MAQnr7Ef

1Sleeper Seven
2 
3~ Prologue ~
4
5The feeling was always the same.
6
7It happened with a random regularity – not every time, maybe a few times per month, but always at the same places.  It could be the Brown line between Chicago and Sedgwick, the Red line between Fullerton and Belmont, or the Blue line between Jefferson Park and Harlem. Anywhere there was more than a mile of open track between stations, where the engineer could hammer the throttle down – if only for a few seconds.
8It began with that familiar little twinge from deep in her gut. Whatever currently absorbed her attention – thoughts of the days work, her slow Kindle progress on Infinite Jest, the latest This American Life podcast – all of this, along with the submerged iceberg of meaning-making infrastructure beneath, cleaved off like limestone into the sea. The unstoppable autonomic chain of events began: heart rate and respiration increased, pupils dilated, muscles tensed. Attention became focused, to the exclusion of all else, on one thing: the movement of the train. Because the twinge told her this train was out of control.
9 Almost more terrifying was the isolation imparted by this knowledge. Absorbed in their own bubbles, nobody else knew the engineer was almost certainly slumped over the controls, throttle open, with braking now a luxury versus an assumption. They couldn’t feel the nauseous sensations of maximum speed: the smallest grade changes amplifying into reverberating bounces, the oppositional swaying of the cars over the twisted track, the wind whistling through the rubber window seals.
10 How close were the wheels from vaulting over the inch-and-a-half steel lip? How far could the springs compress until they lost their ability to cushion the life inside? Just how much brutality could this aging snake of loosely interlocked seventy-mile-per-hour steel shoeboxes absorb before one weather-corroded, or decayed, or hairline-fractured, or faulty, or out-of-spec link in the chain gave way to mechanized death? 
11Inevitably, of course, there was the pull: the signal of disaster averted, this day. Even a hard pull didn’t matter – some engineers seem almost abusive with the brakes – to her it only meant a faster stop. In just a bit longer than it took to tear down, the foundation of reality reconstructed itself. The book, the podcast, the looming meeting: all lifted by the constructing force and gently placed back on their pedestals, fully intact, as she herself retook her throne amongst these luxuries of binary amuse-bouches and carefree analog thoughts. By the time the doors opened and the station announcement bells rang, all was forgotten, until the next time.
12She knew enough about psychology to know a feeling isn't the germ of a thought, rather, it is the reverse: a thought generates a feeling. Most would object, believing emotions are things unto themselves, tossed back and forth between people like a game of hot potato, and clueless to the underlying belief systems from which they arise. In her case, she reasoned, the twinge was her subconscious mid-brain generating a feeling within her body as a way of alerting her conscious fore-brain about some impending disaster. The triggering, unthought thought: Something is wrong. We are going far too fast, for far too long.
13She wondered as to the source, having never previously experienced a train wreck – or any other major transportation failure. Though terrifying, it lasted thirty seconds at most, and like the old dog who lay growling on top of the exposed porch nail, she wasn't motivated enough to get off her ass and do something about it. When it came, she let it play itself out, knowing at a meta level it would be over soon enough. It came as a shock to her, then, given her fine-tuned attentional and emotional predispositions in this area, to discover she wasn't the first person to notice, the day it all came true. 
14~ One ~
15
16Stan wasn’t especially concerned, since his total cholesterol was well under two-hundred, one-fifty exactly, and his bad cholesterol was a super-low eighty-seven. The problem was his good cholesterol, the one that cleans out the pipes, the HDL, that was too low as well – around thirty. Between them, the ratio was alright, so not an emergency situation or anything, but these days the docs say you gotta be at forty or higher on the HDL regardless. He had changed his couch potato lifestyle a bit by starting to exercise two years back, which is supposed to help bring up your HDL, so now he just had to get the blood draw and wait for the results to come back.
17What was killing him was the required “fasting lipid profile”, meaning a minimum twelve hours of nothing to eat or drink, excepting water, beforehand. Since his appointment was late in the afternoon, and he wanted to ensure he got a good test, he even skipped dinner the previous night – giving him a good nineteen-plus hours of fasting beforehand. It was worth it to him to get an accurate number – the last time he forgot and ate breakfast beforehand, and always wondered if that had screwed up his numbers. If I'm gonna base my whole lifestyle on these numbers, he thought, I can survive a few more hours to get a more accurate reading, right?
18The other thing he dreaded was telling them about his condition; he used to just say he had a history of fainting after blood draws, but one time, after he told the nurse, he overheard her tell the doctor he had “sing-co-pee”.  So he Googled that when he got home, and ever since, every time he got a blood draw he made sure to tell the nurse he had Syncope, so they knew right away. Also it sounded better than just saying he's a fainter.
19Five years ago was the worst, he had blood drawn by this medical company that comes in to the corporate office once a year and tests everyone who wants to for cheap. So they drew, band-aided him up, gave him an orange juice, and sent him on his way. He got on the elevator with another guy, and about ten floors down he is confused as to why this other dude is asking him, real loudly and nervously, “Are you OK man? Are you OK?”
20Looking down, he notices that he is slumping against the side of the elevator – still standing mind you – but leaning heavily and bent at the knees – and his orange juice is spilling onto the elevator floor. He was gone, man, gone. But his body still had some capacity to stand and hold a drink – to a certain extent – which was kind of weird, he thought later.
21Anyways, elevator dude is all concerned, so to make him feel better he goes and sits down outside the elevator – by now they are at the first floor – and he waves dude off saying he had a blood draw, and that this just happens to him, no biggie, and he hopes he is speaking English, and he guesses he is because dude leaves him alone with his embarrassment.
22But it hadn't happened, not that bad anyways, since he was fifteen and had a blood draw for school, and in the bathroom a few minutes later he starts sweating, and sees tunnel vision creeping in for the first time in his life, and there is only a small circle of reality left, and all that remains outside it is a furiously buzzing darkness.
23That time too he was standing, and never during this tunnel vision meltdown did he think to himself Gee, I should probably sit down so the blood can reach my thinkin' parts easier, so he stood and made it worse, because when you don't have enough blood in your brain there's no thinking your way out of it, now is there?
24So nowadays he has a lay down when the nurse draws, and today this nurse starts having him breathe in and out quickly while it was happening, and she told him later it was to keep nervous patients or children from focusing on the draw, which she could’ve kept to herself, because he wasn’t a kid, and he wasn’t scared or nervous, he just has syncope, as he already told her, so he just needs a lay down and a few minutes to rest afterwards, is all.
25The doctors office is pretty convenient in that it is only a few blocks to the Damen Blue line stop, so Stan called in beforehand to arrange a swap out for the number 431. Only he was late now – he had rested too long afterwards, and he couldn’t get that coffee and donut he had planned as a reward for himself. Hurrying to the station, he can see down the track the 431 is inbound already, rising up out of the tunnel, and it’s rush hour now so it's packed. He would catch hell for making a Friday rush hour train even a minute late, so he skips the elevator and bounds up the stairs, running to meet the first train car at the far end of the platform just as it stops.
26Squeezing past the passengers, he passes the other driver with a slight nod, sidles into the six by three foot cab, and locks the partition door closed. This is where the work of driving the train is done, the small space consisting of a small metal seat that folds down from the wall, wall buttons for the announcements and door controls, and a control console below the front facing window. The console holds a couple of large red and green buttons, a speed indicator, and the throttle: a steel handle with a black knob on top, worn with use, that rotates up to increase speed.
27Reaching behind his head, Stan pulls a clipboard from a hook on the back wall and updates the shift sheet to note the driver change. After setting it back, he slides the small side window down and sticks his head out, while simultaneously pressing the button that announces the doors are closing. Waiting for the crowd to squeeze back in after letting a few out, Stan relishes the early May evening air for a few seconds, before his fingers automatically feel for the door close button. Pulling his head back inside the cab, he slides the window upwards till it clicks shut.
28Only after coming in from the cool air did he realize how hot he felt – beads of sweat had suddenly start to form on his brow. The chair stayed folded into the wall; standing while driving was a new lifestyle habit he had chosen as part of his fitness overhaul. So he stands and slowly brings the throttle up and around, giving the customary salute to the friendly yellow spaceman, as the serpentine train rolls out towards the Western stop.
29He had gotten up to about twenty-miles-per when he felt a heat surge throughout his body. The beads of sweat coalesced and began to rain down his face as a wall of fatigue slammed into him. The only thought he had time for was "Not good, buddy", before the roiling, spinning emptiness started to encroach upon the edges of his vision.
30Slumping forward over the console, he purposely relaxed himself, kept his hand firmly on the throttle under his chest, and raised his head to keep his vision fixed on the track. Western, a half-mile ahead, was his only focus now. He could see the edge of the station in his diminishing circle of vision, and focused what was left of his consciousness on keeping that red tile roofline in sight, lest he pass out and force his hundreds of passengers to walk the trestle all the way back to Damen, forty feet in the air at that.
31Twenty seconds and another quarter-mile later, his vision is now a shivering blackness, punctuated by a stubborn dime-size circle of color in the center. He knew he wasn't coming out of this quickly, but still kept focused on that red tile – just another quarter mile, then he could let go. When the circle of color collapsed fifteen seconds later, he had a few milliseconds to think he could guide the train into the station by sound alone, but that thought – along with all the rest – extinguished as a loud buzzing arose in his ears.
32It would have been fine if Stan had collapsed into a heap on the floor – the throttle had a spring loaded dead-man's switch, so that like most modern lawnmowers, letting go of it kills the juice. Problem was, he didn’t completely collapse – his blood pressure drop drained crucial flow from his frontal lobes, but wasn't enough to take out his cerebellum at the back of the skull. This left him standing, barely, but leaning forward with the weight of his torso pushing against the throttle, keeping it open. The spring-loaded dead-man’s-switch in the throttle was of no use – because Stan was not a dead man. He was a zombie.
33 
34
35~ Two ~
36
37Jess settled into a single seat – a perk of being able to leave work at four – and slid her bag under it after pulling out her iPad. Most days she took the Brown line home, but on days where she wanted to get home quickly she headed underground and jumped on the Blue line, which was a shorter trip but required a bus ride for the final leg home.
38By the time they rose above ground at Damen, she was engrossed in a medical article she was editing for the Journal. This one was a super-weird one about Capgrass Syndrome, where an individual believes their closest friends or even spouses have been replaced with body doubles. Even after editing thousands of articles, she never lost the fascination for these strange disorders; unlike many of the physicians she met who only see symptoms, diagnosis, and course of treatment.
39So it barely registered when she heard the groans and muttered WTF’s of the people waiting to get off at Western. If she had looked up, she would have noticed them flying by the station without stopping. Like the other passengers, she might have rationalized this away by convincing herself this was an express train, and the asshat driver had neglected to inform them. Instead, she kept on reading, while the train picked up speed, and began the familiar lifting and swaying motions she might have dreaded, had she noticed.
40It was only when they came barreling through the California stop, accompanied by more and louder groans and general pissed-offedness, that someone started to notice that the horn wasn’t blowing. When a train runs express, the driver always blows the horn – a high pitched beep – when coming into the stations, as a warning to the waiting passengers that they might want to step back from the edge of the platform.
41And so she finally came out of her book when she heard a woman telling each person around her "This train's not stopping, this train’s not stopping" over and over. This woman, on any other day, might have been shouted down as an nutbag, or as a neurotic stirrer-of-shit, except that most of the people also felt there was indeed something out-of-order today; they knew the express announcement was never made, and the express horn was never blown, and this free floating anxiety had now coalesced around this woman’s words, such that they knew she was not saying, in effect, "this train is running express" or "this train is missing stops", but they knew just what she was communicating, and this knowledge washed over the passengers with a suddenness, which became: this train was not going to stop, ever.
42This process of realization occurred in each of the nine cars of this train, at just about the same time, give or take ten or twenty seconds either way. Jess’s car, though third in line, was a bit late to the party, so to speak, but they made up for their tardiness with vociferousness.
43Looking up, Jess immediately picked up on the motions of the train, and the anxiety of her fellow car-mates, and now her generalized anxiety of a possibly driverless train... well that probabilistic wave function collapsed into a reality, a knowledge – and also having the effect of reducing the anxiety regarding the event, interestingly. She made a mental note of this, under the perhaps mistaken notion that she might have a future block of time in which to ponder it further.
44Although Jess had rehearsed the discovery of this situation many times, she had not gone further to actually plan what she might do as a consequence. A new theory also filed away: Would planning possible reactions have left her feeling empowered now, and perhaps reduced her anxiety in the past? Seemed plausible, and she regretted mightily not planning beforehand, not so much for any historical anxiety reduction, but for the natural utility such planning might have provided in the present moment. In any case, something needed to be done and the planning would have to be now, though clearly not an ideal time for it.
45Ten seconds past the California stop, Jess had decided that clearly the driver was incapacitated or insane, and so she must reach the head car and do... something. She silently cursed herself for getting into the third car: she always avoided the first two as the Blue line terminus was O’Hare and they were generally full of passengers and luggage.
46Dropping her iPad, she raced up the aisle just as the other riders were grasping this new reality. Reaching the emergency door at the end, she slid the handle clockwise and pulled it open, filling the car with a rush of wind and the squeal of steel wheels. She stepped between the bouncing, swaying trains, and as she reached for the forward car's door handle, a whoosh filled her ears and all was plunged into roaring darkness.
47Once again they were underground, headed towards the Logan Square station. Realizing she wasn’t quite dead yet, Jess pushed the door open, stumbling into the second car, as it shut behind her with a thwack. Instead of the stunned silence of her car, this one exhibited a fair amount of wailing and crying, interrupted momentarily by her loud entrance.
48She stepped over a man in a yellow hoodie crouched in the aisle, and past one seated woman who, holding some prayer beads, made the mark of the cross. A smattering of seated riders were hunched down, hands interlaced behind their head, airplane crash style. Why? she thought to herself as she pushed forward. Most of the rest were furiously calling or texting on their phones, whether 911 or their loved ones, depending upon their level of optimism. The remainder just sat and stared wildly, bracing themselves.
49Fumbling past people and luggage, she made it to the middle of the car, and looking ahead realized she wasn’t the only potential hero or heroine on this train. A crowd of people were funneling into the forward car ahead of her, just as others began streaming in behind her. Like her, many others also felt the need to get to the front car and do...something.
50The Logan stop streaked by as Jess inched forward, a few bodies from the next door. Trapped between two large men, she glanced out the window at the platform, at the startled and confused faces whizzing by in a blur. One young woman, however, seemed to understand exactly what she was witnessing. Jess’s eyes locked with hers for only a second, but the look of horror on her face chilled Jess to the bone, because that young girl knew was she was seeing: she was seeing Death, happening right in front of her.
51Her reaction forced Jess to push ahead harder, lest she succumb to the same numbness, and she squeezed her way again into the swirling, black abyss between cars, her back pressed against the taut safety chain, as she maneuvered around three others and birthed herself into the front car.
52Ahead of her lay a sea of bodies – So many North Face logos, she thought, pushing forward. Slipping past a few more people, she found herself jammed again, and so, reaching up, she used a few convenient shoulders to vault herself up and over the seats. The steel grab handles in the seat backs made for a decent foot path, as she walked forwards, her hands pushed against the ceiling to steady herself.
53From her vantage point, she could see a solid block of peopled jammed up against the driver compartment door. The black accordion privacy curtain prevented them from seeing Stan in his semi-catatonic state, so the writhing masses yelled and banged on the glass with their hands, briefcases, and backpacks; one enterprising young woman even used her aluminum Sigg bottle, all to no effect. The lack of space prevented any one person from gaining enough backswing to break through the double layer security glass; instead they accomplished little more than polite taps. Streaks of blood appeared on the window, as one man with a pocketknife desperately began slicing the rubber seal surrounding the window.
54It was clear she couldn't fight her way to the front of this crowd, and even if she did, she hadn't come up with any better ideas anyway. Her goal now: the nearest doorway. Flinging herself around the pole dividing the seating from the doors, she slipped into a small pocket, grabbed the red knob embedded into the ceiling, and yelled "Move back!" The crowd pulled back a few inches, giving her enough room to slip into place facing the doors, as she pulled down on the handle with her full weight, lifting herself off the floor. Through the knob she felt the click of a spring-loaded mechanism, as the doors retreated back into the side walls.
55Swirling, sucking wind entered the car as the crowd pulled back further into the relative safety of the driverless train. Jess considered her options, picturing the route as the wind buffeted her face, but couldn't recall any safe place to jump – there were no lakes or river crossings the whole distance to O'Hare. A platform suddenly appeared just in front of her, more shocked faces flying by in a blur, followed by open space again.
56Throughout the previous three minutes she had thought only of the next immediate goal, and now with time to think, nothing came to her, but like a shark, she had to keep moving or die. Could I climb to the roof? she thought. There were no more tunnels on the route, at least until the end of the line, she recalled with a twinge of dread, but once out – what then? 
57
58Grabbing the lowered emergency handle again, she lifted her body up and swung her right leg outside the car. Finding purchase on the rippled aluminum exterior, she levered her body up higher, her right hand searching for a hold on the roof. Discovering a sharp lip where the aluminum exterior of the car joined the roof, she gripped tight, and lifting her left hand up to it, found she was able to support her weight.
59Feeling a hard tug on her left leg, she lost her footing and dangled in open space, the steel lip cutting into her right hand, which now held her full weight. After fumbling to regain her holds, instead of feeling terror, Jess was pissed. Planting her left Fluevog-clad foot onto what she presumed was the face of her moronic "rescuer", she discouraged any further attempts with a satisfying, meaty stomp.
60Clinging to the skin of the car, she noticed the next station approaching, and pulled her body tight against the metal. The platform's foot-wide blue safety strip flashed by inches beneath her heels, as she felt a whipping on her hindquarters that almost knocked her from the train. Several surprised travelers would later discover buttons ripped clean from their jackets. 
61The blue strip vanished, replaced by a blur of brown railroad ties leading down a steep embankment. There would be no jumping off point here. She thought of the small driver's window: whatever was happening in that cab, she would have a better shot at stopping it from out here than those futilely banging away inside. Hand over hand, she inched herself forward, the riders inside watching this new development with a mix of horror and disbelief.
62The rippled surface of the car soon gave way to the forward set of doors which, while closed, had no footholds – she would have to swing her way across the four foot opening. Though her hands were now cramping, the pain was tolerable in that she was a mere seven feet from her goal – that little window. Letting her feet dangle, she tried to swing, but failing to achieve any momentum, she resorted to pulling her way across the chasm by her curled fingers alone. Reaching her right foot forward, she found support once again, and slid into place hugging the car just in time for the next station passing.
63Not wanting to repeat the spanking she got at the last station, she tilted her head forward and startled the waiting crowd ahead with a shout of "Get BACK!". As they scurrying to get out of the way, Jess was relieved to feel nothing but the wind on her backside this time.
64Back in open air, and knowing they were only a few stops from the end of the line, Jess scooted the final distance to the sliding glass window. Finding no ledge on the outside, she pushed her hand flat against the glass and slid it open.
65Looking inside, she could see Stan still bent over the console, throttle jammed under his torso, with a trail of saliva pooling at the intersection of the console and the window. Thinking he was dead, she found herself relieved; she was expecting to meet a driver with a death wish. She reached forward, and clutching a handful of overalls, pulled his body towards her. As he slid sideways onto the floor, the throttle wound back to zero, sending the passengers inside careening against each other in a violent, bruising group hug as the integrated braking system kicked in. Jess didn't feel anything, however, being in midair and all.
66 
67~ Three ~
68
69The second she was thrown from the train, time slowed to the point where she looked back upon it, receding from her now, and worried about the driver and his family, who she continued to think had just died. Then, realizing her predicament, she snapped her head around to see her trajectory, which had her heading down the steep embankment. Petrified now, time returned instantly – but as soon as her ears filled again with the buffeting wind, a ripping, popping sensation sent it away again, and she was at peace.
70She was fine; she hadn't hit anything, and was startled to look down and see a body laying in the gully below. Pinned in some bushes, it was scratched up and bloodied, one arm laying at an unnatural angle, looking more like a mannequin than a human – an awful mess. She turned away with disgust, only then realizing the clothing seemed familiar to her. That was her body down there.
71Jess herself, however, that is, her consciousness, seemed just dandy. Confused, she took inventory, and had retained all her limbs with nary a scratch to be found. She even wore the same clothing as the body below, only perfectly clean and unbloodied. Her attention was drawn away from herself by the wailing of sirens; it seemed every squad, ladder truck and ambulance citywide had been called to the scene.
72Two police cruisers snaked through traffic on the four-lane highway next to the tracks, skidding to a stop sideways and blocking all further traffic. She watched this unfold with a sort of detached curiosity; as though it were a play. The burly cops ambled over a four foot chain link fence separating the highway from the CTA right of way, and climbed up to the train car. By now the passengers were all flowing into the narrow embankment beside the train, some of them shouting and pointing toward where Jess' body lay. The cops ignored them, shoving past to get to the train's cab. After a few minutes of determining that this was a medical situation, and not terrorism, one of the cops came back out to find the body.
73The officer unholstered his gun, as he skidded down the embankment into the gully. Seeing her body sprawled out in the brush, he quickly re-holstered and scrambled towards it, letting out a "Jesus" in between heavy breaths. He had seen enough dead bodies to know what they look like.
74The EMT's were close behind, and maneuvered a stretcher through the craggily path from the highway to her body. It was interesting to Jess how much of a fuss was being made – she wasn't down there, she was up here on the tracks, and felt just fine – more than fine. She took a moment to examine this state of hers; where a moment ago she was full of adrenaline, cold, in pain, sweaty, and just about sick to her stomach – now she had none of those concerns. She felt warm, but not overly so, had no hunger, no pain, no worry, no sweat even. Everything was just grand.
75Something then began to take hold in her consciousness, something just on the tip of her tongue, something she was forgetting. As if she had just awoken from sleep with a fading swirl of emotion, and was desperately trying to remember the dream that was the source of it. And then it hit her, and in an instant she became aware of the strangeness. The strangeness of feeling absolutely no concern for her body down there, below. She needed that body to live, and right now she wasn't alive – not in the conventional sense of the word. Apparently, she reasoned, she was dead.
76Panic began to set in as she tried to get closer to that pale, mangled contraption that was her body. This was made more difficult with the discovery that she wasn't exactly walking along the railroad bed; she was sort of gliding over it instead, and had difficulty controlling her movements in this state. Her anxiety increasing, she desperately began to swim down to her body. As she came nearer, she overheard the cop tell the EMT 'Take your time, she's gone' – which only sent her further into despair.
77A few feet away now, she felt a revulsion towards that twisted wreck; there was no way she wanted to go back in that, but the thought of losing the rest of her life terrified her more than the disgust she felt. Positioning herself a few inches over her body as best she could, she closed her eyes, and willed herself to feel her legs, arms, torso, head – anything to reconnect to her human senses again. Within a few moments, a small tug at the back of her head became a violent pull as she was sucked downwards, the main of her body following her head, snapping back into place with a thunk, as ping pong ball captured by a vacuum.
78Solidifying now, she felt every cell of her being burdened with a distinct weight and thickness, a heaviness, a substantiality, a humanity – and it was, frankly, disgusting to her. The consolidation was accompanied all the while with a set of high-pitched tones that intensified as they descended the scale, separating and resolving into a chorus of shouting voices and sirens. And then came the pain. 
79~ Four ~
80
81“Welcome back, sweetie.”
82 A cloudy haze filled her vision as her eyes slowly opened to reveal the smiling face of a nurse in blue scrubs.
83“I'll be right back, don't you go nowhere,” she said, before quickly shuffling out of the room. She could feel the pain lingering just behind whatever painkillers she had been given, a dull ache that she knew would catch fire once the drugs wore off. Bandages covered her arms and legs, and a sling supported her right arm, but she noticed with relief no plaster of paris anywhere.
84The nurse came back into the room with three doctors: an older man and a younger man and woman, interns, who stood behind the older doctor as if they were two children hiding from an over-affectionate Aunt. The older man approached and flicked a light back and forth between her eyes.
85"Good evening, young lady. You're back from your trip, eh?" he said. She tried to muster a “Guess so”, but her throat and mouth felt incredibly dry, and it came out more like “Guckth...”.
86"You expired you know," the male intern said, a touch of amazement in his voice, as he overcame his fear and walked around to stand at the other side of her bed.
87What a strange, rude, word, Jess thought to herself, Talking about me like sour milk. She frowned at him, as did the older doctor before quickly changing the subject.
88"Ah, how are you feeling, any pain?"
89"Huh uh," she managed, trying to force a swallow.
90"Well you rest up now, we'll check back on you in a bit." He rose, noted something on her chart, and after instructing the nurse to provide some ice chips, he was off with the female intern in tow.
91The young man lingered, however, staring at her awkwardly as he backed towards the door. It seemed he wanted to say something, but after a pregnant silence, he turned and left as well.
92She dozed on and off for a few minutes or a few hours, she couldn't tell which, then awoke to a visitor entering the room.
93"Hey, Messy! They said you were in and out, you in?"
94"Gavin," she squeaked, turning her head to see him. He giggled, and grabbing a styrofoam coffee cup from the table next to her bed, offered her a partially melted ice chip. She took it, and managed an icy smile.
95"Lady, don't you worry, I made it clear to them that there is no more dying in here for you today, so you got zero worries, I got you covered."
96"What happened?" she whispered, wondering how much he knew of what she remembered.
97"You crawled out on a train, you damn fool! Trying to be all Wonder Woman or something. Don’t ya remember? Then they shut her down and you went all Air Jess." He whistled while drawing an arc in the air, punctuating it with a Pop as she winced.
98"You got a dislocated shoulder and three bruised ribs, and of course this," he said, sprinkling his fingers back and forth over her bandaged body, "...this is all branchy and scratchy and just plain ol' crazy, but other than that, you're all good."
99She realized from his reaction that they didn't know she stopped the train, or that she had ...(died)... for a bit, at least.
100"Did you call..."
101"Your parents are on the way," he said, predicting her question, "and they'll be here in the morning. Now I'm gonna let you get some more rest, and I'll be back tomorrow bright and early. I’m super happy your okay, Jess," he said tenderly, and with a loud smack on the cheek, slipped out of the room.
102 
103~ Five ~
104
105She slept fitfully through the evening and into the night, as vivid dreams of the entire eight-minute drama played through her head. In some variations the train derailed, in others they barreled into the platform at the end of the line, but in none of them did things turn out as well as they had in reality. What did remain constant in each version was the moment of impact, when she was torn from her body, and into that place of peace and curious observation.
106Shooting pains in her side dragged her consciousness to the surface, and groaning, she opened her eyes to find it was 3:30 AM. She lay there half asleep, the jolts of pain intensifying as the meds wore off. Finally, thinking she could take no more, her hand fumbled about searching for the call button, until with a thunk the discomfort instantly receded.
107The pain was replaced by a small ticklish sensation, which started at the base of her spine and worked it’s way up, spreading over her back. It morphed into a soft, fuzzy feeling, and then changed again into something more metallic and sharp, but not painful. The relief from the pain was so great that instead of analyzing these strange new sensations, she simply enjoyed them, as they seemed to rise through her body and float upwards and away.
108Gone now, she gradually became aware of a slow, methodic, deep breathing. Remembering her single occupancy hospital room, she opened her eyes, annoyed to discover that not only had she been moved while asleep, but that she was now in the lower portion of a bunk bed, with another patient sleeping above her! Her annoyance quickly turned to bewilderment as she looked around and found herself to be laying on the floor underneath a single bed. She slowly rolled out from underneath, careful not to wake the person above, and stood gazing down upon her own sleeping form.
109Startled for a moment, she remembered all that had happened. This must be the most realistic dream I have ever had, she thought. She hadn't had one since her teens, when she read a book on lucid dreaming and started experiencing a few on occasion, but she soon lost the ability as her interest in the subject waned.
110The strange thing about this dream was her ability to ponder it – her previous lucid dreams quickly collapsed into wakefulness if she actively thought about them too much. Nope, not this time – she even said to herself I am asleep and dreaming, and the dream kept its complete state without dissolving.
111Well this is certainly new and unique, she wondered to herself, as she decided to see what she could do in this state before it all inevitably fell away from her. Turning away from her slumbering body, she glided – she noted she could glide in this dream – towards the door. Grabbing for the handle, she felt only the sensation of metal, her hand finding no purchase at all as it slipped through the material.
112Intrigued, she gently pushed on the large wooden door, only to have her fingers sink into it, producing a dense, cold, fibrous feeling within them. Pulling her hand out she punched at the door, her fist going all the way through, and in the process producing a faint knocking sound.
113OK, she thought to herself, let's tell this lucid dream who’s in charge. I want this door to open... now! she commanded, as it stubbornly and silently disobeyed her. This is supposed to be my reality, she thought, confusion and frustration setting in. Slowly, she slid her arm all the way through the door, then turned sideways – ready to jump back at any moment – as if she were reaching out to pet a strange dog. Up to her shoulder now, she slowly tilted her head in, unsure if her awareness would be affected by this intermingling. Reminding herself this was all a dream, she mustered her courage as she tilted her head through.
114In addition to the dense feeling the other parts of her body experienced, her vision became blurred and her hearing was dulled as her head mingled within the door. Noticing no ill effect on her consciousness however, she moved it back and forth, determining the strangeness occurred only when the door material intermingled with the areas of her brain in charge of those particular senses, instead of her sense organs themselves. For example, if she moved her head through facing forwards, she could still "see" the door even when her "eyes" exited the other side; and it was only when the back of her head, containing her occipital lobes, entered the door that the dulled vision effects manifested.
115Feeling more confident, she moved her whole body quickly through the door into the hospital hallway with a faint thump. Standing in the hall, the noise of shuffling papers greeted her, and turning to discover the source, she sighted a nurses station thirty feet away. A head was leaning over the top of the desk, looking directly at her. Startled, she froze, hoping she wouldn't be noticed. The nurse, staring intently, caught her breath and waited a few moments before speaking.
116"Plymouth? That you making the rounds? You sure gave me a start there, you gotta quit with that now."
117Confused, she wondered why she was being called Plymouth. As the nurse returned to her paperwork, Jess headed down the cold tile hallway towards her, stopping unnoticed directly in front of the desk. After a few moments, the nurse paused her busywork, and quickly looked up.
118“Uh!” she uttered, as she fell backward in her chair. Rising quickly, she turned away, holding her hands to the sides of her head as though they were blinders.
119"No, no, no. no. no. Uh uh, that is NOT ok, I told you... I told you... Uh uh," she muttered to herself angrily, as she kicked through the double doors at the end of the hall.
120This dream is just getting freaky now, Jess thought to herself, as she wandered back towards her room. As she reached her door, she heard another one open further down the hall, producing a doctor dressed in blue jeans and a white jacket. She recognized him as the young intern from earlier, and stood still as he approached, wondering if he would bust her for being out of her room in this super realistic dream.
121He did notice her, and slowed his pace as he began to stare with a furrowed brow. Well, she thought, it's clear I'm not invisible, but it’s just rude to stare, considering this is my dream and all. As he came alongside her, he suddenly looked forward and hurried his pace towards the same double doors the nurse had disappeared into. She couldn't help but be offended at not only being stared at, but not even acknowledged.
122Along with the frustration, she was feeling a little tired now – well not tired exactly – more like drained. Turning, she drifted through the closed door and lay down over her sleeping double, soon feeling the snapping sensation as she was sucked back into place.
123Forgetting the pain she had been in originally, it came flooding back into her with a vengeance. Groaning, her eyes shot open as she frantically reached over to press the call button before passing out completely.
124 
125~ Six ~
126
127Dapples of sunlight streaming through the window and played on her eyelids, gently awakening her. Though groggy, she felt loads better than the previous night, which seemed hazy and distant now. Hearing a commotion approaching, she sat up just as the door opened, producing the doctor from the previous day along with the male intern – the one from her dream. He looked tired.
128"And... she is awake," he pronounced. "Feeling better this morning? Well you should! Jay tells me you created quite a stir last night, so we upped your meds. Good news is you can go home today, and we'll send some of those very same happy pills home with you." Looking over his glasses, he leaned in down towards her. "Now, no more jumping off trains for you young lady, all right?" he said with a chuckle, eliciting only an eye roll. He hadn't seen it, though, as he was already busy scribbling a quick note on her chart, after which he left with a whoosh of his white coat. The intern remained.
129"Right out of central casting, that one, huh. Anyways, um, did you hear my call button last night?" Jess asked him.
130"I did hear the call. You were writhing around in pain, I had to sedate you – you don't remember?"
131"Not a thing. I think I passed out. But thanks."
132"Not a problem."
133"Your name is Jay? I thought maybe it was Plymouth." Jay's eyes suddenly widened. "Ah... no, but um, why would you say that?" he stammered.
134"I thought I heard the head nurse call you that last night. Who is Plymouth? Such a strange name."
135Forcing a half smile, he caught himself, and determined to regain his composure. "He is our resident ghost," he said with cool casualness.
136Now it was her turn to be incredulous.
137"In fact, our head nurse claims she saw him just last night –  – that's probably what you heard," he added with a knowing half-smile, reminding her of her fathers tales of  Santa’s reindeer tracks on the roof.
138"You saw him too," she stated, annoyed at the condescension.
139Struck dumb, he paused, cradled his head in his palm, and exhaled deeply, giving away the charade. Curiosity had beaten professional objectivity, and he rubbed his forehead while looking at the floor.
140"Well. Yes. I believe I did," he said almost sadly, as he looked up at her. The ball was in her court now.
141"It was me you saw."
142He glanced away, a flush of heat building within him. He knew he was in the weeds now, and though his right-brain screamed psych consult, he ignored it. "Where," he asked, still staring at the wall, not wanting to hear the answer he knew was coming.
143"Just outside the door here,” she said, pointing. “You saw me and skedaddled."
144He nodded an affirmation, but couldn’t bring himself to look at her. Pulling himself out of the muck, he broke the tension and forced a smile.
145"Come on, you need to get out of that bed – let's take a stroll to the mess hall," he said, lowering the side rail. The large bandage binding her ribs tightened as her legs swung over the side, and she grimaced as he helped her into her slippers. Sliding down off the bed, she felt the weight of her body sink into her feet like a ballast, as she pushed them forward by turns to maneuver her one hundred and twenty pound side of beef out the door.
146"So... what happened to you?" he asked casually, as they reached the busy hallway.
147She supposed his question was not specifically about the events of the previous night, but she wasn't going to go into all that just yet.
148"I thought I was dreaming.  Turns out I might not have been. What did you see?"
149"Well I thought I saw a cloudy, swirling mist or smoke in the general shape of a person. Strange thing was, it didn't appear to drift or dissipate. Of course it was late and I had been working a whole day already," he countered, unwilling to commit himself to what he knew he had seen.
150"Yeah, and you were wearing jeans then. Why?"
151Boy, this one doesn’t beat around the bush, he thought to himself.
152"I... was going to grab a nap in the break room, and I changed so I wouldn't wrinkle my fancy doctor pants," he said, pinching the sides of his dress pants out to display their fanciness.
153"So, have you... done this before?" he said, breaking the awkward silence. He was getting good at that.
154"No. In fact, I wasn't sure it was even real, until you confirmed it for me just now."
155"Oh. Well. Ah, great for that, then," he replied, regretting he didn’t call for that psych consult. 
156"It also happened when I fell from the train, though."
157"Hmmm..." It was all he could muster at this point.
158"Have you had other patients with these experiences?"
159"Noooo....." he said, shaking his head slowly. "But I don't really have a lot under my belt yet,” he explained.  as she unthinkingly glanced below his literal belt. Catching her, his face flushed with embarrassment as he forced a premature finish to his thought. “...So this is definitely a learning experience for me," he spat out, his voice rising an octave and echoing over the din of the busy hallway.
160Jess laughed out loud, then stifled it, holding her ribs and grimacing as her body shuddered.
161"Yeah, me too," she said between breaths, wiping the tears of pain and laughter from her eyes.
162"Listen, don't tell Dr. Bell about this stuff. I don't think he would be as, ah, open, to it. I do remember reading about a doctor in the UK who was investigating something like this, though.  Let me Google it and get back to you, okay?"
163Before she could answer, an older couple began scurrying down the hallway to greet them, yelling "Jessica!". Recognizing her parents, she smiled, and protecting her ribs with one arm, she held them back with the other, yelling "No hugs! No hugs!"
164"Well I'll leave you to them," he whispered, turning to backtrack down the hallway.
165“Thanks!” she called out sarcastically, the back of his white coat waving in the breeze as he successfully made his escape. 
166
167~ Seven ~
168
169After an eternity of reassurances as to her well being, Jess was back in her hospital bed, her parents safely corralled in a nearby Hilton. Though feeling a bit better, she was loathe inform the nurses, wanting to stay on the higher dose of pain meds to avoid a repeat of the previous night. As she lay staring up at the pock-marked ceiling tiles, she wondered if it was possible for her to "slip out" willfully. Having the ability to safely return eased her fears, and stoked her growing curiosity about this new state of consciousness.
170Closing her eyes, she visualized herself as two intertwined bodies, the physical and the... less physical. Focusing on the lighter body, she tried to move her leg and step out slowly. No luck. Then she tried rolling out sideways, floating down through the bed again, sitting up, drifting up... nothing. Giving up for the night, she simply set her intention: I would like to consciously control this new experience of leaving my physical body, and let it go. Oh well, maybe tomorrow, she thought to herself as she began to feel the floating sensation of sleep coming on. But then, deep down, she felt something else – a tiny buzzing, as if a bumble bee had suddenly awoken at the base of her spine. The sensation, climbing upward through her torso, took on a more electric feeling as though she were being shocked. Opening her eyes, she searched with her hands to see if an exposed wire was touching her body somewhere, but found nothing. Fearing this strange new sensation, she resisted it, and sighed with relief as she felt it slowly subside. Empowered again by the feeling of control, however, she once more closed her eyes, and clutching the awkward hospital bed remote control with the call button, she searched for the feeling again. It returned as if called back, and spreading upwards quickly now, she allowed it to reach her head, where she heard the buzzing as well.
171Slowing, the buzz became a tangible vibration she could feel in her bones, morphing now into a forceful swaying motion, bordering on violent. The fear returned, and she gripped the remote, telling herself that if she started to feel dizzy, she would press the button. The dizziness never came, and so she observed as the periodicity slowed and the arcs lengthened, until at one final apogee, she felt a low popping, ripping sound again, followed by stillness and silence.
172The heaviness gone, she knew instantly she was out. The first thought she had was, again, how strange it was – the essential density of her body. Only now, dis-embodied, was she able to feel the difference, and it felt so natural without it, so free, that it now seemed embodiment was quite an unnatural state, an imposition of sorts, a tax on the fact of being.
173Rising, she headed for the door again, but then decided to try the wall this time. It was a similar feeling, in that the density of the material was felt – but different in that this substance felt more granular and chalky, with the middle being less dense, but also with a metallic taste.
174At one point she felt a vibrating sensation near her hand, and looking down, noticed it had passed through an electrical junction box. Moving it quickly back and forth through the box not only produced a rapping sound similar to the door, but also caused the fluorescent lights of her room start to flicker. Noting this, she moved fully into the hallway, and turning towards the Nurse's station, saw a different woman peering over the same desk, curious about the strange noises. She quickly zipped back to avoid a repeat of the previous night, peeking out after a bit to see if she was still being watched. This nurse apparently had no personal history with "Plymouth", however, and had gone back to her work without attempting contact. Jess moved into the hall again, slowly this time to avoid any inadvertent sounds, and glided down the hallway in the other direction.
175Reaching a turn in the corridor, she heard a rhythmic sound, and moving towards it discerned music, possibly Start Me Up, but she couldn't be sure. Heading towards the source, she found a door ajar, and peered through the crack to find a small windowless office, with Jay leaning back in a swivel chair before a desk piled with manilla folders, papers, and books. Hands clasped behind his head and eyes closed, he appeared to be either asleep or just enjoying the music.
176She slipped through the partly open door and stood before him unnoticed. Reaching forward, she waved her hand through the desk, producing three slight thuds. Jay's eyes flew open and stared straight at her, but he remained frozen in place, eyes wide with fear. After a few seconds of no reaction, she spoke.
177"It's me, Jessica," she said, eliciting no reaction.
178"Hellooo!" she yelled, but still... nothing.
179It was clear whatever form she was now taking was not recognizable as human. Frustrated at his lack of response, she reached forward and rapped on his desk again, causing him to jerk forward in his chair, shoot up, and back against the far wall, never taking his eyes off her. Finally she heard a small sound from him, choked out almost, it was single word, and it was "Go".
180She had gone too far, she told herself as she quickly backed through the door, ashamed and dejected. Hurrying back to her room, she felt diseased, even repugnant, thinking if ghosts did exist, she now knew why they stuck to lonely attics and dark basements. No tears came, but a deep sadness shuddered within her. Never again, she told herself, as she lay down and slipped back into her sleeping body.
181 
182~ Eight ~
183
184She awoke to the murmurs of Gavin and her parents discussing her discharge procedure with a nurse, and how they should care for her while she recuperated at home. Jay, however, was nowhere to be found. The memories of the previous night returned while she sleepwalked through the discharge process, the feelings of rejection only increasing as she was wheeled out the front door. He hadn't even said goodbye.
185Back at home Jess felt a bit better. The familiar sights and smells, the company of her kitty, along with the pampering by her parents, did much to assuage her emotional and physical wounds. She lived in the third story of large Greystone, which she rented from Gavin and his partner Joel, who lived on the first two floors. Gavin was a close friend from her publishing company, who left the previous year to start his own small design firm at home. That same year they had travelled to China to adopt a two-year old daughter, Lenora, and the sight of her also cheered Jess immensely. With the single exception of her adorable, but painful, habit of frowning and saying "ow" as she pressed her finger full force into one of Jess's bandages.
186April passed into May, with Jess feeling better day by day. The parents had returned home to Las Vegas after the second week, about the time Gavin informed her, with a smile, that her demands had become tiresome. Between this and her dread of watching one more Oprah-spawned "Dr." show, she decided to return to work.
187The first day back, she was surprised by a Throw Jess From The Train welcome back party, complete with cake. Though most of the younger staff missed the reference and was offended by the title on her behalf, Jess could care less. She appreciated the genuine care and concern of her coworkers, and anyway the vanilla-frosted chocolate cake was good. Soon enough she was back to editing obscure psychological journal articles, as her hospital experience faded into the background.
188 
189~ Nine ~
190
191It was early June when she fell out again. She had just had another nightmare about the train experience, this one particularly vivid, focusing on the girl she saw in the underground station. For some reason this girl, not even on the train with her, seemed more frightening to her. Jess began to feel the emotions flowing through this girl, and watched from her perspective the flying train filled with terrified passengers, as suddenly she felt the familiar thunk.
192She found herself awake and staring, entranced, at a strange lamp which sprung from an intricate medallion embedded in the clean white floor. Pulling her gaze away she noted she was positioned upside-down, and staring at her own ceiling light fixture. In this state she seemed to have little gravitational or vestibular reference as to how her body was positioned, other than by visually examining her surroundings.
193In the hospital, she seemed to experience having a bit more mass, and although she didn't walk then, but glided, still, it felt a bit like walking. Now, however, she felt more freedom to move about, less tied to the imprint of how her physical body moved, and this freedom was intoxicating. Her "never again" commitment forgotten as effortlessly as the one against Tequila while huddled over the bowl, she began to explore and play. If she began imagining herself as her physical body, then she became more substantial, feeling the slight effects of gravity as she drifted towards the floor. Likewise, if she imagined herself a floating ball of energy, she felt even lighter and could travel faster, zipping from place to place with ease. Moving into the hallway in this highly energized, low mass state, she made no sound while passing through the door. It seemed she could manage her "density" by focusing her thought patterns, reminding her of her graduate course on self-hypnosis, which worked on the same principles.
194For the first time, she thought of moving vertically, and a moment later spiraled down through the floor, finding herself in Lenora's room, watching over the little one soundly sleeping in her crib, her soft breaths barely audible over the hum of a white-noise producing fan. She hadn't realized Lenora's room, which she had been in so often, was just below hers. It seemed her room was in a different place, yet in reality she was separated from it by only a few inches of insubstantial material. She began to contemplate the idea that most barriers between people were simply mental constructs, but caught herself and brought her attention back to the current moment.
195As she watched Lenora sleep she felt such a love towards this little person, as though it was actually flowing out of her and into the child. Coincident to this or not, Jess noticed the little one begin to stir, stretching her arms above her head and yawning as she grabbed onto the side rails of the crib. Her sleepy eyes opened, and finding Jess, she murmured "ow", and with a slight smile drifted back into sleep. An overpowering joy coursed through Jess as her feelings of rejection and disfigurement, forgotten now in her subconscious, were excavated and incinerated in the light of her happiness. She returned to her body relieved of  a large burden, and slept soundly.
196 
197~ Ten ~
198
199She began a habit of setting an intention to visit little Lenora before she fell asleep, later waking to discover herself outside her body – interestingly this usually occurred between 3:00 and 3:30 AM – and so would head down through the floor and have a short visit. Most times Lenora would not wake, but the times she did she would again softly say "ow", or present a small loving smile, or a giggle, before falling off to slumber again.
200After a time Jess did feel she was, in a sense, invading her friends privacy with these visits, but rationalized it away, in so much as her intentions were loving. Still, this nagged at her, and knowing Gavin – he had unabashedly confessed to experiencing spiritual visitors in the past – she thought he may be more accepting if she presented her nocturnal non-breaking-and-enterings to him. One night, after her visit to the little one, she travelled to his bedroom, only to discover Joel asleep alone in the bed. Embarrassed, she backed out into the hall where she noticed a light on in the unused third bedroom – now an office – at the front of the house. Slipping to the doorway, she turned the corner to discover Gavin sitting at his desk, gazing intently at some document on his laptop.
201Although she knew her approach was silent, he glanced up from his work and looked in her direction. His look contorted into confusion, painfully reminding her of her visit with Jay. Frozen with fear, she stood as still as possible, not knowing how she appeared to him, but determined to avoid detection. After a few seconds, Gavin – unlike Jay – stayed seated, and with a quizzical look on his face, called out.
202"Jess?"
203A cooling relief washed over her; being recognized by an adult as well further soothed her from the experience with Jay. Nodding, she replied in the affirmative, but found no response from him.
204Gavin continued to look her over. "I'm not sure who you are or what you want, but I'm a little busy right now, so I'd appreciate some privacy."
205Jess, noticing a touch of stress in his words, blurted out "It's me Gavin! Jess!"
206Still, there was no reply at all. Gavin looked back down to his work, but after a few moments held his head still and looked up furtively, as though checking if his visitor were still present. Seeing her again, he quickly looked back down, and began to type. She backed out of the room, being careful not to move through any solid material to avoid disturbing him further. Again, she was frustrated with her inability to communicate. As she rose back into her apartment, she heard a distinct "Thank you" echo from Gavin's office.
207 
208~ Eleven ~
209
210"How did you know it was me?"
211It was morning and Jess was at Gavin's door. Gavin, wearing a white bathrobe and holding a mug of coffee, looked tired, but the question perked him up straight away.
212"Oh, I could just tell," he said casually.
213"But you couldn't hear me? I was screaming at you!"
214"Not a word, honey. By the way, what the hell? You  freaked me right out. I had a mind to go pound on your door to see if you were still with us. How did you do that?"
215"Just something I picked up," she said casually, half-smiling. "So... what did I look like?"
216"It, ah, you, I guess, were just like a swirly smoky thing. Like someone had been there smoking a cigar or something and had just left. That's why I was confused for a second, then I realized there was no smell, and this smoke wasn't clearing, you know, like spreading out or thinning or whatever, but it was like mixing and swirling within itself, right? Then your name just popped into my mind. That's when I started to freak a little, cause I didn't know it was you, cause you're like, alive and all that, and it didn't look like how my Auntie looks. So now you got to dish: how in the hell did you learn to go astral?"
217Jess had heard the term before, but Gavin's saying it now made her giggle. "Oh my god that's so 70's!"
