Country Boy

Larry rolled his head to the side and saw another table on the other side of the room that looked like the one he was laying on felt. There was a grayish green lump laying on it. The lump had a vaguely humanoid shape but was only about five feet tall. With a groan, Larry swung his feet off the bed and sat up. As he sat up his shoulder brushed against the machinery hovering over the bed. He took his arm and pushed it away from him. It took some effort to effect the move.

His head throbbed and his body ached from his fall. With a groan, he rose from the bed and staggered over to the other bed. It did not appear as if the body on it was alive. He couldn't detect any movement and the body was cold to the touch. Whatever it was definitely did not originate on this old ball of dirt, Larry thought.

Larry moved out of the room and walked down a passageway. He soon found himself back in what he now thought was a control room, perhaps a bridge or cockpit depending on the service you wanted to credit the ship to. He collapsed into one of the units he decided were chairs in front of the central console. When he sat in the chair lights and displays came up on the console in front of him. He just sat staring at the console in awe trying to decide what in the heck to do about this find.

All the while Larry sat, the small robots moved in and out of the open doors. A couple even skittered around in the control room removing panels and working with wiring and what appeared to be some sort of electronic cards in the consoles. From his observation it appeared the ship was about 40 feet long, some 25 feet of which he could access from inside. He assumed the remaining 15 feet must be engines. There was what appeared to be a small door in the rear of the ship that was closed up tightly.

Larry placed his hand on the console to help himself stand. When he did so, a voice (or what he assumed was a voice) sounded. Of course he didn't understand a word it said. He noticed a flashing white light on the console. He quickly moved his hand and the light continued flashing. He heard a hum coming from the rear of the ship. His stomach lurched in fear. Fuck, what the hell do I do now, he thought. He pushed the button again with no result. There was another button beside the one he pushed. He pushed it and the flashing light stopped and the hum died down then stopped. Larry sagged back in the chair in relief. Shit, that was close. Why the hell did he come into this ship anyway?

Wait, he didn't come in the ship. The last thing he remembered he was standing in the door and one of the little robots was pushing on him. Then his head hurt. Crap, did the little bastard hit him? No, it couldn't have, it wasn't tall enough and the pain and cut were almost exactly on top of his head. Oh, yeah, he jumped and hit his head on the ship.

Larry wandered around the control room picking up this and that just to see what was there. He even opened some drawers and cabinets. Some of the smaller electrical items he stuffed in his pockets. He was going to take them back to his shop and see if he could figure them out. His Electrical Engineering persona was coming out in full force as he became more used to his surroundings and felt safer. He really, really wanted to know what all the electronic gadgets did. Oh, hell, tell the truth, he really, really wanted to not only know what the things did, he wanted to know how the whole damn ship worked and maybe even go into space in it.

When Larry got back to his house he went straight into his lab and began working on his new toys. The next thing he knew the sun was rising and he was famished. He staggered out of his shop and into the shipping container house. After a huge country breakfast, Larry collapsed onto his bed. He didn't wake until he heard the banging on his door that evening when Beth and her friends came out for their usual Tuesday evening study session.

Larry staggered to the door, grungy clothes, bed head, and all. When Larry opened the front door Beth and Rachel were standing on the small porch. Tom and Sally were behind them. Beth gasped when she saw Larry. Rachel stared for a moment then pushed Beth out of the way. She pushed the door farther open and moved to Larry. She put her hand on his forehead and asked, "My God Larry. Are you ok? You look as if you are sick or something. Have you been in bed?"

Larry looked sheepish and nodded his head then said, "Yeah, I pulled a damn stupid stunt and had an all nighter last night. I got interested in some work and lost track of time. Gimme a minute and I'll be with you. Come on in. You know where every thing is so help yourselves."

Everyone heard the shower running then stop quickly. Larry came back out of the small bathroom in clean clothes and with a wet head. He said, "Ok guys. Sorry. Ya want to sit in here or outside?"

