The Gods of Thunder

When I had decided, I had taken Dad aside and told him I would be leaving with Sally. When he asked why I told him I wanted to get to know my sister and she had to get back to Oklahoma where she worked. I told him I would be staying with her for the rest of the summer and then return to school in the fall. He said he would tell Mom, and for me to have a good time. I told him Sally and I would be back during Thanksgiving break to spend the long weekend with them. He smiled and gathered me in a hug.

The next morning Sally and I piled into her rental car and headed to Le Mars. We drove with the window closed as there were a lot of clouds in the sky with Eidolons flitting about. When we arrived at Le Mars Aerodrome, Sally showed the guard at the gate a badge and he allowed us to drive right to the jet parked on the ramp. The jet was a beauty, polished silver with no markings, two engines attached to the back of a sleek fuselage. There was a pilot and co-pilot waiting for us as we pulled up alongside the jet. There was also someone from the rental car company there to take the car back to their lot.

The co-pilot got our bags as Sally and I climbed aboard the jet. Once our bags were stowed, the pilot and co-pilot came aboard and went right to the cockpit. The engines whined to life, the jet started to move toward the runway. Sally was on the phone already talking in hushed tones. Every once in a while she would look at me and smile. I turned my attention to the window and the scene outside. The sky was a brilliant blue, spotted with big white fluffy clouds. Each cloud had its assortment of Eidolons perched upon them. It looked to me as if they were all watching our plane take off.

As the plane lifted off the runway Sally hung up the phone and turned toward me.

"Don't worry they can't hurt us in here." She told me as I watch the Eidolons.

"What about the plane? I've heard stories about planes being struck by lightning and going down."

"This jet is specially equipped with lightning suppression gear." She smiled as we rose through the clouds. Flashes of lightning crisscrossed the sky accompanied by loud claps of thunder. As lightning struck the plane you could feel it shudder and shake from the impact of the thunderclap that followed.

"Do the Eidolons feel the jet as it passes through them? I mean we have to be hitting them, right?"

"We don't know but, we think they may. We only know what disrupts the visible part of their being. Solid matter doesn't appear to have any effect on them. Shooting them with a bullet has absolutely no effect, they stand there and laugh at us. But being sucked into a jet engine does have an effect. So, we have had to develop weapons that do affect their corporeal being."

"Well, are you going to tell me?" I was hanging on every word.

"Plasma. Plasma has the desired effect we are looking for."

"Plasma?" Now I have taken the required physics courses at university but, plasma was the fourth state of matter. When electrons were stripped off of atoms they become ionized. Ionized gases become plasma when heated. Lightning is an example of plasma. So we were going to be fighting fire with fire.

"Yes, plasma. You'll learn more about that when we get to where we are going."

"Where are we going?" I let the plasma thing go for now. So many questions so little time.

"Tulsa. Well, not really Tulsa Airfield, a little airfield to the south of the city, R. L. Jones Field just east of Federal 75."

Just then the pilot announced that we would be landing in five minutes. We swiveled our seat to face front and buckled up. We were both silent as we descended through the clouds, lightning strike, after lightning strike, hitting the plane. The claps of thunder were deafening. The ride down through the clouds was rough and wild as the pilot fought the turbulence caused by the repeated sonic booms of the lightning. Breaking through the clouds lessened the strikes somewhat and the aircraft smoothed out on its approach to the airfield.

Touch down was really smooth as the wheels squawked hitting the pavement. The jet taxied to the front of a huge building and hanger where it stopped with the engines whining loudly. The door was jerked open and a head appeared looking toward the cockpit.

"Shut 'em down Stan, your next flight has been canceled." The pilot flipped switches and the jet noise abated to half the loudness. The head ducked back as the stairs were pulled down into position.

The pilot came back and waved us to exit. Sally and I unbuckled and walked to the door. It was raining out and there was a car waiting for us at the foot of the stairs with a gentleman holding an umbrella and the door to the car open. We hurried down the stairs and into the car. I could see other people getting our luggage out of the hold and putting them in the trunk of the car. The driver got in and pulled away from the plane.

