Shipp: The Alien Wars of Earth Read online

  With that he strode out the door, and I needed no coaxing to jump up and follow him down the hall! It was all I could do to catch up. As I pulled alongside and tried to match stride I noticed he looked nervous and distracted. All kinds of things ran through my head as we continued down what seemed an endless corridor, marked every thirty or forty feet with a hatch or sometimes a window, or what I assumed was a window, they were all opaque. I was getting excited; scared, and increasingly impatient the farther we walked. I was just about to ask how much further when Daniel came to an abrupt halt in front of a door twice as wide as most of the others; above the door in bold letters and in English were written-----Hibernation Facility!

  My family was sleeping, or hibernating, or whatever, in what I assumed were the same clothes they were wearing when they were snatched up. They looked peaceful, had good complexions, I could see their chests rising and falling.

  “Thomas,” Shipp said, interrupting my inspection. “All of your family members are in the last stage of the process that will bring them to full consciousness. I have administered the last light stimulant to your wife but will wait on the children until we are sure how your spouse will react.”

  “How long,” I asked.

  “Any second now,” Shipp responded. “She was answering the door when Mr. Spock over there put the whammy on her, so she is going to be completely disorientated. So be calm and try not to give her too much info for the first couple of minutes, ok?”

  Before I had a chance to answer, Cheryl made a little moaning sound, rolled over on her side and opened her eyes. For a few seconds she did not appear to be seeing anything or register any emotion. Then she looked up and saw me, frowned and put her hand on her head.

  “Did I have an accident or something, am I all right?” she said in a small quiet voice. “Is this a hospital?”

  “Your fine,” I answered. “And yeah this is a sort of hospital. You have just been unconscious for a while.” Cheryl looked a little flustered. I decided to help her sit up. “Look honey, you really are fine. Just wait a minute while the cobwebs clear and I’ll fill you in on what’s been going on.

  “Where am I?” Cheryl said, rubbing her face with both hands. “I mean the last thing I remember was answering the door to a hiker or something, then nothing, was I attacked?”

  “No, no, nothing like that,” I exclaimed! “You were just stunned for a while, that’s all.” Cheryl was looking at me like I had three heads. Then she stood up and looked over at our sleeping children, back at me, frowning very hard but not saying anything. Which was surprising for Cheryl! She stepped over to one child and then the next, feeling their foreheads, then feeling her own. Finally she turned and looked at me with the strangest look I had ever seen.

  “We are not in a hospital,” she stated flatly. “This is some sort of spacecraft and there is an android running around here someplace called Daniel, and this ship talks, and I am losing my mind!” Cheryl’s voice had risen, not hysterically, but very close as she uttered the last few words!

  “How the hell did she know that,” I asked, looking up at one of the corner monitors. And tell Daniel to get his butt out of the hall and in here now!”

  I’m sorry.” Shipp replied in a low restrained voice. “My previous research indicated that humans would be receptive and might be able to absorb information in the last stage of reanimation, so I talked to her. Cheryl was staring at the recessed speaker on the wall as if it were a huge cockroach. I stepped over and put my arm around her shoulders.

  “And just what did you say,” I spat back!

  “I told her where she was and with who, a tiny bit of why, reassured her that she was safe, and that she would be asked to join this endeavor same as you, and would be returned unharmed if she refused. I reasoned it would be easier for her, if it worked, as obviously it did. If your television shows are any indication, people tend to go batty when they wake up on flying saucers and such! Besides, I reasoned that if you said no, you were going to relate this story to her and if she did remember my talking to her, she might not think her husband had lost his mind!”

  Cheryl pulled away from me upon hearing that last and sat back down on the edge of the sleep chamber. I sat down beside her as Daniel walked through the open door.

  “Is any of this true?” Cheryl murmured, looking up into my eyes.

  “As far as I can tell, I am beginning to think that it is. Daniel here has assured me that if either one of us disagrees we will be returned and no questions asked. Do you remember what Shipp told you?”