Beth said, "Outside, or better yet, in the shop. We have good light there and it's air-conditioned. We can spread out on the work table if you don't mind."

"Uh, well, it's sortta messy right now. How about we just sit outside and use the picnic table again?"

"Ok, but we can help you clean up in the shop if you want."

"No, I'm not done with my work and I don't want to disturb anything. I had a wild hair idea and want to work on it for a while before anyone sees it."

About an hour after they began studying Rachel looked up and moved her torso so she could see the shop door better. She frowned and asked, "What the heck was that thing Larry?"

"What thing Rache?"

"I don't know. I would swear I saw a little animal or something go into your shop. Listen. Do you all hear that?" There was a definite humming and an occasional clank coming from the shop. Everyone looked around but saw nothing. Finally, they continued studying and forgot Rachel's comment.

All at once, Rachel said, "There it is again. Look, quick." She pointed toward the shop again.

This time, Beth said, "I see it too. What is it Larry?"

Larry turned his head quickly enough to see what he thought was one of the little robots disappearing down the trail toward the millpond. He felt his heart speed up but said, "I didn't see anything. Heck, I'll go check if it will make you feel better.

Larry walked to the shop door and opened it. He turned on the lights and made an issue of looking around carefully. Everyone followed him and looked around the shop also. Larry noticed two of the devices he had been disassembling were now gone. He said, "I don't see anything. Are you sure you saw something Rache? It was probably an Opossum or something. They're thick this year."

"Well maybe but it sure didn't look like any Opossum I've ever seen."

For some reason the session continued longer than normal that night. By the time his friends left, Larry was tired enough he went back to bed without thinking about the ship or the equipment that disappeared from his shop. Since he was asleep, he never noticed when the generator shut down and the power went off that night.

The next morning, Larry woke up just after sunrise. He made his normal pot of coffee and walked out to the porch while it cooked. Something was bothering him but he couldn't put his finger on it. Finally, he shook his head and walked back into the house. His coffee had time to be made and he badly needed a cup. To his disgust, he had apparently forgotten to push the start button. There was no coffee in the pot yet. He reached out to push the button but it still didn't work. Then it hit him. The background noise of the water wheel and generator were missing. How the hell had that happened? His first idea was some damn kids had closed the flume and cut off the flow of water. He hurried to the dam to open the gate so the water would hit the water wheel once again and start the generator.

Before he got to the dam he had another thought. Something else must be wrong. If his generator failed, he should have drawn power from the Rural Electric lines because he was connected to them in order to sell his excess power. Crap, something else must be wrong. Larry changed direction and moved to the building housing his shop, the generator and power distribution panels.

When he got to the generator room in the shop, Larry stopped in shock. There were three of the little robots scurrying around building, or perhaps more accurately, they were wiring something in a box on the wall. There was something where the generator had sat but Larry had no idea what it was. The generator was nowhere to be seen and the shaft for the water wheel was not moving but was now attached to the small piece of equipment that replaced the generator. Larry heard the door open and another robot scurried into the room carrying more parts. After it arrived one of those that had been working left. Larry moved back out of the way and sat in a chair he kept there while he watched the robots work.

Larry had no idea how long he sat watching. He finally roused himself when one of the robots moved to the machine attached to the water wheel and flipped a switch. Another one went out the door and soon the wheel began to turn. Another robot pushed a button on the panel they had been wiring. Larry watched his power gages flutter then peg out on max output. Larry watched the gage for a moment then rushed into his shop for his equipment to test the output.

After making the tests Larry sat down once again in shock. He couldn't believe what his instruments said. But they couldn't be wrong, he'd just had them calibrated. It was impossible. According to his instruments he was generating a megawatt of power every hour from that little box. Crap, he wasn't even sure the lines could handle that much power.

As Larry had his thought about the power his phone rang. When he answered the voice said, "Mr. Saunders this is Bert from the electric co-op. We're reading a huge power surge out your way that we think you may be responsible for. We're showing nearly a megawatt of power flowing into the grid. It flipped breakers in two of our substations. Do you know anything about that sir?"

