31 August 2005

Fire in the Sky 2


"…narrow beam of light which retracted suddenly into the craft. Air Traffic Controllers and Military declined to comment, however local law enforcement say they are keeping an open mind. And in other news…"

Alan propped himself on one elbow and reached out to silence the radio. He fell back and stared at the ceiling. Waves of nausea pulsed in him and he groaned. Fucking flu, he thought, that’s all I need. He nudged his sweat-soaked pillow onto the floor and remembered it was a weekday. I’m getting up to phone in soon, he decided. Mid-morning street sounds came as if squeezed through a tube. Distant traffic and far off shouts lowered to a whisper. Sunlight filtered through the blinds.

Fragments of a dream floated in his mind.
Cold hands pressing him flat on a steel table… shrill voices screeching in his head… a ring of grey faces watching him… eyes, black and lifeless... the persistent whine of drilling… an explosion in the nape of his neck.
Hours later the sun had moved and a chill breeze stirred the air.
"Alan, pick up if you’re there… Alan…?" The answer-phone bleeped and fell silent. Sheba appeared at the door, tail aloft. She sprang onto the bed and crept slowly over the crumpled sheets. After sniffing a small bloodstain she turned two circles and settled down to wait.

"I need to explain. You-have-to-lis-ten," he was thumping the desk with his fist to emphasise each syllable. The headache had grown worse after dark and the lump in his neck burned like fire. The police officer didn’t answer but turned and called a colleague, “Jim, here a minute will you?”

Alan fingered his neck and a new image crashed into his head. The greys stretched a thin latex sheet over him and attached the corners beneath the table. A soft vibration and hum began as a suffocating vacuum was introduced. His screams were stifled under hot shrink-wrap.

Jim appeared at the desk and eyed him slowly from head to toe. "First things first sir, where are your clothes?"

……………………………

Two hundred and fifty miles above in the upper atmosphere hung a vast flying V. Inside six grey beings were seated in a circle studying a 3D holographic presentation which hovered at their centre. DNA analysis, brainwaves and chemical structure were laid out with mathematical clarity for inspection. Each chart and report bore the title "Alan Henderson."

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right now I feel like someone has pulled me out of my life and plopped me right smack dab in the middle of earth people. I am struggling right now, not with sobriety, but with sanity...Knowing what I know all will be well, but will I?

{illyria} said...

this is quite jarring. what is fiction? what is real? sometimes in life we straddle the boundaries.

JJ said...

Cheese and crackers for a minute there I thought that was your half nAAked Thursday photo.
Peace,
JJ

Perfect Virgo said...

DG - you will be well, you have friends here. Aliens are among us I'm sure, both actually and metaphorically.

Trans - Thanks, I am trying to keep this series rooted in reality. Modern sci-fi can be too elaborate, I prefer simplicity...

JJ - yep, I forgot to tell you I turned into a "grey!" Like those huge almond eyes?

Sirreene - naughty girl, I'm not an alien! And how do you know you haven't been abducted? Look out for part 3 next month.

Finn - you're a kindly soul, thanks for your "hearty handshake and applause!" If the greys ever turned their attention to me, one peep into the inner workings of my mind would probably be enough to send them packing!

Hope your exploding tail heals soon...

dAAve said...

I thought it was your half nAAked pic too.

Pretty good angle.

gulnaz said...

amazing story!
sometiems reality seems like someones imagination

Trudging said...

I did a double take too.

Perfect Virgo said...

HP - it was great, he stood still long enough to say "no, this is my best side" and I snapped him...

Gulnaz - could happen couldn't it? Who knows...

Trudging - do you mean you thought it could be me! :)

Perfect Virgo said...

Sirreene - part 3 as in a third instalment of this story. I'm still not sure where I'm going with it but it's a subject that I'm curious about.

Perfect Virgo said...

Sirreene - spirited aboard a mysterious craft, stretched out defenceless on a slab and given a good seeing to by a tall grey stranger? Good god woman you've been watching too much popular sci-fi!

(Maybe an alien probing is too much to expect this weekend) :-(

superflywebpimp said...

as i sit gazing out of the pod window at the strange blue-hue of the earthen skyline, a sentry emerges at my door. "commander, we have a "mr. perfect virgo" who has managed to tap onto us from his computer module, shall i prepare the gamma rays?" "no blavdarr, that wouldn't be very creative. let's wait until he mounts his rocket cycle, then bring out the fabric vaporizer, when he is found naked and confused, they will laugh at all his claims. if we simply dose him with the gamma rays, well then we wouldn't be any different from the earthlings. think blavdarr, think."

Perfect Virgo said...

Finn - surely not the infamous Dr Proctor and his giant latex gloves?

Superfly - that explains why I woke up at the roadside thinking "now why would I take off my leathers and lie down on the blacktop beside my throbbing beast?" Thank god you only deployed the 'fabric vapouriser,' I could not have survived the gamma rays!

Finn - squirting messages at each other along undersea cables and through satellite links does seem laughably crude!

Russell CJ Duffy said...

insects on a glass slide.
primitive.
piltdown man.
primates with localised abilities.
even their art can but reflect the curse of their kind.
weeping wonders and bleeding possibilities.
they dream of the stars whilst anchored to the mudpool birth sphere that they abuse to destruction.

loving the alien.

and i am that alien.

Perfect Virgo said...

CJ - we are all aliens. We are composed of stardust and seem desperate to return to the vacuum from whence we came.

Sireeene - work sucks, I wanna stay off forever...

Perfect Virgo said...

Flea - Something significant will happen but I've not worked out what. I hope the main course lives up to the entree!

Alan Henderson will reveal all to the patient ones...