Area 51

Final Transmission - Part 1

Hello, Mr. Gray.

I'm writing you this email even though I'm skeptical of the results. I don't know if it will do any good, or even if it will matter at all in the long run, but I have to tell what I know. Maybe you can get the word out on your radio show, assuming it isn't too late already. At the very least, I can die with a clear conscience.

My name is Eric Gibson, and my story begins two years ago, when the aliens came for me the first time. Back then, I was still a sales rep for an auto parts distributor. I was driving home late at night from a business conference the company forced me to go on, my headlights barely showing what lay ahead as the rural road didn't have any lights to assist.

The roadside motel where I was checked-in was still out of sight, but I knew I'd get there for a good night's sleep before too long. At least, that's what I'd thought.

My car unexpectedly stopped. The engine shut off, as did the lights. I tried to restart, but the ignition only clicked, the motor refusing to show any signs of life.

I took out my phone, but the touchscreen was blank and stubbornly ignored my attempts to make it work. I looked around to see if there were any other cars nearby, but there was only darkness. I was alone, miles from anywhere.

It was then I noticed a single point of light in the sky. At first I thought it might have been a star, but it had been overcast all day, and no other stars were visible. When I saw it was moving, I considered it could have been an airplane. If only it had been something so benign.

As the light approached, it grew brighter, illuminating the area around my car to many times the light of day. There was no sound of whatever it was, even when it halted above my car. The light was so bright, it stole my vision until all I could see was the brightness. It was in that very moment I lost consciousness.

***

I awoke in a place unlike anything I'd seen or imagined. I was suspended horizontally in midair, but I couldn't see what responsible for keeping me afloat. Any movement, with the exception of my eyes was impossible, but no restraints or cables were visible anywhere.

I saw something resembling either crystal or glass to my left, just beyond my shoe. The structure reached up from the floor, or descended from the ceiling for all I knew, but it was curved outward as if following the invisible exterior of a bubble around me. A second structure was to the side of my right shoe, and two more flanked my shoulders. While being completely transparent, a colored liquid resided within the crystalline forms. The fluid was gelatinous and shifted between shades of purple and green, moving slowly in short pulses like alien blood being pushed along by an unseen heart.

The air was dry and cold; I was surprised I couldn't see my breath. What I also couldn't see was anything beyond the clear arches as everything else remained impenetrably dark.

As I watched, the crystal arch to my left reshaped. A central point extended out toward me as the arch grew an icicle shaped protrusion in my direction. I tried to move, but I was still held immobile. When the crystal reached my left leg, it passed effortlessly through the fabric of my brown slacks and into my skin.

I wanted to scream as the crystal icicle grew deeper into my leg as if searching for the bone underneath the flesh, but I couldn't do anything but helplessly hover in place.

The gelatinous fluid suddenly turned red in color, but I didn't know if it was a natural function or a result of my blood. What I did notice was the waves of pain in my leg diminished until they were gone.

The alien device in my leg changed shape again, growing sideways along the length of my leg bone. Have you ever felt an insect crawling on your skin? It was a similar sensation except it was along my skeleton, underneath my skin and muscle.

I'd been so completely focused on the first probe, I didn't notice the second until it grew into my right leg and performed an identical procedure. Suspecting what was coming, I turned my eyes upward and saw the clear arches near my shoulders start to grow. I was stuck in both shoulders, and the crystal icicles reached the bone before they grew down the length of my arms to the tips of my fingers.

More icicles grew from the arches and ran me through at least a dozen more places, making me feel somewhere between a human pincushion and a lab animal being pinned to a dissection tray.

The crystal arches started to sing, similar to a champagne glass struck by another, and a humming vibration traveled through the crystalline structure, reverberating through my skeleton in an identical resonance pattern.

The crystals changed the color of their internal fluid once again, becoming brighter and brighter shades. They turned orange, then yellow, and finally white. After becoming pure white, they began glowing softly, but the intensity increased until I was blinded once more.

I could change the direction of my eyes, but I couldn't close them. It made me stare unblinking into the light. My eyes watered, and my vision filled with bright spots as a lance of pain rocketed along my optic nerve to my brain.

Suddenly, the brightness ended, fading away as the crystals dimmed. The probes retracted from my body, melting back into the arches they had originally grown from. The moment they pulled away and returned to their dark shades of color, the pain returned. It wasn't the excruciating agony of being skewered by a crystal icicle but of sore muscles and joints. I'd felt as if I'd been pulled apart and glued back together with old wads of chewing gum.

Up until then, I hadn't heard any sound beyond my fast breathing and thundering heartbeat. However, my ears did detect the slightest shuffle from the darkness beyond my location in the center of the four crystal arches.

I stared intently in the direction of the noise, wanting equally to see what was there as well as to flee from it. I will never forget what happened when my abductor stepped into the light, and for the first time in my life, I beheld a living, breathing life form from a world not my own.

The being moving toward me was wrapped in material resembling in color and texture black leaves woven together. The skin showing was maroon in color and possessed a pebbly texture, but it was also flexible, rippling with every sinuous movement the creature made. It reminded me of a humanoid octopus slithering toward me.

My first impression was heightened by the three fingered hand it raised. Each of the fingers were five inches in length and resembled tentacles. The head of the creature was squat and rounded over. A pair of eyes resided on top and a second on the sides where human ears should have been. The eyes, unlike the standard round irises of humans, were composed of a pair of angled slits forming an inverted V shape. The remainder of the eye was electric blue and glowed in the darkness of the room.

Taking a device from inside its clothing, it held the egg shaped component toward me. The silver egg lit up like a moonlit fog, and the crystal arches began to move. They didn't grow but turned around me like the spinning rings of a gyroscope. As the arches spun with greater and greater speed, I was slightly disturbed by the fact I couldn't hear them in motion.

The color of the fluid trailed after the spinning arches as if unable to keep up with their momentum. At full speed, the archers were no more than a blur, but the trailing color of the gel illuminated a sphere around me.

Similar in form to arcs of electricity, bolts of colored energy reached out from the bubble and struck me. Pain blossomed at every contact as if I were caught in a hailstorm and being pelted by golf ball sized projectiles of ice.

A sound reached my ear, something between a frog croak and a bird whistle. The energy abruptly ceased, and the arches slowed until stopping entirely.

The alien approached and reached out its three tentacled hand, placing it on my forehead. Its skin was ice cold, and I would've shivered if I still had control of my muscles. One of the tentacles made a circular motion in the center of my forehead before the alien moved away.

When the creature came back a moment later, it held a tool in its grip. Possessing three separate blades, the tool resembled a trio of hand shovels forged onto a single handle. The blades gleamed along their razor edges as the alien approached me.

Story by GlennKoerner, presented with their permission. All rights to the written work belong to the original author.

Sound obtained through creative commons through FreeMusicArchive.org: Michett, "Droids in a Bar"; Le Cose Bianche, "Martinelli"; Ars Sonor w/ BLone Engines, "Last Rites"