist on the table, I raised my voice.

I demand to know what's going on. I've been kidnapped from my pla-net", I pointed at the window and noticed that the earth was gone from view. I lost my train of thought momentarily, "and, and you're talking about Romulan Neutral Zones, warp factors, pointy-eared Vulcans, Battle-star Galactica and beam me up Scotty!"

Kirk interrupted, "I didn't say beam me up Scotty--we don't even have transporters--yet. Mr. Brown, you seem to be upset. Would you care to speak with Counselor Troi?"

I stood up yelling. "No! I don't want to speak to Counselor Troi. I want to know what's going on. Do you guys even know how to fly this thing?!"

"That would seem apparent, Mr. Brown. Of course we know how to fly Galactica --- sort of", Kirk said.

"Sort of!" I yelled, hands flying in the air, "sort of!"

"Please Mr. Brown, sit down. I don't want to have to stun you and throw you in the brig".

At the mention of stunning me, I took my seat, not knowing if Kirk was bluffing or not.

"If you will remain calm, I'll explain what's about to happen". Kirk hit another button on the table, making a small square device appear in front of him. Bringing his gray hand to his chin he spoke.

"Captain's log, star date one-nine-nine-nine point eight". I brought my hand to my head and shook it slowly. "I have set a direct course for the Romulan Neutral Zone. The ship's sensors have detected a great disturbance in the Force in that area. After notifying Starfleet, the Galactica has been ordered to investigate the anomaly". I was now sure that I would die. "On board with us is the earth being, Franklin Brown, who has agreed to assist us on this mission".

"Excuse me, I don't remember volunteering", I said. Kirk ignored me.

"The Force is strong with him Obi-Wan, he is our only hope. Kirk out". The device slid back into the table.

"Well Mr. Brown, now you know our situation ", Kirk said looking to-wards me.

"It's not my situation, it's your situation. I have no idea of what you're talking about".

"You can pretend while you can Mr. Brown, but by tomorrow I think you will have changed your mind".

"Tomorrow!" I screamed. "I demand that you take me back to earth right now!"

"All in due time Mr. Brown. We must complete our mission first", Kirk said, "let's go back to the party where you can get something to eat and drink, then I'll show you to your quarters where you can relax".

Kirk seemed sincere, so I did as he suggested. "Okay --- for now", I added.

I walked back down the corridor with him towards the alien party and upon out arrival, noticed that it was still going on strong. There seemed to be more of the aliens there than when I had first departed. Several of them approached me and extended their hands in friendship. Another popu-lar song of the eighties was being performed on the stage --- The Miami Sound Machines', 'Conga'. I had to admit that they were good. This group had even added the instruments.

I ate a red octagon, which was tuna, and tried a small green circle, never figuring out what it was supposed to be. I drank a tall slender con-tainer of a clear liquid, which I had assumed was water, but turned out to taste something like cola --- carbonation included. The drink had a calming effect, I felt more at ease and relaxed.

Several minutes later, I found myself on stage performing with the group. From somewhere they had acquired a set of Ludwig Timbales. I must have played at least a couple of hours. Looking at my watch, I noticed that the time had past rapidly. It was already five-a.m. Eastern Standard Time on earth. I also noticed how tired I was. I found Captain Kirk in the crowd and informed him that I'd like to retire to my room. Kirk, who had forgotten about meeting Mr. Spock on the bridge several hours ago, said, "sure. Follow me".

We left the circular party room heading in the opposite direction of the room in which we had held our little meeting. We came before another door, it slid open upon our approach and we stepped inside. The door closed behind us, and Kirk spoke aloud. "Third floor". I felt the small room jolt and seconds later the door opened and we stepped out.

Chapter 7

"Come on", he said, "we're almost there".

The corridor was the same, stretching what looked like the entire length of the ship. We walked a total of maybe twenty-yards before we stopped at what I assumed would be the place where I would get some rest. The door opened and Kirk gestured me inside. As I entered he said, "be sure and get plenty, of rest. You will need it for tomorrow". The door closed and he was gone.

The spacious room was divided into two sections, both adequately furnished. The living area had three cushioned chairs facing a bare wall.