218"OK, how about out-of-body. Is that better, Science?" he said with a smirk.
219"Yeah. Just a tad more objective. So anyway, I have a confession, before I visited you I have been visiting Lenora at night for awhile now. Sorry?"
220"Really," he said squinting his eyes at her, "well, I guess that's OK, but honey, please don't barge in on our nasty!"
221"NOT A PROBLEM," she teased back. "Let's talk later, huh? I gotta go, I think my ride's here," she said as she headed down the stairs.
222In the taxi on the way to work – taking the El was still out of the question – she rebuked herself for not trusting Gavin more and telling him right away. At work she was distracted, and couldn't even focus on a paper involving a severed corpus callosum – splitting the brain in half to control epilepsy – which had some fascinating side effects which normally would have kept her rapt attention.
223It was around two P.M., tea time, when browsing her tweets, she decided on a whim to Google dissociation, the clinical term for what she felt she was experiencing. The closest match she could find was Depersonalization Disorder,  which she vaguely recalled from school. Symptoms included the feeling one's consciousness has left the body and is observing themselves and their life as if it were a movie. That didn't quite fit her experience, she decided, for a couple of reasons. First, since it is classified as a mental disorder, there is obviously mental distress involved. Her experiences were somewhat distressing in parts, but not overwhelming – in general it was a positive feeling. Second, people with this disorder reported seeing the world through a thick haze, or gauze, or cloudiness. She, on the other hand, could perceive clearly, as if it were even more real than reality. And finally, one common – and strange – symptom was a powerful aversion to fluorescent lighting; and once again, she had none of this, in the body or out – and the hospital had been full of them.
224Unsatisfied, she thought of Gavin and typed "astral travel" into the search box. Scrolling through the Wikipedia entry was a vast history of this state of consciousness throughout most religions, but a modern sounding name finally caught her eye: Raymond Adams. From this link she learned he was a pioneer of this practice back in the seventies, who had in fact funded and developed a center to promote study of the experience, which continued to thrive to this day, decades after his passing.
225Reading through the materials and testimonials, she was surprised that there were people who were willing to pay thousands of dollars for "retreats" in order to learn how to do what she had innocently stumbled onto. A few clicks later and she was sending a book to her Kindle – Raymond's seminal classic Adventures in the Astral Body.
226By the end of the workday she had read through a quarter of the book, captivated by his experiences, which she found eerily similar to her own. What was strikingly different, however, was that his travels rarely resulted in any verifiable evidence, and it seemed his senses were somewhat dulled, while hers remained completely intact. Apparently, she was an accidental astral-traveling pro. Halfway through the book, in the cab ride home, Jess knew she wasn't going back to work the next day. She was going to the Adams Center.
227 
228~ Twelve ~
229
230Citing ongoing mental health issues related to the accident – true to a certain extent – Jess took a leave of absence from work the next day. Minutes after the confirmation email from Human Resources, she booked a ten thirty A.M. flight to Asheville, North Carolina, the closest airport to the Adams Center. Throwing clothes into a duffel, she headed down to tell Gavin. He was fully supportive of what he called her "Journey" or "Vision Quest" or something, but most importantly, he agreed to continue taking care of her cat while she was away.
231In the taxi, she reflected that she had never acted so impulsively before; she didn't even call the Adams Center to let them know she was coming, much less book the $1,800 retreat package. Somehow, she just knew that she had to just get there, and the rest of the pieces would fall into place. 
232Her flight arrived at 11:20 am, and by noon she was barreling east down I-40 in a rented Kia, heading out of Asheville towards Black Mountain. Twenty minutes later her iPhone, sitting on the dash, led her off the highway and onto a twisty two lane road deep into the heart of the Blue Ridge mountains. Filtering through the leaves, the sun dappled the car, darkening only as she passed huge patches of wild Kudzu covering the trees overhanging the road.
233Twenty minutes in, a gnawing feeling began to develop in her stomach. Unable to entertain the idea that she was having doubts about this whole adventure, she convinced herself it was her lack of lunch along with the unending switchbacks. A minute later, she emerged from the wild, coasting downhill into a valley as the road untangled itself. A lonely, rusted sign floated by on her right: This way to the Straightaway Cafe (2mi).
234Fortunate to have a distraction from the thought of turning the car around, she searched ahead and spotted the roadhouse setting on a natural ledge embedded into the hillside up ahead. Slowing down, she turned into the steep gravel drive, as the Kia's four cylinders struggled to pull the car up the incline, the tires spitting pebbles onto the undercarriage in frustration. She passed by a large outdoor stage constructed of rough-hewn timbers, bereft of any live music on this weekday afternoon, and headed over to the parking area, finally sidling up between a minivan and a pickup, the only other cars around.
235Jess locked the car out of habit, and steeled her nerves as she explored the outdoor seating area looking for the entrance. It was hot, and the only company she found outside was a carpenter bee the size of a hummingbird, which greeted her by brazenly hovered within inches of her face. Ducking and weaving, she shooed it away as she spied the entrance and scooted towards it, checking to see if anyone had spotted her dance of fear. Her attempts at discretion were soon thwarted, however, as the wooden screen door swung shut behind her with a loud thwack, announcing her presence definitively. A few local patrons finishing their lunch casually glanced up at her, but soon went back to their meal without concern. Another table held a family of four, whose bickering children distracted the parents from even noticing her. Relieved, she walked in and spied a middle-aged woman cleaning a large ornate antique bar in the back.
236"Hey honey, just one a ya?" she hollered to Jess from across the room. "Sit wherever you like, I'll be with ya in a minute."
237Jess made her way through the maze of tables and perched on a stool at the bar, turning to smile at the family of four behind her, who looked like they were out-of-towners as well. She took a chance.
238"Hi, are you here for the Adams Center?" she said,  mentally kicking herself as she realized they were probably not here to teach their kids astral travel.
239"Why no, dear, what's that?" the mother replied, wiping ketchup off her young daughters arm. The boy, who looked about six, answered for her.
240"That's where the sun house is at!" he exclaimed excitedly. His mother, ignoring him, continued on.
241"Is that near the lake, then?"
242"Mom, that's the place just nearby," argued the boy, prompting the father to join in.
243"Oh, yeah," he said, then turning to his wife, "the place with the dome."
244"Yeah – the big sun!" the boy repeated, fully vindicated now.
245"Shhh... finish your lunch," the father whispered to him, then turned back around to Jess. "So... what exactly goes on there?" he asked, with a casualness that betrayed a distinct curiosity.
246"We'll its like a retreat, I think... it's my first time actually."
247"Well you're almost there, its just up the road," the mother interjected. "I think it's like a spa or something, probably some crystal healing too, or maybe pyramid power stuff? Well, what did you sign up for exactly?"
248It was clear neither had a clue about the goings-on there, and were not-so-subtly prying for information.
249"Well I haven't really signed up, I guess I'm just a walk-in. What are you here for?" Jess said, changing the subject.
250"Oh, we're on our way to the lake, we're renting now, but we're building a summer home here."
251Apparently there was some sort of resort down the road; she had no idea. In any case they were no help in calming her nerves about the center, their curiosity only increased her latent anxiety.
252Returning from the kitchen, the waitress appeared holding a notepad, interrupting the conversation, which was just fine with Jess. "Specials are up on the wall, soup is New England clam chowder, and there's $2.00 Stellas all day long. Can I get you a drink?"
253Jess ordered the special – blackened catfish – and a root beer, and after taking her order the waitress didn't immediately head back to the kitchen.
254"Adams Center, huh?"
255"Yeah, have you heard about it?"
256"Well sure, it was a big deal in the 70's. We used to go there every year. Decided back in '88 to skip the drive from Oregon and just pack it all up and move here! I'm Kal by the way," she said, extending her hand.
257"Jess, thanks." Why did I just say thanks? she asked herself.
258"Yeah mostly it's a vacation for old-school new-agers from the 80's, like us, 'cept with money," Kal said with a throaty laugh. "Did pry open our minds a bit though, which is always good! You say you don't have a reservation? What's yer deal here sweetie?"
259"I'm not really sure...but definitely interested in what's going on there. So... what goes on there?" Jess asked with a wry smile. The parents behind her were shushing their kids now, in a vain attempt to overhear their conversation.
260"Well it's different for everybody, so I guess you'll find out soon enough," she answered mysteriously. "When you get there, though, ask for Terry, tell 'em you talked to me, OK? Oh goodness, I'm sorry – we've been gabbing so long, I haven't even put your order in." Kal walked back toward the kitchen, shouting "Hal! One dirty kitty!"
261She wolfed down her meal, anxious to get going now and resolve the mystery of the Adams Center, and, belly full, settled her bill and said her goodbye to Kal as the screen door slammed shut behind her.
262 
263~ Thirteen ~
264
265She was only a few minutes down the road when she saw something large and yellow filtering through the trees off to the right. Coming around a bend, she spotted a massive dome rising up from the ground in the distance. It seemed to be a couple hundred feet in diameter, but it was hard to tell as the backside was embedded in the slope of a hill. A ribbon of forested hills splayed out behind it, ending in the blues and greens of the mountains shimmering on the horizon beyond.
266Glancing back at the road she noted a faded white wooden sign next to a sloping drive off to the right. Slamming on the brakes, she made the turn even before she had time to fully read the sign, which stated, simply, Adams Center for Consciousness Studies – est. 1972. 
267Heading down this gravel drive, a faded white Victorian era mansion appeared on her left, skirted with a wide wraparound porch, and all nestled within a shaded grove of tall pines. The drive continued down to the right towards a few other outbuildings, and the dome itself, but as this appeared to be the main house, she parked in front of it next to three other cars.
268A grizzled older man in overalls, his doughy shirtless paunch peeking out from underneath the blue denim, sat reclined in a peeling white rocker on the front porch. His large, rough hands, interlaced over his belly, rose and fell with the rhythm of his breath, a straw hat covering his face as he slept. Her arrival hadn't seemed to stir him, and climbing the steps up to the porch, she stood before him, wondering what to do next, as the buzzing of two flies wound past them, disappearing around the side of the house.
269"Howdy," he rumbled, without lifting his head, or his hat for that matter.
270"Um, Hi," Jess replied, startled. "I'm looking for Terry. Ah, Kal at the Straightway sent me."
271"Inside. Kitchen." he replied, with a voice that matched the loose gravel of the driveway. Raising one hand from his belly, he lifted his hat and dropped it back to his face – eyes still closed – in a parting gesture clearly optimized to require the minimum energy expenditure possible.
272Opening another wooden screen door – they seemed ever present here – she was reminded of a bed and breakfast. Antique furniture and knick-knacks were scattered throughout the front living and dining rooms, and down the main hall beside the staircase, a potbelly stove poked out of the doorway to what she presumed to be the kitchen. Hearing some shuffling from that area, she headed that way.
273"Hello, I'm looking for Terry?" she queried, knocking on the side of the staircase, which prompted a bespectacled head with a shock of white hair to suddenly appear in the kitchen doorway.
274"Hi!" the head said joyfully, as it popped back in to set something down, and then re-appeared, body in tow. The man headed towards her, smiling as he wiped his hands on the large checkered apron he wore. Reaching her, he held out his hand and shook hers, but said no more.
275"So... you're Terry?"
276"Oh, yes, yes, of course. And you are?"
277"Jess, Jess Armitage. Kal from the Straightaway told me to ask for you."
278"Kal, yes! Well come on back, I'm fixin' up some granola."
279Jess stifled a laugh as she followed him back; of course this goofy fella would be making granola, she thought to herself. Standing in the small kitchen, she watched as he got back to mixing the contents of a large white ceramic bowl. She figured she would wait for him to say something this time, but after a few minutes, the silence became almost unbearable. Making a game of it, she decided to see how long she could go. She wondered if he was playing this game too, but had a hunch he wasn't.
280"So, you're here now," he finally offered after a few more minutes of silence. She took that as an opening, but not sure how to respond, decided to just play along.
281"Yes, I'm here now. Just arrived from Chicago."
282"Chicago! Wonderful place. I remember Second City, back in the day. Used to hang with John Denver. Oh, and the Old Town Ale House. And Del! How could I forget Del? Oh my. Wonderful. Wonderful." He seemed lost in reverie, and began absentmindedly stirring again, much too slow for any tangible effect on the ingredients.
283"Got crabs from a girl there once..." he mused, inadvertently blowing through her defenses completely, as she let out a hearty laugh, quickly stifling it.
284"OK, you win," she relented.
285"Oh, no no no... there are no winners here. On the flip side, no losers either. So it's like a nice warm bath. But it's not Communism," he lectured sternly, shaking an oats and brown sugar ladled wooden spoon at her, dollops dropping to the floor, "so don't even start up that alley young miss."
286Running out of her stifle reserve, she busted out again. She couldn't tell if he was baiting her or not, but he did glance at her with a sideways smile as she laughed, which gave away... something. Maybe. He either had a deviously dry sense of humor, or was a very, very confused man.
287"...and round two goes to you. The challenger remains... the challenger. So anyway," she said, composing herself, "I'd like to find out a little bit more about what goes on here."
288"Well, you're in the right place for that, aren't you?" he said, cradling the bowl, then turned and leaned into her as if sharing a secret. "You have got to taste this when I get it out of the oven. Some think it's better the next day, like meatloaf, but I like it nice and hot, and I need somebody else on my side in this." With a wink, he turned back to the counter and continued mixing.
289"Not a problem. Um, do you mind if I have a look around?"
290"Please do, and oh, if you have any bags just leave them at the foot of the stairs."
291Well I guess I have lodging – at least for tonight, she thought as she headed to the front of the house again. A scene from The Matrix suddenly popped into her head. Well, they weren't cookies, but granola is pretty close, she thought, and laughed out loud again.
292 
293~ Fourteen ~
294
295Around the staircase on the other side of the house stood a large dining table, neatly decorated for afternoon tea. There were peanut butter cookies, ladyfingers, and small slices of sandwiches, along with an array of liqueurs, but no one around to partake. She went out to her car and lugged her paisley duffel bag back into the house. On the way back in, the gentleman in the rocker, now fully conscious, addressed her.
296"Stayin' a spell, ah?"
297"At least for tonight, maybe longer."
298"Well if ya hear like a woman gettin' kilt tonight, don't let it bother ya none. S'jes the squatches a-hollerin back 'n forth."
299"Oh, ah, ok... thanks?" she said. Waiting a moment for him to introduce himself, which he didn't, she stood and finally walked back inside.
300Setting her bag at the foot of the stairs, she heard an approaching conversation outside. Looking out the window of the living room, she spied a group of four walking up the gravel drive from the direction of the yellow dome. A younger woman led two middle-aged women along with an older man. All except for the leader were engaged in an animated discussion, which she couldn't quite make out until they approached the porch.
301"...it didn't register that it was the farm until just now, it was like I couldn't recognize it from that perspective," said the larger of the two women.
302"There was definitely a presence of something powerful – that I could feel," the other woman replied.
303The older man, lagging behind, didn't seem half as animated, and contributed little to the conversation. Passing the troll on the porch, they all quieted down until entering the house, when the leader of the group noticed Jess.
304"Looks like we have a new guest everyone!" she greeted, and extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Margot, and you are?"
305"Jessica, thanks... call me Jess," she replied, as Margot pulled her in my the arm and embraced her in a warm hug.
306"Oh, well, sure," was all Jess could muster, patting her new friend's back.
307"Welcome!" she reiterated, with a final squeeze. "This is Melody, Nancy, and Jan." Jan, referring to the older man, was pronounced Yahn, and he and the rest shook her hand politely, in contrast to Margot.
308"I don't remember seeing a fourth on the registration this week," Margot continued, "and unfortunately you're a few days late already. Was there a miscommunication somewhere?" This was clearly a polite way of asking Jess what her deal was.
309"Well I guess you could say I'm a walk-in, I'm sorry, I don't really have a registration, and I don't want to intrude, but something brought me here, I don't know what exactly, but..." Jess realized she had spoken too much and cut herself off. This woman was clearly more with it than Terry, and now she worried with her confused blathering she was going to be shown the door.
310"Slow down Jess! Got plenty of time here, and don't worry one bit. You're not the first to be drawn here," she added, looking at her charges. "Let's get you working with Terry to see where you are, and then perhaps we can get you caught up in a day or two. Sound good?"
311"Thats perfect, thank you," I guess the freaks get stuck with Terry, she thought to herself, embarrassed.
312"Well looks like we have our tea ready, come on and join us, Jess," she offered, almost tripping over Jess' bag. "Oh, this must be yours, do you have a room yet?"
313"Well not really, is there one open?" she asked apologetically.
314"Surely. Take the Tannenbaum, up top and to your right."
315As Jess hefted her bag up the creaky stairs, she thought how strange it was that no paperwork was done, no credit card number taken – nothing. Was this southern hospitality, or just this place? She entered her room and was reminded again of a bed and breakfast: springy antique double bed with far too many decorative pillows arranged on top, a lovely little balcony facing towards the dome and mountains beyond, and, to her relief, an en-suite bathroom, with the tiny original porcelain fixtures.
316Done packing her few things away in the large wooden dresser, she joined the group downstairs for tea. She had little to contribute to the conversation, she felt, but that didn't seem to be a problem as Melody and Nancy kept the conversation going all by themselves; apparently they had a "session" at the dome today, and were rehashing their progress.
317There was talk of L2's, L3's and various states of consciousness, and the effects of these on their "spiritual progress". They both seemed completely self-absorbed, frequently talking over each other instead of having any meaningful conversation, and Jess tuned them out after a few minutes. As Jan didn't seem like much of a talker either, she finished her tea, grabbed a blueberry scone, and headed back into the kitchen.
318 
319~ Fifteen ~
320
321Terry wasn’t there, but he appeared shortly, coming in from out back loaded with a bushel full of freshly picked herbs and vegetables.
322"Hey there, you! All settled in?"
323"Yeah, all good. Prepping for dinner already?"
324Terry set down the bushel and heaved a big sigh. "I'm a little slow, so yes. Julian usually does the cooking, but he went to town, so this is all they got. Why don't you help me chop some of this lettuce?" he said, offering her a knife. As she held the scone in her mouth and settled into chopping, he caught her off guard with a direct question.
325"What can we do for you here, Jess?"
326"Oh, yeah, that," she mumbled, removing the scone from her mouth. "Uh, well, I guess I have recently discovered I have this ability... that relates to what goes on here... so.."
327"...you leave your body," he said, more fact than question.
328"...yeah."
329"Well then you are at the right place. Can you verify?"
330"Um, I don't know what you mean?" she asked, puzzled.
331"Can you produce third party testimony, conscious or un?"
332Jess raised her eyebrows and shook her head slowly back and forth in confusion.
333"Can other people see you," he stated, turning to look at her.
334"Oh, yes! Sorry, yes my friend saw me while he was awake, he said I looked like smoke. And a doctor I had, I'm pretty sure he saw me."
335"Well good, that tells me something. Can you go full body if you wanted to?"
336"Again, with the..." she said, raising her eyebrows once more.
337"So full body is when you can manifest as a whole body, solid or semi-transparent. Smoke is more of an unconscious manifestation, so if you were conscious, this tells me you haven't learned to control your energy yet. When did you say was the first time you left your body?"
338"About six weeks ago, I think?"
339"Six weeks, huh?" He paused, went back to his chopping, and paused again.
340"Are you sure? Never had a high fever as a kid, and found yourself floating above your bed? No dreams of exiting your body? Nothing like that?"
341"No, nothing like that."
342"And you can do controlled exits at will? Or just happens randomly."
343"Well it started by accident, but I can make it happen now when I want to."
344"Wonderful, wonderful. Mind my asking what happened?"
345"Ummm, huh?"
346Terry stopped again and turned to look at her.
347"Ever try to pull two magnets apart? It's like they're one big chunk until you force them to separate. Well the subtle body is like that too, so unless you've had a lot of practice, it doesn't come out so easy. So something must have pushed it out, right?"
348"Well, I died, so..."
349"...yup, that'll do it. Probably just a scare though. Did you hear a loud pop?"
350"Yeah, well no, a bunch of little pops, like a ripping sound."
351"That's the bodies separating. Means you didn't die. When you die it slides up the ladder and goes out the crown into the cord, no popping," he explained, taking the long knife in his hand and tapping the top of his head with it, then flinging it upwards. He smiled at Jess's obvious look of incredulity, and leaned in close as if whispering a secret: "Ask enough doctors over a drink or two and you'll get one to admit they've seen the tiniest swirl of smoke rise from the head of a patient at the moment of death."
352"But I did die, I saw my body, the police said I was dead."
353"Nope. Uh-uh. Death is when the cord is severed, and that's as much a decision, as an event. Fact of your talking to me right now means your cord's just fine."
354"OK, full stop. Define cord please?"
355"Astral cord. Ties you to source. Comes down and condenses into the ladder."
356Jess spun her hand as if reeling in a fish, while smiling at him with upraised eyebrows. "Okay... and ladder now?"
357"Jacobs Ladder. Spinal cord. Your crown chakra – your brain," he said with a mild disgust, "is simply an exit point for your cord, it actually goes all the way up into the ether. Honey you got a lot to learn!" he remarked, and with a hearty laugh, went back to his chopping, stranding her.
358Overwhelmed, Jess kept silent and went back to her work as well. When they were both done, Terry once again broke the silence.
359"Let's take a walk down to the chamber."
360 
361~ Sixteen ~
362
363As the gravel crunched beneath their feet, Jess asked about the man in the rocker on the porch.
364"Helen. Sure. He's our handyman, been with us going on 20 years now."
365"Helen?"
366"Well, Len for short. If you feel the need to satisfy your gender circuit that is," he said curtly.
367"Whatever, OK. But he is a little odd, though. He mentioned not to be afraid of the screaming 'squatches' at night?"
368"Now darnit," Terry said, becoming visibly angry. "I've told him about that stuff before. He shouldn't have said that to you, I'm sorry about that."
369In addition to the amusement at having this Zen hippie get his mellow harshed, Jess was intrigued as well – why would he be so apologetic about a weird joke? Not really wanting to know, she forged ahead anyway.
370"So is there screaming at night I should be concerned about? And if so, then... what the hell?"
371A sheepish look came over Terry's face. "Well they hardly ever wake anyone up, and we usually just say it's bobcats if they do."
372"So... then... what are they now?"
373"Well its the squatches like he said. But we try not to talk about it to the guests, takes away from the focus on their experience here, we've discovered."
374"I'm going out on a limb here and assuming you mean Sasquatches, like Bigfoot?"
375"Ayup."
376"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, mostly to herself. She had tried to convince herself to keep an open mind through all of this so far, but now with Bigfoot on the table, her faith in this place, and her entire journey, was shaken again. By now they were getting closer to the dome, so she didn't push it, and he didn't continue, which was just as well to her.
377"Now this is the Chamber, where the fun happens," Terry  presented, with an immaculate Price-is-Right-model hand gesture.
378In front of the large yellow dome now looming above them stood a boxcar sized addition, devoid of of any ornamentation with the exception of a single door. A single red lightbulb, currently unlit, hung upside-down above it.
379"Why yellow?" Jess asked, referring to the dome.
380"Ha! Well, it was pretty funky a ways back, all covered with rainbows and galaxies and some such, we repainted it yellow in the late 80's when the original paint started to peel. Keep it simpler, but still something positive and uplifting. Allow me." Terry held open the door and let her in.
381The addition was a small but long room, built with grey cinderblock walls. A console with several small monitors and a large microphone took up most of the area, giving it the appearance of a T.V. studio. Terry ushered her through a second inner door, which let out a whoosh upon opening.
382Inside, the chamber itself was bathed in a bright, sourceless, pink-hued glow, while a low hum pervaded the space. Arrayed in a semicircle stood six tiny wooden houses the size of backyard tool sheds, bundles of wires emanating from each one which snaked their way around the perimeter wall and back towards the control room. The small houses seemed quaint in this featureless expanse; they reminded her of outdoor saunas.
383"These are our sec-u's – seclusion units. Each one is wired up to the hub so we can pipe in white noise – or chants, or music, or whatever is preferred – to provide an assist. We can also hear what is going on inside in case an excursion has any issues which need intervention."
384Jess was curious to know what kind of 'issues' they had, but Terry continued on before she could ask.
385"Wanna give it a spin?"
386Jess was taken aback. She had only been there for less than two hours, and now she was going in a 'sec-u'.
387"Sure, I guess, I mean, it's safe?"
388"Well, is sleeping safe? And like I said, I'll be listening in, so..."
389He walked towards the closest one and held the door open for her. Entering the room, she found a single cot covered with a patterned quilt took up the bulk of the small space. A pair of large black headphones dangled from a peg above it, and next to it stood an antique dresser. Along the side wall were hooks, presumably for clothing, and a camera hung in the corner of the ceiling, pointed at the bed.
390"Uh, I can keep my clothes on, right?" Jess asked with a nervous laugh.
391"Of course!" Terry said, taking her question seriously, "Some people exit best when sleeping, so its whatever you need as a jump start. You can use the headphones if you want – generally we use them for a guided exit – but since you can already self-exit, I don't suppose you'll need my help.  Oh, and there's a toggle switch above the bed, flip it when you are ready to go, and just let me know if you need anything else, OK?"
392Without waiting for an answer, he slowly shut the door until the latch clicked, and she was left alone. She looked in the dresser drawers, half expecting to see a Gideon bible, but found nothing but a few folded blankets. Laying on the bed, she could hear a slight hissing in the headphones above her. Pulling them down, she donned them to hear only white noise, but with some sort of underlying bass tones which wavered in stereo from ear to ear. Placing them back on the peg, she closed her eyes, relaxed, and reached up to flip the switch which was labeled 'Ready'. After a few more seconds she heard a small chime like a meditation bell outside.
393Relaxing her body, she focused her consciousness, searching for the the vibrating feeling in her gut. After a few minutes she found it, and focused deeper until the rocking feeling took hold. On one end of a wide arc, she rolled out, finding herself looking sideways at the dresser, though it felt as though she were still looking upwards. Reorienting herself, she found her bearings and rose slowly up through the ceiling into the open pink space above.
394It seemed easier to rise in this space – she didn't know if that was due to the particular design of this structure, the geographical area itself, or some other nebulous trophic factor. Nearing the apex, she observed the tops of the little houses. Each had a different picture, somewhat faded through time, painted on top: hers had a big yellow smiley face, the one next to it had a peace symbol, the next the iconic Keep on Truckin' logo, a Felix the Cat, a spiral galaxy, and the final one, Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue.
395Amused, she rose even higher, into the substance of the roof, which felt chalky and granular and had a strong metallic taste. Especially thick, it slowed her progress considerably compared to the thin walls and doors she had previously passed through with ease. Exiting up and out, into the pristine blue sky, she discerned a final picture painted on the top of the dome – a bright orange sun emanating rays that followed the curve of the dome downwards, and bled into a soft yellow. She wondered how many other eyes had beheld this hidden gem.
396As she hovered, the sunshine and warm breezes flowed through her, leaving an energizing quality in their wake. Turning to face the sun, she found she was able to view it without pain, even though it was impossibly bright and contained a multitude of new colors – well beyond what could be seen with her physical eyes. She felt she could gaze upon it forever, as the immense power overtook her etherial defenses and flowed through her.
397Turning her attention back towards terra firma, she drifted a few hundred feet towards the main house, beckoned by a shimmering silver weathervane perched on the crest of the roof. Consisting of a series of spiral rings encasing a figure rising up from within, she found her attention fully absorbed in the intricacy and detail of it, the entire object appearing shimmeringly alive to her. Reluctantly willing her focus away, she moved her vision over a bit only to find herself entranced once again, this time by a single green shingle. She marveled at the texture, focusing on the minute glass and asphalt crystals, which seemed to sparkle as if they were each unique, living entities.
398Her shingle-gazing was interrupted by a droning sound, which resolved into a voice, though she couldn't discern the words. Pulling her focus away again, she turned and headed back towards the dome, catching a glimpse of the red light above the outside door, which was now lit. Closing the distance, her speed increased as though being pulled, with the last thirty feet a blur as she snapped back into place. A few moments later she heard the click of the speaker above her head. 
399"The excursion is now complete, please return and re-integrate," Terry announced in a gentle voice.
400Rising slowly, she felt energized instead of drained. But before she could rise fully, Terry was already softly knocking at the door.
401"Come on in," she said brightly.
402"How did it go?" he asked, entering the small space and sitting cross-legged on the floor.
403"Nice paintings! I like the Einstein one, I had that poster in my college dorm," she replied.
404"You saw them! Wonderful, wonderful. So you went up. How many were you able to make out?"
405"What do you mean? All six of them."
406"All six! Well that's great, thats pretty rare – people usually come back with one or two images at most. Fabulous!"
407"When I got to the house though, it seemed like I was hyper-focusing on things, like kinda spaced-out. Everything seemed so... enchanting. It was strange, kinda like being high, but I was also there, fully, at the same time. If you know what I mean. I've never felt that way before."
408"Hold on sweetheart, you exited the chamber? With full awareness?"
409"Uh, yeah. It was sort of tough getting through the dome, but yeah. I got to the house and started getting distracted by things."
410"Wow, that's amazing Jess. That's super rare. Did you see the picture up top?"
411"Yeah, it was a Sun."
412He paused to take this in, and it was clear he was impressed.
413"Amazing, Jess, really. For most people it's like a dream state, where you can sense certain things, but it's hard to have full awareness, or if you have full awareness, you can't bring it all back when you return. Most people only bring back one or two pictures, never all five. And getting outside the chamber is big effort too. So you started 'spacing out' near the house?"
414"Yeah, like I was just amazed at every little detail of everything, like I could see each little molecule and they were all alive, it was pretty incredible actually."
415"See, that's more typical of a spiritual experience, which some people get right off the bat, but they never get any further than that. It sounds like you got the ego consciousness, with all the recall, until you get a bit away, and it starts to degrade. Let's do some distance work tomorrow, if you're up for it?"
416"Sure, I feel great," she replied, but she felt more than great: her suspicions about this special ability of hers were confirmed, and she had a way forward now, a way to develop this into something. Having a calling, or purpose, energized her; this was why she knew she had to come here.
417Terry lowered his voice and cupped his mouth with one hand, as if telling a secret.
418"In the meantime you wanna help me finish dinner prep?
419Jess nodded and smiled.
420 
421~ Seventeen ~
422
423As they walked up the gravel drive in the early evening light, Jess turned back several times to gaze at the setting sun, comparing it to what she saw earlier. Now, it hurt to stare at it, as though light rays were impacting her instead of passing through. It also seemed yellower, not as brilliant, and was of course missing the extra colors she saw clearly earlier. Terry noticed her furtive glances but didn't say anything.
424Dinner was fully organic, vegan and, surprising to Jess, completely delicious, and a few glasses of red wine didn't hurt either. Jess declined to discuss with the others what had transpired earlier. Not necessarily to be secretive, she just didn't feel close enough to them to open up about it, and secondly it would probably cause a fuss that she just wasn't up for. She simply smiled politely as the others exchanged their experiences of nebulous dream states or foggy visions of people and places far away.
425Sated, Jess excused herself and escaped out the back door. Walking just beyond the house she saw someone, Julian she presumed, stacking wood in a fire pit. He appeared just a bit older than herself, and had long blond hair cascading down the back of his blue and white Hawaiian shirt.
426"Campfire later?" she asked.
427He turned, unsurprised, and slowly rose up with a long exhale. "Yup, ever night," he said, wiping his hands on his jeans.
428"Julian," he said, offering his hand. "Don't recall meetin' you before."
429"Jess," she said, taking his hand. She didn't feel the need to explain her presence further, which was nice, as he didn't probe.
430"Beauty of a night," he said, turning to sit on one of the logs surrounding the pit. "Picked a good time to drop by. Skeeters aren't out full force yet. Fire'll keep 'em at bay later though."
431"So Terry mentioned you take care of this place, huh?"
432"Yup, this place keeps me busy well enough, being almost half a century old and all, seems something's always goin' south on us, but we keep 'er spinnin' right along." 
433"Do you self-exit too?" she asked, immediately thinking   to herself What a strange and personal question that is. She felt a bit like a new member in a nudist colony, probing into the very thing that was supposed to be taken for granted and forgotten about. But hey, that is what they do here, right? she reasoned.
434"Yup," he replied with a smile, "Seen a great many things. Some useful, some not. Don't let it take over your life though, bodies'r meant for full time residency."
435She wondered if it was bad form to discuss it, since he didn't go into any further detail, but she barreled ahead anyway; she was here to learn.
436"How far can you go?"
437"Oh, most anywhere I put my mind to, can't bring it all back sometimes, but I get verifies so I know I made it there at the least."
438The thwack of the screen door interrupted them as an animated conversation filled the still evening air, signaling the arrival of the others. Julian lit a match, leaned forward off the log, and threw it onto the kindling in the pit.
439"Can you stoke this up for me, I just need to grab a few things," he asked, handing her a stick, and headed back towards the kitchen. As she worked the fire the others began to sit down around her, and a few moments later Julian returned with Terry in tow, carrying various drums.
440Of course, a drum circle. I could've predicted that, Jess said to herself, smiling inwardly. In the end she picked a tall Senegalese one, and as the concussive beats rose and danced in the air along with the swirling, crackling sparks from the fire, she was pleasantly surprised to find she was enjoying herself immensely. The s'mores that Julian began cooking up a bit later were the topper.
441 
442~ Eighteen ~
443
444The day was just breaking when Jess was awakened by a light rapping at her door. In her morning fugue state she guessed it was the maid service, and rolling over, ignored it. It came back, though, more insistent this time, and realizing where she was, she now thought it was most likely not a maid. Rising, she pulled on a sweatshirt and jeans and opened the door in her bare feet. It was Terry, dressed in khakis and button down shirt with sleeves rolled up, slightly disheveled, but unlike her, very much awake.
445"Come with me. Hurry."
446No 'Good Morning' or anything, she thought, annoyed, as she trudged over to the bed to put on her shoes. Are we going hunting for breakfast? A sunrise meditation perhaps? she thought, but held her tongue. Whatever it was, why the hurry, and why hadn't they told her about this?
447"What's up?" she asked sleepily. Terry simply smiled and motioned for her to follow him. He led her downstairs, through the kitchen, and out the back door. She noticed a small blue walkie-talkie strapped to his belt as they followed the gravel drive around the side of the chamber, to a hidden but well-worn path snaking into the woods. The walkie squawked loudly, and Terry fumbled to lower the volume.
448"...Spielberg I think..." a voice said in a whisper.
449"Northwest; from the southeast," a new voice replied slowly.
450They continued down the path deeper into the woods, where despite the coming sunrise, it remained dark as night. They had been walking for a few minutes when a new voice came on the walkie, this one loud and brash.
451"Hey, Hey, Hey! Got 'em glassed ah? One more hour and the case is yours," the new voice taunted.
452"Damn it JoJo!" Terry exclaimed, scrambling to lower  the volume even further.
453Jess was wide awake now, and after a few more minutes on the winding path they came upon a clearing, as the sun just began to filter through the treetops. Instead of entering the clearing, however, they skirted around it until they were behind a small rise. Terry then laid down behind it, and slowly crawled forward on all fours until he reached the top. Producing a pair of binoculars from his knapsack, he peeked over the ridge, then motioned for her to join him.
454She crawled forward, staying low, and scanned over the rise to see what he was looking at. At first she couldn't see anything; it was just a clearing with some tall grasses waving in the light morning breeze. Then she noticed a man standing stock-still near the tree line to the south of them, staring at something in the clearing. She followed his gaze, but saw nothing but a tall burnt-out tree stump in the middle of the field.
455"What are we looking at?" she inquired.
456"There," Terry pointed to the stump. "See it?"
457"Yeah, a stump. And...?"
458Terry passed over his binoculars, and Jess panned around until she found the stump and examined it. A light breeze came up, causing a fine black moss to lift from the stump and flutter in the wind. With a start, she realized she was seeing hair.
459"What is that? A dead bear?" Jess spoke aloud, still clutching the binoculars to her eyes. Terry said nothing. Zooming in and panning up, she saw two large brown eyes fixed in a stare towards the man at the tree line.
460"Oh my god," she exclaimed, dropping the binoculars to the grass and turning to Terry.
461"What. The. Hell. Terry. What the hell is that?" Her stomach dropped and a feeling of dread overtook her. Whatever was happening here was not okay with her.
462Terry retrieved the binoculars and raised them to his eyes, transfixed. "When they're seen by humans out in the open, they freeze. They can stay like that for hours. It's fucking amazing."
463This was the first time she heard Terry swear. She could only manage a quiet "Oh no". She felt sick.
464Terry continued on, oblivious. "It's like a staring contest. As soon as Julian breaks his gaze, to look away, he'll drop into the grass and stay there. See, humans have a extremely limited attention span, and they use this to their advantage. To a fella in Julian's place, it'll seem like the big guy just disappeared, and he'll question his own sanity for a minute, but then get back to the more important matters of the day, and just move on and forget about the whole thing. Which is their goal, see. Meanwhile he's just laying there, waiting for a time when he can move along on his own way, unobserved. Incredible."
465Jess wanted to run back to the house; this was too much. She fell back, crawled back down the rise, and sat holding her knees to her chest. After a few minutes of nothing happening, she couldn't take it anymore.
466"Can we go now?" she squeaked.
467Finally grasping her discomfort with this whole affair, Terry made his way back to her. "It's a shock, sure, I know, but they're harmless. Don't know a case where they ever harmed anybody, except for their scaring the bejesus out of 'em, and maybe reorienting their whole world view. Come on now, s'only twenty minutes or so left on the clock."
468"Twenty minutes? What happens then?"
469"Well, then Julian wins us a case of Old Style from the boys two peaks over. And it'll be mighty sweet to get those boys this time, for once."
470Jess was getting frustrated. "Terry, please. What the hell are you talking about?"
471"Oh, sorry, keep forgetting. There's a research camp about a mile and a half that way," he said, pointing a thumb behind them, "and we got a friendly little competition with them when one of their big fellas wanders round here. Squatch stare-down. Record's almost two hours, and Julian's gettin' close now."
472The radio squawked once again, almost on cue. "Can't do it guys, I got to head out soon, but mostly I gotta pee."
473Terry grabbed the handset. "C'mon buddy," he whispered loudly, "I got Jess here, let's give her a show!"
474JoJo broke in again, this time with a heavy Russian accent. "Ah, Ah, Ah, Dah. No drink for you, hombres pequenos."
475"Nope, nope, nope," Julian replied back, "guys I gotta go. Sorry. I'll give it ten for y'all."
476Terry motioned quickly for Jess to come back up to the ridge, and held out the binoculars to her. Reluctantly she joined him, still feeling a bit sick.
477"Keep your eyes on the big fella, don't look at Julian, he's gonna break in a few seconds."
478Jess focused again on the dark thing in the clearing. As it was getting lighter she could now see it wasn't completely black, but more like a auburn color, and it was keeping it's head down, chin buried into it’s chest. The thin, wide mouth was framed with a silver colored mustache and beard, but there was no hair around the nose and eyes, which exposed a tan, leathery skin. The higher part of the face seemed more caveman than ape, accentuated by a prominent brow ridge which led to a conical skull. The back of the head was draped in long flowing hair, reminding her of an Irish setter, as it shone in the sunlight.
479Just as she was panning down to focus on the torso, the thing just seemed to disappear on her. She could tell it had dropped, as the high grass in the area was now leaning outwards as though something was pressing on it, but it was so quick, like a magic trick, that she could understand how people would think it had just disappeared into thin air.
480"OK, shows over," Terry said, breaking the silence and rising from the ground. "Let's head on back and get some grub. So, whaddya think about all that, huh?"
481The sick feeling in her stomach wasn't gone, but had subsided a bit. "So what happens now," she said, rising, but still facing the clearing, "do you go out and get them?"
482"Oh, no, no, no," Terry answered with a chuckle, "we have our fun but they got to live their own lives too, just leave 'em well enough alone. He's probably late for where he's supposed to be."
483"What do these researchers do, do they hunt them?"
484"Well the only shooting is through the lens of a night vision camera, mostly, if that's what you mean. They're hard enough to find at night much less forcing 'em out into the daytime like this."
485"But, why don't scientists know about them, I mean people think this is a big joke!"
486"Well you of anybody should know by now truth is stranger than fiction, right? I don't know, I guess it's easier just to laugh at it and all that. Crack open your textbook from Psych 101, maybe the answer's in there somewhere."
487The rest of the walk back to the house was silent, and Jess began to doubt herself. Had she been a sucker? Was this all an elaborate practical joke? She never saw the thing move, it could have been just a prop, or a statue, and they could have remotely pulled a string to make the thing fall over. Was it possible? It would have been a lot of work getting all the details right, though, and all just for her benefit? To what end? Testing her gullibility? Making her a believer in whatever they might say later? She didn't know what to think; by the time they reached the house her head was spinning a web of paranoia and conspiracy theories. The simplicity of accepting what she had just seen as fact was too hard to swallow, and her brain grasped blindly for any alternatives, plausible or not.
488 
489~ Nineteen ~
490
491Breakfast was Belgian Waffles – just what she needed – and the strong coffee, ironically, helped calm her stomach. Nobody mentioned the morning's excitement, so she didn't bring it up either. It seemed like it was a special event for her to witness, if indeed it was real at all, she thought.
492There was a morning excursion to a local winery, which Jess politely declined, preferring no further adventures for the day. In her room she browsed a few of the old hardcover books arrayed on her dresser. One, titled Annals of the SPR, seemed to be from the 1800's, and talked about early paranormal research. Another from 1923 (she loved checking the dates of old books) seemed to be by a woman who was a famous medium at the time. Another was the Adams book she first saw on Amazon.
493Finding she needed a break from everything not-normal, she decided to just sit out in the sun in the wicker chair on her private balcony for a awhile. She soon found herself nodding off, until the crunching of gravel below broke through her slumbering consciousness.
494"...and she got out. She's got it Len, definitely a  traveller in this one."
495It was Terry; she could tell without opening her eyes. She sank lower in her chair so she couldn't be seen from the drive.
496"Seven," Helen grumbled.
497"Yeah," Terry agreed, as the crunching receded, and Jess slipped back into sleep.
498She awoke later to the sun shining in her eyes. Checking her phone, she noted it was 12:45, and checking her stomach, she further noted she was hungry again. Downstairs, she found Julian in the kitchen.
499"Afternoon, ma'am, like some lunch?" He held out a sandwich plate and coffee that was obviously kept for her.
500"Thanks, just what I needed," she replied, and headed into the dining room as Julian followed her with his own cup of tea. There was no one else around, and only the tick-tock of the grandfather clock cut through the silence. Jess felt comfortable broaching the subject as they both sat sipping and eating at the table.
501"That was pretty cool this morning, huh?"
502"Yeah, really amazing, and rare too. You're lucky to see it."
503"So... how did you find it?"
504"You mean him?" he answered with a smile. "Well I keep my radio on all night, cause it interests me what JoJo's team does over there, so I heard one was headed our way, and went over and just waited in the dark, making some wood knocks and calls." Retelling the story seemed to energize him all over again.
505"Sure enough 'bout twenty minutes later here he comes crashing through the woods and right out into the clearing – I could see him pretty good cause of the full moon. I was downwind so he had no idea. When he heard my radio he made like a tree. I had him for 'bout two hours or more even. We don't usually bring others, takes away from the work here, so, uh, keep that under yer belt, huh? Terry must think your something special. Hey, by the way he asked me to work a session with ya, so just let me know when you're ready."
506"Sure, sounds good," she replied, as he stood up and headed back to the kitchen. She ate her sandwich in silence as he washed dishes, and when she finished they left together and headed towards the chamber.
507"Today let's see how far you can go. In distance work you can't use your subtle body to travel, ya know, like walkin' or even floatin' around, you need to transport yourself Captain Kirk style, right? And the way you do that is you meditate on the place you want to go and envision yourself being there. Now for most people, they can't recall much when they get back – cause once they try to think about why they are there and to remember the details, they get pulled right out. So if they keep their thinking corralled, and focus on the feeling of the experience, they do better, but they still can't really get a lot done or focus on anything in particular. They just get impressions, some of which may be useful, mostly not. My theory with you is, since Terry said you seem to be a hundred percent aware locally, that maybe this won't happen to you. So if you get there OK, try to focus on things around you and think about the experience in the abstract – like be self aware about it, OK?"
508"Well I have definitely had the experience of losing it when I played around with lucid dreaming years ago, but this seems different – I can think within it, definitely, but I do get caught up in the details. I'll let you know how it works. Where should I go?"
509"Somewhere meaningful to you would be best, to start."
510She picked the sec-u with Albert Einstein again, and after laying down on the bed, she tried wearing the headphones, but the phase-shifted white noise didn't seem to make it any easier. She popped out just as easy as she had before.
511After exiting, she hung around in the chamber for a bit until she realized she hadn't chosen a place to go yet. She imagined Gavin's office back home, trying in her mind to recreate the details of the place: the old wooden smell, the design of the parquet floor, the dark green spines of the classics on his bookshelf – and set an intention to be there. Eyes closed, she felt a pull, a feeling of movement, then an exponential acceleration. She experienced no sense of drag, no violence, just the feeling of her whole entirety being propelled at enormous speed.
512Opening her eyes, she found herself within a glowing tunnel, with streaks and flashes of colors streaming past her. A dark spot appeared at the end of this tunnel, growing to encompass her entire forward field of vision, and culminating in a sudden halt. As the glow of the tunnel faded behind her, the darkness ahead resolved into the wooden bookcases and furniture of Gavin's office.
513She could see each individual book in exquisite detail, the gold embossed letters on the bindings appearing particularly vibrant. She breathed in the scent of the leather bindings, only to discover she could taste and feel them as well in this way.
514Again she found herself becoming entranced, but this time she could tell that her consciousness was different from when she was outside the dome. What she felt in this new state was the pure living energy that seemed to radiate from each individual physical particle. There was no thinking at a level of abstract concepts, much less a focus on 'things'. There was simply power and beauty overwhelming.
515After some moments of this bliss, a disturbance wiggled it's way into this awareness. It was a feeling of persistence, of determination, an overall feeling of pressure that was at odds with the overwhelming feeling that nothing is needed, and there is nothing to be done. It didn't subside, and instead increased, developing into a waveform, rising and a resolving, over and over. A tiny thing, the pattern seemed familiar, somehow, and curiosity attracted her consciousness onto it, away from her bliss. Like pieces of a puzzle falling into place, the wave suddenly made sense. It was a single word, and it was 'Jess'.
516As the concept of the word presented itself within her consciousness, she identified with it, and the pulling sensation overwhelmed her as she was suddenly flung backwards and downwards into the tunnel, as though she were not only traveling backward but shrinking as well. Her name repeated again and again, growing louder and dropping in octaves as her density increased. Finally she clicked back into place, on the bed, and felt heavy again, like the first time.
517"Jess!"
518"Ahhhh!" she screamed, eyes flying open. "Stop! Please!"
519Julian was leaning over her, fear struck.
520"Oh thank God, I thought you weren't coming back," he exhaled, slumping onto the end of the bed and cradling his head in his hands, breathing heavily.
521"Oh man, I've got a splitting headache," she moaned, pulling herself up and cradling her own head. "Why were you screaming at me?"
522"Jess you were gone for two hours. I was afraid I was going to have to call in backup. Terry'd be pretty pissed too, I didn't follow protocol, I thought you'd be alright. I'm so sorry."
523"Oh shit. Wow. It was literally, like, seconds. Well, I guess I'm done for today, obviously," she replied, reclining back on the bed, hands still pressed to her head.
524"I'll give you some time alone. Sorry again," Julian said apologetically, slowly backing out the doorway. She lay there for several minutes before getting up and finding her way back to her room.
525By dinner she was feeling better, but still drained.
526"Rough riding today, eh?" Terry asked, winking at her as he entered the dining room with a bowl of mashed potatoes. Apparently he did tell Terry, she thought. He seemed to sense enough to give her some space and didn't press her on it. He gathered, correctly, that she needed a rest and recharge, and the dinner proceeded apace. Again, Jess enjoyed the meal much more than the conversation. Today especially so.