  “Well I think I do. Something about a mission to save us and our planet, that we are in space, that he”, looking at Daniel, “is a human clone who has been extensively augmented I think are the words that were used, and that the ship we are on is actually a self aware entity who calls herself Shipp with two P’s. She, Shipp, I mean, thinks of herself as female and assures me they mean us no harm, and that except for the initial kidnapping we will be free to choose. Does that sound right?”

  “That is the short version of what I told her,” Shipp interjected.

  “She did that without consulting me,” cut in Daniel, but we will get into that later. How are you feeling young lady?” he added, looking for all the world like a doting and concerned neighbor.

  “I’m worried about my children, are they all right?

  “I promise their fine,” Shipp said. “About to wake them if you think you are collected enough. I did not talk to either one of them, so it will be up to you to calm their fears.

  “Where were they when you took them?” said Cheryl, turning to look at Daniel. “I need to know what their last memory was.”

  They were riding their bikes toward town,” answered Daniel. I didn’t talk to them; I stepped onto the road and stunned them both at the same time.

  My wife took a step toward Daniel and had an expression on her face I had learned did not bode well for the recipient.

  “You just knocked them out and let them smash into the gravel road!” she said in voice that would have melted granite. “You had better hope my children are all right, you bastard!”

  “Whoa there young lady, the stun device puts a field around its target that while rendering it unconscious, also surrounds it in a protective shield until all falling and crashing have been completed. If you look, you will see there is not so much as a dirt smudge on either them or you.”

  “Well I guess I can see they’re not smudged. I’ll have to take your word for the rest won’t I?” answered Cheryl in a low even tone, looking at Daniel like I had seen her do when we discovered our first rattlesnake!

  “My word is good,” Daniel replied. I know that doesn’t carry much weight right now, but I hope to change that in the near future.”

  “One other thing before I talk to my children,” added Cheryl. “You didn’t use any beam me up Scotty bullshit on us did you?”

  “No,” Daniel replied, a little smile scampered across his face; so fleeting it might have gone unnoticed. “We have something like that but it doesn’t work very well on living tissue. Shipp placed you in a force field and brought you directly to this facility! It is invisible to your planets technology. It does not require engines or rockets to move, so it does not leave any trail that can be tracked, I’ll explain later.”

  “Shipp, how long before the children wake,” Thomas asked?

  “It’s been long enough now that they are going to be awake any time now,” Shipp answered.

  “Well then will you and Daniel give us some privacy? I need to talk to my wife and then both of us to our children without either of you butting in, Ok? Oh, and by the way, where exactly are we, I mean are we in orbit around the Earth, hiding out in the rings of Saturn-----what?

  “We haven’t left the immediate vicinity of Earth, if that’s what you’re asking,” Shipp said matter of fact. “We won’t do that until we have your permission to do so.”

  “I don’t think that’s why Tom was asking.” Cheryl jumped in. “We know our children, they live in an I see, I believe, kind of reality. They are going to think that both of us have lost our minds. We want to know if there is somewhere we can look out of this craft, and what we will see. A nice view from space of Earth would be a convincing bit of scenery. Might even help convince me I haven’t gone round the bend!”

  “Oh, I see,” said Shipp. “I am parked behind the moon at the moment. It allows me not to have to be cloaked all the time, and maintenance bots can use lights externally if they need to. Of course I’m not the only vessel that uses the dark side of the moon as a”--

  Shipp, you’re waxing long!” Daniel interrupted. “Can you give them what they want, maybe from the forward lounge?”

  “Hell, I’ll give them a view of Earth with the moon in the foreground looking like you could reach out and touch it.” That should be fairly convincing!”

  “Dad, --Dad, where is this, what happened?” asked Samantha in a small frightened voice as she started up from the chamber where she and Robert still lay.

  “It’s all right baby,” Cheryl said as she turned quickly and took Sam into her embrace. “It’s all right, Mom and Dad are right here!”

  I decided to take Cheryl’s lead and moved over to Rob who was moving around and grunting, though not quite conscious yet. I sat him up and hugged him up close then started rubbing his neck as he started coming around. Meanwhile Sam was looking wide-eyed at Daniel, who for some reason hadn’t left as I asked, and looking at all the futuristic equipment, which this room was full of, then back at Daniel.