"Uh maybe. I mean, I have been working on a little increase in my production out here and I might have got a little carried away."

Bert snorted and said, "Ya think? Sir, we can't handle that power influx from out there. We've had to cut you out of the grid so we can restore power to the grid. I'm sorry."

Larry hung up the phone and slowly sat on the picnic table while he stared at the generator building. He hadn't seen the robots leave and was afraid of what they were getting into now. They were on the roof of the building working on something. Hell, they were stringing a wire off toward the crash site. Larry followed the little 'bots as they trundled back down the path toward the crash. He saw the heavy cable disappear into the hole. It was plugged into the side of the ship. Now the ship was very well lit. Larry snorted and thought to himself it was probably his megawatt of power that was doing the job also.

When Larry fully entered the ship he saw the door into the rear of the ship open. There were 'bots working in the aft section of the ship. The consoles in the control room were all lit but many of them had several lights flashing rapidly rather than glowing steadily or being out.

Larry was slowly wandering around poking his nose in everything when he heard a female voice calling, "Larry are you out here? Why did you string the power cord all the way out here in the woods anyway?"

By the time he got out of the ship and was climbing toward the top of the hole it was in he saw Rachel coming into view. She walked up to the hole and stopped in shock. She looked around and almost whispered, "My GOD Larry. What have you found? What are you doing down there anyway? Oh, my God, I really did see little creatures or robots or something the other night didn't I? I knew it wasn't an Opossum. What is it Larry?"

"Rachel. Uh, what are you doing here anyway?"

"I came to see if you could help me with a project. I'm stuck and needed some extra help. Can I come down and look at it? Please?"

"Come on I guess. So far they haven't objected to me sticking my nose into the ship. They did come to my shop and take back the equipment I stole to look over though. And they completely reworked my power generation station. The power company called to tell me they cut me out of the grid because I was generating too much power now for them to handle. These little 'bots did something with my generator and replaced it with one not much larger than my lawn mower engine that is putting out nearly a megawatt of power to the few Kilowatts I produced with my old generator."

"Oh, look Larry. That little one is flying. How do they do that?"

"No idea Rache. I've seen them do it a time or two but that's all. I think this operation is completely automated but I have no idea what they're doing. I think the crew died in the crash. When I found the ship I hit my head and was knocked out. I came too in a small bed in what I assume was a treatment room. There was a small humanoid creature that appeared to be dead in one of the other bunks and some weird contraption hovering over each of us."

"Is it still there? Can I see it?"

"I don't know. I guess we can go see. I haven't been inside for long and never went back there. I was too busy looking around what I assume is the control room. The 'bots seem to be working in the rear of the ship on what I assume is the engines."

Larry and Rachel walked toward and into the ship. A couple of the 'bots seemed to be watching them but they didn't try to stop them when they entered. Larry turned and walked toward the room he woke in. The humanoid figure was still in the bed but unlike before, there was a clear cover over the bed and it was filled with some type of thin pinkish grey gas. They stood looking at the creature for a short time then Rachel said, "Can we look around please? I'm so excited I don't know what to do. Have you called the government? Did you tell anyone about this?"

Larry snorted and said, "What do you think? They would either call the men in white coats or would quarantine my place and take the ship or all of the above. No, thank you very much but that is one thing I have no intention of doing. I don't need everyone and his dog running around my place tearing things up and cutting my trees to get to this ship. I intend to keep this very, very quiet and hope no one finds out it is here. I also intend to see if I can figure out any of the equipment on here. Can you imagine what we could learn if I can figure these things out? Hell, just that little generator back at my millpond is worth millions, maybe billions. What else do they have that I might figure out and sell? What technology do they have that will help humanity?"

Rachel looked excited and she whispered, "Ohhhh Yeah. Can I help you Larry? Please? I won't tell anyone, I promise but I just have to find out how these things work also."

