The Bonding (31 page)

“Hey guys. One of you got a smoke?”

One started reaching into his pocket. “I
haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I just got here today, and of course
they put me on this shit night guard duty.”

“Hey, join the club, sweetheart. We all
got the shit detail, guarding this fucking UFO.”

Janet looked up at it. “Are there any
aliens on board?”

“No, we heard rumors that they took them
to Area 51, and get this. We also heard that there
was
only two of them. Can you imagine only two people flying this big
son-of-a-bitch? They must fly it by using their thoughts.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it. If they can build
something like this, and fly it from who the hell knows where, you can only imagine
what kind of technology they have. Can I touch it?” Janet asked.

The soldier reached out and put his hand
on it. “Hell yeah! We touch it all the time. See! It’s just made outta some
kinda
’ metal. Ain’t nothin’ special.”

Janet put her hand against it. “Feels
really cold. Where’s the door?”

“Shit, if I knew the answer to that one I
wouldn’t be standing here in the middle of the fuckin’ night guarding it.
They’d give me a promotion.”

“Well, how’d the aliens get off?” she
asked.

“Hell, I don’t know! Maybe they beamed
down or somethin’. Honey, look, you really
ain’t
supposed to be over here. If the Sarge sees you, he’s gonna have both our
asses.”

“Come on, let me walk around it once,”
she begged. “One time around and I’ll go back to my corner. Please?”

The two soldiers looked at each other. “I
don’t know,” the taller one said. “If anyone sees you, our asses are gonna be
in deep shit.”

Janet came up close to him. “I can take
care of both of you guys later - at the same time - if you know what I mean.”

“Oh shit man! Let her walk around one
time,” the other guard said. “What the fuck’s it gonna hurt? Nobody around here
gives a shit anyway.”

The taller one nodded. “One time around
and that’s all, but make it fast. And we will definitely get that payback.”
They were both suckers for a pretty woman, and Janet was a beauty.

“Deal!” she replied as she slapped his
hand.

Janet started walking away and the
shorter one said, “Boy, she’s a fuckin’ babe, ain’t she?”

“Yeah! No shit!” the other replied. They
watched her stroll away and gave each other the high-five hand slap. “We are
gonna have a good time later.”

Janet walked about a fourth of the way
around and stopped. She looked over at the guards and smiled. One of them
motioned for her to hurry. She turned towards the ship and spoke in Zintandian.
The solid metal opened as though it had never existed, and the bright light
from inside illuminated the area.

Both soldiers stared in amazement. “What
the… Hey you! What the hell did you do?”

Janet smiled and stepped into the opening.
The soldiers ran over to it and saw Janet wave to
them
as the portal became solid metal again.

The guards, panic stricken, looked at
each other. “Oh my God! We just fucked up big time.”

“No! You fucked up! You’re the one who
let her go,” the short one said.

“We both let her go, you fucking idiot.”

Inside the ship Janet stepped off the
elevator onto the bridge. She sat in the command chair and smiled. “Yes! Okay
General, you son-of-a-bitch. You better cover your ass, cause here I come.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. She felt
Tarku’s thoughts, and she knew that he felt hers. The power of the bonding grew
stronger as her adrenaline flowed. She touched the console and the large tube
again changed to the appearance of liquid metal and began to retract into the
bottom of the ship.

“Holy shit! Let’s get the fuck out of
here!” one of the guards yelled, as they ran away from the ship.

Everyone looked up in amazement as the
ship came alive. They watched the tube disappear into the bottom of the
spaceship, and the hull closed as though there had never been an opening. Then,
the huge ship began to move straight up. The scaffolding fell away, twisting
and breaking like dry twigs. It crashed to the ground, the metal poles bouncing
and banging everywhere, as soldiers fled for cover. The falling scaffolds
pulled the huge tent with it, exposing the mighty ship. Many of the soldiers
had never actually seen it and gazed in wonder as it swiftly and gracefully
lifted into the night sky, disappearing quickly into the darkness of the
heavens.

Chapter Twenty-one

Janet hovered her ship about two hundred
miles above the Earth, over the United States, and got her bearings.

She touched the control console and a
three dimensional holograph of the United States appeared. She set in the
coordinates for Area 51.

Back it Padgett, Major Barton was
awakened by a phone call. He looked at the clock and blinked a couple of times,
trying to focus his sleepy eyes. It was 03:45 when he picked up the phone.
“Barton,” he blurted out in a half sleepy voice.

There was silence on the phone for a
second. The Lieutenant on the other end was scared to death for what he had to
tell the Major.

“Hello!” Barton grumbled.

“Ah, sir, this is Lieutenant Jones. I’m
terribly sorry for waking you sir, but we have a problem over here at the UFO
site.”

“A problem? What kind of problem?”

“Ah… ah…”

Barton knew from the hesitation in his
voice that it wasn’t good. “What the fuck kind of problem, Lieutenant?”
Barton blared, now fully awake.

“The, ah, UFO is gone, sir.”

Barton slammed down the phone and jumped
out of bed, nearly tripping over his feet as he ran to the window. From his
room, he should have been able to see the spaceship.

“Son-of-a-bitch!” he screamed, grabbing
for his clothes. He quickly dressed and ran to the landing site. When he got
there the Lieutenant was nervously waiting.

“You better have a good fucking
explanation for why that ship is gone, Lieutenant. Who the fuck was guarding
it?”

“These two men here, sir.”

The two guards had expressions of terror,
knowing that they had done the mother of all fuck-ups. “Somebody better start
explaining what the fuck happened, cause there’s going to be some court
marshals over this, and I’ll be starting with you two,” Barton blared.