"Where to, Ma'am?" Came a voice out of nowhere, startling me.

"My place, Jim," Sally answered.

Sally pulled a folder out of the pocket in the door and started reading. I looked through the tinted windows at the scenery as we were driven to her apartment or house. To tell the truth I didn't even know how my sister lived or what she lived in. I shook my head and leaned back into the seat closing my eyes.

I woke to the sound of the car door opening, I must have fallen asleep. Sally was smiling at me as she reached for my hand.

"Come Trace. I want to show you my place." As I slid out of the car the house we were parked in front of came into view. It was small or seemed that way. I could see that it was two stories but, the way it was built it didn't appear taller than a one story house. Sally pulled me up the walk to the front door, taking keys from her purse she opened the door, reached in and flipped the lights on.

"Well, come on in." She said as she pulled me by my hand.

"Sally, your place looks great."

"Thanks. Come on, I'll show you to your room. Get your bags there." Jim the driver had brought our bags to the front door while I had been gawking at the house. I grabbed my bags and followed Sally upstairs. She was waiting by the first door at the top of the stairs.

"This will be your room. I'm at the other end of the hall and your bathroom is the next door down from here." She pointed as she spoke. I went in a put my bags down and tried the bed.

"Why don't you jump in the shower, that's what I'm going to do. Meet you in the kitchen when you're done." And she was gone. So I did.

When I walked into the kitchen Sally was cooking what smelled like bacon and eggs. The toaster popped bread into the air as I took a seat at the counter.

"Gee sis, you didn't have to go to all this trouble."

"No trouble Trace," Sally said as she slid a plate in front of me. "Eat up."

As I chased the last piece of egg around the plate with a small bit of toast, I realized that I was very content. I was happier than I had been in a long time. Looking up I saw Sally staring at me with this strange look in her eye. I started to ask her what was wrong but she shushed me and started to clean up. I helped Sally with the dishes and we turned in for the night.

The next morning was bright, warm, and sunny, with nary a cloud in the sky. The clouds had been blown out by a high-pressure ridge coming in from the west. Jim was waiting out front for us with the car. The drive to the MDD was uneventful. Sis' car phone rang a couple of times but she ignored it as she gazed at me over her sunglasses. Embarrassed, I turned to her.

"Sis, why do you keep staring at me?"

"You look so much like Dad when I was growing up that I just can't get over it."

"No, I don't."

"You do." The car slowed.

"Ok, we're here." She started to gather up her things as the car pulled up in front of a plain-looking office building of only two stories. The sign out front said "Meteorological Data Division". No government seal or anything that would indicate that the government was involved. We went in and Sally showed the guard at the desk a picture ID and pressed her thumb to a screen. The screen turned green and the guard waved us in.

We entered the elevator and Sally pressed the two and the one buttons one after the other quickly. The floor dropped out from underneath us as the elevator dropped into the ground below. The counter changed rapidly going through the numbers from one to twenty-one

"There are twenty-five sub-levels to this facility. But from the lobby elevator, there are only two sub-levels you can get too, twenty-one and twelve." She told me as we descended into the earth. We slowly stopped and the doors opened on to a normal looking hallway.

"We have to change elevators here to get to the twenty-fifth sub-level where my office is." She said as she pressed the down button on the bank of elevators right across the hall from the one we just rode down in. The doors opened and we stepped in and descended to the twenty-fifth sub-level.

The elevator doors opened onto one of the biggest rooms I have ever seen. The other side of the room had to be a football field away. The elevator bank was in the middle of the wall and the room extended about fifty yards on either side. The ceiling was about twenty feet above our heads and lit with soft glowing panels.

As I followed Sally I suddenly noticed the cubicles that filled up the floor space. It was also very quiet for such a large open space or maybe that was why it was quiet. As we threaded our way between the cubes filled with people, I saw several large offices in the middle of the room. They were arranged in an octagon around a central office. There were two hallways into the center of the octagon with a hallway that went around the central office. Once in the circular hallway, I saw names painted on each door, Sally's office was right across from the door of the central office. The name on the central office door was Samuel G. Washington.

