The Project

Chapter 5

The Project Chapter 5

That night as Alex lay in bed, he wondered if he had done the right thing by inviting a stranger in on this. He was taking a big risk, she could blow everything, and really f**k things up, well it was too late now, tomorrow would be a show-down.

Alex avoided Kelly as best he could, but as they were passing in the hall she hissed at him,

"This better be good or you're in big trouble." His anxiety only grew during the day, and it was a major effort to keep his mind on class work. Back at home suppertime was torture; all he could think of was the meeting tonight. Slipping out of the house around 8:30, Alex arrived at the old ball park around a quarter to nine. The sky was overcast, which would help. Alex was looking up when a voice called out,

"I don't know why I came here, I must be crazy."

"You're not crazy Kelly," he replied, "No crazier than I am."

"Say you're that kid who got kicked out of school for wearing that tee-shirt, aren't you?"

"Yeah…So?" Kelly shrugged,

"So nothing, that took guts. I hear your folks were gonna sue the ass off of everybody, I would have loved to have seen that."

"Well I lost a lot of friends because of it," replied Alex, "My girl for one."

Kelly snickered,

"You didn't loose nothing, she was screwin around behind your back."

Alex sighed,

"You know this for a fact?"

Kelly chuckled, "Believe me, I know, say why did you drag me out here?" As if on cue, there was rumbling from overhead.

"Hey look, it's gonna start raining, I gotta go!"

"Just hold on Kelly, she's here,"

"Who's here? She demanded. Pointing skyward, Alex exclaimed,

"We'd better move over here, wouldn't want to get squashed." Kelly gave him a funny look, as the rumbling grew louder,

"What the f**k?" She exclaimed, "What is that? Alex could tell that the Karla-Ann was down just as the rumbling quit.

"Watch…Over there," he said pointing to where the pitcher's mound used to be.

Suddenly Arna appeared, causing a gasp from Kelly,

"Goddam! What is that, is she naked?"

"That is Arna," announced Alex, "Come on, I'll introduce you."

Kelly suddenly realized that Alex didn't invite her out here to f**k, something else was going on, that shouldn't be, her brain was over clocking. "What the f**k was going on here?" she thought. Cautiously, she followed Alex as he walked right up to this strange naked lady who had just appeared from nowhere.

Things only got weirder when she realized that this strange looking woman was standing in front of some kind of doorway. Stepping back inside, Arna allowed Alex to enter as he called out,

"Come on Kelly we've got to get going." Stepping through the doorway, she could now see things in a better light, this lady was indeed naked, but a strange color, and some sort of mask over her eyes. She also realized this was some sort of spacecraft, Kelly's brain was spinning, nothing she was witnessing was making any sense, Alex opened up a jumpseat, and guided her to it.

"Sit here Kelly, let me buckle you in, we're going back up over earth where we can talk, just hang on."

Kelly felt like she was stoned, like the time she took those pills her ex-boyfriend gave her, what the hell was going on? She could feel whatever she was in quickly rising, just like one of those carnival rides, but this was faster, she started to feel sick. She bent over placing her head between her legs as much as the seatbelt would allow, finally things started to feel a little better, and the sensation of rising stopped. She could hear Alex talking to the strange looking lady, behind her, saying something about orbiting earth, what the f**k! Finally Alex stepped around the corner.

"Are you feeling better Kelly?"

"Yeah…A little,"

Well I asked you to come to the old ball park because I knew that you were really into UFO's and stuff, if your ready I've got a story to tell you, but first, you can remove that seatbelt, there's gravity on this ship, I also want to introduce you to Arna." Also stepping around the corner, Kelly was able to get a better look at the strange lady.

"Arna, this is Kelly Parkinson." Arna held her hand out but Kelly being unsure of her motive didn't extend hers.

"Arna is a Motok, or in other words, an android, make yourself comfortable Kelly I've got a story to tell," said Alex.

When he finished, all Kelly could do was just stare at Arna, she simply didn't know what to think. On one hand, she felt vindicated, she always knew UFO's were for real, and now she was riding in one.

"So what do you think?" Asked Alex, "We need to get this information to someone who will take it seriously and do something about it." Snapping back into reality, Kelly replied.

"Well the guy everyone talks about is Doctor Norman Frik, he won't go on any of those late night radio shows or appear in any of those UFO shows on cable, he's pretty down -to-earth."

"Look Kelly," said Alex, I want to do right by Gideon, all those people put everything they had into this project and Mr. Tate, he gave his life for this."

"I'm curious," asked Kelly, "Everybody thinks I'm a w***e, crazy or both, yet you take a chance and ask me of all people to help you, how come?"

"Because everyone I talked to said this kind of thing was right up your alley. I certainly couldn't risk sending everything to NASA, or the government, they would have just s**t canned it all." Kelly nodded in agreement,

"That's true, but look, all I know is what I read, yeah, believe it or not, I actually read. Anyway, this Frick guy has a lot of respect; he's the one I'd send all this stuff to."

Tears started to leak from Kelly's eyes causing her heavy mascara to run,

"Thank you Alex, thank you for believing in me, you took a chance, you're the first person to really believe in me."

"It's all right Kelly," he replied, I guess every dog does have his day, not that you are a dog or anything, it's just a saying."

"You don't have to apologize," she said, "It's quite all right, but hey, tell me more about Arna, and this ship." Alex chuckled,

"Well Arna, care to give another tour?"

She did the same for Kelly as for Alex, showing the girl the ships controls, as well as all the other features,

"Out f*****g standing!" Came the drawn out response from Kelly's lips.

