“Why sure major. What about your men?”
“They can hike back and meet us. Sheriff, if you wouldn’t mind, could you show my men where they are going?”
“Sure. I guess I can do that.”
The major seemed surprised when the Sheriff mounted a horse.
“I don’t do marching major,” the Sheriff said, and headed to where the men were standing around talking and smoking. Mac brought another horse from the barn and handed the reins to the major.
“Damn. I miss riding. If nothing else, I’m going to enjoy this part.”
“It might be the only thing you enjoy,” Mac said, starting out toward the pasture.
He pointed out where the trench started and they dismounted several times so the major could inspect some of the debris scattered around the field. When they were close to the crash, they again dismounted and tied off the horses.
“Son of a buck,” the major said, his eyes transfixed on the crashed disk.
“What do you make of it?”
“It beats the heck out of me. I’m not aware of anything in our arsenal like this thing,” he said, rooted to the spot.
“Yeah. That’s kind of what I figured.”
Finally, the major started walking toward the craft. His eyes were darting around trying to comprehend what he was seeing. No matter what his eyes reported, his brain seemed to reject the information. It looked like a spaceship and he definitely did not think it was from this world.
As a military man, this was going against everything he believed. Spaceships were a hoax, and those that said they saw them were crackpots. Now here he was, looking at what was undeniably a ship from some other world.
“Over here,” Mac said, leading him to a clump of bushes.
“My God,” he said as he looked down on the small, grey-green hairless body. The large black eyes were open but not moving or blinking.
“Holy shit. What the heck is it? An alien?” he asked, but it was a redundant question and he wasn’t really looking for an answer.
“Never saw anything like that before. Looks like it’s dead. It hasn’t moved since the last time I was out here,” he said.
He was talking just for the sake of talking, more than anything else.
“Has anyone looked inside yet?” the major asked.
“Well, I was going to but decided it might not be the best idea. Not until I found out what we were dealing with here,” Mac replied.
“Alright. I’m going…”
“This way,” the major and Mac heard, coming from down the trail.
It was the Sheriff and the rest of the men from the base.
“Wait here if you don’t mind,” the major said and headed to meet the men.
“Hold it,” the major said as he approached.
“Men, I want you to set up a perimeter around this area. No one is to come closer than they are right now. I want the ten of you to stay within line of sight of each other, is that understood?”
“Yes sir,” came the standard military reply as the men began to deploy.
The major and Sheriff walked back to the base of the crash site.
“I’m going to look inside. Sheriff, would you mind giving me a hand? Maybe you should keep your sidearm handy as well,” he said.
“There is no time like the present. Let’s see what is inside this thing,” the Sheriff replied.
With the Sheriff’s help the major climbed on the side of the disk. He thought he could feel the thing vibrating under his feet but decided it must be just his nerves. He slowly crept toward an opening in the top of the craft. Getting down on his stomach he crawled the last few feet and carefully peered into the gap.
It was lighter inside than he expected and he could clearly see what he thought must be an instrument panel and four individual seats. Everything was much smaller than the aircraft he was accustomed to, like it had been built on a toy scale. He stuck his head in further and saw two figures lying on the floor. They did not move or react when he looked down at them.
“Hello,” he said in a soft voice. Nothing.
“Hello. Is anyone alive?” he said, slightly louder this time.
Still nothing moved. Just as he was about to lower his upper body inside the hole he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. One of the creatures was moving its fingers, almost like it was beckoning for him to come on in.
He pulled his body out of the hole and sat down, leaning back on his arms and hands. What the hell was going on here? This was too big for him to handle. One of those creatures actually appeared to be alive.
He scooted back down off the craft and said to Mac and the Sheriff, “Men, I don’t know what we are dealing with here but we are not equipped to handle this. I think something is alive inside. I saw it move.”
“Should we try to get it out?” Mac asked.
“No. I don’t know how safe that is and I don’t even know what it is. I’m going to get some men here and close off this area. Sorry to do this to you Mr. Brazel but I think we are dealing with a potential National Emergency issue.”
“I still need to round up my cattle,” he said.
“That’s no problem. I just want to secure this area,” he said, sweeping his hand in a semicircle around the downed craft.
“Can I get a couple of hands to help me?” Mac asked.
“I don’t see why not, as long as they stay away from this area,” the major replied.
The major left his men stationed at the site and returned to the house where he called the base. He arranged to have three 6 X 6s brought in along with men from the 1395th Military Police Company (Aviation). He also brought an additional ten men from the 1st Air Transportation Unit.
The Military Police took over the security and the other men were reassigned to follow the orders of the Transportation Operations Officer. For the next three days, the site remained closed and even Mac was not allowed to venture into the area. He could stand and watch as they loaded bits and pieces of the wreck into trucks as long as he remained outside of the perimeter cordoned off by the Military Police.
CHAPTER FOUR
“What in the hell has been going on at your place?” Jimmy asked, turning to Mac, seated a couple of stools away.
“Damn military tromping all over the place,” he grunted.
“I could see that, but why?”
“They are picking up bits and pieces of a downed aircraft,” Mac said.
“Plane wreck?” Erma asked.
“What the hell else would it be,” Ed chimed in.
“Actually, no one seems to know what it is,” Mac said, stirring his food around on his plate.
“What the hell does that mean?” Jimmy asked.
“Just what I said. The military doesn’t think it is one of theirs. Guess it could be a Russian craft or ….” He left the sentence unfinished.
“Or what?” Erma asked.
“Something else,” was all he would say.
“Something else like what?” Ed pressed.
“I don’t know. A flying saucer maybe,” he said.
They all started to laugh but noticed Mac wasn’t joining in. He had a serious look on his face. It fell silent in the room.
“You’re serious?” Jimmy finally asked.
“Hell, I don’t know. The thing is, no one seems to know what it is or where it came from. And the bodies they recovered. Very strange,” he said in almost a whisper.
An awkward silence again filled the diner.
“What kind of bodies?” Erma finally asked, pouring Mac another cup of coffee.
“Small. Like children. Only four, really long fingers. Huge eyes. I’ve never seen anything like them in my life.”
“Aliens?” Jimmy asked.
“I just don’t know. The military has taken over the area. I’m not even allowed near the crash now. Hell, I was the one who found it in the first place. Now I can’t even go where I want on the property.”