There was what looked like a dining table with four chairs a-round it on the other side of the room. In the middle of the table was a glass vase with a bouquet of strange looking flowers, most likely I thought, native flora. Three alien lamps were placed strategically a-bout the room producing sufficient lighting. The sleeping area was some-what smaller, the large bed was rectangular in shape and directly above what I called the head of the bed was a medium sized portal which al-lowed you to view the enormity of space. On either side of the bed were more of the strange looking lamps. Sitting next to the lamp on the count-er of the 'night stand' was a small black box. Across the front of the box were odd looking glowing red symbols that continuously flashed on and off. Knowing that the symbols probably read '12:00', I laughed to my-self. I pulled back the covers on the bed, which seemed to be a heavier version of the same material Kirk and his crew wore, removed my shoes and shirt, got into the bed, covered myself and fell fast asleep.

My sleep was dreamless and I awakened to the inviting aroma of fresh coffee, momentarily thinking I was still at home --- still on earth. Get-ting up, I put on my shirt and walked into the living quarters. One of the female aliens was sitting at the table, a shiny blue band around her head. She was somewhat smaller than her male counterparts and with her small mouth she smiled at me as I approached the table.

"Good morning Mr. Brown", she said as she stood. I knew her name be-fore she could tell me. "I'm ship's counselor, Deanna Troi".

I really couldn't help but laugh now. "Good morning Counselor Troi", I re-sponded. Sitting on the table was a small plate of shapes and colors and a container of clear coffee.

"Captain Kirk wanted me to see if you needed anything", the vocal mimicry was amazing.

"No, I'm fine thank you, although I would like to freshen up a bit".

"This way please", she said. She showed me the facilities and how to use them.

"If you'd like to watch the viewer later, let me show you how it's used". The middle chair had several controls on its' armrest, one in which activated a large view screen on the wall.

"This control will allow you to change the screen", she explained. "This one will allow you to contact the Captain when you are ready to come to the bridge. If there's anything you need, please let us know". She paused and stared at me, slightly tilting her head to the side. "I'm sensing fear and hostility Mr. Brown. Trust me. There is no reason to fear us". At least I knew she wasn't truly empathic like the fictional Deanna Troi, because I felt neither fear nor hostility towards them. It was almost as if they were playing some sort of game.

"I'm okay", I assured her and she smiled and left the room.

Breakfast consisted of eggs, toast and I think cereal --- just in a different form, they had done a good job on the coffee. After using the bathroom, I showered, using Deanna's instructions, and changed into a set of clothing the aliens provided me with. I went to the chair she had showed me how to operate and sat down, surprised at how comfortable it was. I activated the viewing screen going through each channel one by one. It was as if I was at a sci-fi/music video convention. The first 20 selections were nothing but science fiction shows from earth. All the different versions of Star Trek television series and movies, the Star Wars Trilogy, Space 1999, Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, 2001, Close Encounters, E.T., Buck Rogers, Space Ghost and others. The videos were just as numerous. Including Rhythm and Blues, Rock, Country, Rap, Classical, and Jazz --- just about any type of music that had been re-corded on video.

I then realized what was happening. The aliens were role-playing based on recorded images from earth! Therefore, sailing to the so-called neutral zone had to be a farce. Most likely there was nothing to be concerned about. Then I wondered. Why would a race capable of traveling to different solar systems seem so immature? So into imitating fictional characters of another race. Surely they knew they were fictional, because they had not encountered any of the technology that was displayed by the shows. There was no Starship Enterprise, no Princess Leia or Will Robinson and Dr. Smith. Were they behaving this way to make me feel comfortable? I would feel better if they just were themselves. It was then that I contacted the Captain to inform him I was ready to leave my quarters.

"Someone will be there shortly", he responded, "Kirk out".

I had now suddenly become curious.

Within a minute one of the aliens came through my door. It was De-anna.

"Hello", she said.

"Hi."

"If you'll just come with me, I'll escort you to the bridge", she said.

Smiling I responded, "okay, let's go".

Once we entered the elevator and was heading to the eighth deck, Counselor Troi looked at me and in her perfect vocal imitation said, "I'm sensing a great wave of anxiety Mr. Brown, I again assure you that every-thing is okay". Once again I had to laugh because at that time I was perfectly calm. I sincerely hoped that Deanna wasn't a real counselor. She wasn't very good at it.

