Not Your Ordinary Alien Story

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The early morning sun slants through the branches of the trees looking like bands of shining thread. Pale pink pacific starflowers carpet the ground giving off a shimmering glow. Swiftly, I move through the trees. 

After working at the market for the past three days, I'm finally on my way to the remote area of the forest where the fallen redwood is. I stop only to check my compass and to drink from my water bottle. As the sun rises in the sky, shortening the shadows beneath the trees, I reach the clearing. I pause ande take a deep breath. The fallen redwood, slicing the clearing in half, looks like a large bark covered tunnel. Tossing my backpack on the ground, I approach the opening listening to the sounds of the forest settling around me.

The branches I had piled in the opening are still there. After clearing them away, I step inside. The sound of some little creature, a rat or a squirrel scuttling about comes from further on down in the darkness of the tree. The long narrow object is just inside the opening where I left it. Dust swirls around me as I brush the leaves and pine needles from it. I wonder as I stare down at the strange wrapping materiel, could this be the beacon that the journal referred to? The beacon that when activated will open a portal through which the extraterrestrials will return?

I don't really believe it's true. Still, I have an inkling of doubt. I must find out for sure.

Inch by inch, I push, pull and drag the thing out of the redwood and into the sunlight. Sweat trickles down the middle of my back. There's a scratch on one of my arms. My legs ache. I slide out a blade from my Swiss army knife and try making a cut in the blubbery material. The blade slides along without piercing it. That doesn't surprise me - it's what I expected. I try cutting into another area as I push harder on the knife. Nothing, not even a nick. Grabbing the handle of the knife like a dagger, I stab at the materiel. The knife bounces right off.

I fold my arms and stare at it, the sun reflecting off the weird blubbery material. If my theory is correct, leaving the thing in direct sunlight for a long time will melt the stuff. I climb up on top of the redwood and lay on my back on a section of soft lime green moss. A blue heron high in the sky circles above me. My breathing slows. Before long, I close my eyes and doze off.

Hissss! 

My eyes blink open. I sit up. The wrapping on the object is fizzling and sputtering as it melts to the ground. The puddle on the ground grows smaller and smaller as it evaporates into the air. What is left, glinting in the sunlight, more spectacular than the illustration in the journal, more magnificent than anything I ever could have imagined, is the beacon.

It's over six feet long with a flat circular base. The top looks like the closed petals of a large flower. Below that, two wings stick out looking like the gauzy wings of a mayfly. Not too far down from the wings, there's a round clear section, like a tube. Some sort of liquid that resembles silver mercury rolls in slow motion from the top of the tube to the bottom and then back again. Down near the bottom, there's another clear tubular section with diamonds in it, or at least what looks like diamonds. The diamonds, if that's what they are, appear and disappear about every three seconds. Mesmerized, I stare at the white light of the flashing stones.

Forcing myself to look away, I climb down the rough red bark of the redwood and cautiously approach it. Above the circular stand, near the bottom, is a shiny gold sphere that's a little larger than a bowling ball. The sphere has two green circles as brilliant as emeralds in the center. Above the sphere is a triangular section with two sliding doors on each side. Another section has a bunch of rings on a pole, each ring a different color. There're more separate but connected sections made of something that looks like colored metal only it's shinier than any metal I've ever seen.