527That night's diversion was a evening nature walk, which Jess didn't even have to decline; everyone seemed to expect her to be antisocial, as they could plainly see she was not on the 'standard' program. She was special; whisperings and rumors about her had been swirling since she arrived. She was left well enough alone, and glad for it. Taking an early bedtime, she fell fast asleep to the droning sounds of the cicadas outside.
528 
529~ Twenty ~
530
531She found Terry downstairs the next morning, once again filling in for Julian in the kitchen.
532"Morning!"
533"Hey, glad you're up. Let's do an early session today, since the group has the chamber this afternoon. So right after breakfast meet me back in here and we'll head down."
534"No more distance work today I hope?"
535"No, no, no, after talking to Julian, it's clear we need to do some energy manipulation work first – distance comes later."
536Intrigued by what 'energy manipulation' might amount to, she agreed. As they walked down the now familiar road to the dome, Terry seemed excited.
537"So, tell me everything that happened yesterday," he asked excitedly. He had obviously been waiting to ask since the previous night.
538"Well, I went back to my house in Chicago to visit my friend Gavin, but he wasn't there. Then I just sort of spaced out again, and couldn't remember why I was there or anything. Few seconds later I heard my name being called and got pulled back, and Julian said I had been gone two hours. It was pretty intense."
539"Yeah, well, he overheard me talking about your abilities and clearly thought you were ready for that, which I knew you weren't. I do apologize."
540"Not a problem. But, can someone get stuck like that?" she asked nervously.
541"No, not really. If the energy in the physical body is running low, the the subtle will automatically return, but if it's fully rested, and fed, and appropriately emptied," he added, smiling, "you can travel for much more than a few hours."
542 Reaching the chamber, he held the door for her. "Today we'll do the same as the first day, so please stay nearby, but what I'd like for you to do this time are two things. First, when you are out, come over to me, I'll be waiting in the sec-u with Felix on it. Then, if you can hear me, just follow my instructions from there, alright?"
543"What exactly will I be doing?"
544"That's a secret. Well, no, not really. I just want to test your comprehension and focus in that state, you'll see.   No worries."
545By this time they were at the door of the Einstein sec-u, and she entered and began to prepare. Terry left, and she heard the click of the little house next door as he latched the door. A few minutes later she was out, and went directly to him. She entered through the door and saw him laying on the bed. He seemed to sense her presence, and sat up.
546"Jess, I'm going to assume that's you," he announced to the empty room, a little louder than necessary. "I sensed a shift in energy, and just now, looking over near the door, I can see a waviness, kind of like heat coming off a highway."
547Reaching over to his side table, he switched on some sort of handheld instrument, which emitted a high pitched whine that quickly descended lower and stopped.
548"I am getting a pretty high EMF reading," he said, examining the device, "so someone is here, going to assume that's you Jess. Let's continue."
549"What I'd like you to try, for starters, is see if you can condense yourself a bit, by focusing on your body, what it looks like, how it feels. Grasp the feeling of being in your body, feel your arms, feel your legs, feel the pressure of gravity on your feet planted on the floor. Got it?"
550She saw him clearly, but could only hear him as through a bubble, yet understood what he was asking and focused on her body as he asked.
551"I'm seeing the heat shimmer start to swirl and darken, it looks more like smoke now. You're doing good, keep it up. Focus more specifically on one part of your body, imagine it clearly, each line and wrinkle and scar, turning it over in your mind as if it were real."
552She focused on her left hand, and began to feel a tingling sensation.
553"Good work, I am seeing something take form just in front of the door knob. It is getting noticeably colder in the room too; what you are doing is taking the latent heat energy of the air and condensing it, which is perfect. Oh wow, I think I can see fingers now – this is amazing work here Jess – it is definitely your hand. Can you wave to me?"
554She raised her hand, keeping her eyes closed, and waved it back and forth. She was concerned opening her eyes would break the 'spell', but in sneaking a quick peek she saw her hand as nothing more than normal.
555"Excellent job, I can see motion now. Try to focus on your arm, let's see how far we can extend the manifestation."
556Feeling bolder, she looked down at her arm, imagining it solidifying, and the tingling rose up from her hand.
557"Great, great, great. I can see up to the elbow now, and you are projecting the yellow shirt you have on as well, I can see. Oh, but now I see that some of the hand is fading. Can you bring the hand back? Try focusing on the arm and hand as one unit."
558She did so, and the tingling spread. This feeling reminded her of a strange trick she would occasionally perform as she was about to go to sleep. As far back as she could remember, she had been able – through some odd mental and muscle mechanism near the area behind her ears – to shoot an electrical sensation throughout her body. It wasn't painful, though not necessarily comfortable either, yet it was novel, and strange. She wondered what would happen if she tried activating it now, and so she did. The effect was immediate.
559"Oh Jess what the heck! What did you do? You were full body for just a second, that was quite a trick! How did you manage that from just an arm? Remember to tell me later. Can you do it again?" She tried again.
560"Oooh, really, really cool. It's like a light switch is flipped on and flickers out after a second. I have never seen that before. I could clearly make out your features except for your face. But that's always the hardest to project."
561She tried once more, but the source of whatever energy she tapped into seemed to be fading.
562"Yeah, not so much this time, I think that battery needs a little charge. That was great though! OK, enough of that, lets go the other direction, it's always easier. Now try to imagine yourself as a single point of awareness, no body whatsoever, no hands, no arms, no legs, no torso, no head, just the ever present awareness that is you. Now, after doing that for a minute, I want you to move around the room a bit. But don't try to move, just imagine going to another spot, then another, then another. I'm going to turn out the lights to help me out here, so hold on just a second."
563She began these mental machinations as he arose and flicked off the overhead light.
564"Just to let you know Jess, it is pitch black in here for me, but you probably are able to see a bit."
565He was correct, she could still see the room pretty clearly.
566"I think I'm seeing something, there's a dull glow, wait, no... I think you've got it, I clearly see a little shine there. There's a little point of light. Oh, there you go, I just saw you shoot over to the dresser and fade out. Can you center your energy again and shoot back towards the door?"
567Jess was having fun with this; even her lighter body seemed to be a burden now, the way she was flying around the room.
568"There you go, I saw you zip to the door and do a little swizzle-type jig over to the far corner. Pretty neat! OK, that's enough of that. Now if you're not too out of it, if you've still got your energy up, let's try one more thing. How about you try to talk to me. But not normal talking, that won't work. It's too high for me to hear. And I'm not saying yell and scream either, it's not a question of that. Like your manifestation earlier, you've got to imagine your speech organs in exquisite detail, while at the same time thinking the words to say. Now I left this for last as its the hardest, so don't fret if we can't do a thing here just yet. So start with your larynx, vocal chords, form the muscles around them, encase all that in a throat, leading up to a tongue, mouth, and lips. Focus on all that for a bit, then see if you can force out a word from this motley apparatus."
569As she attempted what Terry was asking, she reminded herself to study the anatomy of it all later, as she couldn't quite remember what some of these things even looked like, much less their function. The word she focused on was 'Terry', but not sure how exactly to produce it, she simply imagined giving this slimy mess a big squeeze. She could hear the result as well as Terry, and it was a shockingly awful noise.
570"Hoooo... OK... There we go. That was... something. Unless I accidentally just stepped on an asthmatic baby duckling. Lets try to smooth it out a bit, perhaps bringing it down an octave if you can."
571She tried again, but all she could manage was something that sounded vaguely like a breathy, wheezy "haaaaiirrr".
572Terry chuckled again. "Alright. That's enough of that. Creepies. Uhhhhh," he exclaimed, his body shivering with mild revulsion. Shaking his hands as though he were drying them, he continued on.
573"Oh, here's one last trick I forgot to mention; on the distance thing where you were getting overwhelmed. Well it's pretty common. The farther you get from the physical, the less grounded you are to bodily method of interpreting reality. Our perceptive organs actually dial down the highest reality that's available, and in certain altered states like this the filters are removed, and yeah it can be a little stunning. So, now expand back into your subtle body, and try to manifest a pair of sunglasses to wear. Seriously, I know, right? But just try it."
574She concentrated of wearing a pair of Wayfarers, and as she did so, she found her vision darkening just a bit from the tip of her nose to the sides of her head.
575"If you can train yourself to do that, over time it'll go a long way to keeping your awareness present at a distance. Cuts down on the spiritual glare, as it were. And keeps Julian from having a heart attack maybe. OK, that's enough for today, that was some good work, let's pack it up and get an early lunch."
576Jess returned to her own hut, settled back into her body, and groggily joined him outside the chamber.
577"Now you've got to tell me how you did that flickering thing, that's a new one on me," Terry asked.
578"Oh, it's just a thing I do with my nervous system, I'm not sure I could explain it much less teach it to anyone."
579"Well it was pretty powerful, let me tell you, and good to have in your bag of tricks. You did real good!" he offered, giving her a hug and patting her back as they walked back up the drive. She had been here only three days, but already this place was feeling like a second home.
580 
581~ Twenty-One ~
582
583After lunch Jess continued her routine of a daily nap, something she was certainly getting used to. When she awoke, she noticed a slip of paper that had been pushed under her door. It turned out to be a business card, with the name S. Blackstone, Security Analyst, Department of Homeland Security stamped on it. The other side of the card read simply Straightway, 5pm handwritten in blue ink.
584Her stomach dropping, a cascade of new questions arose in her mind. What could the government want with her? How did they get up here to slip a card under her door? Was this whole operation connected with the government? That last question, upon reflection of her time with the residents there, she let go of pretty quickly. But what of the others? Should she even go, or just ignore it completely?
585Deciding she would follow this thread wherever it led her, which was the idea of going to this place in the first place, she showered, changed, and headed downstairs to tell Julian she was going to the Straightway for a drink. There were only liqueurs at the Center, no beer, so it sounded like a halfway decent excuse at any rate.
586A few minutes later, she parked in the lot at the Straightway, and engine still running, gave herself one last chance to turn around and go back. Shutting the engine off, she threw away that chance and walked towards the door.
587Upon entering, she scanned around and didn't notice Kal anywhere, and of the few people there for an early dinner, none of them looked like government folks. Then she noticed in the back, at the bar, a woman waving to her discreetly. It was the chatty, rosy-cheeked woman from the Center. Oh great, she thought to herself while discreetly making her way over to her. What was she doing here?
588"Hi Jess! Sorry for the late notice, but it's tough finding any time to get out of there," the woman said curtly, extending her hand. "Sylvia. Sylvia Blackstone."
589Jess grabbed her hand but was too stunned to shake it. The woman's whole demeanor was different – she had dropped the apparently phony ditzy act and was now all business.
590"It's never easy outing yourself, I hope you'll forgive me? Nature of the business I'm afraid." She spoke like a doctor, oblivious or unconcerned with any of the messy emotions she might be stirring up in others, and plowed ahead.
591"I would appreciate you keeping this meeting, and my identity, to yourself, of course, for obvious reasons. I understand you are quite talented in your abilities at Adams, and we could use someone like you to further our progress in keeping America safe."
592Jess finally had a moment to speak. "Um, are you like recruiting me or something?"
593"Of course," she said, as if it were obvious. "We need people like you."
594"Is this something that's done here? I mean, have you recruited others?"
595"Oh yes, we're always on the lookout for talented folks. People with special skills like yourself can help us keep America safe, and possibly save thousands of lives – even help us in preventing and ending wars."
596Slipping out a case from her jacket pocket, she removed a cigarette and tapped it on the bar, then offered her one, which she politely refused. Then, lowering her voice, she leaned in towards Jess conspiratorially. "America's enemies are still out there you know. Remember bin Laden? The CIA told our president there was an eighty percent chance he was living in that compound. Do you really think we send our young men and women into hostile territory – and our President risks a shot at re-election mind you – on an eighty percent chance? No we don't."
597She leaned back, paused to light her cigarette, and ignoring the No Smoking sign, took a long drag.
598"That eighty percent figure was only the official, top-shelf, direct intelligence. We provided them with lateral intelligence: just as accurate, if not more, but obtained via alternative sources. We had a sleeper positioned one hundred yards from that compound up until five minutes before the Apaches arrived, guaranteeing our package would be delivered while the one-hundred percent confirmed recipient was home. Now, are you interested?"
599Jess was getting used to being overwhelmed with information lately, but this was a bit too much. Though generally anti-war, she had to ask herself: Was it true that she could use her abilities to save thousands of lives, or even to prevent wars? She was definitely put off by this woman, between her abruptness, insensitivity, and especially her assumption that Jess would jump at the chance she was being offered, but still...
600"So how does this work?" she asked, tentatively.
601"Well, I need to go back to the Center and finish my session. You go back, say 'Thank you for the experience, it was miraculous and transformational, be in touch', blah blah blah, settle up with them, return your car to the airport, and I'll have a plane waiting for you."
602"Plane waiting, like, just for me? Like a Lear jet?"
603"Almost exactly like a Lear jet," Sylvia smiled, exhaling another plume of smoke.
604This was too cool, Jess thought to herself, like something out of one of the shlocky three-dollar e-books I get on my Kindle.
605Sylvia leveled her gaze at Jess.
606"So you gonna help us get the bad guys, or what?"
607"Yeah," Jess said. "Let's do it."
608
609 
610~ Twenty-Two ~
611
612After returning to the Center, Jess found Julian, and asked to work out her bill as she was going to be leaving. Julian, looking concerned, went in the back office to check on the total, which was clearly a ruse, as he soon returned along with Terry.
613"Julian informs me you're going to take your leave of us."
614"Yes, I've had a great time, but something has suddenly come up, and I need to leave." She felt bad for doing it like this, but she wasn't lying.
615Terry looked disappointed. "Jess," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eyes, "there is so much more we need to work on. You know that."
616"Terry, I appreciate all you and everyone has done for me, but right now I need to leave," she replied with a firmness that was unexpected, even to her. Softening it, she added, "I will be back, I promise."
617"Alright then," he surrendered, dropping his arms, "this is clearly your path. Good luck to you Jess, and don't forget about us." Smiling, he opened his arms for a hug, which she obliged.
618Ten minutes later, all settled up, she packed her single bag back into the Kia, and was on her way. It had been forty-five minutes since receiving the note under her door.
619Arriving at the airport, she returned the rental car, and wandered around the terminal looking for the private flight area. She asked a stewardess coming off a flight, and was directed towards a plain white door that simply led her to the tarmac outside. She could see smaller jets about a quarter mile away, so she began walking towards them, bag slung across her back. About halfway there she noticed a black golf cart speeding towards her, with two men in it, and a blue mars light spinning on the dash.
620Oh shit, she thought. She figured it wasn't a big deal to be out here at this small regional airport, but clearly she was wrong. The cart spun sideways, skidding to a stop a few feet in front of her. The passenger, closest to her, spoke first. 
621"Jessica Armitage?"
622"Yeah, how...?" she stumbled, but then noticed this was not airport security, but some private security company. PremierJet was embossed in black and gold on the side of the cart.
623"You're supposed to walk outside the fence. There's a whole sidewalk and everything," he said sternly, sliding over to make room for her. "Get in before you get in some real trouble." She squeezed in, holding her duffel awkwardly on her lap, and they sped off.
624They slid to a stop a minute later next to a small black jet, apparently waiting solely for her, just as Sylvia had promised. The two men stepped aside, allowing her to ascend the stairs to the fuselage, and boarded behind her. The jet was opulently appointed in a creamy white leather, with only a few rows of standard seating, two per side. Beyond that were seats configured with small tables between them, and all the way in the back she noticed a larger table, with custom leather couches on each side.
625She chose the first seat, and the cart passenger chose the one across the aisle from her. The cart driver had disappeared into the cockpit, and she didn't realize until she heard the whine of the jet engines spinning up that he must be also the pilot. Close-knit operation, she thought to herself.
626"Wow, golf carts and jets, he does it all, huh?" Jess joked. The man turned to her, stared for a moment, and faced forward again without responding. As they ascended into the North Carolina afternoon sky, Jess turned to him again. "Ummm, by the way, where are we going?"
627He turned again, this time smiling a row of dazzling white teeth. "Vegas, baby."
628For all it's luxury, the jet ride was still, well, a long jet ride. She was provided a granola bar and, strangely, a chocolate milk, and missed the food of the Adams Center already. After 'dinner' Teeth Whitener fell asleep in his chair, so she unbuckled and went back to lay down on the couch. She awoke a short time later to two dings, and assuming that was some sort of landing signal, returned to her seat and buckled in.
629They began to descend, and a few minutes later the chirp of the tires announced their arrival at McCarran International airport. A few more minutes of taxiing, and they finally stopped with the engines powering down. The pilot appeared, and the two men led her off the jet to a waiting black SUV. Why is it always black with these guys? So obvious, she thought to herself. Teeth Whitener handed her duffel off to the driver who was waiting patiently in front of the vehicle. Stowing the duffel in the back, he returned and extended his hand to her.
630"Hope you had a nice flight, and welcome to Las Vegas. Please," he entreated, opening the back door and motioning for her to get in. She felt like a celebrity, and not wanting to ruin the moment by revealing her continued ignorance of their destination, pretended she knew and kept her mouth shut.
631It was prime time in Vegas, and as they inched through bumper to bumper traffic, Jess observed the masses of humanity flowing up and down the sidewalks from one casino/bar/show to another. I was one of those people, once, she thought to herself. The driver, like the other two men, remained silent. Were they instructed not to speak to her? If so, was it because they knew about her, or just because they were told she was a VIP?
632Turning off the strip, the driver meandered on the service roads behind the casinos, finally emerging onto the circular drive of the grand entrance at the Mirage. The Volcano out front was attracting a crowd at this time of night, and she wistfully recalled the last time she stood at that fence a few years previous, until the driver stopped and turned to her.
633"Here is your room key, this is where I drop you," he announced, passing her a small envelope. Then, leaning out the passenger window, he mentioned something to a waiting porter, and gave him some cash. She got out while the porter retrieved her bag from the back seat and, stowing it on a push cart, led her into the hotel lobby. Passing through the entrance, she bumped into group of drunk young women heading out to celebrate one of the group's 21st birthday. A part of her wanted to run and join them, without a care in the world, as she turned and rushed to catch up to the porter. 
634The small envelope holding her keycard was unmarked, where typically the room number would be written in black marker. As they waited for an elevator she pulled it out and turning it over in her hand, found the words 'PS One' embossed in gold on it. Once in the elevator, the porter pressed the button for the top floor. Penthouse Suite! she thought to herself.
635And indeed it was: the size of a large apartment, it contained separate kitchen, dining, and bedroom areas, along with an expansive view of the strip below. The porter gave a quick but thorough tour of each area, and then closed the door behind him before she could even rifle through her bag for a tip.
636It was strange there was no one to greet her – after all this careful chain of custody, she was now apparently dumped here and left to her own devices. A creeping thought niggled at her: this was all going to cost her, somehow, monetarily or otherwise. Pushing that thought away, she collapsed on the king size bed and grabbed the menu for room service. Unsure if someone would come for her tonight, she didn't dare leave the room, so ordered a big dinner. It was just as well, considering she was too tired from the day to even consider it. Before long she lay passed out on the bed among an array of room service plates in various states of gluttonous dishevelment.
637 
638~ Twenty-Three ~
639
640Rising above the mountains over Lake Mead to the east, sunshine streamed through the floor to ceiling windows the next morning, and made their way slowly up the bed and onto her face, waking her. Still, there were no visitors, no notes slipped under doors, not even a phone call. She checked her iPhone and found Gavin had texted, asking how her trip had been. She replied Long and strange, and went about looking at the room service menu again.
641She watched a parade of Bail Bondsman, nightclub, and liquor store ads on the wall mounted TV until the knock at the door signaled breakfast had arrived. Opening the door, she had expected a waiter with a tray, but instead found a tall dark haired woman in business attire standing in front of her.
642"Jess. Holly," she ventured abruptly, grabbing and shaking her hand.
643"Good to finally meet you. We've heard a lot about you, and we're looking forward to seeing what you can do for us. Come on down to breakfast with me."
644"Actually I just ordered room service..."
645"That's alright, they'll just leave it in the hall," she replied, smiling a joyless smile as she held the door open for her.
646"OK, but I haven't even showered or changed yet – I didn't know what was on the agenda."
647"Plenty of time for that later, it's time to get to work," she said, then added somewhat awkwardly, "for the country." The woman led her back down to the lobby, explaining on the way that they shouldn't talk in her suite for obvious reasons. Jess wasn't sure what was so obvious, but didn't question it.
648Foraging through the buffet breakfast, Jess returned to the table with her tray piled high with pancakes, eggs, and various cooked meats. Holly had retrieved only a slice of buttered toast and coffee, and gave Jess a sideways glance after seeing her tray. Lack of self control, Jess could almost hear her saying in her head. Holly took a sip of her coffee, and turning her attention back to Jess, got back down to business amidst the bells and clangs of the nearby slot machines.
649"There was a bit of a rush to get you here, I know. And I apologize. But there is something happening in town today and we wanted to test out your abilities in gaining certain information. This is a situation we are very deeply concerned with regarding certain materials and business transactions in the Far East having to do with national security. Two parties are meeting today just down the street at the Wynn. What we are looking for are product numbers, quantities, and especially dates of shipment and delivery. What's your range?" 
650Jess, trying to keep up with this rapid fire data download, took a moment to respond.
651"My range?"
652"How close do you need to be?" Holly replied, impatient with her new charge's inability to keep up.
653"How close... to do what?"
654Holly let out an audible sigh. "My understanding about you people is there are limits to recall at certain distances."
655Boy, she's getting downright pissy now, Jess thought. "Yes, of course, I understand. Let's see..." She thought about the distance from the dome to the house, where she lost her focus, back at the Center.
656"Maybe two hundred feet?"
657Holly clinked her coffee down, almost spilling it.
658"Two hundred feet! Are you kidding me? We're a quarter mile from the Wynn. Christ on a cupcake. Gimme a minute." Getting up, she left just as Jess's custom-ordered Belgian waffle arrived. She could see Holly near the slots making a call – it was clear she was pissed, and was giving a hard time to the unlucky recipient of the call. Jess knew this was finally the comeuppance she had been expecting – those flakes at the Center had built her all up, and now, to someone in the real world, she wasn't as great as she thought: she was a fraud. She suddenly lost her appetite, and watched as the whipped cream slowly melted onto her waffle.
659"We're moving," Holly said curtly, as she returned to the table. She didn't even bother sitting back down; it was clear she was still simmering.
660"We're getting you a room at the Wynn. Go back to your room, get your stuff and meet me there in forty-five minutes. We've got to work fast, the meeting is a lunch scheduled for noon, and possibly going well into the evening."
661She abruptly walked off, leaving Jess with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. At this point she just wanted to go home. This was important though, she reminded herself – she couldn't let her own feelings of inadequacy, and her distaste for some of the people involved in this, to get in the way of the big picture. Retrieving her things from the penthouse, she returned gloomily to the lobby, un-showered, unchanged, and with an appetite-less hunger.
662As she left the hotel entrance, two tourists emerged from a limo in the circular drive, a large middle-aged man, and presumably, his wife. Both of them were adorned with matching American flag shirts and shorts, USA baseball caps, and flag sunglasses, tags still attached. They clumsily blocked her way, and annoyed, Jess maneuvered around them with an audible sigh.  Swiftly repositioning themselves, they blocked her way again.
663"Excuse me young lady, can you help us out, we need to find our way to our hotel, this one here ain't it," the woman said in a deep southern drawl, as she grabbed onto Jess' arm and pulled her towards the limo.
664"It'll take just a minute, sweetie."
665"T'would be real helpful, like," the man added, taking her other arm.
666"Really, I don't have time for this..." Jess protested,  struggling from their grasp. It had been a tough morning already, and she was fed up. Pausing, the woman lowered her sunglasses and looked directly into her eyes.
667"Please. Come with us," she asked slowly, the heavy southern drawl suddenly gone.
668 
669~ Twenty-Four ~
670
671There was something familiar about this woman. Confused, Jess looked closer, trying to place the face, then slowly handed her bag to her male companion. As she climbed in the limo, he pushed gently down on her head so that she wouldn't bump it. That was the giveaway – these were cops.
672The man entered after her, closed the door, and without telling the driver anything, they sped off. He removed his sunglasses and cap as he turned to face her.
673"Sorry about that, we had to disappear you," he said, also suddenly losing the southern twang.
674"You have been deceived young lady."
675Taking a closer look, there was something familiar about this man as well, but she couldn't place it.
676"Well I'm pretty much being abducted now, so which is worse?" she asked, and turning back to the woman, watched her as she also removed her getup. Now she knew why she looked so familiar.
677"Hell no! Kal?" she exclaimed, as Kal smiled back at her. She looked back to the man and knew him now too, even though he was freshly shaven. "Uh, Len?" She felt like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz.
678"What the hell is going on here! Who are you!" she exclaimed, slumping into the black leather seat and holding her hands to her eyes.
679"Oh my God this is too much!"
680"They told you they were the feds, right?" Len asked.
681"Well they're not. We are," Kal explained.
682Looking back, she hadn't seen – nor asked for – a single piece of identification other than Sylvia's business card, and the jet she took did appear to be more commercial than government.
683"But how do I know you're not lying and they really are the government?"
684"Think about it Jessica," Kal replied slowly. "How much paperwork did they have you sign?" she asked, handing over a manilla envelope stuffed with papers, and a pen.
685"Now here's our proof. If you really want to serve your country, we need your John Hancock on all of these."
686Jess knew she wasn't going to just sign anything just yet, not after all this. She needed to know more.
687"Who were they then."
688Kal sighed, then dismissively: "They're corporate. They've recruited a couple out from under our noses over the years. I knew Nancy – Sylvia – was with them, but dang it all I wasn't working at the Straightway when you met her there. If I was, I would have intercepted you then. When I was told you were there with her, I put it together, and with Len's help we traced them here. We just got in forty-five minutes ago. Can you tell?" she asked, tugging on the bill of her hat.
689"Too much? Well we're just proud Amuricans is all."
690"So what company do they work for? What did they want from me?"
691"Well it's not really a single company," Len explained. "They're sort of a syndicate of freelance 'information gatherers' who ultimately get paid by a few of the bigger hedge funds. The Consumer Electronics Show is in town this week, and there are some big players dealing behind the scenes. They were lookin' to see which way the wind was blowing in the semiconductor industry, so they could get some leverage."
692Well they sound convincing so far, and at least they're nicer, Jess thought.
693"OK, but before I do anything, here are my conditions, and I want these written in." She was determined now to be a partner in this process now, instead of just a pawn.
694"One: I will not do anything against my will. Two: I will not use my abilities in order to harm others, either directly or indirectly. Three: I will only use my abilities to help others in distress. I want that all written in."
695"Well honey," Kal responded tenderly, "that kind of narrows our options a bit don't it? What if you have to hurt somebody to save somebody else's life? There's all kinds of scenarios you just can't plan for."
696"That's true, but that will be my decision to make, and not yours to dictate to me. Capiche?" She began to realize she was the one with leverage here – she had what they wanted, after all.
697Len looked at Kal, then back to Jess. "OK, boss, agreed. We'll write it in. We can't force you to do anything anyway. Well at least not in this branch."
698Jess glanced out the window as she went through the papers, and noticed they were heading south on the strip, back towards the airport.
699"So where am I going today?" she wondered.
700"Can't tell ya," Len replied with a wink, "You didn't write full disclosure into your demands."
701"Real classy, guys, taking advantage like that," she replied, smiling.
702Kal smiled back. "Well honey it's not that we won't tell ya, it's we can't tell ya. Where we're going don't have a name to it."
703 
704~ Twenty-Five ~
705
706They turned off the strip near the Mandalay Bay, earlier than they should have if they were going the long way around to the main terminal. After a block or two they pulled up to the entrance of a fenced in parking lot. Stopping at a small security booth, the driver held a badge for the guard, who read it with a handheld scanner and waved them onward. They drove past several rows of parked cars towards what looked like a smaller terminal, coming to a stop in front.
707"What is this?" Jess inquired, exiting the limo and hoisting her duffel bag onto her back.
708"It's our own little private airport," Kal replied, "No lines, no scanners, no TSA gropes. It's good to be the government."
709They walked through the entrance and into the facility, which was laid out like a typical small town airport: a large open space with waiting areas near the various gates, along with a central food vending area. They led her straight through the building and onto the tarmac, which shimmered in the late morning desert heat.
710Jess could see the Southwest jets taxiing near the public terminal farther away, but then focused on the activity around her at this 'airport within an airport'. It seemed like they were in a big parking lot for jets: there were a couple of turboprops off to one side, a larger jet, 757 maybe, off to the other, and in the center were parked a grouping of 737's. What was even stranger, these jets were all white – no brands, no advertisements, no markings other than a registration number on the tail, and a long red stripe along the fuselage.
711Jess followed Kal and Len towards one with the stairs lowered, and after the security guard stationed at the bottom scanned both of their badges once again, they ascended into the aircraft.
712Although bigger, these jets were certainly plainer than the one she came in on, and smelled old, even stale. She settled in the front-most pair of seats – business class on a commercial jet – and Kal and Len each took another set of two seats.
713"Well if I can't know where I am going, can I at least know how long it'll take?"
714Kal, sitting across from her, leaned over the aisle. "We'll be back on the ground in about forty, so don't get too comfy," she said, patting her arm.
715Jess tried to calculate how far the jet could travel in forty minutes, but quickly got tired and checked her iPhone. She texted Gavin 'and down the rabbit hole I go' and put away her phone. Only afterwards did she realize that she probably shouldn't have done that, but nobody seemed to have noticed.
716A few minutes later a pilot boarded, sans crew, and they were soon up in the air. From the window she watched the strip recede into the distance as she calculated they were traveling roughly north. The snow-covered peak of Mt. Charleston could be seen towards the west, before the desolation of the desert took over the skyline.
717It wasn't thirty minutes later that they began to descend into some mountainous terrain, and as she wondered where they were landing, it suddenly hit her. Barely concealing her excitement, she turned to Kal.
718"Oh my God, is this Area 51?"
719Kal rolled her eyes, and putting her finger up to her lip with mock seriousness, whispered "Shhhh..."
720Holy crap – Area 51! she thought. What was she going to see? Even if it was all B.S. and it was just a military testing facility, how many people could say they went to Area 51?
721Realizing she wouldn't be able to tell anyone about this, her heart sank. She suddenly felt bad for all the people that work there.
722She surreptitiously checked her iPhone again for a reply from Gavin. There was none, but strangely the cellular carrier of her phone, usually listed as 'AT&T', now read 'GOV'.
723"Yeah, we're gonna have to take that," Len said, holding out his hand from behind her seat. She sheepishly handed it to him. He then held forward an ID attached to a lanyard.
724"Here's your golden ticket, wear it at all times."
725She took it and turned the ID over. The picture of her on the front wasn't even current, it was her sophomore year high school yearbook picture.
726"Really? With the braces? You couldn't hack into my Facebook and get like, any other more recent picture of me?"
727"Ah, rush job, whaddya expect? It's good enough for government work," Len replied.
728 
729~ Twenty-Six ~
730
731Disembarking was a disappointment. There was really nothing much to see: just a couple of long – very long – runways with clusters of large hangars and various outbuildings alongside them for what seemed like miles. The only people around were guards dressed in camouflage gear, outfitted with appropriately intimidating automatic rifles. Other than that, everything interesting seemed to be behind closed doors.
732She was led aboard a white school bus with blacked out windows, and they drove for several minutes to one of the larger hangers a mile or so down the runway. Disembarking from from the bus, two security guards raised their rifles towards Len, yelling "Halt!". Len, standing perfectly still, slowly raised his arms and waited for another guard to approach, who reached in and turned over the badge on his lanyard, revealing his picture. Without apology, the guards stepped back and stood down. She looked down to verify her own badge was oriented correctly before stepping forward, where they were all scanned in once again.
733After a short walk to the hangar, they were scanned a final time at the entrance. As they entered the small door – the large hanger door was closed – Kal flipped an array of switches, causing rows of old industrial lamps hanging from the girders above to begin glowing, lighting up the large open space. Jess was amazed to see, planted in the center of the hangar, an almost exact replica of the dome at the Adams Center.
734"What is this? Another one?"
735"You'd be surprised how much money was put into this program during the Cold War," Kal replied, leading Jess over to a small seating area. There were tables, chairs, and even cots arrayed along the hangar wall, all coated with a fine layer of dust.
736"There was some success with it, too," she continued, motioning Jess to a seat across from her.
737"Certain features of Soviet military installations were precisely identified and recorded. Unfortunately these hits were only verified years later, when the newer hi-resolution satellite imagery became available, after the program here had already been dismantled. Regardless, the big problem was that it was unreliable. We couldn't get specific enough features, at the particular time we wanted them. It was completely frustrating for everyone involved, most of all the sleepers themselves. They'd get a good hit on something one day, but when asked for followup, they'd get nothing, or worse, misinformation. We never found out if that was due to the sleeper's own unconscious resistance to the pressure to perform, pure confabulation out of a need to please their superiors, interference from the other side, or what. Maybe a combo of all of the above. So eventually the funding was cut to a trickle and the whole thing was labelled a failure, regardless of what we correlated to later."
738Len picked up the story from there. "Then the wall fell and the whole program was mothballed. It's only been revived in the last ten years or so to combat terrorism, and only because they found that the world of financial espionage – as you recently discovered – was having some success with it. Problem is, the good ones, like you, are hard to come by. I heard what you're capable of: full consciousness and recall within a hundred yard radius, and that is rare. We were lucky they were so sloppy in handling you. Prolly cause they never had to work very hard at recruiting. They started out by giving a nice chunk of the haul they took from their trades, which worked on a few, for awhile, but then the 'special abilities' would seem to fade over time without rhyme or reason. Maybe people like you generally aren't as concerned with the money, or at least aren't as unsavory as they are about how they get it, so maybe they were working at odds with their unconscious. Who knows. Ask Freud. In any case they would get a lot of burnouts. It's only lately they started impersonating the government, trying to recruit people by using their good intentions against them. When that didn't work they would resort to fear, telling 'em thousands would die if they didn't deliver the info to prevent an 'attack'. So that was what you were in for with those folks."
739"You're the first one we poached from them before they could really get started," Kal said. "We're pretty stoked about that."
740"Yeah, but unfortunately," Len continued, "the others we debriefed sort of swore off the whole business after their negative experience, so we really don't have a whole stable of folks for this operation."
741"What he means is," Kal interrupted, spreading her arms out to encompass the entire hanger. "This is all for you."
742 
743~ Twenty-Seven ~
744
745Jess started her tour of the hanger with the dome, while Kal and Len followed behind, explaining the history to her.
746"They had the same contractor who built the first one come out about a decade later and build this one," Kal explained. "At the time they thought the structure itself helped produce, or at least enhance, the abilities. Turns out it's just a very expensive concrete igloo. Apparently, all you need is a quiet space and some white noise, for the good ones at least. The rest is pretty much decorative."
747"The material actually makes it harder to exit the structure," Jess said, mostly to herself, as she stroked the curved wall of the dome. She was in awe of what they did here; the dome was the exact shape and size of the twin out east, even down to the yellow paint. As she entered, she noticed the sheds inside were also similarly built, but entering her Einstein duplicate, however, she found the furnishings different. She swiped her finger through a thick coat of dust on the dresser.
748"How long has this place been mothballed?"
749"Let's see," Len mused, looking at Kal for help. "Probably twenty some odd years?"
750"And how many people passed through here?"
751"Oh, well, in its heyday, if the Adams Center had a hundred guests a year, I suppose we would have had about ten percent of that. All tolled probably looking at ninety, a hundred."
752"That's it? Through the whole program?" Jess was incredulous at the amount of money and effort spent for less than one hundred people.
753"Yeah – remember, folks like you aren't a dime a dozen, and we had the cream of the crop coming through here."
754Kal continued with a grin. "And most of them were duds too!"
755"So how many people like me did you find?"
756Len answered without hesitation. "Six," he said, staring off into space, as if remembering something, "there were only six."
757Jess had to ask. "Are they all... dead?"
758Len snapped out of it and smiled wide. "Oh hell no! It was all worthless, remember? Who'd want to kill a bunch of spaced out Clouseau's batting ten percent? They went back to their lives, probably forgot about the whole thing. Come on, let's get something to eat."
759Len led them out of the structure and to the back of the hanger, through a connecting doorway, and into a smaller  building. A few cafeteria tables and chairs lined one wall, with a small open window to a kitchen in the back. To the right were a row of doors spaced about ten feet apart, all of them labeled with a letter, with the exception of one which was labeled 'Monitor'.
760"This here is the canteen, mess hall, monitoring room, and dorms for up to thirty six people, though we never had that many at once like I said. They were a little too optimistic when they built it I guess. We don't have any cooks, so we'll have to take care of our own meals for now. Pick a dorm and drop your stuff. Or you can take a nap if you want, we're going to prep the kitchen and get an early dinner started."
761A nap sounded like a good idea, so Jess picked the first door. Behind it she found a simple eight by twelve cinder block room with a bunk bed and small wooden dresser. She unpacked her things, shook out the dusty grey blanket covering the bottom bunk, and lay down for a rest. "You're in the army now..." she whistled to herself, and promptly fell asleep.
762She awoke to the clattering of pots and pans, and walked out to find a meal, ready to eat, waiting for her. Spaghetti and meatballs in a metal bowl, on a tan fiberglass tray which also held a warm can of coke. Kal and Len were already in the kitchen cleaning up after their own meals, as she had a longer nap than expected. She tucked in while listening to the two bicker about how thoroughly, or not, to clean the pots. Len wanted a simple rinse but Kal wanted a full sudsy cleaning.
763"That's cause you never do these back home!" Kal exclaimed.
764Jess couldn't believe she had missed this, and barging in on them, she announced "You're married!"
765Sudsy pot in hand, Len's look of mild shock turned to remembrance as he said, mostly to himself, "Yup, that's what the man did say." Kal twisted his nipple and he let out a yowl.
766"Do people know this?"
767"Well they know about this," Kal replied, pointing back and forth between her and Len, "but they don't know about this," she added, spinning both fingers around in wide circles as if she were mixing two large kettles.
768"We told them we were going for a quick trip to Vegas – no lie there," Len added, "and that we'd be back in a few days. Which we will, can't take this canned stuff for much longer than that. Hey, now that you're up, how about we run through a bit of testing when you're done?"
769She agreed, and after Kal and Len were done with the dishes they headed over to the monitoring room to get set up, while she finished up her meal. She then walked back to the dome and into her doppelgänger Einstein shack, and lay down to await their instructions.
770 
771~ Twenty-Eight ~
772
773The speaker above her clicked, followed by Kal's voice.
774"Okay now, the first thing we want to do is get you out and about. Taped on the headboard is a set of GPS coordinates, see if you can project yourself there when you're out, okay?"
775Looking behind her, she found a small strip of paper, secured with yellowing scotch tape, with a set of latitude and longitude numbers typed on it.
776"Ummm, I've never done that before; how does that work?" she asked tentatively.
777"Well we certainly don't know, but we know it's possible. Just focus on the numbers and let's see what happens," Kal replied.
778She lay back down and performed her exit procedure. When she was out, she turned and focused on the numbers, repeating them to herself. The pulling sensation began, and she was catapulted back into the tunnel, the end of which contained a pinprick of white light, her destination.
779Seconds later it grew to engulf her view as it resolved into a brilliantly white, formless space. She remembered what Terry had said, and concentrated on the thought-form of a pair of Wayfarers, which manifested instantly, darkening her vision just enough to focus on the white space. As the outlines of the walls, floor, and ceiling were now visible, she determined that this was a physical place, and not someplace within her mind.
780Turning, she noticed something in this empty space: a small strip of paper, similar to the one in the cottage, this one also fastened to the wall with yellowing, peeling scotch tape. It read:
781
782Remember:
783Who are you?
784Why are you here?
785Jack and Jill went up the Hill.
786
787Puzzled by this, she wasn't sure what else to do, so she waited for a few minutes, until she sensed a small buzzing sensation similar to the previous excursion. She took this as the signal to come back, and imagining herself back at the Einstein shack, was soon transported back, and dropped into her body.
788The speaker above her clicked on.
789"Repeat. Jess. Come on back now."
790"I'm here," she replied groggily.
791Another click.
792"What did it say?"
793She slowly raised herself into a sitting position, thinking back to the white room.
794"It was like a nursery rhyme or something. No, wait, it was Jack and Jill. On the wall. Was that the test?"
795"Yup, nice work. You made good time, one of our best, but I expected as much," Kal replied.
796"Where did I go?"
797"Let's see... you're in Einstein, so those coordinates would be near Rendlesham Forest, in Suffolk, England."
798"That was England? Cool, I've never been there before!" she exclaimed. She could hear them laughing over the intercom.
799"But it was a real, physical place, right?"
800"Yeah, it's a room underneath an old joint Air Force / RAF base. Most of the newer ones have one designed in from the start, but the one you were at was an older base that was retrofitted. The architects generally don't ask any questions about it, but the contractors always think it's a mistake and fight 'em on it – what good is a fully enclosed, lighted room with no doors or windows, right? Okay then, onward and upward. Ready to move on?"
801"Sure, what's next?"
802"Outside, behind this hanger is a twelve-foot wide monolith, we need you to travel all the way through it from front to back. When you're done, come on back and let us know how it went."
803She exited again and quickly found the structure out back. It was about nine feet high, ten to twelve feet thick, and painted black, with a line marked Start on the ground facing her. She moved forward into the monolith and immediately felt a metallic sensation. Further in she sensed a strange earthy taste, like dirt or rock. Beyond that was a material with a gentle but firm resistance, which she couldn't move into fully; each time she tried she would be slowly pushed back out.
804Remembering what she had done at the Center, she concentrated herself into a point of light, forgetting her embodied self completely. Only then was she able to easily pass through the dense material. One more thinner level awaited her, which even as a point of light felt like moving through thick honey, and then she was out in the daylight again. Expanding herself back into a bodily form, she laughed as she spotted a 'Finish' line below her feet.
805"I'm baaaack!" she teased, returning to the shack.
806"Great, how did it go? Did you get through?"
807"Yeah, the last two materials were tougher, so I had to condense myself to squeeze through."
808"There you go. Terry did well with you, the short time he had ya. Great job. By the way those last two layers were lead and gold. Come on out, unless there's anything else you wanted to try."
809Jess declined. They didn't bring up the possibility of disembodied speech or projecting a full body apparition like she had done with Terry, and she didn't offer them up. Those tidbits she kept to herself for now.
810 
811~ Twenty-Nine ~
812
813She awoke late the next morning to the smell of pancakes and bacon. Arising from her musty army cot, she discerned the now familiar sounds of bickering, this time over how to cook the eggs.
814As they ate, breakfast was interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing near the entrance to the hanger. Len walked out of the mess hall to answer it, and returned smiling a few minutes later.
815"We got it!" he yelled to Kal, high-fiving her.
816"Oh that's great news. We couldn't do it any other way."
817"What's going on?" Jess asked, smiling. "You pregnant?"
818Kal let out a hearty laugh.
819"No honey, I quit that work years ago, this is my retirement," she said, as she sat back down.
820She placed her hand on Jess' wrist. "What's going on is we have a real live mission for you."
821"Are you sure I'm ready? I've only been here a day!" Jess questioned, nervous though excited at the prospect.
822"Well you're pretty far along the path, but are you ready? I guess that's up to you. The deal is, this is somewhat of an urgent situation, and the way we'll set it up it'll be an in-out thing. Low impact."
823"Low impact, okay, I like that, what are the details?"
824"We've got a high value target in a sticky situation," Len explained. "We need to get him out, and soon. We know in general where he is, but we don't know exactly, and this is where you come in. We'll need you to pinpoint his location."
825"How far away is this? I mean, I can't do this from here. I can go to the white room without anything to distract me, sure, but any real location..."
826"Yes, we know," Kal agreed, "distance is always an issue, even for the best. That's why we have a hybrid approach to these things. C'mon."
827She and Len arose from the table and led her out the back door of the hangar, past the monolith, and down a foot path tucked between the backs of the hangars and the desert foothills beyond.
828"We'll get you as close as we can, physically," Len said. "The rest is up to you."
829"So where then am I going exactly?"
830"Pyongyang."
831Jess was dumbfounded. "North Korea? That's like the most dangerous place on earth! How am I going to get in there? I can't even play basketball!"
832"You are not going to set foot in North Korea," Len assured her, as they reached a smaller hangar marked with the number six.
833"I'm not following you here. That's like a day of flying, right?"
834Kal stopped and stood in front of her. "Well, that's the thing, there's no way to get into North Korea using conventional methods. That's why they come to us." She stood aside as Len slid open the smaller hangar door.
835"Here's your ride!" announced Len, sweeping his arm like a Price-is-Right model.
836Inside the hangar, perched on three sawhorses, stood a matte-black metallic object about seven feet across.
837"What the heck is this?" Jess asked, entering the hangar and examining the object.
838The color was a deep black, and there were so many odd angular surfaces that Jess had difficulty discerning the true shape of it while standing still. It was certainly unconventional, looking somewhat like a slice of pie impaled on a pyramid: the 'slice' made up the central section, while the pyramid point protruded from the top, and the base rested on the sawhorses.
839"This belongs to another group here, whom you unfortunately won't be able to meet," Len said, standing aside so Jess could see the far end of the hangar, where a half-dozen people milled about in the shadows, seemingly waiting for them to leave.
840"It's a rental; we got it just for you, for this mission alone," said Len, coming around to Jess, who was busy intently studying the surface.
841Close up, she could see it wasn't really black per se – the color changed depending upon how you looked at it. Placing her hand on the surface, it felt perfectly smooth and metallic, but in an odd way. It didn't have the coldness of metal, but wasn't warm either. It felt more... pliable.
842"How does it work?" she asked, crouching down to see underneath. "Where's the engine?"
843Len moved to the back of the craft. "Engines, you mean, and I'm not sure I could really tell you. They tell us how to run it but I couldn't fathom how it does what it does. You probably want to know how to operate it, huh? Well this is the best part."
844Digging into his pocket, he produced her confiscated iPhone.
845"There's an App for that," he quipped, tossing the phone to her. "Now I don't know your password, so go into the app store and download the Krazy Kats game."
846She looked at him sideways as she unlocked her phone and searched for the game on the app store. "Looks pretty lame, only got one star ratings, seems like most of them say 'WORST GAME EVAR'."
847"Just download the app already," Len said impatiently.
848"At least it's free," she replied, punching in her password. And indeed it was a bad game, consisting of two poorly drawn cat heads floating about the screen. Poking one of the heads would prompt a recorded cat yowl, and a number at the bottom would increment by one.
849"Wow this is really lame," Jess said.
850"Well the goal was to have people just ignore the app, but it turns out it was so bad it became sort of a thing on the Internet. Now there's all sorts of Krazy Kats fan sites. You can even get a hat if you want to," Len said, chuckling. "They all have them around here. OK, so anyway wait until one of the heads hits the bottom of the screen, and when it does, shake the phone twice and swipe down with three fingers. She did so, and a shade dropped over the game, revealing a new screen with the familiar map view and blue dot indicating her location.
851"Cool. OK, now what?" Jess asked, swiping around the screen.
852Len came around to look over her shoulder. "It's natural language based. First we need to tell it which ship you want."
853He whispered into her ear, "Say 'Mustang Three enable'."
854"Mustang Three enable," she spoke into the phone. The app replied back instantly, with a Siri-like voice.
855"Authorize new pilot?" it asked, as it popped up a Bluetooth pairing code screen.
856"Oh yeah, forgot about this part," he said, "punch in four zeros to pair it."
857"Really? Four zeroes Len?" she asked derisively while entering the code. "My bluetooth keyboard has better security."
858Pairing complete, she spoke the incantation again, and the craft responded with a quick succession of faint chirping noises. They started from the front, and moved along the sides towards the rear, eventually joining together into a barely audible hum.
859"Enabled," the app declared.
860"Why is it called a Mustang?" Jess asked, curious about the name. "After the car?"
