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The research was to find how we exist at all. |
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Sam's cabin was in a beautiful place. The canyon floor was carpeted with lush grass, and fresh-water creeks ran down each side of the canyon wall. The scrub oak occupied the sides of the canyon up to the rim-rock, with the occasional pine interspersed here and there just to break up the landscape. Topping the rim-rock, the canyon was surrounded by tall pines, and the scrub oak became the intermittent interloper in their space. A narrow dirt road came in at the north end of the canyon, running along the base of the western wall for nearly five miles before it began rising to top the canyon wall and head over into the forest to end at an old logging camp. Nestled down on the floor of the canyon, just off the road, was the cabin. Its log walls had been standing there for nearly a hundred years before Sam bought the place. The chinking in the walls was still sound, and Sam kept up with every repair the old place needed. The wood burning stove had been there as long as the cabin, and at first glance, the white enamel bread warmer over the eyelet top seemed to be the only concession to modernity that had been made since it had been unloaded from the wagon all those decades ago. But if you looked closer, down on the side, you would find where Sam had placed an unobtrusive little thermometer that he used to keep track of the oven's heat for when he baked bread. Quiet and serene, Sam had chosen the canyon for the solitude it offered him. Rarely did Sam have to deal with the comings and goings of people at all. The mailman came up the canyon when Sam had mail, which was only two or three times a month. The Game Warden usually came up once a week, making sure the poachers didn't disturb this particular area, and ensuring the safety of the legal hunters when the season was on. Other than that, Sam and Dolly, his Great Dane, pretty much had the canyon to themselves, and he liked it that way. It was an early September evening that Sam knew all that was going to change. He'd been sitting in front of the cabin, looking up at the night sky, when he noticed what appeared to be an airplane flying high overhead. That wasn't particularly unusual in and of itself, but when the airplane stopped completely, Sam reached for his binoculars on the stump that usually held his evening coffee. Keeping his eyes fixed on the unmoving lights of the plane, he could sense Dolly sitting up next to him, staring at the sky herself. He slowly turned the center knob on the binoculars to bring the plane into focus. As the image sharpened, it became quite clear that it wasn't an airplane. The lights were placed right for it to be a passenger jet, but the dark oval outline of the vessel mounting the lights showed this was a totally different matter. He watched the thing for a few minutes, until it began to slowly turn to the left about 15 degrees, and slowly move in its new direction. Now something like that wouldn't normally bother Sam, because the skies of northern New Mexico had been rife with UFO's for decades. But this particular night it bothered him because the vessel had shifted it's path of travel to bring it directly over the canyon and, from what he could tell, it was descending. Dolly pushed her nose against his arm. "Yeah, sweetie, it looks like we might get company." Sam stretched as he stood up from his chair. He stepped to the cabin and took his shotgun down from over the door with his left hand, while tucking his .45 Colt into the back of his jeans. He pulled his chair back against the wall of the cabin, and placed another chair by the stump, facing the cabin. "Well, Dolly, we'll see if they want to visit, or if they want to get chased off, okay?" Dolly reached over and licked his wrist, then simply turned and padded off into the brush across from the cabin. Sam watched as the thing slowly descended onto the floor of the canyon about 50 yards from the cabin. The lights underneath dimmed as it made its final approach and lightly touched down. A bright light shone downwards under the leading edge, like a light from an open hatch. After a moment, the light was interrupted by someone climbing down from the vessel. Three someones, to be exact. Sam didn't like the look of that, but sat as still as a stone in his chair. He knew this wasn't the first time the canyon had seen visitors from afar, because he knew every bit of it from end to end. He'd come across impressions in the valley floor four or five times in the past few years. He'd actually been looking forward to this, and had run this encounter over and over in his mind. One single figure was approaching the cabin from the vessel, walking slowly up the well-worn path that Sam had kept outlined with thin timber and paved with native flagstone. Sam figured this fellow to be quite tall, about 6'5". What he had in height didn't translate to mass, though. Sam figured he'd weigh about 150 pounds, unless his physiology was stone, or some silicate mass of some kind. Sam sat very still as the creature approached. When it reached a spot about 10 feet beyond the chair that Sam had put by the stump, Sam said simply, "I hope you can speak English or German, because those are the only languages I speak fluently." Sam was surprised to see the fellow visibly jump as he spoke, and freeze in place. The stranger seemed to consider the question as he tilted his head slightly to the left, then cleared his throat very lightly. "I do speak English or German, whichever would be your preference." Sam noted the slightly flat inflection of the fellow's tone, and figured this traveller understood both languages well, but rarely spoke them out loud. "My name is Samuel Flood, but people just call me Sam. I've noticed what I assume are your landing spots several