"This is absolutely incredible; I always knew these things existed. So captain, what are we going to do next?' Alex frowned, and gave Kelly a concerned look.

"In the first place, I'm not the captain, secondly, what's this "we" stuff?"

Seeing that her position was in jeopardy, Kelly quickly responded.

"I don't know what your plans are Alex, but take me with you, please…Please take me with you." Alex wasn't prepared for her response, and it puzzled him.

"Why all this sudden interest in going along, you don't even know me?"

Kelly sat down on the bunk,

"It's true, I don't really know you Alex, other than what the other kids tell me but I've got nothing…Really If I stay I'll end up just like mom, I'm trapped, but now I see a way out, you can save my life Alex, take me with you."

He was very intrigued by her plea; this was something Alex hadn't counted on.

"Well let's get something straight Kelly, In the first place, I'm not even sure what I'm going to do just yet, Gideon advised me to do it, I'm giving it a lot of serious thought, but we can't just go charging off without any plan, we've got to decide what we're going to do here."

"Well…Yeah," replied Kelly, "I agree,

"So tell me Kelly, what are you bringing to the table?"

"What? What do you mean?"

Right now I'm thinking that we're going to need money, and a lot of it."

"Money? What are we going to need that for?" Asked Kelly,

Alex chuckled.

"Oh for starters, to buy food, maybe a few medical supplies, maybe another gun or two, Mr. Tate hinted that there might be danger out there, which reminds me.

"Hey Arna, does this ship have any sort of weapons on it?"

"There are two proton cannons one in each nacelle, as well as a small rotating turret on top."

"Cool!" Exclaimed Alex, "But back to what I was talking about, we just can't go charging off into space."

"I agree," replied Kelly, "But I've always had this crazy dream of getting abducted by some alien." Alex laughed,

"What's this? Some sort of adolescent s****l fantasy?" Kelly punched him on the arm,

"Oww! I'm sorry; Kelly but you left yourself wide open."

"f**k you, you know what I mean!"

"So you want to get out of here, even dreaming about getting taken away by aliens, I get it, well maybe your wish has been granted. All right, but there are gonna be rules," Kelly rolled her eyes at that.

"First of all, Arna here is the captain, no argument, what she says or advises goes, is that clear?" Kelly was sure Alex wanted to be the captain, but she would have voted for Arna as well.

"Sure, no problem here,"

"Good, secondly, and I've been giving this a lot of thought, I want uniforms, and I've got some ideas in mind."

"Uniforms?" Exclaimed Kelly,

"Yeah, uniforms," replied Alex, "But don't worry they will look cool, and I'm going to have Arna wear one as well.'

Kelly laughed,

"What? You don't like her running around naked."

"Umm I've gotten used to that, but what I have in mind will look good on her as well."

"Are you speaking of wearing clothing?" Asked Arna,

"Yeah Arna, but the kind of uniform I've got in mind is sorta built around you, don't worry, you'll see."

"You said something about money earlier," said Kelly, "Aren't all these uniforms gonna cost money?"

"Yeah, they will, I've got an ATV I can sell, there's around seven hundred for that. Say Arna, what do they use for money on other planets?" By her reaction, it was clear Arna didn't want to answer that question, her reluctance at answering, caught Alex's attention, but he didn't push it at the moment. Arna went to a small cabinet and pulled out a small box, inside were what looked like diamonds and rubies, all one hundred percent flawless.

"Holy crap!" Exclaimed Alex, "Are those what I think they are?"

"These white ones are focus stones, and the red ones are known as Surta's."

"Well I don't know about that," continued Alex, "But those are diamonds and those are rubies, are these used as money?"

"In some places," she replied, "They are made into special lens for certain types of electronic and medical devices."

"Could I have one of each?" He asked, "They are very valuable here on earth, man! I could sell these; we wouldn't have to worry about money."

Then he had a thought,

"These aren't your's are they?

"No," replied Arna, Gideon kept them for barter."

"You know Alex," said Kelly, "I'll admit I'm not the brightest person, but how do you think you are going to sell those things? I can see it now, you stroll into a jewelry store go up to the clerk and ask to have them appraised. The first thing they are going to ask is what a kid like you is doing with rocks like that!"

Alex nodded,

"Yeah, you're right, maybe if I said I found them somewhere."

Kelly laughed,

"Good luck with that as well; kids like us just don't "find" stuff like that."

"Let me think about it," he replied, "I'll probably have to get my folks involved in in this, and anyway, we've got time. And that's another thing Kelly, I don't know about you, but I am going to graduate from high school, I owe it to my folks, you would do well to do the same."

"School sucks!" Came her reply,

"Yeah, I know, but here's the thing Kelly, completing school tells me you can finish a job, you're able to accomplish things, and when we pull the plug and head for the stars, something tells me our educations will have just begun." Kelly stood there thinking, then with a frown, she replied,

"Yeah, you're probably right, so what's Arna here gonna do until we're out of school?"

"Arna, since you're our leader now, what do you want to do?" Asked Alex.

"Are you sure you want me as your leader?"

"Well we sure don't know what's going on out there," Replied Kelly,

"That's right," added Alex, "Speaking for myself, I would be honored to have you as our captain."

"Same here," added Kelly.

Alex noticed that Arna seemed to take on a puzzled look,

"I-I don't know, I've always followed Gideon, and before that my Neistra masters, this would be most unusual."

"Look Arna," said Alex, "Only you know what's out there, as they say here on earth you've "been and done," it's time to step up to the plate."

"But…But, I am only a Motok."

"So, what's that got to do with it," stated Kelly,

"Very well, if you are truly serious about this, I will consent to be you're captain."

Both teens cheered and patted her on the arm.