861"No, not the car, but the car's own namesake: the P-51," Kal explained. "Which if you know your history, was a revolutionary aircraft for it's time. It performed better at low altitudes, and was initially used for long-range recon missions, which is exactly what you will be doing in number three here."
862Jess hadn't seen any wheels during her examination, but nevertheless didn't even consider that this might be a flying machine – it didn't seem to have any wings on it to keep it aloft.
863"This thing flies? And this is the remote?" she asked, holding up her phone.
864"Oh boy does it fly. And it ain't no toy neither. Tell it to open."
865"Mustang three, open." The craft emitted a barely audible hiss as it split horizontally along a invisible seam. Another hiss, and a vertical seam appeared in the top half. The two sides swung back and away like the wings of a  beetle to reveal a dazzlingly white interior, consisting of two small reclining seats. There didn't appear to be any other controls or indicators whatsoever inside the vehicle. She did notice one single white wire coiled within a cavity between the seats, and looking closer was amused to see it was an iPhone charging cable.
866"It's pretty much cruise control all the way. You tell it where to go, and it goes. You can override it for manual control if needed, just ask. She'll be prepped and ready for you in the morning, cause we've got to get you out of here before breakfast tomorrow. Let's head back, as the team needs to do some final prep work."
867 
868~ Thirty ~
869
870That afternoon and evening they went over the plan. The subject was being held in the largest hotel – indeed, the largest building, on the entire Korean peninsula. They didn't know which floor he was on; it was her job to figure that out using her abilities. Physically, she would remain in the craft at all times. When his location was discovered, she would make contact, in whatever manner she could, and lead him to the craft for the return flight home. The plan was to get her there at 4:00 AM local time, which would give her an hour of darkness for the extraction, before the sun began to rise.
871After a final prep the next morning, she boarded the craft with nothing but her phone, a bottle of water, and a few granola bars. Kal provided her with some critical last minute instructions. 
872"Now, the only facilities on board is gonna be that water bottle when it's empty, so you wanna make sure you're empty before you head out, alright?"
873Jess laughed. "Taken care of. Ready to go."
874"OK then, good luck to you," Kal said, suddenly looking very serious. "Bring him back for us. It's more important than you know." She and Len both shook her hand, and then stood back from the craft.
875"Mustang three, close please," she requested with a slight crack in her voice; Kal's seriousness had thrown her. The top halves of the craft swung over her head and locked into place as the seams silently melted into one solid surface. Instead of becoming dark, it was still bright inside, similar to the diffuse lighting she had seen in the white room. Jess felt momentarily claustrophobic, until the triangular windscreen panels dissolved into transparency, followed by the footwells, and then the sides. She had a crystal clear view up, down, and around.
876The ship, through her phone, began speaking to her in the familiar staccato voice.
877"Ready for departure to programmed destination. Distance five-thousand nine-hundred ninety-six miles. Acceleration slope adjusted for current occupant body mass index of twenty-two point two. Maximum speed will be one-thousand three-hundred and eighty-four miles per hour, achieved one-hundred and eighty-two seconds after departure. Estimated travel time is four hours, twenty-three minutes, and fifteen seconds. Local time is currently six-thirty-seven A.M. Pacific standard time. Destination time is currently eleven-thirty-seven P.M. Korean standard time. Destination arrival time will be four A.M. Korean standard time. Shall we go?"
878One-thousand three-hundred miles per hour? Jess marveled to herself. She couldn't remember how fast commercial jets flew, but she knew it was less than the speed of sound, which was around seven hundred miles per hour. I'm going to be zipping along at Mach II in this little thing the size of a Cooper Mini? she thought nervously. They told her how long the trip would take but she didn't think to calculate how fast she would be traveling. OK, Jess, let's put on the big girl pants, she thought, calming herself. What she was doing was important: she was willing to believe that.
879"Yes, let's go."
880The ship began chirping again, starting from the front and continuing around her to the sides and back, settling into a high-pitched hum. She watched the floor of the hangar recede slowly as the craft rose off the sawhorses, but she couldn't feel any movement. The seats were more comfortable than any other seats she had been in, in fact they were so comfortable as to be a little disturbing – it felt like she was being hugged by the thing, as if it were alive.
881The craft then rotated until it faced the open hangar door directly, then began to slowly accelerate forward. She had time for a quick wave to Kal and Len as they sped by on each side of the ship. They both stood at attention, saluting, which suddenly choked her up, and then they were gone, and she was outside, rising. The acceleration increased smoothly and quietly, like a roller coaster, pushing her back into her seat. The craft climbed the rising foothills of the mountain range ahead in a jagged stair-step fashion, as if it were directly following the contour of the ground one hundred feet below.
882She watched the rocks, scrub, and mesquite trees turn into a blur of reds, browns, and greens as they flew beneath her. Above the hum, a growing whine emanated from the front of the craft, and reaching an ear-splitting peak, exploded into a series of thunderous 'pops', as if she were inside a popcorn machine. The craft surged forward violently with additional speed as the popping sounds subsided, while a circular cloud-like mist formed at the nosecone, blocking part of her forward vision.
883"Sound barrier crossed. Envelope active and stable."
884The craft continued onward, traveling up, over, and down the other side of the mountain range within minutes, while maintaining a consistent one hundred-foot elevation.
885"Maximum speed achieved," the craft announced, as the acceleration stabilized into steady flight. As the hum of the engines receded, Jess began to relax and take in the view. Staring out the side window at the desert landscape, she began to space out, until a sudden jolt got her attention. The craft had suddenly rocked to one side, and then back again, as if they had hit a pothole in the sky. 
886"What the hell was that?" she yelled out, clutching the sides of her seat.
887"Avian avoidance maneuver," the craft nonchalantly answered. Still unsettled, but somewhat reassured by the craft's self-confidence, she leaned back again. Looking through the panels at the ground rushing by below, she felt as if she were watching a sped-up silent movie. In front of her, a blue line appeared on the horizon, quickly traveled right to left, and then expanded towards her, until a flash of yellow below her feet demarcated the land from the sea. Her forward view consisted now of only differing shades of blue: lighter above, and darker below.
888As the sun was behind her, leaning forward she could just barely make out the small dark shadow of the craft on the water ahead. Looking towards the horizon, she watched as a line of tiny lego blocks arose, until below them emerged the red bow of a massive container ship. As she was trying to read the name painted on the hull, the craft banked hard to the left, forcing her into the side of her seat. Knowing the answer, she felt the need to ask anyway.
889"What was that?"
890"Merchant marine vessel avoidance maneuver," the ship responded, again with the same confidence, but also with a hint of seeming annoyance at her paranoid questioning. Closing her eyes, she settled back and asked no further questions about the sudden bumps, potholes and violent banking they encountered, for fear the craft would lose any remaining respect for her.
891She awoke thirty minutes later, and while unsuccessfully searching again for their shadow, she found instead the sky had taken on a distinctly orange-ish hue. Confused, it took her a moment to realize she had been outrunning the sunrise, and by leaving daybreak behind, had forced a most unnatural sunset behind her. Am I going back in time? she wondered, but of course that didn't make any sense, though it did certainly feel as though the previous night was returning. An hour later, in the pitch black, her confusion was put to rest as the ship interrupted her quiet star gazing.
892"Crossing International Date Line."
893Of course, she mused to herself, as she recalled in the mission briefing that Pyongyang was fifteen hours ahead of them. She had not slipped back into the previous night, but instead propelled forward into the early morning hours of the next day.
894"What are we over right now?" she asked the craft, as her curiosity drifted from above to below.
895"We are currently above the Bering Sea," the ship replied. How cute that she uses the royal 'We', Jess thought, until she digested the rest of the statement. She thought they had been traveling west the whole time, yet here they were in the waters off Alaska.
896"Where are we going!" she exclaimed, alarmed. She didn't care what the craft thought of her at this point – she could be an abductee of this sentient iPhone-powered craft for all she knew.
897"Pyongyang, North Korea. Time to destination one-hour and fifty-three minutes," the craft replied calmly, without a hint of annoyance this time. Jess relaxed again, making a mental note to check a globe later to see what kind of funky route they were taking. In the meantime she gazed out across the inky sea, and thought of the fishermen who plied these waters. Looking up, the vast array of stars stoked thoughts of the seafarers who once used the sky to navigate this endless expanse. Speeding through a seemingly endless darkness can't help but make one a little philosophical, she noted to herself.
898 
899~ Thirty-One ~
900
901Placing her focus back to the mission, and not the least bit tired from her time travel into the next night, she passed the remaining time in darkness going over the plan. The destination was a tall triangular building, and she would 'park' next to it near the middle, while she exited her body to investigate the floors one by one. Once she found the room containing the subject, she would return and maneuver the ship as close as possible to his window, then alert him to her presence. He would board the craft with her, and off they would go. Easy-peasy, at least that was the thought.
902While going over possible contingencies in her mind, she noticed some scattered lights ahead which, expanding in front of her, zipped by to her left and right. She was over land again.
903"Where are we now?" she inquired.
904"Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russian Federation."
905She felt like a real spy now, flying low over Russian airspace in the dead of night. A few minutes later and they were back over water, the 'Sea of Okhotsk', her craft informed her.
906She continued to mull over the plan: all the permutations, the probabilities, and how she would handle each contingency. While she was deciding whether she was over thinking it, the craft conveniently interrupted her with the news they were only fifteen minutes out. She didn't even realize they were over land again, but looking down she found some faint and scattered lights ahead.
907Her body was pulled forward as the the craft began to decelerate. Ahead was a cluster of bright lights, a city, and what looked like a large Christmas tree in the midst of it. As the cloudiness at the nose dissipated, she realized how massive it was – it completely dominated the skyline of the city. The other buildings around it were twenty or thirty stories, but this one must have been at least one hundred. Other than the giant, there were not too many other lights on in this, the largest city in North Korea. Even though it was four A.M. local time, it still looked more like a sleepy suburb in America rather than a vast metropolis. 
908As they closed in, the craft remained low, violently weaving between buildings instead of rising over them. Her adrenaline rising, she clutched her armrests tightly, even though she knew intellectually that she could trust this craft to get her the final few miles on this six-thousand mile journey.
909Tall apartment buildings flew past, devoid of any lights, the roads below similarly empty. It felt dead here; almost post-apocalyptic. After banking around one apartment complex, she found they were on a direct approach to the target. Composed of three massive wings that rose from the ground and converged to a point, the building reminded Jess of a mammoth dagger stabbing the at the sky.
910The craft decelerated further, while simultaneously climbing towards the middle of the structure as planned. Believing a collision to be imminent, Jess instinctively pressed her hands flat against the front panels and gritted her teeth as the craft silently glided to a dead stop inches from the mirrored glass that blanketed the building.
911Although the large running lights decorating each wing of the building were lit, like the other buildings, there were no individual lights on in any of the rooms. Jess noticed a faint glow emanating from the hotel window a few feet in front of her, until she realized it was only the reflection of her own phone's screen, which she quickly disconnected and pocketed.
912"OK, here we go," she said aloud. That was a pretty lame pep talk, she thought to herself, as she laid her head back and closed her eyes. Dropping out, she slipped below the craft and looked around. The height was dizzying, and it distracted her for a moment as she instinctively clawed her way towards the wall of the building. Regaining her composure, she glided down all the way to ground level and moved into the building.
913The lobby could be described as garishly depressing: a long white marble front desk to the left, attended by a lone dozing woman, opposite a generically bland seating and lounge area to the right. Straight ahead stood the centerpiece of the lobby, a tremendous cylindrical waterfall. Descending from two stories above, water streamed past bright green algae, which tenaciously clung to the faux rock face, and dumped into a bubbly yellowish froth at the bottom. The entire spectacle was decorated with large, colorful flora and fauna resting upon a bright green carpet of grass – all plastic. Even in this subtle body, she could somehow smell the decay permeating the place.
914Noting nothing of interest here, she ascended above the lobby to the third floor, and found herself in a circular hallway with branching corridors leading into each of the three wings. Choosing one corridor at random, she proceeded down it, poking her head through the door into each room. All of them were empty – no furnishings, fixtures, or even carpeting; nothing but cold empty spaces defined by the concrete walls, floors, and ceilings, and more akin to jail cells than luxury hotel rooms. She had inspected twenty of these rooms when she realized the futility of her search, thinking about the hundreds of rooms that remained. She was on a race against the sunrise she had already escaped once just a few short hours ago.
915Gathering her energy into a pinpoint of light, she zipped through the walls from one room to the next, finishing the entire floor in under a minute. Moving up a level, she found herself outside due to the incline of the hotel. This gave her an idea, and she began traveling in a wide arc around – and through – the arms of the hotel. Once the outermost rooms were cleared she tightened her radius until she was back to the central core. Then she went up a level and repeated the spiraling maneuver outwards, a pattern of inside-outside-inside as the empty rooms and the outdoor spaces flew past her at intervals. It was thrilling, and more important, fast and effortless.
916Only when she reached a third of the way up the building did she see any sign of finished work, and even then it was randomly distributed in certain rooms instead of coordinated. She passed her craft, still hovering patiently at the fiftieth floor, forgetting completely that her body lay within. Finally, at the seventieth floor, it seemed entire floors had been completely finished, yet all were still unoccupied. A few more floors up, and she finally came upon a smattering of rooms with sleeping guests, and though they were all male, none matched the description of the man she was looking for.
917Only at the highest floors were the rooms almost completely finished and occupied, and at this point she was spiraling in a tight circle only a few hundred feet across. One room caught her attention only because it's lone resident was asleep on the floor. She backed up to investigate further and discovered a bloody gash on the man's head. He was breathing; but perhaps unconscious rather than asleep. Most importantly, he was a good seven feet tall or so, which was a key feature of her target.
918Inspecting closer, she expanded into her subtle body, and moved her hand quickly through the floor next to his head. The soft thud this produced didn't even stir him. Making several louder raps in a row, and saw an eyelid flutter but then close.
919Suddenly, the door to the room flew open and a man dressed in crisp military garb, bayonet across his back, entered and charged towards them. She flew backwards, trying ineffectively to hide herself, but he completely ignored her presence. Speaking angrily in Korean, he found no response from the man on the floor, and for a moment stood silently watching his captive. Moving forward, he then kicked the man in the stomach, and receiving nothing more than a grunt, stormed out and slammed the door. 
920Jess chastised herself for not clearing the area more before trying to wake him, and proceeded to move down a few rooms. Peeking into the center hallway from a safe distance, she saw the angry guard along with another stationed on each side of her target's door, standing at full attention – even though it was half-past three in the morning. Crap, she thought to herself. They had simulated this scenario but assumed the guards would be asleep, or at the very least seated and drowsy.
921She moved further down the arcing hall, bringing her out of sight of the guards. On this side of the building she found a few remaining unfinished rooms. Two didn't even have windows in place yet, just sheets of heavy white plastic covering roughed-in holes in the concrete, which were stretched taut and rippling from the wind outside.
922Jess focused her energy and shot at a downward angle towards where her craft remained stationed. Bringing herself back into her physical body, she told the ship where she wanted to go.
923"Rise to just below the top of the building then corner around... um, is there a manual control mode?"
924"Manual controls active," the craft replied, and grabbing her phone she noticed the map view slide down, revealing a plain gray screen.
925"What the hell?" she said despairingly, thinking the app had crashed. She poked at the gray screen three times, each tap resulting in a pronounced jiggle of the craft. Freezing her hand in mid-air, she lowered it and gently touched the screen. Sliding her finger slowly forward, the craft accelerated forward. Sliding back brought it to a halt. Twisting two fingers turned the craft in place, and two finger slides moved the craft vertically as well as horizontally. She was getting the hang of this.
926Silently maneuvering the ship up to the floor where her target lay, she then brought it around back to where the unfinished rooms were. Lining up the ship as close to the outside wall as she could, she took a moment to prepare herself.
927"Return to autopilot, hold position, and open, please." The phone's screen slid back to the map view as she pocketed it, and the hatch opened with the familiar hiss.
928The wind blew her hair flat against her face as she turned towards the rippling plastic in the window opening a few feet away. Taking a deep breath, she leaned her body out over the edge of the craft, and reached forward, struggling to tear the window's hard plastic sheeting with one hand, while firmly grasping the lip of the open cockpit with the other. After some struggle, she finally poked a hole which she was able to tear open, and reaching further in, she grabbed the inside sill of the window opening, let go of the craft, and launched herself in.
929Tumbling onto the bare concrete floor with a thud, she laid still for a minute, but heard only the flapping of the gaping hole in the plastic sheeting, which only chilled the room further. As her eyes adjusted she could see the faint light of the hallway under the door. Army crawling to a dark corner along the wall, she curled up in a fetal position to keep her body warm, and began to exit again.
930Out, she exited the room and travelled down the circular hallway, towards the more brightly lit finished area of the floor. Rounding a curve she could see the two guards, again standing stock still, eyes still open. Her improvised plan now was to make a commotion, drawing them away from the door, and giving her enough time to get back in her body, enter the room physically, and drag her charge, if necessary, back to the idling craft.
931Beyond the guards stood a bank of three elevators in the core support cylinder of the building, and further along, she spied an open stairwell. Gathering herself into a point, she flew past the guards and into the stairwell, spinning downwards a few flights. She circled, waiting to hear a response, but hearing none, she imagined herself heavier and denser, until she gained substantial momentum, and then dove straight into one of the the metal railings.
932The intensity of the metallic clang that ensued surprised even her, and upon hearing a shout from above she flew back up to view the result. Instead of both of the guards going to investigate the disturbance, as she had hoped, one was still stationed protecting the door in a crosswise attack pose, gun drawn and ready, while the other was nowhere to be seen.
933Shooting down the hall in the opposite direction, she came upon the second guard circling around from the other side, who was quickly checking each room with a flashlight. A chill like ice water came over her as she noticed he was only one door away from the room where her body lay.
934She had no time to even think about contingencies before he was in the room, shining his flashlight on her body huddled motionless in the corner. Drawing his gun, he shouted again, and she heard the footsteps of the first guard running down the hallway towards them. Appearing in the doorway, he entered the room and trained his gun on her body as well. Frozen with fear, she could only watch, helpless, as this scene from a horror film came to life in front of her.
935 
936~ Thirty-Two ~
937
938Receiving no response from the body in the corner, the two guards seemed befuddled as to how to handle this strange situation. After a moment the second guard noticed the flapping of the open window, and moving over to it, peered through the hole. Jerking his body backward like a cat escaping a paper bag, he shouted to the other guard while fumbling with the radio on his belt. Speaking haltingly into his handset, she could tell he was having trouble explaining the situation to whomever was on the other end.
939The first guard, realizing this was an intruder – and a strange looking one at that – lifted his gun up to his shoulder, moved forward, and kicked her body in the stomach. She heard herself emit a muffled 'oof' as her body writhed in pain, but in her current state she felt nothing, except for a rising anger, stirring her from her shock over being discovered.
940Spinning in a tight circle, she imagined herself as dense as a billiard ball, and shot into the back of the guard who had kicked her. She felt the impact to his rib cage, at which point her mass must have depleted, as she propelled through his torso without any further resistance. Disgusting as it was to feel the hot bone, marrow, lungs and heart, each of which she could clearly distinguish, it had the intended effect of knocking him to the ground where he lay groaning and writhing in pain.
941The remaining guard swung around wildly, looking for whomever had attacked his partner. If he had turned off his flashlight, he might have noticed a dim light gaining speed in a wide arc around the room. As he did not, he also did not expect the surprise punch to his solar plexus that sent him reeling. Crumpling to the ground, he projectile vomited, to her dismay, directly onto her shoes.
942She quickly sat back in her body, and waking up, was additionally assaulted with the stench of the guards vomit.
943"Agggh!" she exclaimed, holding her shirt sleeve over her nose, as she stood and wiped the vomit onto the guard's pant legs. Confiscating their weapons, she slid them through the window opening, then dragged them to the elevator bank down the hall. After pressing the call button, she shoved them into the first car that arrived, and sent them, groaning, down to the lobby.
944That task complete, she turned to enter her target's room, which was thankfully unlocked, only to find him now awake and sitting on the bed, head cradled in his hands. As she entered he looked up, wordlessly rose, and shuffled towards her, as if he already knew what she was here to do. Positioning herself alongside him, she threw an arm around his waist and helped him down the hall to the empty room.
945Behind them, she heard the ding of an arriving elevator car, followed by the shuffling of several pairs of boots in their direction. It was either the reinvigorated pair, or reinforcements, but Jess was unwilling to stay and find out.
946Leaning him next to the window, she threw herself into the opening as if it were a Slip 'n Slide and landed roughly in the open cockpit. Spinning around, she scooted back through the window again, locking her vomity shoes onto the lip of the cockpit, and reached out to him.
947He grabbed her arms with both hands, leaning forward as she pulled back, and he was halfway out when she noticed flashlights behind him scanning the room. The beams quickly converged on them, just as he freed one hand to grab onto the edge of the cockpit. As he began to pull himself in, she heard the grunts of several men inside and felt a hard tug as he slid backwards.
948Quickly removing her shoes, she fired them into the window, and latching onto his free arm, she braced her stocking feet on the lip of the cockpit while ordering the ship to retreat.
949"Mustang Three, move back ten feet!"
950They instantly slid backward as if on a rail, dragging her subject fully through the window, and pulling several other arms through until they lost their grip, or their nerve, and let go. His legs fell, and he dangled over the side of the craft, almost pulling Jess over with him. As she struggled to pull him aboard, she saw several rifle stocks emerge through the plastic hole.
951"Descend to the ground!" she ordered, and they slipped downwards, just escaping the line of fire as shots rang out in the predawn sky. Jess still held his arms, but didn't have the strength to pull him aboard, so she just held on, waiting for the ground to arrive.
952As the craft gently slowed to a stop above the pavement, Jess noticed they were hovering in the midst of three military troop transport trucks, the contents of which were now a hundred stories above them. The sole remaining soldier, a driver who was enjoying a smoke break, stared mid-puff as a small, shoeless Caucasian redhead pulled a supremely tall man with white hair – neither of which he had seen before in his life – into a strange looking black car that had slipped quietly down from the sky.
953 
954~ Thirty-Three ~
955
956Her subject safe inside the cockpit, Jess ordered the ship to close. As the panels cleared, she laughed aloud at the sight of the gentleman, folded into the seat of this tiny craft, which was clearly designed for occupants not more than five feet tall.
957He glanced at her with a quick grimace, holding his head as if he had a bad hangover. She offered him some of her water, which he accepted, then he leaned back as best he could and closed his eyes again. Her concern for him was interrupted by movement out of the corner of her eye: reinforcements had arrived, and they began firing upon the craft with abandon. Strangely, she felt no impacts, or even heard any ricochet sounds, though they were firing from less than a hundred yards. Unwilling to see how much of this abuse the craft could take, she ordered the it home.
958As the ship climbed, she looked down to watch the men futilely continuing to fire even as their impenetrable target sped up and away. As they rose further she faced forward to see the sun breaking the eastern horizon. It had finally, inevitably, caught up to her. Looking down upon this strange city in a strange country, she now saw some street traffic, but still surprisingly little considering the population of the city. Craning her neck back towards the hotel, however, she could see a dozen or so military vehicles converging on the hotel from different directions, not knowing their prey was already long gone.
959She glanced at her new companion. Although definitely out of it, he did seem to be coming around and had his eyes open now. Relaxing into her chair, and was able to steal a few moments rest as sunshine filled the cabin. Glancing down, she watched the countryside pass below, marred only by a long coil of smoke that extended from below to a point a few hundred yards ahead of them. As she was squinting to discern this strange cloud, another joined it along their left side, and she was able to make out the object leaving this new trail: a small, pointed red cylinder.
960Looking behind them, she saw two nosecones quickly approaching. Both fighter jets shot by, one on each side, before turning hard in opposite directions, presumably to circle back around and fire upon them again.
961"Go faster!" she commanded the ship, instantly feeling the result of their acceleration. The jets had already circled around, however, and were gaining on them. Several follow-on missiles flew above, to the right, and underneath them. She wondered if they were just poor shots, or if it was something about this craft they just couldn't lock onto.
962The jets crept up beside them, still having a speed advantage, and paralleled them on each side. Jess made eye contact with one pilot twenty feet off of their bow; above his oxygen mask his eyes showed a burning anger, even hatred, towards them. He suddenly banked hard left away from them, and as she leaned over the gentleman to see where he went, the craft rocked sideways, pitching her back into her seat.
963"Avoiding aircraft," the craft announced calmly, as she twisted right to see the nosecone of the second jet mere feet off their starboard. As the craft continued the hard bank left, the second pilot gave up and pulled away, just as the first jet had come around again. Creeping in front, he turned sideways and pulled a hard right, intending to cut them off and bring both aircraft down in the process.
964"Avoiding aircraft," the craft repeated as it skidded to the right, throwing her on top of the gentleman. Jess saw the confusion on the pilot's face as he looked up at them through his canopy, he vertical and they horizontal, while their craft followed the parabolic arc of his hard bank perfectly, avoiding a collision by inches.
965"Go faster! Outrun!" she ordered the craft.
966"Unable to comply," the craft explained, "Acceleration slope computed based on body..."
967"Override! Ignore!" she interrupted, "I authorize faster! Maximum discomfort!"
968"Understood," the ship announced, as Jess heard the roar of thousands of additional chirping engines come online at once, plastering them back into their seats. If Jess had been able to turn her head, she might have seen the incredulous looks of the fighter pilots receding into the distance.
969The familiar mist began to form as they transitioned past the sound barrier, the drawn out 'pops' from before exploding this time within seconds, like the sound of a gatling gun.
970"Slipstream active and maximum velocity achieved," the craft informed them, as the acceleration abated and they regained the ability to move. They were over the ocean now –Jess had no idea where – but they were facing the sun, so she assumed they were traveling east. Remembering her guest, she looked over at him as he turned and gave her a wan smile, along with a thumb pointed sideways, as though grading her rescue effort. Smiling back, she offered him her water, from which he accepted only had a small sip before returning it.
971"My name is Jess," she offered, extending her hand awkwardly in the small space. He looked at it, looked at her, smiled again, and touched her palm with two of his fingers, but said nothing. Then, reaching forward, he brushed the featureless white console with three fingers, twisting them in a circle. A hologram of a spinning globe manifested in between them, which he deftly manipulated, zooming into a point within Mongolia. Touching it, he twisted his finger in place, and the ship instantly responded with with a one-hundred and eighty degree turn. She looked at him quizzically as they headed, once again, away from the rising sun. Giving her the same wan smile, he wordlessly curled back into his seat.
972"Where are we going?" she inquired. He turned and smiled at her again, as though a parent entertaining the babble of an infant.
973"Take us home," she commanded. The craft turned toward the sun.
974"Vishu" he countermanded, and the craft turned back westward. Again she ordered it home, but found it for the first time unresponsive to her. Sighing angrily, she lay back in her seat, wondering how long this detour would take. Her bladder was already killing her.
975 
976~ Thirty-Four ~
977
978After several minutes of tense silence, her subject – now captor – rose from his stupor and turned to her, as if remembering something.
979"Come and knock on our door!" he sang, painfully off-key. She looked at him quizzically as he entreated her, a look of joyful expectation on his face.
980"We've been waiting for you!" he continued in a deep, cracking, nordic accent, still looking at her for some type of acknowledgement. She vaguely recognized this massacred tune as the theme song to an old show she had seen on TVLand, but was gobsmacked as to what this was all about.
981"Ahh, OK," she nodded, smiling at him warily.
982He took this as the confirmation he had been searching for, and with a victorious, knowing look on his face, he nodded to her, winked, sat back again, and said nothing more.
983Jess anxiously charted their progress on the holographic globe, and forty-five minutes later they descended into a vast expanse of forest, still dark in the twilight hour. Upon landing, she immediately hopped out and made herself scarce for a few minutes.
984Returning to the craft, she couldn't find the gentleman anywhere. This was her charge, and though he was out of immediate danger, she had lost control of the mission objective: to return with him safely in tow. Dismayed, she searched the area frantically, finally discovering him standing motionless next to an enormous, vine-covered tree, and peering into the darkness of the jungle. Sidling up next to him, he ignored her, until she pulled at his garment as if to lead him back towards the craft. He refused to comply, and simply shook his head 'no' while continuing to stare off into the trees.
985Not knowing what to do, she simply stood with him, as the silence of the jungle slowly gave way to the synchronized clicking of swarms of cicadas, which joined together in a rhythm that danced around the surrounding forest. It seemed to Jess they were surrounded by thousands of maracas, their earlier arrival temporarily interrupting this nightly concert.
986The rhythm captured her attention until the cadence began to slow and trail off, and once again the entire forest was still around them. Hearing a faraway buzz, Jess searched the trees and spotted a small pair of lights navigating slowly through the brush. Back and forth they moved, inching closer at turns. Disappearing for a moment behind a low rise, they reappeared much closer, at which point she could see it was a dark green jeep containing two occupants.
987Meandering it's way towards them, it rolled over tall grassy brush which scraped the undercarriage and sprung back up behind them. They came to a stop ten feet away, just outside of the clearing. The driver was an Asian male, in his late twenties, dressed impeccably in a light gray business suit. Stranger even than this attire was the pair of large sunglasses he wore, since the jungle was still dark in the pre-dawn hour.
988The man was nothing compared to his companion, however: a tall Caucasian woman in her thirties, with perfectly styled red hair, draped in a sparkling red evening gown and shiny black strapless high-heeled shoes. As the jeep came to a stop, she stood and balanced on the sideboard, grasping the edge of the windscreen for support. Unlike her companion, she was not wearing sunglasses, and she stared curiously at Jess with hypnotic blue-grey eyes. This bewildering scene was interrupted by her gentleman friend, who suddenly acknowledged Jess' existence by turning to her and extending his hand.
989"Thank you," he said in a gravelly voice, as she shook his offered hand. Then, climbing over the tall grass, he made his way to the Jeep, and taking the woman's hand, hoisted himself into the back seat. The woman gave Jess one final look before she too turned away and sat back down. The Jeep fired up, and began slowly picking it's way back into the darkness of the forest.
990"You're welcome!" she yelled, as they turned a corner out of sight. Jess stood in stunned silence for several minutes, until the noise from the Jeep's engine receded and the tentative chattering of the cicadas returned. Suddenly she was angry – angry at herself for letting him go, angry at him for abandoning her in this place, angry at the confusion surrounding this entire situation. If she was going to go back empty-handed, she thought, she was at least going to go back with some answers – if for no one but herself.
991 
992~ Thirty-Five ~
993
994Jumping back into her craft, to her relief she requested and was given manual control; the craft was now obeying her once again. Navigating forward, she entered the forest, heading towards the area the jeep had gone. Maneuvering delicately between the trees, she found the ship small enough to easily slip between most of them, and smart enough to automatically tilt for her when she failed at estimating the clearance properly. She could clearly see branches and underbrush striking the ship; however inside it was silent but for a slight hum at her back. What she couldn't see was any sign of the jeep: no trail to follow, no headlights, nothing. After several long minutes of fruitless zig-zagging, she feared she had lost them.
995Raising the craft above the forest canopy, she noticed nothing below, but did note a faint glow about a mile distant. Moving towards it, she found it to be a halo of pulsating light within the forest, alternating between pure white and white with a red tint, and having no visible source. Descending into the trees again, she found herself engulfed within this light, and opened the hatch to discern if there were any associated sounds. She found the forest to be silent, with the notable exception of the chirping of songbirds, as they flitted about the trees within the light, thinking perhaps it was daylight.
996From below, she followed the light upward, finally discovering the source. It was what she didn't see, though, that defined it, and why she couldn't see it from above. Blacker than the twilight surrounding it, a tremendous triangular form the size of a football stadium hovered just above the treetops, punching a hole in the sky. She maneuvered directly underneath the massive ship, which was hundreds of feet long and fifteen feet thick.
997Although the shape was equilateral, the corners were not sharp, they were rounded off, and the underside of each corner contained a ten-foot-diameter circular depression. Each of these half-dome impressions housed a roiling sphere of pure white fire, which were the sources of the diffused, startlingly bright light. Strangely, despite the brightness, it didn't hurt her eyes to look at, even directly.
998Suddenly, the domes darkened, and as her eyes adjusted, she found they were not turned off, but simply emitting a darker amber glow which was not even bright enough to light up the treetops twenty feet below them. The dimming of the lights also revealed a smaller red light in the center of the ship's underbelly, which slowly pulsated on and off at one second intervals. Other than these lights, she could see no markings, protrusions, or appendages of any kind – the ship was exceptionally sleek, and appeared more than a bit sinister. As she watched in awe, the ship began to slowly rotate and glide to the north of her, the gigantic mass moving effortlessly and silently above the treetops as though it were on rails.
999So far, Jess had successfully pushed certain pressing thoughts to the back of her mind, but this was unavoidable; this gigantic, silent, thing, could only be an otherworldly craft. And if her target had boarded it, well then this whole mission was something other than she had imagined it to be. An apprehensiveness towards her own craft also took hold: the similarity to this mammoth mother ship, the small size of the seats, the ability of the gentleman to control it; she now felt certain this craft, as well, was not of earthly origin.
1000Closing the hatch, she rose above the trees and followed the larger ship from a distance. As the red light pulsated, it's reflection on the ship's underside revealed strange patterns of lines etched into the surface, whether hieroglyphic or geometric she couldn't discern. While attempting to memorize these patterns, the ship seemingly blinked out of existence. Hearing nothing, she found even the treetops below the ship unaffected: not a single branch was swaying. Ascending to realize a better view, she sighted the ship's outline, now a mile and a half distant.
1001Zipping to catch up with it, she could see it was again moving very slowly, southward now, but before she could reach it, it began to quickly rise. Banking her craft upwards at an intercept angle, the other ship quickly outran her climb, and stopped a few miles up. The three lights, lit up white again during the ascent, were now a tiny triangle high in the sky. Defeated, she gave up any idea of catching up to them before they shot off somewhere else, and slowed her climb.
1002Then she remembered – she had other ways of traveling. Quickly descending back down into the trees, she lay back, and dropping out of her body, immediately set the intention for her to be on that ship. The tunnel coalesced around her, and the pulling sensation drew her forward and up. A moment later she stopped, and the brightness of the tunnel slowly melted away. She was aboard the ship.
1003 
1004~ Thirty-Six ~
1005
1006After darkening her vision, the first thing Jess noticed was how small the inside of the ship was, considering the apparent size from the outside. She stood in a circular room twenty feet across, and ten feet in height. The floors, walls, and ceiling were all curved, with the texture of brushed aluminum but a gunmetal grey coloration. Embedded into the perimeter wall encircling the room was the exposed half of a large, two foot diameter glass tube. This circular tube contained a silvery liquid which shot through the tube counter-clockwise around her. The flow exhibited a corkscrew pattern internally, manifesting as rapidly forming and deforming swirls along the sides of the glass. Above and below this tube were two strips of soft white light-emitting material which illuminated the space.
1007Besides the liquid tube, the most prominent feature was a three-foot diameter cylinder standing in the center of the space. Halfway up the side of this cylinder protruded a wide lip, which functioned as a desk, supporting four computer workstations arrayed crosswise from each other. What was most surprising of all, however, was that these stations were manned by four young men with crew cuts, none more than twenty-five years old, all clad in green military garb. It was clear to Jess immediately that this behemoth was not of alien origin.
1008The four men, facing each other over the central cylinder, were intently focused on their consoles. Each man's shirt sported an identical shoulder patch, the circular design consisting of a black triangle with a picture of the Earth – strangely, not centered on the United States, but the Atlantic ocean – superimposed on it. Two gray lightning bolts appeared to be striking the planet, and the entirety of the patch was surrounded with the words "Omnis Vestri Substructio".
1009The men, quietly uttering commands or responses to each other via headsets, were all snugly strapped into their seats with four way restraints, which appeared to Jess to be life-size versions of infant car seats. Four fold-down jump seats with similar restraints were embedded into the wall behind the men. Above these jump seats, four sets of embedded hand-holds led up to hatches on the ceiling. Only one of these jump seats was occupied, and this by the gentleman, whose freshly bandaged head lolled against the side supports as he dozed, eyes half-shut.
1010The space was spartan and clean, but did have some items of flair, giving it a modicum of personality. Below a large American flag on the outer wall, one pilot, his name patch labeled 'THATCHER', sported a small stuffed purple bunny which hung from a silver chain clasped to his breast pocket. To the right of Thatcher, another man, his patch labeled 'FINN', had a small picture tucked into the lower right corner of his monitor: a silver disc-shaped UFO, with the words 'WE'RE HERE' typed on it. Across from him, the third man, named 'FRANTI', had an older red iPod secured to the side of the large central cylinder with a length of gray duct tape, with the headphone cord running to his console. Finally, the fourth man, 'HARDIN', had no flair at his station; she assumed correctly that he was the Captain of this vessel.
1011"Stea-dy ten thousand," the Captain uttered into his headset. "Red One re-questing exit clearance." He spoke the way all pilots seemed to speak: calm and measured, with a slight southern drawl, and oozing with self-confidence.
1012"Exit clearance granted," he announced to the crew. "Requesting approach clearance."
1013More typing, more waiting, and finally: "Approach clearance granted. Sync one, two, three."
1014"One-two-three synced," Franti replied.
1015"Acoustic dampener disabled," Finn added, as the roar of a jet-engine on full thrust arose from outside the ship. "Camo disabled."
1016"Plasma envelope one-zero-zero. Disruptor steady at four-five even," Franti added.
1017"Drop one-two-three to ten. Maximum disruption," the Captain ordered.
1018"Dropping to ten... Disruptor tracking."
1019The roar outside faded, but inside, the liquid ring began emanating a loud hum, and Jess watched as the gray swirling material developed elongated lines within the tube. The ship began to shiver and shake, and she noticed the purple bunny attached to Thatcher's pocket jostling about as if in slow motion. Looking around, she saw the same effect with the the gentleman's hair; it would rise and fall with the ship's movement, but in delayed, slow-motion waves.
1020"Disruptor at eight-five dot niner. Lifting to one-zero-zero," Franti announced.
1021Confused, Jess noted their voices sounded normal, not delayed, and as they rose, the slow motion effect disappeared entirely. As they accelerated, the ceiling and floors darkened and became transparent – whether windows or high-def displays she wasn't sure – and she watched the darkness of the forest below recede until a distinct band of brightness appeared, which marked the inevitable sunrise finally catching up to her.
1022As the curvature of the earth became visible, she glanced up to see the twinkling of stars in the blackness of space above. Except for a slight pulling, she wasn't feeling the effects of this meteoric rise, possibly due to her lack of mass in this state, she considered. But the occupants didn't seem to be affected by this acceleration either; at this rate of speed they should be plastered into into their seats, yet they were comfortably working away at their consoles.
1023"One-zero-zero. Holding for dock," Franti announced, as they came to a gentle halt. It had been less than a minute since they were no higher than a hot-air ballon, and yet here they were, at the edge of space. Amazed at the capabilities of this ship, Jess wondered why billions were spent on conventional means of transportation, risking the future of the planet with carbon emissions, when this technology was available, and clearly had been for some time. But that was something to ponder later.
1024Looking up, Jess noticed a darkness come over the panels, blotting out the stars. They waited for a few more minutes, until a "clink" sounded and one of the hatches opened with a hiss: the one above the gentleman. He unbuckled himself, and with a slight bow to the men, climbed up into the hatch.
1025"Happy trails, Senator," said Finn, as the Captain shot him a dirty look. The hatch closed with another hiss and clink, after which they all breathed a sigh of relief. Thatcher was the first to break the silence.
1026"Was he one of..."
1027"No... no, he wasn't," the Captain slowly replied, cutting him off. A few moments of silence elapsed until the Captain spoke again. "Dock complete. Transport complete. De-sync one-two-three."
1028"Requesting minimal dampening for re-entry, sir," Franti asked, with a slight smile.
1029"Do we have enough cap charge?"
1030"Yes sir, full charge banked."
1031"It's been a good days work," the Captain replied,  looking at his watch. "Granted." Thatcher responded to this with a big clap as the three got busy at the consoles.
1032"One-two-three de-synced," Franti said with newfound enthusiasm.
1033"Acoustic dampener maintain disable. Camo enabled day mo-" Finn began.
1034The Captain interrupted him. "Disable camo. Lets give some early risers a show."
1035"Disable camo," Finn repeated, "yes sir."
1036"Plasma envelope decreasing to one-zero even." Thatcher said.
1037"Disruptor to zero on my count," Franti relayed. He looked up at the other two pilots as they coordinated their final commands.
1038"Three... Two... One... Drop."
1039 
1040~ Thirty-Seven ~
1041
1042The loud hum from the circular tube ceased as the spinning liquid instantly halted and solidified. Jess began to drift upwards as they quickly lost altitude, while the pilots began rising in their harnesses as though plummeting through the first drop on a roller-coaster. Finn even held his hands up, grinning ear-to-ear. Buffeted on multiple sides from the drop, the ship began to rock back and forth, accompanied by unsettling metallic creaks and groans from the stresses on the superstructure.
1043"It's getting a little squirrely already, give us ten more on the envelope," the captain requested, betraying a hint of nervousness.
1044"Envelope to twenty," Thatcher replied. Although not fully eliminated, the buffeting abated somewhat.
1045"OK, take us home, boys," the captain ordered.
1046Franti reached forward and held his finger above the play button on his iPod while looking at Thatcher expectantly. Thatcher then touched something on his console, causing the cabin lights to switch from white to red emergency lighting along the floor. Franti then touched his iPod, and Starships by Nicki Minaj began to fill the cabin.
1047They continued to fall, gaining more and more speed, for another half-minute until the song reached the crescendo.
1048"On my count!" Franti announced. "Three... Two... One. Engines Online!"
1049Each pilot coordinated their commands simultaneously as the thrusters roared to life, propelling them horizontally. Finn took the brunt of the sudden acceleration, as he was pitched down and back into his seat. Thatcher and Franti slid sideways, straining against their harnesses, while Captain Hardin was propelled forward in his seat, his five-point harness the only thing keeping him from receiving a Heimlich maneuver from his console.
1050A vicious shaking consumed the ship as the whine of the engines crescendoed, the darkness below giving way to bright green and gold patches of land as they crossed over into daylight. Though still very high up, Jess watched the earth scoot by beneath them, by her reckoning at least twice as fast as the snails pace she normally witnessed from a commercial jet.
1051"OK boys and girls, show's over," the captain said as the acceleration slowed, "Now let's get some real speed going, not just the feeling of it."
1052"Yes sir," Franti replied. "Thatcher, envelope to one hundred, s'il vous plait."
1053"Envelope push complete," he replied shortly.
1054"Acoustic dampener enabled," Finn added.
1055"OK, discharging cap into disruptor and setting to max," Franti announced.
1056The roar of the engines receded to near silence, only to be replaced by a loud hum from the circular tube as the the material inside began to melt, creating streaks on the glass as it spun around them. The land below travelled by even faster as the liquid gained speed, and in a few minutes the green and gold below turned into the crystal blue of the ocean.
1057Though they were traveling much faster than her smaller craft, after twenty minutes there was still nothing but blue below them, and she began to worry about her body. She thought of popping back to check in, but was concerned she wouldn't be able to make it back to the ship, and didn't want to miss this opportunity to see what would happen next.
1058The pilots talked casually throughout the journey, but nothing useful was revealed about the gentleman or the circumstances surrounding his capture and return. It seemed like these guys were no more than taxi drivers.
1059"Twenty-two minutes out," Thatcher announced, "camo enabled, day mode."
1060Soon they were over land again, but continued on across the continent, slower now, for another hour. Taking the scenic route, they flew low over forests and open plains, but mostly followed waterways. If they were minimizing encounters with the populace, she thought, then they were fairly successful. The few she did see – a group of backpackers, a woman on a horse, and later a group of river kayakers, all showed no signs of noticing them, even though she was able to see the shadow of the ship speeding along on the ground. The ship zipped by so fast, though, they wouldn't have time to even turn their heads before it was out of sight.
1061Out of the silence, the Captain suddenly spoke up.
1062"Slow to six hundred and drop the mast."
1063"What's up Captain?" Thatcher queried.
1064"We're gonna make a call."
1065"Slowing to six... and... deployed."
1066"Hail Bender Mountain," he ordered. 
1067~ Thirty-Eight ~
1068
1069Thatcher smiled wryly. "Bubble check?"
1070"Bubble check," the Captain confirmed. Grinning surreptitiously at each other, the pilots busied themselves again in their consoles.
1071"Bender Mountain, this is Red One," radioed Finn, the reply coming within seconds.
1072"Bender Mountain, go ahead Red One."
1073"Do you require a bubble check," the Captain interjected.
1074"Yes sir, we are in need of a bubble check, please provide ETA," replied the voice on the other end. They could hear whoops and howls in the background before the transmission cut out.
1075"We are ten minutes out, approaching from the North by Northwest. Please verify no wires between the bubble and the barracks," Finn radioed.
1076"Standby Red One... Confirmed, Bubble to barracks is clear."
1077"Please verify status of air traffic and oversight."
1078"Optimal conditions here, sir," came the reply.
1079"Nine minutes. Over and out."
1080"Raise the mast and change course for Bender as appropriate, gentlemen," the Captain ordered.
1081"Yes, sir," they replied in unison.
1082Within minutes they encountered foothills leading into more mountainous terrain, with the ship following the rise and plateauing out at the level of the peaks. Jess figured they must be in the Rockies somewhere.
1083"Twenty-four miles out and locked, ETA two minutes," Thatcher announced. Their consoles displayed the snow-covered peak of a lone mountain in the distance, adorned with a large geodesic dome, along with a small building set on a wide ridge line a few hundred feet to the right of it. It looked to Jess like some sort of military radar installation.
1084"Yup, here they come to see the show," Thatcher announced, as the screens displayed a half-dozen figures running out from the barracks and laying down, taking up positions on the snow-covered ridge.
1085"Fifteen miles out, still locked. Wait, what the fuck? Captain, they didn't say anything about an initiate," Thatcher said, concerned.
1086Jess looked closer on the screen and saw a single figure standing dead-center with one arm raised, as if flagging them down.
1087"Shit," the Captain said, "Franti, blow out the envelope, two miles at least, or this asshole is toast."
1088"No time to spin it up, sir, we're almost on top of 'em."
1089"OK then. Stutter run fellas."
1090"Sir – the wash -" Finn asked nervously.
1091"So we give 'em all some temporary hearing loss. Or would you rather we take that man's arm clean off, Lieutenant?"
1092"No sir," he replied obediently.
1093"Well then. Thatch, you got him?"
1094"Yes sir, looks about six-one with two-foot extension."
1095"Clear him, then book. Jackasses think we can't do no wrong in these things."
1096"Isn't that true Captain?" Franti asked jokingly as the Captain reclined back into his seat.
1097 
1098~ Thirty-Nine ~
1099
1100Private Grainger looked behind him at the rest of his crew dug in the snow.
1101"What now a-holes?"
1102"Eyes forward, private!" one man barked.
1103He turned back around, but still saw nothing. He hadn't been able to get his socks on, and the snow was creeping into his boot, freezing his ankle. His arm, too, began to ache, but there was no way he was lowering it now. Although, it was a little unnerving: his buddies all dug in like that, and him out here like the Statue of Liberty. Now his legs started shaking. He told himself – and the others later – that it was only due to the cold.
1104"Direct eleven!" a voice called out. He turned to the north and saw it: a dark speck on the horizon. It spread outwards quickly – too quickly – as if it were manifesting in front of him instead of traveling at him. And it was big. This wasn't the F-15 he was expecting, or even an F-22. This was a warehouse, and it was coming straight for him. He knew if he kept his eyes open, he would reflexively flinch, so he closed them, expecting it all to be over in a moment.
1105But it wasn't over in a moment. Off in the distance, he heard successive blasts, like rolling thunder, that rose in volume and ended abruptly. This was followed by a deep bone-shaking hum that vibrated throughout his body as a warm breeze rose up around him. He felt as though he were inside a subwoofer.