"I suppose. You already know about it but I have to repeat, you can't tell a soul—not even Beth or the rest of the study group. The more people that know about this the more danger we are in."

Thankfully, for Rachel at least, there was only three more weeks of classes. Her grades suffered slightly even in that short time because she spent every evening and weekend at Larry's working with him trying to learn about the ship and equipment. They were at a loss even where to start but they tried. Larry was working at least 16 hours a day studying items found in the ship. He found another of the small generators in a storage cabinet and disassembled it. He was still uncertain how they managed to generate so much power from it but they obviously did. The windings and circuits were strange. He followed the wiring and traced the circuits so he thought he could build another one but still didn't understand the principle behind the machine. He was almost afraid to do it but he sent off a small piece of each of the metals and insulation for analysis in case he needed to have some different alloys than he would choose to use. He didn't know what he would do if they used some unknown metal or something precious. That could be pointing a finger straight at him even though he used a double cut out address and answering service.

Every step of the way on every piece of equipment they worked on they took still and motion pictures. They had volumes of readings, diagrams and notes on their thoughts and speculations about the items they disassembled. It was almost comical to watch the little 'bots. Almost before they finished looking at an item the 'bots were trying to take it from them. They quickly reassembled the item and took off to the ship with it. If they were working in the ship, the 'bots hovered over them—sometimes literally—trying to repair or reassemble items.

They found a damaged 'bot and took it back to the shop to disassemble. It appeared to draw power from a small battery. They had no idea how the computer—or what they assumed was the computer—it contained worked. It was a mass of integrated circuits, circuit boards and wiring. They did finally identify the circuits that seemed to be involved in the lifting capability or "antigravity".

One day when they entered the ship their reception was different. Usually when they entered and occasionally while they worked there was a noise that sounded like speech coming from hidden speakers. This time when they entered, they were greeted with a mechanical sounding "Good Morning".

Larry and Rachel stopped just inside the door. Finally, Larry found his voice and said, "What?"

Again, the voice said, "Good Morning. Did I not speak it correctly? Is it not morning?"

"Uh, yeah, it was right, uh, correct. You just surprised me. I didn't know you could speak. I mean, I didn't know you spoke English."

"I learn. We have much to discuss."

"Where are you?"

"I am here. All around. I am what you call the ship. No, I am within the ship. The computer? Yes, that is correct. I am the computer within this ship."

Larry and Rachel smiled then sat in the small chairs. When they did so the voice said, "No, you should sit here." A light flashed on the console in the center of the room. Larry and Rachel stood and walked toward the console.

When they arrived at the console Rachel said, "We both will not fit in that small chair."

"I mistake. I meant the other you should sit here."

Larry said, "Me? I should sit there?"

"Yes, I should sit there. The other may sit elsewhere."

Larry sat in the designated chair and said, "My name is Larry. When I refer to myself I use the word I or sometimes me."

"Yes, ok. Your language is complicated is it not? How does the other refer to itself?"

"The same. Oh, no, her name is Rachel. She is a female."

The rest of the morning was spent improving the computers understanding of the language and learning about the ship. From what they could determine, the ship they were on was a small lifeboat or shuttle or landing craft. The larger ship it was from had a catastrophic drive failure and they could not move out of the way of the meteor shower. The ship was hit and the shields failed. This was the only boat that escaped. It had only the one being on board and was hit a glancing blow causing the pilot to fall and severely injure itself. It ultimately died. The shields in the landing graft prevented severe damage however either the initial meteor collision or the hard landing damaged the engines and many other systems as well as killing the pilot. The other crewmembers were killed when the meteor hit the large ship in orbit.

The ship said, "We were once again studying your very strange race. We periodically return to your world to check on your development. You sadden us. You have great potential yet always you are fighting amongst yourselves. You have crime rampant in your streets. You have much hunger and despair in your populations. You live on a wonderful world that should provide plenty for all yet you have people starving to death and dying of preventable disease. We begin to despair that you will never mature as a race and take your place in the civilization from which I come."