Sally threw her briefcase in the corner and sat down behind her desk, indicating I should have a seat across from her. She turned to what I could only surmise as a computer screen. I had seen pictures of them, and while the university had some I had never been privileged enough to have seen one in person.

Sally typed in some commands on the keyboard and a list of something appeared on the screen.

"Geez, you leave for a few days and your inbox gets filled up!"

"What?" I looked at her quizzically.

"Never mind. We need to get you squared away first anyway." She picked up the phone on her desk and punched a few numbers into the keypad.

"Sam, I have the new recruit here, are they ready over in Delta section for him?" She listened intently for a few seconds, then grunted an affirmative and hung up the phone.

"Ok, brother of mine come with me." Sally led me through the maze of cubicles to what she described as the Delta section. This is where I would receive my training on how the department fights the Eidolons. It would also be where I received my weapons training. I would also be going to school at the University here in Omaha. My credits from the university back home would be transferred here and I would be able to study whatever field I wanted.

I was going to major in Husbandry but now I think it is going to be Aerospace Engineering along with Electro-Biology.

I knocked on the door to my sister's place. It had been eight weeks since I had last seen her. I had been in training for five months now, along with studies at the university in an accelerated course of study. I had gotten an email from her asking me to stop by her place for dinner on Saturday, tonight. The door opened and there stood my mother. She grabbed me in a rib-crushing hug and pulled me into the House.

"Trace you look well." She said as she relieved me of my coat.

"I'm great Mom. What are you doing here?"

"Dad and I drove down for the weekend to see you and Sally. And to see why you haven't called us." I sheepishly looked down at the floor.

"Uh, Mom, about that, I have been so busy with school and stuff. I got a job too, with Sally at the lab." The lab was the cover story we had come up with for Mom and Dad.

"Where are Sally and Dad?" I asked looking around.

"They went to the store for some wine for dinner."

"Oh, ok." Just then the door opened with Sally and Dad walking in, they each had a bottle of wine in hand. Sally ran over to me and smacked me on the lips before running off to the kitchen. Dad walked over and shook my hand then we embraced. We all followed Sally into the kitchen.

Dinner was a blast and yes, we all got blasted. I stayed at Sally's that night as did Mom and Dad. Her place was big enough. I was awakened around two in the morning by a crack loud enough to shatter the bedroom window, glass flying across the room.

I rolled out of bed grabbing my clothes. I got dressed lying on the floor. Sally was next to me in no time, fully dressed and carrying a pulse rifle. She handed me the rifle.

"You go take care of them while I keep Mom and Dad occupied." I shook my head and crawled to the door. I could hear Sally as she intercepted Mom and Dad in the hallway.

"Trace is fine, we should all go into the den right now..." Her voice trailed off as I closed the door behind me. Looking up into the night sky I could see the wispy apparitions flitting from cloud to cloud. As one stopped on a cloud over the tree out front I raised the pulse rifle to my shoulder and fired. The Eidolon was flash fried by the hot plasma bolt. Turning I slammed into someone. It was Jim, Sally's driver. He lived in the house next door. He also carried a pulse rifle.

The street lights were blinking and the sky was rumbling as the lightning struck the tree in front of the house, lighting up the sky with a display of sparks and flame. Ducking for cover I rolled behind the brick wall that protected the flower garden, crushing the beautiful blooms beneath my body. Looking into the black sky I could see them, ghostly figures flitting from cloud to cloud as they attempted to hit one of us with their lethal package of electric force.

Raising my pulse rifle up to my shoulder, I lined the sights up on the almost imperceptible glow on the edge of the cloud above me. As the glow became brighter I pulled the trigger losing a bolt of superheated plasma toward the heavens. The glow died to nothing as the ghostly figure was consumed by the white-hot flow of plasma.

Jim and I battled the Eidolons for two hours. Watch the sky, seen a glow, fire. With the two of us out front of the house, the lightning strikes around Sally's house diminished to nothing.

I slept late the next morning and woke to Sally sitting on the side of my bed smiling down at me.

"Jim said you did a good job last night," I grunted back at her and swatted her hand away from my head as she tried to brush my hair off my face.

