Mystères Élémentaires

"And you are?" the trooper asked, holding up a clipboard.

He looked at the trooper, said not one word.

"I need some ID, sir."

He took his wallet out and handed it over, and his partner did the same.

"Fox Mulder," the trooper said, laughing. "And let me guess, you're Dana Scully?"

He didn't say a word, and neither did his partner.

"Uh-huh, right. And I'm Luke Skywalker," the trooper said, writing their names down on his clipboard.

He took his ID back and walked over to the car, then he walked all the way around it before he stopped and looked inside. Nothing was out of place, he saw, like gravity inside the car hadn't changed -- down was still down, as far as the car, and everything inside the car, was concerned. He ran his hand under the roof and didn't feel a thing, not even a stray current, and he noticed the trooper was beside him again.

"We tried to hook it up to the wrecker," the poor guy said. "It ripped the towing harness off it's mounting plate...and the car didn't budge."

"What about the girl?"

"What about her?"

"Well, for one, is she alive?"

"She has a pulse, but that's about all I can tell."

He walked over to the woman and tried to ignore her simple physical beauty, then he touched her. Warm -- and inert. He pushed against her body with all the weight of his own, and he might as well have been pushing against the Rock of Gibraltar. He knelt beside her face, then moved under her and looked into her eyes.

And the woman blinked, tried to open her mouth.

He moved closer. "Can you hear me?"

Nothing.

"If you can hear me, blink your eyes."

He saw it was an effort, but she blinked her eyes -- if slowly. He needed to ask so many questions, but how? Blinking? When it took so much effort? Then he saw her mouth move again, heard a faint sound -- and he leaned closer still, pushing his ear right up to her mouth.

"Jeffries -- gone..." she said.

"The pilot? Rob Jeffries? He's gone?"

"Yes. Went with them?"

"He went with them? Are you saying he wasn't forced?"

"Not forced. Went. Knew them."

"He knows them? Is that what you're telling me?"

"Yes. Knows one very well."

"Did you see a ship of some sort?"

"Yes. Huge."

"You saw the ship?"

"Yes. Rescue operation. We interrupted. Afraid of being seen, attacked. Left with Rob."

"Did he tell you why he went with them?"

She closed her eyes for a moment. "Thirsty."

He leaned out to 'Scully' -- "We need some water, and some way to get it in her mouth." -- then he went back to her. "Tell me if you can. Do you know why Jeffries went with them?"

"Yes. To keep them safe."

"Them?"

"Survivors. Crash."

"Keep them safe? From what?"

"Us. They are afraid. Of Us."

"Why?"

"Hit aircraft. Scoop, trying to suck up atmosphere, hit aircraft. Then afraid. Tried to make orbit. Out of fuel. Crashed."

He looked around -- at the car, and at this woman, then he turned and looked at the last of the night sky dancing overhead. 'No, this wasn't a calling card,' he thought as he looked around the site, then at his partner. 'This is a warning. Keep away, or else.' He stood and walked to the Huey, put on his headset, and spoke in quiet, hushed tones -- for a very long time -- and he wondered what was coming next.

-

Coda

He was so tired now, so tired he rolled on his side and looked into the dome of the night sky. He looked at the ancient patterns again, listened to the music of the spheres, then he dove deep -- and he listened again. He shut out all the other noise and tried to hear her, even her beating heart was enough, and he thought that maybe, just maybe he heard her call. Spinning with joy he sprinted upward and leapt into the sky, and when he was spent he rolled on his side again and looked at the stars. He listened -- again -- and when he was sure he knew the way, he began moving again.

He heard it first -- something huge and menacing -- but after a time he saw the island, the strange moving island with all the lights, and as it got close he stopped, breathing hard again and now in need of a long rest. Yet the thing came on fast, and not sure what it was he moved to get out of it's way, yet he remained close enough to watch the strange thing as it passed. With his head out of the water, he watched, then saw a creature much like the other, standing on the edge of the thing, and like the other, he could feel this creature's pain, see the hopelessness in it's eyes, and he remembered, and understood.

Then a second creature -- like this one but different -- came out and stood by the first, and he felt pain disappear. He felt the change in his mind's eye, this feeling once unknown and now so familiar, and he recognized it as the very same change he experienced when he saw his mate, and his children. Then he remembered the creature he had pushed to shore, the way the creature held him before he let go.

"I love you, my friend," the creature said, and he had felt what there was to feel in the man's eyes, then he looked at the creature and said 'Love.'

He remembered that moment, and that word, as he turned to the music of her beating heart, but oh, how he longed to dance among the stars again.

*

(C)2017 adrian leverkühn | abw | fiction, all fiction, and nothing but fiction. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading.