Gifts From The Stars

Gifts From The
Stars

by

James Octavo

Published by James
Octavo

Distributed by
Smashwords

Copyright © 2015 by James
Octavo

All Rights
Reserved

Cover illustration
Copyright

Val
Krash/Shutterstock

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This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, and incidents either are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

Other Titles by James
Octavo

‘
The Legend of Lor’s Lost
Tribe’

and

‘
When Is A Video Game No
Game’

Chapter 1 - California

Chapter 2 – Nevada

Chapter 3 – Utah

Chapter 4 – Colorado and Kansas

Chapter 5 – Dog Days in More Kansas

Chapter 6 – We’re Not In Missouri
Anymore

Chapter 7 – Ground Zero

Afterword and Other Titles

Chapter 1 –
California

Out of a California forest,
more than a dozen whooping and hollering people come running. They
each carry colorful gem-like crystals of various sizes from pebbles
to baseballs. All the pieces sparkle with various colors and
intensity of colors from aquamarine, minty cubes to lemony citrine.
They have diverse shapes from hexagons to spheres to
octagons.

Even dogs carry the
glistening pieces in their mouths, running toward a clearing where
other people sit at wooden picnic tables.

“Let's see what you got
there,” a white-haired man says while his dog runs to him with a
orange cylinder. Behind the dog, a teenager with a yellow pyramid
follows and falls exhausted on the bench.

“You won't believe this,
gramps,” the boy says as the man takes the cylinder from the dog's
mouth.

“There are thousands of
these in the woods. Everyone's picking them up. What do you think
they are?”

“Hmm. It feels like a gem.”
He pulls out reading glasses, squints his eyes and rubs them. “I
must be seeing things. They look like the crystals I saw on the
news yesterday.”

“On the news?”

“Yeah. People at a Pacific
beach thought they were rich when they saw baubles like this
washing ashore.”

“Were they?”

“Don't know. The news lady
said they brought some to a gemologist. But still no
answer.”

“Where’d they come
from?”

“No one knows. They first
thought they fell off a container ship.”

The teen taps on his phone.
“They don’t say anything more about it on the ‘net.”

“Let's see the one you
picked up. Maybe the material's different.”

As the other people approach
the tables with their objects, they gather around the white-haired
man.

“Okay, you're the chemistry
teacher,” a lady in the crowd asks. “What are they?”

“Don't know. Some look like
precious stones. But they could just be industrial gems or common
crystals.”

“Well, come back with us.
You need to see this,” she says, pointing to the forest.

Hiking back to the woods,
the teacher sees the reason for the excitement. Spread over the
forest, thousands of the objects blanket it, turning it into a
bright polka-dot patchwork. More eerily, others stick in the trunks
of trees as if they grew from them like moss or mushrooms, giving
the woods the look of a magical fantasyland.

“It almost looks like a neon
autumn leave fall.” The teacher leans over to pick up more of the
gems.

Hundreds of trees glow with
the bright yellow, orange, and green shapes attached to
them.

“This can’t be right,” the
retired teacher says. “I can understand a joke on one tree. But how
could it be done on this many?”

“And they don't look like
someone placed them,” his grandson says. “There's no seam where
bark begins and a crystal starts, like they sprouted.”

“Don't talk nonsense,” the
older man says. “These are mineral or artificial in
nature.”

“I tell you, I tried to
remove them and they won't budge. It's like the tree and objects
are one.”

“You're right.” He pulls
hard on a blue sphere impaled in one of the trees. “But this can be
done with plastic mixtures.”

“No. Not when there's
thousands of them. Think of the work needed to place each
one.”

“Whatever it is, we’re not
going to understand it.” The teacher rubs dirt off a red ruby and
raises it to the light.

“How about calling Aunt
Nora?” the grandson asks.

“She’d be the one to ask.
With what I tell her, she might bring her whole department out
here,” the teacher says, noticing people fighting over the
objects.

“Even her goofball boss
Dan?”

“Well, he’s her boss. And
they do like each other.”

The next morning the group
of scientists arrive at the California forest, now crowded with
food vendors, curiosity and wealth seekers digging, trading and
searching for their own rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. The
scientists at the site, some with suits and ties, others wearing
lab coats over suits, while some looking casual in jeans and
sweatshirts digging around the trees and ground.

Leading the group, Dan
Ophelder, a tall, well-dressed man digs with a hammer and chisel in
a tree. Next to him, examining a bark encrusted purple star is his
colleague Nora Jonston draped in a simple but stylish
dress.

“Dad was right. This is
incredible.” She twirls her long brown hair while she stares hard
at the star. “These pieces on the ground have smooth surfaces. But
the ones in trees combined on their surfaces with parts of the
tree, as if the objects and trees intertwine like roots in the
earth.”

