Gifts From The Stars (2 page)

“Will he be alright?” Nora
asks.

“We think so,” one of the
doctors say. “It didn't appear in his bones or arteries, only
fleshy tissue, so he'll be keeping his leg unless there's
infection.”

“Thank goodness. But how did
this happen?” Dan asks.

“We’re hoping you can tell
us, Ophelder. But if not, maybe you can figure out what he's
saying. Talk to him. Because what he says sounds more like magic or
madness.”

Dan places his hand on the
man's shoulder.

“Hi, partner. How are you
doing?”

“More scared than hurting.
It really doesn't hurt much. But what happened? Is this one of your
atomic tests gone bad?” the postmaster asks while he stares toward
the street.

“No. To be honest, we don't
know what it is. Tell us what you saw. It might help us
understand,” Dan says.

“Well, I was here sorting
mail around 6:30 this morning when I saw a flash of light fill the
entire area,” the man says waving his arms.

“It was mainly a hot, white
light and I felt tingling like electricity. The light lasted a few
seconds, then the things appeared out of nowhere, all at once. They
just popped out in mid-air. Some fell to the ground and others
appeared inside of things. It sounded like the town was groaning as
they popped inside of everything from windows, doors, ceilings…me.
Everything, all at once., I was so stunned by what I saw, I didn't
feel the one stuck in my leg. Basically, that was it. Everything
went quiet except for settling sounds when the buildings tried to
adjust.”

“How does it feel in your
leg?”

“More like a numbing feeling
like ice. Like it's a part of my skin. It feels attached to me like
an adhesive band-aid. Will you be able to remove it?”

“The doctors will,” he says
taking one last look at the strange crystal looking like a
translucent knick-knack floating above exposed muscle underneath.
“They're going to take you to the hospital now to remove it. We
think the material itself isn't toxic and won't dissolve into your
body. Meanwhile, we'll try to figure what happened,” Dan says as he
pats him on the back and walks toward Nora and the other
scientists.

“Well, what do you think?”
Nora whispers.

“I don't know what to think.
There was nothing I could tell them. They're going to airlift him
now.”

“It's incredible. The
crystal sealed all the skin, muscle, and other tissue so there's no
bleeding. But how is it happening? What can do this?” She looks at
the bejeweled chaos.

“It's beyond any science we
know. Crystals we can't identify, appearing at random out of thin
air? We can't answer how it's happening. We might try why,” Dan
says.

“There is one thing.” Nora
pulls out a map. “I don't think it's random. I’ve diagrammed the
events. Look at this. The forest site in California is 192 miles
due west of here. 192 miles west of there was the sightings on the
beach.”

“You think in another 192
miles east it’s going to happen again?”

“If it’s going to happen I
think it's probably the place. Let's measure to see where it is on
the map,” she says as her finger moves across the page.

“It appears to cut a
straight path east. Damn. It's right outside Provo Utah,” Nora
says, looking stunned.

“They’ll need to evacuate,”
Dan says. “We better call whoever needs calling and explain how bad
things could get.”

“Outside a major city, it
could be disaster. What else should we do?”

“We need to bring every
sensing device you can imagine. Radiation and seismic detectors,
Night vision glasses, strain gauges, wide-spectrum
cameras.”

“You’re sounding out of
control? Aren't you getting a bit carried away?” Nora
asks.

“Do you want to explain why
thousands of people may die with crystals in their bodies, because
we failed to figure it out?”

“We’ll also be using the
best tools of all.” She points to his and her eyes.

“True. But observation may
not be enough.”

“When you say it so
serious…So when do you think it’ll happen?” Nora asks while she
jots down the equipment list on her tablet.

“We received the Nevada call
about one day after your dad called. So if the place is correct
maybe the time is. They should evacuate today.”

“Is there time to evacuate?”
Nora asks.

“When they realize what will
happen, they'll leave.”

“In the meantime, what can
be done for the people of our town?” the sheriff asks.

“Not much,” Dan says taking
one last look at the crystal confusion.

“Just shutdown all utilities
for now. Later, check buildings for structural damage and remove
the objects from windows and pressure bearing lines. You'll have
trouble removing them from brick or metal. But you can jackhammer
out the ones in the road.”

“Since the crystals aren't
any further threat, I don't see why we should hold you back any
longer. Good luck in Utah.” The sheriff pats Dan’s
shoulder.

Chapter 3 –
Utah

When the helicopters lifts
off again, Nora sits next to Dan. “What do you make of the man's
story?”

“If what he says is true,
we're the wrong people for the job. They need a magician or
exorcist.”

“Ha. Always the jokester.
But there could be known science for this.”

“What are you
thinking?”

“I’ll save my ideas for
Utah.” She bites her tongue. “I want to observe the event
first.”

Later, at the suburban site
in Utah, the scientists begin to set up equipment while National
Guard units begin evacuating citizens. But many people stay at the
edge of barricades to watch the unfolding drama. Some sit up lawn
chairs and portable radios and aim their cell phones and tablets at
the evacuated area, chugging beer and hot-dogs.

“The mayor says dozens won’t
leave their homes, because they don't believe it'll happen. I still
can't believe it,” Dan says.

“Show pictures of the town
we just left. They’ll run out of their houses,” Nora says with
crossed arms.

“But even so, they'll want
to see it. One thing I don't know is if we picked correct
boundaries. The crystals appeared in a 1,200 feet circle in the
forest and the town. Did we put the barricades far back enough?”
Dan asks as his eyes scan the neighborhood.

