Lost in Magadan: Extraterrestrials on Earth

“Well, why don’t you go set some up under that shade tree,” Pops said, pointing to a tree about sixty-five yards away from the house.

“Just like when I was a kid.”

“Yes sir. Except this time, we don’t have no woman folk to tell us we can’t shoot from the porch.”

When Snap got back from setting up the rusty old tin coffee cans, the leather journal was gone from the table and had been replaced by an old pump-action twenty-two rifle.

The afternoon flew by and Snap had to head back to Washington DC. As he was driving back down the long dirt driveway, he wondered, had just seen his grandfather for the last time?

CHAPTER TWO

Present Day

Milky Way Galaxy

Commander Forte coughed and gasped for air. He tried to focus on the objects in front of him. Slowly, his vison adjusted, and the cold, gray, sterile environment came into focus momentarily. He was shivering, cold, and naked. Hordes of tiny goosebumps lined his body, and he coughed up a pink, slimy, liquid substance; his lungs frantically grasped for air, until the fluid was expelled from his system and he could breathe normally. His thoughts began to sharpen, his legs gave out below him and he fell to the metal floor. He looked up and saw an attractive blond rushing his way.

“Commander, I’m so sorry. We have so much going on; you woke up before I expected.” Forte stood up, twisted his head from side to side, stretched his aching neck, he was not shy about being naked in front of the female medical officer. Standing six-foot-two, with a slightly graying beard, he was well-proportioned and fit. Unfortunately for him, it did not help with the ladies because every member of his crew was genetically predisposed to being nearly perfect.

“No problem, Officer Telnecki, what’s our situation?” Forte asked, as he cleared his throat of the last bit of pink slime.

“We just came out of the time-space bubble a few hours ago; I am working on getting the crew out of LTS mode,” Telnecki responded, turning towards another Long-Term-Sleep unit to release the next crew member.

Forte had entered the coffin-shaped, metallic container 300 days earlier when his last duty had ended. Each of the crew served two-month shifts, monitoring the ship’s functions, before returning to the LTS unit. The journey through space lasted thirty years, but the crew slept through most of the trip, only waking to serve their watch. Forte stretched one more time, listened to his joints crack and pop, and walked into the shower room. The LTS chamber was large, it housed over 100 units standing against the walls facing each other. Medical Officer Telnecki had only opened ten LTS units so far; each LTS unit stood against the wall with a door facing the middle of the room. As Forte walked past the units, he recognized almost all the crewmembers’ sleeping faces.

Passing through the LTS chamber, into the shower room, he noticed two men and one woman showering off the slimy residue in which they had just been submerged. The shower room was one large open space with shower heads protruding from the walls. All three of the crew members in the shower room were tall with blonde hair.

“Good morning, Commander,” said one of the showering men, as he wiped the soap from his eyes. Of course, they all knew it was not morning, but it was common for crew to greet each other by saying good morning after waking from a long sleep.

“Morning, Lieutenant. Did you sleep well?” asked Forte, smiling, as he was becoming more like himself by the minute.

“Yes, Commander.”

Forte lingered under the hot water for ten minutes, thinking about the many tasks that would have to be completed in the upcoming days.

Commander Forte, while having the appearance of a human, was not from Earth. His planet, Vitahic, circles a star located in the Cygnus Constellation – 620 light years from Earth.

Forte finished showering and headed into the dressing room, where there were several officers putting on their utilitarian uniforms. The navy-blue uniform was a synthetic, form-fitting material, thicker than spandex, which protected the crew member from extreme weather conditions. The uniform contained millions of nanobots that would activate to protect the crewmember in hazardous situations, and it was capable of being powered by multiple sources, including solar, kinetic and thermal energy. The uniform was made from a ballistics resistant boron carbide fiber, and had a built-in forearm display that allowed the crew to communicate and remotely access critical data.