David Golemon - Event

Gus tilted his head and looked farther into the hole, trying desperately to penetrate the blackness. He moved his head closer, fear filling his mind. God, this thing must be terrified even more than me! A feeling of dread washed over him like a small wave, making him hesitant, and he tensed a little, but the feeling lasted only a second. Inside, he still sensed danger and pure animal terror, just as a deer might feel at the sight of a pair of headlights. As he looked into the coal blackness of the hole, he thought he saw two small pools of darkened water. Then they disappeared. Confusion clogged his mind as he tried to figure out what he was seeing in the dark. Then it struck him with the suddenness of a lightning bolt, as the twin pools reappeared: he was looking into the eyes of something that had come down with this thing, and its eyes had just blinked at him.

"Hey," he said softly, "I'm not gonna hurt ya."

The thing blinked and continued to talk in the strange jabber Gus didn't understand.

"You hurt?"

As soon as he asked, he knew without a doubt, that, yes, the thing in the hole was indeed injured.

"You wanna get the hell out of there?" he asked, not really knowing what to call it, or even if he was being understood. "Hope ya understand my lingo, boy."

Gus suddenly straightened and looked around him. His eyes settled on the hole at the other end of the valley, the one he had almost stumbled into. Now it wasn't confusion, but terror that struck his mind. The dark void of that hole that was coming toward him, freezing him with the horror he sensed was there. Then his eyes quickly traveled to the rocks above him. He felt as if he was being watched. He had had that feeling a hundred times on a hundred different nights in Korea, and this was no different. He thought that whatever eyes watched him meant him harm. Again his eyes roamed to the large hole. That was a different fear from what he was now feeling. The hairs on the back of his neck were still at attention, so he shook his head to try to dislodge the confusion he felt because of the hole in the ground and whatever was up in the rocks.

He turned back to the creature still cowering underneath the boulder.

"Well, come on, let's getcha outta there," he said nervously, looking back at the hole a distance away, half expecting something to come charging out of it. When he turned back, his eyes widened in shock. There, with long fingers shaking and extended outward, was a hand. The slender fingers were light green, like the first mangled being he had found in the wreckage. A darker smear of liquid was on one of the extended fingers, and as Gus watched, a small drop of fluid fell from the digit and hit the sandy dirt around the hole and soaked in. Then his eyes went back to the hand, and without realizing it, he reached out and grasped it. He felt the shivering of the owner and relaxed his grip. He reached deep into the hole with his free hand and found what he hoped was purchase under the unseen being's other arm. Gus pulled gently at first, then harder as he realized the little body was wedged under the boulder like a cork in a bottle. As he pulled, he felt the creature shift and start to help. A long minute later he was done. As the strange being came to rest after Gus had released it, it immediately started looking around at its surroundings, its large eyes blinking rapidly in the brighter world outside the shade of the boulder. The old man sat hard on his butt and stared in amazement and wonder at what he had pulled from the rock.

The creature, after surveying the crash site, slowly lay down on its back and began gazing up at the blue sky with eyes the color of obsidian. The almond-shaped orbs again blinked, and the eyelids, to Gus's amazement, slid not down from the top but from the outer sides of the eyes. Then the small creature looked over at its rescuer, clearly in pain. The head was big, shaped like a lightbulb. Not a hair was to be found on its light green skin. Dark green blood was covering most of the boy-sized body. Some had dried, and more was still flowing, albeit slowly from several small wounds. The creature slowly moved its hand away from its body and held it out toward the sky. The small, long fingers reached almost longingly toward the heavens, before falling back into the dirt at its side.

Gus looked up at the sky and then down at the slowly closing deepness of the being's eyes. The strange eyelids closed from the sides again, enveloping the eyes from the temples toward its small nose.

"I don't think I can get ya back to Mars or nothin' like that. Hell, boy, couldn't even get you to Phoenix, but maybe I can fix you up a little and get you to someone who knows just what to do with ya. And if you have a friend up there in them rocks, I don't believe I care to meet him."

As Gus looked on, the eyes opened and the small mouth and thin lips tightened in either pain or anger, the old man couldn't tell. Then the large eyes roamed to the rocks above them for a moment as if it knew what Gus had said before. Then it turned back to Gus, and the thing's right hand came up and clenched around Gus's blue denim collar and squeezed, the eyes closing with pain at the effort. Then the grip loosened and the hand fell away. The eyes half closed and the small being shuddered.

The prospector reached down and took the small, broken body of the survivor in his arms. It weighed almost nothing as he lifted its small frame against his chest. The head rocked back with pain, then lay against the old man's dirty shirt. He only hoped his wildly beating heart didn't pound the poor thing to death.

Gus knew the injured being had passed out because the small body had lost its tenseness. He looked down into the now serene face. The features were soft, the mouth relaxed. He saw the small nose, no more than a bump with two little holes he thought were its nostrils. They were moving, so he assumed the creature was still breathing.

Gus shook his head and started toward the far end of the valley where he had entered. He steered a wide path around the large, ominous hole in the ground he had almost fallen into earlier. As he passed it, he didn't notice the small thing in his arms clench its fist in an unconscious gesture of fear. But the man did feel the terror engulf his own mind as he struggled out of the valley, leaving the mysteries of the crash site behind. But the image of that large hole and the feeling of being watched from the rocks remained, and the two memories pushed Gus forward as if Satan himself were on his tail.

The larger Gray watched the rescue of the keeper, the slave of its home world, and this time it let the growl escape its lips. Again it turned and watched as the man started his long struggle down the mountainside. The yellow eyes narrowed as it followed the retreating form. Again the nails scraped against the rock and left long scratches.

The Gray stood and limped toward the small opening in the mountain valley. It started tracking not only one, but two enemies of its kind.

Jack had been up since 0400 this morning going over his security staff files. His new department wasn't in as bad a shape as he'd originally thought. He had some real good men on assignment here. Sergeant Mendenhall had top scores in all his field evaluations. Jack figured with his record, the young man should be targeted for officer candidate school. He closed the file on Mendenhall and took a swallow of coffee. The cafeteria was just now filling up with personnel from all of the departments. He watched as a familiar face walked in yawning. As their eyes met, Sarah McIntire smiled and gave Collins a small wave of her hand. Jack nodded and went back to his files.