“I think so. We can always
add extra footage if you’re anxious,” Nora says.

“Sounds good. Let's add 500
feet just in case. We don’t want the crystals materializing inside
of people just because we had the barricades wrong.”

“How about the placement of
the detection equipment?”

“Readings from the exact
center may help us understand what's causing it,” Dan says,
pointing to the approximate location. “Let's put equipment racks at
the exact center with sensors to read everything from barometric
pressure to neutron emission.”

“Some of the crystals will
appear inside the equipment.”

“Probably. So we put
transmitters and redundant equipment outside the
barricades.”

Dan, Nora and workers roll
the equipment, Looking like network servers or old-fashioned stereo
racks, six foot towers of equipment into the street near a curb
next to abandoned cars. Soon, they roll two other racks next to the
others.

They turn on diesel power
generators outside the barricades, attach power cables and plug
them to the equipment.

“Did we measure the exact
focus point?” Dan asks Nora.

“Yes. All the events have
been spaced exactly 192.445 miles apart at the exact same
latitude.”

With the people evacuated
from the barricaded area the scientists wait. Afternoon and evening
pass without incident and when morning comes, irritated residents
of the community complain. As afternoon approaches, even Ophelder
wonders if they miscalculated.

“People want to go back to
their homes.” Nora points at the crowd.

“They think it’s a false
alarm.” He points to a man near them jumping over the barricade.
“I’m out of here. I’m out of beer.”

“Stop him.”

“I’ll try. But he’s too far
in.”

Nora trips the man and he
falls.

Dan tries to grab
him.

But then it happens. From
start to finish, the fiery sequence of events lasts only ten
seconds. First, at the exact center, an area twenty feet long and
ten feet high turns completely black as if all of deep space had
been brought to one small place. Five seconds later from the center
of the darkness a spot of light appears becoming a beam filling the
entire area. Everywhere, the beam touches thousands of the
beautiful baubles appear, many in the air promptly falling to the
ground sounding like an Olympian hailstorm.

Dan pulls the drunk inside
the barricade and hears him scream out. One gem appeared in the
man’s foot during the event.

“You’ll survive. You
idiot.”

Thousands of others appear
in the streets, the walls of buildings, the roofs of houses and the
windows of stores within the barricades.

Just as suddenly as it
begins, it ends. The bright lights flicker out, the equipment racks
still sit at the center but carry the polka-dotted reminder of what
had happened. Like the forest and town, this neighborhood carries
the bright oranges, lemons, blues, and other iridescent colors on
their buildings. The wood in houses creak, brick structures lightly
rumble, some windows tinkle, then silence.

“My God. Did you see it? Did
we get any readings?” the Army commander asks looking at the
suburb, now a colorful, crystal ménage.

“Readings? Who needs
readings? What we saw was outside known science,” Dan says. “But
yes. barometric pressure dropped for the whole time the doorway
opened. We detected electromagnetic emissions in the infra-red and
radio wave, but thankfully nothing at the other end of the
spectrum.” She then walks beside Dan. “What was your idea you’ve
been holding back?”

“I think we saw a
teleportation device in operation,” Ophelder calmly
says.

“Come on. No one has built a
teleporter.”

“You're right...On Earth
anyway,” he says and looks up in the sky.

“My God. If it's a
teleporter, then interstellar others have reached us. It would
explain how objects materialized inside things.”

“It looks like First
Contact. But it’s a strange way to do it. Teleporting
crystals?”

“But I'm not so sure it's
purely a teleporter. Notice the black area?” Nora says. “I think
the first part of blackness is a doorway allowing the teleporter to
function across space,” she argues. “If you noticed, all the energy
came from the center of the black area while the black area looks
like the wormhole. Since teleporters wouldn't be effective across
interstellar space, they used the doorway to join the distances,
then the objects teleported across the doorway.”

“If it's a doorway why don't
things from our side in the black area vanish to the other
side?”

“They did. Air went over. We
saw barometric pressure went way down. But I think other objects
would have to move through it. Maybe people can walk
over.”

“I think you’re right. At
least in the first five seconds,” Dan says.

“But what's it all about?
Why communicate this way?”

“Maybe it's an invasion,”
Dan says.

“Where? I don’t see
invaders. Besides, if it is, why use trinkets? The crystals could
be gifts, offerings of friendship from people who think we're
primitive.”

“Then why drop them in our
populated areas? No. Without sending armies, they teleport these
things to destroy our infrastructure and then our
people.”

“Come on, Dan. There must be
something else going on.”

“Look around. Look at how
they appeared inside everything.”

“What can we do if it is an
invasion?”

“Somehow, we need to see if
can cross over. Ask them what’s going on.”

“How can we test
it?”

“Easy, all we have to do is
throw something over.”

“The next time it happens,
you can try. At least it's a start.”

“If it is a two-way
entrance, then maybe there's something we can do about this
destruction,” Dan says pointing to the now closed
entrance.

“The next event is scheduled
to happen near the southwest border of Colorado.”

Arriving at the scene, they
place a tiny radio-controlled catapult near the center. A baseball
and some wooden blocks would have the honors of being the first
earth objects catapulted to the stars.

“Make sure we send the test
objects at the sides of the doorway so they don't get caught in the
teleport beam,” Nora says, looking at where the new doorway would
appear.