  “We saw this guy on the way to town,” Samantha said cautiously at a whisper, looking up at her Mom and me as she did so. “He did something, I don’t know what,” her voice rising. “I don’t remember anything after that!”

  It’s all right Sam,” I said quickly. “I think he is a friend. Rob is waking up and Mother and I will explain to both of you what’s going on. Will you excuse us for a few minutes Daniel? I will ask Shipp for directions when we are ready.”

  “Of course,” said Daniel with a small bow and he was gone. I still couldn’t get over how fast he could disappear, or not, in this instance! It just occurred to me that his not having enough time to get out of the room was done on purpose, for what reason I could not perceive.

  “Well, now that we all are finally in one room, awake and together, let me say that I love you all very much!

  “We love you too!” my family chimed in almost simultaneously, Rob still rubbing his eyes vigorously.

  So I proceeded to tell my family all that had transpired between Daniel, Shipp, and I since we came aboard. With only a few interruptions from Cheryl and Sam, but with a thousand from Rob until I had to ask him to please be quiet until I finished. When I did finish, I was deluged with questions from everyone at once. Did I actually believe any of this? What proof that we weren’t in some facility just down the road from home, the victims of some kind of cruel joke. Aliens, androids, robots, clones, did I really believe any of that! I had to admit that I had lapsed from starting to believe to total disbelief and back again as I told the story. I told them further that Daniel had claimed he could prove all that he said, but that I was far from done asking questions or of making any decisions. I then suggested that we find the lounge and have a look at the first bit of evidence we had asked for.

  “Any place to freshen up”, Cheryl asked?

  “They gave me a room with a shower and all the amenities, but I’m not real sure where it is.” I answered.

  “Well I am sure we look better than we feel. I can’t believe I just said that, but I want to get to the lounge and get some questions answered.”

  “Shipp,” I queried, still looking at my family.

  “Go out the door to your left and follow the green lights that will illuminate from the center of the corridor floor, they will lead you to the lounge area, about a ten minute walk from your location,” Shipp responded quietly. “Oh and by the way, the forward lounge has a nice bathroom for the men, and what I hope is an ideal powder room for the women.”

  Chapter 6

  Dinner

  “Are we going to meet some other people Dad?” Rob asked, hitching up his jeans as he hurried to stay as much in front of our group as he could. He had an intense need to be the first to arrive, first to see, first to get, first whatever, as long as he got to be first! He wasn’t stingy or greedy, just had an enormously ravenous curiosity about everything and everyone he came in contact with. It was like he was afraid it would escape if he weren’t fast enough, even if it was an inanimate object. It was exasperating at times, but it made him an excellent student when you could keep him focused long enough.

  “Were going to see something, not someone, Daniel says we are the only people on board.”

  Sam hadn’t said much, neither had Cheryl for that matter. But Sam was looking at me with an expression I had never seen before; of course these weren’t any circumstances we had ever shared before!

  What’s wrong honey?” I asked with as much concern and affection in voice and expression as I could muster.

  “You actually believe any of this crap? You sound like you’re buying into this psycho pile of ---damn I don’t know what!” She reminded me a little of a cornered bobcat, her fists all balled up and ready for action.

  “I haven’t ruled anything out Sam. I really don’t know, but Shipp, or whoever, is supposed to be giving us at least a small demonstration that we asked for as a start to the questions and answers we are all looking for! I plan to ask a whole bunch of questions as soon as I know enough to ask them. I want proof; I want you, your brother and mother safe, above all! But I don’t see any means to force our will on anyone here, and what if, as improbable as it may seem, we are on a ship, in space, God knows where, and we did manage to overpower Daniel and whoever or whatever Shipp might or might not be, then what? Do you know how to operate a starship, navigate space, or even know what the start button looks like!”

  Sam was shaking her head no very slowly and starting to blink away the beginnings of tears when Cheryl stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the corridor, which stopped all of us, and shut me up!