1106Opening his eyes, he was confronted with the enormity of the ship as it inched towards him, the leading edge mere feet away from his still-upraised arm. As it passed above him, he reached up, the tip of his middle finger brushing the textured, dark gray surface as it slid by. The hum felt like it held him, kept him safe, and he trusted this thing as much as he trusted anything in his life, which was not so much a choice, as an autonomic reaction, in the face of such power and beauty overwhelming.
1107The leading plasma engine darkened before reaching his unprotected hand, and he felt no residual heat as the surface transitioned to the concave opening. Just as his finger picked up the underside again, he felt the ground slowly soften beneath his now aching feet. At the ship's mid-point, he found he could stretch further upwards, and effortlessly balancing his entire body weight onto one pointed boot, he palmed the ship's warm belly.
1108As the ship continued behind him, he found his body leaning backwards with it, then slowly being dragged along, suspended in the flux underneath the ship, as his boots lightly furrowed the snow. He didn't bother to look down, even when he felt hands from each side grab onto his ankles and hold him in place until the ring's influence had passed fully beyond them.
1109As the weight sunk back into his boots, his palm separated from the machine, yet he continued to trail his finger over the ridges of the bumpy tiles, marveling at this magnificent beast, this dragon, that had come down with such fierce gentleness, to allow him this.
1110Reaching the aft of the ship, his finger trailed off into open air, and he turned, head still raised in awe, gazing at it with a silly grin, as it floated beyond the ridge. He looked down at his crew mates. They, too, were watching in awe, but still lay prone in the snow, hands held tightly to the sides of their heads, teeth gritted. He wondered why.
1111Thirty feet out, the forward engine sparked back to life, and as the plasma bubble grew to fill the cavity, the humming rose an octave. Sensing it's imminent departure, the Private waved as his buddies, covering their heads with both arms, looked away and buried their faces in the snow. Just as before, the ship seemed not to leave, exactly, but condense, or shrink, back into the same black dot, like an old tube television turning off. Less than a second later the thunderclap hit him.
1112It was like the hammer of Thor had descended upon his head. His next memory was of seeing the blue sky, as he discovered he was laying flat in the snow. Several frequencies of loud tones rang simultaneously in his ears, and he raised his head to see his crew mates approaching him from thirty feet away, laughing and smiling. One of them was yelling at him.
1113"What?" he screamed, shocked that he barely heard his own voice over the internal din. The crewman approached, got down into the snow and yelled directly into his ear.
1114"Like hearing a whisper from God, huh!" 
1115~ Forty ~
1116
1117"How'd the bubble look. Anyone catch it?" the Captain queried. The pilots looked at each other warily until one of them finally spoke up.
1118"Bubble good sir!" Franti replied.
1119"Fine then, fine. Drop the mast and let 'em know, whydontcha?"
1120"Yes sir," Finn replied, dialing up the station.
1121"Bender Mountain, Red One. Your bubble looks good."
1122"...Bender Mountain. Thank you Red One, and God speed to you," came the reply. Though the message was serious, they could hear more laughter in the background.
1123"Sounds like like they got a little juiced from our visit. Well our work is done. Set a course for the garage Thatch."
1124"Sir, request permission for a CE2 prior to return to base," Franti asked.
1125There was a pause before the captain replied. "Haven't we reached our quota already?"
1126"No, sir, we have three left in the bank."
1127The captain looked at his watch.
1128"Well, we do have daylight overflight clearance and still have some time to kill. Where?"
1129"Manchester, Vermont," Franti replied, "I have an uncle who's a bit of a... skeptic," he said, as the others chuckled.
1130"We can schedule for 2010 local and be tucked in by 2045," Thatcher offered.
1131"That's within our profile. Go ahead and punch it up," the captain replied. "But Finn, please remember to enable camo when we get close. And night mode this time, OK?" They all laughed at this in-joke and turned to look at Finn, who, blushing, looked down at his console while giving them two middle fingers, the captain excepted.
1132The sun hung low in the sky when they finally reached the east coast.
1133"Camo night-mode enabled," Finn announced, and they all laughed again.
1134"How about a little mood music?" Franti asked, as he dialed up a song on his iPod and Richard Hawley's "Tonight the Streets are Ours" filled the ship.
1135The ship maneuvered downwards at an angle until they were gliding silently just a few feet above the treetops.
1136"He'll be out on his deck smoking a cigar after watching the sunset. Creature of habit. Navy man of course," Thatcher said, cracking them all up again. "Three miles out."
1137Coming to rest above a desolate logging road, Jess maneuvered around to see what Thatcher was looking at on his console. She watched a fuzzy green screen image of trees scooting left and then right as he manipulated a long range night-vision camera. Finding his target, the white siding of a house, he gently guided it to the left, revealing a large man in boxers, leaning back in a white plastic lawn chair, his feet up on the railing of a deck. Indeed, he was smoking a cigar. And scratching himself. The other two pilots burst out in peals of laughter; apparently they had pulled up the camera view on their consoles as well.
1138"Got him."
1139"Disable camo and hit the brights," ordered the Captain.
1140"Camo down, lights up."
1141"Standard approach, keep a watch for tourists."
1142Below them she could see the reflection of their lights on the grassy hills and underbrush as they began moving slowly towards their target.
1143"He acquired us yet?" the Captain queried after a minute of slow movement.
1144"Believe so, but can't be sure yet. He's got to at this point... Yup, there he goes."
1145She watched the man slowly place his cigar in an ashtray on the deck, rise out of his chair, and lean forward on the deck railing. He was staring intently, directly at them.
1146"Hold position," the captain ordered.
1147As they stopped and hovered, she watched the man back up to a pair of sliding French doors and turn his head sideways to call out to someone, though he never averted his gaze. Sure enough, a woman in a bathrobe soon came rushing out and joined him at the railing.
1148"And we have Aunt Sarah come to join the party. She's a believer – they'll be 'I told you so's' all night after this."
1149They all chuckled. A golden retriever bounded after her through the open door, tail wagging. As he raised his front paws onto the railing, his ears perked as he stared at them as well. Unlike his owners, however, he didn't stay long. His tail stilled, then dropped, as his ears sat flat back on his head. Lowering himself from the railing, he slowly backed up, before twirling his body and shooting back inside the house.
1150"Wait for intent," the captain reminded them.
1151Aunt Sarah pulled a small flashlight from the pocket of her robe and passed it to her husband. He pointed it at them and began to strobe it on and off.
1152"Established," the captain said. "No stopping, kids. Just a drive by tonight."
1153As they approached, Jess expected the couple to get all excited and run around looking for a camera, but they did none of that. They just stood and stared. As the ship closed the distance, the display began panning down to keep them in view, until she saw them directly below through the floor panel displays, still staring at them, wide-eyed and unmoving.
1154"Here we are," Thatcher sang softly, "go tell your friends and neighbors."
1155As they passed over the roof the couple hustled back inside, and appeared again at the front stoop, still staring as the ship drifted slowly and silently over their street.
1156"How 'bout a pinwheel captain?" Franti proposed, breaking the silence. "They'd eat it up – look at 'em!"
1157"Pinwheel huh. Approved," replied the Captain, waving his hand casually. The men began to coordinate their commands similar to their re-entry procedure.
1158"Two-hundred yards out on my count," relayed Franti. "Aft up, to starboard."
1159"Aft up, starboard, check," Thatcher replied.
1160"Three... Two... One... Mark!"
1161Each pilot entered their commands sequentially, one after the other, and Jess immediately saw the images on the ceiling and floor displays rotate upward, the distant couple now appearing to be upside-down.
1162"...Burn!"
1163The image of the couple began to rotate out of the display panel, as if the ship were inside a clothes dryer. Jess couldn't understand what was happening – if that was the view from the bottom of the ship, they should be sideways, but she felt as though they were still perfectly upright.
1164"OK gentleman, we're a mile out," the captain said as the spinning slowed. "Nice execution. Normalize orientation, enable night camo, and take us back to O-hi-o. Finn, review the tapes for any tourists and write up the report. Did anybody see any flashes?"
1165"No sir," Franti responded, "I don't even think we had a single collateral observer, it was a clean run."
1166"Well in any case, you're on social media review when we're back at the ranch just to be safe."
1167The viewing panels re-oriented to the normal as they began to pick up speed.
1168 
1169~ Forty-One ~
1170
1171Utterly confused about this entire chain of events, Jess had seen enough for now, thinking she would parse the details later. Right now she was concerned that she had been away from her physical for far too long, and took her leave of the crew. The journey that took these men hours in their magnificent flying machine took Jess under a minute – one of the benefits of a nearly one hundred percent reduction in mass, she supposed.
1172Awaking in her craft in the middle of the Mongolian jungle, now bathed in sunlight, she had a splitting headache. Tired and hungry, she also had to pee again. Bodies are so high maintenance, she thought with annoyance as she pulled herself out of the craft. Afterwards, she had a picnic of granola bars, and meditated to the sounds of exotic birds and the faraway trickling of water. After a short walk around the craft to stretch her legs, she re-boarded, and lay back for the long journey home. In moments she was fast asleep, as the craft sped eastward above the jungle.
1173She awoke in darkness. Looking at her phone, she found she had slept for almost the entire trip – just under five hours – as the map showed her descending into the Nevada desert. Two jets approached, and flanking her, gave her a start, though their intentions didn't seem as hostile as the last time that happened. She couldn't tell how far up she was in the darkness, and was surprised when the jets split off after a few minutes.
1174Just after they left, she was barraged by light; straight ahead, a mile long runway lit up ahead of her, blue and white landing lights going down the length of it on each side. It seemed a little overkill, however, as the craft gently descended to a perfect stop in the middle of the runway next to her hangar. The lights were killed, plunging her back into darkness, as the craft taxied towards the hangar, which had a military truck idling in front of it. Two camo guards emerged from the back, followed by Kal and Len, who briskly walked towards her. Popping the hatch, she climbed out and greeted them. Before she could let them know how sorry she was for coming back empty-handed, they engulfed her with big bear hugs.
1175"Great job this morning, Jess!" Kal said. "We got word the subject is safe and sound."
1176"Yeah," Len added, "Heard there was a few wrinkles, but that's pretty much expected in this line of work. Important thing is, you did it kid. Come on back and let's debrief." Arms around her shoulders, they walked her into the hangar. Sitting in a debriefing room wired for video and sound, she told them all about the experience. When they got to the point in the jungle, they listened without surprise as she described the strange situation with the jeep and it's surreally attired occupants. Then she she hesitated. Len sensed her concern, and with a small remote stopped the recording. He leaned forward and looked at her with seriousness.
1177"What's going on Jess?"
1178She wanted to know all about the situation – who this person was, where he went, why he was being held in North Korea – but more importantly, she had questions about the larger ship she boarded. How is it they have access to this amazing technology, but use it only for hot-dogging and frightening normal citizens, for one. But she knew that those experiences were outside the mission parameters, and worried about their reaction. She decided to keep it to herself, for now.
1179"Who was that man, was he – human?" she asked, turning her hesitation into concern about her subject. "And where did they take him?"
1180"Sorry honey," Kal said, "we don't know much more than you do on some of this stuff. It's all compartmentalized, for everyone's safety, including yours."
1181Len continued solemnly. "Jessica, when you believe in this country, you take it on faith that they're doing the right things, and you leave your curiosity at the door. If you saw some strange sights, well honey you just forget that ever happened, and focus on the success of your mission."
1182If they only knew, she thought to herself.
1183"C'mon now," Kal said encouragingly. "Let's finish up here and have you a little celebratory midnight snack,"
1184Based on their reaction, and complete lack of curiosity about the greater picture, Jess knew she had made the right decision to withhold. She was on her own with this now.
1185 
1186~ Forty-Two ~
1187
1188The next morning, after Jess packed up her things, they escorted her to the tarmac to await the daily flight from Vegas. As it descended, she joked about the carbon cost of transporting her alone in this 737 jet.
1189"Oh honey, you're not the only one this time, you'll see," Kal replied. As the jet taxied to a stop in the shimmering morning heat of the Nevada desert, she watched upwards of thirty people descend the stairs. They looked like normal people – young, old, male, female, all of varying races, hairstyles, and clothing options. Didn't seem military at all, she thought, but then maybe that was the point, considering. A few were laughing and joking with each other, while most didn't speak to anyone else.
1190A fleet of white school buses with blacked-out windows arrived, the new arrivals boarding them before they dispersed to different areas of the base. She initially thought she was pretty much alone here, but now realized she had just happened to miss the daily commute on her journey here. The place was as tight as a drum, a seeming ghost town, with nobody around to even give a hint of anything happening behind those closed hangar doors.
1191When the dust had settled, they were alone again, and boarded the newly empty jet. The flight back was uneventful, with the exception of Kal and Len reiterating to her the importance of the papers she had read and signed, regarding the information she obtained within the employ of the U.S. government, and how revelation of this information was tantamount to treason against the country and would be swiftly prosecuted, and that this information must be taken to her grave, yadda yadda yadda. She was not even to answer questions about her experiences in the negative; if asked, she simply was not to respond at all.
1192Strangely enough, they spent a good minute or two focusing on the fact that there would be no deathbed confessions either, and if there were, there would be consequences to her remaining family and descendants, not in terms of harm – that they made clear – but in terms of defensive misinformation and damage of reputation in order to minimize credibility of the claims. Jess was a little freaked out by all this, especially the talk of deathbed confessions, which were a good seventy years out – if she were lucky.
1193They then discussed their relationship, and how she was an independent contractor to the U.S. government, and not a member of any armed services branch, and that from time to time she may be called to perform special projects, but without any specific contract of employment. At the end of this red tape speech, they handed her an envelope and asked her not to open it until later. They were soon back on the ground and gave her hugs as they bundled her into a taxi.
1194It was strange being dumped back into the real world, watching the tourists head to the strip, not a care in the world other than what shows they would see, and how much money they would lose. Perhaps they would do some things that would stay in Vegas, as the saying went, but at least it would be their choice to keep those secrets.
1195Her head swimming, she suddenly had no idea where to go. She finally asked the patient driver to be taken to the main terminal; she had decided she just wanted to go home – she missed Chicago.
1196On the short drive around the airport perimeter, she remembered the envelope, and retrieving it from her bag, opened it. Inside was a check from Straubel-Bedford Services LLC made out to her in the amount of fifty thousand dollars. Shocked, she stared at the figure for a full minute, until the taxi stopped at the main terminal.
1197 
1198~ Forty-Three ~
1199
1200After landing at O'Hare, she immediately took a cab to her bank and deposited the check. Arriving home, she collapsed on the couch, her cat greeting her by taking up residence on her stomach and purring loudly. Gavin must have heard her trudge up the stairs, as there was soon a knock at her door. She rose, with a yowl from the cat, to open it.
1201"Look who's home! Hey Girl!" Gavin said, smothering her with a hug. He sat on the couch and pulled her down next to him.
1202"So how was it? I haven't gotten a text from you in a few days and I got worried. Were you able to get in on a program?"
1203"Oh yeah, I was able to get in on a program all right.  Gavin, you won't believe what has happened over the last few days. I don't believe it."
1204"Well try me. What, did you go astralling all over the universe or something?"
1205"Well not quite... I mean the Center was great, but then I got poached."
1206"Oh babe, did it hurt?" he asked with a frown.
1207"NO! Stop it! Gavin, seriously, this, like, undercover lady from the government flew me to Vegas, and tried to get me to do some corporate espionage work, but then the real government people rescued me, one is a bartender and the other is a handyman at the center, and they are married! Can you believe it? And then there is some other stuff I totally cant even tell you about!"
1208"OK, babe, you're sounding like a bad TV movie here. Slow down. You went to Vegas? To be a spy?"
1209"YES! But now I am freaking out. Gavin, I think I'm in over my head. I did some stuff I wasn't supposed to, and saw some stuff I wasn't supposed to, and now I KNOW! But I can't tell anyone what it is! And it is KILLING me! What do I DO?" she yelled, shaking Gavin violently by the shoulders.
1210Gavin gasped loudly and covered his mouth. "Did you sleep with a Russian agent? I always knew you were a double crosser, you little firecracker!"
1211"Seriously Gavin," Jess begged, "I need help with this. What do you do when you know too much?"
1212"OK, OK. Well, what do you want? Do you want to have a happy life? Then just forget about it and move on. Go talk to my therapist if you need to. Do you have PTSD? She does EMDR for that. I did it for that one time when Joel pushed over the porta-potty on me, and the nightmares totally stopped."
1213"Stop it! No it's not like that. I know some... stuff... like stuff that people don't believe in... OH MY GOD I FORGOT TO TELL YOU BIGFOOT IS REAL! I can tell you that! I saw it with my own eyes! Unless I was set up. They could have done that – I haven't totally discounted that possibility – but I seriously think they didn't and if not – OH MY GOD – BIGFOOT!"
1214Gavin's joking smile gave way a little. "Shit Jess. Come on now. You've been gone for like five days and you come back to tell me your a government spy and you've met Bigfoot? Let's go to Marie's and get a drink. You obviously need one. And no talk about Atlantis or the Loch-Ness monster, okay?"
1215Twenty minutes later they were sitting at a long oak bar, as Gavin ordered two bottles of Bell's Oberon. He turned and gave her his serious face.
1216"Now let's get down to brass tacks. You saw some shit, you can't unsee it, you can't let it go, and you can't tell anyone. Does that sum it up?"
1217"Yes. Exactly. I mean, it's so momentous, so gigantic... and so... strange."
1218"Well you said before it was something people don't believe in, and since we both obviously believe in ghosts – and you already mentioned Bigfoot... Oh my God Jess, did you see aliens?"
1219Her eyes grew wide as saucers as she held her bottle to her mouth mid-drink.
1220"Jess! Oh my God! I guessed it! You didn't tell me! You didn't tell me!" Gavin exclaimed, then lowered his voice. "Holy crap, there really are aliens? Well I always figured, but really? That's so cool! Noice, Jess," he added, high-fiving her. Then under his breath, to himself: "I knew there was aliens."
1221"Wait, are they here to harm us or help us?"
1222Jess stayed frozen in place, still with her mouth full of beer, unable to confirm or deny, or even say the truth – that she didn't know exactly.
1223"Oh, right, you can't tell me. That's like my therapist, she said if someone calls and asks if I am a client, she can't even tell them either way. She says it's an ethics violation to even give an answer, yes or no. She just has to say she can't answer those questions. OK so don't tell me anything. We're gonna be like old school Don't Ask Don't Tell, all right?"
1224Jess spit out the beer she was holding in her mouth, and she laughed a long, violent, choking laugh while grabbing at napkins to wipe up Gavin, the bar, and herself.
1225"Jesus, look at me. I'm a mess."
1226"Yeah, you are. But one thing you're not is sketchy. I know you won't tell anyone anything. Remember when I downloaded a torrent of This is 40 and after watching it you went online and bought a theatre ticket you didn't even use?"
1227"It was funny! And I wanted to support the director. I like him," she replied apologetically.
1228"Yeah, well you made me buy one too!"
1229"It's the right thing to do, Gavin," she said testily.
1230"See what I mean! You're logic's a little twisted there, but I know you're heart's in the right place. Pretty much S.O.P. for you."
1231"I know, right? But anyway, I've gotta go further, I need to know more. It doesn't make any sense. I can't go through life with this. How could I live a normal life, knowing this?"
1232"You know I'll support you best I can, sugar-smacks. Whatever you need. For now, though, have another," he said, as he slid over a fresh bottle and daintily retrieved the slobbered-on one for disposal.
1233They ended up talking, drinking, and eating well into the evening, discussing everything about her trip – except for the best parts. As they stumbled home, Jess looked up at the few stars they could see in the city sky, actually planets mostly, and she wondered where that ship was now, and who they were buzzing tonight. She needed to know what was going on. This wasn't her prying into their business – they were inserting themselves into private citizens business, and she was a private citizen, so... it was her business now too, she thought. But she wasn't an ordinary private citizen. She could see more, hear more, discover more, than most everyone out there. And she would, starting that very night.
1234 
1235~ Forty-Four ~
1236
1237As she lay on her bed, she found she was exiting even before starting her procedure; being buzzed certainly didn't seem to hurt the process. I wonder if they know this at the Center, she thought, I'll have to email them about it later, might help to bring in new business. Maybe set up a deal with the local wineries. Once out, however, she was perfectly sober, and instantly horrified at the monstrous snoring noise her body began emitting. Ignoring it, she placed her focus and intent on the ship, and felt the familiar pull of the tunnel.
1238She arrived to find the ship dark and empty. Moving outside of the structure was difficult, as she became stuck several times due to the density of the material, but eventually found small channels of lower density through which to squeeze her way through.
1239What she found outside astounded her. She stood in a large airplane hangar, similar to the one in Nevada, but this one was packed like sardines with dozens of similar black triangles. They were parked with only a few inches of clearance edge to edge, and opposite each other, such that the rows of triangles formed a herringbone pattern to the end of the hangar – easily half a mile. From there, two other rows returned with smaller versions of the ship: twenty-five and ten foot spans as compared to the larger versions which were about three hundred feet on a side.
1240Interestingly, she didn't see the model of craft she piloted at the base, which was markedly different from these. These were all the same type of equilateral triangular wedges with rounded off corners, and were supported by three legs that protruded from the bottom, unlike her craft, which combined a wedge shape with a pyramidal shape and had no supports. The smaller ones, too, appeared to be pilotless drones, as they were clearly much too small for a cockpit.
1241She was able to get a good look at exterior of the ship, as the waning light of the day filtered through an array of dirt-covered windows near the top of the hangar wall. The surface was a textured matte-black with almost no reflection; it seemed to absorb most of the light hitting it. One corner held two large embedded headlights, directed horizontally, which reminded her of the halogen lights on newer cars. The rounded-off corners made sense to her when, looking at the underside, she found three identical ten-foot diameter indentations, one at each corner. These half-sphere indentations extended about five feet into the ship, and were perfectly smooth with no nozzles or hardware within. They simply looked like giant golf ball dimples. Recalling her first sighting of this ship in operation, these were the areas that contained the bubbles of white fire, or plasma, so she assumed these were some sort of advanced engines.
1242Across the middle of the ship's underside was a larger circular indentation about forty feet across, but shallower – only six inches deep at the most. In the middle of this indentation a single red light protruded down, which looked similar to a typical aircraft light. Near the edges of the circle were three rectangular openings from which the legs extended down at an angle and supported the ship.
1243Jess moved up and over the ship to view the top, which was featureless with the single exception of a large diameter dome, similar to the depression on the underside, in that it rose to only a few inches at it's highest point. As she examined this a twinkle caught her eye. Moving in closer, she observed another light at the apex of the dome, but embedded underneath the surface, not protruding like the red one below. This light was clear, but she could see a rainbow of different color filters within the housing, that she assumed could be rotated in place to change the color of the light dynamically. This close inspection led her to take a longer look at the surface of the ship. The flat black finish appeared to contain an array of minuscule dots, which reminded her of something that she couldn't quite place.
1244She was amazed at the engineering of this machine, however the overall impression she got from this extended examination was a little confusing. The relatively small space for the crew meant this was not some sort of cargo transport vessel, and lack of any weaponry she could see – unless the thing shot lasers – meant it wasn't a fighting vessel. All of it added up to one thing – this machine was for stealthy observation only; a reconnaissance ship.
1245It still didn't add up that a ship designed for stealth would have an array of extremely bright lights on it. Perhaps they were needed in certain situations where stealth was not required, or maybe they were even part of the stealthiness. If the lights could dynamically change color, then they could imitate the standard running lights of any aircraft. Then again, they could also demonstrate that this was not a ship of this world – if that was the intended goal.
1246Something was just not right about it though. Jess knew the government had satellite tracking, as well as high altitude recon planes, not to mention our standard stealth fighters, that could do most anything these ships could do. Perhaps not with the finesse of this advanced ship, but still, there seemed no compelling reason to spend the billions of dollars that must have been spent to design, build, and test these things for the incremental value in recon. It seemed like a project the cold war mentality would generate, like the moon mission, where money was not an object. In the relative safety of the post cold war era, however, it just couldn't be justified in her mind.
1247What also couldn't be justified was the use of these things against an unknowing populace. That is what galled her. And she knew from Kal and Len that they were perfectly willing to run smear campaigns to discredit those trying to bring the truth forward. She wouldn't just carefully document the machinery and methods of use and try to raise awareness – there were probably people out there already doing this to no effect. The majority of the population had no idea these things existed. It was like the Bigfoot she saw – nobody will believe in it until there is a body on a table somewhere. Jess realized she had to put the body on the table, so to speak. She had to provide incontrovertible evidence of these machines that were being used to spy on free citizens without a warrant or without any clear oversight whatsoever. So that's what she would do, she decided. She would take one.
1248Re-entering the ship, she moved towards one of the four consoles, the one with the UFO picture in the corner. Watching the pilots previously, she knew the ship was operated fully through these touch screen panels, so she attempted to manifest just the tip of a finger to operate it. When she felt the density coalesce, she stabbed at the screen, and it sprung to life. Varying the intensity levels, she found that she actually didn't need to manifest any physical matter in order to operate the panel – there must be some inherent property to the touch screen design where just the hint of energy is able to register, and so she found it easy to simply manipulate what she needed.
1249The panel had four sections, with no text labels, only pictures. One section contained a triad of circles which she assumed was the three engines. Another showed a rotating 3D profile of the ship as ensconced in a transparent envelope, which she surmised must be like the slipstream feature in her smaller craft. A third section had different options for camouflage, with pictures of day and night scenes, a box containing a picker for different types of conventional aircraft, and an icon of a muted speaker. A fourth section had various things in it which appeared related to navigation or other miscellaneous options. Each section had sliders below indicating the currently chosen level of operation. Touching a section would bring her into a more detailed view of that component with both main and fine tuning controls.
1250When she felt comfortable with the layout, she attempted to bring the engines online. A dull roar, similar to a jet engine, began to rise and permeate the hangar. Switching panels, she raised the muting effect of the stealth panel to it's highest level. The sound decreased, but did not go away entirely, and yet they had not left the ground. Raising the engines even more, to forty percent, increase the engine noise further, yet the ship was still planted on the floor. She tried to recall any exterior straps or tie-downs that she might have missed, and punched through the various panels, looking for something like an anchor icon, but found nothing.
1251Knowing she had little time, she abandoned her confusion and simply raised the engines higher, to seventy percent. The craft began to lift a few feet off the ground, and the corresponding roar from the engines reverberated off the hangar walls. She knew security would be there any minute, so she raised it to eighty-five percent, and the ship rose even higher, but slowly. Racking her brain, she couldn't understand what was holding back this advanced craft. Then she remembered the ring.
1252Sliding back to that panel, she saw the ring was fully disabled. Raising the ring power to 100%, she immediately felt the hum drown out the outside engine noise as the material spun within the chamber. The ship rose quickly, and with a jolt, the ship shot faster upward, punching a hole through the roof of the hangar before Jess could compensate.
1253The ground dropped from below her as they rose at a dizzying speed, and the ship began to vacillate wildly. She remembered the action of the other pilot on re-entry, and stabilized the ship by employing the slipstream-like feature. This calmed the ship's jostling, but had the side effect of ensuring they rose even faster.
1254By the time she had transitioned back to the engines screen and lowered the output to ten percent, keeping the ship level, she already saw above her the blackness of space. The ship had travelled twenty miles straight up in a matter of seconds. With some experimentation, she taught herself how to manage the engines independently to initiate lateral movement, and she glided the ship back down in wide arcs, like a giant leaf falling from night the sky. With the ring online, maneuverability of this massive ship felt effortless. Bringing it all the way down to the treetops, she hovered and pulled up the navigation screen. The ship was currently over southwestern Ohio. She paused a moment to think about what she wanted to do now.
1255She wasn't stealing it necessarily – they would get it back, she was sure of that, but she needed to make a statement. Not a wimpy few second drive-by like they do, but a real statement. She thought of bringing it back home to Chicago and landing it next to the Bean in Millennium Park. Fitting, yes, but at this time of night it might be hard for her to see the ground, and she was concerned about the physical safety of the people below her. Mental safety, not so much – she was going to freak the hell of out 'em – but she didn't want to squish anybody in the process. Then she thought: Wrigley Field. The Cubs were having a night game tonight, and she could drop it smack dab in the middle of the brightly lit field, with only a few people to worry about scurrying out of the way. It was perfect.
1256 
1257~ Forty-Five ~
1258
1259It took her twenty minutes to navigate her way north by northwest over the fields of Indiana towards the city, and she narrowly missed hitting several giant white turbines as she sped through a massive wind farm. She enabled full engine noise cancellation as they approached Chicago from the east, over the darkness of Lake Michigan. Coming in low, a few hundred feet perhaps, she silently glided over Lake Shore Drive, just clearing the tops of the hundred-year-old apartment buildings alongside it. Although not under any sort of camouflage, the ship was naturally so dark that she didn't see any obvious observers, other than a stunned older couple on a rooftop deck, who stood no more than twenty feet below the ship.
1260She maneuvered the external cameras and guided the ship slowly towards the lights of Wrigley. Slowing to a ten-mile-per-hour crawl, she dropped even lower as she approached the field. Closer now, she observed a sea of blue caps through the bottom viewing panels: fans on the rooftop bleachers across the street from the field. A cheer rose up and everyone stood, high-fiving each other. Then one girl looked up. What she saw was not something, but the absence of something – the night sky. Grabbing her friends, she yelled and pointed, and soon everyone on that rooftop was gazing up at this sleek black mass gliding mere feet above their heads.
1261Crossing Sheffield Street, she slowed the ship until it sat directly above the playing field, motionless. She saw the players below notice it one by one. Looking at the scoreboard, she was bummed to see the Cubs were beating the Red Sox ten to seven in the eighth, and issued a silent apology for ruining their likely win. The ballplayers didn't seem angry though, they simply stood in place, staring at her in awe, gloves at their waist. The cheering in the stands died down and was replaced by an eerie silence, with the exception of the organ, whose player obviously had no view of the field.
1262She expected most of the stadium to clear out in a panic, but that didn't happen. It seemed like they were waiting, expecting something from her. She had planned to land, but the players below just stood in their positions. Well if they want a show, she thought, I'm gonna bring it.
1263Accessing the camouflage screen, Jess slowly cycled through all the options. From below, the spectators suddenly saw this massive black object, which almost completely covered the field, begin to glow a purplish hue, then transition to the bright blue of the morning sunrise. Wisps of clouds flew across the bottom of the ship, covering it in light gray, then the darker gray of a cloudy sky. A deep orange glow of sunset came on as the clouds cleared, which then faded to black again in the transition to night. The twinkling of hundreds of pinpoint lights appeared in the blackness; for a moment one could be forgiven for thinking the object had disappeared, yet a second later the star field flew across he belly of the ship at great speed, betraying the ship's continued existence.
1264Finished cycling through the camouflage features, she wanted to also show them all what the ship was capable of. Raising the ring speed to back to maximum, she simultaneously synced the three engines and pushed them to one hundred percent. From the field, the black triangle shot straight up so fast into the night sky that most people thought it had simply disappeared, but a few still pointed up, trying in vain to convince their friends it had actually shot upwards at impossible speed.
1265A few seconds later she reversed the process, flying the ship straight back down, but more gently to avoid flattening some players by accident. Once again she hovered over the field, as most of the players finally came to their senses and began to slowly jog towards the dugout, though always keeping their eyes on the ship. Well these folks paid good money for those tickets, Jess thought, so the show must go on. De-syncing the engines, she cycled them, upending the ship so that it slowly rotated in place. She could almost hear the oooh's and aaah's from the crowd as the corners of the ship almost scraped the turf several times during the gyrations.
1266Settling back into a hover, she noticed that now most of the field was clear with the exception of a few tough guys standing their ground. Disabling the noise cancelation, she subjected them to the crushing sound of all three thrusters, now idling at only ten percent. This had the intended effect, convincing the last holdouts in the outfield to scramble up the ivy-covered walls, and retreat to the relative safety of the Wrigley bleachers. Jess lowered the ship towards the grass, and this, combined with the din of the engines, finally seemed to awaken the stands to the reality in front of them: this thing was not entertainment, it was not part of the game, and it was coming in for a landing. This is when the panic Jess had initially expected erupted en-masse.
1267By the time the supports had found purchase a foot into the turf, about eighty percent of the fans had already abandoned their seats and run for the exits. The other twenty percent remained, out of fear, curiosity, or both. Jess shut down the engines and ring, bringing silence back to the ball field. She then slipped quietly back into her physical, lying in bed a few miles north.
1268 
1269~ Forty-Six ~
1270
1271The first thing Jess did was run downstairs, get Gavin, and sit him in front of the TV. She cursed, trying to find the channel with the remote, while Gavin sat dumbfounded.
1272"Here, let me help you with that, bumble bee," he said, taking the remote from her delicately. "Now what are you looking for exactly?"
1273"Cubs!" she squeaked.
1274Gavin flipped the channel to WGN where they saw a panning shot of the nearly empty bleachers, with a few people standing and staring intently at the field, Old Styles still in hand.
1275"What...?" Gavin pleaded, looking at her.
1276"Wait for it!"
1277They switched cameras to a shot which showed the entire field covered by a giant, black – something. The ship fit almost perfectly within the friendly confines, with only a narrow patch of green between it and the outer walls.
1278"What... is that?" Gavin asked, suddenly interested.
1279Jess was proud of herself at executing such a perfectly aligned landing. "I did that!" she exclaimed, failing to dispel any of Gavin's confusion.
1280They both watched, transfixed, as a couple of Cub players emerged from the dugout and gingerly made their way towards the ship, stopping every few steps to check with each other and reconsider themselves. A ball boy ran forward, handed one player a bat, then ran crouching back to the dugout. They came to the nose of the ship, just a few feet in front of home plate, and the player with the bat reached out with his free hand and slid it along the curved surface. As he dropped the bat on the dirt, other players began to step forward and put their hands on the ship as well. Gavin turned the sound up on the remote.
1281"...just an amazing spectacle...if this is some sort of stunt...I don't know...it's just all black. No advertising on it. Folks, I can't say what's happening here, but Ortiz has now reached this thing...it looks shut down now. But quite a show it put on for us just a few short minutes ago..."
1282The announcer seemed to have lost his train of thought as there were several seconds of silence until the other announcer cut in.
1283"...and now more and more coming onto the field. Folks! Get back! Please, for your own safety!" he yelled off-mike, into the crowd. "I have a mind to go home, this thing might be radioactive, who knows what this is, in fact I'm feeling a little faint right here, Bud."
1284Gavin turned to another local channel and saw an empty desk, which was soon occupied by a local newscaster sitting down while fixing an earpiece into his ear.
1285"We seem to have a situation on the north side at Wrigley Field, just a few short moments ago there seems to have been a plane crash, or landing, in the middle of the Cub game, let's take a look now."
1286They cut to the same WGN feed, which now showed husky men in yellow ponchos marked 'SECURITY' running across the field and forcing the players back while yelling into walkie-talkies. 
1287"It appears – it looks like a stealth fighter may have crashed, or more like it intentionally landed dead center in the field..."
1288The screen went black, and they cut back to the anchor, holding the earpiece against his head.
1289"...well...it looks like we may have lost our feed, well try to get that back for you as soon as we can, as well we have a crew rushing to the scene for a live report, please stand by for that. If you are just joining us..."
1290They flipped back to WGN and the screen was black, a few seconds later replaced by a cartoon of a repairman, bent over with a visible butt-crack, working at the base of a transmission tower. In cursive above him were the words: 'We are experiencing technical difficulties. Thank you for your patience!'
1291Flipping back to the local news station, they found that one had completely gone too, replaced by a test pattern. The rest of the cable channels appeared to be fine, they flipped through cooking shows, reality shows, 70's reruns, but none of the other local channels had anything – they were either black or had a message up.
1292"What the fuck Jess! What the fuck did you do!" Gavin screamed at her, getting up and pacing around in circles.
1293"I took a ship. Like I told you about," she said sheepishly, starting to regret her rash decision.
1294Their conversation was interrupted by a loud warbling screech. A white band appeared at the top of the black screen, changing to red as words began to roll across it.
1295"THIS IS NOT A TEST. THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY HAS ISSUED AN ALERT INSTRUCTING ALL RESIDENTS OF THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES TO REMAIN WITHIN THEIR HOMES OR CURRENT LOCATION UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: COOK...LAKE...DUPAGE...LAKE (IN)...GRUNDY..."
1296Gavin held his hand to his mouth, staring at her, wide-eyed. She felt his fear, and it certainly didn't help that an air raid siren began to wail as they stood staring at each other. The trance was broken when Joel walked in the room.
1297"What's with the tornado siren? There's not a cloud in the sky."
1298Gavin ran over to him and grabbed his shoulders.
1299"A stealth fighter crashed into Wrigley!"
1300Jess came out of her stupor, suddenly angry.
1301"Gavin! I told you. I did this! It's not a stealth fighter, and it didn't crash. I landed it, perfectly, I might add."
1302Joel looked at the both of them cockeyed, then something seemed to make sense to him.
1303"You guys were down at Marge's, weren't you? Yup, I always get stuck being the baby sitter, yup, fine with me..." he trailed off, as he retreated back to the bedroom.
1304"Wait a minute," Jess said to Gavin, "they're just shutting this whole thing down, this is not a safety issue! Gavin, we've got to go."
1305"Joel! We're leaving and I'm taking Gavin!" she yelled to the back room.
1306"Go right ahead, ya no good drunkards!" he yelled back.
1307"Come on," she pleaded, grabbing him by the wrist, "we have got to be a part of this!" She led him down to the garage, where Gavin parked his Stella scooter that he never seemed to ride.
1308"Jess, we are in no condition..."
1309"Shhh, just shuddup and put yer helmet on!" she said, handing him his helmet.
1310 
1311~ Forty-Seven ~
1312
1313Within minutes they were flying down back alleys, headed southeast in the general direction of Wrigley. Sirens filled the air from all directions; it seemed like they had everyone – fire, police, EMT – fully activated. Coming out onto Clark street they saw red and blue flashing lights, and a Chicago police car parked sideways blocking the street. He was directing masses of shuffling people past his car, away from the field; refugee Cubs fans by the looks of them. The cop spied them and aimed his bullhorn their direction. "Turn around!!!"
1314She buzzed the engine and shot back into the alley, but Jess was not going to turn around, and instead backtracked, coming out a block west, and rode up the side of the nearby Metra embankment. They would use the train tracks to bypass the roadblocks.
1315"Jess! You will pay! You will pay for this!" Gavin stuttered over her shoulder as they flew over the railroad ties.
1316"Jess!" he shouted again, as they both noticed an oncoming headlight swaying left and right up. Bumping over the rails, she cut down the other side of the embankment, the massive diesel engine buffeting them with warm exhaust as it thundered by in a tumultuous din.
1317They headed down a one-way street, but soon it was choked with cars, so they skidded up onto the sidewalk, cutting in between the masses of Cub fans walking, running, and drunkenly stumbling away.
1318The lights of Wrigley glowed up ahead, and they pulled off into a side alley to avoid two police cars arrayed in a 'V' formation at the next intersection. Beyond the police cars they could see large white DHS SUV's screeching to a halt. It seemed as if they were lining them up one after the other, forming a chain around the entire area. There must have been dozens of them.
1319Skidding out one alley and into another, a shower of sparks sprayed behind them as they bounced over the crest of the street. A block away from Wrigley, Jess screeched to a stop. After helping Gavin off, together they rolled it behind a row of bushes before climbing the back stairs to a rooftop deck overlooking the field. They could see and hear multiple news choppers hovering above, but as they reached the roof, the helicopters began to disperse. Crawling out of the covered bar area, they huddled near a large stainless steel grill, peeking out by turns to view the action on the field.
1320There were no fans left anymore, and no players, either. Dozens of policeman walked the decks and bleachers, searching for any stragglers, and occasionally stopping to stare at the ship. Gavin peeked over the edge and turned back to Jess. "Oh my God, it's huge!" he whispered, sliding back to her next to the grill.
1321They began to hear multiple dull roars in the distance overhead, as Gavin tugged at Jess' shirt and mouthed the word 'Jets' while pointing up. The reason for the news choppers departure soon became clear, as they could now hear the thwock-thwock-thwock of what sounded like heavy military choppers arriving on the scene as well. As they joined in formation above the field, high-powered spotlights shone from each and coalesced on the ship. Occasionally one beam would skirt away from the ship, scanning the nearby streets and rooftop decks, and they narrowly missed being seen at least once. Mostly, though, each spotlight darted around the ship itself, examining it all over, giving Jess the impression the people in the chopper were just as amazed by it as everyone else.
1322Shouts from outside the field caught their attention, and they watched camouflaged military trucks arrive, dispensing fully armed soldiers, in contrast to the opposite entrance to the field, where dozens of black-clad SWAT team members emerged from a large black truck labelled 'Mobile Command Unit' and ran single file into the stadium.
1323Beyond their vision they could see the reflection of the mars lights and hear the occasional honk of fire trucks as well. Among this United Nations of first responders were also scattered dozens of the white DHS SUV's they had seen earlier, as well as another bus sized Mobile Command Unit, this one without any windows, but an overabundance of antennas. It was total chaos, completely uncoordinated, and it appeared that no particular team was in charge.
1324The men in fatigues entered the field and took up positions around the ship, bringing the action to a standstill for the following twenty minutes, during which Jess whispered to Gavin the story of what she had done. Finally, a man dressed in a white oxford shirt and jeans, accompanied by two guards, entered the field and inspected the ship. They walked back and forth underneath it for several minutes, after which they emerged and left the field.
1325At this point, someone higher up must have taken the reigns, as the SWAT team members began to disperse, along with the firetrucks and swarms of police, who began to slowly pick their way through the morass on their way back to their stations. Before leaving, however, Jess could see men in black suits speaking to each of the first responders, and having them sign documents on a clipboard before leaving the scene. The only remaining forces were the DHS and the army, who moved to fill in the holes in the security ring that the other responders vacated.
1326The heavy choppers also began to leave the field, at which point an eerie silence descended upon the scene. Suddenly the floodlights illuminating the field were extinguished, plunging the scene into darkness. Within minutes, a single smaller military chopper appeared from the west and landed in the parking lot. Four men, dressed in fatigues but unarmed, disembarked and made their way onto the dark field, the lights of their headlamps leading the way, until Jess and Gavin watched them disappear underneath the ship.
1327A few moments later a variety of lights appeared across the surface of the ship, flashing and strobing randomly. Jess wondered what they thought about finding nobody aboard the ship. The lights stopped, and after another minute they heard a low hum, which rose and fell. Suddenly the stadium lights lit up again, blinding them for a moment. As their vision recovered they could see more men in fatigues traversing the field in a grid pattern, searching the ground, but, like a magic act, the ship was gone.
1328"How did they get it out of there? Where did it go?" Gavin whispered to her incredulously.
1329Jess motioned for him to keep quiet, and follow her. They crept back down from the rooftop deck and found the scooter. Walking it to the edge of the alley, they peeked out to see a police cruiser blocking the road. Retreating, they found an open gangway between apartment buildings, and pushed the scooter through it into the street out front. Hidden by shadows, they pushed it down the sidewalk until they were a block away; far enough for them to start it up and zoom off without alerting anyone.
1330There was no sign of any people around, which wasn't normal for this time of night, in this neighborhood at least and especially on a game night. Turning a corner three blocks later they found out why: another roadblock of DHS SUV's impeded their escape. Apparently multiple secured evacuation zones had been established around the incident. They approached one idling SUV slowly, until they woke the dozing driver. "Stop!" he yelled, as he clambered out of the truck, but Jess ignored him and gunned it. After a half-hearted chase, halfway down the block they watched him walk back to his vehicle, giving up the pursuit.
1331Finding no other people on the next block as well concerned Jess, as they might still be within another security ring. Her fears were confirmed when another DHS SUV screamed around a corner a few blocks ahead, headed right for them. Jess cut the lights and took a hard left into an alley, skidding through some loose gravel and almost losing Gavin in the process. The truck caught up to where they were, but since she cut the lights before the turn, he guessed wrong and turned the opposite direction, speeding away from them down the opposite alley.
1332They zig-zagged through alleys and vacant streets, until they came upon the final roadblock which had multitudes of people milling about behind it. Cutting over again, they found another alley gangway, dismounted, and walked the scooter through it, emerging on the other side.
1333Finally free, they hit the lights and rode over to where the crowd was gathered. Several people were arguing with the police and federal agents at the scene. As she had guessed, the whole area had been evacuated, and the residents were tired of waiting to get back into their homes.
1334"We probably could have rode right up to and through it," Gavin whispered in her ear, noticing that the angry mob had completely distracted the officers. Jess gunned it, and a few minutes later they were back home.
1335Stashing the scooter in the garage, they went up the back stairs and turned on the TV in Gavin's living room. The local news channels were back on the air, with reporters at the scene covering the drama taking place at the perimeter barriers. The special live news report was titled 'Incident at Wrigley', but it seemed they didn't have much information to offer on what exactly the 'incident' was yet.
1336"Tensions are high here at this checkpoint, with many residents wanting to know when they can return to their homes. Authorities have not released any information on what kind of risks there are here, in what they call a National Security Area, and frankly, the residents aren't too concerned about that: they are simply tired, hungry – many evacuated from their home without warm clothing – and without any answers, they think whatever happened tonight was overblown and shouldn't keep them out of their homes. What we can tell you about the incident, from our interviews with witnesses, is that some kind of stealth type aircraft landed or crashed in the middle of the field during the eighth inning of the game. There were no reports of injuries, and it doesn't seem as though this was a terrorist act at this time. We understand that most of the first responders have been dismissed from the scene, and that there will be a joint press conference at nine A.M. tomorrow between the Mayor and the Department of Homeland Security. Back to you, Tim."
1337"Thanks Walter. As a reminder, in addition to the ground evacuation effort, the authorities have now declared the airspace within a perimeter of five miles of Wrigley Field a National Defense Zone, with no commercial or civilian flights allowed below eighty-five hundred feet until further notice. This is affecting flights out of O'Hare, with delays growing up to four hours as only one west-facing runway is currently available for departures..."
1338They watched for another hour or so, until the alcohol and adrenaline-fueled night finally caught up with them both, and they fell asleep on the couch, exhausted.
1339 
1340~ Forty-Eight ~
1341
1342Jess awoke just after ten-thirty the next morning, red lines from Gavin's throw pillows etched into her face. She could hear him futzing around with the coffee maker, and talking with Joel in low tones, until Joel noticed her stirring.
1343"Mornin' Princess," he said, coming around the couch and handing her a cup of coffee, "looks like you were on Candid Camera last night."
1344Raising a hand to her aching head, she looked quizzically at Gavin, who shrugged his shoulders.
1345"He saw the press conference earlier – they said it was a hoax."
1346Jess jerked up on the couch.
1347"What?" she spat out in disbelief. "How could they say that? Gavin, you were there! You saw the ship, the pilots, everything!"
1348"I'm with you one-hundred, babe. But the huddled masses," he whispered, not-so-surreptitiously pointing a finger at Joel, "are under the spell. He even admits that the Men in Black have been here, so there you go."
1349"Yeah, well when I was jogging I did see a strange white van slowly cruising down the alley early this morning, Jess. It followed me all the way down Winchester. Probably some kind of pedophile is my guess."
1350"Honey, you look good, for sure, but you're delusional if you think you're still pedo bait," Gavin teased, pinching a hunk of flab on his midsection. "They was MIBs fo sho."
1351"It wasn't a Homeland Security SUV?" Jess asked. "There were tons of them around last night."
1352"Nope, plain white van. Like old school Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine, but white, with tinted windows all around. Creepy." Joel displayed a full-body shudder to accentuate the creep-factor.
1353"So anyway, is that all they said? A hoax? No other explanation? Right, that's a load of bullshit and they know it, and everyone at that game knows it."
1354"Yeah, we'll maybe they'll see it again. They're continuing the game this afternoon – they said it was stopped due to an 'Alien delay' at the conference. Got a big laugh."
1355"Oh wonderful. It's a big joke now." Jess was furious. "Seriously, how did they explain it?"
