The Project

Chapter 3

The Project Chapter 3

It was getting dark out, and the wind began to pick up, Alex looked at Arna, and said,

"Well Arna, show me the ship," without a word, she began to walk towards the spacecraft sitting on the ground. Walking up the short ramp, Alex got his first look at an honest-to-god "UFO." The craft seemed to consist of two sections, the "head," or flight deck that angled slightly downward, and the rest that was primarily the engine. In the middle there was a small area consisting of a small cargo bay, with what appeared to be a bunk on one side, with what looked to be a kitchen of some kind on the other.

"Tell me what we've got here Arna; Gideon said you could fly this thing."

"Pointing to the various parts, Arna began her "tour."

"This is where you sleep, since I am a Motok, I do not need this, however I can fall into a hibernation state to analyze my systems, and self-repair. That is where Gideon…Now you, can prepare your meals, as you can see, this is the cargo area, not very large, but it doesn't really need to be, cone, I will explain the bridge."

Both then crawled through the hatch into the flight deck, where Alex saw two seats and a confusing array of instruments and controls.

"Oh s**t!" Thought Alex, "How am I ever going to figure any of this out? Uh Arna, I'm gonna really need help figuring all this out." The android sat down in the right seat and indicated to Alex to take the left, turning to him, she said.

"We will take a short ride, and I will explain everything, please fasten your seat harness."

Alex gaped at the array of instruments and tried to remember all the space games he had played, but it did no good, all he knew is that they were rapidly climbing into the sky. In moments, he could look out the window in front of him and see the San Juan Mountains spread out below him. Before he knew it, they were now above the clouds, and still climbing. Looking over at Arna he could see her calmly holding a small half-wheel like control as she handled the craft even higher. Alex could now see stars as the earth below became a big blue mass below him. Arna then continued her "tour."

"I'm holding the "slapper" or the ship's main control, this instrument indicates our height but in "Ing's," you will need to learn Neistraen units of measure, but fear not, I am a very good teacher."

Alex became more concerned as they began to move deeper into space; the moon now came into prominence as he asked,

"Are we going to the moon Arna?"

"Does that frighten you?" She asked.

"Uhh no, not really, but won't that take awhile?"

Arna made a facial gesture Alex took for a smile,

"Not at all…Watch." He watched her touch some buttons which brought up strange symbols on what he took for a computer screen. Suddenly the stars seemed to melt together, then they became visible again, but he gasped when he realized they were sitting right over the moon. Arna then touched some more buttons, and did something with a touch pad on her right, before he knew it; they were rapidly descending down towards the moon's surface.

"Goddam! We are really flying over the moon," thought Alex, he sat in amazement as Arna guided the Karla-Ann over the moon's surface, at a speed he could guess at. Looking up, he could see the distant blue planet he called home. It was the same image he had seen in a picture the astronauts had taken long before he was born, smiling to himself, Alex thought,

"If Wyatt and Palmer could see me now."

They continued to "joyride," a little longer, until Arna shot back up into space, and headed for home. Once again, the stars blurred, and they were over earth once more.

"Tell me Arna;" asked Alex "Is that some sort of warp speed you put us into when the stars melt together like that?" Without looking at him, she responded with,

"I'm not familiar with this warp speed you speak of, we simply "fold" space, the computer told me how far your moon was, I asked it to calculate how fast we would need to travel based on a given time, in this case, I chose six min's since relatively speaking, we are not that far away. The navigational computer then did the rest."

"That's awesome," he replied, "What does this ship use for fuel?"

"This craft utilizes anti-matter particles, which we can scoop up from certain types of stars but it also uses a plasma/druidism pod that must be regenerated from time to time."

"How do we do that?" He asked,

"There are…places," was all she would say soon they were back where they started from, Alex's watch told him it was close to five in the morning, and he needed to get back home soon.

"Look Arna," I've got to get home, Gideon said you could hang around in orbit for awhile, how long might that be?"

"For as long as you need Alex, I am your's now, have you tired of me?"

"On no! Arna, not in the least, it's…It's just my parents wouldn't understand you, I've got a lot of things to think about, but wait, I've got an idea. There are a number of communications satellites orbiting over earth, all our phone signals go through them, do you think it would be possible to uh, you know hack into one of them and call me on my phone here?"