The elevator stopped and opened up at what seemed to be the bridge. It was a circular room with approximately 10 aliens placed at different stations. In the middle of the room was a curved table perhaps 15 feet long and two feet wide. At the table sat Kirk, Spock, McCoy and three others. Everyone but Kirk was busy operating a computer console embedded in the tabletop. As we approached from behind, Kirk's chair swiveled around to face us. "Ah, Mr. Brown, welcome to the bridge. Please have a seat".

I sat at the table next to Kirk and Deanna sat on his opposite side. There was an array of symbols and lights on the table in front of me and I stared at them curiously. "Whatever you do, don't touch anything", Kirk said. I placed my hands in my lap.

Captain Kirk brought his hand to his communicator activating it. "Mr.

Spock, how long to the neutral zone?"

"Sir, fifteen point two-five minutes. Sir, he paused, logic would dictate that the use of our communicators when we are in such close proximity is---well ... illogical".

"Old habit Mr. Spock, sorry". The show was now beginning I thought.

"Mr. Chekov, on screen".

One of the aliens I hadn't met, I presumed, responded in thick Rus-sian accent. "Aye, sir".

A large view-screen, some twenty feet high came on before us, again re-vealing the immensity of space.

"Sir", Mr. Spock spoke, "ship's sensors are picking up another ves-sel in the area".

"Can you tell who it is Spock?"

"Yes sir. It is a Romulan Warbird, closing on us fast".

Wanting to be a part of the game now, I spoke up. "Sir. Shall we pre-pare for the jump to hyper-space now?" At that moment, every set of eyes quietly turned and looked at me like I had just said the dumbest thing in the known universe.

Kirk broke the silence. "Mr. Chekov --- on screen". The screen changed and there appeared to be a dot of light moving toward us and growing bigger.

"Captain", a female voice said, "we are being hailed".

"Thank you, Uhura. Let me hear it".

Uhura punched a control on her panel. The voice that came through was like one I'd never heard before.

"Traght zapth fadn nopz penng ---- Aldrooni!!"

>From that point on things got hectic. The alien ship had overcome us. It was huge, filling the ship's screen.

"Condition Red, Condition Red", Kirk shouted. The room was flooded with flashing red lights and alarms were loudly going off.

"Mr. Sulu, shields up at full power".

"Aye sir".

"Romulan vessel. This is the Captain of the Battlestar Galactica..."

"Sir we've been cut off".

Oh my god, I thought. This is for real. This wasn't some game. There was no way that this ship could fight the much larger one. I was going to die in outer space. My family would never see me again, would always wonder what happened to me.

Panicking, I shouted at Kirk. "Can't you do something!"

"Stay calm Mr. Brown. Can't you use the Force or something?"

"The Force!" I screamed. "What Force?"

"Bones. Prepare sickbay for casualties", Kirk ordered.

"Dammit Jim! I'm a doctor, not a...oh yeah. That's right, I am a doctor.

Never mind".

"Mr. Scott", Kirk spoke through the communicator.

"Aye Captain", Scotty replied.

"Channel all power to main phaser banks".

"I can't do that sir".

"How about photon torpedoes?"

"Can't do that either sir".

"Why not Mr. Scott?"

"Sir, you well know this ship dunna have no weapons sir".

"No weapons!" I shouted again. "No weapons. You brought me all the way out here and you can't even defend yourselves?!" Everyone ignored me. Dr.

McCoy stood and headed for the elevator. Captain Kirk turned to face Counselor Troi.

"Deanna. Are you feeling any emotion from the alien vessel's crew?"

"Yes captain. I'm sensing that every single member of that ship is extremely... pissed at us. I think I'll retire to my room now", Coun-selor Troi exited also.

"Mr. Spock, have you any suggestions?"

Spock's face remained calm and void of any emotion. "Being that we are out-manned and, no doubt, outgunned. It would be logical that we attempt to high tail it out of here". Spock paused. "Sir, ship's sensors are now detecting a power build up in the alien vessel"

"Sir, the alien vessel is hailing us again", Uhura said.

"Let's hear it".

"Traght sift fadn nopz penng Aldrooni! Curzja!!"

I asked Uhura, "what are they saying?"

In a childlike voice with her hand held up to her mouth she said, "Ooooooo, we in trouble!"

Uhura, Chekov, Sulu and the rest of the bridge crew, save Kirk and Spock, ran for the elevator and disappeared like cockroaches when the kitchen light is turned on in the middle of the night.