1356"They said it was a hoax, that they were still investigating, that it was likely a group of UK jokers called the 'Yes Men' or something, it was all a publicity stunt for a reality show, and there was never a threat to national security. They said it was made of paper mâché and Christmas lights, and that they deconstructed it last night and hauled the junk away."
1357"You have got to be KIDDING me! Seriously? Gavin..." she pleaded, but he threw his arms up and walked into the kitchen, shaking his head.
1358"Okay crazies, I'm off to the real world, so help me," Joel said, gathering his things, "Gav, Norah is in the back room on the iPad, I already gave her breakfast. See ya."
1359"Gavin, you have to go to Wrigley with me. I want to talk to people about this."
1360"Sorry Jess," Gavin pleaded, "I've got Movement with Norah later."
1361"Really? Whatever. But seriously, you're on my side in this, right? You've got my back?"
1362"Correct, I am just as insane as you."
1363Jess downed half her coffee and stormed up to her apartment. She was gobsmacked at how blatantly they were spinning – no, make that lying – about what happened the previous night. She guessed that was their right, they were just defending themselves, but still. She showered, ate, and took a long walk over to Wrigley in the sunshine. Everything seemed back to normal; the surreality of last night was gone without a trace. Life felt normal again.
1364She found someone out front hawking tickets, and forked over a twenty, a pretty reasonable entrance fee. Just after her purchase the guy was shooed away by security, at which point she noticed a heightened presence, but mostly undercover guys. The kind that try to look normal but are pretty obvious when you're looking for them; they always have the jeans, bright polo shirt, cap, dark sunglasses (not mirrored – that would be too obvious), and requisite flesh-toned earpiece if you can spot it. But beyond the attire, the dead giveaway is always the expressionless face, and the meandering about without friends or seeming purpose.
1365She found her scalped seat behind first base, and though she was early, there were some scattered people around her already seated. She scooted over to a family nearby.
1366"Hey so what did you all think of what happened last night?"
1367Their two boys answered simultaneously. "Cool!"
1368"It was something else alright, never seen a trick like that before, and I've seen David Copperfield," their mother added.
1369"So you think it was a trick?"
1370"Well, yeah..." she replied, looking at Jess uneasily.
1371Jess moved over to the other end of her row, where there were three twenty-something guys adorned in Cubs gear, already working on their second or third Old Styles.
1372"Did you guys see the thing last night? What did you think of it?"
1373"You weren't here? It was awesome! The thing was huge,"  the first dude replied, spreading his arms wide to communicate the immensity of it, in the process spilling beer onto his buddy.
1374"Oh sorry bro, my B," he offered, immediately negating his apology by cracking up and high-fiving the other bro. Beer spill bro had something to say about it too, but only after knuckle punching first dude in the arm.
1375"Dudes, I saw the crane though! There were wires coming down."
1376"Bullshit, dude! That was some class A Area 51 stealth fighter shit last night!" first bro replied, high-fiving dry bro again.
1377Jess slinked away in her own stealth mode, unnoticed by the toasted bro trio. She didn't need to go any further with this, she thought – it seemed everyone had their own explanation for what happened, regardless of what the media had told them. She was surprised and disappointed, however, that none of them seemed to have any curiosity or interest in it other than it being a good story. From her psych training she could just call this textbook 'denial' but that was too easy. It seemed like people used the event for their own purposes, to fit it into their own – perhaps more limited – view of the world, and didn't have the motivation to explore it further. Nothing short of a full on invasion, Orson Welles style, she thought, would have any real effect on their beliefs or behavior.
1378Jess left the field and walked back home, dejected that all she had risked, all the problems she had caused in service of her plan for 'world enlightenment' would amount to nothing deeper than a entertaining spectacle that would be soon forgotten. She was halfway home when she noticed the van.
1379 
1380~ Forty-Nine ~
1381
1382It was plain white, an older model – just as Joel described – and it was following about a block behind her. Even though it was early evening, it's lights were on, and the front window was tinted – illegally – so she couldn't see who was inside. She sized up her situation. There was an El stop about two blocks ahead, but she was still loathe to get on another El train at this point, even if her life depended on it. Then she noticed the Metra embankment up ahead, and more importantly, the pedestrian tunnel beneath. On a count of three, she broke left in a full run towards the tunnel, and immediately heard the gunning of the van's engine behind her. She reached the tunnel opening just as the van reached her, but heard it speed up behind her instead of stopping.
1383Backtracking, she peeked out of the entrance just in time to see the van screeching around the corner two blocks ahead into a car tunnel – they were trying to catch up to her on the other side. She ran back the way she came, this time down the alley of an adjacent road, and made a break for the Irving Park Brown line stop around the next corner.
1384Reaching the station, she swiped her card and sat on the stairs, out of breath and dripping with sweat. She didn't notice the van or anyone suspicious pass by the front of the station, so after a few minutes she gathered her courage and trudged up the stairs to wait for the next train. Scanning over the railing to the street below, she expected to see the van doing a grid search pattern, but instead saw nothing out of the ordinary. A train rumbled into the station, and though her nervous system was on high alert, she walked onto it and sat down.
1385By the time the train accelerated out of the station, her heart was beating faster than it was when she was running from the van. Beads of sweat gathered on her brow as she began to feel a nauseous, twitchy feeling in her stomach. I am going to puke on this train, she thought to herself. Breathing heavily with mouth open and saliva forming, she grabbed her bag and opened it on her lap.
1386Embarrassed, she looked around to see who might be witness to her unholy display, when she noticed him. He was sitting right across from her, but she could swear there was nobody there when she boarded the train a few seconds previous. He was glancing through a copy of the Reader, but from what she could see of his head, and his lanky frame, she knew it was him. It was the man she had rescued in North Korea.
1387The shock of seeing him distracted her from her current physical state, and bit by bit the nausea receded. Noticing herself drooling into her bag, she quickly wiped her mouth, while looking around to see if anyone had noticed, but now there was nobody else on the train.
1388This confused her even more, as the train, though not full, definitely had some riders when she got on. She turned back to look at the man again. He was wearing jeans, grey sneakers, and a Cubs jersey, but she was sure that he was the gentleman; he was the same height, had the same white hair, and the same fair appearance. It was him. Confused, she thought to herself What are you doing here?
1389Lowering his paper a few inches, he looked directly at her as if in answer, with the hint of a smile on his face. Looking into his eyes, the train car seemed to recede into the background. It was still there and visible, but the experience and sound of it was muffled, as if out of focus, and a hazy golden glow enveloped the both of them.
1390Suddenly, as if a light switch had been flipped, the glow was gone and the train car was back to normal, filled with the passengers she initially saw, and of course, the gentleman also was gone. She looked around for him, but was suddenly interrupted by the announcement for the next stop.
1391Exiting the station, she scanned the streets, and seeing no white vans, began to walk home. Like waking from an unremembered dream, she felt a peace and strength within her, but was oblivious as to the source. She didn't quite know what just happened, but one thing she did know: she wasn't afraid anymore.
1392 
1393~ Fifty ~
1394
1395Her phone began buzzing – it was Gavin.
1396"Uh, hi, whats up," she answered distractedly.
1397"Jess, glad I got ahold of you, are you still at the game? If so, don't come home, there's the same... thing... Joel saw last night right out front."
1398Her chest tightened with fear, but it quickly melted away, overpowered by the lingering feelings from the strange encounter on the train.
1399"It's okay, G, I'm almost home, see you soon."
1400"Jess! Did you hear me? Don't come..."
1401"Yeah, see you soon," she interrupted, hanging up on him.
1402Rounding the corner to her street, she spotted the white van idling at the end of the block. It's headlights lit up as it peeled out towards her, and she began to run, for some strange reason, towards the van, like a crazed bullfighter dropping the cape. As it closed within a hundred feet of her, she stopped in the middle of the road and held her ground. The van swerved at the last minute and screeched to a halt beside her, as the smoke from it's exhaust caught up and engulfed the both of them.
1403The heavy side door slid open with a loud thunk, and crouched in the opening appeared an older man with long scraggly blond hair bordering a pair of wayfarers, and dressed in board shorts and a hawaiian print shirt. With a smile, he tossed a small object to her with his free hand.
1404"Welcome to the club!" he yelled, as she instinctively caught the object. The van door slid shut with another loud thunk as it roared off, rounding the corner with tires squealing.
1405Heart pounding, she breathed a sign of relief as she looked down at the small grey plastic box in her hand. It looked like an old flip phone, and a bulky one at that. A plastic antenna extended from the top corner, and turning it over she noticed a large worn out 'M' on the back, which she recognized as the Motorola symbol. She opened it and held it to her ear tentatively.
1406"Hello?" she asked, but heard nothing. A loud warbling suddenly screeched in her ear.
1407"Shit!" she swore, as she dropped the phone on the pavement. No wonder it's all scratched up, she thought to herself, as she picked it up and pressed the green button.
1408"Jessica, will you meet with us?"
1409It was a woman's voice, but the line was staticky, and between that and a slight echo, Jess could barely hear her. It reminded her of her father reminiscing about long distance phone calls in the olden days.
1410"Is this you Kal?"
1411"No. My name is Star. You won't be hearing from them anymore. The van is behind the Starbucks, they're waiting for you."
1412The static ended, so apparently the phone call was over. She stood for a moment staring down at the phone, then turned to look at her brownstone. Gavin was staring out the window at her, mouth agape. He looked so comical, and with her coming down off her adrenaline high, she couldn't help but to break out into uncontrollable giggles.
1413Raising his hands up he mouthed "What the hell?" Regaining her composure, she held her hand to her ear and mimed "Call you later" as she took off running down the street.
1414 
1415~ Fifty-One ~
1416
1417As she turned the corner into the alley behind the Starbucks, she saw the van idling just as Star had promised. Approaching it, she noticed the front seats were empty, so she tentatively rapped on the sliding door. A terrific clattering inside ensued, eliciting loud squeaks from the shocks absorbers, before the door slid open to reveal the man who handed her the phone, along with the driver, both sitting crosswise on the carpeted floor. Smoke billowed out of the door opening as she spied a tall purple bong between them.
1418"Hey! It's Wonder Woman! Get in here gal!" exclaimed the driver, a younger guy with blonde dreadlocks spilling out from under a rainbow knit cap. The older man, who had been taking a hit, snorted at the remark, splashing bong water all over his hawaiian shirt in the process.
1419"Shit," he exclaimed, laughing. "Well I guess I'm done, you want one?" he said, offering it to her.
1420"Ah, no, and what the fuck? Who are you guys and what is the deal here?"
1421"Hey man, chill. Don't harsh the mellow. Terry told us about you. Honestly we kind of blew him off at first, but then, well this! Come on in, we'll fill you in."
1422Jess waved her hands to clear away the smoke before pulling herself in. The van had been reconfigured with bench seats along the sides, and the floor – and walls and ceiling – were covered in a plush deep-pile purple carpet. There were a few posters stuck on the walls, one showing a Peace sign and the other a butterfly, both worn and fraying. At the very back was a makeshift table of milk crates supporting an old laptop and various phone gear. The whole van reeked of weed and B.O. as though they lived in this thing.
1423"Hey, I'm Sag, from my sign," said the younger guy,  holding out his hand. In addition to his knit cap he wore an old Replacements t-shirt, jean cutoff shorts, and wooden sandals. "And you're Jessica?"
1424"Yeah, uh, nice to meet you," she said, shaking his hand and handing back the phone.
1425Taking it from her, he maneuvered himself back into the drivers seat. "We're so happy you came, you got quite a party waiting for you."
1426"Yeah," continued the older guy, "You're the hero of he hour! I'm Roper by the way." He took her hand and guided her towards the bench seat, then sat down across from her and smiled at her with bloodshot eyes.
1427"So you've sorta got the whole New Age Cheech and Chong thing going here, huh?"
1428They both broke out in entirely too much laughter.
1429"And so, uh, where are we going today fellas?"
1430"Oh...yeah, you don't know what's going on here, huh?" Roper remarked, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
1431"Heading to the homestead out west. Near Galena. Should be there before dinner. You'll get fed don't worry! Star's a great cook. Great pilot too. You know all this stuff is cause of you right?"
1432"What stuff, the van?"
1433They thought this was hilarious too. She was beginning to think it might just be the weed and not her natural comedic talents at work here.
1434"No, man, most of the net's down! Don't you know? Like, I would think you kids would be all plugged in and shit. Yeah. Since this morning. It's a distraction, don't let anyone tell you different."
1435He leaned in and lowered his voice conspiratorially. "Used to be they would take down the power grid for a good part of the country when things didn't go their way, that we know for sure, right Sag?"
1436At this Sag laughed a long loud hyena like laugh, while Roper continued.
1437"But they got a lot of heat for that, so they cut that shit out. Internet's better, some people need electrons to live but nobody needs bits, at least not yet right? And as long as it takes up the column inches they don't care. Internet outage to the rescue!" he shouted, as they both laughed hysterically once again.
1438Jess did not join in, and Roper, sensing her discomfort, dropped his wild grin. "Hey now, we're just having a little fun here, been up all night driving to come get you since we got the call; a little loopy. You know how it is..."
1439Jess leaned closer, and spoke in a whisper. "Fine... whatever, but should he really be driving?"
1440Roper laughed again, loudly exclaiming "No problemo, man, that's just the way he is! He only had one hit before you joined the party, so it's all good."
1441Sag, barking out another loud laugh, thought that was especially hilarious.
1442"So, what's in Galena, besides like bed and breakfasts and antiquing?"
1443"Oh yeah, yeah," Roper replied, forgetting again that she had no clue what was happening. "Well that's where we keep our ships." 
1444"Ships? There's no lakes around there... like steamships? On the Mississippi?"
1445This brought more laughter, which was becoming less amusing and more annoying to Jess by the minute.
1446"No, man! Starships."
1447"What the hell you mean starships?" she yelled out.
1448Roper leaned up towards the drivers seat and spoke to Sag. "Hey man I think we got the wrong chick." Then, leaning back, he took another bong hit, and after slowly exhaling the smoke, looked towards her accusatorially.
1449"Did you or did you not, miss Jessica Delaney Armitage, without authority, or much ability I might add, pilot a heretofore unknown U.S. government starship to an unauthorized geographical location, and put on a completely unprecedented (y mucho verboten) display of technological grandeur, never before seen by the American public, much less the publics of any other great nations of our times, in the year of our Lord Twenty-Fifteen, Greenwich Mean Time plus about five or maybe six hours – I forget which – but eighteen short hours ago?"
1450She had never thought of the ship as a star-ship before, and was momentarily speechless. Regaining herself, she accepted the charge proudly.
1451"Guilty."
1452Roper almost spilled more bong water on himself as they busted out in peals of laughter.
1453"But how do you know all this?  And what's the backstory on you guys?"
1454"Refugees, man. Or escapees, maybe. We're sleepers, mostly, like you. Couple of us came from Gateway, few younger ones like Sag here, Terry sent our way. We just want to raise the vibrational level of this planet, man, strap a booster rocket onto the human consciousness, man, straight up! Sixties never died, man; they live on, just below the surface."
1455He took another long bubbly hit while Sag sat silently, rapt with attention.
1456"But we had to change our tactics, man. Government endorsed, tax deductible, neo-Randian, Calvinist-capitalized fuck-your-neighbor, secular and hand-sanitized for your protection, advertising-sponsored, parent-approved, patriarchal protectionist bullshit culture co-opted them," he said, motioning towards Sag, "and made us out to be freaks."
1457"They're not freaks," Sag yelled out in solidarity, "they're Trust to Power!"
1458"Truth to Power, man. Truth to Power," Roper whispered to him, before turning back to Jess. "But we're not freaks, man, we're them, unshackled. That's what they've always been afraid of." Roper said all this with a painful seriousness that was almost touching.
1459"They put lead in the gasoline to stop the magic from happening, man, poisoned the atmosphere and made a whole generation of dull, angry people that were easier to contain and control. We finally got the lead out, man, like, literally, and you're seeing the fruits of that in the young people now." Again he waved his hand towards Sag, which to Jess was not exactly a ringing endorsement of his theory.
1460Sag looked confused. "You really think they did that on purpose? With the leaded gas?"
1461"Yeah man!" Roper replied angrily. "Well who knows? I don't know. Do you know? Someone knows!"
1462"I dunno man...that's pretty out there," Sag countered timidly.
1463"Fact it, it's a known toxin. Fact is, it reached it's peak in the 70's. Fact is, our movement was a joke in the 80's. We went from 'Peace, Love, and Harmony' to 'Greed is Good'. Woodstock to Wall Street. Put it all together, man, it's causality in action, tic-tac-toe. A little too convenient, wouldn't ya say?" Roper shot back.
1464Jess jumped in to short-circuit this convo that had veered way off course already. "That's cool and the gang, but how does a group like you, ah, get into this business, and, like, why?"
1465Roper closed his eyes and calmed himself before turning his attention to her. "Global transformation is only possible at the level of the individual," he replied softly. "We learned that decades ago. We're out doing the same thing they're doing, but our intentions are different, and that matters, man. We enlighten, and yeah sometimes scare, but we don't intimidate like they do. That's not our bag. If we scare someone it's just the Ego that's getting a jolt, the Ego that thinks society's got it all figured out. We're not concerned about that vestigial organ. In the long run the experience gets integrated. It opens them up. It expands them and brings them to a higher place," he said, spinning his fingers upwards in a spiral.
1466"Just so were clear on this, you guys have ships, that you take out and terrify people with, just like the government does?" Jess asked.
1467"C'mon man. Now that's just unfair. There's a difference. What we do changes people. What they do conditions people. Totally different. Skinner is alive and well mi amigo, don't let anyone tell you different."
1468"I still don't get why the government would do this to their own people, it's got to be billions of our dollars in these things, we've got a right to know about these things we bought and paid for!"
1469"Well they got a lot of dough in makin 'em, yeah, but they sure didn't invent 'em. Hey Sag, let's get going here. I gotta hankering for that Shoney's – let's get something in our gullets." 
1470An hour later they pulled off the highway just outside of Rockford. As they sat in the restaurant, Jess questioned them a bit more while they argued over what the best vegetarian meal was.
1471"So how many ships do you have, and how did you get them?"
1472"We've got three, two smaller ones, Scout and Libra, and Big Mama," Sag answered, as Roper pondered the menu intensely. "Libra's a Gen One and is out of commission, she ran outta juice back in '02, so she's just a museum piece now. Scout's a newer model, mid-nineties, and at twelve percent, so she's good for another decade or so, we think. Big Mama's almost brand new, though, manufactured in '08, and we picked her up in 2012. We have a lot of fun with her."
1473"And how did you get all these ships, government surplus auctions?"
1474"Ha, naw. We stole 'em, just like you."
1475"We'll...I didn't really steal it," Jess rationalized, taken aback by his bluntness, "more as borrow it, for a time, ahhh, yeah." She looked up to find the waitress waiting on them with an upraised eyebrow.
1476"Borrowing ain't stealing, in my book," she confirmed, "now what can I get you all?"
1477Back on the road, Jess joined Sag in the bench seat up front, which was springy and comfortable despite the various ancient stains and burn holes. Roper, nodding off on the shag carpet, lazily munched from the bag of Doritos he insisted they get.
1478Coming to attention, Roper broke the food coma silence. 
1479"Sag," he said accusingly.
1480"What, man?" Sag responded, a little defensively.
1481"Dude, there's a lady with us. Manage yourself, bud."
1482"Sorry," he said sheepishly, "I couldn't hold it anymore. It hurt dude."
1483"Sa-ag," Roper sang out.
1484"What now!"
1485"Please tell me you didn't fish those spawn of satan fiber-one bars out of the trash did you?"
1486"But they were sooooo goooood..."
1487"C'mon man!" Roper shouted. "Now we gotta live through this literal shit, like, for the next two hours? Dude, how can you let this happen again? I told you never to eat anything with that nasty chicory..."
1488"...root extract, I know, I know. Yeah I'm payin' for it now. I won't do it..."
1489"We're all payin' for it now, friend, we are all payin' for it. No more!" Roper interrupted angrily. "Where are they. I should'a chucked 'em at the gas station. Where are they."
1490"Ummm..."
1491"Where are they Sag!"
1492"I ate 'em all."
1493"Damn you, Sag," Roper grumbled with disgust, "Damn you and those fiber-one bars straight to hell." Ducking into the back of the van, he opened the vents on the rear door windows.
1494"Huh Huh Huh," Sag responded, cracking his own window open.
1495"NOT funny. NOT funny, man," he scolded. "Jess honey, I'm gonna set up camp back here for awhile, feel free to join me. Or stay up there with the Sag-stench, if you dare. Dude's fermenting up there."
1496"I'm... fine," Jess replied, half-smiling and half-gagging, as she pulled her shirt up to her face and stared out the window. A few minutes later she rose and quietly joined Roper at the back of the van.
1497 
1498~ Fifty-Two ~
1499
1500The rolling countryside gave way to picturesque turn-of-the-century hotels, shops, and restaurants as they rolled down Galena's South Main Street a few hours later. Instead of stopping to join the other antique hunters and bed-and-breakfasters, they continued heading north, out of town and back into the countryside. Ten minutes later, they turned into the circular drive of an old whitewashed farmhouse set on a large expanse of gently rolling green fields.
1501"Star must be out back," Roper surmised, "no lights on in the house."
1502Sag continued past the house, turning off onto a dirt two-track that led behind it. Cresting a small rise, a collection of far-flung outbuildings came into view, which were all dwarfed by a very low and wide structure set back into the tree line at the far edge of the property.
1503As they approached this long building, Jess noticed an array of twenty-foot wide doors hinged together to open like an accordion. Built with wood timbers, the building resembled a cross between log cabin and giant garage, reminding her of a pilot friend who lived in a runway community where the preposterously large garages held planes instead of cars. A diffuse white light, emanating from the door panel seams, suddenly blinked out as they parked in front.
1504Roper led them around the side, which opened up to a nicely landscaped garden surrounding a flagstone patio, cedar chairs, and a fire pit. Jess imagined them eating brats and sipping lemonade after taking their starships out for a Sunday drive. 
1505"Come on in!" Roper announced as he opened a side screen door with a rusty yowl. As he ushered them through the inner door, the first thing Jess noticed was the cool, dry air that whooshed out as though the interior was pressurized. A loud thwack from the screen door announced the last of them had entered the building, and as Roper closed the heavy door they were all temporarily plunged into darkness. 
1506He continued to lead them down a set of stairs to the concrete floor, which sat six feet below ground level. As her eyes adjusted to the dim blue lighting, Jess noticed a  wide platform extending across the open space, creating an open loft-like area above. Looking closer, however, she was shocked to discover there was no second level, and the platform was actually the edge of an enormous ship.
1507Similar in shape to the triangle ship she had taken, this one was larger in all dimensions: she guessed it was three hundred feet on a side, and easily fifteen feet thick. The edges were also beveled, and she could see the same trio of recessed circular openings on the underside of each corner. Unlike her ship, however, this one had additional rows of smaller recessed circles along the bottom edges.
1508The color of this one was different too – it wasn't flat black like hers, but had more of a dark grayish-greenish color to it, and the texture wasn't tiled, but smoother – more like suede. It seemed sleeker, and certainly more awe-inspiring due to the size alone, but Jess also realized this was the first time she viewed a ship like this with her physical senses, which seemed to give it more of an emotional impact.
1509It sat, silently suspended, eight feet above the concrete floor. Squinting her eyes to find the footings, she found none; it simply sat fixed in place, as if it were bolted onto the building somewhere.
1510"This ship is huge," she commented, turning to Sag, "how is it being held up – there's nothing under it!"
1511He looked at her strangely, as if that were a dumb question. "Ah, whatdaya mean how is it being held up?"
1512Roper intervened before she could reply. "Well here's the thing, we don't shut 'er down..."
1513"You don't shut it down?"
1514"Well, we shut everything down but the ring."
1515"So you just let it sit here idling twenty-four-seven? That's crazy!"
1516"Now listen here young lady, I don't suppose you know how much energy it takes to get the ring up to speed do ya? You keep shutting it down and powering it up every day you can almost watch the juice flow away. Easier on everybody to just keep it running."
1517"But what about the thrusters? I don't hear or see anything, so they must be off, right?"
1518"Yeah, but remember, this is a Gen three – they got the ring efficiency up to a hundred percent, so the thrusters are only for relative motion. Maneuverability is amazing when you don't need 'em for lift."
1519"Still, seems such a waste of energy..."
1520"Your thinking is stuck in the past on this Jess, energy ain't an issue. Big Mama, as she sits, is good for another quarter-century, assuming three missions a week. Maybe longer, who knows?"
1521"Twenty-five YEARS? That's insane! What do these things run on anyway, can't you just recharge them?"
1522Sag snorted, while Roper gave him a look as if to say "This lady has a lot to learn."
1523"Jess, we can't recharge them. Don't know how. To be honest, we ain't qualified to anyhow, even if we did know. There's somethin' pretty close to a nuclear reactor that powers her."
1524"You mean these suckers are nuclear?" A cold chill ran down her spine and her stomach dropped as she realized she had piloted a nuclear reactor over her hometown, and landed it in a stadium full of people. She crouched down and put a hand on the floor to steady herself. The boys, sensing her realization, bent down to console her.
1525"Listen, Jessica," Roper said gently, "we're against nukes more than you even know. But these aren't like what we have now. Not even close. What's out there is fifty-year-old tech. This is fifty-year-new tech, and it's safe. It's all self contained. You could turn off the ring at the edge of space, and drop this thing ten stories into the ground, and it would just happily sit there for centuries."
1526Still a little dizzy, she steadied herself and they helped her up, as a voice rang out of from darkness.
1527"Quite a sight, huh?"
1528An older woman walked out from the shadows towards them with a slight but noticeable limp. Also red-haired, she looked as if she had worked in the sun most of her life, forcing her fair skin to deal with it. Before offering her hand to Jess, she wiped it clean with a red handkerchief, and pocketed in the back of her overalls. Coming closer, though, she quickly noticed something was not right.
1529"Nice to meet ya, I'm Star... ah, what's this, honey? A little too much?"
1530"Nah, she just thought she was Dr. Strangelove there for a second with her little stunt," Roper explained. "If she knew how many hours these things logged over populated areas the last forty years she wouldn't be so concerned."
1531"Yeah, don't fret it. Things are safe as rocks. 'Bout as heavy as 'em too. Guess how much this one weighs? No wait: guess how much the smaller one you took weighs?"
1532Though still a little faint, Jess retained her curiosity. She knew a large car was about two tons, so she imagined them lined up in the shape of the triangle, stacked two high, and did the math.
1533"Hmmm, I'm thinking maybe thirty tons?"
1534"Try closer to fifteen hundred. And that's for your smaller one. This girl tops twenty-one thousand tons. Yeah. Give you some perspective, think of the biggest old-time steam locomotive you can. Got it? She's fifty-five of them, and then some. That's half the weight of the Titanic suspended up there. Wanna go walk under it?"
1535Jess thought she was joking, but then she made a move towards it, and they all followed. Clearly this woman relishes showing off her baby to visitors, she thought, as she hurried to catch up with them.
1536"The weight of this ship is just about the same as an equal volume of water at thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit. I'll leave it to you to ponder the significance of that tidbit."
1537As they walked under the ship's edge, Jess examined the row of smaller circles that lined the edge's underside. Like the bigger ones, they seemed to be no more than empty golf ball dimples, at least for now. Pulling a mag-lite from her breast pocket, Star pointed it upwards and scanned back and forth slowly, admiring the underside of the ship.
1538"Beautiful, beautiful. It's art, really. Anodized Niobium alloy, the whole of it," she marveled to herself as much as to the rest of them. "Course you never had a chance with that weight thing; I was cheating a bit. Most of that weight's in the ring itself. The rest is pretty light comparatively."
1539"What's the deal with the ring?"
1540"Well, that's where the magic happens. It's a super compressed plasma that's spun up like a centrifuge. Takes the weight away. Well, I guess technically the weight's still there, let's just say it doesn't really matter at that point. Ha ha. Doesn't break the law of gravity, though, just confuses it a bit. It's powered by a Graphene super-capacitor, which in turn is trickle-charged by that nuclear stuff like they mentioned."
1541Walking further, she continued to quietly admire the underside until they came upon one of the larger circular depressions at the corners of the ship.
1542"These are the ion engines that you use for vertical travel mostly, but they need to be in sync. If they're not in sync and you apply too much to one engine, you'll tip the ship. A couple tens of degrees of tip at full ring speed and you're suddenly a bullet from the angular momentum alone. You're lucky you lifted a Gen two, they were a lot more forgiving in that department, cause the ring was less efficient at nullifying the total weight."
1543"What about sonic booms? When I was onboard I didn't hear a single one and we were going pretty fast. Or is that something you don't hear when you're inside?"
1544"Well, you wouldn't, true, but these don't cause sonic booms anyway. That's another little secret technology in itself – a superheated plasma field's generated around the ship above certain speeds, using the waste heat from the ion engines. It burns the air around it so there's no surfaces to allow a shockwave to form. These guys knew what they were doing. Now hold on a sec, you said 'we', I thought you were alone when you took the ship?"
1545"No, I meant originally. That's how I learned how they work, I went for a ride-along over in Mongolia."
1546"Mongolia? What in Sam Hill you doing over there?"
1547"Long story...but I tailed one of them and put myself onboard when it got too far up. Then rode it home with some of the fellas. They were having a bit of fun with it – like taking out Daddy's Porsche when he's at church. But then afterwards, they 'visited' a civilian couple. Pissed me off, really."
1548"Yeah, well. That's what they do. They got their reasons. As do we. But how far up did you go? Rip – you haven't met her yet – took Scout to about a hundred and twenty thousand feet once, but we wouldn't let her go higher than that. They'd probably work in the black, but we don't even know if they're rated for that, much less any sort of interplanetary travel. They're so hard to come by we don't dare push the envelope on 'em – plus our work is down here, not up there."
1549"Well I don't honestly know how far up we got, but I could see the curvature of the earth. Then we docked, and this one fella boarded the other ship which I couldn't see – and then we dropped back down like a stone. Quite a thrill ride."
1550All three of them became very interested at this point. "Wait a second, back up. You docked? At the edge of space? Who was this guy? Was he tall with kinda fair skin?"
1551"Yeah, yeah, but I have no idea who he was. One of the pilots called him Senator on the way out though."
1552Star and the others looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
1553"Well I guess they mended that fence," Roper said to Star. Then he turned to Jess. "Darlin' if you haven't figured out by now – he wasn't one of us."
1554Jess wasn't exactly shocked, but there was a part of her that wanted to believe he was a human; it was all just too fantastical. She felt a warm swimming feeling creep up on her, but then decided that she would believe they meant he was Russian. Yeah, that will do for now, she thought, as the feeling subsided.
1555"Boy you got a lot done in your few days with the g-men. No vetting either huh? They must've needed you in a hurry. What were you doing out there anyway?"
1556"Well, this guy was being held in North Korea. I busted him out," she said with a hint of bravado. They looked at each other again, impressed, and spoke in hushed tones, but loud enough for her to still overhear.
1557"I told you they were working that angle," Roper whispered.
1558"Wonder what happened," Star mused, "must've been desperate for them to call on the g-men."
1559"Whatever it was, they were caught with their pants down, that's for sure. It's only when they get nicked they have to follow the prime directive all of a sudden," Roper added, which brought a chuckle from all but Jess.
1560There were so many questions to ask, Jess couldn't hardly think straight.
1561"Star, you mentioned on the phone – by the way, what's up with that twenty-year-old cell phone?"
1562Sag answered that one. "That's the last of the old analogs – the bug-ment don't care or even know how to tap those guys anymore. We got kinda like pirate-radio cell relays set up for it."
1563"Oh wow, OK," she replied, genuinely impressed. "So anyway, Star, you said that my contacts in the 'bug-ment' wouldn't be calling me anymore, how did you know that?"
1564"We'll it was pretty easy for us to figure out you were involved in this. Maybe not if you dropped the thing down in Kazakhstan, but seriously Jessica, your own front door? They know it was you, they've de-commed you already, you'll never see them again, believe you me."
1565"They mentioned that to me, that they'll run disinformation campaigns if I cause any trouble, but am I in any real danger?"
1566"Well they won't send a hit man out for you, but they can make your life a living hell, that's for sure. Ever been worried about identity theft? How would you feel about identity assassination? It ain't death, but it ain't fun either, is it now," Star said, looking over at Roper.
1567"Yeah, your wallet is probably already a museum piece," Roper added. "Good thing people still love cash though, otherwise we'd never get anything done. Did ya notice you haven't gotten a call or a text in the last twelve hours or so?"
1568Jess thought about it and was surprised to discover she hadn't. "Ah, nope...let me check though," she replied, nervously pulling her phone from her bag. "No, nothing. Hey wait, signal bar says 'Insert SIM'?"
1569"Yeah, they burned it remotely," Sag said. "I hate to say it but I think they totaled you. Hope you didn't have much in your 401K. On the other hand, if you maxed out your credit cards well you don't have to worry about that anymore."
1570"Oh my God." Jess thought of everything that was electronic tied to her name, gone just like that. "What about my college transcripts?" she asked, starting to tear up.
1571Star stepped in and took her hand compassionately. "Sorry to say, they do tend to do a scorched-earth type of thing here, honey, considering what you did. On the bright side, if there's any physical record like a yearbook or something then they can't kill it completely, so they just mess it up."
1572"Yeah, so they like just probably turned your A's into D's," Sag offered.
1573"Not helping..." Roper whispered to him as Jess' eyes widened with more tears.
1574"C'mon," offered Star, putting an arm around her shoulder. "We're prepping a mission here tonight, if you'd like to join us. Cool stuff...might take your mind off it all...real spaceship..."
1575Jess smiled at that, wiped her eyes and sniffled.
1576"But, we have something else to attend to first. Let's head up to the house."
1577 
1578~ Fifty-Three ~
1579
1580Leaving the building in the fading evening light, they headed back up the two-track towards the farmhouse. An older model Subaru now sat in the gravel drive, illuminated by lights within the house.
1581As they entered, they led Jess into the kitchen, where an older gentleman with short white hair, mustache and goatee turned to greet them. Sporting a sunflower-clad apron and oven mitts, he held a large baking pan before them, which contained a freshly baked cake with 'Disclosure 2015' written on it in purple icing. Below this was drawn a crude saucer-shaped UFO, in silver icing, flying into the night sky. The assembled crowd broke out in a cheer as they patted her on the back.
1582"Thanks for delaying her, folks, we didn't have any icing so I had to run into town. I hope it wasn't too obvious. Well anyway, some of us," he said, glaring at Star, "have been waiting for this day for decades, and look at this young whippersnapper who gives all of us a comeuppance! Congratulations, Jessica!"
1583Setting down the cake, he removed his mitts delicately and held out his hand to her. She couldn't help smiling at his immaculate presentation, juxtaposed with the amateurishly decorated cake, and took his hand with a slight bow.
1584"Victor. Charmed, I'm sure," he said, bowing deeper back at her. "That was quite a performance! And Wrigley Field, too. Style through and through. I like it! We have some copies of the YouTube videos before they were taken down this morning, if you'd like to see them later. Beautiful things they are. And the acrobatics! We must discuss. But first, cake."
1585Moving into a small adjoining dining room, they crowded around a long oak table. The style of the house was clean but definitely of the period; it had the appearance of a typical farmhouse from a hundred years previous. Circular, yellowing portraits, presumably the original owners, adorned each of the four walls, themselves covered in a yellowing striped wallpaper hiding large cracks in the plaster beneath. Her inspection of the spartan furnishings was interrupted by the offering of a slice of cake, the one with the flying saucer dead center, and a cup of lemonade in a rocket-ship themed paper cup.
1586"So, Jessica, tell us more about how you did it, if you don't mind. For starters, how did you get the codes?" Victor asked.
1587"Ah, codes... for what?" Jess replied, perplexed.
1588"Nah, that was a second gen, what she got, remember?" Roper informed Victor, before turning to Jess. "The first and second-gen models didn't even have any startup codes – that's how confident they were of their security apparatus. Even after we got Libra. Then after Scout they finally wised up and thought maybe they should add a password to these things!"
1589"So if the third-gen models have codes, then how did you get Big Mama?" Jess asked.
1590"She was a project, lemme tell ya. Let's just say we have a little birdie on the inside who's aligned with our interests. Not everyone believes in what they're doing over there."
1591"OK, so let's back up a second, can you please explain to me what the deal is with these again? What is the goal here? Seems like a just a big waste of money."
1592"Well they got a couple goals. And sweetie there is a whole backstory to this going on at least fifty years that we know of, so this isn't just some shiny new thing. From what we've gathered over the years, we think one reason is that they're trying to co-opt public opinion on the whole UFO mess. Trying to own the story themselves."
1593"But I don't get it. Why? Nobody even believes in these things nowadays. It's a big joke. It's just X-Files stuff."
1594Star jumped in to respond even as she was still munching on a bite of cake. "Maybe to some... but listen honey, over thirty percent of Americans believe that aliens have visited our planet. And over eighty percent believe the government has covered up information about UFO activity. So it's not as wild as you think. And talk about the X-Files, if you only knew the brouhaha that shit stirred up back in the 90's; some of 'em were totally against letting them go ahead with those story lines – just too damn close to the truth. But the older, smarter ones prevailed – they knew putting it on T.V. would forever make it fiction. Feeding into the crazy been workin' for them over thirty years now – much better tactic then the clumsy and plain ridiculous coverups before then. Yeah, all's I saw was Venus, that thing that was big as a house and hovering over my backyard."
1595 "Yeah, swamp gas, right?" added Roper, laughing. "It's complicated, man, they sorta wanna keep that sci-fi thing going, as a cover story for what they have. So they keep it on the down low, but don't tell me other countries don't know about it at the highest levels. That's part of it. Look what we have, we can fly right over your capital if we want, don't even try to start something with us."
1596"Also, these ships have been around since the late sixties," Star added, "and as I remember well, back then nuclear power was not cool. Not cool at all. Think Three Mile Island not cool. And it still isn't – look at Fukushima – there's a renewed resistance to it just when people were starting to forget the dangers. And they know that as long as conventional nuclear power plant designs from fifty years ago continue to be used in the real world, there will continue to be accidents which will never really clear up nuclear's tarnished reputation. It's all about clean and green now."
1597"Now these," she continued, gesturing her fork towards the hangar, "are the opposite of all that. They are full-on nuclear powered – there is enough stored energy in the momentum of that ring, resting as it is right now, to power a good-size city for a week straight; ignoring the actual reactor that trickle charges it. And they have clearance – not from local authorities, mind you – but at higher levels – to operate at will over heavily populated areas. Now we know enough that we trust this tech, but the general population? Forget about it. Never. And you can't redesign it any other way. What you gonna do, slap solar panels on the top?"
1598At this she let out a long hoarse laugh, sadly ironic as it was for Jess to see old hippies laughing at the impotence of solar power.
1599"Well I get that. I get it. Now what is the other reason? You mentioned there was more than one."
1600"Well now that is subject to opinion. But the consensus from our angle is that it is preparatory."
1601"Preparatory; for what?"
1602"For you, Jess," she said, forking another slice out of the cake, "for disclosure."
1603"Now what you did," she continued after another bite, "was inadvertent disclosure – from their perspective – but they've been well prepared for that too, and you've seen what they've done with it so far. It's no joke – there have been so many incidents through the years they've got it down to a science. But listen, you're little stunt out there – regardless of whether you think it was effective or not – moved the needle on this big time. It cleaved an opening for the UFO nuts to reach the public. There's no denying this tech now, regardless of how they spin it, there was thirty-five thousand people who saw it with their own eyes in person, and who collectively know the government-controlled media spin is bullshit. Maybe they haven't accepted it consciously yet, but trust me, they know. It's out there now. And that's what they've been afraid of. So now there's two ways about it. The people can believe it was a government ship, which they won't, because why would the government land a ship in the middle of Wrigley Field, or they can think it was extraterrestrial, which the government has now covered up – once again. It plays so nicely into the whole long-lived Roswell theme, so that's what it'll be, in my humble opinion. Without knowing it, you became our first public alien ambassador."
1604"So what is their next step?"
1605"Well, they've prepared for this day and you've seen the start of it. Coverup and disinfo campaigns. They'll encourage all sides of it, too – discreetly pushing all the different theories: E.T., government recon ship, elaborate hoax, etc. to sew confusion. You'll notice they won't even deny the real one, and thats the trick. Ever heard of Black Ops? Well there is also White Ops, and Gray Ops. White Ops deals with public, truthful knowledge. Gray Ops mixes White Ops with Black Ops – truth and lies – to sew confusion and disagreement. Add a little truth to a stew of lies and a whole bunch of people will lap it up. Keep your enemy muddled and a coordinated reaction cannot form. Then they sit back, watch the bickering, and wait for everyone to get tired, and then the whole thing will blow over without too much collateral damage. Will it grow the ranks of E.T. believers? You bet. Will it obviate religion and government order? No way. This is not a turning point, but it's a step. As long as people have food, jobs, a roof over their head, and a big TV in it, there won't be any street protests calling for disclosure. This isn't the 'Alien Spring' here. Honestly, we've all talked well into the night, many nights, about what would happen in the event of a full disclosure of their presence, and we don't think a whole lot – given the assumption they wouldn't invade or try to rule over us – which from our collective experience they have no desire to do. But the G-Men always hedge their bets – especially if they can use the fear internally to keep getting those massive black budgets approved – and so they prepare for any disclosure by showing off their tech now. It's grass roots, like us, but their's is a storyline they're building, so they can come back later and say it was them all along, that they are still large and in charge."
1606Jess deftly ignored Star's mention of an 'alien presence', which she had still seen no concrete proof of. "Still seems like an awfully ridiculous amount of resources going into it, for such a low probability outcome."
1607"Well, they don't have the faith we do, neither in humanity or them," Star said, gesturing upwards, "and they're paid to be paranoid. Remember it is their job to protect us, after all. But mix a noble cause with borderline psychotic paranoia and a lot of money and this is what you get – some kind of crazy."
1608Jess finished her cake and lemonade as Star rose and went to the adjoining living room. The others, who had all been surreptitiously listening to their conversation, followed her lead, and left Jess alone at the table as Victor began to clean up. When she was done she joined them on the couch.
1609"Now," Star said, slapping her knees with both hands, "we've told you what we know, and glad to do it. Let's talk about how you can help us."
1610"Sure, but how? It seems like you've got a good thing going here."
1611"We've got the land here to support two more big mamas, and we want 'em. We have codes, too, but they've upped the security – they keep 'em underground now. We can find 'em remotely, but we can't do what you do."
1612"So...you want me to swipe two more of them," Jess replied, motioning toward the hangar outside, "and bring them back here."
1613"Would be awful sweet of ya," Star replied with a smile.
1614"Look, I respect what you all are doing here – but I've got different goals in this. I want full disclosure – even of the things I don't know about yet – and I am going to continue down that road. But if you've got a bead on two big mama's, that's pretty tempting. How about I split 'em with you."
1615Star paused for a second, and then glanced at Roper, who gave a quick nod.
1616"That's acceptable to us," Star replied, and leaned toward Sag. "Get Tweetie on the line, honey bunch."
1617 
1618~ Fifty-Four ~
1619
1620Sag led Jess to a cramped upstairs dormer room which contained a comically small child-size roll-top desk supporting a large, old style ham radio and microphone. Two black wires, one thick and one thin, led from the back of the radio to the exterior of the house via the sill of a newspaper-covered window directly behind the desk. On a side table next to the ham set stood a smaller, portable radio with flip switches, an analog frequency display, and a large dial in the middle. Next to that was a triangular glass ashtray holding the remnants of a stale joint.
1621On the wall next to the rig was a map of the world, with different colored pushpins stuck into it. There were a few in other countries, the U.K. was one she noticed, but most of them could be found within the United States. There were few spread across the eastern seaboard, but the majority clustered in the southwest states of Texas, Utah, and California specifically. Looking upwards, she noticed a particular close grouping of purple pushpins as far as the arctic circle, which she found odd. She was about to ask about them, when Sag began calling out.
1622"X-ray Tango one-zero-one-seven. Calling for Wolfram Foxtrot zero-six-one-one."
1623A minute of radio silence elapsed before Sag spoke again. "Must be offline. It's a little late for him anyway. We'll try again in a bit. Hey, in the meantime I want to show you something."
1624He flipped on the smaller shortwave radio and turned the dial. A rush of alternating static, voices, and songs filled the small room until he settled on a particular frequency. A woman's voice could be heard reading off random numbers, one after the other. After several had been read, there was a pause, then a short tone, and then more random numbers were read.
1625"What is this?"
1626"This is the source for the fleet management carrier. It's a station that broadcasts worldwide, twenty-four-seven. It's been online without fail since the late sixties at least."
1627"What the hell? It's creepy!"
1628"Yeah, used to be they thought it was the Russians communicating in code to their spies, and it may have been at one time. But doesn't make sense now, twenty years after the wall fell, does it?"
1629"So she just reads numbers all day long?"
1630"Yeah well we assume it's a recording, not an actual chick in her seventies sitting there all day long! But anyway, we found out that it had been co-opted in the mid-nineties to be a carrier for the ships. I guess they figure everybody knows about it, and attributes it to the Russians, so what better cover is there? Anyway, the numbers don't matter anymore, there is a subcarrier synchronized by the tone which keeps the ships checked in. Like a heartbeat. They need to use this frequency because standard ship to shore communication frequencies are blocked by the EMF field around the ship when stationary, and these things move so fast that regular radio waves aren't reliable at that speed – they get distorted. So special equipment onboard monitors this single longer-wave frequency to maintain heartbeat, and also to listen for the subcarrier, which lets the ship know which ELF to lock into to for more detailed commands."
1631Jess looked askance at him. "Ah, elf?"
1632"Sorry, Extremely Low Frequency. The longer wavelengths have an easier time breaking through the EMF fields."
1633"Wow, you're like a rocket scientist in here. When I first met you you didn't seem that..." At this Jess bit her tongue, but Sag finished the sentence for her.
1634"Bright?"
1635"Umm, yeah, sorry. First impressions, and all."
1636"Yeah, that was just the ganja. Taking the frontal lobes offline once in a while is good for the spirit. Life isn't all about directed thought you know. You should read the Dao de Jing."
1637"Can't seem to find the time these days but I'll take that under consideration," Jess said with a smile, "Anyway, that makes sense what you said about the comms – when I was onboard I didn't hear a single communication to a tower or home base, except when we were docking."
1638"Yeah, that was probably through an ELF, which changes regularly on a coordinated schedule. And it's not a high speed data link either, it's generally used just for sporadic fleet management commands or emergencies. I mean these things are stealth, so there wouldn't be much communication anyway, regardless of the technical hurdles."
1639At that point, a crackling began issuing from the ham radio.
1640"Wolfram Foxtrot" came the slow, steady reply, as though from someone answering the phone after viewing a suspicious phone number on the caller ID.
1641"Foxtrot, X-ray Tango looking for a meet-up. Local option. Coffee and tea?"
1642"That's affirmative. Seven-thirty?"
1643"Yup."
1644"Usual suspects?"
1645"And a plus-one."
1646A few moments of silence elapsed before there was another tentative reply. "Vetted?"
1647"Wrigley," Sag said.
1648"Ha! Gotcha. See you then. Out."
1649"Out," said Sag, returning the mic to the table. "Boy he sure is excited to meet you! Lets catch up in the morning, it's been a long day."
1650Sag then led Jess to her bedroom next to the radio room. Brushing her teeth in the tiny bathroom, she had some time to think about the day's events. What have I gotten myself into? And when will I get out of it? she thought as she lay on the bed, trying to fall asleep. The din of the crickets outside, along with the sporadic whistle of a distant freight train, conspired to take her brain offline, which was just fine with her.