"You have the recall device," she said, "Simply contact me with that, and I'll come to you."

Alex grimaced,

"Yeah well that might not be the best, at least not right now, how about we use some of that superior alien technology and figure out how to contact me through my phone here, here's the number, keep it in mind and while you're up there, maybe you can hack into a satellite or something and call me?" Arna gave him a puzzled look,

"Well…"

"I know it's a long shot, if nothing else, maybe you can figure out how we do things here on earth."

"Very well," she replied, "Perhaps it will give me something to do after all."

"If we can talk to each other on the phone, I can let you know what's happening, but right now I'm caught up in a bunch of crap, so if you don't mind."

"Very well Alex," replied Arna, "I will attempt to contact you but will await your recall signal." Alex did something he never thought he'd do. He moved up to Arna and put his arms around her and gently hugged her. He expected her to be cold, but Arna felt warm like another human, this surprised him, but he didn't let on to his feelings about this.

"I will see you again Arna, just hang tight until I get some of this s**t straightened out OK?"

"OK…Alex."

He climbed up into the tree house and packed up all his gear, and loaded everything back on the ATV. Before he left, Alex took the recall device from Arna, then watched as she returned to the spacecraft, and took off. He took one last look at Gideon's grave, and sighed, before riding back home. Alex's mind was so crowded by thoughts of Gideon, Arna, and even the Karla-Ann, he almost ran off the trail twice. Returning home, an hour later, his father asked where he had been.

"I went camping, you know that dad, I told you and mom."

"Yeah, I guess you did at that, my mistake, oh by the way, the school backed down, you've been reinstated with a clean record, isn't it funny what people will do when faced with the loss of everything they own."

Monday morning came and Alex wasn't so sure he wanted to face school; especially after all he'd just been through. There was a very distinct change when he returned, there were quite a number of kids who came up to him and basically said,

"Way to go, you showed 'em!" However just as many gave him dirty looks or ignored him completely. The worst rejection came from Palmer. All during the day she avoided him, or just glared at him, after school she came up to him accompanied by Wyatt, confirming his suspicions that his best friend was after his best girl.

"What the f**k is the matter with you?" She hissed at him,

"My mother was sick with fear, my dad worried about loosing our home. It's over between us Alex, don't ever speak to me again, you hear, we're finished you hear me, just get out of my life!" Wyatt said nothing his smirking said it all. Instead, of arguing with her, Alex just turned and walked away, compared to what he'd just done, and looked forward to, Palmer's problems didn't even register. It was too bad about Wyatt, but Alex doubted his friend would have been able to keep his mouth shut about Arna or the Karla-Ann.

Two days later, his folks decided it was time to discuss college again, and where he wanted to go. Unfortunately, Alex's mind was elsewhere, thinking about Arna and what she was doing up there orbiting the earth. Earlier, Alex had settled on studying computer science and possibly game design. His folks were somewhat cool to the idea, but their attitude was,

"It's your life Alex, all we ask is that you examine your career choice carefully, is there any money in it, can you make a decent living at it, and is it what you really want to do with your life." His mind kept returning to the Karla-Ann, and that incredible bridge, along with the possibility of actually flying that ship someday. Arna was another matter, the more he thought about her, and the fact that she was an android, intrigued him even further. Gideon was right, the opportunity of a lifetime awaited him, unfortunately, it would require incredible sacrifice.

The local community college had a decent computer program, and he could knock out all his prerequisites there as well so if he transferred to a state or private university he could jump right into his major. He convinced his parents to let him attend the two year college first, allowing him to make up his mind as to where he wanted to get his degree from. Actually this was all a ploy to buy him time so he could investigate the opportunities Gideon said awaited him. Alex spent several sleepless nights thinking about what he knew would eventually happen. One evening just as he was getting ready for bed, Alex's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hello Alex…"

"Arna! Is that really you?"

"Yes, I did as you suggested, getting into this satellite was incredibly easy, however locating your number took some time, but here we are, how are things with you?"

He couldn't believe it; Arna actually hacked into the system,

"I'm so glad you were able to get through Arna, say, I would like to take another ride in the Karla-Ann as well as have you show me more of the ship's controls. We won't go back to that old ghost town, but I know another place you can land, where no one will see you, but when you do, cloak the ship OK?"

"I will await your signal Alex, good bye."