The Gods of Thunder

"Raise the shields!" Shouted Sam to the engineer at his side. Slowly, two halves of a bubble rose out of the ground outside to enclose not only the mag-net gun but the bunker too. In a short while, we were covered by a hemisphere of plastic and metal. The thunderous sounds of lightning could still be heard but we were protected from it in the dome.

Sam, Sally and I rushed to the bunker door followed by the rest of the crew. As we approached the trailer we saw our first Eidolon close up. And he didn't look happy. His face was scrunched up in a scowl. As we stopped before him we all stood, staring at each other for the longest time. Sally broke the silence first.

"Why do you want to kill us?"

The look on the Eidolon's face changed from a scowl to puzzlement. Did this mean he didn't understand or that he did understand but for some reason was confused by what we were saying to him?

"Why do you want to kill us?" Sally asked again, standing there in front of him with her hands on her hips, staring him in the eye.

He shook his head and looked up to the top of the doom. The thunder and lightning ceased in that instant.

Looking at Sally he shook his head and held up his hands, palms out. Sally's head cocked to one side then the other. Her hands came up to her ears as if to shut out the noise around us. Falling to her knees she shouted.

"Too much, too much, slower please."

The Eidolon nodded and Sally moved her hands away from her ears. An engineer appeared with a chair and Sam and I helped her into it. She was shaking and shivering.

"No, we were not trying to destroy your kind. We developed flying machines to transport our people from place to place on the earth. We had no intent on invading your...territory."

She was listening again although the Eidolons lips were not moving.

"Telepathy," Sam whispered to me.

"Sam, we need to cease all operation across the country." Sally had turned toward Sam and me for the briefest of moments.

"No I can't stop them there, we have no control over that territory, I'm sorry." She was speaking to the Eidolon again.

"Can you look into my mind without harm?" Sally asked the Eidolon. He shook his head and smiled.

"You may," Sally answered some unheard question.

For the next twenty minutes, there was complete silence in the dome. Sam had issued orders for the MDD agents around the country to ceasefire. He had also cleared the dome of all personnel except for Sally, himself, several other agents and a cameraman recording the event, and me. The twenty minutes seemed to last hours as we stood there watching the two of them converse at the speed of thought.

Sally stood up and walked to the trailer reaching out to pull the disengage switch. Sam placed a hand over hers to stop her.

"Is this wise?" He asked her.

"We have too! Trust me." She replied.

They both pulled the switch and the magnetic bubble disappeared. The Eidolon floated down to stand next to Sally placing his hands to her temples. They stood that way for a long time. I could feel waves of good will wash over me. They seemed to be emanating from Sally and the Eidolon.

"He says the lightning will be returned to its natural state and will now only be striking earth randomly. They the... I can't pronounce their real name, will no longer control where it will strike. They will not attempt to strike us with the light of the clouds in the future.

"Now that they know we can be communicated with them they will attempt to maintain a dialog, my words as all I'm really getting from him are impressions." Sally stopped speaking and we could see tears welling up in her eyes.

"That is so beautiful..." She whispered to the Eidolon. He removed his hands from her head. Sally staggered back into my arms as I kept her from falling down. She turned in my arms and threw hers around my neck hugging me hard. The Eidolon stepped forward and placed a hand on my head. My mind exploded in a glorious flash of every color of the rainbow. I then saw my sister walking toward me through the rainbow. She was beautiful. The image went as quick as it had come. The Eidolon was floating up to join his kind in the sky as the dome split, the halves slipping back into the ground.

The MDD is still around, it just has a different mission. I'm still a member as is Sally. I still go to school. The world is now a safer place. With the Eidolons, yes we still call them by that name. In fact, once they learned the derivation of the word they were quite amused by the name. Anyway, they now alert us to the storms that are headed toward us all over the country, in fact, all over the world. They are great meteorologist and have saved many a life on the planet's surface.

The MDD has saved many an Eidolons life by passing on flight plans of planes to them so their people can avoid being in the path of an airliner. It was evidently we who struck the first blow in the war with the Eidolon the first time an airplane flew through a cloud killing one of them.

Sally is still the main contact with them and has been stationed at the research center in Oklahoma. I have continued with school and will soon graduate with two doctorates and hope to continue my research into magnetism and force fields. Mom and Dad sold the farm just recently and have moved to Florida, retiring they say. I guess it was time, there was no reason for them to keep it as I won't be back to take over for them and neither will Sally so why not let some other family enjoy the pleasures of making things grow. I will miss it though.