1651 
1652~ Fifty-Five ~
1653
1654An actual real-live rooster awoke her, as the first glint of sun shone through the lace curtains. Arising, she stretched and went to the window. Before her lay an idyllic scene of gently rolling green fields leading to the edge of the forest beyond. Near the corner of the back property something reflective glinted in the sun, catching her eye. Examining it closer, she was interrupted by the clink of pots and pans downstairs, followed by the smell of bacon wafting into the room. Abandoning further investigation, she dressed and headed downstairs to find Roper and Sag preparing plates of fresh bacon and eggs for the clan.
1655"Mornin!" Roper greeted her. "How do you take 'em?"
1656"Scrambled, please, thanks. Smells amazing."
1657Deftly breaking an egg into the pan one handed, he poured in some milk while throwing the empty egg shell through the small kitchen window and into the yard.
1658"Order up, Vic!" he yelled out the window.
1659"Where is he?" she asked.
1660"Oh he's out working in the garden. He's usually in charge of the mess hall but he's got some weeding to do. So I understand you've got a meeting this morning."
1661"Ayup, down in Texas, y'all," Sag replied, as he sat at the small kitchen table absentmindedly swiping at his phone.
1662"Well...don't mind Tweetie if'n he ain't too friendly at first," Roper said to Jess, mimicking Sag's bad accent. "He's got a lot on the line with this deal. We don't know where he gets all his info, as he's pretty low on the totem, so there may be a chain in operation he's overly protective of. Sometimes he doesn't fully trust the judgement of us damn dirty hippies."
1663"Yeah, he seemed that way. Well I guess I don't blame him," Jess joked. "Hey by the way, what's the big shiny thing in the back corner of the field?"
1664Roper looked at Sag with a frown, but Sag knew immediately what she meant. "Oh yeah, that's Libra."
1665"Libra! You mean the gen-one model?"
1666"Yeah, that's what you do in the country when yer car tain't work no mores. Ya set 'er out ta pasture," Sag replied, as though a midwestern farmer.
1667Accents must be the only entertainment they have out here, Jess thought. "Yeah that's fun with the voices and all. So anyway, about Libra, are you kidding me? It's just out...there? In the wide open? What about, like, Google maps?"
1668"Honey, not even Google cares about what's out here. She's in the weeds, man, and she's almost gone anyway."
1669"What do you mean, almost gone...?"
1670"They sink, Jess," Sag replied. "Without the ring operating you'd need a serious foundation just to support the dead weight. And it wouldn't do us any good to try to send her to a museum now would it! In two years time she'll be probably be completely buried. Might keep goin' too, unless she hits a layer of solid granite or something."
1671She pondered this as Roper served her a plate of perfectly cooked scrambled eggs. Dropping a couple more eggs into the pan, they sizzled as a rooster crowed out back. The surreality of discussing the fate of worn-out spaceships in this setting was not lost on her.
1672Having already eaten, Star was waiting for them at the hangar when they arrived, and led them back behind Big Mama to the generation-two model.
1673"This is our commuter, Scout. Big Mama, and all the other gen-three's, are night runners only. They removed the visual camouflage functionality on the newer ones, so there's no way you can take them out during the day. Personally, I think the camo gear was always overkill, and I also think they figured that out too, pretty quickly. Works well enough – when it works – but there have been some spectacular failures too. Imagine seeing a huge triangle flying above your house lit up with static like from an old tv; that really happened, and not just once! Talk about stealth, ha! Covered those up by saying they were malfunctioning advertising blimps."
1674This new ship, Scout, was again similar to the larger one but substantially smaller, and was supported by three strategically placed four-inch square wooden posts set into concrete footings, like you would see in the basement of an old house.
1675"So this one is supported – does that mean you turn it off?"
1676"No, these posts certainly couldn't support the full weight. In the earlier models, like this one, the ring only compensates for about nine-tenths of the weight. We don't want to be running the thrusters in here, due to the waste heat, so we support the rest of the weight the old fashioned way. With Big Mama they got the grav-null efficiency up to one hundred percent, so if you noticed last night, in addition to the main thrusters – which are still there if only to generate the plasma envelope – there's a bunch of smaller recessed thrusters spread out along the edges. They're not needed for lift either, just for station keeping."
1677Star walked underneath the old ship, and reaching her hand up, grabbed onto a recessed lever. Next to the lever was a picture of a red arrow, outlined in white, which pointed towards it, and the words "Pull for Release and Rescue" painted in grey alongside it. As Star pulled it, three circular hatches slid open, not with a smooth hiss but a heavy metallic thunk, inside the large circular indentation on the bottom of the ship.
1678Sag pointed to the one farthest from them. "Here, you take that one. I think you're gonna need a boost though," he said, and walking over to her, lifted her until she was able to catch hold of a grab bar within the hatch. After climbing a few rungs she emerged from the floor of the crew compartment. Small LED-type lights embedded in the floor blinked sequentially, leading toward the three open hatches. 
1679Star climbed aboard, and hitting a few keystrokes at a workstation, illuminated the room with the same soft, sourceless lighting. Jess noticed immediately this ship was almost an exact replica of the one she had piloted. Unlike the government ship, however, the personal paraphernalia was gone, with the exception of a prominent Jolly Roger suspended over the center console. In contrast, the outer wall held a large American flag – just like on the government ship.
1680Star, still situated at the captain's workstation, pulled a pair of small reading glasses from her overalls pocket, and squinting at the screen, began hunting and pecking at the keyboard. The video panels in the floor and ceiling became transparent, revealing the dim light of the hangar, while the hum of the ring became audible and quickly rose in pitch and volume.
1681"Wow, this girl is loud!" Jess remarked. It reminded her of Six Flags when they turned on the juice to the bumper cars.
1682"Well she is a bit long in the tooth, but she gets the job done," Star replied.
1683"Doors are open," Sag announced as he climbed aboard and took his place at the workstation across from Star.
1684"OK, call Victor and get clearance," Star said. Sag pulled a giant white brick of a cellphone, complete with long black rubber antenna, from a large pocket on his cargo shorts and began dialing it.
1685"Yeah, all set, how's it look?" Sag said into the phone, and after a few moments, looked towards Star and nodded. "...perfect day for flying. Nobody within a mile or two. OK then."
1686"We gotta check the area just in case," she informed Jess. "At low altitudes it's pretty easy to see the outline, even when I'm projecting a perfect image of the sky behind us."
1687Star leaned towards her console and hunted and pecked some more, until suddenly Jess was startled by a loud boom from her left that jostled the ship. A second followed, from her right, and then a third from just beneath her. Looking around wildly, she grabbed the arms of her chair as her co-pilots chuckled. The thrusters, increasing their cycling rate, eventually joined the higher pitched hum of the ring. She noticed several pairs of headphones velcroed to the center console, but unlike the government ship, nobody bothered to wear them. It didn't seem this loud on my ship, she thought to herself, as she began to feel the rumbling vibrations in her viscera.
1688Rising a few feet, they began to move towards the hangar opening, which was clearly visible on her monitor. As they approached Big Mama, there wasn't enough space for them to go around, so Star deftly lowered the ship to within inches of the dusty cement floor and passed within a hair's breadth of the larger ship.
1689"Now you know why we keep 'er up so high, huh?" Star teased, noticing Jess once again clenching the sides of her chair.
1690"These girls are pretty smart though, they generally won't let you crash into anything, unless that's your intention. And they know it too. We haven't quite figured it out but there is a kind of sentience in 'em, so you can get attached to 'em, like to a pet. Dare say you can love 'em, huh, Sag?"
1691"Man's best friend, right girl?" Sag replied as he began to gently pat the center console. Jess began to laugh, but caught herself as she realized they weren't joking.
1692"Just wait 'til you get your own, you'll see," said Sag, defensively, while Star chortled at both of them.
1693Reaching the opening, Star raised the ship to clear the threshold. The cool air they forced through ahead of them, hitting the outside air, instantly condensed into a fog from which the ship emerged into the bright blue and green of the country morning. The echoes of the cycling thrusters receded with the walls of the hangar, and the ship became almost silent as it entered the blue, with the exception of the pervasive low hum.
1694"Now I suppose you flew with the training wheels on like I am right now – the thrusters," Star said as they began to rise above the farm. "Not much choice in these models. But like I said, a lot more capability in Big Mama –  her hundred-per grav-null plus higher ring speed means you can use the momentum alone for propulsion by tipping where you want to go. In this gal, though, we always need to have the thrusters active both for hover and directional assist."
1695At if to demonstrate, Star gently tipped the nose of the ship down, and as the hum of the ring increased, they began to slide forward. Pushed back into her seat, she watched the landscape below instantly become a blur. The acceleration didn't subside until they began to slow down thirty seconds later, and coming to a stop, the land below had transformed into a turbulent mix of grayish-green water.
1696"...and that was twenty-six miles ladies and gentlemen," Sag said, now playing an airline captain. "If you look below, you'll get an up close and personal look at the Old Man himself, the mighty Mississippi."
1697Star, ignoring him, continued with her lesson. "Now if the thrusters are Kindergarten and tilting is High School, then college is using the ring alone, without any help. You can adjust the rotational patterns of the moving plasma within the torroidal flux, and this directly affects the orientation and travel of the ship. Takes a steady hand though, to avoid a wobble. Right Sag?" Star added with a grin.
1698"Right Star," replied Sag dryly. Poor guy seemed to be the butt of many in-jokes, she thought, but at least he took them relatively good-naturedly.
1699"How about a little rock-a-bye?" Star asked.
1700"Ugh, really? You really want her to heave. On our nice little Sunday drive," Sag replied, with a measure of contempt.
1701"Ah, he's no fun," Star said to Jess, smiling, as she tipped the ship again, slower this time. "We use the rivers as our highway system; generally less observers, especially at night."
1702"Or if our camo is broke," piped in Sag.
1703"Yeah, the camo on this one is busted."
1704"Well, except for one feature..." Sag hinted.
1705"Really?" It was Star's turn to question his judgement now.
1706"Why not?" countered Sag.
1707"Alright," Star said grudgingly, as she righted the ship, and punched at the console, initiating a climb.
1708"Wait, aren't we exposing ourselves up here?" Jess inquired.
1709"Not for long," replied Sag, as a mist began to cover the panels above and below. "Voila, instant cover."
1710"Oh, so we're in a cloud?"
1711"Well, you can do that too, sure, but right now it's nothing but blue sky, so we're making our own."
1712"Huh?" Jess asked, as she noticed the panels clearing below.
1713"We use waste heat from the reactor, combined with water in onboard baffles, to create instant fog around the ship. Kinda like dry ice, but it's dispensed at high pressure."
1714"When your moving fast, though, won't the wind strip it right off?"
1715"No, that's the cool part. The plasma envelope around the ship that reduces drag also allows the mist to remain relatively stable. It gets stripped off the edges of the envelope but a good meter or so outside the perimeter of the ship is unaffected," Sag explained. "It's pretty awesome."
1716"Oh that's a load of bullcrap right there," Star countered. "Even I think it's cheesy as hell, and I'm from Wisconsin. I for one am glad they discontinued it along with the other camo in the gen-three's. It's like an 80's Bond film gimmick. You should see it from the ground, Jess. A weird smoky cloud flying a hundred miles an hour in the opposite direction of the wind. Ridiculous."
1717"Yeah, but it is cool to show off..." Sag replied, sounding like a wounded puppy.
1718Jess came to his rescue. "It's pretty cool, Sag," she said to him, crinkling her nose at Star. "So where do you get the water then? And what do you do with the waste heat if you're not cloud-making? And why is the panel clear, are we out of water?" Jess thought the feature was pretty neat, but mostly just wanted Sag to feel better.
1719"Well first, it's just plain water we can get from any lake by dropping an intake tube straight down. Now whenever the thrusters are operating they use the bulk of the reactor energy, so the waste heat is jetted out from openings all around the perimeter of the ship."
1720"And that's another knock against these gen-two's," Star argued, "Even in full camo mode, if the atmospherics are right, you can clearly see the heat shimmer all around the ship. It's a dead giveaway."
1721"Anyway," Sag continued, "we can see down below now because I lowered a camera mast. Kinda like a reverse periscope."
1722"Wow, that really is some James Bond stuff there. Why did they get rid of it again?"
1723"Just too damn complex," Star answered, butting in. "This was the 80's, they had plenty of black project money and they got their rocks off on all the doo-dads. They all thought they were 'Q'. Then over the years they realized how useless and unreliable most of it was, and just plain didn't  use it. And you know what? The reports didn't go up one bit. Nobody freaked out seeing these huge black triangles with insanely bright thrusters just silently floating above their houses, fields, and highways. Well, not in any numbers, anyway – nothing meaningful. I think the reportage rate stayed pretty much the same – one report for every two hundred experiences was their internal estimate. They had a upper threshold of one report for every fifty sightings, and as long as the needle didn't go above that, they didn't care. They underestimated the ability of human psychology to deny, not care about, or simply forget about what they had seen, especially when they made sure it was a solitary experience. If you suspect you're crazy, you don't generally share that with your friends and family. Course, fearing you're crazy is the first sign you're not – but never mind that. So they capitalized on that little loophole of human reasoning and instituted processes and procedures – not technological doo-dads – to make sure it didn't become an issue. Things like ensuring large groups didn't see one – like no stadium flyovers – or that the hovering time in a single area didn't exceed a few minutes, tops. There were actually studies on this! A close-range twenty minute sighting is much more damaging than a thirty second one – with the shorter ones people are more likely to go back to whatever they were doing at the time and forget about the whole thing. It just doesn't make a lasting impression."
1724As Star explained all this, she kept slowing the ship to a stop, then speeding off again in a slightly different direction each time. Jess was curious about this, but waited until she was done talking so as not to interrupt her train of thought.
1725"So what's up with the course corrections?"
1726"Well, this isn't really a leisurely stroll here, since we're in daylight, time is of the essence. So each leg is a quick hop. But before I can commit to the leg, I need to ensure the way is clear, so to speak. Don't want to sneak up on some unsuspecting Lear jet or Piper Cub, much less a 727, right? There's a hell of a lot of air traffic in the U.S. during daylight so we need to account for that. So we send out a radar signal, and the ship computes trajectories for all objects within range of our intended course. Now the government ships can do this dynamically without human intervention, but since we are off the grid, I need to do it manually. It's a big pain in the ass if you ask me, which is most of the reason we don't go out during the day."
1727"So wait, this grid, is this the ELF network you were telling me about Sag?"
1728"Yeah, same one," he replied, then turned to Star. "I told her about the fleet management aspects of it."
1729"Yeah the grid is another thorn in our sides, environmentally speaking. You tell her about Roper too?"
1730"Nope," Sag replied. "But go right ahead."
1731"Well back in the 80's and 90's they were deploying this worldwide ELF communication infrastructure, basically the biggest, baddest radio station in the world, without telling anyone. It uses a grid of antennas blasting out these signals into the ground, and who knows what it was doing to the livestock, much less the humans, that live near all this stuff. So the government pushed back with a cover story about it being for cold-war nuclear submarine communication – which everybody bought – but they still had to scale it back significantly due to the heat they were getting. It still exists, but like Sag said, just for minimal data bursts of fleet management stuff and clearpath confirmations. Wish we could hack into it – make our lives a little easier! But of course if we did Big Mama would probably get bricked pretty quickly."
1732"Yeah," Sag continued, "they never got a response to their kill command back when we got her, since we had shut the receiving equipment down first thing, but they still send the command every few days just in case we forget and turn it back on."
1733"How do you know this?" Jess asked.
1734"Oh, because I record the ELF channel and I can pick out that little warble – it's different from all the other comms I hear."
1735"Flight attendant, prepare for arrival," Star announced, looking at Sag.
1736Jess noticed the cloud starting to form again outside the bottom window, but realized it was just the camera mast being retracted back into the ship. Then the mist began to dissipate as a stand of pine trees came into view beneath them.
1737"Just a quick stop first to get her topped off," Star said as she navigated down to tree-top level. A small clearing containing a pond appeared, and Star lowered the ship to just a few feet above the water. The water below was smooth as glass.
1738"Why don't the thrusters disturb the water?"
1739"They're always vectored at an angle to avoid downdrafts. When you hit people with a blast of air they tend to look up," Sag replied. After a few minutes of managing the intake tube, he spoke again. "OK, we're topped off."
1740The ship rose, and they sped over the treetops until they were over open fields, which soon transitioned into arroyos. A few minutes later they slowed and began to descend, and when they reached a few feet above the ground, Star announced their arrival.
1741"Grab your packs and water," she said as the thrusters cycled down, "and watch your feet."
1742With a thunk all three hatches shot open and small swirls of red dust entered the cabin. Sag was the first down, and he ran over to assist Jess. Star was last, dropping to the red earth below with a thud. As they walked out from under from the ship, they were hit with a warm breeze.
1743"That's why you generally want to stay a minimum fifty or so feet above anything, if you want to remain undetected," Sag said, referring to the draft.
1744"So we're just going to leave it here, hatches open, in the middle of nowhere?" Jess asked. As if in answer, she heard the thunk of the hatches closing behind them.
1745"The lower it is, the less people are able to see it, so yeah," Star replied, "but don't worry, she'll be just fine."
1746They headed out over the arroyos, the late morning Texas sun beginning to beat down on them. Jess wanted to ask where they were going and how long it would be, but since she was in no danger, preferred it to remain a mystery. After forty-five minutes they came across a dirt road intersection leading to a small town in the distance. A few minutes down the road, an old pock-marked sign welcomed them to LeMar, Texas.
1747"The founders must have had some sense of humor," Jess commented, but they didn't seem to get her meaning.
1748"Le Mar – the sea. This is pretty much the opposite of a sea," she explained, as they looked at her crosswise. "Oh forget it," she added, as they finally laughed.
1749Star led the way into this rusty old town, and had them stash their gear behind a doghouse, complete with sleeping old dog, next to an old building containing a coffee shop.
1750Walking around to the front, Sag opened the screen door with a creak, and after allowing the ladies passage, let it slam shut behind them.
1751 
1752~ Fifty-Six ~
1753
1754Julio pedaled as fast as he could, swinging the bike wildly from side to side as he did. Catching some good air on the small dirt mound, he lifted his feet while twirling the bike underneath him. Aaron and Dominick watched from the sidelines, both giving him a thumbs down as he landed and skidded to a stop.
1755"You got to do three, man, at least," Dominick said, shaking his head.
1756"Yeah, can't get the speed. Let's head down some more," Julio replied, pedaling away. "There's a big one my brother used last year down this way," he yelled back at them.
1757His two friends followed as they flew up and down the gravelly arroyos, catching a few inches of air at each apex. When they had reached the larger hill a few minutes later they easily found the well worn trail; although it wasn't long enough to get up some good speed, it started at the top of a medium-sized mound, mainlined straight down, then had a smooth slot to the top of the larger hill. The trickiest part would be navigating the rocky path.
1758"I'm gonna do this one," Aaron said, walking his bike up the steep slope of the send-off hill. The others pedaled off to the left and perched on a small rise to get a good side view. Aaron found his launch spot and took a breath. Steadying himself in the slot, it seemed much higher than he originally thought, but there was no chance he was going to back out with everybody in position. It would be worse to back down than wrecking and busting a leg – at least then he would still have his pride, and a story to go along with it. He had to go big, and now, before his friends – and he himself – sensed the hesitation, otherwise they would be merciless.
1759With a final deep breath, he pushed off and slotted the wheel in the rut. He risked a spill if he navigated left or right, so he had to take the red rocks jutting up from the rut head on as he pedaled furiously. With relief he found the bottom, and pedaled even harder on the upslope, earning more momentum. The fear was gone now.
1760Reaching the top, his friends watched him swing his legs back and up, but instead of reaching one leg back down to spin the crossbar of the bike, he seemed to freeze and do a hard swan dive straight down below their line of sight.
1761"Oh shit!" they yelled as they sped off towards where they saw him disappear. Cresting a nearby hill they could see him laying on a brushy slope, struggling to move the bike off of him. The fact that he wasn't screaming in pain was their cue to begin laughing hysterically.
1762"What the fuck, dude!" Dominick yelled to him between laughs, "You dropped like a turkey!"
1763Untangling himself, Aaron mounted the bike across his shoulders and slowly climbed towards them. He had some bloody scratches on his legs and arms but otherwise looked OK. Strange thing was, he didn't even look pissed, he just kept slowly making his way to them. When he reached them, they had stopped laughing and just stared.
1764"You had the ramp, but you need a little work on the air, muchacho," Julio chided, expecting a reaction that didn't come. Aaron just stared at them, while pointing off into the distance. That's when they saw it.
1765 
1766~ Fifty-Seven ~
1767
1768The reaction they got to their entrance was almost stereotypically comical: the handful of older, weatherbeaten farmers and ranch hands all stopped mid-conversation to stare at the three strangers as they entered. Without a beat, Star headed towards a booth near the back while calling out to a waitress.
1769"Mornin' Jenna, can we get a couple cups a coffee, black, please hun?"
1770Jess noticed the waitress giving her a big smile of familiarity, unlike the rest of the patrons.
1771"Coming right up, good to see you again sweetie!"
1772They sidled into the booth and sat in silence as the muffled conversations and clinking of flatware slowly resumed. A fan lazily spun overhead as a fly landed on the peeling formica table before them, and after investigating for a bit and finding no crusty syrup or dried butter, sped off to resume the search elsewhere.
1773Jenna appeared with the coffee, and as she poured, she focused a smile on Jess, seeming to indicate that she knew Jess was a new one. She didn't say anything though.
1774"Y'all gonna be eating some lunch today folks?"
1775"Ayup," Star replied, "but we got a fourth should be along any minute now, so we'll hold off, thanks."
1776Jenna twirled away with a wink, just as the screen door opened and a rotund, balding man entered. He wore coveralls and steel-toed black work shoes, and after noticing them, walked slowly, and with a pronounced limp, to their table. Sag moved over as he lowered himself with a thump, hands levitating in the air over the table as if to steady himself. After internally verifying that he was indeed seated solidly, he reached behind him, and removing a handkerchief from his back pocket, mopped the sweat from top of his head. After this, he carefully took the side of his right hand and coaxed a precious few strands of hair hanging over his right ear over towards the left side of his head. All this he did with the precision of a watchmaker, and when done, he slowly and thoroughly cleaned his hands with a napkin. He sat for a quiet moment, and suddenly appearing to realize he left something undone, looked towards them all. Changing his demeanor entirely, he reached his hand out towards Jess with a welcoming smile.
1777"And who'da thunk 'El Libertador' would be a little miss. Hya, I'm Norfolk, but you can call me Noly," he said, freezing his hand in midair and looking towards Star, "unless this is perhaps a sister of yours I don't know about?"
1778Star gruffly laughed in such a way that Jess immediately knew why this had to be a face-to-face meeting and not a simple phone call.
1779"Jessica, but I go by Jess," she said, taking his hand and bowing her head slightly.
1780Noly, still holding onto her hand, pulled her in towards him. "Now I hope you understand what you've gotten yourself into with these jokers," he whispered conspiratorially, "thieves, they are, ever last one. But I can tell – you're a cute young thing all right – but still, I can tell – you got a bit of the pirate in you as well. The fire, 'tis."
1781With a wink he slowly and deliberately removed his hand, leaned back in his seat and smoothed the table before him with both hands. Sag and Star silently grinned as they watched the show; they had seen Noly perform this before and were clearly relishing it.
1782"Is she here?" Noly asked Star.
1783"Are you kidding me? We took Scout."
1784"Ach, maybe next time," Noly said, looking crestfallen, as though this was a middle school dance and his crush never showed.
1785Jess noted again the slightly disturbing way that he, too, regarded these ships as more than just machines. Boats and cars are commonly referred to as women, she knew that much, but this was something...different.
1786Noly perked up as Jenna returned to take their order. It seemed slices of pie with coffee was the general theme, and Jess went with their recommendation of a slice of cherry with coffee, black.
1787When Jenna had gone, Noly slammed a hand on the table, jiggling the flatware. "Now! How can I ruin my life's work for you today?" His mood lightened, and this seemed to be the cue that the show was over, and the audience could now speak.
1788"Well, we understand you might have a couple a phone numbers for us," Star said.
1789"I do. Indeed I do. Problem is, ya can call 'em all you want, but they can't call you."
1790"True. But we have her now. She can call from anywhere. She's seven."
1791Noly raised his eyebrows at her in genuine surprise. "Well, well, well. A very interesting situational development." After a moment they furrowed again, as he seemed to dismiss whatever idea had been stewing.
1792"Even so, they're collapsing 'em," he said matter-of-factly. "This breach was a big, big deal. Bigger than the Big Mama heist. All the facilities out east have been transferring 'em to the western states. These two have already been moved out west to make room for the new arrivals. No more above-ground storage, new policy. By the way, they have no flipping clue how this one was done. None. They are batshit insane about this thing."
1793 
1794
1795
1796 
1797~ Fifty-Eight ~
1798
1799None of them said anything for the longest time. They just stared, trying to make out what it was. It was only about three hundred yards away – this dark black thing, that seemed to be perched over a flat area of the rocky soil. A hazy heat shimmer left the edges undefined, but the center was clear enough. It looked a bit cigar shaped from the side, but from their angle above it, they could just make out that it was actually triangular.
1800"What the fuck is that, bro?" Julio said slowly. After he had broken the silence, Aaron pushed forward, propelling his bike down the hill towards the object. The others, as they now had to, followed.
1801"Yo, man, that might be border patrol! Like a drone or some shit!" Dominick yelled to Aaron, but regardless, none of them broke their speed.
1802"No way," Aaron replied, "that shit is stealth!"
1803Up and down a few more hills, and they were soon on top of it, skidding to a stop about thirty feet away.
1804"Bro, it's got no legs! It's a hovercraft, man!"
1805If they hadn't seen the exhaust shimmer, they might've thought it wasn't doing anything but sitting there in the desert heat. But even from this close, they heard nothing but the sound of a slight but constant breeze.
1806"Ima touch it," Dominick said determinedly. Nobody stopped him as he dropped his bike and walked towards it. They all knew this was going to be an alpha dog opportunity, but there was no race to get there – they were both happy to let Dominick have this one.
1807"Shit, man, be careful," was all Julio could say as Dominick reached the edge of the vessel.
1808Stretching up, his hand inches away, he looked back to his friends. His look was a mixture of "should I do this?" and "check this out, assholes". Receiving neither encouragement or discouragement from his audience, he moved his hand forward tentatively, as though it were a live electrical wire, and touched it.
1809"It's warm!" he said, placing his hand flat against the textured surface. Moving further under the vessel, he gazed up at it with wonder.
1810"It's got like, little tiles, they're kind of bumpy," he yelled back to them, and reaching the center, he noticed the recessed release handle.
1811"Dudes, there's a door handle!" he yelled excitedly, "There's nobody in here – otherwise they woulda seen us by now – come on over, let's get in!"
1812"No way man, this one's all on you," Aaron yelled back, while Julio nodded his head in agreement.
1813Dominick felt the fear and doubt creeping in. He was used to it – they all were. It was just like when trying out a new trick, or boarding down a new railing, or high diving into the lake. They all had developed the ability to immediately counter these feelings with action, lest they take hold. Mostly, everything turned out fine; ninety percent of the time fear and doubt is useless, they discovered, perfectly designed to keep anything new and different out of their life. The ten percent though – that's when they get the dislocated shoulder, the broken rib, or the concussion. But if that ten percent results in stopping what they wanted to do, then it's over. They might as well get a wife and job and kids and car payment. So they can't give that any attention either, even if it might have kept them out of real trouble sometimes. When, a second later, this flash of arguably twisted but effective logic finished zipping through his unconscious, he reached for the handle and pulled.
1814 
1815~ Fifty-Nine ~
1816
1817"If you can get me the codes, I can do the rest. All I need is a general idea of the location," Jess said, as Jenna, noticing the intense discussion, discreetly delivered the pie slices and coffee.
1818Noly stared at her for a long time, until they all had been served. Then, slowly pulling a table napkin towards him, he unearthed a pen from his front pocket, and snapping it to attention on the formica, he began to write down two strings of hex codes. Pushing it across to her slowly, she also placed her hand on it.
1819"Now, let's eat," he announced with satisfaction, removing his hand from the napkin.
1820After pocketing it, Jess dug into her cherry pie. It was just as good as they told her it would be.
1821"So, what is your...investment...in all this?" Jess inquired.
1822"Well," he replied with a mouthful of his own blueberry pie, "as Star likely told you already, we all have our own reasons. Best to keep it at that. But in general I think I can say we're all tied together with a sense that it's just plain offensive. I mean this has been going on for close to fifty years, this thing. When does it end?"
1823As they finished their pie, Noly and Star began their own side conversation, and Jess, with a wink from Sag, was smart enough to leave them to it.
1824"So, how's the weather over there Sag?"
1825"Jus' fine, hows about yer side?" Sag replied, smiling. Oblivious, Noly and Star continued their conversation, eliciting a chorus of stifled giggles.
1826After they all finished their pie, Noly took care of the bill, and walking outside Jess noticed a beautifully restored antique auto parked out front. It was an early twentieth-century touring car, dark blue, with huge flowing fenders, a split windshield, suicide doors, and a beautiful chrome grill adorned with a hood ornament of a woman in a flowing gown holding a torch. Unlike many restored cars of that era, it seemed this one was taken back to it's factory new condition, instead of being transformed into a flaming red, chrome-covered hot rod.
1827"Now she's a beauty," Jess commented, "Yours?"
1828"Ayup," Noly answered with relish, "1938 Packard Six Touring Sedan. Thirty-six thousand miles. This was my Dad's car when I was a boy. Tracked her down myself in the eighties and gave it back to him before he passed."
1829Touched by this story, Jess uttered a cute "Awww..." which was promptly ignored by Noly, who quickly changed the subject.
1830"Y'all need a ride?" he said, levering open one of the rear suicide doors. After passing the still-sleeping dog, they retrieved their gear from the side of the building and ambled aboard. An audible groan, politely ignored by all, issued from the springs as Star climbed into the front seat.
1831Jess was fascinated by this beautiful automobile. The flowing lines, the simple dark colors – it reminded her of the ships. Even when Noly started the car, she could hear the individual clicks of the pistons clattering away under the thin metal hood, just like the cycling of the thrusters on Scout. The ships definitely contained technology far in the future compared to the rest of the world, but then again, there was something very...old...about them.
1832 
1833~ Sixty ~
1834
1835Nothing happened. Dominick tried again, harder this time. The handle simply snapped back into place, revealing nothing.
1836"Ahhh, it's locked," he yelled back. As he hadn't been immediately electrocuted, they started to approach.
1837"Hey, it's buzzing now!" he yelled back to them after a few steps. Although unable to hear anything from where they were, they knew that couldn't be a good sign, and stopped in their tracks.
1838"Dude, it's going to self-destruct!" Aaron shouted.
1839"Check it out!" yelled Dominick as he pointed to his hair, which had started to rise about his head like a gnarly, tangled version of a halo.
1840The ship's hum rose through the subsonic frequencies, quivering the three boy's insides as it cycled faster. Once it had reached a crescendo, it receded into a muffled silence, coating the area like a blanket.
1841"You gotta get outa there..." Aaron yelled, a moment too late, as the thruster igniters fired. A circle of pure white light lit the dust below each corner of the ship as half-spheres of swirling amber plasma descended like bubbles of hot magma.  Dominick hit the ground and covered his head, looking up only once to call out to his friends.
1842"Guys, come get me!" he screamed, his voice sounding oddly high-pitched, as though through helium, unaware this would soon become a catch phrase that would haunt him for years. For now, though, his friends stood rooted in place, less amused and more terrified, as Dominick began clutching his hands to his throat.
1843The swirling amber spheres transitioned to blue-white, and a red mars light above Julio's head illuminated, blinking at one-second intervals, as the ship began to slowly rise. Ten feet from the ground, they noticed Dominick, still holding his throat, beginning to rise as well. Suspended in mid-air like Wile E. Coyote, he flailed his legs comically until the strange pull of the ship loosened, sending him plummeting to the scrub below.
1844Silently accelerating upward, the ship punched a triangular tunnel through the cloud cover, revealing the crystal clear blue sky above. Aaron and Julio felt a warm breeze blow past them, but felt no vibration nor heard any engine noise as the bubble of silence lifted, and the ambient sounds of the desert returned.
1845Dominick sat up in the dirt, in a state of shock, as his hair slowly sank back down onto his shoulders. Emerging from his reverie, he searched for his friends, only to find two dust trails receding into the distance.
1846 
1847~ Sixty-One ~
1848
1849The horns of the Glenn Miller orchestra punched through the still heat of the Texas afternoon as Noly's car rounded a low hill.
1850"You know, my other girl is a Tesla Model S," he informed Jess over the music. "Now that's about as far off from this gal as Big Mama is from a 787. But no matter the age, both of my girls are beautiful inside and out, you can tell the love that went into 'em."
1851"Now gettin' back to business, the ships your gonna be looking for," he continued, "well they've been moved out West like I said, to a facility in Northern California. Don't know where, I only know it's an underground facility, that'll be up to y'all to figure."
1852"So how do you know all this?" Jess asked.
1853Noly let a few beats pass to consider his answer before replying. "Don't suppose you ever heard of the Xerox nine-fourteen, have you young miss?"
1854"Um, nope..."
1855"Well, back in the early sixties, it was the height of the cold war, if you remember that from your history books. We had the U2's up in the air, Cuba was a big threat by proxy, and there was espionage everywhere. What we didn't have, though, was any intel on what the Soviet embassies were sending back home, from right here in our own backyard. So these folks from the CIA, they were doing recon on these embassies, and noticed that the only non-Soviet personnel allowed inside were the Xerox repairmen, who back in the day had to go tune up these newfangled contraptions about once every two weeks."
1856"See, the Soviets, they never were so much different from us, in that they were just as lazy as we were. They hated tediously hand-copying all their secret documents, and so they found this new wonder machine, the Xerox nine-fourteen, that could do the job for them with one push of a button."
1857"So what the CIA did is, they got hold of this repairman from Xerox, recruited him for some freelance work so to speak, and taught him how to install a small film camera, designed to fit in that machine as if it belonged there from day one, as part of the maintenance. And every two weeks he would go in there and unload the negatives of every document copy made, and put in a fresh roll."
1858"That copier repairman, not in a small way neither, helped us win the Cold War."
1859Noly didn't continue on, and Jess didn't press him any further. The remainder of the ride was silent, until he finally stopped the car in the middle of nowhere and got out.
1860"Give her a pat for me, Star," he said, as he unloaded their gear from the fold-out rumble seat in back, "I do miss her terribly."
1861"One of these days," Star said, giving him a bear hug. Maneuvering himself back into the drivers seat, they all waved to him as the clattering beauty slowly turned and made her way back into town. Without any modern point of reference around, Jess imagined it was 1938 as she watched him slowly recede into the distance. When they reached Scout, she thought, she might be able to imagine it was 75 years in the future.
1862Being full of pie, there wasn't much talk on the hike back. It had gotten hotter, and it seemed to take twice as long returning as it did leaving. Finally, they reached the spot, but found no ship waiting for them. Jess looked around with concern, but nobody else seemed to be panicking. Star dropped her pack and sat on it, after pulling water out from a side pocket.
1863"Well guess she had a fright," she said, taking a sip. "She'll be back for us."
1864"What do you mean a fright? How long are we going to be stuck out here?"
1865Sag, perched on a mound a few yards away, pointed off into the distance. Following his finger, they noticed a single dust trail rising amidst the heat shimmer of the desert.
1866"Prolly an ATV rider or something. Looks pretty recent, so she should be back within an hour or so," Sag offered.
1867Having nothing better to do than to wait patiently, Jess let her mind wander across all she had taken in the last few days, until she came upon something that had stuck in her mind.
1868"Hey Sag, so, about this remote kill signal you mentioned yesterday. You say they still keep repeating it, hoping Big Mama will come back online someday, right?"
1869"Yeah, every few hours they blast it out. Why?"
1870"Have you figured out how it works?"
1871"Well, sort of. At least the first part. There is a preamble, sorta like 'attention, attention', and then there is a ship identifier, meaning which ship the command is meant for, then there are two following sections which I don't know what they do. But obviously some form of disablement command. It's all in binary strings of hex characters, like the unlock codes."
1872"Do you know if it's encrypted at all?"
1873"No, and that's the funny thing. I don't think it is. But then, there are so many layers of security to even get to the transmitting apparatus, and such a limited bandwidth on the ELF channel, that I think they said it probably isn't worth it. Just like how the gen-two's didn't even need a code to operate, as you discovered. Stupidity, meet arrogance."
1874Star broke in. "I know where you're goin' with this, you wanna disable their ships. We've talked about that before. Problem is, A, we don't know the ships codes. Two, we don't know what the commands do. We assume it disables the ship, but what if there's a self-destruct in there too? We're not about to go killin' folks – not our style. We're more Peace and Love orientated – less chaos and death and all that."
1875"And finally," Sag added, "the big one is we don't have the massive antenna arrays to relay an ELF signal around the world. Ain't gonna happen."
1876Jess sat for a bit, squinted up at the sun, and thought to herself.
1877"Can't we change the lady?"
1878"Huh?" Sag asked.
1879"The numbers lady. Can't we redirect the ships to listen to another non-ELF frequency we can transmit on?"
1880Now it was Sag's turn to sit and think. Star got up off her bag and paced a bit, a frown on her face.
1881"I don't know...we can possibly override the signal, for a short time at least," she said, "if we take out the main shortwave transmitter – do you even know where that is, Sag?"
1882"Yeah, believe it or not, other Hams have triangulated it already, it's down in Cuba – Guantanamo Bay. That's probably why the Feds haven't shut it down already. Anyway, I could broadcast a recording with a modified subcarrier frequency, but I don't know how we could take out the main signal. They have more transmitter power than we do by a long shot."
1883Sag rubbed his forehead as he pondered the proposal further.
1884"Maybe we don't have to take it out...maybe we just need to degrade the signal so ours is the primary. Only thing I can think of is to park a ship right on top of the transmitter. The mag-ring would disrupt it for sure, but that's risky for obvious reasons, and hell, it's not very elegant to boot."
1885"Hey, whatever works, Rambo," Star said, her mind spinning now, "when you get back can you check Big Mama's kill receiver to see if she's even able to tune into the shortwave band for the redirect?"
1886"Even if it is possible, Star," Sag replied, "we agreed before not to mess with the kill signal. We made a pact that we're not going to harm nobody."
1887They all sat quietly for a few more minutes until Jess broke the silence.
1888"You won't harm any body," Jess mused to herself, then turning to them: "I'm a sleeper."
1889They both looked at her, realizing that she had the skills to pull it off, completely oblivious to Scout descending directly behind them.
1890"Ride's here!" Jess shouted.
1891 
1892~ Sixty-Two ~
1893
1894They boarded the ship and stowed their gear as Star began the startup sequence.
1895"OK, here's what we do," Jess proposed once they were under way. "You drop me at the edge of the base, I squirrel myself in there, and at a predetermined time, I take one of the ships. Now Star, you need to park yourself over Radio Free Guantanamo while Sag broadcasts the recording with the redirected kill channel frequency. This all has to happen just as I snag the ship, so they can't kill it before I even get it out of the mountain. Give me five minutes to take it out over the sea, and then send me your kill signal, so just in case it self-detonates or whatever, at least it'll be away from any population centers. If we determine that it's a nondestructive disable, then we know we can take out all their ships safely. So once you hear from me that all's OK, you can send the kill signal to all of them. No harm no foul. Just the most powerful government sans any gen-three surveillance hardware is all."
1896"Assuming this is how it all pans out," Sag said skeptically, "the hex code for the ship ID is sixteen characters long, and we don't know them. It would take weeks to send out all the millions of possible hex codes for the ships out there."
1897"Just use all F's," Jess replied casually. "I had a problem with my WiFi router once – the network address was set to all F's, turns out that was the broadcast address."
1898Sag stared at her, and after a moment turned a shade of crimson; he had not thought of that before. "Yeah... um, that might work, actually. It's worth a try anyway," he said sheepishly.
1899"There you go, think positive!" she said, putting her arm around his shoulder.
1900"I...have an issue with this," said Star distractedly as she continued to pilot the ship, "what about our agreement? You can sacrifice your ship if you want, but if we try this, then we don't get our ship either."
1901"You're right. There's no way we can do this experiment and then waltz back in and take the second ship, they probably would have..."
1902"...changed the codes," Star added, "yeah, they did that after Big Mama. We only had one code for her but Noly told us they had changed all the others within minutes of the breach."
1903"So," Jess continued, "which do you want, status quo with you all having one more gen-three, and they having however many hundreds more they have right now, or a chance to take out their whole gen-three arsenal at once?"
1904"OK. You got us. We'll try it. But only if it includes a plan to compromise the ELF array for good, not just temporarily. And I don't like the idea of going down over the ocean either. Ocean's not a dumping ground."
1905"Well, OK, so...first, what do we know about this ELF array?" Jess asked Sag.
1906"The broadcast messages are generated in Virginia, but that's a small piece of the puzzle. Very secure. I looked it up on Google street view once and it just shows a plain white office building. No way we could take that out without some collateral damage. The final relay point and main broadcast antenna are in northern Wisconsin, it's called the Clam Lake array. All this infrastructure was supposedly decommissioned in 2004, at least officially, but they still use it for the ships, that I know."
1907"OK, so do we know any weak points in the system we can mess with?"
1908"Well yeah, the antenna itself – it's just a half-inch diameter copper wire; problem is, it's thirty-two miles long. There might be redundancies, too, I don't know. You'd have to take it all out, to be sure. The plus side is, it's all strung out in the middle of the forest so it's pretty isolated."
1909"So it's buried or what?" Jess asked.
1910"No, it's just on wooden poles like any old telephone line."
1911"Poles? Well hells-bells, this is going to be a cakewalk, I thought this was going to be some Death Star shit. So I knock out thirty-two miles of poles. Ship'll take it, right?"
1912"Oh yeah, that shouldn't be an issue, they'll pop like toothpicks," Sag replied, then turned to Star. "Hey...Roper would love to see that in person, wouldn't he."
1913"Oh yeah," Star recalled, "Jess, honey, you don't know but he chainsawed a couple of poles down himself back in the early nineties – protest against their use of ELF as a nuclear first-strike tool in the cold war – took the whole thing out for a couple days – did ninety days himself in county for it too," she recalled wistfully, seemingly lost in a memory. "Good days, those were."
1914"Yeah, OK," Jess interrupted, "so instead of going out over the ocean, I take the ship to Wisconsin and take out the array. Roper is at the scene and confirms it, and then you can send the kill signal to shut me down over the forest."
1915"You're forgetting one thing," Star said, "there's no comms on the ships, plus you won't have no body. How are you supposed to let us know how things are going through all this? Twitter ain't gonna work up there."
1916"Crap on a cupcake. Yeah. Well..I can jump back into my body in California and use a cell phone, I guess?"
1917"That sounds like a total hack right there," Sag said.
1918"Yeah it kinda sucks don't it," Jess replied, "well it's all I can do. I jump back to give you status at each point in the plan except at the end where Roper does a visual verification. It's not like the ship is going to drop out of the sky if I scoot out of there for a few seconds."
1919Star slowed down as they approached the homestead, and after a quick radio check with Roper, surreptitiously maneuvered Scout down and into the hangar. They continued their planning discussions over an early dinner, and decided they had to work fast while they still knew where the two target ships were. The second largest heist of U.S. government property would take place the next night.
1920 
1921~ Sixty-Three ~
1922
1923The next evening, buckled into a jump seat on Scout once again, Jess went over the plan in her head while Star piloted the ship somewhere over Oklahoma. Once Star had safely returned after dropping Jess near the base – how she would get in would be up to her – she would fly Big Mama to Cuba to lie in wait for the signal to disrupt the Guantanamo transmission.
1924Sag would remain at the homestead, monitoring for the signal drop, which was his cue to play his hacked recording, announcing to the ships that they needed to tune into a new shortwave band that he controlled at 1.8MHz, instead of the ELF channel at 76Hz. He was pretty confident this would work, as he had confirmed the previous night that Big Mama was indeed able to tune into his shortwave frequency.
1925Finally, Roper was going to drive up to Wisconsin to wait for Jess to take out the ELF array, at which point he would call Sag and let him know he could send her ship the kill command. Assuming the ship was disabled safely and non-destructively, Sag would then send out the broadcast kill command, hopefully rendering the government's advanced fleet a collection of super-sized nuclear paperweights.
1926"Hey, sleepyhead, grab your gear, time for some camping."
1927Jess had dozed through the last leg of the journey, and rousing herself, she unbuckled herself, grabbed her pack, and opened the hatch, letting the high-pitched whine of the thrusters enter the cabin.
1928"OK," Star said over the din, "you gotta move at least thirty feet away so you don't get caught in the bubble when I leave. Good luck, we'll be rooting for 'ya, but whatever happens, it's gonna be a good night!"
1929Jess let her gear fall to the tall dew-covered grass ten feet below, and climbing down, dangled below the ship before dropping herself on top of it. Dragging it away through the brush, the cacophony from the thrusters faded into a heavy, low hum as she passed through the noise-canceling boundary. The lone circle of white light on the ground winked out as her open hatch noiselessly slid shut.
1930Jess was already pulling tent poles from her gear bag when the dark crimson thrusters turned bright blue-white, and suddenly the ship was gone. She felt the weight of a few strands of hair dropping back onto her head as the heavy silence lifted. Holding a mag-lite with her teeth, she finished the one-person tent just as a few brave crickets began to chirp again. Before climbing in the tent, she shut off her flashlight and admired her surroundings. She was utterly alone, on a random mountainside in the middle of California, and it was beautiful.
1931Her phone alarm woke her at two o'clock in the morning. Groggily hitting the mute button, she searched blindly in her bag for her granola bar breakfast. After using nature's facilities outside, she returned to get to work. Laying down, she began the exit process, and once out, maneuvered herself downslope, using the large dam nearby as a geographical reference, just as she had practiced on Google Earth the night before. The entrance was most likely behind the out-of-place twelve-foot cyclone fence she had spotted in her research, which she found easily enough. Although it didn't matter to her in her current state, she noticed a large section that had been previously pulled away. Perhaps she was not the first to breach this facility, she thought.
1932Beyond the fence, she followed an overgrown two-track for another quarter mile or so, which ultimately led to a tunnel opening embedded into the hillside. Although the circular tunnel was unlit inside, she could see well enough in her state, and followed it for three-hundred feet until it dead-ended into a large wall with a locked security door in the middle. Though the tunnel diameter itself was thirty feet or so, it was still too small to be an entrance or exit for even the smallest of ships, and this dead-end doorway proved it. A broken red light bulb hung over the entrance, which was situated on a concrete platform seven steps up from the ground.
1933Passing up the metal stairs and through the heavy door, she found herself in a darkened mechanical room, containing a small desk, some white hardhats on wall pegs, a pair of dusty work boots, and little else. A second interior door stood before her, this one holding a small taped up window, and beyond it she could hear the sounds of whooshing water and mechanical pumps. She wondered if this was the right place after all, or if they been given some bad information.
1934Moving through this next door, she emerged into a dark cavernous space easily the size of a Costco, containing an array of pumping equipment a hundred yards long. She noticed some chiller equipment throwing off waves of cold air at the very end of the room, and swiftly moved towards it. Following the flow of the large diameter blue and red piping, Jess realized that this equipment was actually for generating electricity from the slow release of the dammed up water. A portion of this power was being fed into the chillers, whose pipes she followed until they disappeared into the far wall.
1935Moving through this final wall, she found herself in another enormous space – this one brightly lit – which contained six gen-three ships lined up neatly in the same herringbone pattern as she had seen in Ohio. Four of the ships were supported by cement footings and looked to be out of service, but the remaining two at the end of the space hovered freely, emitting the familiar low hum.
1936Two people in blue coveralls, a man and a woman, were walking around one of the active ships, performing some sort of repairs or maintenance. Next to them, a wheeled cart supported a four-foot high, two-foot diameter black cylinder. Moving closer, she found no labels or markings on the black container, with the single exception of a small one-inch square aperture which emitted a bright blue glow.