I was alone with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock on the bridge of the Ga-lactica. They sat in their chairs with the look of defeat on their alien faces.

"Aren't you going to do something?" I asked. "Can't we just surren-der?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Brown, but Romulans don't take prisoners. We have to try and escape. Kirk to engineering".

"Scotty here sir".

"Mr. Scott, reroute all available power to warp engines and engage on my command".

"Aye sir!"

There was a gradual increasing hum as the engines drew more power. I could feel a slight vibration throughout my body. When the ship's en-gines sounded as if they had absorbed as much power as possible, Kirk shouted.

"Mr. Scott! Now!"

The ship shook as if a giant hand had hit it. Looking at the enormous alien vessel, I could see we hadn't moved away an inch. In fact, the Romulan vessel looked as if it were drawing closer.

"Sir!" Mr. Spock shouted against the whine of the engines. "We ap-pear to be caught in a tractor beam of some sort. Might I suggest that we power down main engines to avoid destruction!"

"Yes Spock, go ahead".

Mr. Spock punched several times on the control pad with his long fingers and the engines died down.

"Mr. Spock, I won't be taken alive. Initiate auto-destruct sequence", ordered Kirk.

"Initiating auto-destruct sequence, sir". A large bay door was open-ing slowly on the great ship, and we were heading directly inside. A femi-nine voice spoke from the control table where we were seated.

"Auto-destruct sequence initiated. Please identify".

Kirk spoke first. "Captain James T. Kirk--Alpha Phi Alpha, one-one- two-zero-nine".

"Identification verified", the computer responded. "Awaiting verification of first officer".

It was now Spock's turn.

"First Officer Spock--I Eta Pi, nine-oh two-one-oh."

"Identification verified. What is requested time to self destruct?" the computer asked.

"Self-destruct in one minute", Kirk answered. A large red fifty-nine appeared on the view screen.

The computer repeated, "self-destruct in one minute". The numbers decreased by one for each second that elapsed.

"You can't do this to me, you can't kill everyone on board", I pleaded. "Can't you talk to them?" We were now inside the Romulan vessel. The seconds ticked away, 47, 46, 45, 44...

"No Mr. Brown. We've fought a great battle. Besides, they would just torture us anyway".

"It is the most logical decision to make", added Spock.

"Logic?" I exclaimed. "This is the most ridiculous thing I've seen you do. You're not even trying to negotiate with them. If you don't want to talk to them, I will!" The seconds continued to tick away, 28, 27, 26, 25 ... I depressed every button and blinking light on the table, I became hysterical.

"Uh, computer. Stop self-destruct sequence--delta, delta, delta.

One-two-three, uh, over and out."

"Mr. Brown, there is no way to stop the computer now", Kirk said calmly".

The Galactica had come to a complete stop. The view-screen was now blank and the computer spoke once again.

"Self-destruct in ten, nine, eight, seven..." Kirk and Spock sat there calmly as if everything was fine and well. I had broken out in a cold sweat and my hands were shaking.

"Five, four..." I closed my eyes, clinching my fist tightly, pre-paring to be annihilated. This was it. "Three, two, one, zero..."

Chapter 8

Nothing happened.

"Self-destruct sequence complete", the computer proclaimed. The red lights ceased to flash, the alarms stopped their morbid song.

"We're still alive", I said.

"Of course we are", quipped Captain Kirk. "You didn't think we'd really blow ourselves up did you?"

"Your reasoning is illogical Mr. Brown, being that the Galactica possesses no working self-destruct mechanism".

"But you said...and I thought... the Romulan ship", I stammered out.

"Mr. Brown, there are no Romulans, although in a few minutes we might wish we actually could self-destruct," Kirk gave a little smile.

"But I don't understand..."

At that moment, The door to the elevator opened up and I had my se-cond encounter with an alien life form. As the three of us turned our chairs to face the elevator, a group of five beings stepped out. Cap-tain Kirk and Mr. Spock slid down in their chairs as if trying to hide. It was obvious to me that these beings were of the same race. The only difference being that these new creatures were taller and looked more mature, more serious.

Looking over at Kirk I asked, "who are they?" "The tall one in the middle is ... our father", Kirk answered. Then, in the voice of Darth Vader added, "search your feelings Mr. Brown, you know this to be true!"

"You mean Spock is your brother?"

"That is correct Mr. Brown", Spock answered.