The two men were so afraid of Barton that
they were literally shaking. “I want to know who got onto that ship and what
they looked like.” Barton looked back and forth between the two soldiers. Each
seemed to be waiting for the other to speak first. “Give me a fucking answer
now!” he screamed.

“S-sir, it was some lady, sir,” the tall
one said.

“Y-yes, sir. She was a real good looking
lady, sir, with short brown hair,” the other one said.

“Shelby!” Barton growled. “You stupid
mother fuckers!”
 
Barton lashed out
and punched the tall soldier in the face, knocking him to the ground, then
turned to the other soldier. He backed up a step, anticipating the same.

“Just how the fuck did she get past you,
soldier? Did she knock you out, or sneak right by you, or did she promise to
give you a fucking blowjob if you let her see the ship up close?”

“S-s-sir, she didn’t look anything like
an alien, sir,” the short guard said. “We thought she was just another soldier.
I mean
,
she had a uniform and everything.”

“Really! So tell me soldier, what the
fuck does an alien look like?”

“I - I don’t know, sir.”

Barton angrily stomped away, mumbling to
himself. Now, it was his turn to call General Redding, and his stomach was
churning with knots. His sweating hand nervously dialed the telephone as he
chewed on his lower lip. Redding picked up the phone in his room at Area 51.
“Redding.”

“General, sorry to disturb you, sir. It’s
Major Barton.”

The General looked at the clock. “This
better be something damned important Major. It’s four o’clock in the morning.”

The Major’s voice trembled. “Ah, General,
we have a problem. The ship is gone.”

The General quickly sat up in bed. “What?
What the hell do you mean it’s gone?”

“It, ah, flew away, sir.”

“Flew away?” the General shouted
furiously. “How the fuck did it fly away?”

 
“The men said that a woman got on board and…”

“A woman? How the hell did she get on
board, and where the hell is Commander Shelby? Isn’t she supposed to be under
guard at her parent’s home in Fort Worth?”

“Well, yes sir, but…”

“I’m supposed to join her at the ship
this morning. Didn’t you have guards around that ship, Major?”

“Yes sir, but…”

“Sounds to me like you’re all a bunch of
fuckups. I’m going to have a lot of
asses
over this
one, Major, starting with yours. Get someone over to Shelby’s house and find
out what the hell happened.” The General slammed down the phone. “Fucking
idiots!”

He immediately picked up the phone and
dialed the guardroom.

“Guard shack, Gardner.”

“This is General Redding. What is the
status of the alien?”

Gardner looked at the monitor. “He’s in
bed, sir; appears to be sleeping.”

“I want three men, with arms, stationed
outside of his room, and I want to know every move he makes.”

“Yes sir. I’ll dispatch the men right
away.”

Major Barton was on the phone to Captain
Gates. “What the fuck do you mean she
should
be at her parents? You
don’t know for sure?”

“I’ve got four MP’s right outside the
house, sir. Their orders were to ensure that she didn’t leave the house until I
showed up this morning to get her.”

“Get your ass over there and find out
what the hell is going on, and I want the names of every one of those MP’s. I
can tell you right now Gates, if my ass is going to fry over this, then there’s
going to be a whole lot more frying with me.”

“Yes, sir! I’ll get on it right away,
sir.”

Gates immediately drove to Janet’s
parent’s house. The MP’s were outside walking around the house. There were two
in the front and two in the back.

The Corporal saluted Gates as he walked
up to him. “Good morning, sir. What brings you out so early? I thought you
weren’t supposed to be here for another couple of hours."

“Has anyone left this house tonight,
Corporal?”

“No sir! No one!”

“You’re absolutely positive?”

“Sir, we would have seen anyone coming in
or out of this house. The only time that the Commander came out of the house
was just after dark, sir. She brought us some Cokes and we accompanied her on a
walk around the block. But we never left her side. When we got back, I
personally walked her up to the door and watched her go inside. Then we took our
positions around the house.”

“Thank you, Corporal.”

Gates walked up to the front door and
rang the doorbell. Only a few seconds had passed and he rang it again. This
time a light came on inside and Janet’s dad opened the door.

“Mr. Shelby, I apologize for waking you,
sir, but it is urgent that I speak with Commander Shelby.”

“What’s the problem Captain?” her dad
asked.

“Sir, I don’t have time to go into
details. Would you please ask Commander Shelby to come out here?”

“All right. Wait here, please.” He turned
around and smiled as he walked up the stairs towards the bedrooms. His wife was
anxiously waiting at the top.

“Do you think she made it okay?” she
whispered.

“Oh yeah! That’s why this guy is here
looking for her.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I’m going to tell him the truth; that
she isn’t here. What’s he going to do, court-martial her?”

Janet’s dad went to the bathroom, did his
business and then slowly walked back down the stairs. He could tell that
Captain Gates was extremely nervous. Gates watched him descend the stairs and
kept looking behind him for Janet.

“Is she coming, sir?” Gates asked, still
watching the stairs.

“Well, Captain,” her dad chuckled.
“You’re not going to believe this, but she’s not in her room, and she left us a
note saying good-bye.”

The Captain’s skin turned a pale white,
and a despondent expression covered his face. He didn’t say another word, but
immediately turned and walked out the door.

“Captain, can I help you with anything?”
Janet’s dad asked.

The Captain still didn’t say a word. He
was in a brisk walk to the waiting MP’s. “You fucking morons! You let her slip
right past you. She’s gone!”