1937As one worker maneuvered a second empty cart underneath the ship, the other gently guided a similar black cylinder, this one with a much fainter blue glow, down from within the belly of the ship and onto the empty cart. Moving the fresh cylinder into place, they attached an assistive mount and manually lifted it into place until it clicked. The procedure complete, they wheeled the carts away and stored them along the wall.
1938 Curiosity satisfied, she went about her business of finding the ship matching her code. She had been told the first two hex digits of the code would be the last two digits of an identifier located on one apex of the bottom of each ship, etched into the surface but invisible from a distance of more than a few feet.
1939The first ship she checked was the disabled one closest to her. It did not match, but what she did find interesting was an insignia on the bottom of the craft which looked to have been painted over. Through the black paint, she could make out the shape of a triangle containing a circle with two lightning bolts striking it, identical to the pilot's shoulder patches.
1940Moving onward, she checked two more disabled ships until she realized one of the active ones was most likely to be the one just arrived from Texas. Indeed, she quickly confirmed it was the one that had just had the energy source replaced. Before entering the ship, however, she surveyed the surrounding area, and followed two painted yellow lines in the concrete floor which led off down a long dark tunnel. The end, a quarter mile away, was fully open to the night air, much to Jess' surprise.
1941Rushing back to the ship, she slipped aboard and began to dial in the unlock code. Although the problem of how to get out of the mountain seemed eminently solvable, she ran into another issue – the newer capacitive touch screens on these gen-three ships were more difficult to operate in her body-less state. Each time she tried to adjust the controls it either didn't register, or registered a touch outside of the area she was aiming for. She could only get the touch target to register after four or five tries – and dialing in all sixteen hex codes was taking several minutes longer than she expected. As the seconds ticked by her paranoia increased: had they changed the system to deter operation by sleepers? Were they slowing down the code input as a delaying tactic while they were silently notified of this subterfuge?
1942As she hovered over the screen, about to punch in the final digit, another problem manifested – two headlights at the end of the tunnel appeared. It was yet another gen-three, which silently glided past to hover in an open area behind her. She waited until the new ship was still for a minute before entering the last digit of the code, which resulted in the ship emitting three happy sounding chimes.
1943Star had already lectured her on the differences between the gen-twos and threes, in that the threes were easier to maneuver using the ring momentum only, since no active thrust was needed. As the ship was already in a hover, all she needed to do was orient the leading edge towards the exit and tip the ship forward a few inches to engage movement, without activating the thrusters and giving them a few key moments extra notice.
1944The touchscreen, however, continuing to misread her input, began to rotate the ship the wrong way. As she tried to correct, she noticed with horror a worker walking directly in front of the ship, who avoided being clocked by the rotating corner by a few inches. Although focused on a tablet he was carrying, he must have felt the movement of the massive ship, as he looked up just as the ship had come to a halt again. He paused for a moment, puzzled, but then slowly returned his gaze to the tablet as he continued on towards the newly arrived ship.
1945Unwilling to continue the attempt to straighten the ship, Jess realized she needed to get out, immediately. Carefully dialing up the smaller station-keeping thrusters in the rear, the behemoth tipped and began to slide down the tunnel towards the exit. Inside, Jess could hear the ring emitting a louder hum, as if to complain about the loss of equilibrium, along with a hiss from the smaller aperture thrusters.
1946Halfway down the tunnel, Jess panned rearward one last time to watch the man with the tablet running back to a door along the wall. She attempted to increase the thrusters, but the console misread her input again, and the ship angled into the tunnel wall with a squeal of metal on rock, alighting the tunnel in a shower of sparks. Punching at the console, she overcompensated, and set the ship on a course into the opposite wall. Jess girded herself instinctually for the impact, but the ship, apparently realizing it's driver was some kind of moron, took control and not only avoided the impact but righted itself, rotating around to face the opening directly.
1947Buoyed by this assist, Jess tilted the ship further forward, but her stomach dropped as another pair of headlights lowered themselves into the entrance ahead, blocking their exit.
1948 
1949~ Sixty-Four ~
1950
1951They couldn't have scrambled a ship that quickly, she thought to herself, and the idea that there was a sentry ship standing guard at the tunnel entrance seemed ludicrous. This must be just another ship coming in for storage, she surmised, and flooring the rear thrusters, she tipped the ship by a foot, sending them careening forward.
1952With no room for the ships to pass each other, once again Jess braced for an impact, but at the last moment the hum from her ring rose to deafening levels and the ship began to shudder violently. Looking down at the console, the display showed the other ship backing away from hers just quickly enough to avoid a collision, until they were both outside the mountain, when the other ship popped up and away, allowing her escape.
1953Once clear, the shuddering stopped, but the momentum rocketed her out over the valley below, and she quickly found herself heading into the opposite ridge line without the ability to bring the ship under control. Closing her eyes, she felt a violent thrust upwards as the ship skipped up and over the top of the mountain.
1954Up in open air beyond the ridge, she was finally able to get the ship under control and bring her around. Whatever the disembodied form of anxiety was – a sizzling, jumpy feeling, but lacking any pounding heart and sweaty palms – she had it. Calming herself down, she recalled what Star had told her about the ship being in tune with the intent of the pilot, and assumed the ships had negotiated with each other automatically to avoid a collision. That is must have what happened, she thought, as the reactions were too quick for even a trained human pilot to respond to.
1955Realizing there was no way she could pilot this ship all the way across the country in her present state, she decided she needed to pick herself up. It took her several anxious minutes to simply maneuver the ship back around towards where she was camped. Just as she had found her tent below and parked the ship a few feet above it, she noticed two high-powered spotlights doing a grid search pattern on the opposite ridge, looking for her. There were two: another ship had joined the one that she had rudely pushed aside, most likely the new arrival.
1956Returning to her body, her anxiety manifested as an immediate physical reaction – sweat poured out of her as her body shook uncontrollably for a good thirty seconds before settling down. Exhausted, she fumbled around in the dark with her sweat-drenched hand for the phone to call Star. Powering it on, her heart sank when she unlocked the phone and found no bars of signal.
1957"Shit! shit! SHIT!" she exclaimed, and exiting the tent, she chucked it into some grassy brush. Sitting down cross-legged, she waited for them to find her – or for the disable command to hit her brand new ship – whichever happened first. It didn't really matter to her now; she couldn't care less if they detonated it directly over her head. The mission was a failure.
1958Laying her head across her folded arms, she soon noticed a prickly sensation climbing up her back. Reaching up, she felt her hair begin to rise. Realizing her mistake, she jumped up and ran over to the scrub brush, searching all over for her phone, as the bright spotlights from the search ships began making their way towards her – they had spotted the dim light of the thrusters and had lit her up.
1959She found the phone next to a rock, screen shattered, but still functional. She ran further away from the ship, and watched the bars start to rise. Star answered on the first ring.
1960"What's the good word?" she said, as she walked barefoot through the surf of a dark and deserted south Florida beach, Big Mama humming quietly above the gently cresting waves behind her.
1961"Go! Go! Go!" Jess shouted, already running back to her ship.
1962"Got it. Safe travels!" Star yelled back, reaching down for her sandals before running back to her own ship. She would be over Cuba in less than two minutes.
1963Jess, quickly deflating her pop-up tent, pushed it up into the hatch of the ship as the sleeping bag and other items jostled about inside. She got the hatch closed just as the two search ships rose from the valley below, blocking her way out. Catapulting the ship forward, she hoped to push them out of the way, but this time the ship abruptly halted, like a quickly braking roller coaster, and sent her reeling across the floor. She figured the negotiation algorithm determined that her ship had the least combined mass and momentum, and therefore she should be the one to yield.
1964The other ships closed in, crowding hers up the rising mountain slope with a grinding shudder. Grabbing the captain's chair, she pulled herself up from the floor and buckled in just as the ship angled sharply upward and oscillated wildly in place, futilely attempting to maintain stability while trapped between the pursuers and a sheer rock face. She was trapped.
1965 
1966~ Sixty-Five ~
1967
1968Jess waited for...whatever was going to happen. And she waited. And suddenly she realized – they couldn't do anything. These were surveillance ships, not attack ships. They were waiting for the kill signal, which Jess knew – if Star was in position, as she should be – would never come.
1969Taking this window of opportunity, she began to execute a pinwheel maneuver, just as she had seen done on the government ship. De-synching the thrusters and firing them in turn, the ship slipped free, cartwheeling upwards a mile into the night sky. Tipping horizontal again, she scanned below to see the powerful search lights growing larger as they quickly rose to meet her.
1970Crossing her fingers that there was no major air traffic ahead, she tipped forward and sped off west into the darkness. Her primary goal now was to get out over the ocean, away from populated areas. When she saw nothing but darkness below her a minute later, she rotated one of the external cameras backwards, but was shocked to see the two sets of bright lights only a few hundred feet behind her.
1971Angling left, she tipped downward, but it was too late. Two jolts rocked the ship as they bumped her from behind. Angling right, she found the controls much less responsive, and the ship only turned a few degrees, slowly, before stopping. Angling left produced the same result. As she furiously punched through the control screens looking for the problem, the ship began turning of it's own accord.
1972Flipping back to the camera view, Jess saw the two ships right off her stern on each side. Unmoving as they continued through the rolling turn, she realized they were now linked to her ship in a delta formation, and were forcing her back to land. Try as she might, she was unable to break free, and her furious efforts at extraction only delayed slightly their ultimate goal to force her back around. She was overpowered.
1973Slumping in her chair, she watched the lights of the shore come into view on the horizon. So close, she thought distraughtly. Laying her head on the console, she anguished over a way out of this mess. Hold on, she thought, they aren't physically connected to me, are they. Attacking the console again, she de-synched the engines and burst the forward thruster to one-hundred percent. This sudden burst flipped the front of her ship upwards, while the back was still connected at the trailing apexes to the chase ships, who continued to maintain level formation. Falling backwards, her ship snapped perfectly into the triangle-shaped hole in the center of the triad with a thunk, magnetically locking in place. Upside-down now, she synched the engines once again then opened them all up, pushing them all downwards towards the dark sea.
1974Unable to break free, she hoped this game of chicken would increase her odds to shake them loose. As they plummeted downwards, the chase ships attempted to right the formation by turns, but only succeeded in twisting the trio to the right or left. Finally, they worked together and burst their rear thrusters simultaneously, angling them all away from the water with only seconds to spare. Now, however, they were inverted, righting Jess in the process. Jess, having fun now, anticipated the maneuver, and immediately reversed the switchblade trick, flipping her ship out front once again. Opening up the forward thruster again, they once more plummeted downwards towards the sea.
1975Too low now, the pursuing ships couldn't compensate in time, and Jess braced her arms against the console as they plunged into the dark water. Eyes closed and teeth gritted, she felt only a slight bump as they entered the water, like driving over a shallow pothole. Opening one eye, she looked up to see a wall of green seawater shooting past no more than six feet beyond the ship's hull. Loosening her death grip, she switched the console view to the forward camera, which displayed a bright white orb a hundred feet forward of the ship. This ball of sizzling light, a high-tech Moses, was rending apart the seawater like a hot knife through butter, allowing her easy passage.
1976She watched, entranced, as the orb began to grow in size, until a low double-tone from the opposite console interrupted her. Flipping her console to the other pilot's screen, a graphic of the three ships appeared, with a streamlined bubble – the envelope – surrounding them. The envelope, highlighted in yellow, displayed 45% within it. As she watched, the percentage reduced to 40%, prompting the console to issue the low double-tone once again. Glancing at the panels above and below, it was clear the seawater was closing in.
1977Flipping back to the navigation panel, she noted their current depth of 2,700 meters and pressure of 268 atmospheres. Based on the percentage envelope remaining, she quickly calculated the critical point to be at about four thousand meters. Flipping the console to the rear cameras, she sat back, waiting for her pursuers to lose their nerve and break off, as the tones became louder and more insistent.
1978As the indicator reached fifteen percent, however, beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she began to lose her nerve. Sitting forward, she intently watched the screen, willing the chase ships to break off their hold on her ship. Five percent came and went as the rushing seawater encroached to within a foot of the hull. Flipping to the engine management screen, she steadied her fingers above the console in order to fire the thrusters when her pursuers disconnected, or when the envelope threshold crossed below one percent. But they were still on her, reminding her of the tenacity of the North Korean jet pilots who were willing to die to capture or kill her.
1979She began to panic, thinking she would need to find another way out of this, when suddenly, just as the indicator reached one percent, a calm came over her. Deep within, she heard the same voice, or remembrance – she couldn't be sure which – but it said to her: Run into the fear. Removing her hands from the console, she sat back in her captain's seat, tightened her harness, and took a deep breath.
1980The warning chimes merged into a constant tone as all nine thrusters on the trio of ships fired simultaneously, rotating them upwards. This last gasp was issued beyond human control, from the ships own systems, as they collectively attempted to save themselves; in their estimation the human pilots had abandoned their responsibilities, and were all illogically willing to perish.
1981No, Jess said calmly, as she reached forward, and one by one, shut down her engines, then the ring itself. The plasma slowed and solidified around her, creating an anchor of her ship which pulled the trio downwards, the other ship's thrusters incapable of compensating for this tremendous new burden. The seawater streamed past the panels now as they sank like a stone, further into darkness.
1982The algorithms of the chase ships, taking into account this unexpected new variable in their equation, furiously recalculated contingency b-trees for a total of six-hundred and nine milliseconds, before shutting down all six remaining thrusters. Even the machines, now, had accepted their combined fate. 
1983~ Sixty-Six ~
1984
1985At zero percent, the buzzing stopped, and it became eerily quiet – the eye of the hurricane. Jess continued to breathe deeply, unconcerned now about the chase ships, until sixteen seconds later, when the envelope collapsed completely. The seawater smacked into the hulls with a crack like lightning, rocking the ships. The pilots of the pursuing ships, after init'ing their ship's systems into a manual single-user recovery mode stored on a red USB key at each captain's console, detached from her ship with two loud thunks and blew their thrusters, sending them upwards.
1986As for Jess, she sat quietly as she sank further down, deep groans and concussive metallic pops filling the cabin from all sides. The fore and aft cameras were the first to go, screens frozen on the last green pixellated image captured before their lenses collapsed. Heavy thuds issued from the rear left of the ship, as one of the thrusters went completely dark on the console. More thuds from the other ends of the ship signaled the remaining thrusters had met their fate as well.
1987A final, terrible, ripping metal sound reverberated through the cabin as the viewing panels flipped from murky seawater green to a dark gray, and the ambient lighting faded as red dots of perimeter lighting appeared on the floor. The darkness of the silent cabin allowed Jess to see millions of previously invisible, tiny particles streaking upwards against the viewing panels. Her zen-master spell broken, she realized with horror that the ship had breached the seafloor, yet continued to sink with alarming speed deep into the silt.
1988Turning her attention back to the console, Jess found the main systems still operable, and brought the ring back online. As it spun up, the reassuring low hum returned to the ship, as did the ambient lighting, greatly calming her nerves. The engine console, though, was toast – all three thrusters were not only offline, but no longer even appeared on the display. Same for the camo console. The hull seemed to be intact, as Jess could detect no obvious leaks, but the majority of the subsystems, with the exception of the ring, seemed to be critically impaired.
1989The powerup of the ring had halted any further sinking of the ship, but it wasn't rising either, and without any thrusters, she was stuck. Out of ideas, and knowing that time was short, she decided to escape, leaving her body behind. Laying her head on the console, she wondered with trepidation if this would be the final resting place for her physical.
1990Once out, she called the image of Big Mama to her mind,  pulling herself to it until the ship resolved around her. Star, hunched over a console, glanced up with a start as she  noticed her across the cabin.
1991"Oh, shit!" she exclaimed, rushing over and searching the area. Jess, confused, moved away from her to the opposite side of the cabin. Star stopped, and looking up, noticed her on the other side.
1992"Who is that?"
1993Utilizing her parlor trick, Jess shot a jolt of electricity through her nervous system, giving Star a quick glimpse of her form.
1994"Holy Guacamole! Jess! You scared the piss outta me, I thought there was a fire. Anyway, neat trick girl! But hey, what's up? Something gone wrong?"
1995Pulling out another tool from her tophat, she did what Terry had taught her, and attempted to form some etheric speech organs.
1996"Bottom," she managed to croak out. "Water. Stuck. Help."
1997"What? You're bong water sucks? Jess, honey, I can't hear you, it's all garbled."
1998Jess, for her part, felt like Lassie all of a sudden. Smacking her etheric head, she slid over to the console and began typing.
1999"STUCK EMBEDDED IN SEAFLOOR UNDER PACIFIC ENGINES GONE HELP WHAT DO I DO"
2000Star, hearing the console beeps, slid over and read her message.
2001"OK. Slow down first. Are the thrusters not working?"
2002"NO NOT EVEN ON SCREEN"
2003"OK, that's bad honey. Is the ring online?"
2004"YES STUCK IN SILT BUT STOPPED SINKING"
2005"All right, now that's not so bad. Now remember what I said, with that one you can use the ring all by itself. Spin it up, then adjust the flow pattern inside using the nozzle icon, it should propel you out. Oh crap, but you don't have the envelope, do you."
2006"NO"
2007"Well it's gonna be slow going, just make your way out best you can. Listen, gonna be honest, I don't know how much time I have here, I already see a patrol on the way, so do the best you can, but I can't say how long I can hold out here before they scramble a couple a ships. Good luck honey."
2008"THANKS" she replied, as she slipped back into the tunnel. Catching her breath, she woke up to find drool covering her hand. Wiping it away, she reached forward and spun the ring up to one-hundred percent. When the hum had stopped rising, she touched the nozzle icon Star had mentioned, shifting her to a new screen with a dynamic image of a tube with material flowing through it. Manipulating the material distorted the flow pattern and lowered the ring speed, but more importantly jostled the ship, sliding it down further into the muck.
2009Spinning up the ring to full again, she twisted the flow pattern in the opposite direction, and the ship slowly slid upwards in response. Giggling, Jess clapped her hands while doing a little butt-dance in her seat. Following the pattern of power-up, then flow disruption, she slowly pulled herself upwards through the seafloor, like rocking a stuck car out of a snowdrift, until she reached the water again.
2010Maintaining a vertical orientation, she continued the slow rising maneuvers until she felt a pop and saw the envelope begin to form around the ship once again. As it expanded around the ship, Jess noticed with confusion that the sidewalls above and below the ring were now also external display panels. Joining together with the ceiling and floor displays, she felt as if she were in a glass diving bell.
2011Regardless, Jess felt safer now that the envelope had been restored, and so orienting the ship to horizontal, she experimented with different flow patterns to raise the ship further. Each push became easier as the envelope extended outward and upward, and she soon gained confidence with this new way of maneuvering the ship. Once she had reached three thousand meters, any resistance had gone, and she could maneuver the ship at will without slowing. A minute later, a pinprick opening appeared one the surface of the dark Pacific ocean, widening quickly into a hundred meter circle. Flying through the opening, the ship shot into the darkness of the night sky as the hole collapsed behind her.
2012Although the nav console couldn't auto-pilot the ship due to the lack of thrusters, it did display her location, and working with different flow pattern adjustments, Jess was able to rise above air traffic level and set a course eastward, before finally leaning back for a break. After a few minutes of idly watching her progress across the continent, a small electronic grunt issued from the ship, as it angled slightly downward with a thunk. She thought maybe she had hit something, and scanned across the various consoles for any new issues, but found none. A few seconds later, the ship did it again, and then again.
2013Confused, she looked down through the floor panels, finding a small cluster of lights in the darkness. According to the map, that cluster was Salt Lake City, but it seemed way too small. Checking the nav console, she discovered she was one-hundred kilometers above sea level. Doing some quick math, she realized with shock she had reached sixty-two miles in elevation. With no auto-pilot, she had forgotten to follow the curvature of the Earth, and was now bumping up against the edge of space like a stone skipping across a still pond.
2014She began to descend, but was soon distracted by a light from above. It was a glowing orb, the size of a basketball, which caught up to and kept pace with the ship. Two more came into view below her, a reddish one and a blue one the color of a stove burner. She should have been alarmed that they might be weapons, or tracking devices of some sort, but strangely, she felt no anxiousness about them.
2015Perhaps it was the way they moved – their personality – that seemed so non-threatening. They just seemed to be flying along with her, bobbing and weaving, as though dolphins splashing in her wake. Pulling herself away from their hypnotic dance, she continued to watch them as she began to descend. The lights trailed above and behind her, and then were gone.
2016 
2017~ Sixty-Seven ~
2018
2019Roper had been sitting in the van all night, and his coffee thermos was almost empty. He had Truckin' playing loud on the eight track, yet his head continued drooping and rising, like one of those glass drinking birds. Shaking himself awake, he thought back to the early nineties, when last he had been there. That time, he had a chainsaw. He shut down the entire array for two days, a small but potent success, which raised the visibility of this secret project in the backwoods of northern Wisconsin, and prompted local residents to question the purpose – and long-term health effects – of pumping all this energy into the ground.
2020Although suspended twenty feet up on poles for twenty-six miles, at each terminus the wires of the antenna extended hundreds of feet into the bedrock layer of the Superior Upland Shield, which is exposed at the surface in this geologically unique part of the country. This antenna design used the earth's own mantle for the bulk of the transmitting ability; if not for that ingenious hack, the wire would have needed to be hundreds of miles long in order to produce the required long-wave frequencies, in which the transition between peak to peak was as vast as a quarter of the earth's diameter.
2021The shutdown of the ELF array was a true success story – rare in Roper's field of work – in that it was operational from only the late eighties until 2004 when it was "officially" decommissioned. Fourteen years of service for a multi-billion dollar cold-war era project was not bad. Of course it helped that the cold war was over just as it had began transmitting, and when people learned it was not for defensive purposes, but mainly used for a first strike nuclear capability, the resistance was energized, and the project further demonized. Between these factors, and ongoing Congressional scrutiny of these massively expensive defense department projects, Project ELF was not long for this world.
2022What the civilian protestors didn't know was a few years later the shuttered operations buildings were re-opened for limited use – environmental assessments they called it – but Roper heard word through their own grapevine that the real purpose was the new fleet management capabilities, including the kill signals, over the ELF channel – the only radio waves able to be detected by the ships, and conveniently, the only wavelengths that nobody but the big boys – the U.S. and the Russians – had exclusive access to. Even then, the Russian's ZEVS system based out of Murmansk was designed for 82Hz, and couldn't interfere with the U.S. ELF channel without massive reconfiguration.
2023The upgrade to provide clearway transmissions came later, after a near miss between a gen-three and a United Airlines Boeing 727 over North Dakota. After that incident, clearway transmissions became mandatory, and flights were strictly limited to the late night and early morning hours, to minimize risk of further incidents with commercial traffic, unless they were accompanied by conventional Air Force escort.
2024All this of course was generally unknown, since it was funded by black operations budgets, which are by definition exempt from any congressional oversight. But Roper knew. If Jess was able to take out the entire array, the Feds might not have the political capital to build it again – anywhere. If they lost the kill channel and the clearways; well, that would severely hamper their operational capabilities down the road.
2025Roper heard the tapping before he completely woke up. He dreamt it was a tinsmith fashioning an old Roman warrior helmet on an anvil – but the helmet was matte black. Rising in volume, it began to echo through the forest as Roper lifted his head from his chest, eyes still closed. He opened them as it grew into successive echoing booms, puncturing the night like the concussive fireworks they always save until the end of the show – the pure white balls of light that you can feel like a punch to the chest.
2026The glow of the ship appeared over a hill on the right-of-way a few miles distant. Roper watched the ship take out the telephone poles like toothpicks – they were cleaving away from the hull as if it were a twenty-one thousand ton snowplow. The sound was delayed so that Roper saw the poles fly several seconds before he heard the echoing thuds. Raising his phone to his ear, a smile crossed his face as he dialed up Sag. This had been a long time coming, and it felt good.
2027"It is DONE! And it is fuckin' GREAT!" he shouted into the phone, turning away and plugging his free ear as the ship sailed low in front of him, lighting up the forest and causing a jagged two-foot section of pole to drive itself into the dirt with a deep thud just a few feet in front of the van.
2028"Give her thirty seconds, then it's go time!" he shouted over the din, and throwing the phone on the dash, leaned back and cackled with glee.
2029Reaching the end of the run, Jess rose up and flew in a wide arc back over the van and into the forest. She saw the van and knew that Roper had already called it in, and since they didn't know she was physically onboard – they never would have issued the kill command if they did – she needed to get off the ship ASAP, while keeping it a safe distance away from Roper just in case.
2030Sag had been waiting for the Guantanamo signal to drop, and hearing it about twenty minutes earlier, knew that the next call would be from Roper. When it came, he had his finger ready over the Enter button to run the custom kill transmission sequence program. Hearing the good word, he paused for a minute, thinking about Jess on board. But she's in Cali, it's just her etheric onboard, he reassured himself, as he pressed the key.
2031 
2032~ Sixty-Eight ~
2033
2034Jess felt uneasy. She was still confident the command wouldn't detonate the ship, but she still felt like she needed to get out, immediately. Whizzing over the treetops, she searched in vain for a suitable clearing, but finding none, she stopped the ship and opened the floor hatch.
2035Unbuckling herself, she pulled herself towards the opening, diving in head first. Seeing the treetops ten feet below her, and the ground forty feet below that, she instinctively grabbed onto the final ladder rung inside the hatch opening as her lower body hung in zero-g below the ship. If she let her body drift outside the influence of the ring, she would drop to the ground like a stone.
2036She was scanning around for a nearby branch to jump down to when the kill signal hit. The lights inside the ship died, and the familiar red glow of the emergency lighting lit her from above. Hearing a whoosh, she felt a sudden pressure followed by a shooting pain running through both of her forearms as the hatch closed on her. Her screams pierced the cool forest night, drowning out the grinding noise coming from the hatch mechanism, which eventually realized it wasn't fully closed and opened back up. She pulled her left arm out just before the hatch attempted to close again, this time pinning just her right forearm. Blinding pain shot through her again as she screamed out.
2037Worse than the pain, however, Jess could hear the hum rising from within the ship, and saw the treetops below her begin to move – the ship was leaving. As soon as the hatch slid open again, she pulled her other arm free, but still caught within the ring's field, she simply floated along below the ship as it continued to accelerate. Planting one shoe on the hull above, she launched herself downwards into the forest below.
2038 
2039~ Sixty-Nine ~
2040
2041Roper had been watching the ship with some confusion as it pulled around, and when he noticed a figure hanging down from the hatch, he left the truck and started to run to it. Jess must be crazy to hijack a manned ship! he thought to himself, before he heard the screams and realized it was her and not a government pilot trying to escape.
2042Jess had slowly descended the limbs of a tall Pine tree with one arm, cradling the other against her chest, by the time Roper reached her.
2043"Jess! Are you alright?"
2044"Yeah, well it hurts like a mother but I'll make it," she said between agonized breaths.
2045Roper helped her down from the last bough and began carrying her back to the truck. "Surprised you didn't break a leg too on the way down."
2046"Yeah well I guess I was still 'under the influence' – I dropped slow enough to grab onto a branch. Then the ship sped off and all my weight came back."
2047"Speaking of the ship, what are you doing on it! And I thought it was supposed to be a gen-three – what the hell did you take?"
2048"Uh... what do you mean?"
2049Roper pointed to the sky. Hovering a quarter-mile up was a bona-fide disc-shaped flying saucer, surrounded by a hazy yellow glow. Suddenly, it blinked out, with the only clue to it's direction of departure a residual light trail on their retinas leading upwards, which quickly faded away.
2050"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Jess shouted to Roper.
2051"Ahh, Jess, honey...I was about to ask you. You just, ah, came outta that thing."
2052Jess was speechless.
2053"So, why are you here anyways? You're supposed to be in Cali, right?"
2054"Yeah, well, I couldn't navigate well enough without my body, so I had to pick myself up. Sorry but I couldn't tell you guys, but obviously you wouldn't have sent the signal if you knew. So I guess the kill signal just locks the ships down and returns them to their home base. Which makes sense, I knew they weren't going to brick a multi-billion dollar piece of hardware. Kind of a bummer for us though huh."
2055"Well it wasn't that bad of a day, but do ya always gotta be this dramatic?" Roper asked as he stepped over a section of splintered telephone pole. He pointed to a particularly nasty shard rising from the ground near the van. "Ya almost took my head off with that one."
2056"Hey, did you call Sag to have him send the kill signal to the rest of the fleet? Safe enough I guess, as long as you aren't dangling beneath 'em."
2057"Let's get you situated first, priorities now."
2058He opened the van's sliding van and set her down on the carpet inside. "Can you move your hand?"
2059Jess wiggled her fingers. "Yeah, but Ow...Shit!" A purple bruise had already formed on both of her forearms, and her right arm had begun to swell.
2060"Well probably not a break then, but still pretty nasty. Let's have Star look at ya back home. Used to be an EMT ya know. Meantime there's some ice in the mini fridge, let's get a pack made up for ya."
2061"Call Sag first," she pleaded.
2062He grabbed the phone from the dash and dialed.
2063"Yeah, she did it. Got her fool-ass on board though. Yeah her real ass. I have her here now. Ship went lockdown and returned home I guess. More interesting stuff about that ship later, by the way. Yeah seemed like it headed...well, up," he said, looking at Jess.
2064"...yeah, so probably back home to either Texas or Cali if they updated it...seems safe enough, no fallout up here! Sky still dark, yup! Yeah but what's the point now if they just go back home...oh yeah, didn't think of that. OK, welp, you have yourself a damn pleasant morning, we'll meet up with you over breakfast I suppose – yeah four hours out. Bah."
2065"So what's the plan?" Jess asked, as Roper hung up and headed back to the fridge.
2066"Well, he's going to send the fleet-wide signal. Very least it'll interrupt whatever plans they got going now and let them know they're no longer secure, but prolly they already know that, right?" he said, turning and winking at her. "In any case it'll keep 'em tied up and they'll ground the fleet temporarily – gen-three's at least – for some retrofitting to fix it."
2067Ice pack in place, they were back on the road not ten minutes when they got the call back. "Heya...you did? Any chatter? Still got it...where's she now? ...yeah...she's doing fine, a real trooper...yeah took one for the team on this. Dumb though, but that's these youngsters for ya – such thrill seekers. Do the Dew and all. No damn sense. Yeah alright see ya."
2068Jess was leaning her head back against the furry van wall, eyes closed, trying to ignore the throbbing pain, which was tempered only slightly by the ice packs. She groaned aloud.
2069"Oh shit I forgot, you wanna aspirin?" He reached over to the glove compartment, and pulling out a bottle, threw it back towards her, landing at her feet.
2070"Umm, Pamprin? Really?"
2071"All I got...oh shit on a cracker. Sorry," he apologized, realizing she wasn't in any condition to open a tamper-proof pill bottle. Pulling the van over, he climbed in back and explained the situation.
2072"Well he sent the signal. He still had control over the frequency too. Some patrols came out, but they just observed Star with spotlights for awhile, didn't fire on her or anything, had no idea what to do I guess. Eventually someone high up was notified 'cause a coupl'a jets were scrambled from Florida. She outran 'em no problem though of course. Anyways you get some rest now, got a four-hour drive ahead. Just think about the tremendous breakfast gonna be waiting for us as you head off to dreamland. And if the Pamprin ain't doing it for ya remember I got the herbal medicine..."
2073"Yeah between this and your driving I may need it."
2074She leaned back, arms folded across her chest like a mummy, and lay down on the floor of the van. Roper climbed back in the captain's seat and set off down the bumpy forest service road into the night.
2075 
2076~ Seventy ~
2077
2078He was right; they arrived at around 9:30 A.M. and there was a veritable feast waiting for them. Victor had prepped bacon, eggs, and belgian waffles with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Jess took a long hot shower upstairs. Her bruises were now purple and green, but the swelling had gone down some since last night, and the meds had kept the pain at bay. She got dressed and enjoyed the wafting smell of fresh coffee for another few seconds before heading down.
2079As she came downstairs she found Sag and Star had gotten up as well, and they looked equally worn out from the late night adventures. They greeted her with gentle hugs and warm smiles below bleary eyes.
2080"So I assume Roper told you the whole story?" she asked.
2081"Yes, and we agree yer a dern fool. You coulda just let me know, we woulda figured something out," Star reprimanded her. "But we've all been young and stupid," glancing at Roper, "some of us are old and still stupid, and it usually works out in the end anyway, so there."
2082Victor pulled a chair out for her and they sat down to eat. Jess had many questions, but had to get some coffee and fresh waffles into her belly. Priorities.
2083"So what happened?" she asked Sag, "You were able to send the fleet-wide kill signal before Star had to skedaddle?"
2084"We sure did, and it was close – she had some company come by, so she scooted out of there but I had already sent it."
2085"So what do you think happened? Did it affect their fleet at all?"
2086"Well we're waiting for Noly and our other contacts inside, but obviously they may all be occupied right now – probably tired as hell after being debriefed in post-mortem incident meetings with some pissed off higher-ups."
2087Star jumped in. "Yeah, we think probably it just locked down any ships they had out and returned them to their home bases, so that's something, but certainly not what we'd hoped for in terms of permanent disablement."
2088Victor emerged from the kitchen, holding a cordless phone to his ear while stirring a bowl of waffle batter he was cradling. Walking quickly into the living room, they heard him switch on the old T.V. with a click.
2089"Team meeting in the living room," he called out.
2090A cacophony of dropped silverware and chairs scraping the floor filled the dining room as everyone shuffled into the living room. A local station out of Dubuque was airing a live CNN feed from Wichita, Kansas, where a large crowd was gathered in the middle of a freshly planted bean field. Jess was wondering why they were stomping all over those new plantings when they cut to a news reporter talking to a farmer wearing a green John Deere shirt.
2091"...and when did you first notice this?"
2092"Came out this mornin' to feed the pigs and saw this thang just a settin' there. Tain't moved an inch in the last three hours."
2093"And what do you think it is?"
2094"I don't know what in the hell it is. We all was hopin' you would!"
2095They cut to a shot of the sky, where suspended just a few hundred feet over the rows of freshly planted bean sprouts was a generation three ship, silently hanging there as if bolted to the sky.
2096 
2097~ Seventy-One ~
2098
2099An audible gasp arose from the crowded living room.
2100"What the fuck!" Jess shouted.
2101Sag took off running upstairs.
2102They cut to a split-screen of the reporter in the lower left hand corner, with a wide shot of the ship over the field. The reporter seemed to be receiving word of something in his earpiece when the screen cut back to the main studio.
2103"Some amazing images out of Kansas, and apparently they are not the only ones – incredibly, another object has now been discovered over downtown Portland, Oregon, we go there live to our KATU affiliate now."
2104The screen shifted to a view from the street where several policemen were waving their arms to get everyone to back up. The camera tilted up just a bit and the corner of another ship could be seen peeking out from behind an office tower at about the twelfth-floor level.
2105Victor turned the channel, and found yet another live newscast, this one showing an old farmhouse with a third ship poised only fifteen feet over it.
2106"Jesus, how many do they have out at a time? And what happened to them!" Jess asked aloud.
2107"Oh shit, check out dude!" Roper exclaimed, pointing at the screen. A man in a Carhartt jacket and work boots was climbing the side of the steep shingled farmhouse roof, and when he reached the top he lay down and reached out to retrieve a long pole someone on the ground was handing him. Straddling the roof line, he stood up and lifted the pole, as his hair arose around his head from the electric charge of the ship.
2108"He's gonna poke it the crazy motherfucker!" Roper yelled. The room roared with laughter as they watched him raise the pole vertical and tap on the bottom of the ship. He raised his fist in a victory pump, threw the pole to the ground, and scrambled down to the cheers of the gathered crowd.
2109Everyone in the room high-fived each other, while the man on T.V. did the same with his buddies on the ground, before two burly officers pushed through the crowd and took him into custody. The newscasters were almost speechless.
2110"So, yeah, that was all me guys." Sag said sheepishly. He had snuck back down from upstairs, and they all turned to look at him.
2111"Yeah well, there was a...bug...in the fleet-wide transmission program I ran last night, apparently it only got the first command through, so none of the ships ever got the second command, which apparently is the 'return to base'  one. Looks like they just got the 'halt' one." Looking like he was about to cry, Jess felt for him, until the silent room erupted in peals of laughter. Pulling him onto the couch, he received an abundance of high-fives and pats on the back.
2112"You couldn't a done it better if ya tried, matey!" Roper roared at him.
2113They spent the next hour flipping through channels, documenting the carnage they had unleashed. Four more stranded ships were found, one outside of Texarkana, Texas, another near Bolinas, California, a third over the town square of Westboro, Massachusetts, and the final one over a freeway twenty miles north of Miami, FL.
2114"And we thought the big news of the day was going to be the wanton destruction of the cold-war antenna in the woods of northern Wisconsin!" Star exclaimed, to more laughter. 
2115Small private aircraft and news copters filled the air over each site, until green military choppers (along with some strange unmarked black ones) shooed them away. The coverage of the events, over-dramatically labeled by CNN as 'Invasion: 2015', included more and more talking heads as local, state, and federal authorities began cordoning off the affected areas on the ground and restricting access.
2116One enterprising news crew in Texarkana was able to take telephoto video of a firetruck hook and ladder crew rescuing what were clearly human military pilots emerging from the bottom hatch of that ship. Someone in Westboro launched a remote control quadracopter which inspected the helpless ship up close from every angle; the video feed was shown live on MSNBC and later published in full HD to YouTube for posterity.
2117The news channels had not forgotten the buried Wrigley coverup either, and now referred to it as such. It was undeniable that the ship in that incident was very similar to these hijacked vessels, and the standard government disinfo campaign just didn't hold water anymore. That vindication alone did much to lift Jess' spirits.
2118Sag had been monitoring the shortwave, and although the feds had reclaimed the radio transmission at Guantanamo the previous night, they were still redirecting the ships to the ELF channel which was now fully out of commission. It wasn't until late that afternoon that they had figured out the trick of redirecting the ships to another shortwave frequency, and had begun re-broadcasting the kill commands on that channel in an attempt to push the "return home" command through.
2119Even then, they didn't know the all FF's trick Sag had used, and were sending them out serially. Sag imagined the confusion and havoc that must have been happening in those hidden control centers, and relished it all. By that evening it was clear that their new kill commands were not working – all those ships hanging in the air were bricked.
2120A camera crew for the paranormal TV show Ghost Adventures, driving down to the Keys to investigate a haunted lighthouse, made a detour to see the Miami ship. Using their FLIR night-vision cameras, they watched from a distance as Huey helicopters were brought in under cover of darkness with heavy cargo-carrying nets, which were clumsily attached to the back two corners of the ship as it was literally towed away. The entire operation was filmed, and made the ten o'clock news for the west coast feed.
2121Jess watched all this play out, while everyone at the farm played nursemaid to her as she lay on the couch under an Afghan blanket. She was made Queen for the Day, complete with paper napkin crown, and to her delight was given a bell to ring whenever she wanted something – which turned out to be quite often.
2122The international media reaction to this strange American incident was one of amazement at the state of their technology, along with humiliating derision that those ridiculous Americans couldn't keep it under wraps.
2123Politically the reaction was more muted, perhaps because a few of the Euro-block leaders were told their own ships had also been disabled, but as it was non-operational daylight hours on their side of the planet when the event occurred, they were safely hangared at the time.
2124At 9 PM central time a news rumor circulated that President Obama would be addressing the nation within the following thirty minutes. Although the rumor seemed well sourced, the time came and went, and there was no conference. Given the nature of the day's events, no plausible explanation was dismissed, and some pundits proffered that unknown individuals behind the scenes had convinced the President's staff to toe the historical stance – no information is better than any information, whether confirmation or denial.
2125 
2126~ Seventy-Two ~
2127
2128The next morning was sunny with clear skies – no more UFO's – and all the talk shows were abuzz with the previous day's activity, showing YouTube clips, interviewing witnesses, and theorizing about what the ships were and what had happened to them. Stan Fieldman – the man who climbed his roof to touch the Iowa ship – was now an internet sensation, officially designated as "PokeyMan, The PokeMeister General" by Ellen DeGeneres.
2129It was clear from all the footage that this was U.S. government hardware. Still, they chose to say nothing, for reasons of secrecy, plain old humiliation, or both, and therefore no ire was raised, public or private. It became simply an event, without any explanation.
2130UFO experts, now a staple of the cable news channels, puffed their feathers as their standing in society – for so many years regulated to the crackpot realm – was suddenly validated. There were actually overt "I told you so's" from several; the gloating was palpable. Many of them, however, lost their newfound status within hours as they continued to promote the idea of alien visitation, which from the footage available showed no evidential support.
2131In fact, this was the most public and visible UFO event in history – and not a single extraterrestrial was in evidence. This set the cause of the true believers back years, as it firmly rooted the public on the path of believing all UFO's, present and historical, were advanced human technology. Ironically, the alien proponents came to be looked down upon even more than before, if that was possible.
2132Over the following nights, spotting parties were organized across the world, to stay up until the wee hours and see if anyone could see these ships on their nightly maneuvers. Night vision equipment became the number one item on Amazon, and the makers had a field day, as the target market expanded from niche paranormal groups and T.V. show producers to one in every five households.
2133And they were spotted – hundreds of sightings documented on video every night. Scores of thermal and night vision videos were recorded and posted online, and in combination with the new low-light sensitive mobile phone cameras, the days of blurry and indistinct videos and pictures were no more. The world was awash in high-quality footage of these as yet unidentified objects.
2134The process of absorption of this new reality, once it had reached acceptance by the end of the week, began to shift away from amazement, and towards the more pragmatic direction Jess was hoping to see. Unemployment was still hovering around seven percent nationwide, Europe was still in a financial mess, and China was ever ascendent as manufacturer to the world. Calls went out to open up this advanced technology – to make it available to American companies – in order to revolutionize the transport, travel, and manufacturing industries, thus bringing American might to the fore again after the information economy had eclipsed it from the eighties onward.
2135Investigations into historical black-budget programs were also re-opened with renewed vigor, and it was determined that over seventeen years, starting in the mid-seventies up until the early nineties, close to two-hundred billion dollars had been siphoned off into black budgets with no accountability or congressional oversight. Although this mystery funding was never top-secret information, the public seemed to accept it, trusting the government was using the money wisely for defense of the country. Given the exposure of these advanced craft, never seen in battle, but only used over U.S. in apparent surveillance operations, infuriated them.
2136This, in combination with the flagging economy, prompted the public to demonize this perpetual siphoning of tax revenue, leaving large governmental debts, but providing no obvious economic or military benefits. For the first time in history, black budget programs were vociferously questioned just as other, more public, military pork-belly boondoggles had been. Massive letter writing campaigns forced congressmen to schedule hearings on the issue.
2137The first roadblock, however, was finding someone to blame. It seemed that many if not all of these black budget projects had been constructed in such a compartmentalized manner that nobody was clearly in charge. Although some person or persons must have been behind it, none could be found. The government employees, contractors, and independent experts that were called to testify were questioned as to why this technology, which had clearly been in use for twenty years or more, had not been deployed in any of the wars of the early twenty-first century, or even whether there were any future plans to integrate it into the traditional branches of the armed forces. Where was the return on investment of American tax dollars?
2138No good answers were provided to these questions, as the stonewalling was as much a defensive tactic as it was simple ignorance of the bigger picture. The public, however, met these denials with complete derision, in disbelief that billions of dollars could be flushed down a black hole of unaccountability for a span of decades.
2139If the heat on the government from the spending oversight committees was bad, the privacy zealots were worse. All the focus was taken off of the latest smartphone data leakage scandal, ad-tracking conspiracies, government wiretapping, and Google data collection uproars, and directed towards what these ships were doing – and continued to blatantly do – every night, in the middle of the night, over populated areas of the country.
2140Were they doing their own data collection? Illegal wire tapping? Wi-Fi signal intercepts? The jurisdiction of the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law was expanded from monitoring the private sector to include incursions by the government itself, and more hearings were held. These, too, were met with a brick wall of "I am not privy to that information, sirs" and fifth-amendment pleadings, stoking the public and now congressional anger more.
2141Star's prediction – that the objections to the nuclear propulsion would be the most damaging – never came to pass. Without a full understanding of the ships composition, weight, and methods of propulsion, nobody expected there to be operational nuclear reactors on board. Some speculated that they were simply high tech blimps, but again, nothing was known for sure. Disinformation in this regard continued to protect the government.
2142If the results of the investigations were unsatisfactory, at least there was momentum, and a path forward – proposals were floated to whitelist, or at least greylist, all black budget projects dollars going forward. Proposals were made to schedule and track the ship's overflights publicly, providing purpose and scope information. Legislation would eventually be introduced on both items, but, at great political cost, vetoed by the President. But that was all in the future.
2143 
2144~ Seventy-Three ~
2145
2146For the moment, Jess reveled in the fallout of their combined actions as she recuperated at the farmhouse. Victor made another cake the next day, a chocolate triangle wedge cake decorated with 'Disclosure 2: Electric Boogaloo', and even more members of the group she hadn't met before converged on the farm for a party that went well into the night.
2147Jess had never felt as if she wanted to be fully integrated into this motley crew, so a few days later, when she was feeling better, she asked for a ride back into Chicago. She missed Gavin, and Nora, and city life in general. She would find out how exactly her finances had been destroyed, and try to rebuild it as best she could.
2148Gavin was first to greet her, after hearing her trudge up the stairs, and gave her a bone-breaking hug. It had only been two weeks, but seemed like years since he last saw her running down the street after a strange white van.
2149"So, was this all...you?" he queried, referring to the exposure of the government ships that was still making the news every night.
2150"Yeah, whaddya think?" she replied with a half-smile.
2151"No...really?" he replied in a conspiratorial whisper.
2152"Yeah, pretty much..."
2153"Oh I see, you'd have to kill me. Well I'm just glad you're home. Joel and Nora missed you. Me, not so much."
2154"Yah right, you probably been gettin' yer drink on, you be missin' me so much."
2155"Not really, but hey, what a great idea! Gimme a minute," he said, as he headed off to her kitchen.
2156Jess set down her bags, and dropping onto the couch, cuddled with her kitty while Gavin searched for a fresh bottle of wine. Suddenly, she heard a song coming from her bag. It was her cellphone; the one that had the SIM card deactivated.
2157Confused, she rummaged through her bag, and extracting the phone, delicately answered the call from the unknown number. "Uh, hello?"
2158The voice on the other end was frantic. "Jess, it's Kal. We've been searching for you for days."
2159"Kal!" Jess repeated, surprised that she was still on speaking terms with them after all she had done.
2160"Um, yeah, so, sorry about that thing, there. Um..."
2161"Listen, forget about it. We have. Look, this thing has blown everything up. We had no idea about all this. Len and I are out. But we need you."
2162"Need me? Why?"
2163"Ever since the incident, all ships – all ships – have been grounded."
2164"Well, not all ships, they're being seen every night, like, all over. Pretty ballsy, in my opinion. Lots of other people too, just watch the news."
2165"That's just it Jess. They are not ours."
2166"Not ours? What do you mean? Well whose are they then?"
2167"That's what we're trying to find out, but we need you, and any resources you may be in contact with, to confront this."
2168"Look, I've been through the ringer on this thing already. I'm done."
2169"You wanted to expose these ships for what they are. Correct?"
2170"Yeah..."
2171"Well then your job isn't done. The people need to be aware of this. You just peeled off the first layer. We need you on this."
2172"Well then," Jess mused, realizing she was once again in the power position, "I want everything re-instated. Not just the phone. Everything you burned."
2173"We can't do that Jess, not directly, we're out, like I said. But we can help you somewhat, we know things, we know people. If you can help us."
2174Gavin came back into the living room with two full wine glasses, and handed one to her.
2175"Let me get back to you. Priorities," she said, as she hung up the phone and accepted the glass of wine from Gavin.
2176"That was the Commissioner," Jess explained, "they just put up the Bat signal."
2177"Already? Seriously Jess, is this what you are now? Are you going to go?"
2178"I don't know. Let me decide after this," she said, holding up her glass, "it always enhances my decision-making abilities."
2179"Cheers to that," Gavin agreed, as Jess clinked her glass to his.