"He said you got a lot more than him."

"Sally, how would you like to talk to one of them?" Her eyes opened wide with astonishment.

"Yes, of course, we would. How could we not? We have been killing them for 45 years and them, us for much longer." She paused looking me in the eye. "You're joking aren't you?"

"Nope."

"You had better explain yourself then buddy." She whispered hoarsely as she straddled me on the bed with her hands pressing down on my chest.

"I think I have figured a way to do it using an electromagnetic field. I think we can catch one and bring it down to earth and talk to it face to face. But, it might bring a lot of attention to the department."

"Why would you think that?" She was looking at me quizzically.

"The equipment and funding will be tremendous, not to mention the personnel. Plus, we will have to work out in the open where people can see us."

"That shouldn't be a problem, we work out in the open all the time."

"But we work as individuals or at the most a four-man fire team. This will require about twenty to twenty-five people and a couple of tons of equipment, strange looking equipment to boot."

"Ok, then we will have to do this out in the middle of nowhere. We have a scientific research station out in the middle of nowhere. Actually, it's in the middle of Oklahoma. It is twenty miles from the nearest human habitation."

She was excited about the prospect of capturing an Eidolon. Her eyes were bright and twinkled as she held me down on the bed. All of a sudden she was kissing me hard on the lips and just as suddenly gone. A shiver ran down my spine as I sat up in bed. I felt strange as I sat there on the edge of the bed wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I had enjoyed that kiss from my sister more than I should have. I jumped up and got dressed as I heard Mom and Dad moving around and Sally was humming loudly in the shower.

It took six months to put everything together, the research station soon became a small town in the middle of the rolling plains of Oklahoma. Quonset huts were placed in a ring around the small building that was the research station. Further out were the motor pool and equipment staging points. A flatbed trailer, enclosed in an electrified fence topped with barbed wire, was the focus of activity. Atop the bed of the trailer was a funnel-shaped apparatus with the large end pointing skyward. One side of the apparatus was alight with gauges and dials. Lights blinked off and on and levers and button dotted the panels.

There was a storm coming our way and we were trying to ensure the apparatus was finished in time. This coming storm would be our first live test. A semi-cab backed into the compound, neatly coupling up with the trailer as engineers and scientists feverishly worked on the machine. As the trailer started moving, platforms were pulled out by the engineers, on which they could stand while working as the truck left the compound.

The truck slowly moved to a place that had been set up for just this test. A small blockhouse had been constructed where we could all watch what was happening out on the field where the truck would park. The trailer was backed into position and uncoupled from the cab. Cables were hooked up to the apparatus to provide it with the power needed and to provide the bank of instruments in the blockhouse with data. Everything was set. The truck horn sounded and the engineers and scientists cleared the trailer and ran for the blockhouse.

We all waited and waited.

"Does anyone see them?" Sam asked.

"They're out there, just not showing themselves yet," Sally replied.

We waited some more. I was seated at a computer console waiting, waiting to press the button that fired the magnetic net into the heavens above. At eye level was a television screen with a picture of the sky outside. The camera was on the trailer and lined up with the magnetic net. Once an Eidolon was lined up in the crosshairs I would press the button and the magnetic net would be hurled into the sky to envelop him and pull him down to earth where we could attempt to talk to him.

"Here they come! Look at all of them!" Shouted one of the engineers in the blockhouse.

"Trace, are you ready?" Sam asked me.

"Yes, sir!" I replied as I move the lever to swing the mag-net to the left. The picture on my screen moved the crosshairs over the lead Eidolon and stopped there. I pressed the button to fire the mag-net. There was no sound, no movement just a blurring of the picture in my screen.

"Did it work?" Asked Sam.

On my screen the lead Eidolon was coming down out of the clouds, struggling against the force which had a hold of him. Further and further he was pulled out of the heavens until he was floating in a bubble of magnetic force the size of the mouth of the mag-net gun.

Then all hell broke lose, lightning was striking all over the place. Most of it was directed at the meg-net gun but the fiberglass and plastic covering resisted the effects of the lightning. The Eidolon was still in the bubble.