Kirk and Spock's father approached the table, towering over the two aliens. Then a barrage of unintelligible sounds spewed from his mouth, he even shook his finger at them.

The brothers were being thoroughly scolded.

They both rose from their chairs and walked away like the saddened children they really were towards the elevator.

"Next time", the alien I knew as Spock said, "I get to be Captain Kirk". One of the adult aliens stepped on the elevator with them. The doors closed and they were gone.

The aliens Father, Jontar, explained to me what had happened once we were aboard the mother ship. His two sons, Aldrooni and Curzja, Kirk and Spock respectively, were known to be mischievous pranksters. What they had done was the equivalent on earth of a couple of teenagers ta-king their parent's automobile on an unauthorized joyride. The difference being that their highways consisted of the solar system. They also had convinced their "crew", almost half the juveniles aboard the mother ship, to tag along. I asked him about the music and television shows that I had seen and he told me that that was simple. Radio and television sig-nals are constantly being emitted from earth. For some time now, their home planet, as well as their deep space monitoring satellites, had been receiving and recording them. I thought of the SETI program back on earth, that maybe it hadn't been a ba The images depicting space travel and the music was intriguing to the young population of aliens and their ability to mimic earth cul-ture was a fad among them. Devices in the communicators had aided in the vocal mimicry.

Jontar then introduced me to several other of his people including his son's mother, Rah. They gave me a brief tour of the huge ship, showing me their world orbiting Alpha Centauri, and told me of their race. The couple showed me the evidence of their ancestor's long, long ago visit to earth and the marvelous photographs of things I only knew of as ancient ruins. They assured me that in no way were they hostile and that some day they would reveal themselves to mankind, probably within my lifetime. But not quite yet, we still had a few things to work out amongst ourselves.

It was now time for me to go home, Jontar and Rah explained. They extended their sincerest apologies to me concerning their sons and ex-plained that I had been randomly selected for their prank most likely because of my taste in music. The boys had, after all, been watching me from right beyond the moon for two days. I assured them that no harm had been done to me, that I had just been a little frightened toward the end.

The trip home took less than an hour at sub-light speeds from just be-yond the orbit of Mars.

The mother ship hid on the dark side of the moon and we traveled back to earth in one of the dozens of smaller ships, this time with a crew of adults at the helm.

It was now late Sunday night, the entire weekend had been cloudy. I had hoped that Rob and Renee's plans went well. The blimp shaped ship entered the artificially produced clouds and came out again over the stretch of isolated High-way 319 avoiding all earth radar.

Rah escorted me back to the large storage room and my awaiting auto-mobile, assuring me that it would now work perfectly. As I approached the car she said, "one other thing". The door opened and two thin fi-gures approached us. "I think they have something to say to you."

Aldrooni spoke first. "Mr. Brown, we are deeply sorry that we abduc-ted you from your home planet. We never met you any harm".

"Yes Mr. Brown, it was most illogical on our part. Most illogical".

I had to smile, they sounded as if they were some of my students. "It's okay, no harm done".

They held up their right hands with their palms facing me, se-parated their fingers in the middle making the familiar 'V' symbol and simultaneously uttered, "live long and prosper Mr. Brown".

I responded with a warm, "yeah, you too". We shook hands and then I was told to get in my car.

Once again I was on solid ground, the ship hovering above me. It slowly ascended into the clouds and vanished. I wondered if I would ever see them again. I had the strangest feeling that I would.

Turning the key, I started the engine and drove away, thinking of how I would explain my absence to Rob.

Chapter 9

"What happened to you this weekend?" Rob asked as I entered the tea-chers lounge.

"I meant to call you back but couldn't. I had a sudden family emer-gency come up and I had to go out of town", I explained.

"Well, you didn't miss much, we got rained out. Most everybody can-celled or went back home. Including Clairese. We're going to try it a-gain in a couple of weeks".

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea", I said.

At that moment, Clairese walked in looking lovely as ever and walk-ed directly towards us radiantly smiling.

"Hi Rob. Hi Mr. No-Show. Don't think you're gonna get out of danc-ing with me that easily!"

"I'm really sorry about standing you up Clairese, you see, I just happened to get abducted by adolescent aliens this week-end and couldn't show", I said with a smile.

"Adolescent aliens?" She said.

She and Rob looked each other in the eye and said in unison, "yeah, right!"

We all had a good laugh.