times in the past. Would it be safe to assume you know a great deal about us?" "Yes, that would be a safe assumption. For instance, I know you are armed. I wish I could say that your weapon didn't frighten me, but I feel honesty is a good practice. With that, I assure you that your weapon is quite deadly to my kind, and I will not attempt to disarm you." Sam chuckled, "Oh, I suppose you'd leave that to your two friends, but I'm not exactly alone here, and they're probably in much more danger than you are standing right there." The traveller began to look around, and placed both his hands palm outwards towards Sam, "Let me send them back, Sam, let us talk about things together." With that, the traveller began speaking in a lilting tonal language like nothing Sam had ever heard. For a few moments, nothing happened, and the tall being began to look quite fearful. Then, very quietly, his two companions came backing out of the brush towards the cabin. They were quite a bit shorter than the tall one, being only about 5' tall. They were being followed closely by Dolly, who looked prepared to dine on the two little guys. The tall one spoke to them, and they turned onto the trail and walked down towards the craft on the valley floor. Dolly watched them go, and then sat down facing Sam and the tall fellow. "Thank you for your forbearance, Sam. We have certain...protocols...yes that's it, protocols, that we follow. I am appreciative that you allowed my companions to return to our craft. I assure you they won't return unless you approve." Sam looked closely at this visitor in the dim light from the cabin windows, and decided to trust him on that point. "Please have a seat, and we'll talk. Do you have a name?" The visitor stepped up to the chair and gently sat down. He ran his hands over the smooth wooden arms, as if in awe of the way they felt, and looked around slowly, taking in the cabin and its yard for a moment. "They call me...well, there's no translation for it," he sat puzzling for a moment, then seemed to brighten, "I once met a human named Lone. Would you mind if we used that for my name?" Sam said, "Lone it is, then." Sam took the shotgun from across his legs and leaned it against the door frame of the cabin, then stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. "What can I do for you, Lone?" Lone was obviously taken aback, and Sam could see he was struggling for words. Sam smiled at his discomfort, then decided to make things easier for his visitor. "Lone, I suppose you have come here time and again. Since you probably know a lot about us, and I know very little about you, why don't you tell me what brings your species here to gaze at us? Just what is it you're so curious about that you all venture no telling how far just to take a look at us?" Lone visibly relaxed. He considered his answer a moment, then said simply, "Because there is no viable reason or explanation as to why you exist, and you frighten us." Sam thought about that for a moment. Here he sat, not 10 feet away from a being he could only assume was an interstellar traveller, and this fellow was saying they were afraid of human beings. That was pretty much the last thing he had expected to hear. He decided to find out why Lone and his kind were afraid, just in case he needed to know that to protect himself and his home. "Lone, when you say you fear us, I have to say I find that hard to believe. Your technology is obviously much more advanced than ours, and judging from the difference in sizes between you and your companions, I would say that you and your crew are part of two different civilizations. That would mean that you've been travelling across great distances for a long, long time. How could we possibly frighten you?" Lone sat back, once again admiring the arms of the chair. Sam took in his features in the light from the cabin. His face was elongated, the skin smooth and without the flaws of freckles or scars of any type. His hair was, as best Sam could make out, a sort of dishwater brown, cropped close to the scalp and looking actually quite human. His eyes were dark, but had pupils and irises very similar to human eyes, the only exception being that his irises were a bright orange in color. Lone appeared to be deciding whether to confide in Sam or leave his question unanswered altogether. Lone sat forward, placing his elbows on his knees as he made the decision to stay on track with the truth. "Sam, there's no reason for mankind to be here. This solar system is located in a rather odd place in the galaxy, very far away from everyone else." Lone became more animated as he spoke, "You see, I am part of a very much larger civilization, just as you surmised. But we are an amalgam of species that developed in a much more populated area. Our civilization developed from five societies that shared a great many similarities, and faced the same challenges. Thus, we worked in concert with one another to develop all of our technology and to expand our reach outwards into space." Lone sat back, steepling his fingers before his face, "When we first discovered your world, we were completely surprised. We saw the construction of massive structures in numerous places on the planet, all at the same time. We wanted to learn about your civilization, and where your companion societies were located. But when we landed, it didn't take us long to realize the truth." Lone sat forward again, "Homo sapiens is all alone here, Sam, and seems to have been here for a very long time. The massive strutctures we saw were pyramids, and they were being built all over the planet. But when we investigated the pyramids in what you call Egypt, we were amazed to see the Sphinx. It was immediately evident that it was much older than the pyramids, and there was no indication of anyone knowing who had built it." |
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