  “That’s enough,” Cheryl said, spinning to glare at us all, and with an edge in her voice we all knew very well. “I don’t know what’s going on either, but whatever it is seems to be directed primarily at your Dad, for now. So you are going to curb your teen angst, and you little brother, are going to stay close and keep your mouth shut! When we have more information we will all discuss what we choose to believe. Until then we are here to back up your Father and lend as much support as we can, nothing else! Am I making myself clear?”

  “Yes,” replied Sam quietly.

  “I didn’t do nothin,” Rob huffed indignantly!

  “Is there something I said you didn’t understand?” Cheryl ground out, leaning in very close to Rob’s face with a look that he had no trouble interpreting.

  “No,” Rob said flatly, hanging his head.

  “All right,” I said, looking at each member of my family in turn, with a final and grateful look at Cheryl. “Lets see what’s happening in the lounge and we’ll figure it out as we go along. I’m sorry I am not able to answer any of you satisfactorily; it’s not been a typical day for me either. We will do this together, and everyone’s opinion counts. Your mother is right though. It will be a lot easier and safer if we save those opinions until later, ok?”

  I got nods of ascent from everyone, so we continued following the trail of lights to what I assumed was an observation lounge. Once we got inside there were couches, big overstuffed chairs, and a long table and chairs that looked like a good place for a meeting, family meal, or a demonstration to take place, so we gravitated toward the table area. The room must have been thirty feet wide and at least sixty in length. The far side of the room was slightly curved and had what looked like opaque windows across its entire length. Daniel was already sitting at the big table, hands folded neatly in front of him. The light in here was considerably less than the corridor we had just left, so I hadn’t seen him immediately. As soon as Rob spied him he opened his mouth to speak, but got a gentle but firm thunk on his noggin for his trouble and another look from Mom. Daniel rose to greet us.

  “Well Shipp informs me she has arranged for the view you asked for plus something she added on her own, so we might as well take a look,” he announced with a wave of his arm toward windows which had gone crystal clear as he spoke. A small gasp escaped from more than one of us as we gazed at the scene unfolding in front of us. The sun was shining down from somewhere behind us and slightly to our left on what had to be the backside of the moon. It was so close it seemed like we could reach out and touch it. Over three quarters of its surface was bathed in brilliant sunlight, but what was even more impressive, in the upper left just above the horizon of the moon was a big blue and white marble hanging in the blackest vastness of space you could imagine. We were looking at Earth from a vantage point behind the moon! I glanced at my family; all had varying expressions of amazement and awe on their faces, I felt a tightening in my chest, could barely breathe, and had no idea what emotions my face might be revealing. Before anyone could say anything or recover from our initial amazement of what we were seeing, what appeared to be about 14 black objects came soaring into view, silhouetted against the stark contrast of the moon, and lining up in front of our window. As soon as they had become stationary, a brilliant light was directed at them from the ship. They were weird looking little robots or droids, all suspended in space and holding up one huge placard apiece with a single letter of the English alphabet on each one in bright red, spelling out “WELCOME TO SPACE” and then without further ado, they all took off making a perfect counterclockwise circle, still facing us with their placards so that now we were reading welcome to space right to left at the top of the circle only, as the little machines were turning the cards on edge as they passed 3 o’clock and flipping them back so we could read them as they passed 9 o’clock. Even with the stress of the past few hours, I found I was grinning from ear to ear, and so was everyone else, even Daniel who I don’t think knew what Shipp had planned. Just then the little machines flipped all their cards over to their opposite sides, still turning them on edge and back as before, except now they were spelling out “TO MY NEW CREW” with two exclamation points at the end. We were feeling the tension drain out of us; laughter does that, when a new set of droids or machines came sailing by from right to left and a lot closer to the window, all with their own little placards, and spelling out “FROM SHIPP WITH LOVE”! I don’t know whether it was nerves or what, but I found I was laughing so hard my sides hurt and it was catching. We were all laughing and hanging on to each other. I turned to Daniel, who was laughing also, but with a little more self-control.