“Yes. Both retain their
separate chemical properties. Maybe a plastic mold mixture,” Dan
says.

“No. This can’t be plastic
mixtures.” She takes one of the blue opals and puts it on her
chest. “Look. They’re beautiful. I could wear it on a chain as it
is.”

“You’re right.” He blushes.
“Beautiful. But why would people do this. Think of the expense. And
what about the ones in the ocean?”

“It is crazy, isn't it.” She
holds up another gem up to the sun and looks through the filtered
light, seeing it sparkle.

“This one looks like a
Citrine. Do you know what Citrine means?”

“Like citrus?”

“It’s Latin for gift from
the sun, because of its yellow color.”

“Hmmm? I doubt they’re gifts
though, unless a rich eccentric is throwing away his money. It is
like dropping money out of a skyscraper causing rioting on the
street.”

“I already saw some people
fighting over them. Some guys are trading them like sports cards
and one guy is sitting over there meditating with his.”

While the scientists examine
the scene, a young man runs towards them, almost falling, out of
breath, handing his cell phone to Dan.

“Slow down. What’s
wrong?”

“It's happened again. This
time in a town about 200 miles east of here in Nevada.”

“You look pale. What did he
say?”

”They want us there now. The
National Guard's will send helicopters to pick us up.”

“National Guard?
Why?”

“They said something bad
happened.”

Can't they wait? We just got
here for God's sake,” Dan says.

“Nope. It's too big. They
have a crisis and need our help.”

“Great. This is not what I
wanted to hear. They're going to turn this into some damn military
operation.” He shouts hitting the hammer against the tree. His
anger remains even when the helicopters arrive, and he only mumbles
a few acknowledgements as the National Guard commander directs them
aboard.

“Why are you so upset?” Nora
asks and jumps aboard the chopper.

“Because science will take a
back seat to the military.”

“What do you mean? They need
our help.”

“It happened to me before.
They wanted me to examine a new form of Virtual Reality. It was
awesome. But they brought me in a dishonest way. I almost wanted to
quit.” (Author’s note. See the ebook ‘When is a Video Game No
Game’).

“I didn’t know. You did
sound so glum when you returned from the mission.”

“Yeah. So we probably
shouldn’t even go,” he says as he climbs aboard.

“No. This is big. They
wouldn’t fly us in copters unless it’s huge.”

“I don’t know. It might be
good to get out of our labs.”

“Even scientists have to get
along with people.” She musses his hair while the green machines
climb into the sky. She looks out and smiles as the ground shrinks
away. “Besides, this is the first time I get to fly in a
helicopter. I think it's grand.”

When their helicopters
approach the small Nevada town, the scientists see it resembles
western towns of old with small storefronts, including a general
store, an ice-cream parlor, drugstore, post office and even a
two-pump gas station. But descending, they realize this is no
longer a normal town. Everywhere the pieces glisten. While the
helicopters land and the scientists jump off, townspeople run to
them, pulling them, pointing them toward the scene.

“Please. You’ve got to help
us,” a pleading sheriff says. “Our town's been
destroyed.”

Dan and Nora look at the
scene, then each other in confusion.

“It looks bad,” Dan says.
“But it doesn’t look destroyed.”

“Come with us. We’ll show
you.” The sheriff grabs Dan’s arm.

Walking to the scene, their
anxiety increases seeing the level of devastation.

Hissing sounds and the smell
of natural gas and gasoline fill the air. The objects destroyed
lines and tanks. Even the town's water tower is polka-dotted with
pieces, letting it empty out like an open fire hydrant.

On buildings, in the road,
even in the windows they see the same sparkling crystals infesting
the forest 200 miles away. The objects cracked some of the windows,
but most look as if someone glued them to the glass.

Stuck in the road, the
objects glisten like jewels in the sun. A fire hydrant spouts water
from small cracks one had pushed. The town is eerily quiet except
for the hissing broken lines. Drivers abandon their cars, since
they can’t drive them on the jeweled road. People walk staring in
awe at the chaos of the objects stuck everywhere.

“Come with us in the post
office,” one of the town's officials tell the stunned
scientists.

Entering the 19th century
building, they see pieces throughout the walls, glass dividers,
ornate ceilings and hardwood floors. But it’s the scene in back of
the post office holding everyone’s attention. Sitting on the floor
surrounded by physicians, is an elderly man calmly sitting with a
blue pyramid imbedded in his thigh.

“My God. Has this happened
to anyone else?” Dan asks.

“Don't think so. He was the
only person in the business district this morning when it all
happened,” the sheriff says.